Chapter 174

Even during the People's Commune period, people could raise chickens and pigs at home.

Commune production teams generally do not distinguish between meat and food. Each family must be self-sufficient. In areas where pigs can be raised, each family usually raises only one pig a year and cannot afford to raise more than that.

From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, the pigs are raised and slaughtered for a meal. The remaining pork is made into bacon and saved to be eaten throughout the year. Lard is also boiled and saved for use throughout the year.

Otherwise, you don’t even have a meat ticket, and you can’t buy meat even if you have money.

Of course, there are also poor people who raise poultry and livestock and sell them to purchasing stations in exchange for money, which they use for other purposes, such as paying their children’s tuition.

Just as Li Zhiguo was sitting in the yard chatting with his eldest brother-in-law's family, Liang Ma came into the main room with a cold dish, and it was time for dinner.

"Honghua, come here quickly, this red envelope is too much."

Liang's father's hands were shaking and he could hardly hold on.

"How much did you give?"

Mother Liang hurried over, as she had been curious about how much money was inside.

"Fifty yuan in total, and fifty kilograms of food coupons. Other families can't get so much as a dowry when marrying off their daughters. He also gave one yuan each to Xiaoyu and Xiaodong."

Liang's father was a little suspicious that his daughter might have brought back a son-in-law.

"Oh, that's too much. Brother Li just gave Qiuqiu five dollars outside.

You said that he didn't even consider the money as money. I don't even know what kind of relationship he has with Erya from my uncle's family. How come he recognizes our daughter as his sister?"

Liang's mother also felt that something was wrong. Wouldn't it be better to use the money to find a wife? What's the point of recognizing a sister? At most, you'll just hear a sound?

"Let's ask later. Let's entertain the guests first and see if we can get some feedback during the meal."

With trembling hands, Liang's father stuffed the money back into the red envelope, then put it in his trouser pocket. He stroked it several times and felt the thickness of the red envelope. Only then did he feel at ease.

"Brother, it's time to eat."

The two children started shouting, and Liang Ladi also came out from the kitchen.

"Okay, let's eat."

Li Zhiguo looked at his watch and said, "Oh my god, it's almost one o'clock. If I hadn't sat here waiting, I would have fainted from hunger."

When we got to the main room, we saw the food on the table. It was very good. There were bacon, eggs, chicken offal, and shredded cucumber. It was time to have a drink.

My eldest brother-in-law Liang Zhenglin was busy pouring wine and sat next to her to keep her company, while letting my sister sit on the other side.

Liang's father was also helped over to eat together, and it became more lively with more people.

After eating and drinking for a while, Liang Ladi explained the situation again. Everyone understood that Li Zhiguo came to the countryside for research, so it was no wonder that he came to the village.

"Brother Li, is my second uncle in good health?"

Liang Zhenglin asked about Dr. Liang’s husband. This Brother Li must be a relative there.

"Very good. We drank together last time."

Li Zhiguo thought for a moment and said, "My wife gave birth to two children, both of whom were delivered by your second aunt. I have known your second aunt since 1953. I have also known Ladi for several years and we are very familiar with each other."

Liang Ladi said quickly: "I got a job at the steel mill because of my brother's help."

"Ah! This is the job you found for my third sister."

Liang Zhenglin didn't expect that there was such a relationship. The Liang family was also shocked because they had never heard Ladi mention this.

Li Zhiguo explained: "In 1953, just after the National Day, my wife was giving birth in the hospital, and it happened that Ladi came to the city to look for a job.

Dr. Liang asked me for help, and coincidentally, I helped Ladi get a job in the steel rolling mill.

It’s been almost four years now, and Ladi has been promoted to a full-time employee.”

"So this is ah!"

Everyone understood, but they didn't seem to understand it. They always felt that this relationship was not that simple.

Li Zhiguo added: "I haven't seen Ladi for a while, and I just happened to meet her in the car today.

On the way, I told her that I had a vacant house with a separate entrance and seven rooms in the city, and I would give it to her to live in when I got back.

It will be convenient for you to go to the city to play in the future, and you will have a place to stay."

It just so happened that, except for the second son who became a son-in-law, all the other members of the Liang family were at home. He wanted to try to use his power to pressure others and remove the obstacles for Liang Ladi to give birth to a child for him in the future.

