Chapter 4 Chapter Four

Uncle Huazhua still has some regrets.When I was arrested as a strong man in Luoyang, why did I run away instead of persevering in the army? I asked: "Which unit was it that arrested you?" Uncle Flowerpaw: "Guojun." I: "I know it's the national army, which part of the national army?" Uncle Flowerpaw: "The squad leader is called Li Gousheng, and the platoon leader is called Yan Zhidong." I: "How far up?" Uncle Flowerpaw: "I don't know if I go further up." I checked the information afterwards and found that the Kuomintang troops occupying Luoyang at that time belonged to Hu Zongnan.I asked:

"What did you do after being arrested?" Uncle Flowerpaw: "At that time, I went to Zhongtiao Mountain and was sent to the front line. The Japanese mortars flew overhead like a 'jiujiu'. On the first day of the war, the squad deputy and two brothers were killed. I was scared. That night I just ran away. Thinking about it now, I really regret it." I: "Yes, the great enemy is at hand, ethnic conflicts, other brothers sacrificed, you slipped away, it's unreasonable, you should regret it." Uncle Huazhua gave me a look: "I don't regret this."

I was taken aback: "Then what do you regret?" Uncle Flowerpaw: "I didn't run away at the beginning, but then I went to Taiwan, and now I'm a Taiwanese compatriot. Like Wang Mingqin from Tongcun, whose nickname is Stubborn Donkey, who was arrested two years later than me. Later, he came to Taiwan, and now he is a Taiwanese compatriot. He came back last year. , with a little wife, a gold watch, and big gold teeth, the county magistrate picked him up in a car, was it just for fun? It can’t be blamed on anything else, but your uncle’s eye circle is too small, young and ignorant I was only fifteen or sixteen years old at the time, and I only knew how to survive."

I understood what Uncle Blossompaw meant.I comfort him: "It's right to regret now, and it was right to run away. Think about it, in 1943, there were still two years before the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, and five years before the end of the War of Liberation. No one can guarantee that you will not survive the many battles." He was beaten to death like your squad deputy. Of course, if he is not killed, he will become a Taiwan compatriot like a donkey; if he is killed, he will not even be there now." Uncle Huapao thought about it: "That's true, bullets don't have eyes; I have this fate, we don't have the fate to be Taiwan compatriots."

I say: "Although you are not a Taiwan compatriot, you are also a party secretary on our side, and you are doing well in general." Uncle Huapao came to life immediately: "That's right, I've been party secretary for twenty-four years!" But immediately sighed dejectedly again: "But the ten party secretaries don't add up to one Taiwan compatriot. Now that we have stepped down again, who does the county magistrate think we are?" I comfort him: "It's no big deal to know the county magistrate, isn't it just a stubborn donkey? Uncle, let's not talk about stubborn donkeys, let's talk about how my second grandma's family and my third grandma's family escaped famine in the first place. You are among them. Definitely a lot of personal experience.”

When it came to the topic, Uncle Huazhuo's attitude became indifferent, and his narration became simple and boring.Holding each other's hands, they said: "If you run away from famine, you will run away from famine." I: "How to escape the famine, how to escape the law?" he: "My father is pushing a wheelbarrow, and my second uncle is carrying baskets, pots and pans on the wheelbarrow, and children in the baskets. On the road, I beg for food, eat tree bark, and eat weeds. Later, when I arrived in Luoyang, I was arrested. Soldiers." I can't help complaining:

"You also said it too simply. There is nothing you can remember on the road?" He winked: "I remember lying on the side of the road and sleeping very cold, and woke up in the middle of the night. Seeing that my parents were still sleeping, I didn't dare to talk." I: "How did you catch the soldiers later?" he: "There is a porridge market run by the Catholic Church in Luoyang. I went there to make porridge. On the way back, I was arrested." I: "Does my third grandpa and third grandma know about arresting soldiers?" He shook his head:

"How do they know? They think I was kidnapped. It will be a few years before we meet again." I nod.Ask again: "What will they do if you are arrested?" he: "It was a few years later that I heard from my mother that they were picking up a train to go to Shaanxi. When they were picking up the train, my father was almost run over by the train." I: "What about my second grandma's family?" he: "When your second grandpa's house was picking up the train, the train started to leave when it was picking up, and the little sister who didn't pick up—you should be called my aunt, was also lost, and I haven't found it until now."

