The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 293 Sichuan Flood Relief
in the country, the introduction of a policy usually means that certain aspects need to be rectified.

The New Year of 1981 was a dull but lively one for Jiang Cheng's family. They did not go back to their hometown for the New Year, but drove back to pay New Year's greetings on the first day of the New Year.

In the city, there were fireworks and toys to play with, and the atmosphere of the New Year was much stronger than in later times. Children from the neighborhood would visit each other on the first day of the New Year to wish each other a happy new year, and everyone would prepare a small amount of lucky money. After all, they were neighbors, not relatives.

Zhou Lingying was really generous this year. She gave one yuan to the children who came to pay New Year's greetings. She also gave five yuan to her nephews and nieces from her hometown.

But even so, after a year, not even 100 yuan was given out as New Year's money. For ordinary people, 100 yuan may be several months' salary, but Zhou Lingying can earn several thousand yuan every month by sitting at home and asking her family to come to collect foreign exchange.

Zhou Lingying had so much money that she didn't know how to spend it. Last time, she asked Jiang Cheng to buy a color TV for her parents, and she lied to Jiang Cheng that it was for her parents to buy. But it was actually Zhou Lingying who took the money, which was equivalent to playing a trick of putting money from her left pocket into her right pocket in front of Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng really didn't know the situation. He didn't ask about the family's financial situation at all, and he had no idea how much money Zhou Lingying had.

Just after the Chinese New Year, I saw people writing slogans on walls with white paint everywhere in the city.

The campaign of "Five Talks and Four Beauties" was launched, and the slogans were mistakenly all about civilization, courtesy, hygiene, order, and morality. The four beauties are beauty of mind, beauty of language, beauty of behavior, and beauty of environment.

Jiang Cheng has experienced the civility and politeness in China during this era, and he really has something to say. The smell of urine is everywhere in the city, and many men who are in a hurry to urinate will find a corner to do it directly.

Young men would more or less cover up and urinate in places where there are few people and no one can see them, while older men would dare to relieve themselves with their backs turned in some streets and alleys.

Another thing is that the spoken language is extremely vulgar. It is obvious that this is a problem in this era and the punishment is very severe. But as long as men and women are not chatting together, women and women or men and men are chatting about the opposite sex, they really don't care about anything.

Zhou Lingying, a housewife who takes care of her husband and children, doesn't talk much with men in the yard, but she knows which men in the yard and the neighborhood are not good and which have problems.

These are just some uncivilized and vulgar language issues in Changcheng. In Sijiucheng and Shanghai, you can often see foreigners now.

In the future, those who like to watch short videos from India and Africa will know that foreigners like to ask for money, and the prices there are low and the currency is not valuable. Some people in China pretend to be rich and give some money to those who ask for money.

In this era, the same thing happened in Beijing and Shanghai. When someone saw a foreigner, they would actually go up to him and ask for money. And then they would give him US dollars, one US dollar.

This is also an uncivilized behavior. This is how we look at people in Africa in later generations, and this is how people look at people in China now.

With the "Five Speaks and Four Beauties" campaign at the beginning of the year, leaving aside the rural areas, it must be said that most urban areas across the country have become much more civilized and hygienic.

Jiang Cheng had already started enjoying his retirement life after setting up the bottled water business before the New Year. The bottled water business currently sells mineral water, and when domestic consumption picks up, it will sell purified water.

Only by changing the type of water can we enter the low-end market, or change the name, just like Nongfu Spring, which has many names for beverages.

With water and food in hand, it doesn't matter whether you make money or not. The key is not to think like what a certain Ma said in the future. What he is worried about is that there is no safe food and clean water to drink in the country.

But the food business may not be particularly profitable in many industries, just like the later "Mou Donglai". Their products are not cheap, so it is a hot business, but they only make more than 10 billion a year.

This income is indeed impressive for ordinary people. But its market value and profit are not as good as a food delivery platform or a taxi-hailing app.

If the real estate market had not collapsed in the future, someone would only take 5% of the 10 billion yuan in annual income. This might not be much in front of many bigwigs.

