Yue Haohan thought about it with a frown, stared at Sun Xiwang, and asked, "Secretary Sun, can the telephone in the village still work?" ”

Sun Xiwang said: "It's okay, Director Yue, these other villages have been replaced with program-controlled telephones, and our village is still a shaker, when will you go to the post and telecommunications bureau to help us talk about it, and let them sell us a program-controlled telephone cheaper." "There is no money in the village, this old phone often can't be shaken, and the call effect is very poor.

Yue Haohan said, "Okay, I'll go back to the township to help you talk about it." As he spoke, Yue Haohan walked into the village, picked up the old telephone on the table, shook it, connected the phone of the township party and government office, and heard Huang Zijian's voice, as if coming from a very distant place, and asked, "May I ask who you are looking for?" ”

Yue Haohan replied loudly: "Zijian, it's me, Yue Haohan, can you hear clearly?" The weather forecast says that there is heavy rain today, has the township been notified? ”

Huang Zijian's voice suddenly raised a few points, and replied: "Director Yue, before getting off work, I received an urgent notice from the county flood control headquarters, saying that in the next three hours, there will be a heavy rain in our Jiangyang area, and the central area of the rainstorm is our Wulong Township. ”

Yue Haohan asked: "Then have you reported to Secretary He and Township Chief Lin?" ”

Huang Zijian replied: "Secretary He went back to Jiangyang to do business, I reported to him on the phone, Township Chief Lin was on duty in the office, and all the team members at home were sent to their respective villages. Director Yue, which village are you in now? ”

Yue Haohan said: "I am now accompanying Director Qin of the provincial newspaper and his party in Heishishan Village. ”

Huang Zijian said: "Director Yue, there is another thing to report to you, before you called just now, the county flood control commander informed on the phone that there are three small second-type reservoirs in our township that are dangerous reservoirs, so our township will focus on strengthening prevention and control, and one of the reservoirs is the Toad Gully Reservoir in Heishishan Village. ”

Yue Haohan said: "I know, you are also contacting Township Chief Liu and Wang Jinxi, and ask them to arrange the construction site of the Longwang River Bridge, and evacuate the river beach in advance with materials and personnel, so as not to have an accident." ”

Huang Zijian said: "Okay, Director Yue, I'll contact them." ”

Putting down the phone, Yue Haohan left the village department worriedly, came to Sun Xiwang, and asked: "Secretary Sun, last week, the Party and Government Office arranged for you to drain part of the water from the Toad Ditch Reservoir in advance, lower the water level, and expand the storage capacity, have you done it?" ”

Sun Xiwang's face was embarrassed, his mouth opened, and he replied timidly: "Director Yue, not yet, I forgot about this busy after receiving the notice from the Party and Government Office, besides, I haven't leaked water in advance before, isn't it all right." I will arrange for someone to raise the sluice gates tomorrow morning. ”

Yue Haohan's face was displeased, and he strode forward, saying solemnly as he walked: "Secretary Sun, in the future, the party and government office will arrange to notify you of the matter, and it must be handled immediately and implemented quickly. Don't give me things that go against the good and the bad, and don't tell me the conditions. You should also understand my Yue Haohan's temper, I have done a good job in my work, everyone is good at everything, and I can't do my job well, don't blame me for being rude, don't say that I don't give you face. ”

Yue Haohan criticized Sun Xiwang with a cold face, and the people standing at the entrance of the village department focused their attention on Yue Haohan, everyone looked at Yue Haohan, thinking in their hearts, there was still a joke just now, how to finish the call, and change your face when you say it.

After losing his temper and taking a few steps forward, Yue Haohan stopped again, turned around and instructed Sun Xiwang to say, "Now you arrange a few people, bring tools, and let's go to the Toad Ditch Reservoir first." ”

Toad ditch reservoir in the root of Heishi Mountain, the position is relatively high, because the ditch in the upper reaches of the reservoir resembles a big toad and gets its name, there is also a saying in Heishi Mountain Village that there are many toads that gather and live in that place all year round, everyone calls that place Toad Ditch. There were many rumors about Toad Gully in the area of Black Rock Mountain.

Toad, also called toad. Amphibians, with many pimples on the body surface and poisonous glands inside, are commonly known as toads, stingers, and pimple treasures. The toad crisp and toad clothes extracted from the toad are the medicinal materials that are in short supply in traditional Chinese medicine, which can treat vulvar ulcers, gangrene, and mad dog bites, especially when the temperature disease is critical, remove the internal organs of the toad, and pound one or two raw, and there is no non-healing; The skin taken off by the toad, which is the toad coat in traditional Chinese medicine, can also kill chancre, treat rat fistula and children's fatigue and emaciation, yellow face, and lumps in the abdomen.

About the toad, there are a lot of legends in various parts of China, among which the folk call the three-legged toad "toad", the legend that it can spit out money, is a prosperous thing, there are bangs in ancient myths and legends, with the trick to accept the golden toad to become an immortal, and later the Han folk will spread the saying that "the bangs play the golden toad, and fish for money step by step". Nowadays, many shopping malls and stores like to place a golden toad carved from copper or jade, which means prosperity.

