Source: People's Liberation Army Daily
Approaching Yan Ling, a platoon commander of a certain Marine Corps unit——
"My Coordinate System: Land, Sea, Sky"
■ Jiefangjun Daily reporter Chen Guoquan correspondent Xia Dewei Niu Tao Yang Ziqi
Editor's Note
With the gentle spring breeze, we ushered in another "March 8" International Women's Day.
At the scene of the two sessions, the female deputies dressed in military uniforms confidently and calmly performed their duties; the female soldiers in the front line of training, heroic and cheerful, practiced hard to win the battle...
Nowadays, as national defense and army building enter a new era, female servicemen are playing an increasingly important role and making more and more important contributions with their unique advantages.
Steer the battleships across the ocean, ride the war eagles to soar in the blue sky, and laugh at the thunder on the battlefield... From the grasslands of northern Xinjiang to the jungles of the south, from coastal defense outposts to missile launch positions, they are attached to their careers and military service, showing the unique charm and style of Mulan in the army.
The "rose" in the army, the glory blooms. On the eve of International Women's Day this year, a number of advanced women of the People's Liberation Army and the Armed Police Force were commended individually and collectively, please follow our perspective and walk into the story of "her".
Yan Ling (center) during tactical training.
The cold rain was fine, and the shooting training ground was silent.
A pair of eyes stared at the target in the distance, and with a "snap" sound, the gun rang out and the target fell. On the muddy ground, with a heavy machine gun, she took off her goggles, turned her head to look at the female soldiers behind her, and her eyes smiled.
Beneath the surface of the sea, undercurrents are surging.
A figure struggled to paddle the water. Suddenly, a sharp blade was drawn from the side, and the knife fell from her hand, and she cut off the seaweed that was wrapped around her ankle. With her legs pressed hard, she swam toward the sea that projected the light.
Hundreds of meters high, the cabin is filled with tension.
"Is there faith?"
"Yes—" The canopy opened and a huge stream of air poured into the cabin. After holding her breath for a few seconds, she, carrying an umbrella bag, plucked up enough courage to jump out of the cabin. The whistling wind muffled the heartbeat, and beneath her feet was the vast expanse of earth, thrown into the arms of the clouds, and her world seemed to stand still for an instant.
Land, sea, sky – this is the "coordinate system" that belongs to Yan Ling, a platoon commander of a certain Marine Corps.
Through this "coordinate system", we see the dimension of her ability as an amphibious marine female soldier, and even more the dimension of the era of the marine corps, a young branch of the army.
From ordinary soldiers to squad leaders to platoon leaders, from live-fire to sea assaults to helicopter landings... As a group of special missions in wartime, Yan Ling and her comrades train like male soldiers every day, challenging themselves and limits in harsh tasks.
Sharpen your posture during the task and confide in the sun. The aura of the "Amphibious Overlord Flower" shone like a star, but Yan Ling said, "I will not let the aura become my own 'tight curse'." ”
The dream of this female Marine soldier is on land, in the sea, in the sky, under her feet, on the road ahead, in the distance, in a higher and farther dimension.
Yan Ling and her comrades-in-arms conducted night reconnaissance training.
Growth coordinates——
Start with the familiar "Mulan Ci"
The excitement of life will not fade away because of age.
In Yan Ling's eyes, wonderful is the eternal memory imprinted in life, and it is the color that gradually becomes clear with age, "When you put your dreams on the wonderful dimension, there will be a direction to move forward." ”
"Chirping and chirping, Mulan is a household weaver..." When she was very young, Yan Ling was already able to recite the entire "Mulan Ci". From memorizing words to reading the truth, Yan Ling is often fascinated in her leisure time: if the story of Mulan happens today, how should we interpret it?
Yan Ling grew up in a small mountain village in Ruichang, Jiangxi. When she was a child, she always pestered her brother, taking her to catch voles in the fields and yellow eels in the pond. Her cleverness has impressed the elders of the village to this day.
At the age of 17, Yan Ling walked out of the mountains to study at university. During the summer vacation of her senior year, she saw the recruitment banner on campus and called her mother, who was working in the south. That was the first time she felt that the brush of life was in her hands.
It's just that she didn't expect that her stroke would actually be blue.
The background color of the Marine Corps is blue. With the addition of female Marines, this masculine team added a touch of bright color.
