The navy deep in the mountains
——Remember the North and South Mountain Units of a Security Brigade of the Naval Staff
The officers and soldiers of the North and South Mountains are patrolling the line.
Chen Xiaolei/Photo
Few people know that a naval force is stationed deep in the mountains of western Hunan.
The cliffs here are steep, the jungle is dense, and the peaks are one after another.
The nearest coastline is more than 1,000 kilometers away, and the unique sandstone landforms and endless green trees are the only scenery in the mountains.
More than 50 years ago, a certain support group of the Naval Staff was established here. Antennas of several kilometers long were horizontally framed between two north-south, facing mountains.
Today, the officers and soldiers of the Taiwan's South and North Mountain Units are stationed on the top of the mountain, guarding this communication lifeline, and ensuring the transmission of radio waves to ships galloping in the open ocean.
"We maintain the antenna to ensure that we can'transmit the order thousands of miles away.' But in fact, ocean-going ships don't know where the signal comes from. Unlike the comrades on the ships, we are the navy in the depths of the mountains." The squad leader Zhang Junyi said that for most people, the ocean is remote and unfamiliar, but it makes them linger.
The officers and soldiers of the unit liked the song "Heart as the Sea". One of the lyrics read: "There is no sea here to hold up the sun, and there is no sea breeze to blow the moon... There are only blue and white sea soul shirts, expressing our opinions. The association of the sea."
Soldiers of the North and South Mountain Unit repaired communication lines.
Ge Kaiyue/Photo
One
Compared with imagined sea breeze and waves, the officers and soldiers of the North and South Mountain Units are more familiar with the sea of clouds in the mountains.
The summer is humid and sultry in western Hunan, the Lishui tributary passes through, and the entire valley is shrouded in white mist.
The antenna is concealed into the clouds, and the supporting tower is standing on the edge of the cliff. When patrolling the line, you must be "careful and careful, careful and careful".
"Anything can happen in the jungle, and every line inspection is to'open up the wilderness'." Yang Junyi explained that sometimes a section of road just walked a few days ago and was swallowed by weeds and rolling rocks a few days later.
The mountains are full of thorns, and poisonous snakes and beasts hide in invisible corners.
When patrolling the line, experienced veterans will bring a machete to defend themselves.
When he walked to a place with a lot of grass, the machete played the role of a "blind stick", reaching out to test whether there was a field ahead.
In the summer two years ago, the 18-year-old recruit Zhong Huasheng took part in the line patrol for the first time. He accidentally stepped on the air when he walked over a section of the cliff, and fell down against the rock on his back.
The squad leader beside him tightly grabbed his arm and pulled it up forcefully, so that he could escape.
When Yang Junyi went to Beishan at the beginning of 11 years ago, he counted 48 turns from the mountainside camp to the Beishanban section of the mountain.
The big car can't drive up, only the off-road vehicle can go, but the speed must be very slow, so as not to roll over and fall into the 100-meter deep valley next to it.
Line patrol in winter is more difficult.
When the mountain is closed by heavy snow, the temperature on the top of the mountain is low, and the antenna is prone to malfunction due to ice-wrapped.
Lines are patrolled twice a week, and must be checked every day.
Sergeant Huang Zhijian from Zhanjiang, Guangdong came to Nanbei Mountain and saw ice and snow for the first time.
"The scenery is beautiful, but the experience is not good." Huang Zhijian said with a smile. The first thing to do to get up on a snowy day is to worry about the antenna being frozen. Wrapped in a coat and rushed out the door. The ground is frozen, and the whole person will go uncontrollably. Slide forward.
Today, Huang Zhijian has summarized a set of effective "walking methods."
"Use your heels to make a pit on the ice to prevent slippage." The tanned southern post-95 guy stood up to demonstrate, stomping down on the ground with his toes, stomping a footprint.
At the beginning of 2014, Huang Zhijian encountered antennas wrapped in ice during the first winter in the North and South Mountains.
The antenna hangs down due to the increase in weight, grazed the treetops, and may ignite sparks at any time.
