“The revolutionary furnace fire is the reddest, Mao Zedong era produced heroes”, singing this song is the era of heroes. Heroes and the PLA, the “Great School of Mao Zedong Thought”, have an inseparable relationship, training and creating thousands of “heroes”.
I joined the army in the early 1970s, when the movement to learn and apply the writings of Chairman Mao was in its infancy, with the creation of “four good companies” and “five good fighters” by setting up standard bearers and holding “talk and use meetings”. “The mirage-like political illusion lasted for a long Time, and finally disappeared with the end of the “great praise” era.
One
The incident with Station Manager Zheng happened in my first year as a soldier.
It snowed a lot that winter. We six recruits were transferred from the guard battalion to the communications company. On the day of departure, the car drove for more than four hours in the snowy wilderness and walked a long distance on foot before entering a ravine called the “fork in the road”.
In the mountain pass between two mountains, a post was seen from afar, with a long barbed wire fence pulled up into the snow-capped, wooded mountains. The sentry with the submachine gun on his back was poking his head around the post, rubbing his hands and stamping his feet as he watched us parade through.
Entering the valley, the thick snow blocked the road under our feet, and we marched knee-deep in the snow. After about an hour, we climbed up a hillside and saw a trip to a flat-roofed gray brick house with a concrete veneer, the roof and four walls were covered with many tips, and the trees on the hillside blended together. A kilometer away from this there is a cave, is where we later on duty and duty. You would never see the location of the cave entrance unless you walked up to it. It was deployed for war preparations and to implement the Great Leader’s instruction “to prepare for war”, and was the front-line command post for “anti-repair and prevention” in the region.
It was called the “Dong Two” (02) work station, and was a platoon formation of the communications battalion’s cable company. A deputy instructor surnamed Chang “squatting” here, Chang deputy instructor does not come to the station, the actual “supreme officer” is Zheng station chief (to hide his name). Zheng station chief, Liaoning Jin County, tall and stout, handsome, about twenty-one or twenty-two years old. On the military age, Zheng station chief but two years earlier than us as a soldier, but was raised to the station chief has been a year, and later learned that he was the military district listed advanced person.
The station headquarters was located in the bungalow full of tips and strips. The station is responsible for power, carrier, switchboard and other duty tasks, there are about thirty people. Because of the work needs, each person has a code name, over time, we all refer to each other by code name, rarely call them by name. There are seven female soldiers in the switchboard squad, and they climb the ice and snow like the male soldiers, suffering hardships. In the ravine where no one is seen for years, the female soldiers bring Life and happiness to the monotonous life of the station.
Soon, five new comrades enlisted in the same period were assigned to the line maintenance team, while I was left at the station as a correspondent. My task was to fetch water for them when the head of the company came to the station to “squat”, lead the stove, clean up the dormitory, and go to each class to convey temporary tasks and verbal instructions. In the absence of the company chief, I was at the disposal of the Ma Ban Leader (code name “031”).
During the long winter, the company chief seldom came to the mountains, so I became the “orderly” for the leader. Sometimes, he asked me to go up to the mountains to collect firewood with my comrades who were off the night shift, and sometimes I rubbed rice with some female soldiers. The relationship between Ma Ban Chang and Zheng Station Chief was very good, when we went to the mountains to collect firewood, he always went into the bushes to set the snare, said to set the roe deer. The lasso is made of steel wire with a little elasticity in the telephone line, woven into a circle-shaped noose, hanging in the tree hollow, Ma Banchang asked me, do you know how the silly elk? I said I do not know, the horse squad leader said excitedly, I and Zheng station chief hit roe deer, after straddling a gun, did not hit, the roe deer is first a shock, standing there motionless, and then a scurrying old high, lifeless like running wild, ran far away and returned to see what is going on, the results let the station chief a gun down. Later I will take you to hunt roe deer and pheasant, to improve the station’s life.
