Without investigation, there is no right to speak; Chen Ke knew this himself. Although there was a lot of information on the Internet, and it was quite detailed, Chen Ke indeed hadn't conducted actual investigations before personally going down to the countryside. Especially regarding rural tools, Chen Ke found himself completely blank.

To do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools. In the 21st century, Chen Ke also went to the countryside and entered farmland. His feeling at that time was that walking in the field, his feet felt empty and floating. Stepping down on the soft soil, it was easy to step into a big pit. Only the solid ridges were comfortable to walk on. As far as Chen Ke knew, the depth of land deep plowing generally had to be 50 centimeters, or even deeper. Deep plowing had to be done every two years, or even every year. But in the Fengyang area of Anhui in 1907, the depth of plowing every year never exceeded 30 centimeters. The depth of most plowing was even only more than 20 centimeters. This was the same nationwide.

Crops need nutrition to grow, and nutrition is obtained from the soil through the root system. The growth of the root system depends on conditions such as soil temperature, humidity, air, and the number and activity of microorganisms; the deeper the soil, the worse the aeration, the less air, the fewer microorganisms, the worse the activity, and the lower the soil fertility. In such a soil layer, root growth is poor and the quantity is small. For land that has not been deeply plowed, the yield will not be too high no matter what.

Modern agriculture relies on mechanization, large tractors, sharp steel-cast heavy plows; the efficiency of these things plowing land is simply unimaginable in the countryside of 1907. Taking care of crops might be done by every household in an intensive farming way, but to carry out such basic deep plowing, one cannot help but rely on large equipment.

When personally starting rush planting and rush harvesting with comrades, Chen Ke truly conducted a social investigation in the countryside of 1907. The status quo of the countryside alone made Chen Ke dumbfounded. Farmers' tools were actually mostly wooden. Hoes, shovels—these tools made of sharp sandwich steel in New China were actually wooden in the countryside of 1907.

The so-called sandwich steel [laminated steel] is to sandwich a steel sheet between folded wrought iron or other different types of steel sheets. After heating, it is continuously hammered with a hammer machine to hammer the steel sheet and wrought iron into a tightly combined "sandwich" steel product. The thickness of this steel product will not exceed five millimeters. The steel sheet in the middle is extremely sharp after polishing. Steel is much more wear-resistant than the outer wrought iron, and the service life of the blade part is very long. The outer wrought iron provides the load-bearing part, and the thickness of the agricultural tool can be made relatively thin. In the countryside, sandwich steel is a very good agricultural tool; on the battlefield, the engineer shovel made of sandwich steel is a sharp weapon for hand-to-hand combat in trench warfare.

And wooden farm tools generally had a thickness of more than two centimeters. Both clumsy and not sharp, and the service life was also very short. It wasn't that there were no iron farm tools in the countryside, but the iron farm tools in the hands of farmers were not only expensive and few in number, but the quality could be said to be quite crude. Although rural blacksmiths also forged some farm tools, because they had not received good scientific education, plus the lack of many tools that required huge investment such as high-temperature furnaces and crucibles, the level of farm tool production was very low. Although blacksmiths knew that wrought iron was tougher but not wear-resistant, and cast iron [pig iron] was hard and wear-resistant but relatively brittle, they didn't know how to combine the two. Because of the lack of tools, the blacksmiths' level was very poor.

The base area needed a large number of farm tools during rush planting and rush harvesting. Without at least ten thousand metal farm tools, it was impossible to complete this arduous task. Chen Ke originally thought there were more farm tools in landlords' homes. After investigation, the farm tools in landlords' homes were only to meet their own farming needs. Hoarding farm tools was meaningless for landlords who were also in a small peasant economy. After defeating Zhang Youliang, they found that landlords with forts like Zhang Youliang were also like this. Plenty of money and grain, but not many farm tools.

The way to solve this problem was to collect iron bells from forts and other places, then melt these bells and recast them into farm tools. Only then was the problem solved by driving a duck onto a perch [forcing someone to do something beyond their ability]. The quality of these newly cast farm tools could not be guaranteed. Breaking and chipping happened many times every day during use. Barely providing metal farm tools, plus the common people working like their lives depended on it to survive, the huge work of rush planting and rush harvesting was completed.

Chen Ke firmly believed that in 1907, when the disaster situation had eased, it was impossible to stimulate this kind of enthusiasm of the masses. To eat full, grain production must be increased. In actual investigation, Chen Ke discovered a thing that made him very speechless: Anhui actually only planted one season of grain every year now. New China solved the grain problem by planting two seasons of grain every year. In 1907, with neither deep plowing nor chemical fertilizer, planting two seasons of grain would indeed consume the fertility of the land greatly. This is a fact. But if two seasons of grain cannot be planted, the famine problem will always be a big problem. Any random natural disaster can cause large areas of grain failure, forming a famine.

This is no longer a problem that can be solved by changing production relations through revolution. To solve these problems, it must be through establishing a socialist system and carrying out industrial development; this kind of comprehensive overall progress can solve the problem. Stable quality farm tools must be provided on a large scale; otherwise, the vast base area cannot have any development.

