Hearing The Whistle
Author: From www.jcrb.com translated by:zhaocibaidicaiyunjian and qianlijianglingyirihuan
Once been a soldier you will know such words:new soldier fears the whistle and old soldiers are afraid of calling. New soldiers who just go to troops training, obey each and every move of the conductor from the time of enlist , such as getting up, holding, tiding up domestic affairs, getting and eating rice or holding training, or political education, learning songs with roll calling or even washing or putting out light .all activities in a day are obeying the whistle – a long whistle :Represent to get up in the morning and represent to put out the light in the evening;A long then a short whistle:Represent to prepare all the work in a day, such as:small duty for getting rice and prepare to have meal, prepare to holding, prepare to study and prepare to sing a song, prepare to go to bed . a long and two short whistles:Represent the formal beginning of all works in a day, for example:Having a meal or gather up etc.
All works for new soldiers have the prepare type, except for urgent gathering and the urgent aggregative sound of whistle is also out of the ordinary whistles of one long and several short. However, this whistle is not similar to the old soldier or new soldier:for old soldiers, only hearing that whistle, they will get an urgent and pressing with original tense, but new soldiers did not have the basic atmosphere. however, after many years, all soldiers like to tell the stories happened in troops most related to the urgent gathering.
I remember when in a disciplinal time after enlisting, it requests not to make a noise when hearing the whistle for urgent gathering in three minutes, forbid to turn on the light but to wear the soldier package, tie the arms bear, hold up the shoulder bag and run to the assembly place specified. At that time it was not very strict to the local students, only 8 of us came to training from the army had the hair sheared as woman students ( shear of compulsory or not get the soldier package without a haircut), other 16 girls all tied the plaits of different length, so at the time of urgent aggregative, those female soldiers got another item:Firming plaits.
Our captain of the area did work for several days, no one of these long-plait girls have will to cut hair, so at the time of real urgent gathering, the female soldiers fulfiled with jokes. To that time we have trained almost for a month, and also practiced several times of urgent gathering in the daytime. One evening after putting out light, 12 of us in the class lied on bed with a ” lie to talk meeting” open still like the common nights, we heard the whistle suddenly, the assistant who slept near the class door in lower bed turn on the light as a conditioned reflex, then we heard the captain pull out his throat which is like a broken gang and yell:” class four and five, turn off the light!!” our vice class master had to turn off the light right away. But once the light turned off, everyone ran disorderly like one regiment: some cannot find the clothes, some cannot find the shoes, some cannot find the hair pin to firm hair, some cannot find the shoulder bag, some cannot find the glasses, still some cannot distinguish the underneath side of a quilt (the quilt of Navy’s is a white underneath side of a quilt and blue bedcover). At that moment our class had noisy sound louder than free market, all forgot the provision of not to make a noise, excited with threatens and shouted loudly. The captain shouted that not so beautiful voice to us “little bit voice lower your female soldiers!”
I am the first female soldier who packed up the shoulder bag and ran out. A short while later, women soldiers also all rushed out continuously, having disheveled hair without tie the bear arms or even wear the slippers or carry the quilt without shoulder bag, and even have the inner white of quilt out of the shoulder bag, or did not wear the earpiece . basically let a burst of the person of prepare class out each time a female soldier coming out. Finally when the female soldiers almost all went out, the clock run out of ten minutes, so to say “almost” means a female soldier of class five was lacked- she ” parachutes” down of one step to the ground from the upper bed with a leg sprained and was sent to the sanitation squad directly.
Captain did not say anything, with a pale face keeping for two weeks, and the second day of urgent gathering, she had all female soldiers hair cut off.
In a flash,more than a decade has passed by, I also start to train soldiers afterwards. In that several years I blow that short emollient whistle more than once. Companion the whistle every time is to let me remind of those unforgettable time before.