"Long time no see, Wei Ran." Little Master Sehao said hello in Chinese with a hint of Guidi accent.
"Little Master Sehao, long time no see." Wei Ran clasped his hands together and bowed slightly to say hello, then urged, "Shou Zheng, please tell me what's going on."
“I started talking about this in 1942.”
Qin Shouzheng helped Wei Ran make a bowl of oil tea with plenty of ingredients, and then made himself a cup before continuing, "After you and Guochang left, I was in a coma for almost a week before I woke up.
I recovered from my injuries, and then I met the remnants of the 288th Regiment chasing after me."
Having said this, Qin Shouzheng shivered involuntarily, clenched the bamboo bowl in his hand tightly, and continued after a moment of silence, "I followed them all the way to Putao, and continued north from there, sliding on the rope to
Fugong, Yunnan Province.
Along that journey, those who died of starvation, those who died of illness, and those who couldn't bear it and committed suicide were much more miserable than the one we had before!"
"Later...what happened later?" Wei Ran asked in a dry voice, "That piece of information..."
"That piece of information was already out of date when it was submitted."
Qin Shouzheng shook his head helplessly, "Later I moved around and stayed in Dian Province. Just after the New Year in 1943, I was assigned to the 50th Division of the 54th Army."
Speaking of this, Qin Shouzheng's tone became more energetic, and his eyes even became sparkling, "Only one year later, we crossed the Nu River and fought back, killing many people along the way.
The Japanese were peeing like shit, it was so enjoyable! Later, other brother troops were transferred back to the country to fight, but we stayed and were incorporated into the New First Army. At that time, I also met Guochang, who was also in the New First Army.
.”
"He is also in the New First Army?" Wei Ran was stunned.
"you do not know?"
"I just didn't expect you to meet each other." Wei Ran changed the subject, "Shou Zheng, your arms..."
“I was hit by a machine gun while fighting Bhamo.”
Qin Shouzheng casually tore open the monk's robe and showed the scar on his collarbone, "I lay in the hospital for several months after that injury. When I could get out of bed completely, damn the little devil.
Dutema surrendered!"
"Then you came here?" Wei Ran asked subconsciously.
"yes"
Qin Shouzheng nodded in a low tone, "When I was in Dian Province, I sent several letters to my family. Later I found out that there was no one in my family, and no one in Squad Leader Liang's family either. They were all killed by the Japanese."
Killed by a bomb dropped from a plane.
I didn't have a home at that time, I...I had nowhere to go. Later, I simply inquired all the way and came here again, thinking about asking little Master Se Hao for help to bring Squad Leader Liang back."
Wiping the corners of his eyes vigorously, Qin Shouzheng said gratefully, "I didn't know until I got here that Master Sehao had brought back Mr. Luke and Squad Leader Liang a long time ago, and they were buried beside the teak trees in the south.
He has been waiting for me and Guochang to come back and pick them up."
"and you..."
"Not leaving"
Qin Shouzheng breathed out hard, "There is still a war in the country, and I can't send so many brothers back alone. So I don't plan to leave, I will just stay here with them. But you, these..."
Before Qin Shouzheng could finish speaking, the sound of a car horn was heard in the distance, followed by a brand new Willys Jeep driving over.
Before the car came to a complete stop, Zhou Guochang, who was also wearing a British military uniform and had a CBI war zone armband on his arm, jumped out.
“I didn’t expect that I would be the last one.”
Before Zhou Guochang finished speaking, he had already taken off the toad mirror on his face and threw it on the seat. He opened his arms and gave Wei Ran, Qin Shouzheng and even the young monk Sehao a warm hug.
"Quick! Have a bowl of camellia." Qin Shouzheng said, having already given Zhou Guochang a large bowl of camellia.
When everyone sat down again, the conversation naturally turned to that small isolated village.
Under Wei Ran's deliberate guidance, he finally understood that Zhou Guochang and himself, relying on the buffalo and rubber raft, finally caught up with the headquarters of the Fifth Army, and followed them through the Savage Mountains and into India.
