"Then the next step is our last and most important question!"
"How to integrate the canteen into the existing work point system of our Maixiang Brigade? To be more precise, it is the detailed rules and regulations for our canteen. How should we do it? Do you have any good ideas?" Wang Zhong glanced at it. To everyone. "
"This cafeteria is not easy to handle!" Niu Dangdang is a straight-tempered person, especially when discussing business matters. He always goes straight to the point and doesn't like to beat around the bush.
"I also know that it is difficult to handle, but it has to be done even if it is difficult to handle. This is different from the last harvest. Last time, even if there was a real loss, we can bear it ourselves, but this time..." Niu Daring Lowering his head and pursed his lips, he naturally knew what Wang Zhong meant.
"Every household has different conditions and situations, and the food they eat is also different. Some are hard-working, and their families are a little better off. They eat more flour and do more work. Some are lazy, and some are from disadvantaged households. We can only eat yellow noodles, buckwheat, and thin food. If we open a canteen, some people will be happy, but some people will not be happy." Niu Dadan said.
Although Niu Dangdao is a bit rough, he is not the blind person who knows how to live in Hutu.
"This is the necessity of our existence!" Wang Zhongdao: "Take care of needy households, keep an eye on those who are lazy, transform them, and make them become diligent. Together, we can contribute to the development of our Maixiang Village!"
"What Big Chong said makes sense." Ma Renlian said with deep approval. The king focused on Ma Renli's name: "Renli, what do you think?" Ma Renli said: "I think the canteen must be established. This time is different from the last time. This is a policy." Everyone else was impressed. Take it for granted.
Wang Zhongdao: "We set up people's communes, set up production brigades, and set up canteens. In the final analysis, it is to realize communism. Collective things belong to everyone. Our village collective is equivalent to a big family. Everyone in our brigade A team member is a member of this big family, but this family is just a little bigger."
"Since no one has any good ideas, I have a suggestion. Let's discuss it together and see what happens."
"I mean, Big Chong, if you have an idea, you should have told me earlier!" Niu Dangdaan unconsciously showed a smile on his face.
"Big Chong, what can you do?" Everyone looked at Wang Zhong curiously. Wang Zhong said sternly: "First of all, let's make it clear that the canteen must be opened and the stoves in the folks' homes will not stop. From now on, we will harvest every summer and autumn every year, excluding the public grains handed over to the country, leaving enough food for the villagers for a year. , the remaining 30% will be sold to the brigade’s grain depot, and the rest will be distributed to each villager according to the surplus of work points as before.”
"What if there are no surplus work points?" Niu boldly asked. Wang Zhongdao: "If you don't have it, we won't give it to you. You will get as much as you do. This is our principle and the bottom line. This cannot be changed."
"What about those households in need?" Ma Renlian asked. Wang Zhongdao: "It's still the same as before. Take care of what needs to be taken care of and control the speed."
"When will our grain reserves reach 100,000 kilograms? From now on, we will deal with the extra grain every year, either sell it, or replace it with peanuts and soybeans, which can be used to extract oil."
"We will then convert the work points of the rations left in the canteen into meal tickets for the villagers. How much white flour and how much stick noodles are converted into a few centimeters? We will make adjustments based on the actual situation every year. If the villagers want to go If you want to eat in the canteen, you have to get a meal ticket. If you don’t have a meal ticket, you have to cook at home.”
"It sounds pretty good!" Niu boldly said. Ma Renli also nodded and said: "It seems possible." Ma Renlian and Zhao Youtian also nodded.
Wang Zhong hasn't finished speaking yet: "This is the first way, and there is a second way. The food we bring will be distributed to the villagers according to their work points, and then we will let the villagers go to the canteen every month. If you pay food, you will be given meal stamps as much as you pay, or exchange meal stamps for meals. If the villagers are happy to eat in the canteen, they can go to the canteen to eat. If they are not happy to eat in the canteen, they can cook at home."
"But no matter which method it is, it will require a certain amount of manpower and a lot of energy to implement it."
"Let's do it for a few days first, and wait until Secretary Wang and the others leave. If we really can't do it, we'll close the canteen again and continue to eat our own food as before." Niu Dangdang was worried and simply closed the canteen. Everything in my heart was spoken.
