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Illumination of the green mountains and sunsets
-- Listening to Zhang Lianyin, former deputy commander of the Hebei Provincial Military Region, and people around him tell about the veteran's feelings of home and country
In June 2021, Zhang Lianyin was named "Outstanding Communist Party Member of Shanxi Province". The picture shows Zhang Lianyin receiving the award at the commendation meeting.
Let the barren mountains and barren slopes of your hometown become "golden mountains and silver mountains"
■ Zhang Lianyin
In January 1945, I was born into a poor peasant family in Zhangjiacang Village, Zuoyun County, Datong County, Shanxi. My father died when I was 4 years old, my mother remarried at 6 years old, and I lived with my elderly and frail grandparents. With the help of the villagers, I went to the village primary school to study. At the age of 12, I graduated first and entered The Tralu Middle School. Soon after, Grandma died of illness. In the second semester of the second semester of junior high school, Grandpa suffered from pulmonary heart disease again and was bedridden. In order to take care of my very sick grandfather, I had to drop out of school and go home.
At that time, teachers and classmates were very concerned about me. Classmate Wei Hongshi said that he could work as a bricklayer, and when he was a small worker during the holidays, he could earn money and help me pay tuition. Grandpa was my dearest and I had to go back and take care of him. Before leaving school, the class teacher Wang Dadao asked me to write a withdrawal application, saying that I was young and had good grades, and the school could keep my student status and come back to school when I had settled down at home. I handed over the withdrawal application to the principal Xiao Haicheng, who saw that the application was written very well and full of emotion, and said two "too bad" in a row.
After returning to the village, I served my seriously ill grandfather while participating in collective labor. Because of my culture, I worked as a squad clerk, squad and squad accountant. After my grandfather's death, in order to repay the 200 yuan that my grandfather owed to the village collective, I participated in collective labor during the day, and as soon as I finished my work, I collected sea buckthorn tree roots in the field as firewood, cut thorn strips and woven baskets to sell in the market. Even so, I did not forget to insist on studying, learned a good abacus with my uncle, and learned to play and sing with the old artists in the village. I also carried a palanquin to my daughter-in-law's family so that I could eat a fried cake. After 3 years, I finally paid off my debt.
In February 1964, considering that I was an orphan and living in difficulty, the village cadres and the commune leaders recommended me to join the army. After a medical examination, I was approved to enlist in the army. At the age of 19, I already know how to behave and do things. At that time, the whole country was carrying out lei feng learning activities. I thought about joining the party and being a good soldier like Lei Feng at an early date.
On the day of enlistment, the villagers helped me, who was wearing a red flower on my chest, onto a high horse, stuffed the fried melon seeds and boiled eggs into my pockets, and beat gongs and drums to send me off. At the county congress, I was assigned to speak on behalf of the recruits. I still clearly remember the allegro that I made up temporarily: "You put red flowers on me, I expressed my determination, and when I went to the army to listen to the party, the party did whatever it called!" ”
I have remembered this sentence for a lifetime, and I have done it for a lifetime. After arriving in the army, I always did one line, loved one line, and specialized in one line, carried the red flag when I saw it, and fought for the first time. In the second year of joining the army, I joined the party, and in the third year, I was promoted to work and became an active member of lei feng in the army.
In the past 40 years in the military, from an ordinary soldier to a squad leader, platoon leader, company commander, battalion commander, regiment commander, and then to division commander, deputy commander, and deputy commander of the provincial military district, my growth path has not taken a shortcut, and every step is down-to-earth, step by step. When I was a soldier, I was rated as a "five-good soldier" and a "technical expert"; when I was a company commander and instructor, my company was rated as a "four-good" company; when I was a regimental commander, I wholeheartedly trained troops to prepare for war and made all-out preparations for military struggle; when I was a division commander, I undertook the pilot task of reforming military training in the whole army, participated in major exercises such as the "Sword of the Northern Kingdom" of the former Beijing Military Region, and led the troops to undertake the security tasks of the Asian Games. During this period, the party organization also recommended me to study in several military academies and universities, and my grades were all excellent. I have always firmly believed that as long as the conviction is firm, hard work, and excellent work style, personal growth and progress are arranged by the organization.
In those years, my heart was always in the army, and I owed a lot to my wife and children. My wife, Wang Xiulan, was born into poverty like me, had excellent character and learning, and was a graduate of the "third class". She was admitted to college in 1977 when she resumed the college entrance examination, but in order to take care of her young children and let me work in the army with peace of mind, she gave up the opportunity to go to college. In fact, when I arrived at the deputy battalion, she could accompany the army, but she was afraid of affecting my work, and our family did not live together until I was the chief of staff of the regiment. Since I came home less often, none of the children "knew" me. Once, both his wife and daughter were ill, and there was no way but to entrust his son Zhang Xiaobin to the camp. At that time, I just came back from the training ground, saw a child who was very familiar, and looked at the old man for half a day, thinking that it was very similar to my son. Later, someone told me that it was really my son Xiaobin who came to me. We didn't recognize each other.
