Other places have become hometowns, and the years of the Corps have continued
Zhang Jian and Lu Xiaoling, high school graduates in the 60s of the last century, actively responded to the call of the country and resolutely went to the most difficult places to support the construction of the frontier.
In the summer of 1964, they boarded a train bound for Xinjiang in Shanghai and began their revolutionary journey. More than half a century has passed, and Zhang Jian still remembers the moment when they said goodbye to their parents in tears, and the girls in the entire carriage cried.
It was a deep pain, but it was also a spirit of sacrifice that they were willing to pay for their country and their people. Zhang Jian still remembers the painful experience of leaving Yumen Pass, but he is still deeply proud that he and his classmates have made great contributions to the construction of China's frontier.
After several days of ups and downs, the train finally arrived at Daheyan Station. After a short stop, we set off again, got into an open-top truck, and headed for the banks of the Duolang River at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains.
There, dozens of Shanghai educated youths were assigned to the regimental field of the 1st Agricultural Division, and Lu Xiaoling and I were in the same company. From the bustling city to the deserted Gobi Desert, our hearts are like this vast desert, full of desolation and confusion.
Looking at the rows of adobe barracks and underground nests, Lu Xiaoling couldn't help crying, she choked up and said to me: "I want to go home, I want to go back to Shanghai." However, I knew that we would not be able to go back until we built this place.
I smiled and comforted her: "When we finish building this place, we can go back to Shanghai, and then we will go back to Shanghai together." After arriving at the destination, we began to participate in military training and study, although we came to reclaim the desert and produce food, but at that time, the farm was under militarized management, and we all had a nice name, called Corps Soldiers.
After a short period of military training and study, we each received a set of grass-green military uniforms (without collar badges and cockades), and each of us received a set of labor tools (including cantoman, shovels, earthen baskets, flat poles, and two wheelbarrows in one class), and we had to devote ourselves to heavy production labor.
On the first day of labor, the old soldier took us to the land to dig ridges and prepare for soda washing. Looking at the endless land, we were stunned in our hearts, not to mention hitting the ridges, even from this end of the ground to the other side, it will take one or twenty minutes.
According to the division of labor, an old soldier took a new soldier to fight the ridge together, and it took a whole morning for the two to finish a ridge. When we finally reached the ground, we threw down the cantuman and sat down on the ground, as if they were falling apart, and our hands were blistered.
On the way home from work that afternoon, Lu Xiaoling and I walked together, and I was distressed when I saw the blisters on her hands. I said to her, "Stretch out your hand and I'll see." ”
Lu Xiaoling stretched out her hand embarrassedly, looking at the blisters on her hands, I comforted her and said: "Just start participating in production labor, don't worry, first slowly adapt, tomorrow you work slowly, I will do it for you after I finish it." ”
Lu Xiaoling said with a smile: "It's okay, I can persevere, the platoon commander said, when the blisters on my hands have become calluses, I will be a qualified soldier of the corps." ”
After listening to Lu Xiaoling's words, I felt very uncomfortable, if I hadn't insisted on coming to Xinjiang, Lu Xiaoling would not have come to Xinjiang. The next morning, when I was about to go to work, the company commander suddenly stopped me and said to me with a smile: "Zhang Jian, you graduated from high school, right?"
Our company is going to send a soldier with a high level of education to participate in the medical and health knowledge training course, and after the training, he will serve as a hygienist of our company, and I want you to go to the training class to study. ”
Company commander, let Lu Xiaoling go, she also graduated from high school, girls are careful, and she is suitable to be a hygienist. I smiled and recommended Lu Xiaoling to the company commander. In this way, Lu Xiaoling went to the regiment headquarters to participate in study and training.
After the training, she became a hygienist in the company. Although the company's health workers are not full-time and have to participate in production labor, they are still relatively relaxed. ”
Zhang Jian is a young man who has worked hard in the company with his comrades-in-arms for six spring and autumn seasons, and they have exchanged sweat and wisdom for a bumper harvest. During these six spring and autumn seasons, the living conditions of the fighters were improved, and the company also developed greatly.
Zhang Jian and his comrades-in-arms also reached the age of marriage and starting a family, and the instructors and company commanders of the company also helped them solve their marriage problems. After the autumn of 1971, Zhang Jian and Lu Xiaoling held a simple but solemn wedding in the company.
Life after marriage is simple, but it is full of happiness. Zhang Jian's son Zhang Sihu was also born, and after living in Xinjiang for ten years, he returned to Shanghai, but he did not adapt to the life of Greater Shanghai, he preferred Xinjiang.
After graduating from university, Zhang Sihu chose to stay in Xinjiang to work, saying that Xinjiang was his home, and Shanghai was just his parents' home. Zhang Jian and Lu Xiaoling retired from leadership positions and returned to Shanghai, but their parents were both in Xinjiang.
Two years later, their parents died, and they decided to return to Xinjiang and return to Aksu. They sold the old house left by their parents and returned to Xinjiang and their home without any thoughts.
Zhang Jian and Lu Xiaoling have spent more than 50 years in Xinjiang, and they have changed the face of this land with their sweat and hands, and witnessed the rapid development of Xinjiang.
Although Shanghai is where they were born and raised, they see Xinjiang as their homeland. For them, the bustling city of Shanghai and the beautiful Gobi Oasis are both places they love deeply.
People tend to have feelings for a place because they have lived there for a long time, and Zhang Jian and Lu Xiaoling's love for Xinjiang is also natural. Here, I hope that they can spend a happy old age in beautiful Xinjiang, that their families are happy, and that the young people who stay in Xinjiang are happy.
Author: Grassroots writer.