作 者：龔如仲（美國）
海外頭條總編審 王 在 軍 （中國）
海外頭條副編審 Wendyh溫迪（英國）
海 外 頭 條總 編 火 鳳 凰 （海外）
圖片選自百度
【歲月如重】第二章：大學(xué)年代
第三部分：軍墾時(shí)光
文/龔如仲（美國）
根據(jù)偉大領(lǐng)袖毛主席關(guān)于“知識分子要到工廠去，農(nóng)村去接受工農(nóng)兵的再教育”的偉大指示，我們這些個(gè)大學(xué)畢業(yè)生不能按期畢業(yè)，推遲畢業(yè)半年后，在1968年的冬天，我被“榮幸”地發(fā)配到了河北唐山遠(yuǎn)郊的一個(gè)軍墾農(nóng)場，開始了我的勞動(dòng)鍛煉生涯。
到了軍墾農(nóng)場后，我們這些來自不同院校的畢業(yè)生被混編成一個(gè)個(gè)學(xué)生連。由農(nóng)場的軍人擔(dān)任連長和排長，又在我們中間挑選出學(xué)生擔(dān)任各班的班長 我當(dāng)時(shí)榮幸地被委任為二排二班的班長。軍墾農(nóng)場的生活是極其艱苦的，各個(gè)班的十幾個(gè)小伙子或姑娘們都得分別擠在一間間簡陋的營房里，晚上睡覺就頭挨著頭躺在一個(gè)大炕上（炕是中國北方農(nóng)村常見的睡覺場所，炕由磚砌成，炕底下是空的，可以通過小火燒柴禾來保持炕上的溫度，這樣有利于對抗北方的寒冷）。每天天不亮，我們就被起床的軍號聲叫醒，然后像軍人一樣在幾分鐘之內(nèi)完成穿衣、上廁所、迭被子、洗臉、刷牙等事情。之后，再隨著一聲哨響，就迅速奔向操場，在排長的率領(lǐng)下進(jìn)行嚴(yán)酷的操練。操練完畢，才前往飯廳吃早餐。而吃完早餐，緊張有序的一天才算真正開始。
我們剛到農(nóng)場時(shí)已是隆冬時(shí)節(jié)，天氣很冷，沒有什么農(nóng)活可干。排長就安排我們這一排的戰(zhàn)士清一色的“禿小子”到離營房不遠(yuǎn)的荒地上挖魚塘。因?yàn)榕砰L說了，“挖好魚塘，開春放上魚苗，等魚兒長大就可給全連改善生活”。排長一聲令下，我們就紛紛扛著鍬、拿著鏟，在荒地上熱火朝天地大干起來。
可我們在學(xué)校哪里干過如此繁重的工作？加上正值隆冬時(shí)節(jié)，荒地仍然被凍得結(jié)結(jié)實(shí)實(shí)的。我們就那么一鍬鍬、一鏟鏟地砍下去、挖出來，不多一會(huì)兒，我們就累得氣喘吁吁，衣服也被汗水浸透了。等到收工回營，個(gè)個(gè)都像渾身散了架。然而時(shí)間長了，大家也就慢慢適應(yīng)了。果然是“功到自然成”，沒多久，偌大的魚塘就挖成了?？粗怯执笥稚畹聂~塘，我們這些﹁小臭老九﹂們立刻忘卻勞累，心里反而充滿了小小的成就感，覺得自己離偶像工農(nóng)兵們似乎近了一小步。
等到冬天過去、初春來臨的時(shí)候，我們就在排長的帶領(lǐng)下，早早地來到稻田旁。那時(shí)候，只要排長一聲令下，我們就必須立即光著腳，跳進(jìn)冰冷的稻田里干活去。因?yàn)榕砰L說了，“先得松松地，等天暖和了好插秧”。要知道，這時(shí)候的稻田的水面上仍有一層薄薄的冰。
說到這里，我倒不是想說我們的排長有多么冷血。排長是一位來自安徽的農(nóng)村小伙子，才二十出頭，他有著超凡的軍人素質(zhì)，為人也實(shí)在、厚道。我們也能感覺出來，他也不忍心讓我們這些﹁肩不能挑、手不能提﹂的文弱書生們太為難?？墒?，“知識分子必須接受工農(nóng)兵再教育”的國策是萬萬不可違抗的。于是他只能咬咬牙、狠狠心，命令我們那樣做了。
可是對于我們，這實(shí)在是不堪回首的經(jīng)歷和體驗(yàn)。只要看一眼那薄冰覆蓋的水田，我們的心就一下子收緊了。然而作為班長，我又必須起到帶頭作用。于是我們幾位班長就紛紛脫下鞋襪、卷起褲腿、手拿鐵鍬、咬著牙踏入冰水之中。就在我們的雙腳踏入冰水的一剎那，一種難以忍受的冷的痛楚就立即襲遍了全身，似乎有千萬根鋼針刺進(jìn)了雙腳。這時(shí)候我們大家就背誦著“下定決心，不怕犧牲，排除萬難，去爭取勝利”的毛澤東語錄，一邊用力挖著淤泥，一邊招呼班上的同學(xué)也到冰水里來“享享?！?/span>。所幸的是，“最高司令官”排長也在冰水中指導(dǎo)我們干活。干了一會(huì)兒，也許排長也覺得這冰水實(shí)在太冷了，于是他就命令我們收工回營。
初春踏入冰水的經(jīng)驗(yàn)是不堪回首的，但畢竟不是很長時(shí)間地在水中，更何況受罪的也只有腿和腳。而在同樣的天氣、面對著同樣刺骨的冰水，要下到水里去捕魚，那種滋味您也許就很難想象了?？蛇@樣的事我們也確確實(shí)實(shí)地領(lǐng)教過。
