Lesson 6 Old Mountain Boundary / Lu Dingyi

Lesson 6 Old Mountain Boundary / Lu Dingyi

We decided to climb a thirty-mile-high Yao Mountain, which is called Yuechengling on the map, and the soil name is Laoshanjie. 

I set out in the afternoon and walked up the ravine. I don't know why I can't walk, I waited for a long time to take a few steps, and I had to stop and wait. The team was crowded tightly, and when they were tired of standing, they sat down on the side of the road, waited for the front to shout "go, go, go", then stood up and walked again. I hope I can walk a little longer, but I can't walk a few times and stop again. It was late, my stomach was hungry, and many people cried out and cursed in annoyance. We stole a space and ran to the front. The terrain gradually became steeper. We had already overtaken our own column, ran to the tail of the column "Red Star", and just at the turn we found a house by the side of the road, and we went in to rest. 

This is a Yao family, where a mother and daughter live; The man probably went somewhere to hide because he had heard about the team, according to his habit. 

"Sister-in-law, borrow you here to rest." 

"Please sit inside." She said with a look of some trepidation. The team was still moving forward extremely slowly. We started talking to Yaomin. According to our experience along the way, no matter who they are afraid of us at first, as long as we clearly explain to them what the Red Army is, they will not be constantly worried and happy, and they will be very close to us. Today, for Yaomin, we will also give it a try. 

We talked about the Red Army, about the exorbitant taxes and taxes, about the Guangxi warlords forbidding the Yao people to believe in their own religion and killing them, and about the life she lived here. The woman cried. 

She said she had land, but the Han had driven them away from their land. Now I live on this barren mountain, and I have to pay a particularly heavy rent every year for the land of the people. She said: "Guangxi's exorbitant taxes are particularly heavy on the Yao people, and the warlords in Guangxi are particularly bullying the Yao people. It would have been nice that your Red Army had come earlier, and we would not have suffered like this. ” 

She asked if we were hungry. This question strikes us right at the heart. She took out what little rice she had and cooked porridge on a wooden stove in the middle of the room. She apologized to us, saying that there was no more rice and no cauldron, or we would cook more for the troops. We give her money, she doesn't. A comrade I knew came and brought a bag of rice, enough for three days, although we knew that there was a shortage of food in front, we still gave her this whole bag of rice. She accepted it with great joy. 

Her house and fence were made of dead bamboo, and we were afraid that someone would tear it down and use it as a torch, so we wrote a few slogans and pasted it in a conspicuous place outside with rice soup to inform our troops that they were not allowed to tear down fences and use them as torches. We asked the Yao people, knowing that there was a bamboo forest in front of us, which could be cut to make torches, so we sent people to the bamboo forest in front to prepare. 

The porridge tastes very sweet because I am really hungry. We also served bowls to Yaomin mother and daughter. Inquiring about the distance ahead, I know that there is a place called Lei Gongyan in front, which is very steep, thirty miles up the mountain, fifteen miles down the mountain, and then in front is the side of Tangfang. We're not at the bottom of the mountain yet. 

Our own team came, and we spared some water for everyone to drink. All the way, it was dark to reach the foot of the mountain, and sure enough, there were many bamboo forests. 

The sky was full of starlight, and torches were lit up. Looking up from the foot of the mountain, I saw that the torches were arranged in many zigzag shapes, all the way to the sky, and pressed with the starlight, and it was impossible to tell whether it was a torch or a star. It's a spectacle I've never seen in my life. 

Everyone knows how steep this mountain is, and they can't help but be nervous, shouting back and forth, and they all want to work hard to quickly climb over the mountain. 

"Don't be left behind!" 

"Don't be a turtle behind!" 

"We're up to the sky!" 

Everyone listened and laughed. 

Go up step by step on the road of "zhizig". Looking upward, torches line up to the sky little by little overhead; Looking down, it is simply a cliff, and the torches shine on the person's face, just under the feet. 

After walking for a long time, suddenly I couldn't walk in front of me. The word came that there was another section of the road ahead on the cliff, and the horse could not climb it. After waiting for more than a little more than an hour, the order was passed down and he said that he would sleep here so as not to climb the mountain tomorrow morning. 

Just sleep here? How? It is impossible to go down and sleep in the bamboo forest. But just sleep on the road? The road is only a foot wide, won't a turn over in the middle of the night go down to the bone? And the stones on the road are very uneven, and sleeping one night will hurt people. 

