The horses passed through the frost-stained grass.
The young men and women leaned against the warm bodies of the horses,
Around the bonfire, stretching their necks to count the stars.
"One, two, three..."
They couldn't count,
They couldn't count. They laughed heartily.
There weren't enough military tents. Some young soldiers and officers took the initiative to give up their tents to the weak and sleep under the sky.
These soldiers and officers,
There were men and women, the beloved son of a merchant, the daughter of a small shop owner,
There were also female workers from a textile factory,
Male workers from a brickyard. There was the only daughter of a carpenter, and also the rebellious son of a scholar family.
Among them, some of them,
Their families worked hard to open a shop,
But because of a sentence in a dandy's office,
Their families were ruined, and their wives and children were separated.
Some of them had seen with their own eyes that their fathers had to sell their family property because they couldn't pay the taxes extorted by the officials,
They hung themselves with a rope.
Some of them had their clans on their backs,
They worked hard in the fields under the scorching sun,
When they returned home,
They groveled to their fathers, husbands, and brothers,
They worked like cows and horses.
The imperial court was like a mountain, pressing down on the backs of these young people. She still remembered that when she was recruiting, she asked someone to sing the southern dialect adapted from "Li Xianglan's Diary of Work" at the door,
When she sang, "There is no way to find happiness in the world, where can I find freedom in the world?", the entrance of the recruitment office cried into a sea of tears.
The young cloth merchant hugged his only remaining property, the white silk he was going to hang himself with, and the rest were all compensated to the dandy who scammed him. He squatted on the ground and cried loudly in the office.
Her sister, who was dependent on each other, was dragged away to be an official prostitute to pay off her debts. Her eyes were red as she sobbed.
The young woman who had escaped from her husband's house and been blinded in one eye by her husband tugged at her clothes and begged to join the army.
This was what made this team.
People said that there was a difference between men and women. It was as if between men and women, as long as they were involved, there was no relationship other than giving birth to children.
At this moment, these soldiers were like close brothers and sisters. They wrapped themselves tightly in cotton clothes and huddled around the warm fire to take a nap. At first, some boys and girls blushed because they were too close, as if they were shy. Slowly, the young warriors whispered and joked. Some of them counted the stars, and as they counted, they fell asleep. Thus, the voices of the conversation became softer and softer. Little by little, with your neck in my lap and my head on your shoulder, we fell into a sweet, deep sleep.
The firelight shone on their faces. No matter what kind of experience they had in the past, at this moment, the youths' faces were soft, peaceful, and bright red, almost pure. The color, which had not yet been deeply stained by prejudice and the secular world, was stained, so that for a moment, it was impossible to distinguish between the genders of these faces, which were huddled together and sleeping soundly.
The Milky Way was like a ribbon flowing through the night sky.
Under the night sky, the melody was melodious. Someone was blowing the leaves. Intermittent, continuous into a song. This tune was solemn and high-pitched, but there was nothing heavy about it. It was only passionate and carefree. It was the Song of Freedom.
In the end, everything returned to tranquility and peace.
Li Qingqing gently put down the leaf. Looking at the pure and lovely faces of these young people in the firelight, her heart softened.
It was them. They were not afraid of hardships, endured the wind, and slept in the open. They abandoned their good conditions and followed her to Zhejiang.
Even Cheng Zongsan, who was always grumbling, followed along.
"Good night." She stared at them and took out the old yellow statue of the Virgin Mary that her mother had left behind. She always carried it with her. She kissed it and said, "Have a good sleep."
The peaceful nap did not last long.
The sound of the horn tore through the quiet night.
The youths, who had just rested for a while, got up with disheveled hair and red cheeks from the firelight. They supported each other. "What's wrong? What's wrong? "
The people in the tent also rushed out with swords and spears.
Yuan Du coughed and came out to ask.
Li Qingqing had already pulled her horse and mounted it. Her face was calm. "The vanguard team at the front is back. They have already entered the place where the imperial army once marched. What you see along the way … "
She squeezed out four words from between her teeth. "Burn the walls and clear the fields, leave not a single blade of grass behind."
… …
Tender green grass grew out of the cracks of the ruins of the past city.
Orioles sang sweetly on the white bones that had been licked clean by crows and hyenas.
The abandoned village was charred black by the fire. It was impossible to tell where the dust was and where the ashes were.
A female officer was about to scoop water, but she did not dare to do it for a long time.
