Chapter 38: Telling Old Tales
The table was set, with the 5 Yang brothers, Master Zhu and his 3 apprentices, plus Liu Ju Jiang and Chen Fan, making a total of 10 men.
Each person had a bowl of wine in front of them, except for Chen Fan, who had a large bowl with a wine pot warming in hot water. He also held a small wine cup in his hand, which Yang Ju had proactively prepared for him.
Master Zhu glanced at it and couldn't help but laugh. "Little Chen must be from a particular family. My master said, 'Don't drink cold wine in autumn and winter, don't walk at night, don't accept official silver when handling matters, and you'll be free from illness and disaster your whole life.' It's a pity that these old-fashioned customs haven't been seen in nearly ten years."
If it had been before October of last year, he wouldn't have dared to say this. However, after defeating the bad guys, he still had to adhere to principles on major issues. On minor matters, no one gossiped anymore. In just a few months, the social atmosphere had changed a lot.
For example, with the New Year, in the past ten years, they could only think about it behind closed doors at home, with maybe a richer dinner on New Year's Eve.
But this year, the supply and marketing cooperative had put Spring Festival couplets and firecrackers on the shelves early, along with many other New Year's goods. This was a major change.
Hearing Master Zhu's words, Chen Fan quickly laughed. "I just have a weak constitution, and my stomach doesn't feel well when I drink cold wine. It's nothing else."
Master Zhu smiled slightly and didn't say much.
Captain Yang picked up his wine bowl and naturally changed the subject. "Today, we want to thank Master Zhu and his two talented apprentices for their help, and we also want to thank Master Liu and Little Chen for their hard work. Come, let's have a toast."
Chen Fan, who had been upgraded to Little Master, picked up his small wine cup, clinked glasses with everyone's wine bowls, and took a small sip of wine. A warm current went down his throat, and his body quickly warmed up.
However, drinking on an empty stomach was indeed a bit uncomfortable, so Chen Fan prepared to eat a bite of food to suppress it.
But before he could touch his chopsticks, he saw that no one at the table was moving their chopsticks; they were all looking at Captain Yang.
What was that supposed to mean?
After taking a sip of wine, Captain Yang put down his wine bowl and then spread his hands to gesture. "Come, come, eat the dishes, eat the dishes."
Liu Ju Jiang didn't speak, and the others wouldn't say anything either. Only Master Zhu laughed. "The host goes first, the host goes first."
Captain Yang deliberately put on a stern face. "Master Zhu, don't be polite. How dare we move our chopsticks if you don't?"
Master Zhu continued to be polite. "Captain Yang, you're the eldest brother, and we have our Oldest Yang here, too. The elder brothers should definitely go first."
Captain Yang's eldest brother also joined in the urging. "Master Zhu, you're highly respected. You go, you go."
After pushing back and forth two or three times, Master Zhu picked up his chopsticks and laughed with a wide mouth. "Then I won't be polite!"
Captain Yang spread his hands. "Come, come, taste the craftsmanship of Master Liu and Little Chen."
Only then did Master Zhu pick up a piece of stir-fried pig liver and put it in his mouth. His eyes lit up, and he gave Chen Fan a thumbs up. "Fresh, tender, juicy, and no fishy smell! Little Chen, great craftsmanship!"
Chen Fan grinned and laughed, not knowing how to react.
Damn it, it's so troublesome to even eat a bite of food. So tiring.
He didn't see so much red tape yesterday.
So Captain Yang didn't treat himself as a guest?
With Master Zhu taking the first bite, everyone else picked up their chopsticks and started eating.
Except for Chen Fan, everyone's first bite wasn't to eat the scalding hot pig slaughter dishes, but to reach for the three dishes that Chen Fan had stir-fried.
Blood sausage , stir-fried pig liver, and twice-cooked pork.
Unlike later generations, when people could sit at home and use their phones to eat dishes from all over the world, in this era, what they could eat was local cuisine. At most, if someone from another place married over or the whole family moved, they would bring new dishes.
So no one present had eaten these kinds of dishes before.
Trying them at this time, they immediately praised them repeatedly, raising their glasses frequently with chopsticks in hand.
Although Chen Fan really wanted to taste the familiar flavors, he couldn't compete with them, so he simply set his sights on the pig slaughter dishes.
Master Liu's skills couldn't be said to be very good, just at the level of an ordinary village banquet chef, but they weren't bad either, be better than the home cooking that Aunt Yang made.
A pot of pig offal and pork stewed until soft and tender, mixed with the fresh Chinese cabbage juice, not oily or greasy, with the right amount of saltiness, made people's appetites open up.
After three rounds of wine and five flavors of dishes, everyone opened up their chatterboxes.
Of course, the one who talked the most was today's main guest, Master Zhu.
