One day in 1993, there was a place called "Landmine Village" in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. A 23-year-old young man in the village was standing in the ground. He was holding a sickle and shaking all over, as if there was something terrible. thing.
This village is called Balihe Village, and the young man is an out-and-out farmer. Hanzi Wang started school, and this day was the time for his first demining .
Yes, it is a scene that often appears in military dramas. It is a landmine that cannot be easily moved if stepped on. Encountering a landmine on the battlefield, ranging from being injured by shrapnel, to being blown to pieces and bloody, is an existence that everyone talks about.
I saw that Wang Kaixue's clothes were soaked through, and he was shaking like a sieve with the sickle in his hand. The sickle seemed to weigh a thousand pounds in his hand, requiring all his strength to hold it.
followed Wang Kaixue's gaze to the ground and saw that there seemed to be a protruding place in the overgrown field. Wang Kaixue even breathed lightly, raised his hand to wipe the sweat on his forehead, gritted his teeth and slowly squatted down, waving the sickle...
Ten Years of War
Yunnan Province is located in the southwest border of my country, with The more than 4,000-kilometer-long border is an important line of defense between my country and neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Laos and other countries. On February 17, 1979, the Sino-Vietnam self-defense counterattack broke out. The townships and towns in the border counties were affected by artillery fire, and the people Trapped in dire straits.
Balihe Village in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture is a Miao village surrounded by mountains. After climbing over a hill from the village, you enter Vietnam.
With the outbreak of the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, the small village of Balihe has also become a "battlefield". One million landmines have become weapons, claiming the lives of countless soldiers of our army and also providing a source of relief for the 48 people living in the village of Balihe. Every farmer has laid hidden dangers.
One year after the war broke out, the first farmer killed by a landmine appeared in this small village. This farmer is Wang Kaixue's father. Wang Kaixue was 10 years old this year.
When 10-year-old Wang Kai came back from school, he saw a bunch of villagers crying together. He didn't know what the villagers were crying about, so he ignorantly stepped forward to check and saw a scene he would never forget.
His father fell in a pool of blood, with everything below his chest blown away. His father lay on the ground and twitched continuously. He died in convulsions without even a chance to be rescued.
Wang Kaixue looked at everything in front of him in disbelief. He didn't know why his father suddenly lay in a pool of blood. As a young man, he was frightened by the blood on the ground. He could only look at his father who had his head missing and howled loudly. cry.
The article "Tadpoles looking for their mothers" was about to be discussed in school. Wang Kaixue happily wanted to share the news with his father. If there was a chance, he would also like to catch a tadpole and see frogs with his father.
Wang Kaixue remembered this day very clearly. It was on this day that he lost his father. It was also on this day that he dropped out of school without even finishing elementary school.
This day seems to have started a curse on this unfortunate village. People were constantly injured by bombs, and the sound of villagers crying could be heard in the village from time to time. Even Wang Kaixue was not spared.
Wang Kaixue's cousin accidentally stepped on a landmine while herding cattle. At that time, Wang Kaixue and his cousin were the first witnesses at the scene.
Wang Kai went to school and stayed away from the mines. When he heard the "bang", one of his cousin's legs was blown off. His cousin lay on the ground moaning constantly, with a pool of blood under him that was the same as the day his father died.
Wang Kaixue was frightened. He just wanted to save his cousin. Even if his cousin couldn't save a leg, he still had to save his life. Wang Kaixue hurriedly carried his cousin to the hospital on his back.
It wasn't until his cousin entered the operating room that Wang Kaixue's heart calmed down. At this time, he felt a dull pain in his thigh.
The landmine explosion was so powerful that a piece of shrapnel exploded into Wang Kaixue's thigh. He was worried that his cousin would not feel any pain at all. This shrapnel also made Wang Kaixue permanently disabled.
Wang Kaixue's cousin is in good condition. Many villagers were bleeding after being bombed. There might have been hope of being rescued, but he was alone in the wild, shouting every day and the earth was not working, and no one else could see him. , and finally when the blood dries up, the person is finished.
The military conflict on the Sino-Vietnamese border lasted for ten years and did not finally end until 1989. After the war, our country was worried that Vietnamese gangsters would sneak across our borders and endanger people's safety, and failed to defuse the bombs left behind.
htmlOver the past decade, the military has cleared a considerable number of landmines on the China-Vietnam border through long-term and large-scale mine clearance. However, the number of landmines buried is too large, the types are too complex, the mines are buried for a long time, and the terrain changes greatly, making it difficult to clear the landmines. Identification, the mines have not been completely cleared yet.The aftermath of landmines
The trauma caused by landmines is not only during wartime, but also after war. Multiple reports on landmine research show that it takes about 120 years for a plastic mine to naturally fail in the soil. Unexcavated mines are at risk of exploding at any time.
