Returning home from Xu Guangmao's place, Ma Qingsheng called his wife Zhao Chunhua into the room and asked patiently and seriously, "Chunhua, I really want to ask you: what kind of work do you actually want to do?"

Seeing how serious Ma Qingsheng was, and since this kind of conversation had occurred many times before, Zhao Chunhua was already somewhat impatient. She replied solemnly, "You're a man, why are you so anxious to force me to work? Are you ashamed of me because I don't work?"

Ma Qingsheng had already given up hope on Zhao Chunhua going out to work. This time, he was making a final attempt at persuasion. "Chunhua, look around. All the family members of the cadres are out working. Even Chairman Chen's wife works. She's doing very well in the Map Section. Can't you just find a job and work seriously?"

"Can I be compared to Chairman Chen's wife? Can you be compared to Chairman Chen?" Zhao Chunhua immediately retorted.

"Fine, fine. We won't compare. But Chunhua, I earn 12 yuan a month. Buying rice only gets me 48 jin. Is 48 jin of rice enough for the two of us to eat?" Ma Qingsheng asked.

Hearing this, Zhao Chunhua became upset. "You can't support your own wife, yet you blame me for not working. Why don't you just earn more money? If you earned 24 or 36 yuan a month instead of 12, would this still be an issue? It's you who insists on staying in the city, not me. If you went home to farm, I wouldn't say a word. You go out to farm, and I'll cook for you and bring it to the fields, wash your clothes, and serve you when you get home."

These words weren't entirely unreasonable. After learning about Xu Guangmao's income, Ma Qingsheng had no dissatisfaction with returning to farm. Zhao Chunhua might not be suitable for going out to work, but once they joined a production team, Ma Qingsheng felt he could definitely do very well. Moreover, the countryside wasn't like the city. There were many veterans in the city, but relatively few in the countryside. With Ma Qingsheng's qualifications, even if he didn't farm, he could still take on some work in the township.

The potential benefits were a great temptation, but Ma Qingsheng didn't want to return to the countryside. While city life had its downside of low income, one could see many new things there. The neat streets, the running water and electric lights indoors, the various facilities, and the changes occurring every day made it impossible for him to refuse city life. More importantly, there had been constant rumors internally that wages would see a significant increase in the future. Although the specific timing was uncertain, a reliable claim was that once the land reform in the base areas was completely finished, there would be a large-scale wage adjustment. Some said the base salary would increase by two yuan, and some even said wages would increase by half. If it really reached that level, Ma Qingsheng felt his economic problems would be solved. If he could earn 18 yuan a month, plus eating in the cafeteria, his life would definitely be quite good.

If Zhao Chunhua could work properly, even if she only earned 8 yuan a month, the couple could make a life for themselves.

Thinking of this, Ma Qingsheng dropped a final word: "How about this: I'll go to Jiangxi to work first. Once my income goes up, I'll bring you to Jiangxi. If it doesn't, I'll come back to farm. That's it, take it or leave it."

To Ma Qingsheng's surprise, Zhao Chunhua didn't make a scene. After a moment of silence, she said, "I knew you wanted to stay in the city. Qingsheng, tell me, how long are you planning to stay in the city?"

Ma Qingsheng was momentarily speechless. He paused for a while before saying, "I'll tell you this: I can take you to Jiangxi. But once you're there, you must stay home quietly. You're not allowed to go out and talk nonsense or make a scene so that everyone knows who you are. Do you think you can do that?"

"See, you still want to go to the city!" Zhao Chunhua exposed Ma Qingsheng's thoughts without mercy.

"Chunhua, is it that you don't like going out to work?" Ma Qingsheng asked again. In the People's Party's education, not liking labor was almost a sin.

"I'm willing to stay home and farm; I want to serve you at home." Zhao Chunhua felt no guilt whatsoever about not working in the city. Since Ma Qingsheng didn't argue or make a scene this time, she was actually quite happy.

