Chapter 79
In April, spring arrives in northern Xinjiang, and it is time for large-scale planting.
The endless, neat and flat farm land is filled with busy scenes of tillers, tractors, manpower, cattle, horses, mules, etc.
Since the beginning of the year, Tianshan Farm has added a group of educated youth who went to the countryside to add a lot of manpower. Therefore, before April, the entire farm has reclaimed hundreds of acres of land. In order to catch up with the spring sowing schedule, the farm has introduced a batch of tilling machines this year. Now the entire farm employees are cultivating around the tilling machines, and it is very lively.
The farms are busy, and the breeders are busy too.
After the farm expanded in size, in order to save feed for raising hundreds of thousands of poultry and livestock, the farm director Yang Qiujin requested that they also open up wasteland for grain cultivation.
Currently, the farm has reclaimed nearly fifty acres of land, plus the previous ten acres, a total of sixty acres.
The farm planted corn seedlings as early as late March. Now they have broken through the ground film and grown to more than ten centimeters tall. They need to be transplanted and filled in manually.
The ice and snow of winter had long been melted by the early spring sun. Yang Qiujin put on various whitening sunscreens early in the morning, put on a straw hat, wrapped a gauze scarf around her face and neck, and half-knelt on the embankment with a big belly. She held a small triangular pointed shovel in her hand and quickly shoveled up the corn seedlings planted in the corn cobs with the shovel, and then moved them to other corn cobs where the corn seedlings were not strong or the seeds were eaten by wild birds and did not grow.
As the head of a farm, Yang Qiujin has always set an example during the years she has been growing crops on the farm, and she has done her work quickly and well.
Under her leadership, all the male and female workers in the factory were determined to do the farm work quickly and beautifully.
Only Yang Qiuyue was worried about her sister. "Sister, you're already seven months pregnant. You can let the workers do the farm work. Why do you have to do farm work with such a big belly? What if you get hurt? Even if you're not tired, the child will be tired too."
"You don't understand this because you have never given birth. The more pregnant a woman is, the more she should exercise as she gets into the later stages of pregnancy, excluding any reasons related to her poor health. If she keeps exercising, she won't gain any extra weight, and both she and her baby will be healthy, which will make it easier for the baby to be delivered naturally."
Yang Qiujin wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked at Yang Qiuyue, who was also wearing a straw hat and sweating profusely, and said, "How are you and Fan Sui going? You have been together for almost a year, right? When are you planning to get married?"
"Sister, I don't plan to marry him." Yang Qiuyue scooped up a corn seedling and placed it in the plastic seedling box between the earthen embankments. She said with a gloomy expression: "At the beginning, I didn't have much affection for him. I was just lonely. I thought he was a good person and wanted to do some sex-related things with him. Later, as time went by, I found that I seemed to have real feelings for him. I also knew that Fan Sui liked me very much. I thought we could be together. We wanted to talk about marriage, so I brought him to meet you. But his rejection made me feel cold. He liked me, but he thought I was a loose woman who could play around. He never thought about marrying me or taking responsibility for me. We haven't talked or contacted each other for several months since that day. Sister, I think I should break up with him and not look for another man for the time being. "
Yang Qiujin was not surprised after hearing this. In fact, she had long noticed that there was something wrong in the relationship between Yang Qiuyue and Fan Sui. She never expected that the girl who seemed gentle and virtuous in her eyes would take the initiative to flirt with Fan Sui, become his wife, and even have feelings for him.
Yang Qiujin smoothed her hair that was messed up by the wind and sand behind her ears and said, "I won't give you any advice on this matter. I'll go find Fan Sui directly and see what he thinks. If he doesn't care about you, you'd better break up as soon as possible."
As she spoke, she walked towards the distant earthen boulevard.
Fan Sui is now the head of the security department of the farm. His salary and benefits have doubled compared to the previous two years. The farm needs to plant crops, so everyone has to work in the fields, including Fan Sui.
