Barren mountains, shovels, wind and sand, sun...
Saibei left cloud, the goose gate closed. Year after year, "veterans" use the rings of life to turn the wasteland into a green field - sassafras pine, spruce, poplar trees, sea buckthorn, row after row, row after row, all over the mountains...
In the 18 years since his retirement, the "veterans" have led the villagers to plant more than 2 million trees for their hometown.
The "veteran" is named Zhang Lianyin, 76 years old, former deputy commander of the Hebei Provincial Military Region, with the rank of major general.
He spent his life on horseback, and could have chosen to spend his old age in peace, but he drank the wind and swallowed the sand and gave everything he had, and he still planted trees in his case of cancer, and built a "green Great Wall" in his hometown that benefited the people.
Zhang Lianyin overlooks the nursery and mountain forest on the Great Wall of Skyscraper in Zuoyun County, Shanxi. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Ding Meining)
The background of the life of a Communist Party member: I do not feel hard doing things for the party and the people, but I am very happy
"Why did you choose this painstaking tree planting road?" There are too many people who are puzzled.
"Afforestation, wind and sand control, benefit the country and the people, and benefit future generations." Zhang Lianyin said.
In 2003, in Zuoyun County, Shanxi Province, Zhang Lianyin retired and returned to his hometown.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Lianyin, who unloaded the steel gun, actually carried a shovel. This senior military cadre who came out of Zhangjiacang Village wants to return to his hometown to plant trees after retirement?!
"Planting trees can prevent wind and sand fixation and improve the natural environment of your hometown." I don't have a million family fortunes, and afforestation is the most realistic option, how much money to plant and how many trees to plant. After repeated consideration, Zhang Lianyin chose this road.
At that time, against his fame, companies threw olive branches, "it is easy to make money."
But Zhang Lianyin's heart was as transparent as a mirror: "I just want to use limited time, limited energy, and limited scope to do something for the people of my hometown." ”
Folks, the weight in Zhang Lianyin's heart is very heavy. His father died when he was 4 years old, his mother remarried when he was 6 years old, and the grandmother and grandfather who raised him died when he was 13 and 16 years old.
"Only by eating a hundred meals and wearing a hundred clothes can I grow up, and the kindness of the villagers to me will never be forgotten for a lifetime." He remembers that when he was a child, he was sometimes so poor that he didn't even have shoes.
That morning 57 years ago, Zhang Lianyin will never forget——
The village is full of gongs and drums, and this 19-year-old young man is going to become a soldier!
Wearing saffron flowers and riding a big horse, the villagers stuffed his pockets with fried melon seeds and hard-boiled eggs...
"You wear safflowers for me, I express my determination, and when I go to the army to listen to the party, the party will do whatever it wants!" At the farewell party, Zhang Lianyin, as a representative of the recruits, improvised the allegro.
He remembered this sentence all his life and did it all his life.
In the second year of joining the army, because of his excellent performance, he was honorably admitted to the party, and since then, he has grown from an ordinary soldier to a senior leading cadre.
In the past 40 years, Zhang Lianyin has achieved remarkable results in each post.
As a soldier, he was a "five-good soldier" every year; as a company commander, he was rated as an excellent representative of the "four good companies" of the Beijing Military Region; he was awarded the rank of major general from regimental commander and deputy division commander to division commander, deputy commander, and deputy commander of the provincial military region.
In March 2003, Zhang Lianyin retired. He said to his wife seriously: "I am retired and have no position, but my party membership is still there, which is a position for my whole life." Serving the people wholeheartedly is also my lifelong obligation. ”
Zhang Lianyin's hometown, Zhangjiacang Village, Zuoyun County, is located on the edge of the Maowusu Sandy Land and belongs to the Beijing-Tianjin Wind and Sand Source Governance Area. More than half of the land in the village is barren mountains and barren slopes, and the wind is blowing.
Decades have passed, and although the villagers have moved from the original adobe houses to brick houses, the bare and barren slopes have not changed.
"Greening my hometown and benefiting my fellow villagers is my 'last battlefield in life.'" In October of that year, Zhang Lianyin returned to his hometown with his wife Wang Xiulan and started the "first battle" of the tree planting cause.
