Taking over the career of his grandfather and father, he has been rooted in the mountains and forests for 23 years
If you go back in time and ask 8-year-old Jiang Libing what he wants to do most in the future, the little boy's answer is likely to be a forest ranger.
In Jiang Libing's childhood memories, he grew up with his father patrolling the mountains.
Holding his father's hand, from one forest area to another, he spent the happiest time in the Danling State-owned Forest Farm deep in the mountains of Meishan.
At the age of 23, Jiang Libing took over the baton from his father and continued his fate with this forest farm.
The Spring Festival in 2022 is approaching. The reporter came to Zonggang Mountain in Danling County, Meishan City to listen to Jiang Libing talk about his forest protection story.
He walks the 15-kilometer forest ranger road more than 20 times a month
In the deep winter, after crossing the continuous Zonggang Mountain, a small blue-tiled house came into view.
Looking at Jiang Libing standing at the gate, his face is engraved with years of vicissitudes and perseverance, his face slowly coincides with what we imagined.
Although the green tile house is small, it houses the memory of three generations of guarding the forest.
"At night in winter, it's very cold in the house, and it's very hot in summer." At that time, without the help of electrical appliances, the best way is to put a thick quilt on yourself.
"In 1954, my grandfather became the forest ranger of this mountain forest, and then my father took over this career." Including Jiang Libing, who is now 47 years old, three generations of grandparents have been guarding the forest for nearly 70 years.
"When I was young, I always felt that I was the son of Dashan, and I was born to guard this forest area." Measure the length of the land in this forest area.
If you ask how many kilometers there are in Danling State-owned Forest Farm, Jiang Libing will definitely answer 15 kilometers without hesitation.
He walks this 15-kilometer road more than 20 times a month, and it is more than 4,000 kilometers in one year.
Every morning, he would go out at six o'clock on time, put on rubber shoes, bring a bag of dry food, put a basket on his back, pick up a sickle, and Jiang Libing began his day's forest protection work.
Clear weeds, pick up cigarette butts, and often get muddy when it rains.
The "guardian" of green water and green mountains, he is not afraid of life and death threats
In the mountains, somersaults or slips are trivial matters, and even life is occasionally threatened.
"We once caught someone who was stealing Chinese fir during the mountain patrol." At that time, Jiang Libing and his teammates were going to take him back to the work area to be punished, but when Jiang Libing and others were not paying attention, the wood stealer directly picked up the bowl. The thick fir hit them on the head, almost hitting Jiang Libing.
Even if he passed by the god of death, Jiang Libing never thought about giving up guarding the forest.
Walking through the forest, Jiang Libing knew the geographical location, altitude, slope, soil condition and tree species of every mountain and ditch.
In 2013, Danling State-owned Forest Farm ushered in a rare snowfall in decades.
Ruixue has a good year, but for Jiang Libing, this is not a happy thing.
"At that time, we braved the strong wind and snow to quickly go to the place where the cedar saplings were just planted to check, and found that the saplings were damaged to varying degrees."
Jiang Libing, who was extremely worried, immediately divided the task areas for everyone, cleaned the snow on the saplings one by one, and helped the saplings to check the damage, and marked the severely damaged ones to facilitate taking remedial measures.
Every snowy day, he works with the forest rangers on the newly planted sapling land, protecting the saplings for the winter.
When the survival rate of saplings is counted in spring, there are only a handful of people buried under the snow.
The "retrograde" of the forest fire, he put out the wildfire and rushed forward
In the forest area, in addition to planting, the most important thing is to guard.
Click on Jiang Libing's WeChat Moments, the first content is "Entering the forest area, fire is strictly prohibited".
In 2008, a forest fire broke out in the famous Ya'an Mountains at the junction of the Qishan Forest Area of the Danling State-owned Forest Farm.
At that time, Jiang Libing saw the billowing smoke billowing from the hilltop in the distance, and immediately reported to the forest farm, and immediately applied to join other forest rangers in the rescue and support work.
Bringing the simple fire-fighting tools from the forest farm, they quickly climbed 11 kilometers from the station and participated in the fire fighting.
With the joint efforts of them and the forest rangers in Mingshan District, the fire was finally put out, effectively preventing the forest fire from spreading to the state-owned forest farm.
And this forest area does not belong to Jiang Libing's forest protection range.
In the spring of 2014, Danling State-owned Forest Farm carried out afforestation work.
The forest farm applied to the higher authorities for approval procedures for using fire, but during the afforestation work, a worker used a fire source without authorization, causing a fire.
At that time, the forest farm had limited fire-fighting equipment, and there was no professional fire-fighting team and equipment in the county. As a forest ranger, Jiang Libing and other forest rangers were immediately involved in the fire-fighting work.
"We made use of all available fire-fighting tools, such as iron brooms, machetes, pesticide sprayers, etc., and basically did not rest from morning to late at night, and finally put out the fire." Recalling the scene of fighting at that time, Jiang Li Soldier smiled.
After winter, the forest farm will enter a period of fire warning for half a year.
During this period, Jiang Libing and his teammates will go to the deepest village in the forest area, go from house to house to check the fire situation, publicize fire prevention knowledge, so that the forest farm can spend the winter safely.
The strong and iron man is also affectionate. He just wants to do one thing well.
如果问47岁的江利兵最想做什么，他一定会说，回到妻子生产的那一天，能够陪在她身边。
这片山林每一天都需要有人去守护，江利兵每个月有26天必须守在这里，“当时山上实在离不开人，老婆生娃娃时我没能赶回去陪她。”
“终于熬到回家了，但儿子因为缺少我的陪伴，还会好奇地问我，‘你是谁’。”说到动情处，这个一向坚毅的男人背对记者抹起了泪。
一开始，江利兵的妻子也会为守林工作和他吵架。工作辛苦、离家远、收入不高等一系列问题像大山，压得江利兵有时候透不过气。他也曾辗转反侧，一夜无眠，可天一亮，还是会不由自主穿好行头准时巡山。
守护这片山林，早已在日复一日年复一年中成为刻在江利兵骨子里的使命与职责，“如果我都不做这份工作，那还有谁做呢？”
每年家里农忙的时候，正是江利兵巡山护林任务最繁重的时候，家里的农活基本指望不上他，如果有什么其他困难更是无暇顾及。
但因为家里祖孙三代护林，江利兵的父母从未抱怨过儿子。甚至为了不让他担心家里，安心在林场工作，江利兵的父亲连生病都不曾通知他。
有人觉得江利兵傻，何必一心守在这深山老林。但这份傻劲在70年前就融入了江家血脉，“从我爷爷开始，我们一家就只想坚持做好这一件事。”江利兵说。
“现在看护山林之余，我养了一些跑山鸡，再加上国家补贴，收入高了很多。”最令江利兵高兴的是，遇上假期，妻子也会带着孩子来小住。
采访中，江利兵拿出手机，给记者看自己儿子的照片。看着相片上那个在山林里意气风发的少年，好像看到了第二个江利兵。
华西都市报-封面新闻记者柴枫桔实习生刘彦君