Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 656 Let's play again next time
Upon hearing Captain Yang's question, Chen Fan silently took a drag of his cigarette, pondered for a few seconds, then turned to look at him and said softly, "This matter is a bit complicated to explain. To put it simply, it's about considering how to use a specific example to drive overall regional economic development and promote coordinated regional economic progress."

Once a region's economy prospers, it creates a siphon effect, attracting human resources and other resources from surrounding areas to further drive the region's development. And in this development process, the leading enterprises naturally benefit the most…

Before he could finish speaking, Captain Yang raised his hands in surrender, "Stop, stop, stop! I don't understand any of what you're saying at all. It's giving me a headache."

What are these siphoning and regional coordination concepts? Are you trying to take advantage of me because I only have a primary school education?
Chen Fan shrugged innocently, "You asked first."

Captain Yang blinked, tilted his head and thought for a moment, "You mean, if we treat them better today, it will be more advantageous for us in the future?"

Chen Fan nodded, his face full of surprise, "Captain, you can summarize now."

Captain Yang rolled his eyes and laughed, "Why don't you just say it directly? Why all the fuss?"

Chen Fan was a little speechless. "You asked for the reason, so of course I have to explain it clearly."

The explanations he could offer were all general and vague; he couldn't give any more specific details, so he could only try to fob him off like that.

The sideline businesses in Lujiawan are developing very well. Now, other production teams have no capital or resources, so they can only follow Lujiawan's lead.

But once they've accumulated their initial capital, will they leave Lujiawan behind and go it alone?

From the perspective of the laws governing the development of things, this outcome is almost inevitable. No one is willing to lag behind, especially when there are a large number of people in a group.

Even though most people want to "be ethical," there are bound to be those with ulterior motives, since everyone wants to earn more.

Given the social conditions a few years from now, as long as they dare to go it alone, they will definitely succeed!

Therefore, Chen Fan's plan at this stage is to tie potential "opponents" to the Lujiawan war machine, not only to be friends, but also to be comrades-in-arms, so as to resolve the problem in advance.

The job assignments that were distributed out were the first step.

He has already spoken with Secretary Yang and Captain Zhang. This year, he will not only continue to lead the four brigades of this commune, including Ganjiacun, to make money, but also help them establish a preliminary system of sideline businesses and bring other communes that are willing to join in to develop together.

As for Lujiawan itself, it needs to gradually break away from the agricultural system. In addition to fulfilling its mandatory grain production tasks, it will focus on developing its industrial sector in the future.

The "Luwan Industrial Zone," which has not yet been built, is the starting point for the industrial development of Lujiawan.

By that time, Lujiawan had spent nearly two years cultivating grassroots management backbone, such as the manager of the cooked food workshop, the store manager of the cooked food shop, the captain of the transport team, the farm manager of the breeding farm, the factory manager of the pottery factory of Team 6, uh, this seems to be Captain Yang.
Yes, this also includes the captains of each squad, the militia squad leaders, and the platoon leaders, who will all be members of the leadership team of the future "Luwan Group subsidiary".

If we want to "use industry to drive agriculture", we first need talent to support industrial development. Where do we need this talent?

We still can't only choose from Lujiawan.

If two sewing workers in a garment factory have the same skills and abilities, who would be given priority when it comes to promoting a team leader?
Of course they're from Lujiawan.

So if this person gets promoted, who will take his place?

How many people in Lujiawan can make up for the lack of elderly people and children?
Moreover, most of these talents will be nurtured as the next generation, or they will be allowed to start their own businesses when the time is right, becoming satellite companies of Lujiawan.

Ultimately, even grassroots positions can only rely on people from other production teams or even other places.

This kind of thing won't be a problem at all in a decade or two; as long as you have money, you can just hire tens of thousands of people. But right now, it's a plan that will take years to complete.

Chen Fan was the planner and was responsible for formulating the strategy, while Secretary Yang and the other leaders of the brigade headquarters were the implementers.

As for the other store managers, team leaders, and platoon leaders, they are, of course, just tools.

Just wait for the leader to give instructions.

Want to know why we're doing this now? Captain Yang is a prime example. Chen Fan explained the strategic development approach to him. Did you understand?!

Just know that it's in your best interest; after all, promotions and raises are real in the future, so don't think too much about anything else.

……

Seeing that Captain Yang finished his cigarette and obediently went down into the ditch to continue digging for turtles, Chen Fan didn't linger any longer.

He blew a breath into the mouthpiece, and the ash instantly scattered, leaving the pipe clean in no time.

He stood up, slung his pipe over his back, waved goodbye, and then, with his hands behind his back, tiptoed away like a little old man.

