Chapter 180
As Li Wenlan's explanation continued, the leaders who were enthusiastic about placing orders began to hesitate whether they should continue placing orders: if they did not place an order, they felt that they were at a disadvantage; if they placed an order, it seemed as if they were taking advantage of a large team, which seemed not something that leaders of their level should do.
Finally, they all agreed on a solution, that is, they would only order 100 boxes this time and hand them over to the supply and marketing cooperative in the county for sale. Then, based on the feedback from the supply and marketing cooperative, if the sales were good, the supply and marketing cooperative would place an order with the instant noodle factory.
Xia Juhua wanted to remind them that after the instant noodles were sold, at least the supply and marketing cooperatives in Chengping had been allocated some, and they knew the sales situation. If they did not place an order now, when the supply and marketing cooperatives in the counties came to place orders, it would take who knows how long they would have to wait.
Later he thought about it and realized that there were seven deputy county governors who came and each of them ordered more than 10,000 boxes. The instant noodle factory could not afford it and swallowed his words.
Chang Chunya, like Li Wenlan, kept smiling throughout the process, carefully wrote down the contact information of each leader, and promised that the transportation would be handled by the instant noodle factory, so the leaders would not have to send a special car to transport the goods.
"Captain Xia, both of you factory managers are not simple people." The deputy director looked at Chang Chunya, who was able to act appropriately, and once again sighed at the abundance of talents in Pingan Village. In fact, he valued the young girl who was giving explanations the most, and wanted to ask Xia Juhua when there were fewer people around whether she was willing to let the girl leave Pingan Village.
Xia Juhua thought about how Chen Qiusheng had always been with her, Chang Chunya was an accidental acquisition, and Li Wenlan was brought in by Uncle Qi out of desperation. She couldn't help but sigh, "Alas, these are the only people we can use. If the factory expands a little more, there will really be no one left."
Want to expand the factory? The deputy minister wanted to ask Xia Juhua if her ambition was too big. She wanted to run away again after just leaving. The words came to his lips but he swallowed them back. If Xia Juhua had no ambition, everyone in Pingan Village might still be working in the fields, waiting for a dividend after paying the public grain. How could they work at home like the people in the city and receive cash every month?
If Xia Juhua knew what the acting vice minister was thinking, she would tell him that now it seems that the two team-run factories in Ping'an Village have both started the third production line, and their scale is no smaller than the county-run factory. However, for the instant noodle factory that will dominate the country in the future, they are not even as good as a corner of a branch factory.
Yes, Xia Juhua was ambitious. She didn't want the brand of that small island to become so big that the instant noodles produced in the mainland could only compete with low prices. She wanted to take the lead with Xia Xiaohuo instant noodles before that brand appeared in the mainland market. The people of Ping An Village could make money and support national defense construction at the same time. Could the people on that small island do the same?
Even the members of the visiting group who had no idea of Xia Juhua's ambition were still shocked by everything in Ping'an Village: it was the first time they heard of members raising funds to build roads, the first time they heard of raising funds to build factories, the first time they heard of a production team building a nursing home and having all the five-guarantee households in the brigade move in, and the first time they heard of a production team running a factory to continuously earn foreign exchange for the country.
Compared with these first times, they think it is perfectly normal for Ping An Zhuang members to raise a few dozen more chickens, or for each production team to raise a few dozen more pigs. If they don't develop side businesses in this way and earn all the money they can, can it still be called Ping An Zhuang?
What convinced the leaders the most was that no matter which member they chatted with, regardless of age, the cadre most recognized by the members was Xia Juhua, and the person they felt most reliable was also Xia Juhua.
From their tone, it seemed that there was no one more capable than Xia Juhua, and there was nothing that Xia Juhua could not lead them to accomplish. Even the drainage ditch, which everyone thought was a bit redundant, the members talked about it in a very logical way, and it seemed that if they did not listen to Xia Juhua and dug the drainage ditch, the entire Ping'an Village team would soon be surrounded by sewage.
