If all the people who live with you leave, your home will become a no-man's land again, and you will be alone except the sheep. Are you willing to stick to it?
I don't know what your answer is, but the old man Wei Deyou told us his answer with more than half a century's persistence: I do!
In order to make this promise, the patrol road he took was equivalent to five times around the equator of the earth.
one
At six o'clock in the morning, Tacheng, Xinjiang, is located on the Salbulak grassland on the border. Before the morning light woke up the sleeping earth, Wei Deyou opened his eyes and turned on the light in the dark. Being old and afraid of the cold, Wei Deyou put on two pairs of trousers, although it was still warm in early autumn. After a simple wash, breakfast is even simpler: the naan I bought two days ago is a little dry and hard, and my trembling teeth can't overcome it. I broke it into pieces and threw it into a bowl, and poured a bowl of boiled water that my wife had just cooked. The dry naan quickly softened, just right for the 80-year-old man.
On the table at the door is the radio, kettle and telescope that he has brought for a long time. Wei Deyou hung them around his neck in turn and put on a faded hat. The early morning sunshine has been sprinkled on the grassland and the sheep have woken up.
Who would have thought that an 80-year-old man's legs and feet were quite neat! Three steps went to the front of the sheepfold, opened the door of the sheepfold, and the sheep rushed out and grazed along the fence.
In fact, since the second daughter, Wei Ping, went back to the old man and took the sheep whip, Wei Deyou seldom went out to herd sheep. On this day, Wei Ping has something to go out. Like every day for the past 50 years, Wei Deyou has been herding sheep and patrolling the border.
two
How did time turn a young man into an old man today?
The sheep graze leisurely, and Wei Deyou's mind echoes the voice he promised to the organization when he retired from the army: Go to Xinjiang, listen to the party's command, guard and build the frontier, and I won't leave no matter how hard it is!
Imposition photo: The picture on the left shows the photo of Wei Deyou when he joined the army when he was young; The picture on the right shows Wei Deyou herding sheep (data photo). Xinhua News Agency
That's 1964. The army mobilized demobilized soldiers to graze and guard the border in no man's land. I don't have time to go home and say goodbye to my parents, or even meet my fiancee I've never met. Wei Deyou and 1 17 comrades from different units set foot on the westbound train, and then moved to the border, becoming an employee of the 2nd Division of the Corps/Company 2 of the Kloc-0/2 Regiment. After the establishment of the ninth division, the Corps was attached to the ninth division 16 1 regiment.
It's really desolate. There is blood and weeds everywhere! Let's live in an empty house where herders are idle. The door frame is really short, so you have to meet each other when you go in and out of the house. It's about to collapse. Fortunately, a group of young men have enough strength to dig their own nests. In 3354, they dug a big hole in the ground, put wood on it, built a reed mat, pressed a layer of soil, and hung two broken sacks at the door. This is where people live.
Looking into the distance, Wei Deyou seems to be looking for the tomb of Comrade Chen Xiucang. He has only been here for half a year. Chen Xiucang was attacked by wolves while grazing and bitten by rabies. After 70 days of rescue, everyone still failed to save their lives. Chen Xiucang is not only a comrade in arms, but also a fellow villager. During the wake, Wei Deyou assured his comrades: Don't worry, I will watch you!
Wei Deyou didn't break his word.
He still remembers the biting cold of the steel gun against his cheek. 1969, Wei Deyou joined the Iron Bull Team (Armed Militia Team). At that time, grazing was the most tense and dangerous work in the frontier struggle. Wei Deyou volunteered to be the leader of the cattle and moved from Erlian to Salbulak, which is closer to the border.
Slowly, this desolate no-man's land became lively, the planted trees grew taller, the grape trellis became cold, and the fruits and vegetables were fragrant.
three
198 1 year, the second company merged, all employees were diverted to other companies, and Salbulak became a no-man's land again.
Going? Or stay? Wei Deyou thought it over.
Go, life will be more comfortable, but what about the border? Such a long border has no border facilities, and the border guards six kilometers away are understaffed. Salbulak is very low, so there is nothing that the border guards can't do.
But staying, the hardships of life can be imagined. But my promise is ringing in my ears: "I won't go no matter how hard I suffer!" " "
In the end, a dozen families chose to stay, others were near the company headquarters, and only Wei Deyou stayed in Sarbulak. Later, other families moved into the city because of retirement.
At that time, Bai Song, the commander of the border defense company in the jurisdiction, handed the telescope to Wei Deyou: "You have experience in guarding the border. Would you please be our border guard? " At first, I stayed to keep my advantage. Why not? Wei Deyou didn't expect it to be so difficult to stay.
At first, the company's cattle were still there, and Wei Deyou was still in charge of herding cattle. 1984 It snowed continuously before the Spring Festival, and cows had no grass to eat. On New Year's Day, Wei Deyou drove the cattle to the mountains, and it took four days to get there. It was cold and hungry all the way, and nearly half of the cattle were lost. That autumn, the company sold all the cows, leaving only three cows and twenty sheep in Wei Deyou. By 1988, under the careful care of Wei Deyou, the number of sheep had grown to more than 100, and Wei Deyou was forced to help the border guards raise nearly 200 sheep.
