all the way

Liu Hai and Liu Xia didn't know that Liu Changqing and Liu Kui walked out of their sight, but they didn't return to Liujialing.

Liu Changqing encountered a big problem: this year's relief food has not come down yet.

The father and son have gone to the commune for more than ten times, but they have never been able to find Wang Changmin and Sun Bingwu, who is in charge of civil affairs. This time, they came to Rongze just because of Liu Xia. The County Civil Affairs Bureau asked about the situation.

This fall, the rain that stopped Liu Xia and his wife from going home might have been a good rain for other plains, but what it brought to the mountains around Liujialing was a disaster that destroyed [-]% of the crops.

They can eat food until the Chinese New Year at most, and save some food until the end of the first month at most. If the relief food does not arrive by then, the elderly will not be able to survive the spring famine.

The grain of Liu Changqing's family can last about three months longer. A few days ago, Zhao Yongxiang finally arrived at Luogezhuang with his things.

Zhao Yongxiang is the secretary of Huabai Brigade of Gucun Commune. Over the years, the Liu family’s life has been able to maintain a relatively food and clothing. He is a friend of Liu Changqing for more than 20 years, and the reason for knowing Liu Changqing is very special.

Just after the Spring Festival in 1960, Liu Changqing went to Rongze to hold the "Great Leap Forward" meeting. When he went, he rolled up about [-] air-dried rabbits in sacks. These were left by him and Sun Chang'e gritted their teeth to survive the spring famine. He hoped that Trade these rabbits for food that will keep your family fed for longer.

He didn't dare to openly exchange food, and even he, a veteran, couldn't bear the big hat of speculative speculation.

He hopes that someone can see through the universe in his sack.

Zhao Yongxiang is this person.

The Huabai Brigade of the ancient village commune where Zhao Yongxiang is located is all irrigated. Even though a lot of farmland was abandoned due to large-scale iron and steel smelting, no one in his village starved to death last year.

The problem Zhao Yongxiang faces is that they cannot eat a bite of meat all year round.

All kinds of movements in the ancient village are much more powerful than Wangning's. Cutting the tail of capitalism and smelting steel, all the persimmon trees, pear trees and other fruit trees that were overwhelming were cut down, except for the few farmers in front of and behind their houses. There is a tree that does not grow fruit, and there are only crops in the field. The rabbits, pheasants, and squirrels that used to be everywhere have disappeared.

Raising pigs and chickens has been included in the ranks of capitalism, and no one dares to raise them anymore.

The ancient village is far away from Rongze, and the nearest small town is a regional town formed by a large national non-ferrous metal factory, where there is a state-run butcher shop.

But the workers in the gold factory are paid, and the little meat that goes on the shelves every day is gone before the hands of the farmers.

Liu Changqing and Zhao Yongxiang really hit it off.

That time, Liu Changqing lived in the waiting hall of Rongze Railway Station for two days, and when Zhao Yongxiang arrived, he had two sacks full of sesame seed cakes and steamed buns.

At that time, the sports wind was blowing fiercely. If it was exchanged for food, it would be speculative;

Since then, every year after the autumn harvest in November and before the wheat harvest in May, it has become a fixed time for Liu Changqing and Zhao Yongxiang to exchange items.

Because there is some cash for selling public grain in the ancient village, and there are no trees or coal mines there. People there go to the Luogezhuang coal mine to buy coal for burning twice a year.

Liu Changqing and Liu Changchun desperately catch rabbits every winter. They only dare to eat a few rabbits, and use all the rest to exchange for food.

Zhao Yongxiang is a shrewd and kind person. He always feels that he is taking advantage of the rare food in exchange for other people's meat. He also finds that Liu Changqing's clothes are very shabby. He knows that Wangning does not produce cotton and has no money. When buying cloth, I started to spread a few feet of coarse cloth woven by myself to make myself feel at ease.

Cotton is grown in the ancient village, and every household weaves cloth.

The two are also generous to others, and the more they get to know each other, the more they get along. The original simple exchange of interests has turned into friendship in the long-term relationship, and more and more things have been exchanged.

Liu Changqing from rabbit, pheasant to persimmon, persimmon frost, persimmon vinegar, silver flower.

Zhao Yongxiang changed from corn and sweet potato noodle pancakes to white noodles hidden in bags under the quilt, and then to sweet potato pancakes, sweet potatoes, cabbage radishes, and coarse cloth.

