Ghost Blowing Lamp II

Chapter 2 Catch the Winter Famine
In the autumn of 1969, the liberation war of the Vietnamese people against US imperialist aggression was in full swing.At this time, as one of the many educated youths who went to the countryside, I was arranged by the Educated Youth Office to jump in the queue in the Daxinganling Mountains and receive the highest instruction: educated youths go to the countryside, fight against the wind and snow, forge red hearts, fight against heaven and earth, and cast iron bones.

Unknowingly, a few months have passed, and the excitement and novelty when I first entered the mountain have disappeared, replaced by the boring life day after day. The valley where I jumped in the queue was only as big as a palm. There are only [-] or [-] households in the area, and almost all of them are virgin forests with no human habitation within hundreds of miles.

The people in the village rely on the mountains to eat. Apart from opening a few acres of wasteland in flat areas and planting some daily rations, the rest of the food is mainly obtained by hunting in the mountains. There are also fungus, mushrooms, etc. in the forest, which are all chewy, so it is not a problem to eat well.

But that winter, the snow fell very early in the mountains, and the northwest wind suddenly intensified, and the weather suddenly became cold. The snow was about to close the mountains, and everyone had not had time to store food for the winter.Because in the autumn of previous years, people in the mountains hunted a large number of wild boars and hares when they were fattening up in autumn, and stored them in air-dried wax to survive the cruel and long winter in Daxing'an Mountains.

The abnormal weather that has never been seen in this decade has just happened. Just halfway through the autumn, it began to snow heavily, and then the northwest wind blew up. The hunters were unavoidably a little confused. They scrambled into the mountains to "catch the winter famine", raced against the God for time, and went all out to trap the fox and shoot the rabbit. Otherwise, if it was later, the white hair wind that only blows in winter would definitely blow up in the mountains, and then they would fight everything. If not, then the whole village will face a terrible winter famine.

Fatty, my partner who jumped in the queue with me, has been busy recently, wishing for some troubles to come out of nowhere. Seeing the hunters going into the mountains in groups to hunt, he suddenly became interested and eager to discuss with me. Go into the mountains with the hunters to hunt down some human bears.

My enthusiasm for hunting in the mountains, especially the love of fighting wits and strengths such as "trapping foxes", is no less than that of Fatty, but I rarely have the opportunity to take a gun and a dog to have a good time. I have long been aware of this action, and the party secretary will definitely not let us participate.One is because the educated youths of us have been in the mountain for less than half a year, and there have been a lot of troubles, which made the old party secretary go crazy and stop us from doing anything wrong. The wood in the forest farm is full of depressing errands; secondly, catching the winter famine this time is a major event in the village, and hunting is a collective action, which requires rich experience and the tacit cooperation between hunters. Raw melon eggs from the city joined in. If something went wrong, everyone would have to go through the harsh winter hungry. No one can afford this responsibility, and absolutely can't take such a risk.

We watched eagerly as each household dispatched capable hunters to form a "Winter Desolation Combat Team", leading a large number of hounds into the mountains mightily, and marching on the snow to the front line of hunting. I was really anxious and excited. Huo, even though I knew it was basically a no-go, I still had a sliver of hope and went to find a branch secretary for accommodation, even if we could arrange some rear support work for us educated youths, and let us stay in the village, we must be suffocated No.

Fatty also emphasized Chairman Mao's highest instruction to the party secretary: "We are all from all corners of the country, and we have come together for the same purpose. On behalf of our five educated youths, I sincerely request you to let us participate in this battle no matter what. In the torrent of revolutionary struggle against the winter famine..."

The old party secretary didn't wait for the fat man to finish his sentence, and stifled our request with another supreme instruction: "Don't talk to me, what are you doing? Chairman Mao didn't pay back that..., by the way... his old man I also emphasized that we must oppose liberalism and obey the organization's arrangements. It's not like everyone in our village goes hunting, and the rest are all those women and children, old, weak, sick and disabled. Look under the snow, in case there are any It is also troublesome to find a black blind man who has enough food for cat winter. I think it is better to do it like this. You young people, leave half to guard the village. Bayi and Xiaopang, you two, let Yanzi take you to the forest farm to watch the field Go, just replace the old man knocking on the mountain, I can tell you two, you can't know the whole thing if I'm not here these days?"

As expected, I saw that there was no room for reconciliation on the issue of the route. Now that this was the point, I had no choice but to let it go. I secretly thought that it would be better to find a chance to trap foxes near the forest farm than in the village. It was so boring to carry out ideological work, so I said goodbye to the other three educated youth companions, rolled up the bedding on my back, and together with the fat man, led by the swallow, went to the forest farm under Tuanshanzi to guard the logs.

There are several households in the village as educated youth spots, and the educated youths who jump in the queue live in these households regularly, and they take turns to join each other for meals, and eat whatever they catch up with. The girl Yanzi is the "landlord" of Fatty and me. She is also an excellent hunter. The branch secretary arranged for her to take us to take care of the forest farm, but she was also worried that the forest farm would be attacked by wild animals.

Swallow lost the opportunity to hunt in the mountains, but she didn't complain, because the educated youths are far more knowledgeable than the people in the mountains, especially Fatty and I, who know astronomy and geography at the top and can talk about it. When we are with the educated youths, she can Knowing that she had never left the world beyond the mountains, she put on a shotgun and some necessary items and set off with the fat man and me.From the village to the forest farm, you have to turn over a ridge and turn to two mountain depressions. It was also gray, making it difficult to tell whether it was snowing all the time. I wrapped my head tightly with a dog fur hat, but the wind still made my head gradually numb.

But I heard from Yanzi that this kind of weather is nothing at all. In the deep winter and the twelfth lunar month in the mountains, the snow in the forest will be waist deep. I was sweating all over my body, but I absolutely couldn’t stop. Once I stopped to catch my breath and was swept away by the piercing cold wind, the sweat all over my body would immediately turn into layers of frost, and people who had never spent the winter in the deep mountains would not As far as I can imagine, the most terrifying thing is the "white hair wind" that the people in the mountains talk about. The so-called "white hair wind" means snow is added to the wind, and the silver-white whirlwind is more powerful than ice skates. There is no one who can stand it, so the hunters in the mountains have to reserve food in advance, and when the weather is cold, they start to winter on the hot kang at home.

It took almost a day to arrive at the forest farm. This forest farm is next to the "Tuanshanzi" where people and bears come and go. There is a river passing through this forest sea and snow source, which just separates the mountain from the forest. The vegetation on Tuanshanzi is dense. , There is no shortage of food. The man-bears on the mountain will not easily cross the river to the forest, and the hunters dare not provoke the murderous king of the forest-the man-bear.

(End of this chapter)