In the border areas of our motherland, there are always some people who stick to their jobs and protect our safety. But there are some people who have been forgotten on the borders of their motherland, why are they forgotten? What have they been through in those four years?
Let's find out what happened to these soldiers who were guarding the frontier.
The origin of the Setura checkpoint
The name Setula originated during the Tang Dynasty, and it originally meant "martyr" in honor of an ascetic monk. This ascetic died here when he accompanied Xuanzang on a trip to India, and in order to commemorate him, he named this place Setula
The Setura outpost is 3,800 meters above sea level, and the topaz platform of more than 80,000 square meters is sparsely populated, like a forbidden area. It was surrounded by several barracks and outposts. The source of this post begins in the late Qing Dynasty.
In the 1870s, the Xinjiang region was invaded by the Kokand Khanate, Agubo and Tsarist Russia, and foreign enemies constantly invaded Xinjiang, and there was a danger that it would be robbed at any time. At this time, Zuo Zongtang believed that Xinjiang should be recovered as soon as possible to avoid being occupied by other countries. However, Li Hongzhang believes that the border area in the northwest is not important, because it is a vast desert there, and if it is to be recovered there, it will increase a lot of costs, and xinjiang will not be of any use after it is recovered.
But Zuo Zongtang did not agree with Li Hongzhang's statement, he believes that Xinjiang's grain production is very rich, there are cattle and sheep everywhere, and there are many mineral resources, Xinjiang is not only not a desert, on the contrary, Xinjiang is also a cornucopia, it has a lot of good things.
Later, after Zuo Zongtang fought many more battles, the Qing government finally recognized the importance of border defense, which ordered Zuo Zongtang to be the minister of Qincha and immediately go to Xinjiang to repel the enemy.
In 1877, after Zuo Zongtang regained southern Xinjiang, he felt that the place of Setula was very important, and believed that it was necessary to establish checkpoints to prevent the invasion of foreign forces.
Then Zuo Zongtang built a team of more than a hundred people, and all of them set foot on this land with the idea of seeing death as a homecoming. Because they know that this journey is more sinister and less auspicious. Riding camels, horses, and packs of grain and grass, they climbed over snow-capped mountains and over the Gobi, and after a month's long journey, they finally arrived at Setula.
The local people were very happy to see them, the people gave them a warm welcome, and the people looked forward to their arrival. With the help of the common people, they established an eight-hundred-mile-long border here and established military checkpoints, from which the Setura outpost came from.
The Setura post was the highest of all the garrisons at that time, and it was also the base camp for the defense of China's northwestern border, which was very important for guarding the frontier areas of our country.
After the fall of the Qing government, Yuan Shikai stole the fruits of the revolution, resulting in a very chaotic division of the warlords, and the traffic here in Seratu was very inconvenient, so it was always empty.
Later, after the establishment of the Republic of China, the soldiers in this post also began to dedicate their strength to the northwest border of the motherland, and then the Kuomintang also set up a side card team here, and the number of troops guarding the card reached two hundred.
At this time, Seratu became the base camp of China's western defense zone, responsible for the defense of the eight-hundred-mile Karakoram. Each of their patrols takes at least two months, because its altitude is very high, four or five thousand meters, so it is also called the forbidden area of life.
There are no cars in this place, and all means of transportation are horses and camels, who carry grain and grass, walk through icebergs, cross the Gobi, cross saline swamps, and at the same time withstand the impact of hail and snow and the intense radiation of ultraviolet rays.
No matter day and night or the cold and heat, they always stick to their jobs. Even when the Japanese invaded China, they still stuck to their jobs. Even if their hometown and relatives are now uncertain of their fate, they have not forgotten their duties and have not thought about leaving. They have only one belief, that is, no matter what, the land under their feet must not be lost.
After the September 18 Incident, most of the northeast fell into the hands of the Japanese army, and the people of the northeast region were determined to stand up and start to resist because they could not stand the evil deeds of the Japanese army, but the people of the northeast region did not have sufficient logistical support, so they suffered very heavy casualties in the process of fighting the Japanese army.
