Chapter 3 autobiography-3

At that time, under the meaning of supplementary soldiers, those who received military training every day were divided into three groups in this city. The group I belonged to was run by the instructor of the military officer corps outside the city, which seemed nobler at that time.The other group, who practiced on the Dacao lawn of the yamen of the guarding envoy in the city, was presided over by Du Lianchang, the guard of the guarding envoy's office, and their status was not as good.Both places use new enlistment training.There is another one hosted by Uncle Teng, a veteran soldier in my street, who uses old-fashioned coaches.Although the new coach seems to be very useful, and the discipline of steel makes everyone self-respecting and strong, but it is really boring.Just think about it, the group of children practicing in Xiaoping in front of the guerrilla yamen in the nearby Zhongying camp, the oldest is only seventeen years old, and the youngest is only twelve years old. They always leave the playground at two o'clock, and each of them runs for thirty minutes. A slight inconsistency in posture is a punch in the chest, and a slight negligence in clothing is a slap in the face.Turn the lever, take the top from the platform, and jump at the wooden horse. When you hit the ground all at once, you are not allowed to hum.When crossing the overpass, you have to look straight ahead with your eyes and walk back and forth to pass.During field exercises, no matter it is water or mud, you have to lie down if you tell them to lie down. These rules and disciplines are really different from the local children's personalities!But the old-fashioned group was too chic.What they learn is somersaulting, playing rattan cards, dancing Changji, and playing eyebrow sticks.We wear gray clothes of one color to the end, but they wear all kinds of flowered clothes.They had square shields painted with leather and round shields made of rattan, bows and arrows, javelins, and all kinds of gorgeous and pleasing weapons.They either study alone or fight in pairs, each can choose according to his own opinion.They usually hold a shield and a single sword, and the other uses a sword or a spear. According to the rules, they practice the big sword and the ear single sword to break cards or other interesting fighting problems.While fighting, the two yelled, slashed, slashed and sat down, and when it was time for someone to turn a somersault, the other took a quick step back to make room.When it should go to whoever loses, there is also a certain method when the defeated one falls, and it is done naturally and lively.The teacher is around to point out, and if there are some mistakes, I will take that position to demonstrate and correct mistakes for them.

This teacher is a strange person, no matter whether he turns somersaults in any direction, he doesn't use any force, just tilt his head, and he can instantly turn his body in the air.He can climb trees again, and he can go up the extremely high mast in an instant.He can hold the top again, on the battlements of the city walls, on the towers, on the high-mast mid-air banners, everywhere, and can stand upside down and use his hands as feet to support him for a long time.He can swim again, and he can swim to the bottom of any depth, and he can swim to any depth.He can touch fish, fish, and spear fish, and he can catch fish wherever there are fish.He also has good medical skills. When someone falls and hurts his hands and feet, he can pick a few roadside herbs, mash them up and apply them, and then they can wrap them up.He is also good at raising chickens and ducks. There are often many noble species of fighting cocks in front of the gate.He can plant flowers, pick fruit trees, and make figures out of clay.

This old-style group can exist, and it can actually recruit many children. In fact, it's all because of this coach's genius ability.Although he lived with so many children all day long, he never took any money from anyone, nor did he ask for a money from the public. He only belonged to an old soldier in the middle battalion, and he did this only because of himself. Happy to be with children.Everyone in the city calls him Master Teng, but he really does not feel wronged by this title.He knows everything, and is shrewd in everything. You can't lie to him, and you can't beat him if you want to beat him.The most rare thing is that he is more kind and fair than anyone else.But since he is an illiterate old soldier, when he sees such small officials as extra guards, he has to humbly call out the general.He not only taught children to box, but sometimes encouraged them to fight. He not only taught them to fight, but even taught them to bathe and gamble. Therefore, there are well-behaved children in the family, but they rarely come to him. They come to him. , Most of them are children of humble families.

