In 2016, the sun shone on the big wave beach in Mangya City, shining with golden brilliance. Several backpackers are looking down intently for their favorite stones. Suddenly, a scream in the distance interrupted their search.
Some shouted "what's wrong" and immediately ran to check, while others threw away the stones in their hands and quickly gathered around. At that moment, everyone was shocked by the scene in front of them and fell silent.
A half-hidden white skeleton was buried under the sand and stones of the Gobi, and the tattered clothes "fluttered" in the wind. Plop. sounds.
The sudden appearance of this white skeleton makes the history of Lop Nur seem to be frozen on October 23, 2016. Who the hell is he? Where did it come from? A series of questions make it difficult to start.
Only the wind was raging, and everything fell silent. This is a skeleton worth looking for, and someone called the police**. The Public Security Bureau of the Mangya Executive Committee did not dare to slack off in the slightest, and Deputy Director Tang Tuohua personally led the team to the scene.
The weather was surprisingly good that day, the sun had dried the sand of the Gobi, and this long-awaited white skeleton, waiting to uncover the mystery of its origin, seemed to have been lonely for a long time.
Everyone wants to be able to send it home, back to the arms of their loved ones. Tang Tuohua and his colleagues conducted a basic survey of the site.
At first glance, the skeletal remains were weathered and unrecognizable. Based on the shape and size of the remains, it is inferred that this is a man who is about 1.75 meters tall.
Under the erosion of time, the man's face has long been blurred, and the cotton coat on his body, which has stubbornly resisted time, has also faded its original color. However, in one corner of the padded coat, the last traces of dark blue remained.
The cotton wool in the cotton clothes has long been scattered with the wind and is missing. For Tang Tuohua, this is his 25th year of working in the Public Security Bureau of the Mangya Executive Committee and the 25th year of his police career.
As soon as he looked over, he understood what that meant. The man's lying posture in the desert seemed to tell Tang Tuohua that he was exhausted and could no longer support it.
Although he had turned into white bones, Tang Tuohua still felt the despair of the man. He walked so suddenly that he didn't even expect it. He walked sadly, and in this inaccessible Gobi Desert, no one could bring the slightest news to his family.
Tang Tuohua looked expectantly through the canvas bag on the remains, hoping to find clues that would prove the identity of the deceased: a pair of woolen socks, an old flashlight, a pair of old goggles, an old newspaper dated September 13, 1960, and two letters with illegible handwriting.
While each relic made them feel lost, it also brought a touch of comfort because at least some clues had been found. After inspecting the scene, they carefully obtained the DNA information of the deceased and decided to take only this information with them to facilitate the subsequent identification of the deceased.
The remains were buried in situ to preserve the integrity of the bones. Once the identity of the deceased has been confirmed, they will contact the family of the deceased and further dispose of the relics. After returning to the Public Security Bureau, they conducted a more detailed analysis of the relics they had collected, hoping to draw a "portrait" of the deceased.
Tang Tuohua and his colleagues speculated that he may have been in the last century through the style and color of the deceased's overalls and cotton pants.
Died in the sixties and seventies. The Luoyang **, published on September 13, 1960, also confirmed their speculation.
The remains of the remains have long since become a thin layer of cotton clothing, which seems to tell the story of the season of his fall. The forensic department reconfirmed the time frame for the man's collapse to be between September 1960 and April 1961.
When the approximate timeline was sorted out, a bleak picture appeared in front of the police handling the case: on a winter day more than 50 years ago, a middle-aged man in a blue cotton coat walked alone in the desert.
Who is he? "If this mystery can be solved, perhaps the man's family will be found, so that he can return to his homeland instead of being left alone in this desert.
The police pinned all their expectations on the two illegible letters. Although they are not as unmistakable as identity documents, they can reveal who he was dating during his lifetime.
It is even possible to deduce his name and ** from the content of the letter. In this world, there seems to be no more valuable information and clues than words. Over the years, the handwriting on the envelope has become indistinct in the wind and sun, with only the ink on the postmark being the most visible.
After careful identification by Tang Tuohua and his colleagues, it was found that this was a letter sent to Ruoqiang County, Xinjiang. Their eyes fell on the blurred handwriting, and by identifying them one by one, they finally found the clue.
The letter was sent from the Post and Telecommunications Bureau of Yilong County, Sichuan Province, and the addressee was named "Deng Guangguang". The bones found in Lop Nur are not the only ones, and Tang Tuohua and his colleagues have dealt with similar cases more than once.
However, most of these cases end up with regret due to a lack of information and clues.
The name of the person on the letter is a ray of light for the recipient. These names ignited their hopes, excited them, and eagerly opened the second letter.
The first letter reads "Dingshan Commune, Bazhong County, Sichuan Province xxxx four small", and the second letter reads "Guizhou Province xx land, Li Zhonghua collects". The names in the two letters made the police more convinced that it was possible for them to find the family of the deceased and let him return to his hometown.
What made the police even happier was that the letter was not empty, but contained two copies of stationery. When they took out the stationery, their eyes were full of anticipation. Because of these two pieces of letterhead, it is possible to reveal the identity of the remains.
