In the last century, in the 10-year-long counterattack against Vietnam, although the battlefield was a man's world, there were still nearly 1,000 female soldiers who were dedicating their youth in various ways.
There is a female soldier here, who was demobilized early and returned to the place because of illegal shooting, the female soldier's name is Xie Nan, and she became the only female soldier who was expelled from the army in that war. Today, 40 years later, what happened back then, why did she return to the Sino-Vietnamese border again and again today, and covered the entire martyrs' cemetery with 957 roses.
Today, let's walk into Xie Nan's life together and experience her indescribable memories.
In 1967, Xie Nan was born in a military family in Liupanshui, Guizhou. In her memory, her father's figure in military uniform was tall and solid, and whenever she heard him talk about the eventful years of the war, she would always be fascinated.
Under the influence of her father, she desperately wanted to be a soldier who defended her family and country.
After graduating from high school, Xie Nan gave up the opportunity to take the college entrance examination and chose to sign up for the army. As a health soldier, she practiced her skills hard, just so that one day she could go to the battlefield and serve the motherland.
In 1984, Xie Nan's unit received an order to fight and was about to rush to the front line in China and Vietnam.
Xie Nan, who was only eighteen years old at the time, finally waited for the opportunity and took the initiative to participate in the war.
Before leaving, she was worried that her family would not receive news of her for a long time, so she wrote a letter.
Xie Nan wrote in the letter that he was about to leave for the training of the provincial military district and would not often go home to hope for the safety of his family.
But how can the clumsy lies in the letter be concealed from his father, who has been through a lot of battles.
As a veteran who has lived on the battlefield for a long time, the father knows in his heart that his daughter is going to war.
In order to see his daughter for the last time, he and his wife sat in a car for a night in a row before rushing from Guizhou to his daughter's army station.
At that time, he was already suffering from a very serious heart attack, but even if he dragged his harsh body, he wanted to see his daughter for the last time.
Before leaving, Xie Nan's first reaction when he saw his parents at the door was that his parents wanted to stop him from going to the front line.
An inexplicable complaint spread in her heart, she didn't even want her comrades-in-arms to see her parents who came to see her off, afraid that others would think she was squeamish, listening to her daughter's accusatory tone, Xie Nan's father just sighed slightly and replied: "I'm afraid that Dad won't be able to wait for you to come back." ”
Since ancient times, how many young lives have been left in a foreign land, leaving their elderly parents at home to weep.
After a short reunion, the parents boarded the military vehicle with Xie Nan to send their daughter and the young soldiers on their last ride.
At the time of parting, Xie Nan could no longer suppress the desolation in his heart, and hugged his mother and cried.
The sincere feelings between mother and daughter infected the other young soldiers, and suppressed cries came from the barracks.
And the father, who was a revolutionary soldier, reprimanded loudly: "You are my daughter, you must go to the battlefield for me with a smile!" ”
In order to pass on his strength to his children, he had to straighten his body again, like Xie Nan remembered in his childhood, and let his daughter.
In the early morning of April 28, 1984, the general attack on Laoshan began, and unlike listening to the story told by his father, Xie Nan saw the cruelty of war with his own eyes this time. The first time she helped a soldier amputate his leg, she held the wounded soldier's thigh and let the other man's flesh and blood stick to her. When holding the other party's legs, even if he saw a lot of bloody pictures in the hospital, Xie Nan couldn't help but tremble.
After 18 days of struggle, the PLA finally regained some territory, but this also meant that countless people were injured in the war. Batch after batch of wounded were constantly sent to the field hospital in the rear, and Xie Nan was also growing rapidly in the continuous **.
One of the wounded that impressed her the most was a 16-year-old fighter.
The warrior's arms were all bandaged, his legs were amputated, and only a torso was left on the bed.
In Xie Nan's memories, the warrior had a delicate face, but his physical disability made him refuse to eat.
