The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 517: War preparations for New Year's Eve!!!

In October last year, Zhong Xingguo was promoted from deputy squadron leader to squadron leader of the "Tiger Commando".

He could have taken the Spring Festival holiday to visit his family and go back to his hometown, but in December last year his superiors reappointed Ge Xiaohu as the squadron leader of the first battalion of the newly formed "Tianlang" Special Operations Brigade of the military region.

After the second company of the first battalion was formed, the troops were taken to the field for pre-war training, and the plan to go home for the New Year was ruined.

During this year's Spring Festival, because the military district required that cadres and soldiers of the "Tianlang Special Operations Brigade" were not allowed to take leave during the Spring Festival, Ge Xiaohu and the officers and soldiers could only celebrate the New Year in the training camp.

Since the Second Squadron was conducting winter field training, they were temporarily stationed in a mountain village primary school on the western foot of Yanshan Mountain.

Winter training is no joke. It is impossible to stay in a warm barracks with food and drink.

The conditions here are too simple. There are only a few thin purlins on the roof, and only a layer of thin gray tiles on the purlins.

The cold northwest wind can blow in through the gaps between the tiles, and the snow can also drift in through the gaps between the tiles.

On the eve of the Spring Festival, there was another heavy snowfall in the Yanjing area.

At this time, the indoor temperature is almost the same as the outdoor temperature, and the officers and soldiers are often woken up by the cold when sleeping at night.

When Ge Xiaohu was checking the sentry posts and the beds late at night, he saw a layer of white snow on the soldiers' quilts.

The officers and soldiers were so cold that they couldn't sleep, so they had to huddle together for warmth and sleep in their clothes.

After checking the sentry post and the barn, Ge Xiaohu couldn't fall asleep for a long time, and his feet were frozen like ice lumps.

Fortunately, most of the soldiers came from rural areas and were particularly able to endure hardships and be patient. Fortunately, they were still young, in good health, and had strong firepower and could withstand beatings.

As the year draws to a close, the weather gets colder and snowflakes fall with the wind.

Snow can make the air fresh and make people feel more energetic.

The officers and soldiers of the First University insisted on training in the snow.

This became a beautiful scenery near the primary school at that time, and many people came from dozens of miles around the village to watch us train.

The masses watched them practice, which also motivate the officers and soldiers to train more enthusiastically.

When the Second Squadron was training in self-rescue and mutual rescue on the battlefield, the soldiers fell one by one amid the sound of explosions.

Immediately afterwards, the rescue team members carried the stretcher and braved the "enemy's" "fire" to rescue the "wounded".

When the "wounded" with broken legs, head injuries, blindness, and bullet wounds in the abdomen were carried off the "battlefield" on stretchers with their "wounds" wrapped in white gauze;
Some of the children watching laughed, but some middle-aged and elderly people had tears on their faces...

Although this primary school is far away from the battlefield in southern Xinjiang, since a large brigade is about to go to the front line, they are shouting and practicing fighting every day.

The word "war" also brought about a strong enthusiasm for national defense in this land.

During the Spring Festival, what bothers Ge Xiaohu the most is the lack of rich cultural life.

Ge Xiaohu called the Propaganda Section of the Brigade Political Department and requested that a television be provided to the officers and soldiers who were about to go to the front line.

The brigade took Ge Xiaohu's call very seriously and sent a special officer to deliver a TV.

Having a TV makes the New Year's Eve a little easier.

At least there is something to look forward to on New Year's Eve, and it can also win the hearts of the officers and soldiers.

On New Year's Eve, all the officers and soldiers of the squadron were crowded into a small classroom. There were no stools, so the officers and soldiers sat around on the straw-covered floor to watch TV.

On that day, the northwest wind was blowing outside, and it was extremely cold inside, and the breath turned into frost.

The soldiers all wore cotton hats and cotton shoes. They couldn't stand the cold, so they covered themselves with quilts to keep warm.

