In the 60s and 70s of the 20 th century, the people of the whole country vigorously threw themselves into the battle of the "special period." Under the social background of "learning from Dazhai", "opening up more fields and accumulating grain", "how bold and productive people are", one rainy and misty morning, the iron egg mother who was still desperately pulling wheat in the field yesterday and striving for an advanced model was ready to give birth.

The arid steppe, which had not rained in the autumn, had a drizzle that morning, which was far from the character of the grassland rain. The rain of the grassland is like that of the people of the grassland—straightforward, heroic, and intense! Like the local man—like the whirlwind of the grassland—it is said that it is easy to go: never dragging mud and water. Today's rain is like a drizzle in the south of the Yangtze River, and it starts to flow non-stop early in the morning.

Early in the morning, Tie Dan'er's mother got up and felt that her stomach was weak, she got up early, walked outside the gate and poured night urine, took out the ashes, washed her hands overnight, washed the pot, scooped a large pot of water from the big water tank, and was ready to boil the water for breakfast, but her stomach hurt for a while.

Tie Dan'er went out to collect dung before dawn, and during the day, he had to join the "Autumn Harvest Revolution" in full swing of the agricultural society. The fire for cooking the meals of 6 or 7 people in the family depends on the usual iron egg fighting, and the time that is hollowed out in the morning to pick up cow dung to burn.

There are herds of cattle and horses on the grassland, and there is no shortage of dung, and because of Tie Dan'er's great diligence, Tie Dan'er's mother has never been troubled by the lack of matches. They are all safe to burn the best cow and horse dung. Every year, you can also save a large piece of cow and horse manure that fills the manure house. The cold winters of the northern plateau have never been frozen. In autumn, the grass is old, and the cow and horse dung are formed, so it is strong and resistant to burning, which is a good time to collect and store the manure.

This morning, Tie Dan'er's mother still pulled a handful of matches and brought a basket of dried cow dung back, and put it on the stove, her stomach hurt so much that she couldn't boil water for cooking.

She slowly climbed up the kang.

Looking at Tie Dan'er's red little face with a smile on his face, sweet saliva flowed from the corners of his mouth. Tie Dan'er is just 3 years old this year, and the wind on the plateau blows the child's delicate little face out of small openings. The little black hands were exposed outside the quilt.

Tie Dan'er's mother looked at her son's sleeping little face, and couldn't bear to wake him up.

She endured it all the time, waiting for the iron egg to come back. She already has experience with pig iron eggs, and this time her belly is also small, and the month is not enough. She thought that it might be the wheat pulling competition with the third postnatal student yesterday, and it was not yet time to give birth.

Yesterday, the three descendants who had always been defeated by his subordinates actually dared to provoke, and the iron egg mother, who had never lost, was once again aroused to fight spirit, and won the game by pulling six rows of wheat with both hands in the midst of everyone's coaxing and shouting.

Now, she regrets it so much.

She thought: Maybe it's because of the changing sky, people and animals are willing to give birth when the sky changes, or maybe it's just a pain and it passes.

She leaned on the windowsill and endured silently.

Hearing the sound of the concubine Xifeng next door getting up and opening the door, she knocked on the only half of the glass, the original carved wooden window was equipped with two pieces of transparent glass, when Tie Dan'er just learned to walk, he stumbled and shattered, leaving only the upper half of the 28-inch adobe.

She called softly: "Second aunt, come over for a moment." Xifeng heard the scream, put down the urinal in his hand and walked over and asked, "What's wrong?"

Tie Dan'er's mother said: "I may be giving birth, he hasn't come back yet, you can help me shout, see if he comes back?"

Xifeng asked, "Aren't you still in the month?"

Xifeng also has a big belly, and the expected date of delivery of the two is about the same, both in the eighth month of the lunar calendar. It's only the end of June.

