Chapter 106
Liu Daxi's wife Chang Guihua also came to pick up Fifth Master. She was a little depressed after hearing what he said, but she took it with a smile on her face: "Why can't I see it? Tomorrow I will tell Third Aunt to let her find a partner for Sixth Master as soon as possible. Master, you don't know that now many girls from other production teams are willing to come to our production team to visit relatives."
Why did you come willingly? Master Wu knew clearly in his heart, and the smile spread across his wrinkled face, and he could not take it back.
Li Changshun was picked up by Liu Zhishuang on a tractor. When he saw Fifth Master wearing new clothes, he started to mock him: "You are such a slut. You still wear new clothes for your birthday at such an old age."
The Fifth Master replied cheerfully, "Life is getting better and better. Juhua said that I will have new clothes in the future. Why should I keep them? If you wear an old military uniform all year round like you, how many clothes can you wear? Now you are wearing them all. Let's see what you will wear when you are in the coffin."
If someone else said this, Li Changshun would definitely curse back, but when the Fifth Master, who was older than him, said this, he smiled and said, "Don't worry, I still have a new set, waiting to wear it when I get into the coffin."
The Fifth Master looked at him unhappily and said, "You have no ambition. You are only thinking about what to wear when you are in the coffin. I just don't want to think that life is getting better and better. Why should I be afraid of having nothing to wear when I am in the coffin?"
Yes, Pinganzhuang and even the entire Pinganzhuang Brigade were getting better and better, as anyone with eyes could see. That year, before the New Year, all the canals in the entire Pinganzhuang Brigade were cleared, and the land in the entire Brigade became waterlogged.
So much so that in the second year, God felt guilty and kept the previous year's rain for that year as well. The drought in Pingde County almost turned into a flood, and the canal in Ping'an Village also played a huge role.
The canal can not only divert water, but also smoothly divert the accumulated water in the fields into the Xihe River, avoiding inland flooding and reducing disaster losses. As a result, during the autumn harvest, the Ping'anzhuang Brigade once again had a bumper harvest of grain, while other brigades could only pay half of the public grain.
Ping'anzhuang Brigade kept their word and paid back all the reserve grain borrowed the previous year that year. The entire brigade also replaced the reserve grain with new grain. After hearing about it, the newspaper people came to Ping'anzhuang again. This time, the Ping'anzhuang Brigade's canal was not only published in the county newspaper, but also in the regional newspaper.
However, in the local newspaper, the news about the Ping'anzhuang Brigade's canal construction only occupied a small space, and the entire newspaper was filled with large sections of articles criticizing the criminal group.
Looking at the newspaper specially delivered to her by the county newspaper office and listening to the announcer reading the critical text in a passionate voice over the loudspeaker, Xia Juhua knew that with the demise of the evil group, spring had really begun to approach people this autumn.
So she called together several production team leaders and asked them to talk about their respective assets - when spring really came, the production team would fall apart, and all assets would be clearly divided among the members. Xia Juhua hoped to give more support to the people of Ping'anzhuang Brigade before that, so that the members would have more confidence in the future to deal with the great changes they had never seen before.
The first person to report was of course Chen Qiu Sheng. This year, the work points of the Ping An Zhuang production team exceeded the 25-cent mark for the first time. Each work point was worth 26 cents, and the collective surplus money reached 1,000 yuan.
The other four production teams were much worse, with work points ranging from 1.4 to 1.6 cents, and the collective surplus was no more than 500 yuan. But for their own production team, it was an unprecedented harvest. So even though everyone looked at Chen Qiusheng with green eyes, they still had smiles on their faces.
Accountant Chang also talked about the brigade's accounts: the Ping'anzhuang Brigade's account balance was 2,744.7 yuan.
Li Changshun, who was listening in, was shocked: "Why does the brigade have so much money? Has the levy been handed over?" The production team handed over the levy to the brigade, and the brigade also had to hand it over to the commune, which was why the commune allocated production data to the brigade. withholding the levy.
For Li Changshun, who has been truly selfless all his life, he never wanted this kind of situation to happen under his nose.
Xia Juhua knew that he always put the collective first, so she quickly said in a soothing tone: "Don't worry, captain, we have paid the full amount of the reserve fund. This year is a good year. You can see that the work points of every production team are much higher than in previous years, so the team has more than enough money to retain."
Li Changshun then nodded and said nothing. Li Daniu and the other four production team leaders looked at Chen Qiu Sheng with complicated expressions: Ping'an Village has the highest work points. Don't think they don't know that Ping'an Village set aside the one thousand yuan specifically for buying reed poles from other production teams.
Chen Qiusheng seemed to be unable to feel the gazes on him. He pondered over what Zhang Cuiping had said to him: "You need to talk to the team leader. This year, the supply and marketing cooperative suddenly placed an order for the word seat again. The quantity is quite large. Should we still prepare the basket?"
