Chapter 49

  Yu Xiaoqing stared at him and asked "Do you hate Japanese people?"

  "Damn it, I hate what we've become."

  "What is it?"

  "I don't know. I've been in a daze all along."

  Tang Ji suddenly asked: "What do you think of the red faction?"

  Yu Xiaoqing was taken aback for a moment in his pacing, looking at Tang Ji. From then on, the atmosphere suddenly changed a bit. Director Chen's attitude changed from being indifferent to being extremely concerned. Zhang Lixian and others reacted as if Tang Ji had touched a taboo that shouldn't be touched. We had just relaxed a little, but suddenly felt suffocated again.

  Yu Shi's predecessor was anti-communist. The two sides have been cooperating for six years, but Yu Shi internally still calls me a red bandit, making me think that the people who want to kill me are not only Yu Xiaoqing but also Tang Ji.

  "Scholars cannot be without books, but empty talk misleads the country."

  Tang Ji pressed on: "Are you referring to Red Guards?"

  "Yes."

  "Director Chen asked during the interrogation for the first time 'Have you had any dealings with him?'"

  "When traveling, I saw their parade and slogans"

  。”

  He was so forthright that Director Chen immediately lost interest, while Tang Ji offered a cigarette from his silver case to the military officer. We let out another sigh of relief.

  Yu Xiaoqing asked: "Have you ever fought a big battle with the Japanese?"

  Dead dead replied: "Fought before."

  "What's going on?"

  "This fight."

  "Just one battle?"

  "I didn't go through a big fuss." Said with a serious and honest tone.

  Yu Xiaoqing seemed skeptical "Can one battle be so intense as to make you hate it to the bone?"

  "What is meant by 'hating someone to the bone'?" Diedie asked.

  Yu Xiaoqing said: "Your way of fighting is called breaking the cauldron and sinking the boat, which is already too polite. It's simply cutting off one's offspring."

  Dead dead, turned back and looked at us, opened our mouths, and the expression was a bit painful.

  "I don't hate anyone. At most I only brought four soldiers, not to fight but to guard the warehouse. On the west coast, I saw over a thousand people following behind me and I was very scared..."

  Yu Xiaoqing asked: "Afraid or pleased?"

  Die, die, bitter smile "It seems that everything can make people breathless, then they all have. I've already seen it with my own eyes on the South Heaven Gate, I've had enough. I used to run away and encounter deaths, but there weren't enough dead people to be listed in the battle. And I've been to those places..."

  "What did you say?"

  "The places I've been to, we've lost. The boiled pork and mung bean soup of Beijing's Huangchenggen, the stir-fried noodles of Nanjing. And the golden Qinhuai River wind and moon of Yangzhou." He spoke frankly with an expression that all men understand. "Also, the Shanghai-style rice cakes and egg tarts that made my eyes wide with wonder, the Tianjin mahua dog not understanding, Guangzhou's boat congee and intestine noodles, the Travessia mouth's salty fish pancake and artillery tower, Northeast China's three fresh dishes, dog meat soup, pickled mustard greens and braised pork belly, the old Linzi's bitter laughter finding a way out, the Fire Temple's duck blood soup, and also stinky tofu and the already powdered Changsha city."

  Krupp swallowed hard at the wrong time and had to wipe his mouth

  We were so fed up with him that we wanted to kill him. He only talked about things that had nothing to do with us, and yet he still managed to mention things that we could afford to eat or had even eaten before.

  Then he spread his hands in his own way and concluded with a pause "It's all gone... I have no upbringing."

  Yu Xiaoqing said: "I don't have either."

  Director Chen and Tang Ji looked a bit embarrassed.

  Die, die! And then he said: "No upbringing. No need to see half of China gone before starting to worry and feel pain. No need to wait until all Chinese people are dead before feeling pain and worry. What a big river and mountain! There are many places I haven't been to, but I have been to Tiefa, Fuyu, Hulun Lake, Heilongjiang River, Beier Lake, Changbai Mountain, Da Xing'an, Xiao Xing'an, Yingkou, Andong, Laohe River, Chengde, Guojia Village, Wanquan, Luanhe River, Baihe River, Sanggan River, Beiping Tianjin, Jiyuan, Suigui, Zhen Tou Bao, Licheng, Daokou, Yangqu, Kaifeng, Yancheng...

  Tang Ji stopped him "Alright, we get your point."

  Die, die, but insist on saying "I'm a blind hurry person, I'm blind hurry. Three or two words are one side of the water and soil, one side of the people, one big defeat, and astronomical numbers of lives. Nanyang, Xiangyang, Maiqizhen, Changtaiguan, Zhengyangguan, Yinghe, Ruzhe, Chaohu, Hongzehu, Zhenjiang, Nanjing, Huaining..."

