Everyone has his precious childhood, and the memories of childhood are always the most sincere and touching. In my childhood memories, the most memorable is the Red Army Long March, the most memorable of the Long March is to cross the meadow, the most memorable person on the grass, is Deputy Company Commander Li, although I do not know his name.
It was in the autumn of 1935, when I was only thirteen years old, and I crossed the meadow for the second time with the new troupe of the Fourth Army and the Tenth Division of the Red Fourth Front. Twenty-seven days after walking, the front is still a vast expanse. My feet were soaked in the black water, and I was scratched by the tip of the grass, and I was immediately red and swollen with black mud, and at first I could limp with the troops, but I didn't eat for several days, and I couldn't help but be dizzy, hungry, and bruised, and I couldn't support it, because I left the team, and the distance was getting farther and farther away.
"I'm left behind!" A terrible thought disturbed me, and it meant that I had left the affection of the chiefs and comrades and the warmth of the revolutionary family. It is impossible to imagine how a person can survive without a collective... The more I think about it, the more scared I become! Along the way, more and more people are left behind. Two, six, a dozen, twenty-eight regiments, twenty-nine regiments, this and that company, but none of them I know! They were all in a similar situation to me, some of them were more seriously injured than I was, and I wanted to catch up and say hello, but now we could only look at each other with affectionate and helpless eyes.
After holding on to a small river, everyone simply lay down, and a moan of pain followed. Counting, there were fifty-six people who arrived one after another, including me. Fifty-six people, now like fifty-six kites with broken wires, do not know where they will fall? The sun is already in the west, and what follows will be dusk, night; Night, dusk... What will happen to the changeable meadows? Fifty-six lives, perhaps, will be blown away by a strong wind. I said to myself, "The revolution is over here, but what if it is not over?" There is no food, the wound is painful, and I don't know when I will be able to get out of the meadow? If you encounter a Kuomintang cavalry, or a reactionary guy among the Tibetans, you will be killed..."
A person who thinks about it can't help but burst into tears, and the wound is getting more and more painful. At this moment, a skinny little man of twenty-seven or eight years old shouted at the "little devil" next to him, "No! How can you lie down here... If you don't go, you have to go..."
Later, I learned that he was originally the deputy company commander of the Third Company of the Twenty-eighth Regiment, surnamed Li, an Anhui native, an old Red Army soldier in the Eyu-Anhui Border Region, and that little ghost was his correspondent. The reason for his fall, although a little injured, was mainly to find the messenger who had fallen behind, and both of them fell. At this time, he urged the small messenger to hurry up on the road, and at the same time deliberately amplified the voice, as if to say to us, the soldiers who had fallen behind: "Go fast!" Go to the hill over there and talk about it tonight!" Because I have been working in the new troupe for a long time, I have always been respectful and afraid of the chief. I was afraid that people would say that I was a coward, and I could not afford to suffer and deliberately fell behind, and when I heard his call, I also raised my spirits and marched along the hill he pointed out. The rest of the people who fell behind also followed. I walked slowly and looked frustrated.
Deputy Company Commander Li seemed to see through my heart, and deliberately limped toward me from the others, splitting his head and asking, "Little devil, which unit are you from?" Why fall behind?" Then, two eyes fixed on me, "Go fast! Watch out, fall behind again, I'll knock you with a stick!" I shrank my neck in fright, and a cold sweat came out of my body, and his big eyes were really frightening, almost like the eyes of a black cat that suddenly appeared in the night.
We walked up the river, walked for more than three miles, and it was hard to get into the mountain, and there was a pine forest on the mountain, and it was eerie. There was a big tree that four or five people couldn't hold together, and there was an empty one in the middle, and there was a drier place around the big tree, and we rested there, one or two reclining with guns, leaning on their waists, curled up on their legs, and sat down quietly. Can't hear the songs of the past, can't see the campfires at dusk, and the heart is heavy... Seeing our muddy look, Deputy Company Commander Li angrily said to us, "Why is this looking!" The hero of the Red Army soldiers will die a painful death, how can he hang his head and be discouraged! We want to live, we must find a way to live!"
Then he seemed to return to his company, and loudly ordered: he could still move the side of the stream to find soft grass, and smash it with a stick for food; Unable to walk, he was also assigned tasks: picking up dry firewood around him, gathering to boil water, washing feet... We dragged our tired bodies and carried out orders. In the end, how good people are, in a moment they will pull up a large pile of grass and collect a large pile of firewood, and they can't help but be happy. However, the water was boiling, the grass was boiling hot, the sky was beating the numbing eyes (dusk), but the deputy company commander was gone, even the shadow of his correspondent was gone, and everyone was anxious again, muttering and making random estimates, and at this moment, in the dark and mushy skylight, I saw the two of them returning, with guns hanging obliquely on their bodies, and dragging a dead goat.
