Chapter 21 Chapter Nineteen

The market economy is like a hurricane of the century, changing many people's thoughts and concepts at once. But just as hurricanes are part of the climatic order, bringing cool air and abundant rainfall, they can also be absolutely destructive.For example, the exchange principle and the profit-driven principle of the market economy are very easy to breed ideas such as money worship, egoism, and profit-seeking, and are also easy to induce economic crimes such as bribery, corruption, theft, speculation and fraud, and drug smuggling.There is actually an essential difference between a market economy and a socialist market economy.For a person with communist ideals, one must always keep in mind the negative effects of the market economy: it will not spontaneously move towards socialism, but will have a close blood relationship with capitalism.Therefore, under the conditions of developing a market economy and building a socialist market economic system, it is not enough for socialist ideological and moral construction to educate people to establish the ideological character and values ​​of economic man. character and values.This is the original intention for us to still adhere to the education of patriotism, collectivism, and revolutionary heroism.

The fourth team of Xuzhou sewer is a collective of heroes. It is said that cities have all the characteristics of plants and animals.Most plants have roots, stems and leaves, and the organic connection between these three is the vascular tissue that transports water and nutrients.Each leaf of a plant is like a pumping motor. Under the action of sunlight, they transpirate the water and nutrients from the ground from the bottom to the top according to the needs of growth, allowing the love of nature to flood the whole body.After each leaf fully enjoys the caress of sunlight and wind, at the later stage of plant growth, when the nutrients in its body are exhausted, those leaf veins full of sun kisses will return to the root system through the vascular tissue in the body.Therefore, vascular tissue is indispensable in every link of plant growth, and they rely on the pipes inside the plant to form a circulatory system. Therefore, most botanists call vascular tissue the life pipe.

As an animal feature, it is more vivid.A city is like a person, it wants to eat, drink, and enjoy delicacies from mountains and seas. When the stomach is full after chewing, the rest is excretion.Excretion is also a big problem that must not be ignored. Nowadays, many TV advertisements about detoxification and clearing fire are telling a story of success or failure.If the channel related to excretion is blocked, it is impossible for a person to complete the cycle, and serious illness will come.Isn't that the case with cities?Thousands of people, eating, drinking and drinking, domestic sewage, industrial wastewater, rainwater and snow water, all converge in the sewer.If the sewers are blocked, there will be sewage everywhere, and there will be mountains of filth, just like a person who loses the ability to excrete, the city will become a dead city and dirty city.

Sewer workers are actually the ones in charge of life channels. There are 12 male and female workers in the fourth shift of Xuzhou sewer.There are mostly female workers and only one or two male workers.The job of the fourth shift is to keep the 5,000-meter sewer and more than 4,000 inspection wells in the west of Xuzhou unblocked.Most of the sewers are buried underground in cities, the shallow ones are a few meters, and the deep ones can reach ten or twenty meters.The sewers extending in all directions constitute the circulation network of the city's body veins. Just like a healthy person must have unimpeded veins, the sewers must be kept unimpeded at all times, and the fourth class is the implementer of the unimpeded underground flow in the West District.

Working in the sewers is entirely manual.The tools of the fourth group are shovels, irons, iron buckets and bamboo chips.The deepest part of the sewer is seventeen or eight meters, and the belt is tied around the waist. If you accidentally slip down, you will enter a hellish world.In special circumstances, you have to carry oxygen cylinders on your back and wear a gas mask when you go.The narrow part of the sewer is less than 1 meter, so you can only squat or kneel there to do it.In summer, the smell inside is so stinking, the poisonous fumes make your head ache; in winter, the ice shards piercing through your clothes make your bones ache.It can be said that if you are here, no matter how imaginative people are, they will never think of April in the world, nor the bright sunshine.But the members of the fourth class are not ordinary people, each of them has a sun in their arms.

We can decipher a sacred question from the leaders of the fourth class of the sewer: You said your name is Sun Jinghua, Hua of China.You reached out like a mother, I held your hand, and in this moment, I was stunned as if I had been hit.Your hand is completely shaped, it is full of roughness, full of gullies, and full of your hard life.I know that Xuzhou has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times. It is surrounded by highlands and the urban area is in a recess. Therefore, the drainage and bearing capacity of the waterways are much larger than other cities.But even so, I never imagined that the beauty of a city would cost an individual life such a price. You know I'm shocked by your deformed hands, but you just talked about the scene when you dug a sewer once. :

Before I worked in the sewer, I worked at the Meifeng Pound Factory, which was the predecessor of the current Xuzhou Construction Machinery Factory.I was 17 at the time and I was a turner.Later, the factory was discontinued, and I was transferred to the Urban Construction Bureau.At that time, I didn't know what the Urban Construction Bureau was doing, but I just thought the name was very nice, so I came here happily. On the first day of work, the squad leader sent me a straw bag, which was a brand new straw bag.I held it in my hand, and a fresh field smell wafted out, it smelled very good.I can't help but think of the haystacks, wheat straw stacks, and straw stacks in the countryside.I heard from my mother that I was born in a haystack, that was the year when Xuzhou fell and ran away.It may be because of this relationship that I feel very affectionate to grassy things.I was still young at the time, and I only thought the straw bag was very fresh and fun, but I didn't know what it was useful for.I asked the master who took me what to do, and the master said it was for pretending.

