Author Li Qiang
Editor From Yuhua
For half a century, the desert has been chasing behind him, but Wei Guangcai and his village remained unmoved.
For farmers who dig food from the soil, it is too difficult to survive in Fuchenggou Village, Minqin County, Gansu Province, where the evaporation is 24 times the precipitation. More than 30 families in the village moved out, with fewer sheep flocks, no camel caravans, the sand jujube trees wither, and many houses collapsed.
Wei Guangcai watched the originally lively village become empty. Since 13 years ago, only Lao Wei has been left here. He was not willing to be left in this place where "thieves would not come." In 67 years, he and his son have tried to escape six times, but they all failed.
Now, the Wei family's dream of escaping Fuchenggou is placed on the 10-year-old grandson Wei Fangtao.
Photo by Li Qiang
1
1
00
0 pm in the morning, Wei Guang got up amid the crowing of the rooster. This was the last rooster in Fuchenggou. It screamed a few times in almost half a minute, but no similar response was made to it, except for its owner, Wei Guangcai, who was difficult to calm down.
After a breakfast of watermelon soap buns, 67-year-old Wei Guangcai took the iron shovel to the ground. His wife stayed at home alone. Sun Wa followed his mother to herd sheep, and his son Wei Jihua went out to do odd jobs and never returned all night. This is the only family in Fuchenggou now. They have more than 50 sheep and more than 20 acres of land to serve.
The 12 acres of sunflowers in the field are growing happily, and the flower plates larger than the mouth of the bowl are hanging heavily. Milky white sunflowers have just spit out under the yellow stamens, fennel flowers are blooming, and corn is grouting. It is time when crops urgently need water.
"People wait for water, they cannot let water wait for people." Wei Guangcai said.
Standing next to the dry canal on the ground, Wei Guangcai envied his grandfather's mouth, the era of boating in the village. It is hard to imagine that the lake is overflowing during the flood season, which can flood the crop fields next to the village, and the well only needs to be dug to a depth of one person. The nearby farmlands were once planted in the Qing Dynasty. During the Republic of China, Qingtu Lake still had about 100 Forbidden City-sized and flocks of ducks and birds in the lake.
"Our ancestors moved from other places when there was a lot of water." Wei Guangcai said, but unfortunately he missed the era of abundant water and grass in Fuchenggou.
Now, this land is full of yellow sand.
Historical records show that due to immigration and reclaiming wasteland between Yongzheng and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty, the ecology of Qingtu Lake District began to deteriorate, with "flying sand flowing away" and "river water getting closer every day". In 1958, the ecology deteriorated rapidly. A huge project that year - the construction of the "rare world and largest" desert reservoir on the Shiyang River - Hongyashan Reservoir broke ground. Qingtu Lake is the tailbone of the Shiyang River, and Fucheng Gully is right next to Qingtu Lake.
A year later, the lower reaches of the Shiyang River were cut off, and the bottom of Qingtu Lake was facing the sky. The desert begins to gnaw Minqin Oasis .
Wei Guangcai's "life is the most stressful" period began. From 1959 to 1961, "I can't eat or wear, but I can't stir the noodle soup with sand", the elm bark and jujube leaves were eaten up, and the wheat seeds that had just been sown on the dry land of Fucheng Gully disappeared overnight.
At that time, the family was barely covered, and he was still a child who had no pants to wear. I heard from adults that someone starved to death on the way to flee. That was the first "immigration wave" in Fuchenggou that Wei Guangcai experienced. Data shows that during that period, about 160,000 people left in the entire Minqin County .
More than 10 years after the famine, 21-year-old Wei Guang married his wife Zhang Juhua. In a village where there are more than 30 families, this young man, who is not tall, has worked as a private teacher in a village primary school, a custodian of the production team, and a family planning propagandist. At the same time, the people who stayed began to try to control the desert in groups, and the red willow forests planted by his father to this day have been preserved in the northwest of the village.
That was the glorious years of Wei Guangcai and the last prosperity of Fuchenggou.
In the 12 years he taught, there were fewer and fewer students in the classroom. The villagers are more willing to send their children to Dongrong Primary School or the city in the village. It was not until the 1980s that no one could teach in the village primary school that Wei Guang changed from a teacher to a farmer.
2
Farmer Wei Guangcai didn't catch up with the best water source in Fuchenggou.
"Since I was sensible, Qingtu Lake has no water." Wei Guangcai remembered that he let a camel go at the bottom of the dry lake and picked up a snail with a fist.In those years, we had to take the water and water the land and the sky, and a mu of land could only harvest one or two hundred kilograms of wheat.
Wei Guangcai took the initiative to try to escape from Fuchenggou in 1986. He and three families in the same village are preparing to move to Qinfeng Farm, which is only twenty miles away from the county town. This distance is no less than three times closer to Fuchenggou than to the county town, and the groundwater is shallow. The old father Wei Kaijun also hopes that he can "go a better place."
In the spring of the following year, Wei Guangcai contracted 20 to 30 acres of land at Qinfeng Farm to plant Minqin specialty black seed melon. However, due to lack of experience in planting melons, his melons did not grow well and did not sell for a good price.
"I lost more than 2,000 yuan and came back." Wei Guangcai said, "It was a lot of more than 2,000 yuan at that time."
For farmers, farming is like placing a bet. This spring, the Wei family bet another 20,000 yuan on this bet, but the money was still borrowed. The loan can only be paid back after the crops are harvested and sold.
At the moment, Lao Wei’s most anxious thing is to give the crops plenty of water.
The water slowly descended from Shiyang River. I just arrived in Dongrong Village the night before. The land of the Wei family was at the end of the canal. Maybe it would have to wait until tomorrow, or until the day after tomorrow. He decided to use the groundwater in the irrigation machine well to water a few acres of gourds and some melon fields.
The well was dug by five villagers in 1998 for 70,000 to 80,000 yuan. It was 70 meters deep. Because the water quality was too poor, it could only be used to water the ground, and it was called the "bitter well" by the locals. The "Sweet Water Well" needs to be hit 300 meters deep, but it costs 200,000 to 300,000 yuan, and they can't afford it.
In the 1990s, a new wave of immigration and land reclamation was set off in Minqin County. That was the fifth year after he returned to Fuchenggou from Qinfeng Farm. There were still eighteen or nineteen families in the village, but the groundwater level was getting lower and lower, and the wind and sand pounded the land in the north of the village. Wei Guang tried to escape for the second time.
At that time, he had just taken more than a dozen camels from his father who died of esophageal cancer. In 1992, he was pulled down by the camel and fell to his stomach bleeding. My daughter, who was in junior high school, had to go home to take care of him, "and delayed her daughter's schooling."