Hidden in his house are cowhide shields with scarlet lacquer patterns, javelins with red tassels, forged silver Fangtian painted halberds, and white sandalwood eyebrow-level sticks.There are countless weapons in the house, and there are also countless toys: there are gongs, drums, flutes and huqin, simple boards for fishing drums, and domino cards, all of which are complete.In broad daylight, there are often people singing and playing cards at home as usual, like a club.When it was time to practice martial arts, the disciples carried their weapons to Caoping.The weather is hot and I don’t practice martial arts. After eating, I lead a group of children and a cage of ducklings. I took a small harpoon and went out of the city together to teach the children to swim, and went into the deep water with a very graceful posture. Fishing.

In our two groups of new drills, whoever commits a crime, regardless of their age, is either punched in the chest, punished to stand at attention at half an hour, or run alone around the playground for an hour.But on their side, such harsh punishments are not acceptable.As soon as punishment was mentioned, they laughed at it as a foreign method, and the matter looked very funny to them.As for their mistakes, the one who corrects them is always an elegant demonstration by the master, accompanied by a smile.If he commits a crime, he should be punished, but it is always nothing more than punishing him to swim across the river once, or similarly interesting treatment, and the punishment includes a reward for another behavior.We were in awe of the teacher, and when we saw the instructors, we became more serious and restrained.They love his master, and they are much happier when they get close to him.Our two groups had to learn target shooting and hand-to-hand combat practice, and the end point was the difficult principles in the subject, shooting, fortification, and all kinds of unpleasant terms that have nothing to do with ordinary life.After they learned it, they rode horses and archery, and after learning more, they learned to form formations. They wore colorful clothes, carried weapons and flags, and each moved according to the position, advancing and retreating with the sound of the golden drum.We are always boring, making people rigid and not flowing with life.But they keep people lively and interesting from beginning to end, and the learning itself is inseparable from the game.

The local military supplementary training is divided into three places. Most of those who studied at that time only hoped for a spot in the guard.Although our new-style training results are not bad, but when there are guards who are vacant for the exam, the old-style group coached by the old soldier still gets the most places.Even now, sixteen years later, the officers from three backgrounds are shrewd, capable, brave, and responsible, and they are still the regimental commander Zhang who received basic education from him, and is the best at what he does. At that time, since I lived on the same street as the old soldier, if there were any minor problems in the house, I had to ask him for help frequently.For example, ordering some medicine or doing other things, he is always indispensable.But my family doesn't allow me to be with this soldier, and I still want me to carry a long green bamboo, go out of the city and pass the officer regiment to learn pole vaulting, and let the squad leader hit his chest with his fist, probably because he is worried about me. Break a habit with such a vulgar person.But my family didn't expect that ten years later, I was in danger several times in the army, and almost all the knowledge I used to save others was learned from that veteran soldier!

In my place, the person I respected most in terms of knowledge was my uncle, a Jinshi, who was elected as the county magistrate after Xinhai.In terms of leading the troops, I respect a local commander who is the most beautiful man and has the most skills. The one who makes me think he is full of humanity and very cute is this old soldier. There is no effective way to correct my dissoluteness at home, and the family is selling most of the real estate for my father who is away, and has paid off several large debts, and the situation is getting worse day by day.In addition, my second sister died, so my mother took it easy, thinking that instead of letting me fall into obscenity at home, it would be better to send me to the world to learn how to survive.Be a human being in every opportunity, and gain knowledge and lessons in life.When my mother made a plan and decided to let me go out of the family to compete for survival in the wider society, she went to talk to an officer surnamed Yang, and got permission from that side, and agreed to use my name as a supplementary soldier, Went to Chenzhou together.I myself was soaking in the river that day, testing my endurance after sinking to the bottom and the buoyancy of lying on my back, which I learned from the old soldier.It was the Hungry Ghost Festival on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. I remember clearly that I went to the river to take some paper money, drink wine, and white meat to sacrifice to the river ghost. According to the custom, no one dared to fall into the water on this day, and the river was very quiet.After the paper money was burnt, I poured the wine into the water, ate a piece of half a catty of heavy cooked meat, took off my clothes and pants, and swam in the clear river water for about two hours alone.

On the morning of July 16th, with a small burden on my back, I left the county school and began to mix into a wider school. I have no idea where I will go after leaving my relatives at home, what I will do there, and what hope I will have in the future.I am only a little over fourteen years old, a little over fourteen years old. It seems that this age does not allow me to notice the pain of being separated from my family. I am so happy to see all new things and listen to all new sounds, and I yearn for freedom so much, so when I first started When I first left my hometown, I felt boundless happiness.

