Chinese Literature

era

We waited.... No Tsui Yi. Finally the telephone bell rang. Young Feng’s triumphant voice came over.

“We've got him, Comrade Commandant!” he shouted. The Commandant couldn’t keep back a roar of laughter. “TI bet you found him at the bomb, didn’t you?”

“That’s right. That’s where he is.”

‘Why the hell haven’t you brought him back here, then?”

“Basier said than done, Comrade Commandant! He’s incited the masses to rise now!’—Feng’s voice shook with real dismay.

“Why didn’t the sentry stop him going through the rope?”

“The sentry says that the soldier told him that he had been brought there before by the Commandant himself, and that he had the right to go in when he wanted to. He also said he wasn’t going to do anything, just wanted to have a look. As a matter of fact, the sentry didn’t try to stop him very hard... .”

‘What about the C.O.?”

“Comrade Commandant, I have to inform you that the C.O. is a double-dealer !”

“What the hell are you doing about it then?”

“What, me?”

“Yes, you. Who d’you think I mean? Are you incited too?” The Commandant winked at me as he said this, as much to say that these cruel words were hiding his real affection for his young devil who had been through so much by his side.

A strange voice came over the telephone, “Beg to report that young Feng has been taken prisoner too.”

The Commandant said gravely, “Report received, comrade stranger,” and put the receiver down. No chance of dinner or that bottle of wine now! He grinned at me resignedly, and said, “We'd better face the facts. Everyone’s against me. Shall we go and surrender?”

We started out, and about halfway we met young Feng coming back in the jeep. The Commandant stared sternly at him, and waited for him to speak first. “How can a chap clap with only one hand?” Feng muttered. We got in the jeep and soon ran across the C.O., standing by the roadside. He also got a stern glare, and cold silence. He didn’t know that the Commandant had already changed his mind, and started out to persuade him to look at the problem from another point of view. He put it across quite convincingly, saying that a leading comrade ought to be able to accept the views of the masses, and that the masses and Tsui Yi were of one mind. Having already got some indication of this, and having heard as much from young Feng, I was myself by now heartily convinced that Tsui Yi had won over the masses all right. As we might have known, the masses were about. On the other side of the hill, the place was crowded. Soldiers, orderlies, workers, Korean villagers . . all of them organized and busily working under Tsui Yi’s instructions,

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