The dust settles

Chapter 46

Chieftain Wang Bo returned to his official village long before he caught up.Suolang Zelang has been waiting for him to leave the official village, so that he can strike on the way.But chieftain Wang Bo didn't go anywhere, just stayed in the official village.Later, he found out that Chieftain Wang Bo had a strange disease and was lying in bed unable to get up.The syphilis that Chieftain Wang Po had contracted in the brothel had begun to flare up, and the man's penis was festering.Suolang Zelang swaggered into Wang Bo's official village, took out his gun and shot at the sky.He sent it to the door by himself and asked chieftain Wangbo to catch him.They chopped off one of his hands.Chieftain Wang Bo came out. Chieftain Wang Pi's face was rosy, and he didn't look sick at all.Solan Zelang could still tell that this person couldn't walk very well and could take a quick step, as if he was holding something between his crotch and was afraid of falling out.Solan Zelang was looking at the discolored hand on the ground, seeing the toast's appearance, he couldn't help laughing.

Chief Wang Po laughed too, and when he laughed his face turned pale, and he said, "Yes, women, let's see what women will make of us."

Solang Zelang said: "My master will laugh when you say that."

Chieftain Wang Bo said, "Go back and tell him."

Solang Zelang said, "I don't ask you to let me go."

Chieftain Wang Bo handed him a letter, saying: "Don't think that you are here to kill me, but as a messenger." In this way, Suo Jizelang returned with Chieftain Wangbo's letter.Before leaving, chieftain Wang Bo sent someone to build a small grave for his severed hand.

Solang Zelang went to see it himself.

Chieftain Wang Po said in his letter: "Woman, woman, your woman has ruined me." He complained that in my new town, the women in the brothel ruined his body, and his friends' wives ruined him mind.

He said that many chieftains were cursing the town.

They thought it was the town that made their bodies sick and rotten.Who has ever seen a man begin to rot while alive?In the past, people started to rot after they died and their souls left, but now, they are still alive, and their bodies start to rot from the place where they are used to pass on their families and make themselves happy.

I asked the clerk if this town should really be cursed.His answer was that not everyone who visited the town was physically rotting.People who don't fit in this town rot, he said.

Former monk and current secretary Weng Boyixi said that wherever something rots, something new will grow.

47. Toilet
The red Han defeated the white Han.

White Han Chinese who had lost the battle kept coming to our place.

At first, they underestimated us.Wanting to get food and meat with guns in their hands, I let them get these things.When they were full, they came to ask for wine and women, both of which were available in the town.But they had no money, so they asked me for money again.This time, they finally know that we were armed many years ago.In the end, they had to hand over the guns in their hands for my silver, and then exchange the silver for wine and girls.They flocked to the brothel, the place where syphilis was spread.This is a group of people who are always shouting and always leaving huge footprints in the snow.With them, even the hungry dogs can't find a clean snow to run and leave their flower-like footprints.Mr. Huang was wearing a fox fur robe and said, "These people are too cold to sleep."

I think so too, these people are sleeping in tents with drafts on all sides.Because Master Huang always sighed, when it snowed, I had no choice but to send them some food and wine.

These people often went to brothels, but no one was afflicted with syphilis.I inquired that they have special medicine for syphilis.I asked an officer, and he sent me some.I don't have this disease.No matter when I go there, the boss always has cleaning girls for me.I divided the medicine in two and gave one to Tana, who got the disease from Chief Wang Po.Chieftain Maiqi also got this disease, so I sent someone to send him a copy to let him know that a foolish son doesn't want his father to rot and stink on the bed.

This incident moved my father deeply.

He sent a message saying that the winter in Guanzhai was very lonely.The letter sent a call to me, son, come back, and use your method on the border to let us have a lively New Year.

"I asked everyone if they wanted to go back, and everyone wanted to. Suolang Zelang, who lost one hand, missed his mother very much. I asked Eryi if he missed his executioner, Lao Tzu, and he shook his head, then nodded. I said, Well, I also miss the toast and wife. Sangye Dolma led a group of servants and started packing. In my opinion, it’s the same everywhere. It’s not that I don’t know what loneliness is, but I I seldom feel it. The clerk said, don’t they understand that you are a fool?

