Chapter 259 256. The Past of Pingangou
Ping'angou in early winter has not yet been covered with silvery white snow, but it has a unique tranquility and elegance.

The sky at this moment seemed to have been washed with light watercolor, presenting a tranquil blue.

The sun is no longer as scorching as in summer, but shines gently on the earth, giving people a warm and soft feeling.

Some leaves have turned yellow and are slowly falling, paving a golden path. The leaves that are still clinging to the branches seem to be waiting for the first snow to fall and cover them with white coats.

The outlines of the mountains in the distance become clearer in this season. They are no longer as lush as in summer, but they are more stable and solemn.

The air in the early morning seems to be filled with a light frost, and you can feel a slight coolness with every breath.

Smoke rises from the chimneys of each house, interweaving with the morning mist to form a hazy picture.

Luo Yihang walked with Dr. Wei in the village, looking at the crops in the fields that had been harvested, leaving behind neat ridges and patches of bare land. Occasionally a few birds landed in the fields, looking for leftover food.

After walking around, Dr. Wei stopped, turned around and looked at the mountain village he had just passed.

Luo Yihang also looked back.

It had been a long time since he had taken a close look at the small mountain village where he was born and raised.

Ping'angou in early winter.

Tranquility and harmony are like an elegant ink painting, so beautiful that it melts your heart.

Every corner here reveals a simple and real beauty, which makes people slow down and savor the tranquility and beauty...

a long time.

Dr. Wei opened his mouth slowly and said something.

"It looks like your village is very wealthy."

Luo Yihang smiled and shook his head. "I can't say I'm rich, but I can say I have enough food and drink and live a comfortable life."

"I have visited many mountain villages recently. Let's not talk about the ones on the plains. As far as mountain villages are concerned, yours is rare. Can you tell me about it?"

"That's a long time ago. We have to start from the last century..."

Luo Yihang understood what Dr. Wei wanted to hear, so he organized his words and slowly told him about the past of Ping'angou.

Ping'angou is not a poor village, it can even be said to be wealthy. The reason why people have left is because of the general environment.

Others leave in pursuit of a better life, not because they are too poor to survive.

They all did well after they got out.

Ping'angou is a new village built in the 1970s with people from all over the place gathering together based on the old Ping'angou.

Its purpose was to support the Third Front construction at that time.

Thousands and tens of thousands of workers came from other places to build factories and develop industry. The food problem for so many people must be solved locally. We can't let them grow their own food.

Then, Ping'angou came into being.

Agriculture supports industry and also reaps the benefits of industry.

There are two major benefits brought by the third-line factories.

Money and vision.

In the last century, when the factory was still there, although grain was subject to unified purchase and sale, there were no regulations on by-products.

The villagers carried baskets and went to the factory’s staff quarters to sell them.

In the 1980s and 1990s, people in Ping'angou had to watch helplessly as the couples working in the factory treated their money as if it were nothing.

Everything looks new and everything can be sold.

Bamboo shoots from the back mountain, shepherd's purse from the wild fields, fish caught in the river, chickens raised behind the house, and even frogs and toads caught in the ditches.

It’s close, things sell well, and they’re expensive.

Ping'angou was very prosperous in those years, with big tiled houses rising one after another.

Although life is good, the villagers still envy the people working in the factory.

After so many years of contact, everyone is very clear about the situation in the factory.

As long as you got into the factory, you could earn more than 200 yuan a month at the beginning, and that was more than 200 yuan in the early 1990s.

What is the concept?

In 1985, the average annual income per capita in rural areas was 397 yuan; in 1990 it was higher, at 630 yuan.

People like Ping'angou who have extra income can earn more than 900 yuan a year if they work hard.

It is equivalent to four months’ salary for a new worker.

And the workers in the factory also have benefits.

Singles have dormitories, and married couples are given separate rooms, or they are in apartments.

There is a staff hospital for medical treatment and a department store in the factory for shopping. The items are cheap and there are many varieties.

There are swimming pools, roller skating rinks, movie theaters, billiard halls, and dance parties in the workers' home. If you have children, the factory also has a nursery and a school for children. It's so beautiful.

This is still an ordinary worker.

If you go a step further, become a technician.

The starting salary is only 500 yuan, and housing allocation will go directly to "Singapore"!
It is a newly built building on the hillside, exactly the same as the big cities in TV, big and beautiful.

How could the villagers not be envious of such treatment?

Envy is bad.

However, if I thought about working in a factory, I would be welcomed. As long as you could meet their requirements, they would take as many people as you wanted. At that time, there was a severe shortage of people.

But this is a requirement.

The most basic thing is that ordinary workers must have at least a high school diploma, and technical workers must have a college diploma.

The old farmer who has worked in the mountains all his life, facing the loess and the sky, has intuitively felt that studying is really useful.

Then, the children in Ping'angou cried. They were forced to study hard by their parents. If they didn't study well, being beaten with stir-fried pork with bamboo shoots was the least they could do. At that time, some children actually had their legs broken.

later.

1994 years.

State-owned enterprise reform.

The factory's junior and senior high schools began to recruit students from outside.

But you have to take an exam.

The children of Ping'angou are blessed.

The stir-fried bamboo shoots and meat that I made when I was a child now finds its place in the kitchen.

Luo Yihang's third uncle Luo Xiang was admitted to the children's school that year and attended junior high school.

At that time, the teaching quality of factory children's schools was much better than that of village schools.

In the village school, one teacher teaches six grades, and many classes are not even divided into subjects. He teaches Chinese, mathematics, and physics. Five or six teachers in a school are considered a lot.

In the children's school, each grade and each subject is taught by different teachers, with seven or eight teachers teaching one grade.

The quality of teachers is also different.

A village primary school teacher can be employed as a secondary technical school graduate, and some older ones only have a junior high school education.

As for the children's schools, most of the students are graduates from normal universities, or at least from junior college.

Even the physical education teachers and music teachers are graduates from reputable normal schools.

Every year, teachers are invited by the city to prepare the high school entrance examination papers.

There is even quality education in schools for children of employees.

Physics and chemistry classes really involve experiments, biology classes really involve specimens, and physical education classes are not just about running laps, but about teaching real things, such as the rules of Go, volleyball, football, basketball, and martial arts. Music classes include vocal music, instrumental music, and even piano lessons.

How could the ignorant country boy have ever seen this?

It broadens your horizons and expands your perspectives.

What followed was a dramatic increase in the rate of admission to higher education, compared to when students were attending village schools.

Among the young people in Ping'angou, half of them went to college, and the remaining half at least went to high school.

only.

Originally, it was expected that few people would return to work in the factory.

With the decline of the third-line factories, the workers were no longer a high-income group, and the factories were later closed down.

When Luo Yihang was in his class, the factory's children's school was already its last. Less than two years after he graduated, the school was completely closed.

Although the school is gone, the students who graduated from the school have their own vision and knowledge, and have embarked on their own paths.

Ten or twenty years later, the Ping'angou teenagers have grown up, become adults, and gone out to explore the world.

They are all developing very well.

Just like Luo Yihang's third uncle.

Similar situations are everywhere. Many people are working hard in big cities, settling down, putting down roots, buying houses, and starting families. Batches of elderly people are being taken away.

Ping'angou became desolate.

According to normal rules.

Villages like Ping'angou were probably born because of the Third Line Factory and died because of the Third Line Factory.

Until Luo Yihang came back...

(End of this chapter)