[Chinese Story].
Author: Hu Meiying (Chairman of Gansu Jiayuguan Writers Association).
The snow-capped Hexi Corridor is like a river rolled by waves, and the mighty white waves are surging and surging, surging from the west of the Yellow River at this end of the corridor to the ...... on the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at the other end of the corridor
One. Cattle and sheep are snow running on the Hexi Plateau.
The Hexi Plateau I am talking about here is the Hexi Corridor area from Lanzhou to the west. I've been living on the plateau, and this is something that suddenly dawned on me on my way back from an eastward trip. After the car passed Xi'an, it has been climbing, especially when passing through Wusheling Ridge, the car panted and climbed up a hurdle with a heavy load, and the temperature in the car also dropped suddenly, and then it stabilized, all the way to the west, running on the plateau. Geographically speaking, the Hexi Corridor belongs to the second stage of China's topography, and most of them are plateau landforms. It's just that staying here for a long time always makes me forget the concept of the plateau.
The snow of "Niu Yang Saidao" starts from the Xixiulong grassland between Wusheling and Maya Snow Mountain. In summer, snow-like alpine fine-wool sheep and white yaks roll among the green grass, looking from afar, like a ball of snow running in the grass, they run, run, like a ray of light, crossing to the west end of the Hexi Corridor, connecting with the snow-capped mountains, like white notes, jumping in the Gobi, desert, grassland flowing in the sunshine.
Walking in the Hexi Corridor, I often encounter sheep and camels running like this, they are scattered in the vast Gobi, like snow falling in the blazing sun, and the thirsty earth immediately has the sound of water flowing. Water seems to emerge from the boundless wilderness, and perhaps the sheep and camels themselves are the sowers of water, leaving traces of water wherever they walk.
Sheep and camels lie on the colorful Danxia Mountain, lazily basking in the sun, like a snow sculpture lying on the top of the mountain, slowly melt into the mountain, on the red mountain bag, there are plants dripping with green sap, bright green and vivid. The swaying old shepherd, like the king of Danxia Mountain, has a rough face printed with the black and red lines of Danxia Mountain, as if a slight pinch will drop off the red ballast; He and his flock, crossing every river that can be crossed, climbing every mountain that can be crossed, like the descendants of the ancient Huns or the Yueshi people, grazing in the mountains and rivers in the west, living a free and easy nomadic life.
Under the midday sun, sheep and camels nest on the beach at the source of the Shule River, like snowdrifts rolling down from the Qilian Mountains, lying quietly between the snow-capped mountains and the river. It is not difficult for us to imagine that in the vast wind and snow, they carry a body of snowflakes to the depths of the Qilian Mountains, just like a group of walking snow walking towards the snow-capped mountains - all the creatures in the Hexi Corridor are coming from the wind and snow!
Outside the car window, a flock of sheep like a river walked through the white meadows, glowing with water. The flock of sheep in late autumn appears and disappears in the ears of white grass, like a layer of frost flowers falling from the years.
Illustration: Guo Hongsong.
Two. I am a bird living in the Hexi Plateau, looking at this flat area, looking at the road in front of the locust tree in front of my house, watching the scenery of flax flowers blooming, wheat seedlings growing, and white grass flying.
When I was young and ignorant, I came to the Hexi Corridor from the southern water town. At that time, sitting in front of the window of the green train, I saw the gray Gobi Desert where there were bursts of white grass and white grass ears every other section, and I couldn't wait to turn the sorrow in my head into rain. I want the raindrops to fall so that the dry land is wet.
In the years of my life, I have spent more than half of my time in this Hexi Corridor. I often sit in front of the train window, looking back and forth at this corridor with little trees and grass. After walking a lot, I smelled the breath of "father's grassland and mother's river" from this corridor, and the sadness and helplessness of Panyu slowly turned into heart-rending pain. The pain is like looking at a field of crops and being depressed because the weather is dry and there is no water and no harvest.
