Beautiful village

Author: Pan Xiaoping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: This happened many years ago. It's hard to say when, and it's hard to say whether it was during the reign of Emperor Daoguang or Emperor Xianfeng. People's lives were very hard. The banks of the Huai River had drought or flood almost every year for ten years. Bandits rose up like locusts—Jizi, Laofengdui, and Chenyingzi Xiao Wu—coming and going every day. The world was in chaos. Jizi, Laofengdui, and Chenyingzi Xiao Wu were all notorious bandits in this area. The river was no less turbulent. Down from Zhengyang Pass, checkpoints were set up every thirty or twenty miles. The officials collecting taxes at the checkpoints were as stern as, even stripping the skin off large merchant ships coming from Jiangnan, let alone smuggling boats. A small unit of officials was chasing a smuggling boat along the Huai River. They had been pursuing it for a long time. The boat wasn’t very big but also not small—it was a two-masted boat known locally as a "three-section pole," smaller than an official barge but larger than a "face-to-face rowboat." They claimed it was carrying bamboo and timber from the Tongbai Mountains upstream, but in reality, each bamboo tube was hollowed out, filled with smuggled salt. It was Huai River salt, smuggled from the Banpu Salt Field. Back then, smuggling salt was a death sentence, so they deliberately chose a route going against the current when transferring it from land to water. The officials at Zhengyang Pass only realized they had let the boat go when they saw the woman’s eyes darting away. The man looked familiar, and when they came to their senses and reported to the authorities, the boat had already sailed down the river for over a hundred miles. Zhengyang Pass is the throat of the upper to middle reaches of the Huai River, where numerous tributaries like the Fei River and Ying River converge into it. There’s an old saying, "Seventy-two waters gather at Zhengyang." The officials gave chase with all their might, running for a day and a night and a half, and finally caught up near Xiasi Pass. The section of the Huai River from Zhengyang Pass to Xiasi Pass is particularly complex in terrain. The southern bank is a series of rolling hills, while the northern bank is flat as a plain. The river winds in an S-shape, but at Xiasi Pass, it suddenly becomes treacherous. The distance between the east and west banks of Xiasi Pass is less than half a kilometer, with cliffs like swords and surging waves crashing against the shore. They were now very close to Xiasi Pass—just a couple dozen miles away. The officials couldn’t afford to slacken their pace. If they didn’t catch up here, they would lose the chance forever, and it would be too dangerous. The daylight was gradually dimming, and night was approaching. They longed to pounce on the boat like starving wolves, eliminating the couple and their two children, leaving no survivors. The couple on the boat didn’t dare to delay either. They rowed with all their might, hoping the sky would grow dark quickly. If they couldn’t escape, the darkness would provide cover, allowing them to evade the officials’ eyes and leave the two children on the small boat to save themselves. There were four people on the boat—two adults and two children. The man was named Yan, known as "Yan Laohan" on the river for his good voice; the woman was named Zhou, whose family name was Yin, and was known as "Yin Zhouzi." She was not married to this man. The two children were Longlong, the son of Yan Laohan, and Fengfeng, the daughter of Yin Zhouzi. Originally, the four people were from two families, each with their own boat, engaged in smuggling. They mainly smuggled salt, often traveling together. Two months ago, they suffered a disaster, leaving some dead and others injured. Only then did the two families merge into one. Poor and humble, the couple...