Chapter 21 Chapter 21 Chaos in the Plain

Two years after the Korean armistice, Lao Dan finally received a notice from the army.The notice said that Xie Yougen disappeared on the battlefield after attacking the Paektu Mountain Highland with the troops. The Chinese and North Korean troops searched for it in many ways, but there was no news for a year. His name was included in the first exchange of prisoners in Panmunjom. Only then did they know that he was captured by the enemy, but they did not see him. return.The army decided that he was still in the enemy's prisoner-of-war camp, and another year later, when the prisoners were exchanged for the second time, his name was no longer on the list.Because many volunteer soldiers had this result, and the army was unable to investigate, it was inferred that Comrade Xie Yougen had been forcibly transferred to the US military camp in Taiwan.In 1956, it was finally inferred that he was dead. Comrade Xie Yougen was hereby recognized as a revolutionary martyr and awarded third-class merit.

When the picture frame with a young photo of Yougen was hung on the wall, Lao Dan and Tweety cried again, but they did not dare to cry loudly because there were many village cadres and officials waiting to offer their condolences outside the door. Folks.Tweety gently stroked her son's face behind the cold glass, her red and swollen eyes were narrowed into bloodlines, and she kept chanting his name, as if her calling could revive her son from the frame.Lao Dan's body, which has been recuperated several times, has finally become thinner again in these days, and his frail body cannot bear this long-lasting sadness.Because the right side of his body was not supported by ribs that were symmetrical to the left side, his spine gradually bent to the right side, and his left shoulder was so high that it almost touched the bent head.The scar on his forehead had become grayish brown and dull due to the precipitation of the years, and against the clumps of messy white hair on his head, it was particularly eye-catching.

Lao Dan fell into great fear, he could not bear the pain of losing his son.So presumed to be dead?A person who can't see the dead but can't see the dead, so that he is dead?There is no saying at all?I had been away from home for thirteen years, and my family hadn't received a death notice?Is it because too many people died in the war to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea, too many people were captured, and it is too busy to make a hasty conclusion?Where were they captured?The war is over, what are the Americans still doing with them?What do you mean by sending them to Lao Jiang's side?Didn't we return all the captured United Nations troops?Why do they still keep our soldiers?What are they up to?Why don't we ask them?Why don't you come back?The troops continue to fight?Could it be that those living fighters have nothing to say?

Lao Dan is silent and old in grief and doubts, with nowhere to ask, nowhere to tell.The government and the army soon stopped mentioning this matter, replaced by a denunciation of the increasingly arrogant bourgeois rightist counterattack on the loudspeakers, and remained silent until Chairman Mao called for a big leap forward in industrial development across the country.The person I trusted the most within a radius of a hundred miles, Secretary Chu Jian, finally became a "right" in "land, rich, counter-revolutionary, bad, and right" and was imprisoned in a farm. The county leadership experienced a major change.Everything seems to be changing!The wind of whole-people production soon blew into Banzi Village, and the taciturn people in the village committee suddenly became excited, and they were about to carry out the movement like a raging fire.Lao Dan is insensitive to such changes of the times, even insensitive.Guo Pingyuan, Xie Guoya and others jumped up and down, which made him feel at a loss, but he was also happy to take it easy. They can do whatever they like, anyway, it is the call of the Party Central Committee.Lao Dan was silent during the passionate years, and Cui Er silently watched the rapid changes in Banzi Village.But the news they were looking forward to most in their hearts could not be seen at all...

The big poplar trees at the entrance of Banzi Village are green and yellow, yellow and green, quietly overlooking the story of this small village in the wind, frost, rain and snow year after year.A lame man with one arm often walked slowly past the entrance of the village, looked at the distant horizon for a few moments, and then turned back.Over the years, the man's waist became more and more bent, just like the locust tree next to it, which could not withstand the wind, and finally crooked like a bow, so he used a single arm to use a cane.He often rests under the tree for a while, and every time he coughs violently, as if he is about to vomit, then he will miraculously catch his breath again, spit out a mouthful of thick phlegm simply and happily, Occasionally swearing in his mouth.

On this day, Banzi Village boiled in the dark dawn. Hundreds of torches reflected dozens of red flags, enveloping hundreds of people passing under the big trees and rushing to the dozens of blast furnaces standing in the cultivated fields. .They are a mixed group of men and women, with neat steps, loud slogans, and piercing eyes. They hold all kinds of steel objects, such as iron pans and shovels, iron ladles and steel cables, and even the iron bit on the donkey's mouth is also worn on the shoulders.The blast furnace has been ignited, and there are more than a dozen small-scale volcanoes on the horizon, more like a burning battlefield, calling for this excited crowd from afar.

"Catch up with the Premier League! Do it hard!" shouted Xie Guoya, the leader. "Catch up with the Premier League and the United States, work hard!" The crowded crowd echoed. "Go-go-go-go!" Lao Dan limped along one side of the team. Although he couldn't do anything special, his crutch was a symbol of revolution. Every time he stood on a high place and tried his best to lift the crutch, When he uttered another hoarse cry, the people who were exhausted from fighting beside the blast furnace raised their heads, and even temporarily put down the iron rods in their hands, and loudly echoed his call.

"long live Chairman Mao!" "long live Chairman Mao" "Long live the general line!" "Long live the general line!" "Do it!" "Do it!" A few days ago, Lao Dan, Guo Pingyuan, Xie Guoya and others attended the county meeting.At the beginning, they were all perplexed by the spirit of the central government conveyed by the enlarged meeting of the county party committee—land handed over to the public?It was so easy for the land reform to be assigned to the field, and the buttocks are still not hot, and there is not a lot of shit in my own land, so they are going to be taken away?Let the farmers in Banzi Village plow the land deeply to increase the yield per mu?Want to turn to about two meters?The newly appointed secretary of the commune was full of pride and asked most of the villagers to make steel, but there was no iron ore in the surrounding area, and there were only two people in the village who knew how to forge iron, and one of them changed his business a few years ago to pull shit. How can steel be refined?With so many people making steel, wouldn't the land be abandoned?The commune wants 80% of the 23 villages in the entire county to produce high-quality steel, and 100% to increase the yield per mu, so as to strive for the emergence of two satellite villages.There are people from the county and the commune, and all steel-making experts and agricultural production experts are dispatched to guide the great new rural revolution.Their determination has affected Lao Dan and Guo Pingyuan, villagers who have dealt with the land for generations. The county party committee has such determination, and the whole country has moved. It seems that the original rural experience needs to be improved. Chairman Mao and his old man I have never led us by the wrong way, and I certainly won't this time, so don't say anything, do it!

