The dust settles

Chapter 4

Commissioner Huang laughed.Father had to accept this statement.Who told us to be helpless against a defected leader.For a long time, the rescuers brought by the chieftain did not teach our men to shoot.As the weather warmed up day by day, they still walked there shouting loudly.No one understands how to learn to fight first by learning to walk in unison, making the air gradually humid in March and making it dusty.My half-brother also carried an empty gun on his shoulder, walking in the middle of the line with sweat and dust on his face.Finally, even he couldn't bear it any longer, and came to ask his father, "Should we give us bullets?"

Father went to ask Commissioner Huang.So they each had three bullets.The bullet is fired, but it is still not called shooting.Just added assassination in addition to running.A few days later, my brother went to ask his father again.My father told Commissioner Huang that the sowing season was coming soon, and that the village was under Chieftain Wang Bo's command.

Commissioner Huang said, "There's no rush."

Toast Maiqi knew that he had invited a god who was not easy to dismiss.Once you have a bad premonition, immediately invite a lama to divination.The result is that the lost villages can be regained, or one or two more villages may be gained, but there is a price to pay.

He asked if he was going to die, and he said no.

Is it going to cost money, say no.

When asked what it was, he said he couldn't see clearly.

The lama at home couldn't do it, so he immediately sent someone to invite the living Buddha in the temple, but the hexagrams were the same.The living Buddha said that he saw flowers like flames.As for what kind of price this flower indicates, it is not known.

Chief Maiqi ordered two girls to be replaced by Commissioner Huang, and brought a box of silver dollars.

The thing is to ask my mother to come forward to do it.The chieftain said to his wife: "You should go, I don't understand the minds of the Han people, so you should go and do this." Mother liked the feeling of the chieftain, and from then on, she had the ability to deal with people as the chieftain's wife. of power.Before she became Mrs. Tusi, she didn't even dare to think that one day she would be able to sit on an equal footing with someone as prestigious as the special commissioner.On the second day, the special commissioner said: "The girl is very nice, you can take back the silver dollars. Our government came to help you barbarians not for silver, but for the republic of the five ethnic groups and for the national order of the Republic of China. Two Girl, I didn't refute your face because things like this place outside of culture have nothing to do with morality."

The commissioner also asked: "Madam, I heard you are Han Chinese?
We will depend on you for many things in the future.Maybe one day, this place will not be the territory of the barbarians, but your fiefdom. "

"Not to mention fiefdom, if your army hadn't robbed my father's shop, I wouldn't have ended up in this situation."

Commissioner Huang said: "That's easy, we can make compensation."

"Can human life be compensated? My parents, two human lives."

Unexpectedly, Commissioner Huang's attempt to find the accomplice failed, so he said: "My wife is really a man of women, I admire her."

Mother was indeed aboveboard in this matter.She only told her father that the commissioner returned the money.My father also felt at a loss on this matter, so he could only grit his teeth and say, "One day I will kill this guy."

Commissioner Huang came and said, "I think I'd better call Chieftain Wang Bo, and let's have a meeting together."

Father looked at Commissioner Huang, whose yellow face was very serious at the moment.Then he ordered the housekeeper: "Send a messenger."

The messenger returned shortly.As everyone knows, at this time, God is about to bring good luck to chieftain Maiqi.Instead of a reply letter, Chieftain Wang Bo sent a pair of beautiful boots to "Son of a Son of a Son", clearly telling him to get out.The commissioner didn't understand what it meant, but my mother explained it thoroughly.

Our honored guest is outraged.

The sound of gunfire on the training ground came and went.Now everyone knows we're going to war.

Three days later, the heavily armed platoon of government soldiers and several hundred of our soldiers reached the border.As soon as the war started, the quick guns we got from the military government in the province beat the other side so that they couldn't hold their heads up.They just screamed, but the guns in their hands couldn't fire the bullets.In just one meal, the rebellious village was recovered.Knowing that he was guilty, the leader fled, leaving his family to die on his behalf.The whole family was tied together with ropes, and they all knelt under the walnut tree in front of their house.The sun slowly rose, and the dew on the grass under the feet of the men gradually dried.They saw that the swords and guns of the guards around them did not fall on them, so they thought that the chieftain would not kill them.Blood color gradually appeared on his pale face.But they didn't know that the Maiqi chieftain's family was different from other chieftains in that they would not allow soldiers to kill captives.

