Not long after the grain was harvested, the village received news.
It is said that there is a production brigade in the neighboring county, which has reported an output of 3,000 kilograms per mu.
Secretary Zhou got the news and called an emergency meeting. Those who attended the meeting were all the production team leaders, who were also the ones who needed to report the production.
Secretary Zhou hinted at them to falsify production volumes.
Many people did not want to falsify the information, but when they saw that their leaders would not allow them to go home for dinner unless they reported a high number, they could not stand the pressure and had to make false reports.
The team leader of Zhaojia Village reported a yield of 4,000 kilograms per mu, which made Secretary Zhou very happy.
Qian Minghua smiled bitterly. No matter how Secretary Zhou coaxed him, he finally only reported a number that was neither high nor low, 300 kilograms per mu.
Secretary Zhou was very dissatisfied when he saw that he was unwilling to report more, but he could see that he was determined to stick to his guns, so he had to let him go in the end.
A few days later, Qian Minghua went to the town for a meeting again.
Secretary Zhou had a gloomy face, shaking a newspaper and saying to the crowd, "Look, look, other people's rice yields are 10,000 catties per mu, and we are still growing wheat. What do you production team leaders do for a living? Others can produce 10,000 catties per mu, why can't you?"
The production team leaders all looked at each other, and seeing that the secretary was furious, they all lowered their heads and shrank their necks, not daring to look at his frown.
Secretary Zhou glanced at everyone's faces. Everyone else looked repentant and felt better. Only Qian Minghua frowned. No one knew what he was thinking. Secretary Zhou still remembered the numbers Qian Minghua reported last time, so he started to call out names, "Qian Minghua, tell me, why is your team so backward? We should strive to be advanced and win honors, don't you know? Your backward thinking is unacceptable."
It took Qian Minghua a long time to react when he heard Secretary Zhou calling his name. He frowned and said, "Secretary, it's not that I don't want to report a high yield per mu. You know, the land in our Wangjia Village production brigade is barren. Last year, the yield per mu was less than 100 catties. I reported 10,000 catties at once, which is a hundred times higher. What should I use to pay the public grain? Even if I hand in all the grain of our production team, it will not be enough. Secretary, please don't make things difficult for me. If you think my awareness is not high enough, then you can remove me. I have to eat too." After that, he sat back in the chair with a bitter face, and took the newspaper that Secretary Zhou had thrown on the table just now.
Secretary Zhou frowned, there was nothing he could do about this stubborn guy, he didn't care about being advanced or not, and he didn't want to compete for honors. If he said Qian Minghua's ideological awareness was not high, he would quit his job, and he didn't have the power to remove him. These production team leaders were elected by the team members themselves, and the secretary had no power to replace them. Secretary Zhou felt very aggrieved and his face turned very bad.
Qian Minghua opened the newspaper and saw a striking headline: "Great harvest! Xushui County Brigade's rice yield per mu reaches 10,000 catties!"
Qian Minghua frowned, with a complicated expression on his face.
Secretary Zhou raised his eyes and said to the crowd, "Comrades, we must dare to think. In this world, we are not afraid of not being able to do it, but we are afraid of not being able to think of it. Chairman M said it well, 'The bolder the people, the more productive the land.' If you don't even dare to think, how can our country develop?"
Everyone was like a partridge. How could they have a high yield when they had no fertilizer and the land was barren? They were satisfied with a yield of 10,000 catties per mu, and 500 catties. Unfortunately, Secretary Zhou didn't listen to them.
After the meeting, Qian Minghua walked out of the meeting room with his head down. He walked very slowly, as if he was waiting for someone.
Not long after, he was suddenly slapped on the back. The man put his arm around his shoulders and said, "Minghua, don't be discouraged. I support you!"
Qian Minghua smiled bitterly and sighed heavily at the man, "Shouquan, you were also scolded by Secretary Chen just now, right?"
Wang Shouquan is the brigade secretary. They were just having a meeting next door. He rubbed his head. He was exposed by his good brother, but he didn't look embarrassed at all. Instead, he smiled and comforted him, "Just scold me! I'm thick-skinned and it's okay. Hey, every household in Wangjia Village is related to my family. Some of them are my uncles. If I watch my relatives starve to death, my grandfather will jump out of the grave and scold me! Anyway, I've reached the top of my position as brigade secretary, and I don't want to climb up for some political achievements. That's it!"
Qian Minghua sighed, tilted his head and asked in a low voice, "Do you think the 10,000-jin per mu yield is true or false?"
They are located in the northern part of China and do not grow rice, but they know that the yield of rice per mu is not as good as that of wheat. Wheat cannot even reach 10,000 kilograms per mu, so how can rice do that
Qian Minghua just couldn't figure it out.
