On the 20th day after the heavy rain, the sweet potato seedlings in Qianshao Village, Xihua County, Henan Province had already spread their branches and leaves. On July 21, this small village in central Henan was still a vast ocean. It took Qianshao Village less than half a month

On the 20th day after the heavy rain, the sweet potato seedlings in Qianshao Village, Xihua County, Henan Province had already spread their branches and leaves. On July 21, this small village in central Henan was still a vast ocean. It took Qianshao Village less than half a month from draining waterlogging to sowing new crops. The villagers and the village party secretary posted their daily experiences online these days, creating a disaster-resistance diary belonging to the villages in Henan. In it, they described the disaster that had befallen the crops in the village, and recorded the moment when the village cadres sacrificed their lives to lift the gate to release the flood. It shows the vitality of replanting crops.

Some netizens once questioned whether the village cadres in the video were posing for a show. "I have seen all these comments, but I can't care so much." Shao Junwei, the village party secretary, said that the purpose of filming these is to let others know more about the disaster situation in the village. , "With that kind of help and attention, the villagers will have hope and courage to fight against the disaster and resume production, and everyone's life will gradually become easier."

html On August 4, early-maturing sweet potatoes were replanted in the village. Photo provided by the interviewee

The Rain is Coming

Shao Juntao, a former villager in Shao Village, did not expect that when he woke up, the village outside his home had changed.

It was the morning of July 21st. It had been raining all night. He walked out of the house holding an umbrella. My land is on the edge of the village, far away, and I don’t know what the situation is. But the road was full of water, and the crop fields were flooded with rainwater. Occasionally, a few corn stalk tips would emerge from the water. The road was getting colder and colder, and Shao Juntao knew that his crops and vegetables would definitely be in danger.

In addition to his own land, Shao Juntao also contracted another 35 acres of land in the village and planted peppers, sweet potatoes and corn. Wheat was just harvested on June 5th, and corn was planted right after. Henan was relatively dry in the early stage, and field corn was most in need of water. For more than a month after the beginning of June, Shao Juntao basically resisted the drought, but finally waited until the rain came. After that, more than a month of hard work came to nothing.

Shao Juntao stood on the edge of the field and took a video of the crop field filled with water and posted it online, "It can't go on anymore, I can't stand it anymore." Some netizens who didn't know why he thought he was in the south asked, "This is a pond?" Are they all full?" Shao Juntao also smiled bitterly and replied, "Yes, we are catching fish on the road."

html At the end of July, the crops in Qianshao Village were soaked in water. Picture provided by the interviewee

But at this moment, the real heavy rain has not yet arrived. In fact, from 17:00 on July 21st to 11:00 on July 22nd, heavy rains and heavy rainstorms occurred in the city of Zhoukou. During this period, the precipitation in Xihua County, where Qianshao Village is located, was 221.7 mm, which is equivalent to the average annual rainfall. About 30% of the work was concentrated in these 17 hours.

The 17 hours of lifting the gate

, together with the whole day after that, were extremely painful for Qianshao Village. Villagers recalled that during that time, no one could live in the first-floor rooms of their homes. The water on village roads was generally 1.2 meters deep, and the depth in low-lying areas could reach 1.5 meters. People waded in the water every day, and their legs and feet were soaked. Wrinkled and turned white.

The water level is still rising. "It stopped raining, but the water level here is deeper than a few days ago." Shao Juntao mentioned that the village is located downstream. After other villages upstream drained water, the water continued along some dilapidated and damaged embankments of the Wugou River to the north of the village. It poured into Qianshao, and in about two days, the water depth increased by 50 centimeters in some places.

Why don't you drain the water immediately? Shao Juntao said that this is because the drainage gate in the village is also connected to the Wugou River. "If the gate was lifted at that time, the river water would flow back and the water in the village would rise even more."