The year Yan Ling walked into the Marine Corps's "preliminary selection field" was 2012. The women's Marine Corps is flourishing and "vigorous."
The bitterness on the training ground, Yan Ling is not afraid. Jumping steps, pulling single parallel bars, cross-country pulling, "this is nothing." Those same as the male team members in grappling fighting, lurking capture, beach landing, desert island survival subjects, in Yan Ling's view is really a bit difficult, "but it is also difficult to overthrow people"... Years later, looking back on the years of the new training and selection, Yan Ling's expression was still not relaxed.
At the new training base, Yan Ling's greatest admiration was several Marine Squad leaders who came to lead the training: "Marine camouflage suit sky blue sea blue, how beautiful it is." ”
With a dream in her heart, her enthusiasm for training was mobilized. A 3-kilometer run, the "amphibious overlord flower" blue jade cloud, at a glance, "took a fancy" to this stubborn girl, "running really lightly." ”
On the train to a brigade of the Marine Corps, more than 20 female soldiers with Yan Ling took a nap head to head. Months of new training "have been so bitter", no one knows what awaits them next.
Looking at the fields and ponds that flew by the car window, Yan Ling's thoughts had already flown to the training ground where the waves flew and the phoenixes rose. At that moment, what she felt was the excitement of the brush in her hand.
Yan Ling still remembers the scene of the first day of the next company. It also happened to be March 8, "Goddess Day".
On social media, former college classmates, wearing beautiful coats, gathered and took group photos. On this day, Yan Ling and her comrades-in-arms also received special "courtesy": grenade throwing, carrying logs, running quagmire, 3 kilometers of heavy attack, 35 kilometers of training...
Standing out from hundreds of people, Yan Ling became a female Marine. Tired, hard, countless times on the verge of collapse, she gritted her teeth.
What made this honorary company, which had won the "National March 8th Red Flag Collective", remember Yan Ling was a questionnaire survey for recruits. In the column of willingness to stay in the team, some female team members wrote "2 years", some wrote "5 years", and she wrote "12 years" without thinking.
"For some people, training is training; for me, training is life." That summer, in a birthday wish text message to her mother, Yan Ling said so. When the female players have just had the wonderful "sky blue sea blue", she is ready for the next rebirth experience.
Yan Ling conducts skydiving training.
Capability coordinates ——
Let's start with the group photo of the Sino-Thai joint training team members
Stepping out of the movie theater, the battle scenes of Chinese Marines on the big screen still make the crowd of people watching the movie boil. On that day, the movie "Red Sea Action" was released, and people remembered the marine camouflage suit, and there were also healthy figures.
Yan Ling's WeChat circle of friends still retains a dynamic: it is a group photo with the movie poster after she watched the movie when she was out.
In the photo, she is dark and thin, with a bright smile. Whenever she sees this picture, she remembers those glorious years.
Opening the dusty memory, this "amphibious overlord flower" still bloomed with glory as a Chinese female soldier in his heart. Like the line she left under the photo: "No one is born brave, there are always people who are fearless and retrograde." For the sake of the value you set, keep forging ahead. ”
In May 2016, Sergeant Yan Ling went abroad for the first time to participate in the joint training of the Chinese and Thai Marine Corps. She and 5 female teammates were integrated into the Three Company of Sino-Thai Joint Training, and conducted simulated downhill training with Thai male players.
"Helicopter descent everyone does not know how many times have participated, simulated downhill who will be the first?"
"Report, I'll go first!" Yan Ling was the first to stand up. With a command, I saw her legs stomp and slide down with a "whoosh" sound. Landing on the ground, drawing rope quickly, firing a gun, searching forward... Every action is clean and neat.
If you don't take off your steel helmet, it's really hard to find this group of "Mulan" in the team. Walking off the training ground, teammate Chen Qi smiled slyly and said to Yan Ling: "You guess, does The Thai side know that we are female soldiers?" Thinking about her tanned face and the equipment on her body, Yan Ling also smiled and spat out her tongue.
Unexpectedly, Chen Qi's words actually "came true". When the players of the two sides conducted the step-tan coordination training, Yan Ling was elected as the team leader. Her wonderful performance on the training ground made the Thai players admire.
During the break, an instructor from the Thai side put his arm around Yan Ling's shoulder and wanted to take a group photo. Yan Ling was stunned at first, and then blushed shyly. Knowing that he was surrounded by a Chinese female soldier, the Thai instructor was ashamed and apologized to Yan Ling one after another.