As a result, under the leadership of the village committee, farmers in Banzi Village began to vigorously respond to the leap forward policy of the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Beidaihe with unprecedented enthusiasm, and carried out the revolutionary construction of a new countryside like a storm.The Banzi village brigade was divided into two teams. While building a steelmaking blast furnace according to the drawings provided by the county, they began to dig deep in the farmland, hoping to have a bumper harvest in steel production and agricultural production at the end of the year. According to Guo Pingyuan, deputy village head As the saying goes: Both satellites must be released!Both moons are taller!

Lao Dan has never smelted iron, nor has he farmed for twenty years.Regarding the agricultural production satellite plan proposed by Guo Pingyuan, he did not dare to comment on it. In fact, this is not the goal proposed by Guo, but the index given by the county.The yield per mu is 2,500 catties of wheat, plus 2,000 catties of corn. Calculated per capita based on the labor force of the whole commune, the grain production is nearly 1,000 catties!My mother, what is that scene?In my impression, the land within the jurisdiction of Banzi Village is barren land.Before leaving Banzi Village, the yield of wheat per mu seemed to be only more than 100 catties. As the saying goes, "One gourd is planted and two scoops are harvested", and the highest yield per mu was only about 200 catties.According to Mr. Yuan Bai, in 1952, the township government introduced two new varieties of wheat, "Pingyuan 50" and "Xuzhou 438" from Xiuwu and other places. In 1954, new varieties "Bima No. 1" and "Bima No. 4" were introduced from the Baiquan Experimental Station. After large-scale promotion, the average yield per mu can rise to 250 catties, and the highest can even reach 480 catties. Ten catties.The experts pointed out that corn can be planted after harvesting wheat, and 400 catties can be harvested per mu. The maximum grain output in a year should be about 900 catties.If the fertilization is a little heavier, it can be increased by 10 to 20 percent at most.Before liberation, only farm manure was applied to the land, mainly pen manure, supplemented by human and animal manure, green manure, cake manure, and a little bit of black beans, sesame seeds, etc. to promote growth.After reaching the junior communes, all the way to the high-level communes and people's communes, the household fertilizer in Banzi village has long been handed over to the collective for use, and each household is paid in the form of points.The people's commune concentrated fertilization, but did not adjust the amount according to the conditions of each piece of land——Xie Jucai, who shoveled manure, was a blacksmith, and he only knew how much he could pull, but he didn't know how much to fertilize the land.Therefore, it is impossible for the yield per mu to increase too much?So, how can the yield of 4,500 catties per mu set by Guo Pingyuan and Xie Guoya be realized?Plant two rounds?impossible!How is this possible?For hundreds of years, nothing has grown on this land like this.

From the original mutual aid production cooperation group to the high-level commune, and now to the people's commune, the villagers have become accustomed to the thinking of running forward - this is because Chairman Mao thinks we are slow, so he came up with such a good way for us, Let us enter communism in advance, so that we can work hard to catch up with Britain and the United States!Because of last year's bumper harvest, Banzi Village's grain and livestock reserves have reached new peaks.With enough confidence, Lao Dan flexibly implemented the commune's instructions of seven points for steelmaking and three points for farming.He staggered the working hours of the production team and the steelmaking team, allowing a considerable part of the young and strong labor force to alternate between the two sides.In this way, while steel production is satisfied, the land will not be neglected due to insufficient manpower. Simultaneously with this great torrent came a political shock wave.Since last year, a large-scale rightist struggle has begun in the county.It took Lao Dan two days of hard work to understand what a "rightist" is?It's a bastard, but it seems that they don't understand it. They understand the literal meaning, but they don't understand the purpose of the struggle.Why are you arresting those people?Are they opposed to socialist construction?Have they opposed the process of the people's communes led by the party?They seemed to be the targets of attack without doing anything trivial, including Chu Jian who was principled and party-conscious in everything!He was quarantined overnight, and a month later he was taken to a farm for reformation.How is this going?He organized the county mass labor department to vigorously carry out work rectification and opinion collection. That was also the call of the Party Central Committee. How did it become a vicious attack on the county and provincial party committees? Faced with this sudden storm, Lao Dan couldn't say that he was not mentally prepared, but he just couldn't figure it out. According to the standards of the movement, he fully met the conditions of a counter-revolutionary.Chu Jian once plausibly said that he did not meet the standard of a pure Communist Party member, and he still had serious old ideas in him. After all, he should be more like the five types of elements than Chu Jian, but Chu Jian became a rightist instead?Thinking of this, Lao Dan couldn't help but rejoice that if he had been demobilized from North Korea in a healthy manner and had not become disabled, and became an official in the district, he might end up with Chu Jian now.This is the light of returning to the countryside after being disabled by the revolution!I never expressed my opinions on matters outside of Banzi Village—not at that level, and this silent character may also make those working groups not interested.The broadcast said that those who made unreasonable demands and shameless suggestions on the construction of communism were locked up.Only in this way can the construction of communism have a reliable political guarantee, and these five types of black elements must be allowed to see clearly the great power of the people. This year, Lao Dan turned 40, seeing the ever-changing prosperity of Banzi Village, his mood finally improved, and his face was a little rosy.The family land has long been handed over to the commune for unified planning, and the Banzi village branch has now become a production supervision organization, strictly implementing and implementing the guidelines and production tasks formulated by the commune.Seeing that it was time for harvest, the wheat in the field was growing gratifyingly, and it was too dense. Although it was better than previous years, it was still far from reaching the expected target yield.Even if the folks fertilize every day and take care of the fields more carefully than taking care of the old lady, the wheat is still slowly turning yellow in people's disappointed eyes, and many ears of wheat have not produced rice grains. It seems to be in vain. Xie Laogui's iron and steel group has achieved extraordinary performance, with frequent reports of success. In the past six months, their ten blast furnaces have been working day and night, even in wind and rain.Ten blast furnaces smelt hundreds of billets of various shapes every day and send them to the commune quickly.Xie Laogui, the leader of the