The golden age began in 1977

Chapter 183 The applause was enthusiastic, and the mountain breeze was warm.

The tractor bumped along the rugged mountain road once again.

Xiping Production Brigade has five production teams, totaling more than 500 households and 3,000 people, making it a true brigade.

The first production team was some distance from the brigade headquarters, and it took the tractor more than ten minutes to get there.

The first household they were going to visit was the family of a martyr, who was also a family receiving the "Five Guarantees" (a government-provided social welfare program for the elderly, disabled, and orphans).

The only adult left in the family is the old lady, who is raising her three grandchildren.

In front of the low adobe house, a wooden plaque that reads "Glorious Family Member of a Martyr" is stuck crookedly.

When I opened the door, a damp, musty smell hit me.

The room was pitch black, with only the faint glow of the unburnt firewood in the stove.

An elderly woman in her sixties or seventies groped her way up from the kang (a heated brick bed). Zhou Tiezhen had already introduced her along the way.

She broke her back in December two years ago.

It was the middle of the night when the old lady fell and injured her back while going to the toilet.

The elderly are most afraid of falling.

Because their bones are already very fragile, with a high inorganic content and low organic content, they are prone to fracture and do not easily recover after fracture.

"Sixth Aunt, the leaders of the supply and marketing cooperative have come to see you," Zhou Tiezhen said loudly.

The old lady was very optimistic and laughed, "I'm not hard of hearing, why are you shouting?"

"I know the leader is here. The third brother just ran back and gave me this."

She stretched out her hand, her fingers slightly deformed, and inside was a large White Rabbit candy.

Qian Jin placed the flour on the chipped cabinet and saw a framed photo on the cabinet, showing a young soldier smiling at him.

The others also put their things down.

Stacked on the cabinet, they somehow managed to create the appearance of a small mountain.

Seeing so many things, the old lady was surprised and excited. She quickly moved to the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed):
"I've troubled the government, I've made them go through all this trouble, and they've sent me gifts again. Why are they sending me gifts when it's not a holiday?"

Old Zhou explained, "Every year during the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, the commune would come to deliver gifts to the families of martyrs and soldiers."

"However, they don't send that much. Usually, they send five catties of millet or two catties of wheat flour along with five or eight catties of cornmeal and sorghum rice."

The old lady wiped away tears with emotion: "I know the government is facing difficulties right now, so why are they still sending so many things to my home?"

Zhou Tiezhen pointed at Qian Jin and said, "This time it wasn't the commune leaders who came to deliver the goods, it was the director of the supply and marketing cooperative."

The old lady was taken aback: "This is Director Ma? Everyone says you're not young anymore, how come you look so young?"

"Director Ma got fired by the county for having an affair," Wang Xiaoying chuckled. "This is the new Director Qian."

"Sixth Aunt, you don't need to be so polite. Just curse Ma Defu, that son of a bitch. Director Qian is not the same kind of cadre as him. Director Qian came here specifically to visit our five-guarantee households and families of martyrs."

"We also need to help our brigade set up a dual-service store," Old Zhou added.

"Good, good, Ma Defu quit? That's great, a good cadre has come, good!" The old lady's trembling hand touched the flour sack, her withered lips murmuring to herself.

"This is all wheat flour? How much wheat flour is this? Is it all for my family?"

Zhou Tiezhen opened the bag for her: "Yes, it's all wheat flour, a full twenty jin of wheat flour."

"Look, there's still snow-white rice here." He then untied a smaller bag next to him.

"Director Qian got a sponsorship from a company in the city. He's really generous. A pound of white sugar and a pound of brown sugar. Aunt Liu, didn't you say your second daughter always has constipation? Director Qian even gave you a pound of sesame oil. Use the sesame oil to stir-fry some pickled vegetables for her, it's a special way to cure constipation!"

The old lady was overjoyed and couldn't help rubbing her eyes: "I've never been given so many good things before, no, no, I've never seen so many good things since I was born."