After entering India, Zhou Guochang also got a job as a translator in the army stationed in India. It was Wei Ran who he described. Because he reported the information, he was transferred to someone unknown shortly after arriving in India.
place.
As a last resort, Wei Ran could only make up an excuse on the spot, and then brought the topic to the young master Sehao.
Compared with Zhou Guochang and Tan Shouzheng who took different routes, the experience of young master Sehao, who has now learned a lot of Chinese from Tan Shouzheng, is also not easy.
After Qin Shouzheng left with the remnants of the 288th Regiment, Master Sehao stayed in that small village for almost half a year. When Yeren Mountain entered the dry season, he immediately gathered men with the help of the chieftain to once again
Entering Yeren Mountain, after all the hardships, they finally found the bodies of Squad Leader Liang and Mr. Luke, and brought them all back to the cave one day away from Mo's village, where half a Buddha statue was carved, for reburial.
Unfortunately, when he returned to Mo's village, the old abbot of this temple had already died at the gunpoint of the Japanese.
After lamenting, Master Sehao filled everyone's bowls with camellia oleifera and asked gently in broken Chinese, "Guochang, have you found your sister and brother?"
"And that Yin Lisabai," Wei Ran added while holding the oil tea.
"No"
Zhou Guochang sighed, "Since the Japanese surrendered last year, I have returned to Yuguang to look for my two sisters and my brother, but there has been no news for so long."
"Where is Mr. Luke's daughter?" Qin Shouzheng asked subconsciously.
"She..." Zhou Guochang was silent for a moment and shook his head, "She is dead."
"Dead?" Several people present looked at Zhou Guochang in shock.
"After the Japanese surrendered, I thought about the possibility of my sister and others going to England to join Elizabeth, so I made a special trip to England."
When Zhou Guochang said this, he pulled out the fighting dagger that belonged to Mr. Luke from the leather holster on his waist, and said dejectedly, "When I found her house, I found that the place had changed. Her house
My neighbor told me that in 1944, probably in February of that year, German planes dropped a lot of bombs. Elizabeth Yin, her mother, and their house were all destroyed by the bombs. I...
I only found their tombstones."
"Alas!" Tan Shouzheng sighed heavily, clenched his fists and hammered the moss-covered stone ground hard.
"I am here this time to take Mr. Luke back and bury him next to Elizabeth Yin."
Zhou Guochang rubbed his face vigorously and said as calmly as possible, "Shou Zheng, Master Sehao, Mr. Luke..."
"He's still in that cave"
Little Master Se Hao raised his finger and pointed to the blooming dragon boat flower not far away and said, "The country is now led by Aung San, the lackey who recruited nuclear personnel in the first place. Shouzheng, Guochang, and Wei Ran, I don't think they should be allowed to
People know what a good thing it is that there are so many expeditionary troops buried under that dragon boat flower."
"You mean..." Zhou Guochang immediately frowned.
Little Master Sehao nodded, "I heard from the host in the town that Aung San and the others are now preparing to break away from British colonial rule. Although this is a good thing for Myanmar, I am very worried that this land may still be
The war will start again.
If the news about the expeditionary force soldiers buried here comes to light, someone will most likely take advantage of this and do something, which will definitely bring trouble to this village."
"I also heard similar rumors." Zhou Guochang lowered his voice subconsciously, "Now many British businessmen are preparing to leave."
"What about you? You too?" Qin Shouzheng asked nonchalantly.
"I also plan to leave, so I plan to take Mr. Luke away."
Zhou Guochang picked up the oil tea and took a big sip, "But I will be back soon, and I will continue to look for my sister and brother. What about you? Brother Shouzheng, aren't you planning to leave?"
"Not leaving"
Qin Shou was looking up at the blooming dragon boat flowers in the distance, "I want to guard them. If I die in the future, I may be buried with them."
