Years of educated youth

My road is on the beach.

On an opaque winter night, with a pair of luggage on his shoulders, he staggered behind an old farmer and bumped on the beach with one foot deep and one foot shallow. I can't see the road ahead, and I don't know where the target is. This is the first time in my life to bear a heavy burden. Although the heaviest book box has been placed on the burden of the old farmer, I am already sweating like a pig (actually more than 20 kilograms) ...

In the morning, on the boarding dock, the closing broadcast of the Ninth National Congress tirelessly urged my trip. The familiar tall buildings on both sides of the river bank reluctantly disappeared from my sight, and few students knew where I went.

After several ups and downs, two years after the Cultural Revolution began, No.1 Middle School was stationed in the working group again, but this time it had a nice name called "Workers, Mao Zedong Thought Propaganda Team of the People's Liberation Army", a relative sent by Chairman Mao, and naturally took over the prestigious New No.1 Middle School Revolutionary Committee in Jiangcheng. No matter they have beaten the Rightists and reactionary academic authorities in the name of defending Chairman Mao, or they have responded to Chairman Mao's call and severely criticized the rebel fighters of the capitalist roaders within the party, not to mention the vagrants who are out of the movement, they are all faced with a graduation destination that they cannot choose: going to the countryside.

In the default scheme, according to the economic development degree of different regions in Huangmei County, it is divided into three classes: Xiaochikou, Kong Long and Zhuogang from high to low, and each student is assigned according to his family background, which I heard privately from a member of the assignment team. With a few exceptions, all the children in Gao Qian decided to join the army or made internal arrangements. At that time, it was not common to open the back door, which was called "revolutionary need" Oh, that's not right. Isn't the bloodline theory prevailing at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution criticized, and it was reborn before the end of the Cultural Revolution? It turns out that the limited resources of the people and the country can only be enjoyed by limited people, and when the people can really enjoy it, they can only hope for infinity. It took half a century to understand this truth. Half a century ago, I thought it was simple. Now that I have been re-educated, I don't need to care anywhere. In the unknown future, in an unknown and strange place, I just want to have a few comrades who know each other and cherish each other and have similar interests. This option is available, so I connected them.

On the day of posting, in a strange educated youth group in Zhuogang, only my name was left. How did this happen? There is no premonition and notice beforehand, and there is no explanation or relief afterwards. What happened? But there is no place to sue, and no one tells. I turned around and quietly walked out of the school gate, no longer contacting my classmates. This walk is half a century. ...

Three years ago, I was isolated and discriminated against. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, I spoke casually at various seminars and was hacked. I wasn't there when the working group was driven away and the black material was burned. I know nothing about the cause and effect of the incident, but I was told afterwards. I have not been punished, so I don't need to be rehabilitated. I only have a little happiness, and I never thought about it. I was originally a nobody, no matter where I was, I was calm and silent.

With the encouragement of my family, I chose to rely on my relatives and settle in a commune in Honghu County where my fourth brother worked. That is a point that has not yet established a counterpart relationship with middle schools in Wuhan. I only hope that a person will strive for a chance to get ahead without anyone competing. More than 40 years later, after I got some information from my former comrades-in-arms on the Internet, I learned that some of them still participated in the movement and were implicated or investigated in the late Cultural Revolution. If I hadn't been abandoned, I would have participated in the same way and had the same fetters. So can I be happy? The answer is naturally no. Although I was abandoned, I was not abandoned by the same bad luck. At that time, I couldn't be grateful, I couldn't escape, I couldn't be doomed.

When the slow steamboat approached the dock in Honghu County, it was already night. There is no expected light, only a dark beach with no end in sight. It turns out that Xindi Town, where Honghu county government is located, is not close to the Yangtze River and can only be reached through a small fork. When the water rises, the small fork can be connected with the main channel of the Yangtze River. In the dry season, a large beach is exposed, so ships can't drive and passengers can only walk. Just when I was at my wit's end, an old farmer was happy to walk with me and put my book box on his pole. The face of this kind-hearted and amiable old man in Fuchang Town, Honghu County has always remained in my memory. He is my first guide in social life.

My heaven is in Zhaojiatai.

Most of the teams I went to were Zhao, formerly called Zhao Jiatai. A green river winds on the edge of the village, and there is an idle rice field in the distance as far as the eye can see. This green river, which I have kissed and dreamed of countless times, is the drinking water source of the village and the traffic line in the busy farming season. The river is crystal clear, the willows on both sides are graceful, frog fish games, and women wash vegetables. The young men on the shore are brave and strong, and the girls and wives under the eaves are delicate and delicate.

As I am the only educated youth, the production team has no intention of building an educated youth hut. I was arranged in a farmhouse, headed by a woman in her forties, who knows everything cleanly and doesn't go out to work on weekdays. I call him Ma Zhao. His husband is a doctor in the town, and his family is richer than ordinary villagers. Besides the main room, there are four adobe houses with kitchens. Ma Zhao and his wife have one. After I came, I slept in a bed with Pengcheng. The young man was very excited to see me. That night, he and I chatted in bed until late at night.

