The Chishui River flows along the southern edge of the Sichuan Basin and meanders into the Yangtze River.

Fifty kilometers on the west bank of the Chishui River, there is a mountain peak, called Liantian Mountain, the bamboo forest is dense on the mountain, a mountain stream flows through from the foot of the mountain, on the mountainside on both sides of the valley, there are sheep intestine trails all over, the horse gangs in the area of Bijie in northern Qianbei, Zhenxiong in Yunnan, and Weixin want to enter Sichuan, all take this shortcut. Even Hu Guiquan, a big landowner, lives on the Tianshan Mountain, and 100 families in the vicinity all make a living by renting the Hu family's fields and cutting and releasing materials in the Hu family's bamboo yard. The poor mountain people are oppressed by corrupt officials, bandits, bullies, and landlords, and their lives are like bitter bamboos on this mountain.

At that time, it was the beginning of the establishment of the Republic of China, and the yamen at all levels had just changed their names to ** or public offices, and their strength was still in the hands of the warlords in each place, and the warlords were still busy fighting everywhere for territory, and no one cared about the life or death of the people, and of course no one cared about it - someone took care of it when it was time to collect rents and donations.

Some people say that "hell is empty, but the devil is on earth", which is not an exaggeration to describe the situation of that era. At that time, the Qing Dynasty officials and soldiers in various places had just changed into new uniforms and uniforms, and became members of the national revolutionary ranks. Although the Republic of China knows this situation, but they have no strength, the success of the revolution can only rely on the support and support of these original Qing Dynasty officials, and the Qing Dynasty officials around the country, at this time also see that the Qing Dynasty edifice will fall, the revolution is the general trend, they also have the knowledge of the times for Junjie, some of the first rat at both ends of the opportunity to do, send a declaration of independence or support for the Republic of China ** telegram notice to the whole country, and so on to the provinces of the country have become independent, the Qing Dynasty Xuantong Emperor had to announce his abdication, the national revolution was successful. So in a kind of banter, this kind of success is a joke. Without the financial appropriations of the Qing Dynasty and the restrictions of the imperial program, these officials who became warlords were even more unscrupulous, expropriating and extorting money in their garrison areas, and doing whatever they wanted. The environment in which the people of a place live depends on whether the warlords of the place are good or evil, evil or good, whether they have the intention to protect the people or take advantage of the high emperor to make a fortune.

But in that era of frequent wars and lawlessness, how many local heroes and powerful people were able to insist on kindness and think about the people? If there are devils all around, how can a kind person survive?

At that time, there were many warlord regimes in various places, and the speed of change was also jaw-dropping: Today you beat me, tomorrow I will fight him; today I have just finished dividing the north and the south, and tomorrow I will divide it directly into Anhui and Feng; you are called Cao Dashuai, and he is called Lu Overseer. But no matter how you call and change, it's just a farce to coax you to sing and stop me from appearing.

According to various historical materials and modern literary works, the number of taxes during the Republic of China is strange, and it can be said that it is unprecedented: in some places, those who farm and cultivate land have to pay about seventy percent of the tax; those who buy sickles, hoes and other agricultural tools at home must also pay purchase tax; slaughter and livestock slaughter tax; marry a daughter-in-law and have a child; go to Linxian County to have a relative, and pay road donations; there are also regimental defense donations and national defense expenses, and once there is a war nearby, there are revolutionary donations, transportation expenses, military errand expenses, as well as tobacco donations, new seedling donations, Holiday donations blah blah

In one place, even the people have to pay the latrine tax if they have a latrine at home, and the amount of the tax depends on the size and depth of the thatched pit, because since they can afford to dig the thatched pit, it means that the family is solid, and they should comfort the officials at all levels, and the thatched pit used to temporarily store excrement is dug on the public land, so it is natural to pay a storage fee. As a result, some literati sighed at that time: "Since ancient times, I have never heard of a tax on dung, and now there is only fart and no donation."

