Reborn in 1977

Chapter 206: Can't Come for Nothing

Just as Chen Fan was struggling with where to find industrial coupons, Station Master Zhou and Wang Shiping walked over.

They first looked at the horse at the entrance, reaching out to touch it, but the mare immediately reared up, kicking its front hooves and neighing loudly.

Fortunately, both of them were used to dealing with livestock, quickly retreating two steps to avoid its front, keeping their distance from the mare.

Hearing the commotion, Chen Fan immediately turned around and ran out, first pulling the reins to calm the horse, then smiling at the two men, "Station Master Zhou, Doctor Wang, it's you."

Station Master Zhou pointed at the horse with a surprised look, "How did you cure this horse?"

Chen Fan stroked the horse's face, turned his head, and smiled, "It's not cured yet, how could it be so irritable if it was cured."

How could he dare say that the horse was fine? Otherwise, Gan Laibao, who was already lacking spirit, would probably explode with anger.

What? It was half-dead in my hands, and it's fine as soon as you take it away?

Most importantly, wouldn't people think he had some incredible means, able to cure the horse as soon as it was led away? What if someone with ulterior motives accused him of witchcraft? Or what if everyone came to him for livestock treatment in the future?

Anyway, he couldn't admit it; keeping a low profile was the key.

Station Master Zhou thought it made sense, saying with a strange expression, "Could it be that it refused to eat before, and now it's become violent?"

At this moment, Wang Shiping suddenly exclaimed "Ah," and approached Station Master Zhou, whispering, "Station Master, do you remember that horse from Team 3 of Bailang Lake five years ago?"

Station Master Zhou's eyes flickered, and he suddenly turned to look at him, then suddenly turned to look at the mare, "Oh, you know what, it really does look a bit like it."

Chen Fan was a little curious, "What happened to the horse from Bailang Lake?"

Bailang Lake was one of the five production teams in Nanhugongshe. Because the team's center had a large lake covering several hundred acres, and the entire team was built around this lake, it got its name from this.

Moreover, Bailang Lake was the only production team in Nanhugongshe with 'economic households'.

'Economic households' were relative to ordinary production team members, meaning households engaged in economic production.

Some places didn't have fields and couldn't produce grain, so they could only grow cash crops such as tea, fruit trees, and medicinal herbs, or engage in aquaculture.

Because they didn't produce grain, the rations for such households could only be distributed through special 'economic household grain cards' arranged by the state, just like city dwellers, and they were also taxed on various cash crop products.

Therefore, economic households were different from ordinary farmers. Their rations were fixed, and they didn't have to worry about a sudden reduction in production one year, leaving them without grain to eat, forcing them to buy expensive 'reverse-sale grain'.

Reverse-sale grain was a very special kind of grain.

In those years, in addition to the obligatory grain delivery, the higher-ups would generally require local areas to collect as much grain as possible for various reasons.

The original intention was good, and in the beginning, the farmers were very happy, enthusiastically selling grain beyond their rations to the grain depot, leaving little or no grain for themselves.

But as the policy trickled down, various places began to compete, and gradually the voluntary became mandatory.

Normally speaking, after the production team completed the delivery task, they would keep some reserve grain for emergencies, and the remaining grain would be distributed to each household, and this part of the grain would be at the farmers' own disposal.

However, the grain depot would require the purchase of grain according to a certain percentage.

For example, if 10 pounds of grain were harvested this year, 3 pounds would be handed over as public grain, and the remaining 7 pounds would need to be sold to the grain depot for 3 to 4 pounds. In fact, the farmers could only dispose of 3 or 4 pounds themselves.

As a result, as long as it was not a bumper year, the rations in hand were very likely to be insufficient to eat.

Under normal circumstances, if a member's family lacked grain, they could exchange grain from the production team with work points, and then deduct it uniformly at the end of the year.

However, if even the production team had no grain, the farmers could only go to the grain depot outlet to buy 'reverse-sale grain' specially supplied to rural areas, and the price of reverse-sale grain was two to three times higher than the market price.

This was one of the main reasons why many places didn't have enough grain in those years, and secondly, there were natural disasters such as droughts and floods.

It was only because Jiangnan was rich, especially after the Yangtze River flood was controlled, that most years could harvest a bumper crop, and this situation was rare.

But rare doesn't mean non-existent. Once in a while, it could be talked about for ten or eight years.

