Chapter 76 Second Update: First Brick Factory
However, for Ye Yu, building a brick kiln was just a matter of trying a few more times. At worst, he could go to the county town to steal some lessons.
What makes it even more difficult is that building this brick kiln also requires costs. Simply put, you still need to prepare some earthen bricks, stones and iron wire, and there will be subsequent losses such as coal or firewood. It seems a bit not worth building a brick kiln just to build a school.
Han Jing emphasized:
“There is no brick factory in Pingquan Town.”
They in Wangjiagou can build the first brick factory in Pingquan Commune to supply bricks to Pingquan Town and various production teams.
Ye Yu:
“It’s not impossible.”
A careful calculation shows that in addition to the initial consumption of bricks, stones and steel wire, the later consumption is mainly on manpower, soil and firewood, which are worthless nowadays and even cheaper than the diesel cost of a hand tractor.
After hearing Ye Yu's answer, Han Jing and Xu Fei jumped up from their seats as if they had received some divine command, clapped their hands in celebration, and then ran towards the captain's house like the wind.
On the way, the two met other villagers and greeted them loudly: "Hello, Uncle Wang Jiu, good morning, Grandma Xiaohua! Good morning, Aunt Liu!"
"Good morning, too..." The villagers hadn't finished their reply when the two educated youth disappeared. They couldn't help but sigh, "Young people are so impetuous!"
There were also children following behind the two of them, believing that the educated youth were having fun.
What surprised the children in the mountains a little was that in the past it was easy for them to catch up with the educated youth except Ye Yu, but now it is not possible. Their physical strength is getting better and better, and they are becoming more familiar with the ups and downs of the mountain roads.
Especially Han Jing, who was able to leave all the mountain kids behind during the Spring Festival.
Arriving at the captain's house, he waved to He Saozi in the yard without even taking a breath: "Good morning, He Saozi, is the captain home?"
Sister He was interacting more and more with the educated youth, and was no stranger to them. She looked at Hua Feifei, Han Jing, and Xu Fei as if they were her own brothers, with a smile full of intimacy in her eyes. She smiled and replied, "I'm here, I'm here, I just came back from the fields."
Then, he shouted to the room: "Dad, A Jing and A Fei are here to see you!"
Captain Wang walked out of the house. The edges of his rubber boots were covered in mud and the waterproof layer was wet. It seemed that he had really come back from the field. He must have gone to inspect the thickness of the snow. He relied on the weather for his livelihood and did not dare to take the spring, summer, autumn and winter seasons lightly.
He casually asked, "Have you eaten yet? I have two roasted corns here."
"I ate it, I ate it."
At this time, Xu Fei and seven or eight mountain kids also arrived, slightly out of breath.
The kids from the mountains had no idea why they came to the captain's house. In fact, they were a little afraid of the captain. When Mrs. He asked, they dispersed in a swarm, as if they were just there to run.
Han Jing and Xu Fei didn't care about them and told the team leader about the brick kiln.
Captain Wang was surprised again: "Ye Yu can do this?"
"Is there anything Ye Yu can't do?" asked Mrs. He, who was listening in.
Others:
“…”
Indeed, whether it is eating, playing, working in the fields, or hunting, there is nothing Ye Yu cannot do. He is full of skills and knows a lot. He doesn't talk much, but when he occasionally blurts out a word, it always makes people feel unclear.
Mrs. He and Captain Wang have two children, the eldest son is 10 years old, and the youngest daughter will be 6 years old after the New Year. The couple heard that Ye Yu was teaching the children martial arts this winter, so they pulled their eldest son's ear and asked him to listen to his educated youth brothers and sisters.
Unfortunately, his son was an unstable person and he couldn't see how important this was to his future. In addition, the captain had been away in the army for too long and felt he owed the child. He couldn't bear to force the child, so he had to give up.
My daughter is still young, and although she speaks and acts a little slowly, she is very careful and patient, and can concentrate well. She might be a good talent.
Back to the point, Captain Wang asked the key question: "How much does it cost to build a brick kiln?"
Han Jing and Xu Fei:
"...I don't know. I didn't ask."
Han Jing then suggested that he could post it. Xu Fei said that he had written a lot of manuscripts during this Spring Festival.
"You put up everything! Tractors, brick kilns, and next time you'll even put up airplanes and cannons!" The team leader stared at the two men with disapproval. After scolding them for ten minutes, he replied, "As long as the bricks are smaller than what we used to build the classroom, our production team can afford it. If it's more, we need a vote by the whole team."
Han Jing scratched his head and smiled foolishly.
The team leader was also a decisive person. After confirming that this was feasible, he asked Han Jing and Xu Fei to go back and find Ye Yu without delay. He went to inform other village cadres and team members to hold another meeting in the village today.
Soon, many people gathered in the village, just like yesterday.
This kind of meeting was not that formal. The stools were all brought from home, and people also brought melon seeds and peanuts. It was cold in winter, so even during the day, they still needed to light a bonfire to keep out the cold and keep warm.
Many villagers were still reminiscing about last night’s bonfire party, thinking they were here to have fun today as well. They were discussing it animatedly, and the children were even thinking about what to play today.
