In the 1950s and 1960s, my country launched a massive "eliminating four pests and hygiene" activity, requiring mice to be eliminated as the first pest of the "four pests".

Author/Liu Jianshe Editor/Growing the Story Club

There is such a saying, "The mouse crosses the street, and everyone shouts and beats." It can be seen from this that the hatefulness of mice is second to none in people's minds. In the 1950s and 1960s, my country launched a massive " eliminates the four pests and maintains hygiene" activity, requiring mice to be eliminated as the first pest of the " four pests and ".

I remember that during the "Cultural Revolution", the school I studied required students to hand over the rat tail every day. In order to complete the task, many students searched for dead mice everywhere whenever they had free time, and some students fought for the rat tail.

Rats have many species, wide distribution, fast reproduction, and strong adaptability. They eat everything that people can eat, and they can survive anywhere. Rats are also particularly harmful to humans, such as stealing food, infecting diseases, gnawing clothes, destroying industrial and agricultural production, damaging paddy fields, forests and grass, hollowing out building foundations, etc.

Now, many river embankments, reservoir dams, and irrigation channels have traces of rat activity, and holes are dug in these places to build nests, seriously threatening the operation safety of water conservancy projects and the safety of people's lives and property. Therefore, people hate rats deeply and everyone punishes them when they see them.

In the 1950s and 1960s, my country had just liberated from the old society of poverty and weakness, and was inactive. Especially in agricultural production, the grain output was very low and the basic food was not enough. We also had to hand over public grain to reserve seeds and livestock rations. Therefore, people often had to eat half a year and had to eat half a year, and they were hungry. In this case, the hateful rats also rob food from people. Therefore, in rural areas, especially soybean peanut cultivation areas, people who see rats that steal and damage food, in addition to killing them, they also need to "take food from rats" by digging holes.

Digging a mouse hole does not require too many skills, as long as you have strength, patience and care. However, you should know that as living fossils in the animal world, mice have evolved very smart, clever and cunning with humans for thousands of years.

In the farmland, the mouse hole, especially the hole entrance, is very cleverly disguised, and it is difficult to find. But "no matter how cunning fox is, it will be exposed when it reveals its tail." Because the loose soil carried out by mice when they dig holes cannot be hidden, people often find the loose soil carried by mice first.

When the large group is in large groups, the production team planted beans or peanuts on a large area. Before harvesting, people did not go to the bean fields or peanut fields casually. Therefore, at this time, people did not know where there was a mouse hole, and they would only be discovered when harvesting.

When cutting beans (peanuts out), everyone is placing several ridges. When you cut them near the mouse hole, you will find the mouse hole when you see the loose soil brought out by the mouse. At this time, if the person who discovered the mouse hole wanted to dig by himself, he would pretend to be the mouse hole and make a mark, and use the time of collective labor to dig again; if he did not want to dig, he (she) would tell him who wanted to tell to dig. Therefore, digging a mouse hole at that time depends on luck, not just you can dig it.

says that mice are smart, clever and cunning. First of all, they are reflected in the entrance of the mouse cave. There are at least two holes in a mouse nest, including those who usually appear, steal food, and carry soil, and those who are ventilated and ventilated, and those who escape in emergencies. Secondly, the mouse cave structure is very clever, including living and reproductive offspring, scattering and urinating, stealing and storing grain, and filthing and real covering, and has functions such as ventilation, breathability, warmth and waterproofing.

Mouse caves are generally in hard soil layers about half a meter below the ground, and are not easily damaged by other animals when digging and cultivated land. Third, the food stole by the mice was large and round, with full grains, some with shells, some with good seeds, and stored in different mouse holes.

I remember that at that time, there were very few grains dug out from rat holes that were moldy and rotten, which shows that mice have a strong ability to keep food.Therefore, when digging a mouse hole, you must do four steps: finding, blocking, digging and filling. To find it means to find all the holes in the mouse hole and not miss it. To block means to block the hole that you don’t need to dig first to prevent the mice from escaping. Digging means digging out the food stolen by rats. Filling means backfilling and leveling the excavated plots and restoring them as before. The production team also required this. The most important thing is to dig in the four steps above

. Aim at the hole you want to dig, dig down about half a meter, that is, dig down two and a half to three layers. The mouse hole starts to turn horizontally, and then dig horizontally along the mouse hole. The first thing you dug should be where the mice rest and sleep and reproduce offspring, which contains bean leaves, weeds, mouse hair, etc., and sometimes there are even mice without all hair.

At this time, the children began to compete for mice, some directly fed the dog, and some put them away and took them home to feed the cat. Continue to dig forward, and the rat holes begin to fork. Except for the rats who poop and urinate, the other holes may be hidden by the rats.

At this time, you should be careful and dig which fork hole is first and which fork hole is later. Then, block the after-digging with hay and mark it so that it is easy to find when you need to dig. Then solve it with one fork hole and one fork hole. When you see the food, you must clean the hole, then use the tools you prepared in advance to take out the food, and then continue digging forward after one section until each fork hole is dug and the mouse is caught.

During the entire digging process, remember not to dig the mouse hole directly with your hands to avoid being bitten by the mouse. The reason why mice are cunning is that they feel that they are a little bit good and can tease people. Some of the holes seem to have food, but they are dug to the end. Some of the holes seem to have ended from the outside, but when they dig forward, they will find that there is a lot of food inside. The reason is that the hole is filled with grain and sealed up. If you don’t look at it carefully, you really think it’s over. Therefore, people who dig mouse holes must have enough patience and care, otherwise they will be deceived by the mouse.

Digging a mouse hole is very hard, but it also makes you feel accomplished. Every time you get a certain amount of food, from a few kilograms to a dozen kilograms. If you encounter a "rich"-level mouse hole, you will also have twenty or thirty kilograms. You know, how precious more than a dozen kilograms of food were at that time!

I remember that when I was picking beans in autumn, my parents would be rewarded if my child could pick up a bowl in half a day. At that time, since I didn’t have the energy to dig a mouse hole and didn’t have the opportunity to dig a mouse hole, I often joined in the fun as a spectator. But from the continuous observation, I also figured out many ways to dig mouse holes. Later, when I was able to dig a mouse hole independently, I went away to a foreign land for the sake of my livelihood.

Time flies, decades have passed in a blink of an eye. Fortunately, with the rapid improvement of grain selection, breeding and planting technologies, the yield per mu of grain has increased from the original few hundred kilograms to the current ones of more than one thousand kilograms or double thousand kilograms. At the same time, people have accumulated advanced hunting experience in their long-term struggle with mice, and have done prevention work ahead and prevented problems before they happen. Now, there are much fewer rats in the fields, especially rat holes, than before, and people no longer have to dig rat holes to seize food by rats.

But it is worth mentioning that at present, in many areas in southern my country, people dig mouse holes more and more, and almost became a "beautiful scenery", because the dry rat made of rat meat is a very delicious dish. I remember when I was serving in the Zhanjiang army in Guangdong, I had eaten rat meat cooked by my comrades many times, and the taste was very good.