Chapter 2 1

Yellow dust billows in the Central Plains.Two trucks on the road, one in front and one behind, were driving in two clouds of yellow fog. In the rear one, there was a man in a liberation suit standing on the pedal outside the door.It's the driver's assistant, a fat middle-aged man.His head was flushed, his eyes popped out in anxiety, and he shouted loudly to the front.Ahead was a large coal truck, which was driving too slowly and blocked the road.He made his throat hoarse, and he couldn't hear the rumble of the car in front of him, or pretended not to hear it. After finally reaching a turning point, the truck in front finally realized its conscience and took a step back to let the one behind it go ahead.

"Let's drive slower, too," the assistant said to the driver, "Let them eat some dust too." The driver nodded. The assistant put one arm on the car window, turned his body and looked back, smiling very happily, but suddenly, he blushed again and shouted, "Damn it! I'll let you eat some ashes too!" " A car full of young people laughed.Some people also said: "This driver's behavior is not good, he should review it." They are all students from several universities in Beijing. This time the people's government mobilized college students to participate in the land reform, and activists in the schools rushed to sign up.This land reform team is composed entirely of students.There are also several new graduates this summer, like Liu Quan.

He sat at the rear of the car with the most bumps, with his arms loosely wrapped around his knees. Even though it was autumn, his body was still hot from the sun.His blue-gray summer emancipation suit was drenched with sweat and stuck to his back. The cicadas on the tree were screaming loudly, "squeak... squeak..." and the sharp and bright singing was as endless as the road in front of me, stretching straight down. Liu Quan felt indescribably happy, a gust of hot wind blew over, rolling up waves of sand and dust on his face, like a layer of rough veil, slapping on his face non-stop.The sun and wind made him unable to open his eyes.He frowned, squinted his eyes, but still smiled.He is tall, with a thin brown face, small eyes, and a deep dimple on his right cheek.

"The East is red, the sun is rising" sang from a corner near the front of the car, "There is a Mao Zedong in China..." A mule cart came ahead, and the truck swayed to the side of the road. Half a locust tree and a large clump of green reeds were swept into the cart.The female students screamed, hid one after another, fell to the side, and huddled together even more.Everyone laughed again.A female student twisted down a tree and tapped on the back of her companion to beat the time. They sang their new land reform song, "Let's unite, hey, peasants who work the land!..." However, their favorite songs were still a few familiar ones.

"Our China is so vast..." Liu Quan likes this song the most. There is a sense of sadness in the tone, which reminds him of a state of "the sky is blue and the wild is vast".At the same time, he couldn't help thinking that a group of people were singing across Guangyuan on a speeding truck, which seemed to be a scene often seen in Soviet movies. The main road gradually sank, and the soil slopes on both sides gradually rose, standing like bare loess walls.This is because the soil is soft, and when the iron wheels of the mule cart are rolled over, a ditch is formed. The mule carts have been walking on this road for thousands of years, and the road has become a dirt ditch, one or two feet deep.Sitting on the truck, all I could see were the yellow-green treetops on the plain.

Some people sat so that their legs became numb, and everyone switched positions as much as possible. There was a beautiful girl in the crowd, and now she moved in a different direction and sat this way.Her hair was cut very short, and there was no trace of electric perm, but the tips were still slightly curled.The face is round and pointed, with a small slightly convex nose and thin, red lips.A pair of pitch-black eyes, the ends of which were long and long, with a deep mark.In her blue-gray Lenin suit, the sleeves were rolled up high, reaching above the elbows.The arms seem to be a little too thin, but when born on her body, it seems that the arms are a little thinner, but it shows a girlish look.The strong wind blew a small green leaf and stuck it to her hair.

People from different schools didn't know each other originally.Before getting on the bus, everyone had reported their names one by one, but the introduction of themselves always felt a little funny, so no one was ashamed to say it solemnly, but just grunted casually with a smile.There are many people, and many people are still confused.Yet someone like her, of course, is compelling.She signed up by herself, saying that her name was Huang Juan, and she was a graduate of Yanjing's current class. Probably none of the men in the car didn't hear clearly.Liu Quan is certainly no exception.

