For returning to Longwanggou as the production captain when he was dizzy for a while, Chen Xinmin now regrets it very much.

In 1635, Chen Xinmin, who had served in the Laizhou Regional Production and Construction Corps for five years, was faced with three choices.

The first option is not to retire and go directly to the railway production and construction corps for service. For this, Chen Xinmin, who is not self-motivated, and feels that he has been a soldier for five years is enough, does not like it.

The second option was to transfer directly to the armed forces department of a farm. Regarding this point, Chen Xinmin, who knew very well that the so-called armed forces department of the farm was actually a militia unit, and this job was not much different from being a soldier in the army.

Unlike most of the production and construction troops, Chen Xinmin, who only passed the literacy education and arithmetic assessment in the army, felt that he had no way out in the environment of the army, so Chen Xinmin did not want to go.

The last option is to completely transfer from the army and completely change from a soldier to a civilian. Moreover, this choice can also allow Chen Xinmin, who returned to his hometown after changing jobs, to become a grassroots cadre. For this point, after calculating the salary and allowances he has saved in the past five years, Chen Xinmin feels very good.

According to his idea, when he returned to his hometown, he relied on a deposit of more than 30,000 yuan, plus the identity of a grassroots cadre, he could marry a good daughter-in-law and live a very comfortable life. So even Chen Xinmin, who no longer has a relative in his hometown, finally made this choice.

Chen Xinmin's idea is good. Chen Xinmin's goal is also easy to achieve.

Because Chen Xinmin's hometown was a hilly area with poor terrain, the Ba'ath Party did not turn the area into a state farm, but established a people's commune in the local area according to local conditions.

Chen Xinmin's hometown, Longwanggou Village, Fushan Town, Zhaoyuan County, Laizhou Prefecture, had become the seventh production team of Fushan People's Commune in Zhaoyuan County, Laizhou Prefecture, when Chen Xinmin returned.

Because this area is a non-key area with poor topographical conditions, backward agricultural production, and no mineral resources, there is almost no change in Longwanggou Village, except for a two-meter-wide Sanhetu path from Fushan Town, where the Fushan People's Commune is located, to Longwanggou Village.

Of course, it cannot be said that there are no changes.

When Chen Xinmin returned to Longwanggou, now the No. 7 Production Team of Fushan People's Commune, he found that the demographic structure of the entire village had changed dramatically. Young people in their teens and twenties like him are almost extinct in Longwanggou.

Chen Xinmin knew that when he first organized the conscription in Longwanggou, because he longed for a life where he could eat enough food every day and eat luncheon meat at every turn, almost all the people over the age of 15 and under the age of 30 in the entire village left with their families.

So when he returned to his hometown and found that almost the entire village was full of middle-aged and elderly people, he also understood what was going on.

Unlike himself, his fellow villagers have seen the world outside and lived a new life, almost no one wants to go back to Longwanggou to live the life of digging in the soil and not being able to get enough stomach. People like him, even if they no longer have any relatives in their hometown, but still want to return to their hometown, Chen Xinmin himself knows that there are really not many.

returned home, with a deposit of more than 30,000 yuan and the identity of a "cadre". Chen Xinmin quickly solved his personal problems.

Unlike those who were introduced in the army organizationally, who were very concerned about Chen Xinmin's cultural level, technical level, and military merit awards, because he would encounter dislike at every turn if he did not want to make progress, in the No. 7 Production Team of the Fushan People's Commune, where there were only more than 200 people left, more than a dozen unmarried women over the age of 20 and under the age of 30 were randomly selected by Chen Xinmin.

Although in the eyes of Chen Xinmin, who was already well-informed, the appearance of these more than ten young women was terrible, but Chen Xinmin did not dare to accept the proposal of a distant relative to marry his 14-year-old daughter, who was recruiting the Yuan Cadet Army to go to school.

You must know that when he was serving in the army, Chen Xinmin participated in several public trials on violating the "Marriage Law". One of the most memorable public trials for Chen Xinmin was about a family forcing their daughter who was joining the Boys' Army to marry a stupid son from a wealthy family in their village.

At that public trial, the couple who forced their daughter to drop out of school and marry were sentenced to indefinite prison sentences (life imprisonment until death). The family with a stupid son was killed on the spot by the Cadet Army guards because they organized people to rob the cadets in the Cadet Army. Five other unlucky guys, who were shot and maimed by the guards fighters, were also sentenced to death and executed on the spot.

