The story of my grandfather

My grandfather, was born Shanxi Province, joined the army in 1964.

When he first joined the army, the army was in a remote mountain ravine. My grandfather had never left his hometown so far away, and his heart was very lonely. After a few days of acclimatization training, the troops began to operate normally. My grandfather and the new recruits not only went through strict training every day, but also kept watch outside the military warehouse at night. After a day of training during the day, the body has been unable to bear, but the most difficult and terrible is at night.

There were many military articles in the warehouse, and there were also many dangerous goods in the warehouse, so it was neither in the camp nor in the country town, but five or six miles away in the deep forest where there was no human habitation. In those days when there was no frontier, no one knew what was hidden in the deep forest. But Grandpa and the team had to guard the warehouse every night. The first time my grandfather was on guard duty, it was only an hour and a half, but it seemed to take hundreds of years.

Guards in the deep woods must watch out not only for criminals, but also for wild animals. Wolves, foxes, bobcats and even bears. The first time the monitor took my grandfather to the warehouse, there was only one grandfather left in the square. Night, gradually like a dark blanket spread over the sky, all is still. Suddenly, a howl tore the silence. My grandfather shuddered and could not help tightening his knife and gun. The cry seemed to give other beasts a chance to rise to the top, and repeated howls echoed through the mountains. Beads of sweat rolled down to the ground, and the gun seemed to have been glued to the hand. My grandfather did not even blink his eyes, and pressed his back against the warehouse door, as if a beast would pounce behind him. I heard this, the back also can not help but chills. In this environment, even the beautiful stars are like a pair of terrible eyes are staring at my grandfather; Even the beautiful mountains and rivers in the daytime look like huge and terrible monsters at night; Even the slightest gust of wind makes one shudder at night. After an hour and a half of purgatory, my grandfather and the off-duty soldier changed guard, which was as easy as being freed from the clutches of death. And then the next day, it's all over again.

Under the exercise of such an environment, my grandfather gradually developed a fearless spirit of not afraid of difficulties and facing difficulties head-on. This is one of the reasons why I admire my grandfather.

In the middle of the winter of 1973, my grandfather had been an instructor in the company for three years. At the end of that year, they accepted the task of supporting the local construction of Tianjin Tanggu Reservoir, and he served as a company instructor directing more than 200 people to carry out the construction task. More than 40 years ago, Tianjin was not prosperous. After leaving the city, even if it was close to the sea, it was a wasteland. My grandfather and his army needed to dig the reservoir deep and build a dam around it, which was no doubt difficult in the face of frozen soil. For this urgent task, my grandfather and the army need to complete the construction within three months.

It was not yet light, and when I could not see my fingers, my grandfather and the soldiers of the company had set out for the reservoir. With the help of moonlight and flashlight lighting, the day's work officially began. Spade dug up the solid frozen soil, and then pushed the dam with a car, advanced equipment did not exist at that time, my grandfather and the team relied on manpower to build the dam. About 50 centimeters below the frozen soil, groundwater will appear in some places. Water and soil mixed together, it is extremely difficult to dig. When digging down, the tuyere formed above, and the place where my grandfather and the team members constructed was the upwind slope, and the cold wind blew directly through the hole. So grandpa and his team members always have to work in the cold wind.

Each person has to push at least five cubic meters of frozen soil up the dam every day, and even in the freezing cold, they sweat in single clothes. The spade was broken one after another, and the hand had already felt calluses and deep gashes. The blood freezes before it reaches the skin, and every time it touches it, it hurts. After the wound heals, another deeper blood cut will inadvertently appear. After fifteen hours of endless construction, the sky was already full of stars, and my grandfather and the team returned to the camp. Grandpa, every day to arrive at the construction site half an hour early, leave half an hour later, work more than one hour more than others. Listen to grandpa said, every day after dinner back to the camp, the legs like lead, fell on the bed will be unable to climb up again. But as soon as I fell asleep, I had to get up for the day's work. It is my grandfather's organization and the hard work of the team members day and night that the construction task of the Tanggu Reservoir dam was completed three days in advance, and they created a miracle.

When my grandfather was forty-eight years old, he attended a three-year undergraduate course at the Central Party School. The personnel participating in this class are mainly local cadres at or above the division level and army cadres at the division level. My grandfather was the oldest student in the class at that time. They study mainly party and government management, a total of 14 subjects. Among them, my grandfather learned the most difficult and demanding subject is English. When my grandfather was young, he mainly learned Russian, and English was never touched or even appeared. So this is very unfamiliar and difficult for grandpa. But my grandfather showed extraordinary determination and hard work.

English words do not know, do not understand, then look for words, dictionaries to back. Every day in his spare time, my grandfather would go to the library to read English books and accumulate English vocabulary. When others talk, he is back; When others in leisure entertainment, he is still back; While others are asleep, he is still memorizing. The English vocabulary and grammar books accumulated by my grandfather have been carefully preserved, until today, when I take it out, I can vaguely see the marks of every word and every knowledge point that my grandfather has commented on it.

What the teacher said in class did not understand, there will not be a problem, then ask others. In school, looking for classmates, looking for colleagues, looking for teachers. Whenever there is a chance, my grandfather always asks questions and seeks answers, and he always masters the knowledge point carefully to every word. After returning home, my grandfather would also find my mother and aunt who were in junior high school at that time. No matter how tired you are, as soon as there is the possibility of learning, you must see the stitches. My mother said that until now, the scene when my grandfather asked her questions still vividly. It is in grandpa's hard work, and finally graduated with 89 points. This also played a huge role in my grandfather's future work.

Although Grandpa is just an ordinary person, in front of me, it is like a standing mountain, protecting the trees at the foot of the mountain that have just sprouting branches. My grandfather's spirit of confronting difficulties, tenacity, perseverance, and perseverance will become synonymous with my life, guiding me to break through mountains and forests, rush out of the cloud nine, and rush to the sky.