Grain. If the amount of grain is less than 360 jin, during the lean season, grain will be brought back from the commune's grain depot to make up the difference to 360 jin. This is what is commonly referred to as "returned grain".
"Surplus grain" refers to the grain that the production team still had after the initial distribution. This surplus grain could not be redistributed within the production team; it had to be handed over to the granary and sold to the state at a price far exceeding that of public grain. The amount of surplus grain determined the production team's annual income and the value of their labor. The more surplus grain sold, the greater the income for the commune members.
Standing at the back of the crowd, I learned that this grain distribution consisted of a personal grain ration plus a share of sweet potatoes; the work-point grain ration was distributed the year before last. However, while standing at the back of the crowd, I heard someone say, "Our brigade is doing quite well; everyone, regardless of age or gender, receives 360 jin of personal grain ration."
After standing behind the others and thinking for a moment, he said to Chen Enpeng and Chen Junjie, who were standing behind him, "What do you want from the 360 jin of raw grain?"
"We don't know anything about Mianmian either. What are you planning to do with it?"
"We plan to take 50 jin of wheat, over 300 jin of corn, millet and other coarse grains, and the rest will be sweet potatoes. What do you guys think?"
"How much does it cost to convert sweet potatoes?" Chen Junjie asked.
"Five jin (2.5 kg) is worth one jin (0.5 kg)," Chen Enpeng said.
That's 750 jin (325 catties) of sweet potatoes.
"Yes"
"Can we still buy it?"
"We can buy them, but only sweet potatoes. This time, besides distributing rations, we're also distributing sweet potatoes."
"Mianmian, how many work points did you earn? How many kilograms of sweet potatoes can you get for those work points?"
"It's also five pounds for one pound, and potatoes are three pounds for one pound."
"Okay, then I need to calculate roughly how many sweet potatoes I can get."
He calculated in his mind that from the time he went to the countryside until the end of the year, he had earned a total of 1,182 work points. One work point is worth 0.3 jin, which is 354.6 jin. That is equivalent to 1,773 jin of sweet potatoes. Adding the sweet potatoes for his own food rations, he has 2,523 jin.
I roughly estimated that Chen Enpeng and Chen Junjie had about the same amount of food as me. Although they were older than me, they were probably stronger, so their food was about the same.
After calculating his food supplies, Chen Junjie said, "We can't possibly eat all these sweet potatoes in one winter! What are we going to do?"
"Yes, Mianmian, do you have any ideas?"
"This is easy, it's my specialty. My family processed sweet potatoes during the difficult times a few years ago. I'll tell you how: after you bring the grain home, pick out the bad sweet potatoes and steam them for the next few days. Store the rest in the cellar to eat slowly. When spring comes next year and the weather gets warmer, cut the sweet potatoes into pieces and dry them in the yard. Once they're dry, they can be stored for a long time. You can add a few slices when you cook porridge, or grind them into sweet potato flour with a millstone and steam them into cornbread."
"I didn't know you could do that."
"That's right. Not only can you steam cornbread, but you can also mix it with other ingredients to make steamed buns with two or three kinds of flour. You can even steam baozi (stuffed buns)."
"So many ways to eat it!"
"How did you all eat before?"
"We never used to care about the kitchen at home, did we?"
"Then how come you know how to cook?!"
"Well, it's quite simple. Basically, the family makes steamed buns or cornbread in advance and puts them in a pot. We just need to light the fire, stir-fry some vegetables, or make some soup."
"Okay," she said, "at least I can cook, steam buns, and cornbread." Then, after thinking for a moment, she asked, "So how have you been eating here?"
"We learned how to cook here from the locals. We stayed at one of their homes for a month, right? We heard you say you wanted to move out and live on your own, and we thought about it too. We can cook, but we don't know how to make noodles, so we asked the locals to teach us."
"Good, good, you know to ask if you don't understand."
That is
They were planning to chat a little longer, but seeing that there were only two people ahead of them, they quickly shut up. Then they heard accountant Gu Zhenghua say, "Gu Bingtao, there are seven people in your family. How do you calculate the food allowance?"
"Zhenghua, I need 350 jin of wheat, 1000 jin of corn, 1100 jin of miscellaneous grains, and the rest must be sweet potatoes."
“Okay, weigh it as Uncle Bingtao said, weigh another 5250 jin of sweet potatoes.” Then he added, “Bingtao said that your family has seven members, but only four work on weekdays. You worked exactly 200 days, earning 12 work points a day during the busy farming season and 10 work points a day at other times, for a total of 2140 work points; Aunt Tao also worked 200 days, earning 10 work points a day during the busy farming season and 6 work points a day at other times, for a total of 1480 work points.” Zhengwei also worked 200 days, earning 14 work points per day during the busy farming season and 10 work points per day at other times, for a total of 2280 work points. Zhengwei's family also worked 180 days, earning 8 work points per day during the busy farming season and 6 work points per day at other times, for a total of 1110 work points. The eldest son in the family earned 150 work points cutting pig feed. Your family has a total of 7150 work points. Uncle Tao, how many work points do you plan to earn for sweet potatoes?
"Give me half!"
“Okay, half of that is 3575 work points, which translates to 5362.5 jin of sweet potatoes, right?” Tao said.
"right"
"That's fine, please sign."
"OK"
"Fourth brother, weigh out another 5362.5 jin of sweet potatoes for Uncle Tao."
So that's how it's calculated. I need to think about how I plan to exchange it. If I exchange it for wheat, it's only 354 jin, which is equivalent to 0.6 jin per work point, or 709.2 jin. If I exchange it for sweet potatoes, it's 1773 jin. So I'll exchange it for sweet potatoes worth 682 work points, which is 1023 jin. The remaining 500 work points are easy to remember. Let's leave it at that.
"Li Mianmian, Li Zhiqing, right?"
"Hello, Accountant Uncle, I'm Li Mianmian."
"Li Zhiqing, how do you calculate the food rations per person?"
"Uncle Accountant, I need 50 jin of wheat, 300 jin of corn, and the rest sweet potatoes."
"Okay, Lao Si weighed the sweet potatoes as Li Zhiqing instructed, and they came to be 750 jin."
"OK"
"Li, you just came to our brigade this year and have worked for a total of 147 days. Except for the busy farming season when you get 12 work points a day, you get 6 work points a day, for a total of 1182 work points. How many work points do you plan to earn for this?"
"Uncle Accountant, calculate the sweet potatoes worth 682 work points."
"Okay, 682 work points translate to 1023 jin (501.5 catties) of sweet potatoes, right?"
"That's right, Accountant Uncle."
"Li Zhiqing's parents were both martyrs, so she belongs to the family of martyrs."
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