Chapter 55 sky red

From the 1960s to the 1970s, it was the era of "full sky red".Mantianhong is a kind of big lamp pot, with two long spouts protruding out, spit out a wick as thick as a little finger, burning cotton oil or diesel, emitting billowing black smoke.Use a long bamboo pole to pick up such a lamp to break the heavy darkness, go to the fields to collect grain, gather people for meetings, and procession are common things in this era.This is an era when the day is not enough, and the night must be full of excitement.The blacksmiths made batches of sky red, which sold very well.When introducing the revolutionary situation of which commune or team, the cadres often used words like this: "Go and see them, they will have more than a dozen lights when they go to battle!"

When I settled in Maqiao, I caught up with the local "showing loyalty" craze.To show loyalty to the leader, an indispensable daily activity is to go to the main room of the review at night.Only the main room of his house is larger, which can accommodate the labor force of the entire production team.A dim sky-red lamp was hung too high, and the people under the lamp were still vague black shadows, which could not be seen clearly.I bumped into someone, I don't know if it was a man or a woman. Everyone stood in front of the leader's portrait. When the cadre gave an order, the labor force suddenly made a deafening voice and recited five or six quotations from Chairman Mao in one breath, which shocked us devolved cubs.We didn't expect the people of Maqiao to remember so much and become dizzy in their revolutionary theories.

After a while, I found that they recited the same every time, just a few, so I was relieved. The sent-down cubs had read books, and quickly memorized more quotations from the leaders, and they could also shout them out in one breath, which dealt a severe blow to their rampant arrogance.After they were defeated, they became more honest. They took out shredded tobacco and first asked the subordinates if they wanted it, and the voice of reciting the quotations was also a little weak. After the yelling, a cadre, usually Benyi or Rob, gave a brief report on the farming affairs of the day to Chairman Mao on the wall, and then said timidly, "You are so sleepy, old man."

Or say: "It's snowing today, you old man, burn more pots of charcoal fire." Chairman Mao seems to have acquiesced.Only then did everyone disperse with their sleeves covered, one by one bumping into the cold wind outside the door. Once Zhaoqing dozed off behind a crowd, and he was still squatting in a corner when everyone else had left.Fucha's family didn't pay attention, they closed the door and went to sleep.It was only in the middle of the night that I heard someone yelling, saying that you are so vicious!Want to freeze me to death? Fucha didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so he had to say that it was only because Tianhong ran out of oil and couldn't see clearly at night.

It is conceivable that after studying like this every day, everyone has a lot of revolutionary theories in their mouths.The difference is that Maqiao people sometimes utter some special quotations from Chairman Mao, such as: "Chairman Mao said that this year's Camellia oleifera grows very well"; "Chairman Mao said that we should save food but we cannot eat it every day "; "Chairman Mao said that the landlords are dishonest, so they will be hung up"; "Chairman Mao said that the dwarfs do not engage in family planning, and the number of babies is only concerned with the quality of babies."; "Chairman Mao said, Whoever mixes pig manure with water, if it is found out, his ration grain will be deducted!" and so on.I have inquired for a long time, but no one knows the source of these supreme instructions, and no one knows who is the original disseminator of these words.But people took these words very seriously and quoted them in speech again and again.

Of course there is nothing strange.Later, when I read the history of Chinese literature, I found that Maqiao people did no worse than some Confucian masters in history.Those people "conquer saints" at every turn, but in fact they often pretend to be Confucius, Lao Tzu, Gou Zi or Mencius, and make up holy words to bluff people.Yang Xiong of the Han Dynasty quoted a large number of Confucius quotations, but after verification by later generations, few of them were true.