Reborn in 1977

Chapter 343: A Great Harvest

During the double抢 (qiang, meaning 'rush' or 'busy season', referring to the summer harvest and planting season), the end of work wasn't determined by a fixed time, but by when it got dark.

Whenever the sun set, that's when work ended.

Sometimes, people even worked after sunset, until they couldn't see anything at all, and then everyone gradually left the fields.

When the sun set, the commune members dragged their tired bodies back.

Even so, almost all the men still carried a load of rice on their shoulders; only when this load was carried back would the day's work officially end.

And at this time, the broadcast from the loudspeaker continued, obviously Zhang Cuie was still sticking to her post and hadn't gotten off work.

After carrying the rice back to the village, the men went to the river together to bathe, and when they went back later, they also had to bring back a load of water, because the water at home must have already been used up.

That's why everyone was so looking forward to tap water; if there was tap water, would they still need to carry water!

The women took the children home, busy washing off the mud from their bodies.

After tidying up a bit, they hurried to Captain Yang's house to wait for the calculation of today's work points.

Using the light from the electric light in the main room, accountant Liu held the record book and registered work points for the commune members one by one.

According to the rules of Lujiawan, for such high-intensity labor as today, under normal circumstances, men could record 10 to 12 points, women 6 to 10 points, children over 12 and under 18 years old 4 points, 10 to 12 years old 3 points, and under 10 years old 2 points.

Accountant Liu had a record of everyone who participated in the labor; as each household passed in front of him, he remembered clearly who did a full day's work, who only did half a day's work, who didn't come in the morning, who didn't come in the afternoon, how much effort they put in, and how much work they did.

The reason why he could be an accountant and scorekeeper wasn't because his surname was Liu, but because of his ability to recognize people!

Before long, he had recorded the work points of everyone, and also registered them in the "Personal Work Record Book", and everyone had no objection.

(Personal Work Record Book)

It's been like this every year; everyone knows roughly who has more strength, puts in more effort, and works longer.

Even if there were a few "tricky" young people who wanted one or two more points, they would be pulled away by their families before they could finish speaking.

The Yang, Liu, and Huang families accounted for the vast majority of surnames in Team 6; if you questioned Accountant Liu at this time, you would be slapping the Liu family in the face. Did you want to start a war or something?!

After Accountant Liu finished his work, the Huang warehouse keeper brought over the popsicle box and shouted loudly, "Popsicles are being distributed! According to the rules just now, each household gets one popsicle, and then they are ranked according to work points. Green bean popsicles are distributed first, then cream popsicles, until they are all gone. No one is allowed to complain."

At this time, everyone instantly became excited and rushed forward unconsciously.

The Huang warehouse keeper immediately put his hands on his hips and glared, "What are you squeezing for? Haven't you ever eaten or seen them before? Wait on the side, and whoever I call, come over to collect it."

Then, holding the record book, "First, the households' shares, then the reward shares. First household, Yang Jimin…"

A trembling old man squeezed out of the crowd with a cane.

The Huang warehouse keeper quickly took a popsicle and handed it over, "Oh, old grandpa, please slow down. Why did you come in person? Where's Yang Lao Jiu? Can't you support your great-grandfather…"

Yang Jimin stretched out the bowl in his hand, watched the Huang warehouse keeper put the popsicle in the bowl, grinned, and his mouth was full of gums, "Let him come? Will my great-grandson still get to eat it?"

After saying that, he turned around and left, and the people around him quickly made way while supporting him, for fear that the old man would fall.

Yang Lao Jiu, who was in his twenties, had a bitter smile on his face and respectfully followed behind.

The Huang warehouse keeper wiped his sweat, "Second household…"

Captain Yang and Accountant Liu next to him were still nervous.

Accountant Liu nudged Captain Yang with his elbow and said in a low voice, "How long has it been since we saw the old grandpa smile so happily?"

Captain Yang was already smiling so much that he couldn't open his eyes, "Old people are like children, the old man's temper is just like a child's. Xiao Chen did a good job with this matter."

…

The noise in the village didn't affect Chen Fan.

At this time, he was busy in the educated youth compound, and before long he had made three dishes and a soup, and put the food on the table.

It was still mainly vegetables, supplemented by oily meat, which was both appetizing and nutritious.

Just then, Jiang Lili, Huang Ying, and Liu Dan walked into the courtyard together.

Chen Fan looked at them and casually asked, "Where's Yang Ju?"

Liu Dan pointed to the village in front, "She's still waiting to get a popsicle."

Huang Ying smiled happily and said, "I asked just now, it's calculated according to 48 households, so the educated youth count as one household, and Teacher Chen, you also count as one household. We can get two."

