Jianping, Liaoning Province has a Zhang family with six brothers, and the family lacks food and clothing all year round. The six sons grew up, all of them were capable and good-looking, and they all married daughters-in-law.

In the spring of 1905, there was a great drought in Jianping, and the land could not be planted. Zhang Xiang is the sixth child, a family of five, and he gets a liter of sorghum in his hand, and one liter is five catties.

He said to his daughter-in-law: "If you can't wait for death, let's go to Heilongjiang." ”

The daughter-in-law agreed.

Zhang Xiang found two broken baskets, tied them with ropes, put an eight-month-old girl in the front basket, and sat a two-year-old second son in the back basket. The eldest son, Zhang Litang, was five years old at the time, and he followed behind with his daughter-in-law with little feet.

They asked for food and went to Heilongjiang, and the more they walked, the colder it became. It's okay during the day, but I'm afraid of the dark. When he asked for dinner in the afternoon, Zhang Xiang said to others by the way: "We are going to Heilongjiang, can we stay at your house for the night?" ”

When you meet someone who is good to talk, say, "Okay." "Stay on someone's hot kang for one night, give a few nests, and give some pickles to eat.

Most people say, "I don't have a place to live, so you can go to someone else's house and ask." ”

Walking all day during the day, often hungry, and wanting to sleep when it's dark. A family of five has slept on haystacks and on other people's walls. It's okay to sleep on the haystack, and it's not so cold under the body; Sleeping on the root of the wall, it is cold under the body and I don't dare to turn over, the more I turn over, the colder it gets.

I don't know how many days they walked, they walked to the northeast hill of Zhaodong, Heilongjiang, and there was a cousin in that tunzi.

A family of five entered the door and startled my cousin.

My cousin said, "If you don't come in a good year, what are you doing in this year?" ”

Heilongjiang was also dry that year, and spring was the time when the greens and yellows were scarce, and my cousin's family was not rich.

After staying for two days, Zhang Xiang went out to look for work, found Tianpeng Town in Lanxi, and worked as a long-term worker for the rich man's family surnamed Li.

The next year, Zhang Litang also went to Li's house and herded pigs for Li's family.

After six or seven years of herding pigs, Litang grew up.

He didn't want to herd pigs all his life and go to the house of a rich man surnamed Ma to learn to drive a car.

Uncle Ma saw that he was smart and capable, and recognized him as a godfather. From the age of sixteen or seventeen, Litang drove the first car in Ma's house, and his salary was fifty percent more than that of other car owners. Several car owners rushed out in the car, hit the tip at noon (note: dinner), stayed in the hotel at night, and listened to him.

Uncle Ma also lent him livestock and a plough to open up the wasteland. Grow some land at home, and life is much better.

For several years, he didn't spend the New Year at home.

One year, Uncle Ma said, "You should also go home for the New Year." ”

Before midnight, the family was about to distribute paper (note: burning paper for ancestors on Chinese New Year's Eve), and Uncle Ma sent someone to call him, saying that Ma was sick and asked him to go back quickly.

Litang drove the car for Lao Ma's family for more than ten years, from the flower wheel car to the rubber wheel car.

After arriving in Heilongjiang, Zhang Xiang added another son. The brothers have grown up, and the Zhang family bought two horses, bought a guy for farming, and planted four or six lands for people.

After Zhang Xiang died, Litang was in charge. He hasn't read a book for a day, he can plan and keep accounts, which are all skills learned in Lao Ma's house.

At the time of the land reform, Zhang's family was divided into middle peasants, and he took away his family's horse and gave him more than 20 acres of land.

In the winter of the year of the land reform, the countryside of Lanxi was in full swing and plowing. A group of poor people gathered together, drove the climbing plow everywhere, went to the landlord's rich peasant house, and after entering the house, they took what they liked, put it on the climbing plow, and pulled it away. I really don't have anything to take, so I pick up my clothes when I enter the house, and I have to take off my cotton jacket and cotton pants, and if I don't take them off, I will be beaten. It stands to reason that the middle peasants can't afford to do this, but they do.

Zhang Litang took a photo in his sixties. Provided by Zhang Xiwen.

Two years ago, there was a matchmaker who gave the third child a matchmaker, and the girl of the old Zheng family in Qiantun was the daughter of the old Zheng family.

Litang heard about it, and then Zhang Luoqian gave a gift to the old Zheng family, and helped the third child marry his daughter-in-law. When giving birth, my daughter-in-law had a difficult birth and died during the confinement.

The mother's family said: Lao Zhang's mother-in-law Diao, their daughter did not die of illness, but let her mother-in-law abuse her to death.

What is the mother-in-law of the Zhang family? The two daughters-in-law both said, "The heart is not bad, and they say a lot." "When the daughter-in-law came back from her mother's house, she had to kowtow to her when she entered the house, and put her cigarette pouch and pot in order to do anything else.

In the winter of that year, on the twenty-seventh day of the lunar month, several climbing plows came to the courtyard of the Zhang family, and the people who came down were all relatives from the old Zheng family. When you enter the house, you will take whatever you see. The ones that were worn, worn, laid, covered, budded rice, white noodles, frozen bean buns, and frozen dumplings were all taken away.

To put it mildly, there was a box of bud rice sticks left in the back room, which was the bud rice seed left by the Zhang family, ready for spring.

There are three brothers with more than a dozen people, and they have nothing to eat after seeing the New Year.

Litang said to the second brother Licheng and the third brother Likui: "Let's rub some bud rice sticks and eat them first." ”

Licheng said: "The seeds are eaten, what are we going to plant in the spring?" ”

Likui cried: "The second brother is right, we can't eat bud rice seeds!" ”

Litang said: "People are going to starve to death, what's the use of wanting bud rice seeds?" ”

There are many people, and after a while, more than 20 catties of bud rice seeds will be rubbed and put on the mill to grind. There are still some potatoes in the cellar, which is considered to be the New Year.

This box of bud rice sticks is not seen to eat less, always a box, mixed with potatoes in winter, mixed with wild vegetables in spring, until the new bud rice down.

Litang asked his two younger brothers to pack the wooden boxes so that they could contain new buds. After moving the box, the box of bud rice sticks quickly bottomed out and was gone.

In the spring of the second year, Litang borrowed a cow and opened up a wasteland.

Within a few years, the Zhang family lived a good life, and married a daughter-in-law to Likui.

The elder brother and wife lived together for decades, and in 1963, when there were more than 20 people, they separated.

After the age of sixty, after entering the Layue Gate, Litang drank some wine and cried and made trouble, telling his sons and grandchildren about family history, asking for food, driving cars, and flying and climbing plows over and over again.