Huang Zhijian climbed up to a tree next to him, embraced the trunk with one hand, and waved a machete with the other, cutting off the branches that were in contact with the antenna.
In more than 20 minutes, the cold wind blew him to freeze.
Below him is an invisible cliff tens of meters deep.
Despite the danger, now in retrospect, Huang Zhijian has no fear at all.
"I didn't think about being afraid, I felt passionate and excited." This veteran who has been in the North and South Mountains for more than 6 years proudly pointed to the patrol route and said, "Look, this is our'track'."
The brigade organized all the new Xialian soldiers to participate in the theme group day activities of "walking the north and south mountain roads and practicing the spirit of the north and south mountains".
Qin Asia/Photo
two
The most urgent special situation Huang Zhijian encountered occurred in 2018.
He clearly remembered that it was 1 o'clock in the middle of the night on January 4, and he was awakened by the telephone ringing from his sleep. He received a message from the Yamashita Brigade that the antenna of a certain number might be broken and that he needed to be checked and confirmed immediately.
Lifting the quilt, Huang Zhijian immediately jumped out of bed, put on his coat and rushed out with two comrades in arms.
The cold breath came, and the mountains and forests were dark at night, and only the sound of the howling wind made people flustered.
Fortunately, there are no poisonous snakes in winter, Huang Zhijian only needs to worry about not slipping and rolling down the mountain.
The road was icy. As the squad leader, he walked in the forefront. When he reached the most difficult section, he bit the flashlight with his mouth, crawled over with his hands and feet, and let his comrades step on his footsteps to pass.
That day, Huang Zhijian and his comrades walked for more than two hours on the road that was usually completed in 30 to 40 minutes.
When he returned to the dormitory, Huang Zhijian was shivering, and the clothes in his coat were soaked with sweat.
"After I came back, I didn't feel cold anymore. I was a little bit enthusiastic. After all, it was for us to do such an important thing!" Huang Zhijian said proudly.
After inspection, the antenna was indeed broken, and the timely confirmation of the situation bought time for repairs.
Zhang Junyi subsequently joined the special treatment.
After dawn that day, he and a few comrades set out on foot to the mountains and forests, looking for the broken half antenna.
"It's all roads that you haven't walked normally, just like the real virgin forest." They spread out and searched separately, in order to prevent accidents, they agreed to shout slogans every few steps.
Shouting and shouting, there was really no echo from someone. Everyone was terrified. They rushed over to find that the rock was blocking the sound.
On the way, they encountered a nearly vertical cliff, and there was no other way to go except to climb down.
At that time, Zhang Junyi's child was just a few months old. The young father looked at the steep cliff and felt a little scared for the first time.
But for the mission, the antenna must be found.
Zhang Junyi and his comrades looked at each other, and invariably gritted their teeth and shouted: "Go!" They squatted down, leaned their backs against the stone wall, and moved them down.
Zhang Junyi can recall that scene so far. The valley and dense forest are under his feet. You can't look down. "Just look at it and your legs are soft." "At that time, I wondered if I could judge a martyr if I sacrificed." Now he smiled and recalled. Say.
The antenna was found in the afternoon of the next day, and this special handling became a "big event" in the history of the unit.
The officers and soldiers proved with the courage of "playing their lives" that "the navy in the mountains can also go to the'battlefield'".
"We are like the eyes of a ship. When we reach the far sea, our signal is to guide them in the direction of every move, so we must not make mistakes." Zhang Junyi said that this is the consensus of generations of officers and soldiers in the North and South Mountains: We must keep the communication positions.
In 2008, a huge ice and snow disaster hit, and a certain antenna in Nanshan jumped from a supporting tower.
Xuan Fengwen, the leader of the Nanshan squad at the time, climbed the tower against the wind and snow and carried out emergency repairs.
In order to maintain the feel, he took off his gloves, and when he came down, his hands had been smeared with cold iron.
Two years ago, the perseverance and dedication of the officers and soldiers in the North and South Mountains finally received a response from the sea.