"Don't you want to send them home?" Wei Ran asked.
"Yes, why don't you want to?" Qin Shouzheng sighed, "But there is still a war in the country, and I don't know when it will end..."
"Soon, soon." Wei Ran said confidently, "The domestic war will be over soon."
"When the war is over, if there is a chance, I will send them back."
“There is also a mass grave over there in Tonggu.”
Zhou Guochang sighed, "I helped bury those soldiers back then. When you have the opportunity in the future, when you are going to take your comrades here home, remember to send me a telegram. I will take the bones of those comrades over there in Tonggu."
Come out and send them back together."
"Comrade?" Tan Shouzheng muttered in a dazed manner.
“Aren’t we just comrades in arms?”
Zhou Guochang pointed to the slightly worn armband on his arm, "We started from here together. Aren't we comrades in arms?"
"yes"
Qin Shouzheng looked at the lush dragon boat flower in the distance, then looked up at the blue sky, put down the camellia oleifera he was holding, changed the subject and asked, "Wei Ran, I just wanted to ask about the donkey you brought.
What treasures are in those two jars you are carrying?"
"You'll know if you open it and take a look," Wei Ran pretended to sell it, but in fact he didn't even know what was inside.
"Come on, let's lift it down together and take a look!"
While Qin Shouzheng was speaking, he stood up and, with the help of Wei Ran and Zhou Guochang, moved down the two jars in the baskets on his back.
“This jar is used for brewing wine at my house.”
While Qin Shouzheng was speaking, he had already opened the wooden gun case slung around his waist with one hand, pulled out a Browning high-power pistol from it, and used the pistol grip to break open the seal of the altar mouth.
When he carefully tore open the lotus leaves under the sealing mud, he immediately exclaimed, "Tupao wine! This is the family's Tupao wine! Weiran, you! Where did you get it?"
"It doesn't matter where he got it from." Wei Ran secretly rubbed the tattoo on the tiger's mouth as a thank you, "Quickly taste it, okay?"
"wait!"
Before Qin Shouzheng finished speaking, he turned around and ran into the temple. Not long after, he brought over a stack of large porcelain bowls, and in his mouth, he was biting a bamboo wine stem.
"Go over there and drink!"
Tan Shouzheng pointed to the blooming dragon boat flower with his chin. After hearing this, Wei Ran and Zhou Guochang immediately worked together to lift the wine jar and walked to the side of the flower bush. The young monk Sehao also quickly took the wine from Tan Shouzheng's hand.
From the pile of large coarse porcelain bowls, he took out three and placed them on the wet stone at the edge of the flowers.
When Wei Ran took out a few pieces of yellow paper and a pair of white candles from the bamboo basket on the donkey and lit them beside the stone, Qin Shouzheng also carefully filled the three coarse porcelain bowls placed on the stone with wine.
At the same time, little master Sehao also gave Wei Ran and Zhou Guochang a large bowl each. He also took a large bowl himself and allowed Qin Shouzheng to fill them up one by one with wine grapes.
"crop!"
Qin Shouzheng shouted to Master Sehao at the same time in his hometown dialect, and at the same time stretched out the porcelain bowls in their hands.
Wei Ran and Zhou Guochang looked at each other, picked up the coarse porcelain bowls one after another, imitated each other's accents and shouted "Cao!", holding the four coarse porcelain bowls together.
After drinking down a bowl of local cannon wine that didn't seem to be too high in alcohol content, Qin Shouzheng picked up the wine grapes and filled them up for everyone without any explanation. At the same time, he asked, "Can you guess numbers?"
"I can," Zhou Guochang said first.
"Come!"
Qin Shouzheng put the wine grapes into the jar and shouted loudly in his hometown dialect, "Hello, brother, eight horses..."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! But as he shouted, Tan Shouzheng had tears streaming down his face. He just tremblingly picked up the large porcelain bowl in front of him and touched the three large bowls on the stone.
