Tongyang Village was surrounded by mountains. It was a purely agricultural town with no mineral resources. The people made a living by farming. It was the poorest town in Nanyang County.
How poor was it? Not to mention the economic income, it could be seen from the appearance of the village. Walking into Wujiu Town, there were row upon row of small Western-style buildings. The streets were spacious and clean. The government building was grand. The villagers were well-dressed. Motorcycles and cars could be seen everywhere.
Looking at Tongyang Village, the streets were narrow and full of potholes. The only stretch of asphalt road led to the government building. The rest were dirt roads. Instead of motorcycles, there were ox-donkey carts and many rickshaws. The villagers were unkempt and dirty. Their clothes were dusty. Some even wore patched clothes. The government building was the only building in the village. It was built in the early 60s. It was dilapidated and crumbling. It had become a dangerous building. Fortunately, the blizzard had withstood it. Otherwise, there would be no office space.
Tongyang Village had almost no income. Its daily operations were funded by the higher-ups. If the higher-ups ran out of food, the government would have to close down. In fact, it was not that there was no source of income. The government had two important sources of income. One was to withdraw money, and the other was to collect fines for family planning. But the people were too poor to feed themselves. How could they have the money to pay the government?
Tongyang Village, where the government was located, was not seriously affected. However, many houses had collapsed. Liu Wenchuan, who walked out of the city, saw everything in front of him. His heart became heavy. When he was a reporter, he had visited many villages. However, it was his first time seeing such a dilapidated place like Tongyang Village.
Gao Bowen led the way. As he walked, he said, "Mayor Liu, you can see that Tongyang Village is very poor. The people are even poorer. Most of the houses were built after the founding of the People's Republic. Most of them were built in the 60s and 70s. This is the direct reason why the village suffered the most serious disaster."
Liu Wenchuan did not speak. He frowned and looked around. At this moment, an old man pulled a cart and walked over slowly. Seeing the person who looked like a leader walking over, he quickly stopped the cart and stood there timidly like a soldier.
Gao Bowen continued, "This snow disaster can be said to be a devastating blow. We were already poor, and now it's even worse. When we were settling them down, we couldn't even find a few decent houses. We had no choice but to ask the grain station to empty all the warehouses and let the disaster victims live there. "
Following Gao Bowen's finger, Liu Wenchuan saw rows of white painted cave dwellings on the hillside not far away. They were stacked like a human pyramid, and there were five or six rows of them. The roof of each row of cave dwellings was the courtyard of the cave dwellings above. The sides were filled with people of all ages and genders, looking at them as if they were visiting a zoo.
Liu Wenchuan was a reporter, so he had a unique sensitivity to news material. The scene in front of him was simply the best photo-realistic news. He was so excited that he forgot why he was there. He grabbed the camera from the hand of the accompanying reporter and ran around to find a suitable angle to take pictures of the cave. When the others saw this, they stood there dumbfounded, not knowing what was going on. Yang Derong and Gao Bowen looked at each other and revealed a thoughtful smile.
"Develop it for me later and give me the copy as well," Liu Wenchuan instructed as he returned the camera to the reporter.
When Liu Wenchuan and his group climbed up, the group of people scattered like frightened birds. Gao Bowen quickly explained, "Mayor Liu, please don't mind them. They're from the mountains and have never seen much of the world. They're all people who can't be seen in public."
Liu Wenchuan did not say anything and walked into one of the caves. When Gao Bowen saw this, he stopped him and said, "Mayor Liu, it's better if you don't go in. It's really …"
Liu Wenchuan ignored him and pushed Gao Bowen away and walked in. Gao Bowen had a helpless look on his face. He covered his nose and followed in.
When Liu Wenchuan entered, he was "knocked out" by the pungent smell. The smell of sweat, body odor, rotting food, and all sorts of other smells really shocked this city dweller. When he took a closer look, there was a row of bedding rolled out from east to west against the wall. It was like a horse and carriage shop. Some people were sitting there in hysteria, some women were breastfeeding their children without any taboo, some were lying there moaning, and some were squatting in a corner playing cards. All of them looked like frosted eggplants, dispirited and exhausted.
When he looked at the side of the window, bags of all sizes were piled up like a mountain. All kinds of shoes were thrown on the ground. The ground was a mess. There were sunflower seed shells, used toilet paper, and even children's feces. There was not even a place to stand. It was disgusting.
Liu Wenchuan had never seen such a scene before. He was at a loss. Fortunately, Gao Bowen came to the rescue in time. He walked to the front and clapped his hands. "Fellow villagers, Mayor Liu is here to visit everyone. Let us welcome him with a warm round of applause."
Another awkward silence. Other than the staff who accompanied Liu Wenchuan, none of the victims clapped. They looked at Liu Wenchuan with dull eyes filled with fear and distrust.
