Three Gorges Past: From Kaixian to Lezhi, I accompanied the migrants
July 30, 2001, was an unforgettable day for the 68 farmers in Zhenan and Houba towns.
On this day, a convoy of 50 military vehicles and 10 square vehicles carried their hopes and rushed to Weiyuan and Lezhi counties in Sichuan Province.
On this day, 325 immigrants will board 10 sleeper buses and leave Kaixian, Chongqing, their home for generations. The reporter walked with the immigrants, from the place of emigration to the place of immigration, hearing and witnessing. They not only felt the warmth of the party's immigration policy, but also appreciated the hardships of local government and immigrant workers, and gained a deeper understanding of the hard-working and simple rural immigrants.
"Leave the small family behind, take care of everyone, and contribute to the Three Gorges Project"!
Millions of immigrants, from slogans to actions, migrating from place A to place B, rushing from hometown to foreign land, farmers put their joy, anger, sorrow and joy on their faces and bury it in their hearts: loading the truck In the gap, I was worried to find that the head of the household's hands were trembling and stroking, and his eyes were straight; beside the farewell path, I was surprised to see an old woman on crutches heading in the direction of the long journey, closing her eyes and praying. ; In the farewell ceremony, although the drums were loud, the firecrackers were lit with joy, and the speeches of government officials from the relocation area were full of passion, I could read only two words from the eyes of the participants: tragic.
It was the afternoon of the 29th when we arrived in Kaixian. Zhu Zhanquan, the director of the Immigration Bureau office, arranged for me to stay and then left, saying that at 5 o'clock the relocation ceremony for the relocation of the civilian army vehicles would be held at the Liu Bocheng Memorial Hall, and he would rush to organize it. Peng Xiaodong from the county's Kaizhou Times was an acquaintance. I interceded with Chen Nengwen, secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Immigration Bureau, and asked him to accompany me for the interview. Secretary Chen readily agreed, but asked us to separate: he would go to Zhen'an, and I would then immigrate to Lezhi County. It is said that more materials will be collected in this way and the situation will be understood more comprehensively.
The guest does as the host does, that's all. Peng Xiaodong made an appointment to go to the venue at four o'clock, but waited until half past seven when the military vehicle slowly arrived. The person in charge was about to hold a meeting when it suddenly started pouring rain, so the ceremony had to be cancelled. Unexpectedly, the rain came in waves and didn't stop all night long. When I opened the window in the morning and looked around, I thought it was terrible. The sky was leaking in the county, and the immigrants might not be able to leave today (the locals were fighting drought and didn't want a sudden heavy rain).
At about 8 o'clock, I called Lao Zhu and said that I wanted to visit the immigrant's home. Lao Zhu said it was impossible to get to the back dam. The river dam had risen and the bridge had collapsed. You couldn't get across, and neither could the convoy over there. If you want to see it, go to Zhenan Town. I said yes, I want to see it no matter where it is.
So Lao Zhu sent a car to take me to Zhenan Town Government in the rain.
You can go to the town immigration office and find out that villagers in several nearby villages have already demolished their homes and moved their furniture to the roadside or to the homes of relatives and friends. Mayor Luo, who is in charge of the resettlement work, said that the river dam has swollen and the water has made it difficult for boats to pass. It was raining non-stop. Several immigrant families and several military vehicles were stuck on the other side of the river. It was really urgent. After a while, Secretary Chen of the Immigration Bureau came. He used his mobile phone to call the county leaders and report: The rain continued in the morning and afternoon, and he requested to send a flood-prevention assault boat. By the afternoon, the rain finally stopped. Seeing the military vehicles with scattered furniture returning to Zhen'an Town one after another and setting up the long snake formation with the word "一", the people holding the farewell ceremony had relaxed expressions on their faces and were busy moving the venue that was originally planned to be arranged in the conference room to the outdoors.
After lunch, people gathered in front of the town government. At 1 o'clock in the morning, men, women, old and children in Zhen'an Town witnessed the "First Transport Ceremony of the Kaixian County to Farewell the Migrant Civilian Army Vehicles" with mixed emotions. The secretary of the county party committee and a representative of a Red Army division of the Chengdu Military Region delivered passionate speeches, followed by a speech by an immigrant representative. In contrast, the immigration representative's speech was more touching - even though he was also scripted.
After a half-hour brief ceremony, the immigration military vehicle drove from the hillside of the venue to the street entrance. A specially hired wind band played music to its heart's content. The welcoming people lined the streets applauded and waved goodbye to the soldiers.
Slowly, slowly, the military vehicle, carrying the blessings of relatives in hometown and holding the thoughts of relatives in hometown, left people's sight.
