Back to 1978

Chapter 130: Return to the Village

Xie Hushan and Han Hongbing held Erxi in their arms, spent 20 cents on the fare, and got on a mule cart heading south past Zhongping Village and headed home.

Han Hongbing held Erxi, who was now hungry and not picky about food, and glanced at the driver. He found that he was concentrating on chatting with an old man who also came from the county town. He didn't care about the movements of the two young men behind him. Then he whispered to Xie Hushan:
"I say, Commander Xie, did you give all that money to Uncle Jiao? Why didn't you leave some for our brigade?"

Five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, even if he could only withdraw RMB, that would be one hundred thousand yuan. If he brought this money back to the team, Han Laogou, Ma Laowu and others would be very happy. However, Xie Hushan told him that all of it was given to Jiao Peng, and there was nothing left for the team.

Xie Hushan was rummaging through a few travel bags and answered without even looking up:
"So much money shouldn't belong to the brigade in the first place. The brigade's benefits must come from the county. The money we get from Hong Kong Island can only be given to the county. Besides, can we spend the money after giving it to you and me?"

"Without quotas or tickets, what else can we do except go to the market to eat stewed pork? If we want to eat something good in a restaurant, we have to carry food on our backs."

Xie Hushan rummaged around for a long time, reorganizing several backpacks, then raised his head and handed Han Hongbing a Beidaihe cigarette that he had exchanged from Jiao Peng, and whispered:
"Don't mention this to anyone except Old Yang and Second Uncle. Just pretend that the money doesn't exist. Let them ask the county to help us get benefits when the time comes."

"What good can our county get? The earthquake destroyed everything." Han Hongbing took the cigarette and asked in confusion.

Although it is a large agricultural county, it had just experienced an earthquake and had a lot of things to rebuild. Han Hongbing did not think the county could give any benefits to Zhongping Village, mainly because even if it wanted to give anything, there was nothing to give.

Xie Hushan lit a cigarette and patted Erxi's head, who was trying to chew a steamed bun with a bitter look on his face:
"Uncle Jiao will let the county know that it was because of us that they got the money. Even if it's just for the sake of face, the county must ask us what we need."

"What do we need? We need money. And since I'm investing so much, I definitely want more than 100,000 yuan."

"Where can we get you so much money? I guess the best we can do is to see if there is any wasteland and give it to our team as a reward." Han Hongbing was not optimistic about Xie Hushan's idea.

Xie Hushan looked at Han Hongbing:

"One hundred thousand yuan, if we divide it up, there won't be much money at all. Our brigade has only 3,000 people, and one hundred thousand yuan is 30 yuan per person on average. How can we buy anything big? Forget about buying a bicycle. Even a large wardrobe would require some extra work. But if we pile them together and put them in front of the county leaders, it will seem like a lot. We will have the confidence to ask for benefits."

"What benefits do you think you can get from the county?" Han Hongbing asked with a smile.

Xie Hushan lowered his voice and said, "There are too many. First, let the county issue a document to ban small brick kilns that do not meet quality standards. The three state-owned brick factories are mainly responsible for post-earthquake reconstruction projects. Our brick kiln is mainly responsible for bricks used to build houses in various rural areas of Bingyang County. Wouldn't the brick factory have a lot more business? It can easily become the fourth largest brick factory in our county."

"But this is at most a small condition. What I really want is for the county to allow our team to contract the earthwork project for the reconstruction of Bingyang County."

"Earthworks? You mean this is a benefit?" Han Hongbing's expression froze for a moment:
"Haven't you heard that the workers in those brigades would go on strike and run back to the team at any time, and the brigade cadres would have to go to their homes every now and then to beg for mercy and persuade them to go back?"

After the Yaoshan earthquake, a large amount of reconstruction work requires earthwork. The earthwork project in Bingyang County has now been assigned to five or six brigades by the county. This work is similar to the work done by more than 200 silly boys in the reservoir, and it is definitely heavy physical work.

The only advantage is that you can earn money, but the money is too little, and the work is even harder than when working at the reservoir. It seems that one cubic meter of soil has to be loaded and pulled by a cart to the soil yard and then loaded onto a tractor. Then you have to walk up from the bottom of the pit in circles. Although the way is not far, it is all uphill. It often takes two people to push a cart, which consumes a lot of physical energy.

