It wasn't until she held the portrait in her hand that Gan Yuqin knew why the bad news of her brother's death came from a distant border. Gan Zurong, who always said that he was doing logistics, turned out to be a "sharp-knife warrior" on the anti-drug front.
In Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province, the 503.8-kilometer-long border line twists and turns, some are hidden between mountains, some are only separated by a narrow river, and some even divide the village into two.
As the first line of defense to prevent the entry of drugs, Gan Zurong and his comrades concealed their identities and blurred their names, becoming the "invisible people" who were lethal in a hand-to-hand combat against drugs.
As the blade swiped, there was no longer a "mosaic" on their faces.
From the establishment of the former Yunnan Dehong Public Security Frontier Detachment in 1951, to the reform and transfer to the immigration management system in 2019, at least four soldiers died in anti-drug operations and were posthumously rated as martyrs.
On their tombstones, in addition to their names, places of origin, and dates of birth and death, there is only one striking red star.
The steel guns were taken over by the relatives of the martyrs, and the "red stars" became the string of sirens on their chests - although they were destined to continue to remain "invisible" in the turbulent drug war.
"There is no drug in the world", from the soldiers to the police, the belief has never faded.
"The dress has changed, but our responsibilities have not changed. Anti-drug work is inseparable from people's execution. What we can do is to always protect our firmest beliefs."
unexpected bad news
Gan Zurong was the pride of the whole family.
The elder brother Gan Zujun still remembers that in the winter of 2000, his younger brother Gan Zurong, who joined the army, left home with only a backpack on his body.
That day, amid the flying snowflakes in Bijie, the brothers climbed one mountain after another and bumped to the Armed Forces Department in Changchunbao Town.
Although he is still a recruit who has only been in the army for one year, Gan Zurong seems to be joining up quickly and becoming the "backbone" of his siblings.
The year he joined the army, his younger sister Gan Yuqin graduated from junior high school and followed the villagers to work in Shenzhen, and later moved to Zhejiang.
This made Gan Zurong worried.
In those years, Gan Yuqin often received letters from her second brother, persuading her to continue her studies, "Otherwise, if I can't keep up with the society in the future, I will regret it."
Gan Yuqin screwed screws in an electronics factory, earning more than 1,000 yuan a month.
She saved the money and sent it all home.
The concerns were diluted a little bit, and the guilt turned to attack the city. Gan Zurong wrote in the letter, "Young sister, for this family, you really worked hard for you."
The calendar book on the wall of the old house trembled in the rapid turning of a river of time, flowing forward calmly year after year.
Until the bad news came unexpectedly, all illusions were shattered with just one click.
It was one day at the end of March 2007 when I received the news of Gan Zurong's accident.
Not long after the Spring Festival, Gan Yuqin, who had just returned to work in Zhejiang, embarked on a strange road in a trance.
From Zhejiang to Guiyang, Kunming, and then to Dehong Prefecture.
She found it unbelievable—the second brother always said that he was in the army as a logistician, and there was no danger. He usually buys groceries and settles accounts, so how could something happen?
The answer to the mystery is an unexpected answer by Gan Yuqin: After graduating from Kunming Frontier Defense Command School in 2005, Gan Zurong was assigned to the police station in Yuanzhi, Yingjiang County, Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province, and became a "sharp-knife warrior" on the anti-drug front. , in the end, also fell on this battlefield.
Under the "incognito", the data remembers how he walked on the edge of the blade again and again: personally seized 4,770 grams of opium, and arrested more than 10 criminal suspects; participated in the cracking of 11 drug trafficking cases, including 2 extra-large cases of more than 10,000 grams, arrested There were more than 20 suspects, 47.3 kilograms of drugs and 2 drug transport vehicles were seized.
At the end of 2006, Gan Zurong won the third-class personal merit.
gunfire on the border
Just when Gan Yuqin came to see the second brother for the last time, Guo Jie's mind was still confused.
The mountains on the border are awe-inspiring. This young soldier, who has just graduated from the military academy for three years, has just experienced a fierce gun battle.
Bullets whizzed past his head, and the bullet scars spurred a string of blood; the grenade exploded three or five meters in front of him, causing him to be temporarily deaf for a week.
But Guojie said that these were "too light", and that he lost three comrades forever in that mountain forest - Bai Jiangang, Xu Shengqian and Gan Zurong.
Yueliangshicha intersection of Baiyan Villager Group, Zhidong Village, Zhina Township, Yingjiang County, Dehong Prefecture, is a small dam surrounded by mountains, about 580 meters away from China on the China-Myanmar border.
On March 25, 2007, Guo Jie, Gan Zurong, Xu Shengqian, and other seven comrades in the arrest team were ambushed here.
All over the mountains are sturdy trees that cannot be hugged by one person, and the ground is crowded and overgrown with ghost needles.
They lay motionless on their stomachs, carefully observing the wind and grass on the opposite hillside, their legs covered with leeches.
At noon, a figure slowly appeared on the hillside.
Three people crossed the border from the direction of Burma and came to the foot of the mountain with opium sticks with thick bowls.
Just as the person who came to weigh the opium through the scale rod, the arrest team struck out with lightning, "Arrest!"
