A small poplar tree, growing next to the outpost, with deep roots and strong roots, watching over the northern frontier...
Looking at the familiar lyrics, I believe that the moving melody of this song echoes in everyone's mind.
This is the "Little Poplar" sung by Teacher Yan Weiwen, and to this day, this song is still sung and loved by many young friends.
Many post-90s and post-00s are also like their parents, who love this song, and even more love the tough and upright posture of the little poplar in this song, and the proud and indomitable wind bone.
But unfortunately, few people know that this song was originally a tribute to a woman who used her bravery and fearlessness to defend the 440,000 acres of land on the Chinese border to the death, and is a well-deserved hero.
So let's relive her heroic deeds and pay tribute to this real warrior.
Devote yourself to the frontier and work diligently
In 1940, Sun Longzhen was born in a poor peasant family in Tai County, Jiangsu Province, and the family that was not rich created Sun Longzhen's down-to-earth, hard-working character.
At the age of 19, she bid farewell to her newlywed husband and responded to the call of the country to build a frontier, far away from her hometown with a comfortable environment and abundant products.
Alone, I came to the Turpan Flame Mountain Chemical Factory in Xinjiang.
The environment of the chemical plant is very harsh, and she often has to work in the heat of 40 ° C, working for half an hour, and her whole body is soaked with sweat.
But she never cried bitterly, was not afraid of tiredness, and did the hard work of male comrades such as boiling a salt furnace and smashing ore, and she did it quickly and well.
In this difficult environment, she never complained, but buried her head in hard work, and was rated as a red flag bearer by Yue Yue, and it didn't take long to become the backbone of the factory.
Sun Longzhen worked diligently for three years, and she had thought that the days of working in the factory would always be so plain and fulfilling.
But she did not expect that a big thing would happen at this moment.
In the spring of 1962, the Soviet Union instigated and coerced some Chinese border residents to flee in Ili, Tacheng, and other areas, which seriously undermined the prosperity and stability of the mainland border areas and even more hindered the pace of socialist construction on the border.
As a result of the loss of population, these areas began to face serious problems, with large tracts of land being left uncultivated and large numbers of livestock unfeated.
In this situation, the higher-level departments had no choice but to give instructions: let the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps mobilize some people to engage in production and construction on the border, so that they can protect the security of the motherland's territory under frequent friction with the Soviet Union, and can also continue to develop agricultural production without deserting the land.
After Sun Longzhen learned of this, she immediately made up her mind to go to the border, and without a moment's hesitation, she found the factory leader overnight and insisted on going to the first line of the border to work.
At her insistence, the factory leaders finally agreed to her request.
She came to the western part of the Baluk Mountains as she wished, and worked as a shepherd in the twelve companies of the 161st Regiment.
The life of herding is very hard, and this hardship is not only reflected in the harsh environment and weather, but also in the wild nature of cattle and sheep, which is difficult to tame, and the ability to work is not enough.
Sun Longzhen is a southern girl, she has never spared the herd, let alone the huge number of cattle and sheep.
But this is not difficult for our "Iron Maiden", who carefully studied and summarized the rules, and soon mastered the grazing technology.
The climate change in the mountains is very diverse, often in the morning or snow, in the evening is hail, in order to see the sheep, do not let the sheep go hungry and frozen, she often works hungry.
Workers all said that where the hardest work is, there is Sun Longzhen.
When Sun Longzhen first arrived in the team, the team sympathized with the female comrades, and specially selected strong and young male comrades to do the work of gathering cattle and sheep.
But Sun Longzhen was particularly truthful, and she insisted on climbing mountains, crossing meadows, streams, and herding sheep like gay men.
Gay men can do it, and she can do it.
The gay men frowned when they heard it, and she scrambled as well.
It was under such continuous efforts that she was able to do a good job, and it wasn't long before she became a "grazing expert" in the team.
In the same year, at the call of Sun Longzhen, her husband Yu Zhilin also came from his hometown to the mountains to engage in herding work, and the husband and wife were finally reunited on this cold and windy border line, they supported each other, gave birth to each other, had children, and spent the best time of their lives together.
But Heaven seems to have made a huge joke with Yu Zhilin, and in 1969, the year their third child was supposed to be born, his beloved wife left him forever.
Fight back against aggression and sacrifice heroically
On the evening of June 10, 1969, Zhang Chengshan, a herdsman of the 161st Regiment, was raided by 18 Soviet cavalrymen on his way back to the herds with his flock.
These Soviet cavalrymen ignored the borders and invaded the mainland.
They not only tied the herdsman Zhang Chengshan to an armored vehicle, but also snatched the sheep that Zhang Chengshan was driving.
After the leaders of the first pastoral team discovered the situation, they promptly led 40 herdsmen armed with various tools to the accident site to provide support.
In this critical situation, Sun Longzhen, who was already a mother of two children and pregnant with Liujia, resolutely put her own safety aside and actively participated in this struggle.
She crossed the thorny road ahead and forged ahead with her comrades-
She holds a shovel and strides firmly, like a battle-hardened warrior.
She and her comrades rushed to a distance of 100 meters from the scene of the incident, but did not see the Soviet army, and everyone cautiously looked around, trying to find the traces of Zhang Chengshan.
Suddenly, the fetus in Sun Longzhen's abdomen began to struggle violently, and it seemed to sense the danger facing its mother.
A bullet passed through Sun Longzhen's blazing chest, and she felt a tearing pain, and her consciousness gradually blurred.
Her body fell heavily to the ground, but her beating heart was still fighting unyieldingly.
The wind whimpered bitterly, as if weeping for her, as if denouncing the atrocities of the Soviet army for her.
