On a mountaintop in the Loess Plateau area of Shaanxi Province, Liu Jin was walking to the top of the mountain. While walking, he carefully looked at the Loess Plateau in front of him.
The Loess Plateau that Liu Jin remembered before crossing over was a vast stretch of loess, a synonym for backwardness, poverty, and hardship. It was also synonymous with cave dwellings, sorghum, millet, and corn.
The cause of the Loess Plateau in later generations was that the destruction of vegetation was too serious, resulting in extremely serious soil and water loss. At the same time, people in the Loess Plateau area also faced many problems.
One of the biggest problems is water.
Loess soil cannot retain water. Even if there is a lot of rain during the rainy season, it will be washed away along with the sand in the blink of an eye, leaving nothing behind.
Therefore, if people on the Loess Land want water, they often have to go to very far places to fetch water. Because the Loess Plateau is full of ravines, sometimes even a seemingly short distance has to go a long way in a winding way.
road.
In addition, in winter, people store snow in water cellars, and the water in it often becomes a year's water supply.
Just from here you can see the situation on the Loess Plateau. Even basic water is a problem. In such an environment, no matter how diligent and smart the people on the Loess Plateau are, it is often of no avail.
This situation lasted until after the 21st century. With the continuous improvement of living standards and technology, things changed and gradually became better and better.
After all, the people on the loess are the most industrious, wisest, simplest, and most able to endure hardships in China. They can always use their hard-working hands to create a better life.
Liu Jin came to the top of the mountain out of breath, picked up the telescope and looked around.
The mountain at your feet is the highest mountain in a radius of more than ten miles, and it is enough to overlook a large area around it.
What comes into view is a bleak autumn atmosphere, the earth is all autumn yellow, and there are also patches of forest areas that are still blooming with green.
"Not bad!"
Liu Jin nodded while looking at it. The environment of the Loess Plateau in front of him was quite good.
It is very different from the loess soil in my memory. It is difficult to see the exposed loess soil on the surface, as everything is covered by vegetation.
In places with good conditions, large-scale forests have been formed, with forests in patches, patches, mountains, mountains, areas, and areas.
These forest trees all seem to be quite old, at least more than ten years old. They are already towering trees, not saplings.
Some of the drier back areas are also covered by a large number of wild grasses. It can be seen that the vegetation here is very lush.
Liu Jin was able to see many groups of yellow sheep using his telescope. These yellow sheep are unique wild animals in the Loess Plateau and the Mongolian Plateau. In later generations, the number of wild yellow sheep has become very rare.
Long-term hunting and the harsh living environment have reduced the number of yellow sheep, and traces of yellow sheep can only be seen in a few places.
However, Liu Jin found these yellow sheep easily with a telescope, group after group, the population size was quite good, and if he carefully observed these yellow sheep, he could also find that each of these yellow sheep were fat.
Strong, obviously the surrounding environment is quite good for their survival.
The environment here on the Loess Plateau has been greatly improved. It is gradually recovering and getting better and better, which also allows these yellow sheep to have enough living space and resources.
Of course, the most important point is that basically all the people on the Loess Plateau have migrated out, and the remaining population here is very, very small.
Talent is the Yellow Sheep’s biggest natural enemy!
In the past, there were always hunters hunting these yellow sheep. Various traps, traps, etc. greatly reduced the number of yellow sheep.
But more importantly, humans exist in every corner of the Loess Plateau, occupying the survival resources and land here, greatly reducing the soil and space for yellow sheep to survive, and preventing the number of yellow sheep from expanding.
Without humans, the yellow sheep had more living space, and the number of this group quickly recovered and expanded, becoming active on the Loess Plateau again.
"There are just not many people around. If you want to find a place to get a drink of water, you can't find one."
Liu Jin searched the surroundings carefully, and after searching for a long time, he could not find an inhabited village.
You can see a large number of deserted villages, many cave dwellings, and houses that are deserted and dilapidated. The roads in these villages are often covered with weeds, and the dilapidated houses are covered with weeds. It is an extremely depressed scene.
Those who don’t know may think that we are in the troubled times at the end of which dynasty. People are in the chaos of war and their houses are empty. Every village is deserted and no one is alive.
