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. Xia Juhua had this self-awareness.
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 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, everyone. 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."
聽他雖然臉上驕矜，要的東西不算離譜，八位老人都暗暗松了口氣，更為平安莊人的大度感佩不已：劉二壯和老董叔的聲音都不小，一點沒藏着掖着，平安莊的社員卻沒有一人面露不滿，全都笑吟吟看着老董叔分開人群，站到了頭一個。
“哎，我說你們幾個也來幫下忙呀。”老董叔還回頭招呼他們呢：“四十斤肉呢，我一個人可拿不動。”
“老董叔，我給你送過去吧。”久未露面的七喜，突然蹦出來喊了一句，還想伸手接老董叔的盆。
人老董叔竟靈活的躲開了：“可不敢髒了你的手，你那手是留着讀書寫字的。”原來七喜夏天參加高考，成績達到了中專線，上了承平地區師範，準備畢業後回平安莊小學當老師。
前兩天學校放假，那個念書念呆了的七喜不見了，跳脫的七喜就又回來了，滿生産隊竄着找活幹，生怕自己離開的時間長，對生産隊的活計生疏了。
大家聽了老董叔的話，紛紛附和着讓七喜離得遠點，別一會兒油了他的新衣裳。七喜讓大夥說得有些不好意思，跑到夏菊花他們的竈前看今天準備的菜。
正好丸子炸得了，他也不嫌燙，上手抓起一個就往嘴裏送，夏菊花便問：“在學校這是多虧嘴。你沒上志雙家，小滿做好吃的也沒叫你？”
七喜連忙搖頭：“叫了，咋沒叫呢。我一到周末就給他們看孩子，那兩口子使喚我使喚的順手着呢。”
他娘聽了直接給他一下子：“你身上這套哔叽衣裳，不是人家小滿給你買的，虧你還是當爺爺的，看看安安還能累着你是咋地。”
天底下的親娘都不好惹，七喜認命的又捏了個丸子跑開了，他娘還跟夏菊花解釋：“本來看他念書那認真勁，還當他真改了性子，誰知道一上了學，本性又露出來了。”
夏菊花覺得七喜這樣挺好，笑着對他娘說：“嬸子說得這是啥話，七喜也是開玩笑呢。他要真不願意看安安，就不去志雙家了，還能有空就往那兒跑？”
原來一進入冬季，小滿的炒貨就天天不夠賣。也就是劉志雙在供銷社認識的人多，能供上她用的瓜子花生，否則眼看着錢掙不到，小滿還不知道着急成啥樣呢。
劉志雙打電話回來說了，七喜可不光是周末才去幫忙看孩子，而是有空就跑去幫忙，他要給開工資七喜還不要，只好給他買了身哔叽服和皮鞋表達感謝——七喜可是平安莊頭一個考上中專的人，穿戴得體面些。
說笑之間，有人把豬腸子送過來了，夏菊花就叫沒跑多遠的七喜，還有幾個跟他一起打鬧的幾個小夥子，讓他們到各家掏灰過篩，一起清洗豬腸子。
雖然小夥子們都皺着眉頭，可沒一個敢臨陣脫逃——各家的親娘進了盯着呢，有閨女的嬸子大娘也看着呢，如果豬腸子的味道再小一點，他們能連眉頭都不皺，而是帶着笑把這些腸子清洗幹淨。
夏菊花今年腌了兩大缸酸菜，就是為今天的生日宴準備的。現在直接讓留柱去掏來一缸，和着送來的大骨棒炖到鍋裏——平安莊的大骨棒，可不跟副食店賣的那樣，剔得一絲肉絲都不剩，而是挂着一疙瘩一塊的肉，跟酸菜炖到時候，抓幾把粉條，出鍋前再放上煮好的血腸，就是正宗的殺豬菜。
至于另外幾口鍋裏炖的小雞蘑菇、紅燒肉、垮炖雜魚，同樣是主菜。主食依然得各家主婦們到自己家裏蒸好饅頭送過來，不過有那幾大鍋硬菜，夏菊花覺得不會象頭一年一樣，有多少白面饅頭都不夠分。
“嬸子，我沒來晚吧？”齊衛東好容易在蒸汽騰騰的竈前認出夏菊花，獻寶一樣把拖着的大筐拉到她面前：“大蝦，都煮上給五爺加菜。咋樣，夠讓我跟着蹭頓飯不？”
這小子好些日子沒見人影了，沒想到還記得來蹭五爺的生日宴。夏菊花看着筐裏一拃長的蝦，覺得挺稀罕：“你這是打哪兒弄來的，這一筐得有七八十斤吧，看着還挺新鮮。”
