Chapter 32 0032

"The more this happens, the more he has to be tried," said the owner of Lihexing, "otherwise how can we find out what kind of tricks Zhu Si is playing behind his back?...Come here, prepare the horse for Ba Ye..." Guan Baye is such a man of pride. In order to persuade the local people to resist Beiyang and relieve the people's poverty, he put everything else aside.The party got on the animals and inspected the situation of the whole dam in the snow, pointing out where to set fences, where to build deer villages, where to build towers, where to accumulate sandbags, and talked all the way to the edge of the depression near the reed huts.

There are always more than a thousand reed sheds in the east of the dam, and the round and low reed sheds press the snow, forming a sea of ​​misery, scattered in the depressions and stretching two miles wide.The chimney smoke, which is entangled in the snowflakes and flies low, hangs over the sea, just like the resentment and wrath of those disaster victims who can’t reach the sky, floating in the low sky miserably. An unstoppable bitterness... He knew that those people, on the loess plain in eastern Henan, in the red and red mountains of southern Shandong, and in the wasteland on the east coast of northern Jiangsu, all had villages where they lived together, with gray and yellow thatched roofs, The shining loess wall, their fertile or barren ancestral land, their cattle, sheep and livestock, their hope of sowing seeds and harvests, he knows, knows those persecutions, those persecutions, that are closely connected with his life They are inseparable... Ever since he set foot on the rivers and lakes, he has no time to calm down and warm up; occasionally when he looks back, his heart is full of dampness, like a moldy black corner that does not shine a ray of sunlight.The migration of so many refugees to the south was not caused by pure natural disasters. It was the war between Jiangsu and Anhui, the war between Jiangsu and Zhejiang... one after another, the battles of the Beiyang Army were like rolling stones. They crushed their villages, and wiped out the strong men among them and the surplus food for farming, so they had to leave the burning ruins and wander far away.

Guan Baye's white horse slowly stepped into the shanty town, and something seemed to choke his throat, so he didn't say a word for a long time.A family of shacks sewed broken sacks into a door to keep out the wind. Because they were cooking, they pulled up a corner of the door to let the smoke out. The red stove reflected the scattered white hair of an old woman. , struggling to blow on the fire with a bamboo torch.On a low stool in front of another house sat a young girl with a yellow and thin face, combing two braids that were so dirty that they were caked into cakes, and was baking many clay dolls and chickens with a pot of charcoal fire. Years old, the younger sister in a tattered black cloth jacket carefully put feathers on the tail of a half-dry and half-wet chicken.

"If you want to protect the dam, you must first protect the shantytowns," Guan Baye said, "The big camp of the defense army is set up on the south bank of the Yellow River. Judge Zhu Si is coming to attack!" "The shacks also have some guns," said the head of the police department, "but the number is small. Most of the guns are made of earth, and they were bought with funds after they moved here. What Ba Ye said is right. We should discuss with their leaders and move to Yanzhou. Go to Hebei and block the four judges. As for the defense army, I think we should deal with it... You don't know that most of my battalion has received votes, (referring to those who secretly swore to join the Revolutionary Party.) They go to investigate, they are lazy and boring, if they are asked to resist the defense army, one can be ten dozen."

"If they don't want to move, it doesn't matter very much," said the owner of the Xietai Inn, "There is a salt pile blocking the road over there. The workers on the salt road are all young and strong men with more than a hundred guns. Condescending, tightly strangling the ferry of the Yellow River, those cowardly fellows in the defense army may not be able to jump across the river." "Go! Go!" Just as they stopped the cattle to talk, the white-haired old lady came out with a blower, her face was gloomy and cold, and there was an expression of disgust or tiredness in the indifference, crossed her arms Waist, pouting, waving the torch like chasing chickens, and crying hoarsely: "Go! Fight the war elsewhere! Liuhe has been fighting for eight days and nights, and the dead are piled into mountains. On cloudy and rainy days, ghosts crying all over the place, didn’t you hear?! (Liuhe, place name; the battlefield of the Battle of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the battle between the warlords of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, the casualties were heavy.) All three of my sons died, and the bones were yellow and rusty , you are still talking about lighting at my door? You want to drag away the ghost of my dead son?!..."

"I said, old lady..." But the girl in the shed opposite interrupted the words of the chief executive. "Don't talk to her if you have something to say, it's useless," she said, "After her son died, she became a madman, and she talked crazy to everyone. If you want to find it, you should go to Second Uncle Qi,— —Look, isn't that?!" "Which one is Baye Guan?" Uncle Qi is a man in his forties with a sallow face, thick eyebrows and big eyes. In winter, it can be used to prevent rain and snow.) Lai came to ask. Guan Ba ​​Ye hurriedly dismounted, stepped forward and said, "Brother is Guan Ba."

Second Uncle Qi laughed: "I know that as soon as you come, the dam will pull guns against the anti-defense army to protect the dam... This matter has been brewing in private for a long time! The battalion commander and the innkeepers don't know? Last night As soon as the officials and gentry gathered, the brothers from the private sector came to reveal that the guns in the shantytowns in the east and west of the dam had already been pulled. What do we people who have no home to return to? Here, we can bite Sun Chuanfang It’s good to let him know that it hurts if he doesn’t kill him by taking a bite back.”

