Life and Death in Tibet: The Dream of Chenye Chen

Chapter 10 Crossing the Tongtian River

Tongtian River, also known as Muluwusi River, is the source of the world-famous upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The Yangtze River originates from the Bayan Har Mountains.On this day, we asked the old lama again: "How many days will it take to get from this place to Gangtianchao?" The lama said at first that it would take ten days at most, and then he said that it might take another half a month.Everyone scolded him for contradicting what he said.The lama remained silent for a while, and Yang Xingwu stood up and suggested, "It shouldn't be far from here to Gangtianqiu. But our cattle are all slaughtered, and the remaining horses can only provide rations for the brothers for a few days. There are too many people, and now there are no horses to ride. They are all walking. If you accidentally go the wrong way, you will surely die! I think it is better to send a few strong men to go ahead to scout and grasp the direction of the road at any time. The rest should stay in the rear, hunt animal meat as much as possible, reserve as much as everyone's food, is that okay?" With no objections from those present, I decided to let Yang Xingwu choose ten strong soldiers to go forward, and I took the rest People stay behind, and it is agreed that ten days will be a cycle, so that those who walk in front will come back and report.The resolution was agreed. That night, Yang Xingwu gave me a large cup of tsampa, about two taels of tsampa. I immediately added water to them and boiled them into two pots. I invited everyone to share them. Spend the first day of this New Year's Day.While eating, we called lamas everywhere, but we didn’t hear any reply. At first, we didn’t doubt that he would come up with other ideas. There are plains and deserts everywhere, and it’s impossible for people to walk on such barren mountains and snow fields. It turned out that the old lama had already been frightened by the brutal behavior of the soldiers day after day, and if there was a gap, he would run away overnight.There are many wolves in the barren mountains and deserts. The lama is so old and walks alone without any dry food on his body. Apart from walking a short distance and eating the belly of the pack of wolves, what is the way out?Everyone sighed for him again and again.Thinking of ourselves, since we are already in such a desperate situation, it is really a terrifying thing to lose the only mentor who can lead everyone out of the desert!All that remains is to wait for the good news from Yang Xingwu, which came earlier——

On the way to Tongtian River, we lost more than a dozen people. Yang Xingwu took ten people away, and the rest were only thirty or so. So I mustered up my courage and tried to calm down my nervous brain Every day, the soldiers are divided into groups in detail, and the soldiers are sent out to hunt.Xiyuan was by my side, insisting that I promise her that she would go hunting with those soldiers, hoping that there would be some unexpected gains.At first I refused to agree, but then I listened to his actions, but at night, I came back empty-handed.She said: "It snows heavily every day. With such heavy snow, those wild beasts must be hiding in the depths of the valley. I will go tomorrow, and I will definitely get something!" I hurriedly stopped her: "Okay, you'd better take a rest. So many soldiers go out in groups, once there is something to gain, we can both share it, why do you take such a risk?" Nishihara stared at me with wide eyes, and two lines of tears slowly flowed down: "What the soldiers gave us, can we eat?" How much? You and I can't keep ourselves at this moment, what beast is there to be afraid of? If you are willing to go, how about we go together tomorrow?" I saw her very determined look, not like she was joking, so she Promised her to go together tomorrow.In the early morning of the next day, Nishihara woke me up before the soldiers who were still asleep got up, and I followed her. We walked obliquely for two miles on the hazy snow.Just stepped into a valley.Nishihara was walking far ahead of me, and she was moving very fast. I heard a "bang!" gunshot, and I hurried forward to see that she had already hit a wild mule.Nishihara smiled happily.I pulled out the knife to cut the meat from the wild mule’s legs, but I tried to dissuade him: “Why are you cutting the meat? It’s better to cut off the two legs and drag them back.” She listened to my words and nodded her head, “Yes, that’s right!” The leg of the wild mule was cut off and fastened with ropes.Towed back from the snow.On the way, several soldiers who heard the gunshots from a distance came, and immediately ordered them to go to the valley to fetch the remains of wild mules, so as not to be devoured by the wolves in the mountain after a while.Back at the camp like this, Nishihara was already sweating profusely. She told me to watch out for the raw meat, and hurried away again.After a while, a large bag of cow dung came on his back.Cutting the meat with a knife, most of them were cut into uniform cubes, and then pierced with a long metal picker, lit a bonfire, and began to cook on the fire with dexterous movements, while roasting, he said to me Said: "There is some dried meat like this, which can provide everyone with rations for ten days." On this day, other soldiers also captured a lot of wild mules, wild sheep, mountain rabbits and so on.Everyone imitated Xiyuan's barbecue method and dried the meat.The next day, it snowed heavily again.The soldiers went out to hunt every day, but they never got anything again.From then on, the snow fell more and more, and it was already more than two feet deep.The dried meat we had previously stored was about to run out again, so we saw people dying of cold and starvation every day, and ten days passed in a blink of an eye, and there was no news from Yang Xingwu's side.After another day, the snow finally stopped, and the sky suddenly cleared and the fog cleared.I stood up and said loudly: "I'm afraid it's impossible to wait for others to deliver the good news. We can't stay here all the time. Why don't we go away by ourselves!" Everyone felt that what I said made sense, so they supported each other Helped, stood up and walked forward.

