Chapter 6 Chapter 06

1 In the rainy season of 1998, I stayed in Maesle with my guide Xiaomi, and together with Qian Dayu went deep into Mengsa for interviews. There was a problem with Qian Dayu's business in Mengsa. It was said that a batch of medicinal materials had been put in water, which means it was stolen.Qian Dayu looked a little frustrated, I proposed to go with him, and he readily agreed after hesitating for a moment.Mongsa is about 200 kilometers away from Maesle, where I stayed, on a mountain road. It is a long dam in Myanmar, and its strategic position is very important.The strategic position I am referring to is of course the war years and now Mansa is at peace with government agencies stationed there.Our car went through the simple customs clearance procedures in Tachileik and started on the road. A bumpy dirt road stretches from the Thai-Myanmar border. There is a large area of ​​virgin rainforest outside the window along the way. It is dark and exciting, but unfortunately we did not see the expected wild animals. .From the map of Myanmar, the Da (Qili) Meng (Sa) Highway is an old road, and several sections of it are marked with dotted lines, indicating that it is not smooth or cannot pass during the rainy season. I found that, in fact, the whole road should be marked with a dotted line. There are only more than 100 kilometers in Myanmar, and we bumped for a whole day!Until it got dark, and finally saw some sparse lights flickering in front of the car window as if floating from the sea, Qian Dayu said: "Mengsa is here."

Nearly half a century ago, earth-shaking changes took place in the frontier of Yunnan adjacent to the Golden Triangle. The chieftain system was abolished, and the tribal peoples directly entered the public ownership society from the primitive society, and then moved towards the market economy.But one day at the end of the twentieth century, when I got out of the car covered in dust and exhaustion, and set foot on the land of Monsa with a video camera, camera and interview bag, I was surprised to find myself standing in a building that exuded a gloomy and decaying atmosphere. medieval toast castle gate.

Soon I got to know Dao Guiting, a local chieftain of Shan State. This Chieftain Dao has a little relationship with Qian Dayu. He is a distant relative of the famous Chieftain Dao Dongxi (sound) in Mengsa decades ago, also known as Qian Dayu's grandfather.At first I guessed that maybe the so-called chieftain was just an honorary title, like the Queen of England, Queen of the Netherlands, and those noble titles, which only marked your noble blood and family origin, and had no social privileges or practical significance. Soon I realized how wrong I was.This is a specimen exhibition hall in a feudal society, and the toast is just the toast, genuine, no different from the toast hundreds of years ago.

The majestic Chieftain's Mansion looks to me as simple and ridiculous as a medieval warrior covered in rust. It is a stone village covering a large area, with gates, bamboo buildings and many tall and low houses with iron roofs, and the floor is paved with stone slabs. , tenacious weeds grow in the crevices of the stone slabs, which makes people feel like the location of a movie.The only thing that can be called grand is that there are many servants carrying guns, that is, private armed forces. The servants are all Shan people and wear black or white Shan clothes.There are also many slaves and servants. Qian Dayu said that these people have no personal freedom and belong to the chieftain's private property.I was deeply horrified, and said: "What era is this? Is there still serfdom?" Qian Dayu said contemptuously: "What is this? In the past, my grandfather was much more majestic, and there were more than a hundred slaves alone. "

Chieftain is a fifty-year-old man with a few thin mouse whiskers on his upper lip. He wears a suit with a cage (men's skirt) underneath. He sits on a bamboo mat with two male servants kneeling behind him. Take turns shaking a huge cattail fan.As soon as the guests sat down, someone came up to shake the cattail fan.The climate in Mengsa is hot, and there are swarms of small mosquito bites. The cool breeze drives away the heat and mosquitoes for us.But I saw that the fan was sweating profusely. This reminded me of those class education exhibitions in the 1960s. I felt sorry and unfair.Qian Dayu restrained my urge, he explained: "This is the rule, you just have to bear with it for a while." I asked in puzzlement: "Why doesn't the toast use a fan or air conditioner? They have electric lights!" Qian Dayu replied: "This It's the chieftain, only the chieftain will have someone to shake a fan for you."

