Written by Wang Zhezhong
Mr. Wang Zhezhong
Looking back on the journey of life, the footprints of my life are deep and deep, shallow and shallow. The experience is both colorful and simple and straightforward. In a nutshell: peasant children - adolescent students - soldiers. 15 years of campus life, 35 years of military career, retired veteran comrades.
Kami Kogaku Nichiko
My hometown is in Sunduan Village, Changliu Township, Qianxian County, Shaanxi Province (merged into Chengguan Township a few years ago). Our village is surrounded by fertile fields of Pingchuan, the village is in the south of the county seat, ten miles away from the county seat, and about twenty-two miles away from the tomb of Tang Gaozong Li Zhi and Wu Zetian on Liangshan Mountain in the north of the city.
Our Sun Duan Village is in Qianxian County, which is also a treasure land of feng shui. I remember when I was a child, the east gate and the south gate of the village were opened, and the four big characters "Purple Qi from the East" were written on the east gate. There is a Buddhist hall on the north side of the east gate, which enshrines Guanyin Bodhisattva, and the courtyard is planted with flowers such as the moon season. Some elderly people will light red candles in the Buddhist hall every now and then and engage in some activities of reciting scriptures and worshiping the Buddha.
Our village's primary school is located on the west side of the Buddhist hall, and the school has two classrooms, one of which contains the teacher's bedroom. The facilities in the classrooms are rudimentary, with only one blackboard, a dozen desks and a dozen benches per classroom. Outside the classroom, there is a small playground enclosed by earthen walls.
In the spring of 1948, I began to study at the primary school in my village (at that time, many people in the village called school study). The teacher at the school is called Qin Huairang, who is in his 50s and quite tall. The school has four grades and a total of about 50 students. Teacher Qin and the teacher who replaced him were teaching students in this classroom with bedrooms, while students from other classes were studying in another classroom. At that time, the courses offered were mainly Chinese and arithmetic. I know that my family is poor, and sometimes it is not easy for me to study, so I have been working hard. The teacher attaches great importance to the students' skills in memorizing Chinese lessons, and I have a good memory, and every time I endorse a book, I can memorize it well. Grandpa persuaded me many times that it was better to go through it in my hands than to see it a hundred times. Therefore, while I am familiar with the texts and insist on memorizing, I often use small block letters to copy the texts, which consolidates my memory and also has the effect of practicing words.
At that time, primary schools were designated as "four years of primary school" (four years of junior primary school and two years of upper primary school), and the vast majority of rural primary schools did not have upper primary schools. In the blink of an eye, I finished the fourth grade in the village, so I had to go to Chengguan Erwan Primary School (abbreviation of the second complete primary school) in the county seat to study in the fifth or sixth grade. I remember when I reported at the small gate of Erwan, I didn't have a big name, so I regretted that I didn't invite people in the ethnic group who are deep (that is, knowledgeable) earlier, to give myself a nice and elegant name, so I had to temporarily hold on to my feet and think about it, and suddenly thought that I heard that there is a play called Ren Zhezhong in Yongshou County who sings very well, so let's call Wang Zhezhong, but our loyalty is more than his middle and lower heart words. The name that came down in such a vague way has been called until now.
When I go to school after the second elementary school, eating is very different from at home. There is a cafeteria in the school, but we have no money and can't afford to go to the stove. Then let's find a way, the way is that every Sunday morning, my mother will brand me a pot helmet at home that will last six days, and in the afternoon, I will walk ten miles to school. Every day, when the rice is served, I first put the bun in a bowl, break it with my hands, then pour boiling water, soak it for a while, the bun becomes slightly soft, then sprinkle a little chili flour and salt, stir it with chopsticks, and a "delicacy" is made. There are neither vegetables nor fruits. Later, someone half-jokingly said that according to your way of eating, the stomach should have "struck" a long time ago. However, you say no wonder, until I joined the army, I didn't even take a piece of stomach medicine. Maybe it's God's favor.
At that time, I also encountered a roadblock in my studies. In the primary school in this village, arithmetic is taught less, and the foundation is not laid. In particular, I went to school in the spring to study the second semester of the fifth grade, but I hadn't even attended the first semester of the fifth grade, so I had a hard time learning arithmetic. This is also the case for some students. The teacher said that students who have learning difficulties can go back and continue to study in our school in the second semester of the fourth grade if they wish. I thought to myself, this is a good proposal, we can't look good on the face, and I can't hold it up, so I took the initiative to apply to the fourth grade. In the fourth grade, the teacher demonstrated the principle of arithmetic multiplication and division on the blackboard clearly, and my brain quickly opened up, making up for the shortcomings of poor arithmetic, and in the final exam, I ranked seventh in the class in the overall evaluation of my homework. In the final exams of the four semesters of the fifth and sixth grades, the overall score was the second in the class, and for many years after that, I felt that this was a more correct and even wiser choice on the road of my life.