Captain Yang and his men were digging for soft-shelled turtles here, while others were busy in the nearby farmland.

The rice paddies are no longer covered with stubble from the early autumn harvest; instead, they are now largely black, with only a few unburnt yellow patches remaining.

It just so happened that it rained a little today, so some elderly farmers waved bamboo whips, drove carts to bring over fermented farmyard manure, scooped it up with long ladles, and scattered it into the rice paddies.

The fertilizer quickly mixed with the wood ash and soil along with the moist earth.

They will then apply fertilizer again, and after the fish in the irrigation canals are caught, they will pump water from the river to fill the canals completely and soak the rice paddies.

After a winter, the fertilizer will seep into the soil. When spring plowing comes the following year, the soil will be plowed deeply again before planting. As long as there are no pests or diseases, a bumper harvest is guaranteed the following year.

This is called nurturing the land.

Chen Fan greeted everyone along the way and returned to Team 6, but did not go home.

He first pushed open the door of the educated youth settlement and went inside to take a look.

After being vacant for almost half a year, the yard looked somewhat dilapidated.

The newly built study room at the entrance is fairly normal. The team uses it as a place for the children to study. After school, the children usually come here to do their homework before going home to help with chores.

In Captain Yang's words, 20 college students have graduated from here. There is a strong academic atmosphere here, and it is only beneficial for students to study here.

Moreover, there are many learning materials here, from elementary school to high school, as well as a lot of extracurricular reading materials left behind by the recent batch of educated youth. Children also like to linger here.

Even reading extracurricular books is more comfortable than going home to work.

Since they were studying here, Captain Yang assigned them the task of cleaning, and the yard was fairly clean.

But if a house is not lived in, it will fall into disrepair very quickly.

Besides, this is a mud-walled house with a thatched roof.

Chen Fan looked up and saw that much of the thatch on the roof was missing and had not been repaired, making the house look desolate and miserable.

The doors and windows were intact, but the window frames were covered with a thick layer of dust.

He walked over and gently pushed open the door. A layer of dust fell down, and he could only quickly take two steps back.

Once the dust settled, I looked at the room I used to live in. The layout was still the same: the bamboo bed, cabinets, eight-immortal table, and chairs were all there, neat and tidy. It was clear that the person who left had cleaned it before leaving.

He didn't linger. He closed the door behind him, then walked to the door of the room where Jiang Lili used to live, pushed it open, and glanced inside. Hmm, it was similar to the room he'd just been in.

Looking up again, he saw a small, palm-sized mirror that was completely dull. Chen Fan couldn't help but grin, pulled the door shut, stood there for a moment, then strolled around the backyard before turning to leave.

After closing the courtyard gate from the outside, Chen Fan began to reflect on himself. "I'm only 30 years old, and I'm already reminiscing about the past?"

No, I'm 18 in this life!

Chen Fan took out his pipe, filled it with tobacco, lit it, and held it in one hand while smoking. He put the other hand behind his back, humming a little tune, and slowly walked towards the village.

"Young man, you're eighteen every year, oh, eighteen..."

In the village, every household is a small villa with red bricks and blue tiles. Even the chicken coops, duck sheds and rabbit cages that used to be built haphazardly have been transformed into semi-open breeding sheds made of bricks and tiles. In the early morning, you can hear chirping and quacking sounds coming from inside, making it very lively.

Only the pigs are sleeping.

These breeding sheds are usually built next to the vegetable garden in the backyard. In front of the house is a kitchen. In the yard in front of the house, dogs curl up and lie down to catch up on sleep, but when a passerby passes by, they immediately raise their heads.

Chen Fan is now very familiar with the dogs. When they see him, they don't get up, and they're too lazy to even bark. They just whimper a couple of times and then lie still.

The dog ignored him, but thankfully someone paid attention to him.

Those who were home greeted Chen Fan from afar with a wave, asking, "Teacher Chen, you didn't go to the job fair?"

Chen Fan waved his hand, "With Secretary Yang and the others around, why would I go and join in the fun?"

If there are men at home, they will come out and offer cigarettes, saying, "Captain Yang and the others went to dig for soft-shelled turtles. They'll probably have to divide them up in the next couple of days. Are you free tomorrow? Come over to my house for a drink."

Chen Fan took the cigarette and tucked it behind his ear. "How about the day after tomorrow? I have to go to Team 9 tomorrow."

Being invited to meals everywhere has become the norm for Chen Fan. As long as Secretary Yang and his group don't come to his house to freeload, he doesn't have to cook for himself. He eats almost everywhere he goes, and he receives so many invitations that he can't possibly finish them all.

