My Mother Has Mystery

 My mother left at the age of eighty-eight, and she did not go in a hurry. She had been struggling for more than ten years on the death line of suffering from heart disease. She said that the disease was caused by fear and fear all her life, and that she had died many times, and she had long since ignored it.

On the anniversary after my mother's death, on a night I missed her, I vaguely felt that there was a mystery in my mother's life, and it seemed that all her mysterious life had not been taken away by her.

After several serious illnesses, she survived. This is a happy time for our family, but my mother said that she often sees her family returning home recently, grandfather and grandmother, aunt and uncle, they have gone so long and so far. , or come home often.

In Guinan Village on the edge of the mangrove bay, my mother's house is a three-in-one house. Every year there is no one there. The sea breeze and waves send calls and greetings from far away. , The rafters, made of four black, bright and thick round teak wood, with carved stone piers, when the pillars stood up, the old house was so grand at first, and now only the broken walls and ruins that the Japanese set on fire and burned down, the years have passed. Wild vines climbed there, the spacious three-entry courtyard, the floor steps were covered with moss, and the weeds and bushes were overgrown with desolation.

Every time I think about it, I always feel that my mother is always thinking of her. She said that she was looking forward to going home to have a look, but she never made it.

As far as I can remember, my mother said that she had only gone back twice since she left that house.

Once, during the Anti-Japanese Period, the organization sent her back to Guinan Village to carry out an operation to eradicate treason.

The second time was after the liberation of Hainan. After her home in Guinan Village was rated as a rich peasant, she hugged me, a three-year-old, and went to visit her family's grave at Qingming Festival. My sister clamored to follow me, but she rejected me.

The memory of my life is likely to be from that day. Walking out of my hometown, my mother went to sweep the tomb, walking back and forth very fast, no matter how red my face was from the sun behind the strap, I was clamoring for water. The rice bag she was carrying contained a small amount of paper money and incense sticks to burn for all her relatives. On the way, she met an acquaintance who told a lie, and instead of going to the tomb, she went to the town to sell rice. Why she said that at the time, I didn't care at all, and later I thought it might be a mystery to my mother.

Her family's cemetery is all concentrated together. There are her parents and sister in the cemetery. It is on a wild forest slope not far from Guinan Village, and there is not a single tombstone. My mother didn't want to say the reason for the absence of a tombstone, and I didn't ask. Later, it became a mystery. After my mother passed away, at the urging of my father, our sons and daughters managed to implement the matter of her family's tombstone.

The time to sweep the tombs was in time for the morning sun. She did not burn many things for her relatives in the underground, nor did she bring offerings. Those graves with different heights hidden in the green grass, the fireworks were also in a hurry. Busy floating to the sky.

I was on my mother's back, and I didn't hear her say a word from beginning to end. Her eyes were only fixed on the fireworks in front of the grave on the ground, and the flames caressed her red face.

In the silence and mourning of my mother, my eyes found the mandala and tricolor flowers blooming all around the cemetery, as well as a few white mandala, those green grass, the wind blowing from there is spring The smell of birdsong was heard in the woods.

When my mother and I got up and left, I patted her back with my little hand: "Mother, thirsty, drink water." I reached out to touch my mother's cheek, it was wet, she turned to look at me on my back, and I found that she was crying full face. I don't know when the tears flowed quietly, but she grabbed my little hand and kissed it, and wiped the tears from her face with my hand, without saying a word.

She didn't take a look at her home in Guinan Village this time. Many years later, I asked my mother, why didn't you go back to Guinan Village? The mother didn't speak, which was very much like a question she didn't want to answer. I do not rely on her, pestering to ask, why? I want to go back and play. Mother has spoken, and she wants to return to you by yourself, no one will stop you, and no one will know who you are...

When I was a child, I also asked my mother, I heard that my grandmother was married from Shuichao Village, Sanjiang Town. Is there anyone else in her family? Is her family rich? My mother ignored me, and it took a long time before she said, "Why are you asking this? They all went to Nanyang." What is Nanyang? At that time, I only knew that it was the end of the boundless seawater world that left the coast of Hainan.

Her eyes looked into the distance, a trace of sadness. She answered all the wrong questions, but I was curious, so I inquired privately and learned that my grandmother's family was indeed the largest family in the dozens of Shuichao Village. At the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, the whole family went to Nanyang, leaving a hall, living room, horizontal house, road gate, corridor, courtyard, patio, etc., and many courtyard-style homes were empty. Although the house was empty, it was determined to be a wealthy family at that time, giving it a useful purpose.

In the early years, in the Qukou Harbor, Guinan Village on the edge of the mangrove beach, my grandfather went in and out of the village, and everyone called him Master Guo. The famous young master Guo, about calling his grandfather like that, his mother didn't want to talk to anyone for some reason. It's okay to say it's a mystery to my mother, I overheard it when she slipped one of the omissions. I deliberately pretended not to understand and asked my mother, why is my grandfather called Young Master? Mother is angry, why do you keep asking these irrelevant words?

But my mother still talked a little bit off and on. Grandpa Guo Shaoye and his father, who sailed a sailboat in the South China Sea in his early years, was a partner trader of seafood at sea. Maybe the name is a fortune teller who rushed, and he wanted to develop, but he couldn't. The fortune-teller was later ordered by Mr. Guo to be cleaned up.

When Master Guo was fifteen years old, he married my grandmother, the Tang family. They gave birth to my aunt and my mother, and never gave birth again. After his grandfather Guo Shaoye's wish to have a male son to pass on the incense completely failed, he was disheartened and had some nameless resentment. But he couldn't take a concubine again. As soon as Mr. Guo's parents passed away, his family was declining due to the Japanese invasion of Qiong.

Mr. Guo carried a reputation as a young master. His limbs were not diligent, the grains were indistinguishable, he did not farm or go to the sea, and he sat and ate the mountains. At this time, he was depressed and went to the brothel in Qiongshan Fucheng, which was more than 20 kilometers away. Back and forth, drunk and dreaming. Over time, familiar with the cheap opium dens in the narrow alley, Master Guo burned the Guo family back to the past with a smoking gun.

Usually at home, he sat listlessly and bored. The servants he had hired at home had long since been dismissed. My grandmother served him inside and outside, serving tea and meals to his lips. The fifteen-year-old aunt and I The mother and grandmother were carefully busy in front of him, and they had to wait for him to finish the meal before they could eat at the dinner table. If there is a boy in the family, you can eat at the same table with him. This is the rule at that time, and he just emphasizes it.

He was lonely and alone, and he was worried that he had no male child. He often glanced at his two daughters with cold eyes while eating, choked, coughed, and spit at them with nameless fire - "Things that don't make money even if you raise a millet" . The preference for sons over daughters seems to be caused by his two daughters and grandmother who cut off his sons and grandchildren.

Then he stared at his eldest daughter: "What are you doing at home for food? I forgot to find you an in-law's family." He began to figure out how to find a rich in-law's family for his eldest daughter and receive a dowry.

A few days later, on a dark and windless night, the village dog did not bark, and there was no sign of concealment in advance. My aunt and a young man got on well, standing in the dark night at the head of the village, they hugged affectionately. together.

My mother was sticking to her sister, and when she followed her, she saw this scene clearly and chased after her. The aunt said that my sister was leaving, so I fondly stroked my mother's head, which made her cry and covered her mouth again.

Mother tightened her sister's right hand, trying to follow her. The aunt reassured her, and the elder sister will come back when she goes. You have to guard your mother and don't go anywhere.

They disappeared quickly, leaving behind a series of reckless cries from my mother.

What my mother could not forget was that after dinner one day, my grandmother whispered to my grandfather that the whole family would be ruined by opium. Master Guo was furious and slapped his grandmother loudly. His thin body slanted backwards, and the opium smoke made him so weak that he fell on the Taishi chair and couldn't get up.