Zhong Xingguo was afraid that his comrades would catch a cold, so he asked the kitchen staff to prepare two large pots of ginger, black pepper and brown sugar water for everyone to drink.

The clock strikes midnight as fireworks soar into the sky, and the new year is upon us.

In those days, the villagers' lives were still very hard, but the villagers still selflessly supported the troops and supported Zhong Xingguo and others to go to the front line.

Before the Spring Festival, the local supply and marketing cooperative came to comfort them with vermicelli and peanuts.

Most of the officers and soldiers of the Second Squadron came from the north and had the habit of eating dumplings during the Spring Festival. Not eating dumplings would feel like the New Year had not happened and seemed unlucky.

There are no frozen dumplings on the market these days.

To eat dumplings, you have to make them yourself, but Zhong Xingguo and his friends don’t have the tools to make them.

Nothing in the world can stump a revolutionary soldier. The officers and soldiers used small stools, marching pot lids, training grenades, daggers, parachute knives and other tools to make dumplings. In particular, they used training grenades to roll out the dumpling skins, which was really a unique way.

The soldiers gently pressed the grenade on the dough, and then rolled the grenade a few times, and a piece of dumpling skin was rolled out.

There are a variety of tools for rolling out dumpling wrappers, and the dumplings are also wrapped in various shapes, which are very military-style.

On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, the primary school was bustling with people. Dumplings were being cooked in four camping pots, and the tempting aroma of dumplings wafted out.

On the eve of heading to the front line and about to join the battle, the Second Squadron said goodbye to their fellow countrymen;
Zhong Xingguo and his friends felt very satisfied just to have a hearty meal of pork dumplings with home-grown garlic provided by the villagers and dip them in homemade vinegar.

At 10 o'clock sharp, the Second Squadron organized officers and soldiers to carry out military performances such as capturing prisoners and fighting.

It attracted many nearby people to watch, enriched the officers and soldiers' cultural life during the Spring Festival, and alleviated their homesickness.

Not long after the Spring Festival, Zhong Xingguo and his men were about to set off for the front line.

Last winter, Wang Sicheng came to the Yanda Military Region from the southern Xinjiang front line and became the captain of the electronic reconnaissance squadron of the military region’s “Tianlang Special Operations Brigade”.

On New Year’s Eve, after setting off firecrackers, the New Year’s Eve dinner is ready.

Wang Sicheng and the instructor of the squadron each said a few words of blessing and encouragement. Everyone applauded, raised their glasses, cheered, watched the evening party, played poker and chess.

The new guests who celebrated the Spring Festival in the military camp for the first time thought that the Spring Festival in the military camp would also be so lively and festive.

The gala on TV was coming to an end and everyone started to clean up. Some soldiers were humming along: "We soldiers..." Suddenly, a series of rapid alarm bells rang.

This is the emergency assembly alarm!

The brigade's special electronic reconnaissance force is also a combat-ready force.

It is necessary to be ready to deal with emergencies during the festival, but no one expected that the emergency assembly would take place on New Year's Eve.

Everyone acted upon hearing the order.

Squadron leader Wang Sicheng watched everyone running out in a panic without saying a word.

When everyone was gathered, he checked them one by one and found that one soldier had his camouflage uniform on inside out.

Squadron leader Wang Sicheng frowned and commented: "The concept of combat readiness is not strong at all!"

After the dismissal, everyone returned to the dormitory and prepared to undress and rest. An old soldier reminded: "Don't fall asleep yet. Didn't you hear the squadron leader's comments? Don't let your guard down. Generally, you have to pull the emergency trigger three times."

Sure enough, within half an hour, the alarm rang twice again. "We probably won't be called to assemble again this time. It's getting late, so we should get some sleep if possible."

After the third disbanding, a new recruit named Zheng Tong muttered to himself, took off his clothes and prepared to have a good sleep.

