In order to let the soldiers not forget the class hardships and keep in mind the blood and tears, the head of the guard communications company would arrange for the recruits to have a "bitter meal" at a certain time, which was also a "compulsory course" for the recruits in the army at that time after they left the company. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

This time, the "chef" who cooked the bitter rice in the canteen of the guard communication company was Yang Luokung.

Yang Luokung is a young man born in the new society and grew up under the red flag, I don't know what the hard life of people in the old society was like, but I heard the old people say that they "eat bran and swallow vegetables, and don't eat belly".

The chaff is already hard to find, so Yang Luobasket asked for some at a nearby grain processing factory. Vegetable leaves, everywhere, attached everywhere. He mixed fine rice bran, chopped cabbage gangs, half-cooked sweet potatoes and radishes, added some cornmeal to them, sprinkled two spoonfuls of salt, stirred two large pots, and steamed several baskets of bran and vegetable dumplings with the soldiers of the cooking class, one for each of them when they ate bitter rice.

Like Yang Luokung, we rural soldiers did not suffer hardships in the old society, but after three years of hardship in the early sixties of the 20 th century, almost all of us ate rice bran, sorghum husks, wild vegetables, elm bark, and other things that could be used to fill our stomachs. After arriving in the army, we spent more than four cents a day on food, and in the morning there were old pickles in Wotou, and at noon and evening there were steamed buns and rice stir-fried vegetables.

During the bitter meal, in order to set off the atmosphere, a female operator of the communication platoon sang a song in the canteen with tears in her eyes: The sky is full of stars, the crescent moon is shining, and the production team holds a meeting, complaining about grievances and justice, and the old society of all evils------

The female soldiers in the company were born and raised in the city, and the living conditions at home were naturally better than those in the countryside. They held the bran dumplings, took a bite and chewed them in their mouths, and poured them from one side of their mouths to the other, but they couldn't swallow them. Some female soldiers simply broke the bran dumplings into small pieces, rounded them in their hands, and sent them to their stomachs with boiled water like taking Chinese medicine pills.

Although the bran dumplings made from pig feed-like materials are not very tasty, they are much better than the bark wild vegetables we ate in the countryside when we were children during the three difficult years. A soldier named Shang Zhongliang in our class quickly finished eating his bran dumplings, and he was still unsatisfied, smacked his lips, and whispered, "It's delicious!" ”

Squad leader Cui, who was sitting next to Shang Zhongliang, most of the bran dumplings also entered his stomach, he glared at Shang Zhongliang, quickly swallowed what was in his mouth, and scolded him in a low voice: "Don't say it's delicious!" ”

The army also often educated the soldiers in the tradition of arduous struggle, and "diligence and thrift are our heirlooms, and socialist construction is inseparable from ------" was a song that we often sang at that time.

When we first arrived at the company, the company commander asked a veteran to tell us how he had saved five dollars from his six-dollar monthly allowance. The female soldiers in the company felt that it was unbelievable that a person could spend one dollar a month, and their allowance of six yuan a month plus seven cents and five cents of "sanitation expenses" was always not enough. And we, the male soldiers who grew up in the countryside, not only think that it is normal to spend one dollar a month, but also are a little unconvinced by the deeds of that veteran.

Children in rural areas do not have the habit of brushing their teeth, mainly because the economic conditions do not allow it, and the family does not even have the money to buy salt, so how can they buy toothbrush and toothpaste. When we arrived in the army, we spent a few cents on a toothbrush, a few cents on a bag of toothpaste, and we began to learn to brush our teeth.

Adults who have never brushed their teeth before start brushing their teeth may experience bleeding from their gums. One day, when Shang Zhongliang was brushing his teeth in the bathroom, his mouth was full of blood, and a recruit from the army in a town next to him who was also brushing his teeth shouted at him in surprise: "Look, his mouth is bleeding!" Although Shang Zhongliang said that his family was very poor, he had a strong sense of self-esteem, he was embarrassed by the recruits around him, a little angry, drank a sip of cold water to rinse his mouth, and deliberately made a fuss and pointed to the mouth of the town recruit who was full of white foam and said: "Look, his mouth is bleeding pus!" ”

As far as I know, Shang Zhongliang's monthly living expenses are also a lot of money, others use a bag of toothpaste for a month, he can use it for two months, only squeeze a little bit at a time, and when he can't squeeze it out, he uses a knife to cut the toothpaste skin and scrape it again with a toothbrush. Occasionally, when he entered the city, he never spent a penny, and once, the town soldier who said that he brushed his teeth and bleed, showed off in front of him: "A cold drink shop has just opened on a street in the city, and I went into the city today to buy a box of ice cream there for three cents, and I can eat it cold at the door, which is really happy!" Shang Zhongliang pretended to be disdainful and said: "Who hasn't tasted ice cream, lack of oil and salt, what's delicious!" “

It turned out that Shang Zhongliang didn't know that ice cream was sweet at all, and he was not willing to eat a three-cent popsicle, let alone a box of ice cream for a few cents.

When we enlisted in the army for half a year, Shang Zhongliang's family renovated the house, and he sent back 32 yuan to his parents at once. We all admired him and didn't know how he saved his money. There is also a naughty warrior who looks like Shang Zhongliang, saying that he never brings tissue paper when he goes to the toilet to relieve his stool, but picks up what others have used, and said that he himself said: "It's a pity that you only use one side of the paper paper, others use this side, I use the other side!" ”

One year after joining the army, we recruits have all become veterans, and this year the head of the guard communications company arranged for the veterans to give the recruits a lecture on traditions and introduce the good practices of diligence and thrift.

(End of this article) (To be continued.) )