A Record of the PAP Gansu Corps Jiuquan Detachment Serving Local Communities and Supporting Rural Revitalization

The Spring Wind of the Qilian Mountains Warms the Heart

— A Record of the PAP Gansu Corps Jiuquan Detachment Serving Local Communities and Supporting Rural Revitalization

■ Zhang Liang

Photo ①: Members of the PAP Gansu Corps Jiuquan Detachment's assistance work team conducting research on honeydew melon cultivation in Guazhou Village. Photo by Mu Xinyuan.

Photo ②: The Fuluhua Field scenic area in Sandaogou Town, Guazhou County, Jiuquan City, Gansu Province. Photo provided by the Guazhou County Convergence Media Center.

Photo ③: Officers and soldiers of the PAP Gansu Corps Jiuquan Detachment visiting villagers' homes in Guazhou Village. Photo by Mu Xinyuan.

Graphic design: Hu Shuo

"The snow on the Qilian Mountains melts into clear springs that flow down; the soldiers, our own flesh and blood, bring the spring wind to warm our hearts…" In early May, under bright sunshine in Guazhou County, Jiuquan City, Gansu Province, several elderly people strummed the dombra on the cultural square of Guazhou Village, pouring out their feelings through ancient folk melodies.

Songs of praise for the soldiers drifted on the spring breeze across acre after acre of thriving melon fields, across farmyard courtyards swept spotlessly clean, and across schoolyards filled with laughter and joy.援建基础设施 (aid in building infrastructure), caring for people in difficulty, carrying out assistance for education and learning… Wherever the officers and soldiers of the PAP Gansu Corps Jiuquan Detachment have walked, their genuine love for the people has swept through like a spring breeze, bringing new hope to Gobi Desert villages and writing a chapter of the bond between the army and the people (鱼水篇章) on the ancient Silk Road.

1. The Greenhouse Nurtures the "Melon Babies"

"Old Ma, check the drainage pipe joints — don't let them leak!" "After watering, remember to loosen the soil around the melon seedlings!"

Standing at the edge of the field, Wang Lei, secretary of the Guazhou Village Party general branch, called out instructions at the top of his voice. For the melon seedlings transplanted into the ground at the end of April, this is a critical period of growth, and he comes to check the melon fields every single day.

"These seedlings all came out of the greenhouse," Wang Lei explained. Guazhou Village is located at the western end of the Hexi Corridor, with average annual rainfall of less than 50 millimeters; agriculture depends entirely on irrigation from the Shule River. Although the area has abundant sunlight and large day-to-night temperature swings — which make the melons and fruit exceptionally sweet — there has always been one bottleneck that cannot be bypassed: seedling cultivation.

"Our village has a few greenhouses, but they've been around for years and their insulation and moisture-retention are not ideal. When there's a cold or dry spring, the seedlings are prone to problems," villager Ma Ping told this reporter.

"With seedlings you get seven-tenths of the harvest; without seedlings you get nothing." When the PAP Gansu Corps Jiuquan Detachment's assistance work team first entered Guazhou Village in 2022, this was exactly the situation they faced — villagers relied mainly on small greenhouses they had built themselves to raise seedlings, or purchased seedlings from other areas.

"Over the years of assistance work, we have trained villagers in agricultural techniques, built sheep-raising pens, and purchased farm machinery, but every time we come to the village to conduct research, we find that villagers' needs, no matter how they are expressed, always come back to the same two words: 'seedling cultivation,'" members of the detachment's assistance work team reported the relevant situation to the detachment Party committee.

"This is precisely the urgent, difficult, and pressing problem (急难愁盼) of the masses." The Party committee immediately decided to apply to higher authorities for special assistance funds, with a plan to aid the village in building a batch of new-style greenhouse facilities for seedling cultivation, so that villagers could use their own locally grown seedlings to produce local melons.

During this period, the detachment's assistance work team came to Guazhou Village more frequently: they went into melon farmers' greenhouses and fields to research needs and design plans. Wang Lei told this reporter that the new greenhouse currently being planned and built covers more than 1,400 square meters; calculated at a savings of 0.2 yuan per seedling compared to purchasing from outside, it can save villagers approximately 20,000 yuan in seedling costs per year. During the off-season for seedling cultivation, out-of-season vegetables can also be grown, generating additional income for the village collective.

The melons are sweet, the fruit is sweet — but the lives of the people must be made sweeter too. To expand the market for Guazhou honeydew melons, over the past two years the detachment has joined with the village's share-based economic cooperative to vigorously develop e-commerce sales, building the "Guazhou Melon Baby" (瓜娃娃) brand, and broadening sales channels through offline activities such as folk culture exhibitions, honeydew melon tasting events, and specialty agricultural product promotion fairs.

"From seedling to melon, it is all bound up with the people's livelihoods," said a member of the detachment's assistance work team. "We have not only kept a close eye on honeydew melon sales channels, but have also launched an initiative within the detachment, calling on everyone to help publicize 'Melon Baby' for the village through every possible means."

