Chapter 51 Cremation (5)
Wencheng has no special products, no great people, no electric lights and running water.It's just an ordinary small town.Although there is a train station outside the west gate, and there is a garage attached to it, it is only enough to teach the customs compartment to be covered with engine oil and cinders. When it is windy, there is smelly dust everywhere. You can sink into a seven or eight-year-old doll.Although egg-beating factories and cotton mills were built outside the west gate and south gate because of the station, these constructions did not seem to have any obvious impact on the psychology or economy of the people of Wencheng.
The cobblestone roads in Wencheng City used to be quite smooth and flat at one time, but now, their function is not to make people convenient, but to do everything possible to trip passers-by.Along the road, there are no shops or houses that make people look happy.Except for the tofu shop—the main thing is to raise pigs, and selling tofu is just a handy thing—the soy sauce garden, small grain store, and other businesses seem to be experimented here. If the experiment is successful, more will be bought. With more capital, go elsewhere to prosper the market.Here after eight o'clock in the evening, the street seems to be dead, only a few homeless mangy dogs patrolling and barking in the dark.If "Wencheng" hadn't been written on the wooden sign at the station and on the train tickets, people would have forgotten about it long ago.
However, bombs and guns seem to be the things that bring the dead back to life.The cotton mills and the station outside the west gate were bombed; people in Wencheng began to feel that besides eating and drinking tea, raising children, feeding pigs, and selling (or buying) tofu, they had some greater responsibilities and work.They must try to defend their city.There are soldiers on the station day and night, and there are people in Wencheng at the station day and night. Some serve tea, some sell cakes, cigarettes, tea and eggs, and some count the number of trains and soldiers on board. .They saw the provincial and other provincial armies, and they all went to fight for them.Therefore, people in Wencheng began to understand that Wencheng was not an isolated island with a few grocery stores and a small station, but was united with the whole of China.Their friends are not only Zhang San Li Si and Ma Zi Wang Lao Er who meet day and night, but the people of the whole of China.When their courage grows, they also want to do something to show that Wencheng is not a coffin filled with half-dead people, but a place to be proud of, because it also has some people who are happy and willing to do things. .
Wencheng does not have its own newspaper.Only the county government and county middle schools subscribed to newspapers in Beiping, Tianjin or Baoding.These two institutions always post the newspapers they have read outside the door.However, reading newspapers for Wencheng people is just a pastime.Not only do they not know much about the major international events reported in the newspapers, but even the news of their own countries often cause them to misunderstand, which leads to disputes that are completely irrelevant to the topic.Now, Japanese planes have dropped bombs outside the west gate.They were eager to read the newspaper, and read it seriously, because the dead bodies outside the west gate and the blown-up house were the most authentic guarantee of the newspaper! ——What was said in the newspapers, no matter about Shanghai or Tianjin, is not just talk, but must be true; the bombs dropped in Shanghai and other places must be as powerful as the ones that fell on Wencheng, or even more powerful Some.They believed in newspapers, and they also believed in the War of Resistance. Therefore, some of them always "borrowed" newspapers from passengers and soldiers at the station.He who can bring a newspaper, no matter where it is printed, or what date, into a city is almost a hero of the moment!
The news is getting worse.What was said in the newspapers was in harmony with the fact that enemy planes were often flying overhead.However, everyone did not panic.Troops came to the station and settled down; troops came to the bank of the river and settled down; Wangcun, Lizhuang, the middle school in the city, and the pine forest outside Dongguan were all occupied by soldiers!Seeing the neat appearance of the soldiers, the availability of guns, the spirit of men and horses, and the good discipline, the people in Wencheng not only did not panic, but slept more soundly.It seems that the outcome of the Sino-Japanese War depends on the battle of Wencheng, and in the battle of Wencheng, China will definitely win.
Everyone is very excited.Seeing so many troops in and out of the city, and listening to the sound of the trumpet blowing at a fixed time in the morning and evening, although they dared not say it clearly, they all hoped secretly in their hearts; fight quickly!Hit it fast!Defeat the Japanese devils!Defeat the Japanese devils from Wencheng!
