The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 443 Spring of
As the saying goes, "In the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the rivers open, and in the eighth month of the lunar calendar, wild geese come." After the cold winter, the earth thaws, the ice and snow melt, and all things come back to life.

The frozen river surface melts, which means the river is open.

In the early years, there were two ways to open the Yongding River: one was "good river opening" and the other was "bad river opening".

"Good river opening" means that the ice in the river gradually melts from the bottom to the top, and the water flows smoothly. This takes ten days to half a month; "bad river opening" is just the opposite, and the river opens overnight.

The mirror-like frozen river surface turned into a flowing river.

The water carries the ice downstream, often forming an "ice flood".

Ice blocks are washed up on the shore, piled up in layers, and even piled up into mountains, which is particularly dangerous. Huge floating ice in the river can knock down the piers of a bridge and wash away the bridge deck.

The huge floating ice in the river can destroy the bridge piers and wash away the bridge deck.

The accumulation of ice in the river channel can form "ice dams", blocking the river and causing floods downstream.

When Liu Zhiye was a child, he would encounter this "evil river opening" scene almost every year, which was quite spectacular.

I remember that one year the Yongding River in Liujiazhuang was "flooding badly" again. Due to the accumulation of ice, an ice dam was formed in the river channel near Liujiazhuang village. The river water rose, and the turbulent river water rushed into Liu Mingwen's grain store and Liu Cheng's house, which were dozens of feet away from the river bank. A large area of ​​ice was piled up in the yard.

Therefore, during this period in Liujiazhuang, patrols along the river must be strengthened and any dangerous situations must be dealt with promptly.

However, the situation has been much better in the past decade or so. The embankment projects and water conservancy projects on both sides of the Yongding River that have been in operation for many years have prevented floods from happening in the Liujiazhuang area again.

Why does “evil river opening” happen?

There is a legend in Liujiazhuang that there is a black dragon in the Yongding River. Every spring, it cleans the riverbed and turns up all the dirt that has accumulated in the river for a year, making the Yongding River where it lives clean.

There is also a legend that there is a big black dragon with a kind heart living in the Yongding River.

Every year during the Waking of Insects season, the first thing the big black dragon does when it wakes up is to dredge the river, for fear that the residents on both sides of the river will suffer from floods.

People were afraid that the big black dragon would flow into the sea and no longer benefit the people, so they placed a dragon-slaying sword at the base of the water diversion bridge of Lugou Bridge. The black dragon dared not cross the bridge and had to move around in the area from Liujiazhuang to Lugou Bridge.

Although the Yongding River is dangerous when it is in a bad state, the people of Liujiazhuang like it. As the saying goes, "Bad river opening means a good harvest; good river opening means many pests." "Bad river opening" indicates that there will be no pests in the crops and a good harvest; in the year when the river is in a good state, the farmland will suffer from pests.

The real reason for the formation of "evil river opening" is that the upper reaches of the river melt first and the water flows to the lower reaches.

Because there is a thick layer of ice on the river surface downstream, the water flow can only flow under the ice cover.

The water flow became stronger and stronger, and the narrow space under the ice sheet could no longer accommodate it. The water flow arched upward, but was blocked by the ice sheet, thus gathering huge energy, just like burying explosives at the bottom of the river.

Once the ice sheet can no longer withstand this pressure, it will explode.

In the dead of night, the river makes a "crackling" sound of ice cracking. After about an hour or two, the river returns to calm. Soon, you can hear loud "bang bang" noises, which sound from the river section near Liujiazhuang downstream, like a series of machine gun fire. This is the sound of the ice exploding.

The huge explosion force can throw large ice blocks of four or five square meters into the air as high as ten meters, and then throw them to the shore dozens of meters away. The spectacular scene can be imagined. People along the coast call this "evil river opening".

Early the next morning, people along the river bank went to the river to see the spectacular sight after the "evil opening of the river". The ice blocks of all sizes in the river were like thousands of troops, floating downstream in a mighty force.

The ice walls on the shore were four or five feet high in some places, which was very spectacular. Between the ice blocks, people could pick up large carps more than a foot long.

In the past, every village that built wooden plank bridges over the Yongding River had a "Bridge Association" responsible for building and dismantling bridges. Every year when the river was about to open, the members of the "Bridge Association" would patrol day and night to prevent the bridge boards from being washed away.

If it is a "bad river opening", the downstream must be alerted in turn so that the bridge deck can be removed in time to avoid greater losses.

However, after liberation, a series of reservoirs were built in the upper reaches of the Yongding River. Especially after the construction of the dam, the phenomenon of "bad river opening" became less common.

…………

In our old capital, it’s time to “open the door and go out” after the beginning of spring.

