-Written on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the naming of the "Little Sisters of the Prairie Heroes"
By He Wenzhong, reporter of the journal
40 years ago, the "Little Sisters of the Prairie Heroes" - Longmei and Yurong for the protection of the collective flocks of sheep and blizzards fight to the death with the blood and life of a heroic hymn. Their names and heroic deeds, from the Inner Mongolia grasslands spread all over the north and south, their stories were made into movies, moved to the stage, composed into songs, written into the textbooks ...... 40 years have passed, when the little heroes have now come to know the age of life, they have not left the birth of this prairie to raise them, they treat themselves as ordinary people as in the Inner Mongolia grasslands. As ordinary people, in the Inner Mongolia grasslands quietly dedication, struggle. Not long ago, the reporter with childhood memories made a special trip to interview Long Mei and Yu Rong.
Long Mei: "To be honest, we were young, we could not think so much, only a belief, do not let the collective sheep lost one."
Sister Long Mei, enlisted in the army in 1970, after the transition to work in the Damao Banner Youth League Committee, Baotou Donghe District Youth League Committee, the National People's Congress, is currently the chairman of the Baotou Donghe District Political Consultative Conference. Politically, ideologically mature Long Mei recalled to us once happened in Inner Mongolia Dalhan Maomingan grasslands on the thrilling scene:
It was February 9, 1964 (Lunar New Year 26), it is the eve of the Spring Festival, the northern grasslands of the ice and snow in the cold season, when I was 11 years old, my sister is only 9 years old, the two of us rushed to the commune's 384 sheep in the grasslands to graze. By noon, the sky suddenly darkened, the northwest wind rolled a rare snowstorm to the grassland, the temperature immediately fell to minus 37 degrees, the sheep scattered in fear, began to run wildly along the increasingly violent northwest wind. My sister and I thought, now the only way to avoid being swallowed by the blizzard is to gather the sheep and run after them. So, we both tried our best to gather the scattered sheep. In fact, we had the opportunity and time to leave the sheep behind and run for our lives, and we could have run back to find Abba to come to our aid. However, my sister and I firmly remembered what Abba usually said: "Sheep are the collective property, the lifeblood of the collective, not even one can be lost!" In this way, the two of us, one after the other, kept running and blocking.
It was slowly getting dark, and the snow was already very thick. At that time, we were really tired, nearly 40 degrees below zero cold, the footsteps are getting heavy, every step forward is very difficult. The sheep are still running, we can not stop, so we have been walking to the day slowly bright, the cold wind is still very fierce, the snow has been up to a foot deep. We have run more than 30 kilometers, came to the baiyun ebo station near. My sister had exhausted the last bit of physical strength, and fainted on the snow. I dragged my sister to a sheltered boulder and gathered the sheep toward the station, my eyes were already dark and I could not hold on any longer. The first thing I noticed was that my sister and I were the first to be rescued by a couple of railroad workers.
Because of the severe frostbite, I lost my left thumb; my sister had her right leg amputated below the knee and her left leg below the ankle, resulting in a lifelong disability. But of the 384 sheep we herded, only three were killed by frostbite and the rest were safe and sound.
Our sisters' deeds are actually very common and ordinary, and there are many such deeds in the pastoral area, of which we are but one. To be honest, at that time we were young, we could not think so much, there is only one belief, do not let the collective sheep lost one. It is this belief that supported the two sisters in the blizzard, the whole day and night struggle.
Yurong: "In fact, the hero is also an ordinary person, the hero is just in the people's need to do one or a few things in the people's favor, but also should be done."
Sister Yurong, graduated from Inner Mongolia Normal University in 1976, worked in the Ulanchab League Youth League Committee, Education Bureau, Inner Mongolia Disabled Persons' Federation, is now the deputy director of the Office of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Political Consultative Conference. In an interview with Yurong looked more relaxed than her sister Longmei, she dared to think and say:
40 years ago, my sister Longmei and I in order to protect the collective property and blizzard fought for a day and night, was named by the regional party committee for the "grassland heroes Little Sisters". This is the party and the people give us the highest honor, our growth is the party and the people's meticulous care.