Qian Dayu talked to the chieftain in Shan, which I couldn't understand, but I could feel that the chieftain didn't warmly welcome us.Qian Dayu said that he told the chieftain that I am a Chinese writer and I want to visit Mengsa, hoping to get his permission.The chieftain said that many people are now doing business with China, and someone hid "No. 4" (heroin) in his cargo of knives and chieftains, which caused him to suffer losses.He asked if I could go back and talk to the Chinese officials and return his goods to him?I said that I will report it to the relevant department for you when I go back.Qian Dayu asked me in a low voice: "Are you really going to accommodate him?" I said: "How can I. I am a soft-spoken person, how can I have the ability to do these ghost things for him, and how do I know if he is smuggling drugs?" Qian Daewoo whispered: "Yes, don't believe his nonsense. In the Golden Triangle, the real big drug dealers are powerful people, and the poor run errands for them."

Unexpectedly, the toast was very happy after hearing my words, and invited us to a meal at a banquet.During the dinner, I learned that this chieftain had married seven wives, all of whom were raised in the mansion.I was dumbfounded, how could a man marry seven women?Qian Dayu said: "That's not too much. My grandfather has more than ten wives." I said dissatisfied: "Qian Dayu, do you have a chieftain complex? What a glorious wife!" Later he explained that in Shan State, Too much wealth means the same thing as mules and horses. Toasts have to compare with each other, and whoever has too much wealth will have face.

Dao chieftain's territory, from Mengsa to Xiaomengpeng, and then to Mengsai River Valley, is about hundreds of square kilometers, and the territory of Qian Dayu's grandfather and former Mengsa chieftain Daodongxi was several times larger than this nearly 50 years ago !No wonder Qian Dayu was extremely proud when he mentioned it.Once upon a time, Daodongxi was once the most prominent chieftain in the Golden Triangle, and no one could compare with it.I said, "Why did your grandfather fall into poverty? What caused him to have nothing?" I saw clouds of sorrow welling up in his eyes, as if the sun were eclipsed by devil's wings.He sighed softly, "Brother, this is a long, long story."

I thought of another question at the same time, and I said, "How did your father, Qian Yunzhou, a regular soldier of the Kuomintang, marry a Shan chieftain lady? Is it because of love, or because of political or other needs?" He lowered his head and covered his eyes, and I saw tears dripping from between his fingers.I was shocked, overwhelmed, and begged for his forgiveness.After a long time, he wiped his red eyes and said, "Please don't mind, brother, it's the wind that blows the sand into your eyes." That night, my friend Qian Dayu got drunk in his hometown, Mengsa, his birthplace.drunk.

2 Li Guohui, who smashed the siege by the government army, solemnly declared: We (the remnants of the army) are relying on the soil to support our lives, and we will return to the mainland in the future, but the Myanmar government will not even give this little tolerance, so we have to fight with our backs... These words come from an old man His personal memory, which he relayed to a visiting mainland writer many years later, took place in a mountain village called Malutang in the Golden Triangle. Although I understand the situation of Li Guohui and others fifty years ago, I think every sentence he said is true, but the truth is not tenable anyway.It is not the master's fault that you rushed into a sovereign country in a hurry, so it is the master's right whether you want to "borrow land", which does not mean that you have a reason to fight for it.The Japanese wanted to establish a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in China, but the Chinese people disagreed, so Japan went to war against China.General Li is a soldier who fought in the War of Resistance, suffered hardships and was injured, but when facing a weak and small nation, his logic was on the side of imperialism.

