A soldier's story

Xinfadi was a small village in Fengtai District of Beijing.

On Oct. 10, 1949, more than a week after the founding of New China, a boy was born in a Zhang family in the village, and his parents named him Yuxi. Like many rural children at that time, Zhang Yuxi went home for farming after he finished junior high school.

"One person in the army, glory for the whole family", "Enhance vigilance to defend the motherland." Such slogans were widely seen in the streets, on the walls and on wire poles in China's rural areas in the early decades of New China.

On July 30, 1955, China's first conscription law was adopted and the compulsory military service was introduced into the People's Liberation Army (PLA). In China, joining the army is a pursuit of young people and those who wear military uniforms enjoy respect from others. When a family has a child in the army, the village will make a board inscribed "honorable family" and put it on the gate of the home. Local officials visit such families during festivals.

Seeing the conscription slogans, Zhang Yuxi made up his mind to be a serviceman. He wanted to go out of the village and see the outside world. He then applied to join the army.

On one day in January 1970, the Xinfadi village played cymbals and drums to bid farewell to the 11 young conscripts.

Wearing a brand new uniform and a big red flower on the chest, Zhang Yuxi was excited, proud and happy, although he had not got his cap and collar badges yet. The 21-year-old young man became a soldier of the East China Sea Fleet of the PLA's Navy. More and more people came to see off the conscripts. Proud and happy relatives had much to say to the young men.

NEW RECRUIT

A three-month military training for new recruits began.

Zhang Yuxi and his comrade-in-arms took the regular sessions of formation, shooting, bomb release, field training, tactics, military sports, as well as learned the value of the serviceman and how to be a qualified soldier. Of course, they also learned the regulations on confidentiality, interior service, discipline and others.

As recruits of the Navy, they took gyro-wheel training to overcome seasickness. Zhang clearly remembers how he once fell down and was wounded, resulting in several stitches on the corner of the eye. However, as a squad leader in the boot camp, Zhang Yuxi did not miss one day during training as it is a tradition that PLA soldiers never leave the front line because of slight wounds. He was proud to make 97 or 98 rings with 10 gunshots, which was one of the best results among recruits.

During that period, Zhang Yuxi and his comrades had a strong sense of honor. They could not count how many Sundays when they went on foot to the county seat to do good deeds for local residents, help work in pig farms and volunteer to stand guard for old soldiers ......

The three-month training was coming to an end, and it was time to award cap and collar badges. In 1965, all the Chinese army officers and soldiers began to wear red badges on their cap and collars. The cap badge was an aluminum red pentagram with a surface layer of enamel, and the collar badges were two diamond-shaped pieces of red flannelette. Navy uniforms were the same with that of the Army and Air Force, gray in color. Red cap and collar badges added manhood to servicemen at that time.

Overwhelmed with joy, Zhang Yuxi formally became a PLA soldier after he received the cap and collar badges.

PERFORMING DUTIES

Zhang Yuxi spent five years on Navy vessels during his six years in the Navy. He served as the signalman on frigates, gunboats and landing ships.

Standing high and seeing far, the signalman is the one responsible for the sea-to-air observation tasks. More importantly, his signals are widely used in operational training, leaving and coming back to harbor, the supply and communications of vessels.

In the summer of 1974, a foreign cargo ship ran aground and caught fire on China's seawaters, and Zhang's unit was ordered to use landing ships to transport fire engines to the site. The fire burnt for two days, and Zhang Yuxi conveyed the command signals fast and precisely amid dense smoke and flames. He said he often found vessels in distress during convoy and fishing protection missions. In one winter, Zhang and his comrades jumped into the freezing water to save fishermen from a capsized boat. To protect life and property is the responsibility of the People's Liberation Army, which in their view is a matter of course.

The complex of heroes is one of the features of the historical memory of the 1960s and 1970s. A large number of heroes like Lei Feng emerged from the People's Liberation Army under the passionate social background.

GROWING INTO VETERAN SOLDIER .

His used semaphore and lighting and sent passwords and accepted instructions craftily. He was also familiar with the sea, and no longer felt seasick like when he started the military life. A veteran soldier swam 5,000 meters easily, and never "drank" seawater like new recruits.