In March 1993, Minqin County established the Nanhu Development Command, and the government organized some townships to migrate and reclaim wasteland to Nanhu Township. Wei Guang, who had recovered slightly, sold the camel at home and drove his daughter to Nanhu in a donkey cart.
Information provided by the Forestry Bureau of Minqin County shows that from 1985 to 1995, Minqin Oasis reclaimed 450,000 mu of wasteland and destroyed 120,000 mu of natural vegetation. Large-scale land reclamation has damaged large areas of vegetation on the edges of the oasis and the desert. On May 5, 1993, a rare black storm broke out in northwest China, causing 85 deaths in the northwest region, including Minqin County, and direct economic losses reached 725 million yuan.
abandoned houses in the village Photo by Li Qiang
At the same time, the whole county has fallen into a vicious circle of "removing land - abandoning farming". Wei Guangcai also returned to Fuchenggou from Nanhu after a year of clearing the land.
"Although the water in Nanhu is good, it is too remote and sparsely populated, and there is not even a hospital." Wei Guangcai, who has been taking stomach medicine for a long time, said, "I have to ride a camel to climb over the desert. A hare and eagle suddenly jump out easily shock the camel. If the camel runs away, people will definitely die if they stay there."
After returning from Nanhu, there were only 5 families left in the entire village.
It was also at that time that Wei Jihua, who had not finished junior high school, dropped out of school. Lao Wei's wish to his son "study hard, get into college, and jump out" was dashed. After staying at home for two years, 17-year-old Wei Jihua decided to go out to work, and his daughter also got married in 1998.
The expansion of the desert feels terrible. Quicksand approaches the oasis at a speed of nearly 4 meters per year. Badain Jilin and Tengri have "shake hands" in the northern part of Qingtu Lake District. Once the two are fully embraced, the Minqin Oasis will disappear.
"Never let Minqin be the second Lop Nur " slogan shouted throughout the city.
Wei Guangcai sometimes carried a shovel to the north of the village to clean up the red willows that were almost buried by the sand, and planted some saxals outside the ancestral tomb that were invaded by wind and sand. In the windy season, sand will fall on your face when you wake up in the morning, sand will be stirred into the noodles bowl, and at least two baskets of sand should be cleared out in the yard every day. In order to block the wind and sand, Lao Wei hung a thick cotton curtain on the door.
The last five families also decided to move to Changning Farm in the county together around 2006, including Wei Guangcai. But he failed again.
According to his original plan, Changning Farm was a way out for him. The government built three or four bungalows for each family on the farm and divided 15 or 6 acres of land. Wei Guangcai spent 16,000 yuan to buy the house and contracted the land. He thought to himself: "If there is no way out in the future, move it over.
But two years later, the rented contracted land could not be collected back. Wei Guangcai sold the house in Changning Farm in anger and continued to "squat" in Fuchenggou. The village party secretary and the nearby villagers could not understand the decision made by Wei Guangcai. He had the opportunity to leave this place back then.
Now Old Wei regrets it: "Oh, there are many people there, and they are not so lonely. If you move out, no matter where you squat, it will be better than now. "
He had another hope back then - his married son Wei Jihua spent more than 30,000 yuan to buy a house in an economic development zone in Inner Mongolia, of which 20,000 yuan was borrowed by Wei Guangcai and his relatives. His daughter-in-law vowed that he would never return to Fuchenggou.
At that time, only Wei Guangcai and his wife were left in Fuchenggou. The desert was only more than two kilometers away from Fuchenggou, and the Wei family became the dividing line between desolation and vitality.
3
"Desert" "It's about to be The words "the last family" and "stay" attracted many journalists and directors to Fuchenggou around 2007. Some people compared Lao Wei to the "Sisyphus" in ancient Greek mythology, and some people called him "Desert Nail House".
Wei Guangcai recently saw the reporter's mobile phone writing articles and taking photos of him 10 years ago. It was also recently that almost all media have misunderstood his name, and "Wei Guangcai" was written as "Wei Guangcai". "The talent just now is a treasure. "Wei Guangcai said.
Those reports did not change his life. On the contrary, after the reporter left, he was frightened. Some people blamed him for telling Minqin's "white pollution". But Lao Wei said that he didn't even know what white pollution is.
Back then, Fuchenggou also received reporters from eight countries including Japan and South Korea. But most of the visitors had long been forgotten. What he remembered most clearly was the Swiss who carried a camera to shoot documentaries. "Later, it was too difficult for us. He also bought a remote control car and a refrigerator for Sun Wa, and gave him thousands of dollars. "Old Wei pointed to the room where the refrigerator is still in use.
The reporters back then always asked him, "Why don't you move to another place? "In fact, Lao Wei is not unwilling to move.
Even in the years since it was reported by the media, Wei Guangcai made an attempt. The nearby Huanghui Village was led by the government to conduct ecological immigration. Lao Wei wanted to join the relocation team and apply to the township, but the request was not approved.
Once, after Zhang Juhua went out to attend a wedding, she said to her husband Wei Guangcai: "There are no one here, let's go to a place with more personal cigarettes. "The daughter also advised him to move to the city. But at that time, Old Wei compromised a little, "It seems that moving to such places is better than staying in this poor place. "Wei Guangcai used "it is hard to leave his hometown" to describe the indescribable thought.
Aging also began to cause trouble for him. Originally, he was 1.64 meters shorter, and his weight dropped from 100 kilograms to more than 80 kilograms. Emphysema, heart disease, renal failure, insufficient blood supply to the brain, urethral stones, coughs, and headaches took turns to pester him, and he often tortures him so hard that he couldn't sleep all night. His way of treating these diseases was "treat whichever one is severe."
Gradually, Lao Wei began to accept his fate: "I was not born in a good place, nor lived in a good house, and he walked three or four places, but he left nowhere. "But he remembered that in those years when he was crazy about the media, he was invited by an old professor to go to Tianjin and also went to Beijing.
"Those places are very luxurious and eye-catching. I thought if I could live in this place..." Before he finished speaking, Wei Guang grinned, "We don't have this life."
In those years, Wei Jihua had been working in Inner Mongolia. His monthly salary increased from the initial 557 yuan to two or three thousand yuan. He paid off the remaining amount when he bought a house, and added a new employee to the Wei family in 2009.
This is the biggest change in the Wei family in more than 10 years - his son married his wife Liu Xueqin, and the family ushered in a new life Wei Fangtao. The Wei family became a family of three generations of five.
