Wang
On the evening of March 4, 1949. Xibaipo.
A Peking opera called "Red Lady" is being staged in a lively and peaceful atmosphere. However, Wang Zhen, then commander and political commissar of the Second Army of the First Field Army of the People's Liberation Army, rarely refused Chairman Mao's invitation to watch the exercise. With his brows furrowed, he was thinking about how to accomplish the task that Chairman Mao had personally entrusted him with forging swords into ploughs and reclaiming the borders. He was alone in the room thinking about how he would lead his troops on a mission to Xinjiang once the central authorities approved his request.
In September 1949, Tao Zhiyue led an uprising and Xinjiang was peacefully liberated. In October, Wang Zhen led the First Corps of the People's Liberation Army into Xinjiang. It unveiled the prelude to Xinjiang's large-scale "reclamation of the border".
"No wife can't settle down, no son can't take root." In history, the reclamation of various dynasties and generations could not get rid of the end of "one generation and one end". An important reason is that people's hearts are returning. To this end, if Wang Zhen wants to fulfill the ideal of forging swords into ploughs and reclaiming the border, he must first be a good "red bride" for the vast number of commanders and fighters. At this time, Wang Zhen understood why Chairman Mao had asked him to watch the Peking opera "Red Lady".
In the autumn of 1950, Wang Zhen appointed Xiong Huang, deputy commander of the Xinjiang Military Region, as the head of the recruiting corps to recruit female soldiers in Hunan. Wang Zhen said bluntly to Xiong Huang, "You go to Hunan and recruit a group of female soldiers." Our Hunan girls fought barefoot and suffered bitterly, and now there is no war, and the more female comrades, the better. ”
For the sake of insurance, he also personally wrote to Huang Kecheng and Wang Shoudao, the leaders of Hunan at the time. The letter reads: "Xinjiang is sparsely populated, spouses are difficult to find, the troops must reclaim the border, settle down for a long time, and it is impossible not to solve the marriage problem, and now send Comrade Xiong Huang to Hunan, please give you great assistance, help recruit a group of young women, the minimum age is 18 years old, the degree of Chinese, unmarried, have a history of marriage but have been divorced and divorced." Regardless of their families' origins, they were recruited to Xinjiang, spinning and weaving fabrics, breeding the population, and building a prosperous and strong Xinjiang with the soldiers and men of our army. ”
In 1950. The Hunan Provincial Party Committee has set up a recruitment point at No. 38 Yingpan Street in Changsha City. For a time, the streets and alleys of Changsha were plastered with advertisements for the recruitment group of the Xinjiang Military Region, and a large number of "Bird's Eye View of Xinjiang" was published everywhere. The recruitment notice is written succinctly and clearly: the condition is that the unmarried woman is between the ages of 16 and 25 and has a high school education or above. After joining the army and entering Xinjiang, they can enter Russian-language schools and other types of schools, or enter factories as female textile workers, or go to farms to drive tractors, or enter the army's cultural and industrial corps...
In the winter of 1950, a total of 3862 Xiang women were enrolled. In 1952, another 4,000 Xiang women were recruited. "Eight Thousand Xiang Women On the Heavenly Mountain" thus sang the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains.
Ma Shaorong, a Changsha girl who turned 17 months away, is one of them. In the winter of 1951, after bidding farewell to his sister and brother-in-law, he officially embarked on a journey to the west. From Changsha to Xi'an, and then continue westward, through the Hexi Corridor, out of Yumen Pass, over the Tianshan Mountains, along the way, in Ma Shaorong's heart there are only three thousand miles of newly loaded willows, which attracts the full pride of the spring wind to Yuguan. The picture of life was opened one by one in front of the eyes of this 17-year-old girl, and more than half a century of love-hate and joy and sorrow were also staged together, and more than 60 years later, it seems to still linger.
This is her story, and it is our story.
Ma Shaorong
Narrator: Ma Shaorong:
Born on November 14, 1934 in Changsha Shuidu River Zhishan House.
In March 1951, he applied for the Xinjiang Recruitment Group and enlisted in the army.
Distribution: Ten Regiments of Farmers
In 1991, he returned to Changsha for the elderly. He currently lives in Anwar Villa
(i)
I secretly signed up for the army, and my sister didn't know!
