#头条创作挑战赛#
An unforgettable retirement of fighters
Feng Zhengrong
As the saying goes, the iron battalion is the soldier of the flowing water. There is also a saying that there is no banquet in the world that will never be dispersed. These two sayings could not be more appropriate for our troops' annual discharge work. As long as you have been a soldier, mentioning the word "discharge" will bring back many unforgettable memories.
Group photo of all the veterans of the company. The author Feng Zhengrong (second row, fifth from left), the first row leader Sun Cunwan (second row, third from left), the teacher Wu Yongxin (first row from right), Wen Saike (third row from right), basketball player Wei Anye (first row from left), and soldier Li Ke (third from left in the third row)
I served as an instructor in the 13th Company of the 18th Automobile Regiment (later reorganized into the 10th Company) for more than four years, and organized four times for soldiers to be discharged from the army. What I remember the most was the discharge from the army in 1982, when my superiors allocated me 18 places for the company, and we reluctantly arranged for several cultural and sports backbones of the company to be discharged. Now I look at the photo with the veterans at that time, and the familiar faces appear in front of my eyes, more than 40 years have passed, and the scene of organizing the veterans work at that time is vivid.
It was October 1982, and our company was scattered on duty in Ya'an, Xinjin, Emei, and other places in the interior of Sichuan. At that time, most of the personnel and vehicles were on duty in Ya'an, and I and a platoon leader, Sun Cunwan, each drove a Jiefang brand truck and pulled more than 60 people on duty back to the company.
At that time, the company commander of our company, Kou Congjun (a native of Zhongxiang County, Hubei Province, who enlisted in the army in December 1969 and is now from Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province), returned to Wuhan, Hubei Province for vacation, and I was the only company commander. After the demobilization work began, I made a mobilization at the servicemen's meeting, mainly talking about the situation after the country's reform and opening up, and also talked about the basic requirements of the demobilization work, hoping that every comrade who has served beyond the time limit will have a red heart and be prepared with both hands.
The list of discharges submitted by our company has been approved. On the morning of October 23, the company held a military meeting in the canteen to announce the list of dischargers. When I finished announcing the list, I talked about the comrades-in-arms who are about to leave the army, who have been fighting on the Sichuan-Tibet line all the year round and have made great contributions to Tibet's border defense construction, and I hope that after they return to the localities, they will take advantage of the east wind of reform and opening up to make greater contributions to the country's economic construction. Please send off your old comrades-in-arms with warm applause! The venue resounded with long-lasting applause.
This year, according to the actual situation of the veterans and the soldiers of the company in the notice of discharge work, Wu Yongxin, the company's instructor, Saike, the company's excellent clerk, and Wei Anye, the company's main basketball player, were all on the list of veterans. Some of these backbone cadres are those who have been notified by their superiors that they must leave the army, and some of them have special circumstances and apply for discharge from the army themselves. In either case, it was the backbone of our company that was reluctant to let them leave the unit.
The author, Feng Zhengrong (second from right), distributes souvenirs to the veterans of the company
I have been a soldier for six years and am a company instructor, and I was a very young company commander on the Sichuan-Tibet line at that time. As an instructor, I wholeheartedly wanted to turn the company into an advanced unit, and I paid attention to the comprehensive building of the company, attaching importance to both the company's safe transportation and the company's cultural and sports activities. This time, I arranged for a few cultural and sports backbones to leave the team, as if I had cut off my heart, and I was really reluctant!
Wu Yongxin is a native of Xinyi City, Xinyi County, Guangdong Province, who enlisted in the army in December 1974, and is a tenor singer of the company.
Saike was a native of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, who enlisted in the army in December 1976, and he served as a company clerk twice, writing articles, making reports, and handling board reports. At that time, there was a movie called "Good Soldier Shuaike", and everyone said that our company had a "Good Soldier Saike".
Wei Anye is a native of Yongji County, Shanxi Province, who enlisted in December 1978, he is the main member of the company's basketball team, he plays guard and is the organizer of the team's offense, he plays as a forward to grab rebounds quickly, has a high shooting rate, and is a master of the team's scoring. Our company has a basketball game with a friendly neighbor company, and as long as Guardeye is on the court, the probability of winning is very high, and he is a rare sports backbone of the company.
