At the end of 2002, after serving as a platoon commander for two and a half years, I was transferred to the Seventh Company in Fuzhou as the deputy company commander.

At that time, in Fuzhou, the airport was still dual-use, just like the Jianqiao Airport in Hangzhou, which was also called Yixu Airport.

The seventh company is located on a hill next to Yixu Airport, which is closer to the urban area than the eighth and ninth companies, and there is a wide road at the bottom of the mountain, which is connected to the gate of the airport terminal and the uphill road leading to the hill where the seventh company is located.

The road under the mountain can go directly to the urban area, there is a fork in the road a few kilometers away, leading to the market town called Luozhou, where the battalion headquarters is located, the battalion headquarters is built on the mountain, the mountain is less than 100 meters high, and there are radar stations and weather stations subordinate to the battalion headquarters on it.

As a deputy company commander, he has his own single room, and the inconvenient problems he has had over the years have been solved, and he has a lot of free time and a solitary environment, but he does not use it to work hard, but to spend it on games.

My sister, who runs a computer shop in Guangzhou, cares about growing up and sent me a computer, but I was attracted by the game for a while, and I couldn't access the Internet without a phone line, so I played a stand-alone game, often staying up all night, and was also reminded by the instructor for this criticism.

THE INSTRUCTOR ALSO HAS A COMPUTER, WHICH WAS PURCHASED EARLIER, AND IS MORE BACKWARD IN COMPARISON, AND I REMEMBER THAT IT SEEMS TO BE A BLACK AND WHITE MONITOR, USING THE 586 SYSTEM, WHILE MINE IS A COLOR DISPLAY, WHICH IS INSTALLED WITH A WINDOWS SYSTEM, BUT HIS COMPUTER IS EQUIPPED WITH A TELEPHONE LINE AND CAN ACCESS THE INTERNET.

There was a newly graduated platoon commander who was good at computers, and once the instructor's computer was out of order, so he asked him to troubleshoot it, and the fault was successfully eliminated, but it produced a high Internet fee, and the Internet access was not cheap at that time, and I don't know what the platoon commander was doing.

The instructor didn't say anything in person, but when he was chatting with me, he mentioned several times that he had helped to solve the problem, but he had a bad impression of the platoon commander.

The company commander is an undergraduate, who graduated two years before me, and it seems that from this time on, a large number of undergraduates took up the post of chief officer of the combat company, and if the unit students were promoted, most of them were battalion headquarters staff officers, or some logistics support companies.

Promoted to deputy company commander, he was a little self-righteous, and found that this company commander always severely reprimanded the recruits, but he was a little afraid and tolerant of the veterans, so he often expressed his dissatisfaction in front of him, and even deliberately defended the recruits.

When the recruits were bullied too badly, at this time as a deputy company commander still has performance, I remember that once the maintenance caused the company commander to be dissatisfied, there was a dispute, angry, said that if the roar can lead a good soldier, then the dog is more suitable to be a company commander.

This sentence reached the ears of the regimental political commissar, who once inspected the work of the company, and particularly emphasized that the regimental party committee trusted the company commander, was at ease in his management, and supported his work.

This year, there was a target shooting mission, that is, from this year onwards, the live ammunition target shooting once every two years became once a year.

Perhaps because the military quality was relatively comprehensive and excellent, the regiment headquarters designated our delegation as the training organ to organize this stationed training, and for the first time in a combat unit, it opened the road of leading a unit alone.

With strict management, proper methods, and outstanding results, every company in the battalion performed well in target shooting this year, either hitting or shooting down, achieving a grand slam, and none of them returned empty-handed.

This time, the target shooting is no longer the Shanghai shooting range, but in Gansu, which is far away on the border of the motherland, a place called Low Nest Pu, and the name is Low Wopu Shooting Range.

Motorized marching, military trucks pulling weapons to the railway station, and then railway loading, the old troops have not been contacted, and the academy has not been contacted, only after being assigned to Zhangzhou, it is only after it is assigned to Zhangzhou that real contact begins.

