The Ups and Downs of the Commoners 2 Page #12

This book is the second volume of the novel "The Ups and Downs of the Commoners". It will tell you about caused by the disastrous consequences of the "Great Leap Forward" and the People's Commune Movement in China in the middle of the last century to the livelihood of the Commoners, as well as the difficult path of study of the protagonist of this book, Fang Zhengben.

• Novel

								

On Monday morning, all 18 classes of students carried two baskets for holding soil, walked out of the school gate and went to various communes in Xinghua District to dig sweet potatoes. Among them, many of them have a hoe and let it standing in the basket. Because they had to eat in the public canteen where they went at noon, some students also carried a school bag containing their own and several other students' bowl and chopsticks.
The first grade of junior high school where Fang Zhengben is located, because the students are generally small, they are assigned to the Qinglong Commune, not far from the school. The Xinghua Commune, which is closest to the school, is reserved for district and township officials and street residents.
Class 1, Grade 1962, Junior High School, led by Mr. Tang, left the school for about an hour and a half and arrived at the Minglang Battalion of the Qinglong Commune. After contacting the Battalion, the location of their Class digging sweet potatoes was quickly implemented on a hill in the first company of the Minglang Battalion.
Qinglong Commune is a famous fertile land in Xinghua District, and the land of the first Company of Minglang Battalion is even more fertile among the fertile. There are many rice fields and little dry land, and the people have always lived prosperously. Although their lives are far from the same as before after the toss about of the past two years, they still have not been able to change their long-standing good habit of welcoming to guests. The Company commander surnamed Zhang warmly received the teachers and students, personally took them to the sweet potato field, and constantly helped them find the tools they needed, and finally generously said to Teacher Tang: "Teacher, it is not easy for you to dig sweet potatoes from so far. Please let me know if you need any help from me. All your teachers and students will be provided by our cafeteria for lunch today! But I need to know how many of you there are. In addition, you can send two classmates to the canteen to help." Teacher Tang took Company commander Zhang's hand with a smile on his face and said, "Oops! Company commander Zhang, thank you so much! There are a total of 46 of our teacher and students. He turned to Meng Jingyu and Zheng Guoqiong and said, "You two go to the cafeteria with Company commander Zhang to help!" Meng Jingyu and Zheng Guoqiong went with Company commander Zhang.
According to Teacher Tang's request, Labor Commissar Zhu Zihong arranged work for the students. Fang Zhengben was arranged to cut sweet potato vines with a sickle with a few female classmates, and the rest of the male classmates all dug sweet potatoes with hoes. After he made arrangements, the classmates immediately took action.
The sweet potato fields are overgrown with weeds, and they grow taller than sweet potato vines. Fang Zhengben and a few female classmates were bending over in the weeds, pulled open the weeds, and cut the sweet potato vine. Teacher Tang and the other thirty or so students lined up behind them to dig sweet potatoes. If they encounter weeds that grow too tall, they sometimes have to shovel the weeds with a hoe before digging up the sweet potatoes.
Fang Zhengben and a few girls felt hungry after cutting the sweet potato vine in that piece of land, and saw that the classmates who dug sweet potatoes behind had dug a lot of sweet potatoes and placed them on the ground, so they turned back to pick sweet potatoes. At this time, some of the classmates digging sweet potatoes also shouted: "Oops! How heavy is this hoe as if it can't be lifted!" Of course, the implication is that "I am hungry". Wang Dingjun didn't speak, he took advantage of Teacher Tang's lack of notice him, turned his back, bent down, put a sweet potato stained with dirt on the blade of the hoe, scraped off the sweet potato skin, and nibbled on it.
He quickly finished eating the sweet potato, immediately returned to his original position, and continued to dig the sweet potato. He felt that his strength was much better now than before. Then, some students followed Wang Dingjun and ate raw sweet potatoes. Fang Zhengben and a few girls also each used the sickle in their hands to cut a sweet potato to eat.
There are more people who eat raw sweet potatoes, and it is inevitable that they will not be discovered by Teacher Tang. He wanted to stop it, but he also felt very hungry. He wanted not to stop it, and he was worried that the impact would not be good. He then said strategically: "Everyone eat less raw sweet potatoes! Eating raw sweet potatoes will grow roundworms, which can cause stomach pain!" Of course, the students understood what Teacher Tang meant, and they stopped eating after finishing what they had in their hands. At this time, they heard Meng Jingyu standing at the bottom of the hill opposite and shouting from afar: "Teacher Tang! Time to eat! After hearing this, Teacher Tang said loudly to the students in the field: "Everyone put the tools in place, go back to lunch, and then dry after lunch!" The students immediately stopped their work, took the bowls and chopsticks to the nearby paddy to wash their hands, and then followed Meng Jingyu to the canteen.
In the courtyard dam of the canteen, there is already a large wooden basin of rice planting, and the wooden basin contains a sticky basin of sweet potato rice porridge. This was specially arranged by Company Commander Zhang for the teachers and students who came here to dig sweet potatoes.
Teacher Tang looked at this large basin sweet potato rice porridge, and estimated that it was several times more than the usual food of the students, and it was estimated that it could meet the students' fullness. Worried that his classmates would not be orderly and damage the image of the class, he called Deng Youming, a member of the life committee, to his front and whispered a few words. Deng Youming quietly passed the word to the students, saying: "Today's meal is completely enough for us, so there is no need to distribute it. You can scoop up your own food, just pay attention to the 'discipline' and don't crowd."  Everyone understood what this "discipline" meant, so without pushing or squeezing, they stepped forward in turn to scoop the food, and according to the usual practice of eating on weekdays, eight people squatted in a circle in the courtyard dam. There were only 5 students at the last table, so Teacher Tang added it. Meng Jingyu and Zheng Guoqiong sent a small wooden basin of green Cold Mixed Cabbage leaves to each table in turn, and everyone ate it happily.
Fang Zhengben remembers that when the public canteen was first established last year, he had be full eaten like this. Today he can be regarded as another time "launch a satellite"! He ate two bowls of porridge in a row, and then added another half bowl before stopping. The students also ate one by one with their stomachs puffed up. However, the lunch of the members of this public canteen had just been boiled into the pot. They still eat a small number of boiled sweet potatoes.

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