The first heart is shining brightly in Nanshan-the strong feeling of founding general Wang Zhen in Nanshan

Nanshan is located in the border of Hunan and Guangxi. With the steady progress of the pilot work of the national park system, it is now well-known throughout the country. For more than half a century, its brilliant development is inseparable from the persistence and entrepreneurship of Nanshan people in the past dynasties, and it has poured the ardent expectations and great care of the founding general Wang Zhen.

At the beginning, I went to Nanshan to make a great wish. In the autumn of 1934, the Central Revolutionary Base lost the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, and the Central Red Army was forced to shift strategically and began the Long March. On the order of the Central Military Commission, Wang Zhen led more than 8000 people from the Sixth Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army as the advance team of the Long March to fight Hunan and Jiangxi, Guangdong and Guangxi, and entered Hunan from Guangxi resources.

When crossing the eighty-mile Nanshan Mountain, what came into view was a vast expanse of green and undulating prairie. The advance team of the Red Army was intoxicated by the beautiful and magnificent scene of Nanshan and cheered one after another. Wang Zhen, then political commissar of the Sixth Red Army Corps, looked at this ancient wasteland and was deeply infected by the Red Army soldiers. He seemed full of pride: "What a fine grass mountain, after the victory of the revolution, we must set up a large ranch here." The general's wish, like a seed of hope sown in the land of Nanshan, has also been carved into the hearts of the people of Miao Township.

A new journey of hard work. Time flies, years leave marks. In early February 1956, in order to realize General Wang Zhen's ambition, the Chengbu County Committee of the New Democratic Youth League proposed to the higher government the idea of developing Nanshan. In March 1956, Nanshan ushered in the first batch of reclaiming wasteland. 950 educated youths from Changsha, Shaoyang and other places responded to the call of the government and formed a youth volunteer reclamation team to come to Nanshan to establish the second youth collective farm in Shaoyang area. Started an arduous journey of reclamation.

In the early spring of 1973, when the spring was chilly, Zou Bizhao, a soldier of the Sixth Army of the Long March Red Army and then deputy commissioner of the Shaoyang Regional Revolutionary Committee, came to Nanshan to return to the Long March and visited the cadres and workers of Nanshan Ranch. Recalling the bits and pieces of Nanshan and General Wang Zhen's ambition, and looking at the strong desire of Nanshan people to develop pastures, the old Red Army, who was nearly 60 years old, couldn't sleep and launched an eight-day investigation, determined to drum up and shout for the development of Nanshan.

In the midsummer of 1973, Zou Bighao rushed to Beijing with the local government and relevant comrades of Nanshan Ranch, and made a special trip to report to Wang Zhen, then Vice Premier of the State Council, on the construction of Nanshan Ranch. After listening to the report, the old general said affectionately: "When the Long March passed through Nanshan, the local people supported us a lot. The masses supported us, and we must not forget the masses! To run a ranch in that place, I remember that I had such an idea when I was still on the Long March. I have been busy all these years and never asked. Now the young people in Nanshan have succeeded in raising cattle and sheep. It is very good. Let's set up a pasture!"

In July 1974, Wang Zhen went to Hunan to inspect the work and gave clear instructions to the leaders of Chengbu Miao Autonomous County at that time: "after investigation by experts and professors, it is confirmed that there are unique conditions for running a ranch in Nanshan, 80 Li. I want to do a good job in this point. Your county party committee will help me to match the leading group of the ranch and select a group of cadres who understand the profession and do practical work to go to Nanshan". Since then, Nanshan has embarked on the road of development dominated by animal husbandry.

Solve problems and promote new life. Wang Zhen took Nanshan as his work contact point. Although his work was very busy, he paid close attention to the development of Nanshan and tried every means to solve the problem: the pasture lacked improved cows. He led his comrades in Nanshan to the State Planning Commission, the State Ministry of Foreign Trade and other relevant departments to ask for strong support. Cows have developed, fresh milk is increasing day by day, and dairy processing plants must be established. He wrote to the Shanghai municipal government, it is required to give priority to the mechanical equipment required by the Nanshan Ranch Dairy Processing Plant, and to ask the Hunan Provincial Party Committee to solve the funds required for the purchase of mechanical equipment......

In the autumn of 1975, Wang Zhen wrote to the leaders of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee: "It is of great significance to build Nanshan, which is related to filling the gap in animal husbandry in the southern mountainous areas of China, and we must break out a road of modern cattle breeding in our own mountainous areas, so as to achieve experience, products and improved varieties. It is necessary to provide typical experience in the second to third years of the second five-year plan of Nanshan to promote the development of animal husbandry in the southern mountainous areas of China." The letter also put forward specific requirements on improving pastures, dairy cattle breeding, technical training and other issues.

Improved grassland to welcome spring day. Nanshan forage, although many, but low nutritional value, according to expert advice, improved natural forage, the implementation of artificial grass. Under the care of Wang Zhen, the pasture introduced 27 grass species from Australia, New Zealand, the United States and other countries for trial planting. After five years of testing, Nanshan pasture has planted more than 90000 mu of pasture. Today, Nanshan is covered with green pasture, and cattle and sheep can eat nutritious clover and ryegrass all year round.

The great attention of the party and the government, the ardent care of the old general, and the enterprising efforts of Nanshan people ushered in the spring of scientific development of Nanshan pasture. In 1981, he took off his loss hat at one stroke, glowing with youthful vitality and making great strides forward. In 1990, the per capita output value and profit ranked first in the same industry in the country. In 2007, 125000 mu of artificial grassland was built, with more than 10,000 cows in stock, and the dairy industry's sales revenue exceeded the 1 billion yuan mark......

In August 2016, Nanshan ushered in new development opportunities, and the state approved the implementation of the national park system pilot in Nanshan. The new generation of Nanshan people will continue to carry forward the spirit of the Long March, hold high the banner of green industry, and paint a better tomorrow for the development of Nanshan. Looking back at history, it is the brilliant original intention and ardent care of General Wang Zhen and the perfect combination of the hard work, pioneering and innovative efforts of the people of Nanshan in the past dynasties that have made the 80-mile Nanshan Mountain a model of modern mountain pastures in the southern part of the motherland and set up a monument of "the first pasture in southern China" in the land of Hunan.

Source: Learning Times