In the twilight of spring, in the Gaoshikan Forest Farm in Muhuang Town, Yinjiang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, a world natural heritage site at the western foot of Fanjing Mountain, there is a thin and busy figure, an orange forest protection suit, and an endless green forest sea...... A landscape painting with distinct colors, beautiful and moving!
Wu Zhengchun, who is over 67 years old, has a serious expression and carefully asks everyone who enters the forest farm, and checks whether the vehicles are carrying sacrificial paper money and firecrackers, for fear that his slightest negligence will bring disaster to the forest farm.
What is his identity? This has to start with the 48 years that he has been with this forest farm.
Wu Zhengchun rode a motorcycle to patrol the forest road.
Respond to the call for afforestation
In March 1976, Wu Zhengchun, who was only 19 years old, set foot on this land with the passion and dream of building a state-owned forest farm, and since then he has been associated with the Jiuling Thirteen Ridges of Gaoshikan Forest Farm.
Before entering the forest farm, Wu Zhengchun built a factory in the Yellow District of the Log to build a professional team of communes to do chores and feed pigs. Because of this "resume", coupled with his young age and small physical strength, he was arranged to cook in the canteen when he first arrived at the forest farm.
"Although this is also a part of the forest farm, I have always been unhappy, my original intention is to plant trees, I want to join the tree planting team one day earlier. Wu Zhengchun recounted his eagerness to join the afforestation team.
A year later, his physical strength was basically "qualified" and he became a veritable worker in the state-owned forest farm in the Yellow District of Logs.
"At that time, there were 28 people in the entire forest farm, and it was very difficult to live and stay. The house where I live is running and leaking, and the four people live in a small room, and the bed is so narrow that you have to be careful when you turn over, and if you don't pay attention, it will roll to the ground. The kitchen is a thatched shed. I ate hand-ground bread noodles, sweet potatoes, and wild vegetables, and I couldn't see a single rice for a long time. A pound of oil, 28 people should eat for at least ten days. In the most difficult time, Zhou Hongquan, the old farm manager, stipulated that when working in the mountains, each employee needed to collect 2.5 kilograms of wild fern moss every day and hand them over to the collective canteen as food for their stomachs. Sometimes the patrol can't support it, so I look for wild fruits to fill the belly. Recalling the hardships of the year, Wu Zhengchun was sad.
Wu Zhengchun patrols the forest on foot.
The harsh conditions and hardships of life did not break their determination to afforest. During the busy farming season, while engaging in spring plowing and production, it is necessary to plant trees and afforestation.
Wu Zhengchun recalled that at that time, they dug their own tree nests, and each person had to plant five bundles of saplings a day, each with about 100 saplings. Saplings have to be picked up 30 kilometers away. When it snows heavily in winter, they have to dig up the wasteland to prepare for planting trees the following year. Throughout the year, there is no day of leisure. The blood bubbles on the hands turned into cocoons, and the cocoons ground up blood blisters.
Spring goes to autumn, cold and summer change. 1000 acres, 5000 acres, 12000 acres...... In the past 48 years, the area of the forest farm has expanded little by little under their hard work, and the annual rings of the trees have grown in circles under their desperate protection. And Wu Zhengchun's annual rings are written on his forehead and engraved on his heart.
"What kind of belief made you stay under such difficult conditions?" the reporter couldn't help but ask.
"Since you have come here, you have to obey the arrangement, and if you want to do one thing well, you have to start from the beginning. Wu Zhengchun's simple and simple words are awe-inspiring.
From the beginning to the end. How easy is it to say, but how easy is it to do?
Wu Zhengchun rode a motorcycle to patrol the forest.
Take the field as your home and desperately protect the forest
In 1982 and 1984, Wu Zhengchun's daughter Wu Hongmin and son Wu Gaolin were born one after another. On one side is the child waiting to be fed, and on the other side is the forest farm that is just improving. As the pillar of the family, the whole family has to eat, wear, children to go to school in the future, and the elderly to support, this burden makes him suffer a lot in his heart.
