Just like what Captain Huang had said, on the morning of March 9th, Captain Huang gathered all the people who had handed in their guns yesterday. After giving each of them a shovel, he told Chen Shouting and the others to wait for orders. Two hours later, the teams from Sishui County and Shanting District had arrived. There were more people from Sishui County and Shanting District than Pingyi County, about 100 people in each team. Because of Chen Shouting's age and the fact that he was the earliest to join the guerrillas, he was appointed as the captain of this team. He was led by the secretary sent by the detachment to Green Camel Town.
When the team passed by Fei County, the people sent by Fei County were already waiting there. After the teams combined, there were a total of 400 people, and they rushed towards Green Camel Town in a mighty manner.
When the team arrived at Green Camel Town, Li Zhi, the local clerk of Green Camel Town, took over the task of leading the way, while the person who was originally in charge of leading the way quickly went back.
After walking for a few hours in Qingtuo Town, Chen Shouting and the others thought that they would stop at Qingtuo Town. However, they didn't expect to travel along the Meng River until they reached Shuanghou Town, which was north of Qingtuo Town. When they arrived at Shuanghou Town, it was almost dark. Shuanghou Town had already built a shed with wood. Although it was just a few pieces of wood tied together with straw mats, the conditions were still relatively difficult. However, because everyone had gone through one or two years of guerrilla training, He didn't care much about food and accommodation. After all, who hadn't slept in a graveyard for a few days when they were in the guerrillas? Not to mention that dinner had been prepared in Shuanghou Town. It was all steamed buns with white flour. Although everyone had eaten noodles in the morning, they had eaten cornbread in Fei County at noon. Everyone thought that the food in Qingtuo Town should be the same as that in the other encampments. They didn't expect to eat white flour here. After everyone was full, they didn't carry out the routine evening exercise. Instead, they distributed the work shed and let everyone go to rest.
"Captain Chen, did you notice the two people at the edge of our camp when we were eating?”The person who spoke was Zhao Dongxing, the vice-captain of Chen Shouting's team. He was a carpenter before, and he had joined the guerrilla team after his family had suffered a disaster. He had been in Sishui County before, and this time, he was chosen because of his age. He was a nosy person. It had only been a day, but he had already found out the background of most of the people in the team. When they were assigned to the shed, Zhao Dongxing said that he had something to say to him. The two of them met outside the shed, but they didn't expect Zhao Dongxing to ask about this as soon as he came.
"You mean the two who have been walking by the river.”Of course, Chen Shouting saw them. When everyone arrived at the camp, they saw the two of them. One was fat and the other was thin. The fat one was a little taller than the thin one. When they were eating, they saw the person in charge of cooking for the team salute and invite the two of them over for dinner, but the two of them didn't agree. When everyone was assigned to the dormitory, they saw one of them take out a flashlight because it was dark. At that time, Chen Shouting had suspected who the two of them were. In the past, whether it was in Tsingtao or Jinan, flashlights were not considered good things. He could buy a box of them with the money he earned a day. However, after the Japanese came, flashlights were very rare. Even lamp oil began to increase in price, let alone flashlights.
"After dinner, when we were assigned to the shed, I heard the villagers say that the two were experts from the United States who came to Shandong to help us fight the Japanese. This time, we came here to dig a river ditch for irrigation under the guidance of the American experts.”Of course, it was impossible for so many people to keep it a secret, especially the villagers of Tazishan Village and Lianyizhuang Village. They heard the sound of people working outside the village before dawn. When they came out, they found that the local Eighth Route Army was looking for wood to build a shed. When it was finished in the afternoon, a few more people came to check. When the inspectors left, they saw two people writing and drawing everywhere. Finally, a team of cooks came to cook. When the sky was about to turn dark, more than 400 people came. Everyone brought a shovel with them, and no one had stopped eating for the entire day. These people shocked the villagers again when they ate. There were a total of 400 people, and all they ate were white steamed buns.
"Digging a river ditch? It can't be. With the climate here in Shandong, it's useless to dig it. It can't store water.”Although Chen Shouting had never planted land since he was a child, he still knew some basic common sense. It was impossible to dig a river ditch from the river in Shandong for a year like in the south. It rarely rained in summer in Shandong. If the river ditch was really dug, it would be good if there was water in half a year. However, when there was water, there was no need to divert water from the river ditch. When water was needed, there would be no water in the river ditch.
"I think so too. Do you think we should ask the higher-ups what we're going to do? I heard that we're eating a type A stove and eating white noodles every meal.”Everyone knew that life in the base area was tough. They were trained like soldiers and could eat white flour once a day. This was already much better than most people. Now that they mentioned the A-grade stove, the leaders of the committee must not have been deceived by others.
