Why on earth did a special army, 8,000 Hunan women in New China, go to Tianshan Mountain?

A Special Army: Why on earth did 8,000 Hunan women in New China go to Tianshan Mountain?

Over the years, what people have heard most is that these young female soldiers came to Xinjiang with lofty ideals, which they never dreamed of, mainly to solve the marriage problems of officers and men stationed in Xinjiang. But I can't find such a thing in any chronicle, even the chronicle of the group farm.

1950 in February, Mao Zedong ordered the troops stationed in Xinjiang to keep combat weapons and take up arms for production and construction. This order declared the end of the war, realized the dream of turning swords into plowshares, and decided the fate of the troops stationed in Xinjiang.

The turning point of history really began, and the years of blood and fire finally ended. Some people who miss the heroic years feel lost, while others who yearn for peaceful times feel happy. However, obeying orders is the first duty of a soldier. No matter what kind of mood, except for retaining a national defense division, other troops are holding guns in one hand and shovels in the other, and quickly marching into a new battlefield that is hostile to heaven and earth.

There are three mountains in Xinjiang, Kunlun Mountain in the south, Tianshan Mountain in the middle and Altai Mountain in the north. South of Tianshan Mountain, commonly known as South Xinjiang; North of Tianshan Mountain, commonly known as Northern Xinjiang. Surrounded by three mountains, there are two huge basins, the Tarim Basin in southern Xinjiang and the vast Taklimakan Desert at the bottom of the basin. Northern Xinjiang is Junggar Basin, and the steep Gurbantunggut Desert is at the bottom of the basin. The quicksand buried thirty-six countries in the western regions and covered countless once famous commercial ports. Many ancient cities are half hidden in the long yellow sand, leaving only a few walls and a wall that makes future generations daydream. Even the Silk Road, which once flourished in countless dynasties, ended in ruins and there was no trace of people. Even the Tarim River, the longest inland river in China with a length of more than 2,700 kilometers, disappeared silently in the Taklimakan desert. The Manas River, listed as one of the four major irrigation areas in China, disappeared like a cloud when it approached the Gurbantunggut Desert.

In fact, this is a more arduous and protracted battle. It can be said that it is no less than any of the three major battles. Because they reclaimed barren land, Gobi desert and alkaline swamp. For thousands of years, few people dreamed of growing food from those places.

The troops stationed in Xinjiang immediately changed their style of work. For a time, the battle map became a production map, the artillery sight became a checkpoint, the war horse became a plow horse, and the stirrup became a plow. The whole army attacked the two deserts with the trend of swallowing mountains and rivers.

The TV drama team of the Second Military Region swooped down on the Tarim Basin, starting from Milan in the east, reaching Kashgar in the west, Qiemo and Hotan in the south, and reaching the southern foot of Tianshan Mountain in the north, forming a great encirclement of the Tarim Basin on a long front. The Sixth Army and the Twenty-second Army established battlefields around Junggar Basin and Yili and Turpan-Hami Basins.

At that time, most of the soldiers in China were farmers in military uniforms. Many of them took part in the revolution only for the land and to support themselves. Who hasn't done land reclamation?

But the changeable climate, terrible storms, deadly heat and cold, desertification and salinization of the land itself are all things they have never encountered. But the soldiers are not afraid of this. What they are afraid of is another kind of inner desire, which comes from the instinct of life. It is stronger than any enemy, enough to destroy itself: women and reproduction.

In the war years, life and death are impermanent; Our soldiers failed to get married. But Jiangshan was defeated, and we still fought all the way to Xinjiang. Well, now that Xinjiang is liberated, let's go home, get married and have children. It's not too much. Let's open up wasteland and farm here, but you can't let us farm here all our lives and end up single. An old army reclamation soldier said this.

Due to the war, there were 300,000 Han talents in Xinjiang at the time of liberation. In order to respect the customs and habits of ethnic minorities, the army clearly stipulates that Han soldiers are not allowed to marry ethnic minority women. Therefore, a very urgent problem is in front of decision-maker Rainbow Haining.

General Wang Zhen knew that when the battle was over, the officers and men wanted to go home and live a quiet life, so that they wouldn't go back to their hometown or farm the land here. In the end, even if you can't get a wife, your morale will not be stable. As far as he is concerned, in the northern part of the desert Gobi, the soldiers who risked their lives to fight with him suffered and suffered. Finally, I was homeless and had no room to live, and I felt very guilty. He felt sorry, too.

General Wang Zhen naturally knew that the newly born new China practiced the policies of women's liberation, gender equality and marital autonomy. However, for the long-term stability of this vast territory, he had to adopt the policy that has been implemented in previous dynasties, that is, relying on wasteland to guard the border. The only way to change the situation from the Han Dynasty to the last years of the previous generation is to let the settlers take root here and make it their home for generations. However, the Han population in Xinjiang at that time could not solve the marriage problem of 200,000 officers and men stationed in Xinjiang. There is a simple reason. Only one man and one woman can form a family, only one family can have children, and only one child can say that it is rooted in the frontier and finally realize the strategic goal of opening up wasteland and defending the frontier.

Therefore, he took the recruitment of female soldiers as an important task and soon began to implement it. The first person he called was a Hunan female soldier. From May 1 to May 2 10, more than 8,000 girls embarked on a long, distant, dangerous and dreamy journey to the west.

