Chapter 79 Immigration
On the way back to Minqin, a drive of more than five hours, Guo Yang fell asleep most of the time.
Both sides of the road were gray and there was no green at all.
Sometimes the desolation with no grass growing along the way really makes people look desperate.
But even so, the proud bitter water rose still grows on this barren land, and the wheat print is people's deepest love.
It is difficult for people who have never been here to understand the charm of the Northwest.
Here is the silence of "the solitary smoke in the desert, the sun setting in the long river", and also the pride of "Don't laugh when you are lying drunk on the battlefield, how many people have returned from the ancient battles";
There is "Why is the Qiang flute necessary?" There is also the desolation of "resenting the willows, the spring breeze does not reach Yumen Pass", and the wonder of "suddenly a spring breeze comes overnight, thousands of pear trees bloom".
Others see desolation without a blade of grass, but in my eyes I see solitary snow scattered across the desert. Drinking strong wine for a long time, holding an eagle bow like a full moon, looking northwest, shooting at the wolf.
Listen to the name of the city here!
Jingbian, Dingxi, Dingbian, Pingliang, Anding, Wuwei, Dunhuang, Zhangye, Jiayuguan, Yumen...
From the lonely pathfinder Zhang Qian, to the twelve Han princesses who lived in the open air all the way, here Huo Qubing, who sealed the wolf in Xu, and Li Guang, the flying general whose dignity stained the desert...
Loyal bones are buried everywhere in the mountains.
The desolation here has guarded the northwest gate of China for five thousand years.
But the economy here is too backward, and countless people just want to escape here.
In the car, Guo Yang was still recalling the situation at the original owner's home.
He was the youngest of seven brothers and sisters growing up.
His parents have passed away long ago. When he was very young, he followed his eldest brother Guo Shan. The so-called eldest brother is like his father, and this was clearly reflected in him.
However, the eldest brother also has a family, a wife and children to raise, and Guo Yang's existence is more like a burden.
The ecological environment is deteriorating day by day. No matter how hard you work, the output of the fields is always limited.
The more they cultivate, the poorer they get, and the poorer they get, the more they cultivate. The people here seem to be trapped in a strange cycle.
Many people began to flee here.
Go out to work, stay with relatives and friends, find a living environment in a foreign place, and then move with your family.
Guo Yang’s brothers and sisters have also settled down in other places one after another, and occasionally they have enough time to support their younger brother who is still studying.
But his eldest brother Guo Shan is still guarding here, stubbornly fighting the final struggle against the yellow sand in the sky.
Many memories have gradually become blurred, and Guo Yang didn't want to face the filial piety of his parents before.
……
The car drove into Minqin’s boundary.
As we get closer and closer to the village, there are fewer and fewer households.
On both sides of the road, two deserts are waiting on the left and right. The sand dunes and the vegetation beside the road are intertwined, fighting and rolling in the wind.
The trees of Elaeagnus elata and Haloxylon ammodendron that died without enough water looked like plant specimens.
On the abandoned land, there are still traces of the former field ridges, as well as broken mulch film dancing in the wind. On some ground, you can still see the shocking salt-alkali crust.
Guo Yang watched this scene in silence, and he understood why the original owner studied so hard.
It’s because he, like many rural students here, has seen enough of the desolation of the Gobi Desert and the barrenness of the Loess Plateau.
Take college entrance examination as an important way to change your destiny.
While I deeply love this place, I desperately want to escape.
And every time they want to leave, men, women, old and young will carry their bags and walk a long way regardless of spring, summer, autumn or winter.
However, desertification is caused by environmental changes on the one hand, and more importantly, it is caused by human beings' transition to demanding nature.
Minqin Lake District is an area with serious overpopulation.
Guo Yang had considered Minqin before when he inspected the saline-alkali land, but there was a fatal flaw here.
So short of water!
And it is not a water shortage in a certain village, but a general water shortage.
It is difficult to guarantee basic residential water supply and agricultural irrigation, let alone improve saline-alkali land.
Considering the characteristics of Alfalfa No. 1, we can only choose Golden Tower for the time being.
