The driver blew out the red paper lantern, and a crisp whip sounded in the night sky, and the cart shook and moved around.

Sitting in the dark shadow across from me was Gu Tong, an enthusiastic and easily excited person. The two of us came to Linyi to interview the deeds of the agricultural model worker, and the object was a disabled soldier and an excellent director of the agricultural cooperative. Just now we were sleeping soundly, and the shopkeeper woke us up and said that there was a big car back to Linyi that was "sharpening" here; We hurriedly got up and got into the car in a daze. The driver was very burly, and his face could not be seen clearly in the dark. He asked us where we came from, but we didn't speak again, and seemed to be a silent man.

The cart swayed out of the village.

Under the moonlight, clusters of black clouds poured from the top of Yimeng Mountain to the southeast, and the mountains under the clouds became inky black. The sound of the water of the Yi River is low and majestic, and villages near and far are hidden in the dark gray trees. On the Yizhou Road, there is a solemn scene.

Gu Tong looked around and said with emotion: "I haven't walked this road for ten years. Ten years ago, I met a man on this trail. There was a time when the man's burly, tall figure often appeared before my eyes, and his fiery gaze often burned and shook me. After entering the city, my life and interests gradually drifted away from my old habits, and his shadow gradually blurred, and I finally forgot about it. In the past two days, with the long-lost mountains, trees, rivers, and roads, his shadow has come alive in my eyes again, and I realized how undeserved it is to forget people like him! ”

In the past two days, I did feel that Gu Tong was a little strange. Who is he talking about? I couldn't help but ask him to continue.

The wind blew slowly, the driver lit a cigarette pouch, and the cart moved unhurriedly through the field.

"At the end of the summer of 1947, our column was ordered by General Chen Yi, who was now a marshal, to penetrate from Luzhong to the enemy in southern Lunan to strategically disrupt the enemy's key offensive. Chiang Kai-shek could not hold his breath anymore and ordered all the troops attacking the Yimeng Mountains from the south to turn back to deal with our small force, and the enemy's key attack was over. This is the famous outside attack, you should have heard of it! ”

"However, as soon as the enemy turned back, our small army was immediately in the position of being outnumbered on three sides, and we had only two more columns in total, and the enemy was several times more numerous than us! Commander Chen Yi ordered us to go west, all the way west, through the Jinpu Road, across the canal, to the Yangshan area of Yuncheng and join Liu Deng's army, which had just crossed the Yellow River. ”

"On the first day of westward expansion, this is the scenery that is even more fierce than this. Black clouds like gunpowder smoke were connected together, as if the entire Eryimeng Mountain had risen into the sky and pressed down from the northwest. The wind carried the sand, branches, and blades of grass on both sides of the Yi River, rolling across the Lunan Plain. We wrapped our faces in towels, opened a small opening in front of our eyes, walked a step or two to open our eyes to see the person in front of us, and then closed our ......"

"At night, the wind was light, and the heavy rain fell like the sea, and in a blink of an eye, the rain ran out of roads. The flashlight was ineffective, and the people who led the way relied on lightning to find the way. We untied the gaiters and connected them into a long rope from end to end, and everyone walked with the gaiters on. The Yimeng Mountain roared like a tiger roaring that we were the rearguard, and there were troops three or four miles away from us who were blocking the attack, but we couldn't even hear the gunshots. ”

"By dawn, we had only walked about twenty miles in total. The superior ordered a two-hour rest and divided shifts to cook. ”

"It's still raining. The instructor and the company commander went to check on the cooking of each class, and I was working as a clerk in the company, and I was fine, so I dozed off on a big rock on the side of the road. After a while, the correspondent brought me two teapots of boiled soybeans. I just leaned there and grabbed soybeans to eat. ”

At this time, from the way we came, a person walked unhurriedly. This man was a burly man, with a long face, high cheekbones, large eyes full of red silk, and a purple cloth gown, a grenade and a small dagger made of earth in his belt. His left arm was hanging from a straw rope on his chest, his entire sleeve was stained dark brown with blood, and his placket and trousers were covered in blood. The rain was running down his face. ”

"He walked up to me, looked at the bowl of soybeans, and said cheerfully, 'Comrade, can you give me some food?' ”

I handed him the teapot, and he sat down on the spot, holding it between his knees, and pulling it in his mouth, and in a few moments he ate it all. Putting down the teapot, he asked me, 'Do we have any medicine?' I haven't bandaged my arm yet. ’”

"I asked him which unit he belonged to, and he pulled out a wet upper wallet from his bosom, and from the wallet he pulled out a symbol and a certificate of demobilized soldiers. The symbol is printed with 'Linyi County Front Brigade No. 2 Squadron, Squadron Leader'. ”

"When he waited for me to understand, he added: 'Yesterday I was confused by the shells, and when I woke up at night, there was no one and no gunshots could be heard, and I was so anxious for a while. Later, I met a guide who sent the team back, and said that we had withdrawn westward, and I just caught up. ’”