Xifeng was the firstborn, so she couldn't help but panic, and hurriedly went back to wake up Tie Dan'er's second uncle and second baby, and when the second baby heard that she jumped three feet high, she hurriedly grabbed her pants, climbed onto the roof, and opened her throat and shouted: "Brother-brother-sister-in-law is about to give birth, and I'll come back soon when I hear it——"

Because of the light rain, Tie Dan Da did not go far, he only picked up some cow dung that he usually didn't look at at the big depression behind the house, it was not good to store it, and there should be no problem with burning it now.

In the open grassland, he heard his brother's voice, and hurried home in three steps and two steps. Even the basket and the dung fork were thrown away, and he ran home desperately.

Autumn is a busy season, there are already a lot of people getting up, and the second life who lives behind the house sees the iron egg flying and runs home, thinking that something is wrong, and also runs into the door together. As he ran, he asked, "What's wrong?"

When he saw Tie Dan'er's mother sitting on the kang well, Tie Dan'er breathed a sigh of relief.

Because he was in a hurry and because he was worried, Tie Dan'er squatted down and gasped.

After taking a breath, he asked Tie Dan'er how his mother was. Tie Dan'er's mother said that she might have to give birth to Xiao Yue, and told him to go to the midwife quickly.

Tie Dan'er hurriedly went to borrow a donkey from the agricultural cooperative, so that he could drive a donkey cart to pick up Tie Dan'er's grandmother and a midwife crisscrossed with ditches and wrinkles - sheep for mother.

Tie Dan'er went to the sheep house to find the breeder Li Luoquan'er. Li Luoquan'er is a thin and withered man, known as the poor who blows the ground, and is a person who has to grab a handful of sand down even when the yellow wind comes.

When Tie Dan'er arrived at the sheep house, Li Luoquan'er had just gotten up and went out to pee. Seeing Tie Dan'er rushing over in a hurry, he asked loudly: "What's wrong?

Tie Dan'er said breathlessly: "The daughter-in-law is going to give birth, so I borrowed a donkey and a cart from the production team to pick up my grandmother and midwife." ”

Li Luoquan'er blinked his eyes in a daze: "Is it really fake? Early in the morning? How can you say that you were born?"

Tie Dan'er hurriedly pulled Li Luoquan'er to the livestock shed, and the two walked through the cattle pen and stable to the donkey pen.

Li Luoquan'er took out an old donkey with numb ashes, and said: "This donkey is always old, but he is willing to contribute at a critical moment and runs fast." ”

Tie Dan'er climbed on the back of the donkey and galloped towards the carriage and stable.

Tie the donkey to the tethered horse pole, tidy up the car, the younger brother and the second baby also came, the two brothers quickly got on the halter, brought a good chew, tied the belly, set the car, and the iron egg drove away with the donkey cart, raising a little yellow dust.

Erwa shouted from behind: "Slow down, I'm at home, don't worry." ”

Tie Dan'er raised the whip in his hand, reluctant to hit the donkey, and flashed a whip in the air, and the gray donkey ran with his hooves raised. It can fully sense the anxiety of the owner.

Walking into the meadow of lush grass, following a thin path of cars, horses, and people, the lush thatch on both sides that had not passed the wheels slowed down their progress.

A pair of quails were startled by their speeding ruts and flew far away!

A pair of "Hoo Woo" (hat birds) who get up early are singing and harmonizing not far from the roadside: "Hoo Woo Hop - " here, "Woo Woo -" over there.

Magpies, busy building new nests in the straight poplar trees in the grove, flew over their heads with a dead branch in their mouths.

There are also crickets who have rested all night and get up early, and they are not willing to be lonely, hiding in the grass and singing "squeak".

It seems that this autumn rain has not only brought cool air to this grassland, but also brought vitality to all living beings!

As the words "an autumn rain and a cool", it was a busy rainy morning, and the nervous and anxious iron eggs were big, and only then did I feel the slightest coolness of the sweaty vest. He shrunk his neck and tightened his shirt.

The jacket on his body is still the only new dress that Tie Dan'er's mother dismantled her shirt to make the lining during the New Year, and bought a five-foot white cloth dyed black to make her face.

