Chapter 23 Section VIII

That spring, when Luo Yang was eight years old, the jade bracelet on her aunt's wrist was still shining green.The "Iron Cavalry Shen Illness" written by my grandfather was finally closed.So far, there have been no special changes in other people and things in the family. Summer is just around the corner. In the countryside around Ping'an County, the wheat in the fields is about to be harvested, and the golden ears of wheat proudly raise their heads, exposing a strong sweet smell in the sun; new potatoes have begun to appear on the market, and the loose soil where the potatoes have been dug is exposed on the corn Between the ridges, the earth air baked by the sun floats among the green leaves, and there is a dark red sound; the corn stalks as tall as a person stretch out their green leaves, and the red or green slender tassels are dotted among them, like a dark rush. Wisps of flames seemed to ignite the dry air... In such a hot season, the number of pedestrians in the county seemed to increase overnight. The ground shakes like a Taiping drum danced in a harvest year.

With the footsteps of the earth shaking and the mountains shaking, Pingan County, which is located in the Hexi Corridor, ushered in a strange team.They wore grass-green military uniforms without cap badges and collar badges, with large or small badges on their chests, waving red books in their hands, and came singing loudly.They never tire of singing one song after another. The singing is not as vague and melodious as the dramas hummed by the women in the county town. It seems to be on fire, trying to ignite this fiery season.All this makes the residents of Ping'an County feel strange and excited; or they are strange because of excitement, and excited because of strangeness.Amidst the curiosity of men, women and children in the county, this team stationed in the county middle school and Xiangyang primary school, and the two schools and even the entire county entered a specific era of turmoil.

At this time, Luo Yang, a second-year student at Xiangyang Primary School, felt very strange about the sudden arrival of strangers. He learned from the senior students that this valiant team came from Shacheng.Most of the members of this gang are students, and there are also workers and social youths among them.It is said that they failed in an operation to seize power in Shacheng, so they changed course and went straight to Ping'an County to seize a new revolutionary camp and create a new revolutionary situation.Luo Yang also vaguely felt that the usually dignified teachers were a little afraid of those young people called "comrades", including the principal, who were too humble and showed undue humility.

The school soon became lively, or rather chaotic.Senior students no longer attend classes. They form an alliance with the "revolutionary advance team" from Shacheng to paint slogans and write big-character posters on campus. Teachers are more diligent than before, but they are not preparing lessons or correcting homework. Take the time to do another thing - write materials.The teachers kept writing and writing devoutly on their desks, and some of them did self-examination - they took home a box of chalk on a certain day or said something they shouldn't have said; of course, most of them People are reporting others under some implicit hint, reporting those who are suspected of concealing family history or hiding ambitions.The people who wrote the inspection and report letters seemed very mysterious and very nervous. They wrote densely on the 16-format official document paper, which was so heavy that there were more than a dozen pages, as if they wanted to use all their talents on this matter.A few days later, all the old sesame seeds and rotten millet and arbitrary assumptions in the school were carefully searched out and dried in the hot summer sun.

Soon, big-character posters were posted on the streets from the campus.Like a sudden outbreak of an epidemic, the county town seemed to be on fire, igniting the general passion of the people.Many people got busy, including low-grade students like Luo Yang, who couldn't help but get involved in a kind of passion. They helped the "comrades" from Shacheng to paint slogans, make paste, set up tables, etc. as much as they could.Just doing these chores can't show their reverence and enthusiasm for the revolution. Under the leadership of the teacher, they arranged a cultural program. On the one hand, it was to improve the enthusiasm of the primary school students to fight, and on the other hand, it was used to condolences to the revolutionaries who came all the way from Shacheng. Comrade.

Teacher Fang in the second grade choreographed the one-act play "The Butcher and the Wolf".No one expected that this one-act play was later regarded as a watershed in the era of the "Great Revolution" in Ping'an County. Luo Yang, a second-grade primary school student, took part in the performance of the one-act play "The Butcher and the Wolf" with a sense of sacred mission, in which he played the villain - the wolf armor.Although he was a bit reluctant, he, who has always been a good student, obeyed Teacher Fang's arrangement. It was a hell of a show.Royan still remembers the main plot of the play many years later:

In the evening, the butcher returning home met two wolves in the suburbs.The butcher was so frightened that he threw the bones left over from the sale to the wolf. After eating the bones, the two wolves didn't want to let the butcher go. They chased the butcher and said loudly: "Do you still want to hang a piece of meat on the iron hook to murder us?"After hundreds of years of hard work, we have already seen through the tricks of the butcher, so quickly put away your sugar-coated shells! The two wolves formed a pincer attack and rushed towards the butcher. In desperation, the butcher ran for his life and shouted: Wolf is coming!Wolf is coming!