At that time, there were many roe deer and pheasants in the mountains, and in the morning, the snow was full of roe deer hoofprints and the cries of pheasants could be heard from miles away. Since Captain Ma laid the sleeve, I was looking forward to the silly roe deer sticking their hooves into the sleeve, but the winter was almost over and we didn’t get to eat roe deer meat.
The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what you’re doing. The first thing you need to do is to take a look at your clothing, and you will know which year you joined the army: the whiter you are, the whiter you are, the more white the “canvas” is. “The color of the uniforms of the ’69 soldiers was “023”, and the male soldiers secretly called “023” “bean pestle”. “The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public.
The “023” also sang “The Light of the Octagon House” in a loud voice, and the mountain resonated with the harmonious sound in all directions. It is said that “023” went to an art school and can dance the “White Maiden” with a high difficulty factor, so the male soldiers are willing to work with her. The men helped her carry the firewood down the hill.
“The first thing you need to do is to take a look at the website. The first of these is the “daily reading”, which Lin Biao proposed on March 26, 1968, saying that “Chairman Mao’s books should be read and used every day”. It was first implemented in the army, and then spread throughout the country. Everyone seriously “went through the motions” every day, studying the “Quotations from Chairman Mao” that had been rolled up, reading the “Mao Selection”, reading the “Liberation Army Newspaper”, and then rubbing the rice particles around the rice stacks.
I heard about Zheng’s “advanced deeds” from “023” when I was rubbing the rice particles.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. The company had 12 line maintenance teams, which were responsible for the maintenance of hundreds of miles of open overhead lines. Each team of three people, usually in addition to telephone contact, rarely with the company’s comrades face to face. I was a soldier when I was learning the deeds of Wang Shuqing, a line maintenance team at the Shenyang Military Region’s main communications station, who went to check the line when the floods were soaring and was swept away. And Zheng station chief’s deeds, more than a year earlier than Wang Shuqing.
Line maintenance team to “for the war protection silver line” as the primary task, generally a squad leader with two soldiers, the sky is high, there is little restraint, lazy, all rely on the squad leader’s leadership level and influence. Usually nothing, the group of soldiers and the local people “mingle” to establish a good civil-military relations, there is something to seek their help.
The company has a nasty law of line maintenance: the worse the weather, the more prone to failure, whether it is rain and wind, or under the knife, but also to immediately go to the scene to troubleshoot. one day in May, the wind blew, No. 75 pole broken line. Zheng, then a new recruit, accepted the task to go 20 miles away to troubleshoot the problem. When he climbed over the mountain to the scene and used the broken end to connect to the switchboard, there happened to be a phone call from the head of the military district, saying that there were “important instructions” to reach the troops, for which the head of the military district was already furious. In an emergency, Zheng clutched one end of the broken line with his hand and bit the other end with his teeth, and the “important instructions” were transmitted to the troops through his body.
Zheng’s deeds spread far and wide during the tour, and he was made an “advanced model” of the military district.
Since then, I will be more than a little awe and envy of Zheng station chief, but also a little doubt, that day to check the line, he did not bring the line abductor (the necessary tools to set up the line)? Who found his heroic feat? For this reason I have secretly asked the horse squad leader, the horse squad leader first a glare: what do you want? Deny the hero what? The first thing you need to do is to say: “I’m in a hurry, it’s too late.
Ma Ban has repeatedly asked me to take the initiative to approach the station chief Zheng, said, you are a correspondent, have to be smart, the station chief thought you have to do, can not think of you have to take the initiative to do. But when I saw the station chief Zheng, I was afraid. His face that does not smile always reminded me of the “Zhanshan Eagles”. One day, I followed him out of the cave, barring the snow trips back to the station, along the way, see many urine nest, he kicked while scolding, like very angry look. When he came back, he held a meeting with the male soldiers and said: “You are too inattentive to military discipline, there are “shooting holes” everywhere, I kicked a dozen on the way. We have female soldiers here! If you find out who did it, you have to “geld” him.
