Chapter 175
The annual income of Pinganzhuang Brigade members does not need to be counted. Two years ago, only the Pinganzhuang Production Brigade could achieve an average household income of more than 2,000 yuan. This year, it is the average of the entire brigade, and many families actually earn much more than this income. At this time, the annual income of the vast majority of farmers in the country does not exceed 300 yuan per family, and some are still struggling to make ends meet.
Of course, the actual income of the Pinganzhuang production team members is the group of people who far exceed the average of the Pinganzhuang brigade. Because Pinganzhuang also has a weaving factory, the profits do not have to be handed over to the brigade, but only to the production team, and then all the members of the production team share the dividends.
The four production team leaders all knew that even though the vermicelli factory and the instant noodle factory both made money this year, the combined income of the chalk factory and the instant noodle factory would probably not be as much as that of the weaving factory - they made foreign money.
The Pinganzhuang production team has the most people working in the other two factories, and the production volume is also the highest in the entire brigade. After calculating all these factors, the other four production team leaders don't want to ask about the work points of the Pinganzhuang production team this year - if they find out, they will feel even more upset.
They did not ask how much money the members of the Ping'an Village Production Team had received. They knew it themselves. After receiving their dividends, they smiled and asked their neighbors whether their family had applied for a residential plot and whether they were building a new house this year or waiting until next year when they had free time.
Xia Juhua took a rough look and found that there were more than thirty families who wanted to build houses this year, and the remaining less than forty families all had more than two people working in the factory and had no time to arrange the construction. They would have to wait until next year when the work in the factory was less busy before they could find time to build.
Xia Juhua realized that it was already the end of 1979, and the news that the 19 farmers in that not-so-remote village in Province A were secretly working on their own would be taken seriously by their superiors. Starting next year, they would arrange for pilot projects to be carried out in various places to provide detailed data support for the land distribution to households.
When the news reaches Pingan Village, it is hard to guarantee that everyone will still be as united as they are now. Xia Juhua thinks that it is time to plan Pingan Village carefully. She told Chen Qiusheng about her idea, and Chen Qiusheng also got excited: "Captain, when are you going to build a house, I will build it with you."
Xia Juhua felt that her yard was still habitable and there was no need to renovate it, so she said, "I live alone, so I can live anywhere. Your homestead has been marked out, so why do you want to build together with me?"
Chen Qiusheng smiled and said, "My housing plot is in a good location. If anyone likes it, let them build it first. Cuiping and I have discussed it and are waiting for you to build it together. It would be great if our two families were neighbors."
Xia Juhua didn't want to discuss with him whether he had discussed the space with Zhang Cuiping or Zhang Cuiping had made up her mind. She just asked, "Do you think my idea is feasible?"
"If the production team sets up a house-building team, I think it will work." Chen Qiusheng knows that there are still a small number of people in the production team who have not entered the factory to work, and are managing the land of the production team. Compared with those who enter the factory and see cash every month, their income is still lower.
If a house-building team is formed, these people can use the idle time in winter to help members build houses together, and the money received from the construction can just balance the income of the members.
Moreover, Xia Juhua's suggestion that everyone's houses should look as consistent as possible is not inconsistent with what was built in the previous two years: more than 20 brick and tile houses have been built in the newly designated residential land area, with all the green bricks, green tiles and cement roads, which look no different from those in the city.
If all the production teams were really built like that, they would be the first in the entire Red Star Commune and even in the entire Pingde County! Not to mention the distant places, the girls and boys in front of us could find a husband to marry in all the villages and towns.
Xia Juhua was amused by him: "How old are you to think about these things? The children in our production team, do they still have trouble finding a partner?"
This is not Xia Juhua bragging. Now, no matter whether it is the girls or boys from Pingan Village, they are very popular in the surrounding areas. Many girls have Hongling's example. Even after getting married, they still stay in the weaving group to work. After work, they ride their bicycles back to their husband's house. The rate of turning back along the way is not low. If it is windy and rainy, the girls who marry out will stay at their parents' home and don't worry about getting wet or frozen on the way.
