Silver years
-- Zhang Lianyin, former deputy commander of the Hebei Provincial Military Region, retired tree planting and afforestation chronicle No. 2
■ Jiefangjun Daily reporter Chai Huasi Li Long Pan Di special correspondent Zhou Ren
A small black hard leather book the size of a palm, Zhang Lianyin, former deputy commander of the Hebei Provincial Military Region, carried it with him every day.
In the small book, there is the 76-year-old veteran's "poetry and far away".
A few years ago, when he saw the 40 "Most Beautiful Poems in China" recommended by the media, he printed out these poems in large characters and pasted them on a small book.
When he walked alone in the nursery and recited the poems in it, it was his happy time.
When communicating with people, talking speculatively and excitedly, he would also take out a small book and read a few sentences.
"Turtle Although Shou", "Difficult to Walk", and "Returning to the Garden and Tianju" are Zhang Lianyin's favorite poems to recite.
Poetry is based on words. When it comes to his "achievements" in tree planting, Zhang Lianyin is humble and low-key, and there is no bold words. And when he talked about the "encouragement" of these poems to himself, the reporter seemed to hear another expression. This is his way of talking to his elderly self, and it is also the temperament and brilliance that characterizes his spiritual world.
"How far we can go on the road of sunset depends on our physique and mentality." Writer Yang Dai once said.
The afterglow reflects the mountains and forests. After retiring to his hometown and planting trees for 18 years, Zhang Lianyin's silver years not only have "poetry", but also "far away".
"Martyrs in their twilight years, their hearts are strong"
——Excerpt from "Turtle Although Shou"
On October 3, 2003, Zhangjiachang Village, Zuoyun County, Datong, Shanxi. After the Ten Mile River was diverted, several camouflage tents were erected on the beach left on the edge of the village.
Zhang Lianyin wanted to build a few tile houses here and take root to plant trees.
"Near the left cloud, the weather is extremely cold." At this time, the land was frozen, and it was not appropriate to build a new house, and his relatives and friends in the same village advised him to wait until the beginning of the spring of the following year.
"When the spring starts, we will start planting trees, and it is too late!" Zhang Lianyin was urgent.
In March of that year, he had just retired from his post as deputy commander of the Hebei Provincial Military Region and decided to return to his hometown of Zhangjiacang Village to plant trees and green barren mountains. "I want to do a limited amount of good things for my hometown in a limited time and a limited scope." I'm almost 60 years old, not a young man in my twenties or thirties, and a day early is a day. ”
Since the day he built the house, Zhang Lianyin has been riveting on the river beach every day. After 28 days, the tile house was built, and according to Zhang Lianyin's request, "red tiles, green bricks, and earthen kang are exactly the same as the houses where the villagers live."
Zhang Lianyin is not on a whim, he is ready to fight a "big battle" here. Zhangjiacang Village has more than 11,000 acres of barren mountains and wasteland, which he regards as his new "battlefield".
After the Spring Festival in 2004, he consulted experts with the county, municipal and provincial forestry departments many times, and asked experts from the Provincial Forestry Survey and Design Institute to conduct on-site surveys for more than 20 days, and together with relevant personnel, he formulated the "Zhangjiacang Ecological Garden Village Construction Master Plan" including mountain closure and afforestation, artificial afforestation, seedling breeding, and village transformation.
After the Qingming Dynasty, the first battle of afforestation was fought in the north beam of Zhangjiacang Village - more than 200 acres of barren slopes, 74 plants per mu, planted in 7 days.
The "battle plan" is refined to "days", with an average of 100 trees per person per day. Zhang Lianyin led more than 20 villagers to get up at 5 o'clock every morning, nibble on steamed buns and pickles on the mountain for lunch and dinner, plant saplings during the day, and water one by one with lights at night.
More than 300 acres of seedling bases, 8 wells, 10,000 cubic meters of reservoirs, 3,500 meters of U-shaped anti-seepage canals, 3,000 meters of water-saving irrigation pipes, 3.5 kilometers of cement roads... Battles, one after another, each one is an uphill battle.
