The production brigade was a social, economic, political, accounting, and industrial management level intermediate between the teams below and the commune above. Brigade administration was the job of the Zengbu Party Branch Committee, and brigade leaders were all party cadres (see chapter 13). In their capacity as intermediaries, brigade cadres represented the teams and the peasants to the commune, and the commune to the teams and the peasants. Brigade cadres were responsible for supervising the teams and their productive activities. They mediated between the teams when there was conflict over such matters as irrigation water. The brigade also administered economic enterprises of its own, both agricultural and industrial, and social services, such as schools and the health clinic. The brigade was a corporate group with its own property, income, budget, and administrative staff.

The brigade's operations were centered in the brigade headquarters building, which contained an auditorium for large assemblies, a smaller meeting room for the branch party committee, offices, dormitory rooms for brigade cadres and visitors, a kitchen staffed by two cooks and a cook's helper, a dining hall, showers, privies, and a well. Nearby was an open-air theatre belonging to the brigade, for holding mass meetings, or for viewing movies or the performances of visiting opera companies. (During the Cultural Revolution, the brigade cadres had been denounced in this theatre.)

Also belonging to the brigade was a large brick building which housed the Zengbu branch of the state trading and supply organization.