The master walks in front, and I follow behind.I was still holding a shovel given to me in my hand, looking at the back of the old master, I muttered: pretending to be a person?Who are you pretending to be? The master didn't explain, he was a quiet person.I suddenly remembered this sentence, and I became nervous, pretending to be a person, what does our Urban Construction Bureau do?Did you pretend to be a bad guy?The string of class struggle was tense in those days, and after watching some movies, I wondered if the bad guys were shot, put in bags, dug a hole and buried?What else would everyone do with a shovel in their hand?

When we got to the street, the old master lifted the lid of a manhole and put a straw bag on his head. Then he told me that our job is to dig the sewer.After speaking, he jumped off with a wave of his hand, and I jumped off after him. I didn't expect this jump to last forever... When you say these words, you give a lot of details.You are an exceptionally contagious person, and when you tell your story, those textured cleans come out of your feelings and release, which proves that you are an emotive person, one who pays special attention An observant and sensitive person, but you walked through that historical tunnel, the years have changed you, and the times have created you.In our eyes, you are a legend, a true heroine.But you said that you once cried for being a sewer worker, and you approached your boss to ask for a job change.

When I first became a sewer worker, I couldn't figure it out.At that time, my two children were still young, and no one was with me at home. I walked here and there all day long to clean up the stinky gutter, and I soaked in the sewage all day long. In the crevices of the bones, it can't be washed off after ten or eight times of washing.The children were young and ignorant, but they also knew that their mother smelled bad, so they frowned and hid away crying.I quit, Xuzhou is so big, why, let me dig the gutter?I found Lu Zhendong, director of the municipal office at the time, put the child on the table and said: I quit!Director Lu is an old revolutionary who once did underground work.He said: We all do underground work, so we should have a common language.In the past we lost our heads when we did underground work, but now we shed tears when we do underground work.How many heads have been lost by our people in exchange for the power to manage this city, we cannot underestimate this matter.When the People's Liberation Army entered Xuzhou City, the Kuomintang took away a lot of valuables when they fled, among them were the underground drainage drawings of Xuzhou City. Why?Because they know that this is the underground blood of the city, I want to make your Communist Party untenable in Xuzhou.The terrain of Xuzhou City is low, and the drainage system is damaged. When the flood season comes, the city will be soaked in water.This is as terrible as taking the Yellow River to flood a city.Therefore, their trick is more insidious, and they will drive the Communist Party out of Xuzhou City without a single soldier.Do you think it's important to clean up the sewer?Besides, the work of digging up the sewers will have to be done by someone for ten thousand years. Where there is water, there must be sewers. Where there are buildings above ground, there are underground pipes. There are thousands of roads above, and there are thousands of pipes underground.This is just like the growth process of a tree. It has to do a solid job underground first, and the roots will grow firmly before the tree will germinate.There are as many roots as there are canopies, which is the same as the distribution of sewers in our cities. There are as many sewer systems as there are city blocks.Who can underestimate this work?Every sewer is like a human blood vessel. If something is blocked, the city will not get sick?This job is undoubtedly important, but it is not for ordinary people.Of course, the job was hard, dirty, and tiring, but it was honorable, sacred, and politically highly rewarding.Can you back off because you are dirty and tired?

Those principles still worked then.When you thought about how glorious, sacred, and revolutionary it was to dig sewers, you wiped away your tears, and started to work hard from then on. At that time, you really connected your work with the revolution, and you really connected the sewer work with the city of Xuzhou. Honor and disgrace are linked together, and you really regard sewer work as a sacred job. Every time you clean up a clogged sewer, you imagine that you have screwed a revolutionary screw.In you, the sacred choice of that generation is condensed, and the common values ​​​​of that generation are condensed. It was after that that there was a sewer class 4 in Xuzhou, and you became the first class leader of the fourth class.You said that working is the same as being a human being, you have to rely on your conscience, you have to work with full work, and you have to give your best if you put in your strength.In this way, you cast a steel-like squad 4 in a way like spreading