It's been many years since that incident, but it's still hard to let go of.
That year, I was just twenty years old. After graduating from the military academy, I was assigned to be a platoon leader in an ace unit of the Republic. The troops were stationed in the Taihang Mountains. Two days after I reported to the company, I caught up with the troops' major defensive change. I followed the personnel carrier along a combat readiness road unmarked on the civilian map, roaring all the way into the depths of the Taihang Mountains.
It was getting dark, and the personnel carrier left our company behind and drove away. Under the leadership of the company commander, we marched for more than ten minutes under the dim light of the western sky, and arrived at a barren place beside the Yishui River, in front of Buba Village and with no store behind. It was now dark. The company commander used a high-energy rechargeable flashlight with a pale light to take a look at the mirror-calm Yishui River. Then he lay on the ground and carefully compared the military map spread out by the correspondent. He straightened his waist and kicked the roadside. The rocks were kicked down the slope, and the flashlight shone on the rocky and overgrown river beach: "First row, live here!"
Since the new barracks will not be put into use until next year, we have to rely on ourselves to solve the camping problem this winter. This was known in advance, but the actual conditions we see now are still a long way from what we expected. Military orders are like mountains, there is nothing ambiguous about them. So according to the rules of camping in the wild, I ordered the troops to set up security, bury pots and cook meals on the spot, and set up tents for camping. Even though the long journey was tiring, I still didn’t sleep well on my first night in the wild. Arriving in a completely unfamiliar environment for the first time, and being the top commander among more than 40 young soldiers, I was afraid that something might happen at night, so I got up and checked the bunk twice and sent out the sentry twice. I woke up and fell asleep, feeling drowsy, and basically didn't sleep well all night. It was almost dawn before I crawled to the bunk and drifted off. I was soon awakened by the wake-up whistle. When I opened my eyes, I saw that it was already daylight. The alarm in my heart was lifted, and I breathed a sigh of relief. This first night, the most accident-prone, was uneventful.
Facts have proved that I was too optimistic because the scary days have not yet begun!
After breakfast, I started to discuss the issue of setting up a temporary military camp according to the planned plan. In late autumn, if we spend the winter in a tent, we will be frozen into popsicles by the harsh winter if we are not buried alive by the heavy snow. Taking the three squad leaders around to look around, I couldn't help but feel secretly happy. The river beach where we camped at night is actually the best residential base: it is backed by mountain rocks and shaded by more than a dozen tall poplar trees. On the front is the sparkling Yishui River. Yes, it was the Yishui where Prince Dan of Yan sent Jing Ke to assassinate the King of Qin, "the wind is rustling and the Yishui is cold". However, the Yishui River here and now is not as tragic and desolate as it was during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Instead, it looks gentle and beautiful, as if it is a moat that flows here specifically for our use and protection. Surrounded by mountains, rivers and green trees, it is truly a Feng Shui treasure for home accommodation. Soldiers had already told me with schadenfreude that the other two platoons of ours, which lived one or two kilometers away, were sticking out their buttocks and swinging big iron picks to level the foundations of houses!
After discussion among several people, they decided to use the largest poplar tree beside the rock as the dividing line to divide the river beach into upper and lower areas. The simple barracks were built downstream of the river beach, and the upstream location where we pitched our tents will be freed in the future to build two badminton courts, or even cut and fill the excavations to build a basketball court and a formal playground called a connected house. The brothers in the 2nd and 3rd platoons of the company that Jidu didn’t have must be jealous and envious! After simply drawing a line, the squad leader acted as the on-site commander. With a wave of his hand, the entire platoon of soldiers began to dig out the foundation in full swing. When the logistics office of the regiment headquarters delivers the building materials in the afternoon, the house can be repaired and built immediately. Within a week, or at most ten days, the entire platoon can move into the temporary barracks.
After arranging all this, a stone in my heart was completely relieved. I immediately felt dizzy and sleepy and could not lift my eyelids – I had too little sleep last night – so I got into the tent and covered my head to catch up on some sleep.