Liu Wenchuan wanted to give a passionate speech, but he could not get the approval of the crowd, so he gave up. Instead, he squatted down and touched the damp and thin bedding. Then, he reached under the bedding and touched the cold floor tiles. He turned around and asked Yang Derong, "County Yang, if the people can directly put their bedding on the ground, shouldn't they at least put a wooden plank under it? How can he stand such a cold day? "
Yang Derong looked at Gao Bowen. Gao Bowen immediately said, "Mayor Liu, it's like this. We didn't expect such a big disaster to happen. The county and village don't have enough supplies. We're urgently redistributing them these two days. In two days, we'll give them all wooden planks. "
"What about heating? This room is as cold as an icehouse. You should at least have a stove. Don't you see the children and the elderly? What if something happens to them? How are you going to explain it? "Liu Wenchuan said angrily.
Gao Bowen already had a plan. He explained, "Mayor Liu, this used to be a food storage area. You also know that we can't have any open fires in here, for fear of a fire. The good thing about a cave is that it's warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Look at this wall, it's two feet thick. With so many people in the room, it shouldn't be cold. "Then, he turned around and asked the crowd," Fellow villagers, are you cold? "
The people who suffered from the disaster were still numb. They didn't answer or nod.
Liu Wenchuan saw an old man gnawing on a hard bun. He asked, "Are you eating? How do you solve the problem of eating?"
Gao Bowen said, "This … let the people solve it themselves. We can't just do everything, right? There are too many people. We can't manage them all. "
Liu Wenchuan didn't say anything. He walked to the woman who was feeding the baby and squatted down. He smiled and touched the baby in his arms. The baby's red face was purple from the cold. His two black bean-like eyes were rolling around. He grabbed his mother's hair tightly with one hand, as if he was terrified of everything in front of him. After a while, he burst into tears.
"Big sister, is this child sick? I'm touching his forehead. It's very hot. "Liu Wenchuan asked anxiously.
The woman hugged the baby in her arms and turned her head away without saying anything.
Everyone seemed to have discussed it and chose to remain silent. Liu Wenchuan was puzzled. He got up and asked Yang Derong, "County Yang, where's your medical team? What if someone is sick?"
Yang Derong looked at Gao Bowen again. Gao Bowen stood in front of him and said, "Mayor Liu, there's a health center in the village. It's full of patients. Plus, there aren't many doctors. It's too busy. But don't worry, we'll make sure that everyone gets equal medical care. "
"If there aren't many doctors, we can transfer them from other places. How can this work?" Liu Wenchuan said angrily.
Gao Bowen nodded awkwardly. He thought to himself, "It's easy for you to say that. If you're so capable, you can do it."
Liu Wenchuan looked at a few rooms. They were all the same. He said angrily, "Let's go to Guiyu Village to take a look."
Yang Derong quickly said, "Mayor Liu, it's almost lunchtime. Why don't we go after lunch?"
"I'm not hungry. I'll go now." Liu Wenchuan walked away angrily.
The group arrived at Guiyu Village in a grandiose manner. Xu Qingshan, the deputy head of the county, was in charge of Guiyu Village. He was already waiting at the intersection.
Seeing the state of Tongyang Village, Liu Wenchuan did not have much hope for Guiyu Village. He walked forward unhappily. Xu Qingshan followed behind him and introduced, "Mayor Liu, Guiyu Village has resettled all the victims to Factory 114. This way, please."
Liu Wenchuan turned around and asked, "What's Factory 114?"
Xu Qingshan said, "The factory was originally a military communications factory. 114 was its serial number. After it was withdrawn, it was temporarily occupied by the agricultural machinery station. To protect the victims, it was all vacated."
"Oh."
When they arrived at the factory, the people were squatting under the eaves and eating from big bowls. They were all chatting and laughing, the complete opposite of Tongyang Village. Liu Wenchuan walked up to a fellow villager and saw that there were vegetables and meat in the bowl. It was quite a sumptuous meal. He asked curiously, "Fellow villager, did you make this yourself?"
The villager took a bite of a bun and said with a smile, "I didn't know how to cook. It was all done in the cafeteria."
Liu Wenchuan looked around and said, "Do you all eat in the cafeteria?"
"Yes," the crowd said in unison.
Liu Wenchuan could not help but look at Xu Qingshan a few more times.
Xu Qingshan immediately explained, "Mayor Liu, the people are not rich to begin with. Now that they've suffered a disaster, we can't treat them badly. I've asked all the staff of the village government to scrimp and save money for the people. We'll provide free food to the people. Although the food isn't good, we should at least let them eat their fill. "
At this moment, a member of the crowd stood up and said, "Leader, Mayor Xu is a very good person. Although we've suffered a disaster, we can feel the warmth of the party and the government. We eat and live well here."
Liu Wenchuan was touched and nodded. "As long as you eat and live well, I'm relieved." As he said that, he went into the room to take a look. There was a stove in the room, and it was warm. There were seven or eight bunks in the house. Although it was crowded, it was clean and very cozy. It was the complete opposite of Tongyang Village.
Liu Wenchuan excitedly urged the accompanying reporters, "Don't take pictures of what should be taken. This is such a good news image. Come, come, come, shoot here!"
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