More than seventy years ago, there was such a group of flower girls who came to Xinjiang in the face of the wind and sand, and it was they who wrote beautiful pictures of Xinjiang with their youth, and they made great contributions to the development and construction of Xinjiang.
In August 1949, Lintao, Gansu province was liberated. Because Lintao is a very famous and cultured county in Gansu and has a very developed education, General Wang Zhen recruited young students to join the army, and among them there were more than twenty female students.
After the liberation of Lanzhou, General Wang Zhen, considering that Xinjiang, which may be about to be liberated, will face new problems, has recruited talents in Lanzhou to prepare to solve problems in Xinjiang's economic construction. Many experts in the fields of education, science and technology took the lead in joining the army, and eventually recruited more than 10,000 young intellectuals to follow the troops into Xinjiang.
In 1950, the newly liberated Xinjiang, due to its remote location and war-torn attacks, at this time Xinjiang was in ruins and waiting to be rebuilt, and still needed a large number of manpower to build in order to protect the border areas.
With this in mind, the PLA fighters led by General Wang Zhen stayed on the spot to build Xinjiang after organizational arrangements.
Face the challenge
Xinjiang is a vast area, but it is remote, at that time the transportation was not developed, the conditions were very difficult, the population was not much, if you want to build Xinjiang well, it is not a matter of a generation, it takes the accumulation of countless people to achieve, which requires a large number of personnel and knowledgeable young people to work hard to achieve. If the troops want to take root in Xinjiang, the first thing to be solved is the food problem; the food needed by the 100,000-strong army is a huge number; if they want to transport grain from the interior, freight is a problem that is difficult to solve; the troops want to achieve self-sufficiency, but in order to achieve self-sufficiency, they need to build large-scale farms, but large-scale farms need scientific management, and with scientific knowledge as support, agriculture can develop very well.
Secondly, to solve the problem of personnel, how to let the soldiers live in Xinjiang with peace of mind needs to be carefully studied. With this in mind, the culture and marital problems of PLA soldiers are very much in need of being resolved.
At that time, most of the soldiers in the army were young, they went out of the mountains to do revolutionary work, affected by the current situation, many soldiers could not go to school, the level of education was very low, the proportion of illiteracy and semi-illiteracy was very high, in order to be able to better develop Xinjiang's economy, it was necessary to improve the cultural level of the soldiers. In 1951, the troops carried out cultural and educational activities, and the education level below the higher primary school should participate in cultural study, and the higher primary school and above should also be divided into three shifts to further learn theoretical knowledge and improve the cultural level of the soldiers in a ladder system.
At that time, the cultural instructors of the army were insufficient, and the female soldiers who followed the troops into Xinjiang had many education levels at the junior high school level, and most of the female soldiers assumed the role of cultural instructors, and the female soldiers began to teach from the simplest writing "soldier", and slowly developed into some commonly used vocabulary, sentences, and step by step to help the soldiers learn cultural knowledge. Some soldiers have been in the army for a long time, followed the troops to the south and the north, in the process of marching have realized the importance of learning, the enthusiasm for learning is very good, actively listen to lectures in class, and constantly write and recite after class, and make rapid progress. Some female soldiers, taking into account the lack of cultural life of the soldiers, also taught them to sing and rehearsed some programs to enrich the lives of the soldiers. The warriors got a lot of improvement here.
After the liberation of Xinjiang, the average age of the original Kuomintang rebel troops was over 35 years old, and many soldiers had families in the interior, and most of the soldiers were unable to start a family. Most of the soldiers of the First Order were also never married.
In the past, the concept of marriage in our country was relatively early, and in some poorer areas, marriage became fifteen years old. At that time, limited by the current situation, many soldiers followed the troops to the south and the north when they were young, did not have time to solve the marriage problem, and became what people called "older youth" in their twenties.
At that time, the soldiers of the army reacted strongly to marriage problems, which was a common human feeling.
At that time, General Wang Zhen and the soldiers worked together in Dihua, building water canals, sweat was constantly dripping, and the soldiers were working feverishly. When it was time for rest, General Wang Zhen and the soldiers sat together to rest and chatted about homely things. Wang Zhen asked about the age of a soldier, and the soldier replied, "I am 37 years old this year, and I am in the army of Sang Zhi. General Wang Zhen said excitedly, "Then I can be regarded as a fellow countryman with you, have you become a family?" The warrior smiled sheepishly and said, "Not yet." ”
General Wang Zhen said with a smile: "This is not okay, the battles are over, we have to take root in Xinjiang, you say look, do you want to start a family in Xinjiang?" ”
The warriors looked at each other and all laughed.
A courageous soldier said: "Commander, it is not that we do not want to marry, but there are indeed too few girls in Xinjiang." At that time, the total Han population in Xinjiang was only 300,000, and in order to respect the habits of ethnic minorities, the army had a clear stipulation that it was not allowed to marry ethnic minority girls.