According to incomplete statistics, since 1990, 2 people have been killed in bombings, 33 people have been disabled due to mine strikes, and 9 of them have to rely on prosthetics to live. Every number is a tragedy for a family.
The trauma caused by landmines is not only physical, but also psychological. The haze buried in the ground is like a sharp sword hanging over the heads of the villagers in Balihe Village, and like a beast sleeping deep in the earth, which will roar out and take people's lives at any time.
The death of his father stimulated Wang Kaixue. In addition, relatives and friends in the village were constantly being killed and injured by bombings. Wang Kaixue became interested in studying landmines. He did not want to see any more casualties. He wanted to restore the peace of the village to the past. .
During the war, there were 48 households in Balihe Village. The artillery fire of the war made 49 people disabled. During these years of recuperation, villagers got married and had children. Until now, there are only 56 households in the village.
For Wang Kaixue, landmines took away his relatives and occupied the land they depended on for survival. Fertile farmland turned into minefields. Wang Kaixue made up his mind, "Landmines are terrible, we must resist!".
The reason why he was determined to clear up landmines on Guangshan was not only hatred, but also a sense of mission. "We should leave a pure land to future generations" to protect them from war.
Wang Kai spent 5 years studying landmines, studying their structure, types, pressure, detonator explosion and other issues. For Wang Kaixue, who lives in a backward mountain village, it is not easy to obtain landmine information from the outside world.
Perhaps it was God's blessing that Wang Kaixue, who only had a primary school diploma, accidentally discovered the "instructions" used when mines were left in the village. This was undoubtedly a huge wealth for him who studied landmines.
The mine-laying manual records detailed information such as the model and production batch of the mine. When Wang Kaixue followed the manual to research the mines, he also had the effect of getting twice the result with half the effort.
There are some easily identifiable landmines exposed on the surface, which have become Wang Kaixue's best research subjects. Wang Kaixue is just an ordinary farmer, but with his passion, he was able to defuse tens of thousands of landmines.
Wang Kaixue's demining skills are completely self-taught. His experience is to observe the appearance of landmines and imagine their structure. Wang Kaixue couldn't even remember how many times he ran up the mountain and squatted next to the exposed mines for several hours.
Wang Kaixue focused his time on researching landmines, and time gave him the best answer. As bombs were unearthed one after another, Wang Kaixue was undoubtedly excited.
Wang Kaixue was so excited but he didn't dare to share it with his wife. She knew that landmines were something that made people talk about it. How could Wang Kaixue's wife dare to think that her husband, who went out every day, would secretly do such a big thing.
Wang Kaixue told his wife that there was a piece of land on the mountain for farming, so naturally his wife would not suspect anything else. After Wang Kaixue opened a few acres of land, he gave his wife a big "surprise."
Wang Kaixue's wife looked at the piles of landmines on the ground and was so surprised that her legs were weak. If any one of them was detonated, the couple would be finished.His wife was proud of him, but she could not help but start to be afraid of him.
For the sake of his faith and to create a pure land for the future generations of Balihe Village, Wang Kaixue had already put life and death aside.
Every time is the first time
Wang Kaixue has been dealing with landmines for more than 30 years. For him, every time he clears mines, he misses death. Whether it is the tenth, hundredth, thousandth or ten thousandth time, for Wang Kaixue, he will always treat it as the first time.
"If you want to remove mines, you must first remove weeds." This is a rule that Wang Kaixue has learned over many years of demining. Only by clearing everything that blocks the view can the mines be more fully exposed.
The tip of the iceberg is very suitable for demining. Most of the time what we see with the naked eye is a very small part, and most of it is buried in the ground.
When Wang started digging landmines for the first time in school, he used a sickle, a farm tool that every rural household has. He gently used the sickle to cut the weeds, and then gently took the landmines out of the soil. Every step is gentle.
Digging landmines requires a high degree of concentration. Sometimes a phone call or a shout can disrupt the movement of the hand, or even lead to death on the spot. Where is the pressure on
, where is the detonator, and how to detonate? These questions require long-term observation and exploration before we can draw conclusions.
To what extent should Wang Kaixue study landmines before he dares to start clearing mines? Wang Kaixue started to take action after thoroughly studying the Type 72 anti-infantry mines, jump mines, trip mines, hand grenades , artillery fuses, blasting tubes , mortar shells , and recoilless rifles .
For us, we only know the "landmine danger", but for Wang Kaixue, he can count the differences in detail.
Sometimes while digging, Wang Kaixue smelled the smell of fuses and knew he had "won the jackpot". He felt bad, which meant that he might have dug up dangerous grenades and blasting tubes.