Early the next morning, Ma Zhao said that she ate at my house every day, so she didn't have to go to every house to eat a hundred meals, and she didn't have to be subsidized by the production team. I know very well that the insignificant subsidy from the production team is not enough for my consumption of a catty and a half a day, and there are more dishes per meal than anyone else. Everyone in the team says that you are the happiest person living in Ma Zhaojia's house. Just after the new year, farm work is not busy, so do some light chores during the day. In the evening, young men and women from every household come to visit, and Ma Zhao also comes to talk about family topics from time to time. There is really a different taste of meeting relatives in different places.

Unfortunately, the life span of collectivized farmers in slack season is extremely short. The young and middle-aged male laborers of the production team were sent to Xintankou, a hundred miles away, to build dikes. I wasn't supposed to go. I naturally don't want to stay in Zhaojiatai with my girls and wives. At that time, there were no tractors in the whole commune, and there was an agricultural machinery station in the town. I counted, there are 10 diesel engines with 20 horsepower. This huge project relies entirely on farmers' shoulder poles and shovels. Thousands of farmers bring their own grain and quilts, use local materials at the construction site, set up reed mats and bamboo sheds, and spread grass on the ground, at no cost to the state. This is something that has never happened in the whole world.

Overtime every day 12 hours, melons and vegetables are just three meals a day. When I got back to the shed, I lay on the floor like a falling apart and didn't want to move. I never have time to dream. Every day, I always rush to find baskets and poles in the dark under the urge of getting up in fear. On a rare rainy day, several young people ran to the river pond and wild ditch several miles away, laughing and jumping barefoot into the cold water to touch small fish. Covered in muddy water, they forgot to scrub it clean, turned on the stove, cooked a bowl of fish soup, and reluctantly dragged me out of the warm bed to share this hard-won sumptuous food with them. This is the most precious delicacy in the world, which is unforgettable so far.

On the construction site, I was dressed as a farmer, a broken cotton-padded jacket, with a small fur collar and a straw rope around my waist, and my skin was tanned, but the glasses on my nose separated me from my peers. The same pair of baskets, my burden is always less than others; It's also a big bowl of rice. Mine is always higher than others. During lunch break, they always like to surround me and make fun of everything about me. Those glasses are often played by them as toys. One day, amid the urging of the radio at work, I fumbled around and couldn't find my glasses.

My first reaction: someone must be playing a prank. Never mind, it will appear naturally before long. But then the situation became serious. At the same time, five or six people decided that Pengcheng, who slept next to me, did it and forced him to hand it over at once. Peng Cheng firmly denied it, and someone proposed to search immediately. I immediately said, I remember, I accidentally slipped down the cesspool when I went to the toilet in the middle of the night. Some people refuse to go to the cesspit after dawn. I said it was too dirty and I didn't want to take it out. From that day on, I didn't wear it in the countryside for more than three years. Since then, I have basically assimilated with farmers in appearance. A few days later, when the local farmers dug out the cesspool, some people in the team were still unwilling to ask about the whereabouts of the glasses. Of course, I didn't care what miracles would happen.

People's adaptability will be enhanced in direct proportion to people's beliefs, and the dam will increase slowly day by day, but I don't feel how high and fast I am. Climb to the top of the dike and look as far as possible. Seeing the ant-like crowd under the levee is like seeing thousands of Gong Yu moving mountains. These respectable and lovely farmers from the bottom of society have built a century-old levee with their bodies and sweat.

Suddenly I heard someone calling for help in the distance. I left my shoulder pole and ran closer. It turned out to be the same team's Dianda, lying on his back, holding a bare wire in his hand, constantly shouting "hemp, hemp", and the people next to him were at a loss. I judged it was an electric shock. I touched the big hand with the back of my hand and touched the bare wire. I do have a strong sense of current, but it's ok. I'm confident. I'll break the fingers of Master Shao one by one with my hand, and then I'll help him up, so it doesn't matter. It turned out to be a tweeter line, which fell on the embankment slope because of the collapse of the support bar. After being held by people, it is attractive and can't extricate itself. In fact, it was just a false alarm. Unexpectedly, this incident was spread by the squad, and it also alarmed the commune radio station, and promoted it as a story of sacrificing oneself to save others.