Everyone was happy, I really haven't tasted the smell of oil in many days. So he was so busy that he peeled off the skin and burned it to eat. When everyone was happily eating goat, Deputy Company Commander Li hid to the side and grazed without a sound, and was discovered by one of our comrades, and everyone must also eat it, he said: "Let the seriously injured comrades eat more, I can still move!" At this point, everyone didn't eat it, and later the correspondent gave him a piece of lamb liver, which he accepted, and we ate it as if we were relieved.
The stomach is full, the spirit is also lifted, and those who are too tired to walk can also walk around. Seeing that everyone's mood had recovered, Deputy Company Commander Li proposed the establishment of a branch, and we members of the Communist Youth League were also organized with party members, and we unanimously elected him as the secretary of the branch, and decided to call on the party members to play an exemplary role in difficult times, not to waver, not to be discouraged, not to be pessimistic, and to persist in doing the revolution! Deputy Company Commander Li also said: "Although we are left behind, we have strength with the party!" Now we are fifty-six people, like a constant twisted copper rope, and this is our strength to overcome difficulties! I really can't keep up with the team, I can still fight guerrillas..." Then he assigned specific tasks: picking grass to collect grass, burning fire, using porcelain pots to store food for tomorrow morning...
After a series of work, we have gathered courage and renewed our determination to overcome difficulties.
However, there are still twenty-three comrades who are too badly wounded to act at all. That night, we gathered around and slept together. It was quiet, there was no wind, and I slept soundly. In the middle of the night, I don't know who suddenly shouted "fight" and "fight", and then someone shouted "kill!" A cacophony woke me up from my dream. Some say it's the tiger coming, some say the bear is coming... I suddenly thought of the people's legend about the demons in the meadow, and I was so frightened that I rushed to drill into the crowded place.
The crowd was also chaotic, looking for a place to hide from each other. Finally, I went into the big tree hole and shivered, and suddenly heard the clear Anhui accent on the tree: "Tigers are afraid of fire, we will not be afraid if we burn it." "Say throw a lot of dry branches from the tree. It turned out that the tree was a deputy company commander, and his words reminded everyone, and he hurriedly put the branches in a circle around us, lit the fire, and the crowd slowly quieted down.
This night, I always couldn't sleep, and for a while I heard the sound of loose waves whirring in the distance, and my heart was churning and undulating like a wave. At this time, a burst of footsteps came to the side, and I opened my eyes to see that it was Deputy Company Commander Li.
He asked in a low voice, "Little devil, are you afraid?" The sound is exceptionally soft. I was bold, and I wanted to hold on to a sentence: Afraid, can I still come to be a Red Army? But in the end, I had to admit: "Well... Sort of!"" What are you afraid of?" The grass is so big, which day will it be full of love?" It will be exhausted one day!" He smiled, touched my hand, and sat down: "You are a member of the Communist Youth League!" Did you know that overcoming difficulties is victory? Our revolution has only just begun! You young people have a great future!" Then he told me about the bright prospects after meeting the teachers in northern Shaanxi, and he said that when he arrived in northern Shaanxi, he would never cross the grassland again.
He told me another story, saying that in ancient times, there was a Scud, who had great skills, could run many miles a day, walked like a fly on the grass, was wounded and fought with the enemy, and finally repelled the enemy... I thought about it, and my eyes stared at him. The burning light shone brighter, and I saw that his eyes were not as terrible as cat's eyes, but they were amiable, his head was particularly large because his cheeks were sunken in, and it was not too much to say that he was thin like a monkey, and that in the half day of living with us, he also ate grass and walked, but his spirit was so full. In order to take care of his comrades to sleep peacefully, he paced around like this all night.
The next morning, several branch comrades took our lightly wounded to pull the grass separately, and the grass on the side of the creek and ditch was almost all pulled out, and the gray and ash vegetables on the mountain were gathered together in two large piles, and the goat meat left yesterday was also piled up next to it. The deputy company commander also told us to take off the utensils we had brought, such as porcelain pots and pans, and left behind twenty-three rifles, and the bullets we carried around us were left in addition to one plate (five rounds) for each person, and the rest were also left...
