Chapter 81
Xia Juhua really wanted to tell Chen Qiu Sheng that the land in Ping'an Village would not be flooded this year, but when she saw his eager eyes, she swallowed her words: It is better to have hope than to have no hope at all.
Therefore, he nodded to Chen Qiu Sheng and asked him to discuss it with Technician Lin. He then walked slowly along the canal to see how the sweet potato seedlings that had already been planted were growing.
Soon, they reached the end of the canal. The canal was still full of water. Xia Juhua wanted to dig a cellar to store the water.
Yes, if we dig a water cellar, we can store some water while the water from the Xihe River can still flow into the canal. Even if people can't use it for drinking, we can use it to water the land, right?
Xia Juhua tried hard to recall whether she had watched TV in her previous life and whether there was any talk about how to build a water cellar. Unfortunately, her impression was too vague and she had no idea. This made Xia Juhua very regretful. How could she have only watched TV dramas in her previous life and not watched any popular science programs or something like that?
Unfortunately, there is no place in the world to buy regret medicine.
Although there is no such thing as regretful selling medicine in the world, Xia Juhua now has a technician named Xue by her side, and she can consult him.
After hearing Xia Juhua's idea, Technician Xue didn't show up at Ping'an Village for two days, which made Chen Qiusheng very anxious. Ping'an Village completed the spring ploughing smoothly this year, which saved everyone unprecedented energy. Technicians Xue and Lin made great contributions. If Technician Xue never came to Ping'an Village again, Chen Qiusheng felt it would be a huge loss.
Fortunately, on the third day, Technician Xue came again with a tractor. Not only did he come, he also brought a message from Wang Caixia to Xia Juhua: "The supply and marketing cooperative has a batch of fertilizers. Deputy Director Wang wants you to bring people back as soon as possible."
Fertilizer is a good thing. The increasing grain production in the past century has a lot to do with various highly targeted fertilizers. This news made Xia Juhua forget to ask Technician Xue if he had found any good solutions in the past two days, and she set out with the 20 members of Ping'an Village.
As soon as she arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative, she was naturally scolded by Wang Caixia, who said that Xia Juhua had not been to the supply and marketing cooperative for a long time and that the mats in the cooperative were almost sold out.
Xia Juhua had to explain to Wang Caixia: "The reeds have slowly started to change color. The mats made from them are not white, and the words are not clear. So our production team has stopped making them. If you still want them, don't order too much. Otherwise, you will be criticized if you can't sell them."
Seeing Xia Juhua explaining to her so seriously, Wang Caixia was very happy: "I know, how could I not know that you would not really forget me, it's just that I haven't seen you for such a long time, I miss you so much."
"Captain Xia." Chen Xiaoman also came forward to greet Xia Juhua: "I heard that you all supplied Ping'an Village's seats to the county supply and marketing cooperative. Did you forget about our Red Star Supply and Marketing Cooperative?"
After not seeing each other for a few months, Chen Xiaoman was no longer as cautious as when she was trying to perform well in the hope of getting a permanent job. She spoke much faster than when they first met. Xia Juhua continued to smile and said to her, "How could I forget you? Even if I forget the Red Star Supply and Marketing Cooperative, I can't forget the salesperson Chen."
Wang Caixia asked Chen Xiaoman to take the members of Ping'an Village to pick up fertilizers, and she continued to talk to Xia Juhua: "Caifeng's Lele will soon be one month old. I will go to see her on the day of the full moon. I really can't leave now."
Xia Juhua knew that as a leader, she had to keep an eye on Wang Caixia when others were resting, so she smiled and told her not to worry about her, and took the opportunity to thank her for distributing the first batch of fertilizers to Ping'an Village.
Wang Caixia smiled and refused to take credit for the work: "The county supply and marketing cooperative and Director Zhang of the commune have told us that Ping'an Village is working hard to carry out a pilot project this year, and asked us to give priority to your supply of any production materials we have."
Then he asked Xia Juhua: "When did you become a pilot project? Why are you still working so hard on the pilot project? Is it just your production team or are there other production teams? If there are other production teams, I have to keep some for them when the next batch of fertilizers arrives."
