When the plane landed at Pudong International Airport, Wang Youcai's legs were still trembling.
More than ten hours ago, Wang Youcai saw such a big airplane for the first time. He stood there and did not dare to move. After Yu Zhiqian helped him get on the plane and sat down, he asked tremblingly: "Is this the airplane you are talking about? "
"Yes!"
"The plane the kid used to fly was much smaller than this one!" Wang Youcai sighed, and then began to be curious about the things inside the plane. This flight was a flight back to China, so most of the people were of yellow race. Only then did Wang Youcai feel a sense of intimacy.
When the plane took off and landed, Wang Youcai nervously grabbed the armrests and sweat broke out on his forehead. It was obvious that the impact of all this on him was really great.
After getting off the plane, passing customs, and officially entering Shanghai, Wang Youcai stood in the middle of the crowd, confused, and looked around: "Sir, where is this?"
"Shanghai!"
"Shanghai?"
Wang Youcai looked at the elevated highways, neat highways, speeding vehicles and various buildings outside the airport, and swallowed his saliva: "Is this Shanghai?"
"Yes, have you been to Shanghai before?"
Wang Youcai was a little confused and nodded with a little uncertainty: "I've been here before. In the 26th year of the Republic of China, when the Japs attacked Shanghai, we rushed over to support them. We retreated without much fighting. It was so frustrating. Got it!"
Yu Zhiqian calculated that in the twenty-sixth year of the Republic of China, that is, in 1937, the Battle of Songhu took place.
"Let's go, I'll take you to see Shanghai! Then I'll go to Changde to have a look. I still have something to deliver!" After Yu Zhiqian finished speaking, he took out something wrapped in old oilcloth paper from his pocket. It was entrusted to me by an officer named Chen Hanmin when he was defending the city tower.
"good!"
After getting into a car, Yu Zhiqian and Wang Youcai drove towards the city center. As a magical city, Shanghai is one of the largest cities in China, and its prosperity can be ranked among the best in the world.
The vehicle was parked near the Bund. Wang Youcai looked at the intact buildings on both sides of the Bund and scratched his head: "Seeing these, I still have some impression. That's the Baiwaidu Bridge, right? I've secretly looked at it before. , that area is the concession of foreign devils, we cannot enter!"
"Now that we have beaten away the foreign devils, there is no such thing as a concession. We can go wherever we want!"
"That's great!" Wang Youcai's eyes were a little moist. He looked at the skyscrapers around him and the Oriental Pearl Tower. He wanted to remember the appearance of these buildings in his mind and tell them to his brothers when he went back.
"This is a monument, but..."
Yu Zhiqian took Wang Youcai to the monument on the edge of the Bund. After Wang Youcai saw it, he saluted solemnly and finally slowly lowered his hand: "I am just a soldier. I don't understand the things above, whether it is the Kuomintang or the Communist Party. Well, now that I see our compatriots living in a world without war and having no worries about food and clothing, I am satisfied. At that time, how could we dare to think!"
After he finished speaking, he wanted to take out a cigarette and gave it to Yu Zhiqian. He said, "Sir, I'm not afraid of making you laugh. When I beat the Japanese, I only had one idea. I thought that if I beat the Japanese away, I could return to China." Now that we are farming, we no longer have to travel around. Now it seems that what we did was worth it!" This sentence "Wang Youcai" may be referring to himself, or perhaps to his comrades-in-arms.
In the afternoon, Yu Zhiqian took Wang Youcai to watch some documentaries on the development of the country in recent years, which were projected in the hotel suite.
Like people of that era, although Wang Youcai didn't know what an atomic bomb was, when he saw it explode, he still clapped his hands vigorously and was so excited.
In the evening, Yu Zhiqian and the two went to have the most authentic Chinese meal together. Wang Youcai looked at the hairy crabs on the table and was a little stunned: "Sir, you said this thing costs more than a hundred yuan? You can buy it for a hundred yuan. How much rice?”
"Huh? I calculated that rice costs about four yuan per pound now. I should be able to buy twenty or thirty pounds of rice, right? Have you never eaten it?"
Wang Youcai shook his head: "How could I not have eaten it before? At that time, this thing was eaten by the poor. They only ate it when they really had nothing to eat. There was not much meat, and it took a lot of effort to eat. No one liked it!"
Yu Zhiqian was stunned after hearing this. Well, it seems to be true. It is said that during the Republic of China, poor people in Shanghai relied on eating hairy crabs to satisfy their hunger. It seems to be true.
"More, more, more!" Looking at the table full of dishes, Wang Youcai became even more cautious. Except for pork and crabs, he had never seen any of them. He didn't know where to start with his chopsticks. Especially these exquisite presentations, which he had never dared to think of before.
"Eat, you are talented!"
"Sir, isn't this meal expensive?"
Yu Zhiqian did the math and found that this restaurant was not considered high-end, but he found it casually after encountering it. The average price per person was about two hundred to three hundred. He shook his head: "It's not very expensive. Ordinary people can eat here several times a month." !”
"That's it!"
After hearing that most people could afford it, Wang Youcai relaxed a little and added a large piece of beef and put it in his bowl: "Beef is delicious, hey hey, I won a battle before, and General Yu killed a cow We split it, we even split it a little bit, this taste will never be forgotten for the rest of my life!"
After finishing speaking, he stuffed a big mouthful of rice into his mouth. There was not much food, but a lot of rice. This way of eating was unique to that era, because when eating at home, there were less food and more rice. There is only a little bit of food on the plate.
"Don't worry, eat slowly. If you like beef, I will take you to eat steak tomorrow. Eat it every day!"
"What's steak?"
"What Westerners eat is made from beef!"
"Then don't eat it, Western food doesn't taste good!"
Wang Youcai shook his head and continued to eat. This meal was probably the most comfortable meal that Wang Youcai had ever eaten. He didn't have to worry about the dangers around him. There was meat and he could eat it openly. He smiled happily while eating. But at the end of the meal, Wang Youcai's eyes became moist again, and he put down his bowl and chopsticks: "Many brothers never had a full meal before they died!"
"It's all over. That era has passed. Now I don't dare to say that everyone in the country can have enough to eat, but at least 95% or more can have enough to eat and don't have to go hungry!"
"Um!"
In the end, Wang Youcai knew that the food would be thrown away if he couldn't finish it, so he ate all the food ordered by Yu Zhigan for at least five or six people by himself, even some of the soup was not spared. People of that era did not have the habit of wasting food. .
ps: When I was writing this chapter, I deleted it many times. There were a lot of things I wanted to write, but in the end I found that I couldn’t start because I didn’t have enough writing power. In fact, I also thought that if the older generation came to modern times and saw what the country looks like now, Will you be satisfied?