And now, we're going back.

On the day of departure, it snowed heavily.This is a heavy snow that has never been seen before. The snowflakes are like flocks of birds, rushing from the sky to the earth imperviously.By noon, heavy snow overwhelmed the tents of the fleeing white Han Chinese.He shrugged his shoulders and came towards our big warm house with a gun in his arms.This time, if they are not allowed to come in, this group of people will really try their best.Anyway, if you don't fight to your death, you will freeze to death outside.I waved my hand, told my men to put away their guns, and let them go upstairs.Some soldiers couldn't take it anymore, fell over and buried their faces in the snow, as if they were too embarrassed to disturb us any more.A few of the fallen people were rescued, and some could never be rescued again.

I told Sangye Dolma to get some food for the soldiers.

At this time, everyone understands, and I also understand that we can't go away.The soldiers lived on one side of the building, and our men lived on the other side of the building.And on the ground floor of the building, there are silver and treasures accumulated over the years. Once we leave, these things will belong to others, and they will belong to these white Han people.

Fortunately, we can still live in peace with the uninvited guests, and the officer wearing a big hat is standing on the opposite corridor smiling at me.The soldiers also bowed down and called me master as if they were servants.And I will supply you with grain, meat, oil and salt.If they still want the booze and whores in town, they'll have to figure it out themselves.

Everyone wants to keep a safe distance from each other.

We all try to smile and greet from that modest distance, but never get too close.Distance is necessary when people who are not understood by this are together.The only exception is one place where the distance seems to cease to exist, and that place is the toilet.We belong to the long-clothes faction, and we won’t show anything in the toilet, but these Han people, these short-clothed people are different; they also lift up their bare buttocks in the cold winter.Han soldiers were mocked by my soldiers for their white butts.

It seems that if you want to explain what happened, you must first talk about the toilet.

Let me talk about the location of the toilet first.Mr. Huang said that my building was in the shape of a Chinese character. He tore off a page from the clerk's notebook and wrote that character on it.That word really draws out the foundations of my big house.This character is like this: "concave".The open side faces the town, we live on one side, and the Han people live on the other side.The bottom of the word is the toilet.

I have heard some stories comparing Han Chinese and Tibetans.There is a story that a Han and a Tibetan teamed up to steal gold and were caught and disemboweled. The Tibetan had half a stomach of ox hair, and the Han had half a stomach of iron filings.Tibetans eat meat, but they don't always get it clean, so they eat a lot of wool and wool.Han people eat vegetables, no matter what kind of leaves or roots they have, they have to be stir-fried in an iron pan with an iron shovel. Over time, a lot of iron filings accumulate in their stomachs.

Regarding the story of the stomach, the two sides are considered to be a tie.Strictly speaking, this is not a story, but a comparison.The same goes for toilets.We know that not to mention the Tibetans, even the British are regarded as barbarians by the Han Chinese.Man is what they usually call us.But we also have our own sense of superiority, such as toilets.My sister who is far away in the UK said that the British look down on the Han people the most, because they look down on the Chinese toilets the most.My Han mother also said, I have to ask her what she likes on the chieftain's territory?Silver, she said, and beyond silver is the toilet.

I have never been to a Han Chinese place, and I don’t know what the Han Chinese toilets look like, so I can only describe our toilets.It hung on the windowless wall at the back of the house.There is a story that when a Han Chinese official came to the court, he thought the toilet was a small house built for birds by Tibetans who believed in Buddhism.Because only bird houses are hung on the walls, because where there are tall houses, there are always large groups of red-billed jays and pigeons circling and flying.According to the story, this official liked us because of this, and said a lot of good things about the chieftains in the court.Tibetans who live in high houses hang toilets in the air behind the houses.

We and our guests live in the buildings on both sides of the Chinese character, but the toilet is between us.Therefore, on that special day, the toilet became a place where the two sides often meet.The Han soldiers stick their buttocks up in the small wooden houses hanging outside the wall. The cold winter wind blows on their buttocks from bottom to top without any shelter.These soldiers couldn't help trembling, which was stubbornly interpreted by my people as fear of us.I want them to understand that Han people shiver in the toilet because of the cold wind and fear of heights.

