One day in 1931, it was about to rain. Cheng Yuanji, who had just returned from work, quickly put a few sweet potatoes in his arms, put on a straw raincoat, and ran to the valley along the winding mountain road.
On a gentle slope in the valley, he dug out more than two acres of wasteland by hoeing and slaughtering, and planted pumpkins in the field. These pumpkins are also very successful. They are all fat and thick, and they are growing well. I guess they will have a good harvest this year.
Cheng Yuanji's wife has always been worried that bad people will come to steal pumpkins. After all, these pumpkins are the lifeblood of the family to their family, so the day before yesterday he took his daughter to the melon-watching shed in the mountains to live in.
When Cheng Yuanji was walking halfway, the rain started. He ran and rushed, but by the time he climbed up the ridge, it was already dark. At this time, he suddenly saw black shadows rushing out from the hillside and running towards his melon shed.
When he thought that his wife and children were still looking in the melon shed, he couldn't help but speed up his pace. But when he thought that the other party had many people, he stopped and hid behind a big tree to observe the movement.
I saw the group of people running to the melon shed. One of them didn't know what they said there. The group of people immediately dispersed, each of them picked a pumpkin and carried it on his shoulders and walked towards the mountains. In the end, only the speaker was left squatting under a tree, using a flashlight and not knowing what he was doing. After a while, he walked into the melon field, squatted down and groped for a while, then stood up and walked away.
Cheng Yuanji counted about the number, and there were about twenty people, which means that he had lost at least twenty pumpkins. He sighed helplessly. After the people left, they quickly ran to the melon shed and knocked on the door.
After the woman opened the door with a panic look on her face, she threw herself into his arms and cried and said, "Why did you come? You don't know, I was scared to death just now!"
Then the woman told him what happened.
When the woman saw that it was raining, she didn't know if the man would come, so she coaxed her daughter to lie on the wooden bed. Unexpectedly, at this moment, she suddenly heard something outside the door, and then she heard a soft knock on the door, and a strange man's voice came:
"Membersman, are you here? Please open the door, I want to discuss something with you!"
There is only a woman and a child under 10 years old in the room. She dared not open the door, so she had to hug her daughter and curl up on the wooden bed and shivered.
The people outside saw that no one opened the door, so they knocked on the door again and said softly: "My fellow villager, don't be afraid, we are not bad people, we just want to buy some food from you."
The woman still dared not say anything after hearing this. She was in chaos and could not easily believe anyone's words. But with a little force in this thatched hut in my house, even the pillars would fall down, let alone the door.
But at this moment, there was a sudden sound outside the door. After a while, I heard someone outside talking, "Be careful when walking, don't trample the melon field!"
"Don't pick that tender one, it can grow!"
After a while, a voice sounded outside the door: "My fellow, I'm sorry, we picked the melon away, and we left the money for you to the tenth melon seedling root in the east end, don't forget to take it!"
Cheng Yuanji heard this, he couldn't help frowning, shook his head and sighed, "It's better not to I'm thinking about it, this must be the one who coaxes you. What good people will be like these days! "
" Otherwise, go and see, what if they really leave money for us?"
" Don't think about those useless things. You're hungry. I have a few sweet potatoes here. You and the children will eat them first. I go to the melon field to see them. I don't know what the melon field has been ruined by them. Alas, what kind of world is this!"
After saying that, Cheng Yuanji handed a few sweet potatoes to his wife and walked out to see the melon field. After he arrived at the melon field, he thought about it and walked to the east end of the field, counted the tenth melon seedlings, squatted down, and reached out to grope.
Soon, he touched a melon leaf bag tied with grass roots. He quickly walked into the melon leaf bag with it.
Cheng Yuanji and his wife got together, opened the melon leaf bag and saw that there were two silver dollars and a note inside. The note said that they were Red Army , the people's own team. Because they had no food and could not open the door, they had to pick twenty pumpkins, leave two silver dollars, and sign the name.
Cheng Yuanji and his wife looked at me, and I looked at you, and I couldn't believe it was true. Cheng Yuanji carefully collected the note, and since then, a name called "Red Army" was engraved in his heart!
Time came in 1934. One night, the Red Army guerrillas on the mountain secretly came down, and he gently knocked on the window of Cheng Yuanji's house.
This person, Cheng Yuanji, also knows him, and usually calls him Comrade Fan. Comrade Fan came this time because he had something to ask him to do, but he had to take a lot of risks.
