Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 33 Reasonable Distribution
Upon hearing Chen Fan's words, Captain Yang's expression also turned troubled.

He sullenly smoked, "That is a problem."

If someone else said that, he would definitely slap them across the face. It's just a few steps, why can't you walk?

But yesterday, Chen Fan carried several buckets of water, and the whole village heard about it. The kid was so weak that he could barely carry half a bucket of water and he was wobbling. People were worried that he might fall off the riverbank. He was indeed a bit too weak.

If he were only going to the two nearest teams, he could manage, but the smaller teams that were further away would be a bit of a problem.

Especially for the furthest teams, Team 1 and Team 12, it takes at least two hours to walk. With Chen Fan's physique, whether he can make it is no small question.

The entire Lujiawan area is roughly an irregular triangle, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, with river embankments on both sides. The production teams were arranged along these two embankments, numbered 1 to 12, forming a complete circle. Where the land was wider, the length of the line was shorter, and where the land was narrower, the length was longer, ensuring that each team had roughly equal land area. Because the western side was shorter than the eastern side, and the bottom of the line on the map resembled a diagonal line, teams 1 to 5 were on the west side, and teams 6 to 12 were on the east side, with unequal numbers of teams.

In fact, the entire Nanhu Commune was a large polder surrounded by two rivers, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, with the commune located in the middle.

Lujiawan is located at the narrower end, and this is the only production team on this side.

The other side, which is much wider, is equivalent to more than four Lujiawan areas. It was divided into four production brigades, which, together with the centuries-old Nanhu Town, formed the entire Nanhu Commune.

In terms of geographical location, Team 6 of Lujiawan, like Team 5, is the closest to the commune, which is one of the reasons why the educated youth settlement was set up in Team 6 of Lujiawan.

Why not put it in team 5?
This can only be blamed on the fact that the houses in Team 5 are too good. Half of them are old brick and tile houses left by the Lu family, and the other mud houses are newly built in recent years. How can the spirit of hard work be reflected if the educated youth settlement is set up there?
Therefore, Team 6, which was not far from the commune and consisted entirely of mud-walled and thatched-roof houses, became the best choice for the Lujiawan educated youth settlement.

But we're not going to the commune now... Captain Yang suddenly thought, if he went to the brigade headquarters to claim credit, would Captain Zhang go to the commune to claim credit too?

It's very possible!
He glanced at Chen Fan, then at Liu Jujiang, and suddenly an idea came to him.

He immediately coughed and said, "I see. Xiao Chen just fell into the water and hasn't fully recovered yet, so walking long distances is indeed inconvenient for him. As for Lao Liu, he's a long-time member, familiar with the environment, and has strong legs, so he'll have to do the hard work and run a few of the longer routes. Also, in terms of distribution, we'll give you an extra 60 work points, Lao Liu. How about that?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Jujiang's face lit up, and he nodded repeatedly, "No problem, as long as Comrade Chen has no objection, I'm fine with anything."

He sat in the chair, smoking, grinning from ear to ear.

He wasn't afraid of going far, he was just afraid of earning fewer work points.

Once the production team entered the twelfth lunar month, there was hardly any proper work to do, so naturally, they couldn't earn many work points. Now that they had the opportunity to earn 10 more work points, they were naturally happy to do so.

Chen Fan was also happy; he didn't have to travel far, which saved him a lot of energy!
Although I lost 10 work points, I couldn't get rich with those points. Compared to solving my own identity problem, it was more important to win over the team members and build good interpersonal relationships with them.

Seeing how easy Chen Fan was to talk to, Liu Jujiang felt a little embarrassed.

He realized that he had learned everything from him, and it was really inappropriate to take advantage of him. After thinking for a moment, he said to Captain Yang, "Comrade Chen has had a hard time too. How about we give him a few work points? I'll take less."

Before Captain Yang could speak, Chen Fan quickly said, "No need, no need. One thing at a time. How much work you do and how many work points you earn are matters of principle. We can't make exceptions."

Captain Yang waved his hand and said, "What good are a few work points? If you feel embarrassed, you can teach him a few tricks later and return the money."

