Lijia Zhuangtou, referred to as Zhuangtou Village, is located in the southeast of the North China Plain, an ordinary northern village.
The Hutuo River meanders from west to east, and the whole village is backed by the Hutuo River, divided into three connected natural tribes, located on the south bank of the river, naturally forming a "mountain" character, like a three-tooth rake used by croppers, in some of my **, it is called "three-tooth village".
The gap of the three "teeth" is two ponds with hundreds of acres each, it is said that this is the largest pit pond in the county, the water waves are vast, when the wind rises, the sound of the waves is heard far away. I heard the old people say that in the past, the pond was full of lotus roots, and you could see flowers and eat lotus roots. The pond is surrounded by willow trees and reeds, and when summer comes, the willows are clinging, the reed flowers are white, and the lotus flowers are dazzling. Unfortunately, a flood in 1963 engulfed the lotus flowers, and it has never been seen since. But the reeds are still there, connected to the water, vast and mysterious.
The village is surrounded by pear and date trees. When the pear blossoms bloom, there is a sea of fragrant snow everywhere, attracting bees and butterflies to dance; When the golden silk jujube is ripe, the green leaves and red jujubes of a tree, a rod goes down, and a burst of red rain suddenly falls, and the sweetness of the jujube makes the crops drunk. There is an island in the middle of each pond. The island to the east is called "Qiangao", and Zhuang's first brigade once opened a machine mill on it; The one on the west side used to be planted with vegetables, but later, the county built a fishing farm and bulldozed the island. The construction of the fishing ground destroyed the feng shui of the entire village, and a large number of migrant workers were mobilized to change the large pit pond into a square grid with different fish species. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and then the water dried up, the fish died, and the staff of the fishing ground quietly slipped away; But the pit pond can never be restored to its original beauty.
Our village is a large village, which is divided into three natural tribes: Xixiaocun, Dacun and Dongchang, with Dacun as the main tribe. According to the tribe, it is divided into villages.
1. Zhuang 2 and Zhuang 3 are three production brigades, but there are crossovers between tribes. Each production brigade is further divided into five production teams. Our family belonged to the second production team of the three major teams of Zhuang, and later, we were transferred to the first production team.
There is a complete primary school in the village, which was rebuilt on the site of the original temple. Originally, there were five rooms in the north room and two rooms in the east and west. The gate faces south, and there are two houses on each side of the gate. Later, according to the needs, it was expanded, and a row of classrooms was built in the middle, separating the entire compound and becoming a second courtyard. In addition, there is a supply and marketing cooperative, which is called the "association" in the village, which has become the center of the whole village, and people's daily necessities basically come from there. The salesmen are all sent by their superiors and eat public meals.
In the southwest corner of the big village, there is an ancient locust tree, the trunk of the tree is a few thick, and the shade of the tree covers the sky and the sun. This was originally the Li family ancestral hall, with blue bricks and green tiles. As far back as I can remember, it still stands there majestically, and every New Year's Day, the whole clan gathers here to worship. After the Cultural Revolution, it was changed to a brigade glass factory; Later, it was disposed of by the family, and a new house was built on the original site. Today, only the ancient locust is still standing alone, telling the glory of the past and the loneliness of the present.
There are four surnames in the whole village, Li, Liu, Zhou and Du, with the Li family as the most, accounting for almost half of the total population. It is said that we moved from Hongdong, Shanxi Province to Shangerzhuang in Xian County in the Ming Dynasty, and then moved from Shangerzhuang to the current Zhuangtou Village. Because the Li family is Zhuangtou, it is also called the head of the Li family, referred to as Zhuangtou Village. With the change of the times, the number of immigrants increased, and the scale of the village became larger and larger, and it gradually became a mixed surname village. The first brigade of Zhuang is mainly surnamed Du, the third brigade of Zhuang is mainly surnamed Zhou and Liu, and the second brigade of Zhuang has the most people, basically surnamed Li. In addition to the four surnames of Li, Liu, Zhou and Du, there are also Gao, Ji, Chen, Jing, Zhang, Zheng, Gou, etc., but the population is not large.
The Li family belongs to a family of cultivation and reading, and there are many ancestors who have read and have produced many famous people. With the abolition of the imperial examination system, the family gradually declined. My grandfather was industrious and thrifty all his life, and once went to Kanto three times, and once he was outside the fortress, he accumulated some silver taels, purchased land, and built five houses mixed with brick and earth in the easternmost part of the western village. The house is very tall and the walls are thick, and when I was a child, I used to take naps on the windowsill. In 1963, when the flood came, all the houses in the small village of Xixi collapsed, and only five brick houses of my family were standing, and I still remember clearly that the houses of each family collapsed at that time, and many people who had nowhere to stay crowded to my house for refuge. The old mansion still exists today, but it has been uninhabited for many years and has been dilapidated. A lot of people advised me to sell it, and for me, it really didn't have any economic value; But I firmly refused, for only one reason: this is my root, and without it, my root is gone. In my mind, wherever I live is a visitor, and this is the only place where I really live. I don't know if I'll ever be able to return to my roots, but my heart is always here. This will never change.
There is still my family's land in the village, which is now cultivated by relatives and friends. The first section of the land, the second section of the land, the third section of the land, the big kiln land, the upper enclosure land, the small moon circle, the north sa wa, the sweet water pit, the north wa, the tree row. These place names alone are enough to evoke many memories of my youth. Even if these memories were bitter, they have now become sweet. Our family used to be very vigorous, but since my grandfather's generation, it has gradually weakened. My father had two brothers, and my uncle had only four daughters; There are five girls and one boy in our family, and I am the only one who is a man. Fortunately, now I have both children and cigarettes, and I can be regarded as living up to the ardent expectations of my ancestors.