Compared with Shanghai, the railway transport does not know how much has been increased, everything must be prepared, loading trains, every place must be particularly careful, weapons and military truck tires, are padded with triangular wood, and then tied with iron wire, put on wooden sticks on the wire, twist the iron wire, so that the slightest line does not move is qualified.

A long train, above the slab, all weapons, there are a few carriages idle, used to arrange personnel to ride, generally a company of a carriage, in fact, there is no seat, the essence is a freight train, the carriage is usually used to load goods, empty, the top is the top, surrounded by iron, like a stuffy tank, we all call it "stuffy tank car".

It is said that it is a military train, but the speed is not very fast, and it often stops and waits to give way, boom, boom, and it takes more than a week to reach the nearby station.

In the stuffy tank, there is no toilet, the train is moving, and it will not stop at will, so the carriage door is opened, and the backpack strap is wrapped around the fence, and the hot weather is conducive to ventilation and personal convenience.

For the sake of safety and habit, soldiers were also arranged to stand guard at the door of the carriage, and cadres were also arranged for the company to take turns on duty and patrol from time to time.

This approach has two advantages, not only to prevent someone from sneaking down when the vehicle slows down or suddenly stops, but also to help stabilize the body when it is convenient to avoid falling due to the shaking of the train.

The journey is too far, the time is too long, there are countless wonderful, the most is to play cards in a circle, until you can't hold on, you start to rest, some people fall asleep with their backpacks on their pillows, among which the recruits are the most.

Everyone has prepared sufficient dry food, military compressed biscuits, the first time I saw it, one person and one box, take out a piece, hard as a stone, you can eat it slowly licking, generally with boiling water, one piece can fill your stomach, buy more other food, bread instant noodles ham sausage, divided to a person, can eat to the end.

When the train stops, no matter where it stops, immediately jump off to solve it, there are often water pipes next to the tracks, unscrew the valve, wash the washing, and take a shower, the officers and soldiers are really the same, and no one is an exception.

Some people can't hold it, it should be convenient when the train is moving, it's okay to urinate, you can solve it by holding the carriage door, but it's not easy to poop, being pulled by your comrades, your buttocks are stretched out of the car, some people can't adapt to such a stimulus, you can't pull it out.

The military station provides nourishment, but it does not appear from time to time, sometimes it may be only after a day or two, the guarantee is effective, the meals are abundant, and the boiling water can be replenished, and dry food is eaten for a long time, and there are hot meals and hot dishes, and the taste is particularly fragrant.

The wonderful along the way is also manifested in the exotic customs, there has never been so much insight in different places, there are high mountains and plains, there are basins and high slopes, there are big rivers and small rivers, there are grasslands and Gobi, and finally you can see the towering snow-capped mountains.

The luggage is simple, with a quilt, a satchel and a water bottle on his back, and a marching bag twisted, and he follows the train, and the journey is thousands of miles.

The life of the army, in fact, is also these lines, the target belt is less, and there is not much more tossing and turning in peacetime, with a back on the back and a hand in the hand, it is all, and you can set off, and as soon as the things are released, it is the beginning again.

Counting the troops' several trips, their home went to Hangzhou, then to Shanghai, and then to Guilin, and now they have crossed several provinces and gone to Gansu.

It has flowed through the Yangtze River, Huangpu River, Ganjiang River, Xinjiang River, Jiulong River, Pearl River, as well as the Grand Canal, Haihe River, Liao River, Huai River and Yellow River; It has passed through the Wuyi Mountains, Dabie Mountains, Taihang Mountains, Yinshan Mountains, Qilian Mountains, and Tianshan Mountains, including Dabie Mountains, Luliang Mountains, Helan Mountains, Huangshan Mountains, Mount Tai, Huashan, Song Mountains, Heng Mountains, Heng Mountains, Emei Mountains, Lushan Mountains, Wudang Mountains, and Yandang Mountains.