On the morning of October 23, after the announcement of the list of dischargers, a ceremony was held on the playground at the entrance of the company. The 18 comrades-in-arms who were about to be discharged from the army stood in the first row neatly, the representatives of the 18 soldiers who remained in the team stood face to face with the veterans, and the company correspondent held an enamel plate, on which a red cloth was spread, ready to put the collar badge and cockade. I announce: The ceremony of taking off the collar badge and cockade has begun, and the veterans are invited to take off their hats! The 18 veterans held their military caps in their hands in unison. When the comrades-in-arms who stayed in the team took off the collar badges and caps for the veteran comrades-in-arms, everyone had tears in their eyes, and there were thousands of reluctances.
At that time, the collar badge hat was worn on the head of a red star, and the revolutionary red flag was hung on both sides, which looked very simple. But wearing it is a soldier, shouldering the responsibility of protecting the family and defending the country, and taking it off means the transformation from a soldier to a common man. These bloody, sweaty and blood-blooded young people who did not shed tears did not shed tears in the Sichuan-Tibet line, fighting the wind and snow and the severe cold, and when they took off the collar badge and cockade, they still did not hold their tear ducts, and they couldn't help but tears burst out of their eyes...... I was in tears as I watched it......
The author, Feng Zhengrong (first from right), speaks at a symposium of company veterans
On that day, the regimental leaders went to our company to inspect the discharge work, and when they saw that our company's discharge work was in good order, they immediately notified the news reporters in the regiment to take pictures of the company with their cameras, and also informed our company to select a veteran to speak at the farewell ceremony to the military flag on behalf of the veterans of the regiment.
At the beginning of the 80s of the last century, only the news reporters in the regiment had a camera loaded with film, and photography was a relatively luxurious thing, but the news reporters in the regiment at that time still left a set of precious photos of our company's discharge work, which are still preserved in my photo album.
On the afternoon of October 23, a symposium of the company's veteran comrades-in-arms was held in the company's conference room. The company's conference room was hung with colorful stripes, the long conference table was full of melon seeds, peanuts, fruit candy, and I presented souvenirs to each veteran on behalf of the company's party branch. The veterans scrambled to speak, expressing their reluctance to cling to the company, expressing their reluctance to give up their comrades-in-arms, expressing their hope that the company's construction would reach a new level, and expressing that they would never disgrace the company after returning to their localities. Everyone has a common voice: there is a history of being a soldier in life, the soles of the feet have added calmness and atmosphere, the collar badge and cockade have been removed, the whistle and slogan are about to be far away, no matter where they go in the future, they will work hard to achieve good results.
On the 10th and 24th, the veterans made preparations before leaving, and the comrades-in-arms who stayed in the team helped the veterans pack their luggage.
There is a kind of reluctance to take off the military uniform, and there is a feeling called no regrets in the army. On the morning of October 25, the regiment held a farewell ceremony to the military flag on the playground at the entrance of the auditorium, and all the veterans saluted and bid farewell to the military flag. Li Ke, a veteran of our company (enlisted from Xuanhan County, Sichuan Province in November 1979), delivered a speech at the farewell ceremony of the military flag on behalf of the veterans of the regiment, expressing the feelings of the veterans who will eventually face parting despite all the reluctance to do so, and expressing the determination of the veterans to leave the team and not to fade after leaving the army. The farewell ceremony to the military flag is not only a "farewell ceremony" to the military camp, but also a "charge" to start a new journey.
On the afternoon of October 25, the company prepared a sumptuous dinner for the veterans. When the party starts the meal, I still insist on a song before the meal. The soldiers all know that the veterans will get up early tomorrow morning and set off, and this is the last pre-dinner song sung by the comrades-in-arms and the veteran comrades-in-arms in the company, and the conductor of the singing is Wu Yongxin, a veteran soldier, who asked me what song I was singing, and I said, let's sing "Song of My Comrades-in-Arms"! Wu Yongxin walked up the steps in front of the canteen, he waved his hands and beat a powerful beat, and the whole company's singing was louder than ever, and the whole regiment heard the singing of our company.
At that time, there was no rule that soldiers could not drink liquor, so I arranged for the secretary to buy the famous Chinese liquor Luzhou Laojiao, and each class sat at a table.
Author Feng Zhengrong (center) toasts a veteran
At five o'clock in the morning of October 26, the wake-up call in the regiment sounded, everyone quickly got up, and at 5:40 the whole regiment gathered in the square in front of the auditorium to bid farewell to the veterans.
