Zhong Guotao borrowed the Jialing 123 motorcycle again, went to the police station to pick up Qin Shanhai, and walked in the direction of Shanhe County.

"Guotao, what's the matter so anxious about?Where is this going?" Qin Shanhai sat in the back seat and hugged Zhong Guotao's waist, the motorcycle was fast, the wind was whistling, and it was a little difficult to speak.

"Go to the county party committee guest house, Secretary He wants to see you by name, and me. Zhong Guotao replied.

"You are louder! You are riding too fast to speak. Qin Shanhai shouted at the top of his voice.

Zhong Guotao slowed down, turned his head and said, "Our master and Secretary He have known each other fifty years ago, and the relationship is not shallow. ”

"Well, I thought about it, so the secretary wants to see you, I can understand, what are you doing when you see me? I'm just a policeman, it's not official. Qin Shanhai said with a smile.

"Then who knows? You hugged me tightly, the secretary called me in the afternoon, saying that Secretary He was preparing a meal over there, I will ride quickly, let's rush over to eat, we can't let the leader wait for us. Zhong Guotao said.

"Stop for a moment. Look at your hands are frozen!" Qin Shanhai saw Zhong Guotao holding the handle of the motorcycle and wearing gloves with torn mouths, suddenly remembered something, took out a pair of gloves from the big pocket of the cotton clothes, handed them to the front and said, "This eldest sister earned money and bought it for you." ”

Zhong Guotao slowly stopped, took the gloves and looked at them, and said, "You can keep them and wear them!"

"The two are the same, the eldest sister said, the two brothers have a pair, I didn't know if I could see you today, so I took a pair of my own wear, just you take it, I wear the one at home. Qin Shanhai explained.

"Good. Zhong Guotao was not polite, threw away the broken gloves directly, replaced them with new ones, and said with a smile: "Eldest sister, this girl, what are you polite to me!"

This time is different, the eldest sister said, this is the first money she earned in her life, and it is meaningful to spend. ”

"Well, thank you for me, eldest sister. Sit tight and let's go!" Zhong Guotao hung up gear, stepped on the accelerator, and the motorcycle jumped forward.

……

The two guys said that they were not nervous, but when they really arrived at the door of the county party committee guest house, they were both nervous.

The leaders of the municipal party committee are not joking, and if they say something wrong, it will make the leaders unhappy.

Standing in the lobby of the guest house, neither of them spoke, and a young waitress at the front desk smiled and asked, "Who are you looking for?"

"That...... We're looking for the old clock. Qin Shanhai replied stumblingly.

"No, we're looking for Secretary He. Zhong Guotao continued.

"Oh, may I ask you two names?" asked the waiter.

"Zhong Guotao. ”

"Qin Shanhai. ”

"Well, okay, please come with me. The waiter waved his right hand politely, "Secretary He has arranged that, except for the two young men surnamed Zhong and surnamed Qin, the rest of the people will not be allowed to enter." ”

"Aoyama Hall, two of you, please come in. The waiter smiled and nodded, and knocked lightly on the door.

"Waiting for you two, it's Xiao Zhong, Xiao Qin, right? I'm He Ming, come, come in and sit. Secretary He opened the door in person and said with a smile.

Qin Shanhai was a little nervous, his face was flushed, and he was a little confused, Secretary He seemed to see Qin Shanhai's embarrassment, and said with a smile: "Uncle Zhong told me that he has a grandson named Xiao Zhong, and a year-old friend named Qin Shanhai, presumably two young men, right?"

Qin Shanhai instantly understood what was going on, and said politely: "Secretary He, I'm Qin Shanhai, hello, hello." ”

Zhong Guotao also politely shouted: "Hello secretary! I am Zhong Guotao." ”

"Today is a family gathering, there is no Secretary He, I am your Uncle He. After speaking, he jokingly pointed at Qin Shanhai and said: "The police uniform has been taken off, and there are no policemen today, only uncles and nephews." ”

From the time Qin Zhong and the two of them entered the house, the old bell sat in the middle of the room, and never spoke, at this time he opened his mouth concisely and said, "Sit!"

