Unforgettable the boundary river between China and Russia
Author Hainan Le Xiaoyao
In the long years, I will never forget the boundary river between China and Russia - the Ussuri River. I can never get enough of that song - "Ussuri Barcarolle".
The Wusuli River in my mind is about one kilometer wide. It looks sparkling from a distance, unlike the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. Like a demure and gentle lady, she floats across the Wanda Mountains with gentle steps, and walks across the vast plains with graceful steps. She is also like a warm mother who nurtures the forests, grasslands, and fertile fields on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and raises thousands of people. The people will remain unchanged forever. She documented unique and interesting experiences in my life as a child. I have told colleagues and friends countless interesting stories about that river. She is the star that will never disappear in the sky of my memory.
My father used to work in Xitong, a small riverside town, and he would occasionally take me there to play in the summer. In my impression, the Wusuli River in the 1960s and 1970s had such clear water. Against the blue sky and white clouds, the entire river looked like a long blue ribbon. Both sides of the river were full of green, with only colorful wildflowers dotting it. The scenery was beautiful. As soon as I arrive at the riverside, I can't wait to take off my shoes and run barefoot in the shallow water. The water is crystal clear. From time to time I pick up scallops, which come in various shapes: spindle-shaped, fan-shaped, oval-shaped... Sometimes I catch the little fish playing around its legs. The little fish is so clever that it always slips away from the cracks in my hands. The colorful pebbles under the water are so beautiful! Some are like yellow amber, some are like red agate, and some are like ink... I picked up a pocket of pebbles, and my pocket was dripping with water. When I got home, I took them out to show off to the children next door. The color of the pebbles was dull when they were out of the water. I'm so disappointed. Only when I grew up did I understand: Nature carries all things, and only when all things choose to adapt to their own environment can they be full of vitality and bloom with the most brilliant brilliance. Eagles fight in the sky, fish swim in the water, towering trees grow in the mountains, and ice flowers bloom under the ice and snow. Therefore, pebbles can only show their colorfulness in water.
The Wusuli River is not only as beautiful as a picture scroll, but also rich in products. I heard from my mother that in the early 1960s, turtles as big as basins were all over the river beaches. The locals didn't eat them, but the outside "rightists" started eating them and took supplements every day. There are so many fish in the river forks that a large net can weigh dozens of kilograms. Every October is the time when salmon swim back to the Ussuri River to lay their seeds. Salmon harvested from the fish are hanging in the yards of every household. When winter comes, people hold steel drills in their hands to dig holes in the ice, and fish will flock to the hole to suck oxygen. You can use your net to scoop up the fish as much as you like. During the three-year period when there was no food due to natural disasters, each household was given a boatload of more than 2,000 kilograms of fish to use as food to satisfy their hunger. Once, my brother and I were picking up scallops on the river beach. It took us only one cigarette to pick up a sack, each one bigger than a plate. There are dense hawthorn and sand fruit forests growing along the riverside in the Raohe section of the Wusuli River. In autumn, my mother took me to Raohe for a meeting and left me safely by the river. I picked a big bag of hawthorn and sand fruits. My mother picked me up after the meeting and gave the fruits I picked to my friends at the meeting. At that time, the wild hawthorn trees along the Ussuri River were famous.
The most interesting thing is to take a boat from Xitong to Raohe River. The main channel of the Sino-Soviet River is the national boundary. In some places, the boat is only two or three meters away from the Soviet Union shore. Repaired (meaning defected to the Soviet Union). The passenger ship sailed to the Soviet side, and the melodious song "The East is Red" was played from the speakers. Sometimes, the Russian girls working in the fields put down their work and danced, and the Chinese people on the boat also danced the word "loyalty". The scene was so friendly and harmonious. Although relations between China and Russia deteriorated at that time, music itself has no borders and no hatred.
