Our Sunken Lake (4)

Our Sinking Lake

(Part 4)

Text丨Yong Shanghua

1. Met "No. 1"< /p>

The First Army was a force that developed and grew from the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army on the battlefield behind enemy lines in Shanxi during the Anti-Japanese War. Therefore, in the 1970s and 1980s, there were many Shanxi-born officers above the regiment level. The leader of the Sixth Regiment when it entered the lake was Captain Liu Fayao.

When Commander Liu was in Shenhu, I was still in the communications class of the Second Battalion. A little "recruit" naturally didn't care and had no way of knowing the leader of the regiment. It wasn't until he saw him appearing alone on the embankment that he knew the "number one" in his regiment. An insider revealed that Captain Liu was the commander of the Wuhan Military Region’s security battalion. He went to Tanzania to work as a military adviser and then “parachuted” into the Sixth Regiment as the commander after returning to China.

? When we were soldiers in the early 1970s, commanders leading troops above the regimental level of field troops had code names. This code name is inherited from the war years. Military chiefs such as regiment commanders, division commanders and corps commanders are code-named "No. 1", political commissars above the regiment level are called "No. 2", deputy regimental commanders, deputy division commanders and deputy corps commanders are called "No. 3", and deputy political commissars are called "No. 4" "No. 5", the chief of staff is called "No. 5", the director of the Political Department (Division) is called "No. 6", the deputy chief of staff is called "No. 7", the deputy director of the Political Department (Division) is called "No. 8", the Logistics Department (Division) is called "No. 8" Long "Nine", no "Ten".

? Usually, the chief officers "No. 1" and "No. 2" are called without their surnames, only by their code names. Since there are several deputy positions such as "No. 3", "No. 4", "No. 8" and "No. 9", in order to distinguish them clearly, they are called by their last name + code name. This is a situation. If a deputy of the Political Department (Department) The director's surname is Wang, which is awkward to call. According to the rules, the official name is "Wang Ba No." There are many jokes in each unit because there are many "Wang Ba No." p>

? The "No. 1" of the Sixth Regiment is very serious and unsmiling. I have seen him many times alone, with his hands behind his back and his head lowered, slowly pacing on the embankment of the main channel of Shenhu Lake, thinking about something. The group of young recruits below the embankment gathered quietly and raised their heads to take a closer look. In our minds, the regiment leader was a very big official. Thousands of rivers and mountains are too high to be reached, but we saw it today. We are very lucky. Someone wrote home and said that I saw the leader.

The "No. 2" leader of the Sixth Regiment is political commissar Yan Mingzhong. , I don’t know how old I am, I look very old, and my skin is a bit dark. There are rumors in private that Political Commissar Yan is a captured soldier of the "National Army" and seems to be the leader of the political commissar in the Nanjing Military Region. "Leading cadres".

? Around the 1980s, this method of addressing people, which was inherited from the war years, gradually disappeared in the army for unknown reasons, and the name + position was used instead. Xu is Heping It's been a long time, so the commanders' information no longer needs to be kept secret, right? ? After the troops were deployed to Jiangnan, "Liu No. 1" became the deputy division commander. In 1979, I graduated from the Nanjing Infantry School and worked in the division. Staff officer, the dormitory is next to the home of Deputy Commander Liu. We played basketball on the basketball court in front of his house every day after work, and he would play from time to time. Later, he and the political commissar of the Second Division Wang Yun became in-laws. Their son-in-law was very good. He served as the Communications Battalion Commander of the Second Division, the Staff Officer of the Communications Office of the First Army, the Commander of the Military Communications Regiment, and the Chief of Staff and Commander of the Jiangxi Jiujiang Military Division. Commander Liu later retired and lived in the Wuxi Rest House. In 2019, his grandson got married in Hangzhou. At that time, my wife and I went to attend the wedding. At that time, he was still as energetic as before. ? Before and after the Sixth Regiment went to Shenhu, there was another regiment leader named Yang Xiaocheng from Shanxi. I changed my career and returned to my hometown of Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, and became the security director of the Provincial People's Bank of China. One year when I was on family leave, he happened to go to the city where my parents worked to inspect the work, and we met once.

2. Squad leader Fang Jinan

? A person who has served as a soldier, no matter whether he is promising or not, whether he is at the end of the world or at the end of the world, has a high official or a low official, has money or has no money, The person I am most grateful for and unforgettable is my squad leader.

The squad leader is the officer who directly deals with the soldiers.

