Ocean Figures | Gong Yunchong: The First Person to Guard the Nansha Reefs

(Photo source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account)

A 34-year-old officer gave up the opportunity to work in the Navy

Actively submitted an application to guard the Nansha reefs

He said: "As long as we are on the reefs, the flag will be there, and we will live and die with the islands and reefs."

16 and a half years of roots in Nansha

From eating canned food every day, each person is only provided with one glass of water per day...

To build a "three-proof" vegetable garden and stilt pig sty that is windproof, sunproof, and stormproof

The endless "Gobi Desert on the Sea" has gradually turned into a beautiful "Garden on the Sea"

Sacrifice one's own family for the sake of all

When faced with a choice, he insisted on returning to Nansha

Filling the data gap to rescue fishermen in distress

He personally erected the Nansha sovereignty monument on Yongshu Reef

Today, we get closer to the "King of Reef Guarding in Nansha Islands"

Gong Yunchong, a native of Haiyan Township, Tongzhou District (now part of Tongzhou Bay Demonstration Zone), was born in 1957. He once served as Chief of Staff and Commander of the Navy's Nansha Garrison Force, Deputy Commander of a base, and Deputy Dean of the Naval Command College. He holds the rank of Rear Admiral.

During the 16 and a half years since he settled in Nansha, he has made 36 trips to Nansha to perform various tasks, including 14 times to guard reefs, with a total of 8 years of guarding time, and the longest time being 25 months (758 days). He has created the longest and widest duty voyage in Nansha - more than 50,000 nautical miles, covering all waters of Nansha; the most number of sea patrols, supplies, reconnaissance, and life-saving missions - more than 100 times; obtained the most intelligence information with the highest value - more than 200,000 words, and won one first prize for reconnaissance results in the whole army and two naval reconnaissance results awards; made the greatest contribution to organizing agricultural and sideline production on reefs and islands - taking the lead in developing and building the first artificial vegetable plot, raising and surviving the first pen of pigs in Nansha, and more than ten other records, and has been praised by officers and soldiers as "the king of reef guarding in Nansha" and "the first person to guard reefs in Nansha."

In 1996, he was named one of the 7th "Top Ten Outstanding Youths in China" by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, and was awarded the title of "New Long March Commando". He was cordially received by the leaders of the Party and the country three times and attended the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China with honor. He is the first person from Hainan to be named one of the top ten outstanding youths in China.

Gong Yunchong has made significant contributions to guarding and building the Nansha Islands and safeguarding the country's maritime rights and interests. He has been successively commended as "Navy Youth Model" and "Top Ten Navy Youths", and has been commended as an outstanding Communist Party member and advanced cadre by the navy and fleet more than 20 times.

Please

Gong Yunchong was overwhelmed with emotion when recalling the 16 and a half years of stationing and guarding the Nansha reefs. "In early 1990, I was serving in the army and faced two opportunities. One was to be transferred to the naval headquarters as a staff officer, and the other was that the navy urgently needed to establish a Nansha garrison and was selecting cadres from the fleet. Despite the strong opposition from my relatives and friends, I, at the age of 34, took the initiative to submit an application to guard the Nansha reefs."

In his application, he clearly wrote: "As long as we are on the reefs, the flag will be with us and we will live and die with the islands and reefs."

(Photo source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account)

On February 7, 1990, Gong Yunchong went to Nansha to perform the task of guarding the reefs. This is the southernmost tip of the motherland. The Yongshu Reef where he was stationed is about 740 nautical miles away from the Chinese mainland, and even 560 nautical miles away from Yulin Port on Hainan Island.

Gong Yunchong experienced more than ten life-and-death tests in the Nansha Islands. He will never forget the night of his first day stationed at Subi Reef.

On March 16, 1990, he finally landed on the Subi Reef in Nansha. At that time, the only buildings on the island were iron houses, commonly known as "second-generation stilt houses". At night, Gong Yunchong slept in the iron house. Whenever the sea breeze blew and the waves hit, the whole house would shake and tremble, making it impossible for people to fall asleep. Just when he was worried about this, the command center sent another order to go out to sea to perform an emergency mission, informing him that a suspicious ship was found on the sea not far northeast of the island.

