( 2024-08-06 ) Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph
Inscription: In June 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected and presided over a symposium in Inner Mongolia, proposing to strive to fight a "three-north" project battle in about 10 years, and make every effort to fight three landmark battles, including the "bend of the Yellow River".
This reporter has repeatedly visited the Kubuqi Desert on the south bank of the Yellow River's "zizi bend" to investigate the situation of sand prevention and control in the Sanbei region on the spot, and learned a moving but little-known story from the local people.
In a place called Amenqirig, there were once four grassroots party committee secretaries, who relayed trees and planted greenery for decades, leading the Amenqirige people to regain their homeland from the "sand basin tuyere". Today, the spirit of the old secretaries inspires the cadres and masses of Amenqirig in the new era, and they are still making unremitting efforts on the front line of afforestation and desertification control.
Why can the "Three Norths" shelterbelt project be completed only under the leadership of the Communist Party of China? Why can the "Three North Spirit" be inherited and carried forward from generation to generation? On the occasion of the 103rd anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, this reporter came to Amenqirig to see the trees in Amenqirig and visit the people in Amenqirig.
You don't pay much attention to the trees of Amenqirig, the most common of which are willows, with slender branches that grow disproportionately obliquely on the thick trunk; The same common aspen, also slightly thin and thin, but standing tall to the sky, seems to be stubbornly declaring: how can the tree bow to the wind and sand?
Amenqirig, the place where the Kubuqi Desert and the Mu Us Sands used to "shake hands".
Trees, since the 60s of the 20th century, have been "breaking sand" and standing upright here...... Sixty years later, there are not only willows everywhere, but also clusters of willow and caragana emerging from gray-green artemisia.
You may not have heard of the man who made the tree "break the sand", but the old man who had endured the vicissitudes of Amenqirig is still choking up to tell his story to reporters decades later. On the side of the road at the entrance of the village, almost every villager over the age of 60 can tell you how precious the trees here are, and who led the Amenqirig people to plant trees.
Li Zhiping, Wang Zhanwen, Feng Yaohua, and Guo Jucai were the four party secretaries of the former Amenqirige Township (commune) in Hangjinqi, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia.
Since 1961, these four secretaries have led the Amenqirig people to "stumble" on the wind and sand for decades, relay trees and sow greenery, and forcibly broke the "hand" held together by the Kubuqi Desert and the Mu Us Sandy Land, and led the Amenqirig people to regain their homeland from the "sand basin outlet".
In June 2023, when General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected Inner Mongolia, he walked into the state-owned Xinhua Forest Farm in Linhe District, Bayannaoer City, learned about the construction of the "Three North" shelter forest system project, and said with emotion: "Major ecological projects such as the construction of the 'Three North' shelter forest system can only be done under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. ”
The roots are deep in the sand, and the leaves look at the sky. Trees have turned the once long yellow sand on the south bank of the Yellow River's "bend" into today's lush greenery, but the people who planted the trees - Li Zhiping, Wang Zhanwen, Feng Yaohua and Guo Jucai - have all passed away.
The tree of Amenqirig silently bears witness to their deeds. Generations of Amenqirig people remember their first and last names: "We will always remember them and miss them!" ”
(1) Leading a donkey and a stick, he walked all over Amenqirig, and he decided: to plant trees, prevent wind and fix sand
In 1961, when Li Zhiping, who was not yet 30 years old, was transferred to the post of party secretary of the Amenqirig commune, it was already one of the most desertified and impoverished areas in Hangjinqi.
"It's all sand!" Today, in all corners of the original Amenqirig - Amenqirige Village, Ulan Aobao Village, Arizaidam Village and Zhongtu Village in Sini Town, Hangjinqi, the old people will point to the farmland and grassland as far as the eye can see, and tell you that all this was a "bright sand beam" with no grass growing at that time.
Excessive land reclamation caused serious ecological damage to this land with an arid climate and adjacent to the desert, and Amenqirig, who had "bullied" the land, was soon bullied by the wind and sand, and fell into a vicious circle of "the more food is scarce, the more land is cleared, and the more desertification becomes".
The old people said that the wind was fierce back then was different from now. "It's a big sand and dust, it's dark, and you have to light it during the day."
Winter and spring are windy, and there are few people walking with their chests held up. People bowed their heads, covered their faces, squinted their eyes, and swayed forward, their faces hurt and their mouths chewed sandy.
The most terrible thing is that growing grain "can't catch seedlings". Every year for spring sowing, farmers have to plant at least three or four crops. planted a stubble and was killed by the wind and sand; Plant another crop, and then kill ...... Catching up with the bad year, planting five stubbles and "can't catch the seedlings", a spring of hard work, no harvest. In 1960, the 70,000 acres of cultivated land in Amenqirig Commune produced a total of 1 million catties of grain, and the yield per mu was only 14 catties.
In some villages, after sleeping all night, they woke up and didn't see the light of day for a long time, only to find that the quicksand had buried the house, and the family struggled to dig holes through the windows to get out of the ground, or were dug out by the villagers. According to the "Hangjin Banner Chronicle", in the sixties and seventies of the 20th century, it was common for Amenqirig to "raise the roof of the house with quicksand".
