Back to 1978

Chapter 202: Eighteen Rebel Kings
After Production Team 3 distributed more than 30 large iron donkey bicycles to the homes of its members, members of other production teams were initially a little envious and made some gossip after dinner, but no one got too excited.

Because every family knew how much money was in their production team's account, if they really wanted to ask Xie Hushan for help, they didn't need a quota to buy bicycles. They could afford it if each family bought one.

But there is no need to fight for this, because once all the money is spent, there will be no money left for the seeds and fertilizers for farming in the team next year. For everyone, bicycles can be done without for the time being, but food and money must be in the team, so that everyone can feel at ease.

But it wasn't long before this feeling of peace of mind was shattered by Xie Hushan. No one expected that he had a series of follow-up plans after buying large iron donkey bicycles for each of the three teams.

That is, Xie Hushan encouraged the members of the third team to ride this thing to do some side jobs in the name of the production team during this slack season. The production team would provide the capital, and the profit would be split 30% to 70%. If no money was made, it would be a loss, and the money would be slowly deducted from the team's dividends.

When Xie Hushan first started to fool people, the members of Team 3 all shook their heads. Their reactions to Xie Hushan's visit to encourage them were almost identical:
"No, no, Hu San'er, we are all farmers who make a living from the soil. How can we have any side jobs? If I had your brains, I would have made it long ago!"

Xie Hushan understood everyone's thoughts. They were not afraid of making money, but were afraid of not making money and instead owing money to the team. So Xie Hushan might as well just say no to them and they would just get a bicycle for free.

Xie Hushan had already thought about everyone's concerns. He called Chen Daxi, Wu Shuanzi, and Wang Chong, and gave each of them 100 yuan in front of all the men of the third team at the team headquarters. The three young men took the money without saying a word, put it away, rode their big iron donkeys, and disappeared on the village road of Zhongping in the middle of winter.

"Uncle Mazi, do Daxi and the other two have a brain like mine?" Xie Hushan asked Chen Damazi.

No matter how much Chen Damazi likes his son, he cannot flatter him at this time. He shook his head decisively: "The brains of the three of them combined are not as big as the piece of phlegm that Xie Husan took out of his ear. If you study hard, you may be able to get into a technical secondary school. How can they compare with you? Daxi has to break branches to count slowly if he wants to count more than ten."

"Then let's see if these three people who have to break branches to settle accounts can have a side job." Xie Hushan said loudly to everyone: "Let's see if having a side job requires the ability to go to college."

Three days later, Chen Daxi and his two companions returned with a large load of seafood.

Yaoshan is a coastal area, but the jurisdiction of Bingyang County is not coastal. Under the suggestion and instruction of Xie Hushan, these three guys rode together for nearly 200 miles, taking the side business money and letters of introduction given to them by Xie Hushan, and went to the coastal production team in other counties to wholesale a batch of shrimp skin, dried shrimp, hairtail and other seafood.

When the three of them returned to the team headquarters, they didn't have time to unload the truck and put the goods into the warehouse. When the market opened, they took the seafood to the rural market to set up a stall, where they were directly sold to the brigade members who got the news.

These days, it is not easy for farmers in inland areas to eat seafood, and it is not easy for fishermen in coastal areas to make money.

Although there are communes along the coast of Yaoshan that make their living from the sea, the high-quality aquatic products caught are purchased by the state first. Just like the farmers who grow crops on the land pay their public grain, the price is determined by the state and the fishermen have no say in the matter.

After finally satisfying the state's share, the rest was left to the production team. They were all fishermen and had no mule or horse carts. They could not go to the market to sell their goods more than thirty to fifty miles away. The area within thirty to fifty miles was all close to the sea and every family had enough of these things, so they could not be sold at a high price.

Take Zhongping as an example. If the farmers in Zhongping Brigade want to eat some seafood, they can either go to the commune supply and marketing cooperative to buy inferior goods that are supplied to the county first and in limited quantities to farmers, or they can only hope that the driver of the brigade who travels a long way and happens to go to the coastal area will bring some back on the way, and when they return home, each family will share it and taste some seafood.

