The legendary Ho Chi Minh Trail - From milestone number 0
(Baonghean) -We stood silently beside the sacred kilometer zero milestone, which marked the first hoe strokes to open the strategic road that cut across Truong Son to save the country - Tan Ky, Nghe An.
The Ho Chi Minh Trail was vast in the afternoon, the silhouettes of the mountains along the road began to cast shadows. I imagined seeing “truck squads without windows”, somewhere the rumbling sound of engines of Zin-ba-cau vehicles covered with camouflage leaves, the dim light from small lamps coming from under the vehicles, the frontline laborers hurriedly patching the road, the sound of hoes and shovels leveling hills and mountains, the sound of footsteps marching into battle, the soldiers’ feet “wearing away the green stones”…
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Old road...
This focus. The sound of vehicles and the road. The white shirts on the living markers. The people, the dreams and expectations, the great sacrifices that cannot be expressed in words today... The historic Truong Son road was stained with blood and bones of a time of seething hatred, burning love, a time of "all for the front, all to defeat the American invaders".
Tan Ky was a key point of fierce attacks by the enemy in order to completely cut off the supply line to the Southern battlefield and was chosen as the first point to open a strategic route. The 559th Engineering Corps - the strategic military engineering and transport group in charge of transport on the Ho Chi Minh trail, together with the army and people of Tan Ky made the first shovel cuts here, along with the entire route, creating a "bagua battle formation through the jungle", which had a decisive impact on the success or failure of the Ho Chi Minh campaign.
The Ho Chi Minh Trail was not only a traffic route but also a fierce battlefield, an extraordinary effort by the Central Government, the North, our army and people to support our compatriots and soldiers in the South to defeat the American invaders. The American army used every trick and weapon to destroy this lifeline. From electronic equipment to chemical weapons, B52 bombers, weather weapons... Twenty thousand soldiers and militiamen fell on the route, thirty thousand people were permanently disabled, but the road was immortal.
Today, the Ho Chi Minh Trail stretches from Cao Bang to Dat Mui, not only having strategic significance in economic trade but also being the red thread that preserves the nation's heroic and indomitable tradition. The path back to the roots of future generations.
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The car glided smoothly on the 37km stretch of Ho Chi Minh Highway through Tan Ky. The spring sunshine shone on the green hills on both sides. The red wildflowers of spring were ripe and covered both sides of the road slopes, and the green spring rice was still young.
The rich village is surrounded by green forests and orchards. Stopping at Tan Huong, the commune now has 70 households along the Ho Chi Minh road specializing in growing and nurturing forest trees, eucalyptus and acacia, opening a new business direction for the people and becoming the most effective model in Tan Ky now. For the past three years, the people of Tan Huong have found a way out of poverty by growing raw forest trees, raising fish, creating effective models of converting trees and animals... earning tens of millions of dong in profit each year, their lives are increasingly prosperous, and they are becoming rich.
In the past, the people of Nghia Hanh, Nghia Hop, and Nghia Binh came from Dien Chau and Quynh Luu, bringing with them the habit of growing vegetables, but they could not sell them. Now that there is a main road, they have promoted the cultivation of commercial vegetables and watermelons, not only for local consumption, but also for sale to Anh Son and Do Luong districts, and to Hanoi. Tan Ky oranges, a raw material for paper, are no longer forced to lower prices by many traders who come and go, bringing their vehicles to the garden to buy.
Mr. Nguyen Duy Thuy - Chairman of Tan Ky District People's Committee excitedly said: "Previously, Tan Ky was considered a "dead end". For the past three years, Ho Chi Minh road has passed through 6 communes and a town, from Tan Ky it is convenient to go from South to North, the district has also built a complete fishbone road system along the route to serve economic development and people's lives effectively.
Previously, Tan Ky only produced 30,000 tons of food per year, now it has grown to 60,000 tons per year because rice and corn are consumed well. Forestry is not developed, the strongest movement is the movement of planting raw material forests. Thai and Tho ethnic people along both sides of Ho Chi Minh road have abandoned the practice of self-sufficient farming, students go to school more diligently because the roads are shortened. Tan Ky town, thanks to Ho Chi Minh road, has strongly developed trade and service centers. Tan Ky has strongly shifted the crop structure, the rate of poor households has decreased rapidly.
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According to the planning until 2020, on the Ho Chi Minh road through Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh there are 20 urban areas, including one type III urban area, one central urban area of the western mountainous region of Nghe An equivalent to a type III urban area (now Thai Hoa town), the rest are type 4 urban areas. Ho Chi Minh road is being connected to the road network in a unified and continuous manner, connecting with National Highway 1 and other national highways.
Ho Chi Minh Trail - from milestone 0, the love of people and land is deeply immersed. From the moment of stopping to eat sweet melons from the red soil along the road, enjoying steamed fish dishes of the Tan Huong people. From the red flowers of the great forest that have been, are and will be forever blooming to honor the legend of the vital road leading to prosperity...
Article and photos: Chau Lan