"The wind and sand are blowing yellow fog, and the more I look at it, the more I want to be alive." Li Zhiping, who led a donkey and a stick, and traveled to every corner of the commune, saw such an Amenqirig.
When he became a secretary in Amenqirig, he had to let the water and soil on this side be able to support the people of the other side - Li Zhiping, who recognized this truth, made a decision: plant trees, prevent wind and fix sand.
The old people recalled that in Amenqirig, this was the first time that someone called on everyone to plant trees.
However, there are no small doubts: it's too late to plant crops, and still plant trees? Where the ground is full of sand, can live trees be planted? People who haven't seen a few trees know how to plant them?
Today, only the Amenqirig people over the age of 70 have experienced the past when the "old secretary" led everyone to plant trees. How he persuaded everyone and what he said, no one can say clearly, but people remember that when the tall and hearty secretary mobilized the members, "Kind! It's kind! It's so kind! ”
People also remember that he walked all over the commune to look for trees, and found that almost all the only trees in Amenqirig grew next to the blisters that only had water after the rain, so he chose three brigades with many blisters in Ulan Aobao, Fenyong and Alu Chaideng to carry out the experiment, and also personally squatted in Ulan Aobao and led the members to start planting trees.
Li Zhiping's son, Li Mingming, remembers that he once went to Ulan Aobao to visit his father, who lived in a villager's house and had not seen him for a long time, but the villager told him that his father went out at four or five o'clock in the morning. "I couldn't see anything in the wind and sand that day, and the villagers all said, the wind is so strong, don't go out, he said no, planting trees can't be delayed for a day."
Li Zhiping organized the branch secretaries of each brigade to visit the commune next door in Yijin Horo Banner with experience in afforestation. After returning from the visit, the branch secretaries were all gearing up. Someone finally got back an elm sapling and planted it on the "hard beam" opposite the school to verify whether the tree could be planted alive on the arid hard beam. The results of the experiment made the branch secretaries excited: plant alive! Some trees are so solid!
In that year, it was too difficult to plant trees, not only because of the strong wind and sand, but also because of the lack of "tree planting".
"Tree planting" is a sapling, how to plant a tree without a seedling? Li Zhiping borrowed some saplings from Yiqi, and mobilized every household to ask relatives and friends for help, looking for them from other places, and finally found a batch of "tree planters". As if it weren't enough, he pushed the commune to allow members to plant a small number of "self-retained trees" in front of and behind their houses, and cut off their branches to become seedlings. He also set aside 800 acres of farmland for the current state-run Arushideng Sand Control Station (then called the "Arushideng Nursery") to raise seedlings.
"Before Secretary Li Zhiping came, no one planted trees here." Zhang Runhuan, a forestry cadre who later worked with trees all his life, is 67 years old this year, and the first tree he has ever seen in his life is an elm sapling brought back from outside by his father when he was 7 years old, in response to Li Zhiping's call. The small saplings were planted next to the old house of the Zhang family, and now, the roots are intertwined, and the stem is divided into two strands, which seems to hug together, carrying the green memory of one side of the land.
"To be honest, I don't know how much I lived to plant trees at that time, just plant! At least the common people know how to plant trees. Gao Fengyun, a 79-year-old native of Amenqirig and former chairman of the Standing Committee of the Ordos Municipal People's Congress, planted trees with Li Zhiping. He believes that what Li Zhiping brought to Amenqirig was an "enlightenment" about trees.
After several years of "tree planting enlightenment", the number of trees in Amenqirig is increasing day by day, and the enthusiasm of Amenqirig people to plant trees is also increasing day by day.
During the interview, the reporter followed Zhang Runhuan to climb the "hard beam" opposite the school and found the old elm tree that confirmed that it could also grow live trees on the arid hard beam in Amenqirig.
Even after the years when the planting of trees and sand was interrupted, the elm tree remained firmly rooted and growing.
Villagers say that in the 70s of the 20th century, a tornado – or a lightning strike – brought down the tree, but it fell and did not die. Everyone still cherishes it, and on the branches of the old elm tree, they tie strips of cloth to pray for blessings. The old elm tree, which was lying on the ground, continued to draw new branches and green leaves, and lived for another half century. It will not be until 2023 that this "evidence tree" in the history of Amenqige desertification afforestation will "pass away".
What we see in front of us is the skeleton of the old elm tree guarding the "hard beam" with a body of intertwined muscles and bones, silent, tenacious, and immortal.
(2) Amenqirig has no way out! He initiated a seven-day and seven-night discussion and decided: afforestation is the way out
The elders said in unison: Wang Zhanwen was appointed by the banner at a time when the Amenqirig people were cornered. "He was ordered to save Amenqirig's life."
It was 1970, and Amenqirige, who had left office and had been cut off from planting trees and preventing desertification, had become poorer, more difficult, and more difficult. Wang Zhanwen, 36, once served as the director of the Hangjinqi Agricultural Bureau, and the banner appointed him to Amenqirig as party secretary, hoping that he can change the face of the place with experience and ability. He came without saying a word.
