Chapter 2 Where I Grew Up
Pick up this pen and write about the life I have spent on this earth for twenty years, the people I have seen, the sounds I have heard, the smells I have smelled, that is to say, the life education I have really received, and when I first mention a small frontier town where I grew up, I really don't know how to start with it. I should say that this is a strange place in the city! It was only because two hundred years ago when the Manchus ruled the land of China, in order to pacify and torture the remnants of the Miao people, a team of soldiers was sent to garrison the castle and residents. The establishment of this strange place and all the past, there is a "Miao Defense Preparation" that records some official documents, but it is only a boring official document. I would like to introduce the small town that I have briefly described in one of my works. Although this is only an outline, everything in that place wants to rise and protrude, as if it can be touched with your hands.
If a good person looks for it from some kind of older map 200 years ago, he can find a small dot called "Zhenxiao" in a very remote corner of northern Qianbei, eastern Sichuan, and western Xiangxi. There, like any other little point, there should actually be a city, in which three or five thousand people settled. However, the existence of all cities, for the most part, is under the conditions of transportation, products, and economic activities, which have become the cause of the city's prosperity and prosperity, but this one place has no attachment in another sense and exists independently. Try to take the round city made of rough but solid huge stones as the center, spread out in all directions, and around the lonely city in this remote area, there are about 500 blockhouses and about 200 camps. The bunkers were made of large stones, located at the top of the mountain, and followed the veins of the mountain to meander; The positions of the camp are on the post road, and they are arranged in a very orderly manner. One hundred and eighty years ago, according to a precise plan, each of them was kept at a considerable distance, and distributed evenly over a few hundred miles in the surrounding area, so as to solve the "mutiny" of the border seedlings who often made "stupid moves" in a corner of the retreat. In the past two centuries, the ** of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, as well as the rebellion caused by this **, blood stained every official road and every pillbox. By now, everything is finished, most of the bunkers have been destroyed, most of the camps have become civilian houses, and most of the people have been assimilated. At sunset, standing on the high place of the lonely city surrounded by thousands of mountains, looking at the ruined bunkers near and far, you can vaguely imagine the scene of the horn drum torch warning at that time. To this day, this place has become another kind of military center of gravity, and everything is changing and progressing in a rapid posture, and at the same time, this progress is destroying everything that was in the past.
Travelers and merchants who have had the opportunity to follow Qu Yuan's long-term clear Yuanshui and go upstream, if they look at the land route into Guizhou and Sichuan, without passing through the ancient Yelang country, without passing through Yongshun and Longshan, they should understand that "Zhenxiao" is the most reliable and comfortable place to settle his luggage. The names of bandits there are not accustomed to the ears of ordinary people. The soldiers are as pure and kind as civilians, and they are not insulted or disturbed by others. The peasants are brave and peaceful, and they are godly and law-abiding. The merchants, each with their own yarn and goods, walked freely to the villages deep in the mountains, making deals with the common people and seeking tithes. The local rulers were divided into different types: the highest was the god, the second was the official, and then the village chief was the servant of the god who performed witchcraft. Everyone believes in God, abides by the law and loves officials. Each family has military service, and they can go to the camp every month to receive a little silver, a piece of rice grain, and can receive from the official family the public land that was confiscated two hundred years ago to plough and pray for rain, and there are children who carry live dogs together, bring wicker, or tie into grass dragons and walk around. In spring, there are often spring officials, wearing yellow clothes and reciting agricultural lyrics everywhere. At the end of the year, the residents will decorate the red-clothed gods in the main house of their homes, beat the big drum like thunder, and the Miao Wu wears bright red clothes like blood, blows the silver horns, holds copper knives, and enthusiastically sings and dances to entertain the gods. Most of the inhabitants of the city were sent to the garrison at that time. In addition, Jiangxi people sell cloth here, Fujian people sell cigarettes here, and Cantonese people sell medicine here. The combination of a small number of scholars and a majority of military officers, both politically and maritally, produced an upper class which, on the one hand, managed politics for a long time with a conservative and steady policy, and on the other hand, dominated most of the land that was privately ownedAnd the ** of this class, but still out of the year of the soldier Tunding, the local outside the city on the slopes of the tung tree fir tree, the mine pit cinnabar mercury, pine forest mushrooms, the cave in the nitrogen. There is no shortage of brave and loyal soldiers suitable for ideals in both urban and rural areas, and women who are gentle and hardworking and suitable for the family. In the kitchen of the military academy class, there are unusually delicious dishes, and among the people who cut down trees and cut wood, there is a warm and beautiful singing.
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Forty miles southeast of the place is close to the big river, and a river fertilizes the banks of Pingyan, many meters, and many oranges and grapefruits. After 20 miles in the northwest, it has gradually entered the plateau, approached Miao Township, and the mountains overlapped. In the mountains of overlapping sizes, large cedar trees spread throughout the mountain with their long-standing dark green color. A small river flows out of the high mountain stream, bringing together thousands of mountain streams, running along the river ditch with cedar forests on both banks, and the peasants weave bamboo to make a waterwheel by the river, divert the water from the river, and irrigate the mountain fields in the high places. The water of the river is clear all year round, and there are many mandarin fish, crucian carp, and carp, and the big ones are larger than the human foot. In those homes on the riverbank, you can often see white-faced, long-bodied, well-smiling women. The small river flows around the north city of "Zhenxiao", and flows into the Chen River after one hundred and seventy miles, and reaches Dongting.
This place is also known as the Phoenix Hall, and after arriving at **, it was changed to a county government, named Phoenix County. After the Xinhai Revolution, the Xiangxi town guard and Chenyuan Dao were stationed here. There were only five or six thousand inhabitants in the area, but seven thousand regular soldiers were stationed in various places. Due to the different environments, the local green battalion military service system has not been preserved until now, and it is the only remnant of China's green battalion military system.
I grew up in such a small town and left when I was almost fifteen. After going out for two and a half years and returning to that little city once, I have never entered the gate again. But I knew the place. There are still many people living in that city, but I often live in the image that that small town used to give me.
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