Chapter 29: Transplanting Rice to Plant Sweet Potatoes

**Long Jiusheng nodded, "I also think that we should trust Master Tang Ailian's words to some extent. In case of a severe drought and poor rice harvest, we won't have any food to eat. Sweet potatoes are drought-resistant, and even if we face a severe drought, a bit of irrigation can still yield sweet potatoes. I suggest we use half of the rice fields to plant sweet potatoes and keep half for rice. If a severe drought does happen, and rice fails to grow, having sweet potatoes can help us survive the famine."

"I agree with Master Tang Ailian, but half seems too little. Let's plant two-thirds sweet potatoes," Long Wanqiu said.

Shi Dong objected, "Removing well-planted rice is already unbelievable, and now you want to remove two-thirds? Aren't you afraid the director won't approve?"

He and Long Jiusheng were of the same age, and both were candidates for team leader. He wasn't selected because Long Jiusheng was strongly recommended by Zeng Shuji.

"I'll handle Zeng Shuji's concerns," Long Jiusheng said.

"Since we can't decide, let's vote. Those in favor of transplanting rice to plant sweet potatoes, raise your hands."

Long Jiusheng was the first to raise his hand.

The female team leader raised her hand firmly, saying, "I agree to transplant two-thirds of the rice to plant sweet potatoes."

Long Wanqiu looked at the remaining people: the document officer Su Xiaoli, the team secretary Shi Dong, the accountant Tang Xiaofeng, and the treasurer Long Jinshui, and said, "If we transplant rice to plant sweet potatoes and the drought doesn't come, and we have no rice to eat, we might face criticism. But if we don't transplant rice, and a drought does occur, more than six hundred people in our village will suffer from hunger, and we'll be responsible for their suffering. So, I raise my hand to transplant rice to plant sweet potatoes." He then raised his hand.

Shi Dong glared at Su Xiaoli, hesitated for a moment, and said, "If transplanting rice to plant sweet potatoes leads to criticism but ensures the village's safety during a famine, then I'm willing to accept the criticism." He also raised his hand.

Shi Dong then turned to the accountant Tang Xiaofeng and the treasurer Long Jinshui and said, "Fortunately, I have your support."

Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, the accountant Tang Xiaofeng raised her hand and said, "I believe in Master Tang Ailian, so I agree to transplant rice to plant sweet potatoes."

Shi Dong was taken aback.

Long Jinshui also raised his hand and said, "I trust Master Tang Ailian too. Therefore, I agree to transplant rice to plant sweet potatoes."

Long Jiusheng breathed a sigh of relief. "Seven committee members, six in favor of transplanting rice to plant sweet potatoes, and one against it. This is our decision. We will use two-thirds of the team's rice fields to transplant sweet potatoes and retain one-third for rice. Also, we can't let Tang Ailian take all the blame. When talking to outsiders, I will say that during my recent visit to the commune, I heard experts from the county warning of a possible drought this year."

Long Wanqiu frowned, "But Jiusheng, have you thought about how to obtain enough sweet potato seedlings?"

Indeed, with so many sweet potatoes to plant, how could they secure enough seedlings? Even if they had so many sweet potato seeds, there wouldn't be enough time to cultivate them into seedlings.

"Let's send someone to the market tomorrow to see if we can buy sweet potato seedlings," Long Jiusheng suggested.

The next morning, they sent people to three different markets to buy sweet potato seedlings.

The closest market, Jiulong Market, was only half an hour away, so the person sent there returned by noon.

"Team leader, it's not easy to find sweet potato seedlings. We bought all the sweet potato seedlings available in the market, but we only got a little over five hundred pounds. In fact, there were only about two hundred pounds in the market, and we had to go to the seller's house to get these."

"Each mu requires 2000-3000 sweet potato seedlings. With this amount, we can plant sweet potatoes on about ten mu at most. We can only hope that the people sent to the other markets will be able to buy more."

"Have the people sent to Sanwei Market returned?"

"They have returned. They bought a little over three hundred pounds."

"We can only hope for Bian Tian Market now."

By evening, the people sent to Bian Tian Market had also returned, but they only brought back a little over two hundred pounds of sweet potato seedlings.

Long Jiusheng had a headache. With all the sweet potato seedlings they had purchased, they could only plant sweet potatoes on about ten mu of land at most. He was worried, and the stress had caused him to develop blisters in his mouth overnight.

Unconsciously, Long Jiusheng walked to the large camphor tree at the entrance of the village and found a small figure sitting on the raised tree root under the tree. The child was furrowing her brows with her chin resting on her hands.

The small figure was none other than Tang Ailian.

Long Jiusheng had learned not to underestimate this young girl, and he had developed a deep fondness for her. He approached and said, "Little one, what are you doing here? Be careful not to furrow your little brows too much; you might get ugly."

As soon as Tang Ailian saw him, she smiled and said, "I was waiting for you. I brought some for you, Team Leader."

She pointed behind the large tree to reveal a mound of sweet potato vines, resembling a small mountain.

Long Jiusheng was taken aback. He couldn't believe his eyes.

My goodness, what had he just seen? Behind the large tree where thorns used to grow, there was now a pile of sweet potato vines that looked like a small mountain.

Tang Ailian felt somewhat helpless. In order to save the entire village, she had been using water from her space well to stimulate the growth of sweet potato vines whenever she had free time over the past two days. She had finally managed to produce these sweet potato seedlings and had hidden from her family to find this spot under the large camphor tree, where she released the sweet potato vines.

In the process of stimulating the growth of these sweet potato vines, she had also realized that the water in her well was not unlimited. Over these two days, using the water to stimulate the sweet potato vines had caused the water level in the well to drop by more than a meter.

Long Jiusheng was overjoyed and lifted Tang Ailian into the air. "Little one, you've made a great contribution to our village."

He now had even more faith in Master Tang Ailian; not only had he predicted the severe drought early on, but he had also prepared sweet

 potato seedlings in advance.

As for how Tang Ailian's "master" had transported the sweet potato vines here, Long Jiusheng selectively chose to forget to ask.

The news of Longtou Village transplanting rice to plant sweet potatoes spread like wildfire. During commune meetings, people from surrounding villages couldn't help but tease Long Jiusheng:

"I heard your team decided to transplant rice to plant sweet potatoes? Is that true?"

"Why even ask? More than half of your rice fields have been drained, and the rice seedlings have been removed."

"What's going on with Longtou Production Team? They had perfectly good rice, and now they're transplanting sweet potatoes. Do they have too much free time?"

"Hehe, he's the youngest team leader in our commune, so he's bound to do something out of the ordinary."

"..."

In Red Lotus Commune, Zeng Shuji, upon hearing that Longtou Production Team had transplanted rice to plant sweet potatoes, was furious. He angrily summoned Long Jiusheng and berated him, "What in the world are you doing, Long Jiusheng? How can you do something as ridiculous as transplanting rice to plant sweet potatoes? Immediately remove the sweet potatoes and replant the rice."

(End of this chapter)