Chapter 199 I'll pass on a dog-beating stick to you, Sausage.
After much effort and persuasion, Commander Li managed to produce two sets of "winter protection combat suits," one for his wife and one for his son, Xiaopang. The suits included a diamond-patterned down vest, earmuffs, knee pads, and a soft, flared sleeping cap.
"Son, try it on! Isn't it warm? This is from your father!"
Li Xiaopang didn't complain at all, and put on the down vest. Li Jianzhi had made it gray for him. The little fat guy put on the vest, then put on the floppy nightcap, and asked in confusion, "Dad, do I look like a little beggar..."
Li Jianzhi said expressionlessly, "Nonsense, how could a beggar dress like that?"
However, it does seem somewhat like the Beggars' Sect.
"The vest is worn underneath, there's not much to it. This hat is for you to wear when you sleep, no one can see it, as long as it's warm."
Li Jianzhi: "If you insist on saying you're like a beggar, then your father will arrange for you to be an eight-bag elder and pass on a dog-beating stick to you."
Fatty: "What does 'dog-beating stick' mean?"
"Beggars have to compete with dogs for food, so they carry a stick to drive away stray dogs."
Qin Xiangxiang listened to the father and son's nonsense with a dark expression. How come she never knew that this man, with his serious face, talked such nonsense in private?
Sui Sui: "Mommy, I want to be a little beggar! I want to wear my brother's clothes!"
Qin Xiangxiang: "???"
Upon hearing this, Li Xiaopang immediately showed his brotherly love and stuffed his "beggar's outfit" into his sister's hands. Li Jianzhi: "???"
Wearing this gray vest on Sui Sui, it does resemble a vest jacket from later years. Paired with the sweater Sui Sui is wearing, it unexpectedly looks quite "fashionable".
Seeing this, Li Jianzhi couldn't help but start to ponder, recalling how vests paired with sweaters were a popular style for a while afterward.
"Think about it, our daughter is just like you. Good-looking people look good in anything. That's what they call 'even a burlap sack can't hide a woman's beauty'."
Qin Xiangxiang: "I'll beat you until you're covered in bumps."
"Our daughter is already wearing it, wife, you should try it on too, it's a mother-daughter set."
Qin Xiangxiang carried the warm vest her husband had made with great disdain. It was different from the style of the Eight-Bag Elder's vest that her chubby son had made, except that the stitching was crooked. "If I wore this out, people would think that our textile factory had gone bankrupt and that the factory manager was so poor that he had to sew his own clothes. It's so ugly."
Li Jianzhi touched his nose: "Warmth is the primary combat indicator. If you don't want to wear it, I'll change it so my daughter and I can wear 'father-daughter outfits'."
"Fine, I'll take this one, but don't do it again." Qin Xiang thought that since the vest was worn underneath anyway, and this damn man, aside from anything else, had a lot of down filling, making it very warm.
Besides, such a tattered down vest, no matter how warm it is, has nothing to do with a bourgeois style and is perfectly safe.
Assistant He had previously told her that making vests with duck down was too precious and troublesome, and she was afraid that people would say that it encouraged bad practices, especially since their factory had taken in people like Master Gu, Professor Shen, and Dr. Ye.
The "Beggar's Set" produced by Li Jianzhi looks simple and plain, but it is very warm.
The next day, a cold wave hit, and keeping warm was the most important thing. Qin Xiangxiang put on her beggar's vest and went to work at the factory. The down was warm and cozy, making it a comfortable and warm winter.
Just then, Yang Zhixia came to find Qin Xiangxiang and whispered to her, "Factory manager, we can't continue making down jackets anymore. They say we're encouraging bad practices."
Qin Xiangxiang said, "We are trying every possible way to save cotton; this is our responsibility as a textile factory."
“How about this, all the down vests in the factory will be designed like the one I’m wearing, and then we’ll put two patches on this side, and say they were made from scraps from the factory.”
Yang Zhixia was stunned when she saw the "beggar's vest" that Qin Xiangxiang was wearing.
"Okay, I'll have my master come over to learn."
And so, the down vests from Feiyan Textile Factory unexpectedly escaped a disaster.
Little Fatty, dressed in a beggar's vest, was running around the residential compound, attracting everyone's attention. "Little Fatty Li, you're wearing so little clothing and you're sweating buckets?"
"This 'beggar's vest' I'm wearing is so warm!"
"Ouch?"
"Did your mom sew this for you?"
"My dad made it for me stitch by stitch!"
At this moment, the detachment's political commissar touched Xiao Pang's vest. His expression was serious, but also showed a hint of shock. This year's cold wave was too fierce, and with the impact of the typhoon, cotton production was reduced, and the quota for cotton clothing was reduced. If they could have a down vest like this, this winter would be much easier.
These vests could be worn in rotation by the soldiers standing guard in the cold wind, so the detachment's political commissar approached Li Jianzhi: "Did you make the clothes for your son, Little Fatty? Where did you get the materials? What was the cost?"
Only after Li Jianzhi said that he understood the political commissar's intention. In fact, down jackets are rarely used in the army, not because they are precious, but because down jackets clump together when wet, which is not as good as military overcoats.
Many people who have washed down jackets in a washing machine know that after washing, they are like damp pieces of paper. If you stuff a wad of tissue paper into your pocket and wash it in the washing machine, it will be exactly the same as a clump of down jacket.
However, down jackets can be restored after drying. Hanging the down jacket up and vigorously beating it with a hanger can make it fluffy again.