The meeting ended, and the folks in the venue refused to leave for a long time...
According to the plan, the immigration and relocation convoys were separated.
The usual practice is: the trucks go first, and a few hours later, the passenger buses carrying the immigrants set off from their hometowns. I went to Zhen'an Town to watch the excitement. After the ceremony, it was time to say goodbye to Peng Xiaodong and rush back to Houba Town. Xiaodong is in his prime and has good writing skills. I believe he will be able to write a wonderful report on this follow-up visit to follow the immigrants to Weiyuan.
The water in the Houba River has not receded, and it is still unable to pass, so I had to wait at the county immigration office and chat with Lao Zhu. Lao Zhu has been the director for several years and is familiar with the immigration situation in the county. He said: Kaixian County has outstanding people and enjoyed the reputation of “the hometown of raising children” in the old days. The county seat is a rare large town in eastern Sichuan, with a permanent population of more than 100,000. There are two rivers surrounding the county, and the terrain is gentle, making it a geomantic treasure. The county has a population of more than 1.5 million. Since the county seat and many towns are below the water level, the county's immigrant population exceeds 50,000. The number of resettlement tasks alone is 9,000, and the county plans to complete 10,000 people.
Speaking of the hard work of immigrant workers, Zhu Zhanquan emotionally listed many touching examples. He told me that at the end of June this year, the county held a report on immigrant relocation deeds. 12 speakers, led by Chen Nengwen, took the stage to report on their own experiences, which made the participants burst into tears. Lao Zhu said that such an emotional meeting, such a touching scene, such a conference that inspires people's fighting spirit and enhances their sense of mission and responsibility is probably unprecedented in Kaixian County. This is because: Kaixian’s immigration is unprecedented!
After dinner, I took a Mitsubishi SUV with Director Liu Yongliang of the Immigration Bureau to Houba to inspect the loading situation. At this time, the river water recedes and the river can be opened to traffic. Before arriving at their destination, most of the immigrants had already boarded sleeper buses, and most of the military vehicles were ready for departure. Unexpectedly, a small problem occurred temporarily, but it was also a major difficulty: five families who originally refused to move changed their minds at 3 pm and were willing to go with them. As a result, local buses had to be temporarily mobilized, the sleeper cars were full, and vehicles had to be requisitioned from the transportation bureau to transport the remaining 20 people.
This trouble disrupted the original plan to set off at 8 o'clock. The convoy passed through the county town and headed to the gas station on the outskirts of the city, waiting for the special car sent by the transportation bureau until 10 p.m. before it actually hit the road. Because he was riding in a command car, Director Liu led the team, accompanied by Director Zhao of the Chongqing Immigration Bureau, who is responsible for the relocation work in Sichuan Province, and Wang Jun, the head of the urban relocation section of the bureau. The driver, whose surname is Xiao, is a smart man and said he has traveled tens of thousands of kilometers with his boss this year. Before the convoy set off, the four of them's cell phones kept ringing. They were either asking one to pay attention to safety, or telling the other how to coordinate. This made me, an idle person, sigh with emotion.
While driving, Director Liu Yongliang and I had the following conversation: "Director, doesn't it feel like being the leader?"
"I'm annoyed. It's a lot of responsibility and psychological pressure. Big. You see, we have only just started on the road now. We have to pass through ten counties and cities, including Kaijiang, Liangping, Dianjiang, Changshou, Chongqing, Bishan, Tongnan, and Anyue, covering more than 1,000 kilometers. If something goes wrong, ”
“How old is the child? Is it a daughter or a boy?”
“The girl is 14 years old and is in the second grade of junior high school!”
Do you care about the child's studies? "
"Considering her? Hey... I can't care about it even if I want to. Fortunately, my wife is in the Environmental Protection Bureau, unlike me who is always away from home."
"You have been neglecting your family for a long time. Doesn't Madam complain?"
"How can you not complain? Who doesn't have resentment and complaints? I do!"
"Madam can you?" Do you understand? ”
“Understand. We are destined to devote more and pay more than others to do this job. Aren’t the farmers who have left their hometowns not humans? They say they have more complaints and grievances than we do. To be honest, when doing immigration work, you must first learn to be angry, suffer, and even be beaten and scolded! But we...how to say, you are a member of the Communist Party first and foremost, and you are a member of the country. Civil servants. It is our duty to do everything possible to solve the problems faced by immigrants.