Six years of Qianxian Middle School
In September 1954, I began to attend Qianxian Middle School, first I was admitted to junior high school, and I studied for three years, and in July 1957, I was admitted to high school, and it was another three years, a total of six years.
Qianxian Middle School is quite famous in the Guanzhong area. It was founded in July 1939. The school site was rebuilt from the original Chenghuang Temple and Wenchang Temple. The first principal was Zhang Runquan, a teacher who graduated from Peking Normal University. Mr. Fan Zidong, an opera writer known as the "Shakespeare" of the East, was a junior high school Chinese teacher in the early days of the school. Among the students who studied in Qianzhong were He Wenzhi, who later grew up to become the former vice minister of China's Ministry of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Li Peicheng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a well-known water conservancy scientist, experts, scholars, scientific and technological personnel, educational and medical workers, and a large number of military cadres.
When I went to school, the principal of Qianxian Middle School was Mr. Zhao Hongdao, who was succeeded by Mr. Xu Yisheng in 1959, and the director of teaching was always Mr. Shangguan Wei. When I first came to school, I was surprised by everything. The school is filled with a harmonious and democratic atmosphere and youthful vitality. I was very happy to hear the sound of reading books around me, and to see my classmates playing basketball and practicing single parallel bars.
However, as time went on, my understanding of the school went a step further and deepened. I am pleased to find that the most valuable thing about this school is that it has a team of highly qualified and dedicated teachers.
Take my homeroom teacher, Mr. He Ruwei, for example. At that time, Ms. He was suffering from eye disease and did not take Chinese classes, so she was our full-time class teacher. At the beginning of the school year, in the first class meeting, after Mr. He briefly introduced himself, he wrote a big "person" in the middle of the blackboard, circled the word "person" with chalk, and then around this theme, he talked about the lessons of the three class meetings with "fairness", "diligence and kindness" and "tenacity and tolerance", which made us refreshed and hazy to understand some of the principles of life. What is even more unforgettable for us is that he always teaches us how to behave with his actions. There are more than 70 students in our class, which is difficult to lead. He is both strict and persuasive, paying attention to individual conversations. My classmates understood that there was a deep love for us in his serious face. He is very concerned about his classmates, often going to the student dormitory at night to check whether the students are sleeping well, and urging the students to get up on time to do morning exercises in the morning. How can students not love such a dedicated teacher. There is also teacher Deng Chongqian, who teaches physical education, when he stands on the playground, his spirit and majesty, his incisive speech, and his standard demonstration actions are very admirable. Once, when it was raining in physical education class, Mr. Deng Chongqian did not just say that you should be free to move, but taught us in the classroom. He talked about the different attitudes of old and new China towards physical education and physical education teachers, especially the story of Wu Chuanyu raising the national flag and playing the national anthem after winning the swimming ranking at the Helsinki Olympics in Finland. He spoke very emotionally and vividly, and it can be said that he gave us a profound lesson in patriotic education. In 1957, Mr. Deng was transferred to the Physical Education Department of Shaanxi Normal University.
At that time, although there was no concept or theory that knowledge can change fate, everyone understood in their hearts that their parents had the desire to smash pots and sell iron to provide for their own education, and they had to study hard. Secondly, I also know very well that in the past six years of middle school, how well I study determines whether I can go to university; if I don't study well, I will have no fun in college in the future, and my dream of jumping out of the farm will inevitably be shattered, so I am very diligent. It is self-evident to listen attentively in class and do homework well after class. When I first entered the school, the school had not yet been powered on, and during the evening self-study, the students on duty would go to the gas lamp room to light the gas lamp and take it back to the classroom to line up, and then send it back to the gas lamp room after self-study. In order to continue studying on Saturdays and Sundays, and sometimes want to drive at night, the students use inkwells to make small kerosene lamps. Just in the bright light the size of a bean, reading a book or doing homework. It was probably not until 1958 that the school was electrified.