The Japanese army watched our common people resist again and again, so their hearts became more and more uneasy, and in order to cope with this situation, they further imposed a tighter blockade in the northeast. The common people were trapped in layers of enemy encirclement, and there was no chance to resist.
Later, these trapped people retreated to the Xinjiang region according to the instructions of the Nationalist government. After they successfully entered Xinjiang, many of them volunteered to join the xinjiang border defense brigade, and over time, the Xinjiang region slowly also had a modern army.
At first, the Setura checkpoint had only more than a hundred soldiers, and later with the help of the Soviet Union, our country completed its rule over the Xinjiang region, and at this time Setula gradually had a large army.
Before Xinjiang was ruled, because of its unique geographical location and open land area, it became the "fat meat" that foreign powers wanted to compete for, and they all wanted to get it themselves, which led to a very complicated political environment in Xinjiang at that time.
These powers are ostensibly doing business here, but in reality they are all engaged in various espionage activities here, and they are also co-opting the local rulers to pursue more interests in China, and they also want to divide Xinjiang in this way.
This kind of behavior of theirs seriously threatened the border security of our country, but at that time we had no way to drive them out, and this situation was maintained until the founding of New China, when all foreign forces were eliminated under the strong blows of our army.
After a long time, China's Xinjiang has been fully developed, and later the Setula outpost has also been well developed, and the number of soldiers here is also increasing. They have stood guard against snowstorms and bad weather, silently guarding the security of our country.
These soldiers stationed at the border cannot guarantee even the most basic living conditions. They don't have any advanced equipment here, not even the most common electric lights and stoves, and if they want to keep warm, they have to go outside and pick up some cow dung. There was no way to heat the food that the soldiers ate. In such a cold environment, their grain had become hard, and they could only nibble on it little by little, and if they could eat a bowl of hot corn paste in that situation, they would be very satisfied.
When there is a snowstorm in the border areas, the most basic living supplies for these soldiers guarding the frontier cannot be guaranteed. Because of the snowstorm, the transportation line for daily necessities was directly cut off. In this case, these soldiers can only endure hunger and cold, and if they are really hungry, they have only one way, that is, to go outside and grab a handful of snow to eat.
In 1946, a new group of Kuomintang soldiers came to the Setula post, and they had originally set a time for changing their defenses for one year, and after a year, they could go home and reunite with their families, but they never expected that these people would be the last of the Kuomintang garrison soldiers.
These Kuomintang soldiers, when they first came to the Setura checkpoint, they still had some dry food they had brought with them to eat, but as they spent more and more time here, the grain they had brought with them had basically been eaten. At this time, on the side of the Kuomintang, there was suddenly no news, they could not wait for any supplies here, and they seemed to have been forgotten by everyone.
In these harsh living conditions, these Kuomintang soldiers still insisted on staying here, and they never thought of fleeing down the mountain. Because they have a strong faith, they will continue to guard the security of their country. For the sake of peace and stability in border defense, and for the people to continue to live peacefully, they have been sticking here without complaint or regret.
The officers and men of the Nationalist Army are still here, insisting on their duties, and they insist on the heavy responsibility of defending their families and defending the country. Their job was to patrol the borderline, and they resolutely held out on the eight-hundred-meter Karakoram Mountains. They were far from society, far from the people, so they had no idea what was going on in the country. In the War of Liberation, the Kuomintang side was already too busy to take care of itself, so it naturally forgot about these garrison soldiers.
After the peaceful liberation of our country in 1949 and the complete uprooting of the Kuomintang's rule on the mainland, Chiang Kai-shek, who was not willing to lose, quickly fled to Taiwan and took with him a large number of treasures, and he was still looking forward to the day when he could make a comeback.
After Chiang Kai-shek fled, the Kuomintang was in danger of falling apart, and the Nationalist generals who were far away in the Karakoram Mountains were completely forgotten.