"It's not good, platoon leader, it's not good!" In the middle of my dream, the squad leader screamed and woke me up.
"What's the matter?" I turned over and got up. Did the Martians invade, or did the little Japanese act stupidly?
"Mass grave! A mass grave has been dug on the construction site!" The squad leader's face turned pale, and he pulled me out of the tent tremblingly.
On the construction site, all the soldiers stopped working and looked at me nervously.
A large pit was dug out on the ground, and the pit was filled with grinning skulls and scattered ribs, vertebrae, foot bones, hand bones and so on. To be honest, I have lived for twenty years and have never seen real human bones. Even though I was young and energetic at that time and thought that the whole world belonged to me, I was still shocked by such a large pile of bones. You have to take two steps back. Immediately, several young recruits were so frightened that they threw their shovels and ran towards the tent.
At that moment I almost collapsed and wanted to run away with those new recruits. But I knew that my image as a platoon leader was completely ruined, and the whole platoon must have become completely cowardly. No matter what we say, we are young officers who represent hope and represent the future of the Republic. No matter what, we must not lose our spirit here! I don’t know where I got the courage. I glared at the squad leader and reprimanded: "Making a fuss, lying about military information! What mass graves? I think there are at most ten! Don’t you know this is an anti-Japanese battlefield? It’s like a saw going back and forth. After dozens of battles, a dozen people died, that’s normal!”
"Yes, yes, ten, let's count it as ten… What should we do, platoon leader?" The squad leader looked around with sweat dripping from his face, obviously trying to find another house.
"What to do? Do you still need to ask what to do? Dozens of big living people, scared away by just a few bones, what a joke! Go to the nearest market town immediately and buy ten pots and jars! Comrade, be brave, you are a soldier!" I was He completely gained the upper hand in spirit and commanded a circle of stunned soldiers: "Continue the construction!" Then he stretched his body pretending to be relaxed, paced slowly towards the tent with his hands folded, never forgetting to look back. Said to the squad leader: "If this kind of trivial thing happens again, don't disturb me!".
I was really sleepy, and with the noisy construction sound outside, I quickly fell asleep again.
I don’t know how long it took, but I was woken up from my sleep again. When I opened my eyes, I saw the gray and unfortunate face of the squad leader.
"What's wrong? Did you dig up another zombie from the ancient tomb?" I teased deliberately.
"That's not true. But there is trouble on the construction site again! I have to ask the platoon leader to go and see for yourself!" The squad leader lowered his head and said calmly like a primary school student who had done something wrong.
I rolled out of bed, slammed my military cap on my head, and strode out of the tent. From a distance, I saw a dozen warriors gathered in a circle, seemingly discussing something. When they saw me coming, they all stopped talking and voluntarily made way for a passage.
Next to the mass grave, there were many gourd-shaped clay pots with big bellies and small mouths. Some bones had been lifted out of the pit and piled scatteredly next to the clay pots. A skull with a mouth full of big teeth and glaring eyes that stared into the ghostly world was suddenly placed alone on the side. I understood at a glance that the mouth of the clay pot was too small and the skull was too big to fit in!
"Use your brain!" I said, knocking the squad leader on the head.
"There are no clay pots with large mouths in the town. We have been thinking for twenty minutes, but there is still nothing we can do." The squad leader rubbed his hands and said, "So I have to ask your leader to make an idea!" Then he glanced at the skull timidly, his eyes falling. On tiptoes.
The skull and teeth smiled proudly and hollowly, with an expression that seemed to say: "Aren't you a military cadet officer very capable? Let's see what clever tricks you have up your sleeve!"
"This is not easy to handle!" I grabbed the big shovel from the hand of a soldier next to me, raised it high, pointed it at the skull, and slapped it hard. Where the dust rose, the skull screamed and broke into pieces. "Can it fit in now? Don't tell me that the thigh bone is too long to fit in!" I threw the shovel to the soldier, clapped my hands gently, turned around and left. Only in this way can the platoon's strengths be fully demonstrated: calmness, wisdom and courage, fearlessness in the face of danger, leading by example, and decisive command…these excellent qualities of outstanding soldiers.
