The distance from "home" to home
■ Jiefangjun Daily reporter Xu Na Xue Min
Panoramic view of the Pa nong Cho Kang post.
Panoramic view of the Lamballa Pass.
Here, at an altitude of 5,501 meters, it is located in the northern foothills of the Himalayas.
Here, it is 58 kilometers away from the Yamashita Company and more than 350 kilometers away from the city of Shigatse in Tibet.
Here, it is not even possible to calibrate with a "dot" on a map of China.
This is the Pa Nong Cho Kang post, a distant outpost of the Shigatse Military Sub-district in Tibet. It is very small, but in the hearts of the officers and men of the outpost, even the smallest point is also "home."
Company instructor Liang Yixin is from Yibin, Sichuan, a city not far from the "straight-line distance" of the outpost. Let's take a look at the young captain's last trip home: first take a 7-hour car ride and stay overnight in Shigatse; the next day, we will fly to Chengdu, and then change to the high-speed train to yibin...
The distance from "home" to home is also the distance of reunion. It's a close distance, and it's a long distance.
Before enlisting, the private Dobobo had been worried that the post was a "dead end" for mobile phone signals. Snowy mountains and quiet plateaus, this was once a desert of information. However, the development of the new era has set up an "information sky road" for here, so that the snow-capped plateau has long ceased to be a distant place in the absolute sense.
The distance of the reunion, so it becomes no longer distant.
Dobobo has video calls with his family every week. The former "family letter to ten thousand gold" has become the current "often visible in the air". As Sergeant Wu Jie said, the distance from heart to heart is now very close.
Kunming, 3,000 kilometers away, is the home of Corporal Guo Jiacheng.
The warm climate throughout the year makes flowers the calling card of the hometown. From home to "home", from Spring City to the plateau, neon and hustle and bustle are left behind, and snowy mountains and vast expanse are coming. The first time he went to the outpost, as the altitude rose, his heart grew cooler.
But the sun always shines after a snowstorm.
Today's Guo Jiacheng, after returning from the patrol, likes to stay in the sun room with Sergeant Gao Peng, reading, practicing physical fitness, and basking in the sun, and the military dog "Dangdang" raises his tail high, looks at the sun room, and then picks a favorite place - under the bookshelf, lying there for a nap. The "home" in the sun is getting warmer and warmer, giving the comrades the confidence to stick to the ice and snow.
Wind and snow are on the road, and warmth is also on the road. Whether it is patrolling the road or going to the sentry road, because there are comrades at the end of the line, the wind and snow will also be warm and warm.
To keep the "home" is to keep the home. When Liang Yixin first joined the army, she was still a seventeen or eighteen-year-old teenager. In the blink of an eye, he had reached the age of establishment. Having walked through countless patrols, he was so familiar, as familiar with his own palm prints.
When Wu Jie's wife came to the outpost, Wu Jie had not visited his family for more than a year. The veteran repeatedly left the opportunity to return home to his young comrades-in-arms. His reunion with his wife at the outpost made the "home" of the outpost more like a home, and the comrades-in-arms more like their relatives.
It's another mid-autumn full moon. Looking forward to reunion, but choosing to stick to it - the national flag fluttering in the wind, standing on the top of the mountain is the tall figure of the soldiers.
The veteran Gao Peng's physical condition had not been good, and the company arranged for him to be stationed at the outpost under the mountain, but after staying for a few days, he asked for the post again. He said he was used to life at an altitude of more than 5,000 meters.
This is the "altitude" of faith on the snowy mountains.
This year marks Kwok Ka-shing's third year of enlistment and the 3rd Mid-Autumn Festival he spent at the outpost. From "home" to home, this distance carries the thoughts of every border guard soldier and witnesses their growth.
The distance from "home" to home is the distance of reunion.
For Liang Yixin, reunion is a long-term watch over lovers; for Wu Jie, reunion is to be able to spend more time with his family in a limited time; for Gao Peng, reunion is to carry more family burdens for his parents...
One family is not round. Family happiness is reunion, comrade-in-arms reunion is reunion, mutual peace in the video is also reunion... The bright moon is closed overhead, and the lights of thousands of homes behind him. This Mid-Autumn Festival, let us look up to perseverance and feel the reunion.
Looking at the moon, in the foothills of the Himalayas
■ People's Liberation Army Daily reporter Xue Min Xu Na
Correspondent Feng Yakun Long Long
Over the mountain in your heart—
When arrival becomes a belief, all difficulties are no longer difficult
Officers and men of the outpost patrol
This was the last time the company organized a patrol of the Lambala Pass before the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Boundary monument No. 62 in Yamaguchi is a "sacred presence" in the hearts of Sergeant Wu Jie and Corporal Guo Jiacheng.
