Looking at the iron tumor full of holes, Li Huazi, the secretary of the commune, was dumbfounded, and when he asked an insider, he found out that the things he practiced had high sulfur content and many impurities, not to mention making steel guns and cannons, even kitchen knives and hoes, and it was pure waste.

Li Huazi is not stupid, he knows that the mud legs can't make steel, and if they want to train steel that meets the needs of socialist construction, they have to ask the master of the Beitai Iron and Steel Plant to come out.

He immediately sent the strongest team of the commune, personally led the team, the women's director pressed the formation, and a group of society beat gongs and drums and rushed to Beitai, a hundred miles away, to the iron and steel factory to ask for technical assistance, saying that the soil point is to learn from teachers.

According to Li Huazi's plan, even if the Beitai Iron and Steel Plant does not send a support team, it will be warmly received, and then find a few technicians to guide it.

Beitai is also carrying out large-scale steelmaking, there are earth blast furnaces and foreign blast furnaces everywhere, the new Martin furnace of the iron and steel plant is day and night, the cadres and the masses work overtime all night, and dozens of working groups are also sent everywhere to provide technical support to help brother enterprises make steel, Beitai urban area can not be supported, how can there be manpower to go to Nantai hundreds of miles away to help.

The apprenticeship group of Kushuijing Commune returned disappointed, facing the useless small blast furnace of his own, Li Huazi was in a hurry, his mouth was foaming, he thought of a proverb "Three stinkers beat Zhuge Liang", so he called the branch secretaries of the major teams to the commune for a meeting to discuss how to make steel.

The collective efforts are really effective, and a branch secretary said that the neighboring counties use scrap iron to make iron, which is very efficient, and can produce hundreds of kilograms of molten iron a day.

Li Huazi's eyes lit up, and he waved his hand: "Call on the masses to hand in scrap iron!" ”

The commune's loudspeaker kept broadcasting, calling on the society to hand over scrap iron, and Li Huazi, the secretary of the commune, personally led the team to collect scrap iron from each household, and the busy feet did not touch the ground, many people responded positively, and took out the rotten hoe and old sickle that were not used at home, and there was a backward family who donated the iron pot that had just finished cooking under the persuasion of the organization, and the male owner said boldly: "I have entered the community to eat in the big canteen, what do you want to do with the pot." ”

In less than two days, a large pile of scrap iron was collected, Li Huazi found a remote wasteland again, built ten earthen blast furnaces, each team was responsible for one, the commune prepared three mobile flags, red flags, white flags and black flags, and it was naturally a red flag to complete the task.

Li Huazi organized the steelmaking brigade into troops, a blast furnace is a company, a group is a platoon, everyone is a soldier, he himself served as the commander-in-chief of steelmaking, inspected everywhere with his hands behind his back, cheered up the soldiers, the field at night, the lights were bright, and the loudspeaker broadcast a heroic oath: "Everyone strives for the upstream, the furnace puts satellites, fights hard for a day and night, and does not win a complete victory and does not withdraw the troops!" ”

The day dawned, the morning glow was thousands of miles, the red flag was rolled, the first furnace of molten iron finally flowed out, casting into a big black iron lump, the good news came, Li Huazi quickly rushed to the scene, let people weigh it with a big scale, good guy, there are one hundred and eight pounds!

Li Huazi had been busy for several days, and his voice was hoarse, but at this moment he was so excited that he shouted in a hoarse voice: "Comrades, the steel satellite of Kushuijing Commune has gone to heaven!" ”

The members cheered, tears in their eyes, their eyes were red after more than ten days and nights, and their clothes were burned out of the sparks, but no one complained, no one said tired, and they were all sincerely proud of the satellite.

The first iron satellite was wrapped in red silk cloth, placed on a wooden board, and carried by four young members, beat gongs and drums and sent to the county seat, and Li Huazi followed behind with joy.

