A Correct View of Political Achievement, Practiced in the Barracks | Record of Building a Wall in the Deep Mountains
Record of Building a Wall in the Deep Mountains
■ Wang Haitao, Tao Jiapeng; PLA Daily Special Correspondent Wang Xuechao; Illustration: Fang Han
In the early days of summer, amid the shade of trees and grass, sentry Dai Wei sits before an intelligent-equipment monitoring console in the duty room of a certain warehouse under the Shenyang Joint Logistics Support Center, eyes fixed on the surveillance screens, vigilantly scanning the situation around the warehouse perimeter.
Following Dai Wei's gaze, a winding protective wall is clearly visible on the screens. Crossing mountains and ridges, spanning gullies and obstacles, threading through forests and streams, this protective wall stretching more than 20 kilometers wraps around the dispersed warehouse areas like a pair of outstretched arms, holding them in a firm embrace.
The green mountains say nothing; the surrounding wall speaks no words—yet both bear witness to the story of successive Party committee leaderships and generation after generation of officers and soldiers passing the baton to build this wall. Over nearly a decade, several generations of warehouse guards, relying on their shoulders, arms, and backs, hauled bricks up the mountain and built wall upon wall, erecting a solid barrier for the warehouse.
The story begins 18 years ago.
This warehouse sits amid a range of mountains, covering dozens of square kilometers. To facilitate management, officers and soldiers installed wire fencing around the warehouse perimeter for access control, but a small number of uninformed civilians still crossed the barrier to enter the restricted zone to gather firewood, graze livestock, and forage. The restricted zone was not truly restricted, and the hidden dangers could not be eliminated—the warehouse's officers and soldiers were deeply troubled by this.
"The warehouse stores strategic materials vital to national defense security. Once a fire or deliberate sabotage occurs, the consequences would be unthinkable. We must find every possible way to fundamentally resolve the protection hazards." In the early spring of 2008, the warehouse Party committee deliberated and decided to build a protective wall with solid defensive capability around the warehouse area. However, the warehouse area was surrounded by mountains—the peaks high, the slopes steep, the gullies crisscrossing—making it impossible for large construction machinery to enter and operate. The warehouse contacted multiple local construction teams in succession; after learning of the construction difficulties, each declined.
"We guard this warehouse. We cannot be satisfied with merely holding on to what we have—we must guard it well, guard it firmly, guard it as solid as a fortress." The warehouse's then-director, an "old mountain-valley hand" with 30 years of military service, argued forcefully at the Party committee meeting that the officers and soldiers should build the wall themselves. Some raised concerns: construction deep in the mountains would not only be arduous, but the timeline would be long and results slow; with only the warehouse's limited manpower, it simply could not be built in a short time. If it ended up as a "half-finished project," it would be better not to start at all.
"As long as it is good for the warehouse's security, it is worth doing. Even if we have to carry it on our backs, we will carry a wall into existence!" In the end, the warehouse Party committee reached consensus, established the construction goal of "build one section per year, achieve full enclosure in ten years," and issued the call to all warehouse officers and soldiers: "If one generation cannot finish it, the next generation carries on."
On the day of the groundbreaking oath-taking ceremony, the warehouse's then-Party committee leadership strapped on a brick-carrying frame, took up shovels and pickaxes and other tools, stood at the very front of all the officers and soldiers, and led the pledge: "Carry bricks and stones up the mountain, build walls of bronze and iron."
The difficulty of hauling bricks and stones up steep mountain slopes can well be imagined. Thorns grew in abundance; there was no path underfoot; one moment of inattention could send a person tumbling down the mountain. The warehouse's officers and soldiers did not retreat. Some carried loads on their backs, some on their shoulders, some in their arms, calling out work chants to encourage one another. Seen from a distance, the silhouettes of figures bent under loads of bricks, straining to climb, merged into a magnificent torrent of camouflage.
The warehouse's then-director was not tall, yet each time he would carry approximately 140 jin (roughly 70 kilograms) of red bricks to lead the charge. His wife urged him: "You're about to retire—why are you still pushing yourself so hard? Take it easy!" But his drive never diminished: "Building the protective wall will benefit us for the long term. As long as I am in post for one more day, I must take the lead!"
Senior Engineer Xu, past fifty, had just undergone surgery and was still in recovery. Leadership showed consideration for him and told him not to go up the mountain, but he quietly joined the brick-carrying team. When the officers and soldiers discovered this and urged Senior Engineer Xu to go back down and rest, he said: "If I can't carry 20 bricks, I'll carry 10. No matter how many I can carry, I want to fight alongside everyone."