However, the difficulties of starting a business were unexpected.
The land of Zuoyun is barren and the survival rate of trees is low. In the first year, Zhang Lianyin bought 10,000 sassafras pine seedlings from Youyu, and as a result, all of them died the following year; another 6,000 trees died...
Zhang Lianyin carried saplings while planting trees on the slopes of Beiliang Mountain in Zhangjiacang Township, Zuoyun County, Shanxi. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Ding Meining)
"The ancestors can't live for three generations, so you will live when you come back?" "Hair small" Hu Wanjin, watching him not hit angry.
The tree was all dead, and the old man was sad, but even more unwilling. He bought books to teach himself, went to the door to consult experts, and also went to the forest farm in other places to study, and whenever he met a person who could plant trees, he pulled people to break the casserole and ask the end.
Planted dead, dead planted again... His wife, who returned to his hometown to plant trees with him, remembers that in the first few years of planting trees, his face and ears were often blown off by the wind, and the blisters on his mouth were swollen high, and sometimes the blisters cracked, and blood flowed down his lips.
Once the eldest daughter returned to her hometown to visit, she did not recognize the parents who were coming towards her, and looked at the two old people who were "unrecognizable" by the wind and sand, and she was heartbroken and wept.
Zhang Lianyin has his own "bitter optimism": "I plant trees, and I don't feel hard doing things for the party and the people, but I am very happy." ”
Today, the barren mountains of the past have been loosened.
The nature of the soldier who charged into the battlefield: there was no difficulty that could not be overcome
On the hillside, Zhang Lianyin sat on the ground after finishing his work, and his speech was full of energy. It's hard to imagine that he was hovering on the line of life and death.
In 2011, when he learned that he was suffering from lung cancer, Zhang Lianyin only said "calmly face, scientific treatment." Before the operation, he silently paid off the money he owed to his relatives and friends over the years, and even went to the photo studio to take a photo.
It's just that the trees aren't planted yet. Zhang Lianyin couldn't wait after the operation, and he dragged his wife back to his hometown in the first month of the second year.
As usual, they did not find someone to pick up, the old couple from Shijiazhuang to sleep by train for one night, at five o'clock in the morning to Datong, and then took a bus to Zhangjiacang Village.
"If I don't come back, the stall will be over." He hadn't thought about his body at all, and his mind was full of planting trees.
Back at the base of planting trees, Zhang Lianyin immediately loaded saplings and shovels, and took his "special car" up the mountain - this van bought for less than 50,000 yuan ran nearly 200,000 kilometers in 6 years, "pulling workers, pulling tools, pulling saplings, out of the ditch into the mountains, all of which are his cars." Chi Hengguang, deputy director of the Organization Department of the Zuoyun County CPC Committee, said.
The green shade of ZuoYun County was constantly expanding, and the cancer cells in his body were also growing wildly. In 2014, bone metastases appeared in his lung cancer. This time, after a month in the hospital, he once again returned to his hometown to plant trees.
"Cancer should be treated scientifically, and planting trees should also be carried out to the end." Zhang Lianyin said firmly.
Some people say, why compete so hard? But Zhang Lianyin, who came from the military, is like this, just like his WeChat signature: strong, tenacious, perseverance -
Today, the survival rate of tree planting has reached more than 95%, and he has led the villagers to plant more than 2 million trees for their hometown.
Today, Zhang Lianyin still walks fast and is full of energy.
On the land of China, it is not only Zhang Lianyin who has created miracles!
Satellites at an altitude of 600,000 meters faithfully record the Maowusu sandy land that gradually "disappeared" in the green enclosure -
One pit after another planting trees, one shovel and one shovel laying sand barriers to fix sand, people go forward and follow, with a nail year, in the former barren land sowed a green barrier of scientific configuration of qiao, shrubs and grasses, so that most of the desertification land can be treated, making it a model for global desertification prevention and control.
"Thousands of consecutive seals have created an ecological miracle from 'sand entering people retreating' to 'green entering sand retreating'." Luo Tao, senior auditor of the Department of Natural Resources and Ecological Environment Audit of the National Audit Office, said with emotion that since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the successful practice of Chinese communists in promoting the construction of ecological civilization has shone with the "spiritual code" of the sustainable development of the Chinese nation.