It turned out that the weapons used by the guerrillas at that time were mainly bird gun used by the Red Guard . They worked a lot of effort and finally got some gunpowder in the county through the underground party. But because the enemy was in a tight investigation, it was impossible to bring it out for a while.
So the guerrillas thought of Cheng Yuanji. He often went to the city to sell pumpkins and vegetables, and they were cooked with many people. In addition, he had a household registration, so it would not easily arouse the enemy's suspicion.
After hearing this, Cheng Yuanji patted his chest and agreed. Comrade Fan repeatedly reminded him to be careful on the road and act according to the opportunity. However, the gunpowder must be sent to the Temple of Chengnanshan Temple the night after tomorrow. After he told Cheng Yuanji the secret code and location of the connector, he left in the dark.
Early the next morning, Cheng Yuanji put a load of vegetables into the city. After he sold the vegetables at a low price, he went to a small restaurant as agreed in advance. As soon as he walked in, he shouted loudly: "Boss, give me a bowl of wontons. Don't forget to add more pepper. I like this!"
But what he didn't expect was that as soon as the code was finished, a banging sound came from the inner room. Then two security teams walked out with blood on the corner of their mouths, and there was another person behind him holding two paper bags wrapped in newspaper.
The person with blood on the corner of his mouth looked at him when he was by the side of Cheng Yuanji: "I'm sorry, fellow villager, I'm in trouble now, there's something wrong in the house, if I can't stand hungry, just make it for myself!"
"Stop talking, go quickly!"
Cheng Yuanji turned around and walked to the inner room, and saw that the house was being chaotic. He walked out of the restaurant and felt very heavy in his heart. From time to time, the person with blood on the corner of his mouth appeared in front of him.
He walked on the road with a load in silence, finally found a piece of land and sat down. After forcing himself to calm down, he began to think about what to do next. It was obvious that the person who was on the joint was caught and the gunpowder fell into the hands of the enemy.
Suddenly, he slapped his thigh and immediately understood. The words that the comrade at the joint told him before leaving were just saying that I could still buy gunpowder in the city?
He hurriedly stood up, walked around the city, went to several hunting tools and firecracker shops to inquire about the price, and then hurried home.
When Cheng Yuanji arrived home, he grabbed his wife's arm and asked, "How much food is there in the house? Put it all in my pocket, I'm urgent!" Although the woman was full of doubts, she knew her man's temper, so she opened her mouth and didn't ask much, and then put the food.
Cheng Yuanji saw the woman wiping her tears while wiping her tears. He couldn't bear it and walked to the woman: "Don't worry, I can't hold us hungry. Don't you have pumpkins and sweet potatoes at home? As long as you can fill your stomach, it's fine!"
After the woman loaded the food, Cheng Yuanji turned her fingers and calculated that even if she sold all the food, she wouldn't be able to make up enough money to buy gunpowder.
He sat on the stool, searching around the room to see if there was anything valuable, but soon he was disappointed.
After thinking about it, he gritted his teeth and made a cruel decision. He walked to his wife, hugged her shoulders, and said hesitantly: "Fuck, I want to discuss something for you. Don't worry after hearing it. I think, I want to sell our land!"
"What? Do you want to sell the land? But is life?" After hearing this, the woman suddenly became anxious and grabbed his arm and shook it hard.
"Oh, don't worry, I'm rushing to use money to make something for the mountain. After we sell the land, we will rent the land to grow. I'll find a few more work to do, and you can work harder and do more needlework. We can still make do with this life.
Otherwise, those people on the mountain... Alas, if we don't care, this conscience will not be able to get through!" After hearing this, the woman didn't say anything. She knew the people on the mountain and knew that they were people from the "Red Army". She still remembers what happened in the pumpkin field that rainy day a few years ago.
So the woman climbed onto the bed, pulled a box over, opened it, took out the land deed, and handed it to Cheng Yuanji in tears.
Cheng Yuanji took the land deed, looked at the woman again, took the land deed and went out.
The next day, after dawn, Cheng Yuanji carried the vegetable load and entered the city again. After he sold the vegetables, he went to buy gunpowder. But the purchase process was not smooth. He told this company that it was for hunting, and told the company that he bought firecrackers to make some money. In this way, he finally raised more than ten kilograms of gunpowder and bought some medicines for the remaining money.
