Soldado Surpresa

In the autumn of 1971, the vast land of North China was filled with the signs of a bumper harvest. Endless fields of corn stretched as far as the eye could see. In a village under Wanghai Commune in Jizhou County, Hengshui Prefecture, Hebei Province, more than two thousand people lived. The village extended roughly two li from east to west and one li from south to north. Most of its houses had been built with blue bricks facing the outside, and they stood in an uneven jumble.

Li Qibing, who lived at the eastern end of the village, officially joined the army that day. He was eighteen years old, tall and broad-shouldered, with a square face, thick eyebrows, and large, bright eyes. Dressed in a green military uniform and cap, with a green kit bag in his hand, he waved goodbye to his parents as he walked toward the main road south of the village.

Before long, Qibing climbed aboard a tractor sent by the commune. Several other young men in military uniforms were already seated on the trailer behind it, and the commune head was there as well. Transportation was inconvenient in those days; an entire commune might not possess more than a few tractors. Thus Qibing set out with the commune head and the other recruits for the county armed forces department to report for duty.

The road to the county town was almost perfectly flat. Apart from two earthen embankments built by hand during the great flood of 1963 and the broad banks of the Fuyang River, there was nothing but boundless yellow earth.

About half an hour later, the tractor arrived safely in front of t