Picking up grass and accompanying me through my childhood Part II:
Nanguan is busy picking up grass
·Sun Hua·
In addition to studying, the most important thing that accompanied me in my childhood was picking grass. The main place for five or six, six or seven friends in our neighborhood to pick up grass is Nanguandang, which is three or four miles away from our home and ten miles away.
The Nanguandang mentioned here is the name of the region rather than the organization, because Shuyang has Nanguandang Township in history - Nanguandang Township is also named because it is located in Nanguandang, and the Nanguandang of the region refers to the general range of Shucheng Town and Nanhu Street from the Waicheng River in the north, Zhongxing Hospital in the south, Laoshu River flowing out of the city in the south, and Chongqing Road in the west. The Waishu River was not connected with the Laoshu River before the dredging in the eighties of the last century, and the people at that time called it the small river, mainly to distinguish it from the Laoshu River in the urban area, because it was far less wide than the Laoshu River, so famous, in this way, Nanguandang was simply and clearly called Xiaohean by the people in the urban area, and the folk proverb said: "Shihe River Ai, Silao Lane, the south of the small river is Nanguandang." "Shiheai and Silao Lane were all famous places in Shucheng City at that time, which shows that the fame of Nanguandang at that time was not small!
Shuyang is a famous flood corridor in history, every summer, the upstream of the Huai River, the Yi River water down, Shuyang suddenly into the water town Zeguo, coupled with the history of the Yellow River many times to seize the Huai into the sea and the downstream discharge is not smooth, the internal water system is not matching, Shuyang in addition to some high gang area, a little lower place has become a lake, Shuyang history has "five lakes and eighteen swings" said, eighteen swings in the top of the Nanguan dang.
The so-called dang is also a lake, but it is shallower than the lake.
Flood is Shuyang's henchmen, since it is a low-lying place in the south of the henchmen of the trouble, the Shuyang officials who have made a difference should naturally lead the masses to build water conservancy including Nanguandang, it should be said that Shen Kuo is such an official, "Song History, Shen Kuo Biography" records: Shuyang "county according to Shushui, Nai Zhi Fang's book: 'immersed in Yi, Shu', so the traces are full of pollution, including vegetable water for a hundred canals and nine weirs, to get up to the field 7,000 hectares. It means that Shuyang County is relying on Shushui, which is what the staff wrote: "Shuize is called Yishui, Shushui." Shen Kuo rebuilt the embankment and dredged the water into 100 canals and 9 dams, which were used to divert and control the main stream and tributaries of the water, and obtained 7,000 hectares of high-quality fields. "The 100 canals and nine dams built by Shen Kuo and the masses should naturally include Nanguandang, because Nanguandang is not far from the Huai River and the Yi River, and is closer to the county government.
Although Shen Kuo presided over the construction of 100 canals and nine dams in Shuyang, which were used to divert and control the main stream and tributaries of Shushui, he still did not effectively solve the problem of flooding in Shuyang, that is, did not solve the problem of flooding in Nanguandang, which can be seen from Shen Kuo's words and deeds after 700 years of his tenure in Shuyang, that is, after Yuan Mei was appointed as the magistrate of Shuyang for 8 to 10 years.
Yuan Mei said that Shuyang has always been a poor place, especially at that time, disasters were frequent, thousands of households were sparse, and the people were poor, "300,000 people were hungry, and countless people were killed in Russia." Yuan Mei described it like this: "A hundred deaths are bearable, starvation and death are unhurried, wild dogs are skeletons, skinny and fleshless, self-hatred for parents, and do not want to have ears and eyes." Yuan Mei also wrote in the poem: "Zhu Ti counts thousands of acres of fields, which is as few as gold and water." It means that the rich know only about buying land, but they don't know about water conservancy, which leads to both floods and droughts. He described it this way: "The floating sky and the water lose the east and west roads, and the locusts entering the country are like the morning and evening tides." "The flood situation in Shuyang that Yuan Mei said is probably more about the situation of Nanguandang at that time, because Nanguandang is close to the urban area and has a large flood, and it is common for Shuyang to include Nanguandang at that time, and the people are miserable. As soon as Yuan Mei arrived, he mobilized the people to repair canals and control water, led people to build embankments on the Jun River, renovated the Shu River, etc., and strengthened Ziyan, which did a great deed.
