Fusing the Oath of Youth into the Vast Universe: A Close Look at the Border Defense Officers and Soldiers Who Toil Under Stars and Moon for the Motherland
Stars Shine Bright on the Border Guard
■ Jiang Ligui, Yan Bingjie, Wang Yibo
"After coming off watch I always love to count the stars, and as I count my eyes grow wet. Counting stars, counting stars—the stars understand a soldier's heart best. I don't know which star shines on the window lattice of my old home… I guard the border beneath a sky full of stars, and I also guard the bright lights far away in the distance." A moving military song gives voice to the feelings of those who defend the frontier.
The Mingtegai Border Defense Company of the Xinjiang Military Region is garrisoned on the Pamir Plateau. The area's unique geographic and climatic conditions make it an exceptional place for stargazing. For more than half the days of the year, officers and soldiers can see a brilliant and deep starry sky, and they have come to call this place "a place where you can reach out and touch the stars."
Beneath the starry sky, above the guard post. Gazing at stars after coming off watch, photographing stars during leisure time—the company's officers and soldiers have woven their youthful oaths and life convictions into the vast universe and the brilliant river of stars. Today, let us together draw close to these border defense officers and soldiers who toil under stars and moon for the motherland.
—The Editors
Photo ①: Officers and soldiers of the Xinjiang Military Region's Mingtegai Border Defense Company patrol through the snow.
Photo ②: A soldier in the company feeds the horses.
Photo ③: A soldier framed together with the starry sky.
Photo ④: Tending the vegetable garden.
Photo ⑤: Holding the guard post.
Photo ⑥: Star trails photographed by a soldier.
This place is far from home, but very close to the stars
Dusk gradually fell. As the boundless vault of heaven became a vast curtain of night, the starry sky overhead grew ever more brilliant.
Gazing into the night sky, Staff Sergeant Second Class Yu Yi of the Xinjiang Military Region's Mingtegai Border Defense Company found his mind drifting back to a scene from years before. At the time, a television program had broadcast a short clip of a starry sky filmed on a border plateau. It lasted only a few dozen seconds, but every frame was as beautiful as a painting, and the young Yu Yi, sitting before the screen, felt a longing stir in his heart for that distant frontier.
That spring, Yu Yi enlisted and without hesitation chose to go to a unit in a hardship area. After two nights and three days jolting along on a train, he watched through the window as the scenery outside slowly changed from lush green mountains to a vast, desolate Gobi and snow-capped peaks. At last, he stood on the Pamir Plateau, more than 4,000 kilometers from home.
Yet what first greeted Yu Yi was not glittering starlight but thin air and raging winds. "Never mind charging up a slope with your comrades—running just a few steps left you gasping for breath." In this place where winds of Force 8 or above blow for more than 200 days a year, Yu Yi often thought of the beautiful mountains and rivers of his hometown. But whenever his parents called to check on him, he gritted his teeth and said everything was fine.
This place is far from home, but very close to the stars. When homesickness welled up inside him, Yu Yi liked to gaze at the night sky. The countless stars—some clustered together, some scattered—blinked with clear, bright eyes, as if in conversation with him. One night, the political instructor came around to check on the troops and found Yu Yi, just back from his watch, standing in the courtyard looking at the stars. He went over to talk with him. After learning what was on Yu Yi's mind, the instructor encouraged him: is not human life itself like this boundless expanse of stars? Every person can shine with their own light on the stage of their dreams. Gazing at the brilliant stars overhead, Yu Yi's previously dim eyes suddenly brightened, and the confusion in his heart gave way to clarity.
In Yu Yi's second year of service, the company's military horse keeper happened to be demobilizing. The political instructor recommended Yu Yi to attend a military horse keeper training course organized by higher authorities. This young man, who had never touched a horse before enlisting, threw himself into diligent study and hard practice at the training course, and returned with a solid set of horsemanship skills.
"Hei Bao" (Black Panther) is the military horse that has accompanied Yu Yi the longest—swift as the wind when it runs. "Don't let our current rapport fool you; 'Hei Bao' used to be the most mischievous of the dozen or so military horses," Yu Yi said. Once, when he took the horses out to graze and then tried to round them up, he could not find "Hei Bao" anywhere. He later discovered that, having eaten and drunk its fill, it had long since run back to the stable on its own.