Dao Dongsi, another chieftain of Shan State who was a victim of this Han Chinese invasion, also shared my view.He is a hereditary chieftain. His family has been the supreme master and ruler of this land for hundreds of years. It can be traced back to the Toungoo Dynasty. Symbol and continuation in the land.Although the imperial power collapsed later, the chieftain system in Shan State has not been shaken, and the ancient land still grows and maintains the ancient authority. However, the intrusion of the Han army directly trampled on this ancient and fragile Tusi system, making Dao Tusi the first victim of international power politics in the Golden Triangle.The Han army "borrowed soil to support their lives" in their territory, saying "borrow" is polite and diplomatic, because they don't need to ask the master's consent at all. The cannons are all defeated, so what about your little Shan chieftain? Recently, people have been reporting to the chieftain that the Han people are building large-scale construction projects in Xiaomengpeng, recruiting soldiers, repairing fortifications, building bunkers, and armed escorts for smuggling.There is also news that the Han people will set up cards to collect taxes on commercial roads, and merchants must pay taxes for opium business.These signs show that the hateful Han army has no intention of leaving at all. They want to settle down in the private territory of the big chieftain and stay there for a long time. The problem is getting worse and worse.The big chieftain was so worried that he couldn't sleep or eat, and he seemed to have lost weight.Someone is sleeping soundly on the side of the couch, but you have nothing to do. When the Han army wants to drive him away, wouldn't it be easy for a Nestle to occupy him? Dao Dongxi, the great chieftain of Shan State, was forced to walk into the gate of social change in this kind of helpless despair. On this day, the chief steward stumbled in to make an announcement, and General Li Guohui, the commander-in-chief of the revival force, came to ask for an audience. The big chieftain's bong fell to the ground, and he was stunned, or trembling with fright, wondering why the Han general came to the door in person, whether it was a good thing or a bad thing?Did they know that he was the one who informed the Yangon government and wanted to settle accounts with him?Or come and ask him for things, pay taxes?Send money and rations?Want draft horses?Want a woman?He should have called the wizard to make a hexagram to test the ominous fortune, but it was too late, the Han general had arrived at the door, so Chieftain Mengsa almost had the courage to welcome Li Guohui and his party into the mansion tremblingly. The Han general had a modest attitude. He politely introduced Tan Zhong, the deputy commander in chief, and Qian Yunyi, the chief of staff, to the chieftain through a Shan interpreter, and then said some kind words.The meaning expressed by the Han people is that the revival troops are temporarily living in the chieftain's territory, borrowing the soil to support their lives, expressing their deep apology and gratitude for the disturbance caused to the chieftain, and praising the generosity and virtue of the chieftain.In fact, Li Guohui's heart is as clear as a mirror, and it was the chieftain in front of him who rushed to inform Yangon that a war was brought in from outside the mountain. The big chieftain blinked his small eyes, and said in confusion: "General Li likes...to be chieftain?" The Han people all laughed, and the interpreter replied: "The general likes to be friends with a chieftain like you." The big chieftain shook his head and said, "A friend's soldiers shouldn't march into a friend's territory... You should go somewhere else." Li Guohui replied: "On the contrary, we made friends with the big chieftain because we wanted to borrow a treasure to live for a while, waiting for the order to counterattack the mainland." The big chieftain was very upset when he heard this, and he shook his head again and again and said, "You Han people build houses, fight wars, and do business on my territory, and you don't pay me poll tax or land rent. What kind of friends are you?" Li Guohui waved to the door and said: "Dear Chieftain, you are the host, and we are your guests. Of course, the guests should show sincerity to the host... Today we come to visit your house and bring a small gift, which is not a respect. Please accept the chieftain." A group of Han soldiers brought in several large wooden boxes from outside the door. The wooden boxes were so heavy that the soldiers swayed under the weight.The chieftain stared, not knowing what tricks the Han people were playing.However, when the lid of the wooden box was opened and the presents were placed in the yard one by one, the chieftain's mouth could not be closed, and his eyes suddenly shone brightly. It turned out that the "little gift" that the Han people called was actually twenty quick guns and a thousand yellow bullets.In the Golden Triangle, chieftain separatists and bandits are rampant. No priceless gifts are as valuable as weapons. Weapons mean conquest, power and everything.Most of the servants of Dao Tusi are still using old-fashioned gunpowder guns, which were the war weapons used by the British colonists to conquer the Asian aborigines two hundred years ago. Those bandits and robbers who occupy the mountains