Development of productivity started in 1981

Chapter 77 1982 New Year
When passing Fengshan, Wang Jiankun's motorcycle almost couldn't make it through because the market was so crowded that it seemed like most of the people in the commune had flocked to this street.

There were crowds of people gathered around each stall, and the sound of bargaining could be heard everywhere.

There was only one meat stall in the market originally, but now Wang Jiankun saw 5 or 6 meat stalls. Wang Jiankun inquired about the other new stalls and found that they all raised several pigs at home. They took advantage of the good prices during the New Year and slaughtered them and sold them at the market in the past two days.

Wang Jiankun saw a stall selling beef, so he sent a message using his text machine to ask if the family had bought any beef.

After a while, a message came saying that the beef was not available, so Wang Jiankun parked his motorcycle and went to the stall selling beef to have a look.

He didn't know what the beef was like. He stood by and listened to the discussions of the villagers for a while. He realized that the man was selling yellow beef, not the buffalo meat commonly seen here.

Wang Jiankun looked at the skeleton and the cow's head and found that they were indeed one size smaller. The color of the cowhide was also yellowish, so it should be beef.

Moreover, he heard from fellow villagers that few people here raise cattle, and most of them are in the north. Wang Jiankun talked to the butcher and learned that these cattle were brought from Anhui Province.

This person is a relative of Cheng Ming. He used to go to Anhui Province to sell lighters and buy cotton and local specialties.

There were quite a lot of lighters for sale when I went there recently. I saw a farmer there raising more than ten cows. I thought that this specialty of Anhui Province had been sold several times before, so I might as well take two cows back to sell this time. They should sell well during the New Year period. So I brought back two oxen with my relatives.

Yesterday they sold one in Qinghua Town, and today they took half of it to Fengshan Commune to sell, and the other half was still sold in Qinghua Town.

Wang Jiankun asked the beef seller to pick the best and tenderest parts and cut off 10 kilograms. He then looked at the beef brisket, asked the price and bought 5 kilograms. The most tender part can be stir-fried or steamed with rice flour, and both are delicious. The beef brisket can be stewed with radishes and potatoes.

After buying the beef, Wang Jiankun held on to his motorcycle and walked through the market with difficulty. His family had already bought other things, so he didn't need to buy anything else.

The road leading to the production team has been renovated. It is much wider than before. Two trucks can run side by side in most places. Only some steeper areas have not been widened. The road is also paved with pebbles and sand, and it should have been rolled with a roller, so it is much smoother.

According to my father, the road has only been built to the Hongguan Brigade Headquarters, and will be built to the foot of the mountain after the Chinese New Year.

The repaired road has greatly facilitated the team members' travel. Before it was repaired, the road was full of mud when it rained and snowed during the New Year, making it difficult to visit relatives.

Whenever I go to my relatives' house, I have to wash and bake my shoes. Now that they have hardened, there is not so much mud, and Wang Jiankun doesn't have to worry about getting covered in mud when riding a bike.

When I got home, everyone was there. My mother and grandmother were busy preparing food in the kitchen, my sister was reading and doing homework, and my father and grandfather were listening to the radio and smoking. When my sister heard the sound of a motorcycle, she put down her book and ran to the door.

"Brother, why did you come back just now? I'm so bored at home alone."

"If you're bored, just do more homework. I'll prepare some more exercises for you to do!" Wang Jiankun said jokingly.

"Brother, I've already ranked third in my grade. I don't need to do so much. Didn't you see that I'm still working on my winter vacation homework?"

"Then you still didn't get first place, didn't you? I won't tease you anymore. I won't give you any questions during the New Year holidays."

"Jiankun, you're back. Come into the house and warm yourself by the fire. It must be cold riding a motorcycle, right?" Grandma said with concern.

"Grandma, I'm young and I'm wearing warm clothes, so it's not very cold. I bought some beef in the box at the back of my car. Take it to the kitchen!" As he said this, he took out two bags of beef, handed the 10-jin bag to his mother, and the 5-jin bag of beef brisket to his grandmother.

"Grandpa, Dad, you guys go inside first. I'll get some water to plug the motorcycle in before I go in. Sister, you go back inside too. It's cold outside."