那是我到農(nóng)場的第二年初春吧，是二月里的一天，排長命令我們班派四個(gè)人到魚塘捕魚，說是“要為全連加餐”。盡管那天風(fēng)和日麗，但冰雪剛剛開始消融，魚塘里的水溫是極低的。只要一想到要跳入冰冷的魚塘里去捕魚，人人都會(huì)不寒而栗。但是“軍令如山倒”，我們又豈敢違抗？而且作為班長，我當(dāng)然得一馬當(dāng)先、首當(dāng)其沖了。于是，加上另外三個(gè)被挑選出來的壯小伙子，我們一共四個(gè)人的“捕魚小組”就成立了。
記得那天我們特意從小賣部里買了兩瓶七十二度的“二鍋頭”，又吩咐班上的同學(xué)扛上我們的棉被，就朝著魚塘出發(fā)了?！岸侇^”當(dāng)然是為了給我們這些“勇士們”壯膽和御寒的；而棉被子則是為我們這四朵“出水芙蓉”保暖的。到了魚塘，我們先是脫掉衣服，每人只穿一條內(nèi)褲，然后就咕嘟嘟地猛喝幾大口白酒（我生平頭一回，也是最后一回享用了七十二度的點(diǎn)火即燃的烈酒），接著又倒酒少許于手掌心，在身上猛擦猛揉。之后大家就怪叫一聲跳入了水中。
入水之后，我們才真正體會(huì)了什么叫做冷，因?yàn)槠渲械淖涛哆h(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超出了我們的想象：冰冷的水如利刃般刺入肌膚，我感到全身的血液都似乎凝固住了，頭腦也直發(fā)暈。在這種情形下，不要說在水下睜開雙眼捕魚（據(jù)說，極冷的水中，魚兒也不活躍，只要努力，是可以在水下徒手捕魚的），就連在水下的動(dòng)作都勉為其難（當(dāng)然，冬泳者可以在結(jié)冰的河水中暢游，這是因?yàn)樗麄兘?jīng)過了長時(shí)期的鍛煉和適應(yīng)，而我們這些從未接受過冬泳訓(xùn)練的普通人那里消受得起這“冬泳”的“樂趣”）。那一次，我們只是在水中勉強(qiáng)掙扎了一會(huì)兒，就趕緊離水上岸了。魚是沒抓住一條，人可差點(diǎn)被凍得半死。
等到我們套上衣服，班上的同學(xué)將棉被把我們從上到下緊緊裹住后，我們才慢慢緩了過來。而站在魚塘邊的排長，看著我們這四名捕魚者只是意味深長地笑了笑，還一邊半真半假地指著我們說道：“你們這些大學(xué)生啊，就是有點(diǎn)兒太嬌氣”。我心想，真是我們太嬌氣了嗎？說句心里話，那樣的經(jīng)歷也許一輩子都會(huì)銘記在心了。
當(dāng)春天真正來臨的時(shí)候，金燦燦的迎春花開滿了營房四周。不多久，紅艷艷的桃花也開了，田邊的楊柳也已吐出了翠綠的新葉。這時(shí)候，農(nóng)場上下一片歡騰，大家感到總算告別了令人乏味的冬季，迎來了美麗的春天。
不過隨著春天的來臨，我們也進(jìn)入了緊張而繁重的農(nóng)忙時(shí)節(jié)。從春到夏、從夏到秋，在兩年的軍墾生涯里，我記不清插過多少秧苗，收過多少稻谷，也不記得曾挖過多少土方，挑過多少重?fù)?dān)。我只記得在農(nóng)忙的季節(jié)里，我們每天披星戴月，一天干十三四個(gè)小時(shí)的活簡直是家常便飯。
經(jīng)過兩年的勞動(dòng)鍛煉，在我們這些“小臭老九”（當(dāng)時(shí)的大學(xué)生被社會(huì)上戲稱為“小臭老九”，而所謂的臭老九就是排在八種敵人之后的第九位。那八種敵人是“地主、富農(nóng)、反革命、壞分子、右派、叛徒、特務(wù)、走資本主義道路的當(dāng)權(quán)派，也就走資派。而在走資派后面就是排名第九的知識分子了。大學(xué)生是年輕人，所以就是“小臭老九”了）身上發(fā)生的變化也是看得見的：身體壯了，胃口好了，力氣也大了，我們離接受再教育的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)越來越近了。然而，要想真正達(dá)到接受再教育的“合格標(biāo)準(zhǔn)”，僅憑勞動(dòng)這一項(xiàng)是遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠的。從某種意義上講，勞動(dòng)只是一個(gè)方面，而更重要的還應(yīng)該是思想層面上的改造。
連領(lǐng)導(dǎo)和排長們深刻領(lǐng)會(huì)了這個(gè)方針，所以相對于勞動(dòng)改造，他們對我們的“政治學(xué)習(xí)”和“思想改造”抓得更緊了。除了每周兩個(gè)下午的政治學(xué)習(xí)和討論，有時(shí)他們會(huì)對我們來一個(gè)突如其來、意想不到的“思想考驗(yàn)”和挑戰(zhàn)。