Down jackets lose their warmth after being washed too many times, but this isn't a concern in the south; washing them a few times generally doesn't make a difference. In the north, down jackets are often only washed once or twice a year, and they're usually dry-cleaned.
Li Jianzhi: "This down vest is warm to wear underneath. As for the specifics... there's no cost. My wife's textile factory's affiliated farm raises ducks that lay eggs. Besides those used to make salted duck eggs, look, all these duck feathers are made into down vests."
"Political Commissar, why don't you try it on?"
Political Commissar of the Detachment: "I barely managed to wrap myself in it, and my goodness, it's really warm! These duck feathers are so warm!"
"Next year, we can raise more sea ducks and have your wife's textile factory make a batch of military down vests for the soldiers on duty at the border. They're comfortable to wear underneath."
Political Commissar of the Detachment: "Comrade Li, why don't you write a report immediately? We urgently need a batch of these vests. We can issue them to the officers and soldiers at the outposts and on the ships for trial use. If they work well, I will report to the base commander and try to have them included in the standard military supplies."
"This year's cold wave is so cold."
Li Jianzhi agreed and went back to tell his wife about it. Qin Xiangxiang was too lazy to move and was drowsy in bed: "You need to mobilize people to help collect the duck feathers."
"A lot of lice don't itch, a lot of debts don't worry," Factory Director Qin had gotten used to receiving orders until his hands were sore. There was another batch of military supply orders... so let's do it.
"Li Jianzhi, do you want to come into bed?" Comrade Xiao Qin issued a challenge.
It's as if we're firing a few more rounds before the shells get wet and misfire.
Li Jianzhi's usually expressionless face flushed slightly. Why was his wife so enthusiastic in winter?
It's so frustrating.
The cold snap that year chilled you to the bone. The wind was like a cold knife, cutting into your face. The sea breeze carried moisture, and when it blew, even your hair seemed to be dripping wet.
"This weather is so rare!"
"It's so cold this year, colder than usual. Thank goodness for this duck costume."
"I borrowed feathers from a duck to use."
The people at Feiyan Textile Factory are all grateful that they have duck down jackets this year. Even the large duck feathers that can't be used to make down jackets are shredded and sewn together with scraps of factory cloth to fill them. Although they look ugly, they still have some warmth after being mixed with some cotton.
Every household burned honeycomb briquettes or charcoal braziers. The family of Commissar Gou on the first floor burned firewood directly in a brazier downstairs, while some single employees of Feiyan Textile Factory used kerosene stoves.
The kerosene stove is exquisite and convenient, a cooking tool for people living in tenement buildings and single men and women, simple and smokeless.
Honeycomb briquettes, on the other hand, are affordable and a popular choice for the general public, with a pot of hot water sitting on the stove all day long.
The Feiyan Textile Factory canteen served free ginger soup every day, as well as pork bone and soybean soup, or kidney bean soup. It was piping hot, and after drinking a bowl, you would feel warm from head to toe.
Before dawn, the workers at Feiyan Textile Factory were slaughtering pigs to make sausages. Several huge water-boiling pots were placed on makeshift earthen stoves, with firewood crackling inside. Flames clung to the bottom of the pots, and the rising steam dispelled the winter chill.
The fat pigs were driven out of their pen, and soldiers from nearby companies all came to help, afraid that they would lose control and let the pigs escape. "This guy is the most skilled pig butcher in our company."
"When you strike, you have to be quick, ruthless, and precise!"
"My God, this pig is so fat! Look at all this fat! I've never slaughtered such a fat pig before!"
"Don't be too gentle, if this pig runs away with the cleaver, it'll scare the whole family to death."
The children watched the pig being slaughtered with a mixture of fear and excitement. The whole pig was cut off, its head removed, its belly meat cut, its ribs and tenderloin removed, and so on. The crowd of onlookers would occasionally gasp in surprise.
The pig-slaughtering scene played out for several days, but the real highlight was making sausages in the winter. All the families of the textile factory came out together, and this time Qin Xiangxiang was "enthusiastic" in her work.
The meat, with a 3:7 ratio of fat to lean, was manually diced into small pieces, the sound of cleavers hitting the cutting board filling the air. Qin Xiangxiang watched as she pondered whether she should ask the factory workers to develop a meat grinder.
Qin Xiangxiang oversaw the seasoning of the sausages. Piles of pork were stacked up, and various seasonings such as white wine, sugar, soy sauce, and Sichuan peppercorns were gathered together. Qin Xiangxiang directed the making of several flavors of sausages, including seafood-flavored sausages.
Making sausage casings is physically demanding. You have to be strong to stuff the meat filling firmly into the casings and make sure they are packed full.
The last row of sausages hung on a huge bamboo frame in the logistics compound, like a dark red beaded curtain, glistening with an enticing sheen and a delicate pork aroma. As the oil seeped out, the fragrance grew stronger, making people's stomachs churn.
Qin Xiangxiang would come and take a look every day, thinking: This is the empire I conquered.
"Factory manager, a radio factory in Shanghai wants to purchase down vests from our factory."
Qin Xiangxiang immediately asked, "Which radio factory?"
Qin wanted to know that there were several radio factories in Shanghai, each producing different industrial products. Some produced radios and tape recorders, such as Radio Factory No. 31; others mainly produced televisions and marine navigation radars, such as Radio Factory No. 41; and there were also Radio Factory No. 18 and several other radio factories.
"The No. 41 Radio Factory, which produces ship navigation radar, sent several technicians to the island. They learned about the feather vests and said they wanted to purchase a batch."
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