Hunger for a hundred years

Chapter 35 (15)
The cadres of the commune and the brigade took a few glances at the empty dam, then went to He Zhongbao's house and had lunch at his house.At around three o'clock in the afternoon, the commune member's meeting chaired by the secretary of the brigade and attended by commune cadres and more than a hundred people, large and small, from Hejiapo, was held in an abandoned kiln above the Liang family's private plot behind He Dawu.More than a hundred people sat casually up and down the kiln, listening to the brigade secretary read a book.The secretary of the brigade has one eye, and every time he reads a sentence, the eye that has been closed for decades will try to open it a few times, as if he is begging the eye that has been blind for many years to help him not to mispronounce a word.Because it is not an ordinary book, but a "red book".It took two hours for the one-eyed secretary to finish reading the selected content, and let out a long sigh of relief.Then, the cadres from the commune said a few words, which were also taken from the book.After speaking, they left, and the meeting ended.

The cadres of the commune and the secretary of the brigade did not express any specific opinions on the demolition of our house by He Zhongbao’s family. The broad ax came to repair our house.

I quietly asked my elder brother He Kou: "Why did the commune officials not ask them to repair it?"
He Kou pulled me aside and said mysteriously: "Chairman Mao told them to cultivate, how dare they not cultivate?!"
I didn't say anything.At that moment, I was full of infinite reverence for the man named "Chairman Mao". Chairman Mao was not even afraid of the reincarnated He Huaqiang, Chairman Mao was too powerful!He Kou also said that Chairman Mao originally wanted to dismiss He Zhongbao as the captain, but Chairman Mao gave He Zhongbao a chance to correct his mistakes.

After this incident, although the people on Poshang were still secretly mysterious in their hearts, they still half believed in the little girl (the little girl was carried home by He Zhongbao and never showed her face again), but since she couldn't There's nothing to argue about changing things fundamentally.The only notable change is that He Kou's position on the slope has improved a lot.

In the mid-autumn of that year, He Zhongbao, the production leader of Hejiapo, together with dozens of other production leaders, accompanied the secretary of the county party committee to the land of southern Sichuan for investigation, because a "Dazhai-like" advanced county popped out of the flat ground.After returning from the inspection, He Zhongbao was full of enthusiasm, and actively responded to the call of the county party secretary, leading the whole team down the mountain to build a "dam" on the Qingxi River: build a bridge over the river, spread soil on the bridge, and grow crops in the soil.

Yongle County decided to build two barrages in the middle and lower reaches of Qingxi River.The one in the middle reaches is at the Liangqiao that goes straight down from Hejiapo. This section of the river is wider, and the barrage built will be more spectacular, and the income will be more abundant.The main labor force of the three communes is concentrated here.The man was splitting rocks on the mountain on the other side of the river, and the chant of the mountain opening resounded through the sky: "Hey, hey, let's go, hey, that diamond drill, my dear boy, hey, go there quickly Drilling through the cracks—hey—"The women, except for He Zhongcai's daughter Yinghua, all carried baskets on their backs, carrying stones and earth.Yinghua is like a man, with Shengle at his waist, hanging in the air, throwing his arms and swinging a sledgehammer, and shouting the "Kaishan" with a wild tune.When the secretary of the county party committee came to inspect, he called Yinghua to him, praised her for coming out of the exploitative class where her parents got something for nothing, and shook hands with her.The secretary of the county party committee was tall and wearing a woolen overcoat. When he shook hands with Yinghua, a reporter took a picture of him and published it in the regional party newspaper.

Farmers want to shake hands with their parents and officials, so they are more motivated, and there are more women cutting mountains and rocks with men.He Zhongbao said that there was a woman on the downstream construction site. Her husband had just died and her baby was just one month old. She tied the baby around her waist and went up and down the cliff to chisel; Going down, the stone strips she opened were all reflected with red plum blossoms—that was blood, a woman's menstrual blood! .Because He Zhongbao is eloquent and has a strong agitation ability, and from the incident of repairing He Da's house, the higher-ups think that he can correct his mistakes and correct them. He is a good comrade. More importantly, the township cadre who had a good relationship with He Zhongbao before , has now been transferred to the district, so not long after the barrage started, He Zhongbao became the deputy commander of the construction site.The purpose of the deputy commander's words is very clear, it is to criticize the women in the middle reaches for not working hard.The first example is in the midstream, so this should become a banner, and the downstream should not be allowed to steal the limelight.Since then, 60.00% of the women in the middle reaches were hung by thick hemp ropes, and they all dangled in the sky like Yinghua.

The stones on the mountain, which have grown so high into the sky for thousands of years, have to be boned!Normally, the two mountains look like boxers at war, vying for the only lover, Qingxihe, but now they have become an inseparable whole, intimate brothers.The two brothers were angry at the arrogant and arrogant human beings, as if they had made an appointment, they collapsed at the same time at noon one day.

The Qingxi River, which is tender, rational and deep like a wise man, makes a huge whistling sound.

In this rock collapse, eleven people died in the middle, and He Jiapo accounted for one, that is He Zhongcai's daughter Yinghua.