Just as Zheng Tong was sleeping soundly, the alarm rang again!
He jumped up from the bed with a start, quickly put on his clothes, packed his backpack, and ran to the meeting place.

It seems that the squadron leader is not playing by the rules this time.

After the assembly, Wang Sicheng looked at the sleepy soldiers and said loudly: "Comrades, the enemy doesn't care whether you sleep or not.

Remember! When we are most tired is the best time for the enemy to attack. "

Then, squadron leader Wang Sicheng announced the disbandment of the team.

Now no one dared to sleep anymore.

Zheng Tong and the others lay on the bed with their clothes on, with their eyes open in the darkness, holding their breath and waiting.

The dormitory was extremely quiet. In the bathroom at the end of the corridor, a broken faucet was still dripping...

That night, at first, no one could remember how many emergency assemblies had been called.

At the last gathering, although fatigue was written all over everyone's face, no one dared to slack off. Everyone moved quickly and lined up neatly.

Squadron leader Wang Sicheng stood in front of the team and was silent for a long time before speaking.

"Tonight's emergency pull training was originally planned to be three times, but we pulled 3 times.

If you say "wolf" three times, no one will believe you anymore.

But soldiers must give their all in every pull, and like hunters, "keep one eye open even when sleeping."

For soldiers, there are no holidays when it comes to national defense and security.

I hope this New Year's Eve will be the most unforgettable one for everyone, and that everyone will always remember: I am a soldier, a soldier who protects national security! Do you understand?"

"I understand!" Zheng Tong and his friends' loud and passionate responses broke the silence of the night sky. The white air exhaled from their mouths evaporated in the cold night.

As New Year's Eve approaches, the war in southern Xinjiang has not yet ended, but large-scale combat operations have decreased. In order to stimulate the enthusiasm of officers and soldiers to kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions during the Spring Festival on the battlefield, the superiors decided: no matter how difficult the conditions are, we must do everything we can to let the soldiers who stick to the cat ear cave eat dumplings.

The officers and soldiers in charge of supply began to carry supplies in backpacks to the position on the mountainside.

To prevent sneak attacks by the enemy, they had to go around the dense thorn forest and use axes and pickaxes to open up a new path.

Just when they were about to reach the position, a ravine appeared in front of the team.

Platoon leader Li Erhu personally climbed down the steep wall and built a simple rope bridge in no time.

In this way, they went through all kinds of hardships and finally delivered flour, pork and onions to the battlefield on New Year's Eve.

The soldiers who had been guarding the cat ear cave for many days were overjoyed to see Li Erhu and his men. They also decorated the simple cat ear cave with a festive atmosphere.

As night fell, sporadic gunfire echoed in the thick fog on the mountain.

In the cat-ear cave, a pot of hot water was boiling. Li Erhu and his comrades poured the remaining water in the kettle into the basin.

"How can I knead the dough and roll it without a rolling pin?" Jin Chenggui from Northeast China said;
Platoon leader Li Erhu rubbed his hands on his trousers, then put his hands, which were covered with gun oil, into the basin to knead the dough.

Banana leaves are used instead of bowls, and two branches are cut to serve as chopsticks... This pot of dumplings is not easy to come by.

"Without dumplings, it's not the New Year." The soldiers come from all over the world, and the New Year's Eve dinner in their hometowns is different.

But on this New Year's Eve, several southern soldiers ate more than a dozen dumplings each in one go.

For them, this meal of dumplings is more than just a meal of delicious dumplings.

These days, the army holds important celebrations during the Spring Festival, Army Day, and Mid-Autumn Festival.

There is always a pig slaughter and a banquet to celebrate. At this time, grassroots companies can drink a small amount of white wine except for the banquet with the combat readiness troops.

The command company of the Second Guard Division's artillery regiment has a strength of 124 people. Usually, there are only about 70 to 80 people hanging around in the company, but whenever there are dinners, the canteen with more than 100 people is always full.

