In 1959, what's wrong with me pedaling a tricycle?

"Comrade Wang Xingguo, after comprehensive evaluation, the organization has decided to transfer you to the highest-level national defense security front, responsible for long-distance material transportation from Beijing to a base in the Northwest. This position may require you to be away from home for many years, the journey will be extremely arduous, and you will not be able to communicate freely for a long time. Once transferred, you will not be able to change jobs for the next few years, and your travel will be strictly controlled. Are you personally willing to accept this work arrangement? Are there any difficulties at home? Can you persuade your family to accept this arrangement?"

The visitor was an officer sent by the General Staff Department. He looked at Wang Xingguo expressionlessly and said these words, his eyes sharp as if he could see right through Wang Xingguo's heart.

Wang Xingguo had already gone through several rounds of talks. He nodded earnestly and said, "I am willing to obey the organization's arrangements, adhere to the 'five no's and three guarantees' principle, and resolutely complete all the tasks assigned to me by the organization. Please rest assured, I will certainly live up to your mission!"

"Very good, Comrade Wang Xingguo. On behalf of the organization, I solemnly announce that, effective immediately, you are officially appointed as the 'Chief of the Fourth Transportation Section of the National Defense Science and Technology Commission's Beijing Material Transfer Station'!"

Over the next two days, Wang Xingguo completed various training sessions with the staff before officially getting acquainted with his new job.

It turns out that although he was the head of the transportation department, his administrative rank had actually been raised to level 15.

Aside from being kept strictly confidential, the new job was not as mysterious or complicated as Wang Xingguo had imagined.

It was just transporting supplies. He needed to lead a team to escort the supplies throughout the entire process and not allow anyone to touch these supplies in order to prevent enemy agents from poisoning or sabotaging them.

He discovered that the supplies he escorted the first time were actually a portion of the supplies he had brought back.

Don't ask him how he knew, because even the milk candies, nougat, fruit candies, and chocolate candies are all the same variety.

The only word about his work destination was "farm," which others might not know, but Wang Xingguo did!

The Malan base was originally called Malan Farm!

The Transportation Department has four sections. Wang Xingguo is in the fourth section. The first and second sections are of a higher rank, and are led by cadres of administrative level fourteen who are responsible for escorting more important items.

The Third and Fourth Sections are led by cadres at the 15th level. The escort work was originally to be handled by the two sections in rotation, but now that supplies are scarce, as soon as some supplies are available, they need to be transported there immediately.

Wang Xingguo is the head of the Fourth Section, which has 25 subordinates. Ten of them are clerical staff who accompany vehicles, one is the deputy section chief, and the rest are staff members responsible for working in the unit and receiving materials from various places.

For this transport mission, their team consisted of only Wang Xingguo and the deputy section chief, along with two staff members. Wang Xingguo was the overall person in charge, while the other two staff members were only responsible for inventorying the supplies. Wang Xingguo and the deputy section chief, Zhou Jun, were mainly responsible for coordination and handover along the route, and were not responsible for frontline armed guard duty.

The frontline armed security is handled by a platoon of soldiers who stand guard at fixed points and in fixed carriages. Railway police and other police officers along the route cooperate in the security work outside the train.

They weren't carrying Type 56 semi-automatic rifles, but Type 56 submachine guns. Wang Xingguo, among others, practiced shooting with these submachine guns several times. The trainers felt his marksmanship was acceptable, so they stopped his shooting training and put him directly to his first escort duty.

If you ask Wang Xingguo how he feels about his new job, he'll say that apart from the swaying and his sore butt from sitting so long, he doesn't feel anything special.

He was in the carriage the whole time and barely felt anything.

Without beds, those on shifts could only sleep sitting up, and this kind of work had to continue for seven days and seven nights.

Wang Xingguo wanted to complain, "Couldn't you have arranged two folding beds instead?"

Since there were no hot meals, they ate compressed biscuits and drank drinking water to solve their eating problem. The advantage of doing this was that they didn't need to go to the toilet often.

This was Wang Xingguo's first time on such a mission, and he felt like his whole body was about to fall apart.

However, Deputy Section Chief Zhou Jun comforted him, saying, "Section Chief Wang, you'll get used to it after a few runs. I felt uncomfortable the first time too, but as long as I thought about the importance of the task, I persevered."

Wang Xingguo nodded and said, "Section Chief Zhou, where is the former head of the Fourth Section? Why wasn't he there during the handover?"

Zhou Jun explained, "The former Section Chief Huang was transferred to a more important position. Because the transfer was quite sudden, I was promoted. I had only led a team to escort one mission when you were transferred here."

Wang Xingguo simply said "oh" and didn't ask too many questions. This was because of the "Five Don'ts and Three Guarantees" rule: Don't say what shouldn't be said, don't ask what shouldn't be asked, don't look at what shouldn't be seen, don't listen to what shouldn't be heard, and don't spread what shouldn't be spread. The work location, the nature of the organization, and the job content must be kept strictly confidential.

This is the nationwide "Five Don'ts and Three Guarantees" confidentiality rule, which Wang Xingguo kept firmly in mind, and dared not ask irrelevant questions.

After seven days and eight nights, the train arrived at Daheyan Railway Station.

After Wang Xingguo connected with Zhou Jun and the other side, he supervised the porters as they loaded the supplies onto the trucks. Once he ensured the quantity of supplies was correct, the soldiers on the trucks and the soldiers on the other side jointly escorted the supplies to Malan Town.

Wang Xingguo and his team from the Fourth Division still needed to accompany the supplies to Malan Town. After the staff there counted the supplies and confirmed that everything was correct, they would sign the receipt and then take the receipt back. This was how they completed one escort mission.

Originally, it was supposed to be Wang Xingguo leading two staff members to escort the shipment. However, since it was his first mission, Zhou Jun accompanied him on this one-time escort.

From then on, he and Zhou Jun would split into two groups, and when it was the Fourth Section's turn to escort supplies, they would take turns.

If supplies are in severe shortage, it is very likely that all four escort teams from their third and fourth sections will have to escort supplies at the same time.

After a bumpy thirteen-hour journey, the five Jiefang CA10 trucks arrived at their destination, Malan Town.

After successfully completing the inventory and receiving the receipt, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

After dinner, which consisted of just two cornbread buns with pickled vegetables, everyone went straight to bed.

After eight days and eight nights, they finally completed the escort mission.

Wang Xingguo slept soundly until the afternoon of the next day, when he woke up because he was hungry.

They will rest here for a day, and the next day they will set off back to Daheyan, and then take the train back to Beijing.

Because the truck was fully loaded with supplies when it came, it was much faster to return empty, and it took eleven hours to get back to Daheyan.

The return train was also faster, and they no longer needed to keep an eye on the supplies. They could rest directly on their sleeper berths, and the return journey time was reduced from seven days and eight nights to six days and seven nights.

After Wang Xingguo and his group handed in the receipt, they were given a five-day holiday to go home and rest.

Wang Xingguo feels lightheaded and disgusted.

No wonder everyone told him to leave a set of clothes at work; otherwise, if he went back like that, his wife and children would probably complain.

I took my clothes to the company bathhouse and took a bath, but there were no bath attendants, so everyone helped each other scrub their backs.

After rinsing himself clean, Wang Xingguo changed into clean clothes, picked up his dirty clothes, and like everyone else, some rode bicycles and some took buses, all hurrying home.