Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 757 Wang Jianguo

Just as Zhou Yali's arrival caused chaos at home and left Chen Fan speechless, on the Jiaodong Peninsula, Wang Jianguo, carrying bedding and a bag, stepped off the train after a five-day, five-night journey.

Of course, he didn't take the same train for five days and five nights. There were no direct trains from Yunnan to his hometown, so he had to transfer twice to get back to his hometown city.

Following the crowd out of the platform and the station, I stood in the square in front of the station, staring blankly at the people coming and going for a long time before I came to my senses. Then I found my way and walked towards the bus stop.

First, take a bus to the long-distance bus station, then board a Jiefang truck bound for the county town. After a bumpy ride of half a day, we finally arrived in the county town.

After taking his discharge certificate and consulting at the station reception, he finally found the county armed forces department's resettlement office.

Upon learning of Wang Jianguo's arrival, a deputy director from the resettlement office personally came forward to receive him.

He carefully opened Wang Jianguo's file, and after a while, he stood up, handed him a cigarette, and then filled his teacup with hot water before straightening up and letting out a long breath.

Wang Jianguo glanced at him a few times, his eyes thoughtful. He silently put the cigarette in his mouth, struck a match to light it, exhaled a puff of smoke, paused for two seconds, and said, "Director Qi, we Shandong men don't play games. Just say what you have to say."

Deputy Director Qi, a tall man of 1.8 meters, looked less than 1.7 meters tall when he hunched over and slumped his shoulders. Hearing Wang Jianguo's words, he gritted his teeth, exhaled a long breath, and said with a wry smile, "Comrade Wang Jianguo, according to your seniority, and having made meritorious contributions on the frontier battlefield, you are now discharged due to injury... I am also a former soldier, and I know what the medals in your bag mean."

It's said that a third-class merit is received standing up, a second-class merit is received lying down, and a first-class merit is received by the family. You have two first-class merits, four second-class merits, and seven third-class merits here, which shows you're a good man who didn't disgrace Shandong men on the battlefield.

According to regulations, when meritorious soldiers are demobilized, our local government is responsible for arranging their follow-up affairs. This includes basic demobilization pay, resettlement allowance, and subsidies for returning to their hometowns to work…”

Upon hearing this, a cold glint flashed in Wang Jianguo's eyes, and he slowly raised his head. "The subsidy for returning to the countryside for production is only for soldiers with rural household registration who have been demobilized and returned to the countryside. Given my qualifications, the local government should arrange a job for me."

Deputy Director Qi's face was bitter. He remained silent for a few seconds, took a deep drag on his cigarette, and abruptly turned around, returning to his desk and sitting down. He took out a stack of draft paper with the county armed forces department's letterhead from his drawer and said without looking up, "I'll assign you to your commune's armed forces department first. Your specific job will be assisting in militia training, but you won't have a formal position. For now, you can only participate as a temporary worker, wait..."

Wang Jianguo suddenly interrupted him, "How many people are ahead of me waiting to be assigned positions?"

Deputy Director Qi's hand, which was writing, suddenly stopped. After a moment, he took out a roster from the drawer, placed it slowly in the center of the table, and said without looking up, "They're all here. The oldest one was discharged a year ago. He was also in the southwest. He encountered some monkeys while on patrol. Ten of us fought against more than thirty of them. We won, but only three survived. One of them is from Dafeng Commune next door."

Wang Jianguo listened in silence.

He had heard about this while he was in the army, and his family had mentioned it in a letter to him, but he never expected that a year would pass and he still wouldn't be able to get it arranged.

Deputy Director Qi slowly raised his head, took out another cigarette, lit it, exhaled a puff of smoke, his face showing obvious bitterness, and continued with a sullen expression, "Besides him, the rest are all demobilized and returned to their hometowns in the past year. They should have met the policy requirements and could have been assigned jobs, but there really are no corresponding positions available."

In the past two years, there has been a large-scale return of educated youth to the cities, leaving tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of people without jobs. I've heard that in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, hundreds of thousands of people are waiting in line to be assigned jobs.

In order to solve the employment problems of educated youth as much as possible, our city arranged jobs for them from the city to the commune.

The placement of demobilized soldiers should have been a priority, but now all units are overstaffed…

He raised his head, gritted his teeth, and couldn't continue speaking.

Wang Jianguo glanced at him, his expression unchanged.

He was a local and naturally familiar with the local customs and traditions. While what Deputy Director Qi said was true, he didn't believe that not a single position could be moved out.

But at this moment, looking at that roster, I don't know what to say.

