Chapter 10: From Hero to Traitor

"I was silently depressed for several days, but a few days later, the leaders notified me to attend the congress of activists who studied Chairman Mao's thought held by the Tacheng Military Sub-district. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoI was very reluctant to attend because I was in a very bad mood and I didn't want to be embarrassed in front of the public. However, I can't say no, because the organization needs me to be a model for everyone, and I need to use this occasion to identify myself. I want everyone to know that I am a hero, not a prisoner of war of the Soviet army.

Because I wanted to attend, the meeting was specially held in the auditorium of the military sub-district hospital. When I was helped into the venue by two soldiers, the audience stood up, applauded for a long time, and the slogan 'Welcome home' was like a tsunami. At this time, the scene of Sun Yuguo, the head of the Zhenbao Island Frontier Station, shaking hands with Chairman Mao and shouting 'Long live Chairman Mao', appeared in front of my eyes, and I held up Chairman Mao's quotations with my right hand and shouted: 'Long live Chairman Mao!' Banzai! Hooray! ’

I went up to the rostrum and read the speech written for me by the Political Department of the military sub-district. In order to show my heroic act of fighting against Su Xiu, the word 'captured' was changed to kidnapping. The venue was full of soldiers from various units, but it was very quiet off the field, and the soldiers were all craned their necks and listened intently to my report. When I finished my report, someone led the audience to shout angrily, 'Down with Su Xiu, down with the new Tsar!' However, after the meeting, I was thinking, I didn't expect there to be so many people in the Tacheng Military Division, but they all went there during the war?

After that, I was asked by various border stations to report on heroic deeds. At first, I still looked at the manuscript and stammered when I gave a presentation, but later, I was able to give an impassioned and emotional speech without reading the manuscript. After two months of touring reports, I regained that feeling of being a hero.

Originally, after I was captured, before the death notice of the organization reached my parents, my fellow villagers who were in the army with me had already written to my parents to tell them the news of my death. Soon, the whole village knew that I had given my life for the country. My whole family was grief-stricken, my mother cried to death, and the old wives and ladies in the village also cried and howled together. My family said that I did not starve to death in 1960, but died in 1969, and that I was a martyr, so they enlarged my photo and hung it at home for more than a month of mourning in the village.

In that year, the pension for the sacrifice of the cadres of the army was six months' salary, plus a one-time pension of 280 yuan. In this way, the surviving family members of the cadres can receive a pension of 500 or 600 yuan. The pension for the sacrifice of the fighters is 300 yuan, which is paid by the local civil affairs department. Due to the long distance between Tacheng and the mainland, many family members of the martyrs did not come to the scene to participate in the identification. The main reason is that the remains of the martyrs are incomplete and highly decomposed, and it is not suitable for their families to identify them.

However, at this time, the comrade-in-arms of the countryman wrote again that I was not dead, and that I had been captured by the Soviets and released back. My father panicked when he heard the news, because I didn't die, but the pension given by the public has been spent, isn't this defrauding the state of money? Fortunately, people are still alive, and money is not an issue. So, my dad took the train to Xinjiang that night.

At that time, the train only went to Urumqi. Urumqi is still more than 600 kilometers away from Tacheng. The military region actually dispatched a helicopter to take my father from Urumqi to the Tacheng Military Subdistrict. When my father got off the helicopter, he stood up as the soldiers who greeted my father, saluted him respectfully, and called him a 'heroic father'. This solemn and powerful salute was exercised only when the warriors saw an important chief. This made me feel very excited, I felt that I had won great glory for my family, and I felt that the injuries and hardships I had suffered in the past were very worthwhile.

On 1 October, I was sent by the military sub-district to Urumqi to attend the celebration of the 20 th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and was arranged to recuperate at the General Hospital of the Military Region. That afternoon, as soon as I finished my report, I saw a familiar face come up to me and say to me, 'Yuan Guoxiao, you are now a great hero of our military region.' As soon as I saw Ding Dianxun, a health worker at our border station, I happily shook his hand and said, 'This is an honor given to me by the organization.' But I'm still an ordinary soldier. ’

Due to injury and illness, he had just been transferred from the Tacheng Military Sub-district Hospital to the General Hospital of the Military Region. Because we are both only 17 years old, we are comrades-in-arms and patients, so we have a lot of common language. He looked a little relieved and said, 'I am so unlucky that I was not able to participate in this battle because of my wounds, and the other soldiers have been rewarded for their meritorious service, but I have not even received a commendation.' As he spoke, he let out a long sigh. I comforted him and said, 'You're still young and you know how to medicine, so you'll have a great future.' But he was still pessimistic and said, 'What is the future?' It's like you are now a famous hero in the military region, just like Sun Yuguo on Zhenbao Island, it won't be long before you can become a platoon commander and company commander, and you don't have to go back to your hometown in the countryside. ’

Of course, I also have this kind of expectation and longing, but I know that I am not the same as Sun Yuguo, he is a real hero, he fought hard with the Soviets, and he won the battle, made great contributions to the country, and won great glory. And I was captured by the Soviet army, so from this point of view, I can't compare with Sun Yuguo. I asked him what to do next. He shook his head and said, 'I don't know, I'll just go back to the army and do a good job.' ’

