"The ditch has to be 1.5 meters deep, oh, that is five feet deep. It's not just about leading the water on the surface out. Now the underground water is full; the crops will rot if planted. You should know this at least." This was in the straw shed of the Insurance Corps Engineering Section. The person speaking was Wu Longfu, who was responsible for formulating engineering plans. He was one of the few talents specializing in engineering construction in the People's Party, and now he led the Engineering Section. Wu Longfu himself didn't know how to grow crops, but this didn't prevent him from gesticulating and issuing orders to a group of comrades who knew a little about growing crops.

"Do you know how high five feet is?" The one asking was Chai Qingguo. Among the earliest four company commanders, Chai Qingguo ranked as the Second Company Commander, and now served as the Deputy Commander of the First Regiment. Today, when the position of the Second Regiment Commander was vacant, Chai Qingguo hoped very much to become the Second Regiment Commander. This was a big cadre who could manage four thousand people. So facing a section chief who hadn't spoken many words originally, and was a returned student who claimed to have never farmed, Chai Qingguo, who had some farming experience, was very unconvinced.

"Five feet. If I jump in, only half my head will be exposed." Wu Longfu was nearly 1.7 meters tall, which was not short in this era.

"Do you know how much effort it takes to dig so deep?" Chai Qingguo was extremely unhappy with Wu Longfu's confident attitude.

"I calculated it. We need to dig ditches at least ten-odd kilometers long. That is to say, we have to dig thirty *li* of ditches. The ditch is 1.5 meters deep and 1 meter wide. One person can dig ten meters in a day. The First Regiment has four thousand people, which means it will be finished in one day. At most two days." The result of numerical calculation was simple and ruthless. Wu Longfu gave a standard answer.

"You are farting. You try digging in this kind of muddy land. Dig ten meters a day! You'll tire people to death." Chai Qingguo had accepted the Insurance Corps' military training in Anqing anyway, and knew how long one meter was.

"This is the arrangement of the organization. Since I said one person has to dig ten meters, I will also participate myself and personally dig a ten-meter-long ditch." Wu Longfu's answer completely followed the standard. Chen Ke had a requirement that if the Engineering Section formulated a plan, then everyone in the Engineering Section must complete the workload of ordinary soldiers.

Chai Qingguo knew he couldn't beat Wu Longfu in numbers, and he didn't have this plan either. He just pressed: "What exactly is the use of digging such a long ditch?"

"You also know this is muddy land. These ditches are like water wells; the moisture in the ground will seep out and enter these ditches. We just need to pump the water out of the ditches, and we can make the land dry faster. The grain harvest will also be more. Otherwise, what can we grow in this muddy land?"

Chai Qingguo was speechless. Although he had farmed, he was not proficient in farm work. But next, Wu Longfu said a sentence that Chai Qingguo couldn't understand, "We have revolutionized, so we must talk about scientific farming. The situation of depending on heaven for harvest in the past can no longer appear."

Chai Qingguo didn't know what "scientific farming" was. In fact, to put it plainly, let alone a half-baked person like Chai Qingguo, even old farmers in this era actually didn't understand "scientific farming." Selecting large seeds for breeding, and many farm works in the growing season, old farmers knew, and could even be called proficient. However, in the case of large-scale water conservancy construction, how to adopt the most efficient drainage, drought resistance, and land care, old farmers had absolutely no experience.

Wu Longfu didn't understand farming either, but he had relatively rich construction experience. He used to study railway construction in the United States and worked on American railways after graduation. The reason he returned to China was simple: American railway engineering companies simply didn't treat workers as humans. Although he was a technical staff, peers in American companies also looked down on a Chinese person. So Wu Longfu saved a sum of money and returned to China. Building railways was certainly important, but working in a place full of malice and various injustices made this young man extremely dissatisfied.

After returning to China, Wu Longfu first went to the Imperial Railway Bureau, but soon discovered that compared with American railway companies, besides having various similar problems, domestic ones had other bad habits. The United States was an industrial country anyway; company management was relatively mature. The boss was certainly "God," but the company only had this one God. While in China, ignorant and bossy officials were even more hateful. Bosses were just for making money, and foreign colleagues were just a bunch of bastards. These bad people bullied you openly. But the arrogant attitude of Manchu Qing bureaucrats who regarded the common people as dirt was even more unacceptable. Wu Longfu was a returned student anyway; he had basic self-confidence and self-esteem. He could understand "bad people," but couldn't accept the bureaucrats' arrogant attitude of regarding the common people as dung. Later he simply resigned and quit.

After meeting Chen Ke in Shanghai, Wu Longfu felt that this person suited his taste very much. Not only the common language in knowledge. More importantly, although Chen Ke had a kind of "style" of a leader, Chen Ke convinced everyone by proposing practical solutions. He never thought he should override others. This attitude suited Wu Longfu's taste very much.

