Chapter 54
Li Changshun didn't know that Director Lin wanted the reed stalks for the Ping'anzhuang production team. He patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, Director. Besides Ping'anzhuang, which is running out of reed stalks, the reed stalks of the other four production teams in our brigade are all piled up there and not much is being used. You guys can give as many as the supply and marketing cooperative needs."
The last sentence was directed at Li Daniu and the other four production team leaders. The four had followed Li Changshun to the commune happily after hearing that they could buy wheat bran from the noodle factory. Now that they knew that they could buy wheat bran as long as they provided reed stalks to the supply and marketing cooperative, they naturally nodded in agreement.
Their production team does not have a young man named Xia who would constantly come up with new ways to weave mats, so the supply and marketing cooperative is now barely able to collect all the mats. The reed stalks of the production team can only be piled up in vain, and the livestock will not even eat them next year when they are fed to them.
The supply and marketing cooperative will not collect the reeds without paying you.
You see, Director Lin is asking: "The supply and marketing cooperative is buying at a price of one cent per three kilograms. Does Captain Li think that is appropriate?"
It's suitable, how can it not be suitable? They all grow naturally by the river, and it takes a little labor to harvest them. If a strong person doesn't harvest hundreds of kilograms a day, it's just like picking them for nothing.
Li Changshun and the other production team leaders nodded. Director Lin turned to Xia Juhua and asked, "Captain Xia, do you think your production team can accept this price? If so, we can just have the production teams deliver the goods directly to yours, so they don't waste time on the road."
Even though Director Lin called Xia Juhua's name, Xia Juhua still wished she could pretend that she didn't hear him.
Does Director Lin really want to help her, or does he want her to become the public enemy of the entire Ping An Village Brigade? !
Xia Juhua knew very well that other production teams would definitely have an opinion on the supply and marketing cooperative buying up a large number of Pinganzhuang production team's mats with inscriptions, which reduced the number of mats with no inscriptions.
Now Director Lin actually said in front of other production team leaders that he would collect reeds for Ping An Village. Isn't that the same as telling in person that it was Xia Juhua everyone who destroyed their hope? !
In fact, Xia Juhua was wrongly accusing Director Lin, who really wanted to help her. For no other reason, Director Lin would ask each production team to collect reeds in order to order 400 seats from the Ping'anzhuang production team.
Because Director Lin had received accurate information, it was almost certain that he would be transferred back to the county supply and marketing cooperative. After all, the performance of the Red Star Supply and Marketing Cooperative had been very impressive in the county supply and marketing cooperative system recently. Not only did it provide fried peanuts for the county supply and marketing cooperative, it was also the first to provide seats with signatures.
This gave the county supply and marketing cooperative some face in the annual local product acquisition evaluation of regional supply and marketing cooperatives, and Director Lin, who discovered the inscribed seat, would naturally be rewarded.
The person who leaked the news to Director Lin said that the county supply and marketing cooperative would continue to work on mats next year and strive to produce better mats. Some leaders even expanded their thinking and thought that since reeds can be used to make mats, they should also be able to make other things, and it can become a specialty product of the Pingde County Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
As the person who discovered the word mat, Director Lin might also be responsible for connecting with the mat weaving production team. Director Lin is a person who takes one step and looks ahead. He knows that after returning to the county supply and marketing cooperative, he has no achievements in hand and it will not be easy to gain a foothold. He hopes that Xia Juhua's mat weaving business will go smoothly.
In addition, the 400 seats of the county supply and marketing cooperative would probably be the first thing he would be responsible for after returning to the county, and he could not fail to supply them because of the lack of raw materials. So he had to solve the raw material problem while the Ping'anzhuang Brigade needed his help.
His idea was good, but he forgot that there was more than one Ping'anzhuang production team in the Ping'anzhuang Brigade.
"Mr. Dazhuang, has your production team run out of reed poles?" Li Changshun remembered that he had seen the reed piles very high in Ping'an Village last time. Why did they need to buy reed poles now?
