At this moment, I am sitting in the Dai Garden cafeteria in the national customs garden of Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province, and I am having breakfast. Self-help! Choose what you want to eat among dozens of dishes, and eat without wasting.
This hotel has the characteristics of the Dai ethnic group. Entering the Dai Garden, there is a sculpture of an elephant at the entrance, the hotel entrance, the hotel lobby and the ceiling fence. The round and chubby, whirling elephant shape represents auspiciousness, peace and strength. The price of the room ranges from 50,000 yuan to 600 yuan per day. It is a price-worthy and tasteful service enjoyment.
As I was eating, I suddenly looked up, and a familiar plant appeared in front of me outside the window. Her appearance, but my pineal gland reflected one picture after another: how many lives and blood of young comrades were paid for in the war of "fighting back in self-defense and defending the frontier", which officially began on February 17, 1979!
On the afternoon of February 17, I, who was the political instructor of the company at the time, and the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the Independent Division of the Yunnan Provincial Military District led by the company commander Xueliang were assigned to take on the task of attacking Nansha on the 80th Height. The sharp knife platoon led by Tan Zejiu (a native of Guang'an, Sichuan) had just crossed the Rattan River and rushed to the front of the 5th squad, when it was injured by a mine in the minefield area that had been cleared after 20 years of professional mine clearance, and his comrade Yang Zehai, the machine gunner of the 5th squad, died on the spot, giving his 20-year-old young life, and 6 comrades-in-arms including Zhou Yuanshu, the squad leader, were wounded.
After the war, I went to the Jinping Martyrs' Cemetery to see my comrades-in-arms, and there were many white and green olive fruits hanging from the olive tree outside the cemetery.
In 1980, as an instructor, I returned to Jinping Millstone Gou Mountain with the 6th and 2nd machine companies to build permanent fortifications. After taking time, I went to the Jinping Martyrs' Cemetery again. On the tomb of the martyr Yang Zehai, the wooden tablet turned into a stone tablet cement tomb, and one by one, he fell asleep like that! I tasted the olive fruit again...
In 1985, when I was transferred to work in the field troops stationed in Honghe Prefecture, Deng Yuzhi, then director of the office of the county party committee in his hometown of Guang'an County, Sichuan, wrote to me asking me to go to the "Mengzi Martyrs' Cemetery" to take a picture of his son Deng Jian, who died in the war at the age of 18. Father and mother missed their unique son, one by one, the son voluntarily enlisted in the army for more than three months, and died in that war, which was a full 5 years of psychological suffering!
One Sunday, I took 135 cameras to the Mengzi Martyrs' Cemetery, which was not walled at that time, and found the "Tomb of the Second Class Meritorious Deng Jian Martyr." In the crack in the stone in front of the tomb, an olive tree grows. At the time, it was about the height of Deng Jian's tombstone. The thin branches and leaves are green, remarkably vibrant, swaying in the breeze.
I took pictures from different directions of Dengjian's tomb, far and near, and from different angles of the whole mausoleum, picked up a little bit of soil from the tomb, picked a few olive leaves, and put them in a small bag. He also went to the photo studio to print and enlarge the photos, and also wrote an essay "Little Olives in the Tomb" to be sent to Director Deng by registration, which was published in the "Guangyi Newsletter" sponsored by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
I worked in the 42nd Division of the 14th Army where he was stationed until 1992. Since then, every February 17th, I have gone to Deng Jian's tomb, sweeping the tomb, pulling out weeds, cultivating soil, and standing silently...
Today, February 17 again, 44 years have passed! In Yunnan's border defenses, the new graves that were originally greatly increased in various martyrs' cemeteries have now been painted red over and over again. On the tombstone, the bright red five-pointed star and the inscription in red italics and the affiliation script are like the blood of the comrades who died in the same trench and the same battlefield; The olive trees and countless large elephants growing everywhere in the southern rainforest symbolize peace and auspiciousness. People living in a peaceful environment, like olive trees, always cherish peace, cherish peace, let the peace that countless people who sacrificed their lives and blood for peace continue forever, and remember the martyrs who sacrificed their lives while enjoying the good life in the new era! Because, like us alive, they should have lived in such a five-star hotel, arbitrarily choose their own meals, and no longer drink wild banana core soup to fill their hunger.
I returned to the private room from the image of the olive tree and continued to eat.
Suddenly, the heart was born with a reproach, 70-year-old man! What else can be done? A voice sounded: Is there still a little force on his body that can transform him into powerful light energy?
"Neng" - the light energy of "glory in the party for 50 years", let him continue to shine in the mission of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and on the new journey of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, consciously seek happiness for the Chinese people, rejuvenation for the Chinese nation, and great harmony for the people of the world, dedicate a little bit of volunteer power!
February 17, 2023
Yu Xishuangbanna Wang Yunming