I See through Everything

The wholesale price for these silk floss trees, which stood about three meters tall, was quite high. Each one cost 300 yuan, amounting to a seedling cost of 4,500 yuan per mu.

Factoring in the cost of reshaping the terraces, improving the soil, and building the necessary infrastructure, the total investment per mu exceeded ten thousand yuan.

However, an investment of this scale also brought enormous benefits.

For Magong Town, Hailufeng Company’s massive construction project had instantly created several hundred jobs. Once these workers received their wages, they would, in turn, stimulate the local economy.

After all, these migrant workers would need to find food, lodging, and other necessities in and around Magong Town for the foreseeable future.

’No wonder local governments everywhere loved infrastructure projects.’

Magong Town’s prosperity this year was plain to see.

After he stood on the summit for a while, two foremen in hard hats ran up to him, their faces wreathed in smiles.

"General Manager Jiang, welcome! We appreciate you coming to inspect our work." The speaker was Lin Taihao, the foreman in charge of reshaping the terraces. His name alone told you he was from Salt Town Village.

"I have the utmost confidence in your work, Boss Lin." Jiang Miao wasn’t lying. He had just used his appraisal panel to carefully inspect the hundred-plus mu of completed terraces. They were all up to standard, with no quality issues whatsoever.

"As long as you’re satisfied, General Manager Jiang, I can rest easy," Lin Taihao said, his face plastered with a grin.

Jiang Miao took a sip of bottled water. "Boss Lin, how many mu of terraces can you complete per day at your current pace?"

Lin Taihao explained, "We have three crews working simultaneously. If the terrain isn’t too steep and we don’t hit too many rocks, we can get through ten to twenty mu a day."

"That’s good speed."

That meant they could only complete four to five hundred mu of terraces a month, but his wasn’t the only construction company on the job.

The Yandun Mountain area, for example, was subcontracted to two teams. One was Lin Taihao, responsible for the western section near Salt Town Village. The other was Jiang Dahuo, who handled the eastern section near Xinxiang.

It was standard practice to hire locals for such projects; it saved a lot of potential trouble.

However, for the supporting infrastructure, Jiang Miao had contracted a more specialized company. These facilities had specific technical requirements that the smaller local teams weren’t equipped to handle.

The other man, who had been standing quietly near Lin Taihao, was Chen Dongxin, the project manager from Jianhua Engineering Company responsible for the supporting infrastructure.

Jiang Miao turned and asked, "Engineer Chen, have you tested the cable system?"

"Yes, we have. We’ve run multiple tests covering angles, speed, tension, braking, and passage clearance. We’ve also factored in the future growth of the fruit trees to four or five meters in height. You can rest assured, General Manager Jiang. Our company is professional," Chen Dongxin replied quickly.

’This man wasn’t just the moneybags of Magong Town; he was a rising star who had come out of nowhere in Shanmei.’ Chen Dongxin didn’t dare try to pull a fast one on him.

The cable system was primarily for transporting goods up and down the terraces. The systems were strictly forbidden for human transport; they were for cargo only.

This rule was mainly to prevent employees from taking shortcuts by riding the system themselves. If not explicitly forbidden, many of the farmhands would ignore the safety risks for the sake of a quick and easy trip.

"And the water pipelines?"

"We’ve tested a portion of those as well. We’ve also built a number of reservoirs both up the mountain and at its base."

After observing for a little longer and seeing no major issues, Jiang Miao led the group back down the mountain.

Halfway down, he saw Lü Weibin and his team in the distance, inspecting the newly planted areas.

Lü Weibin hurried over. "Boss."

Jiang Miao glanced at the bare earth of the terraces. ’This won’t do,’ he thought, then said, "Old Lü, even though it hasn’t rained recently, these terraces are still at risk of landslides and soil erosion. Have your staff buy some wood sorrel and alfalfa seeds as soon as possible. Scatter them over all the bare ground to prevent any erosion."

"Right, I’ll get on it immediately." Lü Weibin agreed with Jiang Miao. The bare surfaces of the terraces were indeed a problem, and they kicked up a lot of dust.

Suddenly, Jiang Miao stopped. He remembered the few varieties of Purple Alfalfa he had previously developed in the South Lake experimental greenhouse. He added, "Speaking of alfalfa, my lab has several new varieties of Purple Alfalfa. Let’s have the tissue culture lab propagate a batch to plant here on the mountain."

Hearing they were new varieties, Lü Weibin grew more serious. "New varieties? Boss, should we assign people to monitor them specifically?"

"Yes. Assign two people to monitor them and record their specific growth data."

The Purple Alfalfa varieties Jiang Miao had in mind were all high-yield, high-protein types he had specifically selected.

In the Lingnan Region, with its excellent heat and moisture, these new Purple Alfalfa varieties could yield up to 5,000 kilograms of fresh grass per mu, even on mountain terraces, allowing for three to four harvests a year.

As a leguminous forage crop, Purple Alfalfa offered numerous advantages, such as preventing soil erosion, increasing the soil’s organic nitrogen content, and being extremely high in plant protein.

Planting Purple Alfalfa in the clearings under the durian trees would make full use of the land, increase soil fertility, and help conserve soil and water.

Furthermore, the Durian Plantation had a fixed harvest season each year, which made it difficult to maintain a stable year-round workforce and led to a waste of manpower.

If they utilized the clearings across the sixty-thousand-plus-mu Durian Plantation, they could plant roughly fifty thousand mu of Purple Alfalfa. Factoring in the under-canopy environment and harvesting just twice a year, they could still produce 500,000 tons of fresh Purple Alfalfa. Processed into Purple Alfalfa Hay, that would amount to about 130,000 tons.

Imported Purple Alfalfa Hay sold for around 2,300 yuan per ton.

This high-protein Purple Alfalfa could be used directly as feed for livestock like pigs, cattle, and sheep, poultry like chickens, ducks, and geese, and even fish. Dairy cows, in particular, require high-quality alfalfa.

Whether Hailufeng Company used it for its own farms or sold it on the open market, this represented a substantial source of income.

The immediate priority, however, was to register the genetic patents for these new Purple Alfalfa varieties as soon as possible. This would prevent other agricultural breeding companies from patenting the genes first.