A Red “Bandit” in the Midst of White Troops

2024年2月12日發(作者：愿將腰下劍直為斬樓蘭)

Lesson Twenty－Two

A Red “Bandit” in the Midst of White Troops

I had never en a Red Army man before I arrived in Xi’an. The man in Beijing

who had written a cret letter for me to take to Mao Zedong was a Red commander,

but I had not en him. The letter had reached me through a third person, an old

friend of mine. He told me to go to a certain hotel in Xi’an, take a room there

and wait for a visit from a man who would call himlf Wang. He was to arrange for

me to enter the Red areas.

A few days after I put up in the hotel, a large, strong man entered my room and

spoke to me in excellent English. He looked like a rich merchant, but he introduced

himlf as Mr. Wang. As soon as he mentioned the name of my friend, I knew he was

the man I had been waiting for. In the week that followed, I got to know Mr. Wang

quite well. he was an underground Communist doing United Front Work. He knew Zhang

Xueliang very well, and he knew many officers of the Dongbei army.

One morning Wang called on me with a Dongbei officer—or a young man wearing

the uniform of a Dongbei officer. He suggested a trip to the ancient Han city outside

Xi’an.A car was waiting for us in front of the hotel.

When we got in，I saw in the corner a man wearing dark glass and the uniform

of a Guomindang official. We drove out to the site of the old palace of the Han dynasty.

There, 2,000 years ago, the Han emperor Wu Di“ruled the earth.”

Wang and the Dongbei officer stood together talking. The Guomindang official,

who had sat without speaking during our long drive, came over to me and took off

his dark glass and his white hat. I found him quite young. I could e from his

bright eyes and the smile on his face that the uniform was a cover. He put his face

clo to mine and smiled. He fixed his sharp burning eyes on me and held my two arms

tightly. “Look at me!”he whispered. “Look at me! Do you know who I am？”

I did not know what to think of him. He was so excited that I became excited

too. But I had never met a Chine like him in my life！I shook my head. I felt silly

becau I didn’t know what to say.

He took a hand from my arm and pointed to himlf.“I thought maybe you had en

my picture somewhere,” he said.“I’ m Deng Fa. ”He pulled back his head and looked

at me to e what I was thinking.

Deng Fa？Why, of cour. Deng Fa was chief of the Chine Red Army’s Security

Bureau. And something el－there was ＄50,000 on his head. Deng’s eyes gleamed

with pleasure when he told me who he was. He laughed to think that he—this

“Communist bandit”—was living right in the midst of the enemy. He was overjoyed

to e me—an American who wanted to go into the “bandit” areas. He offered me

everything. Did I want his hor？ Oh, what a hor he had, the finest in Red China！

He had very good photos and they were all mine. His diary？ He would nd instructions

to his wife, who was still in the Red areas, to give all this to me, and more. And

he kept his word.

What a Chine！What a Red “bandit”！

Deng Fa was from Guangdong province, the son of a working－class family, and had

once been a cook on a Guangzhou—Xianggang ship. He had been a leader of the great

Xianggang strike, when a British policeman beat him in the chest and broke most of

his ribs. And then he had become a Communist, and entered the Huangpu Military Academy.

He had taken part in the Nationalist Revolution until after 1927, when he had joined

the Red Army in Jiangxi. Then he had taken part in the Long March.

We stood for an hour or more talking. How interesting it was to meet this brave

Communist on the spot where the great Hans had ruled a united and then progressive

China. It was here that Deng told me who would take me to the Red areas, how I would

live in Red China. He told me I was sure to get a warm welcome there.

“Aren’t you afraid for your head？” I asked as we drove back to the city.

“Not any more than Zhang Xueliang is,” he said. “I’m living with him.”