Globe Trekker

Chapter 7
When I woke up the next day, it was already high in the sun.

Wu Ming was the only one left in the narrow bedroom. Cheng Zong didn't know when he got up, but there was no one there.

Wu Ming stretched his sore limbs a few times, put on a deer-skin-lined Taoist robe, put on mille-soled cloth shoes, tidied up a little, opened the bedroom door, and saw a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl standing with a basin of hot water. At the door, I must have heard the movement and knew that Wu Ming had woken up, so I have been waiting here.

The girl helped Wu Ming wash up, then asked Wu Ming to sit down shyly, took out a comb from somewhere to comb Wu Ming's hair, her black and white eyes were full of respect.Wu Ming waved his hand, rinsed his mouth with light salt water, and thanked him in a low voice. The little girl's tender face immediately turned bright red, and she picked up the wooden basin and walked away quickly.

Wu Ming was no longer surprised by such a custom, but he was still not used to it. He shook his head, stood up, put on his hat, walked through the dark corridor, and came to the place where the wounded were treated last night. He found several rows of wooden tables and benches neatly arranged. , a few village elders and Chengzong were drinking tea and chatting lowly around a plate of charcoal fire. After looking around, they realized that this place was a private school in the village.

Several village elders saw Wu Ming get up quickly to salute. Wu Ming stepped forward to return the salute politely, took a cup of tea from Chengzong, held it in his hand and asked in a low voice, "How is the injured?"

"See you, the other two. The one you treated hasn't woken up yet and has a high fever, but he can swallow some soup. I can't say whether he will survive. I have already applied medicine to his wound and prescribed a prescription for it." The son went to the city to grab medicine." Cheng Zong smiled happily at Wu Ming.

Several village elders in the surrounding area thanked Wu Ming repeatedly. Wu Ming quickly explained that people might not survive. If they wanted to thank them, they would thank the person who tied the grass rope to the wounded leg. Without the straw rope to stop bleeding, the wounded would have died If he lost too much blood and died, even if he had breath now, he was still not out of danger.

Although Wu Ming didn't take credit for it, he still couldn't stop the village elders from expressing their respectful thanks. Everyone sat down humbly, and Wu Ming drank a few sips of tea.

The old man wearing a pair of presbyopic glasses on the opposite side still had the long braids of the Qing Dynasty, holding a rough-printed newspaper in his hand, and was looking at Wu Ming with a smile. face reverence.

Chengzong told Wu Ming in a low voice that he would stay in Tianjia Village for a few more days. Two days later would be an auspicious day, and the two deceased would need to be buried. The village had already sent people to ask Uncle Bingzhen to go down the mountain to do something.

Wu Ming nodded, knowing that Chengzong did not become a teacher, and he has not obtained the seal issued by the ancestral court of Longhu Mountain, which is equivalent to not obtaining a diploma for Taoist work, and he cannot preside over the legal affairs alone, so he can only ask the Taoist priest Bingzhen to take care of him.

Although Daoist Master Bingzhen is a deacon of the Zhengyi School, he has practiced in Taijin Mountain for several years, and he has the responsibility to educate and help the surrounding people for dozens of miles. Gaoren's hypocrisy and snobbery never refuse the people's request.

Under the introduction of the village elders, Wu Ming learned that Tianjia Village is a medium-sized village with more than 130 households and more than [-] people, old and young. It is much better than other surrounding villages. Therefore, for a hundred years, the villagers have paid special attention to the education of future generations. What the villagers are most proud of is that they have produced three scholars. The private school in the village has a history of [-] years, and the boys and children of each family can basically read and write. .

The unfavorable factor is that the village is surrounded by mountains, and wild boars and even wild wolves on the mountains appear from time to time. Over the past ten years, the loss of people and livestock in the village has been great. The villagers tried their best to get rid of these ferocious beasts. It would be easier to return to three firecrackers, two of them have stopped firing after a few years, and now it is the time when there is no fire, and the hungry beasts on the mountain frequently come down the mountain to do evil.

The village elders sighed and sighed, and the frowning village head mentioned another difficult thing that the village is currently facing: the county magistrate Wang Donghan and the garrison regiment sent people to the villages and towns to issue conscription notices, and Tianjia Village was allocated ten quotas. Select ten young children, report to the county seat and drive to Fuzhou for military training, otherwise the land tax of the whole village will be doubled.

Wu Ming frowned: "There are two to three hundred villages and towns in Shangrao County. Could it be that Wang Donghan and the others are going to recruit two to three thousand soldiers in the whole county?"

"Who said no? There has never been such a thing in the past 20 years. I heard that hundreds of thousands of troops in Jiangnan and Jiangbei are fighting to the death. Thousands of people will die in every battle. There are bloody rivers of corpses everywhere. No one restrains them. It's scary! Now that the village is facing such a tragic disaster, who wants to send ten young and strong children to fight? Alas! Misfortunes never come singly! It seems that this day cannot be passed.” The deep wrinkles on the village head’s face trembled frequently, full of His face was so sad that he couldn't bear to take another look.

Everyone was silent, looking at the charcoal fire with green smoke rising from the brazier, feeling heavy in their hearts.

The old man with long braids let out a long sigh, clapped the newspaper in his hand, and lamented quietly: "The world is in chaos. Not long after the commander-in-chief Chiang Kai-shek won the Central Plains War, the KMT and the Communist Party began to fight against each other again. The situation in the world has changed rapidly. In the past few days, people still listen to Said, the whole territory of our Jiangxi has continued gunshots and wars, and countless dead, now it seems that it will soon affect us small people, and there is no pure land in the whole world!"

