0799翻译: 老山界(陆定一) 2 of 2

Translation: Laoshanjie (Lu Dingyi) (2 of 2)At daybreak, I was shoved awake and told to prepare for departure. Someone gave me a shove to wake me up and told me we were ready to take off.Food was brought up from the foot of the mountain, and without hesitation, I grabbed a bowl and ate. Someone brought food from the foot of the mountain, and without caring for anybody else, I grabbed a bowl to eat.Another order came down instructing the troop to climb over this mountain today no matter what it would take.Because the mountain trail was hard to get through, ongoing urging was necessary to keep everyone moving forward.Several of us paused to rush out written posters, dispatch people to various uphill and downhill sections to holler slogans and give speeches, and to provide assistance to the sick and transport personnel.After some busy moments, we continued forward.We didn’t have to go far before we saw the footpath on the cliff that we talked about last night—the so-called Thundergod Rock. Indeed it was so very steep that it was like an almost ninety-degree vertical rock staircase. Its width was only a little over a foot. Next to it was a precipice that was not very deep but sufficiently frightening. Many horses had already gathered below the cliff. They were the ones that were unable to cross the mountain last night and would have to wait until the entire platoon had gone past before they would cross over. Several horses fell off the cliff and broke their legs.We took extra care in getting over the rock staircase. Even though the pathway above was still steep, yet it was not excessively daunting. As we were proceeding forward, we examined the slogans along the way. Gradually I fell behind and took the opportunity to do some work to hype up the people’s spirit.We finally finished climbing the steep mountain. I thought that little bit was all there was for the thirty miles of mountains. A Yao man happened to be passing by. In talking to him, we found out it was far from