Fan Chong had learned to drive a tractor on the farm before. His current job is to drive the tractor and transport bags of phosphate fertilizer purchased from the fertilizer factory to the fields.
Originally, the farm raised hundreds of thousands of livestock and poultry. After the workers cleaned up the feces every day, they would pour it into several large manure pools specially dug outside the farm, add some weeds, rotten leaves, melon peels, etc., and after a period of rotting, it became fertile farm fertilizer. It was used to fertilize crops, and the crops all grew well.
However, when Yang Qiujin first established the farm, she signed a fertilizer sales contract with Secretary Zhai. Most of the fertilizer produced was to be sold to Tianshan Farm. The remaining fertilizer was not enough to irrigate all the crops in their farm, so they needed to spend a lot of money to buy fertilizer from the fertilizer factory opened by Ava Farm.
Fan Sui drove a tractor to the field that needed fertilizer. Several strong male workers came forward and moved bags of phosphate fertilizer from the tractor to the field.
The female workers used a knife to cut a hole in the top of the fertilizer bag and poured the fertilizer into a homemade willow basket. When the basket was full, they held the basket in one hand and grabbed the phosphate fertilizer with the other hand and put the fertilizer under the roots of the corn seedlings.
The smell of phosphate fertilizer is very similar to that of laundry. With dozens of people applying fertilizer together, the smell in the field is really strange.
Yang Qiujin covered her nose, walked to the dirt road beside the land, and said to Fan Sui, who was smoking on the tractor, "Comrade Fan, do you have time to chat?"
"Yes, Director Yang, what do you want to talk about?" The fertilizers in the tractor had been emptied by the male workers. Fan Sui planned to take a break, smoke a cigarette, and then go to the Ava Corps to haul fertilizers.
"What's going on between you and my sister?" Yang Qiujin asked directly, "Are you planning to just play with my sister and then give up, or do you think it will be difficult to marry my sister?"
"Director Yang, I'm not afraid to tell you that I fell in love with your sister from the beginning, and I wanted to date her and marry her. But she said that she was attracted by my body and just wanted to have fun with me. I don't know if she is sincere to me or just playing around like she said. She suddenly brought me to see you that day, and I was not mentally prepared. I thought she was joking again. My attitude made her unhappy, and she has been giving me the cold shoulder since then, ignoring me until now. I don't understand what she is thinking."
Fan Sui saw her coming over, and he put out the cigarette he had just lit on a hollowed-out carrot next to the steering wheel, which was already filled with a lot of cigarette butts. He then stretched out his hand to fan away the smoke to prevent it from suffocating her and the baby in her belly.
After Fan Sui finished blowing away the smoke, he continued, "Director Yang, I am not the kind of person who is fickle and treacherous. I want to marry her, and it is not just talk. I have saved some money over the years. Although it is not much, it is enough to build a small red brick house and buy her a house. But every time I look for her, she ignores me and doesn't listen to me. I don't know what to do."
It seems like these two people are suspicious and torturing each other just because they wonder if the other is sincere. What kind of thing is this?
Yang Qiujin was speechless. "My sister likes you. Don't be fooled by her smiling face and easy to get along with. In fact, she is arrogant. She thinks you are just playing with her. If you don't take some practical actions, talk to her properly, show your sincerity, and clear up the misunderstanding with her, she will cruelly give up on you. When that happens, won't you regret it?"
Seeing Fan Sui put out his cigarette and fan away the smoke, Yang Qiujin felt that he must be a very considerate and loving person, and that Yang Qiuyue would not suffer any loss if she really married him, which was why she wasted so much time talking to him.
Fan Sui seemed to be thinking about something. "Director Yang, I understand. I will go talk to her after I finish hauling the fertilizer."
He drove the tractor away with a rumble, and Yang Qiujin turned and walked towards the farm's office.
Although she set an example and led all the employees to work actively, she was, after all, a pregnant woman who was more than seven months pregnant. After working in the fields for a while, she felt her waist was tired and the fetal movements in her belly were more frequent than usual, which meant that the baby could not bear it anymore and she had to go back to the office to rest.