Xia Juhua didn't know that Chen Qiusheng was also responsible for such a mission. She asked the other four production team leaders, "This year, the sorghum planted is small. Do your teams have enough sorghum seedlings for sweeping and cooking brooms?"
After sorghum is husked, the empty ears left are called sorghum seedlings. The brooms and cooking brooms made of them are compact and easy to use, and are very popular. Xia Juhua thought that although these two things are not worth much, they are useful to every household and government agencies. So she went to the county supply and marketing cooperative to find Director Zheng and asked him if he could buy them openly.
Director Zheng has benefited greatly from Ping'an Village's calligraphy mats, decorative baskets and various animal products in the past two years. He is often praised even at meetings of the regional supply and marketing cooperative, and he is eager for Xia Juhua to come to him.
When I heard that they just wanted the supply and marketing cooperative to take over all the brooms and kitchen dustpans of Ping'anzhuang Brigade, I agreed without hesitation. However, the condition was that the specifications and sizes of the brooms and kitchen dustpans produced by each production team must be similar.
There is no way. Nowadays, brooms and cooking brushes are all made by hand. Each family has its own way of making them and each person has his own specifications. The sizes are always different. If there are only one or two, it is fine. But if there are hundreds or thousands of them piled together, it looks irregular.
Xia Juhua was already familiar with the matter of unified specifications, and she agreed immediately. She returned to Ping'an Village Brigade and told the four production team leaders about the situation, and they performed the broomstick-tying exercise for Xia Juhua on the spot.
Finally, everyone decided on the length, thickness and size of the brooms and cooking dustpans.
But Li Daniu and a few others were impressed. They asked why the annual work points in Ping'an Village were so high. It turned out that people had already considered whether they could make money before working, so of course they would not suffer losses.
When the members of the production team heard that they could earn cash by making brooms and cooking dustpans, they were all very happy. All the canals in Ping'anzhuang Brigade had been opened, and they had nothing to do this winter, so going to level the land was just for show. The brigade had two tractors, and they could borrow a few more from the agricultural machinery station from time to time. In the early spring, the tractors plowed the soil deep and fast, but now they were working so hard. Working hard earned five work points a day, which was not as exciting as making cash by making brooms.
When Xia Juhua asked if there were enough sorghum seedlings, Li Daniu shook his head and said, "Not really. Everyone heard that they could receive orders from the county supply agency, and they were so busy planting sorghum every day that the sorghum seedlings would be gone in two days. Someone also told me that our production team should plant more sorghum next year, otherwise there would be no sorghum seedlings in the winter."
Multiple varieties of sorghum? Xia Juhua thought that the person who came up with this idea must be a bit stupid. Even an illiterate person could figure out the price of wheat and the price of a pound of sorghum.
Besides, the Pingan Village Brigade now irrigates the fields. This year, the wheat yield reached 520 catties per mu, while the sorghum yield was only over 300 catties. Even if the money for making a broom is added, the income is still not as high as that from wheat.
What is going on in your mind when you give up wheat which tastes better and brings higher income and grows sorghum?
"Then what do you think?" It was useless for the members to complain, as they still had to look at the ideas of the production team and the brigade.
Li Daniu had obviously thought about this question, and said carefully: "I want to collect some sorghum seedlings from other brigades just like Ping'an Village collects reed stalks."
Pinganzhuang Brigade had irrigated land, so except for a few crops that had to be paid as public grain, the rest of the land was planted with wheat, which allowed the dividends of each production team to reach a higher level. However, other brigades did not have the convenience of Pinganzhuang, and still distributed land equally among various crops.
They have the sorghum seedlings that Ping'an Village needs.
Captain Niu curled his lips, thinking that there was no need for Li Daniu to be so cautious. As long as it could increase income, the captain was not afraid of the production teams testing the policy edge - Ping'an Village was now harvesting reeds, which had become a fact recognized by the entire Hongxing Commune and even the entire Pingde County, and the captain did not hide it.
Why can't they harvest sorghum seedlings? Team 3 has already harvested a batch.
Like the third captain, Xia Juhua only asked if the money in the small farm's account was enough to buy sorghum seedlings, and had no intention of stopping it. Captain Niu felt that he still had to tell Li Daniu, lest the two production teams charge different prices, which would cause conflicts and make Xia Juhua angry:
"Captain Li, if you want to collect sorghum seedlings, don't offer a higher price than our production team. We charge two cents per pound." In addition to being used as weeds, sorghum seedlings can also be used to feed livestock before they lose water, so they are more expensive than reed stalks when collected.
Li Daniu didn't expect that Captain Niu would walk in front of him again and said with some dissatisfaction: "When did your production team collect the crops? Why didn't you tell me?"