After the founding of New China, the Party Central Committee suddenly remembered that in Xinjiang's border defense, there was a strategic place that was not garrisoned. They all believed that the Setula outpost there, after being established by Zuo Zongtang, had been guarding the peace on the frontier of our country, which was a very important place, so the Central Committee immediately issued an order for a reinforced company of the Fifth Division and the Fifteenth Regiment of the People's Liberation Army to go to Setula to guard the frontier.
Setula is in the middle of the Kunlun Mountains, more than 3,000 meters above sea level, and all you can see is a continuous mountain road, and the weather is very bad, and the wind and snow have not stopped at all. At this time, the CAR in which the PLA was sitting had no way to continue to move forward. So the People's Liberation Army could only ride horses and bump all the way to the Karakoram Mountains.
The Karakoram Mountains are known as the most dangerous mountain because it is the largest land of ice and snow, second only to the Antarctic and the Arctic, and its average altitude is more than six thousand meters. The peaks of the Karakoram Mountains are steep and majestic, and there is a lot of rubble on the way up the mountain, and there have been countless people who have fallen into this dangerous mountain range.
The wind and snow are constant here, and at a glance it is full of snow and steep peaks. The Plasters braved the powerful snowstorm to keep going, and because the altitude here was so high, many people developed severe altitude sickness.
But this is just the beginning, and there are still bigger challenges waiting for them. As the People's Liberation Army slowly deepened, the environment there became more and more harsh, and countless wind and snow and sharp and steep stones were blocking the pace of the People's Liberation Army's advance.
The soles of soldiers' shoes have been flattened due to long walking, and in the process of advancing, they will sometimes pierce the shoes directly because of some sharp stones. The horses they rode could not hold on, because they were too tired to fall directly to the ground. In such a harsh environment, the People's Liberation Army is still trying to move towards its destination, wearing tattered shoes and scarred feet, slowly but firmly moving forward.
A month later, the People's Liberation Army finally crossed the towering mountain and reached the Setura defense zone. The first thing they saw about the Setura Defense Zone was desolation, they saw no sign of life, and there were only steep mountains in sight. In such harsh conditions, no one will survive here at all, because the environment here is really bad. As the PLA continued on its way, they found a large dirt bag on the side of the road.
But they didn't have time to think about it, so they hurried to the road, and when they reached the Setura post, they suddenly saw several figures, and the People's Liberation Army suddenly stopped, and seeing this situation, the company commander told everyone to immediately be on guard and get ready.
The people in the Sentura checkpoint also suddenly noticed the arrival of the Plaster, and they rushed over together quickly and directly hugged the PLA. One of them said with emotion, "Finally someone has come to change the guard, we have been waiting for you for four years." After saying these words, they all shed tears of happiness one by one.
Just when the People's Liberation Army was confused, suddenly someone said, "Why did you change your uniforms again?" "At this time, the People's Liberation Army looked at their uniforms, and then looked at the uniforms worn by the people in the checkpoints, and suddenly they understood everything.
It turned out that they were the soldiers sent by the Kuomintang army to garrison the frontier. They must have been forgotten by the Kuomintang, because after the beginning of the War of Liberation, the Kuomintang may not have time to separate, so they gradually forgot about these soldiers who were still stationed on the frontier.
And these soldiers stationed in Setura, because they had no communication facilities and no means of transportation, they directly cut off contact with the outside world. Until now, they did not know that the Kuomintang had been defeated and had now established a new China.