  Tang Ji interrupted him, "Alright."

  He doesn't care about him at all "Shanghai, Huai'an, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Huangpu River, Taihu Lake, Nantong..."

  So Tang Ji stopped talking. Yu Xiaoqing didn't mean to stop him, and Zhang Lixian scribbled down notes on a blank sheet of paper used for drafts.

  We stood there like wooden chickens, wiping away cold sweat.

  Tunxi, Liu'an, Jiujiang, Wuchang, Hankou, Xiushui, Yichang...

  He spoke in a jumbled manner just like the road he had walked was jumbled.

  These lost and defeated places with three or two words of place names, he counted for a full 30 minutes, then very modestly told us that it was less than one-tenth, memory is limited.

  Yu Xiaoqing is probably right, nowadays Chinese soldiers are probably all going to die. We didn't die only because we collectively forgot and lost our memories. Moreover, we believe that those who fell have gone mad, no one can remember these tragic events and remain normal.

  。”

  Director Chen's head was steaming as if he had been splashed with water. Tang Ji himself reached out to take a cigarette from the cigarette box that had already been placed in front of Director Chen, only to find that the box was empty, while the two people in front of him already had more than ten cigarette butts. Yu Xiaoqing's posture hadn't changed at all. Someone was wiping away sweat and tidying up the scene, while Li Bing and others stared blankly at the wall as if they wanted to stare through it. Zhang Lixian's notes were densely packed on the fifth sheet of paper.

  Finally nearing its end. "West of Nujiang River, Baoshan, Tengyue, Tongguan and our location in Zanda."

  Yu Xiaoqing interrupted for the first time, "Chan Da hasn't lost."

  "It's going to be over soon."

  Yu Xiaoqing gave him a "let's wait and see" expression.

  Die, die, and then he said: "Less than a tenth of the memory is limited. If we don't pull our shit, we'll suffocate to death. We can live for seven or eight days without eating, five or six days without drinking water, and four or five days without sleeping. Trivial matters will take our lives too. Our country has been lost, but we have already lived for six or seven years - I don't understand... I want things to be the way they should be."

  "What is the original appearance?"

  "I don't know." Diedie replied.

  Yu Xiaoqing stared at him, "You've been contradicting yourself. According to what you said, everyone here should have died ten or twenty times. Innocent? --- That's what you called innocent."

  "I really don't know." Dead, dead, and once again looking back at our position behind him, this is a big movement range... More than a thousand people are left with just a small handful... Maybe it's precisely because we all only have one good death that I don't know... The battle on the South Heaven Gate was a major battle for me, after fighting seventeen times and finishing my first great battle in life, I no longer know.

  Yu Xiaoqing gazed at the person in front of him for a long time, his eyes filled with a kind of desolation that was almost painful.

  "He suddenly said: 'Court adjourned.'"

  We are back in this room sitting or standing staring blankly at the wall or ceiling.

  "Will he die?"

  We all fell silent.

  "No," replied Krupp.

  The person who said this with a straight face is ironically the one who knows the least about what's going on, it's truly despairing.

  。

  "Who wants him dead?" I asked everyone.

  "Uh. Yu Xiaoqing is a bastard, a thieving son of a bitch who was picked up by his worthless parents."

  I have a different view. "I think Tang's deputy is quite capable of getting him killed. If you say one wrong word about the red faction, it's an instant death sentence. And there's also the excuse of spreading false military orders and fleeing in disarray."

  "He didn't mean it!"

  I glanced at that guy who was too opinionated about this matter. "Because he remembered you were a 15th-term military officer trainee? That's proof, isn't it? Some people come to fight because they're afraid of being too weak."

  Some people just want to be different from others!

  "Alright, alright. Does the military want him dead? He's that kind of person who doesn't follow rules and deserves to die anyway. Originally, he was a straightforward person, but since everyone else is not straightforward, he became unscrupulous too, so he deserved to die."

  The gate opened. He Shuguang and several soldiers carrying buckets and basins stood outside. We just hoped that the scolding of Yu Xiaoqing hadn't been heard, fortunately.

  "Eat." said He Shuguang.

  White rice was served in a very un-Chinese-style flat iron basin, and on top of each person's rice, a large ladle of mixed sauce with radish but mainly meat was poured - our eyes were all wide open.

  Beef. We had long forgotten that beef could be served on a plate like this.

  This thing isn't something to be given to people casually, even in the Shifu's department everything was already arranged. I'm now certain that he'll die a terrible death, it's not strange at all, from the first glance I saw him I knew he had an aura of being doomed to die a terrible death.