記得在一天深夜，因?yàn)閯诶哿艘惶?，大家都睡得很沉，周圍萬籟俱寂。突然間，一陣軍號聲劃破了夜空，一下子將人們從睡夢中驚醒。于是大家慌忙起床穿好衣服，就向著大操場沖去。大家一邊跑，一邊在心中尋思著：“這種不同尋常的軍號聲，一定意味著有大事或急事發(fā)生了”。
等我們來到大操場，就發(fā)現(xiàn)連長、連指導(dǎo)員和三位排長已經(jīng)早早地站在那里。隊(duì)伍集合后，連長一臉嚴(yán)肅地對大家說道：“接緊急通知，我們所在的唐山地區(qū)將有一場極為嚴(yán)重的大地震。連里決定讓我們立即轉(zhuǎn)移到安全地區(qū)”。說到這里，他停了一下，然后語氣更加嚴(yán)肅了些：“現(xiàn)在的問題是，需要有十個(gè)人留守在營房保護(hù)財(cái)產(chǎn)及牲畜。有哪些男同學(xué)們愿意留下來”？之后，他特別強(qiáng)調(diào)了一句：“留下來的人可能有生命危險(xiǎn)”。
一聽他這么說，我們都有點(diǎn)懵了。因?yàn)榇蠹叶歼€記得：當(dāng)我們還在大學(xué)讀書時(shí)，河北邢臺發(fā)生過的一次大地震，死傷了不少人。所以大家都知道留下來將意味著什么。當(dāng)然也有人心中疑惑了：“一旦地震真的發(fā)生，一切都化為廢墟，連命都沒有了，又談何保護(hù)財(cái)產(chǎn)”？所以好一會(huì)兒，都沒人開腔。
見長時(shí)間沒人反應(yīng)，連長有點(diǎn)火了。他大聲指責(zé)我們這些男生自私、膽怯、沒出息。就在這時(shí)，有一個(gè)外號叫“張大膽”的同學(xué)勇敢地站了出來，說他愿意留下。這時(shí)候，才見到連長的臉上露出了一絲笑容。緊接著，我們幾個(gè)班長一通氣，覺得這個(gè)時(shí)候作為干部不留下實(shí)在是說不過去了，于是我們幾個(gè)也紛紛表示可以留下。
就在我們幾個(gè)傻小子決定“豁出去、撞撞大運(yùn)”的時(shí)候，連長突然換了一種口氣，他向大家宣布：“這是一場演習(xí)，根本就沒有什么地震要發(fā)生”（也許連長是個(gè)“烏鴉嘴”，若干年后，也就是到了1976年的夏天，唐山果然發(fā)生了駭人聽聞的大地震）。連長說，連領(lǐng)導(dǎo)這樣做的目的，是“為了考驗(yàn)一下大家的應(yīng)變能力以及應(yīng)對緊急情況時(shí)的態(tài)度”。直到這時(shí)，大伙兒才把懸著的心放了下來。
就在那天下午，大家破例沒有去干活，而是留在營房里討論問題。記得連里給大家出了這么一道題：“除了天災(zāi)外，倘若有人禍發(fā)生，比如為了革命需要，你得上戰(zhàn)場與敵人面對面地戰(zhàn)斗，你的表現(xiàn)如何？你怕不怕死”？據(jù)說，討論這個(gè)嚴(yán)肅問題，是為了在我們這些“小臭老九”的靈魂深處進(jìn)行一次“大革命”。而討論之時(shí)，大家普遍的答案是：“如果有連長和排長在我們身旁，隔著一段距離與敵人開槍交火，我們倒也不害怕，大不了一顆子彈飛來，剎那間結(jié)束生命，痛苦是極為短暫的。但我們最害怕的是被敵人抓去當(dāng)了俘虜，說不定要經(jīng)受敵人的鞭打、火烙、挖眼、斷腿等諸般酷刑。如果真的被敵人抓去當(dāng)了俘虜，沒準(zhǔn)兒就只能當(dāng)叛徒了，因?yàn)閷?shí)在受不了那種痛苦的折磨”。道理很簡單，我們這些在和平時(shí)期里長大的男女學(xué)生從未經(jīng)歷過戰(zhàn)火的洗禮，我們怎么可能與劉胡蘭、夏明翰那樣的英雄人物相比（這兩位都是共產(chǎn)黨內(nèi)的英雄，他們被敵方逮捕經(jīng)嚴(yán)刑拷打后仍然威武不屈，最后被敵方殺害）？盡管這個(gè)答案無法使連部領(lǐng)導(dǎo)滿意，但學(xué)生們“敢于上前線與連排長們共同作戰(zhàn)”倒也表明了我們這些知識分子在思想上已經(jīng)取得了“長足進(jìn)步”。
等到這場“思想教育運(yùn)動(dòng)”告一段落后，連指導(dǎo)員馬上寫了一份書面報(bào)告呈送營部，一來向上級匯報(bào)當(dāng)時(shí)學(xué)生們的思想動(dòng)態(tài)，二來拿“考驗(yàn)”學(xué)生的種種別出心裁的舉措向上級表功。沒想到，報(bào)告遞上去后不僅沒有得到上級贊揚(yáng)，反而遭到了營教導(dǎo)員的一通臭罵。據(jù)說營領(lǐng)導(dǎo)認(rèn)為連里的那套考驗(yàn)學(xué)生的“奇招”完全是胡鬧！教導(dǎo)員說：“怎么可以用這等荒唐的辦法去對待單純的學(xué)生娃”？連領(lǐng)導(dǎo)們被批得灰頭土臉之后，連里就再也沒出現(xiàn)過這一類空穴來風(fēng)式的演習(xí)了。
