Chapter 22 21. Shihezi: A Young City

Shihezi, founded in 1950, was the first city founded by soldiers, because it tolerantly took in poets, and it was known as the city of poetry for a period of time. Shihezi Reclamation Area is located in the middle section of the northern foot of Tianshan Mountains and the southern edge of the Gurbantunggut Great Desert, with an area of ​​7,529 square kilometers, a population of 720,000, and a permanent population of 600,000, of which 32,000 are ethnic minorities, accounting for 5.4%.Shihezi City is located in the middle of the reclamation area, with an administrative area of ​​460 square kilometers, a planned area of ​​150 square kilometers, a built-up area of ​​30 square kilometers, and a population of 290,000.The Eighth Agricultural Division and Shihezi City stationed in the reclamation area implement a system of party committee leadership, separate leadership teams, and a system of two brands for one department.The city was founded in 1950 by the Chinese People's Liberation Army led by General Wang Zhen as a temporary new city.It was sited by soldiers, designed by soldiers, and built by soldiers. It is the best example of turning a sword into a plow.Shihezi is a veritable city of military reclamation, but due to Wang Zhen's preference for Ai Qing and the city's diverse and tolerant attitude towards culture, Shihezi was once known as the "city of poetry".

In 1957, the poet Ai Qing was classified as a rightist. Then, in October of this year, he was removed from the editorial board of "Poetry Magazine", expelled from the party, and revoked as a director of the Chinese Artists Association and a member of the Joint Committee of Chinese Literary and Art Circles and other duties. In Chinese history, it is not uncommon for poets not to be loved by those in power. Li Bai was regarded as an immortal, and he looked down upon the powerful all his life. Zhi, he said in his poems, "Forbearance of floating names, instead of shallow pouring and low singing." During the imperial examination, Song Renzong corrected Liu Yong's paper and said: "Let's go to shallow pouring and low singing, why use floating names."Liu Yong even laughed at himself afterwards and said that he wrote lyrics according to the order, but he died in frustration after all.

Pasternak trembled before Stalin, Mandelstam was arrested for writing a Stalin poem, Brodsky was exiled as a vagabond and idler, but even in the former Soviet Union It often happens that a country's greatest poet, who has shown perhaps shameful docility to power, is still brutally pushed to the bottom. "The Spring Festival in 1957 was the most difficult one for me and Ai Qing. The sound of firecrackers blared non-stop. Happy people, the more they listen, the happier they are; unlucky people, the more they listen, the more sad they become. Ai Qing said: 'Let's go to bed earlier, and let this year pass in our sleep.'" Gao Ying, the poet's wife, recalled, "We were waiting to be released when we heard a news that a general asked the central government for Ai Qing. No wind, no waves. Ai Qing guessed that this general was Wang Zhen. Soon, Guo Xiaochuan came to the house and said that Wang Zhen wanted to see Ai Qing, so he went with him."

Wang Zhen persuaded Ai Qing to join his Construction Corps. Wang Zhen, born in 1908, is one of the most famous generals of the Chinese Communist Party.He started working for the Communist Party at the age of 16 and joined the Communist Party of China at the age of 19. He participated in the Agrarian Revolutionary War, the War of Resistance Against Japan and the War of Liberation. He has experienced many battles and has a tough personality.Because Wang Zhen must grow a beard every time he leads an army in battle, Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, He Long and other high-level CCP and military leaders jokingly called Wang Zhen "Wang Beard".However, "beard" in Northeast China also means a folk bandit who has turned into a bandit, and Wang Zhen's behavior style is also very tough.During the War of Resistance Against Japan, during a pre-war mobilization, Wang Zhen stood on a coffin and shouted: "Our army leads the charge forward. If I die, I will die first. After I die, I will put it in this coffin." The posture of Zongtang carrying the coffin for the expedition.

Like Zuo Zongtang, complex emotions of love and hate also developed between Wang Zhen and Xinjiang. In 1949, Wang Zhen led the deployment to cross the Qilian Mountains, the Gobi Desert, step over glaciers, and cross the Tianshan Mountains to liberate Xinjiang. "How can you show the heart of a Bodhisattva without thunderbolts?" Wang Zhen's words are also a manifestation of his consistent tough stance. In his view, the Communist Party's lands and mountains are all bought by generals and soldiers like him, defending it When using the Thunderbolt method. After the end of the national war, Chairman Mao Zedong of the People's Republic of China issued an order on December 5, 1949 calling on the entire army: "Except for those who continue to fight and serve, they should undertake part of the production tasks so that our People's Liberation Army is not only a defense force, Moreover, it is a production army, so as to cooperate with the people of the whole country to overcome the difficulties left over by the long-term war and accelerate the construction of new democracy"; "The participation of the People's Liberation Army in production is not temporary, and it should proceed from the perspective of long-term construction. And its focus is It is to increase social and national wealth through labor." Wang Zhen's corps bear the brunt.As early as the Yan'an period, Wang Zhen was already a practitioner who led the army to reclaim wasteland and supply wartime needs.His 359th brigade reclaimed Niwan, a good south of the Yangtze River, which was compiled into a ballad and sung to this day. In 1956, Wang Zhen served as the Minister of Agriculture and Reclamation of the People's Republic of China. From the Great Northern Wilderness to the Xinjiang Construction Corps, everything was under the jurisdiction of this bearded general.