The reason for this is a long story, and it is not clear in one sentence or two.
My hometown is in the Zhishanwu Village of Changsha Shuidu River, there are nine brothers and sisters in the family, I am the seventh oldest, and there are two younger brothers below! The family can be said to be prosperous. But in that year, it also meant the hardships and hardships of life. But my parents were more enlightened and never pulled down our education. At that time, there were very few girls like me in the countryside who could study, not to mention that there were so many brothers and sisters in my family. The toil of parents can be imagined.
When I was nine years old, my mother died, and although my father was sad, he still pulled our brothers and sisters as a father and a mother. Unexpectedly, a few years later he also fell ill and died. At that time, I was not yet an adult, I just thought the sky was going to fall. Fortunately, my brothers and sisters are good, and the old saying goes that the elder brother is like a father, and they were our backers at that time. Especially my sister, she was very nice to all of us little ones and kept us going to school.
Until I enter junior high school! My grades are very good, because the children of the poor are in charge early, and I know my sister's suffering, so I redouble my efforts, and every day I arrive at school early, and I have never been late. A year later, my brother was also admitted, my sister's ability could not afford to study for two people, looking at my sister's embarrassment, I thought I should leave this opportunity to go to school for my younger brother, because for my brother, I am also a sister. A sister should have the appearance of a sister.
But if I didn't go to school, what could I do at that age? On the one hand, I don't want to cause trouble for my family, my brother and sister are not easy, but on the other hand, I am really confused and really don't know how to go in the future. I really couldn't figure it out, so I ran to the back hill alone and cried secretly, the saddest one, I cried all day!
It was at this time that I received a letter from my sister from my mother-in-law's house in Changsha. My sister thoughtfully told me that there are many financial and accounting training classes in Changsha, and I hope that I can sign up for study and find another job in Changsha after graduation, so that the sisters can also take care of each other. Of course I'm happy. Being able to stay with my sister is the greatest happiness for me. In my mind, my sister is sometimes like my mother. Without saying a word, I immediately packed up my things and left for Changsha the next day.
As soon as I entered the city, I was attracted by a group of female soldiers walking on the road, they were dressed in military uniforms, and the look of pride and pride made me look stupid involuntarily. These female soldiers were handing out leaflets, all about going to Xinjiang to become soldiers, and there were many girls who were about my age huddled there to sign up, so I had the audacity to ask a leader-looking person if she could become a soldier in a situation like mine. Which leader-like person said, of course, we warmly welcome. Later, I learned that her name was Peng Jinghua, just an ordinary receptionist, but she was really enthusiastic. When we go to Xinjiang, we can not only put on our military uniforms and become a glorious soldier of the People's Liberation Army, but also study for further study, enter a Russian school to study Russian, or go to other technical schools to learn technology, and then enter a factory, go to a farm, plant a tractor, and be as beautiful as me, maybe you can even enter the literary troupe! As soon as I heard it, I was so happy that I was afraid of missing the opportunity, so I immediately signed up. Strange to say, I signed up and asked me to conduct a medical examination at the temporary medical station on the side, and it was done in one fell swoop. Then there's the roster and military uniforms. It was early spring, and I was given a single coat, gray, when they wore me the logo of the Xinjiang recruitment group! I woke up from the excitement in the mirror, I came to study accounting, my sister was still waiting for me at home, I felt panicked at this time, one was afraid that my sister would scold people and disagree, and second, although I was not old, I also knew that there was no children's play in the army, and you could not play a small character when you put on the military uniform. After thinking about it, I only begged Peng Jinghua to go to my sister's house with me and let her help me do my sister's work!
After entering the door and calling my sister, I did not dare to be angry, my sister was actually very smart, looking at the military uniform to know what the situation was, the tears flowed out of the scene, I also hugged her and cried when I looked at her, because I didn't know where Xinjiang was, how far away from Changsha, how long it would take to see my sister. My sister's mother-in-law kept nagging on the side: Why should a girl run so far, that place is where the distribution was before? Hearing her say this, my sister was even more upset and cried even harder. Fortunately, Peng Jinghua can speak the Tao, plus the wood has become a boat. My sister didn't have much to do either. As I was leaving, I saw my sister standing in the doorway with red eyes, repeating, "You're coming back!" You're coming back!" I lowered my head, didn't dare to look at her, and just walked forward with tears in my eyes.