The farm's current office is located 100 meters diagonally opposite the entrance. It is a two-story red brick building, far away from the poultry and livestock sheds, and there is no smell of feces.
There is a small square in front of the building, with flowers unique to the border area, such as snow mountain primrose, saffron, mountain apricot flower, dazixiang, and nasturtium planted on both sides.
In April, everything in the borderland is reviving. Most of the flowers planted here have sprouted and are blooming. As soon as you walk downstairs to the office building, you can smell a faint floral fragrance.
When Yang Qiujin smelled the fragrance of the flowers, she felt happy and refreshed. She thought to herself that when she had time, she would have the workers plant seasonal flowers under the outer wall of the entire farm. That way, after working hard, everyone could enjoy the flowers and make themselves happy.
Her office was on the second floor. As soon as she went up to the second floor, Yu Cong rushed into her office and said, "Sister Yang, the higher-ups have sent a revolutionary team to Tianshan Farm to investigate Secretary Zhai and the group of professors who were doing research. They also want to kill Han Yongxin and his wife."
Ever since Yang Qiujin persuaded Long Yanli and Yu Cong started dating Long Yanli, Yu Cong restrained his playboy nature. During this period, he and Long Yanli were inseparable, and he also changed his way of addressing Yang Qiujin, the "matchmaker", from "head of the field" to "sister".
Yang Qiujin frowned: "Where did you get the news? From what you said, it sounds like someone is coming specifically for them."
"Have you forgotten that I paid for the installation of a wired telephone in my office last month? The news I received was naturally revealed to me by my father." Yu Cong sat down on the armchair in front of her, put his legs on her desk in an unruly manner and said, "Didn't you ask Han Yongxin to suppress those revolutionaries who were making trouble in the farm a few months ago? I guess those people are resentful and wrote a letter to the Capital Revolutionary Committee to report Secretary Zhai and others, so the higher-ups sent people down."
He who fights others will eventually be fought by others.
During the years of revolution, there were people in Tianshan Farm who had been waving revolutionary slogans and criticizing people they disliked, but they were suppressed every time by Secretary Zhai.
This time, it was estimated that Han Yongxin had made them too harsh, and they were desperate and reported the incident to the capital, and only then did the higher-ups send people down.
In fact, in the current situation, almost every place is fighting. It is really illegal and abnormal that Tianshan Farm has not fought for so many years.
Yang Qiujin said: "Come if you want. We can't drive back the revolutionary group sent by the capital. We have to find a way to change their impression of our farm so that they know how hard it is for us builders in the frontier."
"This is a revolutionary group from the capital. It will definitely attract the attention of the district government and the Ava Corps. They will definitely send people to accompany them. It may be difficult to protect Secretary Zhai and those professors."
"What are you afraid of?" Yang Qiujin sneered. "The reason these people are stirring up revolution is to make all the cadres in the farm stop working and do hard labor like the lowly people in the farm. They want to make the farm a mess and stop production. Then they will think their revolution is successful. Since they are willing to do this, let these revolutionaries stay in our farm and experience the hardships with us. Let them know how difficult it is for us."
"What do you want to do?" Yu Cong asked.
"You'll know when the time comes."
Yang Qiujin left the office and walked into a horse stable specially built for the farm, from which ran a shadow.
Although she was heavy now, it did not hinder her from getting on the horse. Benying was very smart and knew that she was pregnant. Every time she got on the horse, Benying would half squat to make it easier for her to get on his back, and this time was no exception.
Yang Qiujin rode on Benying, reached out and touched its head, and praised it: "What a good horse."
Benying stood up, snorted, and shook his horse's head in response, as if to say that it was a good horse.
Yang Qiujin smiled, gently pinched the horse's belly with her legs, and walked slowly towards the farm Youth League Committee building.
More than an hour later, she arrived at the regiment headquarters.
