General Xu Shiyou fought all his life, and left many legendary stories for his brave battles during the war years. However, it was such a general, and his life was very ordinary.
In life, he has no majestic appearance, and he has the true character of a peasant; He doesn't like luxury, so he takes diligence and thrift as the basic requirement of life, and a sentence he often hangs on his lips is: "People can't forget their roots!" ”
Xu Shiyou was born in a farming family, and when his parents were working in the fields when he was a child, he played in the fields, which was one of his few happy childhood memories.
When he grew up, Xu Shiyou didn't have such a happy time, every time he saw the farmer's back bent in the field, his heart was extremely hateful, because even if the farmer bent over, he would not get a cent of grain, and the grain that the farmer had worked hard for a year would be in the landlord's pocket.
After that, Xu Shiyou vowed to turn the peasants over, so he joined the revolution.
Children born in peasant families are born with a good impression of crops, and even after the victory of the revolution, Xu Shiyou could not forget the land in the countryside.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xu Shiyou naturally could not work in the fields in person, so he often went to the countryside to inspect. The car was driving on the road in the field, and Xu Shiyou sat in the car and looked at the fast-growing crops and fruit-bearing fruit trees, and his tense face rarely showed a smile.
Sometimes, when he is rising, he will introduce agricultural knowledge to the staff in the car, and sometimes he will say some agricultural proverbs, such as "people are not lazy in their work", "who doesn't have three big piles, planting good crops is blowing." If he sees something that is not growing well, he will also sigh at some agricultural proverbs such as "people are wrong for a while, and people are wrong for a year", "people cheat the land, and the land cheats the belly".
Xu Shiyou's favorite place to go is the farm, because there are pigsties, fish ponds, and rice fields, and he enjoys the atmosphere of life in the farmhouse.
As the commander of the military region, Xu Shiyou did not treat the farm staff with a stand, and he often rolled up his sleeves to work with the staff, saying that this would not only exercise his body, but also gain something, and his body and mind could be well relaxed.
When Xu Shiyou was the commander of the Nanjing Military Region, he lived at No. 8 Zhongshan Mausoleum. This was originally Sun Ke's villa with a large courtyard.
Looking at the empty yard, Xu Shiyou's blood flowing in his body was awakened, and he asked the staff to reclaim the vacant land, plant crops, fruits and vegetables, and build a pigsty and chicken coop in the corner of the yard, and also made a pond and put fish fry in it.
In the 70s, Xu Shiyou was transferred from the Nanjing Military Region to the Guangzhou Military Region as a commander, and lived at No. 7 Liuyuan in Guangzhou. This was originally the place to receive the ** chief, surrounded by water on three sides, behind is a lush bamboo forest, in front of a green space, there are flowers carefully prepared by florists, the overall look is very elegant.
However, when Xu Shiyou saw these furnishings, he couldn't evoke his feelings of beauty at all, and in his heart, the things that could only be seen and couldn't be used were probably not beautiful.
So, when he lived in No. 7 Liuyuan, he called all the staff over and instructed: "Deal with all these useless things, raise chickens in the bamboo forest behind you, raise fish in the pond, reclaim the lawn to grow vegetables, raise pigeons on the roof, and take action." ”
Such an arrangement is really rare, and the staff was stunned for a long time without reacting, and someone asked Xu Shiyou: "Isn't it a pity to grow vegetables in such an elegant environment?" ”
Xu Shiyou scolded back directly: "Elegance can be eaten as a meal? ”
One day in 1974, taking advantage of Xu Shiyou's arrival on Hainan Island, Secretary Sun Hongxian mobilized all the staff to start renovating the yard. A vigorous reclamation project began.
When Xu Shiyou came back again, the yard had changed a lot, and the seeds planted by the staff had begun to sprout. Xu Shiyou looked at the small green dots that had just turned out of the ground, and there was a look of satisfaction on his face.
