Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 461 Draining the Pond for Fishing
As mentioned earlier, for a period of time, starting in March 1969, most schools across the country had spring enrollment and winter graduation, with primary school lasting 5 years and junior and senior high school lasting 2 years, until 1974 when it was changed back.

However, as we all know, our motherland is vast and rich in resources. Well, it's not so much about the abundance of resources, but rather the sheer size of the land, which leads to inconsistent implementation times.

Firstly, regarding spring enrollment, in a few places, nothing has changed at all. While others enroll in the spring, they still enroll in the fall, remaining completely unfazed.

When the school year reverted to fall semester, for the same reason, while others underwent a dramatic transformation, some schools remained unchanged, and even in the early 80s, some schools still had spring semester enrollment.

The key issue is that the education commission doesn't care either; they accept it regardless of whether you enroll in the spring or fall semester!

It's just magical.

Therefore, in the 70s, the educated youth went to the countryside, which was basically done twice a year, once in the spring and once in the autumn, to correspond to the students who graduated in the two seasons, as well as a few people who had graduated half a year earlier and were reluctant to leave.

Students who enroll in the spring semester are normally sent to the countryside in the first month of the lunar calendar, which is after the Spring Festival. At that time, it is freezing cold, but they have to ride in open-top Liberation trucks to the countryside. Just thinking about it makes one's eyes well up with tears.

Those who enroll in the fall semester naturally leave in July or August.

Wow, this is incredible luck!

What time is July? It's the busy harvest season!
Going to the countryside is like shedding a layer of skin; it's not as good as braving the cold wind in the freezing snow.

Another point is that many people believe that the higher-ups are doing this to solve the employment problem, which is putting the cart before the horse.

It's not that it has nothing to do with employment, but compared to the overall situation, this employment issue is insignificant.

What was the situation at that time? Beset by internal and external troubles, strategic materials such as food and rubber were extremely scarce.

However, the vast rural areas that produce these resources are generally underdeveloped, and there are still large tracts of wasteland in remote border areas that need to be developed.

At the same time, the construction of the Third Front and the Small Front also required a large number of logistics volunteers.

This has led to a situation where there is an urgent shortage of supplies on one hand, while a large amount of land resources are left idle on the other, and the existing rural resources are not very efficient in terms of production.

Relying solely on national resources is far from sufficient to promptly transform local resources into material goods and promote the improvement of rural productivity.

Just then, the first wave of newborns after the founding of the People's Republic of China had basically grown up.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, with basic social stability and continuous improvement in medical conditions, the infant mortality rate dropped significantly, which led to the first wave of population growth dividends in the mid-60s, more than a decade later.

At that time, the situation was that rural and remote areas urgently needed human resources for in-depth development, while the country urgently needed a large amount of strategic materials such as grain and minerals, but human resources and technical conditions were extremely backward.

On the other hand, the first wave of demographic dividends is growing.

Coupled with various factors, both large and small, especially the loss of control over the "sports meet," this migration of nearly 20 million people in total occurred.

So, in essence, this movement was an initiative by higher authorities to send young students with a certain level of knowledge to underdeveloped areas to help them develop.

The starting point was good, but of course, we all know the final result.

But let's get back to the point.

In fact, given the current social situation, most regions have even stopped arranging for unemployed or uneducated young graduates to join the queue, and even those that still do do so have significantly slowed down their efforts.

Therefore, from the autumn of 77 to the spring of 79, the total number of people going to the countryside showed a step-down trend.

In the autumn of 79, the program of sending educated youth to the countryside was officially terminated.

Then in January 1980, the higher authorities made a further decision: "Completely abolish the educated youth settlements!"
Thus, from this moment on, the curtain was truly raised on the return of educated youth to the city.

In the past, when educated youth returned to the city, there were always requirements for this or that. Going to school, joining the army, and being recruited for work were the three most common paths.

Other reasons include personal injury or illness, injury, illness or death of family members, marriage as long as one can return to the city, or becoming a son-in-law as long as one can return to the city... and so on.