Besides, if you want to buy some reed poles, why don't you just talk to the captain directly? Why let Director Lin speak for you? Isn't this telling outsiders that the Ping'anzhuang Brigade is not united?
Xia Juhua could hear Li Changshun's dissatisfaction. When she looked up, she could feel the reproachful eyes of the other four production team leaders. She said in a low voice, "I calculated that after we finish making the 200 mats needed by the supply and marketing cooperative, I'm afraid there won't be much left."
If there is nothing left, then stop making it up. What do you mean you want to transfer all the money from the supply and marketing cooperative to Ping An Zhuang?
Li Daniu couldn't help but said, "Xia Xiaohuo, your production team has sold so many seats, you have to leave some soup for our other production teams."
Director Lin immediately realized that it was inappropriate for him to negotiate directly in front of both parties. But he had already said it, and if the matter could not be done, Xia Juhua would be in a dilemma and would have a problem with him as the one who raised the question.
If Xia Juhua had an opinion about him and stopped thinking of new ideas, Director Lin would never accept it.
Without waiting for Xia Juhua to answer, Director Lin spoke up: "Comrade Captain, because the mats made by Captain Xia's production team have been recognized by the county supply and marketing cooperative, the county supply and marketing cooperative has decided to place an order for reed mats from Captain Xia's production team."
"That's the task of the county supply and marketing cooperative." Director Lin emphasized, and glanced at Li Changshun: "It is an honor for the Ping'anzhuang production team to be able to hand it over to the Ping'anzhuang production team, and it is also an honor for our entire Red Star Commune."
"In order to help the Ping'anzhuang production team complete their mission, our supply and marketing cooperative knew that they were short of raw materials, so of course we had to provide them with raw materials. And because Captain Xia has always told me that we should work together with the brother production teams to contribute to the collective, I decided to give priority to purchasing reed poles from other production teams in the Ping'anzhuang Brigade."
"If this team leader is unwilling to sell the reed stems to the supply and marketing cooperative, we can also purchase reed stems from other brigades." Director Lin said at the end, no longer looking at Li Changshun.
No matter how good your relationship is with Director Zhang, Director Zhang has no control over whose reed stems the supply and marketing cooperative accepts and whose it does not.
After Li Daniu spoke, Li Changshun did not stop him immediately because he wanted to hear the supply and marketing cooperative's attitude towards the Ping'anzhuang production team, or more precisely, towards Xia Juhua.
Now I heard that Director Lin even brought out the county supply and marketing cooperative to buy reed stalks for Xia Juhua, which clearly showed that he really valued the mats woven by Xia Juhua. And it was said that the supply and marketing cooperative purchased the reed stalks for the Pinganzhuang production team, which sounded much better than just saying that the reed stalks were directly sold to Pinganzhuang.
Li Changshun's wrinkled brows had already relaxed, and he glared at Li Daniu sternly: "You are the only one who talks too much. Isn't it a good thing that the supply and marketing cooperative is willing to accept your reed stalks? If you don't sell those things to the supply and marketing cooperative, why don't you distribute them to the members for burning next year?"
If it's all burned up in a fire, it won't be worth the money.
To put it bluntly, Li Daniu and his companions, like Liu Erzhuang, were important figures in their own production teams, but once they arrived at the commune, they were no different from ordinary farmers.
Li Daniu criticized Xia Juhua just now because the people in the small village had been talking about the changes in Ping An Village these days, which made him feel very suffocated:
Xiaozhuangtou and Pinganzhuang were close to each other. They knew that Xia Juhua made money by weaving mats with the women of Pinganzhuang every day, and they were all jealous. As a result, they were dissatisfied with him as the production team leader. Especially when the brigade evaluated the progress of canal repair, Xiaozhuangtou was suppressed by Pinganzhuang, which made the people in Xiaozhuangtou feel that he, the male team leader, was not as good as Xia Juhua, the fake girl.
So just now Li Daniu spoke out his dissatisfaction with Xia Juhua without hesitation, but the result was a bit unbearable: Xiaozhuangtou didn't make many mats this year, and the remaining reed stalks were piled up in two large piles. If the supply and marketing cooperative accepted other production teams but not Xiaozhuangtou's, those members would skin him alive.
