In summer, it rains heavily every few days. After the storm, the muddy river roared down and slapped the bank violently, and the rumbling sound could be heard for miles. A group of children ran out of the house, crossed the farmland, stood on the shore and watched the river roll down. The deafening rumble made us talk to each other and shout loudly. From time to time, the muddy water is mixed with branches, weeds, crops, and sometimes tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, melons and fruits. Once, we really saw a pig screaming in the rushing water. This kind of fighting fills our young hearts with excitement, curiosity and fear. We are afraid and want to see it. So that in summer, we look forward to rain, the bigger the better, so that we can feel the shock brought by the rushing river, and after the weather is fine, we can also play with water. At this time, the adults are sad. They are worried that adobe houses will not be washed away by heavy rain, and that floods will break dams and destroy crops. Therefore, as soon as the rain stopped, the children called on their friends and rushed to the river to see the raging river; The adults hurried to the fields to see if the crops were damaged by water.
On both sides of the South River, the land is fertile. Adults use wide stone dams to separate rivers from land. Every year during the slack season in winter and spring, the production team often transfers labor to reinforce the stone dam to prevent flood and protect the cultivated land in summer. After the flood, puddles, large and small, deep or shallow, were everywhere on the floodplain. In the hot summer, the leaves of crops are withered by the sun, and the cicadas on the trees call tirelessly. Colorful wildflowers are blooming on the grass by the river, and beautiful pebbles are placed on the beach. On the shore are green crops, poplars and weeping willows swaying in the wind, and in the distance are dark blue mountains and clouds on the horizon. Castle peak, clear water, green trees, red flowers, blue sky and white clouds, "We look at the green trees surrounding your village and the pale blue mountains in the distance". We often hear sweet birds singing in the fields. Most of them are sparrows and magpies, and there is another kind of bird. It has gorgeous feathers, a crown on its head and always coos. We all called it "Xixi Lake", and later we learned that it might belong to a woodpecker. There are many black insects with long tentacles crawling quickly on the grass after the rain. Everyone calls them "longicorn". Grasshoppers and "shoulder poles" also come out to join in the fun, and occasionally mantis can be seen holding pliers; Dragonflies and butterflies are also common. Dragonflies usually fly low. Butterflies are generally small white and yellow butterflies, and there are also large black and white or black and yellow butterflies. Mosquitoes are running around on the water. We have always wondered why this unsinkable "water-flying" insect can walk freely on the water, and we can't see anything special when we catch it.
In the afternoon, the beach gradually became lively. Groups of naked children chase and fight in the clear river, enjoy the cool, have a water fight, knead clay figurines, build paddy fields and dig earthworms, all of which are games we often play. The cool wind blows on the river, lying on your back in the shallow warm river, or walking barefoot on the delicate mud beach, looking at the blue sky and white clouds, looking at the green grass and red flowers, talking and laughing, and fighting is indeed a kind of fun in childhood. As the sun sets, the afterglow of the setting sun reflects the distant mountains and near the water. The brilliant sunset dyed the western sky red, and the South River flowed slowly in the quiet and growing night. The rosy clouds are reflected, sparkling, summer insects chirping, tired birds returning to their nests, the evening breeze blowing on their faces and willow branches swaying, forming a wonderful picture of "the sky is high and the clouds are light". Mountains and rivers, hazy, dynamic and quiet, bright and dark, are simply a beautiful landscape oil painting.
This river has given countless children a happy and unforgettable childhood and nurtured the people along the river. But now, Nanhe is not the river I remember in my childhood. It has shrunk like those streams along the river in those years, and has long lost its rich style. Even my old father, who lives in the village all the year round, can't remember the last year when the Nanhe River flooded. The old stone dam has disappeared, and it is difficult to find traces. Those soft and delicate riverbeds have been cultivated into fields, and a rural cement road has been opened on the floodplain. Crops and highways have squeezed the once-wide Nanhe River to death, making it a veritable canal, which is almost filled with domestic garbage. Nanhe is about to become a virtual place name, and even the place name does not exist. People in their hometown can only look back at the river winding around their hometown in increasingly vague memories.
Looking at the whole country, don't say that our Xiaonan River, the famous Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in history, the colorful Qinhuai River, the eight major water systems around Chang 'an, the Luohe River in Luoshen Fu and the Bianhe River in the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival have disappeared or are disappearing? Even the rolling Yellow River "how the water of the Yellow River moves out of the sky and flows here forever" has been cut off more than once, and the Yangtze River "leaves fall like waterfalls and I think the long river always rolls forward" also reveals a large riverbed from time to time. Just 20 years ago, there were about 50,000 rivers in China, each covering at least 60 square miles. But by 20 13, according to the first national water resources survey, 28,000 of them had disappeared. The lost river in China, in terms of basin, is almost equivalent to the loss of the entire Mississippi River in the United States. The disappearance of these rivers is basically due to soil erosion and climate change, especially the rapid growth of population and economy, especially the over-exploitation of water resources by industrial and agricultural production and urbanization development.
This summer vacation, I took my children back to my hometown and played in Nanhe. I pointed to the lush crops and winding roads in the river and told him that it used to be a 50-degree road.
The river is several meters wide and there are many beautiful pebbles in it. We can swim, play in the water, fly butterflies and pick wild flowers. Children don't believe it. Of course he doesn't believe it, because he hasn't seen it, and now he can't see any trace of the river, but I want to say, son, I'm not talking about fairy tales, I'm talking about the beauty that once existed and will never reappear. Just over a decade ago, Nanhe, a beautiful river bearing the feelings of generations of ancestors, did exist. I don't know when the South River was formed, but I know when it disappeared. Now Nanhe has existed in name only, or in name only. In just over ten years, the river disappeared without a trace. In the future, maybe the South River will only appear in words or in our memories.
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