  We ate like pigs. He Shuguang hastily retreated, muttering to himself as he walked away, "Didn't even eat less for breakfast?"

  We don't care about big mouth chewing.

  Yu Xiaoqing and his men didn't look like they had starved at all, so it was a waste of breath to say that they would definitely die. He deserved to die even more.

  The second round of review has begun and we are still sitting quietly listening because what is being said is also our concern.

  Yu Xiāo Qīng was no longer willing to sit down, but he didn't intend to draw his gun. He even stopped playing with his holster.

  He asked curiously: "You've been to so many places, can you speak dialects of over ten provinces?"

  "I've learned a few unrelated phrases. I can say a few words in Mongolian, Tibetan and Manchu, but even the Manchu people themselves don't speak it anymore. And then there's Miao, Yi, Lisu... fragmented languages that I can only say a few words in."

  Yu Xiaoqing rarely said a sentence in Hunan dialect: "You're really courting death."

  "There's a way to get it. Let's go eat." Diediedie replied in Hunan dialect as well.

  Yu Xiaoqing continued to ask with a somewhat satisfied tone: "What does your very unsettled family do?"

  He looked a bit disdainful with his deadpan expression, but we've seen how he treated the dead before and knew he wasn't that disdainful of "soul summoning."

  "What's going on?" Yu Xiaoqing seemed to have misheard.

  "Summoning the soul."

  "What?"

  "Summoning souls."

  The two of them started showing up again with that repetitive and confrontational attitude, at this time both people looked very punchable.

  Yu Xiaoqing showed a truly disdainful expression "Is it that kind of thing where an old lady goes out with a basin to knock and shout when a child has a fever, or is it the kind of thing where someone cries out for a copper coin?"

  Die, die, it looks a bit embarrassing. It's not that simple either. People have their own soil and soul to return home. My family is specialized in calling souls for the dead to invite them back home. In peaceful times when people die less often and mostly at home, my family has a hard time making a living. In times of war when many people die and are displaced, even if they die, no one hires us to call out, making it even harder for us to survive. So we just keep walking and calling out.

  "Do you really believe that people have souls? Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Zen, Pure Land, Catholicism, Christianity, which one do you believe in?" Yu Xiaoqing added with a sneer "Or is it the Five Pecks of Rice Sect?"

  "Dead dead Da Dao said: 'I believe in being cautious, so I don't say anything that can be believed.'"

  "Are you saying that people really have souls? Do you have a soul?" Yu Xiaoqing asked him.

  Died died card for a good while "I don't know"

  。”

  Yu Xiaoqing came to a conclusion: "That must be Shen Han."

  It seems that Ning Ke can only admit that "this is indeed a divine Han."

  "How can Shen Han join the army again?"

  "When I was in Ningxia, my parents both died of the plague. My mother told me that I couldn't do this line of work, I didn't have a soul root, I got angry too easily and couldn't let the dead rest in peace, instead stirring them up so they couldn't be at peace."

  Yu Xiaoqing ordered: "You come and see me."

  "...what?" But he must have heard Yu Xiao's command clearly.

  "Don't pretend to be stupid. Summon the soul."

  "I can't take it anymore. Not only did I disturb the dead, but also the living."

  "Our military orders are as unshakeable as a mountain."

  It seems there's no escape. Dead, dead, I can only hum a tune-like "Soul, return! Why did you go to the riverbank? What are you doing in the four directions? Leave the joyful place, why not leave the unlucky ones? Soul, return! The east is not suitable...

  He was very noisy, Yu Xiaoqing suddenly swept almost all the scrolls, books and pens on his desk onto himself. "How many true words do you have before you die? I am a Hunanese, I respect Qu Yuan and Yue Fei the most, come and recite 'Chu Ci' for me?"

  We almost wanted to laugh because it's rare to see a wolf so deadbeat.

  Yu Xiaoqing simply spat out a word: "Recruit!"

  We were on the verge of tears because he was dying, his head hung low and a voice began to emanate from his mouth like an incantation and music. You couldn't help but wonder what it meant, nor would you want to know. It sounded more like a mother's lullaby, a mother's murmurs beside her dying son's bed. So we stood quietly with our heads hung low in the same posture as him.

  We can't help but think of our death, I think when we die, we will be willing to hear this sound, my resentment will be at peace in this sound. When I died, I would return to Beijing. Dead, dead, said burst belly soup meat, I realized that I love Beijing.

