Chapter 72
The words of giving priority to supporting Ping'anzhuang's agricultural production successfully comforted Xia Juhua. She energetically followed the people called by Technician Xue, loaded the wooden racks and iron barrels onto the tractor, sat in the co-pilot's seat, and drove out of the gate of the agricultural machinery station.
"Technician Xue, can your stationmaster agree to this?" Xia Juhua still wanted to settle the matter with Technician Xue, otherwise she would not be willing to accept it.
The wind was strong and the tractor itself was noisy. Technician Xue didn't hear Xia Juhua's question clearly and thought she was worried that the sweet potatoes she made would be wasted. He nodded desperately, feeling unsure, "I think it's OK. There shouldn't be any problems. Even if there are problems, there shouldn't be many changes."
Xia Juhua only heard the words "no problem" and was already beaming with joy. She didn't even hear Technician Xue's subsequent words about whether to make changes or not. She was very satisfied with the conversation and smiled until a cyclist appeared in front of the tractor, forcing Technician Xue to brake the tractor.
"Mr. Xia, what are you doing?" Technician Xue stopped the tractor and yelled at the person who came.
The one who stopped Technician Xue's tractor was Captain Xia, who was riding a bicycle with several members of the Red Team. Hearing Technician Xue's accusation, Captain Xia did not look angry at all. Instead, he twitched his lips, squinted his eyes, and looked at Xia Juhua sitting on the tractor and asked:
"Captain Xia, since you have come to the commune, why don't you take those people from your production team away? Do you want us, the Red Team, to support them for the rest of their lives?"
Xia Juhua was so busy that she almost lost her mind. If Director Lin hadn't suggested that she go to the commune to find someone from the agricultural machinery station, she would have forgotten about Sun and Liu Sizhuang's family of three. Even if she came to the commune, she never thought of taking Sun and her family back to Ping'an Village.
What a joke! Now every household in Ping'an Village has its vegetable cellar filled with sweet potatoes. Anyone with eyes can tell what's going on. Bringing the Sun family members back to Ping'an Village is because they are afraid that the production team's secrets will be known to others?
But when facing Captain Xia, Xia Juhua had to reason with him (funny or not, when facing unreasonable people, we often have no choice but to reason with them): "Captain Xia, we have also been waiting for the Red Team's notice. In the past, people who entered the study class were not notified to the brigade or production team to lead them after the Red Team's education and transformation, and their thoughts were touched. How dare I go to the study class to pick them up without receiving a notice?"
Captain Xia was choked and said with a bad look on his face, "Isn't your mother-in-law there? As a daughter-in-law, you don't even want to take your mother-in-law home for the New Year?"
Young man, the New Year has passed early, okay?
"You are the production team leader, and you are the only one who can pick them up."
"But our production team has to listen to the notification from the brigade before we dare to come to the commune to pick people up." Xia Juhua sincerely hoped that Sun and others would stay in the study class honestly and not return to Ping'an Village to cause trouble and harm others.
Captain Xia got the hint: "Captain Xia, why do I hear that you are unwilling to let your mother-in-law and her family return to Ping An Village?"
Having dealt with them so many times, Xia Juhua didn't mind letting Captain Xia know some of her thoughts: "Captain Xia, their family has framed me several times in a row. I don't need to count them, right? I am really afraid of them. I hope the Red Team can educate them more deeply, so that after returning to the production team, they will not report me to the Red Team for some trivial matter again."
With such straightforward words, Captain Xia really has no way to deal with Xia Juhua. After all, he was the one who took people to Ping'an Manor to investigate when Xia Juhua was framed twice. Next time, if a few people from the Sun family make trouble again, will he take people to investigate or not?
To be honest, the Red Team is also very annoyed with the Sun family members. Every day in the study class, they either beat their children or scold their wives, or they fight with the three people from the old Sun family, but they can't come up with anything new. Everyone in the Red Team is hearing noises.
