As a rural student in his 50s, I often heard my parents talk about the hard times in the countryside in the 50s and 60s.
There is a lack of everything, not to mention the lack of food and clothing, and the people's hearts are even more aggrieved.
Although life is much better now, every time they touch that memory, the old people always shake their heads again and again: "Don't you dare to go back to that era!"
What kind of era was that? How hard are the days? Today, let me open the dusty history for a long time and relive those unbearable years.
Let's talk about food first. At present, our people can't do without meat, but in that era of scarcity, food has become a luxury.
According to my father's recollections, in those days, the village implemented "unified purchasing and marketing," and the grain grown by the peasants had to be sold to the state at a low price, and he could only survive on meager food rations.
At the end of the year, if you can eat meat once or twice, you will be lucky.
More often, the whole family can only nibble on the nest head and sweet potatoes to satisfy their hunger.
An old man in the village once said to me: "At that time, I was really hungry and afraid, and when the spring famine came, the people in the village had to dig wild vegetables and gnaw tree bark to make a living."
Hunger became a lingering nightmare of that era.
Let's talk about it. Nowadays, when we go into the city to go shopping, we are dazzled by all kinds of fashionable clothes.
But in the fifties and sixties, a decent new shirt and pants were hard to come by.
According to the old people in the village, at that time, the state implemented a cloth ticket system, and it was impossible to buy cloth without a cloth ticket.
In order to save money on cloth tickets, the women in the village had to spin and weave their own threads, and a piece of clothing could be worn for three or five years without changing.
More children's children rely on one or two coarse cloth clothes all year round, and they shiver in winter.
Poor, so poor that he can't even afford a decent piece of clothing.
After talking about food and clothing, let's talk about spiritual life.
In today's world where information is so developed, let's have a little mobile phone in hand, and news and entertainment information will come to our faces.
But in that "closed" era, was the peasants' spare time only watching the sky and chatting?
According to the old party secretary's recollection, at that time, the countryside could be described as extremely scarce in "spiritual food".
There was no electricity or radio in the village, and the peasants' knowledge of the outside world was limited to primary school textbooks.
In order to enrich cultural life, the village organized a "propaganda team" to carry out propaganda and run blackboard newspapers at two ends in three days.
However, in the face of the reality of hunger and cold, how can the peasants bother to deal with those slogan-style propaganda?
An old man once complained to me: "At that time, all I thought about was how to fill my stomach, how could I have the leisure to read newspapers and listen to plays?" I've never even seen a radio, let alone a television. "
It can be seen that it was an era of extreme material and spiritual scarcity.
In addition to food and clothing, personal freedom is also severely restricted.
During the period of the People's Commune, the peasants' production and life had to be subordinated to collective arrangements, and individual freedom could be said to be minimal.
According to the old accountant in the village, at that time, the peasants worked in the fields, and they had to have people count the number of people and record the work points, just like clocking in and out.
Those who skip work or work less will have their work deducted.
Want to go out to work when you're not working?
That's even more of a dream! The so-called "rural labor" is like a screw in a machine, and there is nowhere to live without the collective.
Just as some peasants lamented: "At that time, people were like animals, they gave their lives to the production team, and they had no right to be the masters at all."
Freedom has become an unattainable luxury.
Looking back at the fifties and sixties, poverty, hardship, and grievance became the main theme of that era.
Of course, we cannot completely deny the progress of that era, and the rapid progress of industrial construction and rural cooperation laid the foundation for later development.
However, transcendent development that is divorced from reality and the excessive pursuit of the "Great Leap Forward" will eventually lead to the people's lack of livelihood and the withering of all industries.
As an old man who lived through that era said: "When it comes to that era, the memory is full of suffering, and there is no beauty at all." If I were to go back to that time, I would rather not live!"
Today's China is no longer the same.
Don't worry about food and clothing, and have extra money in your pocket; Housing conditions have been greatly improved, and hundreds of millions of farmers have moved into well-off houses; Rural compulsory education is fully covered, and the quality of farmers is rising; Personal freedom is guaranteed, and the army of migrant workers is rushing between the city and the countryside......
The vicissitudes of life all show that the farmers' sense of gain and happiness is rising.
As an old farmer sighed: "The hard days are gone, and we farmers dare not forget this happy life that we farmers are looking forward to!"
Comrades, looking back at those years of suffering, we do not mean to deny the past or belittle history.
On the contrary, we should take history as a mirror, carry forward the past and forge ahead into the future, and create a better tomorrow for the peasants at a new historical starting point.
Only by giving priority to the development of agriculture and rural areas, making up for the shortcomings of rural development in rural revitalization, and allowing the fruits of reform and development to benefit farmers more and more fairly, can we build a solid bridge to common prosperity.
Let us work hand in hand, continue to struggle in the call of the times, and write a new chapter in the development of "three rural" with sweat and wisdom!
Old irons, have you ever been touched by the tragic experience of the peasants in the fifties and sixties?
What kind of life inspiration do you draw from the life stories of the older generation?
You may wish to share your feelings and insights in the comment area, let us look at this heavy memory with a calm and dialectical eye, and inspire the power of forging ahead in the inheritance of red genes!