Once, it was so dark in the snow that Wei Deyou couldn't see the road ahead. It's getting dark, but he still can't find his way home. Sweaty clothes are covered with snow and frozen, as if covered with a hard shell, which rustles when they move. His footsteps are getting heavier and heavier, and he is exhausted.
"If I can't go back today, do I have any regrets? I have been grazing and guarding the border all my life and kept my vows. But what about his wife? " Wei Deyou began to unconsciously look back on his life in the contest with snow. At this time, he saw the faint light, quickly took out an emergency flashlight and flashed in the direction of the light. The patrolling border guards found him and took him home. It was midnight.
Liu's wife waited nervously at home for half a night. She wants to go out and look for it, but she doesn't know which direction to go. She lingered in the yard for a long time. When she heard the sound of Wei Deyou coming back, she was welcomed by her. All her complaints were on her lips, but she looked at him shivering with cold and said nothing. My wife turned and silently burned a pot of hot water, and she secretly cried.
In spring and autumn, herders returned to Salbulak to graze. In order to enrich aquatic plants, sheep always like to go to the border. Every time I see them, Wei Deyou will come forward to persuade them: "There is no small matter at the border. If you accidentally cross the border and are found, the consequences may be serious. "
p & gt
/kloc-one morning in 0/992, Wei Deyou got up early as usual, preparing to patrol the border with his sheep. But I saw the door of the sheepfold wide open, and I couldn't hear the sheep barking.
Wei Deyou panicked and called out to his wife. Both of them "bang" in their heads: if something happens to this sheep, the livelihood of the family will be ruined, not to mention the sheep in the border defense company! They walked along the path all the way to the mountains, and all the way were horrible dead sheep-killed by wolves. They dried their tears and kept looking until they found the rest of the sheep in the canyon. Counting, more than half of them died.
"Old wei, I've been with you for almost 30 years, except at first, haven't complained again? But now this situation, how to live! Take my advice, shall we move? " Liu Jing cried and pleaded.
However, Wei Deyou's eyes were red and his anger came up: "The more this shows the importance of guarding the border, I will always stay here!"
After so many years, Liu Jing knew Lao Wei's temper. Hearing this, he knew that he couldn't persuade him any more, so he had to stop talking and start quietly cleaning up while crying. Wei Deyou drove the rest of the sheep out of the door again. He is going to report to the border defense company and slowly repay these losses-it took ten years to pay them off.
The noon news began to play on the radio, and Wei Deyou recovered from his memories and stroked his old friend, the sheep who went out early and came home late. Radio used to be the only way for the couple to know the outside world. Sometimes the radio gets wet by rain and snow, and the "chatterbox" becomes dumb; Sometimes in an emergency, I don't know when the radio in my pocket will be thrown out. Wei Deyou bought several radios at a time and kept them all the time. In the past 50 years, more than 50 radios have worn out.
four
"Liu Jing called!" The old man heard a loud voice and picked up the phone. It was his wife who told him to go home for dinner.
On the way home, the girl with two long braids appeared in my mind again. Wei Deyou couldn't help raising her mouth: This is what my wife looked like when she first met.
1967, Wei Deyou returned to his hometown in Shandong from Xinjiang for the first time to visit relatives and prepare to get married. When I got home, I met my fiancee for the first time. She has long braids and big eyes. She is a smart person, and she can speak again. She is also a capable girl in front of the captain of the production team. Wei Deyou was very happy.
"I must go to Xinjiang after I get married. Will you? " Wei Deyou is worried that the girl won't agree.
"Is Xinjiang good?" Liu Ye didn't wriggle.
"I feel very good! Pay every month, life is better than home! " Obviously, Wei Deyou only chooses the good ones.
After the simple wedding, Liu He carried a red wooden box with luggage and got on the train all the way west, becoming more and more desolate. When I arrived in Urumqi, I changed buses. When we arrived in Tacheng, there was no car at all. In July, it rained all the way More than 40 kilometers from Tacheng to Erlian are all boiling roads, and the car can't move at all. After a night, I left the box at the home of my comrades in Tacheng. They put on ponchos and began to walk. The muddy road was deep and shallow, and Liu dragged his skirts until dark.
From a distance, I can't see anything except some small clods. Hearing the noise, everyone ran out to see Wei Deyou's wife. "There is no house. Where did everyone come from? " Liu looked at a group of people who seemed to emerge from the ground. With a question mark on her face, Wei Deyou just smiled and told her what it meant to be a flick of a finger.
Liu landed on his waist and walked into the low, leaky ground, suddenly stunned: a bed, a lantern and an earthen stove, where he could turn around was less than two square meters. Liu, who worked hard all day, lost sleep this night. The buzzing mosquitoes and gadflies bit her all over, and she even had a stomachache after drinking water.
The next morning, Wei Deyou went out to work, and Liu Jing thought about it and prepared to go back to his hometown. "Go back and continue to be the production captain and do my job!" I packed a few carry-on clothes, tied them into a bundle, hung them on my shoulders, and went out.
