Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 434 Thank you for your hard work
Secretary Yang tapped his pipe, knocked off the ash, refilled the pot with tobacco, picked up a red-hot charcoal from the charcoal brazier next to him, lit it, tossed it aside, took a puff of smoke, and turned around to say, "There are three major issues: one is the dike and ditch repair, another is the livestock farm, and the last is the addition of a feed mill."

He turned to look at Anquan, "Xiao An, you're the most knowledgeable about these things here, even Xiao Chen can't compare to you. Why don't you go and run around first and see where you can buy a feed mill?"

Upon hearing this, Anquan immediately straightened his clothes and said arrogantly, "I'm definitely the best at this kind of thing! It's okay, I'll stay here for a while anyway, so I'll just run this first."

After saying that, he deliberately gave Chen Fan a provocative look, just like a traitor in a movie.

Chen Fan suppressed a laugh and gave him two thumbs up without hesitation.

Let whoever wants to do this troublesome thing do it, just don't bother me!
Secretary Yang nodded in satisfaction, exhaled a puff of smoke, and turned to look at everyone. "Is there anything else?"

Captain Zhang shook his head. "Every year during the busy winter season, water conservancy work takes up the majority of the work. Although we have an additional side business this year, the foundation is still in the breeding farm. As for other things, there shouldn't be any more."

Ye Shubao and Xiao Liewen also shook their heads, indicating that there was nothing else.

Although Xiao Liewen wanted to mention the militia's winter training, he also had to consider whether it would interfere with his main business. Otherwise, he could only find time to conduct rotational training.

Moreover, this year, due to the addition of "mountain and forest warfare tactics," the training time is much longer than in previous years. If there is really no time, it is not a problem not to hold collective winter training.

Seeing that no one had anything else to say, Secretary Yang nodded and said with a soft smile, "Since you don't have anything else to say, then I'll tell you two things."

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at him.

Ye Shubao asked curiously, "Is there another new mission coming down?"

Secretary Yang shook his head and said with a smile, "It's not the top, it's the bottom."

"The one below?"

Xiao Liewen had just picked up his teacup when he heard this and couldn't help but turn to look at him, "What could the squad down there possibly be up to?"

Secretary Yang laughed and said, "What do you mean, nothing's wrong?"

He then turned to look at everyone, "This year, not only our production team made a lot of money, but every household also made a lot. Not to mention the money from raising livestock, each side business company has to take out a certain percentage of its profits to distribute as dividends to all the members of the production team."

Yesterday, I had the committee calculate that a strong laborer can receive a dividend of about 200 yuan, and each household engaged in breeding can receive about 500 yuan.

Assuming a family has three able-bodied men, the total cost, including both items, would be over a thousand.

He chuckled and looked at everyone, saying, "Your family earns over a thousand a year, what are you planning to do?"

Ye Shubao immediately blurted out, "Build houses! Replace mud-walled houses with brick and tile houses!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he realized what he meant, slapped his thigh, and said excitedly, "That's right, everyone made money this year, so there must be a lot of people who want to build houses."

Captain Zhang's face also showed a joyful smile, but there was still a bit of worry in his eyes. "Building houses is definitely a good thing, but it takes time to make bricks and buy materials. Moreover, there are only so many skilled workers in the construction team. If everyone rushes to work, it will probably be chaotic, and in severe cases, it may even affect the water conservancy project."

Secretary Yang nodded and said to him, "That's what I think too."

He turned to look at Ye Shubao and Xiao Liewen, “So this year is different from the past. The team must take charge of the villagers’ house construction. We can’t let them build whatever they want like before. There must be a unified plan and arrangements. We absolutely cannot delay the dike construction.”

Captain Zhang nodded immediately, "I'll call a meeting with all the squad leaders in a bit to arrange the dike-clearing work and mention this matter while I'm at it."

Secretary Yang grunted and continued, "My idea is that although each household can make its own bricks, the circumstances are different. I don't care if they do it at this time, but anyone who wants to build a house in winter must go through the brigade headquarters to buy bricks, tiles, steel bars, and cement from the brick and tile factory. Alternatively, the brigade can apply to the commune."

