Firmament

Where there is fire, there is ash.

- Dulong proverb

In the spring and summer of this year, Dongxiang suffered a serious natural disaster that occurred once in a century.

At the beginning of spring, a scorching sun hangs high in the clear sky, turning the already barren and extremely arid loess slopes into a furnace. The sky was unusually blue, with hardly a trace of clouds. In the evening, a cloud glides gently across the vast sky, too stingy to drop a drop of rain as precious as oil.

The days of sowing passed day by day, and the farmers had to bury their seeds in dry soil. The days of watering the land have passed day by day, and the farmers still have not seen the life-saving rain. They crouched sadly on the palm-sized edge of the field, their hearts as hot and scorched as the parched earth.

The land is extremely scarce and has become a thick and hard slab. Wheat and cabbage, which are the easiest to survive, have no way to grow on mud tablets. A few wilted wheat seedlings poked their weak heads out of the cracks, helplessly waiting for the day when they would die.

Villagers frugally eat the corn and potatoes left over from the previous year. After eating the surplus food, the families could no longer find a grain of food to feed their hunger.

In the dilapidated villages, people with a brighter mind simply gave up farming and went to the market in Suonanba to do some small business and earn a little money to support their families. The dull-minded people cling to the yellow earth under their feet, looking up all day long in the hope that God will rain down a few drops of life-saving rain. People with poor living ability are hungry and thirsty, and they have nothing to do, and they can't care about shame, so they take their families to wander and beg in other places.

Niu Dawood of Gangou is 20 years old, and he is really in the prime of his youth, strength, farming, and supporting his family. He is medium to short in stature. The figure is slightly thin and thin. A layer of dust fell from the chestnut-colored hair. The face was sunburned oil black by the sun on the plateau. The facial features are relatively upright, and the contours are prominent. A tall nose, thick lips, deep sunken eye sockets, a pair of large bony eyes, and a look of chaos and confusion.

His wife, Jimminay, was 18 years old, with a big belly, a slightly puffy face, a pale complexion, eyes slightly closed, and a lack of energy. She was curled up on a bare clay kang and covered with a worn-out cotton blanket that had faded from its original color.

Jimmy groaned softly, slowly opened his eyes, and asked weakly, "Dawood...... Are you in Ali? Do you feel good and see if you can find something to eat......? I couldn't stand the hunger. "

Niu Dawood listened to his wife, went to the stove, lifted the lid of the pot, took out a cornmeal tortilla that was as heavy as a stone, and handed it to Jimminay.

When Jimmy saw the cake, his eyes lit up. She hurriedly stretched out her thin hands, grabbed the cake and took a big bite.

She chewed hard and asked, "You...... Don't you eat a little?".

Niu Dawud replied, "I am not hungry. "

"We haven't eaten for two days...... I'm hungry, aren't you hungry? Give, you...... Let's take a bite too. "

Niu Dawood pushed his wife's outstretched hand back and said nothing.

Niu Dawood was reluctant to leave his homeland to do business in other places, let alone be a humiliating beggar. However, the pockets of food at home were empty. The pregnant wife, the elderly Ada, the grandmother, and the siblings are anxiously waiting for the next meal.

Niu Dawood thought for a moment, and said to Jiminay, "I will take my brothers to the shady side of the ravine, and dig up some wild vegetables. I'm going to make sure you eat. "

Jimmy chewed greedily on the bread and said, "Come back sooner." Give me a bowl of water. I'm choking. "

Newdawood walked out of the house with his younger brothers, Abdu and Saliha, to the shade of a nearby ravine. They widened their eyes and searched carefully for wild vegetables that could be used to satisfy their hunger, even green shoots that had just emerged from the ground.

Here, they met villagers who also came to dig wild vegetables. Everyone looked at each other in silence. A bitter smile appeared on his yellow-green face.

After pulling wild vegetables from the shady side of a nearby ravine, they walked to a more distant ravine. In a few days, they walked through every ravine in the dry ditch and pulled out all the wild vegetables on the shady side of the ravine. They began to catch grasshoppers and other insects again, and fried them in rapeseed oil with a hala flavor as food to satisfy their hunger.

In short, except for the loess that could not be swallowed, the poor peasants of Dongxiang ate everything they could swallow.

One day, Marshelif, who had a pair of ring-legged legs in the Zhuangzi, ran into Niu Dawood's house and told him breathlessly, "Brother Dawood, the situation is not good. Abdu was captured by the yamen. "

Abdu is the big brother of Niu Dawood. He saw that there was really nothing to eat at home, so he and Ma Shelifu went to the nearby village to work as porters, carrying goods for large families and mixing a mouthful of food.

Niu Dawood was taken aback when he heard the news, and hurriedly asked in a low voice, "Speak quietly." The Yamen Amen wants to take Abdu?".

