Unforgettable memories of Kanto.

? Xiaozifeng

Open dusty memories and recall the distant past.

The early 1960s was a three-year period of natural disasters. I heard from adults that there was a famine in our area and every family had no food. People are pale and thin, so people have to leave their homes and look for food everywhere. In order to survive, we have to eat bark and wild vegetables to satisfy our hunger. I didn't remember it at that time, but I remembered it later. Anyway, my family ate dried sweet potatoes, vegetables and porridge. The house is empty, with nothing but farm tools and property, and all the property is worthless. At that time, people didn't worry about anything else, only that they didn't have food. In order not to starve to death, my parents plan to go to the northeast to go to one of my uncles and grandfathers. Shimonoseki is no small matter. If you go, it will take a few days by train, more than three thousand miles. Listen to my mother, I have this idea from the beginning, and I have been hesitating, weighing, calculating and making up my mind. They decided after countless ideological struggles, with a longing for a better life and a dream of eating enough.

I remember it was 1964. It was a warm spring in bloom, and my family went to my grandfather's house in the north. My grandfather lives in Shiren Town, Hunjiang City, Jilin Province, a remote rural mountain village. They fled to the northeast before liberation. For adults, we went to the northeast, but our home could not be moved. I was only nine years old then. Of course, I don't understand this. I just know it's fun. I vaguely remember that three of us made two bedrolls and filled them with two things. With these possessions, my father asked the commune's only Gascar to take us from Ezhuang to Xihe, and then we took a small train from Xihe to Kunlun and then to Zhangdian. This is my first time to take a bus and see a train. I've never been out of the house since I was a child. I am really happy to see this world, and I feel everything is so strange and fresh.

After arriving in Zhangdian, we waited in the waiting room of the railway station all afternoon. At that time, railway stations were bungalows and roads were sandy roads. There are few cars, but there are carriages coming and going from time to time. Now the bustling central road can't remember the buildings at that time. The waiting room is small, but there are many passengers, men, women and children. My father always tugs at my hand for fear that I will get lost. I remember checking the ticket when the sun was about to set. When I arrived at the platform, I saw that the train was so long, especially the red wheel of the locomotive was higher than me. Playing the flute to vent emotions is terrible.

Boarding the train going north, we sat by the window, facing the sunset. When I opened the window, the warm spring breeze came to my face, which dispelled the tension of checking in and getting on the bus, and my mood gradually calmed down. Facing the afterglow of the sunset, looking out the window, everything is so novel. Villages and towns came into view one by one and disappeared from my sight one by one. The train, like a runaway wild horse, roared and ran on the railway in Ji Jiao. As night falls, nothing can be seen outside, only a few lights like stars flash past the window and recede again. Passengers coming and going in the carriage are talking and greeting with different accents. I kept asking questions all the way, but I had never seen or heard of anything, and everything was novel. At that time, I was still a naive child. I only know how to play, but I don't know my parents' mood. They all keep a straight face and don't talk much. Later, when they grew up, they realized that they were worried or stressed. Their background is far away from home, away from home and away from business to make a living. How complicated, worried, disappointed and helpless they are. How sad it is to wander away from home and have no friends. Speaking of it, life is a painful journey. Looking back, I can't help feeling.

After three days and two nights' long drive, we started from Zhangdian, passed through Nanjin, Shanhaiguan and Shenyang, and then turned to Meihekou, Tonghua, Hunjiang and Shiren, and got off at a small station called Yaolin. I remember arriving at the station at midnight. On a dark night, we curled up in an armchair and spent midnight cold and timidly. It was really sad to recall. But along the way, I saw cities, villages, the Yellow River, plains, oceans and forests.

I remember that the North China Plain was bare and white, as if it had been frosted. I asked my dad curiously, and he said that the underground was flooded with salt and alkali, with no trees, no weeds and few villages. The train sped along the North China Plain at a high speed. We watched the telephone poles on both sides of the railway fall backwards, pulling a long whistle. The sound from the rail joint was particularly fast, whistling and galloping on the railway line, really fast.