Farmers go out to work and live a collective life. There are more than 20 people in the team, and the living expenses are more than 200 yuan. All of them are in the charge of the vice captain, Brother Kun. Brother Kun is extremely honest, good at farm work and not good at talking, while his best partner, Brother Hong, is smart and sophisticated, and has an extraordinary conversation. He used to be an accountant in a brigade, but he retired to join the team because of four ambiguities. One day, the most tragic thing happened, the living expenses were gone, and the team seemed to collapse. That night, the old secretary of the commune came to our shed to personally grasp the new trend of class struggle. Because of all kinds of signs that the problem lies in the interior, the old secretary first stated his own righteousness, advocated avoiding the heavy and ignoring the light, and stated that as long as he took the initiative to explain, he would never pursue it. After more than minutes of silence 10, the old secretary called my name directly. Let me talk about my opinion first. In fact, I have a good idea about this matter, and I have to send it.

I said, "In the shed, maybe only three people know where the living expenses are. The first person is a cook. He just paid the daily fee for rice, oil and salt during the day, but found that the money was gone. It was the time to get up the next day. So I guess the time of the crime should be when I was sleeping at night. We know that the chef's sleeping place is far away from Kundago, and he does not have the conditions to commit crimes, which can basically be ruled out. The second person is the vice captain himself, because the consequences of losing money must be borne by himself in the end, and the possibility of stealing from inside can also be ruled out; The third person is Brother Hong, the most trusted person of the vice captain. He helps Brother Kun to keep accounts, knows the roots and sleeps in the corner with Brother Kun. It is the most convenient crime and the biggest suspect. "

Later, the old secretary called people to talk one by one. Half of them said that they could not determine the suspect, and the other half agreed with me. Finally, the old secretary once again said that instead of making a final decision at tonight's meeting, he still hoped that individuals would voluntarily confess and let bygones be bygones. The next morning, I still dawdled and finally came to the construction site, only to see that it was half bright and half dark and surrounded by many people. Brother Hong shouted to me, "The case is solved. I caught the squad and found my wallet in his basket. " The boy blushed and wanted to hit him, but he was dragged by others desperately. Vice captain Kundage counted the money and said, let's get to work. No one ever mentioned it again. At the completion celebration in January, the old secretary inexplicably sent a banner to our educated youth group. After returning to the team, the vice captain never sent me heavy work and dirty work, and Brother Kun never said anything about it.

After picking the embankment and returning to the team, the life like a peach blossom garden is no longer there, and spring ploughing begins, and I am busy. There are three new educated youths in the county, and they can't stay at Ma Zhao's house any longer. The production team vacated two old warehouses, one to be a wood shop for the four of us and the other to make a big stove, turning the fattest piece of yau Ma Tei in the team into a vegetable field, which is regarded as the home of educated youth. Cooking takes turns according to the regulations, but it's difficult for me. When I was young, I couldn't cook, so I lost my mind and was in a hurry. As a result, everyone was dissatisfied, but I was helpless because no one wanted to cook another meal. Compared with the three of them, the farm work is worse and the physical strength gap is bigger. A man with a big waist and a round waist doesn't care about the burden of 150 kg, and I never exceed 100 kg. It's just that the attendance rate has some advantages.

Throughout the year, the "double robbing" period is the hottest, and farm work is the busiest and most tiring. In the work of 14 hours a day, the most difficult thing is transplanting rice seedlings. I can't stand the back pain, so I have to put my elbow on my knee to relieve it. I was in a panic and couldn't catch up with everyone. Usually, when I am surrounded by everyone, two young people from Aauto Quicker, Wan Guo and Shu Qing, will come to help me. They accompany me on both sides every day so as not to affect everyone's progress.

I finally survived a double robbery, and I can finally relax. I heard that the team will arrange people to cut wormwood as fertilizer in turn in the lake area, so I imagined the scene of Han Ying picking lotus flowers on the boat in the movie Red Guards of Honghu Lake, which was refreshing. After the first cycle, an educated youth told me a horrible scene: waist-high sludge, snails like iron cones piercing the skirting line, and green leeches with thick thumbs sucking their legs ... I waited in fear, but told me to go to the lake area with my brothers Mao Da and Hongda to collect manure.

The first time I went boating in Honghu Lake, although I didn't see the beautiful scenery, I fell in love with the people by the lake. During the day, I carry two dustpans, go home to collect the feces of pigs, cows, chickens and ducks, occasionally ask others for a bowl of water to drink, and chat with my middle-aged wife for a while. The two brothers punted to find a distant source of fertilizer. Five days later, they came home, filled the hut with fertilizer collected by three people, covered it with bamboo mats, and went to bed. The breeze in Xulaili smelled the smell of the nose, and they slept soundly. All the way back, laughing, landing, the girls and daughters-in-law in the team carried the burden to meet, filled with endless harvest joy.

Author's brief introduction: Senior 3 students from Wuhan No.1 Middle School (1968) jumped the queue in Makou Commune, Cao Cheng District, Honghu County (1969), and 1972 was recruited into the Fourth Automobile Team of Shiyan Guo Hua District Engineering Headquarters (102).

Salvage the memory of Jiangcheng and sink into the past of the three towns.

Jiefang avenue

Editor: sailor