"A courtyard with a separate entrance and seven rooms. Is it for my third sister to live in?"

Liang Zhenglin felt a little uneasy. He had been to Beijing and knew how tight the housing supply was there. You actually have an empty yard.

Li Zhiguo nodded. "It's empty anyway, so I'll let Ladi live there for free. She can also help me clean up. The yard is not far from the factory where she works, so it's quite convenient for her to live there."

The Liang family was speechless for a moment. Is this a cleaning matter? If you rent it to someone else, you will have to collect dozens of yuan in rent every month.

After being stunned for a while, Liang Zhenglin couldn't help asking: "Brother Li, if you let your third sister live in the yard, your family won't say anything!"

Li Zhiguo smiled and said, "I have another large courtyard with three entrances next to Dashilan, with dozens of rooms. I can't live in it all. I have the final say in the family."

The Liang family was stunned again. What kind of financial situation is your family under? There is really no need to acknowledge such a poor sister.

Li Zhiguo did not plan to let Liang's relatives go to the city to work. Firstly, jobs are really tight now, and secondly, he cannot put all the burden of raising chickens on Qin's second uncle, so he wants the Liang family to share some of the burden.

This brother-in-law has great potential in raising chickens, so he can be trained with emphasis. His five dollars is not so easy to get.

After finishing his meal, Li Zhiguo suggested taking a nap and decided to stay here tonight and go back to the city with Liang Ladi tomorrow.

Liang Ladi quickly took the person to her room, where she lived with her younger sister Xiaoyu.

My younger brother Xiaodong lives in a room by himself, which is also saved for use as a wedding house in the future.

"Ladi, I'm going to take a nap first. I'll give you my watch. Wake me up at three o'clock in the afternoon. No, four o'clock. I need to go around the village for research."

Li Zhiguo yawned, he couldn't bear it anymore. He got up too early, took a car, walked, and even went into the woods. Now he was really sleepy.

"Hey! Have a good rest."

Seeing that there was no one else at the door, Liang Ladi suddenly leaned forward as her body softened.

This frightened Li Zhiguo, and he quickly whispered, "No, if we are discovered, it will be over. Let's go to the grove tomorrow."

"Ok!"

Liang Ladi responded and hurriedly helped to take off his shoes. After seeing the man lying down, she went out with a red face, holding the watch in her hand and checking the time later.

Li Zhiguo shook his head. He hadn't seen blood yet. He would wait until he got back to the courtyard. Good food is worth a day late.

In the afternoon, after being woken up, Li Zhiguo began to visit the village as a technician from the Ministry of Agriculture, and during the visit he called the village manager to accompany him.

Although only one village was surveyed, it is still first-hand real data.

We had stewed chicken at Liang's house in the evening. The next morning, we contacted a doctor to come to our house to diagnose Liang's father. The doctor said that there was nothing serious and he just needed to take care of himself.

So after lunch, Li Zhiguo and Liang Ladi left.

On the way, I went to the grove where I had been yesterday. I stayed there for half an hour but didn't find any mushrooms, so I had to go back to the city.

The time was just right, so we could get the job done in the courtyard in the afternoon to avoid any unexpected events.

"Lady, do you regret it?"

"Brother, it's too late. It's too late to regret!"

"That's the truth."

They both stayed in the courtyard at night. The next morning, Liang Ladi went to work at the steel mill with a sleepy face. She only took two days off.

Li Zhiguo did not go home either. He left the yard and went to the Ministry of Agriculture.

"Director Fang, I have an idea that needs your strong support."

As he spoke, he handed over a drawing, which was a masterpiece of his hard work.

"what is this?"

Director Fang was confused. He saw a few wavy lines on the paper, and a black thing underneath. Then there were two lines connected to the top, and then there were two more lines.

What kind of crop can grow into the sky? "Director, this is a water pump, an agricultural machine that goes with the thresher.

Didn’t I go to Fengtai for research and find that farmland irrigation has always been a big problem?

my country's traditional irrigation method is mainly to build reservoirs to store water, then construct canals to drain water during the flood season and carry out large-scale irrigation.

The advantage is convenience, but the disadvantage is that it wastes too much water. Once the reservoir water resources are insufficient, irrigation has to rely on manpower.