However, when they opened the letter, only sighs were heard. The letter was written in pencil, and the erosion of the years made the letter paper almost blank, leaving only the words "(Father) Chongshan".
Both letters were sent from Sichuan, and Dalangtan happened to be located at the junction of Qinghai and Xinjiang, and to the west was Ruoqiang in Xinjiang. Coupled with the flashlight and goggles in the canvas bag, Tang Tuohua and his colleagues locked their attention on the three words "Deng Guangguang".
They deduced that the man might be a Sichuan geologist who was based in Ruoqiang, Xinjiang. Accordingly, they immediately launched a visit and investigation in the local area.
However, after a few days of busy work, not only did they not gain anything, but they became even more confused. Tang Tuohua and his colleagues checked the information of the missing people of that period day and night, and also questioned many local elders, but none of them had heard of the person "Deng Guangguang".
This sometimes makes them wonder if this person really existed.
After finding the results of the DNA identification report, Tang Tuohua and his colleagues began to search for the man's family, but looking for them in the vast sea of people was tantamount to finding a needle.
In the end, they decided to mobilize the power of the masses and released information on the official "Ping An Vast Cliff", which triggered the response of many enthusiastic netizens and attracted the attention of "Luoyang**" at the first time.
In the 1960s, the regional newspaper's audience was mainly the local population in Luoyang.
On September 13, 1960, "Luoyang**" put forward the inference that "Deng Guangguang" may be a local. So, the reporter found an old local geologist.
However, when the old man saw the information provided by the reporter, he immediately denied the possibility that "Deng Guangguang" was a geologist. Because in that era, the compass and the geological hammer were indispensable tools, but these two tools were not found in the backpack of "Deng Guang".
As a result, there are only two possibilities left: one is that he diverted from Luoyang to the Gobi Desert, maybe he came to Luoyang on a business trip, or he may have relatives in Luoyang. However, this inference does not determine whether he is a native or not.
The last possibility is that he was a veteran who participated in the first atomic bomb test explosion in our country. From 1958 to the success of the experiment, more than 1,000 Luoyang people participated in this great cause, and they enlisted in the army from Luoyang and contributed their youth to the desert.
Faced with this situation, the man's name should have been recorded. However, the reporters of "Xihai ***" visited the Public Security Bureau, the library and local materials, but they were never able to find any trace of "Deng Guangguang".
The possibility that he was born in Luoyang is slim to none. The emotions of loss occupy one side, but the other is filled with laughter. Just when Luoyang's search was in trouble, "Xihai *** was also running around to find his clues.
On the morning of November 30, 2016, the backstage staff of "Pocket Qinghai" checked the user's comments on the message board as usual. The job may seem simple, but it requires a great deal of patience.
When the staff felt a little irritated, a message suddenly caught his attention. "I am from Sichuan, and the deceased in Dalangtan may be my hometown. "This message is shocking, like a boulder falling into the calm waters of a lake, stirring up a high splash.
The reporter quickly contacted the user who left the comment, and passed this information to the Public Security Bureau of the Mangya Executive Committee as soon as possible. At this time, Tang Tuohua and his team did not stop looking for clues, and they passed this information to the public security bureaus of Yilong and Bazhong in Sichuan Province based on the two barely clear addresses on the envelope, hoping to get their assistance and investigation.
After receiving the report, the public security bureaus of the two places immediately organized two teams. One group is responsible for checking information on local missing people in the 60s, while the other chooses to visit the field.
After all, more than half a century has passed, and the local administrative area has long since changed. However, after checking all the information, no person named Deng Guangguang was found among the missing persons in both places.
The hopes that Tang Tuohua and his team had just kindled seemed to be dashed again. Just when everyone thought that this was another futile return, the police officer in charge of the field visit received an encouraging news.
The person who was completely consistent with the identity of the deceased was named Li Zhonghua, and his father's name was Li Chongshan, who had passed away, which happened to be consistent with the signature in the letter "(Father) Chongshan".
It was the winter of the following year that the family of the deceased was contacted, and the location was also shifted from Mangya Dalangtan to Longbei Township, Bazhong Bazhou District, Sichuan. When the police from the Dingshan police station returned, it was already night, and the stars lit up the entire sky.
Li Julan, a 67-year-old woman who lives in Cunya Village, has already eaten dinner and is sitting at home to rest. At this time, the ** on the table rang, and she hesitated for a moment before putting the earpiece to her ear.
Hello, are you Li Zhonghua's family? "Li Zhonghua. These three words suddenly came into Li Julan's ears, and she was shocked. For more than 50 years, she couldn't remember the name, it had appeared countless times in her dreams, and she didn't know how many times she had woken up crying over it.
* was still close to her ears, but tears were already in her eyes, and Li Julan couldn't help but shed tears. Emotions surging deep in the throat are about to gush out.
