The "husband and wife post" on Xifeng Mountain, protect the forest with the tower as home
Lookout Li Deliang and Liu Qiurong and his wife have been guarding the forest for 12 years, and they have walked 4,000 kilometers in total to be the "eyes of the forest."
Liu Qiurong observes the mountainous situation in front of the observation tower.
Beijing News reporter Wu Caiqian
Li Deliang has been connected to mountains for most of his life.
He was born at the foot of a mountain in Liucun Town, Changping District, Beijing. At the age of 52, he changed from a driving school coach to a Xifeng Mountain watchman.
Lookout, fire prevention, and forest guarding, 12 years passed in a flash.
Five years ago, his wife Liu Qiurong also moved from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain and guarded the forest with Li Deliang.
The hexagonal two-story simple observation tower is their other home.
There are debris on the first floor, with a cat on the body, and climb the ten stairs to the second floor. There are windows on six sides, and you can look at the mountains and forests 360 degrees.
The couple, dressed in camouflage uniforms, took turns now on the watchtower.
The telescope by the window is their common tool, and the paging opportunity on the table suddenly sounded, which was a reminder from the silent forest.
If it is confirmed that there is a fire, they will call the fireman's contact number posted on the wall.
It is not easy to make a tower home.
It takes more than an hour to go up and down the mountain, food and water have to go up from the back of the mountain, and it is difficult to reunite with my family during holidays.
The couple watched the Spring Festival fireworks on the mountain 12 times, traveled more than 4,000 kilometers on the mountain road, found and contained the fire several times, and kept the green.
Forest eyes
Under his gray eyebrows, he has a pair of big, energetic eyes. They are very accurate when looking at the road, the car and the mountain.
Before 2009, Li Deliang often sat in the car.
He is a coach at a driving school in Liucun Town, Changping District, Beijing. He leaves early and returns late. He has a good income and reputation.
On April 10 of that year, he was taking the morning bus to the driving school and received a call from the head of the forestry work station in Liucun Town.
The other party said that the original watchman at Xifeng Mountain had left, and asked Li Deliang if he could get on top.
"I rushed to work at the time, so I agreed." Unexpectedly, the stationmaster took it seriously and went to look for him at home at night.
At that time, the monthly salary of a watchman was 600 yuan, and Li Deliang's basic salary as a coach was 800 yuan, as well as an hourly salary and bonus.
He hesitated, and his wife was also a driving school coach, so he relieved him: “It’s easy to get lumbar muscle strain when sitting in the car. You go climbing mountains, exercise and exercise, and change your mood.”
The job of a lookout is to keep looking at the mountains and forests, not letting go of any burning spots.
As soon as new green emerged in the forest, Li Deliang and another partner were officially on duty.
There is a 24-hour shift. Most of the time, he stands on the second floor observation deck, looking out through the windows of the ring wall.
If he finds danger, he will observe with binoculars, or go outside the tower to confirm, and then call the ranger.
The night is hard and terribly quiet.
Li Deliang asked the former watchman about when he could take a break and when he had to be vigilant. He found the pattern.
"After 11 o'clock in the evening, there will be no dog barking. You can squint for a while and wake up before dawn."
Loneliness is more difficult, and there is not even a person to talk.
Every year from November 1st to June 1st of the following year, it is the fireproof period, and the watchtower needs to be manned 24 hours a day.
"This work can stand loneliness, sometimes people can't see one or two."
Li Deliang liked this mountain as he looked at it.
After guarding Xifeng Mountain for 12 years, he can count the different beauty of it: In spring, apricot flowers bloom in the mountains, and there is a faint fragrance in the air; in summer, the mountains are full of emerald green and the evergreen pines and cypresses are more vibrant; in autumn, With the dead leaves falling, the mountain roads become fluffy; in winter, heavy snow will cover everything, including fire, which is also his favorite season.
After a long time, Li Deliang knew this forest well.
He can tell which is the cooking smoke from the villagers' cooking, which is the peasant's burning straw, and which is the smoke point that may cause the fire. He can also accurately tell which village, household and direction the smoke point belongs to.
In 2015, a bright spot suddenly appeared in the mountains, looming.
Li Deliang took a binoculars to see that it was a fire, and immediately reported it to the town’s forest fire prevention headquarters and fire fighting team.
After the report, he asked his wife to continue to look around, and he hurried to the scene.
When the fire was extinguished, the stone in his heart was let go.
As he walked back, the flashlight and walkie-talkie were out of power. He could only find himself in the dark and stumbled before returning to the watchtower.
It is precisely because of these "eyes of the forest" that in the past ten years, the 150 square kilometers forest farm that Li Deliang is responsible for has never had a big fire.
Make the tower home
The longer you stay on the mountain, the more the watchtower resembles another "home".
This simple "little white building" has 6 windows, allowing sunshine in summer and cold wind in winter.
A room of more than ten square meters is equipped with beds and tables, without heating, and without water.
In front of the door stood a lightning rod and a signal tower. In order to prevent tourists from approaching, Li Deliang surrounded a fence with iron wire, leaving only a small door.
