The Last War Elephant

The Zhaogang leader of Xishuangbanna once had a formidable team of elephant soldiers. The so-called elephant soldiers were the army that rode on elephants to fight. The elephant soldiers not only move fast but also can use the long trunk to split the enemy, with the elephant hoof to step on the enemy, directly involved in the battle. A large herd of elephants, pouncing on the enemy like a mountain, battle dust rolled, roar, unstoppable.

In 1943, the iron hoof of the Japanese invaders stepped into the Xishuangbanna frontier town of Daluo. Elephant soldiers fought with the Japanese on the banks of the Taolu River. The battle was extremely fierce, the sound of gunfire, killing and elephant roar was shocking; the ghosts threw down more than 70 bodies in the Dailuo River, more than 80 of our war elephants were all shot and fell to the ground, and the blood dyed the river red. After the battle, Zao Piece Leader dug a large pit of more than 20 meters in length and width at the side of Ta Luo River and buried the fallen elephants in a grand manner. Also in the pit set up a monument: a hundred elephant mound.

Managing Langzhai civilian workers carrying the carcasses of war elephants, accidentally found a male elephant still breathing, its neck was cut by a knife, a machine gun bullet through the front leg, and all over the body is blood, but it is still alive. They used a large cart pulled by 8 horses to carry it back to the fortress. This was the only surviving war elephant, named Garcinia. The kind-hearted villagers healed its wounds and raised them.

When I arrived at the Manguanglao village in March 1969, the car was still alive. It has more than 50 years old, the neck is very crooked, the mouth is never closed, dripping saliva all day; a front leg is not completely cured, short of a section, walking to stumble upside down, it is a very sparse elephant hair almost all lost, the skin is wrinkled like dehydrated loofah; years of dust, two tusks accumulated a thick layer of ugly yellow stains. It is a war elephant, it is a meritorious servant. The villagers respect and care for it, and never ask it to carry things. It wanders around the village all day long, going to the east to ask for bunches of bananas and the west to drink from the spring.

I got to know the old man Bonondin, who was responsible for raising the carboxy, very well, so I became friends with the carboxy as well.

In my third year in the army, the car is getting older, eating less and less, lying in the shade all day to sleep, loose skin, and body shrinkage, like a dehydrated lemon. Bonding when young to the Tusi as an elephant slave for many years, the object of life habits to understand very well. He said to me, "The sun is going down, the fire pit to be extinguished, the carboxyl to take the yellow spring road." A few days later, the carpenter refused to eat, lying on the ground, to grab its trunk, and shaking for a while, it will be difficult to open its eyes. Look at you - eyes. I think it is almost in a state of semi-consciousness.

But one morning, I passed by the elephant house next to the threshing floor and was surprised to find that the spirit of the car was suddenly awake, although the body was still weak, the spirit was in a state of exuberance. The elephant's hooves kicked the ground sharply as if it could not wait to get something in the small attic. At first, Bonontin did not want to pay attention to it, it started a temper, a trunk pumping the pillar, and also the huge body hitting the wooden wall. The elephant room was tossed and shaken. Bonontin could not resist it, so I asked him to help, climbing up the small attic, and passing down the miscellaneous things to see what it wants.

There was half a bucket of seeds, two bunches of old corn, and a few broken sacks in the attic, but nothing else seemed to be there. I thought he was in good spirits and wanted to eat, so I threw two bunches of old corn down, which he hooked with the tip of his trunk and threw out of the elephant room like garbage; I also passed half a bucket of rice to Bonontin, and before he could catch it, he was knocked to the ground by the trunk of the car, and gamely trampled with his hooves; I threw the broken sacks down again, and he picked them to pieces with his tusks.

In the corner of the small attic in addition to a broken gabion mat, can not find something to throw. The carboxyl is still anxiously tilting its head and growling at me. "Look again, see what else is there?" Bonontin urged from below. I lifted the broken gabion mat, there is a saddle-like thing, large and heavy, looking like the texture of the bison skin, covered with a thick layer of dust. Other than that, there was nothing in the small attic. I kicked the damn thing downstairs. A strange thing happened: the car saw the broken thing, a quiet, with the nose blowing away the dust on it, the tip of the nose long in the broken thing rubbed, eyes shining with tears, like seeing an old friend after a long time.