Qian Jin sighed softly: "Sixth Aunt, our country is indeed still poor. The government doesn't have money. You must take good care of your health and try to live into the 21st century. Then you can live a good life."

The old woman was very content: "Life is good now. There are no Japanese devils killing people at will, and no white dogs coming into the village to steal chickens, grain, or conscript men. This is very good."

“There used to be a guy named Ma Defu who bullied our brigade, but he got fired, didn’t he? And now you, Director Qian, are in charge? You’re living a much better life!”

As she spoke, she turned around and pulled a small cloth bag from under the kang mat. She opened it layer by layer, revealing some peanuts: "These are from the first month of the lunar year. If you don't mind, please eat them..."

Qian Jin took the roasted peanuts and distributed them to the others, then grabbed a handful of fruit candies from his pocket and exchanged them for the peanuts.

While eating fried peanuts, he asked the old lady about her daily life and what supplies she lacked.

He wrote it all down in his notebook and told the other cadres, "Once the dual-agent store opens in a few days, the first thing we should do is to solve the problems that the people specifically ask for."

Zhou Tiezhen and others have already recognized that he is a good leader who gets things done, and they all support his work:
"We'll do whatever Director Qian says."

On the same hillside lived a person receiving the five guarantees (a government-provided social welfare program for the elderly, disabled, and orphans), who was an outsider.

Almost everyone in Xiping Production Brigade is surnamed Zhou, but this family receiving the five guarantees is surnamed Li. Their situation is even worse than that of Aunt Liu's family, as only Old Man Li remains.

The three thatched houses swayed precariously in the spring breeze, the thatch on the roofs blown into pieces by the wind.

Qian Jin asked in confusion, "You have quite a lot of trees on your mountain, why don't you use wood to build houses?"

Zhou Tiezhen said seriously, "Even a lot of timber is state property. How can we easily cut it down for our own use?"

Upon hearing this, Qian Jin patted him on the shoulder and said, "Okay, I'll try to find a way to get you some bricks. We need to find time to repair the house later, because it won't be safe when the heavy rains come in the summer."

He ducked and squeezed through the low doorway, nearly bumping into a string of dried chili peppers hanging on the doorframe.

The room was as cold as a cellar, and only a tattered straw mat was laid on the earthen bed.

"Uncle Li, I've brought you some grain." Old Zhou skillfully lifted the lid of the water vat, revealing only a layer of murky water at the bottom.

Old Man Li was curled up inside the kang (a heated brick bed) by the window, but like the brigade office, his window was made of wooden lattice.

This type of window is not like a glass window; it doesn't let in air.

It was April, but Old Man Li was still wearing a cotton-padded coat, patched upon patched, like a patchwork garment.

Qian Jin breathed a sigh of relief after reading it.

He knew that the country was facing difficulties in the 1970s and that the mountain villages were impoverished.

Previously, he couldn't access truly impoverished mountain villages while in the city; at most, he could only visit the Hongxing Liu Family Production Team.

No matter what, the Liu family lives by the sea and makes a living off the sea. Their life is not as good as that of people in the city, but they can still make a living.

Xiping Production Brigade was different; it was here that he truly experienced poverty.

Poverty that makes people feel physically uncomfortable.

Old Man Li is in very bad condition. He is about the same age as Aunt Liu, but he looks even worse than the old lady who has been bedridden for two years after breaking her back.

Qian Jin shook hands with him, his dark, thin fingers trembling like withered tree branches.

Zhou Tiezhen pointed to the sprouting potatoes piled up in the corner: "That's his food for the whole winter."

"Can you get full eating potatoes?" Qian Jin asked.

The cadres laughed and said, "If we can eat our fill of potatoes, then we've entered a moderately prosperous society."

On the windowsill, some wild vegetables were soaking in a chipped, rough porcelain bowl; the water had turned green.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the thatch, casting dappled patterns of light on the ground.

