Common memory
Author: Song Yanan
Memories of Liu Peiming
I am Liu Peiming, a middle school classmate in Yanan.
Because I can play together, the three views are similar, the two families are not far apart, and I have been in intermittent contact with Yanan for almost 60 years since I was in junior high school in 1964.
The most frequent years of contact should be the period of junior high school suspension and revolution, but also the early days of the Cultural Revolution, and then the frequent comings and goings after retirement in these years.
The reason why we can have a lot of time to play together in middle school is very simple, the family's political problems make many students ineligible to make a revolution, and we are afraid of provoking fire, so we have become "proms" outside the "revolutionary movement" and have become "idle people" in society.
My family lives in ''Dabaoji Lane'', not far from Yanan's home in Defu Lane, the number of times to go to his house to play is not much, the memory is often met in The City God Temple Lane, where it is his great aunt's house, the deeper impression is that the upper left of the courtyard gate nailed a piece of ''Glorious Martyr'' sign, and in his aunt's house saw a small mirror frame containing a ''Martyrs' Honorable Commemorative Certificate'', looked carefully to know that it was the proof of Yanan's uncle's sacrifice in North Korea.
His aunt's family lived in a bright and dark concierge, and there was another one that lived in Yanan's grandfather, who said that his home was small and crowded, and he was willing to come to live with his grandfather often.
I often went to swim with him and the dolls in his alley to the city river outside the south gate, and I mixed well with everyone. Climbing the city walls, climbing trees, picking locust flowers, pulling elm money, catching clams, drilling air raid shelters, and even stabbing the horse's nest on the head were stung together, anyway, good things have me, bad things have me.
Yanan's aunt has two sons, the eldest cousin Sun Shao and his wife Zhen Enfeng are both pillar actors of the Shaanxi Provincial Radio Literary and Labor Troupe, and our family is a unit, my father also works in the radio technology department, because of these two-tier relationships, naturally they are closer.
Once, Yanan's second cousin brought back a few air guns from the school (his second cousin was a teacher in Dongguan 22, and the air guns and bullets for military training were kept by him), and we greeted the second cousin, asked for a box of lead bullets, and one of them carried one and snatched it away.
Xingchong rushed straight to the south gate, and as long as the sparrow was found along the way, he would fight, because the birds fell on the high part of the tree, across the dense branches, looking for a gap to aim, it was a very difficult thing, so basically the gunshots flew away, without exception.
It seems that it is often said: "'Don't fight birds in separate branches'" makes sense. But the interest did not diminish, and he continued to patiently search for the target.
At that time, the south gate was full of crop fields, three turns and two turned to a wheat mill, that is, shortly after the wheat was harvested in the summer, there was a large livestock shed on the side of the field, and a large number of sparrows fell in the shade.
Without much effort to think about it, the two of us each found a hiding place, raised our guns and shot. I have loved to play with the slingshot since I was a child, and sure enough, the target is good, a shot in the east, a shot in the west, a few shots in a while, do not pick up, anyway, the sun is very poisonous, except for the two of us, there is no one to see.
After a while, Yanan sneaked over and asked me if I still had a bullet? One touch of the pocket, only two grains, no need to discuss, two one to add five, the last shot watched Yanan overturn one, it was time for me to show a hand.
A sharp move of the bolt ready to reload, bad things, actually bent the push rod, dry eyes are useless, there is no heart to fight again, let Yanan pick up the cheap to hit the last bullet, but he only beat the birds away, I am afraid it is also uneasy, right?
Although there are also about a dozen birds in the fight, the results are still good, but there is no excitement when they come, after all, the gun is broken, I don't know if it is easy to fix?
The two of us went to Gu Jingliang's house first, and he didn't dare to do it for a while, and he couldn't get it. The servants went to Fan Liuzhi's house again, this time it was the right place, Fan Liuzhi was familiar with guns, stronger than a few of us, and dared to do it.
The wooden pier was put on the mat and the iron push rod that had been deformed at ninety degrees was knocked straight, and when it was tried, it was indeed intact, and the stone in my heart fell to the ground, and I was happy, leaving all the beaten ooles behind and returning home.