revolutionary fire, and when you retired and left the team, you were only 55 years old, and you had to be helped to go up the stairs... Your name is Guan Yongshu, the second class monitor of Sewer Class 4, a once-beautiful woman, a once-beautiful mother, even though you are over fifty now, you can still tell from your tall figure and dignified appearance Your charming youth. However, you chose the job of digging sewers in the most charming season of a woman. In the current fashion where face is resources and money, looking back at you in the past, you seem so classical and so out of reach. But the stories you tell are more moving than your youth. Do you also talk about finding a partner?Control, control, let's talk.My old horse is in the same village as me.My classmate, you are so kind, you helped me find grates all over the street the afternoon before yesterday.Let's start from the beginning.He joined the army and worked as an artilleryman in the Zhoushan Islands that year. Once he sent a small package to my family. I opened it and saw that it was full of badges of Chairman Mao. The big one was like a tea bowl, and the small one was like the bottom of a wine cup. I gave it to the little sisters in this village.Later he sent it again, sending a package every once in a while, and it was still a badge, so I gave it away again.Yongxia from the village said: How can I mail it to you?I'm afraid I fell in love with you.Sure enough, he later wrote in the letter: I am making revolution in the PLA University, and you are making revolution in the vast countryside. Let us, under the guidance of the great leader Chairman Mao, continue the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat to the end, shoulder to shoulder Fight for life.He also swore: the head can be broken, the blood can be shed, and the revolution will never turn back.The sea can dry up, the stone can rot, but a red heart will never change.If I want to change my mind, my surname is not Ma, but if you want to change your mind, your surname is Guan.Does this really mean a revolution, or something else?Yongxia said that you are so naive, people want to talk to you, or they will stay side by side for a lifetime.Let’s talk about it. When it comes to 1968, he was going to fight in Vietnam, called to resist US aggression and aid Vietnam. The letter asked me to go to the army, otherwise I would not be able to see him.I want to go, but how can I go if I am not married?After a few years of marriage, I went to the army for the first time, and the head of the company told me not to come out of the house, saying that going out would disturb people's hearts.Shut up in the house all day without doing any work, I am in a hurry.At noon that day, I cut a large basket of leeks and made a large bowl of noodles, hoping to bake some dishes for the soldiers.I baked more than 100 sheets at noon, and the soldiers didn't fall asleep. When they smelled the fragrance, they all stuck their heads out of the windows to look.People are born to work, not to enjoy.You can't just enjoy yourself, it's all for yourself, who is for you?Although so many people on the street go their own way, in fact, no one can do without someone. Let's talk about digging the sewers.I was 30 years old that year, my eldest daughter was 4 years old, and my second daughter was only 3 months old.One day, the brigade took me to the hospital for a physical examination, saying that I was occupying land to recruit workers.In fact, I don't really want to go, what should I do with my children?What about home?The neighbor's second grandfather said: You are so stupid!People go to high places, and water flows to low places. Which rural people don't want to go to the city?After passing this village, there will be no such shop, so don't miss this opportunity.When I went, the sisters-in-law in the village were envious. They all said that Guan Yongshu made a lot of money as a five-person, and the 18-year-old eldest sister became a mother-in-law.On the day of reporting, there were many people in the yard of the Nursing Office, chattering and many women.Section Chief Chen said, the squad leader will come to pick you up immediately.I just waited there, and I didn't know what kind of work I was doing.After a while, came a big sister, not tall, smiling.Oh, that eldest sister is more rustic than rural people.A gray or blue work clothes, patch upon patch, big ones like slaps, small ones like dried bean curd; a persimmon-colored kerchief is so rotten that it looks like a beggar.The eldest sister was so enthusiastic, she grabbed my hand: little sister, you are in Class 4, come with me.Someone next to me whispered: This is your squad leader, called Sister Sun.Sun Jinghua, great job!Mother, why do officials dress so poorly.This is the first time I see my grandson.Sister Sun led me to the Taoist room, which is similar to Guanzi.But there are quite a few awards, and the walls are full.It's time to go to work. Sister Sun sent me a pair of shovels. The handle is not so long. Why does the head of the shovel look like a frying pan?Sister Sun said it was called