Chapter 62: Purchasing Petroleum And Researching The Grain Industry Chain
Navy Headquarters,
Zhou Wenhua soon arrived here by car,
and he also quickly finished communicating with Officer Yang, with both sides getting what they wanted.
Officer Yang obtained money donations to purchase two submarines from foreigners, and he could also sign the contract with the foreigners on the same day, as well as set the dates for manufacturing and delivery.
Moreover, for this submarine manufacturing location, Officer Yang also persuaded the foreigners to be willing to carry it out at their Jiangnan Shipyard.
It was also because of this that Zhou Wenhua’s desire to observe the entire process of the foreigners manufacturing the submarine could be naturally achieved.
And Officer Yang also agreed to let Zhou Wenhua participate throughout in the military training process for assembling submarine force members, allowing him to learn.
Thus, after both sides reached cooperation,
Zhou Wenhua also politely declined the other’s invitation to dine and left in a hurry.
For him, with the First Battle of Shanghai drawing ever closer, he still had many things to handle.
Once he returned to his home,
he immediately called in his butler Liu Xing to give instructions.
“Later, go invite the founder of the Mercedes-Benz Company, Gottlieb Daimler, and the only son of the founder of the Ford Motor Company, Edsel, I need to purchase petroleum and a large quantity of gasoline from them!”
“Additionally, I also need to establish our cotton factory and plantation in the rear area XJ, I want to enter the clothes and cotton field, doing this in hopes of producing even more warm clothes, so that poor people can have clothes to wear for warmth even in winter!”
“Next, the last thing is that I want to enter the grain industry chain, right now many people domestically are starving, especially during times of natural and man-made disasters, the people starved to death number in the thousands and tens of thousands, countless!”
“So I hope to do something for this country!”
“High-yield rice varieties and wheat, as well as potatoes, are what I need to handle next!”
“But our grain base must be deployed in the rear area!”
“Although part can be deployed in some frontline areas, the majority must be deployed in the rear area, because I worry that if war breaks out one day, we must ensure that these grain industry bases we painstakingly establish can obtain safety guarantees, only then can we provide a continuous supply of grain to even more people going hungry!”
“Otherwise, once our grain bases all fall into enemy hands, then everything is for naught, and it’s aiding the enemy!”
“This is not what I want!”
“Alright, now go handle the first thing immediately, first invite those foreigners I just mentioned, besides them, also check for me what other foreigners have channels to sell petroleum and gasoline!”
“I need a large storage of petroleum and gasoline!”
Once butler Liu Xing arrived,
Zhou Wenhua also immediately briefly stated the several very important things he wanted to do next.
And instructed him to immediately go invite those foreigners who could provide him with petroleum and gasoline.
After butler Liu Xing acted on orders,
Zhou Wenhua also felt a great headache about how to find “natural male sterile plants” and such strains to complete large-scale planting research and development of hybrid rice.
This was not something that could be bought with money.
“Do I have to search the entire country?”
“But I don’t have that much time!”
After pondering deeply for a long time,
Zhou Wenhua also let out a deep sigh and muttered.
But it was also at this time that he suddenly remembered the father of hybrid rice whom he respected most in later generations, who after tireless efforts, traveling mountains and rivers, traversing the country, during the rice flowering season, in the vast rice seas of Anjiang Agricultural School and nearby fields, searched spike by spike for male sterile rice.
Finally discovering the first male sterile plant from the “Dongting Early Xian” variety! Thereby taking the crucial first step in overcoming the breeding difficulties of hybrid rice.
“Dongting Early Xian”?”
“Right! Maybe I need to assemble a professional rice planting team, specifically to search for “natural male sterile plants” and such strains among the rice varieties ‘Dongting Early Xian, Victory Xian, and Dwarf South’!”
“As long as it’s confirmed that the anthers do not split open, it can be regarded as a male sterile plant and marked accordingly.”
“Then use pot seedling raising, single plant per line transplanting, plant a small area for each plant line, and in their adjacent area, similarly plant a patch of normal plants of the same variety for testing, using pollen staining method and bagging self-pollination to see if artificial hybrid seed setting can be preliminarily established!”
“Right! First see if this method works!”
“But still need to find more “natural male sterile plants” first to conduct hybrid rice research!”
“And before hybrid technology is overcome, I still need to plant large quantities of potatoes and sweet potatoes, these high-yield, filling crops, to maintain sufficient food and clothing for now!”
“Of course rice and wheat also need to be planted!”
“Because these plants can use fertilizer and planting technology and such methods to increase yield!”
“If only now I could look through 《rice male sterility》 again, but unfortunately in this era there is no such good thing to look through!”
When Zhou Wenhua thought of “natural male sterile plants,” he paced back and forth in his room while chattering nonstop in thought.
One must know that the future father of hybrids used manual labor under the scorching sun, walking through vast rice seas, searching over hundreds of thousands of rice plants, even more, before finally finding three male sterile plants, one can foresee how high the difficulty of this project is, and it also requires some luck and professional technology, as well as professional knowledge, to complete!
So Zhou Wenhua could not rely only on such high-difficulty searching work to solve the current grain problems, so he felt it was still best to start from the most practical approach, that is, plant large quantities of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and potatoes to temporarily fill bellies!
Of course rice and wheat also need to be planted.
Once he thought these things through,
Zhou Wenhua reignited his ambition to develop the grain industry chain,
he hoped to make a little contribution to those starving people.
One must know that in the early war period, during the war, and even in the late war period, the people who died of starvation were also countless, truly shocking.
The issue of sufficient food and clothing is a major problem.
So building ten thousand mu high-quality green production bases, in the rear area building ten thousand mu rice, corn, soybean, sweet potato, and potato planting bases, or even establishing an agricultural academy, are all things Zhou Wenhua must complete as soon as possible.