To renovate the Shu River, the Nanguandang, which is close at hand, is naturally included. After Yuan Meixing repaired the water conservancy, the flood disaster in Nanguandang still has not been completely solved, and the folk proverb said: "Nanguandang, the ghost who is upside down, will send two water in ten years, and touch some snails and paste mouths." "I have an uncle who drowned in Nanguanli when he was a child, that is, during the wheat harvest season at the end of the Qing Dynasty, when his family went to a high hill area on the southwest side of Nanguandang to harvest wheat, and then sat on a raft carrying wheat back to Nanguan, which not only shows that the flood in Nanguandang has not been effectively solved, but the water potential of Nanguandang in the summer flood season is still very dangerous.
The real solution to the flood disaster in Nanguandang was after the founding of New China, and through the great action of eradicating the Huai River and the Yi River, the flood disaster in Nanguandang was completely solved. Not only solved the flood, because Nanguandang is the impact of the flood, basically all are yellow sandy soil, the soil quality is better, and the original is the Hudang area, there is thicker humus, which creates a unique condition for the agricultural harvest and harvest, so Nanguandang was Shuyang's famous 10,000 acres of abundant production field, the first in the county to realize tons of grain fields, the first in the county to achieve two seasons of rice intercropping.
Water conservancy facilities, since there are many ditches, many ditches, there are many slopes, the slope soil is fertile and the water is abundant and the light is sufficient, which creates conditions for the growth of weeds and miscellaneous trees, in order to prevent the ditches from silting up, people also consciously protect these weeds and trees, so that it has become our first to collect firewood and grass in Nanguandang. Generally speaking, we must start from the bank of the east end of the small river near the river, and then head west, no matter how much the withered weeds on the bank of Xiaohe are four or five miles, and the leaves that fall are abundant, they can not satisfy our possessiveness, not to mention that the grass picking army like us is far more than one or two, the firewood and grass on the bank of Xiaohe has become less, so we will march to the Erdou Canal, the firewood and grass of the Erdou Canal are less, we will march to the Sandou Canal, in the image we have been to the farthest to the Sidou Canal to collect firewood and grass, and the Sidou Canal is ten miles away from our home. But we are in groups, talking and laughing, happy and happy, and naturally we don't realize that the road is far.
In Nanguandang, the main thing to pick up is fallen leaves and dead grass in autumn and early winter, and the main thing to pick up in winter and spring is dead branches, and the happiest thing is the wheat harvest season in summer. At that time, Hexi, Yezhuang, Luwei, Zhakou, Sunxiang, Qianxiang, Center, Wanhe and other villages in Nanguandangli implemented the same collective distribution system as the rural areas in other parts of the country, and each production team would have a large wheat field.
When the members rush to harvest, the production team will send someone to wait in the field, which is called "gatekeeper", the harvest is over, the gatekeeper will leave, the gatekeeper will wave to us from time to time and then point to the harvested wheat field, that action is to tell everyone "'put the door', you can go in." "When the door was opened, we could go in, and we, the children, who had been waiting at the edge of the field, some of them adults, immediately flocked to the harvested wheat field like a swarm of bees. We use a rake to pick up the wheat straw scattered in the ground, at this time it is really called a race against time, you chase me, in full swing, because the hands and feet are a little slow, the scattered wheat straw has become someone else's "trophy". At this time, the wheat straw collected home is not only firewood and grass, but also ears of wheat attached to the straw. Picking up grass and picking up the grain and it is the top wheat in the grain, which can be described as beating rabbits with grass, killing two birds with one stone. Those of us who are quick with hands and feet can pick up hundreds of catties of wheat in one wheat mouth.
Throughout the year, several of our little friends who collect firewood and grass have piles of grass more than one person high in front of their homes or in the yard, which effectively solves the family's worries about salary, which is the gift of Nanguandang.
Thanks to the fertile Nanguandang, not only the people who raised Nanguandang itself, but also left us children in the neighborhood with good childhood memories.
Written in May 2024