Back to 1978

Chapter 189 Production Team Leader Xie Hushan

"It's really nothing. The homestead procedures have been approved. What else is there? If there is something, why don't I tell you before it's done?" Ma Laowu ignored Xie Hushan's doubts and greeted the aunt and grandmother: "Sixth Aunt, Sister-in-law, are you satisfied with this place?"

"Are you satisfied, Laowu? Come to our house for dinner tonight and ask Damao and Laoer to have a drink with you. Thank you very much." The aunt said to Ma Laowu with a smile.

Grandma leaned on her walking stick, her face full of excitement, but she was a little hesitant in what she said:

"Old Five, is this appropriate? Doesn't the Xie family seem a bit overbearing? There are not many families in the entire brigade whose private plots are adjacent to the homesteads. Normally, I think they should have approved the front row, but that row hasn't been approved yet. Why did they deliberately build a separate row for Hu Saner's house?"

When approving residential land in rural areas, it is not the case that any plot of land that the applicant wants is approved. There is a simple plan and they have to be approved at least row by row. For example, if one row of residential land is planned to build twelve houses, then all twelve houses have to be approved before a new row can be approved.

As a result, Xie Hushan's residential land directly skipped the row of residential land that had not yet been approved, which was equivalent to giving him a new row of residential land.

Although the formalities are in hand now, grandma thinks that doing so will easily lead to people pointing fingers at Xie Hushan behind his back.

"I went door to door to ask before I did this. Everyone in our three teams had no objection. If someone objected, I would not dare to do it." Ma Laowu said to his grandmother:
"Don't worry, no one will find fault with this little thing. Everyone remembers how much Tiger Three has done for our team."

Xie Hushan never understood what Ma Laowu was up to, but what he did made his uncle and second uncle grateful to him.

So much so that when the uncle and second uncle were drinking with him, they came up and poured themselves a bowl of wine to express their gratitude without saying a word.

After all, most rural people only have this one chance to build a new house in their lifetime, and whether the homestead and the house are satisfactory or not will depend on their lifetime.

In the eyes of my uncle and second uncle, the Yin and Yang houses, birth, raising, death and burial are the top priorities in rural areas.

Uncle Xie Qimao is usually a quiet person, but he talked more at the dinner table tonight than he did in half a month. It can be seen that Ma Laowu was very happy about the matter of Xie Hushan's homestead. After three rounds of wine, the uncle's face was red, and he was patting his chest and shouting to Ma Laowu:

"Old Five, if there is anything happening in the team, just tell us. No matter what it is, no matter if everyone supports it or not, we two brothers will definitely be the first to stand up and support you."

Second uncle Xie Qifeng also nodded and agreed: "Of course, Fifth Brother, you can speak well in the Xie family in the future. My eldest brother is busy at work, so you can call me and tell me to do whatever I want without any hesitation."

Xie Hushan was not qualified to sit at the table for this dinner. He was only responsible for waiting on the side and helping to pour wine. When he heard what his uncle and second uncle said, and then looked at Ma Laowu's reaction, he knew that the meal was going to go bad.

Sure enough, after hearing what Xie Qimao and Xie Qifeng said, both brothers patted their chests, and Ma Laowu said:
"Yes, I understand. You two brothers are the most humane people in our team. Everyone who mentions you will give you a thumbs up and praise your kindness. There is indeed something urgent going on in the team right now, but it's a bit embarrassing to say this..."

"Tell me, what's the matter." Xie Qimao put down the wine bowl and looked at Ma Laowu.

The aunt and the second aunt in the east room had been paying attention to the drinking in this room with Taozi and grandma. When they heard Ma Laowu say that he had something to do, they came in through the curtains and took the initiative to express their opinions without grandma telling them:
"Old Five, if you have any questions, just tell us. As long as our family can help, we will definitely help."

"I'm sure you can help with this, but I'm afraid you won't be happy about it." Ma Laowu hesitated and looked at Xie Hushan: "San'er, our elders are talking, you go out first."

