Chapter 103
During the Chinese New Year, while other family members were celebrating the New Year happily in the army, Yang Qiujin took her two children and mother-in-law to the courtyard of the large house in the town, eating a sumptuous meal in silence.
Li Xiu'e ate her food intermittently and said, "It's New Year's Day, and I don't know if Shengqing is out there and has hot soup and hot food to eat."
Li Xiu'e didn't know what her son's specific job was, but she knew that his job was very hard. He usually patrolled back and forth along the border, carrying a little dry food with him. He ate the dry food when he was hungry and drank icy snow water when he was thirsty.
On New Year's Eve, people all over the country were happily celebrating the festival at home, but these border guards were still guarding their posts to protect the safety of the people and the border.
Yang Qiujin put a large piece of spicy chicken into her bowl and said, "Mom, don't worry about Shengqing. No matter how hard it is for them to patrol the border, they will always think of ways to make their lives better during the New Year. The organization will also treat them well and send them fresh fruits, vegetables, meat and other food so that they can have a good New Year."
The border guards who stand guard at the checkpoints and patrol the border have a hard life, and the country is naturally aware of this. Supplies to the border guards may not be in place on normal days, but during the New Year and other festivals, fresh fruits, vegetables, flour, rice, and meat are indispensable.
Li Xiu'e knew that the country would not treat border defense officers badly. She sighed and said, "It's freezing cold at the border. Although I can have a bite of hot food, it's not as good as staying at home."
Yang Qiujin smiled and did not respond to Li Xiu'e.
She held the dancing little Tianxing in one hand, and with the other hand, she picked up a small piece of soft and glutinous pork skin from a bowl of stewed pig's trotters and put it into Xiao Tianxing's mouth, letting her try to eat it.
Chen Tianyou, who was chewing a chicken leg, saw this and said quickly, "Mom, my sister hasn't even grown any teeth yet. If you give her meat, aren't you afraid that she will swallow it and not be able to digest it?"
"Who said she didn't grow teeth?" Yang Qiujin took a small white floral handkerchief and placed it under Xiao Tianxing's chin. She stretched out her hand and pushed down Xiao Tianxing's lower lip, revealing a small tooth the size of a grain of rice that had just emerged. She said, "She was drooling a lot in the past few days, and she couldn't sleep well at night, and she was humming in her mouth. I saw that she had neither a cold nor a fever, so I guessed that she should grow small teeth. Sure enough, she grew out today. When I was feeding her this morning, she bit me and it hurt."
Chen Tianyou went over to take a look and saw a small tooth. He exclaimed in surprise and reached out to touch Xiao Tianxing's head and said, "Sister, you can't bite mommy. If you bite mommy and hurt her, she will have to wean you. And you don't eat much, so you will starve to death."
When Xiao Tianxing was six months old, Yang Qiujin tried to feed her rice porridge, malted milk, egg yolks and other salt-free foods to make her nutrition more balanced. However, she was not very interested in these foods. She only ate a little each time and wanted to drink breast milk.
Now that little Tianxing is more than seven months old and has grown a little tooth, Yang Qiujin tries giving her some soft-stewed meat to see if she likes it.
The little girl's eyes lit up when she ate pig trotters for the first time. She grabbed the skin with her two chubby little hands and kept putting it into her mouth. She ate the soft, tender and fragrant pig trotter skin and didn't hear what her brother was saying.
The little girl ate the small piece of pork skin in less than a minute, slurping it up. She looked at Yang Qiujin with an unsatisfied look, waving her hands and making "oh oh" sounds, as if to say, "Mom, I want more."
"Tianxing, you can't eat anymore. You are still too young. If you eat too much meat, you won't be able to digest it. When you are older and your teeth grow out and you can chew things, mom will give you more food." Yang Qiujin took another clean small handkerchief and wiped the oil stains off her little hands.
Li Xiu'e said, "Qiu Jin, if you want to feed your child, why don't you find a eloquent and blessed person to give her some meat and feed her. Just tell her to feed her."
There is a saying in their hometown, that is, when a child is fed meat and vegetables for the first time, she will stick to whoever introduced her to meat and vegetables.
In order for their children to grow up well, many families will look for a blessed person who is eloquent to teach their children how to eat. That way, the children will also be eloquent and blessed when they grow up.
