★ Masthead inscription: Mr. ★ Ma Donglin
North Ten Ditch
Author: Ding Zhenliang Recitation: Wait patiently
Beishigou, in the hearts of the Qiying people, refers to a ditch, and at the same time, it refers to a piece of land, such as the captain shouting: "After eating, go to Beishigou to cut soybeans!" "The people went down to the ground with scythes.
Beishigou is the northernmost boundary of Qiying's land, and beyond the ditch is the land of Zhao Lou.
This ditch is not long, from the ditch on the south slope of Zhao Lou in the west to the ditch of the tulou third team in the east, turning south, and jiaoxin canal and north ditch ditch.
North Ten Ditch, like the Qiying people, straight to the point, turning a corner is a right angle, I admire, really admire the predecessors of the Qiying people, let the water passing through the Qiying people also come out of the Qiying people's hearts.
The land south of the North Ten Ditches is still black land, this land is the farthest from the village, and the fertilizer is applied to the crops in the vicinity, and when it reaches the North Ten Ditches, there is no fertilizer to be applied.
At that time, there were few people in the Qi camp, and they couldn't get busy, so they artificially caused this land to be very thin, the crops were thin and thin, and the grass was higher than the crops.
When the crops are thin, they will plant other crops, such as mung beans are thin, they will plant corn, soybeans are thin, they will be planted with sorghum... I think the people in the village are perfunctory about this land, people deal with the land, and the land also deals with people. In a word, in the land of Qiying, the crops in this land are the worst.
In the late 1960s, when General Qi Rongxiang was an instructor, he returned home to visit his relatives and participate in the cutting of soybeans in this field. At that time, I was in elementary school, and I also worked, and we elementary school students could only cut three rows of soybeans and score three points in half a day.
We followed General Qi to cut soybeans, and a few girls talked a lot, while cutting, while chatting with the general, Qi Xiaolian asked the general, do your troops sing? General Rap. "Beijing has a golden sun" will you sing? The general can sing, but the general pretends that I can't sing, you teach me to sing! Xiaolian sang a sentence, the general sang a sentence, and a burst of laughter broke out in the soybean field.
During the break, the general took out a letter from his pocket, and the stamp on the envelope was a group photo of Chairman Mao and Lin Biao wearing military uniforms on the upper floor of Tiananmen Square, when the general told us about the meaning of stamp collecting, which also showed that he had begun to collect stamps at that time.
Since the general's wife, Zhou Junying, joined the army, he has not returned to this land for 37 years. It also responds to the old saying: "Since ancient times, it is difficult to be loyal and filial piety to be able to have both." ”
In the early 1970s, the high-voltage power line from Dengzhou to Xinye County was erected from the field of Beishigou, waking up this ancient black land, and I looked at the straight high-voltage poles and slightly curved wires, thinking to myself, can this high-voltage power bring luck to this black land?
North Shigou low terrain, remember that year, this land is planted with sweet potatoes, to dig sweet potatoes, even rainy, water can not be discharged, people will go to the ground, with their feet to step out of the sweet potatoes, the ground into a thin mud paste. After the ground dried, the cattle were pulled to plow the ground, and the cattle were tired and breathless, and several times "the cattle lost their front hooves" and fell to the ground, and the hard mud broke the plough.
Large pieces of dirt were as hard as steel, but the heavy hammers of the Qi Ying people smashed pieces of black iron-like mud into pieces. There is fire in the heart, there is a flame, can beat scrap iron into steel, can beat the dead soil into living soil, this is a kind of spirit of the Qi Ying people.
That year, one night after the wheat was cut down, Qi Zhanyi and I went to the old north slope to take care of the wheat, and after dinner, we carried the sheets under our armpits, went to the ground to lay the wheat flat, slept on the wheat, covered the sheets, looked up at the sky, the stars flickered, when we slept, the Milky Way was north and south, and at dawn the Milky Way turned into an east-west direction. At that time, we knew the Big Dipper, the Broom Star, the Day Star, the Cowherd Star, the Vega Star... We woke up in the morning and our sheets were all wet with dew.
Now that I think about it, when we were only fourteen or fifteen years old, we went to the fields to look after the wheat, and to be honest, when we were asleep, others carried us away, and we didn't necessarily know.
After the 1980s, the rain in the hometown slowly decreased, coupled with the rational application of chemical fertilizers, the crops on the black soil caught up with the harvest of the crops on the yellow soil, and people's lives began to improve.
The three-colored soil of Qiying, each piece of land has a story, and each piece of land condenses the wisdom and strength of the Qiying people.
Once, there were fish in the north ten ditches, but there was not much water, adults could jump over in narrow places, and we little friends had to cross the north ten ditches, so we pulled up our pants legs and went over...
More than 50 years have passed, and the ditch of the North Ten Ditch has disappeared, but the land of the North Ten Ditch is still called the North Ten Ditch. The name of Beishigou and the story of Beishigou are deeply engraved on the hearts of the Qiying people.
Written on March 13, 2022
About the Author
Ding Zhenliang, a native of Dengzhou, Henan, is a member of the World Chinese Writers Association and a member of the Henan Provincial Writers Association, and has written three poems: "Golden Autumn Poetry Rhymes", "Hometown in Cuckoo Sound", and long-form reportage "Torture Life".
Ye Min's network name waited patiently, 24 years of professional radio and television broadcast hosting experience; his works won more than 100 awards at the national, provincial and municipal levels; he was included in the "Chinese Contemporary Announcer Host Ceremony"; and the special film "Love Extends on the Banks of the Lancang River" of the Yunnan Project of the United Nations World Labour Organization was distributed to the five ASEAN countries. He is currently the anchor and recitation art consultant or art director of many platform media such as "Huaichuan Filial Piety".
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