Second brother Zhang is a strange man in our village, he has no relatives in his life, does not socialize with others, and does not see him for half a word all day long... Since I was a child, I have often seen him with an old dark face all day long, limping a tricycle to rush to the gathering to repair other people's shoes.
I once heard that he was a soldier of the Kuomintang when he was young - a group of us children subconsciously regarded him as a "bad element"! I even vaguely heard rumors that he was not from our village in the first place!
What is the origin of this strange old man? It can't really be some kind of lurking spy, right?
By chance, I really got to know Second Brother Zhang, and since then I have slowly solved the mystery in my heart...
I was twelve or thirteen years old at the time, right? Once, after leaving school, while walking with my friends, I talked about a book I had just read, which mentioned the Chinese Expeditionary Force. Just as I was talking about the word "expeditionary force", Second Brother Zhang happened to pass by us, and he was stunned on the spot!
Chinese Expeditionary Force
Second Brother Zhang called out to me, and a pair of old eyes stared straight at my heart. After a long time, he asked tremblingly, "Boy, do you also know about the expeditionary force?" It turned out that for this matter, I breathed a sigh of relief and shook my head to show off ... Second Brother Zhang's cloudy eyes slowly lit up.
That day, he asked me to follow him to his house to sit down, and he also found some candy for me to eat... In this way, we gradually became a friendship: he often told me strange stories, and I took the time to run to his house!
Slowly, I realized that this old man was not ordinary, he was by no means an ordinary rural old man! His knowledge, his insight has long been far beyond my understanding...
When the lonely old man dies
In the late autumn of 2015, I suddenly received a call from my mother, asking if I could take time to go back to my hometown, she said that Second Brother Zhang was dying soon, and he wanted to see me for the last time! As soon as I heard the news, I immediately felt a "boom" in my head, and in an instant it was blank!
Second Brother Zhang, this is treating me as his closest person! Could it be that he still had some unfulfilled wishes in the last moments of his life? Just because of this trust, I have to go back!
Unfortunately, by the time I arranged the work at hand and rushed back to my hometown non-stop, Second Brother Zhang had already taken his last breath. The old mother said that when the second brother was cremated, more than 20 pieces of shrapnel burned out of his body - this incident alarmed the county civil affairs bureau, they sent someone to carefully investigate Second Brother Zhang, and finally issued him a medal!
Medal of the expeditionary force of that year
The old mother took out a small red cloth bag, saying that it was specially instructed by Second Brother Zhang before he died, and he wanted to leave it for me as a memorial.
I carefully opened the cloth bag, and inside were two long-blurred medallions, one of which had foreign language writing on it; There is also a yellowed old photo of a handsome young officer with three beautiful pen characters "Zhang Jintao" written on the back of the photo; The last small paper bag also contained a small piece of black oil...
I looked over and over at that little piece of things, and I couldn't guess what it was! Is it some panacea? Or is it something worth a good thing? ...... My heart beat violently for no apparent reason!
Nine dead expeditionary forces
Finally, on the wrapped piece of paper, the answer was finally found: it turned out that this inconspicuous thing turned out to be a kneecap that the doctor removed from Second Brother Zhang after he was injured on the battlefield - no wonder he was lame all the time!
That day, I went to the new grave of Second Brother Zhang alone. Laying down a few plates of side dishes that he loved to eat, I opened a bottle of wine and slowly poured it for him. I raised my glass and wanted to say something, but suddenly I couldn't help but cry!
I also don't know why exactly I cried, for whom I cried - is it for this old man who has been wronged all his life? Or for his past that has been buried all his life? ......
Wine sacrifice!
I remember that Second Brother Zhang once talked to me about his hometown after drinking. His father was a leather merchant in Yinan, and he was the only one in the family. His father often took him to Jinan City to play, and Second Brother Zhang envied the children who came in and out of the new-style school, and often looked inside blankly at the gate.
Finally, one day, his father promised to send him to the new-style school, and the second brother was so happy that he vowed to study well and repay his old father in the future. Half a year later, the teacher gave him a new name - Zhang Jintao, hoping that he could revitalize the motherland and make a career in the future!
The weather was unpredictable, and soon the Japanese began to invade China. Patriotic students with boiling blood constantly organized to denounce the Nationalist government's non-resistance to the Japanese invasion. In the midst of a vigorous student movement, the second brother met a fellow Yimeng named Liu Jingru.
Vigorous anti-Japanese student movement!
