The wild mountains and forests of the past are now fertile countryside.

In early October 1977, the Hue City Party Committee decided to establish a Youth Volunteer Force and assigned the City Youth Union to mobilize enthusiastic young people to register to join the force. After only a few weeks, 1,800 people had registered and were "organized" into two regiments.

They were young men and women in their eighteens and twenties, born as urbanites who were not familiar with machetes or hoes, but their youthful will and determination turned them into people who created miracles. Among the many successes of the two Youth Volunteer Regiments of Hue City at one time, there was the clearing of wild forests, opening roads, establishing the new KTM area of ​​Huong Lam, welcoming 3,000 households of Hue City to settle down along the Dong Nai River in the middle of the majestic Southern Central Highlands...

Mr. Do Duc Du - Head of the Youth Volunteers Liaison Committee of Hue City in Lam Dong and his teammates sadly recalled the days when every moment was deeply engraved in their memories. The years were extremely difficult, with countless challenges and dangers, but in the hearts of the young people of Hue City at that time, only Uncle Ho's teachings to the Youth Volunteers echoed: "Nothing is difficult/Only fear of not being steadfast/Digging mountains and filling seas/Determination will make it happen".

Anh Du and everyone recalled: At 8:00 a.m. on December 15, 1977, at the Thai Hoa Palace yard in the Hue Imperial City, with the presence of the leaders of Binh Tri Thien province and Hue city, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union of Hue city solemnly held a military departure ceremony. Comrade Hoang Lanh - Provincial Party Committee member, City Party Committee Secretary handed over the Victory Flag to Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Thai Long - Head of the Command Board of Huong Lam Industrial Zone (Lam Dong) and saw off the two Youth Volunteer Force regiments leaving Hue city to head straight to the Central Highlands with the mission of advance, reclaiming land, and welcoming people to build the Huong Lam Industrial Zone in Zone 3, Bao Loc district, south of Lam Dong province...

* * *

In the middle of the story, we looked towards Ma Oi slope, a place that will forever be imprinted in the hearts of the children of Hue at that time. Ma Oi is the name of a not-so-high but very long slope, blocking the boundary between the farm of Zone 3, Bao Loc district and Huong Lam Economic Zone. This hill used to be the 167 high point, it was named Ma Oi since the end of 1977, when the Youth Volunteer Team, including more than 300 Hue girls, opened the road, climbed over the top of the slope to clear the forest, reclaim the land, build houses to prepare to welcome people from Hue to build a new homeland. At that time, it was still raining, the slope was high, the road was muddy, climbing up and then sliding down. Tired and hungry, seeing a vast area of ​​bamboo, reeds and primeval forests with many wild animals, snakes, centipedes, slugs, many young girls could not help but sob and exclaim "Ma Oi!". The cry “Ma oi” at that time was almost a cry for help. To remember forever those early days of opening the road and clearing the fields full of hardship, the people of Hue here have kept the name for the slope until now, becoming a place name “special” of the ancient capital in the middle of the remote highlands…

From the impression of the name Ma Oi slope, we sat together to collect memories of those days, the cold winter days of 1977. After completing the construction of Buon Ho Economic Zone (Dak Lak) with more than 5,000 compatriots and comrades, Nguyen Thai Long, Lieutenant Colonel - Political Commissar of the City Team, Standing Committee of Hue City Party Committee, was ordered with Nguyen Cuu Su, Nguyen Van Huu and Trinh Hung Cuong and a group of Youth Volunteers to survey the southern area of ​​Lam Dong province, bordering Dong Nai province, preparing to bring people to build the fifth Economic Zone of Hue City in the southern provinces. After days of hard searching through the forest, on November 29, 1977, the survey team arrived at Zone 3 (a place name in the resistance war against the US), and here, the team met a number of local leaders such as Vu, Ba, Tam Bich, the leaders of the Lam Dong Economic Zone Board. On the 1/25,000 scale map, Mr. Tam Bich circled a large area of ​​about 40 square kilometers and said: “The area where you comrades came to reclaim land was previously a resistance base of Zone VI. This land has been soaked with the blood of many comrades and compatriots, and has a long tradition. Prosperity is due to the hands and minds of you comrades and compatriots of Hue…”.

