Source: Learning Xi Regiment • Chinese Military Trumpet
When you are a soldier, you have to go Ali, and when you are a military reporter, you have to go to Ali. Although I have been working on the news front for seven years and have interviewed nearly 100 military camps, this is the first time I have talked about going to the plateau, and I can't help but feel a little nervous while being excited.
Vehicles drive on National Highway 219, which is less than 10 meters wide, and it is common to see convoys of military vehicles painted in desert camouflage passing by one after another. On the side of the road, clusters of green flashed out of the car window, and they were common plants in the desert Gobi - red willows and camel thorns.
I don't know how many Daban and how many winding roads we have bypassed, and it was not until the evening that we arrived at the first destination of the trip. The reporters lost the excitement they had when they first set off, and they all looked tired. The soldiers enthusiastically came to help us carry our luggage, divide our rooms, and told us to move slowly on the plateau and not to run. But they are agile and fast. At this point, I noticed that they all had a small green object pinned to their sleeves.
"What is this?" I said, gesturing to the left arm of the squad leader in front of me.
"A whistle, for emergencies. The squad leader said with a smile.
When night fell, I looked out of the window, and a few big words on the hillside in the distance made my eyes wet instantly. It was the battle slogan that the soldiers put together with stone pieces - training is not afraid of hardship, fighting is not afraid of death.
Busy supply lines, tireless drivers, combatants with whistles...... I thought back to what I had seen and heard along the way, and I was determined to tell the story of the border guards well, and record their spirit and spirit at a higher altitude and higher altitude due to lack of oxygen and spirit.
One
Before this trip, I had seen the "Party Flag Mountain" on the plateau on TV, the camera panned over the barren cliffs, and suddenly a bright red appeared, and the camera zoomed in, it was a huge party flag hand-painted on a prominent cliff. In the vast world, this red cast with loyalty has become another spiritual highland for border guards.
When we came to the plateau, we quickly put the search for the "Party Flag Mountain" on the agenda. A certain outpost of the Xinjiang Military Region is located on the top of a high mountain, and when you walk from the bottom of the mountain to the outpost by car, you need to go through 59 turns, and when you reach the eighth bend, you can see this "party flag mountain."
In the interviews here, the soldiers talked about the glorious traditions they learned from their veterans.
On an urgent mission, the officers and men of the post were short of supplies after 4 days of marching. At that time, the veterans invariably gave food and drinking water to the young soldiers, and at night they arranged for the young soldiers to rest in their tents, while they themselves stood guard at the tuyere.
The veterans taught by word and deed, and the young soldiers learned and imitated Xi until they became the backbone of the squad leader, and then passed on the fine traditions to the new generation of border guards. Generations of officers and men of the outpost have guarded the "Party Flag Mountain" and the motherland's frontier with practical actions.
When I left the outpost, I looked back again and again, and above my head was the "Party Flag Mountain," which symbolized faith and strength, and at my feet was the great rivers and mountains that the officers and men swore to defend to the death. As the vehicle moved away, the dark and rough faces and pure and resolute eyes of the officers and men at the outpost were deeply engraved in my mind.
Two
At the stationing point at an altitude of nearly 5,000 meters, Sergeant Zhang Dongqi told me a story that happened to him.
In the winter of the second year of enlistment, Zhang Dongqi followed the army to the plateau for training. In addition to overcoming altitude sickness caused by lack of oxygen, he also had to face extremely cold weather, which was a big challenge for Zhang Dongqi, who was not yet 20 years old at the time and was on the plateau for the first time.
One morning, Zhang Dongqi and his comrades-in-arms were under the command of Battalion Commander Lu to carry out the task of building a position. The weather on the plateau is changing, just now it was still sunny, but in an instant dark clouds shrouded and strong winds were blowing. After a while, snowflakes fell in the sky.
While standing guard the night before, Zhang Dongqi's coat was wet from the sudden blizzard. At this time, he trembled in thin clothes, and his arm wielding a shovel gradually weakened, and a feeling of dizziness followed. He quickly crouched down and curled up beside the mound. Suddenly, Zhang Dongqi felt his shoulders sink, and a warmth came from behind. Looking back, a cotton coat covered him. He called out "battalion commander" in surprise, and just wanted to open his mouth to say something, but saw Battalion Commander Lu take the shovel in his hand and join the team of building fortifications in the wind and snow.