And when leaving, you have to beg and plead with your father and grandmother to stamp it again.

When the educated youth settlement was dissolved, well, nothing was needed anymore. The official seal was just hung outside the commune office with a rope, and those who wanted to go back could stamp it themselves.

There are a very few who don't want to return to the city... indeed, there are some who don't want to return to the city, but of course, they are a very small minority.

What should be done about these people?

Sorry, the educated youth settlement has been closed down, and the houses have naturally been taken over by the production team as public property. You will have to take care of your own living arrangements. In addition, the educated youth land will also be taken back.

Unless you can marry someone from your own team or find someone to take you in, even if you want to stay, they will force you to move to the city!
Those who wanted to leave before were prevented from leaving, and those who want to stay now are resolutely refused to stay.

Wow, it's just that amazing.

The above is the background to the upcoming return of educated youth to Lujiawan.

……

On the high bank by the pond on the east side of Team 6 in Lujiawan, Chen Fan kicked down a piece of miscellaneous wood, built a crossbar, sat down, crossed his legs, lit a cigarette, looked at the busy figures below, exhaled a puff of smoke, and looked as worried as a melancholy old farmer.

The three men next to Captain Yang followed suit, but they couldn't break through the thick logs, and the thin ones couldn't support their weight, so they could only find a piece of rotten wood to sit on.

Thankfully it's winter, otherwise Chen Fan was really afraid that bugs would suddenly crawl out from under their butts.

Secretary Yang smoked his cigarette, his brows furrowed. "In the past, it wasn't that many educated youth didn't voluntarily go to the countryside, but that was ten years ago. This year, it's amazing that some people are scrambling to go. Hmph, it's really unbelievable."

Accountant Liu held a hand-rolled cigarette in his mouth, but didn't light it. "If you ask me, something's definitely fishy here!"

The custodian, Huang, sat on the other side, his eyes fixed on what was below. "Do you need to tell me?!"

Accountant Liu clicked his tongue and waved to Captain Yang, "Old Yang, can I borrow a light?"

Captain Yang handed over the pipe and said irritably, "Your family's income this year is at least two thousand, and you can't even afford a match, yet you want to build a new house?!"

Accountant Liu didn't mind. He lit a cigarette, took two puffs, put the pipe back, and grinned, saying, "Spend what you should spend, and save what you should save."

Although dividends haven't started this year yet, the income situation is pretty much settled.

The previous projects were one thing, but despite this year's bumper harvest, he spent three days calculating on his abacus, going over the details repeatedly, before finally arriving at a conclusion.

This year, for the traditional projects, a strong laborer can receive about 120 yuan, which is almost half more than last year.

However, compared to the new side hustles that have emerged this year, they pale in comparison.

He doesn't care about other people's families, he treats his own family's income as his own, and his income mainly comes from several sources.

First, there are traditional projects like grain planting, pig farming, and fish farming, which are the 120 yuan dividend for able-bodied laborers. With a family of seven, their total income based on work points should be around 700 yuan.

Secondly, there is family farming, which is calculated based on the family rather than the individual.

Liu had calculated this very clearly. Raising chickens, ducks, geese, and rabbits, he earned a total of just over 1000 yuan. This was before the rabbits were even being sold on a large scale; otherwise, his income could have doubled.

The third source of income came from part-time work at the team's side businesses, a pottery factory and a decoration team. Since it only lasted a few months, the money wasn't much, just over 400 yuan.

Finally, there's the profit sharing from side businesses for small teams and large teams.

Take animal husbandry as an example. The brigade purchases chickens, ducks, and geese and entrusts them to the members for raising. After deducting the costs of seedlings, veterinary drugs, feed, and other expenses, the profits from the sale are divided among the farmers (6%), the teams (2%), and the brigade (2%).

The farmers take their own money, so they naturally pocket it. As for the money from the small teams and large teams, in addition to using a portion for public expenses, any surplus will be distributed as dividends.

All the above income, except for the pottery factory, the decoration and construction team who receive wages and bonuses, and the income from family farming, will be converted into the total work points of the whole team, and then distributed as dividends according to the value of each person's work points.