Many of the trees planted by Li Zhiping and his members have been destroyed, leaving only some artemisia, a few caragana and a small number of "self-kept trees".
According to the data, at that time, there were 650,000 mu of land in Amenqirig Commune, and the desertification area reached 570,000 mu. In the past, the Kubuqi Desert and the Mu Us Sandy Land, which were more than 70 kilometers apart, were "shaking hands" in Amenqirig. Under the ravages of "handshake sand", "people have no food, no grass, and there is a lack of firewood for heating and cooking", and a large number of peasant households have left their hometowns because they cannot survive.
On the third day of coming to Amenqirige, Wang Zhanwen, like Li Zhiping at the beginning, rode a donkey to the countryside and walked for more than a month.
After moving in with her father, Wang Xiaoyan, who was only 10 years old at the time, secretly cried several times. "It's all sand, there's nothing, and the wind blows and it hurts my face...... My biggest wish back then was to get out of here. ”
Wang Xiaoyan couldn't see her father for a long time, but the classmates in the class reported to her here and tomorrow: "Uncle Wang is coming to our team!" ”
Today, when the old man of Amenqirig mentions Wang Zhanwen, he almost all depicts the same picture - a pair of glasses, a yellow army bag, a stick, a notebook, and a dry tobacco bag, walking alone through the village and walking to you.
"When you see a man, go through a door. I met the research of walking and walking, and I met the research of sheep herding and sheep herding...... The question is very detailed, and he walks like this day and night. As he spoke, Zhang Runhuan burst into tears.
"I have come to live in our house, people don't take shelves, we have blankets, there are no mattresses, he said okay, okay, it's good, and it can tickle." Gao Fengqing, who served as the party secretary of Amenqirige Village, said.
Liu Maocheng, the late secretary of the Amenqirige Commune, once wrote about Wang Zhanwen: "His notebook is full of memories. There were a few Mingsha eggs in each village, and he counted them and recorded them in his book. ”
In those years, Wang Xiaoyan's deepest memory of her father was that there were stacks of notebooks at home full of his beautiful handwriting.
In the article, Liu Maocheng recorded the scene of Wang Zhanwen's leadership group meeting after traveling all over the commune: "Secretary Wang interjected from time to time, and he wanted to turn the report meeting into a meeting where everyone came up with ideas, thought of methods, and discussed together. ”
Listening to the cadres describe the current situation of Amenqirig with "the wind rises and the sand flows, overwhelming the house and the people move away" and "the house is buried in the sand, and the only way out is to move outward", Wang Zhanwen asked everyone: "The only way out is to move out?" The common people are gone, what are we cadres left behind? Let this land become Mu Us and Kubuqi, will the people agree? Will the party and the government allow it? ”
The more everyone discussed, the more unified their opinions became, and finally they became a rope: poor on the sand, bad on the wind, less on the trees, and worse on the dry. The way out for Amenqirig is to plant trees and turn yellow sand into an oasis.
Wang Zhanwen convened a meeting of the three levels of cadres of the commune (hereinafter referred to as the "three cadres" meeting) to initiate a big discussion on "where is the way out for Amenqirig", and led cadres at all levels and representatives of the masses to discuss the way out - sit back and wait for relief? Displaced? Or is it self-help by afforestation?
Gao Fengqing, as the commander of the militia company of the Amaga Khan Brigade, attended the meeting. "Secretary Wang first took us to Shenmu County, Shaanxi Province to visit the national advanced afforestation unit, and when he came back, he organized a big discussion, 64 production teams, and discussed for seven days and seven nights."
"The leader must let the people understand what he says and do things, and if he feels reasonable, he will do what you say." Gao Fengqing still remembers this conference that decided Amenqirig's future fate.
Wang Zhanwen said that Amenqirig is located in the "handshake" zone between Mu Us and Kubuqi, and when the desert and sand land shake hands, Amenqirige will be occupied by the sand. Where are you going? You can only do it, you can only plant trees, and fight against the water!
Gao Fengqing recalled that every time there was a meeting later, Wang Zhanwen had to say this repeatedly. "He was in the fields and on the kang of poor households, and he talked to everyone about his family, and the common people regarded him as the embodiment of the Communist Party, and the cadres of the commune and the brigade affectionately called him 'Wang Tou'er'."
Just like everyone in the village has seen Shaliu now, it seems that everyone in the older generation of Amenqirig people has seen Wang Zhanwen and heard what he said.
Zhang Runhuan was most impressed by Wang Zhanwen's words: In Amenqirig, planting trees is the way out, and not planting trees is a dead end.
The reporter met 75-year-old villager Zhao Xingfa in Zhongtu Village, and when he mentioned Wang Zhanwen, the old man said: "He said that you should work hard, don't make trouble for grandpa to eat his grandson's food, and don't protect the environment. I still remember that phrase. ”
"Secretary Wang is clear about the situation of each production team, and at the 'three cadres' meeting, he will hold a notebook and deploy it in a unified manner. Come to your team, say how many people you have, how much land, how many trees you want to plant, and ask you where you are going to plant? How to solve slimming? You have a problem to raise and find a way to solve it for you. 64 production teams, all asked, and finally decided to plant one acre of trees in spring and autumn. Gao Fengqing recalled.