Today, it was rare to see Xia Juhua in the commune, so Captain Xia stopped the tractor and wanted Xia Juhua to pick up the Sun family members. As for the remaining Sun family members, without the Liu family members to quarrel with them, the Red Team was much quieter.
Technician Xue had already lost his patience and yelled at Captain Xia, "Come on, come on, you just love to arrest people and put them in training camps. You can show off your power by locking them up there, but why do you want to take them back? When they can start farming, you can just let them go back and accept labor supervision."
Even though Xia Juhua didn't know that Technician Xue was actually exiled to the Red Star Commune, she still worried for him: the Red Squad before them was where Tian was the boss and they were the second in command. Technician Xue spoke so aggressively, what would he do if he was directly taken away by the Red Squad and sent to a study class?
Even if she couldn't borrow the tractor to plow the land, Technician Xue was stopped by the Red Team today because of her. If he was really caught by the Red Team and sent to a study class, Xia Juhua would feel guilty to death.
Captain Xia didn't seem to notice that Technician Xue's tone was too aggressive, and asked, "What were you doing with her?"
Technician Xue looked impatient: "When did the Red Team take charge of agricultural production?"
It was not until the tractor drove onto the dirt road to Ping'an Village that Xia Juhua asked Technician Xue with a lingering fear: "Technician Xue, why are the Red Team so polite to you?"
Technician Xue said as a matter of course: "You won't eat or drink when you are a member of the Red Team. They are all in the production teams. When a production team wants to ask the Agricultural Machinery Station to help them turn the soil or repair machinery, the first people they look for are the people in their own production team who are in the Red Team. They think that they are easy to talk to because they are in the same commune as the Agricultural Machinery Station. These people are usually not polite to us. We tell them that we can't fix something when we can, and the car is broken when it can be used. Do they know whether it is true or not?"
It turns out that none of them are completely soft persimmons. Xia Juhua is half relieved: "It's good that they won't cause you trouble."
Technician Xue nodded and said, "You don't know, our stationmaster's family and that Xia are from the same production team. So he has to call our stationmaster "Grandpa". He doesn't dare to do anything to the people in our agricultural machinery station." Then he asked suspiciously:
"I think he seems to be picking on you. When did you offend him?"
The bitter smile that had not appeared on Xia Juhua's face for a long time returned to her face. She told Technician Xue in detail about the several clashes between herself and the Red Team, and even said that she did not want the Sun family members to return to Ping'an Village.
Technician Xue nodded thoughtfully and said nothing else. Xia Juhua felt that the Red Team had given her a reminder today. She could ask Liu Zhishuang to find Qi Weidong and ask him to ask the Red Team to lock up the Sun family members until the spring ploughing season and then release them back to Ping'an Village.
By that time, the sweet potatoes in each household would have long been turned into vermicelli, and the extra ones could be directly exchanged for money. Even if Sun and his friends had sharp eyes, could they still tell that each household had hidden extra money?
Therefore, as soon as the tractor stopped at the door of Liu's house, Xia Juhua had to stop the naughty children from touching the tractor, and asked Chen Qiu Sheng to go and call someone to take down the wooden frame.
While Technician Xue was installing the drum, Xia Juhua quietly told Liu Zhishuang about her plan. Liu Zhishuang went to borrow a bicycle from Liu Erzhuang. As they walked, he said to Xia Juhua, "Mom, why don't we buy a bicycle? It will be convenient for you to ride to the commune or the county."
I still want to take a plane. Xia Juhua gave him a slap, and Liu Zhishuang rode away with a grin.
Chen Qiusheng happened to come over and asked, "Captain, what is this thing used for?"
Xia Juhua told him that she had wanted to ask the Agricultural Machinery Station if there was such a thing, but she didn't expect that Technician Xue had already made a machine for making sweet potato pulp. Unfortunately, she hadn't tested it and didn't know if it worked, so she brought it to Ping'an Village to test it out.
Chen Qiusheng smacked his lips repeatedly when he heard this: "This is such a coincidence."
It was just a coincidence. It happened that Technician Xue was thoughtful and Ping'an Village had a large amount of sweet potatoes for Technician Xue to test.