"What do you think?" Wang Zhong asked everyone.
"What you said boldly makes sense. If it really can't be done, Secretary Wang can't force us to do it!" Zhao Youtian said.
It is not so easy to worry about inequality rather than scarcity, and to achieve a truly absolute communist average. Not to mention the ones that are far away, let alone the brigades next to the Maixiang Brigade, even the Maixiang Brigade itself has had many signs of not working hard in recent years. After all, people are selfish and lazy. Yes, why can he be lazy but I can't be lazy?
After the meeting, on the way home, the three of them chatted about home affairs. Ma Renlian asked: "By the way, bold brother, how is my sister-in-law doing recently? Are she still arguing with you?"
"She dares!" Niu's bold voice suddenly became louder.
"That's best!" Ma Renlian said: "Looking at her recent behavior, you should be more careful and warn her more to stop talking nonsense, so as not to get into unnecessary trouble."
"Ren Lian, what news have you heard?" Wang Zhong couldn't help but ask. Ma Renlian shook his head, with a serious look on his face: "I don't know the specifics, but it's always good to be careful." Niu boldly nodded, obviously listening: "No problem, I will definitely tell her." Village cooking skills There were only a few good ones. Ma Renlian, nicknamed Caibaozi, was also given the title of canteen director, and the canteen of Maixiang Brigade was officially established.
Three days later, Wang Wanchun and several commune leaders came to the Maixiang Brigade. Looking at the clean and tidy brigade canteen with red decorations, they couldn't help but nodded their heads. After some praise, they said they wanted to try the Maixiang Brigade canteen. meals.
Soon, everyone was sitting around the table.
"It's time to eat!" Yang Deng'er shouted, leading Jiang Hongguo, Sister Jinhua and several other skilled women comrades to bring grates of steaming yellow steamed buns and plates of vegetables to the table. .
The staple food is yellow steamed buns. In addition to two seasonal vegetables, there is also an egg drop soup and a meat dish. The meat dish is naturally pork and stir-fried pork with cabbage. Of course, it is the kind with more cabbage and less pork.
But put a lot of oil, just look at the oil and water.
"Three dishes and one soup, the food is pretty good!" Wang Wanchun said with a smile.
"Everyone eat! Eat quickly, eat quickly!" As soon as Wang Wanchun spoke, everyone moved quickly. Wang Zhong said: "Isn't this the first day the canteen is open? From tomorrow on, it can only be yellow steamed buns with green vegetables."
"That's not right. Haven't you had a good harvest every year in the past few years?" Wang Wanchun just took a bite and suddenly realized,
"Why do you still eat stick noodles with vegetables every day?"
"My secretary, you don't know how expensive firewood, rice, oil and salt are. Life in this life is all about careful planning. Besides, there are many old, weak, women and children in our brigade. I won't talk about anything else, just the two boys from my family. , even though they are young and cannot do the work in the fields, when it comes to eating, one is better than the other."
"There is an old saying, if you are not poor in food and clothing, you will not plan to be poor all your life. Our Maixiang Village brigade has about two hundred people. There are more than ten or twenty people in the village who are older like Second Grandpa, Old Donkey and others. , there are many newly married people in the village who are preparing to have children. When the time comes, we have to consider nutritional supplements for pregnant women and healthy babies. We want to live a good life, so we have to be careful about everything! Do you think this is the truth? ?" Wang Wanchun nodded in agreement: "That's the truth!"
"Aren't you a very competent party secretary? Yes, keep making progress while maintaining stability!"
"You taught me well, and we are all learning from you." Wang Wanchun is really a bit arrogant now, and he loves to hear such fragrant flattery.
Wang Wanchun and his party were sent away happily. Regarding the canteen, Wang Zhong, Ma Renlian and others discussed it several times, and finally unanimously decided that during the busy farming season every year, the canteen would be opened during the holidays, and the villagers would gather together to eat in the canteen. Everyone went back to their homes to find their mothers, and the canteen was closed.
Just a few days after the canteen was opened, the autumn harvest came. The corn, peanuts, and soybeans in the fields are all in harvest season.