Whenever Xie Nan fed him a liquid diet, he would turn his head away, not wanting others to feed him.
Until one day, the little soldier suddenly stopped Xie Nan, who was feeding him, and stared at her with a pair of bright eyes: "Sister, you sing to me, you sing a sentence and I will take a bite." ”
At that time, the wards were crowded with wounded soldiers, and blindness, amputations, and injuries with severed hands were common. The originally lifeless ward heard the little soldier's request, and they all looked at Xie Nan, hoping to hear her singing.
Looking at the little soldier who finally had some energy, Xie Nan sang and fed him.
I don't know whether it was moved or sad, tears welled up in the corners of the little soldier's eyes.
After feeding the little soldier to eat, Xie Nan couldn't hold back the pain in his heart anymore, and hid to the angle of no one and cried. Many years later, Xie Nan thought of this little soldier again, and there were always ripples surging in his heart.
I don't know if this little soldier is living in ** now? Does the wound hurt when it rains?
Even if he didn't know his name, Xie Nan still remembered these people who dedicated their youth and lives to the country.
In the early morning of July 12, 1984, the Vietnamese army launched a divisional and regimental attack on Lao Son with the strength of six regiments.
In the Sino-Vietnamese War, the tragic Battle of Songmaoling broke out.
Under the bloody struggle of the People's Liberation Army, it finally repelled the crazy Vietnamese army, and thus entered the era of tug-of-war. In the Battle of Songmaoling, Xie Nan's outstanding performance was seen by the leaders.
After the war, she was sent to the field for medical treatment, and she actually went to the battlefield. Under the leadership of the experienced scouts, Xie Nan cautiously stepped on the footsteps of the previous person, not daring to appear half a step difference.
When he arrived at the position, many heads suddenly poked out of the originally empty forest, which really frightened Xie Nan.
In the face of the rare female soldiers on the battlefield, these soldiers also dressed up to welcome them. They will sweetly call Sister Xie Nan, and they will also take out the letters mailed at home to share with Xie Nan.
The peace of the family is the biggest support for them on the battlefield, and only national security can have family security. This group of young people is willing to exchange their lives for the safety of their hometown.
However, it was these flesh-and-blood warriors, a considerable number of whom left their souls on the battlefield and never returned to their parents.
Xie Nan on the battlefield met many friends. But the brutal war also made her lose these friends.
What saddened her the most was the death of her friend Zhao Yong. Zhao Yong is a military worker on the front line, and his job is to deliver ammunition and transport the wounded to the front line. Before leaving, Zhao Yong once asked Xie Nan to borrow 15 yuan to buy a radio that he had wanted for a long time.
And Xie Nan chose to lend him 10 yuan and leave 5 yuan for his expenses.
Which Cheng thought that this 5 yuan had actually become Xie Nan's heart disease for half of his life.
Zhao Yong left and never came back. On the way to his mission, he was hit by a shell and lost his precious life.
After his death, Xie Nan blamed himself more than once for not lending him 15 yuan. Until she went to the cemetery later, she would still burn a five-yuan note for Zhao Yong.
Four months after joining the war, Xie Nan learned that another comrade-in-arms had died in battle, so he went to the martyrs' cemetery to see him off for the last time.
One small grave bag after another, carved with cold unit numbers, can't even engrave their own names on the tombstones, but they are the final destination of one fresh life after another.
After searching the entire cemetery, she couldn't find the tombstones of her comrades.
She could only raise the gun in her hand and say goodbye to her comrades.
Which Cheng thought that Xie Nan's move ruined her military career. Because of the illegal shooting, Xie Nan was canceled from the military merits that had been reported and left the army ahead of schedule.
Sitting in the car returning home, she looked back at the place where countless lives had been lost, and secretly vowed in her heart that she would never come back.
But fate made people, Xie Nan will set foot on this place full of memories again in the future.
Xie Nan, who left the battlefield, picked up the book again and began to study.
