Graphic Coordinator: Li Wubing (Beijing)
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 Chronicle" Hyrule's wind
Ran Huaizhou
People say that Hailar has a lot of wind and sand, especially in May, and it was during this season that I came to Hailar, and sure enough, it greeted me with wind and sand. My assignment was to cover the Yimin railway spur line, which is about to be completed, from East Hailar in the north to the Yimin River in the south, where a large-scale open-pit coal mine will be built.
In Hailar, it is often clear in the morning, and after a while, the wind picks up, and the whole sky begins to turn yellow, and it becomes more and more mixed, and the whirring sound is getting louder and louder. There is mostly a westerly wind blowing from the direction of Manchuria. I live in the West Mountain of Hailar, and the so-called mountain is actually the kind of sand dunes that are not very high, and there are pine trees growing on them. There are very few trees in other places in Hailar, and this piece of pine sylvestris is particularly eye-catching. It is said that the hometown of Pinus sylvestris sylvestris is in the south of Hailar, nearly 300 miles of Honghuaerji, its seeds were blown to Hailar, took root, sprouted, and grew into a towering tree, as a result, it has a new name, called Hailar pine.
This Pinus sylvestris sylvestris in Hailar is not as tall and straight as the Pinus sylvestris sylvestris in the Great Khing'an Mountains, with a relatively short trunk and a large crown, which may be to facilitate the union and resist the wind and sand. No one can say exactly how old this piece of pine is, but it is estimated that the elders are always more than two or three hundred years old. For such a long time, they were not buried by the windy sand blowing from the deserts of Mongolia and the Soviet Union, and they guarded Hailar and mitigated the attack of wind and sand on Hailar; Nor was it destroyed by the war, and the Russian horse caravan crossed the Ergun River and invaded the area; The Japanese Kwantung Army also tried to use this pine forest to hold Hailar, but it finally failed, and there are still remnants of the fortress they built in the forest.
【Hailar Street View】
Whether it is wind and sand, or whether it is war, the pine forest of Hailar has been experienced, what is the reason why it still exists? Early in the morning, as I walked through the woods, this question kept haunting my mind.
After breakfast, Lao Wang and I took a car to Donghailar. Lao Wang is a deputy chief of staff of the railway corps, and we plan to start from the place where the Yimin branch line is connected and go south along the side road where the railway is built.
At this time, the wind is not strong. The Hulunbuir grassland has begun to turn green, and the grass on the roadside has already sprouted. The herds near and far can be seen very clearly. Fighters are filling in ballast and laying turf on a new railway line. After a while, the wind became stronger, and the herds in the distance were invisible, the herds in the near distance were blurred, and the figures of the warriors were not clearly visible. The car was blown by the wind and sand, and the inside and outside of the car were loud. The driver slowed down the car very slowly and finally had to stop because he couldn't see the road ahead. The wind and sand came in through the crack in the car door, and it still hurt to hit the face, so you can imagine how unbearable it would be to be blown by the wind and sand outside. I asked Lao Wang:
"Our warriors, is there a place to take refuge from the wind?"
Lao Wang was stunned, he was surprised by my question. He said:
"No matter how strong the wind and sand are, the fighters will stick to their posts. Building a railway is also like fighting a war, when there is a fierce battle, can you stop fighting because of the wind and sand? Since the formation of the railway corps in 1948 under the artillery fire of the Liberation War, during the war years, the railways were repaired wherever the war was fought. When fighting abroad in Korea, the enemy's planes bombed and strafed much more than the wind and sand, so didn't we still ensure that the lines were unblocked? During the period of peaceful construction, from the construction of the Yingxia Line to the Jingtong Line, which was opened to traffic not long ago, the difficulties encountered were really unimaginable. ”
The wind is constantly changing, sometimes loud and sometimes small, and the sky is bright and dark. I kept my eyes on the new railway line, and when the sky was brighter, I saw that the soldiers were indeed at their posts, filled with ballast and laid turf.
Taking advantage of the lighter winds, we came to Sesumu, where the railway was going to cross the Yimin River. The Yimin River flows north-south, but here it turns two sharp bends, forming an east-west direction, where the West Suomu Railway Bridge flies north and south. In the north of the bridge, there is a ditch several hundred meters long, a sand mountain is split, on both sides of the ditch, dozens of meters high sand mountain cuts, all pasted with the turf moved from the Yimin River beach, the grass has turned green, it looks like a majestic ancient city wall covered with green moss.
We walked through the ditch and saw a group of soldiers who were driving the whole machine to adjust the tracks, their faces already covered with sweat and sand, as if they had just come out of the dirt. After crossing the ditch, I came to the bridge, and saw a group of soldiers sticking turf on the top of the hill to fix the sand mountain. The side wall of the ditch like the ancient city wall was exactly what they moved from the river beach on such a windy day, and pasted it piece by piece.
【Yimin Railway Branch】
We crossed the West Sobben Railway Bridge, waited for cars to pass the construction bridge, and on the west bank of the Imin River, we headed to the mine, where the Yimin Railway spur line ended. According to the plan, we are going to visit the stone yard. The stone yard is in the east of the Yimin River, the water of the Kaihe River has come down, the water in the river is very strong, the bridge in the water is submerged, we have to take a boat from the hydrological station, and cross the Yimin River. Since it was not far from the quarry, we decided to go. At this time, the wind became stronger again, but fortunately it was a tailwind, and we seemed to be blown to the stone yard by the wind. Here, there are two companies that hit the ballast, which is an outlet, and the wind is naturally stronger. The wind and sand burrowed from the nostrils to the mouths of the warriors, from the necks into their clothes, and their ears seemed to be gagged.
Our fighters built the railway in such a big wind and sand, but they were so optimistic. In the tent, I saw that they were raising flowers, especially the kind of radish flowers, which were made of a green radish, dug a groove, and planted two rows of garlic, and the garlic seedlings grew tall, green, and the radish was green, and there were yellow flowers, and the whole thing looked like a small flower boat. How the fighters love life! Naturally, they also have troubles. Because they lived and fought in such a difficult environment, some affectionate girls actually tore off the silk thread of love. There are also some fighters who lack labor at home and have encountered certain difficulties in production and life. However, these problems are all taken correctly by the fighters. They said:
"When a thousand are up, all distractions will be eliminated, and the wind and sand are nothing."
The hearts of the warriors are so innocent and lovely. The scene of them building roads in the wind and sand reminds me of the sylvestris pine in Hailarxi Mountain. Although I don't know what exactly caused the pine forest to stand tall in the wind; But I know that the soldiers can build roads in the wind and sand because they also have a road in their hearts, a road to realize the "four modernizations" of the motherland.
The wind was still blowing, blowing the entire Yimin branch line, blowing the soldiers who insisted on building the road in the wind and sand.
This is the gale, the wind of Hailar.
May 25, 1980 in Nenjiang
Editor: Li Wubin/Li Xunxiu Editorial Department of Qingyanwei Literature