Before starting today’s story, let me show you a photo.
Many people may not think that the old man with a dark face sitting on the floor in the photo is really a general of the Republic.
His name is Zhang Lianyin, and he was the deputy commander of the Hebei Military Region. However, this general who has been in the army for 40 years and commanded thousands of troops made an incredible decision when he retired:Leave the city with my wife, take out all my savings, and swear to plant all the 5000 acres of barren hills and mountains in my hometown with trees!
The general who came back from the city wanted to plant trees on the barren hills where generations could not plant living trees. Relatives and villagers all talked about it, saying that he was "stupid" or "on a whim, he couldn’t last long".
However, 18 years have passed, and Zhang Lianyin has changed from being full of energy and high spirits when he just retired to an old man in the countryside who is covered in mud and black and thin, and his hordes have become millions of Chinese pine, Mongolian Scotch pine, spruce and Xinjiang willow … … Line by line, column by column, straight and straight, neat and terrible!
#1 Growing from an orphan in a mountain village to a general of the Republic
In 2003, Zhang Lianyin, who retired from the position of deputy commander of the Hebei Military Region, stayed at home every day, feeling uncomfortable during the day and unable to sleep at night.
One night, he dug out his old photo album at home, and yellowed old photos brought him back to his hometown … …
In 1945, Zhang Lianyin was born in a poor peasant family in Zhangjiachang Village, Zuoyun County, Shanxi Province. At the age of 4, his father died and his mother remarried at the age of 6. He lived with his elderly and frail grandparents.
With the help of the villagers, Zhang Lianyin was able to enter school. But just a few years later, grandma died of illness, grandpa was bedridden, only one semester away from junior high school graduation, and Zhang Lianyin, who had been excellent in academic performance, chose to drop out of school and go home.
At that time, the headmaster, the class teacher and the villagers all wanted to help him finish school. Zhang Lianyin gratefully told everyone that Grandpa was seriously ill and I had to go back and take care of him. After returning to the village, he waited on his sick grandfather to carry the whole family, but it didn’t take long for him to die.
Only 13-year-old Zhang Lianyin was completely orphaned. In the face of great suffering, it was the villagers who pulled him up again. The food squeezed through the teeth, the steamed buns and Elaeagnus angustifolia that I couldn’t bear to eat were quietly stuffed into the Zhang family’s hut.
In 1964, the village gave him a place to join the army, a child who grew up with a hundred meals and clothes.
Zhang Lianyin couldn’t help but burst into tears every time he recalled his scene of leaving home as a soldier.The men, women and children in the village tied me with big red flowers, stuffed steamed buns and eggs that were still hot into my pocket, and told me over and over again as if I were sending them to my own children, "Peace, you must do well when you get to the army, and let the Zhangjiachang people live up to their expectations."
In the sound of drums and gongs of villagers, 19-year-old Zhang Lianyin left Zhangjiachang Village and went to a vast world. In the melting pot of the military camp, he worked hard at every post.All the way from ordinary soldiers to generals of the Republic.
“Without the villagers, I would not live to be an adult; Without the party’s training, I wouldn’t be here today.At the thought of these, 58-year-old Zhang Lianyin’s tears came down. He rubbed the old photos that had turned yellow, and a vague idea became more and more clear in his mind … …
#2 Return to your hometown!
Zhang Lianyin’s hometown, Zuoyun County, Shanxi Province, is located in the sandstorm source control area of Beijing and Tianjin. There is a jingle in the village:There is a wind every year, from spring to winter.Land desertification is very serious, and green is rare in the field of vision. When the wind blows, sand and stones fly.
Return to your hometown!
Zhang Lianyin’s mind became more and more determined: "I am retired and have no job, but my party member status is still there. The biggest reward for my hometown is to save future generations from the suffering of sandstorms."
Without the slightest hesitation,Zhang Lianyin and his wife returned to their hometown with all their 300,000 savings.However, the general’s planting trees on the mountain still caused an uproar in the small village of Zhangjiachang.