"Then come in after you finish washing. I have something to tell you." said the father

"Okay, I'll come in when I'm done."

"I'll help my brother wipe it. I'll go get some water." The younger sister said and went back to the house to get a bucket and two rags.

Seeing that my sister was so enthusiastic, I just let her do it.

Wait for her to fill the bucket with tap water and then bring it over to wash the car.

If his sister wasn't here, he could use his superpowers to help with the cleaning, but now he can only wipe it bit by bit.

The brother and sister chatted while wiping.

"Sister, do you still have those two rabbits?"

"They're still here. Dad said to skin them when you get back. They're big, bigger than the ones you shot with the air rifle before."

"Really? It seems you have a talent for raising rabbits. How about I go to the mountain to see if I can catch a little rabbit and raise it for you if I catch one."

"Okay, but I'm in junior high school and can't come back often. Yueyue also has to go to school in her hometown and can't come to help. What should I do?"

"If that's the case, forget it. Just study hard and you can raise some fish at home."

"Don't keep fish. If you keep a cat at home, it will eat the fish."

"Cat? Where did it come from? Why did you think of getting a cat?"

"There are mice at home. Some of the meat hanging upstairs has been eaten by mice. Grandma thought of raising a cat to catch mice, and then Grandpa went to the Zhankeng Production Team to buy a kitten from a cat-raising family. I'll take you to see it later. It's so small, and I don't know if it can catch mice."

"Oh, I was wondering why you would want to raise a cat. With a cat at home, mice won't dare to come. Mice will get scared when they smell the scent of a cat. Besides, cats like us will dare to catch mice as long as they are weaned. The mother cat will teach them."

The brother and sister wiped the car for about 10 minutes, and then went back to the house to warm themselves by the fire. Although the well water was not cold, their wet hands were still very cold when blown by the northwest wind.

My sister went to the kitchen to warm herself by the fire, while Wang Jiankun went to the stove at the door of the main house's wing to warm himself by the fire. My father and grandfather were also there.

"Jiankun, is the factory you and your uncles have in Guangzhou City going well?" Grandpa asked.

"It's going very well. We started production at the beginning of last month. We have now opened two production lines. We can produce 2.4 electronic watches every day. The factory price is 10 yuan each. We plan to open more than 10 production lines after the new year."

"Oh, so many production lines are going to be opened after the New Year? Can they be sold?"

"Of course, Grandpa. Young people like that kind of watch nowadays. It has more functions than your mechanical watch, is more accurate, and does not need to be wound up frequently. Especially, it is much cheaper than a mechanical watch."

"I see. Your dad gave me one, but I put it away because it didn't fit me. Now that you mention it, I think this digital watch is really affordable."

"That's right. Otherwise, we wouldn't have to open more than 10 production lines. Once they are completed and put into production, we will have to produce more than 500 million watches per month."

"So the monthly output value is more than 5 million, right? That's too much."

"While sales are good and there is no competition, we should quickly seize the market. Otherwise, when others react and imitate or make something similar, we won't be able to make any money."

"There are only so many people in China. If you make more than 500 million pieces a month, it won't be long before no one wants them, right?"

"Don't worry, sales will be good for at least the next two years. Every year, 2 million couples get married in our country, and most of them want watches. We need about 4 million watches, and not all of them are sold domestically, but some are exported."

"What will we do after two years? We can't afford not to sell the products made by the factory!"

"I am still designing new electronic products. When the sales of electronic watches reach saturation, I will change part of the production line to make new products. Maybe I will also make televisions in the future."

"Child, the TV is very complicated. Take it easy and don't waste the money you earn."

"I said that we will start making televisions in two years, after Xingyao Electronics has trained enough technical workers and production workers."

"Well, you have to be more careful. Our province hasn't even built a factory to make televisions yet. Don't be rash."

"Okay, Grandpa, Dad, didn't you say you had something to tell me? What is it?"

"It's like this. There are two things. One is that Secretary Cheng and Director Cha of the commune want to ask if they can get another spring production line. They want to make more springs and make more money."

"We can build a production line, but where are we going to sell the extra lighters? Due to power constraints, we can only produce 50 to 60 lighters per month."

