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Chapter 149: Don’t Be Greedy

Taozi and Jin Mancang came with the mule cart carrying bricks, but they didn't go to the steel mill. They got off the cart in the village and went directly to visit their grandmother.

Moreover, Jin Mancang could only stay until after dinner. After the mule carts were unloaded and the animals had rested enough, he had to rush back overnight.

He came because Xie Hushan wanted to talk to him about recruiting a group of workers in Xishan, and asked him to help find a group of young, strong and hardworking workers. If they were willing to work in the steel mill, the work would be tiring and require working in two shifts day and night, but food and accommodation would be provided, and the steel mill would build several dormitories with eight beds.

Now Jin Mancang is not only Xie Hushan's future father-in-law, but also the accountant of Yakou Production Team 2. Naturally, when grandma invites Jin Mancang to dinner, she cannot be too casual, so she asks aunt to call back Xie Qimao, the corresponding relative, to accompany Jin Mancang.

He also asked Xie Hushan to invite the brigade secretary Han Laogou to drink with them, but he gave enough face to his relative.

Including Xie Hushan, four people were drinking at the kang table in Xie Hushan's west room, while grandma was chatting with Taozi, Daxiu, aunt and others in the east room.

However, Jin Mancang is an honest man who doesn't like to talk much. He has a similar personality to his in-laws, Uncle Xie Hushan and Xie Qimao. When they sit facing each other, they laugh and take a long time to say a word, as if they are two supporting characters with little presence.

This made Han Laogou, the supporting actor who actually came to accompany him, a little uncomfortable. He could understand that Xie Qimao didn't like to talk, after all, his ears were not very good and he was afraid of mishearing what others said, so he seldom spoke. But why did Xie Hushan, the father-in-law, just smile and don't talk much?

It seems that there is no need for Han Laogou to accompany the wine. A mute who can use chopsticks to eat can be called to accompany him.

Xie Hushan repeatedly told Han Laogou that his father-in-law was like that, a man of few words, so it was just right for him to look into his eyes with his uncle, speechless.

Let’s drink our own.

Han Laogou sighed, thinking it would be good to have more people to talk, so he asked Xie Hushan:
"Why didn't I see you call Lao Wu and your second uncle to come over? It would be more lively if they were here, but your uncle and your father-in-law can't drink."

"They can't come." Xie Hushan picked up a piece of green radish and took a bite:
"The current arrangement of members in the third team is as follows: those who know how to build houses or those who are a little younger go to the steel mill to help with some manual labor. There are also a few older people who take turns on duty at the team headquarters to guard the pile of foreign goods. My second uncle goes to the steel mill to help pull the roller to level the ground. Ma Laowu personally sits in the team headquarters to guard the foreign goods."

In fact, it was not just the members of the third production team who knew how to build houses, but all the members of the 19 production teams of Zhongping Brigade who knew how to build houses and who knew carpentry work flocked to the steel rolling mill to help with the work because of what Xie Hushan said in the afternoon.

Hearing that everyone was tricked by Xie Hushan into using foreign goods to help with the initial construction of the steel mill, Han Laogou laughed and cursed:

"Your brain is not straight from birth, you are always doing evil."

Xie Hushan looked at Han Laogou's expression, ate the radish, raised the wine bowl with both hands and clinked it with Han Laogou:
"Hey, Uncle, why aren't you angry?"

Xie Hushan originally thought that Han Laogou would be furious when he heard that the laborers from various production teams had gone to work, and would not care about drinking and run to the steel rolling mill to curse. Unexpectedly, Han Laogou could still drink and eat calmly with a happy face.

Han Laogou took a sip of wine, breathed out the alcohol and looked puzzled: "Why am I angry?"

"I used foreign goods as a cover to trick all the teams into going to the steel rolling mill to help build houses. Aren't you afraid of delaying production? The 19 production team leaders are all very scared. They are afraid that you will start cursing people on the team's loudspeaker, saying that a few years ago, everyone helped work at the commune's glass factory, and you cursed the production team leaders on the loudspeaker. Everyone still remembers it." Xie Hushan asked Han Laogou.

Han Laogou looked at Xie Hushan as if he were a fool:
"I'm not addicted to scolding people. Besides, the nature of your steel mill incident is different from the glass factory incident a few years ago. You just asked everyone to help build the factory building, and once the factory building is built, everyone doesn't need to intervene anymore. Ma Da Nao's incident is a mess. It happened to be the two months between the wheat harvest and the autumn harvest. It was all hard work and it took at least more than a month. What if everyone is exhausted and the autumn harvest of our team is affected? How can we not scold them? We must scold them."

"Besides, I know what you mean. You brought back a bunch of foreign goods in the hope that everyone would benefit from it. You want everyone to help move a few bricks under the pretext of building a factory. This will also give everyone the confidence to let you sell the foreign goods to them at a low price, so that everyone won't feel guilty and think that you, the second uncle, don't understand the ways of the world."