Behind him, there was a series of "ba" and "ba" knocking sounds.
I got into the tent without looking back and lay down straight on the bunk. Only then did I feel that my calves were weak, my back was cramping, my stomach was churning, and my heart was beating so hard that it felt like it was about to burst from my chest. A posture that pops out of the wall.
As our platoon resolutely and decisively eliminated unexpected interference and adopted flexible measures tactfully and flexibly, the construction of the temporary camp went very smoothly. Exactly ten days later, a row of eight simple bungalows miraculously stood up against the Taihang Mountains and facing the Yishui River. At this time, the other two platoons of our company have not yet leveled the foundations! The company commander came to congratulate me in person with a smile on his face. I happily presided over the move-in ceremony and distributed the housing to each class in public. When the room number of Squad 1 was announced, I saw the squad leader's face turn pale, and the soldiers standing behind him were talking nervously.
"Quiet!" I shouted loudly. Making noise in the queue, isn't this embarrassing me in front of the company commander? "Now, I order each class to return to their tents, pack their bags, and move in immediately! Disband!"
The soldiers cheered and rushed into their tents. Only a group of soldiers moved slowly, hiding behind the big white poplar. What were a few veterans discussing around the squad leader?
what happened? The company commander looked at me and asked with his eyes.
"Squad leader!" I shouted loudly.
"Here we come!" A squad leader ran up to me and the company commander, stood at attention and saluted.
"What's going on?" I pointed to the group behind the big white poplar with my chin.
"There are two houses in our class, and one of them happens to be right above a mass grave. Everyone is too scared to live in that room!"
"The squad leader takes the lead, and the backbone and party members lead by example and implement it immediately!" Isn't this a joke to the company commander? I shouted the order angrily.
The squad leader agreed and ran back to the big poplar tree. I saw him giving orders to the whole class in an aggressive manner just like me.
The whole platoon settled into their new homes smoothly. There was no talking for one night, and still no talking for two nights. About seven or eight days passed like this. That day was Saturday, and I had just finished morning exercises. The squad leader did not wash up and followed me like a tail, as if he had something unspeakable to say to me. Look at the backbone of the first class, who are also carrying armed belts and military caps, pretending to be gathered together to discuss some issue, but in fact they are secretly glancing here, paying close attention to every move on our side.
"Squad leader!" I shouted.
"arrive!"
“If you have something to say, say it, and if you have something to say, let it go!”
"This…" The squad leader looked around, then came over and whispered in my ear: "Platoon leader, we are asking for a different room. The one in the mass grave is not clean! In fact, in fact, neither am I." Believing in superstition is just too, too, too much!"
"What's going on?" I was shocked, foreboding that there was something new going on in the landfilled mass grave. I took the lead to walk under the big poplar tree and listened to the squad leader's detailed report.
"According to your order, I and the five key party members in my class stayed in the mass grave room. I, I lead by example, and the bunk is right above the mass grave…"
"That's good! I remember when everyone was so scared that they wanted to find a shell to hide in, but it turns out that they didn't get eaten by a few bones!"
"I haven't eaten, but shake!" The squad leader's trembling voice was clearly mixed with fear.
"Shake? What's going on?"
"I was sleeping on the bed at night. As soon as I became confused, I felt the bed shaking, as if something was pushing at the foot of the bed. When I woke up, everything was normal. Looking at the comrades next to the bunk, they were sleeping as usual…" The first squad leader was already indifferent at this time. He concealed a look of terror on his face.
"It's a joke. Check it out. Someone must know that you are as timid as a mouse and have ghost stories about the mass graves and the psychological shadow of the military camp . They will play pranks to scare you!"