Wei family portrait Photo by Li Qiang
But his son and daughter-in-law work outside all year round. The two elderly people rarely expect to see outsiders: when the outsiders ride motorcycles through the red willow forest outside the courtyard to find sheep; when young college students come to do research with their cameras; when villagers come back to the grave to burn paper during festivals.
He rarely goes to the Minqin County town, which is "fast-developing", only a few times he takes his wife to see a doctor, and is fooled by the salesperson who charges the phone bill in the county. The 48 yuan traffic package. In fact, his elderly machine basically does not use traffic, and most of the time, the mobile phone signal of Fucheng Grotto is only two boxes. At the market once every 5 days, he drove a tricycle to the market with his wife who couldn't hear the sound. After buying oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, or potatoes and radishes, he would spend another two hours walking around the street selling fruits, iron tools, clothes, and steamed buns. Even if he didn't buy it, he could be "happy", or come to the crowd on the street to watch the old men play Huahua cards (a kind of thing The only time I have the chance to play cards is the Spring Festival every year. However, the Spring Festival is very short, but the winter in Fuchenggou is very long. He becomes eager for spring, and sees tender grass emerging in this desolate place, and the land is green, "the spirit will be better."
In those difficult days, Wei Guangcai always hopes to "wait for my son and their conditions to better, and go to Inner Mongolia to enjoy the happiness of the Qing Dynasty." During the years my son has worked, Lao Wei has visited Inner Mongolia many times. Every time I always take a bag of dried steamed buns, sometimes slaughter a sheep happily, or buy some pork, and take it to take it by car.
On the way, he looked at the land outside the window with some envy, watching the greener and the village becoming more and more concentrated, and the way back "was getting more and more desolate". When I arrived at Fuchenggou, only my wife and sheep were waiting for him. At that time, the desire to leave would always be stronger.
4
Finally, it was hard to endure all night in 2013. In early autumn, the farmer Wei Guangcai's dream of escaping Fuchenggou for decades was completely shattered.
More than a dozen acres of fennel fell and took seeds, and they were about to be harvested. This was Wei Guangcai's main source of income for a year. But he coughed so much that he couldn't even get up and down.
Sun Wa Wei Fangtao, who was taken care of by an old couple since he was 8 months old, was only 4 years old this year. This village of left-behind children and empty-nest elderly people was blocked by a cough.
Zhang Juhua's old stomach disease fell into trouble and was admitted to the hospital. Old Wei had to call his son far away in Inner Mongolia and let him return quickly.
At that time, Wei Jihua, 34 years old, worked as a driver in a steel factory in Alxa League, Inner Mongolia, with a monthly salary of 3,500 yuan. His wife Liu Xueqin's monthly salary was 1,500 yuan. In a city where "you need to spend money everywhere", the two lived in a rental house of 150 yuan a month.
The small bungalow they originally bought, In 2009, it was "deception" by a developer named "Ordos Yutai Real Estate Development Co., Ltd.". That year, the two parties signed the "House Demolition Compensation Property Rights Replacement Agreement", and the small bungalow with brick and wood structure was demolished immediately. If it goes well, Wei Jihua will be able to obtain two new houses.
Later, the developer asked Wei Jihua to change the word "residential" in the contract to "office" on the grounds of "for convenience of obtaining a real estate certificate", but promised that the nature of the house delivery is still a residential house. When the house was in the house, Wei Jihua realized that he was "scaught", and the developer delivered "is an office house, not a residential house". After the negotiation failed, Wei Jihua sued the developer. The
lawsuit won, and the developer wanted to compensate Wei Jihua for more than 250,000 yuan, but the verdict was delayed. It has been delayed for 7 years.
Wei Jihua's nearly 20 years of work was buried in a winning lawsuit, and his father Wei Guangcai was buried together with his dream of escaping Fuchenggou.
Author Li Qiang
Editor From Yuhua
For half a century, the desert has been chasing behind him, but Wei Guangcai and his village remained unmoved.
For farmers who dig food from the soil, it is too difficult to survive in Fuchenggou Village, Minqin County, Gansu Province, where the evaporation is 24 times the precipitation. More than 30 families in the village moved out, with fewer sheep flocks, no camel caravans, the sand jujube trees wither, and many houses collapsed.
Wei Guangcai watched the originally lively village become empty. Since 13 years ago, only Lao Wei has been left here. He was not willing to be left in this place where "thieves would not come." In 67 years, he and his son have tried to escape six times, but they all failed.
Now, the Wei family's dream of escaping Fuchenggou is placed on the 10-year-old grandson Wei Fangtao.
Photo by Li Qiang
1
1
00
0 pm in the morning, Wei Guang got up amid the crowing of the rooster. This was the last rooster in Fuchenggou. It screamed a few times in almost half a minute, but no similar response was made to it, except for its owner, Wei Guangcai, who was difficult to calm down.
After a breakfast of watermelon soap buns, 67-year-old Wei Guangcai took the iron shovel to the ground. His wife stayed at home alone. Sun Wa followed his mother to herd sheep, and his son Wei Jihua went out to do odd jobs and never returned all night. This is the only family in Fuchenggou now. They have more than 50 sheep and more than 20 acres of land to serve.
The 12 acres of sunflowers in the field are growing happily, and the flower plates larger than the mouth of the bowl are hanging heavily. Milky white sunflowers have just spit out under the yellow stamens, fennel flowers are blooming, and corn is grouting. It is time when crops urgently need water.
"People wait for water, they cannot let water wait for people." Wei Guangcai said.
Standing next to the dry canal on the ground, Wei Guangcai envied his grandfather's mouth, the era of boating in the village. It is hard to imagine that the lake is overflowing during the flood season, which can flood the crop fields next to the village, and the well only needs to be dug to a depth of one person. The nearby farmlands were once planted in the Qing Dynasty. During the Republic of China, Qingtu Lake still had about 100 Forbidden City-sized and flocks of ducks and birds in the lake.
"Our ancestors moved from other places when there was a lot of water." Wei Guangcai said, but unfortunately he missed the era of abundant water and grass in Fuchenggou.
Now, this land is full of yellow sand.
Historical records show that due to immigration and reclaiming wasteland between Yongzheng and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty, the ecology of Qingtu Lake District began to deteriorate, with "flying sand flowing away" and "river water getting closer every day". In 1958, the ecology deteriorated rapidly. A huge project that year - the construction of the "rare world and largest" desert reservoir on the Shiyang River - Hongyashan Reservoir broke ground. Qingtu Lake is the tailbone of the Shiyang River, and Fucheng Gully is right next to Qingtu Lake.
A year later, the lower reaches of the Shiyang River were cut off, and the bottom of Qingtu Lake was facing the sky. The desert begins to gnaw Minqin Oasis .