Our school not only attaches great importance to intellectual education, but also attaches great importance to the all-round development of students. In the spring of 1955, the school organized all teachers and students to visit Wugong Agricultural College (now Northwest A&F University) on foot, which broadened our horizons. The school also promotes extracurricular reading activities. In those years, in addition to reading Ba Jin's "Home", "Spring" and "Autumn", I also read "Mao Zedong's Youth" written by Xiao San, "How Steel is Made" written by Ostrovsky, and "Report from the Gallows" written by Vucik. At that time, Mr. Wang Xingde, the head teacher at that time, also organized a large-scale theme class meeting for us to study "Dedicate Everything to the Party" written by Paul Kochajin and Wu Yunduo in China. The history of human reading is the history of people's spiritual growth. Reading activities have provided us with abundant spiritual food and played a subtle role in forming a correct outlook on life.
My academic performance has always been at the top of my class, so in the second semester of the second year of junior high school, I was rated as an excellent student by the school. I remember when I went to the rostrum to receive the award, I heard a few girls on the side of the road whispering: "That classmate is wearing rotten clothes, and he is still an excellent student!" Actually, my clothes are not bad. My clothes were sewn by my mother from the homespun cloth she had worked so hard to weave, and I felt very good, but after wearing them for a long time, they looked a little old. To be honest, I have long had a philosophy: we don't compare food with others, nor do we compare clothes, it depends on who learns better. It was with the support of this concept that when I graduated from junior high school in July 1957, all my main courses were scored five points according to the Soviet-style (joint) education scoring method that was in common at that time.
In high school, the school's school building and teaching hardware have basically not changed, but the teachers are more dedicated, and the physics teacher Guo Zhenhua, the chemistry teacher Qu Chongguang, and the algebra teacher Mu Junying, etc., are all serious and responsible for the students, and they devote themselves to studying teaching methods. The students also consciously "pressurized" themselves and studied hard, and driving night trains became almost commonplace. Unexpectedly, in the autumn of the second year, it was proposed that the school should also make steel, so our whole class pulled up the roll and set up camp by the Swill River in Yangzhuang Town, this county, built a blast furnace, and pulled up a large bellows to make iron. However, the steel smelted is all collected and scrap iron is re-smelted, and it is not interesting to waste money and make shows. Despite this, because it was the call from above, the nationwide "Great Leap Forward" movement, the students still ignored the cold weather, stepped on the mud barefoot, and burned the brick and blast furnace by themselves. Faced with this situation, the teacher can only organize the students to take turns in class, thus reducing the loss of teaching. Fortunately, after a long period of time, the above took the initiative to correct this practice, allowing the students to return to school and restore normal teaching order.
There is one more thing that can be said. In the winter of 1959, Comrade Wang Bingnan, a veteran revolutionary cadre who had come out of Qianxian County, returned to his hometown to visit his relatives. He was the Chinese ambassador to Poland at the time and the chief representative of the Sino-US ambassadorial-level negotiations. The relevant departments of the county organized a report meeting, and some of my classmates and I were fortunate to listen to Ambassador Wang's report in his hometown. Ye Yongqing, a classmate, wrote in a reminiscence article a few years ago: "Ambassador Wang said in his opening remarks that when he left Beijing, Chairman Mao told him to return to his hometown and mingle with the peasants. Later, I heard that Ambassador Wang had really gone to the trenches and dug soil with the peasants. "After the meeting, everyone gathered around to see Ambassador Wang, and Ambassador Wang said to the students: 'I am also a graduate of the Cadre High School, we are all students, you must study hard and serve the people well in the future.'" "After listening to Ambassador Wang's nearly four-hour report and his remarks, my classmates and I were very excited and motivated.
It should also be mentioned that due to the poverty of my family and the difficulty of financial resources, the state gave me a scholarship during the six years I studied in the middle school. As far as high school is concerned, the state gave me and a few classmates a monthly stipend of 9 yuan, which helped me solve the difficulties in my study and life. If it weren't for the state's scholarship, I would never have thought of finishing middle school. I have always kept in mind this kindness of the party and the country, and I dare not forget it.
From college students to PLA fighters
In high school, I was more fond of literature, but I never thought about what I would do in the future. Therefore, in the 1960 college entrance examination, my first choice was the Department of Political Science and Education of Beijing Normal University, thinking that if I could become a teacher in the future, it would be a joy in life to "get the world's talents and cultivate them", but because I could not reach the score line of Beijing Normal University, I was admitted to the Law Department of Xi'an University of Political Science and Law (now Northwest University of Political Science and Law).
A poor farmer's child can be admitted to university, which has never been in our Lao Wang family group for several lifetimes, needless to say, it can be regarded as a matter of honoring the ancestors. However, that year was what people used to call a three-year difficult period, when there was a shortage of food in the countryside, and sometimes they had to use "melon and vegetable substitutes" to fill their stomachs. So, when I returned home with my college acceptance letter, the whole family was very happy, but there was not much joy on their faces, and they were probably a little worried about the cost of my schooling. On the day before I left home to go to school in Xi'an, my mother only ordered me a bowl of somen noodles, which was regarded as a reward and reward for me, and it was also my mother's expectation that I would go to college.