This point, which is patrolled 4 times a month, is located on a mountain pass at an altitude of more than 5,700 meters. The difficult climb is a double test of the physical strength and will of the officers and soldiers, and each arrival will leave a different imprint of memory.
Participating in the patrol for the first time, as a new recruit, Wu Jie, who was 19 years old at the time, was the youngest member of the team. He still can't forget the excitement when he climbed the mountain pass and overlooked the snow-capped mountains, the cliffs under his feet were like "steps", and the difficulty of climbing step by step suddenly turned into the surging blood of that moment.
In Wu Jie's view, this is the "deepest footprint" on the road of youth.
After that patrol, it was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Wu Jie called his family with another new comrade-in-arms at the post, and he told his mother that he had gained something from this Mid-Autumn Festival: "When you grow up, you are going over the mountain in your heart." ”
Youth is worth paying sweat for growth. Corporal Guo Jiacheng is a post-00s who has been a soldier for 3 years in a regiment of the Xigaze Military Sub-district in Tibet where the Ba Nong Zhuokang post is located. The highest outpost of this company was a testimony to his youth.
Conducting a mountain pass patrol every year before the Mid-Autumn Festival is an unwritten rule of the outpost. In Guo Jiacheng's view, the more festivals there are, the more difficult it is to take, which is related to loyalty to the motherland and commitment to relatives.
When the non-commissioned officer was first selected, Guo Jiacheng's mother suddenly fell ill and was bedridden. When he heard the news, he wept in front of his comrades-in-arms.
It was a very windy day, and on the promenade outside the sentry, Guo Jiacheng's tears were just gushing out and were dried by the wind. The comrade next to him silently put his hand on his shoulder. In the difficult moments of life, sincere companionship is like a fire in a cold night. At that moment, a wave of warmth spread throughout the body.
After that day, Guo Jiacheng was no longer afraid of the fierce wind and snow on the plateau, "there is always a person who is with you, let you forget the cold."
Warmth can be conveyed and ultimately translated into faith and belief. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival that year, Guo Jiacheng couldn't sleep over and over, the star curtain of the outpost was hanging low, and he slept on the top bunk, and he saw the starlight and the silver plate-like moon from the window, and the worry in his heart was one more heavy.
Remembering her mother on the sickbed when she was in the video with her family, she was eager to fly back to her immediately... Guo Jiacheng fought with himself in his heart: "Participate in the next Patrol of Boundary Monument 62!" ”
It takes courage to make this decision. Guo Jiacheng, who grew up in the city, once thought that he was "not good at climbing mountains and not adapting to snowy mountains with thin oxygen." He had previously "challenged" the Lamballa Pass twice before, but he had not been able to reach the top.
Guo Jiacheng looked at the long road in front of the outpost
After experiencing setbacks, Guo Jiacheng was once afraid. But he understood that to be young is to dare to challenge.
Early the next morning, Guo Jiacheng took the initiative to apply for a change of shift with his remaining comrades-in-arms. That day, when there were only a few hundred meters left from the No. 62 boundary monument of The Lambala Pass, Guo Jiacheng accidentally broke his foot and almost slid into the ice cave next to him.
"When arrival becomes a belief, all difficulties are no longer difficult." As Guo Jiacheng said, where the boundary monument is, the faith is there. With the help of his comrades-in-arms, he moved to the boundary monument little by little.
After this patrol, Guo's mother miraculously woke up from her coma. Holding the phone that day, Guo Jiacheng burst into tears.
At that moment, his heart was full of gratitude. It is the experience of facing difficulties that makes him stronger and braver.
"Turn over the mountain in your heart so that you won't be afraid of the next climb." This is Guo Jiacheng's understanding of growth.
Since then, every time he patrols Boundary Monument 62, Guo Jiacheng will gain "new feelings". Every time he stood on the top of the mountain and looked at the snow-capped mountains, he understood that the scenery in front of him could only be appreciated by border guards, which was a gift of perseverance.
Turning over the highest altitude of youth, this may be the meaning of "arrival".
The special taste of the outpost mooncake ——
Staying in a difficult place, happiness is an easy task
A wisp of morning light jumped out of the mountain pass to shine on the clearing in front of the sentry, the sun flickered, and Liang Yixin probed her head and squinted her eyes to look at the end of the road.
After breakfast, this is the third time that instructor Liang Yixin has gone out.
Company supplies are sent to the outpost every 2 weeks. The lanes of the sentry are curved and narrow, some sections are covered with ice all year round, and every time the transport vehicle is sentinel, the heart of Liang Yixin, the "big parent" of the company, hangs.
"The company brothers are all family, don't worry that it's fake!" On the phone, she learned that the car would turn another corner and arrive, and Liang Yixin quickly summoned the staff of the post to the door to greet her.