There are too many stories between us to tell at once, so let's introduce him to everyone, see what he's been through, and hear what he has to say:
My ''Jumping Dragon Gate''
I'm Song Yanan, and I'll tell a little bit of my story.
After going to the countryside to join the team, I was recruited to the Shangnan Gong Mine, and I became the pillar of the family - a public family with food stamps and economic income, and the first person to jump out of the farm.
Originally, our family's life in Xi'an City could be regarded as a medium level. Her mother was a teacher, she used to teach secondary school, but she was later implicated in her father's "historical problems" and was relegated to primary school, but her income did not change.
My father worked in a state-owned enterprise and, strictly speaking, was supposed to be one of the shareholders of the factory.
He has a craft learned in the military academy engineer major, familiar with electrical, mechanical and other types, in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, he once cooperated with others to open a mechanical and electrical repair department, but also a small industry, in the fifties of the last century to engage in "socialist transformation", was a public-private partnership to a municipal state-owned enterprise, has been working in this factory.
After the Cultural Revolution began, because my father was a graduate of the Whampoa Military Academy, our family was targeted and framed. They first went to their father's factory to encourage the rebels not to allow him to continue working, and then went to his mother's school, and did the same, stopping her teaching work, so that they both became "unemployed vagrants."
Except for my sister and me who survived (my sister gave up her studies and went to a small social factory to work to reduce the burden on my family, the sixth middle school in Xi'an City that I was admitted to was a key school that "shortened the school system" in the teaching reform, and the implementation of the five-year consistent high school graduation, which was a graduate of the sixth and ninth grades of that year, and had not yet graduated from the school at that time), my parents and three younger brothers were expelled from Xi'an and moved to the countryside of Heyang County, Shaanxi Province.
The vast majority of the residents who were mobilized to the countryside of Heyang were not people here, did not have any basis for life, were in a different place, were struggling, and after being scattered and resettled, they were 'painted as prisons' "The residents who came here had a terrible life, especially our family."
To put it mildly, these places are the beginning of a 'nightmare' of this large number of residents.
They only spent the first six months of the state providing commodity grain to survive, waiting for a share of the farmers' bowl after the autumn harvest of that year.
The production team is very reluctant to see these people, but it cannot resist the apportionment of the superiors, and a production team adds a few people out of thin air to grab food, and the state has no subsidies, which makes the days that are already stretched to the limit even more panicked.
Naturally, they will sprinkle their resentment on these people, the work score is low, the work is difficult to do, and they also pick their noses and eyes, and often say some inconsistency to suppress you, and these people have become the "untouchables" in the eyes of the locals.
The family of five has no economic income and no family background, the younger brothers are in school at a young age, the father is despised for low work on the land, and the mother is given a low job for women, and it is very unrealistic to rely solely on the distribution of the production team to support themselves.
''The people take food as the sky', people are iron, rice is steel, a meal is hungry and panicked, and it is difficult for those who have not been hungry to understand the taste of hunger. Our family borrowed money and food everywhere, how many blank eyes and discrimination we suffered, and how we survived, most people still can't imagine.
When the first salary I got after I joined the work was sent home, it caused them a lot of trouble.
Remittance slips were passed from the commune level to the production team, sometimes the brigade cadres, sometimes the cadres of the squad, while greeting and calling for remittances, they handed over the words: borrow a piece of two pieces, or two pieces of three pieces, do not dare not borrow, "'Goose plucking hair'" Things are not uncommon, these people can make a little bad at will can make you can't eat and go, so the money is discounted as soon as you arrive home.
Other people in the village who have a little power also have the same kind of learning, what poor association chairman, accountant, custody are counted, which one can not afford to offend, the family is overwhelmed, really can not resist this meat bun to beat the dog, there is no return to the bullying.
There is a main reason for this, because of my father's historical problems, local cadres at all levels believe that our family has come to accept the supervision and transformation of the poor and lower-middle peasants, and can only be honest and honest, and must not talk and move randomly, so they have to write a letter to instruct me not to send money unless I have to, and try my best to save up and entrust people to bring money back.
