Chapter 161
Xia Juhua said to everyone seriously: "It was my suggestion to build an instant noodle factory. When the troops learned about it, they also hoped that we would build it. But we can't count on the troops - they bought asphalt for our road and solved a large part of our funding. It's not appropriate to ask them to pay again."
"There is not much money in the brigade account now. When the production teams pay the reserve fund at the end of the year, there will be only about 2,000 yuan. I am afraid that it will not be enough to build an instant noodle factory. Of course, I am willing to invest all the money in the instant noodle factory. But this is my personal opinion, not all members think the same way."
Li Changshun heard this and said, "I don't care what others think. If you think it's a good idea to invest in the instant noodle factory, then I won't take back my share of the money and will invest in the instant noodle factory with you."
Liu Liqun, Chen Qiusheng and Captain Niu all agreed with Li Changshun that they would do whatever Xia Juhua did. Li Daniu thought for a moment and said, "I have also invested my own money in the instant noodle factory, but I have to go back and ask for the opinions of the members of our production team."
The fourth captain, Sun Qinglin, and Li Daniu had similar ideas, and the final result was that Accountant Chang had to work harder to calculate how much money each family had left.
The instant noodle factory hasn't even chosen a location yet, and Li Changshun and his colleagues are worried that members will want to take their money back - who wouldn't want to have more money in their hands? If that happens, the funding gap for the construction of the instant noodle factory will be even bigger.
Everyone's eyes turned to Xia Juhua again.
Xia Juhua and Li Changshun looked at each other and said, "Then each production team should go back and ask for the opinions of the members. As I said before, whether to refund the money is up to the members' willingness. No one should be afraid of losing face and force the members to get their money back."
Seeing that the production team leaders all nodded, Li Changshun asked, "Speaking of building an instant noodle factory, two kilns of bricks have already been fired in Xiajiazhuang. Should we choose a good location and use the current manpower to slowly build the wall?"
So, taking advantage of the fact that everyone was there, they walked out of the brigade headquarters and looked for a place to build a factory. In fact, Xia Juhua thought that the youth educated site was not bad. The surrounding area was spacious, and the few rooms inside were built when the first batch of educated youth went to the countryside. They were not too old and could be used as warehouses after the factory was built in the future.
The location is only a few steps away from the brigade headquarters and close to the asphalt road, making it convenient for both the purchase and shipment of raw materials. There are more than five mu of private land next to it, which is enough to build a small instant noodle factory. Even if we want to expand the scale in the future, the space between the land and the youth educated point will be enough.
But there are still educated youth living there, so it's not easy to just move them out.
Seeing that she was staring at the direction of the educated youth site, Li Changshun asked, "Do you also like that place?"
Xia Juhua nodded: "It's a pity that there are still people living there. If there were no one living there, we could enclose their private plots inside. Wouldn't it be a nice square place?" The private plots for the educated youth back then were all marked out by Li Changshun. They were poor land that did not produce much food, so it was not a big deal to enclose them to build a factory.
Li Changshun thought for a moment and said, "Isn't there news that the educated youth are going to return to the city? Let's build the outer wall first and enclose their houses. It's just a matter of having one more door for them to live in. When the policy is really implemented, they can leave and use the houses as soon as they leave, without delaying anything."
Otherwise, Li Changshun has been the team leader for so many years, and he is able to think in a unique way. Xia Juhua thought it was feasible - after all, the bricks had just started to be produced, and the sweet potatoes in the field were about to be harvested.
While they were discussing, Deng Chunlin ran out from the educated youth camp and greeted Xia Juhua: "Captain, you are back. You may not know that when you were away for the past few days, we educated youths..."
It seemed that he wanted to plead for the educated youth, so Xia Juhua interrupted him directly: "How are you studying now? Isn't the college entrance examination coming soon? You have all got your admission tickets, right? How about it, are you confident?"