This is a dry river that runs across the western land, and it needs to rely on natural rains to bring everything back to green. In this barren land, there are traces of tens of thousands of troops led by Dou Rong, a famous minister of the Han Dynasty, and thousands of large wooden wheeled vehicles, right? As early as the Han Dynasty, Dou Rong integrated the forces of the five counties of Jiuquan, Zhangye, Jincheng, Dunhuang, and Wuwei, avoided the raids of the Xiongnu, and pacified the local power in the Western Regions. The people of Hexi are simple, Dou Rong is tolerant and peaceful, and the people in the interior have come to Hexi to escape the war, and Dou Rong's strength has increased rapidly. According to historical records, in the eighth year of the Eastern Han Dynasty (32 AD), Liu Xiuqin conquered Kui, and Dou Rong led tens of thousands of troops and more than 5,000 baggage vehicles of the Taishou of the five counties, the vassals of the Qiang nationality, and the Xiaoyue clan of the Western Regions, and more than 5,000 baggage vehicles, to join Liu Xiujun in Gaoping. In the twelfth year of the Eastern Han Dynasty (36 AD), Dou Rong and others went to Luoyang, and the horses, cattle and sheep driven on the road were all over the mountains, and there were more than 4,000 horses only used to pull the cart. More than a dozen kilometers, or even dozens of kilometers, horse-drawn convoys pass by here, the earth and rocks rolling, the grass and trees produce smoke, and the sand and dust in the sky are kicked.
Some of the low plants lying in the pebble pile, as if they were not born to be green and luxuriant, they are prostrate as if they are ready to migrate to the river at any time, and the sound of rain can be heard in their dreams.
The Hexi Corridor may be the passage that Lü Guang (later the King of Houliang) brought back from Qiuzi after a trek of 100,000 troops, 20,000 camels, and more than 10,000 horses? In the eighth year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (383 AD), Fu Jian appointed Lü Guang as an envoy to lead the elite soldiers and set out to conquer the Western Regions. Lü Guang set out from Chang'an, passed through the Hexi Corridor, went out of Yumen Pass, entered the Western Regions, and broke the allied forces such as Qiuzi, and surrendered everywhere he passed. In 385 AD, Lü Guang led his army back to the east.
Historically, this kind of scene of military horses rumbling through the Hexi Corridor has never stopped. At that time, the livestock, on this big channel, galloped vertically and horizontally, east and west, like snowflakes in the depths of history, falling mightily on the Hexi Plateau. The cattle are surging like snow in front of them, so turbulent that they can conquer cities and swallow mountains and rivers.
Three. Drive through Wuwei and enter a section of Danxia landform. Shandan is located in a large alluvial fan between Qilian Mountain and Longshou Mountain, the water and grass are luxuriant, the green field is vast, "the ancients graze here, the cattle and sheep swim away, the horses gallop, like a blizzard". As a result, a song known to women and children, "Losing my Yanzhi Mountain, making my women colorless; Losing my Qilian Mountain, so that my six animals do not rest", the "Hun Song" has been passed down to this day.
Outside the car window in front of me, thousands of miles of snowfield, reckless and vast, the Great Wall of Han and Ming Dynasty is like two teams of camel teams side by side, flashing out of the car window; Alternate time and space also flashed out of the car window.
I've seen "blizzard-like" horses! At the beginning of autumn that year, I went to Shandan Racecourse to see the fierce horses. The car rushed forward like the wind in the grassland, and the vast sky and earth stretched out like water. The prairie was full of small pale blue, crimson, and yellow flowers that I could not name, swaying gently in the breeze; The horses lay leisurely on the grass, or lay down, or stand, or look up, silently without making a sound. Occasionally, a flock of cloud-like sheep "flowed" in front of the car as if no one was around. Suddenly, a group of horses came from a mountain, and the sound shook the sky, like a blizzard, bringing a majestic atmosphere of "Tianma Lai, from the West Pole, wading through quicksand"!
Such a "blizzard" drifted across the grasslands of the Han Dynasty. Huo Quai, a hussar general of the Western Han Dynasty, introduced excellent horse breeds from the Western Regions and bred Shandan horses. Since then, flocks of sheep, horses and camels have continued to breed on this grassland, falling on the grassland like heavy snow after snow.
