Chapter 2 Chapter two

It was as if they had stepped into the ancient barbaric era when the world was first opened, and the insignificance of human beings and the chaotic grandeur of nature were thrown in front of Qu Ping, the captain's officer.She often had an illusion, feeling that she was shrinking and getting lighter little by little, and would eventually turn into a cloud of milky white mist floating between the sky and the earth. The sky is no longer visible, and the subtropical luxuriant forest deprives humans of the clear sky and fiery sun with its boundless majesty and impenetrable depth.The forest path opened up by the vanguard is gloomy, like an endless dark tunnel. On both sides of the tunnel are unknown tall and towering trees, whose roots are surrounded by waist-deep weeds and shrubs; milky white mist The green and purple mist is constantly floating out of the bushes, and occasionally there are some fluttering birds and snakes that walk through it.

The sky is lost, but the earth has not drifted away. The earth is real. The earth is under Qu Ping's feet. She is measuring it step by step with her feet that should be wearing embroidered shoes, leaving it behind one after another, into the future in memory. It was the sixth day since the troops set off, and it was also the fourth day since they entered the big forest on Savage Mountain. The snake-like team was swallowed up by the big forest section by section, and the marching people became in twos and threes.The Iron Five Army is no longer an army, but a large-scale migratory group that lives on its own.The various groups organized by the Political Department have become small families in this huge ethnic group.Qu Ping believed that it was because she was in this small family that she did not disappear into a cloud of white mist.

She walked among the crowd, with her old classmate Qi Zhijun in front and Shang Wuqiang, Colonel and Deputy Director of the Political Department behind.Sandwiched between these two men, she felt a sense of security.When climbing the slopes and rocks, Qi Zhijun pulled her in front and Shang Wuqiang pushed her behind.Qi Zhijun's hands were always wet when he pulled her, and it was hard to tell whether it was dew or sweat; Shang Wuqiang sometimes pushed her waist, sometimes supported her hips, and she felt very unnatural at first, her heart was always beating wildly, and then, Also get used to it.After all, survival is primary, and shyness is not worth mentioning in front of the needs of survival.She can't fall behind, if she falls behind, her lonely life will be lost.Besides, she also deeply loves Shang Wuqiang. In Tonggu, she promised him that they would get married as soon as they returned to China.

She didn't expect to get married so early. After "August 13" and a dozen of Qi Zhijun's classmates joined the field service group, she made up her mind not to get married until the War of Resistance was won.She didn't expect that the war of resistance would reach the point where it is today. She thought that within three or four years, the national army would defeat the Japanese and a peaceful life would come again.Unexpectedly, after the fall of Shanghai, the capital Nanjing fell, Xuzhou fell, Wuhan and Guangzhou fell, and the government retreated to the accompanying capital Chongqing.She and her classmates, since the "August 13th" in the 26th year, accompanied the national government and the national army all the way to Chongqing, and finally transferred to Chongqing.On the way to Hankou, she and Qi Zhijun applied for the Military Commission's Wartime Cadre Training Corps. After graduating from the short training, she and Qi Zhijun were assigned to the Chongqing Branch of the Central Military Academy as cultural teachers.Thirty years ago, that is, last autumn, he was transferred to the Political Department of the Fifth Army as a captain and officer, and was ordered to accompany the army from Kunming to Burma to fight side by side with the Allied forces.When the five armies set off, the war situation was already very critical. The Pacific War had already broken out. The Japanese army launched a comprehensive and fierce offensive on the Asia-Pacific battlefield. Bad news came one after another: the Japanese army marched into Vietnam, peeped at our country's Yunnan and Guangxi, and threatened the rear of Chongqing.Then came the catastrophic January.On January 2, the Japanese army occupied Indonesia; on the 25th and 26th, the Japanese army landed in New Ireland and the Solomon Islands respectively.The British allied forces in the Asia-Pacific battlefield were at a disadvantage, and the Japanese army pointed at Burma. The only international communication line for the allies to aid China was about to be cut off.They hurried to Burma. Unexpectedly, not long after entering Burma, the Japanese army captured Yangon, and pressed them from south to north, all the way to the edge of the Nu River in China...