"What we're eating now is a type A stove? Isn't this worker's meal?" Speaking of which, Chen Shouting grew up in a dyeing workshop. He knew everything about dyeing and sizing. Even when he was in Jinan, he didn't care about the so-called experts from Shanghai. What experts? It was just sizing. Who didn't know how to do it? When he first came, Chen Shouting also wanted to see if he could do his old job, but now there was only one workshop in the Fei County area that needed people, and it was mainly for blacksmiths. He knew nothing about blacksmithing, so he could only go to the column. Now, he suddenly heard Zhao Dongxing say that his food had become a type A stove, and he was very surprised.
"Of course, why would I lie to you? Let me tell you, when I was eating, I heard the class leader of the cooking squad and his soldiers telling them to count the thousands of catties of white flour they ate in the next few days. Don't mess up the count.”Zhao Dongxing had heard it with his own ears. A few thousand catties was at least three to four thousand catties. There were only 400 people here, and two catties per person per day was enough. If this was not a type A stove, what was it? He was talking about white noodles, not yellow noodles.
"How about this? Tomorrow, let's see what they want us to do. If they really want to solve the problem of watering the land just by digging a river ditch, then it's hard to say if this expert is good or not. Don't worry about it for now. I'll go and tell him, okay?”If it was really a fake expert, considering that the members of the committee were all southerners and had never planted land, it was not strange that they did not discover it because they treated the environment in Shandong as the environment in the south. If it did not work tomorrow, he would have to test the quality of this expert. After all, he came to Shandong to cheat this and that. He could not let him leave so easily.
"Alright, I'll listen to you, Captain Chen."
After sending Zhao Dongxing back to the work shed, Chen Shouting also returned to his own work shed. Although he was the captain, his conditions were limited. Chen Shouting himself slept in a large shared bed for ten people.
When he returned to the shed, he found that most of the people in the shed were already asleep. Chen Shouting also began to quietly undress and go to bed. He began to think about how to test the American expert tomorrow.
The next day, after everyone in the team got up and washed up, Chen Shouting found that several members of the committee had come. Other than Commander Zhao, who he knew, there were a few others. Judging from their attitude, Secretary Zhu had also come. When they were eating, the workers were still eating white noodles, but the committee members were eating yellow noodles. After everyone finished eating, the secretary who led the way yesterday asked him to lead the team, and everyone followed him to the river.
"Hello everyone, my surname is Zhu. Everyone should know who I am. This time, I asked everyone to come over because I didn't tell you why I came this time. Therefore, I believe that many people are very puzzled. Some might even say that the team doesn't want us anymore. On the contrary, he called everyone here because he had an important task for everyone.”Secretary Zhu spoke very slowly and loudly in consideration of the fact that all four hundred people could hear him.
Chen Shouting and Zhao Dongxing looked at each other. Now that they were here, they would immediately know if they were going to dig a useless river ditch.
"This time, everyone is here to dig a new river channel.”
Hearing Secretary Zhu's words, Chen Shouting began to organize his words. He planned to tell Secretary Zhu about the specific situation in Shandong after the meeting and the impossibility of solving the irrigation problem with just a river.
"And this river channel is the water outlet of the Meng River Reservoir in Qingtuo Town that we are going to build in the future. It is also a necessary supporting measure for the Meng River Water Power Plant that we are going to build in Qingtuo Town. Everyone knows the current situation of our base. Yan 'an has been unable to allocate materials and military pay on time. But we can't resign ourselves to fate just because we don't have enough. If we don't have guns, we'll make them ourselves. If we don't have bullets, we'll make them ourselves. Fortunately, Mr. Li Yan, who had been living in the United States, generously donated the money he had saved for several lifetimes and personally came to help us build a steel plant, cement plant, and so on.”
Chen Shouting was a little surprised to hear that although they were going to dig a river, it was not for irrigation, but to build a reservoir and a power station. After all, whether it was the construction of a reservoir or the construction of a hydraulic power station, it was a very expensive thing. Of course, this was not a bad thing. After running a dyeing factory, how could he not know the importance of electricity? Without electricity, no matter how good the machine was, it would only be scrap iron. Without electricity, no matter how good the workers were, they would have no work to do. Without electricity, no matter how much grey cloth they had, they could only be treated as waste cloth.
However, no matter how good or important electricity was, Shandong did not have the money to do these things. Chen Shouting couldn't help but be surprised by the wealth of Americans. Although he wasn't as rich as Brother Miao and the others, he was one of the few in Shandong. Even he had never thought of using his own money to build a power plant. All kinds of approval documents were one thing, but the money spent was too much. But now, someone suddenly jumped out and said that he had money and could help Shandong build a power plant. The steel factory and cement factory were so rich that Brother Miao and the others probably couldn't compare to them.
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。