My mother told me that sometimes a month or two has passed since receiving money, and some people come to borrow money, saying that no one believes it at all: Why may it be spent, dozens of dollars can be spent so fast?
Rural people have no place to earn money, as if dozens of dollars can spend a year, do not know that in our family even if we buy all the grain, it is far from enough to eat.
I went to work in the chromium mine, which was a great blessing for me and our family, and later learned that the mining of this chrome mine was forced by the helplessness of the special period, in fact, it was also the misfortune of the country.
Not to mention the various drawbacks, only in terms of the environment, it will harm one side, from the concentrator to the downstream rich village of Wangjiazhuang, stretching for more than 20 kilometers, and the riverbed of the Fushui River is covered with a thick layer of slag, and the white expanse is white.
The original clear river water is all seriously polluted, losing the function of irrigation and drinking, and the losses caused to agriculture are incalculable, not counting the endless troubles left by environmental pollution.
In the end, because the only bit of ore vein was about to be mined, it was forced to stop production and finally abandoned, so that the country avoided greater losses, including not continuing to pollute the environment more seriously.
Poor ''Patient''
Remembering such a thing, I will tell you about it here?
It was some of the observations of my classmate Fan Liuzhi and I who served the "mentally ill person" in Xi'an for more than four months.
In the small family area of the berylic mine, a street walked to the head of a cigarette, but there were two mentally ill people swinging back and forth.
One is "Liu Crazy", thirty or forty years old, is a bachelor, the family is not good, but it is very luxurious.
In the early days of the Cultural Revolution, two rebel factions attacked each other, and instead of trying to persuade each other, he became the target of the two factions' joint attack, was beaten into a concussion, and several hospitals could not be cured, leaving behind sequelae.
Although he can still work, good or bad, no one cares about him, but he can't let him drink. This person often went mad and cursed people after drinking, and he scolded the great leaders and socialism, and if he had been arrested long ago, he would have been shot.
I was sent to the Shangnan County Public Security Bureau several times, and there was no wine to drink there, just like no one else. Sent back to the mine, the old disease recurred, borrowed wine to go crazy, and scolded. Over time, everyone was not surprised.
The other is said to be the former deputy mine director, a northeasterner, surnamed Huang, an intellectual, in charge of technical work, or an old qualified Communist Party member, and has a friendship with the leader of the provincial metallurgical bureau.
Because he likes to stick to principles, he is said to be a character on the black line. In the early days of the Cultural Revolution, he was beaten into a bourgeoisie, beaten at the criticism meeting, but also nervous, did not say a word for several days, often did some strange actions, did some inexplicable things, and was so silent that people were terrible.
Later, the order was restored, and it was said that he was wronged and asked the mine to send him to Xi'an for treatment, and the family proposed to be accompanied by xi'an people in the mine, and Fan Liuzhi and I were fortunate to be selected.
The two of us escorted him to Xi'an, where his lover and his sixteen- and seventeen-year-old daughter went. Xi'an's only psychiatric hospital is in the southern suburbs, who knows the hospital business is so good! The hospital was overcrowded, tossing and turning for days, and it was impossible to stay in.
Fortunately, there was a large village called Beichitou Village, and the farmers vacated their houses as hotels for patients and their families to live in first and go to the outpatient clinic every day. We also rented two rooms, the farmer's soil kang is still clean, and there are still "plays" in the village every day.
If there are a large number of mentally ill people living in a large village, it is not immersive, and it is difficult to convince people how there can be so many "spirit diseases". There are those who sing, those who dance, and those who shout slogans and say allegro, and they must not stop all day long. "Dongfang Hong", "The sea sails by the helmsman" and other red songs come and go. There is a female dancer who dances the "Zhongzi Dance", graceful and colorful, dances very professionally, has a "patient" performance every day, and accompanies the audience every day.
There are also memorized quotations and "old three articles", memorized well, word for word, can shout for an hour or two in one breath, tireless. If it weren't for the Cultural Revolution, these people might have been talents, which is a pity.
The patient had a family watching, and the two of us walked around the village after dinner, and we could see a lot of strange performances, which were very lively. I didn't know there was another world here!
Later, when we were finally admitted to the hospital, the two of us were much more relaxed, and a little thing was rotated back to the mine, anyway, the road fee was reimbursed.