I saw two adults carrying a water basket, standing on the ridge of the field, pumping water from the river for irrigation. This is too inefficient."

After a pause, Li Zhiguo continued, "So my next step is to conquer the water pump. As long as the water can submerge the water pump, irrigation can be carried out.

The electricity for the water pumps can be supplied using densely packed transmission lines, which are common in rural areas.

Connect the cable to the water pump, peel off the other end of the wire, and use a bamboo pole to hang it on the overhead wire. Once the live wire and the neutral wire are connected, the water pump can work.

Although there is suspicion of stealing electricity, the meat is rotten in the pot, and the electricity fee can be registered through the power of the water pump. "

"Li Zhiguo, your idea is very reliable, but this water pump is not easy to research.

As far as I know, there are only a few factories in the country that research water pumps, and most of the research is based on the drawings from the big brother.

We used to have a Tongyi Pump Factory in Beijing, but last year the public-private partnership merged into the Fifth Factory, but it doesn’t seem to have produced any results, and it hasn’t been used in agriculture yet.”

Director Fang is still very excited. If water pumps can be popularized like threshers, it will be a huge help to agriculture, far more than threshers.

Because the thresher mainly saves labor and rushes to harvest grain, it does not generate any income.

But it is different with water pumps. As long as irrigation is in place, grain production can be increased. With the country's current size, even if the increase is only half, that would be 10 million tons of output, which is simply unimaginable.

Li Zhiguo then said: "I want to design a small agricultural water pump, which has low power and low irrigation speed.

But its advantage is that it is small, which can reduce the cost, so that a dozen households in the rural area can pool their money and afford it.

Another advantage is that the production speed is fast, and the annual production capacity can reach millions, which can benefit 10 million rural households and solve the water problem for tens of millions of people.

If it reaches tens of millions, every household in the country will be able to use a water pump, so there will be more food to support industrial construction.

So, the result of my field research is that instead of simply studying how to increase the yield of a certain crop, it is better to solve the problem of agricultural irrigation first.

From the research and production of water pumps to their popularization, they are indispensable and beneficial to the country and the people. "

"Li Zhiguo, you did a great job on this research. Wait a minute, I'll write the report now. No, I'll just call and report directly."

Director Fang thought it made perfect sense, because farmland irrigation is a big problem every year and many farmers are waiting for the flood season to store water.

But if there are water pumps, we can store water in advance, so that we can provide emergency relief even in the event of drought, instead of watching the little water in the river evaporate.

Director Fang immediately made a phone call, and when he expressed Li Zhiguo's views, the person on the other end of the phone was also very excited.

"Lao Fang, your understanding coincides with the above idea.

The authorities had been planning this issue several years ago, but due to a lack of talent, the hydraulic machinery major only had its first batch of graduates last year.

We have introduced two sets of deep well pump drawings from Big Brother for research.

The only water pump factory in the country has exchanged more than 1,800 drawings and is working overtime to research water pumps.

The higher-ups plan to invest more than 10 million next year to support the pump factory. The former Tongyi Pump Factory in Jingcheng will be transformed into the Jingcheng Pump Factory, with a planned annual output of 3,000 pumps.

The senior leader on the other end of the phone was very concerned about the water pump, but it couldn't be repaired quickly because the technology was too backward.

Upon hearing this, Director Fang tentatively said, "I have a technical backbone here who wants to design a water pump that can produce one million units per year."

"Lao Fang, you said to invest a million, which is difficult. The more than 10 million is to support 17 water pump factories, which are divided into backbone and key ones.

Beijing is just a small factory, and we can only get about 500,000 yuan of investment at most."

The big boss felt that one million was too much and he couldn't handle it all.

"Boss, I'm talking about producing one million water pumps per year, not investing one million."

Director Fang gritted his teeth, wondering if he had been tricked by that kid Li Zhiguo. But when he thought about it carefully, although that kid had no conscience, he never made empty promises.

"How many, a million? Lao Fang, are you crazy? A million, do you know what that means?

I will give you more than 10 million yuan, and you will send me 1 million water pumps."

The big boss was so angry that he laughed. He would never dare to think of such a thing in his dreams.

"Leader, this was proposed by a technician here, Li Zhiguo, who led the research and development of my country's first backhoe excavator. He also invented the thresher. He was also the model worker in Beijing last year.

