The last river

Once again, I came to the town in the late afternoon in the spring breeze. Dense clouds were coalescing in the western sky, and the sun was shining through its gaps, painting the town's largest intersection with a stream of vehicles of all colors in a golden glow, like a Buddhist scene. When the green light came on across the street, I cautiously crossed the national highway to the sidewalk on the east side of the provincial highway. A refreshing coolness reminded me that the Back River was at my feet. As the name of the Back River prompted me to imagine the flowing waterfall and the lush forest, my mind wrapped itself around its subtext, such as "jade ribbon" or myrrh.

I saw the brilliant golden light again, this time through the willows dotted or blooming with goose yellow, the strong reflection of the light on the clear sparkling water, they shimmered in the eyes and fell between the arms and fingers, not in the distance, but on the highway bridge around and beneath my feet, only it requires the posture of balking and the imagination of the Buddha's scene. That's right, Buddha said, let go, you can forget everything, and you can see everything. The bridge is full of vehicles, large and small cars vying to move forward, taking away the goose yellow in the piece of brilliant gold, the river under the bridge inadvertently, slow and hard to embrace me.

Both banks to the east of the dense non-stop goose yellow and dotted with red, prolonged my thinking time, but also make my eyes interested in expanding towards these thick goose yellow and dotted with red. However, weeping willows form a sparse barrier, there is a size of the water flowing in the concrete dam not far from the bridge, as if more than a dozen snow cascades flowing or pouring, these are sunken in the quiet colors of time, from a voluminous snow cascade, dissecting the inner pages of the blowing spring breeze. As the river flowed westward, I stepped off the highway bridge and walked along the south bank of the river in the direction of the current, on the freshly built red brick walkway.

The newly rebuilt river curves and winds eastward, and the banks are neatly built with granite blocks, encompassing the great water flowing from the hills and ravines east of town. Fly the two banks of the two three-hole stone arch bridge is not far from the east and west, not only to facilitate the passage of people on both sides of the river, but also to show the newly repaired river and the grandeur. Bridge piers, stone arches and bridge parapets, steps on top of each other, a few strokes, to outline the northern water village of the ingenuity. The turf on the slope has not yet returned to green, some have already awakened, flooded with green inlaid in the hovering willow crown, echoing the call of goose yellow.

The red brick walkway stretched forward under the support of the greenery around it, and the red embellishments that I saw just now became clear: the beauty plum in bloom and the red lanterns that people hang on the branches of the weeping willow during the Chinese New Year. The right side of the greenery is planted with a number of shrubs and small trees at different levels, and the lime painted on the thin poles is bright white, and the red-leaved heather is leading me forward side by side, watching the river sparkle and the willow branches flutter, and my mind is open all the way.

The river was swept up by the wind set off a fine ripple, clear water has been aware of spring water plants and duckweed by these ripples all pushing, the heart of the wave has resisted the quiet little turbulence, after the second stone arch bridge, and a cement palisade dam across the front, the palisade in the strip of water cascading white waves, in the reverse of my forward walk beside the cascade down, the sound of clattering and neat, it and their own echoes staggered, and should be, combined into Polyphonic polyphony. The river turned and became more open along the forward trail, the heavy colors of the heather leaves and willow trunks constantly gulping at the white waves of the water cascading in close observation, the sound of the water cascading in no way diminished.

The trail followed the river as I turned to walk south, and the river became more green, with dense patches of water plants stretching forward and two or three gray ducks, led by a white goose, moving through it with ease, idly flapping their wings with water droplets for a while, and then diving under the water plants like a display of talent to create a huge halo of water and ripples. When the river turns to the east again, the last concrete palisade dam not far away, another highway bridge is presented, the same three-hole stone arch bridge but stands on the white iron fence, the river water in the three-hole bridge to the concrete palisade dam cascade down.

