Chapter 18 Notes on the Construction Site of the Ming Tombs Reservoir

I visited the Ming Tombs Reservoir construction site three months ago, but I only went to the edge of the construction site! When we came, we only did light labor for four hours.With great excitement, we set off from Beijing. The car passed through the Dahongmen of Mingling Mausoleum, and soon turned east. Surrounded by mountains, there were a few thatched huts in the distance, and our big car was parked there. down. We jumped out of the car with great excitement, and someone from the construction site greeted us and pointed out the place where we should work down the slope, that is, to shovel away the floating soil, stones and turf on the ground, and leave the good clay for good luck in the future. Flood dam.After we were divided into several teams, the hoeers, shovelers, pickers, and lifters started working according to the size of their labor force.When we were resting, we stood up and looked around. The real labor force is still far away from us!A few red flags, the size of beans, twinkle and twinkle on the endless plain.The working people, like a few yellow and white flower belts, are wrapped around the mountainside under the sun.On the main road where we work, several large cars stopped, and many foreign guests, male and female, stepped out of them. Their faces were full of excitement, and they ran towards the east one by one. Our place is just the entrance of the construction site. !

After eating dry food, we went up to Xiaogu Mountain during the afternoon break, and what we saw was still the prospect of the construction site: tens of thousands of people at the Dongshan Pass were like ants, and on the foundation of the flood dam, there were several road rollers, rolling on the ground. open line.On the way back and forth, there were people pushing carts and carrying baskets, Hui compatriots wearing white hats, monks, little girls with double braids, and shirtless young men. Their faces were sweating, and their eyes were full of enthusiasm.We passed each other, looked at each other and smiled, and never talked a word!

This time, I didn’t go the same way and didn’t enter the Dahongmen. I just took a detour around the main road. The car drove into a gate built with mat tents and passed through several neat “streets” with tents and mat tents on both sides. ", until the station of the art brigade, stopped. This place is very similar to a courtyard house in Beijing. It is dominated by a mat shed facing south, with five or six tents facing each other on both sides. The difference is that there is no door wall here, and the courtyard is so huge!There are permanent staff living in it, and there are members of the literary and art brigade who come and go: painters, writers, composers, sculptors, journalists... It is really hot, people come and go, and it has become a very special and very special place on the construction site. A lively corner!

The people living in this courtyard are like a nest of buzzing, busy bees.At this time, the construction site of the Ming Tombs was really "a hundred flowers blooming", with countless beautiful and tall exotic flowers blooming, which made the group of bees very busy and happy!Where can I find such a concentrated and rich garden! Some people get up early in the morning wearing a big straw hat, a handkerchief around their neck, carrying painting tools, or carrying a notebook, and go out in a hurry. They don’t know where they all go. On the top, on the top of the mountain, at the bottom of the river, by the side of the canal, you can touch it everywhere!Some people don't go out for a few days, and in our "studio", they are waiting for our distinguished guests and objects - model workers and heroes on the construction site.

Our studio is the second tent of the "West Wing Room". Except for the stormy season, the curtains on all sides are usually raised, like a gazebo; the cornfield is next to it, and the west view is endless. There are several tables, a dozen chairs, and two large light bulbs hanging from the roof.Although the equipment in this studio is simple, the guests who come here are not so simple! They are eighteen warriors, seven sisters, seven comrades-in-arms, Jiulan Group, Five Tigers, one-armed heroes... It is really "there are heroes in talking and laughing, but there is no white flag in communication"!As soon as these distinguished guests appeared outside the gazebo, we immediately rushed forward with joyful faces, shaking hands, pulling chairs, pouring water... As soon as they sat down, these people surrounded them regardless of the weather. Thoroughly asking questions, remembering notes, drawing pictures, sculpting sculptures, photographing photographs... These young men, big girls, and even veterans who have been through battles and old men who have experienced the world are overwhelmed. Shy and restless.

But after a while, their conversation became smooth. When they mentioned the deeds of themselves and their companions overcoming difficulties, they talked endlessly and happily.At this time of year, our group is overwhelmed with joy and anxiety!I was so busy taking notes that I missed a series of bright and vivid words, and I was so anxious to take portraits that I missed every radiant shot!This meeting has just passed, and the second team of VIPs has arrived, and we are living like this "the general does not dismount, and each goes his own way" What a rich, exciting, tense and embarrassing day it is!

