Ran Huaizhou: He used to be the head of the creative group of the Ministry of Culture of the Railway Army, a professor of the Literature Department of the People's Liberation Army Academy of Arts, and a member of the Chinese Writers Association. He was born in November 1937 in Jiucheng Village, Gaoyang County, Hebei Province. His childhood was spent in the anti-Japanese guerrilla war in the Jizhong Plain. At the beginning of 1951, he graduated from primary school in his hometown and was admitted to Baoding No. 1 Middle School in the provincial capital, where he began to love literature and practice writing. In 1956, he was admitted to the Chinese Department of Nankai University, and after graduating in 1961, he successively engaged in literary editing, creation, criticism and teaching at the Tianjin Federation of Literary and Artistic Union, Railway Soldiers, and the People's Liberation Army Academy of Arts. His published works include more than 40 novels, such as the novels "No Invasion", "Green Pastoral Red Blood", the prose collection "Caiyun", "Rural Whispers", and the poetry collection "Nostalgia".
【Iron Soldier Chronicle】
Commemoration of the railroad soldiers
Ran Huaizhou
Carrying that bag and carrying that gun,
The majestic team was mighty.
Comrade, you have to ask us where we are going.
We want to go where the motherland needs it most.
Farewell to the snow of the Tianshan Mountains,
But I saw the East China Sea, and there were thousands of waves.
I heard the cows and sheep crying outside the plug,
I smell the fragrance of Jiangnan rice flowers again.
Comrades, take a big stride and go forward,
The railway soldiers are determined in all directions.
When I was in the railroad army, I would hear this kind of singing every day.
The railroad soldiers all sang this song and loved it.
I also fell in love with this song and sang it.
This is because there are memories of hardship, revolutionary traditions, heroic battles, optimistic spirits, selfless dedication, and enthusiasm for production. It can give people a call, it can give people encouragement.
This year is the year of the sixtieth year of the railway soldiers.
Sixty years ago, when the War of Liberation was going on intensely, in order to adapt to the large-scale operations of the PLA, there was an urgent need to have a railway support force to rush to repair the railways and complete the task of battlefield transportation.
At this time, the railroad soldiers were born in the flames of war.
In order to prevent the railroad soldiers from rushing to repair the railway, the enemy not only sent planes to bomb and strafe during the day, but also sent planes to the repair site at night to attack and harass them. In order to gain time, the railway soldiers rushed to repair in the dark under the lights, and completed one task after another - every inch of the railway was exchanged for the blood of the railway soldiers, and the blood soaked the mileage of the battle and also guided the direction of victory.
Let the train drive to the front line of the Liaoshen Campaign.
Wherever the field army hits, the railroad will be built.
The car crosses the mountain customs.
Drive to Shanghai.
Across the Northwest Plateau.
Liberate the whole of China, to the south, to the south.......
To resist US aggression and aid Korea, it has even established a steel transportation line that runs through the front and back, criss-crosses and fights continuously, and cannot be blown up.
I have not personally experienced the scene of railway soldiers rushing to repair the railway in the rain of bullets, but I have experienced their construction life in peacetime. At first, I was moved to tears when I saw the soldiers building the railway, and I was moved to tears: then, in the Guanjiao Tunnel of the Qinghai-Tibet Line, and at the construction site of the Luanjinjin Channel, I shed tears more than once.
Later, in an article, I wrote:
When I think of the railroad soldiers, I can't stop the tears that flow. As we all know, the army is used to fight wars, however, as the saying goes, raising troops for a thousand days and using them for a time -- raising soldiers means that there are times of peace and times when there is no war; The railroad soldiers, on the other hand, were fighting every day, with injuries and sacrifices at every moment, battle after battle, battle after battle. It can be said that the railway soldiers are not only a special force, but also a special force. It was under extremely difficult conditions, and even in an extremely cruel environment, that the railway soldiers were trained and tempered. In their bodies, they embody and display the best and most noble spiritual qualities of the Chinese national heroes, such as fearlessness, selfless dedication, hard-working, loyalty and patriotism, unity and friendship, and moreover, they bring into play and carry forward the truth, goodness, and beauty of human feelings and humanity to the extreme. It is precisely because of this that after the reorganization, this unit still retains the essence of the railroad soldiers, and the demobilized and retired personnel have not changed the true colors of the railroad soldiers. What is particularly touching is that they will forever commemorate those comrades-in-arms who sacrificed their lives, and regard this commemoration as a kind of content of life and a kind of belief and strength for survival.
