1942, I lived on hunting

The 800-mile Taihang Mountains have been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times. It is also one of the few rare paradises in the North China Plain to escape war and disaster.

In July 1937, the sound of artillery fire at Lugou Bridge shook the land of China. The Japanese invaders entered North China with their ambitions exposed. By the beginning of 7, most of Shanxi and northern Henan had fallen one after another, and the people of the Central Plains were once again facing the butcher's knife. However, this time, there was not only war waiting for the people of the Central Plains. With a loud noise on the Huayuankou embankment, floods, droughts, epidemics, banditry and other disasters came one after another in a short period of time, as if the gods and the Kuomintang government had abandoned this once rich and beautiful land of the Central Plains. The people here were left in dire straits, and the people here were suffering. Even the Taihang Mountains no longer provided shelter for people, and the various forces in the mountains fought openly and secretly, and they fought to the death.

By 1942, many areas in northern Henan had no harvest. The Kuomintang government officials and the army not only did not try to find ways to provide disaster relief, but also intensified the collection of grain and taxes, and arrested able-bodied men everywhere. In order to cover up the disaster, some Kuomintang officials even lied to the gentry and people who came to request funding for disaster relief, saying that the relief grain was about to arrive, causing many people to wait for food that would never arrive until their death. In the end, many victims who had been out of food for many days and began to flee to Shaanxi and other places died on the roadside before they even reached Zhengzhou. You must know that the distance of this road is not even 100 kilometers. In the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain, the Kuomintang was defeated, and the Japanese army seized not only piles of weapons, but also mountains of flour. A large part of this flour was life-saving food taken from the people of Henan. !

In fact, the movie "1942" directed by Feng Xiaogang only partially restored the situation at that time. After all, people living in a modern society ruled by law would definitely not accept the many inhumane and horrific scenes at that time. And I don't know what he was thinking, arranging the premiere during the Chinese New Year. It's a pity that such an excellent movie did not achieve the results it deserves.

In the late autumn evening of that year, the slightly chilly wind blew off the few red leaves on the persimmon trees. On the highest branches of the trees, a few red-billed long-tailed magpies chirped and made their last noise before dark. The locust trees nearby had been stripped of their leaves by the starving people long ago, leaving only gray and black branches like ghost claws stretched out from hell, powerlessly reaching towards the sky with only the last ray of light left. Deep in the canyon of South Taihang, a winding and unnamed path, along small pieces of terraced fields, pushed towards a small village built on the mountain in the valley.

The village has long been deserted due to the disasters in recent years, and the sounds of chickens and dogs are no longer the same as before. If it was a good year, there would definitely be smoke from cooking during this time. But now, this small village seems unusually quiet under the invasion of night, and when you get closer, you feel like you have walked into the scene of a horror movie.

In the center of the village is a rare flat land among the hillsides. A dozen stone houses are built around an ancient soapberry tree that three people can't hug. The beams and thatch of the stone house roofs have been burned, and the surrounding stone walls are charred by the fire. Half of the wooden door that should have been placed on the stone pier has been burned, like a mouth with missing front teeth, telling the cruelty of the Japanese devils' sweep. Under the tree is an even lower land temple that is less than one meter high. The statues in the temple have disappeared, leaving only half of the broken incense burner leaning at the door.

Another gust of mountain wind blew, and the soapberry tree might be a little too big. Some branches grew too close to each other, and when the wind blew, they rubbed against each other, making a creaking sound.

Several bodies were hung on the branches of the soapberry tree with their hands tied. The bodies were old and young, male and female. The only thing they had in common was that they all had the same wooden sign hanging around their necks, with the words "traitor and traitor" written on it in charcoal. Some of the bodies had obviously been tortured before they died, with not only their clothes torn but also some of their limbs incomplete.

It was obvious at first glance that this was done by a group of bandits who were loyal to the anti-Japanese cause. In the Taihang Mountains, only they were so lawless and reckless that they sent the traitor's family to hell in an orderly manner. Moreover, in order to make an example of them, they hung them neatly on the tree, leaving them to sway in the wind.

The soapberry tree had been through wind and rain for a long time, and the thickest branch on the east side had withered. Hanging on the withered branch was a boy about fourteen or fifteen years old, wearing a black silk jacket, a long gown made of light blue foreign cloth, black foreign cloth pants, and one of his thousand-layer-soled cloth shoes was missing, revealing a white cotton sock. It was estimated that he lost one shoe when he was escaping or being dragged when he was caught.

The wind blew his clothes, making them rustle, and his body swayed with a creaking sound. What was strange was that his face did not turn the pale color of a dead person, but instead gradually became rosy, as if he could not stand the cold wind. Finally, the dead branch, unable to bear the weight, broke with a snap. The boy seemed to wake up from his sleep, and with a "Fuck!", he fell to the ground. The boy's hands were tied, and he could not struggle for a while. With a "bang", the back of his head hit a small stone on the ground. Suddenly, the world became quiet again.

The moon was at its zenith, and an owl flew over and landed on the soapberry tree, calling "coo, coo, meow" and "coo, coo, meow", making the whole scene even more eerie.

At this moment, the boy under the tree suddenly sat up. The owl on the tree was startled and flew away quickly.

The young man let out a long breath, as if he was blowing a whistle with his throat. After he finished, he started coughing desperately, like a drowned chicken that had been rescued, and his cough was heartbreaking.

After finally stopping coughing, the boy gasped and raised his bound hands to his eyes. He seemed a little confused, not understanding the current situation and why he was tied up. He got closer and saw the rope that bound his hands, opened his mouth and began to untie the rope with his teeth.

While tearing the rope, he was also carefully scanning the surrounding environment with his peripheral vision.

It was night, and it was dark all around. He couldn't see far. There were a few stone houses around him, and other things a little further away were vague in the dim moonlight. He looked around, but he didn't know where he was, what was going on, or even who he was or why he was tied up here.

He only remembered that he was on his way to deliver a takeaway the previous second, a dazzling light shone over him, and the next second he was tied here.

Kidnapping? But who would kidnap a food delivery man? Filming? I am a person with severe social phobia. I usually smile very stiffly when taking photos. Who would ask me to film?

Just as I was thinking about it, I suddenly looked up, my pupils dilated, I made a few gurgling sounds, rolled my eyes, and fainted again. It was because the scene above my head was so horrible that any normal person would wet their pants if they accidentally saw this scene in the dead of night.