(Memory of the past years)
In 1974, I was nineteen years old. Just graduated from high school. My family lived a poor life with little food and no cooking. My father asked me to go with my uncle to push coal at a place called Dakunlun south of Zhoucun. The purpose is to solve the problem of burning firewood for cooking at home, and also to allow me to exercise and go out to see the world. I can't forgive you for going out this time. The crime will be serious.
We set out after eating dumplings at noon on New Year’s Eve. My uncle, I, and his neighbor Niu Zishu were each pushing a rubber-tyred cart with one wheel. There were two large flower baskets on the left and right shelves on both sides of the cart. Basket, made of wicker, usually used to push manure or earth) There are one hundred and twenty kilograms of soybeans in the flower basket. Soybeans are used to exchange for coal. It is an industrial zone and soybeans are rare (like) because soybeans can be used to make tofu. People there love to eat tofu, but soybeans are not produced in the industrial zone. Each kilogram of soybeans can be exchanged for six kilograms of coal, and the rest is sold to make money. There is a quilt and a dry food bag on top of the beans.
Why did I set out on the 30th of the year? Because in that era, there was a crackdown on stealing and stealing, and buying and selling was not allowed. The industrial and commercial departments were on holiday during the New Year holiday, and no one was checking on the road.
Departed at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, crossed the Yellow River in the evening, and stayed at a big car store in Qingcheng. The big car store didn't have anyone staying at the hotel during the year, so there were only three of us staying. The store manager arranged the three of us. Go to your room, lock the door, and go home to celebrate the New Year. The three of us wanted to cook with the small pot we brought with us, so we went to the shopkeeper's room to look for water. There was no electricity at the time, and it was so dark that we couldn't see anything clearly. The kitchen was divided into two rooms, inside and outside, separated by a partition. Covered with plastic sheeting, my uncle lit the plastic sheeting on the partition with a match. The room lit up, and he saw a stove in the outer room and two large water tanks in the inner room. As soon as I saw that the plastic sheet was on fire, I quickly used one hand to attack it, but the plastic sheet got on my hand and it burned. My uncle said, "You kid, why are you so timid when you go out for the first time? How could you catch a fire? We saw the water clearly and put out the fire quickly. Why did you use your hands?"
I probably belong to the human panic category. It’s stupid. We started on the road early the next day. My hand was so painful that I didn’t dare to hold the handlebar, but I still had to persevere. While walking on the road, I saw that people in the south of the Yellow River were richer than us. There were corn stalks near the village, and the houses were good, with pointed roofs and tiled roofs. (We still lived in an earthen bungalow at that time) I was extremely envious. When we walked to the Pozhuang Bridge on the Xiaoqing River, my uncle said, "It's usually very difficult to cross this bridge. There are traps on the bridge. We check to see if there are any soybeans. If we check, they will be confiscated. But when I come back to push coal, I won't check." I think my uncle travels a lot and knows a lot.
When it was dark, we arrived at our destination. We checked into a hotel and arranged a room. My uncle and Uncle Niu asked me to rest. They went out to inquire about the market price of beans and see if there was a market there or who would exchange beans for them. Coal, a pound of beans can be exchanged for several pounds of coal. (Mutual discount) It didn’t take long for them to say hello and came back. We each paid 3 cents to have the store return the dry food, (that is, boil the dry food in a pot with water) and then went to bed after eating.
html After breakfast on the morning of the second day of the Lunar New Year in 0, the three of us took the beans and went to a fellow villager's house to exchange for coal. Beans were paid three cents per catty, coal was paid three cents per catty, and fellow villagers paid for the extra beans. For the first time, I was afraid that it would be too much and I would not be able to push it, so I exchanged 600 kilograms of coal, and my uncle and Uncle Niu each exchanged 800 kilograms.On the way back, because the car was loaded, walking was not as easy as when we came here. We had to bend down, hold on to the handlebars, and focus all our strength on our legs and feet. There is a hilltop not far from Zhoucun Railway Station called Jiaojie Ridge. We each spent 5 jiao to ask a dedicated pusher (uphill) to push it up. Because it is easy to go up the mountain but difficult to go down, my uncle was worried. I couldn't hold on to the handlebars when I was going up and down the hill. That person pushed me three times just for the dollar and fifty cents. Each trip was three miles long. This shows how difficult it was to make money at that time. After passing the junction ridge, you will find a flat asphalt road, which makes walking less tiring.
We stayed one more night and continued on our way the next day. When we arrived at the Yellow River, the sun was almost setting. The three of us felt that as long as we crossed the Yellow River, we would be home soon. Today is the third day of the first lunar month of . After crossing the river, there are still After traveling 30 miles, I have to get home sooner or later, and I don’t have much dry food with me. But there was only one boat, and there were too many people crossing the river. It was inconvenient for us to push the car and squeeze into the boat. We couldn't squeeze in, and the big boat stopped after dark. We had no choice but to spend the night on the river beach. We were covered with a quilt, and the wind from the river was blowing on our faces like knives. We were shivering from the cold and couldn't sleep well all night.
On the morning of the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, when the sun rose, we caught up with the first boat and then crossed the Yellow River. On the embankment not far from Guiren Pier, an old man and an old lady drove with their silly son. The teahouse looked very dirty, so we couldn't care less. We each bought a bowl of boiling water, soaked the remaining dry food, and had a breakfast.
After breakfast, we continued on our way. We finally returned home at noon on the fourth day of the lunar new year. It really goes with that saying, the more you go out, the more you suffer. Just as my uncle said: "Count the more you go out and suffer more, so you can catch up."
