Chapter 110
When the recruits gathered, the recruiting comrades discovered that in addition to the bedding distributed in advance by the troops, each of the recruits of the Ping'anzhuang Battalion was carrying a cloth bag. The bags did not look very heavy, but were bulging. No one knew what was in them.
Xia Juhua gently pushed An Baoling and warned her in a low voice: "Don't cry, the children will see you and cry too. It will be embarrassing in front of our comrades. If the leaders of the other troops see you, they will think you are a wimp in the army who can't live without your mother."
The farewell drums had already sounded, and the recruits were lining up to board the train. Although their movements were not yet unified, their new uniforms and caps without badges had already distinguished them from ordinary people.
An Baoling wiped away her tears while searching for her son among the uniformed troops. "My son is not a wimp." Then she shouted to her son who had already boarded the car, "Volunteer, do your best in the army. I am waiting for your meritorious service."
Xia Juhua silently took a step back, not wanting to admit that she came here with An Baoling: You've watched too many movies, and are still waiting for news of your son's meritorious service. If you want your son to make a contribution, please don't make a fuss about it in front of others.
"Auntie, I will work hard in the army. I will mail you the allowance when it is issued." Liu Zhiliang, who was only sixteen years old after the Chinese New Year, was almost invisible among the new soldiers who were eighteen years old, but his voice still came out, causing Xia Juhua to step forward again, smiling and waving her hand at the car covered with banners and said:
"Don't worry about home. Keep the allowance for yourself and don't be reluctant to spend it."
Liu Zhiliang was still waving at her when the car started. He finally shouted to Xia Juhua, "Auntie, I will come back with merit."
Okay, I know you have always lived in the same courtyard with your third aunt. Xia Juhua continued to wave at the car, with a smile on her face, until the car was out of sight, then she pushed An Baoling, who was crying, to where the bicycles were parked: "Stop crying, are you deliberately making your child feel uneasy in the army?"
An Baoling wiped away her tears and sobbed, "I started crying after the car went far away. I was holding back when the volunteers could see me." Then she looked around and said unhappily, "That useless Niu Erniu's wife cried in front of the child. She really made the child feel uneasy."
Xia Juhua had experienced today what it meant to laugh at someone who is only fifty steps away from you. She called out to the families of the Ping'an Village Brigade who had come to send their children to join the army, and told them to stop looking and go back to the production team to do what they were supposed to do.
It's a good thing that the children can go to the army. Instead of standing here crying and missing the children, it is better to go back and boost production so that the children don't have to worry about home and hold them back.
Xia Juhua's voice was very loud, and she couldn't stop crying because she couldn't stop the family members.
Because her voice was so loud, not only the family members from Pingan Village who came to see her off could hear her, but also the leaders of the county revolutionary committee and the armed forces. The district director smiled and said to Uncle Qi: "Captain Xia is making more and more sense."
Uncle Qi thought to himself, you haven't seen how she asked questions in my office. Not only did her words make sense, but she was even more powerful than she is now.
But if you think about it, you can understand that a female comrade can manage a team of more than 2,000 people and manage it in an orderly manner with progress in all indicators. If she couldn't explain the reason and had no momentum, she would have given up long ago.
In fact, Xia Juhua is a little overwhelmed now. She looks at the dozen or so educated youth standing in front of her and feels a headache: "It's only been a few months and you want to ask for leave to go home for the New Year?" There are still one and a half months, nearly two months, left. Isn't it too early to end the New Year?
The leading educated youth was called Deng Chunlin, who was considered a leader among the educated youth. When Li Changshun was the team leader, he appointed him as the leader of the educated youth group. He looked like a pure scholar, but his words were not polite at all: "The educated youth in other teams have already asked for leave, why can't we go?"
"That's right. We have paid our public grain and leveled the land. There is no work left. What are we doing here?"
"I've had enough of living without electricity or running water."
The last person's words caught Xia Juhua's attention. She glanced at the girl who was speaking. It seemed that her name was Zheng Hongbing. Zheng Hongbing saw that Xia Juhua didn't look at others but only at him, and he couldn't help but feel proud: Country people are country people. Even if he became a team leader, he has never seen electricity, so he doesn't know how to use tap water, right?
Unexpectedly, Xia Juhua asked: "Do you pay for electricity and tap water in your home?"
Zheng Hongbing and the educated youth were stunned for a moment before they said, "What's wrong with spending money? You have to spend it somewhere."
"Yes, if you have money, you have to spend it somewhere." Xia Juhua agreed with her point of view: "But when you have a place to spend it, wouldn't it be more uncomfortable to have no money in your hands? Seeing others spend a lot of money, you feel bad, right?"
Why did people become so impetuous in their last life? If Xia Juhua were to explain, it was because there were more ways for information to spread, and everyone knew which places offered better enjoyment if they had money, so they squeezed in desperately, only to find out when they got there that they had no money.
