Chapter 1: The First Arrival in Terekti

"When the war broke out on Zhenbao Island, I was sitting on a train to Xinjiang with a large group of enthusiastic young people from my hometown. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoI was only seventeen years old at the time, and I joined the army before I finished my second year of junior high school. The battle of Zhenbao Island made our blood boil and we were filled with righteous indignation, and we rushed to the border defense of the motherland with the dual ideals of defending the country and changing our fate, dreaming of killing the enemy and making meritorious contributions, and becoming heroes like Sun Yuguo.

When I arrived in Xinjiang, I heard that since the Zhenbao Island conflict, the military hardliners led by Soviet Defense Minister Marshal Gletsch and Assistant Minister Marshal Chuikov advocated 'eliminating the Chinese threat once and for all', and were preparing to use medium-range ballistic missiles in the Far East to carry out 'surgical nuclear strikes' against China's military and political targets such as Beijing, Shenyang, and Lanzhou, carrying nuclear warheads with a yield of several million tons.

At that time, Chairman Mao and the party Central Committee issued a mobilization order to the 700 million Chinese people to 'prepare for war,' urging the people of the whole country to prepare for war and famine, based on preparations for early, large-scale, and nuclear war. The slogan of 'heighten vigilance, defend the motherland, and prepare for war' resounded throughout the land of China, and the people of the whole country entered a quasi-wartime state.

When I arrived at the Xinjiang Military Region, I was assigned to the third company of the cavalry battalion of the Tacheng Military Division. Because of the constant conflict on the Sino-Soviet border, there was a serious shortage of border guards, and two months later, I was assigned to the Tielekti border station.

The Mongolian word for 'poplar tree' is located in the western part of the Baruch Mountains in Yumin County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The border station here is about 150 kilometers away from the county seat, and it is close to the Alashan Pass on the Sino-Soviet border. This is the most serious tuyere area in our country, the strong wind of level 6 or more will blow for nearly 10 months every year, and the wind above level 8 will also have 160 days. Therefore, some people make up the environment here as a smooth mouth: 'Look up at the yellow sand sky, everywhere there are rocky beaches, winding and rugged roads, mountain after mountain.' ’

Our border station is an ordinary barracks, with a wall of two or three meters high enclosing an area of several dozen acres into a square. Inside the walls are rows of red brick and green tile bungalows. A basketball court is located in the bungalow. In front of the camp gate, two sentries stood motionless with guns.

Next to the border post is a hill, which we all call the Iron Hill. It is a significant rocky hill in the Baruch Mountains at a low altitude. When you go up to the top of Iron Hill, you can look down on both sides of the hill. The eastern side of this section of the national border is the border of our country, and most of them are low mountains and hills; On the western side, the terrain is relatively gentle, and there is a 20 or 30 km deep Gobi Desert, which is the Soviet border in the disputed area. There are many small hills over there, but in the distance there are mountains that are getting higher and higher. If the weather is clear, you can see Lake Alaa on the territory of the Soviet Union.

Pei Yingzhang, deputy director of the station, said that because of the friendly relations between China and the Soviet Union in the early days of liberation, the actual situation in China was that there were no borders on the borders of most areas bordering the Soviet Union in Xinjiang. It was not until the beginning of the sixties that relations between the two countries became sour, and in 1962 the Tierekti border post was established. Deputy stationmaster Pei came here when the station was first built. At that time, the border was by the lake, and he and his soldiers often went to the shore of Alahu Lake, and also went up to a small island not far from the lake, on which there was a small temple of Fan Lihua.

At that time, two-thirds of Xinjiang's more than 3,000-kilometer border with the Soviet Union was disputed. That is to say, the Sino-Soviet border has three border lines in many areas: the outermost one is the treaty line, that is, the boundary stipulated by historical treaties; The middle one was the Line of Actual Control, which was the actual border between China and the Soviet Union at that time; The innermost one is the line of Soviet claims, that is, the borders of the claims of the Soviet side to the territory of our country. Between the Line of Actual Control and the line demanded by the Soviet side is the disputed area.

In the past, in my imagination, life at the border station was full of exciting thrills and novelties like Zhenbao Island, patrolling, standing guard, encountering and clashing with the enemy, and even fighting with real guns. However, when I arrived at the Tielekti border station, I found that life here was not much different from the life of the cavalry battalion. The only difference is that the border station has to go out on patrol every day. However, I have been at the border station for several days, and I have been looking forward to going out on patrol, but I have never had such an opportunity. Therefore, on Sunday, after breakfast, I asked my comrade-in-arms Yin Qingqi to go around the border station to see what the Sino-Soviet border was like.

