A. A night military training
B. Go to the regimental laboratory as a tester
c. A lesson from a gun misfire
D. During the days when I was stationed in Zhongba
E. A bridge that unites the national elite
F. I became a supernumerary temporary faculty member
A night military training
In the spring of 1965, after three months of training in Nanhua Middle School in Nanhua County, Yunnan Province, I was assigned to the top squad of the 1st platoon and 1st squad of the 13th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 40th Regiment of the 8th Iron Division.
The 13th Company was first responsible for a reinforced concrete embankment for water storage at a small hydroelectric power station between the two valleys, and its main work was to dig the foundation and pour concrete.
Zhu Kezhen, the commander of the recruit company (enlisted in the army in 1956 and a native of Guizhou), was the first commander of the 13th company of the 40th regiment that had just been formed. Pan Shigen (enlisted in 1959, from Zhejiang), the instructor of the recruit company, was the first instructor of the 13th company. The squad leader was a big man who enlisted in the army in 63. Since it has been 60 years, I have not been in this class for a long time, and I really can't recall his name.
At that time, every soldier in the company was issued a Type 53 carbistol and bullets, the squad leader and deputy squad leader were generally equipped with a Type 5O submachine gun, and the cadres above the platoon level were equipped with a Type 54 pistol. My squad was the top squad of the company, and I was issued with a Czech-style turntable light machine gun, plus a machine gun turntable loaded with 47 rounds of live ammunition and 1 round of false ammunition, with a total weight of 48 catties; In addition, there is 1 co-gunner and 1 barrel in reserve; 1 ammunition player and 6 ammunition discs, including 3 live ammunition discs and 3 empty ammunition discs.
Late one night in April 1965, after a day of intense labor, the soldiers had already fallen asleep. Suddenly, a hurried rallying cry rang out through the valley. The officer on duty shouted: "Get up, pack your backpacks, fully armed, and immediately assemble in the playground!" ”
At this time, the barracks was pitch black, and there was no noise except for the sound of soldiers beating their backpacks. In about 5 minutes, the whole company was assembled. Company Commander Zhu Kezhen announced the order: "I just received a report that a group of bandits infiltrated the dam of the hydropower station in an attempt to sabotage it, and the higher authorities ordered our company to quickly go and annihilate it. Each person wears a white towel on his left hand, and is not allowed to use a flashlight or speak." As soon as the words were finished, he gave the order to "go immediately"!
The dam is about six or seven miles away from the camp. On the rapid march, the company commander took the lead, followed by the platoon commander and squad leader. With a backpack on my back and a machine gun on my shoulder, I followed the large group as I ran under the night sky, the sound of fast-paced running and the crash of machine-gun bullets and cartridges played an incongruous symphony.
At this time, like all recruits, I had experienced this kind of night training for the first time, and I did not know whether the enemy was real or not. I have heard people say before that when this place was liberated, the Kuomintang left behind many bandits and spies. What if you do engage the enemy? Lacking combat experience, I was really a little hairy at that time!
Run, run, and about a mile from the dam, the troops stopped advancing. The company commander announced: News came from the front that the remnants of the bandits had been annihilated by our vanguard troops, and the troops immediately returned to the barracks to rest.
On the way back, the soldiers of the whole company breathed a sigh of relief, and the troops became active all of a sudden, and military songs such as "Return from Target Shooting" and "Railway Soldiers Are Determined to Quartet" resounded in the night sky.
I was not physically strong, so I marched five or six miles with a heavy load, and my belt tied my cotton clothes, satchel, and water bottle tightly, and when I returned to the barracks, my cotton clothes were enough to wring out water.
This was the most memorable night military training in my life.
He went to the regimental laboratory as a tester
I worked in the 13th Company for three months, and then I was transferred to the regimental headquarters laboratory to study as a tester.
The regimental laboratory is a small detachment (79 detachment) under the command, and its operations are under the jurisdiction of the training unit of the headquarters. Its main work is the design of concrete grades for bridges and tunnels in railway construction; Detection of the quality of the various materials used; Supervision and testing of concrete construction quality of bridges and tunnels, as well as detection and identification of subgrade density.
The regular establishment of the laboratory is one director and one technician (cadre), and several testers (soldiers). There is no difference between the size and the rank of the tester, only the difference in the age of the soldier and the amount of allowance, and there is no squad leader or deputy squad leader. Testers are generally stationed in battalions and companies, and their main job is to supervise and inspect the quality of the project.
