Half an hour later, the convoy finally "descended" from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain, and the eyes suddenly opened up, a horse was flat, and the car was like a long-distance runner, driving full horsepower, making the final sprint, which really showed the heroic nature of the car. After crossing the tall and majestic Nancang River Bridge, you will enter Jingshi, the capital of Mengbalaxi Prefecture.

The tropical unique humid and hot wind blows in the face, giving people a refreshing and happy feeling, the tall swaying palm trees, the dancing banana forest, surrounded by the unique bamboo buildings of the Dai family, the bamboo buildings are like gray gems dotted in the green jungle, which is particularly mysterious and novel. The Dai people are a people who love forests and water, which arouses our interest in watching. The cars successively entered the destination, Jingshi Farm (the number is a division and a regiment), we finally arrived home, and the other convoys continued to Liming and other farms at the end of April 1958.

The leading cadres and some workers welcomed us. After getting out of the car, the whole team stood up, and Zhang Zun, the field commander and secretary, gave a brief impromptu welcome speech and announced the list of companies to be assigned, and more than 200 of us were assigned to three companies, and the car sent us to the new company, which was far away from the town and located deep in the mountains.

When we arrived at the so-called new company, we saw that there were only a few straw scaffolds made of bamboo on an open flat ground, and our hearts were cold before the roof was covered. The field leader arranged for us to live in the bamboo building of the Dai family, and it seems that everything has to be created by ourselves! A blank sheet of paper can draw the latest and most beautiful pictures.

Proceeding from defending the frontier and consolidating national defense, the higher authorities decided to set up the Nanzhao Provincial Production and Construction Corps in Nanzhao Province. After the establishment of the Nanzhao Provincial Production and Construction Corps, Mengbalaxi was organized into the first division, with jurisdiction over the first to sixth regiments (Mengna was the sixth regiment), and it was changed to a state-owned farm around the sixties.

Since May 1958, I have started a new life in purgatory in Mengbalaxi, the southwest frontier where "the plantain on my head, the pineapple on my feet, the four seasons are like spring, and the forest and sea are reckless", and I have become a new generation of pioneers of the motherland who have abandoned the military and reclaimed the land. Since then, my youth has been dedicated to this mysterious virgin land, where I have spent twenty-four springs and autumns.

Mengbalaxi is the most ideal treasure place for planting rubber trees in our country, which is not affected by typhoons, the temperature is high, the climate is stable, the minimum temperature is above 15 degrees, the land here is fertile, the soil layer is deep (loess layer), which is very suitable for planting various tropical cash crops. Our mission is to reclaim the barren mountains and grow rubber and coffee.

Natural rubber is a scarce strategic material in the country, and it is really a far-sighted move to relocate a large number of military demobilized troops here, which can not only garrison the border, but also produce a large number of strategic materials for the country.

Spring is the sowing season, and it is necessary to meet the season, and the house cannot be built, so it is urgent to clear the land and cut down the primeval forest to grow rubber and coffee. Each of us was given two new "weapons": a machete and a steel hoe. Sharpen the wood as the handle, grind it and prepare it for two days, and go up the mountain on the third day. Those who serve as soldiers are loyal and brave and good at fighting, and everything is under command. The mission of the mountain is to cut down the primeval forest. After drying the felled trees, all of them are burned, and then a series of terraces are opened on the mountain, and then 80 centimeters of holes are dug to grow rubber and coffee.

Our team is the seventh team, and the captain and technician of Pan is a native of Guangzhou Province who was transferred from Hainan Island, and the clerk is a delegated cadre, and the other is a soldier who came with us, and he is in charge of administrative management.

The team leader first conducted a "pre-job training" for us, and he emphasized the precautions, operation points, and task quotas when cutting the dam. The clerk told everyone about the recording method of the daily work progress, and asked everyone to fill in the daily progress truthfully, and then ask the team leader to sign. The management team leader announced the names of the teams and their leaders. I am the leader of the first group, there are 14 team members (Wang Laijin, Meng Yichang, Chen Dianqing, Bi Xiaozhou and other six people from the preparatory school), each group lives in a Dai family, and more than ten Dai bamboo buildings are occupied.