It has passed through Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, Honghu Lake, Taihu Lake, as well as Jiayuguan, Shanhaiguan and Pingxingguan; It has passed through Nanning, Changsha, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Lanzhou, Wuhan, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing, Hohhot, as well as the East China Sea, the South China Sea and Bohai.

After the Beijing-Kowloon Line, Yingxia Line, Beijing-Guangzhou Line, Chengkun Line, and also crossed Zhengtai Road and Pinghan Road.

The vicissitudes of the ancient road in the Western Regions, the heart flies with the train, the train bypasses the capital, and soon enters the desolate mountainous area, although there are trees and grass, but everywhere there is a color of decay, the south is the harvest season, the melons and fruits are fragrant, the trees are verdant, and life here is about to fall into a deep sleep.

The trees and grass are only under the halfway of the mountainside, the valley bottom is more gathered, the mountain is high and thousand, the peak is all gray cliffs, the height is different, the seats are connected, the sense of steepness is strong, the sense of scenery is poor, the trees are not eye-catching, the cliffs are not a scene, there is only novelty, it is difficult to appreciate.

Perhaps such a mountain is consistent with the character of the northern man, tough and strong, wearing a turban, wearing a horse coat, not focusing on appearance, only strength, one side of the water and soil to support one side.

It is not far from the capital, and it is still nearby, the mountains are desolate and sparsely populated, which is very different from the scene that I longed for in my childhood.

Passing through this mountainous area, the train rushed into Inner Mongolia, the grassland for the first time to see with my own eyes, maybe just passing by the edge, or maybe the real vastness disappeared in the dark night, did not experience the artistic conception of "the wind blows the grass and the cattle and sheep are low", thousands of horses galloping, the yurt is snow-white, the cattle and sheep are flocked, the boundless grassland, and the green is connected to the sky, these are not seen.

Some low plants are common in the meadows, growing alone, tall adult trees, short adult balls, undulating terrain, some places are bare soil, the beauty is destroyed, and there are vague mountains in the distance, and the endless horizon has not disappeared.

The red earth in the south, which can not be seen here, under the meadow, is a slightly gray loess, obviously not as fertile as the red earth, as the train moves at a rapid pace, the bare soil, the area is getting larger and larger, and finally connected into a patch.

Populus euphratica appears on the side of the road, the symbol of great vitality, the only tall tree in the Gobi that can grow into a forest, which grows for a thousand years and does not fall for a thousand years after death, and is immortal for a thousand years after falling.

In the poplar forest, there are occasional villages, this time I see it, next time I don't know how far away it will appear, the houses are made of slightly gray yellow mud on the spot, it feels particularly low, there are often walls around it, and they are also made of mud, and the houses may only be higher than the walls.

The Great Wall that follows all the way is not as majestic as the book depicts, just a wall, following the train to extend, the ruins and broken walls, some places collapse, you can walk through it with a step, and it will disappear from time to time for a while, and the years will erode and melt into the ground.

Occasionally, there is a dirt bag, standing alone in the desert Gobi, that is the former beacon tower, the erosion of the years, the baptism of wind and frost, scraping out the grooves, peeling off the original shape, extinguishing the once majestic, just a small mound, if you don't know that this place was once the Great Wall, it is difficult to associate with the beacon tower full of wolf smoke.

The Great Wall, located in the northwest of the motherland, starts from Shanhaiguan in Hebei Province in the east, reaches Jiayuguan in Gansu Province in the west, was built in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and then for more than 2,000 years, all dynasties are repairing, magnificent, crowning ancient and modern.

Perhaps it is precisely because of this that there is a saying that "if you don't reach the Great Wall, you are not a hero" and "if you don't reach the Yellow River, you will not die", which has become a symbol of courage and a spiritual driving force for the rivers and lakes.

When the train was running on the grassland, it passed a railway bridge similar to the Qiantang River Bridge, a yellowed river, flowing quietly at the bottom of the bridge, like the flash flood that appeared after a torrential rain in his hometown, which carried sediment and was dyed a thick turbid color.

