Quick travel to save a miserable life

Recently, the main work of the production team is to water the newly planted corn and soybeans.

In the past few years, the team hired people to dig several deep wells in the ground. They usually cover the wellheads with stone slabs to prevent children from accidentally falling in.

Now when it's time to irrigate, the stone slabs are removed and a hand-cranked water cart is mounted above the wellhead.

The hand-operated waterwheel is composed of a waterwheel frame made of wood, a waterwheel dustpan cast from pig iron, a sprocket with an iron shaft and two bent handles, a waterwheel barrel and an iron chain.

When the waterwheel is running, two people need to cooperate. They stand on both sides of the waterwheel, hold the handle and shake it. The rotation of the sprocket drives the iron chain to be pulled in the barrel of the waterwheel, and the water in the well is lifted to a high place. Flooded out of the waterwheel dustpan.

In this way, two people turned the water wheel beside the well, and the others took turns to collect the water at the well and carry it to the fields on a load.

Lin Hui used a pole to carry two buckets of water at first. As a result, the water in the buckets kept spilling out before she took two steps. Even though she had slowed down, she was still swaying along the way. When she walked into the field, she was shaking every time. Only half of the bucket of water was left.

Aunt Li who had just finished watering next to her laughed loudly when she saw Lin Hui's half bucket of water: "A city girl doesn't even know how to pick out water!" Lin Hui was a little embarrassed because she didn't know Aunt Li very well. He smiled and said nothing.

Aunt Li is the wife of Uncle Han, the leader of the third production team. She is an enthusiastic person. When she saw that Lin Hui was not following her rules at work, she carried her pole across the field and came over to teach her.

Aunt Li told Lin Hui how to save effort when carrying, and how to hold it steady to prevent water from spilling. After listening to this, Lin Hui suddenly realized that these seemingly simple principles are valuable experiences gained by working people in practice.

Lin Hui tried walking twice according to the method taught by Fourth Aunt Li, slowly adjusting her posture and pace. If she walked slower, the water would not spill as much.

Watching the villagers carrying water back and forth on the field ridges, pouring buckets of water into the fields under the scorching sun above their heads, and having to carry water dozens of times to water one acre of land, I couldn't help but lament this era of farming again. of hard work.

I heard from Aunt Li that watering is now much less laborious than in the past. In the past few years, there were not so many wells, and there were no such water trucks. The entire production team only had two wells. It was very slow to draw water with a wheel, and the water used to irrigate the ground was very large. Part of it had to be picked from the river several miles away.

At that time, all the young and old in the team were really involved in the battle, and all the pots and buckets at home were used. Now there are many wells, water comes out quickly, and it is close to the ground. It is so convenient!

After a day of carrying water, Lin Hui's shoulders were red and hurt at the slightest touch. When she took a shower, the towel wiped her shoulders and she couldn't help grinning.

Wu Caiyu wasn't much better either. She almost cried after taking a shower. When she sat on the bed and wiped her hair, she couldn't help but mutter: "Why are you so tired? If I had known this, I wouldn't have come!"

Lin Hui smiled bitterly. She had been doing work-study studies since junior high school, working as a waiter in a fast food restaurant, handing out flyers, and making dolls, but she was still tortured by the farm work these days.

Wu Caiyu was a sweet girl who grew up in the city. She was doted on by her parents and brothers. She probably didn't do much housework, let alone such heavy farm work!

The members of the entire brigade worked hard for several days to water all the planted land, and then started a new task: land preparation.

The production team has a total of more than 200 acres of land, of which only about 100 acres are currently planted. The rest of the land is reserved for growing sweet potatoes. Now they need to plow and prepare the land for planting.

The original wheat stubble on these fields has not yet been pulled out, so the wheat stubble must be removed from the ground first. If you have tools, use a long-handled shovel or hoe. If you don't have tools, just pull it out with your hands. The wheat stubble has been dried and turned yellow. It wasn't very strenuous, but it pricked her hands. Lin Hui had been plucking wheat stubble for a day, and her arms were covered with red marks from the wheat stubble.

After cleaning up all the wheat stubble, sprinkle a mixture of plant ash and fermented farmyard manure on the ground as a base fertilizer.

After these days of observation, the team leader, Fourth Uncle Han, saw that the few educated youths assigned this time were pretty good. Although they did not do the work well, at least they had a correct attitude, so he assigned this easy job to the four of them. .

The team arranged for special personnel to mix the soaked farmyard manure and plant ash evenly in an open field, and then transported it to the field. All they had to do was to carry a wicker basket filled with fertilizer and spread it evenly on the field.

Compared with other people's jobs, this job is indeed much easier.

At first, a few people were afraid that the fertilizer would be too dirty and smelly, so they were ready to cover their noses.

Unexpectedly, when they arrived at the composting area, they didn't smell anything at all. When they got closer and smelled it carefully, they realized that there was a faint sour smell. Lin Hui felt that the retting fertilizer was very similar to the black nutrient soil sold in flower markets in later generations. The color and texture are very similar, so just treat it as nutritious soil and sprinkle it into the ground!

After a few more days of deep plowing and ridging, it was finally time to start planting sweet potatoes.

Experienced members of the commune cut off the main vines and vine tips that can be planted in the place where sweet potato seedlings are raised, transport them to the ground while they are fresh, insert them into the ridges, and bury them in the soil.

Sweet potatoes are different from corn and soybeans in that they must be watered the same day they are planted, not overnight.

When Lin Hui was transporting sweet potato seedlings, she saw many aunts hiding excess sweet potato vines that could not be planted, but Uncle Li turned a blind eye.

According to Aunt Li, if you take it home and blanch it, it will be a plate of food! In this era when everyone is hungry, just for a bite to eat, as long as it’s not too much, it can be forgiven!

The day after the sweet potatoes are planted is the July [-]st Party Founding Day. I heard that a movie will be shown in the commune on the night of the Party Founding Day.

Chen Lu came over to Wu Caiyu and Lin Hui with excitement on her face and asked them if they wanted to go so they could be together.

"I heard that "Tunnel War" will be screened, as well as "Sparkling Red Star"!" Chen Lu looked at the two of them expectantly.

Wu Caiyu immediately said that she also wanted to go together. Lin Hui thought for a moment that it would be a good idea to go and see it, just to watch the old show, so she nodded in agreement.

"Invite these three male educated youths and go to safety together!" Lin Hui suggested.

The three of them intentionally or unintentionally avoided asking Yang Hongjuan if she was going.

In fact, she is a moody person. She can be gentle and soft-spoken when she is good. But when she is talking, she will change her face at the same time. People who are choked by words cannot speak, but afterward, she can talk and laugh with you like a normal person.

Lin Hui and Wu Caiyu had seen this side of her just a few days after arriving. Recently, they discovered that she had a vaguely condescending attitude when talking to other people in the educated youth spot. Now even Zhao Lei and Zhang Muran started to stay away from her!

In order to avoid trouble, none of them deliberately told Yang Hongjuan about going to the movie.

After hurriedly finishing dinner and going out together with the other six people from the educated youth spot, Yang Hongjuan realized that she was alone, and she was the only one left in the entire educated youth spot!

When she wanted to catch up and go together, she couldn't save her dignity. Thinking of them going to the movies together and leaving her alone, Yang Hongjuan became so angry that she thought bitterly with red eyes: What's so great about this? Just stay in the countryside and pick up shit, wait for yourself..., hum! We’ll see! "