Chapter 8 6 Army (1959-1961, twenty-four to twenty-six years old)

On September 7, 1959, I began to receive the eighth batch of reserve officer training, and later served as an army platoon leader in a field force until I was discharged on February 6, 1961.This period of military career was a major turning point in my life. At 8:30 in the morning on September 7, I took a bus from the Highway Bureau to go south. My friends Zhang Shimin, Zhang Guangjin, Yao Zhang, Li Shugu, Han Zhaoxian, and Zhang Renlong saw me off in Taichung. Zhang Guangjin also gave me a ballpoint pen. I used that ballpoint pen As a starting point, in the midst of hardships, I worked hard to leave a daily diary for a total of one and a half years. This is the longest and most complete diary in my life.

I was assigned to No. 5 of the 9th Squadron of the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Regiment of the Fengshan Army Infantry School.The hair is shaved.After putting on the military uniform, he faced all the toss and torture of enlistment training.The first thing is to tidy up the housework and fold the quilt into tofu cubes. Some people can’t quickly fold the quilt out of the corners in order to get up early in the morning. They would rather not cover the quilt and sleep in the cold; Wearing and washing underwear, full of strange behaviors. Many of my classmates were members of the Kuomintang, but I couldn't tell who was who.Not long after enlisting in the army, the clothes were measured, and soon after it was announced that some people's clothes had to be weighed, they specially reported their student numbers and led the team out.I was vigilant, and once they left, I firmly concluded that these people were all party members, which was later proved to be true.

Number four in the team is Sun Yuhua from the Chinese Department of National Taiwan University. He is a senior member of the Kuomintang in the team and is the closest to me. He is responsible for making small reports on me secretly.Once I wrote a poem to him, the content was: "When I met Erniang, I called my aunt, and when I met Wukong, I called my uncle. After retiring from the military, I will not die of hunger, and I will polish my shoes at Hengyang Street." My bad words did not mention the bad deeds of other classmates. This kind of loyalty from the Northeast Sun Yuhua is beyond the reach of the southern Kuomintang.

The activities of enlistment training are not all military, but also cultural, such as speech competitions and so on.In the speech competition, of course I speak the best, but there are a lot of problems in the content and thinking, so of course I didn't make the name.Chen Hanqing said that the students wanted to give me the first place, but the instructor Yu Jianye threatened to restrain my feet.Zheng Qingmao told me that the captain Liu Qin told his party members: "Of course Li Ao is right, but this is the army!" Although I was in the army, I still showed my principled, rough, and cunning side. I once said: A man must be soft and hard, soft and hard, soft and hard, able to bend and stretch, rough and thin, in order to be able to serve in the army. Medium mix.

During the half-year training period, the Kuomintang did everything possible to lure students into the party. In the end, it resorted to its mace, and those who refused to join the party would be distributed to the front line of Jinmen, which was an extremely dangerous area in the August 22nd artillery battle.Under the threat and lure of this trump card, most of the few students who were not party members joined the party, but I was unmoved.The instructor said to me, "Li Ao, are you afraid of going to Kinmen?" I said, "I'm not afraid." He said, "You are very good. It's a pity that our Kuomintang didn't get you." What a pity, Li Ao, who joined the party because he was afraid of going to Kinmen!" He said, "If you don't join the party, it will be inconvenient for you to live in Taiwan forever." I said, "I am going to die in Kinmen, there is no inconvenience." It is." He listened, shook his head and left.The funny thing is, in the end, I was not distributed to Kinmen, but some students who temporarily boarded the party bus were distributed to Kinmen.When they learned about it, they ran to question the instructor angrily. The instructor said: "The front line needs loyal people. Sending Li Ao to the front line will affect the morale of the people, so it's better for you to go." torn.All my life I have been proud that I am not a Kuomintang, and I have never shied away from the price I paid for not being a Kuomintang.This example is the most thrilling and the most interesting.