But here is yellow, no rainstorm, heavy and restrained, as if flowing from ancient times, the dark yellow color is very close to the deep red of the red earth, this is the Yellow River.

Perhaps it is already the source of the Yellow River, the river surface is not very wide, the water is not particularly deep, the grassland is flat, the water surface can not see the flow, the meadow is turned, there is no embankment, the river water encroaches on the green grass, the flow direction cannot be seen, and the grass in the distance is a screen, which looks more like a lake.

It is not as described in textbooks and magazines, there are no stormy waves, no waves, and there is no spectacular "wide waves of a big river".

Zhouyi gossip, eight doors in all directions, and the northwest side of the cadre position, is to open the door, implying the beginning of all things, representing good fortune. This position is conducive to the founding of the country and the establishment of a foundation for all generations.

Historical coincidence, Qin occupied 800 miles of Qinchuan, went out of Xianyang to unify the six countries, and the southern expedition and the northern expedition took shape.

It is also the blue of the revolution, the shore of the Yellow River, and the holy land of Yan'an, where a group of outstanding Chinese sons and daughters gathered, overthrew the three mountains, won the victory of the new democratic revolution, and opened a historical chapter in the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

I don't know when, sand and gravel began to appear on the loess, more and more sand and gravel, the environment is becoming more and more desolate, the green gradually withdraws from view, the Gobi arrives, with the appearance of the Gobi, the military column slowly climbs high, enters Gansu, which belongs to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

The military column passed through Jiayu Pass, came to Yumen, and arrived at the end point, not far from the vicinity, which was the low nest shop, and changed to a motorized march, occupied the position, and prepared to shoot targets.

Low Wopu was originally a small village, the Gobi wind was strong, digging into the ground to live in a nest, so it got its name. The barracks where we live fully embody this characteristic, I don't know when it was built, half underground and half on the ground.

It seems simple, but it is quite warm, the Gobi is boundless, the northwest wind is howling, mixed with the ice and snow of the Tianshan Mountains, the face is painful from the outside, and the inside can be completely shielded.

Just from the southernmost part of the four seasons like summer, to the northernmost part of the four seasons like winter, it is indeed a little uncomfortable, and at the end of training every day, what I want most is to get into the nest as soon as possible.

There is also an unsuitable place, the stream next to it, dug a canal, flowing is ice water from the Tianshan Mountain, with this water to wash clothes, hands into it, the cold can penetrate into the muscles and bones, no one dares to soak for a long time.

This is the real Gobi, full of sand and gravel as far as the eye can see, each of which is so small that it is difficult to see it that is larger than a child's fist.

Green can only be seen sporadically in the vicinity of the camp, and the troops stationed here, I don't know how many years of hard work, planted to survive, especially cold-resistant elm trees, there are also some around the camp, the vitality is quite tenacious, hanging with green leaves.

Outside the camp, it is difficult to see a drop of green, there are plants, too rare, occasionally can be seen, belong to the thorn plant, here is called "camel thorn", a single one, low growth, yellow color, no leaves on the branches, all thorns one by one.

The temperature difference between day and night here is very large, the sun is high at a thousand o'clock, just wear a winter coat outside, wrap in a coat at night and feel cold, the soldiers are arranged to stand guard on the position, check the post at night, you can always see them stomping their feet and walking around constantly, so as to keep warm, maintain body temperature, resist the invasion of cold, quite hard.

The time difference is significantly widened here, and it is not dark until nine o'clock in the evening, and it is already bright at four or five o'clock in the morning.

Such a strong temperature difference, the growth of fruit sugar is particularly sufficient, Zhangzhou is the hometown of fruits, at this time found that it can not be compared with here at all, the variety is rich, the quantity is sufficient, the local villagers, there is always a car to pull to sell.

Cantaloupe, Yellow River honey, Gobi pear, grapes, peaches, sandy watermelons, gourds, etc., no matter which one, a mouthful, the sweetness can penetrate the heart and spleen, the mouth is full of sticky teeth, the juice flows out, stained with clothes, and the sticky is difficult to remove.