Each local family gave two yuan, which was split 30% between the production team and the individual: one yuan and four cents went to the production team, and sixty cents went to the individual who did the work.

Moreover, they don't provide meals, so they have to cook for themselves or bring their own dry food. So, by this calculation, they earn 1.8 yuan per day by eating three cubic meters of soil, and the 1.8 yuan salary is almost gone after three meals.

These young men can work hard in the reservoir during the slack season because the county allows them to have three meals a day.

Who would work like this without food? After a hard day's work, the money you earn is not enough to fill your stomach.

"The work is exhausting, and there is no food provided. The money earned is not enough for three meals. If it were me, I would also come back every now and then." Xie Hushan said to Han Hongbing:

"What I mean is that if we take over this job, the rules have to be changed. This requires us to do ideological work on Second Uncle. We can't let him be like a lot of brigade secretaries who think that production workers work six months and four months, and sideline workers work seven months and three months as an unchanging truth."

"Times have changed. At the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the leaders of the country said that practice is the only truth and everything should be based on the actual situation."

"Six people and four laborers" and "seven people and three laborers" are all distribution terms for rural production teams. People refer to the total population of the production team, and laborers refer to the labor force of the production team.

The so-called "six percent of the people and four percent of the labor" means that 60% of the total grain harvested by the production team must be taken out and distributed according to the total population of the production team, ensuring that those who cannot work and cannot engage in production can also get the most basic food rations.

The remaining 40% will be distributed according to the labor's work points.

To put it bluntly, the production team must ensure that the disabled, elderly, children and even lazy people in the team will not starve to death, and that they all have food to eat.

The income from side jobs in Zhongping is 70% for people and 30% for labor. 70% of the money earned from side jobs is shared by all team members, and the remaining 30% is distributed based on the accumulated work points of the laborers.

If it was just a normal side job, it would be fine, but digging earth is heavy physical work and is more tiring than productive labor.

According to the distribution method of 70% labor for 30% of labor, laborers work hard to earn 60 cents per acre of soil. How can they replenish their energy?
With 60 cents, I could buy 15 cents worth of vegetables in the canteen at the construction site, and the remaining 45 cents could be used to buy steamed buns and corn bread, which was barely enough to fill my stomach.

The money from transporting three cubic meters of soil was just enough for three meals. I was exhausted, and all the wages were used to buy one day's food. There was no money left. I might as well go home and farm. At least I wouldn't have to work so hard.

If you want to save money, the best way is to cook for yourself, but which strong laborer would have the mood and energy to cook for himself after a tiring day?

The production team meant that since they had already been paid, the team no longer needed to supply them with food.

But the laborers think that since they can get the money even if they don’t work, why should they work? They might as well pretend to be sick and take a rest.

"What I mean is, conversely, the production team takes 30%, and the workers take 70%." Xie Hushan looked at Han Hongbing:
"For each acre of soil, the workers can earn 1.4 yuan, and the production team can earn 60 cents."

"I have investigated the soil field. If a person is willing to work as hard as we did at the reservoir, and is provided with three meals a day to keep them well fed, they can produce at least four cubic meters of soil a day. For four cubic meters of soil, the worker can earn five dollars and sixty dollars a day. Why would you do this kind of work?"

"Shit! I'll definitely do it! The brick factory only gives me a subsidy of 1.5 cents, and I'm so happy about it! If it's 5.6 yuan, and they provide meals, I'll definitely do it." When Han Hongbing heard 5.6 yuan, and three meals a day were provided, his eyes lit up.

If what Xie Hushan said is true, if they are paid five dollars and sixty cents a day and provided with three meals, then it would be natural for everyone to do the heavy physical work such as digging earth. If they do less, they would feel sorry for them.

"One hundred thousand yuan, I will find a long-term job for the 285 young men in our brigade that can earn at least five yuan and sixty yuan a day. Is it a loss?" Xie Hushan continued:

"Two hundred and eighty-five people, five dollars and sixty cents per person, that's one thousand six hundred a day, forty-eight thousand a month. After two months of work, we can give the county one hundred thousand, and we'll have made our investment back. For the rest of the work, whether it's one year or two years, any money we make is earned."

"This doesn't include the 30% that the production team takes. If we count that, the production team can earn 2.4 yuan per person per day, which is 684 yuan a day, and 20,000 yuan a month. We can get 68,000 yuan a month, and we can earn back 100,000 yuan in one and a half months."

