Qian Shulan looked at Wang Danna. After working so hard for so many days, this fair-skinned girl had been tanned like a black woman. Her face was sallow, her back was unconsciously bent because of exhaustion, and her whole body was filled with fatigue.
Bending over to water the plants may seem easy, but if you were asked to do it for eighteen hours a day for a month, it would be really torturous. Even strong laborers couldn't handle it, let alone a weak girl like Wang Danna.
Wang Danna is actually a very realistic person at heart.
It is both right and wrong to say that she likes Hong Soon Woo very much. It is true that she likes Hong Soon Woo, but at the same time, her liking is conditional, that is, she has to feel comfortable.
This girl, who was neglected by her original body since childhood, has a strong sense of self-protection.
A person who has never enjoyed maternal love will either have a strong desire for maternal love, like Hong Sun-woo.
Or you can just do whatever you want, like Wang Danna.
She couldn't say Wang Danna was wrong. There were too many stupid women in this world, and she admired girls like Wang Danna who always thought for herself.
There is no woman who does not want to marry for love. However, many marriages in this world cannot be called the destination of love. Most families are just two people living together.
But although she admired Wang Danna's calmness and self-control, she also hated people who were irresponsible and had no bottom line.
"I have no objection to you dating Guo Mingde. But you have to agree to one condition of mine."
Wang Danna saw her mother's serious expression and felt a little uneasy for some reason. "Mom, please tell me."
"Before we get married, I don't care about you. But after we get married, if Guo Mingde gets down and out one day, and he doesn't treat you badly, you can't leave him. The Wang family can't accept a daughter like Chen Shimei. Do you understand?"
Many things in this world cannot remain unchanged. Especially in this era, things change rapidly and anything can happen.
Before marriage, she didn't care what happened to Wang Danna. But after marriage, it became a matter of two families.
If Wang Danna did something like abandoning her lover, it would ruin the reputation of the Wang family.
She couldn't let the girls in her family not marry into good families just because of Wang Danna.
In this era, reputation is related to a family's schooling, promotion and marriage.
If Guo Mingde treated her badly, she would file for divorce! Qian Shulan could understand that. She didn't even care about other people's gossip, even if they were poking her in the back.
If it's because she can't endure hardship and only wants to share wealth but not hardships, I'm sorry, Qian Shulan absolutely cannot accept such a daughter.
He would not keep her at home and let the Wang family bear such great pressure.
Wang Danna lowered her head and did not answer for a long time.
Qian Shulan did not urge her. "Mother has to manage a large family. It is impossible for her to put you first in everything. Your marriage is in your own hands. Whether you live a good life in the future is up to you. I have no ill feelings towards Guo Mingde. If you choose to marry him, you will have everything your sister Yuying has. And I will give you a hundred yuan as a dowry. But you have to think carefully. If there comes a day like that, can you share the hardships with him? Although the county magistrate seems to be very glorious, it is also very dangerous. You can't just think about the benefits without considering whether you can bear the risks."
Wang Danna couldn't make a decision for a while. "Mom, I'll think about it carefully."
Qian Shulan nodded in agreement, "Don't worry, think about it slowly."
This matter is indeed not urgent, because in the coming days, everyone will not have the leisure to think about it.
Qian Shulan had heard people say that there would be locust plagues during famines, so she went to the fields to look for locusts and found that many locust eggs had grown in the soil. Once these eggs grew out, the wheat fields would be eaten clean by them.
She immediately told Wang Shouquan and Qian Minghua the news.
Wang Shouquan reported the news to President Zhou.
President Zhou also took this very seriously and sent people to investigate.
The locust looks like a small insect, and its life span is very short, but it lays a lot of eggs, 4,000 to 5,000 egg masses per square meter of soil, each egg mass contains 50 to 80 eggs, that is, 200,000 to 400,000 eggs per square meter. Because locusts grow fast and have high reproductive capacity, tens of thousands of them are very scary.
President Zhou called all the agricultural technicians under him to discuss how to kill the locusts.
Many people suggested using fire, but since the Great Leap Forward, many trees have been cut down and used up long ago. How can there be so many materials to make torches? Moreover, if thousands of locusts come, it will be too late to escape, so how can we have the courage to hold torches? Some people suggested spraying pesticides over a large area to kill locusts, but now is a time when we are short of things, so this method is simply not feasible.