The formulation and concept of "scientific farming" this time was explained to Wu Longfu in detail by Chen Ke, obtaining Wu Longfu's full support. Chen Ke said clearly that after these lands entered the hands of the Insurance Corps, they couldn't be handed over again. The land of the entire Fengtai County would form multiple farms. The irrigation and drainage of these farms would be a whole large system engineering project. Wu Longfu's railway construction experience appeared especially valuable because only Wu Longfu had seen various terrains and landforms and had experience constructing on these terrains and landforms.

His knowledge could receive such high evaluation, and he could command the whole army as a troop leader to work hard for a large project. This kind of temptation was simply not something Wu Longfu could resist. Although Wu Longfu's family also had land in the countryside, since his family's land wasn't going to be confiscated, Wu Longfu simply didn't care about the future of landlords in Fengtai County.

Having stayed in the United States, Wu Longfu had at least heard of those large farms in the United States. Being able to participate in such a project, Wu Longfu could be said to be willing to do his best. He didn't want to waste the experience learned from the United States at all. Although he didn't have qualified colleagues under him, Wu Longfu firmly believed that he could absolutely complete the engineering on this bit of land. American railway companies not only built railways, but they could also obtain land around the railway for various developments. Wu Longfu was not completely ignorant of the development and design of some engineering construction projects.

No matter how Wu Longfu and Chen Ke could talk together, when looking forward to the future economic construction of Fengtai County, Wu Longfu and Chen Ke could almost draw a very similar blueprint in their minds. But Chai Qingguo couldn't draw this blueprint, and couldn't even imagine it. This was not a scene that people like Chai Qingguo, who hadn't seen that kind of large-scale agriculture with their own eyes, could imagine. But the specific work was real. Chai Qingguo knew how much work he had to do leading the soldiers who were already full of complaints.

"Soldiers eat grain (to fight); it's unalterable principles," Chai Qingguo said word by word, "But after we conquered Fengtai, are we still soldiers?"

Wu Longfu didn't care about Chai Qingguo's excitement at all. He stated calmly: "You should ask Brigade Commander Chen about this question. The work Brigade Commander Chen gave me is to formulate how to do it. As far as I know, the work Brigade Commander Chen gave you is to do as I say. Company Commander Chai, oh, Deputy Regiment Commander Chai, if you have any questions, you can go to tell Brigade Commander Chen after you finish the work. As for what you said to me, I can only say, I have already formulated the work plan, and I have already told you the work plan. You should go to work now."

"Motherfucker! You still use the official hat to suppress me? Are you worthy?" Chai Qingguo exploded after hearing this.

Wu Longfu simply ignored Chai Qingguo. He stood up, called the comrades of the Engineering Section, carried simple surveying tools, and left with his head held high. Leaving Chai Qingguo cursing loudly in the straw shed of the Engineering Section.

After Chai Qingguo cursed for a while, the First Battalion Commander Kuroshima Jinichiro beside him couldn't help but speak to stop him. "Deputy Regiment Commander, what do we do now?"

"What do we do? What do we do!! Grandma's, I quit." Chai Qingguo flew into a rage.

"But if we don't do it, today's work arrangement..."

Before Kuroshima Jinichiro could finish, Chai Qingguo interrupted Kuroshima's words immediately, "You Japanese kid, don't talk so much nonsense. This theory is not for you Japanese to speak." When suppressing the uprising of Zhao Sanduo and others back then, Yuan Shikai borrowed about ten thousand foreign soldiers, and the Japanese army dispatched several thousand people. Chai Qingguo didn't have a shred of good impression of Japanese people.

"Deputy Regiment Commander, the order we received is to complete the work of the Engineering Section. You can quit now, but does the First Regiment just wait like this now? If Brigade Commander Chen asks, how do we explain?" Kuroshima was not angry. Chen Ke had specially told the Japanese comrades about the difficulties they might encounter. Kuroshima was mentally prepared for Chai Qingguo's outburst this time.

"Humph!" Hearing Kuroshima also drag Chen Ke out, he couldn't say any opposing words anymore. But Chai Qingguo simply didn't mean to bow his head and obey like this, "You go back and notify the troops to do that work first. I'll go find Chen Ke now and ask him what exactly he means. Making trouble like this will definitely cause accidents."

After speaking, Chai Qingguo turned to leave. Suddenly he remembered something again, turned his head back with a ferocious look, and said loudly to Kuroshima: "Since those people in the Engineering Section said it, they will also dig ten meters. That's no problem. You send people to watch them carefully for me, see if they dig ten meters. I just don't believe it, this bunch of people can stand that suffering."

Kuroshima was somewhat at a loss about Chai Qingguo's performance of extreme anger. He couldn't say he knew, nor say he didn't know. Seeing Kuroshima didn't respond, Chai Qingguo asked ferociously again, "Did you hear me? Send people to watch closely for me. Absolutely can't let those people slack off. Did you hear me!"

"Yes." Kuroshima had to respond.

Chai Qingguo glared at Kuroshima again, then left the straw shed angrily and went towards the county town.