Group photo of the training unit in 1972. From the left to the front is Mao Zhaofeng, Hou Taishou, Yang Zhicheng, Song Pinwen, and from the back to the left: Chen Jie, Zhang Xusheng, the author, Li Dunyi, and Yang Junfeng.
After being promoted, due to work needs, the organization did not let me return to the 75th Artillery Company as a platoon commander, but stayed in the training unit to help with the work. The help job was in fact a midshipman until he was formally appointed as a staff officer in the Training Unit in September of the same year. I was 21 years old that year, and I worked in the training unit for 6 years until 1977, when I was 27 years old, I was transferred to the military training department. The most youthful and energetic years of life were dedicated to the cause of training, and the best memories of life were left in Plains Fort.
At that time, there were 8 people in the training unit, and the head of the unit, Hou Taishou, was a native of Ankang in southern Shaanxi who enlisted in 1959, and the seven staff officers were Yang Zhicheng, Song Pinwen, and Mao Zhaofeng who enlisted in 1961, Chen Jie, who enlisted in 1962, and Li Dunyi, Chen Rongzhe, and Liu Yang, who enlisted in 1963, and Deng Kemin, a veteran who enlisted in 1965, did some chores in the unit.
In 1972, the regimental organs moved from the hydrological team to the newly built regimental headquarters, and lived in 10 adobe bungalows in a row, and I shared an office and dormitory suite with Mao Zhaofeng and Chen Jie. The unit commander arranged for me to often follow the commander to the company and participate in various combat readiness training activities. Unit Chief Hou and the veteran staff officers gave me a lot of help in the work and life of the staff officers, guided me hand-in-hand in drawing maps and compiling military documents, and imparted work experience to the staff officers in connection with actual work, so that I gradually became familiar with the nature, characteristics, and laws of the training work.
With everyone's enthusiastic help, my staff business has been improved from theory to practice. Later, the head of the unit divided the division of labor, and I was in charge of the internal work, mainly dealing with writing and various reports. Responsible for registration statistics, reporting work summaries, experience reports, and issuing notices, circulars, approvals and other documents and materials.
At that time, there was no clear job rank for the assistant staff officers of the organs, and there was a common saying among the troops: "If the staff officer does not have a commander, he will not make a sound." On the one hand, it reflects that the cadres of the organs have no duties and powers, and on the other hand, it also reflects that the staff officers are obscure devotees. For many years, many staff officers have not moved from one post to another, without complaint, and have worked diligently all day long and in a down-to-earth manner.
The unit commander demanded that we not only be familiar with the staff officers and master the basic skills of writing, drawing, transmitting, reading, calculating, and calculating, but also understand training, so that we can demonstrate the actions of the soldiers and help guide the training of the company in concrete terms. I know very well that I am not from an infantry background, and I have not received regular basic training in the "five major techniques" of infantry and individual tactics. In order to become a qualified training staff officer as soon as possible, I started as a midshipman and seized the opportunity to train. Every year when the regiment holds a training camp for the backbone of the squad leader, I take the initiative to invite Ying to participate in the team, and train with the students while working. In the past few years, I have passed the "five major skills" of infantry, such as shooting, assassination, bomb throwing, demolition, and earthwork, as well as basic subjects such as individual tactics and military physical fitness, and have met the requirements of the "four skills" (being able to do, speak, demonstrate movements, and organize training).
In 1972, when discussing the issue of training with the head of the Nanjing Military Region, Ye Shuai pointed out: "On the issue of training, it seems that ordinary methods will not work, and ordinary methods will not be able to reverse this situation." He also said that it is necessary to "take the division as a unit and run a good teaching team." The division commander or deputy division commander is the captain, gathers all the regiment and battalion commanders who have fought in battle, organizes them into a company shelf, and learns from the individual soldiers below those who have not fought a war, conducts demonstrations, passes on the experience, and passes on the experience to the next generation."
In implementing Ye Shuai's instructions, the 55th Division decided that starting from the second half of this year, all cadres below the battalion level would be gathered in phases and batches for rotational training. The regiment arranged for me to participate in the third training camp in the autumn of 1973, and the leader of the team was Deputy Regiment Commander Zhang Qingtai. The content of the intensive training is mainly based on the "five major techniques" of infantry, individual tactics, military physical fitness, and teaching methods, and at the same time, students learn to master the necessary knowledge and skills of cadres. Cadres must learn everything that soldiers are required to master and be competent in teaching at their own level.
In order to successfully pass the training camp and improve my military quality, on the basis of my previous study and training, I insisted on practicing every day a few months before the training camp in view of my own weaknesses. By the time I attended the training camp, there was no more class that could stump me. At the end of the three-month intensive training and assessment, excellent results were achieved in all the subjects trained, and the military quality of individuals was further improved.
(To be continued).