Lao Li is my neighbor, and he is over 80 years old this year. However, the old man is hale and hearty and very talkative. When he was young, Lao Li used to be a transport soldier of the Kuomintang, driving a car to transport ammunition for the soldiers of the national army.
One autumn evening, Lao Li and I were sitting in the yard chatting. Inadvertently, he told me a few unbelievable things he encountered when driving for the national army for the last time:
That was before liberation, that is, in 1948, Lao Li was around 20 years old and worked as a driver in a transport company of the Kuomintang. At that time, Lao Li’s transport company was transporting soldiers, wounded, dead, ammunition, and supplies on the front line every day, fighting every day, and killing people every day. The national army’s front line is already vulnerable and retreating steadily, while the People’s Liberation Army is fighting more and more courageously, and getting closer and closer.
One night, Lao Li drove back from the front line. The road was very dark, and there were explosions in the distance from time to time, and the air was filled with a thick smell of gunpowder smoke. Suddenly, under the light of the car lights, I saw an officer of the national army standing in front of him, waving his arms, blocking the car. Lao Li slowly parked the car beside him, and the officer came over and ordered him arbitrarily to transport a dead man on the ground to the rear.
Following the officer’s fingers, Lao Li discovered a dead man lying on the ground beside the road. His body was covered with a sheet and only his two legs were exposed. Originally, Lao Li was obliged to do something like this. But tonight, Lao Li felt very tired, nervous, and sore all over. In addition, this officer had a bad attitude, and Lao Li was very disgusted. So he didn’t even hum, stepped on the accelerator, and the car squeaked past the officer, so angry that the officer jumped up and scolded his mother.
The car went forward for a while, under the light of the car lights, a wounded man appeared in the middle of the road ahead, and waved to him repeatedly. Lao Li slowly stopped the car. The wounded man limped over and said to Lao Li, who had rolled down the car window, “You didn’t pull me when I was lying on the ground just now, you should pull me now!”
When Lao Li heard this, he was frightened out of his wits. He didn’t care about anything, stepped on the gas pedal, and the car sped away immediately.
The car drove forward like lightning, and suddenly, Lao Li saw the tail lights of a car in front of him flickering, flickering. Lao Li thought he might have met his colleagues, so he was going to catch up and say hello. After a while, he caught up with him, and Lao Li took a closer look, and found that it was also a military vehicle. But this military vehicle did not belong to the old Li company. The license plate number was followed by two 0s, and it should belong to another transport company. The compartment was full of drowsy soldiers.
After walking with the military vehicle for ten minutes, Lao Li felt that he was driving slowly and was about to overtake, so he honked the horn. The military vehicle was clever, and quickly moved out of the way.
As soon as Lao Li stepped on the accelerator, he overtook him. When the car was next to the military vehicle, Lao Li glanced at the driver’s cab. There were no lights on inside, and the military tortured and killed soldiers . It was dark.
After Lao Li overtook the military vehicle, he continued to drive forward and saw no other vehicles along the way. After a while, Lao Li faintly saw a car in front of him again, with its headlights flickering, and he quickly chased after it. When we got closer, Lao Li saw that it was a military vehicle, and the license plate number was followed by 00?
When Lao Li saw it, he thought to himself: “It’s so familiar, I seem to have seen it somewhere?”
Suddenly, Lao Li remembered, isn’t this the military vehicle that overtook just now? How is it possible, it was clearly surpassed just now? There is no shortcut on this road, and it is impossible for the car to overtake from other roads, so how did it get to the front?
The more Lao Li thought about it, the more he felt strange, he honked the horn, and was about to overtake to see who the driver was. When the car was side by side with the military vehicle again, Lao Li looked at the driver’s cab, but he couldn’t see anything clearly due to the grayness. He pressed the horn again, drove the car closer, and took a closer look? There was no one in the cab!
Lao Li immediately felt his brain go blank and his whole body froze. Suddenly, he slammed on the accelerator, and the car passed quickly. He breathed a sigh of relief when the car threw the military vehicle out of sight from a distance.
At this time, Lao Li felt terrified, and he desperately hoped that someone would sit in the car and chat with him to give him some courage. Coincidentally, there was actually a soldier on the side of the road waving his hand to stop the car. Lao Li quickly stopped the car. Xiaobing ran over and said respectfully: “Squad leader, I’m going to the seventh company in front, can you give me a ride?”
When Lao Li saw that he was a small soldier and he was called squad leader, he felt very warm and said, “Get in the car!”
Xiaobing immediately opened the car door and sat next to Lao Li. Lao Li looked at Xiao Bing while driving, and saw that his brain was oozing blood, as if he had been injured, and asked, “Which company is it?”
Xiao Bing said: “I am Hu Wa, the correspondent of the 3rd Battalion and 7th Company of the 1st Regiment. The company commander asked me to send a document to the battalion headquarters. I have already delivered it, and now I have to rush back to the company.”
Lao Li nodded and said, “There are a lot of stray bullets tonight, so be careful.”
Hu Wa smiled and said, “Thank you for reminding me, the squad leader. I’m smart! Otherwise, the company commander wouldn’t ask me to be a correspondent.”
