Chapter 81

Han Guofu glared at Li Dong, this rascal. In such a severe drought, every household should tighten their belts and save on food and expenses, but this kid had bought a pile of cloth, and now every child in the village wanted a new piece of clothing.

Shoes, belly bands, and even underpants, shirts—having a new piece of clothing for the whole year made one feel happy, and there was nothing wrong with that. But what was the use of these colorful things like soap, face cream, osmanthus oil, and small mirrors?

Each item cost a few cents, or even a yuan, which could buy several pounds of grain for the whole family to last a day or two.

It was all because of this rascal. Men and mothers-in-law wouldn't buy such things, and the women would complain. What had this kid done?

Han Guofu wished he could hit Li Dong with his tobacco pipe. At the meeting, Li Dong shrank his head, thinking he might have offended Uncle Guofu, who looked like he wanted to hit him a few times.

"Strange," Li Dong muttered. Could it be that he had bought another bicycle, and Uncle Guofu was still upset about it? That couldn't be, this was going to be a problem. He'd have to ride the bicycle less. "I'm really in a tough spot."

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing, nothing, just swatting a mosquito."

"Ha ha ha."

Li Dong thought, this wasn't the right time to talk about it. If he mentioned it now, it might just invite ridicule. When he was researching the tiger whip medicinal wine, he also looked into the development of traditional Chinese medicine in the 1970s.

During the ten years, traditional Chinese medicine was severely suppressed and destroyed as part of the "Four Olds." It wasn't until September 1978 that a document was issued, indirectly restoring the status of traditional Chinese medicine and rectifying its position.

The document might have just been issued, and there was a time lag. Li Dong's first thought was about Polygonatum (Huang Jing). The supply and purchase stations might soon reopen to buy medicinal herbs. Utilizing this time lag could be a good opportunity to make money, as there was almost no market for medicinal herbs now.

If he could dig up more Polygonatum before the purchase started, he could earn some money to buy grain and daily necessities. Most importantly, this would be a legitimate way to earn money. When he delivered the herbs to the purchase station or the supply and marketing cooperative, he might even get some grain and oil coupons.

However, this wasn't the right time to talk about it. Li Dong decided to find a time to discuss it with Han Guofu. There would be plenty of free time after the autumn harvest.

Han Guofu glared at Li Dong and continued, "Secretary Gao from the commune wants us to harvest as soon as possible and report the yield."

"I've delayed for three days," Han Guofu said. "The rice isn't fully mature yet. Use these three days to prepare. Check the tools in the national army warehouse over the next two days, and Wei Jun, you lead the team to clean up the threshing floor tomorrow."

"The irrigation still needs to continue. Guohong, you and Chunhua, lead the water-carrying team to continue watering."

"Qiujun, you lead the other elderly, women, and children to pick cotton and clear the weeds in the cornfields."

After arranging the work for the next day, Han Guobing repeated the tasks assigned to everyone, and they all dispersed. Families with many children wouldn't sleep well tonight, as the grain yield was reduced, and the production team didn't have enough grain. Borrowing grain would be even harder.

"The price of the extra grain has been adjusted," Han Guofu said as he walked. "Last year it was increased by 20%, this year by 30%."

"Even if it's more, our village doesn't have that much grain."

The extra grain was the grain that the production team or households voluntarily sold to the state after completing the public grain and the unified purchase grain. In a good harvest year, the state encouraged and increased the price of the extra grain, usually by 20-30%.

Given the current year's conditions, it was almost impossible to have extra grain. However, to prepare for the possible conflict in the south, the extra grain purchase was still being conducted.

"Is there a quota?"

The fear was that the commune would set a quota, making the voluntary extra grain sale mandatory.

"It's hard to say."

Han Guofu was also worried about this. If a quota was set, they would have to sell the extra grain even if they were hungry. What would they do after they ran out of grain? They could buy state-priced grain at a 100% markup, but who had that much money?

The few cadres of the production team shook their heads. What could they do? Li Dong thought, there were so many intricacies.

"Buying and selling state-priced grain, there are loopholes to exploit," Li Dong muttered and then shook his head.

Exploiting such loopholes wasn't necessary and could cause problems. The drought affected the entire Anhui province, and it was no wonder the government was tightening the control on speculation. The market couldn't be allowed to become chaotic, or high-priced grain and meat would flood the market.

"Why think about these things? Our family doesn't lack food. Go home and sleep. I'm exhausted," Li Dong patted the dust off his pants and muttered.

Over the next three days, Li Dong first helped Han Weijun prepare the threshing floor, carried water, and pulled the donkey cart to press the field. It was a tiring day. In three days, the harvesting tools were sharpened, the carrying poles were repaired, and new ones were made.

The mountain village had bamboo groves, and they would cut some bamboo every year to sell, but they would also keep some. Bamboo was cheap, a hundred pounds for a few cents. Drying the bamboo and making carrying poles was quite convenient. The men were responsible for sharpening the sickles and making the carrying poles, while the women mended the cloth bags.

Those skilled in carpentry repaired the carts, and those skilled in weaving made the wheat baskets, pitchforks, and shovels. They repaired what needed repair and made what was lacking. In three days, the entire village, men, women, and children, worked together, starting at five or six in the morning at the warehouse and the threshing floor.