Yang Qiujin didn't know whether to laugh or cry when her mother-in-law would occasionally talk about feudal superstition. "Mom, why do you need to find someone else to help Tianxing? I'm eloquent, married a good husband, have a good mother-in-law, and gave birth to a son and a daughter. I'm a very lucky person. Wouldn't it be great if she looks like me when she grows up?"
When Li Xiu'e heard this, she realized that it was true. "Look at me, I am getting more and more confused as I get older. Qiu Jin, you are a blessed person."
Yang Qiujin smiled and said to Chen Tianyou, "Your father is not at home, so you will be the one to set off the New Year's fireworks this year. Are you afraid?"
"Don't be afraid. I'm not a child anymore. When dad is not at home, I will take on the responsibilities of the family. I am the second pillar of the family." Chen Tianyou said vaguely while chewing on the braised pork ribs.
"It's best not to be afraid. You are the pillar of the family. We have almost finished eating. Go clean up the dishes and wash them. When you are done, come back and I will give you a big red envelope."
When Chen Tianyou heard that there was a big red envelope, he was very active in cleaning up the tables, chairs, and dishes. When Li Xiu'e wanted to help, he asked her to sit down and wait for him to wash the pots and dishes. It was already dark outside and the road could not be seen. The sound of firecrackers could be heard everywhere in the town.
Chen Tianyou was so excited that he ran to Yang Qiujin and bowed to her and Li Xiu'e, shouting, "Mom, Grandma, Happy New Year, and may you make a fortune. Give me the red envelope."
Both of them happily took out red envelopes wrapped in red paper and gave them to him.
When Chen Tianyou opened the letter, he saw that Li Xiu'e had given him five yuan and Yang Qiujin had given him two yuan, both double the amount from last year.
"Thank you, grandma, thank you, mom." Chen Tianyou was very happy and ran out with the money.
Today is New Year's Day and the state-owned stores in the town are open so that the children in the town can buy firecrackers to set off.
Yang Qiujin called him, "Go early and come back early. The town is in chaos. Don't play outside for too long."
"knew."
It's a rare festival, so everyone is on holiday. The streets in Tianli Town are bustling with activity.
Normally, Tianli Town is deserted at night as everyone stays at home to sleep. But today, after dinner, people came in pairs of three or four to buy firecrackers, watch movies, talk about dating, and even secretly go to black dance halls to sing and dance. The streets were full of people.
Holding the red envelope in his hand, Chen Tianyou walked out of the alley in front of his home, crossed two streets, and arrived at the state-owned store in Tianli Town.
The store was bustling with people. The adults were buying things that were on sale today and didn't require coupons, while the children were crowding in front of the counter selling firecrackers, chattering and clamoring to the salesperson about what kind of firecrackers they wanted.
Chen Tianyou asked for several kinds of firecrackers that were extremely powerful and made very loud noises when set off. Before leaving, he heard the salesperson introduce to another little girl that this year there were fireworks imported from the Soviet Union. They made no explosive sound when set off, would not explode on your hands, and looked very beautiful when set off, making them very suitable for girls.
He thought that Wang Songyue wanted to set off firecrackers every year, but was afraid of getting her hands blown up, and was also afraid of hearing the sound of firecrackers exploding. He thought that this firework should be suitable for her, so he was generous and spent one dollar to buy nearly fifty fireworks, and walked home with them in his hand.
Crossing a street and passing through a dark alley, he seemed to see Xu Tao being dragged into the alley.
He was stunned for a moment, then followed uncertainly.
In an alley less than two meters wide, Xu Tao followed a few young men aged between 15 and 20, not knowing where they were going.
Chen Tianyou followed her and grabbed Xu Tao's hand: "Xu Tao, why are you a girl in town so late at night? Where are you going? Who are these people?"
"Oh, Chen Tianyou, what a coincidence, I can meet you here." Xu Tao didn't expect to run into him here, and she was very happy to see him. She said to him without hiding anything: "I'm going to work, and they are the ones who took me to work."
Chen Tianyou let go of her hand, frowning: "You are only 11 years old, what kind of job do you do?"
Xu Tao looked at him awkwardly, then turned around to look at the unhappy young men standing behind her, and whispered, "I'm washing dishes for a restaurant. I'm paid one yuan a day. I've been washing dishes for almost a month and have earned nearly thirty yuan. I'm keeping this money for myself. I'll use it to pay for tuition and living expenses when I get into high school."