Yin Qingqi is a classmate with me since childhood, and he is also a good friend who talks about everything. We came out of the border guard and followed a path to a high slope. As far as the eye can see, it is surrounded by hills and deserts. The mountains were full of sharp gravel, but the ground was full of pebbles, and as far as the eye could see, it was a barren and desolate brown.

But there is a small river here, right next to the border post, called the Tierekti River. It is said that Tierekti got its name from this small river. This is not so much a small river as a small ditch, less than ten meters wide and of different depths, winding and twisting, and from a distance it looks like a long snake flowing abruptly from our border to the border of the Soviet Union. It is a kind of surprise and amazement to see this small river in this desolate brown, and you can immediately feel the freshness and vitality of life.

I sat on the edge of the creek and looked far away in the direction of the river, but I saw that there was no one in the distance, and there was no sound. I asked Yin Qingqi, 'Did you get a letter from your family?' Yin Qingqi said, "Not yet." Letter from your family? I shook my head and said, 'Neither.' However, my father and mother will definitely be happy to know that I have come to the border station. Yin Qingqi also said, "That's natural." We joined the army to protect our family and defend the country, and we were rewarded for our meritorious service. Otherwise, why are we going to be soldiers? ’

In fact, defending the country and receiving awards for meritorious service is not the ultimate goal of joining the army. The ultimate goal is to change the fate of facing the loess and facing the sky by defending the country and receiving meritorious service awards. We are all rural children from Zhecheng County, Henan, and if we do not have any outstanding performance during the service, we cannot join the party and be promoted, and we have to return to our hometown in Henan after demobilization, and deal with the soil like our ancestors. But as long as you put on a military uniform with four pockets and become a company and platoon-level cadre, even if you get through, your fate will change from then on. But this kind of talk can only be kept in the heart, not revealed, otherwise it will be selfish thoughts, that is, the motive is impure, and it will be educated and criticized.

I asked Yin Qingqi, 'Have you heard about Sun Yuguo?' Yin Qingqian said in an envious tone, "I watched the documentary, and shook hands with Chairman Mao and Vice Chairman Lin at the Ninth National Congress, and as soon as the meeting was over, people were directly promoted from company commander to regiment commander." You say that people's lives are so good! I said, 'The times make heroes!' However, don't worry, don't look at the calm and calm in front of you, in fact, this is just a superficial phenomenon, the Soviets have suffered a big loss on Zhenbao Island, and they will definitely find trouble in our place. Otherwise, why would the Tacheng Military Division send us here? ’

Yin Qingqi thought for a while and said, 'When Deputy Political Commissar Zheng of the Tacheng Military Sub-district made a mobilization report to us, he said that the Soviet army had secretly moved the border boundary point of the independent stone two kilometers away, ten kilometers long, but they sent so many of our people, why haven't they taken action yet? I said, 'The time has not come, and when the time comes, this revenge will be avenged.' Yin Qingqi shook his head and said, "Originally, we wrote a letter of determination to ask for war, just because we wanted to come to war, but once we arrived here, we were busy studying and producing all day long, and we had no intention of fighting at all. How can we go to meritorious service and receive awards? ’

I said, 'It is not our decision whether to fight or not, it is the Soviets who have the final say, and if they do not bully us and invade us, the war will not be fought.'" Yin Qingqi said, 'Then when will the Soviets come over?' Let us beat him well, get angry, and make meritorious contributions. ’

I can understand him, he feels the same way as me, and hopes to fight with the Soviets as soon as possible, so that he can receive awards for meritorious service and join the party. But no, if you just rely on ordinary times to strive for meritorious service awards and party membership, it is very difficult, and the standard is very high: first of all, you must be politically qualified, be able to memorize Chairman Mao's quotations backwards, and be able to quote some of the words that Ma Enlesmao said when you open your mouth and close your mouth; the second is to be strong in military affairs, that is, to shoot accurately and run fast; the third is to have a good style, no matter how beautiful and lovely the girl is, you must make an unmoved look; Fourth, strict discipline, no leave, no lateness, morning and evening on time to report to the squad leader, platoon commander and company commander; Fifth, the guarantee is strong, and in your spare time, you can take the initiative to help the cooking class feed the pigs, dig the toilet, or help the stove. Because the people who joined the army from the rural areas all came with ideals and ambitions, and they all wanted to change their fate by joining the party and being promoted to cadres, everyone was desperately and actively performing, and those who asked to join the party were all in a long line, and it was even more difficult to be promoted. But as long as there is a battle, you will become a hero in a battle, and as long as you become a hero, you don't have to worry about joining the party and doing things at all, and someone will naturally take the initiative to handle it for you. Even if he sacrifices, he will sacrifice his life for the country and become a martyr, at least he can win glory for his family. So, we are all looking forward to a fight.

