Autumn begins at the end of August.

Zhang Hongcheng finally got a real taste of autumn in the north.

That's not the cold wave in the south at the end of August, which only lasts for a week or two. It will still be scorching hot in September.

Autumn in Northeast China.

It was as if there was a naughty child holding a paintbrush and quickly painting everything on the earth golden.

Everyone must wear a sweater when going out to work in the morning and take it off when they sweat.

The Yunshan Farm, under the charge of the 39th Regiment, has a total of more than 3,000 acres of soybean fields, making it the smallest soybean planting area among all the regiments of the 4th Division.

As the autumn wind blew, the combine harvesters from the state-owned farm rumbled into the endless soybean fields.

Unlike the pitiful fifty acres of soybean fields of the Fifth Company, the Second Battalion alone has thousands of acres of soybeans to harvest.

The two combine harvesters did not stop for several days.

The educated youth in the fifth company were truly envious of the combine harvester.

The person operating the combine harvester was an educated youth from the third company, and he was so proud of himself.

But before they could brag for a few days, things took a turn.

Due to the nationwide shortage of supplies, the Corps decided that each division should carry out a consumption-reduction campaign during the harvest process.

The slogan of the Fourth Division was "Use a small sickle to defeat a big machine."

The use of combine harvesters was banned, and small sickles in the hands of the educated youth were used instead.

There are two reasons.

First, fuel consumption!

Second, using mechanical harvesting results in a grain loss of approximately five percent.

Of course the first reason is the essence.

Each farm group has a large number of livestock, which will eat up all the food "lost" in the fields, so it is not actually a waste.

The whole regiment was wailing, but the educated youth in the fifth company were secretly happy.

I told you to show off by driving a harvester!

But the educated youth didn't care what their superiors said. They still secretly drove the harvesters to the fields and drove until dark before returning to the company.

When the division headquarters investigated, they were shocked!

The bosses of each group go directly to the field to supervise!

Finally, everyone started waving their sickles.

The fifth company, which was watching the fun, soon suffered misfortune.

Battalion Headquarters: Your Fifth Company has finished harvesting and sowing, right? Well done, praise you!

Don’t be happy yet. Come on, take your sickle and go to the brother unit to help.

Seeing the educated youth from the fifth company carrying sickles weakly, the educated youth from the third company smiled happily.

Welcome, welcome, hahahahahaha.

They all find joy in suffering.

After swinging his sickle on the ground for ten consecutive days, Zhang Hongcheng was too tired to think about anything.

Every day when I come home, I just fall asleep and my whole body aches from exhaustion.

However, he found that the mosquito repellent Chu Miaohong gave him not only drove away mosquitoes, but was also good for his sleep.

On the tenth day, the fifth company finally had a half-day break.

Only then did Zhang Hongcheng have the energy to write a letter to complain to Fatty Hu in another time and space.

He originally thought that he would receive a letter from Fatty Hu to comfort him, but Fatty Hu anxiously told him two pieces of news, one good and one bad.

The good news is that the first snowstorm of the year will arrive in late September 1972, covering most of the more than 40,000 acres of soybeans in the Fourth Division with heavy snow.

The bad news is that the division headquarters will issue a call to "pull beans from the snow" and "grab food from the tiger's mouth", and let all the educated youth walk on a foot thick snow to dig beans!

Zhang Hongcheng's heart suddenly sank.

As the days slowly approach the end of September, it is another half day off.

Looking at the paper and pen in his hand, a bold idea suddenly appeared in his mind.

Even if you take a break during the busy farming season, you still have to write a thought report.

Squad leader Hao Aiguo set the tone for this report: not afraid of getting dirty or tired, and asking superiors to go to places where the autumn harvest is more difficult.

Of course, everyone knows that this is just slogans.

The most tiring part of the entire autumn harvest is going to the fields to harvest. Is there any place more difficult?

But Zhang Hongcheng knew that it really existed!

That means driving all the livestock in the group to the north of the farm to graze and grow fat.

They slept on the ground under the tent, didn't wash their hair for half a month, and the food and accommodation conditions were extremely poor. They slept in a tent at night and had to keep one eye open when sleeping.

If a sheep is missing, you have to look for it all over the world.

In previous years, the grazing tasks of each regiment and battalion were determined by drawing lots.

The educated youth in the squad or platoon whose hands were picked would curse the squad leader for his bad luck.

Hao Aiguo lowered his head and thought deeply.

He couldn't remember when he had written a petition to the battalion headquarters.

But the note I got back was clearly in my own handwriting!

The praise from the battalion headquarters has been passed down to the company, and the company commander and instructor both think highly of him.

So, for some unknown reason, Class 4 had to go and herd sheep.

Except for Zeng Jianjun, who knew the real hardships of herding and had a sad face, the other newcomers were quite curious.

Living in a tent and herding sheep sounds great!

But after two days of pastoral life, the whole class began to stare at Hao Aiguo with resentful eyes.

We get up early in the morning to count the livestock, and every once in a while we have to bring back those that are disobedient and running around.

This is a grassland area, and if you are not careful, the cattle and sheep can run far away.

After just one day, everyone in the class had blisters on their feet.

At night, we have to take care of the livestock and take turns sleeping.

There is no water for washing in the morning, and all drinking water must be strictly controlled.

Because the cattle and sheep are constantly on the move, they have very little time to light fires, cook, and boil water every day.

On the fifth day of grazing, everyone looked up at the sky in surprise, and Zhang Hongcheng finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Heavy snow fell from the sky like goose feathers.

They had to drive the cattle and sheep back.

Class 4 also breathed a sigh of relief.

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!