The railway soldiers are such a force, especially capable of fighting, enduring hardships, enduring, and dedicating.
I am proud to be a member of the Railway Corps, and I sincerely praise this unit with my sincere love. I wrote many essays and published them in newspapers and periodicals inside and outside the army and throughout the country, conveying my true feelings about the railway soldiers to a wide range of readers. I also made up my mind to go deep into the army for a long time, accumulate materials for daily life, and strive to write works worthy of the heroic demeanor of this unit.
However, it didn't take long for the railroad soldiers to be reorganized, and I was transferred to an art school to do teaching work, and my desire to write the railroad soldiers with all my heart could not be realized, which became a regret in my life.
In the days that followed, I often remembered the railroad soldiers, although I also wrote some articles, and even wrote a long reportage "The Chronicle of the Iron Soldiers", but compared with the great achievements of the railway soldiers, it seems very thin and disproportionate.
Last year, China Railway Construction News began to edit the China Railway Construction Reporter Series, and I was invited to participate in the editing work. There are a total of 10 books in this series, including Zhu Haiyan's "Life Travel", Zhang Rongwen's "Spring Goes to Spring and Returns", Jiang Yaoming's "Recording History", Li Peishan's "Loyal Life", Wang Liwu's "Melody of Life", Zeng Zhengxian's "Zero Altitude Flight", Li Liangsu's "Wandering the World", Jiang Shufan's "Scenery and Ink", Wang Changyao's "Heavenly Grass", and Wu Zhiyi's "Leaving Traces in the Sea", with about five or six million words. I have carefully read these manuscripts, word by word, punctuation. I am very pleased that the work that I have always dreamed of doing but never achieved has been done by Haiyan and the others have done it very well. I really envy them, I admire them, I have been in this team since I was seventeen, eighteen, twenty years old, I have been in this team, I know this team, I love this team, I have written so many articles in praise of this team, in their words, this is an important part of their lives, it is the history of this team that lives forever. I fully believe that what they say is sincere, that they sing songs from the bottom of their hearts with a grateful heart, and that the characters and stories they write will never forget, that will always warm their hearts and make them feel the beauty of human nature and the warmth of human feelings.
In this series of books, I appreciate the title of "Heavenly Herbs", how profound the meaning is - I think that they can write such good works because of the team of railway soldiers.
There is no doubt that these works of theirs are the best commemoration of this team. The heroic name of the railroad soldiers will live forever, and these writings reflecting the struggle and life of this team will also become classics for generations to come.
Therefore, I would like to thank them, for their magnificence and magnum opus have made up for my constant anxiety and guilt, and I can be relieved of the regrets that have persisted in my heart. In addition, I would like to use the publication of the China Railway Construction Reporter Series to express my high respect for the railway soldiers and my deep nostalgia!
On the morning of July 1, 2008, it was made for the 60th anniversary of the birth of the railway soldiers
On October 1, 1983, the creative group and photography group of the Ministry of Culture of the Railway Corps took a group photo in the Summer Palace (the first from the right in the back row is Ran Huaizhou, and the second from the right in the front row is Li Wubin)
In the summer of 2018, the old comrades-in-arms of the railway soldiers in the cultural and press circles returned to the original railway soldiers compound to gather and take a group photo (the second from the right in the front row is Ran Huaizhou, and the third from the right is Li Wubin)
Ran Huaizhou (right) and Li Wubin (left) took a group photo
Edit: Have fun