But there was no way around it, so I had to wrap myself in a blanket and lie down sideways. Because I was so tired, I fell asleep after a while. 

In the middle of the night, I suddenly woke up, only to feel the cold pressing, piercing the muscles and bones, and shivering all over. Roll the blanket tighter, curl up, still can't sleep. The twinkling stars in the sky are like jewels on a black curtain, and they are so close to us! The black mountain stands like a giant in front of it. The surrounding mountains enclose the valley like a well. There were several fires above and below that were not extinguished; The comrades who had woken up from freezing whispered around the fire. Beyond that, there is silence. There is an unfathomable sound in the ears, extremely distant and extremely close, extremely large and extremely delicate, like spring silkworms chewing mulberry leaves, like wild horses galloping on the plains, like mountain springs whimpering, like waves surging. I don't know when I fell asleep again. 

At dawn, he was woken up and said that he was ready to go. Someone under the mountain sent food up, regardless of three seven twenty-one, grabbed a bowl and ate it. 

Then an order was sent to the team to climb the mountain no matter how it was today. Because the mountain road is difficult to walk, you need to be urged along the way. A few of us stopped again, immediately wrote slogans, and assigned people to various sections of the mountain to shout slogans, speeches, and help the sick and transporters. Busy for a while, then move on. 

After walking not far away, I saw that the road on the cliff mentioned last night, that is, the so-called Lei Gongyan, was indeed extremely steep, almost a vertical stone staircase of ninety degrees, only more than a foot wide; Next to the cliff, although not very deep, but also scary enough. There were already many horses gathered under the cliff, all of which could not pass last night, and they would have to wait until the whole column had finished today. Several horses once fell off the cliff and their foot bones were broken. 

Carefully crossed this stone staircase. Although the road above is still steep, it is not so steep. Along the way, check the slogans along the way. I gradually fell out of line and did some agitation work by the way. 

This is a very steep mountain climb is finished. I thought the mountains of thirty miles were that little; It happened that a Yao Min came and talked to him, knowing that it was still far away, and there were still more than twenty miles of steep mountains. 

Yesterday's dinner, today's breakfast, I didn't eat enough. I am hungry and have little energy, but I have to muster the courage to move forward. Along the way, I saw that the slogans I had sent before ran out, so I wrote slogan stickers all the way. When you are too tired to walk, simply lie on the ground for a while. 

Almost to the top of the mountain, I have fallen far away. Many transporters went to the front, leaving medics and cover troops. The medical staff was really hard, because the mountain was steep, the wounded and sick were on stretchers, and someone needed to support them. The female comrades in the medical staff were very heroic, they were still at every turn to comfort and help the wounded and sick, and they did not know how tired they were. Looking back at the road, the hills have become "short". The sound of machine gunfire was dense, probably at the place where we set out yesterday, and the 5th and 8th Army Corps were firing at the enemy. In the distance, I heard the sighs of the enemy planes, probably sighing about their fate: Why not go to the anti-Japanese front to show their skills? 

By the top of the mountain, it was already past two o'clock in the afternoon. I suddenly remembered: in the future, I will erect a monument here, and write that on a certain day, month, and year, the Red Army went north to resist Japan and passed by here. I let out a long breath and sat on the top of the mountain to rest for a while. Looking back at the team, there were only a few people who did not cross the mountain. We completed the task and instilled a strong will in the hearts of everyone in the entire column, and the pain of hunger, fatigue and even injuries was overcome by this will. The difficult old mountain realm was defeated by a cumbersome team like ours. 

Fifteen miles down the mountain, it is also very inclined. We ran down in one go, really fast. There are several places on the road that are very beautiful, and in the thick woods, the silver-like spring water flows down the mountain, and it is crystal clear. Next to each stream, there were many warriors who cooked porridge with basins, lunch boxes, and teapots. Although we were hungry, we ran down the mountain until we were camped. 

This time the mountain turned the troops into a new habit: that is, cooking rice and eating with washbasins, lunch boxes, and teapots. This habit has been maintained for a long time. 

The old mountain boundary is the first difficult mountain we have crossed in our long march. But after we walked through the Jinsha River, the Dadu River, the snowy mountains, and the meadows, we felt that the difficulties of the old mountain boundary were still very small compared to these places.