When the train passed Qinhuangdao and Shanhaiguan, the vast sea came into my eyes, and white waves rolled on the sea, which was very imposing. What is the sea? Finally, I saw with my own eyes that the sea and sky are so vast. I have heard of the sea before, and I have read about it in books. The sea can only be in my imagination. All rivers run into the sea, so big that everything in front of the sea is so small. I witnessed the vastness of the sea with my own eyes, and the sea has been deeply buried in my memory. When Cao marched to Wuhuan, he climbed Jieshi, faced the vast sea and wrote a magnificent poem "Looking at the Sea". 1In the summer of 954, Chairman Mao spent the summer in Beidaihe. It was raining heavily, looking at the sea from a distance and thinking, he wrote "Langtaosha, Beidaihe". The heavy rain fell on the Youyan, and the white waves were terrible. Fishing boats fished outside Qinhuangdao, and all the Wang Yang was gone. We know who to turn to for help. More than a thousand years later, Wei Wu waved a whip and left a legacy in Jieshi in the East. The bleak autumn wind has changed the world again today.

Shanhaiguan is the pass from North China to Northeast China, and the so-called Kanto is the east of Shanhaiguan. Shanhaiguan has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times. It has an important strategic position and is known as the capital guarantee. After Shanhaiguan, the train entered the land of western Liaoning, passing through station after station. I don't remember what station and name it was, so I arrived in Shenyang. I remember waiting for a long time at Shenyang station when I got off the bus and changed trains. Shenyang station is really big. There are countless trains on the station, playing whistles back and forth, which is spectacular. The waiting building of the railway station is magnificent. There are many tall buildings around, inside and outside the station, and the square is crowded. The ancient city of Shenyang has a long history and is a modern metropolis. According to records, the Yuan Dynasty was named Shenyang. In the Qing Dynasty, Nurhachi made Shenyang its capital, alias Shengjing, which was once the birthplace.

Cars and trucks are driving on the road, buses and trams are shuttling through the street, and occasionally people ride electric donkeys to shake the wind. Shenyang is a heavy industrial city in Northeast China, a provincial capital city, with developed economy and cosmopolitan demeanor. Compared with Jinan, the disparity is too great. No wonder people are poor and all run to the northeast. Northeast China is really a place where money can save the lives of the poor. I ate bread for the first time in Shenyang. I have never heard of it before. Big bread is sour and sweet, and it's delicious.

After several transfers, I finally arrived at the destination Yaolin Station. We set off at dawn and asked the station staff to know that it was more than ten miles to Xiaoheisonggou. According to the direction, we came out of the waiting room of Yaolin Railway Station and looked around, and suddenly there was a creepy feeling. The field of vision was dark. I looked up and saw the trees towering into the sky and hidden in the sky. I saw a railway running through the pine forest from left to right, and the straight railway extended in two directions. In this vast forest, there is no way out, and there are pine trees around. It's gloomy and quiet here, and there are no pedestrians. Walking through the depths of this mountain is creepy. This remote station is far from the village and is located halfway up the mountain. It's a little scary to think about it now. The mountainous areas in Northeast China are sparsely populated, and tigers, bears, wild boars and wolves are unpredictable. In case of a beast, that's good. We went down the mountain and followed a path through an open field in the direction indicated. Right in front of us is a big river, rolling forward and rushing away. On the river, a wooden bridge was built with two logs. The bridge deck is not wide, the water under the bridge is fast, and the bridge is too dangerous to move forward. Dad moved the luggage first, then carried me, and finally helped my mother.

Crossing the river, a stone in my heart fell to the ground. Along the muddy forest path, I climbed a hill and found that there were about twenty families in a remote valley. Every yard is surrounded by wooden fences, and the houses are made of wood, mud and thatch. Every house has a big thick chimney standing on the wall, smoking white smoke. Dogs barked from time to time and finally found grandpa's house. We were so excited.

It's probably past seven o'clock when I get home, not to mention the enthusiasm of my relatives to meet each other. Grandpa asked us how we found our home from Yaolin, and mom said we would ask anyone we met. After exchanging pleasantries, we all had breakfast. Adults and children sat around the heatable adobe sleeping platform, and the pit table was full of food. There are pancakes, tortillas, shredded potatoes, potato chips, stewed Chinese cabbage vermicelli, corn porridge and a big bowl. It is delicious. At that time, you couldn't see or eat this kind of food in your hometown in Shandong.