The water was faintly red from upstream. There was a fishy smell.
"Commander, we haven't seen any signs of human life for half a month."
They walked for a long time. What they did the most was not fighting, but burying piles of rotting corpses scattered everywhere by the roadside. Flies were buzzing around, and the stench was overwhelming.
Sometimes, after a day, they only did one thing: burying people on the spot.
It was not easy to find a place with people, but it was a fortress surrounded by landlords. Inside, some sallow and emaciated farmers were being buried alive.
They broke into the fortress, and the landlords inside wept bitterly. It was said that he was only carrying out the order of "Lord Wang" to those who had surrendered to the bandits — regardless of whether they had surrendered or not, as long as they said anything good about the bandits, they would be killed on the spot.
The only survivor whose arms were chopped off but who was still alive was only ten years old. She pulled a female soldier and murmured, "Let's go!"
"When they came, my mother was still breastfeeding my little brother … My little brother … sucked a mouthful of blood … a mouthful of blood … I pushed my mother desperately. 'Mom, my little brother choked on the blood and can't breathe.' Mom didn't reply to me … I only saw it when I passed through her. The knife directly pierced through my mother's back to her chest …"
The little girl was too frightened, and her voice gradually drowned out …
Her family was an ordinary farmer's family.
It was only because they had received some rations from the rebel army and the allied army that they had cursed the imperial court a few times. Therefore, her entire family, her old grandfather, her father, mother, and three brothers, all died. And before her mother died, she was still breastfeeding her little brother.
"Where's your little brother?"
The female soldier's voice was unbelievably soft.
The little girl's eyes suddenly flashed with a look of extreme hatred as she said, "Fell … him … that long bearded man, said, this is … a thief's … seed, seed change … little brother was thrown to the ground …" He also died.
To slaughter a village and exterminate a stronghold, the knife had to be overdone, and the person had to be changed.
Due to excessive blood loss, this pair of eyes that had not yet grown up lost their luster in the end.
Li Qingqing closed that pair of eyes very gently. Suddenly, she raised her voice and asked her soldiers, "Did you hear it clearly?"
She pointed at the corpses all over the mountains and asked, "Did you see it clearly?"
She rode on the horse. In the beginning, she could still hear the young warm-hearted young soldiers quietly crying.
Later, they were probably numb. None of the corpses buried there made a sound of breathing in fear. Even if it was a petite woman.
Li Qingqing said word by word, "What we have to face is such a ferocious enemy. What we have to fight against is such a ferocious enemy! It is such an enemy who wants to take away our freedom! "
None of them answered.
One of them was not tall. She looked like a young lady from a noble family. Li Qingqing remembered her. She was sold to a brothel by her husband after he owed a wager that coveted her beauty. Later, she was chased away by the imperial court and escaped.
She walked up, held the knife tightly, and aimed at the neck of the landlord who was still defending himself and killing people like flies.
Blood splashed on her white cheeks. She was the first to sing, "There has never been a noble seed in the world."
Her voice was hoarse and trembling.
The second, the third, walked up with weapons.
"There has never been a lowly person in the world …"
"Freedom must be taken from the hands.
The emperor is just one person.
Let's go … "
The song gradually became louder.
These young people were once called "the most childish, the most unreasonable bastards who always refused to accept this and that" by the old men of the Chamber of Commerce. They were also the "silly children" whose father shook his head in disappointment and said that they were "too idealistic".
Those mature and shrewd people questioned Li Qingqing and said, "What kind of people did you recruit? These people are full of ideals to change the world, full of defiance, and disobedience. They are not suitable to be loyal servants. "
They were basically what everyone thought of as radical young people.
But she did not think that these young people were childish.
She looked at their faces and thought of her mother who died of illness early in Nanyang. Her father also said that her mother was "too idealistic".
Their appearances were different. Some were rough, some were exquisite. Some were ugly, some were beautiful, but they all looked pure and cute. This was not because of so-called "childishness" to appear pure.
It was because of pure.
People always did not understand where firm ideals and pure beliefs came from.
Little did they know that it did not come from the hotbed of ignorance, but from the hatred of not surrendering and not compromising after being tempered by the extremely ugly reality.
If one were to call a person who had a flame in his heart and the motivation to practice it childish, then the world would be filled with cowards who were so called "mature". Then, they would just be slaves for the rest of their lives.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