"Sawadika!" Under the gaze of her teammates on both sides, Yan Ling took off her steel helmet, folded her hands, and took the initiative to invite the other party to take a group photo. At the moment when the picture was frozen, Yan Ling's confident smile was deeply imprinted in the memory of the Thai team members.
After stepping into the barracks for several years, the slim dress of that year has long since ceased to fit. "Don't want to be a goddess anymore?" In the face of the ridicule of her comrades-in-arms, Yan Ling always replied, "First become a female soldier, and then become a goddess." ”
That year, the Marine Corps organized a high-altitude parachute for female Marine soldiers. "Jumping from an altitude of 800 meters, do you dare to do so?" The captain asked.
"Let me go, I dare." Yan Ling applied to the company for the first time. After 3 months of intensive training, the first skydive was carried out as scheduled. The helicopter kept climbing, and Yan Ling didn't dare to look down, only feeling cold on her back.
Either way, she would never allow herself to be a "deserter." The yellow lights in the cabin suddenly lit up, the male soldiers jumped out one by one, Yan Ling stood at the door of the cabin, closed her eyes, and jumped into the sky...
Landing smoothly, her teammates rushed up and gave her a thumbs up. At that moment, Yan Ling was a literal "goddess" in everyone's eyes. Yan Ling pulled her hair together in the wind, and a sweet smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.
What girl doesn't love beauty? But in Yan Ling's eyes, the youth of female Marines is beautiful, and only when they are tied together with the national flag red is they most worthy.
It was also in that Sino-Thai joint exercise that the Thai side demonstrated the subject of field survival. An instructor killed a snake and demanded that the Chinese team come up and drink the snake's blood. After the male soldier tried, the instructor came to the female soldier with a snake and stared at Yan Ling with both eyes.
Yan Ling was most afraid of snakes since she was a child, and she shook her head instinctively. Without forcing her, the instructor smiled slightly, but lightly tapped the armband on the left arm of his military uniform with his hand— the flag of Thailand.
In an instant, Yan Ling suddenly felt the weight on her left arm. At that moment, she deeply understood what her performance meant to the Chinese soldiers.
Tears swirled in her eyes, and her legs were trembling, but Yan Ling still stood up and raised her neck to drink the snake blood...
Applause rang out in the training ground, and a voice also sounded in Yan Ling's heart: "I am a Chinese female soldier!" Chinese soldiers will not lose at any time! ”
Yan Ling was on the Sino-Thai Joint Training Ground. Photo by Liu Yuxiang
Dream coordinates——
Start with that "sensitive" number
In the women's Marine Corps, there is a saying that spreads widely: wear camouflage, regardless of gender.
What about taking off your uniform? Put down the gun, take off the goggles, they are still the most ordinary "she" around you and me.
Last year, Yan Ling had another identity: aunt. Her cousin, who is 3 years younger than her, has just given birth to a fat doll. Hearing this news, joy and anxiety surged into my heart. Embracing the sense of accomplishment of "land, sea and air" and the sense of loss of lack of love, she made a "knot" in her heart.
"29", a number that is particularly "sensitive" for girls.
In another year, Yan Ling will be 30 years old, and she will enter a new age threshold from now on. But in her heart, she has not yet designed her future life. She envisions her future of him, that beauty of her own, what is it like?
Every time she saw kittens and puppies in the family home of the camp, Yan Ling would greet them like a child and gently stroke them. Her clear eyes rippled like water, like shining stars.
When life runs in its own love, everything becomes much simpler. Dreams always occupy the "C position" in Yan Ling's heart. Just like her circle of friends signature: "Love, let the dream shine into a good life." ”
"There is no solution to this problem!" Every time I talked on the phone with my mother and talked about the topic of "boyfriend", Yan Ling always said this.
Yan Ling knows that her time is always filled with training, and even when she comes home from vacation, she will run 10 kilometers a day in the mountains of her hometown because she is worried about physical decline.
The mountains are full of flowers and the stream is babbling. Colorful colors, galloping backwards in the eyes. Running on the mountain path, Yan Ling remembered what her mother said to her when she was a child: "Ling'er, insist!" ”
Insisting on the road of life, as the "Overlord Flower" of the Chinese Marine Corps, Yan Ling's footsteps stepped on the beat of the times.
