General's Banquet

     At a lunch, I had a pleasant conversation with Colonel Wang Hailong, Chief of Staff of the Binhai Naval Base and a friend of a colleague. We were both military personnel, though Wang was still active duty while I had retired. After graduating from military academy, I was assigned to an air force unit in eastern Guangdong, while my classmate Yang Junwei was assigned to a naval unit in southern China. I heard he had worked at the Binhai base for over 30 years, eventually becoming its political commissar. After retiring and returning to civilian life, I found it inconvenient to inquire about his whereabouts. After moving to the oil city with my child, and given its proximity to Binhai, I had the idea of ​​meeting him, hoping to get accurate information about him from Colonel Wang.

    Colonel Wang, his eyes gleaming with a bright, cunning light, deliberately kept us in suspense, saying, "What you've been searching for everywhere is right under your nose; it's been far away, yet right before your eyes." He continued, "General Yang Junwei is currently the Deputy Political Commissar of the Southern Navy, and he happens to be my superior." I told Colonel Wang that General Yang and I were from the same hometown and were classmates in middle school and university; I hadn't seen him for about 40 years since graduation. I entrusted the colonel to give the general my name and contact information.

    Within three days, I received a call from General Yang, arranging a meeting at the Southern Navy's base in Binhai.

    In the golden autumn of October, on a beautiful day with golden hues as the dominant color, I brought my wife, children, and the whole family. General Yang, along with his wife, children, and the entire family, awaited our arrival. He led us on a tour of the modern ship repair base, several large, modern warships… Afterwards, he hosted a "grand and lavish" welcome banquet for us at the military headquarters canteen. General Yang personally prepared five dishes and a soup for us: braised beef with potatoes, chunks of sea fish, green vegetables, and tomato and egg soup—these were the naval officers' meals for the day, with a strict balance in terms of nutrition and calories. The other two dishes, cold seaweed salad and stir-fried shellfish, were extra dishes General Yang specially added for our two families. No drinks were served.

    General Yang and I ate and chatted, talking about our experiences since we parted, our families, and our children. We also reminisced about the unforgettable years we spent training at the military academy in the Huang Jiguang Company of the Airborne Forces: General Chen Zaidao, then commander of the Wuhan Military Region, happened to be in that company experiencing life there, eating, living, and standing guard with ordinary soldiers… We even witnessed the commander picking up and eating rice that had accidentally fallen to the ground. As we parted, I quietly relayed Colonel Wang's request to General Yang: "Colonel Wang's wife, Ms. Sai Haibao, is over 41 years old and still working in the Marine SEALs in the Southern Navy. Her physical condition is clearly not up to

    par. Could you perhaps reassign her to a different position?" A week later, Colonel Wang told me on the phone: "When generals meet with old classmates or comrades-in-arms, the military regulations at the time allowed the unit to provide two reception banquets: a welcome banquet and a farewell banquet. That day, the general's secretary, based on this regulation, booked a welcome banquet for both of your families. However, the general told his secretary: 'My old classmate and I are both veterans of the military. Let's adhere to the glorious traditions of hard work, frugality, and integrity. Tell the mess hall that there's no need to prepare a welcome banquet. Just serve the dishes we ate that day, plus a seaweed dish and a stir-fried shellfish dish. We have plenty of these here. I'll cover the cost myself.'"

    I told Colonel Wang that General Yang meant that the Marine SEALs were comparable to the US Navy SEAL Team Six, with extremely strict requirements in all aspects. There are specific age limits: team members must be no older than 30, and team leaders no older than 35. Ms. Sai Haibao is the deputy team leader and a key member, and she has been working beyond her term limit for five or six years. He said, "We haven't been paying enough attention to her: the more outstanding the talent, the more reluctant we are to let her go, so we've kept her for year after year! We should be paying more attention to her."