But once on the road, but a little sad.About 300 people were on the road at the same time, and I didn't have a single acquaintance.Although my body is so small, the burden on my back seems to be bigger than myself.Strange faces are everywhere, I don't know who I eat with during the day, and I don't know who I sleep with at night.I heard that you have to walk sixty miles that day to get to the place where there is a big river leading to ships, and then go down by boat.Based on my past experience, I don't know if such a long distance can be walked.My family members were worried that I would catch the cold, so they put too many clothes in my luggage. Unexpectedly, I was exhausted by these clothes before I could enjoy the benefits of these clothes.

What frightened me in particular were the girls sitting in the sedan chair and the officials riding on the white horses. I knew all of these people, and they seemed to no longer know me.Due to the self-consciousness of my identity, when they accidentally approached me with their sedan horses, I was really scared and shy.In order to avoid the attention of these people, I walked behind a group of porters with a few young people of poor appearance.Later, a porter saw that the burden on my back was a little too big, but I was a little too small, so he allowed me to put the burden on his lighter end.At the same time, I talked to a middle-aged dispatcher, who turned out to be a classmate of my uncle.Now that we had acquaintances, we walked the empty road freely with both hands, without getting tired, and before dusk we arrived at the bank of a big river called Gaocun.

A row of covered boats was moored by the water, there were about 20 of them, and one of the larger ones had a red silk flag with the character "Shuai" hanging on it.All the bows are full of soldiers, and everyone is looking for the designated ship.The messenger had left with me, so I carried the big burden by myself, stood timidly on the shore, then rushed to a boat, and asked softly: Is there a place?uncle.Those people always say: It's full, you can see for yourself, it's full!What team are you in?I didn't know which team I should be in, and I didn't know who to ask.Some ships without soldiers seem to be relatively empty. They want me to go and ask, but because there are secretaries and staff officers in long coats standing on the bow, I am really afraid of their looks, and I dare not take the risk to go and ask. Seeing the weather, it was gradually getting dark. Some people were already cooking at the bow of the boat, and some people were squatting to eat, but I was sitting on the big rock on the bank, dazed and worried, and couldn't think of anything to do.At that time, the wide surface of the river was covered with mist, wild ducks and the like flapped their wings and flew towards the river on the surface of the water, leaving a deep purple in the sky.Seeing these novel scenes, XiaoXin felt a kind of unspeakable grief.He smiled and rubbed his feet that had been damaged by the long journey.I understood that life had begun into a whole new world. After a while, I saw the dispatcher again, and the dispatcher also saw me. Ah, why don't you get on the boat?The boat was full and there was nowhere to go aboard.The boat is full, you say!For a kid with such a big fist like you, zoom in and out, where you can't get in.Come, come, my little brother, there's plenty of space here!I was overjoyed to meet acquaintances.As soon as I heard what he said, I followed him to the boat.It turned out that it was still an empty ship!However, there is no deck in this cabin, and it is only covered with some sparse bamboo lattices. When the boat is shaking, you can hear the flow of water in the bilge. How can you sleep at night?Just as he was about to tell the dispatcher that we should look again to see if there were other places where we could really fuck in the same thick and slang words he used, a group of gangsters who stayed behind to carry tents from the army came.We were worried that if we left, it would be difficult to find such a cabin again, so we lived tightly with these gangsters.When it was time for dinner, people came up from all the boats to shout, but because of the reason for picking up the meal, I ran into an acquaintance from the ordnance department.So I changed the ship and stayed on the ordnance ship. After eating, I fell asleep very comfortably after a while. Nothing I saw on the ship did not surprise me.Twenty-four large boats sometimes go down to the beach with their tails in their tails, and sometimes float into the flat pool scattered.The two sides of the strait are constantly changing, and small villages, vast bamboo forests, and black hanging rocks are brought into view one by one.When preparing to eat, all the boats in the Changtan slipped away at will. The calmness and joy are really touching.When the scull is swaying, the river is full of singing.I just watched and listened to this, and completely forgot about my family for a while.Four days later, our boats formed a long row and moored at the special dock on the river bank at the lower central south gate of Chenzhou City. Two days later, we were stationed in an old general's office in Zongye Lane, and a new life