He set off in a rubber boat with a small team of six soldiers. On the vast ocean, the boat could be overturned by wind and waves at any time. However, the most worrying thing is whether the suspicious ship has weapons? Will it open fire first? After a little adjustment, Gong Yunchong calmly directed their boat to approach the suspicious ship. After checking on board, it was found that it was a disguised reconnaissance ship of a certain country.

Talking about this incident more than 10 years ago, Gong Yunchong still remembers it vividly. This mission made him more deeply aware of the sacred mission of protecting the Nansha Islands. However, he did not expect that he would stay on this sacred territory for nearly 17 years and set more than 10 records in reef protection.

(Photo source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account)

Hardship

When talking about life in Nansha, Gong Yunchong told the story of a cucumber and a radish.

When they first arrived in Nansha, the most lacking food was vegetables. Fresh vegetables from the mainland turned yellow soon after being transported to Nansha, and rotted after a few days, so they could only eat canned food for years. "The hardship at that time was much harder than I imagined," Gong Yunchong recalled. "There were no vegetables. We ate canned food every day, from morning to night, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, and our mouths always tasted the same. There was a lack of fresh water. When it was the most difficult, each person was only provided with one cup of water a day. We could only take a bath with seawater, and our bodies were sticky after washing, which was very uncomfortable. The vast sea was endless and we couldn't get out. We were very lonely. We could only 'watch soldiers during the day and count stars at night'." Due to the company of seawater and sea breeze all year round, almost all the officers and soldiers guarding the reefs suffered from arthritis.

(Photo source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account)

Once, a soldier named Xiao Zhang found a cucumber seed in his can, so he filled the can with some soil and planted the cucumber seed in it. At that time, the troops were given a bottle of water every day, and the guards had to drink it sparingly for brushing their teeth. In order to water the cucumber, Xiao Zhang and his comrades always saved the drinking water. After careful cultivation, the cucumber finally sprouted and slowly produced a small melon.

The soldiers were so excited that they went to see and touch the cucumber every day. Although they had never eaten cucumbers on the island, no one had the idea of ​​eating this cucumber, but they always took good care of it.

Later, one time, the leaders of the headquarters came to the island to express their condolences. What vegetables should be used to entertain the leaders? Everyone thought about it for a long time before someone mentioned the cucumber. When the company's political commissar asked Xiao Zhang to cut the cucumber himself, Xiao Zhang was reluctant to do it. Finally, everyone suggested that he take a photo with the cucumber. Finally, he reluctantly gave up his beloved baby. As a result, the cucumber was cut into 256 slices in total. In order to enjoy the taste of fresh vegetables for a longer time, many guards licked the thin cucumber slices again and again, and even "dissolved" the cucumber slices in their mouths!

(Photo source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account)

During one Spring Festival, a typhoon prevented the supply ship from resupplying Nanshun Reef. On New Year's Eve, the only vegetable the officers and soldiers had was a carrot that the commander had brought with him a month earlier while patrolling the reef, hanging on the stilts of the roof.

Radishes are easier to preserve than other vegetables, so no one is willing to eat them. Soldiers kept hanging them on the ceiling like treasures. At night, the reef chief saw that the table was full of canned food, and finally made up his mind and said, "Eat out the carrots tonight." But the cook squad leader was stumped - how could 12 people eat one carrot? If they were fried, each person would have one chopstick and it would be gone. If they were cut into pieces, each person would have one piece. Finally, the deputy reef chief came up with a trick, cutting the radish into 12 pieces and boiling them into soup, so that not only could each person eat a piece of radish, but they could also drink some radish soup. Soldiers also gave the radish soup a beautiful name, "reunion soup."

When talking about the past, Gong Yunchong always laughs. But through this laughter, we truly understand the hardships of life in Nansha, and also feel more deeply the loveliness of our soldiers.

(Photo source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account)

Creation

In order to better solve the survival problem of the soldiers guarding the reef, Gong Yunchong, who was born in a farming family, came up with an idea to tidy up the abandoned construction site in the southwest corner of Yongshu Reef and develop the soil where trees could not be grown into a vegetable field.