The two counties upstream and downstream of Pingde County were the most concerned about this matter. The two deputy county governors therefore pulled Xia Juhua to discuss it. The acting deputy minister later joined the discussion and said that he recognized Xia Juhua's theory, because the water quality of the Xianhe River in the downstream county of Chengping was indeed not as good as that of Pingde.
Both deputy county governors said that they would report to the main leaders when they returned to the county and try to reduce the amount of direct discharge in their counties. The acting deputy minister instructed his entourage to write an internal report to the leaders on the sewage discharge issue when they returned.
After hearing this, Xia Juhua proposed the idea of building a sewage treatment plant. However, she only had the concept and could not even put forward a theory. It could only be regarded as an idea to give the leaders a heads-up. It would be best if the regional leaders could come forward and ask their superiors or local research departments for advice. The intensity of asking Engineer Xue herself and asking the regional leaders herself was completely different.
Generally speaking, what the visiting group gained from this visit to Ping'an Village was not the tasting of hot and sour rice noodles and instant noodles, nor the farm dishes carefully prepared by the skillful women of Ping'an Village, but the ideological shock.
After they returned to their respective jobs, they all talked about Pingan Village as a phenomenon. The existence and development of Pingan Village was even used as favorable evidence by those who wanted to maintain collective production. The discussion on whether to retain collective production or to open up the rural individual economy in Chengping District was more heated than in other regions.
The final result is that the liberalization of the individual economy prevailed. The reason is that the development experience of Pingan Village cannot be replicated, and the captain Xia Juhua is also unlikely to be replicated:
Not every captain in a peaceful region can enter the international market by developing a sideline business. Not every captain can directly negotiate with international friends and save money for the country. Not every captain, after having just solved the problem of food and clothing, can fully support the construction of the troops without considering the benefits...
All of the above may seem to have no role in the current development of Ping An Village, but in fact, their impact is far-reaching: without textiles entering the international market, Xia Juhua would not be able to participate in the expo, and she would not even be able to meet international friends, let alone negotiate. Without the selfless support for the troops, there would be no full assistance from the institute where Engineer Xue works, and machine production would be a dream. Relying solely on manual production, the two food factories can only be manual workshops, and mass production is completely empty talk...
Since Pingan Village cannot be replicated and summer chrysanthemums cannot be reproduced, then loosening the restrictions on the vast majority of farmers and freeing them from the constraints of the land will still be the main theme, and it will be promoted when the time is right.
Ping'anzhuang Brigade and Xia Juhua, who were being discussed back and forth, had no awareness that they had been in the center of the storm. They were now wholeheartedly focused on celebrating the Fifth Master's birthday.
The members of the Ping'anzhuang production team who work in the two food factories have taken their own leave, but they must not miss the Ping'anzhuang production team's pig-killing feast - the five production teams slaughter pigs at different times, so they can wait until the people from the other four production teams are eating the pig-killing feast, and then they can be transferred back.
The weaving factory was the most extravagant, giving all employees half a day off. Plus, the news of a holiday on the 26th had already spread, so the women in the Ping An Zhuang main production team as well as the female workers in the outer production teams were all as happy as if it were Chinese New Year.
It was a fine day—ever since Ping'an Village started celebrating Fifth Master's birthday, it seemed like every New Year's Eve was sunny—and the wind wasn't strong. Although it hurt a bit when it cut my face, I stood in front of the lit stove and immediately felt warm.
The ten pigs seemed to know that today was the last day they would see the sun. They kept howling at the sky, but they could not escape the fate of being stabbed and bled. The steaming pig blood was brought to the stove in buckets, and someone immediately sprinkled salt and chopped green onions in it, waiting to be made into blood tofu or blood sausage.
The entire production team worked together, and soon the pigs were cut into pieces of meat. Children and the elderly lined up in a long queue, carrying buckets and basins, waiting to share the meat - nine big fat pigs produced nearly 1,900 kilograms of meat, and everyone could get four kilograms of meat. Even if there were only three or four people in a family, they could get more than 20 kilograms of meat. If the family was small, they would not be able to hold all the meat.