Chen Tianyou knew that Xu Tao's parents didn't care about the lives of the sisters, and only allowed them to continue their studies after being warned by the military's discipline team.
He felt very uncomfortable and asked the question in his mind, "What kind of hotel is open at night and wants a little girl like you to wash dishes at night? The people around you look like scoundrels and don't seem like good people. Don't be fooled by them. You might be sold to a faraway place and become someone's wife without knowing it."
There are more men than women in border areas, and many nomadic men cannot find wives, so they set their sights on young women from the mainland who have moved here in recent years.
In order to get married, some black-hearted men cheat and deceive women, lure them to remote mountainous areas or desert beaches, beat and scold them until they can no longer fight back or escape from their territory, then rape them and force them to give birth to children. When no one can find them, they just accept their fate.
Chen Shengqing occasionally mentioned these things to Chen Tianyou, because their border defense department helped various farms to find missing female educated youth, and also helped local families to find women and girls.
When the young men heard what Chen Tianyou said, they were unhappy. A fat, big-eared teenage boy said, "Who is this young man who is making such a fuss? We kindly took Xu Tao to work there. She has been washing dishes in that restaurant for almost a month. She gets paid every day after washing dishes. How can this be false?"
A young man in his twenties with messy hair and sly eyes, who seemed to be the leader of these hooligans, said, "Xu Tao, do you still want to work? The boss said that today is New Year's Day, you have to wash the dishes for two yuan."
Xu Tao immediately said, "Go ahead, I'll leave right away."
She waved to Chen Tianyou and said, "You can go back. My sister knows that I'm going to wash the dishes. She's washing dishes at another restaurant in town. It'll be fine. Don't worry."
Chen Tianyou looked at her back as she left with those young people, and he felt something was strange in his heart. The first thing he did after returning home was to tell Yang Qiujin about this incident.
Yang Qiujin also felt something was wrong: "The situation in the past two years is not as serious as it was a few years ago. Many active people have opened some illegal restaurants in the town one after another. Some have also opened illegal bars following the Soviet Union. They are open day and night. I heard that the business is very good. But it is strange for Xu Tao, a little girl, to wash dishes with a few gangsters beside her."
Li Xiu'e, who was washing little Tianxing's feet, got anxious when she heard this: "Qiu Jin, you're a liar. How can a restaurant hire a girl to wash dishes at night and pay her every day? It's obvious that you're trying to win people's hearts and make that silly girl Xu Tao let down her guard so that you can sell her out later."
She stood up and said to Chen Tianyou, "No, I have to go and bring the girl back. Tianyou, you take me to find her."
"You useless girl. I've said everything I should say, but Xu Tao wouldn't listen at all. She only wanted to make money and said she wanted to save it for high school. She also said her sister was also washing dishes in another restaurant. Even if you go to find her, she won't go with you." Chen Tianyou said while washing his feet in the foot basin.
"That won't do. What if they get tricked into going somewhere else to become someone's concubine? Their lives will be ruined and they'll regret it to death. No, I have to find their dad and talk to him about this." Li Xiu'e wiped the water off her hands and walked out the door.
Yang Qiujin stopped her, "Mom, the matter has not been thoroughly investigated yet, don't tell Deputy Captain Xu about this. You know that Xu Tai doesn't like Xu Tao and her sister. If it weren't for the warning from the discipline team, he would not feel any guilt or pain even if he beat Xu Tao and her sister to death. If you go and tell Xu Tai that his two daughters went to the town to wash dishes to earn money late at night, he will not only not feel sorry for them but will also feel ashamed. He might even beat them to death and confiscate the money they worked hard to earn. Then Xu Tao and her sister might hate you."
"Then what do you say we should do? We can't just watch those two girls jump into the fire pit." Li Xiu'e was very worried.
Yang Qiujin wiped the water off Xiao Tianxing's feet and said, "Mom, don't worry. Today is the New Year, and there are many police patrolling in the town. Even if those hooligans want to kidnap them, they won't do it today. Tomorrow I will ask someone to find out about the unscrupulous restaurants in the town. If there are any cases of kidnapping girls, we will go and bring them back."