In the past 40 years, despite the many times we have changed jobs, the sisters have been able to strictly require themselves, not to "celebrity" themselves, from the most ordinary people to do, do a line, love a line. We sisters know, is the party and the people make us have today, is the party and the people of our sisters from an ordinary herdsmen family children, trained into a soldier, college students, national cadres, and have embarked on a leadership position. 40 years, we have participated in a variety of sisters will be a model, reports, representatives of the advanced people, has been elected to the fourth and fifth National People's Congress, the sister also participated in the party's top ten, and the sister has participated in the party's top ten, and has been elected to the fourth and fifth National People's Congress. Sister also participated in the party's top ten, I also participated in the **** Youth League's eleventh, twelfth and China Disabled Persons' Federation of the first, second and third congress, was named the national "self-improvement" model. The autonomous region has given our sisters even more honors, and not also let us go abroad to visit, and so on. In the face of so many ordinary people do not get the honor and treatment, we sisters often ask ourselves, what have we done for the Party and the people? What we do with the party and the people give honor no gap? In fact, heroes are also ordinary people, heroes are only in the people's need to do one or several things that are beneficial to the people, but also should be done. Heroes are not always brilliant.
Chairman Mao said, "It is not difficult for a person to do something good,, what is difficult is to do good things for a lifetime and not to do bad things." Although the tide of the market economy today, in the era of the cross-century, we still have to say, Chairman Mao's sentence is the unbreakable truth. 40 years, this is what we think, and this is what we do If we lie in the book of achievements to eat old books and sleep, we will stagnate and go backward. Achievements can only explain the past, we y understand that the future is to rely on their own continuous efforts, only to continue to improve themselves, all their lives to do things in favor of the people, in order to become a more perfect person, but also worthy of the title of "hero".
Now there are some young people in society who spend all day in Internet cafes, or indulge in online games, or are obsessed with chasing stars, and we are very anxious to see this phenomenon. (Said here Yu Rong paused for a moment, smiled and asked the presence of a young reporter Xiao Xin: you are also young people, I do not know you chase "star" ah? Everyone laughed.) Therefore, we sisters have an idea, want to establish a patriotic education base in their hometown Damao Banner. Last year, the sisters applied to the relevant state departments for the "Little Sisters of the Prairie Heroes" registered trademark, and the relevant state departments have accepted our application. We would like in this patriotic education base, our growing experience and from this experience to adhere to the importance of cultural and ideological education and the need to tell the majority of young people, through this form of patriotism, collectivism and revolutionary tradition education for young people.
When the reporter asked about the significance of registering the trademark of "Little Sisters of the Prairie Heroes", Yurong told the reporter: Now there are people who are using our celebrity effect to earn money. If we do not register, perhaps there will be someone with the "Little Sisters of the Prairie Heroes" in the name of the production of goods it, we have to protect the party and the people to give the honor, can not let her deteriorate.
Pride of the grassland, the pride of the Chinese nation
The charm of the hero is always eternal. Regardless of which era branded on the heroes, the spirit and character embodied in them will not be diminished by the passage of time, not to mention the changes in society and the glory of the spirit of the nation within her. 40 years, Longmei and Yurong do not take "celebrity" as their own, strict requirements for their own, and never to the organization to make any request, in the Inner Mongolia grassland quietly dedicated to the Inner Mongolia grassland silent dedication, struggling, Yurong legs were amputated, although fitted with prosthetics, a hot sweat, prosthetics in the legs are white with sweat. In a morning interview time, the reporter twice for the Yu Rong water were politely declined, she has to endure how many people can not imagine the pain.
As for the hero behind those little-known beautiful story, whether it is full of legendary love, or happy marriage and family, will become the past of the grassland. What we want to promote is the spirit of the "Little Sisters of the Prairie Heroes". Longmei and Yurong went out of the grassland again and again, and went to all over the country to give reports, talk about their experiences, educate and infect two whole generations, and I am afraid that this value is difficult to be calculated by economists. The book "Mrs. Chaperone" tells a story: in order to let her son learn Chinese, the mother living in the United States told her son about the "Little Sisters of the Prairie Heroes", and when the son heard that the Little Sisters had been seriously injured by freezing for the public's goats, he suddenly asked: "Mom, if they do this, the country will pay them a lot of money, right? right? Our teacher says that work should be rewarded." The mother told her son that the best reward would be for all the children in the country to learn from the two Little Sisters of the Prairie Heroes, and that could not be bought with money. The son finally realized that there is another kind of work in the world that can't be counted for reward.
"Little Sisters of the Prairie Heroes" is the pride of the Mongolian people, the pride of the Inner Mongolian prairie, and the pride of the Chinese nation!
The Tide of Time (2004, Issue 11)