And the seafood mentioned here is not the precious seafood such as lobster, abalone and crab, which the aquatic farmers dare not even think about.

The limited seafood they could buy from the supply and marketing cooperatives were things like dried shrimp, dried dried shrimps, frozen hairtail, and frozen Spanish mackerel. Occasionally in the summer they could buy some fingernail-sized clams and cockles, which was considered a stroke of luck.

Chen Daxi and his two companions used 300 yuan as capital and carried back 100 kilograms of hairtail, 400 kilograms of dried shrimps from Bohai Sea, and 300 kilograms of small-grain red-tailed shrimps.

When everyone bought from them, they paid according to the supply and marketing cooperative's price. The quality of the junk goods in the supply and marketing cooperative could not be compared with what the three people carried back. Buying these seafood at the supply and marketing cooperative's price was obviously a great bargain.

A pound of hairtail costs 24 cents, dried shrimps costs 31 cents, and dried shrimps costs 48 cents.

But even so, in the end Xie Hushan did the math in front of everyone. After deducting the 300 yuan of capital, the three of them just earned back 100 yuan. The three teams took 30 yuan, and the three of them divided 70 yuan equally, so each person got 23.33 yuan.

The people from the three teams who were watching the fun were shocked!

It took the three of us less than three days to go there and back, and they earned more than 20 yuan in three days?

Those who are quick-witted have already figured out that if calculated on a monthly basis, Chen Daxi, Wu Shuanzi and the other two can earn more than 200 yuan.

This deal cannot be exchanged even for a county magistrate, because the county magistrate's monthly salary is only 30 to 50 yuan at most.

Chen Damazi almost dragged his son back home in front of everyone, used a screwdriver and pliers to open his son's head to see if the stuffing inside had been replaced. How could his son, who was so stupid, actually make money by doing business?

Within two days, the whole brigade knew that the three silly guys from Production Team 3 were able to earn money by carrying seafood back.

There was no use for Xie Hushan to say anything more. When Wu Shuanzi wanted to carry the seafood again, six or seven people from the third team asked for money from the team and wanted to go with him to carry the seafood.

Although Wu Shuanzi expressed his hard work in order to dissuade those who were trying to steal his business from doing so, and did not stay at an inn to save money on the road, when he passed by someone else's team, he used some dried shrimps as a favor to stay overnight in the team's headquarters or farm tool room, and ate the dry food he brought with him.

But this obviously could not dampen everyone's enthusiasm for side jobs. The second time, eight people went, but Chen Daxixi did not go, and was replaced by Chen Damazi. The eight people still carried back a lot of seafood, but this time the team could not digest it all, so they started to set up stalls at the market.

Business is still good. Often the goods on the stalls are sold out soon after the fair opens. The goods brought back by eight people are sold out within three days of the fair.

What Xie Hushan didn't expect was that this time Chen Damazi took the initiative to find him and said, "Hu San'er, my captain of the third team, don't use a big donkey to carry the goods. Let's drive over with two tractors, or send a few trucks from the team. Buy more. We can definitely sell them all before the New Year!"

Moreover, the other seven people held similar views as Chen Damazi and believed that this side business could be expanded.

"Okay, but official business has to be handled impartially. The team gave you a letter before, saying that you could carry the goods by bicycle and get 30% of the commission. Now, if you need the team to arrange a large truck or coordinate the team's tractors, the cost will be deducted from your 70%. Let's be reasonable about this, shall we?" Xie Hushan did not refuse outright, for fear of dampening their enthusiasm, but he also could not bear to see them risking their lives for a bargain, so he said that they needed to pay more.

"We're doing a side job for the team... this... the team is asking us to pay extra money..." Chen Damazi hesitated: "How much?"

"Winter is the time for livestock to fatten up and rest for spring ploughing. A livestock costs ten yuan a day, and a tractor costs thirty yuan."

