Zhang Xudong glanced at the captain with resentment: "Third Uncle, you're not being transparent about this. I'm doing my best to help you. How could you be so cruel as to lay your plans before my eyes?"
"How can this be considered a scheme against you? This is a win-win situation. Your uncle Dayou is in charge of things and keeps accounts, which is inappropriate.
"Before, your grandma was too preoccupied with the brigade's affairs to bother with them. Now, it seems she doesn't have much of a heart to worry about them. Wouldn't it be better to find her something to do instead of just letting her think about them all day long?"
Zhang Xudong thought about it and felt that being a custodian was easier than feeding pigs at home. As long as her grandmother was willing to do it, it would be fine.
"I don't care about Third Grandpa's affairs. Let's see what Grandma thinks. How are the land reclamation and vegetable planting going?"
"We have planted potatoes, pumpkins and greens on both sides of the river from the beginning to the end of the village. We can't plant anything else because the season is not right. The greens will be enough to help in the emergency in about 20 days.
The higher-ups have approved the dam project, but the county has only given us cement quotas. Everything else is up to us.”
"We'll see. If there's enough food left from this year's autumn harvest, and everyone has enough to eat, we'll do it ourselves."
The captain said with some worry.
Zhang Xudong thought for a moment and said, "Third Uncle, grain alone won't be enough. Cement is only available as a quota, so we still need to buy it with money.
Other things like tools cost money, right? Hiring someone to select a site, survey, design, etc. all cost money, right? It can't be done without money, right?
"So what do you say we should do? We can't just not do something this good, right?"
"Third Uncle, can we catch a few wild goats and raise them? Is it better to set up a collective goat farm or distribute them to the team members' homes?"
"Raising sheep is fine, we can sell them to a purchasing station and get money and tickets. But wild goats can only be kept in pens, not allowed to roam free.
It is better to raise sheep in a group to save labor. Raising them individually will affect work. Sheep are not like pigs. They are very noisy.
"After all this talk, do you have any sheep to raise? Besides, cutting grass is hard work."
"If there are no sheep, we can go and catch them. If there is no grass, won't you let the half-grown children cut it? We'll just pay you according to how much we cut.
"Reeds and weeds along the riverbank, as well as corn stalks after the autumn harvest, can all be fed to sheep. Just make sure the reeds are clean and deworm the sheep regularly."
"Find a piece of land downstream from the village, enclose it with mud walls or wooden stakes on three sides, and leave one side facing the river. When it's thirsty, let it drink water on its own, and just feed it fodder. How much easier would that be?"
"It's really a problem now that you say that. I can handle it. But can you catch a sheep?"
"Try it tomorrow. Didn't you see it written on the wall: How bold the man, how fertile the land?"
"Get lost, I won't think too much about it. I'd be so happy if I could produce 1,000 catties per mu. Can you do that for me?"
"Third Grandpa, just wait and see, it's not a big deal to produce 1,000 kilograms per mu. It will be achievable in the near future.
But when the time comes, just be happy and don't worry about anything."
After Zhang Xudong finished speaking, he ran away. A cloth shoe flew behind him and barely missed hitting his forehead.
Zhang Xudong came out of his third uncle's house and strolled across the small bridge and walked along the river.
The reeds and weeds on the right side of the riverbank have been cleared away, and yellow-green tips have emerged in some places.
The corn seedlings in the field on the left are neatly arranged in rows. Although they still look slender and fragile, their color has become much greener and more vibrant.
After more than 40 days of growth, the corn seedlings are only knee-high. Aren't they growing too slowly? This should have a significant impact on yield, right? Should I feed them something? Any nutritional supplements?
If you come up with an idea yourself, you have to see results, right? If it doesn't, it's going to damage your brand. Let's work overtime for a couple of nights. After all, I have to save face.
Zhang Xudong walked into the house in the afterglow of the setting sun. The corn porridge was almost cold. Zhang Xudong said to his grandmother while drinking the porridge:
"Grandma, I want to find a way to give those sheep to the team. We won't keep them at home anymore. They're too noisy and hard to raise."
"Not raising them anymore? Not selling them to the black market anymore?"
"Grandma, how do you know I've been to the black market? I was just curious, so I went to take a look. Just to take a look."
"Dongzi, cotton, grain, oil, meat, eggs, and poultry are all commodities that the government purchases and sells exclusively.
You exchanged wild boar meat for your potatoes and sweet potatoes. If you don’t sell all that wild boar meat on the black market, why not sell it to a purchasing station?” Grandma continued:
"How much did you sell it for per pound on the black market?"
"The wild boar is sold whole for a little over four dollars a pound."
"Do you know the price of rice and flour?"
"On the black market, refined rice and flour are four yuan a pound. Sorghum and corn are two to five yuan a pound. Large pieces of fat meat are ten yuan a pound."
Grandma sighed and asked again:
"Dongzi, do you know the price of rice, flour, meat and eggs sold by the government?"
"I know, pork is 4 yuan per pound.
Refined flour costs 1.8 cents per pound.
Good rice costs 23 cents per pound.
Ordinary rice costs 1.5 cents per pound
Eggs are 40 cents each."
After hearing this, my grandmother said, “This price is still the price raised by the government after the disaster last year.
In previous years, pork cost 80 cents per pound, eggs cost 5 cents each, flour and rice cost 9.1 cents, and vegetables cost 1 or 2 cents per pound.
Do you know why things on the black market are priced several times or even dozens of times higher?"
Zhang Xudong thought for a moment and said, "You don't need tickets to buy things on the black market. The grain sold at the grain station is cheap, but you need grain tickets; you need meat tickets to buy meat; you need egg tickets to buy eggs; and you also need vegetable tickets to buy vegetables.
No matter how much money you have, without tickets, you can't buy anything. Tickets are more important than money. And even if you have money and tickets, there's often nothing you can buy."
Grandma listened and said, "Dongzi, things on the black market are expensive. Not needing tickets is one reason, but there's another reason you may not know."
"Grandma, is there any other reason?" Zhang Xudong asked puzzledly.
"Another most important reason is that the cost of earning that money is too high and the consequences are too serious.
The crime of buying things on the black market is not that serious, but if you sell things on the black market and get caught, the lightest punishment is imprisonment for ten days to half a month.
But with the amount of pork you sold, if you were caught, you would be sent to a farm in the northwest for life-long forced labor.
If you sell more, you'll be shot if you're caught. Even your damn grandfather and your father can't protect you. Do you understand?"
Zhang Xudong felt a chill down his spine after hearing this. Although he knew there was no chance of him being caught, wouldn't it be embarrassing to be chased like a rabbit?
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