a mud rake, and it was used to scrape gutters.I couldn't stop crying when I heard about digging the gutter... When I first came to work, I always felt that digging sewers was not honorable.Once, when I dug a sewer to the door of my husband's factory, I was recognized by one of his colleagues.He said: Sister-in-law, why do you do this job?I said angrily, "Who is your sister-in-law? You have mistaken her."He called many people around me and made irresponsible remarks. I couldn't stand it anymore, so I went home and cried a lot.My husband advised me not to do this job at all, let's ask someone to change jobs.But I have a stubborn temper, and I don’t admit defeat in big or small things. I thought that it would be disgraceful for me to leave the fourth class like this, and it would be no different from being a deserter in battle.No, I have to keep going.The more people laugh at us and look down on us, the more we have to do something famous and show them! Since then, Class 4 has become my home.I circled the sewer every day, and the more I worked, the more vigorous I was. I have been working for 18 years. Digging sewers is a conscience job.The sewer is the underground blood vessel of the city. It cannot be seen or touched. If you dig a meter less, no one will know, and if you dig out a rake of sludge, no one will see it. But we, the fourth group, never do fraudulent things.For the sewer that should be dug, we should dig one meter less, and for the manhole that should be dug, we should dig one less. Once, a newcomer was not feeling well, so he dug for a while and left it. When he finished work, he was discovered by the quality inspector.Instead of criticizing her, everyone took the initiative to surround her and work overtime to help her dig the sewer.Over the years, we have regarded the maintenance norms as the working principle, and regarded the professional ethics as our life, which is nailed to the job like a nail.If you do it collectively, you will do the same thing. If you do it individually, you will do the same thing. Whether the squad leader is present or not is still the same thing.The excavation rate and timely rate of the sewers and inspection wells in our class have always remained above 98%. The maintenance films managed have been rated as high-quality maintenance films in the province for many times. After many years of maintenance of sewers, we have formed an indissoluble bond with sewers. Some people say that we seem to have occupational diseases.Usually when I go out for a walk, I always stare at the road with my eyes. When I find that the manhole cover is missing, I quickly go to the class and take out one to cover it.It was found that the well cover was overturned by the car, and it was immediately re-covered.If you see that the well cover is blocked by dirt, clean it up immediately. When I have the opportunity to travel to other places, I will definitely walk on the road and look around to see what the inspection wells in my brother cities look like; when I meet colleagues, I will actively ask them for advice and learn their advanced experience. In 1995, I went to Nanjing to hold a model worker meeting. After the meeting, I arranged a one-day excursion. I didn't go anywhere. I learned from my colleagues in Nanjing for a day. Urban drainage, like urban water supply and gas supply, is also the lifeline of the city.Urban sewers are related to every resident, thousands of households use sewers every day.When the faucet is turned on, the water rushes, where does it go after it is used up?sewer.Where does the rain in summer and the snow in winter go?sewer.The excrement in the toilet flushed cleanly, where did it go?It's still the sewer... It's very simple and easy to drain the sewage into the sewer, but it's not so easy and not so comfortable to dig the sewer.In summer, there are all kinds of smells in the sewers. Feces and garbage float on the surface of the water, and maggots crawl everywhere. If you are not careful, they even crawl on people.In winter, the sewage and sludge are frozen, working for half a day and resting for a day without warming up.It is difficult for the outside world to understand the hard work of our sewer workers. With that few money, face-to-face with shit, urine, maggots, and mud every day, what a bunch of fools!In the face of well-intentioned persuasion and malicious ridicule, the four groups of us did not want to confess or argue.We often think in our hearts: If the sewers in a city are blocked and sewage is flowing everywhere, how can factories go to work, how can shops be opened, and how can students go to school?It's not enough for everyone to be smart, but someone has to be willing to be a fool! When dredging the sewer under the 6108 factory, the diameter of the pipe was only 1 meter. People working in it could not even stand upright. We just knelt in it and shoveled the sludge into buckets one by one, and bucket after bucket. Pass it up, after scraping a section, move forward a section, where the water is deep, you have to stick your face to the sewage, and let the maggots crawl around on