iron and steel team, brought back several certificates as big as half a door from the commune to show off in the village. Feces and urine have been added, why can't there be a high yield?The collection of raw materials by the iron and steel group is extremely in place, not to mention pots, pans, ladles, washbasins, ironing beds, even donkey and horse bits, iron wire for drying clothes, rusty nails on the door, all mules and horses in the village The palm irons were all thrown into the blast furnace.What makes Xie Laogui most proud is that he personally collected the "Glorious Army" iron plate hanging high in front of Lao Dan's house and Mr. Yuan Bai's wire glasses. It's not that his searchers didn't notice these two things It is an object, but it is a bit overwhelming.The iron pieces were all put together, and they were smashed into pieces by a sledgehammer at the first command.Finally, those sledgehammers were also stuffed into the blast furnace.Lao Dan was so mad that he almost threw out his military medal, but was snatched away by a woman. "Are you crazy? You don't need the pot, you don't need the sign at the door, you know it's your life? How much blood did you get? Just tell them to throw it away!" The woman couldn't help but quickly wrapped them in cloth and stuffed them into the depths of the Kang cave. Although the output of the iron and steel group was large, the quality of the steel blanks was not good. The carriage transporting the steel blanks broke up on the road, and the thick steel blanks fell to the ground, and many of them were broken in half.But this is already considered a great achievement. Xie Laogui's voice in the brigade has been raised a lot, and the waist of his trousers has also been straightened up. Unfortunately, the iron and steel team worked hard day and night, but the furnace couldn't sustain it. One blast furnace was not covered tightly due to rainy weather, and there were invisible cracks in the furnace body. Er Zi's team was in charge of this blast furnace.While on duty in the middle of the night, Er Zi and a few fellow villagers cleaned out the slag from the stove.It is estimated that the person holding the iron brazing force was too strong and hurt its inner tank. The stove suddenly burst open a gap of a few centimeters, and a stream of red iron juice came out with a whistling sound.The second son reacted quickly, and threw the man holding the iron braze down with one stroke, and the thousand-degree hot iron poured firmly on his back.The second son didn't stand still like the hero in the movie, and he didn't have any bold words. He only had time to let out a heart-piercing scream before falling heavily.The iron juice that continued to spurt cracked and cracked on his back and the surrounding wet ground. Er Zi's strong body quickly deformed and contracted in the blood-red iron mass, making a "squeak" sound, and then turned into coke.When the cadres of the brigade arrived, except for a complete hand, people could no longer recognize Er Zi's body.It was a combination of steel and flesh, black and shiny.Under the strong insistence of the steel team, the father of the second son took the hand and buried it elsewhere. The other parts, together with the thousand-jin iron block, were refilled into the blast furnace, and turned into molten iron in the blink of an eye. Lao Dan cried a lot.This playmate who grew up fighting with him since childhood was arrested and sent to the national army just like himself, and he ran back halfway to get a safe life, but in the end this death method was worse than the horror of bullets on the battlefield. He didn't have a whole body, and he didn't die in troubled times, but he died under the horn of communism. Lao Dan and others had a premonition about the problem of grain shortages, but they didn't expect the difference to be so big. It was less than half of the original per capita figure. Didn't the experts from the districts and counties say that there was no problem?Several surrounding villages are said to have exceeded the production capacity of the land there and here are the same, how can others do it?After half a month, the wheat would be harvested, and the party branch of the brigade immediately held an emergency meeting. "I think the problem is not the plowing and fertilization, but the lack of rain. Let's water according to the original seeding rate. Expert Liu said that we should increase it proportionally!" . "Don't be silly? Bale! The water is distributed according to the width of the land, how can it be counted according to the number of seedlings? Isn't that like growing rice? That expert Liu actually doesn't know anything about rice balls, he has thin skin and tender meat. Yes, you don’t even have a callus on your hands, you can’t shave a sliver of flesh on your butt, and you can tell that you haven’t been in the ground, so you can know what’s wrong with the ground? How did the county send such a ball down?” Xie Guoya has been so anxious these days that his mouth is full of froth, and he speaks loudly to others. He complains very much to Guo Pingyuan, how old are you?Just like this, the leaders in the county were playing tricks. The expert team who came down ate and drank for a few days, and his head grew big, and he released a 4,500-jin empty cannon. My education level is not enough, I can't understand the production opinions of the expert group, and I don't cultivate according to the correct method.Day of your grandma!What else should I plant?He almost took more than 200 people to eat and drink, and Lazard was all in the field. "Guoya, you have emotions in what you said. I don't care about it with you. You were there when I went to the county and the commune to receive tasks. Why didn't I see you farting? I talked to experts about work, and the commune to set output. You Either I went to shit, or I went to buy tobacco leaves. Where is your ball? On the way back, I lit cigarettes for others, but I didn’t see any promising ideas from you? Expert Liu gave a lecture in the field, yours The one with the head is sharper than that old hen. You are the leader of the production team, and your brains are all boiled? Now you are talking about other people's chickens? Baller, what did you do? What are you doing? There is no cocoon, he is an agricultural scientist in the production technology center! You are trying to undermine the policy of joint production of workers and peasants by talking so nonsense! Mr. Yuan Bai, please write down his words..." The clerk, Mr. Yuan Bai, is in charge of keeping the minutes of the meeting, and does not participate in the discussion and statement of the meeting.This is the method that Guo Pingyuan came up with in order to make the decision well-documented. Mr. Yuan Bai is a man of great talent, and he is still in good spirits in his 80s. Although Guo Pingyuan was born as a farmer, he has never planted land for a few days.Ever since I followed the Eighth Route for no reason, I followed the team to grab food, snatch the puppet army, snatch the devils, and even snatch the security regiment.When it comes to the exact number of the average yield per mu of land in the Central Plains, he really doesn't have a clue in his mind, but he still has a rough idea in his mind.He roughly estimated that even if every field was full of wheat ears, the yield per mu would not exceed one thousand catties.The corn yield per mu will not exceed 800 catties, and the total yield per mu will not exceed 1,800 catties.This requires intensive human effort and the good weather of the weather, but who doesn't know that Banzi Village