The next day, he secretly brought the white jade bracelet and a pair of gold earrings from his grandmother's wedding. What do you want to do? Go to Haikou or Qiongshan Fucheng.

Grandma blocked the door with tears in her eyes, begged softly, and was pushed open by him. With a fierce look, he used the broom for domestic violence, and even interrupted the broom. My aunt and my mother were crying.

"Father, if you kill your mother, we won't live anymore."

"It's better if you don't live." He scolded and slipped out of the house.

The Yanfeng Qukou Small Wharf in Mangrove Bay is far from the Puqian Large Port Wharf in Wenchang County, which is diagonally opposite to the exit bay. An old Nanyang style arcade street connected to Puqian Wharf is bustling and bustling. Day after day, there is no interruption here to catch the sea, repair the net, dry the net, sell the fish, unload and load the ship. The boats sail to and fro, from here to the vast and vast ocean, the tides ebb and flow, and the flow of people integrates into groups of swimming fish.

The sea breeze fluctuated, and the stench of the pier under the scorching sun was pungent. The undulating waves between the tides caress the harbour, where people encounter sailboats coming and going back and forth in the South Seas entering the harbour, crying, noisy, sad, happy, boiling scenes and exciting days appear.

Mr. Guo went to Fucheng and took those things in his hand that day. It was almost dusk when he rushed back to the small pier of Qukou, where the tide was rising. He hurriedly searched his pockets for a tip, stepped on the small ferry of the slow-moving stern, and rowed to the port in front of Wenchangpu. A galleon to the South Seas.

He didn't know that the ship was going to sail to Thailand, which was called Siam in the old days, and he hoped to go to the South China Sea, which is also the sea and country that his father and many Hainanese from Qiongbei once sailed. So far I don't quite know how my grandfather, Master Guo, got on this boat to Thailand.

The news reached the home very late. In front of my mother, my grandmother had no tears and no sorrow, and the expression on the corner of her mouth was almost glad. She had heard that many people went to Nanyang. It meant that it was good for this smoker to go away, and finally went to Nanyang to seek a life, otherwise this Home will fail.

As for the previous aunt who ran away with the man, my aunt left without saying goodbye, and my grandmother's surface was as calm as water. Maybe she felt that sooner or later, women would always have to live with men. I asked my mother, "You don't want to leave me and want to run away with a man, right? No wonder your father said that women are raised with millet." After speaking, the corners of his mouth moved, and he didn't bother to look at my mother again. I muttered in my mouth, let's go, sooner or later I have to go, and my eyes turned red unconsciously.

She seemed to remember that she had something very important to do, so she often carefully handled things that her grandfather had used, wiped the tea set, tableware and chopsticks of her grandfather, put them away, and said to herself: "Dammit, go safely, the wind is beautiful. Just go back, send money and silver home, I will wait for you to die, slaughter chickens and make wine to pick you up!"

My mother later heard that the owner of the boat that her father floated to Thailand had been her grandfather's business partner, and they agreed to take Master Guo with him.

He went ashore with the boat to Thailand, and it seemed that he couldn't do much, so he was introduced to a local Qiongju Opera troupe, and he was playing tricks and pulling the curtain behind the stage, and he could only eat. Needless to say, the hardships that Mr. Guo encountered while wandering abroad almost cost him his life. In one performance, he was lazy and made a mistake and screwed up a Qiong opera that night. The troupe master watched many people plead for mercy, and it was the fellow who did not drive him away.

After the work was over, he did not forget to find a place to have a big smoking addiction. He was as thin as a dry monkey, his face was black and blue, he was panting violently and coughing repeatedly when he pulled the curtain hard. Master Guo never imagined that living in a foreign country would make life worse for him.

It has been the second year of the watch in Guinan Village, and my mother has grown into a well-known beauty. People in the village commented and compared, her sister is more beautiful than her, believe it? Have you seen her sister come back? I heard that the man she followed was the captain of the Qiong Zong anti-Japanese team. She is now the leader, and she is now fighting fiercely with the Japanese devils.

The woman also said that once her sister received news from the masses that she was in a hurry, she rushed to the village and killed one Japanese soldier who dared to enter the village and maim the woman, and seriously injured one. The posture of throwing the gun was so unrestrained, that scene difficult to forget. This legend, a long time later, my mother proudly told me one night.

The Japanese devils were furious and they wanted to take revenge but couldn't find anyone.

In fact, the people in our team are all hiding in the mangrove forest by the sea, how dare the devils go in, and one will die. Fortunately, there is a good place.

Speaking of my aunt, in just a few short years, she has almost become a legend in the fight against devils. The Japanese hung her portrait and offered a reward for her capture. It is rumored that she knows stealth. The best news was that she passed by the house and went home to visit her mother for the night. On the same day, the spy who maintained the knowledge of the devils reported the news to the devils in the fortress. The devils quickly dispatched two raiders and went straight to my mother's house in Guinan Village.

At the critical moment, the mother informed the aunt that the situation was urgent and asked her to escape as soon as possible.

How my mother got the news, she always kept it in her heart. Later, the family withdrew from the house in batches in advance.

The devils rushed to the air and chased them along the road. Seeing that they were about to catch up with the aunt, the bullets flew "boom" and kept chasing her, but she disappeared in a blink of an eye.

In a rice field far away from the village, there were only five or six peasant women planting rice. When the two devils approached and brushed past them, a peasant woman dressed in black mud suddenly drew a gun and shot from behind. One shot, one shot, "snack", "snack", either through the heart or the head, knocked these two devils down on the spot.

All this has caused a sensation in eight townships.

The aunt washed the mud on her face, said a word of thanks, and smiled brightly. She thanked the villagers for their cover. Those peasant women said, you are like a fairy, tsk tsk, amazing.

A year has passed, and some of the families who went to Nanyang in Guinan Village in the early years have brought back or sent back money and goods in twos and threes, either money or clothing and other daily necessities, such as lard, milk products, candy biscuits, coffee and cocoa, etc. . It was a rare food that I had never seen before.

Grandma has always been looking forward to the same joy, but it failed again and again. Of course, she couldn't help but miss the husband, Master Guo, who she loved and hated at the same time.

Another full moon day, late at night, someone knocked on the door and shouted. Recently, many pirates have robbed houses, and the gates are propped up with wooden sticks for the night. I can't make out the voices clearly. My mother's heart pounded and she didn't dare to make a sound, and she didn't dare to open the door.

The grandmother held the lamp and hesitated for a long time to remove the wooden stick on the top door, pulled the wooden latch, and the sea breeze rushed in, knocking the door fan, and two shadowy figures stood outside the door under the moonlight.

"Why don't you help Master Guo in?" the man said. Grandma and my mother woke up from a dream.

Suddenly, a metallic sound came out of my grandmother's throat, followed by a howl that I had never seen before. Before my mother called out Dad, she went to help her fainted mother.

It was the same boat that took Grandpa to Thailand to pick him up and return to Guinan Village. There he was in the streets. A boatman was entrusted by the owner to take care of him and go home after disembarking. At that time, his body was like mud, and he could not afford to lie down when he got home. He sighed for days and nights, called his father and mother, and couldn't get any water in.

Grandpa Guo Shaoye decided to leave, but he died on the seventh day. He was the one who went to Nanyang and finally returned to his roots.

My mother didn't shed a single tear, she just focused on taking care of her mother who was crying all night long. The recently deceased father, who didn't seem to need to exist originally, was a stranger to her.

On the afternoon of her father's burial, a Japanese plane took off from Haikou Airport. My mother heard the plane pass over her head, buzzing like flies over the mangroves by the sea, and the Japanese dropped a few Bombs, booming sound.

