3. Dig the river

People in Luzhai Village often say a proverb: "Auspicious snow heralds a good year." Winter snow is like covering wheat with a quilt. Even if the weather is very cold, the temperature under the "quilt" will not be very low, preventing the wheat from freezing damage. After the cold wave, the weather warms up and everything recovers. At this time, wheat is in its peak season and is in urgent need of moisture. It just so happens that the snow also warms up and turns into water at this time. Of course, it would be better if there is a spring rain that knows the season.

However, who can guarantee that winter snow or spring rain will come? At least no one in Luzhai Village can guarantee that. Therefore, relying on God for food is unreliable, you still have to rely on yourself.

Luzhai Village relies on dredging rivers and introducing water sources, which is commonly known as river digging.

The people in Luzhai Village are definitely far-sighted. In the cold winter, they began to make plans for spring farming. No, in 1990, just after the Great Cold, every household in Luzhai Village began to dig rivers.

Choosing this time of year to dig the river is not a choice because the people in Luzhai Village like the cold. The river bottom may be blocked again if it is dredged too early. The Spring Festival is approaching after the severe cold. Later it was too late. Therefore, we had to start digging the river around the time of the Great Cold.

Zhao Haisheng from Luzhai Village is responsible for digging the longest section of the river because his family has the most land.

It is a strange story in Luzhai Village that Zhao Haisheng has a lot of land. Zhao Haisheng has been well-known in the village as an honest person since he was a child. He is not only down-to-earth and hard-working, but also keeps to himself and never quarrels with others. At the beginning, Lvzhai Village still distributed food based on head count, that is, no matter how much you worked or how little you worked, the commune would distribute food to you according to your age group. There were portions for children, young people, and old people. Then one day, Luzhai Village was detonated by a piece of news from above. The news said that in the future, the fields would be privately owned by individuals, and the grain during the harvest would also be privately owned by individuals. The farmers only had to pay the corresponding fee to the national grain store. Just wheat.

In that era, everyone was ashamed of "privacy" and ruthlessly criticized those who engaged in "privacy". Why would the higher-ups suddenly call on everyone to smuggle? Fake, fake, absolutely fake!

Lu Zhengjing, who has a high school degree, is giving a talk at the west end of the village, analyzing to the family members surnamed Lu who are surrounding him: China is a socialist country, and the essence of socialism is that everyone is equal; even if society is put aside Based on the premise of equality for everyone, if you have a field, are you still a poor and lower-middle peasant? You become a landlord! ...

Lu Zhengjing’s words were so wise that they immediately traveled to eight nearby villages. When the land was divided later, everyone regarded the land as a hot iron for roasting offerings, and resolutely argued for the land allocated to them. In the end, they reluctantly accepted some land according to the standard of one person, one acre, and two acres. These people who are accustomed to working more and less and sharing food equally do not believe that China will change to "smuggling". In their opinion, this is just a joke from above. Even if the land is privately owned, it will be equally divided as in previous years when the food harvest is good. Therefore, whoever sows more will suffer the consequences. In the end, all the land that no one wanted was given to honest people like Zhao Haisheng.

Everyone can probably guess what happens next, so I won’t go into details. Let’s continue talking about digging the river.

The people who dig the river get up before dawn every day and go out. After going out, they all invariably put their two hands opposite each other into their sleeves, holding the iron handle with one arm, and wore long rubber boots with the soles stuffed with wheat straw. Along the way, I would occasionally take my hands out of my sleeves, put them in front of my mouth, breathe, and then quickly insert them into my sleeves. It was still dark at this time, so these people were walking and chatting in the dark, which was a unique experience. Unknowingly, everyone arrived at the river. Everyone found the section of the river that they were responsible for, used their iron picks to dig up a handful of mud from the bottom of the river, and tried their best to dump it on the river bank.

Digging a river is very physically demanding. People will feel hungry after working for a while. At this time, he took out the steamed buns he had prepared before going out from his pocket and stuffed them into his stomach. People in Luzhai Village don't have the habit of drinking water after eating steamed buns, so everyone continued digging after eating steamed buns. Just like that, I ate when I was hungry, dug when I ate, and worked until dark before I went home.