The cold and extremely bright moonlight.
The river was white,
The frost on the grass on the shore was also white.
There was moist and bone-chilling yin energy by the river. Old Yang wrapped his inferior winter clothes tightly,
He curled up into a ball, trying to retain some warmth,
He looked left and right,
Seeing that there was no one around, he took out the snuff from his pocket in fear and trepidation.
That was the reason why he, as a veteran, was willing to take on the task of keeping watch.
He carefully packed the inferior powder,
He stretched out his pinky,
He touched it,
He put it into his nose and sniffed deeply,
Old Yang forgot about the world outside his body. So many years of his military career flashed by like a revolving lantern.
In the end, it stopped at another winter that he would always remember before it unfolded. The winter when he was twenty years old,
His parents had died when he was young,
When he was pulled out of the small mud house where he had just gotten married and told that he was going to join the army, he felt the warmth of the woman who had just gotten married for a day. He could feel the tears in her eyes as she held his hand tightly.
The woman followed behind him and shouted,
He was kicked down by the lackey. He lay in the mud and couldn't get up for a long time.
The rough and warm hand also let go.
The one who pulled him out was the lackey of the landlord from the same hometown,
It was said that the superior officer wanted to enlist soldiers,
He gathered the disciples of Xiangtan,
He wanted them to "pacify the thieves".
They could be said to be good people,
Why didn't I see the son of that old money go?
In the middle of winter,
Most of them were shivering and huddling together. Those who were caught like him were all poor fellows from the same hometown.
Every day, under the "greeting" of the officer's whip and the veteran's slap, they were exhausted from walking. They only had a thin shirt on their bodies, and it was soaked in sweat.
During the rest time, the smell of wine and meat came from the officers' tents. Sometimes, there would be some subordinates who would take out some leftover bones and throw them away. The so-called food of the soldiers was just a bowl of "porridge" with grains of grain and sand. At a glance, one could tell that even the river water had not been properly boiled.
Many soldiers had diarrhea after drinking it.
At night, there were no thick clothes to resist the cold, nor were there any bedding. The firewood was from the veterans, and the more luxurious coal was from the officers. There were not enough tents. Other than the commanding officer and some of the veterans, there was no one else.
The soldiers, hungry and weak, listened to the laughter of the women in the commander's tent, and lay down in the frost-covered grass.
Thus, along the way, soldiers constantly fell sick.
She was sick and there was no one to treat her. He was afraid that it would be passed on to others.
Old Yang had seen with his own eyes how the senior officer ordered the soldiers who were on the verge of death to be brought out. The veteran soldiers first stripped the soldiers of their simple and crude clothes, even their tattered straw sandals, and then threw them into the wilderness to wait for death.
Sometimes, wherever the army passed by, there would be corpses of dead soldiers.
Who would restrain himself?
Only the crow.
As for the tattered clothes, what was the use of them?
After mingling for so many years, Old Yang was clear about this. No matter how tattered the clothes were, they could still be sold for money after washing them. In any case, the commanding officer had already sold the soldiers' winter clothing, bedding, and provisions. The veterans who had connections at the bottom tore off these tattered clothes and ate some of the leftover soup left by their commanding officer.
The commanding officer was very clear about this and did not stop them.
As for the soldiers who did not follow the rules, they were asked to carry the palanquins, carry the heavy utensils that the commanding officer brought out for pleasure, carry the toilet bowl, wash the pants, and brush the horse for the commanding officer. If they were slightly dissatisfied, they would be beaten and scolded. As long as they were not beaten to death, compared to the unbearable hunger and cold, it was nothing.
Moreover, there were many new recruits who were beaten to death by the commanding officers and veterans who amused them.
Old Yang's only joy in these seven to eight years was probably every time he was stationed near a town, the commanding officer would say "replenish provisions".
Following the army on expeditions, going thousands of miles to suppress the "short-haired bandits", and providing provisions, the imperial court still had to deal with the barbarians in the north. The commanding officers themselves still needed to eat. How could they give half a share to the soldiers?
Thus, they had always been "nurturing and fighting on the spot".
Nurturing and fighting on the spot my ass, Old Yang thought. Isn't it just robbing?
Along the way, they would rob chickens when they saw chickens and ducks when they saw ducks. They would just sit in the owner's house and eat and drink. When they saw money, they would beat the owner to death and split it. When they saw women, they would be happy.
Wherever the imperial court's army passed by, not even a blade of grass was left. The common people fled at the sight of them.