When it comes to slaughtering pigs and sheep, Dong Ping, the radio squad leader of the command company, can be regarded as the "butcher Ding" in the army. His movements are skillful and swift, and he has "ample room for ease", quite like a professional butcher!

Dong Ping was a soldier in 73. He was from Dongshan. He was tall and thin, with a slightly hunched back, a round face, yellow skin, small eyes that gleamed with a shrewd light, and a row of neat tetracycline teeth. He loved to smile when he spoke and could occasionally burst out with some dry humor.

His accent sounded like both Nanhe and Dongshan, and for a long time his comrades thought he was from Nanhe.

Killing pigs is a big event in the company's life, and this day seemed to have become Dong Ping and the radio squad's home court.

He took off his military cap, rolled up his sleeves, tied a leather apron around his waist, held a butcher knife in his hand, and directed the whole class to work in a shouting manner, while the officers and soldiers gathered around to watch the fun.

After slaughtering the pig, the people in the radio team would always have a proud meal first, as a reward!
It's very tempting, but others can only swallow their saliva secretly and sigh at the sight of the meat.

As the saying goes, "The army remains permanent, but the soldiers are transient." At the end of last year, Dong Ping was demobilized, taking with him his butcher knife, which he was reluctant to put down. He did not pass on his unique skills to his comrades in the radio squad and other comrades in the company. His unique skills were lost forever.

At the end of last year, Deputy Company Commander Zhao Jinlai was promoted to company commander, and a new deputy company commander, Liu Benming, a native of Yanjing and who had just graduated from a military academy, came in.

Liu Benming is of medium build and thin. His rectangular face is covered with acne. He wears a pair of glasses on his nose. He speaks shyly with a blushing face and walks briskly, looking like a typical student official.

Company commander Zhao Jinlai worked his way up from the grassroots level, and he looked down upon the new deputy company commander Liu Benming.

At the end of the year, Company Commander Zhao Jinlai deliberately asked Deputy Company Commander Liu Benming to take people to kill a pig, in order to embarrass him.

Now Liu Benming was in a difficult situation, because he had never killed a pig in his life!
When Liu Benming arrived at the pigpen and looked at the grunting pigs, he scratched his ears and cheeks in anxiety and looked at what he was doing.

With no other options left, Liu Benming went to find the reconnaissance squad leader, Lao Hu, with an attitude of giving it a try, and discussed with him what to do.

Lao Hu understood his situation and difficulties very well, and said without hesitation: "Deputy Company Commander, this is easy to handle. We have seen fat pigs walk and eaten fat pork. You can leave the slaughtering of pigs to our reconnaissance squad!"

Liu Benming attached great importance to the slaughter of pigs. He convened a reconnaissance class meeting to mobilize and deploy the work, as if he was completing a combat mission.

When the soldiers in the reconnaissance squad heard that they were going to slaughter a pig, they became very enthusiastic and each of them seemed eager to try.

Based on his experience of watching others slaughter pigs many times at home and Dong Ping slaughtering pigs in the company, Lao Hu made careful arrangements according to the process and assigned clear division of labor to all members of the class.

Every detail including how to collect pig blood, add salt, stir, stuff blood sausage, and cook blood sausage were arranged very well. Lao Hu looked confident and well-organized.

After the deployment was completed, everyone began to prepare separately. However, the actual operation was far from as simple as Lao Hu thought.

The first problem they encountered was that there was no butcher knife in the company.

The company’s kitchen staff said they use kitchen knives, but I’ve never seen anyone use a kitchen knife to kill a pig.

Liu Benming thought quickly and remembered that the company had a four-sided military bayonet, which was about the same length as a butcher knife and had a blood groove, so it should work.

So he asked the clerk to go to the armory and remove a bayonet from the semi-automatic rifle and use it instead of the butcher knife.

Now that he had the knife, Liu Benming brought six or seven people with sticks and ropes to the pigpen to catch the pigs.