Yuhe Village is a small village. There are few households in the village, and there is one household in the east and one in the west.
Guo Yang originally wanted to find out who lived at the entrance of the village and spread rumors about him in the village.
But when it actually happened, I felt that this was a nonsense reason.
I saw a dozen houses in total, who would have the heart to spread gossip about him! The roar of the car still attracted the attention of the villagers, and some villagers came out of the yard.
Looking at the rare car, the car finally stopped in front of Guo Shan's yard.
The villagers saw two people wearing clothes of excellent fabrics getting out of the car, one of whom was very young.
"Guo Shan, you have a guest at your house!" someone yelled.
"Does that young man look like Guo Yang?"
"Don't tell me, it seems to be really him. I heard that he has become prosperous outside. It seems true. !”
“Aunt, two days ago you were saying that Guo Yang might have been caught committing something outside for so long.”
"Harm, I also heard what others said."
"I almost didn't recognize it. Sure enough, you still have to study. Only by studying can you leave this bad place. Guo Yang is like this. His niece will probably not come back in the future. "
"Everyone in the village is almost gone, and only us old men and women are left."
A few people were silent for a while. There are almost no laborers under the age of 30 in the village. -There are very few people over 50 years old.
Young people, those with higher education levels and those with better economic conditions have all moved away.
"This time the government is organizing a relocation, but I don't know if it is reliable. I heard that it is going to Xinjiang Province. Do you want to move?"
"What will happen if we don't move? The sandstorm is getting more and more serious. The income from farming is getting lower and lower, and now every household has no debts.”
“I know that Guo Shan doesn’t want to move. He just organized people to plant trees this fall, and he plans to do it again in the spring. Let’s go.”
“Their trees won’t survive long. The saplings are cut directly from the trees, and many of them haven’t been watered yet.”
“The saplings cost money. , and there are no conditions for watering. ”
...
Guo Yang looked at the low house in front of him. There were two crooked jujube trees in front of the door.
The gatehouse of the house is very particular, but walking from the gatehouse to the side is an earthen wall made of loess and wheat mixed into mud.
The wall has a very strong sense of age.
He remembered that when it rained, the earthen wall would emit a strong smell of wheat straw and earth. Guo Yang liked this smell very much when he was a child.
"Zhizhi."
The door was opened, and Guo Shan walked out. His body was thin, a little hunched and shrugged, and his eyes were not big. Next to him, there was a woman wearing a pink headscarf, her sister-in-law Tian Ying.
The figures in the memory gradually overlap, and the emotions inside are complicated.
"Brother, sister-in-law."
Guo Shan also had a smile in his eyes. He stared at Guo Yang again and again, nodded to the driver, Lao Song, and then looked at the car for a while. , and then exchanged a few words with the villagers.
"It's time to make a difference, little brother."
"Come into the room and say it, come into the room and say it." The sister-in-law greeted her hurriedly.
Lao Song opened the trunk, and Guo Yang followed him and took the gifts back into the house.
The onlookers were all envious.
"Guo Shan, your family is so prosperous. Xiaoxia will graduate soon next year!"
An old man followed and said, "Well, Guo Shan and his wife have managed to survive."
Guo Shan and Tian Ying laughed from ear to ear.
Guo Yang has never come back since graduation, and rumors spread in the village, making the two of them worried.
The moment I saw my little brother, I felt relieved.
After entering the door, I saw two jujube trees planted in the yard, various farm tools stacked in one corner, and the walls of the house were also made of wheat straw and soil.
After sitting down in the main room, Guo Shancai said: "Brother, I know you have become rich, but I don't want to come back."
"But this time the government organized relocation, and all the more than 50 households and more than 100 people in the village have to move out. , everyone is hesitant, and I don’t want to move, so I want to ask you to come back and see.”
“Where to move?”
“Xiang Province, listen. It is said that more than 1,000 people from several nearby towns will be moved here."
Guo Yang frowned, has the desertification here become this severe?
"Has the government organized villagers to go to Xinjiang Province to see the situation?"
"How can we farmers be qualified? Those who went to inspect are all county cadres."
(This chapter End)