The soldier Dao Bobo was a little excited, and he had been looking forward to this moment for a long time. The transporters brought supplies, as well as the most scarce things in this lonely snowy mountain—news outside the mountain, concerns from afar.
"Unpacking" is the happiest thing in the hearts of the officers and men of the outpost. The fact that the parcel could be received before the Mid-Autumn Festival was, in the words of the officers and soldiers, "like digging up a treasure, there is a special surprise."
Staying in a difficult place, happiness is an easy task. "Every time I receive a package, it feels like it lasts for days." Liang Yixin said as she unpacked the cardboard box in her hand. This time, he received a long-awaited love express delivery as he wished, a large bag full of snacks sent by his girlfriend Zhu Ruoxi from Chengdu.
Zhu Ruoxi and Liang Yixin, who were middle school classmates, came out of their hometown in Sichuan together, one was admitted to a military academy in Henan and the other to a university in Chengdu.
Since going to the military academy, receiving packages is the moment That Liang Yixin is most looking forward to: "The school is strictly managed, it is not easy for me to go out, and there are time limits for answering the phone." Every time Zhu Ruoxi missed me in Chengdu, he would send me a package. ”
Liang Yixin's mobile phone still has all kinds of package photos, including T-shirts, watches, snacks, and "Polaroid" cameras... Across the mobile phone screen, you can feel a strong sense of love coming to your face.
In that year, from Chengdu to Henan, a package could walk for more than half a month, and Zhu Ruoxi often joked on the phone: "The road our parcel takes can circle the earth several times." ”
Liang Yixin's WeChat avatar is a photo of a mooncake. It was a mid-autumn festival holiday of one year, Zhu Ruoxi took a special trip to visit Liang Yixin, and the two went to the hotel together to participate in a handmade mooncake making experience.
"The taste of mooncakes is the taste of reunion." On that occasion, the lovers of the two young plum bamboo horses solemnly made the decision to hold hands for a lifetime. After graduating from college, Liang Yixin rushed to the Tibetan border defense, with Zhu Ruoxi's support and understanding of him, and even with the reunion dream that the two insisted on.
A few years have passed, and every Mid-Autumn Festival, Liang Yixin can receive mooncakes sent by Zhu Ruoxi from Chengdu. Ms. Liang said they had already planned a time for the wedding — just next year's Mid-Autumn Festival.
"Mooncakes are so sweet." Dobobo shoved a moon cake into the reporter's hand and smiled like a child. Taking out his mobile phone, he showed the reporter the mooncake that he had just placed an order online: "The mooncake was sent to my parents." ”
Officers and men ate mooncakes at the outpost on the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival
Dobobo remembers leaving home when his mother stuffed his bag with his favorite rice candy. When the last piece of rice candy was eaten, the boy burst into tears. Now in the snowy mountains, he has a new dream: when he is on vacation, he will take his parents to Guizhou to see the hundred-mile cuckoo.
20 years old, the age when anything is possible.
"I'm going to open a mooncake shop in the future, and it's called 'outpost mooncake.'" Just arrived at the outpost, Dobobo once heard the veteran say that the mooncakes at the outpost were particularly sweet. After staying at the outpost for a few months, he truly understood the deep meaning behind the veteran's words - the taste of the mooncake at the outpost is the taste of home; eating the mooncake with his comrades-in-arms is the taste of reunion.
Sergeant Gao Peng will never forget the mooncakes he and his comrades-in-arms ate on the border defense line.
On that day, Gao Peng and his comrades who were out on patrol encountered a wind and snow at a pass, and they were trapped in a cave. Several people lit a bonfire and shared a piece of mooncake together...
At this moment, while eating mooncakes with everyone, Gao Peng's eyes once again appeared in front of the mid-autumn festival wind and snow, the bonfire in the cave.
"At the outpost, I've ever had the most delicious mooncake." The taste of the outpost mooncake is the taste of life.
Every night can be the Mid-Autumn Festival——
The moon is closed overhead, just for the better home country behind him
About to leave the team, Gao Peng was reluctant to do everything in the outpost.
Gao Peng took the initiative to "transfer posts" with his comrades-in-arms, and in the early morning hours, the time period when he was most prone to drowsiness, he undertook it all. He understood that the persistence of the outpost under the moon would become the "cleanest memory" of his life.
The duty post was located in a clearing, with snow-capped mountains in the distance, and a little farther away was the border defense line that officers and men stared at every day.
The first time Gao Peng stood guard was on such a month's night. The silver plate-like moon set off the figure of the squad leader Wang Pu even higher and taller. Under his leadership, Gao Peng held a steel gun in his hand and stood up straight.
The temperature dropped to freezing, and the cold wind blew through, and Wang Pu turned around and tightened his collar for Gao Peng. Looking at the moon, Gao Peng, who stood guard for the first time, felt the inheritance of perseverance and the sacredness of perseverance.