Within the company's area of responsibility, the position at Kaqiannai Pass has an elevation exceeding 4,900 meters. Officers and soldiers conduct forward patrols using a combination of vehicles, horses, and foot travel. Some stretches are covered in loose rocks where every step forward means sliding back half a step; Yu Yi and "Hei Bao" persisted in walking at the front to break the trail. After every patrol, Yu Yi would prepare "Hei Bao"'s favorite corn and alfalfa as a reward, and "Hei Bao" gradually became Yu Yi's reliable "silent comrade-in-arms."
Over the years, Yu Yi and "Hei Bao" have crossed frozen rivers and pushed through snow-covered mountains together, chased the wind across the broad Gobi, and bathed in starlight beneath the quiet night sky. For Yu Yi, the comrades at his side and "Hei Bao," who has always accompanied him, have long since become family. He often says that he will hold fast to his "second hometown," like a star in the vast night sky, illuminating the lights of ten thousand homes across the motherland.
Speaking of home, Staff Sergeant First Class Wang Yongning recalled a starry sky from his childhood memories.
On summer nights, he would often sit with his grandfather beneath an old tree at the edge of the village, watching the stars and trading stories. His grandfather pointed to the brightest star on the horizon and told him it was also called the "home-guarding star"—it watched over the hearth smoke of the village, the crops in the fields, and lit the road home.
But Wang Yongning was unable to become a "home-guarding star" for his family. Both of his uncles were veterans who had served in hardship areas, and under their influence Wang Yongning entered the military and went far away to the frontier, becoming a "border-guarding star" on the plateau. Though he and his grandfather rarely had the chance to be together, his grandfather was proud of him and always encouraged him to do his job well at the border and not worry about things at home.
One day, Wang Yongning led new soldiers on a nighttime concealment training exercise. The plateau's starry sky was brighter, closer, and more magnificent than the one back home, and the brilliant starlight illuminated the still somewhat youthful faces of the new soldiers. Wang Yongning watched them lying in snow hollows, shivering, yet still gripping their rifles tightly, without the slightest slackening.
As days and months passed and the stars wheeled overhead, Wang Yongning—fourteen years in service—had walked the patrol route more times than he could count. He told himself he had to be both a good "border-guarding star" and a good "guiding star" for the new soldiers.
The border-guarding youth of those who chase the "stars" shines brighter than the stars themselves
Crossing star trails glowing with streaming light, the layered textures of a magnificent Milky Way… In the corridor of the barracks, a wall covered with photographs of the starry sky often drew people to stop and look.
"The starry sky here is too beautiful—quite a few officers and soldiers like to photograph it," the political instructor said. He had created a "starry sky wall" where anyone could post their "mastershots" at any time.
Staff Sergeant First Class Shang Benshuan was the first to chase the "stars." "When I first enlisted, the signal here was poor and phone calls were difficult." Shang Benshuan and his parents expressed their longing for each other through letters.
Once, Shang Benshuan described in a letter to his family the river of stars he had seen while standing watch late at night. It was summer, yet the plateau was still bitterly cold at night. The night sky shifted slowly from dark blue to an ink-black, against which the cold-white Milky Way appeared wide and dense; he felt as though the entire vault of heaven were slowly descending, finally wrapping tightly around him. Moved with excitement, he felt his blood boiling inside him.
His parents wrote back: "We really wish we could enjoy the beautiful starry sky together with you!" After that, Shang Benshuan often tucked a photograph of the starry sky into his letters—sometimes the Milky Way he had captured, sometimes himself standing watch beneath the stars, or his silhouette sitting atop a mountain gazing into the night sky. These photographs, recording Shang Benshuan's military youth, are still treasured by his parents to this day.
The starry sky takes different forms in different seasons. To preserve this romance, last winter Shang Benshuan made a pact with his star-chasing comrades: he would lead the group in capturing the starry sea across all four seasons, recording everyone's years of guarding the border.
Private First Class Lan Tianyu is also a thoroughgoing star-chaser. In his leisure time, he likes to fly a drone aloft to capture the brilliant river of stars on the plateau from another perspective.
