Chinese Literature

eam em

By now it was noon. The sun blazed down out of a cloudless sky, and not a breath of air stirred. The scent of newly-ploughed earth rose strongly off the fields. By some method, the news that the Commandant was going to dismantle a time bomb had spread, and long before we got to the actual scene we could see the area was thick with people. Soldiers, orderlies, workers, and the Korean villagers... . . Commandant Shen had to start off with giving orders that they were all to be cleared off to a safe distance before he began to go in with Tsui Yi.

“You'll please stay outside the rope, Comrade Commandant,” Tsui Yi said firmly. “That’s too far off!’ was all he got from the Commandant, who went on right up to the ropes. and a few steps inside.

‘Not a step further, Comrade Commandant.”

“T cave you permission to come here at all, and now you don’t let me have a look! I tell you what, we'll compromise. [Il just go near enough to be able to see it properly.”

He hadn’t gone another two steps, however, before Tsui Yi got really angry, and just pulled him back to the fence. “You’re not to go on, Comrade Commandant!” -

Commandant Shen faced him, with a grin. “You’d better get it into your head, comrade soldier. If you can’t agree with my security measures, you won’t be allowed to. . - .”

“Allow me to speak my mind too, Comrade Commandant. If I'd known what you meant by security measures, you’d never have got me here with you at all!”

All the men who had worked with the Commandant knew very well that he didn’t throw his weight about, and that he never tried to pull his rank, but would be the first to say, in all humility, that he hadn’t done his work well. In his Party records it was always stated that he was genuinely democratic in his relations with comrades of all ranks. But he was being properly the head of the family now, while Tsui Yi was being plain pigheaded, and sticking like glue to his own way of thinking. The one could not yield, and the other would not. I was afraid that an impasse had been reached. The Guards C.O. wanted to suggest that he should swap places with the Commandant but no one took any notice of this. I suggested that I might be a mediator, but Tsui Yi, his face red with indignation, would have none of it.

“Talk, talk, talk, the whole bloody day, and now I’m led over here, all for nothing,” he said scornfully.

He saluted the Commandant stiffly, and turned to limp away. Commandant Shen softened, and began to speak again, but the soldier went off without turning his head. The crowd dwindled away, and we heard some disapproving comments on the Commandant as they went. At last

there were only Commandant Shen, young Feng, and myself left standing by the enclosure.