I recuperated in the General Hospital of the Military Region for more than 20 days, and in late October, the Military Region sent me to Torrey to make a report on the tour. I took my father to Torrey, entered the martyrs' cemetery, and saw a row of martyrs' mausoleums in two rows, and I counted 28 in total. We had 26 people on Nameless Heights, 25 people died, and 3 journalists also died, and I was the only survivor. The eldest of them is Pei Yingzhang, the deputy stationmaster, 37 years old. The youngest were the eight recruit soldiers who came with me from Zhecheng County, Henan Province, and they were only 17 years old. They were on the battlefield for the first time and the last. Among these martyrs, except for three journalists who were posthumously recorded as first-class meritorious service, the others were posthumously recorded as second-class meritorious service and third-class meritorious service. I was also credited with second-class merit.

When I arrived at Li Guozhen's cemetery, I was filled with emotion: this was originally my cemetery, but now it has been changed to Li Guozhen's cemetery. My father and I stood in front of Li Guozhen's tombstone, and we hugged our heads and cried. After crying for a while, I said to the tombstone, 'Platoon Commander Li, I was lying in the cemetery, but now you are lying inside, I'm sorry!' ‘

This trip to Tori had a great impact on my father's mood and also had a great impact on my life. That night, my father made a fuss for me to go home and not let me work in the army. But I am doing a prosperous job in the army, and I have a great future, and I can't just ruin my future. But my father cried and called me by my nickname, saying, 'Do you want your mother, or your future?' ’

My father's crying made my heart very confused, and I thought about it a lot. Suddenly, I was tired of going around giving tour presentations to people: what the hell does this mean? It wasn't a glorious thing for me to be captured, so what was there to show off to others? In particular, the sacrifice of my comrades-in-arms touched me a lot, they are gone, what future will they consider?

I soon returned to the Tielekty border post and, shortly thereafter, to the Tasti outpost. In fact, both the Tasti and Chulchut posts are under the jurisdiction of our Tierekti border station. When it comes to the Tasti outpost, no one knows, but when it comes to the 'Little Poplar' outpost, there will definitely be many people who know that it is the outpost that Yan Weiwen sang, 'A little poplar, growing next to the outpost'. The grave of Sun Longzhen, a female martyr who was shot and killed by the Soviet army during the June 10 incident, is 100 meters from our outpost. I served in this place until the beginning of '72, and then I was demobilized and returned to my hometown, Kongzhuang Village, Cisheng Commune, Zhecheng County, Henan Province, where I was born and raised.

The village is still the same village, and the land is still the same land. My family's dilapidated brick houses are still the same, but they are more dilapidated and old than they were in the previous two years. I used to think that this place was poor, that it was boring, that it was toiling, that I wanted to leave it forever. However, I went around outside and came back. I don't know if it's sarcastic about me, or if I'm sarcastic about myself. But no matter what, after two or three years of leaving it, I can still feel its deep affection and attachment to me when I return to its arms.

As I stood at the head of the village, looking at the vast, yellow, barren land, I felt the urge to cry. This land, for thousands of years, has carried the toil and suffering of many generations of our ancestors, and has also given us many harvests and rewards. How many people have left here in order to live a better life, but I am the one who has left here, and I never want to leave here again. I am willing to dedicate my life's hard work and sweat to this land.

Less than 20 days after I returned to the village, I married a girl from another village, and my parents had already agreed to me, and I had seen her pictures, and she had seen me, so we were in free love. Since then, he has started a solid peasant life facing the loess with his back to the sky. I have been a farmer since I was a child, but I was not a farmer in the strict sense of the word, because I was still a student, but now, just like my father, I work all day in the fields of the production team to earn money.

Life and experiences in the army have had a great impact on my character and life. I can say that it changed my whole life. In the past, I was a cheerful, talkative and laughing person, but now I have become a quiet talker, often sighing and sad for no reason. During a break or break, I would often be asked to tell stories of battles and life experiences when I was in the army. I'm always very reluctant because these stories and experiences trigger associations and questions from others, and some of them are things that I don't want to touch.

One of the most likely questions to arouse curiosity and questions is why I am a combat hero, but I have not joined the party or been promoted. This question has bothered me for a long time: almost all combat heroes have been promoted, Sun Yuguo was directly promoted from company commander to regiment commander after participating in the Ninth National Congress, and Li Yongqiang, the platoon commander of our border station, was also transferred to another border station as a company commander after the 6.10 incident. But I didn't, and I didn't even join the party. I was puzzled by this question, but then I finally figured it out, I couldn't mention it because I couldn't join the party, and I couldn't join the party because there was no one to introduce me. Because no one knew how I really behaved when I was captured, no one dared to take this risk to introduce me to the party. This caused me to be distressed and confused for a long time. However, no matter how distressed and confused it is, it is useless. The reality is like this, and no one can change it.