So you are in a hurry to make money, the faster and more money the better, can you feel at ease? It would be strange if you are not restless.
Deng Chunlin and Zheng Hongbing were both stunned. No one had expected that Xia Juhua could explain so thoroughly the thing that they least wanted others to know.
They wanted to return to the city because they wanted to live a convenient life. But Xia Juhua was right. All the conveniences were based on having money in hand. The educated youth who came here had experienced the feeling of watching others spend money while they had to carefully count the few pitiful bills in their pockets.
"Why do we have no money? It's because the brigade didn't assign us to production teams." Zheng Hongbing felt that the reason why the educated youth had no money was not their own fault.
Xia Juhua smiled: "At the beginning of the brigade, didn't you get assigned to various production teams? It was you who felt that the work assigned to you by the production teams was too much and too heavy, so you wanted to set up a separate assault team. Captain Li took your enthusiasm into consideration, agreed to your request, and also allocated a separate place for you, but how have you been producing in the past few years? Do you need me to tell you?"
When these educated youth first came to Ping'anzhuang Brigade, Li Changshun, in accordance with the requirements of his superiors, dispersed them to various production teams, and asked each production team to specially select experienced farmers to lead them in farming.
But after working for less than a year, the educated youth began to complain that they were not taught seriously and were always made to do the hardest and most tiring work. They said that the production teams were persecuting the educated youth. They gathered together to strike and refused to go to the fields. They blocked the brigade headquarters every day and demanded that they form their own assault team.
Li Changshun tried to reason with them every day, but after a while, his temper got worse. Okay, I'll let you form a commando team and divide out the land for you to work on, but you must pay no less than the public grain according to the number of acres you divide out.
The educated youths who thought they had won signed a letter of guarantee with Li Changshun in all seriousness, pressing their fingerprints so heavily that Li Changshun became so angry that he refused to even look at the educated youths again.
It was not until the spring plowing season of the following year that the educated youth realized the price they had to pay for their naivety. In the first year, they only focused on picking out the faults of the old hands and did not learn how to farm properly. How could they know what to plant and when, or how deep or shallow to plant?
The harvest of the commandos that year can be imagined. After paying the public grain, the remaining grain they had was not even enough for the summer harvest, and they had to use the money they earned from paying the public grain to buy food. But they all went home for the New Year. Some showed off their annual dividends to their families to show their generosity, while others were filial and thought about their parents' hard work and left the money for their families. The money was spent and given away, so is there any need to ask how much food it can buy back?
So the educated youth went to the brigade headquarters again, wanting to be reassigned to various production teams. But Li Changshun was not used to their problems - in the eyes of the rural people, there was only so much land, and the people in their own production teams had no choice but to feed them. The educated youth from the city were clearly here to steal their food.
In the first year, they were unwilling to be divided into food and dividends according to work points, so they just had to be tough and fight against their commandos.
Are they saying that the Ping'an Village Brigade persecuted the educated youth? That letter of guarantee with more than a dozen fingerprints on it made Li Changshun invincible no matter which level of the educated youth office he faced - it was not that he persecuted the educated youth, but that he had always taken care of them according to their wishes.
In the following years, some educated youth came and some left for work, but Li Changshun excluded them from Pinganzhuang Brigade based on the guarantee letter. Therefore, the educated youth in Pinganzhuang Brigade were different from those in other brigades, and their presence was very low.
There were some smart people among the educated youth. They tried to guide other educated youth to integrate into the Ping'anzhuang Brigade through their own labor, but they all failed without exception. Those smart people stopped trying to stand out and after doing their own jobs well, they developed their personal hobbies or read books. They no longer got involved in the tug-of-war between the educated youth and the Ping'anzhuang Brigade, and secretly looked for every opportunity to leave as soon as possible.
So even though Deng Chunlin had always been the leader of the educated youth group, he was not among those who left. Li Changshun would rather the brigade primary school could not operate without a teacher than let him be a private teacher.
Xia Juhua secretly agreed with Li Changshun's decision to exclude the educated youth from the Ping'anzhuang Brigade, because she knew that to the Ping'anzhuang Brigade, these educated youth were like migratory birds flying from the north to spend the winter: when the spring breeze blew, they would immediately pat their shoulders and fly away without even looking back at the land where they once lived.
Also, because the educated youth were excluded from Ping'an Village, they did not enjoy any new planting techniques or the convenience of tractors. The output of the land allocated to them was far from comparable to that of other production teams.