Master Huang said, "Telling them to believe that others are weak will not do you any harm."

I continued to let them laugh at their opponents in the toilet.

I have a separate toilet.

To go to this toilet, you have to go through a room first. In this room, a brazier brazier is burning with charcoal fire. As soon as I enter, cigarettes will rise like rafters from the incense burner.The two women who are not too old take turns to be on duty.After coming out of the toilet, the mother-in-law would tell me to sit down, warm up by the fire, and smoke me from head to toe with incense.I asked Mr. Huang to invite the biggest official among the defeated soldiers to share this toilet with me.Not long after the invitation was issued, the officer and I met in the bathroom.I asked him to sit down by the stove, and waited for the two wives to light incense, and waited for the fragrance to fill the whole room. For a while, I couldn't find anything to say.It was the officer who spoke first, and he asked me to fight against the upcoming attack of the Communist Party together.

He said that the Communist Party is a party of the poor. Once they come, there will be no more chieftains, and rich people like me with money and guns will no longer be able to exist. "Let's unite and fight them." The officer's expression was very earnest.When he talked about what the Communist Party did to the rich, his eyes turned red, and he stood up abruptly. He grabbed my shoulder tightly with one hand, and grabbed my hand with the other and shook it vigorously.

I believe what he said.

I know the officer is talking about life and death with me, but my goddam ass just can't hold it.I broke free from his grasp and rushed to the toilet.At this time, the wind was blowing upwards from below, and the officer covered his nose with a silk scarf.The stench coming from me smothers him.After I finished shitting, I went back to the house, and the two women came up and down to burn incense for me.There was a look of disgust on the officer's face, as if I had been exuding such a stench.Before that, I was a rich man like him, but after the shit, the situation changed, and I became a stinking barbarian.Yes, how could an officer talk to me about such a big issue in the bathroom.

After returning, I said to Mr. Huang: "Damn it, tell the Han people to go to the big Han people!"

Master Huang sighed for a long time. He hoped that I would form an alliance with the white Han people.

Master Huang said to me again: "I'm afraid, I will also break up with the young master."

I said, "Go, you keep remembering that you are a damn Han Chinese, go with whoever you want."

I can't say that the stench in the toilet is the only reason why I can't form an alliance with the white Han people, but it is indeed a very important reason.

Spring has finally arrived.

My people said that the Han soldiers no longer trembled in the toilet.One is that the wind has started to warm up, and the other is that they have become accustomed to hanging in mid-air to shit, and their fear of heights has completely disappeared.

One day, I met the biggest officer again in the toilet.I don't think there is much to say.But he said to me, "Spring is here."

I said, "Yes, spring is here."

After that there was nothing to say.

As soon as spring came, the People's Liberation Army rumbled with explosives, blasting wide roads for cars and cannons to advance towards the chieftains' territory.Some of the chieftains were ready to fight the Communist Party, and some were ready to surrender.My friend Lashepa Toast is the one who surrendered.I heard that the person he sent to join forces with the Communist Party brought him back a suit of People's Liberation Army uniforms and a letter of commission sealing him as a commander.The female chieftain of Ronggong scattered the accumulated money to buy guns and cannons, and she wanted to work with the Communist Party.The woman seemed to be young again.The most interesting one was Chieftain Wangpo. She said she didn't know what the Communist Party was or what the Communist Party would do to her.He only knew that he could never stand with the Maiqi family.In other words, if I resist the Communist Party, he will surrender, and if I surrender, then he will resist.

Both the housekeeper and Mr. Huang advocated that I negotiate with white Han people.Master Huang said: "If you want to do it, make up your mind to do it together. If you don't do it, you can let them live outside."

The housekeeper said, "You can't talk in the toilet."

I laughed and said, "You can't talk in the toilet."

Everyone laughed.

