Original Lee Wen Shi Comrade in the Corps
author
Batuu, who was about the same age as me, was a special student when I was a company elementary school teacher. I met him in 1975.
In the spring of that year, at a small station around Xi'an, I embarked on a train to Inner Mongolia with the instructions of the Inner Mongolia Construction Corps. The moment I said goodbye to my relatives, I had no sad and bitter emotions. For me, getting rid of the identity of the "black five" family and no longer being blinded and despised is far more important than the emotion of separation. Since then, I have been relaxed and unrestrained, and I can be like a pony that breaks free from bondage, freely galloping on the grassland. Thinking of this, I was eager to plug in my wings and fly to that distant place. The blue sky and white clouds on the edge of the sky, what a pleasant beauty it will be!
When the train arrived at its destination after a few bumpy days, I was dumbfounded. I didn't expect that the place I had been fascinated for a long time would shatter the dream in my heart. There are no blue skies and white clouds, and the sky is filled with dark clouds of sand; there is no green grassland, but yellow sand rolling and endless; there are no beautiful yurts here, just company dormitories made of adobe, low and simple. An unknown tree swayed and struggled in the howling wind; it seemed that the land was so empty, desolate, and dead. Several of the reporters who came with me were about the same age as me, and when they saw this scene, they couldn't help but be secretly hurt and secretly wept.
"Yuck! bah! Weather on Ghost Day"! The stocky company commander returned from outside carrying a shovel. He scolded as he spat out his mouth full of mud and sand. We were met in the dusty company office.
The company commander was from northern Shaanxi, and he spoke in the thick northern Shaanxi dialect: The construction corps was soon transformed into a state-run farm, and most of the zhiqing from Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, and Zhejiang tried to return. A small number of people who could not go back were making trouble in the bubble disease, and the company commander hoped that we, the new recruits, would hold a good position and build the frontier of the motherland.
The company commander's hometown, Yulin, Shaanxi, is thousands of miles away from the provincial capital Xi'an. But he still regards me as a fellow countryman and treats me with a strong sense of hometown. He asked me "You graduated from high school"? I nodded. "Then you should substitute lessons for the company elementary school." He said that the original substitute teacher was from Beijing, and he had not returned so far, and it was estimated that he would soon complete the formalities and return to the city.
Sandstorms in the desert in the 1970s
The company commander's words surprised me. My trepidation was that my identity was not real. I am a local town intellectual who came through the relationship of relatives. My resume conceals my origins, and my academic qualifications are not at the real high school level. Such a level will mislead people's children.
The company commander seemed to see a hint of hesitation in me, and he said, "No experience, don't be afraid, learn slowly." Most importantly, keep these dolls in check and don't just run around"! From the mouth of the company commander, I learned that several children of the company staff had run lost in the desert a few days ago, and the company took great pains to find a few, and one of them was still missing. To a certain extent, it is my responsibility to protect these children.
The so-called company elementary school is a large house with several rows of tables and chairs and benches, from the first grade to the fifth grade all in one classroom, known as the duplex class. The teacher lectured like a marquee, talking about which grade, and the others were studying by themselves. The whole school added up to less than twenty children, except for the children of the company staff, some of whom were the children of the surrounding herdsmen. Fortunately, my Chinese skills are still quite solid, especially to the first grade primary school students to teach Hanyu Pinyin is my strong point, teach them how to read, how to zhuyin, how to pronounce, how to look up the dictionary, even other classes love to listen. Unexpectedly, I was still a popular teacher. My initial worries were superfluous.
It was at this time that Batuu came to school. He learned from a primary school student in the pastoral area that I speak pinyin well and came to tutor me on purpose. He was about eighteen or nineteen years old and taller than me.
He said that his Chinese language foundation was poor, and he only studied first-grade Chinese Pinyin, and did not participate in other courses. In that era of "the uselessness of reading" was boiling and clamoring, this Batu who rode back and forth for dozens of miles, so tirelessly and enthusiastically studied, could not help but make me awe-inspired.
