A "troop" of 3.25 million people has almost no one wearing a military uniform, but their duty is still to guard the border. The frontier has always been synonymous with hardship and desolation, but they have reclaimed thousands of hectares of fertile land for China in the desolate frontier and maintained a century-old foundation.
They have a glorious name, called Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps .
The origin of this great corps can be traced back to the eve of the founding of New China.
It was September 16, 1949. Tao Zhiyue, the commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang’s Xinjiang garrison, led an uprising of 70,000 people, and Xinjiang was peacefully liberated.
But behind the arrival of peace, there are still many Kuomintang remnants who are trying to resist to the end and undermine New China's governance and construction of Xinjiang.
Against this background, Peng Dehuai ordered General Wang Zhen, commander of the First Corps of the First Field Army, to lead the Corps headquarters and the 2nd and 6th armies to Xinjiang as soon as possible to take over the garrison.
On October 10, 1949, Wang Zhen's leading troops arrived in Dihua, the capital of Xinjiang, on a rented Soviet transport aircraft. Outside Dihua, they were greeted by Xinjiang Security Commander Tao Zhi, Chairman of the Kuomintang Xinjiang Province, Bao Erhanhan. Yue's warm welcome.
In the following month, tens of thousands more troops arrived in Xinjiang via the Hexi Corridor and the vast Gobi, and a vigorous anti-counterrevolutionary operation was launched immediately.
At this time, there were three major rebel forces in Xinjiang, the Ma Zhanlin Department who rebelled after the Kuomintang uprising, Usman, the former Kuomintang commissioner for the Altay region in the northern Xinjiang grassland, and Jamunihan, the former Kuomintang finance director of Xinjiang.
These people are all bandits. In order to kill the People's Liberation Army, they can shoot and run. All supplies of materials and ammunition are provided by the United States and the Kuomintang. After the People's Liberation Army entered Xinjiang, they were still dreaming about the Kuomintang's counterattack and occupying the territory in troubled times.
But the arrival of the People's Liberation Army completely taught them how to behave. From the end of October 1949 to the beginning of 1952, as more and more people from the People's Liberation Army entered Xinjiang, the local security in Xinjiang became better and better. The three largest local rebel forces were all dismantled under the heavy blows of the People's Liberation Army. While dismantling them, General Wang Zhen also led the army to carry out the necessary preparations for large-scale farming in Xinjiang, which was to divert water.
When Wang Zhen entered Xinjiang, Xinjiang only had a population of 4.3 million and a total industrial and agricultural output value of only 720 million yuan, of which the industrial output value was less than 40 million yuan. Almost all people in Xinjiang are farmers, but their average wealth is only one kantuman and one sickle per household. The vast majority of people do not own their own land. Apart from the rent paid to the landlord and the seeds that must be left behind, each person can get less than 200 kilograms of grain every year.
What is the purpose of the People's Liberation Army entering Xinjiang? Isn't it about changing everything? But to change this situation, we can only do a good job in farming and reclaim the land. Since ancient times, the Xinjiang area has been my country's border. Farming has flourished, and the border has been stable; farming has been abandoned, and the border has been chaotic. After the founding of New China, the People's Liberation Army naturally had to pick up the good ideas of its ancestors first. In this way, it can not only solve the problem of food rations for the army, but also improve people's lives.
So, at the beginning of 1950, Wang Zhen led the Corps to start looking for a place to build canals and divert water. In order to complete this plan, Wang Zhen invited several water conservancy experts and engineers to guide the design and construction.
But when the water conservancy expert handed over the design plan that met the standards to Wang Zhen, Fan Baoyun, the veteran engineer who was responsible for guiding the construction, ran into difficulties. He told Wang Zhen that to build the canal according to this design plan, 7,000 cubic meters of dry-lay stone on both sides of the canal alone would be needed. One cubic meter is calculated as 3,000 kilograms, which means it would take 100 trucks to pull it for a month. At that time, Wang Zhen didn't have many cars on hand, so how could this plan work?
But after Wang Zhen heard what Fan Baoyun said, he laughed loudly and said: "We don't have a car, but we have a tractor. In five days, please see the tractor!"
Five days later, Fan Baoyun came to the construction site, and the scene in front of him was It shook him violently.
I saw nearly 10,000 People's Liberation Army soldiers on the endless Gobi desert, dragging pieces of slate that had just been produced from the quarry with ropes, and slowly moved them to the construction site.In front of everyone were the corps commanders headed by Wang Zhen. They endured the pain caused by the bloody battlefield, braved the cold wind, and took the lead in dragging the stone slabs.
This scene shocked everyone watching, including the person who gave Wang Zhen advice, Fan Baoyun, the engineer responsible for guiding the construction work.
years later, he still clearly remembered the soul-stirring power and scene. Not only he remembers it, but also thousands of people in Dihua, Xinjiang.
Later, under the leadership of General Wang Zhen, 100 vehicles were originally used to transport the stone for a month, but it was completed in just 20 days.
At this time, the spring of 1950 had just arrived. Soon after, this canal born from the back of the People's Liberation Army was completed. It was named "Jiangjun Canal". The water source came from Tianshan and flowed through Dihua, irrigating the 500,000 acres of land being reclaimed by the People's Liberation Army. , and gradually realized General Wang Zhen’s bold words of “turning Xinjiang into Nanniwan”, because where there is water, there is land, and where there is land, there is food.