In February, the station chief Zheng had a cold and was lying in the dormitory sweating. Ma Ban Chang cooked a pot of noodles in the duty room and said to me in a pot: “Go, send it to the station chief. I reluctantly carried the pot, thinking of what I should say to the station manager to pay my respects, and walked to the station manager’s dormitory in the innermost part of the bungalow. I was in a hurry, I stabbed the door with my foot, and the scene in front of me put me in a very embarrassing dilemma: “023” leaning over the station manager’s side, face to face in absolute zero contact …… “023 “The face rubbed red, Zheng stationmaster grimaced and yelled at me, “Who told you to come in, huh?!”
The first thing I did was to get a good feeling that I was likely to be in trouble, and I didn’t dare to contact “023” when I was working, and I didn’t dare to meet with Zheng. The first time I saw the company, I thought it would be the end of the line. The good impression I had just made was for nothing. The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public.
On February 24, 1971, two veterans and I bundled dry branches with our backpack straps and prepared to carry them down the mountain. The leader of the horse squad went up to the mountain to pass on a message, saying that he had received a notice from the company that you six new recruits had been transferred to work, and that you should report to the company when the bus arrived. I didn’t work that day, I used a sickle to carve this unforgettable day on a sturdy fir tree. 27 February, we six recruits, said goodbye to the fork in the snow-covered mountains. From entering the mountain to leaving only 2 months and 10 days.
Six months later, I spoke with Ma Banchang once on the phone, the operator of the workstation switchboard class was replaced by a male soldier. Ma told me: Zheng station chief accident, this guy to the female soldiers to “scratch” all over, sentenced to two years in prison!
Two
Communications Corps is located in the suburbs of Shenyang, Ningguan Tun, the west side of the Hada Highway. Under the cover of dense poplar trees, there are neat rows of red brick houses, a not so wide dirt road running east and west, two and three floors of the school building and office building is the main building of the regiment. The barracks are circled by barbed wire fences, and the east gate near the Harvard Highway and the south gate with Ningguan Tun are set up with year-round guard posts.
Most of our soldiers transferred to Shenyang in the same batch were at the age of 15 or 16 and were assigned to the training team to learn radio service. Training team under the three district team, one, two district team is the newspaper team, three district team is the machine team, for the field army training business backbone, with the nature of rotational training.
The fifth class I was in belonged to the second district team, district captain Zhou Biao, short, smart and strong, shaved bald head. Usually he was very kind to the soldiers, but the discipline was very strict. Once back from a business trip, he asked the squad leader Niu Guanghua, recently engaged in an emergency collection did not? The squad leader said, did not engage, the district captain said, that can not ah, how also have to engage in a two or three times.
That night, the whistle sounded. The emergency assembly is strictly forbidden to turn on the light, a large bunk sleeps eight people, everyone in the dark to put on clothes, play backpack, squeeze each other, some can not find the backpack belt, some grabbed someone else’s uniform to wear, Hu Changquan simply hold the backpack to the ground outside to fight up. At last, the whole squad was in line, everyone was unkempt, and when we looked at the time, it took more than four minutes. Niu squad leader threw a fit: so loose and sloppy, can be suitable for the needs of war preparation? Not waiting for Su Xiu to call over, the head will have to move. Back to the dormitory to lie down not long, the assembly whistle sounded again, this time it took more than three minutes, the results are still unsatisfactory. The third time the whistle sounded, it was already the second half of the night at 2 o’clock, this is the cattle squad leader to the fifth class to eat another “small stove”. With two experiences, everyone’s speed also improved, with two minutes and fifty seconds. But Zhang Yunxiang said nothing to get up, head tied white towel said head confusion. So a toss, we basically did not sleep all night.
The daily “daily reading” was led by the squad leader. At that time was studying the heroic deeds of Hu Yetao. Hu Yetao died in the national defense construction, to cover his comrades electrocuted. Before his death, the organization had just developed him to join the Chinese Communist Party. He used his young life to write a “Party Volunteer Form” that he could not fill out in time, proposing that it is not important for a person to join the Party formally, but more important to join the Party organization ideologically.
