Chapter 48 (Two Updates in One)
You can't really send these guys to work in Buxiantun for a few years, right?
Besides, the solution Doctor Lin proposed sounded quite reasonable: each family could provide a few strong men to help atone for the crime, and then settle the debt before the snow blocked the road. They didn't require men who could earn ten work points, just that they could earn at least eight.
Even Director Yan had to say it was a "good thing." It was truly wonderful that such a difficult matter could be resolved in this way. Even the station chief breathed a sigh of relief. Otherwise, if those twenty or so guys had been sent back to the labor camp for a few years, the two brigades would have become enemies, and the public security of this commune would have been in jeopardy.
Based on the two years of reformation labor for the twenty-three young men, and given the early start of the cold this year, it's estimated that the road closures will only be two months away from heavy snow. This means Liangzigou will need 276 strong laborers to work for Buxiantun. Although Liangzigou has already finished the autumn harvest, it still needs help with the subsequent harvesting, fishing, and other pre-winter preparations. They've agreed to bring in half first, with the remainder to be added during next year's busy farming season. Regardless, Liangzigou will need to provide additional labor to cover the 552 busy farming months!
The Party Secretary and Team Leader of Liangzigou figured it wouldn't be impossible to send some more people to Buxiantun for work during the spring plowing season next year, so they agreed. However, Buxiantun also imposed a condition: until they had paid their due, these young men had to remain in Buxiantun and be under its supervision. Otherwise, it would be unbelievable. Otherwise, the situation would end up being so chaotic that everyone would forget the original reason and accuse Buxiantun of imitating the old-world landlords and bullying Liangzigou for working for nothing.
The sixth uncle from Liangzigou nodded and said, "As long as we let the kids go back once every ten days to visit the elderly at home, there will be no problem." These troublemakers must be dealt with in this way, otherwise other people in the village will just do their job and let it go when they see that they have caused such a big trouble, and then there will be chaos.
The old Party Secretary agreed with a smile, and generously said, "One look is not enough. Let the children stay at home for one night every nine days! This day will also be counted as a day they work."
Anyway, the matter was settled under the witness of Director Yan. It was written clearly in black and white, and the reason for the debt was stated in great detail, but there were only two requirements for repayment: first, Liangzigou owed Buxiantun a total of 552 jobs, equivalent to the busy farming months; second, only strong laborers with more than eight work points came to do the work to be considered repaid.
When they pressed their fingerprints on the paper, Captain Liang and the second captain felt that something was wrong, but they couldn't put their finger on it, so they had to do it this way.
Director Yan fished out a pen from his pocket and quickly signed his name. He squatted before the fire, his eyes fixed on the fire, his mind focused on the situation, thinking of himself as a witness. He thought the two leaders of the Liangzigou Brigade were not very smart. They had dragged a daughter into the ditch and had two of them fall down in a row.
It's not like you have to work every day during the two years of labor reform, and it's certainly not like December is the busy farming season! The local area has half a year of winter, and the labor reform farm has two or three months of no work each year. Yet Liangzigou promised to give Buxiantun over 500 busy farming months—and these are busy farming months! Seriously, if this month is considered a busy farming month, then the following October and November cannot be counted. So, according to the agreement, Liangzigou members must work these two months as if they were busy farming months to repay their debt—presumably because Buxiantun can use these people as they please, and they can't complain about the hardship or fatigue, after all, busy farming season can be exhausting.
Another question is, why is it that laborers who have earned eight or more work points are considered debt repayment? Because these 17 or 18-year-olds are unsettled, the commune generally gives them seven or eight work points, meaning their time spent working isn't counted towards debt repayment. Liangzigou even agreed to hand them over to Buxiantun for custody until the debt is paid! Director Yan did the math for them and realized Liangzigou couldn't spare dozens of people during the busy farming season. So they'd have to pay the debt slowly and steadily. Anyway, they'd have to pay it back next year. Doesn't that mean these young men will have to spend another year in Buxiantun, a disguised labor camp? Why are people so generous, only giving them one day off every ten days? It's because these laborers are working for nothing.
Director Yan, who had seen the old man and the young man teaming up to deal with the Zhou family from the forest farm, smacked his lips and said, "Well, there's nothing to say. The young people in Liangzigou should learn a lesson, and these parents who don't manage their children well should also suffer and learn a lesson!"
The young men who had gotten into trouble felt happy even with their bloated stomachs. After finishing their meal, they all rushed back to get their bedding, thinking how nice it would be to be free from the control of their parents and live with their friends.
