Siheyuan: Starting from 1958

Now that we have a suspect, things will be much easier.

Wang Dong quickly made a decision: "Director Wang..."

"I remember that many workers in our factory bought bicycles..."

"The truck carries about a thousand kilograms of mutton, and each bicycle can carry a hundred kilograms of mutton. It would only take about ten bicycles to quickly transport all the mutton back to the processing plant..."

"The processing plant has a cold storage facility. We'll store them there first, and then deliver them to Beijing once the highway is repaired."

"As for those who damaged the highway..."

"Everyone has their own expertise, so we'll leave it to the local police station..."

“Our processing plant is key to the people of Tangshan Town’s poverty alleviation and prosperity. Every leader in the town knows this very well. They certainly won’t just stand by and watch our processing plant go wrong and end up having to move away from Tangshan Town.”

"in addition……"

"What happened today also serves as a reminder to us..."

"There are no refrigerated trucks yet, so we can only use large trucks to transport the processed mutton to Beijing. If something happens on the way, the whole truckload of mutton will be ruined."

"To avoid such accidents, the processing plant must find a way to solve this problem itself."

"If we don't have refrigerated trucks, we'll just put a refrigerated box on the truck bed..."

"If it can't cool itself, we'll put ice in the refrigerator..."

"As long as the low temperature inside the refrigerated box can be maintained for six or seven hours, we are not afraid of accidents on the road when our trucks deliver mutton to Beijing."

The lamb processing plant has its own cold storage room, so processing ice is not a particularly difficult task for them.

As for installing refrigerated boxes in the truck bed, that's even simpler.

The partitions are made of wood and lined with a layer of foam.

To enhance the insulation of the insulated box, the processing plant also covered it with a thick layer of cotton quilt to prevent heat from entering.

Large blocks of ice are placed at the bottom of the insulated box, and freshly slaughtered and cut lamb is hung on a rack.

As long as the temperature inside the insulated box doesn't rise, the mutton won't spoil even after being stored for 10 to 20 hours.

As for those sheep traders who damaged the highway...

At his wife's request, the police station arrested them all in just two days.

After this incident, no one in Tangshan Town dared to mess with the processing plant anymore.

…………

In April of the following year, Zhou Guijia in Dongling Village once again enjoyed a bumper harvest.

The second batch of eight lambs purchased from the mutton processing plant have grown up again, and four of the ewes have successfully become pregnant.

Five ewes that had given birth to nine lambs three months ago are pregnant again.

This means that a total of nine ewes in the family are pregnant, and if all goes well, they will give birth to at least eighteen lambs at the same time in five months.

To make room for the lambs that would be born in a few months and to prepare tuition fees for his two children's schooling, Zhou Guangcai decided to sell all four rams.
The next afternoon, Zhou Gui and his son, weary from their journey, finally returned home.

This time they didn't buy any lambs.

The lambs born three months ago have grown up, and another batch of lambs will be born in four or five months. In addition, there are nine pregnant ewes. With limited land, these goats have reached the limit of Zhou Guijia's breeding capacity.

As soon as he closed the courtyard gate, his face lit up with joy as he pulled out a handful of ten-yuan notes from his pocket, squinting his eyes as he happily shared his joy with his wife and mother.

"Mother...wife..."

"Guess how much we sold the four rams we delivered to the processing plant for?" "The four rams weighed a total of 286 jin, which is almost as much as the five rams we sold last year. We sold them for a total of 143 yuan."

"We sold thirty yuan worth of corn to feed the sheep, bought ten yuan worth of flour, and used the remaining three yuan to buy pork..."

"There's a hundred yuan left, I'll give it all to you. Use it to pay for your son and daughter's tuition and buy notebooks."

This is the second time I've seen money come back since we started raising sheep at home. Compared to the thirty yuan I received the first time, this time it's a full ten ten-yuan bills.

In her memory, she had never received so much money at once since marrying Zhou Guangcai. She was so excited that she couldn't even describe it.

After receiving the ten ten-yuan bills, he was stunned for a long time before he could recover from the shock.

Zhou Guangcai immediately replied, "Wife..."

"Are you so happy you've gone mad...?"

"Let me tell you..."

"The really good days are yet to come."

"In five months at most... all nine of our ewes will give birth to lambs..."

"A ewe gives birth to two lambs, so there are a total of eighteen lambs."

"Our hillside land is limited, so we can only raise a maximum of eighteen or nineteen goats..."

"We certainly can't keep all those lambs."

"On the way back, I discussed it with my father, and we decided that we would keep at most ten lambs, and the remaining nine lambs must be sold."

"Even if each lamb only sells for five yuan, nine lambs together would cost forty-five yuan..."

"In another month, our first batch of nine lambs will be ready for market..."

"At that time, we will keep a maximum of five ewes to continue producing lambs."

"Sell all four remaining ewes and the nine newly grown sheep. That's a total of thirteen sheep, weighing over 800 jin (400 kg). They can fetch at least 400 yuan..."

"At this rate of earning money, we'll be able to save enough to build a house by the end of next year."

…………

My wife, Chen Jun, is very happy today.

After getting home from get off work, the second son would tease Wang Dong a bit and then rush into the kitchen with a big smile, hugging him from behind as he was cooking.

"Honey... guess what good news I brought home today?"

"Are you getting a promotion?" Wang Dong asked with a smile, his hands still busy.

“More or less…” Chen Jun followed up.

"I heard some news today...the higher-ups want to transfer me back to the county government to take charge of the work..."

"Although the average household income of the people in Tangshan Town only increased by 30% last year, everyone in the county knows that it is a certainty that their income will double this year."

"Although the year is not even halfway over yet, and the government has not conducted any statistics, the amount of mutton that processing plants deliver to Beijing every day is the best proof."

“From the end of last year to the end of the year, the processing plant delivered less than forty muttons to Beijing every day.”

"It's only the beginning of the year, and the processing plant is already delivering more than 50 lambs a day to Beijing, almost 60."

"By the end of the year, we will be able to deliver more than 100 sheep to Beijing every day. These sheep are all sold by local people to processing plants. The more live sheep the processing plants receive, the more income the local people will have."

"This matter has reached the higher-ups; they all think I'm very capable in developing the economy and want me to organize economic reforms throughout the county." (End of Chapter)