Back then, they were also poor and couldn't bear to do anything to the common people who were even poorer than them.
Old Yang was so hungry that he fainted. When he took the garlic, he hesitated for a while, but it was immediately snatched by the veteran and stuffed into his arms.
There were many new recruits who couldn't bear to do anything like him.
Then, they returned empty-handed.
There was no food, no clothes, and nothing to show filial piety to the commanding officers.
The commanding officers thought that the new recruits were disobedient and embezzled. They ruthlessly beat a few new recruits to death, locked up the rest and dragged them by the horses.
They were dragged by the horses for who knows how long with hungry stomachs. After a few times, the new recruits also began to rob. Old Yang was no exception.
However, Old Yang had been in the army for seven to eight years and had become a wily old fox. He didn't have much money in his hands. The food and drinks that they robbed were eaten and drunk on the spot. If there were good things like gold and silver, they had to be offered to the commanding officers first, then distributed to the veterans, and finally, it was theirs.
Thus, the soldiers were used to spending it on the spot.
Some people went to the brothel to find a lover when they were free.
In any case, most of the soldiers knew that they couldn't go back home.
Level bandits, level bandits. The so-called "bandits" who were so thin that they were all skin and bones only increased in number the more level they were, and the more level they were, the more ferocious they were.
On the battlefield, all the soldiers of the imperial army were fighting with their sabers pressed against their backs by their commanding officers. If they were not supervised, they would have long pretended to be dead or run away, kneeling down and shouting that they were surrendering to the Revolutionary Army.
There were even some people who wished that the short-haired bandits who were said to "eat raw meat and drink blood" would at least give the soldiers who didn't want to fight a way to go back home. They wanted to take advantage of the fact that their commanding officers couldn't take care of themselves and sneak back home.
How could soldiers like them fight a war? Old Yang and the others laughed until their bellies burst.
It wasn't easy for them to survive, but they didn't know when they would die on the battlefield or on the side of the road under their commanding officers' whips.
They had no place to spend the money, and it was easy for their commanding officers to blackmail them.
It was better to spend it on the brothel's belly in exchange for some warmth and keeping some illusions.
However, Old Yang never went to the brothel himself.
When other soldiers went to the brothel to "have fun" with girls, he never joined them. He would even secretly let those big girls go.
After taking another puff of snuff, the cold and pale world seemed to have warmed up a little.
He remembered that one time when he was encouraged by other soldiers to "have fun" with a big girl whose eyes were filled with fear. In order to avoid it, the girl fell into the muddy water. That scene reminded him of his own woman.
If his woman was still alive and hadn't remarried after so many years, would she have wandered around in the chaotic world and met bandits like him and his comrades?
Would she have … ended up in the brothel too? Would she be the same as those brothel girls he saw who had their legs wide open all day long, so numb that they could only "exercise" with people on piles of rotten grass while desperately eating steamed buns?
He couldn't think about this anymore.
People always had no choice in their lives. Moreover, he didn't know when he would die or if he could live past tomorrow. He had to thank the short-haired thief on the other side of the river for the clothes he was wearing. Otherwise, the imperial court wouldn't be so generous.
While Old Yang was thinking about this, a strange voice suddenly rang out, "Snuff! Old Yang, no wonder you always take the initiative to take the night watch job. You really did hide something good! "
Old Yang immediately jumped up.
The old soldier who was as thin as a monkey laughed a few times, "Alright, we are brothers. We came from the same place, so I won't expose you. Tomorrow, I will take the night watch with you. Remember, hehe … "He rubbed his fingers.
Old Yang said in a bad mood, "Skinny monkey, what are you doing here!"
Just as he finished speaking, he thought of something and was shocked. He quickly looked to the other side of the river. On such a cold night, even if there was moonlight, there would always be a faint white mist floating on the river. Moreover, the river was wide, so it was hard to see the other side.
However, Old Yang's sharp intuition told him that something was wrong. It seemed like a large number of things started to appear in the mist, "The short-haired bastards started to cross the river?"
The skinny monkey rubbed his hands, "Yes, tell the brothers who are good at swimming to go back."
As he spoke, he spat a mouthful of thick phlegm on the ground and said angrily and dispiritedly, "I heard from the outpost that they are very bold. They only have a few broken boats and they dare to cross the river! I was still hoping that the short-haired bastards would come and chop off our pig-headed officer's head and hang him on the city gate. Then, I can sneak away and go back to the countryside to marry a wife and become a rich man. Tsk, grass-headed flags, so useless! "
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