I nod.Ask again: "Are there many dead people on the road?" he: "Why are there not many? There are graves everywhere, and dead people are everywhere. Many people were killed when they smashed the train." I: "Didn't our family starve to death?" he: "Why didn't anyone starve to death? Didn't your second grandfather and your third concubine die of starvation on the road?" I: "There are no details?" At this time, Uncle Huazhua got a little impatient, and gave me an angry look: "The family is starving to death, you need details!"

After finishing speaking, he left me and walked away alone, leaving me in a state of embarrassment.Only then did I feel that my friend sent me back to 1942 with ill intentions. I was exposing the scars of my relatives and elders who had healed for fifty years, and let them reappear bloody wounds; Thick, dried by time and dust into armor, moving it is as hard as moving a mountain.There was no wind, and the sun was beating down on a long row of straw.It looked very warm beside the straw stack.I squatted next to the straw stack, struggling to talk to an octogenarian who was deaf, blind, and had a runny nose.The old man's name is Guo Youyun.According to Han, a member of the County Political Consultative Conference, he was the one who suffered the most in his family during the famine escape in 1943.His wife, mother, and three children were all lost on the road.Five years later, when he returned from Shaanxi, he was already alone.The current family belongs to restarting the stove.But after looking at the straw stacks, he rebuilt a new stove that he has operated for more than forty years, which proves that his ability as a human being is still excellent.Because it is a two-story building that is neither Chinese nor Western, which is not common in the countryside of my hometown.But if you look at it from the point of view that he is too old and the house is very new, this should not be regarded as his ability. The achievement should be attributed to the translator who sat between us and wore a "Gorbachev" face watch. forty-year-old son.His son didn't welcome me at first, but he only looked at me differently when he heard that I was a naked classmate with the deputy director of the township police station.But hearing that my arrival has nothing to do with reality or him in reality, but to let his father and I go back to fifty years ago together, and fifty years ago he was still floating in the wind, it was a little bit impatient.The old man's mouth leaked, and the translator was impatient, and the situation fifty years ago was hard and fragmented.Once again, I deeply realized that it is really not an easy task to salvage history among living people.The general situation of Guo Youyun's escape from the famine in 1943 was as follows: his mother fell ill as soon as he was on the road; in order to treat his mother's illness, he sold a little girl; in order to sell the little girl, he fought with his wife.The reason for the fight was not simply that it was distressing to sell a daughter, but that the wife and mother-in-law had a deep grievance in the past, and they were unwilling to sell their own flesh and blood to cure the mother-in-law's illness.After selling the little girl, the mother's illness was not cured, she died by the Yellow River, and was buried softly (without a coffin) in an earthen kiln.Walking to Luoyang, the eldest daughter suffered from smallpox and died in a charity hospital.He picked up the train to go to Tongguan, but his son didn't pick it up well, fell under the train wheel and was run over to death.The rest of his wife and he came to Shaanxi to guard the land for sheep.His wife thought it was hard to live with him, so she ran away with a kidnapper.Left to himself.In front of the straw stack, he spread his hands with snot and tears:

