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Recently, I sorted out the collection of commemorative works of old comrades-in-arms, and an old photo that turned yellow caught my attention.

In the picture, a young girl with two ponytails in her fifties is riding a camel, and an old Uighur camel worker is leading the camel in the desert in front of it. As if hearing a command, the old man, the camel and the girl all stopped and looked in one direction.

Han Baozhen, a hunchbacked girl, is a young female student who has just left school, under the age of 17. During her exploration career in September and September when she crossed the Taklimakan Desert in Tarim Basin, commonly known as the "Sea of Death", she wrote a passage in her diary: "No matter the leader or the worker, no matter the nationality, only love, only we can advance together."

Yes! During the oil exploration in Tarim Basin with very difficult traffic conditions, once we set foot on the journey of crossing the "sea of death" in Taklimakan, we will not be divided into leaders and workers, Han people and ethnic minorities, nor will we be divided into adults and camels. Only love, we will only advance together!

Some people praise camels as "desert prince" and "Living Mountain".

Look how magnificent they are.

They kept ringing the sweet copper bells, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, and walked across the deserted beach and sand mountain with firm steps.

They held their heads high proudly, as if the Gobi and desert under their feet were just tiny places, which were not enough to try their exploration.

However, when they fall down, they will take one last look with puzzled and sad eyes. This monotonous world, endless desert, closed their huge and sad eyes forever.

A few years later, this "desert prince" and this "living mountain" became a pile of clean bones.

This is the Taklimakan Desert in Xinjiang, west of China.

Taklimakan, the "sea of death", is bigger than we thought.

Nowadays, crossing the Taklimakan desert by plane or train is really a big event.

In the summer of 1958, Huang Hao, then captain, and Xue, then instructor, were both bloody men who had fought many battles. They led an exploration team-members of 505 Gravity and Magnetic Geology Joint Team 102 Exploration Team, and walked into this "sea of death" with two legs. They made nine arduous and jaw-dropping round trips!

It turns out that this world is full of miracles!

According to Comrade An, then Minister of Propaganda, after the event, An specially interviewed Li Quanyou, a team member who was exploring the Taklimakan Desert at that time.

For the convenience of production and life, 102 team is divided into three groups, the first group is led by Li and Gao, the second group is led by Gao.

In order to ensure transportation, 320 strong camels were rented from Kashgar Xuli Transportation Company.

Most of the 320 peak camels transport materials. Each camel carries two 70-liter barrels and three bags of wheat straw. The rest of the camels carry instruments, radios, luggage and so on. There are also two camels carrying steamed buns, which look like Katyusha rockets.

This mighty camel team, from yutian county, where Polaris is located, to Minfeng County, marched into the endless mysterious desert.

After entering the desert, psammophytes such as red willow, reed and wild hemp are becoming more and more scarce, and there are more and more sandy hills.

The team members carried dozens of kilograms of measuring instruments and walked in the sand that was trapped step by step, conducting traverse survey and completing geological points.

In the first 10 days, the sand mountain encountered was still small and not too high, so people and camel teams could detour through the empty carriages of two sand mountains. The deeper you go, the huge waves in Shashan are one after another, some are more than 200 meters higher and some are as high as 400 meters. When you can't bypass, you have to climb over.

They climbed several steps with heavy burdens on their shoulders, and slid back to their original places with the falling sand like rowing boats. After several rounds, people are already panting.

It is more difficult for camel teams to cross the sand mountain.

A huge camel team, carrying more than 200 kilograms of buckets, grain and trench, often falls and kneels when climbing mountains. Sometimes when you encounter a steep slope, you slip and roll down. One or two camels suffer from this kind of disaster every day. At this time, a captain of Kashgar Xuli Transportation Company and camel workers who came with the camel team pulled the other camel back.

But ahead, it is a sand mountain; Behind that sand mountain is an endless sand mountain. ...

The team members work 12- 14 hours every day, and rest after dark, waiting for the arrival of the camel team.

Because the expedition goes in a straight line and the camel team walks around the sand mountain, it is often a few hours late. After the camel team arrived, they began to cook, and it was already late at night after dinner.

Open your luggage and spread it on the floor casually. Sleeping until dawn, you have to tie your luggage and throw it on your hunchback before you can go to work.

It was a quiet night.

Sometimes there will be such a scene: hungry players are eagerly looking forward to the camel team, but the camel team has already gone astray.

They had to shout, hold torches and look around with heavy legs.

Sometimes if you can't find it in one night, you have to curl up in the biting cold wind and starve as a "head"; No luggage, no way to freeze, just running to keep warm, so I stayed up until dawn and continued to work.

In June, the desert is in full swing, and the ground temperature is as high as 48 degrees Celsius. The sand seems to be fried, and it burns your feet through suede oxhide shoes. The eggs were buried in the sand and baked in about half an hour. From a distance, transparent miasma jumped up and down on the beach.

