Chapter 88
The Red Team had never encountered a situation like Xia Juhua before, where she asked them to verify it in person, and they could not help but look at each other in bewilderment. They had all heard from Director Wang of the Agriculture and Forestry Bureau that the Red Team subsidies this year were less than in previous years because Xia Juhua from Ping'an Village insisted on leading the members to dig a well, which occupied all the funds of the Agriculture and Forestry Bureau.
Therefore, before coming here, several people discussed that they had to teach Xia Juhua a lesson, and it would be best if she was also arrested and sent to the study class. As for how to arrest Xia Juhua and send her to the study class, do you still need to ask? The Red Team is very good at making random accusations.
Who would have thought that Xia Juhua would not panic when she heard that she was accused of defaming the collective, and she even asked the entire production team to testify for her. Even if a person has good relationships with others, a production team leader can still avoid offending two people. How could she guarantee that everyone in the production team would do as she wished?
What the Red Team didn't expect was that without Liu Zhishuang having to go out and call for help, many members had already surrounded the Liu family compound. After hearing what Xia Juhua said, they started to shout, "We are running out of food. The bran we eat now was bought for us by the team leader before the New Year. If you don't believe me, go and see!"
It wasn't just one or two people shouting, and the voices were loud enough to break the sky. The Red Team was at a loss and all looked at the leader. The leader was also startled by the combined voices and said sinisterly, "Captain Xia, are you going to fight against the young revolutionary?"
When Xia Juhua spoke to the leading Red Team, her face remained calm and her voice was neither too high nor too low: "The elders once taught us that without investigation and research, we have no right to speak. We, the members of Ping'an Village, are now actively helping the Red Team to conduct research on grain storage. How can we be regarded as those who are against the revolutionary young generals?"
Speechless, the leader of the Red Team found that he could not even find his voice in front of a rural woman. He looked at the increasing number of members outside the yard, listened to the increasingly loud shouts, and managed to calm himself down, showing Xia Juhua an ugly smile:
"Captain Xia, we are here to help Ping'an Village eliminate bad elements that are sabotaging drought relief production, not to investigate how much surplus food Ping'an Village members have. You see, it's getting late, shouldn't we let the members rest early so as not to delay the production team's drought relief tomorrow?"
Xia Juhua waved her hands toward the outside of the courtyard, and the noise suddenly became much quieter. The people standing outside were still arguing, but when they noticed that the person in front of them had stopped talking, they slowly shut up.
Then Xia Juhua said loudly: "The comrades of the Red Team said that we can't delay everyone's drought relief tomorrow, so let everyone go home and rest."
"Why rest? I was so hungry that I finally fell asleep. How can I sleep again after being woken up? No need to rest. I'd better ask the comrades of the Red Team to see how many handfuls of corn are left in our barn and give us some relief food."
"Yes, comrades of the Red Team, please give us some relief rations." Many people agreed with the first person, which almost made the Red Team very angry: Are they here to distribute relief rations? No, they are here to catch bad elements!
He still had to ask Xia Juhua how he had gone from catching bad elements to distributing relief rations, but Xia Juhua acted as if she hadn't noticed the Red Team's questions and was persuading the members to listen to the Red Team and go home and rest quickly.
Just as the Red Team had expected, the members did not obey Xia Juhua's words. They were hungry, so hungry that they could not sleep, and they urgently needed relief food to soothe their stomachs, and they would not leave until they got the relief food.
Finally, after the Red Team had to agree to report the situation in Ping'an Village to the County Revolutionary Committee, the members left the Liu Family Old House one by one in disappointment. However, Xia Juhua could not leave with the members, as she had to ask the Red Team about the arrangements for Liu Sizhuang and his wife in the county town.
The Red Team had lost their initial arrogance and their tone of voice was much better when they answered: "Bad elements like this must be further reformed through labor. It just so happens that there are several public toilets in the county without regular people to clean them, so we handed them over to the couple."
Xia Juhua still looked at the leader, who laughed self-deprecatingly: "Don't worry, Captain Xia, the Red Team can also find wheat bran, and they won't starve to death."
