Chapter 25 third chapter

The night is quietly obliterating the fields and grasslands, covering the dark blue mountains in the distance, and obliterating the horizon.Before you know it, twinkling stars appear here and there in the sky.The stars seem to be going all of a sudden, multiplying more and more densely, and a large piece will be removed from the top of the head in a while.The road was already blurred, only the wind brought bursts of moist air and a faint gurgling sound, indicating that the donkey cart was still leaning against the river. Clap, croak, croak... The sound of the donkey's hooves was even and monotonous, like the swaying weight of the clock on the wall of the county party committee.Really, time flies, time flies, how many years have passed, but when I think about it now, it is still the same as yesterday.

At this time, he came back and thought of Holly.This kind of association is very natural, because he had a personal relationship with You Xiaozhou and He Lide, and it all started when they were unlucky... In 1966, first a group of "Red Guards" and "Ya-stop, ya-stop" came from Beijing, and put up a lot of big slogans in the county town.A group even ran to the Yellow River at Weijiaqiao, squawking and squeezing on a sheepskin raft.Tell them it's dangerous, but they don't listen, and they dance and call "the waves curb the flying boat".As a result, the raft was overturned by them, and a little Gazi failed to climb to the shore. Forty or fifty villagers searched downstream for thirty or forty miles but did not find the body, and the rest fled back in wet.Afterwards, it was said that the central government issued so many numbered documents, and people in county government agencies, schools, and factories all became "revolutionary rebels" all at once.The first thing these "rebels" did was to arrest Ho Lide who had been transferred to the area.

On the day of criticizing He Lide, as a representative of the Weijiaqiao Brigade, he was also called to participate.The criticism meeting was held in the big square in front of the county party committee. There were always thousands of people in a large area full of black crows. It was just what the newspapers often said, "the red flag is waving, and the gongs and drums are loud."Before criticizing the struggle, the propaganda team of the "rebel faction" put on a show first.A group of men and women in green military uniforms came onto the stage, all of them painted thickly, with brows raised and eyes raised, and they stood in a row for a while, then stomped and piled up the arhats, waving their fists and shouting at the top of their voices:

You who are revolutionary stand up! If you don't make a revolution, get fucked! Get the fuck off! Stop fucking officer! kill!kill!kill! laugh!What show is this?It's not as good as the playful shadow singing in the previous episodes!He sat under the stage, stretched his neck and looked around boredly, suddenly, the scene from the past jumped out of his consciousness: he was too familiar with this square.When he was a child, he often drove a donkey to the market.Before dawn, with the steamed bun baked by my mother last night in my arms, I threw the miscellaneous wool bag on the donkey's back, and trotted for more than thirty miles. out of the sun.At that time, of course, there was no asphalt and cement paved on the square, and the yellow dust and livestock dung that had been crushed by treadmills had accumulated a thick layer.Walking on it with bare feet feels cool and soft.In the morning, smelling the dew-sprinkled dust and the cool smell of livestock dung is refreshing...

To the west of the venue of the Criticism Conference, there is now the former site of the largest middle school in the county, which was the tallest building in Jishang at that time - a foreign church made of adobe.He has heard the old song "God loves me, I love God..." There is a small pointed tower on the foreign church, and there is a small bronze bell inside the tower.If it is Sunday on the market day, listen to it, the bell will jingle and jingle, and it can be heard seven or eight miles away, startling the domestic pigeons and wild old birds to flop around in groups.The playground in front of the middle school was the garden of the foreign church in the past.Here he meets tomatoes for the first time.The red and big yangguo fruit hanging from the vine has made him linger so many times.Ah, what year and month is that!There are few things in people's experience, and they have seen few things in the world, so people are so simple and simple.

Under the platform of the criticism meeting was the steamed stuffed bun shop opened by Jiang Mazi back then, selling haggis soup.This was the most advanced canteen in the county at that time.In front of the shop there is always misty steam and fragrance, and almost all the dogs in the market gather here. "Hey, hot steamed buns just out of the cage! Take a bite of the oil... What's the matter? Little brother, how about a plate?" At that time, food was sold regardless of catty. He touched the pancake in his arms and swallowed a mouthful of saliva.The old man died early, and the time depends on him as a young man, he already knows how to calculate.

"Have a bowl of offal soup." "Okay—a blanket!" Jiang Mazi is really willing to put condiments.There is a thick layer of chili oil floating on the hot offal soup, and a pinch of coriander, red and green, makes people greedy.The offal soup dipped in pancakes, and I was sweating profusely.Later, Jiang Mazi saw that he was also a well-known shopkeeper—by the Yellow River, the land is vast and sparsely populated, and many poor peasants also have their own land—so he made a book for him.That kind of red leather booklet is now lost, just like the accordion of the publicity team on the stage, it takes a long time to play, and it looks like a little red book when combined.Eat a bowl of offal soup, put a bill on it, and pay when the crops are ripe...