Therefore, Jiang Cheng wants to make a contribution to the future domestic food safety by opening the Jiangdonglai supermarket. Selling water is for the real freedom of wealth. After all, there will be many capital tycoons in the country in the future, and Jiang Cheng needs huge wealth to resist risks.

Jiang Cheng, who was in his early thirties, had originally planned to retire and enjoy the happiness of family life. Every month in Shenzhen, he would stock the warehouse with goods and then go to Hong Kong to spend some time with his children there.

Changcheng is still the main place, and I spend half a month here every month. The eldest daughter Jiang Zhaozhao has finished the second semester of the second grade in a blink of an eye, and the second daughter Jiang Panpan is also about to enter school.

My niece Jiang Juan went to high school, which had student dormitories and allowed her to live on campus. But because the school was not too far away, the family bicycle was given to Jiang Juan to ride, and she still went home for meals.

If you can eat better and have some oil in your stomach, you won’t be distracted by hunger during class.

By mid-July, when summer vacation came, ordinary people in Changcheng did not feel anything, but some large factories and transportation units were actively preparing for the outbreak.

There was a flood in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, affecting a wide area.

The people's soldiers are at the forefront of the disaster relief efforts, but follow-up support and rescue work is the key.

Whether it is a drought or a flood, it will lead to a reduction in grain production. In the case of a flood, the stored grain will basically be soaked wherever it passes, and the loss will be huge.

As the saying goes, when one side is in trouble, all sides come to its aid. Jiang Cheng once experienced post-disaster relief work. It was when he was still working at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. At the end of July 1976, a major earthquake hit Tangshan.

At that time, Jiang Cheng and many other drivers were assigned a special rescue mission to transport a large amount of food and daily necessities to Tangshan. When Jiang Cheng arrived in Tangshan, he saw the tragic scene, which was horrible.

Jiang Cheng could not change history, nor could he stop the disaster from coming. As a person from the future, he knew that there would be a big earthquake in Tangshan, but he really couldn't remember which year, month or date it was.

Moreover, even if he knew the details and confessed that he was a time traveler, he still needed others to believe him.

Let’s not talk about the Tangshan earthquake, after all, there is a movie about it. But Jiang Cheng really didn’t know that there was a major flood in Sichuan in 1981.

Public grain from the countryside was transported to the city, and in the city one could see rows of convoys transporting grain to Sichuan for rescue.

In July, cicadas are still chirping in the yard outside the house at night.

In Jiang Cheng's room, the winter snowflakes were hidden in a corner by him, and there was a fan blowing in the room, so it remained cool even in the hot summer nights.

In the side room next door, Jiang Cheng also cooled down the room in advance, so at least he could have a good sleep at night.

Jiang Cheng held Zhou Lingying, who was sleeping in cool clothes, in his arms, one above the other, both in dishonest positions.

Before going to bed, Jiang Cheng had already paid his taxes. He wanted to sleep peacefully with Zhou Lingying in his arms. But when he thought of the flood in Sichuan, something that had nothing to do with him, he just couldn't sleep. As the saying goes, the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility.

If Jiang Cheng had not witnessed the tragic situation of the Tangshan earthquake, perhaps the disaster would be just some data to him, even if behind a large string of data is a cold unit of death.

But only those who have experienced the disaster scene know how many helpless people need your help.

The saying goes that the greater your ability, the greater your inner responsibility, and those who are more capable should do more work. This is indeed true for people with a conscience.

Jiang Cheng's right hand was stroking Zhou Lingying's small tuft of curly hair. He couldn't smooth out the hair, and neither could he smooth out his inner irritability.

At this moment, Jiang Cheng needed a window to vent. If he took off his boxers, they were not his. He had to take off another pair, and then they would be his.

"Jiang Cheng~."

"Yeah~."

Zhou Lingying was awakened, and she felt that her man was a little bit abnormal today. Jiang Cheng just responded, but still did not stop.

"What's wrong with you?" Zhou Lingying was sleeping on her side, and because she was held in the same position, she couldn't turn around, so she could only turn her head to ask. But as soon as Zhou Lingying turned her head to ask, her mouth was blocked by Jiang Cheng's kiss. Jiang Cheng was also squirming under her like a maggot.

In just a moment, Zhou Lingying realized that if she didn't let her man make her feel comfortable today, she wouldn't be able to sleep well.