On March 3, 1960, I set out from the infantry school to leave the troops.Before getting on the bus, the instructor handed over a kraft paper bag to the student leading the team, which contained our ideological assessment materials, and asked the student to transfer to the new unit.On the way, we skillfully opened the bag. On my information card, there was a cross comment: "Thoughts are wandering, and the idea of ​​fawning on foreign countries is very heavy."——The instructor and I dealt with each other for half a year, and finally took the cross as a posthumous posthumous political worker The horror of the personnel can be seen from this!And when I was halfway, I got to see how they harmed people, which is not without fun!

When you go to the army, you can see the human relationship.Among the classmates who have a background, they stay in the Second Army, or stay in the division headquarters, or stay in the regiment headquarters. ... But those with no background, such as Li Ao, were sent to the company headquarters as platoon leaders. ——Everyone went south in the same car, but the one who got off the car first could see that his head was coming. When I left the army, I was assigned to the 49th Regiment of the 16th Division.As soon as he arrived, he was sent to the 42nd Artillery Company as the deputy platoon leader.Soon he was transferred from the 42nd Artillery Company to the Regiment Headquarters Company as the leader of the search platoon.Report to the Search Training Team.There is a veteran named Cao Zihua who is always smiling.He told me a story: "Once we were captured by the Communist army, the female cadres warmly welcomed us and advised us to stay and fight the Kuomintang, but we refused. They let us go back, made us eat and drink, and gave us travel expenses. Finally said: "After you go back, the Kuomintang will still capture you as soldiers. The next time you see us on the battlefield, please aim higher when aiming." - The Communist Party turns enemies into friends, clever and delicate There are those who do!

I was later transferred to the fourth company as the leader of the weapons platoon.I once described the "official department" of the company as follows: 1. The company commander—wanted to do business.2. Deputy company commander - want to be promoted.3. Instructor - want to get married.Fourth, the officer-want to take a mandarin duck bath.5. The leader in the first row—I want to talk about cross talk.6. The leader of the second row - wants to have sex (prostitutes).7. The leader of the third row - I want to play the little old woman in the bullet room.8. The leader of the weapons platoon - I want to retire.Nine, the administrative officer - want to steal the forest of the Eight Immortals. In addition to the "Ministry of Officials", the "Ministry of Soldiers" is even more varied.Most of the young soldiers come from the countryside, and some are extremely stupid.When shooting and aiming, you don't open one eye and close one eye, but open both eyes fully, and close both eyes fully.The veteran squad leader was so angry that he had to find a piece of adhesive tape and put this kind of soldier over one eye before he could shoot.Once when I was teaching how to shoot a gun, I couldn’t even teach it for a long time. The veteran squad leader scolded angrily: “Do you understand?” Brother A Bing said: “Yes.” The veteran squad leader said: “I understand that your mother steals monks!” There is also Brother A Bing, who is nervous when he kicks forward. When kicking, his left hand and left foot go out together, and his right hand goes out together with his right foot.Brother A Bing's level is so high, and Brother A Bing's father-in-law is not a descendant.There was a soldier called Lin Cheng, and his father-in-law wrote a letter, and on the envelope was written "Lin Cheng's foolish son-in-law, An Qi".As for the veteran squad leader, even better, there is a soldier in my platoon named Zhang Zhongwei, who reads books like "Youth Flowers", and Zheng Jinhai, the veteran squad leader, forbids him to read.The reason is that there is the word "menstruation" in the book.Zheng Jinhai is good at lecturing. After the army is disbanded, his squad often does not disband.Another veteran said: "Jesus is a man of Mary." Veterans are like this, and veteran officers are no descendants.I heard the officers chatting, among them "'Li' Zhenning". From this we can see the extent of the sayings such as "'Yang' Zhengdao" and "Nobel Prize 'learning' gold".

