Actually, their family structure is quite easy to divide.
Mrs. Huo first explained her income: "Fifty-five years ago, when the country was struggling and wages were not yet graded, your father, your grandparents, and I didn't have much income. We basically used it all to buy things for the house."
"When the rank was determined in July 1955, your grandparents had already reached the age of retirement."
"According to the retirement policy at the time, people like your grandparents who participated in revolutionary work during the War of Resistance Against Japan would receive 90% of their fixed salary."
“At that time, your grandfather’s starting salary was 425 yuan and your grandmother’s was 63 yuan. Based on 90% of that, they would receive 439.2 yuan in retirement pension each month.”
"From July 1955 to now, they have received a total of 13 years and 4 months of retirement pay, which amounts to a total of [amount] yuan."
After talking about her parents-in-law, Huo's mother then brought up Huo's father's salary.
“When your dad was first assigned a rank, he was a deputy military officer with a monthly salary of 252 yuan. In 1958, he was promoted to the rank of full military officer, and his salary has now increased to 277 yuan.”
"By 1963, he had been promoted to the rank of a full military region commander, with a monthly salary of 382 yuan."
"My salary for the first three years was 9072 yuan, the middle five years were [amount] yuan, and the last five years and four months were [amount] yuan, which adds up to [amount] yuan."
“Next up is mine. Our General Political Department Art Troupe is a division-level unit. When the rank was determined in 1955, I was a battalion-level cadre with a monthly salary of 101 yuan.”
"In 1959, I was promoted to deputy regimental commander, with a monthly salary of 127 yuan. In 1964, I was promoted again to regimental commander, with a salary of 141 yuan."
"Over the past few years, I've received a total of [amount]."
"This is all the income our family has had over the past ten years, totaling a total of [amount] yuan."
Jiang Si was quite surprised to hear this number.
However, in this era, salaries were indeed based on a fixed grade. Given the positions of grandparents and parents, it was normal for them to receive so much.
After all, if you join the military, promotion depends entirely on military merit.
Military merit, to put it bluntly, is something earned by risking one's life, one sword and one spear.
Lost in thought, Mrs. Huo began to tally up the family's expenses over the years.
Compared to income, expenses are relatively trivial.
Mrs. Huo then mentioned several major expenses.
First, there was the house in Xishan Compound. When they moved in, in addition to the furniture they received from the army, Huo's mother also added a lot of things.
Back then, furniture and household items were quite expensive; this cost around 1000.
Next up is where the children get married.
The current price for a complete set of 72-legged furniture is around 500 yuan.
The prices for "three turns and one sound" are roughly the same: a watch costs 120 yuan, a sewing machine costs 155 yuan, a bicycle generally costs between 160 and 180 yuan, and even the most basic radio costs around 80 yuan.
Adding these two things together, including receipts, it costs about 1200 yuan per child. If you also include the bride price, it would cost more than 2000 yuan per child.
Next comes the cost of three meals a day.
Everyday life requires money for basic necessities like firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea.
Take food rations as an example. With more than ten people in the family, it costs several tens of yuan every month just to buy the rationed food that is rationed according to the food ration book.
In addition, there's the cost of daily grocery shopping, eggs and milk for the kids, and the occasional snack.
Just the living expenses alone amount to more than 100 yuan a month.
If you also include the social interactions over the past ten years, as well as the purchase of clothes, the amount would be even greater.
Of course, these are not the main issues.
The biggest expense for the family was actually the money that Mr. Huo had anonymously donated over the years.
Mr. Huo always said that not being able to bring those who followed him back safely was the thing he regretted most in his life.
So over the years, whenever there was a disaster or danger, or whenever a young soldier's family was in trouble, he would do his best to help.
Although Huo's mother tightly controls Huo's father's allowance, she is never ambiguous when it comes to matters like this.
Finally, there are some miscellaneous expenses.
After all, Mrs. Huo sometimes had to go out to perform for the benefit of the people, and she couldn't possibly keep track of every single expense in the household.
After all that, there was still 56 cents left in the family savings account.
Oh, right, there's one more thing.
The two sums of money that the Yang family returned today, together amounted to about one yuan.
That means I have a total of 80,468 yuan now, not counting the cents.
Over the years, each household's salary has been kept by them. Apart from a symbolic monthly allowance, the majority of the money has been spent by the elderly couple.
The only ones who are at a disadvantage right now are the first wife and the third wife.
After explaining the income and expenses, Mother Huo addressed her second and fourth sons.
“You two grew up by my side since you were little, unlike the eldest and third sons, who never enjoyed a single day of happiness by my side.”
“I’ve roughly calculated that it’s cost about 150 yuan a year to support you two brothers over the years.”
"The annual subsidy you receive after marriage is roughly the same amount."
“I’ve made it clear that before the family splits up, I want to use this money to pay off your eldest brother and the third brother.”
"In addition, your eldest brother has settled down in Xinjiang Province, and his situation is the same as that of the third brother."
"So in addition to the bride price and the things I bought, I will also give the couple a separate settlement allowance of 2,000 yuan."
"Oh, right, there's also the money the Jiang family gave for the third son's medical treatment. This money was demanded back by the third son's wife, and I'll give it to her directly then."
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