On the first target plane, three years after Snow and Kerr's visit to Yan'an, journalist Snow published his new book "The Red Star Rises, Xu Rì Sinks", which records what he saw, heard, and felt after arriving in Yan'an on November 18, 1943. One of the most appealing parts of the book is his 72-hour diary of his first arrival in Yan'an, which describes Snow's first impression of returning to Yan'an in a straightforward and casual language. Let's use time and space to secretly cheat, and open Snow's rì notebook three years in advance to see what is written in it.

On November 18, 1943, the weather was fine.

I arrived in Yan'an by plane with His Excellency Kohl, Special Presidential Envoy. I have to admit that when I first got off the plane, I was surprised, my impression of the Yan'an Airport pressed out of the stone mill is gone, in front of my eyes is a beautiful asphalt runway, white paint draws a conspicuous straight line to indicate the landing mark, there seems to be a large number of lighting street lights on both sides of the runway, the newly built brand new tower is located on the left hand of the runway, is this Yan'an? My brain was a little blank at the time.

Arriving in Yan'an city by jeep from the airport, the road is still asphalted. I have a hunch that returning to Yan'an this time will allow me to subvert many of my previous memories. Sure enough, as soon as I entered the urban area of Yan'an, I found that my eyes were a little useless, a neat asphalt path built shuttled through it, the roadside was a three- or four-story building that I definitely did not have when I came a few years ago, the style was novel, the overall feeling was like a combination of Western style and Yanhuang style, it felt very beautiful, and there was no feeling of a thousand rooms, always in the same dozen houses, interspersed with such as coffee sè wooden house (Xinghuake coffee), transparent glass fashion restaurant (Ken Mai Chicken), The teahouse (typhoon shelter) with green roof and white door wall is a lot of small surprises like this.

After checking into the foreign guest house, I shared a room with another member of the delegation. The double room is very clean, the sheets and beds are white and new, there is a wardrobe in the house, unfortunately the toilet on the second floor is shared, you need to go out of the house to use. However, hot water is provided and you can take a bath. Hehe, I feel a little funny when I write here, is it too demanding, this is Yan'an, not domestic, it has exceeded my imagination too much.

After the lunch opened, I found that it was a buffet, very simple but very rich, a few hot dishes, meat and vegetarian, and you can see chicken and mutton, let me feel a lot, I remember that time in 1936, when I first arrived in Yan'an, although I enjoy the special treatment of foreign friends, it is difficult to guarantee the white noodles, not to mention the meat. In addition, the foreign guest hotel provides desserts and a small amount of fruit after meals, I was surprised, and asked the waiter how it is possible for Shaanxi to have fruits in this season, and they replied that it was canned, which made me even more surprised, where is the canned food produced and shipped?

In the afternoon, Colter sent them to a meeting, and I myself expressed to the person in charge of Yan'an who received us that I hoped to go to Yan'an City to collect wind and materials. And asked him if he could convey on my behalf that I wanted to meet a few old friends from the past and talk about my wishes. He said he needed to report to his superiors and asked me to wait in the house for a reply. Fortunately, God forbid, he came to see me at 4 p.m. and said that he agreed to let me walk around, but he needed to have two escorts, one for translation and one for jǐng guards, to prevent accidents. Okay, I know that I will definitely receive some "preferential treatment" as a Star-Spangled Bannerman, but it doesn't matter, I just want to go to the people of Shaanxi to see, this wish has been fulfilled, and everything else is easy to say.

At around 5 p.m., I came to a street in Yan'an, Shaanxi Province, probably not yet at the end of the day, and there were not many pedestrians. The paved pavement of stone bricks is very clean and comfortable, there are red street lights at the intersection, and there is a middle-aged woman in Yanhuang standing next to her with a red sè cloth strip, I am very strange, I learned after asking the translator that they are assisting in the traffic order of Jiaojǐng, it seems that the people of Yanhuang are not very accustomed to the traffic rules of stopping at red lights and going at green lights, and they need to invest a lot of manpower to maintain them on the spot. I have to say that this is unique to Yanhuang, and perhaps only Yanhuang in the world has enough manpower base to complete such a task.

At dinner at a noodle restaurant in the evening, the interpreter sent by the Red Party said that according to their policy, I could only receive one copper dollar a day, and I had to bear the cost of exceeding. It is said that the purpose of such a regulation is not to waste the taxes paid by the people. I was surprised, okay, let's talk about the exchange rate, specifically, give them dollars, and they exchange them for copper dollars or silver dollars at the price of gold. To add to this, one silver dollar is equivalent to the validity of three copper dollars. At first, I was worried that I didn't have enough money, after all, I only had one copper dollar in my hand, but when I arrived at the noodle restaurant and read the menu, my heart was relieved, and an ordinary bowl of noodles only cost 6 copper (one copper dollar is equal to 100 copper), so cheap. Curious, he asked the interpreter's salary, and he replied that the military salary was 25 copper dollars, which was very good in calculation.

On November 19, 1943, the weather was cloudy and breezy.

I made an appointment with George Haydem today to visit his house. George had already given himself a Yanhuang name, Ma Haide. In 1936, George and I came to the Yanhuanghong-occupied area together, and after half a year I left after the interview, he offered to stay. To be honest, I was worried at the time. It's much more reassuring to meet again now. He now works in Yan'an Hospital and Yanhuang Northwest Medical University, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the hospital to see patients, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at the university to teach modern medical knowledge to students, Zhou rì rested, but after chatting with him, I learned that Zhou rì he still works overtime in the university most of the time, I advised him to pay attention to his body, but he smiled, saying that now you need to dedicate and pay, many students are using fiery passion, hard to learn medical knowledge, just to graduate as soon as possible, to treat diseases for ordinary Yanhuang people, in this atmosphere, I am also full of passion, and I hope to teach them sooner and earlier.

