flstandardbreds Chapter 173 Handing over public food
Chapter 173 Handing over public food
Hearing the captain outside saying that all the villagers were holding a meeting, Liu Jingxue wondered what to say at this time.
Liu Jingxue felt a chill in her heart, wondering if it was the Revolutionary Committee or the Red Guards coming.
On second thought, probably not.
This morning, I used lightning to strike the Red Guards and members of the Revolutionary Committee in the town.
Although the Red Guards didn't hit us too hard, they were probably scared out of their wits. They are probably hiding at home for the time being.
Those people from the Revolutionary Committee were all covered in wounds and are probably still lying in the hospital.
I guess they won’t be able to come down in the next few days.
At this time, Xia Lan on the side spoke up, "The captain called a meeting at this time, probably to discuss the issue of paying public grain.
After paying the public grain tax, the team will distribute the grain."
When Liu Jingxue heard this, she felt relieved immediately, "Then let's go over there now."
The three of them came to the drying dam together.
Perhaps they guessed that the captain had called everyone over to discuss something, so the villagers came over particularly quickly today.
It may also be because wild boars appeared on the mountain yesterday, which is why no one went up the mountain today.
Seeing that most people had arrived, the captain started talking about business.
"I think everyone has guessed the purpose of our coming here today.
That’s right, today we are going to talk about paying public grain.”
“Everyone was quite hardworking this year, and the autumn harvest ended a few days earlier than in previous years.
I asked someone to check the situation, and found out that most of the surrounding production teams will need another day or two to finish the autumn harvest. "
“In the past, every time we paid public grain, we had to squeeze together with other production teams to transport the grain to the grain station. It was too hard for everyone.
Our production team ended early this year, and I wanted to pay the public grain tax earlier so as not to be squeezed together with other production teams.
So I went to the grain station to apply for permission to have them send people and vehicles to come directly to our production team to collect grain.”
Hearing what the captain said, the villagers below suddenly became excited.
Their production team did not have a tractor, so every time they paid the public grain, they relied on the only ox cart, wheelbarrow, flatbed cart, and the village laborers to carry the grain one load at a time. It was really hard work.
If we could avoid sending grain to grain stations and let the grain stations directly send people and vehicles to the production team to collect grain, it would save a lot of trouble.
"Captain, has the grain station agreed to send people and vehicles to our production team to collect grain?" a villager asked anxiously.
The captain smiled and said, "The grain station just needs to hand over a batch of grain to the higher authorities, and they don't have enough in stock.
The autumn harvest of other production teams had not yet been completed, so they were unable to pay the public grain tax.
Now we are the only family that can make friends with them, which helps them solve their urgent needs.
They agreed to send people and vehicles to come to our village to collect food tomorrow."
When the villagers heard the good news, they became excited.
"That's great. Finally we don't have to work so hard to transport the food to the grain station."
"In fact, it's okay to transport the grain over. I'm just worried that the people at the grain station will deliberately make things difficult for us, saying that our grain is substandard and asking us to take it back and dry it for two more days. That would be troublesome."
“Yes, in that situation, we either have to transport the food back or send someone to guard it and dry it.
But all the production teams came to the grain station to pay their taxes, and with so many people coming and going, there was no place to dry the grain.
Even if there is, it has already been occupied.”
Someone in the audience was worried, "Captain, those people are coming to our production team to collect grain. Will they find fault again?"
The captain thought for a moment and said, "Probably not.
After all, they are in a hurry to complete the task and are thinking about how to get food.
If we pay the public grain tax in advance, it will help them out.
They shouldn't be so stupid as to deliberately embarrass us."
"Yes, if they piss us off, we might as well not hand it in and see where they get the food to hand in the task.
If you want to say that ours is not up to standard, we have to dry it in the sun for a few more days. If you want to dry it in the sun, just do it. It’s in our village anyway, so we can just dry it in the sun.