Regardless of how Liu Sizhuang and his wife felt after hearing this, except for Sun and Liu Hongjuan, everyone else felt relieved. When Xia Juhua heard that the Red Team would not take away their family's wheat bran, she yawned. The leader of the Red Team waved to everyone, and several people pushed their bicycles.
Xia Juhua looked in disbelief as the Red Team members rode their bikes at very fast speeds. The two at the back were pulling a rope tied to the hands of Liu Sizhuang and his wife. In order to avoid being pulled down, the couple had to run after them. For the first time, she felt admiration for the Red Team.
"Auntie..." Xia Juhua, who was admiring the Red Team, heard someone calling her. She looked around and found it was Liu Hongjuan. The fear on her face was still there and there were some tears in her eyes. She was looking at Xia Juhua with the same pleading eyes as Sun Guizhi did during the day.
Before Xia Juhua could say anything, Liu Zhiliang covered Liu Hongjuan's with his hand and said to Xia Juhua with a red face, "Auntie, if they didn't take away our wheat bran, I could still pull sweet potato leaves every day and let grandma and the others have food to eat."
Is this what Liu Zhiliang said? Xia Juhua glanced at Li Daya, then at An Baoling. Both of them nodded slightly to her, as if to tell her that Liu Zhiliang was really different from Liu Sizhuang and his family.
No matter how different he is, he is just a child of twelve or thirteen years old.
Xia Juhua thought for a moment and said, "Your parents made a mistake, and some people in the village might say something bad about them. You are still young, so don't take it to heart. The production team will not ignore you."
Liu Zhiliang said stubbornly: "I can provide them both with food." After saying that, he couldn't help but his eyes turned red.
"Okay, if you have something to do, go find Chen Qiu Sheng." Xia Juhua felt that she could understand Liu Zhiliang's mood at the moment, and she didn't ask him to find her. Letting him find Chen Qiu Sheng could at least provide some relief.
Liu Erzhuang wanted to say something to Xia Juhua, but was stopped by Li Daya. Li Daya was really afraid that her husband would not be sober again and say something hurtful to Xia Juhua - just because his sister-in-law spoke kindly to Liu Zhiliang because he had started to understand things, it did not mean that Liu Erzhuang could use this to ask his sister-in-law to treat Liu Sizhuang's family the same way.
There is only one person in that family, Liu Zhiliang. The rest, including the Sun family, are inhumane and not worthy of being treated as human beings by the sister-in-law!
After returning home, Xia Juhua thought about Liu Zhiliang over and over for a long time - she couldn't understand when Liu Zhiliang, who was able to push Liu Hongjuan to the Red Team, dared to take the initiative to say that he could provide Liu Hongjuan and Sun with food.
Because he had been thinking for too long, Xia Juhua appeared in front of Director Lin with bloodshot eyes, which made him imagine the scene of all the women in Ping'an Village staying up late to weave roosters.
It's okay to fill in the blanks, it's not a bad thing. Xia Juhua looked at Chen Qiusheng counting the cash brought by Director Lin with excitement, and smiled: "The members of our production team are all very hard-working, but no matter how hard it is, we have to complete Director Lin's task."
Director Lin smiled and waited for Chen Qiusheng to finish counting the money before asking, "Captain Xia, is your production team busy now? If not, would you like to fry some sugar-coated peanuts for the county supply and marketing cooperative?"
Chen Qiusheng, who had already deposited the money, objected: "It's so hot, and you still let the captain stand in front of the stove to fry peanuts? Besides, that stuff can't be kept in the summer, it will get damp in a few days."
The production team had to take care of the work, and I couldn't stop earning money for my retirement, right? Moreover, Xia Juhua saw that Director Lin hesitated for a while before asking her to fry peanuts, so she asked, "Why are you frying peanuts at this time?"
Director Lin looked at Xia Juhua with some embarrassment and said, "I heard that the director of the district revolutionary committee had eaten the sugar-coated peanuts sent by the county supply and marketing cooperative last year, and mentioned it to the county leaders when he came to Pingde this time. Isn't this..."
Xia Juhua asked: "How much do you need to fry?" The leader alone can't eat much, right?
