The long train dragged soot from west to east toward the suburbs of Wuxi.
Originally, this car of coal was destined for Suzhou. It did not stop along the way, and it did not even enter the station along the way. There was a turnout a few kilometers away from Wuxi Station. The single-strand railway was divided into two branches there, and the one on the right was leading to
From Wuxi Station, the left side directly bypasses Wuxi and continues outside the city.
Logically, this train should have entered the railway on the left, but the driver saw two soldiers with guns and a railway worker standing at the switch in front of him. The railway worker moved the switch, and the train was forced to
We drove onto the railway on the right and headed towards Wuxi Station. The driver slowed down, stuck his head out and shouted, asking what was going on.
A People's Guard soldier climbed onto the motorcycle by climbing on the handrail. The young man saluted and announced grandly:
"The People's Guard, in accordance with the order of Her Majesty the Queen, will inspect all passing trains! Please stop at Wuxi Station and cooperate with the inspection!"
The train driver stood by the furnace with his sweaty arms and a cigarette in his mouth, leaning on the coal shovel and glaring and cursing:
"You melon boy, why are you checking? I have to pull the coal into the Suzhou cargo yard at seven o'clock. What should I do if I'm late? Pay it back to Her Majesty, Her Majesty the Queen won't pay me a salary!"
The young man choked so much that he stood there in a daze, not knowing what to say for a moment. At this time, the railway worker climbed up from the other side and climbed up the handrail. He lowered his head and flipped through a pile of documents and said:
"Okay, okay, don't be so angry... I want to ask you, who pays your salary?"
The train driver turned his head to look at him and raised his neck:
"Taichang Railway Company!"
"Well, the Taichang No.... Okay, let me take a look." The railway worker pulled out a telegram with a signature and seal and handed it to him. "This is a telegram sent by the Chengdu headquarters of the Nong Taichang No. Railway Company. Let the driver of Nong Nong
Cooperate with all inspections...Here, below is the signature and seal of Manager Liu of Nong Wuxi Branch."
The train driver squinted his eyes, handed the telegraph newspaper back to him, shoveled a shovelful of coal and threw it into the furnace:
"That's it! Just pay me your salary, and I'll listen to your orders!... Hey, young man, what are you checking for? What happened?"
…
In the coal pile on the sixth freight car behind the locomotive, a black ear stood up, vaguely hearing these yelled conversations.
Prince Ananta shook his head, dug his head and face out of the coal pile, pushed Pachai next to him, and whispered:
"Did you hear that?"
Pachai nodded, he also heard:
"The destination of this train is Suzhou. Oh, it would be great if it was Shanghai. We can reach the seaside soon."
"We can't follow them into Suzhou Station," the prince said sternly, showing the only white teeth on his black face. "They will unload the coal when we enter Suzhou Station, and we can't hide it! We are all black with coal, so we have to find it."
Clean the place, and then find a way to hide it first!"
Pachai said:
"Your Highness, how about we follow you into Suzhou Station and find a way to board another eastbound train in the goods yard? Maybe we can get all the way to the seaside..."
Prince Ananta shook his head and directly denied:
"No! Why don't they just check here? Why do they have to check every passing train at the station? Let me tell you, when you get to the station, there must be densely packed soldiers standing next to each rail, and they may even have to lead dogs...
...The train station may have turned into a military camp! No, when we get to Suzhou Station, we have no chance and will have to be caught! No matter what, we have to get off before Suzhou Station!"
"Your Highness, how about we find a place here to jump out of the car?"
The prince raised his body, looked both ways, and sighed:
"No, this is already close to the city. Look, there are private houses on both sides... Let's talk after we pass Wuxi Station! Let's hide Wuxi Station better..."
After passing the turnout checkpoint, the train gradually accelerated its speed, and soon it dragged black smoke into the Wuxi Station goods yard.
…
Sure enough, as the prince expected, although there were not "densely crowded soldiers standing beside every rail" in the freight yard, there were still posts every three steps and one sentry every five steps. There were soldiers and policemen. Every officer and policeman had a
Holding a newspaper with the prince's photo on it, he watched every passing railway worker, porter, and cargo owner with vigilant eyes... In addition, there were more soldiers holding guns and leading dogs, quickly inspecting every move.
Truck section.
More than a dozen shiny rail branches are lined up side by side in the freight yard. Nearly half of the rails are parked with a string of long or short truck carriages, which are originally parked here, waiting for loading and unloading in the freight yard, or to arrange reorganization and dispatch.
A pitch-black locomotive puffed out black smoke and whirred back and forth on various rails. This was a specialized shunting locomotive. It was now working hard to separate and reorganize the trucks on the freight yard, so that they could leave the station quickly so that they could be inspected.
The trains that temporarily entered the station were moved off the track.
