Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen

1 I drove to the "GOLDEN TRIANGLE" with my guide Xiaomi and driver Xiao Dong.Qian Dayu went to Bangkok on business, he did not forget to arrange the next itinerary for me, unfortunately he could not accompany me.Sometimes I would have a ridiculous idea, wondering if he was Qian Daewoo, the son of Qian Yunzhou?Will there be an imposter?Maybe he changed his name to something else in another place, anyway, I have a lot of doubts about this person. The so-called Little Golden Triangle is the junction of Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos, where the Mae Sai River and the Mekong River meet to form a triangle between the two rivers.For centuries, it has been a trading port for border residents of the three countries, a smuggling distribution center, merchants from as far as China, Bangkok, and the Middle East gather here to do business, and sell opium, jade, fur, mountain products, and precious teak to the world through here.But now this place has declined as a market. I saw men and women in different dresses setting up small stalls here, border police and customs personnel gathered, and prohibited smuggled goods disappeared. Famous for its scenery and tourist attractions.

Looking around, the big river is surging, the mountains and forests are green, and it is a beautiful scene of beautiful wind and sunshine.People live peacefully and are busy earning money. There is no gunpowder under the sun and no war. But there is another triangle pattern deeply imprinted in my mind. It starts from Yunnan, China in the north, goes to Chiang Mai, Thailand in the south, and goes to the mountains in northern Laos in the east. , the famous Salween River and the Mekong River are its two sides. This big triangle became famous because of drugs and became the world-famous "Devil's Golden Triangle".

My guide Xiaomi and I boarded a robotic boat and traveled upstream along the muddy Mekong River. I was walking towards a time tunnel leading to the smoky past.In the heartland of the Golden Triangle on the upper reaches of the Mekong River, there is hidden an inconspicuous mountain flat called Jiangkou Bazi, which is sparsely populated and isolated from the world, like a paradise.However, there is an important period in the historical chronology of the Golden Triangle. After the Kuomintang withdrew from Taiwan, this little-known Jiangkou replaced Mengsa and became the new center of power for the remnants of the Kuomintang to dominate the Golden Triangle.Black smoke was emitted from the robot boat, and it rumbled on the river for several hours. Both sides are dense tropical rainforest and steep canyons. I know from books that in the last precious tropical rainforest in the world, the two rivers (Sa Irwin River, Mekong River) basin is one of them.I was surprised to see a group of wild monkeys climbing and jumping by the river, and saw a wild Asian elephant slowly walk out of the bushes and walk to the river to drink water.Seeing the ship passing by, the gentle giant just raised his head and stared at it for a moment, unmoved by human interference, and then lowered his head to concentrate on drinking water.

Going further, the surface of the river suddenly opened up, and the water flow became gentle. From a distance, we could see a long and narrow flat land beside the river bank, and a sharp iron roof was exposed under the big banyan tree.Xiaomi said, that is Jiangkou Village.There are hundreds of households in Jiangkou Village. They used to live a primitive and barbaric life, and the mountain people made a living by growing opium.In exchange for cloth, salt, kerosene and other items from the smugglers, it means that Jiangkou was once a den of drugs.Because of the inconvenient transportation, drug smuggling is still rampant.I remembered what Qian Dayu said, that the remnants of Kunsha were active in this area, and the situation was very complicated, so I couldn't help feeling a little worried.

When the boat docked, my first impression was that this is a dangerous and unpredictable world.Of course, I have to declare that this is not a conclusion, but a subjective impression, and it may be a preconceived illusion.Different from any tourist place (this is not a tourist place), the locals greeted the disembarking guests with a gloomy rather than warm look, although there were very few guests, basically me and the guide Xiaomi.They squatted in groups in front of their bamboo buildings, their gazes intertwined in the air like searchlights, their dark faces seemed to be poured out of rough stone moulds, you couldn't see any movement on such faces, but you could feel them Their gaze is unfriendly, alert, and premeditated.This really made me feel a little shudder down my back.

If Qian Dayu was by my side, I might feel more at ease.Although I don't know anything about his mysterious identity, he has rich experience and is at home in the Golden Triangle, at least he can guarantee my interview.Xiaomi is only a nineteen-year-old youth, so when I stayed that day, I said to Xiaomi: "Let's wake up a little bit at night, don't be foolish and let people do things." 2 The destination of my trip is Jiangkou, the old national army airport and the Maoer River Valley. Unlike Mengsa, this route has no roads and no cars. It is all mountain roads, which is the heart of the so-called Golden Triangle.Qian Dayu arranged for me to act with a commercial caravan when I arrived in Jiangkou. The owner of the caravan was a Thai Chinese named Meng Xiaoye.There are two purposes for my trip. One is to investigate and interview historical sites and relics. In the 1950s and 1960s, a war that caused a sensation in Southeast Asia and the world took place in this area.This war completely changed the power structure of the Golden Triangle and directly led to the rise of the opium warlords Luo Xinghan and Kun Sha.The second is that with a fluke mentality, I hope to have the opportunity to get some unexpected gains, such as interviewing (if possible) the leader of the drug cartel, secretly taking some photos of drug trafficking, and following the drug cartel for some field experience, etc.