Director Lin shook his head and smiled: "Five hundred kilograms will be enough."
The leader is a big eater. Xia Juhua thought to herself, nodding her head: "Okay, just bring me the peanuts one day."
Director Lin glanced at Chen Qiusheng and asked him to leave the production team to check on the watering of the fields. Then he whispered to Xia Juhua, "If you still have peanuts, just fry them together. It's not good to leave peanuts all summer anyway."
Director Lin knew that in addition to the processing fee, Xia Juhua's team could also earn some peanuts, but he had always turned a blind eye to it. Since Director Lin did not treat her as an outsider, Xia Juhua told him the truth: "I only have more than 20 kilograms of peanuts left, so it's not worth mixing them in. I have replaced the rest of the peanuts with oil, otherwise I won't get any oil all year round."
As for where it was exchanged, considering what happened to the brother who was rescued last time, does Xia Juhua need to tell Director Lin clearly?
After hearing her say that there was no money to be made, Director Lin had an idea in mind: "Then next time I deliver peanuts, I'll bring you some meat tickets. Talk to Director Zheng to bring more internal tickets."
In the middle of summer, no production team would be willing to kill half-grown pigs, and the meat doesn't last long. Xia Juhua really hasn't eaten meat for a long time. She smiled bluntly and said to Director Lin, "That's great. If you can get an internal ticket, please give us more. The wheat harvest is coming soon, so we need everyone to save their energy."
After the basket and rooster were collected, Xia Juhua did not want to keep all the money in the production team, but wanted to give some to the people who did it secretly. It was said to be secret, because all the women in the village participated in it, that is, it was kept secret from outsiders.
Therefore, all members of the Ping'an Village production team supported this decision, and no one would tell outsiders about it - you would never see a woman in Ping'an Village take a leave unless there was a wedding or funeral at her parents' home, for they were afraid that they would not be able to help showing off when they went to their parents' home.
Director Lin understood that Xia Juhua was always thinking about the members of Ping An Zhuang, and did not think that it was excessive for her to ask for more meat tickets. He only thought about how he could persuade the director to give more internal tickets to Ping An Zhuang.
Thanks to Director Lin's efforts, when farmers throughout Pingde County were worried about the drought-stricken land, the members of Ping'an Village had already wiped the oil from their mouths, sharpened their sickles, and prepared to harvest the fifty acres of wheat.
This time, Master Wu could no longer sit still on the millstone. He walked around the wheat field with his tobacco pipe in his hand. Then he picked a wheat ear from the edge of the field, rubbed off the skin with his old hands, put all the wheat kernels in his mouth and started chewing.
He had lost so many teeth that he had difficulty chewing. It took him a while to swallow. He said to Liu Daxi, "It's pretty solid."
Liu Daxi nodded and said, "How can it not be successful? For these fifty acres of wheat, how much diesel was burned? It's only because the captain's wife is capable. If she had to rely on carrying water alone, the output would have been reduced by 20%."
"Yes, when we first planted wheat, we never dared to think that we would have such a good harvest this year." Master Wu touched the wheat ears in his hand, reluctant to take his hand away.
In fact, compared with previous years, the output has decreased by more than 10%, but compared with other production teams, it is already much better. Compared with other teams... forget it, let's not compare. If we really compare, Ping'an Village will attract attention.
"Go call your captain's wife and Chen Qiusheng." Fifth Master suddenly gave Liu Daxi an order. Liu Daxi didn't even ask why, but turned around and walked towards the sweet potato field.
By the time Xia Juhua and Chen Qiu Sheng were found, Fifth Master had already gone to the cornfield on his own. Liu Daxixi was so frightened when he saw no one there that his face turned pale. He shouted a few times and only calmed down when he heard his master's response.
"Grandpa, why are you walking around by yourself?" Liu Daxi wanted to pull his grandfather back home and tell him to stay home and not go out. What happened just now was too scary.
Master Wu ignored him and pointed at the wheat in the field and asked Xia Juhua, "How much can we get from one acre of wheat this year?"
