There is such a border town on the ancient Silk Road in Xinjiang, my country. According to legend, a believer who went to India to seek scriptures with Master Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty was buried here after his death.
Therefore, this place is named "Satura", and after translating this Uyghur word into Chinese, it means "martyr".
There is an unverified legend in the local area. When the Ming soldiers from the Seven Guards of Guanxi came here to garrison, they met the descendants of the soldiers guarding the border in the Tang Dynasty . When the Qing Dynasty died soldiers came here for the first time, they also I met the descendants of the Ming Dynasty garrison soldiers.
However, in well-documented historical records, when the Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers came to Saitura, they really experienced the legendary "cross-generation defense".
PLA soldiers patrolling the western border
In March 1950, when a commander and fighter of the 15th Regiment of the 5th Division of the 2nd Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army crossed three snow-capped mountains to Saitura, they were stunned by the scene in front of them.
In this mountain post without birds singing, several young people in ragged, pale and thin faces and old-faced people burst into tears when they saw them, and kept talking: "Since someone has changed their posts! "
The commanders and soldiers were inexplicably surprised. Xinjiang had just been liberated peacefully, and the People's Liberation Army had not been long before it entered southern Xinjiang. It was impossible for someone to be stationed here, let alone change the post.
People's Liberation Army Liberated Tibet
So, what kind of place is Saitura, which has been garrisoned by officers and soldiers of all dynasties in the legend?
Who are the PLA soldiers meeting?
What will happen to these people?
suicide squad
Speaking of Saitura, we have to talk about Xinjiang. When it comes to Xinjiang, we must talk about Aguber and Zuo Zongtang .
Agubo, nicknamed " Central Asian Butcher ", was born in Central Asia and is now a small village near Uzbekistan capital Tashkent . When he was not old, his parents died, and he was regarded as "turning into a child". "I gave it to the attendant of the local Kokan Khanate ruler.
It is obvious that this "becoming a child" experience gave Aguber a very unpleasant memory, and the seeds of distortion and cruelty were planted in his heart.
At that time, the Tashkent area was also full of "grass-headed kings". When Agubai grew up, he continued to expand his power through the marriage between his sister and the local leader, and gradually became a prince.
Agubai
1864, anti-Qing uprisings broke out in various parts of Xinjiang, and many separatist regimes were established. The rulers of the Kokhan Khanate also took the opportunity to send Agubo to Xinjiang to take advantage of it.
In May 1867, Agupai, who had already become full of wings, established the "Hongfu Khanate" in southern Xinjiang.
The most hateful thing is that the pair of enemies who have long been salivating about our country's Xinjiang Tsarist Russia and the United Kingdom quickly admitted this so-called "Khanate". The Thousand Years "Steam Stirring Stick" Britain actively provided a large number of weapons assistance, and also allowed Aguber's people to recruit many craftsmen from India to build an arsenal.
The purpose of Britain is very clear, which is to cultivate Agubo into a puppet who controls Xinjiang by himself.
With the support of Britain, Agubo illegally occupied almost the entire Xinjiang by the end of 1871, and in fact, it had split Xinjiang from the territory of the Qing Dynasty.
The scheming Aguber also sent people to the "fossil-level" theocracy empire and Ottoman Empire to meet Sultan .
This incident made Sultan very happy. Originally, the empire was already declining, and suddenly a "hugging thighs" came. Sultan stroked his hands and praised him. Then he waved his hand, paid money, guns, military instructors, and also added Agu's title. Bai Wei is " Emil ", hoping to win over this new "little brother".
Britain is very smart and knows that the Ottoman Empire is just a false name, so after learning about this, not only did it not get angry, but it also strongly supported it. The weapons of the Ottoman Empire could be transported to India first, and then Britain helped to transport them to Aguber."European grandmother" Queen Victoria also wrote a handwritten letter to Aguber, saying that both sides should "be united forever."
At this time, the "three surnames become children" Agubo has become a major threat that the Qing government can no longer ignore. Its brutal rule similar to the current "ISIS ISIS" has also aroused the indignation of the vast number of people in Xinjiang. The slogan "kill when you see , Haohan people" has resounded throughout the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains.
"The sky is crazy and there is rain, but people are crazy and there is disaster." Agubai is about to usher in his dream ender, Zuo Zongtang.
Zuo Zongtang
Agubai was doing evil in Xinjiang, and the Qing government had not recovered from the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" movement that destroyed the world. It was short of money and food, and it felt a little out of reach for Xinjiang. Therefore, the matter of sending troops has been shaking.
And just in 1874, the Qing government's coastal defense had another problem. The Japanese created the "Peony Society Incident" in Taiwan, and their plans to annex Ryukyu, involve Taiwan and invade China are already obvious.
The Qing government, facing a dilemma of two lines, was immediately caught in a big debate about whether to "maritime defense" or "blockbud defense".
The faction led by Li Hongzhang advocates giving up the northwest for the sake of "coastal defense" and concentrating all food and salary in coastal areas. Zuo Zongtang, on the other hand, expressed his ambition to annex Xinjiang by Britain and Tsarist Russia, and advocated that we must pay attention to the "Prickland Defense" in the western region.