Li Zhiping also came back, working tirelessly to plant trees and seedlings while holding the sick body that always needed to be infusion.
After the "three cadres" meeting, the Amenqirig people, who had unified their thinking and had a clear way out, launched a large corps operation and entered a period of vigorous large-scale afforestation.
(3) "Li Zhiping explored the way, Wang Zhanwen planned, Feng Yaohua insisted, and Guo Jucai carried forward." These cadres are indeed cadres, cadres cadres, do it first"
Gao Fengyun once compared the story of Amenqirig planting trees to control sand to a serial drama, "The four secretaries are screenwriters, and without them, the serial drama cannot be performed."
Hearing that a reporter came to interview the story of the old secretaries who led the Amenqirige people to plant trees, Zhang Runhuan, Gao Fengqing, Bai Sanbao, the former branch secretary of Wulan Aobao Village, and Li Shuhua, the former branch secretary of Ari Chaidamu Village, gathered together early and waited.
The youngest of them is also 65 years old, and they have all experienced the "yellow sand turning into an oasis" in their hometown.
Li Zhiping explored the way, Wang Zhanwen planned, Feng Yaohua insisted, and Guo Jucai carried forward. These cadres are indeed cadres, cadres cadres, and they are one step ahead. Gao Fengqing sighed.
"The leaders took the lead, and Secretary Wang Zhanwen took the lead in planting salix. The 11 production teams of the whole brigade lined up, sang songs, and planted red flags on their respective sand beams. The militia also led the dolls to plant trees, they dug pits, and the dolls handed over trees to plant seeds. In the past few years, the Fenyong Brigade has been planted into the earliest 10,000-mu forest brigade in the autonomous region. Feng Yaohua was the deputy secretary of the commune at that time, and Guo Jucai was the deputy director of the commune at that time, and he was the deputy director of the commune. Wang Zhanwen also specially organized a surveying and mapping team, drew up a map, unified planning, planted shelter forests on all farmland, and determined where to build roads and plant street trees. When the road was repaired according to the plan 20 years later, the construction team found that the trees on both sides of the roadbed had already been planted. Bai Sanbao recalled.
Around 1975, with the support of Wang Zhanwen, then secretary of the commune, and Feng Yaohua, deputy secretary of the commune, five young people in their twenties got up early and hid for three months, pulled four surveying and mapping ropes, and hand-drew a topographic map of the 650,000 mu of land in the commune, on this basis, formed a blueprint for afforestation, and planned 360 large-scale shelter belts and 127 forest network roads. According to the plan, the afforestation army soon spread all over Amenqirig, and the barren land was largely green.
"When we found that there were no technicians in afforestation, the commune sent me out to study at the Workers' and Peasants' and Soldiers' University, where I studied sand control and afforestation. In 1976, after Secretary Wang Zhanwen sent me away, he was transferred, and when I came back in 1978, the secretary was Feng Yaohua. Zhang Runhuan said.
What kind of person is Feng Yaohua?
"People like Jiao Yulu! It can mobilize the masses, and it can do great things without money. The first terraces and dams in Amenqirig were built by him. He is the third oldest in the family, and wherever he goes, the masses call him 'third brother'. Zhang Runhuan said.
"Some people also call him 'Desperate Saburo'. He is especially able to work hard, digging wells, dams, digging stones, and doing it himself. Sometimes I drink two sips of wine with the members, and I will shout big dramas and sing Shaanxi Bangzi. Bai Sanbao added, "When his hands were full of blood cracks, he would find a piece of raw mutton fat, bake it on an oil lamp, let the hot oil drip into the blood cracks, wrap it in adhesive tape after scalding, and continue to dry it the next day." ”
"His hands are rougher than mine." Zhang Yunhuan stretched out his bronze hand that he had held for decades.
"In 1976, we went to the ditch in Arushi Dengsu, where he went to the countryside, and saw him digging a well with his trouser legs. He was a man of practical deeds, and his speech could speak to the hearts of the peasants. Gao Fengqing said.
In Feng Yaohua's son Feng Yukuan's view, his father can mobilize the masses, and to put it bluntly, he works with the masses. "When I was a child, I went to Sudigou and saw him holding his trouser leg and holding a shovel to work with the people, and the people did what he did, and the people sat down to smoke, and he was still doing there."
"He came to our village to squat, lived in the Chema store for four or five years, and set an example and worked diligently." Li Shuhua is a native of Sudigou. Here, Feng Yaohua planted trees and carried out water conservancy construction, led the whole village to build dams, and even the teenage girls in the village organized the "Iron Maiden Combat Team" to join them.
Feng Yaohua also led the group to build a seven-story terraced field on the hillside next to the dam that can be irrigated by artesian water, where people planted live wheat and ate white flour for the first time. After the dam is completed, fish are raised in the dam, fruits are planted under the dam, and Sudigou is known as the "land of fish and rice" in Amenqirig for a while. "The fruit trees in the front ditch are fragrant, the carp in the back ditch is jumping in the waves, the people in the depths of the sand sea are laughing, and they want to sing in a good life."
