"Knowing the Youth Past" memories of the life of the legion

The 180 power plants of the Corps that year

Memories of corps life

Author: Xu Congjun

In 1971, the Cultural Revolution entered the middle and late stages. In July 1971, I graduated from Haimen Middle School in Zhejiang Province and faced a graduation assignment. At that time, the party and the state called on the intellectual youth to go to the frontier, to the countryside, to the places where the motherland needed it most, and the vast world had great achievements! I actively responded to the call of the party and the state, signed up, Chinese the Inner Mongolia Production and Construction Corps of the Beijing Military Region of the People's Liberation Army, entered the 180 power plant, and became a glorious corps soldier.

The departure date was the early morning of September 7, 1971, when a bus was parked in front of the local cinema. At that time, there was a sea of people, the whole family came to see off together, the cries and shouts of the people sounded like a piece, and the scene was like the reappearance of the Red Army in the past ten, clinging to it. I got into the car in the crowd, and at the urging of my relatives, the bus started, and in an instant, tears filled my eyes, my relatives were waving and shouting, walking and running behind the cars that had started, and my family was getting farther and farther away in my blurred eyes...

At noon, arrive at Ningbo Railway Station and take the zhiqing special train north. At every big station we passed, the platform was full of gongs and drums, welcoming us, and everywhere was a scene of joy and laughter, and a passionate scene. When the special train traveled more than a thousand kilometers, we ran for three days and three nights, and finally arrived on the evening of September 9, located in Inner Mongolia Bayannaoer League, Wulat Qianqi Wulashan Railway Station. In this way, the train took us from the coast of the East China Sea in the south of the jiangnan to the northern frontier of the motherland.

At the Wulashan Railway Station, there were already veteran soldiers, dressed in white-washed uniforms, lined up neatly, and in order to welcome our arrival, they also pulled up banners that read: Warmly welcome new comrades from the coast of the East China Sea. I got out of the car in exhaustion, carrying a duffel bag, and some people still carrying small flat shoulders. One foot deep and one foot shallow, we stepped on the potholed dirt road, walking in the dark on the way to the company's dormitory.

From then on, I began my corps life. I was organized into four companies, an armed company, and every day under the leadership of company commander Yan Wenjun and instructor Su Fujiu (they were both active soldiers), I taught us to practice exercises, queues, assassinations, aiming, target shooting, pulling exercises, emergency assemblies, backpacks, and so on.

At that time, the power plant was still in the early stage of construction, and in addition to military training, we had to participate in capital construction work, such as digging earth at the construction site. Because there was no mechanized equipment before, it was all about carrying people on their shoulders, dragging trolleys, and simple and primitive physical labor. The foundation of the power plant cooling tower was also dug with the participation of our company. The most profound thing to remember is that the water source of the power plant is in the back mountain of Ula Mountain, where the power plant has a water supply station, and the domestic water of the whole plant, including the circulating water of the power generation system, must be transported from the back mountain with a water supply pipeline to the front mountain.

Our company undertook the task of digging trenches for the buried water supply lines. Every day, Quanlian took a big truck and a shovel in his hand, and set off, passing through the Ditch, Da Shetai, Xiao Shetai and other places on the way. Sometimes everyone shouted slogans and sang collectively: "Revolutionary soldiers, everyone must remember ..." and other revolutionary songs. Passionate and scrappy, I arrived at the back mountain water source on the shores of Wuliangsu.

On the construction site of the trench, one by one, they were full of energy, hammering heads, wielding shovels, digging earth, shovels and shovels. Because the diameter of the water pipe is very large, the ditch needs to be dug to a depth of about 2 meters to bury the large water pipe. In that era, people's spiritual realm was sublimated to the point that no one wanted to be lazy, and they were only afraid of falling behind, which was really a scene of rushing and dancing youth. I remember that in the past few days, many female warriors' hands have been polished out of blisters, so they took a handkerchief and continued to work.

My hand also grinded out a few blisters, but the spirit of striving upwards supported the unwillingness to fall behind. When the blisters burst and stained with sand, the hand holding the shovel hurt for a while, just like this, they were not willing to automatically rest, as if shoveling more shovels of soil, they were all contributing to the frontier, and sometimes silently reciting in their hearts, making up their minds, not afraid of sacrifice, overcoming all difficulties, and fighting for victory! I am afraid that modern people will not be able to understand this kind of positive and progressive thinking of continuing to shovel the soil and striving for advancement. If these things happen in the present moment, they will certainly be treated as fools or neurotics. But in that era, we had such ambitions. The scene of sweating like rain in labor is still often in the mind.

During the break, I took off my military uniform and put it on my body, lying in the sand, looking up at the blue sky, and the white clouds kept changing in various forms, dancing with the wind, floating towards the endless grassland. Not far from the meadow, there were white sheep moving, slowly moving toward the sky. The blue sky and green meadows are connected together, which makes me really see the beautiful grasslands. There are also white and gray-white seabirds flying from the Wuliang Suhai, groups of them, they change various formations in the sky, one moment into a V-shape, one moment into a one-shape, one moment into a diagonal one-shape, and with a chirping sound, under the blue sky, it is indeed picturesque. I was pleasantly surprised to sit up from the ground, see their graceful wings spread and fly, and enjoy their brilliant performances, and this picture is now deeply engraved in my mind. At that time, the platoon leader Zhang Qiu told me that this was a swan. Because I saw the swan for the first time, I suddenly realized that the swan looked like this, it was so beautiful! Such a natural scenery is difficult to reproduce in dreams!

It was almost noon, the company canteen pulled a carrot-stuffed bun, suddenly a strong wind blew, yellow sand filled the sky, we had to hide in the water pipe, with clothes to block the two ends of the water pipe, sit inside to enjoy the lunch after labor. When I took the bun in my hand, I saw that there was actually a layer of sand on it, and without thinking about it, I naturally tore off the skin of the bun and threw it away, and then dug up the carrot filling and threw it away, (because I am not used to eating carrots) Just like this, I only ate two peeled and stuffed bun shells at noon.

When I came back from the construction site that day, I heard a whistle before eating, and the whole company assembled, the company commander, the instructor, and asked the comrades in the canteen to bring up, and the iron bucket for cooking came over, and it contained many bun skins that we had thrown away and were checked back from the sand, and half-pulled buns. Let us think of the old revolutionary predecessors, the Red Army, who climbed snow-capped mountains, crossed meadows, nibbled on tree bark, and boiled belts. When we throw away the bun skin, we throw away the revolutionary tradition, it is waste, it is forgotten, as if we have committed a crime.

In the evening, the head of the class, Zhou Yulian, held a class meeting, and all those who threw the bun skin did a profound self-examination, of course, I was also one of the reviewers, at that time, we all felt that it was wrong to do so, that is, to forget the original. At that time, our generation was innocent in heart. It is this kind of hard life in the corps that has tempered me and sublimated my spirit into a gritty character that bears hardships and stands hard work, and an upward spirit that takes pleasure in suffering, which has accompanied me all my life and made me unforgettable.

The years have passed in the long river of history, but what will never pass is that the life of the corps in my memory, although she has become a thing of the past, but it will always be engraved in my mind. Today's memories are not to say how beautiful the life of the corps is, but it is worth remembering, but in the land of the north, I have left my footprints and sweat! And my eternal memory, because we were really young at that time!

Although the former comrades-in-arms of the Corps are now living in different jobs and in different environments, they have made their due contributions to society. I have calmly and fulfilled most of my life, and I dedicate my hopes and blessings to my former comrades in the Corps, healthy and happy! Happiness and peace!

Source: Corps comrades