The next day, we moved forward slowly. Along the snow, we could not see any hoofprints of wild animals. We only occasionally saw a few wild rabbits, desperately looking for food, but we shot them down with guns, but we wasted a lot of bullets. Only hit four or five.Everyone has been out of food for two full days, and they are so hungry that there is only a small piece of dried meat left in the reserve.I swallowed half a piece, and gave the other half to Xiyuan, but she refused to accept it. I kept begging, but she cried and said to me: "I can endure hunger, it doesn't matter, it can last for a few days and nights." It doesn’t matter if you don’t eat. But you can’t go without food for a day, I am now the king of thousands of miles! You can live without me, but you can’t live without you for a day. If you are starved to death, can I still escape death?” Listen After reading these words, I also cried with her unknowingly, "There is no flood in the world, there must be no justice", this kind of state, unexpectedly can be seen among Tibetan women!I'm in so much pain.The soldiers beside him were also hungry and too tired to move, so they stopped to rest for another day.At noon the next day, I suddenly heard the noise of soldiers around me. I went up to look. It turned out that there was a soldier surnamed Yang who unfortunately died by the roadside last night. He was discovered early this morning. Everyone Dazed from hunger, they snatched up his corpse and ate the flesh. Poor soldier Yang's corpse had been devoured by wolves following him in the middle of the night, leaving only two hands. One foot, the soldiers took it back and roasted it over the fire and ate it up. Because they scrambled for each other while eating, they quarreled. Stop fighting over the meat of your companions, I lied to them: "A wild mule has been captured not far ahead, why are you arguing here?" Before finishing speaking, a soldier came and reported: Three bison were shot, when everyone was dying of hunger, and heard the good news.Immediately one by one was refreshed, and they all jumped up and went with the soldier.When I first arrived there, I saw a large pack of wolves already scrambling to plunder there, and only half of the meat of the three bison was left.Everyone hastily shot and killed one wolf on the spot, and the rest escaped.On this day, everyone had a full meal, and there was still a lot of leftover meat, which was evenly distributed to everyone as rations for the next two days.Everyone regained the strength to move forward. After walking for two days, they did not encounter any live wild animals. The bison meat they brought with them the day before was eaten up again, and everyone began to panic again.In the afternoon, we stopped at a campsite and caught a wild goat. Everyone ate it up, half full.At this time, there was an officer surnamed Liu, in his fifties, from Hunan, who had served as secretary of the Army Food Office in Jiangda, followed the army out of Tibet in a hurry, and followed my team in a hurry.At that time, there had been many days of icy and snowy days, and the soldiers had been on a hunger strike for two days. They hunted everywhere and always returned empty-handed. Remaining breath.Everyone asked Lao Liu to tell me, and I answered them: "If killing a person can save everyone, I will not be reluctant. It's just that the Tibetan boy you fancy has been emaciated for a while. Li, killing him, burning him, it is difficult for everyone to get a share of the pie, and instead of wasting a life, what good is it for you?" So everyone remained silent.At night, taking advantage of the moonlight that night, everyone went to the mountain to hunt with their guns, and they didn't come back until midnight. During this night, they caught four wild sheep and seven hares.Everyone immediately divided the meat and ate it, barely full their stomachs, and set out on the road the next day. After deducting the people who died along the road, there are still more than 20 people in total.Seeing the tragic situation of the team, I felt sad for a moment, feeling exhausted like never before, my eyes were completely red and swollen from the wind and sand, and I couldn't see clearly what was in front of me. Li just wanted to cry out: "God!" We walked more than 30 miles that day and stopped to camp.I went hunting last night, and it was already midnight when I came back, so I woke up very late in the morning.When we set off, I asked everyone to go first because of emergency, and I followed behind. At the beginning, I could still see the soldiers moving forward from a distance.Turning around a hill, there was a faint figure, and after walking for more than ten miles, there was no one in front of him.After walking another seven or eight miles, it was already dusk.Looking around, I couldn't go any further, for fear of getting lost, so I found a nearby deserted ditch and prepared to lie down for the night.Immediately afterwards, the wind roared, and listening to the surroundings, it seemed that there were countless wild wolves, howling and screaming in groups, and surrounded us.The sound of wild wolves, sometimes near and sometimes far away.Nishihara was on the side, trembling and crying, trying to persuade me, telling me to change to another place, not to spend the night in such a dangerous wilderness, I also think what she said is right, but I think it’s time for a person to die, and wanting to hide I couldn't avoid it, so I tried my best to comfort her and said, "This is a dark wilderness, and the road is not clear at all. Where are you going? Besides, if we move, the wolves will swarm up when they see the figure, and will bite. How can you and I survive, it is better to lie still in this ditch, the wolf may not really come - if this life is destined to be full of wolves, how can our bodies be able to avoid it?"