Later, I learned that Batu was a young man who had graduated from a Mongolian middle school in the county seat, and his home was in a pastoral area twenty or thirty miles away from the company. Thirty miles away in the interior, always feel a long distance, but in the horseback people, the spur to spur the horse, this idea distance is not a matter at all.
When I first got along with Batuu, I always felt that this student who was about the same age and size as me, who had no less knowledge than me, was a little uncomfortable in his heart. I heard that Batuu's math was very good, and I was afraid that he would make a mistake in class and my math would be a disgrace. Unexpectedly, Batuu helped me escape an embarrassment.
I remember one day my fifth-grade classmates asked me a math application problem, and this set of formula calculation problems blinded me. If the teacher doesn't either at this point, what a joke it will be. It just so happened that Batuu entered the classroom, and I had a clever move to let Batuu's classmates go to the podium to give answers. Batuu solved the problem in two steps in two steps, in jerky Chinese. The problem solving process made me open up and pretend to repeat the problem solving method. My cunning, my little cleverness, allowed me to successfully cover up my own carelessness and inadequacy. I am still secretly grateful to Batuu. Without him, my joke would have gone. Since then, careful lesson preparation has become my basic principle. The school motto of "I can only give students a handful of rice" is remembered.
Batuu's Chinese is poor in pronunciation, and his reading of textbooks is often ridiculous. For example, "small river water" is pronounced "small river (cattle) water"; "it is raining outside"? Read it as "Outside (fish)", "Is there a fish in the river"? Read as "Is there (rain) in the river"? Such pronunciation often provokes bursts of laughter from elementary school students. However, Batuu just smiled shyly and continued to read aloud word by word.
Batuu, meaning hero in Mongolian. Looking at this Mongolian boy who already had a faint lip on his face, white teeth, and simple eyes, I couldn't find the kind of heroism that was full of wind and clouds.
A life adventure brought me closer to Batu, and Batu's image in my heart gradually grew taller.
The Inner Mongolian Plateau in April is still cold in spring. One morning, I woke up from my slumber and heard the chirping of the playground outside the window, and the elementary school students arrived at school. In the rush, I hurriedly got dressed, and as soon as I stood up, my eyes were black, paralyzed on the ground, and I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I realized I was lying in a hospital bed.
The company commander told me that I was gas poisoned that morning, and thanks to Batuu's experience, he broke through the door to save you, and no one could save you any later. Listening to the company commander, Batuu stayed up for me for one night. Looking at Batuu with red eyes for me, I, a wandering wanderer, had mixed feelings, a moment of silence, tears falling like rain, holding his hand tightly...
A life-and-death encounter, the relationship is extraordinary. In his spare time, Batuu and I became friends who talked about everything. Batuu told me that young people in the pastoral area got married early, and most of the lads like him were married, and some had children. Batuu didn't want to live such a life, his goal, wanted to go to college and see the outside world. He said that when he was in Mongolian school, he had never learned Hanyu Pinyin, and his pronunciation had not been very good, and if he went out, there would be a lot of jokes. This is the reason why he works tirelessly every day and has free time to study.
According to the primary school students, Batuu's family is quite wealthy, there are several flocks of sheep in the family, each group of more than a hundred sheep, except for a small number of collective sheep, most of which belong to their own flock. He and Abba and Auntie each caught the sheep to the pasture every day, leaving the sheep to graze on their own, and in the evening, the well-fed sheep returned to the sheepfold under the leadership of the head sheep. What makes me wonder is that the shepherd is not around, and is he not afraid of the sheep being stolen? What about pigs and sheep in the rural areas of the interior, even in their own deep house compounds?
Batuu told me that the steppe people did not have the custom of stealing. There were many sheep on the steppe, and there was never any theft. He said that the concierge of the pastoral family is not locked, the food and drink at home are placed on the living room table, and the pedestrians can enter the house at any time when they are hungry. After eating enough, pedestrians can close the door before leaving. The herdsmen deeply resent the phenomenon of stealing, and the punishment of some thieves who even eat and steal is very cruel, and when the old society broke the thief's tendons, so that he could never steal again, the new society herders were beaten and handed over to the police station. It seems that the method is somewhat brutal and crude, but it can effectively curb the theft of the grassland.