The biggest person in the city is Wang Juren, who is both a Jurengong and a former Beijing official, and he also has a house and land.Wang Juren was not excited at all.Instead, he is pessimistic.Except for his closest confidantes, he was unwilling to express his opinions lightly, but anyone could see that his expression, his deliberate silence, and his infrequent going out were all expressions of lack of confidence in the war of resistance.
He was a scholar, and very proud of it.In his mind, the reason why a scholar is a scholar is that he can calmly distinguish between good and bad when encountering things (although "good and bad" does not mean "right and wrong").Only when you have identified the interests and disadvantages can you decide where to enter and exit. This is called being wise and protecting yourself.He looked down on the people of Wencheng.Look, a banner, a troop of soldiers, a cannon, will teach them to forget their joy, fools and fools!It is true that in the biblical biographies, he often encountered words such as loyalty, filial piety, righteousness, etc.; these words were often uttered by him with gusto, but this is not so much that readers should trust these good words, it is better to say that Scholars have a little obligation-an obligation to put these good words on their lips.Therefore, when he meets people who are neither relatives nor relatives, what he speaks is either poetry or Ziyue; it seems that he is a living classic.When he meets someone he really cares about, his poems and poems will all retire, and give way to two copper coins more than one copper coin, or similar considerations and calculations.If the biblical sages were as big as the sun, Wang Juren's mind would be nothing more than a pinprick, or smaller.
"Qing Huang" is the two words Wang Juren is willing to use to describe himself.With a medium build and a thin face, Wang Juren did not appear to be intimidating.The whole body, except for some bones that are not very hard, is some soft skin with wrinkles; no matter how much he loves himself, when he touches his own bones and soft skin, he is also very disappointed.So, all day long, he touched his beard to teach his hands a place to rest.His beard was not respectable either.There are probably dozens of them in total, and each one seems to have no fixed color, black or white, white or white, and uncertain yellow or red.Among them, four or five are very long, a dozen are extremely short, and the rest have independent sizes, as if they grew together by accident.However, Wang Juren cherishes these "rabble" hairs very much, because he thinks that only this kind of sparse, weird, and unattractive beards are just suitable for his "slenderness".He often thought: with his thin face, thin beard, blue gauze gown, big red lucky shoes, and a carved fan or round fan, if someone who taught fax to draw a portrait of him, he must be the same as Tao Yuanming. , Li Taibai is at least as chic and handsome as Wu Meicun!
A gust of wind may blow him away, and a torrential rain may paralyze him.However, even if destroyed by wind and rain, his eyes will always exist intact.The power of his life seems to be in these eyes!Inside the single eyelid is a pair of extremely round, extremely black, and extremely movable eyeballs, which roll up together, fall down together, and move quickly from left to right together.His pair of black eyes, under the cover of his single eyelid, looked like a pair of scheming little niggers who were always making trouble.From left to right, or from right to left, the two little niggers walked very quickly, from one corner of the eye to the other corner of the eye, and he saw from the biblical legend that two copper coins are more than one copper coin! "Menglian!" Wang Juren held a hookah and covered his dark eyes with single eyelids—he didn't want to teach his daughter how clever he was, because he was a little afraid of her. "What do you think?"
"What's the matter?" Meng Lian asked with a half-smile.
"I heard that there are even troops coming from the pine forest outside the east gate!" He pointed to the east with his hookah.He didn't dare to say the word "war", but only mentioned the soldiers in the pine forest.He is afraid of war.
"The past two days, my heart has been beating!" Meng Lian pressed her soft and white hands to her chest.
"Afraid?" Ju Rengong let out a little black light from the small slit between the upper and lower eyelids, and quickly retracted it.
"It's not that I'm afraid," she said with a half-smile, "It's excitement!" Ju Rengong took two puffs on his cigarette, and then pointed out with the pouch: "Are you the same as them?"
"Who?" She slowly moved her little hand off her chest and checked her fingers - each nail was cut round and short, without any faults.
Ju Rengong shook his head first, and then he didn't want to offend his daughter, so he had to say something, and said in a low voice: "Those ignorant people! Seeing a few soldiers and a military flag, they forget why they are happy!"
"Father, you are not happy to see our army!" Menglian frowned a little.
Ju Rengong lowered his head, covering his dark eyes that were turning back and forth with his eyelids.His eyes rolled a few times; he saw the destruction of his family from the war.After being silent for a long time, he let out a long sigh.