Of course I know this is wishful thinking. If you were the leader of a drug cartel, would you be willing to be exposed?Would you like to be known about the inside story?But what inspired and supported my idea was a documentary film called "Golden Triangle Opium Warlords". It was filmed by the US Central Intelligence Agency in the Golden Triangle in 1970 and the mid-1980s.Americans were able to do it in the 1970s, which shows that there are still opportunities and omissions. The Golden Triangle is not monolithic. Based on this belief, I am determined to take a risk. As far as I know, the Golden Triangle is close to highways, waterways and other traffic belts, and drug trafficking activities are extremely hidden, or the drug dealers have moved to remote mountains with few people.Now the route I have chosen is far away from the traffic arteries, the distance is about 100 kilometers, and it is the heart of the Golden Triangle. No one guarantees me that I will deal with drug cartels, but opportunities and risks coexist.

It rained lightly the next day, and I walked around the village. This is a Shan village, and the life of the residents may be better than I imagined. I saw TV satellite antennas erected on the top of some bamboo buildings like pot lids.If there is television, there will be civilization, and there will be less ignorance and barbarism. This sight makes me feel a little bit relieved.All men, women and children here wear Shan costumes. Their skins are all blackened by the subtropical sun, and there is no sign of who is Han.I guess there should be Han people among them. Could it be that there were not many people left in the headquarters of the remnant Kuomintang army back then?

The other side of the river is the territory of Laos. The mountain people cross the river by relying on a kind of big bamboo raft commonly known as "water board". I saw people lead mules and horses to the bamboo raft, unload the goods, and squat down in groups. The poles were inserted into the water at the same time, and the bamboo raft leaned towards the opposite bank obliquely.If it rains too much, it won't last.The flood from the upstream will completely swallow up the sandy river bank, the turbid waves are rolling, and the river surface hits a vortex as large as the roof, and trees, houses and drowned livestock are washed down from time to time.Fortunately, there was not much rain this day, and I saw a wet scene shrouded in smoke and clouds everywhere: the mountains are wet, the trees are wet, the villages and bamboo buildings are wet, and the people are wet, even the air can be squeezed. out of water.

Nothing to do in the afternoon, I chatted with the innkeeper.The boss is a middle-aged man with a pair of cunning eyes. Xiaomi told me quietly the day before that the boss has two wives.Sure enough, I noticed that there were two Shan women in his room, and the younger one was holding a baby in her arms.We talk through Xiaomi Translator.I asked him if there are any Han people in your village or Jiangkou Bazi?Is it the people left by the Kuomintang army?The boss replied: The Han people left, and the Han people burned down our village. I said: Are you referring to the 1961 war?I want to know where are the remnants of the war?

The boss's voice was drawn out, and there was a wild duck-like cry from his throat, which I knew was used by Shan people to express surprise or anger or sigh.He said: Ah Quack, you Han people, how many people have been killed by the river, the river has been dyed red. I became interested, and I said: Who did you kill?Who kills whom?How did you kill it?And your Shan village, why was it also burned down?The boss just shook his head, making me confused, and Zhang Fei beat Yue Fei all over the place.I said when will you rebuild the house?Are you from here, or did you move to the cottage from outside? There is a misunderstanding here. In the local dialect, "building a house" means getting married, so the boss stopped sighing and replied proudly: There are many women in the village. I exchanged three horses for the first one, and two mules. Replaced the second one. Later, I finally figured out that this stockade was destroyed by the flames of war, and the ruins of the headquarters of the remnant Kuomintang army are near the hotel where I stayed, that is to say, it is adjacent to the stockade.The local elders still remember saying that the houses of those Han people were as numerous as forests. Unfortunately, the war caused a fire that not only burned down the houses of the Kuomintang, but also the villages of the Shan people were burned to the ground. As night fell that day, I stood on the wet ground at the mouth of the river with a melancholy mood.The scene back then is gone forever. Although the mountains are still those mountains, and the river is still the Mekong River, the residents of Jiangkou Zhaizi have changed several times, and there are robotic boats that come regularly on the Mekong River every week.I stood on the station of the time tunnel at the end of the century and looked back, and I saw a person standing on this ancient land many years ago.He was a soldier, with the characteristic narrow saber face of a Zhejiang native, and he wore the uniform of the Kuomintang army with the rank of lieutenant general.As the wheel of history was speeding, I gradually saw the two bright silver stars on his shoulders shining dimly under the light.I recognized him as Liu Yuanlin, the commander-in-chief of the remnant army of the Kuomintang, and the third dominant figure in the Golden Triangle. 3 (After the withdrawal from Taiwan, there were only 6,000 Kuomintang troops left in the Golden Triangle. Since the U.S. aid was gone and Taiwan’s support was limited, the army’s funds could only come from the only specialty of the Golden Triangle—drugs.) 4 (After years of war, in the early 1960s, remnants of the Kuomintang still controlled two-thirds of the mountainous areas of the Golden Triangle.)