They faced the raging wind and snow and broke through the harassment of bandits as they marched westward. They also started their own different work and life... It was their dedication that ended the history of "cultivating and guarding the border for one generation" and made Xin

Hunan is blooming

Special report on the oral history of eight thousand Hunan women

72 years ago, the first large-scale Hunan female soldiers in the history of the Republic rushed to the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains. They faced the raging wind and snow, broke through the harassment of the bandits, and started their own different work and life...

It was their efforts that ended the history of "cultivating and guarding the border for one generation" and made Xinjiang, Let the motherland’s thousands-mile border defense maintain long-term peace and stability.

Time flies, and the years have already turned the young girls who were in their prime when they set out into the weather-beaten grandmothers who came back. Their youth is blooming in Xinjiang. What remains unchanged is their original intention of devoting their lives to the motherland and changing the face of the frontier; their great love and loyalty to serve the country, their courage and quality of will, and their lofty state of dedication will shine forever.

The "Xiangnu Stone" by the Xiang River faces Tianshan Mountains from a distance. At the foot of the Tianshan Mountains and by the Xiang River, family love continues to grow.

[Hunan Girl File]

Hunan girl Dai Jinyuan was born in 1936. She entered Urumqi, Xinjiang in 1952 and worked at Shuimogou Qiyi Textile Factory. She later transferred to Changsha Yuxiang Cotton Factory and retired here. She now lives in Changsha.

Looking through the photos of my lover before he died

My youth of fighting in Xinjiang reappeared

Oral/Dai Jinyuanwen/Zhu Hongjiang

When 86-year-old Dai Jinyuan talked about her life in Urumqi, her face carved by time could not hide the rising corners of her mouth, she said : I have never forgotten those past experiences.

Going to Tianshan alone without telling her parents was a green adventure, a twisting opportunity, and a reunion for the 16-year-old. The Republic's transformation from a desperate situation to the rise of a great power is reflected in the joys and sorrows of eight thousand Hunan girls. Looking back suddenly, these past events do not disappear like smoke, but blow slowly like the evening breeze.

01

"Xinjiang is a place that is fun to listen to"

In 1952, not long after liberation, I was 16 years old and a sewing worker in Changsha Textile Factory.

My parents had a total of 11 children, and they all lived in the countryside. I worked alone in Changsha and rented a house.

That day, I learned from my coworkers that the country was recruiting people to join the Xinjiang Construction Corps. "Xinjiang is a place that is fun to hear!" I told the people around me. html I am 316 years old and it is my nature to love to play. I signed up with my coworkers without even thinking about it.

After signing up, I learned that there was still an "exam". Each person was given a paper and asked to fill in our name, age, family situation, workplace information, etc. After filling in, we went back to wait. We all really hope that we can pass the exam.

After waiting for a few days, someone came to see me and informed me that I had been selected. At that time, I had not told my parents about this, so I went back to prepare the bedding, packed the quilt, and followed them to the gathering place very ignorantly and impulsively.

As soon as I arrived at the gathering place, I was dumbfounded: Wuyangyang Baibao people were assigned to a room. They were all Changsha girls. Everyone was sleeping in Datongpu, speaking with the same accent, and they were all talking about Xinjiang.

On February 8, 1952, we set off from Changsha, took a bus to Wuhan, and then boarded a ferry from Wuhan.

The northwest is arid, with few waterways and many land routes. I got off the ferry and transferred to a car. Driving to the northwest inland, the first stop was Xi'an, where we put on the military uniforms we dreamed of.

Walking west, we arrived in Gansu. During the day, the road was long and dusty. At night, we got off the car and went to the stable in the village, where we used some hay to sleep.

When we arrived in Xinjiang, we had to wait Turpan Flame Mountain before we could eat in a local restaurant.

There is a kind of steamed buns dipped in sauce in the northwest that is very popular among everyone. We often eat the sauce, but before the steamed buns are finished, a group of people are chewing on them dry steamed buns, but what they are thinking about is the mouthful of sauce. My sister called me, "Please order some more sauce." I sneaked into the back kitchen and saw a large jar of sauce sitting there. When I opened the lid, I saw that the jar was filled with maggots, which scared me to death. But in order to tease the sisters, I still served a little. After they finished eating, I took them to see the kitchen, and suddenly opened the maggot dipping jar. They held the wall and vomited for a long time, but I laughed on the side. .

I also became the most naughty one among the sisters in the team. In this way, the car arrived in Urumqi.

Photos of Dai Jinyuan in Xinjiang

02

"Little naughty" has a small temper,

But everything is messed up

Tianshan is covered with snow all year round, and the black clouds in May It’s still very cold in Rumuqi. As far as the eye can see, there are houses made of mud bricks. I want to go to the toilet. You still have to go dig the hole yourself. At night, my sisters and I often make appointments to go together. When I see stars in the distance, like lanterns, I call on everyone to go there. "Baby! That's a tiger!" One sister pointed at the "lantern" and said, scaring us so much that we ran back.

At that time, when I went to bed at night, I missed home. Whenever I have a bad temper, I like to sleep in in the morning and deliberately don't get up. One morning, the leader came to call me: "Everyone wakes up and wakes up! Why can't you do it?" I replied: "When I came here, I said that there would be lights and telephones, but now I don't even have shoes, and I can't do it! I want to Hui Ke! "

is tough-talking but soft-hearted. I was tossing and turning. I wanted to go home, but I couldn't wait to get back to work.

