Chapter 179 (Chapter 179...)
The situation in the northwest is getting more and more serious. It doesn't seem to matter whether it rains or not. But once it doesn't rain for a long time, the soil will be dry and baked by the sun, and the soil moisture will naturally be insufficient.
Groundwater has declined, vegetation has dried up, and food production has been reduced or even eliminated. These things that were expected from the beginning of the drought are indeed happening one by one.
But the mood of the people in the northwest was well appeased.
On the one hand, the country is indeed working hard to rescue food and appease residents in the northwest through various means.
Water trucks traveled thousands of miles, water was diverted from the south to the north, and well-drilling teams came to various places to dig wells and irrigate fields. The common people did not know how much it cost, but they knew that no one had died of thirst or starvation during this drought.
The hope is of course that the progress of artificial cloud research is reported every day in newspapers, and the comparison is with the past, and with countries that are also experiencing severe droughts.
But what's worse than Zhongzhou is that because of its geographical location and the country's size, their drought has swept across the whole country, and even the South-to-North Water Diversion Project like Zhongzhou can't do it.
From time to time, Zhongzhou Daily will post some photos of the country, the disaster situation and the number of people affected by the disaster.
This is how people are, when someone is in a worse situation than themselves, they feel more or less comforted.
The northwest has experienced several severe droughts, and the local area is naturally no stranger to droughts. There are even people of the older generation who have experienced droughts more than three times.
Compared with the panicked younger generation, the old people in the northwest are calm.
In an ordinary small village in the northwest, a grandson in his thirties came back from the fields. His tanned face was covered with sweat and exhaustion. When he got home, he sighed heavily:
"The fields are dry again today, and the sun is getting stronger and stronger. What will we do this year if it continues like this?"
His father looked towards the horizon and sighed: "People say that the severe drought will last three years. How long has it been? The food harvest is almost gone. The trees on the mountainside are withering. It's just past one o'clock. This short-sighted guy God."
His mother was cooking, carefully adding water with a spoon, for fear of adding too much. When she heard the two sighing, she also sighed. Their family had just saved a sum of money this year, and they were still explaining it during the Chinese New Year. Before the Chinese New Year, I want to go out to a restaurant and buy new clothes for each of us.
Who would have thought that there would suddenly be a drought, and the entire family would not be able to count the losses this year.
There is also a new baby at home, so we have to be even more careful.
Fortunately, although the water has stopped, within two days the soldiers stationed in the city will come to deliver water. It is said that the water is specially transferred from far away places. Those convoys have been going back and forth in a cycle, although everyone is assigned There is very little water, but at least enough to sustain the most basic life.
Just thinking about the dry sky and the crops that can only get a little water every day makes me feel sad.
They sighed there, and the old man who was sitting at the foot of the yard digging holes to collect water according to the method taught on TV raised his eyes and glanced at them:
"There is nothing to sigh about. At least our family is alive, we have water to drink, and the state still provides subsidies. Even if the food harvest in the fields stops, we still have money in our hands, and there are state subsidies, and no one will starve to death."
The old lady also looked down upon the juniors who looked like the sky was falling:
"That's right, what kind of suffering is this? Boss, have you forgotten how many people died in our village during the drought when you were seven years old? If you brothers could survive at that time, it was because your father and I wanted to feed you with blood. "
She counted them one by one: "At that time, when the drought reached our current situation, no well-drilling team came to the village to help dig wells? No one came to teach us how to build a reservoir. All the young people in the village worked hard to dig the wells themselves. , I couldn’t dig a well for more than two months.”
Her son recalled it and smiled: "It's true. At that time, even older children like me had to help move rocks. At that time, I felt very thirsty every day, and I didn't know how to survive."
The old man straightened up, took a puff of dry cigarette, and continued:
"At that time, we would have fought for that sip of water. Now look at it, the country transports water from such a far away place for us ordinary people to use. When your mother and I were young, how could we have imagined that we would be able to do this? good days.”
"Did you see the carts of food passing by at the bottom of the mountain? The People's Liberation Army has already spread word that the food is for disaster relief. No matter how bad or difficult our family's life is now, you don't think you will starve to death, right? ?
Why? Because everyone knows in their hearts that the country will not ignore us. The truckloads of water and food are all prepared for us. Now for our northwest, the country has to build even the clouds, so there is nothing to sigh about. ? In such a good day, if those who died in severe droughts in the past suffered for one day, they would have left with a smile! "
That's true, the eldest son nodded. There was an old man in the village who was about the same age as his parents. Although he now has sons and daughters, it was said that all four children in the family died when he was young, and two of them were lost during the severe drought.
Every time the People's Liberation Army came to deliver water to the village, the children cheered and he lamented that it would be great if he could catch up with this good time even if he had no children long ago.
Thinking of those people who died silently when he was a child, the eldest son instantly felt that he couldn't be happier now.
As his parents said, no matter how worried the villagers were about the crops, they would still live their lives as usual. No one had ever worried that they would starve to death or die of thirst.
If this happened before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the city would have been in chaos.
How could everything be in order like now? People were worried but not panicked. Every day, the whole village would go to the village chief's house to watch TV, and everyone would imagine that everything would be solved after the artificial cloud was created.
Because TV taught many ways to collect water by themselves, the village also started a wave of water collection. Even if the collected water was very small due to the weather, even if there was one more drop of water, it was worth celebrating for everyone.