Wei Guangcai's "life is the most stressful" period began. From 1959 to 1961, "I can't eat or wear, but I can't stir the noodle soup with sand", the elm bark and jujube leaves were eaten up, and the wheat seeds that had just been sown on the dry land of Fucheng Gully disappeared overnight.
At that time, the family was barely covered, and he was still a child who had no pants to wear. I heard from adults that someone starved to death on the way to flee. That was the first "immigration wave" in Fuchenggou that Wei Guangcai experienced. Data shows that during that period, about 160,000 people left in the entire Minqin County .
More than 10 years after the famine, 21-year-old Wei Guang married his wife Zhang Juhua. In a village where there are more than 30 families, this young man, who is not tall, has worked as a private teacher in a village primary school, a custodian of the production team, and a family planning propagandist. At the same time, the people who stayed began to try to control the desert in groups, and the red willow forests planted by his father to this day have been preserved in the northwest of the village.
That was the glorious years of Wei Guangcai and the last prosperity of Fuchenggou.
In the 12 years he taught, there were fewer and fewer students in the classroom. The villagers are more willing to send their children to Dongrong Primary School or the city in the village. It was not until the 1980s that no one could teach in the village primary school that Wei Guang changed from a teacher to a farmer.
2
Farmer Wei Guangcai didn't catch up with the best water source in Fuchenggou.
"Since I was sensible, Qingtu Lake has no water." Wei Guangcai remembered that he let a camel go at the bottom of the dry lake and picked up a snail with a fist.In those years, we had to take the water and water the land and the sky, and a mu of land could only harvest one or two hundred kilograms of wheat.
Wei Guangcai took the initiative to try to escape from Fuchenggou in 1986. He and three families in the same village are preparing to move to Qinfeng Farm, which is only twenty miles away from the county town. This distance is no less than three times closer to Fuchenggou than to the county town, and the groundwater is shallow. The old father Wei Kaijun also hopes that he can "go a better place."
In the spring of the following year, Wei Guangcai contracted 20 to 30 acres of land at Qinfeng Farm to plant Minqin specialty black seed melon. However, due to lack of experience in planting melons, his melons did not grow well and did not sell for a good price.
"I lost more than 2,000 yuan and came back." Wei Guangcai said, "It was a lot of more than 2,000 yuan at that time."
For farmers, farming is like placing a bet. This spring, the Wei family bet another 20,000 yuan on this bet, but the money was still borrowed. The loan can only be paid back after the crops are harvested and sold.
At the moment, Lao Wei’s most anxious thing is to give the crops plenty of water.
The water slowly descended from Shiyang River. I just arrived in Dongrong Village the night before. The land of the Wei family was at the end of the canal. Maybe it would have to wait until tomorrow, or until the day after tomorrow. He decided to use the groundwater in the irrigation machine well to water a few acres of gourds and some melon fields.
The well was dug by five villagers in 1998 for 70,000 to 80,000 yuan. It was 70 meters deep. Because the water quality was too poor, it could only be used to water the ground, and it was called the "bitter well" by the locals. The "Sweet Water Well" needs to be hit 300 meters deep, but it costs 200,000 to 300,000 yuan, and they can't afford it.
In the 1990s, a new wave of immigration and land reclamation was set off in Minqin County. That was the fifth year after he returned to Fuchenggou from Qinfeng Farm. There were still eighteen or nineteen families in the village, but the groundwater level was getting lower and lower, and the wind and sand pounded the land in the north of the village. Wei Guang tried to escape for the second time.
At that time, he had just taken more than a dozen camels from his father who died of esophageal cancer. In 1992, he was pulled down by the camel and fell to his stomach bleeding. My daughter, who was in junior high school, had to go home to take care of him, "and delayed her daughter's schooling."
In March 1993, Minqin County established the Nanhu Development Command, and the government organized some townships to migrate and reclaim wasteland to Nanhu Township. Wei Guang, who had recovered slightly, sold the camel at home and drove his daughter to Nanhu in a donkey cart.
Information provided by the Forestry Bureau of Minqin County shows that from 1985 to 1995, Minqin Oasis reclaimed 450,000 mu of wasteland and destroyed 120,000 mu of natural vegetation. Large-scale land reclamation has damaged large areas of vegetation on the edges of the oasis and the desert. On May 5, 1993, a rare black storm broke out in northwest China, causing 85 deaths in the northwest region, including Minqin County, and direct economic losses reached 725 million yuan.
abandoned houses in the village Photo by Li Qiang
At the same time, the whole county has fallen into a vicious circle of "removing land - abandoning farming". Wei Guangcai also returned to Fuchenggou from Nanhu after a year of clearing the land.
"Although the water in Nanhu is good, it is too remote and sparsely populated, and there is not even a hospital." Wei Guangcai, who has been taking stomach medicine for a long time, said, "I have to ride a camel to climb over the desert. A hare and eagle suddenly jump out easily shock the camel. If the camel runs away, people will definitely die if they stay there."
After returning from Nanhu, there were only 5 families left in the entire village.
It was also at that time that Wei Jihua, who had not finished junior high school, dropped out of school. Lao Wei's wish to his son "study hard, get into college, and jump out" was dashed. After staying at home for two years, 17-year-old Wei Jihua decided to go out to work, and his daughter also got married in 1998.
The expansion of the desert feels terrible. Quicksand approaches the oasis at a speed of nearly 4 meters per year. Badain Jilin and Tengri have "shake hands" in the northern part of Qingtu Lake District. Once the two are fully embraced, the Minqin Oasis will disappear.
"Never let Minqin be the second Lop Nur " slogan shouted throughout the city.
Wei Guangcai sometimes carried a shovel to the north of the village to clean up the red willows that were almost buried by the sand, and planted some saxals outside the ancestral tomb that were invaded by wind and sand. In the windy season, sand will fall on your face when you wake up in the morning, sand will be stirred into the noodles bowl, and at least two baskets of sand should be cleared out in the yard every day. In order to block the wind and sand, Lao Wei hung a thick cotton curtain on the door.
The last five families also decided to move to Changning Farm in the county together around 2006, including Wei Guangcai. But he failed again.
According to his original plan, Changning Farm was a way out for him. The government built three or four bungalows for each family on the farm and divided 15 or 6 acres of land. Wei Guangcai spent 16,000 yuan to buy the house and contracted the land. He thought to himself: "If there is no way out in the future, move it over.
But two years later, the rented contracted land could not be collected back. Wei Guangcai sold the house in Changning Farm in anger and continued to "squat" in Fuchenggou. The village party secretary and the nearby villagers could not understand the decision made by Wei Guangcai. He had the opportunity to leave this place back then.