In a blink of an eye, more than a month passed, and my parents decided to start a new kitchen so that they could live and work in peace and contentment. With the help of grandpa's family, they arranged housing, bought pots and pans, settled down and started a new life. We have a temporary residence and my father works in the production team. The production team gave my family a large wasteland for us to cultivate by ourselves. Northeast China is full of black land, with fertile land and abundant rainfall. Just plant seeds, eliminate weeds, and do not fertilize or water. We planted potatoes, kidney beans, radishes, leeks, peppers and a strawberry. I also have a pig and more than 30 chickens, ducks and geese. If I can't eat chicken, duck and goose eggs, I will go to Shiren Town to sell them, so that I can spend money.

Northeast China is rich in land and there is no shortage of food. In autumn, in addition to the food distributed by the production team, my family also harvested a lot of wasteland, which can be said to be a pile of food in Man Cang. In the northeast, as long as people are diligent, every household will dig a big cellar after autumn and store potatoes, radishes and cabbages in it, so that they can spend the winter in one winter. Kill a pig in winter and fall into the warehouse, or give it to neighbors. Stewed pork vermicelli and stewed chicken with mushrooms were excellent dishes at that time. The crops in Northeast China are mainly corn, oil wheat, sorghum and soybean. We live a rich life and don't have to worry about food and clothing. In the village where we live, every family keeps dogs and guards the home to prevent wild animals from sneaking into the house. There are wolves near the village, and you can often see roe deer and foxes.

I stayed in the northeast for more than a month and began to go to the brigade school. Because there is no school in our small mountain village, I have to go to the brigade school six miles away. The name of the brigade village is Rongbin, and there are more than 100 families living in it. Together with the population of several surrounding small mountain villages, there are 1000 people. The school is spacious, with five classes, a big playground, a basketball stand, a table tennis table and a volleyball net. There is also a sports meeting on Children's Day. Although this place is rural, it is only 15 miles away from Lishiren Town, which is more than 100 miles away from Hunjiang City. The economy and culture are relatively developed. Rongbin Village has a retail department and a theater. There are three big department stores and four big hotels in Shiren Town, all of which are state-owned. Because there are calcium carbide mines, talc mines, coal mines and forest farms near Shiren Town, the population is relatively dense.

I remember that on the first day of school, all our teachers and students gathered on the playground in the morning, and the headmaster beat us to sing songs such as "We are on the road" and "Learn from Lei Feng's good example". I have never heard these songs, let alone rap. At that time, there were no radio stations and broadcasts in my hometown in Shandong. Where can I learn them? I can't eat anything, let alone anything. Each class has a learning garden. In school, there is a cabinet organ, which presses the keys with the feet and plays with the accordion. The music teacher gives us music lessons every Friday. I remember the first time I learned "socialism is good" was in music class. I learned Song of Spring for the second time. I remember the lyrics are "Spring breeze blowing, butterflies flying on the flower heads, whistling in the street, children's group meeting …" Culture and education are very advanced. Every family has a wired trumpet, and some families have radios, and political and cultural propaganda is in place. I remember being far behind in my hometown in Shandong. Poverty leads to backwardness, and backwardness leads to ignorance. I have seen the world in the northeast and learned a lot.

When I first arrived in the northeast, I saw people dressed well. Young people wear uniforms, adults and children wear sneakers, and everyone wears raincoats. The clothes and shoes worn in my hometown in Shandong are handmade cloth shoes and casual clothes. I've never seen anyone wear sneakers. In the second year after we settled in the northeast, every Sunday, my mother and I sometimes went to Shiren Town to sell chickens and ducks in the carriage of the production team. I remember that at that time, an egg was more than a dime, and a large basket of chicken and duck eggs could sell for dozens of dollars, and the income was considerable. From then on, I also put on my sports shoes and new clothes. I remember that every time I went to town to sell eggs, I would go to the department store to buy this and that. There are Dalian chairs in the shop. If you are tired, take a rest. At noon, I went to a restaurant to eat rice and stir-fry dishes, which was nothing compared with my life in my hometown. Shiren Town is a vein of Changbai Mountain. Changbai Mountain is the birthplace of the Jurchen nationality, where Bukuri Yongshun, the ancestor of the Qing Taizu Nurhachi, was born.

