The first character my grandma talks about is sharpshooter Li Ba. The reason why Li Ba is called the "magic gun" is not only because his shooting skills are "amazingly accurate" and he can hit wherever he points, but also because he once hit the "magic" with one shot. This has a

The first character Lao Lao talks about is sharpshooter Li Ba.

The reason why Li Ba is called the "magic gun" is not only because his shooting skills are "amazing" and he can hit wherever he points, but also because he once hit the "magic" with one shot. This has a complicated background.

Photography丨Jing Xiaoli

In 1940, the puppet army went to the countryside to grab food during the day. At night, the armed workers lied on the house and shouted, promoting the anti-Japanese war. Their underground organization was established in the village. Most of the militia members were second-rate Amao and Agou. Usually he is idle, sneaky, and likes to join in the fun. He basically has no fighting ability and would not dare to fight head-on.

At that time, every household in the village kept dogs, and there were many wild animals in Dawali, including foxes, weasels, wild civet cats , and wolves, which often attacked domestic animals. Dogs became the first barrier to people's safety here. Because the armed workers and militiamen were active at night, they were afraid that the barking of dogs would expose their targets and attract the Japanese and puppet troops. Dogs would become enemies and the first targets that must be annihilated on the spot.

The militia called on the whole village to beat dogs in order to fight against Japan. If they don’t beat them, they will be traitors. No one in the village can bear this crime, but the dogs in the village immediately suffered misfortunes: some were shot to death by shotguns, some were beaten to death with iron tools, and some were poisoned. Some were poisoned to death, and some were hung up and filled with water. At first, no one in his family could kill his dog, so the captain of the armed forces team came up with a plan to beat each other from house to house, from house to house. You hit mine, and I'll hit yours. Everything is difficult at the beginning. No one in the village would be embarrassed to beat the opposite dog. The captain of the armed workers had many ideas. He and the militiamen helped beat the dog. When the other party saw that their dog was beaten to death, their resentment and anger were instantly ignited, and they gave each other a lot of help. The family dog ​​went on a killing spree as if to take revenge. When all the dogs in the village were killed and no one was left alive, looking at the dog corpses piled up in a mountain, everyone collapsed on the ground and stared blankly, and then you looked at me, I looked at You, with big eyes and small eyes, lost your temper. The captain of the military workers asked everyone to claim it and asked: "Is there anyone who wants to eat dog meat or dog skin?" No one answered him.

People use their hands to dig holes, and they don’t care if their hands bleed. The captain of the military workers asked the team members to dig a big hole with shovels. Water came out of the pit and asked the captain if he wanted to dig it again. "It's a waste of time to dig, it's all the way to hell, bury it, folks! If you want to blame, blame the little devil." The captain said, taking the lead in throwing the dog's dead body into the pit. The team members followed suit. Everyone shed tears and scattered handfuls of soil with their hands.

The militiamen were staggering tiredly. "I was wicked in my last life!" they cursed, and spent a whole day piling up the dog graves, which were as big as a hill. The whole village, men, women, old and young, did not eat or drink, and the village was as quiet as death. After three days, the village returned to normal.

The dog was beaten to death, and the wild animals in the vast valley became rampant. Today they killed the Zhang family's chickens, tomorrow they devoured the Wang family's ducks, and the day after tomorrow the pigs, cattle and sheep disappeared mysteriously. The village turned into a paradise for wild animals. The wild animals really don't know whether to thank the Japanese or the military captain. The people in the village were panicked.

In this situation, according to historical materialism: it is time for a hero to be born.

There is an Orion sharpshooter named Li Ba in the village. He is not famous in vain. No one within a hundred miles does not know his mythical legend.