At worst, we can just send it to the grain collection station as before."
“The people at the grain station shouldn’t be so stupid as to make things difficult for us at this critical moment.
They are eager to collect the grain from our village and complete their mission as soon as possible."
“We got there by chance.
Fortunately, the captain asked us to start harvesting grain two days earlier and let us work day and night, otherwise we would not have such a good opportunity. "
“It’s not entirely because of this.
In the days after the autumn harvest, everyone saw that Liu Zhiqing earned more than 30 work points a day, which far surpassed those of us who worked in the fields.
Everyone was full of energy and worked very hard, so the process became faster."
“That’s true.
Our oldest son, even though he's grown up, loves to be lazy. He usually only gets six or seven work points.
I didn't expect that after Liu Zhiqing came, he was stimulated by her and could get more than ten work points. We were all shocked." An old lady complained about her lazy son.
The person next to the old lady shook his head and said, "You just spoil him too much.
If he had been so ambitious earlier, your youngest daughter-in-law would have married into the family long ago."
The lady nodded and admitted, "We really did indulge him too much.
My husband said that since he has the ability, we should let him work and support himself in the future.
This way we don’t have to worry about whether he will starve to death after we leave.”
The captain was in no hurry to speak. He waited until the villagers digested the good news before continuing to speak.
“People from the grain station will come early tomorrow morning.
Each household sent male laborers to carry the grain, weigh it, and load it onto the truck.”
Someone on the stage asked, "Village head, when will the grain be distributed after we pay the public grain tax tomorrow?"
"After paying the public grain tax tomorrow, we will distribute the grain the day after tomorrow," the team leader replied.
"Great, the food is finally distributed."
The villagers were immediately happy.
They have been busy for months just for this day.
Distributing grain can be said to be the happiest day of the year for these farmers, even happier than the Chinese New Year.
The next morning, Liu Jingxue arrived at the drying dam early.
The production team’s granary was built next to the drying dam, so the grain could be directly stored after being dried, which was very convenient.
When she arrived, the people from the grain station had not arrived yet, but many male villagers were already there, carrying loads of grain and queuing up to be weighed.
When it was almost eight o'clock, people from the grain station came over with scales and drove three tractors.
The team leader and Secretary Xu hurried over and offered cigarettes that had been prepared long ago.
After a few pleasantries, the grain harvesting began.
The staff responsible for inspecting the grain took something that looked like a sharp knife or a bayonet and stabbed it into the grain carried by the villagers.
There was a groove in the middle of the bayonet, and when it was pulled out, some food came out of the groove.
The staff member poured it skillfully into his hands, put a few into his mouth, and chewed them with a crunching sound.
The villagers stared at him nervously, waiting for his verdict.
The staff member waved his hand and said, "Qualified, top quality product, go and weigh it."
The villagers hurriedly carried the qualified grain and walked towards the scale.
The staff member in charge of weighing and accounting sat on a chair next to the scale, smoking a cigarette proudly. On the table next to him were account books and an enamel cup that was almost new.
The villagers put the grain on the scale, fiddled with it slowly, reported the weight, and then recorded it in the account book next to it.
Standing behind him was the village accountant Li, who was also keeping accounts.
Both sides will need to check at that time.
If only the people at the grain station were keeping the accounts, and if they recorded less or missed something, the production team would suffer.
The villagers loaded the weighed grain onto the tractor and then went on to pick up the next load.
Because there were so many people coming, the team leader did not let Liu Jingxue help, and asked her to take her child to watch the fun from the side.
It took more than an hour to weigh all the grain that the village was supposed to pay.
The three tractors made two trips back and forth.
The staff finally gave the team leader a receipt, which clearly stated the name of the production team, the amount of grain submitted, and whether the task was completed in full.
This is equivalent to the tax payment certificate in later generations.
After seeing off the people from the grain station, the team leader asked everyone to go back and rest, and come here early tomorrow morning to line up for grain distribution.