Xia Juhua had already estimated it herself, and said without hesitation: "At least 400 kilograms." Despite the drought, Ping'an Village was watered in time and in sufficient quantities, and fertilizers were used adequately, so although it might not be comparable to last year's yield of more than 450 kilograms per mu, 400 kilograms could still be achieved.
Master Wu nodded in agreement: "I guess so. Are you planning to take it back just like that?"
The wheat had already turned yellow for three days. If they didn't collect it, the grains would fall or be eaten by sparrows. But what Master Wu said didn't seem right. Xia Juhua looked at Master Wu in confusion.
This made Master Wu angry. He was usually a smart man, but how could he not understand such a small thing? "Have you seen the land in Xiaozhuangtou and the wheat in Team 3? Can they produce 300 kilograms per acre this year?"
That is definitely not possible. Xia Juhua understood what Fifth Master meant. Ping'an Village had been lagging behind other production teams since last year. Since the spring ploughing this year, the technicians from the agricultural machinery station and the tractor and agricultural technology stations have all lived in Ping'an Village. They have dug more wells than other production teams. I'm afraid there are many jealous people waiting for the wheat harvest to see how much wheat Ping'an Village can harvest from one acre of land.
If they beat more than other production teams, then they should. If the level of the difference is not too big, then those people will think Pingan Village is just like that. But if the level of the difference is too big, will the brigade and the commune think like Li Changshun did before, that Pingan Village should take care of its brother production team?
At this time, some families in other production teams were really running out of food, literally running out of food.
There were families whose daughters married into Pingan Manor. They came to Pingan Manor with their families to borrow food more than once. If they failed to borrow, they could always have a full meal. Many women who made trouble had to act like evil mothers-in-law, ordering their daughters-in-law around in front of their family members, and scolding them. Or when the mother-in-law's family members came, the daughter-in-law would smash the pots and bowls and scold the old man who ate his meal for nothing. After a few times, fewer people came to Pingan Manor to borrow food.
After all, people have to have some dignity, and most families don't take their daughters seriously, but they also don't want their daughters to be unable to hold their heads up in front of their husbands' family (or daughter-in-law).
Xia Juhua couldn't imagine how many people would line up to borrow food from Ping'an Village members if the news spread that Ping'an Village's grain production was only 10% less than usual.
"Fifth Master, what should we do?"
"Harrow the ground. It will rain a little bit when you hoe. I just chewed the wheat and the grains are not yet fully grown. They can still grow for two more days in the field. So hoist the ground and let the wheat grow a little more solid." The Fifth Master raised his hand towards the wheat field with great authority. If possible, he wanted to hold all the wheat in his arms.
Ginger is still spicy with age. Xia Juhua and Chen Qiusheng looked at each other and saw the admiration for the Fifth Master in each other's eyes.
Soon, people from the neighboring production team discovered that the members of Pingan Village had re-weeded the yellow wheat in order to increase the yield. Not only did they weed the fields, but each of them carried a large basket and picked up the weeds from time to time in the basket, fearing that the weeds would take root again and steal the nutrients from the wheat.
The people of Pingan Village used the tractor of the commune to water the wheat or corn every day. If there was nothing to water, they also watered the sweet potatoes. As a result, the crops grew well, but there were many weeds in the fields. It was time to harvest the wheat, but they had to plow the fields again. The little trouble they had saved was made up.
When the time came for Pinganzhuang to harvest wheat, they would want to see how much wheat they could harvest from one acre of wheat after taking such good care of it. No matter how much water they poured, it would only be poured in Pinganzhuang. How could it really cope with the drought in the entire Chengping area? They just didn't believe that their production would not be reduced.
If the production reduction was as drastic as that of their own production team, they would have been staring at a joke.
People from several neighboring production teams were silently paying attention to the wheat harvest in Ping'an Village. The wheat fields of the Ping'an Village production team were finally re-plowed, and two days later, the sickle that had been sharpened at a high speed was finally put to use.
For a dozen strong men, harvesting fifty acres of wheat was only half a day's work. Adding the time to transport the wheat to the yard for drying, all the wheat was spread out in the yard in the afternoon.