Now Old Wei regrets it: "Oh, there are many people there, and they are not so lonely. If you move out, no matter where you squat, it will be better than now. "
He had another hope back then - his married son Wei Jihua spent more than 30,000 yuan to buy a house in an economic development zone in Inner Mongolia, of which 20,000 yuan was borrowed by Wei Guangcai and his relatives. His daughter-in-law vowed that he would never return to Fuchenggou.
At that time, only Wei Guangcai and his wife were left in Fuchenggou. The desert was only more than two kilometers away from Fuchenggou, and the Wei family became the dividing line between desolation and vitality.
3
"Desert" "It's about to be The words "the last family" and "stay" attracted many journalists and directors to Fuchenggou around 2007. Some people compared Lao Wei to the "Sisyphus" in ancient Greek mythology, and some people called him "Desert Nail House".
Wei Guangcai recently saw the reporter's mobile phone writing articles and taking photos of him 10 years ago. It was also recently that almost all media have misunderstood his name, and "Wei Guangcai" was written as "Wei Guangcai". "The talent just now is a treasure. "Wei Guangcai said.
Those reports did not change his life. On the contrary, after the reporter left, he was frightened. Some people blamed him for telling Minqin's "white pollution". But Lao Wei said that he didn't even know what white pollution is.
Back then, Fuchenggou also received reporters from eight countries including Japan and South Korea. But most of the visitors had long been forgotten. What he remembered most clearly was the Swiss who carried a camera to shoot documentaries. "Later, it was too difficult for us. He also bought a remote control car and a refrigerator for Sun Wa, and gave him thousands of dollars. "Old Wei pointed to the room where the refrigerator is still in use.
The reporters back then always asked him, "Why don't you move to another place? "In fact, Lao Wei is not unwilling to move.
Even in the years since it was reported by the media, Wei Guangcai made an attempt. The nearby Huanghui Village was led by the government to conduct ecological immigration. Lao Wei wanted to join the relocation team and apply to the township, but the request was not approved.
Once, after Zhang Juhua went out to attend a wedding, she said to her husband Wei Guangcai: "There are no one here, let's go to a place with more personal cigarettes. "The daughter also advised him to move to the city. But at that time, Old Wei compromised a little, "It seems that moving to such places is better than staying in this poor place. "Wei Guangcai used "it is hard to leave his hometown" to describe the indescribable thought.
Aging also began to cause trouble for him. Originally, he was 1.64 meters shorter, and his weight dropped from 100 kilograms to more than 80 kilograms. Emphysema, heart disease, renal failure, insufficient blood supply to the brain, urethral stones, coughs, and headaches took turns to pester him, and he often tortures him so hard that he couldn't sleep all night. His way of treating these diseases was "treat whichever one is severe."
Gradually, Lao Wei began to accept his fate: "I was not born in a good place, nor lived in a good house, and he walked three or four places, but he left nowhere. "But he remembered that in those years when he was crazy about the media, he was invited by an old professor to go to Tianjin and also went to Beijing.
"Those places are very luxurious and eye-catching. I thought if I could live in this place..." Before he finished speaking, Wei Guang grinned, "We don't have this life."
In those years, Wei Jihua had been working in Inner Mongolia. His monthly salary increased from the initial 557 yuan to two or three thousand yuan. He paid off the remaining amount when he bought a house, and added a new employee to the Wei family in 2009.
This is the biggest change in the Wei family in more than 10 years - his son married his wife Liu Xueqin, and the family ushered in a new life Wei Fangtao. The Wei family became a family of three generations of five.
Wei family portrait Photo by Li Qiang
But his son and daughter-in-law work outside all year round. The two elderly people rarely expect to see outsiders: when the outsiders ride motorcycles through the red willow forest outside the courtyard to find sheep; when young college students come to do research with their cameras; when villagers come back to the grave to burn paper during festivals.
He rarely goes to the Minqin County town, which is "fast-developing", only a few times he takes his wife to see a doctor, and is fooled by the salesperson who charges the phone bill in the county. The 48 yuan traffic package. In fact, his elderly machine basically does not use traffic, and most of the time, the mobile phone signal of Fucheng Grotto is only two boxes. At the market once every 5 days, he drove a tricycle to the market with his wife who couldn't hear the sound. After buying oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, or potatoes and radishes, he would spend another two hours walking around the street selling fruits, iron tools, clothes, and steamed buns. Even if he didn't buy it, he could be "happy", or come to the crowd on the street to watch the old men play Huahua cards (a kind of thing The only time I have the chance to play cards is the Spring Festival every year. However, the Spring Festival is very short, but the winter in Fuchenggou is very long. He becomes eager for spring, and sees tender grass emerging in this desolate place, and the land is green, "the spirit will be better."
In those difficult days, Wei Guangcai always hopes to "wait for my son and their conditions to better, and go to Inner Mongolia to enjoy the happiness of the Qing Dynasty." During the years my son has worked, Lao Wei has visited Inner Mongolia many times. Every time I always take a bag of dried steamed buns, sometimes slaughter a sheep happily, or buy some pork, and take it to take it by car.
On the way, he looked at the land outside the window with some envy, watching the greener and the village becoming more and more concentrated, and the way back "was getting more and more desolate". When I arrived at Fuchenggou, only my wife and sheep were waiting for him. At that time, the desire to leave would always be stronger.
4
Finally, it was hard to endure all night in 2013. In early autumn, the farmer Wei Guangcai's dream of escaping Fuchenggou for decades was completely shattered.
More than a dozen acres of fennel fell and took seeds, and they were about to be harvested. This was Wei Guangcai's main source of income for a year. But he coughed so much that he couldn't even get up and down.
Sun Wa Wei Fangtao, who was taken care of by an old couple since he was 8 months old, was only 4 years old this year. This village of left-behind children and empty-nest elderly people was blocked by a cough.
Zhang Juhua's old stomach disease fell into trouble and was admitted to the hospital. Old Wei had to call his son far away in Inner Mongolia and let him return quickly.
At that time, Wei Jihua, 34 years old, worked as a driver in a steel factory in Alxa League, Inner Mongolia, with a monthly salary of 3,500 yuan. His wife Liu Xueqin's monthly salary was 1,500 yuan. In a city where "you need to spend money everywhere", the two lived in a rental house of 150 yuan a month.
The small bungalow they originally bought, In 2009, it was "deception" by a developer named "Ordos Yutai Real Estate Development Co., Ltd.". That year, the two parties signed the "House Demolition Compensation Property Rights Replacement Agreement", and the small bungalow with brick and wood structure was demolished immediately. If it goes well, Wei Jihua will be able to obtain two new houses.
