Ghost Blowing Lantern II - Chapter 3: Catch the Winter Famine (Part 2)

When the wood cut down in the forest farm grows in the spring, the river water will be used to tie the wood into rafts and be washed downstream. There is a railway and a small locomotive downstream of the river, which are specially used to transport wood. The situation here It is very similar to the “Jiapi Gou” described in the famous novel “Lin Hai Xue Yuan”. “Jiapi Gou” has its own place in the Northeast. The forest farm in Tuanshanzi also has a similar place name, called “Huangpizi Tomb”. This place name It sounds mysterious, but even old hunters like Yanzi’s father can’t tell the origin of this place name. They just say that there are a lot of yellow skinned people around here. Wong Tai Sin was very troublesome a long time ago, but no one mentions it now. Yes, Huangpizi is a common name for weasels among local people.

Although Tuanshanzi Forest Farm is simple and remote, socialist construction is inseparable from it, so we have to brave the wind and snow to work here. But to be honest, there is nothing serious to do at the forest farm in winter. The only thing that needs to be taken care of is to arrive later. I just went down the river to help send the last small train carrying wood.

This forest farm has a row of wooden houses made of birch wood. In spring and summer, lumberjacks work and live here. Due to limited transportation capacity, they cannot transport all the trees they cut, so whenever they complete their production tasks, they are almost there. Around the Mid-Autumn Festival, people will leave the forest farm and go home to celebrate the New Year. At this time, the forest farm will be taken care of by the nearest Ganggang Yingzi.

Before we arrived, the forest farm was under the care of the old man Knocking Mountain and his granddaughter, a girl named “Huamei”. Originally, according to the arrangement of the village party secretary, we should replace them, but when we arrived, we found that the forest farm Something was very wrong. The woodsman’s cabin was empty, the ashes in the furnace were cold and there was no trace of heat, and the grandfather and grandson were not seen.

I couldn’t help but worry about them, and I hurriedly searched around the forest farm with my two companions, but there was still no trace. I became more and more uneasy, and said to Fatty and Yanzi: “The weather has gotten cold too fast this year, and we were worried about it beforehand.” Without any warning, the wild beasts in the mountains will drive away the winter famine. Will the old man Knocking Mountain and his granddaughter be caught by evil beasts like lynx?”

The hunting dogs in the village have all been taken into the mountains by hunters to hunt, so we did not bring hunting dogs. It is now snowy and windy. The mountains near Tuanshanzi are high and densely forested, and the terrain is complex. The flying snow has covered up the traces of humans and animals. Even if we have No. 100 If you look for them, you may not be able to find them, not to mention that there are only three of us at the moment. Fatty and I were thinking about going back to the village to bring in reinforcements, but suddenly we realized that there was no one left in the village to look for. We were still young at that time, and we were helpless for a moment.

Yan Zi was still attentive, so she took a closer look in the cabin. There was still some food and dried meat left in the cabin, but the old man’s shotgun and the horn pot filled with gunpowder and iron sand were not there. Orion was the best at observing clues. The cabin There were no traces of animals, and things were arranged neatly. They seemed to have made a lot of sticky cakes, so nothing unexpected would happen. Maybe the old man took his granddaughter to hunt rabbits, or maybe he was worried about the heavy snow. Fengshan went back to the village in advance before we could replace him. The old man in Manshan had been hunting for decades and was very experienced. Although he was old and his skills were not as nimble as before, since he was carrying a shotgun, as long as he If you don’t meet a mother bear who has just given birth to a cub on the way, there won’t be any surprises.

Seeing that there was nothing unusual in the forest farm, the three of us felt a little relieved. We were hungry and cold along the way. We were miserable. At this time, we had to put aside all important things. The most urgent tasks were to keep warm and fill our stomachs. , so we hurriedly lit the fire, grilled the frozen pancakes on the wall, and ate them to satisfy our hunger. After the three of them had eaten and it was getting dark, they started chatting as usual to relieve their boredom. As usual, they took turns to play. The fat man first talked about anecdotes about suppressing bandits in the Northeast before liberation. He heard these things from his father. , I have listened to him tell it no less than ten times, and Yanzi is hearing this story for the first time, so he is very fascinated by it.

The fat man was seen frothing at the mouth, gesticulating and saying: Bandits who gather people to plunder people’s property are also called “barbarian bandits” or “bearded bandits” in the Northeast. It is said that barbarian bandits are different from mainland thieves. They form their own system. The ancestor of Mao Wenlong was “Mao Wenlong”, the commander-in-chief of Pi Island in the late Ming Dynasty. After Yuan Chonghuan, the right deputy governor of the Ming Dynasty, designed to kill Mao Wenlong, a large number of officers and soldiers under Mao Wenlong lived on the islands along the northeastern coast or in the mountains. At first, these people were called The officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty believed that they did not engage in fighting and looting. However, over a hundred years, as the personnel structure became increasingly complex, they gradually evolved into barbarian bandits who did all kinds of evil. However, until the liberation, the barbarian bandits still respected Mao Wenlong as their ancestor.

These groups of “barbarian bandits” were later called “bandits”. According to the different “font sizes” reported by the bandit leaders, each bandit had a different name, such as “One Iron Whip”, “Flying on the Grass”, “Sang Da Dao”, “Feng Shuang Xia” and so on.

Before the liberation, the leader of the number one barbarian bandit in the Northeast was a bald man nicknamed “Zhe Tian”. When he was young, this man was a monk in the temple and learned the hard kung fu of wearing a copper and iron cloth shirt. However, he never changed his mind after “returning to secular life” No hair has grown, “covering the sky” is ruthless, and his hands are stained with the blood of cadres and the masses.

After Japan surrendered, Northeast China carried out land reform. In order to protect the fruits of victory from being destroyed by bandits, Dongzhong established a special bandit suppression unit. After a series of arduous and brutal battles, the “covering the sky” and the “four beams and eight pillars” of the barbarian bandits were finally eliminated. All were eradicated. “Four Beams and Eight Pillars” is the name of an organization within the Hu bandits. Except for the big boss, who is called “Daqi”, the other so-called “Four Beams” are respectively “Dingtian Beam” and “Jiaojiao Beang”. “, “Yingmenliang”, “Kruxinliang”, “Eight Pillars” are “Ji Qi”, “Hanging Line”, “Understanding Bureau”, “Call Sign”, “General Reminder”, “Water Element”, ” The general term for “horse number” and “counting room”. Once these people are gone, the entire gang will fall completely.

The most critical figure in these “Four Beams and Eight Pillars” is “Jianjiao Liang”, commonly known as “Mr. Tongsuan” in the Northeast. He is the military advisor of the entire gang. He specializes in using some superstitious alchemy to “push the eight gates” and decide the whole group of bandits. As soon as the strategist finished his advance and retreat movements, “Zhidian Tian” lost the backbone of collaborating with him and became a veritable polished commander. However, this man was also extremely cunning, and the team was never able to catch him. Several times, It slipped away from under his nose. Some superstitious locals have rumors that this bandit leader saved Wong Tai Sin’s life when he was young. Wong Tai Sin will protect him in this life. If he can escape through the soil, even if the heavenly soldiers and generals are sent, they will not be able to catch him. .

But there are twists and turns in the world. Bandits are most taboo about mentioning the word “death”, but they can’t avoid it if they don’t mention it. Being a bandit will never end well in the end. As the saying goes, “You will not live if you do your own evil.” Maybe “covering the sky” is full of evil. , it was time for him to run out of energy, and a rare “winter famine” happened in the mountains that year. The common people called such a year “the dead year”, and Wong Tai Sin finally couldn’t protect him.