At that time, in addition to the law department I applied for, Xi'an University of Political Science and Law also had the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Political Economy, the Department of Party History, and the Department of Journalism. The environment and infrastructure of the school are still very good, there is a large auditorium, a large playground, a library building, a student canteen, and a building for each department. Compared to primary and secondary schools, it is much more spacious and magnificent.
The head of our law department is Mr. Guo Huaidu, the secretary of the department is called Wang Jiazhen, and the secretaries are Liu Tairong and Shi Tingzhong. At that time, the international situation was complicated. Soon after entering the school, the department organized us to study three articles, including "Long Live Leninism," which were all about the major events of the Sino-Soviet polemic, and although the students could not fully understand the contents of the articles for a while, they all supported the line, principles, and policies of the Party Central Committee on the international communist movement. The public basic courses are Chinese, Party History, and Political Economy. Party history and political economy are concentrated in the auditorium, there are no teaching materials, sometimes a lecture note is distributed, and I mainly rely on myself to take notes in class. The teachers who give lectures are very knowledgeable and well-taught. For example, the teacher who teaches Chinese has a profound knowledge of ancient literature, and he teaches ancient literature deeply and thoroughly, and the tone of recitation is also unique. At that time, the teacher who taught the history of the party told us about Mao Zedong's correspondence with Cai Hesen, who was working and studying in France, on the issue of party building, as well as "The Great Union of the People" and other works, which I still have a deep impression on.
According to the economic situation of the students' families, the school will assess and give subsidies for living expenses and school supplies, with a maximum of 13 yuan per person per month and no more than 3 yuan per person per month for school supplies. Give me a monthly subsidy of 13 yuan for living expenses and 2 yuan for school supplies. This money is the kind care of the party and the government for a poor peasant child who is going to university, and it is like the rain on a dry day, which nourishes my heart and also increases my motivation to study.
At that time, we only had two classes a day, and if there was physical education, it was only three classes, so we had a lot of free time. In addition to classroom study, I studied books such as "The Communist Manifesto" and "The State and Revolution" on my own, and then I ran to the library. The newspapers and periodicals I read a lot include Guangming Daily, China Youth Daily, and Script. In this way, the scope of knowledge will be broader, the foundation of knowledge will be more solid, and the academic performance will be better. Therefore, I was elected as a member of the study committee of the class, and I was also rated as a student of the "three harvests" of thought, study and labor by the department.
There's one more thing that's interesting. At that time, Shaanxi Normal University and Xi'an College of Foreign Chinese and Foreign Affairs, opposite our school, often held dance parties on weekends and evenings, and some senior students from our school and law department liked to go there to dance and came back late. Later, our school also started holding a dance party on Saturdays in the big cafeteria. The music at the dance was loud and could be heard in the dormitory, and most of us students from the countryside couldn't dance, so we quietly climbed out of the window to watch. Hi, seeing a man and a woman hugging each other and dancing around, it's a bit weird, it's shy, and I feel embarrassed. I looked at it for a while and hurried back to my dorm.
Life on a university campus is enjoyable, colorful, and nostalgic. The clock was in mid-June 1962. One morning, the students were gathered in the auditorium for a meeting. A leader of the school first made a report on the international situation and the preparations for a counterattack on the mainland by the Chiang Kai-shek clique entrenched in Taiwan, and then resumed the meeting after a 10-minute break, the content of which was the recruitment and mobilization of military service, and called on the students to actively sign up to join the army and serve the country. On the way to the meeting, a classmate with a good relationship asked me what I was thinking about, and I replied that this matter is simple, didn't the school leaders say it, joining the army and serving in the military is a sacred obligation of citizens, and Chiang Kai-shek is still about to move, so what can be vague about signing up for the army!
In fact, after thinking about it in the afternoon, I helped myself find two reasons to be determined. I think that we are college students trained by the party, and we often say that we must obey the party's call, and now the party has called us to be soldiers to go to the front, and we must respond positively no matter what. I also thought that when we were in the first grade, we wrote an application for joining the party, saying that we should listen to the party and always follow the party, and we also said that let the party test us, and now is not a severe test? After thinking more thoroughly and understandingly, I made up my mind and went to register the next day.
