"Walking across that little river, have you ever heard of a girl who once came and walked through this reed slope ......This song has been popular all over the country, and its beautiful melody has attracted countless people to sing it to each other.
However, there is such a family, but this song is considered taboo. Despite the passage of time, the song is still an unspeakable pain in their hearts. Because this family is the biological flesh and blood of "this girl".
In 1987, at the age of 23, Xu Xiujuan gave her life in the Yancheng Nature Reserve, and a few years later, her brother and niece embarked on the same path.
The story of Xu Xiujuan and the red-crowned crane is touching, and she and her family have lost two children to protect the red-crowned crane. But their persistence and persistence continue.
In the summer marshland, dozens of red-crowned cranes can be seen dancing under the command of the crane keeper, passing through the air like a scene of heavy snow. This scene is moving, and it also makes us more aware of the importance of protecting the ecological environment.
In the past, red-crowned cranes could often be seen in the sky of the Zhalong wetland in Heilongjiang, but by 1975, this beautiful sight no longer existed, and the number of red-crowned cranes was only 140, making it an endangered rare animal.
The state attaches great importance to this and immediately took action to establish the Zhalong Nature Reserve, hoping to protect these precious creatures. However, the reserve's staff found that despite their best efforts to protect them, the red-crowned cranes were still very sensitive and inaccessible.
At this critical moment, the staff met a fisherman named Xu Tielin. Not only is he stunning, but he also has a deep affection for red-crowned cranes, having rescued them many times.
Xu Tielin's presence has provided valuable support to the staff of the reserve. With his unique skills and deep affection, he successfully entered the hearts of red-crowned cranes and became their friends.
With his help, the staff of the reserve have succeeded in protecting the red-crowned cranes, allowing them to increase their numbers.
In order to protect the precious red-crowned crane, Xu Tielin refused the ** given by the Japanese to buy a domestic car. "We need to be firm in our beliefs and not be distracted by others," he said. ”
Subsequently, he accepted the job of raising cranes and began the arduous business venture. He converted his adobe house into a studio, and spent his days in and out of 2,100 square kilometers of swamps.
After continuous efforts, he successfully found the best way to survive the red-crowned crane - "artificial incubation + wild free-range".
Xu Tielin's home studio is located in his home, which allows his wife and children to spend time with the red-crowned crane every day. In particular, his daughter, Xu Xiujuan, sees red-crowned cranes as her companions, and when her father is busy with work, she learns to hatch and feed the chicks herself.
At the age of 17, due to the closure of Xu Xiujuan's high school, she planned to follow in her father's footsteps. However, Xu Tielin's distress for her made her unable to agree with her decision.
Raising cranes is very hard, requiring constant feeding, diving, taming, care, and soaking in damp swamps all day. Xu Tielin couldn't bear to let his daughter suffer what he had experienced again, so he resolutely opposed her decision.
Xu Xiujuan is a young girl who loves red-crowned cranes, and her father did not approve of her raising cranes at first, but she did not back down because of this, but devoted herself to the cause of crane farming.
Surprisingly, she has an unexpected talent for red-crowned crane breeding and breeding techniques. Not only has she mastered the domestication, grazing and breeding techniques of red-crowned cranes, but she can also keep red-crowned cranes in captivity on her own, and the survival rate of the young cranes raised by her is as high as 100%, which is an achievement that others cannot match.
Xu Xiujuan liked red-crowned cranes so much that she gave each crane a name and taught them to dance. As a result, each crane was able to dance under her command, showing an intimate relationship with humans.
Xu Xiujuan's story has touched countless people, not only as a report in a magazine, but also as a concern for many leaders and foreigners such as the president of the International Crane Association.
Despite her many achievements, she never forgot the red-crowned crane that struggled with its legs and looked at her helplessly. She was deeply saddened by the crane's death, and she realized that although she had practical experience, she needed more systematic learning to cure the red-crowned crane's disease.
However, Xu Xiujuan did not give up, and when her deeds aroused the curiosity of several professors of Northeast Forestry University, they quickly came to the Zhalong Nature Reserve to investigate and invited Xu Xiujuan to study.
