Chapter 89 Dinner date on the sixth day of June
Soon everyone started to eat. The old men in the village sat at one table, and the old aunt took some women and children from the village to sit at the same table.
As a young man, Zhang An took the initiative to stand up and carry a wine flask to pour wine for everyone at the table. Everyone chatted while eating.
Only now did Zhang An understand the general meaning.
It turns out that the village chief asked everyone to come over for dinner this time to celebrate the sixth day of the sixth lunar month. Although Changqing Village is a Han-dominated village, there are many ethnic minorities in the village.
This day is passed down from the families of the villagers in the village. Although it is not very grand, it is incomparable with some ethnic minority villages.
But at any rate, everyone still remembers such a day and respects the ethnic minority villagers in Changqing Village. Therefore, the old village chief has spent a lot of effort to maintain the overall harmony of the village over the years.
Since Changqing Village does not have a long history of village construction, there is no relevant inheritance in this regard.
Later, it evolved into a day when the village specially called everyone together to have a big banquet to strengthen the village rules and regulations and cultivate a sense of unity among the villagers.
So today I invite people to dinner to prepare for the sixth day of June.
First of all, we need to gather everyone together to eat. Just eating has to be solved.
Although the village will go door-to-door to collect the portion fee, how much should each person pay? If the fee is less, everyone will be unhappy if the food is poor or there is not enough food. If the fee is too much, it will be a burden to everyone. This is all necessary Negotiable.
Also, how many people go to each home, and after paying the money, someone needs to record it. To be fair, just, open, and transparent, you also need to arrange for people to go.
Finally, after collecting the money, you have to find someone to buy the vegetables. After you buy them, you still have to find someone to cook them. You have to find someone who specializes in making banquets. Most people can’t do it, and it’s not good if they don’t cook well. .
While eating, we have to read out the township rules and regulations to everyone. These regulations are not promulgated by the state, but are summarized by everyone in the village based on what has happened in daily life, rather than fabricated out of thin air. .
So the people sitting here today are either the people responsible for buying food and cooking, or the village representatives and village elders in the village.
It can also be regarded as the mid-year organizational meeting of villagers’ collective representatives in Changqing Xiaoshan Village.
Some people ask why there is no benefit in doing such a troublesome thing. Why do we still organize ourselves to do this?
Friends who have never been in the countryside may not understand it, but everyone who has experienced it knows it.
In later generations, some villagers could feel it after buying a house in the city. Zhang An himself understood this deeply.
When we are in the village, everyone visits each other when nothing happens, and everyone can help out if anything happens, especially on special occasions.
For example, if there is only one old man at home, if something suddenly goes wrong, the neighbors will help.
In later generations, Zhang An worked in the city and his parents lived in the countryside. Zhang An's father, Zhang Jianguo, worked too hard when he was young. As he got older, his health was particularly poor, and he also suffered from high blood pressure and coronary heart disease. There are also arthritis and other major problems in the body.
Once I fainted at the door due to sudden high blood pressure. Fortunately, I was discovered by my neighbors in time, and everyone helped to send me to the hospital. If no one had discovered it, Zhang An and his family would have discovered it. At that time, the consequences would be disastrous.
If this were placed in the city, no one would find it. Even if someone found it, who in this world would dare to help others like this with millions at home.
So the difference between this village and the city is that there is a lack of human touch.
Does the human connection between people in the village come out of thin air?
Not only do we usually help each other, get to know each other, and trust each other, but also the various non-governmental activities organized in the village strengthen everyone's communication. Isn't this how the human touch comes from?
So those who can organize and do these things are those who consider the village from the bottom of their hearts.
In addition, the publicity of rural regulations and folk covenants is very important. This is to strengthen everyone's ideological awareness.
Today, your cow came into my field and ate my crops, and your dog ran into my yard and killed my chickens.
There are also civil disputes that are easy to occur in the village, such as the rice seedlings that have just been planted in our family’s rice field, but were pulled out by your children. Why do they occur?
It doesn’t happen because everyone is not thinking properly or managing things well. If everyone pays more attention to taking care of their children, livestock, etc., these things will not happen.
And as soon as this kind of thing occurs, it will turn into a quarrel. If it is not resolved, it will accumulate into resentment over time, and we will never interact with each other until death.
So this is what the village needs to improve, strengthen awareness and behavior management among villagers, cultivate a sense of unity among villagers, and create a united village.
When there are difficulties, we all help together, and when there are opportunities, we all develop together. Of course, with so many people in the village, there must be a small number of people who have a lot of bad intentions in their hearts.
