With less than 2 months left until the end of 2024, Ailao Mountain is inexplicably on fire.
Located in the southwest border of China, this indisputable natural pure land seems to have suddenly been remembered and broke into the public's field of vision.
When you think about it, it seems that human beings have never stopped running to distant places without reservation.
From Chi Zijian's pen meandering on the right bank of the Ergun River in the Great Khing'an Mountains, to Li Juan's poetic writing of the wonderful chapter of Altay in Xinjiang, and now to the Ailao Mountain Nature Reserve in western Yunnan, which spans thousands of miles and spans six counties in Yunnan.
Why do we always miss strange corners and distant places? Be very worried about?
What kind of soothing and impact do those vast or vast or mysterious or primitive natural habitats bring to us?
If you are so confused and curious, you might as well follow an old man who has been in and out of Ailao Mountain twice, and use his true story of nearly 20 years to reveal the true answer in his heart.
This old man is the Asian tobacco king, China's inspirational orange king, Chu Shijian.
01
Over 81 years old, Chu Shijian's lover Ma Jingfen mentioned Xinping County, Ailao Mountain, with such emotion,
"We're probably going to have to close our eyes there in the future."
Xinping County, which has the highest peak of Ailao Mountain, why does Chu Shijian and his wife remember it so much, and even regard it as a place to bury bones?
In 1966, the country was in turmoil.
In Yuxi, Chu Shijian, a young and promising cadre, was assigned to Xinping as a guilty person to take over the loss-making sugar factory in succession.
"Sprinkle", from the local Dai language, means street on the beach. Since ancient times, it has been an important market town on the Ancient Tea Horse Road, and now it has the reputation of "the pearl of Ailao Mountain".
The town is not large, and a large river flows down from the high mountains, connecting the relationship between man and nature.
For Chu Shijian, who was hurt in his heart, Ailao Mountain was just another place of exile.
Unexpectedly, he and his family stayed for 16 years.
In an ordinary black-and-white life photo in Chu Shijian's home, you can get a glimpse of the natural scenery.
As far as the eye can see, the lakes and mountains, the dense forest of migratory birds. Those rare and scarce pictures today are just ordinary scenery for Ailao Mountain.
Picture: A photo of Chu Shijian's family, with lakes and mountains in the background, and dense forests of migratory birds
Chu Shijian took a fancy to the Gasa River in front of the door at a glance and smiled happily. It turns out that his housekeeping skills are finally useful.
In addition to being a good producer, Chu Shijian is also a well-known fish catcher. This skill had a certain aura of glory in that era of food rations.
For the workers of the sugar factory, the most exciting thing throughout the year is that Director Chu took everyone to the Gasa River to get fish.
When he came to the shore, before he entered the water, Chu Shijian would shout two sentences,
"Make some effort, please eat fish in the factory tonight."
As he spoke, he rolled up his trouser legs and walked into the river, and after a while, he threw a one-foot-long fish when he was not in the water.
Several large catfish of more than ten catties were carried back to the canteen in a lively manner, and Director Chu was happy and wanted to show his skills.
Simply clean the fish, add a large pot of water, put it directly, put salt and peppercorns, do not turn during the period, and scoop up the water when it is almost dry.
As soon as the lid is opened, the color is fresh and tender, and the fragrance is fragrant.
Many years later, the workers who had been with Chu Shijian recalled the fish that Chu Shijian cooked, and they couldn't help but drool.
Under the influence of Chu Shijian, his son Chu Yibin also became greedy for catching fish.
Once, when it had just rained, the river was full of fish, and the catchers had to hurry into the water.
Chu Shijian was just about to go down, but he saw his son jumping into the river.
At this time, unexpectedly, a whirlpool suddenly arose on the surface of the river, and even the fish and children were all pulled into the whirlpool.
Chu Shijian saw that the situation was not good, and was about to rush to save his son, but when he turned around, he saw his son Chu Yibin coming out of the water again, still holding a big fish in both hands.
