Reborn in 1977

Chapter 598: Stop Bragging

Chen Fan chatted with Captain Yang for a while and confirmed that no outsiders would be visiting today before continuing on his way.

That's right, during the double抢 season, which production team wasn't busy?

Even if some leaders felt they could abandon production and come to visit, they had to see if others were willing.

If they didn't even have that much foresight, they'd be finished sooner or later.

However, this kind of thing couldn't be completely prevented.

According to Captain Yang, a joint delegation would still come to visit in a few days during the rush harvest and planting.

They mainly wanted to see the difference between agricultural machinery operation and manual operation.

Chen Fan didn't care, as long as there were no outsiders now.

For safety's sake, he also summoned the peregrine falcon for aerial reconnaissance to make sure there were no outsiders before continuing to the brigade headquarters.

Riding the little mare, he soon arrived at Team 5.

Like Team 6, most of the commune members were out working in the fields, and only a dozen elderly and young people were left behind in the village.

After waving hello to a few elderly people, Chen Fan first passed through two newly built red brick buildings and went to Grandpa Lu Si's house.

Unfortunately, he wasn't home either.

Although Grandpa Lu Si was old and his legs were inconvenient, he still had to work like everyone else.

If he didn't work, where would he get work points?

It was just that the work assigned to him wasn't too heavy, which was also considered taking care of him.

Perhaps in a few years, when Lujiawan was rich and powerful, they could build their own welfare home and support all the elderly and widowed people in the village, and then he could completely "retire."

It seemed like there weren't many elderly orphans in the village?

Chen Fan rode on his horse, came out along the path, shook his head, and felt that Lujiawan could now support these few elderly orphans.

It's just that with the older generation's habit of going to the fields as long as they can move, he was afraid they wouldn't be willing to be supported.

When he arrived at the brigade headquarters, Chen Fan dismounted, patted the mare's rump, and let her go to the livestock shed to stay, while he turned and entered the courtyard.

Today was a good day, and the courtyard and roof were full of red flags.

A banner was also hung above the main house, warmly celebrating the 57th anniversary of the organization's founding.

Chen Fan looked around and continued walking forward.

Before he had taken a few steps, he saw Xiao Lie Wen leaning against the window and shouting at him, "When did you come back, kid?"

Chen Fan grinned and said, "I just got back.

That's why I came over after putting things down."

As he spoke, he quickened his pace and entered the office in a few steps.

Only Xiao Lie Wen was inside.

He took out a cigarette and handed it over, "You didn't say to call in advance.

They all went to the fields to inspect, sometimes they come back earlier, sometimes they don't come back until dark."

As soon as he finished speaking, a faint explosion came from a distance.

Chen Fan immediately turned his head and looked in the direction of the sound, his brow furrowed slightly, "Is that Team 3 or Team 4?"

Xiao Lie Wen was unmoved, pulled out a chair and sat down, lit a match to light his cigarette, and handed the match over, smiling, "It's okay, the militia is hunting wild animals."

Chen Fan held the fire to light his cigarette.

Hearing this, he suddenly understood, "To protect the grain?"

Twice a year for grain collection, not only was it necessary to strictly prevent natural disasters such as fire and heavy rain, but also to guard against wild animals such as rabbits, wild boars, and muntjacs from stealing and destroying the grain.

The poor little sparrow was miserably killed because it was regarded as the biggest devil for stealing grain, and almost became an endangered protected animal.

Exhaling a puff of smoke, Chen Fan laughed, "Then won't there be wild game to eat later?"

The wild game hunted in this way should of course be handed over.

Of course, the team would also give credit to the militia, um, that is, a few more work points.

As for how to deal with it, in the past, of course, it was skinned, pickled, and sold for money to offset accounts, and everyone would have a share in the year-end bonus.

Now, naturally, there was no need to be so troublesome.

It was just a little wild animal, it was nothing more than selling two more chickens, it would be eaten, so what?

Xiao Lie Wen looked at him and smiled, "Don't you like shooting?

Do you want to play?"

Chen Fan shook his head, "Forget it."

Xiao Lie Wen was stunned and looked at him in surprise, "Are you tired of playing so quickly?"

In the past, he used a gun to trick this kid into joining the militia company to work for free, but now he doesn't even play with a gun.

Has he changed his nature?

Chen Fan shook his head and smiled, "No.

It's just that I took the shotgun to Shanghai and didn't bring it back.

I only have a pistol on hand, it's boring to shoot."

Last time, he originally planned to take Zhou Yali to the old forest to hunt after going to the Northeast, so he brought both shotguns.