Xia Juhua was very impressed by the fact that the leaders had come up with a pilot project to legitimately take care of the Ping An Village production team. She was even more confident that Ping An Village could survive this drought and said with a smile:
"I just heard about it, too. I don't know if there are other production teams. But I feel relieved to have you in the supply and marketing cooperative. Don't forget to let me know if there are any good things."
"Don't worry." Wang Caixia assured her: "Even if the leader didn't say hello, I would have informed you. Now that the leader has said hello, it's easier for me to explain to others."
Wang Caixia was good at explaining to people, and so was Xia Juhua. Along the way, there were about 20 people from Ping'an Village, each carrying two bags of fertilizer, and they walked with great momentum. This momentum made the passing production teams jealous, and they all asked Xia Juhua, the leader, whether the supply and marketing cooperative still had fertilizers and how their production team had obtained the quota.
Xia Juhua immediately told everyone who asked that the Ping'anzhuang production team was a pilot project. Although no one had heard of the name of the pilot project, there were pilot projects everywhere, so maybe it was just inconvenient for the group to communicate?
It has to be said that people in this era are very secretive. They dare to keep secrets about issues they don't understand. The way they looked at the Ping An Village team changed, as they thought Ping An Village was going to test some difficult mission for the organization.
As luck would have it, even Li Changshun only came to Ping'an Village to take a look at the fertilizers piled up in the warehouse and told Xia Juhua to use the fertilizers well. He did not, as he had done in the past, want Ping'an Village to distribute the fertilizers to the other four production teams.
Xia Juhua certainly wouldn't mention it, and she didn't say anything except to assure Li Changshun that it wouldn't be wasted. Li Changshun went to the field to check the growth of the sweet potatoes and then went back to the team, which made Xia Juhua feel uneasy.
Chen Qiusheng found it funny: "Captain, the captain didn't care about our little fertilizer, why are you not happy?"
"If he still cares about me, I have something else to say to him and he can't pull me away. But now that he doesn't care about me anymore, I feel like the captain has become a different person." Xia Juhua had a lingering fear on her face.
Chen Qiusheng felt that Li Changshun might not care about the fertilizer in Pingan Village: "I heard that the fourth team has started to grind wheat bran."
Grinding wheat bran now? Xia Juhua looked at Chen Qiusheng in disbelief: "I remember that Team 4 seemed to have missed 70,000 to 80,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes. Why are they grinding wheat bran now?"
Chen Qiusheng looked around and whispered, "Team Four sold a lot of surplus grain before the New Year. I heard that some families stopped eating dry grain before the end of the first month of the lunar year."
It was not a pity that the family had run out of dry grain. Otherwise, the spring ploughing was very busy and the work was heavy. Even a strong worker would not have enough food for a pound and a half a day. But selling the surplus grain was everyone's choice. Xia Juhua had no place to intervene, so she could only remind Chen Qiusheng: "Keep an eye on Uncle Dong and Aunt Qi's families. If they are short of food, tell me quickly."
The two elderly people didn't even have any children, so they couldn't go hungry even if they lacked food. Although Ping'an Village planted more sweet potatoes this year than in previous years, the amount of sweet potato seeds used was much less than in previous years. The part of sweet potatoes that the production team withheld from the two batches before the New Year was almost not used, and it was enough to support the two lonely elderly people.
Chen Qiusheng asked, "I heard that Team 4 wants to mix wheat bran with sweet potato leaves and corn cobs to make flour. Our production team doesn't have much work in the fields right now, so why don't we grind the wheat bran and do less work?"
Mixed noodles!
This is why Li Changshun insisted that Xia Juhua come up with a recipe for wheat bran. Everyone had eaten wheat bran during difficult times, and even at that time, wheat bran was considered a good thing. It was just a good thing, and it was still difficult to digest after being eaten. Li Changshun asked Xia Juhua to think about how to make wheat bran more palatable.
