The fugitive Guo Ju laid
Text | Li Zhen
Grandpa said that Guo Ju came to the town with a load.
It was a spring morning after the storm, with the sunlight slightly drunk and the wind blew on my face. In the town, people saw a middle-aged man in rags sitting tiredly on the steps in front of the Quanshui Temple, panting heavily.
There were many people fleeing famine that year, and everyone in the town was surprised. But this person attracted everyone's attention. To be precise, it was the load he carried that attracted people's attention: in front of the load was a cotton locust basket, and there was a little girl with disheveled hair and face sitting in the basket. The little girl looks two or three years old, with a round face and a pair of big eyes flashing with a terrified and curious light. Behind the load is a bedding roll filled with bamboo mats. The middle-aged man took out a cloth bag from his arms and opened it to reveal several dried sweet potatoes wrapped in corn leaves. The middle-aged man put dried sweet potato in his mouth and chewed it briefly, then spit it on the corn leaves, calling "Juanzi". The little girl responded, and a pair of black little hands took the dried sweet potato and started eating greedily.
can be seen that Juanzi is extremely hungry. She buried her head for a while and then ate all the sweet potatoes. Dad, it's finished. Juanzi raised her head and handed the corn leaves to the middle-aged man. Full? The man asked. When you are full, Juanzi answered.
Someone who gathered here one after another asked, where did you come from? Where to go? The middle-aged man replied that he came from Henan and didn't know where he went. Ask, what is it called? Answer, Guo Ju was stunned. I asked again, why didn’t I see the child’s mother? Answer: The child's mother died of illness when the child was two years old.
After hearing this, people sighed and whispered, and concluded that Guo Ju was a miserable person, and Juanzi was a poor child. Da Xier's mother squatted beside the basket, wiped Juanzi's face with her cuffs, stood up and said to Guo Ju, stay, don't leave!
Everyone agreed, yes, don’t leave. Adults can do whatever you want. You are running around all day and have no place to live, so your children cannot stand this sin.
Guo Ju heard this, stood up, bowed with his fists, and said, thank you, thank you.
While speaking, the security chief came over, and after asking about the situation, he sighed, "Alas, there are no idle houses in the village, so you and your father will go to the Ma family compound for a while to avoid it."
Ma Family Courtyard is located at the south end of the temple-front alley, and is a long-desolated old house. The house turned out to be the private property of the cruel official Ma of the late Qing Dynasty. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zhang Minxing led a large army to attack Muping City and passed by the town. Ma took his family and gold and silver and soft materials and fled, and left the deep courtyard. Later, I heard that the abandoned Ma family compound was "haunted" one after another, and no one dared to live in a good house. Over time, the yard was overgrown with weeds, becoming a "haunted house" among the people of the town.
It’s strange that after Guo Julang’s father and daughter moved into the Ma family courtyard, the dilapidated house was also managed in an orderly and fresh manner by Guo Julang.
This town has always been simple and simple, and people have opened their arms to accept and help the Guo father and daughter. If you want to say that Guo Juling is also a honest person, he soon became a family with everyone. Among these people, the ones who have the closest contact with Guo Juling are the rural doctor in the alley, Sima Yi and the old man Li who lives next to the persimmon garden.
has been in contact for a long time. As we all know, Guo Juling has his own unique skills in the family. He can make a plaster that specializes in treating back and leg pain. Many people in the temple-front alley with waist and legs were covered with two plasters on them, and their waists were magically not sore, their legs were not hurt, and they moved freely. The person who has recovered from his illness wants to give him money, but he doesn’t want it. He says that everyone takes him in, so how can he ask for money? He has to be conscientious in life! Everyone asked what the plaster was called? He said it was called "Haima Chasing Wind Ointment". I don’t want to give it money. Everyone was grateful and kept spreading his name to him. Soon, people from all over the countryside knew that there was a Guo Juling who sold plaster.
When my grandfather was young, he was a man with a huge axle in the town. He relied on working for the "Bei Damen" landlords in the village to support our whole family. Due to years of overwork, I suffered from severe chronic lumbar and leg pain and I couldn’t get off the kang when I was sick. Grandpa said that his illness was cured by applying Guo Julang's plaster.
On weekdays, during the busy farming season, Guo Julang and my grandfather carried huts for the rich households in the village, and during the slack farming season, they set up street stalls and sold plasters to make a living.
: In the eyes of the townspeople, he is not a serious businessman. Because he can sell plasters as much as he can, but he can also sell them on credit. Grandpa said that at that time, the alley in front of the temple was often filled with the smell of Chinese medicine.
Grandpa told me that Guo Ju led Juanzi away from Majia Hutong before dawn on June 7, 1943. I asked my grandfather how he remembered this life so clearly? Grandpa said that that day was the day when Yu Deshui, deputy commander of the East China Sea Military Division, led the East China Sea Independent Regiment to attack the Second Branch, and people in the town will never forget it. I asked again, what is the relationship between the surprise attack on the second branch office and Guo Juling? Grandpa said that Guo Ju was an underground party. I fell from my chin in shock and asked, is it true or false? real! Grandpa answered affirmatively.
Grandpa smoked a bag of cigarettes and continued to tell me the story of Guo Juling. Li, the eldest son of the Changchun University, was the first Communist Party member to develop in the town. When the two-part office was removed, Lao Li invaded the enemy according to the organization's arrangement and was responsible for filling oil for the kerosene lamp in the bunker. In the early morning of June 7, 1943, the old man Li, as agreed in advance, wiped out the oil lamp and opened the door of the bunker. Our officers and soldiers worked inside and outside to seize the enemy and puppet stronghold that had been entrenched in the town for many years, captured the puppet director Fu Quan and more than 30 puppet troops alive, and seized a large number of weapons and ammunition.
When Guo Ju left the town, my grandfather met him for the last time and he gave him two plasters. Grandpa sent him to the intersection of Tudi Temple in the east of the village and asked, Lao Guo , when will he come back? Guo Ju took grandpa's hand and said, "I will come back, brother, I will definitely come back to visit the villagers when the whole country is liberated!" I can't forget the alley in front of the temple. After saying that, he took the burden and took Juanzi's hand and disappeared into the darkness before dawn.
After the founding of New China, Big Old Li became the first party organization secretary in the town. Recalling the past, Lao Li said that Lao Guo is not Guo’s surname, his surname is Zhao.
I asked my grandfather curiously, did Guo Juling come back later? Grandpa replied, no. However, in the early years, Lao Xu, the shopkeeper of the "Tongdetang" in the town, said that when Qingdao was liberated in 1949, he worked as an apprentice in Qingdao . One day, in front of a building, he saw a majestic PLA officer speaking to the soldiers, and he stood two guards on the left and right. He looked familiar at first glance. No matter how he looked, he was Guo Ju, a fugitive who sold plaster in the town, because of his bright big eyes and voice and tone of his voice.
original text was published on October 28, 2022 "Yantai Evening News-Yantai Street"