In my memory, the Wusuli River in winter was more than three feet frozen. The entire river turned into a silver-white road and became a transportation line. There was a lot of traffic. The ice road was much flatter than the dirt road. At that time, both China and the Soviet Union built wooden tower-style watchtowers, about ten stories high, every twenty miles or so on their side of the Ussuri River to monitor border developments. The ice surface in the deep water area of ??the frozen Ussuri River, that is, the main channel, is lower and forms a slightly sloping slope with both banks. The national boundary line is the main channel at the bottom of the ice surface. A tree strip about one meter high is used as a national boundary mark.
Some naughty children pulled a sledge and came to the river. When the border guards were not paying attention, they got on the sledge and slid down the slope of the river. They broke through the tree line and rushed towards the Soviet side. The soldiers on the Soviet watchtower immediately fired their shots. Before the Soviet soldiers could catch up with them, the sledge quickly fell back to the Chinese side, and they left the country easily. Immediately afterwards, the Soviet side used loudspeakers to protest, and these children were inevitably detained and asked to ask their parents.
It’s really a matter of youth, a newborn calf is not afraid of tigers.
In the late 1960s, China and the Soviet Union were at odds in the Zhenbao Island section of the Ussuri River. The Soviet Union thought it had a strong country and strong military. Tanks and patrols repeatedly crossed the border and invaded our territory, and the war was on the verge of breaking out. Many soldiers from both countries and Chinese border residents gathered along the Shutiao border. I often hear my neighbors who have been to the border come back and tell stories about Dou Suxiu.
Border personnel on both sides of China and the Soviet Union passionately declared their sovereignty. I remember that our border residents held up placards, such as "Down with the new tsar!", "Zhenbao Island is Chinese territory!", "I will not attack others unless they attack me; if they attack me, I will attack them." etc. (In fact, these placards Also used for self-defense). Our border residents chanted slogans loudly, and the Soviet soldiers were not to be outdone. The officer shouted "China!" in Chinese, and his soldiers all stretched out their little thumbs.
Interestingly, when some Soviet soldiers saw that their commander was not there, they put their hands on the sides of their trouser pockets and extended their thumbs, which meant good things to China. Seeing the chief coming, he raised his little finger high again. Some Soviet soldiers playfully crossed the tree line and then pulled their legs back with a playful smile. It can be seen that these soldiers are just ignorant children who took this thrilling scene as a joke. Everyone who went to the border at that time spoke a few words of Russian. My father also took older students from Xitong Middle School there, and my mother bought him a casual black cotton coat with a fox fur collar. The Chinese and Soviet personnel argued fiercely across the national boundary line over the ownership of Zhenbao Island. When the Chinese side ran out of Russian, the two sides used hand gestures. The scene was like a deaf-mute quarreling. It was very funny.
At that time, the Soviet soldiers each held a wooden stick (at that time, the governments of both sides were unwilling to use weapons first and provoke a war, which was condemned by the whole world, so the Soviet soldiers held wooden sticks). They were tall. Ma Da was violent and unruly. During patrols, he often crossed the border and injured and killed our border guards and border residents. Later, we transferred a group of new soldiers from the border guard. Whenever they saw Soviet soldiers beating our personnel, they would rush up and beat them until their heads were bleeding and they were dizzy. I didn't understand how the Chinese soldiers suddenly became so strong. Incomparable. From then on, when encountering Chinese patrols, they behaved themselves and no longer dared to be arrogant and domineering. Legend has it that these recruits were martial arts masters transferred from the mainland.
In those years, the people on the border were all preparing for war, and every family dug air-raid shelters. There is an additional course in the school - knowledge on preventing nuclear weapons. The physical education class has been changed to practice bayonet fighting. Each student holds a wooden stick and two people practice sparring. Even though I am only in the second grade, I am brave and resourceful when I fight with a bayonet. The company often held training sessions, and often in the middle of the night the bell would suddenly ring loudly. For a few minutes, the entire company would line up in a long line and run towards the mountains, climbing over mountains and ridges. They were so exhausted that they would not return until dawn. I once heard a joke told by adults. The short and tall militiamen in the dormitory wore the wrong trousers in the dark. The short one stumbled on his trousers and fell many times along the way. The tall one couldn't run because his trousers were tight on his legs. .
