A convoy of more than a dozen military vehicles, mighty and mighty, drove all the way north.

This is the first time that eighteen-year-old Yu Songyuan has stepped out of his hometown, and the colorful and meteorological scenery of Daqian Shijie is slowly unfolding in front of him, just like a long scroll of Chinese painting depicted by scattered perspective techniques.

Fields, villages, rivers, thatched huts, busy people, children playing...... Along the way, Yu Songyuan's eyes widened, wanting to see everything in his eyes, engrave it in his mind, and remember it in his heart.

Many years later, Yu Songyuan recalled the scene when he left his hometown for the first time, and the vast plains of northern Jiangsu could leave him with only green fields, gray villages, dilapidated grass houses, and rivers that extended in all directions......

Standing on the platform of Xinpu Railway Station, Yu Songyuan tried to look at the sky in the distance, he wanted to see the mountain. In the past 18 years, he has only seen mountains from books and novels. He knew that Xinpu had Yuntai Mountain and Huaguo Mountain, which was the hometown of Monkey King. But the weather was foggy, and there was nothing to see in the distance except thick clouds.

It was only after five o'clock in the afternoon that the recruits boarded the special carriage of the passenger train transporting the recruits. This is also the first time Yu Songyuan has seen a train, and his hometown is not connected to the railway. Before that, he had only seen trains in books and movies, and learned how trains work from physics textbooks.

The train is a slow train, stop-and-go, along the Longhai Railway "clang" all the way west. Dinner began, and Officer Chen and Platoon Leader Du pushed two large boxes of cakes in a cart, and they could eat as much as they wanted. The female conductor followed behind with a trolley with several large iron kettles, filling each recruit's tea jar with boiling water.

Officer Chen began to give an impassioned speech, "Fellow recruits, today is your first Army Day after joining the army. Fifty-three years ago today, our great army was born in Nanchang City. It was a very meaningful day, and we all had to have dinner in the army. But now that we are in a limited condition, let's eat cake to commemorate this great festival! ”

Yu Songyuan is not only the first time to take the train, but also the first time to eat cake in 18 years. He only ate four and felt no longer hungry. In fact, he still wanted to eat again, but he didn't feel hungry anymore, so he was embarrassed to take it again. Many recruits were in the same mood as him, and most of them ate two and then controlled themselves not to eat.

Camp Commander Zhang came to sit down opposite Yu Songyuan, and while eating the cake, he asked him very casually, "Xiao Yu, how many bowls of rice do you usually eat at home?" ”

"The rice is not counted, and the barley picks are dry rice with three or four sea bowls."

"According to your meal, you should eat at least ten pieces of cake!"

Seeing his puzzled look, the battalion commander said, "We have to take the train for about a day and a half, and the train is in motion, and sitting still on the train is also very physically demanding. The cake is very fluffy, not hungry at all, you can't eat two, you will be very hungry at night, you will not be able to sleep. ”

Yu Songyuan understood, he picked up two more and ate them, and stood up and said to the recruits, "Everyone, pay attention, we still have to take a long train, and eating this thing for one or two can't last a night, everyone eats at least five to six, and there is no limit to more, the battalion commander said that this is a task." ”

Hearing that this was a mission, the recruits began to let go of their bellies and eat again.

The battalion commander smiled and asked, "Recruit egg, when will I tell you that this is a mission?" Someone has eaten a bad stomach, and I'll settle accounts with you. ”

Yu Songyuan said, "Didn't you say that I can't eat two?" ”

The battalion commander said, "Tease you, you're doing the right thing." My surname is Zhao, and I will also be the battalion commander of your recruit battalion in the future. ”

"Battalion commander, I have a request, please don't tell anyone about my family history."

“haode。 You want to grow through your own efforts, I promise you. Actually, your eldest and your youngest grandfather also made the same request. You can rest assured, the army is a melting pot, as long as you work hard, you will definitely become steel! ”

As soon as the freshness of getting on the train has passed, the rest of the journey is very boring. The train went to the Beijing-Shanghai line at night, went north along the Beijing-Shanghai line, went to Quancheng and went east along the Jiaoji line, and only arrived at the end of the Binhai Railway Station at more than two o'clock in the afternoon of the next day. After getting out of the car, the recruits plunged into the mountains in a car.

Yu Songyuan was also the first time to see the majestic mountains and dense mountain forests. Along the winding mountain road, the big truck bumps all the way through the endless mountains and mountains.

"Look, airport! Military aircraft ......" I don't know who was the first to call.

It turned out that the sky in front of it suddenly became empty, and it was a large basin. In the middle of the basin, there is a very large military airfield, with a long runway that cannot be seen at a glance. Many small silver-white planes were parked on the tarmac, and the radar antennas on the distant tower were constantly rotating.

The recruits were excited, they were all seeing the airfield and military aircraft for the first time.

Before Yu Songyuan left, his eldest brother Yu Songdong had introduced the basic situation of the army to him, and knew that he would have to train recruits for several months. When the convoy came to the airport, he thought that the recruit company was going to conduct recruit training at the airport, but as soon as he had this idea, the convoy turned around and left the airport again, and plunged headlong into the mountains again. After traveling for dozens of minutes, he finally stopped in front of a large village under a small hill.

It is a mountain village, built in a mountain col. There was a small hill in front of the village, and in the distance there was a wall above it, and houses were inside. Behind the village, there is a towering mountain, and later he learned that this mountain is called Longwang Mountain, which is a branch of Kunyu Mountain, and there is a spacious cement road in front of the door of the cave.