has never been a place with good weather? The yield per mu is 4,500 catties!This is the index set by the county.When Guo Pingyuan heard this number in the commune, there was a muffled thunder in his head. Isn't this obviously nonsense!How can he be the leader of the grain production team in the future?The experienced Guo Pingyuan would rather not be greedy for merit, but never make mistakes, and leave room for himself in everything. This is the ability he used to mediate with the devils back then.So, when he came back from the commune, he sold a loophole and handed over the leader of the grain production team to Xie Guoya. Xie Guoya thought it was a meat bun who came along.Now that he, Xie Guoya, understands that his Shun Shui favor turned out to be a ignited landmine, it's not surprising that he became angry from embarrassment.It's too easy for me, Guo Pingyuan, to get rid of him!Isn't it?As soon as he went online, Xie Guoya grumbled.Even though he was not really angry with Xie Guoya, he still wanted to show an angry look on the surface.He felt more and more that Xie Guoya was not his opponent. He believed that Xie Guoya had a cunning heart and a mean nature, but he always talked faster than his brain, and he was full of flaws in everything he did. "Okay, okay, don't forget this, is this an angry talk...Pingyuan, Guoya, let's not quarrel! Let's talk about the past now, it's useless, our team in Banzi Village has always It’s a piece of bricks, so we can’t do it ourselves. We didn’t achieve the goal, either because we didn’t try our best, or because we didn’t have a red flag? I don’t think it will have a big impact on our Banzi Village. No matter how big it is, the commune will give our detachment headquarters a Punishment, the few of us can’t get food out, and the secretary of the commune can pull us out to show the public? What’s wrong, the satellite didn’t go up, so we became sinners? Isn’t Banzi Village still Banzi Village! Besides, our old Gui The Iron and Steel Group has won three red flags, which is enough to show off. I don’t think everything should be taken too seriously. Everyone’s ancestors have been farming for generations. No one is to be blamed. As the saying goes, a three-foot woman cannot give birth to a two-foot man, and even eating bird’s nest every day is useless. Before liberation, the land in Banzi Village had an output of less than 200 catties, but now it can soar Many somersaults, I think it's already a matter of staring, the original goal, I don't think anyone can achieve it..." Lao Dan wanted to calm down. "Old secretary! I don't think you can say that. Several villages around him have completed the tasks of the commune, and Xiheyan Village has reached more than 5,000 catties, which has exceeded the task of the commune. They are all the same. There is only one hole in the foot, how can they complete it? We will report the results to the commune in a few days. How can we say this? We can’t come up and say that this goal is not achieved at all, then It is the task goal of the implementation of the general line, against the general line, which of us can bear the charge?" "What the hell? Please explain the results? I think those cadres in the commune are all half-eyed. They set tasks blindly, and there is no way to count the harvest. I have a relative in Xiheyan Village who often walks around. The day before yesterday I asked When did you report it? What did he say? Just report it. Find a correspondent to deliver a good news and it will be on the list. In my opinion, the yield of more than 5,000 catties per mu is probably bullshit. Yes!" After Xie Guoya was refuted by Guo Pingyuan, he felt that he couldn't just be soft, so he fought back. "Guoya, we have to talk nonsense! The former one in Xidibei Village only reported more than 800 catties, and the secretary of the brigade has been labeled as a rightist, charged with concealing property and private distribution! The announcement just made in the commune. I Our village was named by the commune. If we report like this, we will definitely not be able to get away from this right-leaning label, and it may be even more serious. Maybe we will be given a "passive production and sabotage of the revolution!" My mother You want to go to the commune to be criticized? I don’t want to!” Guo Pingyuan chuckled, touched the top of his oily head, and threw back a soft but hard burden to Xie Guoya.The more Lao Dan listens to it, the more he doesn't like it. When is it time that you are still pinching me for a naughty thing? "Isn't it? The Communist Party is seeking truth from facts. How can you report as much as you want? When I was fighting, I captured as many prisoners as possible. I never reported too much. I think your news is a bit strange. , Nothing can grow in the field, what is the relationship between leftists and rightists? Concealment and private distribution? Our brigade has a lot of land and food, how to hide it? How to divide it? Isn’t that even more bullshit?” Lao Dan felt that Guo Pingyuan had thought things to the left, and he didn't want to be charged with deceiving the higher-level party organization. "Liberation, have you listened to the radio these days? The entire plain is enjoying a bumper harvest. A brigade in Hebei has reported tens of thousands of catties. Comrade Liu Shaoqi has gone down to inspect it. We all know what's going on Well, two days before the chairman came, the wheat from the surrounding fields had been collected into one field, but why did the central government report to praise it? This matter, Liberation, we all know it well, but we have to rush this trip! The commune has asked us to build a commune canteen. Seeing that communism is coming, we can’t fall behind, can we? All of you here are old party members. At this time, we must first look at the situation and then seek truth from facts.” Lao Dan was suddenly aroused by Guo Pingyuan's words, not because he said he would make a false report, but because of his sarcasm in his words. He is a regiment-level officer of the Republic, but this old party member really dare not show off his title.Look at the situation?That bastard Guo Pingyuan is alluding to himself!Back then, I didn't know how to look at the situation. If the uprising came earlier, would it be his turn to make such sarcastic remarks? "It's better to inquire more about the surrounding villages. We also go to the commune to find out what the above mean. Let's go and see..." Lao Dan was at a loss for words and couldn't think of a better way. "I'll go to the Xidi Beibei to play the funeral the day after tomorrow, and ask us about it? I don't think there's anything wrong with the ball..." The turtle monster held back for a long time, unable to get in his mouth, and finally spit out a sentence without beginning and end. "If you inquire about them, you may not be telling the truth. If you come back the day after tomorrow with an insignificant output, it will be even more difficult for us. Just do as Lao Guo wants, and report 4,200 catties, right? No more, no less. Left or right?" Xie Guoya hurriedly threw out a trap, Guo Pingyuan sneered and said: "I didn't mean it alone. This is the decision of the party branch of our brigade. You can go up and report..." "Concealing the sky and crossing the sea... Deceiving the ears and stealing the bell... Changing the normal for no reason, and perishing if it does not change... A crime..." Mr. Yuan Bai mumbled a few words. "What are you talking about?" Lao Dan and others couldn't quite understand the polite words.Xie Laogui sat close to Mr. Yuan Bai, so he turned his