In early 1936, I was transferred to the Thirty-first Army Hospital as a nurse. After arriving at the hospital, when the comrades heard that I had been assigned to the second shift, they all said to me in an envious tone: "You are really lucky, and you are in the same class with Political Commissar Wang. I wondered, how come there is still a political commissar in the class? But they told me without understanding. At this time, a comrade who was almost as big as me ran in, as if he already knew me, and took my hand warmly. The instructor said to him, "You happened to be here, Comrade Xiao Zhao was transferred to your class, you led him!" The man said happily, "I have come to meet him!" I followed him out, and the captain said behind his back, "Comrade Wang Caisheng, you have to take good care of him." When I heard that his surname was Wang, I remembered what comrades said about "Political Commissar Wang", could it be him? I looked at him again curiously. It seems that his age is only sixteen or seventeen, not much older than me, where is such a small political commissar?
When I got to the residence, he helped me to lay my things and talked to me: Ask me when I joined the Red Army? What do you do at home? After I told him, he nodded and said, "I'm from a cattle herding background, and we're all poor." Only when the poor join the Red Army and fight the local tycoons to divide the land can they live a good life in the future. He pointed to the empty bunk and said, "You sleep here, what is missing, although you say, anyway, our things are used."
He spoke to me a lot again, and talked about work. He said: "It is honorable to be a caretaker of the Red Army, and we should do our work faster and do a better job so that the wounded and sick can be discharged quickly." In this way, the success of the revolution will be faster. "
He really can talk and knows more things than I do. Later, I learned that he was indeed the "political commissar wang" whom the comrades called -- our squad leader. Of course, this "commissar" was given him the title given to him by his comrades.
In June, we entered the meadows from the area of Xikang Furnace. The endless prairie is full of mud and grass, but it is really difficult to walk. Comrade Wang Caisheng always stayed by my side. When I got to the camp, I was so tired that I didn't want to move when I fell down. He boiled water and cooked again, and came to me to persuade me: "Wash your feet over your knees, your feet don't hurt when you march, and your legs are smooth." After urging me to wash my feet, he urged someone else to go.
On the march, I wanted to eat dry food when I was hungry, and he always said to me kindly, "Remember the words of the instructor, and you are not allowed to eat until the most difficult time." But sometimes I was so hungry that I stole some. Later, I ran out of dry food, and he preferred to starve himself, but saved the dry food for me to eat.
After walking for a few days, everyone ran out of food, so they had to pick some wild vegetables and cowhide and cook them together. Some wild vegetables are poisonous, and when they are eaten, they are swollen and swollen.
One day, Wang Caisheng, who never fell behind, also fell behind me. He must have been sick. I waited for him, and when I took a closer look, it really startled me. His face was like an earthen wall, his eye sockets were sunken, and his body trembled slightly. I said with heartache and complaint, "You are so sick, why didn't you say it earlier?" He punched the spirit and said, "Rest assured, I am not sick." You go first and wait for me in front. I reached out to help him and was pushed away by him.
Towards Banyou, the troops entered a pristine mountain forest. From the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, the dense layers of thick trees, many of which had decayed, fell to the ground, and were covered with gray and white fungus. There was dirty water everywhere, covered with thick fallen leaves, and a stomp was rattling. It was still three or four o'clock in the afternoon, and the woods were as dark as dusk, eerie and frightening.
On that day, we camped in the dense forest of the mid-mountains. Wang Cai was so sick that he refused to sit idle, so he stood up to find wild vegetables, picked up dry firewood, and made a fire to burn water. When I saw that his face was ugly, my heart was too much to go, and I advised him:
"Lie down for a while!" Don't always take care of others and don't care about yourself!"
He smiled and said weakly, "Just do some work to cure the disease." The dish is cooked, but we only have the last piece of cowhide left, can we eat it? This boundless meadow, no crops and no people, what year and month can you walk? I said to him:
"I see... Anyway, I can't go out, so eat that piece of cowhide!"
He looked up with difficulty and said to me:
"Pessimistic? No, keep the cowhide. Xiao Zhao, you pat the dry food bag, maybe some crumbs, put it in the soup and cook it. ”
In fact, the dry food bag has been slapped many times, but now what can be done! I had to turn over the two pockets and slap them with force. I actually got a handful of crumbs.
At this time, a strong wind suddenly blew up, breaking the branches. The sky turned black in an instant, and thunderstorms and lightning caused a huge echo in this mountain. I held the pot tightly, afraid of being thrown away by the wind. After a while, egg-sized hail came down again. Hailstones smashed into trees and rolled on stones. I was worried that the squad leader would be smashed, so I couldn't care less about the pot and rushed to pull him. But he struggled to push my hand away, shouting with all his strength, "You are hiding, I will go myself."
