Every holiday, we both go to Jingshi Street for a walk, more than ten miles back and forth. At that time, there was a shortage of materials, coupled with the large number of people on the farm, and the transportation was inconvenient, so things from the mainland could not be transported, and things were even more scarce. As long as it is eaten, it is expensive and you have to buy it. There is no meat to sell in the restaurant, and occasionally there is a little offal, which has long been preempted by the people who are "near the water". On the street, the Dai people set up many food stalls, and the Dai people add some ingredients to the dried rice or bait, and the chicken soup is shabu-shabu, which is also quite delicious.

Sometimes we also buy some raw rice, bait, ginger, shallots, chili peppers, fruits, etc., and go back and enjoy them slowly, and most Sundays are spent like this. No one has a private stove, so if you want to process it, you have to go to the public room to heat it up. At that time, life was hard, and as long as there were coarse vegetables (wild vegetables) and light rice to eat a full stomach, it was a first-class life.

The environment can cultivate people's character, hone people's perseverance, train people to be at peace with encounters, maintain a good attitude, face real life calmly, not be discouraged, not depressed, positive and enterprising character, and keep pace with the times and keep up with the pace of the times.

In order to meet the requirements of the great development of rubber, the General Bureau of Agricultural Reclamation of Nanzhao Province decided that most of the cadres and workers would turn to the direction of Mengna County. Before we marched into the new reclamation area, as early as 1958, many pioneers had already marched to Mengna, Mengrun, Mengman, and the south bank of the Lancang River, and we were the follow-up pioneers.

In the autumn of 1959, we left Guangbin Farm and were assigned to build a new farm in Mengxi Township, Mengna County. Ma Yuanjun, the director of the branch, Xu Ming, the secretary, the clerk and the cashier, I am the accountant, Zou is the custodian, a total of five people, a truck pulled people and things to Mengxi, and the new field was named the state-owned Mengxi branch.

The field (township level) is built on a large flat land next to the superior of Mengxi Township. This was originally a grassland for the Dai people to graze cattle, but now it has become the state-owned Mengxi branch station, and the cattle can't be herded.

When he came here, he started from scratch, first built a temporary mud thatched house, and then began to engage in production. Thanks to the strong support of Yang Cheng, secretary of the district party committee (who was also transferred from the army), he helped us build a grass house in one or two weeks, and we moved from the Dai bamboo building to the "new house". Soon two more cadres came: Yang Mou, director of the production office, and Li Mou, a technician. Then Mengwang Farm withdrew and merged into our field, a total of about 50 people, and soon more than 20 were asked by the Botanical Garden. The workers did not have a house to live in, so they moved to the Dai Chengzi Village, five miles away, where a nursery base was to be built, and the field cadres all moved there, so they had to live in the Dai family, leaving one person to guard the field department.

The nursery land is built on a large piece of alluvial flat land on the side of the Luosuo River, there are more than 100 acres, it is a barren grass tidal flat, the soil is slightly sandy, and the lower layer is humus soil, which is an ideal nursery land.

In order to grasp the festival, the cadres worked hard there day and night, and the canteen used the "commune canteen" that had long been abandoned in the village. Workers and cadres go out early and return late, almost militarized life, "the sun has not yet risen, the day has not yet returned", this is the true portrayal of that time. I was busy procuring materials and transporting seeds.

I usually carry a marching bag on my back, which contains the ledgers and cash of the whole venue. Every day, the bag does not leave the body, and the body does not leave the bag. Later, I felt that it was too troublesome, so I suggested that the bag should be kept by the admissions, this bag is full of money, in case of loss, the responsibility is heavy! All day long, I am afraid that something will happen. At that time, the folk customs were simple, and she carried a money bag every day, so she was lucky that nothing happened.

The project was gradually completed in a tight day. Almost all of the workers ate and lived in the nursery, and the meals they ate were delivered to the construction site by me, the cooks, and the hygienists. In the winter, the weather is fine, but sometimes the river rises to the chest, so we put the food on our heads and wade through, and on several occasions we were almost washed away with food.

The village chief of the Dai village thought of a way for us, using Nanzhu to make a big raft, it is much more convenient to ferry back and forth, and we are very grateful to this Dai village chief. The seeds have been planted, leaving the technicians and some workers there to take care of the nursery, while the rest of the horses have withdrawn to their original positions.

I lived in Chengzi Village for two months, and my wife and four or five other people lived in an undivided granary in the village. Both men and women live together, and the enrollment is "fully wrapped" at night, and it is inconvenient to take off their clothes and sleep, which is really sinful, and they can't take a bath or change clothes, and their bodies are dirty, so they have to go to the river to clean up and "clean".

My husband and I plucked up the courage to learn from the Dai people and went to bathe in the river, and we always walked to the upstream where no one came and went, took off our clothes, and washed naked. At that time, the child had not yet been born, and the enrollment squatted in the water with a big belly to take a bath, full of refreshment. In the future, I will go to the river to take a bath every day, which is no way to do it.

Later, when I returned to live in the field, I could only wipe my whole body with a basin at home. Taking a cold bath all year round has refined our muscles and bones. Looking back on the scene of that era, I still feel ridiculous, the conditions are limited, and I can't take care of so much, even if I return to nature.

When the farm was first built, even the desk and stool were borrowed from the township, and thanks to the support of the local township party committee, it was not returned until the farm was evacuated to Mengyuan.

At that time, the walls of each house were empty, and there was not even a bench. I bought a large bamboo tube at the Dai family, flattened both sides, and used it as a stool, this thing is easy to roll, and if you are not careful, you will sit on the ground, and the enrollment and children often fall into a pile. Later, I found a large stone in the grass next to the cafeteria, so I moved it home and used it as a stool, and put it at the door during the day and moved it to the house at night.

Once in the carpentry factory met a fellow in Yuzhang Province, often come and go, and familiarize myself, I asked him to help me make a small stool, he nailed four small planks with nails, the stool is ready, with this light stool, it is much more convenient to move. In order not to let others gossip, I also took the initiative to pay five dimes to the public, and the small stool was the first piece of furniture in our family, and I brought it all the way to Yongchun Farm.

In 1960, the state mobilized more than 10,000 farmers from Qi County and Yang County in Hunan Province to support the frontier, most of them were assigned to Jingshi Farm, and a small number were assigned to Mengna Farm. Later, on both sides of the road leading to Menna, two production teams were fixed, with leaders and workers, and immediately drove to the new site to build houses.

The house is a "dry base", with mud as a wall, a herringbone frame, and thatch, which is much better than a bamboo walled house. As soon as the house was built, the workers moved in and left the Dai bamboo building. Then he threw himself into the battle of the Great Wasteland. Workers cut down patches of primeval forest, reclaimed terraced fields, and dug holes in preparation for the planting of rubber trees.

However, the deforestation of primary forests is at odds with the protection of forests by botanical gardens. Mengxi is the only tropical botanical garden in the country, the responsibility of the tropical botanical garden is to protect the forest, research and development of plant resources, the farm is to cut down the forest, are for the public, and finally by the county party committee and the farm to negotiate, take into account the overall consideration, delineate the felling area: the farm is 500 meters away from the road to the east. So the direction of the attack was adjusted, and in less than a month, the primeval forests on the mountain peaks were like haircuts, cutting down hundreds of acres in unison, and just waiting for the trees to dry, they could be set on fire and reclaimed.