In March 2003, I saluted my last military salute in front of the bright red flag. Taking off my military uniform, I pondered: What can I do in retirement? A friend wants to plot a company for me, or to make some money as a consultant for the company, which is against my original intention, and I can't do it. I was born in the countryside and grew up in the countryside, thinking of the pain of wind and sand in Zhangjiacang Village when I was a child, thinking of the long-term mining and coal mining that has brought serious damage to the ecological environment of zuoyun County in my hometown, and thinking that it is the key treatment area of the wind and sand source in Beijing and Tianjin, I wondered whether I could go back to my hometown to plant trees and green barren mountains, spend my own money and contribute my own efforts to do something good for my hometown.
After some comrades-in-arms learned of my thoughts, they persuaded me to plant trees in the old revolutionary area of Pingshan County, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, because people and situations in all aspects were relatively familiar. But when the leaves fell back to the roots, I couldn't forget the mountains and rivers, grass and trees in my hometown, and I couldn't forget the kindness of the villagers to me, and finally decided to take my wife back to Zhangjiacang Village to plant trees.
This is the "second battlefield" of my life. If there is no house, they will build their own houses, if they do not have water, they will dig wells, if they have no funds, they will find children and relatives and friends to borrow, and without experience and technology, they will go to Datong, go to Beijing, and go to the northeast to humbly seek advice. Every tree planting season, my wife and I get up at 5 o'clock in the morning, carry dry food to the mountain with the villagers to plant trees, eat instant noodles when hungry, eat dry steamed bread, drink the cold boiled water that comes with us when we are thirsty, and sweat every day until dark. Day after day, year after year, although people are old and their faces are black, the seedlings are alive, the trees are green, and rows and pieces grow into a vast forest sea.
The weather is unpredictable. Just as I was doing a good job and the construction of the forest farm was gradually on track, in 2011, I was diagnosed with lung cancer and had surgery. Before the operation, I managed to pay back all the money I had borrowed from my children and friends for all these years of planting trees. Fortunately, the surgery was relatively successful, and I received 4 more courses of chemotherapy. Although my family has been advising me to recuperate in peace, just after the Spring Festival in 2012, I returned to the village on time to pay respects to the villagers and arrange a new year's afforestation plan. During this period, I took my medication and received treatment on time to maintain an optimistic attitude. In the late autumn of 2014, after completing the tree planting task of that year, my body developed symptoms of discomfort again, and my ribs felt painful, and the diagnosis was lung cancer bone metastasis during the re-examination. After thinking about it, I did not have surgery or chemotherapy, and chose conservative treatment. Because my planned afforestation mission is not yet complete. I prepared for the worst, even if my life came to an end, to bury my ashes in the woods where the trees were planted. On the fifteenth day of the first month of 2015, I returned to the village and sang with the villagers and played with the community fire. The villagers saw that my heart was solid. Every day I breathe in the fresh air in the woods, cultivate soil, water and prune the saplings, and feel very happy.
In the 18 years since I returned to my hometown, I have mingled with the masses in my hometown, and the cattle and sheep and village cadres in Dahekou, Xiaohekou, Santaizi and other villages are all good friends of mine. Every New Year's Festival, I buy gifts to visit them, go to their homes for a light meal, and lala home cooking. In recent years, no matter which village I have planted trees in, I must consult with the masses in advance, and all disputed plots of land that involve the interests of the people must obtain their consent and satisfy them.
In August 2017, I built the "Qingfeng Forest Education Base" in the forest farm. Last year, with the approval of the Organization Department of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee, the base became the on-site teaching point of the Youyu Cadre College, and I was hired as a "special professor" to receive cadre training classes from all over the motherland. At the same time, I was also invited to the province to give more than 200 reports, telling the thoughts and understandings of an old party member, so that everyone can see the good of the Communist Party and the good of socialism from my experience, and let everyone know how a communist party member fulfills his obligations.
This year is the centenary of the founding of the Party, and I am 76 years old. Looking back on the past, every progress and harvest I have made is the result of organizational cultivation and care, and the result of the support of the people, and I thank the party and the people from the bottom of my heart. I want to continue to be a good propagandist of ecological construction, a combatant of greening barren mountains, and a guard of forest trees in my lifetime, so that the people of my hometown can grow more trees and do more good deeds, so that Zuoyun's barren mountains and barren slopes will become "golden mountains and silver mountains", and add luster to the party and the army in the "second battlefield"!