The myths and legends about the golden toad that circulate in Jiangyang are like this, Liu Hai, a disciple of Lu Dongbin, one of the eight immortals, is profound, and likes to travel around the world, subduing demons and subduing demons, and giving alms to benefit the people in the world. One day, he subdued the golden toad goblin who had been endangering the people for many years, and in the process of submission, the golden toad was injured and broke one foot, so there were only three feet left in the future. Since then, Jin Toad has surrendered to Liu Hai's door, in order to atone for his sins, Jin Toad has made a unique move to bite into the gold and silver treasures every day, helping Liu Hai to benefit the world, helping the poor, and distributing money. People were curious, so they called it the golden toad.

Sun Xiwang arranged for the others to drink tea and chat in the courtyard of his house, let his women start preparing dinner, and then called a few strong laborers in the village, with tools, and accompanied Yue Haohan and Deng Guoxing to check the situation of the Toad Ditch Reservoir.

Walking on the road, Sun Xiwang introduced: "Toad ditch reservoir is a small two-type reservoir, about two kilometers away from the village, the reservoir is built in the late sixties and early seventies, before the reservoir was built, there is a small river in the toad ditch, called Jiao River, is a tributary of the Longwang River, the river water flows into the Longwang River not far from the village. ”

"Walking the Jiaohe? Such a strange name? Yue Haohan turned his head to look at Sun Xiwang and asked.

Sun Xiwang replied: "Yes, I heard from the elders that before the construction of the Toad Gou Reservoir, every three to five years, when it rained, Jiaohe had to walk once in the Jiaohe River, and then the thousands of acres of fertile land in front of the downstream villages would be destroyed by floods. ”

Yue Haohan asked: "Secretary Sun, have you ever seen a Jiao in the Jiao River?" ”

Sun Xiwang replied: "I saw it once when I was a teenager, when there was no such Toad Gully Reservoir, and the flood was so great that it washed away all the fertile fields in front of our village, and the flood washed away many pigs, cows, sheep and a dozen people. After the flood, the fields in front of the village were washed out of a river with a clear white line, as if something like a python once swam over the riverbed. The trail went several feet deep into the ground, and the old people said that it was the place where Jiao had walked, and I don't know what kind of huge snake Jiao could leave such a huge indentation, and I still remember it deeply. ”

About walking Jiao, is a Chinese folk saying, folk legends in the deep mountains and old forests lurking many snakes, these snakes to a certain year of cultivation will become Jiao, Jiao is similar to a dragon, but there is no horn, Jiao to cross the dragon gate, along the river into the sea, after the head of the horns, can be transformed into a dragon.

Jiao snake because of the perennial living in the dark and damp area, mostly negative, usually in the cave or water activities, and so on to a certain number of years of cultivation, the snake will break out of the flood, out of the mountain, take advantage of the collapse of the earth when the flood is raging to jump over the last dragon gate, this is called "walking Jiao". Legend has it that this "walking Jiao" must first pass through a dragon gate, and then borrow a breath of yang energy from people before it can fly into a dragon. What is that dragon gate, which is the bridge over the river in the flood.

Legend has it that after the dragon came out of the mountain, it had just shed the last layer of snake skin, and after the last layer of snake skin molted, a layer of overlapping dragon scales would form on its body, and when its dragon scales were still growing, it would make waves in the flood, causing the flood to flood houses, overturn boats, and destroy fertile fields.

In order to prevent the dragon from making trouble, many places, especially in the Yangtze River basin, will have a sword inserted upside down under the bridge, the sword is about a foot long, the tip of the sword is facing downward, and it is angry towards the water. This sword is said, it is to prevent the dragon from making waves when the dragon is going to make waves, this dragon sword is to take advantage of the dragon scales have not yet grown, when it crosses the bridge, a sword will cut off the dragon, but the dragon is not stupid, it knows that there is a sword hanging under the bridge, so after encountering the bridge, it refuses to pass under the bridge, it will bend its body, block the bridge hole, the bridge can not pass the water, the water soon overflowed the bridge deck, and the dragon passed from the bridge deck. It is also because of Jiaolong's habit that many bridges are unfavorable for flood discharge, making the flood more harmful.

Yue Haohan and his entourage boarded the earthen dam on the reservoir, standing on the earthen dam, looking up, the crystal clear reservoir water was blue and blue, and there were trees of different sizes and lush shrubs growing on both sides of the upper reaches of the reservoir, making the scenery of the reservoir surface appear extremely beautiful; At this time, the sun seemed to be slowly disappearing behind the mountain along the top of the black rock.