In that family with a stupid son, in addition to the stupid son being sent to a labor camp for re-education through labor, the parents of the stupid son were also sentenced to death for violating the "Marriage Law" and the "Criminal Law" and organizing and planning criminal acts.

Just because of a girl who was joining the Boys' Army, the government almost killed both families. Not to mention Chen Xinmin, a big soldier who has just changed jobs, even in the corps, leaders such as platoon commanders and company commanders, after this public trial meeting, they don't dare to look at the female students in the junior army.

It was only after witnessing this public trial that Chen Xinmin established the concept that the "Marriage Law" is the supreme legal code and that the state's protection and concern for women is genuine. It was also because of this experience that Chen Xinmin completely gave up the idea of marrying a woman "in the city".

It is for this reason that Chen Xinmin respects all female students. Therefore, even though the dozen or so unmarried women in the seventh production team did not meet Chen Xinmin's aesthetic standards at all, Chen Xinmin still selected the tallest woman and the best hygiene habit as his wife.

However, Chen Xinmin's good life after returning to his hometown ended here.

After working in the No. 7 Production Team for less than half a month, Chen Xinmin understood why the secretary of the commune party committee, who was also a demobilized soldier of the Corps, had such an unbearable look on his face when he talked to him.

In the Seventh Production Team, which has only more than 200 people, most of whom are old, weak, sick and disabled, and there is almost no way to communicate and exchange effectively with everyone, Chen Xinmin has experienced an unprecedented discomfort and discomfort.

In this casual production team with extremely inconvenient transportation (in fact, it is much better than a few years ago), without any modern facilities (in fact, the production team has popularized pressure wells and steam pumps), and there is almost no organization and discipline, Chen Xinmin, who has fully adapted to the clean and hygienic environment, neat and orderly city appearance, fast and convenient transportation, and abundant and sufficient materials, really feels very uncomfortable.

If nothing else, just buy toothbrushes and toothpaste, which used to be ordinary and easy in the Corps. Chen Xinmin had to ride his horse on a dirt road of twenty or thirty miles to the commune to do so.

He wanted to build his own big red brick house, but because there was only a brick factory in the commune more than 30 miles away, he couldn't implement it after more than a year. Because although the price of bricks and tiles is not expensive, he can afford it himself, but almost no one in the production team will build this kind of cement house with red bricks and red tiles. What's more, Chen Xinmin himself has to be responsible for transporting those bricks and tiles.

To build a red brick house of thirty or forty square meters, if there is a semi-professional team of about ten people, the project can be completed in half a month at most if the materials are ready. But if one person is responsible for all the links and processes of material procurement, transportation, and construction in the same job, Chen Xinmin trembles just thinking about it. So after Chen Xinmin returned to Longwanggou, he really couldn't build a small brick house for a while.

Chen Xinmin felt that he was powerless in Longwanggou, but the more than 200 old, weak, sick and disabled people in Longwanggou did not feel that there was anything bad here.

Because Chen Xinmin learned a full set of skills in operating, repairing and running steam engines in the Corps, when Chen Xinmin returned to Longwanggou and restored the operation of the steam pump and steam mill that had been lying in the production team for a long time, the members of the production team were happy from the bottom of their hearts.

After all, for this production team of about 200 people, mainly middle-aged and elderly people, with improved seeds and chemical fertilizers, and every household has enough land, as long as irrigation and grain processing can be guaranteed, their lives can become very "rich and healthy".

Each mu of land only needs to pay three layers of "imperial grain and national tax", and there is no apportionment and labor. Under the condition that the per capita land is seven or eight acres and the yield per mu is six or seven hundred catties, after paying the "imperial grain and national tax," and then keeping enough rations and selling the remaining grain to the "imperial court," the members of the seventh production team can save "a lot" of money while eating and drinking. They can even happily buy quite a few "luxuries" (at most, canned candy and the like) for "enjoyment".

In this lazy and comfortable environment full of the characteristics of the small-scale peasant economy, even those who do not pursue progress like Chen Xinmin feel incredible about the small wealth and peace of the team members. For Chen Xinmin, who has been living outside for five or six years, this kind of subsistence and clothing life can be satisfied anywhere outside. In today's world, as long as you work hard and work hard, you can live a life that is much better than this kind of food and clothing.