Such a "blizzard" drifted through the meadows of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and in the more than ten years after the end of the "Five Cool Disputes" in Hexi, there were as many as 2 million horses, 1 million camels and countless cattle and sheep; Such a "blizzard" drifted through the grasslands of the Tang Dynasty, during which the grasslands of the Qilian Mountains, including the Damaying grassland, raised more than 70,000 horses; Such a "blizzard" in the Ming and Qing dynasties of the grassland has to be raised, during the reign of Ming Hongzhi, the grassland area reached more than 13 million acres, more than 40,000 horses, the Qing court set up a horse camp pier garrison here, stationed troops to raise horses, in order to protect the border defense, to the Daoguang period, raise tens of thousands of horses ......
These herds of horses, camels, cattle and sheep are the fluttering snow scattered on the Hexi Plateau for centuries, which breed in the grassland and nourish the grassland like rain and snow. Just like the plants and trees on the earth, every living creature is born from the water and soil, and conserves the ecological environment. Just like this world, any landform is a miracle of nature, and every plant and animal has its best state and way of survival.
When I first came to Hexi, I was afraid to smell the dust in the air every spring. Until one day, I saw a sandstorm. The wind and sand are like a yellow snow curtain in the sky, slowly falling, covering the lilac buds that have just emerged with a thin layer of sand, like covering a layer of soil. When the flower buds smile in such "soil", "bang", spring begins to make trouble, and the world laughs, this is the unique spring of the Great Northwest.
Shop. Xingdu Si Zhi said: "Five miles down the mountain, fifteen miles away, there is a fort city, the land lives in the mountains, and the road leads to the first line." At the foot of the Wusheling Ridge, the vast white grass spikes fluttered like snow in the Hexi ......Corridor of the "First-line Road".
At the foot of the Horsetooth Snow Mountain, the continuous ears of white grass cheered and jumped outside the car window, as if countless arms were waving vigorously towards me, and like a surging wave rushing down the hillside.
After a week of wandering in the ravines and ravines of the Loess Plateau facing the southern part of the Wusheling Mountains, I returned to the Hexi Corridor. What I didn't expect was that my heart seemed to be grabbed by these cheering arms, and the blood around me boiled instantly, and tears instantly welled up in my eyes. I have lived in the Hexi Corridor for a long time, the blazing sun, the Great Gobi, and the Qilian Mountains get along with me day and night, when I am happy, they smile at me, when I am bored, I look at them, and they smile at me. Walking on the loose and dry sand of the Hexi Corridor, the rising sand grains are like talking elves, whispering to me about the joy of walking.
The wind blowing from Badain Jarin and the wind blowing from Lop Nur blew up the snow particles sprinkled and gathered into a white, soft quilt covering the Hexi Corridor. Most of the snow in the Hexi Corridor falls quietly in the middle of the night, falling unassumingly and carelessly, so that everyone has a complete heaven and earth in their hearts.
The snow falls on the west corridor of the river, and there is a sense of leisure and Zen. Falling snow is a very grand event for the people of the Hexi Corridor: "It's snowing, it's snowing, do you see snow?" "A snow will make the people of the entire Hexi Corridor excited; The news of a snow will spread from one end of the corridor to the other end of the corridor, and at midnight, there are still people excitedly posting on Moments, and the snow in those ** will fall into everyone's hearts and will nourish the whole winter.
The thin layer of snow falling on the ground seems to apply a faint layer of pink to the simple mountains and rivers. The grass on the ground, like white arms, is constantly waving. These grasses, which grow on slightly alkaline grassland flats and sandy soil slopes, form open salinized meadows in low-lying river valleys, dry river beds, lakes, river banks, etc. It has a strong root system, is drought-tolerant, salt-alkali tolerant, and prefers sandy soils in saline-alkali flats with groundwater, mainly growing on slightly alkaline grasslands and sandy soils at an altitude of 900 meters to 4500 meters, and is also distributed in the lower humid alkaline plains and even on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at an altitude of 5000 meters.