The young men in Pingan Village had no trouble finding wives. Those who found a good match in their own production team rarely went to other production teams to look for a wife. Even if they found a partner in another production team or brigade, the in-laws would bring the betrothal gifts to the girl back to Pingan Village, so as not to let the girl be looked down upon by her husband's family. The girls who were liked by the young men in Pingan Village had good family traditions, and there was no problem of using the betrothal gifts of the girl to marry a brother.
There is a saying in the surrounding villages that the girls in Pingan Village are valuable now. The dowry from their parents is more than that of other people, and they also have a good income from the weaving factory every month. The boys in Pingan Village are even more valuable, and their mother-in-law's family has to pay a loss.
There are plenty of people who are willing to find such valuable girls and boys, because Pingan Village has a good atmosphere and each family has a good family tradition: Pingan Village now has neither idle people nor lazy people. Everyone has endless work to do, so who has time to talk about their wives and gossip.
Even if a small conflict occurred in any family, as long as the production team knew about it, they would inevitably be punished: You like to talk nonsense, right? Okay, don't go to work for now, stay at home and talk as much as you want, and when you can't talk anymore and the production team cadres think you are qualified, you can go back to work at any time.
You don't want to support your parents, right? Okay, the production team will help you separate your family immediately. Your parents will be the five-guarantee households in the future, and the production team will help support them. But don't think of taking advantage of the production team. You won't get any dividends, and you won't have a job in the factory. There are many people who respect their parents waiting to work.
As for those who beat their children and wives, they should all go to farm. You are so tired every day that you just want to lie down on the kang and rest for a while. Do you still have the energy to beat your children and wife? You will be exhausted to death.
If we take a look at these typical cases, it would be strange if the atmosphere in Ping An Village is not right. The elderly in every family live a comfortable life. If they are not the elderly who cannot sit still, they can really have everything they want.
However, the elderly who receive such treatment cannot act like a troublemaker themselves, otherwise the production team will not favor you in everything just because you are old, but will cancel the subsidy and let you quarrel with your son and daughter-in-law.
The son and daughter-in-law quarreled with the old man and said they would lose their job opportunities and had to go back to the fields to do heavy work. The old man also lost his subsidy. The life of the entire production team immediately became unbearable. Who dared to make trouble?
When the houses for the five-guarantee households were built, the old people in the production team didn't want to make trouble anymore. They all wanted to live in that yard: the yard was four times the size of other people's residential land, and was built according to the regulations of the quadrangle courtyard. It was not a set of adobe houses but a brick and tile house with green bricks and green tiles.
The difference between this brick and tile house and the brick and tile houses of ordinary members is that each room has a fire wall, so as long as the stove outside is lit, it will be warm without lighting a stove inside.
Each old person has his own room. In addition to the big kang against the south wall, the kang cabinet, floor cabinet, table and chairs are all brand new, and even the hot pot and cups are complete. If it weren't for the sign of Ping'an Manor Nursing Home hanging at the gate, they would have nothing missing to welcome a new bride.
The furnishings in the house are secondary; the facilities in the yard are what attract the elderly the most: now only Grandma Qi and Uncle Dong live in the nursing home. Three-meter-wide land is reserved for them along the windows of each room, allowing them to grow some vegetables and kill time when they are bored.
In the remaining space, three diamond-shaped flower beds were built in the middle with broken bricks from building houses. Grandma Qi and Uncle Dong, who lived inside, had the final say on what flowers and plants to plant. A grape trellis was built near the vegetable field on the east side. There were no vines on it yet, but one could imagine how pleasant it would be to sit under it and work or chat when the leaves were green and shady.
In order to make it convenient for the elderly to chat, a square cement table was built under the grape trellis, with four cement stools on each side, ready for people to sit on them at any time.