Including 3 children, almost no one thought that Zhang Lianyin's "picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence" after his retirement was actually "Qingshan has no regrets" of "not breaking the Loulan and never returning".
Zhang Lianyin said that "limited time" was 18 years after a while. In the past 18 years, he has suffered from lung cancer, had hernia surgery, and planted trees without stopping.
Zhang Lianyin's "limited scope" has expanded from afforestation in Zhangjiacang Village to participation in the Beijing-Tianjin Wind and Sand Source Control Project, and the greening results have spread throughout 8 townships in Zuoyun County: 400 mu in Ertaizi Village in Santun Township, 830 mu in Hangli Kiln Village in Xiaojingzhuang Township, and 1,200 mu in Yu'anzhuang Village in Madaotou Township...
Zhang Lianyin said that "limited good things" included dyeing more than 18,000 acres of barren mountains in Zuoyun County with more than 2 million saplings, and Zhangjiacang Village became a "demonstration village for ecological gardens in Shanxi Province"; the Qingfeng Forest Education Base founded by Him was identified as the Datong City Party History and National History Education Base and the Youyu Cadre College "Zuoyun Qingfeng Forest On-site Teaching Point"; and more than 200 reports were given to provincial, municipal and county party and government organs, primary and secondary schools, and state-owned enterprises, with an audience of more than 12,000 people.
From the age of 58 to 76, Zhang Lianyin's twilight ambitions have greened his hometown, protected the landscape, blocked the wind and sand, and benefited his father and fellow villagers.
"It's hard to walk, it's hard to walk, it's a lot of wrong, and now it's safe"
——Excerpt from "Difficult to Walk"
People who are familiar with Zhang Lianyin know that he walks fast and has a kind of indomitable momentum.
Zhang Lianyin's road back to his hometown to plant trees and afforestation in 18 years is not a smooth road. "A mountain let go of a mountain", in the face of many difficulties, he is still a posture that cannot be stopped.
The first time I tried to raise seedlings, almost "the whole army was destroyed". Watching himself and his wife Wang Xiulan plant 10,000 seedlings that were planted one by one and did not survive, Zhang Lianyin said that although he did not cry, "but his heart was in tears."
The cost of seedlings is lower than that of buying seedlings, and it is a "mountain" that Zhang Lianyin, who has limited funds, must overcome. He ordered 8 forestry magazines to read every day, selecting seedlings, digging seedlings, digging pits, encircling circles, watering, and studying step by step. The expert who led the soldiers finally became an expert in planting trees.
"He didn't know anything before, but now he's more proficient than we are, about the same as a forestry technician." There are sixteen or seventeen varieties of sassafras pine in the nursery, and he knows what temperament and cultivation he has. He is a man who wants to do his best! Cousin Zhang Lianmao said.
"A penny is hard for a hero." The 300,000 yuan savings brought back by Zhang Lianyin and his wife were quickly used up, and he had to look around for relatives and friends, and also asked for help from 3 children.
Zhang Lianyin's eldest daughter Zhang Xiaomei and her husband discussed using the house as a mortgage loan of 200,000 yuan, the son Zhang Xiaobin took out 100,000 yuan of savings, the younger daughter Zhang Xiaohua took out the transfer fee, and the 3 children together to support their father. "My father rarely opened his mouth to people in his life, and we know that he is really having difficulties this time." Zhang Xiaomei recalled.
In September 2013, the turnover of funds was once again difficult, and the workers' wages could not be paid and the construction site money could not keep up. Some people advised Zhang Lianyin to plant trees for 10 years, and when he saw good, he would receive them.
"Species! No matter how hard it is, you have to plant it! Zhang Lianyin sold the saplings to other nurseries at a price half of the market price, first paid the workers, and then relied on the loan support of several brothers to solve the urgent need.
After turning over these "mountains" in technology and funds, what awaits Zhang Lianyin is a greater test.
After being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2011, Zhang Lianyin wrote several "anti-cancer diaries."