Secretary He opened the door and greeted softly: "Let's serve." ”

Qin Shanhai and Zhong Guotao saw that Secretary He was so easy-going and kind, so they lost their initial nervousness.

Dishes came up one after another, Secretary He greeted and drank two glasses of wine, and asked Qin Zhong about the work and life of the two, and both of them answered carefully and truthfully.

Gradually, there was a warm atmosphere, Secretary He changed his words and said: "The two young men must have doubts in their hearts, and when they saw Uncle He's nervousness, they didn't dare to ask." Isn't that right?"

Both smiled and nodded.

"Hehe, you two don't dare to ask Uncle He, then I'll let Uncle Zhong tell you that you two can't sleep at night. After Secretary He finished speaking, he raised his glass to the old bell and said, "Uncle, tell the two children about it." ”

Lao Zhong took a sip of the wine in the cup, and said softly in a tone that Qin Zhong and the others had never seen before: "I originally thought that I would take these things about the old sesame seeds and rotten grains to the coffin, but I didn't expect to be able to turn them out, and some things were also a last resort, but the rape flower was a little too fast." ”

Hearing this, Qin Zhong and the others realized that "rape flower" should be a personal name, and the tone used by Lao Zhongtou's two questions made the two of them feel very shocked, because in their cognition, Zhong Ye is a straightforward and iron-clad man, and Zhong Ye at this moment seems to have changed as a person, and they all say that iron men also have tenderness, and men also have tears, so there must be a story here.

The old bell had a hoarse voice, and while recalling, he said intermittently: "It's been more than 50 years, right? It's been too long, I can't remember some details clearly, sometimes I dream at night and these things, some details are still my dreams or real happened, I'm confused, you have the right to listen to a story." ”

Secretary He's expression became solemn, Qin Shanhai and Zhong Guotao didn't speak, and the three of them stared at the old clock in anticipation.

One day in June, without any precautions, the Japanese army dispatched a large number of planes to bomb Yucheng in turn, and the air raid lasted for as long as five hours.

In order to avoid the bombing, the 16-year-old boy Zhong Hansheng, following his parents and a large number of civilians, frantically poured into the large air-raid shelter in the city, because there were too many people, crowded, many citizens were killed in the stampede, even so, there were still many civilians in order to make a living, rushed to the air-raid shelter, the Kuomintang military police ordered the door to be locked tightly, causing a serious lack of oxygen in the air-raid shelter, the crowd in the cave began to commotion, facing death, people gradually went crazy, began to desperately squeeze to the entrance of the cave. Zhong Hansheng's father desperately protected his wife and children, and squeezed out with the flow of people, because the door of the air-raid shelter was opened inward and locked outside, so the more the crowd squeezed into the hole, the more difficult it was to open the door.

The gendarmes guarding the outside of the cave had no idea what was going on inside the cave, and still carried out the order and locked the door.

The situation is becoming more and more critical, the oxygen in the bomb shelter is constantly decreasing, due to the lack of oxygen, the oil lamps are almost all extinguished, the mood of the crowd in the dark is even more crazy, shouting and screaming, trampling on each other, the people in front are squeezed and fall down in rows, some are suffocated and shocked, and many more are trampled to death.

In order to survive, where can the people in the cave manage so much, continue to step on the pile of corpses and squeeze out, like this After a long time, Zhong Hansheng's father protected his wife and children and saw that he was about to go to the entrance of the cave, the oxygen at the entrance of the cave was slightly better than inside, the people nearby calmed down, and Zhong Hansheng's family of three breathed a sigh of relief.

Before he could breathe evenly, he squeezed over from behind, and he was involuntarily squeezed from side to side in the crowd, Zhong Hansheng's father still tried his best to hold on to his wife and children, there were too many people, if he was squeezed down, there was not much chance of standing up again.