"Yes, I thought the same thing when I felt shaken for the first time. In the first few days, my comrades discussed this matter privately, and I seriously criticized and educated them. Last night, after turning off the lights, I braced myself and held on. He lay motionless on the bed, pretending to sleep. The purpose was to catch the person who was joking with us, and to relieve everyone's psychological confusion. Unexpectedly, after an hour or so, the person on the left turned over and said: "Who After eating, I rocked the bed again! "I clearly felt that my bed didn't move at all. As you know, we sleep on a double bunk, and if one bed shakes, the whole bed will swing with it. After another five minutes, the person on my right suddenly sat down. He stood up and exclaimed: "Ghost, ghost shakes the bed!" "Everyone in the room is awake. It turns out that they have been feeling more or less like ghosts in the past few days. They are afraid of being laughed at, so they don't dare to say it publicly like me. But the situation last night was different. Because I I haven't slept the whole time, and I was concentrating on the shaking of the bed. I can be sure that the bed has never shaken abnormally during this entire period!"
In other words, everyone in the room hallucinated in their sleep and felt the bed shaking. This is strange! Is there really a ghost? I know that if this mystery is not solved in time, the mental state of the entire platoon will definitely be affected.
At first, I suspected that a few soldiers from one squad were working together to intimidate the squad leader. When he had just entered a light sleep state, everyone secretly shook his bed, pretended to fall asleep, and pretended to talk. Last night, after discovering that the squad leader was pretending to sleep, he deliberately performed a double act together. This scared the squad leader so much that he pissed himself off and lost his soul. Then, the most suspicious thing is the two boys on the left and right of the squad leader. I leaned over and took a look, and saw that a few key members who lived in the same house as the squad leader were still standing there, obviously waiting for news from here. I walked over and chatted with them about the rocking bed, observing their words and expressions to find flaws in their performance. But this group of people are very good at concealing themselves, and no one shows off their flaws. I decided to highlight the key points and start with the biggest doubt, so I pulled aside the big man who sat up and screamed last night. This guy is a rough-and-tumble rural soldier. He is not very educated and honest but has excellent skills. A grenade can fly sixty or seventy meters with a single swing. These days are the critical moment for me to join the party and learn to drive. I don't dare to play tricks with me, a platoon leader who has the power of life and death. "Tell me, whose idea was it?" I stared at the big man.
"Wha, what… idea?" He looked confused.
"Shaking bed! Working together is scary. Tell me, who will take the lead!"
"Ha, I know!" The big man's face suddenly brightened, "They teamed up to scare me, haha, no wonder! See how I deal with them!" The big man jumped up and rushed towards the squad leader's group of people. You pushed and beat a few people. It was a lot of fun. But they quickly cleared up their misunderstanding, stopped fighting together, and turned their heads to look at me longingly.
These young honest and honest warriors, I don't believe they can perform so well. That said, it's all real, no jokes, no pranks. In other words, that room is really not clean! Isn't this hell? Perhaps, as a new platoon leader, I am too eager to be recognized and even admired by everyone. I felt that the opportunity to show myself and improve my image had come, so I strode up to the squad leader and the group of soldiers, and said loudly: "What kind of ghosts exist in the world? Idealism, feudal superstition. Suspicion breeds ghosts! In this way, our room Switch, you stay in my room, and I stay in your room. I want to see how the bed shakes!" In fact, as soon as I said this, I regretted it. How did the hero die? The hero pretended to be a hero and came to the door and killed him. But there are no jokes in the army, and a manly man will be in trouble after just one word…
The day passed quickly, the sun set early in the mountains, and the sky gradually became dark. Time ran ruthlessly fast, and the whistle to turn off the lights blew. It's time for me to be tested. I walked into the house elegantly, carefully inserted the door latch, hurriedly got under the mosquito net, and tied the light switch pull-string to the bedside where it was easily accessible. I also placed a sufficient battery in my right hand. high-power flashlight. In addition, I secretly stuffed the small pistol I was issued under my pillow. This thing has strong yang energy and wards off evil spirits! With so many layers of protection, I felt a little more at ease. I turned on the bedside table lamp and passed the time with a tattered copy of "People's Liberation Army Literature and Art".
