Chapter 474 Cleaning up the riverbank
In the previous July, after everyone finished fertilizing the crops, they began to enter the off-farm time to recuperate.
Although there is still a small amount of work in the fields, it is not that hard.
But this year is different. After the flood, replanting has brought everyone into the busy farming season again.
It wasn’t until the garbage in the field was cleaned up and the corn replanted in the field sprouted again that everyone felt relieved.
Everyone knows that there is no hope in the fields this year, so they have given up the idea of continuing to invest energy in it.
Everyone’s focus is on the corn in the field, and they are more attentive to weeding and fertilizing than before.
The fertilizer that was originally intended to be used on the rice was spent on them.
Another surprising thing is that after being washed away by the flood, the land became much more fertile than before.
Because everyone has discovered that the corn that is replanted grows very fast.
Not long after they were planted, they were almost as long as they were before the flood.
Looking at them growing vigorously, I think this year’s corn harvest should be okay.
This can be regarded as giving everyone some psychological comfort, and it is good to be able to save a little bit.
Soon, mid-July came to an end. During this period, the sun was shining brightly and there were no clouds in the sky. Before that, everyone had been worried about whether the last heavy rain would hit again.
But the weather has been very stable for so many days, which made everyone feel anxious.
“Notice, notice, please send a laborer from each villager’s household to gather at the village committee at eight o’clock tomorrow morning to prepare for the cleanup of the river beach, so please bring your own tools.”
In the evening, the sun had just set on the top of the mountain, and Zhang Jianwen's familiar voice sounded again from the loudspeaker in the village.
Since the last heavy rainstorm, when everyone went to work in the mountains and saw that the weather was not good, they immediately packed up and went home, and they did not come back from the mountains until very late as before.
Because the last heavy rain and thunder left a shadow on everyone's heart, and the couple of Chen Laoliu's family were still in the hospital and had not returned, this made everyone have some memories.
After all, no one can say which will come first, tomorrow or the accident.
So now it's around six o'clock, and almost all the people who went to work in the fields have returned, and those who haven't arrived home are mostly on their way.
This is a very good time to inform everyone in the village, and everyone will definitely hear it.
As soon as Zhang An heard the announcement from the loudspeaker, he knew that the village elder was going to take action against the piled-up river beach.
When everyone was clearing their own farmland, Zhang An felt that the village would definitely not abandon the lotus pond's beach.
After all, after the weather cleared up, many city dwellers came, all wanting to go to the river beach to play in the water to escape the heat like last year.
And now the river beach is one of the few places in the village where you can make money. As long as you are not a fool, you will never give up.
When everyone was cleaning up the farmland before, Zhang Jianwen wanted to organize everyone to clean up the river beach.
But due to the secondary replanting in the fields, everyone was focused on the crops, so he did not summon everyone.
Although the river had receded at that time, the entire lotus pond was still flooded.
Even if everyone has free time, there is no way to clean up the river beach.
This is why many people come all the way to the village and then go back very disappointed.
The next morning, Zhang An got up early because the village had to organize everyone to clean up the river today.
After Wang Fang had finished breakfast, Zhang An and Zhang Jianguo, father and son, both carried rake and sickle and gathered in the village.
Although the loudspeaker yesterday announced that a family only needs to go to one labor force.
But there is nothing going on in Zhang An’s family right now, so it doesn’t matter if there is one more person in this collective matter.
When they arrived at the entrance of the village committee, a small group of villagers had already arrived. Behind Zhang An and the others, the remaining people came one after another carrying various tools.
After waiting for a while, Zhang An looked at the time. It was only half past seven, but everyone was almost here.
It can be seen from here that everyone in the village is very enthusiastic in this kind of collective work.
Everyone is happy to take action, partly because the money earned from Lotus will be distributed to each family at the end of the year.
After all, there is no hope for the rice in the fields now. It would be great for everyone to have a little more income in the future.
