Back to 1978

Chapter 56: Trapped
"I don't need to watch over the braised pork stall during this period, so I read newspapers in the team headquarters every morning, and ride my bike to the county town or various communes in the afternoon. I found that the sideline group can't just do things like selling vermicelli and tofu or setting up stalls at the market. You see~" Xie Hushan said as he got on the kang, took out a diary from under the kang mat, and spread it out on the kang table:

"This was an article published in the People's Times two weeks ago. Although it was on an inconspicuous page, I always felt that it was a signal that the country encourages rural areas to vigorously develop sideline businesses."

Yang Liming took out the diary, which was filled with news that Xie Hushan had cut out from various newspapers.

The piece of news he asked himself to read at this time was a report that a certain brigade of Dongying Commune, Guangyang County, under the jurisdiction of Yanjing City, organized all the bricklayers who knew how to build houses, and found another way to set up a sideline construction team. Eventually, this construction team actually undertook a part of the construction projects of Yanjing Petrochemical Company in Guangyang area, and completed the project on time and passed the acceptance inspection.

Of course, this report is actually very obscure. If you look at it literally, it is a report praising the production team's sideline construction group for not forgetting the main task of farmers and insisting on comprehensive development with grain as the key link.

When this sideline group developed their sideline businesses in the city, they did not forget the political tasks of farmers. They based themselves on the foundation and responded to the basic national policy of "taking grain as the key link and promoting comprehensive development". During the wheat harvest and autumn harvest, they returned to the production team as soon as possible to participate in labor. They were able to do both labor and sideline businesses, and the production team's life was getting better and better.

The words are few, but the language is sophisticated and would never be taken literally as advocating that farmers take the capitalist road.

The fact that this report has been published shows that many issues that were once serious problems are no longer problems.

No wonder this guy dared to start saving money and wanted to plan to do some big side business.

If it had been the situation two or three years ago, if Xie Hushan had dared to have such an idea, even if the production team made money and even if the brigade protected him, he would not have been arrested, but his side business would have been shut down.

As the person in charge, he had to accept severe criticism at the commune meeting, go on stage and make a public self-criticism, and in the end he might even be forced to shout out a few slogans of reflection, such as "Agriculture must learn from Dazhai, farmers are only allowed to engage in agriculture, production teams vigorously engaging in sideline businesses is speculation and profiteering, taking the capitalist road, taking grain as the key link, and the line of all-round development must not be shaken."

"After the Yaoshan earthquake, a large number of areas need to be rebuilt. After seeing the newspaper, did you want to follow their example and start a construction sideline group?" When Yang Liming heard that this guy went out every day, he knew that Xie Hushan could not be planning to learn from the rural construction group in Yanjing City, but he still asked this deliberately.

Xie Hushan nodded seriously: "I want to follow what is said in the newspaper and organize a construction sideline group to come to the city. Leader, if you have any connections in the county to take on construction work, introduce them to us."

"As soon as you opened your mouth, I knew you were trying to fool me again, so I was on guard against you." Yang Limin saw that the other party was following his line of thought, and immediately pierced the other party with a sharp remark:
"You are saving money, but you don't need to save money to join the construction team. Besides, you ride your bike to the city every day, so you must know that in order to help rebuild the Yaoshan area, the country has dispatched more than a dozen large enterprises, such as China Construction, China Railway Construction, China Railway, and China Metallurgical Construction, all of which are large state-owned enterprises. Each enterprise is responsible for an area, and hundreds of thousands of workers are brought by these enterprises. They are afraid that the reconstruction work will draw too much manpower from the local area and affect the normal development of Yaoshan."

Xie Hushan looked at Yang Limin's expression and finally nodded: "Yes, that was the initial idea. Later, I wanted to see if it was possible to set up a small furniture factory. The harvest has been good in the past two years. Everyone has some money and is busy building houses and getting married. If the team sets up a small furniture factory, we can produce some good-looking furniture in the style of the big furniture factories in the city, so that the farmers' homes can also look more fashionable, and the benefits should be good."

Yang Liming sat cross-legged opposite the table on the kang, holding a cigarette between the fingertips of his left hand and pushing the frame of his glasses on his nose with his right hand, without saying a word.

"I'm telling the truth this time. Why didn't I say it directly? Mainly because I was worried that there might be a lot of resistance. Secretary Han is a conservative. Apart from farming, he thinks any side job is dispensable. I haven't figured out how to convince him yet..."

"It's fake. This is not your character. I tell you, since the day you cheated me of my meal ticket, I have thought about your whole set of tricks countless times. I have probably figured out what kind of person you are." Yang Limin interrupted Xie Hushan and said with a smile in a positive tone:
"You are a smart guy who can walk with a pile of fresh cow dung in his arms and avoid the stench of cow dung. Zhongping Village is an agricultural village with a lot of fertile land. It is a harvest brigade registered in the city. Secretary Han's disdainful attitude towards side jobs every time he holds a meeting in the county can't fool anyone. You even let your fifth uncle take the blame for the dung scam. It seems that you want to take a big step and be the first to come forward. Are you the one who is going to offend Secretary Han? If you were really an honest person, you wouldn't have done the stewed meat and baked goods. You would have gone straight to the furniture factory plan. Your current situation is that you want to run a factory, but you don't want to cause trouble, and you have to go around in circles."