As the reef chief, he asked the replacement ship to bring soil from the mainland. At first, he didn't know which soil was suitable for growing vegetables, so he asked the supply comrades to bring some soil from various provinces, cities and autonomous regions. Every time the soil was moved, the soldiers would even pick out a small grain from the seams of the boat. Then they marked the source of the soil on the vegetable plots, such as Beijing, Tianjin, Henan, Hainan, etc.

(Photo source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account)

Although Nansha is rich in seawater resources, it lacks fresh water. The officers and soldiers' drinking water is entirely supplied by the mainland, and every drop of water is as precious as gold. Everyone relies on collecting rainwater to wash their faces, brush their teeth, do laundry, and take a bath, and sometimes it depends on the weather. The soldiers have thought of many ways to maximize the utilization rate of water. First, they use water to brush their teeth, wash their faces, and wipe their bodies, and then use it to wash clothes and water vegetables.

On the reef, they usually took a bath once every three or four days, with only a basin of water. During the two days in between, they sweated and could only take dry rubbing or dry rubbing. The so-called dry rubbing is to rub back and forth with a towel, which the soldiers called "dry sauna".

Due to the lack of fresh water for watering the vegetables, they failed again and again, and the vegetables they grew were not satisfactory. Gong Yunchong and his comrades often got up in the middle of the night, went to the vegetable fields with flashlights to catch insects, and also had to fight against rats. In the "three-proof" vegetable fields they built to protect against wind, sun and storm surges, they finally grew vegetables such as Chinese cabbage, cucumbers, and radishes, setting off the first "green revolution" on the Nansha reef.

At first, the other soldiers thought the conditions here were not good enough. However, when they ate the vegetables grown in this vegetable field, they were excited! Afterwards, all the soldiers joined in this "battle" to create green life, and successively planted Chinese cabbage, cucumbers, etc.

(Photo source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account)

Later, Gong Yunchong brought the first coconut tree and the first pot of sunflowers to the reef island, and successfully built a stilt pigpen and raised the first pen of pigs, interpreting the spirit of "pioneer bull" to the extreme. The endless "Gobi Desert on the Sea" gradually turned into a beautiful "Garden on the Sea".

(Photo source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account)

Abandon

What do the Nansha guards miss most? Home is the undoubted answer. More than 20 years ago, Gong Yunchong's family was in a difficult situation. There were 10 people in his family. His grandmother was blind and paralyzed in bed; his father had rib injuries in a car accident; his eldest brother was disabled, his youngest brother was also ill, and his youngest sister was injured and disabled. "I feel really guilty when I see my parents, who were not very old, become so old." His own family was also separated.

His wife waited until 1996 to follow the army to Zhanjiang and found a job in Zhanjiang. However, before the family was settled, Gong Yunchong went to guard the reefs in Nansha. But his wife understood her husband's responsibilities as a soldier and had no complaints. While working hard, she also took on the burden of the whole family.

(Photo source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account)

brave

The Nansha Islands are more than 1,400 miles away from the mainland of China, and the living environment is harsh. The reefs are crisscrossed with trenches and the ocean currents are unpredictable. Gong Yunchong sets out from Yongshu Reef to inspect each reef five times a year, and travels to every sea area in the Nansha Islands. He records various data such as the topography and landforms of each reef, and successively processes and reports thousands of batches of various sea and air conditions. The "Basic Situation of the Nansha Reefs" and "The History of Nansha Reconnaissance" compiled by him fill in two gaps in the Nansha data, and some of the data was obtained at the risk of his life.

(Photo source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account)

Every time the Nansha people go out to sea, they worry not only about strong winds and waves, but also about being attacked by sharks. In order to solve this problem, he bought a lot of books on sea survival training and humbly asked the fishermen for advice. Soon, Gong Yunchong understood and mastered the habits and life patterns of sand sharks, and summarized 10 clever ways to deal with sand sharks.