But now, Jiang Mazi also stood with his head down among a large group of ghosts and monsters who were waiting to go on stage to accompany Holly.On the top of the green skin that was previously shaved clean, the scorched and messy hair looks like frosted three-edge grass.Instead of the dirty sheepskin apron hanging around his neck was a big sign saying "Reactionary Capitalist". He knew that Jiang Mazi's wife and children were the clerks in Jiang Mazi's bun shop.How did you become a capitalist? He turned his neck to look at the county committee compound again, feeling even more emotional.Here, for the first time in his life, he realized what a sense of honor is.He used to wear strips of red cloth pinned to his chest, and with his back straight, he walked in and out of what used to be the gate of the town hall.It was precisely because it was the town hall in the past that he truly realized that the Communist Party was better than the Kuomintang.In the era of local warlords, the farmers in the Yellow Irrigation District could barely make do with food and clothing, but they couldn’t stand conscription, food distribution, and banditry. From the age when he was able to drive a donkey to the market, he had to be dragged in once a year to be "citizens". Soldiers Training".Later, he was drafted into the army and put on two-and-a-half feet.On the day when she came to the town hall to gather, the little-footed widow mother rode on a donkey, accompanied by her younger brother, crying and insisting on following him to see him off.At the set, I took a photo in the small photo studio that now houses the county hospital.Mom said, if you take a picture, the moldy shadow of the person will be off the paper, and the person will be able to change his luck, so he reluctantly spent the price of five liters of rice.Now that yellowed photo is still hanging in the middle of a long row of various awards.In front of the photo is a pot of unnamed white flowers, and a black cloth sheet is hung behind the person; the three of them, the mother and the child, have drooping eyebrows, mournful faces, dumbfounded, really unlucky.

However, although the moldy shadow fell off the piece of paper, the person did not change his luck.He has been wearing yellow skin for two years, because he is good at playing wooden horses, horizontal bars, and stone locks. He was not saved, and died. He ran to ask for leave, and asked the company commander who had just returned from training at the "Central Infantry School" to give him a half-literate meal: "Raise soldiers for a thousand days, use them for a while, and fail to investigate the chaos. Why do you care about your family?" He broke into the company headquarters by chance, dragged the company commander off the bed, gagged his mouth with a sock, and cursed at the same time: "Donkey day, I told you to raise soldiers! Donkey day, I told you to raise soldiers!  … "It wasn't until the little white-faced company commander died that he realized that something had happened, dropped his gun and ran back to his hometown.

Of course, you can't stay at home.In the early morning of the next day, Wei Defu sent him across the Yellow River on a sheepskin raft, fled to the prairie of Mongolia, and threw him into a sheep cabinet opened by Shanxi people as a sheep handle.After dealing with nomadic Mongolians for two years, his hometown was liberated, and he finally returned home.Only then did I know that my mother was dead, and was buried on the high hill west of Zhuangzi thanks to the care of the villagers. The house and everything in the family were also preserved by the villagers.People have traveled far and suffered hardships before they know their hometown relatives.From then on, he devoted himself to doing official business for the folks and came to the "official face".