Over the years, what people have heard most is that these young female soldiers came to Xinjiang with lofty ideals, which they never dreamed of, mainly to solve the marriage problems of officers and men stationed in Xinjiang. But I can't find such a thing in any chronicle, even the chronicle of the group farm. In the twelve thick, large-format, luxurious and hardcover chronicles of divisions and regiments I collected, except for the names, ages, places of origin and enlistment time of 70 female soldiers listed in the table of Hunan female soldiers entering Xinjiang in the Records of the Tenth Division of Agriculture, most of the chronicles only contain such words as year and how many female soldiers our division has come to Hunan. Everything behind this sentence has been erased.

Many people have no news. Except for some relatives, few people know where they have gone. They seem to have mysteriously disappeared; In other words, the fleeting time has completely erased their traces.

Many people have only heard of it.

I am sure that even if all this is a legend, its value will not change.

In fact, when we go back to history, we will know that when King Jiangdu's daughter, a weak gentleman, was made a princess by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, she bid farewell to Chang 'an more than 2,000 years ago and told Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that there was peace in the world. Although her son died without complaint, the stability and consolidation of the western regions were all related to women.

On the occasion of his departure, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty presented Xijun with a pipa, saying, "Be happy immediately and comfort the homesickness." Jun Xi took the pipa and set foot on the westbound road of Wan Li. Later, she used this pipa to play and sing a unique song of bitterness and homesickness-Song of Huang Qi. She sang sadly, "It hurts my heart to stay in Changtu, because the oriole wants to go back to his hometown."

Because the western army is weak, it is not used to living in a different place and cannot speak. Plus, she is homesick, sad, lonely and terminally ill. After five years in Wusun, he died in a foreign land.

After the death of Princess Xijun, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, at the request of Wusun, betrothed the granddaughter of Liu Shu, the king of Chu, to Wusun, the later mother of Wusun, Princess You Jie. Princess You Jie is optimistic and cheerful. After trudging all the way from Wan Li to Wusun, she quickly adapted to grassland life. She lived in Wusun for fifty years. According to the custom of Wusun, she married the kings of Wusun, Xu Mi, Weng Guimi and Mu Demi. Living with Weng Guimi for more than 30 years, he helped Weng Guimi manage Wusun, making Wusun the most powerful kingdom in the western regions. In 70 BC, Weng Guimi sent 50,000 fighters and150,000 troops from the Western Han Dynasty to attack the Huns and won a great victory. Since then, the Huns have been devastated in the Western Regions. At the same time, in order to expand the influence of the Western Han Dynasty and Wusun Alliance in the Western Regions, she also sent Feng Chihan, a confidant assistant and talented woman, as the princess's special envoy to reward all countries and make the Han Dynasty sound and powerful.

Later, Yuan Guimi, the eldest son of the princess, inherited his father's career and became a grandson. His son was king of Sharjah for 20,000 years. The son's three happy events became General Wu Sunzuo; Eldest brother Shi married King Qiuci; My daughter Su Guang is the wife of Wuhou. They not only obeyed the instructions of the worried princess, but also maintained the relationship between the Han Dynasty and Wusun, which laid the foundation for Wusun to stand in Yili for more than 500 years.

Chasing Han Jing and stealing Ma Si. I can't imagine how the Western Army and You Jie trudged on the ancient road in Wan Li. Now, I can only feel as touching poems as hot-blooded men from their successful or failed foreign lives.

It is along their footprints that more than two thousand years later, a large number of female soldiers came to the north and south of Tianshan Mountain.

General Zhang Mingru, winner of the Medal of Independence and former deputy political commissar of the Xinjiang Military Region, disclosed in the book "Rooting 200,000 Xinjiang officers and men of the China People's Liberation Army":

On the way to Xinjiang, there are more than 1000 female intellectuals among the more than 10000 newly recruited educated youths in Shaanxi and Gansu. 1950 A group of female students came from Sichuan. 195 1 A group of female medical workers were transferred from East China Military Region. 195 1 year, more than 3,000 young female intellectuals were recruited from Hunan. Then, groups of young women came from Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and other cities, and many graduates from military and local colleges and universities came to Xinjiang voluntarily. From 1952 to 1954, a large number of young women were mobilized in the old Shandong area. According to incomplete statistics, the annual numbers of women in military regions are 1949, 1 127, 1950, 1298,195/kloc-0 and 3862 respectively.

This is what I saw in a summary of women's work in the first half of 2008 by the Political Department of the Sixth Division and the Sixteenth Regiment. It said that female soldiers were generally afraid of marrying older cadres and decided not to act according to the marriage law for fear of going against their wishes.

A white-haired female soldier said to me, I advise you to have another glass of wine. No one has any reason to leave the sunshine in the west. The desolation and desolation outside the sun make it synonymous with a distant foreign land for thousands of years. But we female soldiers are not afraid of this. What we fear most is marriage. But our sacrifice is worth it. We exchanged self-sacrifice for a new Xinjiang.

Hunan female soldiers are a special team in Xinjiang border defense forces. Since they came here, they began to talk about their joys and sorrows, their ideals and pursuits, their glory and dreams in this vast wasteland. They did everything men did, and many of them sacrificed their youth and love. If only love can overcome everything and only love can keep time, then their survival at the expense of love will be more difficult and confused than others. But they overcame all this with the tenacity of human beings, wives and mothers.

This really shook my heart. I know that in this distant land, no one has made more sacrifices than these female soldiers.

They are worthy of being the first generation mothers in Xinjiang wasteland.

They not only gave birth to future generations, but also gave birth to broader things: love, tolerance, righteousness and perseverance.

Excerpted from "Eight Thousand Hunan Women Go to Tianshan Mountain"