He and his comrades developed good habits, washing bed sheets and clothes regularly; they developed a good military style, washing and eating at a unified time and doing everything in a vigorous way; they developed the spirit of hard work and the courage to overcome difficulties by taking strict training during the day and taking turns to stand guard at night, plus alarm assemblies in the early morning of emergency.

Zhang had to leave the Navy after the six-year service came to an end. China has made several major changes in the length of service since 1955 when the compulsory military service was adopted. In 1955, China's first conscription law provided three years in the Army, four years in the Air Force and five years in the Navy. In 1965, it was changed to four years in the Army, five years in the Air Force and six years in the Navy. There have been more changes since then.

On June 30, 1999, the Chinese forces introduced the non-commissioned officers (NCOs) ranks, which were senior grade (level 6 and level 5), intermediate grade (level 4 and level 3) and junior grade (level 2 and level 1). NCOs can serve up to a maximum of 30 years.

The PLA would implement a new NCO system by the end of 2009, according to a new reform plan issued in July this year. The system reserves the junior, intermediate and senior grades of NCOs. The maximum service time for junior grade NCOs is six years and intermediate grade is eight years. The senior grade NCOs could serve for more than 14 years. The NCO ranks, changed from six levels to seven levels, will be corporal, sergeant, sergeant first class, master sergeant class four, master sergeant class three, master sergeant class two and master sergeant class one, from lowest to highest.

　　RETIREMENT

It was time to leave. New recruits took off their collar and cap badges for squad leaders in silence, and comrades-in-arms were all in tears.

The ones to leave would like to listen again to the old squad leaders' patient explanation of essentials of exercise, sing military songs, fill the bowl with rice for new recruits and feel the family-like atmosphere in the army.

Many of his comrades chose to be the seamen after withdrawing from active service, which was also the dream of Zhang Yuxi. At the time, soldiers deserved treatment for officers when they quitted active service. The soldiers like Zhang who came from rural areas enjoyed help from the local township governments in life and work after retiring from the army, and they enjoyed preferences in employment. Those who came from urban areas could get jobs with the help of the county-level governments or the arrangement of the governments of higher levels, or the provincial and autonomous regional governments in the local areas.

Zhang Yuxi had three dreams during his six years in the PLA: joining the Communist Party of China, being a mine-sweeping soldier and being a seaman after retirement. Unfortunately, he failed to realize them.

However, the six-year experience of going through numerous hardships on land and sea tempered his body and will. His mind was advanced with the work on different posts from frigates, gunboats and landing ships. With sentimental attachment to the army, Zhang began his life as a retired soldier.

IN BUSINESS

Time flies and more than 30 years have passed.

In today's Beijing, people will naturally think of Zhongguancun when speaking of high tech and they think of Xinfadi for agricultural wholesale markets. After 21 years of development, Xinfadi has become a bellwether agricultural industrialization with a floor space of 1,500 mu (100 hectares) and more than 10 billion yuan in assets. It pays more than 12 million yuan in taxes and fees each year. Experts and scholars say the market is "the aircraft carrier of the circulation of Chinese agricultural products."

Perhaps, figures are abstract. Then, when you face the wide and flat village roads, beautiful residential buildings and business offices, you might doubt if it was the quiet, out-of-the-way and poor Xinfadi Village? The answer is yes, and Zhang Yuxi is the one who led the villagers to achieve these changes.

During the first several year after retirement from army, ZhangYuxi worked as hodman, projectionist, accountant, the head of a fishing ground, a team head in a transport company and deputy head of the production team. He had to start as a freshman every time his job changed.

"I have two of the tasks on the shoulders, one is the Xinfadi market and the other is the Xinfadi Village. Both tasks are difficult," said Zhang Yuxi, board chairman of the Xinfadi Farm Product Co., Ltd. and the Communist Party chief of Xinfadi Village, also a 60-year-old veteran soldier.

For so many years, Zhang Yuxi never lost contact with his comrades-in-arms. In 2007, he and some comrades made a trip to visit the recruits training regiment when they got training as recruits. The phoenix trees planted by them more than 30 years ago are towering.

For so many years, Zhang Yuxi has not forgotten that he was a soldier. The "soldier soul" of sacrifice and devotion, the "soldier temperament" of fortitude and decisiveness, and the "soldier disposition" of modesty and kindness have long been integrated into his blood.

Source:Xinhua