The drug dealers fled in panic, shouting in Burmese dialect, "Here comes the soldier! Here comes the soldier!"
The gunshots sounded suddenly, and the first bullet flew towards Bai Jiangang.
He was on guard with a gun when he was hit in the sciatic nerve from the back and fell straight down.
The second shot was Gan Zurong, who was only a few seconds apart from Bai Jiangang.
He was holding the newly arrested drug dealer at the foot of the mountain, and as soon as he heard the gunshot, the bullet went into his right chest.
Later, Guo Jie read Gan Zurong's autopsy report, and the shot hit the spleen, penetrating the spleen.
"He was still holding the 79-style dash in his arms, fell on his back, and died on the spot."
"The team invited three psychologists. I said that there is no need for psychological counseling. I just can't get past this hurdle. I'll be fine when it's over." Guo Jie wanted to leave the army and go home, but he finally persuaded him. self.
He believed that if Gan Zurong was still there, he would definitely not want to see him retreat.
"Sister Martyr" in the Anti-drug Pioneer Station
"He writes beautifully, and he is active in his work. He is not tall, thin, and a little hunched. He looks introverted, but he is very upright." See" Gan Zurong is a special existence.
In the Kunming barracks, Guo Jie, who joined the army a year earlier, was the squad leader, and Gan Zurong was a recruit. Later, they were admitted to the military academies.
At that time, he always joked with Gan Zurong: "Why do you always go wherever I go?"
After Gan Zurong died, Guo Jie went to his hometown in Guizhou to see.
After getting off the plane, there is still a long way to go. After finishing the high speed, I turned into the mountain road.
That is the road the Gan family has traveled countless times.
It is slender and long, only 20 to 30 centimeters wide, and is called "hair dog road" by the locals.
Later, they all walked out of this road, and some never came back.
Gan Yuqin, the youngest sister, completely changed the direction of her life after the accident.
After the son's sacrifice, the mother made two surprising decisions. First, let Gan Zurong's ashes be buried in Dehong, and "continue to guard the land as before her death"; second, let the younger daughter Gan Yuqin join the army to complete her brother's unfinished business. task.
In December of that year, Gan Yuqin joined the army in Dehong, Yunnan.
After the training, Gan Yuqin was assigned to the Mukang border checkpoint in Mangshi.
This is a unit that has been awarded the honorary title of "Drug Anti-drug Pioneer Station" by the Party Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission, and is also one of the "banners" of the public security and border defense forces.
Here, she took over her brother's steel gun and became a female anti-drug soldier.
The halo of "Sister Martyr" was heavy, and Gan Yuqin felt that it could only be caught with redoubled efforts.
In Mukang, she tried her best to learn search techniques and constantly asked veterans for advice.
After class during the day, before going to bed, I have to dig out the thick notes and chew it again. After falling asleep, I am still checking for drugs in my dreams.
The scene of the first drug discovery is still vivid in my mind.
During a search of a sleeper bus, Gan Yuqin found a male passenger carrying a bottle of white skin care products.
Using a strong light bulb, the upper half was transparent, but the lower half was opaque, and she immediately became alert.
After taking it out of the car and checking it carefully, it turned out that there were drugs hidden in the bottle of skin care products.
The work finally made a breakthrough. Gan Yuqin was very excited, and gradually accumulated a set of her own work methodology. A total of 5 kilograms of drugs were seized, and a personal third-class merit was established.
Two special farewells
Mangshi Martyrs Cemetery is nestled on a green hill, where Gan Zurong and his comrades in arms rest.
From the entrance of the cemetery to the tombstone of my brother, Gan Yuqin has walked countless times in the past 15 years.
In May 2022, she is here again.
The long wind swept through the bamboo forest, making a rustling sound.
Next to each martyr's tomb stood a small green pine, row by row, pulling out a solemn and straight umbrella row.
A large handful of white chrysanthemums bloomed in Gan Yuqin's arms, adding a touch of bright color to this rainy morning.
After enlisting in the army, her brother became her "only relative" on the border of Yunnan.
She always comes here on her days off to talk with her brother, and narrate about her troubles at work, "It's the same road that my brother can understand, right?"
The "neighbor" who lived on Gan Zurong's left, she knew, was Xu Shengqian, her brother's comrade-in-arms in his last mission.
While chasing the drug dealer, he was also shot, and the bullet went through the abdomen. After half an hour, he left.
The spring of 2007 was an unforgettable injury for many people.
When hearing the news of Xu Shengqian's sacrifice, Yin Mingyan, who was in the same office as him, was on the spot, "My mind suddenly stopped, and I haven't recovered for a long time."
"He has big eyes, is very sunny, loves to laugh, and speaks with a Sichuan accent." Xu Shengqian was older than Yin Mingyan, and he was only in his early thirties.
On weekdays, they go to block cards together, work together, handle cases together, and chat together, "You can't imagine him leaving suddenly."
Ten years on, in almost exactly the same way, she lost her brother.
That year, my brother Yin Mingzhi was only twenty years old.