After eating seven-tenths full, Chen Fan slowed down, carefully savoring the warm wine, drinking and eating while listening to some "old stories" from this era.
Master Zhu had already taken off his cotton jacket, wearing only a long underwear shirt, with his large shoulders and round waist, like a door god. He picked up his wine bowl, took a sip, ate a bite of meat, and told an old story that he had told countless times.
"In '62, the higher-ups issued a notice that not only would they implement assigned purchases, requiring each household to raise pigs according to the number of people, and sell them to the food station, but they would also raise the purchase price of livestock pigs. For farmers who sold livestock pigs to the food station, they would be rewarded with grain and industrial products.
It was so good at that time. Raising a pig was equivalent to a strong laborer. Naturally, every household was willing to raise pigs. I couldn't handle it alone, so I submitted a report to recruit people. The leaders agreed to equip each of our 7 masters with two apprentices. My first batch of apprentices was also recruited at that time.
By the second year, the situation of not being able to collect pigs during the three-year period had completely changed. And they added 'negotiated purchase and sale,' allowing prices to fluctuate up and down. That year, we overfulfilled the task. I alone slaughtered more than a thousand heads.
In '65, we piloted the pre-payment of reward grain for livestock pig assigned purchases."
He turned to look at Chen Fan, who was listening attentively, and immediately considered him a confidant, explaining in detail, "What does that mean? It means that as long as the assigned purchase task is assigned to you, I will first issue you the grain you should get for selling the pig. When you bring the pig to the food station to sell, we will adjust the amount according to the weight. This immediately stirred up the enthusiasm of the people. In that year, the county acquired more than 100,000 heads of livestock pigs, 100,000 heads! How could we eat them all?"
Chen Fan blinked, silently calculating how many jin 100,000 pigs were.
The meat yield of a pig is generally between 70% and 80%. If calculated at 70%, the minimum standard for a pig is 120 jin, and the minimum meat yield is 84 jin. 100,000 heads would be 8.4 million jin?
At least 8.4 million jin?
Scary!
However, calculating the per capita consumption, assuming a county has 300,000 people, the average annual consumption per person is only 28 jin? A little more than two jin a month?
This was assuming that all the pork stayed in the local area. In fact, most of the pork was supplied to large cities, and what could stay in the local area wasn't much at all!
Master Zhu poured himself a mouthful of wine and ate another bite of food.
Unfortunately, at this time, the meat dishes had already been eaten almost completely, not to mention the dishes that Chen Fan had made. He could only pick up two chopsticks of freshly added Chinese cabbage and red choy sum to go with the wine.
Wiping his mouth, Master Zhu continued, "Where could we eat so many pigs? That year, most cities in the country canceled pork tickets and opened up the supply, but we still couldn't sell them all.
Why? Because most people couldn't afford it. A jin of pork cost more than a yuan. How many families could afford to eat it every day?
As a result, a lot of meat went bad and was thrown away. It was a pity.
Since we couldn't sell all the pork, we definitely couldn't keep collecting it openly, so we changed the method again, coming up with a method of 'going to the door to check pigs, issuing certificates if they qualified, setting a time and place, and acquiring by appointment,' which finally solved the problem of 'excessive inventory.'"
Hearing this, Chen Fan couldn't help but twitch his mouth slightly.
The problem of excessive inventory was solved, but what about the production team and commune member families who invested costs and effort?
Of course, Master Zhu didn't say anything; he couldn't manage that. He just continued, "Later on, which was in '66, the policy changed. The assigned purchase and reward methods were completely and thoroughly canceled. That was good. Without assigned purchase tasks and without reward incentives, how many people were still willing to raise pigs?"
He turned to look at Captain Yang. "How many percent of the people in our Lujiawan raised pigs at that time?"
Captain Yang tilted his head and smiled. "What percent? Basically, everyone raised one to slaughter and eat for the New Year. No one raised pigs to complete the assigned tasks."
Master Zhu patted the table and turned to look at Chen Fan. "Look, look, the people aren't stupid. The purchase price for a hog was 0.35 cent per jin. In some places, the highest price was no more than 0.45 cent. What was the market price for live pigs outside of the task? 0.98 cent per jin!"
Chen Fan's eyes immediately went wide. A price difference of 0.63 cent?
Master Zhu spread his hands. "The price difference was so big, and they canceled the rewards, giving neither grain nor tickets. Who would want to raise them?
As a result, in '68 and '69, we couldn't collect 50,000 heads each year. They were all people who slaughtered New Year pigs, kept half and sold half, causing pork tickets to reappear.
In '73, we temporarily restored the reward and assigned purchase methods, and it had a little effect. Then it was canceled again, until last year when it was re-established. Only then did more people raise pigs."
(End of Chapter)
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