face and asked him. "Nothing, nothing... I'm just worrying..." "What kind of ball is 'Seven People Arita'? Don't interrupt!" Xie Guoya said fiercely. "Ding Lingling..." The phone rang suddenly, startling everyone.The phone was installed last week, and it never rang by itself except when calling outside. "Hey! Where is it?" Lao Dan picked up the phone and shouted.There was a lot of chattering in the handset. Since the phones of five brigades were connected in series, it rang all the time, and I didn't know who it was for. "I'm looking for the Banzi Village Brigade, let the others go!" A voice shouted, and the other brigades put down their phones one after another. "Is it Banzi Village? I'm director Xu of the commune, where is the old Jiefang?" "Hey! What a coincidence, that's me! Why is your voice so clear, Director? It's much clearer than the phone I used on the battlefield before." "Stop talking nonsense, why haven't you reported the per mu yield of your brigade? Everyone has finished reporting, and the highest reported in the north of Xidi is 4,600 catties! Hurry up, don't be too conservative, come to the commune tomorrow afternoon for a meeting, just That's it, hang up!" Before Lao Dan could speak, the caller had already hung up.Secretary Xu's loud voice made Lao Dan's ears numb, and judging from the expressions of the crowd, they probably heard it too. "Report it! Don't hide it..." Lao Dan put down the phone heavily. Xie Laogui and Guo Pingyuan were right. The commune did not strictly count and investigate the production tasks of each brigade.The cadres of the commune seemed to be busy with more important things. When they heard that Banzi Village’s yield per mu had reached 4,200 jin, they gave them a certificate in a daze, presumably because they had forgotten the original yield target for Banzi Village. clean up.After listening to Guo Pingyuan's description of the commune secretary's compliment, Lao Dan felt relieved.Recently, the newspapers have started to be outrageous, or even out of line.Satellites with an output of more than 100,000 jin per mu can be found everywhere, and the half-grown child in the photo is dancing on the densely packed ears of wheat.Lao Dan asked Guo Pingyuan suspiciously, and Guo said that he had heard that at least ten acres of wheat had been piled into that mu of land, and there was a bench as high as the ears of wheat hidden in it... The folks in Banzi Village have always had the habit of storing grain, and now this habit has finally been corrected.The commune party committee issued an order. In order to welcome the establishment of the public canteen, no household in the village was allowed to store food, not even the seeds—it all belonged to the commune, so why do you need seeds to make a ball? Cui'er was so worried about this matter that she didn't even have a single grain of grain at home, and she felt as uneasy as a cat scratching her head.The livestock and farm tools were also handed in. Tweety only regretted that she was too slow to start. Many people had already slaughtered the pigs overnight. Fortunately, it was more than 100 catties of meat!Lao Dan always wanted to put on an appearance of taking the lead, and pulled the cow away in a desperate manner.Cui'er had no choice but to sharpen the knife very quickly and strike at the hens. The whole village was not depressed by the failure of the food satellite launch. On the contrary, they all believed that this was a rare bumper harvest, and everyone's motivation was still high.The appearance of the people's canteen made everyone feel fresh, and the feeling was quite different from eating in one's own home.Lao Dan just lowered his head and lit a pot of cigarettes. When he looked up, Xie Guoya’s freshly filled bowl of noodles had disappeared. This is not unusual in the village. Xie Guoya's fourth bowl.When he stood up, he almost had to hold his stomach with his hands before he could walk.At the beginning, Lao Dan’s appetite for the labor in the village was far from enough. Half of the people complained of hunger, and those who entered the cafeteria late might still have an empty pot. The revolutionary masses complained, saying this is what kind of communism?Not even enough to eat.People from the Lincun brigade rubbed against the food in the canteen of Banzi Village, saying that the pot of yours is not very good. You can’t see a few pieces of meat after digging for a long time. The pork in our village pot is as big as a doll’s fist, and it’s communism. Still hiding like this?How can we maintain the revolutionary momentum of the Great Leap Forward when the people in the commune are hungry?Lao Dan and Guo Pingyuan also realized the seriousness of the problem, and they could not bear the crime of starving the revolutionary masses.Chairman Mao said, the problem now is not enough food, but how to eat it!So much food must be eaten in a way. If you can't finish three meals a day, you can eat five meals. Banzi Village still has the commune.The two scratched their scalps and calculated the account, gritted their teeth and decided to add more food, recalculated the supply, and the cook added two more. They would rather feed ten pairs to death than starve half a pair! The practice of letting everyone open their bellies in the big canteen of the People's Commune finally eased the brows of the revolutionary masses.Noodles that are more than ten meters long, mountains of steamed buns, and large pieces of pork in those super-large cooking pots, how can I be willing to eat like this in my own home?The habit developed in the poor days is enough to eat enough to fill up. Only our communist canteen has this style!But soon, huge waste appeared. Regarding the piles of meals provided by the cafeteria, the revolutionary masses quickly lost their original enthusiasm for fighting and charging, and no longer felt that it was a happy thing to support themselves to death. , The once deep appetite has turned into an unreasonable state where one meal can take three bowls and the next meal can be half a bowl. Anyway, I can’t get hungry anymore, so why grab it?When I used to eat by myself, I wanted to lie down and lick any scum that fell on the ground. Now the food in the commune is not so precious. Who made our people's commune so good? In the blink of an eye, the busy autumn is over, the autumn wind in northern Henan comes very early, and the autumn rain has not fallen a few layers, and the leaves of the poplar trees at the entrance of the village have already turned yellow.After the grain was collected and put into storage, the blast furnaces that had been crumbling, exposed, and leaking air finally died down. There were no more iron pieces for smelting in a radius of dozens of miles. Xie Laogui's search team searched all over Banzi Village and Lin Village. , It's just a matter of digging up the ancestral grave and pulling out the coffin nails.The ten blast furnaces that had been working day and night finally collapsed under the destruction of the dolls, and were shattered into a field of cinder-like coke.Along with it, hundreds of long-growth trees around Banzi Village became firewood for the blast furnace.No one dared to cut down the big poplar tree at the entrance of the village. According to Mr. Yuan Bai, it was the spiritual vein of Banzi Village. In the season of falling frost, there was a downpour, and the bandits fled in panic. The old village chief was unscathed, and the villagers worshiped him as a god. What came at the same time as autumn was the loss of the idle and restless revolutionary masses in Banzi Village.The walls of the