Life at the border station is actually very lonely and uneventful. What can break this loneliness and insipidity is the loud sound of the horn. At seven o'clock in the morning, the first trumpet sounded over the empty and lonely Tierekti. Immediately, flashlights flashed in the windows. Within a few minutes, I saw black shadows coming out of the dormitory, some running to the toilet, and some simply standing by the vegetable patch behind the dormitory and peeing. Before you finish peeing, you find that the people who pee are already lined up. Here, you don't have to worry at all about making women feel uncivilized to look at, because women don't come to this place at all; And you don't have to worry about polluting the environment, as the cold morning breeze can quickly blow the smell far into the sky.

Anyone who has been to Xinjiang knows that there is a time difference between here and Beijing time, and it dawns at five o'clock in the morning in our hometown of Henan in the summer, but here, it is still gray after seven o'clock. At this time, there were already several shadows standing on the side of the basketball court in the middle of the barracks. That is, the stationmasters and instructors of the border station.

The border station is a company-level unit and has jurisdiction over a 100-mile-long border defense line. The year 1969 was when the special period was in full swing, because the People's Liberation Army wanted to develop three branches and two armies, that is, to support workers, farmers, leftists, military management, and military training. Many people were drawn from each company, and there was a serious shortage of personnel in the grassroots companies, not only in the third company of my original cavalry battalion, but also at the border post here. Before I came to the border station, the station was supposed to be full of 80 people, but in reality there were only 20 people.

In just a few minutes, the team of seventy or eighty people was lined up in three teams. The deputy stationmaster stood in front of the team and shouted 'stand upright', 'take a break', and 'run'. So, the three platoons ran towards the gate of the border station while shouting 'Heighten vigilance, defend the motherland,' and '-for-tat, fight for every inch of land'.

Running along a dirt road where trucks were traveling, the team ran neatly forward, running past the vegetable and crop fields of our camp, running past the shooting range of our training playground, running past the grass of the horses and the river, and then we ran back to the camp. By this time, we were already sweating.

As soon as the exercise was over, everyone was busy returning to the dormitory and began to wash their faces and brush their teeth. After a while, the whistle sounded on the other side of the cafeteria. We went into the cafeteria for breakfast. The food here is similar to that of the cavalry battalion, and breakfast is also rice porridge, steamed buns, shredded potatoes and fried cabbage. Because the temperature here is relatively low all year round, you can't grow a lot of vegetables, only potatoes and cabbage. Therefore, potatoes and cabbage have become the most common vegetables we eat. It is common to eat potatoes and cabbage three times a day. Some of the potatoes and cabbage we ate were sent from Tacheng, and some of them were grown by our border station.

After breakfast, it was almost eight o'clock, and from eight to nine fifty in the morning was the time for the border station to read every day. Although the border situation was relatively tense at that time, political command was still the mind and soul of our soldiers. The study of politics was conducted in a large conference room with a capacity of nearly 100 people. There are three rows of benches in the conference room, seated in the first, second, and third rows. There is a long table in front of it, where the stationmaster and the instructor sit when they preside over the meeting. Directly in front of the conference room, there is a portrait of Chairman Mao on the wall, and on both sides of the portrait are two quotations of Chairman Mao written respectfully with a brush. One is: The core force guiding our cause is the Communist Party of China, and the theoretical basis guiding our thinking is Marxism-Leninism. The other is that the proletariat can finally emancipate itself only by emancipating all mankind. We, the revolutionary soldiers of the proletariat, as soon as we see these two quotations of Chairman Mao, we can't help but be in awe in our hearts. Therefore, as soon as everyone enters the conference room, there will be a sense of respect.

Political studies are generally conducted by newly transferred instructors Wei. At the beginning of political study, he first made an early request to Chairman Mao. Of course, this kind of request is not to go to Zhongnanhai to ask Chairman Mao and his old man for instructions, but to stand in front of Chairman Mao's portrait, holding a red treasure book in his right hand, put it on his chest, and be led by the host and say, 'First of all, let us wish the reddest and reddest red sun in our hearts, the great leader Chairman Mao, and his old man a long life!' Everyone waved their right hand to the upper right three times in a row, and shouted in unison, 'Long live without borders!' Longevity without borders! Longevity without borders! Then, in the same way, I wish Chairman Mao and his close comrade-in-arms, Deputy Commander Lin, good health, good health, and eternal health. After wishing over, everyone sang "Dongfang Hong" and "The Sea Sails by the Helmsman" together. After that, he began to study Chairman Mao's quotations and Chairman Mao's writings.

