The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Zhou Hexuan competed with Lao Jiang this time. After the publication of "Ta Kung Pao" was suspended, he directly wrote an article and sent it to "Fei Gong" magazine.

The editor-in-chief of "Fei Gong" has changed several times, and the current editor-in-chief is none other than the great writer Ba Jin.

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Ba Jin served as the editorial board member of "Salvation Daily", but was ordered to suspend publication by the government early last year. At the same time, together with Mao Dun, he was the editor-in-chief of "Beacon" (formerly known as "Scream"). This magazine had a great influence in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War. However, due to the impact of the war, the headquarters of "Beacon" moved from Shanghai to Guangzhou, and then to Hong Kong, and was forced to suspend publication due to the fall of Hong Kong.

Since then, Ba Jin has traveled all over the Southwest, specializing in cultural propaganda.

The editor-in-chief of "Fei Gong" resigned due to illness last year, and Zhou Hexuan wrote to invite Ba Jin to succeed him. Under Ba Jin's hands, "Fei Gong" began to publish articles by many leftist writers, including Mao Dun, Guo Moruo, Yu Dafu, Yang Shuo, etc., all of which challenged the limits of Jiang's patience.

To be honest, "Fei Gong" is not far from being discontinued.

"Editor Li, here is an article written by Mr. Zhou himself." Luo Binji knocked on the door and entered the editor's office.

Luo Binji's true identity is an underground party, but due to the impact of the war, he has lost contact with the party organization for two years. Since then, he has been moving around to engage in literary creation. Even if he came to Chongqing, Luo Binji could not regain contact with the party organization, which shows how strict the party's secrecy work is.

Luo Binji was recruited by Ba Jin into "Fei Gong" magazine, and he is currently the editor in charge of the novel page.

Ba Jin smiled and said, "Mr. Zhou hasn't contributed to "Fei Gong" for a long time, show it to me quickly."

"This is a novella, which makes my hair stand on end and my vest feels cold." Luo Binji said.

"Is it the realistic magicism of "Goddess" again?" Ba Jin asked.

Luo Binji shook his head and said, "Documentary."

Ba Jin opened the manuscript and saw that the title of the novel was "People's City".

The protagonist's family is a rich farmer with 30 acres of dry land. They are self-sufficient and hire long-term laborers to help when farming is busy.

At the beginning of the novel, the hero and heroine are complaining about the bad harvest, and then a group of purchasing teams come. Six people, three mules, live in the protagonist's house and eat white flour and eggs every day. Even the rations of the protagonist and his wife are used to feed the mules.

Due to last year's requisition mission, the protagonist's family's food storage has been emptied, and this year, they have suffered consecutive droughts and locust plagues, and it is impossible to complete the requisition amount set by the county government.

In desperation, the protagonist can only go to the father-in-law's house in the neighboring village to borrow food. It turned out that the father-in-law had already sold the cattle and part of the land, and he barely made up enough grain to send the grain collectors away. But the father-in-law’s family has no rations, and the rice shop has daily restrictions on the sale of food because the price of food is too low, and the price of rice on the black market is too high to afford it.

The father-in-law, who was a small landlord, hanged himself with his family because there was no rice to cook.

The protagonist buried his father-in-law's family hastily, and contacted the big landlord when he returned, and sold the land and bought grain to pay for the purchase.

When the government collects land tax, it only collects food, but when it buys military rations, it only pays French currency, and it still pays according to the official price. The requisition money received by the protagonist is only enough to feed the family for a few days, and even if the land is sold out, it will not last for half a month, because the big landlord suppressed the price severely and took advantage of the fire to rob.

The protagonist's family started to eat grass roots and bark, but the grass roots and bark in the village were quickly exhausted. Hearing that goose dung can satisfy hunger, he picked up goose dung and ate it everywhere. The youngest son died of illness while eating goose dung.

When the news of the death of the youngest son came out, someone immediately came to buy the corpse and bid for a small bag of wheat bran.

The protagonist was determined not to sell it, and quietly buried his son's body overnight, only to find out that the body had been dug up the next day. He and his wife frantically searched everywhere, but there was no clue after searching all day. When they returned home, they found that their youngest daughter was also missing.

The eldest son was dying and said: "My sister was taken away by Granny Zhang from the same village, and Granny Zhang wanted to feed them meat."

The protagonist immediately rushed into Granny Zhang's house and found that the old woman was cooking meat and there were pieces of his daughter's clothes on the ground. After fighting for a while, the protagonist subdues the old woman and finds that there are bones under the old woman's bed. She is shocked and angry and immediately turns it over to the police.

The protagonist begins to flee with his family, and the eldest son starves to death on the way. After finally taking the train to the provincial border, he was driven back by the local garrison and encountered human traffickers on the way.

The protagonist wants to sell his wife, lest she starve to death. The wife also wanted to sell herself in exchange for some rations for her husband and eldest daughter.

During the transaction, the wife said: "Your pants are rotten, wear mine."

The protagonist puts on his wife's pants, the couple hug each other and cry, and then say goodbye forever.

The protagonist took his 11-year-old daughter to continue fleeing famine and came to a county town. In the middle of the night, he felt someone pushing him in his sleep. He immediately opened his eyes and asked, "What are you doing?"

"He's not dead yet, go look elsewhere." The man said to his accomplice.

The protagonist vaguely saw those people carrying the corpse under the moonlight, and was so frightened that he hugged his daughter and shivered.

The next morning, the protagonist takes his daughter to beg in the city, begging a gentleman in a suit and eating buns.

The gentleman suddenly stood up and shouted in horror: "Boss, why is there someone's fingernails in your bun?"

A few days later, the eldest daughter was starved to death, and the protagonist was unable to dig a hole to bury her, so she had to drag her to a hidden place to hide. Seeing that there was still an elm tree that hadn't been fully peeled, he immediately hugged the trunk and gnawed, and finally passed another uncomfortable day.

At night, the protagonist finds that someone is quietly moving the dead body, he follows up curiously, and asks mysteriously, "How much can the dead body be sold for?"

The other party replied: "Children are the most expensive, followed by adults. Old people don't want it, and they don't want it if it's not fresh."

Ever since, the protagonist became a corpse mover. He was like a vulture every day, staring at the dying people, and at night he dragged the corpses to the market for rations.

The darkest part of the novel is the description of the city of people.

All other places are dilapidated and depressed, starving everywhere, but the city of people is still prosperous. The people there are talking and laughing, full of energy, and all of them are friendly and kind, and even help each other a little, like a paradise.

The protagonist also regained his complexion, his skin became rosy, and he even picked up a starving and fainting refugee woman as his wife.

The novel ends amidst the noise and laughter in the crowd. The protagonist wears the obviously ill-fitting trousers and walks towards his new wife who is waiting for him with Xiaomi in his hand.

"Mingcheng really... dare to write." Ba Jin wiped his sweat.

Luo Binji smiled wryly: "Once this novel is published, "Fei Gong" should stop publishing. Should I find a job in advance?"

"It's time to find a job again," Ba Jin shook his head helplessly, "This novella has about 70,000 to 80,000 words, and the serialization will definitely not be finished in one issue. Anyway, it is the last issue. I suggest increasing the number of pages of the magazine. "All published."

"That's the only way." Luo Binji said.

Ba Jin flipped through the novel manuscript again, and repeatedly read the second half of the description about the city. That human city like a paradise, so prosperous, so noisy, so joyous, so kind and loving, so... creepy.

Ba Jin felt that he would not be able to sleep tonight.