Author: Longya source: a mountain of Longya (ID: longyadeyizuoshan)
As a border guard, I seldom spent the Mid Autumn Festival with my family when I was in the army, but the bright moon at the border is always very round, so it is inevitable that I will have some thoughts.
Behind the barracks are two snow capped mountains. On the mid autumn day every year, a bright moon always rises from the middle of the two snow capped peaks with great accuracy, casting a silver light on the snow capped mountains. Whenever the sun sets on the evening of the Mid Autumn Festival, the sunset clouds flutter all over the sky as if to tear the sky, and the two snow peaks are also covered with a layer of dark red. At this time, my heart will start to pull up and look at the snow mountains nervously. I am both expecting and afraid to see them.
Officers always have to play the role of “adults” at home, organize festive dinners, engage in more or less recreational activities, and be busy for a long time to give soldiers a feeling of celebrating the festival. In this busy time, I always take a glance at the direction of the snow mountain from time to time.
I was afraid of seeing that round, silver washbasin like thing, and I couldn’t help but look at it.
Every year at this time, I will be possessed by countless frontier poets since ancient times. All kinds of poems describing frontier fortresses will flow into your brain unstoppably. Every scene and object in your eyes will close with a sentence in the poem, and then it will rush to your chest, punch you hard, make your nose sour, and your tear glands will open.
For example, “Hu Tian and August are flying snow”. It is already very cold on the plateau on the Mid Autumn Festival. When the sun goes down, it feels cold and the ground freezes immediately;
For example, “the wind and dust in the desert make the sun dim”, and a cold wind brings sand to your face. People will be stunned by the sudden wind, and then turn their backs to the wind to spit out the sand in their mouths and find a place to hide;
A moment later, the moon rose, which was called “I want to go to heaven when I leave my home and see the moon twice round”. Surrounded by “I don’t know where to sleep tonight, and there are no people in the sand”. Naturally, the officers and men were “wearing gold armour in every battle on the yellow sand, and they will not return if they don’t break the Loulan”. However, they can’t help but “look at the border town and think about returning home. How bitter it is.”.
You can’t stop the moon rising on the 15th.
Fortunately, I can still find something to do.
You should not be careless at this time. You should check every place, such as sentry posts, guards and soldiers, to eat well and sleep well. First, you should check the beds and sentries, and then you should go to the positions to have a look. You can have a panoramic view of the alpine meadows under the moonlight. Even a rabbit can’t mix with them. However, you should take a look at the fire of the cooking team and the stove for heating. Are there any soldiers who can’t sleep when they are homesick? “Soldiers celebrate the festival and cadres pass the customs”.
After finishing all this, I basically ran to 12 o’clock, and it was time to face the bright moon.
When I came out of the cooking class, the moon had risen to the mid air, and the mercury like moonlight splashed all over the world. The world was actually clearer than the bright day. Many details were hidden, and more reality was exposed in the moonlight flowing like water.
In the distance, India is shrouded in grey and black fog. Occasionally, mountains pierce the fog and people are eager to try. After rolling over a round hill, the fog disappeared, and then the forest disappeared. Only the bare meadows on the top of the mountain looked like balding middle-aged men. Further closer, there are the steep mountains, with strange peaks, jagged rocks and snow. Crouching in the moonlight, they look like a neat line of tigers, like soldiers in silver and white armor.
This is our territory.
On the way back to my dormitory, I always had to face the bright moon. “The bright moon shines brightly on my bed, and the stars flow westward. The night is not in the middle.” I suddenly felt a little funny. It was just a round of bright moon. It didn’t look like a soldier’s style. The big stone in front of the dormitory just blocks the view of the sentry. I hid my body in it and calmly faced the moonlit night of the Mid Autumn Festival.
Since then, 9.6 million square kilometers have been the territory of the motherland. When you look into the distance, you can see the lights of thousands of families, the traffic between the paths, the endless life, and the long history. Standing in my place, the world was so quiet and ethereal that he could hear the sound of the sentry’s gun clattering on the button of his clothes not far away. He changed his posture and tightened his steel gun.