At that time, the army strictly stipulated that soldiers who came to Taiwan with the army from the mainland were so-called veterans.Because the kitchen has the most oil and water, you can get "rich" by taking advantage of it.Some veterans desperately want to start a family and deliberately "buy" a handicapped woman, an elderly widow or a mountain girl.Someone actually "buys" it, thanks to years of savings and incredible financial resources.Once an old soldier spread out his savings—bundles of banknotes—and counted them. After counting a bundle, he threw it on the bed and said, “This bundle can buy a thigh!” Counted another bundle, threw another , Said: "This bundle can buy an arm!" One day, the whole wife will be made up in this way of disassembly and combination.When he was counting the money, he showed complacency; the veterans who were watching on the side showed envy, and the contrasting expressions were chilling.But judging from that scene alone, it is a comedy scene.

During my one-and-a-half year career in the army, I have met quite a few characters from another class, among which the most memorable one is a very representative veteran——Zhang Yongting.Zhang Yongting wasn't old back then. Compared to A Bing, a member of the company, he was an old non-commissioned officer, an old soldier, old enough; but compared to the older non-commissioned officers who were forty years old, he was still young.He is a native of Hebei, who has lived in exile since he was a child, and has suffered a lot. He doesn't even know how old he is, he only thinks he is about thirty-five or sixteen.He has never been educated, and he can barely write his name and a few words for daily use, and he can't do arithmetic.