The three large white pigs weighing nearly 200 pounds in the pigsty seemed to have a bad premonition and started screaming and running around, making it very difficult for Liu Benming and his team to catch them.

They were sweating all over, and their shoes were covered with pig manure. It took them a lot of effort to knock down a pig, tie it up and drag it out of the pigsty.

When the comrades in the class finally pressed the dying pig onto the chopping board prepared in advance in front of the kitchen door, Lao Hu solemnly appeared with a bayonet in his hand.

It was also Lao Hu's first time to butcher a pig. He silently said to himself: "Pigs and sheep are one dish. Don't blame anyone if they die!"

He used the bayonet to stab the pig's heart from the place where he remembered others had stabbed it. At this time, the pig's howling and struggling became more intense.

The strange thing is that there was no bleeding and the pig didn't die. This happened even after Lao Hu stabbed it repeatedly.

At this time, raindrops began to fall from the sky. Lao Hu felt a little anxious, annoyed, and a little panicked.

Seeing this, Liu Benming ordered his men to hit the pig's head with a wooden stick. After a long time, the pig slowly died.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief; they finally killed it!

It would be more accurate to say that he was beaten to death rather than killed, which is really cruel.

"Wow!" After removing the hair and opening the pig's belly, it was full of blood and the pig's heart had been pierced into a honeycomb shape.

It turned out that the bleeding hole of the bayonet was too small and the blood could not come out, so it flowed into the chamber. "Okay!" The blood sausage could not be stuffed.

No matter what, the comrades in the company were finally able to eat meat dumplings at three o'clock in the morning.

The whole process of slaughtering the pig, from chopping, cutting, washing to roasting, took less than three hours, and around 3 a.m., all the snack dishes were basically ready.

After that, Liu Benming, as a cadre in the company, was on daytime guard duty during the holidays.

In order to ensure the smooth progress of the company's celebrations, the guards were allowed to go to the kitchen in advance to collect meals.

Liu Benming came to the kitchen, where the squad leader was packing the vegetables into yellow basins, preparing to distribute them to each class.

The old squad leader enthusiastically handed Liu Benming a rice spoon and said with a smile: "The leader has worked hard today, enjoy it as much as you can, just don't eat too much."

Liu Benming smiled at him and chose to get his meal from the kitchen.

I scooped up some braised pork, onion liver, and silver carp from Liujiazhuang.

With the delicious food in front of him, Liu Benming ate it with relish.

But he felt even happier in his heart, as he had not expected that this passive situation would unfold so inadvertently.

…………

"Spring brings blessings, and all things are glorious."

As the temperature warmed up, time passed quickly and it was the beginning of spring in 81.

Old Yanjing people feel that spring can be said to begin with “eating spring pancakes on the beginning of spring”.

In the past, starting from the day of the Beginning of Spring, every household in the capital city began to prepare for the spring festival.

This is called "the first bite of spring".

At this time of year every year, Lao Zhiye's mother Deng Ru would stir-fry shepherd's purse after the first spring rain with eggs, shredded pork, tofu, etc.

When eating, add the fried shepherd's purse, bean sprouts, vermicelli, leek, spinach and other "combined dishes";
Then roll it up with a piece of thin homemade dough and take a bite. It is especially fragrant and tender.

Early in the morning, Liu Zhiye ate the spring pancakes made by his mother with relish, then said goodbye to his family with reluctance and nostalgia, and embarked on a busy journey again.

After the New Year, Liu Zhiye officially performed his duties in the Yanda Military Region.

This year, the Yanda Military Region faces many challenges and arduous tasks.

First, we must continue to advance disarmament and administrative streamlining in depth. This is not an easy task and requires careful planning and proper arrangements.

Second, the military region is preparing for the most critical task this year - the "North China Military Exercise."

This military exercise is of great significance, as it concerns the Xia army's display of strength and future strategic deployment.

Everyone in the military region is fully aware of its importance, and therefore is making all-out efforts to carry out various preparations.

(End of this chapter)