In addition, all the collective sideline income is controlled by the brigade. Although there is still a water tower to be built and additional investment in sideline businesses to be made this year, the remaining amount is not a small sum. If this money is distributed...

Accountant Liu secretly calculated it several times, and at the very least, the family's income this year will be over 3000!

It's not impossible that we could even get 4000 yuan; it all depends on how much money the brigade headquarters can keep.

Seriously, he's been laughing in his dreams these past two nights.

Especially when he dreamed that his family had built a big house, and that it was the same building as Teacher Chen's, he couldn't stop smiling.

4000 yuan!

A large building!

By the way, shouldn't it be called a villa?
Seeing his expression, the warehouse keeper, Huang, couldn't help but move aside a little in disgust and said to Captain Yang, "This guy is daydreaming again."

Accountant Liu snapped out of her daze, quickly composed herself, and coughed lightly, "What daydream? I was just thinking about what Xiao Chen mentioned."

He turned to Chen Fan with a serious expression and asked, "In the past, those educated youths couldn't be driven here even with a whip, but this year they are coming here on their own initiative, and they even came from the prefectural committee. I guess there's no other reason than that they're here for you."

Chen Fan took off his hat, scratched his head, and sighed softly, "I definitely know that, the question is how to deal with it."

After receiving the news from Jiang Tiantian yesterday, he promptly communicated with Secretary Yang, who then immediately went to the commune to inquire about the situation.

Lujiawan has finally managed to improve its infrastructure and improve its living standards. With the great Chen Fan living here, things will definitely get better and better in the future.

Then, the higher-ups wanted to send educated youth over. What did that mean?
Picking peaches?
Later, after communicating with Secretary Qian of the commune, it turned out to be true.

According to the old rules, even if people were to be sent to Lujiawan, they would only be "our own people" from Nanhu Commune, and at most one or two special youths like Jiang Lili would be accepted each year.

Just two days ago, the county had already spoken to him, saying that the Lujiawan educated youth settlement could accept 16 educated youths, and the county's educated youth office decided to be merciful and reserve 4 for Nanhu Commune. The remaining 12 spots were split equally between the county and the prefectural committee!
Yes, the quota for educated youth assigned to the Lu family has been finalized: 6 for the prefectural committee, 6 for the county, and 4 for the Nanhu Commune.

However, the specific list has not yet been finalized; otherwise, the procedures would have already begun, and all the educated youth would have moved in a month from now.

Moreover, this group of educated youth had one thing in common: they were all recent graduates who had just taken the college entrance examination... It was as clear as day that their intentions were obvious to everyone.

The general public may not be aware, but which leader in the relevant unit doesn't know? This year, Lujiawan Village produced a huge surprise: 23 students from a mere production team went on to attend top universities! And digging deeper, oh, it turns out they were all taught by Teacher Chen!

Therefore, this series of actions is easy to understand.

Moreover, many people now know that Lujiawan has turned its fortunes around after a century of hardship. It has escaped the days of relying entirely on the weather for a living. Not only has it bought a lot of agricultural machinery, but its side businesses are also thriving. It can eat meat every few days, and its people are living better than those in the city.

So going to Lujiawan to work in the countryside, as long as you can handle farm work, is not a hardship at all; it's more like a chance to enjoy life!

But those were all just wishful thinking on the part of others, regardless of whether Lujiawan, or especially Chen Fan, was willing.

Lujiawan was naturally unhappy. Secretary Yang even slammed his fist on the table in front of Secretary Qian of the commune, saying that Teacher Chen was originally a cadre in the health department, and he volunteered to come to Lujiawan to guide the health work, including instructing the students in their studies. That was also his voluntary labor.

Why should those educated youth from well-off families come here to take advantage of Lujiawan?

But Secretary Qian had no choice. It was a decision made by the county's educated youth office, and he could only obey. What else could he do?

Of course, he was happy to make this happen because he had four spots available, but such things were not something he would tell outsiders.