Zhang Lianyin and the villagers carried the saplings to the north Liangshan slope of Zhangjiacang Village to plant trees.
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Follow the "tall back"
■ Zhang Xiaobin
In my mind, my father Zhang Lianyin has always been a "tall back". He was very busy in the army, and my two sisters and I had been living with my mother, who was a teacher, in a small dormitory at the school. It wasn't until his mother was with the army when he was the regimental chief of staff that our family was reunited, but life at home didn't get much better. My sister and I always didn't have enough to eat, because there were always relatives in the village "passing by" in the family, and my parents had to save food to help their grandmothers and grandfathers in their hometown. I have heard people in the camp talk about how a regimental commander's family can live like this. But the father did not think so. He has always dressed no carefully, did not picky about eating, did not live in comparison, telling us that he and his mother had lived a hard life since childhood, and compared with our relatives in our hometown, our living conditions have been much better.
"Suffering" is one of the deepest memories of my childhood, and "being able to endure hardship" is my father's requirement for the three of us brothers and sisters to behave and do things. When I was in the fifth grade of elementary school, my father gave me a diary, and he wrote a sentence on the first page: "If you are afraid of hardship and hard work, you will not achieve anything." Later, when I went to become a soldier, he told me: "When you become a soldier, you must be able to bear hardships, and if you can't eat hardships, you are also a soldier." "Although he has always served as a leading cadre in the army, he has strict requirements for us and has never engaged in specialization. My mother took us to the army to visit our relatives, and each time he handed over the food bill to the canteen. He was transferred to the 27th Group Army as a deputy commander, and his mother was assigned to the Shijiazhuang Zoo after being transferred, initially working as a conductor in the Panda Pavilion and also responsible for cleaning the Panda Pavilion. His mother, who was full of heavy work and grievances, complained to him, but his father said: "It is good to see the giant panda, and when I rest, I will also go to see the giant panda." The mother cried and laughed for a while, and worked in the panda house for 1 and a half years before adjusting her position.
The father said that when he and his mother were on a blind date, he learned that his mother was also poor, and his adoptive parents asked for food for her to study, and he was "right at home" with his bitter child, whose father died early, his mother remarried, and his grandparents died one after another, "If we leave the army in the future, we can go back to our hometown to live together." Unexpectedly, more than 30 years later, he really returned to his hometown with his mother and lived a "hard life".
Our brother and sister are very busy at work on weekdays, and we don't know much about my parents planting trees in their hometown, but we tried our best to help my father when he was short of funds. In 2014, the 69-year-old father had lung cancer and bone metastasis. Once I saw him frowning and holding his hands on his ribs, and I asked him what was wrong, and he said it hurt a little. My father was a man who had never cried bitterness or tiredness in his life. I suddenly felt guilty that I had taken too little care of him as a child. I decided to choose my own career and go back to my hometown to plant trees with my father. My father said that I would wait a little longer, and there was still room for improvement in my work, but I could clearly see a hint of relief in his eyes.
Now, I have been back in Zhangjiacang Village for 7 years, and I deeply appreciate the difficulty of planting trees in my father over the years, but I can feel his happiness and happiness every day. He really loves this land, loves the villagers here, and wants to do something for the people of his hometown. From him, I truly felt the original intention of a party member, the true color of a soldier, and the nostalgia of a wanderer. His "tall back" became clearer and clearer in my heart. I will also follow in his footsteps and do my part for the greening of my hometown.
My regimental commander Zhang Lianyin
■ Former lecturer of Shijiazhuang Army Command College Cai Shilian
When I was a training staff officer in an artillery regiment of a certain division, Zhang Lianyin was my old regimental commander. He is single-mindedly focused on training and preparing for war, leading by example everywhere, and is the big brother and good regimental commander in our hearts.
In August 1981, our regiment conducted joint training with the division headquarters in a certain place in Shanxi. During the exercise, our regiment undertook the combat task of the division's artillery group, and before the official live-fire exercise, it had to conduct two rehearsals. In the first rehearsal, because live fire was not carried out, the preparation work of individual cadres was not serious or meticulous. When Regiment Commander Zhang inspected, he found that the 2 guns of a certain company were not configured in the prescribed gun position according to the requirements of actual combat, and the muzzle of the gun almost resisted the soil ridge. He immediately made a serious criticism of the cadres of the company's positions, demanded immediate corrections, and at the same time convened an emergency meeting to inform the whole regiment. At the meeting, he solemnly pointed out that the exercise ground is a battlefield, and non-live artillery positions must also be implemented according to the standards of actual combat, and must not be sloppy, and every training course must conform to the provisions of the artillery combat regulations and be prepared according to the requirements of actual combat. Since then, the whole regiment has not had similar problems, and military training has been rated as advanced every year.
