1671 Hard to Complete
Xia Wen was a very efficient person. In less than three days, he informed Qiao Mei to go to the suburbs to take a look at the piece of land. Qiao Mei originally thought that the maximum she would get was a few hundred mu of land, but she did not expect Xia Wen to be so generous as to rent 1,000 mu of land for her. She looked at the seemingly endless rolling fields and felt a little worried.
“Indeed… it’s indeed not bad…” Qiao Mei said in a daze.
“What’s wrong? Are you not satisfied with this piece of land?” Xia Wen noticed Qiao Mei’s expression.
“That’s not it. I’m just a little surprised,” Qiao Mei said.
“The country values this collaboration with you very much. You can’t fumble at this stage! This 1,000 mu of land is loaned to you by the country and you’re not being charged rent. As for the costs of labor and seeds, you will have to bear them yourself,” Xia Wen said.
If not for the fact that there were too many people around her at the moment, she would have fallen to the ground. This was not a money-making opportunity, but clearly asking for her life!
Could it be that Xia Wen had set his sights on this place long ago? She thought that this place was supposed to be used to build government buildings? She did not expect it to be used for experimental agriculture.
The labor costs to take care of 1,000 mu of land was not a small sum. Also, they needed people with different skills. For a land size of 1,000 mu, she needed at least 4,000 people to do different jobs like plowing, planting, weeding, fertilizing, among others. All these jobs needed to be done manually and the crops had to be planted in the shortest time possible, otherwise the losses would be huge.
In this era, there were no large-scale machines for farming and everything needed to be done by hand. How long would it take them to complete it using manual labor?
“Eldest Brother, are you sure this is not a joke?” Qiao Mei asked.
“Yes, I’m serious. When you’re ready, we’ll take all the seeds you harvest. We’ll take as much as you can plant.” Xia Wen took out the documents from his bag and said, “Let’s sign the agreement later. I’ve brought the documents.”
Qiao Mei silently gave Xia Wen a thumbs up to express her admiration. After confirming the scope of the project, Qiao Mei and Xia Wen signed the agreement. Xia Wen’s team only wanted the end products. Qiao Mei would have to take care of everything else.
Qiao Mei quickly called Qian’e, Lu Huai and Deng Fan to come to her house for an emergency meeting. She must come up with a solution this afternoon.
After the three of them finished reading the documents, their reactions were similar to Qiao Mei. All of them were dumbfounded and even the usually calm Deng Fan started to feel anxious.
“Sister-in-law, are you sure it isn’t 100 mu? There’s an extra zero, right?” Deng Fan said as he pointed at the number on the document.
“I am sure. It’s 1,000 mu. I even went to do a field inspection. Not a single mu more, not a single mu less,” Qiao Mei said.
“An area of 1,000 mu and all the goods have to be delivered within four months. I don’t think that’s even possible. Are we the only party involved?” Deng Fan said.
“Yes, we’re the only one involved in this project,” Qiao Mei said.
Everyone gasped. Qian’e said resentfully, “We might as well not earn this money! They want to plant seeds on so much land. Aren’t they worried that it’s too much!”
“Based on the requirements, we won’t be able to do it even if we manage to hire 4,000 people in time. We have to start work all at the same time. Otherwise, by the time we get to the last mu of the 1,000 mu, the first mu of land will be overgrown with weeds! If that happens, the progress will be in chaos,” Deng Fan said dejectedly.
Deng Fan also needed to lead a team to build a temporary dormitory near the site. Although it was easy to build a steel container structure, one structure could only accommodate eight people at most. With 4,000 employees, they would need 500 container structures. How many workers did he need to work together so as to build accommodation for everyone in the fastest time possible?
“4,000 people is only a conservative estimate. It doesn’t include the people I need or the staff on Lu Huai’s side,” Deng Fan said.
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