Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 112 Nanhu Town

Chen Fan was very indignant.

Why isn't a horse-drawn carriage a vehicle?
He followed Master Liu to learn how to drive a horse-drawn carriage. After listening to the precautions for half a day, he finally grasped the essence of driving a carriage, which was how to control the animals.

It's mostly things like "驾", "嘚儿", "吁", and "哦".

There are also some whip-cracking techniques.

Does Chen Fan really need a whip to drive the carriage?

After figuring out the trick to driving the cart, he immediately started negotiating with the donkey pulling it: "Run forward, run steadily, and I'll feed you grass when I come back. If you can't run steadily, see that huge whip in the old man's hand? You know how it hurts, right? Then run!"

Then he learned how to drive a donkey cart.

However, the skill board does not recognize this as a driving skill, and instead shows "driving" instead?
Does it mean you're bullying a donkey cart because it's not a cart?!

He was indignant, while his teacher, Master Liu, was frustrated.

Master Liu has been a skilled driver for decades. Before the liberation, he worked as a donkey cart driver. He recalled how he followed his master from dawn till dusk to learn how to drive the cart and take care of the animals. It was a long and difficult journey, and he finally mastered the skill of driving the cart.

Today I wanted to show off in front of Xiao Chen, the most popular guy in the team, but before I could even finish my sentence, Xiao Chen urged that lazy donkey to run as fast as he could.

I gave that donkey to Xiao Chen to pull because it was very lazy. It would rather lie down than stand, and it would rather walk than run, making it perfect for a novice to pull. There was virtually no chance of it tipping over.

Now look at the lazy donkey. It's running forward with great joy, as if it's hopping on its hooves. What's wrong? Is there a female donkey in front of it?

Even if there were a female donkey, could it still pull the cart steadily?

It even got ahead of me?
They were dizzy, and the donkeys pulling the cart were even more dizzy.

On the front of the cart, Chen Fan sat on the left, constantly waving the whip with his right hand, testing the "driving whip method" taught by Master Liu. The donkey pulling the cart heard the whip telling it to go left, right, forward, or backward, but the voice coming from behind told it to just run forward, which was very confusing.

Jiang Lili sat next to Chen Fan, on the other side of the cart, her hands gripping the side rails tightly, her eyes fixed on the donkey.

How come this donkey can run so fast today? It only took it ten minutes to get to the commune.

Seeing a main street ahead with many people on it, Chen Fan quickly told the donkey to slow down and then asked, "Is this the commune?"

Jiang Lili came to her senses and nodded, "Ah, yes, this is Nanhu Town."

Chen Fan had already craned his neck to examine the town, which was full of the characteristics of the times.

There is no clear boundary between the town and the countryside; a small earthen mound rises from a field and marks the town's street.

The streets were lined with brick and tile houses, all of which looked like private residences. There were no government offices or organizations there. The road itself was quite wide, more than three times wider than the main road in the village.

Chen Fan asked curiously, "How big is the commune?"

Jiang Lili glanced at the crowd on the street, turned slightly toward Chen Fan, and whispered, "Nanhu Town is actually just two cross streets, one horizontal and one vertical. This one runs north-south and is mainly a residential area, with several company dormitories also located here. Those with iron gates at the entrance are the ones."

Chen Fan was still looking for signs on the walls on both sides of the iron gate when he heard her words and realized, "Oh, this is the dormitory area."

I was wondering to myself, I heard that in those days many company dormitories were communal buildings, but I didn't see any buildings behind me.
He only saw the layout of the houses after the donkey cart passed the entrance to the dormitory area.

Inside were rows of single-story houses, facing each other in pairs. You could tell from the slightly lower houses two or three meters away that each house belonged to a family, which was essentially a small single room.

The single room had only one door and one window. The back and both sides were other people's houses, and the small house across the alley was probably the kitchen. Chen Fan glanced at it in a few seconds, his lips curled slightly, and he turned to Jiang Lili and whispered, "With this kind of housing, apart from being a brick house, it's not even as good as a mud-walled house in the countryside."

In 20 years, these kinds of houses will have a specific name: "shantytown".

However, it doesn't feel old-fashioned now; it's just that it's rather cramped compared to the spaciousness of rural areas.

Hearing his words, Jiang Lili lowered her head and smiled.

In all these years, this was the first time she had ever heard anyone say that towns were inferior to rural areas. Although this was just a small town, if those educated youth and commune members had a choice, every single one of them would definitely choose the "small" brick and tile house here, rather than the mud-walled house in the countryside.

Behind them, Mr. Liu seemed to be a celebrity as well, greeting pedestrians on the street from time to time.

"Hey, we're going to the market, are you guys going too?"

"Ah, I'm rushing to catch the train. Our team's Master Chen is selling some things. Okay, see you later."

Hearing Liu's voice behind him, Chen Fan turned around and smiled, "Does Liu know a lot of people?"

Jiang Lili whispered, "Master Liu has been driving carts for decades. Not to mention here, even in the county town, he knows many people. So he often says that he doesn't need to bring food when he goes out. He can eat wherever he goes and he will never go hungry."

Chen Fan smiled and nodded, "That means Master Liu is a good person and can make friends with many people. People with bad character can drive a cart their whole lives and still not make many friends."

Jiang Lili was slightly taken aback. When others heard about Master Liu before, they all said that he had traveled a lot and knew a lot of people. This was the first time she had heard Chen Fan say this.

But upon closer reflection, it does seem to make some sense.

Before they could finish speaking, the donkey cart had reached the crossroads.

Jiang Lili snapped out of her daze and pointed to the horizontal street, "This street is Jianshe Road, and the one we just saw was Shengli Street. Shengli Street is mainly a residential area, while Jianshe Road is full of various government units. The commune government compound, the post office, the substation, the grain depot, the water conservancy station, the supply and marketing cooperative, repair shops, and some other units are all on Jianshe Road."

Heading east on Jianshe Road leads to the county town, while heading west is the factory area. This area houses cardboard factories, paper mills, fertilizer plants, pesticide factories, cement plants, match factories, coal mines, brick and tile factories, machinery factories, and a water transport company. It's close to the riverbank, making water access more convenient.

Hearing her introduction, Chen Fan was somewhat surprised, "There are so many units in the commune?"

Are you kidding me? This is just an obscure little town. You can tell from the fact that it only has two main streets. It's really not that big.

How can there be ten factories and businesses in such a small place?
Seeing his surprise, Jiang Lili couldn't help but laugh and said, "They call them factories, but most of them are actually workshops. The largest shipping company has less than two hundred workers, including the cooks. The smallest match factory has only a dozen or so people."

These factories were all set up a few years ago when the government was promoting the development of "five small industries." There used to be steel mills and coke plants, but they were later shut down.

He paused for a moment, then lowered his voice and whispered, "The educated youth are all saying that the cardboard box factory and the cement factory might be shut down next year, so many people are trying to transfer to other units."

Chen Fan chuckled twice.

Well, I was too naive. I really thought it was a big factory, but it turns out it just has one sign.

After crossing the intersection and then going south along Victory Street, you've left the town.

Then Chen Fan understood why the market was set up in Team 5 of Ganjiacun.

This place is really big!

(End of this chapter)