Chrysanthemum morifolium is a perennial herbaceous plant, meaning that as long as it survives the first year and its roots are not dug up, new shoots will sprout from its roots every year thereafter.
What resources are most abundant in Langshan?
That must be these endless mountains!
Apart from the large trees that cannot be cut down, those hillsides are overgrown with weeds year after year. Rather than leaving them barren, it would be better to do what Jiang Xiaoman did: cultivate the land in sections, dig out small plots of land at intervals, and plant chrysanthemums or honeysuckle.
The roots of these two plants can also retain water and conserve soil, just like wildflowers and weeds in the mountains.
However, wildflowers and weeds cannot be sold for money, but honeysuckle and golden chrysanthemum, after being dried, can easily fetch tens or even hundreds of yuan per kilogram...
Just as Jiang Xiaoman said, Langshan is sparsely populated, and often one family occupies an entire hilltop. Even if they only planted golden chrysanthemums and honeysuckle all over the hilltop where their family lived, in just a few years, just picking the flowers from their own hilltop and selling them to Jiang Xiaoman's tea factory, they could earn just as much as they would working away from home!
Most importantly, this method doesn't take up farmland!
It doesn't interfere with grain planting at all. Moreover, planting honeysuckle, a vine that spreads very quickly, on slopes prone to soil erosion can help conserve water and soil and prevent landslides caused by soil erosion.
It can increase the income of local people's families and improve the environment. How come Jiang Xiaoman is so quick-witted?
However, while they admire such practices, journalists would never dare to write about them in the news before the higher authorities set the tone.
However, after careful consideration, they also felt that it wouldn't hurt to play these borderline games more often.
Protecting forest resources shouldn't mean letting ordinary people starve to death!
If everyone is gone, what's the point of leaving so many forests?
Jiang Xiaoman and his group's approach did initially involve reclaiming some mountain land. However, both Chrysanthemum morifolium and honeysuckle are perennial plants with strong reproductive capabilities. The reclaimed land will likely be covered by new seedlings within a few years.
At that time, the mountains and fields will be covered with golden chrysanthemums and fragrant honeysuckle, which will not only be beautiful but also help the local people get rid of poverty and become rich!
It would be too inhumane to cut off such a perfect, borderline situation with a single stroke.
The bolder veteran reporters quietly took note of this point and were already considering whether to write an internal report or commentary when they got back.
The great cause of rural revitalization is related to whether the pockets of hundreds of millions of farmers across the country can be filled. Just like the special economic zones of the past, local governments must show the courage to handle special cases in a special way!
The reporters took notes as they walked, because there was so much material to report that many of them had completely forgotten about trying to ride the coattails of the famous director and actor...
They forgot, but Jiang Xiaoman, who harbored ulterior motives, did not!
He's waiting to see official media and the entertainment industry interact to fully promote the reputation of their Langshan specialty products.
However, Jiang Xiaoman, as the villagers' recognized "wise man," quickly figured out how to subtly arrange for the interview team and the film crew to "bump into" each other.
"Dad! It's so cold today. I'll roast some sweet potatoes. Could you go and ask Director Liang and the others if they want to come and have some?"
In this season, after 3 pm, when the sun begins to set in the west, the temperature in the mountains starts to drop rapidly. At this time, if you roast a batch of soft, sweet, and fragrant sandy sweet potatoes, the aroma will be irresistible to those foodies!
In addition to sweet potatoes, he also roasted some local red-skinned potatoes, intending for the reporters in the press corps to try them, since this was considered an important part of the planned interviews.
Although journalists are clearly more interested in writing about beekeeping cooperatives and cash crop cultivation... red potatoes are important too!
Mr. Jiang really doesn't miss any opportunity to promote his flagship product.
They even wanted to display all the products in his store!
However, this isn't entirely impossible...
After roasting the sweet potatoes and potatoes, Jiang Xiaoman took a large teapot, took out some old tea cakes that she had kept for drinking, and brewed a pot of strong tea.
Then he went to the kitchen and took out some of the kimchi and pickles that had sold particularly well this year, and scooped out half a bowl of wild honey, intending to eat them with roasted potatoes later.
It's a pity that dried vegetables take a long time to make, otherwise he would have liked to make some local specialty dried wild vegetables for the reporters to try.
These reporters usually eat delicate Chinese tea and pastries or Western desserts when they attend official events or press conferences. This is the first time they've ever sat around a campfire eating potatoes.