There are entire trains of freight cars parked on the other half of the rails, and at the front of each train there is a locomotive with white smoke floating in the air. These were all trains that were not originally intended to enter the station, but now they have been stopped and entered the freight yard for inspection. Now not only
Every track in the freight yard was full, and even on the line outside the auto show, there were entire trains of trucks parked, waiting for the train to be inspected in front of them to leave the station.
Now due to the temporary large-scale search, a rare "railway traffic jam" has been caused. The captain and police sergeant of the People's Guard in charge of the search at Wuxi Station stood in front of the large glass window of the dispatching tower, looking at everything below, chatting wordlessly.
, but my heart is already burning with anxiety.
It was getting darker and darker, and suddenly, with a "bang", the entire goods yard was brightly lit, with mercury lamps and incandescent lamps turned on. Then the windows of each building also lit up. This announced that night had officially arrived. Although it had been dark all afternoon.
Despite a large-scale "violent" search, no trace of the Prince of Siam was found. The search was inevitably dragged into the night. This meant that the difficulty of the search increased exponentially.
The soldiers and policemen who were searching below were all aware of the current railway traffic jam and what the consequences would be. Everyone was anxious and quickly opened a section of the container door, got in and shined a few flashlights.
Then jump off and go to check the next section. Flatbed trucks transporting wood and tank trucks transporting fuel are basically not checked, and people cannot be hidden at all. They can just scan with their eyes. The most they can do is bend down and scan the bottom of the car with a flashlight.
.
A squad of soldiers were dealing with a train of gondolas transporting coal. Two soldiers led dogs and quickly ran past both sides of the car, letting the dogs sniff symbolically next to each car, basically without stopping. There were about a dozen behind them.
The soldiers held bayonets and inspected more slowly. Each man quickly climbed onto a gondola to take a look, then stabbed the coal pile with his bayonet twice, then jumped down and went to inspect the next section...
"Okay——" After all the gondolas of this freight train were inspected, the squad leader in charge of this train signaled twice to the dispatching tower and shouted in a long voice, "Finished——"
On the dispatch tower, the captain nodded and said to the dispatcher next to him:
"Let it go."
The dispatcher didn't want to hear the second sentence, and immediately gave the signal to start driving. At the same time, he moved the control lever and changed the track switches of the coal train so that it could drive out of the freight yard.
The driver of the coal car didn't even want to say a second word. He immediately pulled the whistle happily, made a long whistle from the front of the car, and drove out of the station with a whoosh.
…
It wasn't until he felt the shaking under him increasing and he was sure that he was completely out of the station and running at full speed that the prince poked his head out of the coal pile and took a long breath of fresh air. Pachai beside him also came out and breathed greedily.
With the fragrant field breath.
There is the whistling wind in my ears, the sky is full of stars, and there are thousands of lights on both sides of the railway. Through the lights of villages and towns in the distance, I can see that there are large fields of farmland on both sides of the railway.
Neither of them spoke, and they both leaned tiredly on the coal behind them. They were all so frightened that they were frightened to death, especially when the soldiers climbed onto the gondola and plunged their bayonets into the coal pile.
Fortunately, it didn't get punctured twice.
The next stop is the terminal in Suzhou. Suzhou Station is much larger than Wuxi Station, so you can imagine that the search there will be more rigorous and terrifying. Moreover, this train is passing through Wuxi, so it is impossible to be searched too carefully, so you may be lucky enough to escape.
.When we arrive at Suzhou, it’s the final station, and we have to unload the goods. So we can’t avoid it no matter what.
The prince decided to take advantage of the darkness and find a place to jump off the train in the dozen or so kilometers between the two stations. The train was going very fast, as if intending to make up for the delay just now, with a speed of sixty or seventy kilometers per hour.
If it's more than ten kilometers, it only takes ten minutes.
Damn it, you are driving so fast, how can you jump out of the car... But it doesn't matter, there will always be curves... You will slow down at the corners, and you will jump out of the car at that time...
Gradually, a puff of water vapor came to my face.
Prince Ananta stretched his neck, sniffing the droplets of water in the air, and looked southward, but it was too dark and he couldn't see anything.
The prince sniffed a few more times and said with certainty:
"There is a big lake or river nearby... maybe Taihu Lake! It's very close to Taihu Lake!"
"Then...so what?"
The prince smiled and said:
"There are many scattered fishermen on the edge of Taihu Lake, and they all live on boats... We can find one of them, give them some money, and hide on the boat for a few days... Their search will not last long, at most
Today and tomorrow. Then when we leave, we will kill the fisherman’s family and head cleanly to the seaside!”
As if cooperating with him, the car in front made a long chirp, then the car began to slow down, and at the same time, a tilting force was clearly felt.
