Chapter 135 Picking Cotton Bolls
The sky was overcast in the morning.
The ground was covered with a layer of white frost, and everyone's breath turned white as they spoke.
A tractor can carry a maximum of thirty-odd people at a time. To transport the more than one hundred people in the camp to the 11th Company, it would have to make four round trips.
The cotton fields of the 11th Company cover several hundred acres, stretching as far as the eye can see from the edge of the field. The irrigation system is very well-developed.
A large cotton field has completed its final harvest, while a small portion of the cotton field is undergoing its final harvest.
The company commander of the 11th Company saw someone coming from afar and jogged over.
The two company commanders already knew each other. After exchanging greetings, they instructed the first group of people who arrived: "You can only cut cotton stalks in this area where we have already picked them. If you want to do it, hurry up. People from the 23rd Company will also be coming in the next few days."
The company commander waved his hand: "Everyone hurry up and get to work in the fields, so that the tractor can bring back a load of cotton stalks on the next trip."
"Liu Fengshou, you go back and continue recruiting people."
On the day Zhao Aiguo had the accident, Liu Fengshou drove Zhao Aiguo to the farm headquarters in a tractor. Only then did everyone realize that this unassuming old military reclamation worker was also a skilled tractor driver.
After Zhao Aiguo passed away, Liu Fengshou naturally became the new tractor driver in the brigade.
The tractor chugged back to the 25th Company, and the first group of people went into the cotton field with hemp ropes.
An experienced farmer reminded everyone: "The sickle is slower, but it's safer than the hoe. You women should use the sickle, but be careful not to cut your legs. Those of you using the hoe should also be careful."
People often accidentally injure themselves while digging ditches. They are used to using farm tools to dig ditches, but they are still novices at cutting cotton stalks and may hurt themselves if they do not control their strength properly.
Song Lubai was dressed very warmly today, wearing two old pairs of old thermal underwear under her pants, and the new pair that her aunt had made for her was worn as the innermost layer.
My pants got wet with dew shortly after I entered the cotton field.
Cotton stalks are very resilient because they are in a state of semi-dryness, with the roots not yet frozen and the moisture inside the stalk not yet dried, making them naturally difficult to cut.
While vigorously wielding the sickle, he accidentally cut himself with it.
Song Lubai was afraid of cutting her legs, so she stood with her legs apart, at least 20 centimeters away from the cotton stalks that were to be cut.
Almost no cotton bolls with flowers bloomed were visible on each cotton plant, but there were quite a few cotton bolls that hadn't yet had a chance to bloom.
These closed cotton bolls are exactly what Song Lubai and her group want.
Winters are tough, and winters in northern Xinjiang are especially cold. The coal allocated from above is definitely not enough for the production team to get through the winter, so the team has no choice but to take advantage of the cotton plants.
The cotton plants that were brought back could be used as firewood, and people could also pick out the cotton to make cotton quilts, which was a win-win situation.
Song Lubai was holding the frame, so she couldn't cut quickly, and her hands were soon covered with scratches from the cotton husks.
As they worked, they grew warmer and warmer. The gentle autumn sun rose, and everyone took off their coats because of the heat.
Xia Huai helped Kan Tu Man to rest, and looking at the autumn sun, which had lost its scorching heat compared to the previous days, he said, "It really is true that you wear a cotton-padded coat in the morning and a light gauze dress in the afternoon, and eat watermelon around the stove."
The company commander, who was walking nearby with a cigarette in hand, said, "What are you still arguing about? Can't you see that the 23rd Company has all arrived? If you want to make blankets, your men will have to hurry up."
They didn't rest for long at noon; after finishing their sweet potatoes and dry biscuits, they immediately went back to work in the fields.
Having not done farm work for a while, Song Lubai worked hard for most of the day, and by mid-afternoon she was so tired that she couldn't straighten her back.
The new cotton quilts were like carrots swirling around in front of these diligent donkeys. The more than one hundred people in the 25th Company managed to bring back sixteen tractors' worth of cotton stalks in one day.
As dusk fell, the tractor pulled the last load of cotton stalks back to the 25th Company. The group, bundled up tightly, walked slowly together toward the 25th Company.
Once the tractor has finished unloading the firewood and returned, it can take everyone back in trips.
When Song Lubai returned to the camp, it was already past 1 a.m. The cotton stalks were piled up on the open ground in front of the brick house.
Sixteen cartloads of cotton stalks were neatly arranged, creating a spectacular sight.
"Go back to sleep, we'll distribute them tomorrow at noon."
Song Lubai thought that with so many cotton stalks, each person could get a large piece, and by taking the cotton out of the cotton bolls, they could make at least two quilt covers.
The following day at noon, the company commander began distributing cotton stalks according to the work groups.
Ten people were divided into groups, and Song Lubai and Liu Xiaolan were assigned to the cooking team and the vegetable planting team, respectively.
There were fifteen groups in total, and the company commander divided the extra truck equally among the remaining fifteen trucks.
Each group was given a large pile of cotton stalks, and the company commander told everyone to distribute them themselves.
"You can work together to remove the cotton, and then we can discuss the weight by the kilogram after we've removed all the cotton."
After giving his instructions, the company commander went back to his room to rest, without paying attention to how each group should proceed.
Song Lubai glanced at the other nine people and said, "How about we use our free time these next two days to pull down all the cotton bolls, weigh them, divide them equally, and then each of us can peel our own?"
Having served as the company's cultural and educational officer for some time, her words carried some weight, even among this group of young women from Shanghai.
No one objected, so everyone started picking peaches.
On average, there are three or four unopened peaches on a cotton stalk. After picking them one by one, they are all thrown into a burlap sack.
The cotton stalks from the harvested cotton bolls were piled up in a large heap, but there didn't seem to be many cotton bolls in the burlap sacks.
The drier Song Lubai became, the colder her heart grew.
Let alone two quilts, she now doubts whether she can even get one quilt.
There was little work to do in the vegetable garden, so the girls in the cooking and vegetable-growing teams had a lot of free time. In less than a day, Song Lubai and her group had cleared all the cotton bolls off a huge pile of cotton stalks.
Seeing that there were only two bags of cotton bolls, weighing a mere fifty-two kilograms after weighing, Song Lubai finally felt relieved.
This is much more than she expected to receive.
Liu Xiaolan was overjoyed. "That's great! Each of us can get more than five kilograms."
Li Huijun laughed and said, "What's there to be happy about? We still have to peel the peaches. After peeling the peach shells and drying the cotton, we'll be lucky to get two kilograms."
Liu Xiaolan's smile faded.
Song Lubai could no longer laugh.
Seriously? You worked hard for two days and only got two kilograms?
Li Huijun added, "A ten-pound cotton quilt here is barely enough to get through the winter. Seven or eight pounds is too thin. Let's go pick some more, and we should be able to make a cotton quilt."
A worried Song Lubai said, "When are we going? By the time we go next time, there probably won't be any left in the fields."
Cotton is in such high demand, the company commander will probably send the group from Guhekou next time.
It would take at least an hour to walk there, and I couldn't openly ask for leave to pick cotton bolls.
Upon realizing this, Song Lubai felt that her quilt was going to be ruined.
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