People have been staying indoors for a whole winter and their bodies are wrinkled. They want to go outside to get some fresh air, stretch their arms and legs, and loosen up their muscles.

Look at the green mountains in the distance, look at the melting ice by the river, the sun is warm, the wind is soft, and the earth's air is returning.

The living things in the soil have woken up, the fish are floating on the surface and spitting bubbles, and the willow branches along the river have turned yellow - after eating spring pancakes and biting delicious radishes, and beating the spring ox, people will join hands with "Spring Girl" to perform the story of spring!

When Liu Zhiye was a child, his father told him that the Spring Market in the capital at the end of the Qing Dynasty was just outside their original home, Dongzhimen.
The spring breeze comes from the east!
On the day before the beginning of spring, Shuntian Prefecture would send officials to the spring field to hold spring welcoming activities to prepare for the Spring Ox beating ceremony.

On this day, people from the government blew gongs to clear the way and shouted "Spring is here, welcome spring" along the streets, attracting the people to follow and shout together, all the way to the spring field.

But in the center of the field stood a newly rolled mat roll, and local officials were already waiting there.

After burning incense and performing the ritual of worshipping the gods, the government official shouted "Welcome Spring!" and a servant took over a basket of food and slowly poured the food into the food basket...

The field immediately became quiet. After a while, chicken feathers were seen rising from the mat tube, one, two... Suddenly, everyone cheered: "Spring is here!"

The main event is the Spring Ox Beating Ceremony on the second day, when the top official of Shuntian Prefecture (the prefect) takes the stage.

The ox that is whipped during the Spring Ox Festival is not a real ox, but a clay ox; the original intention is not to whip it, but to shake the whip and shout at the Spring Ox, so that it can pull the plow and turn the land for spring ploughing.

It is said that the bigger the clay cow is broken into pieces, the more auspicious it is. If the broken pieces are taken back to pad the barn and pig and sheep pens, it will ensure that the livestock will prosper and the crops will be abundant.

They say spring has arrived, but it hasn’t really arrived yet.

The Beginning of Spring is an astronomical concept. From a climatological point of view, at this moment in Xia Country, only the southern part of Xia has truly entered spring. The capital area is still a long way off and the temperature is still in the previous season.

At this time, "late spring cold" is inevitable. A cold current often comes suddenly and suddenly, and it's back to the "Nine Coldest Days of Winter" again. The cotton clothes that have been taken off have to be put on again.

Fortunately, such days will not last too long, and spring will always return to the earth.

When the country was first founded, the countryside benefited more than the city because the countryside had a vast space!

Once the land thaws, anyone with a cart can dig up the loess and sell it in the city. It's a no-cost business.

These days, loess is one of the main building materials, and people in the capital are not allowed to dig the soil at will.

Before the busy spring farming season, men can go out and do odd jobs or show off their skills to earn some money.

The sorghum stalks that we harvested last autumn were dried out after a winter and were just the right size to be used to string through pot lids and tied around baskets. They could be sold for quite a bit of money.

After the spring begins, hatching chicks on heated kangs in rural areas and selling them can bring in considerable income, which is the specialty of the old ladies.

At this time, the children had a lot to do. After finishing their homework, they took a small shovel and a small basket to go digging wild vegetables.

On the sunny slope sheltered from the wind, under the windbreak of the vegetable patch, the lettuce is just tender. Dig it up, select it, wash it, blanch it, soak it to remove the bitterness, add some salty soup from cooking old pickles, drizzle it with a little vinegar, and eat it. It tastes sour and bitter, refreshing and can reduce internal heat.

People nowadays also eat wild vegetables, mainly for the sake of trying something new. More than ten years ago, they were eaten as a dish. At that time, supplies were scarce and there were frequent spring famines, so green vegetables were in short supply.

Unlike now, there are plastic greenhouses everywhere in the suburbs of Beijing, and off-season vegetables are almost as cheap as regular seasonal vegetables.

Because it was not yet the time for spring plowing, the brothers Liu Wen and Liu Wu took a group of children to "steal rat nests" in the farmland.

"Robbing rat nests" is quite interesting, and it was also one of the livelihoods of rural children in the past.

In fact, it was to dig up the vole nests in the crops and look for the vole's granary.

You have to know how to find a rat's nest, which has dense claw marks around the entrance.

Dig down along the direction of the acupuncture point to a depth of about two feet, and you will usually find the vole's living room and granary.

There are corn, sorghum, beans and sometimes peanuts in the warehouse. Usually there are two or three pounds of grain. After loading them back and sifting them, they are real grains!
"Big rat, big rat, don't eat my millet", the item should be returned to its original owner!