The company commander, who knew everything, suddenly gave a very standard military salute to the nationalist officers and men, after which he said very solemnly: "Now that New China has been established, we are all soldiers of the People's Liberation Army." At the same time, I am also very grateful for your hard work over the years, you have guarded the border area for us, and now we are going to take over your work, and you can go down the mountain and go home. ”
After the company commander finished saying these words, the officers and men of the Nationalist army were quiet, they were a little overwhelmed, and after a long time, they heard a person say softly: "We thought that the Kuomintang people had come to change shifts, so are you going to arrest us all now?" ”
After listening, the People's Liberation Army patted him on the shoulder comfortingly and said, "Why are we arresting you?" You have done a great job, and you have been doing your best for the security of the border guards for the past few years, and we have no reason to arrest you. ”
After listening to it, the nationalist generals relaxed one after another, and at this time the People's Liberation Army said: "We saw a lot of dirt bags on the way here, what is that for?" After listening to it, the eyes of the nationalist generals became red again, and they explained, "Inside the dirt bags are all the soldiers who died at the checkpoint, and we have waited for four years for the day of the change of guard." In these four years, there are many people who are getting worse and worse because of the environment and the weather, and then they think that there is no good treatment condition, so they all die here. These dirt bags were their last place, and all the soldiers who came here were only eight left now. ”
After hearing this, the People's Liberation Army all shed tears of emotion, these tears were for the sake of those soldiers who died, but also for these soldiers who continued to hold on to the border. How helpless they must have been when they saw their comrades die.
In this sparsely populated place, how did they persist for so many years? They didn't stick to it for four days, not four months, but for a full four years! They never thought of leaving, but guarded the frontier with hard work and resentment, and they fulfilled the principles of the soldiers and completed the mission of the soldiers. The People's Liberation Army also sincerely admired them, and then they gave a very standard military salute to these nationalist officers and men.
Later, the company commander asked all the PLA soldiers to take out all the dry food they had brought and give them to these soldiers to eat, and looking at their thin bodies one by one, the HEARTS of the PLA soldiers were also very heavy. After the officers and men of the Nationalist Army saw that the PLA had taken out the dry food, everyone was not embarrassed to eat it, and finally under the repeated urging of the PLA, they devoured it.
The Plaster Knew from the conversations they had spoken to them that they had completely lost contact with the outside world just a few days after they had arrived at the Setula post.
The geographical location of this checkpoint was very steep, the supply of materials was already very difficult, and when the war broke out, the Kuomintang never replenished them with any supplies, and they could not wait for those who came to take over. What these nationalist generals did not expect was that the last thing they waited for was the news of the defeat of the Kuomintang, but the actions of the People's Liberation Army made them see the hope of new China and a bright future, and such a result was something they could not imagine, but it was indeed the best result, because they were also well aware of the corruption within the Kuomintang.
After that, the company commander arranged manpower to take these Nationalist soldiers down the mountain to be well settled, and after descending the mountain, the residents warmly entertained them. At the same time, the People's Liberation Army also reported to the leaders one by one what happened at the Setura checkpoint. Under the instructions of the leaders, these Nationalist officers and men were invited to Beijing. All the leaders, after learning about their deeds, also admired them very much.
When Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou heard about their deeds, they gave them a high evaluation, although these soldiers once belonged to the Kuomintang, but they did not participate in the war, but have been guarding our frontiers for many years. After consultation with the central leaders, they decided to give these Kuomintang soldiers a new identity and work. After the upper leaders knew the hardships of these soldiers, they decided to shorten the time for the border guards to change their guards so that they could suffer less.
Although they did not have a vigorous life, they held on to the territory of our motherland and provided strong support for our security.
Now that the people's army has re-established a new post with a stronger and more suitable location, the previous Setula checkpoint has been abandoned, but the Setula checkpoint has never been forgotten, and people deeply remember how hard and great the soldiers who guarded the frontier were, and they used their thin bodies to hold the frontier for many years.
The countless dirt bags of different sizes around the Sentura checkpoint are also silently telling their original heroic deeds, and they have written the greatest stories with their obscure behavior. Their spirit will inspire each of us to move forward, and their deeds will forever remain in the annals of history.
Our current life is not easy to come by, not the years are quiet, but someone is carrying the weight for us, the ancestors used their own blood and life, in exchange for our current mountains and rivers are unharmed, we should work harder to protect them, thank you for guarding our motherland, thank you for protecting each of us, pay tribute to our obscure frontier warriors!