High School Memory: Experiencing life at Zhiqingdian for the first time

1974 came. I went to high school in Harbin and was facing graduation that year.

Just after New Year's Day, during the winter vacation, on January 4, I followed a group of communist youth league members and student cadres from the neighboring Xiaohai school, 28 Middle School, to participate in labor and experience life in Zhiqingdian of the Taiping Commune Liye Brigade in Shuangcheng County, near Harbin City.

The northeast of January is the coldest season of the year. It was freezing cold and the north wind was howling. The leaves of the trees on both sides of the road had completely fallen, leaving only bare branches, and the road, in the fields, on the roofs, everywhere was covered with thick snow, and everywhere you looked, it was a white expanse. A group of us middle school students, packed in a large open liberation van, waving red flags and singing songs, walked all the way out of the city and drove to the countryside. We were in a very happy mood, it was like going on an outing.

28 is near the 40 Middle School where I am located, on the banks of the Songhua River. It's not far from my house. After graduating from Changchun Bayi Primary School and returning to Harbin, my sister entered this school until she graduated from middle school, and this school pays more attention to mobilizing graduates to go to the mountains and the countryside, and is a typical unit in the city every year. When my sister graduated, because her father actively supported her to go to the countryside, her father was established by the city and the province as a "model parent who actively sent her children to farm". At that time, it was the national policy to go up to the mountains and go to the countryside, but a few years after the large-scale movement to go to the mountains and go to the countryside in 1968, because many negative problems arose after the Zhiqing went to the rural frontiers, they gradually reacted to the society, and the original enthusiasm had dissipated, and people generally felt that the great strategic deployment of going up to the mountains and going to the countryside called "anti-repair and defense repair" was actually mainly to arrange employment. As a result, the students who graduate each year and their parents have changed from being proactive and enthusiastic to signing up to a common evasive. Cadres of all sizes tried to keep their children in the city to arrange work. The intellectuals and young people who go to the countryside are basically the children of workers and ordinary urban citizens, and it is almost impossible for cadres with old qualifications like dad to actively support their children to go to the countryside to work in agriculture. Dad was invited to give a report at various mobilization meetings to go up the mountain and go to the countryside all day.

This knowledge of the Liye Brigade was established in the year of her sister's graduation, and it is a model model in Daoli District of Harbin City. All are 28 middle school graduates, a total of more than 30 people, about half of them are boys and girls. The Daoli District Zhiqing Office specially sent people to live there to help manage. My sister has been in the countryside for a year and a half.

At that time, the Zhiqing went to the countryside and had already formed a model, that is, all the factories, enterprises, organs, and units in the city had set up a zhiqing point of its own system in the counties near the city, built houses separately, divided into male and female dormitories, and the zhiqing people lived and lived alone, managed alone, accepted the leadership of the rural communes and brigades, and participated in the labor with the peasants every day, and the same work points were recorded. This can not only ensure the basic life of the young intellectuals, but also avoid unnecessary contradictions with the peasants. The life of these young people is closely related to the conditions of the parents' enterprises and government units, such as the knowledge of green spots built by a large enterprise, and the enterprise is more concerned about it and pays for subsidies. Or the government agencies in charge of money and materials, such a natural life of knowledge. Some enterprises are relatively poor, or the organs are "Qingshui Yamen", and the life of Zhiqing is worse. The Liye Brigade, because it is a typical example of Daoli District, is more concerned by the superiors, so the conditions are relatively good.

This time, the 28th Central Committee organized a group of students who are about to graduate to come here, that is, to strengthen the connection between the school and the Zhiqingdian, to carry out a mobilization education for these students to go to the mountains and go to the countryside, and to let these students take the lead in registering for the countryside in the future and leading the graduates of the whole school to go to the countryside. Xiaohai is one of them. Because I was a good neighbor friend of his, and my sister was in the countryside here, I became a special representative.

