Chapter 3: The Grand Reward

  "Xiaxia! Is what you said on the phone true?! I do know about the hot fog method, I saw them using it when I went to Malaysia for inspection. And I just looked up that Triazolone was developed by Germans..."

  The door of the conference room was suddenly opened, and a old man with short sleeves, blue trousers, and liberation shoes on his feet walked in with a vigorous pace.

  The old man looked spirited and refreshed, his voice loud and clear: "Xia Xia! Now that you mention it, I think this plan might just work..."

  At this moment, the old man finally saw Liang Sanping. And after seeing the old man, Liang Sanping was shocked and then excited! He may not recognize others, but how could he not recognize this old man?!

  This old man is a national expert who has made outstanding contributions to the "Seventh Five-Year Plan" and enjoys special state allowances. He has served as a member of the Science and Technology Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture, director of the International Rubber Research and Development Committee... and other positions, and is known as the famous rubber breeding expert Liu Songquan!

  "Old Liu!!! Hello! Hello! I am Liang Sanping......" Liang Sanping was so excited that he couldn't control himself, the old man looked at Liang Sanping in a daze. At this time, Xia Zhendong quickly explained.

  "Mr. Liu, this is Liang Sanping. He's the one who told me about the humidifier and triazolone." Xia Zhendong hastily introduced Liang Sanping to old man Liu Songquan.

  The old man was overjoyed to learn that it was Liang Sanping who had come up with this method. He grabbed Liang Sanping's hand: "So it was Comrade Little Liang who contributed this method! You don't know, you've helped us out a lot!"

  "The harm of rubber white spot disease, you don't know! That year Yunnan Province and Hainan Island broke out, we were helpless. We watched as the country lost hundreds of millions to over a billion! It's heart-wrenching..."

  Liu Lao said, his eyes involuntarily reddening: "This... is all the fault of us agricultural people! It's heartbreaking..."

  Liang Sanping fell silent, in an era where salaries were only 30 or 40 yuan. Several hundred thousand, what concept is this?! And for someone like Liu Lao, a research personnel, he directly and unyieldingly took the responsibility onto himself.

  Although his main business is the breeding of rubber, rather than the prevention and treatment of rubber pests. However, the old man still firmly took this responsibility on his own shoulders.

  "Liu Lao, I remember you were in charge of rubber breeding. How could it be..." Liang Sanping was excited for a while before finally calming down amidst the small talk.

  "Hey! The department is really under pressure this time, and I'm also joining the plan to deal with the white spot disease. Liu Lao waved his hand and said: "I'm just a breeder, what do I know about white spot disease prevention?! Fortunately, I still know some English and can help look up materials, otherwise this old man would really become a freeloader..."

  "Mr. Liu, you're being modest... " Xia Zhendong smiled and said: "Although your major is breeding, but in terms of pest control, you've given us a lot of effective advice..."

  "Hmph! He's just a young whippersnapper who stumbled upon a dead mouse, Professor Liu is making too much of him!" Just as Old Liu and Liang Sanping were speaking, a leader-like figure walked up from behind.

  This man looked about forty years old, wearing a rare short-sleeved shirt from this era. He wore an SH watch on his hand, and his hair was combed neatly with a proud expression as he looked at Liang Sanping.

  Obviously, Liang Sanping just greeted Liu Lao and then only chatted with Xia Zhendong without "respecting" this leader, making him very unhappy.

  "Director Hou, no matter where Xiao Liang's method came from. It is effective and has been confirmed by several experts in our hospital! This is an undeniable fact!"

  Liu Lao looked at Director Gou with discontent and said: "As long as the method is useful, shouldn't we reward it?!"

  Director Gou heard this, his face was not pleasant and he hummed a sound, no longer speaking. But the eyes looking at Liang Sanping were still very unfriendly. Liang Sanping smiled lightly, but didn't seem to care.

  Xia Zhendong, on the other hand, walked over to Liu Lao with a stern face, ignoring Gou Director's unpleasant expression and separating him from Liu Lao. It was clear that Gou Director and Xia Zhendong were not on good terms. The two didn't even exchange greetings.

  After exchanging pleasantries, Liu Songquan solemnly asked Liang Sanping about the situation with Triazolone and thermal fogging. Liang Sanping repeated what he had told Xia Zhendong earlier.

  Technology is something that can't be faked, especially in front of these old men who have been struggling in the technical field for many years. They don't care where your data comes from, they care about whether this method is really effective.

  "Hmm... Little Liang, the Triadimefon you mentioned was developed by Germans in recent years. It is a new type of broad-spectrum bactericide developed by Bayer Germany, which has a wide range of applications in agriculture. After being absorbed by plants, it can be transmitted within the plant body."