It was another silent night, with no wind and sultry heat, when I could not see my fingers, and suddenly there was another knock on the door in the middle of the night.

This time I knocked on the door, and my mother was shocked. She seemed to have a premonition. She was no longer afraid and jumped out of bed to open the door, but was pulled by her grandmother.

A man's loud voice came from outside the door: "Mother, your daughter is home." This man was a member of the mangrove team, and later became my father. He escorted my posthumous aunt home.

The man said that the aunt and uncle were killed when bombing the small mangrove ferry that afternoon, when my mother heard the Japanese planes flying overhead. They had just returned from a grain transportation mission, and the living materials and the four people on the ship were all smashed into pieces, and their stumps, broken arms, and broken heads were scattered all over the place.

Grandma held up the lamp to open the package, and the shapeless aunt was lying on a white linen cloth. It was just a severed hand stained with blood. The black mud could not cover up her delicate and pale skin.

My mother gasped and recognized her sister's right hand. Instead of being frightened, she grabbed it with a scream: "Sister..."

The hand was already stiff.

I don't know how many times this hand held her while walking. This hand was the last hand that touched the top of her head when she and her sister separated that night, and it seemed to still have residual warmth. There is a conspicuous scar on her index finger. This scar was left by the countless times she was sick. My sister caught crabs from the mangroves and cooked crab porridge to nourish her. She was almost bitten off by the crab's claw. The mother clung to the hand tightly.

She screamed loudly, and her grandmother's face became sullen, and she swiped her arm with her hand in dissatisfaction: "Your father died without seeing you cry." The mother had to choked in a low voice.

But at this moment, grandma's hands were shaking so badly, maybe her tears had dried up, and she only muttered: "Luo Guizi can't have a whole body in his hands, my daughter!" She finally couldn't hold it any longer, and she let out the old man's corpse. Sad tones drifted desolately into the dark night.

My mother wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes and bowed to the young man standing beside my future father: "Thank you for sending my sister home, can I come with you?"

"No need to thank you, the team is called, your brother-in-law can't find any... Most of the shattered bodies sank into the mangrove ditch. Why do you want to follow me?"

"revenge!"

The mother's eyes widened, and the grandmother could only hear the word "hatred" clearly. She was really afraid that the only remaining daughter would follow him. It might be another soul that could not return home. Will the Guo family still exist in the future?

My mother said, "Let's go before dawn, and I'll take you out of the village." She stuffed the silver dollar that her brother-in-law gave her that time into her grandmother's hand. Sister, don't leave without telling me.

When they were halfway through, my later father said, "It's very strange. This time the Japanese have targeted your sister and the others to go out to transport food. Someone must have sent a letter to the newspaper." Thing, eyes filled with tears again.

The two of them walked along a long winding road leading to the mangroves on the beach. This path was the road that my uncle took my uncle to walk that night. The difference is that the moonlight that night was beautiful. It was dark and silent tonight.

My mother walked, boldly holding the man's hand. She followed the direction he said and led the way in the dark ahead, and they felt two warm hands grasping.

After my mother left, like her sister, she also became a member of the team on the mangrove side. She did not expect, or thought, that leaving her grandmother at home alone would become her self-blame and guilt for the rest of her life.

A few days later, the devils at the gun tower in Yanfeng Town were led by the people of the maintenance council, and they chose the time when the people were in the house. When the sun went down, they went straight to Guinan Village and set fire to the old house of the Guo family that was fighting against the Japanese. Burn to death at home. The remains of the grandmother were buried by the uncle's family in the village.

Fortunately, although the devils retaliated wildly, they did not set fire to the entire Guinan Village. Later, I heard from the villagers that this is the feeling of Guo Cong, the chairman of the maintenance association supported by the Japanese in the town and a native of Guinan Village. The traitor pretended to be a good person. Guo Cong said that he saved the whole village, burned my grandmother and burned down the house because my aunt killed Japanese soldiers in the fight against Japan.

My mother and her retired father lived in the village of Hemu Shang Village, the hometown of Yanfeng Town, in her old age. When her mother was dying, she did not leave any other words, and muttered vaguely: "Archives... Archives..."

My siblings and others didn't understand what it meant. The elderly father understood when she pointed to the clothes cabinet. He said that there were mother's files in the cabinet. We didn't expect that my mother kept a file that she would never forget until she died. She never told our children about this file. How she kept this file personally, I still haven't asked clearly.

In addition to the sadness that day, the portfolio that was taken out was placed by her side, and we were not in a hurry to open it.

When I opened this file again, it was a cloudy and rainy evening after my mother's death. It was as if I saw my mother's voice and smile again, and I couldn't help shedding tears.

The file bag is paper thin and brown in color. The three characters of the file bag are in print. The lower two horizontal bars are filled with words. The name of the upper bar is Guo Aimin, and the number of the lower bar is 523. Her mother was only called Guo Er when she was young, but her father changed her to Guo Aimin later. Her aunt called her Guo Da in the village, and later changed her name to Guo Qinli in the team. Judging from the style of the mother's portfolio, it was established after the liberation of Hainan.

To my surprise, there were only three documents in the portfolio: the Chinese Communist Party's Volunteer Letter for Joining the Party and the Party Member Registration Form. I couldn't help but tremble. In my early years, I heard from my father that my mother had joined the Communist Party of China in the middle of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. I opened the party membership book in her portfolio, and the date of joining the party was October 5, 1950. What exactly happened in this, with an irresistible question, I fell into the infinite memory of my mother.

Now it is called the National Hainan Dongzhaigang Mangrove Nature Reserve, which is distributed in Yanfeng Town and Sanjiang Town along the bay area, covering an area of ​​more than 10,000 mu. The mangrove forests in this large bay beach stretch for dozens of kilometers. The mangroves grow into muddy jungles with scattered heights, which are dense and airtight. The tidal flats and rivers in the forest area are vertical and horizontal, bending and detouring, winding the forest into large strips, and the sea water flows in and out with the ebb and flow of the tide.

This situation is like the boundless reeds on the sea, the water and the sky are connected, and it is mysterious and unpredictable.

That night, my mother walked into this sea forest with my father, just like when my uncle and aunt entered this vast sea forest. This large sea forest was the home of the anti-Japanese armed forces in Qiongshan District, Qiongya, China at that time. There was an active anti-Japanese guerrilla force composed of dozens of people. They were heroes and sons and daughters from the coastal villages of Yanfeng Town and Sanjiang Town and the surrounding areas.

The Japanese attempted to encircle and suppress the anti-Japanese armed forces in one fell swoop.

A small Japanese gunboat drove toward the mangroves from the port of Wenchangpuqiangang, and then several captured fishing boats were crowded with the mobilized Japanese soldiers, and they followed aggressively.

The Japanese small gunboats took the lead and drove into the river channel of the mangroves. The sudden gunboats came first to dismount the horse, and blasted towards the mangroves, but the guerrillas were nowhere to be seen.

The subordinates of Guo Cong, the chairman of the Japanese-supported maintenance association, reported that the guerrillas will attack the Guizi Fortress in Yanfeng Township in the near future, and the armed men are gathering in the mangroves. They thought it was time to surround and wipe out the elusive guerrillas in one fell swoop.

Early in the morning, the Japanese devils who were armed to the teeth began to clear the mangroves. The devil disembarked from the gunboat with more than a dozen people, carried guns into the river and the beach, and drilled deep into the mud to the Hongcun forest. The devils on the rowing boats behind them, outflanking the other river, plan to search for the mangroves piece by piece, and drive the guerrillas out to destroy them.