Later, Liu Changqing secretly took a few rabbits from the third grandfather, and then Liu Fulai, Niutuo...

The things he exchanged from Zhao Yongxiang over the years not only supported himself and Liu Changchun's family, but also the Third Grandfather's family. Liu Fulai and Wu Yuni were also the ones who got the most benefits.

Similarly, Zhao Yongxiang also began to slowly provide opportunities for reliable people. The rabbits and pheasants that Liu Changqing gave every year were too much for his family to eat, and they all pulled coal together in a production team, with dozens of rack trucks. He had to find an alliance. Only in this way can more food be transported safely.

As a result, several of his reliable and strict-mouthed relatives and children from neighbors also secretly ate meat.

This year because of too much rain and snow, Zhao Yongxiang and the others have been unable to make it through. From the ancient village to Luogezhuang, and then back from Luogezhuang, it takes two days and one night under normal weather. With the help of the feet, a lot of time was saved when crossing Qianhe Mountain, and they would have to spend two nights on the road. If it wasn't true that nothing was burned, no one wanted to leave home in this icy and snowy place.

Zhao Yongxiang brought a lot of things this year. In addition to [-] catties of corn and [-] catties of wheat, he also had [-] catties of mung beans, three carts of cabbage and radishes.

In previous years, there were [-] catties of corn or sweet potato noodles, about [-] wheat, no mung beans, and two carts of cabbage and radishes.

In addition to the 12-meter-wide check cloth and the [-]-meter narrow white cloth that Liu Changqing asked for when they met in May, Wang Tongxiang also brought him an extra three-meter check cloth, which was a new pattern his wife had learned and was very beautiful.

However, there are forty or fifty more rabbits in Liu Changqing's trap this year.

Wang Tongxiang was embarrassed and helpless to thank Liu Changqing.

Everyone in the ancient village had a bumper harvest of grain this year, and everyone was very happy, but what happened next made their mood plummet: the price of public grain collected by the ancient village commune dropped by a penny, and the amount to be handed over was stipulated. receive.

Wang Tongxiang said: "I thought I could sell it for two dollars more, but who knew it couldn't be sold. It was about [-] yuan less than last year. The workers in the gold factory started giving bonuses again, and the meat in the butcher shop couldn't keep up." I am.

Our peasants are really miserable. We are controlled by others when we harvest more or less. The best food has to be eaten by the city people. If we are hungry, we have to ask others to give it to us. If it is worthless if it is too much, then we don’t want it. well……"

Liu Changqing couldn't figure out why the relief food that his village had applied for couldn't come because the grain in the ancient village couldn't be sold, and the rats left it at home to spoil it.

Liu Changqing and Liu Kui saw Liu Hai’s letter when they spent three days pounding things back to Liujialing with Liu Fulai and his group. Arrived at Rongze.

But they failed to find Wang Changmin.

Song Zhensheng refused to accept Liu Kui's money, and asked them to wait until the family really recovered. Liu Changqing insisted on keeping 60 yuan, and the rest would be used to send Liu Hai to the capital after the year.

Song Zhensheng kept them at home for one night, and when he went to work the next day, Song Zhensheng went with them to the Civil Affairs Bureau to inquire about the situation.

They were speechless and at a loss for what they said: the county and the commune are actively carrying out reforms, and the staff may need to be adjusted, so they don't care about such trivial matters as sesame and mung beans.

Song Zhensheng yelled as soon as he left the gate of the Civil Affairs Bureau. He was only an uncle with a bit of skill.

Liu Changqing and Liu Kui didn't react as strongly as he did. Liu Changqing had been brigade secretary for many years, so he was very sensitive to some things, so he guessed a little bit in advance.

However, it may have really verified the old saying that "blessings never come singly", Song Zhensheng also brought them bad news, that is, the current contract workers no longer pay money to the original brigade and production team.

This means that the Liujialing brigade has returned to the era when there was no cash income.

The Liujialing Brigade now has three contract workers: Liu Changxing, Guan Erping, and Liu Mao.

Liu Changxing is the grandson of the Third Grandfather, and Sun Zhiyong gave Liu Changqing a big gift to thank Liu Changqing for solving Zeng Guangtong's big problem.