"Ma Laowu, you let me know that while my uncle is drunk..."

"Get out! What's your business?" The old man slapped Xie Hushan on the head and said, "Also, stop saying 'Old Five'. Old Five', that's who you call me? Call me Uncle Five!"

Xie Hushan covered his head and pointed at Ma Laowu, then he got up and stood in the main room to listen to the conversation. The aunt said, "Laowu, just tell me what's going on."

"It's not the slack season now. All production teams are preparing to hold general meetings to elect next year's production team leader and team committee. Our team is also preparing to hold meetings..."

"As for this matter, you don't even need to say anything. You will definitely be chosen." Xie Qifeng said to Ma Laowu.

He wondered what Ma Laowu was talking about for a long time. It turned out to be about the election of the production team leader. Even if Ma Laowu didn't help, everyone in Team 3 had to elect him. Although Ma Laowu was soft-tempered when faced with problems, he was a good person. The members were not fools during the election. It was related to their own interests, so privately canvassing for votes would not have much effect.

You can let everyone get more dividends at the end of the year, and if you don't canvass for votes and have a bad temper, everyone will still elect you.

You talk a lot of nonsense, but at the end of the year, everyone is left with nothing. It's useless to canvass for votes.

Ma Laowu has been the captain for six or seven years. No one can find any fault with him and no one competes with him, so he will definitely be the captain this year.

"No, I had a small meeting with the accountant, custodian, women's team leader and others. What I meant is that next year, we will let Tiger Three be the captain of Team Three."

Uncle and second uncle were stunned for a moment. They looked at each other and said nothing because they couldn't figure out the purpose of Ma Laowu's doing this.

The aunt is a woman, she can say things that men are not comfortable saying, even if what she said is wrong, she can still use her husband to scold her for being an ignorant woman to save face, so at this time she asked Ma Laowu:

"Old Five, why did you quit your job as captain? How old is Hu San? How can he win the support of others? He is not even a farmer. Besides, he is helping the team to look after the steel mill and has no time to work in the fields."

Before Ma Laowu could say anything, the grandmother in the east room came over with the support of Taozi, trying to figure out what was going on. Her grandson was just nineteen and would only be twenty after the Chinese New Year. Since liberation, the record for the youngest production team leader of Zhongping Brigade was still held by Han Laogou.

Han Laogou became the captain of the Zhongping Production Team No. 9 at the age of 24, but the situation at that time was very different from now. Han Laogou was a member of the Children's League when he was seven or eight years old. He had delivered letters and stood guard for the Eighth Route Army. He joined the Farmers' Association when he was a teenager. So he could convince the others when he was the captain. But his grandson Xie Hushan couldn't even tie up wheat neatly. His experience was completely incomparable to Han Laogou's. If he had really become the captain, he would have been squeezed out by the members when he went to the fields to do farm work.

Ma Laowu turned around and went to take his pipe. His second uncle Xie Qifeng handed him a pipe and lit it for him. Ma Laowu smiled and said, holding the pipe:
"Sixth Aunt, Damao, Second Brother, I'll be honest with you. This time when Minister Zhang and I went to other places to get the machines, we finally understood that Hu San is really capable. The YTO that produces the Dongfanghong is a huge agricultural machinery factory. There are people begging for money to buy machines at the door. Just ask anyone and you'll find that they are either the leaders of the Agricultural Machinery Administration Bureau of a certain county or the cadres of a certain commune. They are all leaders, but no matter what, you still can't buy anything from them. You just have to wait."

"As a result, we, the farmers with heads full of sorghum flowers, didn't have to queue up. We just followed Hu San's instructions and mentioned the name of a certain leader in the factory. The guard contacted him and the leader came out to greet us happily. We wrote a note inside and we could go to pay and pick up the car with the note. When we left, the guard asked us how Hu San was doing recently and told us to go and have a drink with him when we were free."