The square was brightly lit, 12 Jiefang brand trucks were neatly arranged, with big red flowers tied on the front of the cars, and slogans such as "Warm farewell to old comrades-in-arms", "The barracks are used as a flaunt, return to their hometowns to create brilliance", "I wish the old comrades-in-arms a smooth journey, and hope that the old comrades-in-arms will make new contributions". The loudspeaker on the roof of the auditorium repeatedly played "comrades-in-arms, comrades-in-arms, like brothers...... and "send comrades-in-arms, embark on the journey, silently and tearfully ......". The veterans of our company who had already gotten on the car jumped out of the car again, ran to me, saluted a standard military salute, and gave a warm hug. Guardan was in tears, and I was in tears......
The vehicle that greeted the veterans slowly drove out of the gate of the regiment headquarters, and the veterans on the car were still waving...... There are thousands of partings in the world, and the most difficult thing to give up is the comradeship......
More than 40 years have passed, and the veterans of my time as an instructor have become retired old people, and with the popularization of smart phones, we have established a group of comrades-in-arms of the company, and most of the comrades-in-arms have joined the group, with greetings in the morning, blessings on holidays, and communication in normal times, just like a warm family.
All the soldiers in our company are good. After arriving in the localities, the three cultural and sports backbones mentioned in this article carried forward the fine traditions of the army and made new contributions to the country's economic construction.
Wu Yongxin, an instructor of the company, went to Zhuhai Huafeng Group to drive after retiring from the army, and became the deputy captain of the team in the second year. At that time, there were more than 100 large and small vehicles in the fleet, and he used the management experience of the army in the fleet management, which created great benefits for Huafeng Group. After retiring in 2015, he was hired by a brewery to manage and continue to exert his spare energy.
After being discharged from the army, the company's clerk Saike was assigned to work in the commercial department of Chengdu, and successively served as a member and section chief of the security department of Chengdu Department Store, director of the security department of Chengdu Department Store (Group) Co., Ltd., and manager of the property development company of Chengdu Department Store (Group) Co., Ltd., and retired in 2019.
After retiring from the army, Wei Anye, a basketball player of the company, became a self-employed person, bought a four-wheeled diesel car, and pulled sand and gravel in a sand and gravel field, earning a lot of money and living a prosperous life. Unfortunately, he died of a heart attack in 2012. What a comrade-in-arms! We will always miss him!
After I joined the army, from a soldier to the political commissar of a regiment-level unit, I went to many units, changed many jobs, and the most memorable part of my history was when I was an instructor in the company, and now my comrades-in-arms in the company still call me an instructor when they see me.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2018, nearly 100 comrades-in-arms from all over the country gathered in Ya'an, Yucheng, for a friendship activity. At that time, comrades-in-arms from Hunan and Hubei, Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Guangdong, Gansu, Sichuan, and Chongqing also came...... Wu Yongxin, the singer of the company mentioned in this article, and the company's clerk Saike are here, but unfortunately the basketball player of the company, Wei Anye, did not wait to reunite with his comrades and died of illness.
The friendship activity that day was also the singing of "Song of Comrades-in-Arms", which was also conducted by Wu Yongxin, the company's instructor, and sang sonorously and powerfully. The loud singing attracted the onlookers of the people. The three-day friendship activities were arranged as "three meetings (a story meeting to inspire fighting spirit, a class meeting to review history, and a heart-to-heart meeting to enhance friendship) and a visit (a visit to the Military History Museum of the Sichuan-Tibet Military Station)".
Our old company is a company of heroes. In 2017, after the Doklam incident, our old company was transferred to the Tibet Military Region and dispersed and divided into various units. At this point, our old company no longer exists. However, the fighting spirit of the old company will always exist, and the comradeship of the old company will always exist.
Unforgettable Senrikawa-Kura Line!
Unforgettable army camp in Jiajiang, Sichuan!
Unforgettable comradeship of our old company!
The author, Feng Zhengrong (second from right), shakes hands with veterans and says goodbye
(Note: The illustrations in this article, except for the group photo of all the veterans, were taken by the news reporters in the regiment at that time)
About the Author:
Feng Zhengrong: A native of Jiuquan City, Gansu Province, born in February 1954, he enlisted in the army in December 1972, and became a car soldier on the Sichuan-Tibet line after enlistment. He served as the secretary of the company, the secretary of the battalion headquarters, the deputy instructor of the company, the instructor, the deputy instructor, the head of the propaganda unit, the head of the military station, the chief of the propaganda section, the political commissar of the large station, and the political commissar of the cadre rest house. He has been awarded the third-class meritorious service four times. After retiring from the army, he has been helping to work in the Sichuan-Tibet Military Station until 2021.
Author: Feng Zhengrong