Later, the developer asked Wei Jihua to change the word "residential" in the contract to "office" on the grounds of "for convenience of obtaining a real estate certificate", but promised that the nature of the house delivery is still a residential house. When the house was in the house, Wei Jihua realized that he was "scaught", and the developer delivered "is an office house, not a residential house". After the negotiation failed, Wei Jihua sued the developer. The
lawsuit won, and the developer wanted to compensate Wei Jihua for more than 250,000 yuan, but the verdict was delayed. It has been delayed for 7 years.
Wei Jihua's nearly 20 years of work was buried in a winning lawsuit, and his father Wei Guangcai was buried together with his dream of escaping Fuchenggou.
The disease in 2013 was more like a sudden black storm, disrupting the original life of the Wei family. Wei Jihua asked the factory owner for half a month off to go home, "and ran away from the hospital and the home." Wei Jihua originally planned to return to Inner Mongolia to continue working after seeing his parents. But his parents' health was not as good as before. After the half-month leave, Wei Jihua continued for another 20 days.
This man who has not yet established a firm foothold in a foreign land faces a similar choice as Wei Guangcai when he was young - to leave or stay?
That was about 40 years ago, Wei Guangcai, who had just become a private teacher, had the opportunity to be recommended to study at Wuwei Normal School 300 miles away. But he was worried that the family had obviously insufficient labor force, and his mother died when he was 3 years old. His two sisters were already married. His father had to put camels on the production team during the day. The blind old man also needed someone to take care of him, and the family "didn't even cook."
The opportunity to leave Fuchenggou was given up by Wei Guang. Many years later, in front of a group of sheep gnawing at grass, the old farmer felt that he had "didn't delayed his good future."
Wei Jihua's decision was the same as his father: to stay.
But his wife Liu Xueqin doesn't want to go back to Fuchenggou. "One is his parents and the other is his wife." Wei Jihua was very entangled. What he finally chose to stay was that he heard something: Minqin County Changning Township , an elderly man lived in the countryside, and his son lived in Minqin County. On a cold winter, the old man died quietly and was discovered by his neighbor three or four days later.
"Only our household is left here. If something happens to them, no one may know for a week." 34-year-old Wei Jihua returned to Fuchenggou.
After a generation of people's attempt to escape from Fuchenggou, another generation returned to the starting point.
For this reason, his wife and Wei Jihua quarreled. It was not until the summer of 2014 that she was persuaded by her relatives to come back. When he first came back, Lao Wei could clearly see the unhappiness on his daughter-in-law's face.
At that time, the ecology of Qingtu Lake gradually improved. Qingtu Lake, which had been dry for nearly half a century, had a water surface of about 3 square kilometers in 2010, but this did not attract a family to return to Fuchenggou. More than 0 years later, standing in the kitchen that was blackened by fireworks, Liu Xueqin said with a slight resentment while peeling potatoes: "What else can there be in addition to farming here?"
5
Now, this family no longer needs to be described as "the family is barely left behind". Fuchenggou finally installed tap water for the first time in 2014 when Liu Xueqin returned.
The free tap water pipe was almost exchanged for by his daughter-in-law Liu Xueqin with her broken arm. Lao Wei said that when she went to a neighboring village to pull tap water, the electric tricycle she drove overturned and her arm was broken. Wei Guangcai once damaged his waist while stirring up a tractor in order to carry water. Later, the county water bureau installed tap water for free for the family.
But this year, tap water has become difficult to eat again. The water supply station supplies once every 5 days, and the switch is turned on but the water cannot flow out, or it only takes a few minutes. For this reason, Lao Wei had to buy a water suction pump and suck out the "water left over from others" in the pipeline on the second day of the water supply day.
The family located at the end of the pipeline pays a tap water fee of 192 yuan every year. Because the water supply is not smooth, the celery in front of the door can only grow more than 10 cm.
Before tap water enters the Fucheng ditch, Wei Guangcai initially had to use a wooden barrel to carry water, and then relied on a man-powered cart to tie iron buckets, and passed through the red willow forests to a village five miles away to carry water. Later, the cart was replaced with a donkey cart, and the donkey cart was replaced with an electric tricycle and an agricultural tractor.
Once it rains, Lao Wei will hurriedly take out pots and jars and put them under the eaves, and receive the turbid rainwater flowing from the roof sink. "Continue it into the jar and clear it in one or two days." Lao Wei said that the water in the yard cannot be wasted. He dug a pipe in the yard to flow into the vegetable garden in front of the door. But this kind of heavy rain is too rare for this village by the desert.
htmlFor more than 0 years, Lao Wei only used a basin larger than a bowl to wash his face in the morning. He bathed no more than 10 times a year, rarely washed his feet, and only washed his clothes once every ten days. "Farmers, there is a lot of soil here." Perhaps it was because rinsing his mouth instead of brushing his teeth, or perhaps it was related to drinking water. Lao Wei's teeth seemed to be painted with a layer of yellow glaze.Now, Liu Xueqin rents a house in the city to take care of Wei Fangtao to study, and after the holiday, she returned to Fuchenggou to cook and herd sheep. Wei Guangcai put his hope on his grandson Wei Fangtao, "I hope he will fly away and jump out of this place."
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号号号号,根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根� Sometimes the kids find it boring here too. There was no second doll in the whole village, so he had to play with Xiao Hei. It was a black puppy. As long as he called, Xiao Hei would run to his feet. Sometimes he kicked a half-sagged ball alone, and sometimes he treated the abandoned village as his own playground.
Life by the desert also added a lot of fun to his childhood. At the age of 10, he dared to drive a tricycle and take his parents to mow the grass, and his grandfather specially prepared a small sickle for him. Early in the morning, he had to follow his mother to herd sheep, but he prefers to catch butterflies. If he is not careful, the little lamb will steal alfalfa.
When she returned from herding sheep in the evening, Wei Fangtao sat in the main hall watching cartoons. Wei Guangcai drove into the yard in a tricycle. Before the car stopped, he rushed into the main hall. The sound of the TV stopped abruptly. Instead, he blamed his grandson: "If you play well, you should do your homework." "Your profession is to study, and we are to work."
Liu Xueqin was preparing supper in the kitchen, and a few moths were spinning around the light bulb. Even with lights, it is difficult to find this family in the desert in the dark.
Lao Wei is also often bored. He smokes the "Lanzhou" brand cigarettes in his pocket at 7.5 yuan a box, and the two boxes are only enough to smoke for 3 days. Because of lung disease and cough, the doctor advised him not to smoke anymore. He still smoked very hard. He always said, "I'm very anxious."
He still hopes to move to a place with more people. A few years ago, Lao Wei made another attempt, and this time he slaughtered a sheep.