Wang Shouquan understood his good brother's honest and straightforward character, otherwise he could have become the brigade secretary with his selfish identity as a martyr's family member. However, because of his taciturn character, people were deterred from approaching him, so he became the brigade secretary and he became the production team leader.
He quickly glanced around, leaned close to Qian Minghua's ear, and whispered, "I guess those per-acre yields are fake."
Qian Minghua looked at his brother in disbelief, but saw that he was serious. Obviously, he was not lying. He argued in disbelief, "But the local leaders also went to see it, and there are photos. The wheat ears are crowded with wheat ears, with almost no gaps." The photos can't be fake. According to the density of rice ears in the photos and the plump grains, it should be possible to produce 10,000 catties per mu. But he still had some doubts in his heart. How can rice grow so big when it is planted so densely? Rice needs more intensive care than wheat. However, he has never planted rice and doesn't know whether his idea is right or wrong.
Wang Shouquan sneered, laughing at his brother's naivety. He curled his lips in disdain and snorted, "That's easy. Just dig the rice from other fields and put it in the experimental field. The leader doesn't know how to farm, so he's sure to fool everyone!"
Qian Minghua opened his mouth wide for a long time, and he didn't come back to his senses. He was even more worried about the future.
Soon, the day came to pay the requisitioned grain and additional taxes.
In the past, the amount of grain requisitioned plus additional taxes was about 15%. Now, because the yield per mu is 300, it has tripled, so we have to pay 45% of the public grain. Although there is money to be made by paying the public grain, the price of 6.7 yuan per catty is already very low, and 13% of the water content must be deducted.
Based on this calculation, they need to pay 58% this year.
Later, Wang Shouquan went to the grain and oil station to inquire and learned that because of the bumper harvest this year, they only needed to pay 10% of the public grain, which means that they needed to pay 45% of the public grain.
The deductible team had to keep 10% of the food as surplus, and the remaining food was not enough for the team members to share.
Qian Minghua went to the Grain Management Office to discuss with their director and wanted to keep some grain as food rations and temporarily owe them a small amount. However, the township leaders were very dissatisfied with the practice of their production team dragging its feet and firmly disagreed.
Compared with Wangjia Village, which still had surplus grain, Zhaojia Village, which reported an output of 4,000 kilograms per mu, still owed the country tens of thousands of kilograms of grain after handing over all the grain.
After Qian Shulan found out, she could only sigh in her heart. It seemed that she had not remembered the time wrong.
This great famine, which was "three parts natural disaster and seven parts man-made", has begun on time. No one knows how many people will be left in this village when it ends in 1962.
Qian Minghua invited Qian Shulan over and explained the township policy to her again. He also told her about the decision to withhold the public grain money paid this year, which was intended to be used to buy grain from above.
Qian Shulan did not hold out hope for this. The grain would probably not be released until the last minute, so their team would not be able to buy it. After all, their team had handed in less. If they wanted to provide relief, they had to provide relief to the poor.
Qian Minghua also felt that what his aunt said made sense, so in the evening, he went door to door to notify everyone to hold a meeting.
Each household sends one head of household to attend the meeting.
Naturally, Qian Shulan would be the one to run Old Wang's business.
The meeting place in their village was the old house of the former landlord. After the landlord was overthrown, the house was demolished, and the team rebuilt a few thatched houses and enclosed a yard.
The other rooms were used to store grain, but this one was used half as farm tools and half as a meeting room.
When they held a meeting, everyone brought a stool from their home. There were no tables, so they just sat randomly. There was a space in the middle for the brigade secretary and the brigade leader to sit.
Wang Shouquan explained the market trends this year and the current amount of surplus grain in the warehouse.
"Although the returned grain is cheaper, it may not be our turn when the time comes. The Zhaojia Village Brigade has handed in all their rations this year, so they will definitely be given more food than our team. So, we called everyone here to discuss whether we should spend money to buy grain. There is a black market in the county, but the price is a bit higher."
Everyone was furious. In previous years, the team was able to give out some money, but this year, there was nothing at all.
Some people are still waiting for the dividends in the second half of the year so that they can get married. However, there is not enough food now. If it is true as the captain said, they will not be able to buy grain for return sales in the end, and they will starve to death. Some people began to blame Qian Minghua for taking the initiative to report such a high per-acre yield just to keep his official position.
Some people thought that the black market grain was too expensive, so they would rather exchange it with other production teams. But they were soon criticized by others. Everyone knew the situation of other production teams. Some production teams handed in all their grain, some handed in only a small amount, and only Wangjia Village handed in the least, and still had some surplus grain. If Qian Minghua had not been able to withstand the pressure from the leaders above, they would probably have been like other production teams.
For a moment, everyone felt that Qian Minghua, the production team leader, was still a good person.