Yue Haohan looked at the reservoir surface, there was about half of the reservoir water in the reservoir, and the water surface was more than ten meters high from the top of the dam, Deng Guoxing, who was standing next to Yue Haohan, looked at the water surface and said: "Director Yue, look like this, even if there is a heavy rain today, nothing will happen, and the water in the reservoir does not seem to be very much." ”

Yue Haohan said: "Director Deng, we can't take it lightly, there are hundreds of families living under this Toad Gou Reservoir, and there are thousands of acres of fertile land, once there is a problem in the Toad Gou Reservoir, the consequences will be very serious, not only the fields and houses in Heishishan Village will be damaged, but also the rice fields of Longwanghe Village and Heiyazi Village on both sides of the lower reaches of the Longwang River." ”

As they spoke, everyone followed Yue Haohan towards the opposite side of the dam stalk, and while walking Yue Haohan, he pointed to the two small low red brick houses opposite, and asked, "Secretary Sun, what is the red brick house on the other side for?" ”

Sun Xiwang replied: "That house was built in the past eight years to see the house of the reservoir, but it has not been used for a long time. ”

Everyone walked to the house, there was a very deep and dense artemisia grass growing in front of the house, Yue Haohan stood in front of the red house and looked towards the reservoir, at this time the sun's rays had been blocked by the black stone mountain, Yue Haohan looked carefully at the water surface, and found that the outline of the reservoir surface was indeed like a huge toad lying there, the head of the toad was towards the place where Yue Haohan was standing, and the little boulders faintly exposed on the water surface under the dam seemed to be the undulating pimples growing on the toad's head.

When Yue Haohan was looking at Kumian intently, a junior next to him shouted: "Snake, pheasant neck, pay attention!" Hearing the shout, Yue Haohan hurriedly turned around and looked at the place where the latter was looking, only to see a snake about one meter long and with a red and black circular pattern on its body, which was quickly strung from the artemisia grass where everyone was standing, towards the direction of the reservoir.

Sun Xiwang picked up a stone from his side and threw it at the pheasant snake, but the stone missed and did not hit the snake, and the snake was frightened and quickly swam away into the reservoir.

Sun Xiwang patted the dust on his hands and introduced: "Director Yue, this is the common pheasant snake in our Jiangyang area, and it is also the most poisonous snake in our ranking, the poison is much stronger than the soil cloth bag, that is, the pit viper, there is a saying in our countryside called 'Pheasant Xiang today bites Ming to raise the bar, and the soil cloth bag is now bitten on the street', that is, if you are bitten by the pheasant neck, if you don't treat it in time, you will die of poison the next day, and you will be bitten by the soil bag, and it doesn't matter if you go to the hospital for treatment on the street the next day." Pheasant Xiang rarely takes the initiative to attack people, generally runs when he sees people, and there are few records of hurting people, our village for so many years is Wu Cuilan's man let this pheasant Xiang snake bite, did not go to the hospital in time, treated with soil methods, and died as a result. ”

After Sun Xiwang's introduction, Yue Haohan arrived at the door of the two red brick houses, and saw that the door was a pair of dilapidated wooden doors, the wooden planks under the doors had rotted into a big hole, and the two doors were fastened together with a rusty piece of wire.

Yue Haohan stepped forward and kicked the pair of wooden doors with his foot, the door was kicked open, a rotten and damp smell mixed with the smell came to his face, Yue Haohan covered his nostrils and gave way to the door, just now he found the offspring of the pheasant snake, pushed the door completely, walked in, and then suddenly ran out with a shout.

Sun Xiwang hurriedly asked, "What's the matter?" What's inside? ”

The latter replied, "There are a lot of toads in there, and when I went in just now, I stepped on a few of them, and one of them was very large, as big as a plate, and I have never seen such a big toad." ”

Sun Xiwang said: "Where is it? I'll go in and take a look. As he spoke, he went into the house, and as soon as he lifted his foot, a dozen more toads came out of the house, and jumped out of the artemisia grass towards the reservoir.

There were so many toads coming out at once, which scared Sun Xiwang too, and he didn't dare to continue walking towards the house, he only looked inside by the door, and after a few glances, Sun Xiwang turned his head and said: "Director Yue, there is really a big guy, lying in the middle of the room, staring at me without moving, you come and take a look." ”

Yue Haohan walked up to Sun Xiwang and looked into the house, and really found that in the middle of the damp room, there was a very large toad lying on his stomach, and there were many fist-sized ones around the room, jumping there and coming out of the house.

Yue Haohan looked at it and instructed a strong man with a shovel behind him: "First drive these toads out, don't hurt them, and then clean up the room, when it rains at night, it may be necessary to guard the reservoir here." ”

Hearing Yue Haohan say this, Deng Guoxing picked up two stones and threw them into the house, and after the toads inside were frightened, they jumped out towards the door, and the big guy also jumped out and jumped towards the reservoir.

After a while, all the toads in the house jumped out and scattered into the reservoir, Yue Haohan thought to himself, it seems that the pheasant snake just now is probably coming for these toads, and wants to pounce on these toads to satisfy his hunger.

A few people went to two to clean the inside of the two houses with shovels. Seeing that the room was cleaned up, Yue Haohan instructed again: "We will go to the gate valve to take a look, raise the gate valve first, and discharge the water downstream from now on." ”