June 29, 1950, was a holiday day for Hongxing Primary School.
Sun Zhengguo's family is packing their things to go back to the countryside together tomorrow weekend. Sun Zhengguo has been looking forward to this day for a long time.
The next morning, the family of five prepared to leave. At the gate, they encountered Yan Bugui, the gatekeeper of the courtyard house.
"Hey, where are you headed?"
"Teacher Yan! The child misses his grandparents and maternal grandfather. He's planning to go to the countryside to stay for a while."
"Good morning, Teacher Yan x3".
"Early, early, early, going to the countryside is good." I thought that if my child went to live in the countryside, we could save a lot of food.
He didn't even consider that the Sun family might not care about such a small amount of money.
After leaving the house, we went to take a bus. The five of us spent 7,500 yuan to get off about two kilometers from Dongxiang Village, and then walked into the village. (In the early days of the People's Republic of China, the transportation in the capital was already quite good.)
After getting into the car, Sun Zhengguo looked at the scenery outside the window. He'd been reborn for a month and hadn't yet explored Beijing. He'd never been to Beijing in his previous life; now it was a good time to see it for himself.
I don't know if I can go back to my old hometown in Shandong Province, but all of that will have to wait until after the reform and opening up.
An hour later, the family of five got out of the car and headed towards the eastern village.
“Dajiang Wencui is back.”
I ran into an acquaintance at the village entrance on the way and greeted him.
"I brought the child back home during the holidays so he could stay with his grandparents for a while."
Sun Dajiang replied politely, and soon the group arrived at his grandfather's house. Both his grandfather's and maternal grandfather's houses were in good condition, each consisting of several large brick houses.
Grandpa and my second uncle weren't home; they were doing carpentry work for someone. Grandma, my second aunt, and a few children were at home.
Grandma was overjoyed to see her grandson and granddaughter arrive. (Unlike Jia Zhangshi, who only doted on her grandson and considered her granddaughter a financial burden. Jia Zhangshi: Old Jia, come and take them away!) She called to her second aunt to kill a chicken.
At noon, Lin Hong's family also arrived, bringing two wild rabbits (hunted by Lin Hong and Lin Wenjun). The two families sat at one table for adults and another for children. They ate with gusto, their mouths greasy with oil.
After dinner, they chatted for a while longer. Mr. and Mrs. Sun then prepared to return to the city. It was too late to catch any more buses. They left 500,000 yuan for each of the two families. Grandma and Grandpa tried to refuse for a long time, but they couldn't refuse and had to accept it.
Actually, both families were doing quite well in the village. The grandparents had their own land, and the grandfather and second uncle earned a good amount of money as carpenters.
My maternal grandfather's family also owned land. My maternal grandfather was the village chief, and my uncle trained with him and is now the village's militia company commander.
When Grandpa and Second Uncle returned home that evening, it was lively again. Sun Zhengguo asked his maternal grandfather to let him practice martial arts, and his grandfather agreed.
"As long as you can endure hardship, Grandpa will teach you everything."
"Don't worry, Grandpa." You have to understand that his brain contains a soul from the future. You have to understand that in his previous life, he was an orphan and had suffered all kinds of hardships.
The next morning, Sun Zhengguo arrived at his maternal grandfather's house (which was just a short walk from his paternal grandfather's house). Several children of similar age came to join in the fun.
"Grandpa knows both swordsmanship and boxing. Now that it's a peaceful era, let's start by learning boxing?"
"Grandpa's boxing style is called Tongbei Quan. Tongbei Quan is one of China's traditional boxing styles, with many different schools and origins. It was spread in the Beijing and Tianjin areas."
Created by Qi Xin in the late Qing Dynasty, it combines the pole technique of Mr. Ma from Henan with the knife technique of Mr. Zhao, forming the Twelve-Link Pole Technique, the Eight-Step Thirteen-Knife Technique, and the One Hundred and Eight Single-Hand Techniques.
The techniques primarily consist of five basic palm techniques: throwing, slapping, piercing, chopping, and gathering. Through the application of eight methods such as circling, grabbing, hooking, slicing, rubbing, and fanning, a wide variety of movements emerge in this style of boxing. Its characteristic is that the initial strike becomes a palm strike, the point becomes a fist strike, the return strike is still a palm strike, and then another point becomes a fist strike.
"In addition, it has six other types of stances, namely Qiankun Stance, Ziwu Stance, Five Elements Stance, Zhonghe Stance, Hunyuan Stance, and Zhoutian Stance."
"Let's start with the Qiankun stance today. If you practice martial arts but don't practice internal energy cultivation, you'll end up with nothing when you're old. You have to practice stance training every day."
