"Anyone!?"

Zhuang Yan, Xu Xingguo, Wang Datong, Zheng Zheng, Liu Ruiyong and a few others followed several local cadres to conduct a flashlight to investigate a certain village in the flood distribution area.

Pushing open the old broken wooden door of the yard, this is a typical small farm yard, and there are several fish ponds not far from the door.

"Anyone?"

The local cadres shouted again.

The flashlight shone on the tiled house on the first floor, and a few chickens clucked in the hen pen, looking at everyone with frightened eyes.

It didn't rain today, but it was very hot and the air seemed to have stopped flowing.

This is a harbinger of terrible rain tomorrow.

The two local cadres walked into the tile house, inspected it, and then walked out.

"No one." One of them said.

Another local cadre's walkie-talkie rustled a few times, and then a man's voice was heard.

He stepped aside, pressed the call button, and spoke something into the walkie-talkie in a local dialect.

He spoke quickly, like a machine gun bursting into flames, and his voice was full of anxiety.

Anxiety.

This is an emotion that everyone in all flood distribution areas today unconsciously generates, and the words are inadvertently revealed.

"Majestic, do you still have water?" Xu Xingguo walked to the solemn side and asked in a low voice, "I drank all my water just now." ”

solemnly untied the kettle and handed it to Xu Xingguo.

Xu Xingguo drank two sips of water, returned the kettle to Zhuang Zheng, wiped the sweat on his forehead, and scolded in a low voice: "This ghost weather!" ”

Similarly, Xu Xingguo's tone was full of irritability.

Suddenly, there was a slight noise in the tiled house.

"Huh?" Serious looked sideways in the direction of the tiled house and asked the others, "Did you hear any sounds?" ”

Zhuang Zhuang also heard it, and said, "Maybe it's just a mouse, and the mouse will also run for his life." ”

"It's not like that......" Serious frowned, listening intently.

Liu Ruiyong pointed the flashlight at the door of the tiled house and shone it in......

Poof-

A dull, subtle voice rang out again.

Solemnity heard it clearly this time.

It was like the sound of something falling on the ground.

"It's not in a tiled house, it's like ......"

He raised his hand and pointed to the back of the tiled house.

"Seems to be at the back of the house?"

A few soldiers didn't have time to greet the local cadres, so they turned on their flashlights, bypassed the tiled house, and slowly walked towards the back.

Bypassing the house, there was a small courtyard behind it, and in the northeast corner of the courtyard was a tattered shed full of messy things.

When the flashlight shines up, it looks like some feed or something.

"Come out!" Solemnly shouted.

If there were people at this time, it might be a thief who took advantage of the chaos to steal something.

There are always bad people in the world, and there must be those who take advantage of the fire to rob.

"I see you!" He took a few steps forward and gently picked up a stick that was leaning against a tree in the courtyard.

The debris in the shed suddenly squirmed, and after the rattling sound, a rough and hoarse voice came from inside.

"Are you the People's Liberation Army?"

"We are the People's Liberation Army!" Solemn answer.

Seeing that there were really people hiding in the shed, everyone immediately became vigilant, scattered one after another, surrounded the shed in a semicircle, and unconsciously stood in battle formation.

No matter who the shed is, there is no escape now.

"Who are you!? Come out! Solemnly shouted.

The man hiding in the shed said in Mandarin with a strong accent: "I'm not a bad person, I'm the owner of this house......"

Before the words fell, several local cadres who were originally in the front yard had already arrived.

One of them stared at the middle-aged man who came out of the shed for a while and said, "Li Qiang! Aren't you gone? ”

The middle-aged farmer named Li Qiang glanced up at the person opposite and blocked the bright light of the flashlight with his hand.

"Are you Hu Zhishu?"

"Hey! It's really you Li Qiang! What are you doing here!? I don't know if I'm going to divide the flood!? Hu Zhishu took the flashlight and turned back to solemnly and the others: "The person from our village is called Li Qiang, and this is his home." ”

Hearing that it was the owner of the house here, solemnly threw the stick aside with a slight embarrassment.

A few soldiers stepped aside.

This kind of matter is still left to the local cadres to solve by themselves.

It is absolutely impossible to stay in the flood distribution area, and Li Qiang must go.

If he doesn't go, Zhuang Yan and Xu Xingguo will take him away.

Where there is life, there is hope.