When I was a child, I went to the countryside with my nanny sister at the time, went to the countryside many times to work in middle school, and went to the countryside twice, so it should be said that I am more familiar with the countryside. Looking at this establishment brigade, it seems familiar, and the rural conditions at that time were similar.

The intellectuals and young people welcomed us very much, and our students and students are all from our hometown and from our alma mater, and they naturally feel very kind. At noon we had basketball, football and table tennis with them. I was the main player of the student team in the football game and played a 2-2 draw.

When I saw my sister, I felt that she looked good and healthy. I was also very happy to see me, and took me to the dormitory to meet the female intellectuals, and proudly said to them, "This is my brother!" "These sisters also greeted me warmly. One of the boys in our hospital, Liu Yajun, is a classmate of my sister's, and he also went to the countryside at this Zhiqing point, and he was responsible for cooking for the Zhiqing. I used to know him very well, so whenever I had time, I ran to the kitchen to help him work and talk while doing it. According to him, the brigade took good care of the intellectuals and young people, and ate three meals a day, guaranteeing two meals and one pickle. Every day, put a pound of meat in the dish, and have a fine grain or sticky yellow rice for three days. Every day cooking is done in a large pot with bract rice straw burned underneath. Use the water to go to the well and then pick it up again.

Zhiqingdian has a big black dog, very powerful, it was brought by Zhiqing Guan Lijun from home, called "Kuroko". It is very fierce to the local farmers, the Zhiqing privately call the farmers "Lao tun", and those who see the appearance of the Zhiqing students are not very fierce, perhaps because they live in zhiqingdian, they can distinguish between Zhiqing and "Laotun", right? Zhiqingdian originally had a flower dog called "Willy", which was not strong at all, and zhiqing gave it to local farmers, but it was still old. There is also a big yellow dog, which is from a peasant's family, and often comes to Zhiqingdian. Kuroko, Willy and Rhubarb are three dogs who always play together in Zhiqingdian, basically circling around the kitchen, we go to fetch water, and they run back and forth.

The students in the 28th middle school brought a large number of condolence letters to the Zhiqing, all of which were written by the students mobilized by the school, and each Zhiqing was assigned many letters.

In the evening, the intellectuals held a summary meeting, criticized each other, and the students participated in education.

A deputy director of the Daoli District Zhiqing Office is leading the team here, he is a middle-aged man in his 40s, wearing a pair of glasses, thin, surnamed Han. One day he took a hammer to fix the broken door himself, and I went over to help. He said he was going to stay here for a year.

The "point chief" of Zhiqingdian is the person in charge of knowing Qingdian Zhiqing, called Yang Guoju. He is a boy in his sister's original class, his body is very strong, relatively stable and old, and he is down-to-earth and hardworking.

There is a table tennis room in Zhiqingdian with a table. There was also some sundries and a pot stove in the house. Students run to play every day. Often also see the young people and farmers playing ball, there is a farmer in his 30s with only one arm, but the ball is very good, he uses the thumb and index finger of the hand that holds the racket to pinch the ping-pong ball, throw it upwards, and then use the racket to cut, it sends out a very rotating ball, the other party returns the ball slightly higher, he will kill fiercely, especially the reverse board, hundred shots.

The large pot stove in the table tennis room is specially boiled for pigs. Zhiqingdian raised a sow and led 5 piglets. A male intellectual named Guo Wei was responsible for feeding the pigs.

Zhiqingdian also has a bookcase with many books, some borrowed from the provincial library, and the sister is the librarian. Because Dad used to be the deputy director of the provincial library, these books were borrowed by Dad for help. I read two books during my time at The Green Point, one was Gorky's Matvei. Crimea King's Life, a collection of novels by the worker writer Hu Wanchun, Who is the Creator of Miracles, was borrowed from this bookcase.

