The author of this article is Mr. Guo Junyu
Afternoon of September 27. Leave the county seat of Zhengkou Town and travel about 15 kilometers south along Dongda County Road (X809) to reach the town of Wuguanzhai. Turn right and go west for nearly 2 kilometers at the intersection of the town's street, and you will come to Cangshang Village, a military attaché village. According to the information, there are two hundred-year-old poplar trees growing in this village, "two trees are four meters apart, staying together for a hundred years, growing together, and the branches are luxuriant." To this end, I made a special trip to this village to watch and search.
According to the "Records of Gucheng County", since the Ming Dynasty, the basin on both sides of the Grand Canal began to be tun tian, and the army tun (while stationing, while cultivating cultivated land) troops were even more numerous. During the Reign of Ming Hongwu (1368-1398), a military attaché camped here and was responsible for guarding the immigrants who had moved from Shanxi to settle here, hence the name Of the Military Officer's Village. In 1958, Wuguanzhai Commune was established, which was subordinate to Wucheng County, Shandong Province. In 1964, it was transferred to Gucheng County, changed to a township in 1983, and changed to a town in 1995. It now administers 44 administrative villages with a population of 41,000 people; in the second year of Ming Yongle (1404), the Yi Li clan moved from Hongdong County, Shanxi Province, to settle here, and later formed a village, so the land was once a place where the rebels stored grain, so the name of the village was "Cangshang". The village has 1,500 mu of arable land and 900 villagers.
When I walked into The Village of Kurakami and inquired about the search for ancient trees, most of the people in the village did not know about it, "I don't know." "I never heard of an ancient tree in the village!" After walking around a few places and inquiring about a few villagers, I finally came to the street in front of the village that was originally in front of the school, and at the entrance of the street next to a puddle in the village, I finally saw the two century-old poplar trees introduced in the relevant publicity materials of Gucheng County. It's really very different, mixed with joy and sorrow.
Walking on the land of Hengshui, I have witnessed so many locust trees becoming ancient trees, and I have never heard of it, let alone seen poplar trees grow into ancient trees. It was the first time I had seen such a poplar tree, which was majestic, tall, tall, and stout. The tree is 22 meters tall, with a chest diameter of 70 centimeters and a crown width of 9 meters. From the "Ancient Trees and Famous Trees of the People's Government of Gucheng County" hanging from the trees, it is known that they are more than 120 years old, and they are really high-life poplar trees. But what is heart-wrenching is that the tree on the west side has most of its bark exploded and its inner abdomen exposed, especially the main trunk part has been basically exposed, and the branches and leaves in the high places are even drier, but there are a few branches and leaves sporadically, indicating that it has not completely died; the east side is still growing normally, the branches are full, and there are big scars on the left side of the bark.
The street is quiet, no pedestrians have passed, no vehicles have passed, I look at the two poplar trees, thinking about the fate of the ancient trees, constantly moving positions, shooting from multiple angles, leaving this painful scene, I want to shout loudly, "Save the ancient trees, strengthen protection, take the necessary measures!" "Dead trees will not be reborn, disappeared remnants will not be reborn, this is our village memory, our farming culture, we should take great care of it, my villagers, our relevant functional departments, with practical actions to quickly protect it!"
Finally, two villagers came from the street on the south side, watching me constantly looking at the poplar trees, and came to talk to me in amazement, and I also learned something from them about the past and present lives of these two poplar trees. Zhang Yinqing, a 70-year-old farmer in a green shirt, is hospitable, good at speaking, and a new type of farmer with a thoughtful mind. "This is not two ordinary poplar trees, nor is it the woolly poplar we see in our daily life, it is a white poplar, which is now a rare species." "These two poplar trees were planted here by Li Chaoyun, a village cadre during the Republic of China period." At that time, it was the courtyard of the village's academy. One spring, the village cadre Li Chaoyun went to the county seat to catch up with the market, bought a few poplar saplings from the wucheng county town on the banks of the Grand Canal, carried them back to the village, came to the courtyard of the school, personally dug pits to water, planted the saplings on both sides of the entrance of the school, and he entrusted the children in the village to read and learn culture well, like this small tree, to thrive, and to be a person with a good future and win glory for their hometown. "Later, the old school was gone. This is the site of the New Social School, where I attended elementary school." The old man pointed to the courtyard on the north side of the poplar tree and said, "Today, the old man Li Chaoyun has long been ancient, and the school has changed, but these poplar trees as collective property have continued to grow, through wind and rain, destroyed by people, and after years of hardship, finally these two plants are left, and they have become what they are today." ”
In fact, in the eyes of the villagers, the two poplar trees are ordinary two trees, just like self-destruction, born in the streets and alleys of the village, grown in front of the school, no one pays attention, and no one deliberately shelters. "It turned out that the one on the west side of these two poplar trees had grown luxuriantly, and the one on the east side had grown weakly; in recent years, in turn, the east side of the plant seemed to grow stronger, and the west side of the plant was constantly withering, and even dying. Why? "The old man gave me an analysis, it turned out that the west side of these two trees is a pit pond in the village, often accumulating water, the poplar tree on the west side is relatively close, its roots can be absorbed recently, relative to the east side of the poplar tree has sufficient nutrients, and the growth is exuberant. In recent years, the village does not pay attention to garbage classification, some polluting things are dumped into the pit pond, and now although the pit pond is filled, but the harmful garbage is also buried below, and the poplar tree on the west side directly absorbs harmful elements, pollution poisoning, affecting growth, and even endangering life.
The old man's words really make sense. Quickly treat this white poplar tree, I hope that when I come back next year, it will be full of vitality and truly "grow together and flourish".
(The last one is a network diagram)
October 3, 2021
This article is from Guo Junyu's public account