The collapsed house where the carpenter lived, the slag wall where the plasterer sit, and the ancestors of yin and yang buried in a daze. - Dongxiang proverb

In 1958, the spring breeze of the Great Leap Forward also blew to the remote and distant Linxia. He Xitang, the leader of the Gayindai production team, immediately organized the members to conscientiously study the spirit of the relevant documents and actively plunge into the fiery socialist labor.

China's economic construction has successfully completed the first five-year plan, and industrial and agricultural production has been greatly improved, which has greatly inspired the working people in the new era. People are all energetic and rushing to contribute their strength to the building of a socialist new China. Under such an excellent situation, the state has clearly put forward that the national economy should achieve an all-round Great Leap Forward, surpass Britain in five years, and catch up with the United States in 10 years.

Gong Lamei and the members of the club were both excited and at a loss when they heard the spirit of the meeting conveyed by He Xitang. The excitement is that the new Chinese economy, which has been liberated for less than 10 years, can surpass the imperialist Britain and catch up with the richest United States, which is indeed an earth-shattering event. The dazed thing is that everyone doesn't know what to do to catch up with Britain and the United States. No one knows what level Britain and the United States are at exactly the same level. Usually, the public newspapers and radio report on the dark side of British and American society, saying that they are collapsing day by day, and we are getting better day by day.

In the end, the result of Gong Lamei and the members of the society was to do whatever the party told them to do, plant their own one-third of an acre of land, and hand over a lot of public grain for the country.

Good news on the agricultural front has been continuously transmitted from other places: the yield of early rice per mu of Changfeng Agricultural Production Cooperative in Hubei Province has reached 15,361 catties, and a large satellite has been released. Immediately, the summer grain output announced by the Ministry of Agriculture increased by 69% year-on-year, and the total output was 4 billion catties more than the total output of the United States.

Gong Lamei couldn't believe her eyes and ears when she heard that one mu of grain in other places could only produce 500 catties of wheat or 700 catties of corn at most. She opened her mind and tried hard to imagine what the land that yielded 10,000 catties of grain per mu was like, and was the ground so fertile that it was flowing with oil and water?

Their hearts are full of anxiety and panic all day long. They are suspicious of the satellites that rise high one by one, and they also wonder if their own thinking is behind the times.

When Han Sofei heard the news that her daughters-in-law had brought back an acre of land to produce 10,000 catties of grain, her mouth was shriveled because of tooth loss, and she retorted disdainfully: "This is a liar!" There are no 10,000 catties of wheat stacked on three layers of wheat in an acre of land. Nao has lived all his life and has not seen an acre of land receive 1,000 catties of grain. No matter how good the public is, can it still live with God? ”

Niu Wanshan was timid, and hurriedly reminded kindly: "Grandma, you can't say this to outsiders." People will give you the hat of the current counter-revolutionary. ”

Han Sophie's mouth twitched again, and said, "Nau's head has been wearing a hijab for a lifetime. Putting a hat on Nau? It's pretty much the same with a gold velvet hat! ”

Han Sophie's words made her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren laugh.

In the autumn harvest season, reports of 10,000 catties of grain per mu from all over the country have come one after another. What's more, the grain produced by one acre of land has reached 100,000 catties! The yield per mu of the rice experimental field in Xinli Village, Tianjin City has reached 120,000 catties, and people can sit on the rice growing in the field. One acre of land in Xushui County, Hebei Province produces 1.2 million catties of yams, 120,000 catties of wheat, 5,000 catties of lint, and so on.

The leaders of the country at that time personally visited the area and praised the local farmers and scientific and technological personnel.

Huge new slogans were written on the walls of the courtyards of Gayindai's houses in red paint:

Communism is a paradise, the people's commune is a bridge!

How bold man is, how fruitful is the earth!

Run into a communist society!

Jinggou and Gayindai were merged into the Hongtai People's Commune. Hongtai Commune was again placed under the jurisdiction of Linxia City. The leaders of the city went down to the fields every once in a while, braved the scorching sun to guide the members to accumulate more fertilizer and plant high-density plants, and strive to produce tens of thousands of catties of grain per mu.

But God doesn't give them face. The Linxia region has experienced severe drought for two consecutive years. There was hardly a drop of rain in one summer. The fields are so dry that they are going to smoke.

In the summer and autumn harvests, the yield of wheat per mu in Gayin Dai is less than 300 catties, and the yield of corn per mu is only about 400 catties.

He Xitang, the captain of the production team, the secretary of the commune, and the mayor of Linxia were all seriously criticized from above.

In the spring of the following year, the leaders from above came to the field again. They took off their leather shoes, rolled up their sleeves, and went down to the field in person, directing the members to plough the land, apply fertilizer, sow seeds, and hoe weeds.

The members have just completed the sowing task and launched a large-scale steel-making campaign. They were members of the commune during the day, working in the fields and working as laborers at night, making steel. The peasants did not have the necessary equipment to make steel, let alone the technology of steelmaking. However, in "nothing can be done, only unexpected"

Under the radical slogan of the agitation and infection, people have begun to believe that they can do anything.