The plateau air pressure is low, and the water cannot be boiled without a pressure cooker, so the troops prepared a large number of bottled mineral water and sent it to the squad platoon to ensure daily water replenishment. Some people exchange mineral water with villagers, so cheap, a box of mineral water, can be exchanged for a lot of fruit.

The sweetness of each fruit is deeply memorable, and two of them are even more impressive. One is the Gobi ugly pear, no one has explored what the real name is, because the shape is too irregular and quite ugly, so we call it the Gobi ugly pear.

Don't look at it ugly, compared to the pears in the south, there is no appearance at all, but the taste is a sky, an underground, after eating the Gobi ugly pears, I know how bland the taste of those pears bought and eaten in the south before.

There is also a grape, to be precise, one of the many grape varieties, the particles are very small, seedless, just enough to be filled into the military kettle, before training on the shooting range, it must be full, and when resting in the middle, leaning on the sand pile piled out of the bunker, one by one poured into the mouth, both sweet and refreshing, and juice to quench thirst.

The price is cheap, the taste is excellent, the target is over, the family is in the station, all buy in large quantities, wait for the return, and share it with relatives and friends to taste. For those of us who are from our home country, we can only buy some dried products, and the most common ones are raisins, which are tightly glued together and can see sugar grains.

The fruit is too sugar to be stored for a long time, the road is too far, into the south, the weather becomes hotter, it is more difficult to store, the road begins to rot and deteriorate, and by the time you get off the bus, there are very few that can be taken home.

It is not easy to store and transport, which may be the reason why it cannot be bought elsewhere, or perhaps the reason why the price is so cheap here.

The Tianshan Mountains are nearby, and there is another rather mythical treasure that attracts our attention, that is, the Tianshan Snow Lotus, the army supplies are purchased from Yumen, and the secretary said that there are state-owned pharmacies where they are sold, which makes him quite curious, and immediately takes the time to follow the grocery shopping vehicle.

After many years of reform and opening up, where can you still see state-run stores in the south, enterprises restructuring, workers laid off, self-employed, and even college students who have graduated are not assigned jobs, and only in the news can we hear some enterprises called state-owned enterprises.

I didn't think that there was a state-run pharmacy here, and when I really arrived, I found that it was indeed a state-run pharmacy, and the counter shop was like the supply and marketing cooperatives when my grandfather worked, and the wooden lattice in the pharmacy was neatly arranged in the same size, and the long drawer was pulled out, and there were various medicinal materials inside, and the name was marked on the surface of the drawer.

One of the grids, written is Snow Lotus, it is a pity that it is late, and someone has already taken the lead and bought it out.

"The spring breeze does not pass the Yumen Pass", the spring breeze of reform has already blown all over the earth, but it just stays here.

There is a nuclear industrial base not far from the shooting range, a hyperbolic cooling tower more than 100 meters high, towering into the sky, you can see from a distance, the white smoke has never stopped, and when you reach it, you will feel shocked, standing at its feet, as small as an ant.

Closer, once visited inside, found that the state-run meaning here is stronger, it seems that time has turned back, back to the fifties and sixties, buying things in small shops, clearly marked prices, familiar bargaining sounds, no longer heard, if you want to buy, you will buy, do not buy away.

Go to work on time and leave work on time, when the time comes, the door closes, there is no familiar shouting, and the familiar lights are bright and there is no overnight.

In the end, the spring breeze blows in, one of which has demarcated the area, built a shopping mall, and only then did it feel the modern atmosphere, between the shops, restaurants, and all kinds of service industries, full of smiles, soliciting business, calling for buying and selling, the lights are bright, and the voices of people are boiling.

Compared with Shanghai, it is more difficult to open a position on the Gobi, Shanghai has a reference point, and after finding it, the cotton field is cleared and simply repaired to become a position.

It's too vast, and it seems that an area has been randomly designated, that is, a target position, with no reference point or traces of the past, with actual combat requirements, reconstructed, a bit like digging trenches in a war movie.

