Photographed by Xinhua News Agency reporter lixueren one "Now you can save the weapons of battle and pick up the weapons of production and construction." At the beginning of the founding of new China, Mao Zedong issued an order to reorganize the army. In October, 1954, the Xinjiang garrison of the Chinese people's Liberation Army was collectively transferred to work on the spot and established the Xinjiang production and Construction Corps. More than 100000 soldiers took off their military uniforms, picked up agricultural tools, and began to garrison the border areas, becoming the "sentinels who do not wear military uniforms, do not award military ranks, do not receive military pay, and never change their defense". "Do not compete with the people for profits, water or land". Since its establishment, the Corps has chosen to be stationed on the edge of the desert, along the border and on remote mountains. "Who says that the desert is not desolate, with huts and no doors and windows; three meals a day, corn and sorghum; a burst of bugles before dawn, search for kindling, and burn the wasteland", the scene described in the poem is a true portrayal of the life of the Corps in those days. In the early 1950s, the troops in Xinjiang were transferred to civilian work on the spot, which opened the prelude to the Xinjiang production and Construction Corps' stationing for reclamation and border defense. (source: Network) It lasts five and a half months in winter at the site of the 183rd regiment of the 10th division of the Corps. Li Lianzhi, an old reclamation man, recalled that once, LIANLI sent four people to the Gobi desert to collect firewood. When he came back at more than 1 a.m., all 10 toes of one of them without felt tubes were frozen, and his feet were stuck to cotton overshoes, so he had to cut them with a knife. Under difficult conditions, this selfless dedication has become the norm. 1803 officers and soldiers who set out from Aksu, Xinjiang to liberate Hotan plunged into Hotan after walking through the Taklimakan Desert of the "sea of death" in the cold. Most people never left, never even returned to their hometown, never seen the train; Weideyou, a militia border guard of the 161st regiment of the ninth division of the Corps, has been rooted in the depths of the Sarbulak grassland for more than half a century. He has voluntarily guarded the border for more than 200000 kilometers on the deserted border line, becoming a "living boundary monument" on the northwest border line. The national interests and national interests have always been put first by the Corps. In 1955, in order to help ethnic minorities develop industry, the Corps handed over six factories in Kashgar to the local government free of charge; In 1956, when the Corps was preparing to build a sugar factory, there was a shortage of funds. Many Corps members spontaneously donated the transfer fee and independently designed large-scale main equipment, saving more than 1 million yuan for the country In the early stage of entrepreneurship, Xinjiang production and Construction Corps was the "laiwozi". (source: Network) two In the 1960s, groups of demobilized soldiers, urban and rural young adults, college and technical secondary school graduates rushed to the Corps from all directions to participate in the construction of Xinjiang. "Go to the frontier and to the places where the motherland needs most". In 1966, Jiang Wanfu, a 17-year-old educated youth in Shanghai, stepped on the west bound train, ran for 3 days and 4 nights to Turpan, and then ran for more than 1500 kilometers to set foot on the land of Yecheng No. 2 pasture of the third agricultural division of Xinjiang production and Construction Corps. He was greeted by low and dark "bunkers", mosquitoes coming to his face, and the cold winter as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius. In this plateau pasture with an average altitude of more than 3000 meters, Jiang Wanfu worked all his life. With superb medical skills, he successfully performed more than 2000 surgical operations, and was called "the angel in white on the donkey's back" by people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang. Jiang Wanfu said, "there are many competent doctors in the big hospital, but here, the villagers need me." The baton of the older generation has been passed on to the young. On the edge of Taklimakan Desert, the "sand sea veterans" were born decades ago. Now, many western volunteers, like their ancestors, have no hesitation to take root and become a new generation of corps members. Around the two deserts of Taklimakan and Gurbantunggut, hundreds of artificial oases have appeared one after another; In the Gobi desert, more than 100 new military reclamation towns have risen one after another; In the north and south of Tianshan Mountain, more than a thousand enterprises are scattered... With this tenacity, the Corps turned the Gobi into a fertile field, turned the desert into an oasis, and created a miracle beyond the great wall that is better than the south of the Yangtze River. The Corps also created many "firsts" in Xinjiang, such as the first batch of modern industries in Xinjiang, the first piece of paper, the first piece of sugar, the first pen... Data show that Xinjiang has an average of 1 mu of cultivated land for every 3 mu of cultivated land, and 19.9% of grain production, 30% of oil production, and 44.5% of sugar beet production also come from the Corps. In 2021, the corps' GDP reached 339.561 billion yuan, which has not only become an important founder of modern industry and agriculture in Xinjiang, but also an important part of Xinjiang's economic construction. The above picture shows the appearance of Shihezi before its development in the 1950s; The picture below shows the beautiful scenery of Shihezi in summer. (source: CCTV) three "Born in Jinggangshan, grew up in Nanniwan, moved tens of thousands of miles, and cultivated in Tianshan." The short 20 words written by General Wang Zhen showed the extraordinary of Xinjiang production and Construction Corps. In the past 70 years, from entering and liberating Xinjiang to consolidating border defense and building Xinjiang, generations of corps people have gradually condensed into the Corps spirit of "loving the motherland, selfless dedication, hard work, pioneering and enterprising" in practice. The existence and development of the Corps is by no means an expedient measure, but a long-term plan. Under the new situation, the work of the Corps can only be strengthened, not weakened, so that the Corps can truly become a "stabilizer for securing the border and consolidating Xinjiang, a melting pot for the masses of all ethnic groups, and a demonstration area of advanced productive forces and advanced culture". Photographed by Xinhua News Agency reporter lixueren Populus euphratica is the oldest tree species in Xinjiang, also known as "desert hero tree". "Live for a thousand years and don't die, die for a thousand years and don't fall, fall for a thousand years and don't rot." Generations of corps people are like poplar trees, deeply rooted in the vast land of Xinjiang. (Xinhua News Agency)