The next morning, before dawn, the family compound became bustling.

The military wives did not cook this morning. They brought some dry food and ate it while walking. They all went out early in the morning, carrying hoes and shovels.

They had been working for half an hour when the talents from the art troupe finally arrived, all of them forcing smiles.

Seeing that they had arrived but didn't start working, all standing by the field idling away, Jiang Yaping said loudly, "Deputy Director Li, Political Commissar Zhao has already told us that the art troupe will be here to help with the spring plowing, and they've also marked out areas for everyone."

"There are a total of fifty acres of land here. The families of our first troupe are responsible for this part, the second troupe is next door, the third troupe is responsible for the ten acres to the east, and the twenty acres to the south belong to the art troupe. We must complete the tillage within three days."

"There's a flag erected in the fields to the south. Hurry and get everyone to work."

"The soil is being tilled ahead. You don't need anyone's guidance. Just till the soil first. I'll come back and teach them how to do it when it's time to plant seeds and apply fertilizer."

Deputy Head Li pulled his face, his smile a bit forced: "Okay, I'll take them over to till the soil first, and then I'll trouble my sister-in-law to give them some guidance."

"We belong to the same army and are all one family. It is only natural for us to help each other and be united and friendly. This time, the military wives are very grateful to the art troupe for its great help." Jiang Yaping shouted loudly.

Gong Linglong looked back at the people in the art troupe and saw that Meng Xiaoying's face was particularly gloomy, and the expressions of the others were as ugly as if they had eaten a dead fly. She looked at Yang Xiaolan next to her and laughed hard.

There were fifty acres of land in total, and the art troupe took twenty acres. The pressure on the military families was suddenly reduced, and they all started working with great enthusiasm, just wanting to finish the work quickly and go home to rest.

"Sister Linglong is really a good worker."

Wang Yumiao was the slowest worker at farm work among all the family members. She worked slowly but carefully. In addition, she was carrying a baby on her back, and she had to take care of the baby's diaper, feed the baby, and coax him, so she fell far behind.

Gong Linglong didn't have to take care of the children and had no other messy things to do. She just worked hard with a hoe and left everyone else far behind.

Wang Yumiao glanced at the fields to the south and saw that the people from the art troupe were slacking off. Even with so many people working together, they couldn't turn over as much ground as Gong Linglong alone. He chuckled and said, "They definitely won't be able to finish the work in three days."

"If they can't finish the work, they can continue. They have to finish the work they are assigned. If they delay planting and fertilizing, they will be the ones to be scolded."

Yu Ximei has been paying attention to the progress in the south. At the rate they are working, they will definitely be scolded today. Her husband told her that a leader will come to inspect in the afternoon, but she will not remind the people in the art troupe to work more actively and seriously.

The family members in their group were not the kind of people who would be lazy or slacking off. No one urged or disliked Wang Yumiao, who worked slowly. It was not that she was deliberately slacking off, but she had no choice but to take care of her children.

We have all been through it and know very well that raising children involves many trivial matters, so everyone tacitly helps out with more work.

With Gong Linglong, a skilled worker, around, the First Troupe finished their task early today and went home before eleven o'clock. Not only were the people in the art troupe dumbfounded, even the wives of the soldiers from the Second and Third Troupes were stimulated to speed up their work.

Meng Xiaoying saw from afar that the group had finished work and Gong Linglong was leading the way home with a hoe on her shoulder. All the resentment and depression in her heart turned into reality.

This was her first time doing farm work and her first time touching a hoe. Thinking about how these country bumpkins and farm women had tricked her into digging the soil and planting crops, and how she had five or six blisters on her hands in just one morning, she was so angry that her face turned blue and her whole body was filled with resentment.

Not only was she full of resentment, but everyone else was too, but they didn't dare show it.

Yesterday they were still waiting in the regiment for the military wives to make a fool of themselves in the art performance a month later. When Captain Xue informed them to cooperate with the spring plowing this morning, everyone was dumbfounded.

They didn't want to do farm work, but this was an order from above and the entire art troupe had to participate, so they had to stop working and honestly get hoes and tools to dig the soil.

At this time, they all felt depressed and uncomfortable as if they had eaten a dead fly. Before they could see the embarrassing appearance of the military wives, it was their turn to be laughed at.

"Hurry up and work quickly."

Deputy Regiment Commander Li also personally went to dig the soil. He led five or six male comrades to be responsible for a piece of land, and their work speed was quite acceptable.

He took some time out to check on the progress of the female comrades. He saw that they worked slowly, digging twice and resting for two or three minutes. After an entire morning, they had not done as much as the pregnant military wives. He immediately got angry.

"Haven't any of you eaten yet?"

"Everyone else has finished work and gone home, and you've only done so little. At this rate, how are you going to finish the task in three days?"

"If the spring plowing task cannot be completed on time, affecting subsequent sowing, fertilizing and harvesting, can you afford the consequences?"

Being scolded by the leader, everyone felt aggrieved. One of the female comrades said delicately, "Deputy Captain Li, we have never done farm work before. It's so tiring. Our hands are all blistered."

"You haven't done it before, so you think I have. You are tired, but I am not."

Deputy Captain Li was actually very tired. After working for a whole morning, his hands were numb and sore.

Thinking that they had brought this mission upon themselves, he said with a stern face, "If you had just been rehearsing and doing your job well in the troupe, not meddling in other people's affairs or doing anything behind their backs, was it really necessary for you to come here and suffer today?"

His words offended some people. Although he did not name anyone, everyone knew that he was talking about Meng Xiaoying.

This social performance with the military wives was not initiated by Meng Xiaoying, but everyone knew that it was her who instigated it behind the scenes. It was proposed by someone who had a good relationship with her and supported her, so she was inextricably linked to it.

Deputy Director Li glanced at Meng Xiaoying calmly. Seeing that she was keeping her head down and not talking or working, his tone became even more serious. "You must complete one-third of the task today. If you don't, you have to work overtime tonight to finish it. You must plow these twenty acres of land within three days. You must not bring shame to the art troupe."

One third of the task was to complete seven acres of land. There were nearly twenty of them, and they only worked on two acres at most in the morning.

We are still far from completing the task.

Thinking about having to work overtime tonight, one of them started crying out of grievance.

A man nearby who had a bad temper and didn't get along with them couldn't help but scold them, "Why are you crying? You're shooting yourself in the foot. How dare you cry? We were inexplicably implicated by you and we didn't cry."

After saying that, she ran over to find the leader and said, "Deputy Captain Li, I have a suggestion. Could you divide the tasks so that we can each do our own work in a small team?"

"Okay, I'll divide it now."

Deputy Head Li accepted her suggestion and immediately came over with a hoe and divided the seven acres of land to be completed today into equal parts.

Finally, Meng Xiaoying and Xu Wei, and two teams with whom they had the best relationship, completed the least amount of work in the morning. They were still working overtime in the fields at noon and did not go back to the canteen for lunch. They filled their stomachs with steamed buns soaked in boiling water.