Usually reluctant to wear it, when he went out today, Tie Dan'er's mother had to change out of the old shirt on his body and put it on, he rubbed the dense stitches of the clothes with his hands, and his heart was warm.

When he left, Tie Dan'er's mother also gave him five cents and eight cents, to buy two cents and two catties of brown sugar, one pound of confinement, and one pound to send to the midwife. The rest buys a knife of straw paper for a dime, and buys four boxes of two-penny fire.

The cart finally arrived at the door of the cooperative, and Tie Daner tied the donkey cart to the livestock stake and ran into the cooperative.

Xiao Yang of the cooperative had just taken off the window guard, looked at Tie Dan'er rushing over, and asked, "Why are you in such a hurry?

Tie Dan'er didn't have time to pay attention to Xiao Yang's joke, "Hurry, hurry! Two catties of brown sugar are packed in two packs, a knife of straw paper, and four boxes of foreign fire." ”

Xiao Yang quickly took out two pieces of brown paper, weighed the brown sugar wrap, and tied them with paper ropes, and asked, "Do you really have a baby?" I said you can't be in such a hurry!" and then went to get a knife of yellow straw paper and four boxes of foreign fire, and put them on the counter. Tie Dan'er rushed out with both hands in his hands.

Wrap the things in a rain-sheltered canvas and place them on the donkey cart. Hurriedly went to Grandma Tiedan'er's house.

On the morning of autumn, although it rained and could not get out of the fields and could not do farm work, every household had already risen, and the smoke from the thick rain was still hesitantly flying in the sky.

Although the rain was not heavy, the clothes were soaked outside the tarpaulin, but fortunately, the things I bought were wrapped in canvas and did not get wet.

Tie Dan'er's grandmother had just finished feeding her six-month-old son, sitting on the stove and preparing to boil water and make porridge. The flint had not yet been hit, and the horse's hair (the root of a plant, which was particularly prone to fire) had not yet caught fire, and Tie Dan Da was already standing behind him.

Grandma Tiedan'er is forty-three years old this year, and she just gave birth to her tenth child, that is, ten babies, in the first month. She gave birth to a total of ten children, five daughters and five sons, all of whom are healthy.

She was also once named a "hero mother" because she gave birth to many children.

A family of 12 mouths, not long after the founding of New China, when the material was scarce, the children were all yellow and thin, and often the older children went to the fields to pick tender rape flowers, went to the grassland to pick mushrooms, picked wild vegetables and a few grains of rice to boil into a pot of porridge as a family food, barely survived.

Grandma Tie Dan'er has never had a menstrual period in her life, but she gave birth to ten healthy children, and her five daughters are all normal.

Now the eldest daughter's second child is about to be born, and the second daughter has a daughter, and she is still holding her son who is a few months old.

The six-month-old child can't climb yet, and he's just fed up with milk, quietly lying in a pile of diapers babbling and amusing himself.

The other older children got up to play in the yard, and the younger ones, a three-year-old and a five-year-old, were still sleeping in a pile of torn quilts.

Because there are many children, there is basically no spare energy to fill the household by relying on the work of two people, and there is no decent furniture in the house except for a complete pot.

The whole room smelled of unpleasant urine and the smell of children's milk.

The grandmother of the ten children hangs from her chest like two big jars, and she seems to be dragged to her back when she walks.

She saw Tie Dan'er hurriedly enter the door, and hurriedly asked, "What's wrong? Tie Dan'er's mother is about to give birth?"

"yes, my stomach hurts early in the morning. You always hurry up and pick up and go. Tie Dan'er touched the rain on his face and said eagerly.

Grandma Tiedan'er picked up a burden that had been prepared, wrapped the ten babies and hugged them and went out.

While anxious to sit on the donkey cart, he instructed the second and third babies in the yard, "Mom go to your eldest sister's house, your eldest sister is going to give birth to a baby, and you come back and sue him." ”

Braving the drizzle, the two hurried to the midwife's village.