——Remembering the days and nights of the battle against Spear Mountain (1)
Dictation: GuoyueDong Finishing: Dong Xianfeng
Oral Narrator Profile:
Guo Yuedong, a native of Xiong'an, Hebei Province, joined the army in September 1968 and joined the party in January 1970. He served in the 26th and 27th Artillery Regiments. He successively served as a wireless soldier, a squad leader, a platoon commander of the 5th Company of the 26th Regiment (during which he was successively transferred to the regimental rotation training team and the division teaching team as a teacher), a company commander, a battalion commander, a cadet of the Command Department of the Artillery Academy (Xuanhua), a battalion commander of the 27th Regiment, and a deputy commander of the 26th Regiment. Participated in the 1984 self-defense counterattack against Vietnam. He changed careers in February 1986. He retired in 2009.
Photo by the author
In the second half of 1983, the 26th Regiment of the 1st Artillery Division, where I belonged, took over the task of superiors and cooperated with Hunan Television Station to shoot the TV series "Shooting The Wolf". At that time, I was the deputy commander of the 26th Regiment, and I was assigned the task of serving as a military adviser and temporary party branch secretary in the crew.
The play is based on the novella "Shooting the Wolf", which depicts the story of an artillery company commander who sacrifices his family for the country and dedicates himself selflessly. When it comes to troop involvement in filming, this was a common occurrence in the 1970s and 1980s. The drama found us, that is the artillery drill artillery, more accurate, more realistic, labor-saving and money-saving, especially props, artillery, military vehicles, equipment and soldiers, all real materials. Of course, the main cast members were selected from all over the country, including the Bayi Factory, the North Film Factory, the Central Experimental Drama Theater and the Warrior Repertory Theatre.
I remember the first time I met the crew, when the director introduced me as the deputy head of the group, the military adviser of the crew, an actress interjected on the spot: "Is he the leader of the group?" Kids Leader, right? ”
Everyone laughed, I looked at her blankly and didn't speak, I was just 30 years old at the time, and I didn't have a military rank, maybe I didn't look like a regimental commander. As a result, the first impression of the crew was that it was "sparse and lala", and I wanted to wait for me to teach you well, but then I realized that filming is also a very hard job.
Just as the shooting mission was halfway through, due to the gradual tension of the Sino-Vietnamese border situation, our regiment received advance orders from its superiors and began to enter a state of combat readiness. I grasped the pre-war preparations of the troops on the one hand, and the rush progress of the crew on the other, and I was very busy.
It was at this time that the role of a deputy company commander was delayed. The director mobilized me to play the role, saying that it was a military exercise, which was more appropriate and real. Repeatedly, in order to hurry the progress, I had to catch the ducks on the shelves, cameo a deputy company commander, or a "backward figure" image, I feel very blunt. Of course, some people said that I acted well, and later CCTV also broadcast it, but unfortunately I didn't see it.
Guo Yuedong (third from left in the middle row) and all the cast members of the Shooting Wolf crew
With the passage of time, the combat readiness level of our regiment gradually increased, and the pre-war training was also very intense. Among them, railway transportation and heavy equipment loading are training subjects that are rarely involved in the army in peacetime. The premise of "playing well" is first of all to "walk and move", which was a training focus at that time. The regimental leader divided the division of labor and served as the leader of the loading team, and was responsible for the loading training of the troops.
I personally organized the cadres of the whole regiment to give lectures, paid close attention to the detailed training of the divisions, and repeatedly practiced in combination with simulated platforms. Organize on-site investigation of key personnel, closely coordinate with relevant personnel of railways and stations and military representatives, and implement responsibilities at all levels to people. Due to the solid training and preparation work, when the actual loading, each of our battalions of a special train, can be loaded in about 40 minutes, the fastest train only took 35 minutes. This achievement, which cut the time prescribed by the ordinance by more than half, won the admiration of the railway system, military representatives and fraternal troops.
In this way, after the troops entered the first level of combat readiness, I organized the pre-war preparation and training of the troops while taking into account the shooting tasks of the crew. At the same time that "Shooting The Wolf" was sealed, the order for our regiment to enter also arrived, and the day after the last shot was filmed, the troops were about to leave.
On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year (February 5th) after the Spring Festival in 1984, I led the three battalions as the first echelon, preparing to load the first special train and march toward Guangxi. Before the troops set off, the crew of "Shooting Wolves" came to the army to bid farewell, perhaps because of the feelings of a few months together, but also because we were going to the front line, in addition to the instructions, blessings, some actors also shed tears. I didn't want to make the atmosphere so solemn, so I jokingly said to everyone: "Lao Tzu is not dead, why are you crying?"
I joked humorously, and finally made a few actresses burst into laughter. At that time, I thought, after all, it is an actor, rich in feelings, compared to that, my wife is much calmer. At that time, my wife and son just came to the army for family leave, and when the army set off, she also returned to Guangzhou, and I could just stop by to take the two of them on the train. On the way, I joked with my wife: "I'm going to the front line, everyone else is crying, why don't you cry?" ”
She said, "I know you can't die, and I don't want to cry in vain..."
Our husband and wife's fathers are all older generation soldiers, we both came from military families, and when we went to the battlefield, we also shed blood and did not shed tears!
At that time, my guard Xiao Huang and I were fully armed to send the two of them into the train station to get on the train, and the scene was 100% of the return rate, and there was really a bit of a "little tragic" feeling, and at the same time a little pride, but all the "audience" could not understand this.
The last shot of the plot of "Shooting The Wolf" is: in the vast snow, walking to the army to visit her husband's wife, holding a sick child in her arms and having no money to heal, watching the artillery company commander lead the convoy of troops to gradually go away...
After sending off my wife and children, I rushed to the Huanggangbing Station, the starting station of the military column, and prepared to wait for the arrival of the three battalions, organize the loading according to the scheduled time, and drive in.
"Will draw a bow like a full moon, look northwest, shoot the wolf." This familiar verse is about to be truly staged in front of me and my team. At 17:00 on February 5, 1984, I led the first echelon of the 26th Artillery Regiment to the Guangxi front, and the realistic version of "Shooting The Wolf" was about to start. (To be continued)