When I was young, I left home with my family's dreams and my own ideals. I left home and came to this frontier fortress. I stayed here for 18 years and never left. My roots are so deep that I can't leave because I have already merged with this frontier fortress. Maybe this is the combination of spirit and flesh.
When I was a soldier, I took the train for two days and two nights and came here. I have never seen a train, and I have never been on a train. Unexpectedly, this time, getting on the bus was two days and two nights. How excited and proud it was, and it was the first time in my life that I could show off myself to my family. Maybe it's a long train ride, so I need to stop here. This stop is eighteen years.
The early rural baby jumped out of the farm gate and left the land with her face facing the loess. I am the latter. On the day I left home, the villagers told me to leave and not to come back. I only remember the words "don't come back", but I didn't think it was reality. I'm not sure whether this reality is cruel or lucky.
Going out, a rural baby who has never left her parents, the most sad thing is probably the New Year.
The gate of the frontier fortress is the national gate. Although it is hard, it is an honor. Earlier, holding a rifle about his height, it really smelled like a bull, just like what I saw in childhood movies. If I can catch the bad guy and tell him to "don't move", the bad guy will raise his hand, which is even more arrogant. It is natural to feel homesick and wronged when you spend the first year outside for the New Year. However, it is a taste that cannot be experienced at home to celebrate the New Year in the camp of South Gate. Very thick, very thick, very deep, it is a feeling, an unforgettable feeling.
Iron battalion, running water soldier. Every year, people from the company leave and new people come in. In the winter conscription year, the third month when recruits come here is New Year's Day. Although they still have a little knowledge of the army, they still have to spend this year anyway, just in a different way. Some people will spend their time in their posts, others will spend their time on the frontier, and we newcomers don't know the taste of the year yet.
On New Year's Eve, the company leaders will get ready early, hang some lanterns, put up some slogans, wrap some jiaozi, prepare some glutinous rice balls and stir-fry some rice cakes to meet the soldiers from east, west, north and south. The dinner is rich, but the enthusiasm for moving chopsticks is not high. Company leaders have long been used to such a scene. In order to relax people's homesickness, soldiers from different regions are usually invited to talk about their hometown for the New Year. The person in charge of the company intends to choose a few accents with distinctive accents, which are both entertaining and communicative. People in Guangdong and Fujian can't speak Mandarin well, and those places have a particularly strong accent, as well as those in Hunan and Sichuan, which are heard more in movies. Some people talk for a long time, but they don't understand a few words. They also tell many jokes, which makes everyone laugh. Some people are homesick, and they begin to sob and cry without saying a few words. They just looked at the rich dishes in front of them. Newcomers who have just arrived in the army don't shed tears, but some people drop their tears on the dining table, some people drop their tears on the sentry post, some people drop their tears on the marching border, and some people hide in bed and cry silently. At the camp gate of the frontier fortress, no matter how high the position, they all eat, live and train with the soldiers. There is also a special tradition in the army, that is, on New Year's Eve, the head of the army stands guard instead of soldiers and lets the soldiers watch the Spring Festival Gala, saying that they just sit around. Because no soldier will be willing to let the colonel stand guard for himself, but the colonel's decision has to be carried out. As a newcomer, the first year is the hardest. Many young people aged seventeen or eighteen have never left their parents, let alone spend the New Year outside. Everyone who sits and watches the Spring Festival Gala is thinking about the early arrival of dawn and the early death of night.
Chinese New Year is always associated with tears, not only for newcomers, but also for veterans.
One year on New Year's Eve, when everyone was sitting and really thinking about moving chopsticks, a soldier who had served here for five years was a veteran. Suddenly, he howled, and his sadness, grievances and endless homesickness seemed like the water of the Yangtze River. On New Year's Eve, I can't see such brave soldiers here, but some children, like kindergartens, cry when they don't see their parents. Moreover, a tearful person will soon be in Wang Yang, bringing up everyone's homesickness. At that time, I was already a company instructor. On such occasions and scenes, all I can do is to coax these soldiers who look like steel like my mother at home. Only this time, I can't calm everyone down anyway. I turned sad, endured the inner pain, walked over and patted everyone on the shoulder, but couldn't say a word. Iron will, here, see, but it is deep tenderness. It was in this year that I told you about my New Year's complex and the feeling of not going home for the New Year in 15 years.
In the third year of coming here, the company arranged for me to go home for the New Year, and I never returned to the village where I raised me for the New Year. That was fifteen years. In fact, there is a formal system for soldiers and cadres to go home to visit relatives. In addition to the national defense needs of the army, soldiers and cadres will take turns to arrange for them to go home and reunite with their families. Sometimes, there are many people who are eligible to go home to visit relatives, and they need to be arranged in batches throughout the year, that is, waiting. When the army has a task, it is hard to say that it is going home for the New Year. It is normal to go home to visit relatives at ordinary times.