Chapter 15 Chapter fifteen

In June of the 35th year of the Republic of China, eight people captured Taixing City, an important stronghold of the old central government on the north bank of the Yangtze River, by the Zhibo River.At the beginning of August, an elite army under the command of General Zhang Lingfu went north from Liuhetianchang, passed through the marshland, like a flash that tore through the night, and conquered the county where the Grand Canal and Zhangfu River crossed their arms. In the spring of the second year, a strange visitor came to the small shop of Shi Da, an old peddler.Outside Dongguan, spring rain was falling on the narrow cobblestone street. The man was holding an oil-paper umbrella, looking at the signboard as if looking for something.The rain shrouded in mist, and there were thin silver threads on the water surface in the recess of the stone slab.The man stopped at the door of the small shop, and through the raindrops under the eaves, he said to the gray counter: "Is there a shopkeeper, Daddy Shi, who still lives here?"

A haggard gray civet cat jumped off the counter board, meowed twice, dragged its trembling tail, and slipped away against the wall.No one answered his words, the raindrops under the eaves hit the edge of the umbrella, and there was a sound of rolling beans.The man hesitated in the bone-chilling cold.A donkey carrying visitors from the North stepped across the puddles in the street, and the sound of hooves on the stone slabs broke the silence of the narrow street. A white face of a woman with disheveled hair appeared behind the cloth curtain, holding a broken fan in her hand.Who are you looking for?she said hoarsely.There was the sound of a baby crying behind the curtain.

I want to inquire about the old Shi old man from earlier Oh, the woman looked at the dusty shop uneasily, with attention in her voice: please come in, he is behind, he is very sick The man came in.As soon as the oil-paper umbrella was put away, the light from the umbrella disappeared, and the shop became even darker. The cold air of early spring seemed to be glued to the rain-stained wall.The woman hastily cleaned a round stool with her sleeves, and the man was still standing. He was very ill, and the woman said: I am making medicine for him. My surname is Xia, and the man said: I sent a letter home the year before last.The trustee first sent it to Father Shi and transferred it.He ran the most frequently in the swamp.

The woman leaned on the corner of the hall door: Are you Uncle Xia from Qingshi House? Yes, yes, I am Xia Futang.I just got back from the south.Xia Futang carefully looked at the woman opposite him in amazement: In the provincial capital, someone told me that Zedi had suffered a fire before it was recovered, and also mentioned Wu Dazhuang and Waihu Lai'er, saying that it was General Zhang Lingfu who sent people to search for his bones. Bluestone House is over.The woman said calmly, full of sorrow, as if she was talking about something far away: the old fairy died in the plague.Grandma Xia was the Tuna Hui Qingxiang who entered Qingxiang after the ghost cleared her hometown, and Er Ye Xia died at the hands of the devil.

The swamp is over, too, I know.Xia Futang looked back at the rain and the gloomy sky outside the door: During the years of the Anti-Japanese War, I have traveled through many provinces, and I have never lost sight of the fire. I never thought that the Zedi would be destroyed after the surrender of the devils. If the Zedi people did not want to live, they would survive six seven years?No matter what, if people go abroad, they will always come back. I plan to see Father Shi, and then go back to the swamp. Who are you talking to, Yinhua. I.Xia Futang rushed over to pick up the curtain: I am Futang from Qingshiwu.

The space in the suite is narrower, and a dark green is poured in towards the window of the small courtyard, and the phantom light with water patterns flows around the wall, illuminating the old peddler's face.He strenuously half propped up his body, leaning his head against the wooden wall behind the couch. Six or seven years had worn away his face, his eye sockets were deeply sunken, two black holes appeared on his cheeks, and a piece of wrinkled skin covered his face. It's a bone. Young master Xia Xia? !The old peddler suddenly cheered up, stretched out his shriveled hand like a chicken paw, as if catching something in the air: I hope you come back, I have been looking forward to it for a long time, and I never thought I could see you before I die? !Zedi has been burned since then, and you are the only man left.You are a well-educated person, so you should know what ghosts and evil spirits the eight roads are? !The Chinese with one nose and two eyes are more vicious than devils, and they have caused so much misery to the common people all over the world

Xia Futang walked over and grabbed those hands: Don't be sad, father. Tears dripped from the old peddler's eye sockets: I'm not sorry if they leave someone alive, the crooked man won't die in Wu Dazhuang, and Zedi won't be on fire like that!Eight roads have been trapped in the county for a whole year, the east pier, the west school yard, killing people is like slaughtering pigs and cattle, I often think that I have seen everything, only this, I can't figure it out? Xia Futang pondered, he couldn't use theory to analyze or criticize the dying old man in front of him.Some people have lost their minds, and they said: They want to use arsenic to cure all diseases.The Eight Routes want people to believe in communism, and in the end, they will be credited together, so that he can stand on the throne.This is like the flat-headed Guandong Han in the story of Hongze Lake. He didn't believe in gods or respect heaven. Lead on the road.

My God, the old peddler said: When will this catastrophe be over? ! It will always pass.Xia Futang said: These evil spirits cannot be suppressed with a gun. If everyone pulls out the evil roots in their hearts, their demon fire will not be able to burn.The old Central Committee bears the debt of conscience, and those demons bear the debt of human blood!One day, the fire will not only burn in the swamp, it will burn everywhere!You can't see the real fire of the magic fire, but you have already seen the real fire of Zedi! Yinhua carried the child on her back and came over to hold the lamp, Xia Futang felt that it was getting late.In the small courtyard outside the window, there are some thousand-leaf grasses raised in broken earthen pots and broken iron buckets, evergreens, which make the rainwater wash green. Decades ago, he went to elementary school in the county town and often went to the shop of the old peddler. Come on, the small courtyard at that time was exactly like this. Could the fire burn the swamp to ashes?Two springs passed after the fire.