In 1987, she was admitted to university with honors. After graduation, he worked in a company in Zhongguancun.
Getting married and having children, the dull days diluted Xie Nan's memories on the battlefield.
The years have smoothed out the memories, and it makes people crisp their bones in the honey of the peaceful era.
However, just when Xie Nan thought she had forgotten these days, there would always be nightmares that would find her in the middle of the night.
In her dream, she saw the battlefield full of artillery fire, and she saw Zhao Yong, who called her Sister Nan, bleeding all over the ground, crying that she was so hungry and cold. Scenes haunted Xie Nan's heart, and the war never faded in her heart. In order to be obsessed, she decided to set foot in Vietnam again.
On January 26, 2003, Xie Nan finally arrived in Malipo in Yunnan Province after a long journey.
She came to the martyrs' cemetery alone and in the moonlight of the night.
Xie Nan held a lighter and illuminated the message of everyone on the tombstone.
Of the 957 martyrs in Malipo, none of them could leave a whole corpse, and only severed arms and stumps could be buried.
Xie Nan, who was afraid of ghosts, didn't feel scared at all in a cemetery. Because her comrades-in-arms are so kind, they are by her side like family. After finding Zhao Yong's tombstone, Xie Nan presented him with a small wreath and poured a bottle of Moutai. She told the soldiers buried in the mausoleum next to her that Zhao Yong was still young and hoped that everyone would not bully him.
When Xie Nan turned around, the cigarette she lit was actually extinguished rhythmically, as if someone was responding to her request.
This time I came to the cemetery just to ask for peace of mind, but the words of the cemetery manager changed Xie Nan's mind.
The administrator told her that of the nearly 1,000 martyrs buried here, more than 300 of them had no family members to pay their respects.
When she asks with curiosity why no one comes, the manager can only tell her that many people don't have the money and can't come.
Xie Nan was very shocked in her heart, and when she was about to continue asking, she happened to see a boss who specialized in taking photos in the martyrs' cemetery.
In the boss's shot, a gray-haired old woman wept bitterly. Wrinkles crawled all over her cheeks, and she spoke to her child through a narrow tombstone.
This old man is the mother of the martyr Zhao Zhanying, and when Xie Nan visited the old man, he was shocked again by her living environment, and also realized why the administrator would say that their family had no money.
Leaky houses, damp quilts, and dusty walls are the residences of the elderly. After returning home, Xie Nan posted the old man's ** on the Internet, which caused a great response.
Subsequently, the long poem "Mom, I've Been Waiting for You for Twenty Years" by an unknown author made countless people cry.
Many people donated money to Zhao's mother and visited her to prevent her from living in loneliness. It's just that whenever the voice dissipates, Zhao's mother still picks up her son's only ** and keeps rubbing her son's cheek.
After that, Xie Nan made a move that everyone couldn't understand.
She quit her job and moved her family to Kunming. According to her own words, it was the plot that she couldn't let go of in her heart, and it was the call from another world that prompted her to make such a decision.
Xie Nan, who settled in Kunming, opened a tea house called "Veteran's Home" and received many soldiers during the war.
Everyone who didn't know each other was very cordial because of the same experience, every time they got together, they had to go to the martyrs' cemetery in Malipo to visit their sacrificed teammates, and Xie Nan also accompanied them again and again.
To this day, she can't remember how many trips she has been to Malipo. For her, it is the most unforgettable memory of her life.
On the Qingming Festival in 2004, Xie Nan came to Malipo with a special gift.
There are 957 martyrs' mausoleums, and a red rose is inserted in front of each tombstone, which is Xie Nan's special gift.
She saved up her own memoirs to write poems and used her purest income to buy these flowers.
This gift is not mixed with the slightest distraction, and it is Xie Nan's most romantic gift for these martyrs who are in the "prime of their youth".
The dazzling red color dotted the cemetery in the rain, and everyone who came to pay their respects was moved to tears by this vivid color.