The old Party secretary even offered to allocate the old ancestral hall in Buxian Village for them to live in. It was spacious, and as long as they built a couple of kangs, they'd be able to accommodate them. Liangzigou knew the old ancestral hall in Buxian Village was a brick and tile building, and that they'd treated their young people well. The uncles and aunts were eager to speak up, each promising to bring their belongings tomorrow and set up a kang after work.
This group of a hundred or so people returned home in a hurry. After settling down and calculating with the accountant who stayed behind, they realized something was amiss! They had to provide 138 strong laborers for the first two months. If they really divided it among these 23 families, each family would have to provide eight people. Which family could possibly have eight laborers capable of working over 800 meters? No wonder Doctor Lin from Buxian Village, who proposed this solution, didn't write it down in the agreement, but instead simply stated that they had to work for over 500 busy farming months. Well, more than 80% of the entire brigade were surnamed Liang. They were so close, no one could escape!
Anyway, the general meeting held in Liangzigou that night was quite unpleasant, and the twenty-three households were in chaos. How much of a personal favor did the whole family owe to everyone because of this incident caused by the naughty kids? Even if they were relatives, why should they work for you for free?
Captain Liang and the others were also at a loss. They had previously only thought about not letting the kid go to jail, and when they heard about the idea of using labor to atone for his crime, they thought it was a good idea. Now that they were back, they realized it was inappropriate. But the matter was settled, and Uncle Six could only accept it. He said, "They also said they would provide meals. No matter what, at least we can save some money, right?"
An elderly wife immediately pulled her husband over and retorted, "What's the point of providing food? No matter what my husband does out there, he can at least keep himself from starving and earn some food for the family! But if he goes to work over there now, it's only going to feed him. What about my son, who will starve to death during the spring famine?"
Liangzigou was once a very united group. The entire brigade resented Buxiantun, just across the mountain. They felt that Buxiantun had taken advantage of the area and was only making things better for them, and had caused them no small amount of trouble over the years. However, this unity was based on a single family name and clan. This was unlike Buxiantun, where all surnames were gathered together, led by a reliable leader, and everyone was focused on a better life. With today's incident, the closest blood relatives were the most unlucky. How could this unity be maintained? Instead, conflicts began to flare up within the extended family.
The worst off were the family of his maternal grandfather, who had supported the wicked and cowardly principal offender. Among those instigated by this wicked and cowardly man was his eldest uncle's cousin. His maternal grandfather had three sons and two daughters, and that night, the family was practically divided. This fellow was cunning, and he always picked on the well-connected and influential young men in his family to provoke him. As a result, the uncles and aunts who couldn't refuse to work to pay off their nephew's debts turned their rage on his maternal grandfather, forcing the old couple who had always been the most partial to him to burst into tears.
If these young men were sent to prison, Liangzigou would undoubtedly be filled with a swath of resentment against Buxiantun, rumors would fly, and sabotage and attempts to sabotage would be inevitable. But now, half the brigade's able-bodied laborers are forced to work for nothing to atone for your crimes. That's when the knife strikes, and only the person who feels the pain feels it. All the envy and gossip about Buxiantun that was once rampant has now been turned against these people's parents.
The next day, when these young men came with their bedding rolls, they were no longer as cheerful as they were the night before. In just one night, these fearless young men regretted their decision.
But the method proposed by Lin Xinghuo was to cut the flesh with a soft knife. The lesson was like salty mountain pine wine, which became more mellow with time.
Yesterday's meal and medicine were all about the carrot dangling in front of the donkey, all for that agreement witnessed by the commune police station chief! But yesterday's workload was genuine. Anyway, I'm saying this after all, you hundred or so people have been testing the waters for more than half a day. From now on, work will be divided according to this amount, and no one should complain!
The strong laborers who used to slack off while working in the brigade suddenly became like donkeys with a bridle. No matter who you are, or if you have a dozen brothers or sons who are particularly arrogant in Liangzigou, you have to work hard anyway because you have come to Buxiantun to pay off your debts!
Trying to fool around? No way! The hundred or so people who entered the village were immediately divided into groups. Then, the Liangzigou members noticed that these uninhabited people worked like oxen, and any slack from them would be stark in stark contrast. It's not like there weren't some shameless people who wanted to throw the can down the drain, but today, Lin Xinghuo not only equipped each group with two golden ring bees, but also pulled Da Huang's entire wolf pack down the mountain. The family's spirit beasts now patrolled on wolves, and if they spotted anyone slacking off, the spirit beasts would pat their wolves on the head and follow them...
Just ask who is not afraid?