"My goodness, your... what animal is so expensive? Besides, a tractor that uses gasoline to pull rocks in the West Mountain only costs six or seven yuan per trip."

"I haven't finished yet. You have to pay for the food and lodging expenses of the driver and the rickshaw driver. In addition, I will advance the capital for everyone on behalf of the team. The limit is 100 per person. How many rickshaws can you hire with the capital added together?"

"Stop, I won't hire you anymore." Chen Damazi said firmly, "You've aroused everyone's interest, but now you're trying to dampen their enthusiasm for side jobs!"

Xie Hushan laughed, "Uncle Mazi, it's ok. You're different after going out. You can say a few words now? You're right. I'm trying to dampen your enthusiasm because I think you're not going to pay. If you want to continue riding bicycles to carry seafood, I'll continue to pay. The team also has to consider its own reasons. We can't support everything. If we think the sideline idea is good, the team will support it. If it's not good, the team doesn't object to you doing it yourself, but we will definitely make the ugly words and conditions clear up front, just like today."

"Hu San'er, you have a good brain. You can tell me why Chen Damazi's business is unreliable. You also saw that it was sold out in three days. This business is promising. Send trucks to transport more..." a member asked nearby.

"I'll just tell you one thing. I'm using a truck to transport the goods, so why do I need you? Haven't you asked Daxi and Shuanzi and the others who gave them this idea?" Xie Hushan picked up a cigarette, lit it, and looked at the people who were stumped by his question.

The expressions of several people were somewhat complicated, and they didn't know what to say for a moment.

Indeed, if the production team arranged large carts, what were the points for them? They could just let the cart drivers drive the carts to wholesale in the name of the production team, and then bring them back to the members to sell at the market. There was no need to talk about a 70-30 split and share the profits among the members. As long as all the income belonged to the team, everyone would have no objection.

"Have you figured it out?" Xie Hushan asked a few people with a smile.

The other people all shook their heads in confusion. Chen Damazi stared at Xie Hushan, thinking: "I understand a little, but not quite. I'll go back and think about it."

The next day, Chen Damazi, with dark circles under his eyes, came to the team headquarters again and sat down opposite Xie Hushan:

"I figured it out. Shrimp and dried shrimp are not like rice or flour. If someone buys two kilograms of shrimp, they don't eat them as snacks. They just pinch a few when cooking to add flavor. They are seasonings. They are selling fast now because people haven't seen good things for a long time. They spend money to buy them. When they have them at home, they won't buy them for at least one or two months. If they can't be sold, the pile of seafood will be delayed until the busy farming season or when the weather gets hot, and then it will be completely ruined."

"That's probably what I mean. But if you really want to arrange a truck or tractor to pick up a load of goods, that's not impossible."

"Yanjing, let's sell it in Yanjing. Yanjing is not near the sea, and ordinary people certainly can't buy any good shrimp. The good stuff must be given priority to major factories or leaders. I want to take a few people to carry some back, then come back to pack up, ride a donkey to Yanjing to sell for a few days, I should be able to sell it at a higher price than here."

"Isn't this a bit too big a step? I thought I should go to the county to sell some and see the world. Why are you planning to leave the province right away?"

"My three sons have just bought a house, but they haven't painted the walls yet, and haven't bought any major items yet. The two boys are fourteen and eleven years old, and they are just waiting to gnaw my bones and drink my blood. I don't know what to do. When can I find wives for them all and expand the Chen family?"

Chen Damazi was overjoyed, and a dozen braver members stepped forward and rode on a big iron donkey together to carry some seafood back. They were also worried that the people in Yanjing might not be short of dried shrimps, so they collected a few bundles of dry tobacco leaves from each household, as well as tomato sauce, pickled cucumbers and sauce dumplings that each household had made in various glass bottles in the summer.

When these people went to carry sea goods before, Xie Hushan had no reaction, but when Chen Damazi took them to Yanjing, Xie Hushan gave them instructions as if he was sending his daughter to marry. Because among them, Chen Damazi and another middle-aged man had gone far away when the commune bought machinery and farm tools. Most of them had lived for 20 or 30 years and had never left Yaoshan or even Bingyang.