How can you be sure of it? The college entrance examination has been suspended for ten years, and there are fewer restrictions on registration this time. Who knows how many people will sign up across the country? Who dares to say that he is sure of it? Don't think that before Deng Chunlin signed up, he thought that he would soon become a college student and then a national cadre.
Only when he really picked up the book to review did he realize that when he was in school, he was only concerned with showing off and participating in sports. He also went to the countryside for such a long time, working with hoes and shovels every day, and what little he had learned had been returned to the teacher without him realizing it.
Not to mention that he would definitely pass the exam, it would be good if he could walk out of the exam room smoothly without being scared when he saw the questions. So he thought he should ease the tension with the Pinganzhuang Brigade cadres. If he failed the exam, continuing to live in Pinganzhuang would be a way out. Although the news of youth educated returning to the city was flying everywhere, he had to stay in Pinganzhuang Brigade until the policy was implemented.
Just now, when he saw the cadres of the brigade and production team standing outside the educated youth site and pointing and talking, Deng Chunlin ran out immediately, just to let Xia Juhua and other brigade cadres know that he was different from most of the educated youth and was still willing to get along with the brigade cadres.
Who knew Xia Juhua would ask such a heart-warming question as soon as they met, which made Deng Chunlin's face turn pale and he didn't know how to respond. Xia Juhua didn't care about his facial expression at all and told him:
"Since you're here, I just want to tell you something. I heard that there have been some conflicts between the educated youth and the members of the commune recently, so the brigade decided to add a wall outside the educated youth site to protect the educated youth. Please tell everyone not to have other ideas."
Deng Chunlin was skeptical about this statement: "How high should it be built? Do we need the help of the educated youth? This is to add protection measures for us. I think we educated youth should also get involved."
It would be best if all educated youth had to participate, and it didn't matter whether their work points were recorded or not. This would make Hu Zhongshan and others have no time to read, and that would be the result Deng Chunlin wanted most.
Xia Juhua still couldn't see his little calculation: "No, the production teams will be harvesting late sweet potatoes soon, and it will take time to burn all the bricks, so we won't delay's review time. Otherwise, if some educated youth really missed their review because of the baseboard and everyone failed to get into university, the team can't bear this responsibility."
Didn't I tell myself some time ago that if I delayed their college entrance examination, I would never forgive Ping'anzhuang Brigade? Now I'd better stop making trouble - the educated youth can't even do farm work well, and have never built a wall. If they really do it, they will just be working in the mud and pushing bricks. Ping'anzhuang can do these things themselves.
Deng Chunlin was a little frustrated by Xia Juhua's rejection. He wanted to fight for it again, but was scared by Xia Juhua's words and dared not say anything: "If you insist, let's go to the educated youth site together to solicit the opinions of the educated youth. If most of the educated youth agree to join us in building the wall, then we can let them participate."
Deng Chunlin looked at Xia Juhua who said this calmly and didn't know how to respond: the experience he learned during the movement was that leaders like to cultivate one or two confidants in secret, and then use these confidants to incite others to achieve their own goals.
Xia Juhua in front of him insisted on putting everything out in the open and asking for everyone's opinions on everything. Would Deng Chunlin dare to bring the brigade cadres to the educated youth site to solicit other people's opinions?
Impossible! Now he has no prestige among the educated youth. Even though he knows that most of the educated youth are like him and can't read any books, he dare not say it to their faces. Even if they can't read books, it doesn't mean they have given up the hope of the college entrance examination. If you say that it's useless for them to read books, isn't that a clear sign of looking down on them?
You look down on others, and you expect them to agree with you? !
Deng Chunlin, who was rarely self-aware, stammered a few words and reluctantly returned to the educated youth station. A moment later, Hu Zhongshan came over again and greeted Xia Juhua in the same way: "Captain."
Xia Juhua nodded to Hu Zhongshan, who had a good impression on her, and asked him in the same way: "How is your review going? Are you confident?"