your face and neck.After working for a long time, I crawled out of the pipe, only to suddenly feel pain in my legs and knees. I took off the leather pants and saw that my knees had already been bruised and purple by stones, pieces of glass, similar to Everyone in class four has had this experience. The Jiahe Street sewer is connected to the pipes under the old Yellow River. The dirty water from the slaughter of pigs and sheep in the Xuzhou Meat Factory flows out with black blood and rotten meat. Let alone go in and work.But this sewer, which is only 80 centimeters wide, we have to dredge it once a year, and every time we do it, we have to crawl around in it for three or four hours.The sewers near some big hospitals have everything in them.The sewers near some factories are not only smelly, dirty, but also poisonous. Sometimes, you can only go to work with an oxygen cylinder on your back and a gas mask. The Mining Bureau crosses the ditch with two toilets on both sides, and there is a motorcade and a restaurant next to it. The sludge, feces, and maggots in the ditch are mixed together, and it is often full of clogs. It takes more than half a day to dig once.After digging, it came up, but the oily sludge on the leather pants couldn't be washed off, washed with water, couldn't be washed off, or swept with a broom, so we had to run to a pile of sand by the roadside, wearing leather pants Pans rolled, grabbed the sand and kneaded it. Flood control every summer is our busiest time.The sound of rain is an order.Whenever it rains heavily, people run to their homes, and we have to run outside, to the road.Everyone has to rush to the responsible road section, open the manhole cover, and drain the rainwater.There is water on the road, and people hide and walk around. We have to go into the water, go to the deepest point, find out the cause, remove tree branches, snakeskin bags, weeds, melon skins and other debris, and let the water flow Be quick.It rained heavily during the day and arrived at work within half an hour, and it rained heavily at night and arrived at 4:30 in the morning.This is not a maintenance standard, but the habit of the members of the fourth class, and everyone will consciously abide by it.If the water does not recede for a minute, we will not leave for a minute. On July 21, 1996, the heavy rain fell too quickly, with 100 millimeters of rain falling in one hour, and some road sections were flooded.Squad leader Xu Guangping arrived at the scene at 4 o'clock in the morning.She stepped into the waist-deep water to fish out the snakeskin bags and branches that blocked the mouth of the well one by one, and put the bicycle by the well to block the debris.In order to prevent pedestrians from falling into the well, she would rather drench herself in the rain, take off the red poncho with the words "municipal flood prevention" printed on it, and hang it on the bicycle to remind people to pay attention.A few hours passed, the water receded, the vehicles and pedestrians were safe, and she and her partner were so tired that they couldn't straighten their backs. Only then did they remember that they hadn't bothered to eat breakfast or lunch.The nearby residents and people passing by looked at the words "municipal flood control" and said excitedly that this is someone sent by the city government, no matter how heavy the rain is, it will not be flooded. Every time the flood season comes, our whole class disturbs the rest of the family.Sometimes it rained at night, and everyone dared not sleep, but got up once in a while to see if it was raining heavily, lest it might be delayed.Sometimes I even asked my husband and children to send me to flood control areas. One summer, there was continuous heavy rain, and the task of flood control was particularly heavy.The wife of old class leader Sun Jinghua went on a business trip, and there were only her and three children at home.In the storm, Sun Jinghua grabbed a raincoat and went to the construction site, but her house was flooded, and the three children huddled together on the same bed, crying.We didn't know she hadn't entered the house for three days and three nights until we found time to go to her house. Our work is hard and the environment is dirty. After a day of work, we are really tired. Sometimes when we come home from get off work, let alone eat, we don’t even want to drink saliva. When we want to sleep, it hurts to turn over. After finishing a section of ditches, digging out a piece of well area, seeing sewage and sludge discharged, the roads are clean, adults are busy going to and from get off work, children skipping to and from school, thousands of households live normally, and the city has a day When we become prettier every day, we feel unspeakably happy and proud.We are bitter, dirty, and tired, but the city is clean, and people’s production, study, and life are more convenient. Our strength and sweat are not in vain. We have also contributed to urban construction and contributed to socialism. Added tiles.If a person lives like this for a lifetime, it is meaningful and valuable, and