A squad leader serving on a ship came to exchange and study, and he said emotionally: "Every time I float alone at sea, I feel like a reassurance to receive your news, and I feel very relieved."
This sentence became the proudest thing for the officers and soldiers of the unit.
Whenever they talked about it, they scrambled to "show off". The squad leader also brought a bottle of spring water from the mountain to the warship and followed the warship.
three
The arrival of the ship squad leader confirmed the "meaning of holding on to the mountains" in the heart of squad leader Yang Li.
Originally, Yang Li longed for the Marine Corps.
He longed for a life in the army. When he was in the company in 2009, he drove into the mountains, "going more and more desperate."
"Who doesn't want to board a ship in the navy? It's not awe-inspiring at all in the mountains!" Yang Li remembered that he went to the Nanshan squad in the second year of the next consecutive year. The water pipe broke on the night of the second day of the new year.
He and his comrades rushed for repairs until two o'clock in the evening when they happened to see fireworks set off over the far away county town.
Standing in the quiet mountain, Yang Li felt particularly lonely, and complained in his heart: "Why did I get to such a shabby place as a soldier?"
An old monitor changed him.
In the second year of going up the mountain, the squad leader was discharged from the army. Before leaving, he took Yang Li to check every antenna point carefully, and explained the precautions as he walked. He talked for a long time.
"It's no matter how big or small it is, just nagging like a mother. He entrusted these to me, and I promised him that he would keep it and let him rest assured." Yang Li was touched, and he felt a kind of "responsibility to stick to."
After that day, he decided to transfer to a non-commissioned officer to stay, "to guard the distant sea."
"This is the inheritance. One generation influences the next generation, and they stay here willingly." Zhang Junyi understands this feeling.
When he first came to the Nanbei Mountains, he grew up in the inland region and complained that he could not see the sea.
The veteran squad leader Zhang Shunxiang pointed to the antenna and told him that there is a direct link to the ocean, "Without us, warships cannot go to sea."
Huang Zhijian has seen warships in Zhanjiang, but has never been there.
After becoming a navy, relatives and friends were puzzled and laughed and teased him: "Going to the navy in the mountains, haven't you even touched a ship?"
"Laugh as they laugh, and I won't explain anything." Huang Zhijian said.
In fact, even people in nearby counties don’t know that there is a group of navy here. “Some people charge ahead and some people hide behind the scenes. It’s good to be a'hero behind the scenes'”.
But this group of deep mountains and sailors still worry about the ocean most.
When it's okay, they just watch the short video news, most like watching the pictures of ships visiting.
Huang Zhijian downloaded a copy of "Operation Red Sea" on his mobile phone, and he repeated the scene of the warship evacuation of overseas Chinese more than 10 times, "Every time I saw it, I wanted to cry, that was the ship we sent out."
Zhou Xiao, commander of the first battalion of the unit, believes that an unspeakable sense of identity has broken the boundary between mountain and sea.
"Wearing this navy uniform, we sailed the ocean the way we did." He concluded in one sentence, "We are'prosperous'."
four
Today, the track of the Chinese navy is continuing to extend farther into the deep blue waters, while the footsteps of the officers and soldiers of the South and North Mountain Detachment have been going deep into the mountains.
The courier can't reach here, it can only be sent to the foot of the mountain, and then picked up by the car back to the mountain.
The southern and northern mountain classes on the top of the mountain have almost no signal, only one TV, which can receive two or three channels.
After 11 years on the mountain, Yang Li has gone down a handful of times.
Except for going home on vacation and passing through the county, he rarely visits.
"Nothing to go shopping, the mountain will be too troublesome next time." Yang Li said.
From the mountain to the nearest county by car, the fastest mountain road is two to three hours.
More often, the long mountain road brings a disconnect from the outside world.
The mountain was blocked by heavy snow a year. Zhang Shunxiang and his three comrades spent more than 3 months in the Beishan squad. When he returned to the camp halfway up the mountain, he exclaimed excitedly: "Many people!" Another soldier once stood on the county bus. Be at a loss at the stop sign.