The patient's family instructed us to go to Xixia County (Shangnan County down a little bit is Xixia County, Henan Province) to buy or exchange some rice when we went back to the mine to report, one pound of flour for one pound, and half a pound of coarse grain for one pound.
The rice produced there is very famous around, the large "September Cold", the grains are crystal clear, the rice is soft and sticky, and eating a meal is the afterscent in the mouth, wonderful, straight to make you remember.
I can eat a pound of dry rice without cooking, which is better than our Xi'an Dongda's "Osmanthus Ball" japonica rice, which is the best I have eaten so far.
Then carry some pork, fungus, tianma, etc. that are out of stock, and bring them back to Xi'an to send to the relevant personnel.
Four months passed quickly, and although the patient's condition did not improve, their family did two big things in the meantime. The daughter was recruited to the mine, and the family was also converted from temporary workers to regular workers, full-time care and escort of patients.
In the past four months, the salaries of the two of us have been paid, as well as travel expenses, hotel fees, bus fares, etc. are all reimbursed.
The two family members are not in vain, and all the expenses are reimbursed by the public, think about how many people have been rectified because of the political movement, how much harm has been caused to individuals and families, and how much economic loss has been caused to the country? So many people are engaged in mining, mineral processing work has nothing to do with things, the cost of products is naturally very high, can not be poor? But in that era, the emphasis was on the big pot of rice, and it was necessary to be poor and poor, and no one cared about these things.
Burn a car, build a car
Normal production is not worth the loss, not to mention the frequent accidents.
Because the previous rules and regulations of the Cultural Revolution were said to be the management, carding, and pressure on the masters of the working class, the normal order of safe production was not lightly undermined, and the victims were often these "masters".
The strict prohibition of smoking in the car repair room should not only be a rule, but also a common sense, which was also ignored in that era, everyone was the master, no one could control anyone, the rules and regulations were useless, and there were not a few people who smoked next to gasoline barrels.
One day an oil basin in the auto repair room caught fire inexplicably, originally there was no big thing, if there was a fire extinguisher, the problem was solved by spraying it, or covered with fireproof sand, it would not cause a fire.
Who knows these necessary fire prevention measures are not available, the people present are busy, take off their work clothes to cover the oil basin, not only did not extinguish the flames, but overturned the oil basin, with flames of gasoline flowing to the repair of the large truck, igniting the car fuel tank, suddenly the flames soared, a car and the repair room greenhouse was burned into a pile of scrap iron.
Afterwards, the three people present blamed each other, and one of them accidentally threw the cigarette butt into the oil basin after the other two insisted on smoking (because he also admitted that he did smoke).
The man was therefore arrested and imprisoned by the Public Security Bureau, but the father of the young man who was arrested was a security cadre in the mine, had certain legal knowledge and fire prevention experience, believed that the cigarette butt was a dark fire, and could not light gas oil, and did experiments at home to confirm it.
Moreover, he and the People of the Shangnan County Public Security Bureau were familiar with him, so he specially went to the Public Security Bureau with gasoline and cigarettes, conducted experiments in person, and asked the people present to throw all the cigarettes they were smoking into the tea cup filled with gasoline, and the cigarette butts not only did not cause a fire, but were annihilated by gasoline.
The experiment denied the testimony of two witnesses, and the young man was released on the spot, and the matter was closed.
In the era of the planned economy, all kinds of systems were dogmatic, their concepts were backward, they advocated revolutionary enthusiasm but lacked scientific management, the slogans of "'Man will triumph over heaven'" were shouted in the heavens, and the laws of nature were disregarded, but they believed in what "how bold people are, how productive the earth is", and "as long as there are people, all human miracles can be created".
It is not at all surprising that the national economy is on the verge of collapse amid the clamor of the slogan "Grasp the revolution and promote production".
At that time, most of the trains run on the railway were trucks, and there was no high-speed rail, unlike now, mainly trains, high-speed trains and buses.
Some trucks have dragged coal from Xinjiang to the port, and then imported coal has been rumbled from the port to Xinjiang, and all departments have done things according to plan and do not pay attention to economic efficiency.