it is worthwhile to walk in the world once! You say those words with a high level of awareness so simple and natural, so humane, and so pleasant to listen to, it shows that you are actually a very high-level person, and it shows that you are a person with great connotations.Years are like water, time flies, white hair creeps up your head quietly, although your bright eyes and white teeth have been blown away by wind and rain, you have left your beauty to the city.Facing the city, facing the folks, you can proudly say: I have no regrets or regrets in this life... Your name is Xu Guangping, and you are the third squad leader of the fourth sewer class.Compared with the previous two monitors, you are more like a female hero.There are many interesting stories about you, most of which are stories about you being competitive.For example, since you were in junior high school, you and your friends have bravely traveled to Xuzhou, because your home is in the countryside on the outskirts of Xuzhou, so you can collect garbage in the city to earn money.Compared with Sun Jinghua and Guan Yongshu, the former two monitors, you are more commercially conscious, that is, you have a sense of the times.You seem to be able to earn money for your family since you were a child. When you go to the city to collect garbage, you can collect more than 80 baskets in one morning, and you can get back 40 cents in your small hands.After a winter vacation, you can earn 10 yuan, so that you can earn back your tuition fees.After you got married, you became a worker's family member, but you didn't want to eat idle food, so you set up a food stall in front of your house, fried fried dough sticks, became a zygote, and competed to earn more than your husband every month.After you became pregnant, you rented a truck, pulled 2,000 kilograms of packing cloth from the spinning mill, and unloaded an entire room.You make a revolution with a pair of scissors, cut the larger packing cloth into towels, and sell them to the nearby car team for car cleaning. The small ones are used as backers for 80 cents a pair, and the remaining cloth strips for mop are 3.5 yuan. a handful.That is, the remaining cotton dross is paid 5 cents a catty. In this way, 2,000 catties of packaging cloth has become a hot commodity under your whimsical ideas, and you have made more than 500 yuan at once!This more than 500 yuan is nothing now, but a few decades ago, it was a staggering amount of income! Some people say that with such a clever mind and catching up with the era of market economy, Xu Guangping will definitely have greater development.However, you came to the fourth shift of the sewer to do the work of digging the sewer, why on earth are you. It was one night at the end of 1991, and I received a job offer form.I was working as a casual laborer in a suburban bakery, and I was making pretty good money.But I was moved by the name on the recruitment form, which said Municipal Engineering Maintenance Department of Urban Construction Bureau.The Nursing Office, the name sounds like a convalescent unit in a hospital. I feel that it is a public institution, which guarantees income during drought and flood, and provides care and maintenance. I think it must be good, and I am very happy.I remember the first day I went to work, I got up before dawn, washed my face, combed my hair, dressed up, changed into new clothes, and dressed up beautifully.When I came to the nursing place, squad leader Guan was already there waiting for me, took my hand and left.Walking and walking, walking and walking, the more I walked, the farther away I was from the work unit in my heart. Finally, the squad leader Guan led me to a simple house and said that I was home. I was stunned and asked: Monitor, what are we doing here?The squad leader said: Pull up the sewer. I asked: What do you mean by digging the sewer?The squad leader said: It's just digging the gutter.Now I understand.I put aside money-making jobs and decent jobs, and I came across the mountains and ridges, crying and shouting to dig out the gutters. This didn’t come from the tears that came from my heart. If you get a recruitment contract here, the bakery over there will come to you.The factory manager knows your value, and he keeps persuading you to dismiss the maintenance worker, promising you to be the factory manager. At this time, you already know that the times are different, and even township enterprises will have brilliant prospects.But, given the choice between a factory manager and a sewer digger, you still choose the latter. The whole story, or your character played a role. It was a day not long after you reported to work. On your way to work, you found the squad leader Guan Yongshu who was injured when he checked the manhole.Squad leader Guan fell to the ground, a new cement grate was pressed on her leg, the bicycle was thrown aside, blood was gurgling from her leg.It was time to go to work, and people gathered to watch a sewer worker, just like watching a costume show at a fashion show.You pushed aside the crowd, supported the squad leader Guan, and at