When I first arrived at the laboratory, the army had not yet cancelled the military rank, and only Director Yuan Xinzhi was a cadre in the laboratory, with the rank of captain, and there was no technician, and the rest were veterans Zhang Yuanming who enlisted in the army in 58, Zhou Chuanfeng in 59, Yang Kesong and Xu Yinsheng in 61 years were all sergeant ranks; 63-year-old Chen Hesheng and Zhao Shuisheng were sergeants; The remaining 65 years were all privates.
Soon, the Military Commission implemented reforms, and all military ranks were abolished. The only difference between cadres and soldiers is clothing, with four pockets on the cadre's coat and two pockets on the soldier's coat.
A lesson in a misfire
One day, I went to the construction site with Technician Zheng of the Operations Unit to inspect the work. At noon, we went to the company headquarters, where Company Commander Wang warmly received us and beckoned us to rest in his office (and dormitory).
There are two desks in the room, one on the left side of the room and the other under the window on the right. After entering the room, I sat down next to the bed of Lian Chang Wang, picked up a book and flipped through it.
At this time, the company correspondent was wiping the pistol for the company commander on the table by the window. Seeing that the correspondent was busy and had gun oil in his hand, Company Commander Wang personally handed us tea. Then he called the messenger to tell the cooking team to get a few dishes. After the correspondent assembled the pistol, he went to the cooking class.
Technician Zheng saw that the pistol was still on the table, so he immediately took it and fiddled with it.
Technical cadres generally do not have guns, and Zheng is a technician who has just graduated from school, has not participated in military training, and does not know enough about the performance of firearms. He withdrew the pistol magazine, saw that there were no bullets in it, reloaded it, learned the action of loading bullets in the movie, rubbed the gun against his belt, and then pulled the trigger against the window, only to hear a "bang", the bullet flew in front of me, and punched a big hole in the mosquito net on the bed of the commander of the company, and the bullet flew out of the window and punched a big hole in the rock wall.
Zheng was stunned at the time! He trembled and said, "The magazine is obviously empty, how can there be bullets?" ”。 He unloaded the magazine when he tested the gun, didn't open the gun, let the loaded bullet jump out, and just like that, he went off!
I didn't seem to feel anything at the time, but in hindsight, I was so scared! Because recruits in the army often use empty guns to face people when they joke, and often use a verbal Zen sentence "Believe it or not, I killed you"! And there has been a painful lesson in guns that have gone off and hurt people. Fortunately, Technician Zheng didn't point the gun at the person that day, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable!
After the incident, Zheng not only made an in-depth written review of the misfire accident caused by the illegal firing of the pistol, but also received severe administrative sanctions.
In the days when Zhongba was stationed
In 1967, the laboratory sent me to live in Zhongba to be responsible for the quality supervision and testing of concrete for bridges and tunnels in the first battalion. The 4th company of the 1st battalion was stationed in a village. This village is in the mountainous area of Yunnan, and it can be regarded as a relatively convenient and lively place. There are commercial outlets in this village, where you can buy general non-staple food and common daily necessities. Yi people in the mountains often come here to buy things.
I and a foreman from Wulong County, Sichuan, who did not wear military uniforms, were military workers on the old railway. He was about 50 years old and was actually a technical instructor, whom the army called "foremen." We lived upstairs in a house in this village; downstairs there were two little girls from the coal company who lived in a room; They mainly distribute coal to coal-using units.
The foreman and I had to go upstairs and go through a segregated passage. On the other side of the village, next to the company's stadium, there lived a company of female migrant workers, all young and middle-aged women, at least thirty or forty people.
I live here and have a very good relationship with the company, and I often play with the company's basketball enthusiasts and learn from each other.
One day, when I came back from the construction site, I came across the company clerk (Lang Zhongbing, who enlisted in the army in the same year) posting a bulletin on the side of the road next to the canteen. I walked over to him and said, "I'll write it for you." He saw that my handwriting was good, and later he often asked me to write a board newspaper for him. In this way, I became more closely related to the company.
Living alone outside the home is very free, and the work is easy. Because I was a soldier sent down to duty in the regiment, in their eyes, my ball skills were good, and my handwriting was good, and I was very popular. This will inevitably cause some people to be jealous.
The two little girls who live downstairs have lived upstairs and downstairs for a few months, and they have never said hello, and they don't even know their last names. Sometimes when I go to work on the construction site, they quietly take my clothes and quilts and wash them, dry them, fold them and send them back to me. I see their act of doing good deeds as a pro-army activity.