Two or three miles away, there is a village with only two families left, which is the fifth community of Dongrong Village. He wants to discuss with the villagers there to move in. He slaughtered mutton and cooked meat, bought tobacco and alcohol to entertain the villagers of the fifth society. The villagers agreed.
But in the end, Wei Guangcai stayed in Fuchenggou. The villagers said that they didn't know why Lao Wei didn't move here. Lao Wei’s reason was that the land distributed to him by the villagers was too poor.
To this day, Wei Guangcai is still eager to leave this place. He hopes that the government will have another relocation policy and go to a place where "more people can grow and raise sheep, it is convenient to see a doctor and go to school." But now he has nowhere to go, and he can't think of any other way to make a living.
"A farmer, what else can he do besides farming and raising sheep?" he often said this.
Wei Guang knew very well that he was buried half of his body in the soil. Fuchenggou could not move out, but he still wanted to live a few more years. "Maybe after death, the house would be buried in sand."
Wei Jihua was also eager to move out, and he hoped that his son would get into college and go out. "But he is disobedient." Wei Jihua paused, "When he grows up, we will get old too." And the waist disease has been tangled with him for many years.
This is not a good sign, just like his great-grandson's blind eyes, his grandfather's esophagus tortured by cancer cells, and his father's lungs that had been destroyed long ago.
Of course, there is another possibility of "escape from Fucheng Grotto". The developer has also lost the money owed for 7 years, so that he has the opportunity to do a small business in Minqin County. But then he thought, "It costs more than 200,000 yuan to buy a house in the county town", and Wei Jihua started to wonder again. What's more, the debt is now just a blank check.
On the first day of July, he sent 11 copies of the court's judgment and reflection letter to relevant departments and leaders in Inner Mongolia. The only person who replied explained: "This matter is not our responsibility." The second day after the water arrived in Dongrong Village, the canal in Fuchenggou was still in trouble. Wei Guangcai got up at around 6 o'clock as usual, and started his first thing every day: feeding the sheep. The flock of sheep has grown from more than 20 in 2007 to more than 50.
After feeding the sheep, Wei Guangcai squatted beside the sheep pen and watched the sheep eat grass. He likes to use the word "squat" to describe his life in Fuchenggou, "squat all his life."Lao Wei likes to squat very much. Sometimes he curled up his thin body on a stool, sometimes he squatted under the elm tree planted a few years ago at the gate, and sometimes he squatted under the earth gate or in the yard where wind and sand often swept by.
Grazing has been prohibited in many places in the desert, so he went there secretly. The grassy ditches along the desert have also become precious resources. So much so that when the neighboring village people drove the flock to eat grass in the ditch on his land, he would quickly and disregard the mercy. The neighboring village had to leave in shame with a whip.
For families who borrow money from spring farming and settle accounts after autumn, it is necessary to earn money in their spare time to subsidize their family income. Wei Jihua will start a film laying machine in spring, 25 yuan per mu; in summer, irrigate land for large grain growers, 10 yuan per hour.
Wei Guangcai seems to be a little dissatisfied with his old age, and he always wants to find something to do. Not long ago, he went to the melon field in the neighboring village and "moved a stool and sat in the field to pinch the melon head", earning 1,000 yuan in 6 days. 1,000 yuan is the income of a mu of fennel in one year. Although it was tempting, his body did not allow him to continue to do it, "scia".
Lao Wei has been waiting for the water to irrigate the ground yet. Although the water has arrived in Dongrong Village, there are still thousands of acres of sunflower , fennel, corn, and alfalfa fields to be watered before it flows into Lao Wei's land.
He also has two farmers who each contracted 40 acres of land in Fuchenggou this year. They often pass by the Wei family's doorstep and become rare regular customers in Fuchenggou this year. One of the young men would come to ask Lao Wei for his experience in growing crops.
That morning, they squatted on the open space at the door to calculate the water fee required for a mu of crops last year. After calculating, they smiled helplessly: "Except for the water in the sky, all other water has to be paid for."
The river water used for irrigation of the land costs about 55 yuan per mu of land each time. Sunflowers and fennel are watered three to five times a year, while corn takes six to seven times. The water cost per acre of land during spring sowing is hundreds of yuan. Wei Guangcai calculated that the annual water bill for his 25 acres of crops was over 10,000 yuan.
But no matter how expensive it is, you have to water it. Lao Wei received the news that the water should arrive at Fuchenggou the next day. In the evening, he brought the iron shovel to build a water blocking dam in advance so that the river water can flow into the ground more and more quickly, and avoid unnecessary waste.
The next day, while waiting for the incoming water, Wei Jihua took his son Wei Fangtao to Qingtu Lake. The embankment of Qingtu Lake was covered with reeds, and the lake surface was rippling. According to information provided by the Minqin County Water Affairs Bureau, as of the end of 2018, the area of Qingtu Lake has expanded to more than 26.67 square kilometers.
Stand by Qingtu Lake and look at the northwest wind outlet. The desert not far away is rolling up sand and dust from time to time, and the wind and sand will still cross the red willow planted by the ancestors and approach his home.
At 9:20 pm, stars were embedded in the night sky. A land contractor named Li came on a tram and shouted loudly before he even entered the yard: "Master Wei, the water is coming!"
Old Wei has been waiting for 3 days.
After seven hours of fierce fighting, more than 20 acres of crops were drunk. At 4:11 a.m., Lao Wei finally turned off the lights and fell asleep in his clothes.
Within an hour, the sky will be bright. In two hours, the sun will surely shine on the golden sunflower in front of his house, and then through the dense sunflower branches and leaves, it shines on the water half-legged deep in the night.
This article is independently produced by China Youth Daily and was first published on the China Youth Daily client and headline account to join the Tree Project.
Now, Liu Xueqin rents a house in the city to take care of Wei Fangtao to study, and after the holiday, she returned to Fuchenggou to cook and herd sheep. Wei Guangcai put his hope on his grandson Wei Fangtao, "I hope he will fly away and jump out of this place."
号0号号号号
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号号号号,根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根根� Sometimes the kids find it boring here too. There was no second doll in the whole village, so he had to play with Xiao Hei. It was a black puppy. As long as he called, Xiao Hei would run to his feet. Sometimes he kicked a half-sagged ball alone, and sometimes he treated the abandoned village as his own playground.
Life by the desert also added a lot of fun to his childhood. At the age of 10, he dared to drive a tricycle and take his parents to mow the grass, and his grandfather specially prepared a small sickle for him. Early in the morning, he had to follow his mother to herd sheep, but he prefers to catch butterflies. If he is not careful, the little lamb will steal alfalfa.