This native Yingjiang boy, after enlisting in the army, first went to Guizhou to serve as a soldier, and then returned to Dehong to become a soldier of the Zhangfeng Frontier Defense Station of the former Dehong Public Security Border Defense Detachment (now Dehong Border Management Detachment).
Yin Mingyan was still in high school when he died.
According to the information left in that year, on the evening of August 2, 1997, Yin Mingzhi and his comrades arrived at Laying Village, Zhangfeng Town, Longchuan County. trade.
After four or five hours of waiting, a drug dealer appeared at 11 o'clock at night.
After the "inspection" determined that it was a drug, Yin Mingzhi sent an action code to his comrades in ambush in the dark.
But before the comrades could arrive, two drug dealers suddenly drew their knives and wanted to grab money and goods.
Yin Mingzhi saw that the people who were helping the case were being besieged by drug dealers. When he rushed forward, he stabbed a long knife into his lower left abdomen, but he still hugged a drug dealer.
Yin Mingzhi, who had more than ten knives in his body, passed away in the early morning of the next day.
The crowd who was rescued by him recalled, "If he hadn't come in time, I might have died."
August 2 will always be a sad day.
Sometimes, Yin Mingyan would go back to the hillside where he played with his brother when he was a child.
From "hero" to comrade-in-arms
After the death of his brother, Yin Mingyan enlisted in the army at the end of 1998. After graduating from the military academy, he was assigned to the Mukang border checkpoint.
At that time, she was dark and thin, with short, heroic hair, looking like her brother, and smiling more like her.
At that moment, Yin Mingzhi seemed to come back in another way.
The guardian has not been interrupted, and the two sisters are determined to continue writing it.
"One more gram of drugs we check on the frontier means less harm to the mainland."
The Mukang checkpoint is backed by a mountain, and the other side is a cliff. Sometimes in the middle of the night, I go up the mountain to search for escaped drug dealers, and it is so dark that I can't see my fingers.
For the first time, Gan Yuqin stared at the drug dealers as they excreted the swallowed drugs with their feces, so she couldn't eat at all.
Searching for a car is also a "chore".
Yin Mingyan remembered that drug dealers would sometimes hide the drugs in the rotten cowhide of the whole car, which had to be removed bit by bit for inspection. After several days, the stench would stick to the body, "it seems to have penetrated into the skin."
And danger always happens inadvertently.
One night, Yin Mingyan's comrade-in-arms went to the sleeper bus to search normally, and found a person with drugs on him.
Before he could react, the other party took out a knife and stabbed it straight.
The shadow of the knife flashed, and the intestines were wrapped in blood and flowed out.
"At that time, I will think of my brother, he can give his life, can't you even endure a little bit of hardship?" The "hero" brother on the paper gradually became a closer comrade-in-arms in Yin Mingyan's heart.
When handling the case, she seemed to be a different person, decisive, precise, and without distractions, but after each case was closed, she silently reviewed the case, recalling everyone and every small link in the case, she would always subconsciously think of her brother, "Back then. , is he in the same situation? Has he experienced these too?"
After being stationed in Mukang for a year, Yin Mingyan was transferred back to Yingjiang to continue his anti-drug work.
According to public media reports, in November 2019, by analyzing the clues, she found that suspicious vehicles frequently traveled to and from the border, most likely engaged in drug trafficking.
Yin Mingyan and his comrades traveled to Kunming, Baoshan, Dehong and other places in Yunnan, destroying a huge international drug trafficking network.
Like a sharp blade in blood and fire, Yin Mingyan gradually understood his brother's many choices.
"Spiritual belief in this profession, slowly rooted in the bones, becomes extremely firm. No matter what difficulties and pains you experience, you will not change."
"Invisible" siren
With the transformation of the army, Gan Yuqin is now a policeman at the Hula Police Station in Zhefang Township, Mangshi.
In the past, Nongkan Village, under the jurisdiction of the Hula Police Station, was full of drugs, and nearly one-sixth of the population of more than 6,000 were drug addicts.
In recent years, the strict anti-drug measures introduced by Dehong Prefecture are being more widely popularized and implemented, and the number of drug addicts has decreased sharply.
From the front line of anti-drugs to the fields, Gan Yuqin did not feel that she was further away from her brother.
In her opinion, whether it is to manage a jurisdiction well, or to help villagers order house numbers, pick landmarks, and help settle down, she is satisfied to see that everyone can live a better life.
"As long as you do your job well, I think it's also a kind of dedication."
Yin Mingyan changed from a border guard to an immigration police officer and became the only female anti-drug instructor of the Dehong Border Management Detachment.
Fifteen years later, she is still doing what her brother did in the past, and even went further on this road.
A row of numbers is worn on her chest, which is her siren, a police officer's "identification" - although it will remain "invisible" from the public for a long time to come.
Just like its owner, he always had a heavy mosaic on his face in the crisis-ridden anti-drug career.
"No matter how many years have passed, no matter how advanced the technology is, anti-drug work cannot be separated from the execution of people. Because of this, we can never avoid some accidental dangers." And what she can do is to take "the world" Non-toxic" belief, unswervingly continue to move forward.
Beijing News reporter Xu Yang and intern Qin Weifeng