Then he touched it with Zhou Guochang, Wei Ran and others, shouted "Cao!" again, then put the bowl to his mouth and drank it all in one breath.
On this drizzly afternoon, while drinking bowl after bowl of native wine, Qin Shouzheng cried for a long time and talked a lot.
When he finally passed out drunk next to the blooming dragon boat flower, the pair of white candles were extinguished one after another, leaving only wisps of white smoke, lingering in the cold rain, unwilling to disperse for a long time.
go.
"You...why did you bring so much wine?" Zhou Guochang let out a wine burp when he said this, and then he lay down on the wet grass with his head up.
He glanced at the pot of Tupao wine that was still mostly full. Wei Ran and the young monk Sehao, who had also drank a lot, looked at each other. First, they worked together to help Tan Shouzheng and Zhou Guochang into the temple to find a place to lie down.
Then he carried the unopened jar of wine and the jar with more than half of the remaining wine into the temple, and found lotus leaves and straw to carefully tie the mouth of the jar.
"Let's rest here tonight," the drunken monk Sehao found a bundle of bamboo mats and handed them to Wei Ran.
"You seem to drink together often?" Wei Ran asked as he took the bamboo mat.
“Drink often”
Se Hao smiled and sat down on the wet steps at the entrance of the temple. Then he took out a tin box with familiarity, took out two cigarettes from it and gave them to Wei Ran, and helped him light them.
He said with a sigh, "When Shouzheng came here, I was ready to give up here and go to the temple in Manxi Town."
"Then what?" Wei Ran also sat on the steps.
"I took him to see Squad Leader Liang in the cave. He decided to stay, so I stayed."
Sehao looked at the cigarette in his hand and said, "Smoking, drinking, guessing numbers, making oil tea, and even peeking at the girls in the village bathing in the river. Shouzheng taught me a lot of bad things, but these are indeed better than every day.
Chanting is interesting."
"Ha..." Wei Ran couldn't help but smile.
"He also has unhappy moments"
Se Hao took a long puff of cigarette, and when the thick smoke blew out from his nostrils, he continued, "Do you still remember the Chinese who helped bury those expeditionary force soldiers?"
"Remember"
Wei Ran nodded, "They shaved our heads back then, and I gave them back and took photos of you and the old abbot."
"It's been more than a year since the war ended"
Se Hao sighed, "Shou Zheng has been waiting for them, but none of those people have come back. You and Guochang are the only acquaintances he has waited for since he came here."
"What happens next?" Wei Ran asked, staring at the sparks on the cigarette butt.
"When Shouzheng learns Burmese, I plan to hand over this temple to him."
Sehao raised his hand and pointed to the patch of dragon boat flowers in the distance, "There are also bones buried there. We are going to find an opportunity to move them all to that cave."
"Leave the temple to Shouzheng?" Wei Ran frowned involuntarily.
Sehao nodded gently, "Since Shouzheng plans to stay with his comrades here, it is obviously best to give him the position of abbot of this temple. In a colonized country like Wudian, the abbot of the temple,
It will save him a lot of trouble."
"What about you? Are you no longer a monk?"
"My home is in Mo's Village." Sehao shook the cigarette in his hand, "I may become a monk again in the future, when my faith becomes as pious as before."
"It's not easy to quit smoking." Wei Ran smiled pointedly, "Whether you are a monk or not, Master Sehao, thank you for helping us."
"Thank you for your help to us," the young Master Sehao said seriously.
"rest early"
The cigarette butt in his hand flew away from the firebomb, and he patted the other party's shoulder gently, got up and walked into the temple, shook off the bamboo mat and lay down.
Master Se Hao, who was sitting at the door, smiled and flicked the cigarette butt away. He took out a small bundle of grass from the bamboo basket at the door and covered it on the iron bucket with the charcoal fire burning at the door.
In a moment, the familiar and unpleasant smell of fishy-sweet smoke dispersed, easily driving away the large mosquitoes lingering in the temple - just like it did in Savage Mountain.