These water is from the town east of the hills and gullies, the road bridge in front of me, was just replaced by the one after the river, has long lost its status, because it can not reach the town south of the county and doubly desolate. The red brick walkway has disappeared, I stood back from the turf to the walkway, my eyes regained the color of the river, the white waterfall of the cement pallet clattered, there was water flow, close to the blue of the sky, close to the green of the water plants, I was eager to approach, so I came to the cement pallet dam, standing on the cement square pallet bent down, cupped with both hands, with the naked eye Sheng Na, stored in the body rushing.

In the many quiet nights I passed away from the town, I heard the turbulence of the many waters inside me, flowing over and over, like a thought that would not go away, and this turbulence may come from the strong sound of the white waterfall of the pallet dam. Does the rushing of flowing over and flowing past constitute a low temptation that was put on my mind, forcing me to return to the town repeatedly, and even more so as soon as I returned to the town, I chose to wander the back river as a necessary factor. I thus seemed to perceive the source of the strong voice of White Falls.

After the river with the will to live and run, holding the courage not to stop until the town, from the gullies of the years left and right bravely forward, it carries the reflection of the town's history rushing and tumbling, see the town's prosperity and decline, but also tasted the town's sweet and sour and bitter. It crosses the town hundreds of years of human fireworks, writing the very trajectory of the town's development, is also my understanding of its cultural significance through the heart of the town. After the river presents the cultural depth, reflecting the degree of civilization of the town.

Day by day, after the accumulation of a string of memories of the river's spirit, cultured the town's cultural character and historical temper. After the river is called after the river, is what I have been thinking, perhaps the town's former village, a river flowing from the back of the village, the village people are accustomed to call it after the river. And the word "after", in the town's customs and "thick" meaning, thick and honest river to bring the town nearly a thousand years of well-being. If you can go back to the past, standing in the old highway bridge south of the town to look east, is the town waist cut into two halves of the North and South after the river, to this day the town still has a former village, after the East, after the West and West Village, I think it is named in reference to it.

After the river in the town became unusually open, north and south of the width of more than 100 meters, both sides of the bank embankment as high as the wall, the house above the height of the staggered, hutong bend through the quiet. This open river, almost bare all year round, only a gurgling stream, bending in the middle of the riverbed, coarse-grained sandy beach ochre red ochre flat, with a hand digging, there is a water spring out. Where the water is wide, people use purple and red stone slabs, built a diffuse water bridge to be able to pass north and south. Here, this is where the town's big fair was held back then.

Wang Renzhi and after the river has an inseparable relationship, his footprints left on both sides of the river, but also left the heart of the river. In the early thirties of the last century, in the back of the south bank of the river was the town of the early Qing dynasty Guandi Temple, Liu Harmony and teacher instructed by the Lin Tan County Committee, found progressive students Wang Renzhi, Xue Han Ding, Li Bannong, Xia Xiling secret talks, the establishment of the CPC Banquan party branch, Wang Renzhi as party branch secretary, Xue Han Ding as a traffic member, Xia Xiling as the organization member, this is the first party branch in Junan County, from then on the revolutionary fire from From then on, the fire of the revolution spread from both sides of the Houhe River to the land of Junan on the banks of the Shushi River.

Houhe will not forget that in the evening of December 19, 1941, from the district office on the south bank of the Houhe River, led the district armed forces, the mountain column of the Second Brigade, the Fifth Regiment, Third Battalion, Ninth Company, First Platoon, and armed to the teeth with a full coalition of ghosts, bravely rescued the villagers of Yuziya who had tenaciously resisted the attack of the ghosts and shed their last drop of blood and died in a heroic death, the district governor Feng Gan San, district party secretary Liu Xinyi, district party propaganda Member Zhao Tong, seriously wounded county party propaganda minister Xu Tan ......

