Goodbye Mom, the bugle has been sounded, the steel gun has been polished, the gear has been carried, and the troops are about to set off. Don't cry quietly, don't worry about your son, when I return from the battlefield in triumph, and come to visit my dear mother...
The bleak and tragic song "Goodbye, Mom" 45 years ago will ring in my ears every Spring Festival.
The experience of the Spring Festival 45 years ago is still vivid. The suffocating smell in the iron-clad train, the nervous and trembling mood, the stiff body that took the train for 5 days and 4 nights, and the bloody war scenes still come to mind from time to time!
On January 18, 1979, at the age of 26, after six years of service, I went home to visit my family for the second time. The boss is not small, and he wants to give a personal marriage matter.
On the afternoon of 20 January, he suddenly received an urgent telegram from the troops, "Receive the telegram and return quickly." (Remember that on the telegraph, there is a rectangular red stamp stamped "urgently").
That night, I told my family and my girlfriend that I had decided to rush back to the army early tomorrow, and they asked me if I could stay another day and agree on a specific wedding date before returning to the army. I said: It is the duty of a soldier to obey orders, and he cannot delay a single day. I explained to my family that it may be that the troops need to be transferred or go out for training, so you don't have to worry!
At 7 o'clock in the morning of the 21st, I took a long-distance bus from the county seat to the troops. It was bumpy along the way, and it was not until half past two in the afternoon that I arrived in Nanjing. I waited for nearly 6 hours at Nanjing Pukou Railway Station
I took the train at 8 o'clock in the evening, and at 11 o'clock in the evening, I arrived at the east barracks of the troops in Chuxian County, Anhui Province.
On the evening of my return to the company, the instructor of the company introduced me individually: Yesterday we received an order from our superiors asking us to take part in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam from the 31st Automobile Regiment of the Nanjing Military Region. From today, we will be fully staffed and ready to go in three days. He also confessed three prohibitions: not allowed to leave the barracks, not allowed to write letters, and not allowed to spread the word.
In addition, except for the daily necessities to be brought to the front, the rest of the items are not allowed to be carried. As soon as possible, you should organize and pack your remaining personal belongings into your bag, and write the auspicious home address and the recipient's name on the white cloth strip issued by the uniform, and tie it on the outside of the bag. Uniformly stored in the company storeroom. (The company has four left-behind personnel).
After listening to the instructor's explanation, my heart was numb! Shake! In fact, it was telling me to be prepared not to come back.
A young man in his twenties who has not yet started a family has to face war and death, which is a bit cruel!
But the comrades-in-arms all did not hesitate. I threw myself into the preparations.
The company is brightly lit day and night, and conducts comprehensive inspection and maintenance of all vehicles and carry-on vehicles in a tense and orderly manner. Bandage all items that must be taken away.
After three days and three nights of intense preparation, loading began in the early morning of January 24. Our company has a total of 45 Jiefang brand trucks, (15 in a platoon) 115 commanders and fighters on the same train, all 45 combat vehicles are covered, grass green nylon camouflage net, one flatbed is loaded with 2 cars, a total of 23 flatbed trucks. The middle two iron stuffy tank trucks are ridden by all the commanders and fighters. From afar, it looks like a long green dragon, and it is magnificent!
At 12:50 p.m., Chuxian departed from Chuxian and headed for the front line in Nanning, Guangxi. More than 40 people sat in a stuffy tanker, and about 20 soldiers sat in the driving room of the car, and they were on duty to "sit on the sentry" to prevent accidents.
On the floor of the stuffy tank carriage, a thick layer of straw was spread, and then we spread the futon on it, one next to the other, which was more crowded. This is called a sleeper train.
But from time to time, there is a strange smell of urine in the trunk, which is very pungent. It may have been loaded with pigs, cattle, or the like before this.
Our train is from the north line, the first stop is at Xu Yi Station, the local military transfer ** station, prepared a steaming meal for us in a thermos bucket, and sent it to the station. I remember to eat white rice and roasted pork with cabbage. On the first day, I ate well and slept soundly.