The tools were repaired, the threshing floor was leveled and cleaned, and the grain storage was swept and dried, ready for the grain to be stored.

"Everyone, gather at 5:30 tomorrow morning for early work, 14 work points."

"Okay."

When the work was over, Han Guobing instructed, and Han Guofu would go to the commune the next day to get some good seeds and fertilizer.

Early in the morning, everyone gathered at the village entrance, waiting for Han Guobing to assign the work.

"Weijun, you lead everyone to harvest the rice."

"The women will also go to the fields."

"Let's aim to finish the harvest in three days and store all the grain in five days."

This was a heavy task. Li Dong was shocked. Harvesting in three days? This was treating everyone like the production team's donkeys.

"Brother Weijun, how many acres of rice does our production team have?"

"Less than 150 acres."

"Is that all?"

"That's not little. Our village has one of the most paddy fields in the area." Han Weijun looked speechless. This wasn't much, you don't know that Bijiavillage only has a few dozen acres of paddy fields.

It really wasn't much, less than 150 acres. Water was needed for paddy fields, but compared to other production teams, this was already quite good, especially near the reservoir.

The production team had nearly 0.8 acres of paddy fields per person, which was one of the best in the Lishan commune. Including the dry fields, the village had nearly 1.8 acres per person, not counting the few acres of private land each household had.

The land in this area was relatively flat, especially near the reservoir, allowing for more cultivated land than other villages. With sufficient water, the land could grow grain, but without water, nothing could be grown.

Li Dong muttered, 150 acres didn't seem like much, but he didn't think about it and followed the team to the fields. Men and women worked together, and Li Dong, who had learned to cut reeds, didn't embarrass himself too much, though he was still slower than the women, which made Zhang Qiujun and the other women laugh.

"Li Dong, why don't you sing a song to boost everyone's morale?"

"Sure." Li Dong stood up to stretch his back, which had been sore from bending over for so long.

"Let's sing a song about the harvest."

The golden rice waves roll,

Ten miles of songs, ten miles of fragrance,

The news of the harvest,

Spreads everywhere,

Every household is joyful,

Joyful indeed,

The golden rice waves roll,

The machines hum as they thresh the grain,

Hearts are joyful, the land yields more,

The harvest fills the granaries,

Oh,

Fill the granaries, look,

The roads shine with gold,

Vehicles and horses rush to deliver the grain,

Hey yo,

Farmers step onto the path of prosperity,

A happy life for ten thousand years,

Oh,

Ten thousand years,

Hehe ye,

Hey yo,

Hey yo,

Hey yo yi de yo,

Yi de yo,

Hehe yo hehe yo,

Hehe yo yi de yo,

The roads shine with gold,

Vehicles and horses rush,

To deliver the grain,

Hey yo,

Farmers step onto the path of prosperity,

A happy life for ten thousand years,

Oh,

Ten thousand years,

Yi de yo,

A happy life for ten thousand years,

Ten thousand years.

"How does everyone feel?"

"Great, sing another one."

"No problem."

Li Dong was good at this. Singing while cutting rice, even if he was a bit slower, no one would complain. In the morning, his back hurt from bending over, but in the afternoon, carrying the rice was a bit easier. By the end of the day, Li Dong's heart, which had been inflated by the money he had earned, was thoroughly exhausted.

This was Li Dong's first experience with the double harvest. The next morning, just as it was getting light, the work bell rang at the village entrance.

"Isn't this too early?" Fortunately, he had steamed buns and some beef from the day before. He drank some water and ran to the commune.

He had to entrust Xiaojuan to Han Weihé. The school would only start the autumn harvest break the next day, for ten days. Many junior high school students had skipped school, and while fewer elementary school students had, it was still a significant number.

Junior high school students were considered half-labor, and the harvest was so urgent that there was no time to even drink water. Li Dong no longer thought about money. When he got home, he was too tired to even take a bath, and he fell asleep immediately. In three days, the paddy fields were all harvested. On the fourth day, they started bundling and drying the rice, and by the end of the day, Li Dong was completely exhausted.

"Finally, the harvest is done. Tomorrow we'll start threshing, and we can take a break."

Who knew that just after dinner, another meeting was held at the threshing floor. Li Dong thought, this was really going to kill him.

"What's going on now?"

At the threshing floor, Han Guofu and the others looked unhappy. What was going on? They were already working so hard, and now they had to have a meeting. Li Dong muttered, "This is really tiring. What more could go wrong tonight?"

"Li Dong, what are you muttering about?"

"Nothing, just thinking about stewing some meat to replenish my strength after these few days."

Stewing meat, Han Guofu was angry. Everyone's rations were already low, and Li Dong was thinking about eating meat. Li Dong was startled. "Uncle Guofu, what are you doing? Are you going to hit me?"

"I'm hitting you."

This old man, his head must be filled with water. Li Dong jumped away, joking, only a fool would stay in one place to get hit.

"Ha ha ha." The tense atmosphere of the meeting was suddenly lightened.

"Alright, Guofu, let's start the meeting."

Thankfully, there was Old Six to keep the meeting in order. Li Dong thought it was safer to sit next to Old Six.