their time gathered around the furnaces discussing the affair. Like food and rice, it got everyone excited, until they ran out of raw iron to smelt. Apart from essential tools like shovels, hoes, plows, seed drills, and rakes, all of the metal implements in the ninety-ninth had already been donated, including kitchen rods, cabinet handles, and locks, and even the nails above the windows. In addition, all the trees in the vicinity of the village had been chopped down to provide fuel for the furnaces, and consequently on a clear day you could see for dozens of li in every direction. All that remained were tree stumps, which resembled baby suns emerging from the ground. The smell of wood chips and molten iron permeated the courtyard and the endless expanse of sandy terrain. In order to increase steel production, everyone’s grain allotment was cut from forty-five jin a month to twenty-five, and in order to claim those final twenty jin they would need to contribute at least two tons of steel every month.
It turned out that the previous meal allotment of four liang of white and yellow flour and half a steamed bun per person had been cut to three liang , with everyone also receiving half a bowl of vegetables. Apart from radish and cabbage, not only did they not have any meat, they barely even had any oil in their vegetables.
The investigation team sent by the higher-ups consisted of several young militia who searched each of their rooms and confiscated everything containing any metal, including even a porcelain teeth-brushing cup that happened to have a metal rim.
If they found a rice bowl with a metal rim, they would confiscate that, too.
If they found a wooden chest under someone’s bed with a metal lock and latches, they would pry off the lock and confiscate it. Then they would toss this scrap metal into a wicker basket and drag it to the furnaces. After visiting each brigade’s tool shed, they would calculate the number of people and the amount of land belonging to the brigade, and would leave one hoe or shovel for every two people, but would take everything else to the furnaces.
By the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, after the criminals had smelted all of the available iron, they sat silently around the extinguished furnaces. No one spoke, and no one was playing cards or chess. Because there wasn’t enough food, and because they couldn’t even take their newly smelted steel and exchange it for additional food, at noontime everyone just received one or two wheat buns and half a bowl of soup, and by evening they stopped cooking altogether. Instead, they crowded around the furnaces without moving, watching the smoke and flames from the steel-smelting furnaces in other Re-Ed districts and villages in the distance. Everyone remained paralyzed until the sun set and the fire in the furnaces finally went out, and a winter chill blew over from the river. At this point the Technician, who hadn’t said a word for several days, suddenly stood up and shouted,
“What sort of prize will I receive if I find new iron resources for smelting steel?”
The Technician became extremely animated, as though he were helping everyone toward the light. He shouted, “If I find new resources, it will be as if I am able to reclaim your food that was confiscated. Will each of you then give me one of your blossoms?” He added, “In return for reclaiming your food, all I want is for each of you to give me a blossom. Do you agree?” As he said this, he gazed at his comrades, who were standing or squatting around the furnace. He saw that no one wanted to speak, and instead they were watching him as though he had gone suddenly insane. The Technician looked one last time at the people standing and squatting around the furnace, then turned and headed toward the entranceway to the district courtyard.
He marched quickly in search of the Child.
5. Old Course , pp. 139–45
A cataclysmic event shook the ninety-ninth.
The day after the secret
It turned out that the previous meal allotment of four liang of white and yellow flour and half a steamed bun per person had been cut to three liang , with everyone also receiving half a bowl of vegetables. Apart from radish and cabbage, not only did they not have any meat, they barely even had any oil in their vegetables.
The investigation team sent by the higher-ups consisted of several young militia who searched each of their rooms and confiscated everything containing any metal, including even a porcelain teeth-brushing cup that happened to have a metal rim.
If they found a rice bowl with a metal rim, they would confiscate that, too.
If they found a wooden chest under someone’s bed with a metal lock and latches, they would pry off the lock and confiscate it. Then they would toss this scrap metal into a wicker basket and drag it to the furnaces. After visiting each brigade’s tool shed, they would calculate the number of people and the amount of land belonging to the brigade, and would leave one hoe or shovel for every two people, but would take everything else to the furnaces.
By the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, after the criminals had smelted all of the available iron, they sat silently around the extinguished furnaces. No one spoke, and no one was playing cards or chess. Because there wasn’t enough food, and because they couldn’t even take their newly smelted steel and exchange it for additional food, at noontime everyone just received one or two wheat buns and half a bowl of soup, and by evening they stopped cooking altogether. Instead, they crowded around the furnaces without moving, watching the smoke and flames from the steel-smelting furnaces in other Re-Ed districts and villages in the distance. Everyone remained paralyzed until the sun set and the fire in the furnaces finally went out, and a winter chill blew over from the river. At this point the Technician, who hadn’t said a word for several days, suddenly stood up and shouted,
“What sort of prize will I receive if I find new iron resources for smelting steel?”
The Technician became extremely animated, as though he were helping everyone toward the light. He shouted, “If I find new resources, it will be as if I am able to reclaim your food that was confiscated. Will each of you then give me one of your blossoms?” He added, “In return for reclaiming your food, all I want is for each of you to give me a blossom. Do you agree?” As he said this, he gazed at his comrades, who were standing or squatting around the furnace. He saw that no one wanted to speak, and instead they were watching him as though he had gone suddenly insane. The Technician looked one last time at the people standing and squatting around the furnace, then turned and headed toward the entranceway to the district courtyard.
He marched quickly in search of the Child.
5. Old Course , pp. 139–45
A cataclysmic event shook the ninety-ninth.
The day after the secret
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