The other three five-guarantee households from the production team who were pulled into line by Uncle Dong wanted to go back to the nursing home with an uneasy look on their faces: "We shamelessly moved to the nursing home, and we got new clothes and new beddings for them. It's already over. Now we come to get meat again, won't we be laughed at to death?" When they were in the production team, they only gave them some leftovers when the pigs were slaughtered. How could they steal other people's meat as soon as they arrived at Ping'an Village?
Uncle Dong waved his hands nonchalantly, "Stand still,. If we don't come to pick them up, they will have to be sent to a nursing home. Don't you see you are all busy now? Do you feel comfortable asking them to send them there specially? It's not like we can't move at all."
It's embarrassing to eat other people's meat for free. The eight old people looked at the basins in their hands nervously, and found that they were not smaller than others. Their faces were flushed, and they were ready to go back to the nursing home to hide while everyone was in chaos.
"Uncle Dong, there are ten of you with a total of 40 kilograms of meat. Which piece do you want?" Liu Erzhuang, who was distributing the meat, looked around and found that Uncle Dong was being pulled outside by several old men from the production team, so he asked quickly.
Uncle Dong looked at the other eight elderly people with some pride, and said, "We are old and our teeth are not good. Just give us half of the pork belly, two pig trotters, and a pig heart."
Hearing that although he looked proud, what he wanted was not outrageous, the eight old men secretly breathed a sigh of relief and were even more impressed by the magnanimity of the people of Ping An Manor: Liu Erzhuang and Old Uncle Dong were both very loud and did not hide anything, but none of the members of Ping An Manor looked dissatisfied. They all smiled and watched Old Uncle Dong part the crowd and stand at the front.
"Hey, I said you guys come and help." Uncle Dong turned around and called them: "It's 40 kilograms of meat. I can't carry it alone."
"Uncle Dong, let me take it to you." Qi Xi, who had not been seen for a long time, suddenly jumped out and shouted, and wanted to reach out to take the basin from Uncle Dong.
The old uncle Dong dodged flexibly: "Don't dare to dirty your hands, your hands are for reading and writing." It turned out that Qi Xi took the college entrance examination in the summer and his score reached the technical secondary school line. He was admitted to Chengping District Normal College and planned to return to Ping'anzhuang Primary School to be a teacher after graduation.
The school was on holiday two days ago. The dull-witted Qi Xi disappeared, and the lively Qi Xi came back again, rushing around the production team looking for work, fearing that he would be away for too long and become unfamiliar with the work of the production team.
After hearing what Uncle Dong said, everyone agreed to let Qixi stay away so as not to tarnish his new clothes. Qixi felt a little embarrassed and ran to Xia Juhua's stove to see the dishes prepared today.
The meatballs were ready to be fried, and he didn't mind the heat. He grabbed one and put it in his mouth. Xia Juhua asked, "How shameless you are at school. You didn't go to Zhishuang's house, and Xiaoman didn't invite you when he made delicious food?"
Qixi shook her head quickly: "Yes, why not? I babysit their kids on weekends, and they are very good at calling me."
His mother slapped him when she heard this: "Didn't Xiaoman buy you this serge dress? You are still the grandfather, and see how An An can tire you out."
No mother in the world is easy to mess with. Qixi resigned himself to his fate and rolled up a ball and ran away. His mother explained to Xia Juhua: "At first, I thought he had really changed his temper because he was so serious about studying. But who knew that his true nature would come out again after he started school."
Xia Juhua thought Qixi was doing well, and said to his mother with a smile: "What are you talking about, auntie? Qixi was just joking. If he really didn't want to see An'an, he wouldn't go to Zhishuang's house. How could he go there whenever he had time?"
It turns out that once winter comes, Xiaoman’s roasted nuts are not enough to sell every day. Liu Zhishuang knows many people in the supply and marketing cooperative, and can provide her with melon seeds and peanuts. Otherwise, Xiaoman would be so anxious that she would not be able to make money.
