Chapter 16 Chapter Fourteen: Wasteland on the Coast of Northern Jiangsu

The Shuanggou river diversion project was made a big joke by Soviet experts. After it ended like this, the entire Huaihe River Harness Project was still underway. The strange thing is that the higher-ups no longer wanted to harness the Huaihe River, and ordered it to be transferred to northern Jiangsu to set up a farm.So, the brigade set off in batches. The location of this North Subei farm is within the borders of Binhai County, a large piece of land from the Shouhuang River to the vicinity of Chenjiagang, with an area of ​​about 700,000 mu. There were 120,000 people, and later, only 50,000 people, which is a very large-scale labor camp.

Walking again and again, I have passed many famous places, passing Xuzhou, passing through Lianyun, rushing to Guanyun, crossing the river at Xiangshuikou, walking to Qitao, and then passing by, it is the place where the farm budget will be reclaimed. On the land of the future farm, it is simply dumbfounded.It has never been imagined that there will be such a large wasteland in Jiangsu Province, China! It was a real wasteland. At the beginning, when I was walking among the reeds taller than a person, I thought it was crops. Later, I realized that in this saline-alkali land, crops could not grow at all. Only three kinds of plants could survive. The reed is very strong in vitality, and its roots can still be seen when dug below three meters. Later, when the sea dam was built and the earth dam was compacted, it was over three meters high, and the tips of its teeth could still protrude from the top of the dam. Incredible.

However, reeds with such strong vitality also have a time to surrender. The more you go to the sea, the higher the salinity of the land. On the whole land, there are white salt flowers in the bare places, and the reeds also retreat, only thatch , can survive, growing in clusters. But the one that is most suitable for saline-alkali land is a very juicy Artemisia salina.All living things must have the ability to adapt to the natural environment. Salt Artemisia is born to grow in an environment where other plants cannot grow.This kind of Artemisia sativa produces seeds as small as sesame seeds. In the food shortage period, it was discovered that this kind of seeds can be used to extract oil, and it was widely used. The bitter taste is naturally not a problem, but at that time, as long as there was oil and water Well, raw oil and soybean oil are already a dream, lard and butter are extravagances beyond the dream, and vegetable oil and coconut oil are the best, so we have to rely on salt wormwood oil to supplement the body's needs.

On the stove of a farmhouse, I saw a bowl, solemnly and solemnly, with an indescribable, dirty, dark-colored rag. I didn't know its purpose, but I saw its use. Then it suddenly dawned on me that this piece of cloth had been soaked in oil a few days ago. Since then, every time before cooking, I would use this piece of cloth to wipe the pot and wait for the dishes to cook. Come out, there is a bit of oily star on it.I don't know how long it will take before the rags have a chance to soak in oil again! This kind of life is naturally hard enough, but compared with the later development, every household even smashed the pot and didn't even come to the food, which is really good.

Without further ado, be warned before entering this vast wasteland!Be sure to wear leggings, never go barefoot.You need cloth for wearing leggings, where can you get cloth?The order was: tear off the clothes and put on the leggings.Ask again, it turns out that in this wasteland, there is a kind of highly poisonous snake, which the locals call the land snake. If you are bitten, it will kill you in seven steps! "Seven steps to death" is an exaggeration. Later, I saw a villager who was bitten by this poisonous snake, carried it on the door panel to seek medical treatment, and died of poisoning on the way. This is true.

Ground snakes only bite people's lower limbs. Even if leggings are worn on the calf, if you walk accidentally and step on it, you will be bitten by it. Because its teeth are short and small, it can't bite through the leggings, so you can be safe.Since he said it so seriously, he had no choice but to act according to the order, and he didn't know how to play leggings at all, so he had to be taught by veterans who were used to leggings. Not long after going on the road, I saw the true face of the ground snake. There is no uglier creature than this kind of thing.It's a snake, it doesn't look like a snake at all, its body is flat, gray-yellow with white markings, exactly the same as the land covered with salt flowers, it has an excellent protective color, when it sticks to the ground and does not move, it is extremely difficult to Recognizable, it looks like a broken belt thirty to forty centimeters long, but once disturbed, it moves faster than imagined, and can move with the whole body, only relying on the tail to stick to the ground, and move quickly.Because its body is not long, it bites people, at most it bites the calf.

When I saw such an ugly poisonous snake for the first time, I saw one beating one, but later, I couldn't beat it, and I heard from the local villagers that if you kill a male land snake, the female will come to revenge , can chase thousands of miles and bite you to death, so the locals don't kill this kind of snake, they would rather walk and wear leggings.Although it is nonsense, but the person who said it is vivid, and the person who listens to it is a little chilly.Everyone dare not hit this kind of snake, maybe this is the reason why it is everywhere. In the future, I checked the details of this ground snake in many ways, and learned that its official name is 虺 (sound ruined), which is a very poisonous snake. After analyzing the venom serum, it can also be treated after poisoning. The area has died over the years. The number of people killed by poisonous snakes is unknown, but there has been no cure, which can be regarded as backward.

In addition to the gnat, there is also a kind of extremely weird, like a fly but not a fly, like a mosquito but not a mosquito, flying close to the ground, no more than 20 centimeters from the ground, coming and going like lightning, spent a lot of effort, and caught even one. No, if this kind of insect is accidentally bitten, even a big man from Shandong will be involuntarily hurt, crying and calling his mother, it is really terrifying.