"If we didn't have the 100,000 yuan, I don't know if the earthwork work could be given to our team, but since we have paid this money, this job will definitely go to our team."

"The only problem is how to deal with your second uncle Han Laogou and convince him to agree to a 30%-70% profit split." Xie Hushan looked at Han Hongbing. When Han Hongbing heard Xie Hushan mention his second uncle Han Laogou, he felt like he was poured with a basin of cold water, and his excitement just now disappeared.

Everyone in the Zhongping Brigade knew what kind of temper Han Laogou had. Not to mention the profit sharing, it was impossible for him to agree when he heard that 285 young men were going to do side jobs.

"Don't think about the profit sharing now. Just think about it. If more than 200 young men go to dig earth, how will the agricultural production of the brigade be dealt with? My second uncle will never agree to this."

Xie Hushan said: "At 30 or 50 cents a day, hiring people from Yakou to help with farm work during the busy farming season would make them fight over it."

"If we calculate that the brigade collects 2.4 yuan per day from each of the 200 militiamen, the money that one militiaman earns for the brigade is enough to hire several farmers from Yakou to do farm work for the Zhongping brigade. The brigade can also carefully select the 200 most outstanding farmers from Yakou to replace the 200 young militiamen who are not very good at farm work."

Xie Hushan planned to go back and let Yang Liming deal with Han Laogou. If Yang Liming was not capable of doing so, he would have to rely on himself to come up with some dirty tricks. By then, he might have to act first and report later, letting Old Yang bear Han Laogou's anger for him while he contracts the earthwork project first.

With the brick factory and earthwork business in hand, it only took Zhongping Village and Xie Hushan a year or two to become rich.

"That's a good idea. Damn it. I want to... I wish you had told me earlier that you were going to do this." Han Hongbing exhaled smoke, his tone filled with annoyance:

"Ah, Translator Lin... She kept wiping away tears on the train. I asked her to come back with me, but she didn't want to. She said she had finally made it to Hong Kong Island and didn't want to go back to the countryside to suffer poverty. If I could only make five or six dollars a day, or more than a hundred dollars a month, why would I still suffer poverty? If you had told me earlier, she would have probably agreed to come back with me."

Seeing his Chief of Staff Han's somewhat sad expression, Xie Hushan spoke to comfort him:

"This is my fault. I didn't consider that you have never been in a relationship and were influenced by such a petty-bourgeois girl. It's okay. Petty-bourgeois girls are everywhere. She is not the only one."

"When I make some money this year, if Chief of Staff Han takes a fancy to any petty-bourgeois city girl, I will go and rob her for you. I promise to bring you a wife. Petty-bourgeois people love material enjoyment the most. In one word, throw money at them! If they faint, I will just carry them home."

"Besides, translator Lin is not that good. He just said a few light love words to you and asked you to touch him, but that's not practical. In my opinion, we should choose comrades like Zhu Youjun, who are from peasant families like us and know what comrades need. Seeing that I was coming back, he prepared foreign goods for me to give to relatives and friends in advance." As Xie Hushan spoke, he threw a backpack that he had just rummaged through and redistributed to Han Hongbing.

Inside were all cheap goods such as hairpins, Hong Kong shirts, sunglasses, scarves, etc. that Zhu Youjun had helped to buy through foreign goods dealers.

Xie Hushan knew that these things were actually not worth much, but Zhu Youjun didn't have much money on her, and the money she used to buy these things from the foreign goods dealer in the guesthouse might have been secretly given to her by her mother as an emergency fund.

That's why Xie Hushan gave her all the more than 20,000 yuan that Abao found in Zhai Yuan's car before he left. People should appreciate the kindness others have shown them, and do things in a way that is reasonable to others.

"You have one bag, I have one bag, we've divided them all up, keep them to make your family happy." Xie Hushan finished dividing the backpacks, and then took out a small cloth bag from his underwear. Seeing the cloth bag, Han Hongbing directly held Xie Hushan down:

"Don't share this thing. I don't need it now. If I keep it, my mom might see it and confiscate it on the spot. Besides, don't you say that if I meet Xiaozi later, you will smash it for me? Just keep it."

It was a small bag of gold ornaments that the two men had seized from the gang of human traffickers. There wasn't much, only about a hundred grams.

