The golden age began in 1977

Chapter 33 Comrades, Charge!

A bust of the leader hangs high in the middle of the north wall, and a square of red paper is pasted below the frame, with the words "Serve the People" written on it in black brush.

The small meeting room was packed with labor commandos.

Zhang Hongbo's arms, pressed against the table, trembled with anger:
"Teams one and three are on call, teams four and five are ready to go, and only team two is the biggest!"

"You're so proud of yourself after receiving a commendation? It's no use calling one person to call you back. It's no use calling one person to call you back!"

"In the end, you forced me to go and call you in person. Okay, you're so shameless! You guys have no awareness at all!"

Xu Weidong and his group stood side by side, leaning against a wooden cabinet painted military green.

They looked just like the image of the Kitchen God - stuck to the wall, motionless, just looking up at the top of the cabinet, as if they were very interested in the metal file box with the words "Haigeban" printed on it.

Zhang Hongbo was so angry at their attitude that he pounded the conference table.

The long table, whose mortise and tenon joints were already loose, shook, and the neatly arranged enamel pots on it were about to fall down.

Team leader Zhao Bo went to find a discarded wire to use as a reinforcement rope to repair the table, but Zhang Hongbo scolded him:
"It's no use being attentive now. I asked you to call for help, but you were drinking there?"

Zhang Hongbo asked someone to go to Qian Jin's house and call the second team to a meeting.

The result was that Calabash Brothers saved his grandfather.

Not a single one went.

After this, no one else dared to go. They thought Qian Jinjia had become a frontline official and they would be sacrificed if they went.

Finally, Zhang Hongbo had no choice but to go there. He saw a group of people playing finger-guessing games with their bare chests. The wine bottles were arranged more neatly than the counter of the supply and marketing cooperative.

Seeing him, Xu Weidong stretched out his hand and sang to him: "The wine is fragrant and the song is flying. My friend, please have a drink..."

Qian Jin, who was standing next to him, cooperated by knocking the enamel pot loudly.

"You're acting just like the old-fashioned teahouse drummers!"

Thinking about that scene, Zhang Hongbo is still angry.

He pounded the table until his hands hurt, so he grabbed a book and was about to smash it on the table.

When he saw that it was "Selected Works of Mao Zedong", he didn't dare to smash it and put it down again.

He couldn't let out his anger, which made him even angrier!

But the other team members didn't want to hear him talk about the same old things.

He had no choice but to get straight to the point: "Let's talk about drinking later, let's talk about catching the thief first."

"I think the thief is a resident of our street, because three pairs of pants were lost today."

"Even Sister Zhao, who lives at No. 24, lost one—that was the 'March th Red Flag Bearer' from the Second Cotton Mill! This thief is molesting the labor representatives!"

Xu Weidong asked bluntly, "What did the special envoy say?"

Zhang Hongbo was embarrassed and annoyed: "This is such a shameful thing. Can we rely on the special envoy?"

Xu Weidong said, "Director, what you said is true. Catching thieves is where the public security comrades can display their skills."

"Our labor commandos are unprofessional. We should be shining and making a difference in the vast countryside. Simply put, we're good at supporting agriculture in the countryside, but we're not good at catching thieves and punishing evildoers!"

Some people take the lead, and others follow suit.

Zhang Hongbo said excitedly: "What ideological awareness? This is what our commando team should think about?"

"Have you seen the movie 'We Young People Have a Burning Heart'? How does it sing in it?"

"We young people have fervent hearts and serve as pioneers in the revolutionary era. Wherever there are difficulties, there we are, loyal to the people and fearless of all difficulties and dangers..."

A group of people curled their lips.

"Five commandos take turns on night duty. This is a political mission!"

Seeing that ideological work could not be done, Zhang Hongbo simply gave up pretending.

He picked up the peeling enamel pot and slammed it on the table to increase the intensity of the sound. The slogan on the pot, "Women Hold Up Half the Sky," vibrated loudly.
"Let me tell you, this time it's not as simple as catching a thief."

"This thief specializes in stealing women's personal belongings. What's his purpose? He wants to distract women from production. This is a criminal act that disrupts labor and production!"

"Come, let's discuss the schedule for the night watch."

Qian Jin asked, "Night watch is not a problem, what about tomorrow?"

Zhang Hongbo gritted his teeth and said, "If I can't catch him tonight, I'll try again tomorrow!"

The expressions of all the players in the room fell.

Seeing this, Zhang Hongbo was filled with dismay: "Look at you guys, forget it. I didn't want to tell you, but now I might as well tell you straight out."

"Why did the neighborhood committee do everything they could to suppress this incident and not let the victim report it to the police? Why did the labor commandos have to intervene?"

He pulled a newspaper clipping from his notebook: "Last month, the Kunlunshan Subdistrict Labor Commando repaired the air-raid shelter and was awarded provincial-level advanced honors!"

"A couple of days ago, I went to a district meeting and learned that the city was going to reward all members of the Kunlunshan Subdistrict Labor Commando for resolving work-related issues."

"Aren't you jealous? You just want to stay in the labor commando team year after year? Don't you want to go to the cotton mill, rubber factory, shipyard, etc.?"

The team members finally moved.

Wang Dong's team immediately pledged to be the first to take up the post, while the other teams secretly cursed him for being so cunning - who doesn't know that the morning and evening shifts are the most leisurely?

Teams three and four were thinking about how to shirk responsibility.

The second team had already slipped to the door: "Comrades, let's go back to the house to warm up the wine and wait for the heroes to return triumphantly!"