The folks in Buxiantun were extremely happy. Not only did they have more labor and could save some time, but the most important thing was that the old branch secretary said at the mobilization meeting that in October he could assign people to renovate and build houses for the members, using the winery's profits this year!
Bushanshan Songjiu has already gained some fame in the surrounding areas, and ever since Wei Layue returned to the village, whenever she went out, she would definitely bring a lot of business to the winery. The winery has accumulated a considerable amount of supplies on its books - yes, supplies, not money.
Nowadays, barter is common in rural areas. Farmers are accustomed to "buying" things with grain. The same is true of the commune supply and marketing cooperatives and the sales outlets of the various brigades. All kinds of coarse grains pile up in the warehouses. Even the large factories in the county and city often use their own products to buy wine.
This made it difficult to distribute the distillery's profits, and the village elders had a further concern: the village had a bountiful harvest, and with the distillery taking a significant share, everyone would have a surplus. Would the members, with their overflowing grain jars, still work hard next year? Everyone has a lazy streak, especially since they're still working for the collective. The village elders sometimes felt the saying, "There's enough food anyway, so why bother working so hard?" made sense.
Therefore, these old men and women, who were more public-spirited than selfish, were frowning for several days when they held a small meeting at Lin Xinghuo's health station, which made Wei Layue, who was just able to attend the meeting, suspect that she had done something wrong.
Lin Xinghuo couldn't stand it, so she offered this idea. She said, "Let's build houses, all brick and tile. Doesn't the brick kiln in Jinjiayao still have a lot of debt? They wanted to use bricks and tiles to offset it, but we refused. Now we agree, and then we can exchange the grain we've collected and our clearance grain for bricks and tiles. If it's not enough, we can just keep it on credit and pay it back when the famine comes next spring."
Wei Layue helped count the brick and tile orders from various households and immediately thought it was a good idea: "The harvest is good this year, and everyone feels that they can be more generous. There are households of all ages placing orders for bricks and tiles."
Lin Xinghuo laughed, "Let's do the math first. How many houses can we build? For example, if each family has three rooms, one bright and two dark, then families with many children won't have enough to live in, so they won't want to tear down their mud and thatched houses. But if there's a spacious and bright brick house on one side and a gray, short and narrow mud house on the other, how eye-catching will they be? Don't we have to work harder in the future to build all brick houses?"
"There's no need to worry about a simple population. Now that we have a brick and tile house, don't the tattered furniture look out of place? Aren't the broken doors and fences too ugly? There are also woodsheds, granaries... even beddings, utensils, etc., which don't match. What's the energy of the whole family working together to buy and complete them one by one? Let's not talk about next year, but the year after next and the year after next. Let's see. Are you still afraid that everyone will become lazy?" Year after year, life will only get better, and the same goes for houses. Mud houses will be replaced by brick houses, brick houses will be replaced by small buildings, and small buildings will be replaced by new Chinese and European-style courtyards... People just want food, clothing, shelter and transportation. As long as they work hard, can see hope and can gain rewards, then Buxiantun will not become a lazy village.
The various efforts throughout the year have absorbed all the idle labor that can be absorbed. With more types of work and more specialized divisions of labor, more people will benefit from finding their own specialties and making full use of them. The whole village seems to be thriving, but these elderly people are worried about the harvest again.
Lin Xinghuo couldn't bear to see this, and in the past few months, the old people had been worrying about how to divide the work and dividends of the collective workshop:
The village agreed that, aside from a portion of the collective workshop's profits to cover production costs and taxes to the brigade, the remaining dividends would not be distributed per head, but rather based on the number of households at the time, to prevent those with more complex needs from relying on having children to support their parents. The distillery was divided into over a hundred shares based on the number of households on the day it released its liquor. The pharmacy, established a month or so later, was also divided based on the number of households on the day its first batch of ointments was canned, resulting in six more households than the distillery. Every twenty years, individual workshops were demolished and redistributed.
This makes sense. After all, only those who have reached a certain age and made sufficient contributions will be granted housing plots by the village. Only households granted housing plots are considered one household. No one can expect a share just because they have a baby. However, if a household splits up and a new workshop is established, they can get a share. Those with many children shouldn't feel they're at a disadvantage, saying that twenty years is too long and that when the family splits up, they can only divide their share into several shares and pass it down to their children. Work in the collective workshop is a rotational process, giving everyone a chance. It's not like jobs in the city where work is passed down from generation to generation! We categorize people into three levels: excellent, good, and qualified, based on their performance. Failure is, needless to say, a waste of a good opportunity. Within these three levels, there are proportional shifts, each taking turns working in the workshop for a month and earning wages. The three levels have different pay packages, but a qualified worker can be promoted to excellent after three months of hard work, while an excellent worker who is sloppy and sloppy can be demoted to qualified after just one month. If an accident occurs, the worker is demoted to unqualified.