When the government entrusts the immigrants to us, we should do the work patiently and meticulously, send them to the resettlement place safely, and leave a special working group to do a good job in the aftermath...Immigrations are all living people. , they are not wood or stone, they can be moved easily. Look at today, the total number of people I led is only 33 households with 149 people. Just moving has taken me from yesterday to now...it's difficult! "
It is difficult to return, but the spirit of a grassroots immigrant cadre has been reflected in my heart.
Near midnight, the convoy arrived at Renshi Town, Kaijiang County, and some immigrants stopped to eat. Dinner: It turned out that all the villagers were busy moving furniture into the car in the afternoon, and the three reporters from the Chongqing Evening News who were accompanying the reporters to Houba Town were also hungry. After Director Liu and his party arranged for the immigrants to have dinner, they drove to Liangping. Qiqiao Town, County, where half of the immigrants stopped to have dinner. In this way, the command vehicle looked forward and backward, stopping and going. The convoy ran from dusk to dawn, and finally arrived at Marshal Chen Yi's hometown at 10:40 a.m. on the 31st. ——Lezhi County, Sichuan Province.
The county is not large, and the buildings and streets are not modern enough, but the atmosphere is quite lively. Before the motorcade arrived, drums and music were heard, cars gathered at the venue, and Yangko dances were performed in heavy makeup. The team danced and the handover ceremony was held in Lezhi County. Officials from multiple levels came forward with joyful faces.
The handover ceremony was short, cheerful and lively. The immigrants lay in their cars and looked at the venue. Two words overflowed from it: hope. I looked forward to unloading the truck early and walking into my new home early.
I paid special attention to the figures of the cadres in the villages and towns where they moved. The roster, together with the cadres of the township where they moved out, called the names of the heads of households one by one and handed them over to each other; then, the cadres from the moving place led the new friends who belonged to the village to take a variety of cars rented from various places.
I was idle in the car, and at this time I was running around. The immigrants from Houba Town in Lezhi County were settled in three towns. The immigrants called their children and got into the car with the leader, but they disappeared in no time. I carefully inquired about the number of people and households in each township, and I didn’t even have time to ask the immigrants how they felt when they arrived in their new place. It seemed like they disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Fortunately, I knew where they were going.
At about 3 p.m., I drove to Tianchi Township with the leaders of the Sichuan Provincial Immigration Office and Lezhi County to visit the immigrants. After arriving at the immigration settlement, I deliberately lagged behind and stayed at the door of Zhu's house.
There are two houses here, door to door. The house is a two-story structure with ceramic tiles on the facade. It looks quite grand. When you walk in, you can see that there are many rooms upstairs and downstairs, and there are guard walls and toilets in the backyard. , pig pens, and pools, it gives the impression that the owner is not weak in economics and is quite calculating. Unfortunately, the furniture has not arrived and the house looks empty.
The owner is nearly 40 years old, lean and looks old. , but he is not an honest farmer. When I found out, the two brothers, a total of 10 people, moved in and built the house together so that they could take care of each other.
He proudly told me. : This house was built by myself.
Walking to the door, I asked him how big the house was, and he said it was more than 300 square meters. When I asked him how much it cost, he squinted and smiled. Not much, not expensive."
As he was talking, a sleepy-eyed woman walked out of the house. He introduced: "This is my mother-in-law."
I asked : "Sister-in-law Zhu, is this your first time here? "She answered: "Yes".
I asked again: "Coming all the way from your hometown where you have lived for many years to your new home, what did you expect when you first saw your house? "
She replied lazily: "The house feels okay. But there’s no electricity or water. I’m just going to have to live my life from now on. I’m annoyed. I don’t know if this dead man’s head is possessed by evil spirits, so he chose such a ghostly place. ”
“Why is there no power?” "I was surprised. "Yes, yes, wow, like a will-o'-the-wisp. "The woman glared at her husband.
The husband quickly explained: "The voltage is low. There is not a single transformer in the village, so you can't watch TV at night. "
"What about water? Why is there a shortage of water? "I'm anxious to inquire.
"Qiongsha, I heard that there is not a single river in this county. There has been a drought here for a long time. It is said that it is a once-in-a-hundred-year event. The weirs, ponds and fields have long since dried up."
My heart sank when I heard what he said.
Houba Town in Kaixian County is a land of plenty. Immigrants have moved here and lack electricity and water. How can they survive? Now the relocation has been accomplished, but whether it can be done safely and stably remains unclear.
After leaving Zhu’s house, there are three new houses built at the corner. There are three households side by side, with rough cement walls and white doors. They are all on one floor with the top at the top. It seems that the economic conditions of these three households are far lower than those of the Zhu brothers. The cadres were gesticulating around an old man. I guess they must have listened to the old man's complaints. Looking at them from a distance, I lost interest in approaching them.
