The Years of Zhiliu｜Anecdotes from the Third Front in Western Hunan

Time flies, and more than forty years have passed in the blink of an eye. Spring and autumn have come and gone, and the world has undergone tremendous changes. However, in those days when the third line of the Zhiliu Railway in western Hunan was being built, certain things from the past seemed to have taken root in my mind, occupying part of the memory space and making them indelible. As time goes by, the past remains dormant. Once triggered accidentally, today and the past are connected, just like what happened yesterday. It is vivid and even shocking. When you are thinking quietly, you might as well pick up two or three anecdotes and talk about a life experience.

In the late autumn of 1973, the mountains were stained with thick frost, and the autumn wind wrapped in the mist from the mountains hovered over the village. The clear stream flowed beside the village, passed the Zhutian Bridge, and passed through the thatched grass. , a shoal dotted with round pebbles, flowing into the distance, everything is so peaceful and beautiful.

At that time, the construction of the third line of the Zhiliu Railway was vigorously launched in Zhongfang County, western Hunan. Our Changsha Branch No. 1 Company and other brother companies were responsible for the roadbed construction of the Zhutian to Pailou section (Editor's Note). The company had a routine rest on Sunday, invited a few friends, packed up for a while, and headed to Zhutian Bus Station, preparing to take a bus to Qiancheng (today's Anjiang Town) for the show.

Zhutian is a T-shaped intersection leading to Huaihua City in the north, Hongjiang City in the south, and Qiancheng in the east. The group had just crossed the Zhutian Bridge, and before they had time to enter the station to buy tickets, a sudden scream broke the tranquility of the autumn day, and then three or four teenagers flashed out of the simple station and ran southward along the road. I felt bad, so I rushed into the station and was shocked by the scene in front of me. An educated youth from my company (graduated from Changsha No. 12 Middle School) was leaning painfully on the long wooden chair in the waiting room, holding his right hand tightly. On the thigh, red blood flowed out from between the fingers. The situation was urgent. I hurriedly stopped the car, picked up the injured educated youth from my waist, and stopped a truck to send him directly to the headquarters medical clinic. My other companions stopped a military Beijing jeep, and cooperated with the People's Liberation Army in the car to hunt down the murderer. When I accompanied the truck carrying the wounded, I would command When the department's chief of staff arrived, the pursuit was nearing its end. Two of the four people involved in the murder have been arrested by the People's Liberation Army. The other two fled along the field ridge to the hill covered with shrubs. Behind the hill, beyond the railway embankment, are the rolling mountains. The two teenagers are expected to use it at this time. He stabbed someone to death. Once he was caught, the prospects were not good and he had to run away desperately.

Due to limited manpower, it took a little time to arrest the first two, and the distance widened. Only when the PLA officer raised his hand, two shrill gunshots were fired over his head. On the ridge in front of the running boy, the soil was splashed. One of the boys was so frightened that he fell to the ground. The other squatted on the ground and gasped for air. His face was pale. He was captured with the murder weapon (dagger). It turned out that what was stopped was the car of the chief of staff and the guard of a certain military division, so they were carrying weapons. Looking back at the arrested teenagers, two of them were from the same company, but the one who stabbed them was originally from the first company. , the person who was stabbed was originally from the Sixth Company.

After the split, the male educated youth were unified into the First Company, and the female educated youth were unified into the Sixth Company. Why they were split and merged like this, as a student cadre, I have never understood. However, "we are born from the same roots, so why rush to fight each other?" They were all educated youths. Even though the First Company and the Sixth Company were merged, they were still in the same company in the end. Treating each other with bayonets is too much. The reason is that for the sake of a female educated youth, for the vague love affair of a young man, he was inspired by the sour jealousy, so that he drew his sword against her and did something that young people think is very honorable at the moment. It is really ignorant. .

However, compared with today's adults, when it comes to sex, marriage, and family relationships, the breakthrough of the moral bottom line will sound the "stolen gong" louder. Those teenagers did indeed do something. A stupid thing, but still somewhat impulsive and innocent. Just such an incident caused turmoil in Changsha, the base behind the third line, as if there was an invisible nerve connecting the third line to Changsha's society.

