Chapter 107: Ice and Fire
The members of the Lujia Village brigade were in a state of extremes today.
They were very excited during the day, as a group of reporters came to interview them and took many photos. Those photos would most likely be published in newspapers. Everyone was excited, as it would bring honor to their family if their photos were published in newspapers.
Late at night, after a day of excitement, the members had just gone to bed when a group of people suddenly came and said they were going to catch a spy.
Everyone was terrified.
After living in a brigade for so many years, everyone knew each other well, but suddenly they were told that there might be a hidden spy among them.
What a terrible thing!
Their ancestors, who were poor peasants for eight generations, might be discredited just because they were in the same brigade with the spy.
Some of them are so timid that they think everyone looks like a spy.
They don't need to be reminded. They rack their brains to think of all the abnormal things that happened in the village during this period. When the investigators come, they tell them everything they think of without being asked.
There is not much useful information, but they talk about a lot of dirty things in the village, which makes the accompanying brigade cadres so angry that their faces turn black.
This group of idiots is lucky that the reporter left. If the reporter was still there and heard these things, their advanced brigade would be famous all over the country.
Even the fact that Su Mo's vegetables grow fast was reported by someone.
After a while, someone arrived at Su Mo's place.
The leader of a production team in the brigade led the way, followed by three people from the county.
Seeing that Li Yue'e was also there, the production team leader greeted her politely, and several people went into the house to check if there were any hidden people.
Of course, unlike in the old movies, they did not rummage around everywhere. They only checked the corners and large cabinets in the house. The flat wooden frame that Su Mo used to grow vegetables in the house was also turned over by them.
Fortunately, after Lu Changzheng left, for safety reasons, Su Mo put away those pots of wild ginseng.
In addition to checking the house, those people also focused on checking the back corners of the house, the firewood room, the toilet, and other places where people might be hiding but the owner didn't know.
After the inspection, nothing unusual was found. A middle-aged man with a slicked-back hair stepped forward and asked very impolitely: "Are you Su Mo?"
"Yes." Su Mo nodded.
"I heard that the vegetables you planted grow very fast. Did you use any foreign fertilizer?"
Su Mo almost laughed out of anger. There are many people who like to put labels on others. She ran into two of them today.
"Comrade, I water my vegetables with clean water, and occasionally use some farm manure, but no fertilizer. As for why they grow so fast, my guess is that this land has never been planted before, maybe the soil is fertile."
"As for whether there are other reasons, I don't know."
"This land is in the yard at the door. Comrade, you can collect some soil samples and send them to the research institute for testing. If you can find the reason why the food grows so fast, I think all the farmer comrades will thank you."
Although Su Mo was confident that she could handle this wave, this incident still reminded her that she should be more cautious in the future.
The man with the slicked back hair glanced at Su Mo, "You are quite sharp-tongued. What were you doing at two or three o'clock last night?"
"Nothing. I was sleeping."
"Who can prove it?"
"No one can prove it. I was the only one there at that time."
"Where is your man? He trusts you alone, a beautiful young wife?" These words were a bit disgusting.
The quality of cadres is also mixed. There are good cadres who serve the public, and there are naturally parasites who like to show off their power and like to show off in front of the people.
Li Yue'e tried to hold back, but couldn't help it and said, "Comrade, my son has returned to the army and can't accompany his wife every day. We are simple country people, and my daughter-in-law has a good character, so we naturally trust her."
"Look, there are outsiders coming today, so I hurried over to accompany them." This was almost like pointing at the slicked-back hair man's nose and scolding him as a bad person. The
slicked-back hair man was about to get angry, but the person behind him pulled him and whispered, "These two are the mother and wife of Deputy Battalion Commander Lu."
The slicked-back hair man's face instantly turned crimson purple, and his breath was stuck in his chest, unable to go up or down.
He snorted, then turned and left. After
leaving the yard, the slicked-back hair man kicked the person who had just reminded him, "You idiot, why didn't you say it earlier." He made him show off his power in the wrong way.
He also saw that the family was in good condition and thought if he could get some benefits. Now he didn't get any benefits and he didn't know if he would be punished.
The production team leader Quail who brought them here also followed behind, not daring to breathe for fear of getting into trouble.
How could he be so unlucky to bring these people from the Revolutionary Committee with him?
He could still remember clearly the scene a few years ago when these people took the people living in the cowshed to criticize them.
After everyone left, Li Yue'e went to close the gate and spat: "Bah! What kind of person is this? These days, all kinds of monsters can become cadres."
"That guy with a big back hair is not a good person. Xiaomo, if you go to the county next time, stay away from him." Li Yue'e warned, and then muttered: "Isn't it the job of the public security to catch spies? Why are people from the Revolutionary Committee here too?"
"Catching spies can make you a meritorious service, and I guess everyone wants to make a meritorious service." Su Mo explained to Li Yue'e.
Because she wanted to seek "power", Su Mo flipped through history books tonight and made up a section of the power structure of this period.
Since the "January seizure of power" in Haishi in 1967, after 20 months of repeated seizures of power, revolutionary committees were established in various places to replace the original provincial, municipal, and county committees, directly controlling the local party, government, finance, and culture power, and implementing unified leadership.
At the beginning, the revolutionary committees adopted the "three-in-one" system, that is, the combination of representatives of revolutionary cadres, representatives of the army, and representatives of the revolutionary masses.
But slowly, the revolutionary committees were gradually occupied by representatives of various rebel groups. In many provincial-level revolutionary committees, the proportion of rebel representatives was even as high as more than 50%, and the work was once very chaotic.
Therefore, starting from 1970, various places began to re-establish new provincial, municipal, and county committees. But in many places, the power was still in the hands of the Revolutionary Committee. In many cities and counties, the party secretary and the director of the Revolutionary Committee were actually the same person.
From 1970 to 1973, there was a new round of power struggle between the new provincial, municipal, and county party committees and the Revolutionary Committee.
During this period, the division of labor among many government departments was very unclear. Many departments might scramble to do work that could produce results, while no one might be willing to take care of some work that did not produce results.
The Revolutionary Committee would naturally not let go of those who could make merit by catching spies.
Of course, it does not mean that all members of the Revolutionary Committee were bad people.
The Revolutionary Committee had three departments and one office, namely the Political Department, the Production Command Department, the Security Department, and the General Office.
In the early days, the Political Department and the Production Command Department still assumed the responsibility of organizing industrial and agricultural production and managing social life.
The Revolutionary Committee mentioned by later generations actually refers more to the Security Department and the General Office. Because whenever there was a house search or criticism and struggle, it was almost always done by people from these two departments.