The potatoes that Jiang Xiaoman roasted were dug up by Jiang Youliang about ten days in advance and placed in a cool, ventilated corner. After being left like this for a while, the surface of the fresh potatoes shrivels up and some of the moisture evaporates. When roasted, the flesh inside becomes softer, sweeter, and more glutinous. Outsiders are not used to it and sometimes even think they are eating spoiled potatoes.
Besides potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes grown in the sandy soil are also particularly fragrant and sweet. Langshan used to grow white-fleshed sweet potatoes, which are rich in starch and good for pig feed. They're also good for making sweet potato noodles, but they don't taste as good to humans as red-fleshed sweet potatoes.
A few years ago, when Jiang Xiaoman was in college, she accidentally ate this kind of sandy soil sweet potato in the cafeteria and was amazed by it. With the development of the Internet, Jiang Xiaoman bought some sandy soil sweet potato seed tubers online and brought them back to her hometown. In just a few years, the people in this area were influenced by her family and everyone started planting sandy soil sweet potatoes.
These long and thin sweet potatoes grown in sandy soil are perfect for roasting. They're delicious even when just eaten raw, not to mention that Jiang Xiaoman has prepared a variety of side dishes for everyone!
Everyone was enjoying their meal when they heard laughter and chatter coming from outside the courtyard.
It turned out to be the film crew returning from work.
These past two days, the crew has been filming scenes of ordinary people collectively planting a new variety of potatoes. Probably because they need to show the hardship of planting potatoes and the difficulty of starting a business, the wicked director always chooses to have them film during the hottest part of the day. The actors are so tired that they are panting and sweating profusely, and the effect is immediately apparent.
Knowing that their filming schedule had been adjusted, Jiang Xiaoman timed it perfectly. Sure enough, just as they started eating, the crew wrapped up and returned.
"Hey? Director Liang? Brother Jiang? What are you doing here?" The reporters were excellent actors, pretending that they had really bumped into the film crew during an interview.
Liang Songyun and Jiang Yuan were genuinely startled. After calming themselves down, they instinctively looked for the camera to see if it was some kind of prank show.
The result, of course, was no.
Jiang Xiaoman quickly stepped forward and explained to them that the interview team arranged by the Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department happened to come to the village for an interview. Unexpectedly, one team wanted to film on Jiang Xiaoman's contracted land, while the other team wanted to film his golden chrysanthemums. What a coincidence!
Liang Songyun: "..."
Really? Haha~~ I don't believe it!
Chapter 196
Director Liang may not believe it, but the chance encounter with the "Rural Revitalization" interview team visiting Langshan during filming was indeed a very rare publicity gimmick.
See? I told you their production team was right to choose Langshan as a filming location, didn't they?
Even the local provincial party committee arranged an interview team to interview and report on the rural revitalization of Langshan. Isn't this the most important evidence of the great victory that Teacher Wang Xian and his team achieved in the battle against poverty?
As expected of a successful figure in the entertainment industry, Director Liang quickly greeted the leaders of the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department with a smile and began shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries.
The reporters looked left and right, suddenly finding themselves in a dilemma.
Logically, they should have recorded the conversation between the provincial leaders and the production team leader first, since the leaders have a higher position and it's easier for it to make the front page.
But there's also the movie star Jiang Yuan over there!
This guy supposedly disappears every time he joins a film crew. Once, he was secretly photographed by paparazzi with a drone. This ruthless guy actually hired a shooting instructor with exceptional accuracy to stay on set every day, doing nothing but shooting down drones!
If they could get an exclusive interview with Jiang Yuan... the reporters couldn't help but get excited.
Before long, the group of reporters at the scene automatically split into two factions: mainstream official media such as daily newspapers did not have any pages to report on entertainment news at all, and simply followed the provincial leaders obediently; reporters from other evening newspapers or websites, after quickly consulting with their own leaders, flocked to the actors in the film crew.
It is said that in order to deeply recreate the scenes of the poverty alleviation campaign in Langshan, the production team specially invited a local villager to play an important supporting role in the film. The reporters immediately turned their attention to Lang Ying, who was quiet and seemed to be invisible to the side.
This is Director Leung's big production of the year! Countless newcomers in the entertainment industry would kill to get a minor role in the film, and they'd be willing to pay anyone, let alone get paid!
How did this rural mother, left behind by her family, get a role that could be considered important?
Hehe~ Of course, it was thanks to Lang Ying's excellent farming skills!
In the revised script, the character Lang Ying represents the vast majority of married women in rural areas today. They are hardworking and kind, but because they meet the wrong person or are burdened by their original families, they fall into the quagmire of fate.
If you had such a "misfortune card" in the past, you would have been destined to suffer your whole life without any hope.