When they got up at dawn, each person was given a packet of glutinous rice wrapped in banana leaves (the local Dai people only eat glutinous rice), and there were no dishes. The captain led the team, shouldered a big knife, grabbed rice with his hands, and walked while eating. Since today, we have become a new reclamation team member, a pioneer worker who "never leaves the knife and the knife never leaves the hand", and a new generation of real builders.

The operation area is several kilometers away from the residence, and you have to climb the mountain, you have to go back to eat at noon, and it is really time-consuming and laborious to run back and forth.

At the beginning of a month, full of energy, the young men went down the mountain like tigers, big knives flying, the focus is to cut down the big tree, as soon as the big tree fell, the small tree was crushed to death, even if the large primeval forest was cut down, the daily progress was gratifying. The captain had to report the progress to the field department every day (there was no phone at that time), and when he came back, he always had a smile on his face, praising everyone for being worthy of the true colors of the people's army. More than two months later, the captain's face became "cloudy", he looked at the reports of each group, shook his head from time to time, and he felt anxious that the daily work progress was not as good as that of other teams.

Our progress has indeed slowed down, the initial tiger energy, is the result of the energy accumulated in the body earlier, such as eating glutinous rice every day, no oil, no vegetables, not to mention meat, the person is also "glutinous" soft, the consumption of physical energy does not come back, coupled with the high labor intensity, blood blisters on the hands of blood blisters, eight or nine hours a day to hold the handle of the knife, even the fingers can not be straightened, to massage and straighten one finger by one, this is "labor", it is simply playing with life. What's even more hateful is those vampires, leeches, I don't know how much blood they suck up at the end of the day!

The leeches in Mengbalasi are amazing. First, there are many of them. It's all over the roadside, in the grass, in the trees. The second is the fast crawling speed. Whether you're walking through the grass or standing for a minute or two, the leeches will crawl on you right away. The third is to suck blood more and faster. It took four or five minutes to suck up the blood. Leeches are at their most rampant before the sun rises, and even crazier during the rainy season, when they will attack you desperately and make you unguarded.

Although it is only the size of an inch of iron nail, it is daunting. In order to prevent the bite of leeches, some people tie their cuffs, collars, and trouser legs tightly, but Mr. Leech still patronizes them. It has to suck so much that its stomach can't hold it, so it will let go of the sucker, roll its body up, and roll to the ground, and when you find it, it has already run away, and the blood from the wound bitten by the leech is not stopping, and the weak comrades are so tired that they fall ill one by one. When the lesbians saw the leech sticking to their bodies, they were always terrified, yelling, and did not dare to tear it off. Later, each person in the field was given a small bottle of iodine wine to prevent leeches, but a cup of water, you can't put iodine wine on your whole body, you can only rub it on your feet and hands, and it will be useless for a long time, and Mr. Leech has also developed resistance.

In order to improve their lives, each company sent one person to the Dai village to buy vegetables and non-staple food (at that time, there was a shortage of materials in the market, and even non-staple food was rare), and a horse was also assigned to carry it, and my comrade-in-arms Meng Yichang volunteered to do this errand.

The life of the Dai people is very simple, and their production is still in the era of slash-and-burn farming, and the productivity is extremely low. Second, their staple food is glutinous rice, and they don't need any dishes. Third, their traditional agriculture only grows rice, rarely vegetables, and each household raises some chickens and ducks, grows some fruits, and has enough to eat, and has no sense of commodity economy at all. Usually men go up to the mountains to hunt, go down to the river to catch some fish, and their lives are also very hard. They don't like the Han people to develop production, so it is very difficult to purchase vegetables, and there is nothing to buy!