Reborn in 1977

Chapter 112 South Lake Town

Chen Fan was very indignant.

Why wasn't a horse carriage considered a vehicle?

After learning to drive a horse carriage from Master Liu and listening to the precautions for a long time, he finally grasped the essence of driving, which was how to control the livestock.

Roughly speaking, it was "Giddy up," "Cluck cluck," "Whoa," and "Woah."

There were also some whip-cracking techniques.

Did Chen Fan even need a whip to drive?

After figuring out the mystery of driving, he directly negotiated with the donkey pulling the cart, "Run forward, run steadily. If you run steadily, I'll feed you grass when we get back. If you don't run steadily, see that big whip in the old man's hand ahead? You know it hurts, right? Then run!"

Then he learned to drive a donkey cart.

However, the skill panel didn't recognize this as a driving skill, but instead showed a "Cart Driving" skill?

Was it implying that a donkey cart wasn't a vehicle?!

He was indignant, while Master Liu, who taught him, was depressed.

Master Liu had been doing this for decades. He was driving donkey carts before liberation. Thinking back to when he followed his master to learn how to drive and take care of the livestock, he shed bitter tears. It wasn't easy to learn the skill of driving.

Today, he originally wanted to show off in front of the popular figure in the team, Little Chen, but before he could finish speaking, Little Chen was urging the lazy donkey to run as hard as it could.

He let Little Chen pull the donkey because this donkey was very lazy. It would rather lie down than stand, and would never run if it could walk. It was very suitable for beginners and would basically not cause a rollover.

But look at the donkey now. It was running forward happily. What was going on? Was there a female donkey ahead?

Even if there was a female donkey, could it still pull the cart steadily?

And it was running ahead of him?

They were dizzy, and the donkey pulling the cart was even more dizzy.

In the front of the cart, Chen Fan was sitting on the left, waving the whip non-stop with his right hand, testing the "Cart Driving Whip Technique" taught by Master Liu. The donkey pulling the cart heard that the whip was telling it to go left, right, forward, and backward, but the voice from behind was telling it to just run forward, which was very confusing.

Jiang Lili was sitting next to Chen Fan, on the other side of the cart, holding the cart board tightly with both hands, looking at the donkey's eyes with a dazed expression.

Why was this donkey running so fast today? It only took a dozen minutes to get to the commune?

Seeing a big street ahead with many people, Chen Fan quickly told the donkey to slow down, and then asked, "Is this the commune?"

Jiang Lili came back to her senses and nodded, "Ah, yes, this is South Lake Town."

Chen Fan had already craned his neck, looking at the town with its distinctive characteristics of the era.

There was no clear boundary between the town and the countryside. A small earthen slope on a piece of farmland was the town's street.

Both sides of the street were brick houses, which looked like civilian houses. There were no units, but the road was relatively wide, more than three times wider than the main road in the village.

Chen Fan asked curiously, "How big is the commune?"

Jiang Lili looked at the crowd on the street, leaned slightly towards Chen Fan, and said in a low voice, "South Lake Town is actually just two intersecting streets, one horizontal and one vertical. This one runs north-south and is mainly a residential area. There are also several units' dormitory areas here. The ones with iron gates at the entrance are them."

Chen Fan was still looking for signs on the walls on both sides of the iron gate. Hearing her words, he realized, "So they are dormitory areas."

He was also wondering, he heard that many of the units' dormitories in this era were corridor-style buildings, but he didn't see any buildings behind?

The donkey cart passed by the entrance of the dormitory area, and he saw the layout of the houses inside.

It turned out that there were rows of bungalows inside, facing each other. From the small bungalows two or three meters away from the opposite room, it could be seen that each room here was a household, that is, a small single room.

The single room only had one door and one window. The back and both sides were other people's homes. The small house across the alley should be the kitchen.

Sweeping through in a few seconds, Chen Fan curled his lips slightly and turned to Jiang Lili and said in a low voice, "With this housing condition, except that it is a brick house, it is not as good as the earthen-walled houses in the countryside."

This kind of house would have a specific term more than 20 years later, "slum."

However, it doesn't have that old feeling now, but it is indeed relatively narrow compared to the spaciousness of the countryside.

Hearing his words, Jiang Lili lowered her head and smiled.

After so many years, it was the first time she heard someone say that the town was not as good as the countryside. Although this was just a small town, if those educated youths and commune members were to choose, every single one of them would definitely choose the "small" brick house here, rather than the earthen-walled house in the countryside.

Behind them, Master Liu also seemed to be a celebrity, greeting pedestrians on the street from time to time.

"Hey, going to the market, are you going too?"

"Ah, ah, driving the cart, Master Chen from our team is selling something, okay, okay, see you later."

Listening to Master Liu's voice behind him, Chen Fan looked back and smiled, "Does Master Liu know a lot of people?"

Jiang Lili said in a low voice, "Master Liu has been driving a cart for decades. Not to mention here, even if he goes to the county seat, he has acquaintances he knows. So he often says that he doesn't need to bring dry food when he goes out. He can eat wherever he goes and won't go hungry."

Chen Fan smiled and nodded, "That means Master Liu has a good character and can make friends with many people. People with bad character can't make a few friends even if they drive a cart for a lifetime."

Jiang Lili was slightly stunned. In the past, when others heard about Master Liu's affairs, they said that he knew more people because he traveled a lot. This was the first time she had heard Chen Fan's words.

But thinking about it carefully, it seemed to make some sense.

While talking, the donkey cart arrived at the intersection.

Jiang Lili came back to her senses and pointed to the horizontal street, "This street is Jianshe Road, and the one just now was Shengli Street. Shengli Street is mainly a residential area, and Jianshe Road is home to all the major units. The commune government compound, post and telecommunications office, substation, grain management office, water conservancy office, supply and marketing cooperative, repair shop, and some other units are all on Jianshe Road.

At the end of Jianshe Road to the east is the direction to the county seat, and to the west is the factory area. The carton factory, paper mill, fertilizer factory, pesticide factory, cement factory, match factory, coal factory, brick factory, machinery factory, and water transportation company are all located here. This side is close to the river embankment, and the water is more convenient."

Hearing her introduction, Chen Fan was a little surprised, "There are so many units in the commune?"

Was she kidding? This was just an unknown small town. It could be seen from the fact that there were only two intersecting streets that the scale was really not large.

In such a small place, there were actually ten factories and enterprises?

Seeing him so surprised, Jiang Lili couldn't help but smile, "Speaking of factories, most of them are actually workshops. The largest water transportation company has less than two hundred workers, and that's including the cooks. The smallest match factory only has a dozen people.

These factories were established a few years ago when the higher authorities advocated running 'five small industries'. There used to be steel mills and coking plants, but they were later abolished."

After a pause, she lowered her voice and whispered, "The educated youths are all spreading rumors that the carton factory and cement factory may also be abolished next year, so many people are trying to find ways to transfer to other units."

Chen Fan chuckled twice.

Well, he was too naive. He really thought they were big factories, but it turned out there was only a sign.

After passing the intersection and crossing the south side of Shengli Street, they were out of the town.

Then Chen Fan knew why the market was set up in the 5th team of Gan Village.

This place was really big!