At night, we lived with the intellectuals on a large fire, which was very hot and the house was very warm. 28 Middle School sent a short-wave semiconductor radio to Zhiqingdian, the quality is very good, and more than 50 stations can be received in the evening.

I took part in a day's productive labor for my sister in the fourth team. Say yes to the team and remember your sister's work points.

On the walls of the four teams, there are slogans everywhere: "If you want to change the four teams, you have to do a big job!" "Only by doing big can we make great changes!" "Dagan is a hero, and Cat Winter is a slacker!" "Learn from Dazhai, catch up with Xiyang, and vow to turn winter idleness into winter busyness!" Northeast China because of the short frost-free period, crops can only be planted for one season, winter is long and cold, farmers have always been the habit of "cat winter", in the winter to enjoy a year of hard harvest, drink small wine, play cards. At present, the four teams must build water conservancy, improve the soil, and turn winter idleness into winter busyness.

More than 10 members of the society pulled a large carriage filled with sand and transported the sand into the ground, which was said to improve the soil and increase the yield of crops. Why use people to pull cars? It is said that people pull cars during the day and horse-drawn cars at night, so that "people can stop driving".

The students in the middle of the 28th worked all morning and went back after lunch. But I insisted on working with the members until the end of the work, because I was a "substitute worker" and I had to count the work points. 10 people in a carriage, pulled 11 carts of sand. I'm already a full laborer.

During our time at Zhiqingdian, a female Zhiqing married a local farmer. This has caused great repercussions in the local area and among intellectuals. At that time, this belonged to the real combination of zhiqing and the peasants, and it was really a revolution that took root in the countryside for a lifetime. However, there is still a lot of discussion among the intellectuals. Some said, "Does she really not want to go back to the city?" "Some people say that she is afraid of suffering and tiredness, and when she gets married, she does not have to work in the field." Rural women in the northeast get married and cook at home without going out to work. Some people even reported that the female Zhiqing had a bed-wetting problem, and the mouth was damaged and said: "She does not rush the groom official down from the kang haha."

The Spring Festival is coming, the brigade's flour grinding machine is working day and night, grinding yellow rice noodles, and the farmers are grinding hundreds of pounds of rice cakes and sticky bean buns. Zhiqingdian also began to wash the rice and grind the surface. This Spring Festival, the young people do not take a holiday, and they have choreographed many programs to perform for the peasants during the Spring Festival.

I've been exercising on a regular basis for more than two years, and I've shown myself to myself in the last few days. In the winter, everyone else is dressed tightly, and I wear autumn clothes when I go out. Carrying water and chopping firewood, working with farmers all day long, it seems to be full of energy. I played a few games with the students in the 28th, and each time I flew all over the field, kicked the opponent's goal and then retreated back as a defender, knocking people into a big heel fight, and then they didn't want to play with me. At the age of 16, I was full of youth and confidence.

The students of the 28th also held a meeting to fight the landlords, which I also participated in. In the rural areas at that time, every brigade had a "black five categories" that were controlled, that is, "the rich against the bad right.", these people were usually detained and controlled, supervising labor, and in the words of the time, "only honest and honest, not allowed to talk and move around." Every New Year's Festival, we must bring them to warn them. Whenever there is any political movement, first criticize them. When it is necessary to educate the masses in bittersweet and class, they are living targets and the best teaching materials. They are the objects of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Their descendants are called "educated children" and are politically affected. This situation did not gradually end until after 1978.

I lived in Zhiqingdian for 10 days, experienced the life of Zhiqing very realistically, and then returned to Harbin with the students of middle school 28. This 10-day life of a quasi-Zhiqing can be said to be a preview of the 5-year Life of Zhiqing that I will enter soon.

Neighbor Xiaohai's 28 middle school classmates, I went to Zhiqingdian with several of them to experience the life of going to the countryside, and went to the countryside together to the Fuyuan 68 Regiment of the Heilongjiang Production and Construction Corps for 5 years of reclamation life.