Calculating this year's projected output and planning the construction of the new greenhouse, Wang Lei could not suppress the smile on his face: "Ever since the troops started helping us, 'Melon Baby' has been going from strength to strength!"

2. Paired Villages: "Visiting Relatives"

"Uncle Shi, we've come to see you!"

Not long ago, officers and soldiers of the PAP Jiuquan Detachment's Guazhou Squadron went to Guazhou Village on a visit. As they called out in front of the home of 73-year-old Shi Wenqing, the old man came out to greet them with delight: "You're here — come in and sit down!"

Shi Wenqing's son and daughter-in-law are not nearby, and his two grandsons board at school on weekdays. Although the old man can still manage daily life on his own, he suffers from multiple chronic illnesses. Every time the squadron's officers and soldiers visit the village, they always stop by his home.

"Uncle, how has your health been lately?" Squadron commander Li Yang set the gifts down beside the table and helped the old man to his seat.

"Same as always — I have to take my medicine on time every day. Luckily, the land has all been transferred to the cooperative, so I don't have to farm it myself; I just collect my share of the dividends at year's end." Old Shi Wenqing smiled. "The policies are good now, and you all keep thinking of me — I'm doing quite well…"

The old man held Li Yang's hand and looked at the certificates of merit posted on the wall: "Both grandsons are doing well in school. Last semester one of them won a certificate, and the other placed in the top ten of his class."

After sharing in Uncle Shi's joy, the officers and soldiers went to the home of another "relative," Shi Baoshan. In the courtyard, Shi Baoshan's grandmother was scattering corn kernels into the chicken coop. When she saw the soldiers walking in, she dropped her ladle and called into the house: "Baoshan, the people from the troops have come to see you!"

In the main room, Shi Baoshan, seated in a wheelchair, heard the commotion and strained to turn his head. Catching sight of that familiar olive-green uniform, he let out indistinct sounds of "ah, ah."

"Baoshan recognizes you!" Grandmother Shi said with a smile. "Every time you come, he's happy."

Shi Baoshan and his grandmother are among the village's priority monitored households (重点监测户). The 20-year-old Shi Baoshan is paralyzed due to illness and depends mainly on his grandmother for care. The soldiers stepped forward to help feed the chickens and sweep the courtyard, while Li Yang sat down beside Shi Baoshan and listened to Grandmother Shi recount the family's recent situation.

"Auntie, don't worry — if you run into difficulties, come find us." With that, Li Yang left his phone number. As they said their goodbyes, Shi Baoshan waved continuously; his grandmother held the soldiers' hands reluctantly: "Take care on your way — come again next time!"

"Every visit feels like going to see relatives," said squadron soldier Huang Jiang. "You can feel that they truly treat us as family."

3. Walking into the Schoolyard to "Draw the Sun"

The People's Armed Police officers and soldiers who march in neat formation into Guazhou Town Central Primary School are always met with an enthusiastic welcome from the students — for it means they will get to hear the PAP uncles tell stories of heroes again.

"We came to the school on this year's Learn from Lei Feng Commemoration Day," Sergeant Hao Zhijie told this reporter. The students' enthusiasm for learning from Lei Feng is very high. When he told stories about Lei Feng, the students listened with rapt attention.

The soldiers' "classroom" is not only inside the schoolroom but also on the sports ground. This time, the PAP soldiers demonstrated drill movements for the students — quick march, parade march, double march — all in perfect unison, drawing continuous exclamations of admiration from the students. "So cool! When I grow up I want to join the army too!" Second-grader Zhang Xiaodong stared at the soldiers in formation and excitedly imitated the saluting gesture.

Teaching students to stand at attention in military posture, sharing stories of military life, distributing donated stationery and extracurricular reading materials… At the end of the lively activities, the soldiers and students "drew the sun" together. The students drew suns one after another on the blackboard with colored chalk; some also wrote beside them: "Plant the sun, warm others." The sunlight fell on them, and they shone brilliantly.

"We want to use this method to 'plant a sun' in the children's hearts," said Bao Qingliang, political instructor of a squadron of the PAP Jiuquan Detachment. "To let them feel warmth, and in the future go on to warm others." In recent years, detachment officers and soldiers have regularly gone to schools to carry out national defense education and donate books and sports and cultural equipment. Last Children's Day (June 1st), the soldiers also invited teachers and students to visit the military camp.

"Soldiers are role models for children," said principal Wang Yugui. "The love and care that the soldiers give the children has a profound influence on them."

In several middle schools across Guazhou County, more than a dozen students are the shared concern of the detachment's officers and soldiers — at the start of each academic year, scholarship funds are delivered to them on time; every summer, the detachment invariably receives several letters of good news reporting that sponsored students have been admitted to key high schools and universities.

A thousand years ago, a poet captured the desolation and loneliness of the desert frontier with the line "the spring wind does not pass beyond Yumen Pass." Today, the spring wind has already arrived on the Gobi Desert, and the spring light is glorious beneath the Qilian Mountains. The moving story of the profound bond between the army and the people (军民鱼水情深) vividly presents the era's tableau of unity between the military and government and between the military and the people (军政军民团结).