Blue Moon

Author: Fengshou / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: Among the female soldiers who entered Xinjiang that year, Cai Peifei was one of the lucky ones. Upon arriving in Changji, she was enrolled in a school, which was something to envy at the time. However, her life took many twists and turns afterward. The goddess of fate often smiled at her for a moment before vanishing into thin air. Her story, page by page, is hard to put down.
In August 1949, two months after Hunan was liberated, sixteen-year-old Cai Peifei was admitted to the Hunan Branch of the Military and Political University of China. The announcement of the admission list was made on September 22nd by the Xin Hunan Daily, where Cai Peifei was ranked among the top. A week later, the People's Republic of China was proclaimed. The Military and Political University organized a celebration for the National Day. Under the Miao Peak, drums and gongs echoed. The young students, filled with passion, proposed changing the date of military service commemoration from September 22, 1949, to October 1, 1949, to celebrate the founding of the new country. Who could have imagined that fifty years later, their passionate act would put them in a very awkward situation: those who retired before October 1, 1949, would receive retirement benefits, while those after would be considered retired. This difference in retirement status affected nearly every aspect of their lives, including salary adjustments and medical expenses.
Energetic and full of vitality, the students set sail under the wind of the times a year later, spreading across all corners of the motherland from under the Miao Peak. Cai Peifei voluntarily requested to go to the far west of the motherland—Xinjiang. In the days that followed, her family, classmates, and even she herself mentioned this question in different contexts more than once: Why did you have to go so far to Xinjiang? Yes, why did I insist on coming to Xinjiang back then? Upon reflection, it was still related to the "army" and "soldiers." Like all the young men and women of that era, Cai Peifei in those years yearned for the uniform of a soldier! After graduating from the Military and Political University, she couldn’t bear to leave the bugle calls under the Miao Peak. The "Xinjiang Military District Recruitment Team" connected her to her lingering attachment to the university.
On August 3, 1950, Cai Peifei, adorned with red ribbons, left her hometown Changsha. She arrived in the frontier city of Changji on October 2nd and enrolled in the Xinjiang Russian Language College on the 8th. Little Cai Peifei wondered, "Am I dreaming?" The flower-like girl might not have known that her fate was now linked to the international context. The Western world, in alliance, blockaded China, aiming to push the newly born republic into a desperate situation. The Soviet Union, seen as a savior by the Chinese, made its Russian language the "world language" of China. Xinjiang, neighboring the Soviet Union and in the midst of reconstruction, relied entirely on the Soviet Union’s aid for all projects under the First Five-Year Plan. Russian language talent was as crucial as Zhuge Liang’s strategy of borrowing arrows with straw boats.
Wang Zhen, the commander of the Xinjiang Military District, attended a class at the Russian Language College every week. In every lecture, he would say, "I wish I could split open your heads and pour in Russian vocabulary! You know how much the country needs you!" Cai Peifei’s academic performance quickly stood out and drew attention. This was the result of her family’s scholarly background and her year of study at the Military and Political University. She was elected class monitor, joined the Communist Youth League, and was later chosen as its deputy secretary.
P1-3