Reborn in 1977

In the past, an autumn harvest would take at least ten days of busy work, including reaping, threshing, winnowing, drying, removing residue, bagging, and storing...

Finally, it had to be transported to the grain depot to hand over the grain. Not a single ounce of public grain or purchase grain could be missing, and it had to be good grain with plump kernels and meeting the humidity standards.

Only after completing this task could the autumn harvest be officially considered finished.

But this time, the entire Lujiawan only took a week. This was only because drying took too much time; otherwise, one day for harvesting, one day for cleaning, and the grain could be handed over on the third day.

Some places had to hand over public grain three times a year: wheat and rapeseed in the spring, early rice in the summer, and late rice in the autumn.

Fortunately, in Nanhugong Commune, wheat was not a major crop, and the rapeseed task was not large, so the spring delivery task was directly waived. When handing over public grain in the summer, a little rapeseed was handed over at the same time.

Without the spring delivery task, completing this autumn harvest meant that the Lujiawan production team officially entered "winter leisure."

Saying it was winter leisure was only relative to before. There were still many other trivial matters, perhaps the biggest of which was renovating water conservancy projects in winter.

However, the water level in the river had not yet reached its lowest point and would take some time. In addition, it depended on the arrangements of the higher authorities. If it was just a minor repair, it could be completed in a few days, followed by a long vacation, waiting for the spring plowing of the coming year.

On the field path, Yang Chuanfu pointed to the fields with only rice stubble left and told Chen Fan stories of the past, "In the early years of learning from Dazhai in agriculture (not a typo), the prefectural committee's work team came to inspect and demanded that our farmland here could not be abandoned in winter. We had to use the fields and plant wheat or rapeseed if we couldn't plant rice."

As he spoke, he suddenly stopped, pulled open his unbuttoned jacket, put his hands on his hips, looked at the nearby rice fields, and chuckled twice, "At that time, the commune mobilized a batch of seeds and asked us to plant rapeseed. Guess what happened?"

Chen Fan pulled out the dry tobacco pipe clipped to his waistband, filled it with a ball of tobacco shreds, and said with a smile, "Looking at the way it is now, it must have been a failure."

Yang Chuanfu shook his head, also took out a dry tobacco pipe, lit a pot of tobacco, puffed a few times, exhaled a cloud of thick smoke, and then sighed, "That year, the rapeseed had a bumper harvest.

However, because the rapeseed planting period was too long, it delayed the spring plowing of early rice, and there was not enough fertilizer to supplement the soil. Insufficient soil fertility directly led to a nearly 30% reduction in early rice production.

If it hadn't been for the late rice recovering some losses, some people would have almost had to borrow grain from the team that year, but the team didn't have any extra grain either, and in the end, they still had to spend a high price to buy negotiated grain."

Chen Fan narrowed his eyes and said nothing.

The rapeseed of this era was very different from that of later generations. Low yield was only a minor matter. The key was that the planting period was much longer than that of the improved varieties of later generations. A little carelessness could delay the planting of early rice.

Two seasons of rice a year was a production task that could not be delayed in the slightest.

Moreover, the output of fertilizer was insufficient at this time, and a large part of it had to rely on imports from small books. The meme of urea bag pants came from this.

Whether imported or self-produced, the amount and destination of fertilizer were arranged in advance.

It was reasonable to arrange for rush planting and cultivation temporarily, but not be able to find enough fertilizer.

Wouldn't over-cultivation of land without fertilizer replenishment affect grain production?

Speaking of learning from Dazhai, there is a very interesting phenomenon.

If you are interested, you can flip through the newspapers of the 1970s. The rural areas reported at that time all had bumper harvests after learning from Dazhai, and the lives of the masses were better than before.

Then, after a few years, after entering the 1980s, the newspapers were once again one-sided, saying that all rural areas could not get enough to eat that year, and life was better only after the distribution of production.

When hybrid rice was promoted, the old routine ran again.

Hehehehehe... .

Some elements of educated youth literature are borrowed from here.

An educated youth from the capital who returned from Jilin later wrote an article recalling his days in the countryside and admitted that the village did not lack food and ate white rice, but lacked meat.