The punishment system in the rural regulations and civil covenants was introduced for this group of people.
Anyway, these thankless things will be organized by people in most villages in this era, usually the village chief secretary or the patriarch of a big family, etc.
In later generations, village chiefs and secretaries were all appointed from above. Although they helped everyone develop, these traditions were also lost.
Decades later, people in rural villages could clearly feel that although life was much better than now, the human touch was too weak and not what it used to be.
So again, it is most appropriate to teach students in accordance with local conditions and aptitude.
Zhang An heard that he had nothing to do anyway, so he listened to everyone talking, ate his own food, and occasionally poured wine for the adults.
I just listened to the old uncle assigning tasks to several people at the table, and then discussing whether this year should add some regulations to the township rules and regulations set in previous years.
Speaking of rural rules and regulations, this thing may be more effective than the police station in some remote places.
Just like in this mountain, if something happens, everyone may be afraid of the police station coming if you are alone.
But if there is a whole village, the police station will not be able to do anything to them. At this time, we have to call out the elderly men in the village and ensure that they all kneel down obediently. The more obedient they are, the better. obedient.
People in the village sometimes tell him that the police station is coming, and he is not necessarily afraid, but if you want to hold a clan elders meeting, it is a big joke.
There are basically no big surnames in Changqing Village. The biggest one is Zhang. However, during the war years, the family ancestral hall was not preserved.
So there is no saying in the village that people are not allowed to enter the ancestral hall.
But the genealogy has been preserved. Maybe no one will think anything of it if I give you a beating, but if I say that you will be crossed out from the genealogy, hehe, I’m anxious.
Don't look at Zhang An and his generation, although they are called Zhang An and do not have the word generation, but in the household registration book, the genealogy, and the inscriptions of the clan elders, they all have the word generation.
If your family does not abide by the rules and does not have a family tree for you, or your name is not engraved on the inscriptions of the elders in your family, then the family tree of the children in your family will not be included in the family tree.
Even if you have already entered, it will be given to you in the end.
This is no joke. If an old man in the family does not have his or her name engraved on the tombstone when he gets old, then this person will not be able to hold his head high in the village and in the whole family.
So this is why every year the village uses June 6th to reiterate to everyone that it happens every year. That’s because there are some people who can’t remember it and can only say it every year. Only then can you remember and think about restraining yourself.
The sixth day of the sixth lunar month is a very suitable day. The weather is neither cold nor too hot.
Not long after the crops were planted, it happened to be the slack season, so this time was most suitable.
"Zhang An, you should have nothing to do these days tomorrow. If nothing happens, I will go to each house in the village to register the names and collect the money."
Zhang An, who was immersed in eating, didn’t expect that he would be called out.
Looking up, I found that everyone was looking at me.
"I don't have anything to do, uncle. Just ask my brother Ping to call me when the time comes. I'll be at home."
Zhang An thought for a while, he seemed to have nothing to do recently and basically stayed at home. Yes, so I accepted the job.
"By the way, I see that your new house has almost been built. It seems to be finishing work recently. Do you have any specific plans?"
Zhang Jianwen remembered that he was in Zhangjiakou some time ago. Anjia, what Dong Jingzhi said.
What Dong Jingzhi said at that time was very consistent with the situation in Changqing Village. He wanted to lead the villagers to work together toward a better place, but everyone's own conditions were here.
So Zhang Jianwen agrees with Dong Jingzhi's point of view, and he is also very concerned about Zhang An's point.
In Zhang Jianwen's heart, he hopes Zhang An can do well more than anyone else, because only in this way can he bring some good changes to this small mountain village and stimulate the people in the village to make changes.
“The engineering team is quite fast. In just over a month, the second floor has been built. However, after the house is built, it still needs to be decorated and furnished, which still takes a lot of time. "
Zhang An thought for a while and said to his uncle.
"Okay, whatever you plan to do, if you need help from the village, just come to my uncle."
It took several hours to finish the meal. The women and children at the other table had already finished eating, and this table was still drinking.
The next day, Zhang An was ordered by the old village chief to help collect money from the villagers' homes.
He and Zhang Ping, one holding a pen and paper, the other carrying a military green satchel, went door to door collecting money and recording the roster.
Zhang An was afraid of trouble, so he left the collection of money to Zhang Ping, who was only responsible for recording.
Everyone doesn’t pay much, just four yuan. When you go home, you get four yuan for one person, and eight yuan for two people.