Chen Fan also smiled and said, "That's fine. I'll have to learn more from Master Liu when I have the chance."

Liu Jujiang thought it made sense. This kid didn't look like a chef at all, and the villagers in the neighborhood only recognized him. Who would recognize a little kid like him? This way, he wouldn't be able to take his job. He could teach him a couple of local specialties when he had the chance, which would be a way of repaying the favor.

"Okay, let's do it that way!" Seeing that the problem was solved, Captain Yang said, "Then it's like this: teams 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 are the closest teams. Xiao Chen will go and make the trip, and Lao Liu will go to the other teams."

After a pause, he continued, "My family is slaughtering a pig for the New Year tomorrow morning, and we'll need Master Liu's help to make the 'pig-killing feast,' starting tomorrow afternoon. If there are no problems, I'll notify the brigade headquarters and have them prepare."

Chen Fan nodded and asked one last question, "Captain, do we need to bring our own rations?"

Upon hearing this, Captain Yang was both amused and exasperated. "When you taught people how to cook, did you ever go hungry? Or do you hire people to work without providing meals?"

Accountant Liu, who hadn't said a word until now, couldn't stop smiling. "Little Chen just can't remember anything, can he?"

The custodian, Mr. Huang, also laughed and said, "It's good that Xiao Chen has this kind of spirit. He has to calculate every penny clearly. If he calculates clearly, there will be no trouble."

Captain Yang slapped his thigh and laughed at Chen Fan, "If they don't feed you, come back and tell me, and I'll get you a whole year's worth of grain!"

Chen Fan's eyes widened. "What if I refuse to eat it? Can I still have it?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the main room was filled with laughter, creating a joyful atmosphere.

……

Back at the educated youth settlement, Chen Fan first ran to Jiang Lili's door and took the initiative to bring up the matter, "Captain Yang asked me to go to a few nearby production teams and teach them how to cook soft-shelled turtles."

Jiang Lili came out and stood at the doorway, her eyes widening in surprise. "Really?"

Chen Fan nodded and said with a smile, "It's not like I'm working for free. Each team gives 10 work points, and if I go to 5 teams, I can earn 50 work points."

Jiang Lili's face immediately lit up with a delighted smile, "That's great! It's equivalent to what I usually do in 6 or 7 days."

So she only earns 7 or 8 work points a day?
Chen Fan blinked, suddenly remembering what Captain Yang had just said about "work points being calculated by piecework," and asked, "Hey, how do you usually calculate work points? I mean, some people can get 10 work points a day, while others only get 7 or 8, and some jobs are heavy while others are light. How is that calculated?"

"Oh."

Without hesitation, Jiang Lili said, “There are several ways to record work points: ‘fixed points and fixed records,’ ‘fixed points and flexible evaluation,’ ‘work points by piece,’ and ‘contract work.’”

"Deadly assigning work points" means determining the work points for each workday based on the strength of the workforce and the level of technical skills, and then recording the points based on the actual attendance time.

This is also the most common daily scoring method in production teams. For example, a man can earn 10 work points for a day's work. If it is during the "double harvest" period or when picking and carrying, he can earn up to 12 work points a day. Women earn fewer, usually 7 or 8 points, and at most no more than 10. The elderly and children earn the fewest, sometimes only 5 or 6 points.

"Deadly scoring and dynamically evaluating" means that, based on "deadly scoring and memorizing," a score is given according to work performance and achievements, and then this score is multiplied by the original standard score.

Chen Fan nodded slowly, understanding; it was the performance coefficient.

Jiang Lili continued, “Work-by-piece work means assigning a score to each task, and you can earn points once the task is completed. Contracting is similar, but it mainly applies to production teams. For example, the annual embankment carrying task involves the commune contracting a section of the river embankment to the production team, giving them a total of work points, and then the production team assigns members to complete the task. Based on the members' performance, the work points are then distributed.”

Chen Fan blinked, surprised that there was such a flexible distribution method during the production team era. It was beyond his imagination; he had thought that in this era, it didn't matter whether you did a good job or a bad job.

(End of this chapter)