Also, at the beginning of spring, the chicken incubator that caused a lot of buzz was also developed under his leadership. Now, a large number of chicks have been released to various farms.

It was Li Zhiguo who said that he wanted to research and develop a small agricultural water pump with an annual output of one million units. "

Director Fang is just going to brag a lot first and then see the reaction.

"You mean Xiao Li? Of course I have an impression of him. Is he with you?"

The big boss suddenly thought that this matter was credible and hoped that he would be slapped in the face.

"Yes, he is from our Ministry of Agriculture after all. He just came back from a field trip to the countryside and came to report to me."

Director Fang also hopes that it can succeed, as it will be a great thing that will benefit the country and the people.

"Tell Xiao Li to wait. I will gather some people over now and discuss this in person.

You should first ask him if he is willing to come and serve as the director of the Beijing Pump Factory. It would be a waste of his talent for him to stay in the steel mill and work as a fitter."

The big boss was thinking about an investment of more than 10 million. The previous agreement was to invest 500,000 in Beijing. Now he dared to ask for 5 million, so that Beijing could become a big investor.

"Li Zhiguo, a senior leader will be coming over soon. Have a good chat with him about producing one million water pumps a year."

Director Fang places great emphasis on the word "million", so please don't try to deceive me.

"No, I was just giving an example. If it's just one factory, the maximum it can produce is 100,000 units a year. If you want to produce a million units, you have to expand it at least tenfold."

Li Zhiguo thought that according to the original trajectory, by the end of the 1970s, water pumps would appear in remote rural areas, and the output should be around two million units a year.

This is a difference of twenty years, and even if it is reduced by half, there will still be a difference of at least ten years.

Especially now that he has obtained the data from the previous Tongyi Pump Factory, it only produced less than 50 clean water pumps a year. Isn't this nonsense? Even if it is not a public-private partnership, it will go bankrupt.

Therefore, if you want to reach the target of producing one million units, the amount of manpower required is enormous. Ten million in capital is the minimum, and ten thousand workers are not too many.

But the annual output value can benefit 10 million people. Compared with the investment, the rate of return is extremely high. Socialism should ignore costs and only look at results.

Director Fang smiled and said, "If you have any difficulties, you can raise them. We will set goals based on the actual situation. You are the boss of the pump factory, so you have the final say."

"Wait, what do you mean I'm the boss?"

Li Zhiguo looked confused, wondering why he still didn't understand.

"You will be the director of the water pump factory. I will assign you a few deputy directors and I will be the secretary. I think it will work."

Director Fang wanted to keep this person. From the thresher to the chicken incubator, he felt that this guy had a destiny with the Ministry of Agriculture and it would be a waste of talent to keep him in the Ministry of Metallurgy.

"No, can I be a factory director at my level? At least I need to be a level 12 cadre, and even a small factory needs to be a level 15 cadre.

Even if I count with the street office, I'm only level 22 now. Does that mean I'm going to be promoted seven levels in a row?

Director Fang, if you can really give me a promotion, I will apply to take up the position today, even though I am ill."

Li Zhiguo originally had no intention of coming out of retirement, but the offer was too much and he couldn't refuse.

Unexpectedly, Director Fang said: "Well, Tongyi Pump Factory has now been merged into Factory 5 and is a small branch factory.

Even if it is separated again, Tongyi will still be a public-private partnership, and the highest position it can have is that of a section chief.

Taking your special circumstances into consideration, the organization can directly promote you four levels to level 18, with deputy section-level treatment, a monthly salary of 87.5 yuan, and the position of acting factory director. "

Li Zhiguo was stunned. "Director Fang, you are fooling me. I might as well continue to be a fitter. When I am promoted to level eight, my monthly salary will be 99 yuan. Isn't that great?"

"Li Zhiguo, you have to look forward. When the ten-year public-private partnership ends, the water pump factory will surely take off. By then, not to mention the 15th level, even the 12th level will not be a problem.

Take me for example, I am only level 10 at my age, and you are so young, but you have the opportunity to reach level 18. This opportunity is so rare."

Director Fang took out a pack of special-supply cigarettes and handed them over, then opened another pack and distributed one to him. He then offered his own teacup and handed it over, telling him to calm the situation down first and continue the discussion after the big boss arrived.

(End of this chapter)