began. There are plasters everywhere on the walls, tiles and grass everywhere on the ground, and piles of black dry feces are left in the grass. This is the impression I first entered the yamen.So it was our turn to start cleaning.A total of twenty people did this, and I was one of them.Everyone was in a very happy situation, worked hand and foot together for a whole day, and everything was cleared up.The Office of General Affairs sent straw mats and wooden boards, so they laid bricks on the ground, spread the wooden boards on top, spread out the newly made straw mats, and a hundred people lay down on the two rows of straw mats together, very happy. The first night was sent away. After arriving in the field, everyone should have their own affairs. To be a supplementary soldier, you only need to get up early in the morning to run.After running, I will train alone, hold my elbows back, stand alone on a piece of ground, raise and lower my feet according to the command, and learn to walk slowly.There was nothing to do in the afternoon, so I lay down on the straw and sang the military song "The General's Southern Expedition".Everyone is strong and simple, the oldest is about twenty-two years old, and the youngest is only thirteen years old. They sleep on hard board beds and eat rough, old rice, but they survive in a kind of silence.The military knowledge I learned from the technical class in this city was very beneficial, and it enabled me to become the squad leader in a few days. Until now, I don't understand why some soldiers were not allowed to go out casually, while others were allowed to come in and out freely.According to my thinking, people in the city can go out, but people in the country can go out but dare not go out. I remember that my going out was not restricted by any means, but every morning after running, I had to listen to the speech of the Miao company commander Wu: We soldiers are originally to defend the country and protect the people.There are so many visitors here for the first time, everything has to take care of face.When going out, uniforms should be tidy, buttons should be buttoned up, belts should be tightened, and leg wraps should be tightly wrapped.Behaving recklessly and getting a spanking.When it came to this, he said loudly again: Did you hear that?Everyone said: I heard it.Now that the promise has been heard, they disbanded.At that time, only the fireman in the camp was beaten with a plank on the stone ground for committing crimes, but the soldiers were very afraid of trouble because they came from a small place, and no one dared to commit crimes, so they didn't want to be beaten. I'm very satisfied with that street, it's very novel every time I go on the street.My favorite is River Street, where there are countless small shops that sell boat cables, hardwood carts, small fish reels, knives, scythes, and cigarette holders.The floor is full of interesting objects.Every time I always squat there to look at it for a long time, I am as reluctant to part with a gentleman standing next to an antique. There is a glutinous rice ball seller in the city gate, and soldiers often sit on the glutinous rice ball seller's bench and deliver hot glutinous rice balls to their mouths.Occasionally, an officer in the base camp passed away, and when he had to salute according to the rules, he hurriedly put down the clay flower bowl, raised his hand, stood up and shouted vaguely.Seeing this situation, the officer sometimes couldn't help smiling.It's me who encounters the most.I have to eat glutinous rice balls there every day or sit down and watch all kinds of passers-by. I often lead the horses to the lawn outside Chaoyangmen with the groom surnamed Zhang, who is in charge of the horses. I nail the sandalwood nail at the other end of the long reins to the lawn, and drive the horses around. , We would lie on the grass and bask in the sun, talk about the big snakes and big fish that everyone has seen, or go to the edge of the church middle school, climb up the city wall, and watch those middle school students play ball.Or go to a place where there is a forest, each choose a smooth-skinned sycamore, knead the grass to make a trap, hang it on the foot, climb to the high branch and sit, deliberately shake the tree for a while. There are three trumpeters in the battalion who I am very familiar with. Every day they will go to the city wall to blow the trumpet.I went to play with them after crossing the dam outside the city to blow the horn.Sometimes we even climbed to the top of the walls to play the trumpet. I can't play the trumpet but I can play the drums. Our homework is fixed, just run every morning.Whether the purpose of running is to chase people or to escape, no one is very clear.As usual, shortly after the wake-up call, the name call is blown, and after one o'clock, the name is followed by the playground, and it is just a run in the playground.After finishing the work, everyone rushed to the kitchen in a swarm. At that time, the bean sprouts must have been boiling in the big pot for a long time, and the brown rice in the big steamer was almost ready. We always ate bean sprout soup and brown rice every day. Every Sunday, we ate meat. Each of us had a piece of