As for the other reward popsicles, they didn't dare to think about it.

It was already very good for five people to share two popsicles; many families of seven or eight people only got one.

Chen Fan smiled, and was about to speak when his gaze suddenly froze. He walked over and looked them up and down, "You guys… what happened to you, turning into mud monkeys?"

The three girls immediately blushed. Huang Ying covered her face and ran to the room, and Liu Dan simply covered her eyes, "Don't look, don't look."

Jiang Lili lowered her head awkwardly, looked at the thick layer of dry mud on her arms and legs, and muttered, "There are too many bugs. Applying mud can prevent bites."

Chen Fan blinked, "There are a lot of bugs?"

"Yeah, yeah."

Jiang Lili raised her hand and touched her neck and face, which were covered with a thick layer of mud. When she rubbed it with her hand, mud was still falling off.

She said embarrassedly, "When it's dark, there's a very small bug that flies up and moves around in the paddy fields. There are a lot of these bugs, and if you get bitten, you get a big bump, so we apply mud to our bodies so we don't get bitten."

Chen Fan nodded suddenly, "So that's how it is."

After a pause, he pointed to the two buckets of water next to him, "You wash up first, then take a shower, and come over for dinner after you shower."

Jiang Lili and Liu Dan looked at each other and could see the embarrassment on each other's faces. They quickly lowered their heads to wash up.

Huang Ying also came out with a washbasin to rinse off.

First, they washed off the mud with cold water, then scrubbed it with warm water, and finally carried the bucket to get hot water for a shower.

Before long, Yang Ju ran back with a bowl, which contained the two popsicles that had just been distributed. Seeing that the three of them were busy washing, she didn't bother to speak and joined the ranks of rinsing.

By the time they had all washed up, changed their clothes, and washed and dried their dirty clothes, it was already half an hour later.

And at this time, the two popsicles had completely melted into a bowl of ice water.

Originally, when Chen Fan bought them, the popsicles weren't very hard anymore. After being placed in the box for a few hours, they were now brought back and left for a long time. The weather was so hot, melting was normal.

Chen Fan looked at the popsicle water in the bowl and didn't know what to say.

The girls were very happy.

Yang Ju clapped her hands, "It's good that it's melted, we can each have a small cup."

She went into the house and took out 5 ceramic cups, distributing them little by little, even scraping clean the layer at the bottom of the large bowl.

Chen Fan also took a cup, brought it to his mouth and took a sip, smiling, "Not bad, it's still cold."

Looking at them again, they were all sipping it in small sips, their faces full of satisfied smiles, as if they were tasting some peerless wine, and even their bodies didn't seem so tired anymore.

With such a small cup of popsicle water, the few of them quickly finished dinner.

According to their usual habits, they would go to the comprehensive room to study at this time. Now they were also holding books, planning to study for a while.

They were studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics: algebra, geometry, physics, and chemistry, one person choosing one subject, so they wouldn't interfere with each other.

However, Chen Fan stopped them, "You're so tired, how can you still study?"

Jiang Lili smiled, "You said it, learning is like sailing against the current, if you don't advance, you retreat. If I don't study for a day, I'm afraid my learning will regress."

Yang Ju also nodded repeatedly, "It's just studying, it's much easier than working in the fields, just treat it as rest."

Huang Ying, "We'll just look at it for a little while, if we're too tired, we'll go to sleep."

Liu Dan continued to nod, "Yeah, yeah."

Chen Fan looked at them, stood up and said, "Follow me."

Saying that, he walked towards the backyard.

Jiang Lili and the other three looked at each other, but didn't speak, and followed.

Before long, they walked to the new house on the top of the back slope. Chen Fan pushed open the door, and a faint medicinal fragrance emanated from inside.

He looked back at the four of them, turned on the light, walked to the living room, and said at the same time, "I lit a stove of medicinal fumigation here just now, there shouldn't be any mosquitoes in this house."

Originally, a lot of mosquito-repellent herbs were planted around the house, and with this stove of incense, there were even fewer mosquitoes.

The four of them followed into the house and immediately felt a cool air. When they followed behind Chen Fan and walked into the living room, they saw a small incense burner placed on the coffee table in the living room. Smoke was still rising from the incense burner, and the medicinal fragrance came from inside.

In addition to this, in the original empty space, there were two big beds, covered with straw mats, and not far from the beds, there was even an electric fan?!

Chen Fan pointed to the big bed, "During the double-qiang period, you guys will sleep here."