About two or three days later, I started the physical examination, and I passed all the items. The school gave us more than a week off to go home and talk to our families and say goodbye. When I returned to my home in Qianxian, I told my father about it. He called my grandfather, mother-in-law (i.e., grandmother) and my mother together and asked me to talk about signing up for the army. Before and in the early days of liberation, my father worked as a clerk in a business called Zhengxingtong in Jianjun Town, Yongshou County. As soon as I finished speaking, my father said bluntly, it seems that you haven't read the book in vain all these years. Someone in the village said, "You are a good student, why do you go to eat food (referring to being a soldier), I said to them, "The rise and fall of the country, the husband is responsible", now is the time for the country to employ people, as a soldier to defend the country naturally to rank first. He went on to say, you are worthy of being the descendant of our royal family. Back then, to resist US aggression and aid Korea, your father (uncle) was already 32 years old, and he shaved his beard and went to North Korea with the army without saying a word. You actively signed up to join the army this time, which can be regarded as winning glory for our Wang family. You don't have to worry about the affairs of the family, there is still a large family. Don't say anything more, just go to your uncle and tell them about it in the last few days. When my father spoke, the whole family nodded in approval, and my heart became brighter and more down-to-earth.
After four or five days at home, when I was leaving, my family and a few relatives and friends sent me to the entrance of the village, my mother's eyes were shining with tears, and my father told me to do a good job in the army. I looked at my parents intently, nodded, and said, "Okay!" I turned around and strode towards the county seat, and then took the car back to Xi'an.
It was an important turning point in my life path. On July 12, 1962, our conscripts gathered at the Xiaozhai Construction Engineering School. The recruits in Xi'an and the recruits in Baoji were organized into one recruit corps. The commander of the new regiment heard that I was the commander of the second battalion of this regiment that I was going to serve, and his name was Wu Zhong. He gave me a job: secretary (clerk) of the regimental headquarters of the new regiment, which of course was temporary. In the afternoon of the next day, our recruits from Xi'an set off from Xi'an West Railway Station, took a stuffy tank train for four days and five nights, and stopped at a station called Yanhu, because the train had not yet reached Urumqi. There, they watched the Xinjiang Military Region Art Troupe's performance of the newspaper drama "Nehru Anti-China" and other programs, which gave people a tense and solemn atmosphere. Then he transferred to a car and drove on the road for another four days, arriving at Aksu, where the regiment headquarters was located, on July 20. From there, I began the life of the military camp in the snowy frontier, and I became an upright soldier of the People's Liberation Army.
Exercise and grow in the hot barracks
In July 1962, in response to the party's call, I threw my pen from Rong and came to Aksu, an important town in the western border of the motherland. On July 20, as soon as I arrived at the regimental headquarters, the recruits were directly assigned to various companies, and I was assigned to the second company. According to the briefings of the leaders, our regiment is a unit led by General Wang Zhen, and its work style is very tough, it is very capable of enduring hardships, and it is very capable of fighting, and many meritorious heroes and models have emerged. Not long after, the regiment also invited Du Lihai, a combat hero who was transferred to the First Agricultural Division of the Production and Construction Corps many years ago, to give us a traditional report. In November and December, the regiment also organized and carried out activities to learn from the heroes and heroes of our regiment who participated in the Sino-Indian border self-defense counterattack. All this has made me deeply educated and inspired, and I have thought about doing a good job, being a good soldier, living up to the expectations of the leaders, and being worthy of myself.
In April 1963, with the publication of Chairman Mao's inscription "Learn from Comrade Lei Feng", the army set off an upsurge of learning from Lei Feng. Comrade Lei Feng's noble qualities deeply educated me, and I wrote an article on "how to be a man and for whom to live", which was published in the magazine "Branch Life" in Xinjiang. This is also the first time my article has appeared in the press.
May 3, 1963 was an unforgettable day in my life. I was approved to join the Chinese Communist Party. My introducers to join the party were company commander Lu Lichun and platoon commander Sun Jihong. Originally, on 17 January, the party branch of the company approved my application for joining the party, but perhaps because I did not pass the live firing practice of heavy machine gun at the end of last year, the battalion party committee did not approve it. This was a test for me, but fortunately, I had a good attitude and did not lose heart, but grasped my shortcomings, insisted on training hard, improved my level of live ammunition shooting, and withstood this test. At the year-end summary of the company, I was rated as a pacesetter of the five good soldiers and won the title of special shooter.