Lap-legged Marsheliv replied, "Abdu and I have sent sheepskins to the city of Hezhou for a family. The lord asked us to bring a bag of things to the rich man Yang's family in Hezhou City. After we arrived in Hezhou City, the rich man Yang said that we were missing the things we were carrying, and falsely accused the two of us of stealing them. "

Newdawood asked, "What's missing an Amen?"

Marsheliv replied, "A pair of gold bracelets are missing." "

Newdawood's eyes widened in surprise and hurriedly asked, "What happened later?"

Masheliv replied: "Later, the rich man Yang had my and Abudu's bodies searched, and as a result, gold bracelets were found in Abdu's belt. The rich man Yang tied him up with hemp rope and sent someone to the yamen in Hezhou. "

Niu Dawood asked, "Yamen is in a place in Hezhou City?"

Marsheliv replied, "I heard at the north gate." "

Niu Dawood was so anxious that he hurriedly called his second brother Saliha, and left the house quickly without telling his parents and family, and went straight to Hezhou City under the mountain.

It was already dusk when they arrived at the north gate of Hezhou City. They found the majestic yamen with the gate closed, and the officials who guarded the gate to inquire about Abdu's condition.

The official replied, "That Dongxiang savage is impermanent!"

Niu Dawood and Saliha were dumbfounded for a moment, and hurriedly asked, "What a good person, Amen, is impermanence in a dream (Hezhou dialect, a moment)?"

The official replied impatiently, "Now that food is so scarce, and the good people are so hungry, Ali still has food for the prisoners to eat?"

Newdawood and Saliha were grieved and asked for a while, "Man is impermanent, and the body is buried in a place?"

The official replied: "The Hui people of Bafang saw that he was from the same sect, so they sent him to be buried and buried. "

Niu Dawood asked sadly, "Buried in Ali?"

The official replied, "Outside the West Gate." "

Saliha asked angrily: "A living human life was mutilated by you like this? His life was given by Hu Dahe's parents." Heaven will punish you sinners!".

The servant angrily picked up the long stick in his hand and was about to chase after Saliha.

Niu Dawood hurriedly apologized to the officials, and pulled the emotional Saliha to leave the yamen quickly.

When they came to the burial outside the West Gate, they saw that the mountains were full of graves, and they could not tell which one belonged to Abdul for a while. They searched for a long time before they found a mound covered with new soil, which was probably my brother's. They squatted in front of the grave and recited a prayer asking for forgiveness and happiness for the deceased.

When they came out to bury them, they happened to pass by two very unique-looking mounds, and they saw two gray bricks with Arabic inscriptions on them.

Niu Dawood had learned a little Arabic, and by the way, he glanced at the green bricks and saw that they were written on them:

Abbas, a Khorezmite.

Ayisha, a native of Khwarazm.

Curious, he said to Saliha, "There are still foreigners buried here." "

Saliha said angrily: "My lungs are going to explode, where can I care about foreigners!".

Niu Dawood was not angry when he heard Saliha's words, and continued to say to him: "I heard the legend of the old people that our ancestors came from Khorezm, originally lived in the city of Hezhou, and after impermanence, they were buried in the burial outside the city. In the past, old people came here regularly to visit their graves. Later, the soldiers were in chaos, and it was inconvenient to come over, so the tradition of going to Hezhou to go to the grave was broken. "

Saliha still said angrily: "The living people can't take care of it now, where can they have the energy to care about these old ancestors buried in the loess!"

Niu Dawood persuaded his younger brother: "People's life and death are determined by Hu Da. We don't have the right to decide for ourselves. Don't think too radically, so as not to be excluded by others on the outside. "

Saliha said: "We will go to Dazhuang now to find Yang Cai to reason." "

Niu Dawood was a little hesitant, and he didn't know what to say for a long time.

Saliha took his hand and strode forward.

It

was almost midnight when Niu Dawood and Saliha came to Dazhuang and found the house of the rich man Yang.

The rich man refused to come out to see them, but asked the housekeeper to tell them that the person was not killed by himself, and asked them to find the yamen to reason.

Saliha was furious and quarreled with the butler.

An old man with a white beard came out and offered to act as a mediator between the two sides.

Under the persuasion of the old man, they received a small bag of wheat from the rich man Yang.

It was late at night when Niu Dawood and Saliha returned home. They endured their grief and indignation, and pretended to be indifferent and told Ada and Mama, "We are going to visit Abdu." He worked in a leather processing factory in the city of Hezhou. "

Ada and Grandma were overjoyed to see Niu Dawood get back the life-saving food, and to hear that Abdu was working in the city. They happily lit a fire, prepared to cook a pot of wheat, and had a good meal.