The housekeeper asked Master Huang seriously if the things coming out of the Han people's buttocks didn't smell bad.Master Huang said yes.The housekeeper also asked him whether it was Han people's feces or Tibetans'.This is a difficult question to answer.But Master Huang was neither angry nor annoyed, and took the housekeeper's question as a joke.He smiled and said, "The housekeeper should ask the young master, he has stayed in the toilet with the Han people."

Everyone laughed again.

I am ready to negotiate a union with the white Han army.One more thing made it all come to naught.This evening, I was sitting under the lamp with the tongueless clerk, and neither of us had a word to say, because the problem at hand had already exceeded his knowledge.But I've gotten used to calling him to my side whenever something important happens.The wick rang faintly, and the look in the clerk's eyes was bewildered and bewildered.At this time, Solang Zelang came in with a furtive and complacent expression on his face.The wind he brought in made the lamp seedlings sway to the left, and he said loudly, "Finally caught!"

These days, he always tells me, don't be too reassuring about Tana.

I don't think this woman has anything to do with me, except that she still lives in my house and eats and wears mine.Suo Lang Zelang felt that this had something to do with me, and this was the perception of the servants, who thought it was something to do with giving a few things.The Communist Party is coming, but he keeps his eyes on a woman.

Suolang Zelang was very embarrassed for not killing chieftain Wang Bo.This time, he finally managed to catch Tana.He found a white Han officer coming out of Tana's room, so he called the master, took the small pistol off the man's waist, pushed him downstairs, and told Eryi to tie him to the pillar downstairs.He pulled me outside the door, but I couldn't see the scene downstairs. I could only hear the sound of the executioner slashing the whip and tearing the air, and the screams of the people being whipped.The dogs near and far also went crazy and barked away.

Tana hooks up with another guy.

Later, the moon rose, and the sound of dogs biting echoed in the moon.

48. Gunfire
The white Han army drove away.

They left in the middle of the night, gathered together and left without telling anyone.

When I got up in the morning, I only saw the man they left for me, the officer tied to the execution post, with a dagger of his own in his chest.They cleaned up the room they lived in, which shows that they left in no panic.Master Huang also followed the white Han people.In his room, the newspapers were neatly folded, and on it was a letter he wrote to me.The letter was written in Chinese characters, and none of my subordinates knew it.The ashes in the censer were still hot.My wife also ran away with them, but when she left, she didn't look very good. The quilt, the bed skirt, and a lot of silk embroidery things were cut to pieces. The doors and windows were open, and a gust of wind blew them. Fly around the house.As soon as the wind passed, it fell to the ground and turned into fragments shining with metallic luster, representing the fragments of a woman's hatred.

It was Solan Zelang again, yelling to give chase.

The butler smiled and asked me in which direction to chase, but he shook his head blankly. He was a loyal man, but it was really stupid to look like that.I felt very uncomfortable, so I kicked him and told him to go away.

But he gave me the most loyal smile.Then, he took out a knife from his waist, shook it to everyone, rushed downstairs, and rushed into the distance, leaving a billow of dust on the dry land in early spring.

The steward said to me, "Let him go."

Watching that cloud of yellow dust dissipate in the air, sadness suddenly seized my heart.

I said, "Will he come back?"

There were tears in Eryi's eyes, but he still said with a shy expression on his face: "Master, ask me to help him." The housekeeper said: "As long as he doesn't die, he will come back."

I asked the clerk if Solang Zelang would come back.

He shook his head, saying that this man was determined to die for his master.On this day, I was walking up and down the stairs, blaming me for not giving Solan Zelang the status of a free citizen earlier.Later, Sangji Dolma, the maid from the past, came. She grabbed my hands, put her forehead against mine, and said, "Master, good man, let the strange thoughts that make you sad come out of your head." Right. Suo Lang Zelang is your slave, he went to kill that bitch for you."

Tears rushed out of my eyes.

Dolma put her head on my chest and cried out, "Master, good man, I hate myself for not serving you all the time."

I looked up at the sun, and the sun was extraordinarily bright.Fool's heart, it's been a long time since I've been nourished like this.I heard myself say to Dolma, to my first woman: "Go, find the silversmith, and I will give you the status of free men."

(End of this chapter)