Years later, as conditions improved, a machine well was drilled in the village, and the dam was gradually abandoned, but the untended fruit trees under the dam continued to bear fruit year after year. This year, there are a lot of small green fruits hanging on the branches. Feng Yukuan has to come back every summer to pick a little and take it home to dry the fruit. "It's a complex. When I was a child, during the summer vacation, our children would come here to eat fruit until our stomachs were full......"
In people's memories, Feng Yaohua has a simple "farmer's face", a pair of calloused hard-working hands, and a good temper that can easily get along with anyone. But he was unequivocal in matters of principle; At critical moments, he has the courage to take responsibility.
It is said that someone once advised Feng Yaohua to find an opportunity to transfer out of the "barren land" of Amenqirig, and this simple and honest man asked with a dark face: "Push the hard and bad conditions to others, and ask where your conscience is?" What was this not a deserter during the war years? Amenqirig does not change green, and I will die in Amenqirig! ”
After the reform and opening up, the afforestation of Amenqirig ushered in spring.
In 1982, Feng Yaohua took the lead in implementing the forestry production responsibility system in Amenqirig, allocating 120,000 mu of collective forests and barren sand suitable for forests to households, stipulating that "whoever plants has it, and it will remain unchanged for a long time, and inheritance is allowed", and issued a "forest right certificate".
"Secretary Feng made a risky decision", Zhang Runhuan found an old certificate from that year, "Every household came to register and make a register, and each certificate was issued by me myself." ”
This has injected new vitality into the afforestation of Amenqirig, and the enthusiasm of the masses for planting trees has doubled, and they have begun to plant trees at a rate of 30,000 mu per year. As long as the villagers find open space, they either plant trees or grass. Some villagers in Zhongtu Village saw that the vacant land in the neighboring village of Aslentu was not green, and they were worried that the wind would blow upwind and sand would rise downwind, so they ran to plant trees, which also caused a dispute. In the end, Feng Yaohua came forward to mediate, and the tree returned to Zhongtu Village, and the land belonged to Aslentu.
When Feng Yaohua led the villagers of Sudigou to develop water conservancy, Guo Jucai took root in the Shiriga Khan brigade with his luggage on his back.
This is a place in Amenqige that is notoriously poor, and there is serious desertification. People dig seedlings and break roots in order to find some firewood, and the vegetation in the village is only a lemon tree around the Longwang Temple, and no one dares to move; The livestock had no grass to eat, and the remaining ram had to be released by the next village; The members of the club "poured dividends" every year, worked for a year, and at the end of the year, they owed the collective. "There is no food, no grass and no firewood to burn, and the hemp roots and stubble are rushing to dig up. A ram is put upside down, and a seedling is a dragon king bao".
Guo Jucai is not tall, has few words, a dark face, and a stubborn temperament, and has the nickname of "Black Dragon Lord" among the people. After he came, he led everyone to implement the "three prohibitions": it is forbidden to dig up caragana, it is forbidden to dig out artemisia, and it is forbidden to hold lamps and incense (referring to sand rice, a kind of psammophyte plant). The villagers had opinions, saying that there was no firewood to burn, Guo Jucai didn't talk much, he paid for adobe tea, exchanged cow dung with nearby herdsmen, mobilized the villagers to pull cow dung as firewood, and transferred the chain rail car, loaded the double plough, as soon as the car opened, the double plough turned up the soil, and people followed behind to plant saplings.
Liu Maocheng recalled in the article: In spring and autumn, Shriga Khan, who was originally the "head of the monk", planted 77 rows of forest belts with a total of 176 kilometers long, and the survival rate was as high as 85%. In the past two years, Shriga has been able to get rid of the predicament of having no food, no grass and no firewood, and people have also realized the importance of sand control and afforestation in practice.
Today, the Dragon King Temple in the village is still there, and the surrounding area is even greener.
Speaking of Guo Jucai, everyone has to mention the story of his "extermination of goats".
In 1983, Feng Yaohua retired, and Guo Jucai took over as party secretary of Amenqirig Township (the commune had been changed to a township at that time). At this time, Amenqirig was already full of greenery, and the focus of afforestation had shifted to management.
At that time, the cashmere industry in Ordos was developing rapidly, the demand for cashmere was increasing day by day, and more and more villagers raised goats. Guo Jucai believes that the number of green grass in Amenqiri is limited, and it must not be overgrazing, especially the goats eating grass roots and gnawing on the bark, which will inevitably seriously threaten the hard-won green here.