Machine farming group
(ii)
On March 17, 1951, thousands of our female soldiers left Changsha by train and embarked on a westward journey.
The station was crowded, full of people sending off, and many people were crying. My eldest sister and fifth sister, as well as my brother-in-law, came to send me. My sister hugged me and cried, and I cried and comforted her: I will definitely come back, and what I did not expect was that until 1973, when I first went home to visit my family, there was a gap of 22 years. When the train left the station, the whole train was singing the song of the Communist Youth League. Now that I think about it, it seems like it's all in front of you.
We passed through Zhengzhou via Wuhan and crossed the Yellow River to Xi'an. Here, for 10 days of political education, then take a car to continue westward, through the Hexi Corridor, out of Yumen Pass, and beyond the Tianshan Mountains before you can reach the capital of Xinjiang.
The whole trip was more than 4,000 kilometers, and under the traffic conditions at that time, it took four or five months to reach Xinjiang, which was still smooth, and it took almost half a year if it was not smooth. At the beginning, revolutionary songs such as "Young people, fiery hearts, follow Mao Zedong forward..." were repeatedly played in the carriage, and as time went on, especially because of various diseases and car accidents, people began to die one after another in the middle, and everyone's emotions slowly became heavy. Tarpaulins were mounted on large trucks, and forty people sat in one car, and in order to prevent the sneak attack of the remnants of the bandits along the way, two armed fighters accompanied the car to defend. We sat on our luggage and leaned against each other. Sometimes, we would wrap our hair in hats and dress up as male soldiers, or disguise umbrellas we bought on the road as weapons such as machine guns. Used to scare the bad guys.
Most of the trucks we were sitting on at that time were "Dodge brand" cars that the United States aided China during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and these cars were often broken down on the road due to lack of maintenance and poor condition. In addition, the road into Xinjiang at that time was also sparse, and it was remarkable to be able to run more than a hundred miles a day.
For those of us in Hunan, these are still tolerable, and the most intolerable thing is diet. Usually in the hometown often eat rice, while the north eats is a large bread steamed bun, the weather is cold as hard as a stone, then how to eat it. Many people would rather be hungry than give the daily bread to the women and children who begged for food along the way in Gansu, because everyone only thinks that eating rice is eating! Some mischievous comrades-in-arms also rewrote a song: I am a soldier, from Hunan Province, I have not eaten rice for three days, and my stomach hurts. The cake is like a millstone, sitting under the hips, entering Gansu to give to the victims, but also for the people.
The most dangerous thing along the way is to flip over Liupan Mountain, that mountain road is really dangerous, a car accident may occur at any time if you are not careful, sitting in the car you can look out of the car at any time, if you are not careful, you can find the graves of the female soldiers who died in the previous batch of overturned cars, lonely on both sides of the highway. It wasn't until I arrived in Xinjiang that my mood improved a little. There are three fears on the whole road: fear of getting sick, fear of bandits, fear of overturning. Fortunately, our car went smoothly to hit Hami. After resting here for another three days, I began to distribute, some people went to the north, some people went to the south, and I was assigned to the south. Southern Xinjiang is more bitter, and going north is to Go to Urumqi, but I think since I came, I will follow the party anyway, so I will go to the most difficult place, and I will not make any emotions.
Finally we arrived at the destination, the Aksu 5th Army Division. At the beginning of the training, Aksu was good, and finally ate rice here, and it was very happy to see the rice at that time. The only regret is that there are no peppers. I and five comrades-in-arms were assigned to the propaganda team of the 13th Regiment of the 295th Division in Kuqa County. In October 1951, the director of our Propaganda Department asked me to come out with the command regiment to the 13th regiment and the first battalion to carry out teaching tasks in the Ili area of northern Xinjiang. So I went to northern Xinjiang again.