Because there were things to do, water to maintain basic life was delivered, and food was also provided as relief food. The people in the northwest region were more peaceful than everyone imagined, and could even be called peaceful.
When Song Yao and his men came, they came in a military vehicle. They were welcomed along the way. Of course, this statement was made by the children themselves. The people in the northwest region have seen many military vehicles during this period. Although they were all happy when they saw them, they were not as enthusiastic as in the previous times.
After all, the Zhongzhou News Network is now calling on the people in the disaster area to save energy as much as possible and lose as little water as possible. The adults are all happy when they see the military vehicles, but the children don’t care so much. Many of them chase after the military vehicles and cheer.
"The People's Liberation Army is here again! The People's Liberation Army is here to deliver water again!!"
"Dad! Dad! Look! The People's Liberation Army is here again!"
The adults may still worry about the harvest, but the children don't care about that. They will have unlimited energy after eating and drinking enough. Even the youngest children know that the adults at home will be happy when the People's Liberation Army comes, so many of them go home to report the news.
There are also boys and girls who secretly put the flowers they picked in the gap between the vehicles after the military vehicles stop. For them who are in school, this is the highest way to express gratitude.
Song Yao, who was lying by the window, saw this and called out in a familiar voice:
"Brother, can you give me a flower too?"
The boys and girls who were quietly putting flowers on the gap between the cars were startled, and when they looked up and saw that it was a child, they breathed a sigh of relief and walked over to look at Song Yao:
"Who are you? Are you the son of the People's Liberation Army?"
It can be seen that they all admire the People's Liberation Army.
Song Yao said proudly: "No, I am a member of the People's Liberation Army myself."
Brother Yuan Jiang told him that he had a military rank, so it was not wrong to say so. This was the first time he showed off his identity as a member of the People's Liberation Army, and the child was very proud.
A girl of 11 or 12 years old was puzzled for a moment and retorted: "Impossible, you are so young, the army will not accept you."
A teenager continued: "Yes, you can't fight, you can't drive, you are not even as tall as me, how can you serve the people?"
Song Yao was even more proud. Relying on Zhao Xiaodong and the others in the car behind, the child boasted about himself:
"Because I am smart, I study well, and I was admitted to the University of Science and Technology. I can use my knowledge to contribute to the country, so they made an exception to accept me. If you don't believe me, ask other PLA brothers and sisters."
These boys and girls were very skeptical and suspected that Song Yao was bragging. They sent a younger one to run errands. The little girl ran back very quickly, shouting as she ran:
"Brother! That PLA sister really said that he is also a PLA!!"
All the boys and girls were shocked. Song Yao was very satisfied with their reactions and wanted his tail to be raised to the sky.
Seeing that the car was about to start, the boy standing in the front hurriedly handed over the flower in his hand:
"Little PLA, this is for you."
Song Yao took it quickly, but before he could say a few more words of "encouragement", the car had already driven away. The child could only stick his head out and try to imitate the way he saw on TV and shout loudly to the back:
"You should study hard! You will definitely be able to become a PLA in the future!!!"
After shouting, he sat down with satisfaction, thinking happily, oh, it feels so good to persuade people to study, I always feel like a hermit.
The PLA comrade sitting next to him driving: ... It's better not to remind little comrade Song Yao that the sound of the car will definitely cover these sounds.
Although those boys and girls did not hear Song Yao's shouting, they also left a shadow in their hearts that "learning knowledge well can still be a PLA", and after returning, some of them really jumped up in their learning enthusiasm.
At the same time, a group of special guests came from the northwest region.
They all brought their own tools, had white skin and high noses, and transferred all the way here. They were the tourists from Country D who originally planned to travel to Zhongzhou.
As a result, they found that Zhongzhou was suffering from a severe drought. The tourists gathered together to discuss and immediately decided not to travel, but to become volunteers to help the friendly country.
Although Zhongzhou has always stated that artificial clouds are under research, these D countrymen think that this is just a way to appease the people.
No one had even mentioned the concept of artificial clouds before. Now almost all the information about artificial clouds in various countries has been made public. As time goes by, fewer and fewer people are optimistic about it.
Although they also hope that the friendly country can survive the drought safely, they have to admit that the hope of Zhongzhou making artificial clouds is very low.
Finally arriving at the place, the D countryman who led the group was very excited:
"Zhongzhou helped us when our country was in the most difficult time, and we must also help them when they are in the most difficult time! Repay Zhongzhou for its kindness to our country!"
As soon as this voice came out, everyone responded immediately.
"That's right! Now is the time for us to repay! No matter how hard and tired it is, I have to do it well."
"My parents have also received disaster relief packages from Central Continent. I will definitely help the people of Central Continent!"
"I heard that they are digging wells everywhere. Let's report to the local government first and then join the well-drilling team!"
With a strong spirit of sacrifice, "I finally have a chance to repay Zhongzhou, I want to advance and retreat with the disaster-stricken people in Zhongzhou", they found the government building all the way with high morale.
After listening to the leader stumbling over his words in Chinese, the government cadres first expressed their gratitude to international friends for their willingness to help, and then smiled and said:
"Thank you very much for your thoughts, but our country's cloud-building team has arrived in this county, and the well-drilling team will be disbanded soon."
People from country d: “???”
Are the artificial clouds in Zhongzhou created? ?
They walked to the middle courtyard under the leadership of government cadres. When they looked up, there were changes in the originally extremely clear sky.
The dark clouds actually appeared.