A few years ago, his family asked a friend to help him get into the army. If it weren't for this war, or if he hadn't been injured, he could have stayed in the army for at least another ten years. Maybe one day he would have had the chance to be promoted to officer, which would have been incredibly lucky.

But a war can destroy all future prospects.

If he hadn't met Doctor Chen, he wouldn't have seen the sun rise the next day, let alone returned home with his body intact.

After a few seconds, he slowly exhaled a long breath, threw away his cigarette butt, and slowly gathered up his files.

Seeing his actions, Deputy Director Qi looked up, his face full of astonishment. "Comrade Wang, what are you doing?"

Wang Jianguo didn't even look at him, and said in a low voice, "Work isn't urgent, how much of the subsidy can I get?"

Upon hearing this, Deputy Director Qi's heart stirred, and a glint flashed in his eyes. He quickly said, "According to policy, demobilization pay is issued by the military, while other economic subsidies are the responsibility of the local government."

You served in the military for 6 years, and your salary was 20 yuan per month. The resettlement allowance was half a month's salary per year, so it was 3 months' salary, totaling 60 yuan.

There's also a subsidy for returning to one's hometown to work, which, like demobilization pay, is calculated as 1.5 months' salary per year, amounting to 180 yuan.

As he spoke, he picked up the abacus on the corner of the table, made a series of quick dialings, and finally said, "It's 240 yuan in total."

Wang Jianguo carefully put away his documents, rested his hands on his thighs, looked at him, and asked, "Can you collect them all today?"

Deputy Director Qi chuckled awkwardly and said, "Comrade Wang, I need to explain this. As you know, our place is probably the poorest in the entire Jiaodong region. At most, I can only manage to get half of it distributed."

Upon hearing this, Wang Jianguo's lips twitched slightly, and he felt a surge of anger rising within him.

When I left the army, I only received half of my demobilization pay, no medical or living allowance, just a packet of anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving medicine, and my personal equipment in the bag on my right.

Well, because the funding wasn't fully disbursed, the leadership made a special exception, allowing individuals to take their equipment with them to offset the shortfall in funding.

It wasn't much, really. It was just a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, a pistol, and a bayonet. There were also a few grenades, but they were taken away.

I brought these things back with me, but I don't know what use they are, or where to turn them into cash.

Never mind, I'll just keep it as a souvenir.

Upon seeing that Wang Jianguo agreed to receive only half of the subsidy, Deputy Director Qi immediately arranged for someone to process the formalities for him.

In less than half an hour, Wang Jianguo put 120 yuan in his pocket, took the certificate issued by the Armed Forces Department, and boarded the Jiefang truck passenger bus to go home.

Sitting on a long bench in the back of the truck, swaying and rocking for more than an hour, we finally arrived at our hometown, Hongqi Commune.

This place wasn't originally called this. It was renamed during the early days of the "Big Two Communes" movement, and it became a very common name. When Wang Jianguo was in the army, he chatted with his comrades, and they mentioned that there were more than a dozen people who came from the Red Flag Commune alone, but they weren't even from the same province. It was truly laughable.

Thinking of this, a smile couldn't help but appear on Wang Jianguo's stiff face.

After everyone else climbed down from the truck bed, he first threw down his own bag, then grabbed the side panel with one hand and jumped down cleanly and nimbly. Although he was still recovering from serious injuries, he was mostly healed and it didn't affect his mobility.

Back in the army, he was a top soldier in the reconnaissance company and had a chance to be selected for the jungle special forces team led by Zhang Wenliang.

Unfortunately, he was too tall and had no experience in mountain warfare. When it came to the test of jungle survival, he was often spotted by the militiamen and had to withdraw with regret.

I heard that after the battle, Captain Zhang and his team were transferred away, and I don't know if they have other missions.

If I hadn't been injured, I probably could have still tried, right?
Thinking of this, Wang Jianguo shook his head with a wry smile. He had already been discharged from the army, so why should he think so much?

He sighed deeply, looked at the familiar streets of the commune, found his way, and walked straight towards the supply and marketing cooperative's store.

Hongqi Commune was small, far from comparable to communes in wealthier areas. It consisted of only a few dozen meters long dirt street, with a handful of units such as the post office, supply and marketing cooperative, commune government, credit union, and school lining both sides of the dirt road.

So in less than a minute, Wang Jianguo was standing at the entrance of the supply and marketing cooperative's store.

I first took a habitual look at the whole picture, and the next second, my eyes were drawn to the several 56-and-a-half-inch phones on the counter behind the salesperson.