He Xitang instructed the members to set up several small earthen stoves on the hillside, connect the large bellows, ignite the coal transported from other places, and then continue to collect scrap iron and start smelting.

A lot of coal was burned, and the fire was very vigorous, but it couldn't melt the scrap iron, but burned the small earthen furnace to the ground.

He Xitang sent people to other communes to study and investigate, only to learn that refractory materials were needed to build small earthen furnaces. So, he invited a master worker from the city who knew how to make steel, rebuilt the earthen furnace, and finally burned a pile of scrap iron into red molten iron. After the molten iron is cooled, it condenses together, which is called steel. Because scrap iron is mixed with coal and fired, the steel is turned into the shape of tofu slag. They also don't know if the state can use it.

At night, the small earthen hearths are dotted on the hillside around Gayindai, and the fire is soaring to the sky, the scene is warm, and the momentum is brilliant.

There was not much scrap iron in the countryside, and it was used up in a few days. The raw materials for steelmaking have become the biggest problem.

He Xitang immediately organized a general meeting of members. At the meeting, he stressed the need to resolutely defend the three great red flags of the Great Leap Forward, the General Line, and the People's Commune, and demanded that the members hand over all the iron tools in their homes to make steel.

The members went back to their homes and rummaged around, and all the old hoes, rotten shovels, and even the iron sheets that fixed the corners of the boxes had been removed.

In the end, there were really no iron tools, and He Xitang mobilized the members to hand over the iron pots for cooking.

The iron pot at home is gone, what does the family use to cook and eat?

The production team temporarily set up a collective canteen in the temple, and all men, women and children went to the collective canteen to eat.

Gong Lamei was transferred by He Xitang to the collective canteen as an administrator.

It was another year of great drought. As soon as the seedlings emerged, they were killed by the scorching sun. Layers of terraced fields and layers of terracotta, just like the flaming mountains in "Journey to the West".

Fearing that they would put on the hat of backwardness again, the cadres began to compare themselves with each other, falsely reported grain production upwards, concealed the difficulties of the masses, and followed others in launching satellites. Gayindai's grain output that year was only 60,000 catties, but he reported 100,000 catties to his superiors.

The superior said happily: You have done a good job! Hand over half of the grain, that is, 50,000 catties, and leave the remaining half for the members as rations and seeds.

He Xitang was dumbfounded: after handing over 50,000 catties of public grain, only 10,000 catties remained, and after deducting those left for seeds, the rations of the members were less than 10 catties per person!

As a result, the white flour buns in the collective canteen soon became corn cakes, and later the cornmeal was mixed with various beans, and then only boiled potatoes and corn batter were made. In the end, three meals a day became a noodle soup soup like clear water.

Gong Lamei, as the administrator of the collective canteen, truly realized that "it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice". She took the cooks to dig wild vegetables and pick mushrooms in the ravine, and did everything possible to feed everyone.

The wild vegetables in the field have been dug up. People began to peel the bark again and eat it. When the bark was finished, it began to eat white soil again. After eating the white soil, you can't pull it out. The stomach was swollen like a big round bulge. In the village, old people and children are constantly starving to death or dying of white soil.

A young man named Squint-Eyed Gadan catches a snake in the ground. He peeled off the snake skin a few times and munched on the snake meat like a cucumber. Within two days, the squint-eyed Ga Dan was swollen all over, bleeding from all over his body, and died tragically.

In order to leave the little food ration for the elderly, women and children, men began to leave their homes one by one to work outside the home.

Niu Wanshan and his brothers also have to go out to work. However, Niu Tianshan, the second eldest of the Niu family, had not yet had time to set off, and he was impermanence in the midst of hunger and cold, leaving behind the orphans and widows of Mahim, Hameki, and Ayishe.

The strong Han Sophie was entangled by hunger and disease, and she was already powerless. She struggled to get up from the kang and called Niu Wanshan and Gong Lamei to her side, panting hard, and said intermittently: "Sani has no daughter-in-law. There are no men in Althea. It's very rare for you to find someone else to live with. If Althea finds another man, and Hatcher is not someone else's biological child, this girl will suffer. For the sake of Hatcher, the two of you will become a family. Grandma only has this one request. ”

Niu Wanshan and Gong Lamei looked at Han Sophie, who was getting weaker and weaker, their hearts were like knives, and they agreed with tears in their eyes.

Niu Wanshan invited relatives to testify and married Gong Lamei.

The wedding feast they invited everyone to eat was boiled old corn in clear water that made people's eyes shine.

Niu Wanshan said to Gong Lamei: "You are the captain of the Mulan women's team in the labor competition, so you will marry Hai Che an official named Niu Mulan." ”

Niu Wanshan took care of the affairs at home and went out to work.

Gong Lamei received a letter from Gong Xiahe from Qinghai. The letter said that his father, Gong Guo, died in October because he could not eat enough and his body was already weak.