In the more than 1,000-kilometer-long Hexi Corridor, the grass is like an intermittent river, constantly spreading and flowing, in the places where the Shiyang River, the Heihe River and the Shule River flow, and at the edge of some wetlands, the boundless white grass is surging like a surging tide. Those who have traveled long distances and those who have lost their way will find villages with plenty of water to rest and stare.
Walking forward on the grass, the sand rising is like flying snow particles. Walking like this, a dream was born in my heart, and the dream went all the way along the direction of the growth of the weed, and walked all the way, to Lop Nur, to the Mediterranean Sea, to the distance where heaven and earth meet, and in the depths of the distance was the great African meadow infested with bison, wild sheep and wild camels, and the white grass in the meadow swayed like the end of the world.
Even the white grass and cold sand are far away, and the road winds around the Yellow Cloud Monuments. "Standing in the vast desert Gobi, there can be a big river in your heart that goes to the east and a big river flows west; There can be rain to hit plantains, fishing boats to sing late; There can also be thousands of winds and snow, grasslands and boundless ......
Five. The roots of the grass are very drought tolerant, and after a month or two in the sun, as long as it is not completely dry, it can still germinate when buried in the soil. The old farmer told me that the herb is still a Chinese herbal medicine, and the flowers and seeds are dried in summer and autumn, which can cause some diseases.
As early as the Han Dynasty, there was a record of the grass in China, which was called "white grass" at that time. "Hanshu Western Regions Biography" contains: "The country produces jade, many reeds, tamarix, hutong, and white grass. Yan Shigu said in the "Notes on the Book of Han": "The white grass is like a grass and fine, without mang, when it is dry, it is white, and cattle and horses love it." "In early spring, the young and tender grass is a delicious feed for cattle and sheep; In autumn, they flutter in the wind, their stalks are tough, and the grass leaves are long and smooth, making them extremely useful fiber plants. It can be used for paper and rayon, and can also be used to weave baskets, make curtains, brooms, etc.; After the leaves are soaked in water, the toughness is very great, and they can be used as grass ropes; It can also improve saline-alkali land and maintain water and soil.
On the streets, I have seen baskets and baskets woven by old women from white straw stalks, which are very delicate, like handicrafts, and I don't want to put them down when I hold them in my hands. When asked how much it was, the old woman replied, "Ten dollars." Without hesitation, I bought several of them and went home, as if I were carrying bundles of fluttering white grass in my hand. Today, straw weaving is an intangible cultural heritage, and it is not only back in our lives, but also hangs on the wall for people to enjoy.
There is snow, and there is the Hexi Corridor! The corridor in the heavy snow, like a sea running through the east and west, is spread at the foot of the Qilian Mountain, swinging in the long wind. On snowy nights, everyone has a long corridor. The snow, paved into a long roll of silk, like a long white hada, gently tied around the neck of the western land, fell silently, and also fell on the serenity of the land.
In such snowy weather, the world is only me and snow. The snow was falling quietly outside the house, and I watched quietly inside the house. The snow without the sound of the wind is like an old friend who suddenly visits. Although we were silent, my heart warmed as I boiled a pot of steaming tea in front of the window, listened quietly to the snow falling, and listened to the snow gently tell me.
At night, in the midst of the wind and snow, I returned to my home in the middle of the Hexi Corridor. The city is like a small boat buried in a snowdrift, motionless. It's snowing, it's a ...... of snow that hasn't been seen in yearsPeople cheered on their phones, and the cheers were heard from one end of the hallway to the other end of the ......
Those who built the Great Wall, the people who walked around the ancient silk road, those who shed blood and sacrificed for ......the revolution, and the people who smelted iron and steel in the Gobi Desert were like flying snowflakes, rising and spinning in my thoughts, and my memories became vivid again
On the snowy Hexi Corridor, I am a bird that walks through the past and the present, sometimes like a gulls and herons on an ancient beach, sometimes like a gray magpie in the snow-capped desert, and sometimes like a little sparrow in the snowflake curtain, standing on the branches full of snow particles, looking at the snowflakes in the vast sky in a daze—what a beautiful snow......
*: Guangming Network - "Bright **".