Despite the lack of support from the staff of the reserve and the financial conditions of her family, Xu Xiujuan still decided to overcome all difficulties and took the 1,000 yuan borrowed by her parents and embarked on the road to Northeast Forestry University.
Xu Xiujuan's heart is full of determination, and she looks forward to using her knowledge to rescue those cranes after returning from her studies. However, the university course was extremely difficult for her.
Although she only has a high school education level, she learns with great enthusiasm and memorizes the content of each lesson nervously, for fear of missing any bit of knowledge.
In life, she lives with a very high spirit of frugality, even though the school has reduced half of her tuition fees, she still only eats steamed buns and pickles every day, and even in order to pay the tuition fees, she has also donated blood four times.
In order to save money, she decided to compress the two-year course into one and a half years to complete. This means that her daily study tasks are heavier. She was determined to get herself up at four o'clock every day and rest at eleven o'clock at night.
In order to surpass others, she must put in a hundredfold effort. Luckily, her hard work paid off, and she managed to finish her studies ahead of schedule and get excellent grades in every course in her final exams.
Xu Xiujuan held her graduation certificate with tears in her eyes, because she could finally say goodbye to the past, and she was no longer the little girl who could only tame cranes with experience. At this time, she received a letter from the Yancheng Nature Reserve in Jiangsu Province, inviting her to start a new business there.
Yancheng is an important wintering ground for red-crowned cranes, and no crane has ever bred here before. If she succeeds in breeding the cranes in Yancheng, it will be a major step forward in the conservation of the cranes, greatly increasing the number of them.
But none of her family supported it. After all, when a girl goes to a foreign country alone, it always makes people worry about her, not to mention that she is still going to a nature reserve with difficult conditions.
However, the red-crowned crane is a deep concern of the Xu family. In the end, they agreed to Xu Xiujuan going south and becoming a member of the Yancheng Reserve. On the day of departure, Xu Xiujuan only brought three crane eggs and gave them to Yancheng as a meeting gift.
With a deep love for crane eggs, she traveled thousands of miles, carrying heating bags, thermometers, artificial leather bags, absorbent cotton and other tools, just to ensure the hatching temperature of the crane eggs.
As soon as the boiling water on the train stopped, she clung the crane eggs to her body, and it took 3 days and 3 nights to finally reach her destination. The conditions in the Yancheng Reserve were difficult, but Xu Xiujuan immediately went to work as soon as she arrived, became the first director of the Yancheng Crane Farm, and began to clean up weeds, build a fire kang, and prepare the brooding room.
In the face of desolation, many colleagues retreated, and some even persuaded her to leave. But she said firmly: "I can sacrifice everything, including money, family, status and everything I deserve, even life, but I don't believe women can't have a career." ”
In the midst of the reeds, the crane's firmness and perseverance are touching. Over the next 32 days, she successfully hatched three baby cranes, which not only solved the world's problem of crane breeding in the wintering grounds for the first time, but also showed her maternal love and wisdom.
The three cranes were born unusually strong, flying earlier than the normal cycle, surpassing even the results of the most advanced incubators in the United States. Xu Xiujuan named them Longlong, Dandan and Sasha, and these names carry her expectations and love for Xiaohe.
Long Long, Dandan and Sasha became the sparks that ignited the life of the Yancheng Reserve, symbolizing hope and tenacity.
In 1987, Xu Xiujuan returned to her hometown to visit relatives, and in order to enrich the rare animal varieties in the Yancheng Reserve, she decided to go to Inner Mongolia to adopt two swans: Liming and Muren.
However, when she returned to Yancheng with great anticipation, she faced a heavy blow. Dandan unfortunately touched the net and died, Xu Xiujuan had not recovered from her grief, and Long Long left her due to his injuries.
Xu Xiujuan was devastated by these sudden blows, but she still maintained her strong spirit and continued to devote herself to animal protection work. However, fate is always full of challenges.
When Dawn and Muren were playing in the pond, they accidentally broke free from the rope and flew away. After Xu Xiujuan learned the news, she desperately searched the river and found Muren until late at night.
The next morning, she didn't have time to eat and rode her bicycle to find Dawn. This encounter made her more determined to protect animals, and she wants to use her actions to protect these precious lives.