其實(shí)，除了繁重的勞動(dòng)和常有的思想教育外，我們軍墾生活有時(shí)候也是快樂而有趣的。農(nóng)閑之時(shí)，排長會(huì)組織我們這幫小伙子們練練摔交。我們的二排長可是個(gè)摔交的高手，學(xué)生們都不是他的對手。每逢國家法定的節(jié)假日來臨，尤其是諸如國慶或春節(jié)這樣的重大節(jié)日，同學(xué)們不僅不用去地里干活，而且全連還會(huì)進(jìn)行聚餐。連里通常會(huì)命令炊事班殺上一頭豬，或是宰上幾只雞（豬和雞都是我們自己喂養(yǎng)的），給大家解饞。當(dāng)聚餐的時(shí)刻來到時(shí)，往日里嚴(yán)肅的氣氛立刻蕩然無存。這時(shí)候，飯?zhí)美镲h蕩著陣陣酒香和肉香，軍人和學(xué)生們濟(jì)濟(jì)一堂，大伙兒大碗喝酒，大塊吃肉，開心不已。為了慶祝節(jié)日，連里頭有時(shí)也會(huì)以各班為單位，組織大家演節(jié)目（跳舞、唱歌、演小品）。這時(shí)候，連平日里總是“嚴(yán)肅認(rèn)真、不茍言笑”的連排長們也都會(huì)放下身段，扭起了秧歌。
當(dāng)盛夏將逝、秋天即至的時(shí)候，稻田里、魚塘邊總會(huì)有大量的螃蟹和黃鱔出沒。連里就會(huì)組織男同學(xué)們?nèi)プンπ贰⒋S鱔。尤其是水稻田埂里的母黃鱔到了快要生黃鱔寶寶的時(shí)候，它們會(huì)變得異常兇猛。如果這個(gè)時(shí)候你把手伸進(jìn)黃鱔洞中抓捕它們，你可得小心了，因?yàn)辄S鱔媽媽會(huì)狠狠地咬上你一口。除了小心手被咬，我們還得清楚地識別藏在洞中的是不是黃鱔。據(jù)排長說，當(dāng)把手伸進(jìn)洞中所摸到的“東西”身上不夠光滑，而感到它們身上毛毛糙糙時(shí)，那肯定是不咬人的水蛇；只有摸上去身上滑滑的，那才是黃鱔。
在那個(gè)年代，人們不使用化肥或是殺蟲劑，所以農(nóng)場的生態(tài)環(huán)境極好。我們出去小半天，就可捕捉到幾乎滿滿一大桶的螃蟹和黃鱔。由于學(xué)生去唐山軍墾前，當(dāng)?shù)氐鸟v軍大部分是來自安徽北部的農(nóng)村兵，這些小伙子們似乎天生不愛吃黃鱔，所以農(nóng)場的黃鱔不僅多，而且個(gè)頭非常大，往往一條大黃鱔就有一斤多。此外，螃蟹也相當(dāng)肥碩，三四只螃蟹也有個(gè)斤把重。在那個(gè)抓蟹捕鱔的季節(jié)里，同學(xué)們是最為快樂的。因?yàn)樘焯焱聿偷臅r(shí)候，我們可以在大飯?zhí)美锊粌H能吃上特鮮美的清蒸河蟹，而且還能享用到極美味的紅燒鱔段，那是一種何等奢侈的日子?。?/span>
就這樣，在勞累、緊張、痛苦但又不乏快樂的“接受再教育”過程中，我在軍墾農(nóng)場度過了整整兩年的時(shí)光。就在兩年后的某一天，連長突然把我們召集在一起，然后當(dāng)著我們的面宣讀了來自中央政府的文件：國家決定，立即把我們這一批已經(jīng)接受了整兩年再教育的國家儲備人才分配到中央各有關(guān)部門，以便我們正式踏上社會(huì)、為國效力。就這樣，我被榮幸地分配到了鐵道部，而且就在我到鐵道部后不久，又因?yàn)椤俺錾砗谩⑺枷牒?、外語好”被派往非洲、參加中國援建坦贊鐵路的工作。于是，我的不同尋常的大學(xué)生活到此畫上了尚算圓滿的句號。
***本文選自拙作【歲月如重—兼談華國鋒】之第二章“大學(xué)年代”
Chapter 6: Under Reeducation
Posted by Ralph Gong
I never expected this even in my nightmares that the Cultural Revolution could also have incredible impact on us as ordinary university students. We were neither the so-called ‘Capitalist Roaders’, nor the so-called “Bad Elements” who were supposed to have problems with their family background.