So, Xiyuan spread my cloth mattress on the bottom of the ditch, and sat down beside me, and the two of them covered a thin quilt, Xiyuan held the gun tightly, and I held a short knife, ready to fight the pack of wolves at any time.At the same time, I reminded Nishihara: "If the wolf comes, don't shoot if it doesn't come ten steps closer to us!"

Then the wind roared, and the howling of the wolf became more and more urgent.In the darkness, dozens of wolves could be vaguely seen howling repeatedly, only a few meters away, refusing to approach, or jumping away from the ditch.At that time, Nishihara and I were both extremely hungry and exhausted.I don't know when, but at the same time, I entered the land of sleep.Until the early morning of the next day, Xiyuan shook me and woke up, and the sky was already twilight.Fortunately, the swords and guns in their hands were still there.I smiled and said to her: "What a thrill—such a night!..." Nishihara also said: "I have been dreaming at night. I dreamed that I was chased by a group of wolves on the mountain behind my house. Suddenly, one foot fell. It was broken, and it was in extreme pain. My mother came to save me and carried me behind her back to run for her life. It woke me up from my dream!" I said, "You have this dream because you are suspicious and afraid of death." People got up, packed the bedding, walked out of the deep ditch, and walked along the original road.I can only see the boundless sky and the earth in front of me, and I don't know where and where is our end.We both walked and stopped.I murmured in my heart: "Yang Xingwu has already gone and never came back, and today he was separated from his teammates in the team, leaving only Xiyuan and himself in the vast wilderness, with nothing on his body except knives and guns. If he encounters a wild beast again , what should I do? Or today and tomorrow, if I can’t find food and can’t contact others, I’m afraid I’ll end up lying down in the desert and dying…” Xiyuan seemed to know what I was thinking, and sighed With a voice, I said: "From now on, the more we go, the more desolate, the boundless road ahead, that is the place where you and I will be buried." My heart was empty, and I comforted her: "They didn't go too far yesterday, so it shouldn't be hard to find. Come on, don't be sad."

