Rose Spring, northwest of our village, is located in the heart of the mountains, about 20 miles away from our village. The topography there, that is, the altitude there, is probably a few tens of meters higher than our village, of course, this is not accurate data, this is my own visual observation. According to my father, before the Rose Spring was excavated, it was a puddle with a diameter of only three or four meters wide, and the water in the pit was not deep, just over a meter, and the bottom was cone-shaped, and there was a spring, which bubbled out all year round, and the water overflowed from the pit and flowed down the mountain beam.

When my grandfather and his family moved here, I had already introduced our village, and I will talk about it now, so that you can better understand where the rose spring is.

The north side of our village is a big mountain, which belongs to the remaining veins of Taihang Mountain, we call it Phoenix Mountain, I heard that the phoenix fell on the mountain in ancient times; To the east of the village is a small stream, in which there are small fish, shrimp, and crabs, and the water of this stream flows from the spring of the Rose Spring; The northwest side of the village is also a mountain, it is a small dirt mountain mixed with soil and stones, the square circle is not big, not high, we used to call it "Little Lonely Mountain", when I was a child, my father also took me there to catch scorpions, now, what is it called, what is "Phoenix Mountain Cemetery", you can't think of it, such a bad scenery, originally there birds and flowers, now it is good, it has become a place to put the urn. Speaking of which, this is to blame the old guy who is blind Chen, he said that the feng shui of Xiaogu Mountain is excellent, and there is a fight with the feng shui of the tomb of King Lu of the Ming Dynasty next to it, and it is said that there is a set of things, how to say that "the head rests on the Phoenix Mountain, the foot pedals the old dragon pool, the left hand holds the Golden Lamp Temple, and the right hand holds the old road well." "I think this old guy is, don't think I'm disrespectful to the old-timers, when I was born, you will know how this old guy is.

Straight to the point. The Rose Spring is just north of Xiaogu Mountain, and there are about * miles. I have always suspected that the "Old Dragon Pond" that Blind Chen said is this rose spring, but the direction is a little wrong.

We used to call it "North Station District", but after changing its name, why it was called "Fengquan District" was because of Phoenix Mountain and Rose Spring.

Because of the drought, the village cadres planned to dig up the spring, and they thought that the water flow would increase if the spring was dug up, and then the villages below the mountain would be able to use the spring water to irrigate the land, which would be a good thing for the people.

At that time, who were the people who dug the springs, they were all nine types of elements with bad composition, what were the nine types of elements, that is, the objects of criticism and struggle at that time were divided into nine categories, and these people were collectively called nine types of elements, namely: landlords, rich peasants, ghosts, snakes, and gods, counterrevolutionaries, rightists, traitors, spies, capitalist roaders, and intellectuals. Intellectuals are ranked ninth, also known as the "stinky old nine".

These nine types of elements, who are old and unable to do heavy work, let their children be on top, and those who can do it will be on top themselves, and from the beginning, it will be similar to a labor camp for labor reform.

My father and Wang Sihe were unfortunate that they were both sent there to dig springs, and they were tantamount to putting a pot on their parents.

When I first arrived there, I had nothing to eat or live, half of them dug springs, half of them built houses and canteens, and they brought lunch from their homes by themselves, and at night, they had to run dozens of miles to go home and sleep, and the next day, before dawn, they had to get up and climb the mountain to work.

A few months later, the house was built, the canteen was built, and the conditions were greatly improved, but it is conceivable to build a house in the deep mountains, where the mountain is flat and where to build, because there are many people, there are many houses built around the Rose Spring, but there are no two houses next to each other, the east and the west are built, and the feeling is similar to what is sung in the folk songs of northern Shaanxi: it is easy for us to see a face, but it is difficult to talk, one is on the mountain, the other is in the ditch, we can't pull the words, oops, beckon......

The dormitory where my father and Wang Sihe were located was two miles away from their canteen, two or three miles away from the spring, and there was also a dormitory on the hill opposite their dormitory.

At that time, the operating conditions were extremely poor, almost all relied on manpower, sledgehammers, steel chisels, and **, but they did not have the technology of underwater blasting, nor did they have the current electronic blasting, and the fuse was wet in the water. Later, someone came up with an idea, got a bamboo pole, opened the joint in the middle of the bamboo pole, put the fuse into it, and the bamboo pole was tightly wrapped with the detonator ** and poked into the spring, just like that, the success rate of blasting was only about 30%.

At that time, no one regarded these "nine types of elements" as human beings, and in addition, the working conditions were poor, and they were all used as cattle and horses, and they were tired and tired every day.

After another two months, my father and Wang Sihe were thrown to the logistics department by the commando captain they dug because they were not good and dishonest. What does the logistics department do, do chores, do everything, and the toilet picks up dung, in addition to doing chores, they are also responsible for repairing broken tools used to dig pits, and follow an old blacksmith to hammer iron, mainly to make steel chisels and hammers. My father and Wang Sihe became the apprentices of the old blacksmith and learned a full set of blacksmithing skills from the old blacksmith.