After a long time, Jiang Cheng, who had paid his public grain tax once more, finally stopped moving.

"I'm going to Shenzhen tomorrow, and it may take at least twenty days for me to come back." Jiang Cheng said.

"Didn't you say you would be at home with the children this month?" Zhou Lingying asked puzzledly.

"I suddenly remembered that I have something to do in Shenzhen. When I come back, I will accompany you and take the children to the beach." Jiang Cheng replied.

Hearing Jiang Cheng say this, Zhou Lingying was very sensible and didn't ask any more questions. But now she couldn't understand why the room was cool on summer nights when her husband was at home. And she didn't have to worry about mosquitoes or anything. When her husband was not at home, summer nights were really hot.

They are an old couple, so there is nothing to be reluctant about. When there were no children, Jiang Cheng was not at home, and Zhou Lingying would miss him every day. Now that there are children, taking care of six children every day is enough to torment Zhou Lingying.

The next morning, Jiang Cheng had breakfast with his children. He hugged and kissed each of them. Before leaving, he grabbed Zhou Lingying's butt in a frivolous way.

After two days of driving, Jiang Cheng arrived in Shenzhen. Shenzhen really changes every month. Roads are being built every day. Although it is not rich enough to build cement roads, wide gravel roads are being built very quickly.

The 'Jiangdonglai' supermarkets in the other three special economic zone cities are still under construction, but the fleet was recently formed. Feng Hua was brought to Shenzhen by Jiang Cheng after the National Day last year.

Every day I am responsible for leading a few people to deliver goods to shopping malls and supermarkets in Shenzhen. It doesn’t take much time, and the main task is to recruit more delivery drivers.

The current monthly salary of a driver is 600 yuan, which is still very attractive. If you take some private jobs, you can earn nearly 10,000 yuan a year.

The term "ten thousand yuan household" has been around as early as seven or eight years ago, and the People's Daily even reported a "ten thousand yuan household".

Huang Xinwen, a native of Zhongshan, Guangdong, earns 10,000 yuan a year by raising pigs as a sideline. But this is before deducting costs. After deducting costs, he earns nearly 6,000 yuan.

The term "ten thousand yuan household" came into being through the report on Huang Xinwen. He was the first ten thousand yuan household to attract national attention, but he was definitely not the first person to have a fortune of over ten thousand yuan.

Jiang Cheng knew many people who could take out tens of thousands of yuan. But it was hard to say whether they could take it out openly. For example, Director Hou of the reclamation farm, even if he didn't make much money every year, he would definitely have tens of thousands of yuan in savings over the years.

Many rich people are people you don’t understand. Just like what some people joked about in later generations, if there really is a drug for immortality, even if the richest man in China with a net worth of hundreds of billions of dollars has a hundred pills, they may not be able to rank first.

Think about it, some famous entrepreneurs are worth hundreds of millions, including fixed assets, but the private property of a company's "workers" can be nearly 100 billion.

If some people are not exposed, ordinary people will have no idea what kind of existence some of them are in this world.

Jiang Cheng did not go to Sichuan alone because after he learned the news, it was basically the same as in Tangshan, a disaster had already happened.

On-site rescue and post-disaster assistance are two different things. Jiang Cheng needs a team to assist him in going to Sichuan for rescue. He just needs to take out the supplies in his space when he gets there.

If the supplies are handed over to the rescue team over there, the source of the supplies will be another problem.

After arriving in Shenzhen, Jiang Cheng went to find Zhang Jincai that night.

The Shenzhen-based law enforcement assistance department was funded by Jiangdonglai and recruited by Zhang Jincai who had contacted retired military personnel. In the end, many of the recruits, although they explained their situation at the beginning, were still considered by many members to be non-staff members of the law enforcement team.

The salary, benefits and office space were all provided by Jiangdonglai, but Jiang Cheng was a behind-the-scenes boss, which meant he couldn't issue orders directly, and all matters had to be sent documents from Jiangdonglai.

Jiang Cheng now needs people here to participate in the rescue, and he needs to find Zhang Jin to place an order. Jiang Cheng plans to let the transport team set up by Ali and Feng Hua be responsible for transporting people and materials, and the personnel of the defense and law enforcement team will be responsible for distributing materials and building porridge sheds.