After finishing speaking, he suddenly saw a bullet on the side of the road, which was covered with a lot of sand, like something left over from a long time ago, so he picked it up and told Xi Yuan, "Yang Xingwu must have walked this road, otherwise he would not There is this bullet!" Xi Yuan also showed surprise, and the two walked forward for nearly a mile, during which Xi Yuan turned around from time to time, as if he couldn't bear to leave.As she was walking, she suddenly yelled loudly: "Hey! Someone is coming from behind!—"

I hurried back to look, but because of my eye disease, I couldn't see anything.I was too tense to move.I stood there watching for a long time, and finally saw two people, walking slowly towards me, getting closer and closer, and then I took a closer look, and it turned out to be my groom Zhang Min!There was a burst of ecstasy in my heart.That Zhang Min was carrying a cloth bag. When he saw me, he cried loudly and said, "We met hundreds of wild mules on the road, and we drove them into the ravine. You have waited for a long time, but if they haven't arrived yet, everyone send People went out to look for it several times, but they couldn’t find it. It was not dawn this morning, so I got up to look for you...” At this point, my voice was choked up and I couldn’t continue, I reached into the cloth bag and grabbed a large piece that was still warm He said to me: "Eat quickly! Come back with me after eating." I also asked him: "Where is everyone?" Zhang Minyao pointed to a ravine on the left and said : "The place where the smoke is coming out of there is there-" I looked carefully with my eyes, and the place where the smoking was coming out was only three miles away from me.I was so hungry that my eyes were staring, I picked up the piece of meat, and immediately called to Xiyuan, shared a meal with her and ate it. After that, I went with Zhang Min to the place where everyone was, and they happened to be busy cutting and drying the meat. Here we are, all with mixed feelings of sorrow and joy.I saw animal meat everywhere on the ground, and after asking them, I found out that seven wild mules were caught yesterday, enough to supply ten days' rations, so I immediately discussed with everyone: "There are so many mules, since it is difficult Take it away completely, why not take a rest for a day, bake these into dried meat, and one person can carry several days of stuttering. At that time, we will hunt along the way. If there is a little harvest every day, you can keep the dried meat on your body , so as not to eat when you are hungry again in the future, wouldn’t it be better?”

Everyone agreed with my idea, so they went out to pick up cow dung and set fire to dry the mule meat.The next day, I took a day off and counted at night. Everyone could bring more than ten catties of dried meat, so I decided not to go hunting at night before continuing to leave tomorrow.Rest overnight and depart early the next morning.Because people need to rest when they are full, and look at the next morning, everyone is in good spirits, and they are no longer as depressed as in the previous stage.

He walked for another seven days in a daze.The dried meat was almost finished, and there was not a single beast in sight along the way.Everyone was afraid again, because they remembered what the old lama said, that after more than ten days across the Tongtian River, they could reach Gangtianchao, so every day they wondered whether Gangtianchao had arrived, and saw a small mountain, thinking that they had arrived, and took a closer look. But it is not at all. We are looking forward to it day after day, and we are about to reach the sky. It is really so-called hopeless. When we were in the hinterland, there seemed to be no place without a few mountains. The mountains and hills are as small as the three islands of Penglai and the spiritual mountains of India. It is conceivable, but finally unattainable!Really sad!