Today George took a special leave to stay with me for a day. We talked until half past ten in the morning, and at noon, at his suggestion, he invited me to leave Yan'an and go to Xi'an to have a look. In his words, Yan'an is still too politically rich because of the gathering of the Red Party and its organs, and if you want to experience the actual livelihood of the Red Party in the border area, it is more real to go to Xi'an. I accepted George's suggestion, and two people, plus an interpreter and a guard, made a total of four people to drive to Xi'an. By the way, there are fixed buses from Yan'an to Xi'an, and the fare is one copper, which is very cheap.

Almost 12 noon, we arrived in downtown Xi'an, and after finishing lunch at an ordinary mutton bun restaurant, George took me to a street lined with shops in Xi'an. The business here is prosperous, from time to time to see many customers from a shop in and out, "Mo Bao Zhai" is a painting shop on this road, the shop is not big, but very clean, the shopkeeper surname Zhou, was originally an old merchant in Xi'an. After chatting with him, I learned that after Xi'an was occupied by the Red Party, it implemented a land and economic policy of confiscating the real estate and family property of local tyrants and inferior gentry and ransom the shops of progressive merchants. Then many streets were renovated in Xi'an, and this street was designated as a commercial street for rent.

Shopkeeper Zhou didn't dare to apply for a store at first, thinking that more things were better than less. Unexpectedly, the Red Party officials took the initiative to persuade them, and they had to pick up the old bank, rented a three-story shop, and opened this "Mobao Zhai". When I asked him why, he smiled and said that because the Red Party had built new houses for the residents of the city and the farmers in the surrounding villages, every household was wondering what to put in the house. As a result, many people plan to live the original 'landlord's rì', put a square table in their own hall, left and right and lean on two Taishi chairs, the top is symmetrically placed in the porcelain vase, according to the Yanhuang custom, need to hang a pair of calligraphy words on the left and right, and hang a painting in the middle, because the painting and calligraphy need to be 'framed' up to use, so Zhou's shopkeeper's business is so good.

I asked him how you would choose between state-run enterprises and private enterprises in the future. Zhou shopkeeper thought about it very seriously, and replied to me, I don't plan to enter the state office, nor do I plan to enter the private office, his ancestors have three generations of people who rely on mounting and painting to make a living, it is a family business, and I want the eldest son to inherit and continue to take care of it, and he according to the needs of customers, and he has entered some rice paper and brushes, watercolors, pen holders, paperweights and other things, which are sold quite well, and the red party is taxed according to the fixed amount every month, which basically only accounts for about one-tenth of the sales of his store. Shopkeeper Zhou felt that he could arrange his work and life by himself, so he saved himself from going to the factory to be instructed by others and obeying orders, and he was very satisfied with his current life and wanted to continue forever. In addition, the Red Party will convene these private owners and father-son shop owners every week to hold policy briefings or training meetings, and through watching foreign movies (note: in fact, it is a documentary on the operation of the main plane store after processing), they will find the shortcomings of their store concept and management methods, improve them, and make the small shop stronger. The shopkeeper Zhou finally said to me: The secretary of the border district zhèngfǔ told us that we craftsmen are very important, and we are an important part of the Yanhuang culture, and we want our sons to inherit their father's business, inherit and carry it forward, although I don't understand it very well, but it seems that the border district zhèngfǔ recognizes us very much, are you right?

November 20, 1943, weather yīn, strong wind.

It's windy outside today and it's cold. There is heating in the foreign guest hotel, so there is nothing to feel in the house, but as soon as you get outside, people quickly shiver. Yesterday, in addition to going to "Mobao Zhai", I also went to the wooden comb workshop, the blacksmith shop, etc. I was amazed at the modernity of the comb workshops in Xi'an, which use fully automatic machines to make the wooden flutes of the combs. And by manually polishing one by one, the wooden flutes are divided into iron files and wooden files twice, so that the residue of wood chips burrs is turned into a smooth and round state at the tip, which is very labor-intensive, but the product made is very jīng. I looked at the price, 3 coppers a piece, not expensive but not cheap either. The blacksmith shop is similar to a wooden comb shop, with two or three pieces of machinery and equipment that can make a wide variety of custom-made wrought iron products, from iron handles for gates to stair handrails, and is quite popular in Xi'an. It is said that this is the main promotion of the Yanhuang Red Party: to help small workshops to update their equipment, encourage residents to buy the products of small workshops and small shops, and popularize the goods with Yanhuang cultural significance used by the original 1% of the ruling class, and apply them to the lives of ordinary people.

In the morning, the envoy came to me to ask how he felt, and I observed that his face was not very good, and that the negotiations with the Yan, Huang and Red parties were not going well. Thinking of this, I immediately told him that I felt that the future of the Yanhuang Continent would definitely be theirs, and I suggested that from now on, an effective dialogue and contact mechanism should be established with the Red Party immediately, which would be beneficial to the Stars and Stripes Republic. I hope that in the future, as George Haydem (Ma Haide) depicted, the Yellow and the Stars and Stripes will always be friends, friends!