It was still dark the next day, and the village was still dark.
I quietly got up from the bed, moving very gently for fear of waking up my family. But as soon as I moved, my brother beside me woke up immediately.
After waking up, he didn't speak, just looked at me quietly
I touched his head, but I didn't dare to say anything for fear that tears would fall when I opened my mouth.
Outside the house, my mother had already gotten up early and handed me the cloth bag she had packed overnight, which contained the wheat cakes she had baked overnight, fried soybeans, and two pairs of thick cloth shoes.
She didn't cry, but her eyes were frighteningly red, and she looked like she hadn't slept all night.
"It's cold on the road. Change your shoes when they are worn out. Don't walk barefoot. Eat sparingly and don't go hungry."
She warned me every time, as if I would never come back.
"Don't be brave outside, life is the most important thing."
I held the cloth bag and nodded heavily.
Dad stood in the yard holding the door frame, coughing and wheezing intermittently. He had aged several years overnight.
He didn't say any more words of advice, he just looked at me for a long time, and finally uttered one sentence slowly.
"Come back alive"
I don't dare to stay longer. I'm afraid if I stay a little longer, I won't be able to leave.
I took one last look at the home where I had lived for fifteen years, turned around and walked towards the entrance of the village.
My younger brother followed me, trotting all the way, not daring to cry, so he followed me silently until we reached the entrance of the village.
More than a dozen recruits have gathered at the entrance of the village.
Captain Fang was already waiting there, with a tall and straight posture. When he saw me coming, he nodded towards me
"Coming."
"Well, here I come, Captain Fang"
From this moment on, Dog Leftover in the mountains has completely stayed in the mountains. Every step forward is the path of soldier Wang Lei.
There were no carriages and horses, no baggage, and everyone only had an old cloth bag, a cloth coat, and a pair of cloth shoes.
The captain said that the fighting on the front line was tense, and all vehicles and materials were given priority to deliver ammunition and the seriously wounded. We recruits all rushed to the front line on foot.
Destination, Shanghai
That's a distant place I've only heard of and never seen in my life
The team set out on the road in great strength, walking out of the mud path that I have walked for fifteen years.
At first, I couldn't help but keep looking back.
I looked back at the familiar mountains and the familiar road. Only when I could no longer see the familiar mountains and the familiar road did I withdraw my gaze and grit my teeth and move forward.
Most of our new recruits are farmers from surrounding mountain villages.
Every household is filled with ordinary people who have been poor all their lives, and everyone has fear and uneasiness hidden on their faces.
No one was laughing or joking on the road.
The entire team was quiet, with only the sounds of heavy footsteps and heavy breathing as they moved forward.
In the first few days, I could still bear it.
I grew up in the mountains, and my porcelain is solid. Traveling thousands of miles is no child's play.
Within a week, everyone's legs were useless
The cloth soles were worn to a thin layer, and the soles of my feet were covered in blisters, which were broken and broken again. The blood soaked into the socks and stuck to my feet. Every step I took was an excruciating pain.
Many men in the team gritted their teeth in pain. When it was time to rest, they would not get up from sitting down. When they took off their shoes, their soles were all red and ulcerated.
Me too.
At night in the ruined temple, I used the faint firelight to pop open the blisters, squeeze out the blood, and bandage them with coarse cloth. My fingertips were shaking with pain, but I gritted my teeth and said nothing.
I have an elder brother from a neighboring village who is six years older than me. His name is Chen Dazhu. He is honest and honest.
Seeing that I was the youngest, he never complained about being tired and took the initiative to come over and help me wrap the cloth strips during rest at night.
"You kid, you look thin, but you have strong bones."
While he was bandaging me, he sighed softly
"This is the first time I have seen such a young soldier. You are only fifteen, and you should still be acting coquettishly with your parents at home."
I looked down at my feet, which were covered with thick calluses and wounds, and shook my head slightly.
"It's okay. I grew up in the mountains and can bear it. My name is Wang Lei. There are many rocks and my life is tough."
He was stunned for a moment, then smiled, but his eyes were full of bitterness.