"The second matter is related to the expansion of our team's lighter factory. Secretary Cheng has communicated with the power bureau and hopes that the power bureau can connect us to our production team after the new year so that we will have enough electricity to expand production."

"And what a good thing! Isn't it because we are in a remote area that we have to run the wires last?"

"Secretary Cheng did some work and said that the public society would first pay the power bureau an expedited fee of about 5 yuan, and then the power bureau agreed to first pull a line to our production team. Several production teams along the way can also use electricity, but our production team will be the main source."

"Why is Secretary Cheng so enthusiastic? He even asked the company to pay 5 yuan for the expedited fee."

"Your father and I have calculated that last month the commune's spring factory delivered 45 qualified springs. We paid them 2 yuan at 9 yuan per spring. After deducting machine depreciation, workers' wages, electricity bills, etc., their net profit was about 2 yuan. This was because they were unskilled and caused a batch of goods to be damaged. Otherwise, their net profit would be about 7 yuan a month."

"Yes, their water is free, and the net profit is indeed that much. If they build another production line, they will have a net profit of more than 43 yuan per year. They will not lose money if they invest 5 yuan now, and maybe the power bureau will give the commune a discount on electricity in the future." "In that case, let's build it. Our production team's factory will start construction with the commune's after the New Year, and we will try to complete it within one and a half months. I will find a way to get the machinery and equipment."

"Okay, as long as you agree, I will reply to Secretary Cheng this afternoon. He will go back home tomorrow to celebrate the New Year and has been waiting for my reply."

"Grandpa, then the team won't have enough people. What is the team going to do?"

"I mentioned this issue to Secretary Cheng, and he told us to go to other teams to recruit workers. He would do some ideological work for the secretaries and captains of other teams and get them to cooperate actively."

"That's good. We recruited some relatives from our team before. Didn't some team leaders gossip about you? They said you were undermining collectivism. Now that Secretary Cheng has stepped forward, you should listen less to rumors."

"Hey! Those stubborn people are still clinging to it. The province across the mountain from us, Anhui Province, has already implemented the land distribution system for the entire province. If it weren't for the fact that our province hasn't issued any documents yet, I would have wanted to distribute all the land in our team."

"Grandpa, let's not talk about dividing the land. It will be difficult to carry out construction after the land is divided. We have to think about how to produce it after the land is divided. Otherwise, like Anhui Province, we will have a good life for a few years at most, and then it will become more and more difficult."

"What's the logic behind this? Why can we only have a few years of good life?"

"Grandpa, I also read some information and news recently and analyzed it before I came to this conclusion."

"Then tell me, now everyone is saying that dividing the land is a good idea, didn't you support it before? Why do you think it's a bad idea now?"

"Then I will tell you my analysis. The original intention of dividing the land was to solve the problem of working without putting in effort. After the land was divided, everyone worked hard for their own share of the land, so they naturally worked hard. The grain produced must be more than before the division."

"That's true. Isn't that good? If everyone works hard on farming, naturally life will get better and better," said my father.

"This good life only seems good when compared to the previous days when we didn't have enough food. But people don't just want to have enough food. Once they have enough food, they will want better things. And they can't live a better life just by growing the little land they are allocated. They need to engage in industrial production and improve production efficiency to live a good life."

"Well, now that you put it that way, I understand a little bit. You mean that we have a lot of people but little land, and the little land we have is only enough to feed ourselves. If we want to buy things, we still have to work to earn money, right?"

"That's right. The reason our team can live so well is because we opened a factory, and we opened it before the land was divided. If the land had been divided, we might not have been able to open the factory."

"Yes, now that you mention it, it is true that the business may not be able to start after the land is divided. The brick and tile factory almost stopped working due to lack of manpower at the beginning, because many people wanted to go back to build their own houses after earning enough money to buy bricks and tiles, without thinking about the future."

"So we need to think carefully about how to implement policies after the land is divided. Otherwise, if everyone works for themselves and not for the collective, it will be difficult to handle things that require collective efforts, such as water conservancy projects and road construction."

"Jiankun, what should we do after the land is divided? Dividing the land should be the general trend, and we need a countermeasure."

“My idea is to divide first and collect later.”

"How do you divide first and collect later? Tell us about it."