I ran up without a head and a brain, touching the cooker Old Lee. He threw the pot on the ground, craned his neck and drilled into the forest. As soon as I saw that the pot was quite large, I picked it up and put it on my head. Hail strikes the pot like a gong. I shouted:
"Man, come back, it's safe here."
Old Li turned his head and said, "You guy is quite clever." Said and ran back, hiding under the pot with me. He breathed a sigh of relief, listened to the sound of Dangdang, and said happily:
"How lively this show is!"
I didn't talk, thinking about the squad leader, regretting that I shouldn't have left him. The hail stopped for a moment, and I hurried back to the big tree. I saw him bending down there to pack his things, and when he saw me, he asked with concern, "Is it fighting?" He pointed to the ground and smiled, "Look, it's over!" As soon as I looked, the pot had been overturned, the fire had been extinguished, and the wild vegetable soup had been poured into the ash pile. I stood dumbfounded for half a day without humming. When Old Li saw this, he said generously:
"Don't be afraid, I still have half a small bowl of barley, we cooked it and ate it."
"How can this work! Stay, the road is still long!" Wang Caisheng stopped him.
But Old Li didn't listen to him, saying, "See what kind of illness you have become!" You get all the cowhide for everyone to eat, how can I eat this bowl of barley alone?" As he spoke, he untied a slender grain bag from his back and poured it out. But I couldn't pour it out, and when I tore it open, the barley had already sprouted.
"Good or bad is always grain, and that's okay." Old Li had no choice but to say sorry.
While I was cooking barley malt rice, I was thinking about the cowhide thing that Old Li had just mentioned. When I first entered the meadow, one day the troops had just camped, and Wang Caisheng went out. After a while, he ran back happily and dragged me to see a pile of cowhides dropped by the vanguard troops. We pulled the cowhide back and handed it to the captain and the instructor, giving each of us two pieces. Small pieces with brown ropes worn and tied to the feet, when shoes; The large pieces are sewn into a leather hat with a pointed point, and a five-pointed star is painted on it... But now, leather shoes and hats are eaten into the stomach.
I was boiling Old Li's barley buds, and my stomach was already grumbling with hunger, so I waited to open the pot. At this time, Wang Caisheng leaned his back against the wet branches and gasped for breath one after another. His face was yellow and blue, and his eyes were fixed on the flames, not moving. I went up and touched his forehead, as hot as charcoal. How good is that? I was in a hurry. He raised his spirits and said, "Don't worry, Xiao Zhao, I'll be fine in a moment!"
I put out some cooked malt porridge to feed him, and he shook his head and whispered, "I'm not hungry."
"If you eat harder, your stomach will always be better." Old Lee also advised him.
"If you don't eat anymore, we won't eat anymore." I took his arm and was so anxious I wanted to cry.
And he suddenly shook his head and said, "I'll eat." Pick up the bowl with trembling hands. He put the bowl on his knee and ate it himself, the malt root choking him for half a day. How nice it would be to be able to get some noodle soup! But now...
It was dark, and it was under this big tree, flattening a place, laying some leaves, and getting ready for sleep. He looked at me in the dark as if they were meeting for the first time. I felt so bad that I told him to rest, but he still didn't move. After a while, he said, "Tomorrow I'll get up and cook." The road is hard to walk, you should rest a little longer. ”
In the middle of the night, it began to rain again. He quietly covered me with the sheet. As soon as I touched him, he only covered half of his body. Usually, when it rained, he always drenched himself and gave me the sheet to cover, but this time he was still sick. Oh squad leader! Why are you always thinking about others!
When the rain stopped, bonfires lit everywhere in the forest and woke me up. I knew it was almost dawn, so I quietly got up and wanted to cook some cowhide soup for the squad leader.
After the soup was cooked, it was served in a bowl, and I went to call him. After a few consecutive sounds, he did not agree. My heart skipped a beat, and when I lifted the sheet, his eyes widened and his whole body stiffened. The soup bowl fell from my hand on the yellowed leaves, and I pounced on him and cried bitterly.
The instructor, the captain, Old Li and his comrades all ran over and pulled me up, and everyone stood silently for a while, then straightened his body, wrapped him in a sheet, covered with branches, and dug a handful of dirt one by one to build a grave for him.
Our "Political Commissar Wang" was thus buried in the Long March, but his spirit of loving comrades has always inspired me to complete that difficult journey.
(Originally published in the People's Liberation Army Daily, October 23, 1975)