The wine was drunk until almost three o'clock, and everyone began to eat; Although the rain outside was much lighter, it was still dripping, and the sky was slowly brightening, not as gloomy as it was when the rainstorm first came before meals.

After dinner, everyone sat in the living room of Wang Xueli's house and chatted; Yue Haohan looked at Wang Xueli, who was smoking dry tobacco, and asked, "Old secretary, I saw outside before dinner that the economy of your old courtyard is developing very well, and the annual income should be okay, right?" ”

Wang Xueli smacked two puffs of dry tobacco, squinted his eyes, and said: "Young man, this Longwang River is a treasure of feng shui on both sides of the river." Here, on the hill is the bank, and at the bottom of the hill is the granary; The mountain is rich in resources, and there are gold ingots everywhere; On both sides of the Longwang River at the foot of the mountain, there are good fields. ”

After a pause, Wang Xueli took another puff of dry tobacco, spit out the smoke in his mouth, and continued: "But looking at the gold ingots, guarding the big granary, why are we still living a poor life? This is a good thing all over the mountain, and it is very inconvenient to transport it out. The second is that the fertile fields on both sides of the river are afraid of flooding in the Longwang River every year, and looking at today's weather, I don't know how many rice fields will be washed away. ”

Wang Xueli knocked the ashes in the cigarette pouch pot on the ground twice, and said: "There is also the two taxes on agriculture and the three mentions and five unifications, which are increasing year by year, and the peasants have worked hard to harvest something, which is only enough to pay taxes and fees. Not to mention far away, let's just say that I can earn nearly 20,000 yuan a year with the two acres of fish ponds in front of the house, but the special product tax will have to be handed over to several thousand yuan. We are old party members, the state taxes, how much is approved, how much we pay, we don't owe a cent; However, it can't be added every year! I have been a veteran party member for decades, and I also have a lot of ideas in my heart! ”

Wang Xueli's words made Yue Haohan fall into deep thought; It seems that there is a long way to go in order to change the backward appearance of the rural areas and make the peasants truly prosperous. First of all, if the traffic conditions need to be changed, they cannot be changed in a day or two. secondly, there are blatant and complicated taxes and fees, which involve the interests of all parties; There are thousands of reasons why any increase can be made. Thinking of these, Yue Haohan finally understood what Zhang Jianjian, who was in the same dormitory, said when he was training at the party school: "When did the state cancel the farmers' agricultural taxes and retention funds; Only then can the peasants have hope of getting rich! ”

The rain outside slowly stopped, Deng Guoxing looked into Wang Xueli's courtyard and said, "The rain has stopped, we will go to the Longwang River to see if there is a flood." There is also the flooded bridge, I am afraid that someone will pass over it, and it will be dangerous. ”

Coming out of Wang Xueli's house and looking at the western sky, the sun showed up again, and the rain stopped completely. Yue Haohan accompanied Deng Guoxing and a few people, and in about twenty minutes, arrived at the Longwang River Manshui Bridge.

There are more than a dozen villagers standing by the river, watching the slowly rising river; Several villagers with nail rakes or hoes stood by the river to salvage logs, pumpkins, etc., washed down from the upper reaches.

Li Ergou in a group, wearing a big pants, wearing a nail rake in his hand, stood on a flooded bridge more than 20 meters offshore, salvaging wood and floating pumpkins; The murky river is still slowly rising; The flood bridge was completely submerged, and the flood water overflowed the bridge and faced the torrent downstream.

At this time, an old man on the other side of the river with a boy of eleven or twelve years old, with his trouser legs rolled up, was about to come from the other side; When I first stepped on the Manshui Bridge, the water level on the bridge deck was not above my feet, and when I saw the old man with the child taking risks, the people standing on both sides of the Longwang River shouted loudly: "Danger! Dangerous! Don't die! Turn back! ”

However, no matter how the people on both sides of the river shouted, the old man who was anxious to cross the river still pulled the child, and walked forward on the flood bridge with a deep and shallow foot.

The old man walking in front of him can reach Li Ergou more than ten meters to the left and left, and Li Ergou is stretching the nail rake to the old man and asking him to grab the nail rake. However, the flood peak above came down, the river rose sharply, and a wave hit, and the old man stumbled, and his body fell into the whirlpool under the bridge. The boy reached out to grab the old man, but when he didn't, his body was pushed by the waves, and he fell into the whirlpool.

The scene that happened on the Manshui Bridge stunned all the people present on both sides of the Longwang River. At this time, I saw that Li Ergou threw away the nail rake in his hand and jumped into the turbulent flood.

Li Ergou approached the old man first, and saw the old man's hand stretched out in the water flow a few times, Li Ergou tried to catch it, but he didn't catch it after a few scratches.

After that, Li Ergou turned around and swam to the boy who had fallen into the whirlpool, the first one was not grasped, the second and third were finally grabbed by the boy's hand; Li Ergou pushed the boy to swim to the shore, and with the help of everyone on the shore, he dragged the child to the shore; When Li Ergou turned around to look for the old man, the old man had been submerged by the rising torrent and disappeared.