"Which country boy can be so close to several leaders of agricultural machinery factories and have such good relationships with them? This is a skill and an ability!"

"With so many farm machines added to the brigade, there will definitely be a lot of idle people, because the farm work will be much lighter. What should we do with the idle people? We must find ways to do some side jobs. We can't just sit at home and eat for free. Hu San will be the team leader and take charge of all aspects. I will be his deputy team leader and continue to focus on labor production. He just needs to lead the idle people from Team 3 to do side jobs."

"Why let him be the captain? Because if we don't let him be the captain this year, our team won't be able to take advantage of this next year. The team will definitely let him gather the idle people to do something. By then, if the team asks for it, it will be too late. Anyway, I've said it. You two are also members of our team. It's up to us whether it's a benefit to outsiders or to our team. "

Ma Laowu may not be the production team leader with the best agricultural level in Zhongping Production Brigade. After all, several team leaders are still elderly people in their fifties and sixties. When it comes to farming experience, Ma Laowu cannot compare with them.

But when it comes to his brain, although he is timid and afraid of things, and his nickname is Fat-faced, it just means that he has a very cautious character and likes to think things over.

He had been thinking about this all the way when he followed Zhang Cheng and Ge Baosheng to get the machines. With so many machines, not to mention Zhongping Commune, there is no brigade as wealthy as Zhongping Brigade in the entire Bingyang County. There are two crawler machines, two threshers, five four-wheel machines and a large number of agricultural machinery. It is richer than the subordinate agricultural machinery stations of some remote communes.

How much labor can be freed up by adding so many machines at once?
By then the brigade will definitely have to organize idle labor to do some other side jobs. Instead of waiting for others to realize this problem, it would be better for Ma Laowu to prepare for it in advance.

Although after the establishment of the agricultural machinery management station, the 19 production teams under the brigade can use it free of charge, but Ma Laowu is not planning to just use it for free. Production Team 3 now has some money. If the work done by the members is done by the team, and the team pays the agricultural machinery station to do the work, will the members be freed up?
After the time is freed up, Xie Hushan will definitely be allowed to earn money to improve their lives. In order to take advantage of this, Xie Hushan must be put on a leash and let him be the head of the production team three first, and then do the work of the brigade.

What good will this do? Xie Hushan can then legitimately give priority to Production Team 3.

This was a rather rough idea that Ma Laowu came up with on his own, so after thinking it over, Ma Laowu decided to discuss the matter of the homestead with the other people in Team 3 in private first. After getting their consent, he did it for the Xie family, and then took advantage of the Xie family's gratitude to bring up the matter.

"Ermianfei, you spend all your brain on thinking about your third brother. You are a ruthless person... I won't do it!" Xie Hushan said in the main hall, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Feelings are waiting for me here, good guy, a piece of homestead wants to be fooled into putting reins on the mill. Managing a production team is different from managing a steel mill. In the steel mill, he has the final say. They are all foreign workers. If he is not satisfied, he can fire them. The production team is full of local residents. They are all living fathers. If they really go against me, I can't fire them from the team. "What are you talking about! No matter whether you choose or not, it's because your fifth uncle thinks highly of you!" Xie Qifeng said to the door dissatisfiedly: "How can you talk like that!"

"But Hu Saner is still in charge of the steel mill..." Uncle Xie Qimao was a little hesitant because his nephew also managed a steel mill.

"If you ask me, since Lao Wu has spoken, then let Hu San be the one to choose. His factory director doesn't have to work a day anyway. And the deputy factory director, Lao Jiang, is as tired as a donkey every day. I've never seen him lend a hand. He's so lazy." The aunt said nearby.

This made grandma look at aunt and say that her grandson was lazy. Although it was true, she didn't like to hear it.

