One

When he wrote his first letter, Hu Sihai was only 26 years old. It was 1988, China had just entered the tenth year of reform and opening up, and the surrounding environment was not very peaceful. The festive atmosphere of the Spring Festival has not yet dissipated, and a blockbuster news has once again stirred people's nerves of excitement. On March 3, our heroic People's Navy made remarkable achievements in the waters of Chigua Reef in order to safeguard the country's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests!

The hero's story quickly spread throughout the country. In the teaching building of Daxie Middle School in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, Hu Sihai, a young teacher, held up a newspaper and read aloud, cheering with joy.

As a geography teacher, Hu Sihai engraved a complete map of China in his heart. Red Melon Reef, a name that only appears in textbooks, re-entered his vision.

He found all the books and materials related to Chigua Reef and studied them repeatedly. The sea is lonely, the conditions are difficult, and the sentry post where officers and men stand guard is in the sea. Seeing the Nansha officers and soldiers standing in the water and holding steel guns in the newspaper, Hu Sihai was moved to tears.

From that day on, Hu Sihai made up his mind: in this life, he will do his best to cultivate more young people with faith and courage to take on responsibilities like the Nansha soldiers for the motherland.

Back in the class, Hu Sihai immediately held a special class meeting with the theme of "The territory of the motherland is sacred and inviolable."

Different from the warm atmosphere in the past, this time the atmosphere of the class meeting is more quiet. Newspapers and materials were passed through the hands of the 47 students in the class, and the children looked at them with wide eyes, their eyes clear and determined. Hu Sihai told the students: "Only when the officers and men guarding the reef guarded the sea frontier on the arduous island did we have peace and tranquility. What can we do for them? ”

In the discussion of seven mouths, "writing letters" became the most popular answer. Teachers and students designed and made 314 envelopes by themselves, and then wrote down their hearts one by one and packed them into envelopes.

However, once the letter is written, where to send it? The teachers and students could not forget that just inquiring about the delivery address, they spent two months, and all they got was the approximate communication location of the troops.

That's enough. Hu Sihai sent letters full of good wishes to distant places, but he never knew whether the officers and soldiers of Chigua Reef could receive them. Since then, waiting has become a common tacit understanding between teachers and students.

A month, two months, half a year... Until the students graduated from junior high school, the reply still did not wait. The children left Daxie Island one after another to study, only Hu Sihai was still waiting. Three years later, one day in 3, a rolled letter appeared on the desk of the director of the teaching office of Daxie Middle School, and two words were written at the address - "Navy"!

The air was quiet. Hu Sihai carefully opened the envelope and found that the letter was wrapped in two layers inside and out, but mottled watermarks could be faintly seen on the letterhead. Unfolding the letter, the black handwriting was a little faded after being eroded by the seawater, but it still looked strong and powerful——

"Your parcels and letters have been received, and I sincerely thank you for your deep friendship." "Chigua Reef is far from the mainland and the conditions are difficult, but all this cannot shake our confidence and determination to defend the reef, because the motherland is with us, and you are with us..."

Holding this letter that he had been waiting for for three years, Hu Sihai burst into tears, and remembered Mu Xin's poem in his mind: "In the past, the sun became slow, and cars, horses, and mail were slow. ”

What he did not know was that, owing to poor communications, inconvenient transportation and insufficient details of the mailing address, the letter traveled back and forth across the ocean until August 1990, when it reached the officers and soldiers guarding the reef.

Receiving letters from teachers and students, the officers and soldiers were also moved. The conditions on the reef were rudimentary, so they found letter paper, spread it on the reef, wrote down the reply letter one by one, entrusted the passing fishing boat to carry ashore, and then sent it to Daxie Island, thousands of miles away.

After receiving the reply, Hu Sihai solemnly picked up the phone and found a suitable time to recall the students to their alma mater. Teachers and students gathered together to read this long-awaited and precious letter together.

Warm currents, surging in the hearts of young people - "Uncles of the People's Liberation Army fought the storm and the scorching heat, and stuck to the sea frontiers of the motherland, and we must continue to write letters to them and learn from them." "Condolences to them is also motivation for yourself..."

Two

Navy blue, how blue is it? Far away, how far away?

