The villagers set up a stone tablet by the well, imitating where the teacher planted something.

Imitation: People planted a tree in the desert.

The sentence in the question comes from the text "Don't forget to dig people when drafting".

The work "People Digging Wells after Towing Water" tells the story of a small village called Shazhouba outside Ruijin. Chairman Mao lived in Jiangxi when he led the revolution. Shazhouba is a water-deficient village, and there is no well in the village. It is difficult for people living here to drink water, so they have to go to the river a few kilometers away to pick it. Chairman Mao decided to lead the Red Army soldiers to dig a well for the villagers. One day, Chairman Mao led several Red Army soldiers to the village to investigate the water source, chose a place with wet grass and began to dig.