This is a strange girl, obviously Sven elegant, a pair of big eyes watery as if she can speak, but everyone always lowers their heads first to smile shallowly. However, in the student movement, she dared to stand on the stage and loudly denounce the inaction of the government and the atrocities of the Japanese army!
The second brother quickly became obsessed with this girl. Liu Jingru also liked her little fellow very much, and the two soon fell in love...
In 1940, at the critical moment of the tight War of Resistance, Second Brother Zhang resolutely dropped out of school and joined the army to participate in the War of Resistance on the front line. The Jingru girl was very reluctant, but she wholeheartedly supported her second brother, and since then, the two have exchanged letters, agreeing that they will become a couple after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War!
A pure female student during the Republic of China
However, as the saying goes, "the needle at the bottom of a woman's heart", in less than a year's work, Jingru suddenly broke off the correspondence; Letting the second brother inquire and look for people in every possible way, there was no news of her again... Second brother Zhang was completely desperate, he no longer cared about his life on the battlefield, he only knew how to fight with his life, and he accumulated a lot of military merits and became a platoon leader!
In 1942, the National Government organized an expeditionary force to block the Japanese army in Burma, and Second Brother Zhang, who had long been in ashes, did not hesitate to sign up! But he didn't know that this trip was actually like falling into an endless hell...
Back then, I once heard my second brother talk about many bizarre events he encountered on the China-Myanmar border, probably because of his age, and for those strange things, I always listened to them as thriller stories, but never as real existences... Then it's no wonder, such a bizarre event, even the story is not so outrageous, right?
Soul Lost Savage Mountain!
The second brother, who was part of Sun Liren's new 38th Division, was once left behind by a Japanese raid, and followed other troops into the Hukang River Valley (known locally as Savage Mountain). The second brother said that he had only heard that the wild man had taken the female soldier away, but he had not seen it with his own eyes.
However, what he had seen was ten or a hundred times more terrifying than the wildlings!
I don't know how long I walked in the jungle, everyone did not dare to drink the water in the mountain stream, which was densely covered with locusts; Don't dare to eat wild fruits, he once saw a veteran very hungry to pick a bright fruit, just took a bite, immediately convulsed all over his body as if he was crazy, hit the stone, and his brain burst! ......
One afternoon, after a heavy rainstorm, everyone hid on a mountain beam to watch the rolling flood in the valley. Suddenly, there was a loud "boom", and half of the cliff actually collapsed! In the midst of the rolling mudslide, the second brother and hundreds of brothers witnessed a huge monster!
A sudden flood in the jungle
It has a horse face, but its head is as huge as the table of eight immortals; The neck must also have the thickness of the tank, right? I can't see how huge this monster really is, just see that its neck sticking out of the mudslide is seven or eight meters high! It didn't seem to care about the mudslide rolling forward, the house-sized boulder crashed into it, and it just shook its head, nothing happened!
Hundreds of people were so frightened that they were lying in the muddy water, crouching in the grass and moss, allowing the locust to bite, and no one dared to make the slightest sound, for fear of alarming this giant! If it it off, obediently, then won't it flatten the woods with a tail? ......
Second Brother Zhang said that he still hasn't figured out what kind of creature it is!
That jungle mountain seems to be endless, after a mountain beam and looking up, another mountain forest will appear... I finally got out of the mountain forest, saw a flat place, and when I stepped on it, it turned out to be a quagmire! The swamp that stretches for hundreds of meters will engulf people silently at every turn, and there is no way to save them!
marshland
A fellow from Shandong who walked with his second brother was two years younger than his second brother, he was walking, moving a few steps to facilitate the work, suddenly screamed, and the whole person slowly sank down! The second brother was anxious, and just wanted to jump over to save people, but a veteran next to him grabbed his arm desperately!
The little fellow's eyes were about to bulge out, he called his father and shouted strangely, a pair of hands were scratching everywhere, but in the end he could only be covered by muddy water in front of everyone's eyes... The second brother said that he could never forget the last look of the little fellow - it was like a pair of hands stretched out in his eyes to grab people, and it was like he was going to grow a mouth to bite people... In the end, it's like two deep dark wells, a glance will hook your god away...
Desperate eyes
As they walked, hundreds of people encountered the huge dead wood that crossed the stream!
That should be a giant tree, right? The second brother said that he estimated that the trunk of the tree had to be as thick as two people hugging together, and the main trunk alone was more than ten meters long, maybe it would be longer, right? It has no end in the muddy water with no end in sight. Dozens of brothers carefully stepped on the dead wood to cross the mountain stream.