At that time, the young people in the city loved a popular song "The Moon At That Time". Before becoming a soldier, Gao Peng often sang this song with his high school classmates on KTV. When he remembered the lyrics of the song "The moon at that time / Whose heart he once represented", he stood in a distant post, and gradually had the answer in his heart - the insistence of the soldiers belonged to the motherland, and the moon was closed above his head, only for the better home country behind him.
"If I hadn't stayed here, I wouldn't have understood why the moon is bright, why the mountains and rivers are magnificent, and why the border defense line is sacred." In the first letter to his family, Gao Peng wrote.
At this distant outpost, the stubble of officers and men persisted in the inheritance and also passed on in the process of perseverance.
That day, Corporal Wu Zhengxian went on the sentry for the first time. His squad leader Gao Peng said with a heavy heart, standing on the sentry position, you can feel the weight of the responsibility on the shoulders of the soldiers.
The first time I stood on the night guard, there was silence all around, in this battle position at an altitude of more than 5500 meters, I could not hear the birds, beasts and insects at night, and only the whistling wind in my ears. At noon the next day, Wu Zhengxian left a message to his girlfriend WeChat: "In the quiet night at the top of the mountain, it seems that you can see you in the distance, as if guarding your sleep." ”
Guard, because of responsibility. Wu Zhengxian gradually found that in the "big school" of the army, he understood more about what responsibility is and what is responsibility, "If you look at the moon at the outpost, you will understand the weight of the land under your feet."
This year, Wu Zhengxian went to the company to participate in the training of unmanned aerial vehicle operators. He became one of the first drone operators of the company with excellent assessment results.
Before this post, Wu Zhengxian took a drone and followed his company comrades to participate in the patrol of another sentry point. It was a low-altitude point where drones managed to capture an image of patrolling blind spots that in the past had been circumvented for hours to reach these "dead spots."
"I can use my skills and expertise to do something for the company's duty, and I don't think this soldier is in vain." Wu Zhengxian said. Also feeling their own value is the veteran Wu Jie.
Wu Jie wrote a diary in his dormitory
Climbing up the Lambala Pass, Wu Jie photographed a glacier with his mobile phone. He sent the photo to his wife Zeng Youhua: "This year's Mid-Autumn Festival coincides with your birthday, and I still can't go home..." What was not said was the veteran's inner debt.
Zeng Youhua on the other end of the phone suddenly blushed. She knew that if her husband wasn't a soldier, she could hold hands with him at the moment; on every stormy night, he would come to pick her up from work.
Zeng Youhua understands better that she is a military sister-in-law and must use her shoulders to support her husband.
This border guard sister-in-law has not been reunited with her husband for almost a year. Last year's Mid-Autumn Festival and the previous year's Mid-Autumn Festival, she spent it with her parents.
Last year, Wu Jie sent home a third-class merit certificate. Zeng Youhua put the certificate in the living room cupboard, which was her husband's honor, and even more her honor.
A colleague asked Zeng Youhua, "What does your husband do?" Why can't you see him coming to pick you up? Zeng Youhua said: "The place that my husband guards is far away and very high. There are majestic snow-capped mountains and brilliant galaxies, and he is the one who stands guard for the motherland. ”
"I will be wherever the motherland wants me to be!" With his wife's support, Wu Jie chose to continue to stick to the foothills of the Himalayas. At the beginning of this year, Wu Jie was named one of the "Top Ten Moving Figures of Loyalty to Shubian" in the Shigatse Military Sub-district. As a military sister-in-law, Zeng Youhua was invited to the company to participate in the award ceremony.
That reunion night, not the Mid-Autumn Festival is better than the Mid-Autumn Festival. Instructor Liang Yixin, with his comrades-in-arms Guo Jiacheng, Dao Bobo and Gao Peng, together with Wu Jie and his wife, spent the "Reunion Festival".
This reunion is so precious.
The dishes on the table were fried by the comrades-in-arms themselves, the bananas and apples were specially sent to the sentry by the company; the pots of succulent plants on the windowsill were brought from his hometown by Zeng Youhua; and the smiling faces of the officers and men were so sincere and so clear...
Holding up the cup full of drinks, Zeng Youhua said: "If I hadn't come here, I wouldn't have been able to imagine the hardships here; if I hadn't come here, I wouldn't have felt the 'warmth' here." ”
For soldiers and military dependents who have the motherland and love in their hearts, every night is the Mid-Autumn Festival, a warm day, a day of reunion!
Photo courtesy of officers and men at the Ba Nong Cho Kang post
This article was published on September 21, the 03rd edition of the People's Liberation Army Daily
Source: People's Liberation Army Daily