Feng Qingxue was taken aback, "What kind of devastation happened in our Caohu?"
"Just as Sister Sanbao described, shell cases and bashed houses could be swept into a small mountain-like pile. The old folks who could not run fast would hide in their homes or in the cellar. Some died, some were lucky to survive. After the war, wails were heard everywhere. Remember the little river nearby the house where you and Xiaoyun lived?"
Feng Qingxue nodded. Indeed, there was a river.
Lu Jiang continued, "That river was filled with corpses. The nearby ditches and gullies were all filled with bodies. Spending days and nights just to cremate and bury them, I remember I went there with the troops to handle it. There were innocent villagers and fallen brothers. I remember it vividly even now. The mountain Sister Sanbao talked about is south of Wanglou and north of Caohu."
At this point, Lu Jiang sighed deeply.
Numerous lives, tears, and blood were sacrificed for our present peace, so many that it’s impossible to count.
Feng Qingxue suddenly remembered. It seemed to be the mountain she crossed for the first time when she went to the county. She even stopped in a valley to check the files in her space.
"Is it that mountain? I remember it." There seemed to be a lot of unnamed graves on the mountainside.
"Yes, it’s that mountain. The un-flattened graves there are filled with the heroes who died in the war."
"Flattening graves for cultivation?" Feng Qingxue suddenly recalled something else, "Right, due to current customs, no family offers any tribute to their ancestors’ graves. Where are the tombs of our ancestors? I’ve never heard you or father mention my mother’s or elder brother and his wife’s graves."
The more illustrious a family, the worse its ancestors’ graves are treated in the future. They are likely to be dug up as one of ’the Four Olds’ as Maoists called them during the Cultural Revolution.
Lu Jiang responded, "Our ancestors’ graves? They’re directly covered under a bombed mountain. The area has especially good Feng Shui; our ancestors found the place with a geomancer guidance, who said it would bring prosperity for future generations. The bodies of our mother and elder brother and his sister-in-law were also buried there. Due to the policy of flattening graves for cultivation, their graves were secretly buried without gravestones."
With Wang Zhengguo around, the Lu Family had full support.
Everyone in the Wanglou Brigade turned a blind eye. The existence of these air-raid shelters saved countless lives!
Upon hearing Lu Jiang, Feng Qingxue felt relieved, regardless of whether or not any archeologists will come in the future. Thankfully, the special tombs of the Lu family, a wealthy family, were spared from being dug up during that peculiar period.
Suddenly, after understanding this painful history, she started to painstakingly transcribe the first aid content when Lu Jiang was not around.
At the same time, she taught Wang Sanbao diligently every day, and they both learned together.
She had the theoretical knowledge, which was good, but it was all book learning. Yet, Wang Sanbao had actual battlefield experience-which was certainly worth learning from. She didn’t want to miss out on such a good learning opportunity.
After a month , she was noticeably pregnant, and her medical skills had improved tremendously.
Wang Sanbao had more or less mastered the knowledge and abruptly disappeared from Feng Qingxue’s training life.
Seeing Feng Qingxue’s surprise, Guo Xiuying explained, "Bandits have stirred up trouble again; this happens from time to time. Sister Wang has traveled with the soldiers assigned to quell the bandits. She both treats our brethren and conducts experiments on the enemy’s wounded."
An entire regiment was dispatched with its own medical soldiers. It wasn’t Zhao Yong’s regiment, which is why Guo Xiuying didn’t join them.
...I feel I should present this piece of history to my dear readers. Born in a time of peace, never forget the martyrs! Piers: When I was a kid, I used to bathe in a lake behind my uncle’s house filled with corpses. Now listening to Mom talk about the past, stuff my grandma told her, my face is filled with confusion.