There was a taciturn old brother in their educated youth spot who was good at catching chickens and dogs. In two or three years, he caught seventy-seven or eighty-eight of the village's watchdogs and put them in their stomachs.

Later, he went back to visit the place where he was sent to the countryside and was scolded by the old captain of the year.

The old captain said that everyone knew they did it, but they didn't say it clearly and gave them face.

But even in such a place, in the novel written by that educated youth, it was still a barren land where they drank corn porridge and ate corn buns every day.

When the old captain asked, he shamelessly said that it was artistic creation. If it wasn't written as poor, there would be no dramatic conflict, the editor wouldn't like it, the readers wouldn't like to read it, and the article couldn't be published.

So, many real situations are only known to the common people themselves. Things on paper, especially newspapers and realistic literary novels, are just for fun.

Yang Chuanfu smoked silently and paused for several seconds before saying, "Didn't that matter cause a lot of trouble back then? There are still many places that continue to learn from it..."

Hearing this, Chen Fan couldn't help but nod. When he was a broadcaster, he also wrote about Lujiawan learning from Dazhai.

Yang Chuanfu was still talking, "So, even though there was a problem that time, they still continued to demand it the following year..."

He raised his head, exhaled a long breath, looked at Chen Fan and smiled, "The entire Yunhu area is a land of fish and rice. After the water disasters were controlled, there were harvests in nine out of ten years. But if natural disasters didn't come, man-made disasters did.

For several consecutive years, the grain output of Lujiawan was less year by year. They didn't have enough to eat for almost three or four years. Sweet potatoes and pumpkins, which were used to save lives in the early years, became supplementary food again.

Later, after finally waiting for the situation to pass, the superiors finally let go of this place. Our five brigades joined together to talk to the old secretary of the commune. Without the people above staring at us, the old secretary was also considerate. From that year on, we stopped planting winter rapeseed.

Then, no matter what pig manure, horse manure, or human manure, we spread it on the ground and raised it for a whole winter before barely raising the land back a little."

He raised his hand and pointed into the distance, "After that, we abandoned it for three or four winters, burning rice stubble and spreading agricultural fertilizer in the fields every year before it was almost the same as before."

Speaking of this, he suddenly muttered, "This harvester is good everywhere, but it presses too low. The remaining rice stubble is not even a hand span high. We need to get some straw and spread it in the field before it can be burned."

A span is the distance between the thumb and forefinger when opened. If you want to burn it, this height is not enough. It needs to be at least about 20 centimeters.

Chen Fan smiled and said, "It's okay, the height of that sickle can be adjusted. I'll let the agricultural machinery operator adjust it later."

Yang Chuanfu nodded and turned to Chen Fan and said, "Back then, because of this incident, I also told Yang Ju that she must jump out of the countryside in the future, so that she can at least have enough to eat and not have to toss around like the countryside.

Unexpectedly, thanks to you, she was admitted to university, or Tsinghua University. After graduation, she will have cadre status and will not have to worry about going hungry in the future."

Chen Fan said with a smile, "It also requires her to be willing to learn and be eager to learn, and it just so happens that there is a good policy, otherwise I can't do anything. So this is what she deserves."

Yang Chuanfu's face suddenly sank, and he gently waved his hand and said, "If it weren't for you, even if there was a good policy, that girl would still be destined to be a peasant."

As he spoke, he looked in the direction of the brigade headquarters, "It's like Luciawan now. Without you, we wouldn't have to worry about food and clothing, but wanting an annual dividend of several thousand? Hmph, that's just wishful thinking!"

After saying that, he knocked the ashes out of his pipe, put his hands behind his back, and said with a stern face, "We've only had good days for a few days, and some people are already proud, complacent, and lazy.

At this meeting, you just go ahead and scold. I want to see who's tired of the good life and actually…"

Chen Fan, looking dejected, quickly interrupted him, "It's not that bad, really. It hasn't reached that point yet."

Yang Chuanfu glanced at him sideways, "Then how many steps until it reaches that point?"

Chen Fan was choked by his words.

How many steps?

How would I know how many steps?!

It's just that recently, he's noticed that the children at school aren't as diligent in their studies as they were at the beginning of the semester.

The commune members of the production team are also not as excited and frantic as they were a few months ago, working like desperados. On the contrary, there are many more people playing mahjong than before.

