The forest farm's family team did not raise large livestock. The more than 300 mu of land in Houdadi, Xidadi, and other areas relied entirely on manual tilling.
Fortunately, there were many people in the family team. Old Hu led the group of women in the family team, as well as educated youth such as Sheng Xiping, and they swung pickaxes under the sun to dig the ground. They were all sweating profusely from exhaustion.
During the day, they worked on the land behind the fields, and at night, construction continued at the clubhouse in the field, where everyone also had to participate in voluntary labor.
They were all exhausted; it really was like the old saying, "pulling a cat by its tail to get it onto the bed."
Ten days or so passed, and finally the land was plowed and prepared, and then radishes and cabbages were planted.
Meanwhile, the main structure of the club is almost complete, and no one will need to do any more voluntary work for the rest.
The work on the family team's side has temporarily come to an end, but the second round of tending the young trees has not yet begun.
There's a short break in between where you can rest for a few days.
With the season for Gastrodia elata about to end, everyone is getting restless.
Taking advantage of their rare free time, they all went into the mountains to dig for gastrodia elata and do some mountain cleaning.
Sheng Xiping never lagged behind, so in the morning he took the commuter bus with Chen Weiguo and others to the industrial area, and after getting off the bus, he went into the woods to look for Gastrodia elata.
In the afternoon, I would go out with a bag on my back. If I could catch a commuter bus, I would take it; otherwise, I would walk back along the railway line.
Nowadays, transportation is not as convenient as it is in later generations, when the roads are full of cars during the season for digging up Gastrodia elata.
Few people venture into the mountains, and the gastrodia elata grows abundantly; with a bit of luck, the harvest is usually quite good.
At his peak, Sheng Xiping could dig up dozens of kilograms of fresh Gastrodia elata in a single day.
I washed it clean when I got home that night, and the next day I boiled and dried it. After it dried, it weighed about three or four pounds.
The purchasing station buys Gastrodia elata, with first-grade products priced at eleven yuan per kilogram, mostly of the newly sprouted and larger offspring.
Gastrodia elata peel, which is the Gastrodia elata seedlings after they sprout, is inexpensive, costing only two or three yuan per kilogram.
This price isn't low at all; someone like Sheng Xiping can earn about twenty or thirty yuan a day.
It is said that people who live near mountains live off the mountains and people who live near water live off the water. People who live in the mountains will try to go into the mountains whenever they have the chance.
No matter how much, it can at least supplement the family income.
That evening, Sheng Xiping and Chen Weiguo, wearing rubber boots and carrying heavy bags, walked back along the main road.
Before they even reached their own house, they heard a commotion, which seemed to be coming from the Sheng family's house.
Sheng Xiping realized something was wrong and ran home as fast as he could.
Upon entering, I found my three younger brothers and two younger sisters standing in front of the kang (a heated brick bed), their heads drooping.
The mother, holding a feather duster, was yelling at the children, her face red and her neck bulging.
On the other side, the father, with a gloomy face, sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) smoking.
Sheng Liancheng wasn't a heavy smoker. He rarely smoked at home, usually only when guests came over or when he went into the mountains.
"What's going on? Dad, Mom, what trouble have they gotten into this time?"
When Sheng Xiping saw that all five of his younger siblings had been punished, he realized that this was no small matter.
"Ask them, they're all up to no good, they're even stealing iron from small repair shops."
"Where does your dad work? They went to steal iron and got caught by the factory workers. Where does your dad put his face now?"
Zhang Shuzhen was furious and used a feather duster to whip her second and third sons several more times.
Sheng Xiping was stunned when he heard this. Stealing iron? What's the use of stealing that stuff? Nobody collects scrap iron these days.
Oh wait, he suddenly remembered what had happened.
In recent years, the forestry school has held various activities, such as collecting manure in winter and collecting scrap metal in summer.
Because of the large volume of forestry operations, the utilization rate of machinery and equipment exceeds the limit, resulting in a large amount of discarded mechanical parts.
There is a lot of scrap iron lying in the mud, water, and along the roadside.
These days, there are no people buying and reselling scrap metal, and the workers in the yard are usually too busy to bother with it.
So the school mobilized students to collect scrap metal during their holidays.
They handed over the scrap metal they collected from various places to the school for centralized storage, and then agreed to hand it over to the forest farm for disposal.
Collecting scrap metal and handing it over to the government is highly encouraged. Anyone who collects a lot will be praised and feel proud.
So the students were very enthusiastic, their eyes like light bulbs, and they quickly picked up any scrap metal they found.
It's strange, though. When there's no call for action, it feels like scrap metal is everywhere.
Not to mention other places, there is a lot of scrap metal left in the site.
But once the task was completed, all the readily available scrap metal seemed to vanish overnight.
Only in one corner on the east side of the school playground, the pile of scrap metal gradually increased as if by magic.
"I collected scrap metal last summer, and this year the school assigned me another task, specifying the quantity."
From the third grade onwards, each student must submit no less than forty kilograms of scrap iron.
Except for the sixth child, all of us in our family have to pay. Where are we going to find so many?
These past few days, my third brother and I have been going to the nearby logging area to collect fish, but it still isn't enough.
"Then what should we do if we don't think of another way?"
Sheng Xi'an, who had been gritting her teeth and enduring the beating without uttering a sound, finally couldn't hold back anymore after seeing her older brother and said aggrievedly.
"We don't steal from small repair shops; we just pick up scrap parts and stuff."
Many of them even went to the ovens and internal combustion engine depots to dismantle parts directly.
Some people even went onto the small railway track and removed the spikes from the roadbed. "Second Brother spoke up, and Sheng Xikang also spoke up.
This time, the feather duster that Zhang Shuzhen had raised high could not fall.
Sheng Liancheng had just gotten home from get off work when he told Zhang Shuzhen with a gloomy face that the children had gone to the small repair shop to steal iron, but were caught by the people at the shop and then released.
Sheng Liancheng is the manager of a small repair shop. As a result, the Sheng family's child went to steal iron and got caught. If this gets out, the impact will be terrible.
Zhang Shuzhen was furious. Without saying a word, she called all the children over and gave them a good beating.
Unfortunately, the Sheng family children were all stubborn; they stood there without uttering a sound after being beaten.
Anyone who has ever hit a child knows this: if a child runs away as soon as they are hit, they usually won't suffer any major consequences.
When he runs away and comes back, most adults have calmed down and at most give him a few more scoldings.
Those who beg for mercy immediately after being hit rarely get beaten up.
The only ones who are like this, who won't make a sound no matter how much you hit them, and just stand there without moving, can really drive you crazy, and make you even more reckless with your strength.
The Sheng family members, whether daughters or sons, are all pretty much the same – stubbornly obstinate.
The sixth brother wanted to say something, but after being glared at by the second brother, he didn't dare to utter a sound.
As a result, all five children were beaten, and none of them escaped.
Of course, the second and third sons got hit the most, while the remaining three only got a few symbolic hits.
"Why didn't you tell me? If you had told me earlier, would I have beaten you up like this?" Zhang Shuzhen regretted it now.
"Mom, you didn't tell us to say anything, and you just came up here and started hitting me with a feather duster."
Sheng Yunfang touched her arm; the clothes she wore in the summer were thin, and she had gotten a red welt from being hit.
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