It didn't take long for something to worry me about. I began to hear rumors that those who had fought with me had died, that I had been captured by the Soviets, and that the Soviets would not have let me go if I had not defected; If I was a hero, why didn't I join the party? Moreover, this kind of thing is also natural in people's impression. I also wanted to explain and stop this rumor, but when I thought about it later, it would only be a brush stroke, and the more I depicted, the darker it became, so I ignored it.

However, that night, my cousin and niece came to my house and said to me, 'Uncle, Yulan said that you are not a hero, you are a traitor, and that your fighting hero became a hero in the army by boasting about yourself, and later a foreign journalist took pictures of your performance in the Soviet Union and pierced your cowhide. Say you're a traitor. ’

My niece is a third-grader in primary school, and Yulan is in the same class as her. How do 3rd graders know I'm a traitor? It's not like the adults are talking. Listening to that, I can't play dumb anymore. Otherwise, tomorrow, even a three-year-old child will call me a traitor. So, I immediately found Yulan's house.

It was already dark, and I stood in front of Yulan's house and said to Yulan's mother, 'Yulan's mother, I'll ask Yulan for a question. Magnolia said, 'What do you ask?' I said, 'You don't care, I'll just ask one thing.' Yulan's mother called Yulan out. When Magnolia saw me standing at the door, she was too scared to come out, but her mother pulled her out. I asked her in front of her mother, 'Magnolia, why do you say I'm a traitor?' Magnolia squeaked and replied, 'I listened to others.' So I asked, 'Who did you listen to?' Yulan didn't dare to say it, but her mother forced her to say, 'Who are you listening to?' Magnolia cried and said, 'It was Cuihua who told me.' ’

Cuihua is also a classmate in their class. I was going to look for Cuihua, but Yulan's mother stopped me and said, 'Big brother, don't go to find someone, the word that you are a traitor has spread in the village, and even people in other villages know about it.' It's just that you're still in the dark. ’

Even the people in the outer villages know that I am a traitor, but I am still in the dark. It's no wonder that in the past month or two, the people in the village have always avoided me and ignored me, because they all regarded me as a traitor. I hadn't slept well all night, and it felt like the sky was going to fall.

Early the next morning, I went to the brigade headquarters and found the brigade secretary, who said that he could not control this matter and asked me to find the commune. I went to the commune, but the commune secretary said, 'You have to go to the county armed forces department and ask them to prove it to you.' I went to the county armed forces department again. But one of the deputy ministers of the armed forces said to me, 'We don't know if you have defected or not, how can we give you this certificate?' ’

After running for a day, not only did I not get things done, but I was so angry that my stomach hurt. Listening to what they said, it seemed as if even they were suspecting me of apostasy. I really cried without tears, and I had to swallow it in my stomach when I knocked out my teeth.

A few days later, I quarreled with the production team leader over the division of work, which was not a big deal, but he actually said to me in a tone of lesson in front of many people in the production team, 'You traitor, scum, you still don't obey the transformation, right?' As soon as I heard him call me a traitor and a scum, I rushed to him, grabbed him by the collar, and shouted, 'Why do you say that I am a traitor and a scum?' Lao Tzu has injuries on his body, and he also has an honorary certificate of second-class merit. ’

The production captain shook me away and said in a contemptuous tone, 'Don't blow it, you're a hero, why don't you join the party and become an official?' Which hero did you see who returned to his hometown to become a farmer? I was so angry that my lungs exploded. I said to him, 'Okay, I'll show you if I'm a hero or a traitor.' ’

I was so angry that I went crazy, so I came home, led the sheep, grabbed a few hens that were laying eggs, and ran to the market. When my wife saw that I was in a hurry and red-eyed, and wanted to dissuade me from sending this precious thing from the house to the market, but I could not listen to anything, and shouted hysterically, 'Can't you let me hang myself?' When I heard this, my wife did not dare to stop me again.

I sold the sheep and chickens for 40 yuan, bought a train ticket and went to Urumqi, and then took a military vehicle from the Urumqi Military Region to the Tacheng Military Subdistrict. When the deputy director of the Political Department saw me coming, he was very strange and asked me, 'Why did this big man come here?' With tears in my eyes, I said to him, 'The people in the village say I'm a traitor.' The deputy director asked me, 'Why?' I said, 'They said that I had not joined the party, that I had not become an official, that I would not have returned to my hometown to become a peasant if I was a hero, so they said that I was a traitor.' The deputy director said, 'Then why don't you go to a local organization?' I said, 'Yes, but they don't know if even the deputy head of the county armed forces department said that I had changed my treachery.' ’

The deputy director immediately wrote me a certificate: Comrade Yuan Guoxiao is a soldier of the Tielekti Frontier Station of our Tacheng Military Sub-district, who participated in the Tielekti battle bravely, was wounded in many places, and after being captured by the Soviet army, he was loyal and unyielding, and was awarded a second-class meritorious service. It is hereby certified. Political Department of Tacheng Military Sub-district of Xinjiang Military Region.

When I returned home from Tacheng, I showed the certificate to the captain of the production team and to the rest of the village, so that they would know that I was not a traitor, but a hero. Then I took the certificate to the brigade and the commune and let them see it. Eventually, the county armed forces department kept the certificate in its files. ”