In the Wangning area, only the Luogezhuang Coal Mine recruits a few contract workers every two or three years. The other state-owned units in Wangning only have three or two workers. It is conceivable how rare the number of contract workers in Luogezhuang Coal Mine is.

At that time, Liu Kui was only 13 years old and was attending junior high school in Wangning.Liu Changqing went directly to ask the third grandfather's opinion, and two months later Liu Changxing went to Luogezhuang.

Guan Erping was a contract worker in [-].

That year, Wangning Commune received the task of arranging a group of educated youths. There were not many people, but it was particularly difficult, because the reputation of educated youths in the countryside was already very bad. Fighting, stealing, molesting women, and sabotage were no longer seen Make their shortcomings, no village would want such a person.

This group of educated youths are all from the original city, and the parents of several of them were victors in the political struggles in the past few years. These children have developed the habit of being arrogant and domineering. When the object of criticism was identified, someone from above let them go to a remote mountainous area.

Sun Zhiyong's mood after receiving these educated youths was no less than Zeng Guangtong's mood when he was driven to the commune compound by his clansmen.

He is the director of the Revolutionary Committee of a small commune in the mountainous area, and his words are quite powerful in Wangning. Compared with the officials above, he is nothing.

In the end, he insisted on dragging Liu Changqing who was going to the commune for a meeting, and finally blackmailed these people to Liu Changqing.

Sun Zhiyong's reputation in Wangning is not good, after all, he has taken the lead in criticizing so many people.

But this person does have a righteous side, and he has always reciprocated those who have affection for him.

This time, he took the initiative to give Liu Changqing a contract worker. Two brigade secretaries were particularly upset about this, and they went to Sun Zhiyong to reason. Their village has not been able to get a job for so many years.

Sun Zhiyong blocked their mouths with one sentence: "This quota was exchanged by those educated youths. I assigned the educated youths to your brigade first, and you didn't want it."

Sun Zhiyong's original intention was to give this spot to Liu Kui, who had graduated from junior high school at that time, but Liu Kui passed the medical examination after joining the army, so Liu Changqing gave the spot to Guan Erping of Guanjiayao.

Guan Erping's uncle, Guan Maidun, was the only member of the Liujialing brigade other than Liu Changqing and the third grandfather who made all the children in the family have to go to junior high school.

Guan Erping was five years older than Liu Kui. He was the last batch of students before Wangning High School closed down. He only attended high school for one year. He had an aunt who married into Fujiazhuang. Running back and forth every day like that.

The last contract worker was Liu Mao, and it was the only time Liu Changqing took the initiative to ask Sun Zhiyong to come with a gift.

At that time, all kinds of movements were less intense. Sun Zhiyong had offended too many people in Wangning, and he had secretly planned to become the secretary of the Luogezhuang Coal Mine, but the formalities had not yet been completed, and few people knew about it.

He asked Liu Changqing to wait for a while. Luogezhuang Coal Mine had no plan to recruit contract workers that year.

Not long after, Sun Zhiyong was transferred to Luogezhuang Coal Mine, and Wang Changmin took over as the director of the Revolutionary Committee of Wangning Commune. Before leaving, Sun Zhiyong told him about Liu Mao.

Six months later, Liu Mao entered the Luogezhuang Coal Mine. After three months of coal mining, he was transferred to the logistics department in Wudaokou.

The annual fees paid by Liu Changxing, Guan Erping, and Liu Mao allowed the Liujialing brigade to have that shabby clinic, the glass windows of the primary school, and animals that could help plow the fields and pull carts. ...

Song Zhensheng looked at the expressions of Liu Changqing and his son, and asked in amazement: "A few years ago, when the land was distributed to individuals, many people stopped paying to the government. You don't know about this?"

Liu Kui shook his head: "There are only three contract workers in my brigade, and I haven't mentioned it to my uncle."

Song Zhensheng said: "The two in my brigade didn't pay the money until they were paid in [-] or [-]. They made a lot of trouble. These people in your village are really good."

From the day Rongze came home, Liu Changqing stayed up all night with his eyes open.

On the 23rd day of the first lunar month, Liujialing's relief food finally arrived.

Liu Changqing and his people worked for five or six days to transport the relief food back to Liujialing and divide it.

The next day, at the brigade cadre meeting, it was proposed that the three contract workers in the village would no longer have to pay.

At the same time, he resigned from his job as brigade secretary.