By the way, I heard that back in the 6s and 70s, in some places, people had to bring their own food when visiting someone's home.

This kind of thing also happened in Nanhu Commune, but it was limited to the town, and it didn't involve providing food rations, but rather food coupons.

There was no other way; everyone's food rations were limited. If the guests ate, the host family would have one less, so they had to make up for it with food coupons. As for the cost of buying the food, that was the host family's responsibility. When guests came to visit, they couldn't be so stingy as to not be able to afford a few cents; what the family lacked was food coupons, not money.

However, in Lujiawan, you didn't even need to bring food coupons.

On the one hand, there were no food coupons; on the other hand, except for a few years, there was no shortage of food in most years.

In years of food shortage, people generally wouldn't visit other people's homes for meals; they would usually leave as soon as they finished their business.

It's always been like this, let alone now.

Chen Fan was unfamiliar with the local customs. When he went to the team leader's or leader's house for a meal, he naturally went empty-handed. The first time he went to a commune member's house for a meal, he even thought of giving them grain coupons, but the team leader who was accompanying him stopped him and quietly explained to him that he understood the local customs.

So when someone invites him to dinner, he might bring a small gift, but he never gives out food coupons again.

I strolled from one end of the village to the other, accepted several invitations to eat, and finally arrived at the livestock shed at the village entrance.

This used to be where Team 6 raised pigs. The few oxen, horses, donkeys, and mules they had were also kept here. Liu, the cart driver, also lived here. He had more work points than Team Leader Yang and the others, earning four or five thousand points a year.

The livestock shed has now been expanded into a small breeding farm for Team 6.

Not only were there more cattle and horses in the livestock pen, but two new sheds were also built next to the original livestock shed, where a lot of chickens, ducks, geese and rabbits were raised.

As a result, there were two more people guarding the farm: in addition to Master Liu, there was also "Master Yang" and "Master Huang".

Yes, one family from each of the three surnames, that's reasonable.

Moreover, they were all elderly people, but they were all reasonably respected for their character and conduct, which allowed them to gain this advantage.

When Chen Fan arrived, the three elderly people were playing cards at Master Liu's house.

(Flower Cards)
The characters on the flower cards looked like scribbles; Chen Fan studied them for a long time but still couldn't recognize them.

It wasn't until he returned this time and stayed comfortably for a month with plenty of free time that he learned how to have fun from Master Liu.

Master Liu was facing the door. When he saw him coming, he quickly called out, "Come and play a couple of rounds."

Chen Fan didn't hold back either, "Bring it on, this time I'm going to dominate the battlefield."

He then sat down on the other side of the octagonal table.

This type of card game can be played by three or four people, so it doesn't affect the other two players.

Seeing Chen Fan sit down, Master Huang threw down the cards and said, "Let's start over."

Master Liu's face visibly darkened. "You're cheating."

After saying that, he spread out his cards and said, "If you get this hand, let's see if you want to start over?"

Master Huang craned his neck to take a look, "Wow, this is a good hand."

Then, looking at Master Liu, he said, "Not bad, but how can you keep Teacher Chen waiting on the side?"

Master Liu wanted to say something, but seeing that Old Huang had almost finished shuffling the cards, he could only shut up.

Master Yang, standing beside Chen Fan, smiled and asked, "Teacher Chen, what have you been busy with these past few days?"

As Chen Fan dealt the cards, he said, "It's just about wandering around and giving Secretary Yang and the others some pointers."

Master Liu's temper came and went quickly. He immediately laughed and said, "Your side drum is no ordinary drum. You can make a lot of money just by playing it. You just have to play it a lot."

Master Huang joined in, "Hmm, I thought your last lesson was very good. Young people these days need to work harder and not spend all their time playing cards and mahjong..."

At this point, he glanced at the cards in his hand, then glanced casually to his sides, and consciously shut his mouth.

Chen Fan, thick-skinned and unmoved, said leisurely, "Young people can also enjoy life. The key is to work hard first, and then take a proper rest once you have the means."

He looked around and laughed, “Take me for example. Now that I’ve reached this position, how can I continue to climb higher? If I keep working hard, what will the leaders think, right?”
So, I can take a break, play some cards, go fishing, etc.

The three men, including Master Liu, exchanged glances but did not want to speak.

As the game of cards was about to end, the three old men all had dark faces. Chen Fan, with his legs crossed smugly, said, "Play your cards now."

Just then, a voice rang out from outside, "Is Teacher Chen here? Secretary Yang and the others called and asked you to come to the brigade headquarters."

Master Liu immediately threw down the cards, grabbed Chen Fan, and pushed him outside, saying, "If you have a task, hurry up and leave. We can play again next time."

(End of this chapter)