Chapter Eighty-six Chestnut

  Thanks to honest people 888, ngstone, ffesfse, Blood Lion Beast Emperor, Colorful Rogue and Drunken Laughing Maitreya for their support! Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow will have four updates, and from then on, I'll try my best to update three chapters a day. This is a promise to everyone! The early updates of this book were indeed slow!

  Chu Jiaqiang was thinking about when to go buy a big pair of scissors back home. Cutting with a knife really didn't look good and it was tiring.

  The next day, I went to his mountain with my uncle. His orchard was relatively single, all were chestnut trees. These fruit trees were planted six or seven years ago, although they had not been managed, but now they have grown into big trees.

  There are still many board chestnuts hanging above, but the quality is not very good. There are over 1,700 mu of chestnut trees, which is quite a scale. At first, the government said that for every mu of land planted with chestnut trees, they would subsidize 50 yuan, and my uncle alone received a subsidy of 1,000 yuan from the government.

  "Second Uncle, go back and bring Second Aunt over, carry the basket over, first pick the chestnuts on top." Chu Jiaqiang said suddenly.

  "What's the use? If you like to eat, just pick some back and eat. I was going to tell you that the chestnut trees don't seem to have much potential, so we're preparing to cut them down and plant peach trees instead. Look at the peach tree behind the old house, not only is the yield high, but the price is also good, peach trees are better." This time, Second Uncle called Chu Jiaqiang over to prepare for cutting down these chestnut trees and planting fruit trees with a promising future.

  "Cut down?" Chu Jiaqiang's eyes widened, these are all big trees that have been growing for several years. As long as they are well managed this year, there will definitely be a bumper harvest next year. Cutting them down would be such a waste. Moreover, the board chestnuts are not without prospects, it's just that rural areas don't care about board chestnuts, and there are wild board chestnuts in the mountains. Chu Jiaqiang remembered that when he first arrived at Qu Chi Mountain, almost the entire mountain was covered with board chestnut and hawthorn trees.

  "Hmm! Cut it down and hurry up to plant other fruit trees. I had wanted to do it earlier, but was busy collecting peanuts and other things, so it's been delayed until now." Second Uncle didn't hesitate at all.

  "Cough! Second Uncle, listen to me first. This board can be sold for 4-8 yuan per kilogram outside, are you sure you want to cut it down?" Chu Jiaqiang asked again.

  "Huh? Cut... what? What did you just say? Four to eight?" Second Uncle froze, staring at Chu Jiaqiang, his breathing also quickening.

  "Otherwise, how could I let you carry the bamboo basket to pick these chestnuts first? It's said that it can be harvested for 5,000 or 6,000 catties. Although the quality is not good, at least it can be sold in bulk for three or four cents. Calculated like this, there are also about 20,000 yuan. Unfortunately, it was not managed properly, otherwise, with nearly 2,000 chestnut trees, there would have been more than 10,000 catties." Chu Jiaqiang said regretfully at the end.

  When Second Uncle heard this, he was stunned, standing still for a moment before saying painfully: "Then haven't I wasted one or two hundred thousand yuan over the past few years?" Thinking of this fact, Second Uncle couldn't bear it. One to two hundred thousand per year, and they had started storing chestnuts four years ago... Calculating it out, that would be six or seven hundred thousand! What a concept!

  "Wait a minute, I'll be right there." Second Uncle hurriedly ran back home and didn't mention chopping down the tree again.

  Second Uncle hastily rushed home, and on the way, he met Old Village Chief again. The old village chief was puzzled, in his eyes, Chu Shengmin should be a very calm and cautious person, to use his words, it means that he is reliable when doing things, and at first, repeatedly speaking out to stop Chu Jiaqiang's behavior just proves this point.

  "What happened, Shengmin?"

  At the mention of this, Chu Shengmin's face twitched and he said bitterly: "You should be aware of my 20 mu of mountain land with chestnut trees, Village Chief Uncle?"

  "Oh? I knew it! You were the most enthusiastic about planting fruit trees back then, just for the government subsidy. You worked hard to reclaim the mountain land for a long time. But it was worth it, considering that 1,000 yuan seven years ago is equivalent to 10,000 yuan now." The old village chief burst out laughing, remembering how everyone had teased Chu Shengmin about this behavior back then.

  "Alas! I'm so muddled! Today, we were supposed to cut down those chestnut trees and replant other fruit trees. Who knew that even the cheapest chestnuts outside cost 3-4 yuan per catty, and roasted sugar chestnuts are around 10 yuan? You see, my chestnut tree started producing chestnuts four years ago, but we didn't know, and every year we've been throwing away tens of thousands of yuan." Chu Shengmin poured out his grievances, his voice filled with a sour taste.

  The old village chief was also startled, isn't this saying that he had wasted 60-70 thousand yuan for the past four or five years?

  "I won't tell you, I have to hurry back and get a basket to pick them." Chu Shengmin hastily left.

  The old village chief stirred up a huge wave again, are the fruit trees really that promising? It's worth noting that Chu Shengmin's chestnut trees had never been taken care of since they were planted, otherwise they wouldn't have taken two or three years to bear fruit. But despite this, they still generate an income of one or two hundred thousand yuan every year, so why bother cultivating the fields with such hard work?

  He realized that this was another good opportunity to stir everyone up and immediately spread the news. Everyone was shocked, one by one running to watch and ask questions.

  Second Aunt also followed over, carrying a long bamboo pole. Chu Jiaqiang took the pole and shouted loudly: "Everyone move back a bit, don't let the chestnuts hit you."

  The chestnut has a shell that wraps around it, the surface of the shell has thorns, just like a hedgehog. After maturation, the shell will crack open. If hit by one, although there is no danger to life, it still hurts a lot.

  Chu Jiaqiang had a go at it first, and then Er Shu and the others started picking up the baskets. The onlookers also lent a hand. Although there were many chestnut trees, the yield was very small, and they couldn't withstand the crowd, so they finished in just one morning.

  When Chu's family was free, someone asked: "Qiangzi, is this board chestnut really worth the money?" He had to ask himself that he had planted it at the beginning, but only one-third of Chu Shengmin's. Nevertheless, it was also a big deal of several thousand yuan.

  "Of course, this is still the most conservative estimate. There are many varieties of chestnuts, and the one we have now is not the best, it's said that the best ones come from Qinling, also known as Chestnut Village. But ours is also a relatively good variety in the south, so the price shouldn't be too bad." Chu Jiaqiang said.

  He listened, didn't say a word, and pulled his wife back home. Others looked on with envy, wondering why they hadn't planted chestnuts themselves. Chestnuts could grow well even if left unattended.

  "Second uncle, let's remove these husks at home this afternoon and prune the branches tomorrow! I'll contact them to see if they can drive over to collect. By the way, who else in our village was also growing chestnuts? Let's call them to hurry up and harvest, it's better to sell together. If not, we can pay for some transportation fees and take them out." Chu Jiaqiang said.

  Second Uncle nodded immediately, and this large area of board chestnut trees was now a treasure to him, thinking in his heart about how to take good care of them this year.

  The old village chief immediately remembered that there was another person in the village who also grew chestnuts, namely Yang's widow. In those years, they had also planted a lot, only under Chu Shengmin. However, on the second year of planting fruit trees, a tragedy occurred, and her husband had an accident outside. Now Yang's widow is not at home, she went to visit her daughter's family (in rural areas, the bride's family is called "outside family") early in the morning.

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