Gong Lamei remembered her kind and kind face, and her sad tears wet her clothes.

In the spring of 1960, there was a shortage of grain, and the famine in Gayindai was further aggravated.

Han Sophie finally couldn't stand it anymore, and she was impermanence in poverty.

The Dongxiang men of Gayin Dai are either impermanent, or they have gone out to work and run out. Gong Lamei, Mahim and Mai Yan broke the taboo that women could not go to the cemetery, and together they buried Han Sophie next to the grave of her husband Ibrahim.

A few days later, in order to find some food for the hungry children, Mahim went alone to borrow food from relatives in Duanjiatan. However, when the lights were lit at night, there was no shadow of her.

Gong Lamei felt that things were not good, so she quickly called a few sisters and went along the path in the dark to find Mahim.

In the valley they found Mahim lying on the yellow earth.

Mahim had already stopped breathing, clutching a small pocket tightly in his hand. Inside the pocket is 5 pounds of corn kernels.

Gong Lamei and her sisters buried Mahim, and brought their two children, Hameki and Ayishe, to live in their home.

The most surprising news for everyone is that the head of the regiment, Grandpa Niu Zhanhai, is also impermanent because of hunger.

After liberation, Niu Zhanhai was sentenced to a labor camp by the people's government. Half of his private house in the eastern suburbs of Linxia was confiscated and distributed to the poor, and the remaining half was reserved for his family to live in. After he returned from prison, he was still unconvinced by the authorities, quietly dug up the gold and silver buried in the courtyard soil, still ate and drank spicy food, wore a gold watch on his wrist, rode a bicycle, and swaggered around the city.

In the counterinsurgency and counter-revolutionary movements, Niu Zhanhai was expanded into a new counter-revolutionary and was escorted to Ningxia for two years for labor reform. Although he has gone through a hundred battles and two labor reforms, his body is very tough. What he didn't expect was that he didn't fall on the bloody battlefield, but fell in front of the small dinner table, and left his 7th wife and 4 children.

Lin Guizhen, a cadre of the commune, held a general meeting of members in Gayindai, and decided to correct the mistake of falsely reporting and concealing achievements, removed He Xitang from his post as squad leader, and elected Gong Lamei as the new captain.

Lin Guizhen enthusiastically encouraged Gong Lamei: "Don't be afraid, work boldly." The country's relief food is coming soon. Hurry up and organize the members to sow winter wheat. Survive this winter, and good days will come. ”

After He Xitang was dismissed, he was sullen and scolded himself: "Lao Tzu did it according to your instructions from above. Now, you're all good guys, and I'm a bad guy alone? ”

Gong Lamei persuaded He Xitang and said: "Captain He, you are the only man in the Nao's Gayindai, and you are the eldest brother of the Nao's, and you will have the final say in the future." ”

Gong Lamei and He Xitang organized several women's backbones to send relief food to each family.

Next, they actively prepare for autumn sowing.

The lifeless Gayin finally has a vibrant atmosphere. Smoke came out of the chimneys of every house. The chickens and dogs also began to bark. The children also had the strength to run out and play.

Not long after, the men who had gone out to work also returned home one after another with the money they had earned.

Niu Wanshan, Niu Jian Mountain, and Niu Yinshan also returned. They have already felt the richness of the outside world, and their hearts are full of dissatisfaction with the remoteness, barren land and arid weather of Gayindai, and they do not want to return at all. However, the floating population is being cleaned up everywhere, and they have to come back as a last resort.

Ibrahim's grandchildren consisted of only four children, Hamaki, Ayisha, Haycher and Baikai, and the rest of the children died before they reached the age of two.

He Xitang's eldest son, He Yuejin, also returned from other places. He was indignant at his father's dismissal and dismissal, and often found trouble for Gong Lamei, who was the team leader, and took the opportunity to vent the anger in his heart.

I saw that the rape in the field was about to ripen.

He Yuejin shouted indiscriminately during the production team meeting: "Why don't you harvest rapeseed yet?" Do you cadres want them to rot in the ground? ”

Gong Lamei patiently told him: "We will organize everyone to harvest on a cloudy day." This prevents the pods from drying out and bursting, and avoids wasting rapeseed in the ground. ”

Unexpectedly, the next morning, the rape field caught fire.

Gong Lamei heard the shouts of firefighting, quickly dropped the housework in her hand, carried a big broom, and beckoned the members to hurry up to put out the fire.

After the desperate efforts of the members, the fire in the rape field was finally extinguished, and the damage was finally reduced to a minimum.

When Gong Lamei wiped the sweat and cigarette stains on her face with her sleeve, she suddenly found that a puff of black smoke floated out of the cave in her house. She immediately beckoned everyone to go and put out the fire in their house.

It turned out that due to the haste of going out, Gong Lamei did not have time to extinguish the firewood in the stove, and as a result, a pile of firewood by the stove was ignited, causing a fire in the kitchen.

Fortunately, everyone rushed in time, and the fire did not burn the house where people lived, otherwise the four children who were sleeping might have died in the fire.