Then, with a heavy voice, Deputy Company Commander Li said to the twenty-three comrades who were seriously injured and sick who really could not move: "In order to go north to resist Japan, we must take a step first, and I hope that you will take good care of your wounds. These weapons and bullets are left for self-defense or hunting and eating, and after they are healed, they hope to come back as soon as possible, as long as they are bent on northern Shaanxi and have the determination..."
He paused for a moment, took out a piece of lamb liver (which was given to him by the correspondent last night) and three pairs of cowhide shoes kept in his bag, and added his words, "As long as you have the determination, you will definitely meet!"
The twenty-three comrades who remained could not help themselves, and they all cried with a wow, and we were also full of tears. After a while, only a rough voice was heard saying: "We can't do it, we can't drag you down, I hope you can return to the army safely as soon as possible, the weapons and food are still brought by you, and when we encounter white bandits, we will eliminate a few more for us... Now, give me a shot!" Listening to his words, everyone cried even harder, more than fifty people cried in a mess, and the sky seemed to be half dark. "You can't think of it that way!" Deputy Company Commander Li suddenly raised his head, "This is the party's decision, no matter what, you must think of living, and it will be easy to heal your wounds and find someone else." "Everyone knows in their hearts: Can you live all the way? Can you stick with the way you stay? No one is sure.
But there is a belief: to persevere! The day's sharing of weal and woe has deepened our friendship with each other, and it is really inseparable, and the result is that the deputy company commander has given the order fiercely: "The lightly wounded gather and go!" We had to walk slowly down the hill. As we walked, we looked back, so far away, and saw them waving at us on the slope...
We followed the footsteps of the large army and continued toward the edge of the vast meadow. Since everyone was wounded, and there were more than thirty men, and there was no hurry to catch up with the large troops, plus some things were left on the mountain, the movement was much easier, and in front of the line were the deputy company commander and several branch committees, who searched for the footprints of the troops, testing the road for safe passage in the suspended haystack. Most of us followed behind, each carrying a stick, echoing and pulling at each other.
After walking for more than a mile, my stomach was hungry again, and I saw the deputy company commander tightening his stomach from time to time, and he seriously and jokingly told us the "way" to prevent hunger: First, tighten the trouser belt; Second, eat some weeds; Third, use a stick to top your stomach. He also deliberately exaggerated the story to us: "During the Three Kingdoms, there was a Cao Cao who led an army on a summer march, and he was thirsty, and he said that there were plums in front of him, and the saliva in his mouth came, and he was not thirsty. I thought that after passing through the meadow, there would be beef and mutton waiting for me, oops, it was so fragrant..." Everyone laughed.
After walking for another five or six miles, I saw a beast on the top of the hill on the left side, like a cow not a cow, like a wild boar not a wild boar, and everyone was very happy, and they all said that they would eat and then go. We went to a sharpshooter, and sure enough, we hit him, and dragged him back to see that it was another goat, not as big as a wild boar, but it was enough to satisfy.
Everyone was overjoyed and wanted to do it. At this moment, Deputy Company Commander Li stopped everyone: "Comrades! Now we can still act, think of the twenty-three comrades behind us, which of them does not have a big hole in their legs? It is inconvenient to move, and it is more difficult to find something to eat.
Now my opinion, send this goat to them! Agree?" Everyone you look at me, I look at you, and your eyes are focused on the dead goat. Finally, he swallowed the saliva that flowed to his mouth and shouted loudly: "Agree!" After another three days of this grazing life, we finally walked out of the meadow under the leadership of Deputy Company Commander Li.
What's even happier is that the troops are also resting in place, perhaps waiting for our fallen personnel to return! We soon found our respective units, and the thirty-three men who had met in distress broke up again. We were all reluctant to leave Deputy Company Commander Li, and after five days of work, he became our closest comrade, and he guided us out of the trap of death, and in five days, he carved a lifelong impression in my young heart.
After finding the new troupe, I stood in front of him, grateful and attached, as if I had a lot to say, but I couldn't say it, and I forgot to ask his name. We held hands like this, and he touched my head, a long, long time...
Luo Yuqi, a native of Langzhong City, Sichuan Province, born in 1920, joined the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in 1933, a soldier of the New Theater Troupe of the 10th Division of the Red Fourth Front, and participated in the anti-Six-Way Siege of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Revolutionary Base Area and the Long March of the Red Fourth Front. He has successively served as the deputy director and director of the Anti-Chemical Warfare Department of the Shanghai Garrison District, the director of the Logistics Department of the Zhejiang Production and Construction Corps, the director of the Logistics Department of the Shanghai Garrison District, and the consultant of the Shanghai Garrison District. He was awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1955.