But after going there, Zhou Zhengdong saw the changes in the ancestral house, so he no longer had the interest in hunting.

The two guns were left untouched and taken to Shanghai.

Later, he didn't bring them with him when he returned to the provincial capital, and just left them at the small western-style house.

Moreover, after playing in the old forest in the Northeast, he no longer looked down on this small place.

After going around a few times, he could only hit small things, how could it be as enjoyable as hitting big game in the Northeast.

Seeing that Chen Fan was not interested, Xiao Lie Wen didn't say much, and instead asked him about the situation in the provincial capital.

Chen Fan rambled on and on, listening to Xiao Lie Wen rolling his eyes.

He had a cigarette in his mouth, squinted at Chen Fan, "Oh, you're quite capable.

You went to school, and you finished all the courses in two and a half months.

If the teacher hadn't been reluctant to let you go, you would have gone to heaven."

Chen Fan's face stiffened slightly, and the hand pouring water paused for a moment, "How can you say gone to heaven, it should be graduated.

If I didn't think the time was too short and might attract outside questions, I would have gotten my graduation certificate long ago, okay?"

Xiao Lie Wen's mouth twitched slightly, "That correspondence center, and the new magazine, were all run by you?

Amazing!"

Chen Fan smiled, "Just so-so, I just made a suggestion.

The main thing is that other comrades worked together to accomplish great things."

Xiao Lie Wen couldn't help it and said angrily, "If you say that in Lujiawan, whatever you say is what you say, then I believe it.

Anyway, there are not many educated people in the village, and their brains are not as good as yours, so listening to you is definitely right.

But if you say that in the Provincial Writers Association, it's the same as here, whatever you say, people will listen?

What, do you think I haven't seen the world?

What is the Provincial Writers Association?

That's a place where literary stars gather, especially those who can become leaders, which one is not smarter than others?

I think you're just drumming up support, but you're bragging."

Chen Fan's face fell, okay, I'm bragging.

He blew a few breaths, drank a sip of hot tea, put down the teacup, and picked up the cigarette holder again, "Believe it or not, I didn't brag anyway."

Xiao Lie Wen, "Uh huh, uh huh, you didn't brag."

He then rolled his eyes, looked at Chen Fan and smiled, "Our Lujiawan is going to build a power station, are you surprised?"

Chen Fan was stunned and turned to look at him, "Build a power station?

Hydroelectric?"

Xiao Lie Wen coughed dryly, gesturing with his hands, "That's what we think.

When it's winter, the dry season, we'll build a dam on the river, and then get a few generating units, so we can generate electricity ourselves, and we won't have to stop the electricity several times a day, what do you think?"

Chen Fan blinked, asking with a puzzled expression, "This is a large river, with a width of two to three hundred meters even at its narrowest point. It's not like the small ditches in the mountains that are only a dozen meters wide. How much money does Lujiawan have now that they dare to build such a dam?"

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the construction of small hydropower stations was a nationwide frenzy.

Especially in mountainous areas with water resources, building a small dam on a ditch and installing one or two micro-generators could create a small hydropower station sufficient to supply a production team or even a commune.

But these small hydropower stations were relatively simple to build. Lujiawan is different.

They dare to build a dam on a river that's hundreds of meters wide?

Building a dam across a river that's hundreds of meters wide would definitely be considered a national-level project.

You can't joke about something like that!

Seeing Chen Fan's face full of doubt, Xiao Liewen couldn't help but laugh, "I can't fool you after all."

Chen Fan's face fell.

I told you the truth when you asked about the situation, but you said I was bragging.

Okay, then you bragged even bigger to me.

The sky almost broke from the bragging!

If I didn't see you as my mentor, I would have given you a good talking to.

After laughing, Xiao Liewen grinned and said, "In the beginning, we really thought about it that way. It's too troublesome to have power outages all the time. Farming is okay; those agricultural machines are mostly diesel-powered, and they don't use much electricity.

But it has a big impact on sideline production. Things like feed machines, machines in breeding farms, and freezers in cooked food workshops can't operate without electricity.

It just so happened that the team had saved up a lot of money, so Old Yang suggested, 'Can we build our own hydropower station?'"

As he spoke, he pointed to the river in the distance, "In the beginning, we thought about building a hydropower station nearby, but when we asked the commune, it turned out it wouldn't work."

Chen Fan curled his lip unhappily, "It would be strange if it worked."

He threw away the cigarette butt and spat out the tobacco shreds in his mouth, "Master Xiao, why are you still smoking these cigarettes without a filter?"