"Factory director, my son is like you, he is so good at water." Said a colleague next to him.
Picture: Chu Shijian's son and his friends are catching fish in Gassa Sprinkle
02
If you ask Chu Shijian what he is best at, most people will answer: he is the best at revitalizing the enterprise and doing a good job in the enterprise, but his wife Ma Jingfen said that he is the best at doing a good job in the life of the factory.
Yesterday, I interviewed a Xiao Chen who had worked with Chu Shijian, and in his mouth, Chu Lao, who was in his 80s, did not have the slightest arrogance, and was very willing and enthusiastic to the people around him.
Picture: Chu Shijian on the left Right: Xiao Chen, the interviewee
During the period in Ailao Mountain, Chu Shijian single-handedly brought the old factory that had been losing money for years to become a major taxpayer in Yuxi City. But the workers under his hands are still poor, and their wages are pitiful.
In this regard, Chu Shijian had no choice, but he would not sit idly by and decided to do a good job in the lives of the workers first.
He is going to grow vegetables in the factory.
Ailao Mountain is located in a low-altitude valley area, with no winter in all seasons, and the dry and wet seasons are particularly obvious, which is not suitable for growing vegetables at all, and the local people do not plant much.
But Chu Shijian rolled in the dirt when he was young, caught fish in the river in the countryside, and planted vegetables was not a matter for him.
On the same day, he took a few workers to dig the fertile soil needed for the vegetable field on the river beach.
The flood-swept beach of the Tsa River is littered with rocks of all sizes. Chu Shijian turned the stone over and cut it off with a layer of black soil.
Back to the open space in the factory, first put stones to filter water, and then spread a thick layer of black soil planed out on top, just like that, sort out dozens of acres of vegetable land. After sprinkling different vegetable seeds, the manure from the pigsty in the factory is applied to the ground.
In the harvest season, Chinese cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, celery, green and red, green and purple, all grow brightly.
Residents passing by were amazed to see the vegetables growing in the sugar factory.
In addition to mobilizing employees to grow vegetables, Chu Shijian also sent special personnel to raise more than 300 pigs.
He made the best use of it, kept the scraps of the sugar factory's boiled sugar, and (huo) in the feed, and used it to feed the pigs, and later, more than 300 pigs were raised round, each with two or three hundred catties. Every time a pig was killed, seven or eight men carried it, and a group of people walked through the streets.
Usually, you can see pigs raised so fat, and the residents have stopped what they are doing to watch the excitement.
03
In the hearts of the workers, the factory director Chu Shijian is a capable person. For the locals, Chu Shijian, who is not from a good background, is even more of his own.
Chu Shijian often goes to the sugarcane fields at the head of the fields and mingles with the surrounding villagers.
He found that many farmers' sugarcane fields were too far away, there were no roads, cars could not drive in, and large tracts of sugarcane were directly thrown on the ground, wasted.
Chu Shijian felt that it was a pity, so he took the initiative to apply for some fees from the factory to help the farmers build the road. Although it is a simple dirt road, tractors and pick-up trucks can drive into it, and the problem of sugarcane is solved.
After this experience, Chu Shijian also built all the roads in the surrounding wasteland.
He consulted with the production team, the factory was responsible for building roads, connecting wasteland and roads, and the production team was responsible for organizing farmers to grow sugarcane.
In order to further mobilize the enthusiasm of the villagers and obtain the necessary raw material for the development of the sugar factory - sugarcane, Chu Shijian not only used "road for sugarcane", but also used "wine for sugarcane".
Most of the people living in the town of Gasa in Ailao Mountain are ethnic minorities of the Dai ethnic group, who love to drink. However, at that time, alcohol was a scarce item and had to be purchased with a wine ticket, and it was not available in the market at all.
Chu Shijian spontaneously used the sugarcane roasted wine produced by the sugar factory at that time to exchange sugarcane with the Dai villagers.