Although it is autumn, the Indian Ocean monsoon has not stopped, and the water vapor sent up has fallen to the ground. A clear straight line is drawn across the mountains in the distance, which is the snow line. The snow line will be lower and lower, and there is already a smell of snow in the air. Soon, the snow line will drop to our position, blocking all roads outside the mountain.
Next to the path outside the mountain is a cemetery, which is the resting place of the soldiers who sacrificed in the past. The tombstones are all facing the direction of the motherland, which can not be seen clearly here. They stand tall and calm in the moonlight. “The moon was bright in the Qin Dynasty and the pass was clear in the Han Dynasty. The people of the long march have not returned”. The beginning of a country’s territory will always be the place where soldiers bury their bones. Only after that will it be a home
?
I lit a cigarette, and the sentinel saw the light of the fire. He found that his company commander was still awake, tightened his gun again, and made a clatter. The sadness just disappeared. In the calm moonlight, on the edge of the motherland, at the door of this big family, homesickness is an unnecessary emotion. You are so far away from home, but so close.
Close enough to hear her breathing in her sleep.
It is a long and steady breath, just like your white haired old mother. She comes from the depths of history, with the profound and profound bookish flavor and temperament accumulated over the years, and tells you the rise and fall of the nation and the rise and fall of history: that is what the poets of frontier fortress thought thousands of years ago, that is the success and failure of countless ancestors, that is the success and failure of countless heroes, and that is the men’s farming and women’s weaving of ordinary people in the vast world.
That is a kind of gentle and intimate breath, just like your virtuous and gentle wife, she is safe and comfortable in your arms, so that your arms, which may not be very strong, suddenly become full of strength: she trusts you as if she trusts the sky, you will support the sky for her, she relies on you as if she relies on the earth, you will guard the pass for her, she loves you as if she loves time, and you will accompany her all spring, summer, autumn and winter.
That is a kind of fresh and flexible breath, just like your toddler, she is pedaling her legs in swaddling clothes, which is growing rapidly: you stay by the cradle, drive away jackals, tigers, leopards, snakes, insects, mosquitoes and flies for her, take care of her carefully, never complain, just to see her sweet smile in her sleep, all of which is worth it.
I hold my military uniform tightly, and the red light of my cigarette butts is bright and dark. My thoughts will involuntarily cross the snowy Himalayas, fly over the vast grasslands, pass through the dense and lush forests, come to the plains, rivers and coastlines. This country is developing at a speed that ordinary people can’t understand. Standing in my position, you can even really feel the crackling sound in her body. At this moment, countless people have fallen asleep and are changing with each passing day in ordinary days. They have just finished their busy day. Tomorrow, after the sun rises, they will usher in another fresh day. In this cycle, the days move forward fast and slowly, and everything changes by the way.
The small Tibetan village in the distance, which used to be built with stones and seems to disappear in the yellow sand in the next moment, has been replaced with brand-new reinforced concrete. The white outer wall is painted with patterns, which looks beautiful. A brand-new cement road leads to the outside of the mountain;
Beyond the mountain is the vigorous Qinghai Tibet Plateau. It was difficult to climb to the sky, but now it has become a distant place for countless people. Countless tourists dressed in colorful clothes can’t help opening their mouths and exclaiming “wow” at the first sight of her;
In the places where these tourists come, the world naturally operates with another logic. Life there is less ethereal and free, but more colorful and busy. Everyone wants to live a better life, so that this country can move forward rapidly.
From here to the sea, a nation is like an arrow on the string, ready to go.
Here I am, the wall behind her.
I spent a lot of mid autumn festival nights like this, struggling in my personal emotions, picking it off and throwing it away like tearing away the thorns on my body, finding my place in the world, and finally saying goodbye to the bright moon.
When the moon goes over the ruins, the stars are sleeping in the pass.
This is the night of Mid Autumn Festival;
It was an ordinary night on the border.
At this time, you won’t feel lonely. Wang Wei, cen can, Yue Fei, Wang Changling, Xin Qiji, Lu Lun, countless frontier poets, countless border garrison officers and men have come from books with thread covers, from other frontier defense lines, and from history:
The clothes and armor are not clean, and the bow and knife are cold,
Cars and horses crossed the Tianshan Mountains yesterday,
Ask the scouts together with you:
When will the moon shine on the border?