Double-Cut During the War of Resistance: My Wife Came from 1937

After driving on the highway for forty minutes, we finally arrived at the north gate of the Hongqiqu Scenic Area in Rencun Town.

The car was parked in the parking lot, and Ma Hongwei went to buy tickets with his ID card.

Locals can get a ticket for 20 yuan, while regular tickets are 80 yuan for adults.

Children, seniors over 60, military personnel, firefighters, and people with disabilities are admitted free of charge.

"The tickets are bought, let's go in!"

After buying the tickets, Ma Hongwei led the group to follow the crowd and step onto a bridge shaped like a red ribbon.

Crossing this bridge will take you to the Hongqi Canal scenic area on the other side.

Once inside, Ma Hongwei said, "Big sister, you, your husband, Mom, and your two nephews, why don't you take the sightseeing bus up?"

"Otherwise, it would take a long time to walk from here to the Youth Cave, and there wouldn't be another chance to take a car along the way."

Ma Weihong said, "I'd like to take a walk too. Why don't you have your brother-in-law accompany Mother up in the car?"

"Okay, I'll stay with Mom. You two go have your fun. Call me if anything comes up!"

Li Jianguo nodded.

He had actually been here once before, and this time he just came along for a drive.

My mother-in-law, Zhang Aiying, isn't at the point where she can't walk anymore. I heard that an elevator has been installed now, so she can take it directly upstairs.

The ones who really need care are the two children; make sure they don't bump into others while being naughty.

The two sides parted ways at the entrance. Li Jianguo and Zhang Aiying led the two little children to board the sightseeing bus.

Ma Hongwei, Xia Weiwei, and Ma Weihong walked forward along the canal.

They arrived early, when the weather wasn't too hot yet, and there was a water channel nearby, with trees covering the mountain, which helped regulate the temperature.

Xia Weiwei looked at the gently flowing irrigation ditch beside her and said, "This ditch is quite wide!"

"After all, it used to supply drinking water and irrigation for the entire county, so the main canal is eight meters wide and the canal wall is 4.3 meters high."

Ma Hongwei explained, "However, as technology improved, many places started using groundwater pumped from wells. In fact, when I was a child, our village always used groundwater. The water from the Hongqi Canal was used for irrigation and washing clothes."

As they walked, Ma Hongwei explained to Xia Weiwei, "In October 1959, the Linxian County Committee held a meeting, and Secretary Yang of the County Committee issued a call to rearrange the landscape of Linxian. At that time, there were only 28 technicians and 3 million yuan in reserves. Later, other funding was allocated."

"The project started in February 1960 and continued until 1969. Ten thousand people from Linxian County worked hard in the Taihang Mountains for ten years, leveling 1250 hilltops, building 151 aqueducts, excavating 211 tunnels, and constructing 12408 various buildings. There were also many hydroelectric power stations and water pumping stations along the way."

"The main canal is 70.6 kilometers long. Including branch canals and irrigation ditches, the total length is 1500 kilometers, covering all villages in Linxian County."

There's a saying that if the soil and stones that were dug out back then were used to build a wall that's two meters wide and three meters high, it could stretch from Huacheng in Guangdong Province to Harbin in Heilongjiang Province.

"It was the older generation's struggle against nature and their determination to become modern-day Yu Gong that enabled them to complete such a great project, solving the drinking water problem for 56.7 people and 37 livestock in Linxian County."

"It was precisely because the drought-stricken farmland was irrigated that the grain yield increased from less than 100 jin per mu to 400 jin per mu, solving not only the problem of drinking water but also the problem of food."

Xia Weiwei couldn't help but exclaim, "That's truly amazing!"

"That's amazing!"

Ma Hongwei also sighed with emotion: "You know, back then, when New China was only ten years old, it was a time of extreme poverty and backwardness. We didn't have as much industry and machinery as we have now."

"The entire Hongqi Canal project was completed entirely by manpower. At that time, the country was in the midst of three years of hardship. The people not only did not ask for payment, but also brought their own bran and coarse grains, living on cliffs and in open-air thatched huts, doing hard labor all day long."

"Back then, the cement, explosives, and lime were all made locally, rather than everything being provided to us."

"They are not thinking about waiting for handouts, but about letting their generation endure the hardships and resolutely not leaving such difficulties to future generations."

"In the past, although the people were very poor, they had a spirit that later generations did not have."

"Back then, there was a popular folk song: 'There is no Jade Emperor in heaven, no Dragon King on earth, I am the Jade Emperor, I am the Dragon King, I command the three mountains and five peaks to clear the way, I am coming!'"

Ma Hongwei continued, "At the time of the Red Flag Canal construction site, it was impossible to distinguish between cadres and ordinary people."

"Because the work is all the same, even the county party secretary and county head still have to do hard labor on the construction site, and their skin gets tanned dark all over."

"Back then, the cadres didn't have any airs of officialdom. They ate, lived, worked, discussed, and studied with the people. It was because of their leadership that the people were able to work so enthusiastically, and they were not afraid of any hardship or fatigue, nor would they back down."

Since the advent of the "money-first, money-making" mentality, people's thinking has undergone a tremendous change, becoming more selfish and worshipping money.

Capitalists have become "fathers" in the mouths of certain groups, and the sons of capitalists have become "national husbands".

Don't they know that 996 is precisely the "blessing" that these people advocate?

Instead, when parents see migrant workers and street cleaners, they say to their children, "If you don't study hard, you'll end up like them when you grow up."

His words were rife with discrimination and contempt towards workers and farmers.

The status of workers as the elder brother and the worker-peasant alliance has completely disappeared.

National model workers have gone from being like Shi Chuanxiang, who shoveled manure, and Wang Jinxi, a worker at Daqing Oilfield, to Xu Pidai, who owes more than 2 trillion yuan and has left behind 1300 unfinished projects in more than 280 cities.

In pursuit of profit, people are willing to abandon their conscience and produce things like cardboard shoes, toxic capsules, Sanlu tainted milk powder, clenbuterol, and gutter oil.

There are also certain groups that forcibly seize and plunder, taking away Prince Milk and buying 8 million yuan worth of shares in a school in Hengshi for only 2 yuan.

It's worth noting that the middle school is valued at over 2 billion yuan and generates over 200 million yuan in profit annually.

However, selfishness and indifference are also ways of protecting oneself.

Otherwise, doing a good deed, like helping an elderly person, will be turned into, "Why did you help them if you didn't hit them?"

Or perhaps he went into the water to save a woman, only to be dragged into the water and killed by her.

Even after rescuing someone, some groups will still say, "Were you trying to save someone or take advantage of them? Why are you touching them like that?"

When the risks of doing good deeds are extremely high, it becomes difficult for people to "sacrifice themselves (or their own interests)" to do good deeds.