"Let's arrange a few people to grind out 5,000 kilograms of wheat bran." Xia Juhua sighed and said, "Although everyone doesn't have much surplus grain to sell, there was a limit to how much each family could have left last year. Now let's start mixing less wheat bran into the grain, so that we don't have to eat only that stuff when the time comes."
"Oh, by the way, let's not save our energy and grind it a few more times." Xia Juhua thought for a while and asked Chen Qiusheng, "Do you think we can get starch if we soak the bran for a few days like we are leaking flour?"
No one has ever tried this. When people are hungry, they just want to fill their stomachs, not care about the taste. Chen Qiusheng thought for a while before saying, "Why don't we sieve it twice before grinding it? I think we can sieve out some flour."
Indeed, when the members were picking bran, their hair and eyebrows were all white, which must have contained a lot of starch. Xia Juhua was a man of action, so she asked Chen Qiusheng to blow the whistle and call for help.
The crops had just been planted, and it was not yet time to hoe the fields. There were not many members in the fields, and many were assigned to build classrooms for Liu Lizhu and the children. Hearing Chen Qiusheng's whistle, those who stayed in the village quickly gathered at the production team, waiting for Xia Juhua or Chen Qiusheng to assign them tasks.
When they heard that they had to sift the starch from the bran, no one complained. Only Zhao Xianzhi asked, "Captain, as women, are we thinning out the seedlings or helping to sift the flour?" She trusted Xia Juhua the most, so even if Chen Qiu Sheng had made it clear, she would still ask Xia Juhua before she felt at ease.
Chen Qiusheng was used to it. Seeing that Xia Juhua did not respond to Zhao Xianzhi's question, he said with a smile, "Ten of you will help sift the bran, and the rest will continue to thin out the seedlings."
Even though it was not Xia Juhua who answered, Chen Qiu Sheng looked at Xia Juhua before answering, so Zhao Xianzhi treated it as if Xia Juhua had answered and took the women to the side to divide the people.
Li Changwang was also helpless with his wife, so when there were fewer people around, he went up to Chen Qiu Sheng and said, "Qiu Sheng, that's just her temper. It's not that she doesn't trust you, but don't take it to heart." Now the captain discussed everything with Chen Qiu Sheng, so he shouldn't secretly put pressure on his wife.
Chen Qiu Sheng said nonchalantly: "My wife is the same, and she doesn't listen to us, so let them do whatever they want." There is no loss in listening to the captain.
Of course they did not lose out by listening to Xia Juhua. After a thorough sifting, the Ping'anzhuang members sifted out about 300 kilograms of flour from the 12,000 kilograms of wheat bran. The flour was a little darker, but it was still white flour!
Wu Ye couldn't bear to let go of the flour, and asked Xia Juhua excitedly: "Can we go to the noodle factory to buy some wheat bran?"
Don't blame Fifth Master for being greedy. What's the price of wheat bran? And what's the price of 300 kilograms of flour?
Xia Juhua did not hold out hope: "Everyone can see now that there will be a drought. The noodle factory will be in great demand for wheat bran." Even if the production teams did not think of buying wheat bran, would Uncle Qi let the noodle factory go?
"That's right." Master Wu was a little regretful that he didn't buy enough before the New Year, but he immediately cheered up: "This is not bad. The people in Team 4 only thought about how to divide the bran, and didn't even think about screening it first."
All the members of Ping An Village looked at Xia Juhua with admiration, and they quickly pulled Chen Qiusheng over to her: "Qiusheng was the first to bring up the idea of screening, it had nothing to do with me."
Everyone still looked at Xia Juhua with admiration: If you don't agree, Chen Qiu Sheng's hundred ideas will be useless.
That's it. Xia Juhua, who felt she couldn't explain herself, asked Liu Zhiquan to carry a bag of wheat bran and go home. When he entered the house, he found Technician Xue sitting in the yard with his face up, basking in the sun with his eyes half-closed. Liu Baoguo was circling around the small stool he was sitting on, pushing Technician Xue from time to time, as if trying to snatch the stool back.
"Milk, mine." When Liu Baoguo saw his grandmother, he immediately complained to her about Technician Xue's bad behavior of stealing his small stool.