When the rules were set, half of the village elders had more than half of their hair turned white. They also took into account everyone's strengths. The workshops were really unrelated to each other. Each had its own number of shares and its own work teams. As long as people were willing and capable to work, even if they were widows, they could support themselves and start a business.
Of course, the collective workshop of the brigade was still centered on the farmland. During the spring planting, summer busy season, and autumn harvest, the workshop would stop working according to the situation. All members had to work hard to make food first.
Ever since Lin Xinghuo proposed this idea, the village elders had been actively calling on Xiao Lin to speak at meetings, purging her of any fresher ideas than those of the present generation. The village elders, each one a seasoned veteran, had previously been trapped in their old ways, unable to break free. But after Lin Xinghuo's "brick" was thrown, the jade poured out like a torrent, specifically toward Lin Xinghuo, the source. As they put it, how much longer could they, a bunch of old men, live? The burden had to be passed on to the young. Together, they pushed Lin Xinghuo to the forefront—this was the fundamental reason why Lin Xinghuo had a say in the Liangzigou incident.
If Lin Xinghuo were not too young and had not wanted to be a cadre at all, the village elders would have promoted him to the position of deputy secretary of the brigade.
Even without an official position, being able to speak for the brigade immediately carried a special weight in the eyes of those above them. As soon as Director Yan's report was submitted, Lin Xinghuo's long-awaited junior high school diploma exam was finally granted. The county junior high school directly called the commune and allowed Lin Xinghuo to take the exam alongside the other graduates next summer. If he passed, he would be issued a diploma.
This matter also alarmed He Qing. He Qing made a special trip and complained to Lin Xinghuo that she was too distant and did not tell him about the matter earlier, otherwise he would have gotten his junior high school diploma this summer.
As soon as He Qing arrived, the experimental field that the head of the agricultural technology station had promised was quickly settled. After discussion, the village elders directly allocated most of the newly reclaimed land that had been used to grow cotton this spring to the experimental field.
The old branch secretary also taught Lin Xinghuo privately: "We have planted cotton this year, but we are really short of it. Another reason is that the cotton fields called for by the higher-ups are too large. We can't just watch hundreds of acres of land go to waste! We won't be able to plant cotton next year or the year after. Why? Because the entire area hasn't been planted. If this goes on, sooner or later we will have to be assigned a special production task of planting cotton, or maybe we won't plant anything else. If we only plant cotton, that would be really bad - the morale of the people in our village will immediately disperse!" Everything for food, clothing, and daily necessities depends on allocation from above, and we don't have commercial grain households like those in the city. What's the point of living like this?
"If you're really wondering, 'Why did it work one year, but not the next?' I'm also puzzled. We've set aside land for experimental fields, and even invited agricultural technicians from the county to conduct specialized research. With all that effort, what else haven't we accomplished?"
The old Party Secretary advised Lin Xinghuo, "You want to experiment with new rice varieties, plant herbs, grow oak trees and raise silkworms... your intentions are good, but you can't just do it blindly. For example, if cotton is successful, maybe there's something special about our mountain village, and we just happened to have an experimental station. Then we should do more experiments, with melons, fruits, herbs, and tree species! Let's try them all!"
The old man not only gave Lin Xinghuo guidance but also got things done. In mid-October, Lin Xinghuo, a health worker, officially became one of the responsible persons for the experimental field. She was free to work with the 150 acres, as long as she could ensure the two agricultural technicians sent by the county had a productive production report. But in experiments like this, failure is normal. As long as one acre out of the 100 acres is worthwhile, it's a success. If the experimental field were in another grain-scarce brigade, everyone would be calculating their profits from this fat piece of land, exempt from the quota. But in Buxian Village, this assignment was a sinecure with little trouble and a high degree of freedom. The brigade was united, knowing that the results of the experimental field would ultimately benefit the entire village.
What's more, the two agricultural technicians who are stationed here this time are old acquaintances. They are willing to come to the mountain not only because they know some of Lin Xinghuo's secrets, but the biggest reason is that the rumors in the city are not right again. The leader of the agricultural technology station simply brought his trusted team members to stay here - in fact, except for the rations of various daily necessities for commercial grain households, life in the city is really not as comfortable as in the village.