"When people are alive, they will get sick, this is a natural law, and the disease is always tormenting our bodies, but it also makes us stronger." In the process of fighting the disease, I felt that the disease was also a soft place to bully the hard place, and I could not be defeated by it. ”
In the face of cancer, Zhang Lianyin's attitude is "correct treatment, scientific treatment". In the Spring Festival of 2012, after the operation and the end of chemotherapy, Zhang Lianyin rushed back to Zhangjiacang Village. In 2014, Zhang Lianyin was diagnosed with lung cancer bone metastasis, and he chose conservative treatment, "Instead of letting me be admitted to the hospital, it is better to let me go back to the village, stay with the saplings, and watch them grow up day by day." ”
Now, 10 years after the diagnosis of cancer, Zhang Lianyin himself knows that if he did not have the momentum of "stopping and stopping", he might have collapsed a long time ago.
"So many villagers are looking at me, I can't lose the battle, let alone be a deserter."
All the way, all the way is difficult, the veterans are not old, and the thousands of rivers and mountains are just waiting for idleness.
"Open up the wilderness in the south, and return to the garden"
——Excerpt from "Returning to the Garden"
Just into October, several autumn rains have come down, and Zuo Yun is already cold enough to make people stomp their feet.
Zhang Lianyin's brother-in-law, Wang Fengxiang, wanted to help him burn the earthen kang in his bedroom to make the house warmer. A few years ago, after he retired from the county, he often went to the base to help Zhang Lianyin.
Wang Fengxiang poured the coal into the hearth of the kang side of the earthen kang, and it was not lit for half a day, and his hands and feet were a little busy. Zhang Lianyin took the dustpan filled with coal, placed it on the stove top, first lit some small branches, and then dialed the broken coal into the stove, covered the cover, turned around and opened the exhaust fan, and the action was completed in one go. He said: "Tu kang is burned in the afternoon, and it does not need to be burned again at night." ”
Looking around this room of more than ten square meters, against the wall there is an old table, an old wardrobe, a blue chair, the back of the chair is broken, exposing a large sponge.
Returning to the village 18 years ago to plant trees, Zhang Lianyin has been living in this house.
In the courtyard, a van with paint dropped was parked. In 2015, in order to facilitate the planting of trees, Zhang Lianyin spent money to buy this "special car".
Some people say that Zhang Lianyin's "belongings" are too shabby. Zhang Lianyin said: "There is a pot for eating and a nest for sleeping, but now the conditions are much better than before." This car can sit people and pull saplings and shovels, which is very practical. ”
"He's not good to eat, he's not easy to wear, he's just that kind of person." Hu Wanjin, a villager who grew up with Zhang Lianyin, said, "He never talks about pomp and circumstance. ”
Zhang Lianyin, who "does not talk about pomp and circumstance", did not hold a wedding banquet when his 3 children got married. After being diagnosed with lung cancer, Zhang Lianyin explained to his wife the "aftermath": no monument, no gifts, no singing, everything from jane.
Because he was not at ease with his father's health, Zhang Xiaobin chose his own career from the army in 2015 and returned to Zhangjiacang Village to accompany his father to plant trees.
For Zhang Xiaobin, his childhood father was a "tall back". One of his deepest memories of his childhood is "hungry." The bargained grain that the parents had to save money to buy was always left to the "passing" rural relatives, but the family ate the coarse grain exchanged for food stamps, "cornmeal and noodles made of sorghum noodles, boiled in the pot to become paste." ”
He also remembered that his father often said to the three of them: "As a person, you must not be afraid of hardship, not afraid of suffering, not afraid of suffering, and not afraid of injustice." ”
Zhang Xiaobin and his two younger sisters did not expect that their father would be willing to return to his hometown to "suffer hardships" when he retired.
Now, with his father planting patches of green shade and experiencing the hardships involved, Zhang Xiaobin found that some things in his father have not changed. Returning from the fiery barracks to the "garden field" of his hometown, guarding the "clumsiness" of being willing to suffer hardships, suffer losses, and be willing to suffer injustices, the veterans are still the same.
Source: China Military Network - People's Liberation Army Daily