Captain Niu said without any guilt: "There are not enough sorghum seedlings, so we have to harvest some. I thought you guys had already harvested it."
The captains of Teams 4 and 5: How can there be such shameless people? No wonder Team 3’s work points this year are the highest among the four production teams.
As for Ping An Village, they no longer had any intention of competing with them.
The fourth captain looked at Captain Niu and asked Xia Juhua a question: "Captain, Ping'an Village is hiring people to weave baskets. Are they really paying them the same wages as workers in the city?"
Xia Juhua did not answer the question herself, but looked at Chen Qiusheng. Chen Qiusheng nodded: "The work points of each of our production teams are different. If we calculate it based on the exchange of work, I am afraid that the members of our production team will have objections. If we calculate it based on the work points of your production team, I am afraid that those who go to weave baskets will suffer losses. It is better to pay a reasonable salary every month."
Of course it's good to get paid every month. Now Ping'anzhuang can't complete the orders for weaving mats and baskets by itself, so it has to recruit people from other production teams. Although they only want women, the four production teams don't have any objections at all.
What do you think? The women in the production team are not as strong as the men in doing the work. Now that the brigade has added two tractors, it saves a lot of effort in both spring ploughing and autumn harvest. It is not necessary like in previous years that all the able-bodied people in the production team have to work hard in the fields in those two seasons. The members all wish their wives could make money like the women in Ping'an Village.
"How much is the monthly salary?" Captain Five felt that he should ask Xia Juhua about the salary in person to feel at ease.
Chen Qiusheng smiled and said, "In the first month, you will learn the skills and will be paid six yuan. From the second month onwards, those who have qualified skills will be paid fifteen yuan per month if they can weave one mat every two and a half days or three baskets per day. If you can weave more, you will be paid according to the number of extra baskets you weave."
In fact, calculated based on the work points of each production team, this salary was not too much, but it was stable: no woman could guarantee that she would work a day in a month, and there was still no guarantee that the production team would have enough work assigned to her - during the winter, the men had to stay at home, but the women in Ping'an Village had to weave mats until the Chinese New Year before they could take a holiday.
Otherwise, how could Ping An Village have a work point value of 2.6 cents!
"How do we select people? How many should we select for each production team?" Team leader Five asked endless questions.
Chen Qiusheng didn't think it was a problem and patiently explained to him: "Each production team has ten people, otherwise the place is too narrow to accommodate them. But I can't guarantee that all of these ten people will stay. I don't have the final say on whether they are qualified or not."
Thinking of Zhao Xianzhi and Zhang Cuiping's strict demands, Xia Juhua couldn't help but smile. She completely believed that Chen Qiu Sheng's words were not final and came from the bottom of his heart.
The other production team leaders were a little unconvinced, so the team leader of team four finally spoke up: "You are the production team leader, and you arrange for someone to weave the mats. Isn't it enough to say that?" Who are they trying to fool?
Chen Qiu Sheng did not explain this time: he was not the one teaching the editor-in-chief, and then these people would know how powerful Zhao Xianzhi and Zhang Cuiping were.
Did he really think his life was easy? If Qi Weidong had not secretly sent cartloads of sweet potatoes to Ping'an Village, and if the grain stations had not found Ping'an Village and asked them to deliver the sweet potatoes after collecting them, he might not have been able to become the production team leader.
Go to Pingan Village and take a look. Are there any old men who dare to speak loudly? Are there any old men who dare to hit their daughters-in-law? Are there any old men who dare to arrange marriages for their daughters-in-law casually? !
There are no men more aggrieved than the masters of Ping'an Village.
Chen Qiu Sheng looked at the four production team leaders who were discussing enthusiastically how to select people with a certain gloating look, and thought to himself, you guys must be happy now, so find a way to force your wives to learn how to weave mats. Once your wives and the women in Ping An Village learn how to deal with men, don't blame me for not giving you a shot in advance.
The four production team leaders, who had no idea of Chen Qiusheng's intentions, began to have a headache after returning to the production team. They found that Ping'an Village only recruited ten women for each production team, which was a big problem for them:
Nowadays, production teams are mostly people with one or two surnames living together. Some families with mixed surnames have become relatives due to marriage. Who do you think should go and who should not?
No wonder Chen Qiu Sheng left the first choice to them. This guy had bad intentions from the beginning.
Regardless of whether they had good intentions or not, none of the production team leaders dared to say to Chen Qiu Sheng that they would not choose anyone and Ping An Zhuang could choose the person itself if it wanted to recruit.
That's pushing good things away.
The four production team leaders all knew that if they really said that to Chen Qiu Sheng, that guy would definitely not recruit people from their production team, but would allocate the quota to the other three production teams.
If Xia Juhua wanted to seek justice from the team, how could she not side with Chen Qiusheng? Maybe Xia Juhua had given Chen Qiusheng the idea.