Batuu often taught me to ride a horse, in the vast desert I galloped, looking into the distance, often evoking the thought of my hometown, although the hometown left so many unhappy memories in the depths of my soul, but it has been more than a year, but there are still wisps of nostalgia that are difficult to resist. Batuu seemed to read my thoughts, and he asked me if I was homesick? The living environment of Xi'an's hometown must be better than inner Mongolia, right?
Who doesn't say hometown is good! I told him that Xi'an is a famous ancient city at home and abroad, the seat of the Thirteen Dynasties Dynasty, and the place where successive dynasties have chosen the capital must not be bad. Eight hundred miles from Shaanxi, Qinchuan, which is one of the birthplaces of China's agricultural civilization. There the fields are green all year round, there is no desert ...
Often a foreigner, the owner of the land who guards the land is chattering about the good of his hometown, and the repercussions he gets must be "so good why come to Inner Mongolia"? But Batuu didn't scare me, or maybe he called me a teacher.
He pointed to a maran flower and said that in the past the desert here was a large grassland, full of colorful maran flowers. He and Abba often came here to graze their cattle. Since people's uncontrolled indiscriminate reclamation, the vegetation of the grassland has been destroyed, and the crops planted have not been harvested, which has seriously desertified the land here. The look in his eyes told me that there was nothing more sad than a devastation to my homeland. How he longed for the restoration of the former appearance here, the beautiful scene of the sky blue, the turquoise ground, the abundant water and grass, and the cattle and sheep.
He said that in the future, he would be able to go to college, he must study grassland management, and he would turn this desert into a beautiful garden and a frankincense pasture. The desert is beautiful, life is rich, and at that time, let you go back to your hometown, you don't want to leave.
This ambitious, idealistic, ambitious Batuu has become tall in front of my eyes.
I was deeply impressed by a Naadam assembly, which I saw at the naadam assembly at the invitation of Batuu. "Naadam" is considered in Mongolian to mean an exchange meeting, in which sports such as horse racing, wrestling, archery and other sports participate in the competition. Batu's hometown is really a unique sky, blue sky and blue clouds, green grass, and girls and boys in festive costumes decorate the grassland with gorgeous and colorful, especially charming. A good batu, white Mongolian robe, black riding boots, red headband, extra heroic, flowing, handsome. On the racecourse, Batuu on horseback is in a strong posture, like a beam of arrows, galloping, leading the way, in the cheers, leaving his accomplices far behind, he becomes the hero of the day, the boys work together to throw him into the air, the beautiful girl holds Hatta in her hand, smiling and offering wine ... ...
Pastoral Naadam horse racing scene
Since then, Batuu has become a good friend of mine, drinking at his house, and I even vowed to open up the future with Batu and jointly realize the long-cherished wish of building a homeland.
However, I did not deliver on my promises. The harsh environment eventually made me a hurried visitor here, and through the relationship I was transferred out of town. When I said goodbye to Batuu and saw a look of surprise and trepidation in his eyes, I felt like a little man who did not keep his promises, like a deserter. I kept avoiding Batuu's gaze.
On the other day, Batuu still came. He and all the students followed the carriage that sent me, and kept delivering it far. The carriage gradually drifted away, rolling in the sand, I still saw Batu's looking up, I couldn't help but cry out in my heart, take care, sincere Batu, no matter where you go to the end of the world, I will not forget your ... ...
History turned a new page, and in the chaotic era, the college entrance examination was resumed, and I collected a large amount of information to send to Batu, who was admitted to the Grassland Department of the Inner Mongolia Agricultural and Animal Husbandry College as he wished. Later, under the encouragement of Batuu, I also took the unified examination and was admitted to the university. In later years, after graduation, Batu changed from a grassland workstation engineer to a director of the Municipal Animal Husbandry Bureau, and a leader of the Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, becoming a well-known grassland expert in the local area.