"Yes, we all hope that we will survive and come back alive."
Along the way, we gradually became familiar with each other
During the night break, everyone sat together and mostly talked about the fields at home, parents, wives, children, and younger brothers and sisters.
Some people are worried about the rice that is about to mature at home, and worry that no one will harvest it, and the harvest will be so barren in one season.
Some people are thinking about their old mother who is lying in bed. They are worried about her and cannot sleep every night.
Some people are newly married and have a baby who has just turned one month old at home. When he mentions the baby, his voice is filled with tears.
In everyone's heart, there is concern and reluctance.
I sat in the corner of the crowd, listening silently and not saying much.
I miss home too.
I miss my father who keeps coughing, my mother who works for me every night, my innocent-eyed brother who is always following me, my docile old buffalo, and the peaceful and peaceful days in the mountains.
The further we go and the further away from home we are, the more regrets and fears appear in our hearts more frequently.
At night when I lie on the ground sleeping, I often open my eyes and look at the moon in the sky.
The same moon shines on our home thousands of miles away and on us rushing to die.
I asked myself over and over again, do I regret it?
Regret.
I am still afraid of death, afraid of artillery fire, afraid of blood and flesh flying everywhere, afraid of burying my bones in a foreign land, and afraid that I will never return to that green mountain in this life.
But I never look back.
I remember the words of Captain Fang, I remember the tears of the refugees, and I remember that if we all hide, our home will be gone.
The days on the road are boring, tiring, painful, but also peaceful.
Every day before dawn, we would get up and go on the road until sunset. Sometimes we would rush forward, and we would march in the dark under the moonlight at night.
When I was hungry, I took a few bites of hard wheat cakes and dried soybeans, and drank them with cold water on the roadside.
When you are tired, just sit down and rest for a while. Don't dare to stop for a long time. The team cannot fall behind.
The injuries on my feet were repeated over and over, scabbing, abrading, and scabbing again. Finally, thick blood calluses formed on the soles of my feet, which were so painful that I no longer felt any pain at all.
Along the way from Anhui Huaining, we passed through small towns and counties.
The further east you go, the more chaotic the world becomes.
Originally, we were relatively safe in the mountains, but as we got closer to the Jiangnan hinterland, everything was devastated.
Abandoned houses, torn down courtyard walls, and burned-out villages can be seen everywhere on the roadside. Everywhere on the road are people fleeing, with their families and families, ragged clothes, sallow complexion, and hollow and numb eyes.
From time to time, you can see broken baggage, broken farm tools, and children's toys discarded on the roadside.
Occasionally, you can still see bloodstains on the roadside that have not been cleaned up, and you can see the pits where the shells have exploded.
In the past, I only heard from refugees that the war was hard and the world was in chaos, but I never had a clear idea.
It wasn't until I saw the ruins and desolation with my own eyes that I truly understood what a troubled world is.
What is broken mountains and rivers, what is displacement.
Chen Dazhu was walking beside me, looking at the miserable situation along the way, gritting his teeth and cursing in a low voice
"Those bastard Japanese have ruined all your good days."
Everyone in the team was silent and clenched their fists
The fear, withdrawal, and cowardice that I felt along the way were suppressed little by little after seeing these sufferings with my own eyes.
Afraid or afraid.
But I felt more energetic.
A sense of dissatisfaction, unwillingness, and a desire to protect our homeland.
The comrades who walked together on the road, from being strangers and estrangements at the beginning, gradually turned into relatives who relied on each other.
Long distance march is the most demanding thing
If someone can't walk, the person next to him will lend a hand to help him
Someone had a serious foot injury and could not keep up with the team, so everyone slowed down and waited. It was windy and rainy at night, and the older men gave their sheltered position to me, the youngest.
No one complained, no one cared.
In troubled times, walking together is fate, and we are brothers in life and death.
Captain Fang walked at the front of the team all the way, never giving himself special treatment, hiking like us, eating dry food like us, and sleeping on the ground like us.
He didn't talk much, but he protected us new recruits in everything.
