On Langri in late spring and early summer, a group of literary friends visited and interviewed the reservoir reinforcement and upgrading project at the invitation of Yahekou Reservoir Management Bureau. After visiting the dam body after widening and strengthening and the spillway widening project that is about to be completed, and after listening to the general introduction of the reservoir development by technicians, literary and art friends took two speedboats and galloped around the wide reservoir lake. ...
The small hull, like a sharp plow in January, plows cheerful waves on the blue lake, surging like snow ... The ship is screaming and turning left and right. It is like a snake, tilting to one side for a while, tilting to the other side for a while ... The speed of running and the continuous rapid tilting make the literary friends hold their breath tightly on the hull and close their eyes from time to time.
I sat in the bow, closed my eyes with bated breath like other literary friends, and enjoyed the supreme happiness given to me by the blue sky, clear water, airship and snow waves. When I was hazy, I suddenly saw a dazzling moonlight, which was faintly transmitted from the deep bottom of the lake and swayed on the mirror-blue lake, turning into a gorgeous picture. ...
How can there be bright moonlight in the depths of the reservoir? Where does this bright orange moonlight come from? I can't help but feel a tingle in my heart, remembering that the deepest part of this reservoir was once my childhood hometown! At the moment, the faint moonlight in front of my eyes is not the bright moon in my childhood hometown.
I used to remember that when I was a child, my hometown village was called "Xiqi". What is separated from "looking to the west" is "looking to the east". Now, "Dongtai Head" village still exists, but it has long been renamed as "Yahe Village". The "westward rise" across the river has disappeared at the bottom of the reservoir and can no longer be seen.
I have always been attached to my childhood hometown, but I have never understood why my hometown is called "Xiqiao". I don't understand why the "Dongsheng" crossing the river is called "Dongsheng". Later, after listening to the explanations of the old people, I gradually realized that there is a long ridge in the north-south direction between the two villages, called "Taitoupo". People living in two villages around Taitoupo have to look up if they want to climb this slope, so the village in the west is called Xitou and the village in the east is called Dongtou.
Another explanation is that "Dongtaitou Village" is located on the east bank of Yahe River, with high terrain. It is the first to see the sunrise at dawn, so it is named "Dongtaitou" because it means "looking up at the sun". "Wangxilou" is located on the west bank of the Duck River, with low terrain. I saw the moon first when it was dark, so I adopted the artistic conception of "looking up at the moon" and named it "looking up at the west". Which of these two explanations is correct has not been decided. But I seem to prefer the latter, because this explanation is full of poetry and painting!
In my hazy childhood memory, I vaguely remember that "looking up to the west" is an ancient village surrounded by walls. The rammed earth wall is closed from east to west and open from north to south. There are blue brick towers at the four corners of the city wall to prevent thieves. The Baihe River and the Duck River flow on both sides of the village. In the village inside the wall, there are several narrow village streets covered with blue slates. On both sides of the village street, there are vendors engaged in various small businesses: oil steamed stuffed bun shop, iron shop, small restaurant and mule shop. ...
There is a bottomless ancient well in the middle of the village. There is a pulley shaking and creaking at the wellhead. Next to the pulley well, a few thick spina gleditsiae trees of unknown age blocked the sunshine, weaving dozens of Fiona Fang shades for people. Every summer at noon, the adults in the village will go out of their homes and gather under this acacia tree to eat and enjoy the cool, and exchange some gossip topics of mutual concern while eating. Especially at night, people who take food taken late at night, old and young, gather here to chat and enjoy the cool. ...
I remember when I was a child, I often snuggled in my mother's arms, watched a bright moon like a silver plate rise on the wall of the village entrance, listened to my mother's wonderful story about the jade rabbit tinkering with medicine in the moon, and finally fell asleep in the "Moon Song" she hummed softly: "Grandma Yue, Dad Huang; Father weaves cloth and mother spins flowers; Xiao Ni son wrapped in a cage, wow la la la la ... "
According to the old people, "Xiqi" is the most famous rich town near Fiona Fang, so fat that it can be squeezed out; The white river and duck river on the east and west sides of the village are pure and sweet, sweeter than sugar water. The small plain alluvial by two rivers is very fertile, and the grain under one year can't be eaten for five years. ...
Because the village is located at the southern foot of Zhongbai Mountain, the first crow on the "Sanya Road" in Guluowan Passage, it has convenient transportation and rich products, attracting merchants from Liucun, Caodian, Nanzhao Town, beef shops and mule shops in the county town, and also attracting bandits and swordsmen from far and near to be greedy and harassed frequently ... The villagers were unbearable, but in desperation, they jointly raised funds and built a thick circle to prevent bandits.
Unfortunately, Yahekou Reservoir was built by 1958 and was flooded into the reservoir. Tens of thousands of people in my family and the reservoir area had to leave their homes and move around. My family moved recently and was first placed in Xiaoyangzhuang, a nearby Taishanmiao commune. I'm in Grade Two at Shishuwa Primary School not far away. 1965, the family moved to Tongbai county.
Later, my family has been settled in Xiaoan Village, Guxian Town, Tongbai County. I finished primary school, junior high school and senior high school in Guxian Town, and went back to my hometown as a farmer for five years until 1977 resumed the college entrance examination system and was admitted to the university. ...
Imagine that if the Yahekou Reservoir had not been built in those years, and if my family had been living in the rich and beautiful land of "Wangxi", I think our situation would certainly not be as embarrassing as it was later, at least we would not have experienced so many twists and turns and the hardships of moving. There is also my cultural accumulation. I have lived in two completely different cultural atmospheres, and there must have been an irreparable break. Otherwise, I may write a stunning work with both ideological and artistic qualities.
It's really a mountain that never turns back. Unexpectedly, after leaving for decades, I came to Yahekou Reservoir, a place where my family was once displaced. Looking back on the past few decades, I can't help but feel a burst of trouble; Seeing is believing, and I feel it. When I think of my hometown deep in the reservoir, I can't help but feel a faint sadness. ...
I was thinking about it when the technician's introduction suddenly sounded in my ear: after the completion of Yahekou Reservoir, a quarter of the land in Nanyang area was irrigated; The grain and cotton output of these places exceeds half of the whole Nanyang area; The water in the reservoir has injected life into countless new factories, added luster to the beautification project of Nanyang, and inserted wings for the economic take-off of Nanyang. Since then, Nanyang has never suffered from drought, rain and waterlogging and lack of food. ...
Thought of here, I slowly relieved, even if the family is good to everyone? So put yourself in your shoes, is your heart getting brighter and brighter?
After the tour, when I was about to leave Yahekou Reservoir, I still couldn't help looking back frequently and staring at the mirror-blue water surface of the reservoir area. Through the blue water, I seem to see the faint moonlight in the depths of the reservoir area!
Goodbye, my distant childhood hometown! Goodbye, moonlight growing up with my childhood! Although now, my hometown has already been flooded by the reservoir area, and the blue sea has covered the bright moonlight, my childhood hometown is still in my heart! The moon is as bright as ever!