As for Chen Fan, he was even more unwilling.

He's holed up in Lujiawan to enjoy his life; who the hell would want to be a "volunteer teacher"?
Who does he know among those people?!
By helping Lujiawan, he was laying the foundation for himself. Putting aside everything else, the fact that Secretary Yang dared to go to the commune and slam his fist on the table with Secretary Qian was a result of his hard work.

Now that he's finally made it, why would he bother to go through all that trouble to guide those educated youth?
It's totally unnecessary!

At this moment, Captain Yang suddenly said, "Accepting educated youth is a mandatory task, and there's no way to refuse it, but..."

As he spoke, he looked up and chuckled, "If we can't afford to offend them, we can at least avoid them. I'll have someone take over all the educated youth settlements later, and all the stuff you're raising will be moved to the team's livestock shed. We'll stay out of their way."

Going back, we'll do the same as before: keep our distance from these educated youth, ignore them, and only interact with them when assigning tasks. After a while, they'll lose interest and maybe they'll all leave.

Just as the custodian Huang was about to nod, the accountant Liu whispered, "Old Yang, have you thought about this? These people who managed to get these spots must all come from cadre families. What if we anger them by doing this?"

Captain Yang hesitated for a moment, then spread his hands and said, "Then what do you suggest we do?"

Accountant Liu shrank back and fell silent.

Chen Fan looked at them and couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Strictly speaking, at this time the production teams were relatively independent and rarely interfered with by higher-level units. On the contrary, the commune level had a greater influence on the production teams because it involved resource allocation.

So here's the problem: the production team can ignore the prefectural committee and the county government, but the commune can't.

As the saying goes, one level suppresses the next, and this is how timidity and hesitation come about.

Even though Chen Fan has a wide network of connections, he is not omnipotent.

If it only concerns himself, he doesn't care if he fights head-on, but if it concerns the collective, he can only shrug it off.

Of course, the situation may not be that bad, but he has always been cautious and is particularly good at "judging others by one's own standards," so he always considers the worst-case scenario.

That's how you plan ahead.

After a brief silence, Chen Fan made up his mind. "I have an idea."

Captain Yang and the other two looked at him together.

As Chen Fan thought about it, he said, "The livestock kept at the educated youth settlement have quite a temper. If we take them to the team's livestock shed, I'm afraid they'll cause trouble."

Upon hearing this, the three of them nodded in unison.

For some reason, they suddenly remembered that time when a group of animals had tormented a thief half to death during a movie screening.

And that little mare, forget about touching her, just getting a little close will make her glare at you, ready to kick at any moment. If you put her in the barn, who can control her?!

Chen Fan continued speaking, "Isn't there a grove of trees behind my house? Underneath that grove is where our commune members used to take soil to build their houses."

As he spoke, he looked up at the three of them and laughed, "Nobody builds mud-walled houses anymore, right?"

The three shook their heads together. Accountant Liu chuckled and said, "With the team's income so high this year, every household will receive at least a thousand yuan. Who would still want a mud-walled house!"

Chen Fan nodded and continued, "Then let's ask our renovation team to help us clean up that area, build a livestock shed, and move all the livestock there later."

He didn't even bother to discuss it when he said this; he just made the decision.

Captain Yang and his two companions didn't say a word.

Without hesitation, he said, "Okay, anyway, nobody wants that place and it's not suitable for growing crops, so I'll build you a shed."

Accountant Liu smacked his lips twice. "I'll revise the land use plan for you later and include the area on the back slope."

When the team approved Chen Fan's homestead, they also approved a two-mu (approximately 0.33 hectares) yard for him, which was half of the front slope. Now, with this allocation, the back slope has also been allocated to him, so it's not just two mu (approximately 0.33 hectares) anymore, it's probably more than four mu (approximately 0.33 hectares).

However, as Captain Yang said, nobody wanted that place. If it were allocated to Chen Fan as a yard, no one in the team would have any objections.