However, not all the battles they fought with the Iron Five Army were defeated.Their army was named and transferred by the Allied Command, and entered Burma in advance.They fought bloody battles against Tonggu, Swa, and Pingmanna. They fought many tough battles and won.They walked into the forest of death today, and the responsibility is definitely not theirs. In the autumn of the twenty-sixth year, when she retreated from the isolated island of Shanghai with the army, she was seventeen years old, and she was still a middle school student who had just bid farewell to her books. Today, five years later, she is already twenty-two years old. She has grown up and has been tested by blood and fire. , became a captain officer.

War compresses life. The road of life is sometimes as short as a dream. She promised Shang Wuqiang in Tonggu.She is getting married.She really couldn't see how long this war would last.But she firmly believes that the government and the Chinese army can win this war.She thought that even if her monk Wu Qiang was old and dying, their sons and daughters would take over the guns in their hands and fight this war that determined the survival of the nation until they were completely victorious. The first time she met Shang Wuqiang was in a military camp near Kunming.Before going abroad, the military department announced a three-day special holiday, and the film projection team went to their resident to show movies.She is not a local, so she did not go home. After dinner, she wrote a letter home to her parents in Chongqing, and went to the temporary barracks to watch a movie. She liked that movie very much and had watched it before. Yes, she remembers the name very clearly, it's called "Peach and Plum Tribulation".As the screen changes, the familiar melody sounds in the heart-shaking melody:

She couldn't help tapping the beat with her feet, and hummed softly: When she was intoxicated by the amazing singing, a man's hand touched her face, and she let out a cry. Almost at the same time, a man's equally panicked voice sounded from the darkness in front of him: "I'm sorry! I... I'm really sorry! I... I, I just came in and I can't see..." She could see him.With the light shining on the screen, she saw his handsome face turned sideways, and saw half of his tall nose bridge with shining spots of light. She blushed and said: "nothing." In this way, he quietly walked past her and walked into her heart step by step; later he wrote letters to her, one after another, whether it was camping or marching; later, he began to become the fantasy of her life part of her life; and later, he became the support point of her life...

Walking in this gloomy and lonely primeval forest, she didn't feel afraid.She believes that he will protect her at any time, and she also believes that he is fully capable of protecting her.On the last night before turning into the mountains, she admired his performance in times of crisis, and she was proud of him.His calm, majesty, and iron will infected her, and lifted her from her depression. That night, he was beyond reproach—including pointing the black muzzle of the gun at the brother's chest, it was all reasonable.Without this, the chaos of hopelessness becomes unmanageable.She realized this with hindsight.At that time, she didn't understand him, and even thought he was a cold-blooded animal.

She was wrong. She is not a man. When we came to a small puddle in the mountains, the sky gradually darkened, and there was no one in front of or behind the mountain road.She was so tired that she couldn't walk anymore, she wanted to sit down and rest, and wash her face with water from the puddle. Section Chief Wu Shengnan, who was walking in front of Qi Zhijun, said to Shang Wuqiang: "Director Shang, it's getting late, and there's water here again, let's camp here tonight!" Shang Wuqiang looked at the watch on his wrist and nodded. She was so happy that she took out the towel from her backpack, forgot about her fatigue for a while, and hopped like a deer to the puddle to wash her face.Unexpectedly, I ran to the puddle and saw a wet military cap was thrown on the stone beside the puddle. A man whose face was not visible had half of his head submerged in the puddle and fell dead there. There are a few rotten leaves floating on it.

She cried out in horror: "Dead... dead... a dead man!" Shang Wuqiang and Qi Zhijun all ran over. They looked around the body. Shang Wuqiang's eyes were sharp, and he found a long piece of gauze pressed with a gun on a stone next to the corpse, with a few words written in blood on it: "Still water is poisonous"! The word "poison" was written in a large size, and the blood had condensed it into a dark brown ball. Shang Wuqiang was moved and murmured: "What a good brother! When he was dying, he did not forget to tell the comrades behind him about the danger!"

