The Ups and Downs of the Commoners 2

This book continues to tell the story of the "Great Leap Forward" in China.

• Novel

								
The ups and downs of the commoners 2
                      Volume 1
           Juvenile also Know the Taste of Anxiety
 

Chapter 36

It was already late May.   According to past practices, the summer harvest grain should have been harvested and stored in storage.  However, this year's summer harvest, due to extensive abandonment of the land, excessive deep cultivation, and ultra-high density planting, almost no grain was harvested. After eating the wilted potatoes from the previous year in the public cafeteria, there was no any food available in the storage room. The people's commune, the best organization of "large in size and collective in nature," was incapable of solving the problem of having no food for them.
The public cafeteria has stopped serving. People in hunger suddenly found that the people's commune was not an inexhaustible cornucopia in their imagination, and "communism" did not seem to be right in front of them. The "paradise life" often hung in the words of cadres was more or less like drawing cakes to satisfy hunger.
The public canteens in all districts of the people's commune in Taiqing stopped serving meals one after another, which aroused the high attention of the superior leaders.   How allow can the public canteen, the "heart of the people's commune", stop beating? With the approval of superior leaders, various public canteens began to receive 187.5 grams of raw grain per person per day from the national granary in Taiqing Town as relief food to maintain its operation. These grains were the public grain or "surplus grain" handed over by various advanced agricultural cooperatives after being forced to falsely report their production the year before last year, and this is the remaining part after being transferred on a large scale to other provinces.   They are actually aged grains from a year ago now.     After months of eating big pot meals for unlimited amounts, people now have to start tightening their waistbands. 
The first relief grain received by the second public cafeteria of the third battalion and second company was wheat. After breakfast that day, Wu Deyi went to the storage room to weigh the wheat and took it to the grinding room next to the cafeteria. He then harnessed a skinny and bony old cow, covered its eyes, and let it grind the wheat into flour on the large stone mill.
Toward noon, Wu Deyi handed the flour back to the storage room. Zuo Chaodong again after weighing wheat flour, according 62.5 grams per person and number of diners, the wheat flour weighed out to the cook Cao Yuhua. Cao Yuhua had already boiled a large pot of water. There were some old cabbage leaves floating in the water.
Farmers have a large stomach, usually equivalent to a meal of 0.5 kilograms of rice per person. Even if 187.5 grams of wheat flour are made into a meal, it's far from enough to fill their stomachs. What can 62.5 grams of wheat flour do? Cook Cao Yuhua had to cook the wheat flour into a paste of like rice soup. Because there is too little wheat flour, even if it is cooked thinly and watery, the paste is still pitifully lacking. In order to prevent scramble for, this made the people behind unable to eat, the public canteen had to be changed into pattern of cook the Congee with large pot, and then distributed to each family for meals. Zheng Yunhai stood in the center of the cafeteria and touched the goatee on his chin, Shout loudly and said: “Comrades, the wheat flour paste has been cooked now.       But as we all know, with only that little grain, if we still want to have unlimited to eat it is not possible.  We can only distribute that bit of paste to each household.       How your own family eats, who eats more and who eats less, is your own business.       If it's not distributed to each household, I think you will beat each other to head broken and bleeding. Now, each family Prepare a clay basin. Send a representative to put your clay basin in the kitchen and wait for the cook to distribute the wheat flour paste for you."
The extremely hungry people quickly walked into the kitchen with their clay basins, gathered around the stove, waiting for distribution.        At this point, listen to Cao Yuhua and say, "Don't worry, everyone.        This is the first time I've ever distributed paste to you like this, and I don't know how much to divide.       If everyone gets it, and there's some left, and I give it to you, that's easy. If it's not enough, it's hard to get it back. By then, when you've all eat it all up, I'll ask who to me return?  So, I'll have to measure first and see how much I can divide Everyone thinks that what Cao Yuhua said is reasonable, so they have to be patient and wait.
Cao Yuhua took a bucket and placed it on the stove.  Holding an iron ladle, she scooped the wheat flour paste from the pot into the bucket one by one, counting as he continued. She counted fewer ladles than the number of diners, and the wheat paste was had not. She said happily, "You see, fortunately, I took a measurement first, otherwise some people have not food." With a clear understanding, Cao Yuhua finally can give you the wheat paste. However, she didn't dare to fill the iron ladle in her hand and only gave half of it to everyone.  People's eyes were fixed on the iron ladle in Cao Yuhua's hand, fearing that she would give too much to others, give too little to herself, or give others thicker, and give herself thinner. Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Cao Yuhua felt a lot of pressure in her heart, and she was also afraid that if the distribution was unfair, it would bring trouble to herself.   However, she did it quite well, and she allowed everyone to share it, with a slight surplus.    She carried the wheat paste and went to add some to every household.    Many people add more, few people add less, and everyone is okay with it.
After being assigned to wheat paste, Wang Qihui first left a bowl for Fang Zhengben, and he only drank a small half bowl, and gave the rest to his younger son Fang Zhengzhong.  Fang Zhengzhong didn't understand things, and after eating, he kept crying and mourning, saying: "Mom, I haven't eaten enough, I still have to eat!"  Wang Qihui said: "This is for your third elderly brother to save and wait for him to come back from school to eat.  Obedient, let's eat more at the next meal, okay?"  She managed to coax him.
In order to give everyone more wheat paste, Cao Yuhua added a few more gourd ladles of water to the pot while cooking dinner. In this way, the wheat paste becomes even thinner.
The variety of relief food received by public canteens is not fixed, such as wheat or corn, and sometimes they may also receive Broad beans, mung beans, and even dried sweet potatoes.      Anyway, a person can only receive 187.5 grams per day, and they can only eat what they receive.      If because the variety received is bad, people's lives become even more difficult.
Knowing that relying on such relief food is not a long-term solution, Zheng Yunhai arranges for his members to go to the fields for spring and summer sowing every day.    However, because they are very hungry and did not have the strength to farm, coupled with a lack of young and middle-aged labor, the land under cultivation was still very small, and only a small amount of food crops and vegetables are planted, and a large amount of land can only be abandoned. Last year, a large area of land from Linjia Bay to Huoshao Ping, which was assigned to the forest farm, was only sparsely planted with castor trees. According to past practice, a certain area of cotton was supposed to be planted, but not a single plant was planted this year.

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