In the early 80s of the last century, reform and opening up was like a spring breeze, and the spring tide of the motherland was surging. Tree farm employees are leaving. Some went south to work, a little apprenticeship, some did individual business, and some left because of marital problems. Gradually, the number of rangers decreased from 28 to 8.
"Yang Zhengping, who was in the same village as me and entered the forest farm on the same day, after he left in 1979, started a wine business, which was very successful, and invited me to manage him. ”
On the one hand, there are white-collar management posts, and high wages can make the family worry about food and clothing, and on the other hand, there is the loneliness of guarding the forest farm, living a hard life, and doing heavy physical work. Wu Zhengchun tossed and turned for several nights, and finally refused Yang Zhengping's kindness and chose to stay.
"Why is my son's name Gao Lin? Gao Lin is the 'abbreviation' of Gao Shikan Forest Farm. The forest farm is like my child, from 'birth' to 'growing up', I have placed too many emotions and infinite hopes. That's why I'm reluctant to leave here. Wu Zhengchun said.
Reluctant, inseparable. The selfless dedication of his youth to the forest farm left behind him was a deep debt to his family.
"Since the two children were in elementary school, they have been taking care of themselves. Every week, I bring some corn sand and sweet potatoes from the forest farm to my hometown of Mupen Village, and cook and eat by myself after school. The two children have no one to take care of, and we don't know how much they are hungry and how many grievances they suffer. Wu Zhengchun said that he remembered that one year when there was really no food at home, the aunt next door took the initiative to borrow food, which solved the urgent need, and later let me not pay it back.
"You are a forest ranger in the forest farm, why doesn't your wife take care of the children in her hometown?" the reporter asked him with some excitement.
Wu Zhengchun turned his back and sighed deeply. "In the early 80s of the last century, when the land was devolved to the households, we did not get any land in our hometown, and only left a few pieces of land for ourselves. She has to grow food and vegetables here to meet the family's food rations. Also, at that time, forest theft was rampant, and she didn't worry that I was here alone. ”
According to reports, the most difficult task of forest protection was in the eighties and nineties of the last century. After the rural land was contracted to the households, the hills of the surrounding villages were deforested and cleared away, and the villagers were in urgent need of timber for living fuel, building houses, furniture materials, etc., and the surrounding villagers set their sights on the Gaoshikan Forest Farm. At that time, there was also a "logging team" in Fengyi Village, which specialized in stealing trees, and there were also people in Songtao County who participated in illegal logging......
"Every day, the poachers and our rangers play a game of guerrilla warfare and tug-of-war...... It's not uncommon for us rangers to be verbally abused, threatened, and even punched and kicked by loggers. Look at the scar on my knee, which was left by the poachers who chased them back then. When the poachers saw that I was about to catch up with him, they threw the wood on my shoulders at me, breaking my knees, exposing my bones and bleeding profusely. Wu Zhengchun said the prospect at that time, and at the same time pulled up the trouser leg of his right leg, revealing a scar three or four centimeters long.
Wu Zhengchun stuck to the forest farm, and his wife accompanied him silently. At that time, because of the rampant theft, the forest farm workers and the thieves fought wits and courage, day and night in turn to patrol the mountain uninterruptedly, and at night out can not play flashlight, sometimes go out is a night, go out for a long time, the wife is not at ease, go around to look for, afraid that he will be in danger.
Wu Zhengchun inspects the growth of trees.
In the forest farm, they are self-sufficient in food and self-sufficiency, but there is no economic income. The tuition fees for the two children depended on the couple picking up pine balls in the forest farm and selling them on Muhuang Street.
"2 cents a pound of loose balls, the couple picked loose balls to sell, 100 pounds in exchange for 2 yuan. Tears couldn't help but slide down Wu Zhengchun's cheeks.
"There are so many trees in the forest farm, you didn't think of quietly selling a few to find some income?"
"Selling trees? We came here to plant trees and protect forests, so how can we sell them! Besides, this is a state's thing, so how can we have the right to sell it!" Wu Zhengchun replied with a sonorous and angry voice.
Guarding the "green bank" but not being able to withdraw it, their lives are particularly difficult. Raising chickens, feeding pigs, cattle and sheep, growing corn and cooking wine, and picking mushrooms to sell have become the source of their economic income.