Xie Hushan thought that if he ran out of money when he went to Hong Kong Island, he could cash these things in at any time. However, they met a good brother who lent money to his younger brothers at high interest rates, so this little bit of gold was not used.

"Okay, it's really useless. I'll just show it off when I get married. I'll keep it for now." Xie Hushan put the things back into his pocket, took out a small stack of cash, counted out half of it and gave it to Han Hongbing:
"The subsidy is 400 per person. Give it to your mother and make her happy."

"We went to Hong Kong Island this time and bought a lot of things. In the end, we didn't spend a penny of our subsidy." Han Hongbing did not refuse this time. He took the money and said with a smile.

Xie Hushan nodded: "It's mainly because the people of Hong Kong Island are so enthusiastic and hospitable."

As the two were distributing the foreign goods, a familiar voice suddenly sounded in front of them:

"Xie Hushan, Han Hongbing! You two brats, are you back from your escort mission? Just in time, hurry up and get down! I was just wondering where to find someone to push the cart!"

Upon hearing this, the two raised their heads and looked forward, only to see a very familiar NJ-130 car parked on the side of the road not far away, with the commune driver and commune secretary Yin Qianfeng standing next to the car, wiping their sweat. Apparently Yin Qianfeng had gone to the county for a meeting, and on his way back to the commune, his car broke down again.

The person who just called out to the two people was Secretary Yin.

Seeing people from his own commune, Xie Hushan immediately perked up and greeted Secretary Yin warmly:
"Hello, Secretary Yin! Did you eat too much at noon? Did you push the cart back from the county to exercise?"

"You kid, you're such a big mouth, I'll let your master punish you when I get back..." Yin Qianfeng saw the two of them, and a smile appeared on his worried face. Hearing Xie Hushan joking with him, he pointed at the kid and laughed:

"Hurry up and get down and help push the cart! Let the master drive the cart by himself, and you two can sit in this cart. That way, if the car stalls on the way back to the commune, you won't have no one to help you."

Xie Hushan and Han Hongbing packed several backpacks, jumped off the mule cart with Erxi, threw the dog into the bed first, and then the driver sat in the driving seat. The two of them, together with Yin Qianfeng, pushed the NJ-130 hard from the back.

The car speed gradually increased from slow to fast, and finally the driver stepped on the accelerator and started the car. Large amounts of black smoke spewed out of the exhaust pipe, choking the three people and making them cough repeatedly.

Yin Qianfeng sat back in the passenger seat, while Xie Hushan, Han Hongbing and Erxi sat in the bed, enjoying the highest official treatment as Zhongping Commune's only official vehicle took them back to Zhongping.

When the driver drove into the village, he did not dare to stop the car to drop off the two people. Perhaps he was afraid of having to stop and then stall the engine, so he drove the two people directly into the courtyard of Zhongping Commune.

When the car stopped, Xie Hushan sat in the truck bed, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and before he could express his gratitude for going home, Han Hongbing, who had already stood up and stretched his arms and legs, suddenly spoke excitedly:
"Fuck, Commander Xie, Old Yang is getting beaten!"

"Fuck, who is this? Who is so bold? I've been gone for less than a month and someone dares to bully Lao Yang. They don't take me seriously at all." Xie Hushan turned over and jumped out of the car, urging Han Hongbing:

"What are you still looking at? Come down and help Lao Yang fight?"

Han Hongbing stood in the truck bed and looked towards Yang Limin's office:

"In the office, he was choked and beaten by a girl. Don't ask, it must be his wife..."

"Chief of Staff Han, next time, talk about the girl first, then Lao Yang! Sort out the priorities!"

Xie Hushan cursed Han Laoer, then acted like a fool, pushed open the door of Yang Limin's office, and deliberately shouted:

"Secretary Yang, Widow Zheng from Shuangqiao Brigade asked me to bring you a message. She asked you to go to her house to have a chat on the kang at 10 o'clock today, just like the night before yesterday... Well... Oh, there's someone in the room. Secretary Yang, please go ahead and do your work. I'll tell them that you can't come tonight."

He entered the room and looked up, only to find three people inside, including Yang Liming and two female comrades.

He just raised his head, and before he could see the two lesbians clearly, one of them spoke in surprise:
"Hey, brother, why are you here too?"

(End of this chapter)