Whenever we dig up voles, we release the adults and keep the young ones as pets or sell them at the "Bird, Fish and Insect Market" in the Flower City.

Among the "72 phases", the third phase of the beginning of spring is "fish ascending the river on ice", which means that the Yang Qi has started to move, and the fish gradually swim up to the ice, and then the ice melts and the river opens. The fish, who have been cooped up for a whole winter, now see the day, and they poke their heads out, open their mouths, and take in the fresh air.

Just as he was enjoying himself, there was a "bang" sound, and the fish was already in Liu Baolin's scoop net.

It feels great to fish by the river, but it's too tiring and the harvest is rare. So I decided to do it thoroughly - I would stand at the dam and drain the water, fish out all the fish, and catch all the fish in one go.

As a result, he was scolded. His mother Liu Yucui yelled, "You little bastard, are you a bad guy? Take the fish back too! Keep the big ones and put the rest back into the river!"

"Yes, sir!" Liu Baolin saluted his mother playfully, with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

Liu Baolin was not really after those fish, as his family had never lacked them since he was a child. He did this purely for fun, enjoying the indescribable sense of accomplishment that comes from fishing.

At this time, my cousin Liu Wu shouted excitedly from a distance: "Brother Baolin, come quickly! There is a rabbit nest over here!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Baolin's eyes immediately lit up. He couldn't wait to take off his shoes, stepped on the grass barefoot, and ran towards his cousin like a wild horse.

"Kid, put on your shoes quickly, be careful not to prick your feet!" Seeing this, Liu Yucui stamped her feet anxiously, holding Liu Baolin's shoes in her hand, and chased after him while shouting.

But how could Liu Yucui, who is almost fifty years old, catch up with this boy of fifteen or sixteen years old?
After running a few steps, she was so tired that she was panting. Finally, she cursed fiercely: "Wait until you go home and see how I will deal with you..."

However, Liu Yucui was just talking. Liu Baolin was her "old thorn" and he was her most beloved child.

Today is the weekend, and Liu Yucui went home to visit her mother.

I heard her mother say, "I haven't eaten wild vegetables for a while, I want to eat this..."

Hearing this, Liu Yucui smiled warmly and responded cheerfully: "Mom, it's not easy to eat wild vegetables! Just wait at home and I'll go up the mountain to pick them for you!"

At this time, my cousin's wife Gan Ning and his sister-in-law He Hongmei happened to be present. When they heard that they were going up the mountain to pick wild vegetables, their eyes suddenly flashed with excitement.

"Sister, let's go too! I haven't done much exercise for a while, and I feel like my body is almost rusty!" The two said in unison, full of anticipation.

Liu Shuxian was buried in her homework when she suddenly threw down her book and shouted excitedly, "Great, I want to go too!" Upon hearing this, Gan Ning's eyes became stern and she said sternly, "No, you have to stay home and concentrate on finishing your homework!"

Liu Shuxian grumbled in dissatisfaction: "I have already mastered these questions. It would be a waste of time to do them again..."

Gan Ning's face darkened and she interrupted her sternly: "Don't get too carried away! When you were admitted to high school last year, you were in the top three in the class and ranked fifteenth in the grade. But at the end of the year, your grades dropped directly to the top 20 in the class. You have brought shame to your father and me!"

Liu Shuxian's face turned pale, and he immediately shouted: "I was not in good condition, you will see what happens in the final exam this year!"

Her grandmother Deng Ru smiled gently and suggested, "Take her with you. It's okay to do the homework later."

"Haha, thanks grandma! Mom!" Liu Shuxian kissed Deng Ru on the cheek briskly, then jumped out of the room full of energy, without giving her mother Gan Ning any chance to refute.

Gan Ning looked at her daughter's departing back and said to Deng Ru with a hint of helplessness, "Mom, she's already this big, and you still dote on her like this."

Deng Ru smiled and patted the back of Gan Ning's hand, comforting her: "Children, if you control them too strictly, it will restrict their nature. I have watched Shuxian grow up, and she will definitely have a bright future, don't worry."

Liu Shuxian left the house and called out to her younger brothers, "Children, let's go up the mountain!"

Wow, Liu Wen, Liu Wu, Liu Baolin, Li Guang, Liming... this group of little ones came swarming over, it was really a response to the call!
It was windy outside, so Gan Ning and her sisters-in-law wrapped themselves tightly in scarves before going out.

"Wind three days, wind three days, it blows for three days."

In these days, when the wind blows in spring, it often lasts for three days.

Strong winds of level 7 or 8 mixed with sand and dust are very common.

…………

Time flies and it is Qingming Festival again.

In addition to banning fire and sweeping tombs, the customs of Qingming Festival in the old capital also include a series of folk sports activities such as outing, swinging, kicking Cuju, playing polo, and planting willows.