"Why did I run away from the famine? I ran away from the famine in order to save everyone's life. Who would have thought that I would be left alone? Why should I run away from the famine? If I had known this, it would be better not to run away from the famine. The whole family could still die together. It's all over the place." His son translated this passage perfectly.After I heard it, I also felt that it was a strange circle.What I don't understand is that Guo Youyun's new home has two floors and he still looks like a fleeing famine in such rags and tatters. Everything does not belong to him.This materially happy family seems to be unhappy spiritually.Family ties in this family have not or will never be straightened out.I turned to his son and said: "It's not easy for the elderly, as they were fleeing famine back then!" Who knows his son said: "That's his cowardice. If you let me run away from famine, I will never run away like that!" I was taken aback: "If you want to escape, how do you escape?" His son: "I'm not going to Shaanxi at all!" I: "where did you go?" His son: "I'm definitely going to Kanto! Isn't Kanto better than Shaanxi?" I nod.Kanto is definitely richer than Shaanxi, and it is easier for people to survive.But when I looked at history, my hometown did not have the habit of fleeing famine to the Kanto: it was a matter for people from Shandong and Hebei to go to the Kanto.My hometown was hit by a disaster, and the refugee routes were all westward instead of northward.Although the west is as barren as his homeland.Of course, there was another special situation in 1942 and 1943, that is, the three northeastern provinces had been occupied by the Japanese, and they went there to become subjugated slaves.I talked about the last reason to his son, but he waved the "Gorbachev" on his hand and made a surprising statement: "I can't take care of my life anymore, who cares who occupies the place? Xiangxi is not a subjugated slave, but he starved you to death. If you want to be a subjugated slave, should you be a subjugated slave, or starve to death? Not a subjugated slave, no No one hurts and no one cares?" I am silent and smile.I can't answer his questions.I think this is Generalissimo Chiang's miscalculation and the profound reason why he fled to Taiwan in 1949.If I were in 1942, would I look for the chairman of the committee who ignored me, cared for me, or loved me, or would I look for someone outside the Northeast Pass who was still alive? After bidding farewell to Guo Youyun and his son, I found another old woman named Cai in Shilizhuang.But this interview was even more difficult. Before I could speak to the old woman, I was almost beaten by his son.The mother-in-law surnamed Cai is seventy years old this year. Fifty years ago, she was only twenty years old.When fleeing westward with his parents and two younger brothers, he slept on the road at night, and all the family's baggage, soft goods, coils, and food were swept away.After waking up, the whole family had to cry with their mouths open.There is no way to escape westward.Her parents had no choice but to sell her to save her two younger brothers.At first, she thought she was sold to someone else, but the traffickers took her away, changed hands and bought her back to a kiln, and she has been living as a flesh and blood for five years since then.Until 1948, when the armies of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party fought, she escaped from the brothel and returned to her hometown amidst the sound of rumbling guns. Like the old man Guo Youyun, her current family, sons, and daughters all started from scratch. Created separately.Her five years of dirty and inhuman life have been buried in the hearts of herself and everyone else, unless the neighbors quarrel and are shaken off by other neighborhood girls again.But in the late 1980s, this period of her life suddenly showed its unique value.Some local and non-local writers of best-selling books felt that her five-year history had special practical significance, and they came to interview her one after another, and wanted to write a book "My Life as a Prostitute" based on the circumstances of her five-year reception. autobiographical bestseller.From this point of view, best-selling is inevitable.Many writers came to interview, which made the family very excited at first. It turns out that the mother's experience is still valuable and worthy of the care of these clean-clothed people.Everyone is even proud.But after a long time, when the children realize that the purpose of writing to care about them is not to care about themselves, but to make money for themselves with the mother's dirty experience, so her children, these ordinary farmers , suddenly felt that he had been cheated and humiliated.So he glared at the person who came to interview again.For this reason, their mother, who was complacent and still excitedly immersed in the situation of the year, was severely reprimanded by her children.Since then, my mother has been tight-lipped about what happened fifty years ago; she categorically regrets what she has said.This embarrasses people who have written many words. "My Life as a Whore" died as a result.This case has been going on for several years, and now I am here, and her son thinks that I am here to make money from his mother's dirty experience, and to rescue the dead "prostitute career".Therefore, I haven't been able to talk to the old woman, and his son's big stick has almost fallen on my head.I am not a very brave person, so I had no choice but to retreat.And I don't think it's decent to go around exposing someone's scars, especially an old woman's nasty abscesses, for the sake of writing this article.I went back and told my elementary school classmate who was the