A meal in town costs more than five yuan, which is relatively cheap after all, and all the money will be used to buy food, and none will be left behind.
There are not many households in Changqing Village, but even so, it took two days to finish collecting.
Some people go to only one person, and some people go to several people, and they all have their own considerations.
Finally, the two of them counted the money and found that there was no problem before handing it over to the old village chief.
After two days, Zhang An discovered that this job was really not that easy to do.
Because when they came to register and collect money, some people only had old people at home, and they spoke in dialect, and the pronunciation didn't match the words they wanted to write at all. The person who registers has to identify them themselves. Sometimes Zhang An and Zhang Ping still can’t tell the difference, and they have to ask neighbors for help.
Or ask him to look for a registered permanent residence. Some people look for it for a long time and still can't find it.
There are many Miao and Buyi villagers in Changqing. The younger people speak better because they have a higher level of assimilation, so they can also speak Chinese.
But those grandfathers and old ladies in their 60s and 70s basically spoke their own ethnic language all their lives and rarely spoke Chinese. In the end, Zhang An and Zhang Ping were confused.
Anyway, if you encounter such a situation, you must seek help from the people next to you, otherwise there is nothing you can do.
Among them, Zhang An met one of the most difficult families in the village. Their son died in an accident while working in a coal mine. The family was left with only a young grandson and two old people. Life was very difficult.
The coal mine didn’t pay much money, just some funeral expenses. Later, the young daughter-in-law also remarried.
Zhang An looked a little sad and wanted to pay the money for them.
In the end, the old man said that this kind of thing is everyone's business. How could Zhang An get it for them? They would get the money themselves.
Zhang An also advised the old man that if his family's conditions were not good, he could just save on such things.
In the end, the old man also taught Zhang An that this is a collective matter for everyone. If you don't participate, you don't regard yourself as a member of the big group.
Before leaving, Zhang An wanted to leave some money to the two old people, but the old people patted Zhang An and said.
"My child, our conditions are much better than before. At least we can have enough to eat. You don't have to help us deliberately. There are even more pitiful people than us. How much can you help."
The old man’s words stunned Zhang An. If it were another family, he might wish he could give more.
Later Zhang An smiled and took back the money in his hand, and then the grandfather and grandma let him go.
But in his heart, he admired these two old people from the bottom of his heart.
It is impossible for Zhang An to know all of the eighty or ninety households in Changqing Village, and Zhang An's family still belongs to the upper village of Changqing River, and he rarely goes to the lower village.
But Zhang An has always been curious about the languages of the Miao and Buyi people, because in Changqing Village, they have no written records, and they are passed down orally from old to young.
Zhang An doesn’t know if there are written records of the minority languages in other villages outside. Anyway, this part of Changqing Village does not have them.
People like Zhang An's generation basically can't understand their words. Only people of Zhang Jianwen's generation can understand them because they have lived together for a long time, but they can't speak them.
It took two full days to complete this task.
On the last day, I happened to meet Li Hongbin who had come to the countryside. He heard that Changqing Village was going to have a rural appointment. He really liked to join in the fun and immediately said that he also wanted to join.
The old village chief is naturally willing. He is very welcoming to people like Li Hongbin. He may not ask him to help if the village needs it in the future.
In the end, Li Hongbin paid fifty yuan himself and said that he would treat it as his own contribution to Changqing Village.
The old village chief did not refuse and wrote down Li Hongbin’s name.
This kind of thing also happens in the village. Many people who think their family is doing well will give some more money, probably ten or twenty yuan, as a contribution to the village.
The village also has a way to post a red paper directly next to the village office door, with the list of participants and the amount written on it.
Those who gave more money will be ranked at the top of the list, and their names and amounts will be written in larger characters and specially announced.
I write it every year, and everyone reads it every year.
The village will also issue a bill and post the details of where the money is spent, so that everyone can see it clearly and transparently.
Because this money is used to buy food for everyone, it will be spent basically every year to avoid the inconvenience of returning the remaining money.
The quality of this meal depends on how much money the village has raised, so everyone is still very polite to those who contribute extra money.
Unlike later generations, where people praise you in front of you, and behind your back say you were taken advantage of, now everyone respects you sincerely.
But basically the money raised every year is enough for everyone to have a good meal, which is better than what most people eat during the Chinese New Year. This is why most people are willing to pool money to participate every year. reason.
Zhang An’s whole family participated this year, and he personally gave an extra fifty yuan.