When it was the turn of Second Brother Zhang's group of brothers, just halfway there, the brothers on the opposite side suddenly waved their hands desperately together, but they hid with a bang. What the hell is going on here? The second brother and seven or eight brothers did not go at this time, nor did they stop, and a heart suddenly hung in the eyes of the throat!
Before they could react, the soles of their feet suddenly twisted: as if they were stepping on a large rook used in the countryside, the original huge dead tree trunk actually slowly arched up, constantly bowed upward, and soon lifted the group of people into the air two or three meters high!
Huge forest python
Everyone was so frightened that they hurriedly leaned down and desperately hugged the big tree trunk - the next scene made this group of people who waded through the rain of bullets so frightened that they almost peed their pants! A carriage-sized, black unicorn head slowly lifted up from the stream, slowly turned its head, and looked at everyone coldly with a pair of plate-sized yellow giant eyes!
Everyone understood this - where is there a towering tree, this is clearly a giant python that does not know how long!
Just when this giant Mac was about to open its bloody mouth and greet everyone on its body, a dense burst of gunfire suddenly sounded on the opposite shore - the brethren began to shoot the giant python one after another to rescue the trapped companions! The giant python shook its head sharply in pain, and rushed to the opposite bank with a "whoosh"...
Second Brother Zhang said that at that time, he didn't know how he got ashore!
Monty Python plague!
Further on, the famous bridge broke - an officer commanded the troops, bombarded the python with mortars, and finally forced it into the mountain stream and fled in an instant! The real situation is that dozens of brothers were killed and injured on the spot, and that huge thing was not afraid of mortars at all, the shell hit it only to shake it, and the hard thick skin was blown up with blood flowers...
Seeing that the team is getting smaller and smaller, in addition to these terrifying monsters, there are also several waves of sneak attacks by primitive Kachin people from time to time! ...... Everyone gradually lost the courage to live, and one by one they moved forward mechanically like the walking dead.
The last thrilling experience, when Second Brother Zhang spoke, his face always showed a deep confusion.
-crested snakes?
It was in a dense forest with no end in sight, and suddenly there was a cry from the canopy above the head, which looked like a hen laying eggs. Immediately afterwards, gray shadows flashed one after another, and several brothers suddenly wailed lifelessly! The second brother said that the voice was very mad, like being cut raw with a knife!
When the nearby brothers came to the rescue, several of them sneered with an evil face, trembling violently...
Within ten minutes, they were all swollen like buckets! A medic soldier approached suspiciously to inspect, carefully poked the nearest wounded with a branch - "poof", the person was actually poked through a small hole, and bursts of fishy pus spewed out from it... After a while, the pus drained, and the man fell silently - there was only a bone wrapped in skin!
venomous snake
In an instant, the strange gray shadow caused panic among the brethren! Everyone hurriedly shrunk into a circle and stood on guard back to back!
After a while, one of the brothers finally discovered the true face of the gray shadow of Lushan Mountain-just from a big tree not far away, hidden in the dense moss, a gray-white, teapot-thick monster was creeping silently and crawling down...
That monster had a tall cluster of bright red sarcoma on its head, like the crown of a big rooster; The whole body looks like an ordinary python, but it is only two meters long; The tail is neatly truncated, and it doesn't look like a python, but like a long cloth pocket for ordinary people to pack rice...
At this moment, an experienced veteran in the crowd exclaimed in a low voice, "It's over, it seems that we all have to explain here today!" This thing is the legendary snake king! Strangely, the monster seemed to understand the words, and a pair of eyes suddenly shone brightly, staring closely at the veteran who spoke!
Ghosts in the dense forest
Just when everyone was so nervous that they didn't dare to take a breath, a loud roar that shook the entire forest suddenly sounded on the mountain beam! This roar was like a thunderbolt, so frightened that everyone almost threw the guy in their hands to the ground! What is this thing? Tigers? Even the tigers don't have such a big majesty?
Just as everyone was looking at each other, the strange snake on the tree quietly disappeared - as if it had never appeared! If it weren't for the fact that there were a few dried corpses lying not far away, people would almost wonder whether everything just now was true or false?
After the loud roar, everyone trembled and lay in the grass and did not dare to act rashly... After more than half an hour, I didn't see anything unusual, and everyone began to move forward lightly...
Tiger roar?