Finally, the Qing government made a "harmony" decree that "takes both the sea and the subsidence", and Zuo Zongtang's efforts finally came to fruition.
Zuo Zongtang believes that only by defeating Aguber can the UK and Tsarist Russia's ambitions for Xinjiang be effectively curbed. Therefore, in order to recover Xinjiang, he made complete preparations and adopted the strategic policy of "first north and then south" and "slowly move forward and urgently attack".
The first step will be to recover the northern border area where Agubo is weak and has fertile land. After establishing a complete base, it will go south to annihilate Agubo's main force in one fell swoop.
At the same time, Xinjiang is vast and sparsely populated, and logistics supply is difficult. We cannot be rushing to achieve success. We must make sufficient pre-war preparations, and then use a thunder strike to defeat the enemy.
Moreover, Zuo Zongtang also used a trick to stabilize the cheap Britain and Russia. He urged the Qing government to borrow money from Britain and then used the loan to buy food from Tsarist Russia.
Afterwards proved that Zuo Zongtang’s set of strategic policies was completely correct.
At this time, Agubo's brutal rule was already in danger. Except for the Kokan people who were in the core ruling circle, he basically did not follow his subordinates wholeheartedly.
On April 7, 1876, 70,000 Qing troops, led by Zuo Zongtang, began the battle to regain Xinjiang. By the end of the year, the Qing army recovered the northern border. In April 1877, the Qing army led its troops south, and the "paper tiger" Agubai died of sudden illness in May. At the end of the year, the Qing army recovered southern Xinjiang. After being ravaged by foreign races for 12 years, the entire Xinjiang region finally returned to the embrace of the motherland.
In order to effectively defend Xinjiang's territory, the establishment of defense in key areas is immediately put on the agenda.
extends for more than 800 kilometers Karakoram Mountains is the key defense line at the westernmost end of Xinjiang territory. Saitura is located on the top of the mountain with a flat terrain and can serve as the base camp for the entire mountain defense line. On both sides are India and southern Xinjiang, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and their strategic position is extremely critical.
The UK had been coveting this place for a long time, trying to steal it as a stronghold, and then relying on India to continuously erode the southern Xinjiang region.
However, the altitude here is more than 3800 meters, the plateau is lacking in oxygen, and the ultraviolet radiation is extremely strong. From the inland Xinjiang to here, you have to cross three mountains with snow all year round. The roads are tortuous and cliffs along the way, so it is very difficult to replenish. Once food is scarce, it is difficult to find a chance to get "wild game".
After curbing the expansion of Tsarist Russian forces in the northern border, it is extremely important to strictly prevent the infiltration of British forces in the west. Therefore, while pacifying southern Xinjiang, Zuo Zongtang ordered more than 100 Hunan Army warriors to form a suicide squad to go to Saitula at all costs to establish the first outpost of the Qing Dynasty on the western border of Xinjiang.
More than 100 people rode camels, led horses, and fed supplies, crossed mountains and rivers, and experienced a life-and-death life. After more than a month of travel, less than half of them arrived in Saitura.
The surviving warriors, with the help of nearby mountain people, collected earth and stone as building materials and built the initial barracks and outposts, and these facilities were used until the Republic of China period.
outpost site
Just like that, batch after batch of Chinese men have been in the severe cold all year round, facing the strong wind and the scorching sun, overcoming the many difficulties of being unable to adapt to the local environment, lack of food and clothing, and being unable to treat the disease, and tenaciously in this place Among the highest outposts in the Qing Dynasty, they performed their duties conscientiously and defended the western border of China.
However, at this time, there is not much time left for the Qing government. Will this important border defense center built with great difficulty be abandoned?
The place of ancestors
In a blink of an eye, the Qing Dynasty fell in 1911, and the warriors who were originally stationed in Saitura were gradually withering. The land of China is full of war, and warlords have begun, and no one cares about this important border town anymore. Fortunately, Tsarist Russia and Britain, which pose the greatest threat to our Xinjiang, were busy preparing for the first World War 1 and participating in the First World War, and had no energy to attack Xinjiang again in the years after the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
and after , Tsarist Russia fell, the new Soviet Union was busy with civil war and resisting external interference, and Britain had been tortured by World War I to the death.
So in the past 10 years after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the external threat to Xinjiang became much smaller.
At this time, Xinjiang was under the rule of the last Qing Dynasty governor, Yang Zengxin, and was in a state of separatism. Both external forces and the Beiyang government were unable to get involved.
Yang Zengxin
1928, Yang Zengxin announced his surrender to Nanjing National Government , but he was assassinated that year, and Jin Shuren came to power and became the chairman of Xinjiang.
The domestic situation has subsided, and Saitura, a strategic location, has finally been remembered again. In 1928, Jin Shuren set up a governing bureau in Saitura, established a border guard checkpoint team, and sent more than 100 troops to garrison. Later, it increased to more than 200 people, and other fortresses were started to be built with Saitura as the base camp.