Qian Jin couldn't help but sigh again: "Eating wild vegetables is fine, but they can't be soaked like this. These wild vegetables are probably all spoiled."

"Uncle, at least change the water more often."

Old Li grinned and said, "Boss, it's not that I'm lazy, I just picked up something that someone else didn't want, it was already rotten."

Qian Jin fell silent.

He then took out a White Rabbit milk candy, unwrapped the wrapper, and said, "Grandpa, have one of these."

Life is too hard; there has to be some sweetness in it.

He then took out a pack of biscuits and opened it: "I'll boil a kettle of water at noon today and try some calcium milk biscuits."

Old Li looked closely and asked in surprise, "This is calcium milk biscuit?"

He brought it to his nose and smelled it, then couldn't help but laugh at everyone:

"It smells so good, is this the smell of milk? We were weaned from our mothers' arms and never saw or smelled milk again."

One of the officials chuckled and said, "Let me smell it too. Actually, I've never eaten this before."

This is neither pleading poverty nor seeking pity.

The people of Xiping Brigade are all living in poverty, and so are the families of the cadres.

Qian Jin has already realized this along the way.

According to 21st-century standards, every household in the entire brigade should be lifted out of poverty.

Not only in Xiping Brigade, but now 99% of the families in the entire commune meet the poverty alleviation standards.

Unfortunately, he was just a small commune supply and marketing cooperative director, lacking both the ability and the energy to manage everyone.

This requires policy.

After leaving Old Man Li's house, Qian Jin walked with his head down.

He was a young man who lived in the 21st century, and was once cynical and had strong opinions about the country's distribution of wealth to the people.

When he first arrived in the city, he felt that although the times were poor, there were also many commendable aspects.

For example, there is not a large gap between the rich and the poor. Take their neighborhood as an example, the family situation of Wei Xiangmi, the director of the neighborhood committee, is similar to that of most residents in their tenement building.

Take factories as another example. Factory workers have to ride bicycles to and from get off work, and so do department heads and even factory directors.

Sometimes he thinks this era is pretty good.

After being sent to the countryside, he realized that this era was bad, and that he, as a beneficiary of the system, was just doing quite well!

There are far more intelligent national leaders than him, and there are reasons why the central government chose to open its doors to the world market.

The Chinese people cannot remain poor forever.

He recalled a sarcastic saying that had circulated online before: "Believe in the wisdom of those who come after."

Looking back at that statement now, he thinks it makes perfect sense.

Every generation has its own Long March.

One generation had to shed blood and sacrifice their lives to drive out foreign invaders, another generation had to fight hard overseas to defend their homeland, and yet another generation had to tighten their belts to support the overall development of the country.

One generation will lift the country out of poverty, and another generation will make the country strong and prosperous.

How do we limit the gap between the rich and the poor? How do we enter a true socialist stage?

That will require another generation to find solutions; another generation will be needed to address the problems in social development.

Passing on the torch.

Finally, the Milky Way appeared.

Qian Jin remained silent in thought, while the others were completely still.

Zhou Tiezhen couldn't hold back any longer and said, "Director Qian, you must think we haven't done a good job, but..."

"No." Qian Jin came back to his senses. "That's not what I was thinking about. I was thinking about how the supply and marketing cooperative can help everyone live a better life."

"This 'everyone' doesn't just refer to your Xiping Brigade, but also to Changgou Production Brigade, Shuangqi Production Brigade, and so on, and if possible, it could even be all the production brigades in China!"

Zhou Tiezhen was filled with respect upon hearing this.

He said, "Everyone here knows that I'm stubborn and straightforward. I don't beat around the bush; I always say what I mean."

“I’ve met all the leaders and cadres in the commune, and I’ve met a few of them at county meetings, but I used to be unconvinced by any of them. Now I’m convinced by one of them, and that’s you, Director Qian!” Qian Jin smiled bitterly and said, “I’m not worthy of your respect. I’m just a little clever, but I don’t have any great abilities.”

