Riding the wind of rebirth

In the Republic of China period, entering modern society, this situation not only did not ease, but became more serious. Although the local government at that time sent some people to Lei, Ma, Ping, E and Daliangshan to investigate, they could not go deep into it. Instead, they had to risk their lives and the risk of being killed.

Even if they were allowed in, they had to pay for a guarantor first. Part of the money was used for the guarantor, and the other part was used to bribe the local Yi chieftain. Therefore, even after entering the new society, there was still debate about what kind of social system Liangshan belonged to.

There were also some funny things that happened during this period, which can well illustrate the peculiarity of its social system. During the Anti-Japanese War, Chennault's 14th Air Force flew over the Hump, and several planes crashed in Liangshan. The American pilots were captured by the local Yi people after parachuting. Whether it was Chinese or American, whether it fell from the sky or came from the ground, I would take it as my money if I caught it. The Yi chieftain believed that it was a child sent by God, and the first thing he did was to take off the pilot's shoes and force him to do hard labor.

Since he was an Allied pilot, the Nationalist government looked for him through Yang Ren'an, a local warlord in Hanyuan. They first found out which family the pilot was in, and then offered silver to redeem him and negotiate the price.

Ordinary people could get 50-50 taels of silver, but to redeem an American pilot, the price had to be doubled because the chieftain believed that the gift was from the sky and was therefore more precious.

Even after the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were similar problems. In 1952, when an investigation team went to Liangshan for investigation, there were two female comrades in their twenties. A headman took a fancy to them and wanted to buy them with silver. The leader of the work team joked with the slave owner and asked him what price he would offer. The headman said that the fatter ones would be more, 50 ingots of silver, and the thinner ones would be less, 40 ingots of silver. This shows that even at that time, buying and selling people in Liangshan Prefecture was still a very common thing.

To transform society, we must first study society. The scholars at that time were different from the folk scientists of later generations. They really went deep into Liangshan Prefecture and after research, they believed that there were four social classes in Liangshan. The first class was called "Sepo" in Yi language, which means "master", referring to the black Yi slave owners; the second class was called "Qunuo", referring to the vast majority of people, also called "White Yi"; the third class was called "Ajia", referring to the settled children; the fourth class was called "Gaxi Ganuo", "Gaxi" means Guozhuang, and "Ganuo" means the hands and feet that revolve around the Guozhuang, referring to the Guozhuang children, that is, domestic slaves.

In fact, there are quite a few results obtained. For example, slaves are further subdivided into "single slaves" and "housed slaves"; for example, it is believed that the slavery system of Liangshan Prefecture cannot be applied to the ancient Eastern slavery system or the typical Greek and Roman slavery system, and it is even different from the systems of other domestic ethnic minorities such as the Tibetans.

The slavery system in Liangshan Prefecture was not so developed and not so fully developed. It was a special social form that had just entered slavery after retaining a relatively long tail from the end of the primitive commune. It is very appropriate to name it "clan slavery."

Unfortunately, due to various reasons, this investigation was interrupted. By the time people began to pay attention to this issue again, the social structure of Liangshan Prefecture had undergone tremendous changes. We could only find some traces of the time in the materials left by these previous scholars.

The humanities and social sciences are all interconnected. This form is actually very likely the actual situation of many tribes on the Chinese land before the Spring and Autumn Period, in addition to large-scale regimes like the Shang Dynasty. It can be a very concrete substitute.

Of course Zhou Zhi would be very happy to have the opportunity to read such books.

After returning to the village, Zhouzhi began to become busy.

After truly achieving "water freedom", the agricultural development of Lianhe Township, which was once interrupted due to water shortage, can start again.

Although Lianhe Township will mainly develop the fruit industry in the future, basic food needs to be addressed.

With the water source, how to plan the agriculture of the entire township and maximize the advantages of the land became an issue that urgently needed to be solved by local cadres.

Fortunately, the relationship between the village and the Academy of Agricultural Sciences is extraordinary, and agricultural experts have already had a large number of mature and practical plans for the development of this kind of mountainous village.

The final plan was a crop rotation program of potatoes, corn, beans, and forage grass, which not only took into account local planting habits, but also took into account local fertility conservation, and left enough space for the future development of fruit forests.

This requires the land of the entire township to be planned and developed intensively. If your family grows potatoes this year, you have to grow corn next year. People who grow grass may not raise cattle or sheep. There is also a trade issue involved. With the prestige Zhouzhi has established in the township over the past year, these are not difficult problems. The most difficult part is to teach the villagers how to use new agricultural equipment, new planting methods, and some details of spring ploughing explained by experts.

For example, the use of agricultural mulch. There are now two types of mulch films: one is transparent, and the other is a new type of mulch film with one side black and the other side silver reflective.

Under Zhou Zhi's suggestion, Grandma Liu invented a new reflective ground film, which has a remarkable effect on raising ground temperature, especially in places with strong sunlight like Liangshan Prefecture. The black side absorbs a lot of sunlight during the day to provide ground temperature, and the mirror reflects the released geothermal heat back at night, which plays a role in keeping warm. The effect is very obvious.

If the two types of mulch are used together, black mulch plus transparent seedling shed, the time for planting corn can even be advanced by one month.

This month cannot be underestimated. With this one month's time difference, we can set aside another planting season to grow beans, forage grass, vegetables and other crops.

Even try growing wheat.

In addition to frost prevention, measures such as flood prevention and drought prevention are also needed.

Flood prevention means strengthening embankments, clearing drainage channels, etc. Then, while building the green energy comprehensive project this year, new channels will be built, so there is no need to worry about that.

The solution to the years of drought in Lianhe Township lies in relying on the reservoir reserve water of the hydropower station, the rational use of multi-stage pumping stations for pumping and irrigation during the abundant energy period, and the rational arrangement of irrigation.

These are easy to deal with, but Zhou Zhi found that he encountered a problem here that he would never encounter in Manzhou - wind protection.

After the beginning of spring, the wind in Lianhe Township became stronger. Although this is a good thing for wind power generation, it has a greater impact on farmland.

At this moment, Zhou Zhi missed the terraced fields in his hometown very much. The terraces stored water in the winter, so there was no need to be afraid of the wind!

But it didn't work here, as he had no experience at all. Fortunately, Old Chi Ri found a way. He led the villagers to set up wind barriers and wind walls to solve the problem.

A wind barrier is a low wall woven with branches and hay, placed at a certain angle to the strong wind. It can maximize the direction of directing wind force to a direction that does not interfere with the fields, thereby protecting the soil.

Wind walls are more expensive and are semi-permanent low walls built with stones and earth blocks. The more sophisticated ones will also place hay on the top of the wall to resist the erosion of rain.

With the roads and canals for water conservancy maintenance, Zhouzhi can use vehicles to pull the stones along the mountain road to a fixed position, and then the villagers can pile them with wheelbarrows and push the materials along the "path" formed by the cover plates on the canal to their own land to build a windbreak. (End of this chapter)