Xia Juhua took his little hand and said to him with a smile: "Baoguo will entertain the guests for grandma, that's amazing."
Liu Baoguo, who was originally complaining, immediately puffed out his chest and clapped his hands with a smile: "Please sit down and have some water."
"Yes, when guests come to the house, we have to invite them to sit down and pour them water." Xia Juhua continued to talk to Liu Baoguo. Liu Zhiquan felt that he and Liu Zhishuang were not their biological children. Otherwise, why didn't their mother have the patience to teach them how to entertain guests when they were young?
Technician Xue also sat up straight, opened his eyes, and said to Xia Juhua with a smile: "Captain Xia is really good at educating children."
Xia Juhua did not deny it. She smiled and pulled over a bench, sat opposite Technician Xue and asked, "Have you come up with a solution?"
That day, I was only concerned with transporting fertilizers, and I really didn't have time to ask Technician Xue about the water cellar. When Liu Zhiquan heard that his mother had something to say to Technician Xue, he hurriedly pulled Liu Baoguo back to the east room. Soon, Lele's crying sound came from the children's room. It was obvious that she was woken up by Liu Baoguo again.
Xia Juhua acted as if she didn't hear her granddaughter crying. She just stared at Technician Xue and waited for his answer.
Technician Xue shook his head and said to her, "I've thought about it for a few days. If we use the existing pits, it's not realistic to store water. The weather is getting hotter and hotter. In addition to the sun exposure, the water will also seep into the ground. It will dry up in a few days."
"What if we use cement to cover the sunken ground first?" Xia Juhua has been trying her best to recall the TV shows she watched in her previous life these days, and finally came up with this idea.
Technician Xue was a little surprised that Xia Juhua blurted out the word cement. After all, the current production of cement is too low. Cement is only used in some key construction projects or in the construction of big cities. It is far from something a rural woman can blurt out.
However, thinking about the difference between Xia Juhua and other women, Technician Xue did not think much about it. He just shook his head and said, "Not to mention that the cement in Pingde County is now distributed according to the plan. Even if we can get cement, it would be a waste to use it to plaster the water cellar."
Yes, now is not the era when you can buy cement easily for home decoration. Xia Juhua sighed and said with some frustration: "Is there really no way?" If you really save water, you don't have to worry about drought.
Technician Xue smiled and said, "If we can't build a water cellar, we can dig deep wells. As long as we find the right location, digging two deep wells is better than building a water cellar with stagnant water."
That's right. Xia Juhua slapped her thigh suddenly. She only thought about saving water, but why didn't she think about digging two more wells to keep it flowing? After the last generation of the big contract responsibility system, no one was in charge of the canal plan of the entire Ping'anzhuang Brigade, so the original goal of connecting the canals of various production teams could not be achieved. In order to increase production and income, the people from the Agricultural Technology Station led everyone to dig some deep wells for irrigation.
She remembered exactly where the well was dug in Ping'an Village and how deep the water was.
It was rare to see Xia Juhua lose her composure like this, so Technician Xue asked cheerfully, "Captain Xia, you also think digging a well is feasible, right? Technician Lin also said that digging a well is too labor-intensive, but compared to taking in water and watering the land, I think it's worth spending some time and energy this year so that it can be used in the future."
Having been dealing with Xia Juhua for a long time, no matter what she does, she always calculates the cost first. Technician Xue knows how to persuade Xia Juhua.
In fact, there was no need for him to persuade her. Xia Juhua had already started calculating where to dig the first well - the first well must produce water, and it must produce water quickly, so as not to dampen everyone's enthusiasm for digging subsequent wells.
Xia Juhua became more and more excited the more she thought about it. She couldn't sit still at home. She let Technician Xue sit alone and went to discuss digging a well with Master Wu and Chen Qiusheng. Master Wu picked up his tobacco pot again and asked uncertainly: "Can we really get water in our village without someone who knows how to look at the place?"
Digging a well is no joke. If you choose the wrong location, not only will there be no water, but if there is a landslide, people may die.
