Episode 194 Hope in the Night

“…… This is the Chinese-Polish program of Jinling Radio, and we are broadcasting to the people in the occupied areas...... We are broadcasting to the people of the occupied areas...... Here we broadcast a few special messages......"

At half past nine in the evening on the last day of September,.

The shops on the street closed their doors as early as just after eight o'clock. The old Liu Ji watch repair shop near the entrance of the town is no exception, and it also closed the door early. The shopkeeper's old master Liu settled his wife and children upstairs to wash and sleep, and sat downstairs by himself, guarding the wooden stairs, holding the radio in his arms, the volume turned on slightly, lying on it with his ears sideways, listening greedily.

“…… Please listen: I live at the head of the Yangtze River, and you live at the end of the Yangtze River...... Repeat: I live at the head of the Yangtze River, and you live at the end of the Yangtze River...... Please listen well: life has been infinite from generation to generation, and Jiang Yue is only similar every year...... Repeat: Life is infinite from generation to generation, and Jiang Yue is only similar every year......"

In the dark, the red cigarette butts are bright and dark. Old Master Liu frowned, smoked a low-quality cigarette cigarette fiercely, and recognized the verses he wanted to listen to in the thick smoke, for fear of missing it.

This morning, Mr. Li from the town primary school came to the shop to pick up the watch and quietly told him to listen carefully to the radio these past few nights. It is likely that there will be tasks these days. Once you hear the code to yourself, you have to go to the designated place outside the town at 12 o'clock that night to send the code to the plane to receive the airdrop.

“…… Please listen well: Peach Blossom Nunnery in Peach Blossom Dock, Peach Blossom Fairy in Peach Blossom Nunnery...... Repeat: Peach Blossom Nunnery in Peach Blossom Dock, Peach Blossom Fairy in Peach Blossom Nunnery...... Listen up: the drunkard doesn't mean to drink...... Repeat: the drunkard does not mean to ...... wine"

The drunkard doesn't mean to drink!

Old Master Liu's heart was pounding, he stabilized his mind, took a deep breath, and then spit out steadily. Then he recalled, made sure he had heard correctly, and then decisively turned off the radio and hid back in the same place.

He was still sitting there, still smoking in the dark. He took out his old pocket watch, and through the night light on it, he saw that it was almost ten o'clock, and there were still two hours left. He simply planned to sit here for an hour, and then quietly slipped out of town.

Finally, it was eleven o'clock in the night. Old Master Liu put on a thick coat, carried a flashlight in his arms, carried a sack, put a shovel into the sack, flashed out of the back door of his house silently, closed the door, and disappeared into the night street in the dark.

Half an hour later, I came to the field.

The fields in early autumn are especially cool at midnight. The pale moonlight sprinkled on the fields, the insects on all sides chirped frogs, and there was some unknown "thing", one long and one short. It's very hairy.

If you are a young person, it is likely to be a little creepy at this time. But Lao Liu Tou has lived most of his life and is used to seeing horrors in the world.

……

More than 100 steps ahead, is an old locust tree that is more than 100 years old. Since Lao Liu remembered this old locust tree when he was a child, many people came to hang it every year. The first time he remembers most vividly was fifty years ago. That year, the "Lao Cai's Tavern" in the town had a booming business, and it was confiscated by the government under an excuse. Cai's life savings and coffin were wiped out in an instant, and there was no way to ask for help, and the old couple hanged themselves on this locust tree.

Every year since, he remembers someone hanging themselves from a tree.

Until the year of Wuxu, Guangxu Ye began to change * Restoration, and in the following years, there were fewer and fewer people who hanged themselves, and then there were not one or two hanged people in a year.

During that period, the government built railways, set up new schools, and the people did business and opened factories, and those talented people in the county town also vied with each other to buy printing presses and run newspapers, and they were very happy and happy. During that time, the government also reined in a lot, and the money and industries earned by the people themselves, the government looked greedy, but they were not so eager to rob it.

More and more ordinary people began to do small business, and in Chuzhou County and Dawang Town, there are constantly people who have become big men from poor sticks because of business, and small business has become a big business. Even those who are not self-employed can earn much more money than farming by helping others, and live a much better life than before.

It was a very good time, and all kinds of phenomena that I had never seen before appeared like a drama*. Many things that the government didn't allow to do before, are now allowed to do. The foreign students in the city took the "Great Qing Constitution" to the countryside and told the peasants in the fields what they could about the "great rebellion." The peasants couldn't understand it, they were terrified to hear it, but they found it extremely exciting.

Although the period of more than ten years of the Restoration was short, the impact on the heads of the common people was very great. Shopkeeper Liu feels the deepest thing that the people around him no longer believe in "life" as before. Even the mud-legged people in the countryside who farm all day long, those who are the poorest and most miserable, their minds are alive. Looking at the self-made examples around them one after another, they all believe that as long as they are diligent and willing to work, they will not be poor for a lifetime, and they will have their own restaurants, shops, and even factories like that person.

During that time, the Qing Dynasty was indeed rich. There are so many roads, railways, bridges, and factories in the Qing Dynasty now, all of which were the foundation laid at that time.

However, at some point, all this slowly changed.

The local government finally couldn't resist the temptation and began to try to reach out to those private businesses, forcing partnerships, finding faults, confiscating them, and then either turning them into government-run ones or directly handing them over to their own children, relatives and friends to operate. At first, the victimized people also tried to go to court. Later, it was found that the "*" that "changed*" was simply an ornament, from the "Great Qing Constitution" downwards, it was all decoration.

People are finding that it is getting harder and harder to "start from scratch" like before. From the big factory to the small early shop, if you want to do a good job, hard work and hard work are no longer the most important things. Three hundred and sixty lines, no matter which line, as long as the government comes, the private competitors will soon be unable to do it. Soon, there was only one run by the children of the eunuchs in this area. Those things that are good and cheap are gradually no longer available. Instead, people have to spend more money and buy worse things.

The folk began to fall down, and a cylinder fell underneath.

Old Master Liu tilted his head, looked at the white parachute in the moonlight, looked at the falling things below, and still heard in his ears, "You collapsed!" …… You're collapsed! The cry. But this time, Lao Liu's tears suddenly burst out of his eyes, as if he had heard the lyrics for the first time. Somehow, my heart suddenly heated, and then a hot heat flowed all over my body, and my whole body trembled, as if I had been electrified.

The parachute fell to the ground. Lao Liu wiped a handful of tears and hurriedly ran over. Not bothering to check things first, he first copied a shovel from the sack and dug wildly in the ground. In less than an hour, the big pit was dug. He rolled his parachute into a ball and carefully buried it in the pit.

Then, with trembling hands, he opened the cylinder of the canvas and pulled out the same thing from it.

**, detonators, detonators, pistols, bullets, road nail wrenches......

Touching this thing one by one, Old Master Liu suddenly understood.

He suddenly understood what made his already numb heart full of warmth again, and what made him, a half-cut person, burst into tears again.

……

That is: hope.