fatty pork, which was boiled out of the bean sprout soup. Then we got the guns. With nothing to do but run, they wiped their guns in the sun, and passed strips of oiled cloth tied to the chambers of the guns with a thin rope, each end of which was tied to a colonnade, and the guns were thrown away. Drag and drop.At that time, there were several types of gun names: single ring, nine sons, and five sons; single rings were divided into two types: Cantonese and pig trough; five rings were divided into five types: small caliber, double barrel, single barrel, pull barrel, and cover plate. It is said that Japanese Springfield and German covers are used, but it is not popular.Soldiers know only these designations, and fill out the firearm form as such. Since we are included in the guard of the detachment commander, we have no other opportunities to serve except that the commander sometimes goes out to visit guests and sends twenty or thirty guards.One time, I was rewarded with fifty cents for protecting this bearded commander at a certain birthday party. At that time, a coalition government in western Hunan was organized in Jiechen Prefecture, whose full name was the First Military Government of the Yasukuni Allied Forces.Three different units are stationed.One of the leaders of the military is Tian Yingzhao, the chief of the military and political affairs, and Zhang Xueji, a native of Zhijiang, the chief of civil affairs.The other one was Lu Tao, the brigade commander of the Guizhou Army, who later returned to Guizhou and became the governor.Opposing him was Feng Yuxiang, who was stationed in Changde and acted as brigade commander.The army on one side neither attacked downward nor upward on the other side, and everyone just kept their original territory and waited for other opportunities.The main economic income in both aspects depends on the opium tax. In the corner of western Hunan alone, apart from a mixed brigade of guest troops, there are about 100,000 people concentrated.Our army is the first guerrilla detachment, which belongs to the Second Army of the Yasukuni Allied Forces and is under the jurisdiction of Zhang Xueji.There are about 5,000 households in Chenzhou, and there are roughly 20,000 soldiers in each department.Although the army was very large and complex at that time, the joint organization of each army had to have a military police inspection office, so it was not possible to fight each other.However, there were too many banknotes issued at that time, and two or three children and women would be trampled to death every day when they were cashed out.The leader was given rice every day, and it was very common at that time for the local troops to beat and injure each other in order to compete for priority. As a result of a military meeting, the upstream counties were redistributed and a number of defense areas were designated. Except for a part of the army that must be stationed along the river to defend against the invasion of the downstream, the remaining counties were designated to guard Qingxiang.Due to special reasons, the first detachment dispatched Zhijiang, the hometown of the commander-in-chief, to Qingxiang to suppress the bandits. According to legend, the village is about to be cleared, and everyone is very happy.When I was on business, each person was given one yuan in cash, so I changed the money into copper coins, and bought three pairs of straw sandals, a face towel, and a small sharp knife called a rice field eel tail, with a piece of silk tied to the handle and a scarlet sheath. Paint it.The happiest thing I have is to have such a knife. It seems that once I have a knife, I don't have to worry about anything.So I imitated the method of the Miao company commander, stuck the knife into the leg wraps, went to the city gate triumphantly, ate a bowl of glutinous rice balls, chatted for a while, and left Chenzhou in two days. There are about two groups in our team name.First I took a small boat up, and walked for about seven days to a place where I could not get on a boat when I went out for the first time, and then walked on dry road for another three days, and then arrived at Yushuwan, Dongxiang, which belongs to Yuanzhou.This time, since we were ordered to come here to clear the countryside, every time we arrived at a fort along the road, we enjoyed the hospitality of steamed goose fat and bacon from the rich gentry in that fort, but on the small road in the mountains, we were sneered at by the locals countless times attack.Once when we passed through two narrow valleys covered with small bamboos, a gunshot slapped, and one of us fell down.Hearing gunshots, seeing dead people, and searching those bamboo forests again, there was no result.So he unloaded the gun from the dead body, cut down two big bamboos and tied it up, and lifted him up, and the group of people started on the road again.During the two-day journey, two more of our troops died, but in the end we killed nearly 2,000 people in that place.Nearly 700 people were also killed in Huaihua town. When we arrived, we were stationed on the upper floor of Tianhou Palace together with the Qingxiang Command.On the second day, when the commanders of various regiments came to see the commander to