"I can't say I'm completely sure, I can only say I tried my best. By the way, I haven't had time to thank you yet, Captain. The review materials you sent from Beijing were of great help to me and Li Youguang. If we can achieve any results, it is definitely inseparable from your help. Captain, is there anything I can do for you now?"
Look, this is the difference between Deng Chunlin and Hu Zhongshan. No matter what happens, the former wants to pull in all the educated youth to enhance his own influence, while the latter only focuses on things within his ability and will not drag everyone into it.
Xia Juhua smiled and shook her head at him: "There's nothing you can do. Just study hard and try to get into college this year."
Watching Hu Zhongshan walking away, Li Changshun asked in confusion: "Among these educated youth, only you and Hu Zhongshan have smiling faces. What's the difference between you and others?"
He didn't believe that Xia Juhua would show kindness to an educated youth for no reason.
Xia Juhua still had a smile on her face: "This child is a person who knows how to be grateful. If we make friends with such a person in advance, maybe he can become a helper to Ping An Manor in the future?"
Li Changshun did not agree with Xia Juhua's idea, but when he thought about the times he disagreed with Xia Juhua, the final results always proved that Xia Juhua was right, so he felt that he could wait and see. Now the most important thing was to choose a good location for the instant noodles factory.
The educated youth site was set aside separately and did not occupy any of the production team leaders' land. The production team leaders were very satisfied and unanimously agreed with Li Changshun's opinion, which was considered to have determined the site. The next step was to slowly build the perimeter wall and then wait for the results from Engineer Xue.
Pingan Village certainly couldn't wait for Technician Xue's reply, so they still had to harvest the late sweet potatoes manually this year. Fortunately, the adobe bricks that Xiawo Brigade could sell to Pingan Village freed up manpower, and the sweet potatoes from each production team were successfully returned to the warehouse.
When the output was calculated, it was basically the same as last year's sweet potato output, with the output per mu reaching 2,153 kilograms, which made every member of Ping'an Village happy: Lin Hongliang had already made an agreement with the Ping'an Village Brigade before returning to the army that no matter how many sweet potatoes they produced, the army would purchase them at five cents per kilogram.
Based on this price, one acre of late sweet potatoes can bring the members an additional income of one hundred yuan, and also save them the manpower and time for storage and transportation. Where can you find such a good thing?
Because of the example of late sweet potatoes being delivered directly to the vermicelli factory, the members have a better understanding of how much benefit a factory can bring to everyone. Unexpectedly, not a single member wants to take back the funds raised, and all of them want to be invested in the construction of the instant noodle factory.
Xia Juhua took this opportunity to bring up Qi Weidong's intention to invest in an instant noodle factory to the team leaders: "Xiao Qi said that he has been making money with the Ping'anzhuang team over the years and is considered half a Ping'anzhuang person. It was fine that we didn't hear about the road construction last time, but this time he wants to invest with the people of Ping'anzhuang and contribute to Ping'anzhuang."
Seeing that everyone was still looking at her after listening to her words, and no one expressed an opinion, Xia Juhua quickly reminded the team leaders: "Say what you think, don't just look at me. I have no opinion on this matter."
Li Changshun asked Accountant Chang: "Have you calculated how much it would cost to build an instant noodle factory?"
Accountant Chang took out his notebook and flipped through it while saying, "I roughly calculated it. If we calculate it based on the vermicelli factory, it won't cost much just to build the factory building. We can spend 10,000 yuan on cement and steel bars, 4,000 yuan on bricks and tiles, and the remaining 4,000 yuan is labor costs. So it's 18,000 yuan, which is enough for the fundraising."
"But the machines inside are not counted. A set of machines in the vermicelli factory cost about 1,500 yuan. The machines in the instant noodle factory can't be less than this, right? Besides, we still have to buy raw materials, which costs money."
The accounts are quite clear, but the tone of the accountant when he says that building a factory alone doesn't cost much is a bit unacceptable: How can a person who can't even make 500 yuan a year say that more than 10,000 yuan is not a lot, and why does he make people so itchy?
