Cross-century diary

Author: Wei Zhongying / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: My father had already gone to Yan'an to join the revolutionary work for the Anti-Japanese War. From the moment I was born, I faced Japanese soldiers and puppet troops constantly raiding our village, burning, looting, and killing. Every time we had to flee the village, I was too young and couldn’t run fast. My mother was a foot-bound woman and couldn’t run fast either. The two of us were always left behind, sometimes in danger. Once, my mother rubbed some soot on her face and didn’t want to run anymore, but she was afraid something might happen to me, so she had to keep running. Sometimes, our relative’s village, Xiaomaquan, was relatively safer, so my mother and I would go there to hide for a few days. My maternal grandfather was Wang Laorang, the head of the household. My older maternal uncle was Hu Jiao, my younger maternal uncle was Xiao Weng, and my aunt was Jinzhu. My maternal grandfather’s house had a large backyard with many flowers, fruit trees, and other plants. In front of the backyard stood a well-built brick quadrangle house, and the rooftop was covered with a wire fence to prevent thieves from entering. I remember a group of bandits, taking advantage of the chaos, brandished guns and broke into the house, shouting and demanding 1,000 taels of silver or they would open fire. Despite my grandfather’s pleading, it was useless—the wire fence couldn’t stop them, so we had to give them 100 taels of silver before finally getting them to leave. My mother had a toothache, and the village doctor couldn’t treat it, so we had no choice but to go to the city of Zhao County for medical attention. My mother and I sat in a fine carriage (a covered, curtain-lined horse-drawn cart), and my older maternal uncle drove it. He had studied in the city and was familiar with it. We were constantly on edge during the journey. When entering the city gate, Japanese soldiers and puppet troops with weapons and fierce expressions checked the "Good Citizen Certificates." Once inside, the city was filled with white terror—people dared not look up or speak much. After seeing the doctor, we hurried back, thankfully without any trouble. When the Japanese puppet troops were coming, people could take their livestock with them while fleeing. If the livestock got spooked, the people would lose control. Both my family and my maternal grandfather’s family had lost large livestock during escapes, causing significant losses. Livestock were not as good at hiding in the wilderness as people and were easy targets. To solve this problem, my maternal grandfather and a few other families in the area dug a "dixianzi" (underground shelter) in their fields. They dug down about one person deep in an area of dozens of square meters, covered it with a roof, and it could hide dozens of people and ten or so large livestock. When the enemy came, the families would bring their livestock here to hide, and it worked quite well. P10
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