Li Shuhua and Gao Fengqing both remember that he shouted angrily at the "Three Cadres" meeting: "There are goats without me, and there are no goats with me!" ”
After Amenqirig banned the raising of goats, a big farmer released cruel words: "If you dare to kill my sheep, I will cut off your head!" Guo Jucai still smashed the sentence: "There are goats without me, there are no goats with me!" ”
When Li Shuhua returned home, he sold the family's 40 or so goats. "I definitely don't want to, but the village cadres must take the lead. At that time, many people in the village could not accept it, because goat meat and goat hair were a large source of income. ”
The cadres who implemented the ban on raising goats in the village have been scolded a lot. "Later, our forestry industry was successful, and the people also understood, saying that if we don't care about it, the trees in Amenqirig will not become the climate." Bai Sanbao said, "Now when I see goats gnawing on trees, everyone will say that Guo Laohan couldn't bear this back then." ”
In addition to the achievements of afforestation with iron rules and iron discipline, after taking over as secretary, Guo Jucai also led the Amenqirig people to launch a final charge against the three major sandy lands that have not yet been "cured" in the whole township: Taohong Balal, Yang Erzheng Balar and Wuchai Deng Balar - they used net fences to enclose 230,000 mu of sandy land to prevent cattle and sheep from entering and grazing, and then planted by artificial planting with aerial sowing and mechanical sowing to plant trees and grass. Let the three sandy areas gradually be planted with grass and trees.
"Our family also divided hundreds of acres of sand in the net fence, and I happened to be planting corn that year, when Guo Laohan came and said to plant trees quickly! It didn't hurt to plant corn two days late, so I planted the trees first, and more than 100 acres of trees survived. Bai Sanbao said, "He didn't just say that I was the only one, and every village went around one by one, and whoever didn't plant trees chased after him." ”
The yellow sand of Amenqirig has gradually become an oasis day by day, month by month, year by year.
(4) Mu Us and Kubuqi completely "broke up", and the tree of Amenqirig "cultivated into a positive fruit"
As of 1990, there were 376,000 mu of forest area in Amenqirige Township, and the forest and grass coverage rate was more than 85%. In 1995, Amenqirige was awarded the honorary title of "Top 100 Townships (Towns) for National Afforestation and Greening".
"Don't say that we are poor in Shawanwan, Shawanwan has planted rich roots. The top 100 townships of afforestation in the country, the land of China is famous. ”
After more than 30 years of struggle, the four secretaries relayed, Mu Us and Kubuqi completely "broke up", and the tree of Amenqirig "cultivated into positive fruits".
"I still marvel, how can those cadres have such a great appeal and can unite and mobilize the masses?" Zhang Runhuan asked.
Speaking of this "big question", many "small stories" are recalled.
"The secretary has no estrangement with the peasants, he talks and laughs with the masses, and casually pulls them together to drink soju." Bai Sanbao said.
"The peasants don't have anything to eat, and they have to put a few food stamps and a few cents when they finish eating." Zhang Runhuan said.
"Down-to-earth, come with a stick, the meal we eat, no one is disgusted, and they help us work every day...... A good cadre of the Communist Party, who doesn't want to do a good job, right? Zhao Xingfa said.
Wang Zhanwen is recognized as the secretary with the "hardest" temper, "like a soldier, bold and simple", criticizing people for not being emotional, but when you think of him, which one is not sour in heart?
Every Chinese New Year, he always packs bags of dry tobacco, carries a satchel, and goes alone to the team to feed the horses to the breeders, and herd the sheep for the sheep herds who have no rest for a year.
Bai Sanbao personally saw him let the sheep herd Li Guanju go home for the New Year, and herd the sheep for him himself, "the first day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, the first day of the new year". "It takes more than 30 miles to go back and forth to herd the sheep, and he drives the sheep out early in the morning and comes back after the sun sets. When he came back, he had a cigarette pouch and pot in his mouth, and a freshly laid lamb in his cotton coat. Li Guanju's son Li Ying'er recalled.
At the meeting of village cadres, Feng Yaohua heard that the third aunt in the village wore a pair of crotch pants that tied up her trouser legs, and secretly stuffed the team's "yam" (local dialect, referring to potatoes) into her pants when she was working, and some people wanted her to "lose her face". "You embarrass her, I'll ask you about it!" Feng Yaohua's face turned blue.
"He said that this is because our cadres have not done their work well, otherwise the masses would not have starved." Wang Leping, a fourth-level researcher at the Ordos CPPCC Office, said.
In 2016, Wang Leping served as the editor-in-chief, and together with his colleagues, he compiled and printed the literary and historical resource book "Green Amenqi", which records the afforestation process of Amenqirig. After that, every time he passed by Amenqirig, he would think of the four secretaries and encourage himself to do more.
The 63-year-old Han Zhengqi is the photographer of "Green Amenqi" and a native of Amenqirige. "The environment we had at that time, if it weren't for several secretaries working one after another, it would have been difficult to change."
"The first is the leadership of the party, the second is to work one term after another, and the third is to mobilize the masses." Wang Leping summed up the three "secrets".
"Several secretaries have one trumpet, and everyone blows the same tune, one after another, and one for the other." Feng Yukuan said.
"They are true Communists, and they will always be respected." Gao Fengqing said, "Decades later, they are still remembered, this is the reputation of the people." ”
Bai Sanbao has always wanted to write an article, and after thinking about it for several years, the title is "Secretary, Secretary, the People Miss You......