There are three hardships in life, supporting the boat, striking iron, and selling tofu.

When my grandmother learned that my father had become the apprentice of the old blacksmith, she was very depressed, and always said to herself: The one I took out of the basket of the Yellow Flower Daxian, the ceramic doll that grabbed the green dragon with an iron hammer, turned out to be an ironworker?

In the house where my father and the two lived, there were about a dozen people, among whom there was a "stinky old nine" about fifty years old, what was it called, my father told me several times, I always can't remember, it seems to be called Zhang Su, who used to be the vice president of a university in our city, and the intellectual stinky old nine, also got here.

This stinky old nine was not only knowledgeable, but also knew music theory and sheet music, and it was popular to play the harmonica and accordion at that time. This little old man can blow with his eyes, and he can play with strings.

After the little old man was sent here, he brought a few musical instruments with him, such as the harmonica, the transverse flute, and his favorite is the erhu. The old man's favorite dinner, running on the mountain beam to pull the blind man A Bing's "Erquan Reflecting the Moon", a slightly bleak erhu string sound from the mountain beam, echoing in the valley at night, sounding particularly tragic and desolate, as if the down-and-out old principal was talking to the mountain.

After listening to the erhu a few times, my father and Wang Sihe fell in love with music again, and went to the old man for advice. When the old man was leaving, he gave my father his beloved erhu and a string book.

Striking iron, pulling erhu, in a blink of an eye, my father has been in Rose Spring for a year.

In 1968, the farce of the Red Guards intensified, and the phenomenon of seizing power appeared in various places, that is, there was a real "rebellion" and the momentum of overthrowing the government. At this time, the central government has a sense of crisis, and it is necessary to resettle these young people, otherwise it will be more difficult to control them in the future. Documents were immediately issued for students to return to school and workers to factories, but with little success. At the end of the year, he instructed the "People's Daily" to publish an article entitled "We Have Two Hands, We Don't Eat Idle Meals in the City" to encourage "intellectual youth" to go to the mountains and countryside to receive re-education from the poor and middle peasants.

As soon as the article came out, the whole country set off an upsurge of young intellectuals going to the mountains and going to the countryside, and the Red Guard movement, which once shook the whole country and caused a sensation in the world, gradually disappeared in the form of going to the mountains and going to the countryside. It's like a flood, which is kind of a diversion for them.

In 1969, just after the Chinese New Year, a large number of educated youths came to us, and according to my father, there were dozens of them in our village alone, and there were people everywhere. At that time, when they came over, they were assigned a considerable number of rations, and the captain of our village production team, that is, the village head, was very smart, and he took these rations and did not give them these educated youths, but built them a "educated youth building", a two-story building, or a brick house, at that time, this building was quite good. said that we, the village chief, have brains, because after these educated youths left, this building was left in our village, and everything could be taken away, but they couldn't take it away. Later, an office building was built for the village cadres, which has been used until now. (The year before last, that is, in 2013, or 2012, because of some "new rural planning" or something, this building was forced to demolish more than half of it, but every time I see it, it always gives me a very cordial feeling, and I ...... at this time.) I feel as if I've lived in it, and as if I have something to do with the people who used to live in it, why is it so strange, and when I'm done with this chapter, I'll ask my mom. ）

Our village has sent a total of three batches of educated youths, and after these batches of educated youths were decentralized, there was a beautiful girl among them, who looked like she was ten * years old, and she asked where Jia Fuqian's family lived when she entered the village.

At this time, my father was following his master and Wang Sihe, and the three of them were in full swing.

Strange to say, this rose spring has been dug for more than a year, and the spring has been dug up, but the water flowing out of it is still so big, no matter how deep you dig, it will not spray out like a fountain.

As for the leader above, just one sentence, dig, and then dig.

At this time, my father did not have to go home at night to eat and sleep, and stayed here twenty-four hours a day. At that time, there was no entertainment for these young people, and there were ore radios in the city, but this luxury was not something that young people in the mountains could play. Every night, my father and his wife would take the little old man's erhu flute and run to the mountain beam, and the flute ensemble would play, blowing and playing, and they would be in the mountains, and they would not miss it.

Winter has passed, and spring has come, and at this time it has been four months since the educated youth went to the countryside.

One afternoon, Wang Sihe suddenly told my father that there were a few new people in the spring, and I heard that they were some decentralized students, and now there are many decentralized students in our village.

My father didn't care when he heard this, what did it have to do with him, and continued to do his work. In the evening, when I went to the cafeteria to line up for dinner, Wang Sihe pointed to my father, "Those are the decentralized students who just came this afternoon." ”

My father turned his head and looked in the direction Wang Sihe pointed, a few people had already eaten and left, only to see their backs, a total of seven people, four men and three women, except for the clothes that were better than those worn by the people here, there was nothing.

After eating, my father and the two of them climbed to the mountain beam to play the erhu as usual, and when the two of them were facing the warm evening breeze, playing and singing, completely immersed in the music, a girl's angry voice suddenly came from the side: "What is your name!" ”