Tuk-tuk-tuk, the door was knocked lightly three times. Who came to rescue me? At this time, if someone comes to persuade me to leave here, I will definitely hit the back of my head with my heels. Opening the door, there was a squad leader, holding an old engineer's mountain machete across his hand.
"What?" My heartstrings, which were already tense, were about to break at this moment.
"The machete has strong steel fire and can ward off evil spirits!" A squad leader whispered in my ear: "I would rather believe that it exists than that it doesn't exist! I have always put this knife under my pillow since I moved into this room! Now, use If you can’t get it, here it is!” He handed me the machete, waved his hand and ran towards his house.
No, heartless, that is not your house, this haunted house is yours! At least, you should persuade me to live with you, eat, live and train with the soldiers. This is the basic requirement for our grassroots officers! Of course, I just opened my mouth and didn't shout out those words, but two words: "Slow down!"
The squad leader stopped urgently, turned back, raised his hand and saluted: "Platoon leader, what else can I do? Please give me instructions!"
If you put a broken machete under your pillow and it won't do anything, why would you give it to me? You should pull me, force me, and not allow me to go back to the haunted house. I'll pretend to yell a few times, and then half-push, half-move to follow you. I'm scared, I'm really scared in my heart, but how can I coax a coward in front of my subordinates? I swallowed the words that came to my lips with a gulp of saliva, and handed the machete into the hands of the squad leader: "What the hell, you don't need it!" Like a fearless warrior, I turned around bravely and decisively without hesitation, He entered the house with bare hands and closed the door with a loud bang. I checked every corner of the room again and repeatedly confirmed that there were no flies or mosquitoes under the bed before I climbed back onto the bed board.
At this time, the lights-out whistle sounded. Instead of turning off the lights, I turned on all the big lights in the room. I leaned on the bedside and continued to read the "Literature of the People's Liberation Army". My idea was that I would read until I was exhausted, read until I fell asleep, and continue reading until I fell asleep. The next day when the wake-up whistle sounded, I woke up from my dream and went out as if nothing had happened. Nothing happened, all the rumors were extinguished, and I became a courageous, knowledgeable, wise and courageous hero in the eyes of all the platoon commanders.
Time passed by minute by second, and I read a new journal from beginning to end. I was so sleepy that I could hardly open my eyes. He threw away the magazine, touched the pistol under the pillow, and lay down straight, holding the flashlight in his right hand and holding the switch with his thumb. Turn off the desk lamp and turn off the headlight. The room was pitch dark, and the sound of water flowing from the Yishui River outside the house and the chirping of various unknown insects rushed into my ears. I pulled the quilt over my head, held the flashlight across my chest, and held my hands tightly. My only hope now is to fall asleep immediately and sleep until dawn.
Sure enough, I fell asleep quickly, but I wasn't able to sleep until dawn as I wished. Because, when I was half asleep and half awake, I clearly felt the bed shaking, as if there was a huge thing under the bed arching its strong and powerful back. I was so shocked that I was sweating all over. I suddenly turned on the flashlight, turned on the light, took out the pistol, and turned on the safety. Everything was still the same in the house, except for the sound of water and insects outside the window. Only the top of the white military mosquito net was shaking slightly, as if it was caused by the inertia of the bed shaking just now.
I was stunned for a long time, and then I tried to find a reason for the phenomenon in my mind: I must have slept with my head covered, and I was hallucinating because of the heat in my body. The shaking of the mosquito net can be easily explained. It may be caused by my large movements after waking up, or by pulling on the light cord.
Next, I simply covered my stomach with a quilt and lay on the bed with my hands and feet stretched out. Still in the middle of a dream, the bed began to shake again. This time I wasn't so nervous and didn't make any big moves. The first thing I did after waking up was to turn on the flashlight and shine the light directly on the top of the mosquito net. The mosquito net didn't move at all. In other words, real shaking does not exist, what exists is only psychological hallucination or shaking in dreams.
