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"Ding ding dang dang..." A mule with bells on its head, dragging a cart behind it, walked slowly on the wide and uneven dirt road.
There were three people sitting in the car, one was an old Uighur man wearing a sheepskin jacket and an almond flower hat, and two women wearing simple clothes with scarves on their heads that covered most of their faces.
One of the women, holding a child in her arms, asked, "Big sister, do you think covering your face like this is really useful? Won't it get tanned?"
"It will definitely be useful, Sister Zhao." Yang Qiujin held onto the bicycle frame with one hand to steady her shaking body, and used the other hand to cover the gauze scarf to prevent it from being blown away by the wind.
Yesterday, Zhao Erfeng told her that a military corps fifty miles away was recruiting ordinary workers. The wages were low, but the labor was hard. Men were used as iron men and women were used as men. They had to reclaim wasteland and do farm work. It was very hard work. He asked her if she was willing to go, and she said yes without hesitation.
Yang Qiujin was born in the countryside and worked in the fields from childhood to adulthood. Although she later married Chen Shengqing, the production team made her an accountant for a few years in order to take care of the military families and because she had a junior high school education. She did not do much farm work, but in her eyes, labor was the most glorious and there was no distinction between high and low jobs.
She had heard of the Construction Corps a long time ago. It was a special unit in the early years with a division company as its organizational unit, composed of soldiers from the army to guard the border and reclaim wasteland. They were soldiers in wartime and farmers in leisure time. Not only did they have to engage in planting and breeding, they also had to be prepared for war at any time and guard the border.
Today, these corps are more like farmers, as they have no military organization or military expenditures. Instead, they have become large state-owned enterprise farms that must continuously reclaim wasteland for planting, achieve production targets, and pay grain taxes to the local government in order to complete their mission.
However, the border areas are vast and sparsely populated, and to complete the excess production tasks, it is necessary to expand manpower. This is one of the reasons why the country's top leaders called on young intellectuals to go to the border areas to provide support.
In recent years, various military corps have gradually recruited a large number of employees, but they still cannot meet the production task requirements. One reason is that the soil is not fertile enough, and without a large number of advanced planting equipment and fertilizers, they cannot grow excessive amounts of grain products.
Another reason is that the various types of seeds are single and old, and the process of developing new crops is relatively slow. Without good seeds for experimental farming, even if countless acres of land are cultivated, the yield per acre will never keep up.
In addition, starting last year, educated youth were forced to go to the countryside. After the rise of the Little Red Soldiers, movements were launched all over the country, and internal strife broke out everywhere. Even the Corps was not immune, which further hindered the production task.
Even so, the Corps employees are divided into different grades. The first grade is naturally the formal employees who are soldiers turned farmers. They have a monthly salary of about 32 yuan. With various frontier subsidies given by the state, sometimes they may have a salary of around 40-50 yuan.
The second class is the family members of employees. In the past, they were military wives, but now they are just farmers’ families. Their monthly salary is a few yuan less than that of formal employees.
The third category is migrant workers, who are divided into temporary workers and regular workers. Temporary workers earn only about 20 yuan a month, and regular workers' wages are actually similar to those of regular workers' families, except that they receive less frontier subsidies than Corps workers.
Zhao Erfeng was a temporary worker at the Corps Farm. Her temporary work was different from that of other workers, as she was paid by the day.
Because she has five children, she can just send them to school and not have to worry about them. The school will provide them with lunch, and after school, the older ones can take the younger ones home.
Since they are in the army, they don't have to worry about being kidnapped by traffickers, and they can run around freely in the army.
Zhao Erfeng would prepare dinner for them and put it in the pot when he went out in the morning. When they came back from school in the afternoon, they could just heat it up and eat it.
In this way, Zhao Erfeng could work on the Corps farm from morning till night, and earn between 70 cents and one yuan for each job he did.
If she wants to rest, or cannot go because of family matters, she can deduct days from her work, and the Corps will not say anything. Because this is a preferential treatment for these serious military wives, not for other employees, these military wives get paid according to how much they work.