One simple fact is that the purpose of launching the Great Cultural Revolution was to target at those who had “the cultural knowledge”, those who were well-educated. University students fell into the category of having “the cultural knowledge”. They were well-educated in colleges. At that time, the Cultural Revolution was gaining momentum, having the intellectuals classified as one of the “Nine Enemies of the People” in China. Those Nine Enemies were: Landlords, Rich Peasants, Counter-Revolutionaries, Bad Elements, Rightists, Traitors, Secret Agents, Capitalist Roaders and Intellectuals.
Fortunately, the Intellectuals were only “enemies” in ideology, defined as “the Stinky Ninth Category”, not the real enemies who should be demoted. The other eight “Enemies” were supposed to be real enemies and must be under rule by fellow citizens. As a result, we young students, naturally among the “Little Ninth Category”, must be re-educated by the workers, peasants or soldiers according to the policy issued by the government.
I, together with my schoolmates, were placed to an army farm and began the time of being re-educated by the soldiers shortly after my graduation.
（1）
After we reached the military reclamation farm that was located in the northern part of China, we started to have a kind of military life.
We boys and girls were separated as male and female platoons. The positions of the commanders and platoon leaders were taken over by the real army men. We students could only hold the positions of the Squad Leaders and Deputy Squad Leaders. I was selected as the leader of Squad No. 4 under Platoon No. 2 in our “Students’ Company”.
The military life was extremely hard. Squad members (about a dozen people in one squad) were arranged to share one simple and shabby room. But in the barracks’ rooms, there were no separate beds available for us to pass the night. Only one big Kang were provided. Taking my squad members for example, all twelve boys were asked to sleep in one big Kang only.
Kang is a brick bed, big and rectangle. It is only available in the northern part of China because it is extremely cold in winter time. Under a Kang, there is a hollow space to burn the coal mildly and slowly inside to keep it warm.
Before daybreak of every morning, we were woken up by the burgle call. We were required to act like real soldiers who must finish everything within a few minutes, including getting up, dressing, going to the restrooms, making up the bedding, brushing teeth and washing faces. When we heard the “gathering whistles”, we must run quickly to the drill ground and stand up in lines. Our platoon leaders, the real army men, would lead us in all morning military drills. It was only after the hard training was completed were we allowed to have our breakfast at the dining hall.
I still remember the extremely cold winter evening when we first got to the military reclamation farm. There was no farm work to do. But for the purpose of “reeducating”, the intellectuals like us must find something to do. And our Students’ Company leaders decided to order some boy students to dig a fish-raising pond in a wasted field not far away from our barracks. The leading person was our Platoon Leader, a young soldier who was about 20 years old. The young soldier said to us: “After the fish pond is finished, we can raise some fish in it when spring comes. Our food treatment will be thus improved since there will be fish to eat.”
Upon hearing the order of “Let’s start”, we, about 20 boy students, immediately began the pond digging project.
But we came to a difficult issue. As students in universities, we had never done any hard laboring before. Using picks and shovels to dig a pond turned out to be a big challenge for us. Plus, it was cold wintertime and the dirt on the ground was freezing hard. When we gave the frozen ground a hard dig, no soil was loosened except leaving a slight trace of digging mark on the ground. We had no choice but trying our best to dig the ground again and again.
As a saying goes: “persistence means victory”, we did not give up, continuing our digging work with determination. But just after a couple of hours of digging, we were all wet with sweat, tired out. When the first day of work ended and we got back to our barracks, we felt as if our bodies were falling apart.
“Constant effort yields sure success”! Several days later, the fish-raising pond was indeed constructed. Watching such a beautiful pond, we forgot about our fatigue immediately and our hearts were fully filled with happiness.
