Chronicle: Rice must be raised by water.
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Planting rice in paddy field, where there is water, there will be harvest, which is completely different from planting rice on dry slope, and can only rely on God's face.
My family has paddy fields, covering an area of more than two acres, with three in number, all in a dam. It is said that this field belongs to households, and it is divided into three grades: upper, middle and lower grades. Each grade is a small piece, and each piece is separated by a field of others.
The dam was originally like a crescent moon with a small area; When a large group "digs mountains for rivers", a river beach becomes fertile land, and its area has more than doubled, becoming a full moon shape. Although the shape of the dam has changed, its name remains the same, and people still call it "Moon Dam".
The enlarged "Yueba" is only a few tens of acres of paddy fields, which is divided into two halves by an east-west road. Half of it extends to the foot of the mountain, which is the old dam; Half of it extends to the river, which is a new dam. Old bazi soil is thick and muddy, with moisture and drought resistance; Xinbazi is sandy soil, which is relatively barren and has poor water-bearing capacity.
The hinterland of Qinba is steep, with eight mountains, one water and one field. It is the blessing of eight generations to live in a place with a paddy field dam. Therefore, according to the convention that "people come first, and the fields are thick and thin", my family owns three paddy fields, even if they are all in Xinbazi area, the whole family is really satisfied.
The "Moon Dam" as a whole shows an east-west trend, with the east high and the west low. The name of the river that changed its course in those days is "He Lin". It is said that it is named because there are many "rushes" on both sides of the river. The crystal clear Helin River flows from northeast to southwest, winds down around the Moon Dam and joins the He Lan River at the lowest point of the Moon Dam.
Where there are mountains, water and fields, cultivators like it best. So Qi Xin, the landlord of Yueba, worked together to build two weirs and canals to ensure irrigation. Slightly different, the weir canal is an old weir canal, which takes water from the upstream bend of the dam, flows through the foot of the other side, and then introduces the old dam and the new dam above the "digging mountain" from the thick iron pipe across the Helin River, with large drop, sufficient water and small loss; The other weir canal is a new weir canal, which takes water from the river below the dam, flows through a section of the river beach, bypasses the "digging mountain" section, and then diverts along the inner side of the dry stone embankment to the remaining new dam, with small drop, less water and great loss.
Because of this difference, the paddy fields irrigated by the old weir canal never worry about whether there is water, while the paddy fields irrigated by the new weir canal need someone to "watch the water". Otherwise, the barren Xintian can't stand the drought and it is easy to reduce production.
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Guarding weir canal irrigates one's own fields, commonly known as "watching water". It is a vocabulary created by ordinary people, simple and straightforward, but full of profound meaning. On the surface, watching water flow into your paddy field is watching water; Think about it carefully, only paddy fields with water can grow rice. Isn't it full of hope for a bumper rice harvest?
The weir canal is short of water, so "seeing water" is equivalent to "grabbing water". So fighting is inevitable. Adults who care about the villagers are not good at discrediting the following and hurting their feelings. Most of them will give "heavy responsibility" to their children.
Most of us children who often "watch the water" are classmates in the same village. We are already familiar with it at ordinary times, and it is more lively to get together on holidays. When the water consumption in rice fields is not high, everyone usually makes an appointment to check the water intake together. First, raise the gravel embankment blocking the river, then plug the big gap with weeds mixed with rotten yellow mud, and then "reinforce" the canal like this. Finally, everyone gives his field a piece of water to flow slowly.
When it was all over, someone shouted, and everyone quickly gathered, rushed to the "mountain digging" section, three times five divided by two, stood on the prominent rock, and plopped into the deep pool below to take a bath.
Compared with other farm work, "watching water" is the most interesting. However, there are times when it is not easy. For example, in the continuous high temperature weather, the amount of water at both ends of the river decreases synchronously, and the bucket is thick, and the flow to the downstream fields is only the thumb thick. In addition, the drier the field, the higher the surface temperature, and the faster the irrigation water evaporates. Sometimes, after a busy day, you can barely keep the soil moist. If you want to leave some water in the ground, you can only wait until it gets dark and the temperature drops.
My home is about a mile from the paddy field, not far. However, considering that sleeping at home is easy to oversleep and it takes time to go back and forth, my father took his brother to build a shack by the river in Nakata as a rest place for "watching the water". The sun is poisonous during the day, and the shack is not used; Patrol with a flashlight until after midnight at night, then lie in the shack, listen to frogs, blow the river wind, catch mosquitoes and count the stars, and fall asleep unconsciously.
"Looking at water" is not only pouring water into the ground, but also sometimes "releasing water". The weather is changeable in summer, and the rainstorm comes quickly and fiercely. Whenever the weather changes suddenly, I will judge the rain according to the direction and color of the dark clouds, as my father taught me. If the clouds in the northern valley are thick and floating fast, it will definitely rain heavily; If it is in other directions, we can basically draw the conclusion that "more thunder and less rain".
With the "stunt" of "watching the sky", a heavy rain is coming, and everything can be handled calmly. Usually I will open the gap on the river bank first and put the water in the canal back into the river; Close the water inlet of the rice field to prevent water from entering the field again; Finally, a shallow gap is opened in the downstream ridge, which will not let the "fat water fall into the field" or flood the ridge.
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During this period of rice heading, "watching the water" has also reached a critical moment, and someone has to watch it day and night. When I can't bear it anymore, I will go home and report to my father and make him make up his mind. Usually my father will send my brother to accompany me, and sometimes my father will go out in person to spend that day and night together.
No matter who comes, they always take me in tandem. The people in front drove the snake with bamboo sticks, and the people behind followed closely, trampling on the wet and soft fields. Sometimes with luck, you can catch a few fish in the weir canal after a few rounds of patrol. At lunch the next day, my mother would cook a large portion of platinum hot and sour fish soup, which made us sweat.
With limited resources, everyone wants to fill their fields with more water to ensure more harvest in autumn. Therefore, in recent years, I have seen many disputes, but I have never seen a fight like other places. At that time, I didn't understand, thinking that everyone was just because of the villagers' face.
Later, I heard an elder say, "People can't do things too much, they can do less, and they can't let others do wrong." At this point, I found that adults and children who watched water together in those years can maintain ultimate restraint when water is food and food is water. In addition to the traditional concept of "restraint", there is probably a simple feeling of "sharing weal and woe".
In a blink of an eye, when white rice and refined flour are no longer "rare things", the three old fields at home, like the half-pulled paddy field dam, are covered by hardened cement roads and neat small buildings, and the "Moon Dam" has since lost the moving sight of busy transplanting rice in spring, frogs rising in summer and golden rice in autumn.
And for all kinds of "watching water", it has finally become an image engraved in my heart!