When I get older, my companions and I will go up the mountain with baskets to shoot pig grass, pick mushrooms, hazelnuts and pecans in autumn, and sometimes pick Chinese medicine, and pull sledges to collect firewood in winter weekends. Strange to say, in this village where we live, the mountains in the east are covered with Pinus massoniana, and the mountains in the west are covered with birch forests, whose bark is white, and the hickory trees are at the bottom of the river ditch. It seems that the ancestors planted it on purpose, but the elms and oaks are scattered. No matter what kind of trees grow up, they seem to drill into the sky. I learned later, because they are looking for sunshine. The old trees are lying in the Woods, and the young trees are growing wildly. This is exactly what Liu Yuxi said: Qian Fan is on the side of the sunken ship, and Wan Muchun is in front of the diseased tree.

Rongbin Village is located in an open field with mountains on both sides, forming a north-south corridor. It is surrounded by mountains and water. There is a river in the east and a river in the west, sandwiching the village. Everyone drinks the water from the river, which is clear and sweet. Many people drink cold water all the year round and have never heard of stomachache. People often say that the water in the northeast is ginseng water, which nourishes people. No wonder the northeast people are ruddy. The Hetao is very wide and the water is not very deep. In summer, adults and children bathe in the river. There are also many net fish, especially many fish. Rivers with abundant rainfall in Northeast China do not dry up all the year round, so there are unique conditions for fish growth and reproduction. Otherwise, how can we say that we catch fish?

Seventy percent of the total population of Rongbin Brigade are from Shandong, they come from different ages and regions, and there are few locals. The story of TV series "Braving the Kanto" is the reappearance of Shandong people's braving the Kanto. Just like we Shandong people migrated from Shanxi in the Ming Dynasty. It may also be related to the government's policy orientation. Northeast China needs to develop, with a small population and a large population. Just like our current large-scale development of the western region, the state gives a preferential policy to let people develop and utilize the resources there, so that the east and the west can develop in a balanced way. Northeast China is rich in natural resources, vast in territory, rich in natural resources and great in development potential, which may also be a major factor.

Our village is the fourth production team of Rongbin Brigade. The production team has more than 20 cows. When spring comes, members of the production team pull plows and rakes with plows, while young people pull plows and rakes with whips and sing songs, which is very leisurely. Children follow adults everywhere to dig wild vegetables, celery, Hericium erinaceus, garlic picking and wild spinach. There are many pheasants in the Woods, and sometimes they happen to pick up wild eggs. There are many tits in the Woods in the grass, and sometimes they can catch birds and pick up eggs. When I was a child, my life in Northeast China was very happy, but today I feel very beautiful. Changbai Mountain is really beautiful, with birds and flowers.

In the 1960s, the Changbai Mountain area was just being developed. Except that some forests have been cut down, the whole area is still in a virgin forest state. The air source is clean and fresh, and the water quality is pure. It is a veritable natural oxygen bar. People live in green mountains and rivers. People enjoy fairyland-like living conditions, eat pure natural food, and rarely hear of illness. It's hard to find such an environment now. Changbai Mountain is affected by the warm and humid air current in the Pacific Ocean, with humid climate and abundant rainfall. In winter, the cold air in Siberia and the warm and humid air in the Pacific Ocean frequently snow. Although it is tens of degrees below zero in winter, Changbai Mountain is soft and cold, which is different from the cold in North China. Unlike the chilly weather in North China, cotton-padded clothes worn in Shandong are worn in the northeast. The wind in the northeast is not as strong as that in North China, because there is a natural barrier in Daxinganling to block the northwest wind from Siberia. In winter, snow covers the earth, the air is clean and fresh, there is no dust flying, and the winter coat is very clean.

Changbai Mountain is a beautiful and rich place, where vast forests conserve water and dense forest vegetation covers the earth. In winter, snow and ice are flying all over the sky and snowflakes are covered with pine branches. The mountains present a silver world, and thousands of trees are wrapped in silver. The canyon winds like clouds, and the mountains look like Yinchuan. The towering mountains are covered with plain clothes and beautiful mountains and rivers, which is a beautiful northern scenery. Changbai Mountain is named for its high mountains and cold weather, and the top of the mountain is covered with snow all year round. Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture is located in Changbai Mountain. Korean women wear skirts, pointed Korean shoes and things on their heads all year round. Men always put things in baskets. Koreans can sing and dance, and the girls are beautiful and graceful. They have traditional cultural customs, colorful ethnic customs and a long history of human civilization.