After hearing what Zhao Erfeng said, Yang Qiujin felt it was okay. She was not afraid of hardship or fatigue, but she was afraid of being idle at home doing nothing.
Although Chen Shengqing gave her an allowance every month so that she could eat and drink well and live a comfortable life at home, she did not want to stay at home like a parasite.
Growing up, she had seen too many examples of women who were obsessed with men and children and completely lost themselves, and she didn't want to be one of them.
She needs a job to be independent and self-reliant, even if the job is very tiring and hard, and the salary is very low. At least she is working hard to live, she has the ability to earn money to support herself, she does not need to rely on others, and does not need to look at the face of men everywhere in her life, which is enough for her.
There were strong winds and sandstorms and strong sunshine in the frontier. In order to avoid being tanned when working in the fields, Yang Qiujin got up early in the morning and put various moisturizing and whitening creams on her face. She learned from the locals and bought a gauze scarf to cover most of her face and her head, leaving only her eyes exposed. Then she wore long clothes, long sleeves and long pants to cover her body tightly.
She just didn't believe that she could get a tan while working in the fields while fully armed.
Seeing her look, Zhao Erfeng followed suit and covered his head with a scarf, and also covered his little son who could not go to school and had to be with him all the time.
Gou Dandan is too young to appreciate beauty. When a veil is covered on him, he howls and rolls about in a disorderly manner.
Zhao Erfeng saw that he didn't like it, so he just ignored him and let him be exposed to the wind and sun. After all, he was a boy, so no one would say anything if he got tanned black.
The Construction Corps was too far away from the border defense forces, and there was no regular bus service to the Corps, so it was impossible for them to walk there.
Fortunately, their place is quite close to the mountain pastures at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains. The people working on the pastures are local herdsmen. They have their own horse-drawn carriages, mule carts and other livestock transportation vehicles, and often travel back and forth between the town and the pastures. As long as you give them a cent or two, you can take their car and reach the Corps Farm.
The mule car's bells jingled as it swayed along the way, moving toward the farm at a moderate speed.
In mid-April, everything in the border area is full of vitality. The Tianshan Gobi desert, which was a deserted wasteland more than a decade ago, has now been planted with a large number of tall poplar trees to resist the wind and sand, and ditches have been dug to divert water, and large tracts of land have been managed to plant various crops.
Yang Qiujin looked at the newly sprouted wheat seedlings planted on both sides of the road and the gurgling streams everywhere. It was completely different from the desolate scene she saw when she first entered the frontier on the train. She couldn't help but sigh: "How can this be a frontier with harsh and barren conditions? Here there are green crops everywhere, which is no different from our southern Sichuan Province."
"That's right. The conditions here are not much different from what you say (inland China)." The Uyghur elder who was hurrying by heard her words and said in unfluent Chinese: "We are at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains. The Tianshan Mountains are sacred mountains in the eyes of us herdsmen. The snow melts every summer and flows down from the mountains to moisten the earth. We have more abundant grass and water here than other places, which is suitable for the growth of cattle and sheep. Those Yaoerdaxi (comrades, a respectful title for soldiers) came here, dug the water from the snow mountains, diverted the water, planted trees and dug the land everywhere. In just a few years, those wastelands turned into green land. They are so amazing. It's all the gods of the Tianshan Mountains blessing us!"
"The land at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains is indeed great." Yang Qiujin agreed with a smile, "In the future, I will work with those comrades from the Corps to build our Tianshan community. I hope the gods of the Tianshan Mountains can bless us, so that we can have a good harvest every year and everyone can have enough food to eat!"
"Of course I will!" The skinny old man laughed and raised the whip to hit the mule.
The mule felt pain, cried out in pain, and ran forward quickly.
The sky was blue, the wind was gentle, white clouds were floating, eagles were circling, and the donkey cart was swaying and running with ringing sounds. After running for more than an hour, it stopped at a place where there were several red brick buildings and low bungalows built in various places. It was surrounded by a wall and covered a large area, like a small town.
