The village we were in was called Xiajiabao, which was a big village on the Fen River Plain in the old days. There were many old fortunes, and many people with wealthy families. During the eight-year war, it was a guerrilla zone, and the Japanese, the Second World War zone, and the Eighth Route Army all came here. Listen to the old man in the village said, today’s commune location Jialing town back in the year, the Japanese built a gun building, Yan Lao Xi’s Second World War area of the police force also came, the Eighth Route Army 15th regiment, 16th regiment also came.
At that time the village over the team, there are families of the old people to follow, as soldiers to eat food. Catching up with the Second World War team, the people who went with them later became counter-revolutionaries; catching up with the team was the Eighth Route Army, those who went with them, as long as they did not “glory”, later became old cadres, the country’s meritorious subjects. There are also several brothers in the family, with the Second World War zone, there are also with the Eighth Route Army to go. This is interesting, the movement came, need this family when the good guys, he is the military, martyrs; need him when the bad guys, he became the anti-genera.
The family of our production team’s carriage horse captain has martyrs who died for the resistance to Japan and counter-revolutionaries who were suppressed by the people’s government. Therefore, he never condescending, see people regardless of team cadres, or “four types” an expression: and kind, is to let you feel, this person and things do not compete, old old also careful to do people.
I want to talk about this old Wu, is also a child of the old money, when the family was young, rich, like the “material material”. People say, “material material” sticky, sticky sooner or later is a family loss, the old wu natural no exception, smoked “material material” smoked the family lost. The second year of the full-scale war, the village over the team, the eight-way army, he went with, to the troops, the officer learned that he had studied a few years, they could not let him to fight bayonets, in the company as a clerk. After a few years of work, the Japanese were driven away, and the Communist team drove away Yan Laoxi, took the city of Taiyuan, the formation of the provincial military district. Old Wu became the first provincial military district to carry the military district off guard (big seal) of the people.
Old Wu and I got together, we were both put in a production team, I was a youth; he was the rate of the whole family back to the countryside, “May 7 soldiers”. Both were literate people from the city to the countryside. When he first returned to the village, he also participated in labor, but unlike ordinary members of the community to often be reprimanded by the captain, he is want to work on the work, do not want to work, will be cu in front of the door of their own home gripping a constant big cigarette, there is a hitch in the eyes of the members of the community walking past him, sometimes also with the familiar members of the community nod, talk a half a sentence of irrelevant gossip.
Sometimes, he would also take the initiative to pick up the bamboo broom and sweep the street in front of his door. The members of the team respected him, not only because he was an old revolutionary, a big cadre of the provincial public security department, but also because he dared to speak up for these small members (members without powerful backgrounds, and vice versa), often standing up for a member who was aggrieved, and scolding the village cadres for being a bear.
I was sending some free money in addition to the family, basically not much income, the money sent by the family, to the commune post office to take, the only small store near the commune to eat a meal of overcooked meat, drink two or two old white Fen, buy two combat cigarettes, but also light. So when I see Lao Wu, I always go to him, for one thing, he likes to tell me about his past scenery, and for another, when I listen to his scenery, I always receive the Everest cigarettes he hands over from time to time. When he was happy, he would very enthusiastically let me go to his ancestral home of some size, to eat his scrambled eggs and drink his old white fen, and it was never bottled, a house of fragrance, unlike today’s wine, is to the nose, but also very bland.
When I eat wine at his house, there are never only two of us at the table, his partner just settles on the food and wine, two daughters and a son hiding on the side, never on the table. He told me about Khrushchev’s coup to kill Malinkov, which was confirmed in the internal book “Khrushchev’s Memoirs” when I went to college.
I still remember the attitude and tone of voice when Lao Wu was talking about this. He said, that Khrushchev is capable, can do this, no political wisdom at all. At that time, the Soviet Union Malinkov is the leader of the successor, in the Politburo Khrushchev plus his power, can not do Malinkov, but he understands politics, will play a ruthless hand, he used the army helicopters, the entire Soviet Union’s Central Committee are pulled, open the Central Plenary, in the entire Soviet Central Committee, support Khrushchev’s people will be more, he immediately flipped, became a hand of the Soviet Union.
I sometimes asked him if there was any comparison between Chinese politics and Soviet politics. At that time, he would smile and say to me: Drink, this old white fen is very beautiful. When he was happy, he would say to me, “Your life in the countryside will not be the same, it is important to be prepared to adapt. This preparation is knowledge. Now the popular words: “Look at the calluses on your hands, you know whether you are a qualified successor.” This is bullshit! With the calluses on the hands can not build the atomic bomb, and can not live a good day and night with white rice and white noodles to eat at will, no culture, but also the life of the revolution culture, is to mislead the country and the people! I said, you can sing the opposite of the newspaper. He said, “I have lived for decades, if I do not understand this point, really in the Public Security Department for nothing!
At that time, the two of us eating wine, he also likes to say: you kid later developed, looking for your door, to ask for a drink, you will not say, this is where the old ghost, right? I said, which has developed? He would say, it won’t take long for the world to change, you can’t stay long in this village, I can’t stay long either!
Under Lao Wu’s influence, I read a lot of books involving Chinese politics and history, in his words, to have knowledge. For this reason, I also became a teacher of the village primary school, not to go down to the ground, there is time to read. Within two years, my life took a turn for the worse: I went to a university to study history.
Decades later, I have never forgotten this old “May 7 cadre” who was enough to be my elder, and I often remember what he said to me about politics when we were drinking. I also slowly understood the desire for political life of an old cadre who was not in his post. The old wu to the people from the cadres of the stand, the team of cadres yelling at the masses if he hit, he always a scolding, no one dared to return, and no one dared to say his class origin is a landlord. This is because of his decency and his prestige among the common people in those days.
After the country set things right, he did come out and became the president of the county court. A year ago, his two daughters (one is my student and the other is my colleague) came to Beijing to look for me, saying that his father used to talk about me when he was alive, and they didn’t know what I had become after leaving the village. Now that his father was gone, they both looked at me for their father. I told them what their father used to say when they drank with him. I said, you really should be proud of your old man, proud, your father is the first provincial military district back off the defense of the people.
The two sisters looked at me in surprise and said, “This is the first time we have heard of this.
Recent Comments