The son of a gun| Wu Jianguo

After completing his studies in the Air Force and returning to the army, it was the time when the veterans of the Naval Aviation Unit were discharged and the new recruits were replenished before the Spring Festival in 1977. The command informed us to report to the guard company and stand guard for three months. Along with our 10 aircrew cadets, the guard company was assigned, as well as 30 recruits who had just finished their enlistment training. After the gun awarding ceremony was held in the simple canteen of the guard company, I was assigned to the 8th class with the recruits Zhang Tongxiang, Zhao Xiaoluo, and Pan Longhua.

Veterans taking posts is a tradition of the guard company, and this afternoon, the squad leader took us to our posts. Our squad of guards has a range of 500 meters, and the interior is called No. 3 post. The squad leader took the position of the guard, several of the points with the best line of sight, and he said: The most important thing is the gun in our hands, and the regulations stipulate that the guard can only shoot if the target of his guard and himself is attacked.

We asked the squad leader, "Did you shoot when you were standing guard?" ”

"No," said the squad leader, "it used to be a crop field for the common people, and if they lost their sheep, they would find it in the middle of the night." Therefore, you can't shoot easily, and you can't even fire a warning shot. Because, once the people hear the gunshots, or shoot the people, the nature of the problem changes, in today's era of peace, we are facing the people, not the enemy. ”

"Then we don't want guns."

"If there is no gun, is that still called a warrior?" The squad leader said.

My first night post was at zero o'clock and Zhang Tongxiang's handover: I watched Zhang Tongxiang withdraw the bullet from the chamber, he supervised me to push the bullet in the magazine into the chamber, and after exchanging military salutes, I stood on the post. There was no wind, which was one of the few good weather on a winter night, and the sky was particularly wide and far-reaching because of the emptiness of the airport. In the midst of all the silence, the occasional bark of a dog came, and the sound rippled in the air for a long time before slowly disappearing. Not far away, in the town of Liangxiang, there was a faint light and shadow casting on my guard target. Looking into the distance, the towering Liangxiang Pagoda in the moonlight is also like a standing soldier, guarding the comfortable dream of this historic town. This is the gateway to the capital, is an ancient battlefield, for more than a thousand years, there have been countless fierce battles here, attacking to take the capital directly, guarding to preserve the country and mountains... In such a quiet night, you can faintly hear the jingle of wind chimes on the Liangxiang Tower, and that sound tells the story of thousands of years of bloody rain and swords and guns.

When I returned to the class from my job, Zhang Tongxiang was not yet asleep, and he was sitting on the horse to wipe his gun. The next night, after the class meeting, the squad leader arranged to write a letter from home, so Zhang Tongxiang sat alone on the maza, and then held up his beloved gun to look at the wipe, and wiped it. The squad leader talked to Zhang Tongxiang, "You are also a sharpshooter, you should write a letter to make your parents happy." ”

"My father can't read." Zhang Tongxiang asked the squad leader, "Can you let me hold this gun... Take a photo? Zhang Tongxiang's hometown is in an old revolutionary area in the northwest, and almost all of their grandparents and fathers have been soldiers, so Zhang Tongxiang has had a special feeling about guns since he was a child. In the last project of the recruit company, the Type 59 rifle, 100 meters of live ammunition shooting, Zhang Tongxiang hit 98 rings with ten bullets, creating the best record for the enlistment training of all recruits! For this reason, Zhang Tongxiang was commended by the party branch of the recruit company.

"That's fine, send it home to your parents." The squad leader said.

On Sunday, the company approved the request of the recruits to take pictures with guns, and Zhang Tongxiang and the recruits of the guard company who had been assigned to the guard company came to the group art photo studio in Liangxiang Town, and each took a two-inch half-body gun photo. After the photos were sent home, Zhang Tongxiang wholeheartedly did his job, and in the irregular inspection of the headquarters, he was vigilant, the password was clear, the position was correct, and the targets of the guards were in the field of vision, and he was praised by the chief of staff.

