Now only one person was worried. Who? The landlord's stooge Guo Rui..........no thicker than a man's thumb, and only had a few scattered kernels.

Now only one person was worried. Who? The landlord's stooge Guo Rui. I must find some way to wreck the co-op before these paupers set it on its feet, he told himself. I shall compete with the co-op and outdo it! My family has a donkey, three oxen, thirty sheep, four pigs, and over five acres of good land. With all my livestock and capital, I'm sure I can show these paupers where they get off.

Part of his land lay next to some of the co-op's fields. He decided to sow the same crop and do whatever the co-op members did. Like them, he sowed an acre to maize. At first, both crops did pretty much the same. In summer, when the co-op manured its plot with sheep droppings, Guo Rui used pig-dung instead. But whereas the co-op's twenty-three families had plenty of hands to carry manure and spread it, only three of Guo Rui's family worked on the land. It was a long way, uphill and down, from his home to the field; and he and his sons were so busy carting manure that they had no time to spread it. That afternoon Guo Rui noticed that the co-op had just about finished, while he still had a good deal of dung to carry. He gritted his teeth and filled basket after basket to the brim. His two sons sweated under their loads till they felt that their backs would break; the donkey's legs nearly buckled under the weight; and Guo Rui himself panted as he staggered along. Though they worked with all their strength, they got only half their dung to the field by the time the co-op was spreading its last lot. Guo Rui dumped his load and went back for more without even stopping for breath. But before he reached the village the co-op members had knocked off and started home singing and chatting. Fuming inwardly, he decided to make one last trip. But his back was aching, his two sons were worn out, and however hard they beat the donkey it would not budge. They had to take lighter loads and stop every few steps to rest. At the end of this trip it was dark, so they left the dung piled by the field to spread the next day.

When they reached home and sat down to supper, it started to thunder. Then for over an hour there was a downpour of rain. Guo Rui cursed and swore and could not sleep all night. First thing the next morning he and his sons dashed to the field. Their whole pile of pig-dung had been washed away -- into the co-op's land, too, which was lower than theirs. The maize there was green and sturdy after its soaking, thanks to all the dung, while Guo's by comparison was lank and droopy. In his rage, he sold two sheep and bought some chemical fertilizer in the town.

When Du Hong saw this he asked, "Why don't we buy some fertilizer too?"

"We must stick to our poor man's way," said Wang Guxing.

"Let him fertilize his fields; we'll hoe ours well. Loosening the soil is as good as a dressing of dung. Take my word for it, a few extra hoeings will do more for the crop than his fertilizer."

Guo Rui wasn't worried when he saw them hoeing. All you paupers can do is work your heads off, he thought. Just wait till you see what this fertilizer does to my maize! Little did he know that he applied too much. As the sun blazed down, the leaves of his maize started wilting. Father and sons made haste to water and weed the field, but it was too late. And when Guo tried to hire a laborer there were none to be found. Why not? Because all the paupers had joined the co-op, and the peasants working on their own had no time to spare.

The co-op's maize grew tall and strong. By harvest time each cob was about a foot long, as plump as a pestle, and covered with symmetrical golden kernels the size of horses' teeth. Guo Rui's cobs were no longer than a fountain-pen, no thicker than a man's thumb, and only had a few scattered kernels.

Summary: Guo Rui sowed the same crop -- maize on the same land area as the paupers. When the paupers manured their crops with sheep droppings, he used pig dung instead. Assisted by his two sons only, Guo Rui could not finish carrying and manuring his crops as fast as the twenty-three families could. He left the manure piled at the fields but the rain washed it away into the co-op's fields at night. He then resorted to fertilizers, while the paupers started hoeing their land. Guo Rui over used the fertilizers and his crops wilted. He tried to employ someone to help weed and water the crops but was unsuccessful as all the paupers had joined the co-op.