"...Two years. I'll stay for two more years. If I can afford to support you, I'll keep you in the city. If I still can't, I'll come back." Ma Qingsheng shook his head helplessly and gave an answer.

"Then swear an oath! Two years at most." Zhao Chunhua clearly didn't trust Ma Qingsheng.

"Fine, I swear."

"To whom do you swear?"

"I... I swear to Chairman Chen! If I can't support you in two years, I will definitely come back to farm!" Ma Qingsheng said loudly.

Chen Ke didn't know that he had already achieved the status of a "heavenly spirit" while he was still alive. Even if he did know, he wouldn't care. Before he returned this time, he had the idea of rectifying the order in Anhui. Historically, by this period, bureaucracy, leftism, and rightism—especially leftist tendencies—would break out severely. The Party had made quite a few mistakes in these matters.

As it turned out, as soon as Chen Ke returned, he discovered that regardless of whether the Party was making mistakes, he himself had already committed errors of leftist adventurism and serious bureaucratic detachment from the masses. The situation in the Anhui base area was completely beyond his imagination.

Xiao Qiang was a good comrade. In particular, his report on "Successology and the Theory of Practice" showed a level of understanding of the countryside that was already superior to Chen Ke's. Chen Ke was, after all, a university student mass-produced by the education system, and he had a natural superstition regarding such educational systems. Denying this system was, in essence, denying himself. In his previous plans, he had wanted to establish a system of full-time schools and then use a new generation of laborers to completely replace the old-style laborers.

Comrade Xiao Qiang's agricultural plan, however, took another route. It involved improving and developing existing agricultural production methods and implementing "industrial feedback" at key points. When the people had a need for technology, the government would provide appropriate technological support. This was a gradual model and one that perfectly matched supply and demand. Rather than forcibly promoting things that the people had to learn from scratch, it was better to facilitate the comprehensive evolution of the various production models with which farmers were already familiar.

Xiao Qiang didn't know Chen Ke's opinion of this policy, so he somewhat uneasily introduced his overall arrangements to Chen Ke. Since the land reform had completely changed the land ownership system in the base areas, a model dominated by farmers' needs rather than the government's would best ensure stable development.

Chen Ke understood quickly and was very supportive. While they were studying the entire plan, the results of the base area's first census were also reported.

Huaihai Province had 12 million people, Anhui Province had 18.5 million, Hubei Province had 19.5 million, and Jiangxi Province had 11 million. The total population of the base areas was 61 million. The margin of error for this statistic was estimated to be between 2% and 4%, which wasn't bad for this era.

In the 21st century, China's population was nearly 1.4 billion, with Henan Province alone having 100 million. Chen Ke was truly shocked to find that the entire base area across four provinces had only 61 million people.

In 1911, most people didn't live past the age of 60. In the base area's census results, adults over the age of 18 accounted for nearly 70% of the population, totaling 40 million. In other words, the greatest problem currently facing the base area was an "extreme labor shortage."

The occurrence of an extreme labor shortage in China was a big shock to a time traveler. Chen Ke had to carefully study the current situation before he could truly accept this fact.

If calculated based on a basic living standard of 400 jin of grain per person and a yield of 300 jin per mu, 82 million mu of arable land would be needed. In reality, the available arable land in the four provinces of the base area was nearly 200 million mu, with 160 million mu already confirmed.

These numbers looked good, but the actual situation was quite different. Only high-quality paddy fields or irrigated land could guarantee a yield of over 300 jin per mu. These accounted for only 30% of the total arable land, or 50 million mu. This number was only possible because the People's Party had vigorously built agricultural water conservancy facilities in Anhui, and Hubei naturally had a lot of good land.

Historically, during the First Five-Year Plan, nearly 200 million mu of irrigated land were added nationwide. This was a great achievement that could not be overstated. From another perspective, it also proved just how poor the land quality had been back then.