"This is the location of the Tianshan Construction Corps." Zhao Erfeng got out of the car holding the child and said to Yang Qiujin.
"It's quite big." Yang Qiujin took out two cents from her bag, handed it to the old man, thanked him, watched him drive away, then turned around and followed Zhao Erfeng into the gate with a sign that read "a certain construction corps".
There is a large square inside. In the middle is an altar with a flagpole on it and a bright five-star red flag fluttering at the top.
About a hundred meters inside is the office building of the Construction Corps. A newly built five-story red brick building stands across it, and behind it are several other red brick buildings built in the shape of a U.S. character. They are divided into the Corps Trade Union, office, research area, canteen, warehouse area, etc.
Outside these walls, there are scattered bungalows, mud houses, underground caves and other buildings. These are the work quarters where different employees live.
Yang Qiujin followed Zhao Erfeng to the personnel department in the main building, which was responsible for recruiting employees. She found Director Ge inside and Zhao Erfeng explained her purpose to him.
"Do you have a military dependents certificate?" asked Director Ge, who had an ordinary appearance.
"Yes." Yang Qiujin took out her military dependents certificate and handed it over with both hands.
Zhao Erfeng reminded her yesterday to remember to bring her military family certificate, so that when she arrives at the farm, the people in the Corps will see the certificate and give her preferential treatment, so that she won't be like those young people who came here without any connections, doing the hardest and most tiring work and earning the least money.
"You are the lover of Captain Chen Shengqing of the Border Defense Department?" Director Ge looked her up and down and said in surprise, "That boy actually brought his family members here to accompany the army. It's rare."
"Do you know my husband?" Yang Qiujin asked.
This man must be in his forties, at least a dozen years older than Chen Shengqing. Does he know Chen Shengqing?
"Not really." Director Ge smiled meaningfully. "But your man is famous in our Ava region for what he did four years ago. You have to be careful when you come to work in our corps."
"What do you mean?" Yang Qiujin was confused. "What did Chen Shengqing do four years ago?"
"Go back and ask your husband about this." Director Ge took out a pen and wrote on a notebook. "Comrade Zhao said that you used to be an accountant in your hometown and that you have a junior high school education. Let's see if we can arrange an easy job for you. To be honest with you, Comrade Yang, we have accepted a lot of educated and knowledgeable young people in the past two years. There are many who are more educated and capable than you. Those slightly easier jobs have been taken by others. Now our farm is only short of ordinary farm workers. I wonder if you can do it?"
Yang Qiujin said: "I came from the countryside and have been working in the fields. Farm work is a daily routine for me."
Director Ge looked at her strangely, probably because he had not expected that she had joined the army and her husband's allowance was not low. From what Zhao Erfeng said, her family did not have many children and no complicated relatives, so she should have a leisurely life. Why was she so confused that she had to work hard as a farm worker?
But it was none of his business. He said everything he needed to say, registered Yang Qiujin as a temporary employee, asked her to go to the Logistics and Labor Insurance Office to get a pair of labor insurance gloves and some farm tools such as sickles, assigned her to the nearby Second Company, and asked her to follow Zhao Erfeng to work in the company's area.
After leaving the Corps office area, we walked along the country road for more than half an hour and arrived at the location of the Second Company.
It was only then that Yang Qiujin realized that the amount of land that a company of the Corps was responsible for cultivating ranged from several thousand acres to tens of thousands acres!
A company has no more than 200 people. With so much land and so few people to cultivate the land, it is no wonder that they have to recruit educated young people and outsiders to farm the land.
Zhao Erfeng led Yang Qiujin through the vast wheat fields and found the second company commander Han Yongxin, who was preparing to lead the young people to dig ditches in the fields that had accumulated silt in the summer. "Captain Han, this is Comrade Yang Qiujin who came to work with me. She has already reported to the personnel department of the regiment. Please assign her a job."