Fortunately, the yard has not been fenced off yet, otherwise we would have to build a new yard to dry the wheat - the grain needs to be ventilated for drying, and the threshing needs to be ventilated even more, otherwise you will get all wet, and no one would like to do this job.
As soon as the wheat was threshed, Li Changshun and the Fifth Master sat by the side of the yard and watched, constantly shouting at everyone to be more careful and thresh the wheat thoroughly. The Fifth Master also asked, "Is anyone picking up wheat ears in the field?"
Liu Daxi glanced at Li Changshun and whispered, "Someone has gone there. Qixi and the others are watching there too. They won't let anyone from another production team take it away."
Li Changshun stared at the slowly rising wheat pile, as if he hadn't heard what Liu Daxi said. Wu Ye said that he had heard it, and not only that he had heard it, he also told Liu Daxi: "Tell your captain's wife that we need to have someone keep an eye on it. Food is expensive this year, and we can't let whoever picks it up get it as in previous years. It all belongs to the Ping'an Village production team."
Liu Daxi, who wanted to cover his grandfather, had to nod under the stare of the Fifth Master: "I know."
"I know, but why don't you go? I'll just watch from here. I'm an old useless person who can't do anything. I can only watch the excitement here. What are you doing here lazing around with me? I'll just record all those work points for nothing."
Liu Daxi didn't want to pay attention to his father-in-law who was becoming more and more unreasonable, so he ran to Xia Juhua to convey the important instructions of the Fifth Master. Li Changshun finally moved his eyes from the wheat pile back to the Fifth Master's face: "Why are you talking so loudly today? Are you suffering from heat stroke?"
"You just got heatstroke." Fifth Master pointed at the wheat pile unhappily and said, "Look, how much wheat did we harvest from fifty mu of land? Have we ever harvested so little wheat since 1970? It's been a tough year, digging wells, carrying water to irrigate the land, and using a lot of chemical fertilizers. But can we pay the public grain tax with such a small amount of wheat?!"
"Alas, you work so hard and put so much effort into growing a crop of wheat but you can't even eat a bite of it. Why can't I say something?" Master Wu took out his pipe, looked at the wheat straw beside him, and put it back on his waist.
Li Changshun, who had wanted to say that the harvest in Ping'an Village was ready and that there was more than enough wheat to pay for the public grain, silently shut his mouth and waited for the results of the weighing.
The yield per mu is 361 kilograms!
Just as Master Wu said, since 1970, the wheat yield per acre in the northern plains has reached 440 to 50 kilograms. The wheat yield in Ping'an Village this year has decreased by more than 20%!
After hearing the result, the Fifth Master turned around and walked home. Li Changshun patted him on the shoulder and said, "Come on, it's not like I didn't tell you just now that the small farm only harvested 302 kilograms of wheat the day before yesterday, and the third team harvested even less, just over 280 kilograms. The fourth and fifth teams haven't even started harvesting yet, so I guess they're not much better than the third team."
"Can the suffering they endure be compared to that of the people in Ping'an Manor?" The Fifth Master said with an expression that was unwilling to accept reality: "From spring to summer, have the people in Ping'an Manor ever rested for a day?"
It's true that they didn't rest, but the members of other production teams also worked in the fields every day, right? Li Changshun felt that Fifth Master was a little unreasonable now, so he let him go. Xia Juhua waited until Fifth Master left, then she came over to greet Li Changshun with a guilty conscience and asked carefully, "Is Fifth Master angry?"
Li Changshun looked at Xia Juhua with some sympathy and asked her, "Has he been in such a bad mood these days?"
Xia Juhua nodded with a lingering fear: "You look unhappy when you see me. You think I treated people too harshly, and as a result, you only get 10% more food than others. This time you have something to say to me."
After saying this, Xia Juhua became even more worried: "Captain, how about we distribute some of the wheat to each family? That way everyone can see real food."
"What should we do when the commune asks us to hand over public grain?" Li Changshun was also worried: the old farmers had been planting for half a year, but in the end they couldn't get any share of the wheat. When it came to this, both the team leader and the production team leader were so worried that their hair turned white.
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