The cold winter of 1968 passed finally and the early spring of 1969 arrived. One early spring day, all the students of our Platoon NO. 2 were ordered to meet in the rice fields. The leading man was our Platoon Leader. He told us to stand in lines and then said: “Please enter the fields and try to loosen the soil so that we can start to plant the rice afterwards”.
Following the Platoon Leader’s instructions, we male students rolled up our trousers and insert our bare legs into the fields. The field surface was still icy. As soon as I put my feet into the icy fields, I realized the water was so cold that I felt as if my feet were being pieced with thousand of steel needles.
In order to fight against the incredible coldness, we all began to recite loudly Chairman Mao’s saying of “Determined to sacrifice, overcome all difficulties, strive for victory”! No matter how hard we tried, but we could not leave our feet submerged in the extremely cold rice fields for a long time. Upon discovering such a realistic situation, our Platoon Leader had to decide to stop this kind of dangerous action. He ordered us to stop the work and to come out of the fields at once. We moved back to our barracks safely.
To put our feet and legs into the icy water of the rice fields for some time was really a hard matter to us. But it could be easily shrugged off the shoulder comparing to another incident: jumping into the cold river water for fishing in early spring. When we worked in the rice field in early spring, only our feet and legs were exposed to cold water. But when we went fishing, our whole body was inside the icy river water!
There was something which happened in the early spring of the second year during my military reclamation farming years. One morning, our Platoon Leader selected four boy students including me to get ready for fishing in the pond, saying that the purpose of doing so was to improve the food quality of the whole Company’s food.
It was a very cold early February morning. On the way from our barracks to the fishing pond, we stopped by the general shop of the farm and bought two bottles of 72-degree Erguotou. Erguotou was and still is a very well-known and popular brand liquor produced in Beijing area. In addition, we told the other members of our Squad to take the quilts of our “Four Fishermen” to go to the fish pond together with us. The strong liquor Erguotou was to help us warm our bodies before and after the fishing. And the four sets of quilts were to wrap us up after we got out of the icy pond water.
Led by our Platoon Leader, we, all the members of our Squad, were marching towards the pond. After we got to the pond, we four “Warriors” took off all our clothes except for the shorts, drank several mouthfuls of 72-degree Erguotou, put a few drops of Erguotou on our palms, use our two palms to rub it hard on our bodies from face to toe. Finally, four “Warriors” jumped into the pond.
You could never imagine what the real cold means unless you yourself actually experienced it: the pond water was like a sharp knife cutting into our skin! I felt as if the blood all over my body was suddenly frozen. And I felt dizzy. Under such circumstances, it was difficult for us to move in the water, let alone to open eyes wide, fishing!
We swam in the pond only for a few minutes before coming out of the water without catching any fish. As soon as we reached the bank, our roommates wrapped us up from top to bottom in quilts in order to avoid “death of coldness”.
It was only after a long while that we four “Warriors” finally felt normal again. At that moment, our Platoon Leader, who was watching us from the very beginning, gave us an ambiguous smile, saying, “You college students are not able to suffer from hardships!” Upon hearing this, I indeed asked myself: “Am I a person who does not dare to undergo hardships?”
(2)
There was, however, also fond memory of the farm.
When the spring time came, the whole farm put on a completely new look: the golden winter jasmine were in full blossom, and the peach trees were giving their most beautiful red flowers to attract people’s attention. The weeping willows around the pond banks were budding in dreamy light green. What a wonderful picture!
The spring season is but also a starting time for us students to get busy with our farm work. In the past two years during my stay in the farm, from spring to summer down to autumn, I could hardly remember how many pieces of rice seedlings I had transplanted or how much ripe rice I had harvested. Neither did I remember how many cubic meters of earth I had excavated when I was asked to join the people who would open up any wasted land in the farm area. The only thing I still remember is that when the farm’s rice harvesting time came, it was very normal for us to work 13 to 14 hours per day in the fields.
Every coin has two sides. After two years of farm work, big changes took place. We, the “Little Stinking Number Nine’, became much stronger physically. Our bodies were full of energy. Our appetite was extremely good. It seemed to us that we were getting much closer to the standards of “qualified re-educated students”.
We were also aware of one fact: changes made through our physical status were somehow not enough for us to be fully reeducated! The even more important task for us to complete was to change our ideology! In order to help us achieve this goal as soon as possible, both our Students’ Company and Platoon Leaders ask us to work hard at our “political study” and “ideological re-moulding”.
Every week, we were asked to spend two afternoons in “political study”, ignoring the fact that our farm work load was really heavy. Besides, some sudden questioning was occasionally launched with the purpose of “testifying and challenging” our ideological re-educating results.
One normal night, we were all sleeping soundly after the whole day’s hard work. It was so quiet around our barracks and nothing could be heard inside the room except a few soft and sweet snoring. Suddenly, a pressing bugle sound broke the quietness of the night, awakening all of us. We got up at once, dressed in the quickest way, rushed towards the drill ground. In the process of running, we thought to ourselves:” This is a very unusual military bugle, and there must be something urgent!”