At the beginning of 1964, I participated in the essay training on "Four Good Companies, Five Good Soldiers, and New People and New Things" organized by the Xinjiang Military Region. With the help and guidance of Zhang Jingkun, section chief of the Literature and Art Section of the Ministry of Culture of the Military Region, and Mr. Ding Lang, I, a novice who had just set foot in the field of literary creation, wrote a reportage entitled "Flying Around," which reflected the dedication of Ma Dexiu, a soldier of our regiment, and his assiduous study of military technology, which was later published in the May 1964 issue of Xinjiang Literature.
At the year-end summary in 1964, I was rated as a pacesetter of the five good soldiers of the division directly under the division, and once again won the title of special shooter.
In June 1965, I attended a meeting of activists from advanced units of the Xinjiang Military Region to study Chairman Mao's writings. In August of the same year, he attended the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Youth Socialist Construction Activists Conference. In September of the same year, he was promoted to work and was appointed as a staff officer of the training section of the division headquarters. From joining the party to being promoted, the battalion and company leaders have never drunk a glass of water or smoked a cigarette from me. In November, he was recommended by the military region to attend the National Conference of Young Amateur Literary Creation Activists, and was honored to meet the respected Premier Zhou Enlai, Chairman Zhu De, and other central leading comrades.
In the face of the successive honors, I can't help but think of two poems by Zheng Banqiao, one of the "Eight Monsters of Yangzhou" in the Qing Dynasty: The new bamboo is higher than the old bamboo branches, and it is all supported by the old cadres. Yes, the achievements I have made are the result of the education and training of party organizations and leaders at all levels, and the result of the support and help of many comrades-in-arms. I warn myself that we must be modest and cautious, guard against arrogance and rashness, take one step at a time, and continue to move forward!
On February 18, 1966, under the leadership of Long Yun, chief of the direct engineering section of the division headquarters, I participated in the social education work of the five major brigades of Wucha Commune, Ingisha County. The working group also has a secretary general of the engineer battalion of the unit directly under our division and a local Chinese interpreter. One Uyghur cadre is the deputy leader, and there are five Uyghur cadres (three men and two women). I sometimes assist Section Chief Yun in some work, mainly focusing on militia work. At that time, I didn't have much to do, so I took the initiative to work more with the members and insisted on doing more good deeds. The three teams of poor peasants, Yulong Sutuohuti, and his wife are nearly 80 years old and have no children, and they usually walk wheezing, and if they go to the water mill in the ditch to grind their noodles, it must be very difficult. I went to his house, sifted more than 60 catties of wheat for him, and carried it to the water mill the next day to grind it. When he was sick, I asked a doctor to see him, and he also collected firewood and water, and the old man was very moved. One day at the entrance of the village, he faced me and said a few words with a smile to a group of people, and they all laughed and made me inexplicable. Fortunately, at this time, a Uyghur cadre came, he knew some Chinese, and the translator said: "You don't want to go back to your mouth, just find you a daughter-in-law here, and you can settle down with us." After hearing this, I had to nod and say two words: "Rehemaiti, Rehemaiti (thank you)!" Everyone understood that it was just a good-natured joke, so after laughing happily, they slowly walked away. At the beginning of November of this year, the social education ended, and I returned to the army barracks. Within a few days, I discovered that both the organs and the army had set off an upsurge of studying and reciting the "Old Three Articles" of Mao Xuan's works.
In February 1967, I was transferred to the People's Liberation Army Literature and Art Society of the Ministry of Culture of the General Political Department, and was assigned to the prose group as an assistant editor. Soon after, under the leadership of the veteran editor Zhang Zhong and the leader of the prose group and the poet Ji Peng, I went to Jinan, Shenyang, and other places to collect and write manuscripts on the troops' participation in the "support for the left" and "support for the work." Later, I also went to a certain department in Baoding to organize a manuscript. Usually in the editorial department, I mainly read the first draft and fill in the comments. The editorial department has to hold a pre-editorial meeting every time a manuscript is ready for publication. At the pre-editorial meeting, listening to the comments of the editor-in-chief, deputy editor-in-chief and veteran editors on the manuscript was equivalent to learning in class, which was really refreshing and beneficial.
Around the time of the National Day in 1968, according to the arrangements of the superiors, we were gathered together to study, fight, criticize, and reform. Because there are leaders from above, and everyone is educated, the movement is relatively safe.
At the end of 1969, the Struggle, Criticism, and Reform Movement ended. In order to solve the problem of separation between husband and wife, I asked to be transferred back to work in the Hanzhong Military Division, and the organization agreed to my request.