The regiment set up two pacesetters in studying the writings of Chairman Mao, the second company soldier Zhang Yagui, in the case of bone cancer, still insisted on studying the writings of Chairman Mao, desperate to do good deeds until the last moment of life. After his death, the regiment in accordance with the then common practice, absorb his brother Zhang Yahong into the army, “to take over the hero’s gun”, to complete the hero’s unfinished business. Everyone’s expectations of Zhang Yahong are high, but his performance is not good, as a loose soldier for three years, even the party did not join on demobilized Home.
The second standard soldier is called Jia Laobing. The first time I saw him was at the east gate of the camp. This is the main gate of the Communications Corps, and the posts are rotated by each company on duty. That day, it was the old soldier Jia who was standing guard, and I was startled when he turned around. The whole face was like a walnut, covered with brown scars, mouth, eyes, nose seriously distorted and deformed. Later, I learned that in the national boom in the production of Chairman Mao’s badge, our regiment set up a small factory, also began to produce Chairman Mao’s badge. One day, Jia veteran holding a very large bottle of sulfuric acid from the workroom to go outside, suddenly tripped and fell to the ground, the bottle of sulfuric acid in his hands broke, and burned him seriously. The first time he saw his face disabled by the injury, he felt extremely frustrated and desperate. He was handsome and a member of the propaganda team of the regiment, performing on stage many times to promote Mao Zedong’s thought. After he was disabled, he was afraid to go out on the street and did not want to talk to others. Children in the Family area ran away when they saw him, and screamed “ghost” and “ghost” at the mouth. It was the climax of the “Three Loyalties and Four Infinities” campaign, and advanced figures such as Menhe and Li Wenzhong were emerging. Inspired by the heroic deeds, Jia veteran “fight private criticism and repair”, from “the depths of the soul outbreak of revolution”, came to realize a maxim: ugly face is not ugly, ugly soul is ugly. He insisted on learning from heroes and doing good deeds, living like a normal person, without specialization, even on duty and standing guard. He took the initiative to approach the children in the family area, telling them stories of heroes and their experience of studying the writings of Chairman Mao. When the children learned of his deeds of injury in the line of duty, their hearts were filled with admiration for him and they were willing to approach this uncle of the PLA with an ugly face and a red heart. The old soldier Jia became the standard-bearer of the whole regiment.
At that time, “read every day” and “practice every day” were a unity full of contradictions, while political cadres emphasized “read every day” and military cadres emphasized “to prepare for war”. “In the era of “politics can impact everything”, military cadres were easily labeled as having “purely military views”, so they did not have enough courage when conflicts occurred. “Better left than right” has become the code of conduct for people.
When the squad leader talked about “human factor first”, he gave a “vivid” example, saying that the head of a unit went down to the company to check the military training, and a soldier threw a grenade only 20 meters, which was nearly 20 meters short of the standard of 40 meters, and the head criticized him. The chief criticized him, “Can such a performance meet the needs of the war? He replied, “Although I only threw 20 meters, but when the battle starts, I will rush forward 20 meters, so that I can exceed 40 meters. Such an example was fully recognized as a model of the “fearless revolutionary spirit” to promote.
In order to revolutionize the ideology, some trainees helped the breeder feed the pigs, and some went to empty the toilets to accumulate manure and fertilizer. Some turned on the flashlight after the lights went out: “The big light is closed, the small light is open, and the writings of Chairman Mao are learned.” Various forms of experience exchange meetings were held almost every month. We also formed a “one to help one, a pair of red”, two comrades to help each other to improve. My “pair of red” is Hu Changquan, honest and simple, before joining the army will do carpentry work, so often to the regiment’s carpenter room “to reform the world view”, usually reluctant to wash clothes, the sheet is dirty over the two sides with, but the work of the class rush to do.