It was also because this person was so beautiful, and when he looked at her occasionally, it seemed that everyone was paying attention to him. He turned his head away, held a hat in his hand as a fan, and fanned his chest once and for all.After fanning for a while, I felt that it was unnecessary. The car was driving so fast, and the wind was blowing straight, so what else should I fan.So he put the hat on his head.But then came the second impression, the wind was so strong that the hat would blow out of the car, so I quickly took it off again.Looking at others, no one is wearing a hat. I can't remember whether I was wearing a hat in the first place, but the more I think about it, the more I feel dazed.

He didn't hear her talk much, but she seemed to be very happy, and often put one of her umbrellas outside the car and stuck it in the bushes, making it rattle and bounce. There was silence in the car, only the rumble of the car could be heard.Everyone's throats were dry from singing, and they didn't sing any more.The girl who broke a tree to beat the time was Yu Lin, a classmate of Liu Quan. She stretched out the branch like a horsewhip from a distance and hit him twice on the shoulder. "Hey, Liu Quan, Liu Quan, how many roads are there?" He didn't answer right away, and her branch hit her head again. "Hey, Liu Quan! Have you walked halfway?" She tilted her head and looked over with a smile.He felt that Huang Juan was also looking at him.

"What's the use of asking me, you ask the driver." He smiled, but he was very reluctant in his heart.It didn't matter to us classmates, she acted as if they were very close acquaintances, and it was easy to misunderstand others.He told himself that they are all cadres now, and lower-level cadres are most afraid of having sex with men and women.And now they are setting out to do the most serious work, and this style of work will give a bad impression to the "leadership". In this group, Comrade Zhang Li represents the "leadership".Zhang Li is a party member, sent by the Cultural Bureau as the leader of their work team.He was about thirty years old, tall, with a rich, long face and a heavy beard, two turquoise cheeks, and thick lavender lips.Among a group of young people, his composure was even more evident. He sat on the side, just smiling.Liu Quan knew the most people, so I introduced them one by one for him.When Liu Quan was at Peking University, he was an activist in the student union and had frequent contact with student organizations in several other universities.Although his eloquence may not be good, he is very honest and reliable, and he is also a member of the Youth League.Zhang Li obviously relied on him a lot and regarded him as the leader of this group of people.