Zhang Yongting is not tall, but grows sideways. He is burly, thick, powerful, and can wrestle. There is no opponent for him in the whole company.Once you fall down, you will find that he is only in his twenties; but when you look at his face, you can be sure that he is in his fifties or sixties.His face has many and messy wrinkles, which can be described as weather-beaten, but the darkness is uneven, with one dark spot and one shallow spot, very ugly.I asked him why he was so ugly, and he said that it was good-looking, but once he shot a suspicious commoner repeatedly.He was very jealous, so he said to the man, don't fucking look back at me, you will see the King of Hades with a shot later, don't embarrass you, let you die happily, don't look back.But after the man was knocked down with a single shot, the man still looked back at him before dying.That one glance made him numb all over, and the color on his face has changed since then. When I went to the army, I was the platoon leader, and I was the platoon leader of the weapon platoon in the "Forward Division". The "Forward Division" is a newly organized division with powerful firepower. There is strong firepower in the weapon platoon. In addition to machine guns, there are seventy-five artillery pieces and sixty artillery pieces.Below the platoon leader, there is a platoon deputy who leads the 75th artillery team leader, the 60th artillery team leader, and the squad leaders and soldiers of each squad. The members are extremely complicated.For example, the platoon leader is a reserve officer college student, the platoon deputy to the squad leader are all veterans, most of them are veteran non-commissioned officers in their thirties, and there are also veteran non-commissioned officers among the soldiers. - Fill up.Parallel to me, there are standing officers, who are divided into the first platoon, second platoon, and third platoon leader, and there are officers (political workers); above me are company commanders, deputy company commanders, and instructors (political workers).Among these people, except for Chong Yuan and I Ke who are allowed to retire at the end of their service period, the others are not allowed to retire. They must be forced to become soldiers, forcing them to contribute endlessly to Taiwan's security and the slogan of counterattacking the mainland. sacrifice yourself.Because of the disparity in identities and different aspirations, and because I am not a member of the Kuomintang, I am caught in it, and it is very difficult to get along.Fortunately, I am bold and smooth.So up and down, facing each other day and night, they can still get along well, and it can even be said to get along well.For example, Zhang Yongting is from Hebei. I have lived in Hebei for ten years, and he is close to him, so he is the closest to me. Zhang Yongting is a "soldier".There are "soldiers" in the army who are sent to the trainers of the "stubborn team", but Zhang Yongting will never do it. Although he is "oily", he is "benign".His "oil" is limited to the level of "dead dog", slow, sloppy, lazy, addicted to gambling, borrowing money and not paying back, sneaking back to the barracks to sleep during exercise, and so on.He did not commit serious acts of disobedience, nor did he bully the staff.As the team leader of the Seventh Five-Year Artillery, he has the taste of being a loner, and it becomes a big one. Everything is done by the squad leader and the soldiers. He is a bit inactive, just like me.Because he doesn't manage much and is in a "dragging dead dog" situation, everyone is not afraid of him, and they don't make jokes about him.What everyone can't bear the most is his big feet, which are extremely smelly. Veterans say that among living things, dead people smell the worst, and Zhang Yongting's big feet are the feet of dead people.Because he is the leader of the group, he sleeps in the first bed next to the door, which is good now. The breeze comes from the door, and the smell comes from the door, and he is sleepy, and he must take off his shoes when he sleeps. Take it off, and smell the smell of your feet, and the whole company will bear the brunt.Fortunately, running around all day, everyone's feet are not bad, there is no way to care about it, it's just Zhang Yongting's, one counts as ten. Zhang Yongting not only ranks first in wrestling, but also ranks first in foot odor and marksmanship.His marksmanship is second to none in the entire company, but during shooting training, he often disagrees-he doesn't shoot well.Lazily, he picked up the machine gun and shot at the mound within a foot. Then he dug up the mound, cleared out the bullets, packed them together, and sold them as scrap iron outside. ——Your "government" recruited me to serve as a soldier, and gave me such a pitiful military salary, but was willing to spend a lot of money to make guns and bullets. I will waste it for you and turn it into scrap iron!This is his psychology.Soldiers are not the only ones who make extra money by selling scrap iron. During shooting training, there are many poor ordinary people waiting there in the distance in front of the shooting range. When the gunfire stops and the gunfire stops, they swarm up. , to dig warheads, and thus accidental bombing and accidental injury, it has been heard from time to time.Especially for many poor children, there are many more tragedies caused by ignorance. Zhang Yongting is a veteran, he has seen many battles, so naturally he was injured.But what's interesting is that his injuries are all on his back and hind legs, but not on the front of his whole body.It turned out that he would flee in every battle, and it was his best plan to go, so although he had the honor of being injured, his helplessness was all behind his back, so I often laughed at him.Once he won three wrestlings in a row, I used him as a credit to the platoon and rewarded him heavily by buying Double Happiness cigarettes.He was so happy that day, talking about his