The four of them looked at each other. Even Huang Ying, who was the boldest, was a little embarrassed at this time. She looked at him and said in a low voice, "Teacher Chen, this is your new house, you haven't even moved in yet, how can we sleep here?"

Chen Fan smiled and said, "Wouldn't it be done if I moved in now?"

Looking at the four people with surprised faces, he said with a smile, "Originally, I wanted to leave the house empty for a summer and a winter to let it air out and get rid of the moisture, but after the house was built, it didn't seem to have much of a smell. Now that the weather is hot, and the new house is cooler, it's more comfortable to sleep here, so I thought I'd just stay here for a few days."

The girls were all a little tempted, but none of them spoke up to agree.

The educated youth spot was different; it was a public space, and anyone could go in and live there.

But this was Chen Fan's own house. How could they, as girls, just move into a boy's house for no reason?!

But even though they wanted to refuse, none of them wanted to be the one to say it.

Chen Fan didn't care how much they were thinking. He helped them turn on the electric fan and then turned to walk out, "Read for a while and then go to sleep. Don't stay up too late. I'm in the bedroom next door, so call me if you need anything."

His idea was simple: to provide them with good logistical support so they could eat well and sleep comfortably.

After Chen Fan went out and closed the living room door, the four of them looked at each other.

Finally, Huang Ying was the first to move.

She picked up a book and walked to the sofa, "I'll read for a while and then go to sleep."

The implication was that she was staying.

The others remained silent, each picking up a book and finding a place to sit and read.

It had to be said that this house was indeed much cooler than the house in the educated youth compound. With the electric fan blowing, they soon felt dry and comfortable, without that stuffy feeling.

After all, they were exhausted today. After reading for a while, Huang Ying was the first to yawn.

She looked around and, too lazy to go to bed, simply used her book as a pillow and fell asleep on the sofa.

When Yang Ju and Liu Dan saw that she was asleep, they also put down their books and lay down on the bed.

Jiang Lili originally wanted to read for a while longer, but with the three people next to her asleep, she couldn't hold on any longer, so she turned off the light and went to bed.

…

After his mental breakthrough, Chen Fan's memory had improved a lot. The things he had experienced as a child were vivid in his mind, as if they had happened yesterday.

He remembered that there was also a "Double Rush" in his grandfather's village, but that was in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Although the "Double Rush" was still hard work at that time, the level of fatigue was far less than it was in the 1970s.

On the first day of the "Double Rush", Chen Fan thought it could be considered the limit of rural labor, but as time went on, he realized that it was only the beginning of extreme labor!

For the first two days, they were busy harvesting rice. By the third day, when the first batch of rice had basically dried out, they began to thresh it.

They had to work in the fields during the day, so when would they have time to thresh?

The answer was at night!

After a day of labor, the strong laborers would wash the mud off their bodies in the river, eat a quick dinner, and then throw themselves into the intense threshing work.

Apart from the educated youth spot and Chen Fan's house, there were 46 households in the 6th team of Lujiawan, which meant there were 46 threshing grounds. In addition, there was a largest threshing ground at the livestock shed at the entrance of the village, and all the rice was scattered on these threshing grounds to dry.

However, there were only two treadle threshing machines in the team. They didn't require mechanical power; they relied entirely on people stepping on them, and then the gears would drive the threshing shaft to rotate, knocking the grains off the rice stalks.

These two threshing machines were placed next to the livestock shed in front of the village and were responsible for almost more than a third of the threshing tasks.

What about the remaining nearly two-thirds?

That could only be done by "purely manual" bucket threshing.

(Bucket threshing is a "high-end" product. Inside, there are threshing bars like ladders. There is also a type that only has one horizontal bar inside, and the rice is thrown on the horizontal bar to help thresh.)

A square wooden basin contained wooden bars for threshing. People had to hold the rice stalks and hit the wooden bars hard, so that the rice grains would separate from the rice stalks, achieving the purpose of threshing.

Before electricity, several kerosene lamps would be hung on the threshing ground to illuminate it, and several buckets of water would be prepared in case of fire.

Now that there were electric lights, the wires could be pulled out, and light bulbs could be hung on bamboo poles on the threshing ground, and people would thresh on the threshing ground.

At this time, men were still the main labor force. This was harder and more tiring work than carrying loads. Even the strongest women could only temporarily help out when the men were resting. After the men had rested, they would hand over the threshing position.

Whenever a certain amount of grain was threshed, someone would pull the rice away and drag it to the large threshing ground next to the livestock shed, waiting to pour it into the winnowing fan to blow away the excess rice stalks and leaves. What was finally obtained was relatively clean rice.

