The rooster always calls heroes on his own dung heap.

- English proverb

On September 25, 1949, the central government established the Dongxiang Autonomous Region in the newly liberated areas inhabited by the Sarta people in Linxia County, Hezheng County, Ningding County, and Yongjing County in Gansu Province, which made the Sarta people gain official recognition for the first time in history.

In the village of Han Zeling in Dongxiang, the elder Ma Haide, a descendant of Abbas, was the head of the Sarta people. He was shocked to find that when the Red Han People's Liberation Army came, it did not rob grain, nor did it arrest strong men, let alone force forced labor, but distributed the land of the landlords to the poor, and regarded the Sartas, who had been discriminated against and looked down upon for generations, as the real masters of this land.

So, his heart gradually dispelled his concerns about the People's Liberation Army, and discussed it with the old grandmother.

He took the initiative to welcome the PLA cadres to his home, served hot tea and fragrant Dongxiang chicken nuggets, and invited the PLA to taste them.

On September 29, the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference elected the Central People's Power Committee, proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China, and adopted the Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which serves as a provisional constitution.

The "Common Program" clearly stipulates: "All areas inhabited by ethnic minorities shall exercise regional ethnic autonomy, and various ethnic autonomous organs shall be established according to the size of the population and the size of the areas inhabited by ethnic minorities." ”

Subsequently, regional ethnic autonomy was clearly enshrined in the Constitution and became an important political system in China.

At the same time, after liberating Xining, the Chinese People's Liberation Army set up recruitment stations on the streets and extensively recruited young and middle-aged people to join the PLA, thus enriching the revolutionary contingent shouldering the liberation of the whole of China.

Gong Lianchao, who works at the Xining Electric Power Company, went to the street to see what was new, and found that the officers and men of the People's Liberation Army had a kind attitude towards the common people, did not oppress the common people, and did good deeds for the common people, and were warmly welcomed by the common people. In his excitement, he ran to the recruitment station, signed up for the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and then went to western Qinghai to eliminate the remnants of the Nationalist army.

In 1950, North Korea launched a war to liberate South Korea and unify the Korean Peninsula. Because of the strategic location of the Korean Peninsula and the need to prevent the continuous spread of the Red Revolution, the United States and more than a dozen countries entered the Korean Peninsula under the banner of the United Nations Army to support south Korea in its fight against the Korean People's Army. The fighting stretched all the way to the border between China and North Korea.

The North Korean leader urgently turned to China for help.

When the lips die, the teeth are cold. Historically, Korea was a vassal state of the Central Plains Dynasty for a long time, and in the event of domestic turmoil or foreign invasion, it would turn to the Central Plains Dynasty for help. For example, during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court sent troops to wage three major wars against the Japanese kingdom that invaded Korea, defending the land and royal family of Korea.

The newly established People's Republic of China immediately reorganized its ranks and formed a million-strong Chinese People's Volunteer Army to cross the Yalu River and send troops to Korea to resist US aggression and aid Korea and defend the country.

On October 19, Gong Lianchao entered Sinuiju in North Korea with the deployment of troops.

He crossed the Yalu River Bridge and heard a soldier guarding the bridge on the North Korean side speaking a Qinghai dialect, and couldn't help but step forward and ask, "Are you from Qinghai?" ”

The warrior said, "Yes. Listening to the accent, you are also from Qinghai. Nao's name is Chen Xiaoshan. What about you? ”

Gong Lianchao replied: "Nao is called Gong Lianchao, a Ledu person." ”

Gong Lianchao was very happy to meet his fellow countrymen in a foreign land thousands of miles away. He never dreamed that the Chen Xiaoshan in front of him would become the husband of his sister Gong Xiahe in the future.

In the same month, in the Linxia region, Gansu Province, in accordance with the policy of regional ethnic autonomy promulgated by the state, united the Dongxiang Autonomous Region, which was scattered in four counties in the eastern part of Linxia City, and established the Dongxiang Autonomous Region, which is equivalent to the county level.

Ma Dehai and many other ordinary people in Sarta felt rejoiced, truly felt that New China was closely related to their lives and destiny, and also personally felt that they were the masters of New China. Their enthusiasm for participating in revolutionary activities and construction was unprecedentedly high.