After the reform and opening up, people gradually realized the truth that "science is the primary productive force", began to respect science and talent, and the state also stipulated that materials should not be allowed to flow backwards, so as to avoid this kind of labor and hurt the people and money.
Now to young people, they may not believe it, but this kind of thing did happen in those years.
I should be more down-to-earth in the mine, and I do not reject being a "slag pickpocket", the internal reason is because the family economy is more difficult, the wages of tunnel workers are relatively high, the food standards are also high, and there are subsidies for going down the well.
The leader of the mining workshop at that time was still very good to me, and after I had basically recovered after a long time of resting from the work injury on my knee, it happened that the workshop was engaged in technological innovation, led by the old electrician Master Liu, who planned to build a battery car by himself.
In those years, everything was politically controlled, which was also a political task, and the first item on the material procurement list was the battery, and the "beauty difference" of the purchasing battery fell on my head.
I did not dare to be sloppy at all, went to the mine to do various certificates, introduction letters, went to the canteen to get some food stamps, borrowed money from the financial department... played a generous ride not to take the mine's smooth car, the first day the county town lived in Yan Changjing, the next day before dawn, I took the shuttle bus straight to Xi'an.
On the north side of the east gate of Xi'an, there is a small "Forward Hostel", with twenty or thirty houses and a small second floor. The mine has been chartered here for many years with two rooms and four beds, which are specially used for drivers who deliver concentrate powder to Xi'an 'Metallurgical Geological Exploration Company' (near Lujia Village on Dayan Pagoda Road) overnight.
I took the letter of introduction to the counter and told the waiter: I also live here at night, and if the two rooms are full of drivers, please leave me another bed.
The waiter seemed to have made a white eye at me, and seemed to think that I was slamming the door?
I hurried to the battery factory after leaving this sentence, not expecting that things would be more complicated than I thought. The main material for making batteries is ''lead''', which is not only a shortage of unified shopping funds, but also an important strategic material, after all, making bullets is more important than making batteries.
I just explained my intentions, and people asked me: Do you have a plan?
Where is there any plan, only our own small plan to build a battery car, I am a ''Xi'an people'' from the mountains, where do you understand this? If you don't understand, you have to pretend to understand, say it, and don't make people amused?
The reception staff was very patient, and told me that I would first apply from the mine to the superior unit ''Provincial Metallurgical Bureau'', and the bureau's material department would include it in the plan, and then the mine could be transferred to ''Lead Ingot'' according to the distribution index, and the battery factory must have an equal weight of lead ingot plus the loss rate, in order to arrange production in line according to the plan.
It's really annoying, so troublesome, hurry up and follow it!
Down is to run the metallurgical geology company, at night with the driver who lives in the hotel to discuss, back and forth with notes, materials, certificates, busy.
It took more than half a month to toss and turn before the "lead ingot" was fixed. But there is still trouble, I did not wait in Xi'an to destroy the goods, but I heard that they were all pulled to the chrome mine, I ran to the metallurgical geology company to intercept it, I did not expect to touch a nose of ash for shengsheng, I really do not understand.
At that age, everything has a plan, there are also ''rules and regulations',' 'lead ingots', 'if you don't go through the chrome mine', 'enter the warehouse', and then take it out to do a ''warehouse'' formalities, that is, it does not conform to the system, although it may be ''take off your pants and fart'', but you can't get it without following the rules.
Everyone eats public rice, the state has policies, the rules are greater than the law, no one wants to find themselves uncomfortable, you say this ''big pot rice'',' good or bad?
My efforts still have some effect, finally in the battery manufacturing plant queued up, ''lead ingots'' have also been pulled into the manufacturing plant's ''library'', finally can breathe a sigh of relief, haha!
I have to add a little, the mine leader has more eyes, know that it is not easy to apply for a time, by the way, more, this time first make twelve batteries, eight for the mining workshop to make battery cars, the extra four for the car team as spare parts.
According to the driver who pulled the lead ingot, only half of it was pulled from the warehouse this time, and there was still plenty of materials left.
When the planned economy is particularly tight, there is no unit that does not consider for itself, do not have to worry about what cost accounting, fake big gong and small gong are very popular "unspoken rules".
