Millennial ancient embankment craftsman spirit
▓ Zhang Daokang
China's South-to-North Water Diversion Project Hongze Lake Flood Gate
Daqing, an old classmate, called from Huai'an and told him that when you visit the alumni of northern Jiangsu who drive through Hongze Lake, you can visit the famous Hongze Lake embankment, which has a history of more than 1,800 years, is a national cultural relics protection unit, and has been included in the list of world cultural heritage.
The wind is galloping, all the way to the sunshine, and the car is to Jiang Ba. A tall and majestic building stands in front of you, this is the construction of the flood gate of China's South-to-North Water Diversion Project (titled photo).
As far as the eye can see, the vast water of Hongze Lake is soothing and calm. An old man was fishing by the lake, and a few little girls who came to play were busy taking pictures on the lake, leaving beautiful pictures on the lakeside. What a beautiful picture of elegance, leisure, comfort, and tranquility! Who knows what kind of roar and how hideous the Hongze Lake was when it flooded! How much suffering did the people on both sides of the strait suffer because of the loss of their homes and the destruction of their houses?
Strange to say, the southwest level of the dam is seven or eight meters higher than that of the northeast. This is probably the effect of the dam, which blocked the southwest lake from flooding to the north shore. We can see that on the slope of the southern embankment, there are three historical flooding horizontal markers: the flooding to 16.9m in the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, the flooding to 16.25m in the 20th year of the Republic of China, and the flooding to 15.22m in 1954. These data are a true and original record of the horizontal height of Hongze Lake that year. All dynasties, from the government to the common people, have all worked hard to resist the flood, and have also left many breathtaking flood fighting relics.
The Hongze Lake embankment is more than 70 kilometers long, which was built in the Eastern Han Dynasty and completed in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The main body of the vertical construction wall built on the surface of the water is made of more than 60,000 pieces of boulders mixed with glutinous rice lime mortar, with uniform specifications and excellent workmanship, and the water control technology has reached the world's leading level today. I took a closer look at a section of the dam construction wall during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, and the wide and heavy rocks, the dry masonry stacks were tightly stacked, and they were intact for hundreds of years, which made those of us who were engaged in architecture admire.
The remains of the masonry wall of the embankment in the 49th year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty
The history of Hongze Lake is like a water dragon king, the flood disaster disaster of the people happens from time to time, we heard a very touching historical legend of flood fighting, called "Hou Er Blocking Water": between the ten forts and the eleventh fort of the causeway, there is a "Hou Er Gate" known to women and children. In the past, there were often breaks here, during the Ming Dynasty, in order to strengthen prevention, the government demarcated the section of the embankment for the local Li people, and this dangerous land was assigned to Hou Er and his wife on duty nearby. The two felt a great responsibility and took turns patrolling day and night. This year, the autumn water arrived, and the danger came out again. That day, Mrs. Lin sent lunch, and Hou Er was about to eat, when he suddenly found that there was a bubble whirlpool in the water. He hurriedly put down the rice bowl in his hand, called his wife to ring the gong to call the police, and jumped into the water to dig mud and plug the hole.
Lin sounded the gong while digging the mud cake and handing it to her husband. But the whirlpool is getting bigger and bigger, and in a hurry, Hou Er struggled to block the entrance of the whirlpool hole with his body, but the body of just one person could stop the fierce momentum of the rolling flood, Hou Er shouted: "Call someone quickly!" and was immediately swept into the hole. When Lin saw it, he also jumped into the cave with all his might...... When the officials and the surrounding people rushed to hear the news, the couple had been swept into the cave and disappeared. At this moment, people were deeply saddened, shouting: "Hou Er, come back", while rushing to block the hole. This shout resounded for a long time in the rolling waves......
Even from today's point of view, we are deeply moved by the deeds of Hou Er's husband and wife who fought hard to fight the flood and sacrificed. History was originally written by thousands of ordinary people with blood and tears.
Looking up suddenly, I saw two workers wearing hard hats walking slowly on the long embankment, and from time to time testing something against the crack in the stone wall with an instrument in their hand. It turned out that they were inspecting the levee, and I said hello to them, "Thank you, you are so serious, what are you doing?" and one of them replied to me, "We are inspecting the levee, which is our daily work." Be more serious every day and pay a little bit more, so that the dam will be safer. "It's really good to say, from ancient times to the present dynasties, the meticulous craftsman spirit of building and guarding the embankment has been passed down from generation to generation, so that there is a peaceful life for the people today. "The more we do, the better the world will be. ”
Looking back at the southwest bank of the dam, the breeze blows, and occasionally there are bursts of clear singing. The northeast shore has long been crisscrossed by grid paddy fields, which breed hairy crabs, shrimp and other aquatic products that are the specialties of Hongze Lake. After years of unremitting management and construction and reinforcement, the Hongze Lake Dam has become an iron wall standing on the shore of the lake, standing majestically on the shore of the lake, ready to fight against the flooding at any time, and guard the lives of ordinary people on both sides of the river.
April 2024
Written by Zhang Daokang
Zhang Daokang, male, graduated from the Chinese Department of Nanjing Normal University in the eighties. He is a member of the Nanjing Writers Association, a director of the Nanjing Music and Literature Society, and has published many literary works in national newspapers.