Relatives in my hometown said that you are a retired commander, and the country has given you such good treatment that you have to come back to suffer. The former village party secretary also has opinions. I have been a township party secretary for decades and I can’t live. Can you live as an army official? The villagers even talked privately. Does Zhang Lianyin want to make a fortune by borrowing land resources from his hometown?
In order to reassure the villagers, Zhang Lianyin gave the village a written pledge to fulfill a military order:Don’t want forest rights or land rights, all the subsidies for returning farmland to forests will be given to the villagers, and the fruits of afforestation will be returned to the collective free of charge..
Zhang Lianyin’s military order shocked everyone! After that, he took out the resolute style of the military, building roads, electrifying, drilling wells, repairing canals, preparing soil, and raising seedlings. He has not seen the survival of seedlings. The 300,000 savings he has saved for a lifetime have been spent, and the huge expenses have made this general who has never bowed his head for a lifetime have to start begging for money everywhere.
Although he didn’t understand his father, his son did not hesitate to take out 100,000 yuan. The newly married daughter mortgaged her new house for 200,000 yuan to pay off the loan for her father. The younger daughter also took out her own 30,000 yuan job transfer fee and the 20,000 yuan given by her in-laws when she was engaged. The comrades also helped.
In the spring of 2004, Zhang Lianyin put on his combat uniform again. He and his wife got up before dawn every day, holding saplings and tree planting workers and crawling on the barren hills. When they were hungry, they made a bowl of instant noodles and went on working at noon. The villagers were moved by Zhang Lianyin and his wife, and the surplus laborers at home were carrying shovels and following them up the mountain to plant trees.
During the May Day holiday this year, Zhang Lianyin’s daughter Zhang Xiaomei went back to the village to visit her parents for the first time. She wanted to persuade her father, and when she got off the bus, she was shocked by what she saw.
Head on, two people dressed in camouflage uniforms and carrying buckets waved to her from afar and approached, and she recognized her as her father and mother. Their faces were tanned black and red, and their bodies and hair were all covered with dirt. Seeing her mother’s mouth full of blisters, her father’s cracked lines and fingernails were filled with mud, and she was so distressed that she cried.
Into the "command post" built by my father, I lived in a dark and damp room and slept in a bed as hard as the floor, but my father didn’t seem to care, but he was so happy that he pulled her like a child and said:Xiaomei, look at this sapling. If you come back in a few years, you will definitely be taller. At that moment, my daughter suddenly understood, father, he will definitely go through with it!
Soon, the first batch of 10000 seedlings were all planted on the mountain. However, just when everyone was full of confidence and expectation, something unexpected happened … …
#3 "Is it soil or trees?"
After half a month, more than 10,000 seedlings did not spit out new buds, but the whole piece was yellow. Looking at the withered sapling Zhang Lianyin all over the mountains, his heart ached, and he seldom shed tears.
Everyone advised and comforted him,We just can’t plant trees here. Give it up. Zhang Lianyin didn’t believe in this evil. He came to Taiyuan from Zuoyun County by car, and after several twists and turns, he found a well-known sand control expert Sang Jinhai.
Seeing the old general with half a sack of soil and a dusty face in front of him, Sang Jinhai was deeply shocked and immediately agreed to make a field trip.
The arrival of experts made Zhang Lianyin seize the opportunity. From selecting saplings to how to plant them, from how to resist pests and diseases in spring to how to resist cold in winter, Zhang Lianyin got to the bottom of the matter and never let go of any details.
With proper technology and strict control, the survival rate of the second batch of saplings planted by Zhang Lianyin has been greatly improved. But he can’t let go. This winter, he was surprised by the sight before him: the saplings were arched and gnawed by sheep. Seeing that his "warrior" was injured, Zhang Lianyin’s heart ached in bouts. He personally went to the cowherd’s house to chat, giving them moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival, raincoats and rubber shoes when it rained … … Zhang Lianyin’s careful care touched the shepherds in the village, and after that, the incident of gnawing seedlings never happened again.
As the days passed, this land full of hope silently took root. Zhang Lianyin still remembers that after half a year, he once again stood on the top of the mountain, and the barren hills in the past had patches of green. "That tree is green and chubby, and a sense of accomplishment arises at once.I am particularly proud to tell my wife, you see, these are all trees we planted alive."
