Plane Merchant's Dream of a Powerful Country

The first target plane, three years after Snow and Special Envoy Cole visited Yan'an, reporter Snow published his new book "Red Star Rises, Rising Sun Sets", which records his journey since November 1943, 11. What I saw, heard, and felt after I arrived in Yan'an.One part that is very attractive to readers is the 18-hour diary of his first arrival in Yan'an, which describes Snow's first impression of returning to Yan'an in straightforward and casual language.Next, let us use time and space to cheat secretly, and open Snow's diary three years in advance to see what was written in it.

On February 1943, 11, the weather was fine.

His Excellency Cole, the special envoy of the President, and I arrived in Yan'an by plane.I have to admit that when I got off the plane, I was surprised. The Yan'an Airport that I had imagined was suppressed by stone rollers was gone. What appeared before my eyes was a beautiful asphalt runway, with white paint conspicuously drawn. The straight line indicates the landing mark, and there seem to be a lot of lighting street lights on both sides of the runway. The newly built brand new tower is located on the left hand side of the runway. Is this Yan'an?My mind went blank at the time.

Take a jeep from the airport to the urban area of ​​Yan'an, and the asphalt road is still along the way.I have a hunch that returning to Yan'an this time will overturn many of my previous memories.Sure enough, as soon as I entered the urban area of ​​Yan'an, I found that my eyes were not enough. There were neatly built asphalt paths passing through them, and there were three or four-story buildings on the side of the road that I definitely didn't have when I came a few years ago. The style is novel. , the overall feeling is like a combination of Western style and Yanhuang style, it feels very beautiful, and there is no feeling of thousands of houses, always in the same dozen houses, interspersed with coffee-colored wooden houses (Xinghuake coffee), transparent glass Fashionable restaurants (Ken Maiji), teahouses with green roofs and white doors and walls (typhoon shelters), and so on, there are many, many small surprises.

After checking into the foreign guest hotel, I shared a room with another member of the visiting group.The double room is very clean. The sheets and beds are clean and brand new. There is a separate wardrobe in the room. It is a pity that the toilet on the second floor is shared and you need to leave the house to use it.However, hot water is provided here and you can take a bath.Hehe, I feel a little funny when I write this, is it too demanding? This is Yan'an, and it's not in China. It's too much beyond my imagination.

After having lunch at noon, I found that it was a buffet, which was very simple but very rich. There were several hot dishes, including meat and vegetables, and you could see chicken and mutton. Enjoying the special treatment of foreign friends, it is difficult to guarantee a meal of white noodles, let alone a meal of meat.In addition, the foreign guest hotel provides desserts and a small amount of fruit. I was surprised. I asked the waiter how it is possible that there is fruit in Shaanxi this season. They replied that it was canned. This surprised me even more.

In the afternoon, Corte sent them to a meeting, and I myself expressed to the person in charge sent by Yan'an to receive us that I hoped to go to Yan'an to collect wind and materials.And I asked him if he could convey on my behalf that he wanted to meet some old friends from the past and chat with him about his heartfelt wishes.He said that he needed to report to his superiors and asked me to wait in the house for a reply.Fortunately, God blessed him, he came to see me at 4 pm and said he would allow me to walk around, but he needed two escorts, one for translation and one for security to prevent accidents.Well, I know that as a member of the Stars and Stripes, I will definitely receive some "preferential treatment", but it doesn't matter, I just want to visit Shaanxi folks, this wish has been fulfilled, and everything else is easy to talk about.

At around 5:[-] p.m., I came to a street in Yan'an, Shaanxi Province. It may not be the end of get off work, and there are not many pedestrians.The sidewalk paved with stone bricks is very clean and comfortable. There are red street lights at the intersection, and a middle-aged woman in yellow and yellow with red cloth strips is standing next to her. I am very surprised. After asking the translator, I learned that they are assisting the traffic police to maintain traffic order. Yes, it seems that the people in Yanhuang are not used to the traffic rules of stopping at red lights and going at green lights, so a lot of manpower is required to maintain the site.I have to say, this is unique to Yanhuang, maybe only Yanhuang in the world has enough manpower to complete such a task.

Dinner at a noodle restaurant at night, the interpreter sent by the Red Party said, according to their policy, I can only receive one copper dollar per day, and I have to bear it myself if I exceed it.It is said that this regulation is to prevent the tax money paid by the common people from being wasted.I was surprised, well, let's talk about the exchange rate first, specifically, hand them dollars, and they exchange me copper dollars or silver dollars at the gold price.Let me say more here, one silver dollar is equivalent to three copper dollars.At first, I was worried that I would not have enough money. After all, I only had one copper dollar in my hand. After reading the menu at the noodle restaurant, I was relieved. A bowl of ordinary noodles only costs 6 copper coins (one copper coin is equal to one hundred copper coins), which is very cheap.Out of curiosity, he asked about the translator's salary, and he replied that the military salary was 25 copper dollars, which was pretty good after calculation.

On November 1943, 11, the weather was cloudy and light wind.