That's why he reminded Secretary Yang and the others on the day of the last harvest.

Who knew that everyone from the brigade headquarters to the team leaders would be so excited?

Today, Chen Fan originally wanted to go to the school to take a look, saying he wanted to give the students a ideological education class.

As a result, Secretary Yang heard him say this yesterday and thought it was necessary for the commune members to come and listen as well.

Anyway, the autumn harvest is over, farm work isn't that busy, and the sideline businesses don't need so many people, so let the head of each household come to the school to gather and listen to Teacher Chen's lecture.

He didn't even give Chen Fan a chance to object.

So, Chen Fan is now going to the school to give a lecture, and Captain Yang stopped him. The two of them walked together.

Because it was still early, he didn't ride his horse. Instead, he walked leisurely, following Captain Yang along a small path, walking across the ridges between the fields.

Actually, it wasn't much closer, but he didn't expect Captain Yang to express his attitude.

He was so impassioned that he didn't know what to do.

But now Captain Yang is still waiting.

Looking at Captain Yang's expectant look, Chen Fan thought for a moment, "Two or three steps, maybe."

Yang Chuanfu's expression changed drastically, "Only two or three steps?"

His face was pale, and he frowned as he thought, "Two or three steps? It seems this matter is very serious and we must put a tight rein on everyone."

Then he waved his hand, "Let's go quickly. I want to talk to the people of Team 6 in advance and tell them to listen carefully."

Chen Fan followed behind with a numb expression. I just wanted to fool the little kids, is this really necessary?

…

Both of them were quite fast on their feet. After half an hour, they arrived at Team 10.

Chen Fan thought he was early, but he didn't expect to be the last one.

Before even entering the school gate, he heard Secretary Yang giving a lecture inside. Judging from the sound, he must have been using a tin megaphone, "Did you all remember what I just said?"

Perhaps Secretary Yang used a lot of greetings when he spoke, the answer was not only neat, but also very loud, "Remembered."

Secretary Yang, "Didn't you eat breakfast?"

This time, the answer was two levels louder, "Re…mem…bered…"

Secretary Yang then twitched his face, "If you had this much strength when you were working, would we need to put a tight rein on you today?"

On the playground, nearly a thousand people collectively groaned. Wasn't it you who asked us to answer loudly?

At the front of the crowd, a group of young children trembled. Is this the legendary brigade secretary?

So majestic, scolding their fathers so that they don't dare to say a word. I want to be a brigade secretary in the future!

Secretary Yang stood on the flag-raising platform, looking down. He saw Chen Fan and Yang Chuanfu entering the school gate at a glance, and his face immediately turned from gloomy to sunny. He grinned and waved, "Teacher Chen, come, come, the discipline has been emphasized, you can start lecturing directly."

Chen Fan had a stiff smile on his face, waving his hand all the way in. A thousand people paid attention to him in unison… then he heard Secretary Yang roar, "Are you all stupid? Don't you know how to applaud?"

Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap…

Chen Fan's already stiff face became even more awkward. This is a speech to a thousand people, so exciting… oh, I gave a lecture to the students of the correspondence class in literature before?

Then it's okay.

Today, he didn't wear the work clothes from a few days ago: a homespun jacket, shorts, and straw sandals. Instead, he put on the shirt, trousers, and leather shoes he usually wears outside.

He really looked like a teacher, very much in the style of a teacher.

He strode onto the flag-raising platform. Secretary Yang didn't exchange pleasantries with him, but pointed to the desk that had been set up, and the radio that had been connected on the table, "Use this to speak, let the people in the team listen."

Chen Fan's eyes twitched slightly. You've moved this thing out, why bother coming to the school to lecture?

Sitting in the broadcasting station, wouldn't you be able to lecture the same way?

Although it deviated a bit from the plan, Chen Fan had seen the world. After exchanging a few words with Secretary Yang, he sat down on the chair and gently flipped the switch up.

The switch was a slender cylindrical object. Flipping it up was on, and flipping it down was off. It was very easy to use.

After turning it on, the loudspeakers in the entire brigade squeaked, immediately attracting the attention of the entire team.

Almost all the team leaders were warning the people in their teams. As the loudspeaker sounded, they consciously stopped what they were doing, found a bench with only one or two people, and waited quietly to listen to the lecture.

