Hunan Province, Xingcheng, July 20, 1975.
"I'm so tired." A girl in her early teens looked around and when she saw that no one noticed her, she sat down in the shade of a tree. The sunlight shone through the sparse corn leaves, sprinkling on her sweaty forehead, sparkling with crystal light.
"Don't just sit there and do nothing. The women's team leader has looked over here several times. If you take any more time, she'll come over and scold you.
"Hold down and weed slowly, take your time, or if you're having trouble, just say you have a stomachache and need to go to the bathroom a few more times to rest. Just don't just sit there and do nothing." An elderly woman with half-white hair and a wrinkled face whispered a reminder, while she expertly pulled the weeds beside her with her hands. Her movements were swift and powerful, and she was obviously a good farm worker.
"I understand, Mom." Zhang Qiurui looked at the young woman in front of her, feeling mixed emotions.
This "mom" is not her original mother!
She was originally a 996 office worker. It seemed like she took a nap and traveled back to 1975. She is now eleven years old.
She was originally the older daughter of the family, and was loved very much by her parents and brothers.
A sudden cold developed into pneumonia and caused death.
After she traveled through time and space and recuperated for seven days, she was pulled into the production team to work and earn work points.
During the past half month, Zhang Qiurui had suffered all the hardships of the legendary era.
It's not just about getting up early and working late, the key is that she doesn't have enough to eat and has no oil in her stomach. She eats porridge for three meals a day, and two plates of pickles are considered good. If she gets a piece of dried sweet potato that day, it would be a great joy. She has never eaten a dry meal until now.
The reason is that there was a drought in Xiaoxiang Province last year, and not much grain was harvested last year, so they are waiting for this year's harvest.
There are many families in their Zhangli Village production team who are in the same situation as them. Those who live worse off than them now have no food to eat.
"Report to Captain Zhou, I need to go to the toilet." In that era, if people wanted to go to the toilet during work in a group, they had to report to the team leader. Captain Zhou was the women's team leader of their production team, responsible for managing the daily work and daily chores of the women in the team.
"Well! Go early and come back early." Zhou Zhengxiang glanced at the little girl of the Zhang family, nodded, and didn't say much.
There were quite a few children working in the cornfield. As long as they didn't go too far, Zhou Zhengxiang would turn a blind eye. After all, every family in the production team had children, so it was reasonable for them to find an excuse to sneak out to get some fresh air and rest.
........。
"Oh no! The Zhu Village Production Brigade across the street is going to cut off the water to the reservoir." At this time, an angry voice sounded in the Zhangli Village Production Brigade.
Almost all the members of the Zhangli Village Brigade who were working there heard it and became angry.
"What? How dare they?"
"Let's go, grab our weapons, and go fuck the Zhu Family Production Team."
The members of the Zhangli Village Production Team who were originally working, regardless of gender, picked up their tools and headed towards the reservoir.
Agriculture in this era was not like agriculture in later generations. Most of the crops were grown in paddy fields, and most people relied on water for their livelihood.
If the rice in the paddy fields lacks water, the yield will definitely drop sharply, which is a major issue that affects the livelihood of the entire production team for the year.
Especially after last year's disaster, each household had very little food to begin with, and now every household is short of food. They are just waiting for this year's new food to come in to survive the winter. If there is a problem with food again this year, life will be really unbearable, and people may even starve to death.
Xu Qunyi, the team leader of Zhangli Village, took the production team cadres, men and women of Zhangli Village Production Team to "reason with them".
Each of them was holding a hoe, a shovel, a shoulder pole, etc. The group of people were huge and looked very imposing.
When we arrived at the reservoir, we saw that the Zhujia Production Brigade had already occupied the reservoir.
The two production teams immediately started arguing, talking back and forth, their faces red with anger. If the captains of the two teams had not stopped them, they would have probably started fighting the next moment.
There has been little rain this year, and the water in the reservoir is not enough to irrigate the paddy fields of the two production teams. If there is less water, the rice yield per acre of paddy field may be reduced by dozens of kilograms.
Dozens of kilograms of grain and dozens or even hundreds of acres of land added together is not a small amount.
In this era, food is a matter of life and death, so naturally neither production team wanted to give it up.
"Secretary Li is here." At this time, someone shouted, and the members of the two production teams immediately made way to let Secretary Li in.
When the commune learned that the Zhangli Village Production Team and the Zhu Village Production Team had a quarrel over the release of water, the commune did not dare to delay and immediately sent Secretary Li to mediate.
Because in the past few years, there were also production teams fighting over water release, and there were even deaths. This time the commune was really scared and did not dare to delay, so they rushed over immediately. Secretary Li was afraid that he could not shock the situation, so he brought a dozen police officers with him.
"I already know what's going on. It's impossible to cut off the water supply to the reservoir and prevent any of your production teams from releasing water.
I have a plan. I want to let your two production teams compete. The winning production team will release water one day earlier, and the next day, you will release water from the reservoir together.
"Two team leaders, what do you think?" Secretary Li was relieved to see that the two production teams did not fight. On the way here, he had already thought about how to solve the problem of the two production teams releasing water from the reservoir.
The two captains looked at each other, obviously surprised by this sudden proposal of a competition.
"How do we compete? Fight?" someone asked immediately.
"Armed fighting won't work, so let's have a literary fight. Three people from each of your two teams will recite quotations from the imperial collection. The production team that recites the most will win the competition and will be given priority for one day of water supply, provided that the educated youth are not allowed to come. What do you think?" Secretary Li smiled slightly, with a glint of wisdom in his eyes. Using the power of culture to resolve contradictions is far more effective and far-reaching than simple and crude armed conflict.
"Let's do it." Zhu Fucai, the team leader of the Zhucun Production Team, was the first to agree, with a hint of joy on his face.
"Captain Xu, what do you think?" When Secretary Li saw that the captain of the Zhucun production team agreed, he knew that the matter was basically settled.
"Okay, let's do it." Xu Qunyi saw Zhu Fucai agree so readily with a happy expression on his face. He felt something was wrong, but Secretary Li was still waiting for his reply, so Xu Qunyi had no choice but to nod and agree. Although he was a little unwilling in his heart, facing such a solution, he could not find a better reason to refute.
After all, using this method to decide the order of water release avoids direct conflicts.
"Okay, since both captains have no objection, then we'll make it this way. The match will be held in three days. Right here at the reservoir, and we'll start releasing water on the day the winner is decided." Secretary Li smiled with satisfaction when he saw that both parties had reached a consensus.
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