Soldiers are usually 17 or 18 years old. They are still children at home. When they arrive in the army, they have to live independently. They have to deal with the world, the warmth and warmth of the world, wash clothes and fold quilts. They understand nothing, know nothing, and know nothing. They all rely on the squad leader bit by bit. Come and teach. The squad leader is actually the concept of brother, division commander, and parent, even though he is only a few years older than the soldiers he leads.

? My squad leader’s name is Fang Jinan. He is the communications squad leader of the Second Battalion Headquarters. He joined the army in 1971, only two years earlier than me.

? Squad leader Fang is from Dongguan, Guangdong. He is not tall but has a well-proportioned figure. He has deep eye sockets, thick eyebrows, thick lips, and big feet. He walks very fast and sways left and right, like a coastal fisherman. . It has all the obvious characteristics of Cantonese people. I have the impression that the Chinese squad leader has never made any mistakes and everything is done naturally after careful consideration. All the leaders in the camp, whether they are difficult to maintain or very casual, whether they have ideas or not, all trust him and rely on him. Of course, this is especially true for those of us. The battalion headquarters had a secretary at that time, a Shandong native named Guo, who was a heavy smoker. This secretary is not a secretary in the leadership sense, but is similar to the role of the "Secretary-General" of the battalion headquarters. He ranks among the cadres and leads the squad leader. But he basically doesn't care. The internal affairs of the battalion are handled by Squad Leader Fang.

? Monitor Fang is a very sunny person. He is the type who never feels sad when something happens, always smiles at all times, and never feels tired when working. She often bends her arms and bulges out her muscles to show off to us and say, "Look!"

? Monitor Fang gave us a class, explaining the responsibilities of the communications class and the methods and techniques for doing a good job. His Mandarin with a Cantonese flavor was very nice.

? Squad leader Fang lectured us, taught us how to be a soldier in the army, and how to deal with problems. He will also curse when he is angry. The classic format is: TMD, how could you do this?

? Monitor Fang works very hard and is not afraid of getting dirty, tired or suffering. He knows all the techniques of growing rice and raising ducks, and he can do it with his hands.

3. Going to the market to sell duck eggs

? The action and image that impressed me the most was that he picked duck eggs to sell.

? There are a lot of duck eggs left that can’t be eaten. So selling duck eggs became a special job for him. After loading two large baskets, he squatted down, put the pole on his shoulders, stretched his legs, and hit the road with bare feet. He basically did this all by himself. Several times I wanted to go to the market and asked to go with him. He happily agreed, and we went to Erhe Town where there were more people gathering. Or the market in Wanfu Gate. The market was bustling with people coming and going, and the duck eggs were sold out in a short time. With the money from the sale, he would buy meat and vegetables and take them back to the camp headquarters to improve the food.

? Monitor Fang and I let ducks go together for a while. Put on a standard three-piece suit, take a long bamboo pole, carry a big bamboo hat, and go to the duck shed with your big feet bare. As soon as the ducks see someone coming, their quacking sounds will suddenly become louder, and they will rush to greet him. Opening the pen door, the ducks flapped their wings and waddled out. One after another, we drove a large group of ducks to the river to eat fish and shrimp, and to the rice fields to eat the scattered rice left during the harvest. I can’t remember the sound of shouting to the ducks. Anyway, I was busy with my mouth. I used shouts and long bamboo poles to direct the ducks forward, backward, left, right, and across the river to go to the fields. The ducks also obeyed the instructions. It was very fun. .

? Because he was so good, it didn’t take long for Squad Leader Fang to take up the job. First he was the secretary of the battalion headquarters, and later he became the platoon leader of the company. The platoon leader leads troops and has a better future. The battalion leader may just want him to lead troops. Once he has qualifications and experience, he can be reused. Later, after I left the battalion headquarters and was transferred to the regiment rotation training team, I had less contact because we were far away. The troops left the lake and returned to Shangqiu, and then transferred from the Central Plains to the south of the Yangtze River. Then I went to school again and lost contact.

? There are somewhat divergent opinions about his whereabouts decades later. Some comrades said that Squad Leader Fang went to Shenzhen after changing jobs and retired as a political commissar of the Luohu District Public Security Bureau. There is also news that he returned to Dongguan after changing his job and prospered in this hot land of reform and opening up. He became a big boss and had his own RV. In the 1990s, there were not many bosses who did not own their own RV. But no matter which information is accurate, he did a good job.

Therefore, there is a saying in the army that educates people: Those who do well in the army will not be any worse where they go.