After Wang Zhen listened, he knew in his heart that this was not the way to go, and while comforting the soldiers, he made up his mind to solve this problem.
Xiang nu on the Heavenly Mountain
Wang Zhen first thought of his hometown, he knew that his sister in his hometown could endure hardships, he wrote a letter to Wang Shoudao, the secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, asking for support and help recruiting a group of young women. After receiving the letter, Wang Shoudao vigorously supported this work, not only allocating a small building as an office, but also publishing news in the newspaper to mobilize young women to join the army to build Xinjiang.
The young women were quickly attracted by the news in the newspaper, and for a time the office became a very lively place in Changsha.
In 1950, the first young women took a train and headed west. From 1950 to 1952, about 8,000 female soldiers from Hunan came to Xinjiang to build Xinjiang. Their arrival has made Xinjiang even better.
From Hunan to Xinjiang, considering the safety of female soldiers, in order to prevent bandit attacks, every batch of female soldiers to Xinjiang will have vehicles to protect, because the cars at that time passed through the smoke of the battlefield, the cars were more or less a bit of a problem, sometimes the cars did not go, can only rely on manpower to push, female soldiers will get off the car together, push the car forward, so after a long journey. The female soldiers eventually reached Xinjiang.
Before the Xiang women came, the warriors opened up the wasteland and built a water canal. In order to save money, the soldiers of the corps donated allowances, and the clothes also omitted collars and pockets, and used the money to buy tractors and support construction. Not only the soldiers, but also the commanders of the corps lived very simply.
The quilt covered by Cheng Yuechang, deputy commander of the corps, was organized and issued during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and Cheng Yuechang has been using it, and there are many patches on it, which is very difficult to dismantle and wash. One of the guards felt that it was too worn, reported to the Ministry of Supply, and brought back a new quilt, but after Cheng Yuechang read it, he criticized the guard and asked him to return the quilt.
Working in the wilderness, mosquitoes are rampant, the warriors are very economical on clothing, in order to deal with these bugs, many warriors do not wear clothes, and paste their whole bodies in mud to work.
After the arrival of the young women, the lives of the warriors soon changed, the warriors were dressed neatly, the work assigned to the female soldiers, and many soldiers rushed to do it.
Diligent hands sketch beautiful pictures
After the female soldiers arrived in Xinjiang, some engaged in agricultural labor and production, some entered the college and then devoted themselves to the grass-roots level, using science and technology to promote the development of industrialization, and some female soldiers made contributions to Xinjiang's literary and artistic work and health undertakings.
Being a female tractor driver is the first choice for young women after they arrive in Xinjiang. There was a girl named Li Ming, who arrived in Xinjiang and was assigned to work in the mailroom of the corps. Work is not busy, but Li Ming is very unhappy, she wants to drive a tractor. At that time, tractors were considered to be very modern things, and girls driving tractors meant that for women they walked out of the traditional husband-and-wife environment, which was very tempting for women at that time.
Li Ming therefore reported to his superiors several times, asking him to drive a tractor. Later, with the consent of the organization, Li Ming went to the farm in 1954 to drive a tractor.
But driving a tractor is not an easy thing, Li Ming usually eats in the field, gets up early in the morning, practices very late, after Li Ming's unremitting efforts, finally Li Ming mastered driving a tractor.
The area of the farm is very large, when busy, many male drivers will feel tired, but Li Ming always grits his teeth and insists, and sometimes the leaders of the farm are worried that her body cannot support it, and they talk to Li Ming several times and want Li Ming to work in the company. But Li Ming shook his head repeatedly, saying that he did not want to go.
In order to be able to drive a tractor, Li Ming also postponed his marriage until the age of 26. On the fourth day after the marriage, Li Ming returned to work on the farm, and she did not want to burden other drivers. One winter, the weather was very cold, Li Ming was working, but the tractor suddenly malfunctioned, Li Ming immediately got out of the car to check, but during the maintenance, the misfortune suddenly occurred, Li Ming's hand was accidentally caught in the gear, the hospital found that Li Ming's 4 fingers crushed fractures, Li Ming was admitted to the hospital, after a period of recuperation, Li Ming's hands slowly improved, but still need to be recuperated for a period of time, Li Ming insisted on being discharged, She drove the tractor for several more years with her unharved hands.
In this way, the Xiang women used their industrious hands to continue to build in the Gobi, not afraid of wind and sand, open up the land, build water conservancy facilities, and work hard, and finally turned the former Gobi desert into countless good fields, built high-rise buildings, factories, and let the sparsely populated places in the past appear one after another emerging towns and cities.
They may be far away from us now, but their spirit deserves to be remembered forever. Countless exemplary figures have emerged among them, and they are real heroes.