In the autumn of the following year, our regiment was stationed near a village in Lu County, Shanxi Province, and scattered in the homes of fellow villagers. The villagers were very enthusiastic and freed up their best house for us to live in. During the training period, the troops carried forward the fine work style and achieved "full cylinders, clean hospitals, and clear electricity bills." At the end of the training, the whole regiment was finished forming on the road on the edge of the village, and was preparing to leave, when a cadre hurried to report that 3 families in the hometown could not find anyone for the time being, and the electricity bill could not be settled. Some cadres say that if there is no knot, there will be no knot, and there is no money, and we will come to the training every year, and we will talk about it next time. Commander Zhang held that money is a trivial matter, and military-civilian relations are a big matter, and not a penny can be less. He ordered the cadre to take the car to find the 3 families, settle the electricity bill one by one, and then rush the troops back to the camp. Driven by his influence, the relationship between our regiment and the masses stationed in the garrison has become more harmonious, and the relationship between the army and the people and the people supporting the army has become more consolidated.
Ten years of trees, a hundred years of tree people
■ Chi Hengguang, deputy director of the Organization Department of the Zuoyun County CPC Committee and director of the Bureau of Veteran Cadres in Shanxi Province
Because of my work relationship, since 2013, I have had a lot of intersections with General Zhang Lianyin. In the past 9 years, I have witnessed his achievements in afforestation and greening barren mountains, and I have realized his unique personality charm and home and country feelings.
Zhang Lianyin often said to me: "They all say that the fallen leaves return to the roots, and when I come back to plant trees, I want to repay the land and the villagers who gave birth to me and raise me, and do my best to make the environment in my hometown better." "He planted trees without forest rights or land rights, and all of them were returned to the collective free of charge." His heart is always worried about the villagers, and every year during the Mid-Autumn Festival, he has to go to comfort the needy people in the village and the villagers over the age of 80. Every once in a while, he would go to the Zuoyun County Welfare Institute to see the children there, tell the children about their painful childhood, and use their own growth experience to tell them that they should be able to bear hardships and be willing to endure hardships, have enthusiasm for life, have confidence in the future, and aspire to be a useful person to society.
Ten years of trees, a hundred years of tree people. In recent years, while greening the barren mountains, Zhang Lianyin has also made more than 200 reports on his own, and many veteran cadres have said from the bottom of their hearts after listening to the reports that learning from Zhang Lianyin is not out of date at any time, and even if they cannot do big things like generals, they must do more small things that are beneficial to society and the people around them. Under his leadership, the party and government organs of Zuoyun County, the troops stationed in zuoyun County, and many social organizations went to the base every year to participate in voluntary tree planting, and more and more party members and cadres came to visit and study, and everyone was deeply moved by his deeds of not forgetting the party's kindness, being affectionate with his hometown, and greening barren mountains. His words also caused everyone to think -
"This life is very short, and there are many tests that people have endured. As far as party members and cadres are concerned, the most important thing is to see whether they can correctly treat the status of fame and fortune and whether they can fulfill well the oath of serving the people and fighting for the party all their lives. ”
In 1990, Zhang Lianyin, then commander of a division of the 63rd Group Army, awarded medals to soldiers who participated in the group army competition. Profile photo
2021 is the year of Zhang Lianyin's marriage to his wife Wang Xiulanjin, who and their relatives and friends planted 500 sandy cypress trees on the north Liangshan slope of Zhangjiacang Village to commemorate it.
In June 2021, students from Zuoyun County Southeast Primary School visited the Qingfenglin Education Base, and Zhang Lianyin instructed the children to plant trees.
Zhang Lianyin (right) and his son Zhang Xiaobin examine changes in soil quality on the hillside.
Zhang Lianyin chatted with the villagers of the Zhangjiacang Village Waist Drum Team before the performance.
(The manuscript was compiled by special correspondents Zhou Ren, Liu Songfeng, Miao Peng, correspondents Cao Qiang, Chen Rongxiang, Li Keqiang, Bu Fengfeng, Liu Shiyang, Liu Liguo, Tian Weiguo, Liu Qing, peng Chunwei, and the photos were taken by Ding Meining, Yang Sanjun, and Gong Yichen in addition to the file photos)
Source: People's Liberation Army Daily, China Military Network
Producer: Liu Fengqiao, Zhang Hongwei
Executive Producer: Zhang Jinling
Editor-in-chief: Guan Shusheng, Wang Wen
Duty editors: Wang Chao, Wang Yanting
Email: [email protected]