Today I have an appointment with George Haydem to visit his house.George had already given himself a Chinese name, Ma Haide. In 1936, George and I came to the area occupied by the Yanhuang Red Party. Half a year later, I left after the interview, but he asked to stay.To be honest, I was worried at the time.It is much more at ease to meet again now.He is currently working in Yan'an Hospital and Yanhuang Northwest Medical University. He sees patients in the hospital on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and teaches at the university on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, teaching modern medical knowledge to students. I know that he still works overtime at the university most of the time on Sundays. I advised him to pay attention to his body, but he smiled and said that dedication and dedication are needed now. Many students are working hard to learn medical knowledge with great passion, just to learn as soon as possible. Cheng graduated and treated diseases for ordinary Yanhuang people. In this atmosphere, I also glowed with passion, hoping to teach them sooner and earlier.

George asked for leave today to stay with me for a day.We chatted until 10:[-] in the morning. At noon, at his suggestion, he invited me to leave Yan'an and visit Xi'an.In his words, the political atmosphere in Yan'an is still too strong because the central government and agencies of the Red Party gather here. If you want to experience the real life of the people in the border area of ​​the Red Party, it is more authentic to go to Xi'an.I accepted George's opinion, two people plus translators and guards, a total of four people drove to Xi'an.By the way, there are regular buses from Yan'an to Xi'an, and the fare is one copper, which is very cheap.

It was almost 12 o'clock in the noon when we arrived in downtown Xi'an. After lunch at an ordinary mutton steamed bun restaurant, George took me to a street lined with shops in Xi'an.The business here is booming. From time to time, I see many customers coming in and out of the shops. "Mobaozhai" is a painting shop on this road. The shop is not big, but it is very clean. The shopkeeper's surname is Zhou. merchant.Chatting with him, I learned that after Xi’an was occupied by the Red Party, the real estate and family property of the local tyrants and evil gentry were confiscated, and the land and economic policies of buying the shops of progressive merchants were implemented.Then many streets were remodeled in Xi'an, and this street was classified as a commercial street and leased out.

Shopkeeper Zhou didn’t dare to apply for a store at the beginning, thinking that one thing more is worse than one thing less.Unexpectedly, the officers of the Red Party took the initiative to come to persuade them. As a last resort, they picked up their old business, rented a three-storey shop, and opened this "Mo Bao Zhai". The blandness became crowded.I asked him the reason, and he laughed. It turned out that because the Red Party border region government built new houses for the residents in the urban area and the farmers in the surrounding countryside, every household was thinking about what to put in the house and what to display.As a result, many people planned to live the original "landlord's life", and put a square table in their hall, with two grand master chairs on the left and right, and porcelain vases placed symmetrically on it. A pair of calligraphy characters, with a painting hanging in the middle, because the paintings and calligraphy need to be "framed" before they can be used, so shopkeeper Zhou's business is so good.

I asked him if you have state-run enterprises or private enterprises here, how will your children choose in the future.Shopkeeper Zhou thought about it seriously, and answered me, he doesn’t plan to enter the state office, nor does he plan to enter the private office. Three generations of his family have made a living by mounting calligraphy and painting. According to the needs of customers, he also bought some rice paper, brushes, watercolors, pen holders, paperweights, etc., and the sales were quite good. The Red Party collected taxes according to a fixed amount every month, which basically only accounted for [-]% of his shop’s sales. one or so.Shopkeeper Zhou feels that he can arrange his work and life by himself and save himself the trouble of going to the factory to be instigated and obeying orders. He is very satisfied with his current life and wants to continue.And the Red Party will convene these private owners and father-son store owners to hold policy briefing sessions or training sessions every week. By watching foreign movies (note: it is actually a processed main plane store management documentary), they will discover their store concept Insufficient and operating methods should be improved to make the small shop more refined and stronger.Shopkeeper Zhou finally said to me: The officer of the border region government told us that we craftsmen are very important and are an important part of Yanhuang culture. , but it seems that the border region government recognizes us very much, don't you think so?

On November 1943, the weather was cloudy and windy.

It's windy and cold outside today.There is heating in the hotel for foreign guests, so it feels nothing to be inside the room, but when you go outside, you will soon shiver.In addition to going to "Mobaozhai" yesterday, I also went to the wooden comb workshop, blacksmith shop and so on.The modernization of the wooden comb workshop in Xi'an surprised me. They use fully automatic machines to make each wooden flute of the comb.And use manual polishing one by one wooden rasp, divided into two times of iron file and wooden rasp, so as to change the wood chips and burr residue of the wooden rasp into a smooth and round state at the tip, which is very labor-intensive, but the finished product Very delicate.I looked at the price, 3 coppers each, not expensive but not cheap either.The blacksmith shop is similar to the wooden comb shop. It has two or three machines and can make all kinds of customized iron products, from door handles to stair handrails. It is very popular in Xi'an.It is said that this is mainly promoted by the Yanhuang Red Party: to help small workshops update equipment, encourage residents to buy products from small workshops and small shops, and democratize commodities with Yanhuang cultural significance originally used by the 1% ruling class, and apply them to ordinary people. In my life, I am very surprised and admired. In a local power that has not yet ended the war and has taken control of the central government, it takes great courage to vigorously promote industries such as education and culture that only see input but no output.

In the morning, Special Envoy Cole came to me specially and asked about his feelings in the past two days. I observed that his expression was not very good. Could it be that the negotiations with the Yanhuang Red Party were not going well?Thinking of this, I immediately said to him, I think the future of Yanhuang Continent must belong to them, and I suggest to establish an effective dialogue and contact mechanism with the Red Party from now on, which is beneficial to the Republic of Stars and Stripes.I hope to always be like George Haydem (Ma Haide) described, Yanhuang and the Stars and Stripes will always be friends in the future, friends!