Liu Zhishuang called and said that Qixi didn't just help look after the kids on weekends, but helped whenever he was free. He wanted to pay him a salary but Qixi refused, so he had to buy him a serge suit and leather shoes to express his gratitude - Qixi was the first person in Ping'an Village to be admitted to a technical secondary school, so he dressed decently.
While they were chatting and laughing, someone brought some pig intestines over. Xia Juhua called Qixi, who had not run far away, and a few other guys who had played with him, and asked them to go to each household to collect the ashes and sift through them, and then clean the pig intestines together.
Although the young men all had frowns on their brows, none of them dared to escape - the mothers of each family came in and watched them, and the aunts and grandmothers of the girls were also watching. If the smell of the pig intestines was a little less, they would not even frown, but would wash the intestines clean with a smile on their faces.
Xia Juhua pickled two large jars of pickled cabbage this year, just for today's birthday party. Now she asked Liu Zhu to fetch one jar and stew it with the big bones that were delivered. The big bones in Ping'an Village are not like those sold in grocery stores, where not a single shred of meat is left, but lumps of meat are hanging on them. When it is time to stew with pickled cabbage, grab a few handfuls of vermicelli and put the cooked blood intestines on it before serving. It is an authentic pig slaughtering dish.
As for the chicken and mushrooms, braised pork, and stewed fish in the other pots, they were also main dishes. The staple food still had to be steamed buns prepared by the wives at home, but with those big pots of staple food, Xia Juhua thought it would not be like the previous year, when there were not enough buns to share.
"Auntie, am I not late?" Qi Weidong finally recognized Xia Juhua in front of the steaming stove. Xianbao also pulled the big basket in front of her and said, "Cook all the big shrimps for Master Wu. How about letting me have a meal with you?"
I haven't seen this kid for a while, but I didn't expect him to remember to come to Fifth Master's birthday party. Xia Juhua looked at the palm-sized shrimps in the basket and thought they were quite rare: "Where did you get these? This basket must be 70 to 80 kilograms, and they look quite fresh."
Qi Weidong whispered to her, "It was still alive yesterday, fresh out of the water. I brought it back from Piao Island, and I froze a few pounds of it. When Baoguo and the others come back, Auntie will cook it for them."
After saying that, he looked around and realized that there were many people working. Xia Juhua's departure would not delay the birthday party, so he said, "Auntie, stop working. I have something to tell you."
When Xia Juhua heard that he had something to say, she said hello to Li Daya, took Qi Weidong back to her home, and asked straight to the point, "What's the matter? Do you have to tell me now?"
Qi Weidong took off the shoulder bag he had been carrying and pulled out three wads of money from it: "This is what my aunt should share this year."
Xia Juhua refused to take it: "I gave you 2,500 yuan last year, and this is all you made in one year? No, you can't keep giving me more money, or I'll take my original money back."
Qi Weidong grinned and raised five fingers to Xia Juhua, "Fifty thousand! Auntie, do you know that this year Abu and I made fifty thousand by trading seafood? Just say that three thousand is not too much for you, right?"
"What did you do to make 50,000?" Although Xia Juhua blurted out this question, she was not questioning Qi Weidong's ability to make money. Instead, she was just sighing: Although it is now 1980, rural people think that if there is no New Year, it is not counted. There is not even the concept of a 10,000 yuan household yet. Qi Weidong has already made 50,000 yuan a year? !
Qi Weidong said with a smile: "It's just the seafood. Auntie, let me tell you, I didn't just trade with Abu during the two trips before the New Year - they are still too far away from us. Although the transportation route is smooth, we still have to take care of those people from time to time. These two times, I secretly transported the seafood from Piao Island to... and sold it."
He was vague about where he sold it to. Xia Juhua knew it must be a place that was inconvenient to disclose, so she asked worriedly, "No one checked on you? You are so brave."
Qi Weidong shook his head and said, "It's not that no one checked, but I have a letter of introduction from your factory, proving that I'm a supplier of raw materials to two factories. Your hot and sour rice noodles and instant noodles are also sold on the train, so the check is just a formality."