Secretary Zhai had just returned from an inspection of the farm and saw her dismounting from her horse with a big belly. He hurried over to help her up and said, "You are a female comrade, and you are so pregnant. Why are you riding a horse around? Aren't you afraid that the baby in your belly will be shaken out and you will have a miscarriage?"
"If it's so easy to miscarry, he doesn't deserve to be my child. I'm a revolutionary fighter, and the children of revolutionary fighters must have revolutionary will." Yang Qiujin tied the horse nonchalantly, "Secretary Zhai, I have something urgent to tell you."
"What's the matter? Why are you in such a hurry?" asked Secretary Zhai.
"Shall we go up to your office and talk about this?"
"Why? Is there anything you can't say in front of us?" Secretary Zhai was followed by several cadres, one of whom was the farm director Lu Xingxian, a middle-aged man who looked honest but was actually smarter than anyone else. He asked with an unhappy expression.
"Director Lu, are you sure I want to say this here?" Yang Qiujin asked, pointing at the other people on the farm who were coming and going and busy at work.
Lu Xingxian was puzzled. He knew that Yang Qiujin was the kind of person who would not come to see him unless there was something important. He laughed and said, "Oh, Director Yang, I was just joking. Don't take it seriously."
"I'm not serious, Director Lu, please go in." Yang Qiujin smiled and made a gesture to invite everyone to go to the office.
She was so mysterious that all the officials were very curious. They followed her upstairs and sat down in Secretary Zhai's office.
"This is what happened..." After Yang Qiujin sat down, she told him without any delay or concealment that the capital was going to send a revolutionary team to investigate their farm.
"Is the news reliable?" Secretary Zhai asked solemnly.
"I think he is reliable. After all, everyone knows the background of Yu Cong's father. There is no need for his father to talk nonsense about these things," said Yang Qiujin.
Fang Yingzhe, the handsome deputy farm director, said as he drank the tea Secretary Zhai had made: "Let them come, we just need to do our own job well."
After hearing this, Yang Qiujin's face turned cold: "Deputy Director Fang, have you forgotten that you are a member of our farm? Although you were transferred from the capital to our farm, your term of office will expire in a year and you will have to go back to the capital. But if something happens to our farm during this time, your tenure record will not look good and you will not be able to move up."
"Then what do you say we should do? They are a revolutionary group sent from the capital." Fang Yingzhe said nonchalantly, "During the years I have been at Tianshan Farm, in order to increase the farm's production, I have helped you to cover up the truth and turn a blind eye to your trial of those low-class professors. Now that the truth has been exposed, do you still want to cover up your crimes and implicate all the cadres of our farm?"
"What do you mean by covering up a crime? You're talking as if you, Deputy Director Fang, didn't benefit from it." Yang Qiujin sneered, "If Secretary Zhai hadn't taken the risk to try out Professor Zheng and the others, how could our farm's output have increased several times, far surpassing most of the frontier farms, becoming a model for frontier farms, and allowing your cadres' wages to be collectively increased and upgraded to a higher level? How could you eat fresh fruits and vegetables in the winter, how could you eat chicken, duck, fish, rabbit, pork, and chicken, duck, and goose eggs at any time? In the final analysis, you and we are grasshoppers on the same rope, and it is impossible for you to get rid of yourself!"
"Then what do you say we should do?" Fang Yingzhe asked with a sullen face.
"It's very simple." Yang Qiujin looked around at the leaders in the office and said, "First, let's treat those professors unfairly and send them back to the cowshed. We will follow the procedures and treat them as we should. Then, we will find a way to find out the black-hearted elements who wrote letters to report us and fight them to death so that they can't say anything. When the revolutionaries from the capital come, you, Deputy Director Fang, will accompany them throughout the process and take them to the well-developed areas of our farm to let them see the achievements of our Secretary Zhai. If you really can't handle it, we will take the last resort, which is to destroy their work permits, letters of introduction, and cars they drive, so that they can't leave our farm. They must see our situation and understand our situation before they leave."
"Xiao Yang, you are too cruel and too risky." Secretary Zhai frowned and said, "That is a revolutionary group from the capital. We can't mess with them."