Therefore, most rural girls here, like people in other places, had a dream of urban household registration, taking pride in marrying city people. The most important reason was to obtain a stable grain supply, and secondly, it was for face.

However, only a very few people could marry into the city and get an urban household registration, so many people set their sights on economic households, eating fixed-quantity grain, which could be regarded as half 'city people', except that the work they did was still farm work, which was still better than pure rural household registration.

The economic households of Bailang Lake were fishermen who depended on that large lake for survival. Every year, they had to hand in a sufficient amount of fish, which was equivalent to farmers handing in grain. Grain reserves were not their responsibility, so the pressure they faced was much lighter.

And they often fished and handed in their catch, which also required a lot of livestock as transportation, so Bailang Lake had the most mules and horses in Nanhugongshe.

Hearing Chen Fan's words, Wang Shiping immediately said, "Five years ago, Team 3 of Bailang Lake had a horse, which was similar to this one. It didn't eat much, didn't have the strength to work, and often faced its butt towards the rear, staring blankly at the back wall of the stable. Sometimes it would bite other horses. It was brought to our veterinary station for treatment, but no problem could be found. At that time, everyone said that horse was going crazy."

He suddenly clapped his hands, "Sure enough, on a stormy night, that horse suddenly broke free from its reins and plunged into Bailang Lake. By the time it was fished out, it was long dead. Don't you think that's strange?"

The more Chen Fan listened, the more he felt something was wrong. Didn't that horse sound like it had severe depression?

First, it was listless and depressed, then it was manic and unstable, and finally, it couldn't think straight and committed suicide.

He had indeed seen news before, knowing that horses could also have depression, but in reality, this was the first time he had heard of it.

Station Master Zhou suddenly took two steps to the side, pulled Chen Fan, and whispered, "Did Gan Laibao ask you to take this horse back for treatment, or did you buy it?"

Chen Fan blinked, "Bought it, cash on delivery, fingerprints were pressed."

Station Master Zhou immediately looked disappointed, "Why did you buy it? This horse isn't normal."

Chen Fan looked at the mare staring straight at him, "Uh, it's okay, take it slow."

Fearing that Station Chief Zhou would continue talking about the horse, he quickly changed the subject, "Station Chief, do you have any industrial coupons?"

Station Chief Zhou was taken aback for a moment, then began to rummage through his pockets, saying, "What do you need industrial coupons for?"

Chen Fan turned his head, smiled at Wang Xiaoling who was walking over and watching them chat with interest, "I want to buy an air rifle, it requires 3 industrial coupons."

"Buy an air rifle?"

Station Chief Zhou had already taken out the industrial coupons, but upon hearing this, he stuffed them back in, turned around and pointed at Wang Xiaoling, saying, "Xiao Wang, it's not that I'm criticizing you, but how can you earn any money? Little Chen wants to buy an air rifle, shouldn't you stop him?"

Wang Xiaoling looked speechless, "Uncle Zhou, look at what you're saying, I'm a salesperson! When customers come to buy things, it's already good enough if I don't promote it, and you want me to stop them? If Director Qian behind me hears this, will I even keep my job?!"

As soon as she finished speaking, a middle-aged woman wrapped in a cotton coat with fair skin walked out from behind, loudly saying, "What do you mean, will you even keep your job? Are you arguing with people again?"

Station Chief Zhou turned to look at her, "Yo, you're personally coming to work today?"

"Tch."

This Director Qian spat, then smilingly scolded, "Dog's mouth can't produce ivory, is your shift for others to take?"

Immediately after, she looked at Chen Fan, and her eyes lit up, "Oh my, where did this young man come from, he's so handsome! Which unit are you from, do you have a girlfriend? If not, how about I introduce you to one?"

Chen Fan opened his mouth wide and blinked, I came to buy a gun, how did it turn into a blind date?

At this time, Liu Shifu and the others who were behind also caught up, and immediately saw the mare that Chen Fan was leading. They immediately drove the cart to the entrance of the supply and marketing cooperative and stopped, jumping down and saying, "Are you having a meeting here?"

Station Chief Zhou and Director Qian both greeted him with a smile, "Shifu Liu."

Shifu Liu grinned and waved his hand, "Hello, hello."

Then he looked at Chen Fan, "Are you here to buy something?"

Chen Fan, "Ah, buying an air rifle."

As soon as he finished speaking, Director Qian asked, "Shifu Liu, is this someone from your village? I haven't seen him before."