Qi Zhijun and Old Zhao Tou silently lifted the victim up from the puddle, and put the general cap on him.Qu Ping and Wu Shengnan found some banana leaves and covered his body. When covering the victim's face with a banana leaf, Qu Ping suddenly felt that this face was very familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere?She called Shang Wuqiang to come and see.Shang Wuqiang took a look and recognized that this brother sleeping here is the wounded platoon leader Zhao Laohei who pointed his chest at his muzzle last night. Shang Wuqiang was silent, and took off his military cap first. Qu Ping and other comrades in the group also took off their military caps. This was the first corpse they encountered after entering the mountain. On the tree pole next to the corpse, they wrapped the gauze written by the victim with his blood and life: "The stagnant water is poisonous!" The exclamation mark was added by Qi Zhijun biting his own finger with the same bright red blood... Since there was no water source, Shang Wuqiang ordered to move on. After walking for more than an hour, they found a small stream on the side of the road and found a shack built by the previous travelers. They camped in a shack by the creek. Qu Ping saw Shang Wuqiang leaving the creek and going into the bushes, and she followed, but within two steps, she saw a snake crawling past her toes. she called out. Shang Wuqiang turned around and said: "Don't be afraid, follow me!" She followed closely, and the smell of sweat from Shang Wuqiang's back flew into her nostrils, and she didn't feel bad.A few times, the fair face was still attached.She was pulling the back of his military uniform with one hand, and holding the gun in the other. Shang Wuqiang didn't hold a gun in his hand.He was holding a dagger in his hand, Qu Ping never thought that Shang Wuqiang would carry a dagger, let alone that this dagger would be so useful along the way.Cutting plantains, chopping firewood... it all depends on this dagger. After lighting the bonfire and cooking some porridge, everyone centered on the shack and searched for edible wild animals separately.The crisis of hunger is imminent, and four teapots of rice per person obviously cannot finish this long road.Mi had to eat sparingly as much as possible. After walking a hundred meters into the depths of the forest, she was frightened, her hands shaking Shang Wuqiang's skirt, and her voice changed: "Wu Qiang, let's... let's go back! If we can't find the way, we will... be in trouble!" Shang Wuqiang smiled, inserted the dagger into his waist, and drew out his gun: "Don't be afraid, I'm here!" This is the proud voice of a man. She couldn't help snuggling into his arms. "But...but I will meet wild beasts, like wolves or something..." "Just hit one to satisfy my hunger!" When she said this, Shang Wuqiang's hand touched her chest, and she instinctively stepped back, leaving the embrace that made her so fascinated and nostalgic. Shang Wuqiang pulled her back to his chest with the hand holding the gun, and undid a button under her collar with the other hand, and inserted it into her military jacket.She suddenly felt weak all over, as if struck by lightning, the gun in her hand slipped down, she grasped Shang Wuqiang's wrist with both hands, and said in a low voice: "Wu Qiang, don't...don't do this!" Shang Wuqiang looked at her coldly, and uttered a few words from his tightly pursed bruised lips: "you belong to Me!" She wanted to resist, but the words she said were so soft and weak: "But...not now!" "You promised to marry me!" "Wu Qiang, I... I beg you, don't be like this, okay? What time is it now? We... Let's go back to China and..." She struggled to take a step back, but still couldn't get rid of that stubborn and stubborn hand. "No! It's now! Savage Mountain stretches for thousands of miles, you and I might not be able to get out! Let's get married here! Look, how wonderful it all is. The sky is used as a quilt, and the ground is used as a bed..." He was talking excitedly, his eyes were shining, and the muscles on his face were trembling. Suddenly, he hugged her tightly, making her breathless.He kissed her on the face, on the forehead, on the lips.When she raised her face, he kissed her slender neck and her breast. She is broken.Reason could no longer control her body, she fell limply, and the combined force of the two bodies overwhelmed a few wide dewy banana leaves.She felt some dew falling on her face and forehead. She closed her eyes in fear, waiting for the most mysterious scene in her life that would happen sooner or later... Yes, he is right.She belongs to him.Maybe they will both sleep forever in this strange land in a foreign country.They should have free command over their joys and loves while life is theirs. But for some reason, she thought of the short and