The mangroves opened their gloomy openings, and the wild devils rushed into the mangroves with crisscrossed branches and dense branches and leaves. What awaited them were the mud pits deep under their feet, the scurrying wild boars, and the frightened herons. Birds, teals, swarmed into the air, and mosquito flies and venomous snakes perched on trees, spitting pink letters, attacked approaching intruders.

The enemy did not expect that we would have received the information long ago, and had made preparations for anti-clearing and suppression, and soon sank the ships that were usually used for water activities to hide in the water, and the personnel made arrangements as required.

A group of enemies who entered the depths of the mangrove forest found five or six different sizes of grass huts that the guerrillas had built and lived in the trees. They thought there were still people hiding inside. These eight or nine devils laughed wildly, but they didn't know that they had entered the ambush that we had cleverly set up using the conspicuous grass hut on the tree as bait.

Our guerrillas hidden under the surrounding trees, among the mud, water and grass in the river ditch, appeared in camouflage and quietly narrowed the encirclement of the enemy. The enemy was in the light, and our side was in the dark. The first devil fell in response.

The sound of gunshots surrounding and annihilating the enemy grew louder and louder, and six more battered enemies were annihilated. The two remaining devils who were searching the forest were frightened like wild boars, escaping the encirclement and resisting stubbornly. One of our guerrillas chased after them, rushed towards the two enemies, threw the only grenade in his hand, and blew it into the river ditch.

This group of enemy bandits who dared to attack the mangroves was completely wiped out by the guerrillas.

Those devils who wanted to outflank the guerrillas from different directions, seeing that their comrades were trapped in the siege and unable to arrive in time for reinforcements, they entered the mangroves as if they had fallen into the ecstasy, and the lush and green forests covered the sky and made them indistinguishable. In the clear direction, it was almost impossible to get out, and many lost people had to shoot at the sky to warn the police and call for help.

The enemy's clearing operation lasted for a long time, and there was no trace of the guerrillas. The tide receded, and all the boats in the river trenches ran aground. The devils and the portraits were plunged into the quagmire and swamp, but they were first killed by the mangroves without killing the guerrillas. Until the tide rose in the evening, the enemy carried his casualties aboard the ship, and evacuated as if they were running away.

It is said that the gods of mangroves protect their people. In this anti-Qing campaign, the guerrillas won a big victory. They not only seized a batch of guns and ammunition, armed themselves, but also greatly inspired the confidence of the local people to fight against the enemy bandits. Since then, this sea forest has become a base for the guerrillas to persist in resisting Japan, and the Japanese devils no longer dare to venture in.

In the days that followed, it was known that the guerrillas and district leaders were in the mangroves on weekdays. The personnel were either on numerous boats, scattered or concentrated in temporary grass huts in the depths of the woods, and the tides ebb and flow due to the natural enemy’s situation. Change, come and go without a trace to attack the enemy bandits.

My mother changed her name to Guo Aimin at this time. She and several sisters were assigned to the logistics of the guerrillas. They cook for everyone every day, and it is difficult to make a fire alone. In order to prevent the smoke from cooking too much and exposing the target, they cut off the branches to cover the smoke column, and the smoke and fire often make them busy and sweaty. A meal is not easy.

Mother and her sisters used to say that our role in the dining room was no less than the role of their men in the field. In such a background, their figures are in the tones of warm spring, and they are an indispensable hope for the fight against Japan.

At that time, survival problems such as finding food and eating food were real issues. No matter how bad the environment, how sinister the enemy's situation, it has become my mother and her sisters' work day and night to ensure that everyone has food.

In order to prevent the enemy's sneak attack, the guerrillas often have no fixed place to deal with the enemy in the mangroves. Open-air cooking on the water, when the wind and rain are heavy, everyone will be hungry all day long.

At night, a kind of "ghost mosquito" that grows in the mangroves is as small as a needle, difficult to see with the naked eye, and bites and bites. Immediately, rushing toward the warm flesh to bite. With a slap, the palms of the guerrillas were covered with slaughtered ghost mosquitoes and sucked human blood in places where the guerrillas were naked due to hardships and hardships. The place where the person was bitten was red and swollen like toad skin, itching and itching. It can be scratched to the point of rotten skin, and some people are also infected with tropical diseases.

At this time, my mother and the others would bring dry wood and burn cigarettes to drive away mosquitoes, so that the night would be spent safely, uninterrupted throughout the year.

Although the fires were often used to cook in the mangroves, the fires were not caused, but the smoke from the cooking during the day exposed the camps of the guerrillas. The Japanese airfield was built on the high-lying Daying Mountain in Haikou. It was no more than five minutes away from the vast mangrove forests of Yanfeng and Sanjiang. The guerrillas failed to evade several times, but still caused casualties.

In those days, the peasants were starving, and the landlords’ households were not much leftovers, so we sent people around to search for food and often returned empty-handed. Once, he was targeted by a puppet spy and his whereabouts were exposed. When he was ambushed by the devils, the eight sisters who went out to raise food were killed and injured. After being broken up, my mother and a few people took a load of sweet potatoes and hid in the village.

Our personnel were prepared and arrived in time to respond, which saved them from suffering. There were more than a dozen guerrillas including my father who came to help me. They desperately rescued the sisters who were raising food. My father told my mother and others that you should leave the food first.

He led people to stop the enemy, and fought and retreated into the mangroves. Several of the guerrillas were wounded by gunshots in the battle. After this blocking battle, Guizibu's eyeliner was blocked, and he wanted to completely cut off the food source of the mangrove anti-Japanese base.

Day after day, the district elder Li held a meeting on the boat. He said: "We are facing a difficult period. If we insist on resisting the Japanese, we must make adjustments and temporarily disperse and store the anti-Japanese forces. People, people hide people' meaning, do you have any ideas?"

My mother only thought that it was a problem to have a large population. When she thought of how to solve it, she argued: "Everyone might as well live and go home, not only to take care of the family, but also to catch fish and shrimp in the sea, farm the land to support the family, and fight the devils. Picking up guns when assembled in wartime plays a role of both."

Lao Li said, "Comrade Guo Aimin has put forward a good idea, which is what I wanted to say. This is a good way of 'people hiding people', and it is also a soldier."

It was the first time my mother heard the leader praise her like this, and she smiled as sweetly as her sister.

My father used to be the head of the anti-Japanese children's group in the town. He read a private school, and some culture was promoted by the district supervisor at that time. He said to my mother, "Do you still have a home? Why don't you go back to Murakami village with me? Live at home for a while." He fell in love with my mother.

My father's home is my hometown, Hemura Village. It is not on the shore of the mangrove sea, but on the shore of a lake with lush grass and flooded waters. There are nine bends and eight bends in the river, more than ten miles away from Yanfeng Town. It is a poor small village with only twenty households and a population of less than a few dozen people. More than half of the young people in a village participated in the revolution. There are many villages like this in Yanfeng Town, and it has the reputation of an old revolutionary base for a while.

The mother's face was a little hot, and she would never forget that this man brought back her sister who was killed by the devil, took her into the mangrove forest, and saved her and her sisters through the adventure. When she mentioned home, she remembered that she had no home, and couldn't help but turn her head and cry quietly.

Old Li said bitterly: "If we don't defeat the devil, we will not have a stable home, and the existing home may be gone one day." He continued, "Hehe, you Wang Xueqing will not be eating in a bowl. Yes, look at the pot?" He was joking by pointing out the fact that my father was married.

This was the first time my mother heard Lao Li name his father Wang Xueqing at a meeting. My father was blushing with embarrassment. Mother lowered her head, pursed her lips and smirked, and there was a hint of shyness in that smile.

It turned out that my father had a wife at home. That's a married wife. I'll call her "Aunt" here for now. The distance from her mother's Tangli Village to my home village is just a large wetland on the other side of the river and a curved river that flows to the mangrove forest by the sea.

