Chapter 33 WaterThe water the old man brought was bitter and astringent, and it had nothing to do with "not salty". But as soon as he spit out the water, Guo Yang was stunned holding the remaining half bowl of water. The old man who brought him water and his wife also stood there in a daze. Their enthusiastic smiles had disappeared and their anxious hands seemed to have nowhere to put. There was also a little boy of about six or seven years old in his family who stared at Guo Yang with his eyes wide open. There were also sporadic laughter coming from the crowd of villagers from Shuangqiao Village who came to watch. But there are more people who understand and cannot hide the worry and blame on their faces. It is extremely rare that there are bosses willing to come to their poor place. If they offend the bosses who come to lease the land, then this old man and his family will become sinners of Shuangqiao Village. Just then, the crowd parted from the back and the laughter quickly stopped. The village chief, who was thin, wearing a washed-out vest, with a head full of white hair and a hunched back, but full of prestige, walked out. "Everyone, go home if you need to, go work in the fields if you need to. It hasn't rained for a long time, and the wheat in the fields is suffering from drought."
After he finished speaking, some of the men among the onlookers left reluctantly, and although the women who stayed behind also went home, they still looked over from time to time. Seeing this, Guo Yang stepped forward and said hello: "Hello, village chief, we are here to investigate the saline-alkali land." When facing Guo Yang and others, the village chief put on a kind smile and said, "I am Xu Zonggang, the village chief of Shuangqiao Village. Welcome to come from afar." Then he pointed at the water bowls that Guo Yang and the others were still holding, and said with a wry smile: "I'm sorry to embarrass you, but the well water in our village has always been bitter and salty. Even the old oxen working the fields are unwilling to bend down to drink it. People can't drink it either. We can only use it to wash clothes, pick grass, etc." "Two years ago, we managed to dig a well by a small river 12 miles east of the village. The water quality is better, and the old people in the village call it the 'sweet water well.'" "Every morning, there is a constant stream of people fetching water. Sometimes, the amount of water drawn is too large, and the groundwater does not infiltrate in time. The well water quickly runs dry, and the remaining water turns into turbid mud. People can only wait patiently." "The water that Old Man Zhong gave you just now was the water he fetched this morning before daybreak. It is also the best water we have here." "We may be poor here, but the villagers are all kind-hearted people..." Hearing this, Guo Yang and others looked at Old Man Zhong and his family who were still standing there at a loss. The little boy was leaning against the adults, and his little face looked dry and dull. Seeing that there was still half a bowl of well water left in the bowl, Guo Yang gritted his teeth and drank it all. With Guo Yang taking the lead, Dr. Zhou and others also drank up all the water one after another. In terms of water use, the vast Hexi Corridor, with a population of 420 million, has three oases, namely Weiwu, Zhangye and Jiuquan, which have only one source of water: the glaciers and snow of the Qilian Mountains. All the crops and fruit trees on the 1000 million mu of arable land in the three oases, no matter whether they are lush or not, no matter what season it is, are watered by the melted ice and snow from the Qilian Mountains. Even the well water comes from the Qilian Mountains. The area under the jurisdiction of Jiuquan City alone is more than 1 square kilometers larger than the entire Guangdong Province. The main problem in the Northwest is water shortage. As long as there is water, there is life! After drinking the 'guest water' provided by Old Man Zhong, Guo Yang's mouth was filled with a 'salty' taste. Coupled with the hot weather, he only felt more thirsty. Guo Yang signaled Zhang Wei to take a bottle of mineral water from the car and distribute it to everyone, and he also gave the remaining water to Old Man Zhong.
"It can't be done, it can't be done." Old man Zhong refused again and again. In their place, water is more expensive than oil. Seeing this, Guo Yang took the water directly and brought it to the threshold of the main room. He was shocked at the first glance. There was no decoration in the room except for the bed and the table. The four walls were like four ruthless barriers, isolating Shuangqiao Village from the outside world. Old Man Zhong wanted to carry the mineral water out, but was stopped by the village chief Xu Zonggang. "Just keep it. Others don't need it." Guo Yang directly opened a bottle of water and handed it to the little boy who was looking at him eagerly. At this time, Guo Yang and others turned their attention to Village Chief Xu. After just a few moments of contact, I could clearly feel that this man spoke clearly and was neither humble nor arrogant, and he had a high prestige in the village. In this situation, basically you just need to deal with the village chief, and most of the problems in the village will be solved. The saying that poor mountains and bad waters produce unruly people has been around since ancient times and this is not just a casual saying, because it is difficult to survive without being unruly and bad. In the northwest region, it is common for two villages to quarrel and fight over water sources. Dr. Zhou stepped forward and asked, "Village Chief Xu, can you tell us about the wasteland near the village? Mainly about the population, water sources, etc." "Wasteland? Didn't you say you want to lease the land?" Xu Zonggang asked. "I see you don't have much arable land, so if you want to contract it out you must do it all together," Guo Yang explained. When they entered the village, they paid attention to the condition of the farmland in the village. The terrain of Shuangqiao Village is relatively flat, but there is not much arable land around it. Guo Yang estimates that there are only three or four hundred acres at most, and most of the crops are wheat, with some scattered vegetables. The rest is almost wasteland, and even the surface of arable land where wheat is grown has obvious salt stains. Hearing Guo Yang say this, Xu Zonggang became even more confused. He knew that the government had been vigorously promoting agricultural development in recent years, and many villages had been vigorously developing the tomato industry in the past two years. But that is a riverside area with excellent light, heat, water and soil resources. Shuangqiao Village is not only remote, but the soil and water conditions also seriously restrict the development of agriculture. Why would these people be interested in the land in Shuangqiao Village? Xu Zonggang introduced: "Shuangqiao Village currently has 21 households with a total of 86 people. Excluding the abandoned land, there are still more than mu of arable land." "In the past few years, there were still villagers willing to reclaim wasteland, but they couldn't grow anything. The villagers gradually became disappointed with the saline-alkali land, and the young people in the village now don't want to return to the village." “As for the irrigation water source, it mainly comes from the Beida River and the Heihe River.” When Dr. Zhou heard where the water came from, he immediately felt something was wrong and asked quickly, "Has the government repaired the irrigation canal?" Xu Zonggang remained silent.
Shuangqiao Village is at least seventy or eighty kilometers away from the nearest section of the Beida River, and it is hundreds of kilometers away from the Heihe River. For a village so far away, it’s good enough that it hasn’t been forgotten. Dr. Zhou and others looked at Guo Yang and shook their heads helplessly. Xu Zonggang noticed it and couldn't suppress the disappointment on his face. Seeing this, Guo Yang smiled and said to him, "Village Chief Xu, I'd like to trouble you to find someone familiar with the surrounding conditions to take Dr. Zhou around and roughly survey the surrounding hydrological and soil conditions." Hearing his words, Village Chief Xu's face was full of disbelief. Dr. Zhou and the other two looked at him in surprise. How can you be interested in such a shabby place with no water, no land and no people? You are a big boss after all, hey! At this moment, Xiang Tianshan hurriedly asked Old Man Zhong: "Brother, where is your toilet?" (End of this chapter)