Ye Shubao immediately smiled and said, "This is a good thing. In the past, when the commune members built houses, they had to find their own materials. There were quotas for timber, steel bars, and cement. If it is changed to a public-to-public arrangement, the quantity can be negotiated much better. It's just that building brick and tile houses will be more expensive."

"You can make your own adobe bricks. If you buy them, a single red brick from the brickyard costs 3 cents. To build a house, about 10,000 bricks would be enough, which would cost 300 yuan..."

As he spoke, he turned to look at Chen Fan and said, "If we were to build a large building like Xiao Chen's, it would require more than 4 bricks, which would be even more expensive."

Secretary Yang smiled and said, "What kind of houses to build is up to the villagers to choose. We will just buy the materials. I was thinking about this a few days ago. I even went to the brick and tile factory yesterday to ask about the prices. They said that if the quantity is large, the price can be discounted to 2.8 cents."

Ye Shubao laughed and said, "That's great, it will save a lot of money."

Secretary Yang nodded and continued, "Building houses is one thing, the other is to get running water to the remaining 10 teams."

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement.

Xiao Liewen, with a pipe in his mouth, said, "Before Teams 5 and 6 got running water, we made a promise to the other teams that once they had the conditions, we would definitely give them all running water. Now the brigade has a lot of money in its account, and it's time to fulfill our promise."

Secretary Yang smiled and said, "Yes, this matter definitely needs to be addressed. Moreover,..."

He turned to look at Captain Zhang and Ye Shubao and said with a smile, "Laying down pipes also requires digging ditches. I was thinking, could we combine it with the ditch renovation project, repairing the ditch while laying down the pipes? This would save a lot of time and manpower."

Captain Zhang immediately nodded, "This is a good idea, I agree."

Secretary Yang laughed and said, "Then let's do it this way. I'll go to the commune later and report the water pipe repair and building materials together. This time I don't want their subsidy; our brigade can bear all the costs ourselves, but we must ensure that all the materials are supplied."

Everyone else nodded repeatedly, saying they didn't want subsidies, only sufficient approval materials—that wasn't an unreasonable request. See? This is the display of the Lujiawan brigade leadership's wealth and power!
Chen Fan watched from the side and chuckled. After they finished talking, he raised his hand and said, "Uncle Yang, I have a suggestion."

Secretary Yang immediately turned to look at him, smiling with exceptional kindness, "Little Chen, what good ideas do you have now? Tell me quickly!"

Chen Fan stood up, walked to a desk, sat down, and said with a smile, "This is what I'm thinking: since we're already procuring building materials and arranging housing construction in a unified manner, why not go a step further and provide the members with unified housing design and planning?"

Secretary Yang was taken aback by his words. "What do you mean?"

Chen Fan took a piece of paper and started sketching on it. He said, "I've seen the layout of the houses in our various teams. Although most of them are mud-walled houses, the spacing and orientation between the houses make full use of the terrain, which is quite reasonable. The only thing that's not very nice is that the styles of the houses are not the same. In architectural terms, the styles are not consistent."

If we can provide all members with design drafts in a unified style, even if the styles are slightly different, it will still give people a harmonious feeling overall.

In addition, we can make a unified plan for the entire residential area and adjust the location of some houses' land plots.

On the one hand, it's more aesthetically pleasing; on the other hand, it leaves enough land for future generations to build their own homes.

After he finished drawing, he pushed the paper in front of Secretary Yang and continued, “I have observed carefully. For example, in our Team 6, apart from me and excluding the educated youth settlement, there are 46 households in the team, but the total population is 343 people. On average, each household has 7 or 8 people.”

A large portion of them are minors, and some of the girls may get married...

At this moment, Zhang Wenliang suddenly interjected, saying, "I heard Xingxiu say a couple of days ago that the girls in our team don't want to marry outside, while the girls in other production teams all want to marry into Lujiawan. So the population in our team will definitely only increase, not decrease."