Early the next morning, the villagers of Tieke Township took action. They led out the strong horses from their homes, put more than a dozen horse racks on the horses, and placed the dead bodies of cattle and sheep on the horse racks.
After everyone finished breakfast, Sekli said to Chen Shengqing: "Comrade Chen, we are all ready, let's go."
Chen Shengqing nodded and gestured to the border guards who were also ready to go: "Everyone, form three-by-three formations to protect the people of Tieke Township as they go down the mountain and escort them safely to the nearest grocery store."
"Yes!" The soldiers answered in unison, picked up their weapons, and formed groups of three as trained by the troops. They guarded the horse-drawn carriages carrying beef and mutton from Tieke Township and began to go down the mountain.
In order to ensure that the beef and mutton could safely reach the grocery store a hundred miles away, Sailik gathered more than 20 strong Kyrgyz men, carrying hunting tools, guns, and a few hunting dogs. Half of them drove the carriage, while the other half rode horses on both sides of the team to protect their safety.
The way down the mountain was thrilling but safe. After half a day, the most thrilling part was the endless Tianshan grassland covered with ice and snow.
It was still snowing lightly, and the surroundings were covered in white, making it difficult to tell the direction. They could only rely on the tall, snow-capped mountains near the Gobi Beach in the distance to identify their location.
Chen Shengqing rode his tall horse, Zhuifeng, and walked slowly at the end of the horse team while using a military telescope to check the surroundings for any movement.
Zhang Lei was riding a date-red warhorse beside him, chewing a piece of fist-sized beef jerky that Sekli had given to him and Chen Shengqing before they set off.
The beef jerky was dried by the sun and wind until it was dry and tough, but it tasted salty and had a special beef flavor that became more delicious the more you chewed it.
Zhang Lei chewed a small piece of beef jerky until his cheeks hurt, but he had no intention of stopping.
He still felt happy to be able to eat meat in the snow and ice, and felt that this mission was not in vain.
He swallowed the beef jerky in his mouth, took a long breath and asked, "Deputy Captain Chen, did you find anything yesterday?"
He knew clearly that Chen Shengqing disappeared in the tent yesterday.
Soldiers are very alert when they sleep outside. Although everyone was busy all day yesterday and all the soldiers fell asleep due to fatigue, as a military officer, Zhang Lei would not fall into a deep sleep so easily. He woke up as soon as Chen Shengqing moved.
However, Chen Shengqing was his immediate superior, and he could not take any action without Chen Shengqing's orders.
After Chen Shengqing came back, he didn't say anything to him and just lay down to sleep.
He held it in for a long time, and when he saw that there was no one around and that the Kyrgyz men were all walking in front, he lowered his voice and asked.
"Does this thing look familiar to you?" Chen Shengqing took something out of the pocket of his military coat and handed it to him.
Zhang Lei took it and saw that it was a cigarette box. "Moheyan? Did you find it yesterday?"
"This type of cigarette was introduced from the Soviet Union to our border areas for cultivation. It's not surprising that many people smoke it. But Tieke Township is located on a plateau plain, and the people there smoke, just like many people in other regions. They like to use a two-finger-wide and two-inch-long tobacco paper, wrap a handful of chopped tobacco particles, seal the paper with saliva, and then light the cigarette to smoke, because this saves money and is convenient. As an old cigarette holder, why should Sekeli go to the trouble of buying sealed Mohe paper cigarettes? The price is much more expensive, and the smoke is not as strong as the bulk ones." Chen Shengqing said as he pulled Zhuifeng, who wanted to run faster, to keep his original slow speed.
"You mean, you got this cigarette from Sekli? Did you go to his tent last night?" Zhang Lei had a bad feeling in his heart, "If Sekli didn't buy it for himself, then who should smoke it? The Soviets? Could it be that Tieke Township was instigated by the Soviets and everyone in the township rebelled?"
"There is no subversion, at most it is a win-win cooperation between the two sides." Chen Shengqing wiped off the snowflakes hanging on his eyelashes, his handsome features were very cold in the wind and snow, "Sekli said that the cattle and sheep of their village were sold to the Soviets through regular foreign trade channels, but I don't think so. They rely on the port facing the Soviet Union. As long as they cross their snow-capped mountains, they can smuggle the cattle and mutton of the village and dig up precious medicinal materials to sell to the Soviets in exchange for what they want, such as sugar, oil, cloth and the like. The owner of the cigarette box is very likely to come to their village to discuss cooperation."