Our family has had a dedicated executioner since we had Maiqi Tusi hundreds of years ago.In this land, there were originally three hereditary families, one was the chieftain, the other was the executioner Eryi's family, and the third was the clerk.It's a pity that the third generation of clerks will have to write straight books, and the fourth generation of chieftain Maiqi will be abolished.As a result, we can't even know exactly how many generations Maiqi Tusi has been passed down.Not to mention how many generations the executioner's family has passed down.Now here comes the executioner, who looks like a murderer: long hands, long feet, long neck.Before the execution, the father said to those who were about to die: "It was your own people who left you to suffer for him, so I will not be polite. Originally, if the traitor didn't run away, your little lives would not be lost. .”

These people first hoped that the chieftain would let them live, but this time, the strong expression on their faces collapsed.It seems that he just remembered that he was not captured in a battle with an enemy country, but a traitor to his master.So, as soon as his legs softened, he knelt on the ground and begged for mercy.That's exactly what my father wanted.As soon as these people knelt down, the chieftain waved his hand, and the executioner's sword flashed, and several heads rolled on the ground.Every face that rolled to the ground maintained a vivid expression.The body without the head seemed to be very surprised, and stood there for a long time before spinning and falling to the ground.

I looked up at the sky, but I didn't see any ascended souls.It is said that man has a soul, but why haven't I seen it?

I asked my mother, and she gave me a hard look and walked over to her husband.

This is the first day of war.

The next day, the flames of war reached Chieftain Wangbo's territory.

Commissioner Huang, Chieftain, and Mrs. Chieftain took some people to watch the battle in a safe place.I also stand in the middle of them.The commander is my elder brother and the platoon leader under the commissioner.Our men rushed across the stream in the valley that bordered the two chieftains, and got into the thickets of bushes.We are watching an invisible battle.Only the crisp sound of gunfire echoed in the exceptionally clear sky.Chieftain Wangbo's people are much more tenacious than yesterday, and today they are fighting for their homeland.But our people are still moving forward with strong firepower.After a while, they attacked a stockade.A village house was ignited, and the fire burst into the sky.Someone flew out of the fire like a bird, was shot again in the air, and landed hard on his face.

After a while, another village house turned into a huge fire.

Commissioner Huang has a telescope.When the third house was on fire, he opened his yellow-toothed mouth and yawned long, and asked a white and clean boy soldier to help him to smoke under the shade of a tree.Father held the binoculars up in front of his eyes.But he didn't know how to play with the mechanism above, and he didn't see anything.I took it and fiddled with it for a while, found a place to move, spun it around, and suddenly, suddenly; the scenery on the opposite hillside was pulled up to the tip of my nose.I saw our men bouncing over ridges, rocks, and brush with their waists bent.The guns in their hands emitted puffs of green smoke from time to time.

In an open field, someone fell down.

One after another, when they fell down, they all shook their hands, and then opened their mouths to gnaw the mud on the ground.Both of them turned back and climbed down the mountain.At this time, another guy fell down, and the gun in his hand flew far away.I couldn't help yelling: "Go pick up the gun, you fool, go pick up your gun!"

But he lay there motionless, not obeying my orders at all.I think he only obeys my brother's orders.It is he, not me, who will be the magi toast in the future, and these soldiers are not mine, but his.My heart was filled with sorrow.The elder brother is very brave, he has been rushing to the front of the team.He ran sideways with his gun raised, his silver amulet gleaming in the sun.As soon as he raised the gun in his hand, a man flew out from the tree with his arms open like a bird, and threw himself into the embrace of the earth.I shouted excitedly: "Killed, killed!" It felt like my elder brother had killed me.Toast Maggie is worried about his other son.Seeing me holding up the binoculars and yelling, I waved my hand impatiently: "I can't even see anything if I ask someone to bring him into the house. Can a fool see him?"