Some people also said in puzzlement: "Why do you want to establish an autonomous region for these barbarian natives?" Isn't this the creation of an independent kingdom for them! ”

The staff of the new regime patiently explained:

"This is our party's glorious policy and a wise way to treat ethnic minorities fairly. In the old society, the reactionary classes oppressed the broad masses of the working people, and the ethnic minorities were particularly oppressed. To build a new society is to liberate the people of all nationalities throughout the country.

The implementation of the policy of regional ethnic autonomy has the following major benefits:

First, it is conducive to safeguarding national unity and security. Regional ethnic autonomy is premised on and based on territorial integrity and national unity, and is an organic combination of the state's centralized and unified leadership and regional ethnic autonomy. It has strengthened the cohesion of the Chinese nation and enabled the people of all nationalities, especially minority nationalities, to combine their love for their own nation with their deep feelings of love for the motherland, and to more consciously shoulder the glorious duty of defending the motherland's reunification and defending the frontiers.

Second, it is conducive to ensuring the realization of the rights of ethnic minority people to be masters of their own affairs.

Third, it is conducive to the development of socialist ethnic relations characterized by equality, unity, mutual assistance, and harmony.

Fourth, it is conducive to promoting the vigorous development of the cause of socialist modernization. ”

However, there are also many people who have deep doubts about this, and wait and see the actual effect in the future.

In Zhangye, Niu Yushan and Althea live the lives of ordinary people. He continued to run a small business with his younger brother. Althea takes care of the household chores at home.

One day, Althea packed the box where Niu Yushan put his clothes and found a heavy red cloth bag. Curious, she opened the bag and saw a shiny pebble with a few lines of Arabic text on it.

She asked curiously, "This is an ordinary pebble, and it's not a precious pearl agate, what are you cherishing it for?" ”

Niu Yushan replied: "This is the ...... left by the ancestors."

At this time, the shouts of the staff came from outside the door: "Have a meeting." Let's have a meeting. ”

Niu Yushan and Althea hurriedly put away the pebbles, locked the door and went to the meeting.

They walked briskly into a warehouse that was used as a large conference room, and saw that the residents were already sitting on small benches, reading documents to the staff:

"Our new regime is a constant revolutionary movement to completely destroy the social foundations and the system of exploitation of the old society.

The land system of old China was extremely irrational. Landlords and rich peasants, who account for less than 10 percent of the total rural population, own about 70-80 percent of the cultivated land in the rural areas. Poor, hired and middle peasants, who account for more than 90 per cent of the total rural population, own only 20-30 per cent of the cultivated land. You have worked hard all year round, but you have no food and clothing. This was one of the main causes of poverty and backwardness in old China.

The landlord class not only carried out brutal economic exploitation by virtue of the large amount of land it occupied, but also colluded with the bureaucratic class to arbitrarily humiliate and prey on the common people. Therefore, resolving the land issue and confiscating the landlords' land to the working people has become an urgent demand of the broad masses of working people.

In order to thoroughly accomplish the tasks of the new democratic revolution and create conditions for socialist revolution and construction, the newly liberated Zhangye, like all parts of the country, must launch a vigorous land reform movement. ”

The county government sent a task force to visit the poor and ask about their suffering, train activists, and gradually mobilize the masses, and then divide the class elements according to the amount of land owned by each household.

Niu Yushan and Althea were asked to attend a learning education meeting and a literacy class to learn cultural literacy every evening.

The staff asked them, "Do you have any property?" ”

Niu Yushan replied: "We are outsiders, and we have come to Zhangye to do business. ”

The staff asked, "Where are you from?" ”

Niu Yushan replied: "I am from Jinggou in Linxia County. She is a native of Ledu County, Qinghai. ”

The staff continued to ask: "Do you have land in your family?" ”

Niu Yushan replied: "My family has two acres of land. She doesn't have an acre of land at home, so she works for other people's families. ”

The staff said solemnly: "According to the policy, you are a middle peasant, and she is a hired farmer." Our policy is to rely on the poor peasants and hired peasants, unite the middle peasants, neutralize the rich peasants, confiscate and distribute the landlords' land property to the landless peasants, and change the feudal exploitation of land ownership into a peasant land ownership system.

