On the border, fifty-eight years of watch
Starting from Mulei County, Border County, Changji Prefecture, Xinjiang, the car galloped on the country road.
4 hours have passed, and there are endless Gobi deserts, and sometimes rolling sand dunes are encountered, and the monotonous gray-yellow color fills the eyeballs.
Finally, after turning around Munlock Mountain, the sight of a police battalion with white walls and a blue roof jumped into the reporter's field of vision.
A stone tablet stands at the entrance of the police camp, and the carved characters of "Guardian of the State" are dazzling.
The Dahuang Shuiquan border police station has arrived.
The Dahuang Shuiquan Border Police Station, established in 1964, is affiliated to the Changji Border Management Detachment of the Xinjiang Entry-Exit Frontier Inspection Station.
The area where the police station is located is windy all year round, extremely dry, desolate and lonely.
For 58 years, generations of Dahuang Shuiquan people have worked hand in hand with border guards and local herdsmen, sharing weal and woe, and have composed an immortal movement of defending the country and defending the border on the Gobi Desert.
hold fast
It takes more than two hours to drive from the Dahuang Shuiquan border police station to the Heigou duty point on the China-Mongolia border.
Outside the window, the wind was howling.
After getting off the 331 National Road, the car bumped on the uneven gravel road.
"Heigou duty point is here!" Following the direction of the driver's master's finger, I saw a solitary bungalow standing on the Gobi Desert.
Lin Jianfei, the 24th instructor of the Dahuang Shuiquan Border Police Station, introduced that the Heigou duty point is located in the windy area. There are more than 200 days of strong winds in a year.
How hard is it to live here?
The large yellow bucket placed in the duty room was talking silently.
"In the past, water for eating had to be brought in from 130 kilometers away. In order to save, the water here is used in a 'one-stop' way: a basin of water for washing face, feet, and toilet; a basin of water for washing vegetables, washing hands, pouring land." Policeman Xu Youlong introduced.
Drought, lack of water, wind and sun have left the imprint of time on Xu Youlong, a 28-year-old boy from Hebei.
Dark skin, rough hands, chapped lips... all appearance features are not in line with his age.
Xu Youlong's grandfather and father both served in Xinjiang, and now he is "the third generation of border guards".
Xu Youlong said, guarding the edge, he didn't feel bitter.
Looking north from the duty point of Heigou, the Great Havtik Mountain is soaring into the clouds, and a winding path leads to the top of the mountain.
At night, the reporter followed Xu Youlong to patrol along this road.
After passing the second border fence, the police car stopped and stopped on the gravel road. Xu Youlong got off the car from time to time to observe the border situation with night vision goggles.
"The pipeline section I'm in charge of is more than 50 kilometers long, and it takes more than five hours to go back and forth." Xu Youlong said that there are many guardrooms stationed in this area. A full line night patrol is to be carried out.
"There are a lot of construction workers in the past two days, so you must not relax the inspection. If you have any difficulties, let me know in time." Every time he went to a station on duty, Xu Youlong would tell the border guards one by one.
It was 21:40 when I walked out of the No. 7 garrison room. The sky was dark, and the cold wind whistled from the depths of the mountain, rolling up stones and hitting the car body, making a crackling sound.
Turn off the flashlight, the earth is surrounded by endless darkness.
At this time, the howling of the beast came from a distance, Xu Youlong turned on the beam and swayed towards the mountain, "I don't know if it's a wolf or a bear, it's our neighbors anyway, say hello to them." He said with a smile.
In June last year, Xu Youlong and the border guards went to the boundary monument to investigate. On the way back, they found that a "Winter Nest" (herdsmen's winter grazing point) had spontaneously ignited. They urgently contacted the herdsmen and organized auxiliary police and border guards to quickly put out the fire. .
In the winter of 2020, a construction vehicle rolled over at the border. Xu Youlong led the police to arrive in time to rescue the trapped driver.
Speaking of these, he said frankly, "I feel at ease when I can do something practical for the masses."
It was four o'clock in the morning when he returned from the return trip. Xu Youlong sat at the gate of the station and stared at the Great Havtik Mountain in front of him.
"It's a lie to say that I don't want to be at home, but when I think of us staying here, the family can live peacefully and sleep soundly, it's worth it!" Xu Youlong had tears in his eyes.
inherited
Rhubarb Spring, originally a spring in the depths of the Gobi, is named after the high alkali content of the spring water, which is bitter and astringent, and appears yellow.
The Dahuang Shuiquan Border Police Station was built near the spring. This bitter water is the "source of life" that people rely on for survival.
An old pole, an old lantern, a dilapidated telescope, a broken saddle, and more than a dozen rusted medals. The old objects in the honor room tell the 58-year glory of the police station.
What makes the policemen proud is that in the past 58 years, all the records of the dispatches have been unbroken - the jurisdiction "has no one who has crossed the border for 58 consecutive years".
Keep this record, rely on what?
"For 58 years, the fire has been passed down from generation to generation. The police and the people have united as a family. Everyone who lives here is a 'living boundary monument' on the border." Lin Jianfei told reporters.
The area under the jurisdiction of the Dahuang Shuiquan Border Police Station is mostly an open area. It is also the junction of Mulei County, Qitai County and Balikun County. Thousands of herdsmen pour in every winter, and there are nearly 100,000 livestock. It is easy to happen that people and livestock cross the border.
"Back then, the patrolling horse team repeatedly stepped on the grassland along the national border and stepped out of a small road, and the 'horse stepping on the red line' also has the meaning of a boundary monument." Adali, who worked in the Dahuang Shuiquan border police station for 16 years Khan Saitinawi recalls.
"There are barbed wire fences on the border now, and the herdsmen voluntarily guard the border of the motherland," said border guard Suleiman Taravhan.