house are bare and empty, the noodle and rice tanks that were once overflowing have been filled with water, and the chickens, ducks, pigs and dogs have become the property of the commune and have been uniformly allocated.It is strictly forbidden by the commune for each family to cook without permission. Of course, you can’t do it if you want to—no rice and no cooking pot!Faced with a blank post-autumn life, the villagers were at a loss.The so-called harvest, as well as winter grain, cotton, and cloth reserves, were packed into the rows of warehouses in the commune and the brigade. They said they belonged to everyone, but after all they were in other people's circles, and my heart was still sour.Seeing that the sky is getting cold, what will the year of communism be like? As winter just entered, the tranquility of Banzi Village was shattered by a series of latest instructions.The Party Central Committee issued a call to "pull out white flags and plant red flags" to the rural areas, requiring all communes to pull out all "white flags" and even "grey flags" and put up red flags everywhere! How to pull the "white flag" and "gray flag"?Who is the "white flag" and who is the "grey flag" has not given a clear statement.The purpose of the movement is to smash the right-leaning conservative ideology, thoroughly criticize the spontaneous capitalist tendencies of some rich peasants, and completely bankrupt the so-called "tide watchers" and "after-autumn settlers".But the Banzi Village Brigade did not have a "tide watcher". Except for the old man who was paralyzed at home and the fart who had not sewn his crotch pants, all the Banzi Village Brigade was involved in the torrent of the Great Leap Forward. The enthusiasm was high, and no one was there. Watching the tide from the sidelines, even Mr. Yuan Bai went to make steel to collect firewood. There are even less rightists who "settled accounts after the autumn".At any rate, it was a bumper harvest year, so it was impossible to talk about "settling accounts after autumn".The brigade committee had no choice but to ignore the results.Lao Dan, Guo Pingyuan, Xie Guoya and others went to find villagers who were willing to be "white flags" and "grey flags" respectively, to understand them with reason, to move them with emotion, and to lure them with food and drink. Mr. Yuan Bai "understood righteousness", saying that if I don't have a white flag, who will white flag?The teachers in the county are all rightists now, why don't I hurry up as a scholar?This skill is old-fashioned, and it can be played for half an hour, so it should be a "white flag"!Lao Dan was deeply grateful for Mr. Yuan Bai's generosity, and secretly gave him a bottle of shochu.Guo Pingyuan found a widow in the village who had no relationship with anyone.Xie Guoya found his blind old uncle, thanks to a few seedlings of "White Flags", he managed to figure it out.Lao Dan presided over two village meetings, criticized them in a serious manner in accordance with the spirit of the central government and the commune, and called on the whole village to maintain high revolutionary enthusiasm and prepare for new production tasks.The villagers all thought these "white flags" were very funny, and the "white flags" themselves thought it was very fresh, making faces at every turn, and laughing up and down.Xie Guoya reprimanded loudly with a face down, unfortunately, his roar was strung together with the roar of a donkey.Soon, the conference came to a hasty end amidst laughter. These days, the Party Central Committee has made it possible for all people across the country to be able to read, and it is best for everyone to be able to write poems and create creations. There is also a great leap forward on the cultural front.When the spring breeze blows to Banzi Village, there are only a few people who can read and write here, and Lao Dan counts as one.This poem writing is a big novelty, so everyone stuttered at home and chewed the words, although they had a lot of energy, but the effect was extremely poor.After a lot of effort, the crowd could only memorize a few poems of Chairman Mao, and only half of the characters they recognized were difficult to copy.Xie Guoya's mother-in-law once learned a few characters, and she felt that she had an advantage, and her poems were prolific.Xie Guoya only saw that the characters were arranged neatly, so he felt that his wife was great, so he even posted the poem at the entrance of the village.A group of villagers came back to see it, but they couldn't understand it, so they invited Mr. Yuan Bai to watch.The old gentleman put on his glasses, looked him up and down, and read aloud: "Smoke from the stove in Banzi Village, "Watching the crowds by the river. "White flags and gray flags are gone, "Red flags on the revolutionary front. "Communism leaps into a new life, "Too tired to vomit blood is a bird. "The people's communes are powerful, "The satellites are floating all over the sky." After reading the poem, Mr. Yuan Bai took off his glasses expressionlessly, and said silently that the poem still rhymed, and that it was already the best work in Banzi Village.Others praised, saying that Xie Guoya's mother-in-law is really talented, this poem sounds very invigorating! It didn't take long for everyone to feel that poetry was boring.The total number of characters that people in Banzi Village can read is limited, and the permutations and combinations are quickly used up, and no novel works can be produced.It is said that composing poetry is much more difficult than farming. It must be neat, rhyme, and contain meaning. It really takes a lot of brainpower!Banzi Village's enthusiasm for cultural advancement quickly withered, and it was only lively for a while, but was quickly forgotten by people. Two months have passed, "White Flag" can't always be these people, they have to change, right?The commune clearly expressed its dissatisfaction with the Banzi village brigade, believing that the brigade's effort to pull out the flag was obviously not enough, and ordered more than 1,500 people in the village to do something so that they could see who was white and who was gray.Lao Dan, Guo Pingyuan and the others were nervous, and it was quite troublesome for them. Guo Pingyuan took two people to visit Liaohuaying Village in Menzhuang Commune.A few days later, the three of them came back happily, as excited as Tang Seng and his party retrieved the scriptures. "Liberation, let's go back to Liaohuaying Village this time, it's an enlightenment! I don't want to say anything, you go there quickly, and you can understand it at a glance!" Liaohuaying Village, which has always been unknown, was praised by the district for its remarkable achievements in calling on the masses to build water conservancy projects.Guo Pingyuan returned from his inspection and strongly advocated that Banzi Village should learn from the experience of Liao Huaying Village and carry out a water conservancy project during the winter slack season: build a small-scale reservoir in the low-lying area between Banzi Village and the three surrounding villages, and connect the Daizi River and the three surrounding villages through the reservoir. It is connected by a tributary of the Luo River in the south.In this way, when the water volume is large in summer and autumn, the water from the Daizi River can be diverted to the surrounding brigades through the reservoir in an orderly manner without waste.When the amount of water is low in winter and spring, the water from the Luo River can be brought back, and the irrigation canals can be used to bring