"Caifeng." Xia Juhua called to Wang Caifeng who was watching the excitement: "Go chop the chicken that Qi Weidong brought. No matter what, you have to keep Technician Xue for dinner before leaving today."
Chen Qiu Sheng said quickly: "Even if there is food left, it is the responsibility of the production team. We can't just let your family provide the food." Chickens are such precious things that women in confinement may not even be able to eat one.
Xia Juhua stewed only half of the two chickens Qi Weidong brought during the Chinese New Year, hoping to keep them frozen for a while while the weather was cold, so that she could nourish the pregnant woman Wang Caifeng. Now, in order to use the tractor during the spring ploughing in Ping'an Village, she had to give it up, so she ignored Chen Qiusheng's words and told Wang Caifeng to do as she said.
Wang Caifeng was now extremely obedient, almost to the point that she would never go west if Xia Juhua told her to go east. Unfortunately, Xia Juhua had been so busy these days that she had no time to give Wang Caifeng any orders.
So when Wang Caifeng heard that her mother-in-law finally had a use for her, she was very happy to respond and even offered a suggestion: "Mom, Zhiquan brought back some mushrooms from my mother's house. Can we stew chicken with mushrooms?"
"Okay, you do it. I'll go see if the thing is installed and whether it can be used." Xia Juhua was still worried about wasting the sweet potatoes, so she went to see Technician Xue's "high-tech" with concern.
The sweet potatoes were washed and cleaned according to the original method and put into the iron bucket one by one. When it was half filled, Technician Xue called a halt. Xia Juhua calculated that this half bucket could hold about 130 kilograms.
Technician Xue looked again to see if the iron barrel and the wooden frame were firmly fixed, and then nodded to Liu Zhiquan. Liu Zhiquan pulled up the track, and the iron barrel made a rattling sound.
"Is it done? Why isn't the pulp coming out yet?" Liu Daxi squatted in front of the pulp trough, wishing he could stick his head in to see the progress. Liu Zhiquan was only pulling the track, and the clicking sound gradually became smaller as he pulled and released it. Xia Juhua knew that the pulp was about to come out.
Soon, the clean white pulp really flowed out along the pulp outlet trough. It was just a small strand at first, and then slowly covered half of the trough.
"It's coming out, it's coming out, it's really coming out." Liu moved the big basin excitedly, fearing that a little bit would leak out. Technician Xue was also very excited and kept urging Liu Zhishuang to pull the crawler faster.
Soon the big basin was almost full, and Xia Juhua quickly helped Liu Daxixi change to another basin.
"Sister-in-law, this thing is much faster than what we can do ourselves." Liu was overjoyed at the initial excitement and was extremely satisfied with the "high technology". He looked up at Technician Xue with shining eyes: "Technician Xue, you are amazing. You can even think of this thing."
Technician Xue was embarrassed by his praise - he just made an enlarged version of the meat grinder according to the principle, which was not really an innovation. But he was very happy that his product was recognized, and looked at Xia Juhua proudly.
If the sweet potato pulp was squeezed manually, only 40 to 50 kilograms could be squeezed each time. Now, 130 kilograms can be squeezed at a time. Judging from Liu Zhishuang's condition, it doesn't seem as tiring as manual squeeze. Xia Juhua thinks that Technician Xue can indeed be proud of himself.
"Technician Xue, I'm lucky to have met you when I went to the Agricultural Machinery Station today. This thing will really help our production team."
Hearing Xia Juhua's praise, Technician Xue felt much more touched than Liu Daxi's admiration, but it was not to the point of being carried away: "Whether it is good or not depends on how many sweet potatoes it can hold at one time and how long the blade can be used."
Look, technicians are so strict. Xia Juhua never thought about the problem of blade wear. She asked worriedly, "How often do I need to change the blade?" If I change it too frequently, I won't count it.
Technician Xue said helplessly, "We have to try it to know. Captain Xia, does your production team have so many sweet potatoes?"