Zhang Lei's face darkened. "Collaborating with the Soviet Union to smuggle is no small matter. Should we investigate them?"
"No hurry." Chen Shengqing took out a cigarette from his pocket, put it in his mouth and chewed it, but didn't light it. "Let's play the long game to catch the big fish. Sekli likes to eat the cadres raised in their hometown. We have to dig them out."
Zhang Lei was startled. "Deputy Commander Chen, do you suspect that some of our cadres in Ava are colluding with the Soviets and engaging in smuggling?"
"In recent years, there are far more Soviet-made products in our border areas than before." Chen Shengqing thought of Ling Gaosheng, who used to wear the same military uniform as them but is now a desert bandit. He neither denied nor admitted it.
Of course Zhang Lei knew that the Soviet-made products that Chen Shengqing was talking about were not the Soviet-made products that were imported through the regular channel and needed to be purchased with Overseas Chinese Vouchers, but the Soviet-made products that were ubiquitous on the black market.
The border guards knew that life was not easy for ordinary people. In an era when everything had to be purchased with coupons, the existence of the black market undoubtedly made life more convenient for ordinary people.
As long as the black market doesn't go too far, they always turn a blind eye, but that doesn't mean the Border Guard will ignore large-scale smuggling operations.
Especially for this kind of large-scale smuggling, it is possible that it was done by cadres of border agencies and units in collusion with the Soviets. This is a serious crime of corruption, bribery, and smuggling, which is equivalent to treason and must be arrested.
Zhang Lei wanted to say something, but there was a commotion in front of him. He quickly asked, "What happened?"
"There are wolves following us." A particularly sturdy man named Ha Wuer came over on a green horse and gestured to Chen Shengqing and his companions in unstandard Chinese: "There are about thirty of them. They must have smelled the blood and followed us all the way. We must be prepared to fight them."
Hearing this, everyone's nerves tensed up and they looked around.
Chen Shengqing raised the military binoculars in his hand, looked around, and found a large group of wolves in the west, who were following them cautiously.
Chen Shengqing put down his binoculars and said calmly, "Don't be afraid. We have a battalion of soldiers, all armed with live ammunition, and you have more than 20 experienced and skilled herdsmen. This time we are only transporting dead cattle and mutton, not living animals. If they dare to get close, we will suppress them with firepower and they will retreat."
When Hawuer heard what he said, he felt relieved immediately.
In fact, the twenty people who came down the mountain this time were fully capable of dealing with the wolves. The People's Liberation Army came to rescue them, and they had new weapons. They just casually mentioned asking the PLA soldiers to take them to the grocery store, and they never thought that the PLA soldiers would agree.
The people of Hawule often graze in this area of thousands of miles. They are very familiar with the wolf packs that shuttle through the Gobi Desert, grasslands, and mountains. They can clearly distinguish where large and small wolf packs are active.
Wolves are very vengeful creatures and have high IQs. They know that nomads carry hunting dogs and guns, and if they are not extremely hungry, they will not easily attack the herdsmen's cattle and sheep.
Because once they come into conflict with herders, they are likely to lose their lives and suffer heavy losses.
Hawul said: "I have never seen the several adult wolves leading the group and the largest wolf king at the end. This group of wolves must have come from the Soviet border. As long as we shoot them, they will retreat."
But bullets are a rare commodity in this era. Even hunting and gun bullets are not cheap.
Relying on his large numbers and the courage given by the People's Liberation Army, Hawuer did not waste bullets by firing. He just called his tribesmen and gathered the carriages and horses together. Everyone loaded their guns and walked while looking back at the group of wolves following behind them.
The soldiers of the border defense department, also holding rifles and riding tall horses, surrounded the people of Tieke Township, forming a protective circle, wrapping them up inside, leaving the wolves in the pack no chance to attack.
Perhaps they were too murderous, or perhaps it was because the wolves had a keen sense of smell and smelled the oil and gunpowder from the guns. After chasing them for nearly an hour, the wolf king weighed the pros and cons again and again, and finally raised his head and let out a long howl, shouting to the wolves in the pack to retreat.
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