It's better to lose anything than to lose your life.

Hu Zhishu stepped forward, and his fingers almost poked on the bridge of Li Qiang's nose, and he was reprimanded.

"You Li Qiang are old and young, why are you so confused? Stay here, you think you're a god? Can you avoid water? If you die, what will your parents do? What should I do? What the cub do?! ”

Hu Zhishu is stronger than Li, and his reprimand is like an elder scolding his children and grandchildren.

Li Qiang hooked his head, looked at the ground, did not speak, did not squeak, and scolded with Hu Zhishu.

When it came, Hu Zhishu was also tired, crossed his waist and gasped a few more times, pointed to the distance and said, "Go!" Let's go! Leave here and go to the county seat, aren't you relatives in the county again? Take shelter, and after dozens of days, the water recedes and comes back! ”

Li Qiang, who had been silent, heard this, and suddenly his emotions exploded, covering his head with both hands, grabbing his hair, squatting, and crying.

"Hu Zhishu! You're saying it lightly! Walk? How to go?! I'm gone, can I walk to the temple!? ”

His shoulders twitched, and he cried as he spoke.

"My sister is in the county, that's right! I've heard that I'm going to divide the flood, yes! At four o'clock in the afternoon, I packed up my things, loaded a cart of food and some luggage with my family and rushed to the city, just at the gate of the county seat for two hours, to my sister's house to unload the food, I didn't care about eating to save the ......"

"But when I rushed home and looked at it, I knew it wasn't going to be ...... I can't go...... How do I get around? Hu Zhishu, how do I go? ”

Li Qiang raised his hand and pointed to the front yard.

"The wardrobe in the house was made last year, I asked someone to find good wood, and invited a carpenter in the county town to customize it for me, it cost me a lot of money, not to mention, or I used three wheels to transport it back from the county town by myself for dozens of miles......

"Also, the door of more than 10 acres of fish ponds, the first half of the investment of thousands, bank loans alone have 3,000 yuan, the fish pond built a pig house, pigs also have seven, in the first half of the year I got up early in the dark, day and night dry, the fish are well fed, the grass carp from the pond more than three catties have thousands of them, silver carp can also be on the table, pigs are also more than 200 catties a head, thinking about August 15 before the sale, the bank money exchanged, the family has a good August 15 ......"

"But if it's a flood, what's the point of a flood? My fish, my pigs...... And my chickens and ducks...... It's gone, it's gone, it's all gone...... Hu Zhishu, you said, how should I live? I understand, my life is here, I want to die, I will die with me, these fish, these pigs, die! ”

After that, he covered his face and continued to whimper.

Although Zhuang Yan couldn't fully understand Li Qiang's dialect, he could probably hear something from the conversation between him and Hu Zhishu.

At the beginning, when he first entered the backyard and found Li Qiang, the first thought in his solemn heart was - why didn't this person leave? Do you not even want your life for this little possessions?

Worth?

Stupid!

But now, he suddenly understood how important these seemingly inconspicuous possessions were to a peasant who depended on the sky for food.

Zhuang Zhuang suddenly understood as if enlightened, what is the purpose of being a soldier? What is the purpose of the so-called defending the country?

To put it bluntly, it is to ensure the peace of every person in this vast land who wants to eat well.

Only when the common people are well fed, warmly dressed, and sleep soundly, can the soldiers pat their chests and say without shame, I am a soldier! I have dedicated myself to this country! I have a clear conscience!

Li Qiang finally left under the persuasion of Hu Zhishu.

Solemnly used the only tricycle in his house to load him as much as he could.

Li Qiang was reluctant to take the big wardrobe, and solemnly helped carry it to the car.

Everyone sent Li Qiang to the entrance of the village and the road to the county seat, and then returned to the village.

Looking at Li Qiang's lonely and sad back, walking alone under the dark night when he could barely reach out and see his fingers, there was an indescribable nest in his solemn heart.

On the way back to the village, he said to Xu Xingguo, who was walking beside him: "I want to go back to the embankment, everyone else will fight the flood again, what kind of bullshit are we doing!" ”

Xu Xingguo, Zheng Zheng and Liu Ruiyong were stunned for a moment, and their heads were lowered.

Everyone was speechless all the way.

Night, the roots are deep.

Suddenly the sky began to fall with raindrops, from small to large.

The whole of Jingzhou was plunged into darkness.