Xia Juhua said confidently: "We are so close to the Xianhe River, the groundwater should not be too deep. Even if there is little rain this year, we can find water by digging one or two meters deeper. If the production team digs a few more wells, we may be able to harvest some crops in the fields."
Chen Qiu Sheng was tempted: "Really? We don't need to find someone to choose a place? If our own members dig it, it really won't cost much." Chen Qiu Sheng knew best how much money the production team had now. With the last batch of money collected from the party, there were nearly 7,000 yuan, enough to buy materials for digging a well.
"Let's hold a meeting in the evening." Master Wu has been cautious all his life and feels that he should seek everyone's opinions.
But he forgot that since Xia Juhua was elected as the production team leader last year, her prestige among the members has been getting higher and higher. Even though everyone saw Xia Juhua asking her eldest son to carry the bran home today, no one thought she was taking it for personal use. Instead, they were convinced that their team leader was trying to make the bran taste good - didn't they hear that the production team would let everyone grind the bran next?
When Xia Juhua, who was blindly trusted, proposed digging a well, would the members have any other reaction besides raising their hands in approval?
Of course Liu Sizhuang and his wife wanted to oppose it, but now they were the targets of labor supervision and did not even have a say. No matter who they opposed in their hearts, they could not hear it.
The news that Ping'an Village was going to dig a well spread throughout the Ping'an Brigade. When Li Changshun arrived, the production team had already selected the people who would dig the well. A total of twelve strong men were divided into three groups to take turns digging the well.
"Why don't you find a place where water can come out?" Li Changshun really didn't believe that it was Xia Juhua who said this: "Ping'an Village has been drinking water from these two wells for generations. Don't the elders have more knowledge than you?"
Xia Juhua knew that if she didn't pump out the water, it would be useless to say anything, so she could only say, "Captain, have you noticed that the water in the canal has already dropped to a shallow level? The sweet potato fields are fine, but there's no water for the second crop of wheat. I don't think it's going to rain today, so I want to take everyone to give it a try while we still have the strength."
Why do we still have the strength now? Because we still have something to eat. But if it doesn't rain, the crops won't be irrigated, and we won't have food to eat, and we won't have the strength to dig a well.
Li Changshun was silent. He understood this principle, but this was also what worried him: digging a well is strenuous work. Do the members who have just finished spring plowing have the physical strength to dig a well?
"What did the technician say?" Li Changshun felt that the technicians were more reliable than Xia Juhua. After all, they were well-educated people.
Xia Juhua asked two technicians, Xue Lin, to endorse her, and they nodded naturally: "We think Captain Xia's idea is very good. Ping'an Village is not far from the Xian River, so there will be no problem digging a well and getting water from the ground."
Having received the endorsement, Li Changshun was only half relieved - he naturally wanted to see Ping'an Village successfully dig a well, and if it was really successful, the other four production teams could also follow suit to dig wells.
But digging a well is not something that can be done by just talking. Xia Juhua was taken to work on a tractor by Technician Xue, and they ran around for three days before they managed to buy all the supports, wooden boards, auxiliary materials and pipes. The bricks for building the well wall were also sourced, and they just had to wait for them to be pulled back.
In order to convince everyone that Ping An Manor was just a trial run, Xia Juhua did not dare to buy more than enough materials, and only bought enough to dig a well. Even this made Wu Ye feel distressed. He looked at the materials and wished he could watch them even if he didn't sleep, for fear that someone would take the materials back home.
After hearing this, Xia Juhua had to persuade him: "Fifth Master, you don't have to stay here. Qixi and the other four take turns watching over it every day." The production team no longer leaks any powder. Qixi and the other four, who used to guard the village entrance, have become the best candidates to check the materials.
The fifth master was still worried: "They are little kids, what if they fall asleep without someone watching them?"
In order to reassure the old man, the first well was dug in Pingan Village the next day. As the depth increased, the four production team leaders could not wait and came to Pingan Village to watch: "Captain Xia, was it Technicians Xue and Lin who decided to dig a well here?"
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