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Chapter 60: Gold Mancang

Xie Hushan didn't even look at the person who was knocked down by Dahei, and chased after the other one, shouting, "Stop!"

Seeing that the other party was unmoved, Xie Hushan broke off a corn cob and threw it at the figure a few meters away like a brick, hitting the other person's back!
The man was already in a panic because he was hit by the corn cob. His body was unstable and he staggered to the side and almost fell. When he wanted to stand up and run, Xie Hushan had already rushed up and kicked him hard, with his bayonet against his chest!
"do not move!"

The other party knocked down several corn stalks, allowing the moonlight to shine directly in. Under the moonlight, it was a weathered face covered with wrinkles, with an awkward and helpless forced smile, and there was even a hint of relief in his eyes after being caught.

"Which brigade are you from? You are so brave to come and eat the night grass of Zhongping Brigade!" Xie Hushan slowly retracted his bayonet, stood in front of the other party and asked.

In Bingyang County, there are three meanings of "eating night grass". The first is that the large livestock in the team need a night meal to build up their strength before the autumn harvest, which is called "eating night grass". The second is that the team cadres work overtime or attend meetings too late, so they have a midnight snack. They will also be scolded by the members behind their backs for eating night grass to fatten themselves. The third meaning is what happened tonight, when someone steals the grain that has not been harvested yet from other teams at night.

The man smiled awkwardly: "At the cliff's mouth."

Yakou is a small village in the Xishan area, more than 70 miles away from Zhongping Village. The Xishan area is mostly mountainous and has few good farmlands. It is a poor place recognized by the people of Bingyang County.

In the early years when the output value was the lowest, in some villages in Xishan, the work points earned by a strong laborer after a day's hard work were only worth a few cents, not even enough to buy a steamed bun.

"Bullshit! You ran over 70 miles to eat night grass. Aren't you afraid of being exhausted to death?" Hearing the other party say that he came from the cliff, Xie Hushan emphasized to the other party: "Tell the truth!"

No matter how poor Yakou was, it was impossible for them to run more than 70 miles to Zhongping Village to steal food. They could not walk more than 70 miles in one night, and stealing food was shameful. If they dared to walk with a sack of unshelled corn cobs on their back during the day in this season, they would be discovered and robbed halfway.

The man slowly sat up from the ground, looking up at Xie Hushan with an uneasy smile:

"Comrade, we are really from the Yakou Brigade. We didn't mean to steal. A few of us followed a truck to transport stones for someone. We loaded too much and broke the axle on the road. We were delayed for half a day and it was too late to go back. All the money we had was used to repair the truck. We had no money to stay in an inn with our animals and ourselves, so we wanted to endure the night on the side of the road. We got hungry in the middle of the night and thought of breaking off some corns and roasting them to eat. Our brigade is all in the mountains and we don't grow crops. We only eat sweet potatoes all year round and vomit acid every day. We can't eat much of wheat or corn, so we broke off a few extra ones and wanted to take them back home to try. We didn't mean to be thieves. We were really hungry. We haven't eaten since noon."

Looking at that smile, it didn't seem like the reaction of a used thief. It was a smile that was embarrassing and ashamed, but helpless.

Thieves who often do this won't feel embarrassed at all. They will just pretend to be poor, and when they are caught, they will scream like a shrew:
I am poor and hungry. The poorer I am, the more glorious I am. I am responding to the call of the country! What's wrong with eating some food when I am hungry? It's not a capital crime! The country says I am glorious, how dare you say I am a thief?
There was a noise behind them, and Han Hongbing, Chen Daxixi and several other militiamen on duty rushed over and tied up the two men without saying a word.

"It's the same thing. The two grown men over there didn't steal anything. They just rustled the corn leaves on purpose to attract attention." Han Hongbing said to Xie Hushan.

Chen Daxi came over with two bags and handed them to Xie Hushan. Xie Hushan checked them and found that they were two small cloth bags that country people used to carry dry food when going out. They were definitely not the extra-large, elongated special hemp bags that could hold hundreds of corn cobs that the thieves who specialized in stealing food in previous years prepared.

Each pocket contained a dozen corn cobs with the husks peeled off to reveal some corn kernels. There were less than forty corns in the two bags together. They were all tender and pulpy. It seemed that the freshness of the corn was confirmed before breaking it. After all, mature corn is not as delicious as tender corn when roasted. This is exactly the opposite of the real thief.

On the contrary, habitual thieves would break off ripe and dry corn, then grind it into cornmeal overnight without drying it to cover up the crime.

"Where are the animals and the cart?" Since the other party said that he was going a long way to deliver the stones by cart, it was natural to ask where the cart was.

The man mentioned a place, and Xie Hushan asked the militia to take everyone to a shack temporarily to watch over them. He took Han Hongbing and rushed there as the other party had said. Sure enough, a cart and a mule were camped at the place the other party had mentioned, and the driver was wearing a tattered coat and taking a nap leaning against the cart.

After asking the driver a few questions, his answer was similar to what the arrested man said. They were from the Yakou Brigade, and were going to the city to deliver stones. Their car broke down on the way there, and it was dark on their way back. They had no money to stay in an inn, so they wanted to spend the night in the wild while the temperature was not too cold. They had not eaten from noon till midnight, and that's when they thought of breaking off some corn and roasting it.

