In the early 60s, there were successive natural disasters, grain production was reduced, and food supply was very tight. In order to ensure that the strong labor force can do heavy work, the division stipulates that men will add one tael of grain a day, and female comrades will reduce one tael a day. In April 1961, my second child was born, a family of four, a total of four or two meters per meal, not enough to eat, had to put more water to cook into dry porridge, each person a small bamboo bowl of rice, enrollment to feed, but also to go to the mountain to work, "according to the distribution of work" she eats a little more, but she is still the same as me, add some vegetables or wild vegetables (dandelions) and the like to the meal, basically can eat, Xiaoying only a little bit!

When I first came to the new farm, I was really heartbroken when I went up to the mountains to cut down trees and dig soil with everyone all day long. When I came back from work, I helped her slowly massage and straighten, and scalded it with some hot water to relax her muscles and invigorate her blood. At first, she wore a pair of plastic shoes up the mountain, but then the shoes were also rotten, and there were no new shoes to buy on the market, so she had to go up the mountain barefoot like everyone else, and came back every day with either blood blisters or spikes on her hands and feet.

I looked at her petite swollen hands, and I was so sad. Every night, I helped her pick out the fine thorns on her hands and feet, disinfected them with some purple potion, and the next day she went up the mountain to work. I persuaded her to resign and be a housewife at home, and forget about taking care of the children, but she glared at her, "I am not a housewife, I want to be self-reliant......" in a resolute and unquestionable tone. Later, after persuading her a few times, she became angry with me: "I am not an official wife, and I don't rely on you to support me!" Since then, I have never mentioned it again.

To tell the truth, she was born in a family of merchants who sell soy sauce, her family life is rich, she is the youngest in the family, she has a sister and brother, she has never suffered so hard, and now she has worked so hard all day long, her body is delicate, and there are still pains on her body, no matter how hard she works, her physical strength and endurance are not as good as those migrant workers who have been used to working since childhood, she is too strong.

There were many demobilized officers like me (79 yuan a month for our demobilized officers, only 18 yuan a month for ordinary workers, and we were four times their salary), and their wives could not bear the hardship, and they did not want to bend their waist for 18 yuan, and they had already become housewives, so I persuaded her to do the same. She was determined to be self-reliant, which gave me great satisfaction. The tempering of the years has made her self-reliance and self-improvement more and more firm, she is really a strong woman!

Every time she comes back from work, she always feeds the child first, regardless of how tired she is, and her daughter Xiaoying eats the dry porridge left over from the meal, and some sugar water is a meal. She took the initiative to pick up all the housework at home, allowing me to devote myself to my work, which increased my admiration and cherishment for her.

The second child was a boy named Xiaoyun, expressing his nostalgia for the frontier of Nanzhao Province. We entrusted Xiaoyun to a family surnamed Yao (her lover is a veteran) to take with Xiaoyao, Xiaoyao took care of it very carefully, and later brought Xiaoying together, plus the enrollment usually always dresses the child cleanly, and the sister and brother are cute, Xiaoyao treats her as her own child, takes care of it very well, and we have everything to eat in her house, which is handled by her, so our two families have been close in the past and became relatives.

In the late spring of 1961, I suddenly received an urgent letter from Sishi, and I wondered, who came from the letter? When I opened it, I saw that it was sent by my younger brother, and it read: "I have come to the frontier." "Is my brother here for a trip? A week later, my younger brother and his wife brought their nephew Zhang Pingsheng to my second team.

One day, Meng Yuan Farm was in urgent need of money to pay wages, buy production tools, fertilizers, etc., and there were only three people in the accounting room, one went to visit relatives, and one accountant was a woman, so I had to go to Mengxi Branch to withdraw money. I finished the formalities at the bank, withdrew tens of thousands of yuan, wrapped the cash in the coarse cloth I bought, and then wrapped it with a tarpaulin, and was about to leave, when the female cashier of the bank saw that I was alone, pulled me aside, and whispered: "Xiao Zhang, is it safe?" ”

I glanced at her and whispered, "Only you know about this, as long as you don't leak it, it's safe." "She told me to be on high alert and call back when I got home (in fact, we didn't have a phone at the time). I nodded and smiled, thanked her for her concern, and hurried back.

At this time, it was already more than three o'clock in the afternoon, and on the road, I happened to meet Lao Ling and his wife, who were staying in the original Mengxi farm, and they were pushing a cart, which was full of melons and vegetables.

It is more than 30 kilometers from Mengxi to Mengyuan, and it is necessary to cross two mountains and pass through countless jungles, and the people along the way are sparsely populated, which is very unsafe. I can only think of the worst: in case of accidents, I will have to defend the country's property with my life.

I asked for a solid wooden stick from the Dai family as a "weapon", escorted the car, and marched along the Mengxi Highway to Mengyuan. It was quite strenuous to climb the mountain all the way, and the car was loaded with hundreds of pounds of things, and the more I walked, the more tired I became. Lao Lingyuan, his lover and I pushed the cart on both sides, hurriedly left, it was already dark, so I had to eat and live in a Dai family, and the car was placed downstairs near the remote place of the firewood. I re-tied the rope and went up to the bamboo building to eat.

It's hard to fall asleep because of something on your mind. Lao Ling and his wife didn't know the danger, so they slept in their clothes when they were tired. I lay down and sat up again, listened to any movement, sat for a while and fell asleep, and from time to time went down to the bamboo building to see if there was any situation. Lao Ling woke up and saw that I was still sitting by the fire (the Dai people cook and bake the fire on the bamboo building), and he said, "Accountant Zhang, don't you sleep yet?" Sleep fast, go to bed quickly, go early tomorrow morning. ”

After saying that, he snorted and fell asleep again. I was also really tired, but I never dared to close my eyes, there was something in my heart, that "burden" was pressed in my heart, how could I sleep! I went down from time to time to check the situation, tossed all night, and finally came to the dawn, the Dai family was already licking the grain, making rice, and making breakfast, and the Lao Ling couple also got up, and then I was relieved! We bought a big bag of steamed glutinous rice from our Dai sister-in-law, served it with pickled bamboo shoots, and then went on the road after eating.

Hurry up and jog to a Taoist room, where I ate some boiling water and lunch and left. I had to climb a six-kilometer-long slope in front of me, and I walked for half a day, and the time was also consumed here, and I didn't dare to rest much on the road. Climbing all the way down the hill to the top of the mountain, it is much lighter to walk. Walking to more than two o'clock in the afternoon, I finally arrived at the field, and some cadres and workers came out to see the freshness, and saw that it was a cart of melons and vegetables, and the canvas used for labor, and they all left.