When my aunt was thirteen years old, my father had already gone to the mangroves, and my grandfather, who had taken care of himself, asked the sedan chair to carry her through the door. It was considered that she was married to my hometown, the Murakami village king's family.

My mother had never heard my father talk about his wife before. During the two years that this poor woman visited the Wang family, my father for some reason refused to obey the orders of his parents and went home to see her. How she looked, my father said at the time that he had never met.

My grandfather's grandfather was a Hokkien person who came across the ocean from Fujian until he was earlier. His grandfather had already left home in his early years. Unlike most people in the east of Qiongdao who wanted to go to the South Ocean, they went to the tropical rainforest in the west of Hainan Island. There are Dongfang, Ledong, Changjiang and other places all over the place. From there, the Changhua River and the sea traffic in timber and tropical fruits such as mangoes and bananas, and then marry wives, have children and settle down there. But he did not leave his home on the side of Murakami Village, and he returned several times a year. Here at home, my grandmother gave birth to my aunt and my father Wang Xueqing for him. Grandfather, he has never forgotten that his roots are in Yanfenghe Murakami Village.

Unpredictable fate, a serious illness, grandfather died in Gancheng, Dongfang County, when he was only forty-five years old. He insisted on returning the fallen leaves to their roots. At that time, there was no land road on Hainan Island, and the relatives there transported him from the sea back to the upper village of Yanfenghe Village according to the will and burial.

The generation of my grandfather went out to go out, and perhaps the earlier generation had already started the pace of population exchange and migration in Hainan Island.

After several discussions, the district elder Li went on to say: "Only some people from the district offices and the sick and wounded are left here in the mangrove forest. Guo Aimin and a few lesbians also stay here to take care of the logistics. Everyone in our team can leave. Resist the Japanese for a long time, go back and stand by at any time.”

No matter how far or how deep the shape of every river and every forest in this mangrove forest is, my mother will never get lost. That's because she followed her sister to catch fish, fish, crabs, sea clams and sandworms since she was a child. , Shuhai Shulin is so familiar that she can call out every bird that flies here and every fish and shrimp that swims here. This is her hometown.

From then on, no matter how windy, rainy, sun, or rainy days, my mother was in a happy mood, chasing the tide, carrying a hoe on her back, digging mudskippers on the beach, going to the sand in the sea to scour for clams and sandworms, and digging into the mangroves to dig out crabs and worms. Catch the wedwigs that are crawling up the underground trees.

My mother stepped into the sea with her feet barefoot. She was often pierced by the sharp shells in the mud and pulled out the wounds. She always washed the blood and sludge with sea water and insisted on uninterrupted work.

When the seaside ebbs and flows, swarms of pointed mullets swim in the water like a tide, crabs lurk, stranded fish and shrimp hide in the mud tree pits and puddles of the mangroves, and birds prey with joy. People and boats come, cast nets, and catch fish, shrimp, and crabs on the sea floor. There will be a lot of harvest. This is really a rich mangrove wetland!

Relying on the sea to eat the sea, this home raises the people of this side of the water and soil. Since the Japanese invaders came, it has become a problem for the common people to catch the sea, and life here is not easy. Those who were rushing to the sea were most afraid of encountering Japanese patrol boats and planes in the sky on the tidal flat and killing them as anti-Japanese guerrillas. Indiscriminate killing of innocents by devils happens from time to time.

When my mother was digging mudskipper, she was recognized by a nearby woman who was rushing to the sea, and she was shocked—you are Guo Da? Legend has it that you were killed by a Japanese plane. I say, devils can't blow up people like you.

This woman mistook my mother for her sister, and always remembered her sister's nickname as an anti-Japanese hero. Mother smiled and said, "Yes, how did they blow us up!" The woman said, "Why did you come to pick up the sea? Life is not easy, come here, I picked up a lot of snails here. , take it for you to eat, and beat the devil when you eat it."

The mother was so tired that she was sweating profusely. Her feet were soaked in the sea water, and the cut wounds were numb. She used sea water to wash away the mud spots and sweat on her face, and kept a peaceful smile. She hummed a little tune that my father taught her to sing: "Hey the south wind blows, let's fight the oriental ghosts in the boat, don't worry about my father and mother, your girl and boy go by sea..." She rowed a boat with her The fish baskets full of seafood returned to the Caoliaozi deep in the mangroves to cook fragrant seafood porridge for the wounded and sick guerrillas and comrades in the district.

She also used the crawfish to make the locals' favorite rice-accompanying sauce, a nutritious crawfish sauce similar to shrimp paste. This sauce invisibly solved the problem of everyone's meal, nourished the body of the guerrillas, so as to get through these difficult days.

At noon, when everyone was drinking seafood porridge, Lao Li hiccupped, looked at my mother, and said earnestly, "Comrade Guo Aimin, you are doing very well, all comrades thank you!"

The mother laughed like a flower. She timidly asked: "Can I join the party?" Lao Li immediately said: "I want to make progress, okay! Comrade Wang Xueqing and I will be your introducers. Write an application."

My mother said, "I can't read." Lao Li said, "You ask Comrade Wang Xueqing to write for you." Wang Xueqing approached my mother to please my mother: "You tell me, I will ghostwrite." My mother blamed him: "Old Li didn't mention it, why don't you want to? with my progress?"

The mother recalled afterwards that she was so excited that night that she lost sleep.

On the day my mother handed in the application for party membership, Lao Li said to my mother with a serious expression, "The organization has sent you to complete a task to investigate and find out the whereabouts of Guo Cong, the devil and traitor in your village."

Lao Li said that Guo Cong has become more and more arrogant recently. He sent people to help the devils to find out the news, and the two guerrillas who went home were killed.

Since Guo Cong became the chairman of the Japanese Maintenance Association, he rarely returned to his home in Guinan Village. He usually lived in Yanfeng Town and was protected when he traveled. The elders and children of his family live in Guinan Village, both from Guinan Village. His second daughter, Guo Man, is half a year younger than my mother. They have grown up and played together in the village since childhood.

That time when my aunt came home, the devil got the information provided by Guo Cong's subordinates, and I did not know how to let Guo Man know about the raid on Guinan Village. A catastrophe.

This matter, my mother will not forget, and never told anyone.

On the eve of the Qingming Festival, the mother saw the timing of Guo Man's return to her parents' home. She took the task to find Guo Man, and used the excuse of asking Guo Man's father Guo Cong's information about when she would return to Guinan Village.

Guo Man blurted out: "His father must have been home for Qingming, but I don't know when he will return." She asked her mother alertly, "Why are you asking about this?" Her mother made up a reason and wanted to ask his father about the Japanese arrest. Our people are inside, hope his father can do something good for our side.

Guo Man said, well, when his father returns, he will tell his mother after asking.

The day before Tomb-sweeping Day was approaching, a young woman entered a shop specializing in incense, paper and candle offerings in Yanfeng Town. She bought some supplies for Qingming at home, and asked the shop owner, whether President Guo Cong in the town has sent someone to buy such items? The owner replied, I have been here, and someone has been sent to pick it up.

This question further confirmed that Guo Cong was planning to return to Guinan Village for the Qingming Festival.

On the eve of Qingming Festival, Guo Man told her mother, who came to quietly look for her, that his father had returned home and could come over to talk.

The Guo family was brightly lit at this time, and just after dinner, a young woman suddenly appeared in the Guo family's hall.

A family member that Guo Cong brought back walked out of the block, and Guo Man hurriedly shouted: "Dad, Sister Guo is looking for you for something."

"Which Sister Guo? The visitor is not good." Guo Cong hurriedly greeted him, "Damn it, oh, are you Guo Da or...?"

