-Written on the 40th anniversary of the naming of "Little Sisters of Prairie Heroes"
Our reporter He Wenzhong
Forty years ago, Long Mei and Yu Rong, "Little Sisters of Prairie Heroes", wrote a heroic hymn with their blood and lives to protect the collective sheep and fight against the snowstorm. Their names and heroic deeds spread all over the country from Inner Mongolia grassland, and their stories were made into movies, put on the stage, recorded into songs and written into textbooks ... 40 years later, the little heroes of that year have now reached the age of knowing their destiny, and they have never left the grassland where they were born and raised. They regard themselves as ordinary people, making silent contributions and struggling in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. Not long ago, the reporter made a special trip to interview Long Mei and Yu Rong with childhood memories.
Long Mei: "To tell the truth, we were too young to think so much at that time. We only have one belief, don't let the collective sheep lose one. "
Sister Long Mei, 1970 enlisted, worked in Damaoqi Youth League Committee, Baotou Donghe Youth League Committee and People's Congress successively, and is currently the chairman of Donghe District of CPPCC. Politically, Long Mei, who is mature in thought, recalled to us a thrilling scene that once happened on the Da 'erhan Maoan grassland in Inner Mongolia:
It was1February 9, 964 (the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month), and it was the ice and snow season in the Saibei grassland on the eve of the Spring Festival. At that time, I was only 1 1 years old and my sister was only 9 years old. The two of us grazed 384 sheep of the commune on the grassland. At noon, the sky suddenly darkened, and the northwest wind swept a rare snowstorm onto the grassland. The temperature immediately dropped to MINUS 37 degrees, and the sheep scattered in panic and began to run along the increasingly fierce northwest wind. My sister and I think that only by gathering the sheep and running with them can we avoid them being swallowed up by the snowstorm. So, the two of us tried our best to gather the scattered sheep. In fact, we have the opportunity and time to leave the sheep and run for our lives, or we can run back to ask ABBA for help. However, my sister and I firmly remember what my father usually said: "Sheep are the property of the collective and the lifeblood of the collective. You can't lose one! " In this way, we kept running and blocking in tandem.
It's getting dark and the snow is already thick. We were really tired at that time. The cold is nearly MINUS 40 degrees, and our steps are getting heavier and heavier. Every step forward is very difficult. The sheep are still running, and we can't stop. In this way, until dawn, the cold wind is still fierce and the snow is as deep as a foot. We ran for more than 30 kilometers and came near Baiyun Obo Station. At this point, my sister has exhausted her last strength and fainted in the snow. I dragged my sister to a big stone sheltered from the wind, gathered the sheep and walked to the station. My eyes went black and I couldn't hold on any longer. At this time, my uncle Ha Chaolu and his son Na Ren Mandula, who sent my friends to the station, first found me, and then rescued my sister and me with several railway workers. On the afternoon of February 10, we were sent to Baotou Steel Baiyunebo Iron Mine Hospital.
Due to severe frostbite, I lost my left thumb; My sister once amputated her right leg below the knee joint and her left leg below the ankle joint, causing lifelong disability. But of the 384 sheep we released, only 3 were frozen to death, and the rest were safe and sound.
Our sister's deeds are actually very ordinary, very ordinary. There are many such deeds in pastoral areas, and we are just one of them. To tell the truth, we were still young and didn't think so much. We only have one belief, don't let the collective lose a sheep. It is this belief that supported our sisters to fight all day and all night in the snowstorm.
Yu Rong: "In fact, heroes are ordinary people. Heroes only do one or a few things that are beneficial to the people and should be done when the people need them. "
Sister Yu Rong, 1976 graduated from Inner Mongolia Normal University, worked in Wulanchabu League Youth League Committee, Education Bureau and Inner Mongolia Disabled Persons' Federation successively, and is now the deputy director of the General Office of the Political Consultative Conference of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In the interview, Yu Rong looked more relaxed than her sister Long Mei. She dared to think and say:
Forty years ago, my sister Long Mei and I fought all night in the snowstorm to protect our collective property, and were named "Little Sisters of Prairie Heroes" by the Party Committee of the Autonomous Region. This is the highest honor given to us by the party and the people, and our growth has been meticulously cared for by the party and the people.