"Director Lin, I am not good at speaking and I was worried about the reduction of income of the production team, so I said the wrong thing." Li Daniu was still sensible. He took advantage of Li Changshun's words to scold him and apologized directly to Director Lin.
As long as they were willing to sell reeds to the Ping'an Village production team, Director Lin would be able to successfully complete his first task at the county supply and marketing cooperative. Besides, Li Daniu was not the one who was blaming him just now, so he just smiled and didn't take it seriously.
Not only did he not take it seriously, he also took the initiative to ask Li Changshun how much wheat bran each production team needed. Li Changshun gave a number that stunned Xia Juhua: "Each production team has pigs and cows, and the members also have chickens at home. If it's not difficult, it would be best if each production team bought 10,000 kilograms of it."
Didn't you say five thousand kilograms before you came? Xia Juhua felt that Li Changshun had been refreshing her cognition since he arrived at the commune, and now it has reached its peak. However, Xia Juhua was also happy to be able to buy more bran, so she naturally would not expose Li Changshun in front of Director Lin.
Director Lin thought for a moment, then stood up and said to Li Changshun, "The noodle factory grinds its own flour and also has bran. But their bran is not just piled up for nothing, but is supplied to the county furfural factory. If you want less, we can think of a way. If you want 50,000 kilograms at once..."
Everyone present here is familiar with the county furfural factory, because although the locals do not know what furfural is used for, they know the use of furfural residue.
Everyone called furfural residue "dregs", and it was the best to mix it with wild vegetables and feed it to pigs. Before handing in the pigs, each production team would try to buy some pig feed, hoping to increase the weight of the pigs.
Xia Juhua asked carefully: "Director Lin, if we can't buy so much bran, can we buy some bran instead?"
Li Changshun gave Xia Juhua an approving look, and his dissatisfaction with her suddenly turned into extreme satisfaction. Director Lin's eyebrows also relaxed: "Okay. It happens that the production section chief of the furfural factory is my classmate. I can ask him to buy 2,000 kilograms of fermented rice for each of your production teams. As for the noodle factory, at most one production team can buy 5,000 kilograms of wheat bran for you."
Li Daniu's face flushed red, and even Li Changshun's eyes were glowing green. He stood up and wanted to shake Director Lin's hand, but he forgot that one of his legs was not working well and almost fell down again.
Xia Juhua was afraid that Li Changshun was not satisfied with the number Director Lin said, so she kept an eye on Li Changshun and stepped forward to help him in time, allowing Li Changshun's hand to shake with Director Lin smoothly.
"Director Lin, I won't say anything more. When their production teams kill pigs, you must come and eat the slaughtered pig dishes!" Li Changshun was so excited that he was spitting. Director Lin was very embarrassed as to whether he should avoid it.
Even though Director Lin agreed readily, he still had to personally take Li Changshun and Xia Juhua to negotiate with each of the two county-level factories. As for Li Daniu and the other four, they had long been sent back to their respective production teams by Li Changshun - they were just tools for Li Changshun to deliver letters of praise. In Li Changshun's opinion, it was already very good to let them hear in person what the supply and marketing cooperative could buy for them.
When Director Lin went into the factory to look for the director of the noodle factory, Xia Juhua dared to ask in a low voice: "Captain, although the noodle factory is run by the county, it should give some respect to the commune revolutionary committee, right?"
Li Changshun looked at Xia Juhua with a look of "How can you be so stupid?" "Director Zhang and the director of the noodle factory have always been at odds. Don't you know?"
If Xia Juhua knew, why didn't she just ask? After hearing that the two leaders were not getting along, Xia Juhua decided to continue not knowing. However, Li Changshun solved the bran problem today and got a good surprise. He didn't mind telling Xia Juhua a little inside information:
"Director Zhang's father fought with me in Mucang. He changed his job after crossing the river. He is much better than a peasant like me. The father of the director of the noodle factory surrendered and was overthrown in the early stage of the movement. Director Zhang was still a fool at that time and attacked his family."
