Rebirth in 1958: Getting rich starts from Nanluoguxiang

Dabao was horrified. He saw that all the tourists were running away. He quickly asked Zuo Mingyue to take the children to the jeep and locked the door. Zuo Mingyue always carried a gun with her when she went out. Dabao took out an AK47 and handed it to her.

With two guns in hand, Zuo Mingyue felt much more at ease. In order to travel conveniently today, they both wore police uniforms. Dabao told Zuo Mingyue to be careful in the car.

Zuo Mingyue nodded. Erbao had not received any military training yet, so she couldn't give him the gun. If it accidentally went off and injured a few children, it would be bad.

Dabao took out an AK47 and ran towards the place where the gunshots were heard. When he got closer, he saw that it was a group of people huddled together in a noisy manner.

In front of them, dozens of ragged villagers were kneeling, and there were forty or fifty people standing, two of whom were wearing police uniforms, and the rest were about a dozen carrying guns. These people were pointing at the kneeling people and laughing.

There was an old man holding a cane, yelling and cursing while beating the kneeling people. The old men kneeling in front did not dare to hide, and their faces were already covered in blood.

Dabao's consciousness had enveloped them, and they could only hear the old man beating and scolding them.

"You bastards! We only released water to you after you gave us enough food over the years. This year, you just gave us a few bags of sweet potatoes and corn seeds to fool us. You still want water? You're dreaming!"

The old man was tired, and he leaned on his cane and panted and said,

"You thieves! You didn't even give us any food, yet you actually dared to secretly release water in the middle of the night. This isn't the first time. If my grandson hadn't been there with his men, catching you in the act, how much more water would you... would you have stolen from our village?"

He waved his hand and shouted,

"Kill these thieves! Throw them into the mass grave. There are wild dogs out there to tear them apart! Kill them!"

Two men with guns on their backs came up and started beating people with their rifle butts. An old man, skinny and bony, was hit on the head by a rifle butt. Blood flowed out. He didn't dare to wipe the blood off his face and kowtowed desperately.

"Chief Li, we really have no other choice. This year, there is no rain and the crops in the fields have no harvest. We can only secretly release some water to irrigate the crops, hoping to get a little harvest from the fields so that we can pay some public grain and owe less to the country.

We really didn't mean to steal the water, please forgive us!"

The old man hit his crutch hard, pointed at the old man and cursed loudly,

"A thief is a thief! You'll never be able to get rid of the stench of a thief. Your fields have no harvest? What does that have to do with us, Lijiazhuang? I told you, if you want water, you can only exchange it for food. Without food, no matter what anyone says, it won't work!"

The old man raised his hands and shouted loudly,

"Chief Li, please have some mercy on us. The wells in the village are all dry. We can only fetch a little water from the mountain every day. We are barely able to survive thirst, but it's not good for us farmers. The harvest is coming soon, and the corn ears haven't formed yet. The long stalks are not even as high as my shoulders.

We are just looking forward to watering the crops again so they can grow taller..."

The old man sneered and said,

"It would be great if you died of thirst. If everyone in your village dies, we, Lijiazhuang, can merge your village with ours. Then the production team will become a production brigade. It's a pity that you won't be able to see it then!"

He waved his hand and roared,

"What are you looking at? Keep beating them up! These thieves deserve a beating!"

Dabao also arrived at this time, he shouted,

"Stop it all!"

Hearing his shout, the two militiamen holding rifles stopped beating him, and everyone turned to look at Dabao.

Dabao also ran to the kneeling man. When he saw the old man with bleeding head from a beating, he stamped his feet and shouted anxiously,

"How could you beat him like this? Send him to the hospital immediately!"

The old man with the cane waved his hand.

"Why send them to a hospital? It would be better if all these thieves were dead!"

Two policemen in police uniforms, with their arms uncovered, walked between the two groups, pointed at Dabao and started cursing.

"Which institute are you from? Damn it, is it your turn to meddle in other people's business? Get the hell out of here!"

After being scolded for no apparent reason, Dabao got angry and asked with a frown,

"Which station are you from? How could you beat someone to death? Send him to the hospital immediately!"

One of the two men was older, about 27 or 28 years old. He put his hands on his hips and took a step forward, pointing at Dabao and cursing,

"I'm from the Xiye Police Station. This is our jurisdiction. We caught these thieves secretly releasing water at night. Not only did they refuse to admit their guilt, they kept saying they had no harvest and couldn't afford to buy water! Why should we keep these bastards alive if not beat them to death?"

Dabao was confused after hearing this. He turned around and asked the group of people who were kneeling,

"What do you mean by stealing water? Where did you steal the water? Was it from the canals that people dug themselves? That's not right. Isn't that all the country's water?"

The kneeling people talked at once,

"It's unfair, comrade. We are from the Gaojiamiao production team. In front of us is Lijiazhuang. The water we release is from Kunming Lake. Every time we release water, we have to pass through Lijiazhuang first. Lijiazhuang won't let us pass.

Why do we have to pay the toll with grain? Our village has few people and little land, and we are all poor people who can't even get enough to eat. How can we pay the toll?"

Dabao also understood, and he asked doubtfully,

"Why don't you report this to the production team and the commune? They are being unreasonable."

The kneeling man cried loudly and said repeatedly,

"Comrade, we have reported this to the production team and we have also complained to the commune about Lijiazhuang in recent years. However, the commune secretary is Lijiazhuang's son-in-law and he is biased towards Lijiazhuang. He sent us back with just a few words.

In previous years, we were able to gather some grain for Lijiazhuang so they could release water for us. However, this year, there was a severe drought, and five people in our village starved to death. Now, several are lying on the kang, unable to move. The relief grain distributed by the commune has never been given to our village, and we simply can't gather enough grain to pay their tolls!

These people didn't even have the energy to cry, like a dying kitten, they could only meow twice. Looking at Dabao, they felt a wave of pain in their hearts.

He turned his head angrily, glared at the people from Lijiazhuang, and said word by word,

"The water from Kunming Lake belongs to the country. Any village in the surrounding area can use it for irrigation for free. Why should Lijiazhuang take their grain? What right do you have to collect tolls?"

The old man with the cane had a face full of flesh. He pushed the cane hard and shouted,

"You're talking nonsense! The water in Kunming Lake belongs to the country, but as long as it flows through our Lijia Village, it's our Lijia Village's water. We in Lijia Village can certainly stop the water from flowing through us. This has been the rule for decades. If you want the water to pass through, you have to buy this passage from us with grain. Without grain, don't even think about letting a drop of water pass through our village!"