Xie Hushan told them carefully and seriously that if they encountered people catching speculation and profiteering, they should not be afraid, because some of the grandsons deliberately frightened outsiders and cheated them out of their money. If they encountered problems, they must take the initiative to ask the police to solve it first, and don't listen to anyone who suggests settling it privately.

When you see the police, confess openly that it was the production team that asked you to sell them, and it was not your personal behavior. You must show the police the letter of introduction and proof you carry with you, and do not show it to the person questioning you casually to prevent them from tearing it off and making false accusations.

If you are arrested again, remember to go to the loading and unloading team of Yanjing Railway Station to find a man named Cheng Huazi, who is the deputy director of our Zhongping Offset Printing Factory, and ask him to communicate with the police.

Originally, Han Hongbing suggested that he go with them, but Xie Hushan disagreed and insisted that they go on their own.

There is a huge difference between traveling with a tour guide and without one.

These dozen people asked for directions on their own, which inn to stay at, and where to sell the goods on their own. They went on like this for more than two weeks, and during that time there was no news at all.

During that period, Ma Laowu felt that Xie Hushan was a human being, not an animal. He often sat alone in the team headquarters until very late, and sent people to the post office every day to ask if there were any letters from Yanjing.

As a result, more than a dozen people returned safely by riding the railway. When they returned, excluding the 30% profit handed over to the production team, each person finally received about 70 yuan.

For Xie Hushan, it doesn’t matter how much money these people make. The most important thing is that they come back safely. Also, these people’s brains become clearer after this trip out.

When the dozen or so people came back, the vehicle was not empty. In the freezing winter, they rode on the big iron donkeys with sweat on their heads. Two wooden baskets were hung on the left and right sides of the rear carriage of each big iron donkey. The baskets were filled with a bunch of second-hand goods such as clothes, shoes and hats that they had collected from the people in Yanjing Hutong with the money they earned from selling goods.

It can be used whether you wear it at home or sell it to neighbors.

Xie Hushan could see their changes without even saying hello to them.

Having seen the world and having always stayed in Zhongping have two completely different temperaments. When a group of people were sitting by the fire in the team headquarters and chatting with the people from the third team who came after hearing the news, their confidence could not be concealed.

A group of people passed around and looked at the commemorative photo of Chen Damazi and the others at Tiananmen Square in Yanjing. They made a sound of "tsk tsk" and asked tentatively:
"I say, Yanjing looks really grand. The people there must be much richer than us. With such a big city gate tower, how could they be the capital?"

Chen Damazi, who had just returned from Yanjing, was holding a cigarette in his mouth and curled his lips in disdain:

"What's so cool about that? The people there are not much better than us. Before I went there, I thought that the people in Yanjing ate refined rice and white flour every day. They even bargained for the hairtail fish like us. My goodness, that old lady wanted to bargain with me by three or five cents. We are great if we can get a difference of three or two cents."

"Is the person over there not good enough?" the member next to him asked curiously.

Chen Damazi shook his head. "No! It's like she's never seen money before. The old lady held the hairtail in one hand and refused to let go. With the other hand, she handed over a sum of money that was two cents less than the price she had previously offered. I had to sell it to her. A group of people around her also chimed in, saying, "Just sell it to her, just sell it to her." If it weren't for these people's good mouths and their ability to talk, I definitely wouldn't have sold it to her."

"What did they say?"

Damazi Chen sighed, "People in Yanjing are really good at talking. They know that praising me won't work, so they praise Daxi next to them. Oh, your son, right? He looks so festive. Will girls line up to find him for a blind date? Come a few more times, maybe one day I'll meet someone who's worthy of you and find one for you! Listen to what she said, do I still have the nerve to argue with her for a little bit of money?"

"It seems that they are ordinary people with little money. I guess they just live in a better place than us. After all, this is the capital, and Tiananmen Square is right there. Even if they live in the same building with the national leaders, their houses can't be bad. If not a high-rise building, then it has to be a big tiled house with a yard."