Although during this period, they have been merged into brigades and set up canteens, the production-centered principles of the Maixiang Brigade have not changed. In order to double the autumn harvest, even the oil pressing workshop has stopped.
In the past, no matter whether autumn harvest or summer harvest, each group was the unit. Now the village has become a brigade, and each group has become a small team. But in the final analysis, it is the same as before. The soup is not changed, but there is an extra canteen responsible for logistics. , during the double rush, three meals a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner, will be provided by the canteen.
Breaking bags of rice, pulling peanuts, and harvesting soybeans, the entire Maixiang team was immersed in the joy of harvest.
After the autumn harvest, we still have to plow and fertilize in preparation for autumn sowing. Nowadays, there is no chemical fertilizer, so the villagers can only cultivate intensively and use traditional farmyard manure. Fortunately, in the past few years, pig farms have been built in the village one after another. There are also several areas of land for raising chickens. The feces of these livestock and livestock are collected every day and stored in the large septic tanks behind the pig farm and livestock shed.
The two hounds of Wang Chong's family were also on duty at the pig pen and livestock shed, following the militiamen on duty in the village.
It only takes a month to survive this busy schedule. After the autumn sowing was over, it was time for the settlement of work points that the villagers were most looking forward to.
The tradition of the Maixiang Brigade is that each summer harvest and autumn harvest will count their own work points, and the settlement will be made directly after the end, and the grain will be converted to the villagers based on the amount of grain harvested that time.
"After we finish settling the accounts with the villagers, shall we go all over the country to collect soybeans and peanuts?" Ma Renli asked Wang Zhongdao.
Wang Zhong said: "To be on the safe side, we won't go there for now. Our oil mill has gained a good reputation in the past few years. Now that the autumn sowing is over, those who want to squeeze oil will bring peanuts and soybeans to our oil mill."
"It's better to be more careful!" Ma Renlian said.
"Bold, have all our food reserves been transferred?" Wang Zhong asked. Niu boldly said: "They have all been moved to the cellar. What is in the warehouse above are reserved rations and seeds for the coming year."
"Okay!" Wang Zhong said: "Recently, there has been a trend of exaggeration in newspapers and magazines. We are all farmers. No matter how the wind blows outside, we must know it in our hearts. Only by being down-to-earth can we live a good life."
"Don't worry about this, everyone knows it by heart." Niu boldly said.
"Also, be brave, Arita. You two are the captain and deputy captain. You are in charge of production. I have to say something up front. We don't care about other villages, but in our village, the output is whatever it is, and no one is allowed to do it. Overpay me."
"One more thing. The county has decided to let our commune build a reservoir in the upper reaches of the Maixiang River."
"Really?" Ma Renli was surprised and happy.
"Is this a joke?" Wang Zhong glanced at Ma Renli angrily. Ma Renli chuckled.
Niu Dadan also smiled and said: "This is a good thing. When the reservoir is built and the irrigation canals are dug, more villages will be able to be watered with water from the Maixiang River."
"It's indeed a good thing!" Wang Zhong also nodded with deep approval, and then looked at Ma Renli: "Originally, the county wanted to transfer me there, but I couldn't worry about the village, so I recommended you to the county. The order from inside has also been issued, and you will be transferred to the reservoir to help, and then thirty young men from our village will be selected to go with you."
"I'll leave this matter to you, okay?" Wang Zhong asked loudly.
"No problem." Ma Renli patted his chest and promised, "Put it on me." At this moment, Ma Renli's eyes glowed with a bright light that had not been revealed for several years.
"Once this reservoir is built, the irrigation canals and water trucks we used first will have to change accordingly. We must hurry up and fill all the weirs and ponds in the village with water now."
"Arita, for the time being, you can lead the villagers to serve the winter wheat. Don't make any mistakes, especially Xiaozhuan and Can't Eat. They keep an eye on them with wide eyes. If the work points should be deducted, the work points will be deducted. If you can't Tolerate, don’t break our rules, otherwise if everyone follows the same example, they will all follow suit and not work hard.”
"No problem, I promise to complete the mission." Zhao Youtian said loudly.
"Be brave. It's the peak period of oil extraction recently. You are fully responsible for the oil extraction workshop. There must be no mistakes."
"no problem."