Just like this, all the cadres turned back. On the way, Director Liu saw that I was depressed and asked: "How do you feel after seeing this?"
I asked back: "Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?"
"Of course it's the truth!"
I said: "The geographical conditions are poor. It seems that the rural power grid reconstruction in Lezhi County has not yet started. I'm afraid the new immigrants will not be happy when they come to Lezhi County "Oh."
Director Liu sighed: "To be honest, I felt really bad when I saw this. The people in charge of resettlement in Kaixian County were not responsible, and the settlement was not chosen well."
He commented like this, what else can I say?
Upon arriving at Peacock Township, the reporter’s eyes lit up and he immediately became energetic.
The seat of Kongque Township Government is a small town with dilapidated houses. However, two rows of two-story buildings have been built neatly along both sides of the road, forming a new street. There are 43 people in 10 households in Houba Town, Kaixian County. The new houses are located here, one by one, very beautiful. When the newly arrived immigrants saw me visiting, they all seemed very happy and kept talking around me. In the warm atmosphere, what I felt most was the gratitude of the immigrants to the host government, especially the township leaders.
Really fast, taking advantage of the opportunity of the county leaders coming to visit the immigrants, the township cadres handed a brand new stack of household registration books to the immigrant Xu Xinmin and asked him to distribute them on his behalf. Xu Xinmin is 36 years old and has no education. He has been working in Guangdong all year round and came back specially for this move. He said that he would go to Guangdong once arrangements were made here. He has a family of four, the eldest daughter is 10 years old, and the little boy is only one and a half years old. He was fined more than 7,000 yuan for giving birth to his son. He said that he was a farmer in name, but he was no longer used to staying in the farm fields in rural areas.
Compared with the immigrants in Tianchi Township, there is obviously no shortage of electricity and water here. Wang Wenpin, a 59-year-old immigrant, happily told me: "Did you see the cement poles in front of the door? Those are the wires installed by the township government specifically for us. The leaders here treat us like family members!"
Wang Wenpin said that he, his wife, two daughters and son-in-law, plus grandson, totaled eight people in total. He and his younger daughter lived in one apartment, and his eldest daughter and his family lived in another apartment. The two families were right next to each other. Because the house was being repaired in a hurry, the downstairs was damp, so I had to live upstairs first. The area of the new house is nearly 140 square meters, and the unified construction standard is 230 yuan/square meter. The windows are made of aluminum alloy, and the upstairs is covered with doors. The two large rolling shutter doors on the first floor cost more than 1,000 yuan per side.
I asked him how much he spent to build the house. Lao Wang smiled and said: "More than 30,000 yuan, not expensive. The owner of this house didn't make much money." Just as he was talking, the owner of the house happened to be building the house. Coming. I asked what happened, and the boss said frankly: "The township leaders have taken special care of these 10 immigrant households and are not allowed to make dirty money. So I didn't put my mind into making money."
I joked: "Are you willing to do a loss-making business?" The boss smiled: "There are many ways to make money, but you have to hang yourself on a tree?" Big fish—isn’t it?”
The boss raised his hand and said, “I accept your good advice.
This is how business should be done, if you don’t make money here, make it elsewhere! ”
From the boss’s mouth, what he said is indeed business, but from the issue of building houses for immigrants, it is not difficult to see that the local government leaders are really shrewd, doing practical things for immigrants, and doing good things politically. It’s a heavy weight! When I met Li, the honest and strong secretary of the township party committee, I asked them if they still had the task? He said with a smile: “No, no more, only 10 households. We have exceeded the task. ”
Pride and pride are beyond words. I admire such a township cadre very much. He cares about the suffering of immigrants, and the immigrants are well-known. I thought: It is not easy for a person to live in the praise of the people. But I hope there will be more township officials like this in the Three Gorges resettlement receiving areas.
At 5:30 in the afternoon, the military vehicles carrying furniture arrived, and every household of the 10 resettlement households immediately became busy. The red silk was placed in front of the door. The little girl from Wang Wenpin's family ran, took out a chicken and slaughtered it, and poured the chicken's blood on the military vehicle in front of the door. As they turned around and headed towards the front of the immigrants' home, the roar of firecrackers suddenly rang out. The soldiers and the household heads scrambled to lift the car hood, unload the truck, and move the furniture toward the house. In this situation, I couldn't help but pick up the point-and-shoot camera I carried with me.
I think my photography skills may be poor, but the friendship between immigrants and soldier soldiers is real, so these photos are possible. The value of truth.
I think that human memory is limited. As the years go by, these real images will become monuments in the tragic history of the Three Gorges immigrants - wordless monuments. !