  "Triazolone has excellent preventive and therapeutic effects on wheat powdery mildew, rust, black smut and corn silk black smut, round spot disease, but I didn't expect it to be effective against rubber powdery mildew too!"

  Liang Sanping smiled and said to Liu Lao, "Actually, Malaysia has done similar experiments before. However, at that time, they used old-fashioned sprayers, so the consumption of triazolone was very large and the effect was not good..."

  Professor Liu nodded, and although the two had just met, they felt extremely compatible. Before long, Xia Zhendong and the researcher who came with Old Liu also joined the discussion.

  Li Sanping rummaged through his intestines and stomach, recalling the experiences of his later years, trying to find something to say, and told Liu Lao and others. Xia Zhendong and others did not dare to slack off, taking out their notebooks to record Li Sanping's words one by one.

  This makes Liang Sanping look like a professor, while Xia Zhendong and others seem like students. Most of the scholars in these two academies have this habit, they are all technical people.

  What you said is useful, and after thinking about it, they have a bottom line. And Liang Sanping was born from the grassroots, every point he made matches with Xia Zhendong's experimental results or expected effects.

  So they naturally thought that Liang Sanping was reasonable. Director Gou, on the other hand, looked at Liang Sanping with a difficult expression as he chatted and laughed with Liu Lao and others, and walked out of the conference room with a cold face.

  "Xiao Liang! I wouldn't have thought, you're so young yet you know so much about rubber! Listening to you, I'd think you're an old rubber worker who's been rolling around in the rubber forest for decades!"

  Liu Lao smiled and teased Liang Sanping, while the latter was first startled and then sighed in his heart. Isn't that so? In his previous life, didn't he deal with farming for most of his life?

  "Professor Liu, you're really giving him too much credit!" Director Gou spoke up at this time, but saw him squinting his eyes and coldly snorting: "Guizhou Province doesn't have any rubber, he's just spouting some twisted nonsense to deceive people! If he really had such skills, he wouldn't need to come begging relatives for help!"

  "Comrade Gu Jufeng, how can you talk nonsense like this?!" Xia Zhendong's face sank, and he said coldly: "We are all technical people, what technology is feasible and what technology is not, don't we understand it ourselves?"

  "Director Hou, what Little Liang said is reasonable or not, this old man can still tell! Liu Lao's face also changed, this old fellow may be a technical expert, but he's not someone to be easily fooled."

  "Am I so old and blind that I can't even tell the difference between truth and lies?! Liu Lao's words made Gou Jufeng's face turn even uglier, staring at Liang Sanping's eyes as if he was about to spit out fire!

  "Actually, Liu Lao, I also really just heard it from others." Liang Sanping paused for a moment and said: "In our village entrance, an old rightist was originally sent there. It is said that he used to be in the YN rubber factory. He knows more, and I learned all this by asking him..."

  This is not a lie, in the old village of Liang Sanping's hometown in Guangxi Province, an old rightist was indeed sent to be reformed. This old rightist was very familiar with farming and the villagers respected him very much because he understood farming.

  Nothing like denunciation or struggle sessions ever happened. Instead, many people asked him for advice on farming matters. Later, the old rightist died of illness, and it was still the village that held his funeral.

  Liang Sanping was not afraid of being investigated on this point, because after the tumult of the next ten years came to an end, the family members of the old rightist came and tearfully took the old rightist back home.

  At that time, it was said to be a professor of some agricultural college. But the specific situation, Liang Sanping couldn't remember either. At that time, he was working on the farm and only heard people mention it occasionally when visiting relatives.

  Liang Sanping said everything he wanted to say until Professor Liu and Xia Zhendong felt there was nothing more to ask, at which point he took his leave.

  Liu Lao smiled and let a researcher who followed him, along with Xia Zhendong, send Liang Sanping out. The two were determined to take him to the county's bus station to catch a ride.

  Outside the gate, a driver was already waiting. The researcher called out to him. The driver came over and started the car, taking the three of them to the county town's station. The research institute is still some distance from the county town, and if they didn't take a car, the three of them would have had to walk for half an hour to get there.

  All the way, everyone was chatting and laughing. After entering the county town, Xiaozhen asked the driver to stop the car. Then he took Xia Zhendong and Liang Sanping directly to the Supply and Marketing Association.

  But they didn't notice that Director Gou was coldly smiling at Liang Sanping and others waiting for the bus.

  "Hum! But you're just a rustic bumpkin from the countryside of Guangxi Province, and yet you dare to pretend to be my equal?! Jianghai Farm, huh?! I'll make sure you can't just swindle your way through life!"

  Supply and marketing cooperatives were also a feature of this era. At that time, most things had to be purchased with coupons. Food required grain coupons, and clothes rarely came in ready-made form. They were mostly made by buying fabric and sewing it themselves, so sewing machines became one of the three big items for marriage.