as kings are majestic with a few fast guns, and the cowhide is too big to support them. Who wouldn't covet those shiny blue guns and ammunition? In short, Dao Tusi was stunned by the generosity of the Han people, just like a peddler who was rewarded with a thousand yuan bill.In any case, weapons are as important as the chieftain's life, and he sees the value of being friends with Han people from this.The chieftain was pleasantly surprised and held a large banquet, and passed down a message that the Shan youths would beat the elephant foot drums, and the girls dance the graceful peacock dance.During the dinner, he called out his youngest son and recognized Li Guohui as his adoptive father on the spot. 3 As the months passed, Chieftain Dao watched the Han army continue to expand its power in his own territory, with tentacles densely covering the territory of Chieftain. This situation made Chieftain very disturbed.Although General Li assured him that it was only a temporary occupancy, who knew if they would turn their backs and seize all the property and wife of the master?The behavior of the Han army shows that they are more and more unwilling to leave. They have no signs of going to fight the Communist Party across the border. Although General Li gave the chieftain a generous gift, their personal relationship has developed well, they have become relatives, and the Han army does not disturb the people in his territory, and the discipline is strict, but outsiders are outsiders after all, and chickens and peacocks cannot be mixed together, so The army became a heart disease under the chieftain's nose.Fifty years ago, the chieftain of Shan State was faced with a historical problem that had no answer. Neither the father of the chieftain nor the father of the old chieftain could catch up with it, so it was destined to be answered only by him.This situation is very similar to the bad mood of the Qing Dynasty in the face of foreign invasion after the Opium War, but the concessions were all over the land. The problem is that the situation is not determined by the mood. Later, a "little Han" (overseas Chinese) housekeeper offered a trick.He said that in the past, in order to eliminate the threat from the Han people in the north, the Bagan Dynasty in Myanmar adopted a "peace" policy, marrying the princess to China, or marrying the Han princess to Myanmar.In Shan State, chieftains intermarry each other in order to form a strong chieftain alliance.Since ancient times, there have been historical anecdotes about Princess Wencheng entering Tibet and Zhaojun leaving the fortress, which have been compiled into operas and sung from generation to generation.Since it is not good to fight, it is better to be relatives and use the power of the Han people to suppress other Shan chieftains. The specific method is to recruit relatives, marry the young chieftain to the "Zhaolong" (senior official) of the Han people, and then order the villages to follow suit. Shan people who are son-in-laws of military officers will be rewarded heavily by the chieftain. When I first heard this story, I admired it deeply and lamented that it is an ancient national wisdom that integrates history, culture, politics, diplomacy and physiology. "And marriage" is a tactic, to put it bluntly, it is "beauty tricks", using beauties as shells, using softness to overcome strength, to achieve the goal that war cannot achieve.For the despondent chieftain, this trick suits his appetite, because in the Golden Triangle, women are not very valuable, and no matter how useless a man is, he can get two or three wives with a load of opium or a few horses .Chieftain Dao has more than a dozen wives, and he has so many daughters that he can't count them all. Of course, we can't expect all of them to marry princes and nobles, so it is worthwhile to play the role of "marriage". On the issue of dealing with the Han invaders, due to the lack of historical experience as a reference, we can only cross the river by feeling the stones.Tusi Dao sent out a caravan, with peace envoys on horseback in Shan uniforms, to bring this beautiful and urgent wish to the Han army.It is said that an unprecedented commotion was caused in the barracks that day.In fact, Li Guohui, the commander-in-chief, could not understand the chieftain's intention of recruiting relatives. The drunken man's intention is not to drink, but the revival troops "borrow the soil to support their lives", and how to build a good relationship with the master is also a big matter, so he advocated to have a relationship with the chieftain. marriage.It's hard to say who is using whom in this matter, maybe both parties benefit. This is the first time in the history of the Golden Triangle that Shan and Han recruited relatives with great fanfare. We regard it as an important link leading to future stability and unity. We say that times make heroes, and times make marriages, and the historical responsibility of this cross-border marriage falls on my friend Qian Dayu’s father Qian Yunzhou. It is difficult to say that this is a kind of luck, and it is also difficult to say that it is a kind of misfortune, because among the officers above the Kuomintang detachment at that time, only the chief of staff Qian Yunzhou was unmarried, although he stated that his fiancée was in Kunming.On the contrary, Meng Baoye, the detachment leader who had already had two wives