Mother said, "Today I'm here to invite you to see my sister Guo Da."

Guo Cong felt guilty, and when he heard this, he shuddered: "You are Guo Er, a villager in our village, I heard that you also went to the mangroves to fight against the Japanese, and your sister was killed by the Japanese, what did you do with me? ?"

Mother sneered: "It doesn't matter if you come with me, please - President Guo."

The old and young Guo family were terrified. "Why should I go with you?" Guo Man hurriedly shouted, "I can't go, Sister Guo, what do you mean? Can't you say no at home if you have something to do?"

At this moment, Jiading drew his gun out of nowhere and pointed it at his mother. Guo Cong wanted to take the opportunity to dodge.

All of a sudden, five team members who had been ambushed by our side rushed into the door. The guns were dark, and the scene was about to explode. The mother snapped: "Don't move!" A team member stepped forward and handed over his pistol, and kicked him.

The Guo family burst into tears, and Guo Man began to splash, picking up the teapot on the Baxian table and smashing it at his mother's head at close range. The mother was not prepared for it, her head was hit, and the blood was flowing. She covered her head and shouted, "Take it away!"

The team members hurriedly tied Guo Cong and Guo Man and pushed them out of the house. As she walked, her mother tore off her clothes and bandaged the wound on her head, holding back the pain. She quickly realized what she was doing and said, "Leave Guo Man and let her go home."

The team member asked, "Why?" The mother said, "She is my sister and has nothing to do with her."

Guo Man, who was left behind, cried loudly and scolded: "Guo Er, you have no conscience, I saved your sister, but you want to hurt my father, ah-ah."

Guo Cong was dragged to death by our people along the way, and when he arrived at the mangrove beach, he knelt down and begged for mercy, admitting that he was more than innocent.

According to Lao Li's instructions, the traitor Guo Cong was shot on the spot. Thinking of the dead family members and the guerrillas killed by the devils, her mother was burning with anger. She said to the team members who were about to start: "For the sake of persuading the devils not to burn the entire Guinan Village, don't waste bullets, give him A whole corpse, tied with a rope..."

In the second half of the night, the Tomb-Sweeping Day came to the graves of every family in the darkness. Before dawn, there was a drizzle between the sky and the earth.

My mother burned the incense stick on the grave of her house, and couldn't help but knelt down abruptly: "Father, mother, sister, I'm here to find you... I want to go home to see you, but my home is gone."

She choked up, and her tears flowed like water that burst a bank.

Not far away, his father Wang Xueqing had come over at some point, and he helped up his mother, who was so sad that he couldn't stop. In the surrounding fields, fireworks slowly emerged at this time, and there were thoughts flying all over the sky.

Guo Man's father Guo Cong was removed by our side as a big traitor. What she thought, especially towards her mother, whether it intensified the hatred of killing her father, the mother does not know. At that time, Lao Li informed his mother that the organization had approved her to become an official CCP member and was going to hold a solemn ceremony for her to join the party on the boat.

This year was the most difficult year of the Hainan Anti-Japanese War. On the day the ceremony was going to be held, due to the urgency of the enemy situation, the team had to be transferred, so it was forced to cancel, and it has not been carried out since then.

His father, Wang Xueqing, was suffering from tuberculosis. With the approval of the organization, he walked out of the mangrove forest and returned to his home village, He Mushang Village, to see a doctor and recuperate, and continued to engage in the anti-Japanese struggle.

The mother, who insisted on staying in the mangroves, said to Lao Li one day, "All the sick and wounded here have been transferred away. I want to go to Wang Xueqing to take care of him, but he is not healthy."

Old Li said with a smile, "You miss him, right? No, you can't leave right now. The people in the district office are still in the mangroves, so you can't be without your work here." The mother's face was hot, and she said boldly: "What's wrong with missing him? He's sick."

Since the beginning of summer, the weather has been surprisingly hot, and the Japanese devils have swept away frantically, burning, killing, and looting villages where there are suspected guerrillas, in an attempt to put out the local fire of anti-Japanese.

One day, near noon, my father and grandmother went out to Wenchangpu Qiangang by the seaside, weeping to say goodbye to my aunt's family who were sailing to Nanyang.

Aunt, she is also one of the leading cadres in Qiongya's anti-Japanese team. It is rumored that the devil will burn her Tiaoqi village and her home. My uncle is a wise man. He made preparations in advance, sold the property at a low price, and forced my aunt to die. He and his family of five boarded the sailboat moored at Puqian Harbor. He fled across the sea and went to his overseas Chinese relatives in Thailand.

In difficult times, there were indeed many people in Qiongbei who went to the South Seas by boat as if they were fleeing. In modern terms, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, they fled abroad as refugees. From then on, my aunt had the reputation of being afraid of the current situation and betraying the anti-Japanese revolutionary ranks. However, as a refugee, she seems to have heard no such rebuke. In the news she learned later, like her, some people left the revolutionary ranks during the low tide of the Anti-Japanese Revolution, and some people went abroad as refugees. They are more of an excuse to go to Nanyang to make a living, such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and other places, this is the real history.

On the afternoon of the day I bid my aunt farewell, a group of Japanese devils rushed into their hometown, Murakami Village.

My aunt, the sixteen-year-old wife of my father, who was harvesting corn in the summer on the grassy slope in the backyard, got up and fled in a panic when she saw the devil enter the village. A devil found her and fired a shot to frighten her, trying to catch the flower girl. My aunt from the same village, a 21-year-old woman I had only heard of, also ran out of the village, but before she could escape, she was shot by the devil in the woods.

The aunt desperately ran to the wetland river in the village, and Tangli Village on the other side of the river in the distance was her mother's home. Her mother gave birth to her alone.

She ran up to the ridge, and the foxtail grass in the wetlands covered her half body. Seeing that she was about to swim across the river, she chased the devil on the bank and shot. She fell in a pool of blood.

Father and mother-in-law sent their aunt's family to Nanyang. If they were at home that day, what would have happened is unimaginable. When they rushed home, the house was in ruins that had been burned by fire.

The father was informed by the villagers that he found the dead aunt in the field ridge and grass by the river. It was the early morning of the second day.

For the first time, he took a serious look at her wife lying on the ground. It was a young and beautiful face that had been shot to death and lost a lot of blood and was as white as a cloud. Her eyes were half-closed unwillingly, as if looking affectionately at her finally arriving at her. The man beside her, this man is always very cold to her. There were a few crystal clear drops of water on her forehead, and she couldn't tell whether it was tears or morning dew.

The father wanted to carry her on his back, but he was unable to carry her wife back to the burned home. When the villagers came to help, my father's cheeks were full of tears. The river next to it flowed sadly and rose silently.

The grandmother and father were unable to prepare a coffin for the aunt, so they had to bury her in two small water tanks together. Aunt's cemetery was not found again by my father on the weedy hillside after the liberation of Hainan Island. The love that father owes aunt is in the grave he filled and the tombstone erected for her.

My father said that one evening in those days when I was homeless, the sunset glowed half of the sky, and in front of Murakami's father's house, which had been burned down, a girl dressed in colorful clouds came to me. She was like a rainbow, warm and gentle. Light up the hearts of this home. It was my mother, like an auspicious cloud, and she walked into this broken home just in time.

That night, my grandmother gave my mother a big kneel. The kneeling brought the mother who had died and raised her to life again. The mother seemed to see the mother she had missed all the time before her, and she couldn't help crying. : "Mother, it's time for me to kneel on you." After she finished speaking, she was already sobbing.

The grandmother begged the mother not to leave the house again. His father's illness has not improved, and he was so excited that his face was in tears. The whole family spent the night under the big old lychee tree in front of the yard.