The next morning, with compass in hand, the 7 brothers headed in the same direction, cutting the way to the strange land on the 40km2 circle marked on the map the day before. Climbing a hill and looking around, Nguyen Thai Long happily exclaimed: “The neighboring province has given us such wonderful lands, comrades! Rice, a whole vast rice area is exposed before our eyes. What a plain in the middle of the plateau. So wonderful!”. Su, who was a careful person, after using a knife to dig 70-80cm deep and still digging up handfuls of black humus, then said firmly: “It will be a wonderful rice area”. Following the Da Lay stream, going deep into the mountain slopes, the brothers suddenly came across rows of sweet potatoes hidden in a dense area of ​​cogon grass and thorny bamboo, but still yielding each vine of tubers; old cassava roots as big as trees, collapsed cellars and a few other items such as water canteens, machetes, rusty pots and pans. The traces appearing before our eyes are evidence of the indomitable, resilient spirit of a heroic resistance base. All those images planted in the hearts of the survey team a stream of emotions, a steadfast spirit, trust and determination: Our army and people defeated the Americans on this land, so we will certainly defeat poverty and backwardness.

Less than a month after the survey, on December 17, 1977, the Youth Volunteers of Hue City began their march into the new land. Both Youth Volunteers regiments with nearly 1,800 members and youths, as soon as they arrived, put down their backpacks and immediately took up knives to clear the forest, plan residential areas and fields. Priority must be given to the season and fields. If there were no houses, temporary camps were set up. From dawn until dusk, everyone stayed in the forest. They ate and slept in the field. Many companies even mobilized the unit's forces to clear the fields under the moonlight. Some young women who had just arrived, hearing the howling of gibbons and the roaring of tigers, hugged each other and cried, but gradually got used to it, felling trees, clearing the fields, cutting grass, and building houses like men. The faint-hearted people living in the wilderness during those difficult days were often shaken in spirit, scared to the point of suffocation. Mr. Du pondered: “Those last days of winter, the rain was pouring down. In the makeshift shelters, we were soaked like drowned rats." The night was dark and gloomy, many sobbing sounds of young girls mixed with the sound of rain and the singing of young men resounded throughout the primeval forest. Poor our comrades! The young men and women of the city were still studying, some had never held a knife or a machete; climbing mountains and wading streams, leeches and leeches biting until their hands and feet were red with blood, flies and mosquitoes swarmed like chaff, poisonous water, poisonous snakes, hunger, malaria tormented us, scabies covered our bodies. Our health was eroded every day, clumps of girls' hair fell out and drifted down the stream. Many people fell down while holding hoes and knives like Mr. Vo Yen The, Ms. Le Canh Thi Da Huong...

* * *

In the midst of countless harsh challenges, under the leadership of the construction site command and the Party cell, 1,800 young men and women of Hue City Youth Volunteers have gradually overcome difficulties and completed their tasks excellently. Not a single person gave up. Not a single person collapsed in the face of difficulties. All of them have matured in labor. More than 500 hectares of old forests, bamboo, cogon grass, and reed grass have been cleared and put into planting right after the land was prepared. I was really moved when reading the emotional lines about the collective of young volunteers of the City. Hue that day in an article published in Lam Dong Newspaper in early Spring 1978 by veteran journalist Vu Thuoc: “When we arrived a year later, that generation of young men had already left. They came to new lands that were calling ahead. They happily devoted themselves and were proud to receive the task of paving the way, establishing villages for new homelands. They were ready to accept and overcome all the harsh challenges of the early days. Glory belongs to them - the pioneers!...”.

Not all the Youth Volunteers returned to Hue, many volunteered to stay and participate in building the local government and departments. Responding to the call of Lam Dong province, to have a core to contribute to building and shaping the government apparatus and departments in the new countryside, more than 40 officers and soldiers of the Youth Volunteers of Hue city volunteered to leave the city life to stay in the sunny and windy land of the Southern Central Highlands, to stay with the people of Hue, leaving their homeland to settle far away in the new land. Many of them later became key officials of Da Teh, Da Huoai districts and Lam Dong province...

(To be continued)

UONG THAI BIEU

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/chinh-tri-xa-hoi/bai-1-dong-ky-uc-cua-nhung-nguoi-mo-dat-152660.html