The sun gave off a headache, and everyone sat back to back and fell asleep.The truck jolted badly, and the buttocks were so painful that I woke up again.Just like that, he woke up and fell asleep in a drowsy way, and fell asleep and woke up again.When Liu Quan woke up for the last time, he suddenly smelled a very strong earthy smell in the air.But it is not earthy smell, but a kind of sandy fragrance.It turned out to be raining.There was no shelter on the truck, but when it rained, everyone cheered up and sang loudly again, and the car drove faster, because the underground Faust turned into mud, and it was like gruel. Sticky and slippery, the wheels will barely turn. "It's almost there, it's almost here," everyone comforted each other.If the car breaks down suddenly, in this place where there is no village in the front and no store in the back, you can only walk to Hanjiatuo in the dark without even bringing a lantern. It was getting dark and the scenery was gradually changing.At some point, the car drove out of the ditch, and the vision suddenly widened. The sky at dusk was green and overcast, and the top and bottom seemed to be immersed in a green glass tank, dark and clear. "It's here! It's here!" There were cheers. There is a sorghum field next to the road, and the sorghum stalks grow taller than a person. It is the season of green gauze curtains.After passing the sorghum field, there are gradually some vegetable gardens along the road, interspersed with cemeteries, and occasionally one or two huts.Then I saw a black earth wall about ten feet high, stretching endlessly.There are several large and small door openings dug in the earthen wall, and at a glance, you can also see many illuminated houses inside.The villages in this area have built such a polder around the outside to defend against bandits. Suddenly, there was a sound of gongs and drums, and a cluster of lights burst out of the earth, including red star lanterns, ordinary white shell lanterns, and torches. The light of the lights flickered in the rain.You can vaguely see a table of children and young men and women performing yangko dances, twisting all the way out, the red and green silk ribbons are all wet and limp.I also saw some militiamen with white towels tied on their heads.Many people waved red thread paper flags and shouted slogans.The rain made people flustered, and they couldn't hear what they were shouting, but of course everyone knew that it was the people from the village who braved the rain and came out to welcome them.Everyone couldn't help feeling warm in their hearts, and they all waved their hands vigorously and cheered loudly.At this moment, the truck had already passed through the crowd, splashing mud, and the lanterns and torches were squished aside to make way. The truck didn't drive into the entrance of the village, it still went a long way before it stopped abruptly.Everyone put on their backpacks, stepped over the board of the car, and jumped out of the car.There is a temple on the earth slope across a large bright mud pool, and two white shell lanterns are hung in front of the temple, emitting a dim yellow light, illuminating two straight plaques with the words "Han family in the third district" on the plaque. Tuo Elementary School". At this time, the Yangko dancers also followed, and the big and small gongs were beating.It rained harder.Two people who looked like cadres came up to say hello, and asked people from the work team to go to the elementary school.Liu Quan only cared about everyone, leaving behind alone.When Huang Juan jumped out of the car, she put away the umbrella and opened it again when she got off the car, but the wind was too strong and she struggled for a long time before she opened it.She ran up with an umbrella and saw Liu Quan running up bent over, raising an arm to cover his eyes, so she called out "Comrade Liu!" and sent the umbrella to him. "Okay, okay!" Liu Quan said politely, then took the umbrella and said, "I'll do it." He held the umbrella instead, but kept it far away from himself.It wasn't necessarily intentional, he always had a special feeling for her, as if she was different from all other women.The umbrella was originally not that big, and it completely covered her head. On the contrary, on his side, he was drenched harder than when he didn't open the umbrella. on his head.Huang Juan felt it too, so of course she didn't have anything to say, but when everyone was walking side by side, they got closer to him and walked next to him.In this way, at last the umbrella is not completely upside down, and the patches of rainwater are no longer drenched on his head, but instead drenched on his shoulders. However, it was time to reach the gate of the temple.The first group of people squeezed under the eaves, shaking their hats, twisting their trousers, drinking water all over the floor.They were the last of the pair to arrive, and everyone looked at them.Liu Quan himself told himself that it was his psychological effect. He seemed to think that everyone paid special attention to Huang Juan, and it might be too much to say that he was "eyeing her like a tiger", but there seemed to be something strange in the atmosphere.Once up the steps, he returned the umbrella to Huang Juan, thanked her, and hurried away. Several village cadres surrounded Zhang Li and talked.Zhang Li introduced them to everyone.Li Xiangqian, secretary of the branch, was a thin man, wearing a