History: In the first and middle of July 1969, a huge flood occurred in the Jianghuai basin of Anhui Province, with a maximum precipitation of 333mm in 24 hours in Tongcheng.
On July 19, I took a certain shuttle bus from Hefei to Anqing, and when it drove up to the top of Daguan slope in Tongcheng County, it was trapped by the flood, and the driver and all the passengers abandoned the bus and fled.
The first time I saw the car, I was in the middle of a flood. Many years later, when I look back on it, I still have lingering fears.
It was the summer of 1969. In December of the first year, I went to the countryside with some of my classmates from Hefei Four High School to join the Chengying Commune in Susong County, Anhui Province. When the initial devolution was near the end of the year, one is only two months to the countryside, and the second is to spend the revolutionary Spring Festival, so the Spring Festival 1969 to stay in the countryside did not return to Hefei to visit relatives. By the summer of that year, the countryside has been more than eight months, a person outside, lack of this and that, I will take leave to go home, to supplement. At that time, material scarcity, to buy anything with a ticket, my mother bought me a lot of food and use, filled a large pocket. The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public.
At that time, there were two roads from Hefei to Suisong, one is to take a coach from Hefei directly to Suisong County, and then take a ride from the county to Chengying; the other is first to Anqing, from Anqing to take a small wheel to Suisong County Fuxing Town, from Fuxing Town back to Chengying on foot. The former road is slightly more expensive, but shorter, only need to stay overnight in the county, the next day you can return to Chengying. The latter road cost less, but a little longer, and the town of Fuxing from Chengying commune more than 20 kilometers, walking more than 5 hours. The reason I took the road to Anqing, one is less expensive, the second is my brother was working in the Fuxing town bank, long time no see, also want to take the Fuxing town to visit him, by the way to bring him some items.
Early that morning, the sky was overcast. After getting on the bus, the car was full, about forty people. When the car passed the town of Shangpai in Feixi, it started to rain. Via Shucheng Shu tea commune, the rain increased, the window raindrops snapped, the road has water in the low places. Driving into Tongcheng Xiao Guan, the driver stopped down, observe the water in front of you, seems to be judging whether you can continue to move forward. By this time, the road traffic has been very thin. A little while later, the bus started, tearing through the rain curtain. More than ten minutes later, the bus climbed to the top of a slope in Tongcheng Daguan, finally stopped, at this moment the flash floods came, the road ahead has become a lake. The driver got off in a panic, scouting around, quickly on the car, serious and slightly nervous to inform the passengers, the flash flood down, the car can not go, we collect the tickets, to Hefei or Anqing coach station, you can return the tickets. After saying that, the driver began to pack things, do abandon the car ready.
Passengers a panic, when I got off to find that half of the wheels of the bus has been immersed in water. At this point, the passengers ran in twos and threes carrying their luggage towards the roadside slope. I carried my backpack diagonally, and also followed quickly up the hill. Suddenly I heard a tall man behind me call out: boy, let’s go together. The man introduced himself as he walked, he is the Anqing military sub-district reconnaissance company commander. I thought, with him as a companion, better than alone, and he and I have been together ever since. Halfway up the slope, I looked back and saw that the bus I had just taken was floating in the flood.
At this time, a girl wearing a red jacket, looks like a handsome girl came to me and Hanzi company commander, asked to travel with us in company. It turned out that this woman is also a devolved student of a high school in Hefei, devolved in Suisong County, Chau Tau Commune, is the town of Fuxing to Chengying must go through, not far from my production team. According to her, last week she married a worker in Anqing, two days ago to visit her mother’s family in Hefei, today back to Anqing, but unexpectedly suffered this disaster. She was alone and did not know how to water, and wanted to go with us both. Han company commander agreed, and I have no objection. Since then, the three of us have always been in the way. After many years, her name can no longer remember, let’s call it “new daughter-in-law” strike.
