Radio Documentary Literature "Liangjiahe" Episode 7: Biogas Professional Household
In January, 1974, the Loess Plateau had entered the middle of winter, and the Spring Festival was coming soon. The folks in Liangjiahe began to prepare for the New Year’s goods.
The supreme leader has just been elected as the party branch secretary of the brigade. He has been pondering what he can do to change the face of Liangjiahe and the breakthrough point to promote its development.
Inspiration comes unexpectedly in hard thinking. One day, the Supreme Leader was leafing through the newspaper. On the 8th of that month, People’s Daily published two reports about the biogas project in Sichuan Province thousands of miles away, which deeply attracted him — — If only we could use biogas for cooking and lighting here!
Liangjiahe is located in a remote place, and it is necessary to burn coal in a coal mine hundreds of miles away. For a long time, people have cut down a lot of trees for cooking, causing soil erosion and affecting agricultural development. If biogas is used, it can not only solve the rural energy problem and liberate the productive forces, but also treat the toilet manure, improve the rural public health level, solve the agricultural fertilizer problem and increase the grain output. Biogas is a key to solve the problems of rural production and life!
Biogas is a brand-new thing. Although the wonderful vision of biogas inspired the supreme leader, he was still very calm: the climate between Sichuan and northern Shaanxi is very different. Can this key from Sichuan unlock northern Shaanxi?
The supreme leader has always been an activist! Previously, when he was doing social education in Zhaojiahe, he saw that a toilet was in disrepair for a long time, so he transformed it into the first separate toilet for men and women in Zhaojiahe and carried out a small "toilet revolution". Whether he can run biogas in Liangjiahe this time, he is determined to go to Sichuan to find the answer himself.
He walked more than 40 miles to the county seat, and reported the suggestion of developing biogas and his idea of studying in Sichuan to the county party Committee, which was approved. After the Spring Festival, the Supreme Leader borrowed the travelling expenses and took three people, including Bai Genzhu, a Beijing branch cadre, on a trip to Sichuan to learn from the scriptures.
Yang Chao, then deputy head of the leading group for biogas promotion in Sichuan Province, was an old revolutionary who worked in Yan ‘an for eight years before the founding of New China. With special revolutionary friendship, he gave a warm reception to the Supreme Leader and his party, introduced the situation of biogas management in Sichuan in detail, and arranged for them to study in suburban counties of Chengdu and biogas research units. The supreme leader was deeply impressed by the convenience and cleanliness of biogas, the enthusiasm of local comrades and the drive to run biogas.
The process of inspection has become a process of firm confidence. After returning from Sichuan, the supreme leader decided to run biogas in Liangjiahe. He compiled some small programs, used the brigade’s triple player to publicize the benefits of biogas to the masses, and organized the young people in the village to start experiments.
One problem after another, far more than expected.
The first question is where to build the test pool. Villagers’ courtyards are all filled with soil when burrowing, and the soil is soft and not suitable for digging biogas digesters. The road outside the village is stepped out by people walking, winding and narrow, and the shelf car carrying cement sand and gravel can’t walk. How can the materials be transported? The villagers live in scattered places. After the biogas digester is built, how can the biogas be transported? The most difficult thing is that the cover of biogas digester requires high thickness and integrity of slate, which is not available in Liangjiahe … …
Solve the problems one by one, and hard work is the solution.
After repeated measurements, the supreme leader finally chose the experimental pool next to the educated youth residence, where the soil density is relatively high. Without stones, the supreme leader led people to shovel more than one meter thick soil layer in the mud beach and dug up stones; Without sand, the Supreme Leader took several youths to Qianmagou, 15 miles away, and carried them back bag by bag, twice a day, and their backs were worn out, and no one shouted tired; Without lime, he asked an experienced master for advice, looked for limestone everywhere, and set up a small lime yard to burn it himself … …
With the belief that biogas must be done, the supreme leader is busy, like a high-speed gyro.
Different voices came out — —
Some opinions seem very professional. In Liangjiahe, someone said in front of the supreme leader who was busy digging a pond, "What a young man! Don’t be brave. Sichuan is warm, Yanchuan is cold, and biogas can’t be done here!" Biogas can’t cross the Qinling Mountains. "
Some expressed doubts: "Dig such a hole and fill it with dung, and you can catch fire?" Impossible! "
Some people assert: "If biogas can light a lamp to cook, unless hens crow, the rooster lay eggs."
The supreme leader’s stubbornness came up. He just wanted to build the biogas digester quickly. He believes that the fact is the best debater, and the built pool "can talk".
With the belief of the supreme leader and hard work, in mid-July 1974, a biogas digester with a capacity of about 8 cubic meters was built. But the supreme leader was never happy. After the gas pipeline is connected, I don’t know why I just don’t vent.
Look at the biogas digester, the water level is rising, and there are bubbles rising up. There must be gas below! Look at the wall of the pool and find no water leakage; Disassemble the gas pipeline, and the pipe will be fine … … The supreme leader was sweating and checking again and again.
What the hell went wrong?
Is the airway blocked? The problem finally locked in the airway. The supreme leader found an iron skewer and poked it, but it didn’t respond. He poked it hard again, and a stream of dung immediately sprayed out and splashed his face. The sound of bursts of gas then rang.
The supreme leader wiped his face with his hand, neglected to wash it, reconnected the pipe, turned on the biogas stove, and gently lit the match. With a bang, the expected scene appeared: a flame about a foot high jumped up on the stove and danced lightly.
It worked! The news quickly spread throughout the village, to the commune and to the county. People came from all directions to see this magical and clean fire … …
This is the first biogas digester successfully tested in Yanchuan County and the first biogas digester in Shaanxi Province. The fallacy that "biogas is just the Qinling Mountains" is self-defeating.
The masses saw with their own eyes that the effect of lighting and cooking with biogas was very good, and the enthusiasm for building biogas came up. They all said, "There is no need to cook again!" ("decoct": northern Shaanxi dialect, meaning worry. (excerpt)