Dedicated to a great cause, of course, can not be sad.He Zhongbao said, "Good death!"
He Zhongcai's tears welled up again and again, and he forcibly swallowed them into his stomach. He followed his second brother and said, "Good death."
After the collapse of the mountain, the chant of opening the mountain still resounded through the sky, but people seemed to be unable to hear the excitement anymore.Except for He Zhongbao and a small number of activists, most people are calculating: How long will it take to bring the mountain down?How long will it take to erect the bridge?In the process, how many lives will be lost?And on the barrage built at such a high cost, how many mouths can the crops planted make up?After such a calculation, all the initial pride was washed away by the flowing water.

He Zhongbao keenly noticed the signs of this wavering, and held meetings one after another.Of course, he couldn't set aside special time for the meeting, but during the break, or even when everyone was swinging a sledgehammer to carry earth and rocks, he held a dry battery horn in his hand and preached loudly.He was also doing calculations, and his calculations were different from what everyone else did. He said, "Think about it, if two dams are built on the Qingxi River alone, how many rivers and rivers are there in the whole country? There should be [-]." Right? Build two on each river, [-] rivers are [-], one dam contributes [-] catties of grain, how much is [-]? Is it? The pile is a mountain, higher than the sum of Laojun Mountain and Yanghou Mountain, what a shit!"
Such agitation is of course effective. How could the villagers on this river have seen tens of thousands of catties of grain? The word "tens of millions" is abstract to them, but Laojun Mountain and Yanghou Mountain are real. They thought, if the grain piled up to the height of Laojun Mountain and Yanghou Mountain, would they still need to be hungry?At that time, no matter what project you do, you don't need to bring a steamed cold red sweet potato by yourself like now! -- Time is running out, and I haven't had time to steam it yet, and the mud will be chewed down.I am not afraid of eating cold sweet potatoes, and I am not afraid of eating raw sweet potatoes. The key is to be hungry, and I can’t even eat sweet sweet potatoes!And besides the sweet potato, there is nothing to eat!I heard that a middle-aged man in Guandu River in the lower reaches had a stomach problem before. Two-thirds of his stomach was removed.One day after work, he was so hungry that he grabbed a raw sweet potato and gnawed it. Before he finished eating the sweet potato, his clothes were soaked in sweat. When he was hammering, he suddenly vomited blood, and he couldn't finish the game. He finally vomited all the blood and died. If there were grain piled as high as Laojun Mountain and Yanghou Mountain, the man at Guandu River would be able to eat rice and sorghum. It will not be perforated by the red sweet potato.

After thinking about it for a while, people's spirits were raised again, and the chant of opening the mountain was also resounding.

Fifty days later, a notice came suddenly from above: stop building barrages!

The people withdrew, returning to their respective production teams.On the banks of the Qingxi River, only mountains of rocks remain.

He Zhongbao felt a great loss when he stopped building the barrage.

In fact, in He Zhongbao's heart, he didn't think that the construction of the barrage would really produce much food. He understood it as a "movement".He Zhongbao has personally experienced too many sports.In one movement after another, He Zhongbao suffered a lot: he was sent home from the countryside, and he was slapped in Niujiaoxi. But he didn't care about these, but he thoroughly understood: "Sports" is really a good thing! "Movement" is like a fitness ball held in the hands of the operator. It has a kind of inertia, which can easily entrain any free molecules. What comes in is not scary at all, because it is already outside the mainstream, outside the collective, and it will fend for itself alone.

He Zhongbao feels that Hejiapo really needs a movement, because it is becoming more and more disorderly!It was clear that his father, He Huaqiang, came back to ask for real estate after he was reincarnated. He obeyed his father's wishes and led his brothers and children to demolish He Da's house. He just demolished it but didn't take it back. As a result, He Kou invited the cadres from the brigade and the commune. , meeting to get them fixed.The officials of the commune also said that he was promoting superstition, which really broke his heart. His father's reincarnation as a woman is enough to make him sad, and he added salt to his wounds!Besides, what is it?How could he mobilize the cadres of the commune and brigade?It was a shame to tear it down and then repair it. Since several purlins and rafters were broken during the demolition, He Zhongcai even went to his own firewood mountain to cut the best cypress trees. It took a lot of time to peel and saw. It took a few days to replace the broken ones, which is an even greater shame.Afterwards, someone proposed to hold a meeting to fight against the landlord He Zhongcai. He Da said, "The purlins that Brother Zhongcai gave me were much stronger than the original ones, so I won't fight anymore." What is it again?To fight or not to fight, why is he in charge? ——This is shame on top of shame!
In those days, a series of visions reappeared in He Zhongbao's mind: firecrackers, bloody bones, and the cries of rock eagles. He obtained pleasure from humiliation, and drank hatred in pleasure.

He hoped to take advantage of the opportunity of building the barrage to pinch He Jiapo, who was gradually becoming disorganized, into a ball. Unexpectedly, before the completion, the fitness ball left his palm again.