Don't you know her?The old peddler said wearily: The wealthy daughter of the Orion, the daughter-in-law of the old lame man of the Fire God Temple.When the swamp caught fire, she escaped from the fire and lived here, scavenging waste, thinking about going back to the swamp all day long, a miserable person with no one to rely on, her mother-in-law died, only one Do you want her to go back to eat that wasteland after grabbing the big posthumous child?When I fell ill and had no one to take care of me, she agreed to stay.In the summer, my illness is hopeless, my business has stopped, I have no income, and my oil cup is dry, how can I cook it?

It's all on me.Xia Futang said: I will send you to the hospital tomorrow morning, and Yinhua will go back to the marsh, so it is best to go back with me.After the fire is over, the fields are still alive, and some people can live if they have mouths.Now the world is broken in the hands of those lunatics. This faction, that department, each has its own reasons, each has its own doctrine, regardless of whether the old people want it or not, they forcefully apportion it on the head of the people.Even if the truth is right and the doctrine is good, it has to be presented for people to see and be convinced. It is still empty if you can't touch the tip of your nose with sugar. .Really, Dad, I work in the central government, and every salary and salary is the blood and sweat of the people. Let the evil spirits be wiped out, and see the people suffer disaster, what is there to talk about? !

Yinhua poured a bowl of soup and medicine from the pot, and went to feed the old man with her own hands.Xia Futang stood up.Dad, you are resting, I have to take care of your admission to the hospital.Arrangements are made, I plan to go back to the marsh the day after tomorrow, not only to pay respects to the grave, but the provincial government has ordered me to investigate Hu Mani'er's deeds, and I have to stay in various places in the east of the lake for a few more days. The old peddler pointed to Yinhua and said: If you want to ask, you can ask her, that kid Guilong is the closest to Mr. Crooked Hu Lai.He was the one who carried the crooked mandy's body back to the marsh, and his husband and wife buried him, and she knew the place where crooked mandy's bones were buried.After the fire in Wu Dazhuang, Guilong did two things, one was to crush Su Dahuner to death by the smoke squeezer, avenging his father, and the other was to set the fire! Xia Futang was shaken all over.He originally believed that only high-level intellectuals could theoretically understand the evil nature of communism, and as a true anti-communist; ordinary farmers, especially in backward areas like their hometown, would not fundamentally understand anti-communism.Their anti-communism is just a natural defense, defending their traditional consciousness and the ancient way of life expressed under that consciousness. They are superstitious, stubborn, and resist all violence to change them!But the facts are in front of them, like crooked Hu mane, like Guilong, just relying on pure intuition, they have already completed the purest and most magnificent act of resisting violence!This kind of behavior is enough to humiliate some people who specialize in anti-communist theory.One day, it will not be those theories, but those primitive knives, forks, sticks, teeth and fists that will break the drums of communism!Likewise, their longing for the old center is only based on an orthodoxy that blends with their ancient ideas.Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, many internal and external troubles have caused the old central government to fail to bring them anything, but they contain an inner self, and what they need is extremely simple. As long as there is a warm wind blowing on the wilderness, slowly Quietly, it makes people transition from an old dream to a new dream After sending the old man into the hospital, Xia Futang took Yinhua to Zedi.A military vehicle borrowed from the Governor's Office of the Seventh Appeasement District drove them to Chenjiaji, where some gentry hosted a warm banquet for the returning visitor. It was heard that the bones of the crooked mandy had been found, and everyone in the town They were all startled.Some people advocate that the local government report to the government to praise him, and some people advocate that the county people should be called on to repair his tomb immediately.At the banquet, a gentleman ordered rice paper to be prepared, bowed respectfully and said to Xia Futang: "Brother Futang, you are a talented person in the east of the lake. The crooked man was fighting devils for the east of the lake. He died in Kangbalu. Now that he has found the bones, There should be a monument to commemorate him, so you can write a monument, write it and send it to the county town, and have someone strangle the stone! Another said, "Wait for Mr. Xia to drink enough before writing the inscription. Mr. Xia is like Li Taibai. The more he drinks, the more talented he will be. Now let Mr. Xia say a few words impromptu." Xia Futang stood up: At the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, I left home and went to the rear. When I came back six or seven years later, my family was ruined.We have resented and hated the Japanese devils, and when they put down their guns, all accounts will be settled!If we kill all the Japanese ghosts, we won't be able to bring back the dead people all over the place.As for the Eight Ways to Suppress Evil Demons, everyone must realize that this is all their own business. Don’t ignore everything and rely on the old central government wholeheartedly. Together, they can't smash a few heads!If the rich act benevolently, and the poor act peacefully, who will join the devil gang to practice evil ways? !Demons like Balu are really rooted in people's greedy, disgusting and evil hearts!If the people's hearts don't change, it is absolutely not an answer to count on the old central government to dispatch troops to fight it! One sentence silenced the whole banquet.Xia Futang said drunkenly: "Brothers, please write the inscription. Does anyone know the name of Waihu Lai'er?"Does anyone know who killed Su Da bastard in this market town?Who set that fire in the swamp?To tell you the truth, if a person has a heart, anyone can be a crooked fool. It is far better to strangle the inscription on the stone than to strangle it on the heart.After speaking, he pushed away the chair, went over there, grabbed a pen and wrote two lines, without beginning or end, which were two lines from Gao Shi's Yan Gexing poem: Seeing white blades and blood pouring out, The festival of death has never been a show of honor. He threw the pen away violently, and laughed wildly, that astonishing laughter was more pathetic than howling.