Before the sound of lamenting was over, several young and strong men from the village came in a hurry. After saluting, they told Chengzong and Wu Ming that the seriously injured had woken up, but could not speak, moved his eyes a few times and fell into a deep sleep again.

Cheng Zong and Wu Ming went to visit in a hurry. After a careful examination, they were not sure. Wu Ming guessed that the wounded unconsciousness was due to excessive blood loss. He had type O blood and could donate a few hundred milliliters, but who could without a blood transfusion kit? There was no other way, and Wu Ming didn't dare to take the risk. He was worried that the injured would die faster, so he could only explain some precautions to the family of the injured.

After busying themselves to see the other two wounded, Wu Ming and Chengzong ate some food at the simple and enthusiastic village chief's house, and it was already noon when they returned to the private school where they rested temporarily.The village elders in the private school also returned to their homes, leaving behind the clever girl to bring tea and water to Wu Ming and the two of them.

Wu Ming sat by the brazier, read four newspapers borrowed from Mr. Private School, carefully folded the newspapers and put them on the grass beside him, turned to Chengzong and said in a low voice: "From the current situation, the big cities in the provinces along the Yangtze River are starting to Strikes and strikes, Nanchang also suspended classes twice, Nanchang Kuomintang military and police are everywhere arresting the Communists, four divisions of Kuomintang troops are attacking the southern Jiangxi area, and Yiyang County, dozens of miles west of us, has been suppressed for half a year. The Peasant Red Guards attacked three times, and Provincial Chairman Xiong Shihui has dispatched heavy troops to carry out the encirclement and suppression, and maybe one day the flames of war will burn to our side."

Chengzong lightly fiddled with the charcoal fire, remembering what Wu Ming told him about being rescued by the Communists in prison, raised his head after a moment of thought and asked: "I remember you said something about the Communist Party, which made me very curious about the Communist Party. From these two Judging from what Yue learned, the Communist Party is ultimately weak and weak, so I'm afraid it won't last long, right?"

"No, the Communist Party can't be destroyed forever. How should I put it? Let's put it this way, a single spark can start a prairie fire!" Wu Ming could only answer vaguely.

Chengzong was slightly surprised: "You mean, the Communist Party can accomplish things?"

Wu Ming sighed quietly: "If they can do something, they are the political party of the hard-working people in the world. As long as they can mobilize the poor, they will not be afraid to grow stronger. However, it may take many years to accomplish this. It is easy to say , It’s just a few words, but it’s hard to do.”

"If this is true, wouldn't it be the same as the chaos in the world in the past dynasties?" Chengzong felt a little bit.

"Basically, every change of dynasty in history was accompanied by chaos in the world, and the current situation is the same. The difference is that in the previous chaos, the armies of the opposing sides mostly used spears, knives, bows and arrows. It is different now, and each force has a clear Political views, with the Three People's Principles, communism, etc., all fights are made with guns, bombs, and even more lethal aircraft and armored vehicles. The bigger it is, the more dead people will be, and in the end whoever can survive will be the winner." Wu Ming was also quite emotional when he said this.

Chengzong thought for a while and nodded: "That's true, alas! When I think of the guns carried by the soldiers in the city, I feel blocked. No matter how good martial arts are, they can't hold up to a single bullet. The world is changing too fast."

"Yeah! Don't talk about it from afar, just talk about it. Yesterday evening, a herd of wild boars entered the village. If the villagers had a few rifles in their hands, there would be no tragedy of two deaths and three injuries, and nothing would happen to our brothers. I really want to have a gun!" Wu Ming sighed deeply.

Chengzong stared at Wu Ming vigilantly: "Don't be fooled. In the past few months, the county government and the garrison regiment have repeatedly issued orders to prohibit private ownership of guns. All guns in the county's villages and villages must be handed in except for the guns. , otherwise, once discovered, you will be imprisoned and punished. At this juncture, I don't want you to have any more troubles."

Wu Ming could only nod his head: "I understand, I listen to you! However, the situation may change soon, and no one will be able to stop private individuals from owning guns."

Chengzong recalled the army he saw when he entered the city recently: "That's true, but the guns can only be owned by the army, and the general public is still the same as before. No matter what, the laws are still there."

Wu Mingzhen didn't know how to explain it to the kind-hearted Chengzong. After thinking about it, he said: "The decree is a decree, and it is only useful to the people who are obedient. , the landlords and wealthy families in the surrounding towns keep their servants in captivity, which one does not have a few long and short guns? Several famous families in the county have shiny German-made shell guns hanging on their waists. Who dares to hand over their guns to the soldiers of the garrison? Don’t they all turn a blind eye? The more this is the case, the more unfair the people will feel, and the richer gentry and landlords who have guns will be more courageous, and they will be more brazen to bully men and women. , the people will be even more angry because of this, and sooner or later it will arouse the anger of the sky and the people, if someone finds a reason to stir up the anger of the people, let alone the instigation of the Communist Party, even the people who spontaneously rise up can cause big troubles, don’t you think so?”

Cheng Zong was stunned for a moment, nodded thoughtfully and fell silent, thinking about it carefully, this is really the case.

Seeing that Chengzong was lost in thought again, Wu Ming closed his mouth and picked up the newspaper to read again, but he kept thinking in his heart, should he find a way to get a gun back?

(End of this chapter)