The two chatted without saying a word. In the meantime, Lao Li talked about the weirdness of the unmanned military vehicle he just saw. After hearing this, Hu Wa said, “You said that the license plate number of the military vehicle is followed by two 0s?”
Lao Li nodded and said, “Yes! There are only two zeros at the back, and there are many soldiers sitting in the carriage!”
Hu Wa wondered: “This is strange. This military vehicle belongs to our battalion. It took the fifth company and one platoon of soldiers to the front line in the afternoon. It was blown up by the communist artillery shells. All the soldiers in the vehicle died?”
When Lao Li heard this, he couldn’t help being dumbfounded, and was speechless for a moment. Soon, there was a three-way intersection ahead. Hu Wa said: “Squad leader, I will get off here, and I have to perform another task. After a while, the squad leader will drive past my No. 7 company station, please tell me the company commander, I have successfully completed the task. “
Lao Li nodded ignorantly and stopped the car. Hu Wa opened the car door, jumped out of the car, and said: “Squad leader, goodbye!” Immediately, she was lost in the darkness.
Lao Li continued to drive forward in the car. After a while, a barracks appeared in front of him, and there was a lot of noise inside, as if he had just withdrawn from the front line. Lao Li stopped the car and asked a sentry on the side of the road: “Excuse me, is this the Seventh Company of the Third Battalion of the First Regiment?”
The sentinel came over and said, “Yes! Who are you looking for?”
Lao Li said: “I’m not looking for anyone. You Lian Huwa asked me to bring a letter, please tell your company commander, he said that he has successfully completed the task.”
The sentinel asked in disbelief, “Who did you say asked you to bring the letter?”
Lao Li said: “Hu Wa, the correspondent of your company! He was sitting in my car just now?”
The sentinel interrupted him and said, “Nonsense. Hu Wa was beaten to death yesterday, and the body hasn’t been buried yet!”
Lao Li argued: “Impossible, he was still riding in my car just now!”
The sentinel said impatiently: “What nonsense are you talking about! If you don’t believe me, get out of the car and look for yourself. Hu Wa’s body is in the open space to the west.”
After speaking, the sentinel turned and left.
Lao Li was taken aback, what’s going on? The sentinel actually said that Hu Wa was dead. While thinking, Lao Li really got out of the car and walked to the open space to the west. There was a row of dead bodies, and Lao Li looked at them one by one. Suddenly, he stopped, and among the corpses, he saw Hu Wa’s body. Blood was still oozing from Hu Wa’s forehead. Lao Li froze for a moment, then he yelled and ran to his car in horror?
When Lao Li drove the car and walked forward, his heart was straightened, thinking why did something unbelievable happen tonight? Suddenly, Lao Li saw a row of lights coming out of the side road, which looked like car lights, and felt that it was getting closer.
Seeing this scene, Lao Li cheered up, and immediately stopped the car on the side of the road. Soon, the convoy approached, and Lao Li could see clearly that it was a convoy, a column of soldiers tortured to death by the military , and the headlights were turned on to the brightest, which made him a little dazzling.
At this time, the first car passed by Lao Li’s car. It was a military vehicle, and the compartment was tightly wrapped with canvas, so I don’t know what was inside. The license plate is covered, so it is even more difficult to see its origin. The same military vehicles drove by Lao Li’s car one after another, and it took a full twenty minutes for the military vehicles to finish. Next, Lao Li saw an even more surprising scene: the one following the military vehicle turned out to be a tank. The tank convoy was not short, and it took more than ten minutes to finish.
Behind the tank convoy was an American-style jeep, and a man who looked like an officer sat in the car and sternly shouted at Lao Li: “Follow up—”
Lao Li instinctively said “yes”, then started the car and followed.
After walking for a while, the sky gradually brightened. Lao Li suddenly had the feeling of waking up from a dream. He rubbed his eyes, looked forward, and couldn’t help being surprised. There were no military vehicles and tanks in front of him! There is nothing ahead. He hurriedly stopped the car, opened the door, jumped out, and followed the ruts when he came. Lao Li only saw one kind of rut marks, which were left by his own car, and there were no marks from other cars.
Old Li couldn’t help being stunned. At this moment, a group of People’s Liberation Army armed with guns flashed aside? In this way, Lao Li drove into the position of the People’s Liberation Army in a daze, and became a prisoner of the People’s Liberation Army.
Having said that, Lao Li concluded: “There were so many weird things that happened that night, it makes me feel unbelievable when I think about it now.”
I said: “The things you encountered may not be true. It was a time of war. There were wars every day, people died every day, and the spirits of the living people were extremely exhausted. The driver, especially, was more nervous and vulnerable, and fell into a trance. Is it easy to hallucinate at this time?”
Lao Li wondered: “Illusion? It can’t be an illusion. At that time, I felt that what I experienced was real.”
I smiled and said: “Bullets are flying in the sky, shells are exploding in front, and people are falling down one by one. At that time, your spirit must be in extreme tension, and your expression will be in a trance. When people are nervous and in a trance, , you will see many things that you think you have seen, but in fact they don’t exist at all.”
Lao Li listened to what I said, thought about it, and said: “If this is the case, and human beings stay away from wars, I won’t be able to see these strange things, and there won’t be such a frightening night.”
After finishing speaking, Lao Li sighed and walked into his house muttering to himself?