deputy director of the township police station, but he didn't think so. He blamed me for the wrong way.He shook the belt in his hand and said: "You should have come to me for this!" I: "Why, you know this person's experience very well?" he: "I don't really know, but what do you need to know? If I bring her for interrogation, it's over?" I was taken aback and quickly waved my hands: "It doesn't matter if you don't interview, there is no need to go to war. Besides, she didn't commit any crimes. How can you say that she will be interrogated!" He widened his eyes: "She is a prostitute, and I am attacking her. Why can't I be arraigned?" I wave: "Even prostitutes, it was also fifty years ago, and the interrogation should be conducted by the Kuomintang police station at that time, and it will not be your turn fifty years later!" He is still not convinced: "Fifty years ago, I can control it too. Watch me catch her here!" I hurriedly stopped him, diverted my words, and after a long time, I finally persuaded him who was furious.When I left him, I thought, classmates are classmates after all. In order to record this great escape from famine, we have to turn to Time magazine reporter Bai Xiude again.As the article is written here, I have clearly realized that Bai Xiude will definitely become the protagonist of this article.This is not because of anything else, but because no one cares about the great famine in Henan in 1942.The leaders at that time didn't care, the government didn't care, officials at all levels were reselling food to make disaster fortunes, and the victims themselves were dying in large numbers, and the old victims fifty years later who survived were also indifferent to those years.At this time, there was only one foreigner, Bai Xiude, a reporter from "Time" magazine, who was concerned about this famine land and the three million people who starved to death.My own affairs, my own attitude, my own affairs make others care and sympathize, and talking about it makes me feel blush fifty years later.Of course, Bai Xiude's original purpose was not to care about our people, but out of the sensitivity of a journalist, he wanted to find something to write about during the famine.It was nothing more than that when he was looking for news, the tragic reality moved him and shocked him, so he developed the sympathy and sense of justice of a normal person, and he wanted to cry out for it.This will lead to his future confrontation with Chiang Kai-shek.That's right, an American can see the chairman of the committee, but how many Chinese can see their own chairman? I'm afraid even government ministers have to make an appointment in advance.We, helpless victims of the disaster, cannot rely on officials at all levels like our parents. We have no choice but to rely on a foreign reporter who is not powerful in other ways.Especially later, this kind of reliance actually worked, which shocked and stunned me fifty years later. Bai Xiude described his trip to Henan in February 1943 in a book "Exploring History".The companion is Harrison Foreman, a reporter from the British "Times".I said at the beginning of this text that when they arrived in Zhengzhou, they had had "one of the best feasts he could have had" in my hometown.Their route at that time was to fly from Chongqing to Baoji, take the Longhai Line train from Baoji to Xi'an, to the Yellow River, to Tongguan, and then enter Henan.In order to prevent Japanese bombardment, we changed from Tongguan to a hand-cranked road patrol car and arrived in Luoyang for a whole day.It is the opposite direction of refugees fleeing.After arriving in Henan, ride a horse to Zhengzhou, and then return to Chongqing by mail bus from Zhengzhou.Judging from this walking route, it is just a quick tour, only seeing some situations along the way.Write down what you see and hear at any time along the way.These observations are piecemeal, and the insights discussed are highly personal.What's more, the situation in China and the United States is different. This kind of personal opinion may be far from the real meaning contained in the actual affairs.But we can set aside these insights and go into what he saw, into the details; the curbside facts that he saw with his own eyes, always true.Based on these real facts, we can see for ourselves the famine disaster in Henan in 1943.I'm trying to summarize his bits and pieces of knowledge in a coherent way: 1. Wearing and carrying of disaster victims.When the victims escaped, they were wearing their best clothes. The middle-aged women wore old red and green wedding dresses, although the clothes were already stained; they brought the most valuable things in their homes, cooking iron pots , bedding, and some have an old-fashioned clock.This proves that the victims have completely lost confidence in their hometown, have no nostalgia, and are determined to leave their hometown; even the time --- the clock is taken away.Bai Xiude and his partner slept overnight at Tongguan Station.He said it was filled with the smell of urine, shit and people.In order to keep out the cold, many people wrapped their heads with towels, and those with hats put their ears down.Their purpose here is to wait for the train going west, although this kind of waiting is very blind. Second, the way of fleeing from famine.It's just picking up trains and walking.Picking up trains is not safe.Bai Xiude said that he saw many blood-stained dead along the way.One kind of people climbed onto the train and died because the train was blown up by Japanese bombs; He picked it up and was run over to death by a moving train.It is better to be crushed to death, but those who are crushed and not crushed to death are miserable.Bai saw a man lying on the side of the railway tracks, still alive, shouting