the same time supported your own beliefs: Don’t you look down on the sewer diggers?I just made a show for you to see! You have been stubborn since you were a child.Once, when you were pulling coal cinders, you were bullied by a strong man. You fought him like crazy, and knocked him into the coal pile and couldn't get up.As the saying goes, those who are arrogant are afraid of being stunned, and those who are stunned are afraid of dying.You are the one who doesn't die.This is usually a choice of the weak to protect themselves, which is forced, not natural.Now the energy in your body is erupting again, you can't retreat, if you retreat, won't you become those spectators?You don't want to make yourself so vulgar, and you can't put yourself in the pile of vulgar people.Just imagine that there are millions of people in Xuzhou City, how many people are really capable sewer workers?A fourth shift is responsible for the sewer work of most of Xuzhou City, and the city is high in the east and low in the west, and almost all the water in the city gathers here. Without these few people who stand upright, the annual rain in the flood season can soak up Xuzhou. You can't do the job without a little heroism. In this way, you came to the fourth class and worked hard with determination. Compared with the previous two monitors, the fourth class you lead is facing more severe tests. Bitter, dirty, and tiring at work are nothing.We also encounter the traditional prejudices of minorities in society.Some people thought we were dirty and hid when they saw us. Some people said sarcastic words: You dig every day, how many gold rings did you find?Some people said: We don't throw garbage, what do you people do?We never argue with others, and we never take it to heart, what to do, or how to do it.These prejudiced and sarcastic people are also our service targets. Maybe they don't know that if they leave the sewer, they will not be able to live a stable life for a day.But sometimes we get angry when we meet people who are too unreasonable.One summer, a worker accidentally splashed mud on the skirt of a young woman. The young woman's face changed immediately, and she yelled, "Where did your eyes go?"Those of us who were there repeatedly apologized to her and brought toilet paper to clean her up.But the young woman ignored this and kept cursing and cursing. Everyone was very angry when they heard it, but they held back and said sincerely: "We'll buy you a dress to compensate you, okay?"Compensation, can you afford it?As the young woman spoke, she suddenly tore off the clothes of a worker and threw them into the mud on the side of the road. Under the conditions of a market economy, the most glorious mainstream thought of laborers can easily be impacted by other values.Although there was a phenomenon of looking down on labor and despising laborers in the past, social ideology and mainstream media have stubbornly encouraged and called for the sanctity of labor. From the republic's heroes, we can draw a long list, such as the earliest Model workers Ma Hengchang, Meng Tai, and Ma Wanshui, peasant heroes Wang Guofan, Shen Jilan, and Chen Yonggui, excavator Shi Chuanxiang, iron man Wang Jinxi, coal yard worker Zhao Chun'e, etc., all left a deep impression on people.However, since the market economy, although we have promoted many model workers, the audience has changed from simple to complex, from white paper to colored paper. How easy is it to get people's hearts into the mind?It is easy for people to be led away by other things, such as looking at money, individualism, hedonism, etc., and leave behind the patriotism, revolutionary heroism, collectivism, and dedication that we have always advocated.In essence, if a country is prevalent in extreme egoism, has no heart for public welfare, and defrauds the country and harms the people, then the country cannot prosper and the nation cannot be strong. In fact, even in capitalist countries, workers are still given certain courtesy and praise. More than 100 years ago, the famous British Victorian poet, writer, and historian Carlyle said: Laborers have a kind of eternal nobility, even sanctity.In Carlyle's pen, labor casts a white and clear light like religion. Even if labor is for money, it still has its loveliness, because it is a communication with nature.You want to do your work and labor well, which in itself will lead people closer and closer to the truth, to the arrangements and rules of nature, which is the truth itself. Carlyle is a writer highly praised by Marx and Engels. In Carlyle's attitude towards labor, one can vaguely feel the praise of the English nation for labor.He said that, generally speaking, fate will not cast us in any other way than through labor.There are endless pleasures in labor, and it is through labor that every laborer realizes self-improvement.It was through labor that the filthy scrub was cleared, and fertile lands and majestic cities emerged.Therefore, man himself begins to cease to be a jungle or a dirty desert.As soon as a man sets to work, even the most menial work, his soul at once settles