Therefore, after the water that was still submerged on the river beach in the past few days completely subsided, many people in the village asked Zhang Jianwen whether the lotus pond in the village would be built this year.
Because during the Chinese New Year last year, when the village divided the money, every family got a lot.
This is the reason why Zhang Jianwen withheld part of it to build the village, otherwise there would be more. So when it comes to this matter, many people in the village are very active, just like working for their own family.
Another point is that the village now has a strong sense of humanity and a strong sense of unity, and because this generation has experienced the era of big pot rice, everyone is very willing to work for the collective.
Unlike later generations, when it came to asking everyone to do voluntary work for the village, no one was willing to do so. Some people even made random excuses saying that they had something to do and couldn't help.
And Zhang An saw that many other families were like theirs, with more than one person coming.
Even some households with larger populations have more than two or three workers.
Zhang Jianwen had already arrived before everyone else arrived, and had been sitting on the stone steps in front of the village committee waiting for everyone.
Although it seemed that the time had not yet come, he glanced a few times and found that everyone was here, including many families.
This is what he has done as the village chief for decades. He is very familiar with every household in the village and every person in each household. He does not need to name names at all. He only needs to look at them with his eyes. Home attendance status.
"Okay, everyone, stop bragging. Some time ago, many people asked me whether we should build the lotus pond. Nonsense. So much money was invested in it last year. There is no reason not to do it. Now that everyone is here, , then let’s get ready to start work. If we finish it earlier, we can make money earlier.”
Zhang Jianwen typically stood up and stretched out his hands, as if he was saying something.
But he did only say a few words before leading everyone towards the lotus pond.
Zhang An walked in the middle, looked at the team in front, then looked back at the back, and found that there were quite a few people, at least more than a hundred people.
Although we have not yet entered the new millennium era, there are not many villages that can recruit so many people to do collective work for the village. The sunshine that just rose in the morning did not show favoritism to others at all, but the rain and dew evenly spread on everyone's face.
Looking at everyone's enthusiasm and enthusiasm, with smiles on their faces, Zhang An knew that the haze left by everyone due to the losses caused by the flood was also due to the cleaning of the lotus pond at this moment. Watered down a lot.
When we arrived at the river beach, Zhang Jianwen didn't say anything. As before, everyone found people from their respective village groups to gather together, and the village group leaders led them to work.
This is a hangover from the old days of big pot cooking. Every time the village wanted to do something, everyone subconsciously regarded the villagers as a unit.
Zhang An’s group is quite large, not only their family came over, but Zhang Xing and Zhang Bin from the second uncle Zhang Jianjun’s family also came over, and from the third uncle Zhang Jianye’s family, Zhang Tie, who had just entered the first year of junior high school, It was also the first time that I started to help out as a laborer.
This naughty little guy has grown a lot this year. Last year, he was only a little over 1.4 meters tall. This year, he is over 1.6 meters tall. He is already taller than his mother, and only a little behind his father.
But he is still young now, only twelve or thirteen years old, and he can continue to develop in the coming time.
With the example of Zhang An, who is over 1.8 meters tall, everyone in the family thinks that Zhang Tie should be able to grow very tall in the future. Even if he is not as tall as Zhang An, he will not be too short.
Although Zhang Xing was bigger, he was only 1.6 meters tall. Zhang Tie came from behind and overtook him.
Some other families came with one, some with two. Basically, families with teenage children at home brought their children over, so Zhang An and his six groups had quite a few people.
In fact, Zhang An strongly agrees with bringing the children at home. On the one hand, it is because the children are on vacation now, and they are just having fun if they stay at home, and they may have to worry about it.
Another point is that teenage children are no longer young and you can start to train them.
For them, it doesn’t matter how much or how little they work, but in this kind of collective occasion, bringing them all here allows them to feel the atmosphere of what their parents and even their grandparents used to do.
In this way, not only can we provide them with practical education, but it can also help them understand that a village is a collective consciousness.