When they arrived at the county seat, Secretary Yang personally met with them, and the secretary came to the steel satellite, looked at the color quite expertly, knocked on it, listened to the movement, and said with satisfaction: "Yes, this is a very high-quality high-carbon steel, suitable for making cannons, and it depends on it to fight Taiwan." ”

The masses were pleasantly surprised, talking to each other, whispering, they were still worried about the lack of quality of steel, now rest assured, who doesn't know that Secretary Yang of the county party committee has studied in college, has a lot of ink in his stomach, knows astronomy and geography, and steelmaking is a trivial matter, can he not understand?

Yang Shugen was wearing a white shirt and a tunic obliquely, and he stretched out his hand to press it, and everyone quieted down.

"Comrades, members, soldiers, on behalf of the county party committee and county government, I will accept your steel satellite, this piece of high-quality and high-carbon steel, and the county committee will contact the People's Liberation Army Arsenal to send it to make cannons and shells, and transport it to the coast of the East China Sea, and hit Kinmen Island to eliminate the US imperialism and Chiang bandits! Comrades, you have made great contributions to the liberation of Taiwan! ”

Li Huazi was very good at cooperating and exaggerating the atmosphere, and he immediately raised his arms and shouted: "Down with US imperialism, down with the Kuomintang reactionaries!" ”

The members of the club were all emotionally mobilized and shouted after him.

Yang Shugen pressed again, the scene was quiet, and the secretary raised his voice and said: "I announce that I will award the honorary title of Kushuijing People's Commune and Satellite Commune!" ”

The scene was boiling again, and everyone felt that their efforts were worth it, and they were more motivated.

After finally sending these people away, Yang Shugen instructed the staff of the county party committee: "Carry the things to the warehouse." ”

The steel satellite was carried into the warehouse of the county party committee, which was already filled with iron lumps of different shapes.

"Secretary Yang, what should I do with these things?" The staff asked.

"Let's leave it there for now." Yang Shugen said, he does know a little metallurgical knowledge, and knows that these things are not even iron, and the only better quality is the iron lump of the bitter water well, which is because it is made of scrap iron.

……

Beitai, Gaotupo Chenguang Factory Family Courtyard, Ma Chunhua came back late at night, Chen Bei turned on the electric light and scolded: "You still know to come back!" ”

Ma Chunhua said: "The regional meeting, can I not go, now that the steel is in charge, all units must go to Malaysia to make steel, and our factory will also start a blast furnace." ”

Chen Beidao: "A good machinery factory goes to steelmaking, isn't this nonsense." ”

Ma Chunhua said: "Therefore, if you have a low consciousness, not only the machinery factory must make steel, but all government agencies, units, enterprises and institutions must make steel, from the government party committee to the small school hospital and family home, you must set up a blast furnace, and the flour mills, fertilizer factories, paper mills, and textile factories in Beitai have all set up blast furnaces. ”

Chen Beidao: "This is not called supporting socialist construction, this is adding chaos to socialism, what kind of steel is a good smelting, it is purely an egg pain." ”

Ma Chunhua said: "Don't you dare to say that, the big steel is the slogan put forward by Chairman Mao and his old man, if you want to say why the big steel smelting, the secretary of the prefectural party committee said it at the meeting, let me convey to you, at present our international situation is very difficult, the Soviet Union has stuck our neck since Khrushchev came to power, taking the revisionist line, the US imperialists have 100,000 troops in South Korea, and the Seventh Fleet is in the Taiwan Strait to prevent us from liberating the treasure island, why do they dare to bully us, just because our strength is not enough, modern warfare is fought with steel, If steel production can't go up, anyone can say anything to us. ”

Chen Beidao: "But the output of steel cannot be refined by unprofessional personnel, which is Lang Fei iron ore and coke." ”

Ma Chunhua said: "You are bourgeois thinking and discriminating against the wisdom of working people, I will tell you, Nantai County has trained high-quality high-carbon steel, which has strongly supported the construction of the country, I will not tell you more, I have undertaken the steelmaking task of our factory, and you will take care of the affairs of the family in the future, and I will eat and live on the construction site." ”

Chen Bei teased: "Where is the construction site, do you want to bring you food?" ”

Ma Chunhua said: "The blast furnace of the city's unified steel smelting, and the blast furnaces of all units are by the river, you can go and have a look, and it is good to shock your soul." ”

Chen Bei snorted coldly: "I'm not interested." "I went to bed.