He didn't realize that the power to disrupt the "order" came from the wind of the sky, and he always thought it was caused by He Tuanjie, He Kou and others.Of course he will not lose to these people, he is the captain, he has the right and the obligation to make He Jiapo orderly again!

So, he decided to engage in a plowing competition.

The season has entered winter, and this competition should have been scheduled for the next year's spring plowing, but the excited He Zhongbao couldn't wait.

He lined up and found that there were 27 cows in the village that could go on the road. He Zhongbao felt that this number was not large enough, but there was no way to do it. Although there were still a few cows in the village, they were either lame or blind. The level of the competition will also affect He Jiapo's image, because the day He Zhongbao chose to compete was a day of rushing to the field. People who looked at the Drum Tower in the east and Xujialiang in the north had to pass by when they rushed to the Dongba field. The section from the field ridge to Anzisi Temple is relatively flat, and people from other villages also go down from here, passing through Yantang, Yanjiapo, Leichao Bay, down to Qingxi River, and then along the river to Dongbachang.

In order to make the competition fierce and beautiful, He Zhongbao set two rules: one is that the horns of the cows are tied to red cloth, and the red cloth is numbered;

He called for the white-haired son He raised by himself.

At around 27:20 in the morning, in the tens of acres of fields from Datiangeng to Zhailiang, [-] cows with red cloth hanging from their horns were put in shackles, followed by cattlemen holding thin bitter bamboo strips behind the cows (their backs There is also a number on the board, and they have the same number as the cow's number), and the plowshare has been driven deep into the frosty, rust-smelling soil.The wooden bang team led by He Jianshen and composed of [-] people spread their legs and set up a posture. Just wait for He Zhongbao to give an order, He Jianshen will knock out an introduction, and then collectively beat the bang. When the group beats the bang, it is the beginning of the official competition up.At this moment, He Jianshen was wearing a pair of trousers that couldn't cover his knees, and the slightest gust of cold wind would make the dry black flesh on his calf tremble.He Zhongbao did not give the order for a long time.He was intoxicated by his own genius creativity.Although the advanced county like Dazhai in southern Sichuan has neat villages and countless achievements in fighting against heaven and earth, they have not thought of numbering cattle for competitions!

At the member meeting last night, He Zhongbao clearly pointed out: "This is what the Party Central Committee asked us to do. Those who can devote themselves to this competition are the greatest honors in their lives." It is precisely because of this lofty honor that He Zhongbao carefully selected Without participants, people like He Da are not eligible to participate (but he deliberately chose He Kou to knock on the wooden clapper).He Zhongbao also said: "I report the winners to the brigade, the brigade reports to the commune, the commune reports to the district, and the district reports to the county. In this way, all the way up to the Party Central Committee, think about it. What an honor this is! Of course, the champion can shake hands with the secretary of the county party committee like Yinghua, and maybe go to Xiyang, to the real Dazhai, or even to Beijing! I forgot to see Mao, the Chairman, and the Chairman." Speaking of Chairman Mao, He Zhongbao burst into tears.Chairman Mao passed away a few months ago.More than [-] people in the middle yard burst into tears.The whole Hejiapo was drowned by crying.Several old women passed out from crying, and the barefoot doctor Kuan Huan had to shake his stooped body while weeping, feeling their pulse and giving them needles.An hour later, He Zhongbao stood up, raised the lantern high, waved his short arm, and shouted like thunder: "Comrades, don't cry, we must turn our grief into strength, and do a good job in tomorrow's farming." Tian Saixi, report to the Party Central Committee, report to Chairman Mao's heroic spirit!"
Rural people always have a long time rushing to the market. They have to collect early labor, feed pigs and cows, and do other chores that must be done before they can walk down the street with confidence.The people of Xu Jialiang were notoriously slow, even if they went to Zhouzisitai to participate in the criticism meeting, they were the last batch to enter the venue shouting slogans.

No one from other villages came for a long time, He Jiapo's plowing competition dragged on until noon, and He Zhongbao did not see an order.He wants to spread his pioneering work, first to the people on the mountain, and then to the Dongba field by the people on the mountain.

As if he deliberately made trouble with He Zhongbao, none of the people who watched the Drum Tower and Xujialiang rushed to the scene that day!And after noon, it began to rain. Although the rain was small, as the saying goes, wet roads do not wet clothes in winter rain, but for people who are going downhill, the most fearful thing is wet roads.

The rain has been falling non-stop, and the road surface has been eroded by the winter rain to leave a thin layer of skin. If you don't pay attention, you will fall into somersaults.It seems that the people on the mountain will not come down.He Zhongbao couldn't wait any longer. He could clearly see that no matter whether it was a cow or a human, they all looked tired, especially the men, women and children who stood on the slopes and watched the battle, showing considerable impatience. The man squatted on the ridge of the field and smoked , the women are in groups of three or four, chattering and twittering, indifferent to the things in the field.Especially the few who asked him to go to the street to buy salt in the morning but were not approved, their faces were full of sorrow.He Zhongbao looked around the entire slope with glaring eyes, and suddenly burst out: "Start work!"
(End of this chapter)