In the brigade headquarters, Yang Mei, Huang Li, and Liu Lu gathered together. The three of them held their faces in their hands and propped them up on the table. When they heard the sound of the loudspeaker, they immediately sat up straight.

Throughout the Luciawan Brigade, people in every household dragged their chairs out and sat on the threshing floor at the door, looking in the direction of the loudspeaker.

Chen Fan patted the microphone, making two dull sounds. After checking that there were no problems, he spoke into the microphone.

Hello everyone, you all recognize me, so I won't do any introductions. Secretary Yang said just now that he wanted me to give everyone a ideological education class. To be honest, I did propose this, but I only wanted to talk to the students at the school. I didn't expect it to be so grand, which makes me feel a little flustered."

Hearing this, the very serious atmosphere at the scene immediately relaxed, and many people even chuckled.

In the countryside, the most fearful thing is to be pedantic and eloquent. In this day and age, the rural people have only recently become literate. Many people can only barely recognize a few words. If you quote scriptures and use idioms and words in abundance, their minds won't be able to keep up, so what can they hear?

Therefore, Chen Fan not only had to use the simplest language, but the content he talked about couldn't be grand principles. It had to be something they could all understand, and preferably something they were interested in.

This is where his knowledge really shows.

He had a cigarette in his hand, his travel teacup on the corner of the table, and the red flag flying high behind him.

His posture wasn't very upright either. He crossed his legs, smoked from time to time, and was no different from the commune members below.

The weather was also good today, with a gentle breeze and refreshing autumn air. Chen Fan spoke eloquently into the microphone, "Speaking of giving an ideological education class, it's actually just telling stories. Many great principles are hidden in these little stories."

Hearing him say he was going to tell stories, not only the heads of households on the playground, but even the old people in each household who had sat at the door to show their support, quickly perked up.

Someone even shouted, "Gouwa, bring Grandpa's teapot out."

Then he quickly pulled out his pipe, ready to fight a protracted war.

Seeing everyone looking at him, Chen Fan knew that he had successfully set the mood before the lesson, so he continued, "What story should I tell? Today, I'll tell the story of how Mr. Li led our soldiers from nothing to something, from small to big, and how they survived in the cracks and eventually achieved victory."

He looked at the somewhat puzzled Secretary Yang and Captain Xiao beside him, turned back, and chuckled, "Whether it's revolution or business, the principles are the same. From these stories, we can discover Mr. Li's great wisdom and principles, which can not only guide the revolution to success but also guide our Lujiawan in construction and development."

Next, Chen Fan transformed into a storyteller, only missing a gavel in his hand, and began to tell the story of how the predecessors started from scratch, worked hard, survived in the cracks, and grew stronger.

Although it had been simplified, this lecture still took up an entire morning.

"It was tough back then. Three big mountains were pressing down on us, and the Blue Army was a hopeless case, constantly tripping us up.

Think about it, you're harvesting rice in the field, and someone next to you is not only not harvesting but also kicking you and punching you. What would you do? The predecessors' approach at the time was, 'To hell with it, I won't cooperate. I'll pull together another team and do it myself.'

This is self-reliance and not waiting for help. It was with this spirit that our team was able to take root in northern Shaanxi later.

With a team, and developing well, it was time to achieve results. Otherwise, what's the point of pulling together a team?

However, it's very important what kind of method to use to fight. You can't mess around; you have to be strategic. What's the result of messing around? Everyone knows, uh… yes, encountering failure.

Later, Mr. Li stepped in and led the team out of the deep pit with great wisdom, re-establishing a new world.

But comrades, what's the most important thing?

It's that in the most dangerous and difficult times, when many people had no confidence in the future, our leading comrades did not give up and were still trying to break through. From this, we can see that mindset is very important…"

Chen Fan lectured at the school, and the entire brigade listened through the loudspeakers.

It's impossible to make rural people just listen and not talk.

It was better on the school playground, with the leaders of the brigade headquarters sitting there, everyone dared not make a loud noise, only daring to discuss in a low voice.

Because Chen Fan controlled the rhythm, giving them time to discuss when he talked about key points, Secretary Yang and the others had no chance to get angry.

But it was different at the door of each household.