It is said that when the Kuomintang garrison soldiers arrived in Saitura, the original Qing garrison soldiers were already old. When they learned that they were coming to garrison, they asked them why they didn't leave their braids.
When the Kuomintang soldiers told these old soldiers that the Qing Dynasty had been dead for 17 years, although the old soldiers felt lost, they still told them to "don't care who owns the world, and be optimistic about the territory left by their ancestors."
At that time, the Kuomintang government had limited financial resources and was unable to renovate the roads to front-line checkpoints such as Saitura. Therefore, there was no significant change in the living conditions of Saitura posts during the Republic of China period compared with those during the Qing Dynasty.
There are about 30 to 40 soldiers stationed here all year round.
html When the scenery is good in 0 years, you can send supplies from the mainland of Xinjiang at regular intervals. Even if there are no delicacies, there is no big problem with eating fullness. However, the natural environment of the snow-capped mountains is changing. When the snowy mountain is blocked, it is easy to lose food. The garrison officers and soldiers could only barely survive by drinking cornmeal porridge. After drinking for a few months, all the officers and soldiers were basically pale and thin.
And the outpost has no electricity and cannot transport coal. Usually, you can only rely on burning cow dung to keep heating. It is too cold, so you can only hold a few people together to survive the cold night. The lighting is only kerosene lamps. When the kerosene is used up, you can only sleep when it gets dark.
Dozens of big men have finished all the things they can say, and they have finished all the things they can chat with. They can only stare at each other every day. There are no entertainment activities except looking at the snow mountain. This isolated life can easily cause people to suffer from mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety.
When patrolling regularly every year, it takes 3 months to half a year to walk the Karakoram Snow Mountains, which are more than 800 kilometers north and south. Moreover, when walks on the ridge snow line, the most uncomfortable thing is lack of oxygen. Over time, it will cause great damage to the lungs. itself is not eating well, and coupled with the exhaustive patrol, some soldiers will die halfway through the road without persevering until the end, and their partners can only bury their bodies on the spot with snow. After the founding of the People's Liberation Army soldiers also discovered Kuomintang soldiers. The frozen mummy.
Even if you are stationed at the outpost, malnutrition and bad weather will cause the death of the garrison officers and soldiers, so dozens of tombs of dead officers and soldiers from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China are everywhere around the Saitura post.
However, fortunately, the defense change cycle is 1 year, and there is still hope at the beginning. But when Chiang Kai-shek launched a civil war with , the hope was a little slim.
During the War of Liberation, the Kuomintang government was already overwhelmed and simply forgot about the officers and soldiers stationed in Saitura.
Forgotten people
The last batch of Kuomintang garrisons went up the mountain in 1946. They finally survived until the end of one year, but the people who changed defense could not wait.
They have been waiting for four years, so the scene at the beginning of this article appears.
PLA soldiers looked at the crying and ragged Kuomintang soldiers in front of them in surprise, and couldn't help but comfort them: "Okay, your mission is over, and now we have to change defense."
KMT soldiers use The already shiny black cuffs wiped their tears. An older soldier then discovered the PLA soldier's chest mark and was also surprised.
"You are...People's Liberation Army? Which yamen belongs to?"
"The Kuomintang government has fallen, and the country is now the people are in charge of their own country. We are the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the people's own troops, not from any yamen." The PLA soldiers smiled. answered.
PLA soldiers
"Ah... it fell, the people's government." The older soldier seemed to understand, and the long-term isolation made his thinking a little slow.
"Yes, now we are here, you can go down the mountain to rest, thank you for your hard work." The People's Liberation Army soldier said, holding the rough hand of the Kuomintang veteran like a dead tree.
Then, the Kuomintang soldiers invited PLA soldiers to enter a stone outpost, lit some cow dung for heating, and began to ask about the changes in the country in recent years.
People's Liberation Army soldiers patiently explained the situation to them and explained our army's preferential policies. At the same time, the company commander decided to send several soldiers to take them back to the troops' station after two days of rest.
Just the morning when several Kuomintang soldiers left, the PLA soldiers lined up and stood up, and all saluted the military salutes to these "former dynasty" border guards who were about to return home. In any case, these Kuomintang soldiers stayed here for four years. , and also to defend this great country, their tenacity and loyalty are equally worthy of respect.
Later, these Kuomintang soldiers were warmly received by our army. After undergoing physical examinations and recuperation, the division headquarters issued a certificate letter to them and provided the travel expenses for the trip home.
And our PLA soldiers continued to perform their ordinary and great duties of guarding the border in the ancient fortress of Seratu.
Iron clothes and hard work for a long time, Jade chopsticks should cry after parting.
From the Han Dynasty to the present, countless Chinese men have guarded the border of the land of China without regrets. Although they have long merged with the vast sea of sand and have disappeared forever in the long river of history, their swords and shadows are still in the swords and swords. The towering military soul forged by the fearless passion in the world will always loyally protect the vast Yanhuang land.
