Chapter 2775 The Changes of the Southern Corps

The sound of the whistle penetrated the morning fog, and the container truck loaded with cotton toys slowly drove out of the 17th Division Logistics Park.

In less than a year, Wang Shilei had become the technical director of the Southern Toy Company of the Corps, with the title of deputy division.

He was the youngest senior leader after the War of the Corps. The division commander Wang Keming often patted his shoulder with emotion, but could not say anything.

Watching the convoy disappear at the end of the Gobi Highway, Wang Shilei's cell phone suddenly shook, and the video conference invitation of the Joint Working Group of the Fourth Division in Southern Northern Xinjiang flashed.

On the screen, the experience sharing of the 17th Division was being played in a scrolling manner. Wang Shilei subconsciously touched the cotton bear badge on his chest - it was the first medal he made by himself, transformed from a "failed product".

"Report the progress of each division!" The voice of the toy commander-in-chief of the Southern Xinjiang Corps Command sounded. The commander-in-chief was Liu Junken.

In the lens switching room, Wang Shilei saw that the cotton sculpture base of the 17th Division was already rumbling with the sound of a machine, and in the picture of the Fourth Division in the South, the soldiers were still carrying equipment. The red banner of the "Toy Processing Training Center" could be vaguely seen in the dust.

"Our 18th Division applied to send technical backbones to the 17th Division to study first!"

The commander of the 18th Division wiped his sweat in the video, and behind him was a group of soldiers holding sewing machines.

"We are only twenty years old, and we have never knitted yarn!"

In the conference room of the 19th Division, there were crooked cotton toy design sketches on the wall, and the division commander held a "mechanical dinosaur" tied with iron wire and cotton:

"We are ready to develop cultural and creative products based on local dinosaur fossil characteristics!"

After the meeting, Wang Shilei immediately organized the technical backbone of the 17th Division to establish the "South Aid Pioneer Team".

When they arrived at the 18th Division with their equipment, the scene in front of them was sad and shocking - on the training ground, the soldiers were wiping the sewing machine with gun cloths, and colorful balls of yarn were neatly placed in the ammunition box.

The large iron pot in the cooking squad was transformed into a dyeing vat. Several veterans squatted beside them, stirring the indigo dye with branches, and a faint tea fragrance floated in the steam.

“This is a natural dye cooked with robu sap leaves!”

The old squad leader of the 18th Division held a ball of purple cotton, "We think that foreigners like pure nature!"

Wang Shilei noticed that his rough palms were covered with cracks, and there was still unwashed dye in the cracks of his nails. It was obvious that he had tried it repeatedly countless times.

The most difficult problem occurred in the 19th Division. They tried to use cotton to reduce the three-dimensional structure of dinosaur fossils, but they always collapsed during shaping.

Li Jianguo, a veteran of the Mechanical Company, was in the workshop for three consecutive days, dismantling the scrapped tank tracks into thin iron wire to make a dinosaur skeleton.

"This is harder than repairing a tank!"

He picked goggles full of cotton tidbits, his eyes were covered with bloodshot, "But our master could grow wheat on saline-alkali land back then, but how many cotton dinosaurs could he deal with?"

The challenge of the Twentieth Division came from language barriers. They were responsible for making blessing cards with ethnic minority texts, and several Kazakh warriors took the initiative to be interpreters.

The recruit Aiguli teaches her comrades to write "peace" and "happiness" in Kirgiz every day. Her notebook is filled with blessings from different languages, and there are cute cotton lambs painted on the corners.

During a joint quality inspection, a batch of toys sent by the 18th Division was found to be uneven in fillings.

When Wang Shilei led the team to check, he found that Lao Zhou, the soldier in charge of filling, secretly mixed the cotton he planted in.

"I thought my own cotton was fluffy!" Lao Zhou rubbed his hands in a hurry, "I didn't expect it to be a bad thing."

It turned out that Lao Zhou's son was seriously ill, and he came up with this solution in order to save treatment costs.

After learning about the situation, the 16th Division immediately organized donations, and Wang Shilei took the lead in donating all his bonuses and contacted medical experts to consult Lao Zhou's son.

After this incident, each division spontaneously established a mutual aid fund to help soldiers in difficulty.

As the business got on track, the Fourth Southern Division began to show unique creativity.

The 19th Division's "Dinosaur Legion" series of toys are very popular in the European and American markets. Children can not only sleep with cotton dinosaurs, but also watch popular science videos through the QR code on the toys.

The 20th Division's ethnic minority style series integrates Uyghur embroidery and Kazakh patterns into cotton toys, becoming an envoy of cultural exchanges.

The 18th Division developed a "Desert Expedition" theme suit, where camels and poplar toys are hiding miniature solar lights, and when they are lit at night, they look like stars in the desert.

In this process, what is most touching is the transformation of the soldiers. The hands that were used to carrying hoes and guns can now sew exquisite dolls skillfully.

Those who shouted in the training ground would repeatedly practice smiling and frowning in the mirror in order to make the toy's expression more vivid.

A veteran wrote in a letter to his grandson:

"Grandpa used to think that using needles and threads was a woman's business, but now he realized that turning cotton into treasures is the mission of our military reclamation people, just like guarding this land."

At the celebration meeting three months later, the achievements of the Fourth Southern Division amaze everyone.

In the exhibition hall, each division has a wide range of special products: the "Silk Road Camel Bell" series of the 18th Division shines with a soft luster under the light.