military history in public, and finally pointed to me and said to the soldiers: "There is no one who is not afraid when he goes to the battlefield for the first time, our platoon leader, you usually see him flamboyant, but if he goes to the battlefield , When the gun slammed in front, shit came from behind him!" Because of his funny speech and vivid expression, everyone couldn't stand their backs from laughing, and I laughed so hard that tears came out. Generally speaking, reserve officers are in the army, with more knowledge and less experience. The sketch I gave it is: "white, silly, a pair of short-sighted glasses, often always covered under the brim of the hat worn low, with a little bit of back Camel, walks swaggeringly, always can't get rid of his bookish air in college when talking, standing in front of the line, panicking, shouting passwords like stepping on the neck of a chicken, there is no sense of domineering My son." Because of the impression that the reserve officers gave people, the old non-commissioned officers did not fail to play tricks on such superiors, and even had inferiority complex reflections in admiration, jealousy and envy.Of course some of them will look away.Pan Yugang was not a member of the Kuomintang, and was assigned to Jinmen as a platoon leader. The veterans said that reserve officers were useless. One day when the Communist Party fired shells, Pan Yugang suddenly summoned everyone to give lectures outside the bunker. The platoon leader acted as if nothing had happened.After that, everyone said that our platoon leader was really brave, and everyone was convinced.I am in the army, and I belong to Pan Yugang's class, and I am quite aggressive.At that time, I was deeply influenced by Hemingway, and I yearned for the literati's warrior-style bravery, not avoiding difficulties, tasting hardships first, and being quite proud of my own masculinity.There are opportunities for jump training and assault training, all of which are automatically requested to participate.But the battalion commander is not allowed.The reason was: "If our old officer dies in an accident, he will die when he dies; if your reserve officer has an accident, it is difficult to explain to the superiors and the outside world." In this way, I lost some opportunities to show off my power.But once, my bravery made me the biggest joke since the founding of the Sixteenth Division.It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the biggest joke in the history of the "Chinese" army and the history of the world army.The joke is this: On July 23, 1960, the "company test" was held. At four o'clock in the morning, in the dark and cold wind, the company commander and I took a jeep around Xinhua, Tainan County, at Wujiashi, south of Xinhua Town Receive orders in the sugarcane forest and survey the terrain.At 9:30, the attack started. I was brave and impatient. When I heard the gunshots ahead, I was blocked by the hill in front of me. I couldn’t see the situation clearly. I ordered the whole platoon to follow me to the left along the path to the front of the mountain. , I led the 75th artillery group to lead the way, and the 60th artillery group followed, still ignoring the gunshots, and attacked forward.Immediately there was loud gunfire.Zhang Yongting immediately sat down on the ground, let go, and quit. He shouted that the front and back hills were shooting at each other, and we were caught in the middle.How to play this battle?At this time, the referee came and accused me, saying why is your platoon leader so impatient? Even the first, second and third platoons of yours are far behind. Why did your weapon platoon come to the front?I looked up and looked to the right, and sure enough there were our troops on the mountain.According to the deployment of troops, the weapon platoon is the artillery platoon, which is supposed to provide support from the rear, but now it has come to the front so quickly, and the change of position is extremely fast.From then on, whenever I made a joke, the platoon leaders laughed at me for "seven-five cannons for charging". Although I was brave, the weapons I used were not for charging. ——Bayonets attached to rifles are used to charge, how can one use a seven-fifth cannon that can be lifted by several people?This bad thing, I will never forget it.Because I affected the results of the "company test", I still feel guilty for the company commander Yu Keqin.And Zhang Yongting just sat down on the ground to stop the battle, every time I think of it, I will laugh.Zhang Yongting's injuries were all on his back.On the hind legs, it is in line with the positive solution of "defeat" in Chinese. "North" is the ancient word "back". When people run away, they only see the back, so "beating" means "beating the back". There is still the word "beating the back" in Hokkien today, which is its ancient meaning. with the original meaning.The character "North" also has two people facing each other with their backs facing each other, which is especially obvious in seal characters, which clearly implies that the two people are against each other.After all, Zhang Yongting treated my platoon leader very preferentially. During the "75th Pao charge", he did not "defeat", but "lost"; I'm so narcissistic!On the other hand, many years later, when I watched the movie "General Patton", I saw the absurd momentum and strangeness of General Patton shooting a plane with a pistol and directing traffic as a commander. , only a little self-explanation and self-deprecating.I think Patton is capable of killing, and the dramatic action of "charging with a seven-fifth cannon" may be very promising, right? Once we chatted and talked about "counterattacking the mainland".Zhang Yongting half-jokingly said: "The first thing after the counterattack to the mainland is to go back to my hometown and dig up my ancestral grave. ——The feng shui of the ancestral grave is not good, which has caused me to be in bad luck for the rest of