"It's okay. It's okay if you don't agree. A forced melon is not sweet. If I really don't agree, everyone can't blame Hu San. At most, they will scold me. Who made me tell everyone that when I was handling the homestead matter, it was because Hu San was willing to be the team leader and lead everyone to make money? Now that Hu San doesn't agree, everyone will definitely scold me for lying. I won't scold Hu San. Don't take it to heart. I'm used to being scolded." Ma Laowu said deliberately.

"Why don't we ask Hu San what he thinks?" Second Aunt Zhou Hongmei said in a low voice.

Xie Hushan poked around outside the door for a long time, and then he heard his second aunt say something appropriate. Just as he was about to take the opportunity to come in, his second uncle had already spoken:
"Ask him what a kid does. He listens to his eldest brother when there are things at home!"

"What are you talking about, second brother? Everyone in our family listens to mom." Xie Qimao corrected his brother's words.

Xie Qifeng then realized that his mother was still beside him, and smiled at her innocently: "Mom, I was wrong."

"You're right. I'm an old lady with bound feet and I don't know anything about what's going on outside. You're right. Let your eldest brother make the decision." Grandma said to Xie Qifeng.

Seeing that everyone in the room was looking at him, Xie Qimao hesitated for a long time before speaking:
"If everyone thinks highly of this kid, then let's give our Hu San a try? But it's a good idea, Lao Wu, you have to keep an eye on him. If you see something is wrong, you should give him a beating. You can't let him run wild. This kid is so wild. If Secretary Xiao Yang hadn't seen that I was going to die of frustration and secretly told me that Hu San didn't embezzle the loan, I would have wanted to jump into the river to commit suicide."

When Ma Laowu heard Xie Qimao's agreement, he put on his shoes and walked out: "Okay, the day after tomorrow we will hold an election for Team Three to select the members of next year's team committee!"

When passing by the main hall, he didn't dare to look at Xie Hushan. He walked towards the yard with his head held high. He almost tripped over the threshold and died in Xie's house.

After Ma Laowu left, Xie Hushan entered the house and looked at his family members who were still happy that they were chosen as the captain. He said in a low voice:
"This move is called poking a stupid dog up the wall. I've been using it on Lao Meng, Han Lao Er and the others since I was a kid. I never dreamed that Ma Lao Wu would learn this move and use it on me. And you guys are pretty happy after it's over."

"What a dog, a dog. With such a large piece of land, what can you do as the captain for one year? There are so many people who want to be the captain but can't get the job." The old lady heard Xie Hushan dare to complain and said unsatisfiedly:

"It sounds good to say it to others. My nephew is the production team leader, the director of the steel mill, and the director of public security. Besides, you are the team leader. Who in the team can do anything to you?"

Xie Hushan picked up the chopsticks and put the food into his mouth. He served the old man for a long time and finally asked the old man to sell it to him:
"Forget it. I can't explain it to you. This is a trick. Ma Laowu is not asking me to be the captain. He is asking me to be a beast. You haven't reacted yet. It is because he is not the captain that he can do something to me better."

Two days later, Production Team 3 held a general members meeting at the Yaowang Temple at the team headquarters to elect members of the team committee for next year. In fact, the main purpose was to elect the production team leader, and other positions were not that important.

In those days, the election of production team leaders by members was very open. As long as one was not a member of the four categories of elements with bad background, or was under the age of sixteen, anyone in the team who wanted to sign up for the election could ask the accountant to write his name on the blackboard. However, if he did not sign up for the election before, he could not expect his name to be added to the blackboard on the day of the election.

There was just a blackboard in front, and Accountant Zhao was responsible for writing the correct characters. He listened to the members say who they would choose in turn, and there was no need to waste paper to write names.

At the end, the candidate with the most correct answers will be elected. It’s simple and straightforward.

Anyway, Xie Hushan had never heard of any shady dealings in the selection of the production team leader. The production team leader was a position that directly affected the vital interests of the members, and everyone knew what kind of person to choose that would be beneficial to them.

In addition, there are many prominent families in Zhongping, so the situation where the Liu family controlled the positions of the brigade and production team like before Yakou could not occur.