Li Changshun made light of the incident, but Xia Juhua was stunned. She looked at Li Changshun with a strange look. Li Changshun turned his head away with disdain: "Don't believe it? The regiment of the factory director's father was the old unit of Director Zhang's father and I."
Xia Juhua suddenly remembered a skit she had seen in her previous life, in which an actor said: Your grandpa is still your grandpa.
Because of Grandpa Li Changshun, Xia Juhua was nervous when she entered the noodle factory again. However, it seemed that the director of the noodle factory did not know that Li Changshun had paid his father for money. He agreed to Director Lin's request right away, but also put forward requirements for the Ping'an Village Brigade:
Pinganzhuang Brigade had to fry 1,000 kilograms of peanuts for the noodle factory as a welfare for their employees during the Chinese New Year. Of course, Pinganzhuang would not let them do it for free. Like the supply and marketing cooperative, they paid a processing fee of 1.5 cents per kilogram and also provided their own peanuts and sugar.
After this was settled, Xia Juhua found that she had more things to do, so she had to ask Li Changshun for leave: "Captain, I have to fry the peanuts myself, otherwise the taste cannot be guaranteed. I can't go to the furfural factory with you and Director Lin."
Li Changshun felt that Xia Juhua was getting a bargain: "More than a hundred yuan, can't even buy you a trip to the furfural factory?"
Xia Juhua had no choice but to run to the furfural factory again. However, after meeting Director Lin, they agreed to let the Ping'anzhuang Brigade organize people to come and clean up the mess the next day without any conditions. Xia Juhua felt that she had made a wasted trip.
When they got back to the brigade headquarters on the ox cart, Li Changshun did not let Xia Juhua get off the cart. Instead, he had the ox cart take her directly back to Ping'an Village. "It's not easy for other production teams either. If you can pay for the reeds directly in cash, just give it to me."
In total, seven or eight thousand kilograms of reed stems would be enough to weave another four hundred mats. Xia Juhua had to ask, "We can get paid in cash, but how much reed stems should each production team give us?" In the autumn, each production team was eager to cut the reed stems and fight them together. Now every team has a lot of reed stems left.
Li Changshun thought for a moment and said, "After all, the supply and marketing cooperatives will pay you in cash, so we'll charge you more if we can."
Knowing that the captain had a large territory to worry about, Xia Juhua couldn't worry about it all, so she could only give Li Changshun a shot of prevention: "Captain, it's not that I don't want to collect. Think about it, we only sold 200 seats in total, and we only have 400 yuan in hand. How much more can we collect?"
Li Changshun looked at Xia Juhua in disbelief: "Where is the original money of your production team?"
The brigade controlled the financial resources of each production team, and Xia Juhua had forgotten about this and could only say, "We still have seven households that owe us money. If someone gets sick, the production team can't be left without paying a penny."
"You really think I don't know how many kilograms of peanuts you have fried from autumn to now?" Li Changshun hinted to Xia Juhua righteously that if anyone in Ping'an Village needed money, she could personally help them first.
Xia Juhua could discuss other matters, but when it came to her pension, she would fight anyone who tried to touch her, even if it was Li Changshun, the old revolutionary:
"Captain, let's put it this way. My personal money is different from public money. If they owe the public money, Qiu Sheng will record it in the account and deduct their work points in the future. But if they owe me personal money, can I deduct their work points?"
Li Changshun was stunned. In his memory, Xia Juhua was a person with little presence. Even though he had heard of Xia Xiaohuo's nickname before, he had never had much contact with her. It was not until the day when Ping An Village selected a production team leader that the members suddenly recommended Xia Juhua together that Li Changshun noticed this somewhat silent woman.
Li Changshun was surprised when Xia Juhua said she wanted to give it a try. However, Ping'an Village's production not only did not lag behind because they chose a female captain, but instead they were all very energetic, which forced Li Changshun to observe Xia Juhua.