In October 1915, the year Yuan Shikai became emperor, there were goblins in the village and a whirlwind blew in the plains. After the black wind passed, the domestic animals mysteriously disappeared, but then magically landed in the courtyards of the villagers, seemingly falling from the sky, and some were dead. Some are alive, and some are half-dead.There was no wind in the water in the pond, and the waves were like a wall. It was higher than the house, but it stood motionless. On the top of the waves stood a child with a flag in his hand. He was naked, with a pointed head and a long face. It looks like a sheep's face, a donkey's face, a fox's face, or a wolf's face. No one can tell the specific face. It is covered with yellow fluff. When the small flag in his hand moves up, the water rises and moves down. The water just fell, and the water seemed to be driven by it, like driving pigs, chickens, or geese. The higher the water gathered, there was a loud noise when it hit, and people felt the ground under their feet shaking violently. People were shocked and fell down. The huge water column Like fairies scattering flowers, they first flew to the sky, and then fell to the ground one after another, falling on people, and jumping on the ground. After people were frightened, they realized that the jumping ones were fish. There were people in the village, on the streets, and in the courtyards. It's a white fish. The night in the village was eerily quiet, even the bugs that usually screamed silently. Suddenly a fire burst into the sky at night, and the crackling sound of burning was particularly harsh. The gong rang outside, and there were constant sounds of putting out the fire. Someone was taking a basin, someone was Those holding buckets were also holding brooms. The sounds of bumps, bumps, shouts, wind, fire, and the cries of night owls were mixed together. People stumbled towards the fire, but the fire was suddenly extinguished. It was so dark that they could not see their fingers. , people were so scared that they dropped the tools in their hands and ran back as hard as they could. The sun will be high tomorrow, and people will be brave enough to come together to look at the fire. Except for last night when people dropped their tools in panic, there was no trace of fire at all. It seemed like there was nothing. occur. But what does this mean?

People were convinced that there was a goblin in the village, and someone was possessed by the goblin. The first one to be possessed was the fox fairy in the village. The possessed demon said that she was once a domestic slave under the Jade Emperor. Because of the chaos in the world, she was no match for the God of War, so she came to the human world and practiced with great concentration in the Great Depression for thousands of years. , has been reluctant to make herself the righteous god. She has no place in the temple and cannot bear the incense in the world. However, she has great magical powers. She wants to overthrow the Jade Emperor, defeat the God of War, and then become the Jade Emperor herself. Fox Fairy's words shocked a group of people, so they willingly sent tributes and offered kind words of comfort.

The second possession is Huang Xiangu. The third possession is Bai Xiangu. What they said was mostly the same, but they had different opinions on what kind of fairy they were. Some said it was a turtle spirit, some said it was a vixen, and so on. They all took revenge on the Jade Emperor and wanted to "seize the bird's position".

In this regard, the leading figure in the village, your great-grandfather organized the squires to spend money to invite countless monks and Taoists to succumb to demons, some local and some from outside. They are all mysterious figures with profound Taoist practices, but they have not yet performed the rituals. After that, there was smoke coming from the back of the buttocks. I don’t know where the fire came from or how it started. It actually burned the mages to the point of pissing themselves. No one dared to come here again.

This incident alarmed the county magistrate. The county magistrate is a new-style figure, with short hair that is combed and shiny, and a pen in the pocket of his Zhongshan suit . He does not believe in evil and came in person on a tall horse. But as soon as they entered the village, the county magistrate's horse I was shocked! First his front legs flew into the air, hissing, and then he started running wildly. The county magistrate was swinging back and forth like a paper figure on the horse. The moment the magistrate was thrown off, someone rushed up and hugged him. The county magistrate, this person is Li Ba.

The county magistrate was shocked and asked his men to write down his name so that they could repay him later. Then he went back surrounded by everyone. I heard that the county magistrate reported the situation to the province, and the province reported it to the central government. Yuan Shikai was in charge of the central government, and the county magistrate was rewarded for this, allowing him to publicize his personal experience everywhere, and was promoted to a higher official level.

The village is shrouded in a mysterious atmosphere, and people live in fear. That winter, the days passed very slowly. Some of the villagers could not feel the cold even when standing in the razor-like cold wind, but when they heard the wind sound like a donkey braying, they pulled up the quilt and covered their heads. The adults no longer dared to scare the children, and the children no longer dared to cry.