the water to the brigades that need it.Theoretically speaking, the several villages around the reservoir have continuous water flow in four seasons, and the "persistent" problem of drought and flood in Banzi village for a hundred years can be solved once and for all. Water has been a pain in the hearts of Banzi villagers for a century. The Daizi River is a narrow river less than two people deep. It is not too much to call it a ditch. In the first three years, there were droughts and floods in the first two years.But it is such a river that irrigates the land of Banzi Village and several surrounding villages.In addition, they had to travel sixty miles south to fetch water from a tributary north of the Luohe River.In order to get water, Banzi Village often fought with other villages, and there were many armed fights among itself. Laodan's father and Guo Pingyuan's father died in that armed fight decades ago.It wasn't until the Japanese devils came and built a dam on the upper reaches of the river that everyone wanted to watch the devils face and drink water. Only then did the Xie and Guo clans shake hands and make peace and became a family. The construction of water conservancy projects was the hottest production movement in the northern and central Henan plains, and Guo Pingyuan's mind became hotter. He went to the commune to report his ideas without even consulting with the brigade branch.Of course, the leaders of the commune expressed their full support and issued an order: Do it!The several villages involved in the project immediately held several meetings under the auspices of the commune, and the project was divided. More than 4,000 people in the four villages immediately started the unprecedented construction of water conservancy projects. It was winter now, the weather was dry and cold, sparks were flying when the picks hit the ground, except for a few old Soviet bulldozers, thousands of people could only work with picks, shovels and limited explosives.No matter how high the revolutionary enthusiasm of the people in Banzi Village is, how they are not afraid of the severe cold, and work on the construction site in full swing, the solid earth still makes the progress of the project slow.The explosives distributed by the commune were quickly exhausted, and the white hair wind began to rage on the plain. The construction enthusiasm of the revolutionary masses who wanted to have water to drink once and for all was finally blown away by the strong wind, and they began to complain and drag foreign workers. Lao Dan was skeptical about this project, thinking that this project was a bit too rash.After persevering for a period of time, a large part of the labor force fell ill, and the sick people affected each other, and they all fell together.This project is like a high ground that is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It can be captured, but there will be countless casualties.But this is not the battlefield where World War I rises and falls. Isn’t it self-evident that the construction of a reservoir to improve irrigation and the protection of the lives of the villagers are more important?Wasn't the bloody battle for the new China back then just for the people's livelihood and safety?Lao Dan stood on the construction site of Nuo Da, looking at the men and women shivering from the cold, feeling very anxious.The whole village is able to work here, and more and more people are falling ill.Lao Dan decided to convene a meeting of the brigade branch to discuss whether the work could be suspended and construction would be resumed in early spring.As expected, there was an immediate commotion in the brigade. "No! This is no longer a matter of our Banzi Village brigade family. Several surrounding villages have already moved at the same time, and they have already rushed ahead of us. We started the matter, and we also issued the military order! How can it be We backed off when it was a bit difficult? At that time, our rivers and canals will be blocked, and the public reservoirs will not be able to be repaired. How to explain to the public? What is the busy farming in the spring? Where can we allocate labor to repair the reservoir? I disagree, this is a runaway. This is a question of party spirit! It is a question of revolutionary principles!" Guo Pingyuan was almost exhausted.Guo Pingyuan seldom shows his emotions. Since working together, Lao Dan has never seen him lose control like this. In recent days, Guo Pingyuan has been more enthusiastic than when he took the lead in establishing the project, fighting on the construction site almost every day.Several commandos led by him fiercely planed and bombed, fought day and night, and achieved outstanding results. However, five of them had already vomited blood due to overwork. There is great enthusiasm to stain the construction site with blood for the revolution.Guo Pingyuan couldn't understand Lao Dan's backing down. How could a veteran who had been on the battlefield for nearly twenty years run away? "Can everything be negotiated? The principle of the revolution is to seek truth from facts. We built this reservoir and diversion canal to improve water use and irrigation. It is a big deal for our commune and our brigade, but it is not too urgent. Thing! It’s not that we will run out of water in the beginning of spring, and we don’t have to fight in the cold and fight against God. On the battlefield, we also have a tactic of avoiding the edge and turning around when facing a strong enemy. Force the enemy’s firepower It is an honor to charge at the fiercest place, but this kind of sacrifice is of no practical benefit to the victory of the battle! There are more than 1,000 people in our village, and in two months, more than 100 people have suffered from exhaustion and illness, and more than 50 people have suffered from frostbite and work-related injuries. Well, many people are vomiting blood and pulling blood, and their bodies are swollen like radishes. The white wind has blown, and seeing that it is going to snow heavily, the ground will be frozen to five feet below. It is really like a block of iron! Our explosives are gone. Yes, the commune gave us so much. With the tools in our hands and a few broken tractors, we can’t complete such a big project to complete the diversion canal for ten miles! More than half of the people will fall down when we finish it. Falling ill, how can Kaichuner still plant the fields? Doesn’t it still delay production? I think several villages should take a break. When the Qijiu River is open, the wind is much weaker, and we can set fire to the ground. At that time our Prepare well enough, and the construction period may be able to catch up. The folks are healthy, and they will work hard. We will not be short of labor by then, and we won’t need to make steel next year anyway... In short, I don’t think we can just watch the folks die. In this project, this is the issue of party spirit and principle. This is not a matter of competition! Let alone getting cold feet!" Lao Dan frowned and said.Guo Pingyuan's high-profile disgusted him, so you can't live if you don't go online for a day?This is the biggest project in the history of Banzi Village. You didn’t discuss it with the big guys, and you went directly to the commune to ask for credit and issued a military order. Now the bloody cut on your leg is hanging out every day. Who are you bluffing?You don't even count as a minor injury on the battlefield!However, Guo Pingyuan's high-sounding and serious scriptures are really hard to refute. It is true that he took half his life for the