"...You wouldn't keep investigating me just to get a few meal tickets, right? I'm not the murderer of my father." Xie Hushan was stunned. He thought that Yang Liming would believe him when he told him the idea of ​​the furniture factory. He didn't expect that this bastard would judge from his personality that he was not the kind of person who was willing to bear the infamy and take big steps to start a side business under pressure. From this point, he was sure that he was talking nonsense again, and even guessed that he would definitely have to go around in circles and finally set up the factory.

"If you keep thinking about people like this... you'll easily lose friends." Xie Hushan opened his mouth and said to Yang Limin:

"And you better keep a low profile. This is Zhongping Village. You are like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth. You need to be more discerning." "We are chatting privately and it doesn't involve work. Judging from your expression, I guessed right. The furniture factory should be the final idea, but you will definitely have to go through another circle in the middle, and then this link in the middle must also be successful. Only in this way can you move forward step by step to the planning of setting up a furniture factory. I just don't know what that circle in the middle is." Yang Liming saw Xie Hushan's reaction and still responded with a warm smile.

However, Xie Hushan felt that this fellow's smile deserved a beating. Just because he fooled him once, he regarded himself as a typical farmer to be studied?
"The latest page." Xie Hushan sighed and pointed to the notebook to Yang Liming.

Yang Liming picked up the notebook and turned to the latest page, which recorded the prices of firewood that Xie Hushan had inquired about at various markets. The farthest market was even close to the Xishan area, which showed that he had traveled a lot.

"Do you need a lot of cheap firewood?" Yang Liming asked puzzledly after reading it.

"Leader, can you get coal? If you can get a stable supply of coal, you won't need firewood. In the future, I will definitely set up a tablet for you while you are still alive and burn incense to bless you with promotion, wealth and a long life." Xie Hushan asked back.

Yang Limin immediately shook his head: "I can't get it. It's not that powerful. Coal is not an ordinary daily necessities. I can't get it if it's not stable, let alone stable supply."

Xie Hushan put out his cigarette butt and said, "After the stewed pork business got on track, I rode my bicycle around the world to investigate and see if I could do some side business. Then I found that several large brick factories in the county were doing very good business. Every day, there were trucks and tractors lining up in front of the factories to pull bricks, and many rural people came to the factories to beg for help in buying bricks."

"It is impossible for the three large brick factories in the county to sell to rural areas at present. They will all give priority to supplying urban reconstruction projects. In addition, data from the county committee shows that each commune and brigade basically has its own small brick factory." Yang Liming said.

"The small brick kilns in rural brigades lack coal. Once the coal is out, they can only burn firewood and charcoal. The quality of the red bricks fired in this way is uncontrollable. Some batches have good quality, but there are also a large number of red bricks that are brittle and easy to break due to insufficient temperature. Therefore, no one will buy them even if they are one cent cheaper than those in large brick factories. After all, everyone has just experienced the earthquake disaster and knows that they cannot be greedy in this regard." Xie Hushan said to Yang Limin:

"The current situation is that bricks from state-owned brick factories are in short supply and rural people cannot buy them. The low-quality bricks from small brick factories in various brigades are not in demand, even at reduced prices."

"You need to find a stable supply of firewood..." Yang Liming asked subconsciously.

Xie Hushan's tone suddenly changed, and he said with a mysterious smile: "I have a way to find it."

"..." When Yang Limin heard this and saw Xie Hushan's expression, he was stunned. His face changed for a long time before he sighed and smiled bitterly.
"Did I fall into your trap because of my curiosity? Do I have to take the blame like Uncle Wu?"

"That's why they say that leaders from the county are different. They are smart. Even Ma Laowu can't figure it out." Xie Hushan held onto the table and said happily:

"Don't listen to Ma Laowu's nonsense. You are not taking the blame. It's all credit. I was worried about this matter. The county sent you here. The leader and I thought the same thing. He knew that there was work to be done here and needed cadres to take the lead and break the resistance for the masses."

"Can I not take the lead?" The smile on Yang Liming's face was no longer warm at all, only bitterness. He kept regretting why he was curious about what kind of side job this kid was doing to save money!
He can do whatever he wants, just help with the autumn harvest! He didn't learn his lesson last time!
Ma Laowu was right when he said that Xie Hushan was a wicked person. He was simply setting traps without being visible, and it was impossible to guard against him. As they were chatting, suddenly the blame was laid on them.

Xie Hushan chuckled, "What do you think? You eat my food, sleep on my kang, and I have to sleep with you at night. You want to leave without leaving some benefits? No way!"

(End of this chapter)