Rake and plough life - I read "Looking Back on Military Shoes".
Good book recommendation. 
In the first month of last year, Ming Jun arrived home late at night and handed Zhang Minggang's self-selected collection of "Looking Back at Military Shoes" (People's Publishing House, October 2022 edition) cloud: "Brother Minggang specially explained, send Zhenghua and others quickly, don't stay overnight." "Speed delivery is speed reading. Ho, 40 years of military life, nearly 600,000 words, holding it like a boulder, reading it is full of paper smoke. It is no wonder that Brother Ming Gang regarded it as a treasure and asked his brother Ming Jun to "not stay overnight" to present it to his mentor and friends.
Yu reads the book first, the title of the book is like an eye, the author's interests, knowledge, ethics, immersion and ambition, the title of the book can be known at a glance. Secondly, you must read the preface, especially the self-preface, as well as the afterword-what you have written, where it originated, what your expectations are, and the unfinished words in the book are all in the "chattering sentences" before and after the book.
Postscript "Rake Ploughing, From the Field to the Barracks", looking at the title, you will know that the author has not finished a thousand words - from the field harrowing to the quenching of the barracks, it can be said that half a life of ups and downs and glory, half a life of immersion and exploration, are all between this "two points and one line".
Rake cultivation contains Zhang Minggang's stubbornness and temperament when he was young. His parents gave birth to 5 boys and 2 girls, and he was the fifth, with two older brothers and two younger brothers. Unfortunately, two older brothers died in infancy; What's more unfortunate is that when he was 6 years old, his father died young, his second brother Ming Qiang was 3 years old, his youngest brother Ming Jun was born less than 80 days ago, and his elderly grandmother and blind grandfather needed to be taken care of. He suddenly became the "eldest son" in the family, and had to work with his mother to support the family. Ming Gang, who was studying, dropped out of school to work as a farmer.
Every time Zhang Minggang talks about the past of raking and ploughing in the countryside, it makes people sad and weep: In a small mountain village called Lianshen in Wushan Town, Suizhou, Hubei Province, the sky is twilight, and a young man who has dropped out of school under the age of 16 holds a rope in one hand and a whip in the other, standing barefoot on a rake, learning the old crop style, and shouting at the ploughing ox with "dada" and "grin".
However, the old cow also bullied, either relying on not leaving, or swaying from side to side, juvenile and extremely angry, a few heavy whips, the old cow rushed forward, and threw him down heavily in the paddy field under the rake, the sharp rake teeth pierced the belly of the leg, and the blood flowed ......At that moment, what was Zhang Minggang thinking in his heart? Looking up at the sky, fate is so unfair; Looking down at the ground, I have to silently shoulder the burden of the family.
After falling from the rake, he gritted his teeth, endured the pain, stopped his tears, got up from the paddy field with a bone, and did not cover his wounds with mud and water, and continued to rake and plow as if nothing had happened, and then fell down again, and got up again ......In this way, at the end of the day, the ploughing ox was tamed by him, and the technique of ploughing the land was mastered by him.
Because of my friendship with the Ming army, I have been to the hometown of Ming Gang's eldest brother three times. From the county seat to the town, from the town to the village, the mountains and rivers are a journey, even if you drive, it takes half a day, not to mention that in those days, you have to walk step by step with your feet. It is not easy to get out of this mountain road, and it is even more difficult to get out of the mountain road of life.
After two years of raking and ploughing, Zhang Minggang became a border guard, and six years after joining the army, he broke through the ranks of fire in southern Xinjiang. Whether it is in the hot training ground or in the smoke of the cat's ear hole, when he is sitting on the desk and ploughing, the lines of words on the paper and computer are not like the traces of a rake field? I think that the picture of raking and ploughing must have flashed countless times in his mind or in his sleep, either wet with tears or in a daze.
Ever since I took down the difficult farm work of raking and ploughing that day, I thought, will there be anything I can't do in the future?! "I can see that the epiphany or enlightenment of the young Zhang Minggang began and became from this paddy field. As he said: "From now on, my heart is not bitter, my brain is not difficult, I have a responsibility, and I have a plan!" ”
With the perception of raking and ploughing, at the age of 18, Zhang Minggang set off from this small mountain village, strutting forward. He walked to the northeast border pass, to the southwest battlefield, to the capital Beijing, and to the frontier ...... of the Western RegionsUnstoppable, as before. With the attitude of raking and ploughing forever, he finally realized his glory and dream on the way forward.