There is only one family at the top of the hill, the rain and wind at once into more than forty men and women, the large hall has been crowded with nowhere to put their feet. The head of the family is an old man, see so many uninvited guests, he hurriedly firewood house and miscellaneous houses to vacate, several diversions, and finally managed to put together a carload of people all sheltered down. Next, so many people to eat but became a problem. The old man had no rice in his house, only some pumpkins piled up in the corner. Several passengers want to buy, the old man said why do not want to sell, said the flood came, to save their own food. After talking for half a day, the old man promised two dollars a (then the price of meat 1 catty 60 cents). The Hanzi company commander squeezed forward to buy one, and cooked the three of us at once to feed the hungry.
This night, outside the house rainstorm, the house men and women more than forty people or lying or lying down, has not care to avoid suspicion. The new daughter-in-law, who was thinly dressed and had white lips, hesitated for a long time, and when everyone was about to lie down, she came next to me and lay down next to me. Perhaps her choice has been very cramped, instead of sleeping next to men covered in sweat and embarrassment, it is better to lean with me, an older boy, to be safe and sound. It was the first time I slept so close to a young woman, elbow to elbow, fragrant breath, and it was a torture for me. That night, in the house of the old man on the hill, a carload of strangers huddled together, lying on the floor through the night.
The next day, the rain continued to fall, and the water was still rising. A man claiming to be the armed minister of the local commune came to the top of the hill and led the group to move up the slope to the highway, saying that today a plane from Hefei had come to drop food by air, and that the highway was a big target, wide and easy to receive. The group was already hungry at the moment, and hearing that there was an air drop of food, they were busy following the armed minister to transfer.
A few minutes later, a group of people were brought to the slope of a cut-off highway, before and after the two highways have been flooded, as if it has become an isolated island. About 10 o’clock, an aircraft roared in and began to air-drop food bags. Crowd a roar, scattered ready to share the robbery. At this point, only to see the Minister of Armed Forces pulled out a pistol, fired a shot at the sky, shouted: everyone stay put, no one robbery! The crowd suddenly quiet down, the Minister of Armed Forces then picked out a few young people, Hanzi and I were also selected to carry back the air-dropped food bags gathered, and then distributed by head.
Listen to the Minister of Armed Forces said, that day Hefei to Anqing highway line was trapped dozens of coaches, there are several hundred passengers. Air-dropped food is not our place, so each person got a box or two of cookies. After eating the cookies, the crowd gathered at the side of the highway to look at. There was a room on the side of the highway with only the roof exposed, and someone said, “This is the supply agency, just flooded in the morning, the food and candy inside can certainly eat. Then a few people urged me to say, the young man’s body is great, go down to get some food up it. Yesterday on the way up the mountain, I had revealed to the Hanzi company commander that I was good at water, while he said frankly that he could not water, and had never seen such a big flood. I also secretly laughed, can not know how to water can still be a reconnaissance company commander? At this moment, he also said in a side encouragement, you water is good, go down to try no problem.
With so many people around to stare, it immediately aroused my desire to win and be strong. Without saying a word, I took off my shirt and dove into the chaos of the flood waters, diving into the underwater supply house. After entering the door, quickly feel to the glass counter, then the shelves, by the feeling of touching some canned and bottled food, then feel the breath, I hurriedly with one hand to take two or three kinds, the other hand paddling water, ready to go ashore. Unexpectedly, because of the back and forth in the shelves, but at this time forget the way, can not feel the door. Touch the past, are windows, and touch the opposite direction, or windows, this time I was anxious, all the things in my hands to throw down.
At the moment, despite the gas is very uncomfortable, but the brain is quite clear. Rural supply and marketing agencies often go to the countryside to buy things, it is familiar with the structure of its housing. Most of the supply and marketing agencies have only one door, surrounded by windows are installed anti-theft steel fence. After groping for a positive and a negative direction, did not touch the door, but also in a hurry, I thought, it is difficult to identify the orientation of the door underwater, perhaps the positive direction is close to the door, and the opposite direction is far from the door; perhaps the opposite. But this back and forth groping, wasted time, and finally only underwater suffocated alive. The supply house is only a few dozen square meters, if you feel in one direction, regardless of distance, you can certainly feel the door, but also the most time-saving.