Under the fog of the night, my mother told her father that when she learned that the devils swept the village, she said that she was worried about her father's illness and safety, and wanted to visit her, but Lao Li said that she had more important things. Lao Li sent her and a few comrades to perform another task.

She told her father about the experience of carrying out this task, and she seemed very restless.

Guo Man was very worried about the execution of her father Guo Cong. After she returned to live at her husband's house, she would never go back to her parents' home, Guinan Village. Her in-law's family is a big family. In a large village next to Yanfeng Town, it is obviously a village with a population of several hundred on the edge of the town, but it has a city name - Yaocheng.

Guo Man has been wearing a cheongsam with wide slits since then, but she still can't contain her rustic look. She likes to go to town to drink tea and play cards. In the dirty town and the dusty side streets and shops, those strange eyes keep gouging out her eyes. When she is swaggering through the market, she often leaves the street full of coquettish: "Itchy Ah, what are you looking at? You have the guts to go on the old lady's bed."

Those people couldn't bear it: "Hmph, I don't even give money to me, bah!"

One day, she really met someone who wanted to fuck her. That man was a Japanese officer at the Guizi Fortress. Guo Man came out of the tea shop, a team of Japanese soldiers passed by her, and a man who looked like an officer leading the team greeted her with a smile.

"If I remember correctly, you are Chairman Guo's daughter Guo...Miss Man." He spoke half-familiar Chinese.

Guo Man couldn't understand the whole sentence, so he just nodded.

"You married in Yaocheng Village, right?" He glanced at her white legs exposed in the slit cheongsam, stared at her face and didn't want to move away, "Hey, flower girl." This poor town is only worn by such a woman The beautiful cheongsam is too memorable.

Guo Man awkwardly gave him another smile.

"Can I visit your Yaocheng home? Your father has a good conscience, a member of the Imperial Army."

The Japanese must still remember her father, Guo Cong, who was killed by us. Guo Man immediately heard the meaning of biting out the words like holding back urine, and she nodded casually with a smile.

The Japanese officer walked away satisfied.

One evening, the Japanese officer showed up at Guo Manyaocheng Village's house, and he also brought gifts—a few catties of pork and a pack of rice, saying he was condolences to her family. But what should be condolences is her father who was raped and her family in Guinan Village. Why did they come to Yaocheng? The weasel greets the chicken New Year, the Japanese devils have ulterior motives.

In the evening, Guo Man's family had to warmly entertain the Japanese. After a few glasses of wine, the Japanese hooked up with Guo Man that night and put her to sleep.

Since then, the Japanese have paid great attention to the existence of anti-Japanese forces in Yaocheng Village, and will inevitably eliminate the threat from here. Because it was a big village at that time, and it was the closest to the Guizi Fortress in the town, the Japanese devils were extremely afraid and believed that there were anti-Japanese "bombs" buried in it, and they were thinking of ways to strengthen the investigation.

Sure enough, in the following period, one of our anti-Japanese traffic officers in the village was arrested and brutally killed, and his home was burned down. Two days later, the head of the traffic man was hanging on the gun tower, dripping with blood. The village's anti-Japanese backbone, the whole family was burned alive in the house at night.

The anti-Japanese force in the big village of Yaocheng was destroyed by the devils overnight, and the enemy succeeded.

This is definitely not normal, nor is it a coincidence. Lao Li in the mangroves was restless after hearing the news. What happened and why this happened, he personally led people to sneak into Yaocheng Village to investigate.

Many villagers were worried and afraid of Japanese retaliation, and no one dared to tell the truth to Lao Li and the others.

The mother was one of the people involved in this operation, because she and Lao Li immediately thought that there might be a problem with Guo Man.

At this time, Guo Man and the Japanese officer were having a heated fight, and they frequently went on dates at her home in Yaocheng Village. Guo Man's husband is a small man, and his wife Guo Man was blatantly seduced by this Japanese officer to commit adultery.

Mother asked about the chance that Guo Man was not at home. That night, she forced and coaxed her husband to ask her husband out of the woods. Taking advantage of his "cuckold" anger, she explained our policy and enlightened him to tell us what we wanted to know. The truth.

Guo Man's husband said that this time the devil succeeded in the village because there was a traitor in the village, and he secretly betrayed our anti-Japanese personnel with a heavy reward. But it has nothing to do with his wife Guo Man. Whether what he said is true or not remains to be verified by us.

After verifying the traitor, Lao Li issued an order to eliminate the traitor. All activities of our personnel are mostly carried out under cover at night. But that night, the anti-rape operation was greatly affected by an unexpected and great impact.

The extermination team entered the village at night to arrest people, and went under the big banyan tree at the entrance of the village in the dark. It happened to collide head-on with the Japanese officer who came to Guo Man's house to fool around. As soon as the two sides approached, they guessed who the other party was. During the escape, the guy had a gun battle with our personnel, escaped with injuries, and then alerted the devils in the artillery turret to dispatch. Our action that night was unsuccessful and nearly caused casualties.

A week later, Lao Li ordered the extermination operation to be carried out again, and Fang arrested and eliminated the traitor in Yaocheng Village. The gun was fired by Lao Li himself.

At this moment, Lao Li breathed a sigh of relief. In a speech, he talked about the idea of ​​continuing to solve the problem of Yaocheng Village.

"Guo Man has been cheating with Japanese devils in the village for a long time, which has greatly affected our anti-Japanese work in the village in the future. We have not yet found out whether she has acted as a traitor. In order to completely solve the problem, I decided that this person must be Make a resolute strike! To avoid future troubles."

Someone immediately agreed and said: "Yes, the children of traitors, do everything to get rid of evil. She is not a good thing, she must hate us for killing her father."

The mother said that she took the initiative to try to carry out what Lao Li said at this time: "I will clean up her this time." The mother did not say more, but her attitude was firm. make up what.

With an amiable demeanor, Old Li said with a smile, "Comrade Aimin, you are no longer an ordinary person, but a member of the Communist Party. To put it mildly, you were merciful and soft-hearted last time. Man, she has caused us a lot of trouble this time! This time, we can't be softer, we must resolutely attack the enemy, and we must not lose the true nature of our struggle. I still believe in you this time - okay, you bring it with you A few people, the sooner you can deal with it, the better."

Lao Li asked his mother to bring three people to form a team of four, and they entered Yaocheng Village in the dark. The moonlight that night was particularly beautiful, the moonlight flowing like mercury and the breeze blowing across my face.

This time Guo Man was tied up by Wu Hua and pulled out of the house with a piece of rags in her mouth. That was the mouth that she had closed when she was struggling to cry. She couldn't make any noise on this refreshing and beautiful night. She didn't have time to put on that cheongsam, and she was wearing short-sleeved pajamas tied with ropes. Just let the tears flow.

After they escorted her out of the village, they walked to the rocky pit in the wild forest far away from the Guizi Fortress. This is the murder pit of the Guizi.

The mother said to Guo Man, who was kneeling beside the rock pit, "Are you afraid? Guo Man."

Guo Man twisted his bound and sturdy body and stood up staggeringly, shook his head, and seemed to have an intention to speak. The mother said to the people around her, "Untie the rope on her body." Some team members hesitated, and the mother stepped forward and pulled out the cloth strip from Guo Man's mouth, and then untied the rope on her body.

What everyone didn't expect at this time was that Guo Man threw himself into his mother's arms and burst into tears: "Second sister, second sister, why did you kill me? Second sister, you want to save me... You can't take kindness and revenge... …”

The mother pushed her away with difficulty: "Don't say favor or not, you are afraid of death? I tell you Guo Man, now you tell me the truth, maybe we won't kill you. I ask you, the anti-Japanese team in your village Killed by the devil, what did you do?"

