Li Man, the "foolish husband" of Azure Dragon Laogou Village: planting Green barren Mountains for 36 years

After a moderate rain, the mountains and ridges of Laogou Village, Qinglong Manchu Autonomous County are full of vitality, chestnut trees and apple trees are like green belts wrapped around the mountains.

As usual, Li Man, 62, came to the green hills of Dongzigou in the village to maintain more than 150 newly planted apple saplings. "This is planted this year. Although it's small now, it's growing fast. In another three to five years, it'll bear a lot of fruit." Looking at the small saplings growing well, he smiled comfortably.

Not only the more than 150 apple trees in front of him, but also the chestnut trees, apple trees, hawthorn trees, pear trees and walnut trees all over the mountain behind him are the accumulation of his 36 years of hard work like Yu Gong.

? Must wear green clothes on barren hills

Laogou Village is located in the depth of Qinglong Mountain, with deep mountain ditch and less than 4 points of cultivated land per capita. Villagers live on grain sales for a long time. After the implementation of the household contract responsibility system, the village will contract flat land and barren hills and operate separately. In order to let the whole family have enough to eat, Li Man turned his eyes to the bare mountains: "There are few flat lands in the village, many barren hills, and the way out is to reforest the barren hills." Even if we only plant 100 trees a year, we can still make a living in a few decades." He made up his mind: open up wasteland and reforestation!

The idea is certain, Li Man did not even say hello to his wife Liu Guirong on the mountain. No, since 1980, it has been 36 years.

Laogou Village has high mountains and steep slopes. Under the thin soil layer is hard stone. Because he was not familiar with the "temperament" of the mountain, Li Man fell for the first time. After digging for a day, he only dug an area the size of a kang, but he was almost exhausted.

"Why don't you stop digging? When is the end?" The next morning, looking at Li Man who was going up the mountain again, his wife advised him. "What do you know? This is the condition of the village. If you don't dig, I won't dig. When is the end of poverty? If you don't plant trees, what will the children eat and drink in the future?" After saying this, Li Man went up the mountain again.

Picking mountains is physical work, and you can't be lazy at all. Each tree pit needs to be dug up with a pick, then broken into small stones with a hammer and a hammer, and then built up little by little to form stone walls around the mountain. After the stone wall was erected, it had to find soil everywhere and fill it up. Only then did the tree pit take shape. Because of the steep slope of the barren hills, only one row of trees can be planted on the land surrounded by a stone wall. Up to now, more than 6,000 trees have survived, which he built with hundreds of thousands of stones. The most worrying thing is watering, you have to go to the ravine one bucket at a time to lift it. "The water in the ditch is as thin as a child's pee." It takes a long time to fill a bucket, and then carefully lift it up the mountain a little bit to water the trees to keep them alive.

36 years, more than 13,000 days, how long days are spent day by day, only Li Man himself knows. Spring, cold spring, take out pick, shovel dry not for a while, hands were blown all mouth. In summer, there is no place to rest on the mountain. When the sun shines, the whole body is like fire. The water brought from home is drunk up in a few mouthfuls. Finally, the root of the tongue is as dry as a wooden nail. Autumn is the busiest time of the year. The crops at home have to be harvested. When they are empty, they have to dig mountains. They are busy on both sides and there is no spare time. Enter winter, ice and snow, people stay outside for a while to freeze into a popsicle. Even so, Li Man also persisted, he said rural people are not afraid of these, swing a few picks on the body warm.

Although it was hard to dig mountains, Li Man got used to it after a long time. What he couldn't stand most was that in order to buy saplings and fertilizer, his family owed more than 20,000 yuan in foreign debt. At the time, it was an astronomical figure, and it was so overwhelming that he could not breathe. In order to make the forest early into scale, there is output, Li Man worked harder, the mountain jingling sound also louder.

The good days at home now are all created by him bit by bit.

No pain, no gain. After enduring the most difficult years, Li Man was finally able to catch his breath. After careful management, saplings grow up one after another, one autumn, red apples, golden chestnut canopy hanging all over the branches, they use the most charming colors to dye the once barren hills.

By this year, Li Man has planted more than 6000 fruit trees of various kinds. The fruit trees extend from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain. There are dozens of layers, which has become the most reliable and stable source of income for the family.

Li Man left a thousand fruit trees for himself and his wife, earning more than 20,000 yuan a year and living a surplus. Li Man handed the fruit trees to his two sons to take care of."Young people are smart and learn new technologies quickly. If I hand them over, I won't worry about it. I'll go dig mountains." Li Man handed happiness to his children, which was also his original intention to persist over the years.

Taking over the family business from their father, the two children naturally knew the weight of it. They tied themselves to the mountain every day, pulling branches, watering and caring carefully.

A penny for a penny. Last year alone, Li Man's family earned 150,000 yuan from selling all kinds of fruits. Through several years of accumulation, my son's family has built new houses and bought cars. His life is no worse than that of city people.

? Example drives every household to plant trees on the mountain

Spring breeze and rain moisten things silently. Li Man's 36 years of persistence and dedication, the villagers saw in their eyes. Everyone followed his example and began to dig mountains and plant trees. The barren hills of Laogou Village were gradually covered with green.

Cheng Shuqing, secretary of the village party branch, said: "Li Man is an example and drives everyone. Now every household plants trees on the mountain. Forest and fruit industry has become a rich industry in the village. Now there are 1,000 chestnut trees and 500 apple trees per household in the village."

Li Jiang, a villager, followed Li Man to dig mountains and plant trees earlier. Now there are more than 2,000 chestnut trees and apple trees. Last autumn, he earned more than 30,000 yuan from selling fruits. He said: "This is better than doing anything. There is income every year and income can be increased every year. The common people don't want this!"

Picking mountains and planting trees made the people of Laogou Village taste sweet. "The air and water in our remote mountain valley are not polluted. The soil is sandy and porous. Every autumn, when the fruit is planted, five or six groups of old customers come to buy it. Supply exceeds demand." Apple prices were generally not good last year, but apples in Laogou Village sold for 4 yuan per kilogram, and the village sold more than 500,000 kilograms in total.