When the head of the agricultural technology station visited Buxian Village again, he almost felt like he had arrived at the Peach Blossom Spring in the novel "Peach Blossom Spring" that he read as a child. What a sight it was to see half the village built of brick and tile houses! Even the family housing estates in the area weren't as neat and tidy!
Not to mention the newly built row of ten-meter-high warehouses, even the county grain station is not that spacious!
In front of the granary was a new drying yard, a particularly wide expanse of land adjacent to the west mountain, facing the collective fields. This high ground was immune to flooding or snow. A few hundred meters southwest lay the collective workshop. A large new courtyard had been built between the warehouse and the workshop, with a row of buildings set aside as the new brigade offices. The central auditorium housed meetings and night school, while the rooms on the other side housed a militia lounge, a library, classrooms for small workshop classes, a mediation room, and Lin Xinghuo's office, serving as both a branch of the health station and a branch of the experimental field within the brigade headquarters.
The backyard of the brigade headquarters is particularly large, about the size of a hectare of land. This leaves room for future expansion, but now everyone uses it as a place to work together. It is better than the drying yard, which has no walls and is too windy now.
The workshop area, the brigade headquarters and the granary are all in a straight line. It is foreseeable that this place will become the gathering place for members in the future. Not only is it closer to the fields, but it is also completely separated from the residential area. The benefits of the latter alone are innumerable.
For example, now that there is a place where members can do odd jobs after the autumn harvest, everyone will automatically group together, and the groups will automatically compete with each other. They can also apply to the brigade headquarters nearby to give rewards to the winning group. It goes without saying that they are very motivated.
More than a hundred strong laborers from Liangzigou were scattered there, making them very inconspicuous.
The people of Liangzigou had been slaving away in Buxiantun for half a month. At first, they complained profusely, frightening even the troublemakers so much that they didn't dare return to the village even during holidays. The women from various families even came to Buxiantun to complain, saying that even Huang Shiren's farmhands weren't treated like that. The pillars of the family would literally fall asleep as soon as they got home. If it weren't for the cold, they'd have wanted to sleep right there on the western slope.
Grandma Wei, Aunt Huang, and the other aunts weren't pushovers. First, they asked why they didn't apply ointment. Our village distributes ointment daily, and applying it followed by a night's sleep guaranteed to keep you from getting too tired. The Liangzigou wives quietly touched their smoother, crack-free hands and faces, saying nothing more. In reality, they weren't just applying it to the men; they were also benefiting from it. The wives then glanced sarcastically at the wives' waists, wondering if they hadn't eaten the sticky noodles the men had brought back. Women, then, should be careful not to let outsiders get away with it—as long as you're willing to work hard, you men will get the same treatment we get in our village. Similarly, more than half the people in Liangzigou have received rewards, prizes ranging from food to useful items... Finally, they brought up the agreement. It was agreed upon during the busy farming months, and who wouldn't be tired? Our village even gave us material rewards. Did you ever get such a good deal during the busy farming season in Liangzigou? And you're looking for trouble!
After the women of Liangzigou returned home in disgrace, those who felt sorry for their men would inevitably catch their sons and nephews who had caused the trouble and beat them up. Or, when the pillar of the family was not at home and the women were even more tired, they would hold back their anger and wait until the day the bad boys returned to the village to give them a good beating.
Gradually, this became a routine. I would beat them up whenever I remembered them. Those troublemakers only came back once every ten days? That didn't matter. Even if the troublemakers were not at home, there were still many kids at home. If I didn't teach these kids a lesson, they might follow my example and cause troubles and bring trouble to the whole village. It would be better to teach them a lesson first!
As a result, not long after, when the strong laborers from Liangzigou returned to work, they were followed by more or less bald boys, young men two or three years younger than the young men who couldn't stand being bullied. Fortunately, there was an overwhelming amount of work in Buxian Village, so these boys could still be assigned work. If they did well, they could get a couple of meals from the workers. If they didn't, they had to steal food from their uncles and fathers - which would inevitably lead to another beating.
As long as they could work, Buxiantun didn't mind having more people. They might not have the double-grain noodles from the night before, but they had plenty of whole grains like sweet potatoes. The brigade had specially organized a cooking team of skilled old ladies with bound feet and their daughters, ten years old and older, to prepare meals for the hundred-plus people. Despite the elderly and young children, the food they cooked was delicious, and the kind ladies always added a few twists.
As a result, the two men from the county agricultural technology station had just arrived that day when they saw these men from Liangzigou, both young and old, working like oxen and eating like pigs. They were clinging to the new gate of the brigade headquarters and didn't dare to go in until the men had licked their bowls clean...
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