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 take 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 and wire, and there will be coal or firewood waste later. It seems a bit not worth building a brick kiln just for the construction of a school.
Han Jing emphasized:
“There is no brick factory in Pingquan Town.”
They in Wangjiagou could build the first brick factory in Pingquan Commune and supply bricks to Pingquan Town and various production teams.
Elm leaves:
“It’s not impossible.”
If we calculate carefully, in addition to the initial consumption of bricks and steel wires, the later consumption is mainly on manpower, soil, and firewood, which are worthless nowadays and are cheaper than the diesel cost of a walk-behind 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, like the wind, they all ran towards the captain's house.
On the way, the two met other villagers and greeted them loudly: "Hello, Uncle Wang Jiu, good morning, Grandma Xiaohua! Good morning, Auntie Liu!"
"Good morning, too..." Before the villagers could finish their reply, the two educated youths had already disappeared. They could not help but sigh, "Young people are always in a hurry!"
There were also children following behind the two of them, thinking that the educated youth were having fun.
What surprised the children in the mountains a little was that in the past they could easily catch up with the educated youth except Ye Yu, but now it was impossible. Their physical strength was getting better and better, and they were becoming more familiar with the ups and downs of the mountain roads.
Especially Han Jing, after the Spring Festival, he can leave all the mountain kids behind.
When he arrived at the captain's house, he waved to Sister He in the yard without even taking a breath: "Good morning, Sister He, is the captain home?"
Sister He interacted 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 looked like he had really come back from the fields. He must have gone to inspect the thickness of the snow. As they depend on the weather for their livelihood, they cannot take the spring, summer, autumn and winter seasons lightly.
He asked casually: "Have you eaten? I have two roasted corns here."
"I ate it, I ate it."
At this time, Xu Fei and seven or eight other kids from the mountains also arrived, panting a little.
The mountain kids 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 scattered like a swarm, as if they were just there to run along.
Han Jing and Xu Fei didn't care about them and told the captain about the brick kiln.
Captain Wang was surprised again: "Ye Yu also knows this?"
"Is there anything Ye Yu doesn't know?" Mrs. He, who was listening in, asked back.
Others:
“…”
Indeed, whether it is eating, playing, working in the fields, or hunting, there is nothing Ye Yu does not know. 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 confused.
Mrs. He and Captain Wang have two children, the eldest son is 10 years old, and the youngest daughter will be 6 years old next year. The couple heard that Ye Yu was teaching the children martial arts this winter and pulled the eldest son's ear to make him listen to his educated youth brothers and sisters.
Unfortunately, his son was an unstable person and could not see how important this was to his future. In addition, the captain had been away in the army for too long in the past and felt he owed his son something. He could not bring himself to force the child, so he had to give up.
My daughter is quite young. Although she speaks and works a little slowly, she is very careful, patient and able to concentrate. She may be a good talent.
Back to the topic, Captain Wang asked the key question: "How much does it cost to build a brick kiln?"
Han Jingxufei:
"...I don't know. I didn't ask."
Han Jing asked if he could post it. Xu Fei said he had written a lot of articles during this Spring Festival.
"You put bricks on everything! Tractors, brick kilns, and next time you can put airplanes and cannons!" The captain stared at the two with disapproval. After scolding them for ten minutes, he replied, "As long as the bricks are smaller than those used to build classrooms, our production team can afford it. If it's more, the whole team needs to raise hands to decide."
Han Jing tilted his head and smiled foolishly.
The captain was also a decisive person. He was sure that this was feasible and there was no time to delay. He asked Han Jing and Xu Fei to go back and find Ye Yu, while 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 there were also melon seeds and peanuts. It was cold in winter, so even during the day, a bonfire was needed to ward off 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 talking 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 the 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 if the children at home could learn a little bit, they would benefit greatly.
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 not allowed now, 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 being commended by its superiors 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. The only difference is that compared with the Great Leap Forward period, they now emphasize being down-to-earth, speaking one thing and saying two things, and resolutely rejecting the style of exaggeration.
Captain Wang knows the production team better, so he can implement it better than Xu Di and his team.
"Small factories like ours are fundamentally different from town factories in terms of their system. Our employees are farmers, not workers. They do part-time work and receive extra work points instead of wages. The output belongs to the production team as a whole and is included in the villagers' annual income at the end of the year, just like other incomes."
He even took out the plan that Ye Yu had proposed. Although it was simple, it was obvious that it was the result of careful consideration from many aspects, rather than just an impulse.
The commune president was excited after hearing this. It's not like their town had never thought about building a brick factory, but it hadn't been built due to technical reasons and also because the demand for bricks in a town was not that great, and their competitiveness was far inferior to that of the brick factories in the county. However, if it was a small factory with a production team, there would be no problem as it would not be held back by workers' salaries.
"We educated youth went to the countryside to engage in construction."
Han Jing wrote another passionate article on the spur of the moment, which contained many slogans. Over the past year, his vocabulary has been greatly expanded.
Everything was ready, so how could the commune chief 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 to reduce the quantity of bricks ordered and buy some other things.
There was nothing necessary 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 that entered the village the day before yesterday.
Xu Fei: "Hua Feifei loves the hustle and bustle the most. She must have regretted not coming the night before. If she had been there, she might have written about the hustle and bustle of the evening better."
"You write well, too. I think I 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 his work and copied some. He couldn't help but sigh, "I never thought that Ye Yu was the most playful among us."
"Yes, yes, yes. In fact, 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 out from Jibei City 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 answer, "I knew she didn't come. Humph, thanks to me, I brought her a lot of local specialties, such as White Rabbit milk candy, Gaoqiao pine cakes, pear paste, sugar sauce, crab shell, yellow duck, smoked fish, and black sesame paste. I also brought her more and better salted fish than her second sister. Some of them were made by my grandmother and mother!"
Even though Hua Feifei was sometimes arrogant in front of Ye Yu, when she got home all she talked about was Ye Yu, even her grandparents and parents. They had never expected that their daughter could adapt to the country environment so well.
Han Jing wondered why she wanted to compete with Ye Yu's second sister. Just as she opened her mouth to ask, she was stepped back by Xu Fei.
Hua Feifei also said that since Ye Yu was not coming, she would not give these things to her, so they should just split them equally.
But although she said this, she still went to the supply and marketing cooperative and the state-owned hotel with Han Jing and Xu Fei to buy what Ye Yu wanted and provided her with 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 like his feet were swollen from being stepped on. What could Xu Fei say? He admired and despised his stubbornness in banging his head against the wall, so he comforted him by saying, "You deserve it."
Korean Scene:
“…”
Isn't his mouth faster than his brain?