white cloth coat with a high collar, and a pair of big elf eyes with slightly protruding eyeballs. "Comrades are here, and we really like it indescribably," Li Xiangqian said, "You are all educated people, and we all have to learn a lot from you." "Where there is, we want to learn from you, and your cadres are the closest to the masses." Zhang Li said. "Comrades must be hungry," Li Xiangqian said to Sun Quangui, an organization of the peasant association: "Let them make pancakes." He smiled apologetically to the team members and said, "I have prepared 30 catties of white flour and 50 eggs. It’s hot, the meat can’t be kept, and I didn’t dare to kill the pigs, so I don’t know if today will be successful or not.” "Don't bother, we can eat what we have." Zhang Li said. "It's time to eat white noodles," Liu Quan interjected, "Actually, we don't need to cook for us, everyone can just eat pie." Li Xiangqian scratched his scalp, looked at them with eyes, and smiled softly. "It's raining so hard, let's have a meal here and rest earlier, comrades have worked hard today." "It doesn't take much trouble, everything is ready-made, ready-made." Sun Quangui said. "In my opinion, we don't have to fight with everyone," Zhang Li said to Liu Quan with a smile, "No matter what you do, you have to combine the actual situation, and you can't be stubborn. It's also a dogma to say what must be done." Doctrine." Having said this, he laughed. Liu Quan really didn't expect that he would hit such a snag as soon as he opened his mouth.Thinking about it again, after all, I am an inexperienced person, and this time I went to the countryside, but I came here for an apprenticeship. Perhaps Zhang Li thought he was too sharp, and deliberately frustrated him in front of others. Build prestige.Thinking of this, although he still felt a little uneasy in his heart, he endured it, with a smile on his face. Zhang Li asked Li Xiangqian how many party members there are in the area.I asked some other questions, explaining that various groups will hold separate meetings tomorrow to communicate policies.The cadres are all here, the director of the peasant association, the director of the women's association, the captain of the militia, the village head, the deputy of the village, the branch organization, and the branch propaganda.Most of them still have a bit of peasant shyness, squatting quietly at the door of the room, listening to the conversation here.There are also squatting under the eaves. The militiamen carried eggs and vegetables, went in and out, and were busy.The smell of pancakes came from the side room.Liu Quan didn't see the two drivers and asked others, but they all said they didn't know.He went out to find them, to call them to dinner. I don't know when, the rain has stopped.As soon as I left the temple gate, a few big pagoda trees were dripping water, as if it was raining again.However, there is already a little moonlight on the ground. The dark shadow of the truck looms over the side of the road.A group of people stood around the car watching, pointing and poking.Liu Quan walked over there, and heard the voices of women and children talking in the distance. "Don't move!" the woman scolded. "Come down!! Don't come down! Kill you!" The child took the crying person and said: "Press, press, press gently!" When the car horn blew a low "beep", everyone laughed.The woman still scolded. "Are these people from the district or the county?" Another woman's voice said. "I don't know," one man snapped back. "They said there was going to be a fight." The woman who scolded the child said: "Didn't you say that you want to divide the land?" No one answered.Later, it was the man who said, "The land must be divided, and the fight must be fought." "Isn't it okay to not fight for glory?" "It's okay if you don't fight! If you call for a fight, you have to fight!" His wife seemed a little uneasy next to him. "Go back, father of the child." A group wandered away, women holding children. Listening to their voices, Liu Quan guessed that the two drivers would never be in the truck.Walking over to have a look, sure enough the car was dark and there was no one there.He hesitated for a while, then chased after him, and called out to the man, "Hey, fellow! Where did those two drivers go just now? Did you see that?" They looked back at him.A little boy with red barley body stood still and stared blankly at him. He was fiddling with a frame made of thin bamboo sticks. It was probably the red star lantern he had just brought to welcome them. On the next star-shaped shelf, there were still two or three tattered strips of red paper hanging on it. They did not speak, Liu Quan thought they would not answer him. "I went to the cooperative," the man suddenly pointed to a small white house over there.Then they quickly moved on.Only the little boy stood there with his swollen belly, staring at the ground, fiddling with the shelf made of bamboo sticks. "Xiao Shun!" the woman scolded harshly. The children followed them. Liu Quan stood there, stunned for a while.Then he walked slowly towards the cooperative.The side of the main road is very desolate, and occasionally there are two houses, both of which are made of sorghum stalks. Only this cooperative is a tile house, which seems to be very brightly lit inside, and there are many figures on the window paper.Liu Quan thought it was strange that the door was still open at this time.The two drivers