In the end, they still allocated all ten places. Zhao Xianzhi didn't care how many of them were relatives or their own family members. The first question she asked all the women who came to report was: "Who can read? How much do they know? How many of them have been to school?"
Among the forty women, only a dozen younger ones raised their hands and declared that they could read. Zhang Cuiping took these dozen people aside and tested them on how many words they could recognize. Unfortunately, none of them had ever been to school.
Zhao Xianzhi had another question for the remaining twenty or so people: "Who has ever woven mats or baskets at home?"
The women looked at each other and slowly raised their hands. An Baoling came over and led everyone to Hongcui's room, and gave everyone a cushion and a reed stick: "Don't be afraid, you guys try to weave first so I can see how the basics are."
Didn't I come here to learn how to weave mats? Why did I start weaving first? Someone muttered in dissatisfaction: "Do you Ping An Village want to learn my craft?"
An Baoling smiled and said, "If you are afraid that we will steal your skills, then don't make it up."
The man thought An Baoling was easy to talk to, but she then said, "Go home, or we will learn your craft by weaving mats together every day."
"I, I didn't mean that, I just..." The person who spoke panicked when she heard that she was asked to go home. She was the sister-in-law of the fifth team leader's uncle, and the fifth team leader's mother personally interceded for her, so she got a place. How could she be willing to go back? She quickly explained to An Baoling that she didn't doubt An Baoling just now, but was just afraid...
An Baoling still smiled: "It's okay. We all know that if someone has a skill, they are afraid that others will learn it. You already know how to weave mats, and you won't learn much by coming to Ping An Village. It's better to go home and weave mats and make more money."
The problem is that the supply and marketing cooperatives are unwilling to collect the scattered mats, and Ping An Zhuang has collected all the reed stalks. Where can she find reed stalks to weave the mats, and who can she sell them to for cash? !
Regardless of whether the woman apologized first and then threw a tantrum, An Baoling just said, "Go home. If your skills are passed on to others, your family will blame you, and we will not tolerate that."
Even Saqi couldn't scare An Baoling, and the woman had to leave in disgrace when others started to break the skin. She thought that when she returned to the fifth team, she would talk to the captain and tell him that Pingan Village was not sincere in recruiting people. They just wanted to steal other people's skills. They were angry and sent her back because she exposed them.
Unexpectedly, after hearing this, the fifth captain immediately got angry with his mother who brought his uncle's wife and his brother's wife: "People want to learn her craft? Her craft is so good, why doesn't the supply and marketing cooperative give her orders and come to buy her woven mats every day? Ping'an Village just wants to see if the people who come here have the basics so that they know where to start teaching. That's not right, either."
The fifth team leader's mother had never seen her son so angry before, and said timidly: "Why don't you just explain it to her? Why did you bring her back? You don't even give a little face to you as a production team leader."
"Why should they give me face?" Captain Five was very good at reading the wind direction and understood better than anyone: "We are the ones begging them for a share of food, not them begging us for help."
"Well, how about letting Xiaowen go?" The mother felt it was a pity to waste a spot, so she suggested a replacement candidate to Captain Five.
Captain Five was so angry at his mother that he laughed: "Mom, you are my mother. If it was her," he pointed at his uncle's sister-in-law who was speechless, "if she didn't know how to do it at all and couldn't be taught, people would still agree to change someone. Now she suspects that I want to steal the skills. If I send someone else, I will be accused of stealing skills. How can your son have the face to go to Ping'an Manor again, and how can he come back from Ping'an Manor?!"
My uncle's sister-in-law's face turned blue and red, and she dared not say a word. She regretted her hasty words in her heart. Even if she came back, she should have stayed at home quietly for two days and should not have thought of asking Captain Five to stand up for her.
Not many people knew about the shameful production team in Ping'an Village, but the captain's mother had just followed her here, and many people asked about it - those ten places were too coveted, and everyone in the production team remembered who went and who did not - in order to win the sympathy of the captain's mother, she told others a lot of bad things about Ping'an Village.
On the surface, those people followed suit and said that Ping An Zhuang asked too much, but behind the scenes, they might laugh at her for losing a spot. Maybe if there is any good thing in the production team in the future, the captain will no longer think about their family.
Over at Ping'an Village, An Baoling was waiting for the women to finish their weaving work, but she was also not idle. She had a handful of reed bark at hand, and with her ten fingers flying, she had woven half of a basket in a short while.
It was more of a small decoration than a basket. It was too small to hold anything, but the shape was something the women in other production teams had never seen before. They then understood why An Baoling had the guts to send the woman back - they had never seen anything she had woven before, and even if she had woven it in front of them, they would not have seen how it was done. So why did they need to steal her craft?
Soon Zhang Cuiping brought over the dozen women who said they could read. Andingling asked them, "How are they? How many of them can learn to weave mats?"
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