Living in the mountains is not easy to live in.
Li Deliang has measured that the trail from the top to the foot of the mountain is about 1,000 meters long, and it takes about an hour to go back and forth.
In order to solve the water problem, they have to carry a bucket of 10 kilograms of water from their homes down the mountain every day, which can only be used for cooking and drinking, and it is necessary to save the use of washing dishes and hands.
The mountains are cold, the lowest temperature can reach -18℃, and the wind force is two or three levels stronger than that of the plains.
The brick walls of the watchtower were not thick, the windows on six sides were covered with ice, and the water in the house was frozen hard.
Li Deliang bought an electric heater, but he still couldn't bear the cold wind during the coldest time.
Liu Qiurong could still hear the sound of the wind up and down the mountain, she learned, "On the mountain is'uuuuu', and down the mountain is'huhuhu'."
Looking down from Xifeng Mountain, you will see a winding mountain road.
It was repaired by Li Deliang, and the original mountain road was too steep and inconvenient.
After surveying, designing, repairing vegetation and paving stones, he has repaired this mountain road intermittently for several years.
"The zigzag shape is more labor-saving, the average slope does not exceed 30 degrees, and the longest section is 155 meters." He remembered everything about this road very clearly.
Sometimes in snowy days, Li Deliang would not be idle at home, sweeping the snow all the way up from the foot of the mountain.
"I have to sweep this road out, otherwise the tourists will freeze after they have stepped on the snow, and it will be difficult to melt it behind." Not only the lookout, but the big and small things of this mountain, he kept in mind.
But Li Deliang's favorite thing is still rain and snow, the probability of fire is small, and he can rest for a while.
Especially when it comes to the Spring Festival, he is looking forward to snow so that he can go home and spend the New Year with his family, but such opportunities are rare.
When the family reunited, the fireworks and firecrackers were set off. It was a critical moment for fire prevention, and the watchmen did not dare to relax for a moment.
Chinese New Year is also on the mountain.
The wife brought the wrapped dumplings and heated it up on the induction cooker to make the New Year flavor. She also used apples and strawberries to form the word "spring".
Li Deliang writes different spring festival couplets every year and sticks them on the door of the watchtower.
This year, he wrote, "For more than ten years, watch the tower and guard the tower, and give the afterglow to the party and the people", and the horizontal comment is: "Take the tower as your home."
Couple whistle
The addition of Liu Qiurong turned the watchtower into a "husband and wife whistle".
"My wife is also a driving school coach, teaching better than me." Talking about his wife, Li Deliang was full of praise.
In 2017, another watchman resigned due to illness. Li Deliang hoped his wife could protect the mountain with him.
Liu Qiurong knew the hardship of the job and felt sorry for her husband's hard work, so he agreed.
Like Li Deliang, Liu Qiurong has to accept the test of "loneliness".
But she has found her own fun. When she is feeling upset, she likes to stand on the observation tower and look into the distance, "Broader vision and better mood!" When she is free, she will open the K song software and sing the song "Zhuangzhi "In My Chest", the points on the software have exceeded one thousand.
Gradually, Liu Qiurong also fell in love with this new job and cared for the plants and trees on the mountain with his heart.
"Green symbolizes life, we have to feast our eyes on ourselves, and we must protect the forest so that others can see it." She did the same, and the garbage left by life on the mountain was sorted and taken down the mountain.
After eating the oranges, she put the orange peels into the garbage bag, and the orange seeds were planted in the instant noodle bucket in the window.
More than two months ago, Li Deliang accidentally broke his leg at home.
Liu Qiurong has become busier. She gets up at 5 a.m. every morning, prepares meals at home, and then goes up the mountain to be on duty.
Like her husband, she also looked at the mountains and forests with a telescope and recorded the situation in a notebook.
Sometimes the call on the table rang. It may be that the camera on the top of the tower caught the smoke spot, and the observer needs to confirm the situation.
At noon, Liu Qiurong took out a ball of noodles from the refrigerator, pulled it, and threw it into the boiling water on the induction cooker, with cabbage and sauce. It was a simple lunch.
After eating, Liu Qiurong first wiped the bowl with a wet tissue, and then rinsed with a small amount of water.
Walking to the watchtower, Liu Qiurong looked at the rows of houses under the mountain, and talked about the mountain's allusion: According to legend, Mu Guiying was here in the past and her son was on the opposite mountain.
The eager Mu Guiying made a small mound here just to see her son.
Since then, this place has been called "Wangertuo", and now it is the "husband and wife lookout".
In the 12 years of persistence, they have traveled more than 4,000 kilometers up and down the mountain.
Li Deliang said: "This is just a simple job in the peaceful era. This is what party members should do."
Regarding watching the fire and protecting the mountain, the 64-year-old couple wants to do more.
Although their daughter worried that they would be too old to bear it, they couldn't bear the greenery on the mountain.
Li Deliang sometimes leaned on crutches and glanced at the mountain from home.
He wanted to wait for his leg injury to heal, and return to the watchtower again to take a look at the familiar mountains and forests.
Beijing News reporter Wu Caiqian and intern Li Xinran