In the autumn of 1976, my second year as a soldier, the Divisional Political Department (at that time, I had been transferred from the company to the Propaganda Section of the Division's Political Department as a news reporter) organized us to collect carrots. At that time, the division regimental aircraft

In the autumn of 1976, my second year as a soldier, the Divisional Political Department (at that time, I had been transferred from the company to the Propaganda Section of the Division's Political Department as a news reporter) organized us to collect carrots.

At that time, in addition to raising pigs, sheep, and grinding tofu, the divisional and regimental organs and battalion companies had a certain number of vegetable fields in the garrison of the troops, which were used to adjust and improve the material life of officers and men in summer and autumn (at that time, the living standard of the company was 0.59 yuan per person per day). Every autumn, on the streets of Kuitun, Wusu, and Dushanzi, you can see the cars and "rickshaws" (rickshaws) of the troops pulling vegetables everywhere. On that day, all of our organs went out to the vegetable field more than 50 kilometers away to pluck carrots, and everyone was enthusiastic and happy. In the blink of an eye, the morning passed, and during the noon break, my comrade-in-arms Yuan Fuxing and I asked the section chief for leave and went to the toilet.

Our section chief, a veteran of several years in the military, said humorously, "There are toilets everywhere here, go ahead!" "Xiao Yuan and I ran to a hollow almost 500 meters away from the vegetable field, and was preparing to start, when suddenly, I found that not far from us, a large area of land, were watermelons! Some are the size of bowls, some are about the same as fists, emerald green, very tempting. Although in the camp, our organ also distributes a lot of watermelons every year, but in the field, I still see it for the first time. I turned my head and looked around, obediently! So many watermelons are unguarded. Xiao Yuan and I looked at each other and smiled, and immediately wiped out a few like a cloud, and then quietly eliminated the fake to the section chief.

As a result, that afternoon, the people in our news reporting team frequently took leave to go to the toilet, and the "watermelon eggs" that were sacked were loaded into military pickup trucks by us, and we carried 8 sacks. In the evening, when Deputy Chief Wang inspected the personnel and tools, he looked at it and didn't say anything, we were really nervous at that time, afraid of being discovered by the leaders! After returning to the camp, we quietly hid the "booty" under the bed, returned to the dormitory after work at night, and took a spoon to dig and eat, which was comfortable and still unforgettable.

Since the food of the troops at that time was not very good, we also took a few to the canteen from time to time to exchange with the cooker Lao Wang, and got some eggs, buns, oil cakes and so on. Occasionally, a fellow villager came to the dormitory to play with me, and he only "miserly" picked the smallest one to take out to entertain.

The only thing that worries us is that the section chief and the deputy section chief have already found out, so why don't they criticize us? Until one day, Deputy Section Chief Wang finally unveiled the mystery, he smiled and said to us: Even if you don't "take", the melon farmers will turn these "small watermelons" into the ground when ploughing the land. Hearing this, a few of us were relieved and continued to enjoy the "fruits of our labor" with peace of mind.

Decades have passed, and whenever I think back to my more than ten years of military life, I feel proud and proud. The army has forged me from a rural youth who is not disgraceful to a qualified soldier who is not afraid of hardships and hardships, who is not afraid of bloodshed and sacrifice, who is strong-willed and full of self-confidence, and I have no regrets.