In the snow, the figure of the battalion commander and his comrades-in-arms immersed in work moved Zhang Dongqi, and he took a short rest, stood up again, and joined the team.
I recorded this story in my interview book, and suddenly remembered a text I had learned when I was a child, "Monument". The article tells the touching story of a quartermaster who gave up his cotton clothes to his comrades during the march of the Red Army, but he died in the bitter cold.
At the end of "Monument", the author writes: "If victory does not belong to such a team, to whom?"
Three
In the conference room of the Tashi Gang Frontier Defense Company, when the reporters were excitedly sharing their footprints on the map on the wall, a soldier sitting quietly next to him suddenly whispered: "My home is in Tashi Gang Village. ”
The coincidence that a Tibetan boy from Tashi Gang Village was assigned to the Tashi Gang Frontier Defense Company after enlisting in the army immediately aroused our interest. "Why did you come to be a soldier" and "What are your ideals for being a soldier"...... The reporters asked questions in a rambling manner, but the Tibetan soldier did not speak Chinese very well, and after a few brief exchanges, he smiled shyly.
From the squad leader's description, we know the story of this Tibetan warrior, Langga Dorjee. Since the establishment of the company, the Tashi Gang Frontier Defense Company has always maintained a co-construction relationship with the surrounding villages and towns, and a group of officers and soldiers regularly go to Tashi Gang Village to provide free haircuts, furniture repairs, and free medical treatment for the villagers, and this tradition has continued for many years.
When he was a teenager, the five members of the Dorjee family lived a herding life that was not wealthy. Whenever the People's Liberation Army comes to the village for free treatment, Dorjee's eyes always follow the camouflage green.
In fact, before joining the army, Langga Dorjee was already a militiaman, and often patrolled the border with the officers and soldiers of the Tashi Gang Border Defense Company. The ravines and ravines on the patrol road are all too familiar to Dorjee, who has lived here since childhood. It's just that when he was a militia, Dorjee was often the one who was protected. During an urgent mission, Dorjee and the officers and soldiers of the mission went forward together, and at the critical moment, the officers and soldiers blocked Dorjee behind him. When recalling this past, Dorjee said: "I was scared at the time. ”
"What if we encounter such danger again?" Dorjee said firmly in the face of the reporter's question: "Go with everyone!"
Although he has been in the army for less than half a year, Dorjee has already planned a growth roadmap for himself: he will participate in martial arts competitions during the compulsory military period, become a squad leader in the future, and actively apply to join the party......
At the end of the interview, I asked him curiously, "It's so close to home, do you want to go home on the weekend?" Dorjee shook his head and said, "No." ”
"Why?"
"I want to hurry up and learn more from the class leader. ”
Four
What does a highland soldier look like? Reddened skin, chapped lips, rough hands...... In the past month's interviews, I have been touched countless times by these plateau soldiers, they are so cute and so simple. When they assemble urgently, they are vigorous and resolute, using their knapsacks and chariots as fast as they can, and during their rest time, they will also love to talk, laugh, and eat snacks like their peers, and are full of youthful vitality.
Zhou Qikun graduated from the Air Force Engineering University last year with the first place in the overall ranking of his major. When he was assigned after graduation, he saw the deeds of the heroes who defended the country and defended the border, and resolutely applied to come to the western border of the motherland and sang the song of youth on the plateau at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters.
The new platoon commander, Zhu Ke, was particularly obsessed with professional theories and tactics and tactics, and took the initiative to apply for major tasks on many occasions. He is full of energy and has a wide range of hobbies, and in this sandy Gobi, he blooms with passion like fire.
Tibetan soldier Solang Mingjiu, when he first arrived at the barracks, he did not understand the language and did not adapt to his profession, but after unremitting efforts, he has now grown into a professional backbone of the company. In a highland communications professional assessment, he broke the company record and won a shining medal.
Cui Fan joined the army after graduating from graduate school. At every fork in the road in his life, his choice was always guided by "being a soldier is my career" - in order to successfully join the army, he wrote his graduation thesis in advance. Now, after five years in the army, he is following the example of the old battalion commander Chen Hongjun martyr and practicing his mission in the Karakoram Plateau.
They are the most ordinary of the countless border guards. They are not good at talking, they are always shy when they tell their stories, they talk eloquently when they talk professionally, they are obscure, but they always stand up in times of crisis - this is the character of the loveliest of people, and this is the character of this plateau.
(Produced by the Learning Xi Corps and the Chinese Military Trumpet)