Xiangxi, the vast area in western Hunan bounded by Xuefeng Mountain, has endless mountains and ridges, and rivers winding like jade belts, adding a bit of gentleness to the heaviness of the mountains. During the period when Han people and ethnic minorities lived together, they reproduced from generation to generation and continued to live, interpreting the joys, sorrows, gatherings and separations of the world.

The green hills are green, and the karst landforms and weathered rocks are interspersed. After years of changes, the pulverization of the weathered rocks and the mixture of fallen leaves of plants have created an environment for the growth of microorganisms - soil; coupled with abundant Rainwater and deep vegetation have formed a thick humus base. Lush trees and various unknown shrubs grow freely on this land, turning light green to dark green under the sunlight, vividly Change colors.

The rainwater rushing along the mountains has formed countless small streams, flowing through the villages at the foot of the mountains. Day and night, it hits the water wheel at the head of the village, pushing the stone mill as high as a child, crushing the farmland in autumn. Harvest; the abrupt uprooting of the Xiangxi landform makes the mountains more distinctive. There are not many tall vegetation on the rocks, but their roots are deeply rooted into the rocks and thrive. Karst karst naturally forms many large and small caves. The mountain springs flowing into the caves gush out next to a certain village and form a clear spring of their own. The villagers followed the situation and built impressive and ancient wells.

The age of the wells next to the original headquarters of the Eighth Company and Nineteenth Company (in Zhongfang County) can be traced back to at least the middle of the Qing Dynasty, or even before the Ming Dynasty. The tall camphor trees surrounding the well railing clearly record the vicissitudes of history.

The mountains and rivers in western Hunan are the most beautiful in autumn. When the north wind blows, the maple trees, cotinas and many shrubs in the mountains are dyed red by autumn frost, mixed with evergreen trees, like a beautiful landscape painting. In the morning, dewdrops cover the fields, which are open and fresh; in the afternoon, the yellow wild chrysanthemums on the hills sway in the wind, blooming with the splendor of life in the setting sun; at dusk, they slowly float on the harvested crops and flow quietly on the river bed. on the water, and also floating in the woods of the village. A few villagers are fetching water or feeding cattle, forming a beautiful picture of mountain dwellings in the autumn. When you are in it, you really feel like you don't know what year it is today.

As the autumn atmosphere grew stronger and the cold wind began to rise, Anonymous was just a seventeen-year-old boy at the time, and he was also filled with sadness. The years in the third line are like the stone mill driven by the waterwheel at the entrance of the village, which not only nourishes but also sharpens people. The wandering life of educated youth, the gap between reality and ideals, and loneliness often hit their hearts. From then on, the feeling of loneliness has always been with them throughout their lives.

The mountains in western Hunan have created rugged men with the same character as the mountains. They are either farming or hunting. They are bold and free-spirited. It seems that only outsiders bully the people of western Hunan. From the relocation of reservoir construction, the relocation of railway construction, to the relocation of third-line factories and mines, the people of Xiangxi have silently obeyed the needs of national construction. There is no such thing as today's nail households. They are so simple and endearing that Anonymous has experienced it personally and feels the same way.

In my memory of the Zhiliu Three-Line Railway Construction, we were always ahead of the large troops during the many extensions of the front lines and the relocation of construction sites. Each company was basically stationed in villages not far from the roadbed. Among them, one is convenient for getting water, and the other is convenient for transportation. When entering a village number house, you only need to communicate and negotiate with the main men in the village. There is no obstacle and you can easily book a dozen houses. Just as the mountains of Xiangxi create the quiet, honest and easy-going character of Xiangxi men, the water of Xiangxi cultivates the simplicity and gentleness of Xiangxi women. The women in Xiangxi are content. When they grow up, they happily marry a man, so they marry and follow suit. They can endure any hardships and suffer any sins. The difference between before and after marriage is: write about the charm before marriage with shyness and tranquility, and use ability to write down. Write about the aggressiveness after marriage with cheerfulness. Of course, there are also exceptions in life. I remember that at that time, someone in the company often mentioned "a flower in the archway". Although the educated youth students at that time were generally seventeen or eighteen years old, everyone had a love for beauty, especially those of the opposite sex. Beautiful, and even more inexplicably attractive.