Shifu Liu pointed at Chen Fan and said with a smile, "New here, have you heard of Master Chen?"

Director Qian suddenly understood, looking at Chen Fan with shining eyes, "Yo, you're Little Master Chen, then you definitely don't have a girlfriend yet, right? How about Aunt Qian introducing you to one?"

Chen Fan's face was full of embarrassment, is this not going to end?

The four girls on the donkey cart behind him all had their hearts in their throats, staring at Chen Fan expectantly.

Fortunately, Shifu Liu waved his hand and said, "Little Chen is only 16 this year, what's the use of introducing him to someone? He can't get married yet."

Director Qian looked full of regret, "That's true, he's a bit young. In two years, in two years Aunt Qian will introduce you to someone else."

In these years, dating is basically for the purpose of getting married. Unless there are special reasons, otherwise dating for four years and not getting married will likely be drowned in spit.

Then Director Qian finally remembered the main business, looked at the air rifle that hadn't been put away on the counter, and said to Chen Fan, "Why are you buying an air rifle with your money? 38 yuan a piece, it's terribly expensive, and you need industrial coupons. You find Station Chief Zhou, ask him which rural person wants to sell a gun. There are plenty of guns to buy. A double-barreled shotgun is only 30 yuan, isn't it more cost-effective than buying an air rifle?"

Chen Fan blinked his eyes frantically, if he guessed correctly, is she pushing business away?

Now he also understands why they didn't put the air rifle on display here, so no one buys it?

He doesn't know that although gun management began after the founding of the country, and gun licenses were issued, this thing is as good as nothing, especially since the late 1960s, when the advocacy was for everyone to be a soldier, no one knows how many guns are hidden among the people.

It may be better in big cities, but in rural areas, it may be a bit of an exaggeration to say that every household has a gun, but every team has a gun, that's definitely an understatement. The styles are even more diverse, from bird guns to hunting rifles, from the Hanyang-made guns of a hundred years ago to the latest 56 semi-automatic rifles, and even many mortars and grenade launchers.

Don't even mention going to the police station to register, who the hell has the time to report that thing?

Only unit cadres and educated intellectuals have the awareness to get a gun license.

So at this time, guns are the least valuable, only a little more valuable than scrap iron.

It wasn't until 1981, when the new "Gun Management Law" was introduced, that all the guns of government departments and enterprises were confiscated, and only "non-professional hunters" were allowed to hold no more than two guns, and the number of gun holders and the amount of guns held was greatly reduced.

At this time, the price of guns also rose sharply. For example, that Gongzi brand air rifle rose to 220 yuan per piece in 1985. Although it is related to the increase in prices, this increase is much higher than inflation.

After that, due to various reasons, in big cities, air rifles still have a lot of market, but in towns and villages, sorry, muskets are the mainstream!

It wasn't until 1996, when the strictest gun management law was issued, that guns gradually disappeared from the lives of ordinary people.

Now, if the higher-level units hadn't imported and distributed goods, the Nanhai Supply and Marketing Cooperative wouldn't even sell this air rifle.

Selling air rifles is not as good as selling bullets!

Hearing Director Qian's words, Chen Fan was also entangled for a while, should he still buy a gun?

As a result, Station Chief Zhou patted his arm and said seriously, "Do you want an air rifle, or can you have any gun?"

Chen Fan's eyes rolled slightly, "Bird guns are definitely not okay, and guns that are too old are not okay either."

Station Chief Zhou immediately said, "That's fine, it's not easy to get regular rifles, basically they are managed by the militia company, generally ordinary people don't have them, they are indeed rare. Most of them are bird guns and hunting rifles. We are going to the Shengli Brigade for a consultation, and there is a household there with five or six hunting rifles. If you really want one, I'll get one for you, and you can just give him a dozen or twenty yuan."

What else is there to say, Chen Fan nodded immediately, "Okay."

After a pause, he looked at the smiling Director Qian and Wang Xiaoling, and said, "I can't come here for nothing today, Aunt Qian, please get me a small alarm clock."

Then he pointed his thumb horizontally at Station Chief Zhou, "Station Chief Zhou will give the industrial coupons."

Hearing this, everyone burst into laughter.

Wang Xiaoling skillfully wrote the ticket and took the goods, Chen Fan paid the money, and Station Chief Zhou took the ticket with a wry smile.

With the alarm clock in hand, Chen Fan said goodbye to the others, then jumped on the horse and rode away, kicking up dust.