As soon as the study is completed, it is "daily training," which is military training. It is mainly a shooting training for running, single and parallel bars practice, bomb throwing, crawling forward, tactical drills and empty gun aiming. In the past, when I was in the cavalry battalion, I didn't usually train much, or I stayed in the cavalry battalion for nearly two months and never even rode a horse.

The border station uses its own generators to generate electricity. Electricity is generated as soon as it gets dark every night, and the power is shut down at 10 o'clock in the evening. From 7 p.m. to 8:50 p.m., it's 'listening every day', that is, listening to the radio. Listen to the news broadcast program of the Central People's Radio on the radio. After listening to the radio, the instructor began to give a lecture on border defense knowledge and border defense policies. As a border officer, it is very important to learn about border policy. The soldiers were able to memorize the series of unequal treaties that Soviet Russia forced China to sign since 1883, and they were even more familiar with the principles that they followed in the conflict with the Soviet army, such as 'no one offends me, I will not offend, and if anyone offends me, I will offend others', '-for-tat, fight for every inch of land', and 'I would rather die one step forward than take half a step back' when clashing with the Soviet army.

That night, the instructor told us about the 'Hailan Pao Massacre' and the 'Jiangdong 64tun Massacre'. The incident occurred on July 16, 1900, when Russian soldiers broke into the homes and shops of Chinese in full armor, regardless of men, women and children, arrested people on sight, many of whom were immediately stabbed to death with bayonets, and then locked up the 3,500 Chinese arrested that day in a sawmill on the side of the Heilongjiang River. The next day, they drove them into the river to drown them, and some of those who did not want to go into the water were stabbed to death with bayonets by the Russian soldiers. A Russian soldier who participated in the massacre wrote: "The crowd was crushed like an avalanche into the turbid current of the Heilongjiang River. The crowd shouted like crazy, the sound shook the blue sky, and some wanted to desperately break away from the flow of people and drill out of the net; Some trampled on the women and babies who had been crushed and tried to escape. These men were either kicked into the air by the horse's hooves or stabbed to the ground by the cavalry's bayonets. Immediately, the Russian soldiers opened fire. The shouting, crying, gunshots, and angry shouts were all mixed together, and the misery was indescribable, and it was a hellish scene. At the same time, Tsarist Russia sent another army to Jiangdong 64tun and carried out several sweeps against the Chinese population. The Russian soldiers drove the residents of each tun into a large house, set fire to it, and burned the people in the house alive. Russian soldiers set fire to villages and destroyed houses, shot dead residents, and killed thousands of people in Bordotun alone. In the end, the Russian army forced those who had not crossed the river, men, women, old and young, farmers, craftsmen, dealers, and people of all walks of life into the river, and only 60 or 70 people survived by floating in the water, and the rest were forced to drown in the river, and the floating corpses covered the river for several days. Until the 21st, the Russian army destroyed all the villages of Chinese residents. The Jiangdong 64tun tragedy claimed the lives of more than 2,000 Chinese residents. Immediately after the massacre of Hailanpao and Jiangdong 64 Tun, Tsarist Russia used these two places as a base and began its brutal conquest of Northeast China.

After telling this tragic history, the instructor said to everyone in a heavier tone, 'Chairman Mao said that the new tsar has greater ambitions than the old tsar. At present, the Soviet Union is a super-military power, not only with several million troops stationed in Europe, but also with more than 1.5 million troops on China's borders, as well as 40 or 50 tank units and motorized units. There are more than four thousand aircraft of various kinds. What are they raising so many troops? Is it just to scare people? No, he wanted to follow in the footsteps of the old tsar and occupy more territory. ’

Then the instructor said, 'Both Tsarist Russia and the present Soviet Union have a dual character of thief and bandit. The thief's character makes them greedy and fearful, and they will rob when they can, and steal if they can't. If you steal someone else's things, and you are afraid of asking for it back, you will find a way to kill the owner. We can see that the colonial leaders, policemen, hooligans, crooks and scoundrels who once owed the Chinese people a heavy blood debt are all regarded as national heroes. In order to show that future generations will continue to expand and invade Russia as they did. ’

When the instructor said this, his tone further strengthened and said, "Dogs can't change to eat, and wolves can't change to eat people." Since the Soviets are determined to kill us, they have millions of troops on our borders, and they are ready to carry out blitzkrieg attacks on our country at any time, we must maintain a high degree of revolutionary vigilance and be ready to fight at any time. With our lives and blood, we will defend Chairman Mao and our motherland people to the death. ’

After listening to the instructor's speech, everyone saw more clearly the ugly nature of Soviet revisionist social-imperialism and the essence of Soviet revision's aggression and expansion, and their hearts were filled with deep hatred and anger against Soviet revisionist social-imperialism. ”