“But I just admire you.” Zhou Tiezhen said bluntly, “Maybe in the future I’ll find out that you’ve also been having affairs and become a corrupt official, then I won’t admire you anymore.”

"But now I truly admire you, our entire brigade admires you, doesn't it?"

He asked the others, and they nodded vigorously.

Then we went to a family that was both a military family and a family of martyrs.

This family was in much better shape than the previous two, but their house was still dilapidated.

The low courtyard wall was built of mountain stones, with moss growing in the gaps.

All the able-bodied people in the family were at work, while an old woman with bound feet sat in the yard, basking in the sun and pounding corn with a mortar and pestle.

Seeing someone come in, she recognized him at a glance and nodded without getting up: "Da Tie, what brings you here again? Did Er Qing or Er Hong send a letter home?"

More people came in, including all the cadres from the entire brigade. He also noticed a young stranger with a serious expression...

The old woman's heart skipped a beat, and the pestle in her hand fell to the ground.

If my two grandsons who are in the army were to send a letter, there would be no need for so many people to come together, and certainly no strangers would come.

Just by looking at his clothes and demeanor, you could tell this stranger was a young cadre.

So……

The old woman recalled the scene after her eldest son sacrificed his life more than 20 years ago, and she couldn't help but burst into tears: "Oh, my Erqing, my Erhong! Where is there another war? Is it Erqing or Erhong?"

Before Qian Jin could react, Lao Zhou had already guessed what was going on:

"Sister-in-law, don't cry. What are you doing? What are you thinking about? It has nothing to do with Erqing and Erhong..."

"There are connections. If it weren't for joining the army during the 'Two Youths and Two Reds' campaigns, would their leaders have been able to send them supplies?" one cadre explained.

The old woman's cries grew even louder.

Qian Jin then realized what was going on: "No, auntie, I'm a staff member of the supply and marketing cooperative. I came to visit you, it's that simple..."

The old woman didn't believe it: "Back in 51, the cadres from the commune were watching over my mother and said the same thing. Don't I know this? You're just afraid that this old woman can't handle the shock and aren't telling me the truth..."

"Is it Erqing or Erhong? Why aren't you saying anything? It can't be that they both died, can it? Oh, my Erqing, my Erhong, the children Grandma has hugged since they were little..."

The old woman's voice was strong, and her loud cries drew the attention of the neighbors, who asked with concern, "What's wrong?"

Old Zhou explained, "Nothing's wrong, my cousin's wife is just overthinking things!"

"Captain, say something! Say something right now!"

Zhou Tiezhen blinked and asked, "Oh, does my aunt think that Erqing or Erhong have heroically sacrificed their lives?"

"Hey! Auntie, what nonsense are you talking about? I have no idea what's going on between them. They're perfectly fine!"

The old woman asked with a glimmer of hope, "Are they really alright? Swear on your party membership!"

Upon hearing that he had to swear an oath using his Party membership, Zhou Tiezhen hesitated: "How can I swear like that?"

Qian Jin and Lao Zhou suddenly felt dizzy.

Especially Qian Jin.

What kind of IQ does this battalion commander have?!

The old lady burst into tears again, and demanded that someone quickly call her second son and daughter-in-law back from work.

Old Zhou shouted, "Sister-in-law, listen to me, it's alright, it's really alright..."

"Erqing and Erhong are both dead and you think it's all over? They weren't your kids, but they still called you 'Uncle'!" The old lady pointed at him and scolded, "How can you be so heartless..."

Qian Jin patiently explained, but it was no use.

The old lady didn't believe him, saying that an outsider like him wouldn't tell the truth to an old woman like her.
"That's how it was in 51. I was afraid my mother wouldn't be able to handle the shock, so I stayed by her side and didn't say anything. I was the one who told her!"

Old Zhou helplessly pulled Qian Jin aside: "Director Qian, your words don't carry weight. Only our captain's words do."

“Our brigade leader never lies, this is universally acknowledged in the brigade, and the whole brigade trusts him.”