"Renlian, you are mainly responsible for paperwork and communicating with the commune. Besides, Ma Renli has gone to Bashang. You will take on his accounting work first. Is that okay?"
"I'm fine." Now that the busiest period has passed, the accountant is only responsible for counting work points every day, and there isn't much work.
Wang Zhong continued: "As for me, I will temporarily look at the oil pressing workshop, check our existing irrigation canals, and see if we can find a few more places to add a few more weirs and ponds." Wang Zhong originally wanted to take advantage of the autumn sowing. It's over. I found time to go into the mountains to catch some prey and came back. Unfortunately, thirty young and strong laborers were immediately transferred to build the reservoir upstream. The remaining people in the village are old and weak, but there are still nearly a thousand acres of winter wheat, so be careful. Waiting, pulling weeds, topdressing, deworming, suppressing and many other tasks.
It had only been more than a month since Ma Renli led the people to the reservoir, but the weather was getting colder. On this day, Ma Renlian came back from a meeting in the commune and brought back a large drawing.
"Build a blast furnace to make steel?" Even though he had been prepared, Wang Zhong still couldn't help but twitching when he heard the news that Ma Renlian brought back.
Now half of the strong labor force in the village is at the reservoir. Three Monkeys, Er Zhuzi, and the militiamen all went to the reservoir. Niu Dadan led the people to work quickly and slowly in the oil pressing workshop. Other people in the village have to take care of the fields, and from time to time they have to go up the mountain to cut firewood and deliver it to the oil pressing workshop.
With no other choice, Wang Zhong led his men on the low ground outside the village and spent more than half a month building four three-meter-high clay blast furnaces out of clay.
After the furnace was completed, Wang Wanchun led people down to inspect it.
"I said, Big Chong, why do I see that your stove is smaller than the ones in other brigade? Just like this, I can kick two of you!"
"Secretary Wanchun, I also want to build a big furnace, but we don't have iron ore, and we don't have coal as fuel. The firewood burned in our blast furnace is all bundles of firewood that the villagers have just cut back from the mountains. , the iron smelted in the furnace is all pots, door bolts, iron buckets and the like in the villagers' homes. Nowadays, the only iron tools in the village are rice cookers, hatchets, axes, and farm tools such as hoes and picks. We can't let the villagers use all these things to make iron!" Wang Zhong said with a troubled expression.
Wang Wanchun's face froze, and he pulled Wang Zhong aside: "The difficulty is just a little more difficult. You can think of a solution."
"My Secretary, it's not that we are unwilling to contribute. Look around here. The villagers are busy all the time. Everyone is looking forward to contributing to the country and smelting steel. But there is an old saying called cleverness. It’s hard for a woman to make a meal without rice. We would like to practice more steel, but now our brigade can’t even find a piece of scrap copper and iron. Many villagers smashed the pots at home and threw them into this furnace. The villagers and I You can't conjure steel out of thin air!" Seeing the embarrassment on Wang Zhong's face, Wang Wanchun also knew what the problem was.
"This..." Wang Zhong suggested: "Secretary, how about you apply with the superiors to get some iron ore and coal? Or anything that can make iron. As long as it is available, our Maixiang The brigade guarantees that the iron produced will never contain lakes.”
"I'll go back and give it a try!" Wang Wanchun is not the Zhang Defu from the county. Although he tends to follow the crowd, protects himself wisely, and is sometimes arrogant, he also knows that it is difficult for a clever woman to make a fool of herself.
Several more meetings were held one after another. The situation of the dozens of brigades in Maixiangling Commune was basically the same as that of Maixiang Brigade. The furnaces were built, but there were only a few iron-containing things on the brigades. It took a while to refine The earthen blast furnace became a decoration.
Wang Wanchun was also worried about this matter. He called everyone over for meetings again and again, but nothing happened. He was reprimanded a lot by the county for this. In serious cases, he was almost dismissed as secretary.
For this reason, the county specially invited experts to come and carefully inspect the Maixiangling area for a while, and finally concluded that the Maixiangling area has neither coal nor iron ore, and the pots and farm tools used for cooking at home cannot be used. It was melted, so Maixiangling Commune simply did not have the conditions for large-scale steel smelting.