When spring begins next year, the river ice melts quietly, and the willow trees begin to sprout. The air is filled with a light fragrance, emitted by the pointed tree buds, which are delicate and have a milky fragrance.At noon that day, Li Ba was taking a nap with his arms around the greasy musket in the ruined temple in the north of the village. He was leaning on a thousand-year-old locust tree and was feeling sleepy. Suddenly, a sudden spring thunder shook his ears. There was a loud buzzing sound. He calmed down for a moment, and in an instant, strong winds, thunder and lightning, showers and hail all came crashing down on him at the same time!

Li Ba felt that all this was coming for him. Has he committed something and is doomed?

The sky was dark, like a quilt covering me, and I couldn't see my fingers when I stretched out my hand; the clothes on my body were dripping wet, like a drowned rat. The sound of thunder was like a drum beating around him, and the sound of thunder made his insides turn upside down! He wiped the rain off his face with his hand, raised his head and said silently to the sky: "Oh my god, I didn't break the rules of heaven, you can't accuse me unjustly..."

At this moment, a bolt of lightning flashed across, and he suddenly saw a person. A child holding a small flag stood on a branch of a tree. When thunder and lightning struck like a child, the child shook the small flag in his hand, and the lightning flew past him. The child was safe and sound, and smiled eerily. He understood at once: This is the tormenting monster, and the time has come to eliminate harm for the people!

Thinking of this, he pointed the muzzle of his gun firmly at the small flag in the goblin's hand, and he could see it clearly with the help of lightning. He held his breath and pulled the trigger at the moment the lightning flashed.

The gun went off! Hit! The small flag in the goblin's hand floated down faintly. Thunder exploded - the goblin turned into a fireball, rolled in the air, jumped a few times, and was instantly wiped out.

It was a sunny day, and the brightness was so bright that it made people dizzy. The sun was extraordinarily bright and warm, and Li Ba was knocked unconscious by the shock.

When Li Ba woke up, he was lying in his home, with gongs and drums beating loudly outside. That day was March 22, 1916. That day was also the end of Yuan Shikai's 83-day dream of being emperor.

From then on, the sharp gun and the eighth master were connected together. From the Republic of China to Hongxian and back to the republic of China, the county magistrate who had been promoted one level came back to be the county magistrate. The eighth master of the sharp gun was invited by the county magistrate to become the county magistrate. The bodyguard and the county magistrate regarded his wife's maid Xiaolian as his righteous daughter and married him to the eighth master of the sharp gun. Later, the county magistrate went to Nanjing to take office and it was inconvenient to take them there. The eighth master of the sharp gun took his wife back to his hometown and bought the land. He built a house and gave birth to five sons. In order to commemorate the magic gun that brought him good luck and that extraordinary experience, he named his son Shenqiang. Later, after the accident of Master Shenqiang, people used to call his sons Li Bayi, Li Bayer, and Li Ba. 3. Li Bayi and Li Bayu.

Grandma continued to narrate past events.

Grandma’s past events are like the road under the feet of flying leaves. It is difficult to connect one piece to another, but it can only be lengthened if we go on for a long time. Grandma's past is original and rough, but it cannot withstand decades of polishing. It is inadvertently mixed with wishes, legends, and myths...

I know that the reason for this is because grandma is uneducated, and grandma has no culture. The past is also the past for the elderly in Dongdawa countryside. The old people are so nostalgic that they pass it on by word of mouth. Everyone repeats the same topic over and over again on different occasions. It is inevitable that it will be deformed, twisted and connected, and it will become more and more interesting...

The next step is Eighth master.

After all the dogs in the village were beaten to death, the ferocity of the wild animals made the sharpshooter Ba Ye's beard crooked with anger. He walked around the village at night carrying a musket, and for several days he didn't even see the shadow of a wild animal. , he fired three shots into the depths of the puddle: "Grandsons, I am a magic gun. I specialize in fighting monsters and monsters. Isn't it worthy of my magic gun?" He cursed all the way. Strangely enough, from that day on, no wild animals entered the village. The wild animals were spiritual, and they were immediately restrained.