The crowd came, Zhong Hansheng's father didn't catch it, Zhong Hansheng and his mother were on their sides together, seeing that they were about to be squeezed down, his father grabbed Zhong Hansheng's clothes and didn't let go, and with all his strength on his side, he pushed Zhong Hansheng's mother and daughter to the corner, and with the support of the wall, Zhong Hansheng's mother and daughter were able to stand firm.

Zhong Hansheng saw his father push himself sideways, lost his balance and fell to the ground, stood up twice, but didn't get up, and finally was overwhelmed by the crowd, and he couldn't find a trace anymore, and his father screamed heartbreakingly.

Zhong Hansheng hugged his mother, leaned on the corner, and held on like this for nearly ten hours.

The door of the cave was finally opened, and the crowd inside the cave rushed out of the door like a river that broke the embankment, and the mother and son also picked up their lives, but Zhong Hansheng lost his father since then.

When I got home, all I had left was rubble, and the whole city was almost in ruins, with moans everywhere.

Those who were killed and knocked unconscious, whether dead or unconscious, as soon as they were lifted out, someone sprinkled lime on their bodies to disinfect them, and then threw them on the side of the road, piling up several hills, which was miserable.

Mother took sixteen-year-old Zhong Hansheng and wanted to cry without tears.

Zhong Hansheng was born tall and big, and on the day when the family encountered a catastrophe, he suddenly matured a lot, helping his mother wipe her tears and say comforting words.

In order to find a way to survive, Zhong Hansheng and his mother followed the crowd fleeing the famine, traveled for several miles, and walked across the ancient bridge on the Daqing River.

Shanghe Village is located in a remote area, neither a strategic location nor a checkpoint hub, and lives a peaceful life like a paradise in troubled times.

Although the land in Shanghe Village is barren and the harvest is average, most of the villagers are industrious and kind, and they are backed by the mountains, and usually pick some wild vegetables as supplementary food, and there are more agile hunters in the village who go into the mountains to hunt, if they are lucky, they can catch pheasants and hares every three or five times, and then the children in the village will cheer and jump.

The bad habits of the old society caused the low status of women, most of them have no surname, marry to the mother-in-law's family, then add the mother-in-law's surname in front of the mother's surname, Zhong Hansheng's mother's maiden surname is Wang, married to the Zhong family, it is called Zhong Wang's family.

Zhong Wang's family took Zhong Hansheng to sit and rest on the side of the Qiaotou Road of Qinghe Ancient Bridge, the mother and daughter were already ragged and thin-skinned due to lack of food and clothing, Zhong Wang's family felt sorry for his son, and almost all the leftovers he got all the way were stuffed into his son's mouth, and in the past two days, he had not begged for a grain of rice, hunger and fatigue, and the mother and daughter were dizzy and exhausted.

This scene happened to be seen by the little girl Xiaohua who went out to collect firewood, so she ran home and told her father, Xiaohua's father is called Lu Zhuang, people are born strong as their name, and the ancestral craft is to go into the mountains to hunt, and the people in the village call him Lu Orion.

When Lu Lihu heard the news, he hurriedly took Xiaohua to the Qinghe Ancient Bridge, leaned over, stretched out his finger and measured Zhong Wang's snort, "There is still salvation!"

Zhong Hansheng was helpless, but when he saw that there were well-wishers to help, he kept kowtowing in his heart.

"Don't knock, get up and help. Lu Orion raised his hand to set up Zhong Wang's clan and shouted at Zhong Hansheng.

Lu Orion carried Zhong Wang's family, Zhong Hansheng and Xiaohua helped on the side, and carried it to Lu Orion's residence.

He made a fire and boiled a handful of rice, boiled half a bowl of rice soup, helped Zhong Wangshi to pour two mouthfuls, the rice soup flowed into his stomach, and he opened his eyes after a few seconds.

Lu Orion and Xiaohua both laughed.