When we reached the drill ground and lined up, we found that our Company Leader, Company Political Instructor and Platoon Leaders were already there. The Company Leader walked towards us a few steps, and then he stopped and said to us in a very serious way:” We have just got an urgent notice saying that there would be an extremely serious earthquake in our area. And therefore the Company has decided that we would be transferred to a safer area”. “But”, he continued, ”We need to keep a dozen or so people here in order to protect our military camp’s property, and also the pigs and chickens we are raising. Who among you are willing to stay at this dangerous place?” Silence. After a while, the Company Leader added:“ Those who remain at the military camp might have the life threatening situation”.
Upon hearing the remark, we were dumbstruck. We did remember that when we were still at the university, there was a very serious earthquake in Xingtai area, Hebei Province. A lot of people were killed in that disaster. Almost all of us immediately understood what it would mean to us if we would stay at an earthquake area.
There were certainly some smart students who thought differently: “When a serious earthquake happens, all constructions, human beings and livestock would be destroyed/killed. What would be the meaning of letting a few students stay at the earthquake area?”
Anyway, for a long time, everyone kept silence. No one seemed to know what to say or act accordingly.
Realizing the fact that no students would express their decision of staying at a dangerous area, the Company Leader was a little bit annoyed. He began to scold us for our being “selfish”, “meek” and “futile”. Just at that critical moment, a student nicknamed “Brave Zhang” stepped forward and loudly announced that he would be willing to stay. Encouraged by “Brave Zhang”, we, several Squad Leaders, came together and had a brief discussion. When an ordinary student like “Brave Zhang” dared to stay, why not us, we thought. Thus, we told our Company Leader that we wished to stay, too. Hearing this, our Company Leader began to smile, showing satisfaction with our reactions.
But something we did not expect happened. Our Company Leader suddenly changed the tone. He announced to all of us: “This is just a test. No earthquake will happen! I just want to see if you students are strong facing emergency!”
Whatever, our tense nerves were finally relaxed.
On that very day’s afternoon, we did not go to the fields for farming. Instead, we were all asked to stay in our rooms for a round of discussion. I still remember that we were asked a few questions like “in addition to natural disasters, if something really bad should happen, such as man-made calamities, what would you do? Do you dare to fight against your enemies face to face? Are you going to sacrifice your life for the revolution? Are you afraid of death”? Discussion of these serious questions was supposed to deepen the sense of revolution inside intellectuals’ minds and souls. “This is a very serious matter,” our Company Political Instructor stressed before the discussion began.
To these questions, the answer of most of us were like this: “Imaging there is a war between the enemy and us. We are not afraid of gun fighting between the enemy and us if our Company Leader and the Platoon Leader are together with us. Neither will we be afraid of being killed by a gun bullet since the pain of dying through that would be very short. The most terrible thing for us to imagine is that we become war prisoners because our enemies might torture us in cruel and barbarous ways. They might whip us, break our legs or even cut out our eyes. If we could not sustain the pain, we might then surrender to our enemies and become traitors”.
We had been living in a peaceful surrounding ever since childhood, had never undergone any war. How could we compare ourselves with those martyrs like Liu Hulan, an anti-Japanese war fighter who was killed by the enemy when she was only 18 years old? Or Xia Minghan, a revolutionary fighter as well as a communist who was killed by the Kuomintang Regime at the dawn of New China was born in 1949?
Our replies might not have made the Company Leader and the Company Political Instructor feel 100% satisfied, but our daring to fight shoulder to shoulder with the Company and Platoon Leaders on the battle impressed them. They came to the conclusion that we had made great progress in the ideological re-education.
As soon as the discussion was over, our Company Political Instructor sent a report to his superior, the Battalion Political Instructor. In his report, our Company Political Instructor wrote in a detailed way about how we were tested in a so-called earthquake drill, and how we were willing to fight against the enemy together with those real soldiers. The purpose of writing such a report was to enable the Battalion Leaders to praise our Company leaders’ successful work in re-educating us students. But to our Company Leaders’ great surprise, the Battalion Leaders did not praise it. On the contrary, the Battalion Political Instructor criticized our Company Political Instructor badly. We were told later that the Battalion Leaders thought the methods of our Company Leaders “re-educating” us students were totally wrong. “How could you Company Leadingpeople use such ways to fool the innocent and simple-minded students?” In his reply to the report, the Battalion Political Instructor wrote.
Ever since then, the whole Company had been quiet and peaceful for a long time because our Company Leaders no longer dared to use all those ridiculous ways to “test” us students again.
(3)
As a matter of fact, except the heavy farm work and regular ideological re-education, our military reclamation life was sometimes really happy and interesting. For instance, during our slack farming season, our Platoon Leader occasionally would arrange us to do some wrestling activity. Our Platoon NO. 2 Leader was very good at wrestling and none of us students could defeat him.
