Jinjiawan is fifteen kilometers away from the garrison headquarters, and the wells in the village dried up half a month ago.
Every morning, the villagers carry water back from a small ditch five miles away to meet their daily needs.
The biggest headache for everyone is that the small river ditch is almost drying up, and the water in the puddle is getting less and less. It seems that there is not enough for everyone to eat.
When thinking about this, everyone in the village looked sad, and the bucket of water they had worked so hard to fetch wished they could use it as two buckets.
If this problem is not solved as soon as possible, the creek will completely stop flowing in the longest possible time, and it will be even more difficult for everyone to have a sip of clean water.
At six o'clock in the morning, more than a hundred people gathered at the entrance of the village, including men, women, old and young, carrying buckets or wooden basins, preparing to go to the small river ditch to collect water.
This has happened every day for half a month.
At eight o'clock in the morning, men, women, and children began to return to the village one after another. Only then did every household smoke smoke and cook with the water they had just brought back.
"Bang bang bang..."
At ten o'clock in the morning, the big bell hanging at the entrance of the village suddenly rang. In less than ten minutes, more than a hundred people in the village gathered at the entrance of the village.
Captain Zhang of the guerrilla team was an old soldier in his thirties. He stood in front of everyone, carrying a tortoise box that had been eliminated by the main force on his waist. His left sleeve was empty, which was the mark he left when he fought the Japanese.
"Folks!" The captain shouted with his loudest voice, his dantian filled with anger.
"My superiors knew that the wells in our village were dry, so they gave me a special order to organize everyone to deepen the wells."
"Our team leader said that as long as we continue to dig deeper and reach the water table, the dry wells will surely produce water again. If it doesn't work at five meters, dig ten meters. If it doesn't work at ten meters, dig fifteen meters."
"Captain Zhang, is this useful?" A middle-aged man stood up and asked.
In their understanding, the reason why there is water in the well is because a spring was dug.
Now that the water is gone, the spring must be dry, and there is no point in digging deeper.
As for the underground water level mentioned by Li Hao, they had never heard of it, let alone knew about it.
When someone raised a question, there was an immediate outcry from below, believing that this was a waste of effort and a waste of money and people.
Now is the slack time for farming. As long as you don't do anything, just half a catty of food every day can ensure that you don't starve to death.
Once you start working, even two kilograms of food a day may not be enough if there is no oil or water.
Although there is some surplus food at home, it is not enough to eat two kilograms of food a day.
Moreover, everyone who has been dealing with the land all year round has already vaguely felt that this severe drought will continue, but they just did not say it out loud.
If the drought continues, today's grain harvest will definitely be very low, or there will be no harvest at all.
When the time comes, the little food stored at home will become life-saving food.
How is it okay to spend a lot of life-saving food for a well that is almost impossible to produce water? So everyone's first reaction is to refuse.
Captain Zhang had guessed this scene a long time ago and continued: "No matter what you think, I always believe in the words of our group leader."
"He said if water can be produced by continuing to dig deeper wells, then water will be produced."
After saying that, Captain Zhang ordered two subordinates not far away: "Bring the things up..."
Two large bags of food that had been prepared long ago were carried to everyone by two guerrillas and piled on the table.
Captain Zhang pointed to the grain bag and said.
"I decided to carry out the order from my superiors and organize everyone to deepen the wells in the village."
"There are two hundred kilograms of grain here, prepared for us by our superiors. As long as you are willing to sign up to help the guerrillas deepen the wells, a man will be given two kilograms of grain a day. Come and sign up now and try to start digging the well today."
Two kilograms of grain is not much, but it is definitely no problem to ensure your own rations.
In this way, the family can save food rations for at least one person, and all you need to pay is your own strength.
Everyone is farming, and all they can use is their strength, so as soon as Captain Zhang spoke, the hearts of the thirty or so men in the crowd were moved...
More than ten people quarried thousands of stones, and more than ten people used the most primitive tools to cut the stones. When the time comes, they will build the stone walls of the wells and strengthen the wells. The remaining people are responsible for deepening the wells and transporting the excavated soil.
For more than half a month, due to lack of water, the village that had been lifeless became lively again!
On the first day, the well was deepened to a depth of eight meters. Except for the wet soil dug out, there was no trace of water at the bottom of the well.
Captain Zhang did not give up and spent the whole next day reinforcing the well to prevent accidents.
Continue digging deeper on the third day...
When it was ten meters deep, the well had not yet produced water, and the fighting spirit of dozens of people was being worn away little by little.
If it weren't for the salary of two kilograms of grain a day, everyone would have gone back to their homes long ago.
On the fifth day, when the well was deepened to thirteen meters, there were finally traces of water in the moist soil.
"Water is coming out, water seems to be coming out from the bottom of the well!" A cry of surprise came from the well.
Seeing that the soil brought up from the well was getting wetter and wetter, with some small water droplets on it, the people above were also shocked.
At this time, without Captain Zhang’s instigation, everyone’s motivation spontaneously picked up!
By noon the next day, the water traces had slowly turned into water flow...
At the garrison headquarters, Wang Hong rushed in with excitement on his face. Finally, one of the several problems plaguing his mind was solved.
"Captain, water has come out. You are absolutely right. Although we are experiencing a major drought here, the groundwater level has not dropped too much. As long as we continue to deepen the wells, they will be able to produce water."
"Now ten villages have sent back good news: the dry wells have been deepened and water is flowing again."
"With these successful cases, each village directly organizes villagers to deepen their wells without us mobilizing them!"
"If this momentum continues, within half a month at most, the drinking water problem of the villagers in the base area will be completely solved."
This result was already expected by Li Hao.
Decades later, due to over-exploitation of groundwater, the groundwater level in North China will continue to decrease year after year.
The groundwater is not over-exploited now. No, it should have not been exploited yet. The groundwater level must be very high.
As long as the well reaches the groundwater level, there will definitely be no problem in producing water.
Looking at the political commissar, he replied calmly: "The water problem has been solved, and now it is our turn to solve the water shortage problem for growing grains."
"I have calculated in the past few days that if there is no taxation in the base area this year, more than 30% of the fields in the base area will need to be planted with grain. Only a small harvest can ensure that the villagers can survive this severe drought."
"However, the total number of irrigated fields near the river is less than 10%."
"This means that we have to solve the water shortage problem in at least 20% of the fields. Only by planting all of them with grain will the villagers have food and preserved fruits after the autumn harvest and not starve to death."
"As for the food needed by the military and local government staff, we must provide part of it ourselves and purchase part from outside. We must not increase the burden on the villagers at this time."