It was at this time, in this episode, that he met Holly for the first time.At that time, the county party committee compound had not yet been repaired, and He Lide stood on the high steps in front of the town office with a smile, welcoming them, representatives of poor peasants.He excitedly held He Lide's soft hand, and once poured all his feelings for the Communist Party into this political commissar. Holliday was very energetic at that time.The face with Chinese characters is red, the eyes are small but piercing, with high cheekbones, big cheeks, and a parted head like a city person.He Lide gave them reports and gave lectures on the party. Three sentences cannot be separated from "to be honest", and there is another sentence that he has never understood, which is called "iron logic"... But, now... Hu Lide was escorted onto the stage amidst the thunderous slogans. He stared at his slender eagle eyes and was shocked to hold his breath.If it weren't for the three characters "He Lide" on the big sign on this man's chest, he wouldn't have recognized it at all: the parted head was shaved into a yin and yang head, his cheeks were sunken, his complexion was gray and white, and there were bruises and bruises on it. spot. The "rebel" twisted his arms back and up, and his face was grinning terribly. Then, the "rebels" prepared in advance came to the stage with manuscripts to expose Holliday's "three crimes against crimes".The first mention is the "doubles" of the 1960s. "Oops!" He couldn't help but secretly glanced at the people on both sides, and lowered his head. "If you want to mention 'doubles', I can't run away." Fortunately, the "rebels" who spoke turned over a page of manuscript paper, and the "doubles" were also considered to be over.Then there is the history of counting down He Lide.It is said that He Lide joined the Three Youth League in Xi'an when he was young, and that he was a spy sent by Hu Zongnan to Yan'an. Otherwise, why did the family run a traditional Chinese medicine shop, and it was improper for the young master to run to a cave dwelling in a valley?He listened to these with great interest. After tossing until noon, the criticism came to an end.After the meeting was over, Wu Shangrong, the commander of the "Revolutionary Rebel Joint Headquarters" in the county, a worker in a repair factory, specifically looked for him in the crowd and dragged him to the "headquarters" for lunch. "Let's go, old Wei, I still have to talk to you." Wu Shangrong also wore a green military uniform, the red cuffs on his arms were half a foot wide, and he wore a badge the size of a bowl on his chest, and said hoarsely , "You are an influential figure among the peasants in the county, and our worker cadres are about to gain the support of the poor and lower-middle peasants." "Hey! What strength do we farmers have? All of them have elm heads." He heard that he was not asking himself for "doubles", so he pretended to be stupid. "Look at you, farmers should also care about state affairs." Wu Shangrong was very serious. "Currently there is revisionism in the party. We workers and peasants don't care, who cares? Let's go, let's talk while eating." "He's an official with great influence, what's the use of us ordinary people caring about it? Don't set the idiot on fire—you can't protect yourself!" He really turned into an elm head and stood still. "Oh! ... Oh, no wonder, living in the country, and being deceived for many years." Wu Shangrong didn't blame him for his ignorance, as if pitying him, he said, "They practice revisionism, so let's rise up and rebel. Chairman Mao said long ago, 'It is right to rebel'. Who doesn't know that you dare to rebel in the old society, are you a born rebel? Go, go, go..." This is true.After he beat the company commander to death, the Kuomintang provincial government and the division-administered district put up lists everywhere to arrest him, which made him a legendary hero in this area. "What's the rebellion? I can't mention the past, ponytail wearing tofu..." He muttered absently, but his eyes were on Wu Shangrong's back: At this time, two rebels were holding Ho Lide standing in the toilet of the county middle school. the door.The toilet was obviously chasing people, and people ran out one by one with their pants up.He turned his head and quickly covered his stomach. "Okay. I've been sick for the past two days. I'll go first. I'll go to the headquarters later—isn't it the Industrial Office Building? I'll find you." After finishing speaking, he threw off Wu Shangrong, the commander-in-chief of the "League of Leather Workers", bent his waist and hurriedly ran to the toilet.The "rebels" standing guard at the gate saw that he was a fellow villager who had had a friendly conversation with their commander just now, so they let him in. Alas, seventeen years ago, when he shook hands with Holliday on the high steps of the town hall, he would have blown his head and never thought that one day he would come to such a dirty place to find Holliday. "Old He..." He squatted on the pit next to Holly for a while, and when there was no movement outside, he greeted him softly.In the past, he called He Lide "Political Commissar He", "County Chief He", "Secretary He", and "Director He", but this "Old He" gently erased the whole process, and he and the "County County" all at once "Chairman" and "Political Commissar" stand on an equal footing. "Ah, ah...how dare you..." Holly didn't expect that he would greet him in such an affectionate tone now, and he didn't even dare to look at him when he came in.Hearing his "Old Congratulations", Holly's tears could not help but drip down. "Old He, alas! Tsk..." He is not good at expressing delicate emotions, the "ah" and "tsk" have already shown his entire mood. "Lao He, take this and spend it first." He took out the ten yuan from the pocket of his cotton trousers that he was planning to buy cloth for the doll when he came to the county. "It must be very inconvenient for you to be detained. If you need anything, I will find a way to send it to you later." He knew that He Lide's lover died in the county hospital a few years ago, and no one brought anything to He Lide. "Oh! This, too, too... They dragged me out of the dormitory without taking anything, even cigarettes... This, too..." Holly quickly wiped away his tears with the back of his hand, took the money and hurriedly stuffed it into his padded jacket pocket. This is another thing that would blow your mind; Holly would be so grateful to him for ten yuan.A burst of anger shot up from his tough man's chest, he gritted his teeth and said: "Damn it! I think these guys are pure counter-revolutionaries!" "Hush——" Holly