However, the sand and gravel are too hard, it is not easy to dig up, and it is even more difficult to ram into a bunker, the fighter plane can not be delayed, time waits for no one, in order to complete it on time and according to the requirements, many soldiers grind blood blisters with their hands, and still struggle to dig and build.

Military trucks are pulling and carrying weapons, and the plateau and Gobi are galloping, and as far as the eye can see, the sand and gravel are boundless, and there is no end in sight, and the convoys march, raising billowing dust.

I don't know if the road is left by the predecessors, or the latest to open up, around the Gobi, here far away from the residential area, really desolate, except for sand and gravel, there is nothing, the sky is clear and there is no cloud, not even birds can be seen, the ground is barren and there is no green, not even a small grass.

The farthest sky, it seems that you can see a line of white, it may be the Qilian Mountain at the junction of Gansu and Qinghai, "Qilian" is the Xiongnu language, the Xiongnu call the sky "Qilian", Qilian Mountain is the meaning of "Tianshan".

During the Western Han Dynasty, Huo went to the west to conquer the Xiongnu, "lost my Qilian Mountain, so that my six animals did not rest; The loss of my self and the mountains have made my wife colorless. The Xiongnu folk song recounts that period of history, the strength of the Han army, the soldiers, the Xiongnu retreated, which is said to have caused the great migration of the Western Germanic peoples.

The years have become history, leaving a vast territory of a great country, opening up the Silk Road connecting the Han nation to the world, spreading Chinese civilization to the world, the Han and Tang dynasties, and the four directions coming to congratulate and the eight directions to the dynasty.

Geographically speaking, the Han and Tang dynasties of that year, the capital of Xi'an Chang'an, is the northwest of Shenzhou, and among the eight gates of Zhouyi's gossip, it belongs to the open door.

At the end of the targeting, the results were good, and he returned with a full load, took the military train again, crossed the land of the motherland, changed the return route, passed the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge for the first time, and when it was completed, the great man once wrote the grand chapter of "the moat changed the road".

It is evening when passing by, the lights have been up, the military column passes through the foot of the snake mountain, the yellow crane tower, one of the four famous buildings on the mountain, the lights flow layer by layer, such as dream, simple and modern, magnificent and solemn, condensed the bustle and prosperity of the modern metropolis.

During this period, a rather dramatic story took place, and when he returned, he had the subjects of air defense confrontation and anti-chemical warfare exercises for the railway march, and as the deputy company commander, he rode on a military truck on the last flatbed and served as the position commander.

The truck was fixed on the flat plate with triangle wood and iron wire, which was more convenient, looser, quieter, and fresher than the stuffy tank, but it was more dangerous.

When entering Baoji West Station, the military train stopped slowly, according to the custom, either stop and add water, or the military station to eat, at least ten minutes, is a little upset, after the military train stopped, and the veteran greeted him, immediately jumped down, and found a toilet in the station to solve.

Worried that there would be changes, the battle was quickly resolved, and it was only three or four minutes before and after, and when I returned to the railroad tracks, there was still a military column.

Hurriedly contacted the station staff, only to know that the military train had departed, and could not see the shadow, and later understood, it turned out that the military train had stopped by mistake, stopped in the wrong place, and should have stopped at the east station, but stopped at the west station, for fear of affecting the movement of other trains, just stopped and immediately departed.

This has made me miserable, how can a commander leave his combat post, and if he is known by his superiors, he must not be trained to death.

In the hurry, the platform staff reminded him to immediately run out of the platform, find a taxi, and drive towards the east station, constantly urging all the way, rushing to the east station, showing his identity, entering the station, and the military train was waiting quietly.

Finding the tail car, the veteran showed a relieved and mocking smile, and immediately reported to the company commander through the intercom, and the company commander and instructor who were in a hurry were finally relieved, fortunately, they had not yet reported to the battalion, and this veteran enlisted in the same year as me.

There was a military station here, and soon they gathered, dined together, met with a few cadres, and were teased by them for a while.