fat wounded soldier who died and the platoon leader Zhao Laohei who died beside the poisonous water pit, and then, she also thought of the young face of an Allied second lieutenant.She didn't want to think about them, but their dead faces kept flashing before her eyes. "No! No! I don't..." The voice was vague and ethereal, as if it came from the distant sky, and she didn't know if it was her own voice. Everything has happened, the him that belongs to her is firmly pressed on her body, like an active and unstoppable volcano, a heat flow that has never been experienced before, mixed with pain and sweetness, shyness and pleasure Every cell in her body boiled, and she couldn't help but hugged the volcano pouring down on her tightly... The plantain was shaking, and the sound was very loud in the dark woods.Qi Zhijun stopped in his tracks vigilantly, aiming the gun in the direction of the suspicious sound.I was really scared.He couldn't decide whether the one lying under the banana tree was a wolf, a rabbit, or a monkey?He didn't expect wild elephants, wild elephants are earth-shattering when they move.Besides, tens of thousands of people in the vanguard passed by, even if there were wild elephants, they had already fled to the depths of the forest in fright.He decided that the animal was not big, it was a wolf at most, maybe a wolf was devouring a hare or something, and he could approach it quietly, find it, and shoot it dead, so that at least a week's supply would be enough. Guaranteed. Still a little scared.Wolves are not easy to deal with.If he didn't find it, but it saw him first, jumped out of the darkness, and knocked him down, his hundred catties would be confessed in this ancient and uninhabited forest. Under his name in the roster, the word "missing" will be recorded, and no one would have thought that he would be eaten by wolves. He adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose, and looked at the plantain plant again under the faint skylight, trying his best to see through the living thing behind the moving plantain leaf, but he couldn't see it for a long time.It was too dark, and the sky was covered by branches and leaves, even the fifteenth moon could hardly shine into this dense forest. The sound was still there, the wide banana leaves were shaking gently, there seemed to be the sound of something scratching the ground, and there was a slight panting sound. He thought about it calmly, and decided it couldn't be a wolf.He thought of the wild boar, a small little wild boar that had lost its way.He didn't know if there were wild boars in this subtropical forest, but he thought there should be. A burst of joy. With a lot of courage, the cat bent down to have a look, and then looked at the surrounding bushes, and decided that there was no danger of life around, so he held the gun, carefully pushed aside the wild vines and bushes on the road ahead, and lightly Move lightly towards the plantain. He thought, he would never take any chances, no matter if it was a little wild boar or a wolf, if he saw it, he would shoot immediately. One step, two steps, three steps, suddenly, he saw the living creature.It was seen through waist-deep shrubs, behind a tall tree.He didn't recognize at once that it was two naked people entangled together.He saw a white mass, like a floating cloud.He was dumbfounded, and stayed against the trunk for a while before he understood the scene in front of him. Immediately thought of Shang Wuqiang and Qu Ping, besides these two, there would be no one else. Sure enough, he heard the groaning voice of a woman he was familiar with, and then heard Shang Wuqiang's deep and nasty voice: "Love you! Love you! My Ping! My..." Blood rushed to his forehead, the hand holding the gun trembled, and countless golden flowers swirled in front of his eyes, as if the sky was filled with stars.The body is also shaking, and the legs are weak.If it wasn't for the strong tree trunk, he might have fallen down. A damp, fishy smell penetrated his nostrils, and he was so sick that he wanted to vomit. He closed his eyes in pain. He stood against the trunk for a while longer. The illusion suddenly shattered, the icon was wrapped in filth, the sun fell into a puddle full of excrement and urine, and a romantic story ended. Late, late, late for everything.Hao Laosi was late in enlightening him, and he acted too late.Love is such a simple thing!All it takes is one brave move. He's so stupid, so stupid... He was not a man at all. There was another ringing in his ear, and Shang Wuqiang stood up from the ground. He saw Shang Wuqiang's broad back through the gap of the banana leaf. The back was steaming, as if he had just jumped out of the bath, and some poisonous mosquitoes were circling around. Flying on the back, there are a few rotten sores on the back after being