The time limit for tax donation is also eye-popping, there are ten, twenty, and fifty years in advance, and in the famous director Jiang Wen's movie "Let the Bullets Fly", there has also been a place where the tax has been received in the Western calendar in 2010. In 1981, in the early days of reform and opening up after the founding of New China, in a mountain village in Guizhou, an old peasant came to the People's Commune to renew the payment of public grain with a voucher that had been paid in advance for 70 years of land tax in the Republic of China. This old peasant lived in a relatively remote and isolated place, and the land reform and the people's commune system in New China accidentally left him out, and he remembered the time - the Republic of China was established in 1911, and since his land tax was paid to the Republic of China for 70 years, then in 1981, he should have paid the field tax in ** - but he didn't know that the Republic of China had ceased to exist in 1949, and his taxes for the next 32 years were paid in vain.

Many poor peasants are simply unable to farm and work, because in the year when the wind and rain are good, they can barely have three months of rations left after excluding taxes, and if they encounter a disaster year, they will not be able to harvest a grain after a year of hard work, and they also owe the landlord a tax on the harvest of seven cents for no reason—— which is calculated according to the best time of the harvest - this is really annoying, but there is nowhere to reason. The officials and lords who collect donations and taxes will not be merciful, they cannot pay the taxes, the land will be confiscated, and you will have to go around begging with hunger to pay off the debts you owe! When you finally collect the taxes and return to your hometown, you will be sorry, and the taxes you owe have already become a harvest of one acre and six cents of land!

It was an era of eating people and not spitting out bones, how many poor people were starved to death and tortured to death in that era, but Hu Guiquan made a fortune in this era, he relied on his family to have a big business, and a young daughter married Guo Xunqi, an important general in the Sichuan army, as a little wife. The warlords were happy to give up this remote area to some landlords and old fortunes to govern, because collecting rent from poor ghosts was far less convenient and quick than collecting rent from an interesting landlord. The warlords will ask the landlord for two cents of the tax, as a reward for their management and jurisdiction, in exchange, in the future, this place will be held by the landlord and the old wealth, as for how many projects you set up against the poor ghosts, how much tax you charge, who cares about you?

Later, a soldier of the Red Army who came here on the Long March saw the living conditions of the people here, and once wrote a limerick poem "Little Thatched House", which was widely circulated in the army, recording the scene at that time, and the poem was written as follows:

small huts,

low hut,

Bow your head at the entrance,

It's hard to stretch your feet when you sleep,

The wind is ready to fly,

The rain came and filled the house.

The weeds in front of the door,

The barren mountains behind the house reveal white bones!

There is nothing left around the house,

At dusk, I heard the child crying.

Gather around the small stove in the cold winter,

The flame often burns the skin of children,

The thatched house beams are less packed with grain,

The family has no pants in the lower body.

Brother is displaced, father and mother die,

Selling children and girls is not enough!

This year, the sky is low and dark, and the clouds are dense on the Tianshan Mountain, as if a heavy rain is about to fall, and the Hu family compound, which is located in the middle of the mountain, looks more and more gloomy and gloomy.

This is a typical wealthy compound in southern Sichuan. Look at the north of the mountain from afar, get the spirit of the king; see closely, there are high walls and green bamboo arch guards, there are two watchtowers on the left and right sides, more than 10 security guards are stationed in shifts; three archways at the head of the door, finely carved, on the main gate, a pair of couplets are engraved with seal characters, the upper link is: poetry and books are passed down to all generations; the lower link is: the rites and music govern the thousand autumns; the horizontal batch is: the origin of the family style.

The door enters, is a rectangular patio, there is a bamboo screen behind the patio, on which a picture of Xishan Yayuan is painted, on the left wall behind the screen is a red sandalwood Taishi chair, there is a person sitting upright, wearing a felt hat, purple and black skin, a slight beard on the chin, about 50 years old, a little obese, at this time is holding a bowl of green tea in front of the Ming Dynasty, holding the bowl lid in one hand, drinking slowly, his hand holding the bowl cover, only three fingers.

Behind him stood a man with a solemn face and an unfathomable look, looking at the sitting man with his eyes half-open.

These two people are Hu Guiquan, the lord of the Hu family's compound, and his security captain Lei Degui.