"The railway curves! The train is slowing down!" The prince got out of the coal pile excitedly, clinging to the side of the carriage and looking down, "Pachai, get ready! We are about to jump off the train!"
Pachai also hurriedly got out, holding on to the side of the carriage, nervously getting ready.
In the darkness, the prince tried hard to see the terrain before and after him, and then shouted:
"One, two, three, jump!"
Two black figures jumped off the coal car, rolled twice under the roadbed, slowly got up, supported each other, and limped away from the railway.
…
Not far to the south of the railway is a large reed bush, which is as tall as one person. The chirping of insects and frogs all around is almost deafening. The two of them walked deep and shallow in the reed bush, and they couldn't tell the direction. They just felt that this was the best hiding place.
After walking for several hundred meters in the dark, the mud under their feet became worse and worse. Suddenly, they both stepped into the water.
No way! Taihu Lake is so close to the railway line?
The prince was trembling with excitement. He originally thought that it would be a long and dangerous journey from the railway to the lake! He quickened his pace, paddling his legs in the reeds, holding the reeds apart with his hands, and walked forward.
Suddenly, there were no reeds in front of us, and a large expanse of dark water appeared, with the stars in the sky reflected on the water. A strong wind carried the water vapor and blew it towards our face. The lake water under our feet was like waves, rushing in one after another.
In the reeds.
There were a few fishing fires in the distance, which should be fishing boats on the lake. However, the lake shores on both sides were blocked by reeds and could not be seen. Prince Ananta took Pachai carefully into the water again, wanting to expand his field of vision. When the water
When they were chest deep, their field of vision expanded. The two saw two fishing boats more than a hundred meters away on the right. There was a smaller fishing boat, alone, more than two hundred meters away on the left.
The lights on these fishing boats are all on, and the fishermen on them are probably cooking dinner.
"Let's go, get on the boat on the left!"
The prince waved his hand and led Pachai through the water towards the lonely fishing boat more than two hundred meters away on the left. Behind him, Pachai held up the gun and money wrapped in his jacket and also paddled hard.
Ten minutes later, the two of them reached the side of the fishing boat. The prince clung to the side of the boat and flipped up. He turned around and took Pachai's cloth bag, took out a gun from it, and reached into the cabin.
There was an oil lamp burning in the cabin, and a **-year-old girl was doing her homework under the lamp. Next to her, a skinny old woman in her sixties was mending clothes. She was probably her grandson and grandson.
Both the grandfather and grandson noticed the uninvited guest, and raised their heads in shock, looking at the man who was all wet and whose face was covered in soot black. Especially, this man also had a gun in his hand.
The little girl became frightened and threw herself into the arms of the old woman. The old woman picked up the scissors, looked at the prince tremblingly, and asked in the local dialect.
Although the prince spoke Chinese "Mandarin" very well, he did not understand the Wunong dialect. He did not understand. He just nodded with a smile and walked into the cabin carelessly, calling Pachai behind him to come in.
The prince sat next to the old woman, took out the scissors from his withered old hands and threw them aside. Then he touched the little girl's head and said with a smile:
"Little girl, don't be afraid. Where is your father?"
The little girl could speak Mandarin, but she opened her eyes wide in fear and didn't say a word.
The prince turned to the old woman again and asked:
"Where is your son?"
The little girl was so frightened that she almost cried. The mother-in-law answered loudly and hugged the little girl tighter.
The prince still didn't understand, but he turned his attention to the little girl. The little girl boldly said crisply in Mandarin:
"My dad went to drink on someone else's boat!"
The prince nodded and counted. He put the gun into his waist, took a pile of money, took out one card, stuffed it into the old woman, and said with a smile:
"Old lady, don't be afraid. We are not bad people. We are just passing by. We have no place to live. I will stay with you for two days. I will give you fifty Mingyang for two days. How about that?"
The old woman looked at the 50 mingyang note and stared at the prince in disbelief. Fifty mingyang, they couldn't earn 50 mingyang even if they fished for a year!
However, these two people are so scary, have guns, and carry so much money. Needless to say, they must be fugitives...
…
At this moment, on the lake outside, a roaring motor sound could be heard faintly, and it soon became very deafening. This was the sound of a high-speed engine! It was definitely not a fishing boat, it was a speedboat! It was approaching quickly!
The prince and Pachai suddenly turned pale. They both pulled out their pistols and squatted down. The prince put the pistol against the old woman's head and shouted in a low voice:
"Don't say anything!"
The little girl cried "Wow" loudly. The prince grabbed the little girl again, covered her mouth, and shouted:
"Don't cry! If you cry again I'll kill you!"
But the little girl became more and more frightened, kicked her legs desperately, and bit down.
The prince screamed, and the little girl broke free, ran out of the cabin, got into the water with a "plop", and swam out skillfully beating the waves.