Soon after to hold a study of Chairman Mao’s writings “speak with the meeting”, we are prepared to speak with the material, the squad leader called me and Hu Changquan two people up to speak, said two people on the same stage, the form of new, vivid content. The first thing you need to do is to take on the task of writing the text. After two days, Hu Changquan came to me with the script “lines”, one of which reads: “Chairman Mao’s writings to me, like an old man’s crutches, myopic glasses …… “I know he is imitating Lei Feng “Food, weapons, steering wheel” quotation, heart funny and afraid to hurt his enthusiasm, reminded him that this paragraph or do not want, may say that you disparage Mao Zedong Thought it. Later, speaking with will make everyone happy, the second class a soldier in order to use the “flash” of language, in the speech for the comrades of the stove for warmth, said the weather is too cold to stretch fingers, although the hand with a cold stove hook, but the stove hook is cold, but not loyal to Chairman Mao’s red heart “cool “.
After the “talk about the use of the meeting” held a class meeting, the class leader said that your “talk about the use of” today are not successful, mainly not to the point, will not be elevated, the deeds are not typical. In order to play the “typical lead” effect, he brought a talk with the material, said a cadet was named last year’s five good soldiers write. Then he spoke in a colorful way for an hour. Everyone said that the writing is good, the squad leader also look smug. But when people asked for the name of the cadet, the squad leader refused to say. Later, we took advantage of the absence of the squad leader, secretly looked at the speech with the draft, only to know that he was a new recruit that year to write.
This year, the standard soldier Jia veteran has reached the age of family, in order to find him a like-minded “revolutionary partner”, the head of the regiment showed great enthusiasm. The county revolutionary committee in veteran Jia’s hometown has a female standing committee member with excellent character and appearance, who is also an active member of the study of Mao. Despite some psychological preparation, after the meeting, the female standing committee member still could not accept this “proletarian feelings”. So, the head of the regiment many times to do the ideological work of the female Standing Committee: to judge people by their appearance is the bourgeois concept of love, the human appearance is temporary, love is built on the basis of the revolution, will be happy for life. The two finally came together. But with the ebb and flow of the situation, their feelings are always in endless contradictions, and eventually fell into the dilemma of “looks are not good enough”.
Three
When 1971 came, the workload of the regiment increased. During the spring sowing, we started to work in the rice fields. There was a large farm in the communications regiment, growing dozens of acres of rice, and the west side of the camp, near the firing range, was also the regiment’s rice field, and every year a large amount of manpower and material resources had to be invested to improve the life of the troops and subsidize the shortage of fine food. In addition to planting a large area of vegetable fields. During the year, we raked the paddy fields, unloaded the train wagons, planted eggplants, peppers, beans, tomatoes, potatoes and cabbages in the vegetable fields, and went to the farms to plant rice, weed and harvest rice.
Across the ridge was the paddy field of the third district team, where I first met Li Baozhong, the deputy shift manager of the seventh shift. Li Baozhong was a man of few words, thin in stature, and his bulging eyes always looked like he was preoccupied. When raking, I heard someone call out to him: Li Baozhong, you use some strength, the rope are bent. He stood up, did not say anything, simply threw the rope to the side, squatted down to the ridge and smoked a cigarette.
The seventh class of soldiers said that Li Baozhong is from the Liaoning Military Region, a member of the Chinese Communist Party. There are not many party members in the training team, and everyone has a special admiration for party members. Li Baozhong, a lonely deputy squad leader, was described by the soldiers who came with him to the training as a “Labor Party member” (meaning that he joined the Party by working hard). This person can bear hardship, not afraid of dirty, not afraid of tired, frail body can carry two hundred pounds of sacks, from the train wagon unloading coal, the hand of the “Wang Baiduan” (a very large shovel) is always full, face black and coal ball almost. However, he was very stubborn, before and after joining the party, a big gap, happy, like a tireless old bull, unhappy to lie in bed “soak sick”. He was also said to be selfish, the class “service box” (by the soldiers to voluntarily buy for the collective use of supplies) from the items he bought.