Although this is just a small thing, it is where the spirit of a village is passed down.
Many children in later generations do not have this awareness. Zhang An has personally seen it. No matter what happens in the village, many children just like to stay at home and have no idea of going out to join in the fun.
This is not a good phenomenon. Over time, the human touch of a village will fade.
Later, Zhang Jianwen called several village group leaders together to start a discussion. In fact, it was just drawing lots to choose a place for his group that needed to be cleaned up.
Not long after, Zhang Jianguo came back and took everyone upstream of the river beach. Their group arrived at the mouth of the upstream river.
Zhang Tie and the other little guys were already hungry and thirsty, so when they arrived at the location, they picked up the sickle and started to do it.
The adults didn’t stop them either, no one would worry about them cutting themselves with sickles.
Because they are all children from rural areas, at such an old age, who has not had several years of experience in cutting pig grass, and has long been very skilled in using the sickle.
Besides, whoever has cut pig grass has not had a few scars left on his body by the sickle. Even Zhang An has several scars on his hands, so he is not afraid of being cut by the sickle at all.
The best thing to do is to burn some cigarette ashes and put them on it, then chew some bitter wormwood to wrap it up, it will be done very quickly.
"Binzi, the second year of high school is over, and the third year of high school is about to begin. Do you have any confidence in yourself?"
Zhang An and Zhang Bin were next to each other and started chatting with him.
In the past few years, because Zhang Bin has been in school and has little time for holidays, Zhang An has not been able to get close to his cousin for a long time.
"Don't worry, brother, I have confidence in myself, and I will definitely not let you down at home."
Zhang Bin is no longer the Zhang Bin he was two years ago, and his temper is no longer the same. Silence has become much more cheerful.
He knew what Zhang An meant by asking, which was whether he had confidence in the college entrance examination.
If it were him before, he would never have dared to think about it. With poor grades, going to college would be nothing more than a dream.
But now, he has this confidence, because he has studied very seriously and hard in school in the past two years, and his academic performance has really improved a lot.
The boy who had been thinking about going to high school for a long time now has the confidence to compete with thousands of troops and horses to cross the single-plank bridge.
"Well, just have confidence. But in school, study when you should study and relax when you should relax. The next year is very important. Don't neglect your body because of studying. That way The gain is not worth the loss. The first college student in our family after your sister-in-law depends on you."
Zhang An also nodded. Not only Zhang Bin has confidence in himself, but Zhang An also has confidence in him. .
Zhang An has been in frequent contact with teacher Wu Zhonghai in the past two years, and is no stranger to Zhang Bin's situation.
In this final exam, Zhang Bin ranked more than ten times in the class.
Although this ranking is not high, for a class of sixty or seventy people, this is already good.
You must know that Zhang Bin entered by stepping on the score line before. Now that he has improved so much, you can imagine how dedicated he is.
Of course, this has something to do with Zhang An.
I am usually worried about the poor food in school, so I would pack the Crispy Spicy Chicken made at home and send it to school for him to use for meals. I also brought fruits from the space with me. It made his memory much better than before.
With improved memory, learning will naturally become much easier than before.
Although Zhang Bin's personality has become much more cheerful now, when he heard Zhang An say the word "college student", his face became a little flushed, and there were some longing looks in his eyes.
The adults next to them also looked hopeful at this time.
Although the brothers have separated, they are closer than one family now.
Let me ask you, who doesn’t want to produce a college student and a capable person?
You must know that today’s college students are not the bad street college students of later generations. The gold content of these three words is not low at all.
When Zhang An took the college entrance examination, everyone in his family was full of hope, but unfortunately, Zhang An did not have this fate.
Now Zhang Bin is going to be a senior in high school and will take the college entrance examination next year. Seeing his progress in the past two years, the hope in the hearts of everyone in the family has risen again.
After all, there are no college students in the village yet. If Zhang Bin passes the exam, he will really be the first golden phoenix produced by Changqing.
(End of this chapter)