Staff Officer Wang Baozhu, then serving in the warehouse's headquarters section, worked overtime late into the night every Friday to clear his workload, so that come Saturday, at first light, he could carry bricks up the mountain. "Senior Engineer Xu set the example—we young officers should all the more shoulder our responsibilities!" he said.
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Officers set the example; soldiers competed to do their part. Vanguard teams of Party members and reserve teams of Communist Youth League members formed spontaneously; subunit challenge-and-response competitions and brick-carrying contests were actively held; soldiers about to be discharged volunteered to work until the day before they left; new soldiers, barely settled into the barracks, threw themselves into the wall-building effort… Every officer and soldier refused to fall behind. By some estimates, certain soldiers carried more than ten thousand red bricks up the mountain each year, from the day they enlisted to the day they were discharged.
The warehouse Party committee leadership changed one term after another; officers and soldiers came and went generation after generation—yet the work of carrying bricks and building the wall never stopped. Over nearly a decade, the warehouse's officers and soldiers, carrying loads on their backs and shoulders, transported more than 3.6 million red bricks, more than 900 tons of cement, and more than 4,530 cubic meters of sand and gravel up the mountain ridges, and at last erected a protective wall more than 20 kilometers long around the warehouse perimeter.
On the day of the enclosure ceremony, when the final red brick was set into the protective wall, the previous several leaders who had participated in building it had already been transferred or retired, and most of the soldiers who had joined the first wave of construction had been demobilized and returned home. They were unable to witness this moment with their own eyes, but their sweat and effort had long since been fused into every red brick of the protective wall.
"Those who came before planted the trees; those who come after cannot simply enjoy the shade." The warehouse leadership made their position clear: the "enclosure" of the protective wall does not mean they can "rest easy on their laurels." They organize officers and soldiers to carry out regular maintenance and repairs each year. Moreover, in recent years, as unmanned intelligent equipment has developed rapidly, new security threats such as drone intrusions and aerial intelligence theft have become increasingly prominent. After the new warehouse Party committee took office, it actively introduced technical measures including a fire monitoring and early-warning system and an intelligent perimeter alarm system, building an unmanned intelligent security system with broader coverage and faster response, using technological means to erect a constantly-sensing "electronic protective wall" for the warehouse.
"Success need not be achieved on my watch, but success must have my contribution (功成不必在我，功成必定有我)." The warehouse leadership told reporters that, in connection with the ongoing study and education campaign on establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievement (正确政绩观), they have taken this wall-building experience as educational material to guide Party member cadres in continuously and firmly establishing a correct view of political achievement, and in carrying out all tasks with thoroughness, substance, and results.
"Carry On" and "Keep Breaking New Ground"
■ Zhang Di
A certain warehouse under the Shenyang Joint Logistics Support Center spent nearly a decade, with generation after generation of officers and soldiers passing the baton—carrying loads on their backs and shoulders—to erect a solid security barrier deep in mountains beyond the reach of construction machinery. This experience of "building a wall in the deep mountains" is a vivid embodiment of the view of political achievement captured in the phrase "success need not be achieved on my watch, but success must have my contribution (功成不必在我，功成必定有我)."
True political achievement requires "carrying on." Over nearly a decade, the warehouse Party committee leadership changed one term after another, and officers and soldiers came and went generation after generation. Even though they might not be able to witness the moment of the protective wall's "enclosure," they kept their eyes fixed on the same goal and fulfilled the same responsibility, using tenacity and perseverance to "see one blueprint through to the end (一张蓝图绘到底)."
True political achievement also requires "keep breaking new ground." The warehouse's new Party committee did not "lean on a big tree and enjoy the shade," but instead responded with acuity to the new threats of the age of information and intelligence, introduced an unmanned intelligent security system, and erected an "electronic barrier" atop the physical wall—transforming "those who came before planted the trees, those who come after enjoy the shade" into "those who came before planted the trees, those who come after nurture the trees," continuously writing new chapters in the relay of hard work in pursuit of political achievement.
One's view of political achievement is the "steering wheel" of Party member cadres, determining the direction and effectiveness of one's work and endeavors. "Carry on" and "keep breaking new ground"—these are precisely the lessons this "wall" imparts to us: be willing to do the work of laying foundations, without seeking immediate credit; and boldly open new frontiers for the age, without neglecting the responsibilities of one's post. Only in this way can the baton of our cause be received steadily and passed on well, one handoff after another.