Just after the Spring Festival in 1971, one morning the whole company was urgently assembled and conveyed the order of the corps headquarters: "The whole of the five regiments and seven companies will be transferred into the fourteenth regiment to form the thirteenth company." "The next afternoon, we transported all the supplies and personal belongings to the Yumen Town Railway Station, loaded three trains each, and then we boarded the eastbound train. The next day, arrived in Huangyang Town at dark, and then changed to a car, when the car passed through the middle of the Gansu Agricultural University campus, everyone stood up, and there was a scream and shouting in the car, for two reasons: one was to go east for more than six hundred kilometers; the other was to see the buildings, electric lights, and holly trees at the Gansu Agricultural University, and was excited and excited, hoping that the car could stop, hoping that this was the station of the thirteen companies of the terminal station. But the driver increased the throttle and drove out of the back door of the Agricultural University, all the way the car kept bumping up and down, dusty towards the north, only to see that the right was the ancient Great Wall, the beacon tower, the left was a desert, the northwest wind whizzed past the side, with the roar of the engine, as if back to the ancient battlefield, the car was momentarily silent, and everyone's mood also became heavy, and they did not know where to go. After a long time, the car finally stopped at the eleventh company of the second battalion, and we were temporarily arranged to the local farmer's home.
After dawn, the commander of the Second Battalion, Jiao Jiao, led us through the ancient (Ming Dynasty) Great Wall, which had been half buried by the wind and sand, to a deserted beach, and said: "This is the Thirteenth Company." Everyone looked around and was stunned: there were no houses, no people, no trees, no birds, only the Great Wall in the distance and the deserted beach nearby. Under the guidance of the battalion commander, in a natural ditch less than two meters deep formed by the flood, dozens of "ground nests" of different sizes were excavated on the cliffs on both sides. The battalion commander said, "This is your company." Everyone scrambled to jump down to check, this should be the most rudimentary way of living in history, digging a pit less than two meters deep under both sides of the natural drainage ditch, putting two purlins on top, laying bamboo foil, sprinkling a layer of wheat grass, covering a layer of dirt, and digging a door hole in the direction of the natural ditch, which was dark and damp, no windows and no ventilation, and the air was dirty. It can't help but feel desolate and cold, and it is intimidating. "Can this live in people", "This is not as good as a kennel", "This is obviously a rat hole", everyone talked about it. The battalion commander went on to explain: "This is the northernmost point of the Fourteenth Regiment's garrison, and in order to prevent the peasants from continuing to encroach on the land of the Fourteenth Regiment, the Corps has decided to transfer you to form the Thirteenth Company because of the continuous encroachment of the peasants on the land of the Reclamation Corps. Due to the rush of time and the fact that the land has not been frozen, now we can only simply dig some 'ground nests' for everyone and live temporarily. I believe that in the near future, we will build new houses and build your new homes.... Then he continued: "This is the battalion instructor (I don't know when an instructor with glasses came), please ask the instructor to say a few words." The instructor said: "Comrades, comrades-in-arms, you are the revolutionary youth taught by Chairman Mao, the soldiers of military reclamation, who listen to the party the most and carry forward the spirit of Nanniwan. We must learn from Dazhai, be self-reliant, and work hard...". "Shit," Xi'an Zhiqing Sun Heping whispered. "Cough, cough," deputy instructor Song Zuojun coughed loudly twice. I pounded Sun Heping on the side. Everyone stared at the small eyes, the small eyes were wide-eyed, and in a helpless situation, they followed the company commander Zhang Chaoming to assign "ground nests" to everyone.
Network illustration
The entire company's garrison is built in a natural ditch, and at the northern end of the natural ditch is the "ground nest" of the single zhiqing squads, in the middle is the "ground nest" of the company headquarters and the canteen, and at the south end is the "ground nest" of each household. In the afternoon our company's carriage pulled luggage from the train station. We simply settled into the accommodation and hung the single sheets at the entrance of the cave as both a door and a marker for our own nest. Du Qinrui, a demobilized soldier of a squad, Zhang Jitang, and others in Xi'an Zhiqing erected a wooden pole as a flagpole on the wasteland and hung a red flag, marking the official establishment of the "Thirteenth Company of the Fourteenth Regiment of the Second Agricultural Construction Division of the Lanzhou Military Region Production and Construction Corps." On the second day, Quanlian took a day off, and then he studied Chairman Mao's "Old Three Articles," Dazhai's "first rule the slope, then the nest," and "carry forward the spirit of revolution and hard bones, and devoted himself to the tense capital construction of reclamation, afforestation, line drilling, and road and canal construction."