Wang Kaixue is even very experienced in how to avoid being injured by explosions. According to Wang Kaixue, when an explosion occurs, it is shaped like the bottom of a pot, and you can only roll down to avoid it.
When shrapnel hits his body, he won't feel any pain for 30 seconds, which gives Wang Kaixue time to breathe. You can't avoid it by moving forward, backward, left or right. Wang Kaixue didn't notice it well once and rolled down 3.4 times before narrowly avoiding the explosion.
Wang Kaixue said this very calmly, as if he was not the one who experienced life and death. It is unimaginable that Wang Kaixue, who had not read many books, encountered so many difficulties in demining before he could sum up so much experience like a military expert.
For landmines buried deep in the ground, if you are lucky, there may be only two or three mines in an area. If you are unlucky, there may even be twenty or thirty mines in an area, and they are mainly Type 72 anti-infantry mines.
It can be said that every step is thrilling. The "safe path" explored by Wang Kaixue has been practiced, and other areas covered with grass are all landmines.
In order to ensure the absolute safety of the fields he opened up, Wang Kaixue plowed every inch of land five or six times during the demining process. The average depth of the plowed soil even reached 30 centimeters, and some even dug to a depth of 50 centimeters.
"We can't let go of anything suspicious at all. This is no joke," Wang Kaixue said.
During his exploration, Wang Kaixue also made his own demining tools, such as a thin "U" shaped iron piece, which he could use to remove the detonator by gently turning it at the bottom of the mine.
Of course, there are many types of mines, and the same tools will not work on all mines. Landmines also require "teaching students in accordance with their aptitude" and require specialized tools. Sometimes during Wang Kai's school demining process, he found that the tools were no longer in hand and had to turn back halfway to get new tools.
Wang Kaixue's demining is like a dancer on the sword. He needs to have a clear understanding of all the knowledge about landmines. While he is highly concentrated, he must also move lightly with his hands. He must also avoid unexpected situations that may occur at any time. Every time he demins, All as cautious as the first time.
The Uncrowned King
In the eyes of the villagers in Balihe Village, Wang Kaixue is their hero. When Wang Kaixue is mentioned, everyone will give a thumbs up to express their admiration for him.
Going south from Wenshan Autonomous Prefecture, crossing several mountains, the mist-shrouded Balihe Village is right in front of us. A stone tablet with the words "Danger in minefield, entry strictly prohibited" reminds people of the pain of that period of war.
The vast majority of the people in the village are Miao. The houses with ethnic characteristics are built against the mountains. The winding paths connect every household, which is exactly what the saying " the road traffic , chickens and dogs hear each other".
The intensive sound of gunfire has long been no longer heard in the village. Instead, there is the laughter of every household and the crowing of chickens and the barking of dogs from the yard, creating a peaceful atmosphere.
Except for the landmines in the mountains, the stone tablets on the roadside, and the rocket outer packaging preserved by individual villagers, elements of war are rare here, and the pain of war is gradually healing.
Easier said than done. When Wang Kaixue said that his demining process was full of dangers, let alone risking life and death to clear mines, Wang Kaixue dug out baskets of mines every year.
According to Wang Kaixue’s own statement, in 29 years, he dug out more than 14,000 landmines. This does not include the number of mines that he contacted mine clearance personnel and the government to destroy by others, and the number of mines that he dug and destroyed by himself. It's even more jaw-dropping.
It is worth mentioning that Wang Kaixue demined without protective clothing, which increased the risk of demining. It is the bravery and fearlessness of these two-dimensional heroes that maintain today's peace and stability.
Wang Kaixue has been clearing mines since 1993. He has been clearing mines for nearly 30 years and talks in front of the camera. Tens of thousands of landmines have been dug out and about 300 acres of land have been turned into fertile farmland. As an ordinary citizen, Wang Kaixue is self-taught. He can really be called the "Uncrowned King".
Not only are these uncrowned heroes working hard, the country has also organized several large-scale demining operations, during which countless demining heroes emerged, such as Du Fuguo, who was awarded the honorary title of "Demining Hero Warrior" in the past few years. With huge sacrifices, the border residents were given a mine-free pure land.
However, there are specialties in the profession, and demining behavior deserves our respect, but we are not encouraged to learn it. Life is priceless. Without any protection foundation or professional knowledge, your own safety is the first priority.
"No one wants to live in a minefield." Everyone hopes that the landmines can be completely cleared as soon as possible to get rid of the haze that has shrouded Balihe Village for more than 30 years.
Thank you to the thousands of brave warriors who stood up and the thousands of amazing civilian heroes. It is because of them that we have a peaceful, stable and happy life today! Salute to the brave warriors and civilian heroes!
