Chapter 20: The whole family joins the battle

"70 points, right?" Jiang Daguo asked. Because Jiang Meilan scored about 60 points last time, she was grinning from ear to ear this time, so she must have done better than last time.

"It's more than that, it's eighty-three points!" Jiang Meilan said with a grin.

Aunt Jiang curled her lips and said, "That's not even 100 points."

"Mom, Teacher Huang said that the test paper this time was more difficult and not many people scored above 80 points. I ranked eleventh in the class this time. By the way, there are forty people in our class." Jiang Meilan defended herself.

Jiang Daguo was surprised. "Ah? Quite a big improvement, little sister!"

"Of course, hehe." Jiang Meilan raised her lips.

"It's okay to get more than 80 points every time, but what's the point of only getting one?" Aunt Jiang glanced at Jiang Meilan, "Put down your schoolbag and go feed the chickens."

"You want me to feed the chickens again? I still have to do my homework." Jiang Meilan turned her head.

"Even if you finish your homework, you won't get a perfect score. What's the point of writing? Go feed the chickens!" Aunt Jiang stomped her feet and cursed.

Jiang Meilan grumbled in retort.

The topic changed. Aunt Jiang forgot about the milk powder and just stared at Jiang Meilan and scolded her.

Jiang Daguo took the opportunity to carry the milk powder into the bedroom.

Liu Xihua heard Aunt Jiang cursing in the yard, so she held Jiang Xiaoxiao and didn't dare to go out.

Seeing Jiang Daguo coming in, she hurriedly said, "Daguo, you really bought too much at one time. You have to save some money for the family. The work points will be settled at the end of the year."

Jiang Daguo said, "I think it won't be long before we don't have to earn work points anymore, and then we'll have money."

Liu Xihua opened her eyes wide, "No need to earn work points? What does that mean?"

"When I was queuing up to buy milk powder at the milk station, I heard many people say that the household contract responsibility system would be implemented. Other counties have already started, and our county will soon be doing so. If it's fast, we will prepare to distribute the land next month. If it's slow, it will be before National Day at the latest," said Jiang Daguo.

When Liu Xihua went to work in the fields, she heard people in the village team talk about what contracting production quotas to households meant.

That is, the fields are divided among each family according to the number of people in the family, and every autumn a certain amount of public grain is paid to the village brigade, and the surplus from the harvest belongs to them.

Some say it's good, some say it's not good.

Liu Xihua didn't know whether it was a good idea or not. She frowned and said, "Daguo, I heard some people say that the household contract responsibility system is not a good idea. You have to buy seeds and pesticides yourself. If there is no harvest, you still have to pay the public grain tax. This is a big risk. How can you make money?"

"But I heard that someone in the neighboring county got rich by implementing the household contract responsibility system," said Jiang Daguo.

Liu Xihua shook her head. "I don't think it's a good idea. It's too risky."

Jiang Xiaoxiao listened to their conversation and sighed in her heart, it turned out that the household contract responsibility system had begun.

The book says that since the household contract responsibility system was implemented, the Jiang family’s income has indeed been much less than when they were working under the collective.

That’s because the Jiang family members are all in poor health, so they can just get by in the collective and get some work points.

After the contract responsibility system was implemented, Grandpa Jiang, who had a disabled leg, worked too slowly and could hardly help with the work in the fields. Aunt Jiang, who was once the daughter of a landlord and had maids to serve her when she was young, said that she would never go to the fields to work with the former poor tenant farmers.

Jiang Meihua was married off by Aunt Jiang two years later.

Jiang Meilan was deceived by the gangsters of the village brigade to do business and did not return home for many years.

Liu Xihua later became pregnant, but because she had suffered too many miscarriages, she didn't eat well and had to take care of two little kids, so she couldn't help much with the work in the fields.

The whole family depends on Jiang Daguo alone to work, and his family has always been the poorest family in the team.

Jiang Xiaoxiao clenched her little fists, she wanted to help her family get rich!
Only when the Jiang family became rich did her life become better and she had milk to drink.

Uncle Jiang has a disabled leg and cannot be forced, so Aunt Jiang and Jiang Meilan must drive him to the fields to work. Even if they don’t do much, they are still a help. [Mom, the household contract responsibility system is the mainstream, be bold and contract it]

[The more you work, the more you earn; the less you work, the less you earn. The whole family can work together without worrying about not earning any income.]

[Mom, Dad are strong and do the heavy work, others are weak and do the light work, let's work together to get rich]

[Xiaoxiao will be able to help the family when she grows up]

Liu Xihua looked at her daughter in her arms. Jiang Xiaoxiao was looking at her, waving her little hands with a supportive expression.

Is it really that good to contract production to each household? Liu Xihua thought to herself.
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Just as Jiang Daguo guessed, by the end of May, all the village teams were rumored to be implementing the household contract responsibility system.

On the evening of May 30, team leader Jiang Guoping organized a meeting for the heads of each household, and the meeting place was Jiang Guoping's home.

He took out an old notebook with a badly worn cover from his pocket, shook it, and said, "This is the spirit of the meeting I held at the village brigade this morning. Now I will convey it to you all."

He read the contents of the notebook again, "In summary, our brigade will also start contracting production to each household. I plan to officially start the contracting from the first of next month, and today we will divide the responsibility fields of each household."

The team members had already heard about how the household contract responsibility system was implemented from other production brigades. Rich families had televisions, and everyone heard the news on TV or the broadcasts on the radio.

Just like Liu Xihua’s idea, some are happy and some are sad.

But most people were happy, rubbing their hands and saying they were ready to do a great job.

Team leader Jiang Guoping waved his hand to ask everyone to be quiet, and began to divide the land. "We will divide it according to the number of people, and then we will draw lots to choose the land."

The Jiang family, including Jiang Xiaoxiao, has a total of seven people and they divided eight acres of land.

The eight acres of land are not all good land, nor are they all together. They are divided into one, two, and three categories of land.

The land closest to the village team is the first type of land, which is called Channel 1, where seasonal vegetables are grown. Further away is Channel 2, where cash crops from dry land are grown. The farthest is the five mu of paddy field, which is Channel 3.

In addition, the Jiang family also received a load of baskets and two racks.

As for oxen for farming, ten households would raise one ox.

In addition to Jiang Daguo, there was also Uncle Jiang who came to the meeting. The father and son went home holding the lots they drew.

Aunt Jiang immediately asked them about the result of the meeting on dividing the land.

"Eight acres of land were divided, including five acres of paddy fields in Canal No. 3, one acre of vegetable field in Canal No. 1, and two acres of land in Canal No. 2," said Grandpa Jiang.

Jiang Daguo placed the distributed farm tools in the corner of the house and said, "This is for our family. The oxen are shared by ten households. We share one ox with the team leader's family."

Jiang Meihua sighed, "The cows were divided up, so my work points were gone."

"How are we going to harvest all the five acres of paddy fields?" Aunt Jiang clapped her hands in embarrassment when she heard the number she was allocated.

When we went to the collective, everyone only divided two mu of land a day.

It would take at least a month to harvest five acres of paddy field?

Liu Xihua also frowned, "Five acres of paddy field is a bit too much."

"Every family has about the same amount," said Grandpa Jiang.

Jiang Xiaoxiao listened to the Jiang family's complaints and sighed in her heart, why do they still dislike Young Master Tian?
[The whole family works together and divides the work to achieve prosperity]

[You complain about having too much land, but some people complain about having too little land. With land, there is food, with food, there is income, and with income, there is enough food and clothes to keep warm.]

(End of this chapter)