Picking up my pen, I want to write something about the life I have lived on this earth for twenty years, the people I saw, the sounds I heard, the smell I smelled, that is to say, the life I have truly experienced. Education, first of all, when I mention a small backwoods town where I grew up, it is easier not to know how to get started. What a queer place, I should say in urban terms! Only because two hundred years ago the When people governed the land of China, they sent a team of soldiers to garrison and garrison the remaining Miao people in order to appease and torture the remaining Miao people. Only then did the castle and residents come into being. The establishment of this strange place and all its past, there is a "Miao Defense" records some It is an official document, but it is just a boring official book. I want to introduce here the small town that was briefly described in one of my works. Although this is only an outline, all the scenes of that place are highlighted , as if you could touch it with your hands.

If a good-natured person looks for it from some kind of older map from a hundred years ago, he will find a small spot called a town in a very remote corner in northern Guizhou, eastern Sichuan, and western Hunan. There Like other small dots, in fact there should be a city, in which three to five thousand people are settled. However, most of the existence of all cities is under the conditions of transportation, products, and economic activities, which become the foundation of the city's prosperity. Because of fate, this place exists independently in another sense without attachment. Try to take the round city made of rough and solid huge stones as the center, spread out in all directions, and surround the isolated city in this remote area. There are more than 7,000 bunkers, and about 200 camps. The bunkers are each made of large stones, and they are located on the top of the mountain. Order. One hundred and eighty years ago, according to a precise plan, these things were kept at a certain distance and distributed evenly within hundreds of miles around. The tyranny of the Qing Dynasty for centuries, and the resistance caused by this tyranny, blood stained every official road and every blockhouse. Now, everything is over, most of the blockhouses have been destroyed, and most of the camps have become private houses. Most of the people have been assimilated. At sunset and dusk, standing on the high place of the lonely city surrounded by thousands of mountains, looking at the ruined fortresses far and near, you can still vaguely imagine the scene of the horn drum and torch passing the warning. This place is still today, Because it has become another military center of gravity, everything is changing and progressing at a rapid pace, and at the same time, this progress is destroying everything in the past.

All tourists and businessmen who have the opportunity to follow Qu Yuan's long-term clarification of the Yuanshui River upstream, if they look at entering Guizhou and Sichuan by land, without passing through the ancient Yelang Kingdom, Yongshun and Longshan, they should do so. Mingming Town is the safest and most comfortable place to put his luggage. The names of bandits there are not familiar to ordinary people's ears. The merchants each shouldered the burden of flowers, yarn and goods, and walked to the village deep in the mountains freely and freely, making deals with the common people, and seeking tithe benefits. The village chief and the servant of the god who practiced witchcraft. Everyone is pure and faithful, obeys the law and loves officials. Every family has military service, and they can go to the camp to receive a little money and a rice grain every month, and they can also get it from the official. The public fields confiscated by the government 200 years ago were cultivated and planted. Every year, people in the city went to Tianwang Temple to kill pigs, sheep, dogs, and sacrifice chickens and fish, according to whether they had households or not. The prosperity of the family, the growth of children, and the treatment of illnesses, marriages and funerals. Everyone is responsible for the donations allocated by the government according to their share, and they automatically donate money to temple blessings or perform witchcraft alone. Keep everything simple and simple. It is customary to follow the ancient rituals; at the beginning and end of the spring and autumn farming, as usual, there are old people collecting money from people everywhere and singing wooden puppet shows to the God of Sheji. When the drought is dry and praying for rain, some children will carry live dogs and bring willow twigs together , or tie them into grass dragons, and walk around. In spring, there are often spring officials, who wear yellow clothes and recite farming lyrics everywhere. Clothes as bright as blood, blowing silver horns, holding copper knives, singing and dancing to entertain the gods. Most of the residents in the city were soldiers who were sent to settle down at that time. In addition, there are people from Jiangxi who sell cloth here, and people from Fujian who sell cigarettes here. , Cantonese sell medicine here. The combination of politics and marriage between a small number of scholars and a large number of military officers in the local area creates an upper class. On the one hand, this class uses a conservative and steady policy to manage politics for a long time. Dominated most of the privately owned land, but the source of this class is still the garrison soldiers in those days. There are tung and fir trees on the hillside outside the local city, cinnabar mercury in the mine pit, fungus in the pine forest, and caves. There is a lot of nitrate in the city. There is no shortage of brave and loyal soldiers who are suitable for ideals, and gentle and hardworking women who are suitable for families. In the kitchens of the military school class, there are very delicious dishes. singing.

Forty miles to the southeast of the place is close to the Dahe River, a river that fertilizes the flat banks, many meters, and many oranges and pomelo. After twenty miles to the northwest, it gradually enters the plateau, and it is close to Miao Township. There are thousands of mountains overlapping, and among the mountains overlapping in size and size, there are big cedars. The trees are perennially dark green and spread everywhere. A small river flows out of the high mountains and streams. It gathers the streams of thousands of mountains and rushes along the river ditches with fir forests on both sides. Tie bamboos to make waterwheels, divert water from the river, and irrigate the high mountain fields. The river water is clear all year round, and there are many mandarin fish, crucian carp, and carp among them, some of which are bigger than human feet. In the homes of those on the river bank, you can often see white-faced long A woman who is good at smiling when she sees people. The small river flows around the northern city of Zhenbei, and after 170 miles, it joins the Chenhe River and reaches Dongting.

This place is also known as Phoenix Hall, and after the Republic of China, it was changed to the county government, named Fenghuang County. After the Revolution of 1911, Xiangxi Town Guards and Chenyuan Road were stationed here. The local residents were only five or six thousand, and there were regular soldiers stationed everywhere. But there are 7,000. Due to the different environment, the green battalion military service system has not been abolished until now, and it is the only remnant of the green battalion military system in China. I grew up in such a small town, and I left when I was about fifteen years old. After going out for two and a half years and returning to that small town, until now, I have never entered that city gate again. But I am familiar with that place. Now There are many people living in that city, but I often live in the impression that that small town gave me in the past.