Because there is no window (air outlet), the "ground nest" is not ventilated, and it emits a strong earthy smell. Soon after the spring, the temperature of the ground rose, and the frozen soil on the "wall" around the "ground nest" fell straight down, and the bed could only be supported in the middle. One day at noon at the end of April, we took advantage of the sunny weather to take out the damp bedding out of the "ground nest" to dry. At about four or five o'clock in the afternoon, the weather suddenly changed, and a tall black wave suddenly appeared in the sky, rolling up and down, and the clear sky that was still windy and sunny just now was instantaneous. People who were working in the fields rushed home to collect their bedding. In a moment, it was already dark outside, I couldn't see my five fingers, the sheets at the mouth of the "ground nest" cave had long been blown away by the wind, the wind sounded like a wolf howling, the yellow sand whistled with the wind into the ground nest, the air was filled with a suffocating dust smell, the bed was full of sand, we were all tired on the bed, covering our heads with the quilt, panicked, silent.
After about an hour, the wind weakened and the sky gradually brightened, when suddenly there was a whistle of emergency assembly, and everyone gathered outside the "ground nest" of the company headquarters, and the company commander Zhang Chaoming urgently mobilized: "Three children playing outside were lost, and the whole company was asked to look for them separately in teams." soon. In the ditch not far from the "ground nest", two children who had been buried by the yellow sand were found. But until it was dark, Huang Yuanyou's boy Huang Yuxiang was still not found, and the next morning everyone continued to search, and in the afternoon, the good news finally came, and the child was blown downwind to the Fifth Company station more than ten kilometers away, and was sent back by the Fifth Company dispatchers.
Due to the hasty formation of the company, the earth had not yet thawed when digging the "ground nest", and only some birch purlins were carried on the "ground nest", and then laid with bamboo foil, wheat grass, and then pressed a layer of dry soil, which was very simple. In June, a thunderstorm fell on soft dry soil, adding to the weight of the roof, and the roof was as flat as the ground, had no drainage function, and was built in a natural drainage ditch, and the birch wood was not peeled. As the saying goes, "birch trees do not peel, three years a pile of mud", so many "ground nests" purlins broke, and the roofs appeared dangerous. Xi'an Zhiqing Li Wenfang and I nervously held saw axes, carrying logs between the various "ground nests", using wood for support. Li Wenfang accidentally stepped on the air, fell to the ground, knocked off two front teeth, blood flowed, covered his mouth and continued to support the "ground nest" with me. After the danger was eliminated, I returned home, only to see that the purlin on my "ground nest" had broken and pressed onto the bicycle.
On the edge of the canteen, which was used as a warehouse, a "ground nest" was broken, and the noodle bags of the canteen were pressed underneath; after hearing the news, Tianjin Zhiqing Jinying, Chen Xiuying, Bi Xiwen, Li Xiangyu, and others braved the rain to cut open the soil pressed on the noodle bags with their hands and transferred all the grain and oil to the canteen. The canteen did not collapse because I had a pillar, but the rain and mud fell straight on the top, and the cooks Tianjin Zhiqingguan Daqiu and Yan Yuqin brought their own plastic sheets and covered them on the noodle bags. The "ground nests" are dug on both sides of the original natural drainage ditch, and after the rain, the rainwater flows down the ditch, forming a stagnant water, and the whole rain is continuously drained down in the muddy ditch with a shovel.
Because of the wind and rain, the "ground nest" could no longer continue to live, and after the day was clear, Quanlian had to put down all the work at hand, unveiled all the top of the "ground nest", cleaned out all the soil that fell from it, replaced it with good purlins and bamboo foil, laid with wheat grass, and then pressed with grass mud to continue to live.
In the blink of an eye, the weather has turned cool, mechanized large fields have basically taken shape, machine wells, channels, roads, and forest belts have begun to take shape, and they have eaten their own fresh vegetables. Therefore, the company launched the campaign of "studying Chairman Mao's writings and striving to become the best soldiers." In the revolutionary slogan of "making up your mind, not being afraid of sacrifice, overcoming all difficulties, and striving for victory," a climax of "curing the nest" of hitting dirt blocks, building earthen walls, going up to the mud, smearing the skin of the walls, and painting white walls was set off. The company canceled all rest days, broke the normal work and rest time, and the whole company, men, women and children, went into battle in unison, "revolution and hard work," and finally built six rows of new houses with doors and windows and painted with lime on the former desert beach in early winter. But who would have thought that all this in front of them was done by the soldiers of the Thirteenth Company with blood and sweat, and it was also exchanged for the young people with their own youth.
Original Yao Yiwei