During his time as a new soldier, the company commander noticed that Lan Tianyu enjoyed tinkering with electrical devices and other equipment, and encouraged him to take on the role of drone operator. Located on the plateau, flying a drone well is no easy task. "In extreme cold, the drone's battery drains fast, its endurance is poor, and charging is slow." Before every training session, Lan Tianyu carefully makes all kinds of flight preparations.
Even so, the thin air at high altitude still caused the drone's propellers to lose efficiency, and phenomena such as insufficient power and unstable flight appeared, dealing Lan Tianyu no small blow.
One day, comrades happened to see the starry sky footage Lan Tianyu had shot with his drone and asked him one after another about his shooting techniques. After that, the videos he shot were often played on a loop on the screen in the barracks lobby, and attracted quite a few officers and soldiers to join the ranks of the star-chasers.
This gave Lan Tianyu renewed confidence, and he practiced his flying skills over and over, drone in hand. Today, Lan Tianyu has grown into an outstanding drone operator. Last year he participated in a drone competition organized by higher authorities and won third place.
In the eyes of the company's officers and soldiers, these "starry sky photographs" are both magnificent images and the negatives of youth and passion. One day, on the back of a starry sky photograph he had taken, Lan Tianyu wrote these words: "When a group of people who chase the 'stars' come together, their youth shines brighter than the stars themselves."
A sky full of stars, lighting the road ahead
In the soft darkness of night, amid the glittering stars, Staff Sergeant Second Class Zhao Jiayin often wonders whether the forebears who struggled so hard at Mingtegai also once gazed deeply at the magnificent Milky Way overhead.
"One tent to block the wind and snow, three stones to prop up the pot." He remembered that on the first day after arriving at the company as a new soldier, Zhao Jiayin listened in the honor room as the political instructor recounted how, more than 60 years ago, 18 officers and soldiers of an air force unit stationed in Xinjiang had, in just 14 days, successfully opened up an air route through this "forbidden zone of life"—a route later honored as the "Aerial Silk Road."
"To get the equipment started quickly, the officers and soldiers of that era wrapped the machines in cotton quilts and lit stoves. Once, when heavy snow sealed the mountain and the equipment stopped working, everyone took turns hand-cranking the generator for seven hours, until in the end they could no longer lift their arms… Faced with crude equipment and instruments, they shouldered all manner of support tasks in a place where meteorological navigation was a blank." Zhao Jiayin still remembered the political instructor encouraging everyone: "Our support conditions now are so much better than they were back then—all the more reason for us to hold fast to the border defense and not lose the glorious traditions of our forebears!"
At that time, however, Zhao Jiayin's physical fitness scores ranked at the bottom of the entire company. He had entertained thoughts of shrinking back, but when he thought of how the forebears had fought tenaciously under that same starry sky, he pulled himself together.
Afterward, Zhao Jiayin seized every opportunity to train his physical fitness. When practicing long-distance running, he strapped sandbags to his legs; during anaerobic training, he practiced holding his breath in a washbasin filled with water; during load-bearing training, he conducted endurance marches along the steep passes and rocky mountain paths the forebears had walked—slowing his pace and steadying his breathing on the uphill stretches, lowering his center of gravity and controlling his rhythm on the downhill stretches, competing in tenacity and building endurance on rugged terrain…
Perseverance pays off. Zhao Jiayin became the company's "physical fitness expert," developing an effective set of plateau training methods that earned universal praise from his comrades.
A sky full of stars, lighting the road ahead. There are many more border defenders like Zhao Jiayin who keep their feet on the ground and forge ahead through hardship. As the company's commanding officer, Company Commander Liu remains calm and composed in the face of difficulty: on one patrol, encountering an icy road surface that vehicles could not traverse, he insisted on leading the team on foot for several kilometers to reach the boundary marker. Staff Sergeant First Class Yuan Longfei is the company's "all-around handyman": to maintain the order of daily life in the company, he always carries his "treasure chest" full of tools, crouching on the ground to work or climbing up and down to check for hidden problems… On this patch of earth at Mingtegai, everyone wants to be a brilliant "star."
Photographs by Yuan Ye and Li He
Layout design: He Changming