At first I was assigned to the Qiyi Textile Factory in Shuimogou. In the factory, I was known to like to fight with my sisters.

One day, a soldier came to me. "Where is that naughty little kid?" he shouted, and I answered him. He said that the leader asked me to learn "statistics", which were some arithmetic and statistical methods.

I have a good mind, but I just don’t like reading, so I complained to my boss. After the leader found out, he arranged for a fellow and educated sister to work with me to help me study.

After a period of time, the leaders of the Textile Bureau came to inspect me. When they saw how I was practicing, they actually praised me: "Look, this 'little naughty' hasn't read any books, but he can do everything! ”

Not long after, a section chief named He transferred me to the Textile Bureau.

Seeing that I had learned "statistics", he asked me to be responsible for sealing and managing five canteens, including a special Hui canteen. Hui compatriots have different tastes, so coordinating them is not an easy task. The northern chefs in the cafeteria were not very good at cooking at first. They split the pumpkin in half and steamed it with water. The steamed product was tasteless, so I told them to chop the pumpkin into small pieces, boil it in some water, and add some sugar to make it more delicious. The chef followed my method, and the workers all applauded.

Work is on the right track. In our spare time, we also carry out many cultural and sports activities. When the army saw that I was tall, they asked me to play in the table tennis, volleyball, and basketball teams. We often held competitions among employees, and I often played until I was red-faced. , all want to win.

Many Uyghur and Hui employees have a very good relationship with me. They did not understand Chinese and taught me to speak Uyghur. I still remember a few words to this day.

In 1955, Urumqi held the first workers’ sports meeting of all ethnic groups to commemorate the event.

03

Encountering bamboo horses and burying them in love in Tianshan

This state lasted for several years, until another person appeared in my life, my lover. Li Yongchang.

At that time, he was a border guard in Kashgar and joined the army in Baoji. We were neighbors when we were in Changsha. I remember he even carried me on his back. My brother was the same age as him and we were old acquaintances.

Around 1957, he came to Urumqi to study. My brother wrote to him, asking him to come and see me.

Since then, he has come to see me often, and sometimes invites me to go horse riding on the grassland at the foot of Tianshan Mountain. I didn't know how to do it, so he patiently taught me step by step, fearing that I would be bored, and even used some balloons to play with to relieve my boredom. Later, we fell in love.

In 1958, we got married in Xinjiang and were assigned a house. Because he was a border guard, he had been stationed on the border of Xinjiang and was in charge of the warehouse for storing guns. Who would have thought that he would eventually die in Xinjiang.

Two years after I got married, I gave birth to my eldest son. I felt homesick even more, so I considered changing careers and returning home with my child. I heard that Changsha Yuxiang Cotton Mill was short of workers, so I gave up my salary of 114 yuan a month in Xinjiang and returned to my hometown of Changsha with my eldest daughter.

That’s it, We are two husband and wife, one is at the foot of Tianshan Mountain and the other is by the Xiangjiang River.

In 1972, a telegram was sent from the army saying that Li Yongchang was critically ill and the army was sending him from Xinjiang to the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital in Beijing for emergency treatment. He asked me to go to Beijing as soon as possible.

This is the last time I see my husband.

In May 1971, relations between China and the Soviet Union were tense. My husband was ordered to set up a checkpoint near the border between Mongolia and the Soviet Union. During a confrontation, he was hit by a Soviet weapon. After being rescued, he thought he had escaped death. Unexpectedly, he died of a stomach infection a year later.

His memorial service was also held in Xinjiang, and Tianshan eventually became his destination.

After my lover passed away, the organization at that time took into account my situation as a soldier changing jobs and gave me a military salary on top of my salary. Slowly, as the country became richer and stronger, my retirement salary and pension also increased.

Now I am old, I have raised three children and enjoy my old age. Occasionally I will open the photos, look at the scene in Xinjiang, look at the face of my lover, and recall the time when we struggled together.

- END -

Reporter’s Notes: What she talks about are the interesting things rather than the sufferings

Dai Jinyuan, who is over eighty years old, has some disadvantages in her legs and feet, but she is quite excited when talking about Xinjiang.

During the narration process, the old man's mind kept jumping back and forth from Changsha and Urumqi, and I also went on a time-travel journey with the old man. When talking about the various details on the journey, she talks about the interesting things on the way rather than the hardships.

I was afraid that I would not be able to fully understand the description of the language, so the old man slowly went to the bedroom to look for his "carefully packaged" photo album. Because her eyesight is not very good because of her age, she looked for it with her hands and asked me with gestures: "Is this picture from Xinjiang?" After I got the photo and looked at it, I judged that it was not the case. The old man smiled slightly and continued to take pictures patiently. One picture introduced me to the scene, looking for the scene described in the mouth.

The only thing that made her feel a little sad was the death of her husband. Recalling the romantic scene of walking on Tianshan Mountain, the old man's eyes became brighter.While she was talking about her daily life, she was describing to me those magical-sounding stories with great certainty, which seemed to cast a layer of surreal mystery into the entire journey to the Western Regions.

Several times, I was afraid that the old woman’s narration would be too long and she would be exhausted, so I hoped that she would continue the interview after a short break, but the old woman refused. During the pause in the narrative, she sat quietly on the sofa alone, sorting out some messy photos, as if she had returned to the passionate years again... Lingxi