Martyr Sun Longzhen, this young girl with an iron will, her life is forever fixed at the age of 29.
Sun Longzhen fought bravely at the critical juncture of resisting Soviet aggression and rescuing his comrades and sheep, regardless of his personal safety.
In order to carry forward her spirit and fulfill her wishes during her lifetime, the higher-level party committee posthumously recognized her as a member of the Communist Party of China.
On August 25, 1969, the Revolutionary Committee of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region awarded her the title of "Revolutionary Martyr" and erected a monument at the foot of the beautiful Baluk Mountain.
How could this skirmish make the Soviet side rest, and they forcibly pulled the barbed wire fence to demarcate the border outside Zhang Chengshan's hut.
But we Chinese impossible to abandon the struggle, and we border populations dismantle these so-called "national borders" again and again, and in the end, their shameless plots fail.
In order to protect every inch of the country's land, the masses of the Corps began to open up land on the border, and they overcame all kinds of difficulties, and every inch of land must be fought for, not for anything else, but for the integrity of the country's territory and sovereignty, and only for everyone to Chinese dignity.
This confrontation lasted for a total of 8 years on the Sino-Soviet border, and the soldiers of the former corps stationed at the border checkpoints held a pickaxe in one hand and a gun in the other, and worked as farmers and soldiers, and with their solid arms, they supported us with a piece of border security.
The Tasti Border Post is a witness to this history, and as long as the soldiers of the Border Guard Post are moved by Sun Longzhen's dedication.
This fearless spirit has been cast in their veins, making them blood boiling for the cause of border defense, ready to give everything.
Poplar praises, spirit lives on
In the Spring Festival of 1978, Chen Fusen, a Xibe soldier at the Tasti Border Guard Post, returned to his hometown in Ili for the Chinese New Year, and while the family was eating a reunion dinner, Chen Fusen told the story of Sun Longzhen to his family.
Chen Fusen's mother was touched by this, and she was proud that her son was a border guard warrior, and she was also worried about the harsh environment of the outpost.
Just as her son was about to return to the army, she handed over the 20 poplar saplings she had cultivated by her own hands to her son, "Plant the saplings next to the outpost and let them accompany you." "This is a mother's earnest entrustment to her son.
Chen Fusen took the saplings back to the outpost.
It was the rare green of the place, and the warriors were overjoyed, knowing that once the saplings were alive, the land in front of them would no longer be deserted.
When they stand guard and put on the sentry, there will be a group of small poplars as tall as their military posture, accompanied by them.
So the warriors were more and more careful to cultivate these small saplings, and the small saplings were more adapted to the growth environment of the black soil, and the warriors took turns to act, carrying the black soil pack by bag on the post.
The small saplings need a lot of water to water, and they carry water from the Bulgan River ten kilometers away every day rain or shine.
With the joint efforts of the warriors, twenty small saplings stood proudly in front of and behind the outpost.
But the good times did not last long, and after two months, these small saplings were finally overwhelmed by drought and wind and sand, and they died one after another.
The warriors were particularly sad and had to hope for the last small tree, hoping that it would survive tenaciously and accompany them.
And this small tree, under the eager expectation and careful care of the warriors, also miraculously opened its branches and leaves, and eventually grew into a leafy and greenery.
The prototype of the song "Little Poplar" is this small tree with tenacious vitality.
In the summer of 1983, the famous songwriter Liang Shangquan came to Xinjiang to collect wind.
Here, he heard one touching and profound story after another, shocked by the selfless efforts of the warriors stationed in this land for ten years, and touched by the heroic pride of generations of iron maidens like Sun Longzhen who swore to defend the land to the death.
The first night he slept in this land, he had a rare insomnia, he felt that he had to do something for the warriors who insisted on this heroic land, he was passionate and inspired, and it took only one night to create this classic "Little Poplar", which has been sung to this day.
On August 1, 1984, the famous singer Yan Weiwen sang this poplar for the first time at the celebration of "August 1st" literary and art evening held by CCTV.
This song full of sincere emotions, singing the praises of border guards, was soon widely sung, and the Tasti Border Post was also well known for this song.
Like all heroic stories, the story of martyr Sun Longzhen finally has a happy ending, and after the young martyr's sacrifice for 34 years, the 440,000 mu of disputed area where she was buried was finally owned by China and Kazakhstan through the border survey and commerce rights of China and Kazakhstan.
The land she swore to defend to the death finally returned to Zhao, and her spirit still lived in this land.
Generation after generation of longzhenban female militia have carried forward the spirit of "iron maidens", defending and building the borders that guard the motherland.
Far from home, they have experienced wind and frost, and made a vow: "They will not be tender and fragile delicate flowers, they will strive to be poplars that stand tall against the wind, they will be like the martyrs of Sun Longzhen, they will dedicate their youth to the border line of the motherland, and sprinkle their blood and sweat on the places where martyrs Sun Longzhen desperately guarded." ”
epilogue:
She chose to come to Xinjiang alone away from her homeland and her parents, not because she did not love warmth, but because she experienced those difficult years, and she wanted to make the motherland strong through the unremitting efforts of thousands of "herself".
She had no hesitation in fighting back against the Aggression of the Soviet Army with her comrades-in-arms, not because she spared her own life and the children in her womb, but because she knew that if the Soviet Army was allowed to trample on the territory and sovereignty of the motherland, the national security would inevitably be threatened. In contrast to the interests of the country and the people, she was willing to sacrifice her life to fight the aggressors.
I think that if Heaven gave her another chance to choose, she would make the same choice, which she insisted on without hesitation. Just as a mother, she will still feel sorry for her two young children, and the young son who has not had the opportunity to see the world.
The people's heroes are immortal!