provide supplies, at the same time they tied forty-three honest countrymen with ropes. That night, the military judge went through the court once, and each of them was questioned according to the crimes submitted. A few words, each person was given a board and a stick according to the severity of the crime. Twenty-seven of them drew a confession during the punishment, painted their palms with ink and took hand models. The next day, we surrounded the group. Twenty-seven countrymen went to Tianpingli outside the city and had their heads beheaded. Nearly thirty people were killed at one time, and five more were killed at the second time.Since then, they have been arresting people all the time. When they are arrested from various places, they will write a happy knot when they plead guilty, admitting to pay several rows of Qingxiang bullets, or a big gun of some kind, and then release them on bail.Those who are unable to pay the donations, or those who hate the gentry who have already spent some money to campaign must be beheaded, they will be randomly listed as a crime, and when the time comes, they will be taken out of the city and chopped down.Although those who plead guilty are said to hand over their guns and ammunition, they actually have no guns and ammunition. As usual, the price is converted into money. Each gun is equivalent to 180 yuan, and each bullet is 1.5 cents per row. Most of them send someone to pick up the cash.As soon as the money was delivered, the military supply officer and the adjutant checked that the amount was good, and the person could be released on bail at that time.It was customary, and it seemed quite reasonable. The records of murders are increasing day by day, but we don't have to go out to arrest people. As usual, most of the criminals are sent by the chief landlords of the village regiments.Sometimes we also send people to arrest Tuan Zong, fine him a sum of money and then let him go home.The local people are very ruthless. Around Min 3, Chen Yuan Dao Yin, surnamed Huang, killed about 2,000 people there. When the army does this kind of thing, it only kills 2,000 people! From that place, it is about 90 miles up to Yuanzhou County, and about 60 miles down to Qianyang County.A river can go up to Yuping in Guizhou Province, and down through the Hongjiang River, an important commercial port in western Hunan, to Chenzhou.It is considered a medium water terminal in Chenhe River. There is an episode every five days as usual in that place, and on this day, there are pork, beef and other things to buy.In addition to taking advantage of the contradictions of the squires, we used the local detectives hired by the money to get money in disguise, and often went to the bustling crowds of the market to designate who was the spy sent by the bandit department, and then arrested them and brought them back to the camp. After a search, some codes were found, and when he was determined to be a spy sent by the bandits, he was immediately led out of the camp, to the bridgeheads where the country people often come and go, chopped off the spy's head, and spread it on the ground. A pool of blood.After the killing, everyone admired it for a while, or kicked the dead body twice, kicked his stomach, as if they had finished a serious job, and dispersed to do things if they had other things. During the four months I lived in this place, there are two things that I can never forget in my memory.One is when there are live shows, you can often see two countrymen duel due to hatred, slashing each other with knives of the same weight and color until one of them lies down.I have seen this kind of duel twice, and their method seems fairer than all the duels in my place.The other one is the very young daughter of the president of the chamber of commerce. After she died of illness and was buried, she was dug out of the grave by a young tofu seller in the street that night, and carried to a cave to sleep for three days before being sent back to the grave. go.Later, when this matter was discovered by others, the man who beat the tofu was escorted to our yamen, and then executed on the spot.A little while before his execution, he was still clear-headed, not confused, neither eating, drinking, nor cursing, and only silently noticed his injured ankle.I asked him: Who hurt the foot?He shook his head, as if remembering something ridiculous, smiled for a while, and said softly: It rained that day, and I sent her back, and I almost rolled into the coffin.I asked him again: Why did you do this?He still smiled and looked at me, as if I was a child who would not understand what love is, and ignored me, but after a while, he said softly to himself: beautiful, beautiful very.Another soldier said: Madman, I am going to kill you, are you afraid?He said: This is nothing to be afraid of.Are you afraid of death?The soldier was a little shy after being asked the rhetorical question, so he threatened him loudly, saying, "Fucking mad dog, aren't you afraid of death?"I'm going to kill you crazy head in a while!The man then smiled weakly again, and then fell silent.That smile seemed to say: I don't know who is crazy.I remember this smile, and it is still very clear in my memory for more than ten years.