It was not easy to find a production team willing to let him do a test. Technician Xue hoped to complete all the tests at once. Xia Juhua did not say anything, but just nodded to him. Even though Technician Xue felt that she did not fully understand what he meant, he still held out a glimmer of hope:
Xia Juhua is the production team leader. She said that in order to help her complete the experiment, she wanted to gather all the sweet potatoes from the entire production team.
After the first bucket of sweet potatoes was ground into pulp, there was some trouble in removing and cleaning the filter. Fortunately, Technician Xue made two more filters and brought them this time. I just had to replace them with a new one and then clean the used filter.
However, Xia Juhua still found a problem, that is, the sweet potato pulp ground out of the iron bucket is fine, but the residue left behind is correspondingly large. It is calculated that five and a half kilograms of sweet potatoes are needed to produce one kilogram of sweet potato starch.
"Mom, this is not a big deal." Liu Zhiquan peeled 130 kilograms of sweet potatoes in less than an hour. He was bloated. "My second son and I will wrap the remaining dregs again and we can get some starch."
Farmers are reluctant to waste even a bit of food, so Liu Zhiquan felt it was worth it even if he had to do the work twice - in the past, he and Liu Zhishuang could peel almost 200 kilograms of sweet potatoes after working so hard all day, but now they can finish it in a little over an hour, so wouldn't it take another hour to peel the dregs again?
It is much easier to pass the slag than to smash it, squeeze it, twist it and then pass it through the bag.
Technician Xue was mumbling something to himself about improving centrifugal force, etc. Xia Juhua couldn't understand what he was thinking about. He just wanted to know how to improve it. As soon as they entered Ping'an Village, they started the experiment. After standing in the cold wind for more than an hour, Xia Juhua couldn't bear it and wanted Technician Xue to go into the house to rest for a while.
But Technician Xue was a stubborn person: "Captain Xia, we have just started the experiment. Can you get some more sweet potatoes? Let's try to grind more at once and see if we can get some out. Don't worry about producing too much residue. You can feed the remaining residue to pigs for fertilizer. It won't be wasted."
If you don't farm, you don't know how expensive food is, right? Xia Juhua asked Liu Zhishuang to collect the dregs in a basket first, and then go to the vegetable cellar to move the sweet potatoes back. Technician Xue was surprised to find that Liu's family still had sweet potatoes, and said, "Captain Xia, your village grows a lot of sweet potatoes."
Xia Juhua glanced at him. After all the ups and downs, Technician Xue was still stubborn. What else did he not understand? Until he left Ping'an Village, he never asked a single question about the price of sweet potatoes.
Xia Juhua was willing to deal with such a seemingly stubborn but actually clear-headed person. If she couldn't express it verbally, she would work hard on the food. She wanted Wang Caifeng to stew the chicken, but Xia Juhua was the chef instead. In addition to the chicken stewed with mushrooms, there was also a small stir-fried meat, a plate of scrambled eggs, and a plate of stir-fried potato shreds on the table.
Technician Xue, who had been eating in the cafeteria for a long time, ate three cakes without hesitation, and then burped and said, "Captain Xia, can I stay at your house today?"
Liu Zhishuang, who had just returned from the county town, saw the grand occasion of a "high-tech" barrel pulverizing 200 kilograms of sweet potatoes, and admired the technician Xue who made the pulverizing machine. He didn't expect that Xue would be bribed by a meal, and Liu Zhishuang felt that he was going to be disillusioned.
Xia Juhua was happy to see this happen: "Okay, let's discuss the blade issue tonight."
Wu Ye and Chen Qiu Sheng, who were called to accompany the guests, looked at Technician Xue with some sympathy. They had already discovered that Xia Juhua was very tolerant of the people in her own production team, but she would squeeze outsiders as much as possible and would definitely strive for the greatest benefits for Ping An Zhuang.
Because they were the ones who would benefit, the two of them tacitly helped Xia Juhua to ask Technician Xue one question after another, and even asked if there was any way to use wheat bran to make food with a good taste.