Xiao Liewen glanced at him, "You're starting to look down on them? This is Peony brand. I think you're becoming too extravagant."

Chen Fan, "It's easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality."

Xiao Liewen, "Anyway, that's the idea. You can't be like this. After the double rush harvest, the militia company will have a training camp, and you'll join in and eat hardship meals."

Hearing this, Chen Fan shivered instantly.

Training camps and the like are no big deal, but he really didn't want to touch those hardship meals again.

So he quickly changed the subject, "What if the hydropower station can't be built? It can't delay production."

To be honest, the cooked food workshop didn't have freezers before, and the feed factory was only built this year, so it didn't matter much whether there was electricity or not.

But as the scale expands, some necessary equipment is gradually being bought back. It would be a pity if they couldn't be used because there's no electricity.

Most importantly, it would delay making money!

Xiao Liewen glanced at him, "You brat has really deteriorated. Sanhu will make you a hardship meal tomorrow!"

Chen Fan suddenly looked distressed.

Xiao Liewen flicked the cigarette ash and continued, "Building a dam to generate electricity was definitely not feasible, so later Old Yang tried to find the county's power bureau to consult them and see if we could build a diesel power plant."

Hearing this, a hint of a smile flashed in Chen Fan's eyes.

Not bad, Secretary Yang is even running connections himself. When he was in the team before, he and An Quan basically handled these things, with Zhang Wenliang at most.

Now that he and An Quan can't be relied on, Secretary Yang isn't using Zhang Wenliang and is finding people himself.

It seems that he is gradually adapting to the changes in the production team and is no longer as shy as before, embarrassed to run connections.

Xiao Liewen was still talking, "The power bureau told him frankly at the time that building a diesel power plant was not difficult, and the generator sets were all minor matters. But the most crucial thing was whether our production team could obtain a fixed diesel allocation.

Lujiawan already has several cargo ships, and with the help of the water transport company, diesel can barely be resolved, but it is almost impossible to build another diesel power plant."

Chen Fan also nodded slightly, "Diesel is a key controlled material, and the production team is not a key industrial or transportation unit, so it is impossible to approve too much diesel for us."

The diesel allocated to Lujiawan by the higher authorities is still to meet the needs of agricultural machinery, and this is unique to Gufeng County.

Apart from Lujiawan, no other production team has a fixed source of diesel.

Xiao Liewen nodded, "Yes, so this path was also blocked."

Chen Fan smiled and said, "Actually, it's not that there's no way. Micro-diesel generators are not considered scarce. We can't buy too many, but one or two should be no problem. If there's a power outage, we can move them wherever they're needed, which can at least help a bit."

Xiao Liewen waved his hand with a smile, "Originally, we were planning to do that too. But, what's that saying, something willow something village?"

Chen Fan chuckled, "When the willow catkins are dark, the blossoms create another village."

Xiao Liewen, "Right, right."

He grinned and said, "Old Yang ran to the commune and the county, and the news that Lujiawan wanted to build a power station spread. Guess what, someone came to our door!"

Chen Fan frowned slightly, squinted his eyes, thought for a moment, then suddenly turned around and pointed to the east, "Qingshan Commune? They have a place suitable for building a small hydropower station!"

Xiao Liewen widened his eyes and looked at him in surprise, "Yang Chuanfu told you?"

Chen Fan smiled and shook his head, "When I came just now, I did run into Captain Yang and chatted for a while, but he didn't mention this."

Xiao Liewen clicked his tongue, "How is your brain wired? You can even guess this?"

Chen Fan smiled and said, "How about it, do you believe I wasn't bragging now?"

Xiao Liewen curled his lips, "Only you know that."

He picked up the half-burned matchstick he had just thrown away, stuck it on the one-centimeter-long cigarette butt, bit the matchstick, and continued smoking, then said, "On the opposite bank of the river in Team 6, in that small hill area, there happens to be a small ditch, not big, only ten meters wide, and the water flow is not very fast, and there is a dry season in winter. But it's almost enough to build a small hydropower station."

Chen Fan clicked his tongue, "What are Qingshan Commune's conditions?"

Xiao Liewen shrugged and smiled, "What else could they be? They just want several production teams in their commune to learn from Lujiawan in raising chickens and ducks, and then make money together with Lujiawan."

Chen Fan frowned slightly and asked, "If there's one more commune, can such a large quantity be digested?"

Xiao Liewen laughed and said, "With the machinery factory, the cotton mill, and so many factories in the district committee, let alone one more, we can sell it even if there are two more communes."