Chapter 394 The Woods in the Wasteland 【Seeking Monthly Pass
In Mobei City, the rural areas are very sparsely populated. Most young people have gone to the city or south to work, while the elderly still stick to the land of their ancestors.
Beidian Village, Yunlin Town, Ma'erwan District, is one such village. The villagers have settled along the river and cultivated a few farmlands. The rest of the land is almost all wasteland. Some weeds can still grow, but most of them have become deserts.
It has been a long, long time since we have been able to plant fields and graze cattle.
But it is also in this place that in the past few decades, due to policy support, there have been some new changes in the landscape.
If you look from the sky, you will see that some of the wasteland outside the village has turned green, which is a forest farm formed by tree planting.
For others, Arbor Day is once a year, but for 79-year-old Wang Fuhou, there are two tree planting seasons a year, and he has to take care of trees every day.
Early in the morning, before dawn, Wang Fuhou woke up to the chirping of birds. The couple lived in a small brick house in the forest farm. Since they first contracted 50 acres of wasteland more than 30 years ago, they have now contracted and managed 50 acres of wasteland.
Looking at more than 200 acres of land that have been planted with trees, he and his wife have long been used to this kind of life.
"My wife, my wife." Wang Fuhou woke up his 77-year-old wife Zhang Maidong, "Wake up, we are still busy today."
"Look at you, a stubborn old man, you are still tired at your age..." Zhang Maidong seemed to complain, "You can't take any time off..."
"Haha." Wang Fuhou was happy and got up first. "We haven't read the book, but we know the story of Foolish Old Man Who Moved the Mountain. This tree must be planted, otherwise the land will become desert and what will future generations do? We just hope that we can
Live a few more years and plant more trees.”
"Well, the country praises you, you know." Zhang Maidong said amusedly.
Wang Fuhou's rough and dark old face suddenly burst into laughter. The couple were commended by the city on the Arbor Day that just passed this year and were interviewed by the news. They said that tree planting is a hot topic in the country now. One is the Tianji Bureau, the other
It’s about planting trees and greening the environment.
There is no money to be made from planting trees. Land preparation requires a lot of manpower and sometimes large machinery. The tree planting period is too short to do it yourself, so you have to hire people. There are also costs for watering, repairs, etc., and you rely on seedlings.
, dead branches and leaves, 30 acres of fast-growing poplars to earn some money, tens of thousands of yuan a year, and the state will subsidize a little more, so they can maintain their lives. Their three children have already had families, and their children and grandchildren sometimes come to help, and they come and go.
After all, young people don’t want to face a wasteland all day long.
It’s impossible to say that he didn’t think about it for the sake of livelihood. When Wang Fuhou started doing this contracting, he was just thinking about making some money.
But after so many years of planting one kind, I really developed feelings for it.
Wang Fuhou knew that his wife was also the target of a knife wound. The wasteland turned into forest land, and the hardships of planting trees for so many years were not his alone.
More than thirty years ago, there was no electricity, no water, no roads, nothing, just a piece of wasteland. They personally prepared the land bit by bit, and then planted saplings, pine trees, Chinese locust trees, and weeping willow trees.
The fast-growing poplar... I watched the trees grow up little by little, and watched the barren hills and mountains become lush and green.
"Shall we contract dozens more acres to plant trees? The country will have to praise me next year."
"Okay! Then you will live a few more years, and I will live a few fewer years."
After some more banter with his old wife, Wang Fuhou put on his coat and hat and walked out of the small brick house.
The sky was bright and the birds in the forest were chirping louder. Wang Fuhou stepped on the land with some fallen leaves and walked slowly through the woods he planted. In this Spring Festival, the trees are growing new branches and leaves, and the green leaves are growing.
The tender green color made him feel really relaxed and happy.
"Relaxing and happy." Wang Fuhou has never been to school, and he can't even read a few Chinese characters. But the reporter who came to interview that day kept telling him this word, which is really a good word. When he thinks about his age, he has been busy all his life.
Being in the news and being praised by the country makes the old man's smile even brighter.
My entire life has passed by without being confused.
"No, we really have to contract dozens of acres more." Wang Fuhou pondered, but as soon as the idea came to his mind, he almost staggered when he stepped on a dead branch, and felt a pain in his hips. "These legs and feet are not up to par." The old man was distressed.
He sighed to himself, his legs and feet were either sick or old.
"Alas!" He recalled that in those days, he could do all kinds of work by himself, and he had no problem climbing trees and pruning branches. Now, walking is becoming more and more difficult for him.
People are getting older, but the tree is getting taller and taller.
As Wang Fuhou walked, he almost arrived at the "Fuhou Tree", which was the first tree they planted. The tall and thick trunk of the locust tree made it difficult for them to hold it in their arms. Every time Wang Fuhou takes a walk in the morning,
Everyone should go there to take a look and hug the tree, it is like one of their children.
"...Where's the tree?"
However, now, Wang Fuhou's old face was stunned, looking at the slightly sparse woods around him. This place that he had walked through thousands of times was a bit unfamiliar.
He was too familiar with this road. This was the road he had taken. He could reach wherever he wanted to go by closing his eyes. But now he should have reached the Fuhou tree, but he seemed to have lost his way and didn't look.
When it came to the towering pine tree, some other trees were gone too.
"W-where is this?" Wang Fuhou couldn't figure it out for a moment. There was no place like this in his more than 200 acres of forest land.
The spacing between the trees is wrong. The spacing between the trees is wrong! Why are there so many trees missing?
Was someone illegally felling them? This thought flashed across Wang Fuhou's mind, and he suddenly felt flustered and angry. But then he thought it was impossible. It was impossible to cut down trees without making any noise. It was impossible to cut down so many trees in one night without disturbing them. Moreover,
There are no traces on the ground, and there are no tree stumps...
It's weird, it's weird.
Wang Fuhou was puzzled and walked forward for a while, but the reason was that the woods in front had not changed. He walked back for a while and was sure that the area of more than 30 meters of his Fuhou tree had changed. He
When I returned to the area and took a look, I found that not only were there fewer trees, but the remaining trees also had no young leaves.
All of these trees were lifeless, and some even had cracked barks, as if they would collapse at any time.
The land beneath our feet seemed to be becoming scorched black and even more barren than it had been a few decades ago.
"What's going on..." Wang Fuhou muttered as he came to another locust tree and stretched out his calloused right hand to press the trunk with cracked bark.
The old man's eyes suddenly widened, and his wrinkled old face was filled with panic. He saw his hand directly inserted into the trunk of the tree, as if into water. The twisted water, but the old man immediately felt a huge surge.
Pain, as if the whole body is burning and about to explode, "Honey, Wife...!"