In August 1958, the great man proposed at a meeting, "I see that all military commanders, division commanders, etc., should be soldiers for at least one month, and they must obey the command of squad leaders and platoon leaders." Some people who have been soldiers in the past are now not soldiers for many years, and they will become soldiers again. Soon after, the General Political Department, in accordance with the instructions of the great man, made a stipulation that cadres at all levels of the army should serve as soldiers for one month a year. As soon as this stipulation was issued, cadres of all levels and all military departments enthusiastically responded, and the performance of many senior generals was even more prominent.
According to statistics, by the end of 1962, more than 770,000 cadres in the whole army had served as soldiers in the company, including 250 founding generals, of which the more famous generals were Hong Xuezhi, Deng Hua, Yang Chengwu, Yang Dezhi, Xu Shiyou, and so on. After General Xu Shiyou reported to the company, considering his age, some mission company commanders did not let Xu Shiyou participate, for example, there was no Xu Shiyou's name on the list of guards. Xu Shiyou was quite dissatisfied with this, and soon he went to the company commander and asked why he did not let himself stand guard.
In the face of Xu Shiyou's questioning, the company commander proposed a show of hands to vote. However, everyone tacitly voted not to let Xu Shiyou stand guard. However, Jiang is still old and spicy, and then Xu Shiyou put down his harsh words and did not let him stand guard, that is, he looked down on him as a veteran. Xu Shiyou said this, and everyone was not good enough to stop him, so they had to let him also go to the guard. Another time, the troops had to pick up fertilizer to go up the mountain. This kind of heavy physical work, the company commander did not dare to do it for Xu Shiyou, so he deliberately took one less flat burden. Who expected Xu Shiyou to take advantage of the fact that the warrior next to him was not paying attention, reached over and snatched his flat shoulder and carried the fertilizer up the mountain.
Don't look at Xu Shiyou's age, but he is a practitioner of the Shaolin Temple, and he has been practicing kung fu diligently for many years, and he will soon leave those young boys far behind. When the soldiers saw that General Xu Shiyou was working so hard, their admiration was immediately born. In addition to General Xu Shiyou's outstanding performance in the company, the life of General Yang Dezhi as a soldier in the company was also colorful. In the shooting competition of the company, Yang Dezhi also won two excellent awards and a good award in one fell swoop, and became the star figure of the company. During the rest time, Yang Dezhi also could not stay idle, rushing to sweep the floor to take out garbage and wipe glass very diligently, and this experience also became an unforgettable memory of the founding generals. Many generals wrote about it afterwards, and at the same time, they also admired the initiative of the great man to become a soldier in the army under the officer.