In the early morning, the grass leaves are still covered with dew, and the sun has not yet bloomed, and some people have quietly got up.They tidied up in the gazebo: swept away the shredded paper and cigarette butts on the floor, wiped off the dust on the tables and chairs, and arranged it like a classroom. Everyone occupied a side, picked up their own tools, leaned their heads to contemplate, revised and arranged with his own work.When you look at it, you always feel that your writing is incomplete and not strong enough... What you draw and sculpt is too rigid and inactive... You have to stop writing, put down your tools, scratch your head, and smoke; time is the most ruthless Yes, it has been pulled away by the heroes who built the Ming Tombs, so it has no choice but to demonstrate to us!Before you know it, the sun is already high, and there is a layer of flowing heat floating on the fields.On the flat path in the green corn field, from time to time, a team of annunciation brigades with gongs and drums passed by, and there were many red flags and colorful flags in front of them, and they galloped happily!

There are only one or two days before the "July 1st" gift, and the construction troops from all walks of life are "reporting victory with the red flag" one after another. As for us... the situation is pressing, and there is only one sentence, no, one word: "Do it!" The 627-meter-long and 29-meter-high flood-retaining dam that spans between Mang Mountain and Hanbao Mountain is the main project of the Ming Tombs Reservoir.It has to race against the flood after June 15th. The height of the water is one foot and the height of the dam is one foot high. The wisdom and blood and sweat of the 400,000 labor force day and night finally erected this iron wall in front of the flood!From now on, the bad water that has been raging and rushing for thousands of years will still circle in the reservoir and serve the people docilely.

As I said before, three months ago, I didn't even see the shadow of the dam.This time, I put my luggage in the tent, and the first thing I did was to see the dam, and I walked through several clean "streets" that went uphill and downhill, with cafeterias, newspaper offices, exhibition halls, and headquarters on both sides... …Going around a hillside, I suddenly saw this high wall like the Great Wall rising from the flat ground! Chairman Mao's "Ming Tombs Reservoir" has five chic inscriptions made of white stones taller than a person, embedded on the dam, shining in the morning sun.There are clusters in the east and west on the dam in front of the dam, full of enthusiastic people doing hard work under the scorching sun.At both ends of the dam, there are two tall and long pontoon bridges, which lead to the ground, and a constant stream of people walk up and down on the bridges.All the people working on the dam are People's Liberation Army troops, laying stones and pressing the road... Everyone is sweating like rain, with smiles on their faces and singing songs in their mouths.Leaning against the stone fence and looking west, the place where the lake will be the reservoir in the future is already a flat area, surrounded by an open space, surrounded by quiet mountains, layer by layer, the color ranges from light red to deep purple.In the future, this area will be a thousand hectares of fertile land with lush trees and shaded pavilions. It will be the richest and most beautiful place in the suburbs of Beijing.

Four or five days later, the morning before "July 1", I went to the dam again and saw another miracle!The two pontoon bridges are gone, and at the south end of the dam foundation, a power station suddenly appeared, with machines installed in it!The power station is two stories high with a platform on it.The road on the dam has been flattened, the hall of the viewing platform has been arranged, and two huge stone lions have climbed up the dam at some point, squatting on the south end of the dam, one on the left and the other on the right. .Looking to the west, the small lonely mountain that will become a small island in the lake has become thinner and piled up high, with stones densely piled on it, green and yellow, like a big straw hat, buttoned up. at the bottom of the lake.At this time, I was looking at the straw hats worn by tens of thousands of labor forces, and suddenly thought of writing a poem. When I returned to the tent, under the guidance of my comrades, I wrote:

Thousands of stones are piled up to form a straw hat mountain, surrounded by a hundred thousand straw hats, Xiaogushan is not lonely at all! The mountains are green and the water is blue. Two hundred thousand steel hands have created a good lake and mountain. That night, after dinner, six or seven of us went for a walk around Dagu Mountain to the dam.Impressive!There is a fairyland in front of you, it is like stepping into the world of fairy tales!The lights on the dam are brightly colored, and the viewing platform, the hydropower station, and the entire dam body are all drawn with lines of colored lights.There is no one at the bottom of the dam, and the construction labor force has all finished work and rested since 3 o'clock this afternoon. Only a few newly installed water pipes and dozens of faucets are rushing to wash the pipes.On the square in front of the dam is a street decorated with dozens of colorful lights. There are always thousands of colored lights, shining brilliantly.Looking up, the dam looks taller and wider than Tiananmen Square on May Day and National Day! How great is the collective strength of the people!In any remote mountainous area, a Tiananmen that is taller and bigger than Tiananmen can be built! Under the light of all lights and the cool wind blowing in silence, we sat down on the vast and even sandy ground. Looking at each other, not only did we not know what to say, but we also didn’t know what to think in our hearts!I just feel that my chest is very excited, but my eyes are a little sore. This is the most rare, unforgettable and happiest day in my life. I should learn from the working people to say the simplest and most powerful words: "Thank the Communist Party, thank Chairman Mao" ! The fourth visit to the dam is the day of the inauguration ceremony of the Qiyi Reservoir.The sky is a bit cloudy, with a few drops of rain from time to time, which is very good for the hundreds of thousands of people standing in front of the dam and on the surrounding hills, so as not to be scorched by the scorching sun amidst the enthusiasm. On this day, the cheers and singing of the crowd shook the surrounding valleys.From the ranks of the masses, thousands of balloons flew into the sky, colorfully dragging long banner ribbons, and flew westward slowly with the wind.They may fall on the sacrificial halls of the thirteen emperors' tombs and hang on the tops of the tomb trees.The ghosts of these feudal rulers have heard the passionate and courageous cries of the people standing up from their feet in the past 160 days and nights. Now tens of millions of people around the Ming Tombs are looking forward to The happy and beautiful prospect of socialism has long forgotten their sufferings, and they have left their former hated rulers far behind! Because I walked a few rounds in front of the dam in the sea full of music and music all afternoon, I felt a little tired. When the moon came up, I went back to the tent.The literary and art brigade who came from the city to participate in the inauguration ceremony also just came back from there, and they all sat around in the "yard", drinking water, waiting for the bus, and admiring the moon.Sitting in the shadows, I heard someone laughing and saying: "This round of bright moon, this tent, it's time to sing!" This reminded me silently of returning from the dam last night, lying on the floor, so excited that I couldn't sleep for a long time, the bright moon shot in from the gap in the tent, shining on my face I suddenly remembered the line in an ancient poem: "...The setting sun illuminates the banner, the horses roar and the wind blows, the sand is full of thousands of curtains, each of the troops sees their moves, the moon hangs in the middle of the sky, making Yan Ye lonely, the sound of sorrow and sorrow, the strong man is miserable..." This poem has been memorized, in fact, except for the "tent" and "bright moon", people's emotions and minds today have no similarities with those of the ancients!We are too familiar with old poetry and literature and art, we come to them immediately and blurt out, but our nostalgia for the historical sites has humiliated the present!Today, under the bright moon, in the tent, singing and sleeping are tens of thousands of ordinary laborers who are full of confidence, enthusiasm and enthusiasm. This kind of scene and characters are unprecedented.New people and new things in the new era must be described and praised in new words, and new wine cannot be packed in old wineskins.Take Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun, Lu Wenlong, Mu Guiying... to describe the "five elders", "eighteen warriors", "five minors", "Jiulan"... They are all too wronged, Huang Zhong and Mu How can Guiying have their vision and courage?People compare Huang Zhong and Mu Guiying to the new heroes and heroines only because in the old novels and dramas, the people are most familiar with and love these names. When they become familiar and loved by the masses, the shadows of those old heroes will gradually fade away. But in this era of rapid change, if we don't create new records that break our own records every moment, the era will throw newcomers on its way forward. Mayor Peng Zhen is right. The Ming Tombs Reservoir construction site is not only a construction site, but also a very good communist school for voluntary labor.We only stayed there for a few days, and did not participate in labor in a down-to-earth manner. During those days, we got along with the workers, peasants and soldiers, and through the tense collective life, visits and conversations on the construction site, we got an extremely profound education: we experienced labor The greatness of the working people, the invincibility of the collective, the insignificance of the individual,... From the contact with the model workers and heroes, although the days are shallow, friendship has been established, especially with those big girls, watching from afar on the construction site When we meet, we greet each other with a smile, and when we meet on the road, we shake hands reluctantly.Furthermore, we seem to have left our heart on the reservoir!When I came back, there were several heavy rains in Beijing. When I heard the sound of the torrential rain, I would be as happy as the local farmers. I remember they once said boldly: "I used to be afraid of rain, but now that the reservoir is completed, I hope it will rain!" I thought the same way, "If you subdue the mad dragon, you won't be afraid of the rain." I only hope that the water in the reservoir will grow from shallow to deep, from deep to full, and become a large green expanse. Therefore, I sat in front of the radio every morning and evening, listening carefully to the news of the increase in the water level of the Ming Tombs Reservoir... August 15, 1958, Beijing. We Woke Up Spring". )