Anquan lit a cigarette and chuckled, "It's normal. Lujiawan is now a well-known big fish farm, even bigger than Bailanghu Brigade which specializes in fish farming. They're even thinking of selling their fish to us, but fish are hard to transport and preserve, and the cooked food workshops don't know how to handle fresh fish, so Lao Ye hasn't agreed yet."

Chen Fan looked at him curiously, then at Ye Shubao, "Is that so?"

Ye Shubao exclaimed "Ah!" and laughed, "This is normal. The fishponds of Bailanghu Brigade are very large, and they often go fishing in the river. Every year they can exceed the supply and marketing cooperative's procurement targets."

But just like when we raise chickens, the supply and marketing cooperative also purchases according to the tasks assigned by the higher authorities. Otherwise, if they don't finish all those fish, they can only keep them and deal with them themselves.

"Seeing that we're making money from our cooked food shop, they even asked all four production brigades to buy chickens, ducks, and geese together, and they wanted to supply us with fish too. But fish is too cheap and difficult to process, so I didn't agree."

Chen Fan blinked. "Then let them supply dried fish directly. The smoked and dried fish from Bailang Lake are unique to Gufeng County, and the braised fish is also very good. It's just that they don't have a channel to sell it outside."

Now we have a channel to get them to supply dried fish directly. This stuff keeps well, so we can just order less and sell it slowly.

We've made money before, it doesn't take any effort, so why not take it?

Since it's a village that relies on fish farming for a living, how could it not have some unique skills in cooking fish? In fact, many so-called "specialties" in various places originated from a small village.

There are countless such villages; the key is who gets there first.

Whoever seizes the opportunity first becomes the representative of a certain place's "specialty." If someone asks how special these specialties are, or if they are unique to other places, that's not necessarily true!
After hearing Chen Fan's words, Ye Shubao blinked repeatedly, his eyes gradually brightening. "So that's how it works?"

He then grinned and said, "Okay, okay, I'll call their captain later and finalize this."

Seeing that they could make another sum of money for free, Secretary Yang and the others couldn't stop smiling.

He had just finished looking at the simple drawing Chen Fan had made, so he decisively tossed it aside and smiled at him, saying, "I don't quite understand what you're saying either. I only know two things: one is that building houses requires planning, and the other is that there aren't enough houses now, so there will definitely be many more new houses. Is that what you mean?"

Chen Fan nodded and was about to speak when he saw Secretary Yang wave his hand and say, "Alright, then we'll do as you say. This matter is entrusted to you."

Upon seeing a huge pot being smashed down, Chen Fan immediately raised his hand, "I object."

Anquan looked at him with amusement, "You suggested it, so who else should we give it to if not you?"

Zhang Wenliang also said righteously, "I've long disliked your daily fishing and dog walking, and you have to take charge of this matter."

Chen Fan pursed his lips and couldn't help but roll his eyes.

This idiot! I finally managed to smooth things over, and you brought it up again. What's wrong? You're unhappy that the boss didn't punish you?

Anquan covered his eyes, unable to watch, and silently wondered if he could slip away after the meeting. After all, Secretary Yang had assigned him a task to inquire about purchasing feed machinery, which could be considered a business trip.

Zhang Wenliang, oblivious to Secretary Yang's unfriendly gaze, crossed his legs smugly.

We'll give you something to do so you'll see if you're still bored!

Seeing that Secretary Yang's gaze had turned to him, Chen Fan immediately said seriously, "Secretary, I really can only do design work. I have to take the postgraduate entrance examination next March, and I can't let it interfere with my studies."

Upon hearing this, Secretary Yang stopped pretending and immediately nodded, saying, "Yes, yes, yes, the exam is the most important thing. You should arrange your time well. If you don't have time, you can tell the construction team your ideas and let them handle the design and planning."

Chen Fan smiled and glanced provocatively at Zhang Wenliang, whose face was blank. He then turned to Zhang Wenliang and said sincerely, "It's okay. I've been drawing in various teams all year, so I know all the living areas like the back of my hand. It won't take me more than a few days to do the design."

Secretary Yang nodded with a smile, "Then I'll trouble you."

(End of this chapter)