Racecourse barracks are located in the eastern suburb of Tianjin. It is said that this is the place where soldiers used to be stationed to build factories and cast weapons. At that time, it was a wilderness around here except the barracks. There is a sewage river on the east side of the camp, and there is an endless reed field on the east side of the river. The north side of the camp is also a wilderness, and all the way to Hongxing Road is covered with thatch and reeds. There are two targets on the south side of Weiguo Road. There are many rivers and ponds inside and outside the camp. In a word, the environment here is primitive and isolated.
The life of the recruits in the military camp is tense and rigid. In the morning, the loud bugle woke us up from our dreams, got up, dressed, packed our backpacks and quickly gathered downstairs. Followed by running, walking in line, pulling goose steps. Practice shooting and dropping bombs in the morning. In the afternoon, I study political and military theories and learn to sing military songs. Especially singing, everyone should sing before class, meeting, being late and eating. Especially when watching movies at night, companies sang in chorus, and songs exploded, one after another. Singing and cheering echoed in the night sky of the camp. The most important thing in recruits' life is emergency assembly. In the middle of the night, the shrill alarm woke everyone from their sleep. Get up, get dressed, pack your backpack and hurry. Under the leadership of the monitor, they gathered at the designated place, then ran around the camp and checked when they came back. Some backpacks don't play according to the specifications at all, and they are scattered without running far, so they have to carry them back. What impressed me most was an emergency party, which was also the most interesting one. A recruit who usually moves slowly, because of nervousness, actually put his leg into the interlayer between cotton trousers and outer cover when wearing cotton trousers. When the whole team was assembled, the monitor saw that his legs were shaking and asked him if he was ill. He shook his head and said that he was not ill. The monitor came up to him and bent down to touch his leg. There is only one layer of cloth, but it thickens when he touches the back. The monitor gave a wry smile and immediately sent him back to the dormitory. Everyone knows, joking that he is exercising his cold tolerance.
I am an anti-chemical soldier. My training emphasizes strictness, difficulty and actual combat, and I often practice cross-country armed to my teeth. In the 1960s, almost all anti-chemical equipment was Soviet-style. Poison detectors, observation instruments, radiation instruments, protective clothing are stupid and heavy, plus backpacks, cross-bags, kettles and so on. This right shoulder hangs obliquely on the left and that left shoulder hangs obliquely on the right. When you run, you start to jingle, and you will be panting after not running far. Summer training, a subject down, gas masks and gas suits can pour out a lot of water. Although the training is hard, it has strengthened the physique and tempered the will, so that we rural child soldiers gradually grow into strong fighters.
I still remember that soon after I arrived at the military camp, I was in a hurry to enter the city. One is to see the big city of Tianjin, and the other is to send a photo to my parents. According to veterans, Tianjin is very lively, with high-rise buildings, cars and trams. We looked at the glorious night sky of the city. For us, this is a mysterious world. Finally, even the chief agreed to our request and agreed that we were taken to the city by the monitor in batches. In those days, when entering the city, you should do three people in a row and two people in a column, and salute the leaders and soldiers who are higher than your own army. At that time, I went to the city and walked to Tangjiakou. There was a bus. From the north, I had to take a bus to Wang Chuanchang. It gives us the impression that Tianjin is very big and beautiful.
The next spring, while training, the company also cultivated land to grow rice. There is a thatched field to the south of the camp. The soldiers turned it over with shovels, shook off the thatch roots, irrigated it and pulled up the wasteland. Under the guidance of the old farmer, transplant rice seedlings. We dry dolls who have never seen rice grow, actually rolled up our trouser legs and went down to the paddy field to transplant rice seedlings. In the first year, there was a bumper harvest of rice. I clearly remember that the processed rice was small, broken glass and crystal clear, and the steamed rice was sticky, shiny and sweet. The standing rice now can't eat the taste of that year.
That year, I was transferred to Junzhi Warehouse as a storekeeper. The warehouse is located on the east side of Fiona Fang Ersanli camp, surrounded by raised earth dikes, and there are reeds and weeds outside the warehouse. In addition to receiving and dispatching, our keeper's task is to inspect the warehouse every day and maintain the stock materials regularly. I love my job, the environment here and the life here. In spring, everything recovers, reeds are green inside and outside the warehouse, and wild flowers are in full bloom on the embankment. In summer, reeds become a green ocean. In autumn, reeds float, and some villagers from nearby villages come here to collect and cut reeds, and some fish in ditches. There is a small pool in front of the kitchen in our warehouse. The blower often pours rice washing water into it, and this pool is connected with the ditch outside the warehouse. One day, one of my comrades who joined the army from Baiyangdian squatted by the pool and looked at the water motionless. I asked him what he was looking at. He pointed to the bubbling water and said that there were fish in the pool. As soon as we set out, we set up a water pump and started pumping water. When the water is knee-deep, the fish churn in the pool, some surface and wag their tails, and some run around the pool. Before the monitor spoke, we jumped into the water to catch fish. Strange to say, a pond more than ten meters square actually caught more than 200 kilograms of fish, and the big carp weighed three or four kilograms. There are many kinds of fish, some of which can't even be named by Baiyangdian's comrades. Stir-fried, braised and steamed, more than a dozen of us enjoyed eating for several days.
1968, I was transferred to the office and left the racecourse barracks from then on. In the first few years, I often went there to see my leaders, fellow villagers and comrades. Look at the rice fields planted, the warehouse where I worked, and the pool next to the kitchen. A few years later, the head of our company has been transferred, and fellow villagers and comrades-in-arms have also been demobilized or transferred. But I still want to go there every year.
1985 The troops were reorganized and relieved. I couldn't get into the camp, but I still want to go there every year and go around the camp. With the change of time, great changes are taking place around the camp. The wilderness around the camp is shrinking year by year, high-rise buildings stand tall, residential areas appear and roads are expanding.
Although the current racecourse barracks are still there, they have lost their original appearance, and they have completely integrated into the city. However, no matter how it changes, my complex with the racecourse barracks has been deeply rooted in my heart. In my mind, the racecourse barracks are my home, a melting pot and a school, which have trained a batch of excellent commanders and strong fighters. The jubilant life in the military camp, the chief who loves soldiers like children, and the comrades who are brothers are deeply imprinted in my mind. I often live in the military camp in my dreams. Decades have passed. Racecourse barracks, warehouses, surrounding wilderness, ditches, undulating reeds and golden ears of rice have always been in my heart.