Yesterday, Wang Lingji, the brigade commander stationed in Syria, sent a letter to Hu Guiquan, saying that the war against bandits in northern Sichuan was tense, and in order to prevent the bandits from attacking and harassing from the south, he specially ordered all prefectures and counties to strengthen their city defenses and strengthen official affairs.

Hu Guiquan swallowed a small sip of tea, and viciously squeezed out a few words from between his teeth: "There must be no mistake, okay, good." ”

Lei Degui's eyes flashed, and then he returned to his half-squinted and half-open appearance, and he slowly answered: "There are more than 100 townships in ten counties and towns in Xuzhou Prefecture, and bamboo forests and mountains are everywhere. He Wang Lingji was reluctant to seek the near and far, and asked me to send a million yards of bamboo material to Tianshan, which really didn't give Brigade Commander Guo face. ”

Wang Lingji and Guo Xunqi are both brigade commanders of the Sichuan Army, although Hu Guiquan is half of Guo Xunqi's father-in-law, but even Han'an County, where the Tianshan Mountains are located, is under the jurisdiction of Wang Lingji, and Guo Xunqi's station is in Zigong. In the past, the magistrate of Han'an County rarely came to bother Hu Guiquan for the sake of Guo Xunqi's face, but this time, it was Wang Lingji who personally sent him an official letter.

Hu Guiquan still said word by word: "He Wang Lingji has been a celebrity in front of Chairman Liu in the provincial city recently, and now Xun Qi is busy with war in northern Sichuan, and he can't afford to be distracted. ”

Lei Degui was originally a captain and company commander under Guo Xunqi, Guo Xunqi ordered him to assist in the defense and garrison of Liantian Mountain, it has been almost ten years, he has long disliked the poor and remote land here, and he can't show his hands and feet, but he can't find a chance to leave, at this time, seeing Wang Lingji dare to go to Liantian Mountain to collect materials, he always hopes that this is an opportunity - maybe once Guo Xunqi and Wang Lingji fall out, he will take the initiative to ask for help when Guo Xunqi is just employing people, maybe he will have a chance to leave here.

He wasted no time in smiling contemptuously and said: "In my opinion, we can't lose this breath and let him ride on our necks, besides, this Dragon Boat Festival is approaching, and a million yards of bamboo material are too late." ”

In the southern part of Sichuan, bamboo is a native economic forest, since ancient times, there is a custom of cutting bamboo as a building material and papermaking, bamboo is calculated with yards as a unit, a yard is about equal to one meter, a bamboo is about five meters, and a million yards of bamboo will have about more than 200,000 roots.

A worker can cut 100 bamboos a day, there were originally 60 or 70 tenants on the mountain who worked to pay off their debts, plus 20 short-term workers hired in the spring, a total of less than 100 people, now less than a month away from the Dragon Boat Festival, even if it is full, it is very tight, Hu Guiquan put the tea bowl on the coffee table with a bang, and said: "Where did these short-term workers hired in February come from, one by one they ate more and worked less......

"I heard that Hu Zhong found it from Lu County, and some outsiders don't know the roots, who knows whether they are new or familiar. Lei Degui said, "Why don't I talk to Hu Zhong again and ask him to call those guys from Ximen Wine Cellar over to help?"

"The wine cellar has to be inseparable from people, it's going to be a festival soon, if you want to use wine, you have to let them step up, and the bamboo material is here, don't add people, so let's take people to Toad Stone to think of a way, the bamboo forest over there is dense. ”

Lei Degui was stunned: "Toad stone?"

"What's wrong?" Hu Guiquan asked him rhetorically.

Originally, even the south of the Tianshan Mountains is steep and abnormal, along the foot of the mountain a good big canyon, the bottom of the canyon is a flood channel, it is the rainy season now, the mountain torrent in the river is turbulent, the rocks stand in a forest, there are two pieces of toad stone looming under the water, the mountain has always used bamboo, all of them are cut in the north, and then along the gentle slope of the north side the bamboo is picked down by hand, although there are many bamboos on the cliff in the south, but below is a canyon that no one dares to wade, there is almost no way to do, so no one has ever hit the idea of the bamboo forest under the south cliff.