When Wei Deyou got home, he found no one there. When he asked his neighbor, he knew that Liu Jing had left with a bag on his back. He began to chase for more than a kilometer until he caught up with Hongqiao. Liu Jing sat on the bridge and began to cry. "You run in the opposite direction. You have to run to Eighty White Bridge to get to Tacheng! " Wei Deyou was teased by his wife. After laughing, he continued to persuade: "Well, you should come back with me first. I promise the troops that I will do well. I will work hard for two or three years. When I am not needed here, I will go back to my hometown together! "
Unexpectedly, this promise was not fulfilled until fifty years later. Mr. and Mrs. Wei Deyou have been living a life of "the end of the road, grazing and patrolling the border". "We can't leave at the same time, and we have to leave one person to guard the border." Since then, his family has become a "husband and wife post without changing the guard." It was not until 20 17 that the daughter Wei Ping returned to the grassland and took the sheep whip from her father, and the old couple returned to their hometown together for the first time.
five
Before I entered the door, I heard voices coming from the yard. The girl with long braids has turned into a white-haired old woman. What hasn't changed is her agility at work. Liu is busy, cutting watermelons and wrapping jiaozi. Several soldiers in camouflage followed up and asked for help, but Liu gave them a chance! It turned out that the soldiers who were about to retire from the border defense company came to say goodbye to the old couple.
Yes, the border defense company has been stationed here since July 1964, and has changed 23 instructors and 24 company commanders. Only old Shu Wei has been here, and everyone says that he is an iron mobile soldier in Shu Wei.
Because all the year round, the soldiers of the frontier defense company take Wei Deyou's home as a resting place when patrolling. Wei Deyou has never asked for border protection subsidies. Later, the state had a policy to give him the salary of linesman, and he resolutely refused. "I have a retirement salary, why do I need two copies?"
Nothing can help Wei Deyou at ordinary times. 1992, before leaving the army, a group of soldiers saw that Wei Deyou's half-ground nest was really shabby, so they helped him build several adobe houses. Until now, the old couple still live here.
In the past 50 years, Wei Deyou has persuaded and stopped more than 10000 key personnel and intercepted more than10000 key livestock. There has never been a foreign-related incident in the area he patrols. To this day, the soldiers of the frontier defense company also said that they were relieved to be guarded by old Shu Wei.
But behind this trust is Wei Deyou's guilt for his family.
The old couple can't live without Solbrak. Children have to live on campus or rent a house, big and small. When Wei Ping was seven years old, she took her sister and her brother and sister to rent a house together, and she could only go home during the winter and summer vacations. Wei Deyou remembers one winter vacation, when it snowed heavily and communication was inconvenient. He doesn't know when the children will come back, nor can he leave the sheep to pick them up. One day, Wei Deyou came back from a trip and saw several children shivering in the house. Seeing his parents, Wei Ping couldn't help crying: "The snow on the road is too deep for us to walk." Wei Deyou lovingly picked up her daughter and asked her wife to burn the stove more brightly. His heart is crying.
In order to guard the border, Wei Deyou only met his mother once in more than 50 years. His father was sent to Sarbulak in 1979 to help look after the children, and the children returned to their hometown when they grew up. Later, my parents died one after another, and it has been several months since I received the news. The snow closed the mountain, so Wei Deyou could only send back "filial piety money". He didn't say anything, but Liu Jing knew how sad he was-"After receiving the news, he couldn't sleep for several nights."
Imposition photo: The picture on the left shows Wei Deyou resting while patrolling; The picture on the right shows the boundary pillar (data photo). Xinhua News Agency
In 2003, boundary markers and fences were officially put into use. He stroked the boundary pillar of China, tears streaming down his face. "I am very excited to witness this solemn moment after so many years."
With border facilities, mom and dad should be relieved, right? Wei Ping bought a house in the group farm for his parents' pension, but the old couple didn't live in it for a day. Wei Deyou said it was his job and duty to graze and guard the border. Once you get used to it, you will continue to do it.
six
On June 29th this year, Wei Deyou was awarded the "July 1st Medal" in the Golden Hall of the Great Hall of the People. When he returned to the hotel, he held his wife's hand and said, "This is an honor and a blessing! I have had a great life in this life! "
But Wei Deyou's heart is uneasy: Is what he has done all his life worthy of this shining medal? Compared with those revolutionary ancestors who shed their blood, those scientists, soldiers and heroic models from all walks of life, what they did was too ordinary.
Someone asked, why can Wei Deyou insist on guarding the border for more than 50 years?
For profit? He has refused to receive the salary of the border guards until now, and still lives in a dilapidated earthen house. Tap water was not used until 20 16, and electricity was not used until 20 18. Two old men with silver hair are still trying to make a living.
What's that for? Wei Deyou said: "I'm just doing what party member should do." Wei Deyou adheres to a spirit and belief!
When the sun goes down, we will leave Salbulak. Looking back, there was a light in the earthen house, and Wei Deyou was washing his wife's feet-the only way he could make up for her for many years.
By the light, we saw the five-star red flag fluttering in the wind on the flagpole at the door.
People's Daily (20th edition, 202 1, 10, 13) Yang, original title: Perseverance.
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