Chapter 1156: Response From the Other Side of the Ocean

After the overall plan was finalized, the remaining were some technical details.

For example, the ratio of the two raw materials of polyacrylamide and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, the selection of auxiliary salt solution, and the detailed steps of the entire soil consolidation process.

In fact, under normal circumstances, such high-level meetings will not discuss overly specific operational issues.

After all, if there are too many details, the value of the hierarchical leadership system will be lost.

But this time, after all, the incident happened suddenly, and many resources were directly ordered to be allocated by the ministries or the general bureau.

So it was inevitable that Chang Haonan and Zhuang Bingchang would lead a round of inspections to ensure that the preparations before the start of construction were foolproof.

However, the two had already reported the situation in detail at the last meeting, and those who can hold high positions are all meticulous people.

No mistakes were found.

The only pity is that there are currently no high-yield crops suitable for planting in modified sandy land. It can only take a few years to improve the land conditions before planting varieties like the black soil in Northeast China.

This is also within the acceptable range of everyone.

After all, being able to turn the unusable and degraded sand into farmland is already a pleasant surprise.

Who could ask for more?

However, just after Zhuang Bingchang finished talking about this, a leader from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences suddenly spoke up:

"Academician Chang, Professor Zhuang, regarding crop breeding issues, I can help contact Academician Xin Zhiwen, the founder of plant molecular biology in China."

"In 1998, Academician Xin took the initiative to coordinate cooperation between Yenching University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong to build a joint plant genetic engineering laboratory, which included functional genomic research on rice and soybeans. Later, he cooperated with Academician Yuan, who is more familiar to us, to conduct research on lodging-resistant and disease-resistant rice, and the results were quite good..."

After that, perhaps because he was worried about being misunderstood, he made a special addition:

"In the research of Academician Xin and Academician Yuan, molecular genetic technology is only an auxiliary means, and it is not the same technology as the genetic modification we usually hear about..."

Chang Haonan knows almost nothing about the field of biotechnology, so he did not express any opinions, but just signaled Zhuang Bingchang to make his own decision.

This proposal was equivalent to raising the latter's status by several levels.

He readily agreed.

"Then..."

After confirming that everyone had no other questions, the elder sitting in the first position closed the notebook in front of him, and his eyes swept across every face in front of him calmly and warmly:

"For the entire high-standard farmland construction project, the state will set up a special working group, and I will be personally responsible for the pilot stage... If you have any difficulties or needs in your work, you can bypass the middle level and contact me directly to solve it."

"Next, I will assign tasks..."

"..."

...

Under the direct intervention of the highest decision-making level, the entire state machine began to operate efficiently and precisely.

Soybeans are afraid of cold and have a long growth cycle. It is definitely too late to plant a round this year.

But September and October happen to be a good time to sow grass seeds, especially the selected varieties such as saltwort, naked oats, Tibetan wormwood, etc., which are originally native to the plateau area and are cold-resistant and drought-resistant.

If you move quickly enough, you can enter the growth period or even the maturity period before the cold winter comes.

These weeds were not planted for harvesting, but simply to use their roots to strengthen the soil, so it didn't matter even if it snowed early.

For a time, the entire area south of the Greater Khingan Range in the central part of Inner Mongolia was filled with a busy scene.

Trains and trucks brought bags of raw materials from all over the country to the newly built mixing and stirring area, and then mixed them with ferrous chloride and water in a mass ratio of 0.25:0.045:0.03:25 to form an emulsion suspension, which was then mixed with sand to form solidified sand.

The tractor pulled the rotary tiller and ridger to treat the originally bare and dry sand land according to the standards of farmland, and then filled the solidified sand and additional solidifying liquid into deep pits and shallow ditches, and finally sowed grass seeds...

In short, if the land under their feet was not yellow instead of black, it would look like autumn plowing after the harvest of crops...

On a ridge, two agricultural technicians in coarse cotton clothes were tucking their arms together, staring at the solidifying agent being mixed with sand in front of them.

Perhaps because the work was too monotonous, the two of them had plenty of free time to chat and joke.

Naturally, they soon talked about the somewhat strange task at hand:

"I say, Lao Li, let's fill this... lump of stuff down, and next year we can grow crops on this yellow sandy land?"

One of them wrinkled his nose and asked hesitantly.

As an old technician from the western reclamation area of ​​​​Mongolia Province, he has been fighting desertification for almost half his life, and he considers himself to be a half-experienced sand control expert.

But the commonly used method in the past was nothing more than using grass grids and sand-fixing nets to form a windbreak to prevent sand accumulation, and then gradually plant a small amount of shrubs and grass seeds after the sand in the middle of the grid is effectively crusted.

It is indeed useful, but it usually takes 5-7 years to form soil with average fertility, and the efficiency is relatively average.

And the operation directly targeting the sand itself, like the one in front of us, was absolutely unheard of before.

The man standing opposite him was called "Old Li", but in fact he was younger. He moved the water collecting funnel to the next pit and smacked his lips:

"I guess... since there is such a big deal, it should be a plan..."