It was surprising that she taught her skills to the women of Ping'an Village without reservation; it was even more surprising that she bought bran from the noodle factory for the production team; and it was a surprise among surprises that she proposed to build closer relations by sending letters of commendation to the supply and marketing cooperative, thereby benefiting everyone in the team.
A series of accidents made Li Changshun feel that Xia Juhua was a person who cared about the overall situation. Shouldn't such a person help members when they were in trouble? However, Xia Juhua's refusal was so decisive that Li Changshun was surprised.
"Those are all members of your production team." Li Changshun said with a fierce face.
Xia Juhua's expression did not change, and she spoke calmly: "I know they are members of our production team, so whether I teach them skills or buy bran, I am not doing it in my personal name, because I am the leader of the production team. Captain, I also have my own family. I can't empty my family and give it to others just because I am the production team leader, right?"
"Captain, do you know how many years I lived in the shed of the production team and how I built my house bit by bit? At that time, apart from giving me the nickname "Xia Xiaoyao", no one in our production team helped me push a cart of soil or make a brick."
Therefore, helping everyone make money is a responsibility and a way to give yourself peace of mind, not an obligation.
Li Changshun was silent.
Xia Juhua knew that she shouldn't have said those last words. If Li Changshun was a petty person and reported her words to the commune, she would have to join the Red Team and accompany Liu Sizhuang's family.
But she had to say it, otherwise Li Changshun would think that she should lend her money to the villagers, and she would not be able to save a penny for her retirement in the future.
"Come on, I know." Li Changshun didn't say what he knew, and waved to the driver to hurry up. Xia Juhua was not afraid that the driver would hear what she said just now - the driver also had a family, and as a person, he had to live his life well first.
As soon as she entered the house, Wang Caifeng called out "Mom", and then she carefully closed the gate and said, "Mom, two people just came. They said they were from the noodle factory and brought a thousand kilograms of peanuts and several bags of sugar to our house."
"Well, the noodle factory asked me to fry peanuts for them." Xia Juhua felt tired just thinking about it and didn't want to explain more.
Wang Caifeng noticed that her mother-in-law was a little absent-minded, so she followed her into the main room, immediately poured a glass of water and handed it to Xia Juhua, and asked her if she had lunch and whether she needed to eat first. She just had to wait for Liu Zhiquan and his brother to get off work.
After running around for a day, Li Changshun went to Director Zhang's place at noon, and Director Lin asked Wang Caixia to accompany Xia Juhua to the hotel. Xia Juhua thought that she was treating Director Lin, so she was embarrassed to eat more, and wanted the guest to eat more. As a result, she couldn't argue with Director Lin when paying the bill, and she hadn't eaten enough.
When Wang Caifeng asked this, she actually felt a little hungry. Just when she was about to go get some rice, Wang Caifeng had already gone out with a bulging belly. A moment later, she brought back not only a bowl of noodles, but also a poached egg on it.
"How did you cook the noodles?" Xia Juhua asked, "What about Baoguo's?"
Wang Caifeng smiled, as if Xia Juhua was asking her if she had eaten. "Leave some for Baoguo, don't worry about him. I think I'm too tired, and I must have fried peanuts in the evening. How can I not eat well?"
Xia Juhua nodded, her eyes just looking at Wang Caifeng's belly, where her first granddaughter was born. After the birth of her granddaughter, Wang Caifeng did not eat well and had no milk, so the child had to drink rice porridge after less than five months of drinking milk, and her body has always been weak.
Alas, what's wrong with me? I've figured out that children and grandchildren will have their own blessings, so why am I worried about the baby in Wang Caifeng's belly? Xia Juhua picked up a piece of noodles with chopsticks, but couldn't put it into her mouth: "Don't be too frugal, if not for your own health, you have to think about the child."
Wang Caifeng's eyes turned red. "Mom, please stop talking. My mom said that I am very blessed compared to others. If I don't respect you well, I will be struck by lightning."
Haha, Xia Juhua put the noodles into her mouth while saying this: You lived a good life in your previous life. Not only were you not struck by lightning, but you also lived your own life and sang.
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