He found a place where no one was, wrapped all the things in oil paper, put them in a pre-prepared manure bucket, and placed them on them. He then left the city without any danger and headed straight for the mountain temple.
As expected, the comrades of the guerrillas were waiting for him here. After he finished talking about the whole story, the political commissar excitedly held his hand, then took out a pen, and put a few words on a piece of paper, which meant that the Red Army guerrillas borrowed a certain village, and how much gunpowder and medicine were sold to Cheng Yuanji in a certain village.
Cheng Yuanji took the note with tears in his eyes, put it together with the first note after returning home, and collected it.
In 1941, Cheng Yuanji's wife fell seriously ill and died of no money to see a doctor. At this time, his daughter Lanzi had also grown up.
One day, the father and daughter just crossed a ridge and met the security chief and one of his dog legs. The security chief stared at Lanzi with malicious intentions, wondering what he was muttering to the dog legs.
Cheng Yuanji knew in his heart that they were not at ease and quickly pulled his daughter behind him. At this time, the chief surveillance and his dog legs came over with a swaying swaying, looking at Cheng Yuanji and said sinisterly:
"Old Cheng, you should pay the fee for your strong man. If you don't have money, take your daughter to the top!" After hearing this, Cheng Yuanji glared at him fiercely and ignored him. After seeing this, the custodian cursed, "Don't think I don't know, you are a stinky and hard red bone, I will settle the score with you today!"
After saying that, the custodian rushed towards Lanzi with a gun. At this moment, a stone suddenly flew over and hit the custodian's head. The custodian fell to the ground, and then a person jumped out of the bush. He snatched the custodian's gun and shot him at the custodian and immediately sent the custodian back to his hometown.
Cheng Yuanji saw that a young man standing opposite him was wearing a dirty gray military uniform with his left arm hanging around his neck. He couldn't get the other party's identity for a moment and asked softly: "Who are you?"
"I am the New Fourth Army, that is, the Red Army of that year!" the young man said with a smile.
When he heard that it was the Red Army, Cheng Yuanji suddenly felt energetic. They first dealt with the bodies of the chief security guard and the dog legs, and then sneaked back home with the young man.
It turned out that this young man was a platoon leader of the New Fourth Army, named Qi Sheng. Unfortunately, he fell into the hands of the enemy in a battle. On the way to the concentration camp, he took advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness and took a chance to escape, but his arm was shot and injured.
Qi Sheng wanted to wait for darkness to go to Jiangbei to find the team, but Cheng Yuanji disagreed. He believed that Qi Sheng was injured now, and leaving like this would aggravate his injury. It would be better to stay at his house to recover from his injuries first and then go to the team.
Qi Sheng thought about it and agreed. They placed Qi Sheng deep in the bamboo garden behind the house. However, due to lack of medical treatment, Qi Sheng's wounds never healed, and even had a fever. This made Cheng Yuanji very anxious. He tossed and turned to sleep at night.
Early the next morning, he called Lan Zi in front of him: "Xiao Qi's injury cannot be delayed anymore. I want to take him to the city to find a doctor. If someone asks, he will say that he just came back from Nanyang and was accidentally injured by the militia. Lan Zi, you need your help. It's better to dress up as his wife and enter the city!"
Lan Zi's face turned red with a "swish" and nodded embarrassedly.
Although they were extremely thrilling along the way, they finally successfully entered the city, found a doctor, and cured Qi Sheng's injuries. In order to collect medical expenses, Lanzi cruelly sold the only silver hairpin left to her by her mother.
Under the careful care of Cheng Yuanji and his daughter, Qi Sheng's wound was healed in almost a month. On the day he left Cheng Yuanji's house, Cheng Yuanji gave him a pack of dry food and some money, and called his daughter to her side, asking her to follow Qi Sheng to find the team.
After many days of getting along, Qi Sheng also knew Cheng Yuanji's temper. So in the hazy moonlight, the two bid farewell to the old man and embarked on a journey to find the team.
When Cheng Yuanji returned home, he found a note on the table, which was left by Qi Sheng. The general idea was that when the New Fourth Army team saw this note, they would repay the medical expenses and dietary expenses for more than a month to the kind old man.
Cheng Yuanji looked at the note in his hand and burst into tears. He trembled his hands, put the note together with the two notes before, wrapped it with grease paper and carefully collected it.