A tree pit has been dug in front of the western vegetable field, opposite the grape trellis. Persimmon trees will be transplanted in the spring. It is not about how much we can eat, but just thinking about the scene of red persimmons hanging on the branches after the leaves fall in autumn makes people feel beautiful.
The rest of the ground was cemented, and a careful edge was built between the vegetable patch and the cement ground to prevent muddy water from flowing into the yard when it rained heavily. To provide a drainage channel for sewage, the ground near the west wall was slightly lower, and a small drainage ditch was made with cement. A small opening was left near the west wall near the gate, so that sewage could flow out directly.
"I'll move in when I can't hatch chicks anymore." Uncle Wu looked at the facilities in the nursing home and felt it would be a shame if he didn't move in: their place wasn't as big as the nursing home, and the yard wasn't as bright as the one in the nursing home.
Uncle Dong had already tidied up his room. Seeing that Master Wu was standing in the yard without entering the room, he went to the door and called him, "Master Wu, come in and take a look. This is much better than the small dark room I used to live in. Living in a room like this, I think I can live another ten or eight years."
"That's right." Master Wu bluntly said, "When Juhua asked you to move at first, you were reluctant to do so, as if you had some treasure hidden in your room."
Uncle Dong smiled uncomfortably: "I am an old bachelor, what treasures can I have? It's because I feel that my poor home is worth a thousand gold coins. It's the place where my parents left behind, and I can't bear to leave it for the time being."
The fifth master walked around the house and found that the bedding was all new. He said to Uncle Dong, "You've got a new quilt since you moved in. You should keep the house clean and stop making it look like a pig's nest."
