In 1934, in order to get rid of the encirclement and suppression of the Kuomintang, the Red Army was forced to carry out the Long March. If the Long March was the most difficult checkpoint for the Red Army, then the Songpan Grassland was one of the most difficult and dangerous places on the Long March, "it is difficult to cross the grassland, it is difficult to go to the blue sky", according to statistics, the Red Army, the Red Second Red Fourth Front Army and the Red Army lost nearly 30,000 people. 30,000 battle-hardened and determined soldiers left their lives in this grassland without firing a shot, which was also the largest attrition on the Long March, and even approached the bloody battle of five days and five nights of the "Xiangjiang Campaign". Why did the Red Army have such great sacrifices, and what is happening to the "man-eating" grassland back then?
The grassland that the Red Army walked through was called "Songpan Grassland", located in the northwest of Sichuan Province, and was an important passage connecting the Qinghai-Tibet PlateauThe average altitude here is 3,400 meters, the terrain is complex and harsh, and the oxygen is thin and coldIn addition, the perennial rain erosion of the Songpan grassland has caused the land to be extremely soft and covered with large and small swamps, which together cover an area of almost 300,000 hectares. The Red Army, with little logistics, faced not only cold, exhaustion, and hunger, but also swamps, quagmires, and the threat of poisonous snakes and beastsThat's why 30,000 soldiers disappeared into this "red steppe".
In our impression today, Songpan grassland is an endless green, a water town in the south of the Yangtze River on the plateau, a vast expanse to touch the blue sky, and a paradise for tourismBut such a landscape is the result of many years of efforts in our country;At that time, it was a swamp that could swallow up life with a single step, a "sea of death" where even birds could not fly, a polar region with a temperature difference of thirty or forty degrees between day and night, and a sad song that made countless of our soldiers sleep forever.
Due to the extreme humidity of the Songpan grassland, it is not possible to judge the location of the swamp by "experience";Although we now know that if you accidentally fall into a swamp, you should calm down as soon as possible, then spread your arms to expand the contact area by lying on your back, slowly pull out the leg that is stuck in the swamp, and then gradually move towards the hard ground.
However, our Red Army had no experience with this kind of terrain before, even if we had asked the local herdsmen for help, but after all, we had not practiced it firsthand;Therefore, once you stumble and step into the swamp, you will habitually struggle as if you have fallen into the water;And this kind of behavior not only did not help themselves, but accelerated the speed of sinking, and our Red Army soldiers would not let go of their comrades, and desperately rescued them, resulting in themselves falling into it, and eventually leading to the death of many people.
Fortunately, our heroic warriors were able to overcome all difficulties and quickly found a way to deal with the swamp, such as stopping the struggle after falling into it, and then pulling out of the swamp with ropes, sticks, etc., or walking forward hand in hand, and one person will be pulled up by his comrades immediately when he falls into it;In this way, this dilemma of the swamp was overcome.
However, the most terrible thing about the "cannibalistic" grassland is not the swamp, natural disasters, disease, severe cold, hunger, compared to these, the swamp seems to be just the simplest difficulty, do you remember the old squad leader in "Golden Fishhook"?That was the real scene during the Long March, when countless soldiers fell on the night before dawn.
The Long March was a forced long march that was launched at that time, due to lack of preparation and logistics, our soldiers had almost no ability to resist in the face of such an extreme natural environmentFortunately, the Red Army was not afraid of difficult expeditions, and thousands of rivers and mountains were just waiting for leisure. Our fighters eventually crossed the meadow and completely crushed Lao Chiang's encirclement and suppression. And today, 88 years later, what has become of the meadow that "ate people" back then?
Later, after the victory of the revolution, such a terrifying grassland was engraved in the hearts of many leaders;Not only because of the attrition of the Red Army, but also because there are still many herdsmen living in the grassland, and every year this grassland will swallow up countless lives, and for the sake of these lives, the management of the grassland is also urgent. From another point of view, although the Songpan grassland is swampy, but the pasture is also extremely fertile, if it is well managed, this grassland can become one of the high-quality pastures in China.
So the leader ordered to solve the problem of swamps and stagnant water in the Songpan grassland as soon as possible;So the experts have come to the Songpan grassland for field research, after investigation found that the rainfall in the Songpan grassland is no problem, but there is a problem with the lakes in the Songpan grassland, God rains, many rivers converge into the tributaries, after evaporation, absorption, etc., the rest along the river to the sea, this is the normal water cycle;However, due to the cold weather and geographical location of the Songpan grassland, God loves to go down, and the lake just doesn't drain outward, it's all saved!As a result, the water from the lake irrigated the entire grassland, and the swamps were so full that even the soil in the flat land could step on the water.
Although the situation in the Songpan grassland is serious, it is very simple to manage!Lots of water?Then row!The experts have developed three plans according to local conditions:
First, if there is more water, drain it first!Drainage canals were built in many places to reduce the water content of the soil in the grasslands by using the drainage canals to collect rainfall into the lakes.
Second, plant more grasses that absorb water and stabilize the soil, and after solving the problem after rainfall, use the grass that can "drink water" to reduce the water content in the original soil, and at the same time fix the soil, and gradually solve the swamp problem.
Third, a large amount of land is cultivated to grow crops, no matter what the land, after a few crops have passed, the influence in the soil will be lost to a certain extent, the soil will not be so soft, and there will be no swamps.
These three methods gradually worked from the inside out, and soon caused great changes in the Songpan grassland, and many of the former swamps have now been transformed into hard and walkable ground. The grasslands that used to "eat people" were planted with pasture and grain, but they fed many people.
Over the years, with the cooperation of the herdsmen, the Songpan grassland has changed the desolate scene of the past, all kinds of creatures have multiplied and grown on the grassland, and the smoke of cooking has risen next to the herdsmen's tents, a peaceful scene. The once mysterious Songpan grassland has unveiled its veil and shown its most magnificent scenery in front of us, and now it has another name: "Yao Chi in the world, paradise in dreams". Moreover, under the research of local leaders, many tourist attractions have also been excavated, and the Long March Monument Tablet Garden has been built, and Deng Gong has the inscription "China's First Golden Tablet".
Those warriors who are buried here should also feel comforted when they see the prosperous world and see us walking freely on this grassland.
This prosperous world, as you wish.