I turned on the light and looked at my watch. It was past three o'clock in the night. Not daring to fall asleep anymore, I got dressed, got up, hung up my pistol, put on my armed belt, raised the flashlight in my hand, checked the room one by one, and then came to the sentry post with the flashlight. The sentry on guard was a big man from the first class. He came up to him and said with concern: "Platoon leader, are you okay?"
"It's okay!" I waved my hand and said, "This post before dawn is the easiest to fall asleep. I'll stand with you!"
The next day, I adjusted the dormitory. The mass grave room was changed into a tool room, which was specially used to store tools for daily training and labor. No one was there anymore! Also, I specially recruited a group of key people with doubts and suspicions, and solemnly declared: From now on, no one is allowed to mention mass graves, haunted houses, and shaking beds. Otherwise, it will disturb the morale of the military and be subject to disciplinary sanctions.
The whole winter was uneventful.
The iron camp is full of soldiers. During the period from winter to spring, a group of veterans left and a group of new soldiers came. The story of the military camp gradually fades and disappears in the flowing water. The first squad leader recovered and returned to his hometown, and the big man went to the automobile company to learn driving. With the spring of the second year, flowers bloomed, and everything revived. The Yishui River began to flow again, and the big poplar trees once again fluttered with white catkins. Mass graves, haunted houses, and shaking beds. These horrific stories have all become the reality that things have changed. Old memories. However, about a month before we were about to move out of the temporary camp and move into the newly built official barracks, another strange thing happened.
Late that night, darkness enveloped both sides of the Yishui River, and the entire platoon of commanders and soldiers were sleeping. Suddenly, a rapid emergency assembly sounded on the playground next to the temporary barracks. The entire platoon quickly got up in the dark and lined up under the big poplar tree, fully armed. I ran to the front of the queue full of doubts. There was no commander in front of the queue. I looked around and saw not a single company cadre at all. How is this going? If the platoon conducts an emergency muster drill, there is no way that my platoon leader would not know about it. Then, it must be a surprise spot check in the company. But what about the company leader? Fortunately, a temporary wired phone had been installed with the company headquarters. I quickly ran back to the room to call the company headquarters. When I inquired, I found that there was no such thing as an emergency gathering!
This is strange. Could it be that there were more than 40 people in our row, and we all had auditory hallucinations? Or one person hears the emergency muster whistle in his sleep, jumps up to put on his clothes and packs his backpack, causing the whole platoon to go crazy! This latter situation is indeed not uncommon when the recruits are highly nervous during the emergency muster training of the recruit company. Happened once and for all. Everyone checked each other out, and naturally they couldn't find the person who was the first to "go crazy". I waved my hand and said, "Forget it, it won't happen next time. Disband and continue to rest!"
Everyone yawned and complained and went back to their rooms to sleep.
If you stop here, there is absolutely nothing surprising. The problem was that two days later, the emergency assembly whistle suddenly sounded again, also in the middle of the night, also at the big poplar tree.
We can no longer explain it as "crazy nonsense"! Then, someone must be up to something. Continuously doing this kind of thing of falsely conveying military orders is no longer a prank. As the saying goes, recruits are afraid of cannons and veterans are afraid of whistles. How can it be childish to say that the whistle is a military order? This guy must be caught!
I suspect that the three "members" of the company headquarters, the cooks, breeders, and correspondents, did it. Because only these three members of the entire company are relatively sparse and unorganized, and the other soldiers in the company share food and accommodation together, whoever wants to sneak out in the middle of the night to do such bad things will not be able to escape even if he is not caught by the sentry. the eyes and ears of our comrades.
So he made a report to the company commander. The company commander decided to work hard both outside and inside to find the criminal. On the surface, it was the same as before, but secretly each platoon secretly strengthened its vigilance, focusing on guarding against the three major "members" of the company headquarters. Our platoon not only strengthened sentry posts and patrols, but also set up two double-man latent posts on the only road leading from the company headquarters and the other two platoons. By setting up a dragnet like this, even if that guy has the ability to reach the sky with three heads and six arms, he will definitely be unable to fly.