Xia Juhua did not delve into the tone of Accountant Chang's words, and turned her eyes to everyone again: The account is here, and it is definitely not enough to use only the fund-raising money. The brigade can apply to the commune to use the reserved funds, but it is unknown when it will be approved, which may delay the construction of the factory.
Li Daniu looked at Li Changshun with some concern: "It doesn't matter if we agree to Xiao Qi's investment. What if the commune finds out and disagrees? We will have spent their money, so what can we use to return it to them?"
Li Changshun felt that Secretary Zhang's problem was not a problem: "I also think it would be a good thing for Xiao Qi to invest. With more money, we can install two more sets of equipment and import more raw materials. I will go to the commune to ask Secretary Zhang tomorrow. If the commune has no objection, I think it is better to let Xiao Qi participate in the investment."
Liu Liqun nodded and said, "It is thanks to Xiao Qi that we were able to build our vermicelli factory. Now that they have taken the initiative to invest, it would be wrong not to accept their investment. In the future, when we sell our vermicelli, eggs, and even hot and sour rice noodles and instant noodles, we will have to go through Xiao Qi."
Needless to say, Chen Qiusheng had been nodding since Xia Juhua asked. After that, whenever someone agreed with Qi Weidong's investment, he would nod. It made people worry whether his neck would hurt when he went home tonight.
Li Changshun was also a man of action, and the next day he asked Li Daniu to take him to the commune, and the news he got back was that Li Daniu neither supported nor opposed the idea. Li Changshun was confused by what he said, and he couldn't make up his mind, so he had to come to Xia Juhua for advice.
Xia Juhua thought that Secretary Zhang's attitude was not wrong: People cannot express their opinions on this matter. Agree, it is still a collective economy now, what does Qi Weidong's personal investment mean? Disagree, not to mention that Uncle Qi is still here, even if Uncle Qi is not here, Ping An Zhuang's current funding gap cannot be filled.
Therefore, the final decision still lies with Ping An Zhuang.
After listening to Xia Juhua's analysis, Li Changshun lowered his head and thought for a while before saying, "What do you mean? Do you agree or not to let Xiao Qi invest?"
"Of course I'm willing to let Xiaoqi invest." As long as Li Changshun was around, Xia Juhua still dared to tell the truth: "Apart from anything else, instant noodles will have a seafood flavor in the future, and Xiaoqi will need to help purchase the seasoning." So if she didn't accept his investment, the raw materials would become a problem.
Li Changshun nodded thoughtfully: "The things you brought back this time, were they paid for by Xiao Qi?"
Hearing his misunderstanding, Xia Juhua answered without hesitation, "Yes, I spent 4,150 yuan. The seller has already negotiated with Xiao Qi, so I can just go to him next time I go."
"It's not a final decision yet, but Xiao Qi has already paid so much money. If you don't want his investment, you are just pretending to be ignorant. Our team only has a few dollars now. If we don't want his investment, it's not even enough to pay for his goods."
Xia Juhua also nodded: "In addition to the payment for these seafood, another point is that instant noodles still need to be supplied to the army, and we may still charge a processing fee. It will take a while to see the money back. Without his investment, we can't buy back the machinery."
"Why don't you talk to Xiao Qi? Even if he invests, he can't take the majority. After all, it belongs to our Ping An Manor, and all the people are from our Ping An Manor."
Of course, Qi Weidong couldn't take the lion's share. There was still 18,000 yuan in the fund-raising, which was contributed by all the members of Ping An Zhuang. Xia Juhua agreed with Li Changshun's words, and when she called the brigade cadres to a meeting again, she told everyone what she and Li Changshun thought and why they thought so.
Knowing that the commune had no objection, and Xia Juhua and Li Changshun both agreed with Qi Weidong's investment, the team leaders, who were already very excited, quickly reached a consensus: Xia Juhua would contact Engineer Xue to estimate the price of a set of machinery and determine the total investment in the instant noodle factory, and then they would discuss with Qi Weidong the specific amount of his investment.