  We can't help but think of the grave on his body as flowers and grass have grown; thinking of Kang Wei, we buried him in a place that is now under the feet of the Japanese army, we hope he doesn't ask us if we are conscienceless; thinking of the bean pancake that was never cared for, I hope it has been washed away to sea this time, he went further than any of us

  。”

  Tang Ji listened very carefully. Director Chen listened as if he was listening to a play. Yu Xiaoqing and his beloved all listened with great impatience.

  But Yu Shi didn't like to listen, he hoped things would be clear and straightforward, but more and more things were getting unclear. He chose to ignore it, anyway, I will be a dead horse wrapped in a horsehide in the future.

  Yu Xiaoqing stopped and said "Stop it! What's going on?"

  "What's going on?" (in Northeastern Mandarin dialect)

  "Have you ever done this set in my army?"

  "No." I replied with a deadpan tone.

  "A" translated it with a slightly sharp tone: "No!"

  "The dragon said firmly: 'Never.'"

  We also don't know if there is or not. We only know that he has always been a bit strange towards the dead. Fortunately, Yu Xiaoqing doesn't care about this.

  Yu Xiaoqing continued: "He's a person who can't run away no matter how he tries to dodge the question. 'So, did you join the army?'"

  "I went to school. In the 24th year of the Republic of China. I admired people who could read books. Before, I could only patch together some borrowed books to read and even steal them." Dead dead replied.

  "Twenty-five years of military service. One year?"

  "In less than a year, the chairman wants new life and new school with slogans all over the place that can be used to overthrow something. This time is more than reading books. Twenty-five years of tense situation, so I joined the army."

  "Whose army? General Zizhong, General Rongyi, General Siyuan... Although this battle was a defeat, the victory at Kunlun Pass was not a fluke. General Liren has the style of an ancient Confucian general and is also skilled in mechanics, he is someone I deeply admire. General Xue Yue, General Xue, with his unyielding spirit, annihilated the enemy's 106th division and killed Lieutenant General Toudou Koji... The bloodbath at Xiang was a blessing for him, or perhaps it was General Fu Zuoyi who lengthened our army's lifespan...

  Yu Xiao's eyes sparkled as he spoke, but this guy who seemed uninterested in anything looked like he had gone crazy, shaking his head repeatedly until Yu Xiao finally shut up."

  "It's not like the teacher would know if I said it out loud. It's just... *scratches head in embarrassment* Ah, sorry about that. The 714th Garrison Regiment of Liuzhou, Guangxi..."

  Yu Xiaoqing also looked a bit surprised

  "Guard troops? Not even a decent battalion. 714?" He knocked on his own forehead "I remember now. Those who were notorious for smuggling salt and opium throughout the province were sent to fight, but they scattered like birds and beasts when they were still over a hundred miles away from the enemy."

  "Hmm... wherever the brothers come to join forces, wearing yellow skin and fire-grass shoes, all recognize left and right, left and right, willing to risk their lives for wealth..." He sang loudly, singing the military song of his former guard team.

  Yu Xiaoqing hummed along: "Divide the silver between you and me, after we finish eating rice noodles and hot pot, left and right, our Guilin military tickets are plentiful."

  "one more two more left haha haha haha hehehe... our military song."

  We stared at the pair, they now looked like living treasures. Although Yu Xiaoqing was reciting with a straight face, "Die, die, hahaha, hehe", there was no smile on his face at all.

  Yu Xiaoqing commented: "He really deserves to die."

  Dead, dead, in agreement: "Rotten to the point of being unable to pull out, not even thinking about leaving. The only good thing is that we no longer make slogans, we just fight when there's nothing else to do. Later I thought about running and later really ran away, it was time to go to war, literate people get promoted quickly, I entered a military officer training class."

  Yu Xiaoqing regained interest "Which special training class?"

  Dead dead again suddenly "Former Minister of Internal Affairs He Jian's. Just in Hunan, two periods have been held."

  Yu Xiaoqing again choked with rage, "That He Jian who was waiting to ascend to immortality by sitting in meditation? ...teaching troops to recite Napoleon's and Clausewitz's military strategies and Zhongzheng's teachings? Many people have been killed because of this."

  Tang Ji immediately coughed.

  "Dying, dying..." He murmured and said: "But coming out is just a lieutenant."

  Yu Xiaoqing: "There's no way it can rise this fast."

  He died and died, somewhat embarrassedly explaining: "That... I stole a pack of goods when I left the Gui army."

  Many of us already have smile lines on our faces, but Yu Xiaoqing's face was as calm as water and he nodded slightly. "That makes sense."

  "Died, died, and then said: "Later changed many troops without getting out of hand. Sometimes several months just changed a grain salary master. The northernmost went to Henan and then all the way defeated army returned. Defeated before Zhen Da still in a new regiment eating grain but also scattered and followed up with your troops to Burma."