Watching the flood peaks coming down from the upstream getting bigger and bigger, the water is more violent; People on both sides of the river shouted for Li Ergou to return to the shore, and Li Ergou had to return to the shore; Then, everyone went down the river, looking for the old man who had been washed away.

Yue Haohan and Deng Guoxing followed everyone along the Longwang River to find the past downstream. Everyone looked downstream, about two kilometers from the Manshui Bridge, near a large backwater bend, and saw the old man floating on the water not far from the shore; Li Ergou and two other young men went to the water and scooped up the old man.

Later, the village doctor Sun Mingchun rushed to give the old man an emergency rescue, and Sun Mingchun expanded his chest and tossed artificial respiration on the old man's body for a long time; Seeing that the old man's face was already purple, Sun Mingchun stopped rescuing and said to the onlookers: "I have tried my best, but I can't save it; Tell Sun Xicai to prepare for the old man's funeral. ”

The old man was Sun Xicai's father, Sun Chunhe, and the boy was Sun Xicai's second son, Sun Xiaojun. Sun Xiaojun just choked on a few mouthfuls of water, went to the shore, spit out the water, and was fine. The grandfather and grandson went to Wulong Township early in the morning to catch the market and returned in the afternoon.

Everyone carried Sun Chunhe, who had already swallowed his breath, to the head of the Manshui Bridge. At this time, I saw Sun Xicai running over from the direction of the village, followed by his wife Wu Guihua; Wu Guihua ran and cried loudly.

Sun Xi arrived at the bridgehead and saw that his son, who was still standing there in a daze, was fine; hurriedly went to the place where Sun Chunhe was placed, and eagerly asked the village doctor Sun Mingchun: "Mingchun, how is it?" Is there any salvation? Sun Mingchun shook his head and said, "Xicai, mourn!" Hurry up and prepare for the old man's funeral. ”

Sun Xicai heard Sun Mingchun say this, and sat on the ground; There were no words for a long time, and after a long while, a cry like a bull's roar came out: "This hateful Dragon King River! I shouldn't have let the old man go to the market today! ”

Wu Guihua saw that her son Sun Xiaojun was fine, and also went to the place where Sun Chunhe was lying; looked at the father-in-law lying there wet and stiff; Wu Guihua also sat on the ground, slapped the ground with her palm, and cried: "Damn the Dragon King River! Damn township cadres, shouting every year to build bridges; Why don't you build a bridge here! The cries of the husband and wife were sad and desolate, and all the people around them felt heavy; didn't go up to persuade Sun Xicai and his wife, and let them cry there.

Wu Guihua cried for a while, raised her head, and looked at the crowd of onlookers with teary eyes; got up suddenly, got up in front of Li Ergou, who was standing in the crowd, pounced, knelt down on his knees, and said, "Brother Ergouzi, you are the great benefactor of my family; If it weren't for you, my little army would have died; Brother Ergouzi, Xicai was drunk yesterday, don't take it to heart! As she spoke, Wu Guihua kowtowed to Li Ergou.

Seeing Wu Guihua like this, Li Ergou hurriedly pulled up Wu Guihua and said, "Sister-in-law, get up quickly!" Don't do that; It's a pity that the situation was urgent, and I didn't save Uncle Sun and his old man, the flood came too fiercely! ”

Seeing a torrential rain, the flood caused by it was because there was no bridge, which instantly took a person's life; Yue Haohan stood beside the crowd with a heavy heart, and did not speak in a daze.

After a while, Deng Guoxing, who was beside him, said to Yue Haohan: "Haohan, this Longwang River floods every year, and over the years, there are more than a dozen people on both sides of the river who have been washed away by floods; Such tragedies happen almost every year. ”

Deng Guoxing's words made Yue Haohan fall into deep thought, is it really so difficult to build a bridge over this Dragon King River? Is it because the township government didn't take this matter seriously, or is there really no money? If there is really no money, how can the office building of the township government be built? We must think of a way to help the people on both sides of this river and build a bridge on this Longwang River that can be normal and smooth in all seasons.

While Yue Haohan was thinking, Deng Guoxing was beside him, and said softly to Yue Haohan: "Haohan, now that the water on the bridge is big, we can't cross the river, so let's go to the village department and discuss with a few cadres in the village about Sun Chunhe's future affairs, don't expand the contradictions." After dinner, if the water is small and we can cross the bridge, let's go back to the management area. ”

After Deng Guoxing finished speaking, Yue Haohan and several village cadres stepped forward to persuade Sun Xicai and his wife, who were sad and weeping. Then, everyone helped to carry Sun Chunhe's body back to Sun Xicai's house.

After finishing all this, Zhu Jinshan arranged for a group of several young people to stay at Sun Xicai's house to help; A few village cadres walked towards the village with Deng Guoxing and Yue Haohan.