Xiao Qiang, the director of the Anhui Provincial Agricultural Department, was not a bureaucrat who sat in an office; he was a veteran political commissar. Since taking office, Xiao Qiang had traveled across all of Anhui. Anhui had many floods and many droughts. To ensure stable production on irrigated land, large-scale water conservancy construction was required. And large-scale water conservancy construction required manpower.

As a military man, Xiao Qiang's calculations showed that about 1 million permanent engineering corps would be needed, and after five years of construction, Anhui's basic water conservancy projects could be realized. This didn't even include the manpower needed for railways and highways.

Compared to 40 million adults, 1 million didn't seem like much. However, among those 40 million, at least 25 million were women or people in poor physical condition who were completely unsuitable for such engineering work. In other words, across the four provinces of the base area, one out of every fifteen strong laborers would have to be mobilized for infrastructure construction. This was a frightening proportion. In Anhui Province, it meant at least one out of every five strong laborers would have to be pulled away for several years of arduous infrastructure construction.

The various armies across the four provinces currently totaled only 200,000 men. Even with this army as the core, the military would have to be expanded more than fourfold. Moreover, it was impossible to only build in Anhui; the other three provinces also required large-scale infrastructure construction.

From the perspective of the results, achieving the final goal would naturally be inspiring. The problem was that organizing such a massive construction effort required an appalling level of investment.

Chen Ke had once criticized the large-scale water conservancy construction under Chairman Mao's instructions as having "low technological content" and "insufficient overall consideration" while speaking from a position of ease. However, now that he himself was in the position of a leader of the base area, Chen Ke knew very well that the large number of basic water conservancy projects he was building would only have "even lower technological content" and "even less overall consideration." But without these basic water conservancy projects, guaranteeing a stable food supply was no longer a fantasy; it was a flat-out "delusion."

With only 61 million people at hand, how to effectively mobilize the masses was an arduous task facing the People's Party.

"Comrades, this census was very well done. We finally know what the base area actually looks like," Chen Ke said, not emphasizing the difficulties but leading with praise.

No one was too happy. After learning the relatively true situation of the base area for the first time, many comrades felt it was unbelievable. Back then, when everyone knew nothing, they had dared to follow Chen Ke in raising the banner of revolution and launched an attack on old China. A small political party of a hundred or so people had gained control over such a large territory and population in just a few years. That was the most surreal part.

Chen Ke had once told everyone about the situation in other countries in Europe and America, and the People's Party had already begun sending cadres to those countries for inspections in turns. Although called inspections, it was mainly to experience what the industrial countries in Europe were actually like. Statistical data from various Western countries were also constantly sent back to the base area and had begun to be translated on a large scale. Russia had 175 million people, the US 97.3 million, Germany 66.9 million, Austria-Hungary 52.1 million, Japan 51.3 million, the UK 45.6 million, France 39.7 million, and Italy 35.1 million.

The populations of these countries were not at a disadvantage compared to the base area. Except for Japan, the industrial levels of these countries were much higher than that of the base area. In the past, the young comrades all had the passion to completely wipe out the Western powers. When passion met hard data, reason told everyone that many things were meaningless if they relied only on a surge of hot blood.

During Chen Ke's subsequent discussions with the comrades, many of them brought this up, and Chen Ke had to digress a bit. "Our base area government's statistical capability has already approached the level of the Western powers. We should have confidence in this. Comrades, it took us only six years to reach the statistical level of the Western powers. Let's all applaud to show our recognition of our own work."

The applause was weak, but it at least gave the comrades in Anhui some confidence.

Chen Ke laughed. "How can we integrate theory with practice, follow the mass line, and do revolutionary work steadily? Knowing the current situation is the most important first step. If we previously only knew the general social situation, we now know more specific details. Now our work is more targeted. 'Before the soldiers and horses move, the food and fodder must go first.' Let's first discuss this year's agricultural work."