Some people say that if you kill the eggs, they won't grow into locusts. But how can you find so many eggs
The final plan agreed upon was for the organizers to start turning over the places where the eggs were.
Although we cannot dig in the wheat fields, at least we can reduce the amount of dirt in places like the edge of the fields.
Qian Shulan kept an eye on the locusts in the field. When she saw that they had grown into larvae, she asked her daughter-in-law, who was in charge of raising chickens, to drive all the chickens in the production team to the wheat field to eat the insects. This actually reduced the number of locusts.
But even so, by the beginning of July, a lot of locusts still appeared.
After discussion, the cadres began to organize the team members to harvest the wheat, regardless of the fact that some of the wheat was still green.
I’m afraid that the locusts will grow big and all the wheat will be destroyed.
All the strong laborers in the village went to the fields to harvest wheat, while the younger people were responsible for carrying the wheat.
Qian Shulan was in charge of transporting the wheat. It was inconvenient for her to use her space during the day, so she transported the wheat at night when it was dark.
After she finished pulling the locusts for her own farm, she would help others. In short, she had to race against the locusts and not let the crops be ruined. Everyone was very grateful for her help.
The wheat ears were placed on the threshing ground, and the team arranged some old ladies who could not go out to work to pluck the wheat ears at home. The wheat on top was thrown away, and the stalks were made into straw mats.
Straw curtains can be used to cover the sweet potato vines. Although the wheat is ripe, the sweet potatoes are still in the production stage. The team can't afford so much plastic sheeting, so they can only cover them with straw curtains during the day. At night, they will open the straw curtains to let the sweet potato vines breathe.
Old people who have been to Guandong Dahan know that locusts are not picky eaters and will eat leaves of almost all broad-leaved green plants, especially grass plants. When a locust plague occurs, the locusts will leave thousands of miles of barren land wherever they pass. This is ironclad proof.
The members of the cooperative always pay attention to the growth cycle of locusts. Once the locusts become more numerous, they use straw mats to cover the wheat ears that have been chopped by the guillotine. Fortunately, the weather is hot, so after the wheat ears are dried, they start threshing.
In the past, people used ox carts and horse carts, but now we have tractors, which are much faster.
Everyone in the team, regardless of gender, age or status, who can move, has a task to do.
Even regular soldiers can help pick up wheat ears.
Although there are only three work points a day, it is still pretty good.
Qian Shulan was afraid that they would not have time to run away when the locusts came, so she made a schoolbag for each of them with patched cloth, and put a burlap bag in the schoolbag.
When the locusts come, put a sack over your head and you will be safe.
Fearing that they were not proficient, Qian Shulan practiced with them several times until they quickly took out sacks as soon as they heard someone shouting "there are locusts."
The whole action took less than a minute and was very skillful.
In fact, the food she had was enough for her family to survive three years of famine, but Qian Shulan didn't want her family to be too unique. Otherwise, when everyone else had no food to eat while her family was well-fed, it would be hard not to notice a problem.
By late July, the locusts came again.
There were so many locusts that they covered the sky and blocked out the sun. This was rare. When the locusts flew over, it was as if the sky was overcast and the sun was invisible. This was not an exaggeration. A large swarm of locusts could cover a radius of several miles. Once they landed, they would eat up several acres, dozens of acres, or even hundreds of acres of crops in an instant. Wherever the locusts went, not a blade of grass was left.
The fields in Wangjia Village were still left, and the unripe wheat was eaten clean.
I heard that in some nearby villages, because the wheat matured late and was harvested late, all the crops left in the fields were eaten by locusts.
Some people even failed to escape in time and had a piece of their flesh eaten by locusts.
Qian Shulan took advantage of the fact that no one was around and used her spiritual power to attack the locusts. Unfortunately, her spiritual power was not enough and she only killed some of them.
She picked up the locusts and fried them in oil when she ran out of food.
When Qian Shulan went to Qian Weihan's house to return the milk powder, she listened to the radio with him and learned that most parts of the country were suffering from locust plagues.
This year, there was a severe famine. The production teams had finally tightened their belts in the first half of the year to get through to the summer harvest, and they dared not to falsely report their production. They were starving to death, so why bother fighting for honors
President Zhou couldn't do anything about these stubborn people.