bitten by mosquitoes. Shang Wuqiang's ugly back aroused his hot dreams, and he couldn't help raising his hand holding the gun, aiming the gun at the right side of the back. A male voice in the depths of the mind roars: "Shoot! Shoot! Kill him!" "No! No! This is too despicable! It's too despicable! Why did you, Qi Zhijun, shoot someone's black gun? Why? Do you love Qu Ping, does Qu Ping love you? She loves another man! You killed her Can the man you love get love? Love is a sacrifice. If you really love her, you should make a noble sacrifice. This is a great person!" He resisted the tyrannical male voice. The male voice was angry: "This is all hypocrisy and deceitful nonsense! Shoot! Shoot! Kill him, and kill her! What you can't get, he shouldn't get, and she shouldn't get it! They deserve to be exterminated! People live in The world is for possession, and what cannot be possessed should be destroyed!" His heart trembled, and he didn't know what to do. Tears welled up in his eyes, and the tears blurred his eyes.The spine in front of me became blurred, and later, the spine disappeared.He took off his glasses and wiped the tears from his eyes. When he saw the glasses, he couldn't help but think of the man's benefits, and couldn't lift the gun in his hand. At this time, Shang Wuqiang was already putting on his clothes, and while putting them on, he said to Qu Ping: "Ping, from now on, we are husband and wife. We must live like one person. When we go to India to rest and recuperate, we will have another lively wedding, okay?" Qu Ping was crying, sobbing and saying: "You shouldn't, you shouldn't..." The voice behind was too low for him to hear. "Shouldn't it?" Shouldn't what?Doesn't Qu Ping love Shang Wuqiang?Could it be that Shang Wuqiang took Qu Ping by force? The blood became hot again, and the gun in his hand was raised again.He thought, isn't the duel he has designed countless times just around the corner?He was holding the gun, and Shang Wuqiang was also holding the gun. They stood face to face at a distance, and with one bullet, they decided who belonged to a woman!This is not meanness, but the action of a civilized and noble gentleman.He had read many classical Russian love novels in middle school, and he was familiar with duel scenes.He used to love to write poetry, and was a follower of Pushkin for quite a long time before he arrived at the Political Department of the Fifth Army.Pushkin fell in a duel. He is not afraid to fall.If the god of luck is on Shang Wuqiang's side, even if he falls down, he will still smile at Jiuquan. Qu Ping will know how much he loves her. He quietly moved his body, moved from behind the tree to in front of the tree, clenched the gun tightly, put his index finger on the trigger, and was ready for a duel.He wants to act!action!Fail in action, or win in action! A manly man is born in seconds. However, he couldn't figure out whether Qu Ping knew his heart or not.If she knew, would she love her?He thinks that Qu Ping should know—although he never told her about it, but he escaped from a rich and educated home, joined her in the Field Service Corps, joined her in the Military Commission Cadre Training Corps, and her Isn't it a real gesture to go to Myanmar together?Could she not see it?Two months ago, during the battle guarding Pinmanna, amidst the rumbling guns, he even proposed to congratulate her on her birthday.It was her twenty-second birthday.He remembered her birthday clearly.He gave her a beautiful diary.On the title page of the diary, there is such a sentence: "Whether in the severe winter of war or in the spring of peace, love is with you!" When delivering the diary, he avoided Shang Wuqiang and other people from the Political Department, but he ran into a straggler Burmese officer and a second lieutenant of the British Allied Forces in the bunker.The British Allied lieutenant was called Glaston, but the name of the Burmese officer has been forgotten.He was a little embarrassed at the time, and explained to them clumsily: Today is Miss Qu Ping's birthday.The British second lieutenant Glaston and the Burmese officer also joined in the congratulations when they heard about it.They shared a bottle of English champagne from military teacups.Later, British Second Lieutenant Glaston said that he also had to send something to Miss Quping.He crawled out of the fortification to pick wild flowers.As a result, the Japanese aircraft launched an air strike, and a bomb fell on the second lieutenant.The second lieutenant was holding a bunch of fresh flowers that were still overflowing with sap in his hands, and lay down in a pool of blood. The petals and stems of the wild flowers were also covered with blood. Qu Ping fell on the body of this strange young Allied lieutenant and passed out from crying... He couldn't forget the scene in the