After twenty years of traveling in the south, on national day in 2014, I returned to Inner Mongolia from the southern city, received an invitation from Batu, came to the door of an agreed hotel, and a black car stopped in front of me. Out of the car came a tall, muscular Batuu. The years have passed, the sincere and free Batu of that year, and now the face is full of ploughs carved with the vicissitudes of the years, and what remains unchanged is the uplifting and heroic look between the eyebrows. Walking next to him was a fashionably dressed, handsome, avant-garde young man, whose eyes and face shape knew at a glance that he was Batu's son.
I haven't seen him in years, and Batuu at the wine table is still talking freely, still with such enthusiasm. He said that over the years, he has focused on the construction of grasslands. The pastoral area implements scientific grazing, and the grassland is much more beautiful. He also told me that the desert of the corps company I had joined in the work of that year had long been cleaned up. Every summer, the flowers bloom and are colorful, making it a good place for citizens to travel. Now the desert is almost invisible. Most of the reclamation is made into melon and fruit bases and green pastures. Mengniu, Yili, several large domestic emulsion groups have entered the desert, and the milk produced here is the cleanest milk source in China. The organic milk products here have become the only inspection-free products in China to European countries. Three 10,000 acres of vineyards have also been developed here, and the wine produced here will enter thousands of households in the future. Batuu said with great interest that the desert has become a wealth for people. The municipal government also recently signed up two large photovoltaic power plants, covering an area of tens of thousands of acres, using the light energy of Ulan Bu and the desert to provide people with cheap clean energy.
Artificial grasslands developed in Ulan Bu and Desert Mengniu
Photovoltaic power stations in Ulan Bu and the desert
With the construction of grasslands and the increase of green area, the climate here has also changed, in the past the sand and dust weather was nearly two hundred days a year, and now it is more than ten days a year, and the air is as good as three hundred days, which is a suitable area for good air. Batuu said that in the past, sandstorms here could affect Beijing, Tianjin, Taiyuan, Xi'an and even northern Chinese cities, and now it is no longer the birthplace of China's sandstorm climate. Most of the dust comes from Outer Mongolia. Desert control is a comprehensive project with all-round progress. Some of the desert-growing plants suitable for arid and semi-arid deserts that they have studied over the years will be promoted to the sandy areas and Outer Mongolia, and it is believed that in a few years, the sandstorms that rage in the spring will be effectively controlled.
Desert becomes garden
Batu has become an expert in grassland construction, often participating in large conferences at home and abroad, and has also visited Australia, New Zealand and other countries with developed animal husbandry. For his son, Batuu has high hopes, his son is in graduate school, and his son inherits his father's business, specializing in grassland management, and now they are interning in their unit. Batuu said he believes this generation of young people are doing better and more scientifically than we are!
10,000 acres of sunflower gardens in the desert
Looking at this special student in the classroom that year, looking at this friend who has been difficult to forget for many years, I can't help but sigh for his achievements. In the environment of that year, he was not willing to be mediocre, and the pursuit of ideals fully proved a simple truth: "Flowers and applause favor those who persevere and strive for ideals."
It was late at night when I got out of the hotel, and by the brightly lit road, I said goodbye to The Batu father and son. It was around the Mid-Autumn Festival, when the moon was empty, the sky was like cleaning and filtering, and the lights on the ground were shining, compared with more than thirty years ago, this place was already heaven and earth. Watching the car of Batu's father and son go away, I thought that it was the efforts of countless industrious and intelligent people like Batu that made Ulan Bu and the desert so beautiful. I have reason to believe that in the near future, the sandstorm, the monster that wreaks havoc on spring, will surely disappear from the hands of countless people like The Father and Son of Batu, and the beautiful spring will always reside!
Revised on Friday, October 22, 2021
Note: It is specially explained that the owner in the article uses a pseudonym with his consent.