Chapter 46 Section five

Luo Zhong, a lame man, was not lame at first. When he was young, he worked as a hired hand in the home of Mr. Luo Huanzhang, who was very famous in the county. Ever since Mr. Luo Huanzhang won the foreign exams (when Luo Huanzhang was admitted to a new school, people in the county still said he had won the exams, in order to distinguish him from the imperial examinations, they said he had won the "foreign exams"). Working in the provincial capital and occasionally going home for a few days, he became a new figure in the county town and made many shocking acts.For example, one day he cut his braids, and later he wore a suit and top hat. When his father, Mrs. Luo, passed away, he burned the land deed and the servant's deed of sale in public when he inherited the family business.The older clansmen and neighbors all said that he was absurd, that he had broken his mind by studying in foreign schools.Those tenants and servants whom he declared "free" were even more afraid to accept this easy "liberation".Until one year, when Luo Huanzhang became the principal of a certain university in the provincial capital, the whole Luo family followed him to settle down in the provincial capital. They only returned to their old house in the county capital during the New Year’s festival, bringing back such things as newspapers, It was not until the phonograph and other new things that people realized that his new figure was in line with the trend of the times, and they respected and accepted him sincerely.The residents of the county also learned from this that the world outside the county had already changed into an era without emperors, which was called the Republic of China.

When Luo Huanzhang left the county, he dismissed the family's employees and servants, and he completely gave them back their freedom.It was only because Luo Zhong broke his leg while driving a carriage, and because he was old and had no place to make a living, Luo Huanzhang kept him.Therefore, Luo Zhong has been taking care of the Luo family's big house in Ping'an County and the 100 mu of ancestral land in the countryside.Because it was the ancestral land, Luo Huanzhang couldn't handle it arbitrarily like burning other land deeds. In addition, the expenses of the Luo family in the provincial capital had to be maintained, so he had to rent out the land. When the autumn harvest came, the tenants would send the grain to Luo's mansion in the county seat. It's up to Luo Zhongcha to put it into the warehouse.Usually Luo Zhong has nothing to do, he just needs to feed the horses that pull the cart, in case the people from Luo Mansion need to use the carriage when they come back.

Raising horses has become Luo Zhong's only concern, and he treats those horses as meticulously as he treats the owner of Luofu. In January 1937, a heavy snow fell in the Qilian Mountains.The howling northwestern wind woke Luo Zhong up in the middle of the night. He was worried that the horses would be damaged by the overwhelming cold, so he took a lamp to the stable to have a look and add some fodder.When Luo Zhong was picking up a bundle of wheat straw, he found three men in ragged clothes and covered in blood hiding under the straw pile.He was startled, and just about to call out to catch the thief, suddenly a young doll in the same ragged clothes came out from the darkness of the stable and whispered in a strong Hunan dialect: "Uncle Luo, we are the Red Army, it was not long ago Do you remember the team that was withdrawn from here?"

Luo Zhong nodded, he still remembered their valiant spirit at that time. They are good people!At the beginning, when the residents heard that there was going to be a military campaign in the county, every household closed their doors and hid everything they could.In those few years, soldiers and bandits ran around everywhere, and the common people suffered a lot and were afraid.But soon the residents of the county found that this team called the Red Army was different from the soldiers and bandits who came here to harass the people before.In the first few days when they were stationed in the county, the Red Army was exposed to the cold outside and did not disturb the residents without authorization. The people couldn't stand it anymore, so they invited them into the yard to keep warm.After they came in, they rushed to help the common people with work, and left their dry food after eating.When they got acquainted with the common people, they made propaganda to the common people, saying that "strike the local tyrants and divide the land", and even went to the nearby Zhuangzi to open the landlord's warehouse.

