The days when I dropped out of school to farm
Wang Youming
It has been more than half a century since I went out of the countryside and came to the city, and there are not a few artists who have seen works of art and artists. But in my eyes, the real "artists" are farmers, who work hard to paint, splash ink, and sculpt their beautiful homes. That picture scroll is the most sincere, the most affectionate, the warmest, the most charming! The reason for this recognition is that I was once one of these "artists".
During my high school years, my academic performance has always been relatively outstanding, and I always ranked in the top three in every Chinese and math test. However, during the "Cultural Revolution", there was no reading, and most of the time was spent studying newspapers, participating in criticism meetings, shouting slogans on the streets, and confiscating contraband... I was not willing to participate in those meaningless activities against my will, so in the autumn of 1967, I dropped out of school and returned to the village to participate in productive labor.
The farmhouse has no idle days, one thing after another.
At that time, the production team was just in time to sow wheat, and there was no mechanical help, all manual operation. A wooden trunk, driven by a scalper in front, pulled by an adult next to it, supported by an adult in the back, and planted by an adult (this farming tool is the predecessor of the modern planter), I followed closely behind, "squeaking" the ground. Stone nuts are stone agricultural tools used to roll loose soil after sowing and covering the soil, and their role is to retain water and make it easy for wheat seeds to take root and sprout in the soil. Pulling a pot seems simple and easy, but in fact, it is not, this is a very tiring job, you must also be honest, you can't "cut corners", you can't fall behind. The first time I did such a job, half a kung fu, my young shoulder was pulled out of a blood mark by the rope, faintly painful. Sweat dripped, as if it were raining, flowing into the eyes, fiery and uncomfortable; into the mouth, a salty taste. When it was time to rest, my mouth was dry, my waist was sore and my legs were sore, and I sat on the ground and didn't think about it at all. Even if it was unbearable and stubborn, I still gritted my teeth and insisted. The adults praised me and said that the job was really good, the glazed eyes were solid, and there was no disconnect. But at night, when I was counting the work points, the adults scored 10 points, but they gave me 7 points. I asked the scorekeeper a little dissatisfied: "I am doing adult work, why do I score according to children?" The scorekeeper said strongly: "This scoring standard is given by the captain, if you have any opinions, you can go to the captain and tell me that it is useless." "I immediately took the work book, found the production captain, argued according to reason, and finally, gave 10 points. At that moment, I seemed to have fought a victorious battle, and the excitement was overflowing!
On the second day of the Chinese New Year, I did not rest, and as an underage person, I got up in the morning and went to work on the construction site with everyone. Our task was to cut the frozen soil from the large earth pit in the east of the village, shovel it with a shovel to the ground row car, and then transport it to the low-lying arable land. The weather was particularly cold, the ground was frozen very thickly, hard, throwing off the shoulders, a pickaxe planed down, leaving only a small dot on the surface of the frozen soil, shaking the hands numb. Only by continuously planing can the frozen soil be cut open, even if you wear gloves, within a few days, there will be blood bubbles on your hands, and a blood hole will be cracked at the mouth of the tiger, and the heart will be painful. However, the difficulties did not frighten us, and everyone shouted out a touching slogan: "Face the difficulties and fight the earth." "In this way, we faced the cold wind, endured the pain, little by little, cut open the frozen soil, loaded it into a flat car one by one, and transported it to the ground one by one, and carried out large-scale land leveling to prepare for spring ploughing and spring sowing."
Before the spring sowing, every two of us divided into groups, pulled a ground row truck, and transported farm manure to the field. Every night, we lit up the pony lights and worked overtime. The fat team is all young people, and it is a combination of men and women, and everyone is full of energy. We carry out labor competitions every day, and when loading the car, the shovel flips up and down; when the car is pulled, the footsteps are sonorous and powerful. The saying that "men and women are matched, and work is not tired" has been fully confirmed here.
Hoeing is a technical job. At first, I was next to my father, only to see the hoe in my father's hand, as if it had no weight, flying around the front and back of the seedlings, side to side, and the movements were agile and agile. The hoe in my hand, which seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, always did not listen to the call, and if I did not pay attention, I hurt the seedlings. When I hoeed to the ground and looked back, my father was very different from the field I had hoeed. The field that my father had hoeed, there was not a single blade of grass, only a handful of tender green seedlings, standing tall on the soft ground, the breeze blowing, swinging green waves, looking at the heart and feeling comfortable. And the fields I hoeed were like "ghost shaved heads", the damaged seedlings were spread on the ground, and the weeds swaying with the wind were faintly visible, which made people block at first glance. My father picked up a tile on the ground, squeezed it with his right hand, and while scraping the dirt on the hoe, he smiled and comforted me: "Child, don't be afraid, do more work, slowly you will become skilled." "Sure enough, after a long time, the hoe in my hand was wielded freely, steady and not chaotic." On a hot summer day, I hoe in the field, the sun scorches the earth, the crops in the field, the head bowed in despair, and the heat wave in the air makes people breathless. The beads of sweat fell eight petals, allowing me to taste "at noon on the day of hoeing, sweat drops down the soil." Who knows the taste of Chinese food on the plate, the grains are hard".