As soon as the final list was posted, he and Li Hongbin were at the front.
Li Hongbin really enjoyed the feeling of being in the spotlight.
Zhang An didn’t care, but he was qualified and he was happy to support such activities in the village.
Fifty yuan, no more, no less, is just right.
Not only did everyone see your generosity, but no one said that you were too picky at home.
When your family's conditions are good, it's your duty to keep up with others, but in private you will be used to compare yourself with others.
It’s not enough to ask you to pay out the money alone. After all, if you give it this year, what about next year?
If you don’t give me money next year, some people will think it’s normal, and some people will talk nonsense about you behind your back.
On the afternoon of the sixth day of June, after the sun set, those who signed up brought their bowls and chopsticks to the drying ground to gather.
Everyone finds people with whom they have good relationships or relatives to gather at a table.
Zhang An’s family, Li Hongbin and Zhang An’s two uncles happened to have a table together.
Before serving the food, everyone sat on the bench they carried from home.
The old village chief took the microphone and wanted to read a whole page of dozens of village regulations to everyone.
There were many people sitting in the sunbathing area, and the people behind could not hear anything they just said with their mouths.
No, the old uncle directly activated the village's artifact, the loudspeaker.
When this thing sounds, not to mention the people in the drying field, even several nearby villages can hear it.
It was a long page of rural rules and regulations. Because there were many elderly people in the village, I read it slowly. It took a full twenty minutes to read it all.
There is no printer in the village yet. The copy shop in the town is too expensive and costs a lot of money. Now there is no condition to make hundreds of copies and give one to each family.
With this money, I might as well make more delicious food for everyone.
I printed a copy for everyone. Many people are illiterate. It is a complete waste of money.
In later generations, night literacy classes will also be held in the village so that everyone can read normally.
At that time, it was meaningful for each family to print a copy. They could take it back and stick it on the door.
Now, we go to the town to make a big notice paper and stick it at the door of the village office like a big-character poster.
These rural regulations and folk covenants all say that you should take good care of your own animals and do not let them eat other people's crops or trample on other people's fields.
Pay attention to keeping your hands and feet clean at ordinary times, and don’t take any grains from other people’s homes, etc.
Originally everyone thought that the village chief had finally finished reading and the food would be served immediately.
Because it has been like this in previous years, most people have memorized these rural rules and regulations clearly, and can even recite them.
But there are still some people who can’t control their own families or their own animals, so they repeat it year after year.
But this year is different. The old village chief, who had just finished reading the village rules and regulations, did not put down the microphone and continued talking.
It turns out that the village elder is going to lead everyone to improve the appearance of the village in Changqing.
Taking advantage of everyone’s leisure time and time, we will tidy up the village.
“Also, there is this half-way mountain road at the entrance of our village. Although I have asked the town for help many times, the town now says that everyone is in difficulty and there is really no extra funds to help us build this road. "
"Finally, I thought about it carefully and discussed it with the village representatives. Those who have no money can practice law, and those who have money can practice law. Let's all take action together. We pulled some stones back from Shibanpo and paved this section of the dirt road. When it rains, there won’t be so many big puddles and mud.”
“Especially for the children in our village who are studying. It’s so hard, especially on rainy days, they have to step on mud and wade through big puddles to go to school. When they walk to school, their shoes are wet and covered in mud, even though we are poor and can’t afford a motorcycle. If we send our children to school, we should let them take a cleaner and better way to study.”
Many children in the village go to middle school in the town. Whether it is sunny or rainy, they have to walk this road every morning and evening. How can an adult not feel sorry for their children?
The road at the entrance of the village is okay when the weather is good, but when it rains, the mud on the ground becomes muddy after being wetted by water.
It is really inconvenient to leave the village on a rainy day, as many places are filled with large ponds.
So the village elder could only think of other ways after repeatedly seeking help from the town to no avail.
The last few representatives sat together and discussed that the road had to be repaired. If there was no money, the road would be repaired, otherwise it would be impossible to walk on rainy days.
Ever since the old village chief heard what Dong Jingzhi said, he has been focusing on this, wanting to develop the village in a good direction and let everyone live a better life. Farming alone cannot change this situation.
The road at the entrance of the village is equivalent to the face of the entire Changqing Village. When people come and see this environment, they turn around and go back without even wanting to walk in.
I saw friends who supported this book saying that there are fewer on the shelves, so I asked me to update it. I may not have much time during work hours, but I will try to update as much as possible on weekends. Thank you for your support.
(End of this chapter)