There were two drainage gates in Shao Village in the past. , was built in the 1960s and 1970s. Rural areas in the north have little experience with concentrated rainfall and have not dealt with floods for many years. As villagers said, drought is a problem that northern villages often face. The two drainage gates have almost never been paid attention to or repaired. Only the old people in the village are familiar with the location and purpose of the gates. "Young people don't even know there is such a drainage place." Shao Juntao said that the drainage gate is square. shape, with a side length of about 1.3 meters, and what blocked the drainage outlet was a piece of cement board . “When we looked at it, all the accessories for one of the gates were gone, and the other one needed to be lifted up with auxiliary tools."

html On July 23, the water level of the Wugou River dropped, and it was time to lift the sluice for drainage. Shao Junwei, secretary of the village party branch, led the villagers to find two wooden sticks and a chain, hoping to use a simple pulley device to lift the water Gate. "There is no power over the gate. "Shao Juntao is more than 1.7 meters tall and is not thin, but when he stood on the shore, he still couldn't lift the two square meters of cement board.

The last person to go into the water to lift the gate was the village party secretary Shao Junwei. He was naked to the waist. , bending his legs, almost immersing his body from the chest down in the water, pulling the chain bit by bit. After two days of heavy rain, opening this "door" is the beginning of Qianshao Village's desire to survive.

Villager Shao Juntao once posted a video of the village party secretary lifting the gate in the water online, which received more than 700,000 views and more than 6,000 likes. Sometimes when Shao Juntao watches this video, he feels scared, having to lift the gate alone. In addition to facing the difficulty of not being able to lift the gate, he also had to face the danger of floods gushing out and washing people away after lifting the gate.

Village party secretary Shao Junwei did not care about these. He updated the village with videos every day after the disaster. On July 25, he took a break and recorded a video for the first time. The video was only 15 seconds long. Several two- and three-story residential buildings and a few trees in the distance became the water and the sky. The dividing line between them, the water surface as far as the eye can see is very quiet, like a huge mirror. Shao Junwei is standing in the water wearing a light blue shirt. The water level has reached his waist and abdomen, soaking his clothes below his chest. He crossed his hands on his chest and looked a little reserved. He looked at the camera and introduced the disaster situation in the village in one or two sentences.

html On July 25, the second day after the floodgates were lifted in Qianshao Village, Shao Junwei stood in the middle of the village road. . Picture provided by the interviewee

Feng Yuan, director of the Fengmu Town Government Office, has seen the videos posted by Shao Junwei on the Internet. He specifically mentioned that the location where Shao Junwei was standing in many videos was basically in the middle of the village road or in the farmland. At a relatively high place, “the road they were on had become a river surface.

Shao Junwei recalled more than ten days ago, with still sorrow in his voice, "You know, when I was looking at the land in the village and walking, sometimes I didn't want to live anymore, because the losses were really huge." "Since he served as party secretary in 2018, Qianshao Village has had a real branch. In order to develop and revitalize the village and develop the collective economy of the cooperative, Shao Junwei loaned 500,000 yuan. "Seeing this rain and everyone's losses, I The mental pressure is too great. "

Going to lift the gate is Shao Junwei's own "living towards death". "So what if something happens, I don't want to live. When I am a secretary, if I don’t show up to ‘block the loophole’, when will I show up? "

Although he was thinking about the worst outcome all the way, the video posted by Shao Junwei represented the desire for survival of a disaster-stricken village. During the drainage stage, he stood in the water, in front of the building that had not yet faded away from the high waterline. Reporting on the progress of drainage; sometimes he would stand on the edge of the farmland, pointing to the crops soaked in water behind him, and telling about the damage to the fields. In these videos, he would sometimes briefly "report his home" and introduce where he was. Villages and locations are sometimes just added with a line of text in the picture, and their phone number is attached.

html On July 30, the flood relief in the former Shao Village came to an end. Shao Junwei stood on the muddy but finally flat field, and the sun hit his face. On the page, Shao Junwei squinted his eyes and frowned, and made a request, "We need some seeds suitable for current planting, and we hope everyone will support us. "

Resistance

People who have watched the video also have doubts. Some people say that it is a show and staged by the village cadres.