Qian Minghua sat next to Wang Shouquan with a serious expression, and didn't care about what people were saying.
Wang Shouquan said a lot of good things about Qian Minghua. Because he was a native of Wangjia Village and the brigade secretary, everyone trusted him. For a moment, they had no complaints against Qian Minghua.
Qian Shulan winked at Qian Minghua, who was startled. Thinking of what his aunt had said to him before, he felt a little embarrassed.
It didn't seem right to say that. But his aunt was so sure that there would be a famine next year, and his father had been angry with his aunt before. If he didn't take the money to buy food, would his aunt be angry? It was hard for his aunt to pay attention to him. He didn't want to make the relationship awkward.
After struggling for a while, Qian Minghua finally made a decision after seeing Qian Shulan's livid face.
Qian Minghua coughed lightly and said, "Everyone, please be quiet for a moment. Let me say something."
Everyone fell silent and looked at him.
With so many eyes looking at him, Qian Minghua's already guilty face flushed a little. "I know that some families in the village may be anxious to share the dividends and marry a daughter-in-law. How about this, let's compromise and keep a small portion as emergency money, and use the rest to buy food."
After hearing what he said, everyone stopped objecting. Most people are not in a hurry to spend money now, and they still need to fill their stomachs first. It would be great if they could have the best of both worlds now.
Qian Minghua winked at Wang Shouquan. Although Wang Shouquan didn't know what he was up to, he chose to believe Minghua because of their friendship since childhood. He quickly made a joke, "Yeah, if the food can't be eaten up, I can take care of it all by myself."
Wang Liwei glared at his son and asked, "When will it be your turn to be the head of the family?"
Wang Shouquan smiled flatteringly at his father. The others burst into laughter.
In the end, everyone agreed with Qian Minghua's suggestion and signed.
Things like not distributing dividends require the signature of the head of the household, otherwise there will definitely be a fuss.
After everyone left, Wang Shouquan patted Qian Minghua on the shoulder, a little surprised, "Why didn't you tell me in advance? It's too risky to let everyone agree to spend most of the money to buy sweet potatoes all of a sudden?" Even if the team doesn't have enough food now, they are only one-third short. There is no need to spend so much money to buy it, right? And the food they bought was from the black market, which was more than twice as expensive.
Qian Minghua did not hide anything from his good brother. He leaned close to Wang Shouquan's ear and whispered, "A few months ago, my father heard on the radio that the higher-ups were going to launch a Great Leap Forward. I didn't believe it at the time. Look, last time I reported a yield of 300 kilograms per mu under pressure, which made Zhou Deguang's grandson very anxious. I haven't seen him so anxious about farming in previous years. Why is he so anxious now? Last time, we clearly held a meeting to announce that we would launch the project next year, so why did we move it forward a year? Also, the newspaper reported a rice yield of 10,000 kilograms per mu. With so much food, except for the city dwellers who have never farmed, who among us ordinary people would not be worried? Do you think this is normal?"
Wang Shouquan shook his head. Of course it's not normal. Any of it is not normal.
"I received a telegram from my father a few days ago. Guess what he said?" Qian Minghua did not mention his aunt's name, mainly because he was afraid that Wang Shouquan would not believe his aunt's inference. If it was Qian Weihan, Wang Shouquan would definitely not doubt it.
Wang Shouquan didn't say anything, staring at him closely, motioning him to continue. Does the old man have any brilliant ideas? Wang Shouquan admired Qian Weihan very much. Not only because Qian Weihan was an old Red Army soldier, had been on the battlefield and killed the devils, but also because Qian Weihan often listened to the radio and knew a lot of current political news. Moreover, the old man was in Beijing now, maybe he heard something they didn't know. So, he sent a telegram to remind them.
Qian Minghua swallowed his saliva and whispered, "My father said that the older generation had all endured hard times. Who hasn't farmed before? Even if the leader hasn't farmed before, haven't all the people under him farmed before? Why didn't anyone remind the leader that the rice yield of 10,000 kilograms per mu was fake? Because they didn't dare to say it! Why didn't they dare to say it? Think about it carefully!!"
Wang Shouquan turned pale when he heard this. When he was young, he and his family hid from place to place. He lived a precarious life. He really didn't want to change.
His throat rolled, a little nervous, "You mean?" Are the higher-ups going to cause trouble again
Qian Minghua stopped there. Everyone had experienced the land reform, and they had witnessed with their own eyes how many people were killed in that movement and how they were killed.
The days ahead might not be peaceful again. As for who would suffer, he couldn't say for sure. But all they could do was to keep their own food, not compete for advancement, not compete for glory, and live their own lives peacefully.
The author has something to say: Thank you little angel for the nutrient solution, muah
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