Qian Jin shouted, "Zhou Tiezhen, say something! Why aren't you saying anything!"

Zhou Tiezhen explained, "I haven't been in contact with Erhong and Erqing for quite some time, so I don't know what their current situation is."

“We can’t rule out the possibility of unforeseen circumstances, right? My aunt told me to swear an oath using my Party membership, but can you just swear an oath using your Party membership when it’s sacred? This situation is uncertain, so I can’t swear an oath using my Party membership…”

Qian Jin was defeated by his stubbornness: "Are you fucking stupid? Swear on your party membership and tell her who I am and what I'm here for!"

Zhou Tiezhen slapped his forehead: "That's right, we can swear on that."

He immediately said to the old lady, "Auntie, I swear on my Party membership that I really don't know anything about the 'Two Youths and Two Reds' program. This is Comrade Qian Jin, the director of the commune's supply and marketing cooperative..."

"The director of the commune's supply and marketing cooperative is that scoundrel Ma Defu." The old lady was still quite sharp-minded.

"I've met Ma Defu before. Is he Ma Defu?"

Qian Jin said, "Ma Defu had an affair with a nurse in the county town, and our leader dismissed him. Now I'm the new director!"

“Yes, he’s the new director. He’s come to our brigade to visit you five-guarantee households and families of martyrs and soldiers, to bring you things, and to set up a double-subsidy store for our brigade,” Zhou Tiezhen shouted loudly.

Old Zhou is right.

He is truly convincing.

The old lady wiped her tears with her traditional Chinese jacket and asked, "If it wasn't the 'Two Youths and Two Reds' (referring to two outstanding young cadres and two outstanding young cadres), whose glory was it? You startled me."

Qian Jin lifted the grain he was carrying and said, "I'm here to deliver gifts of comfort. If something had happened to the two soldiers, I would have brought their wills and commendation letters, not rice and flour."

The old lady said, "Who said that? My eldest son passed away in 51, and the leaders sent sweet potato flour and fried noodles to my family."

Old Zhou said, "Anyway, this time it's not..."

"Let's not dwell on this topic, let's talk about something else," Qian Jin said with a wry smile.

He glanced at the old woman's work; instead of using a mortar and pestle to crush garlic, she was grinding corn mixed with bran.
"What is this for?"

"Grind cornmeal," Old Zhou said familiarly.

Qian Jin frowned: "I saw a stone mill in the brigade, why don't you use it to grind cornmeal?"

"Besides, a mortar and pestle is a small thing; how could it possibly grind corn into powder?"

Old Zhou explained, "That's impossible, but my cousin's wife is very hardworking."

“The millstone is so heavy, how could she possibly push it? My second nephew usually pushes it.”

"It's tiring to grind corn, so my cousin's wife felt sorry for him and crushed the corn kernels herself first. Doesn't that make grinding easier?"

Qian Jin suddenly understood.

So that's how it is.

But when he looked again at the chaff being pounded in the mortar, he sighed once more.

The family had both able-bodied members and descendants of soldiers, yet they still had to mix bran into their cornmeal, which shows how hard life was in Xiping Production Brigade.

Just then, a cry came from afar: "Is it Erqing or Erhong? Is it Erqing or Erhong? Oh, my poor child..."

Zhou Tiezhen finally snapped out of it for a moment.

Without waiting for Qian Jin to express his opinion, he ran out and scolded, "Huixin, what nonsense are you talking about? Your Erqing and Erhong are both in the army protecting our country. Who's spreading rumors?"

Old Zhou helped explain Qian Jin's identity and purpose. The woman who had run back first breathed a sigh of relief: "Oh dear, I've been running all this way, I'm out of breath!"

By this time, Wang Xiaoying had already explained things to Qian Jin.

The old lady's family had three generations of soldiers. Her husband was a member of the Xiping Combat Team back then. He lived peacefully until the founding of New China, but later fell ill and passed away.