After arranging the livestock—no, I mean the educated youth settlement—Chen Fan continued, “We all know why they came. If it were before, I would have just taught them; it would have been a favor anyway. But not now.”

Before he could finish speaking, the storekeeper Huang said with a sneer, "Of course not now. Look how busy you are now. The sanitation department, the machinery factory, Lujiawan, and so many cooked food shops. These places are enough to make you dizzy. How can you have time to manage those people?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Fan couldn't help but smile.

Not bad, not bad. It seems that Huang Ying and the others are very tight-lipped. They have successfully established their image as hardworking.

He then coughed lightly, "Oh, let's not talk about that. It's all about serving the people, it's what we should do, it's what we should do."

Captain Yang and the other two exchanged glances and couldn't help but shiver.

Huang, the custodian, was silently reflecting on whether he had talked too much. Secretary Yang only required him to say this in front of outsiders, not in front of Xiao Chen.

Okay, I'll be more careful next time.

In a good mood, Chen Fan took out a Zhonghua cigarette with a filter tip that he had taken from the machinery factory and handed one to each person.

The custodian, Huang, took the cigarette, his eyes immediately lighting up. He then exchanged a glance with Captain Yang and Accountant Liu, and the three of them nodded almost imperceptibly, reaching a tacit understanding.

Chen Fan took out a lighter, lit a cigarette, and continued, "No matter what, they came here with a purpose. If their needs aren't met, no matter how well we serve them, they won't be satisfied."

However, I can't possibly teach them, so I had an idea.

He turned to look at Captain Yang and said, "Here's what we'll do: build another small house inside the educated youth settlement. Once the house is built, go find Secretary Yang and get two sets of the college entrance exam review materials that are kept in the brigade's study room and put them in there."

Then, when they arrived, Yang Zhijun and the others were still there. There were still more than half a month before they had to register at the school, so they took advantage of this time to give them a lecture.

After going back and forth like this, it'll be more or less settled.

He chuckled as he spoke, “We’ve done our job well in Lujiawan, so they can’t really say anything. If there are still problems, just push the blame onto me.”

If it weren't for Lujiawan, let alone people from the prefectural and county governments, even people from the province would not be given face if he said he wouldn't.

In other words, the policy of sending educated youth to the countryside has not changed, which has given them the upper hand. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been allowed to take advantage of even this small benefit!

After listening to Chen Fan's words, Captain Yang and the others thought that this method was also good.

After all, they were people from above, so it was best not to offend them if possible. And so it was decided.

The four men were smoking on the high bank, while the area around the pond below was becoming increasingly lively.

The snow has been falling for the past two days, and the dike-breaking task has been mostly completed, with only a little finishing work left. Therefore, the brigade headquarters did not arrange for further dike-breaking, but decided to wait until the snow stopped before finishing the work.

The various teams, however, couldn't stay idle, so they took advantage of the two days of free time to do their own things.

Today, Captain Yang and his team assigned Team 6 the task of draining the pond to catch fish.

A water pump is already in place by the pond.

Seeing dozens of people holding up their cameras to find good spots, Captain Yang dusted himself off, stood up, and raised his right hand high. "Is the machine ready?"

"I'm ready."

Captain Yang waved his hand and ordered, "Pump the water."

With the roar of the machine, a thick jet of water gushed out of the pipe and fell into the ditch next to it.

Where the water jets landed, there was a large fishing net, and fish could be seen struggling in it from time to time, all of which were brought in by the water jets.

Chen Fan stood up, looked up, and smiled, "The fish are pretty good this year."

Captain Yang grinned from ear to ear, "Oh dear, it's all pretty much the same every year, it's always the same."

Chen Fan grinned and laughed heartily, his tail even wagging.

With the roar of the machines, the water level in the pond dropped rapidly, and the fish jumped and frolicked in the water.

Once the water level had dropped to a certain point, Captain Yang waved his hand again and ordered, "Go into the water and start the salvage operation."

As soon as he finished speaking, dozens of commune members dressed in wetsuits went down with nets and, a moment later, pulled out nets full of big fish.

(End of this chapter)