Author: Lian Chuanhao. Finishing and editing: Lian Zhongwei.
If it weren't for the Great Leap Forward in 1958, I would definitely not have been able to get into middle school with a grade like mine, because before me, I could only admit a few students in a school, and I had to walk more than 20 miles to study in the county seat.
During the Great Leap Forward this year, the Hengdian People's Commune suddenly set up two middle schools, Huangpi No. 11 Middle School (Hengdian No. 1 Middle School) and No. 21 Middle School (Chongyi Middle School).
However, there are still several students such as Wen Zhixiang, Chen Chunying, Feng Lahuan, and Zhang Silian who have not been admitted.
In 1958, the members of the Spring Festival Brigade may have eaten 10,000 catties of pork in the canteen, but the grain per mu could not produce 10,000 catties, or the grain race could not be Xiaogan, and the cotton could not catch up with Macheng.
So, from then on, among the adults and children in the New Year, a colloquial phrase was coined, comparing someone "going to Macheng" to sleeping and dreaming.
If the grain and cotton yield is high, double thousand catties, and tens of thousands of catties, it is called a satellite (borrowing the Soviet big brother's satellite), Secretary Feng in the New Year, is a model worker who has seen Chairman Mao many times, and he can't put a satellite in production, so he puts a satellite in life, saying that he wants to take the lead in realizing communism.
As soon as we said we would do it, the Great Leap Forward began, and we began to build the new communist villages (referred to as new villages) of the New Year Brigade, and in order to build "new villages," we must first demolish the "old villages." The "old village" was demolished, but only one new village was built. Households living in wide houses became narrow houses, and villages that were close to the fields became villages far away.
In 1958, my family also lived in the "new village", a family of six, two small narrow houses, a hall house and a stove house occupied one, and another one, six people could not put four beds, so I had to go to the school to live, fortunately, the school not only did not refuse, but also forced the students to live in the school.
The countryside is militarized, and the members wear yellow clothes and have to train "soldiers" in the morning; The school is even more militarized, and even the upper grades of elementary school students are forced to live on campus.
Hengdian Commune also used the spirit of the Great Leap Forward to set up a middle school, and it was also recruiting students from the first four classes, so the opening ceremony was naturally very heavy. However, at the opening ceremony, President Jiang Guangyong did not talk about learning, but how to put satellites; Talking about the fact that farmers are now making a big deal about putting steel into satellites, students should do a lot more about putting steel into satellites.
As a result, more than 200 first-year junior high school students in four classes began to learn how to tie backpacks: quilts, shoes, woolen towels, and washbasins, which should be tied like soldiers. A pair of cloth shoes should be worn on the outside of the backpack, the sole of the shoes should be facing outward, the towel should be tied on the left side of the backpack, the schoolbag should be on the right, and a basin should be buckled directly above the backpack.
After the backpacks were ready, this group of middle school students who had just entered the school gate set off on foot, aiming for Hukou, more than 20 miles away, with the task of digging iron ore.
Only when iron ore is mined first can the steel satellite be enlarged; More than 200 teachers and students tossed around in Hukou for a few days, some teachers said that the iron content of this ore is not enough, some teachers said that this is not iron ore, and some teachers said that this is simply a stone, so they went home.
On the road, they still have to walk in a neat team with high spirits, and they still sing in their mouths, "There is no Jade Emperor in the sky, there is no Dragon King on the earth, drink the three mountains and five mountains to open the way, I am here!" Song.
After a few days of returning to school, the teacher who was scouting where there were satellites brought back good news: there is iron sand in the Lishui River next to Chengguan Town, Huangpi County! Many school students pan for iron sand there, and there is iron in the iron sand.
Therefore, the school held an oath-taking meeting for teachers and students overnight, requiring everyone to bring a basin, and use the basin to scoop the sand by the river like rice, until there is only a little black sand under the basin, which is iron sand containing iron.
This time, the operatives were divided into two routes, one to Huangpi to pan for sand, and the other to stay in the school to make steel pots. I stayed in school to make steel pots, which was actually to make yellow mud jars.
First of all, get back the Guanyin soil under a small hill outside the school, mix this soil with appropriate water, and cook it like a koji, and then make a steel pot with these yellow mud that has been beaten like a glutinous cake, which is similar to making cotton nutrient reeds, but the steel pot is much larger than the nutrient reed, and one can be filled with ten catties of water.
Then the successful steel pots will be neatly placed on the ground in the classroom to dry, and after a little cooling, they will be moved to the playground to dry.
Each person can only take one thing at a time, and hold it lightly with both hands, like waiting for unearthed cultural relics; In the process of sun exposure, some steel pots will crack, crack and become waste, in case of bad weather, even if it does not rain, they have to rush into the classroom, and the inside and outside of the classroom will be a mess; No matter how good the weather is, you don't dare to leave the steel pot on the playground overnight.
In the days when I started pounding mud, I was really tired and choked, and I had to do night work at night. The loudspeaker in the school is always shouting: which class has the most steel pots, and which class has put a satellite......
On the school's propaganda board, the first place draws a satellite, the second draws a car, the third draws a horse, and the fourth draws a turtle.
If the steel pot is done in a certain quantity, it can no longer be made, and there is no place to store it if it is too much. As a result, the soldiers were divided into three routes: the female students washed the muddy tables and stools, some of the male students built earthen blast furnaces to prepare for iron smelting, and some of the male students went to Huangpi to haul iron and sand back.
I was transferred to Mosha, and the school borrowed a batch of board trucks at the handling station, and three classmates pulled a board car; I'm still an older 14-year-old, so naturally I was carrying the cart and the other two were pulling ropes on the left and right sides of the cart.
On the way back to school, people were hungry and thirsty, and their legs were weak, when two mule carts came up from behind us. It turned out that they drove an empty car to the county seat and nailed the horseshoe, and there were three horses in front of each car.
I hurriedly shouted to stop, I said we couldn't pull it, and asked them to help with it. When we got into the carriage with the sand belt people and were about to leave, an old jeep stopped in front of the carriage, and the person who got out of the carriage claimed to be from the Huangpi County Government, took a camera, and asked about our situation and wanted to take pictures of us.
I hurriedly said: It's not that we are lazy, we are hungry, and the board car will be returned to the handling station in the afternoon, and we are afraid that we will not be able to return the car on time......
The person who took the picture smiled and said, don't be afraid, I am taking pictures to praise you, you are so young and have invested in a big job, not only hard work, but also skillful work, just to meet your great leap forward sky-high energy. ……
The carriage was running, and as we waved to the county government people in the carriage, he took a picture of us again.
After the iron sand was hauled back, it was carefully packed in a steel pot, stacked layer by layer in the blast furnace, and burned 24 hours a day with chopping wood; At this time, the principal assigned each class to write a celebratory poem.
After burning for several days and nights, the blast furnace collapsed with a bang, and when the fire was extinguished and the temperature dropped, all that came out was burned into pieces like red bricks. The first furnace was a complete failure.