Qiu Kaiwen came here with an oil drilling team. The drilling team was very large, with more than 200 people. It was divided into several drilling teams, and there were hundreds of carriages responsible for pulling equipment and supplies.
“Finally arrived at the Luyan area!”
Qiu Kaiwen couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief when he looked at the high loess slope in front of him.
As a native of the Loess Plateau, he never thought that one day he would return to his hometown in this way.
Qiu Kaiwen himself is from Luyan. When he was a teenager, he moved to Liaodong with his parents. After that, he attended a new-style school and was admitted to Imperial College London with excellent grades to study geography.
After graduation, he also worked in Sihai Commercial Bank. He was responsible for helping Sihai Commercial Bank explore for gold, silver, copper ore and other mineral resources in the offshore. Not long ago, he was transferred back to the Ming Dynasty and was responsible for leading the Tan Drilling Team to search for things in the Luyan area.
oil.
"The changes in my hometown have been really big. There are a lot fewer people. A lot of yellow land has been left uncultivated and is overgrown with vegetation. It's extremely desolate!"
Qiu Kaiwen is not a very old man, only in his early 20s, but when he returned to his hometown again and looked at the yellow land that once raised him, he was filled with emotion.
Time flies so fast, I have only been away for about ten years, and huge changes have taken place on the Loess Plateau.
In the past, the Loess Plateau was very lively, with many people, and villages could be seen everywhere, with chickens and dogs chatting with each other. However, now, along the way, a large number of villages are deserted and dilapidated, and no smoke can be seen anymore. Once upon a time,
The yellow land that people rushed to cultivate was also barren and overgrown with vegetation.
Birds and animals that were rarely seen before can now be seen everywhere. If you look around with a telescope, you can even see groups of yellow sheep.
The changes are just too great.
Almost all the people here have moved away.
Liaodong, Xiyu, Hezhong, Northwest, and Nanyun are the main areas for migration. A large number of Luyan people and Yulin people migrated out, saying goodbye to the poor yellow land and embracing a more prosperous new home.
"There are too few people here. We want to find a place to rest, but we can't even find a place to drink tea."
Next to Qiu Kaiwen, deputy team leader Fang Ming said helplessly.
The convoy got off the train in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province and kept walking north. The further it went, the fewer people there were and the more desolate it became. Now, it can't even find a place to rest or drink water.
It feels like you have suddenly walked into a deserted area, and you can't see almost anyone within ten miles.
"They've all moved out."
"My hometown is here. There used to be hundreds of households in our village, but now they have all moved out."
Qiu Kaiwen smiled and said.
"Have they all moved out?"
"It's hard to leave this homeland. Why do you want to move out so well?"
When Fang Ming heard this, he immediately couldn't figure it out. He was from Tianjin, so of course he wouldn't understand the poverty on the Loess Plateau.
“Because we are so poor here, it’s hard to even drink water.”
Qiu Kaiwen smiled and said: "If you walk another 10 miles, you can reach a small town. I guess there should be a place where you can rest and eat."
"Panlong Town, I know!"
"This place doesn't look bad. It has lush vegetation, and there are also many wild sheep and pheasants. Will it be very poor here?"
Fang Ming opened the map and quickly found the location of Panlong Town on the map. Looking at everything in front of him, it seemed that the place was pretty good.
"When you get to Panlong Town, you will know how poor you are."
Qiu Kaiwen shook his head slightly.
People who have never been on the Loess Plateau cannot understand the poverty here.
The poverty on the Loess Plateau is far from comparable to the poverty in other places.
Perhaps for a load of drinkable water, you have to walk for half an hour to jump into the water. In the Loess Plateau, which has thousands of ravines, water and soil erosion is very serious, and there is a great shortage of water.
Other places may just be poor, but at least they still have drinking water, but the poverty here is so poor that even drinking water has to be walked a long way to fetch it.
In Qiu Kaiwen's childhood memory, his mother had to fetch water every morning, walking a long way to fetch a load of water. When he was ten years old, he went to fetch water once, and his whole body collapsed.
Fortunately, with the subsequent immigration, the whole family immigrated to Liaodong. There was no need to worry about water in Liaodong. Moreover, the land in Liaodong was very fertile and every household had a lot of land. Therefore, Qiu Kaiwen's family also quickly became wealthy.
Precisely because he grew up on the Loess Plateau when he was a child, he still has very deep memories of this place. The pain in his memory is terrifying even when he thinks about it now.
The convoy continued to move forward. The road here was still a primitive yellow mud road. Fortunately, it didn't rain, so the road was still easy to walk.
After walking for half an hour, we finally arrived at Panlong Town.
Qiu Kaiwen looked carefully at Panlong Town in front of him. He remembered that he had visited Panlong Town several times with his father when he was a child. Every time he came to Panlong Town, Panlong Town was very lively and crowded with people.