After a long period of contact, the Dai people found that the new factory director had a dark face, spoke directly, and was not separated from himself from his appearance to his heart.
Seeing Chu Shijian coming, the Dai farmers came out to greet him with a basin of water and a pot of mangoes.
Chu Shijian is real: "You're polite, I can drink saliva and ask for a cup, I can't drink it with a basin." ”
Dai Min couldn't laugh: "Factory director, this is for you to wash your hands." ”
In addition to loving mangoes, the Dai people also love to eat glutinous rice, but the yield is not high, and not the guests will not take it out. The Dai people also specially cooked glutinous rice for Chu Shijian to eat.
He is thankful for:
"I'll just eat some rice, and you can keep the sticky rice."
The local ethnic minorities are also very sincere:
"Factory director, we use rice to feed pigs."
In 1979, Chu Shijian was completely rehabilitated. The Yuxi Prefectural Committee gave Chu Shijian two choices: to go to Yuxi City to be the director of the Yuxi Cigarette Factory, or to go to the Tadian Coal Mine in Asan to be the party secretary.
Chu Shijian frowned and said that he would discuss it with his family.
Chu Shijian was actually reluctant to leave Ailao Mountain, Xinping, and Gasa Town.
He said affectionately,
"Tan Binh is a place that treated our family well, and when we came in 1963, we were empty-handed."
In those days, if you didn't pay attention to the economy, you would be labeled, but Chu Shijian in Gasa Town did not suffer this fate.
In addition to his own contribution to the factory and employees, but also because of the simplicity and kindness of the people in the town. Although it is also affected by the overall political atmosphere, it still retains the warmth between people in a small place.
They don't have obvious rejection and bullying of people from bad backgrounds, and everyone interacts with each other more from the perspective of human feelings.
This kind of atmosphere allowed the injured Chu Shijian to heal little by little.
When the position of director of the Yuxi Cigarette Factory was placed in front of him, Chu Shijian felt not happiness, but instinctive fear, he was afraid of the struggle between people in the big city.
Write at the end
In 1976, nearly 50-year-old Chu Shijian left Ailao Mountain and walked to the next stop in his life, Yuxi Cigarette Factory.
Seventeen years later, under his leadership, Yuxi Cigarette Factory was brought to the position of the first cigarette factory in the country and the fifth largest in the world. Hongtashan produced by Yuxi is the first brand in China along with foreign cigarettes such as Sanwu and Marlboro.
At the pinnacle of his life, Chu Shijian collapsed due to corruption.
The 72-year-old Chu Shijian went from being a well-known Asian tobacco king to a prisoner. His wife and daughter were tried, his daughter committed suicide, and he passed out several times in prison due to old physical illnesses.
When he was released on medical parole, he was already a gray-haired old man.
Everyone, even himself, probably thought that this life was over.
Later, by chance, he returned to Ailao Mountain and returned to Xinping.
He carried an insulin infusion bag on his back, went up the mountains, built pipelines, planted fruit seedlings, ate and lived in the mountains, built roads for the surrounding farmers in the summer, and lent water to the surrounding arid villages in the winter.
Under his desperate dedication, on the edge of Ailao Mountain, the once 2,400 acres of hardened wasteland have been hung with fruitful results.
In 2015, Chu Shijian was 87 years old, and the oranges he planted were named after him, and "Chu Orange" was sold all over the country.
In those years, the deep mountains of Ailao Mountain began to be lively, and the successful entrepreneurs who came and went one after another, bumped on the sheep intestine dirt road.
Perhaps, people leave the big city to live mechanically, spend real money, risk traffic jams, climb mountains and mountains, and work hard, just greedy for the long-lost familiarity and warmth in their hearts.
The familiar warmth is as healing as if it were coming home. It felt like the 80-year-old man returning to Ailao Mountain, just to confidently raise his head and take a look at the golden oranges.