"30 years is my 'goal', planting trees until I am 88 years old!" Zhang Lianyin said: "Dealing with trees every day, being with the people, and being in a good mood is good. ”
Driven by him, the forest coverage rate of Zuoyun County in Shanxi Province has risen from 38.6% in 2003 to 45.03% now, an increase of 6.43 percentage points, and Zhang Lianyin has been called "Green General" by the masses.
The role of "public servant" who cares about the masses: never forget the villagers on this side of the water and soil
On an autumn afternoon, the waves are rolling. Standing in the small pavilion at the top of the hill in Zhangjiachang Village, Zhang Lianyin looked far and near and sang his favorite song loudly——
"No matter how rich you are, no matter how old you are, you can't forget our mother at any time..."
In the past 18 years, on the land under his feet, he led the villagers to plant 18,000 mu of trees, of which 6,000 mu were voluntary tree planting, and 12,000 mu were Beijing-Tianjin wind and sand source treatment projects.
More than 2 million trees, he did not take any money, signed an agreement: "one does not want forest rights, the second does not want land rights, after 30 years free of charge to return to the collective." ”
In the early days of entrepreneurship, Zhang Lianyin took out all 300,000 yuan of savings, the eldest daughter Zhang Xiaomei used a house mortgage loan of 200,000 yuan, the son Zhang Xiaobin took out 100,000 yuan of savings, and the younger daughter Zhang Xiaohua advanced 30,000 yuan of transfer fees and 20,000 yuan given by her in-laws when she was engaged. Later, Zhang Lianyin borrowed money from the bank twice.
However, zhang Lianyin's old house in the village collapsed to a different look.
The old man of his own clan advised him: Lianyin, you don't want to think about your own home? Your old house should still be covered for some money.
Zhang Lianyin said, "I'll still use my limited funds on the green barren mountains!" ”
After the ecological improvement, the villagers thanked Zhang Lianyin's deeds, spontaneously raised money to build a pavilion, wanted to name it "General Tai", but was stopped by Zhang Lianyin, and later erected the "Zhangjiacang Township 10,000 Acres Small Watershed Comprehensive Treatment Project Monument".
In 2015, his son Zhang Xiaobin left the army and chose to choose his own career and returned to the village to follow his father to plant trees.
Some people wondered: "Haven't you thought about using your resources to make your son develop better in the army?" ”
Zhang Lianyin replied: "The recognition of the people and the good family style are the best 'wealth' I have left to my children." Xiaobin and the villagers stay together and do such a meaningful thing, which is very good. ”
He mingled with the masses, ate peasant meals, did farm work, spoke peasant dialect, and asked him to preside over anyone who had a parent. When he was short of funds, 3 villagers lent him 300,000 yuan in loans, and even did not have to hit the IOU.
For many years, Zhang Lianyin ate potatoes and cabbage tofu, and his favorite thing to wear was an old camouflage suit; every New Year's Festival, he had to buy things to see the difficult households in the village...
The villagers said of him, "Never put up a score, I can't see that he is a general." ”
And his wife Wang Xiulan understood him best, "If the villagers think he is like them, he will be happy." ”
In Zhang Lianyin's diary, some small things are recorded -
"After taking the medicine, I ordered a bowl of noodles at the hospital door, and I came to a disc operation!"
"From Zuoyun to Datong, took a bus, and traveled low-carbon again."
……
Mordaunt Sang Yu evening, for Xia still full of heaven.
Today, Zhang Lianyin's tree planting base has become a teaching point for the Youyu Cadre College, which was originally named the "General Forest" greening base, and he replaced the word "general" with "Qingfeng".
The party and the state advocate and demand large and small, he put it into practice, for only one reason, simple and fiery:
"It was the party that trained me from a lonely cowherd to a general, and it was the villagers who made me live my present life." Never forget the villagers on this side of the water and soil, the party organization is my home, and the father and elder in my hometown are my mother. ”
(Xinhua News Agency reporters Huang Ming, Wu Jing, Jia Qilong, Wang Feifei)
(Contributors: Zhou Ren, Liu Songfeng, Li Ziwei, Qu Ting, Huang Yichen, Tian Dingyu)