至于漏粉之類暗地裏進行的副業，知青們更是連風聲都聽不到。糧食産量上不去，副業一點兒沒有，知青們手裏能有錢才怪呢。
現在覺得手裏沒錢，又把平安莊怪上了，開玩笑呢吧？夏菊花自然毫不客氣的把鄭紅兵給怼了回去：對于不會回望的候鳥，客氣了還以為別人怕了他。
鄭紅兵看了領頭的鄧春林一眼，見他一點說話的意思都沒有，心裏暗恨，嘴上還挺強硬：“那是給我們劃的地不好，咋種都莊稼都長不好，我們有啥辦法？”
夏菊花看着她笑了：“小鄭呀，你說的自己相信就行。當初劃地的時候你還沒到平安莊，小鄧在吧？那小鄧你給小鄭說說，那地是不是全平安莊在隊最好的地？”
鄧春林沒法否認夏菊花的話，只能繼續裝死。夏菊花臉上自此一直挂着笑，說出來的話也越來越溫和：“我知道你們這些城裏人，一直覺得到平安莊這種窮地方委屈，我也心疼你們年紀小小就離開家裏人。”
“這樣吧，你們想回家過年，可以。不過要自己商量好，知青點不能空，得一直有人值班，要不房子凍塌了，大隊沒錢給你們修新的，你們就得自己集資修知青點——那畢竟是集體財産不是。你們不想在自己檔案裏，增加一條破壞集體財産的記錄吧？”
知青們面面相觑，誰敢擔下破壞集體財産的罪名？于是鄧春林不得不帶着他們回到知青點商量，該咋排班回家過年。
夏菊花就是要讓他們自己嗆嗆去。不都覺得自己能耐嗎，那就看看排不出那個順序來，他們還能和和睦睦的一起來找她的麻煩不能。
“你跟他們那麽客氣幹啥。”李長順等到知青們都走了，才從常會計那屋過來——他一眼也不願意看那些半吊子。
“那你跟他們生啥氣。”夏菊花根本沒把知青鬧事放在心上。關心則亂，不關心亂什麽。
不出夏菊花所料，過了四五天也沒見有知青來找她批假，可見是沒商量好咋排順序，夏菊花就不等着了，她一天也很忙的好不好？
四個生産隊的掃把、炊帚攢了好大一堆，就等着她帶着去縣供銷社呢。而到了縣供銷社，鄭主任是不會輕易放過夏菊花的：“你當了大隊長，一個月才十塊錢，哪如給我們供銷社炒花生？不用多了，炒上三千斤就夠你一年掙的了。”
夏菊花因為農機站的炒花生，算是在張主任那過了明路，現在也敢答應鄭主任，而不是跟以前一樣推說沒時間了：“鄭主任，你要是信得過我，我自然願意掙這個錢。就是我的時間真有點緊，交貨的時間你得寬寬手。”
“行，只要你肯炒，多等幾天還能在年底賣個好價錢呢。”鄭主任聽到夏菊花同意炒花生，樂的把收掃把和炊帚的标準都自動降低了，一把也沒甩出來全收下——除了公家單位，誰家也不會同時用上兩個掃把，大點小點都不耽誤掃地。
跟夏菊花一起來送貨的四個生産隊長，總算見識了夏菊花為啥有底氣讓他們紮這兩樣東西了：人家供銷社全都收下不說，還直接給結了現錢，并說下次他們只要把掃把和炊帚集中到大隊部就行，供銷社負責派人拉回來。
“大隊長，你要是忙不過來，我讓我媳婦去給你幫忙吧？”牛隊長因為今天三隊交上來的東西最多，手一直放在口袋裏沒拿出來。
李大牛他們幾個也附和着說，他們的媳婦也能去幫忙，家裏有啥活讓夏菊花別客氣，他們也會管好各自生産隊的人，盡量不麻煩炒花生的夏菊花。
既然大家這麽關心自己給供銷社炒花生，夏菊花在供銷社把生花生送來之的，真的留在家裏炒了兩天，直到把小滿教的跟王彩鳳一樣，能獨自均勻挂霜了，才重新回到大隊部。
現在劉家院子裏，天天都散發着炒花生的香氣，白天是小滿自己炒，晚上就是她和王彩鳳妯娌兩個一起炒。兩人一人守着一口鍋，炒完一鍋你嘗嘗我的，我嘗嘗你的，相互還提點意見，把孫招弟看的都眼熱。
“還是你會教兒媳婦。”她跟夏菊花一起看着保國和樂樂兩個在炕頭玩兒，感嘆的說：“全生産隊找找，有她們妯娌這麽和氣的沒有？”
夏菊花正在縫過年的衣裳，聽了擡頭看孫招弟一眼接着縫自己的：“那還不是你在家的時候教的好，小滿才這麽懂事。”
可把孫招弟給臊的。天地良心，她真是聽到廚房裏傳出的說笑聲，發自內心的感嘆一句，沒有誇自己閨女的意思。
兩人兩輩子交情，夏菊花還能不知道孫招弟的為人，她說的話也是發自真心：“你也別天天自己瞎琢磨，你家門風好，進門的兒媳婦差不了。”上輩子孫招弟過的日子可比她強多了。
孫招弟又嘆一口氣：“跟你說的似的就好了。”
夏菊花就對她說：“你別老嘆氣，都把好日子嘆沒了。過了年留柱也該相看媳婦了，你怕将來兒媳婦不和，不會成家一個分出去一個？”