"However," Qi Weidong glanced at Xia Juhua and said, "I think that making money by trading these things has only been a thing for the past one or two years. I saw the same goods in... but the man was greedy and sold them at a higher price than I did, so he didn't sell them as fast as I did. Also, on the train, I saw several people carrying a small amount of seafood, so they were definitely not visiting relatives."
No matter how close the relationship is, if they have 10 or 8 kilograms of seafood, they can show off. But those people carry dozens or even hundreds of kilograms. They are all seafood traders. Qi Weidong doesn't need to look at their stuff. He can tell how much they have just by smelling their bodies.
Xia Juhua knew very well that at this time in her previous life, there were people with unique vision and courage who began to transport goods from the south to the north or from the north to the south. They had little capital and often only relied on one person to carry the goods on his shoulders and hands, and gradually expanded their business scope.
It's rare that Qi Weidong has already seen it at this time.
Xia Juhua nodded to him and said, "Just wait and see, there will be more and more people doing this in the future." Not only individuals would do this, but at the peak even enterprises and institutions were dealing with official documents. They were no better than those who worked on a errand, because at least they were selling real things.
Qi Weidong has always believed in Xia Juhua: "Auntie, now that you say that, I know what's going on. Anyway, I've already taken care of everything there. After the New Year, I can just let Li Lin go over there to wait and receive the goods. I won't have to run back and forth like I do now."
Xia Juhua pushed the money he had just taken out to him and said, "Take this. I'll consider it as a stake in your company. We've agreed that no matter what you do in the future, you have to tell me and let me have a share." The same will apply to building the agricultural and trade market in the future.
Qi Weidong said without thinking: "That's for sure. If you don't invest, I won't feel at ease."
"But don't be careless just because you have everything ready. Who knows what wind may blow and things may get serious for a while." Xia Juhua remembered that speculation was still a crime in the early 1980s, so she wanted to remind Qi Weidong.
Qi Weidong leaned back on the kang and said, "I understand, auntie. I'll be more careful. I'll take a nap first, and ask Zhifu to call me when it's time for dinner."
It was rare to see Qi Weidong so lazy, so Xia Juhua found him a new quilt, then closed the door and went to work on the stove. She was working, but she was always thinking about what Qi Weidong said, that some people had started to work alone.
If she wasn't the captain now, she might have to go there twice. She was tied to this position and couldn't make any money, so she was anxious.
But when the long table was set up, Li Changshun, four production team leaders, and Liu Liqun appeared in front of the table, handed Fifth Master the gifts they had brought, and wished the old man a happy birthday on behalf of their respective production team members. Xia Juhua felt that sometimes money was not that important.
Although she didn't make a lot of money, everyone in Ping'an Manor was several times richer than in their previous life. The brick house was built many years earlier. Everyone had a genuine smile on their face, and there were fewer quarrels and arguments on weekdays. It seemed that things were not bad.
"Captain, you have to say a few words to us." Chen Qiusheng arranged for Li Changshun and others to sit down, pulled Qi Weidong to sit with him, and invited Xia Juhua. Everyone sitting at the table looked at Xia Juhua, and the Fifth Master also looked at her with a smile.
Xia Juhua did not refuse. She raised the wine glass in front of her and said to everyone: "This is the sixth birthday we have celebrated for Fifth Master. Time has passed so quickly." Everyone nodded with a smile, and no one denied this.
She went on to say, "It doesn't matter if time passes quickly. What matters is that we in Ping An Village don't waste our time. Our lives are getting better and better, right?"
"Yes!" Everyone shouted in unison. The sound of their voices gathered over Ping An Village and was inspiring.
Xia Juhua's face was also filled with smiles: "Fifth Master, such a good day, you would like to see it, right? Would you like us to celebrate your birthday because life is getting better and better?" Seeing Fifth Master nod, her voice became louder: "Then you just watch and let us celebrate your birthday together every year, and life will get better and better every year!!"
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