Chen Xinmin himself knew that around the camp of the Laizhou Regional Production and Construction Corps, those vendors who sold steamed buns could easily live a good life of eating meat every day. The lives of the vendors around the camp who sell roasted sweet potatoes and repair shoes and haircuts are much better than those of the members of the Seventh Production Team of the Fushan People's Commune.

Even people like Chen Xinmin, who lacks economic ideas, know that by doing some side jobs in the countryside and doing some small businesses in the county town, they can effectively improve everyone's lives. Even if we do not do this, we can effectively increase the grain output of the production team by building the infrastructure of farmland and water conservancy in our spare time.

However, in the seventh production team, although the more than 200 old, weak, sick and disabled people fully respected the authority of Chen Xinmin as the leader of the production team, almost no one echoed his call for everyone to increase production and income and carry out farmland and water conservancy construction in their spare time.

In the face of Chen Xinmin's helplessness, Shen Dashan, secretary of the Party Committee of the Fushan People's Commune and former platoon commander of the Production and Construction Corps, also said that there was nothing he could do. He said to Chen Xinmin, who came to ask for advice:

"We are all people who have been in the Corps, and we all have an intuitive understanding of agricultural production and industrial production. In our country, whether it is agricultural production or industrial production, it is a large-scale and mechanized idea. The more large-scale and mechanized it is, the higher the level of agricultural production and industrial production. However, whether it is agricultural production or industrial production, whether it is large-scale agricultural production or small-scale agricultural production, there is a core problem, that is, the problem of people. ”

"Whether it is engaged in agricultural production or industrial production, people are required to work. With people who can master equipment and technology, there is an exponential increase in industrial and agricultural output. But in any case, we have to have someone to do it. ”

"If you look at the newspapers, the country's current food production is mainly borne by state farms. The grain produced by the state farms alone every year can fully meet the food needs of nearly 100 million people in the country, and there is even a huge surplus. Therefore, from the point of view of agricultural production, we, the people's communes, as supplementary units, are actually in a rather depressed position. ”

"To engage in industry, we can't do the county seat as an industrial center. In agriculture, we cannot engage in state farms that specialize in mechanized production. Moreover, with the development of industry and agriculture, whether it is the county town as the industrial center or the state farm as the main force of agricultural production, they have to constantly extract labor from the people's communes in our remote areas. ”

"Look at this report. Last year alone, more than 400 people went out from our commune to work in the county and mining areas as workers. The two production teams directly went to the yellow stall. ”

"No one, we don't want to do anything well. Without people, we don't want to realize anything. When I went to the county party committee and Secretary Guo to report this problem of population loss, do you know what Secretary Guo told me? ”

After listening to Shen Dashan's question, Chen Xinmin subconsciously said:

"What did Secretary Guo say?"

Glancing at Chen Xinmin, who no longer had any spirit, Shen Dashan said:

"Secretary Guo clearly told me that the task of our people's communes is to deal with and solve the impact of population concentration in the central areas for a period of time in the future. In other words, we will henceforth be specifically responsible for maintaining basic order in areas with decreasing populations. ”

"Secretary Guo's words, after I came back, I thought about it carefully and understood. At the end of the day, we're doing the aftermath. When the young people in the commune are gone, when the old people in the commune are gone, when the existence of our commune will end. ”

"So you don't have to think about using those middle-aged and elderly people who can't do anything at all to engage in any kind of extended production and construction activities. Maintaining the status quo and ensuring the stability of the lives of these middle-aged and elderly people is the core job of you, the production team leader. ”

After hearing this, Chen Xinmin's face turned green. When he returned to his hometown, he really wanted to live a relatively easy life. But he didn't expect that he would come back to take on the job of caring for the elderly and taking care of the graves.

Seeing that Chen Xinmin's face was not good, Shen Dashan laughed a little playfully. He said to Chen Xinmin:

"Xiao Chen, don't be too depressed. In fact, you can learn from the two production captains who transferred to the county this year! No matter what means you use, no matter what method you use, as long as you can introduce the more than 200 people under your command to industrial and mining enterprises or farms, your task as a production captain will be over. Then the state will reassign you to work! ”

"Actually, if you think about it carefully, this method is actually much better than you leading those two hundred people to work hard in a small ravine. There is a shortage of manpower in various regions now! ”

Looking at the smile on the secretary's face, Chen Xinmin suddenly had the illusion of falling into the trap of human traffickers.

Chen Xinmin, who thoroughly figured out the situation, couldn't help but think:

"If I had known that this was the case, how good it would have been for me to stay in the Corps. Why bother? ”