Back to 1978

Chapter 87 Going home for the New Year
On the second day after the Zhongping Brigade was awarded the title of "Divine Weapon Pioneer Team", all kinds of strange and avant-garde aerial pulley sets began to appear in other brigades.

If Xie Hushan had not seen it with his own eyes, it would have been hard for him to imagine the brutal creativity and courage of this group of rural militiamen.

There are all kinds of routes and methods. Some are so desperate that the pulley lines they set up are almost at right angles to the ground.

In Xie Hushan's opinion, there is no need for a pulley system. It is a waste of pulleys and ropes. He can just put a pile of straw bales underneath and jump down. If he is not killed by the fall, he can just get up and push the cart. Why bother to hang a rope and jump? It is a waste of time to put a rope around himself.

There were even two groups of militiamen who, because of the problem of intersecting air routes, planned to find a deserted area to have a fight, and the outcome would determine the ownership of that route.

Due to various problems caused by the increase in number of people, the command center later began to require all brigades not to hastily use similar pulley tools. If a pulley block needed to be set up, they had to ask the engineering department of the general command center to check whether it was necessary before making a decision. Finally, the grassroots scientific research trend initiated by Xie Hushan was suppressed.

Although there was no opportunity to replicate the myth of the Zhongping militia's sudden arrival, it was not difficult for the militia comrades who wanted to show their active performance. As soon as January 1979 came, a new wave of movement arose on the construction site.

This year's New Year's Eve is on January 1th. Although the project is required to be supported for three months, considering that the Spring Festival is approaching, the construction site headquarters decided to arrange for all militia teams coming from afar to evacuate ten days in advance to ensure that everyone can go home for the New Year.

So some militia battalions began to write "letters of determination" to the general headquarters, expressing their determination not to go home during the Spring Festival and to work hard at the construction site in order to complete the reservoir dam as soon as possible and achieve victory in the battle as soon as possible.

After the first letter of determination was praised by the general headquarters, the second, third, and other letters of determination with passionate words followed one after another.

The general command was infected by the enthusiasm of the militia comrades and announced that it would cooperate with the militia battalions that voluntarily stayed to hold a Spring Festival battle. Nearly half of the militia battalions that should have completed their river engineering tasks and returned to the production teams chose to stay during the Spring Festival to participate in the battle.

There is never a shortage of hot-headed soldiers among the Zhongping militia. When the trend of the Spring Festival battle came, at least thirty people expressed their determination to Xie Hushan, asking them to collectively write a blood oath, petitioning not to go home for the Spring Festival, but to stay at the construction site and fight to the end, and win first place in the battle.

"Stop showing off, okay? How can you not have any sense at all?" Xie Hushan tried his best to persuade these guys:

"Give other brigades a chance to fight for honor. We are already divine soldiers, we have become gods, so we should stop competing with ordinary people and writing blood letters... Where can we get blood to find work for the medical staff?"

"Those who stayed behind were militia brigades that hadn't even managed to grab a single red flag. They were underachieving students who couldn't compete physically or mentally. All they had left was a little determination and willpower. They hoped to trade time for honor. If they had managed to grab a red flag once, they wouldn't have been forced to become intellectuals and write letters to the headquarters."

The people of Bingyang County have strong attachment to their hometown. They can travel around at any time during normal times, but they must go home during the Chinese New Year. Moreover, they are all young men in their teens and 18s, so how can they not want to go home for the Chinese New Year?

The teams that voluntarily stayed behind were all the kind of people who were too ashamed to face the people of Jiangdong when they returned home, and were trapped by a group of monster colleagues and had nowhere else to go, so they racked their brains to come up with a possible chance to win honor.

I just wanted to wait for a group of single-day champions to go home for the New Year, and then my team would take advantage of the fact that there were not many people around during the Spring Festival, take advantage of the opportunity, get a red flag, and go back in glory.

As a result, the militiamen of the Zhongping Brigade had no sense of propriety at all and were determined to stay and compete with others, not giving them any chance to survive.

This is equivalent to more than 200 militiamen in his brigade having been admitted to Tsinghua University and Peking University, and they are also preparing to apply to their teachers to take the college entrance examination, which will increase the psychological burden on their defeated generals in the college entrance examination and increase the chance of poor performance. Is this something a human being would do?

If it were 2024, these thirty-odd fools who came to me to petition and express their stance would be scolded by the majority of netizens and would be at a loss as to what to do.

On January 1979, 1, the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Zhongping Shenbing Pioneer Team got up early in the morning, washed and had breakfast. Instead of going to work, they carried their bedding and dismantled the shack where they had lived for eighty days.

A red flower was pinned on his chest by the young female comrades of the command center. Amid the affectionate farewell speech at the radio station, he successfully completed the construction mission of the Zhongping Brigade in supporting the reservoir project and embarked on the journey home.