"Oh, after all, he wants his elephant saddle." Bonontin said with a sudden realization, "This is the saddle that he used to wear on his back when he was a war elephant in the war. I took the saddle off its body and threw it into the small attic when I was treating its wounds. It's been 2" or 6 years since I forgot all about it, but I didn't expect it to remember so well."

The carpenter picked up the saddle with his trunk, threw it on his back, and gestured for us to help him tie it up. It took Bonontin and me a lot of effort to get the saddle on the back of the elephant.

The saddle is left with bullet holes, there seem to be spots of blood, mixed with a strange smell of leather, smoke, war dust, and blood; the center of the saddle has a lotus-shaped seat cushion, surrounded by a circle of silver bells, also decorated with apricot tassels, 26 spring, summer, autumn, and winter weather, although it has been a little worn, still looks heavy and gorgeous. The carboxyl draped with the elephant saddle, adds a heroic and heroic atmosphere.

"What does it want to saddle up now?" I asked, puzzled.

"I'm afraid it's not a good sign." Bonontin said with a sad frown, "I think it may be leaving us for the elephant mound."

I had heard the legend about the elephant mound. The elephant is a very spiritual animal, except for the unfortunate death of the wilderness, and can accurately foresee its death. About half a month before the death, elephants will leave the herd, say goodbye to their companions, and walk alone to the distant and mysterious elephant mound. Each group of elephants has a mound, either a deep rain gully, a huge cave, or a crater left by the earthquake. Where all the elephants in the herd, no matter where they wandered to in life, their final destination must be in the same mound; what is amazing is that the baby elephants from birth to death, even if they have never been to or seen the mound, but in the last moments of life, with a mysterious power of guidance, can also accurately find the elephant mound belonging to their species.

Sure enough, Bonontin was right. The carboxyl is ready to say goodbye to the Manguang Lang Village, looking for its final home. It walked around the cottage three times, to save it, take it in and feed it for 26 years of the cottage to express a feeling of fondness.

The news of the departure of the car has spread like wings throughout the village, men, women, and children have flocked to the threshing floor to send off for the car. We all know in our hearts that it is not so much a farewell as a funeral for an old war elephant that is still alive. Many people sobbed uncontrollably. The village headman Pawe tied a white sarong around the elephant's neck and tied four black cloths around the four elephant's legs. The old man and children held bananas, sugar cane, and glutinous rice poop, to the mouth of the car. It did not eat anything, only drink a little cold water.

The sun sets in the west, and the sky is pale, in a sigh of relief, the carpenter on the road.

The crowd dispersed, and Bonontin was still standing on the threshing floor staring in awe. I thought he was sad about the departure of the car, so I went over to console him: "old age, sickness, and death, the gathering and separation, this are common, you should not be too sad." But he lowered his voice and said, "Young man, do you have the courage to go with me to make a fortune?" See my look of bewilderment, he went on to say: "We quietly followed behind the carboxyl, find that elephant mound ......" I understand his meaning, he wants me to partner with him to pick up the ivory. In the tropical rainforest, the bones of the elephant's carcass will rot, but the ivory tusks will always shine with a charming luster; elephant mounds due to generations of burial of old elephants, each elephant mound has dozens or even hundreds of tusks, it is no exaggeration to say that finding an elephant mound is equivalent to finding a pot of treasure; smart elephants seem to know that humans covet their well-developed incisors, afraid of being looted by greedy humans, usually put the elephant mound Choose in the road is difficult and dangerous deep in the forest, and then experienced hunters will not be able to find; but if you take the dastardly means of tracking, quietly trailing in the death of the old elephant behind, it is possible to find that distant and mysterious elephant mound. I hesitated, silent, and did not dare to easily agree.

Bonontin saw through my mind and said, "We only pick up the tusks of other elephants in the mound, we do not want the tusks of the Gharial, but also to afford it."