Xie Hushan looked at Han Laogou. In his impression, Han Laogou was a die-hard conservative. In his opinion, asking the team members to do anything other than farm work was a waste of time and should be strictly prohibited.

However, after he started dealing with Han Laogou when he was helping the team collect manure, he discovered that although Han Laogou was a conservative, he was not brainless. If he was conservative in the sense of being brainless, Xie Hushan could understand it. The problem was that Han Laogou was very conservative in implementing policies, but he himself was not rigid at all.

In this regard, Xie Hushan asked himself if he was not as good as Yang Liming. That pretty boy Yang was really good at understanding people. He had just arrived in Zhongping less than a year ago, but he had already figured out Han Laogou's situation very well. Therefore, his ideological work on Han Laogou was always very smooth. For example, for projects like the steel rolling mill, Han Laogou would nod his head. This was all because Yang was born with a good tongue.

However, Xie Hushan had no idea how Yang Limin had figured out Han Laogou's situation, or what Han Laogou thought about his side job.

Taking advantage of Han Laogou's good mood, Xie Hushan hesitated for a moment, glanced at Jin Mancang and Xie Qimao who were still drinking in silence, and lowered his voice to ask Han Laogou:

"Uncle, let my uncle Jin and my uncle continue drinking. After we have eaten and drunk, shall we go for a walk around the steel mill?"

"I've finished drinking." Han Laogou stood up and asked Jin Mancang and Xie Qimao to stay, while Xie Hushan accompanied him outside.

The two walked along the village road towards the steel mill. Xie Hushan asked as they walked:
"Second uncle, there are no outsiders here, I want to ask you a question in private, why do you not allow people in our team to do side jobs, just because of the slogan of taking grain as the key link and comprehensive development?"

Han Laogou picked up a piece of salt-fried dried bean that he had not eaten from the dinner table, put it into his mouth and chewed it with a crunching sound. After chewing the bean and swallowing it, he said slowly:

"I'm not stupid. I don't know that side jobs can make money quickly? Can a slogan scare me?"

"I don't think you are brave enough to be intimidated by a slogan." Xie Hushan nodded and asked:

"What's that for?"

Han Laogou looked up at the night sky and asked Xie Hushan:
"Hu San, you should learn industry from Daqing, but you should learn agriculture from Heilongjiang?"

"Learn from Dazhai! Isn't this the slogan we shouted every day in the past?" Almost everyone had memorized this slogan, and Xie Hushan recited it without hesitation:
"Then we should learn from Dazhai. Second uncle, you should be even more nonconservative. Everyone has seen and heard about Dazhai in newspapers and on the radio. They have so many sideline businesses, including coal mines and factories. They have all kinds of factories and sideline businesses, and there are good news every day."

"Then why has there been no news on the radio in the past two years?" Han Laogou waited for Xie Hushan to finish speaking and asked back, but did not let Xie Hushan answer and continued:
"Before the earthquake, your uncle, as an outstanding production brigade cadre in our county, was specially sent by the county organization to Dazhai for a field study." He picked up his pipe and wanted to fill it with tobacco. Xie Hushan took out a cigarette and handed it to Han Laogou, lighting it for him. Han Laogou held the cigarette and recalled with a sigh:
"Before I went there, our brigade had a chicken farm and a pig farm. I also wanted to build a rabbit farm so that I could use rabbit hair to set up a small textile factory. I even thought that since our brigade was close to the main road and had convenient transportation, I could set up a tractor transport team for transportation, and during the busy farming season, it could also help with the autumn harvest, killing two birds with one stone. After the commune and the county heard my idea, they were very supportive. In a word, they gave me money and people."

Xie Hushan did not interrupt and just listened quietly.

Han Laogou took a deep puff of his cigarette and slowly exhaled:
"I had such a bold idea at that time. I always felt that the old men thought highly of me and made me the brigade secretary, so I had to do something to make everyone live a better life, otherwise I would be letting everyone down. Now the old secretary is gone. I secretly said that when I first became the brigade secretary, I looked down on the old secretary in my heart. I thought he could do nothing but lead everyone to farm and work hard in the fields."

"But after I came back from Dazhai, I stopped doing those side jobs. Like the old secretary, I worked hard to lead everyone in growing crops."

"No matter what we learn from Dazhai, it's correct. They are really able to endure hardships, reclaim wasteland and cultivate land, and be self-reliant. This spirit is indeed worthy of learning for everyone."

"But when I went there, Dazhai no longer needed to cultivate land, and everyone was living a good life. I just felt that those good days were not right, so I didn't dare to do it right away after I came back."

"When our county representatives went to Dazhai, the brigade in Dazhai could no longer receive us. Almost all farmers in the country sent people to visit and learn. To put it bluntly, it was not easy for provincial leaders to meet with the brigade secretary of Dazhai. For people like us, they could only arrange for the team leader to receive us for half a day and tell us about the spirit of Dazhai and the changes in recent years."

"It was only after I spent a long time with the team leader that I realized something was not right. Dazhai has become a nationally renowned model for learning. There is no room for regression. It is stuck there and can only get better year by year. If you take a step back, how can you still be considered a national model?"