From 2004 to 2010, Zhang Lianyin planted more than 3,000 mu of saplings. The trees in Zhangjiachang are green, the sky is blue, and the water is clear. People think it’s time for Zhang Lianyin to go home and rest and enjoy his life, but I didn’t expect a new situation to emerge … …
#4 Fighting desert sandstorm while fighting cancer cells.
The old man who was helped in the picture was Zhang Lianyin. At that time, he had just finished hernia surgery. In order not to delay the golden period of planting trees, he secretly rushed back to the forest farm without telling the doctor. What is even less known is that at this time, he is already a cancer patient who has been fighting cancer for 4 years.
In 2011, 66-year-old Zhang Lianyin was diagnosed with lung cancer. After the right lung lobe was removed, he began chemotherapy for five months, vomiting, dizziness and severe pain, and his hair fell off a lot. Every time his children ask him if he can stand it, he firmly says, what are we afraid of when we are soldiers?
At the beginning of 2012, Zhang Lianyin’s condition gradually improved, and his family finally breathed a sigh of relief, but his stubborn temper came up again after just walking around the gate of the ghost gate.I have to go back to plant trees. I promised to plant 5000 mu of land at the beginning, but now I still have more than 500 mu of land to plant. We soldiers can’t talk or break our word!
In this way, despite the opposition of doctors and family members, Zhang Lianyin returned to Zhangjiachang. When the villagers saw the old general who was tortured by cancer and lost his human form, wearing a wide and swaying camouflage uniform, digging holes and planting trees in the mountains with shovels during the day, and returning to the heatable adobe sleeping platform in the house at night for infusion treatment, they were all distressed … …
In May 2014, Zhang Lianyin’s goal of planting 5,000 mu of trees was successfully completed, but his condition deteriorated further and he was diagnosed with bone metastasis of lung cancer. Considering that there are still many things that he promised to return forest property rights in 30 years, this stubborn old general ignored that he was in the terminal stage of cancer.While fighting cancer cells, while fighting desert sandstorms, I have to travel back and forth to Shijiazhuang, 500 kilometers away, to get medicine every month.
Talking about her old father, my daughter Zhang Xiaomei said, once, we knew that he would come back to get the medicine and wanted to have a reunion dinner, but we couldn’t wait for anyone. Later, when we called, we realized that he had taken the medicine and went back, sitting in a hard sleeper all night.
There is also a son, Zhang Xiaobin, who looked at his black and thin father and insisted on working on the mountain despite the worn skin and blood on the thigh root, and cried several times with distress. In 2015, Zhang Xiaobin, who was already a regiment-level position in the army, made the choice of choosing his own job and returning to his hometown, shouldering the heavy responsibility of planting trees with his father, and continuing this responsibility … …
From the general who defends the motherland to the guardian who protects the environment. During his 40-year military career, Zhang Lianyin rooted his roots in the territory of Wan Li of the motherland and devoted all his youth to the cause of national defense and military modernization. After 18 years of afforestation, he sprinkled sweat on the yellow sand soil in his hometown and poured all his efforts into 18,000 mu of forest fields and 2.05 million trees.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Party. Zhang Lianyin has gained two great honors and a sweet happiness. Before July 1st, he received the commemorative medal of "Glory in the Party’s 50 Years" issued by the CPC Central Committee, and just now, he was awarded the title of "Model of the Times" by Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China. And that sweetness belongs to him and his wife. On August 16th this year, it was the 50th anniversary of their marriage. On the golden wedding day, Zhang Lianyin gave his wife a unique romance — — We planted 500 Sabina vulgaris trees together.
Nowadays, Zhang Lianyin, who has been fighting cancer for 10 years, miraculously maintains his vitality. He dances yangko, runs an exhibition hall, gives a report, walks faster than young people, and is more energetic than young people.
Speaking of future plans, the 76-year-old general has a sonorous voice: I will stand on the last post and continue to be a propagandist of ecological construction, a combatant of greening barren hills and a guardian of forest trees … …