Engineer Xue replied quickly that since the machinery of the instant noodle factory is closer to fully automatic production, the cost is much more expensive than the vermicelli factory, and the cost of one set of machinery is close to 4,000 yuan. Hearing this number, everyone was shocked and felt fortunate to have agreed to Qi Weidong's investment, otherwise they might not be able to afford even one set of machinery, so why build an instant noodle factory.
As bricks came out of the kilns one by one and were transported back to Ping'anzhuang, the foundation of the wall of the factory building outside the educated youth site had already been excavated. In addition, Engineer Xue had already told Xia Juhua on the phone that the machinery would be completed soon and would be ready to ship out of the factory in about a month. Taking into account the shipping time, it would take at least another month and a half to transport it to Ping'anzhuang.
At that time, he will go to Ping'anzhuang with the machine and will still be responsible for debugging and personnel training, allowing Xia Juhua to select the operators in advance.
After receiving this news, the construction of the instant noodle factory will be accelerated - time has unknowingly come to November, and the college entrance examination that has been interrupted for ten years is about to return to the historical stage. Even the Ping'anzhuang team cannot help but feel its power.
The educated youths in the training centers turned a deaf ear to the walls in front of their own doors and frantically seized the last moments to review. Even the discordant voices within the centers disappeared as they were all waiting for the exam that would decide their fate.
Taking into account that the educated youth were not well-off and would have to say goodbye to Ping'an Village whether they passed the exam or not, Xia Juhua brought a basket of eggs laid by her own chickens and went to the educated youth site to comfort them.
Some of the educated youth were touched by this, while others thought she was just trying to save face. Xia Juhua didn't take it to heart: what she wanted most now was for the educated youth to count the people and go to the vacant building. Not to mention a few eggs, she would be willing to buy tickets for these educated youth to go home.
When the educated youths finished their exams and returned to the educated youth camp, they found that the surrounding walls had been built, but there were still a lot of bricks and tiles piled up at the corners of the wall. Everyone was thinking about their own grades and didn't think of asking what these bricks and tiles were used for.
Li Daya and An Baoling, two sisters-in-law, came to Xia Juhua's house that night to ask her if they could start asking Xia Jiazhuang to help with brick burning: "Some time ago, they burned bricks for the brigade every day, so we couldn't ask. Now that the wall over there has been built, can we burn bricks?"
Xia Juhua asked whether the adobes of the two families were ready and how many tiles had been laid. Both of them proudly told Xia Juhua that not only the adobes and tiles, but even the beams and rafters were thoroughly dry, and they were just waiting to burn bricks and lay the foundation.
Once the bricks are baked and the foundation is dug, you can start building the house.
Hearing the two people's eagerness to leave the old house, Xia Juhua asked with a smile: "Even if the house is built, the inside needs to be renovated. In the winter, cement doesn't like to dry. Can people live there?"
An Baoling felt that she couldn't wait even a minute: "The sooner the better. Cement doesn't like to dry out. I can just heat up the kang every day to keep it warm. If I can celebrate the New Year in my own new house, that would be the real New Year."
Li Daya didn't say anything, but her nodding told Xia Juhua that she had the same idea as An Baoling. Xia Juhua then called Shuanzhu across the wall and asked him to go to Xiajiazhuang and ask if they could free up a kiln to burn for the two families.
After sending Shuanzhu away, Li Daya and the other two talked to Xia Juhua while waiting for Shuanzhu to come back.
Xia Juhua asked, "Do you build your house right away, including the annex, or do you build it slowly after you move in?"
An Baoling said, "Since we are going to start digging, we might as well build it all up and then build a strict gate to watch the four solstices."
Li Daya nodded again: "Our two families can share a wall. Even though we are near the entrance of the village, we don't feel lonely."
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