in the mainland, was very happy with the marriage and volunteered to contribute to the unity of the nation.Li Guohui felt that Meng Baoye was disrespectful in vying to be the son-in-law of the barbarian chieftain, so he scolded him bloody and dared not make a sound. Chieftains are not all stupid, they also have their own intelligence work.A few days later, the team of recruiting envoys entered the Han barracks again. This time he brought the original words of the chieftain Dao, and named him to recruit Chief of Staff Qian Yunzhou as his son-in-law.The chieftain will accompany him with a rich dowry and property, all in accordance with the customs of the Han people. He has sixteen unmarried daughters, who will be selected by the chief of staff, and he will agree with them. It is said that in Shan State, only the relatives of the royal family and the local administrators who have a higher status than the chieftain are so flattered.If the chieftain's kindness is not accepted, he will be regarded as an enemy.Even the highest treatment of the emperor's relatives and relatives was rejected. Isn't the big chieftain humiliating in the Golden Triangle? Qian Yunzhou has no way out, he is destined to be tied to the chariot of marriage.Meng Baoye volunteered to be a stand-in, and the chieftain sent word that he promised to marry the headman's daughter to the detachment leader.That is to say, the chieftain thinks that the standard of Captain Meng is not high enough.Li Guohui had no choice but to personally persuade Qian Yunzhou to accept the marriage.I understand that Qian Dayu's father must have been very distressed fifty years ago. On the one hand, he had nowhere to serve the country, and was pessimistic and disappointed. On the other hand, the chief wanted him to marry a chieftain lady whom he had never met. This was really an absurd and chaotic era. Everything is messed up, and everything is involuntary, drifting with the tide, why is love more expensive?However, Qian Dayu praised his father for being very wise at that time, for abandoning the Kunming girl in his dream and choosing his mother in time, otherwise God knows where his son would still be twitching! On the day of the blind date, many Han military officers went to the chieftain of Mengsa, as if celebrating the New Year, with lanterns and colorful decorations, pigs and sheep were slaughtered, and the distinguished guests were grandly entertained.The chieftain sat on a bamboo mat, and behind all the distinguished guests were kneeling servants shaking fans, just like the treatment I received in the chieftain's mansion later.Qian Yunzhou is the future bridegroom official and the center of the wedding banquet. As a matter of course, everyone made a fuss and drank a lot of wine, so he was top-heavy and drunk and his eyes were hazy.When the unique Shan nationality blind date ceremony began, the chieftain's 16 daughters were dressed up like immortals, and they floated down from the sky gracefully and danced a graceful peacock dance.Qian Yunzhou stared with drunken eyes, dazzled, felt that it was not reality, like a dream, like the fairies descending from the myths and legends, the fairies dangled in front of his eyes, all of them were beautiful and hazy.He rubbed his eyes vigorously, still looking at the moon in the water and the flowers in the mist, he couldn't distinguish the eyebrows and eyes clearly.Everyone laughed, and he laughed too, and then he hugged a fairy in a water-green dress presumptuously, arched his head into the skirt, and said inarticulately: "Come, come, just, that's..." Then he was drunk fell to the ground. So the little chieftain daughter named Ruina became the wife of Qian Yunzhou and the mother of my friend Qian Dayu, and the history of Hanshan marriage in the Golden Triangle opened a new page. Soon Meng Baoye also married a Shan wife as he wished, and gave birth to my other Golden Triangle friend Meng Xiaoye. This is a later story.Since then, there have been intermarriages between Han military officers and local Shan people. Li Guohui began to realize the seriousness of the problem and was deeply worried.In the long run, marriage is a corrosive agent. If more chieftains flock to recruit Han officers as sons-in-law, and use their daughters as bait to bind the officers' hands and feet, just like spiders bind the hands and feet of their prey, in the future They have become a group of ordinary people with their children and children. What kind of mainland will the army counterattack, what kind of battle will it fight, and whose orders will it obey?Li Guohui's worries are not unreasonable. The problem is that the trend of the times is unstoppable. When foreign seeds fall to the ground, can you stop them from taking root and sprouting?Back then, the headquarters of the Revival Forces issued many strict orders that officers were not allowed to intermarry with locals without approval, and those who disobeyed the orders were reduced to soldiers. 4 Just when the subtropical monsoon was weakening gradually, the torrential rain was beginning to thin out, and the annual hot and unbearable dry season was coming again, the radio station that had been silent for a long time sounded the long-lost call signal again.A secret message was delivered to Li Guohui.The telegram was sent by the Ministry of National Defense of Taiwan, and it only had one line: Important guests will arrive soon.