non-stop, his calf was crushed, and the leg bone was exposed like a white corn stalk.He also saw a man whose buttocks had been crushed to a bloody mess and was still alive.Bai Xiude said that the bleeding didn't make him sad, what was sad was that he couldn't figure out what was going on with these scenes.Such unorganized and undisciplined migration, where did their governments at all levels go? This proves that Bai Xiude is too ignorant of China's national conditions. Those who can't get on the train or are disappointed with the train rely on their own legs to move westward aimlessly and unconsciously.Bai Xiude said that for a whole day, along the railway line, "what I saw was these groups of single households that could not be seen at the end of the procession."This group is spontaneous and unorganized, and it is only because of the famine and the desire to survive that they automatically form the ranks of disaster victims.It can be imagined that their expressions were indifferent, and they didn't know what was waiting for them in front of them.The only confidence left in their hearts is their own hope for the future ahead.Maybe it will be better, maybe it will be good to get through this station.This is Chinese philosophy, which Bai Xiude cannot understand.The procession of disaster victims walks in the cold climate.Wherever they go, as soon as they collapse from hunger, cold or exhaustion, they never get up again.The wheelbarrow holds all their belongings, the father pushes it, the mother pulls it, and the children follow.Elderly women with bound feet staggered along.Some of them carried their mother behind their backs.Walking in ranks with difficulty on both sides of the track, no one paused.If a child was weeping over the dead body of his father or mother, they would pass him by without making a sound.No one dared to take in the crying child. 3. The situation of the seller.On the way to flee from famine, the little food brought by the fleeing famine will soon be eaten up.Then eat bark, weeds and dry wood.As Shiro walked, he saw many people peeling the bark with knives, sickles and kitchen knives. These trees are said to have been planted by Wu Peifu, a warlord who loves trees.Elm trees die when they are stripped of their bark.When the bark, weeds, and dry firewood were all gone, people began to sell their sons and daughters, and those who were in the dominant position in the family sold those who were in the dominated position in the family.Compassion, familial ties, customs and morals are all gone, and people's only thought is to eat, and hunger rules the world.Nine-year-old boys are sold for 400 yuan, four-year-old boys are sold for 200 yuan, girls are sold to brothels, and young men are often arrested.Zhuding is popular with young men because there is food to eat there.Like my Uncle Flower Claw. 4. Dog cannibalism.Due to too many dead people along the way and the cold weather, people were hungry and unable to dig pits, and a large number of corpses were left in the wild, which provided food for hungry dogs.It can be said that in the disaster-stricken area of ​​Henan in 1943, dogs were more comfortable than humans. This is the world of dogs.Bai Xiude saw with his own eyes that less than an hour east of Luoyang, there was a female corpse lying on the snow. The female corpse seemed to be very young, and wild dogs and flying eagles were about to carve up her corpse.Along the way, there were as many wild dogs as the victims of the disaster, and they gradually recovered their wolf nature. They ate fat and meat.Dead bodies are everywhere in the wild, providing food for their survival and reproduction.Some corpses have been buried, and wild dogs can dig them out from the sand.Dogs may also pick and choose at corpses.Pick those who are young, tender-mouthed, and feminine.Some of the corpses had been half-eaten, and some of the head meat had been gnawed off, leaving only a skeleton.In this situation, Bai took a lot of photos.These photos will play a big role in the future for the victims who were not eaten by dogs and are still alive. 5. Cannibalism.Man has also recovered his nature as a wolf.When there is nothing left to eat in the world, people will eat people like dogs.Bai said that before this, he had never seen anyone kill another person for eating meat. This trip to Henan opened his eyes, and he believed that cannibalism is a real thing in the world.It would be understandable if the human flesh was taken from the dead. Anyway, dogs eat as they eat, and humans eat as they eat; A mother boiled her two-year-old child; a father strangled his two children for his own life and cooked the meat.An eight-year-old boy, whose parents died on the way to escape from famine, met Tang Enbo's army, and the army forced a family of farmers to take in the abandoned child.Then the child disappeared.After investigation, the child's bones were found in a large jar next to the farmer's hut; the meat on the bones had been gnawed clean.There are also those who change their sons and eat them, and those who change their wives and eat them. ——Written here, I think these people don’t become bandits, don’t join hands in murder, don’t form the Ku Klux Klan, and don’t set up terrorist organizations.From this point of view, I feel heartfelt joy and admiration for the situation that Uncle Fan Kejian, a landlord, angrily described how a group of victims who had not fled famine rose up, occupied his small building, recruited soldiers, and slaughtered pigs and sheep all day long.There is no hope for a nation that will not rise up and only cannibalize each other among its relatives.Although these bandits were burned to death with oil-soaked sorghum stalks.Their leader is called Wu De'an.This is the backbone and hope of the nation.