Chapter 58: Chronicle of the Sixties 18
After a journey of two days and one night, the large group finally arrived at the Wuci Labor Camp.
The labor reform farm is located in Huagu County in the northeast corner of H Province. The farm has one main farm and twelve branch farms.
There is also a branch called the Serious Offenders Prison, also called the "Serious Offenders Team" by the prison office. It is a place specifically for detaining prisoners who have committed crimes again and have been given increased sentences. Its organization is equivalent to that of a squadron.
The dozen or so prisoners who escaped from prison were immediately imprisoned upon arriving at the farm. I believe that their future days here will be rich and colorful.
The total area of the Wutz Farm was equivalent to a regimental unit, with four to five thousand prisoners alone.
The sub-field is at the battalion level, and each sub-field is divided into several squadrons, which are at the company level, and the squadrons are divided into several teams, which are at the platoon level.
When the prisoners got off the car and stood on the white snow, their eyes were blank. There was nothing around, not even a house. How could they say they were home?
Were they going to be secretly executed? The prisoners began to have wild thoughts and became nervous.
The director of a branch station who came to receive the prisoners may have anticipated this and immediately shouted, "Don't let your imagination run wild! Do you see smoke coming out of the chimney on the ground in front? That's the cellar where people in the north often live. There's a stove in the cellar, and smoke is coming out outside.
The kang in the cellar was covered with thick Ula straw mats, so it was not damp at all in such cold weather. The shelter had been prepared for everyone long ago.
The conditions are a bit difficult right now, but once the levees are repaired and the water is drained, pressing down the alkaline soil, we'll be able to grow crops."
The farm manager's eyes shone with hope. "In the future, not only will everyone be able to eat fine grains, but they'll also be able to live in brick and tile houses. Let's all work hard to improve the farm and strive to build Wuci Farm into a land of plenty in the north!"
The words of the branch chief were deafening, and the prisoners who were shivering with cold were healed by this delicious pancake.
Thinking about the endless food and the spacious and bright brick houses, no one here would look down on their status as the "five black categories", and everyone worked together and put their efforts into one goal.
The prisoners looked in the direction the warden pointed, and sure enough, on a piece of high ground not far away, there were chimneys standing upright, emitting white smoke.
After the prisoners were given a bellyful of chicken soup, they were divided into groups that had been assigned in advance and entered the cellar one by one.
The cellar here is called a prison cell by the correctional officers. There are two large earthen kangs opposite each other in the cell. Each cell can accommodate seventy or eighty prisoners.
These cells were newly built to house the new prisoners, and no one had ever moved in. Looking at the thick layer of Ula straw mats on the kang, the prisoners felt relieved, as long as they wouldn't get cold.
The outdoor temperature of the farm is now more than 20 degrees below zero. As soon as people enter the cellar, a wave of hot air hits their faces, warming their frozen hands and feet.
In order to take care of the old man nearby, Feng Wu made some adjustments in the allocation of venues and was assigned to the health center in Jiufen Field together with another female nurse named Jian Pingping.
The health station in Jiufenchang is very simple, a braided house of about 100 square meters, with several iron beds occupying a ward, a pharmacy, a treatment room, and a clinic where the doctor is responsible for consultations.
In addition to the health station, the Jiufenchang also has a canteen, cell area, staff dormitory area, staff canteen, a canteen for prisoners, a supply and marketing cooperative, a school for children of employees, etc. The facilities cover all aspects of life.
This nine-point field is actually a microcosm of a small society.
Jiufenchang, which owns nearly 60,000 acres of land, is located in the lower reaches of Lake Wuci. It is surrounded by swamps on almost three sides. The only dirt road leading to Jiufenchang is barely wide enough for a truck to pass.
Along both sides of the dirt road, there are two rows of evergreen Chinese pines planted sparsely.
The house assigned to Fengwu is just one of the twenty or so rows of cellars. It is good to have a separate dormitory, which makes it more convenient to do things.
Feng Wu's job is very simple. He usually stays at the health station and helps the doctor. He gets a salary of 16.5 yuan a month, plus some miscellaneous subsidies, which adds up to about 20 yuan.
At this time, having a monthly salary of 20 yuan is considered a high-income earner.
The prisoners spent the first two days resting in the cells. The farm gave each prisoner a set of gray-blue cotton labor jackets and trousers, which was more conducive to daily military management.
Every morning Fengwu could hear loud slogans outside: "Reform through labor, reform yourself, one, two, three, four..."
Every morning, the prisoners would run laps around their squadron's territory. After running the number of laps specified by the correctional officers, they would be dismissed to rest and go to the prisoner canteen to get food.
After breakfast, they took pickaxes and shovels to work in the task area assigned by the team.
Usually, not many people come to the health station to see a doctor, and treatment costs money. At this time, unless you are so sick that you can't get out of bed, you just bear it and get through it.
By December, large areas of swamps were frozen with thick ice, and reeds as tall as two people were distributed in the thick ice, stretching as far as the eye could see. Once people entered it, they would lose their way.
Therefore, even though the security in Jiufenchang was not as strict as that in a prison, no one dared to escape into the reeds in the swamp.
Fengwu walked along the periphery of Wuci Lake and saw from afar a group of prisoners wearing gray-blue cotton jackets, holding shovels and pickaxes in their hands, building a flood control dam around Wuci Lake.
Every summer, when the water level of Lake Utz rises, it forms a large lake with a large swamp. In order to convert the swamp into fertile farmland, Lake Utz and the swamp must first be separated by a high dam.
The construction of the dam around Lake Utz was a huge undertaking, requiring only seven or eight hundred strong prisoners to work with pickaxes and shovels on the frozen hard soil in temperatures exceeding twenty degrees below zero. One can only imagine how much work these prisoners had to do.
Within half a month, Shan Fengwu knew that the number of prisoners who had died was no less than forty.
The correctional officers were not so kind as to collect the bodies of these people. Their fellow inmates simply dug a hole under the embankment and buried the bodies by the Utz Lake.
Feng Wu, who was used to seeing death, just watched indifferently. This was inevitable under the development of history. She was powerless to change the development process of the small world. Her ultimate purpose in coming to this small world was just to fulfill the client's wish.
The prisoner dug hard with the shovel, but the shovel head sank less than five centimeters. After more than ten times of digging, he finally turned out most of the frozen soil.
The average amount of earth shoveled by one person per day is less than three cubic meters, which is far from the four cubic meters stipulated by the correctional staff. Those who fail to complete their tasks as required will be severely criticized by the correctional staff. If the difference is too great, their sentence may be increased by one to five years.
If a prisoner fails to complete the task personally, the squad leader will not be polite to him. After he returns home, he will hold a struggle session to criticize him mentally, and the charge will be "passive sabotage and resistance to reform."
The heavy labor almost crushed most of the prisoners, but as long as they were not exhausted to death, they had to work themselves to death. People have a strong ability to adapt. After enduring the initial hardship, they gradually accepted their fate!
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