4. Is the rice enough?

Although working in Shenhu is very hard, there is no problem in having enough food, and the white rice is enough.

? When training in the barracks in Shangqiu, Henan, before entering the lake, they mostly ate pasta or "two rice dishes." Noodles are mainly steamed buns, noodles, and steamed buns. "Er rice" is a mixture of rice and millet steamed, half white and half yellow, white is soft, yellow is hard, and the taste is not very good. Once they heard about eating pure rice, the soldiers were very happy, especially the soldiers from Hubei and Sichuan. They gathered before the meal, finished singing, and started grabbing food as soon as they entered the canteen. Some people have invented a trick to eat more rice: fill the first bowl less and eat faster, and fill the second bowl more tightly. In order to save food, the company sometimes only eats two meals on Sundays.

? Only eat two meals a day on rest days. This method is more common in the troops stationed in the north. Even when I was studying at the Shijiazhuang Senior Army School from 1984 to 1986, the school followed the same policy. We often ate the so-called "two rice noodles" and "wowotou", which caused great dissatisfaction among my classmates.

? The silt that has been deposited in the lake for many years is extremely fertile. The seedlings can grow vigorously without fertilizing at all. After arriving at Shenhu, they ate the rice they grew and completely eliminated the "two rice" and "wowotou" crops. The officers and soldiers were naturally very happy. Coupled with the diversified business of raising pigs and growing vegetables, the food will definitely be much better than in Henan. It's just that there were no tables and chairs in the company canteen at that time. When the meal was served, the class formed a circle with two aluminum basins in the middle to contain the whole class's food. Everyone squatted on the ground to eat.

During the two years of production in the lake, the battalion department raised a large group of ducks. Each company also built a duck shed, raised a large number of ducks, and collected many duck eggs every day. Except for taking part of it to sell to the common people in the market, most of it is used to support the troops themselves, so eating duck eggs in Shenhu Lake is free to eat. A large basin is fried and served every day in the canteen of the Second Battalion Headquarters. This basin is as big as an aluminum wash basin that was widely used by ordinary people in the past. It is a military supply used by the cooking team to serve large pots of food. So much so that for a while, the sight of scrambled duck eggs made me sick to my stomach.

5. What do you like most about cooking?

? There are relatively few people in the battalion headquarters’ cooking team, so we have implemented a rotating cooking system. I like to help the cook the most. When it is my turn to help the cook, I can go out to do shopping and supervise the quantity and quality of the ingredients purchased by the feeders. You can also learn knife skills, ingredients, and cooking from old cooking soldiers. Therefore, although the so-called "knife skills" of slicing and shredding are not very refined, once you master them, they have been with you to this day. Sometimes the kitchen assistant's task is to light the fire, squatting behind the large stove and cooking large pots of food with firewood and coal. The soldier in charge kept shouting "Fire"! "Little fire"! "Pressure the fire"! "Withdraw the fire"! When you hear the command, use a coal shovel and iron hook to adjust the size of the fire in a timely manner. Sometimes after a dish is fried, the veteran will let him try it. At this time, the dish that has just been fried and is still steaming in the pot is the most tempting, so he just picks out some slices of meat, chunks of meat, and shredded pork to taste. It feels really good.

? There are relatively few varieties of self-grown vegetables, and some dishes are naturally unavailable, so winter melon has become the main dish for every meal for a period of time, and winter melon vermicelli is indispensable for every meal. I don't know whether it was due to lack of other vegetables, unbalanced nutrition, or some other reason. For a while, all the soldiers suffered from "rotten egg skin". The boys all had peeling and itchy crotches, and they had to scratch them here and there, but they couldn't. Too embarrassed to seek medical treatment. Everyone said it was caused by eating too much winter melon, and called this dish "rotten crotch vegetable".

Later, I left the Second Battalion Headquarters and was transferred to the regiment rotation training team. This unit had a small number of people, no production tasks, and no pigs, vegetables or ducks. The food was much lower than that of the battalion headquarters and the company. It’s not hard to do this, there is a way. The rotation training team is very close to the companies directly under the regiment headquarters. If you find out which company eats steamed buns and has good food, you can ask for some food from fellow soldiers or familiar soldiers. Sometimes these people will take the initiative to inform you of the situation. I really had no other choice, so I went to the kitchen in my canteen and poured some soy sauce or some lettuce oil. It turned out to be delicious. I ate a bowl of rice in a hurry. Many years later, when I went to work in Ningbo, I discovered that soy sauce with rice is actually a special rice in Ningbo.

(To be continued)