Zhou Yaozu calmly held everyone back and asked, "How do you calculate the batteries for a flashlight?"

"Count our own first, and then we'll deal with it after we catch the thief." Zhang Hongbo said vaguely.

There was a lot of cursing.

The team members all used the popular Tiger Head brand flashlights, which required dry cell batteries. Buying dry cell batteries required a ticket!
Qian Jin didn't have a flashlight at home, so he guessed that Bai Dongfeng's grandson had taken it away.

The flashlight is a minor issue though.

He opened the mall and searched around, and found a high-intensity flashlight called Walson that was suitable.

This flashlight is about the same length as a smartphone, a little narrower but much thicker, and can be stored in a gold box anyway.

What Qian Jin likes about this flashlight is its extremely high brightness.

It uses eight matrix high-power lamp beads, with a maximum brightness of 18,000 lumens.

This means direct exposure to the eyes can cause temporary blindness and permanent vision damage.

Another thing is that it has an aluminum alloy shell. If the light is turned on for a long time, the temperature of the lampshade will rise to a scalding level. At a close distance, it can be used as a brick or a soldering iron.

The public security is not good at the moment.

And many people have swords and guns in their hands.

It is safe to have such a thing on hand, and it is a good defensive weapon in this day and age.

China in the past 27 years is indeed a great country, and its people's daily necessities are of good quality and low price.

Such a powerful flashlight only costs more than 200 yuan.

It's a pity that it is far beyond the current technology, otherwise Qian Jin really wants to equip each member of the second team with one.

He matched it for himself first.

At twelve o'clock, Team 2 and Team 1 took over.

Wang Dong winked at Qian Jin and said, "Captain Qian, we didn't find anything. It's up to you guys to handle the rest."

"Women don't dare hang their underwear outside these days, especially red ones. They can only dry them in the shade indoors!"

Xu Weidong burped and laughed.

He said to Qian Jin, "Alright! This thief is quite sentimental! How about we set up a 'Pants Detective Team', with you as the captain and me as the political commissar?"

Qian Jin stroked the flashlight like the Third Young Master stroked his sword, or the nightclub young master stroked the big sword, and he said:

"Stop the nonsense, cheer up and strive to achieve great military achievements!"

I guess the women on the street knew what kind of people the labor commandos were and didn't expect much from them.

The girls were well aware of the life creed that it was better to rely on oneself than on others, so they hung sewing machine coils on the clothesline, with one end of the thread connected to their own shorts and small bra, and the other end connected to an enamel washbasin.

Then, crackling sounds could be heard from time to time in alleys and buildings:
Whenever someone rushed out, at most they would see the wild cat about to disappear.

This has caused some chaos in the street order.

The enamel washbasin and enamel pot make a loud noise when they fall to the ground and hit the wall. If there is a sudden bang in the dead of night, it will definitely wake up the children and make them cry.

In serious cases, an old man was so frightened that he had convulsions. Fortunately, there were quick-acting heart pills at home, otherwise he would have died.

Zhou Yaozu frowned. "Captain Qian, have Director Zhang tell the residents tomorrow not to use washbasins or porcelain jars as alarms. Use this instead."

He pulled a brass bell from his pocket.

A dim flashlight shone up.

Qian Jin, who was standing next to him, took a curious look and said, "Hey, your bell is quite interesting."

Zhou Yaozu handed it to him: "The peace bell is a thing of the little devils."

"My grandfather was once a soldier who fought against the Japanese. This was captured by him. It was hanging on the back of a samurai sword."

The bell is the size of a tangerine, orange-yellow all over, with words written on the inside and outside of the bell. There is also a small wooden board hanging on the bell tongue, with words on it as well.

Qian Jin discovered that they were Chinese characters. After careful identification, he saw that one side of the wooden board read "peace and joy", and the other side read "calm the mind and calm the heart".

Looking at the words on the bell again, he recognized that there was a time mark on the outside, which read "Meiji 40".

What year is this?
Qian Jin didn't understand.

However, he could see that this bell was not an ordinary item, but an antique. He wondered how much it would be worth if it were put in a shopping mall.

Seeing him looking it up and down, Zhou Yaozu asked him, "Captain Qian, do you like it?"

Qian Jin handed it to him embarrassedly.

Zhou Yaozu waved his hand generously: "I like it and I'll give it to you."

Qian Jin was very surprised and quickly shook his head: "That's definitely not possible, you must be joking, I think you are an antique!"

Zhou Yaozu said calmly, "Do you like it? If you do, take it, because I don't like it."

"If it were an antique, I'd like it even less."

Qian Jin said: "This is your grandfather's trophy, and you carry it with you..."

"Every time I work the night shift, the elderly at home are worried and ask me to bring it with me, but I hate it." Zhou Yaozu looked away.

Qian Jin knew that there must be a story behind Zhou Yaozu.

Considering that his grandfather once killed Japanese soldiers and seized a command knife, he is probably of a high rank or has great abilities.

Considering that Zhou Yaozu is handsome, hardworking and down-to-earth but can only stay in the labor commando team, the identity of his grandfather is obvious.

Qian Jin thought for a moment, accepted the copper bell, and said, "Then let me exchange something with you. I see that you like reading and writing, so tomorrow I will give you a set of pens from my collection!"

Zhou Yaozu smiled and shook his head: "No need."

"We must use it!" Qian Jin waved his hand, signaling the team to continue moving forward.

(End of this chapter)