Xiao Qiang immediately became the focus of everyone's gaze. With Chen Ke personally overseeing the work in Anhui, Xiao Qiang also felt a bit apprehensive. His policy had received high praise from Chen Ke, but there were quite a few comrades in the Anhui Provincial Party Committee who didn't quite agree.

"Anhui's agricultural work plan for this year still has two key points. First, do a good job in the construction of state-owned and army farms. Second, improve the masses' ability to reasonably arrange agricultural production after the land reform. You've all learned that high yields in fields require fertilizers like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Chairman Chen has already produced synthetic ammonia, so the supply of nitrogen fertilizer has some guarantee..."

Just as he said this, someone already asked, "The synthetic ammonia production line is currently in Wuhan. how much can we in Anhui get?"

This was a key question. In fact, the agricultural production plan had been set last year, and whether they supported it or not, the Party Committee had agreed to Xiao Qiang's plan. After all, having worked for so long, every comrade understood one thing from their studies in the Party School: "The importance of investment."

After the People's Party School reinforced the concept of "means of production," the concepts of production and investment were naturally accepted. In addition to land, which was a necessary means of production for agricultural production, labor, technology, and material input were also indispensable.

When Chen Ke was handling everything in the base area, he had spoken at length about the characteristics of fertilizers. He emphasized the concepts of "nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium" again and again. Potassium fertilizer was currently progressing slowly due to a lack of mineral resources and corresponding research. Phosphorus fertilizer was obtained by ducks eating fish and shrimp and then excreting it in their droppings. These droppings were then mixed with humus to raise earthworms. After the earthworms digested the mixture, it turned into excellent granular soil. Spreading this in the fields really had good results.

Chen Ke had said that large-scale input of nitrogen fertilizer must be achieved through chemical means. After the mass production of synthetic ammonia began last year, the comrades finally saw hope. Now, a comrade asked directly about the distribution issue.

If Anhui needed a large amount of nitrogen fertilizer, then Hubei definitely needed it as well. With the supplies held in Hubei, how much could Anhui get? If Chen Ke didn't speak up, everyone would feel uncertain.

"Everyone, don't overthink it. I guarantee that within two years, it's absolutely impossible for every household to use nitrogen fertilizer," Chen Ke laughed.

"Then when can we use it?" Xiao Qiang asked for everyone.

"Nitrogen fertilizer is first supplied to the base area's seed bases. Only with good seeds can the harvest be good. So this year, the large farms must also bear the burden of producing even higher quality seeds," Chen Ke replied.

The People's Party's seed bases were already widespread in Anhui, and the results after several years were not bad. The farms, of course, adopted them fully. Most farmers also began to choose high-quality seeds produced by state-owned farms. The problem with high-quality seeds was that it was impossible to breed high-quality next generations in ordinary land.

Furthermore, the seed bases encountered many problems that had never been thought of before. At first, everyone thought that as long as seeds of several generations were bred in very good land, they would naturally be good. As it turned out, some seeds even grew worse than ordinary seeds in the trial fields. When everyone asked Chairman Chen, who knew everything from astronomy above to geography below, about the reason for this, Chairman Chen's answer greatly disappointed the comrades. "I don't know either. I've only heard some basic theories. You have to research it yourselves."

The results of the research were all over the place, with all sorts of inconceivable theories. This once made Anhui's high-quality seed breeding look like a gathering of shamans. It wasn't until Xiao Qiang took over that he didn't say anything else but directly increased the technology investment tenfold. Of course, this wasn't random investment. Xiao Qiang required those doing research to expand the scale of their experiments tenfold.

This was possible because Anhui currently didn't lack this bit of land and manpower. With tenfold expansion of experiments, there would always be lucky occurrences of good results.

Four or five types of new seeds performed well, and through experiments, some of the shamans' speculations were also proven to be unscientific. With this attitude, Xiao Qiang temporarily gained the support of the comrades below.