After a while, Grandma brought the hot wheat to the small kang table.

Jimmy struggled to sit up, picked up the wooden spoon and was about to eat, when he suddenly felt a cramping pain in his abdomen. She hurriedly got off the kang, put on her shoes and ran to the hut. Soon after, she gave birth to a stillborn baby who was less than a month old.

Instantly, the family's dinner became tasteless.

In November of this year, the family was so poor that they couldn't open the pot. Niu Dawood took Saliha out of the dry ditch and prepared to go to Suonanba to find some temporary work.

They had just reached the mountain road leading to Suonanba when they encountered a group of emotionally excited Sartas.

The men sat down on the ridge by the side of the road to rest, carrying large knives and long sticks in their arms. Some scolded the government for being greedy and vicious, and some complained bitterly about the difficulties of life, shouting that they would go to Hezhou City to build an official mansion.

A while ago, Niu Dawood heard that the Sata people in Beizhuang were plotting to start an incident. Could it be that these people are from Beizhuang?

Nuda Vu took Saliha's hand and hurriedly said, "Let's hide in the ravine." They are rebels. We better not approach them and don't provoke them. "

Saliha disagreed: "What is there to be afraid of? They were forced by the government to have no way to live before they rose up to rebel, and they did not rebel against our ordinary people!"

Newdawood said, "Well, you are here and waiting for me." I went to the back of the hill to relax. "

Newdawood came back, but Saliha was nowhere to be seen. His heart suddenly turned into a mess like boiling corn paste. He thought to himself: "I have lost Abdu, I must not lose Saliha again."

Newdawood couldn't care about the team that feared rebellion. He walked into the crowd and anxiously searched for Saliha. Suddenly, he saw Saliha running towards him with a cloth bag.

Nunda Wood repunished Saliha and said, "I have told you again and again not to let you run alone." You're just disobedient! Come with me. "

Saliha smiled and said, "Brother, this is the rebel team robbing the rich family's money, you can take it home and serve Ada and Grandma." I'm not going back with you today. I will join their party and go to the city of Hezhou to avenge Abdu. "

Nundawood was overwhelmed when he heard Saliha's words.

He objected firmly: "Abdu is already impermanent. If you don't go home again, Ada and Grandma won't be in a hurry to get seriously ill? Don't mess around! Saliha, let's go home now, be a common man who does our duty, and live a peaceful life. "

Saliha's tone was more resolute than that of Nundawood: "Go back, either starve to death or die of disease! If you don't go back, you will die." It's better to kill a few villains first and then die, my life is worth it. "

Nurdawood took Saliha's hand and painstakingly continued to persuade him not to join in the rebellion.

At this time, the rebel team set off for Hezhou City.

Seeing this, Saliha broke free of Niu Dawood's hands, and while chasing the team, he turned back to him and said, "Brother, you should go home quickly." Serve Ada and Grandma well. When I have avenged Abdu, I will go home. "

Niu Dawood stood in place, looking at the distant rebel team and the dust floating in the sky, the six gods were masterless, and he was in a dilemma.

Although Newdawood sympathized with these rebellious Sartars and supported them against the government, which did not care about the lives of the people, he only intended to quietly wait and see how things unfolded, and did not have the courage to join the rebels. He often thought about it: if the government still oppresses us, we should simply hide in a more remote place than the dry ditch. We can't afford to mess with the government, but we can afford to hide.

Saliha joined the rebel team, moved to the four townships of Hezhou, and fought jointly with the rebel teams in various places, and the momentum grew stronger and stronger. However, he did not return to Gangou after avenging his family revenge, and has been fighting at the forefront of the battle.

In the early spring of the following year, Niu Dawood heard news from outside the mountain that the people of Hezhou City had also risen up to make trouble. Unable to endure the oppression and exploitation of the feudal government, they resolutely launched an uprising against tyranny.

Niu Dawood heard the news that the common people had rebelled one after another, and his heart was full of joy. On the one hand, he personally felt the bottomless suffering and endless sorrow, and on the other hand, he was disturbed by the rebellion of the Li people against the government.

He thinks that no matter how powerful his arms are, they can't twist his thick thighs. No matter how loud the house finch calls, it can't fight the fierce mountain eagle.

Like

most of the Salta people living in remote and closed mountainous areas, Niu Dawood is simple and simple at heart, and has extremely limited knowledge and understanding of the political situation. He didn't know what these changes meant to him, or only that many people were involved in the rebellion, and he was at a loss as to what the underlying causes and consequences of their rebellion were.

Nurdawood could not have predicted what would happen in Donya (in Sarta language, in the world). He pinned all his hopes in life on the almighty sky. More often than not, he can only silently pray that the sky will be smooth and the whole family will be safe.