In the past 40 years, despite changing jobs many times, our sisters and I have been able to be strict with ourselves, not pretending to be "celebrities", starting from the most ordinary people, doing one thing and loving one thing. We both know very well that it is the party and the people who have made us what we are today. It is the party and the people who have trained our two sisters from the children of an ordinary herdsman family into soldiers, college students and ethnic cadres, and they have all taken up leadership positions. Over the past 40 years, my sister and I have participated in various model associations, reports and representatives of advanced figures for many times, and were elected as deputies to the fourth and fifth National People's Congress. My sister also participated in the Party's Top Ten, and I also participated in the 11th and 12th Youth League of * * and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Congress of China Disabled Persons' Federation, and was rated as a national model of "self-improvement". The autonomous region has given our sisters more honor, and we are not allowed to visit abroad, and so on. Faced with so many honors and treatments that ordinary people can't get, our sisters often ask themselves, what have we done for the party and the people? There is no gap between what we have done and the honor given by the party and the people? In fact, heroes are ordinary people, and heroes only do one or a few things that are beneficial to the people and should be done when the people need them. Heroes are not always brilliant.
Chairman Mao said: "It is not difficult for a person to do good deeds, but it is difficult to do good deeds all his life and not do bad things." Although the tide of market economy is surging today, in the cross-century era, we still have to say that this sentence of Chairman Mao is an irrefutable truth. In the past 40 years, we have been thinking and doing the same thing. If we lie on the credit book and sleep, we will stagnate and go backwards. Achievements can only explain the past. We deeply understand that the future depends on our own continuous efforts. Only by constantly improving yourself and doing things that are beneficial to the people all your life can you become a more perfect person and be worthy of the title of "hero".
At present, there are some teenagers in the society who spend all day in Internet cafes, or indulge in online games, or focus on idolatry. We are anxious to see this phenomenon. (Yu Rong pauses here and asks the young reporter Xiao Xin with a smile: You are a young man, too. I don't know if you chase "Star". Everyone laughed. So my sister and I have an idea to build a patriotic education base in Damaoqi, my hometown. Last year, our sister applied to the relevant state departments for the registered trademark of "Little Sisters of Prairie Heroes", and the relevant state departments have accepted our application. In this patriotic education base, we want to tell the vast number of young people about our growth experience and the importance and necessity of adhering to cultural and ideological education, and educate them in patriotism, collectivism and revolutionary tradition through this form.
When the reporter asked about the significance of registering the trademark "Miss Prairie Hero", Yu Rong told the reporter: Now some people are making money by taking advantage of our celebrity effect. If you don't register, maybe someone will produce goods in the name of "Miss Prairie Hero". We should protect the honor given by the party and the people and not let her deteriorate.
The pride of grassland, the pride of the Chinese nation.
The charm of a hero is eternal forever. No matter which era is branded on the protagonist, the spirit and character embodied in them will not be weakened by the passage of time, and the glory of her inner national spirit will not be erased by social changes. For 40 years, Long Mei and Yu Rong did not pretend to be "celebrities". They are strict with themselves and never ask anything from the organization. They silently contributed and struggled in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. After Yu Rong's leg was amputated, although he was fitted with a prosthesis, he sweated when it was hot. During an interview in the morning, the reporter poured water for Yu Rong twice, but both were politely declined. It is unimaginable how much pain she has to endure.
As for the little-known beautiful stories behind the heroes, whether they are full of legendary love or happy marriage and family, they will all become the grassland past. What we want to promote is the spirit of "Miss Prairie Hero". Long Mei and Yu Rong went out of the grassland again and again, made reports all over the country, talked about experiences, educated and infected two generations. I'm afraid this value is difficult for economists to calculate. The book Miss Accompanying Reading tells a story: In order to let her son learn Chinese, the mother in the United States told the story of "Miss Prairie Hero". Her son heard that the little sister's sheep was seriously injured by freezing to death, and suddenly asked, "Mom, if they do this, the state will give them a lot of money, won't it?" Our teacher said that work should be paid. " The mother told her son: The best reward is that children all over the country learn from these two prairie heroes. Can I buy this with money? My son finally understood that there is still a job in the world that can't be paid.
Miss Prairie Hero is the pride of Mongols, the pride of Inner Mongolia grasslands and the pride of the Chinese nation!
The Times (No.1 1 2004)