Han Yongxin is a tall, thin man in his thirties with a scar on the left side of his face. He looks a bit fierce.
He was angry and yelled at the new youths who had come to support the border areas because they were unable to carry things on their shoulders or lift things with their hands and were slow in doing their work.
Hearing what Zhao Erfeng said, he looked at Yang Qiujin impatiently and asked, "She is a military wife?"
"yes."
"Which officer's wife came down to experience life?"
The sarcasm in his words made Yang Qiujin very unhappy. "Captain Han, I haven't even started working yet, and you're judging me for everything. That's not very appropriate."
Han Yongxin looked her up and down, and seeing that she was wearing a scarf and covering her face tightly, his contempt in his heart became even stronger. "Don't blame me for speaking harshly. A few years ago, there were several military wives in your border defense department who said they wanted to come to our corps to work as employees. Our corps leaders thought that they were military wives and it was not easy for them to come to our brother border defense department to accompany the troops, so they gave them preferential treatment everywhere and arranged light work for them. But they can't do this or that well, and they do farm work like it's fun.
Our Corps has a heavy production task. In addition to supporting our own Corps employees and paying grain taxes, we also have to store grain for rear warehouses. With their half-hearted and unwilling attitude, if we were all like them, wouldn’t the entire Corps starve to death! Comrade Yang, if you don’t really want to be a farm worker, go back to your family area and enjoy a good life. Our Construction Corps is not a place for you to play around! "
He was speaking to Yang Qiujin, but also to the dozen or so delicate educated youth men and women who were forced to go to the countryside from big cities not far away.
When the educated youth heard his words, they all lowered their heads and dared not say a word.
Yang Qiujin said, "Don't worry, Captain Han. If I can't do this, I won't be called Yang! You can't be prejudiced against me and say that. You have to wait and see if I'm a mule or a horse."
Her confidence made Han Yongxin seem unreasonable. He snorted and pointed at the group of young people who went to the border areas and said, "That's great. You can dig ditches with them."
"Okay." Yang Qiujin walked over without saying a word.
This silly girl, why did she agree so quickly!
Zhao Erfeng stood beside her, opening and closing his mouth. They, as military wives, had special treatment and could do some lighter work like weeding, fertilizing, and sowing seeds.
Digging ditches is a job for men and it is hard work.
Yang Qiujin had already passed away, and Zhao Erfeng, who had a child to take care of, could not do the heavy work of digging ditches with her, so he had to part ways with her and take on the task of sowing seeds.
Yang Qiujin joined the team of educated youth, who were between 15 and 25 years old. There were about eight males and six females. They all looked ignorant and inexperienced. They must have come from big cities not long ago.
Han Yongxin issued an order: "All male comrades go down to the ditches to dig out the dirt and mud, and the female comrades stand on top to take over and pour the dug mud into the empty areas."
Beside the canal there were backpacks made of poplar branches. The silt dug up by the men was put into them, and then pulled to the ground and dumped elsewhere.
In the border area in mid-April, the snow had only melted for half a month, and the climate in the morning and evening was still cold. The canals were filled with waist-deep water. The water here was melted snow from the Tianshan Mountains and was icy cold.
The young male educated youth jumped into the ditch, their pants were soaked through, and they were shivering from the cold.
They did not show it. They all listened to Han Yongxin's criticism of Yang Qiujin just now, and each of them wanted to make some achievements to show Han Yongxin that they were not cowards.
They were holding shovels and shoveling the silt in the ditches with great effort. Not to mention what Han Yongxin thought, even Yang Qiujin found it tiring to watch.
She waited on the canal for a long time, but they didn't shovel out a basket of silt. Just then, a proud female educated youth wanted to show off in front of Han Yongxin, so she jumped in and shoveled the silt with the male comrades. Yang Qiujin thought about it and jumped in as well.
She didn't want to save face just to make money, she also wanted to be like these educated youth and let the dog-eyed Han Yongxin see that she was not some darling wife who experienced life.