"There are actually almost no people living there!"
At this time, Liu Jin's eyes lit up slightly, because he found a village next to a cement road. There was still smoke rising from the village, and some figures could be seen, which made Liu Jin energetic.
"Walk!"
Soon, Liu Jin came down the mountain, got in a car and walked towards the village.
At the entrance of Guojia Village, seven or eight villagers gathered under the old locust tree, basking in the sun and chatting. These seven or eight villagers are all elderly villagers, already in their sixties or seventies.
It is already difficult to find young people here. Those who can move out have already moved out. The remaining old people are unwilling to move out and plan to stay on the Loess Plateau until they grow old.
It is difficult to leave the homeland, and the descendants of Yan and Huang have always had deep feelings for the land of their hometown.
No matter how good the immigration policy of the imperial court is, and no matter how comfortable the lives of the immigrants are, there are still some people who are unwilling to leave their hometown where they lived in this era. Even if they are poor, they will die of poverty in their hometown.
The old people were basking in the sun, chatting, and looking at the cement road at the entrance of the village from time to time. This is the only external road in the village. Sometimes young people come back to visit them, so everyone habitually sits there every day.
I waited under the old locust tree at the entrance of the village, hoping that my children and grandchildren would come back to see me.
"Lao Wang, has your youngest son really migrated to Nanyang?"
"Yes, I told him that he can go to Hezhong or Heitu Province. There are people from our town and county everywhere. He refused to listen and insisted on moving to Nanyang. He said he liked the climate there.
, and also said that he would take me to Nanyang with him."
"I'm not going. I'm already old and ready to die in my hometown. Why would I go to Nanyang?"
"Isn't it? What a wonderful place. Now the yellow land is many times better than before, but no young people are willing to stay here at all. We are the only ones left in Guojia Village within a radius of more than ten miles.
These old guys, once we all leave, there will really be no human habitation here."
Uncle Guo said with some sigh, this Guojia Village was originally surnamed Guo, and there were no surnames such as Wang, Li, etc., but since young people continued to migrate out, each village became deserted.
These old people have to take care of themselves, so fortunately everyone keeps gathering and moving together, and the old people take care of each other.
If he leaves that day, others can help bury him in the soil. Everyone has bought the coffin. As for his children, they are thousands or even thousands of miles away, so there is no way to count on them.
It's not that the children are unfilial, it's just that they, the elderly, are unwilling to move out and live outside with their children.
In the beginning, there were still some young people who stayed, but there was no way to make money here. These young people went to work in the city, and they only came back during the holidays.
But these young people slowly bought houses in the city, further exacerbating the population loss here, and in the end only old people like them were left.
When an old man passes away, the young people in the lower town are notified and asked to come back to take care of the funeral arrangements.
"It seems a car is coming!"
At this time, Uncle Wang heard the sound of the car and immediately became energetic. He quickly stood up and looked towards the road outside the village.
"It's really a car. Isn't it time for vacation yet?"
Uncle Li also heard the sound, and his whole body became energetic.
They are the only old people left in the village. What they usually look forward to most is the return of young people and their children and grandchildren. When they hear the sound of cars and motorcycles, everyone gets excited.
This is what happens to older people. They no longer care about anything except their children and grandchildren.
Every old man stood up and stood on tiptoe to look at the road at the entrance of the village.
Soon, I saw several Mercedes-Benz cars driving towards Guojiacun.
"Hey, these cars don't seem lazy. Whose kid gets rich and buys such a good car, and there are several cars at once."
"Old Wang, this is definitely not someone from our village. In the past, even if someone drove back, there was basically only one car. How could there be several cars coming at once?"
"That's right. Last time I went into the city with my son, I heard someone said this car was called a Mercedes-Benz. It is the most expensive car. A car costs several thousand taels of silver, which is enough to buy several cars in the city.
It’s a suite.”
Amidst the discussion of the old people, several cars arrived at Guojiacun. As the cars stopped, the doors opened, and Liu Jin's entourage and servants got out of the car first, followed by Liu Jin.
Liu Jin got out of the car and carefully looked at the Guojia Village in front of him. It can be seen that the old houses have basically closed down and no one is taking care of them. The inhabited houses are basically new ones.