Adalikhan Saiitinawi told reporters that when they first arrived at Dahuangshuiquan, the police did not know much about the population distribution and border terrain here.
In order to get familiar with the environment as soon as possible, everyone went into various pastoral areas separately, chatted with herdsmen during the day, surveyed the terrain of the border, and recorded pictures with sheep oil lamps in the herdsmen’s yurt at night. When the yurt was too small, they would crowd with the sheep. spend the night together.
Soon, the population distribution of the entire jurisdiction, the topography and landforms of the frontier, and the mountain pass outside the jurisdiction were all clearly understood.
Speaking of the experience of patrolling the border, the 62-year-old Kazakh old man Kongbati Kakosh was filled with emotion.
"When I was a border guard, I promoted the border defense policy to the herdsmen, grazing with them during the day, and living in a 'pinch of wool' yurt at night. One pinch of wool today, and a pinch of wool tomorrow, after the policy publicity, The winter shepherd season is over." Khumbati Karkosh smiled brightly.
In the herdsmen's settlement 3 kilometers away from the police station, the reporter saw the 74-year-old Akmu old man.
Akmu, who came to Dahuang Shuiquan at the age of 14 and worked as a border guard for 20 years, has repeatedly patrolled and cared for herds with the police. They rode on horses with dry food and clothing, and lived at the border for several months.
As the "Uncle Yamaguchi" in the eyes of people, the elderly Akmu has served as a voluntary "sentry" for decades.
He himself was not only rated as an excellent border guard many times, but the five children in the family also inherited their father's business, put on camouflage uniforms, and defended the country.
During the patrol, he was besieged by a pack of wolves, put concrete on the Great Havtik Mountain, which is more than 3,000 meters above sea level, to make a boundary marker, and walked more than 200 kilometers to help the police find the lost military horse... Talking about a very proud experience, due to high blood pressure, it was difficult to have a headache. Shinobu's eyes radiated from the old Akmu's eyes.
have gratitude.
An Aimin well outside the gate of the Dahuang Shuiquan Border Police Station is still gurgling water.
"More than 50 years ago, our policeman Liu Qidong took water from this well, and then used a pole to deliver the water to the homes of herdsmen. We must not lose this tradition." said Matt, the 20th director of the Dahuang Shuiquan Border Police Station. .
"I still remember the herdsmen in the Dahuangshuiquan area. They call me to notify me of anything, because we are already a family." Adalikhan Saiitinawi said.
youth
"Looking back at the bright night, I smiled at the snow and Ge in front of me, an inch of territory, thousands of miles of mountains and rivers." This poem was written by Li Jinyang, a policeman at the Dahuang Shuiquan Border Police Station.
Li Jinyang, 24, is the youngest among the police.
In 2017, he joined the army from Daqing, Heilongjiang to the former Xinjiang Public Security Frontier Defense Corps. In 2018, he was transferred to the National Immigration Administration with the army.
Taking off the military uniform and putting on the police uniform means that the frontier has changed from "for a while" to "for a lifetime".
"The more you walk around, the more desolate you are, and all you see is the vast Gobi Desert." Li Jinyang still remembers the mood when he first came to Dahuang Water Spring at the end of 2019.
Like Li Jinyang, most of the police at the Dahuang Shuiquan Border Police Station are from provinces outside Xinjiang. Their average age is 28 years old, and they are in their youth.
When people of the same age in their hometown are enjoying the prosperity of the city, they are facing the boundless Gobi Desert, especially in the long winter, when the mountains are covered by heavy snow, everything is chilled, and no strangers can be seen for several months.
Living in such an environment, what is the mentality of the policemen?
When he saw Li Yang, a police officer at the duty point, he was organizing a line-up training for border guards.
This boy from Baoding, Hebei has a bright face.
"Although Rhubarb Spring has a harsh environment and difficult conditions, Rhubarb Spring has a soul. Every person and object here has a story." Li Yang said that he and his comrades have participated in desert rescue and Blizzard rescue, and experienced Houda. More than one meter of wind blowing snow, it is in the work that I found my life value.
"Dahuang Shuiquan is a big melting pot. As long as you walk in, it is a piece of steel when you go out." Ma Wenze, director of the Political Department of the Changji Border Management Detachment and former instructor of the police station, said that what prompted everyone to stay in the end was not only the duty and mission of the border guards, but also the predecessors. Deeds and spiritual inspiration.
In addition to the old objects in the honor room, another set of data also revealed the difficult conditions of the frontiers in the past: purification equipment was used in 2013, and the brackish water from the spring was eaten before; , "relying on the sky to use electricity"; in 2017, the asphalt road was repaired. Previously, it took five or six hours to walk from Mulei County to the police station...
In 2020, the 4G network signal of the police station was connected.
Before that, the police used a "satellite pot" to watch TV, and the signal was very unstable.
On New Year's Eve every year, police officers put on thick cotton-padded coats and coats, and take turns holding "satellite pots" on the roof before they can watch the Spring Festival Gala.
Just like that, it's still fun.
"The seniors can guard the border in such a bitter environment, and we can't be cowardly!" Li Jinyang said that the police are practicing the "big yellow water spring spirit" with actions: they can endure loneliness, guard the border, and challenge bear the burden.
These fifteen characters were engraved in the most conspicuous position in the courtyard of the police station and became their "spiritual boundary monument".
On May 18 this year, Lin Jianfei was transferred to be the instructor of the Mulei Border Management Brigade.
Before leaving, he came to the stele engraved with the words "Wei Guo Guards the Border" at the entrance of the police station, stroking the stele for a long time and did not leave.
Behind him, Munlock Mountain stands majestically, and the new instructor Wang Baoqiu stands up and looks into the distance...
(Our reporter Li Hui, our correspondent Zhang Jia travels around)