According to legend, this is because no fire is allowed during the Cold Food Festival. In order to prevent the cold food from harming the body, everyone participates in some sports activities to exercise.

Therefore, this festival is full of unique features, with both the sad tears of visiting new graves and the laughter of outings.

The most important thing about Qingming Festival is to worship ancestors and sweep tombs, which is a concrete manifestation of the Chinese nation's respect for the dead, remembering ancestors, strengthening family ties and practicing filial piety.

Since ancient times, tomb sweeping on Qingming Festival is not only a way to commemorate one's ancestors, but also a way for people to commemorate those people who have made contributions to the people and done good things in history.

Sweeping the tombs of martyrs and monuments to revolutionary martyrs on Qingming Festival has become a good form of revolutionary traditional education.

On the Qingming Festival, all schools in Liujiazhuang will organize a visit to the Martyrs' Cemetery to pay tribute to the martyrs!
On this day, at dawn, a huge convoy of cars drove out of various campuses, including elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and technical schools... Then, under the organization of the Liujiazhuang militia, they formed a large army and headed to "Babaoshan".

After the Qingming Festival, the weather really warmed up and the schools in Liujiazhuang started organizing spring outings again.

The spring outings for schools in Liujiazhuang are basically visiting gardens, such as Beihai, Jingshan, Zhongshan Park, Taoranting in the south, Zizhuyuan in the north, the Zoo outside Xizhimen, the distant Summer Palace, and even the farthest Xiangshan.

Liu Shuxian was most proud of visiting the Summer Palace since she was a child. She climbed the mountain to the Tower of Buddhist Incense, rowed a boat down Kunming Lake, strolled along the Jing'er and Long Corridor, walked around the Garden of Fun, strolled along the East Embankment, climbed the Seventeen-Arch Bridge, and came back to touch the tail of the bronze bull...

It only happens once a year, and I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep the night before.

Whenever the school has a garden party, the students' families try their best to prepare and give them absolute preferential treatment: baked white flour pancakes are the minimum, and they must be made with brown sugar; it is too inappropriate to bring old pickles, and they must be small pickled radishes from the oil and salt shop; boiled eggs are a sign of "classiness", and it is best to bring two; dried hawthorns soaked in water must be added with some white sugar, and there are also preserved fruits, biscuits, fruit juice drinks produced in the village, plus military water bottles filled with them to carry around, which is even more exciting...

The school in Liujiazhuang was wealthy, and whenever there were group activities on the campus, they would rent a bus to go back and forth.

The car was packed with people in a big-nosed old Dodge.

On the way back, once we passed the zoo, we saw rural scenery on both sides of the road. It was so fresh that I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

On the road there were horse-drawn carriages, ox-drawn carts, donkey-drawn carts, rickshaws, bicycles, Jiefang carts, jeeps, GAZ carts, and also groups of camels that walked by with their necks held high and jingling.

Passing by some relatively backward villages, the villagers were renovating their mud houses in the early spring.

In these days, some families in the western suburbs still live in earthen houses, which are named because their roofs are made of mud.

Exposed to wind, sun and rain throughout the year, the soil on the roof is severely lost. In the spring, it is necessary to replenish the soil with straw and wheat mud to its original thickness to prevent the roof from leaking during the rainy season.

This was an urgent job that had to be completed within one day, so seven or eight craftsmen were required to form a team and work in an assembly line.

At that time, all the villagers would come to help: some would carry water, some would mix mud, some would transport mud, some would drag mud, some would carry thatch…

Every trade has its own specialty. There are seven or eight craftsmen, each taking care of their own business, working together in an orderly manner.

They are all fellow villagers, working, talking, joking and having fun in the old streets and alleys, feeling relaxed and happy.

You tell a joke, I interject, he makes a joke, and everyone joins in to sing "The Young Son-in-Law", while the host is busy handing out cigarettes and pouring tea - it's full of human touch.

The older generation had already established the village rules and regulations: help the villagers for a whole day, eat only two rural meals, do not take a penny, just the kindness of the villagers.

“Short spring neck” in the Beijing area!
Spring comes without any sign and goes without a trace. In the blink of an eye, spring will pass by in the capital city like a flying horse.

The stove in the house has just been removed, so you may have to ask someone to build a shed right away.

As the weather got hotter, Liu Zhiye became more and more anxious.

The big earthquake in my memory is getting closer and closer.

Liu Zhiye had no memory of the great earthquake that occurred in 1966. When the earthquake occurred, he felt extremely regretful. How could he not remember such an important thing!

In order to face the impending disaster, Liu Zhiye took great pains, from earthquake drills to promoting earthquake early warning knowledge...

(End of this chapter)