He strode over, pointed at the guns, and asked, "Comrade, how come you sell these here?"

The sales clerk, who was engrossed in reading a book, became impatient upon hearing the question, saying, "What's with all this 'this' and 'that'? Are you here to buy something or to cause trouble?"

As soon as she finished speaking, she looked up and saw Wang Jianguo's face.

Standing at 1.8 meters tall, with a square face, regular features, thick eyebrows, and big eyes, he was quite handsome. He was wearing a military uniform and a military cap, carrying two neatly folded quilts on his back, and two military canvas travel bags in his hands. He also smelled of disinfectant.

Without a doubt, he's a veteran who just returned from the southwest.

In a flash, she changed her attitude, lowered her tone, and smiled, "Excuse me, comrade, I didn't hear you clearly just now. What did you say?"

Wang Jianguo glanced at her, and although he found her change in attitude strange, he didn't pay much attention to it. He then pointed to the gun behind her and said, "The supply and marketing cooperative shouldn't have this kind of gun, right?"

The sales clerk glanced back, then turned back and smiled, "Oh, you mean this? These were sold by some demobilized comrades."

Wang Jianguo's eyes widened in surprise, "Sell?"

The sales clerk nodded slightly and smiled, "Yes. I heard it's to offset part of the demobilization pay."

After a pause, she looked Wang Jianguo up and down again and asked, "Comrade, you seem to have just returned from military service. Are you also selling guns? For rifles, our purchase price here is 50 to 80. As long as your gun isn't too old, I can buy it for you at the highest price."

Wang Jianguo took a deep breath, pursed his lips, slowly shook his head, and gave a slight smile. "Thank you, but no need."

From the moment he received his first gun, his squad leader told him that a gun is a soldier's second life; as long as the gun is there, the soldier is there; if the gun is gone, then the soldier is gone too.

He would never sell his own gun.

He took a breath and turned to look at the other goods.

This store doesn't have many items; it mainly sells needles and thread, pots and pans, and even candy and cookies are scarce.

He took out his money and tickets, bought some biscuits and candies, and also tore off a few feet of cloth, asking the shop assistant to help him wrap them up. After paying the bill and thanking the shop assistant, he carried his things home.

Since getting off the train, the journey has been bumpy and tiring, and it is now close to evening.

There were no buses or regular mule carts from the commune to the production team; people had to walk.

With a package on his back and two duffel bags in his hands, Wang Jianguo walked faster and faster.

As the sun sets and the moon rises in the east, the Wangjiazhuang production team comes into view.

Wangjiazhuang Production Team is small, consisting of only three teams that are not far apart; it could easily be considered a single production team.

Standing on a high hill, Wang Jianguo couldn't bring himself to take a step.

He felt apprehensive about returning home, but more importantly, he didn't know how to explain it to his parents.

To get him into the army, his family borrowed a lot of money and emptied their savings. They asked a distant relative who worked in the county town for help. In addition, Wang Jianguo himself was also good at martial arts and had been skilled in fighting since he was a child. That's how he managed to get a government job.

Before the Lunar New Year, he wrote a letter home, vowing that he would be promoted to a higher position within a few years.

But in the blink of an eye, he was discharged from the military due to injuries and illness.

At this moment, Wang Jianguo was filled with conflicting thoughts, unsure of what to do.

He stood there for a long time, until it got dark, before gritting his teeth and heading towards home.

In the 6s and 70s, rural conditions in Jiaodong were truly appalling. Not to mention compared to a land of plenty like Yunhu, it was even worse than Lianghe. Often, after a whole year of hard work, a family would end up owing the production team tens of yuan.

Therefore, most of the houses in this area are earthen houses with earth and stone structures. In addition, the winters in the north are cold, so the earthen houses here are different from the earthen houses in Yunhu.

Not only are the houses low, but the windows are also small, probably just like ventilation holes. In winter, it's a little better if you heat the kang (a traditional heated bed), but in summer, when the sun is high, the house becomes like a steamer, so stuffy and unbearable.

Wangjiazhuang is one of the poorest places in Jiaodong, so there isn't a single light on at night.

Wang Jianguo groped his way through the darkness, stumbling along, and it took him a long time to finally reach the village.

Before he could get close, several dogs in the village started barking wildly.

A moment later, a light was lit, and the sound of a gun bolt being pulled back was heard. A voice came from afar, "Who goes there?"

Wang Jianguo recognized the voice and then shouted, "Jianjun, it's me!"

The next second, a figure came running towards them, shouting, "Brother, you're back?!"

(End of this chapter)