(5) They smiled and waved their hands, slowly turned around, stepped into the forest, and turned into one of the trees, forever connected to this land
In 1992, Wang Zhanwen died.
At home in Ordos, Wang Xiaoyan recalled her father's life. "My mom used to joke with him, saying that you planted so many trees and couldn't carry a single one, and he said I didn't care about that."
She remembered that after graduating from college in 1982 and deciding to fly away, her father kept saying year after year: You have such a good brain, why don't you come back to build your hometown? "I didn't appreciate his spirit at the time, and I didn't even realize it many years after graduating from college. After I was in my 40s, I had a deeper understanding of life and realized that there were such good role models around me. ”
In 1997, Wang Xiaoyan returned to Inner Mongolia, and a few years later entered the financial system, handling a number of projects to benefit the people. "When I was doing these specific work, I remembered my father's duty and down-to-earth work for everyone, and I realized that people need spirit, and people's spiritual world has a very broad world."
In 2001, Li Zhiping died.
Li Mingliang once accompanied his father back to Amenqirig's hometown to revisit, "He said, look, this is the tree I led to plant."
In 2001, Li Mingliang spent more than 100,000 yuan to contract more than 10,000 acres of sand dunes that no one wanted to buy at the southernmost part of the Mu Us Sandy Land, not far from the Arushideng Sand Control Station where his father worked. "Every spring and autumn, my wife and I even hired someone to bring our own trees, planted trees for 15 years, and planted them until 2016, and all of them were green."
"Oh, let me tell you, it's a sense of accomplishment!" His voice showed obvious excitement, "You watch the trees plant and control the sand piece by piece, then the mood is different!" I feel like I've done it all in my life, and that's my biggest contribution. ”
In 2004, Feng Yaohua passed away.
In 1983, just after he retired, he claimed hundreds of acres of sandy land in the village. "My father said that he had been controlling the sand in Amenqirig for more than 20 years, but he didn't have a tree of his own, and he wanted to manage another sand dune with his own hands, so he contracted this piece of land and led our family to work hard for three years, planting the trees to the full, and he himself operated it intermittently for six or seven years." Feng Yukuan said.
In those years, when it was the tree planting season, the brothers and sisters of the Feng family would get together, follow their father to the field to plant trees, and then come back with a body of sand to eat the bread made by their mother. "The atmosphere was exceptional. I still love to plant trees, and I stay where they are planted. In my generation, every Amenqirig family has its own story of planting trees. ”
When his grandson was 4 years old, Feng Yukuan hugged him to see this forest to "see how difficult it was for the ancestors to plant trees and control desertification in the past."
In 2016, Guo Jucai passed away.
He never left Amenchirig in his life. "He doesn't make any demands on the organization, doesn't talk about treatment, doesn't ask for anything in return, and asks him to be a cadre in the Municipal Forestry Bureau, but he is still unwilling and doesn't want to leave Amenqirig." Gao Fengyun said.
"After Amenqirige was rated as one of the top 100 townships in the country for afforestation and greening, someone wanted to set up a merit monument for Guo Laohan in the woods, and the old man said no, Amenqirige's afforestation was completed by several generations, not his own credit." Bai Sanbao said.
A single filament does not form a thread, and a single tree does not make a forest.
In today's Amenqirig, the road will not forget the footprints of the old secretaries who have traveled all over the township; The wind will not forget the pain and laughter of the old secretaries; The land will not forget the sweat and tears of the old secretaries; Every tree will not forget the ordinary names and immortal achievements of the old secretaries.
And in front of the old elm tree on the "hard beam", in front of the 10,000 acres of sand willow forest of the original Fenyong Brigade, in front of the fruit tree under the Sudigou dam, and in front of the Longwang Temple, which used to have only one seedling of lemon sticks...... Their figures seemed to travel through time and space, flashing one by one, looking around at the green and inconspicuous trees of Amenqirig, they smiled and waved their hands, slowly turned around, and stepped into the forest sea, turning into one of the trees, forever connected to this land.
(6) From the old secretary of Amenqirig to the "new branch secretary" of afforestation and desertification control in the new era, there is a truth: building and protecting a green homeland can only be done under the leadership of the Communist Party of China
The predecessors planted the "Three Norths" sand fixation tree, and also cultivated the "Three North Spirit" tree.
Zhang Dong, a college student village official born in 1991, returned to his hometown in 2021 to serve as the party branch secretary of Amenqirig Village. "I'm curious, everyone said we used to be a desert, but then how did it become like this? When I came back, the old people in the village told me the stories of these old secretaries. ”
Knowing the past of his hometown, Zhang Dong felt deeply grateful to the old secretaries of the year. "As a new generation of grassroots cadres, I want to inherit the spirit of the old secretaries, continue to plant trees, and further improve the vegetation coverage rate in my hometown."
In Hangjinqi, afforestation and desertification control have become a kind of spiritual inheritance. According to the introduction of the Banner Forestry and Grassland Department, since the 90s of the 20th century, the people of the whole banner have written a new answer sheet in terms of ecological protection and construction, and the spirit of the old Amen Qirig people shines on every page of the answer sheet——
In 1997, the construction of the Hangjinqi sand-crossing highway began, and the road construction and sand control were carried out simultaneously. Qili has organized seven ecological construction campaigns of more than 10,000 people, and the afforestation area has reached more than 1.5 million mu.