On Sunday, I went to Archway Town as usual to catch a sideshow. Driven by my curiosity, I also admired the "Paillou Flower". Walking across the small bridge and entering Pailou Town, the second shop from the left is a sewing shop. The proprietress of the sewing shop is holding a powder tablet and delicately gesticulating on a piece of cloth. It seems that the proprietress who is over 30 years old is obviously not a piece of cloth. Hua; turned his back and saw a 22-3-year-old plump woman rinsing fabrics in a wooden basin. Occasionally she raised her arms and licked her hanging hair. She felt a sudden change in her heart. She was really beautiful. No wonder people passing by will stop and take a second look.

A seventeen-year-old boy may not know anything else, but he still knows how to look at beauty a few times.

Next, when "Yi Zhi Hua" bent down and rubbed the fabric vigorously, the skirt of the clothes on the back was pulled up, clearly exposing a section of the lower back. It was dazzling for a while, my God! That's called a white. More than thirty years have passed, and Anonymous has never seen such a beautiful woman's waist again. Look at this woman, she seems familiar, I have seen her somewhere.

Two days later, I woke up in the middle of the night and suddenly heard suppressed crying from the landlord's house, sometimes mixed with the low-pitched insults of men. After dawn, I saw the landlady man walking past the front door with a displeased face, while the landlady woman had her hair disheveled, covering her lower back with her right hand, pulling on her shoes, and slowly descended the wooden ladder. During the break, our young deputy company commander blinked and told me mysteriously that the landlady man and the landlady woman had turned against each other many times over the trivial matter between men and women. . After several years of marriage, there were no children. Having no children is too cruel to women in Xiangxi. Out of helplessness, women take desperate risks out of their physical needs and desire for children. When the man found out, he was so angry that he didn't dare to speak out, so he could only close the door and beat the woman up in the middle of the night to vent his anger. In retrospect, even though the landlady staggered downstairs with her hair covering her face, her back looked familiar, just as plump!

I went to Pailou Town to pay attention to Yi Zhihua again on Sunday. Suddenly, I saw a scar as big as a blackboard on the woman’s lower back, and realized that "Yi Zhihua" was our landlady. Look at me. Eyes. The story is a bit poignant and touching, but life is made up of these vivid and poignant elements. From then on, Anonymous had a vague awareness of women, and tried to find someone who looked similar to "Yizhihua" in the educated youth company. I really found a woman among the educated youth who silently paid attention to the depths of my heart.

At the beginning of the year, Mr. Yin came to me to learn about the "Long Finger" company, and brought a large group of photos of each company. I naturally searched for the "flower" in my heart. Needless to say, it was quite easy. I found it, it was the pretty girl sitting on the ground in the first row in the 11th company photo. Someone muttered "It's incredible!"

More than thirty years have passed, life has gone through too many twists and turns, and many things have been forgotten, but the memory of the mountains, water, and people in western Hunan It seems like eternity. Could it be that Huang Yongyu described Mr. Shen Congwen as "living in Xiangxi for the first half of his life and living in the memories of Xiangxi for the second half of his life."

I remember that in 2007, the 30th anniversary of the college entrance examination, newspapers and other print media used the college entrance examination as the theme and carried out quite comprehensive positive reports. They even staged a "Metamorphosis Plan" to let the college entrance examination students of that year and This year’s college entrance examination students exchange papers, and the results can be imagined. Faced with today's college entrance examination papers that have infinitely expanded both in depth and breadth of knowledge, college entrance examination students from thirty years ago had a myriad of thoughts and were overwhelmed; today's candidates, faced with college entrance examination papers from thirty years ago, hesitate and find it difficult to write, complaining that the subjective questions are too subjective. Too many, the question is "too red"! After all, thirty years in Hedong and thirty years in Hexi. The examination papers are closely related to the times and age. How can they be combined or divided at will?

In fact, before the college entrance examination was officially resumed in 1977, there were some signs. However, the political situation at that time once provoked young people to enter the society through the college entrance examination, and the spirit of being recognized by society was like a wrinkled pool of spring water. After a period of throbbing, calm returned, and finally it became a recommendation for workers, peasants and soldiers to go to college. It is undeniable that the level of workers, peasants and soldiers college students is not very high, but they are also a characteristic symbol of an era. Driven by that great era, a few young people were able to "defy Fang Qiu."

