The Ups and Downs of the Commoners 2 Page #19

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

								

The next day, the whole school set off from the school before dawn and came to the Tiao'deng River. Students saw that on the newly built bridge deck, between the arches and the arches, there were all big pits. Their task today is to bring earth and stone from other places and fill in these pits one by one. The Class 1 of Grade 1962 of junior high school collected stones from a stone factory about 250 meters from the bridge deck, carried them to the bridge deck, and dumped them in the low place between the two arches. Some students in other classes carried stones, picked up stones, and carried soil to the bridge deck from elsewhere, and some stayed on the bridge deck to ramming earth. Employees of district-level organs and units where the district is located also participated in this work. Fang Zhengben carried stones one after another, and also witnessed the tense labor scene of people coming and going on the bridge deck, lifting stones, carrying soil, and ramming earth.
After a day of intense work, the bridge deck was finally filled in, and the road separated by the bridge was connected. Since then, grain and cotton stored in Taiqing Town have been continuously transported to other places, and it has been much easier for teachers and students to deliver mud and fertilizer to the "high-yield satellite fields" planted by district leaders on the opposite bank of the Tiao'deng River.
On this day, just after delivering mud and residue fertilizer to the "high-yield satellite field", the school received a new instruction from Ronɡ Guanɡ, secretary of the district party committee: "To ensure that these high-yield satellite fields produce 150 tons of grain per hectare and 1.5 tons of cotton, this amount of mud and fertilizer alone is not enough, you must organize teachers and students to shovel turf in the mountains, pile the shoveled turf on both sides of the road, let them rot, and put them into the high-yield satellite fields."
The days of shoveling turf are really lively. The teacher and students whole school is spread overs several hills next to the road, and the mountains are full of people. At this time, it was the middle of winter, and the grass on the hillside had long since died, but as long as a grass stump could be found on the ground, the teachers and students would never let it go. Fang Zhengben and his classmates lined up a horizontal row on the hillside, shoveling down from a high place. Wherever the hoe went, dead grass and grass stumps disappeared and even grass roots were scraped away along with the surface soil.
A few days passed, and a few small hills that were originally brown reappeared in front of people as a red soil and stones, but countless mounds of earth like graves protruded on both sides of the road. Next, teachers and students scooped up thin mud from the winter paddy and applied it to the surface of these mounds.
One cold morning, frost formed on the surface of the earth. Fang Zhengben and Wang Dingjun were appointed by Teacher Tang to write their Class on the turf pile of their class with lime slurry, waiting for the acceptance of the district party committee and district government.

Chapter 41

The winter vacation began, and Fang Zhengben was worried that his quilt might be lost if it was stored at school, and considering that he had no clothes, the bedside table was of little use left at school, so he moved these things home.  He also brought back a particularly important thing this time, that is, his grain relationship. It was a mimeographed and stamped slip issued by the school's General Affairs Office, which stated that it was the grain that should be returned for this winter vacation and previous home leave. In order to facilitate the students, the school also made arrangements in advance for the coarse grains that should have been matched with the students, so school all was returned the rice. With this slip, he can go to the grain station and buy six kilograms of rice, which makes the family very happy. Wang Qihui said: "With these few kilograms of rice, this holiday life will be better. Save a little and can eat a meal of rice when we celebrate the Chinese New Year. ”
Unexpectedly, the family was so happy too early.
When they heard that Fang Zhengben brought back six kilograms of rice, some people in the public canteen began to be jealous. The people in the platoon were digging sand under Hengshanzi Hill that day, and Kang Shuhua's father, Kang Shuncheng, suddenly said: "Have you heard? It is said that Fang Zhengben brought six kilograms of rice back from school this time." Zhu Shuqun said: "Their family is so comfortable, that there is a person who goes to school outside, eats the country's grain, and brings back rice during the holidays." Unlike you and me, who guard this mountain all day long, facing the loess with their backs to the sky, in the end they can't even eat enough sweet potatoes and greens, when did we ever drink a mouthful of rice soup?" Kang Shuncheng continued: "It stands to reason that their family should be asked to hand over the rice to the canteen. Fang Zhengben should have come to the canteen to eat, where have the reason for not handing over the rice? Now it is a public canteen, isn't it forbidden to cook privately?" Zheng Yunhai listened carefully to the conversation between the two.
During dinner, Zheng Yunhai said to Wang Qihui: "I heard that your family Fang Zhengben came back from vacation?"  Wang Qihui replied truthfully: "Yes." Zheng Yunhai then asked, "I heard that he came back with grain this time?" "Hmm!" Wang Qihui felt that the situation was a little not good. Zheng Yunhai immediately said: "If that's the case, you should hand over the grain to the canteen." Fang Zhengben should also come to the canteen to eat."  Wang Qihui hesitated for a moment and said, "Alas, Platoon Commander Zheng, when my family Fang Zhengben came back a few times ago, didn't the canteen always not give him that meal? This time he brought some grain back, but it was the grain that the school returned to him for the previous home leaves and this winter vacation. What we mean, anyway, the canteen will not give him that meal, and we will not have to hand over the grain to the canteen.” Zheng Yunhai denied Wang Qihui's statement, saying: "How can that be!" The previous few times were the previous ones, and this time it was this time. When the grain is brought back this time, you should be handed over to the canteen, which will make unified arrangements. How can you get the grain yourself and eat it yourself? If everyone does that, why set up a public canteen? ” Wang Qihui knew that although the fact that families secretly making something to eat at home now was not as tightly controlled as when the public canteen was first established last year, no one had publicly said that private cooking was allowed, so she did not dare to argue with Zheng Yunhai, but she was reluctant to hand over the rice so easily, so she did not answer again, but slowly walked away. She wanted to delay for a while.

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