down into a true harmony. Carlyle also said that the man who has found a job is happy, and he needn't ask for any other happiness.Finding a job is like finding a purpose in life.Work is like a clear channel dug and dredged by noble effort out of the sour mire of life, where it rolls on like a river washed deeper and deeper.Gradually remove the rotten smelly water under the most distant grass roots, and use its clear water to turn a fetid swamp into a green and lush grassland.How blessed is that to the meadow itself, however great or small the value of that river and itself is, labor is life, and it awakens from the depths of the laborer's heart his god-given power, which is God Almighty The divine, heavenly essence of life gifted to him. The workers in the fourth shift of the Xuzhou sewer are the most passionate running water. Their labor, whether it is motivation or behavior, is holy and beautiful.The posture of them crouching in the sewer will be more beautiful and moving than any religious kneeling.下水道四班这种经典姿势将会深印在我们的脑海中，因为这是他们全部的爱意选择的肢体语言，这种姿势用山岳般的声音说：徐州市父老乡亲，我们爱你们！除了被人看不起外，四班人还被市场经济的新价值观所考验。 最近这几年，班里也有过不同意见，个别同志说，现在搞市场经济了，咱也不能白干活，该收点钱就得收点钱，干这么脏这么累的活，总得有点报酬吧？大多数同志表示反对，认为市政工人就是为人民服务，干什么都讲钱，不是四班的传统。经过一番认真的讨论，我们统一了认识，也使自己的思想境界得到了一次升华。大家说：吃苦受累的工作咱走在前，精神文明建设咱也不能落在后头。 永安街小学王校长的工作日记上，一直记着四班的电话号码。风化街小学苏校长说，四班不仅仅是给我们疏通下水道，更重要的是给我们送来了宝贵的精神财富，这种精神一直在鼓舞着我们全体师生。14年来，四班人一年不落地为这两所小学义务疏通下水道，没要过一分钱，没吃过一顿饭，每次都是干完活，扛起工具就走。 驻徐某部大湖司机训练基地地下管道常年不通，到处是脏水臭泥，干部战士常常拉肚子、闹痢疾，影响训练。他们慕名来到四班，请求给予帮助。子弟兵的困难，就是我们的困难。我们利用休息时间，顶着烈日，让营区恢复了整洁，干部战士都很激动，拿出钱来给我们，我们坚决不要。他们送来军民共建，无私援助的锦旗，表示谢意。我们为他们义务服务了4年，直到营房改建。 有一年的春节，电焊条厂一幢宿舍楼下水道堵塞，居民急得团团转。这时他们想到找我们四班帮帮忙。我们一听，二话没说，带着工具赶到现场。副班长彭世坤从一楼检查到三楼，决定从二楼下手。他拧开螺丝，用竹片和铁丝去捅，只听哗啦一声，管道通了，来不及躲闪的彭师傅被屎尿浇了一脸一身。彭世坤没有半句怨言。房主老大娘既感激，又过意不去，拿出60块钱，非要塞给我们，让我们去洗个澡。可是塞给谁，谁都不要。大娘感动得直掉泪，不停地说：世上还是好心人多啊！ 以上是徐州下水道四班三任班长的故事。三个班长，三段历史，从70年代80年代到90年代，正好反映下水道四班组建以来的30年风雨行程。 然而，下水道四班是一个战斗的集体，一个团结的集体，也是一个快乐的集体，正是四班的全体成员，才构成了四班性格。她们中间，有爱岗敬业的高念侠，有默默奉献的李树芝，有老当益壮的彭世坤，有勇挑重担的王瑞莲，有忠厚能干的张厚结，有永不退役的赵永华，有体弱志坚的张玉兰，有一心为公的李爱铃，有勤勤恳恳的王玉英，有敢拼敢搏的薛侠等等…… 四班是个谜。这个被世人公认最脏最苦最累的工作，或许被一些人视为卑贱的工作，却有不可思议的凝聚力。体弱多病的张玉兰，一场大病之后，走路都困难，领导上照顾她，把她安排到幼儿园工作。但张玉兰无法把心放在轻松舒适的幼儿园环境里，她想念那潮湿阴暗的下水道，想念姐妹们那明亮的笑声，她几乎用当下走后门那样的办法，最终还是回到了四班；高念侠曾经当过小学教师。丈夫几次帮她找了另外的工作，哪样工作都比下水道工干净、清闲，但高念侠就是不同意，她说她离不开四班，离不开下水道；孙景华退休后，平时上楼得需要人搀扶，行走十分困难，但即使这样，她仍然隔三差五来四班，她说四班就是她的心，人没有心哪能行，她说离开四班心就空落落的，只要来到四班，哪怕什么事情也不干，和四班的姐妹们说几句话，心里就踏实许多。四班的凝聚力还表现在她们身后有一批编外职工，12名工人身后都有一个家庭在支持着她们。李树芝的儿子是一个大学生，他对妈妈说，我不怕脏，不怕苦，我想毕业后到你们四班工作。关永淑的女儿是个漂亮姑娘，但是，这个像电影演员的姑娘现在已是四班的正式职工了，她不仅继承了母亲的美丽，还继承了母亲的精神。四班人工资收入不高，活既重又累，但是为什么会使人魂牵梦绕地思念这里呢？ 请听听四班人自编自唱的两首歌： 其一淮海路呀长又长，378口窨井卧两旁，375个进水口呀，水流方向朝西淌…… 其二小河的水呦清悠悠，污泥盖满了沟。 姐妹们，下井来， 大家一起挖大沟…… 四班人的本土意识。那条长长的淮海路，那里有378个窨井，375个出水口，这就是四班人的领地四班人的家。尽管星汉遥遥，江河万条，在她们面前的只有这些坚实的存在。尽管世风日下，但下水道里却别有洞天。四班人没有高深的学问，没有追寻日月的本事，没有曲曲弯弯的城府，她们原本是一群老实本分的人。她们没有更多的奢望，甚至没有浩气冲天的追求，她们只认识整个西区4000座窨井和由此编织的地下管道，她们只知道这就是她们的地盘，它属于她们。她们只知道城市需要她们，这就够了。因为整个的地面水从东向西流来，最后就会汇聚到她们这里来，如果地下管道不能及时疏浚，城市就会沉落，人民生命财产就会受到严重损失。这个道理简单而且好懂，她们知道自己工作的深意。这里大部分是女工，每个女人都掌管着几百个窨井，她们既管浚清又管堵漏，既像大禹又像女娲。在她们的领地里，那些窨井就像活在她们感觉里的生命体。初始，那些地下管道就是她们的对手抑或是她们的敌人，但久而久之，它们就成了朋友，到了后来，那些管道的生命形态就显露出来。它们既有生命潮汐，也有冷暖温度。它们既能温情脉脉，也能暴跳如雷。它们在神秘的幕后掌管着城市季节，既能使城市润泽靓丽鲜亮照人，也能使城市污臭气熏天。这些管道有自己的生理周期，同时也有自己的个性特征。它们深埋在地下不为人知，而对人和城市却其善大焉。 这些也是四班人的性格特征。四班是存放圣洁灵魂的地方。四班它的另一个名字叫崇高。 第二首歌传达了四班人的豪迈之气。它处的水清悠悠，但这里却是污泥盖满了沟。然而四班的姐妹们却面无难色跳下井来，奋不顾身，不怕脏累且唱且跳挖着大沟……污物的形成是众人使用的结果，是人群排泄的结果，它们汇聚一处，就成为存在，倘不及时清理，就会贻害城市。干这些活儿毫无疑问不是享受，也不可能愉悦。它又脏又苦又累，干起来宛若受难。更不消几十年如一日在看不见太阳光的黑暗里，在既不能直立又无法伸展的空间里蜷伏着，比传说中的吴刚还苦。这是真正的受苦受难者的形象。但是，中国的吴刚有万人仰慕，有诗篇传诵，外国的普罗米修斯有神话故事为他扬名，但我们的下水道工人却没有如此幸运，实际上还常常遭人白眼，受人嘲讽。但是，她们义无反顾。高尚意味着为他人而勇敢受难，而不是让他人为自己而受难。崇高和高尚从来不是按权力和富有来论定的，而是以品质来论定的。更多的时候，崇高是在平日里被人视为卑微的劳动者那里发现的，他们远比权贵者和富有者的灵魂干净得多。如果要有一个换位试验的话，那些口若悬河的权贵未必能在下水道里表现出优秀的禀赋，而下水道四班的人却在这满是荆棘的道路上编织出了让人信服的高尚的王冠。 她们没有痛苦的呻吟。她们只有豪迈的歌唱。她们有着圣洁的灵魂。她们是一群最可尊敬的人。 笔者到徐州采访下水道四班的当天晚上，恰遇徐州市庆祝五一节联欢晚会。下水道四班成了这台晚会的主题，成了戏剧小品、相声、舞蹈、表演唱诸节目的题材来源，下水道四班已成了徐州市的精神品牌，整个城市都在它的身上汲取着丰富的精神营养。城市把下水道四班的工人从地下请到了地上，请到了灿烂的阳光下。 更让四班人怀想的是她们曾受到了同志的亲切接见，这对她们来说无疑是最大的奖赏。 请看1996年11月6日《新华日报》刊登的新华社记者殷学成写的一篇专稿： 党和人民感谢你们！ 记同志看望徐州下水道四班模范集体10月的彭城，到处闪烁着金色的光华。 10月26日上午，中央政治局常委、书记处书记，在江苏省和徐州市领导同志陈焕友、曹克明、梁保华、王希龙、张桂生陪同下，专程来到徐州市城建局市政工程养护处下水道四班，看望这个饮誉四方的模范集体。刚踏进四班半地下室的小小办公室，就被墙上挂满的各种奖状、奖旗所吸引：班组楷模、一三八，红旗集体标兵……他边看，边同老班长关永淑交谈。 你们一共几个人？ 12位，10位是女的。管多大一片？ 20多条主次干道的5万米下水道，30多万人口，半个徐州城！ It's not easy! 对这个26年如一日、连续17年被评为红旗班组的四班，由衷表示敬意。他对关永淑说：多亏你这位老班长带出了一支好队伍！紧接着他又问：新班长呢？现任班长许光萍走过来后，紧紧握住她的手连声说：感谢你呀！ 四班要向汇报工作了。10多平方米的办公室里挤满了人，汇报几乎成了面对面的交谈。 关永淑发言，开头有些紧张，轻声说道：不要急，慢慢说！认真听着，不时点头，插话询问四班工人生活、身体情况。当关永淑说到自己曾因长年在下水道工作得了风湿性关节炎又引发心脏病时，急切地问道：现在怎么样了？得知她已治疗痊愈后，又叮嘱道：要注意身体啊！ 时光静静地流淌着，可人们的内心却随着关永淑的发言，激起阵阵波澜：20多年里，我们疏通了下水道1万多公里，清挖窨井100万个，又累、又脏。可是，大家心中只有一个念头，我们就是宁可一人脏，换来万人净！爱岗敬业，无私奉献是我们四班每个人的行动准则…… 掌声中，两眼噙着热泪站了起来，动情地说：你们宁肯一人脏，换来万人净，充分体现了工人阶级的高尚品德和崇高思想情操。我代表北京来的同志，代表受过你们服务的人们，向你们表示感谢！党和人民感谢你们！说罢，他向四班工人深深地鞠了一躬。 感谢党中央首长！一片和着泪珠的回声，顿时在四班工人中荡起。在场的许多人也被泪水模糊了双眼。 片刻之后，又关切地问道：你们现在用上自动吸泥机了没有？听到四班工人回答说市政府已为他们订购了这种设备时，高兴地说：我非常赞成！他强调说，我们的党和政府，就是要关心在最基层从事那些最脏、最苦、最累工作的同志，要尽最大的可能改善他们的工作条件、生活条件，使这些岗位、这些职业也成为社会上最受人尊敬和让人羡慕的工作之一。这正是我们社会制度优越性的体现。 被誉为90年代时传祥的光荣群体受到中央领导同志的亲切关怀深受感动，他们霍地站起来，用力鼓着掌，有的热泪夺眶而出…… 如今，几年过去了，四班人谈起同志那深情的一躬，仍禁不住眼泪盈眶。这一躬，不仅是对四班人的热情褒奖，也是对全国普通劳动者的深情礼赞……