A medium-sized jeep sped along a curvy highway with Zhang Zeshi, a college student, and an American military officer. On the riverbank, the jeep stopped with a sudden brake.
"Harrow, I'm Captain Brooks, in charge of the placement of prisoners of war on the front line, may I ask, why did you speak English so well just now?"
"I spent my secondary school years in a church school, where I learned English. ”
"Well, I'm a Christian, I'm very happy to get to know you, excuse me, where are you from?
"I'm from Sichuan. Before joining the army, he was a student at Tsinghua University. ”
"It was a famous university," Brooks' chubby red cheeks glittered, "I was to Chongqing, Sichuan, a beautiful mountain city, during the Anti-Japanese War, and I worked in General Marshall's delegation. China is my second hometown, I love that ancient country, and I also sympathize with your misfortune, a college student from a famous university came to North Korea to shed blood, and you have been fooled. ”
"I came to North Korea voluntarily to defend my country. ”
"Do you think your country is threatened?"
"Yes. ”
"Do you say the Communist Party or the Kuomintang is better?"
"Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?"
"True, of course. ”
"The Communist Party is good. ”
"Why?"
"Less than a year after the Communist Party came to power, the people of the whole country have been stable, railway transportation has resumed, primary and secondary education has resumed, and especially prices, have you seen China in the past four or eight years? Prices are expensive, and gold dollar coupons are not as good as stool paper. The Communist Party is politically clean and honest, and the people of New China are now happy, which was not seen two years ago. ”
"You're honest. ”
Both of them were silent for a while, and the nervousness that Zhang Zeshi felt when he got into the car gradually disappeared, and the American captain he was talking to seemed to have no malicious intent. The attitude of the conversation was friendly. A makeshift camp has been enclosed on a golem-sized river beach, and about 200 prisoners of war are huddled together through the barbed wire. Zhang Zeshi took off his cotton coat full of mud, walked down the river, splashed cold water on his face and body, washed and rubbed it. On the riverbank, the chubby Brooks looked at the thin, white prisoner of war who was being cleaned, and both seemed to wonder what kind of person the other was. Zhang Zeshi walked onto the river beach after washing, and was meeting Brooks' thoughtful gaze, "Zhang, now that you have been captured, what are you going to do?"
"I don't know, I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back to my country. ”
"I want you to work at our 8th Army Headquarters, where there is a shortage of translators. As long as you agree to go, you can be immediately dismissed from your prisoner of war status, and you can also become a U.S. citizen as a civilian. When the war is over, you will be sent to study in the United States, you are still very young.
"I'm afraid I can't go.
"Why?"
"I don't want to go to the United States. My parents are in China, and my fiancée is also waiting for me, saying okay, I will get married when I go back. ”
"Ah, you are faithful to love, and I like you. However, you are too naïve, you have to think about your future, you can go back to college in the United States, and at that time, she will hug you. ”
"No, that would lose her love. ”
"I don't understand—"
"You don't understand the hearts of Chinese girls. ”
"Well, I'm not forcing you. Zhang, I'll write you a note, when you figure it out, feel free to hand it over to the soldiers who hold you, and I'll help you······ I can also tell you the good news that there is a possibility of starting peace talks, an exchange of prisoners of war, and then you can go back to your homeland. ”
The jeep drove away, and Brooks left Zhang Zeshi with a handwritten note and two slices of chocolate. At the same time, he also left Zhang Zeshi with an armband with the word "translation" written on it, and he said: "Zhang, now, I hope you can help me and your compatriots." Zhang Zeshi silently stayed on the river beach, holding an armband, and what was waiting for him was a curse or a blessing? Perhaps, it was too impulsive to run out of the queue and shout loudly just now to expose that he could speak English.
In 1929, under the impact of the world economic crisis in Shanghai, a graduate of Shanghai Labor University was unemployed, and his wife, a female student of Tongji Medical College in Germany, a future gynecologist, gave birth to a lovely boy.
The childhood of a little boy is beautiful. The remote Daishi town prefers this "little master" from Shanghai. He started studying at the age of four and could also act and sing. My grandfather went to the teahouse, and he walked in front of him and carried the cigarette pouch pole. The school teacher gave out prizes, and he was indispensable when he returned. He is proud, he has nothing in his eyes. At the same time, he was born with a weak constitution and always lost in fights, so to his proud and weak personality was added an element of "cunning" according to his own words.
As a teenager, he loved to be with his brother. The second brother, who is determined to save the country through science, worships Gandhi in India.
"Would you like to be Mahatma Gandhi? He is the sun of mankind and has the spirit of dedication to mankind. ”
The little boy studied Gandhi with his seventeen-year-old second brother, secretly went on hunger strike, "meditated" under a mosquito net, and did not sleep. On the fourth day, the little boy couldn't hold on, so the second brother read him "The Biography of Kropotkin", told him the poems of Tagore and Xu Zhimo, told him that monkeys became humans, and that people can change their heads when they reach old age. The Gandhidian hunger strike finally failed on the sixth day.
The eldest brother gives the little boy roughness. Wuhan was lost, and the little boy marched through the streets with his eldest brother, and his brother and his classmates sang all night with tears in their eyes. This song allows the little boy of that day to sing it forty years later:
Compatriots were slaughtered, land was seized,
We can no longer accept it;
We can't accept the conditions of the country's demise,
Not an inch of the territory of the Motherland can be lost,
Fellow citizens, onward,
Life and death have come to an end!
On the night of the Shen Chong incident, the boy was already a first-year student in the physics department of Tsinghua University. He was woken up by his peers and followed a group of college classmates into the streets. From then on, he began his revolutionary journey. Soon after, he joined the Democratic Youth League, and because of his talent for drama from an early age, he became the president of the drama club. He honorably joined the Chinese Communist Party and often went to Wu Han's house to hold secret group meetings. He likes the kind and kind Mrs. Wu the most, taking candy and making dumplings, and he happily listens to Mrs. Wu deliberately blaming him, "You are a little ghost." ”
In 1948, the young Zhang Zeshi, as a representative of the students in North China, disguised himself as a hawker and went to the liberated areas. Riding a little donkey and eating small rice, on the day of the "August 1st" Festival, he also met Zhu De, Ye Jianying, Nie Rongzhen, Xiao Ke and other leaders. Commander-in-Chief Zhu's hands were thick and big, and the watermelons he cut were extremely sweet, and on the ground, a group of chicks and dolls were chirping and pecking at watermelon seeds.
At the time of the liberation of the country, he was organizing a student movement at Sichuan University. When the army entered Sichuan, he led the song and dance drama club of Sichuan University to be incorporated into the propaganda team of the 540th Regiment of the 180th Division, and on March 21, 1951, Zhang Zeshi entered the DPRK to participate in the war.