Uncle Dong felt even more uncomfortable, and stammered, "It was not clean to begin with, and no one cleaned it up for me, so it became more and more..."
The Fifth Master looked at him disapprovingly and said, "Who should take over your house? I have to help you clean up every day, but you don't take care of your own house. Are you anyone's master?"
你才是爺，你家裏兒媳婦、孫媳婦天天輪着班，才給你收拾的出門幹幹淨淨，進門萬事不操心。老董叔心裏回了五爺兩句，嘴角就挂出笑容：
隊長說了，現在他與七奶兩個生活還能自理，做飯啥的讓他們兩個自己解決。等住來的人多了，或是他們自己照顧不了自己了，生産隊就派人來照顧他們。
等到那時候，他不就跟五爺是一個待遇了？他光棍了一輩子，以為自己将來會獨自死在家裏好幾天，才會因屍體發臭被人發現。不承想夏菊花直接給他們這些無兒無女的蓋了養老院！
他不用擔心自己死了沒人埋，活着天天一個人對着日頭熬日子，這都是托了夏菊花的福！
同樣覺得自己托了夏菊花福的，自然還有七奶。老人冬天幹不了別的活，給自己和老董叔做完飯後，就是不停的打袼褙、納鞋底——菊花可是說了，讓生産隊的婦女沒事兒就納點鞋底，攢夠百十多雙就給南邊的部隊郵去。
一年來，他們已經郵了幾千雙鞋墊去南邊，不知道孩子們嫌不嫌棄，穿的話合不合腳。七奶從來沒停止自己手裏的活計，編織組的婦女見她打的袼褙又厚實又平整，紛紛把自己家裏的碎布、舊衣裳拿給她，請她幫着打好袼褙後，再拿回家去自己抽空納一納，讓七奶覺得自己對生産隊還有用，整個人精神了不少。
有了養老院的樣子，平安莊社員再蓋房的時候，除了取齊取正外，也學着在自家院子裏修個小花池，留出種樹的地方與一小塊菜地後，剩下的地方同樣用水泥抹平，讓人一進院子就覺得整齊寬敞。
雞圈和柴火都歸置到後院，進院子裏再也不怕踩到雞屎或是被柴火絆了腳，別說自己家人住着舒心，就是串門的人來了，也不怕收拾不及失禮。
這可讓還沒有建房打算的社員坐不住了，下了班不着急回自己家，先往村西頭轉一圈，看看誰家的房子蓋到了啥程度。
“院牆外咋刨這老深的溝呢？”李常旺這天下班回來，發現自家院外被刨出了一條深溝，連忙問同樣剛下班的趙仙枝：“你又要弄啥，可別把牆給刨倒了。”
趙仙枝不屑的看了他一眼：“我看你是過糊塗了。蓋房子的時候隊長就說，讓留出下水口來，以後全生産隊的髒水，統一排到村外頭去。蓋房子的時候你把家裏頭留了，街上沒有水溝，那髒水直接往路上流呀？”
李常旺恍惚記得是有這話，自己家大門靠西牆下頭，的确留出了十五公分見方的口子。可他還是擔心自己青磚砌好的牆：“見天倒水，不得把牆給泡壞了？”
趙仙枝用看土包子的眼神看他：“讓你開會不好好聽，遇事就不知道了吧？人家隊長都說了，這下水溝都要用水泥抹好，還要蓋上水泥蓋子，能泡到你們家的牆？”
好象這不是你們家的牆似的。
李常旺知道夏菊花說的話，要他媳婦耳朵裏比聖旨還好使，便不跟她分辨，自己沿着水溝往村口走，發現水溝并沒有直接通向湙河，而是引向了大家取土打土坯挖出的那個深坑。
這讓他有些奇怪，又怕再問趙仙枝被她嘲笑，便走回村口，發現好幾個人指着水溝議論。聽了一會才聽清楚，這些人都發現了水溝的流向，不過同樣沒鬧明白為啥這樣流。
恰好夏菊花帶人來給七奶兩人送糧，一群人趕緊上前幫忙，更是為了解除自己心裏的疑問。夏菊花聽了大家的問題一笑：“湙河的水是幹啥用的，不用我跟大家多說吧？”
當然不用多說，這些年靠着湙河灌溉，平安莊的小麥産量才能逐年遞增，大家七嘴八舌說了不少湙河水的用處。
夏菊花只靜靜聽着，等大家都說完了才開口：“湙河水對咱們用處這麽大，要是把大家用過的髒水都引到湙河裏，河水跟着髒了，那咱們還能用它灌溉嗎？”
“可河水一直流，髒水一進河裏就沖沒了，河水能跟着髒了？”有人覺得夏菊花說的太嚴重了。
夏菊花沒覺得自己說出一句話，大家立刻就認同，而是把自己上輩子聽到過看到過的事兒一點點擺到大家面前：“一家的髒水不顯，可是平安莊九十多戶人家的髒水一起排進湙河，那可不是一沖就能沖沒的。”