This morning, Dongmengang sent a fellow to our 8th class, and even Zhang Tongxiang did not recognize him, and his father was in front of him. My father came by a train carrying coal, and the train stopped and went for more than ten days, and the wrinkles on his face were embedded with coal ash. We quickly called for face wash to let him wash his face. The army has a rule that when the parents of the soldiers come to the army, the first meal is accompanied by the company commander and the instructor, and a dish of scrambled eggs is added and a basin of noodles is hung. But the old man resolutely refused to eat, "I brought steamed bread." He sat cross-legged on his son's bed, holding a picture of his son holding a gun and saying to the company commander and instructor: "He has a gun in his hand now, and I and his mother can't let go of their hearts, so they will come and ask him a few words." Our baby, the culture is not high, when I was a child, I liked to fight with the children in the village, but now you have a gun in your hand, the gun is not a burning stick... Guns are aimed at reactionaries. ”

The son interjected: "Not a reactionary, but an enemy." ”

"Enemies? Yes, enemy, isn't the enemy a reactionary? ”

The instructor said: "The reactionaries and the enemy have one meaning. ”

...... The company commander, the instructor and his son Zhang Tongxiang did not keep the old man, the military affairs section sent a jeep to take him to the train station, he did not let him, carrying a fold on his shoulder, inside the fold was his steamed bun, and left. It was far away, and everyone was still saluting him, and the hands that were raised could not be put down for a long time.

Soon, the guard company carried out the education of "holding a steel gun in hand, thinking of the people, and defending the motherland.", and let every cadre and soldier talk about his feelings in his heart on the expectations and instructions of a father. After this education, the attitude of cadres and soldiers toward the masses of the people stationed in the garrison was shortened: During the training of war readiness, the time for road closures was shortened; when ordinary people who encountered acute illness at night, flashlights were prepared in each class, and the soldiers on duty sent patients directly to the health team. Three months later we returned to the flying brigade, and at the summary and commendation meeting of the whole team at the end of this year, Zhang Tongxiang, who we are familiar with, was awarded the third class of merit, and his deeds are related to the barking of dogs:

In the early morning of May 25, a dog barked rapidly in the direction of Anzhuang, 3.5 kilometers away, which immediately attracted more than a dozen dogs in the village to bark together. Zhang Tongxiang, who came out of the northern countryside, was too familiar with dog barking, and after careful screening, he used the telephone on the sentry to transfer the switchboard to Anzhuang. The person who answered the phone was an old man, And Zhang Tongxiang told him: The dogs in your village are barking, and there may be strangers coming to your village. "The dog barks...?" Don't dogs bark every day? Thank you. "That night, there was really a major theft in Anzhuang, and the next morning, the police of the local public security bureau came to the troops to find out about the soldier who called. Zhang Tongxiang told the police: At 2:03, three or four people entered Anzhuang, and at 2:27 a.m., these people went east after leaving Anzhuang and entered the village from the land south of Huangxinzhuang. The nearest one had a big dog that stopped barking only twice, and made an "Oh—" sound, indicating that there were dog owners among these people, and if they were stealing, the thief was here. The police car drove past, and within three minutes, everyone was in possession of the loot. At three o'clock in the morning on October 21, it was also a rapid dog bark, and the sound was faint, it was Nanfuyuan, 15 kilometers away. Or the blacksmith's camp, also far to the east? Zhang Tongxiang distinguished. Such a dog barks unusually... Approaching, it was He Zhaoyun Village, 10 kilometers away, and after another rapid cry, it quickly stopped. Zhang Tongxiang judged that there was a group of people quickly passing through HeZhaoyun Village, such a night, so hurried to hurry, and it was coming in this direction... Zhang Tongxiang reported to the squad leader by telephone: "I judged that there were critical patients coming to us, and suggested that the door of post No. 1 in the north should be opened to let the people come in from here." ”

Zhao Xiaoluo, Pan Longhua and others in the class ran to the No. 1 post and received a fellow who had his arm cut off by a threshing machine. The soldiers snatched the stretcher and sent it directly to the health team, and after overnight surgery, the arms of the fellows were revived.

Zhang Tongxiang was therefore called "the warrior who stood guard for us" by the people stationed there.

Two years later, Zhang Tongxiang was rated as a model individual of "double support" by the people's government of the locality, and the guard company was also rated as an advanced unit of "double support", which is the highest honor of this army and military personnel. Our 10 aircrews, as former soldiers of the guard company, together with Zhang Tongxiang, under the leadership of the company commander, participated in the award ceremony organized by the local government with 3,000 people. When he took the stage to speak, the company commander spoke of a father's instructions and expectations, and finally said: "We are the people's army, the sons of your guns." ”

Author: Wu Jianguo

Editor: Qian Yutong