didn't know what they were doing at the cooperative. There was nothing to buy in this rural area, and they were going back to the city early tomorrow morning. Just as he was thinking in this way, he saw from a distance that the door of the cooperative opened and two people came out.The moonlight shone on the whitewashed wall, and the two men stood facing the wall, drowning in urine.The cigarette butts in their mouths glowed red in the dark. Liu Quan suddenly took a step back and hid himself under the melon shed.He heard the voices of those two people talking, and one of them sounded very familiar, that is, Sun Quangui, the peasant association organization. "No trouble!" he said there, "we don't even have a big landowner here. Unlike Qilibao, they have big landowners, three hundred hectares of land, and they work hard! You heard that no, he hasn't As for the points, the quilts with red silk face are all piled up on the cadre kang!" While talking, they tied up their trousers and left. Liu Quan walked towards the cooperative slowly, and he couldn't tell what he felt in his heart, he just felt quiet.As soon as you open the door and go in, the counter is blocked in front of you, and there is another stove for pasting pancakes, a counter for noodles, and a cutting board.Two people were standing in front of the counter drinking, and there was a small yellow clay jar on the counter. "Why did you come here?" Liu Quan walked up and pointed at the shoulders of the two drivers, "I'll wait for you to eat." "Would you like a bowl too, comrade?" said the driver, "you're going to get sick from being so drenched. Why don't you drink some to get rid of the cold?" "Stop drinking, you guys are almost drunk, you can go to eat." The two drivers blushed from eating, staggered and followed him out. After returning to the temple for dinner, everyone prepared Anou.The male and female team members each occupy a classroom, making room for floor coverings, and piles of sorghum stalks are spread under the bluestone slabs.After blowing out the lamp, the blurred moonlight came in through the window panes and shone on the ground, forming the pattern of hazy white jade ancient coins.The sound of chirping insects in the yard, together with the sound of frogs after the rain, rang out.Inside the house there is often a sound of chugging, chugging, blah blah, and I don't know if it's a mouse or a bat?The wind was still shaking the broken window, making people feel restless when listening to it.Even so, everyone was very sleepy, and soon began to snore. Liu Quan had something on his mind, so he didn't fall asleep. He tossed and turned, and the sorghum stalks under his body kept rustling.After sleeping for a long time, a chill came out of the bluestone slab.The mosquitoes after autumn are also very powerful.It was probably the sound of him slapping mosquitoes that woke Zhang Li up.He saw Zhang Li sitting up from the bunk, put on his shoes and walked out, presumably to relieve himself.After a while, Zhang Li came back, sat down and yawned heavily.Only the white shadow of his sweatshirt was visible in the darkness. "You haven't fallen asleep yet, Comrade Liu?" He asked, "Aren't you used to sleeping?" Liu Quan originally wanted to say that he was bitten by mosquitoes and couldn't sleep extravagantly, but Zhang Li's tone seemed to contain a hint of joking, so he didn't want to answer that way.He paused, then smiled and said, "No. I'm thinking here, the situation in this village is not simple." "The situation is not simple anywhere. --Why, what did you hear?" Zhang Li seemed very interested. He took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took out one himself, and threw the box on Liu Quan's bunk. man smokes. " Liu Quan came over to get matches, sat down beside him, and told him what Sun Quangui had said. Zhang Li laughed when he heard that Qilibao hadn't fought yet, and that the landlord's quilt had already been piled up on the cadre's kang. "It is true that many cadres have been corrupted, and they blindly pursue enjoyment in life. However, we cannot ignore cadres in our work. We should use this work to carry out cadre education." His tone was so firm, yet his attitude was so relaxed.Listening to him talking in the darkness, Liu Quan couldn't help but feel a lot more at ease in his heart. He told him about the attitude of the peasants, which was almost hostile.They seem to be against the fight. "Oh, peasants! -- they are always backward," Zhang Li laughed. "How confused they are in their hearts, you don't even know. They only see a little benefit in front of them. They often don't know good and evil, and they regard the enemies of the people as good people. They are often wavering, often unreliable, and they are full of changing thoughts. They are timid and tree-breaking. If the leaves fall, I'm afraid I'll break my head." Liu Quan was very surprised. He didn't expect him to underestimate the peasants so low. "According to this, how can this land reform be carried out? Aren't we going to follow the mass line?" "Taking the line of the masses, on the one hand, you have to rely on the masses, on the other hand, you have to inspire the masses, help them, and carry out ideological mobilization." Liu Quan silently smoked. Zhang Li breathed out a mouthful of phlegm in his throat, spat it out, then lay down, and extinguished his cigarette on the stone floor. "Be careful too, don't set the sorghum stalks on fire."