When Second Brother Zhang said this, his face was still full of doubts: for decades, he had asked all the "capable people", but none of them could explain what kind of animal the strange snake and the giant roar of those years came from...
After such a lifetime of adventure and escape, the second brother finally returned to the motherland. In response to General Sun Liren, "Chinese do not fight Chinese!" ", Second Brother Zhang resolutely retired from the army and returned home. However, when he returned to his hometown alone and empty-handed, he found that his old father was already sick in bed, dying!
Poor Second Brother Zhang was penniless, watching his old father moan in pain, wailing until death... But he could only tremble all over, and the six gods knelt in front of the bed without master, tears flowing...
Helplessness on the deathbed!
After gritting his teeth and selling the ancestral house and burying his old father, in this huge world, the second brother no longer had a trace of concern! He had no relatives, and everywhere he could see only the white eyes of his fellow villagers (everyone knows that the Kuomintang does not resist Japan, but only kills Chinese!). ）； When he was the poorest, he couldn't even eat, and the second brother, who was resentful, had the idea of suicide in his heart at that time!
For the last wish, he asked for food all the way to my hometown - he planned to see Liu Jingru again before he died, just one glance, even if he looked at her from afar, as long as she lived a good life, he would be able to die blind!
However, reality once again shattered his dreams! When he tried his best to hear about Liu Jingru's door, he was told that the Jingru girl died a few years ago!
Qianying is gone
The neighbors took pity on this asking for food, and someone told him the cause of Jingru's death: it turned out that Jingru was full of satisfaction and pretended to be her Zhang Jintao, but the family was against her opinion,—— in order to dispel her obsession, the family also secretly booked a family affair for her, tricked her home from Jinan and wanted her to consummate the marriage immediately!
Miss Jingru suddenly felt that the sky was shattered, and after all the means she struggled, cried, and searched for death and life, the family strengthened their guarding of her! Jingru was desperate, and finally couldn't afford to get sick, and had a strange terminal illness - lupus erythematosus! People who understand medicine say that people will only hold out this strange disease on their own after they are blocked with emotions and completely cut off their vitality!
Poor Jingru girl, before dying, still shouted Zhang Jintao, hoping that he could ride a tall horse and lead his team to rescue her! When she swallowed, her eyes were still wide open, and her thin hands were stretched out in mid-air - to grab her brother in the void...
After Second Brother Zhang listened, he was stunned on the spot! At that moment, he forgot all his grievances and resentments! Only a head full of regret remained - he hated himself for not being able and missing one loved one loved one after another; I hate myself for only caring about running for my life and being promoted, and not returning as soon as possible to comfort my loved ones...
White chrysanthemum in the wind
Under the guidance of well-wishers, he finally came to Liu Jingru's grave: a low, small mound of earth has long been overgrown with barren grass, and only a few snow-white wild chrysanthemums struggle to emerge from the grass, swaying in the wind; It seems to be trying to beckon, leaving the last reverberation of this world!
The second brother asked the well-wisher for a bottle of wine, he opened the lid and slowly poured the wine in front of the grave; Pour for a while, drink by yourself for a while, and face Jingru for a while, he can't talk about it for a while...
He recalled her beauty back then, recalled their sweetness back then; But in the end, I thought of each other's suffering..."Jingru, I'm late!" As soon as he said the words, he seemed to open the floodgates of his tears, and the bitterness, grievances, and regrets accumulated in his chest came out in a stream...
That day he shed all the tears of his life! But when he stood up again, he no longer had the idea of suicide - he wanted to stay by Jingru's side and live well, just as if Jingru was sick! As for myself, come to see her every now and then, chat with her, and accompany her to relieve her boredom - in this life, I always have to fulfill the vow I made with her, and live a good few years for her!
Silence
Who knows, Second Brother Zhang's guard has been guarding for 60 years! Others think he is strange, like a stuffy gourd, but he always has his Jingru in his heart! Even during the Cultural Revolution, when he was tied up on the stage by those young people to "confess his counter-revolutionary crimes", he did not make waves in his heart again - what joy is life? Why fear death? ......
I don't remember how long I cried on Second Brother Zhang's grave that day, but I remember that after a cold rain fell in the sky, I had to get up and go home. Along the way, my mind was full of the ups and downs and setbacks of my second brother's life; But at the same time, I envied him immensely!
The autumn rain is bleak
also lived a lifetime, he was able to live a vigorous life worthy of his country; Vigorous love songs; Vigorous life and death! ......
And myself? No matter how you look at it, it feels like a worm...