"Growing vegetables without fertilizing is tantamount to fooling around. ”Under Xu Shiyou's order, the staff began to look for fertilizer everywhere again. As a result, there was such an interesting scene on the streets of Guangzhou, where a group of soldiers dressed in **, pushing a dung truck, digging up feces in public toilets in the streets and alleys.
Then they pulled the dung to the barracks and villas, which was very strange to the people, because everyone else was pulling out, but they were pulling in.
Under the careful watering of Xu Shiyou and the staff, the small shoots turned into thick and hard green plants and produced a lot of fruits. However, it is difficult to evaluate the taste of the precinct. From this, a small episode was also triggered.
One day, a leader of the military region came to visit Xu Shiyou with his wife, and the vegetable field was a place they had to pass by. The weather was exceptionally good that day, and as soon as the sun broke, the dung evaporated, and the smell came out.
The chief didn't react, but the chief's wife couldn't stand it. I saw that she took out the handkerchief she often put on her body to cover her mouth and nose, and kept fanning her hands in disgust, wanting to fan the smell away from her.
However, this scene happened to be seen by Xu Shiyou, who came out, Xu Shiyou was unhappy at the moment, and scolded loudly: "Look at your bear-like, do you think you are clean?" You're also a belly of. ”
General Xu Shiyou has always spoken directly, and when he said it, the chief's wife was flushed, and she was embarrassed, so she hurriedly removed the handkerchief from her face, and no longer dared to dislike it.
Since then, no one who came to Xu Shiyou's house dared to make rash moves, and most of them held their breath and hurried to the house.
Under Xu Shiyou's careful care, his crops grew very well, and Xu Shiyou was so happy every day that he couldn't close his mouth. However, because the crops were so good, some uninvited "guests" also eyed his results, that is, rats.
One day, when digging sweet potatoes, Xu Shiyou saw that only half of a sweet potato was left, and when he looked closely, there was a mouse hole next to it. This made Xu Shiyou very angry. So this scene appeared, and the commander of the dignified military region scolded the rat hole with a red face and a thick neck.
In order to prevent his achievements from being stolen by rats, Xu Shiyou launched a war against rats, but he didn't expect that this seemingly small enemy was very cunning.
He first prepared rat poison, and a few of them died in the first few days, but then after the rats learned that the medicine could not be eaten, the medicine lost its effect. After that, Xu Shiyou took out the cage again, but the mouse was so smart that none of them drilled into the cage.
After fighting with the rats for a week, Xu Shiyou, who did not win, was angry, but he quickly thought of a new method, that is, to bury a few bamboo poles in the sweet potato field, pull the wire between the bamboo poles, hang a bell on the wire, and when the wind blows the bell, the mouse will not dare to come out.
Sure enough, the rats didn't come out for two days, but when the rats knew that the bell was nothing to be afraid of, they boldly came out again. This completely annoyed Xu Shiyou, and he shouted: "Let me release the dog!" ”
With Dog Town, the rats never came out again.
Xu Shiyou is very good at growing crops, and he is also a good hand at raising chickens. According to his instructions, a group of chickens were raised in the bamboo forest behind, and Xu Shiyou personally served each chicken, so he knew which chicken was sick and which chicken laid eggs.
Regarding the eating of chickens, Xu Shiyou also has his own set of methods. He taught the staff to break the leftover bones and fish bones with a hammer, then mix them in chicken food, and feed the chickens at least once a day with green vegetables, so that the chickens can be raised well.
Sure enough, Xu Shiyou's chickens are much stronger than those on the market, and the raw eggs are more and larger, and sometimes there are three yolks in one egg.
This incident spread throughout the entire military region, and many military district leaders visited it, and some even offered to buy chicken. As a result, Xu Shiyou customized a rule: if you buy chickens for food, you won't sell them for any money; If it's for hatching chicks, you can give it away for nothing.
Xu Shiyou's "self-reliance" to grow vegetables and raise chickens spread all over the army, and many cadres followed suit.