As he spoke, Grandpa squatted down and swung his arms. Back and forth, his movements were graceful and elegant. Anyone who has seen Tongbei Quan knows that Tongbei Quan fighting movements are fluid, graceful, and beautiful to watch, with strong attack power.
After a short while, Lin Hong finished performing one set of movements and continued performing it, doing so three times before stopping.
“You give it a try,” Lin Hong said.
Sun Zhengguo imitated his grandfather, standing in a horse stance and starting to fight.
The first time I played it, I didn't do very well, but after playing it a couple more times, I gradually got into the swing of things. The more I played, the better and faster I became.
Lin Hong nodded after reading it. This little grandson is a promising martial arts student. He's much better than he was back then.
Back when he was a soldier in the 29th Army, he was one of the three promising recruits he selected, but he was far inferior to his grandson.
Half an hour later, Sun Zhengguo was too exhausted to move.
"Stop now? You did very well the first time. You'll easily get injured if you keep practicing. Take it slow. I'll get you some meat to nourish yourself when we go up the mountain later, and I'll also gather some herbs to make you a medicinal bath."
"You have to understand that martial arts training isn't something you can just do haphazardly. If you don't get enough nutrition, you won't be able to do it. Medicated baths can reduce injuries; otherwise, you could ruin your training."
Grandpa kept giving instructions from the side.
I massaged Sun Zhengguo for a while to relax his muscles.
When they practiced again in the afternoon, the other children, seeing how tiring the martial arts practice was, had already scattered like birds and beasts.
After practicing all afternoon, Sun Zhengguo felt like he couldn't even walk anymore. He was ridiculed by Sun Zheng'an and the others. He ate a quick dinner and then went to rest.
In the following days, all he did was practice his martial arts. His grandfather's food improved, and he and his uncle went hunting in the mountains every day, setting traps.
The harvest was plentiful, including pheasants, rabbits, roe deer, and some mushrooms and fungi.
A week passed in the blink of an eye, and Sun Zhengguo had already learned three types of stance training, and had even grasped the basics of each. He was to take a medicinal bath that day.
These herbs were all gathered from the mountains and weren't particularly rare. The truly precious herbs were those that could only be used after breaking through a major cultivation level, and they were over a hundred years old. In any case, Lin Hong had never used them, nor had his master.
Indeed, the Tongbei Quan practiced by Sun Zhengguo is divided into Ming Jin (manifested strength), An Jin (hidden strength), and the legendary Hua Jin (neutralizing strength).
In the early stages of Ming Jin, one can easily defeat three to five people. In the middle stages, one can easily defeat three to five trained individuals. In the later stages, one can easily defeat eight to ten people. And in the peak stages of Ming Jin, one can easily defeat eight to ten trained individuals.
According to Lin Hong, his master possessed the skill of hidden force, which could injure people invisibly. Some of these injuries would take days to heal, and the cause of death could not be determined.
The concept of "transforming strength" is just a legend. Whether anyone has reached that level is unknown; it might just be a theory.
Regardless of anything else, Sun Zhengguo was experiencing both pain and pleasure at this moment. The medicine was very hot, but soaking in it felt very comfortable.
After taking the medicinal bath, Sun Zhengguo mastered the remaining three stance exercises in just five days. He then enjoyed another medicinal bath.
The next time he'll soak in the water will have to wait until he's achieved a minor level of mastery in stance training, and then a major level. Getting started is easy, achieving a minor level is difficult, and achieving a major level is extremely difficult. This is not something Sun Zhengguo is considering for the time being.
In the courtyard, Sun Zhengguo practiced the moves of Tongbei Quan, one move at a time: a hungry eagle hunting a rabbit, a wild horse galloping through pine trees, a fan striking and slapping, a frantic eagle probing with its claws.
Since the second medicinal bath, Lin Hong has started teaching Sun Zhengguo the moves. Sun Zhengguo has now learned all 108 single-hand techniques. As for when he will truly master them, he still needs to practice more.
After mastering the 108 basic hand techniques, Sun Zhengguo planned to learn hunting from his grandfather. That way, when famine struck and food was scarce, he could hunt to supplement his diet.
And so, Sun Zhengguo began his life of martial arts training and hunting, and secretly even fired a few shots with his uncle. His uncle was the militia company commander, and the village militia still had a few guns (gun and ammunition management wasn't so strict in the 1950s and 60s).
Time slips away unnoticed; there are still three days until school starts. Today, Mom and Dad came to pick up the three little ones. Sun Zhengguo and the others were saying goodbye to their grandparents, their second uncle's family, and their maternal grandparents' family.
"Go back and practice hard. I'll check on you when you come back on your annual leave."
"Okay, Grandpa, don't worry, I will definitely practice hard."
After getting on the bus, seeing the increasingly blurry figure, Sun Zhengguo waved vigorously.
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