聽她又提起分家的事兒，孫招弟也是不滿的：“小滿可跟我說好幾回了，她和志雙要養你老。你別老想讓他們自己搬出去。我自己的閨女自己知道，她要是不想養你老，不能總跟我說這話。”
“我給我奶養老，我上大學能掙好多錢。”正玩得不亦樂乎的劉保國，把這句話聽到耳朵裏，張口就否定了孫招弟的說法。
孫招弟被他的童語逗樂了：“養老可花錢了，老人還唠叨好管事兒，多煩人。等你要娶媳婦了，人家聽說你還得給奶奶養老，不嫁給你咋辦？”
“我不娶媳婦，掙多多的錢都給奶奶。”劉保國瞪着黑漆漆的眼睛，拍着小胸脯說的無比真誠。
已經兩歲的樂樂，能聽懂不少話，因為天天跟哥哥一起玩，所以兄妹兩人從來都一至對外，現在她就站在親哥身邊，板着小胖臉跟孫招弟講道理：“掙錢給奶奶，奶奶不唠叨，不煩人。”
夏菊花手裏的針線，已經不知不覺的放下了。眼前的一幕，由不得她不想起自己當年的遭遇，那時候哪怕只有這麽一句話呢，她也不至于……
呸，還想上輩子幹啥，現在她日子不知道比上輩子好過多少倍，還會越來越好。夏菊花狠狠低頭縫了幾針，沒再出聲。
孫招弟是感覺到夏菊花情緒變化的，只以為她感動于孫子孫女的給維護，又不知道咋表達，沒當一回事。
夏菊花有了要越過越好的決心，對大隊的事兒更上心了：再過三四年就要大包幹了，她想着咋也得辦上一兩個廠子，好讓社員們除了種地之外，多一條出路。
光靠種地是賺不了太多錢的，最多就是不餓肚子。
可辦啥廠子，除了編織廠外，夏菊花真沒有想出第二種來，只好不停的盯着男人們漏粉兒，想着以後是不是能再開個粉條廠。
平安莊大隊的地都成了水澆地，不種麥子太可惜，夏菊花不打算改種紅薯，可別的大隊的紅薯種的不少——他們都跟平安莊學會了插秧育苗，覺得種紅薯省種子管理還省事。
于是張主任再次在辦公室見到夏菊花，好奇的問：“夏大隊長，你咋有空來公社視察工作了？”視察兩個字咬的那叫個重。
“主任，你就別跟我開玩笑了，我是有事想聽聽主任的意見。”夏菊花哪敢擔這視察的名頭，上級到下級才叫視察呢，她是來請示彙報工作的。
張主任才不信她的話呢，要不是有事兒，這位夏菊花同志連公社的會都是能躲就躲，非得讓李長順那個已經不當大隊長的人來開不可。
偏偏公社分配的任務，平安莊大隊都完成的很好，樣樣走在紅星公社前頭，張主任也就不能借此批評她。
不批評不代表态度就好，他問完一句就不主動開口，等着夏菊花說出她的目的。
夏菊花就跟張主任打商量：“主任，我聽說好幾個大隊都嫌紅薯不好放？”
“你不是知道嗎，上次你還特意過來感謝我，替你們平安莊大，隊擋去了幫助他們漏粉兒的麻煩呢。”
夏菊花就嘿嘿兩聲，說：“我們大隊今年除了交公糧的紅薯，就沒舍得占地多種。可社員們吃慣了酸辣粉，自己家沒紅薯漏不了，都有意見呢。”
編，你接着往下編，張主任靜靜的看着夏菊花。別以為他不知道，平安莊大隊現在除了平安莊的編席組，別人天天都在漏粉兒。五斤紅薯漏一斤粉，可各糧站對平安莊的要求是七斤換一斤！
那兩斤紅薯的賺頭，還不夠平安莊社員吃酸辣粉的？
夏菊花不在意張主任的态度，自顧自的說下去：“這人要是吃慣了一樣東西，吃不到嘴可太難受了，大家給糧站漏粉都沒精神了。”
"Just tell me what you want to do." Director Zhang couldn't bear to listen any longer. On one hand, you said that Ping An Zhuang was leaking vermicelli, and on the other hand, you said that we couldn't eat vermicelli. How dare you make up a more outrageous story?
Xia Juhua finally waited for him to speak, and said with a smile: "On behalf of all the members of Ping'an Village, I would like to ask for some sweet potatoes from other brigades so that everyone can make some noodles for their families."