However, now, looking at the Panlong Town in front of me, it is very desolate. There are not many people in sight. There are only some old people sitting together and chatting with each other. When they see Qiu Kaiwen and his huge convoy arriving here, they are also curious.
Came over.
"Hunters, what are you doing here?"
Old man Zhang looked at Qiu Kaiwen, Fang Ming and others in front of him. They were basically young people, and they were all well-dressed. Then he looked at this huge convoy, which brought a lot of things, and everyone was riding a horse.
I know I'm not a local from Luyan.
"Old man, we are the oil exploration team of Sihai Trading Company, and we came to Luyan to explore for oil."
"My hometown is also from Panlong Town, and I later immigrated to Liaodong."
Qiu Kaiwen quickly replied with the emphasis of Shaanxi Loess Plateau.
"Oh, he is still a native doll from our Loess Plateau."
When Old Man Zhang heard this, he immediately laughed happily and said quickly to the many old people on the side.
"Young man, where are you from in Panlong Town?"
"How have you been since you immigrated to Liaodong?"
"Did you bring us a letter this time?"
When they heard that the local dolls who had immigrated had returned, the old people nearby were very happy. Some people rushed to tell them, and there were also old people who came around happily and asked questions.
"My name is Qiu Kaiwen, and I am from Qiujiagou."
Qiu Kaiwen could feel the joy from the hearts of these old people and asked with a smile.
"Qiujiagou, I know, I know, my home is from Wangjiazhuang next door."
An old man on the side heard this and said quickly.
"Wangjiazhuang is very close to our Qiujiazhuang Valley. When I was a child, I often went to Wangjiazhuang to steal dates to eat."
When Qiu Kaiwen heard this, he also smiled and said.
"Yes, yes~"
"It'll be good to come back, it'll be good to come back~"
When Old Man Wang heard this, he immediately laughed.
In the past, I would have been very angry with the children who stole the dates. Now that people have moved out, the several jujube trees in my house are bearing fruit every year, but no one comes to pick them anymore, so they can only be allowed to fall.
to the ground.
"We people in Wangjia Village and you people in Qiujiagou heard that they immigrated to Liaodong and are quite close to each other. Do you know Wang Dachui from our Wangjia Village?"
Old Man Wang thought for a while and then asked quickly.
"I know, I know, it's Uncle Wang Dachui who is the blacksmith. My home is not far away from his home, about ten miles away. My father's name is Qiu Laosan. You should know, old man, that our family often goes to see Wang.
Uncle is bringing us something."
"So you are Qiu Laosan's child. Is your nickname Shui Wa?"
"Yes, yes, my nickname is Shui Wa."
"Oh, I think about it, I think about it, how big has it grown all of a sudden, I can't even recognize it."
When Old Man Wang heard this, he immediately looked at Qiu Kaiwen carefully again.
"Come, come, have a drink of water and eat some dates. These dates are as delicious as the ones on our loess soil."
Here, an old man also warmly entertained Qiu Kaiwen, giving him water, dates, and cakes. After receiving the news, more and more old people gathered here, and everyone was very curious.
Normally there were not many outsiders at all, but now so many people came, all of them young people, it made the old people in the town very happy.
"Hmm~"
Qiu Kaiwen nodded. When entertaining guests on the Loess Plateau, this glass of water is absolutely indispensable. There is no way around it. Drinking water was always a big problem in the past.
"Wang Dachui is my son. How is their family doing now?"
Old man Wang waited for Qiu Kaiwen to finish drinking the water, and then asked quickly.
"I'm having a great time~"
"Those of us who immigrated have lived a very good life."
"Uncle Wang is a blacksmith, so he knows a lot about machinery. He was the first to buy a harvester and a cultivator. He has thousands of acres of land at home, and the grain he harvests in a year costs hundreds of taels of silver.
, and even built a pig farm of his own, raising dozens of pigs every year."
"And Uncle Wang also took concubines, a Korean concubine, and two European slave girls as concubines. Now he has more than a dozen children."
When Qiu Kaiwen heard this, he quickly said.
"Hey, there are thousands of acres of land. You can get hundreds of taels of silver from selling grain, and you can also raise dozens of pigs."
"My dear, this is amazing."
"You still have a concubine. Isn't this a landowner's fortune? Old man Wang, there is smoke coming out of your ancestral grave."
"Isn't that right? We have been farmers for generations, but when we arrived at Wang Dachui's place, we were already wealthy landlords."
When the old people nearby heard this, they couldn't help but say.
"This guy, when he wrote to me, I told him not to take concubines and to be worthy of his wife, but he still didn't listen. I'm really pissed off."
After hearing this, Old Man Wang immediately cursed and said something similar to the letter he had received, but everyone could see that he was happy.