This is a good idea, not only to take care of the emotions but also to fulfill the dream of getting rich, why not? The two of us chased the legs and soon caught up with the lone car on the path to the mountains. It was dark, and the white scarf around its neck, which marked the funeral, became a roadmap for us to track in the dark. Although it limped a leg can not walk fast, but did not stop for a moment, walked the whole night, at dawn, came to hit the river.

"I remember, this is upstream of the crystal ferry, 26 years ago, we are here to carry the carpenter to the shore." Bonontin pointed to a turtle-shaped reef in the river bay and said, "Fortunately, this reef blocked it, otherwise, it would have been swept downstream by the rapids and drowned."

So, this is 26 years ago, the anti-Japanese soldiers and the Japanese bloodbath battlefield! At this time, the car stepped on the rushing river, walked to the turtle-shaped reef, nose in the sun rust-colored rough reef kissed and kissed; a long time, only to raise his head to the sky, the red sunrise, O - O - a deafening roar. It is suddenly like an elephant, the body like blowing air like swelling up, the four legs of the skin taut shiny, a pair of elephant eyes gleaming, roar over the mournful, scared river fish jumped out of the water.

I think, at this moment, it must have seen the scene 26 years ago: the majestic war elephants pack anti-Japanese soldiers, braving the rain of bullets, overturning the sea to the invaders; the Japanese cried, abandoned their armor; brave war elephants and anti-Japanese soldiers have also been shot and fell in the river.

I was in awe of the carboxyl, although it is only an elephant, called beasts by humans, but has a lot of people called people who do not have noble feelings; in its time of death, it can not forget the land where it once spilled blood, deliberately came here to remember the past, to pay homage to the battlefield! We followed it and walked for about an hour or so, and on a gentle sunny hill, it suddenly stopped again.

"Oh, this is the place where more than eighty war elephants were buried, I participated in the digging and burying, I remember it very well. Here, there is also a monument there." Bonontin said quietly.

I looked in the direction of his finger, the barren grass, indeed, a stone tablet erected, engraved with three gold leaves flaking, the words a little blurred: hundred elephant mound.

Could it be that the carboxyl it ...... I dare not think about it, squinting towards the Bonondin, he is also confused frowning.

Carpenter came to the stone monument, and chose a flat piece of grass, a pair of tusks like two iron picks, digging up in the ground. After the soil was loosened, it used its trunk to clear out the dirt and rubble and continued to dig down. It has not eaten for several days, and after a long journey, physical strength is not good, digging a while to stand on the edge of panting, but it persistently dug, from morning until afternoon, finally dug an oval shallow pit too; it slid down the pit, in the pit continue to dig deep, with the trunk rolled out of the pit with pieces of soil. We watched from a distance, only to see its body sinking inch by inch. The sun went down, the moon came up, and it was still digging with its head in the sand.

In the middle of the night, the back of the carpenter sank from the edge of the pit and disappeared, and the thud of the ivory digging became thinner and thinner, and the rhythm of the long nose-throwing earth became slower and slower. When the rooster crowed for the first time, finally, everything calmed down and there was no more sound.

Bonontin and I waited patiently until the east spit white, and only then, with courage, went to the edge of the pit to see. The pit was about 3 meters deep, and the car was lying at the bottom of the pit with its face on its side, its nose in the crook of its leg, and one eye wide open, staring at the sky.

It died. It did not go to the distant mysterious ancestors left elephant mound, it dug a hole in the hundred elephant mound, and once fought alongside the companions buried together. As an old war elephant, it found the best place to return to.

The pit is filled with a smell of decay, you can see the remains of the war elephant buried 26 years ago, and the red soil seems to reveal the white tusks. The pair of tusks of the car, because of the digging of the mound and the sand polished, in the morning light shone a magnificent luster. Boning Ding toothache like grinning bitterly and said, "If we are here to pick up ivory, only to build a new bamboo building to fire, buy the bullock will also be bitten by the tiger ah!" "Yes, it is to be retribution," I said. Looking at the noble remains of the war elephant Garcinia, I felt the obscenity of my soul as a human being.

I and Bonontin together, the floating soil into the pit, the pit filled and tamped, and then, empty-handed dragging the exhausted body back to the fortress.