My father joined the army when he was a teenager. He pretty much grew up in the army. His book collection consisted mainly of books by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Mao Zedong.
At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) there was plenty of chaos everywhere in China. In 1967, the central government decided to take over the control of local governments by the army. The policy was called 三支两军 (sān zhī liǎng jūn): army supporting the leftest masses, the industry, and agriculture, and army taking the control of local government. That's how my father started working at Tianjin mayoral government, approximately in 1968.
I noticed that our bookshelf started swelling up with many other books since then, history and other classic books like Shi-Ji, Chun-qiu-zhan-guo and plenty of other interesting books.
During the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards confiscated from many innocent families untold pieces of cultural artifacts and books that were considered feudalistic or bourgeoisie or anti-revolutionary in content.
Perhaps the Red Guards threw their loots into the local government. Perhaps my father got some of his books from his office.
There must be plenty of other interesting artifacts and treasures but he only brought home some books. Imagine that.