construction of the canal. Besides, the opinions of the commune are there, so Lao Dan can only present the facts and make sense . "I think what you said is right. Pingyuan is talking about politics, and Liberation is talking about human feelings. Both sides are reasonable! Anyway, this matter has already begun, and it is difficult to retreat. This is not a brigade that has the final say Yes. Folks are really suffering. Everyone of us feels distressed when we look at it. When I press a hole with my legs, I don’t have the nerve to tell you. But the order of the commune has not changed. The matter started because of us. We can’t Take this first and then retreat. Even if the commune agrees, our Banzi village will be charged with blind production. I agree with the idea of ​​liberation, but even if it retreats, there must be a method. I think several villages have to understand this matter. Anger, the big guys came together to discuss with the commune. I think other brigades are also struggling! Several brigades are about to withdraw, and the commune has to consider the overall situation. We stopped work privately, which affected the entire water conservancy project. None of us can bear the responsibility of detaining all the shit pots. So, I think it's better to discuss with other villages before making a decision!" Guo Pingyuan was impressed by Xie Guoya's rare logical and rigorous analysis.When did this guy start thinking about things?There was still no trace of ridicule about showing off his wounds and asking for credit to the commune in the words, and the words were all-encompassing. Could it be that he had underestimated him?Obviously he was on Lao Dan's side.Guo Pingyuan suppressed his anger and looked at Xie Laogui who was picking his feet. "I agree with Pingyuan. Our village is suffering, but who doesn't? The communes to the east of the family are doing a 'gathering together'. The labor of several brigades is concentrated, and the old, weak, sick and young are all concentrated in one place. , the production capacity is different. I think our Banzi Village brigade is a bit spoiled, and the labor in Shangbangzi Village is under the supervision of the militia. If you are a little lazy, you can take it out and hang a white flag, and others can come up. Spit on them, the motivation is naturally different! The commune also advocates the use of militarized management to achieve results. Let me lead the militia to manage it and scare everyone, so I don’t worry about them being tired or cold! It’s not unusual to be tired and sick. Yes, if we want to realize communism, are we afraid of getting sick? In a word, since our Banzi Village has picked up a military order, we can’t take such a bad idea. ' is also very unpleasant, maybe we will become 'white flags'!" Xie Laogui and Xie Guoya were originally buddies who wore a pair of pants.Lao Dan's return forced Guo Pingyuan to take the initiative to give up his position, so Xie Guoya lost his position as deputy village chief.Xie Guoya had neither seniority nor background, so he tried his best to mobilize the Youth League branch to rebel against Xie Laogui. He and several Youth League committees did enough work in the county Youth League committee to snatch Xie Laogui's post as Communist Youth League secretary.When it came time to smelt steel, Xie Laogui's steel production team achieved remarkable results. Xie Guoya looked jealous and always put on shoes for Xie Laogui's production team in the name of the leader of the regiment.The two turned against each other.Their respective women even fanned the flames and cursed, so the former buddies became deadly enemies.Today, Xie Laogui is the militia company commander of the Banzi Village brigade. He thinks that the militia companies of other brigades have the real power of "acting management", and even the brigade secretary wants to give up three points.Compared with other brigades, the production management in Banzi Village was like a drizzle, without the iron bowl energy of the militarized management suggested by the commune.I am the commander of the militia, and I am duty-bound.Besides, if you don't start at this time, when will you wait?Seeing him, Guo Pingyuan took advantage of this water conservancy project to make a comeback, and if he didn't get it right, he wouldn't be able to squeeze out the old Dan who had no significant political achievements in the past few years.Daxing water conservancy is an instruction from the central government, and it is the trend of the times, but his old man backed down, saying that this is already a rightist act!The leaders of the commune had already complained about the party committee of the Banzi village brigade. Guo Pingyuan's influence in the commune was growing day by day. "I'm afraid this is inappropriate?" Everyone was stunned, but it was Mr. Yuan Bai, the clerk, who spoke.In normal meetings, he didn't speak at all. He just took the meeting minutes carefully, and his good words made others envious. At this moment, the old man suddenly opened his mouth. "Everyone is from the same village. I have lived for seventy-eight years. Except for bandits, Japanese devils, and the Kuomintang, no one has said that people are forced to work with guns. The Japanese devils did not force us to drive. The canal? What have we become? The common people helped the Communist Party bring down the world, and you turn around and scare them with guns to work? Lao Gui, the militia company commander, was appointed by the party committee of the brigade, but was actually elected by the villagers , you just have the heart to do that?" "Mr. Yuan Bai, stop making noises! You are neither a party member nor a member of the village committee, so don't talk nonsense!" Xie Guoya gave Mr. Yuan Bai a white look. "What is nonsense? I don't need to talk about you planting land and releasing satellites, and you don't need to talk about building a furnace to make steel, but if you want to use guns to force the villagers to open canals, I have to talk about it! It's winter! Opening a canal? I have never heard of it! Banzi Village is located higher than the other three villages. The water in Daizi River can only flow down. The Luo River is a branch of the Yellow River. Since ancient times, it has always gone south. The principle of Beiliu. What is the use of building this reservoir? The Daizi River will be cut off for three years and one year, and it is not enough for itself. When we talk about mutual help, we also need to look at the actual situation. Water conservancy construction needs to be based on geographical advantages and the right time, and now neither of these two things are available, so the work started with a dark eye! Do you know how tired Emperor Yang of Sui was when he built the canal? People? Are you pointing guns at the villagers again? How can I not say that human life is at stake? You can treat my words as fart, but you are not guilty of doing things that are angry and resentful today?" Mr. Yuan Bai threw the brush on the table, farted loudly in front of everyone, and left without waiting for everyone to speak. "You old man, what does he know? The whole country is going crazy. There are so many things you haven't seen in New China. It's not wrong to call you a rightist and a bad element!" Guo Pingyuan heard Mr. Yuan Bai criticize himself so much. For his great cause, he was so angry that his face turned into ashes. "I think what the old man said is reasonable, human life is at stake, we have to add up, and I will also talk to other brigades..." "If you want to get through, you can get through? I'm f