  When you buy cloth, you get a cloth ration ticket. When you buy meat, you get a meat ration ticket. And the only store you can choose from is the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. There are hardly any other shops on the street for you to select from.

  "Zhao Jie, come and get 10 feet of 'Di Que Liang'!" Little Chen was clearly a regular customer here. He smiled as he walked into the supply and marketing association and saw a smiling, slightly chubby woman walking towards him.

  "Wow! Xiao Chen, you're being very generous today! I've never seen you so open-handed before!" Zhao Jie teased Xiao Chen with a smile, but her hands didn't slow down from working.

  In a flash, the roll of fabric was taken down and opened, measured with a large pair of scissors, and with a "zip" sound, it was cut. Meanwhile, Little Chen didn't even ask about the price, directly slapping out two big round pieces and several fabric tickets.

  "Hey! Zhao Jie, don't tease me anymore. How could I possibly use 'Diqiulang'? This is what Old Liu from the hospital instructed, it must be rewarded to Little Liang."

  Xia Liang San Ping was stunned, then hurriedly waved his hand and said: "No no no... how can I accept this?! No reward without merit!"

  "Hey! Xiao Liang, this is all my fault! You mentioned this plan and I got so excited that I forgot to tell you." Xia Zhendong said with a slap on his forehead, extremely regretful.

  "The hospital was in a headache situation due to the white powder disease, and last year's rubber production was severely reduced because of it. The leaders of the department were furious. So, at that time, the hospital made a rule: whoever proposed a solution would be awarded 100 yuan..."

  "But I just proposed a plan, haven't you verified it yet?...” Liang Sanping was at a loss for words, one hundred yuan is not too much or too little. He now wondered why Director Gou Jufeng didn't take care of himself, and a young man from the countryside took away this hundred yuan.

  How dare you make Guo Jufeng lose face?! What's more, this young man doesn't even know how to behave, not even greeting me when he sees me. This has really offended Director Guo Jufeng.

  At that time, even the highest salary of workers on the island was only thirty or forty yuan. Adding regional allowances and so on, the maximum was just over 41 or 42 yuan.

  One hundred yuan is equivalent to more than two months' salary for a worker with the highest wages.

  "Take it if I give it to you! What's with the pretence?!" Xia Zhendong saw Liang Sanping's embarrassment and took the cloth from Little Chen's hand, stuffing it into Liang Sanping's hand.

  Xiao Chen smiled and said, "This is specially approved by Old Liu. After receiving this plan, Old Liu reviewed a lot of materials and discussed it with several experts in the hospital. Everyone unanimously agreed that your plan is the most feasible."

  "So, Old Liu and the experts decided to give you the prize money!" But then Little Chen smiled and said: "Me? I'm just here to help you sell things! Don't be polite!"

  Liang Sanping was speechless, while Xiao Chen and Xia Zhendong dragged Liang Sanping to buy two packs of Silver Ball cigarettes and a few bottles of Three Flower wine.

  This made Liang Sanping even more embarrassed, at this time of the year, even the deputy director or director of a farm would only smoke Flying Eagle or Silver Ball cigarettes. Most people who drink wine have to drink loose-packed millet wine, and Silver Ball cigarettes and Three Flower Wine are quite expensive!

  Finally, he stuffed another 100 yuan into Liang Sanping's hand.

  "This... didn't we spend all the money on things?! How is there still 100 yuan left?!" Liang Sanping asked with a helpless bitter smile, while Xiao Chen smiled and said: "The money for buying things is separate, this is your bonus and can't be lessened!"

  Don't look at the two hospitals' reputation abroad, but in fact, their supporting facilities are not bad. Moreover, the country has always attached great importance to the two hospitals. The country has been blocked by the outside world for a long time.

  Under these circumstances, in 1951 the state decided to break the rubber blockade and establish its own rubber production base according to the highest instructions. The South China Reclamation General Bureau was initially composed of more than 20,000 officers and soldiers from two full divisions and one independent regiment of the PLA, with Ye Jianying as the first bureau chief.

  The two institutes were established specifically for the research of rubber and tropical crops. Although not well-known to outsiders, they are actually national key institutions specializing in the research, breeding and experimentation of rubber, sisal, oil palm and other tropical crops.

  Even in turbulent times, the two academies were not greatly affected or shocked. There are still many opportunities for overseas research. The reason lies in the fact that this is related to the production and research of the country's most important strategic materials, which cannot be tolerated at all.

  Even in the most difficult times of 1960, the No. 2 leader still went to the two institutes for inspection and condolences. And wrote "Danzhou Liye Baodaoshenggen" to encourage them to continue providing these important and precious strategic resources for the country.