In 2003, the state implemented the "Tianbao Project", and each of the eight rangers received a monthly subsidy of 200 yuan, but it was only implemented for four years.
Later, according to the forestry policy, a forest area of 3,000 acres was given to a forest ranger, with a monthly salary of 600 yuan. However, only one of the eight rangers meets the condition of "under the age of 50", and Wu Zhengchun is overage. Through the efforts of various parties, the county forestry department has arranged two indicators.
The family's financial constraints made her daughter Wu Hongmin know how to share her parents' worries early, and after graduating from junior high school with excellent grades, she chose to go out to work.
Wu Zhengchun said that her daughter's studies were better than her son's, and she gave up her studies to leave the opportunity to study to her younger brother. Wu Gaolin is also very competitive, he is the only college student who has gone out of the forest farm, and has now bought a house in Shenzhen and settled down.
"When I first came, these trees were about as tall as me, and now you see, they are all big trees. Walking into the depths of the shade, Wu Zhengchun looked up at the towering trees in front of him, sometimes rubbing the thick and straight trunks, stretching out his arms to measure the diameter, sometimes cleaning up the dead branches and leaves in the forest, sometimes listening to the forest waves, reminiscing about the watery years...
For 48 years, we have taken the field as our home and the trees as our companions. Wu Zhengchun has won many awards such as the National Youth Greening Motherland Raider, the National Village-level Outstanding Forest Ranger, and the Guizhou Provincial Greening Medal. In 2006, he took over the responsibility of being the director of Gaoshikan Forest Farm.
Wu Zhengchun was interrogating the people entering the mountain.
Endure the pain and silently guard the forest
There was no road in the forest farm, and the more I walked, it became a road.
"We patrol the mountains every day, not only on the periphery, but also inside the forest farm. Walking is generally not less than 20,000 steps. You see, the slopes and bumps of this place have been turned into roads. Wu Zhengchun said jokingly.
From straw shoes, to tire shoes, to liberation shoes, none of the rangers could remember how many pairs they wore out. The slope and the road have been turned, which is the clearest mark of Wu Zhengchun's adherence to the forest farm.
After years of climbing, braving the wind and rain, Wu Zhengchun fell into rheumatoid arthritis, stomach ulcers and other diseases. The pace is not as vigorous as it was back then.
Today, the transformation of the power grid has benefited thousands of households, the villagers have bid farewell to firewood stoves, the brick-concrete structure has replaced the shingle houses, the villagers around the forest farm have been lifted out of poverty and become well-off, and the illegal logging of forests has become a past that people do not want to recall. The main task of forest protection has changed from anti-theft to fire prevention.
"There are more than 500 graves in the forest farm. Wu Zhengchun said that the Gaoshikan Forest Farm covers an area of 12,000 mu and borders Wuluo Town, Songtao Miao Autonomous County. Ten days before and after the Qingming Festival every year, not only are there more people who go into the mountains to sweep the tombs, but there are also two flue-cured tobacco bases around the forest farm, and the peripheral patrols are even more intensified for fear that the villagers will burn the ridge and cause mountain fires.
Zeng Jie
Wu Zhengchun was entering the mountain to exchange personnel.
At around 7 o'clock in the morning, Wu Zhengchun handed over the "bayonet" into the forest farm to his younger brother Wu Zhengwen, who was a forest ranger. He picked up the horn, rode a motorcycle, faced the morning sun, covered in mist, shuttled on the road outside the forest farm, and began a day's patrol work.
"It is forbidden to carry fires or inflammable and explosive materials into mountains and forest areas; it is forbidden to burn paper, burn incense and light wax, and set off fireworks and ......firecrackers on the forest edges of forest areas."
He stops and goes, turns off his horn, listens for "movement" in the forest, or stands on tiptoe to check for smoke in the forest. This action is repeated again and again, and it takes three hours to make a trip.
"We rode around the mountains every day, several round trips, more than 30 kilometers. Wu Zhengchun said.
At half past ten in the morning, Wu Zhengchun, who had not eaten breakfast, was already hungry, so he hurried home to cook a bowl of noodles, fry half a bowl of wild vegetables, eat chili sauce, have a simple lunch, take a short rest, and patrol the forest farm on foot.