Busy these days should I also rest, right?
Will be outside, not handsome, I do not have to destroy the goods every day, that is not a destructive thing, people's battery factory is a fixed-point production unit, a seedling in a thousand acres of land, the business is very good, can not finish the work.
I run every few days to ask, every time I throw at me is a sentence: destroy is useless, rest assured to wait, what a first come, then come, right?
In accordance with the requirements of the leader, I wrote a note at both ends of the three days for the driver to carry to the workshop director to report the progress, and the director also said a word: Wait, be diligent and destroy!
This is a happy time for me, I live with confidence, anyway, everything is reimbursed, there is a poor subsidy, the tickets to go far away to take the bus are kept, you can also be reimbursed, where is there such a comfortable good thing?
My family is not in Xi'an, and I have a lot of time every day, first of all, I walk around and walk around many corners that I have not been to in Xi'an City.
Or go to the Bell Tower Xinhua Bookstore to read books, from the first floor to the second floor, basically do not pick or choose, get what is in hand to see what, look down when it is pleasing to the eye, and change a book if it is not smooth, anyway, some are, a bubble is a day.
When you are hungry, you can eat a little at the nearest small restaurant in Ping'an Market: a bowl of vegetarian noodles, a dime of meat noodles, steamed steamed buns, roasted cakes are five points, two or two food stamps, and a large bowl of green vegetable soup a bowl of six points.
In short, choose the cheapest to eat, do not have to eat, do not hungry.
In fact, it is all just a pleasure in suffering, I dare not forget at any time, there are five people in the rural heyang family who struggle on the hunger line every day, and I want to save every copper plate.
But there are exceptions, once I went to the 'Red Star Sweet Shop' on East Avenue with my second cousin, it was exactly the afternoon meal time, and the two of them were hungry, so they went in and bought two pounds of cooked Lantern, sixty, filled with four bowls, and when my cousin ate twenty or so, I couldn't eat it, I was not ambiguous at all, more than thirty Lanterns were swept away, it was a generous time, to relieve a hunger.
At that time, the vast majority of students were still working in the field, whether it was middle school or primary school, the same age in the whole city of Xi'an was very small, but often went to find Changlan Chen, he was at that time because of his myopia in the Qingyou River could not recruit workers, painstaking efforts to transfer back to Xi'an, this also often called Guo Dali together, so not lively!
In the long wait, more than a month passed, and finally twelve batteries were prepared, and they returned to the mine without stopping for a moment.
The machine repair workshop was not idle during this period of time, the car had already been assembled in place, the battery was immediately acted, and in less than three days, this "small rail battery car" made entirely by self-reliance was born and became a "baby egg" in the mining workshop.
This car is dedicated to the 109 pit road, on the side of the pit to flatten a piece of land, built a large shed, is the parking lot is also a charging place, next to a large porcelain cylinder and several boxes of bottled steaming water, and on the side of the big is a small 'charger'" room, the house has several boxes of bottled sulfuric acid.
In addition to driving during the day to pull mines, pull materials, also pull people, charge at night, usually with sulfuric acid solution, etc. are all done by me.
Months of time without white tossing, no matter how much benefit can be added, no matter the size of this car, anyway, from now on I can also be regarded as a ''driving''", huh!
Because of the common memory, the students fifty years later cherish today, and everyone uses every possible opportunity to meet frequently to commemorate the lost youth.
(From left): Wang Weiguo, Liu Peiming, Pan Weizhe, I, Sun Yu'an
——Taken in the summer of 2021
Author: Song Yanan, male, from Xi'an, Shaanxi, born in 1951, Xi'an City Six Middle School Five Years Consistent System 69 high school graduates, in 1969 with the school arrangement to Shangnan County Qingyouhe Commune to the countryside to join the team, after recruiting workers to the "Ministry of Governance gold In the Ministry of Shangnan Ming Mine" to work, years later with the unit to work in Hanzhong "Hanjiang Iron and Steel Factory", Xi'an "China Steel Xizhong" and other enterprises of the quality assurance department, until retirement.
Source: Zhiqing Love Affair