In February 1950, Wang Zhen led the 22nd Corps of the Chinese People's Liberation Army to station in the Manas River Basin in accordance with Mao Zedong's instruction that "the People's Liberation Army is not only a national defense army, but also a production army".He once pointed to the large basin south of the Tianshan Mountains and said to his soldiers: "How does it compare with Nanniwan in northern Shaanxi? Is it the ratio between cattle and lice? It is not dozens or hundreds of times larger, but Thousands of times, tens of thousands of times! This place is waiting for us to develop, you can grow whatever you can, and turn this basin into a big garden!" When Wang Zhen and his colleagues Tao Zhiyue, Tao Jinchu, Zhang Zhonghan and others were very excited when they saw the wasteland with more than 4 million trees and weeds on the west bank of the Manas River.Building a new city in the Manas River Basin, and decorating it according to the Communists’ understanding of modernization, “is not only conducive to the large-scale development of agricultural production, but also conducive to the resettlement of demobilized and veterans.” When seeing this vast area When he found the land with abundant water and grass, Wang Zhen thought he had found the right place to build this new city, "build a new city here and leave it to future generations," he said.

"You see, Tianshan Mountain is a treasure house. The snow on the top of the mountain is an inexhaustible natural solid reservoir. The land below the mountain is fertile and it is a good place for us to build a family. We will not only build Shihezi into a production The command center must be built into a modern new city!" He also excitedly changed a poem in "Farewell to Volcanic Cloud Song" by Cen Shen, a frontier poet of the Tang Dynasty, "Fire clouds are all over the mountain, and the mountains are still condensed, and the birds dare not come for thousands of miles." It is "melons and fruits bloom everywhere, and the train comes here".

The three groups of sculptures standing on Shihezi Square today basically reflect the entrepreneurial history of this city, which is almost the same age as the Republic.In the middle of the square is the statue of General Wang Zhen.He is smiling all over his face, holding a telescope in one hand, and swiping down vigorously with the other. Behind him is a horse raising its hooves.Behind the statue is the Workers' Cultural Palace, on one side is the Mass Gymnasium, and in the distance is the Dafu Hotel and the West Industrial Zone.These are the construction achievements of Shihezi. Another group of statues is called "New Movement of Military Reclamation", which reflects that "General Wang Zhen specially summoned female soldiers and mobilized family members from all over the country in order to stabilize the officers and soldiers of the army and solve their worries. A happy family, a vivid image of nurturing the second generation of military reclamation. Among the group sculptures are female soldiers wearing military caps and enlisting in the army, local Uyghur girls, and unpretentious peasant children mobilized to settle in Xinjiang", a book introducing Shihezi It is written in the pamphlet "The City of Military Reclamation".Wang Zhen once personally went to Shanghai to ask the then mayor of Shanghai, Mayor Chen Yi, to support his city.Subsequently, under the call of the Communist Party, a large number of Shanghai educated youth, literature, art, sports, and scientific research personnel rushed to Shihezi, and some factories in Shanghai also moved to Shihezi.These people bring a strong urban atmosphere.

The last group of statues is "The First Plow of Military Reclamation", which reflects the reclamation work during the military reclamation war. The first place Ai Qing went was the Great Northern Wilderness in the northeast. Wang Zhen once told Ai Qing that when he saw the Northeast for the first time, he thought that if Ai Qing came to visit, he would definitely write many good poems.Wang Zhen arranged for the poet to be the deputy director. Later, Wang Zhen suggested that Ai Qing formulate a five-year plan—just like what the country, department, and individual liked in those days.Ai Qing then told the general that he wanted to visit Xinjiang.Wang Zhen then transferred Ai Qing to the Xinjiang Construction Corps.

In 1960, Wang Zhen, the Minister of Land Reclamation, visited Xinjiang, where he developed, and he suggested that Ai Qing follow him around.They went to Shihezi together.Seeing this brand new city, Ai Qing wrote a poem called "Young City": I’ve been to many places/I count this city as the youngest/It’s so beautiful/I love it at first sight/It’s not a mirage/It’s not a fairyland in Penglai/Its plants and trees/It’s all made of blood and sweat/You say it’s a city/ But there is an idyllic scenery / You say it is a village / But there are many factories / Inside the lush woods / There are rows of factory buildings / Amidst the drumming of birds / The sound of motors / The air is so fresh / It smells like the countryside Fragrance / Gently blowing by the breeze / Set off green waves / It is like a pioneer / The whole body is bathed in the sun / Facing the thousands of miles of Gobi / His eyes are shining with hope / More like a soldier / The passion of the revolution is raging / Just a command / Just sprint ahead / Construction sites are everywhere / Sounds of labor are boiling / My heart is rolling with the wheelbarrow / On the gravel road / Sunny days, snowy days / At dawn, at dusk / A year Three hundred and sixty days/watch it 36,000 times because it is always moving forward/changing appearance every moment/because I see the growth of new China through this city/.

Ai Qing fell in love at first sight with this city "all bathed in sunshine".Its green coverage rate is as high as 40%. It is different from the historical burden of most cities, showing the scars of the past years everywhere; and Shihezi City, which is built on the foundation of military reclamation culture, is extremely simple compared with Beijing, where Ai Qing has lived for a long time. . Ai Qing, who lives in Shihezi, enjoys a division-level salary under Wang Zhen's care. He is often invited to attend various meetings and social activities with the mayor and political commissar of the Eighth Division of Agriculture, and is treated with courtesy by distinguished guests.Moreover, Ai Qing also enjoys the right to publish his works. It is said that during the anti-rightist movement, among the writers who were classified as rightists, they were still able to publish their works. It is estimated that there are only two novelists Yao Xueyin and Ai Qing in China.The courtesy this young city gave Ai Qing was beyond his imagination in a storm center like Beijing. This is a city of generals, but also a city of poets.Today, Shihezi has been praised for its environment, and the United Nations Habitat Center awarded Shihezi the "Good Example Award for Human Settlement Environment Improvement".It was opened by a general and a unique young city where a poet lived for 16 years.