After two years of not going down the mountain, he has forgotten the familiar bus route.
"Sometimes I chatted with my former classmates and found that I hadn't watched any of the movies they discussed, so I didn't want to talk about it." Yang Li joked, "Everyone seems to have a generation gap, and they live in their own world."
The Nanbei Mountain has brought Yang Li another kind of "growth."
Although he doesn't understand pop culture, he now repairs water pipes, repairs TV, paints walls, raises chickens and sheep by himself... When he takes turns in the southern and northern squads, he cooks for the soldiers in the squad. Almost all learned from him.
Zhang Junyi's changes are even greater.
When he first came, he was shy, shy, and reluctant to talk. The loneliness in the mountains often made him feel uncomfortable, so he could only digest it silently.
Soon, Zhang Shunxiang discovered Zhang Junyi's distress.
The veteran squad leader who was known for "talking" began to pull Zhang Junyi to chat, chatting from birth to now, focusing on his own embarrassing things.
Slowly, Zhang Junyi was infected by Zhang Shunxiang's happy mood and learned to open himself up.
Nowadays, he is one of the most "talkable" people in the squad, and if the recruits talk less, he takes the initiative to greet them.
"This is the truth that the old squad leader told me. Only by learning to get along with the environment can we defeat ourselves." Zhang Junyi is now glad that he came to Nanbei Mountain. "The temperament of the whole person has changed here."
Yang Li believes that people who stay in the mountains for a long time will have a commonality.
"We can endure hardship, endure, and adapt to life in our own way." He explained, "This place has shaped us. If we leave in the future, everyone will remember the spirit of Nanbei Mountain."
Fives
They discussed the life after leaving the North and South Mountains. The first thing most people think is to "look at the sea."
"Many people have never seen the sea until they are discharged. This seems to be everyone's obsession." Zhang Junyi said, but he admits that staying in the mountains for a long time will dilute the yearning for the sea.
"For example, I wanted to go to sea when I first came, and now I hope to stay here for a few more years."
Every year when leaving the army, it is the saddest season in the North and South Mountains.
The veteran who was leaving was crying, and after taking part in the last line inspection, he must plant a tree on the mountain by himself.
Few people can tell which is a "farewell tree".
The veterans will pick their favorite place and hang a small card on the tree.
Sometimes, Zhang Junyi will find these trees and cards during the line inspection a few months later. Some of the cards are written complaining about the squad leader's criticism of himself, and some are very simple instructions: "Take care of the dog for me."
One year, a veteran left Nanbei Mountain due to work adjustments.
The only farmhouse on the North Mountain wanted to call him. The old woman cried and asked on the phone, "When will you be back?" The old soldier couldn't cry on the phone.
Zhang Junyi did not dare to think about the scene when he was discharged from the army, "I am too sad to mention this. I seem to have become one with this place." The big laughing boy suddenly blushed and his voice was a little choked.
Zhou Xiao is one of the few people who "saw the sea before leaving the army."
He was married for his honeymoon the year before, and he specially went to Qingdao Beach, but "it was not the same as expected, the water is not dark blue."
He also went to the Naval Museum to see what the ship looked like.
But after seeing it, I regretted it. "My daughter-in-law asked me about the parts on the ship. I don't know what it is." Zhou Xiao smiled shyly and admitted that it was "a bit embarrassing."
Zhang Junyi, who has been escorting ships for 11 years, has never seen the sea.
The nearest time to the sea was in Hangzhou. He went to West Lake to play and felt that "the water quality is not good. The mountains are not as clean as ours and there are many people."
Now, Zhang Junyi has collected a piece of rock he picked up during the line inspection. It is black and very beautiful.
"When I am discharged from the army, I may go to see the sea. I will take this stone." Zhang Junyi occasionally imagined the days to come, "This stone can prove that I was a navy in the mountains."
China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporter Zheng Tianran Source: China Youth Daily