"But many scholars have changed their minds. They believe that as long as we follow the steps in the model, we can rapidly create a forest covering 100,000 square kilometers. These forests could overturn the old patterns and directly alter the climate across a vast area!"
"Then, without relying on artificial irrigation—just natural rainfall and a small number of automatic pumps drawing and spraying groundwater—most of the forests could survive permanently. In the end... we could create an oasis in the Great Northwest equal in area to Zhejiang Province!"
Song He looked startled as he flipped through the documents in his hands. "What a crazy plan! Planting trees across an area the size of an entire province in one go? How many trees would that take?"
"Not that many. Twenty billion decent-sized trees should be enough," General Wang said. "But there's one requirement: those twenty billion trees must be planted within three to five years. Only then can a stable microclimate form, allowing the forests to influence one another and create a virtuous cycle. If it takes too long, it will exceed the model's predictive capabilities."
"That means planting five billion decent-sized trees a year, or 1.37 million trees a day. And besides planting trees, we'd have to apply pesticides, water them, plant sandbreak shrubs and grass, introduce small animals at designated points to build an ecosystem, construct transportation and water-supply networks, and deliver daily supplies, food, and drinking water to the workers on the front lines... Once you add up all the odds and ends, fewer than three million people couldn't handle this project!" Song He exclaimed.
"More or less!" General Wang nodded. "You calculated that quickly. We came up with three million as well. With three million people working on the project, each person would have to plant