In the spring of 1971, in response to Chairman Mao’s instructions: It was necessary for educated young people to go to the countryside to receive re-education from poor and lower-middle peasants, our family moved from the town to the seventh production team called the “Permanent” Brigade and joined the team to settle down.
I have parents and an older brother, and two younger sisters. At that time, my brother was married and had two children; my two sisters and I were both single, and we lived with our parents. I was eighteen years old that year, and I was two years older than my elder sister and four years older than my younger sister.
Before going to the countryside, my brother and I both worked at the porting station in the town. Our main jobs were to help the station, loading and unloading goods, or loading sand at the sand factory. In other words, we did all the physical work such as porting in the town. The transfer station personnel did it.
Although my family had an urban registered permanent residence at that time, my family’s living standard in the town was at a low level. When the movement to go to the countryside began, the town cadres asked us to go to the countryside to join the queue, and we agreed.
A year after my parents, me and my two younger sisters went to the countryside, my brother and his whole family came to join the production team where I worked and settled down. My family built three houses with mud walls and tiles in the production team, and the production team specially arranged people to help. My brother built two half-room houses with mud walls and tiles next door to me.
At that time, the countryside was very miserable: there was not enough food to eat, and the farm work was very tiring. People (children) in the production team start working at the age of twelve (equivalent to urban people going to work) to do farm work. My father, me, and two younger sisters all reached the age of "going to work" (working). After the house was built and everything was settled, my father, me, and my two younger sisters began to work like commune members. My mother is old and ill and cannot go out to do farm work, so she lives at home.
At first, our whole family didn’t know how to do farm work, such as transplanting rice, plowing, harrowing, etc., so the farmers in the production team taught us. Later, we all learned to do all kinds of farm work, and our working ability and skills are no worse than those of farmers.
Since we brothers and sisters are young and growing, we eat a lot, so the food distributed at the beginning of each month is not enough to last until the end of the month. We work very hard all day long and still cannot fill our stomachs. At that time, it was a luxury for us to have enough to eat every meal.
At that time, each person in our team received a ration of 420 kilograms per year. The rest is to grab work points to get more money, grain and oil, etc. My two laborers and two younger sisters are all working, and the grain and oil they receive are not enough for food. Life is very miserable. We don’t have meat to eat. Each person only gets 6 pounds of oil per year, and there is not enough cooking oil.
There are several people in the production team who are suffering more than us. For example, their family is short of labor. They only have some rations and a little cooking oil. It is common to eat two meals or go hungry. They have no clothes or shoes. Yes, in some places it is common to go barefoot in winter. In addition to being worse than the cadres, my family is still much better than them.
But the cadres of the production team here don’t have to worry about food at home. For example, the accountants, timekeepers, and people in charge of the warehouse keys are all the captain's own people, or the captain's cronies and influencers...
The captain usually doesn't work, and his family members rarely work or find someone to work with. For fun, his wife pretended to be sick and played at home, only instructing the members to work. The bell is rung every day (if the captain is not in the production team, the deputy captain rings the bell). After ringing the bell, he shouts loudly under the big tree where the production team hangs the clock: "It's time to go to work! What work do men do today?" What do women do?" Then he went home to play. When it was time for dinner, his wife prepared a sumptuous meal. The captain drank a little wine every day, and his life was nourishing and comfortable!
Other cadres, such as deputy captains, militia company commanders, women's captains, recorders of work points, accountants, and relatives of captains and brigade cadres, etc., generally do light work, and some work with the members for a while After i was alive, he found a reason to run away, or he was just a supervisor. But their families usually have no shortage of food and clothing.
This team is very factional. People with the same surname stick together. There are weak factions and strong factions. For example, those with the same surname as the production captain or brigade cadre belong to the strong faction.
Members of the powerful faction of the production team: clerks, accountants, militia company commanders, poor peasants with deep roots and deep hatred, relatives of cadres, etc. When they work, they can choose to work easily. Easy tasks include: tending to the fields, looking after the chickens in the village (preventing the chickens from going to the fields to eat the crops), looking after warehouses or other doors, herding cattle, looking after the water in the ditches, looking after the grain in the rice fields, etc.
People with weak power include: few people with the same surname, poorer people, landlords and rich peasants, honest people, migrant households without relatives, etc. People with weak power are assigned to do all the heavy work, such as: carrying grass, carrying burdens, etc. wait. Of course, these are not absolute, just general terms.
The work of the production team is very heavy, and they work overtime day and night during busy farming periods, such as pulling rice seedlings, threshing rice, watching rice seedlings, irrigating , cotton, and other crops at night.
Two years have passed. I am in my early twenties, and I have not found a wife. My family is also worried about my marriage. None of the girls on the production team had a crush on me. My mother was sick and the family was poor. That year, my mother also died of illness. Although I used to have an urban registered permanent residence, I became a farmer after jumping in line, and I no longer have a sense of superiority.
During the autumn harvest in 1973, our county organized farmers from all over the county to build a reservoir. I was strong, so the team leader arranged for me to work on the reservoir construction site. We had almost no machinery for construction at that time, and we relied entirely on manpower to lift the soil from the bottom of the reservoir. Or pull a small cart up to the dam or embankment. The work is very hard! Those of us who build reservoirs have to bring our own food from home, and each day’s work counts as 10 points.
Because at that time, when earthmoving work was assigned, the earthmoving work of adjacent brigades was also assigned to adjacent ones. When I was working, I saw a girl about the same age as me working very quickly. Like me, she also had to carry a lot of soil per load and endured hardships. I took her to heart and felt that she also worked hard. Pay attention to me.
When I was taking a break from work, I went to their place and chatted with their people, and also chatted with her...
Since the brigades were adjacent, I asked a matchmaker to talk to them. After explaining the reason, she agreed. . Later she said that she was attracted to my young man who was strong and well-proportioned.
To be honest, I am 1.78 meters tall and have never been sick. I am no worse than anyone else in the village at picking straw and stones. I can be said to be number one. At one time, all the young men in the production team competed with each other in picking up stones in the rice field.
The stone roller is to lift the stone roller from the big end and stand it upright. It depends on who is stronger. I am the only one who can lift it and stand it upright. The others can only look at me and sigh.
After getting married, I have a son and a daughter. My daughter-in-law can also endure hardships at work and is much better at farm work than ordinary people. My family’s income can be considered a medium level in rural areas.
My two sisters, the eldest sister got married when she was twenty-one, and her brother-in-law is a farmer; the younger sister also got married when she was nineteen, and she also married a farmer.
In 1981, my family and my brother’s family moved back to the town according to the policy. The town cadres allocated a piece of land on the outskirts of the town for those of us who had gone to the countryside. According to the planning requirements, we built rows of two-story red brick and machine-tile houses like the new rural areas. My house is in the middle of a row of houses, with two rooms and two floors.
The town arranged for me to work in the town-run steel shovel factory, which was a collective enterprise in the town. My wife cleaned the streets; my two younger sisters and their families were in the countryside and became real farmers; my father also passed away. Now our husband and wife are retired and taking care of themselves at home.
Copyright owner: Jiang Tao