The canal water was freezing, the silt was difficult to clear, and the weather was not good. The wind and sand kept blowing on us. Yang Qiujin and the other educated youth soaked in the icy snow water, and their lips were soon frozen purple. But no one complained or felt tired. They gritted their teeth and worked hard.
They dug for several hours and finally cleared the silt in the canal. Han Yongxin, who had previously complained about Yang Qiujin and the educated youth, no longer said anything unpleasant. He just led them to the canteen where the company was located and asked the logistics staff to burn a pile of firewood for them so that they could dry their wet clothes. Then he asked the people in the canteen to boil a pot of ginger water for them to drink to drive away the cold and prevent them from getting sick.
Holding the steaming cup of ginger soup, Yang Qiujin felt that Han Yongxin was not as vicious as he appeared.
Several young educated youths did not think so: "He was targeting us on purpose. We had only been in his company for three days, and he made us live in the dirtiest, worst, and smallest caves, eat the most disgusting mixed-grain cakes, and made us do this and that during the day, torturing us to death. He did not let us go at night and held meetings to do ideological work on us. I felt like I couldn't lift my arms after clearing the mud in the morning, and my legs were numb from the freezing."
Yang Qiujin sat beside them and felt her trousers and legs were dried by the roast. She stood up and said something fair: "You are new here, you have no money and no food. You have a cave to live in and the food allocated to you in advance is already very good. Go back ten years, when their troops first arrived here, there were desolate Gobi beaches everywhere, there were few trees, no place to live, let alone food.
At that time, they relied on their own strength and spirit of not fearing hardship to build their own nests, dig ditches and build canals in the Gobi Desert where no food could be grown, and worked hard to reclaim wasteland, irrigate and plant crops. They endured hunger year after year, and only then did they gradually turn the wasteland into fertile, and the grain production increased year by year, which fed their Corps and paid grain taxes on time.
"We all know all this. Why are you telling us this?" a beautiful young female educated youth said impatiently.
Yang Qiujin said: "I am just telling you that the Corps does not owe you anything, and Captain Han does not owe you anything either. You are the youths who came to support the border areas according to the national policy. You came here with the purpose of building the frontiers of the motherland. If you can't even endure this little hardship, what ideals and aspirations can you talk about! You might as well find a way to return to the city as soon as possible!"
Her words hit the nail on the head and the educated youth fell silent.
The young woman who had just gone to school was not convinced and said, "You think we don't want to go back? It's because we are too arrogant..."
Before she could finish her words, a male educated youth covered her mouth and said, "You can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want. Do you know what the situation is now?"
The female educated youth shuddered when she thought of the crazy looks of the little Red Soldiers in the city, bit her lip and said nothing.
They didn't know that Han Yongxin was standing behind a poplar tree not far from them and heard everything they said.
At noon, the company canteen opened for lunch. Except for the educated youth who went to the border areas and had their rations recorded in the account, everyone else had to have a company household registration relationship and buy food with a ration book or a cash ticket.
Yang Qiujin's household registration was in the army, not in the company, so if she wanted to eat she had to pay with food coupons.
She took a look at the canteen window. The dishes were not very good. There were pickled cabbage, boiled radishes, and braised potato cubes. There was almost no meat, and the one that was available was lamb. There was not enough oil or water, and not enough salt. It looked very bland.
She looked like she couldn't eat, so she didn't order any dishes. She spent two taels of meal tickets, which cost her ten cents, to buy two large steamed buns. She took a short rest, and in the afternoon Han Yongxin arranged for her to weed the wheat fields with Zhao Erfeng.
This job is easy. All you have to do is use a hoe to remove the weeds between the wheat fields.
It was not until around eight o'clock in the evening that she and Zhao Erfeng finished their work for the day.
When the wages were settled, since she had dug ditch silt in the morning, which was considered heavy work, Han Yongxin gave her a high wage of 80 cents. She could go to the Finance Department to collect the money directly, or save it and collect it all at the end of the month.
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