"Forget it. Tiananmen Square is nice, but not everyone can live there. Yanjing is full of alleys. Even dogs from other places would get dizzy if they went there. There are several families living in one courtyard. It was our first time to go to Dongsi. We agreed to sell separately, one person in each alley. But we went there in the morning, but we couldn't find Daxi and his friends until it was almost dark. We finally found them after a lot of effort. We don't know how Daxi and his friends got around, but they ran from Dongsi to Xidan. Not to mention, they sold better shrimp than us. The little dried shrimp they carried was bought up by several steamed bun shops in Xidan."

It was the trip to Yanjing by Chen Damazi and others that completely changed the atmosphere of the third team. Those who were conservative and made sarcastic remarks before now have changed their temperament. The big iron donkey at home is no longer used to visit relatives during the New Year. Instead, they either find someone to carry seafood together or help sell seafood at the market. Their side businesses are booming.

Then Chen Damazi really rented a tractor and transported the seafood to Yanjing. This time he had a tractor. He was away for a week. When he came back, in addition to the money in his pocket, the tractor truck was also loaded with a lot of old furniture and second-hand goods.

Later, when Cheng Yunfei came to Bingyang to pick up the goods, he specifically talked about this incident with Xie Hushan with a smile, saying that these Yaoshan farmers had appeared in Yanjing for more than two weeks and were well received by the people of Yanjing.

It also caused the people of Yanjing to once again mention a name that had disappeared from the alleys and lanes of Yanjing as early as the founding of the People's Republic of China: "Zhili Laogan."

This is a name that is both affectionate and discriminatory. In the past, people in Yanjing called people who came to Beijing from Zhili Province to do business or visit relatives "Lao Gan". In the past, farmers always took a ride on animal carts into the city. Several people huddled on the cart with their hands around their legs, raising their necks to try to avoid the flying dust on the road. When they entered the capital and saw the prosperous scene, they kept making "Oh ho" sounds in their dialect.

Therefore, people in Beijing also teased him: "The old driver from Zhili stretched his neck to get on the car, and when he entered the capital, he could only say oh-ho."

This time the jingle became: "The old man from Zhili, with his butt sticking out, pedals the bike. When he gets to the capital, he can only say oh-ho."

Moreover, Cheng Yunfei said that although these people only wandered around Yanjing for two weeks, the common people in Yanjing Hutong still missed them very much, because as early as the Republic of China, most of the people who went door to door selling cheap goods were old men from Zhili.

Now everyone is sighing that the country should have opened up earlier. Now that Zhili has arrived, people in Yanjing can buy cheap goods again.

No one had proposed marriage to Daxi before, because everyone thought that his family was poor, with many people and only boys who could not earn many work points, and the girl would have to suffer if she married into the family. Now, after Chen Damazi made two trips to Yanjing, he stuffed the old electric boxes and old furniture he brought from Yanjing into Daxi's house, and matchmakers immediately began to visit him.

I wish everyone knew that Chen Damazi and his gang made money in Yanjing.

"We still need to stock up on dried shrimps, captain. Our team has to pay for it, right?" The first thing Chen Damazi did after returning was to find Xie Hushan and ask him to continue to increase efforts to get seafood.

Because he found that people in Yanjing were picky about their food, and in addition to eating dried shrimps, they also wanted braised shrimp oil and shrimp paste. The raw materials happened to be dried shrimps. If he could get a batch of dried shrimps, he could set up a shrimp paste workshop and sell it to Yanjing on a long-term basis. Then, wouldn't this be a good side business?
Chen Damazi volunteered to be the head of the shrimp paste workshop. As long as the team treated him like a steel mill worker, he would get 10% of the profits.

Xie Hushan agreed, and old man Chen Damazi was very happy. It was said that he went back and asked the matchmakers to leave, saying that Daxi was young and they planned to look for a partner after another year.