Zhang Jincai learned the purpose of Jiang Cheng's visit and knew that he was going to help with the disaster. He said that he would give the order early tomorrow morning, so that the auxiliary personnel would have time to prepare and notify their families and relatives, after all, they would be away for at least half a month.

"Lao Zhang, just let them go voluntarily. After all, the disaster relief conditions are difficult. Let's see how many people volunteer first." Jiang Cheng said.

There are quite a few people in the auxiliary law enforcement team now. Zhang Jincai is also a cunning person. He knows that his department is understaffed and many places are using auxiliary personnel.

It's not enough that they recruited a lot of people, but I found that Jiangdonglai actually spent its own money to build a venue. It built an office building, dormitory building, and various activity venues.

In particular, they even set up a canteen and provided free working meals. This treatment is no worse than that of their regular army. The law enforcement officers under them all have a fixed amount of food, and they have to pay for meal tickets when they eat in the canteen.

Moreover, the current law enforcement team is a real clean office, so many regular soldiers, that is, regular law enforcement officers, often go to the canteen of the auxiliary defense team to eat at mealtime.

Moreover, Zhang Jincai, seeing the grandness of the newly built office building of the auxiliary defense team, sometimes went there for meetings.

This made the people below, not only the auxiliary defense team members think that they were non-staff members of the Law Enforcement Department, but also the Law Enforcement Department staff members think that this was a brother unit and also a state department.

Many regular soldiers have called on the auxiliary defense team's vehicles to go to the auxiliary defense team to collect money. So now in the auxiliary defense team, you can often see many people wearing regular uniforms with badges.

The most important thing is that the auxiliary defense personnel only have the power to assist in law enforcement. After all, in essence, those people are actually the security guards of Jiangdonglai. How can security guards have the power to enforce the law? The condition for Jiang Cheng's cooperation was to assist in law enforcement.

According to later generations, assisting in law enforcement requires the presence of regular law enforcement officers.

But now it is basically a mess. In the beginning, they were indeed assisting in law enforcement, but later when they became familiar with each other, an auxiliary law enforcement officer directly exercised the powers of a regular law enforcement officer.

Zhang Jincai was very proud of himself, thinking that the foreign businessman Jiangdonglai was a sucker, and that they had sent him so many people for nothing. Now that all these people were under his control, he could not directly interfere with Jiangdonglai's decision to do anything.

Of course, Zhang Jincai still had to thank Jiang Cheng specially. It was Jiang Cheng's help that made this defense law enforcement team possible. Without Jiang Cheng's help, he would not have been able to take advantage of the salary, benefits, and office space.

Just like now, Jiang Cheng wanted to mobilize the defense team he had built with his own money. No one knew him, but he had heard that their salaries were "sponsored" by foreign-funded enterprises.

"Jiang Cheng, don't worry. They are all retired personnel who have served in the army. Obeying orders is their first rule. Rescue is a good thing. Whoever doesn't want to go can just go back." Zhang Jincai said firmly.

People who come out of the army are like this, with a tough style. In his opinion, fellow Hong Kong businessmen all extend a helping hand when they see the disaster in the country, and he is taking advantage of them, using their money to do things for his department.

They are now going to use the auxiliary defense team, so Zhang Jincai can't hold them back. At most, their own law enforcement officers will have to work harder recently.

Jiang Cheng nodded. He was originally from the army and knew the military style. If it was an ordinary person, even if it was his own employee, it was voluntary.

The situation is different for the transport team. Their original mission is to transport goods. Asking them to transport materials is not an additional job requirement, and it does not mean that they will not be paid.

Jiang Cheng and Zhang Jincai chatted for a while and decided that the aid had to be sent quickly, so they decided to set off the day after tomorrow and asked Zhang Jincai to notify everyone. The transport convoy would go to the auxiliary defense team to pick up people the day after tomorrow morning.

After Jiang Cheng came out of the building where Zhang Jincai lived, he smiled inwardly. When the rescue work was done, the employees of Jiangdonglai in Shenzhen should all get a salary increase. I hope Zhang Jincai won't look unhappy by then.

(End of this chapter)