"So what do you want to do, Secretary Zhai? Do you want to leave the farm and transfer to some remote place? Do you want our farm to develop in a good direction with great difficulty, but be destroyed by these revolutionaries and stop moving forward?"
Yang Qiujin said excitedly: "We finally have our own experimental field, and we have developed good seeds. The yield is constantly increasing. Professor Zheng and his team are still researching better seeds, so that our farm can grow more and better crops and realize the days when everyone has enough food and clothing. Now those revolutionaries have destroyed it. Are you willing? Are you willing? Don't you want to live a good life with full meals every day and meat every meal?"
Secretary Zhai fell silent, and so did the others.
After a while, a young factory committee member raised his hand and said, "I support Director Yang. If Secretary Zhai had not taken the risk to employ those old professors, our farm's output would still be at the bottom, and our farm workers would have to work on an empty stomach. Now our farm's annual output ranks among the best in the border areas. Compared with previous years, our farm workers can basically eat enough and have spare money to buy meat, fruits and vegetables. I don't want those revolutionaries to destroy it and let my family go back to the days of hunger and insufficiency."
To be honest, many of the middle-aged cadres present here are hoping that Secretary Zhai will be transferred or retire. Only if he leaves will they have the opportunity to move up in the leadership.
But they had to admit that Secretary Zhai had done a lot of work in recent years, and the farm was indeed getting better and better under his leadership.
If they did not unite with the enemy at this time and were really harmed by those revolutionaries, it would be a problem as to where they should go.
After thinking for a while, Lu Xingxian said, "I agree with Xiao Zhu. Let's discuss it carefully and see if there is any good way to deal with the revolutionary group from the capital."
A group of people began to make plans and put forward their opinions.
It was two hours later before the group of officials reached a consensus.
Yang Qiujin left the office building of the regiment and found Han Yongxin, who was cleaning guns in the armed forces department, and told him about the revolutionary group: "Do you have a list of the revolutionaries I asked you to deal with before? Or do you remember who they are? Check them one by one, find the one who wrote the report letter, and interrogate him thoroughly."
Han Yongxin put down his gun and said, "There were too many people. There were at least a hundred people who were stirring up revolution. Half of them were idle children who had nothing to do at home, and the others were just jealous people. At that time, I just gave them a beating as a warning. In addition to the leaders who were driven out of the farm, some other children ran away. I heard that they joined the desert bandits and became bandits. It is a bit difficult to check them one by one."
Desert bandits? Yang Qiujin inexplicably thought of Ling Gaosheng. That man had been a soldier. Although he became a bandit and engaged in illegal smuggling for a living, he would not accept a half-grown child as a bandit, right?
Thinking this in her heart, Yang Qiujin said calmly: "Do you remember the names of those people who caused trouble back then?"
"Why, you want to check it yourself?" Han Yongxin brought her a stool and asked her to sit on it.
"I want to see whether those people have any grudges against Secretary Zhai or me, and what kind of identities and backgrounds they have to be able to write letters to the capital." Yang Qiujin sat down and said.
Han Yongxin took out a notebook from the drawer and placed it in front of her, "Read it yourself."
Yang Qiujin picked up the notebook and carefully checked it from top to bottom. When she saw a few familiar names, her face darkened. "It's them, they really are haunting me!"
Han Yongxin pulled out a stool, sat in front of her and said, "You're not going to ask me to do anything again, are you? Over the years, because you helped Ren Ying, I have done a lot of things to offend people for you. Now the Capital Revolutionary Group is about to be taken down, and those people I have offended will definitely try to use the Revolutionary Group to bring me down. I can't do anything for you at this time, or I'll get myself into big trouble."
"I know what's going on this time, and I won't ask you to be a bad person. During this period, ask Ren Ying to go out as little as possible, don't associate with unfamiliar people, and don't let other people into the house. Put away all the things that need to be put away at home, and don't leave any feudal things behind to give people a handle. I only want you to do one thing."
Yang Qiujin came up to him and whispered a few words.
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