Teams 6 and 10, with their more scattered houses, were better. Mostly, the elders muttered a few words, and by the way, taught the younger generation to listen carefully and learn carefully.

But Teams 5 and 9, with their closely adjacent houses, were in an uproar.

One by one, the old guys walked to the road, and soon formed several groups, listening with their ears perked up to the words from the loudspeaker, while also engaging in lofty discussions.

"Teacher Chen is skilled. These stories have been heard for twenty or thirty years. Before, I only knew that Mr. Li and the others were capable, but I didn't think much about anything else. Today, after his summary, and listening again, it turns out there are so many great principles inside."

"That's right. In the past, there were meetings every day, and people from the commune came to hold meetings specifically for learning. No shortage of great principles were spoken, but I couldn't remember any of them. As a result, today in half a day, I remembered several."

"Yeah, me too. Before, listening to stories was just listening to stories, complaining was just complaining, and learning was just learning, making people feel confused and only wanting to doze off. Today, Teacher Chen came and cooked it all together, hey, instead, I listened to it. No wonder he can teach dozens of college students."

"You can talk all you want, but don't forget to listen. It might be like before, and there will be an exam. This can't be taken as a joke."

"You don't need to tell me that. Teacher Chen can be said to be absolute in sideline businesses. If you dare not listen to him, you're probably not going to make money."

"Not to mention making money, just based on Teacher Chen as a person, he's willing to teach, and you don't want to listen, are you stupid?"

…

Chen Fan drank two cups of tea and smoked eight cigarettes, finally finishing the entire story.

At this time, he began to have a headache again. In order to teach the little kids, he had split the story into four lessons, preparing to teach for a month.

As a result, Secretary Yang pushed him to the front, turning the elementary school lesson into a big lesson for the entire production team. How could he hold back?

He could only throw out all the courses at once.

Otherwise, hold a few more meetings for the entire brigade?

He didn't want to bother so much.

After working hard, he finally finished this ideological education class.

What should he tell the little kids later?

Looking at the dark mass of heads in front of him, Chen Fan silently complained in his heart, changed his posture, and said with a smile, "Our Lujiawan, thanks to everyone's hard work and efforts, has finally achieved a little success…"

At the entrance of Lujiawan Production Team, where it connects to the town, Commune Secretary Qian led a few people, sitting at the door of a resident's house, hearing the loudspeaker sound coming from afar, turned his head and chuckled, "Did you hear that? How ambitious this Teacher Chen is!"

The Commune Director Jiang next to him grinned and said, "If he's not ambitious, how could he have done such a big thing?"

Deputy Secretary He flicked the cigarette ash, pursed his lips, and nodded, "Ambitious and capable, but that's not the most rare thing. The most rare thing is that he doesn't forget his roots. He has already gone to work at the Provincial Writers Association and become a leading cadre, but he hasn't forgotten Lujiawan.

He comes back several times a year, and when he comes back, he discovers problems and immediately gives lessons to sound the alarm. If Lujiawan can't rise, it would be against reason."

Secretary Qian nodded in deep agreement, "The situation is basically clear now, it just depends on when the specific policies are introduced. Lujiawan is a piece of fat that can't be moved. This piece of meat has been delivered to our mouths. If we don't open our mouths, we'll be letting down the more than 20,000 people in the commune."

Director Jiang smiled, "Not only letting down the masses, but I'm afraid we'll be scolded, even worse than the members of the production team. They still know how to reflect and learn, what are we doing?"

Secretary Qian threw away the cigarette butt, picked up the chair and moved it into the hall for the person, while smiling, "We are also learning. Now that the lesson is over, we also have to go back and think carefully about how to use this east wind of Lujiawan to drive the entire commune to develop together."

Director Jiang also started to move, "Yes, this issue must be discussed with Lao Yang and Lao Zhang. We can't say that they eat meat and take four production teams to eat together, and forget that there are thousands of people in the town who don't even have a sip of soup."

Deputy Secretary He put down the chair and smacked his lips, saying, "Lujiawan has too little industrial land that can be used. I think the garment factory is a very good example. Strive to get them to move the factory to the town. All aspects of support can be given, I'm just afraid they won't come."

The few people waved goodbye to the owner of the house and walked back to the unit while chatting.