Especially at night, flares from the Soviet side frequently flash across the sky like fireworks, and flares fly out from time to time in the deep mountains and old forests around the company. It must be Soviet agents sneaking into our country. Once, my mother took my brother and I past the company's oil tank farm at night. A red flare suddenly rose from behind a large oil tank a hundred meters away. I shouted in horror: "There is a spy!" My mother grabbed my brother and me by the head. He ran home without looking back. I blamed my mother for not arresting the spy. My mother said that in order to protect my brother and me, she had no choice but to escape. In those years, the border areas were always shrouded in a tense atmosphere of imminent war, and people were in panic.
From elementary school to high school, military training has never stopped. I started training with live ammunition in high school. The class was divided into three groups: rifles, submachine guns, and machine guns. Because of my poor eyesight, I was assigned to the machine gun group. In the afternoon, the whole class trained in groups, and other students practiced aiming and shooting. I could only disassemble the machine gun into eight pieces, wipe it carefully, and apply oil on the gun. If not, I just hold the trigger and crank the machine gun for a while (no bullets). In my spare time, I have to practice throwing grenades. The fake grenades are a little heavier than the real grenades. After more than two months of training, I can only throw them about 25 meters. .
Finally the day of live ammunition shooting came. The coach asked us machine gunners to practice target shooting with the riflemen. Now I was blinded. Firstly, I had never practiced before, and secondly, my eyesight was not good, so I went out to shoot. Three shots, two shots hit the target's forehead, one shot flew away, he got ten rings, and his grades were at the bottom of the class. It was so embarrassing, I wanted to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.
On the second day of the grenade test, a large mound of more than one meter high was piled in the center of the field. The whole class lay down in a dry ditch a hundred meters away, and the students went on stage one by one to throw grenades. It was my turn. I stood behind the mound. The trainer took the grenade ring out of the back handle and put it on my little finger. My heart almost jumped into my throat. I thought to myself, I must throw it farther to avoid blowing myself up. Then I took a dozen steps back, sprinted forward, waved my arms, and the grenade flew out. My coach and I immediately lay down under the mound. There was a loud "boom". Two minutes later, the target announcer shouted: "Thirty-six meters!" Among the girls in the class, I placed first in bombing, and I was finally proud and proud! When you are afraid of death, you can actually stimulate a person's super energy. One male classmate was too nervous and threw the grenade behind him. Fortunately, the coach cleverly dragged him to the other side of the mound and survived. But the next day, he developed rubella on his face and it swelled up into a big cake. His classmates said he was frightened.
The children of Beidahuang living by the Wusuli River grew up in a tense environment of preparing for war and famine from childhood to youth. How they longed for a peaceful life!
Today, the country on the other side of the Ussuri River has been renamed Russia. China and Russia have turned hostilities into friendship and established profound good-neighborly and friendly relations. Trade between the two countries is booming, and the people of the two countries exchange what they need. When you stroll on the streets of Raohe, you will be surrounded by groups of Russian beauties and handsome men; when you wander into the trade market, you can see Russian people purchasing items in large and small bags everywhere; when you cross the streets of Raohe with simplified procedures, When the river became a treaty port with Russia, there was a dazzling array of Russian local products for you to bring back. The ever-flowing Ussuri River has a long history and has become a link of friendship between the people of China and Russia, nourishing people from different countries on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. The people live and work in peace and contentment, and their lives are stable and happy.
Peace is a happy and melodious song, filled with beautiful chapters of happiness; peace is a picture of spring and scenery, depicting the colors you like; peace is the seed of tranquility and peace, spread from generation to generation!
"The Wusuli River is long and long, and the blue water has waves. The Hezhe people cast a thousand nets and live a happy life forever." This song has been echoing in my ears for nearly fifty years. Songs are also the voice from the bottom of my heart. Although years have passed, the water of the Ussuri River will always flow in my heart.
(The pictures in the article are selected from the Internet)
(Written on January 12, 2019)