Perhaps overwhelmed by the endless questions from the people of Ping An Village, Technician Xue actually agreed to write a letter to ask his family if there was any way to solve the problem of the taste of wheat bran. In the eyes of researchers, wheat bran is a crude fiber and can fill the stomach, but the taste is a little difficult to digest.
Xia Juhua, who knew Technician Xue a little, heard that he was going to write a letter to his family and thought that the bran problem might really be solved. She happily asked Liu Zhishuang to quickly spread the new quilt that had never been used in his room on Technician Xue and heat up the kang.
Before falling asleep, Technician Xue only had time to sigh to Liu Zhishuang: "Your mother is really not a simple person."
Liu Zhishuang agreed with Technician Xue's point of view. If his mother was simple, could she have raised her two brothers and dared to take over as the production team leader and lead the production team to become more and more prosperous?
The most difficult thing is that when his mother is ruthless, she really doesn't show mercy. If she doesn't want his grandmother to go back to Ping'an Village, she can just keep him in the Red Team's training class. Thinking of this, Liu Zhishuang shuddered: Fortunately, when he married Sun Hongmei and was arguing about divorce, his mother didn't treat him like this, otherwise he would have to stay in the training class, crying out to the sky and the earth for help.
From then on, Liu Zhishuang had no intention of hiding anything from his mother, and he just followed orders and carried out his duties.
Xia Juhua's focus is still on Technician Xue, because when he was winding the third barrel today, the blade began to become blunt and the pulp flow was no longer smooth. The people who watched were anxious but could not help.
"Technician Xue, do you have any more blade heads like this?" Since three filters have been made, shouldn't we prepare a few more sets of blade heads?
Technician Xue was embarrassed. He looked a bit like Liu Zhishuang, "Because I haven't tried it before, I only prepared one set of blades. But don't worry, give me a day and I can make two more sets."
After saying this, without caring whether Xia Juhua agreed or not, the man started the tractor and ran away.
Chen Qiusheng, who had been following the experiment, covered his nose in disbelief to avoid inhaling the dust raised by the tractor. After a while, someone asked, "Captain, will Technician Xue come back? Will we still use this thing to shred sweet potatoes?"
Why not? Even if the blade is blunt, it is still possible to mash the sweet potatoes. Manually squeezing and filtering the mashed sweet potatoes is also easier than simply using manual labor.
After getting Xia Juhua's answer, everyone immediately rushed to use the pulping machine to pulp their own sweet potatoes first. In the end, Chen Qiu Sheng had to come forward to arrange the order for everyone. The people at the back of the line went home with regrets on their faces and continued the task of pulping the sweet potatoes manually.
"Captain, can we distribute the money to the women now?" Chen Qiu Sheng was busy and sweating. He had so many issues to take care of that even taking a breath was a luxury.
Xia Juhua was stunned by his question: "Didn't I ask you and Xianzhi to share the spoils with everyone yesterday? Why haven't you done so yet?"
"Those two women said they don't trust me, and they won't agree to split the money without you watching over them." Chen Qiu Sheng was also helpless. Is he such an untrustworthy person? If they really didn't trust him, why would they leave all the production team's money with him?
"Yes, yes, yes," Xia Juhua knew it was something Zhao Xianzhi would say as soon as she heard it: "Call people, share the money. By the way, have they not started making the Four Seasons Peace Feast yet?"
Chen Qiusheng really knew: "Yes, they started making them yesterday when you went to the commune. Not only in the yard, but also for the girls at home. My wife said that the girls' ration is still 200 sheets, and those in the yard have to make 800 sheets."
"Captain, can you really compile so many seats in ten days?"
Xia Juhua was a little surprised to hear that the women had allocated the quotas themselves: "Have they divided it all by themselves? Two hundred sheets is a little short for the girls. After all, the women will help the girls to make them after they go home."
"No, no, Captain. My wife said that the quota is the quota. All the women who weave mats, whether they weave at home or in the yard, will be counted in the production team's quota this time."
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