Drilling into corn and sorghum fields to spray pesticides is a very hard job. The sun in the sky is like fire, the heat on the ground is rising, and the space between heaven and earth is like a big steamer. I carried the medicine bucket on my back and forth in the field, sweating profusely, and the sweat stains on my shirt formed a white alkali circle one by one. When spraying pesticides, no matter how hot the weather is, you must also wear long-sleeved tops, otherwise, not only will the skin be sunburned and peeled, but also scratched by sharp leaves, causing pesticide poisoning. The sweat that flowed down my face, I mostly wiped it with my sleeves and the placket. The feeling of facing the loess with your back to the sky, sweating like rain, and the heat is unbearable, it is really uncomfortable!
Watering a cornfield is also not an easy task. My distant uncle and sister Xiaofeng are a group, responsible for night watering, and it is an all-nighter. Every night when I watered, I let Xiao Feng just guard the water ditch on the ground, and I kept shuttling through the cornfield to change the water, divert the water, and block the water. Whenever there is a high ground that cannot be watered, I use a shovel to squeeze water to ensure that every corn can drink water. After a night, although I was tired and tired, hearing the praise of the production captain and Xiaofeng's mother, I would feel beautiful in my heart.
To the north of our village, there is a large forest, covering an area of about 150 acres, and there are fruit trees such as pears, apricots, peaches, apples, dates, and other fruit trees, as well as poplar, willow, tsubaki, locust and other mature trees. Therefore, the village has formulated a night shift system, and every night throughout the year, militia members are sent to work in shifts. There were two people in each class, and the one who was in the same class as me was an older sister of the same age as me. Spring, summer and autumn night, she can basically persist, once the cold winter, she rarely comes out to watch the night. I am a down-to-earth, serious, and passionate about the work of the person, as long as it is the turn of the night time, I simply take a wooden stick alone, the village outside the village to observe the situation, never lazy behavior, effectively protect the safety of the people's lives and property, many times praised.
I still remember it vividly, and I also participated in the village drilling well. Drilling wells, not by machinery, but by people pushing, as long as the beginning of the fight can not stop day and night, the village to ensure that people who participate in the well, day and night can drink 4 meals of millet porridge. Due to the hardships of life, in order to be able to drink those few meals of millet porridge, I am willing to participate despite the wind and food. The iron bucket containing millet porridge has no lid, and every night it is sent to the construction site, and it is placed under the pony lamp, often waiting for us to drink the porridge, and there will be a few scalded caddisflies inside. But this bucket of millet porridge, we are reluctant to pour it out, scoop out the scalded cockroach, and drink it all.
At that time, the material life in the countryside was very scarce, and the spiritual and cultural life was very simple, and the thinking was relatively restrictive. In order to propagate Mao Zedong Thought, each brigade has set up a Mao Zedong Thought propaganda team. Not knowing what was going on, the brigade cadres appointed me as the leader of the propaganda team. I am a person who can neither sing nor dance, and I am not willing to take on this responsibility. Cadres of the brigade went up to the line and said: "Being good or not being bad is a matter of level, and being bad is a matter of attitude toward Mao Zedong Thought." "Listening to the cadres of the brigade say this, I did not dare to insist on my own opinion any longer, so I had to obey the needs. After the establishment of the propaganda team, I led the team members to take advantage of the labor gap and began to rehearse intensively. "You can't affect the propaganda work because of your own reasons", which became the belief that the team members abided by, and no matter how tired they were, everyone persevered. Although it was performed for political needs, to a large extent, it enlivened the spiritual and cultural life of the rural masses and promoted the construction of a beautiful countryside.
In the old days, the farm family had no idle days. Today, I think back to the days when I dropped out of school to work as a farmer, and I am really grateful. The difficult side shows courage and perseverance, and the grinding begins with Yucheng. I have tried all kinds of agricultural work, although it is not very refined, but I have been trained by labor, and I have established the awareness of loving labor and cherishing the fruits of labor. What is even more valuable is that it has cultivated my vigor to strive for the first, the endurance to carry the weight forward, the tenacity to bear hardships and stand hard work, and the willingness to dedicate.
The days when I dropped out of school to work as a farmer laid the foundation for my progress in life!
About author:Wang Youming, a native of Linxi, Hebei. middle
He is a member of the National Prose Literature Association and the Shanxi Writers Association.
One Point No. Scroll Wenyuan