"Our company's hygienist died a week ago. The shells shattered his cross bag, leaving only a bottle of red potion and an emergency bag in my purse. ”

"Although I have seen the wounded and the fallen comrades, I have never dared to look at their wounds, let alone apply medicine, so when I touch his hand, my whole body trembles. But his clothes were all soaked, and he was very tight with his body, and he had been doing it for a long time, and he hadn't rolled up his sleeves yet. He got impatient, drew his dagger with his right hand, picked the garment on his left shoulder, and with a vigorous pull, clicked, and tore his sleeve open, and then he took his left arm with his right hand and drenched it in the rain, and said, 'Come on.' ’”

"I poured the red potion on the hand towel and gently wiped it on him, and the towel was caught by a hard object. He tensed for a moment, pushed me away with all his might, looked at the wound with both eyes, pinched something with his two fingers, pulled it out with all his might, threw it into the mud, snatched the medicine bottle, poured it on the wound for a while, pressed the emergency kit to the bleeding place, wrapped it in a broken sleeve, and walked west without a sound. Leaves a pool of blood where he stood. ”

When I calmed down, I crouched down to find the piece he had thrown away, and saw that it was a piece of shrapnel the size of a broad bean. I didn't know what kind of mood I was in, so I picked it up, washed it in the heavy rain, wrapped it, and put it in my purse. ”

"We set off and caught up with him halfway through. The instructor interrogated him a few words, looked at his papers, and gave him the two silver dollars he had saved over the years, and told him to buy food on the way. His eyes flickered, he didn't say anything, and accepted it. ”

"In the evening, the rain became heavier, and the whole road turned the brigade in front of them into a puddle of mud, and when they stepped down, they sank to the thighs. The instructor said worriedly: 'Enough for that comrade to struggle tonight, I'm afraid he won't be able to keep up.' But in the middle of the night, he caught up with us again. ”

"The next day, during the day, the rain was a little lighter, and the next stop was a while, and the road was even more difficult. In some places, you have to wade through waist-deep water, and in some places it is hard and slippery, and it takes four or five people to walk with their arms on their shoulders so as not to fall one step at a time. But the comrade was still hanging his arm with a straw rope as he had done on the previous day, and he was dangling step by step in the water, and we drove him over on the way, and caught up again in the resting place. ”

"The wind blew that night. The northwest wind swept through our watery clothes, through our flesh and skin, and through our internal organs. Everyone huddled together and walked quickly. Before dawn, we caught up with him again on the road. The instructor said, 'Comrade, we are almost at the canal ahead, there is a white area on both sides of the canal, and the homecoming group is very rampant. At the next rest stop, we may be able to contact the regimental headquarters, and then we will send a stretcher to pick you up, but now we have a task on us and cannot help you. ’”

"He said: 'You have to carry out your mission, leave me alone, I have grenades, I have knives.' ”

"When I got to the next rest stop, I didn't contact the regimental headquarters, but I picked up a mule. Along the way, we met many of these animals, mules, horses, and donkeys. Some of them were carrying saddles and even whole gun mounts, as if they had taken root in the muddy water, and their legs were straight and stiff. You hit it, you pull it, you poke it with a bayonet, and it doesn't move. It is said that it is tired of walking, so tired that it loses consciousness, and until it recovers, it will not move until it is killed; The troops were in a hurry, and when they could not recover, they had to throw them away or kill them. We didn't push this mule a few times, and we didn't plan to ask for it again, but when we walked out more than ten meters, it caught up with it by itself. After feeding it some grass at the rest stop, the instructor ordered me to wait for the comrade with him, and told me to march to catch up with him as soon as I waited for him. Before leaving, he handed me his Canadian pistol. ”

"I pulled the mule and found a tree to sit down, and before I knew it, I fell asleep. Falling asleep, I was awakened by a burst of machine gunfire. Scared, what a poisonous sun! There was no cloud in the sky. Four Mustang planes swooped over the open ground to the east, sending out a series of fires and bursts of gunfire. There was a man on the ground. One moment he fell, the next he jumped up and ran this way, and when I saw it, it was the comrade. I stood up and shouted, 'Run, I'll be waiting for you!' ’”

When he saw me, he was stunned for a moment, and then he fell down again, but this time he didn't get up again for a long time. I thought, 'Oh no, he's not going to hang up again!' ’”

"The plane shot over his head for a long time, and then circled for a week, and whirred, and flew west."

"He hasn't gotten up yet. I tied the mule to the branch and ran over to see him. As soon as he ran two steps under the tree, I heard him shout, 'Don't move, the plane has to come back.' ’”

"Sure enough, as soon as the words were gone, a Mustang plane swept behind me, swirled around the open ground again, and then flew away."

After the sound of the plane died down, he walked over with muddy water.

I said, 'That scared me out just now.'" ’

He said, 'I wanted to run into the village and hide myself, but when I saw you here, I changed my mind, and I was afraid that I would expose you too.' ’

"I broke some branches, disguised both of us and the mule, and helped him to ride the cattle. It was then that I saw that the first time he met me, he was a completely different person, his eyes and cheeks were deeply sunken, his face was sallow, his lips were burnt, and the hand he was hanging on had turned black and purple......"