When official holidays (such as the National Day and the Spring Festival) arrived, we felt always extremely happy and excited because we would not be asked to do any farming work. Besides, we could enjoy good food. The Company Leader would instruct the Kitchen Squad to either slaughter a pig or kill a few chickens for the company’s holiday celebration. It was easy for the Kitchen Squad to do that because those pigs or chickens were raised by ourselves. A big dinner-gathering was always a time when the Company Canteen was filled with happy atmosphere. Soldiers and students would be sitting together, having drinks in big bowels and eating meat by large pieces. To celebrate such important holidays, each individual squad must prepare one or two performances. We would use the canteen place as the “performing stage”, dancing, singing and even playing comedy skits. At such moments, even our Company or Platoon Leaders would swallow their pride, no longer put on serious faces and would even join us for dancing.
Then the summer time came and passed. In the early autumn season, we could find a lot of crabs and eels in the rice fields or the fishing pond. The Company Authority would arrange some male students to catch crabs and eels to improve our food. I still remember that before we left for the rice fields for eel catching,our Platoon Leader gave us a special lesson on how to do the eel catching. He said to us that we must first come to understand the differences between eels and water snakes. “When you put your hand into the hole and touch the creature, you could immediately know whether it is a piece of eel or a water snake. If the creature’s skin is smooth, it must be an eel; if that creature’s skin is rough, it must be a piece of snake”, he said to us. The Platoon Leader also told us to watch carefully when catching female eels because it was the time for the female eels to give birth to their babies. Those female eels became very ferocious. “They might bite your fingers badly when you touch their bodies”.
At that time, people did not use fertilizers or insecticides. The farm had an excellent eco-environment. Normally, after a few hours’ eels or crabs catching., we would easily have a “bumper harvest”. All the eels and/or crabs we caught would become our delicious food at dinner time.
One thing seemed to be very interesting: most of the soldiers at the farm came from the northern part of Anhui Province, and those young men were farmers before they joined the army. They would not eat eels by nature. That was one of the reasons why there were so many eels left in the fields or pond. Those eels were really fat and huge. One eel could weigh almost one kilo. The crabs in the pond were huge, too. What a wonderful memory!
We students thus passed a tired, nervous, painful, but also happy time in the process of our being re-educated. We spent two full years there.
On the very day two years later, our Company Leader ordered us come together, and announced that the Government had made a decision that we as the reserved personnel must be dispatched to some concerned government departments to better serve the country.
As a result, I was selected by the Ministry of Railroads and began my working career. The Ministry felt that I was good at both family background and academic knowledge after my report. They decided to let me go to Africa to work there as an English interpreter for assisting the building of Tanzania-Zambia Railway. My re-education was obviously ended successfully.
(END)
About the Author:
Ruzhong Gong (Ralph Gong), born in Shanghai, China, now living in the USA.
Graduated From the English Department of Universityof International Business and Economics, Beijing, China
Before retirement, President of an USA overseas company under China National Light Industrial Products Imp. & Exp. Corp.; President of a joint-venture company in USA, jointly owned by Australia’s Lief Group Company and China National Chemical Products Imp. & Exp. Corp.; President of an American Brach Corp. under China National Foreign Trade Bases Corp.; Chief Representative in Beijing Office under Trade Am, an American Carpets Wholesale Company.
Author of 6 books, including “My Life—Family, Career & VIPs”, “How to Do Business in Mainland of China”, “My Leisure Time”, “My Leisure Time—Poems & Articles” , “Poems and Essays from Leisure Chamber” and “Flowers By My Side”.
Member of the Chinese Poetry Society (CPS), Free Lance Writer for Austrian Sinopress, and Senior Consultant for Taiwan Caiwei Publishing House.
龔如仲：生于上海，中國對外經(jīng)濟(jì)貿(mào)易大學(xué)英語系畢業(yè)，畢業(yè)后奔赴非洲任鐵道部援建坦贊鐵路工作組總部英語翻譯，中國國際廣播電臺英語部英語播音員、記者，外貿(mào)部中國輕工業(yè)品進(jìn)出口總公司出口二處業(yè)務(wù)員、副處長，外貿(mào)部輕工業(yè)品進(jìn)出口總公司駐美國公司總裁（處長）。
有關(guān)作品：
自2012年至2016年，臺灣采薇出版社出版自傳【歲月如重】（該書已被香港中文大學(xué)圖書館、美國紐約市立圖書館和澳大利亞國家圖書館作為自傳體作品正式收藏），【東西南北中國人---細(xì)談如何在大陸做生意】，【悠然時(shí)光】和【悠然時(shí)光---如仲詩語】。
2018年4月，中國國際廣播出版社出版【悠然齋詩文選】
2018年9月，中國國際廣播出版社出版【花兒在身邊開放】
2019年4月，臺灣采薇出版社出版英文書【My Life—Family, Career & VIPs】
作者現(xiàn)為中華詩詞學(xué)會(huì)會(huì)員、中國經(jīng)典文學(xué)網(wǎng)特約作家、臺灣采薇出版社資深顧問、奧地利英文網(wǎng)Sinopress特聘專欄作家、北美北斗星文學(xué)社副社長、副總編輯。