On October 3 of this year, it was the last day of the National Day holiday. In the afternoon, I saw Li Baozhong in the collection of drying clothes, he sat on a wooden bench, folded the clothes neatly, and then rolled up a dry cigarette and smoked. As I walked past him, a stream of smoke poured into my nose and throat, causing me to cough repeatedly. I know this kind of dry tobacco is called “toad head”, the strength is very strong, cheap and affordable, many rural soldiers are smoking this kind of tobacco. When he heard me cough, his bulging eyes glared at me, showing an angry look. I wanted to talk to him, but swallowed it back, only to feel that he looked strange. He sat there for a full hour before he slowly returned to his dormitory.
This day in the middle of the night, suddenly came the whistle, everyone from sleep up, thought in the emergency assembly, rushed to dress, play backpack. At that moment, we heard the shout of the district captain, “No need to put on backpacks, come out and gather quickly. After the line up, only to know that something big happened: 11 o’clock at night, is the seventh squad deputy squad leader Li Baozhong to take over the south gate sentry, about 11:30, Li Baozhong put the semi-automatic rifle erected in the guard building back to the dormitory, carrying a hammer in his hand, to sleep in the big bunk on a soldier’s head smashed down hard. The soldier shouted in the dark, waking up his comrades sleeping on the crib. When Li Baozhong raised the hammer for the second time, the hammer fell down like a ghost, and the wooden handle of the hammer hit the head of another comrade, Li Baozhong turned and ran away.
That night, the cadets, armed with semi-automatic rifles, chased Li Baozhong around. We searched first near the water fields and then along the dirt road westward from Ningguan Tun, but there was no sign of Li Baozhong. Only after dawn did we return to the barracks.
After eight o’clock, the soldier who was only slightly wounded returned to the training team, and at the same time got the news that Li Baozhong had committed suicide and the reason for what had happened.
It turns out that a few days ago the wounded soldier lost money, based on their own guesses, he suspected that Li Baozhong stole, they will from time to time ridicule Li Baozhong, but also in Li Baozhong’s matchbox wrote “donkey grow horns” four words, sarcastic Li Baozhong as a member of the Communist Party, study Mao activists, but actually steal things from others. Li Baozhong has a mouth to defend, but also narrow-minded, when things are good to take the bull by the horns, usually united comrades are not enough, no one in the class sympathize with him, so can only sulk, smoke sullen, due to resentment, and finally determined to fight with that soldier a fish dead net.
When the “November” holiday, he wrote letters and suicide notes to his Parents and siblings, sent home the allowance he had saved, and made preparations to retaliate for the murder.
Li Baozhong’s body was pulled back by a Jiefang truck. According to the people of Ningguan Tun who found him, they saw a man standing under a tree in the courtyard in the middle of the night, smoking one cigarette after another, but they didn’t dare to go out of the house for fear of meeting bad people. As a result, after dawn, the man was found hanging in the tree. The collar badge and cap badge were taken off by Li Baozhong himself, perhaps he knew at the end of his life that his actions had tarnished the image of the People’s Liberation Army.
The western edge of the communications regiment’s camp, separated by a large vegetable field, was built with ammunition and clothing warehouses, with year-round guard posts. Li Baozhong’s remains were placed at the back wall of the warehouse, examined by a forensic doctor from the public security department, and then pulled to Huilonggang in Shenyang for cremation. The second company I was in later took on the task of sentry duty at the ammunition and clothing warehouse, and every time it was my turn to stand guard, I always seemed to see Li Baozhong staring with bulging eyes, walking out from the back wall of the warehouse with a smoking “toad’s head” in his hand.
After the accident, the training team had a week of study and reorganization, and the battalion instructor Meng Xianliang declared Li Baozhong as an active counter-revolutionary. To denounce his sins and purge his poison, Li Baozhong’s relics were thrown into the furnace and burned, and the used washbasin was thrown into the courtyard and kicked into a flat, bursting down the enamel crackling, just like Li Baozhong was moaning ……
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