Since 2000, Hangjinqi has successively applied for and implemented a series of national key ecological projects, such as returning farmland to forest and grassland, natural forest protection, the "Three Norths" project, and the control of sand sources in Beijing and Tianjin. By 2023, the forest coverage rate and vegetation coverage of the whole banner will increase from 7.23% and 16.2% in 2000 to 18.08% and 65%, respectively.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Hangjinqi has continuously strengthened the construction of grassroots party organizations and promoted the construction of ecological civilization. Hua Cheng, secretary of the Flag Committee, said: "Hangjinqi deeply practices Xi Jinping's thought on ecological civilization, unites and leads cadres and people of all ethnic groups, draws a blueprint to the end, and realizes the gorgeous transformation from 'talking about sand color change' to 'turning sand into gold'." ”
At the construction site of the Yellow River's "several bends", Niu Jinliang, secretary of the Daotu Gacha Party branch and director of the Gacha Committee of Dugui Tara Town, led the village "two committees" to come to the scene early and worked hard with everyone. Through the model of "Party Branch + Enterprise + Farmers and Herdsmen", the Party branch took the lead in setting up a migrant worker company, "leading the villagers to do and taking the villagers to earn", mobilizing farmers and herdsmen to participate in planting and selling Salix and Caragana, etc., and has implemented 58,000 mu of sand protection and planting projects.
The 34-year-old Ao Rigele lives in Gegeng Gacha, Jiri Galangtu Township, and returned to his hometown after graduating from university in 2012 to devote himself to the management of the Kubuqi Desert. Over the past ten years, Ao Rigele has grown from a young college student to a "veteran of sand control". Recently, taking advantage of the rain, Ao Rigele grabbed the time to plant poplar firewood and plant sand willow. As the leader of the new generation of desertification control in Gacha, Ao Zhige Le said: "Taking over the baton of desertification control from my father's hands, I will continue to make the desert green." ”
In recent years, more and more young people, like Ao Rigele, have been active in the front line of sand prevention and control in the Kubuqi Desert on the south bank of the Yellow River, under the inspiration and leadership of their predecessors and the majority of party members and cadres.
In June 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out during his inspection tour of Inner Mongolia: "Major ecological projects such as the construction of the 'Three Norths' shelterbelt system can only be completed under the leadership of the Communist Party of China." The ecology of the Sanbei region is very fragile, and desertification prevention and control is a long-term historical task, and we must continue to do a good job in this work to be worthy of our ancestors and future generations. From the old secretary of Amenqirig to the "new branch secretary" of afforestation and desertification control in the new era, the story of several generations of relay planting trees and planting greenery for decades is a vivid footnote to the important thesis of the general secretary.
In the new era, the Party has placed the construction of ecological civilization at an unprecedented height. In June 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over a symposium on strengthening the comprehensive prevention and control of desertification and promoting the construction of key ecological projects such as the "Three Norths" in Inner Mongolia, proposing to strive to fight a tough battle for the "Three Norths" project in about 10 years, and build the "Three Norths" project into a fully functional and unbreakable green Great Wall and ecological security barrier in northern Xinjiang. General Secretary Xi Jinping called for all-out efforts to fight the three major landmark battles, including the Yellow River's "several bends" battle.
Li Li, secretary of the Ordos Municipal Party Committee, said that as the main position and main battlefield of the Yellow River's "several bends", Ordos thoroughly implements the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions, vigorously promotes the "Three North Spirit", promotes the coordinated management of desert edges and hinterlands, upwind and downwind outlets, sand source areas and path areas, and tackles sand fixation, sand blocking, sand control, and promotes sand land governance at an average daily rate of more than 10,000 mu.
"We have thoroughly implemented the integration of sand prevention and control and wind power and photovoltaic projects, planned and promoted landmark projects such as the 'Photovoltaic Great Wall' and the 'Ten Holes' comprehensive treatment, and comprehensively built a pattern of sand prevention and control led by the party committee, led by the government, with enterprises and farmers and herdsmen as the main body, and the whole society participated, and drove the per capita annual income of farmers and herdsmen to increase by more than 20,000 yuan through work-for-relief, construction first and subsidy later, etc., so as to achieve regional energy enhancement, desert greening, people's income increase, and enterprise efficiency 'one stone'." Li Li said, "In the next step, we will fully implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the Party Committee of the Autonomous Region, make every effort to win the battle of the Yellow River', and make due contributions to building an important ecological security barrier in the northern part of the mainland." ”
Today, the means of sand control are becoming more and more scientific and technological, and the methods of sand control are more abundant and diverse, but the "Three North Spirit" of "hard work and tenacious struggle" will always shine, just like the tree of Amenqirig, which will always stand tall in the northern Xinjiang of the motherland, guarding the Great Green Wall.
(Reporter Fang Lixin, Liu Wei, Wang Jingxue, Zhu Wenzhe, Zhang Dianbiao)