Hot! The heat makes people dizzy;

Fuck! Dryness causes many players' faces and mouths to peel off.

At this time, what the players need most is water.

Water! Gold in the desert. No, it is more precious than gold.

Camels carry limited water. Everyone can only drink one kilogram of water every day.

Do not wash your face or feet. When the feet are really uncomfortable, use sand to "dry clean".

Drink the water after steaming the steamed bread, and pour it into the bucket for next time.

After two or three times, the water in the brush pot turned into thick soup, which is not without regret.

What worries me most is the water that camels drink. Generally speaking, camels should drink water once every seven days, and the longest time should not exceed 10 day. Without camels, these explorers will get into trouble and really become people who can't get in and out. Therefore, people and Luotuo are "connected by the same life".

Where there are plants such as reeds and wild hemp in the desert, it is possible to dig out water. So, in order to find groundwater for camels, the team members dug water at night after a hard day's work.

Soft and deep fine sand is hard to dig water! Digging down with a shovel, the surrounding sand fell down again and almost recovered. However, they are still digging and scratching the ground with their hands. Dig a pit three or four meters, which is as big as a car.

On this day, Peganum harmala has not drunk water for six days. Dozens of camels are thirsty and tired, so it is difficult to move.

Camels have a habit. Once he falls, even if you kill him, he won't stand up again.

At this critical moment of "life and death", at night, everyone tried their best to dig a pit with a depth of 4 meters, and the result was still dry.

An ominous sign hangs over everyone's mind.

An elderly Uighur camel worker knelt down to the west and prayed devoutly: "Almighty Huda, please save Su (water) for these brave and kind people!"

The camel screamed with thirst. Is it forward? Or back off?

In order to save the camel, the team members made the most arduous and torturous March by minimizing the water to maintain their lives.

Maybe these brave and kind people really touched Hu Da. On the eighth day, they finally dug out the water.

They cheered when the wet sand was dug out and a layer of crystal water gradually oozed from the bottom of the pit.

Although the water is bitter, it can make the camel drink enough.

Someone saw with his own eyes that the thirsty camel drank 1 1 bucket of water in one breath!

Dig water every three days. Camels sometimes stay up all night for their survival and sacred mission.

Digging and digging, the palms grind out blisters and calluses; Their fingers were bleeding, their joints were red and swollen, and they ignored them.

When a new well has a nice name, they roll up Mohe cigarettes, and My Sweetie smiles and thinks-

Ah! Unforgettable Red Liu Quan, Doushaquan and Xiangjing. ...

In this difficult environment, there are two girls who are only 17 years old, one is Han Baozhen and the other is Yuan Xiurong.

Although she is a lesbian, she is never worse than a gay man at work. In order to improve the measuring speed, they took off their heavy suede shoes and ran barefoot in the desert. When their feet are worn out, they put a piece of tape on them. They brought youthful vitality to the desert, and their laughter dispelled the silence of the wilderness.

On one occasion, a strong wind suddenly blew and yellow sand filled the sky. Xiao Yuan, who was playing with his style, turned and lost his way after crossing several sand hills.

In the deserted desert, she didn't feel depressed or panicked. She believes that her master will come to her. Sure enough, when it was getting dark, everyone found her and she smiled confidently and sweetly. ...

Han Baozhen once wrote such a passage in his diary: "No matter the team leader and the workers, no matter their nationality, there is only love, and only they can move forward together."

After crossing back and forth several times, the camel has been drinking bitter water dug up in the desert.

Because this water contains a lot of magnesium, it gradually damages the camel's body.

It's so hot that some camels can't support themselves any longer. There are three command teams entering the desert. Except for Li Quanyou, the other two groups of camels fell to the ground one by one and stayed there forever.

One afternoon, Li Quanyou's team was working.

The white camel suddenly fell to the ground, and the players could not lift it. Two camel workers came running, squatted down and stroked the camel gently, their eyes full of anxiety and sadness.

This group of people moved on again.

As they walked, two Uighur camel workers looked back from time to time and looked sadly at their partners who had shared joys and sorrows for many years.

In the evening, the team members cook all night. At this moment, the camel worker came up to Li Quanyou and said, "Team leader, give me some clear oil and eggs. We want to save that camel. "

Li Quanyou looked into their pleading eyes. In the depths of this vast desert, he understood the feelings between man and camel. He didn't want to save the white camel who lived together day and night!

He gave two camel workers 3 Jin of clear oil and 20 eggs, all of which were taken out of very precious daily necessities.

I hope the white camel can be resurrected!

The camel worker came back and stayed by the camel all night.

The next morning, when the team members were preparing to go out to work, two camel workers happily came back with the white camel.

Later, the white camel survived, loaded with things, and followed the group out of the desert.

Oh, only love, only going forward together. ...

Remarks: Refer to the article Crossing the Sea of Death-Ding Anyi.