So, I held my last breath, along the opposite direction just continued to feel forward, after several windows, finally finally touched the door, rushed to the surface, and at this time I have drunk several mouthfuls of water. At that time I felt that the breath has been held to the limit, if the delay of even 1 second, I may not come out.
Perhaps because I was bored underwater for too long, the people on shore also impatient, so see me on shore, holding my face full of blue and purple, breathing heavily, the group is also interested in scattering around, no longer mention the underwater supply of food. The Hanzi company commander and his new daughter-in-law comforted me while helping me to carry my back pocket and walk along the intermittent highway in the direction of Anqing.
I heard that last night the Tongcheng reservoir blasted and released its flood waters, which ferociously engulfed the fields and rushed towards the highway and hills. From a distance, I saw a huge thing like a cow lying on the side of the highway, and my new daughter-in-law and I ran to take a look, but it was a body that had been soaked in water for many days and had swollen and deformed, which scared us for a while.
The sky has cleared, the highway, carrying luggage of pedestrians sparse, must be yesterday trapped passengers on other buses. In the flooded area, we had to wade around, over the hills and back to the road. In front of a muddy creek, a few female youths saw us coming and greeted us as if they had met a savior.
It turns out that they are the devolved youth of a commune in Tongcheng, after the bus was trapped yesterday, the companion trekked back to the commune. And this long and deep river in front of them, to stop them. The water is said to be deep, in fact, it is only one meter six or seven, the Hanzi company leader is tall, directly wade through, I supported the new daughter-in-law and a few female youths one by one, one hand paddling and one hand to swim to the other side.
After crossing the river, everyone’s clothes all wet. The Hanzi company commander came up with the scout’s skills, I do not know where to get some firewood to light, the female youths diligently help us bake clothes. My pocket was already soaked with water, and the laundry detergent my mother bought for me turned into a big mound. At that time, soap was bought with a ticket, and washing powder also required a ticket, but you could buy more. Even though it turned into a lump, I couldn’t throw it away. I was advised by my new daughter-in-law and my company commander that it had turned into this, so I couldn’t keep it to wash my clothes, so I threw it away.
The three of us continued to walk in the direction of the highway after parting with the young women. The floods were raging, and the road was a mess. In the evening, we bought some food at a farmhouse next to the highway and got the owner’s permission to let us stay overnight with some money.
On the third day, we continued our journey and met a young man in an old military uniform on the way. The Hanzi company commander rushed to greet him and introduced him to me as the son of Political Commissar Bu Hanxiang of the Anqing Military Division, who, like us, was also trapped on the way from Hefei to Anqing. After Bu joined us, our party became four people. Bu and I are similar in age, water is also good, the two of us in the water to help a lot of people on the way. This morning, we crossed the Huaining man-shaped river, late afternoon, finally arrived at the “Huaining high river port,” known as the throat of Huaining, Huaihuai, control Egan, this is only 30 kilometers from Anqing. In Gaohebu, the Hanzi company commander went to the post office to make a long-distance phone call and came back to tell us with joy that Gaohebu to Anqing is open to traffic, and a military vehicle will pass by later to pick us up and take us to Anqing.
A while later, indeed, came a military open-top truck, the four of us stood on it, and some other passengers who wanted to hitchhike to Anqing also came up a few. The car flew, the evening breeze, three days of difficult trekking was swept away. Soon to Anqing, the four of us parted with some difficulty. I remember the new daughter-in-law deliberately invited the Hanzi company commander, me and Boo to her house the next day as a token of appreciation. That day, several of us drank a lot. The sky is falling, the water is not covered with earth. Three days of hard work and a lifetime of unforgettable memories. Later, I also passed several letters with Hanzi company commander and Xiaobu, what specifically said has no memory. After that, it seems that I also went to the Chau Tau commune to look for a new daughter-in-law, but I can’t remember the exact scenario.
Two days later, I took the ferry to Fuxing town and returned to Chengying via Fuxing, ending the trip to the relatives who had suffered a catastrophe.
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