After two days of this, the emergency assembly whistle sounded again late at night. According to the plan arranged by the company commander, I quickly jumped out of bed, pushed open the window, stretched out my right hand, and pulled the trigger hard. With a loud bang, a red flare shot into the air. In an instant, sentries at both the high and low places along the mountains and rivers were dispatched, with figures and lights flashing around, and all the passages were blocked. From the direction of the company headquarters and the second and third platoons, an emergency assembly whistle sounded faintly. An hour later, information from all walks of life was gathered at the company headquarters, and the result was a big surprise: nothing was found. Several cadres met to study, and the company commander judged that the problem must lie within our platoon. Because of the situation tonight, people from the other two platoons, including the company headquarters, committed a crime. It was impossible for them to rush back so quickly to participate in their respective emergency gatherings without anyone noticing.
So, I began to cast suspicious eyes on the forty people in my platoon. It should be said that these are also a group of innocent people who did not have the time, conditions and motive to commit the crime. There are eight temporary barracks in total. I live in the one closest to the playground and the big poplar tree. There is a narrow road in front of the barracks. No one passing by can escape my eyes. The back of the barracks is surrounded by steep rocks and thick thorns, making it impossible for even an ape to climb over. Even if an ape jumps over, it will definitely be spotted by countless pairs of vigilant eyes. This means that people living in the barracks cannot commit crimes. Then, the only person who might commit the crime can only be the sentinel. The problem is that the sentries are on duty in rotation, and in recent days it has been changed to two people and two posts, so that they can supervise each other and prevent the sentries from committing crimes.
No one is in a condition to commit a crime. Could it be that it’s a ghost again! Why did the ghost no longer appear in the haunted house this time, but went to the playground under the big poplar tree? My mind was once again full of doubts and my hair was on edge.
It was quiet for two days, and late at night on the third day, the urgent emergency assembly whistle sounded clearly from the direction of the big poplar tree on the playground. I yelled, and the soldiers knew that this was another "crazy nonsense", so they didn't pack their backpacks and get up. But in the silence of the night, I heard the veteran in the next room telling the recruits about mass graves, haunted houses, and shakers. What he said next surprised me. This bizarre emergency muster whistle is actually related to the "mass grave": "The ghost stories of the dozens of smashed bones in the military camp , randomly packed in clay pots, and buried under the big poplar tree… …"I see! I gasped and yelled at the ceiling: "Sleep, no talking!"
Early the next morning, I ran to the company headquarters and reported the situation to the company commander. The correspondent told me that several company leaders were meeting to study the relocation of new barracks. As soon as I thought it was an opportunity, I rushed into the meeting venue, reported the situation of the past few days, and requested that the new barracks be moved immediately, the sooner the better. The company commander and instructor looked at each other. "Aren't you very brave?" the company commander said sarcastically.
"Let me go, Captain. Please let us get out of that ghost place quickly, otherwise the whole platoon will collapse!" I no longer dare to pretend to be a hero.
On that day, our platoon took the lead in moving into the new barracks more than ten kilometers away. In the next two months, I left the field army company and was transferred to work in the government compound. I never returned to the temporary barracks in the Taihang Mountains, beside the Yishui River, and under the big poplar trees. It is said that after we left, it had been converted into a cowshed and a sheepfold. I wonder if the confusing and invisible emergency assembly whistle still often shocks the ears of cattle and sheep suddenly in the middle of the night.
This memory has been around for many years, but it is too unforgettable and indelible for me. Occasionally, when I talk about it among relatives and friends, they have many scientific explanations, and a more concentrated view is that the shaker is a psychological suggestion. As for the emergency muster whistle, it may be a wild parrot imitating it in the military camp. But I still can't let it go. Because I think it is a small probability event for several people to receive the same psychological suggestion at the same time and hallucinate the bed shaking at the same time. Besides, even if a parrot blows a whistle, why has it only learned the emergency rally whistle? And why did it only choose to make noise late at night at the big poplar tree with the unknown corpse buried under its feet?