Luo Zhong didn't know why the Red Army didn't distribute the food, oil, felt and other materials accumulated in Luofu.Later, after listening to the propaganda of the Red Army, he realized that the local tyrants referred to by the Red Army did not generally refer to rich and landed households. From a small point of view, it was aimed at those bullies who opposed the Red Army and owed blood debts; Eliminate those traitors who sabotaged the Anti-Japanese National Salvation Movement.Moreover, Luo Zhong learned from a little red soldier who helped him clean the yard that one of their chiefs had clearly pointed out that Mr. Luo Huanzhang was a democrat and should be protected.In other words, the Red Army and Mr. Luo Huanzhang are "family".Luo Zhong thinks it is very reasonable, how can his own family divide his own family's things?Since the Red Army treats the boss as "one of its own" and the boss is not in the county, he must not be lacking in loyalty as a servant. Treating the Red Army as an outsider is to lose face for the boss and violates the boss's principles of doing things.Therefore, when the Red Army team was about to prepare food and supplies before withdrawing from Ping'an County, Luo Zhong opened the warehouse of Luo Mansion and drove the food to their temporary office by himself.At that time, there were a lot of ordinary people who came to deliver food and goods, and several Red Army soldiers weighed and registered them there, and the scene was very busy.After Luo Zhong finished unloading three large carts of grain and returned to Luo Mansion, he realized that he should ask the Red Army who weighed and registered to give him a receipt.He didn't hope that the grain handed over by the Luo Mansion would be returned after the revolution was successful as the Red Army advertised, but the grain belonged to his master after all. When the boss returned to the county, he still had to pay the bill clearly.One thing is one thing, and righteous deeds cannot replace everything, nor can they be an excuse for certain reasons.As a temporary housekeeper, he must be clear about the incoming and outgoing accounts of the Luo Mansion, so as to live up to the entrustment of the boss.Luo Zhong was thinking about it, the Hunan child soldier came with two hygienists, and wanted to use the unused pots and stoves in the Luo Mansion to disinfect the army's medical bandages, so Luo Zhong asked the Hunan child soldier to write a receipt.Without further ado, the Hunan child soldiers tore off a piece of kraft paper covering the window from the window of Luofu and wrote the receipt, which Luo Zhong put away.

Now that the Red Army had returned to the backyard of Luo Mansion, Luo Zhong was not sure what they were doing back, and asked in surprise, "Didn't you leave?" "I came here with a mission. There are a few seriously injured people who can't keep up with the team. They have to be resettled by the common people. They can only return to the team when our team comes back. Uncle Luo, please help!" Using the lantern, Luo Zhong finally recognized that the person talking to him was Hunan child soldiers. Two of the wounded were health workers who had borrowed pots and stoves, and they also treated a horse in Luofu.Luo Zhong looked carefully, only to find that one of them was a female soldier with short hair.

"I'm the only one living in this yard. It's quieter for them to stay here to recuperate." "Uncle Luo, for safety's sake, only one wounded person is left in a household." Luo Zhong agreed, and drove the horse-drawn carriage overnight to the farm in the countryside, where there were a few reliable old brothers.The female soldier who was seriously injured in the leg was unable to move and stayed in Luofu. Accidents still happen. At that time, the Red Army not only had to deal with Ma's army, but also encountered the harsh weather and natural environment in the Hexi Corridor.January here is the most bitter cold season. It is freezing everywhere, and dripping water turns into ice. The severe cold has become another enemy of the Red Army.And from a military point of view, this is a long and narrow area, with the Qilian Mountains in the south and the Gobi desert in the north. The Red Army team undoubtedly got into a natural pocket.They were caught in the predicament of being blocked from advancing to the east, unable to advance to the west, and having no way out from the north to the south, and they were almost wiped out.

Soon, Ma's army entered Ping'an County and "cleared" the county and surrounding villages.Many wounded or separated soldiers of the Red Army who were housed in ordinary people's homes were searched by Ma's army, some were taken as prisoners to Yinchuan, and some were massacred outside the county seat.A row of bloody heads hung on the city wall, and notices were posted beside it to deter and warn the common people who helped the Red Army. When Ma Jiajun came to the county town to "clear the venue", Luo Zhong was holding a wedding for his nephew.The bride with a red hijab has been sitting on the kang.Luo Zhong told the soldiers who broke in that his niece and daughter-in-law were born with polio and couldn't walk, so she couldn't get up to toast, so please forgive me.Then Luo Zhong warmly invited them to drink and gave them small red envelopes.The soldiers who drank and took the red envelopes left without disturbing the wedding.Only then did Tianshui Beauty successfully escaped the catastrophe.

The other two Red Army soldiers who were sent by Luo Zhong to the farm in the countryside unfortunately fell into the hands of Ma Jiajun, and their heads hung on a poplar tree in front of Zhuangzi three days later.