We must also carry out a face-to-face struggle against the landlord class, expose the crimes they have committed, and crush their prestige, and we must also suppress those elements who commit the most heinous crimes and those who sabotage the land reform. ”

Niu Yushan hurriedly praised: "This policy is good. I was particularly happy to see the poor peasants in the countryside who had been allocated land to the landlords, shouting loudly, 'Long live the Communist Party'! ”

The land reform has truly achieved the goal of the peasants in obtaining land for thousands of years, enabled the peasants to truly turn over the economy and become the masters, thus mobilizing the enthusiasm of the peasant masses to participate in revolution and construction in the deepest and most extensive way, and greatly emancipating the agricultural productive forces.

From December 1950 to October 1951, the new regime carried out a nationwide political campaign to eliminate and suppress counter-revolutionaries, which was one of the three major movements in the early days of the founding of New China, along with the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea and land reform. The focus of the campaign was on bandits, spies, bullies, leaders of reactionary Taoist associations, and key elements of reactionary party groups.

Niu Yushan and Althea learn literacy in a literacy class. Like elementary school students, they earnestly start learning the simplest kanji. After half a year, they were able to read the articles in the newspaper that were large in tofu blocks. This made them feel extremely fresh and energetic, and they sincerely exclaimed: "The Communist Party and the Kuomintang are really different!" ”

One evening, they attended a routine resident study meeting.

Cadre Yang, who had a big comb on his head, held a thick document in his hand, put his head under the horse lamp hanging on a wooden pillar, and read aloud:

On May 8, 1950, Ma Yunshan, the former commander of the 82nd Army of the Ma Army, organized a counter-revolutionary rebellion in the Pingliang and Guyuan areas in tandem with bandit spies. The rebel organizations tried in vain to capture the county towns of Jingyuan, Guyuan, and Xiji to subvert the people's power.

In the early morning of 8 May, the rebels attacked the Pingliang Anguo District Government and the Xi, Hai, and Guzhou district and township regimes, killing and wounding 337 cadres and masses and PLA officers and soldiers, looting 45 guns, 395 grenades, and 223 rounds of ammunition, as well as looting grain and property, and brutally killing the secretary of the Guyuan Zhanghua District Party Committee.

The next day, more than 1,000 rebels captured Pingliang and planned to attack Jingyuan again. Ma Chenglong, the leader of the bandit regiment, and others expanded more than 1,000 bandits in Guyuan County in an attempt to capture the county seat of Xiji.

The Northwest Military District sent the People's Liberation Army to quell the rebellion.

Under political offensives and military strikes, the rebels quickly split up or collapsed. The bandit leader Ma Yunshan was shot dead by his accomplices because of the intensification of internal contradictions.

By the end of July, the counter-revolutionary rebellion had been quelled, with a total of 174 rebels killed, 24 wounded, 168 captured, 400 surrendered, and more than 520 guns of various kinds and more than 3,300 rounds of ammunition seized.

On April 2, 1952, Ma Guoyuan, executive member of the Xiji County Party Department and leader of the Self-Defense Force, Ma Guolian, a religious upper-class figure, and the sect leader conspired to establish the 'People's Army', the 'Baitou Army', and the 'Third Regiment of the Central Committee's New Formation' to openly carry out a counterrevolutionary armed rebellion. Slashed the members of the working group and snatched four pistols. Subsequently, he fled to Haiyuan County to participate in the rebellion. More than 1,000 rebels besieged the county town of Xiji for several days, attacked the land reform work group, looted guns and food, and destroyed roads and bridges...... The rioters took part in the rebellion in the tens of thousands. More than 30 PLA soldiers, peasant activists, and members of the land reform work team were brutally killed by the rebels, paralyzing the grassroots political power in 37 townships in six districts and forcing one-third of the district and rural reform work in Guyuan to be suspended.

The Northwest Military Region sent its troops to quell the rebellion with the public security bureaus, county brigades, and armed engineering teams in the Guyuan area. Ma Guoyi and other bandits surrendered to the people's power one after another, killing 151 rebels, wounding 23 people, taking 420 prisoners, and seizing all kinds of guns and ammunition. ”

Niu Yushan and Althea listened quietly, and found that most of the rebels were Hui and Sarta. On the one hand, they do not understand why the rebels want to destroy the good life, and on the other hand, they have not yet distinguished themselves from the traitors of their own nation according to class. They can't help but worry about their fate and the future of their families. Experience has taught them that every protest by the common people will only lead to harsher repression.