At this time, hearing Hu Guiquan say the three words of toad stone, Lei Degui said: "If you want to transport bamboo materials from toad stone by water, it is not something that ordinary people can take down, but I am afraid that it will kill people." ”

Hu Guiquan knocked on the table and said: "I know this, isn't there no way! At the moment, we can't have a bad relationship with Wang Lingji, and besides, things are man-made, and it doesn't necessarily have to be dead! You will gather people tomorrow and go to the south to have a look." Lei Degui didn't answer anymore, and Hu Guiquan said again: "By the way, isn't there a platoon worker named Li Lei, isn't he very powerful? Be sure to transport the bamboo down from the toad stone. ”

Discharge – A special water transportation mode in the bamboo-producing area, select about 20 bamboos to make a bamboo raft, the thick end of the bamboo makes the raft head high, the thin end makes the raft tail to spread the water surface, and the other cut down bamboo is bundled, each bundle is about 100, the bundle is tied tightly with a bamboo rope, placed on the bamboo raft, the person who puts the row holds a long bamboo pole, stands steadily on the first bamboo row, meets the river turn, the row worker uses the bamboo pole to support it far away, the bamboo row goes down the direction, encounters the river and has debris blocking, it is picked up with the bamboo pole, the bamboo row point is corrected, in order to smoothly transport the bamboo to the destination, if there is no row worker on the top to control the direction, it will not take much far, the bamboo row will be washed to the shore, hit the reef, stranding or a trivial matter, the water is turbulent place, the bamboo row will be washed by the water will fall apart, into a mess, scattered bamboo will float away all over the river, a day's busy work is in vain.

The number of a discharge depends on the technical proficiency of the discharge workers, but also depends on whether the river is gentle and straight, whether there are water waves, whether the bottom of the water is deep enough, whether there is a reef, a good discharge worker in the straight river, can go down 20 bamboo rows at a time, from a distance to see a series of bamboo rows like a smart dragon, down the river, the discharge workers stand at the forefront of the legs, step on the ground, shout the labor trumpet on the mouth, swaying down, the momentum is particularly spectacular.

Encountering the uneven valley stream of the riverbed, the bamboo row is an extremely dangerous operation, under the interference of the rapid water flow and the underwater whirlpool, it is difficult for the discharge worker to control the direction of the bamboo row, and the slightest carelessness is the destruction of the bamboo.

The residents of the Tianshan Mountains don't remember how long no one dared to let go of the bamboo raft in this canyon at the foot of the South Valley, and I heard the older generation say that the two toad stones lying at the bottom of the water in the canyon are the ghost gates, not to mention the bamboo rafts, that is, the fishermen who fish and catch shrimp, do not dare to go into the water in that place. On this day, the housekeeper Hu Zhong ordered everyone to come to Shannan to cut bamboo, and everyone muttered in their hearts. At noon, everyone put the bamboo cut in the morning on the edge of the canyon one by one, and no one could make up their minds.

I saw a small sedan chair under the mountain, carried by two people, Hu Zhong opened the way in front, Lei Degui wore sunglasses and walked behind, walked in front of everyone leisurely, coughed, Hu Zhong lifted the bamboo curtain on the sedan chair, and Hu Gui got down from the sedan chair calmly.

Hu Zhong cleared his throat and spoke: "Folks, after receiving the notice from Shangfeng, we are required to cut millions of yards of bamboo before the Dragon Boat Festival, the construction period is tight, and the bamboo in Beishan is not enough, the lord ordered us to go to Nanshan to cut down, the lord said, the muddy stream is rising, just put the row, if anyone has the ability to release the bamboo raft from the Nixi River and dock at Yupingdu, they will be given double wages! If they can't let it go, they are not allowed to eat! The land rent in the coming year will rise by another eight percent!"

More than 70 tenants were in an uproar, and more than 20 short-term workers also smacked their tongues when they saw the strange rocky valley, Hu Guiquan waited for a while, became impatient, and gave Hu Zhong a look, Hu Zhong took a pear stick, and beat them one by one: "Hurry up, hurry up, give me the water!"

