Yang Zhenghui of Tianzhu County, Guizhou, starts a business with one leg and realizes his dream of prosperity
Yang Zhenghui (right) has a bumper harvest of grapes.
Yang Zhenghui is picking grapes.
He gave up a high salary to return home and start a business, but suffered an accident and had his left foot amputated. He does not complain, does not lose heart, and stands firm in adversity. Now, he can not only walk normally, but also has his own business. As life gets better and better, he leads the villagers onto the road to prosperity through entrepreneurship.
He is Yang Zhenghui, a disabled man from Pingzhai Village, Lantian Town, Tianzhu County, Qiandongnan Prefecture, just over 40 years old this year. A few days ago, this writer came to Pingzhai Village, where he was picking grapes in the vineyard to sell. The scorching sun shone on him, and his dark face was covered with sweat and smiles:
“I grow two varieties, Meirenzhi and Red Globe, 15 mu in total, and this year's income is nearly 100,000 yuan. At the end of the year I will set up a cooperative, and grow grapes together with the villagers so we can all get rich. My life will also move from winter into spring……”
Many ups and downs on the road to entrepreneurship
Amid his joy, Yang Zhenghui's gaze became distant: in earlier years, he and his wife Yang Xiaohong went out to Zhejiang to work. Step by step, the couple went from workers to team leaders, and then to managers. Their combined monthly wages reached more than 10,000 yuan. After more than ten years, they had saved up a certain amount and always wanted to return home to start a business. When they visited small villages near the factory in their spare time, they saw local bosses growing Meiren grapes and strawberries and making money, so they went to learn growing techniques from them.
In the first month of 2013, Yang Zhenghui and Yang Xiaohong returned home, invested more than 100,000 yuan, and began growing seven mu of grapes, built two greenhouses, and cultivated strawberry seedlings. While studying techniques, they carefully raised seedlings, transplanted them, covered them with film, planted the seedlings, built trellises, and pruned branches. After a year of painstaking cultivation, in early 2014, the strawberries in the two trial greenhouses were harvested. They were fragrant and sweet, and the surrounding villagers came one after another to buy them, with demand exceeding supply.
However, just when they were overjoyed that their labor had begun to bear fruit, disaster struck.
“It was also because he was strong, otherwise he might have lost his life.” Speaking of that scene from the past, his wife Yang Xiaohong still felt frightened.
On the 13th day of the second lunar month in 2014, in order to cultivate strawberry seedlings, Yang Zhenghui used a tiller to plow the field. Unfortunately, his left foot and trouser leg were caught in the plow. Yang Zhenghui used all his strength to turn off the tiller. Afterward he sat slumped on the ground, crying for help. When his wife, not far away, arrived, there was already a large pool of blood in the field. His left foot had been severed from the ankle, and only bone stripped of flesh remained on the lower leg. It was shocking and terrifying. He was rushed to Tianzhu County People's Hospital for emergency treatment, where the doctor said amputation was needed. He was unwilling to accept it and went from place to place to Huaihua 535 Hospital, but the diagnosis was the same: amputation was necessary, otherwise the entire leg would be ruined. Helpless, Yang Zhenghui's left foot was amputated from the calf, and he became a level-three disabled person.
Starting a business with one leg to realize the “dream of prosperity”
After the amputation, Yang Zhenghui was in great pain: with one foot gone, I will have to live on crutches from now on. What about the business I had just started? What about my child's schooling? All at once, his mood fell to rock bottom. His wife stayed by his side, talking about their son and telling amusing stories, encouraging him to be strong. Under his wife's guidance, Yang Zhenghui swept away his gloom and resolved to stand up again, to continue his unfinished business, and to create a better future for his wife and child. Three months later, he went to Guiyang to have a prosthetic fitted.
When he first began walking with the prosthesis, his foot hurt sharply. Even with crutches, he had to stop and rest after only a few steps. But Yang Zhenghui did not lose heart. Five minutes, twenty minutes, one hour…… he gradually extended his practice time. Every day after practice, blisters would form where his foot met the prosthesis, and each time they appeared in a different place. The blisters faded and returned, returned and faded…… This cycle continued. After more than half a year, calluses had formed on Yang Zhenghui's left foot, blisters no longer appeared, and walking became smoother and smoother. “Last year I went to learn to drive. Until the moment the license was issued, only one instructor knew that my left foot was a prosthetic.” Yang Zhenghui said proudly.
In daily life, Yang Zhenghui tried as much as possible not to let others treat him as a disabled person, and the same was true in business. Even though his body was inconvenient, he did not wait, rely on others, or ask for handouts. After resting well, he quickly threw himself into managing the farm. He hired people to rebuild the greenhouses. His wife took on the heavy physical work, while he did lighter work in the fields such as pruning and weeding. At the very beginning, after working for only about ten minutes, he had to sit down and rest, take off the prosthesis, let his foot breathe, and massage it. Now he can keep working for one or two hours before stopping to rest for a while. Through the efforts of the couple, this year the grape vines were full of fruit and produced a bumper harvest.
With only one leg and still so much drive, the farmers in the same village were all inspired by Yang Zhenghui's spirit and followed him in taking up planting. In 2015, Yang Zhenghui's cousin Yang Zhengyuan, under his encouragement, planted 8 mu of Meiren grapes and grapes. He helped order seedlings and taught planting and management techniques hand by hand. This year Yang Zhengyuan's income was nearly 50,000 yuan. In early 2016, Zhang Meichun, the village committee director of the village, approached Yang Zhenghui and proposed that he take the lead in establishing a cooperative, plant 100 mu of grapes, and lead the villagers to prosperity together.
“At present, more than 10 households are willing to join our cooperative. It is expected that in September this year we will begin plowing the land and applying fertilizer, in November we will plant seedlings, and in the first month of next year we will cover the greenhouses……”
When mentioning the cooperative plan, Yang Zhenghui spoke eloquently: “I lost one foot, but I still have one foot. I will use the one I have left to lead the villagers in starting businesses together.”