bloody fire. Qu Ping will never forget this scene. After the grief, Qu Ping blamed him: "It's all you! It's all you! It's not you who mentioned my birthday, that British second lieutenant wouldn't..." But why did he mention her birthday, why did she remember her birthday so firmly, didn't she know? !he loves her!Love her!He even thought: It would be great if the second lieutenant of the Allied Army who dedicated his life for her became him... The gun trembled in his hand, it was not the fear of death, but the holy feeling of dedicating himself to love.He waited for Qu Ping to say what he wanted to hear, he even hoped that Qu Ping would jump up and slap Shang Wuqiang hard.He thought that as long as Qu Ping showed a little bit of hatred for Shang Wuqiang, he would act like a man, shout loudly, and stand up to a duel. What she just said: "No! You shouldn't..." There is absolutely no love in these words. When her thoughts were muddled, Qu Ping put on her clothes and stood up. Instead of scolding Shang Wuqiang severely and slapping him several times as he imagined, she rushed forward and hugged Shang Wu strong neck... He closed his eyes in disappointment. He didn't know how long it was before he woke up from the dream in front of him. Everything in front of him disappeared, including Qu Ping and Wu Qiang.The damp and fishy smell became stronger, and he couldn't help vomiting heartily, spilling all the thin rice soup that he had just eaten an hour ago on the ground. The calf of his left leg was very painful. When he touched it with his hand, he found that two dry leeches had penetrated into his flesh and were quietly plotting against him.He ignored it.He aimed the pistol in his hand, which he was planning to use to kill and fight, at his bloody forehead. A burning thought flew out of my mind like lightning: "The meaning of life is action. A life that cannot act for its own will is nothing but a bunch of walking dead..." The plantains and wild fruits were all picked up by batches of pioneers, and the people who returned to the shack one after another did not get much. Shang Wuqiang and Qu Ping got nothing. Liu Ganshi and Wu Shengnan planed two small plantain roots, which only the old Zhao used. The two snakes were killed by the stone, and they were brought back. Qu Ping was very afraid of snakes, so she asked Old Zhao to throw the snake outside. Old Zhaotou smiled honestly and said: "Miss Qu, you don't understand. Snake meat is delicious. Once the head is cut off, the skin is peeled off, washed and boiled in a pot, it's more delicious than chicken soup!" Old Zhao took out a small paper bag from his arms: "Here, I also brought a packet of salt, just for cooking snake meat!" Qu Ping said: "Old Master Zhao, then peel it off quickly, get rid of it quickly, I'm scared to see it like this!" "Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid! Girl, I'm going to clean up now!" After finishing speaking, he asked Shang Wuqiang for a dagger, and went to the stream to deal with the two snakes.The bonfire in front of the shack illuminated the rushing stream.Poisonous mosquitoes buzzed and flew in the shack. At this time, Section Chief Wu Shengnan found out that Qi Zhijun hadn't come back, so he blurted out and asked: "Why didn't Xiao Qi come back? Did any of you see him?" Everyone shook their heads. "Is something going to happen?" Shang Wuqiang thought for a while and said to Wu Shengnan. "Clean up and get ready to rest. It's getting late and you have to hurry tomorrow. Officer Liu, you and I will look around together!" Qu Ping got up from the ground and said: "I'll look for it too!" Shang Wuqiang said sternly: "Don't go, take a good rest!" Although Qu Ping was reluctant, she sat down obediently. After Shang Wuqiang and Officer Liu went out, they searched for a long time along the creek and around the shack, but they couldn't find it.Shang Wuqiang looked at the watch on his wrist and saw that the hour hand was pointing to "12", so he came back with Officer Liu. Wu Shengnan, Qu Ping and Lao Zhaotou in the shack were still awake, they were still waiting for Qi Zhijun anxiously. Shang Wuqiang guessed that Qi Zhijun had lost his way and couldn't get out of the big forest. He pulled out his gun and fired two shots into the night sky, trying to use the sound of the gun to give Qi Zhijun a direction to turn around the shack. However, Qi Zhijun did not come back until dawn. After dawn, they searched separately again, but they still couldn't find it, neither the person nor the corpse. Shang Wuqiang and Wu Shengnan discussed it, and decided to leave Director Liu and Old Zhao to continue searching and waiting, and the rest went first to find the next campsite. When going on the road in the fog, Qu Ping cried silently. She was worried that this honest male classmate would never come back...