"The decision to protect the dam was made on the dam, and I really dare not take credit for it," Guan Baye said, "Brothers are just leading the way through the Dadukou, and we are invited by you to come and discuss big plans. When the snow stops tomorrow morning, brothers will have to go on the road." Go to Dahuze... However, from Yanshi to Wanjialou, there may be something happening in front of you, after seeing old man Peng, brother, you should come back immediately..." Leaving the shanty town and rushing to the salt pile, there are many employees scattered beside the steaming salt train, all of them carrying long guns, and they are guarding the ferry there.Seeing Guan Baye's white horse piled up, everyone raised their hands and guns and shouted.

"Baye, do you think it's going to be soon?——We don't know how much we have been pissed off by the defense army. We have been waiting for this day for a long time." "It's a big bastard, eating Ma Yuren under Qi Xieyuan, (Ma is Qi Xieyuan's lineage, and later disarmed and annexed by Sun Chuanfang.) That kind of complacency is not bad, and he also paid for the hard-earned money we worked hard to transport salt. Take a few percent to pay his military salary, this time we seize the opportunity, we should shave his head too!" Guan Baye nodded, but couldn't laugh out loud; yes, it is natural for Yanshi to be full of dam protection. After all these years, whoever has the best patience should be hurt by the Beiyang Defense Army.However, the situation in front of us shows that if the time for the Northern Expeditionary Army in the south is not matched, there will be a tragic battle and great casualties.Thinking of the future situation can not help but make people feel heavy. ... Reining in the horse on the high salt pile, through the scattered snowflakes dancing halfway, you can see the dark blue Huai River, the banks of the river have been covered with thin ice, and the South Camp of the Defense Army is less than three miles away in Henan In the place, the row upon row of lead-plated camps was covered with white snow, except for a five-color flag hanging on the flagpole in the square in the camp, Guan Baye looked at it for a long time, but saw no movement.

"If Sun Chuanfang didn't mobilize the army, just relying on the teacher of X Dashu'er may not be able to pull out a hair in Yanshi." The director of the audit said: "You probably don't know that Zheng Dashu'er is not in the camp now. Two regiments of the division have all been transferred to Jianjiang... the wind in the south is tight, and they don't care about Yanshi." "The director is right, Ba Ye," a thick voice said behind Guan Ba ​​Ye: "The remaining group of people heard that there were two bombings of the camp that failed, and now they dare not let go. Come out, talk about starting a fire, and you can only fire your guns with your eyes closed.... We have a hundred guns that can withstand this salt pile. The army is much more fierce!"

Guan Baye turned his face, yes, the person who spoke was the iron fan Tang Liuba. He was wearing a dusty old coat, bloated lantern-legged trousers, and a pair of woolen shoes on his bare feet. A wide sash is tied, and a short, small machete is pinned. The handle of the knife is wrapped with red cloth.The face under his worn-out felt hat was dry and cracked due to the cold wind, and it was blue-purple. His whole body was stained with black soot. He had one foot on the running board of a carriage, one elbow on his knee, and he was twiddling his mustache with his fingers. "Brother Tang," Guan Baye said, "Brother is going to visit Mr. Dai, Yanshi needs your help, brother can rest assured." "I said Baye, I, Tang Liupao, am a straightforward person—it is not my master's idea to sell my life in the salt market," Tang Liupao said with a sad smile, "If you It's useless to see the old man, he won't be willing to come out... Maybe my two senior brothers will come out, it's just a matter of luck, maybe." Guan Baye sighed and said, "Brother is just doing his best." A group of people went west along the salt pile to the shanty town in the west of the dam. The reed shantytowns in that area were scattered in the wild forest between the two rivers in the north and the south. There were more people than the shantytowns in the east of the dam. With the sound of the horn, the long, choked sound of the horn echoed slowly on the snowy field, with some desolation seeping into the majesty. Countless young and strong refugees heard the sound of the horn, all armed with single knives, wooden sticks, and firecrackers. He and foreign guns converged to the plains in front of Tufu, apparently they were already gathering. ...Guan Baye looked at that scene, and a fire surged from the bottom of his heart. From this abnormal scene, it can be seen that once the depression hidden deep in the heart bursts out, it will converge into a torrent. It's beyond people's expectations that the city's uprising was so quick. It's far more powerful than the sporadic resistance to Beiyang. The strength of guns from south to north is connected together, it is really a force that can tear Sun Chuanfang down. After inspecting around the dam, it was noon, Guan Baye asked everyone to go back to Fuchang Zhan first, leaving only the director of the audit. "Do you think the dam can still be defended? Ba Ye." said the director of the audit department. "In terms of human guns and the situation, we should be able to defend them," Guan Baye said in a deep voice, "but with so many human guns, if there is no one who has courage and courage to lead them, it will still be impossible.  … The merchants on the shore are all businessmen, collecting money to do things, buying guns and buying fire. If you talk about commanding troops, they are all unreasonable. Besides, although those shantytowns are full of courage, they have no experience in battle. The defense army and the bandits are fighting each other, and it’s just a waste of life..." "What about this?" said the head of the Audit Office in a dilemma: "This...brother is an amateur at all. Let me tell you the truth, all the officials and gentry in the salt market—including the brothers, didn't have the guts to pull a gun to protect the dam. , But if you don’t do this, there will be explosions in the bottom. Later, due to the situation, I discussed and wanted to do it. But after listening to Ba Ye’s words last night, I felt that it was the right way to go, and this was in line with the people’s will. ...As for commanding the army, even arresting the private chief does not dare to take on this burden, only you, Ba Ye, we plan to leave this seat empty, and we will talk about it when you come back from Dahuze, Ba Ye." Guan Baye laughed: "I recommend one person." "You mean?!..."