1959Siheyuan, a Turnaround

Li Weiguo was playing with his two younger brothers in the yard while Grandma Li was preparing lunch in the house.

In fact, there is nothing much to prepare. Wild vegetable porridge is just pickles. It’s good to have the porridge to eat.

There are families whose lives are worse off than the Li family, who can only eat wild vegetable soup to fill their stomachs.

Grandma Li smeared the two fish with coarse salt and marinated them. By the time Li Weiguo found out, it was too late.

"Grandma, why are these two fish pickled? This is your grandson's gift to you two."

"Don't worry about this. Grandma will make her own arrangements. Do you think you can eat this fish freely?"

"Milk~~"

Li Weiguo rarely acts like a spoiled child.

Grandma Li pulled his hand away and glanced at him.

"Okay, grandma loses. I'll take out half a fish and make fish soup for you tonight."

"Grandma, just listen to your eldest grandson. Stew both of them. I'll catch the other fish tomorrow!"

Grandma Li ignored Li Weiguo and went straight to cleaning her stove.

"Let's wait until you catch the fish! Grandma still has the final say on our family's affairs."

Grandma Li has lived through many years of hardship, and her mind cannot be fooled by a few nice words from Li Weiguo.

When Li Weiguo saw this situation, he thought it might be difficult to eat fish today!

“Ding ding ding…”

As soon as the bell rang for the end of work in the village, the villagers headed towards the village canteen, but no one ate in the canteen. They all got their meals from the canteen and went home.

The canteens are all empty these days, where is the food?

They are all black balls made of wild vegetables mixed with three-grain flour. They are irritating to the throat and choking, and are extremely unpalatable.

This can only be eaten during the busy farming season. When it is not busy, it is just wild vegetable porridge with thin soup, and each person drinks a bowl of it to feel full.

It is still too early to harvest corn now. Due to the severe drought this year, the corn leaves have curled up and the villagers are carrying water to irrigate the fields.

Although it was just a drop in the bucket, people didn't dare to stop. My second uncle and second aunt went to the fields to fetch water.

Grandpa walked around the edge of the field, and when he heard the bell, he walked home with his hands behind his back.

Before he even reached home he heard the voice of his eldest grandson.

"Weiguo, Weiguo is back!"

The old man was really happy to see his eldest grandson and ran briskly into the yard.

"Grandpa, I'm back!"

"Okay, okay... My eldest grandson has grown a lot taller. Are your parents okay?"

"They are all fine. My mom even said she will come back to see you when she has time!"

"Your mother has to go to work, she can do whatever she wants, I'm on good terms with your grandma!"

My second uncle, second aunt and grandfather came into the house one after another.

"Uncle, Aunt, you're back!"

"Weiguo is back, that's great. Your grandparents have been thinking about you these days and have mentioned you many times!"

Uncle Li Dajiang walked up to Li Weiguo and patted him on the shoulder: "Good fellow, you have grown a lot stronger in the past six months. You are now a grown man!"

"That's right. I haven't seen Weiguo for half a year. He has become stronger! Just like my brother when he was young!"

Second Aunt Wang Dahua is from Lijia Village. She and Li Dahe grew up together as childhood sweethearts, so she is naturally familiar with the Li family.

"What are you all doing standing in the yard? Wash your hands and eat!"

Li Dahe walked over with two lunch boxes and handed them to the old lady: "The food in the cafeteria has been getting worse and worse these past two days. Today it's just wild vegetable soup."

"Alas! This is because the village chief took the pressure and did not lie about the production. Didn't you hear that other villages have run out of food a long time ago? They dug up all the wild vegetables on the mountain!"

Second Aunt sighed, walked over to wash her hands and said.

"It's what they deserve! We just started eating from the big pot last year, and everyone ate and drank like crazy. In less than a year, the canteen was completely empty. This year's harvest is not going to be good! There are also people who lied about the yield per mu, saying that the yield per mu is 8,000 catties. They are dreaming! In all my years, I have never seen a yield per mu exceeding 2,000 catties!"

Grandpa Li said indignantly while sitting at the table.

"If we hadn't been united in our efforts, we would have been wiped out long ago. Alas! It's not easy for your village chief uncle! He was held captive by those bastards from the commune for several days. If we hadn't all gone to the commune together, they wouldn't have let him go!"

"Dad, eat! Nothing has happened yet and you're already so angry. We can't control those things. We can talk about them at home, but we can't talk about them outside."

Seeing that everyone's expressions had become gloomy, Grandma Li offered a few words of comfort.

"Yes! Grandpa, let's eat! Don't talk about those unhappy things!"

Li Weiguo also knew that his grandfather was talking about the autumn of 58, when hundreds of millions of farmers across the country started eating from the same big pot.

The loudest slogan that year was: "Eat for free, work hard to produce!"

But is the big pot meal a blessing or a curse for farmers?

In the beginning, the big pot meal was indeed supported and appreciated by farmers because it was free and they could eat to their heart's content.

But by the winter of 58, the communal dining system could no longer be maintained in some places.

Some members felt that they were at a disadvantage because they did not eat enough, so they ate too much at every meal and took the food they could not finish home to feed the chickens and ducks. In many canteens, the average person consumed two to three kilograms of food a day, and in some places it was even worse, with people eating five meals a day.

As a result, within less than two or three months of implementing the "eat as much as you want", many canteens had already gone beyond their means.

In addition, many people work with the idea of ​​"working or not, you will have three meals a day" and "working more or less, you will be able to eat the same amount."

This has led to the emergence of more and more "lazy people" among the peasants, and farmers have lost their enthusiasm for work.

By 59, the village canteen was almost non-existent. Except for the busy farming days when we could eat some dry food, the food on other days was not as good as the wild vegetable soup at home.

Li Weiguo felt very sad while eating the meal. Looking at the rice in the bowl which was thinner than the wild vegetable porridge at home, Li Weiguo felt more and more distressed the more he ate.

No wonder my parents miss my grandparents so much in the old city. The food they eat in the village is really not as good as theirs.

After dinner, Li Weiguo told his grandmother that he wanted to go for a walk in the mountains.

Li Weidong and Li Weijun insisted on following him but he refused. This time he was mainly here to explore the way and see if he could catch some pheasants or rabbits.

When Li Weiguo was a child, he often followed his second uncle to go hunting in the mountains, and he was familiar with this area.

"Weiguo, remember not to go to the mountains. Be careful and be safe, okay?"

"Don't worry, grandma! I'll just stroll around the outskirts of the mountain and won't go deep into the mountains."

After saying that, he picked up a shovel from home and went straight to the back mountain.

From time to time on the road, you can meet children and women picking wild vegetables in the woods.

If I wasn't hungry, I would really like to express my feelings. The air in this era is so fresh.

After walking for an hour, we had entered the deep mountains and our pace slowed down.

Li Weiguo did not follow the mountain path, but walked deeper into the forest and finally came to a ravine.

The trees were rubbed shiny and there were clear wild boar footprints on the ground.

Li Weiguo was overjoyed, this is it!