I want to tell him that I can see everything, not only today, but also tomorrow.This is the words that suddenly came to my mouth, but I dare not say it, because I really don't know what I saw tomorrow.At this time, our people had already occupied the target in front of them, climbed over the mountain ridge, and attacked the next valley.

Night truce.Chieftain Wang Bo sent someone to deliver a human ear.There is also a huge silver earring on that ear.The cloth covering it was slowly lifted off.The ear jumped on the plate, and the silver earring on it rang very crisply in the copper plate.

"The traitor is not dead yet," said the father.

The envoy shouted, "You kill me!"

Father said you want to give me a bad name?
"You already have a bad reputation. You hired Han people to help you fight the war. You have broken the rules. Do you still want to have a good reputation?"

The envoy said, "Now that the family members are fighting and outsiders are invited to help, compared to that, killing one envoy has nothing to do with it." Indeed, in our place, intermarriage depends on the strength of the other party.So the chieftains are all relatives.Multiple intermarriages have resulted in more than one level of kinship.Maiqi Tusi's family and Wangbo Tusi's family are no exception.We are both cousins ​​and cousins.This time the battle is over, next time we may have a marriage relationship.It makes people wonder which kind of relationship is more real.

My father said, "I don't want your life. Since you are deceiving me with one ear, I also want your ear so that you know what a servant should say to the chieftain." Shem, one ear fell to the ground, covered with mud.

Commissioner Huang came out from the shadows, and said to Laishi who was missing one ear: "I am the one that your chieftain gave the boots to.

Go back and tell him how a pair of toast boots can carry my majestic provincial government commissioner.Chieftain Maiqi is a role model for supporting the government, and he is told to study hard.Send that man's head before midnight, or I'll send him something faster. "

The man calmly picked up his ear from the ground, blew off the dust on it, bowed and left.

Sure enough, the head of the rebellious leader was cut off.Chieftain Wang Bo also said that because of the defeat, he was willing to donate a piece of land that was twice the size of the original rebellious village as compensation.

The sound of cheering and winning immediately sounded in the night sky.The fire started, and the wine jars were opened one by one, and people danced around the fire and the wine jars.And I looked at the waning moon in the sky, and thought of the girl Zhuoma who stayed in the official village.Think of her smell, her hands, her breasts.

But my brother, the hero of this battle, joined the ring dance in the moonlight with open arms.The rhythm of the dance became faster and faster, the circle became smaller and smaller, and soon reached a climax.The girl who was held by her brother screamed.The cry was a bit exaggerated, and it was nothing more than to let everyone know how glorious and happy she was dancing with the noble hero.People cheered for his brother.His face was more vivid than usual, more animated than usual, and gleamed in the light of the fire.

And in the house just behind the dance floor, relatives of the two dead were weeping beside the bodies.

More corpses of the opponent were still exposed in the wilderness.The wolves are out.A long howl echoed in the valley.

The point is that on this night of victory, Dad wasn't exactly happy.Because a new hero is born, it means that the original hero is at least old.Although this new hero is his own son, he will not fail to feel a little sad.Fortunately, the new hero doesn't have the aggressive and funny look that heroes often have.My brother, he was only immersed in the joy.This in turn made the father envious that he was happier than himself.

My brother's happiness is that, like me, he doesn't try to distinguish himself from the common people; see, he's drinking with a man and flirting with a girl, and that man is the girl's brother.Finally, the elder brother took the girl into the woods.After he came out, he went to vigil for the dead with a serious face.I want to sleep.

My father hadn't woken from his hangover when he cremated the dead.

I lay on my horse, listening to the dirges and shaking my body.There is a long line of people marching on the dusty road in early spring.My brother gave me a knife, a trophy he had snatched from the hand that stabbed him. "May it make you brave," said the brother.I touched his hand that had killed someone, it was so warm, it didn't look like he had killed someone.So, I asked, "Did you really kill those people?" My brother gave me a firm grip, which made me frown.Now, he doesn't need to speak, and I believe that he really killed someone.

(End of this chapter)