While Chen Damazi was excitedly taking the money allocated by the team to run a shrimp paste workshop, Xie Hushan was called to the team headquarters to attend a meeting to receive criticism from the captains of other production teams.

Anyway, this is what Yang Shuangxi, the brigade accountant who was responsible for delivering the message, said to Xie Hushan.

This made the members of Team 3 a little nervous. Chen Damazi and Wang Quezi, who were the most supportive of Xie Hushan, specially invited seven or eight young and old men to follow Xie Hushan to the team headquarters.

However, they did not intend to follow Xie Hushan in. They squatted far away in the hall of the supply and marketing cooperative to avoid the wind, waiting for Xie Hushan to yell at them at any time if he found something wrong. At that time, they would rush in and snatch Xie Hushan out, then call on everyone from Team 3 to have a winter fight with the other 18 production teams.

It was the slack season during the farming season, so they beat the kids on rainy days. They had nothing to do anyway, so a fight would just let everyone know that the Third Team had a new dynasty, and that Ma Laowu, the easy-going and bullied guy, was no longer in charge.

In the words of Chen Damazi, whoever stands in the way of Xie Hushan leading everyone to make money is the public enemy of the people. Not to mention that Han Laogou wants to criticize Hu Saner, if the commune secretary Yin Qianfeng dares to say today that Xie Hushan is doing the wrong thing, the commune will demolish his house and move it back to use as firewood.

Xie Hushan said no, there was no need for Han Laogou to send someone to deliver a letter to him to prepare for the situation. However, the people in Team 3 were very satisfied with him now and were worried that the opposition would assassinate him like the White Russian female spy tried to assassinate Lenin.

The atmosphere in the brigade headquarters today was also very good, not much different from that of the third team. Including him, nineteen production team leaders were present, but there was no tension. A group of people accused Xie Hushan of doing his job and leading the third team to get rich secretly.

It was a rare day that the team's kitchen cooked a big pot. Two female production team leaders were busy preparing the steaming pot of corn cakes stuffed with cabbage and shrimp.

Someone brought firewood, someone squatted to make a fire, and two large aluminum basins were placed on the stove, one basin contained prepared cornmeal, and the other contained vegetable stuffing with sesame oil. Two women rolled up their sleeves and gathered around the edge of the pot. They grabbed a piece of corn with their left hand and pinched it into a concave shape. They scooped a spoonful of stuffing with their right hand and began to knead it, and then put it in the pot.

"Sixth Aunt, didn't Uncle Yang say he would criticize me? What's the matter? Let me have a full meal before criticizing me?" Xie Hushan leaned over to the stove, smelled the fragrance, and asked the female team leader who was making the steamed buns with a smile.

"Go away, don't get in the way in the kitchen. Go to your room and wait for your meal." The female captain nudged Xie Hushan with her elbow and said with a smile:
"You kid, you keep causing trouble for us every day. We have been good production team leaders for so many years, but now you are the team leader. The members of our team are rebelling every now and then. Eighteen production team leaders are about to step down because of you."

Xie Hushan returned to the team headquarters and looked at Han Laogou, who was playing chess with a team leader while holding his pipe. "Second uncle, what do you mean?"

"What's the point? If you do this to your team, how can the other 18 teams be leaders? They are not you, and they don't have your brain, but the members under you don't care whether the team leader has your brain or not, they just want to eat meat like the third team." Before Han Laogou could say anything, Yang Shuangxi came in from outside holding a pile of borrowed bowls and chopsticks. After putting them down, he blew on his frozen hands and said:

"Today, the eighteen captains have gathered food and firewood to prepare a decent meal. They have invited you to the meal in the name of the brigade. Please be polite and ask them what to do about this matter. Should we force them to give up their responsibilities and hand over the burden to you, or should you give them some advice? Let me make it clear first. We will not just have a meal but no advice. The eighteen captains have already discussed how you will eat and how you will make them vomit it out."

Han Laogou took the pipe out of his mouth and said, "You see, it's just like what's said in the storytelling, the eighteen rebel kings, they rebel whenever they want."

(End of this chapter)