At the beginning of 1970, after I was transferred back to Shaanxi, I began to work in the Hanzhong Military Division. In March, he accompanied Meng Shicheng, the head of the Hanzhong Regional War Readiness Office, to investigate the construction site of the Ningqiang militia in the construction of the Yang (Pingguan) An (Kang) line. In those days, the construction of railways and highways was not mechanized like now, and it was mainly manual work. The environment is difficult and labor-intensive. I saw the militiamen living in tents, eating rough meals, digging rocks with iron drills, hammers and pickaxes, and filling the roadbed with rack carts. I can't help but think that in the future, when you sit on the train and go along this line conveniently, don't forget these people who sweat for the construction of the railway!
At the end of this year, Chairman Mao issued an instruction that the army should conduct camp training. In accordance with the instructions of the head of the military sub-district, together with two other comrades of the military sub-district, I led the militia of the regional general machinery factory and the regional post and telecommunications bureau to conduct a week-long camping training along some places (mostly mountain roads) in Xixiang County and Yangxian County, and successfully completed the task.
On March 17, 1971 (the 100th anniversary of the Paris Commune), I was transferred to the Propaganda Department of the Political Department of the Shaanxi Provincial Military Region due to work needs. I heard that there are many cultural people here, there are many talents, there is a good learning atmosphere, and the relationship between comrades is harmonious and harmonious, so I am happy that I can work here.
In the Propaganda Department of the Political Department of the Provincial Military Region, I was successively engaged in news reporting, army and militia education, and theoretical research. At the beginning of 1975, he was ordered to participate in the Provincial Military Region's Agricultural Support Task Force, and went to the Jiziwan Brigade of Chafang Commune, Fuxian County, Northern Shaanxi Province to support farmers for nearly a year.
In the year when I was squatting in the countryside, I felt it deeply. Jiziwan (village), located on the bank of the Luohe River on more than ten miles west of Fuxian County, is composed of two production teams, 356 households, living on a hill and a place called Lijiagou. In terms of its natural environment and economic conditions, it is relatively superior and rich in Fuxian. National Highway 210 passes through the front of the village, the traffic is convenient, there are mountains, rivers and plateaus, there are many slopes and few slopes in Pingchuan, you can grow grain and vegetables, vegetables and fruits, hundreds of acres of land are flat and fertile by Luohe River, and belong to irrigable farmland. There is also a forest farm on the hill of Hougou, where dense birch forests and hard miscellaneous trees grow, and dozens of goats are raised. To be honest, as long as you work hard, it is more than enough to feed 180 families. However, against the background of the era of "class struggle as the key link" at that time, what was practiced was the collective economic system of "one large and two public" and the distribution system of "big pot rice"; a single "grain as the key link" was practiced, the agricultural output was low, sideline jobs were not allowed to be carried out, diversified operations were restricted, the masses' enthusiasm for production could not be mobilized, work was to earn a share of labor, one job (ten) was not worth a few cents, there was no way to generate income, there was no hope of getting rich, and although the grain planted could barely feed the stomach, life was rather panicked. Half of the families in the village live in old earthen caves on the slopes of the mountain, some children cannot afford to go to school, and a few poor households rely on state assistance to get by. In the words of an economic expert, it is "a place where we should not be poor but we have not found a way to get rich, begging for food with a golden bowl!" After the peasant support work team was stationed, the higher authorities demanded that we practice the "three sames" with the masses: eat together, live together, and work together. We work in the fields with the members every day, ploughing in the spring, plowing in the summer, harvesting in the autumn and hiding in the winter, and we are not afraid in the wind, rain, mud and water. More importantly, after you go to the countryside, as long as you are willing to plunge down to the fields and work together with the masses of members, the masses will regard you as their own family and will be willing to get close to you and have a common language, and the mass work will be very smooth. But to be honest, although the army organized a team to support agriculture at that time to provide some help, the general direction was right and the starting point was very good. However, in the policy environment at that time, how to proceed from reality, solve the fundamental crux of the rural problems and mobilize the production enthusiasm of the broad masses of peasants required policy guidance and support at the national level, and were beyond the reach of the agricultural support team. Therefore, after the work team entered the village, although it was very determined and enthusiastic, and it was willing to sweat hard, and did a lot of good things for the masses from morning to night, to be honest, on the whole, the results were not remarkable.
In the second half of 1979, when the cadres of the provincial military district organs were graded and fixed, I was rated as a deputy regimental officer. At the end of the year, he was appointed deputy political commissar of the Third Independent Regiment of the Shaanxi Provincial Military Region, which was actually in April 1980.