Whenever students asked about Chikwa Reef, Hu Sihai would always spread out a map of China and point his finger to the exact location of Chikwa Reef. In the vast sea, Chigua Reef seems small, but in the hearts of teachers and students, it is a unique and wonderful world.

Every time they received a letter from afar, the officers and soldiers couldn't wait to huddle together to read it. In the letter, in addition to describing their own studies, the children also curiously asked about the life of the PLA uncle on the reef.

If you really want to describe it, it is hot, humid, isolated from the world, and has a loneliness that ordinary people can hardly imagine. But the officers and soldiers surprisingly tacitly agreed, and in their replies, Chigua Reef is always beautiful and romantic - this is the most beautiful sea on earth, and when standing guard, looking at the starry sky, it seems that he can touch the dome as soon as he stretches out his hand; Sometimes schools of fish swim mightily, like a rainbow in the water; Standing on the reef and looking out, there are often the sound of fishermen's boats in the distance...

Gradually, the phrase "ends of the earth" became concrete and vivid in the hearts of children. However, the officers and soldiers avoided talking about the other side, and did not hide from the careful teachers and students: through the newspaper information, they had long known the hardship of life guarding the reef.

During that time, Hu Sihai and his students used their spare time to collect waste, exchanged it for money to buy some dried radishes, and sent them to the officers and soldiers of Chigua Reef, "hoping that their meals would taste better."

Veteran Chen Hong remembers that on the day he received the package, his comrades divided a little by one, sealed it carefully, and chewed crispy dried radish, and he couldn't help but burst into tears. The parcel slip on that package is now treasured in the honor room of Chigua Reef, and in the "value" column, it is proudly written: "Priceless treasure." ”

However, this dried radish also made it difficult for the officers and soldiers: the conditions on the reef are simple and materials are scarce, what do we give back to the teachers and classmates?

Later, they found a suitable time, collected 90 shells and two bottles of sea sand, and sent them to the teachers and students. In their replies, the officers and soldiers said that the hearts of the students are as delicate, pure, and beautiful as the sea sand of the motherland's Nansha.

Touching interactions continue to take place on Daxie Island and Chikwa Reef. However, for various reasons, it is not uncommon for a letter to be delayed for six months, a year or even longer. Fortunately, even though the sky is far away, the deep friendship between officers and soldiers and teachers and students has not been blocked.

Wang Hao, the current instructor of the Chigua Reef garrison, said: "This is another example of military-civilian blind date, which allows us to see that the connection between heart and heart is enough to cross mountains and seas." ”

The replies of the officers and soldiers are now treasured in the archives of Daxie Middle School. Among the layers of letters, one letter that is so short that it is less than 3 words is particularly eye-catching: "A fishing boat passes by, and the time is only <> minutes. Send you a letter, don't worry, thank you for your sincerity! ”

This was written by the soldier Qian Jing to his student Wang Jing. Previously, they had such an exchange through letters -

"I graduated from Hubei Nanzhang No. 18 Middle School at the age of 12 last year and was admitted to the Xiangfan Branch of Beijing Normal University, and my ideal is to live in a blue military camp." "I arrived in the Nansha unit in December to participate in a five-month training and have become an excellent Nansha guard..."

This is a dialogue between two young people in different places, different environments and different experiences, and their sincere friendship stems from the grand ambition of defending the country and is rooted in the courageous attitude of pursuing dreams.

Between those distant mountains and seas, there are more dialogues between youth and youth, youth and youth. In the letter, they encouraged and blessed each other, showing the same naked heart and different youthful vitality.

The letter from Chigua Reef, which Wang Jing treasured for more than 20 years, until she became a mother, she told her children the story of Chigua Reef over and over again. Three years ago, Wang Jing, who was over 3 years old, gave these letters to teacher Hu Sihai. She said she hopes that these letters will inspire more children.

For 35 years, letters have always been the most important emotional carrier between teachers and students and officers and soldiers. Under their joint insistence, one class after another of Daxie Middle School students set their sights on the distant sea frontier, and the officers and soldiers guarding the reef continued to pay attention to the growth of these teenagers in the distance.

Letters come and go, paper is short. Chigua Reef has become a spiritual highland for school teaching and education, and has also become a "poetry and distant place" that generations of students yearn for and pursue.

Three

This year, Hu Sihai is 61 years old. He took his students to write letters to the officers and soldiers of Nansha for twenty or thirty years.