President Zhou said earnestly, "We don't have to compete for honors. I'm not the kind of person who covets the title of advanced commune. But we can't pay less grain. If you pay less, all of us will be screwed. I don't want you to pay more either. Just pay according to the amount from the year before last."
We didn't falsely report production two years ago, so no one had any objections.
But then they realized something was wrong, although the quantity was the same, they did not have much left.
After all, there was a bumper harvest the year before last, but this year the harvest was reduced due to locust plagues and drought.
But the quota rations were a big deal. If you didn't hand them in, you would be criticized and labeled as a backward element.
No one dared to take this responsibility. But so many team members watched and surrounded the production team's warehouse door to prevent anyone from taking the grain away.
The production team leader had no choice but to go to the commune to plead for mercy again.
President Zhou himself is having a headache because another document has come down from above, requiring a great leap forward this year, high grain yields, and officials who have no political achievements will be removed from their posts and investigated.
In order to save his own life, President Zhou gritted his teeth and organized the armed forces to go to the countryside to collect grain.
The cadres led fully armed militia and activists, armed with live ammunition, to the countryside to "collect grain."
Harvest on the spot, purchase on the spot, store on the spot, seal the warehouse! The farmers' food and seed grains are running out.
All the grain harvested by many production brigades was turned into requisitioned grain, but even this was still not enough to complete the requisitioning task!
President Zhou was so worried that his hair almost fell out. He had no choice but to hand in all the mission rations.
But the grain he reported did not meet the procurement target, and the superiors were dissatisfied and sent people to investigate. President Zhou was now in trouble, and his power was directly undermined by the people above him.
Wangjia Village was also affected, and it should be said that all the production team leaders in Liuguan County were affected.
All these production team leaders were detained in the commune and subjected to criticism and struggle.
As for why it is so crazy, the reason lies above.
At the Eighth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee, Marshal Peng was criticized for criticizing the Great Leap Forward, which triggered the second wave of the Anti-Rightist Movement, which was mainly limited to purging Peng's supporters in the military.
The Anti-Rightist Movement started again. Most of the people involved in the previous Anti-Rightist Movement were members of the Democratic Party, but this time it was different.
For example, the Wangjiacun Production Brigade had nothing to do with the Anti-Rightist Movement.
However, when the leaders saw that the amount of grain reported by the brigade cadres was not enough, they accused them of not paying enough attention to agricultural production and said they were committing right-leaning opportunist errors.
So a working group was sent from above to investigate the campaign against concealment of production.
Ever since Qian Minghua was arrested and brought to the commune, Wang Shouquan went to the commune to inquire. Secretary Chen assured him that President Zhou would not do anything to Qian Minghua, and his subordinates had not abused him.
Because the commune cadres also had relatives and friends who worked in the production team, they were unwilling or afraid to do anything too ruthless, so they pretended to obey their superiors but secretly protected these production team leaders.
But Qian Minghua was always arrested, and the people in Wangjia Village began to feel uneasy.
The grain has already been taken away, why do we still need to arrest their production team leader
Qian Shulan and Qian Weihan were so anxious that blisters appeared on their mouths.
Logically speaking, the Wangjiacun Production Brigade should not be criticized if they handed over all the grain.
However, because the land in Liuguan County is too barren, and no large satellite has been launched before, the leaders above attach great importance to it.
Several cadres called a meeting, and Qian Shulan was also called in. Although she was not a brigade cadre, she was at least a factory director.
Ever since Qian Minghua was arrested, Wang Shouquan was in a very bad mood, worried that his good brother was suffering in the commune. He knew what happened to those who were labeled as rightists, none of them had a good end, it was really too miserable.
He couldn't sleep all night thinking about Minghua being beaten. He was so panicked that he came up with a bad idea, "Why don't we each pay some more food? I'm worried that Minghua might really die."
After the New Year, each family bought some food from Qian Shulan, and everyone had some left over after living frugally.
Qian Shulan said coldly, "If you hand over the grain now, it means you really want him dead. We didn't hide the production at all. If you hand it over now, won't it prove his guilt? Do you still have a brain?"
Everyone agreed when they heard this, saying that this method would not work. Wang Shouquan was also so angry that his face turned red.