my life." I asked back: "If I go back Why don’t you go?” He said, “Can’t I go back? Then after I leave the army, when I’m too old to move, I’ll take off my pants and commit suicide by jumping into the river. ——Before committing suicide, I’ll say to my mother: ‘Mom, I Come naked, now go back naked!'” Not long before I was discharged from the army, on the car to Kaohsiung, I ran into Zhang Yongting and his girlfriend, which shocked me!That woman was black, fat and strong, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, and a beard. She was at least twice as heavy as the burly and thick Zhang Yongting. It was really frightening. There was such a woman in the world!The next day I said to Zhang Yongting: "You won some money with great difficulty, why don't you go shopping in brothels? Why bother talking with married women, it costs more money, and it's not worth it." He replied: "I didn't When I have money, she will come with me, and I don’t need money; now that I have money, I don’t care about others, how can I be ashamed?”——This is Zhang Yongting’s ethics of men and women, and also his honesty. Since I am closer to him and he is the closest to me, I have recorded these records in my diary: August 14, 1960: "Zhang Yongting came at night to ask me to redeem his watch (please tell the administrator, Allow it to borrow money), and said that there will be no compensation in the future. I said: "Sheep can't forget to eat grass, and dogs can't change to eat shit." Can you not gamble? Take the twenty yuan, "I'll give it to you, take it to drink a glass of old wine tomorrow, slap yourself a few times by the river, die this heart!" (After he left, he even said that he would ask me to redeem the watch tomorrow. Ah Zhou and others blamed me for giving him money. I felt sorry for him, but I couldn't bear it.) "August 15th: "After dinner, Yongting came smiling, and unexpectedly Taking the twenty yuan I gave him as his capital, and winning back the watch, this kid is really filthy! "August 16: "Zhang Yongting's fucking watch lost again. " I was in the army, not only knew Zhang Yongting well enough to swear at him, but also forced him to do things for me.Zhang Yongting once complained to me, "I've been a soldier for so long, and I haven't wiped a gun for anyone. Now I've wiped your gun several times." The most memorable thing is the first long march in the company. I walked 92 miles in two days, from Renwu in Kaohsiung County to Libalin in Tainan County.On the first day, we walked from 5:20 a.m. to noon. Everyone was tired from walking. Of course, I, a scholar, was more tired than them.Suddenly Zhang Yongting came over and asked me to wash my feet with a basin of hot foot-washing water begged by the folks. Veteran Xu Jusheng (later killed by a thunderbolt in Kinmen) put some salt in the water. I am deeply moved.At that time, I had just been sent to the company for only thirteen days, and I was able to lead the troops so successfully that the company commander was full of praise.There was another exercise in the rain. I ate on the narrow road with rain on my head. Half of the lunch box was covered, and the rainwater flowed into it while eating.After the meal, I hid in the triangular hut, undressed and wrung dry, my hands wrinkled like dead people's.At this time Zhang Yongting appeared. It turned out that he secretly violated the military order, sneaked back to the barracks in the rain, and offered to fetch dry underwear for me in exchange. ——A guy who often wears his vest for a week without changing it, actually takes such good care of the platoon leader from the northern village. Zhang Yongting's strange behavior can be seen from this. On February 6, 1961, I was discharged from the army in Penghu.The night before, everyone held a farewell banquet for me, and the platoon assistant showed off the pen that my brothers had given me as a joint venture.After the banquet, Zhang Yongting waited for my departure, his sadness was beyond words, and I talked with them late at night.Early the next morning, officers and soldiers collectively sent me to the car, and Zhang Yongting took me to the pier with the car.I learned that Zhang Yongting only had ten yuan last night, so I went to gamble to give it to me, but I lost five yuan at once, and I didn't dare to continue to gamble, so I finally rewarded him with ten yuan.At the same time, Shi Ke (from Hebei), who was discharged from the army, also gave him ten yuan.The night before, Zhou Zhongming, a soldier from Taiwan, gave me "Sichuan capital", but I declined, so after sending ten yuan to Zhang Yongting, the balance was only enough for the train ticket home. A year and a half ago, I walked out of college with a disappointed heart and entered the army; a year and a half later, I returned from the army with a sense of relief and returned to civilization.Looking back on my past, I deeply feel that the life in the army has solidified my thinking and courage. Because I am not a member of the Kuomintang, I have suffered in the field army, which is not easy for ordinary reserve officers, but I am very strong.The one-and-a-half-year career of serving as a soldier and throwing pens mixed a new enzyme in my life, which made me suddenly far away from the academy and the books.Stay away from a group that is out of touch with the people.In my military life, I was exposed to the simplicity and innocence of the Chinese people, and these simplicity and innocence have long been the terms in textbooks in the "institution of higher learning" where I was born.This experience made me more and more aware of the failure of university education. After returning from the army, I wrote: "Education is like a refrigerator. The longer you get close to it, the colder you become. Most of the reason is just like The handleless knife that Tagore described may be very practical and useful, but it is too uncute!" Even so, I still have to come back and clean up the "refrigerator" from scratch without retreating.