"Heaven and earth conscience, I know that you can't spare me for doing that kind of thing. I'm afraid to die like my father. It's all done by the greedy ghost in the village. I won't do this kind of capital crime. If there is half a lie in what you said, you will kill me afterwards." Guo Man cried again, and knelt down again to assure his mother that she was not lying.

"Then how do you talk about adultery with Japanese officers?"

"It's all forced by the Japanese, can't I do it?"

"People will force you to be this shameless thing? Scum, you really deserve to die!"

"Second sister, I'm shameless, but I'm not a scum, do I really deserve to die?"

"Don't call me sister, I don't have a shameless face like you..."

The mother listened to Guo Man's cry angrily, silent and hesitant. The bright moonlight disappeared, and the smell from the wind was foul, and a suffocating hint of death immediately floated around. The people present did not expect it at this time, and the mother pointed to a path ahead and said: " Let me save you from death today, get out of here, go to a place where you can't see anyone, and don't let us see you again, a shameless bastard." The mother's voice was full of anger, and no one could see her face clearly at the moment. expression on.

Guo Man hurriedly took a step back, kowtowed to his mother, and stumbled away in a panic. Seeing this, a team member suddenly raised a gun in the direction Guo Man was running in and said, "Did you run like this?"

"Crack", he shot Guo Man abruptly, and Guo Man fell on a big rock by the roadside and died.

This was unexpected. My mother was shocked and nervous. She didn't expect it a hundred times: "Who told you to shoot? She shouldn't be guilty!"

The shooter said: "It is estimated that you will let her go. I am carrying out Lao Li's instructions."

I see. The mother was stunned, extremely angry, and squatted on the ground speechlessly. She covered her face and did not let the tears flow. She suddenly felt a cold, untrusted misunderstanding in the air, and then said to the shooting team: "Please You go and notify her family to collect the body, I don't want Guo Man to be eaten by wild dogs after he dies, this is the only thing we can do for her now."

On the first ghost festival of the seventh lunar month after Guo Man's death, her mother in Guinan Village asked people in the village, "Have you seen Guo Er come back? My family Guo Cong and Guo Man were both killed by her. A dead ghost has returned, and they are going to drag her to the underworld. Guo Er, I think you can run away?" I heard that the old woman went crazy later.

The night when Guo Man was buried, the mother returned to the mangroves. She felt very sleepy and fell asleep without saying a word. She did not report to Lao Li about the execution of the mission that day.

Just getting up the next morning, she found that Lao Li was standing on another boat, the sun was scorching hot, he was talking to people, his back turned to her, as if he was waiting for her to come to report on his own initiative.

Maybe Lao Li already knew what her mother thought she should report. What Lao Li would say to her, she had expected that she should do what she wanted to do.

She didn't have this idea until she saw Lao Li in front of her. Until the evening of that day, her mother walked out of the anti-Japanese base in the mangrove forest without saying a word to anyone. She ran to Hecun, Yanfeng Town, far northwest of the mangrove forest. village. At this time, my father Wang Xueqing and Murakami's house set fire to the Japanese devils, and his wife was killed indiscriminately.

The mother seemed to have a premonition of something, and her spiritual induction and call made her take a firm step in her life.

She left by herself in a small boat, and quietly came to a sea flat along the winding river. The tide was receding. This is the place where her sister was killed by the Japanese plane. She said, "Sister, I'm going to Wang Xueqing. Come back to see you and the people here, I won't leave you."

She choked up, the boat left the mangroves, a line of egrets passed over her head, she thought: her sister heard what she said.

In the years before the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, typhoons visited the mangroves every year. Natural disasters and the final resistance of the invaders aggravated the continuous occurrence of various disasters, and the people were struggling.

In the year of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the typhoon along the mangrove coast became bigger and bigger each time, and the frequency seemed to be more than in previous years. The typhoon that people remember roared for two days and two nights. Scrape flying, swirl between heaven and earth, and fall legendary on a piece of shit in that murder pit. A century-old banyan tree in Hecun Shang Village fell. The mangroves on the sea were hit by a storm that devastated the sea and the waves.

At the same time, my mother carried the burden of the family on her shoulders during these days in Hecun Shang Village. Converted to the role of mother, my sister finally came to the world in the miserable wind and rain that year. There is one more person in this family. And this family of four, relying only on the mother to work alone to support the whole family. His father was unable to work in the field with his sick body, and his mother had to run around to find medicine for him, and his health improved day by day.

The grandmother said that the Wang family is blessed. If there was no mother in this family, it would have ended long ago.

After the typhoon, the mother, wearing a bamboo hat and a scorpion, braved the wind and rain with each household in the cold water and mud paddy fields, desperately trying to harvest the rice that was submerged by the rain. If the rice rots in the paddy fields, all the people in the village will have to escape this year if they are not starved to death.

At this time, her mother was already a down-to-earth peasant woman, and the beautiful eyes between her brows still had the charm of those days. She carried a load of wet rice that had been snatched from the water on her shoulders, and said to her father who came to help dry the rice: "Natural and man-made disasters, I don't know if Mangrove Lao Li and the others still have food, let's go back someday. Mangroves, send them some rice." Father said, "Yes, it's been a long time since I was separated from the people on the team, I've been much better with your care, and I want to return to the team."

"Let's go back to the team together," said the mother.

On a certain day in September 1945, rumors spread throughout the country that the Japanese invaders announced their unconditional surrender. On this day, the sun is shining brightly on the earth, and people rejoice. Counting down the days just entered the October day, that is, after the big typhoon blew, the sky was beautiful, the mother and father stood in the bright sun, sweating profusely day and night to dry the eight dans that were recovered after the typhoon. Rice, in the only stone husk in the village that can take off the rice husk, the two of them stepped on the heavy stone scorpion, and the grandmother helped, the whole family sweated like rain, and it took two days and a half of the night to grind out a load of white rice. of rice.

The next day, before the dawn of the rooster, my mother handed my three-year-old sister to my grandmother, and my mother and father carried a load of rice that was covered with yak leaves to hide it.

The two of them were not afraid of hardships and obstacles. They walked along the unmanned path, carrying the burdens for a long time until dawn. They went to the beach and finally found a small boat. They rowed into the mangroves along the river ditch. With Lao Li and the people in the team.

At this time, Lao Li and the others in the mangroves were in ragged clothes and were close to running out of food, but their spirits were very full, and everyone was still immersed in the victory of the Anti-Japanese War for a long time.

Old Li still had that optimistic smile. He said, "Although the Anti-Japanese War has been won, our struggle with the Kuomintang reactionaries is still going on. Now we can't completely get out of the mangrove forest. Comrade Wang Xueqing and Aimin are very good to return to the team. You brought them here. The rice is the timely rain, and the organization will remember your credit."

My parents smiled at each other. Everyone said a lot of things to each other that had been separated for a long time. At this time, Lao Li said rudely: "Comrade Guo Aimin has been away from the team for too long without the approval of the organization. Your party organization relationship has been divorced, and you can apply again. Considering that your family There are still one young and one old to be taken care of, you plan to stay now or go home is your choice.”

The mother replied in embarrassment: "I really want to fight with you until the day when the whole country wins and walks out of the mangrove forest."

There was a trace of sadness in my mother's heart when she said this. Because she thought of her three-year-old daughter at home and my lonely grandmother in her old age. When her mother was not at home, in the stormy days, this little one could not survive.

My mother asked my father to stay, and she returned to my hometown, He Murakami. Since this year, she has not changed the fate choice her mother made. She worked as a farmer in her hometown and became a village cadre. After liberation, the organization asked her to work in the city, but she did not agree. She did not change her original intention throughout her life, and became a CCP member again while working in the countryside until her death.