Qian Weihan was unusually silent. He took out his radio and played the latest broadcast for everyone.
Inside, the announcer was exaggerating and saying that a certain place had a yield of 10,000 catties per mu! Everyone looked very unhappy. This was such a great irony! Wang Shouquan was so angry that he threw the enamel pot on the table to the ground. His eyes were bloodshot, like an angry lion.
Qian Weihan sighed heavily, "Xiaoquan, don't panic! Didn't you say that Minghua is not suffering now, he is just locked up. What we need to do now is to clear the stain on him."
Wang Shouquan sat down against the wall. This was such a cowardly job for a brigade cadre. Not only did he have to be a public servant of the brigade, but he also had to face the risk of being overthrown by his superiors. He was really scared. He was afraid that Minghua would be overthrown, and he was also afraid that he would be imprisoned soon. He was even more frightened by the movement a few years ago.
Qian Shulan said directly, "Our entire production team must unite closely and deal with the working group together. We must stick to the production that we have reported. And we must have everyone hide the grain in their hands and make sure that those people don't find it."
Qian Weihan pulled Wang Shouquan up from the ground and patted him on the shoulder, "Cheer up. Whether Minghua can be saved depends on the efforts of all of us. Don't let him be charged with a crime, it will be too late then."
Wang Shouquan wiped away his tears and got up from the ground.
"We will go door to door to notify everyone later. If you see the working group, avoid them and don't talk to them." These working groups are good at talking, and the honest and simple rural people will be tricked by them if they don't pay attention. So avoiding them is the safest way.
Everyone took action immediately after hearing this.
The working group is now living near the canteen. The purpose is to separate them and prevent them from contacting the villagers.
At mealtime, Wang Shouquan arranged for the working group to eat at the homes of poor farmers.
Poor peasants are poor, and eating at these people's homes means going hungry. They don't eat breakfast, drink very thin porridge at noon, and eat sweet potato residue or sweet potatoes at night. They are so hungry that they can't stand it.
If they caught Wang Shouquan, they would ask him to find another place for them to eat.
"Secretary Wang, we paid for our food coupons, why are we being fed these things?"
Wang Shouquan was so scared that he quickly shook his head, "Didn't the higher-ups tell us to eat at the poor peasants' homes? I'm just following the instructions of the higher-ups. You can't make me a backward element."
The members of the working group were choked by him. "That's not what we meant. We want to eat at the brigade. Isn't your canteen already built? Why don't we use it?"
Wang Shouquan also wanted to get these people out of the poor peasants' homes. If they used gifts to lure them, some of them might be corrupted. "Okay, I'll have someone open a canteen for you."
The working group was overjoyed. Now they no longer had to eat sweet potatoes for every meal.
However, they soon discovered that the brigade canteen was only slightly better than that of the poor peasants, with two more dried radishes provided with each meal.
The working group was so angry that their faces turned green. They found Wang Shouquan, but he insisted that there was no food in the canteen.
The working group didn’t eat well, so they wanted to finish their work early and leave.
So they found the right opportunity to start asking the members, but these people ran away as soon as they saw the working group, just like mice seeing a cat, even the children were no exception.
The working group began to gather everyone for meetings in the cafeteria in the evening.
At the meeting, the members did not say a word. They were either smoking or dozing off. The members did not listen to what the working group said, so the meeting could hardly continue.
The working group began to search for food. They searched so many houses but didn't find a single grain of food. Most of them were dried sweet potatoes and wild vegetables. And the quantity was very small.
Some people, seeing that they had achieved nothing, wanted to punish the production team leader.
Each production brigade was divided into several production teams, each of which had a production team leader.
But because Wangjia Village is a gathering place for people with the surname Wang, most people still listen to the production team leader, Qian Minghua.
Seeing that they were trying to put the blame for concealing production on the production team leader, Wang Shouquan said to them, "The production team leader doesn't get paid. He doesn't get any work points. If you want to punish him, he won't be the team leader, and no one will collect our grain. Last year, four production teams had no one willing to be the team leader. What do you think we should do about this?"
The working group had no choice but to report to the county party committee.
In the end, the matter had to be left unresolved.
The working group quickly withdrew from the Wangjia Village Production Brigade.
The author has something to say: Will I be locked up? Don’t lock me up, I’ll pray…