Yue Haohan and Deng Guoxing, Zhu Jinshan, Sun Mingguo, and Wang Yun came to Longwanghe Village and sat down in the village; Subsequently, Wu Guiyun, the village women's director, also hurried to the village headquarters.

Wu Guiyun is thirty-one or twelve years old, with very white skin; People are a little fat, and they walk in a hurry; When I arrived at the village and saw Yue Haohan, I looked at it again and again, and said with a smile: "This must be a new college student in our management area, I didn't expect the young man to be so standard, come to our countryside, but you have to endure hardships, our big girls and daughters-in-law in the countryside are very powerful, and you will have to suffer in the future." When Wu Guiyun smiled, he showed a mouthful of snow-white teeth.

Seeing Wu Guiyun come in, he greeted him familiarly, Yue Haohan looked at Wu Guiyun and said with a smile: "Hello! Director Wu, I'm not afraid of hardship, there is joy in suffering. ”

As soon as Yue Haohan's words fell, everyone laughed; Yue Haohan's face flushed slightly, and he looked at everyone in confusion. Deng Guoxing smiled and said to Wu Guiyun: "Director Wu, Haohan has just come out of the school gate, and he is a cultural person, and he is not familiar with our rural customs; In the future, don't joke with him. ”

After Deng Guoxing finished speaking, Wu Guiyun pursed his lips and smiled again, and then got up to pour tea for everyone. Yue Haohan looked at Sun Mingguo, who was sitting next to him, with questioning eyes.

Sun Mingguo saw that Yue Haohan didn't understand why everyone was laughing just now, looked at Yue Haohan, and said with a smile: "I'll tell Haohan a good story, this joke that is not afraid of hardship in the Heiyazi Management Area, lest next time someone else says it, Haohan still doesn't understand." ”

Taking the cup of tea handed over by Wu Guiyun, taking a sip, putting the cup down, Sun Mingguo continued: "The year before last, the township trained women's directors, and there were no women's directors in Dengjiagou Village at that time; sent the village clerk Deng Ruixia to attend the meeting, this Deng Ruixia's name sounds like a woman, but it is actually a black and thin man. ”

"At that time, when arranging accommodation for the women's directors, Huang Caifeng of the Party and Government Office did not know the real situation, so he arranged Deng Ruixia in the same room with Director Guiyun of our village and Director Zhang Caixia of Heiyazi Village."

When he was about to go to bed at night, Deng Ruixia just didn't leave in that room, there was no way, Zhang Caixia found Huang Caifeng, and Huang Caifeng realized that he made a mistake and made a mistake; ran to the room and said to Deng Ruixia: "Deng Ruixia, I made a mistake, I thought you were also a woman, who knew that you were a big man, so you couldn't live in this room; I'll give you a new room. When Deng Ruixia heard this, he stopped joking, and said with a smile: "It's not troublesome, it's not troublesome at all, it's good for me to live here, I; I'm the women's director today. Seeing that Deng Ruixia didn't want to leave, Huang Caifeng really had no choice, so he joked: "Look at you black and thin? If you stay here at night, be careful of suffering. Deng Ruixia nodded and said: "Director Huang, I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid of hardship, there is joy in suffering." As a result, Huang Caifeng had no choice but to arrange another room for Gui Yun and Zhang Caixia; Deng Ruixia didn't suffer that night. ”

Sun Mingguo finished speaking; Deng Guoxing saw that everyone was sitting around the desk of the village committee, so he coughed and said with a serious face: "Several cadres in the village have arrived, I will say a few words; Today's rainstorm came very suddenly, and everyone was not mentally prepared. Because of this heavy rain, the Longwang River flooded, and a group of Sun Xicai's family had such a thing, and everyone was very sad; I hope that the village will do a good job of pacifying and take out some money to help Sun Xicai bury Sun Chunhe first; Don't let the contradictions and this matter escalate. ”

Deng Guoxing paused, took two sips of the teacup, and continued: "Starting tomorrow, several of your village cadres will divide the work and go to each group to take a look and count the damage to crops and houses; Report the damage caused by this heavy rain and flash flood to the management area as soon as possible. ”

After Deng Guoxing finished speaking, several village cadres in Zhu Jinshan discussed together for a while and carried out a simple division of labor; Only then did everyone go from the village department to the women's director Wu Guiyun's house for dinner.

After dinner, Yue Haohan accompanied Deng Guoxing and several village cadres to a group of Sun Xicai's house with the village's condolences money; Yue Haohan and Deng Guoxing also gave Sun Xicai 50 yuan each to express their condolences.

Coming out of Sun Xicai's house and arriving at the head of the Longwang River flooded bridge, Deng Guoxing took a flashlight on the bridge and found that the bridge deck had been exposed, and the water flow had become stable. Deng Guoxing and Yue Haohan said hello to several village cadres and went back to the management area.