trembled in fright, stuck his neck out and looked outside the toilet door in panic. "Oh! This is wrong, don't dare to say it..." Hey!How far have you fallen, and you dare not even say a word!He squinted his eyes and saw Holly's timid look, and complained to Holly again: "Old He, you should fight them, if you can't fight in the open, then fight in secret!" "Hey! How can we fight? They are supported by the head of the central government, and their general direction is correct!" "'Right, right'! So they're right when they say you've been this and you've been that?" he said sarcastically. "Ah!" He Lide sighed heavily, and drooped his head in frustration again, "The Three Youth League, it's a peripheral organization, and you can say that there are. But I explained it when I arrived in Yan'an. Oh, what a bad luck! Honestly Said, not for this, I went in the morning. With my qualifications, why did I come to be a county-level cadre in this poor country when the Northwest was liberated. But, to be a spy, to be honest, I don’t even have a shadow ah!" He turned his face sideways, frowned and stared at Hu Lide, as if he wanted to see through this man.Ah, I didn't dare to fight against being beaten like this, but what annoyed me was that I had wronged myself in assigning work. He had heard the phrase "poor mountains and bad waters" when he was a soldier in the old society, followed by "whore and troublesome people".It turns out that you have been an official with us for more than ten years, but you don't love our place or our people at all!Look at You Xiaozhou, who became a "right leaner" and still missed the farmers. He was unlucky, and he didn't lose the integrity of a Communist Party member.like you?deserve it!He regretted throwing ten dollars in vain, and spat hard on the ground. "Old Wei," Holly said, ignoring his spitting, which was a common gesture when squatting in the toilet, but he regarded him as a confidant in trouble. "What do you think? They beat me to death and forced me to admit that I was a spy. You see, this finger was pinched by chopsticks. To be honest, I can't bear it..." "Oh," he squinted at Holliday's bruised and swollen hand, feeling pity again. No matter how he said it, it was the hand he was holding on the high steps of the town hall. "You, you are also a person who reads books and books, and you are stupid. Don't you just accept it? A hero doesn't suffer from immediate losses. The bigger you make the better, anyway, you can get rid of it and get beaten. Leave the green hills behind. , are you afraid that there will be no firewood?..." He leaned against the railing of the donkey cart, looking up at the brilliant stars above his head.Recalling this, he unconsciously smiled meaningfully. In the starry sky, there is a huge bright band of light, which divides the night sky in two magnificently.On both sides of the light belt, there are countless twinkling little stars, densely packed, like misty mist on the river, filled with a mysterious atmosphere.People of the older generation often say that a star in the sky rules the fate of a person on the ground.So, which star rules me, and which star rules Holliday?If this is true, then the two stars must not be far apart, and they reflect each other, right? Really, people really seem to be dominated by mysterious fate.He, an uneducated farmer, squatted in the toilet and taught Holly the tricks—and this is exactly the method he used to Holly in the past. It sounded like good advice to Holly at the time, but he really did it later. Rebels" made up a lot of nonsense.Those "rebels" who could only shout "fuck off" were overjoyed and felt like they had found a treasure. Not only did they stop torturing him, but they also sent him home as a model of a class enemy who had indeed shown repentance.However, after a while, the People's Liberation Army implemented military control over this area. Of course, major cases had to be investigated first, and Holly immediately jumped out to overturn the case.I don't know what he babbled about, causing more than a dozen people from the People's Liberation Army to carry their briefcases and travel all over Xi'an, Beijing, Tianjin, and Lanzhou, traveling tens of thousands of miles by car, train, and plane, and costing the country thousands of dollars. Yuan travel expenses, only to find out that it is a big case of injustice.And Ho Lide joined the leadership team of the Regional Revolutionary Committee as a revolutionary leading cadre openly and aboveboard.Since then, the old He Guan has prospered, and has gone through all the political movements in China since 1968, and has never suffered again. It seems that fate is the reality of countless unknown chance encounters.If he hadn’t attended the criticism meeting that day, if He Lide hadn’t gone to the bathroom after criticizing the struggle, if he hadn’t taught Holliday this way in the stinky latrine, and only offered a few words of comfort, or shed a few futile tears along with him, So what will happen today?Maybe, Lao He didn't understand, and was killed in a muddle-headed way—is there not enough people who died of injustice like this?Maybe Lao Hehui couldn't bear the "rebels" to extract a confession, so he found his own death - such things were not uncommon, and He Lide was indeed desperate at that time.Then, Holliday's lucky star can no longer give him any luster, and his star will be eclipsed. However, luck is here, luck is in such a sentence.Ah, destiny, oh destiny... However, things do not stop there. When he got out of the toilet and walked towards the square, he found two student-looking "rebels" standing at the door of the toilet staring at him suspiciously.After the two muttered a few words, another person was separated and rushed towards him.Although the "rebels" hadn't got guns at that time, he was more than enough to deal with such two dolls, but they were a group of people, and he would not be the one who made troubles.He touched his trouser pockets again, and found that all the money had been given to He Lide, and now he didn't have Jiang Mazi's red booklet;So, with an idea, he turned around and walked towards the blue-gray two-story brick building next to the county party committee compound, the so-called work office building. From then on, he stepped into a circle of turbulent political activities, and with his farmer's cunning and tact, his conscience and rationality, he was as smooth sailing as Holliday, and had both ways.Because of this, people in the county later gave him a nickname based on his surname - Wei, and called him behind his back in a tone that was both intimate and admirable, but also contemptuous and jealous - "half ghost"!