The dinosaur model of the 19th Division seemed to be about to jump out of the booth.

The national dolls of the Twentieth Division wore gorgeous costumes.

There are also the Sixteenth Division as a benchmark, showing the transformation process from the original "small melon and cracked dates" to the current exquisite handicrafts.

Wang Shilei stood in the middle of the exhibition hall, looking at the old photos hanging on the wall - the scene of military reclamation soldiers reclaiming farmland in the desert, which was in sharp contrast to the exhibition hall filled with cotton toys in front of him.

He knew that these soft cotton carries the unchanging belief of the military reclamation people, just like the wheat and cotton of the past, there were new legends written on this vast land.

"Attention from all divisions!" The notice from the command center of the Southern Xinjiang Corps spreads to every corner through the broadcast:

"The EU has added three million orders! Our Rongjiang Guards want to make the whole world feel the warmth of Chinese military reclamation personnel!"

Amid the cheers, the soldiers held the cotton in their hands tightly, and their eyes were filled with determination and pride.

This time, they are no longer simple producers, but use their wisdom and hands to weave the spirit of the corps into every work and convey it to every corner of the world.

In the northern border in the cold winter, the howling north wind swept the snow on the glass windows.

The temporary workshop of the 20th Division was warm and warm. More than 30 soldiers sat around the long table, with silver needles in their hands traveling like butterflies among the cotton.

The fingertips of the recruit Zhang Xiaoyu were pricked with blood, and a little red dizzy was revealed on the snow-white cotton, but she bit her lips and continued to embroider the golden thread into the Kazakh sheep horn pattern.

"The instructor said that the toys were to be given to children's welfare homes in Europe," she whispered, "You can't let the children touch the thread."

The 18th Division next door heard bursts of laughter. Technical backbones were debugging around the toy filling machine transformed by the retired tank.

The old squad leader Li Tiecheng put his ear on the machine shell and listened to the sound of running, "This sound is even more pleasant than the engine back then!" he said with a smile.

This equipment, supported and transformed by the military machinery factory, has increased the efficiency of cotton filling by five times, but retains the military-green shell and rivet decoration, becoming the most special "soldier" in the workshop.

And in the "Dinosaur Valley" studio of the 19th Division, a special teaching is underway.

Xiao Wang, a technician from the Department of Biology, held up an anatomical picture and explained the direction of dinosaur muscles to the soldiers:

"The neck of the Tyrannosaurus Rex must be shaped like this to reflect explosive power.

"The big hand who once operated an excavator was careful to use tweezers to adjust the cotton fibers to create wrinkled skin for a triceratops model.

In the corner, several soldiers were coloring the dinosaur skeleton with 3D printing pens. Blue and purple light flowed between the cotton wool, as if life was reviving billions of years ago.

On this day, Wang Shilei received a special order.

UNICEF sent an email hoping to customize a batch of "Ange of Peace"-themed cotton dolls to distribute them to children in war-torn areas around the world.

After the news spread, the entire Southern Xinjiang Corps was in full swing. Each division spontaneously established a "peace workshop". The soldiers completed regular orders during the day and gathered together to design new styles at night.

The Uyghur soldiers of the 16th Division sewed robes for the angels with Edres silk and embroidered olive branches on the hem of the skirt.

The Kirgiz girls of the 20th Division weave a golden halo with wool.

Veterans of the 18th Division melted the used military kettle into small bells and hung them around the angel's waist.

"The sound of these bells is ten thousand times better than gunfire."

A veteran who had participated in the border self-defense counterattack war wiped the bell and said.

During the production process, the most worrying thing is quality control.

Wang Shilei took the quality inspection team to travel around each division. In the workshop of the 20th Division, he found that the golden thread of an angel's wings had been disconnected.

When it was found that it was the new soldier Abdullah who neglected to work, the tall man's eyes were red with anxiety.

“I thought about finishing it early and letting the children get it early…”

He choked and said. Wang Shilei did not blame him, but took him to sew it again, saying while operating:

"Every needle is connected to the smiling faces of children from afar. Only those who work slowly can do their jobs."

As the delivery date approaches, the entire Southern Xinjiang Corps enters a "wartime state".

But this time there was no sound of gunfire, only the buzzing of the sewing machine, the rustling of the tailoring fabric, and the sound of discussions one after another.

In the packaging workshop, the soldiers made small clouds of cotton scraps and stuffed them into the packaging box.

"When the children open it, it's like receiving a floating sky."

The clerk Xiao Liu wrote such words on the greeting card.

When a special plane loaded with 100,000 "Angelics of Peace" took off from the provincial capital, soldiers from each division spontaneously gathered in front of the TV to watch the live broadcast.

On the screen, staff wearing ethnic costumes carefully carried the packaging boxes, and the sunlight shone through the porthole on the wings of the cotton dolls, glowing softly.

Wang Shilei's cell phone kept shaking. In the photo sent by UNICEF, children in African refugee camps smiled while holding angel dolls, and some buried their faces in soft cotton, as if embracing the warmth of the whole world.

"Old guy, when we opened land and farmed, we didn't expect cotton to be able to use it like this?"

In the video, an old white-haired military reclamation soldier wiped the corners of his eyes. On the wall behind him, there was a cotton bear sent by his son.

"Now even my grandson knows that the cotton my grandfather grows can become an angel."

This "new production movement" triggered by cotton not only changed the economic structure of the Corps, but also quietly reshaped the spiritual world of the younger generation.
To be continued...