I don't know who shouted, everyone followed the commotion, rolled up their sleeves one by one, and rubbed their hands: "Why are you beating people!", "Isn't it our lives to go into the water from here?"

"Do you want to rebel?" Hu Zhong waved the pear stick violently, "If the construction period is delayed, who of you can afford to raise soldiers for a thousand days, and use soldiers for a while, it is not that the master protects you on weekdays, where do you settle down? You usually eat the Hu family's use of the Hu family, but now there is a difficulty in the mountains, so you stay out of the matter, try to ask if you know how to repay your kindness, is it the truth of being a man? Those who can go into the water will go into the water, and those who can't go into the water will pay off the debts owed to the master, and if you don't keep the master here, find another place to stay with the master, and get out of the way for Lao Tzu!"

The poor are always good at silence, the kind poor people neither know how to refute Hu Zhong's words, nor can they find any flaws in his words, they do not have the eloquence of Hu Steward, nor the knowledge of Hu Steward, as soon as Hu Steward's envy and power of this call is said, everyone will slowly fall silent, for a long time, everyone seems to be accustomed to this kind of silence, not to say clearly, not to say, first with a shy face, into the eyes of the old man Diao Min, some satisfied against the Hu Steward's scolding, and then listen to the serious teaching, until someone breaks the silence again, into the next round of work day after day。

This time, as usual, some people have begun to laugh at themselves, and some people are also muttering silently in their hearts, most of the tenants still owe the rent of the Hu family, if they don't work to pay off their debts, they can't go, even if they leave, where will they go to make a living?

The two short-term workers were eager to try, and finally they went into the water to tie up the bamboo rafts in the eyes of everyone's contempt and appreciation, and before they were out of everyone's sight, they were knocked over by the stream by the turbid waves, and their foreheads were colored.

Someone in the crowd whispered schadenfreude: soft bones! There are also people who generally pull short-term workers ashore, clean up the river, point fingers, and devote themselves to the maintenance of on-site order.

Li Lei was also forced to go into the water under the coercion of Hu Zhong, he inspected along the Jiang'an, remembered all the turns, whirlpools, reefs, and stranded places, removed five bamboos on the outside of the bamboo raft, tightened the strips again, and made a live connection in a slippery way, and the bamboo raft went down the river, and after several twists and turns, it successfully landed at the Yuping Ferry Wharf.

With the successful case, Hu Zhong seemed to be greatly encouraged, waving pear sticks with his teeth and claws, and coaxing and pushing the ground to encourage everyone to go into the water, there are too many bamboos to be transported, and one person is not enough to transport them, at least five or six people must be put into the row.

When he struck a young man of seventeen or eighteen years old in the group of day laborers, the man quietly reached out and grasped the head of the stick firmly. For so many years, no one has ever dared to reach out and grab his stick, let alone catch it! Even if he blocked it with his hand, Hu Zhong would reward him with a few more sticks, until the other party was completely instigated, and Hu Guiquan and Hu Zhong both knew! This kind of atmosphere cannot be connived up! The garlic that rises must be severely punished.

Hu Zhong looked at this person in an incredible tone: "Ah, this is a bold one! Amazing! What's the matter? Are you itching your skin?"

The young man remained silent, staring at him for five seconds before looking away. When this young man first stared at him, everyone was sweating in their hearts, Hu Zhong still felt a sigh in his heart, and even for a moment, he felt that his legs were weak, and he was ready to run away in his shallow consciousness, he couldn't tell what was in the other party's eyes to deter him, but when he looked away, he immediately regained his courage, and immediately realized that this person dared to grab his stick in public, what a humiliation for him, and what an intolerable beginning for the Hu family, even Hu Guiquan stopped sucking the smoking gun and looked at it all sideways。 Only Lei Degui was still standing quietly behind Hu Gui's body, with a box gun hanging from his waist!

