Siheyuan's Journey Through the Ages

Chapter 38: Mistakes of Inexperience

Huang Dapeng spoke first: "Dad, I brought some repair tools and pots and pans with me this time. I have completed the task you assigned me. And the canned food I brought back this time was brought by Ma Qing as a gift to you. I didn't spend money recklessly. This kid is just too polite."

Mr. Huang immediately expressed his gratitude to Ma Qing generously, but then turned around and scolded his son: "I sent you to the factory to work, hoping that you could make some farm tools for your hometown, but you were useless."

Huang Dapeng immediately complained: "Our factory doesn't produce farm tools. I had to beg for these tools. I'm just a small worker. How can I have such great skills?"

Huang Dapeng changed the subject: "Dad, how is the production in Majiagou this year? Can we have enough to eat?"

Sure enough, Huang Dapeng's words seemed to touch Mr. Huang's sore spot. He did not continue to care about this incompetent son, but sighed and said, "Last year's annual performance was not good, and this year's is worse than last year. I estimate that the output will be reduced by 15% compared with last year, but the task of handing in grain has come down today, and we have to increase it by 20%. It's difficult." After saying that, Mr. Huang's originally straight spine bent down.

"With so much food missing, how can this village survive?"

"Our village is backed by the mountains, so we can still survive the hardship. But if it's still the same next year, I really don't know what to do," said Mr. Huang painfully.

"What's going on? Life is going backwards. When we were first liberated, every household had a piece of land and everyone had enough to eat. Now that we have a commune, we can't even get enough to eat."

"Shut your damn mouth. You have no right to say anything about this." Mr. Huang said angrily.

"I think my uncle is right. This commune cannot be run." Ma Qing interrupted.

Mr. Huang was obviously relieved and glanced at Ma Qing with an unclear look.

"You young people don't understand anything and just look at the surface. I'm really anxious but I can't say anything. Today we are all family, so I will tell you everything so that you won't talk nonsense outside."

Mr. Huang cleared his throat and said, "I joined the revolution to make the poor no longer suffer from poverty. I was so passionate about it, and no one knew if it would succeed. But under your leadership, it really worked. To be honest, I didn't expect it. I really didn't expect it."

Grandpa Huang lit a cigarette, "After liberation, we divided the land. I was in charge of the work at that time, and I ask myself, I have been fair and just, and I have a clear conscience. But things did not develop as I imagined. Three years, just three years, some villagers who were allocated land sold the land, lost their land again, and became hired laborers." Huang Dapeng's eldest brother Huang Daying interrupted, "I know about this. The Zhang family at the east end of the village bought the land of the Ma family. In fact, it's not anyone else's fault. The Ma family is too lazy. They don't farm well and don't keep their house clean. They are a family of lazy people, and they deserve it."

"That's what you think, you fool." Mr. Huang scolded.

"The Zhang family always says how hardworking they are, how good their farming skills are, how attentive they are to their fields, and how their harvest is better than others. You actually believed it. How could I have a son like you?" Mr. Huang said anxiously, "I don't believe that people can sell their fields in three years no matter how lazy they are. I also don't believe that someone can buy land with three years of harvest. So I did some research and found that I made a mistake, a very serious mistake."

Mr. Huang took a sip of water and continued, "When we divided the land, we took into account the issue of fertile fields and poor fields. We did not divide the land according to the average number of acres per person, but divided it according to the output. At that time, I thought that this was fair enough. As long as everyone worked together, the final harvest would always be the same. But I made a mistake. Although the harvest is the same, the efforts are different."

"The land allocated to the Zhang family is by the river. When they need to irrigate, they just dig the ridges with a hoe, and the land is irrigated in the time it takes to smoke a cigarette while standing on the ridges. The land of the Ma family is far from the river and the terrain is higher than the river. When they want to irrigate the land, they have to fetch water from the river and transport it to their own land, time and time again. Although they have ox carts, try to transport the river water that can irrigate 10 acres of land from the river to their land. Both people and oxen are exhausted. The more labor people and oxen do, the more they eat. Not only do people eat more, but oxen eat more too. The Ma family has to cut a lot of grass to feed the oxen, and they have to work hard. In this way, the Zhang family is relaxed. In their spare time, they can do carpentry to earn some money. The Ma family just wants to lie down after work. They don't even have time to clean up the house, and you still call them lazy."

Mr. Huang turned to Ma Qing and said, "You are a scholar from the Fourth City. Tell me how big the gap is."

Ma Qing took out a notebook and said as he calculated, "Assuming that the Zhang family has 10 mu of high-yield land, with a yield of 400 catties per mu, then the Ma family should have 300 mu of low-yield land with a yield of 13.3 catties per mu. Assuming that the Zhang family puts in 1 point of labor per mu, 10 mu of land means 10 points of labor. According to what the old man just said about the Ma family's situation, the labor required for each mu of land is at least 10 points, so the Ma family's 13.3 mu of land means 133 points of labor. Because they put in more labor, they consume more grain. If everyone has the same surplus at the end of the year, the labor put in by the Ma family will be 13.3 times that of the Zhang family." After Ma Qing finished the calculation, he was shocked.

Mr. Huang praised: "As expected of a scholar from the old city, the actual gap may not be so big, but it's almost the same. You know what labor represents? Labor is the blood and bones of a person. The old Ma family has been working for three years. Maybe it's bad luck, but I think it's inevitable. The eldest son is sick and has no money to treat him. What should I do? Sell the land to the old Zhang family."

Mr. Huang went on to say, "When I learned about this, I wanted to slap myself. I didn't hate the Zhang family for taking advantage of others. I just felt that I didn't do my job well. And even if we take a step back, the land that the Zhang family and the Ma family were allocated was exactly the same. It was because the Ma family was lazy that they fell into decline and sold the land. That also went against my original intention."

"Later we changed it to mutual aid groups (1952-1954); later we adopted the cooperative approach to develop production. The first stage was called the primary cooperative (1954-1956); the second stage was called the advanced cooperative (1956-1958). We hoped to give full play to everyone's collectivism, improve production efficiency, build water conservancy projects, increase grain production, and ensure that everyone can live a good life, rather than going back to the old path."

I will not write about policies anymore as they are always changing. From now on the main focus will be purely on life.

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(End of this chapter)