There were no systematic "enemies of the old era" in the base area anymore. Landlords handed over land, the government was also eliminated, and the people began to gather under the new system established by the People's Party. Shouting "revolution to the end" at this time was no longer a manifestation of high revolutionary enthusiasm, but an excuse to shirk responsibility. Chen Ke didn't want to shirk responsibility, so he came personally to solve the problem of large-scale production of farm tools.

Qin Tongren had cooperated with Chen Ke; he knew Chen Ke was not a guy who talked on paper [armchair strategist]. After handing a few trial-produced sandwich steel farm tools to Chen Ke, Qin Tongren watched Chen Ke's satisfied expression and immediately poured a bucket of cold water. "Although this kind of steel farm tool is good, it is not conducive to large-scale production. The price is also too high. I oppose producing this kind of farm tool."

Originally, the technical personnel who trial-produced this kind of farm tool were also quite happy to see Chen Ke's very happy expression. Making the highest leader of the base area happy meant promotion and reward. Unexpectedly, Qin Tongren actually opposed it directly like this. Amidst annoyance, the technical personnel also felt that Qin Tongren was asking for trouble. At least in their experience, big officials of Chen Ke's level never liked to hear people oppose so straightforwardly. Only when at the end of their rope and having to change would these big officials truly consider the opinions of subordinates. When in high spirits and being negated, no big official had ever been able to accept opinions sincerely.

What surprised and disappointed these people was that Chen Ke was not only not angry, nor did he have any sense of frustration. Instead, he said with great interest: "Engineer Qin, then tell me about it."

"This kind of sandwich steel gave me a lot of inspiration. I thought about it for a while and felt that what we need is the wear resistance of steel and the toughness and wear resistance of wrought iron. In the current situation, we ourselves also lack steel, but we don't lack cast iron and wrought iron. We don't use the sandwich method, but pour cast iron on the outside of wrought iron. Cast iron is hard and wear-resistant. This way the production speed is also much faster."

As soon as he heard this suggestion, Chen Ke immediately clapped his hands and applauded. "This method is good! Do we have a furnace that can melt cast iron?"

"Yes!" Qin Tongren answered.

Chen Ke pressed: "Are there any trial-produced products?"

"No."

"When can you let me see the trial-produced products?"

"Tomorrow night."

Chen Ke answered excitedly, "Then I will come over tomorrow night."

Watching Chen Ke's receding back, those technical personnel with their own ideas were very disappointed. Although they didn't say it with their mouths, they couldn't help cursing in their hearts: "Is my hard work wasted like this? Fortunately you are the head of the base area; being refuted by Qin Tongren like this, you just accept it?"

According to these people's thinking, Qin Tongren gave Chen Ke "embarrassment" unceremoniously. Chen Ke should find fault no matter what; otherwise, how could he control Qin Tongren in the future? Moreover, Qin Tongren doing this was obviously slapping the faces of these technical personnel who worked hard to make sandwich steel farm tools according to Chen Ke's opinion. Was such hard work wasted in vain? One sentence from Qin Tongren was like these technical personnel did wrong. These dissatisfactions made those few technical personnel change their expressions.

Qin Tongren turned a blind eye to the dissatisfaction of his subordinates. This was not him pretending, but he really didn't think so much. Chen Ke talked to him about the issue of large-scale popularization of cheap and durable metal farm tools, and Qin Tongren fully supported Chen Ke's opinion. So Qin Tongren's train of thought was on how to choose the production method of new-style farm tools. As for the meaningless question of whether face was saved for anyone, it didn't exist in Qin Tongren's thinking at all. In Qin Tongren's view, Chen Ke provided an idea, everyone tried this idea, and then felt this idea was not very good and needed modification. So he fed back this opinion to Chen Ke and got the agreement of Chen Ke, a guy who knew the trade. In this process, there was no question of who was good or bad. There was no question of who had face or not; it was just a normal technical exchange. If Qin Tongren had the ability to read minds and heard the voices of his subordinates, he would only feel bored and disgusted.

After determining the direction, the technical department started working immediately. The crucible for melting cast iron began to heat up, and the wrought iron load-bearing parts of several farm tools began to be forged. When Chen Ke arrived here the next day, a dozen new-style farm tools had been made. Compared with sandwich steel, this kind of farm tool appeared much clumsier, and the surface was not so smooth. The few technical personnel dissatisfied with Qin Tongren happily saw Chen Ke frown. But Chen Ke said nothing; he began to try them out under the illumination of moonlight and torches outside the house. Compared with wooden farm tools, these farm tools could be said to be quite good.

The illumination of the torches was still not bright enough. Chen Ke almost lay on the ground to examine the effect carefully. Only then did he say: "Old Qin, sorry. I didn't think carefully; I should have come during the day."

As soon as these words came out, those few technical personnel were immediately disappointed or even desperate in their hearts. They felt Chen Ke was an incredible existence. A person in a high position didn't care about his status at all, didn't care about his image at all. Acting as rustic as ordinary common people. What kind of person is this?

"I will start preparing now. The day after tomorrow, send a batch of farm tools to the army for trial first."