齊衛東小聲對她說：“昨天還活着呢，剛出水的。我從瓢島弄回來的，還有幾斤直接凍上了，等保國他們回來，嬸子給他們煮着吃。”
說完往四下看了看，覺得幹活的人不少，夏菊花離開不會耽誤生日宴開席，便說：“嬸子別忙活了，我跟你說點事兒。”
夏菊花聽他有事兒，跟李大丫打了聲招呼，帶着齊衛東回到自己家，開門見山的問：“啥事兒，非得現在說？”
齊衛東把自己一直背着的挎包拿下來，從裏頭掏出三沓錢來：“這是今年一年嬸子該分的。”
夏菊花不肯接：“去年我就給了你兩千五百塊錢，一年你就掙出這麽些來？不行，你不能老多分我錢，要不我就把本錢收回來了。”
齊衛東咧嘴笑着沖夏菊花比了五根手指頭：“五萬！嬸子你知道嗎，今年我跟阿布來回倒騰海貨，掙了五萬，你就說自己分三千多不多吧。”
“你都倒騰啥了就掙五萬？”夏菊花雖然脫口問了這麽一句，卻絲毫不是質疑齊衛東的掙錢能力，而是純感慨：現在雖然說是到了一九八零年，可農村人覺得沒過年就不算，連萬元戶的概念還沒有呢，齊衛東一年已經掙出五萬塊錢來了？！
齊衛東笑呵呵的說：“還不就是那些海貨。嬸子我跟你說，年前這兩趟，我可不止倒騰阿布那邊的——他們離咱們還是太遠了，運輸的道雖然趟平了，可也得不時給那些人打點一下。我這兩回悄悄把瓢島的海貨，運到……賣去了。”
賣去的地方他說得含糊，夏菊花知道一定是不方便透露的地方，擔心的問：“沒人查你？你膽子也太大了。”
齊衛東搖頭說：“也不是沒人查，可我有你們廠子給開的介紹信，證明我是在給兩個廠子跑原料。火車上還賣着你們的酸辣粉和方便面，查也就是走個過場。”
“不過，”齊衛東看了夏菊花一眼說：“我覺得靠倒騰這些東西掙錢，也就這一兩年的事兒了。我在……見到同樣的貨，只不過那人貪心比我賣的貴，所以沒我賣的快。另外在火車上，我還見到好幾個人背的海貨不多，絕對不是走親戚的。”
再好的親戚關系，有個十斤八斤海貨滿拿得出手了，那些人背的卻是幾十斤上百斤。大家都是倒騰海貨的，齊衛東不用看他們的東西，一聞幾個人身上的味，就能判斷出他們帶東西的多少。
夏菊花十分清楚，上輩子這個時候，便有眼光獨到膽子大的人，開始南貨北運或北貨南輸。他們的本錢都不多，往往只憑一個人肩扛手提，一點一點擴大着自己的經營範圍。
難得齊衛東此時已經看出來了。
夏菊花向他點點頭：“你看着吧，以後這麽幹的人還會越來越多。”不止個人會做，最高峰的時候連企事業單位都倒公文，還不如那些跑單幫的，人家至少賣的是實實在在的東西。
齊衛東對夏菊花一向信服：“嬸子你這麽說，我心裏就有數了。反正那邊我已經打點的差不多了，年後讓李林過去守着接貨就行，我就不用再跟現在這麽兩頭跑了。”
夏菊花把他剛拿出來的錢往過一推：“這個你拿着，算嬸子接着在你那兒入股。咱們可說好了，以後不管你幹啥，都得跟我說一聲，讓我算一份。”将來蓋農貿市場也一樣。
齊衛東想也沒想便說：“那是肯定的，嬸子你要是不入股，我心裏還不踏實呢。”
“不過你也別覺得打點好了就大意，誰知道哪股風一吹，又得嚴一陣子。”夏菊花記起八十年代初，投機倒把還是一項罪名，自要提醒齊衛東一聲。
齊衛東自己往炕上一歪：“我知道了嬸子，平時加着小心呢。我先睡會兒，等吃飯的時候叫志福喊我一聲。”
如此憊懶的齊衛東很少見，夏菊花給他找出床新被子來，便自己關門接着去竈上忙活。活是一直幹着，可心裏總想着齊衛東說的，已經開始有人跑單幫的事兒。
她現在要不當這個大隊長的話，說不定也要去跑兩趟。被這個身份拴着，眼看着錢掙不到手，心時不是不急的。
可等到長桌擺好，李長順帶着四個生産隊長，以及劉力群出現在長桌前，遞給五爺自己帶來的禮物，還代表各自生産隊社員給老人家祝壽，夏菊花又覺得，有時候錢也不是那麽重要。
她雖然沒掙着大錢，可平安莊上上下下手裏都比上輩子富裕好幾倍，蓋磚房的日子提前好些年，大家臉上笑容真摯，平日裏連吵架拌嘴的都少，似乎也不錯。
"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!!"