"The right to contract fields and forests can be allocated to individuals according to their household registration, and then the management rights will be returned to the collective. The collective will form a team-run enterprise, and the team members can elect managers. The managers will receive wages and will be evaluated. Dividends will be distributed every year based on the management performance, just like our lighter factory. The fields and forests are treated as those machines and equipment. Team members can apply for jobs and will be assigned to do different jobs. Those who fail to apply can only get dividends from their shares, just like the lighter factory I proposed before, which allows team members to buy shares."

"Well, what you said is a good idea. It not only solves the problem of working without putting in effort, but also allows us to concentrate on agricultural production. We can use farmland as factories and machinery and turn farmers into workers. I have to talk to the leaders above to see if we can try it out in the future. I think it is better than just collecting agricultural taxes after dividing the land into households."

"Well, you should talk to Secretary Cheng after the New Year and tell him about the pros and cons of dividing the land and the plans to set up a group agricultural company after the land division. I feel that he is a person who wants to do practical things. Even if he may not support it for the time being, he will not come out to stop it."

It was noon while I was chatting with grandpa and father. My mother fried a plate of beef, my grandmother stewed a pot of beef brisket with radish, and steamed a plate of small river fish.

The small river fish include yellow croaker, big-headed snapper, small grouper, and wood fish. According to my father, Wang Liping made a raft with a truck inner tube a few days ago and charged it in the river. She gave more than 6 kilograms of it to Wang Jiankun's family.

The fish was steamed thoroughly, and Wang Jiankun didn't need to spit out the bones after eating it. He only spit out the fish head and swallowed the fish bones after chewing them.

After dinner, Wang Jiankun took a nap and then wandered around the team. At this time, because the factory had stopped production, there were people on the road and at every door. Some were playing cards, some were playing mahjong, and more were making food.

There are several tofu shops. Wang Jiankun ate a bowl of tofu pudding at a shop he was familiar with. The shop owner was so welcoming that he scooped a large porcelain ladle of sugar into the bowl. After Wang Jiankun finished eating, he found that there was still some sugar at the bottom of the bowl that had not dissolved, so he had to scoop some more of the tofu pudding water into his mouth.

The children in the team looked much better. Those whose parents were willing to spend money still had firecrackers in their hands, and would set them off when they saw any small holes or broken bricks and tiles. Those who didn't have firecrackers just followed behind and watched, also having a lot of fun.

Two days before the Chinese New Year, Wang Jiankun stayed at home to rest, play cards with others, listen to his teammates bragging, and occasionally talk about his experiences in Guangzhou and sailing on the Yangtze River.

At that time, there were still about 8 young people in the team sailing on the Yangtze River and Le'an River. Wang Jiankun would communicate with them every day using a text machine and tell them about the situations at those people's homes.

Wang Jiankun was thinking that it would be great if they could have video calls so that they and their family members could see each other. However, the mobile communication devices currently used still use medium and short wave signals, which cannot support video calls that require the transmission of large amounts of data. They have to wait until they can use frequencies of 1GHz and above to reach the data volume required for video communication.

However, Wang Jiankun plans to provide his uncle with a mobile communication system capable of voice calls after the new year. After he has used it for a while and improved some problems, he will open a communications company in Myanmar and Hong Kong to promote mobile communications ahead of Europe and the United States.

If we can gain a firm foothold in those two places and then seek cooperation with domestic countries, we will be able to push domestic communications forward by a big step.

All the plans are based on strength. I hope that my uncle can stabilize the base and develop according to plan after returning. However, with the support provided by Wang Jiankun, I think nothing can stop it.

On New Year's Day, Wang Jiankun and his family got up very early. Fortunately, the weather was fine and the sun was shining brightly. The temperature was around 10 degrees Celsius.

My mother bought red paper, brushes and ink and asked her to write the couplets. This year, there were more places to post them, including the old houses. After she finished writing, she asked Wang Jiankun and my sister to post them on each door.

After putting up the couplets, grandma and mother began to prepare the meal for worship and the New Year's Eve dinner in the evening. Wang Jiankun and his sister were folding gold and silver packages for worship. They folded tin-coated paper into silver ingots, folded yellow bamboo paper into small rectangular packages, and put the silver ingots inside.