"There was only so much land in Dazhai. If we wanted to develop it further, we had to start side businesses. So the commune provided loans and the state invested. A large number of side business projects emerged in Dazhai, including factories, chemical plants, breeding farms, and agricultural mechanization. Anyway, I can't remember clearly what the projects were. It felt like there were all kinds of projects."

"But the problem is, can a village like Dazhai support such a big business? It's just a production brigade, with less than 200 households and more than 500 people in total, which is more than half the size of our Zhongping Brigade."

"More than 500 people, all of whom used to work in the soil, became national models and talents overnight. Take the production team leader I know, for example. He alone had to manage a small factory and two farms, and at the same time he had to supervise the production of the production team. He also had to take time out to give reports to people from all over the country who had come to learn from him, teaching us to learn the Dazhai spirit."

"Can the factory still make money? Can the fields still produce food? I felt something was wrong at the time. The people I saw there were all floating. I didn't believe that a farmer could do so many things at the same time."

"You can guide the factory to produce soap, guide the farm to raise livestock, and finally not delay farm work. Even if you are a capable person or a model, the day is so short, how can one person be so busy?"

"So after I came back, the county urged me to start the previous project as soon as I finished my study. I said the team needed to hold another meeting to discuss it. Sure enough, more than half a year later, the team leader and I left our addresses and wrote letters to communicate. He wrote me a letter."

"A lot of projects have fallen through. That was all state money. When the final accounts were settled, the team leader wrote in a letter saying that Dazhai was squandering state wealth. They felt wronged and said they would not have done it if they had known."

"But the country is also wronged. The country hopes that Dazhai will be good, and it provides money and people when needed. Why is it that both sides work together, but in the end, nothing is done?"

"At that time, I realized that if a group of ignorant and uneducated farmers suddenly became arrogant, it would cause serious problems."

"If I really had so many side jobs in Zhongping, just to make money, without thinking about what to do if I lost money, how would I be responsible, how could I be responsible, how could I have the face to see the old and young men in Zhongping, how could I have the face to see the county leaders?"

"Then it's the same as the cliff mouth?"

"By then, how can I still have the confidence to lead everyone to protest against the public grain and raise issues with confidence?"

"After that, I no longer thought about starting a side job. Our brigade has enough land and we can have enough food. There is no need to earn a few more dollars and let everyone owe the country a famine. We are not afraid of being poor, as long as we can hold our heads high. No matter if it is the commune or the county, we have the confidence to fight back if they don't like it. We will deal with anyone who bullies us."

After saying this, Han Laogou stopped talking. The two of them walked and stopped a few dozen meters away from the steel rolling mill.

Without getting close, you can see from afar that countless torches have been lit in the steel mill, making the surrounding area as bright as day. Nearly a hundred people are busy working on the construction site.

A dozen old bricklayers who often helped the brigade build houses divided all the Zhongping members who came to support the steel rolling mill in building factory buildings into five groups, each performing their own duties.

One group is responsible for bricks and stones, one group is responsible for the foundation, one group is responsible for wood, one group is responsible for cement and stone, and one group is responsible for logistical support.

These old masters were accompanied by Han Hongbing, Chen Daxi and others to check the construction drawings of the early factory buildings of the steel rolling mill and study how to build the factory buildings according to the drawings.

"Is that the electrician from the power station?" Han Laogou pointed to a few people in the distance who were slowly erecting an electric pole and asked Xie Hushan.

"Han Lao Er delivered some foreign goods to the power station this afternoon. The power station directly sent four electricians to pull a new line from the nearest electric pole. The electric meter has not been installed yet, so let them use it first." Xie Hushan introduced to Han Lao Gou:
"At this rate of 24-hour work, the old masters say that the work can be completed in a week at most. I guarantee that no one in our team will be tired. Besides, I haven't told them something yet. I think they can accept being a little tired."

Han Laogou smiled and asked Xie Hushan: "Let me hear what it is first. Otherwise, even if they are willing, I can't agree if they really want to tire themselves out."

"Someone from the veterinary station went to the county for a meeting today, and brought me a message for Lao Yang when he came back. I asked him to negotiate with the county for two second-hand tractors. The county has agreed, so I'm going to tell everyone that whichever team helps the factory with more work in the early stages will be supported by the two tractors of the steel rolling mill during the autumn harvest." Xie Hushan said as he looked at the busy people in the steel rolling mill.

Han Laogou was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and then walked towards the steel mill:

"Then don't notify them. As a security director, you are not qualified to notify them about such important brigade affairs. I have to notify them."

After walking a distance, under the light of the torch, he turned his wrinkled old face with his hands behind his back and said to Xie Hushan who was standing there:

"We failed to learn the spirit of Dazhai, but instead learned its faults. Eat as much as your bowl can hold, wear as much pants as your butt can hold."

"I have nothing else to say to you, kid. Just this one sentence: don't be greedy."

(End of this chapter)