Changbai Mountain in spring is a colorful season with green virgin forests. With the ups and downs of mountains and rivers, the spring breeze blows and the waves roll, nature is harmonious and beautiful. The wild taro in the mountains has red flowers and yellow stones. Red peony and white peony are decorated with white flowers and red flowers respectively in the green grass, and the mountain flowers are rich and unique against the background of the forest. In spring, the spring breeze blows, and all the flowers are purple and red. It attracts butterflies to fly around, which is very beautiful. Spring is really a colorful world, full of birds singing and dancing, and a hundred birds contend.

Going to Qiu Lai in spring is another scene. Nature breeds everything. Chunhua passed away and autumn came again. The laws of nature apply to the world. From cold to summer, it goes to Qiu Lai in spring and runs endlessly. Autumn is the harvest season, the forest is full of wild mushrooms, and the fruit of hazelnut tree is Lei Lei. Schisandra chinensis, wild grapes, dates and vines covered the ground and wound around trees. A string of vines hung all over the branches, and pine nuts made of Pinus massoniana hung on the branches like small pineapples. Oak eggs made of oak trees are all over the trees. In Goudian, pecans are everywhere. In winter, bears and wild boars eat these fruits, which are the natural food for Lion. Everything in the world has its own living environment and living conditions. This is exactly what Darwin's theory of evolution said, natural selection of the fittest survives. God gave the conditions, and the earth dominated the living things. The vastness of the world accommodates all things, with a vast territory and abundant resources, which breeds life and lives in harmony with human beings. The vast land in Northeast China is beautiful and rich, and the black land has nurtured hardworking people. It is often said that there are three treasures in Northeast China, ginseng, mink and humulus. And the reputation of hunting roe deer for fish.

Changbai Mountain is a desirable place. In winter, the earth is covered with snow, and the snowy forest is covered with silvery white snow. It is the season when hunters close mountains with heavy snow. They lead dogs to search along animal tracks and often shoot wild boar and roe deer. Then in winter, it is the season of logging and chopping wood. Pulling wood with a sled is labor-saving and fast. It snows around August 15th of the lunar calendar every year, and the snow will begin to melt in the Qingming period when peach blossoms bloom in Shandong next year. Northeast people call it running peach blossom water, which freezes during the day and freezes at night. Because the snow is too thick in winter, peach blossom water sometimes causes flash floods and floods rivers.

/kloc-in the summer of 0/969, the school organized students to go to Linjiang tourism summer camp. Under the guidance of the teacher, dozens of people in our class went to Linjiang by train from Yaolin Railway Station. Linjiang was then a county town. The city is small, but clean and tidy. Although there are no high-rise buildings, the city streets are wide and the layout is reasonable. Linjiang, as its name implies, is a city built on the river. I remember that the Yalu River is dark green, with wide water surface and steady water flow. Someone is fishing and casting a net by the river. An iron bridge flies from east to west to North Korea. It is from this iron bridge that our volunteers crossed the Yalu River in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. Look out from the shore. North Korean villages are faintly visible, and the people of the two countries face each other across the river. During the War of Liberation, our Northeast Field Army defended Linjiang four times, which is what I said.

Looking back on the past years, the northeast is a hot land, and it is the tortillas and pancakes in the northeast that have raised me. I wrote this story of Kanto with special feelings to express my gratitude to the Black Land. When I moved back to my hometown in Shandong, what I saw and heard in the northeast, and the dribs and drabs of my study and life often flashed in my mind and played back in my memory.

More than half a century has passed. With the passage of time, some memories of my past study and life in Northeast China have faded out of my memory, but I still remember the white snow on Changbai Mountain, the dark green water of Yalu River, the vast forest and the winding Changbai Mountain range. My feelings for Changbai Mountain always linger in my mind.

Life is a long process. I don't know how many memories of life have been washed away by the wind and rain of years. Many past events are forgotten with the passage of time, and it feels far away in retrospect. However, sometimes feeling is an instantaneous process. The past is like smoke, as if returning to that childhood.

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