Over the years, the students he led have grown up under the care and inspiration of the officers and soldiers of Chigua Reef and have taken up different jobs in different parts of the motherland. Some of them have fulfilled their childhood dreams, put on military uniforms, boarded warships, and walked on Chigua Reef...

Today, when the means of communication are so developed, these students still retain the habit of writing letters, and they feel that only letters can express stronger emotions and deeper concerns.

Every time he receives letters from students from afar, Hu Sihai is relieved - few people know that 35 years ago, he led a class that many people saw as a "latecomer class", and there were many naughty children in the class. At that class meeting, he named the regiment branch "Chigua Reef Regiment Branch". Then, he organized letters again and again, hoping that the children would look into the distance and find the role models in their hearts.

At that time, he would not have imagined that this practice had invisibly changed the lives of many children.

There is a school life that is naughty, nicknamed "Little Sun". Hu Sihai told her and her classmates the story of Chigua Reef, and asked her and other students to write a letter to the officers and soldiers: "Only by studying hard can we be worthy of their dedication and protection." ”

Influenced by the deeds of the officers and soldiers guarding the reef, the little girl was determined to "be a useful person to society". Years later, Little Sun became a doctor, and looking back on that experience, she told her teacher: "I will stick to the 'Red Melon Reef' in my heart." ”

At that time, when the first reply letter from Chigua Jiao arrived at the school, it was Liu Youhua, then deputy secretary of the regiment branch, who opened the envelope with Hu Sihai.

On that day, Liu Youhua was deeply touched by the sincere patriotism of the officers and soldiers of Chigua Reef, and a beautiful seed took root in the young heart. When she grew up, she married a military man and became a military sister-in-law ...

There are so many moving stories. In the past 35 years, for Hu Sihai, his hair has changed from black to gray, more than 300 letters preserved in the archives, and a stubble student who has grown up under the spiritual infection of Nansha.

Over the years of correspondence, Hu Sihai has always cherished one wish: In his lifetime, he will see Chigua Reef and meet the officers and soldiers guarding the reef.

Half of his wish was fulfilled: in September 2020, three officers and soldiers set off from Chigua Reef, boarded the army's transport boat, sailed at sea for several days, and then changed planes to Ningbo.

Good things are doomed to grind. Their flight was delayed, and Hu Sihai and his colleagues continued to wait with a pick-up sign. In the empty airport lobby, this signage is particularly eye-catching: "We pick up - the closest people of the motherland."

The 3-hour wait is as long as the previous 30 years. Seeing his "relatives", Hu Sihai hugged Zou Liangyi, the instructor at the time: "After 30 years, I finally look forward to you!" ”

Zou Liangyi took the podium of Daxie Middle School and told the story of Chigua Reef to the teachers and students. Looking at the black-pressed crowd under the stage, Zou Liang remembered the scene of his comrades-in-arms huddling together happily to read the letter, and their same clear eyes as these children——

The children's expectations in the letters have long become an inexhaustible motivation for the officers and soldiers guarding the reef to forge ahead: because of an agreement, Sergeant Zhou Tao insisted on training hard every day, and won the military physical fitness competition of the Nansha garrison for five consecutive years; Because of the phrase "idol", the superior soldier Chang Hai Ri gradually grew from the physical "crane tail" when he first went to the reef to an "excellent soldier"...

Over the years, Daxie Middle School has compiled the letters from officers and soldiers of Chigua Reef into moral education textbooks, inspiring generations of students to set goals and pursue ideals. Reading the letters of the students of Daxie Middle School has also become a "compulsory course" for the officers and soldiers guarding the reef, so that they can stick to their posts and strive for strength.

"We must let the power of dreams continue to grow with time" "We must stand guard well, because there are countless people's gazes behind us"... That day at Daxie Middle School, Zou Liangyi made a touching report, and the audience applauded for a long time.

In the crowd, a second-year junior high school student named Wang Yuxuan clenched his fists. Two years later, he was admitted to the Naval Aviation Experimental Class of Ningbo Xiaoshi Middle School and became a training object for naval pilots.

When the news came, Hu Sihai smiled heartily - he believed that every child in Daxie Middle School had a "red melon reef" in his heart.

He Tiecheng Ke Yongxin Lei Bin Yang Jie Source: China Youth Daily