The two of them kept talking back and forth, but their hands did not stop moving.

After finishing the whole ridge, he straightened up with his sore back and planned to take a rest.

"But this is really too different from our past methods. If it was decades ago..."

The technician who spoke first took out a pack of cigarettes and prepared to talk about his early experiences again.

But at this moment, a voice suddenly came from behind them:

"From your accents, you should be from the western region. That area is arid desertification, and you must first use engineering measures such as grass grids to retain water and increase fertilizer. But the eastern region is semi-arid and semi-humid desertification, so you can directly use chemical and biological measures to fix sand."

"The two raw materials you just filled in have both long-chain hydrophobic main chains and surface-active hydrophilic side chains, so they can wrap and cross-link with the surface of soil particles, playing a role in strengthening the soil..."

The two turned around and found that it was a young junior who was estimated to be in his thirties.

He was wearing a brown jacket. Although there were a lot of mud spots on it, from his white hands, he didn't look like a person who had been doing rough work for a long time.

There was another man who looked quite strong behind him.

After a few seconds, the two realized that the sentence just now was answering the question they had accidentally talked about.

Obviously, the other party had been following behind for some time.

There was no doubt that this person was Chang Haonan who came to inspect the project.

According to the division of labor previously agreed upon, he only needs to provide technical support and does not undertake any front-line tasks.

But after all, he is the project leader who has received funding, and it is impossible for him to not show up at the beginning of the construction.

It is also a way to give himself a break after being busy for half a year.

However, according to Chang Haonan's personality, he will definitely not be idle.

So he walked around nearby to see if there are any problems that he has not noticed before.

And when he explained the principle of chemical sand fixation to the two people before, he did not really want them to understand, but just took it as an opportunity to connect the conversation and get closer.

But before he could ask the following questions, Zhuang Bingchang rushed over from a distance.

"Chang——"

He was about to call out his name, but suddenly saw that there were some strangers nearby, so he quickly stopped and walked closer before lowering his voice:

"Academician Chang, Director Luan of the National Space Administration brought an expedition team here, saying that they will be here soon, you see..."

Luan Wenjie's appearance here was really beyond Chang Haonan's expectations.

After all, the business that the other party was in charge of had nothing to do with the yellow earth in front of him.

But after all, they were colleagues in the same system, and since they met, they had to receive him.

"Let's go, take me over to have a look..."

The two technicians looked at each other's backs as he suddenly left, but they were still in a daze.

It was not until the burning cigarette burned one of the men's fingers that he suddenly retracted his arm and his mind started working again:

"This man looks young, but I always feel that he has a great background..."

"Indeed."

Another man also threw away the cigarette butt with only a butt left:

"I guess, at least he is a farm director!"

...

This wave of land reclamation in the eastern part of Meng Province is very large, directly involving tens of thousands of people and thousands of sets of equipment, and it is impossible to hide from the eyes of other countries.

In other words, there was no plan to hide it.

Instead, it was promoted in a very high-profile manner from the beginning.

"Don't be afraid of wasteland, hope to rise, and create another Beidahuang."

From the beginning, Huaxia pointed out that it would build a new reclamation area with an output benchmark of Beidahuang Group throughout Meng Province, and planned the entire area of ​​the first phase of the pilot as a soybean planting area.

The purpose is very clear, which is to confront the current trend of rising futures prices in the international market.

For the United States, which hopes to control the Huaxia market, this is obviously not good news.

Later that day.

201 SW 14th Street, Washington, DC.

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman looked at a newspaper from China with a gloomy expression.

Of course, as an American, she certainly couldn't read Chinese.

Therefore, Assistant Minister Sergey Edmond, who was sitting opposite, was holding a report to introduce the situation:

"According to public reports from China, they plan to build at least 7 million acres of high-standard farmland within 10 years. The early pilot project has already started. According to satellite reconnaissance results, the area involved is no less than 400,000 acres..."

"Strange... Hasn't China been implementing a policy of restoring arable land to forests, grasslands and lakes in recent years?"

Minister Veneman looked as if he had seen a ghost:

"Where did they get so much land?"

At the beginning of the 21st century, China imported about 10 million tons of soybeans each year.

About 60% of them came from North and South America.

With such a base, if the annual output suddenly increases to millions of tons in its homeland, it will indeed have a significant impact on the market balance.

You know, the futures market is all about emotions.

If the other party is allowed to calm down the panic, then it is very likely that this crisis will be safely overcome.

By then, speculators who take the opportunity to go long will at least lose their pants, if not lose all their money.

"The report didn't say it clearly."

Edmund replied:

"But from their propaganda slogans, it seems that they have reclaimed the originally degraded grassland..."

Hearing this, Veneman frowned slightly:

"This matter must be investigated clearly..."

"Even if we can't interfere with their reclamation operation itself, we must find a way to make the market believe that these farmlands cannot effectively produce any crops for at least a few years!"