"Planes were raging in the sky, and the sound of bombing was constantly sounding in the front, left, and right, and white smoke was rising from more than a dozen places near and far, and the wind smelled of burning. We also saw heavy bombs flying from strings of parachutes slowly falling in the distance, and we saw the light of fire. ”

"The goal of the mule is big, and we can only walk in the green gauze tent. The sun hung like a pot of fire, scorching people's whole body, the rain on their clothes changed sweat, and the mud on the ground was still so soft and deep, but it was so hot that it burned your feet. The air seemed to be condensed, hot and sticky, and my breath burned my throat. I only felt dizzy, dizzy, weak feet, and weakness. Looking back at him, he was still the same, riding on the animal and calmly. ”

"I was about to pick up my mule and walk quickly on a good road, when I heard a grunt behind me, and when I looked back, he fell to the ground. I hurriedly went over to help him, only to see that his face was full of nervousness, his eyes were closed, his teeth were clenched, and he was still awake! ”

"I was so anxious that I turned around for a long time before I remembered that it was about heat stroke, so I ran away to find water. Where did the well come from? I had to take a handkerchief to the road and dip it in the muddy water in the horseshoe pit, hold it back and squeeze it on his head and mouth, and so on and so on I don't know how many times. At this moment, it was extremely quiet, and there seemed to be a faint sound oscillating in the air. I was suddenly scared, there were no troops around us, what should we do if we encountered the enemy? ”

Finally, he opened his eyes. He first looked at me blankly, looked around, then smiled wryly, and supported the ground with his right hand to get up. I said, 'Don't be busy, you can rest first!' Before this sentence could be heard, I listened to the two swishing shots above my head, and hurriedly looked around, and it was terrible, there were more than a dozen people in civilian clothes running towards us fifty meters away, holding guns, shouting: 'Catch you alive, let's turn over guns on the dirt road, you can't run!' ’”

"He jumped up at once, reached out and pulled the pistol from my belt, put it in the crook of his left arm, drew his dagger in his right hand, and shouted: 'Quick, mount!' ”

"I said, 'You go first!' ”

"He said, 'Go up and pull me!' ”

"I put my hands on the mule's back, and I jumped up, and as soon as I got over one leg, the mule, like madness, screamed, and ran away. I shouted 'Stop,' I shouted 'Phew,' I pulled the reins, I pulled my mane, and I couldn't slow it down. ”

"The explosion of a grenade was heard from behind. My heart tightened, and I barely looked back, only to realize that I had run far away, and behind me was a green gauze tent, and I couldn't recognize the place where the accident had just happened. ”

"After running for a while, and seeing our company, I cried out: 'Stop, stop, this mule is startled.'" ”

"Everyone raised their hands and stopped the road, shouting, 'Phew, hoo!' The mule spun in circles, fell down, and threw me off my back. When I got back to it, I saw the dagger stuck deep in its buttocks, and my nose was sore and my eyes were blurred with tears. ”

"The instructor looked at me, then at the dagger, clenched his fists and shouted, 'Stand up!' ”

"We stood up, and he turned to the east, took off his hat and shouted: 'Silence!' ”

"The silence is over, and we move on, but I never believe that he will die, such a person is not easy to die......"

Speaking of this, Gu Tong let out a long sigh and fell silent. I don't want to talk either. The driver coughed twice and lit a bag of cigarettes.

It was overcast, and darkness covered everything. Only the firework of the charioteer, with occasional flashes of red light, illuminated the swaying horse and his own burly silhouette.

"It's a pity that I don't know what district he is from, and I don't remember his name, otherwise, I can inquire this time." Gu Tong was silent for a moment, and then sighed: "Don't ask, if I really find out that he is still alive, I really don't have the courage to see him like now, I haven't made rapid progress over the years!" ”

A few rooster crows could be heard in the distance. Dawn crept, crept in behind the rain. The road was sparsely lined with white walls and blue bushes. The west side of the Yi River is silvery white, and it is impossible to tell which is the water and which is the beach. When it rains, it's the kind of quiet, warm rain that falls on the ground without even a sound.

At the fork in the road, the car stopped. The driver said, "I'm going to get off the road, and when I enter the city, I'll follow the road, and there are still three miles to go." ”

We jumped out of the car with gratitude. The driver coughed and said in a dull voice: "The person you said is not dead, now Chen Jiahouzhuang is the director of the agricultural society, and his name is Chen Baotian." ”

"Chen Baotian!" I exclaimed, "We're going to visit Chen Baotian!" ”

Gu Tong asked, "How do you know?" ”

The driver laughed: "How did I not know? ”

Gu Tong looked at it fixedly and was stunned. I was stunned too, didn't I, with a long face, high cheekbones, big eyes, and an empty sleeve on the left......

1957