Hearing the butcher's call for help, the two wolves laughed wildly. Wolf armor said: Your ancestors have shouted such clichés for hundreds of years, but you still use them as a shield today, who is in the mood to answer you! Wolf B said: Grasp the revolution and promote production; dig deep holes to accumulate food widely; make steel and surpass Britain and the United States... The people are so busy, how can they have time to listen to your nonsense? The butcher was forced back again and again by wolves.He suddenly saw the haystacks in the field, and hid beside the haystacks. Haystack A said: Poor butcher, there is no way out of escape, hurry up and fight with these vicious and cunning enemies!

Haystack B said: Revolution is not a treat!Do you think it would do any good to throw out a few bones, a few pieces of meat?Quickly raise the butcher knife in your hand! Inspired by the haystacks, the butcher circled with the two wolves and fought desperately.He sang passionately while fighting: the big knife chopped off the head of the wolf cub... The situation suddenly reversed, and the two wolves ran away with their heads in their arms, and got into the haystack to hide. The butcher raised his butcher knife and pursued the victory. All the actors on the stage (including the butcher, the two haystacks and the two wolves) sang together: tunnel war, hey!Tunnel warfare, ambushing millions of divine soldiers...

It's here that the show runs aground. The commander-in-chief of the revolutionary advance team, who was sitting in the front row watching the performance, suddenly stood up. His eyes were bright and his face was stern. He waved his powerful arms in the gesture of a great man waving his hands, and asked in a stern voice: Is this a song of wolves? ?Have you falsified and distorted revolutionary songs like this?Say, what is the intention! ?Luo Yang, who played the wolf armor, realized at this time that according to the requirements of the plot, the song of authentic warfare was originally sung by the butcher and the haystack, not by the wolf.Because of nervousness, he forgot his role for a moment.

The commander-in-chief’s questioning awakened the rest of the revolutionary advance team. A small leader jumped onto the stage and asked a more pointed question: “We came to the county to create a new revolutionary situation and a new revolutionary camp, but you shouted that the wolf is coming Who is the wolf? Tell me, who is the wolf?!" At this moment, eight-year-old Luo Yang's face was pale with embarrassment.He knew that he had caused trouble, but he hadn't expected how serious the consequences would be. Royan's memory is a bit muddled about the play's final ending. The first ending is: After the performance stopped abruptly, Luo Yang and other young actors were pushed off the stage by angry revolutionaries.The audience was chaotic, and the audience crowded each other.Luo Yang knocked down Mai Sanniang, a pregnant woman who was about to give birth who came to watch the fun, and then he was also pushed to the ground, and then the crowd stepped on him, and he passed out.But he vaguely heard the cry of a newborn baby behind him. Another ending is: the commander-in-chief of the advance team continued to wave his powerful arms, and all the teachers and students of Xiangyang Primary School were gathered in the square at the northwest corner of the county seat.Thus, the real struggle began. "The Butcher and the Wolf" was regarded as a poisonous weed and was unanimously criticized. The screenwriter Mr. Fang kept explaining the question of "who is the wolf".The struggle set off a climax of the mass movement, which eventually led to a tragedy of trampling on each other—Luo Yang knocked down Mai Sanniang, who was about to give birth. Luo Yang knocked down Mai Sanniang, and then he was also knocked down by the crowd.He suddenly heard the cry of a newborn baby behind him.In the severe pain of countless trampling feet, he passed out. After a while, Luo Yang, who was seriously injured, was finally able to walk back and forth in the yard with a stick. He vaguely heard his mother talking to the neighbors, saying that Mrs. Mai San, who had an accident, was sent to the county health center and was sent to the hospital overnight. Sent to Sand City.It's a pity that the revolutionary situation in Shacheng is even more serious, and there are no doctors to rescue this elderly woman who is dying.At dawn, Miss Mai San died in the hospital in Shacheng.The newborn girl is still alive. Beginning in the fall of that year, Luo Yang often saw Mrs. Mai holding a little girl outside in the sun.The little girl's face is light red, pink like a peach blossom in spring; the little girl's arms and legs are white and tender like water radishes just pulled from the ground.Later, Luo Yang learned that the old lady Mai carried her granddaughter outside the county seat. She saw the harvested wheat fields and the stubbles exposed on the soil, imagining the golden waves and the rolling wheat fragrance in the field, and impromptuly gave the little girl some It's called Maisui. Since then, the fate of many people has changed.Some people disappeared from the county seat, and Luo Yang didn't know where they went and whether they would be able to come back one day.