Hello, do you want to confirm that you are Li Zhonghua's family? * A gentle voice came from the other end, repeating the question over and over again. "Hmm. "Hmm. I am his eldest daughter, Li Julan. ”
Her voice trembled, and she could feel that her sadness deeply infected the police officer on the other end. They tried to reassure her, telling her that they might have found Li Zhonghua, but that further confirmation was needed and that she needed to provide a DNA comparison.
On December 2, 2016, ** submitted the two extracted DNA information to the higher authorities for final comparison. After ten days of psychological torture, everyone finally waited for the long-awaited result.
The remains on the Gobi Desert are Li Zhonghua, a missing person from Longbei Township, Bazhou District, Bazhong City, Sichuan.
As the fog gradually lifted, Li Zhonghua's life story gradually surfaced. In 1929, he was born in Cunya Village, a small village in Longbei Township, Bazhou. Judging from his father's literacy and ability to write letters, his family was not poor.
Li Zhonghua could have lived a peaceful life, but with the outbreak of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, his life began to change. In 1951, when he was in the prime of his youth, he was inspired by the country and decided to abandon his small family, dedicate himself to the country, and resolutely went to the Korean battlefield and became a volunteer soldier.
Behind him is a young and beautiful wife and a one-year-old daughter. On the battlefield, like his comrades-in-arms, he was not afraid of the enemy's bullets and bullets, and was determined to defend his family and the country, and was not afraid of life and death.
In 1953, Li Zhonghua and his comrades-in-arms waited for orders from their superiors in an air-raid shelter. Suddenly, a plane flew by and dropped several bombs. Unfortunately, fragments of a bomb passed through his right leg, but fortunately, his comrades were not able to share the result with him.
During the war, Li Zhonghua received a second-class meritorious service, but he could no longer fight on the front line. **Later, he chose to retire from the army and returned to his hometown in Sichuan. Because of his military exploits, the higher authorities gave his family a subsidy of seven or eight thousand catties of grain, but the family's few acres of thin fields and the state's care still could not meet the needs of the family, especially his grandfather was still alive, and there were more than a dozen people in the family to eat.
However, his past experience in the military has always encouraged him, and he doesn't want to be a man who sits on the sidelines.
After careful consideration, Li Zhonghua decided to go out to earn a living. In 1958, when the Chengdu-Kunming Railway broke ground, he went to the Guizhou Railway Bureau to participate in the tunnel excavation work. However, the impact of the special period forced the construction to be suspended.
Instead of returning home, he stayed in Guizhou to look for work and work in a brick factory. This also explains why there was a letter in his luggage destined for Guizhou. However, the good times did not last long, and the brick factory closed down.
Whether to return home to accompany his wife and daughter, or continue to go out to earn a living, Li Zhonghua is in a dilemma. This year, he happened to hear that many farms were being cultivated in Xinjiang, where the land is vast and sparsely populated, and the products are abundant.
More and more people are embarking on the road to Xinjiang. After careful consideration, Li Zhonghua decided to go out again, so he joined the team that traveled from Guizhou to Xinjiang, and finally came to the Milan farm in Ruoqiang, Xinjiang.
Originally, there was a large temperature difference between morning and evening, and it was so cold at night that people shivered, and Li Zhonghua, who was so sweaty at noon, wrote a letter to his family, hoping that his wife Deng Guangming could make him a cotton coat.
However, it was not only a brand-new cotton coat that was delivered to him, but also socks knitted by his wife. Hidden in the socks is a deep longing for her husband and endless love.
Although Li Zhonghua disappeared for a while, their communication was not interrupted. However, at the end of 1958, Li Zhonghua suddenly disappeared, and a year later, Deng Guangming called the Milan farm, but got the news that "the farm was closed down, and Li Zhonghua could not be found".
The farm did not go out of business, but Li Zhonghua never returned.
In Deng Guangming's heart, every word stung her deeply. Looking at her three growing daughters, she could only cry silently in the middle of the night. Her husband is gone?
Why didn't you come back? As the years passed, the children grew up and began to resent their father, wondering if he had another home away from home and no longer cared about them.
But Deng Guangming always told the children that their father was not such a person. The youngest daughter missed her father, so Deng Guangming asked her to look at her eldest sister more and said, "Your eldest sister is most like your father."
Some people persuaded her to remarry, but she always shook her head, saying that her parents-in-law were old and needed someone to take care of her. It wasn't until her in-laws urged her to find another companion and let him live in Li's house.
After 58 years, Deng Guangming, who is already in her 80s, finally saw her husband again. When she learned that Li Zhonghua's remains had been found, she had mixed feelings, and she didn't know whether she was happy or worried.
After getting in touch with the Public Security Bureau of the Mangya Executive Committee, they handed over the ashes to the Li family and donated 5,000 yuan in cash. Li Zhonghua's remains were finally returned to his hometown of Bazhong City, where he was subsequently buried.
The eldest daughter, Li Julan, wept at the grave, understanding that her father had not abandoned them. The youngest daughter, Li Xiulan, was also able to meet her father, who was only a few months old when Li Zhonghua died.
Deng Guangming sat in front of Li Zhonghua's tomb and said softly: "Our family is already full of children and grandchildren, so we will leave you alone." Now that you're back, our family is finally reunited! ”