Xu Xiujuan's life came to an end at the age of 23, she was a crane guard in Yancheng, because of the fatigue and sadness of the day, the physical strength was exhausted. Colleagues advised her to go back to rest, but she insisted on going to the river.
Eventually, they found her body in the swamp, but the red-crowned crane she was guarding was still there. Her departure made tens of millions of people cry bitterly, and Qiqihar's family was even more heartbroken.
Xu Tielin, her father, was determined to protect the red-crowned crane, but he didn't expect to exchange his life for his daughter's departure in the end. Now, he is approaching the age of six, but he still can't let go of those cranes in his heart.
He pinned his hopes on his son, Xu Jianfeng, who had just transferred from the army, hoping that he could inherit his father's career and continue to protect those beautiful red-crowned cranes. The rewritten copy still retains the original core idea, that is, Xu Xiujuan's life paid to protect the red-crowned crane, and her family's and the public's mourning for her.
At the same time, the new copy also added some details, such as Xu Tielin's inner struggle and hope sustenance, as well as Xu Jianfeng's role change.
Xu Jianfeng inherited the family's business of protecting red-crowned cranes, and under his careful care, red-crowned cranes got a good living environment.
Although he did not receive a systematic education like his sister, his love for cranes and solid work attitude enabled him to achieve outstanding results in his work, so he was appointed deputy director of the Crane Breeding Center in the reserve.
He gets tanned every summer because of his bare neck, which makes his young daughter often call him "roast suckling pig" with a smile.
Although Xu Jianfeng's daughter had many difficulties, he persevered for 18 years. If the accident hadn't happened, he might have been able to continue working for decades.
During a routine inspection of the wetlands that spring, he found a crane nest hatching chicks and eggs, and feared that the reeds would catch fire and cause damage to the chicks and eggs, so he dived into the nesting area late at night to guard them and did not leave all night.
It wasn't until the next morning that he was ready to return to the studio. However, on the way back, due to long exertion, his motorcycle lost control and fell into the swamp, and he unfortunately died unexpectedly at the age of 47.
The sky of Xu Jianfeng's family suddenly collapsed, and in just 27 years, they lost two children who guarded red-crowned cranes. Xu Tielin didn't understand whether this was an accident or fate.
Since then, the word Zhalong has become sensitive in front of the Xu family, and the red-crowned crane has also become an animal that they are both concerned about and moved. However, at this time, Xu Zhuo (Xu Jianfeng's daughter), the third generation of the Xu family, made a decision that shocked the whole family.
On the day of her father's unexpected death, she was studying horticulture at Northeast Agricultural University, with excellent grades and was about to be guaranteed research. She couldn't accept the bad news, and was overwhelmed with griefHowever, she also wanted to go to the place where her father had struggled and follow in his footsteps.
She privately applied to the school to transfer to the wildlife department of Northeast Forestry University, where her aunt Xu Xiujuan once studied, hoping to complete her studies there.
When Xu Zhuo returned from school, her grandparents were ten thousand unwilling, and they couldn't bear the tricks of fate again;Her mother is also very worried, she would rather her daughter have an ordinary life, as long as she is healthy and safe.
But Xu Zhuo insisted: "Only in Zhalong can I find inner peace." Walking on the road that grandpa, aunt, and dad used to walk every day, you can still feel their temperature, as if they never left. ”
Xu Zhuo took over the baton of the crane keeper and adhered to the promise of the Xu family. Today, the number of red-crowned cranes in the Zhalong Nature Reserve has exceeded the 800 mark. Every spring, they will return from Yancheng, and Grandma Xu Zhuo always feels that her daughter Xu Xiujuan is incarnated as one of them and flies back.
In summer, flocks of red-crowned cranes dance, their calls echoing across the vast expanse of the world, making the Zhalong wetland a bird's paradise.
In the face of the cruel reality of life, the three generations of the Xu family still stick to their mission and move forward fearlessly. They understand that heroism is not only about standing up in the face of adversity, but also about the determination to persist after recognizing the truth of life.
They carry on the legacy and shoulder the responsibility, even if the future is full of unknowns and dangers. Their stories teach us that animals are just as important and that we can't give up their lives because of ourselves, because there is always a kind of heroism in the world that chooses to persevere when faced with the true face of life.