"What should we do? We have only stolen less than forty ears of corn cobs and haven't succeeded yet. Should we send them to the brigade headquarters?" On the way back, Han Hongbing asked Xie Hushan.

The amount of corn stolen was not large and the matter was not taken successfully, so the nature of the matter could be considered a major or minor matter.

"How many steamed buns are left in our shack?" Xie Hushan asked Han Hongbing.

There was no subsidy for the militiamen on night duty, but since they were all big guys who could eat, they would easily get hungry if they didn't sleep in the middle of the night, so the brigade distributed some steamed buns to these young militiamen on duty according to their shacks. There were twelve steamed buns in each shack, and each soldier got three.

In fact, it is okay not to distribute them. After all, no one stipulates that they must give benefits. The main reason is that the team knows the appetites of these boys well. If they are not given food in the middle of the night, these little bastards will break corn and roast it themselves when they are hungry. It is better to give each of them a few mixed flour steamed buns to prevent them from wasting the corn that has not yet been harvested.

Han Hongbing recalled: "You eat one, I eat one, Leader Yang didn't eat any, Daxi ate five by himself, there should be five left." "Give them all, five grown men, we can't even break off forty corn cobs, it can't be considered stealing, there's really no decent crops at the cliff mouth, I heard from our team's driver that it's not far from the temple of the Taoist priest and his two brothers, it's all mountainous land." Xie Hushan sighed, touching the cut on his face caused by the corn leaves:

"It's a pity that my face is scratched all over."

He returned to the shack and untied the four people who stole corn. He put the five remaining steamed buns in their dry food bags, and finally picked up ten corn cobs and stuffed them in. Xie Hushan handed the bag to the other party:

"Let's go. Each of you will have a steamed bun and a corn. It's enough for you to fill your stomachs. If you don't have any more, you can leave the remaining five for your family to try."

The middle-aged man who was kicked over by Xie Hushan took the bag of dry food. He probably didn't expect that the other party didn't arrest anyone, but let the four of them go. He looked at these militiamen, and finally bowed with a trembling mouth:

"Thank you, thank you militia comrade. My name is Jin Mancang. May I ask what your name is? Next time we pass by, I will definitely bring you some mountain sweet potatoes and fruits that are specialties of Yakou for you to try."

"Don't let me taste the sweet potatoes. I vomited after eating them. I feel jealous just hearing the word. If you have no place to sleep near Zhongping next time, ask people for Hu Saner and ask them to take you to find me. I can't find a kang, but I can definitely find a place for you to sleep on the floor. Let's go." Xie Hushan waved his hand, signaling them to leave.

The man named Jin Mancang muttered a few words about Hu Saner and expressed many words of gratitude, then he and his three fellow villagers disappeared into the night.

Han Hongbing climbed back to the shack by the rope ladder and asked, "Are you going to tell the team about this tomorrow?"

"What nonsense! Just say that Daxi was hungry, so he roasted ten corn cobs and ate them in the middle of the night." Xie Hushan said.

Chen Daxi had just climbed halfway when he heard Xie Hushan below trying to frame him, and he immediately spoke up:
"Hey! Xie Siling, why do you let me take the blame?"

"You took five of the twelve steamed buns by yourself. Do you think you are right?" Xie Hushan poked Chen Daxi's butt with a flashlight and cursed:

"As for what you eat, the most the brigade can do is to punish you by not having steamed bread tomorrow night. Then we'll ask Leader Yang to carry on his style and give you his share."

"Leader Yang, we agreed that you will give me your share of rations tomorrow night." Chen Daxi looked at Yang Liming who was holding a rifle below.

Yang Liming took off his glasses and rubbed his dry eyes. This grandson's arrangement was really good. He was the good guy, and his buddies got all the benefits. He was an outsider who did nothing, made no mistakes, and didn't eat corn. But tomorrow night's rations were gone?
Isn’t it a bit too much to regard yourself as a cadre from the county?

He raised his gun and wanted to hit Xie Hushan, but the gun in his hand was neither loaded with bullets nor equipped with a bayonet.

"Don't forget, kid. You still had to beg me to present your plan to the team after the autumn harvest. I paid my eight yuan food allowance and ate steamed bread every day. Now even the steamed bread is withheld? Is this how you treat state officials?" Yang Liming asked Xie Hushan loudly with a deliberately stern face.

Xie Hushan took the rifle from the other party:

"Are you still waiting for me to beg you? Dream on. I have already sent it to your unit under your name, and am just waiting for your leader's reply. I will hand the proposal and the reply together to the brigade."

"What if my leader doesn't encourage me, but instead writes back to criticize me?" Yang Liming said angrily.

He always says that he likes to figure out people's problems, but in fact, Xie Hushan's problem of figuring out people's problems is just as bad as his own.

What he said was right. His leader would most likely encourage him and praise him for his suggestions for the countryside. He would not oppose it rashly. After all, the other party did not understand the specific grassroots situation, so how could they clearly support or oppose him? They would only say something to encourage him to help the peasant comrades do more practical things. When he said that he might not encourage him, he was just deliberately singing a different tune from Xie Hushan.

As a result, Xie Hushan spoke without hesitation:

"It's okay. Old Han can't read many words. I'll find a time when the accountant is not around and read the boss's reply to him in person. He will definitely understand the criticism as encouragement after listening to it."

(End of this chapter)