But in the middle of the night, there is nowhere to solve the problem of urinating, and the train is constantly running. I had to solve it in the gap at the door, but due to the fast speed of the car, the urine came out and was blown back by the wind.
The next day, the comrades-in-arms of the class used hand drills and other tools to drill a hole the size of a ping-pong ball in the corner of the carriage. After all, everyone has learned to aim, and the urine is still in place.
On the evening of the 26th, when the train traveled to Wuhan Station and stopped for dinner, there was an unfortunate news that the military train of the Eighth Company of our regiment caught fire in the Xuchang section of Henan, and seven cars were burned in a company. Later, it was learned that someone may have been smoking in the cab, and when they threw cigarette butts outside, they fell on the car's camouflage net. Thankfully, there are no personnel**.
On the train, there is no room for movement at all, and the whole body is stiff and numb after a long time.
Sitting next to me was Weng Ronggen, a Shanghai soldier who enlisted in the army in '77. He is usually very lively and relatively "thin".
I remember that it was winter, and it was his turn to stand at four o'clock in the morning. I happened to meet me checking the sentry, looking for the figure of the sentry in the garage, and a car checked and found him asleep in the cab with a submachine gun.
I got angry, pulled him out of the car, and gave him a hard reprimand. He said: The platoon commander is too cold today, and the post standing at this time period is the most uncomfortable. So I secretly ignored it for a while. I said that I would not violate the law, otherwise I would be punished.
Along the way, he talked to me about his family affairs, saying that his parents and ancestors were from northern Jiangsu, and in the early 70s, their whole family was sent to their hometown in northern Jiangsu, and he came out to serve as a soldier because he wanted to be able to arrange to work in Shanghai after leaving the army and change his fate. When I came to the front line this time, I don't know if I can survive? It's low!
In fact, most of my comrades-in-arms have the same worries and fears. To say that you have no ideas and are not afraid of death is a lie.
On the evening of January 27, when the train arrived in Zhuzhou, it was the twenty-ninth day of the new year, the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, and everywhere I saw was the lights of thousands of homes and the sound of firecrackers. Someone on the platform brought us some fruit and gave some warm wishes, "Waiting to welcome you back triumphantly!" The company also gave each person ten candies, and the evening was braised pork with vermicelli.
On January 28, the first day of the Lunar New Year, he arrived at Xinwei Commune in the suburbs of Nanning, Guangxi, and temporarily lived in a house in Zhiqing Point. When we set off from Chuxian, we were cotton jackets, cotton jackets, and cotton shoes. After arriving in Nanning, the temperature was as high as more than 20 degrees, and the smell of sweat was exuded all over the body. There was no place to take a bath, so I had to take a basin of cold water for each person, and I felt really enjoyable.
Immediately after arriving at the front, the entire company was engaged in pre-war training and the transfer of pre-war supplies. It has successively carried out training and transfer tasks in the suburbs of Nanning, Chongzuo, Ningming, Pingxiang, Fangcheng 100,000 mountains, etc., and jungle areas.
After the training, our company moved from Nanning to Chongzuo, Guangxi. At five o'clock in the morning on February 17, 1979, on the Sino-Vietnamese border, 10,000 cannons were fired in unison, and the fire was deafening! The war of self-defense and counterattack officially began. The 31st Automobile Regiment of the Nanjing Military Region, where I belong, is mainly responsible for sending soldiers, food, and ammunition to Dong Deng, Cao Ping, Lang Son, and Friendship Pass in Vietnam, and transporting the wounded in the rear, including the task of evacuating the sacrificed comrades-in-arms back to China.
From the beginning of the war on February 17 to the triumphant return on March 16. Together with my comrades-in-arms, I braved the smoke of artillery fire and gunpowder to walk through the battlefield in the jungle area of southern Xinjiang, and spent 28 full days on the battlefield of life and death, blood and fire. After the war, I was awarded a third-class meritorious service.