"There are many roads into the mountains, and the pine needles cover it thickly. This season is the period of high incidence of forest fires, and if the inventory is not careful enough, it will cause wildfires, and the consequences will be unimaginable. As he walked, Wu Zhengchun talked about why he wanted to patrol the mountains on foot.
The sun slowly rose as he spoke, and the sun slanted down through the dense branches, shining on his sweaty cheeks.
The reporter followed in his footsteps and continued to weave through the forest. The emerald green pine and fir trees are swaying in the spring breeze, and the new green is dotted with the old green, as if in a sea of green, and the pink rhododendrons in the forest are shy and blooming, bursting with fragrance, which makes people feel refreshed and happy. The pine waves seem to tell his unremitting bond with this forest for 48 years......
"There has not been a single forest fire in the forest farm!" this is Wu Zhengchun's proud forest protection report card.
Wu Zhengchun is clearing weeds in the forest farm
Green silk and white hair, obsessed with forest protection
48 years, more than 17,500 days. Wu Zhengchun stuck to the Gaoshikan Forest Farm, from green silk to white hair, from youth to old age, his footsteps were covered with mountains and forests, and sweat was sprinkled all over every inch of land.
"You are over 67 years old, and your wife has been in Shenzhen to take care of her grandson for 8 years, do you plan to live with them and enjoy family fun?"
"I'm not going anywhere, I'm just guarding this forest. I told my son that I would be buried here in a hundred years, and I would continue to watch over this forest. ”
"People are there, trees are there, trees are there, people are there!" was his most affectionate confession to this forest farm.
For him, every grass and tree, hill and ravine, year after year, day after day, every inch of land, every flower, every tree, and tree here is a companion, a comfort, a sustenance, a testimony from green silk to gray hair, which has long been engraved in his heart and integrated into his body.
"I've been on the forest farm for 48 years, and I've only spent one year at home. It's that in 2023, my daughter will go home for the New Year and call me home. I only went back after eating on Chinese New Year's Eve, and on the morning of New Year's Day, I had an early meal and rushed to the forest farm to be on duty. Because there are many people sweeping the tombs on the first, second, and third days of junior high school, I am not at ease. Wu Zhengchun said.
Walking...... Speaking...... Following his footsteps, he walked through several more hills, until the afterglow of the setting sun was gradually submerged by the shade of the trees in the forest farm, and Wu Zhengchun completed his day's patrol work. Tomorrow, he will continue......
Reporter's Notes
It is with their persistent protection and careful care that Gaoshikan has achieved today's 10,000 acres of forests, with a direct economic value of more than 100 million yuan, adding a touch of charming style to the beautiful Fanjing Mountain.
During the interview, Wu Zhengchun hid his face and cried several times. He had three opportunities to leave: first, to join the army in 1979; second, to accept Yang Zhengping's invitation to engage in management in his enterprise; and third, he learned the trade of plasterer before going to the forestry farm, so he could engage in plasterer. But he chose to stick to the forest farm for 48 years.
In the first 27 of these 48 years, there was no salary income. He has been paid $200 a month as a ranger since 2003 and has slowly increased to $800 a month now.
The income is meager, but it has never opened up to the government. He said that there should still be difficulties in Muhuang Town like me Wu Zhengchun, and everyone opened their mouths to the government, so they still have to go.
Now, the two children are married and have a family, and the son has bought a house in Shenzhen to settle down, and Wu Zhengchun should have retired to enjoy the joy of family. But he said: I can move for a day, and I will guard the forest for a day.
Endure poverty, endure loneliness, endure loneliness, and be willing to give. Wu Zhengchun, Wu Zhengwen, Fang Dengming, Zhou Hongquan, Luo Yunxian, Wu Yongyi, Tian Ruqiang, Tian Maochun, these 8 rangers created 10,000 acres of forest farm, is a gold and silver mountain, but also a green monument!
Author: Zhang Yulian/Wen Ren Mingqin/Picture/Video
Editor: Roth
Second trial: Zeng Jie
Third trial: Xiang Lihua
General Duty: Daniel Zhang