Chapter 11 "Victory Village, most of the lame and lame villages"

It's a rally in a lively town in the mountains of western Shanxi. Every single day, people from all over the world come here to "catch the meeting". In the local area, villagers often take this opportunity to buy daily necessities and agricultural supplies, and there are often foreigners who "go to the kiln" here in twos and threes. daily necessities. People coming and going have turned a blind eye to their funny images. In front of a knife-sliced ​​noodle stall, the black faces are in stark contrast to the white knife-sliced ​​noodles. This seems to be a "scene" in a local country market.

In a lively place behind the small stage, more than a dozen spiked shoe stalls were lined up, and the stall owners were all young men.Li Hongbao is one of them.He wore a thick black leather skirt in front of his chest, a right prosthetic leg was placed beside him, and next to him was a field of colorful spikes. Li Hongbao is 21 years old and lives in Yangshuyuan, 8 Li, south of the town. After graduating from middle school last year, he went to the Dagou Coal Mine behind the village to find work.After the "old man" at the mine saw him, he first asked him to "push the slope" under the pit.A year later, he was "promoted" as a laborer. According to the salary standard at that time, he could earn nearly 15 yuan per shift.This was a very good economic income under the social and economic environment at that time.

When the child grows up, in the old society, he has already reached the age of starting a family and starting a family. Hongbao's parents discuss to keep the money the child earned in the coal mine and use it when they marry a wife. When she was not working in the coal mine, Hong Baoniang had to deliberately dress up her son, replacing all the clothes with patches on the shoulders and knees with the popular yellow-brown "general uniform" at that time. Just after the Ching Ming Festival this year, old man Li took good cigarettes and wine, and walked from door to door in the neighborhood, asking a matchmaker for his son to propose marriage.In the spring of this year, old man Li went to the market to buy a piglet for 20 yuan, let his wife feed it well, and used it for his son's wedding after the autumn harvest.Soon, a matchmaker came to "talk about marriage", and Lao Li's family hurriedly dressed up their son to "meet" the woman, and later gave the woman 8,000 yuan in gift money.The next step is to set a "good day and auspicious day". The matchmaker takes the zodiac signs and birth dates of both men and women, counts them, and then discusses with the in-laws of both parties, and finally sets the date on the ninth day of September after autumn.

A happy life is ahead, everyone in the old Li family is happy, and Li Hongbao, who is looking forward to a better life, is even more motivated. However, there are unpredictable things in the sky, and people have blessings and misfortunes. One day, when he was working under the pit, he suddenly encountered a landslide under the pit. His lumbar spine was injured by a boulder, resulting in paralysis of his lower limbs. His right femoral head was smashed and had to be amputated. An old man with a disabled child is the greatest misfortune in life, and an unmarried disabled man is an unfortunate life.

The grief-stricken old couple took out the dowry money returned by the woman to buy a shoe spike machine for their son. This, for the 20-year-old Li Hongbao, is also a way to survive. Regarding Li Hongbao's misfortune, the old village head felt very sorry: "A good labor is ruined!" However, the local "wasted" in the pit is more than just a good laborer? Due to the popularity of the coal market in Shanxi, this industry has become the largest "user" of the local rural labor force.It is known that in rural areas of Shanxi, more than 90% of young farmers have worked in coal mines.This seems to have become a tradition. In the local area, every July and August is the time for the students to take the summer vacation. Some young students go to the mine to do "slope pushing" work to pay the tuition fees for the next semester.After each class, I can earn two yuan and five.

Due to old age and frailty, the elderly local people can only do some auxiliary work on the pit, while the most dangerous and arduous work under the pit is done by young people. Therefore, this group is "naturally" become victims of sudden accidents under the pit. And once these people "have an accident" in the pit, they can only choose to make money by nailing shoes in the market and spend the rest of their lives. This can only be their only choice. So there is a saying in the local area that "Victory Village is a village where most lame and lame people live".

Of course, although this sentence is biased, it is an indisputable fact that young disabled people can be seen everywhere here.