Fan Shen Reservoir

Most people born before the fifties and sixties know what kind of work it is to build reservoirs. At that time, when the slogan "Water conservancy is the lifeblood of agriculture" came out, water conservancy construction became a necessary prerequisite for agricultural production, and the construction of Fan Shen Reservoir began under such a historical opportunity.

This reservoir dam, which was completely built by artificial dredging, was once a great miracle in the history of local water conservancy construction. When building the Fan Shen Reservoir, I also contributed to the dredging of the dam.

To build a reservoir, the first thing is to emigrate. There are many villages in Fan Shen reservoir area, and it is not easy for people in these villages to live outside the mountains. At that time, people were relatively simple, and at the order of the government, thousands of families began to move. For this "lifeline" project, people in mountainous areas have left their homes and abandoned their homes, and they have been placed in Zhongdai and Dongzhu sporadically.

In the past, immigrants, unlike now, could concentrate on a piece of flat land to build buildings and enjoy generous subsidy policies. In the past, only on the hillside of a village outside the mountain was a mountain carved as the residence of immigrants. Then, the immigrants built walls with mud, erected rafters and beams, covered them with red tiles, and became new homes.

The conditions are simple, but enough to settle down. In this way, many immigrants from Fan Shen reservoir area live in Xiaxinzhai, Siping, Shangyantou, Shiyang, Niuqiao, Fang Shan and other villages, and the fields needed for production are unconditionally provided by the receiving villages. When I lived in a village, I accepted 30 or 40 immigrant families and formed an independent immigrant team, belonging to the new administrative village. Moreover, immigrants living in other villages also live together in immigrant villages, but most of them are four or five households and live in the production team of the village.

I was less than ten years old when I immigrated to Fan Shen Reservoir. At the beginning of immigration, they walked back and forth from the path near our village one by one. These immigrants used a pole or a wheelbarrow as a tool to carry their original belongings to their current residence and start a new life outside the mountains.

In the past, people's thoughts were simple and their family conditions were basically the same. There are no big pieces, and the production equipment is collectively owned by the production team. For personal use, it is just some small farm tools, such as hoes and sickles. The handling is very simple, and there are no high-end valuables at home. Several wooden boxes are filled with clothes of the whole family all year round, and there are not many pots and pans. Therefore, for them, moving is a simple matter.

Nowadays, a few immigrants will blackmail the government for various reasons. At that time, no one quarreled and dared not complain. Everything was done according to the instructions of the government. Anyone who has problems with the immigration policy and wants to make trouble will be labeled as "destroying water conservancy production" as a negative teaching material. In the era when political movements prevailed, the binding force of high-handed policies exceeded people's expectations of self-will.

Fan Shen Reservoir is a medium-sized reservoir built at the source of the upper reaches of Gu Kuang, which was a large-scale water conservancy project in that year. The dam is built in the southeast of Daliyuan Village, Fan Shen Township, and the mountain in the reservoir area is the turning point of Xianxialing Mountain range, forming the landscape of Xianzhou Mountain. Therefore, some people later called Fan Shen Reservoir "Zhouxian Lake".

After the completion of resettlement, reservoir construction has become a key project. At present, both Shafan Reservoir and Jiu Feng Reservoir adopt large-scale mechanical equipment, cement reinforcement and concrete structure. However, the Fan Shen Reservoir is a water conservancy project that relies entirely on artificial shoulders. The dam is filled with soil from the footing to the top.

Perhaps it is with the tenacious thought that "man can conquer nature" that people have built dams with a width of 30 to 40 meters, a length of more than 100 meters and a height of 50 to 60 meters. In this way, after several years of persistence, it was firmly built on the Fan Shen River.

In order to build the Fan Shen Reservoir, all manual work was done by ordinary people in the downstream irrigation area of the reservoir area. The construction of reservoirs belongs to the political task of every commune, brigade and production team, and the number of workers is distributed according to fields and population. Basically, each production team has to send five or six people or a dozen people to participate.

These migrant workers who participated in the construction of the reservoir returned to the original production team, recorded their work scores with chips that picked up soil and dug holes, and stopped paying wages. This mode of labor is simply impossible now. But in those days, for the "lifeline" project, the big horn and slogan on the reservoir site shouted loudly, inspiring people to build a reservoir for the revolution. Therefore, people's energy is still very high when the revolution intensifies and the reservoir is fully built.

In addition to dispatching workers from various production teams in the irrigation area, the officers and men stationed in the gold army often participate in the war. These troops, the People's Liberation Army, are full of vigor and vitality. They go to the construction site to dig and move stones, work hard, and everyone works hard, which once became the most eye-catching scenery in the reservoir construction site.