Female soldiers entering Xinjiang
(iii)
The first battalion of the 13th Regiment went to northern Xinjiang, but in fact they were ordered to suppress bandits from Kucha to Iligong County, and I don't know why, but one of my cultural and labor regiments was also transferred to suppress bandits. However, the regimental headquarters still took good care of our female soldiers, and let me and my comrade-in-arms Wang Kuichi live next door to deputy regimental commander Chai, next to three guards and two shakers to ensure our safety. One night, in the middle of the night, an earthquake occurred, and the ground shook so much that everyone thought they had encountered an attack, and they all rushed out with guns, and the result was an earthquake and a false alarm. Everyone laughed.
At that time, we were very disciplined in the army, plus we were young, and people were very simple and well-behaved. Our deputy regimental commander was already married at the time, and it was the military university that found a lover. He was very nice to me. We women soldiers are very concerned about both at work and in life. One battalion consisted of three companies, each with a machine gun company, and we were at the headquarters. There was a radio station in the command, there was a rocker, and there was a correspondent, and because I had nothing to do, I loved to learn from the rockers and correspondents like those who didn't know, asked questions if they didn't know, helped them collect telegrams, and got acquainted with the soldiers when they came and went. The commander of the Zhao camp was very interesting, and often asked his correspondent to carry me notes, and sometimes he also brought me some food. I even had some money for the New Year's Holidays, but I was young and didn't know why he was so nice to me. But I knew that girls couldn't easily accept gifts from others at any time, so I refused. Later, I learned that I was transferred to northern Xinjiang because Zhao Yingchang was nominally in touch with the feelings of the old revolutionaries. Our instructor's wife is Sichuan Zhiqing, and she played very well with me, she told me all the situations, it turned out that Zhao Yingchang was an old revolutionary, an old cadre! Originally, there was no quota for me in northern Xinjiang, and the regiment was selected by Wang Kuichi, who was older than me, but Commander Zhao took a fancy to me, so our political commissar had to come, and she also revealed to me that Commander Zhao was making trouble at home after drinking wine, and his mouth was still desperately calling my name Ma Shaorong. But I think when I came to Xinjiang, I didn't learn anything, I didn't have any skills, and how I could contribute to the people of Xinjiang. I told the regimental commander that I didn't want to have sex now, and I didn't agree with anyone who came to me. I worked for a long time, and I didn't agree with it. The regimental commander didn't push me anymore. But Commander Zhao didn't spare me, so I avoided him everywhere, but he didn't give up, he tried everything to send me something, and once I was angry and threw everything on the ground! Just don't collect. Until he married my comrade-in-arms Wang Kuichi. He didn't pestering me anymore. Later, I was transferred to Bayi Agricultural College to learn the structure and operation of tractors! I don't know exactly why.
Pioneered the first plough of Shorebrak
Shortly after they got married, I received a notice from the regiment that I was sent to Xinjiang Bayi Agricultural College to study, and I was finally transferred away, and I jumped up happily, and in August I took a forklift to The Eight Farmers and began to learn agriculture, learn to drive tractors, and learn machinery. I just went to junior high school for more than a year, the foundation is not good, so I went in after very hard, at that time there was only one female comrade, and finally came three, Chen Feng, Chen Yinxiu and Li Yuneng, we four female comrades, is the first phase of the Bayi Agricultural College to recruit students, very famous in Xinjiang. I worked very hard, I went there in 1952, and I joined the group on April 13, 2053.
I was very naïve at that time, when I joined the group, there was a classmate surnamed Gu to chase me, wrote a letter, I directly handed it to the league branch, causing him to be criticized, I was really naïve, at that time I often had to have meetings, every week to open a group review self-examination, many people just went to get married, I only got married in 56 years, I had my first child in 57 years! It's relatively late.
In August 1953, I graduated and returned to the regiment, at that time there was only one tractor in the regiment, because I had learned to drive a tractor in Erie, so this tractor belonged to me. Shobulak in the Uyghur is the meaning of holy spring, meaning that this is a fertile land, but the original is people pulling the plough, sowing by hand, everyone calls this "five elements planter", the efficiency is very low, at the end of the day, the reclamation of more than an acre of tired half dead, so when I drive the TD54 tractor, a large area of land is turned over by the machine, people are cheering, this is the first plough in the history of Shoalbulak machine reclamation, the sea of people, some comrades stretched out their hands covered with blood bubbles, shed tears!