Through the suppression of the counterrevolutionary movement, New China basically extinguished the banditry that was once rampant in the remote areas, achieved unprecedented stability in social order, vigorously supported and cooperated with the land reform movement and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, achieved the goal of mobilizing the masses, and created a situation in which the masses fell to the revolutionary power.

In July 1952, Althea was five months pregnant.

Niu Shishan calculated: I have been married in Zhangye for two years, but I just wrote a letter to my grandmother Han Sofei to report the marriage, and she has not seen her new daughter-in-law yet. Although grandma is a stepmother, she is also an elder that she must respect. Now that Althea is 5 months pregnant, who will take care of her when she gives birth to Gawa? Besides, I've saved some money in the past two years, so let's just take Althea back to Linxia's hometown.

Niu Yushan told Althea about his plan.

Althea has been taught since she was a child that men are inferior to women, and she never dares to disobey the requirements of her parents and husband, so she agreed without much thought.

They got on a long-distance bus, set off from Zhangye, Ganzhou, passed through Wuwei, Liangzhou, and first came to Lanzhou, Jincheng, where they found the private house of their little uncle Niu Zhanhai in Xiaoxi Lake, outside the Xiguan Cross, and visited the elders who had lost their news.

Niu Zhanhai's private house is home to his Han aunt's wife, Niu Li, and two young children.

Niu Li lowered his voice and told Niu Yushan and Althea:

"Since your Abba failed on the Gouwa Mountain and Huangge Iron Bridge in Lanzhou, he fled to Gayin Dai to hide, and was later discovered by the people nearby. They report and expose to the people's power. Your Abba was arrested by the public and later sentenced to 8 years in prison and escorted to Guyuan County, Ningxia.

The public defined my class as the family of reactionary officers, and I was often called up to the criticism meetings, fed up with humiliation and bullying. What kind of world is this! ”

Niu Li left tears of sadness. She has changed from a pampered official wife to a target of criticism by the common people, and her heart is full of bitter hatred and serious hostility towards the new China, the new regime, and everything around her.

When she heard that Niu Yushan and Althea were condemned as poor middle peasants, there was a complex light in her black eyes. Eat one's heart out? Envy? Smell a rat?

Niu Li said slowly: "It's good for you guys, a group of losers have also fallen into a good ingredient. It's really a response to 'Wealth hides misfortune, misfortune hides wealth in misfortune.' ”

In her heart, Althea felt that this aunt was talking a little yin and yang, so she made an excuse and left the living room.

Niu Li looked at Althea's back and quietly reminded: "People of unknown origin, don't believe it, lest you be calculated." ”

Niu Yushan smiled innocently and said, "Eminem (Salta, aunt), I know the details of Althea. ”

Niu Li shook his head slowly and didn't say anything more.

At that time, there was abnormal weather in Lanzhou that had not been seen for many years. It rained continuously from morning to night for 7 or 8 days. Excessive rain caused flash floods. Floods have broken roads and broken bridges.

Niu Yushan and Althea had to live in Niu Li's house for a few days. During the day, Niu Yushan went out to work to earn money. Pregnant Althea stays home doing some odd jobs.

Although she is also the daughter-in-law of the Niu family and Niu Yushan's aunt, she doesn't care about the feelings of her relatives and Althea's 8 months of pregnancy, and she instructs Althea to do this and that with a big belly all day long.

Althea struggled to overcome her physical inconveniences, cooking, washing pots, chopping wood, and cleaning for her aunt's family, but she often ate their leftover cold dishes.

What Eminem, relatives? More vicious than the hearts of landlords and capitalists!

Althea felt that Eminem really didn't treat her as well as Han Gong's family treated her. However, because of the affection of her relatives and the idea of male superiority and inferiority of women, she buried all her grievances in her heart, and she was embarrassed and didn't dare to tell Niu Yushan, for fear that her husband would blame her for being too small-minded and find trouble for the relatives of the Niu family.