The construction site headquarters arranged several Dongfeng trucks to take them to the Bingyang County long-distance bus station. The rest of the journey was handled by the Zhongping Production Brigade, which had been notified to pick up the militiamen who had gloriously completed the river engineering mission. The construction site also gave each militiaman a transportation subsidy of 35 cents to ensure that if the brigade was unreliable and failed to arrange a vehicle to pick them up, they would have money to take a long-distance bus and would not be unable to return home.

Fortunately, it was not unreliable. The 19 production teams of Zhongping Brigade had arranged mule carts to wait at the bus station early. Each production team had two large carts, and the militia of each team got on the carts of their respective teams.

"Uncle Lu, Uncle Wei!" Xie Hushan greeted the two drivers who came to pick up people from the third production team. "Hu Saner, get in the car and go back to have a good rest. The team is waiting to hold a celebration party for you tonight!" The two drivers smiled and greeted him:
"You are good! Our team knows about it. The county officials took the initiative to shake hands with you when they came to the construction site. You sat while they stood. I heard that you even developed a homemade airplane that can fly all over the sky, which shocked more than 10,000 people at the construction site."

Fifteen people got on two mule carts. After getting on the carts, while others were blocking him, Xie Hushan unbuttoned his pants and focused on tearing the pocket of the urea nylon shorts inside his cotton pants. The pocket was sewn by his grandmother before he set out. It was a deadlock and there was no other way to open it except to tear it hard.

After tearing it open, inside were five one-dollar bills that grandma had specially wrapped in oil paper.

A poor family has a rich journey. No matter how poor the family is, when the children go on a long journey, the adults in the family will find ways to make the children carry more money.

Not only Xie Hushan, but the more than 200 people in the militia brigade may have some "secret funds" given to them by their families hidden in patches somewhere on their clothes or in pockets.

After taking out the money, Xie Hushan said to the driver, "Uncle Wei, can we stop at the gate of the county bicycle factory for a while? I'll go down and it will only take me two packs of cigarettes."

"What's wrong with that?" Uncle Wei said as he drove.

"By the way, do you have enough dry food in your car for long journeys?" Xie Hushan asked again about the dry food in the other party's car for long journeys.

The so-called dry food for long journeys is not for the driver to eat himself, but to exchange for some rare food or fruits in other places. Also, in case of emergency when the car breaks down or the animals are injured on the road and he needs to ask for help nearby, these things can be given as rewards. They are usually some easy-to-preserve rural specialties or a few kilograms of grain.

"There is a small bundle of vermicelli, a bag of frozen tofu, and five pounds of corn dregs. I traveled a long way to prepare them the day before yesterday." Uncle Wei said, "What's the matter? Are you hungry? There is nothing to eat. Just bear with it until you get home."

"Let me borrow it first. When I get home, I'll buy the goods and return it to you. I'll give it to someone else." Xie Hushan said.

"Then you can use it first. What's the matter? Do you want to give some gifts and use your connections to buy a bicycle?" When he heard that Xie Hushan wanted to use it, Old Man Wei said generously.

When they heard about buying a bicycle, the other people in the car also became interested. They looked at Xie Hushan, and Han Hongbing asked, "What's the matter, Commander Xie, are you going to buy a means of transportation?"

"Why buy a bicycle? Old Yang and Accountant Zhao already have bicycles. Why spend that money?" Xie Hushan said confidently:
"I was thinking of coming out to bring some things back to my grandma Daxiu and the others."

Chen Daxi leaned on the quilt to block the cold wind: "What do you want to buy? Come to the bicycle factory to buy it. Is it delicious?"

"You don't have anything else to pursue except eating. You'll know after I buy it." Xie Hushan smiled.

When the mule cart arrived near the Bingyang Bicycle Factory, Xie Hushan jumped off the cart carrying frozen tofu, corn bran and vermicelli, and ran straight to the duty room of the bicycle factory. Han Hongbing and others watched for a while, and then Xie Hushan was let in by the people in the duty room, and walked towards the factory area with his things in his hands.

About half an hour later, when several people were so cold that they were about to go downstairs to move around, this guy finally came out. The food in his hands was gone, and he was carrying a bag of fertilizer on his back. He stood in the duty room and said a few words to the people inside, lit a cigarette for someone, then left the factory and returned to the mule cart.

"If you don't come back, we're going to vote. Should we attack the bicycle factory to save you, or elect a new commander?" Han Hongbing complained while blowing hot air from his mouth on his hands.

"Go home for the New Year!" Xie Hushan threw his pocket into the car and said contentedly.

Several people leaned over and asked, "What did you buy?"

As he spoke, he stretched out his hand to open the bag and took a peek inside. He was immediately surprised and said:
"Fuck! Commander Xie, are you sure you bought this? Didn't your kid steal it?"

(End of this chapter)