When we pass by a small town where rebels are entrenched, he will tell us in advance to put away our belongings and not to run around.
When camping at night, he personally stood guard and let us sleep a little longer
Some people were depressed, secretly wiping tears, and wanted to run away home. He would not scold them, but would just sit beside them and quietly accompany them, whispering a few words of enlightenment.
He often tells us
"Afraid of being embarrassed or not, who is not afraid of death? But when you put on these clothes, every step you take, you are protecting the lights of thousands of families behind you."
I keep it in mind.
On the twenty-eighth day of the march, we completely walked out of the rolling mountains and saw broad plains and straight roads that we had never seen before.
My horizons suddenly broadened, but my heart became heavier and heavier.
Captain Fang tells us that within three days, we will reach the boundary of Shanghai.
The closer you get to the front line, the more oppressive the air becomes.
I could hear a faint rumbling sound in the distance. I didn't know what it was at first, but later the captain told me that it was the sound of artillery.
It's the sound of the battlefield.
Before I was fifteen, the loudest sound I ever heard was thunder and lightning from the sky
But now, what is heard in the distance is the roar of murderous artillery fire.
Camping at night, everyone couldn't sleep.
The fatigue and hard work on the road were all replaced by the fear of going to the battlefield.
Some people smoked silently all night long, some people lowered their heads to secretly wipe away tears, and some people repeatedly rubbed their rough palms, trembling with nervousness.
Me too.
My heart was pounding wildly, my hands and feet were cold, and when I closed my eyes at night, I could see the scene of shells exploding and flesh and blood flying.
Chen Dazhu was lying next to me, chatting with me in a low voice, with a trembling voice.
"Leizi, are you afraid?"
I nodded honestly.
"Afraid. Extremely afraid."
"I'm afraid too."
He smiled bitterly
"I still have my parents, my wife, and my children at home. I really don't want to die. I still want to live and go home to farm and watch my children grow up."
I turned my head and looked at the dark night sky and whispered
"I also want to go back alive. I want to go back to the mountains, stay with my parents, and take my brother to dig out bird's nests and buy maltose."
We all want to live.
No one wants to die.
But at dawn the next day, when the team assembled, everyone still stood up, picked up their cloth bags, and walked firmly in the direction of the roar of artillery fire.
No one ran away, no one retreated, and no one fell behind.
I looked at the men around me who were full of fear but still moving forward, and suddenly I completely understood.
Heroes are never born fearless
Heroes are thousands of ordinary people who are afraid of death and force themselves to move forward in troubled times.
From a child who just wanted to hide in the mountains to survive, I walked thousands of miles, stepping on blood, tears, exhaustion, and full of fear, step by step towards the most dangerous battlefield.
I walked for thirty-one days.
Thirty-one days, measuring thousands of miles of mountains and rivers with both feet
Three pairs of cloth shoes were worn out, and there were blood scabs on the bottom layers of the feet. I lost a whole circle of weight, and my face was tanned and peeling. The originally childish features of the young boy were stained with wind and frost and perseverance.
When clusters of high-rise buildings, wide streets, and densely packed city outlines finally appeared in the distance.
Captain Fang stopped and turned to look at us with a deep and solemn voice.
"Brothers, we're here."
"In front of you is Shanghai."
I stood in the queue and looked up at the rumored most prosperous city.
There was no bustle or bustling lights as imagined.
The sky in the distance is filled with smoke, heavy smoke, and there are faint flames rising into the sky.
This big city is soaked in war and blood.
I clenched my fists and my palms were covered in cold sweat.
I'm afraid.
I'm still scared to death.
But I no longer flinch or regret.
My name is Wang Lei.
Three stubborn rocks stand tall against the sky and the earth.
From now on, I will no longer be hiding in the mountains and fearing death Dog Leftover
I am a soldier.
They are the soldiers who stand in front of their homeland, stand in for the tens of millions of people behind them, and endure the artillery fire and wind and rain.
I have finished walking the Thousand Miles of Mountain Road.
Next, it's time to risk your life to protect the country.