Until the team leader asked everyone to be quiet and talked about building a brick kiln in the village.
Isn't this a game?
What? Brick kiln.
Everyone looked at Ye Yu, who was calmly eating melon seeds, and Han Jing and Xu Fei, who were trying to create an atmosphere beside her.
If the educated youth had just arrived in the countryside, the villagers would definitely be skeptical or opposed to their suggestions, but now, the supporters had an absolute upper hand, and no one doubted that Ye Yu would not do it, even though Ye Yu said she was only 80% sure.
Many people sighed:
"As expected of an educated youth, you know a lot."
They were even more supportive of building a primary school in the village. The educated youth in their village were all capable, and their children would benefit greatly if they could learn a few tricks.
Since the matter had been confirmed, the next day, the team leader, the village accountant, Han Jing, and Xu Fei went to the town together. Private business was no longer allowed, and everything had to be public or nationalized. They needed to inform the commune in advance before building a brick kiln.
Xu Fei was well prepared. At the beginning of the conversation, he spread out two newspapers and pointed to a section that was about a news report about a certain production team in the south that was praised by the higher authorities for building a small sanitary incense factory.
This shows that the production team is in line with the red mainstream and is also advocated by the country. However, it is different from the Great Leap Forward period. Now they emphasize being down-to-earth, speaking one thing and saying two things, and resolutely rejecting the style of exaggeration.
Captain Wang knew the production team better, so he was able to put things into practice better than Xu Di and his team.
"Small factories like ours are fundamentally different from urban factories in terms of their systems. Our employees are farmers, not factory workers, and they do part-time work, with extra work points instead of wages. Our production capacity belongs to the collective output of the production team, and at the end of the year, it is included in the villagers' annual income like other income."
He even took out the plan that Ye Yu had proposed. Although it was simple, it was obvious that it had been thought through from many aspects, rather than just an impulsive suggestion.
The commune president was excited after hearing this. It was not that their town had not thought about building a brick factory, but it had not been built due to technical reasons and secondly because the demand for bricks in a town was not that great, and their competitiveness was far less than that of the brick factories in the county. However, if it was a small factory of the production team, there would be no problem, and it would not be held back by workers' salaries.
"We educated youth went to the countryside to engage in construction."
Han Jing created another passionate article on the spur of the moment, which contained a lot of slogans. After a year, his vocabulary was greatly expanded.
Everything was ready, so how could the commune president not agree? He promised to help apply to the higher authorities.
While the team leader was busy with the application form, the village accountant contacted the county brick factory staff to reduce the number of bricks ordered and purchase some other items.
There was no need for Han Jing and Xu Fei to stay, so they left the commune and went to the post office. Xu Fei sent out more manuscripts than before, some of which were about the hand tractor entering the village the day before yesterday.
Xu Fei: "Hua Feifei loves the hustle and bustle. She must have regretted not coming the night before. If she had been there, she might have written about the evening's bustle even better."
"Your writing is pretty good, too. I think I can write well too. Copy a few more copies and submit them. When she comes back, we can play together next time." Han Jing also submitted an article and copied some of it. He couldn't help but sigh, "I didn't expect that Ye Yu is the most playful among us."
"Yes, yes, yes. Actually, Ye Yu seems to be better at playing with children and is more patient with them."
“Is there…”
Hua Feifei, who was being talked about, had already set off from Jibei Railway Station and arrived in Pingquan Town at noon. When she got off the minibus with her bags, she saw the two people waiting for her.
Han Jing and Xu Fei stepped forward to help carry the luggage.
"Where's Ye Yu?" Hua Feifei looked around and said to herself without waiting for Han Jing and Xu Fei to reply, "I knew she didn't come. Humph, thank goodness I brought her a lot of local specialties, White Rabbit milk candy, Gaoqiao pancakes, pear paste, candied crab shells, yellow duck, smoked fish, and black sesame paste. I also got more and better salted fish than her second sister. Some of them were made by my grandmother and mother!"
Although Hua Feifei acts arrogant from time to time in front of Ye Yu, when she returns home, she talks about Ye Yu all the time, and she even talks about her grandparents and parents so much that they are exhausted. They did not expect that their daughter could adapt to the rural environment so well.
Han Jing wondered why she wanted to compete with Ye Yu's second sister. Just as he opened his mouth to ask, he was stepped back by Xu Fei.
Hua Feifei said again that since Ye Yu was not coming, she would not give her such things, so they should just split them equally.
But although she said this, she still went to the supply and marketing cooperative and state-owned restaurant with Han Jing and Xu Fei to help Ye Yu buy what she wanted, and also provided seasoning tickets, flour tickets, and non-staple food tickets.
Well, this is probably what Ye Yu calls "saying one thing but doing another" -
“Ouch!”
Han Jing felt his feet were swollen from being stepped on. What could Xu Fei say? He both admired and despised Han Jing's stubbornness in banging his head against the wall. He comforted him by saying, "You deserve it."
Han Jing:
“…”
Isn't his mouth faster than his brain?
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