After walking for another two days, I suddenly saw a mountain in front of me, which was only a few feet high and shaped like a palm. At the foot of the mountain was a clear spring (now not frozen spring), which circulated around the mountain.On the water's edge, small trees grow in clusters, only about a foot high, with thin leaves and thick trees, very cute.Tibetans call this kind of tree "oil dregs", which can be used to chop firewood and light fire.I looked up for a long time, and it seemed that it wasn't the Gangtian cut (Kunlun Mountain Pass) that the lama said.In addition to being disappointed, I felt that this place has mountains and rivers, so I should go to Gangtianqie not far away.So I led everyone to sleep nearby. Since I entered the Qiangtang Desert, what I saw every day was full of yellow sand and white snow for thousands of years. There are mountains and water, and there are other caves, beyond the edge of the desert.As long as you find a shady place on the hill, you can live there. There is only the last match left with me. There are only 17 soldiers who survived beside me, which is exactly one-tenth of the number of all the soldiers before departure. one.I divided these 17 people into three groups and went hunting in the morning and evening. At that time, everyone was so hungry that the idea of ​​eating something was crazy.At noon, a group came back with great difficulty. After a closer look, they were all empty-handed.All the people stood up with sad faces, but after walking a few steps, they sat down again.I tried my best to comfort them, "Isn't there still two groups of people who haven't come back? Wait patiently." After a while, the remaining two groups also came back one after another, and only four wild rabbits were caught. Just a little hungry.On the second day, I still went out to hunt animals according to the plan of the previous day, leaving a soldier named Yang Zhengqi in charge of guarding the luggage. Yang Zhengqi saw me sitting at a distance, and said nothing.He seemed to be filled with unspeakable sorrow, so he came forward and said to me with tears in his eyes, "Chang'an is far away, and Yumen Pass is far away. The blind are exhausted, and the pool is deep in the middle of the night. I'm afraid we will all end up in this barren mountain and wild ridge." It’s gone.” After hearing what he said, I couldn’t help but feel sad, Nishihara also understood it, but stood up with a solemn expression and retorted: “At this time, the season is coming to spring, and the weather will gradually warm up. The most bitter Everyone has survived the days! Although many people died along the way, we are still alive! This is the end of the day! Not to mention the three-month journey, we have already walked for five months. The place we have arrived at should be very close to that destination! If we can muster up our courage and use the remaining courage on the right path, everyone will be able to succeed! Everyone’s life and death have a destiny, Why give up on yourself!" When I heard Nishihara's words, I felt ashamed!Isn't it the spirit of a real woman?So Fenran got up from the ground, moved his body like this, and suddenly felt a lot more cheerful and excited, as if there was an invisible force that eliminated the original worries.This wonderful moment of insight, when I think about it later, is probably just like the ancients said: "If there is no good luck, the opportunity has already moved first." Although at that time there was no smooth road ahead, there were hidden good omens and auspicious events not far away. Waiting for us.At noon, the three groups of hunting soldiers came back with nothing to gain. In desperation, I found a nearby hill and climbed up to look at it, hoping to find something. Can't walk at all.Every time I took a step, I felt like I was about to fall down, but I resisted the discomfort, gritted my teeth and continued up the mountain.Climbing and climbing like this, to the top of the mountain, after watching for a long time, suddenly saw something looming several miles away standing in the middle of the plain and desert. I couldn't see what it was, so I hurried down the mountain and ordered everyone to find it. However, every soldier is extremely hungry and tired, and no one is willing to follow me and move a step!I had no choice but to search for it by myself. I wandered in that direction for an unknown amount of time. When I got closer, I saw a huge and formidable buffalo head standing there for an unknown number of years!It is about five feet high and five feet tall!It may have been thousands or hundreds of years since he died.Because of the extreme cold in the desert, it has not rotted all the time, and the wind and sun burn it every day, and it slowly becomes stiff and withered like this.Although the wolf teeth in the desert are sharp, they can't damage such an indestructible body, which is why they have survived to this day!On the other hand, nature seems to be hiding such a special gift in this place, just for us to come to it on this day when we are at the end of the road!But the bison's head is really too heavy, several people shake it, but it doesn't move!In a hurry, it was impossible to dismember it, so when other soldiers heard the sound, they pushed and pulled it with the strength of a dozen people, and got it down the mountain. Watering on.After three hours of baking, the beef head is a bit cooked, and the lip skin has finally separated from the bone, but the rest of the meat is still not moving.The barbecue continued, and several people took turns beating, peeling and pecking, and finally cut out eight or nine pieces of beef the size of a palm, and simmered them over a high fire for two full days and two nights!The beef is just a little soft and can be cut with a knife and axe.The bison's hide was more than two inches thick and golden yellow. A group of people surrounded it, and they were already hungry. The taste in their mouths was even more tender and delicious than the wild beast meat they usually hunted. Fortunately, in the past three days Well, we didn't just turn around the head of this bison, the soldiers we sent shot and killed the bison and one wild horse at the same time.Everyone was really full this time, and there were still a lot of dried meat left.I also save the large simmered lip from the bull's head in case of hunger.Early the next morning, everyone set off on the road again.

(End of this chapter)