Not only them, but when more and more combat positions appear women - female fighter pilots, female tankers, female missile launchers, female captains...
This is a gesture of perseverance, a gift of the times, and a witness to the growing strength of the motherland.
Sergeant Gong Qing was particularly distressed by platoon leader Yan Ling. In her eyes, Yan Ling is her confidant big sister and a "little sister" worthy of pity. Every time they finish a section in the sun, the close sisters apply sunscreen to each other.
A few years ago, Yan Ling went to the new training base as a recruit company captain and was worshipped as a "goddess" by a group of girls.
Until now, letters from Tiannanhaibei to Yan Ling would appear in the reception basket of the conference room, and Juanxiu's handwriting was from the hands of her "disciples".
In Yan Ling's view, her comrades-in-arms are her relatives in military uniforms. Her comrades-in-arms and little sisters who have a home and have a "little god beast", she will buy them candy and send them toys like her aunt.
Every weekend, Yan Ling likes to go to the beach with her comrades-in-arms.
"Reconcile with yourself and set out for your dreams." Yan Ling said that she can always find a reason for love from her current persistence. This is also a strong support for this small flower to continue to bloom "land, sea and air".
"She" said
After the storm is the rainbow
■ Xia Dewei reporter Chen Guoquan correspondent Xia Dewei
Reporter: What kind of flower is the Marine Corps's "Overlord Flower"?
Yan Ling: "Overlord Flower" also has a name called "Wind and Rain Flower". It always blooms after the wind and rain and can take root in stone crevices. We female Marines are proud of the title of "Overlord Flower.".
Reporter: How was the "Overlord Flower" selected?
Yan Ling: The Marine Corps can be said to be a "business card" of the People's Navy, and the selection criteria for female Marines as a beautiful stroke on this "business card" can be said to be very strict. I remember that there were hundreds of female soldiers who participated in the new training together, but only a very small number of people were finally selected for the Marine Corps.
Reporter: Today is "March 8" International Women's Day, what are your memories of this holiday?
Yan Ling: The day I went down for the first time coincided with International Women's Day on March 8. By the time we arrived at the company, it was early in the morning, and we had no beds, so we lay on the wooden bed with clothes and rucksacks and squinted for a while. In the early morning of the second day, we began to train in carrying logs, running quagmire, and 3 km weight-bearing attacks. I still remember that after running the knee-deep quagmire that day, we propped our palms on the cement floor, dripping mud all over our bodies, like "terracotta warriors" lying on the ground. On the way back to the camp by truck, we sang "Ballad of the Female Soldier", and the squad leader was crying by us.
Reporter: Having carried out so many missions, which one made you feel the most about the battlefield?
Yan Ling: The most impressive thing was a drill during training on the Yunnan Plateau. On that day, not long after it rained, Company Li carried out a reconnaissance and capture confrontation exercise. I was the squad leader at the time, and Instructor Huang Bin was the "enemy" we were going to hunt down, so I took the whole class and ran in the mountains and forests for more than 2 hours, and it was difficult to subdue him. Just as I was about to report on the radio, he knocked an opening through the middle of a group of us and rolled desperately down the hill. The mountains and forests are densely rolled over, and the instructors are "hung with color". His bloody nature of preferring to die rather than being a "prisoner" still shocks me to this day.
News links
marine corps
The Marine Corps, the service of the Navy that undertakes the task of crossing the sea and landing operations, has the characteristics of rapid response, strong mobility, and high degree of synthesis.
Chinese, the Marine Corps of the People's Liberation Army, as one of the five major branches of the People's Navy, is a combat force that can respond quickly to the synthesis of various arms.
For future battlefields, the Marine Corps needs to conduct full-scale, full-time training. It has the advantage of integrating attack and defense and having both contradictions, and is an important combat force in future wars.
The history of China's Marine Corps can be traced back to the early days of the founding of New China. All along, the Marine Corps has received a lot of attention and has been given a noble mission.
At the turn of the spring and summer of 2017, standing at a new historical starting point, China's Marine Corps began a new round of development. In the escort of the Gulf of Aden, the evacuation of overseas Chinese, and joint exercises and training with foreign forces, officers and men of the Marine Corps appeared on camera frequently and made many meritorious achievements.
Female Marine soldiers enlisted in Zhu Rihe.
Female Marines Thunder Strike.
Marines skydive.
(Courtesy of Yang Ziqi)