Houhe will not forget that the commune secretary named Wang Zhanhe, he put "hard work, selfless dedication" personal character into the Houhe, into the blood of Banquan, the 1970s held in the north bank of the Houhe commune at the meeting of the three levels of cadres, the continuous blowing of the construction of "commune hall, forked river bridge, Zhushan reservoir, the construction of the commune". River bridge, Zhushan reservoir, red stone ridge 6000 mu of terraced fields, to the Yang Lake 5000 mu of large cottage fields" five major projects, changed the face of Banquan, generations for the benefit of Banquan.

Generation after generation, after the river through how many hills and ravines, breaking through how much hardship and obstruction, unswervingly reaching into the town to roll up how many moving waves.

After the river will not forget the people and things there are many. It is said that the north cliff of the river has a spring that gushes day and night, spurting water into the river, the town's people rely on it to drink, wash vegetables or laundry, but the construction of that old highway bridge, despite the villagers to preserve the spring of life, but still be mercilessly buried under the bridge, the villagers can only rely on well water or water in the river after the drinking water. This spring is also the basis for the town's name. According to some information, the town was severely affected by the 1668 earthquake during the Kangxi period in the Qing Dynasty, and later reorganized its address, because the town broke the soil is a stone slab, the town has a spring of water in the Shiwang cliff, so the name was changed to Banquan cliff.

The former village has an old street that extends by the river, starting from the blacksmith store and barber store beside the highway in the west village, and after the tall houses with green brick walls and glazed roofs and the Zhang family Chinese medicine store, it bends to the east and crosses a sandy highway and extends outside the town. The back river is close to the north side of the old street, there are a lot of hutongs of different widths and the old street connected, walk down the bank with steps of the slope, is the bottom of the back river. The old street and the back river cooperate with each other and form the core of the town's big market.

This tall house is a book and stationery store, the door opens to the north, there are two doors in the east and west, three floor-to-ceiling windows at intervals, the door is a double door made of nan wood, painted with sky blue lacquer, the door panel is extra thick, the door nose is tiger head-like. It is said to have been the mansion of a wealthy family before the liberation, and was returned to the public during the rent and interest reduction movement, and was used as a district office for a while. This mansion is not far to the east, there is a private house next to the north of the street was used as a clinic, the door building on the left side of the fence hung a wooden sign painted with white lacquer, painted with a striking red cross, the following written in ink "Zhang family Chinese medicine", once the old street people are sick, although the town has a branch of the county hospital, but this is the most comfortable for them The place.

Nearly a thousand meters long old street curved and cramped, was the former village of the north and south of the house sandwiched, and the derivation of a small curved hutong mixed with the houses, the street north of the river, the street south of the village to the former half of the village, if the old street is the former village of arteries, then they are the former village of capillaries. Hutongs in the old street, as fine as the trunk of the tree. Intermittent appearance of the hutong, to the old street delivered cool oxygen, hutong so that the old street pedestrians in the cramped space and time constantly get surprised, feel vivid.

When I graduated from high school and left town to study abroad, I came back and saw that the riverbed of the back river started to become shallow, the tall banks on both sides were gone, the sludge blocked the highway bridge holes, I could no longer hear the gurgling of the river, the garbage and weeds soiled the sandy beach on the riverbed, the big fair could not appear on the riverbank, it was moved to the poplar forest outside the town on the sandy highway east. The people of the town turned away from it and ridiculed it as the town's "Long Shu Ditch". Back River alone sad, crying day and night, but always longing for a new life, longing for the old to become a new face.

In 2015, the boom, as the construction of the town of Xiuzhuan after the river supporting the comprehensive management project kicked off. This is a phased construction project, clearing sludge, dredging the river; attracting live water, planting greenery; building arched bridges, building dams; building walkways, building terraces ...... after the river in the roar of the machine woke up leisurely, after five or six years of efforts, after the river in the era of the rolling torrent of the rebirth of the fire, become the Xiuquan town residential area The "back garden", not only is the community residents of the leisure park, but also the town people walking and playing a good place.