There are five places for worship, namely the ancestral hall in the team, the ancestors at home, the God of Heaven and Earth at the door of the house, the Kitchen God and the god in charge of domestic animals.

The gold and silver packages for worshiping ancestors at the graves on the second day of the New Year should also be folded together, so that you don’t have to take time out to fold them when everyone is having fun.

They had a simple meal of noodles at noon. Starting at around 2 p.m., each household began to worship. Wang Jiankun took incense, gold and silver bags, and a bowl of tofu, his sister took a bowl of rice dumplings, and his father held a rice steamer.

The offerings here usually consist of steamed rice at the bottom, a layer of dried amaranth or dried taro leaves on top, and then steamed fish and meat on top.
When offering sacrifices, my father made a wish for the health of his family and the safety of his uncle. After making the wish, he burned the gold and silver packages, and then offered sacrifices again. After the sacrifices in the ancestral hall, he set off a string of firecrackers.

After returning home, we visited several places and set off firecrackers together. Then grandma put the steamed fish, meat and steamed amaranth on plates, and fried some fresh vegetables such as water celery, cabbage, lettuce, etc.

It was already evening when they finished all this. Wang Jiankun called his sister, who was outside setting off firecrackers with others, back home, and the family had a sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner.

After dinner, grandfather and father gave Wang Jiankun and his sister red envelopes. His sister opened them and saw that his was two 2-yuan green notes and Wang Jiankun's was two 10-yuan blue notes.

I remember that during the Chinese New Year last year, Wang Jiankun and his sister received 2 cents and 5 cents respectively. This year the amount has increased many times.

After finishing her meal and getting her lucky money bag, my sister wanted to watch TV, but my mother wouldn't let her go to someone else's house.

There was a family in the team who bought a 12-inch black-and-white TV. Several people in his family worked in the lighter factory, and their house was not renovated this year, so they bought a TV with the money they had.

It was just installed a few days ago, and most of the people in the production team went to his house. Fortunately, the TV stopped playing programs after 9 o'clock and the light turned white, otherwise no one would have wanted to leave.

At first, my father did not agree with Wang Jiankun's suggestion to put the TV away. He even wanted to take the TV out and install it there. But after seeing the situation in that house, he gave up the idea.

Several families in the team are already planning to buy televisions. It won’t be too late to install them after most of the team has bought one, and it will also allow my sister to study with peace of mind for a while longer.

Except for his grandfather and father who went out to play and came back after 11 o'clock, Wang Jiankun stayed at home and played the card game of "Leipzig" with his mother, sister and grandmother.

During this period, he received blessing messages from Cheng Yong and Cheng Xing, and replied to them, and then sent blessing messages to the crew members who were spending the New Year away from home.

On the first day of the New Year, everyone in the family except grandpa and grandma got up late and skipped breakfast, waiting to heat up the leftover New Year's Eve dinner at noon.

After lunch, the team members came out for a walk. Those who wanted to play cards gathered together under the sun to play. However, they were all sensible. Most people bet for 1 cent. If they saw anyone betting too much, the team leaders would say something.

On the morning of the second day of the New Year, I went to the mountain to worship my ancestors, and in the afternoon I started visiting relatives.

Wang Jiankun's family did not go out because his mother's relatives were not nearby. In the evening, his uncle, aunt and cousin Yueyue came and brought apples and malted milk.

Seeing Yueyue coming, the younger sister was very happy and pulled her to play skipping rope.

My aunt's family was very proud to go back for the New Year this time. They brought back many rare things and thousands of dollars.

My uncle seemed to be in better spirits. He drank a lot of wine at home that night and kept talking about how glorious it was when he returned home and how the local team cadres were so regretful.

My aunt and her family stayed here for one day and then went back. They plan to come here when Yueyue starts school, as there are many houses waiting to be built.

The next few days were just eating, drinking and sleeping. Wang Jiankun also had a rare few days of rest, and his mind was much clearer.

On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, Wang Jiankun had to rush to the county town. One reason was that his disciples had agreed to go to the waste recycling station on this day, and he also had to go to brief them on the task before setting off for Yangzhou and going out to sea to collect uranium.

(End of this chapter)