Once, in order to let his comrades watch CCTV's Spring Festival Gala on New Year's Eve, he personally delivered televisions to the soldiers. Some people said that on the way, they would encounter sharks that attack large ships, and advised him not to go. After careful observation, he found that the sharks blocking the way were not aggressive. As long as they did not encounter strong stimulation, they would generally not attack people. When he explained this situation to the soldiers on the boat, the soldiers were skeptical. He first ordered the soldiers to turn off the engine, and then rowed into the school of fish. Amazing things happened. Those sea demons that looked scary actually obediently avoided the channel. Once they arrived at the reef, the soldiers who didn't even dare to breathe cheered and excitedly told their comrades about it. Suddenly, the whole reef became lively, and everyone came to him to "learn from him".

move

Once, a fishing boat from a certain province was attacked by a pirate ship of unknown nationality while fishing in a reef area. Gong Yunchong was ordered to search and rescue the fishermen. At that time, there was a gale of 7 or 8 on the sea, and the waves were 4 or 5 meters high, making it very difficult to search for the target. In order to find the compatriots in distress as soon as possible, he climbed to the highest point of the main mast to watch and was almost thrown into the sea several times. For 16 hours, he never left his post.

After a difficult search, he finally rescued seven injured fishermen in the vast ocean. When the rescued fishermen knelt down in front of him, the exhausted Gong Yunchong burst into tears and knelt down as well. They hugged and cried. At that moment, he truly realized the sacred mission and great responsibility of a Nansha guard.

After graduating from the Tactical Command Class of the Naval Command College, Gong Yunchong faced the choice of going to Beijing again or going to the Nansha Islands. At the same time, the organization also intended to arrange for him to work in the fleet or base, but he insisted on returning to the Nansha Islands.

(Photo source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account)

In August 2006, Gong Yunchong was promoted to deputy commander of a naval base, and he was busy building the beautiful Xisha Islands. Gong Yunchong introduced that in addition to the base planning the construction of Xisha Islands, a series of supporting projects such as cafeterias, health centers, and power stations supported by the headquarters and the navy are also under construction. In order to prevent marine environmental pollution in the South China Sea, anti-pollution projects have also been launched. Their goal is to build Xisha Islands into a beautiful home, paradise, and campus.

(Photo source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account)

What makes Gong Yunchong most proud is that he led the officers and soldiers to erect the Nansha Sovereignty Monument on Yongshu Reef.

Gong Yunchong also traveled to every sea area in Nansha, leaving first-hand information for future generations to develop and protect the ocean. The basic information he collected and sorted out about the Nansha reefs was included in the "Nansha Encyclopedia"; the night training and multi-skill training he proposed were included in the military training outline; he and Nansha officers and soldiers and marine workers collected and sorted out tens of thousands of hydrological data in the Nansha waters, making a significant contribution to the global sea level joint measurement program implemented by UNESCO...

Gong Yunchong has always been concerned about the Nansha Islands. In recent years, he has helped to establish partnerships with the Jiangsu Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese and other organizations with the Nansha base of the military, and has sent care and condolences to the soldiers guarding the reefs.

"I think, what is loyalty? Whatever the motherland needs and what Nansha needs, we should do it bit by bit, work hard and do it wholeheartedly. This is loyalty." This "first person to guard the reefs in Nansha", who made his hometown Nantong extremely proud, has become a role model for generations of officers and soldiers guarding the reefs.

END

Source:

1. Chen Jing. [Nantong people win glory for the country] Gong Yunchong: the first person to guard the reefs in Nansha [DB/OL]. Nantong Release, 2019-08-25

2. The first person to guard the reefs in Hainan: guarding the Nansha Islands for 17 years and vowing to live and die with the islands and reefs [N]. Nanhai.net, 2008-04-11

3. Neon Sentinel Editorial Department. Oral History of Veterans | Episode 2: "The Rare Treasures of the Nansha Guards" [DB/OL]. Neon Sentinel, 2023-06-06

4. The first time on the reef, he was armed with live ammunition... Veteran Coast Guard soldiers' "memories of guarding the reef" [DB/OL]. China Military Television, 2020-09-12

Editor: Defu Proofreader: Li Weishan Reviewer: Caiyou