When she returned from herding sheep in the evening, Wei Fangtao sat in the main hall watching cartoons. Wei Guangcai drove into the yard in a tricycle. Before the car stopped, he rushed into the main hall. The sound of the TV stopped abruptly. Instead, he blamed his grandson: "If you play well, you should do your homework." "Your profession is to study, and we are to work."
Liu Xueqin was preparing supper in the kitchen, and a few moths were spinning around the light bulb. Even with lights, it is difficult to find this family in the desert in the dark.
Lao Wei is also often bored. He smokes the "Lanzhou" brand cigarettes in his pocket at 7.5 yuan a box, and the two boxes are only enough to smoke for 3 days. Because of lung disease and cough, the doctor advised him not to smoke anymore. He still smoked very hard. He always said, "I'm very anxious."
He still hopes to move to a place with more people. A few years ago, Lao Wei made another attempt, and this time he slaughtered a sheep.
Two or three miles away, there is a village with only two families left, which is the fifth community of Dongrong Village. He wants to discuss with the villagers there to move in. He slaughtered mutton and cooked meat, bought tobacco and alcohol to entertain the villagers of the fifth society. The villagers agreed.
But in the end, Wei Guangcai stayed in Fuchenggou. The villagers said that they didn't know why Lao Wei didn't move here. Lao Wei’s reason was that the land distributed to him by the villagers was too poor.
To this day, Wei Guangcai is still eager to leave this place. He hopes that the government will have another relocation policy and go to a place where "more people can grow and raise sheep, it is convenient to see a doctor and go to school." But now he has nowhere to go, and he can't think of any other way to make a living.
"A farmer, what else can he do besides farming and raising sheep?" he often said this.
Wei Guang knew very well that he was buried half of his body in the soil. Fuchenggou could not move out, but he still wanted to live a few more years. "Maybe after death, the house would be buried in sand."
Wei Jihua was also eager to move out, and he hoped that his son would get into college and go out. "But he is disobedient." Wei Jihua paused, "When he grows up, we will get old too." And the waist disease has been tangled with him for many years.
This is not a good sign, just like his great-grandson's blind eyes, his grandfather's esophagus tortured by cancer cells, and his father's lungs that had been destroyed long ago.
Of course, there is another possibility of "escape from Fucheng Grotto". The developer has also lost the money owed for 7 years, so that he has the opportunity to do a small business in Minqin County. But then he thought, "It costs more than 200,000 yuan to buy a house in the county town", and Wei Jihua started to wonder again. What's more, the debt is now just a blank check.
On the first day of July, he sent 11 copies of the court's judgment and reflection letter to relevant departments and leaders in Inner Mongolia. The only person who replied explained: "This matter is not our responsibility." The second day after the water arrived in Dongrong Village, the canal in Fuchenggou was still in trouble. Wei Guangcai got up at around 6 o'clock as usual, and started his first thing every day: feeding the sheep. The flock of sheep has grown from more than 20 in 2007 to more than 50.
After feeding the sheep, Wei Guangcai squatted beside the sheep pen and watched the sheep eat grass. He likes to use the word "squat" to describe his life in Fuchenggou, "squat all his life."Lao Wei likes to squat very much. Sometimes he curled up his thin body on a stool, sometimes he squatted under the elm tree planted a few years ago at the gate, and sometimes he squatted under the earth gate or in the yard where wind and sand often swept by.
Grazing has been prohibited in many places in the desert, so he went there secretly. The grassy ditches along the desert have also become precious resources. So much so that when the neighboring village people drove the flock to eat grass in the ditch on his land, he would quickly and disregard the mercy. The neighboring village had to leave in shame with a whip.
For families who borrow money from spring farming and settle accounts after autumn, it is necessary to earn money in their spare time to subsidize their family income. Wei Jihua will start a film laying machine in spring, 25 yuan per mu; in summer, irrigate land for large grain growers, 10 yuan per hour.
Wei Guangcai seems to be a little dissatisfied with his old age, and he always wants to find something to do. Not long ago, he went to the melon field in the neighboring village and "moved a stool and sat in the field to pinch the melon head", earning 1,000 yuan in 6 days. 1,000 yuan is the income of a mu of fennel in one year. Although it was tempting, his body did not allow him to continue to do it, "scia".
Lao Wei has been waiting for the water to irrigate the ground yet. Although the water has arrived in Dongrong Village, there are still thousands of acres of sunflower , fennel, corn, and alfalfa fields to be watered before it flows into Lao Wei's land.
He also has two farmers who each contracted 40 acres of land in Fuchenggou this year. They often pass by the Wei family's doorstep and become rare regular customers in Fuchenggou this year. One of the young men would come to ask Lao Wei for his experience in growing crops.
That morning, they squatted on the open space at the door to calculate the water fee required for a mu of crops last year. After calculating, they smiled helplessly: "Except for the water in the sky, all other water has to be paid for."
The river water used for irrigation of the land costs about 55 yuan per mu of land each time. Sunflowers and fennel are watered three to five times a year, while corn takes six to seven times. The water cost per acre of land during spring sowing is hundreds of yuan. Wei Guangcai calculated that the annual water bill for his 25 acres of crops was over 10,000 yuan.
But no matter how expensive it is, you have to water it. Lao Wei received the news that the water should arrive at Fuchenggou the next day. In the evening, he brought the iron shovel to build a water blocking dam in advance so that the river water can flow into the ground more and more quickly, and avoid unnecessary waste.
The next day, while waiting for the incoming water, Wei Jihua took his son Wei Fangtao to Qingtu Lake. The embankment of Qingtu Lake was covered with reeds, and the lake surface was rippling. According to information provided by the Minqin County Water Affairs Bureau, as of the end of 2018, the area of Qingtu Lake has expanded to more than 26.67 square kilometers.
Stand by Qingtu Lake and look at the northwest wind outlet. The desert not far away is rolling up sand and dust from time to time, and the wind and sand will still cross the red willow planted by the ancestors and approach his home.
At 9:20 pm, stars were embedded in the night sky. A land contractor named Li came on a tram and shouted loudly before he even entered the yard: "Master Wei, the water is coming!"
Old Wei has been waiting for 3 days.
After seven hours of fierce fighting, more than 20 acres of crops were drunk. At 4:11 a.m., Lao Wei finally turned off the lights and fell asleep in his clothes.
Within an hour, the sky will be bright. In two hours, the sun will surely shine on the golden sunflower in front of his house, and then through the dense sunflower branches and leaves, it shines on the water half-legged deep in the night.
This article is independently produced by China Youth Daily and was first published on the China Youth Daily client and headline account to join the Tree Project.