Her eldest son fought alongside his father in combat units against the Japanese and the Nationalist army during his youth, and later died fighting against American imperialism in North Korea.

Now both of his grandsons are serving in the military on the frontier:

"Actually, her second son, my second brother, was also in the army at the time, but she originally had four sons."

"The third and fourth brothers both died when the Japanese were besieging the Xiping Combat Team. The third brother died from an illness that couldn't be treated, and the youngest brother starved to death when the Japanese came in winter and stole all our food."

"So when the eldest brother sacrificed his life, the commune explained the situation to the military's power generation department. The military leaders were heartbroken when they heard the news and specially allowed the second brother, who was preparing to go to the front line, to retire from the army for special reasons and come back to take care of their parents."

"The main problem was that my uncle's health wasn't good at that time. He had damaged his body while fighting as a guerrilla in the mountains, and he had difficulty moving around after liberation," Zhou Tiezhen added.

Wang Xiaoying nodded: "Yes, the commune leaders said that families like this cannot be without children. The military leaders said that this was a special case and arranged a special discharge for my second brother, which was also an honorable discharge."

“When the collectives were first established, my second brother was the first brigade leader, but he was a quiet and inflexible person, not suitable for the position, so he resigned on his own initiative…”

Now it was Qian Jin's turn to have deep respect for the old lady and her family.

He patted his purse, pulled out five ten-yuan bills, and insisted on giving them to the old lady: "This is just a little bit of respect from me, though it's really not much."

At this moment, the old lady's second son, Zhou Gong, returned.

He was indeed a man of few words.

After learning that his two sons were alright, he went outside again.

"Where are you going?" someone asked.

Zhou Gong said honestly, "The brigade is still irrigating the fields, I have to go check on the water."

Qian Jin had mixed feelings: "Xiping Brigade is such a good brigade, and the members here are such good comrades. That damned Ma Defu is doing something inhuman, and he actually did something bad to you."

"Are there any veteran combatants still alive in your Xiping combat team?"

Zhou Tiezhen shook his head: "Our brigade is gone, and there aren't many other brigades left either. Life was too hard fighting as guerrillas in the mountains back then; their bodies were all ruined."

He introduced it to Qian Jin.

The Xiping Combat Team got its name from the guerrillas fighting in the Xiping Mountains, not because it was composed of people from their Xiping Brigade.

In reality, the composition of the guerrilla forces at that time was complex, and there were even people from other provinces.

There weren't many people with the surname Zhou in the guerrilla force. In total, there were only about twenty heroes over the nine years, but only four of them survived until the founding of the People's Republic of China, and they have all passed away intermittently.

Qian Jin said, "Anyway, you are national heroes. If Ma Defu dares to do bad things to you, go and report him to the higher authorities. It's not difficult to deal with him."

Zhou Tiezhen shook his head again: "I wrote a letter to the higher-ups, but they returned it to the commune and Ma Defu got his hands on it. He became even more ruthless towards us."

"However, we didn't use the name of the Xiping Combat Team to fight him. He's a piece of shit, and we can't let the heroic guerrilla team's reputation be tainted with shit!"

Qian Jin patted him on the back: "I understand."

"We can't let heroes shed blood and future generations weep. I'm putting this out there: your brigade will be paired with our Taishan Road team for poverty alleviation from now on. We'll find a way to develop your brigade!"

Xiping Mountain has pretty good resources.

Unfortunately, he was born at the wrong time.

Otherwise, in the 21st century, simply developing agritourism in the mountains would be enough to develop them.

Zhou Tiezhen and the others didn't think too much about it; they were simply moved by Qian Jin's promise and clapped enthusiastically, shouting, "Great!"

"Thank you, Director Qian!"

"Quickly, everyone give Director Qian a round of applause..."

The applause was very enthusiastic.

The mountain breeze is also welcoming.

The old pear tree in the yard was covered in white blossoms. A mountain breeze blew by, filling the air with fragrance, and the petals fell like snowflakes.

(End of this chapter)