One day, I got sick with a cold and didn't get up to go downstairs. They knew I was sick, and around 10 a.m., a girl boiled some poached eggs and brought them to me. I didn't eat breakfast, and I did feel a little hungry, so I ate the poached eggs. At this time, I asked her what her last name was, and she told me: her surname is Guan. I thanked her and she left.
I joined the army after I got married, and I often reminded and admonished myself in my heart that I must be clean and self-loving, and I must never violate the discipline of the army; once I make a mistake, I will not only lose people, but also lose my political life and future.
When I act alone in the field, I should be more firm in my belief that no matter what kind of temptation, I must remain unmoved, always remain spotless, and stand the test!
When I got back to the lab, I reported the situation to the director, who said, "You're doing well!"
A bridge that unites the nation's elites
There is a railway bridge built by the 40th Iron Regiment on the Chengdu-Kunming Line and located in Dajiuzhuang, Lufeng, Yunnan. It is the first prestressed concrete railway bridge in the mainland, which was built in the second half of 1965 and has been more than half a century.
At that time, it was led by the Beijing Academy of Railway Sciences, with more than 20 units such as Wuhan Bridge Bureau, the Second Survey and Design Institute, and Lanzhou Railway Institute, bringing together bridge construction elites and experts from all over the country, and was personally commanded and built by Mao Yisheng, a bridge expert.
The beam body is assembled by multiple pieces of high-strength reinforced concrete prefabricated beams of different heights and weights. The big bridge body is like a peng spreading its wings, which is very spectacular!
During the construction of this bridge, Lin Qingxia (from Guangdong) and Zhang Zhendong (from Beijing) from Beijing Academy of Railway Sciences and I participated in the design and test of beam concrete and beam bonded epoxy resin concrete, leaving a very good memory!
I became a supernumerary temporary faculty member
At the end of 1965, veterans of the laboratory Zhang Yuanming (enlisted in 58), Yang Kesong (enlisted in 61), Xu Yinsheng (enlisted in 61), and Zhao Shuisheng (enlisted in 663) were discharged from the army one after another.
In addition to the director, there are only five veterans who enlisted in 559 and 63 years left; The remaining four are all Sichuan soldiers who enlisted in the army in 65. In order to meet the needs of the work, two more recruits were transferred in 66 years that year.
In order to adapt to the business requirements as soon as possible, Director Yuan Xinzhi may know from the file that I have a high degree of Chinese and comprehensive knowledge of mathematics, physics and chemistry, and asked me to conduct business training for the new comrades and explain the business knowledge related to the laboratory.
At first, I did not accept this task of the director, and the reason for this was that there were both leaders in the laboratory, as well as veteran comrades who had been in the army in 59 and 63 years, and they had a longer work experience than me, and their professional level and experience were higher than mine. Even the comrades who enlisted in the army in the same year and worked in the laboratory came to the laboratory earlier than me, and I was the last to work in the laboratory. It's never my turn to give lectures and impart relevant business knowledge.
A few days later, the director came back from the carpentry class making a blackboard and insisted that I explain the relevant knowledge to the recruits. In desperation, I calmed down, read the relevant materials, combined with my own practice, and compiled a few subsections and tens of thousands of words of lecture notes and materials in three chapters of concrete, roadbed, and steel (rebar).
The focus is primarily on concrete. At that time, there was no water quality analysis business, so no information was prepared in this area. In this way, he was "forced" to walk on the podium that was not a teacher.
At first, only two recruits and comrades at home listened to my lecture, but after listening to it, Director Yuan thought that my lecture was more systematic and thorough, and told the comrades stationed in the battalion and company to come back and listen to it. To be honest, there are a large number of people in the laboratory who only know what is going on on some issues, but don't know why.
In the process of narrating, I not only gave a more detailed explanation from its physical properties, but also from the chemical properties. Especially in the design of concrete grades (i.e., grades), I learned from the technical staff of the Beijing Academy of Railway Sciences that the unique, simple, accurate and efficient calculation and design methods were well received by everyone during my time with the technical personnel of the Beijing Academy of Railway Sciences.
At the beginning of 1968, three more people who had enlisted in the laboratory in '59 and '65 were discharged one after another. Later, a technician who graduated from Tianjin Railway Institute was transferred from the 4th Battalion to Bian Chengqun. In the same year, two more recruits were transferred. After the recruits were transferred, the director asked me to give them a lecture.
And so I went to the podium for the second time and acted as a teacher who was not a teacher.
Author: Long Zehui (Iron 40th Regiment Laboratory)
Finishing: Zhan Yingxuan
June 30, 2024
Editor: Fang Yingxin "White Waves"