(Threshing winnowing fan, still used in many places today)

Whether it was threshing or winnowing, countless mosquitoes would be attracted because the light bulbs were on. Therefore, the commune members would work while swatting the mosquitoes on their bodies.

At this time, Chen Fan would prepare some medicinal herbs, put them in a pottery pot, and send them over to burn, trying to help them drive away the mosquitoes as much as possible.

Accountant Liu, who was constantly patrolling the village and recording everyone's performance, secretly noted this in his heart. When he found Captain Yang, he said to him, "Although Little Chen didn't participate in the labor, he helped drive away mosquitoes and wrote reports about our labor, submitting them to both 'Jiangnan Literature and Art' and the Prefectural Committee Daily. He is both helping us make a name for ourselves and truly helping the commune members. Do you think we should give him some work points?"

Captain Yang pondered for two seconds and shook his head, saying, "Not appropriate, not appropriate."

After a pause, he said to Accountant Liu in a low voice, "Writing and submitting articles is his job. Helping drive away mosquitoes is a good thing, but it's not within the scope of the scoring rules after all.

Besides, he doesn't lack these few work points. Rather than giving him work points, it's better to mention his contribution every day when registering work points. Not to make a name for him, but to let everyone know that he is not doing nothing. Although he is not working in the fields, his contribution is not small, that's the idea."

Accountant Liu nodded slowly after listening, "That makes sense, okay, I'll mention it every day."

Chen Fan didn't know about the things Captain Yang and the others were discussing, and he wouldn't have cared even if he did.

He really couldn't bear the hardship of working in the fields, but he wouldn't stand idly by and ignore it within his capabilities.

In addition to drawing, writing reports, and doing publicity in the fields, and picking herbs to drive away mosquitoes, he would also travel between the various teams, promptly handling the sudden injuries and illnesses of many livestock, and use the herbs sent by the health department to boil herbal tea to clear heat and detoxify for everyone, treating commune members who had heatstroke or were injured due to labor, keeping him extremely busy.

Seeing him so busy, and with Accountant Liu's publicity when registering work points every night, no one in the entire brigade didn't praise Teacher Chen for being a good person.

The days passed day by day, but the "Double Rush" work continued.

Harvesting, threshing, and the rice that was threshed couldn't be put into storage, but had to be exposed to the sun.

It was necessary to ensure that every grain of rice was thoroughly dried, otherwise, a single damp grain of rice could cause a small pile of rice to mold. If it didn't pass the inspection of the grain bureau at that time, all the rice would have to be pulled back, which would be a huge loss!

Before the summer grain could be harvested, the production team immediately arranged for people to plow the already harvested rice fields in preparation for planting late rice.

At this time, the diesel engine that Chen Fan had brought back came in handy!

Without having to wait for the commune's irrigation team, Chen Fan personally operated the engine, pumping water from the river into the main canal of Lujiawan.

Streams of river water flowed into the rice fields, nourishing this land.

When the plowing was completed and the water was irrigated, they immediately had to rush to plant late rice.

As Jiang Lili and the others had said before, they were even busier at this time.

Moreover, it was already late July. From 12 noon to 4 pm, it was impossible to work in the fields at all, otherwise, the sun would make people sick.

In order to save time, the commune members had to get up at 2:30 every morning and all go to the fields collectively at 3 o'clock. Apart from the time from 12 noon to 4 pm, they had to work until 9 or 10 pm before they could go home to rest.

The entire month of July was spent in such a repetitive busyness.

Chen Fan didn't work in the fields, but he lost a lot of weight. His originally fair skin turned bronze, and his appearance changed from fair-skinned to dark-skinned.

Even he was like this, let alone Jiang Lili and the others.

Huang Ying, Yang Ju, and Liu Dan had simply become three little black coals, their faces, hands, and feet were dark, and some places even had sunburn marks. It was impossible to tell that these were teenage girls.

Jiang Lili wasn't much better. Even though she was naturally beautiful, she now had wheat-colored skin, had lost weight, and her back was unconsciously bent. She was just a little country girl.

If Jiang Tiantian came to see her at this time, she certainly wouldn't recognize that this was her own sister.

This was still with Chen Fan making them good food every day, and serving them with hot water and electric fans. Their spirits looked pretty good.

If it were other commune members, not only would they have lost weight and become dark, but even their spirits would have been half gone, each one listless, as if they had been seriously ill.

But in any case, the most difficult "Double Rush" was about to pass. Although the farm work that followed would still be hard, it wouldn't make people feel suffocated.

It could also be considered a cause for celebration!

Most, most, most importantly, there was a bumper harvest this year!