In order to cooperate with the reservoir construction, the troops stationed in Jin often send large trucks to villages where migrant workers are concentrated every morning to transport migrant workers to the construction site for labor. At dawn, migrant workers stationed in the reservoir will wait at the boarding point until the army trucks arrive, but they will rush to the construction site to work.

All migrant workers in the reservoir site are organized into a company with commune as the unit, and barracks management is implemented. The company has company commanders and instructors, and all migrant workers gather together. The company is equipped with a unified canteen, dormitory, infirmary and logistics support room. There are also farm tools repair and vehicle repair masters on the construction site. Migrant workers involved in the construction can go to the construction site to participate in the war as long as they bring bedding and lunch boxes.

Migrant workers live in bamboo sheds, which are breathable and ventilated in winter. The east wind is whistling outside, and the indoor breeze is whistling. At that time, the newspaper on the construction site became a hot commodity and was used to paste the bamboo curtain wall. As hard as possible, labor is tiring, but young men and women still ignite the spark of love in production. They loved each other in their work, forged a bond of love and made many happy marriages.

Generally speaking, migrant workers are engaged in simple labor, such as digging and picking soil. Special jobs include shooting and drilling. The excavation quantity is calculated according to the actual excavation quantity, and the soil is given a chip according to each load, and then the workload is converted according to chips after work. Young men and women have become the main force on the construction site. They compete, catch up, help and surpass in labor, and take labor competition as the driving force. Everyone strives to be a model worker on the construction site and has created a number of advanced production models.

At that time, my father was the company commander of Dongzhu Company of Fan Shen Reservoir, responsible for the management of migrant workers in Dongzhu Commune. 1979 summer, I arrived at 13 years old, just graduated from junior high school, waiting for the admission notice of high school at home. During the summer vacation, my father asked me to take a military truck to transport migrant workers to the reservoir site.

At that time, I thought that my father would let me go to the construction site for two days, so I quickly took a change of clothes and went to the Fan Shen Reservoir construction site by car. When my father saw me coming, he took me to the logistics support room of the construction site and asked the workers to weave a dustpan with bamboo according to my figure. Father said: labor can make people produce self-worth. You don't need any chips when you go to the construction site to borrow soil tomorrow. I don't remember the work points. You will call it a day after work and pick as many as you can. In short, we can't be idle.

Unexpectedly, the trip to the reservoir site has become the life experience of migrant workers. Early the next morning, I went out with migrant workers and went to work on the construction site. Maybe they think I'm young and help me pull less soil when loading soil. So, I, a little man less than 1.30 meters, waddled along the reservoir site with a dustpan weighing 40 to 50 kilograms.

At that time, it had been four or five years since the completion of Fan Shen Reservoir, and the dam on the construction site had almost reached the top, and all walks of life such as dredging, hanging stones, digging, drilling and blasting were in full swing. On the dam, a loud horn resounded through space. I am young, but I am also infected by this scene. I feel that people are working for themselves. After the completion of the reservoir, there will be water reserves, which can irrigate farmland during drought to ensure worry-free agricultural production.

At first, I was all thumbs when picking soil. Either my shoulder pole turned over, or the soil fell to the ground, which made other migrant workers on the construction site laugh. At the end of the day, my shoulders are red and swollen, my legs and feet cramp, and the whole person seems to be falling apart. Instead, the uncle in the canteen felt sorry for me and blamed my father for being so cruel and making me suffer at the construction site. Who knows, my dad said, a child, whose strength is worthless, will come when he is finished, rest early at night and continue to work tomorrow.

In this way, in a summer vacation, I worked as a migrant worker on the construction site of Fan Shen Reservoir for two months. Although I don't pick a lot of earthwork every day, I grit my teeth and stick to it. Although it is hard, I think this tiredness is very valuable. After all, my hard sweat dripped from this key water conservancy project site.

Except for Fan Shen Reservoir, Andi Reservoir and Dayan Reservoir were all built at the same time, and the models adopted were similar. It is all by the production team to record the work points, and then the villages send migrant workers to work on the construction site, completing this magnificent project with the lowest labor force. In the absence of mechanized facilities, human power can be described as infinite.

Simple production tools and hard working conditions, however, with the ambition of transforming rivers and mountains, this water conservancy project located at the source of Gu Kuang has finally become a blessed land for the benefit of future generations. Today, Fan Shen Reservoir is not only the water source guarantee for farmland irrigation in Jinxi area, but also the drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of people in Jinxi.

On the one hand, Fan Shen Reservoir is a blessing to everyone, and what is more memorable is that I have also sweated for this reservoir.