The men on the border always dream of returning to their hometown. Zhang Minggang's anthology of nearly 600,000 words, there are only 4 chapters in the chapter "Hometown Feelings". But I think this is not just because of the "equal apportionment" of the length, but this period of the past, which is the secret of his soul, and the place where it hurts when he touches it. What is compressed is the length, and what is condensed is affectionate.
I was also surprised to find that Zhang Minggang couldn't find an adjective in the text of his hometown! However, if you read the slow product carefully, you can hear the frogs singing again, smell the fragrance of the earth, and see the rice and the thousand weights. What he shows us is a silent landscape picture, a poetic rural painting.
The so-called original intention is to return to the beginning, to the place where you were born and raised, to the warm embrace of your mother, to the flat burden of life that pressed you to the point that you can't straighten your waist, and to the hardships and sufferings that want to cry first.
The titles of this group of articles are also extremely ordinary, "The Longevity of Grandma", "Mom Smiled", "Mr. Shaobei", "Old Well", which is as simple as returning to primary school texts. I can't find any opening techniques or turning art in each article, but as I read it, I was pulled by an emotion, and I felt that I had become that "him".
Zhang Minggang's filial piety stems from his mother's words and deeds. When the cadres of the commune and the brigade did not agree to Zhang Minggang's family to join the army, his mother resolutely sent him to the northeast border pass, which was thousands of miles away, and resolutely shouldered all the burdens of the family's life. 's mother had a big birthday, and Zhang Minggang helped her climb the Tiananmen Tower. When he pressed the shutter and saw his mother laughing and crying, I guessed that he might have been in tears and laughing at this time! Yes, only after being weathered can you grind out that cup of happiness that belongs to you.
When Zhang Ming first joined the army, he "patted his new military uniform with his hands, blew it with his mouth, wiped it with a towel, ironed it with a ceramic cup filled with boiling water, and then folded him into squares......"I believe and believe that what he cherishes and cares for must be that unforgettable harrowing and ploughing years. When he was at the zero sentry post at the border Chinese New Year's Eve, he "saw goose feathers and snowflakes in the night sky, dancing to the accompaniment of the north wind, and then quietly falling ......."He may have thought of his long-lived grandmother, Mr. Shaobei, and the sweet old well in the village.
The years that can't be returned are called youth, and the places that can't be returned are called hometowns. As we get older, something moves inexorably apart, but inexorably closer. From the field to the barracks, from an ordinary soldier to a general of the republic, Zhang Minggang did not say anything about hardships all the way, he was brave enough to brave the north and south, and he wrote loyalty without regrets in his life.
At the end of "Looking Back on Military Shoes", Zhang Minggang wrote in poetic language, looking back on my life in the past 58 years, it can be summed up in two words: raking and ploughing - when I was young, in the classroom, later in the field, and now in the barracks. Harrowing, I will continue.
Yes, in the rice fields of time, we leave the poems of raking and ploughing; On the field of hope, we plough for the spring of national rejuvenation.
Rake ploughing, poetic and picturesque, such as singing and dancing. The poem is a hymn to the hard-working, and the painting is an ink painting of a rural boy who works selflessly; The song is a high-pitched and agitated song of endeavor, and the dance is a break dance to fight against fate.
Rake cultivation is a kind of spirit, a kind of resolute struggle in the face of doom and difficulties, indomitable, and always maintain a progressive heart and a strength that is not afraid of hardship, not afraid of difficulties, and not admitting defeat.
Let's join hands and work together to cultivate life!
[Wu Zhenghua].
Note: Authorized to publish, this article has been selected and included in the "Chang'an Street Reading Club" theoretical learning platform (People's **, People's Political Consultative Conference Daily, Beijing**, Xinhuanet, Central**, National Party Media Information Public Platform, Horizon, Beijing Time, Surging Government Affairs, Phoenix News Client "Chang'an Street Reading Club" column synchronization), * must be uniformly marked "Chang'an Street Reading Club" theoretical learning platform source and author.
Editor-in-charge: Liu Xingyue；Preliminary review: Cheng Ziqian, Chen Jiani; Re-examiner: Li Yufan.
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