In December 1982, the military system was reformed. The 3rd Independent Regiment I belonged to became the 3rd Detachment of the Shaanxi Provincial Corps, a newly formed Chinese People's Armed Police Force. I was transferred to the Propaganda Division of the Political Department of the Corps as the head of the Division. At the end of 1984, he went to the newly established Xi'an Command School of the Armed Police Force to serve as deputy political commissar and deputy secretary of the provisional party committee, presiding over the overall work of the school.
In July 1986, he was appointed Director of the Political Department of the Shaanxi Armed Police Corps. In December 1988, he was awarded the rank of Colonel of the Armed Police. In December 991, he served as the deputy political commissar of the Shaanxi Provincial Armed Police Corps. In December 1992, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel of the Armed Police. In March 1996, the corps was upgraded from a full division to a deputy military rank, and the rank and salary of the incumbent leading cadres of the organs also increased, and I, the deputy political commissar, became a cadre at the rank of full division.
During the more than 10 years that I have served as a leading cadre in the political work of the corps, I have never forgotten my original aspiration, kept my mission firmly in mind, inherited and carried forward the fine traditions of our army's political work, conscientiously implemented the instructions of the Central Military Commission and the Armed Police General Headquarters on political work in the new period, adhered to the style of seeking truth from facts, paid attention to going down to the grassroots level, and did a great deal of work that achieved certain results for party building, propaganda and education, the building of the contingent of cadres, and the joint building of both sides and support. In normal times, I study hard, pay attention to setting an example, and be honest and honest, so I have a good reputation among the vast number of officers and men.
During this period, at the end of the first half of 1992, in order to welcome the 50th anniversary of the double-support movement, I was appointed by the party committee of the corps and went to Yan'an six times with Comrade Zhang Shiquan, deputy director of the political department of the corps, to grasp the construction of the double-support point jointly built by our Yan'an detachment and Zaoyuan Middle School. In January 1993, a national meeting to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Yan'an Double Support Movement was held in Yan'an. Liu Huaqing, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Zou Jiahua, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council, and other central leading comrades who came to attend the meeting inspected Zaoyuan Middle School and other units jointly built by our armed police force and the localities, and spoke highly of our military-civilian relations and our active participation in activities to support local construction.
During this period, from August 1993 to April 1994, I led more than 1,000 officers and men of the PLA Corps to Xiji County, Guyuan Prefecture, Ningxia, together with Wen Zhenxiang, deputy head of the corps, Wang Haihu, chief of staff, Zhang Shiquan, deputy director of the Political Department, and Li Jilong, deputy director of the Logistics Department. Under the leadership of the head of the Armed Police Headquarters and the responsible comrades of the autonomous region, we have organized officers and men to go deep among the masses to actively propagate the party's policies, conduct investigations and studies, mediate contradictions, do great good deeds, carry out vigorous ideological and political work, gradually eliminate the antagonistic sentiments of the masses of different sects, disintegrate and crack down on the law-breaking forces instigated behind the scenes, and calm down the situation. Afterwards, the corps was commended by the Armed Police Headquarters and gave me a third-class meritorious service.
When I talk about all of the above, I will never forget that in my many years of military career, the party organizations at all levels have educated and cultivated me, and the vast number of comrades-in-arms have helped and supported me. I still deeply miss my old squad leader Yang Shengfu, old platoon leader Sun Jihong, old company commander Lu Lichun, old instructor Huang Jiaji, and many old leaders, Dong Zhishun, the old director of the provincial military region, and xxx, the old director of the armed police corps, etc., who have devoted a lot of effort to my growth and progress. It was precisely under their guidance and support that I stepped up from an ordinary soldier to the post of leader of the army. This is not a polite word, but a voice from the heart.
In March 1997, I retired due to my age. In 1998, he was invited to participate in the editing of the book "Exploration and Practice of Discipline Inspection and Supervision in Shaanxi Colleges and Universities" by the Provincial Education Discipline Inspection Work Committee, and served as the deputy editor-in-chief. Later, on the recommendation of Comrade Dong Zhishun, my old director of the Propaganda Department of the Political Department of the Provincial Military Region, who later served as the political commissar of the Yan'an Military Sub-district, and who served as the deputy director of the Provincial Press and Publication Bureau after changing jobs, I went to the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection to help edit the "Party Style and Clean Government" magazine, which lasted about a year and a half. These can probably be regarded as a little "residual heat"!
Some of the experiences and mental trajectories of study and work in the early years are written here. The years are like songs, and although those days are gradually moving away, many of them are unforgettable and unforgettable for me. To expand a little further, this is also a testimony of youth, and it can also be said to be a mark of the life history of all living beings in that era. So, I'd like to spend some time writing about it.
Drafted in September 2022