Mother Canal
Li Heji
On a Sunday in late spring, ride the tram all the way west and enjoy the scenery along Linzhou Avenue.
In the late spring, the cold was warm, the temperature was as high as 35 degrees a few days ago, some young people were full of firepower, they had put on their sweatshirts and short sleeves, and today they fell below 20 degrees, riding an electric car felt relatively cold, and the cool breeze drilled into the neck along the neckline gap, I had to cover the wind shield to the chest and slow down. Slowly and slowly, I didn't run as fast as a bicycle, so I was free to watch the picturesque scenery along the way.
The wide Linzhou Avenue is bright and dark, the white dividing line is bright and clear, the two sides of the tung are like a tall man with green shade, the green willow bends like a graceful girl's long hair flowing, the gray magpie flocks fly to this tree for a while, and then fly to the tree to cheer and cheer, and from time to time you will hear the sound of "grunting, grunting" on the tree, which reminds people of spring sowing. In the middle of the road, evergreen trees are planted in the middle of the road, one section is the big leaf Privet, and the other section is crossed by pine trees. The virgins were still hanging on the trees, and the brown-black virgins were already white and ripe, but they were still lazily lying on their mothers, and they did not seem to see the flowers bloom and did not abdicate from their mothers. Pine trees are like positive elementary school students, growing long flower pillars among the green pine needles, and pulling the long flower pillars vertically upwards, chasing the dream of sprinting into the blue sky.
Looking out at the fields at the foot of the Taihang Mountains, the patches of rapeseed have become fat and green, and the sparse yellow flowers on their heads are still chasing the last train, striving for a good harvest. The wheat field is as green as a silk carpet, the wheat seedlings have begun to grow jointly, and the posture of the wheat is as beautiful and lovely as a girl. "Before and after the Qingming Dynasty, melons and beans were planted." It is the season when the planting point is planting, and there are men and women in the fields, as if they are jointly painting a picture of spring, some are watering, some are planting seedlings, some are holding silver hoes and planing pits, and some are holding seeds to plant seeds, a busy scene. The sanitation workers on the highway, dressed in emerald green overalls, with brooms and ash buckets in hand, are cleaning up the garbage, and they treat the road as if they were their own family, so that they can't tolerate a leaf of dirt on the ground.
On both sides of the highway, a village and a bus station kiosk, the red station kiosk is very eye-catching under the shade of green leaves, although the bus stops during the epidemic period, the bus kiosk is still kept clean by sanitation workers, waiting for the epidemic to come to the car. The tall archway door of the sunning village towers at the entrance of the village, looking into the village, the small buildings with white walls and red tiles are one after another, row by row, and the cement road leads directly to the village, and now the sunding shed has become beautiful, and she can only imagine her original appearance from the word "drying shed". Unconsciously came to the western end of Linzhou Avenue, a trunk canal of the Hongqi Canal was displayed in front of the eyes, the canal water was flowing in a "rushing", the red canal shore stone was telling the vicissitudes of half a century, and the two gates to the east were closed, one was for water diversion and power generation, and the other was for the twelve branches of the canal. I stood in front of the gate of the twelve canals, and immediately hit the floodgates of my thoughts, and it turned out that this was the source of the Mother Canal, and my soul was attached to the twelve canals.
My mother's big tun canal repair, that is, the twelve branches of the canal, when I was young, I had no memory, and now my mother's canal repair past from time to time knocked on my soul, so that my mind stayed on this canal. Perhaps because of my soul, I returned from the source, all the way to the east, slowly traveling along the twelve canals on the right, looking at this long channel, my mind was full of thoughts, as if I had walked into the years of repairing the canal, into the scene of the repair of the canal in the world, as if I saw my mother carrying a stone to work on the bank of the canal, as if I saw her tired figure on the way home, as if I saw her scene of eating chaff and swallowing vegetables... In order for the water of the Hongqi Canal to flow to the doorstep, for the water of the Hongqi Canal to flow to the field, they came to the canal repair site with their family houses, and worked for several months, how tough and powerful the thin body was, and they had the strength to support half of the sky!
As I watched, I thought, and came to the junction of Old Town West Road and Taoyuan Lane in the city, and on the twelve canals stood two stone tablets, one of which was engraved with the words "The construction of water conservancy is a major event to ensure the increase of agricultural production..." It is Chairman Mao's cursive handwriting, which is painted with red paint, which is very eye-catching. The other is the "Introduction to the Twelve Branches of the Hongqi Canal", which has been mottled and difficult to recognize due to wind and rain erosion. Standing in front of this monument, I read the inscription intently and carefully, comprehended the hardships and glory of my mother's canal repair, understood the most beautiful soul and the most beautiful works of the most beautiful strivers, felt the hard-won of every meter of channel, and felt the preciousness of each canal stone, which was the crystallization of the blood and sweat of my mother and predecessors. When I read "The twelve branches of the canal are 70 miles long, from November 1968 to May 30, 1969", my heart was very shocked, they spent only half a year, and they were in the cold day of the three nines that were frozen three feet, the cold wind on the Taihang Mountain was like a knife, the conditions were so bad and harsh, not only that, but there was also an annual Spring Festival in the middle, and this Spring Festival must have been spent in the repair of the canal in order to hurry... The more I read, the more I felt the hardships of my mother and predecessors, and the more I read, the more I felt the tall image of my mother.
More than fifty years have passed, and the water of the white flowers of the twelve canals on the western slope behind the village often flows in my mind, flowing to the wheat fields in winter and spring, to the fields in summer and autumn, and to the red reservoir of "Ganlugou". It is it that has changed the situation in which water is as expensive as oil, and it is it that has made our village lush with grain and grain, and grain production has gradually "outlined," "crossed the Yellow River," and "crossed the Yangtze River."
Twelve canals, my mother canal. I call it the Mother Canal, not only because my mother built it herself, but more importantly, I grew up eating its "milk", so it is well deserved to call it the Mother Canal. I bowed deeply in front of the monument and expressed my heartfelt thanks to my mother before slowly leaving.
2022.4.17
About the Author
Li Heji, male, born in September 1958, from Linzhou City, Henan Province. Retired cadre of Zhengzhou Railway Bureau, engaged in party affairs work for 20 years, has published poems and articles in the "ZhengTie Online" column of the Railway Bureau for many times; Since childhood, he has loved calligraphy and painting, and in the past two years, he has published many poems and essays in the Hongqi Canal Newspaper. Painting and writing have become my retirement hobbies.
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