I am also one of the workers, peasants and soldiers college students. Thanks to the active recommendation of the leaders of the headquarters and the company at that time, of course I did not participate in the national unified examination, and there was no national unified examination. There is no national unified examination, but there is still a cultural examination, but it has become an examination organized by the headquarters.

In July 1974, dozens of young men and women filed into a simple elementary school classroom borrowed by the command headquarters to complete the process of taking college exams. Examinations on four subjects including mathematics, physics and chemistry, and Chinese are conducted and completed within one day.

Since I usually work and study at the same time, the ordinary gravity effect in the physics test paper and the acid-base reaction in the chemistry test paper are small "cases" that can be solved quickly; the mathematics paper has a three-dimensional linear equation application The problem and a quadratic equation word problem are not very difficult. After establishing the relationship, you can solve the problems one by one. But if you don't touch the book or forget about it completely, it will take some time to get the correct result and remove the negative numbers that don't fit the purpose of the question. These are nothing. The most troublesome thing is the Chinese language test. There is no formal paper, and there are no questions that can reflect the language (Chinese) level. Instead, it adapts to the requirements of current events and writes a critical article of no less than 3,000 words. . Suddenly all the young people in the classroom were dumbfounded. Everyone was talking about who to criticize? Still need three thousand words. Upon seeing this, the teacher who organized and invigilated the exam was accommodating and told us to take the exam papers back to our respective companies and hand them over to the headquarters within two days.

When I returned to the company, I was really a little worried. Apart from a few original works of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and current high school and junior high school textbooks, there was no other information. Unlike now, political articles can be downloaded from the Internet, edited and organized, and The only thing left to type is to sign your name.

Who to criticize? Liu and Deng have already criticized it so much that it cannot be criticized any more. Lin and Chen have also criticized it deeply and thoroughly, so there is no need to criticize it again. Considering the reality, we absolutely dare not criticize it. I thought about it for most of the night. Seeing that the sky was getting brighter, I didn't dare to stay in bed anymore, and kept mumbling, "Who are you criticizing?" "How to approve it?" It suddenly occurred to me that during the Cultural Revolution, I had climbed over the wall to enter an institution and secretly watched the movie "The Legend of Wu Xun". He was the guy who "kicked a dime" and "punched three points" in order to provide education. The foreigners lifted up her pigtails and beat her with fists and kicks until she fainted. She was still muttering, "One kick and one hair" and "One punch and three points." She had no spine at all, and it made her angry just to look at him. Just criticize him. Having made up my mind, I quickly put on my clothes and lit a lamp, sat down at the table, made arguments and ideas, and filled 15 pages of 18-square material paper, which is estimated to be more than 4,000 words. I just don’t know whether the punctuation is correct, so I will gather enough weight first. It’s too late to read it carefully. Seeing that it was almost noon, I ate a few bites of food and jogged all the way to the Jingzhou headquarters, five kilometers away. I felt heavy in my heart when I saw the teacher who took the test said in a calm tone, "You did well in the test yesterday." While waiting uneasily, one month later, the headquarters officially informed me that I had passed the examination and political examination and was admitted to university. There was no ecstasy or running wild, everything seemed to be expected. Originally, students with excellent academic performance in middle school were engaged in heavy physical labor on the third frontier and had to insist on cultural studies at night. Without perseverance, they would not be able to persevere. Fortunately, opportunities are always given to those who are prepared. The exemplary role of hard work has been recognized by the headquarters and company cadres. That year, only two people in the command had a place to go to college. The teacher who organized our exams and I said goodbye to the third line in western Hunan and entered two key domestic universities respectively, entering the university hall of our long-cherished dreams.

This special exam also became an important turning point in my life. I received guidance from famous experts in my university studies. After completing my undergraduate studies, I graduated with a master's degree, studied abroad for a Ph.D., and did postdoctoral research in scientific research. With nostalgia for the motherland, he serves the teaching and scientific research of the motherland, and as a professor and doctoral supervisor, he has gone through the dream and designed life journey he longed for when he was a boy.

Looking back, without that special exam, everything would be difficult to fathom and measure.