There are three major surnames in Zhongping. If the captain elected by any of these surnames fails to treat everyone equally and is found to have engaged in private enrichment without telling anyone, he will be fired on the same day by the other members who have rebelled.

There are only two candidates for the captain of the third team this year, one is Xie Hushan, and the other is Ma Laowu. He was afraid that someone would choose him, so he didn't sign up himself. He was also afraid that it would seem too frivolous to have only Xie Hushan's name on the blackboard, so he even more frivolously found a guy named Er Xiazi to accompany Xie Hushan.

Er Xiazi, just by hearing his name you know that he is not a reliable candidate. He is in charge of grinding tofu with Wang Quezi in the tofu shop. How can he have the time to be the production team leader?

As for the voting results, except for Han Hongbing and other brothers of Xie Hushan who firmly voted for Er Xiazi, believing that Production Team 3 could move towards a bright future under the leadership of Er Xiazi, the rest of the members of Team 3 voted for Xie Hushan.

After the production team leader is elected, he becomes a member of the team committee. There are not many positions in the production team committee. In addition to the production team leader, the official positions include the political team leader (now renamed as deputy team leader), a women's team leader, a custodian, a carriage and horse group leader, and an accountant, cashier and recorder.

In fact, there should be one accountant, one cashier, and one timekeeper, but in Zhongping Brigade, it is basically the accountant who takes on all the responsibilities. The reason is that everyone feels that if one more position is assigned, a lot more work points will be allocated. After all, although there is no salary for holding these positions, there will be work point subsidies at the end of the year. The production team leader can get 500 points, and the lowest can get 300 points.

Ma Laowu did not choose the captain, but he did choose the deputy captain. He was the only one who signed up and was elected with a high vote.

Everything else remained the same, which meant that the team committee was made up of Ma Laowu's people, with Xie Hushan being the only one left.

Without waiting until the end of the Chinese New Year to hand over, in the afternoon of the first day of the work, Ma Laowu hypocritically handed the team's account book and official seal to Xie Hushan:

"Hu San'er, these are all yours, including the keys..."

"Be serious, call the captain, go to the door and report before coming in." Xie Hushan said to Ma Laowu unhappily.

Ma Laowu nodded: "Okay, you wait."

He stood at the entrance of the team: "Report!"

Xie Hushan lowered his head to smoke and pretended not to hear. Accountant Zhao on the opposite side looked at Xie Hushan and said, "Captain, um..."

"Old Zhao, give me a hundred dollars." Xie Hushan said to Accountant Zhao.

Accountant Zhao counted out a hundred yuan from his wallet and asked, "What are you going to use it for?"

"You're using public funds to visit brothels. You're so old. Can you come with me? It's useless to ask around." Xie Hushan picked up a hundred yuan, hesitated for a moment, and took out a dime from his pocket and handed it to Ma Laowu, who was standing at the door with his teeth gnashing in anger.

"Go, buy me a pack of Peony and a bottle of orange juice. Remember to give me the change. After you buy them, send them to the brigade's agricultural machinery management station."

"What are you going there for?" Ma Laowu was stunned.

"Take advantage of the slack season to invite the people at the agricultural machinery station to dinner, buy all the agricultural machinery with your wallet, and then select ten women in their twenties or thirties from our third team to learn how to drive a tractor. After they learn, the third team will have the final say on how the brigade operates the agricultural machinery in the future." Xie Hushan said to Ma Laowu.

Ma Laowu took the dime and turned away: "I knew that choosing a wicked person like you as the captain was not in vain. You are really capable of doing shitty things."

He took two steps forward and looked back at Xie Hushan:

"I'll buy you two packs for ten cents. See if you can still handle the work of ten more gay men?"

While the two of them were still talking, Chen Daxi came running over on his bicycle, panting, and shouted to Xie Hushan from a distance:
"Thank you, Chief, hurry up, Chief of Staff Han has been arrested as a gangster!"

(End of this chapter)