Even in the desolate Gobi, the People's Liberation Army will not take away a needle or thread from the people. Instead, it relies on its own hands to produce the food it needs.
When the spring plowing began in 1950, all PLA officers and soldiers received a cantuman made of artillery shells and bullet casings. Armed with this production tool, everyone gathered on the newly reclaimed land.
The soldiers were cultivating the fields, and the division commanders went to the streets to collect manure and compost. Everyone was working hard to prevent the troops from being short of food and to keep the local people well fed.
In order to carry out farming more conveniently, the People's Liberation Army soldiers at that time dug out pits next to the land using local materials, and then used haystacks and tamarisk to tie up triangular grass sheds and cover them on the pits. There were barracks one by one. But even in such a simple residence, they only stay there for less than 10 hours a day.
Because in the eyes of many People's Liberation Army soldiers, land reclamation is to create a happy life and to stabilize the borders of the motherland. In this case, you must devote yourself wholeheartedly, contribute yourself, and benefit everyone.
Under the guidance of such dedication, Wang Zhen's army reclaimed 1.6 million acres of land in Xinjiang and harvested more than 99.6 million kilograms of grain in just two years.
Such production results not only enable the troops to be self-sufficient, but also greatly reduce the burden on the local people. According to statistics, before the People's Liberation Army entered Xinjiang, the local people had to bear 700,000 shi of food to pay various taxes; but after the People's Liberation Army entered Xinjiang, the burden on the people was reduced to 440,000 shi.
The more direct impact of such achievements is that society has stabilized. The People's Liberation Army no longer has to spend great efforts to suppress bandits. Instead, it has shifted all its work focus to production and construction. By the end of 1952, our party, according to the current situation, changes, formally adjusting the positioning of the People's Liberation Army stationed in Xinjiang and reorganizing it into a national defense force and a production force.
The eternal national policy of "garrisoning fields and guarding borders" finally shines with new light under the leadership of New China. However, time has changed, and what General Wang Zhen has to do is not just to stabilize the border with farming.
New China needs not only a stable border, but also a strong province that can contribute to the country's industrialization. And this is what General Wang Zhen will do next.
As early as 1951, Wang Zhen announced to the entire army: "We must build our own industrial system in Xinjiang, build our own steel plants and textile plants, but we cannot ask for money from the country, let alone exploit the people of Xinjiang. I only I can ask for it from you." Wang Zhen's words are to ask the troops to save money and spend money to build the industrial system and develop the secondary industry.
Soon, new orders were issued to the Army Logistics Department. Wang Zhen requested that when manufacturing military uniforms, the military region should change the collar to a single layer, reduce the four pockets of cadre uniforms to two, and leave only one pocket of the two for ordinary soldiers.
Not only that, the rations for everyone in the army must also be reduced.In this way, everyone in the army can save 91 yuan.
In addition to these hard-earned money, 90% of the people in the army also donated some of their savings, and some retired soldiers even donated their retirement transfer fees. By the end of 1951, the funds gathered were enough to cover 80% of Xinjiang's two-year industrial construction expenditure.
With sufficient financial support, Xinjiang built important large-scale industrial facilities such as the Liudaowan Open-pit Coal Mine, Wulabo Hydropower Station, Xinjiang Cement Factory, Qiyi Cotton Mill, and Bayi Iron and Steel Factory in the next year.
At the same time, small workshops such as rice milling, flour grinding, oil extraction, wood sawing, and quilt making have also sprung up in Xinjiang. It was the development of these industrial facilities that gave the newly reclaimed farmland more efficient production tools and methods.
In the process of industry feeding back agriculture , many ordinary people have dedicated their youth and even their lives to it, Jin Maofang is one of them.
She is the daughter of a Hui landowner. Since the founding of New China, she has been baptized by new ideas and has always thought about contributing to the construction of the motherland. In 1952, when she learned that Xinjiang needed female soldiers, she immediately ran from the countryside to the county recruitment office to sign up. At that time, she was only 19 years old.
After arriving in Xinjiang, she learned tractor repair and driving skills, and in the spring of 1953, she successfully became the first generation of female tractor drivers in New China.
At that time, the tractor she was driving was a "Motes" tractor imported from the Soviet Union, and there were only 8 of them in Xinjiang. It is so precious that Jin Maofang regards it as his partner.
Jin Maofang drives it to work on the vast farm 365 days a year. Plowing, sowing, fertilizing, and transporting goods, whether it was hot summer or cold winter, Jin Maofang never complained. Even if you can only eat steamed buns and drink cold water, even if you have to go out early and come back late every day, under the stars and the moon.
There is only one belief that supports her continued work, that is, to contribute to the motherland and become the person the motherland needs most. This belief allowed her to complete a task that took 20 years to complete in the 7 years she worked on the farm, and set a record of cultivating 120 acres of land in one day. Later, she became the third female tractor on the 1-yuan currency. Hand prototype.
And like her, there are thousands of people who have a simple belief and have contributed to the motherland. It was precisely because of their selfless dedication that New China decided to set up the Production and Construction Corps in Xinjiang in 1954. .
And they are the first generation of pioneers of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Their dedication and sacrifice have laid the foundation for the prosperity of Xinjiang and the stability of the motherland's frontiers.
Today's Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps has grown from the original 200,000 people to 3.25 million people today. They serve the people in peacetime and soldiers in wartime. With their efforts, Xinjiang is not only a stable frontier of our country, but also a The economy is booming in Jiangnan!