The danger of the toad stone, this young man knows. When he was nine years old, there was a locust plague, there was no harvest in the field, and many villagers could not pay the rent, so he was forced by Hu Guiquan, some people worked as coolies on his mountain, some people only had grass huts and livestock that Hu Guiquan used to pay off their debts, and some were forced to go away to beg for a living.

At that time, Wang Xinghui didn't have a name at all, so he only got a nickname called Wang Erwa, and Wang Erwa's experience was as old-fashioned as an old-fashioned drama. His sister was taken by Hu Guiquan, an old dog, and said that she was forced to marry by a strong matchmaker, but in fact she wanted her to sell herself to pay off her debts, but her sister did not comply, Hu Guiquan sent someone to arrest her to Hu's mansion and forcibly raped her, and she committed suicide by jumping off the cliff from the top of Liantian Mountain in a fit of anger.

Wang Erwa touched a firewood knife on the night of his sister's suicide, climbed into the Hu family's compound while the moon was dark and the wind was high, quietly drilled the dog hole and slipped into Hu Guiquan's bedroom, and raised the firewood knife to the sleeping enemy, not wanting to step on the footbath in front of the bed, and woke up Hu Guiquan, Hu Guiquan used his right hand to make a gear, and two fingers fell to the ground. When Wang Erwa was about to cut again, he had already been kicked by the tall Hu Guiquan at the door, and the shouting in the yard woke up the security team. The security team played lanterns, led the wolf dogs, chased all the way, Wang Erwa panicked, fled to the edge of a cliff, there was no way out, he saw a sharpened face, glaring at him viciously, his eyes flashed, like a hungry wolf......

Wang Erwa clearly remembered the feeling he felt at the moment he fell, he felt that his consciousness ran out of his body at once, like a leaf, like a dispensable grain of dust, carried by the wind, nowhere to place, so small that it would take so long to even hit the ground, he quietly closed his eyes, waiting to watch his head smash into the rock, smashing out a thousand plum blossoms, he knew that only at that moment did he return to the truth, back to his body.

The layers of bamboo forests in Nanshan blocked his falling power, and the broken bamboo strips pulled a long opening on his arm, as if pulling him to rush to his arms at an accelerated pace, he was like riding a roller coaster, when he lay down smoothly and steadily into the ground covered with bamboo leaves, he felt the warmth of the earth for the first time!

More than ten years later, Wang Erwa never imagined that he would stand in front of the bamboo forest that caught him like a mother's embrace, he motionless let the face in front of him hit himself with a pear stick, he gently looked away, he was afraid that he would not be able to hold back his tears, this little pain in front of him was nothing, the sharpened face in front of him, he didn't need to use a tight gaze to confirm, but through the eyelids he could remember, this is the one that shot him that day.

That day he heard the barking of the dog, heard the sound of bamboo leaves falling in his ears and shooting stars streaking across the sky, he sat up slowly, blood came out of his waist, and after that he kept running, and kept running, and the bamboo sticks seemed to pierce the soles of his feet, and there were waves crashing against the reef, and there were people on horseback running by, and some people looked at him in panic, and after that, he lost consciousness......

For more than ten years, he has never returned to Liantianshan, because he got the exact news, his father was also beaten to death by the Hu family, since then, he changed his current name, started a new life, he met a lot of people with the same fate as him, and he was no longer lonely. Although his hatred has not died, he has no longer become so impatient, no longer like the boy who carried a firewood knife in his eyes like a dying dog ten years ago. So at this moment, when he faced this face engraved on his heart, his eyes were as calm as water, there was no anger, and there was no flickering of his eyes, so that Hu Guiquan and Lei Degui didn't even realize that the sturdy young man in front of him was the poor boy who fell from the back mountain ten years ago.

That is what makes Wang Xinghui's vision as deep as an endless abyss? That is by no means a disguise, he is not good at disguise, by the way, it should be an incomparably firm belief, because he understands that a person's hatred is actually insignificant; the pain of many people is the pain, and in his heart, his enemies are not just one Hu Guiquan and Hu Zhong, but thousands of Zhang Guiquan and Li Guiquan, Zhang Zhong, Li Zhong and this world full of devils.

......