In wartime, all fighters in the airport can be transferred to caves and hidden. The spacious cement road in front of the cavern has become a runway for aircraft to take off and land.

More than a dozen large trucks stopped in one line, and the recruits got out of the cars and lined up and began to line up according to the roster. They came here with about two hundred and fifty or sixty recruits, and they were organized into two recruit companies. At this time, a jeep pulled a small trailer drove up, and it turned out to be to deliver food. Each person is given two small green porcelain basins and a spoon, one for rice and one for vegetables. The main dish for dinner is white steamed buns, and the dish is fried sea fish and vegetable soup.

It was also the first time that the recruits from the Great Plains had let go of their bellies and ate fresh sea fish.

Everyone gathered in a bunch and ate together. Before the meal was finished, the men, women, and children of the village had already flocked to the square at the foot of the hill with joy. After eating in a hurry, I washed the basin and spoon in front of the car pulling water, put it in my satchel, and began to line up with my bag on my back.

Standing at the front of the queue, Officer Chen told the recruits about the "three major disciplines and eight points of attention," the glorious traditions of our army, and the mass discipline of our army, and then announced the matters to be paid attention to during the three days of living in the homes of the villagers.

This is also the old revolutionary base area, and the simple people in the mountains have a deep friendship with the people's army. After the instructor finished speaking, the villagers rushed up, both the old man and the old mother and the young boy, as well as the big girl and the little daughter-in-law and the little hairy girl, each class was happily led away by a common people, and after a while, twenty-one classes were all happily led into the home by the common people.

Yu Songyuan's class has a total of eleven people, and the squad leader and deputy squad leader are named Chen Weitong and Wang Hai respectively. He was very puzzled, since he called for cake in the military column, he began to have prestige among the recruits, and more and more people flocked to him, but weishenme didn't let him be the squad leader?

The eleven of them were led into a stone-walled courtyard in the middle of the village by a red-faced mountain man in his fifties. The homes of the common people here are different from Yu Songyuan's hometown, each family has a large courtyard with a stone courtyard wall, the house is also made of stone, there are main houses, wings and stables, there are shadow walls in the yard, there are one to three tall horses in the stables, and some people even have donkeys, all of which snort from time to time. There is a big kang in the room, and there are more than a dozen colorful quilts on the kang, and a kang table is placed in the center of the kang.

The eldest mother, two sons, and a daughter-in-law all greeted them in front of the courtyard gate.

Walking into the courtyard, there is a big "Xi" word pasted on the high shadow wall, a 200-watt large light bulb, which illuminates the courtyard brightly, and the window glass of the main room and the wing room is covered with a row of red, full of festive atmosphere of paper-cutting.

Yu Song takes a closer look, the content has magpie Dengmei, swallow wears peach willow, peacock play peony, lion rolling hydrangea, three sheep (Yang) Kaitai, two dragons play beads, deer crane Tong Chun (six contract spring), five bats (Fu) hold longevity, rhinoceros looking at the moon, lotus (even) year has fish (remainder), mandarin ducks playing in the water, bangs play golden cicadas, and two immortals, etc., set off the yard with joy.

It seems that the eldest son of the red-faced uncle has just gotten married, and the beautiful daughter-in-law in the red cotton jacket must still be a bride. Moreover, the eldest lady or bride, there must be one person who is still a master of folk paper-cutting.

They were placed in a wing room and lived with their youngest son, Ma Jun, who was fifteen or sixteen years old. It was the first time for everyone to see the kang in the north, and they were very excited. As soon as they put down their backpacks, the eldest lady and the bride came in with two big blue children, one with cigarettes and all kinds of home-made snacks and pastries, and the other with candy, peanuts and red dates, and warmly entertained them.

It was difficult to resist the enthusiasm, Chen Weitong and Wang Hai both looked at Yu Songyuan. Yu Songyuan said to them: "Xiexie aunt and sister-in-law, I also wish the bride a happy marriage and an early birth to a precious son!" The eldest lady took his hand and said xiexie. The bride was busy handing out joy candy to everyone, and when she saw Yu Songyuan generously receiving it, the recruits all took it with a red face.

As soon as the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law left, the battalion correspondent came to call Yu Songyuan, saying that the battalion commander called him.

Yu Songyuan followed the messenger to the hill, and the battalion headquarters set up three large tents in the open space in the middle of the old barracks overgrown with weeds. After the correspondent entered the big tent in the middle to report, the battalion commander walked out of the tent with an armed belt and a cigarette in his mouth, "Xiaoyu, let's go together!" ”

The two walked together to a row of old barracks, with the correspondent following behind. The barracks was an old-fashioned stone house, three or four meters high, and the battalion commander suddenly jumped up on the spot, and as soon as he reached the roof, Yu Songyuan also jumped up. The correspondent had no such ability, so he could only stare dryly. It was estimated that the battalion commander had a secret to tell Yu Songyuan, so he took the initiative to stand far away from the barracks.

The roof is flat and much cleaner than the ground. The battalion commander handed him a cigarette, Yu Songyuan shook his head, and the battalion commander said, "I'll give you a task, only you can know." Your landlord, Uncle Ma, is a master of making fruit wine. I ask you to get rid of him completely in the next three days, and to earn his complete trust. ”

"No problem, I'm sure to get the job done." Yu Songyuan looked at the battalion commander, but the battalion commander didn't explain.