“湙河又不是只流經平安莊一個生産隊。家家戶戶都往裏倒髒水，夏天雨水多、河裏水流大還好說，從秋天到春天、河裏水流少的時候，河水沖不過來，用不了多長時間，河水就跟着發臭了。”
上輩子八十年代初還能釣魚的湙河，到八十年代末裏頭的水全成了黑的，一靠近酸臭味嗆鼻子，讓夏菊花記憶猶新，所以現在說起來仍一臉嫌棄。
大家看着夏菊花的表情，覺得理嘛是這個理兒，可還有人覺得，既然夏菊花說湙河流經的，不止平安莊一個生産隊，那別處的人還往裏倒髒水，光平安莊不倒也起不到啥作用吧？
夏菊花便告訴大夥，她已經跟公社聯系過了，沿湙河的生産隊，從此以後都盡量不往河裏引髒水。等紅星公社見到成效了，平德縣其他湙河沿岸的生産隊，也會如此辦理。
“那要是再上游的村子往河裏排髒水呢？”有社員聽夏菊花說得那麽嚴重，開始擔心平德縣只處于湙河上中游，源頭上有人排髒水的問題。
對于這一點，夏菊花還是能解答的：“湙河的源頭是在山裏，直到山腳下才有幾戶人家。他們排進河裏的髒水不多。再接下來是歸德縣十來個生産隊，等咱們平德縣全都推開髒水收集後，縣裏應該會跟他們協調。”
聽說縣裏能出面協調，平安莊的社員就放心了，轉而問起自己關心的蓋房的事兒來：村西起的新房越多，沒蓋房的社員越眼熱，都向夏菊花打聽，蓋房隊是不是一直存在下去，要是自己家蓋房正趕上春耕，蓋房隊卻解散了咋辦？
這個問題生産隊還真沒讨論過，等別的生産隊長在大隊會議上，向夏菊花提出同樣的問題後，夏菊花便問：“大家以前蓋房子，不都是相互換工嗎，現在咋都想找平安莊的蓋房隊了？”一人一天一塊五的工錢可不低。
李大牛悶聲悶氣的說：“那幫家夥都覺得，平安莊的蓋房隊蓋的房子多了，有經驗，蓋出來的房子四至整齊。再說，要是付了工錢的話，就不用搭人情，家裏只要留人盯着點就行，不用耽誤全家人上工、上班。所以他們都想着，找平安莊蓋房隊更合算。”
難道平安莊還要再出一個建築隊？夏菊花覺得這個發展有些超出她的考慮範圍。可是想想八十年代開始，舉國上下的基建熱，又似乎不是不行，不由整個人陷入沉思之中。
看她聽完李大牛的話後就一言不發，李長順狠狠瞪了李大牛一眼，覺得是他說的話讓夏菊花不高興了：“人家平安莊自己人忙不過來，臨時組一個蓋房隊，你們幾個跟着湊啥熱鬧？要我說你們生産隊裏的閑人，比平安莊還多呢，自己組個蓋房隊不就行了？”
他的聲音不小，一下子把夏菊花從沉思中喚醒，正好聽到李大牛說：“我們倒是想抽人組成一個，可社員就是覺得平安莊的有經驗，我們組的建房隊一間房子都沒蓋過，信不着，不想用我們的人。我有啥辦法？”他難道不願意讓本隊社員多點收入嗎？
夏菊花知道，別的生産隊社員，所以願意找平安莊的蓋房隊，最吸引他們的，應該是蓋房隊可以從生産隊領出水泥，省去了自己四處淘換的工夫和搭的人情。
李長順也想到了這個問題，看向夏菊花。夏菊花能有啥法子？只好對李大牛幾個人說：“要不你們回去跟社員說，平安莊現在剩下的水泥也不多了，剛夠給生産隊剩下的人家蓋房子的。他們就算請了平安莊的蓋房隊，也用不上平安莊的水泥。”
話音剛落，牛隊長就開口了：“大隊長，要不你還是給大家聯系點水泥吧。原來沒有比較，誰家新起座土坯房，村裏人都能高看一眼。可平安莊的磚房一起，你看這兩年哪還有蓋土坯房的，都卯着勁蓋磚房呢。”
他說的不算誇大，這兩年平安莊大隊起新房的不少，一水的磚房，土坯房再也打動不了眼光變高的社員們。
可磚房不止要用磚瓦，水泥也是大頭。平安莊的水泥，是那年修村內道路剩下的一些，存放在庫房裏，怕水泥板結，本生産隊有買的，陳秋生做主直接賣了。
現在各生産隊将迎來大規模建房熱潮，深知平安莊生産隊拿不出那麽多水泥的夏菊花，知道自己不聯系一下的話，幾個生産隊長天天得堵大隊部的門。
Alas, we should implement the large-scale contract responsibility system as soon as possible. Xia Juhua finally put down the phone, and sighed in her heart: after the large-scale contract responsibility system, there will be large-scale production, and various materials will no longer be allocated by the supply and marketing cooperatives. She will not have to say good things to people on the phone.