The charm of film and television art lies in the exhilarating feeling of a comeback after a desperate rebirth. In the new script, the screenwriter gave the supporting character Lang Ying a special advantage, allowing the desperate Lang Ying to meet Wang Xian, a poverty alleviation cadre.
Under the careful guidance and encouragement of the kind and wise teacher Wang, the character played by Lang Ying regains her confidence and courage in life.
At first, she just did odd jobs at the cooperative, responsible for sweeping and cooking. Later, by chance, she joined forces with several other women in the village who were also unhappy in their marriages to contract mountain land to grow potatoes and open the village's first agricultural product processing plant.
From a divorced woman who didn't even own a homestead and could only live in a storeroom in a cooperative, she transformed herself into a locally well-known female entrepreneur...
If this segment didn't primarily focus on the story of teacher Wang Xian, director Liang would have been tempted to make a separate film about the character of Lang Ying.
This is even more inspiring and positive than the so-called "female-centric dramas" currently on the market, isn't it?
It's a pity that Lang Ying can only play a supporting role in this movie. Although she was on set for more than ten days, I heard from the crew that in the end only a few scenes will be cut, including the two scenes where she talks to the male lead.
However, the reporters were still shocked when they heard that she could receive 300,000 yuan in remuneration after only half a month on set.
Isn't Director Liang's film about rural revitalization? How come it has such a large budget?
I doubt many brands would sponsor this kind of patriotic film, right? It's not a good idea to include product placement...
"Hey! This kind of patriotic film, co-directed by several well-known directors, is so popular that even if ordinary brands wanted to sponsor it, they wouldn't be able to get a spot. Think about it, which organizations have contributed the most to our country's major undertaking of rural revitalization?"
"Local governments, State Grid, highway bureaus, railway bureaus, the four major state-owned banks, post office, telecommunications, PetroChina, Sinopec..."
Good heavens! They're all behemoths with money to burn!
No wonder they don't care much for brand sponsorships. Which brand dares to say that it makes more money than the State Grid and the Big Four banks?
Thinking about it this way, the reporters were immediately thrilled.
We should make more patriotic films like this! They can promote positive stories and attract sponsors without any worries!
The reporters secretly noted down the movie's name, planning to take their families to support it when it was released, since it was based on a poor mountain village in their province.
I was quite satisfied with getting an exclusive report from the film crew, and it was almost time.
Sun Zheyuan led the group down the mountain. Jiang Xiaoman called on several strong men from the film crew to help her. They took woven bags and dug up several large bags of fresh potatoes and sweet potatoes from her own field, so that the leaders and reporters could take them back and try them.
"These are all inexpensive local specialties, please don't mind them. We were short on time this time and didn't provide the best hospitality. Next time you have time to visit Langshan, I'll treat you to an authentic Langshan bench feast!"
"Great! Xiao Jiang, you two cooperatives must be run well! If you encounter any difficulties, go to the town or county government. If all else fails, give me a call and I'll help you coordinate and resolve the issue!"
"Our Langshan has had a tough time! In the past, the heroes of the old revolutionary base area defended peace with their blood. Now, it's our turn to help the people of the old revolutionary base area."
Jiang Xiaoman was deeply moved by the words of the provincial party committee leader, and Sun Zheyuan, who was standing next to him, was also filled with enthusiasm.
With this statement from their leader, many of their future project approvals will be much easier than they are now.
If conditions allowed, Sun Zheyuan would have loved to take out his calligraphy brush and Xuan paper and ask the leaders to inscribe a poem for Langshan or something...
After seeing off the large interview team, the crew of "The Road to Brilliance" also finished filming and left.
Liang Songyun greatly admires Lang Ying's talent for acting. This internationally renowned director actually took the initiative to add Lang Ying as a WeChat friend and enthusiastically expressed that if she enjoys acting, he would recommend her for suitable roles in the future.
As for whether this new film belongs to someone else or to Director Liang, only he himself knows.
Film production takes time, but news reporting is very time-sensitive.
The day after the press corps left Langshan, a deluge of reports appeared in the various media outlets that had been invited.
On the television, there were videos of Langshan's beekeeping cooperative, the tea cooperative factory under construction, and Jiang Xiaoman's agritainment business and express delivery station, which he described as a "leader in getting rich".
In the newspapers, reporters used enthusiastic words to describe the rural revitalization of old revolutionary base areas in the new era. The local people make full use of the abundant local forest resources to raise bees, pick tea, and grow flowers, creating wealth with their hardworking hands.
On websites and WeChat public accounts, reporters and editors were clearly more interested in the topic of "rural women becoming new film stars".