Shao Junwei has read these comments and has no response. For him, this is a feeling of helplessness in a remote area. Qianshao Village is located in the westernmost part of Fengmu Town, 40 kilometers away from the county seat of Xihua County. It is the most remote village in Xihua County and even Zhoukou. “Everyone is suffering from the disaster, so we just want to take pictures in our own way. Shooting videos can help people pay more attention to us, see us, want us, and help us more. This difficulty may be over.

Shao Juntao said that there were indeed caring people and companies who directly delivered supplies to the village after watching the video. At the same time, during the self-rescue process of Fengmu Town, the whole town also mobilized personal connections and invited technicians and experts. It is planned to replant before autumn planting to reduce the villagers' losses.

Feng Yuan mentioned that for crops that fill the window period of cultivated land, most of the towns choose vegetables that can mature in a short period of time, such as radish and spinach. It is the first time for the villagers to grow vegetables, so they may be unfamiliar. We have invited experts to provide technical guidance and training for the villagers. We cannot despair of life after suffering a disaster. "

Some people say that the lives of farmers are connected with the crops in the fields. Of course, the crops are not connected with life and death, but they are a kind of connection between farmers' hearts and minds. Failure of crops will destroy farmers' hopes for the future. In addition to reducing losses, replanting and resumption of production are also a way for ordinary agricultural producers to resist disasters.

Should he continue to compete with God for time to complete replanting, or should he completely relax and wait for winter wheat to be planted in the fall? Shao Juntao actually hesitated for a long time. This is not because the farmer is not diligent enough. He has imagined that the more than 30 acres of land he contracted will not earn a penny throughout the autumn, "and may have to lose tens of thousands of yuan." "But if we have to replant vegetables that have not been planted before, even if they can be harvested maturely, what will happen to the market? After the drainage, Shao Juntao returned the straw to the field and plowed the land while hesitating about these problems.

html In early August, the drainage ended and Qianshao Village began Rotary tillage of land. Photo provided by the interviewee

Until a higher education institution in Zhoukou and a nursing home in Shanghai contacted the village about the subsequent sales of vegetables, "What you grow, we eat." They gave it to Shao Junwei. Promise.

Atmosphere

html On August 4, sweet potatoes began to be planted on the rotary plowed land in the village. Shao Juntao said that these sweet potatoes are an early-maturing variety specially selected by the village. They are expected to mature before October and will not delay the continued planting of winter wheat in the village. , filling the land gap period in the next two months. “Another example is the mung beans I planted, which are basically the same period. I expect to earn three to five hundred yuan per acre, which can also make up for some losses. "The

land belongs to their own family, but for Shao Juntao and many villagers in the village, the decision to replant was not made by one person. "The most important thing is that there is an atmosphere in the whole village. The radio shouts every day, "The villagers' land is Village cadres and experts are busy in the fields every day. You see that everyone is not idle, and you can't be idle either. "

For Shao Juntao and most of the villagers, it is their choice to actively drain waterlogging, rotary tillage, and replant after the disaster. But in the view of Shao Junwei, the village party secretary, calling on the whole village not to give up cultivated land is a way of experiencing the disaster. The only way out for the village after the disaster.

"I am Shao Junwei, secretary of Qianshao Village, Fengmu Town, Xihua County. The flood has passed, and now we are planting some crops suitable for the current production situation to try to minimize the losses of the people. "On August 14, starting with the same introduction, Shao Junwei posted the latest video on his account. Since the heavy rain and floods in the village on July 21, this is the 34th video posted by Shao Junwei in 24 days. Video.

On that day, the sweet potato seedlings in Qianshao Village had spread out their branches and leaves. According to the villagers, if the seedlings are branched, they are considered to have been planted, and the harvest will be ready in more than a month.

8.14 On the same day, the replanted sweet potatoes have spread their branches and leaves. Picture provided by the interviewee

A villager once provided the soundtrack to a replanting video he posted online. It was an Internet song, and a male voice sang in the background, "Just work hard. God will do the rest. "Do your best and obey destiny." That's what the song goes, and that's what we think too. "Shao Juntao said.

Beijing News reporter Tian Jiexiong

editor Zhang Shujing proofreader Liu Baoqing