Having said that, Chen Bei still can't escape the task, a group of young men in the security department are strong laborers, naturally acting as a mobile force, pulling flat cars to transport iron ore and coke for the steelmaking site, busy and happy, Chen Bei stood on a high place and looked down on the river beach, hundreds of small blast furnaces were set up on the flat ground, the smoke was filled, the voices of people were boiling, red flags were waving everywhere, and iron streams were rushing everywhere.

"It's spectacular." Even the least active Chen Bei was infected by the hot scene.

The Jiangbei Prefectural Party Committee set up a general headquarters for large-scale iron and steel making, with the secretary of the prefectural party committee personally serving as the commander-in-chief, leading the people of Jiangbei to make steel, and the propaganda vehicle pulled a loudspeaker to broadcast on the street all day long, calling on the masses to donate scrap iron, and people enthusiastically took out the door noses, bolts, and broken pot water scoops at home, and some activists also took out the foreign nails on the wall, and the hinges of the doors were also taken down to donate.

The Red Scarf Young Pioneers were the most active, rummaging through boxes and cabinets at home all day long, not even letting go of a single piece of iron wire, donating all the metal gadgets at home, and demolishing a lot of useful electrical appliances and furniture for a while.

A blast furnace was also set up in the Gaotupo family courtyard, and the old men and old ladies made steel together with the Young Pioneers, but their ability was limited, and they used scrap iron if they couldn't get iron ore, and charcoal if they couldn't get coke.

Not only did the people on the high soil slope do this, but the enterprises and institutions in the city were all working on the soil method, coke ovens were everywhere, and the city was smoky, but it was soon found that the supply of coal was also insufficient.

Jiangbei has very rich coal and iron resources, but that is controlled by the state, in addition to the Jiangbei Iron and Steel Plant for its own use, but also to supply to other places, units can not get coal, so they have to use charcoal, but charcoal needs to be burned with wood, so those big trees have suffered, first the street tree plane tree, was cut down.

The wisdom of the people is infinite, and the Jiangbei Daily has published several news about the masses making steel on a large scale, some people have trained three catties of iron with one pound of coal, and some people have trained one catty of iron with 30 catties of charcoal, which are all examples for everyone to learn.

The land of Jiangbei, blast furnaces everywhere, the people are in full swing, but there is one person who can't sit still, he is Mu Yichen, general manager of Beitai Iron and Steel Plant.

Mu Yichen graduated from St. John's University in Shanghai, and later studied in Frankfurt, Germany, studying metallurgy, and later served as the leader of the Beitai Iron and Steel Plant.

He approached the commissioner and said bluntly that this kind of local method of making steel in Malaysia would cause a huge amount of money, consume a lot of ore, coke, wood, manpower and material resources, and finally get only a pile of garbage.

Mai Ping, the new commissioner of the Executive Department, immediately sternly refuted Mu Yichen's statement, ordered him to be removed from his position, and stood aside from then on.

Mu Yichen returned home disheartened, his wife Che Qiuling asked him what happened, he told the truth, Che Qiuling blamed: "You, you, what are you talking nonsense at this time, this is a mass movement, do you understand." ”

Mu Yichen looked at the large camphor trees on the river beach outside the window, shook his head and said, "It's not that I don't understand, it's just that the world is changing too fast." ”

In the distance, on the river beach, a group of workers with axes and saws rushed to cut down camphor trees.

Mu Yichen immediately went out and trotted over to stop: "What are you doing, why are you cutting down trees?" ”

The workers said sternly: "We cut down trees and burn charcoal to make steel." ”

Mu Yichen said: "Come on, can you cut down the trees on the river beach?" ”

The workers scoffed: "Where can't the trees be cut?" Don't get in our way, or you will be guilty of maliciously obstructing the promotion of the Iron Marshal to the account, and you will be honest if you are sentenced to a labor camp. ”

Mu Yichen was powerless, so he could only watch as the workers cut down and dragged these luxuriant trees one by one.

In just three days, the camphor forest, which used to be green, turned into a bare barren beach, leaving only tree stumps on the ground.