The warm wind in March only brought a touch of fresh green to the Jiangnan area, but further south, in Surabaya on the edge of the equator, the intense heat, like the ubiquitous air, water and dense forests, forever entangled every Chinese worker. Pig.
Surabaya, the largest port in Java Island, is an important distribution port for rubber, tin mines, gold and silver mines in Indonesia, especially the rubber produced here, which is a world-renowned brand.
On the outskirts of Surabaya City, in the lush rubber forests, countless workers are working hard, and deeper in the camp, under the supervision of bamboo fences, vicious dogs and parang knives in the hands of the natives, bamboo buildings are The residence of the suffering Chinese laborers.
Ma Zijian, a veteran of the Taiping Rebellion. When they swept through Fujian, he was an outstanding messenger in the army of the King. He was proficient in military flag language and could blow out thirteen military orders with a conch horn. His straw sandals were worn on Wuyi Mountain back then. Walking over mountains and ridges is like walking on flat ground.
At that time, he was young, full of strength and energy in his eyes. When he was exploring the enemy camp at night, he once cut the throats of three clear demons with a dagger. He was always the most attractive person in the female camp. My favorite awesome guy.
But now, lying on the bamboo bed, his eye sockets were sunken, the ribs on his chest were emerging one by one, and there was a hollow coughing sound between the violent ups and downs of breathing.
Malaria was raging in his body, and he felt like he didn't have much time left. It was like walking through two hells between hot and cold. Sometimes he wished he could just die.
There is a bowl of porridge on the table. It is completely cold. Flies and many unknown flying insects are hovering on it. According to the rules in the rubber plantation, if you cannot go to work, you will have no food. If you don’t have food, you will have to wait to die. .
This bowl of porridge was left over for him by the brothers in the room. For the sake of the friendship between the brothers, he couldn't give up. He had to live.
I struggled to sit up and leaned against the bamboo wall. The hot wind outside came through the gaps. The sky was so blue. The free seabirds flying here felt like they were in heaven.
After driving away the flies and insects, he grabbed the cold porridge with his hands and stuffed it into his mouth. When the salty taste filled his mouth, he was stunned. He didn't expect that someone would add a lot of salt to his porridge. This is the guarantee of people's strength.
With tears streaming down his face, he saw in a corner of the camp that his younger brother Luo Gou was being hung up by the security guards of the rubber plantation. He was being whipped hard with a whip. Two black dogs were barking arrogantly around him. .
His brother had no other way to save himself. There was no doctor in the entire camp, let alone medicine. The pig food he ate had no nutrition at all. Maybe Luo Gou remembered what he said to him back then, that people should eat more salt. , Eat salt to gain strength.
My brother was afraid that he would die, so he actually stole a handful of salt from the kitchen and sprinkled it on his porridge. If I want to live, I will go on to live if my brother is whipped for me.
A fire arose in Ma Zijian's heart. The fire seemed to have burned away the germs and toxins in his body. He had to defeat the disease. He decided to lead his brothers to fight out, just like the brothers in Lombok and Jakarta last month. Likewise, kill the security guards and take away their weapons. There are many places for guerrilla warfare in the tropical jungles of Southeast Asia.
This thief God, if he won't let us live, then he will fight to the death.
"Pigs... piglets... slaves of the Qing Dynasty... braided pigs..." The black and skinny Nanyang native monkey cursed back and forth with only a few words in Chinese. Luo Gou had been turned into a bloody man.
"I... don't have pigtails... I'm not a slave of the Qing Dynasty, bah..." A mouthful of bloody spit flew from the Luo dog's mouth to the face of the indigenous monkey.
With a scream of ghosts, the indigenous monkey raised his pareng knife. If he wanted to kill this bold Chinese, he must use his blood to scare these Chinese slaves.
Luo Gou raised his head and looked at the elder brother on the bamboo building with a smile, and murmured to himself, "My road has come to an end... Brother, please take care of yourself along the way."
"No..." Ma Zijian's anger aroused the full potential of his body. He jumped down from the three-meter-high bamboo building with a roar, holding a broken bamboo gun in his hand, and pointed the sharp stubble at the man. The black monkey stabbed it.
No one expected that the damn sick ghost on the bamboo tower would dare to attack violently. The pareng knife turned around and a swipe of cold light cut the bamboo spear into two pieces.
He thought he was safe, but he didn't expect that the bamboo spear had a sharp slit when it was cut off. The spear penetrated directly into his shoulder blade, almost severing the artery in his neck.
"Ah..." The crazy indigenous monkeys called more monkeys, and several of them even picked up old front-loading muskets. You read that right, they are the oldest muskets, with rifled guns attached. It doesn't even count, it can't be loaded with mini bombs.
Perhaps in the eyes of these black monkeys, you don’t need many good weapons to suppress pigs. A few parang knives can make them surrender with peace of mind. But they are wrong. This group of people are unruly Taiping veterans. They are not The refugees abducted from Fujian and Guangdong are not kind-hearted people.
Ma Zijian threw away his bamboo spear and swept the injured monkey to the ground with a sweep of his legs. He rolled forward and picked up the parang knife on the ground, and threw it away with a whoosh.
The native guard who was facing him pulled the trigger just in time. The bullet flew out a foot high from Ma Zijian's scalp, but he had no chance to fire a second shot. The rolling parang knife pierced him. The guy screamed and took a step back and fell to the ground.
One dead and one injured, the guards were all frightened. Other guards in the bamboo building also rushed out, but the sound of gunshots was the signal. Just as they were busy loading ammunition, fifty or sixty people suddenly rushed out from the rubber forest. The big man shouted, and the sharpened bamboo spear in his hand flew over, killing and wounding all the rubber plantation guards.
"Grandma, I don't resist because I have a home and can't go back. I'm not afraid of you savage monkeys..." Ma Zijian picked up the Baleng knife and walked towards the frightened black monkey who was covering his wound and begging.
At this time, he was still a little arrogant. He had never thought that someone would not be afraid of foreign guns and dare to attack despite the hail of bullets.
"Don't kill me... don't kill me..." No one could understand the monkey's language, so Ma Zijian cut the rope on Luo Gou's body with a knife and gave him the knife.
"It's been a long time since I killed someone. Let's... let you have a good time."
What is a veteran? Veterans regard killing as a kind of pleasure. Not only do they have no fear but they can also find happiness in it. Such talents are called veterans of hundreds of battles.
Luo Gou licked the blade with his tongue, and the smelly blood cheered him up. "Grandson, stare into my eyes... remember, you will have to avoid me in the next life."
He raised the knife and dropped it, a dirty head rose up in the sky, and the blood in his mouth sprayed all over Luo Gou's face.
"Peace... peace... peace." There was a fire in the camp, and the rubber garden was full of flames.