The village fell silent, but the brief silence was disrupted by another situation. This is the special historical period in North China's history when "the troops were like hair and the traitors were like waves."

At that time, in Dongdawa, there were various organizations holding anti-Japanese banners, and they were growing fast like wild mushrooms growing out of the field: the national army was resisting Japan, but there was no trace of the national army, but the county sent people to collect taxes and donations. Support the front line; the local area is also occupied by the Japanese. The front line is thousands of miles away. I have never seen the regular Eighth Route Army. I heard that the Eighth Route Army is all in the mountains. I have only seen the armed workers. They are the same as the common people. The difference is that some of them have weapons in their hands. With a short gun and a dragon, they sometimes shouted at night to promote the anti-Japanese war. The rich would pay, and the powerful would contribute. The bandits also asked for money and food in the name of anti-Japanese, and they would rob and seize if they were not given. Farmers wanted to eat and drink at home, molesting women, and the lazy people in the village no longer had to farm. They all followed the booing, saying that they were anti-Japanese troops. It was hard to tell whether they were real anti-Japanese people or fake anti-Japanese people, but the harm to the common people was real and miscellaneous. The sequence is a mess, but it makes people unable to reason. The common people had to rob the little food and risk their lives. They had to eat wild vegetables and catch fish and shrimps. There was a way to survive in the big depressions. The big landowners ran to the city. The biggest headache was for the small landowners. They were the targets of various forces. Food, meat on the chopping board.

Your great-grandfather's name is Han Shiyuan, who is nicknamed the Demon King. He is a rich man in Dongdawa Township. He does not go to the city. He wants to be with the house standing here and the land lying here.

It seems that your great-grandfather also came from a poor background. When he was young, he pulled camels and sold tea on the Silk Road. He spent his life exchanging money for money, licking blood on the tip of a knife every day. He was a righteous person and made many robbers. On the Tea Horse Road, the boss and the robber Scar had a grudge. Scarface settled the grudges. Scar invited him to join the gang, but he refused because he had a wife at home. After the injury healed, he decided to go home. The boss repeatedly tried to persuade him to stay as a shareholder, but to no avail, so the boss had to give him a large sum of money and send him on his way.

Take your great-grandfather back home. His mother died long ago and was buried with a sweeper. He wanted to hold a grand funeral for her, so he spent a lot of money to buy a coffin made of golden nanmu and invited the most respectable people from the whole town. , invited the best theater troupe in the city, had a grand party for three days, and buried his mother ceremoniously.

After burying my mother, he built a house and acquired land, and became a well-known rich man. Your great-grandfather is different from other landowners. He eats the same food as his employees, wears the same clothes, and does the same work, which makes the employees feel embarrassed. Later, he set up a school in the countryside, opened Jishitang Pharmacy, opened a bank in the city, and married the eldest daughter of the Deng family, a wealthy family in Yunhe West Village. Not only was this daughter of the Deng family beautiful, she was also literate and good at medicine. She often treated and delivered medicine to poor people in the village, and was nicknamed the Living Bodhisattva. This is your great-grandmother.

Your great-grandfather and great-grandmother had three boys and two girls: the eldest son Han Bingxuan, the second son Han Bingqi, the third son Han Bingren who was your grandfather, the eldest daughter Han Bingrui, and the youngest daughter Han Bingxue.

Grandma's telling of the past is a typical casual conversation.

talks about whatever comes to mind.

However, if it weren’t for the anti-Japanese background of talking about the Eight Masters with a sharp gun and interspersed with my great-grandfather, it would be indispensable to waste more words in the subsequent chapters of fighting the Japanese. This is also an art.

This art is not like "thousands of flowers blooming, each showing one branch." But it can better reflect priorities. For this reason, I respect my grandma.

About the author: Qi Hongtao, a member of the China Financial Writers Association and the Tianjin Writers Association, has long been working on the front lines of rural finance and has published three literary works.

One point number Qi Hongtao