5 "Daughter for Sale for 10 Kilos of Rice"
五 “十岁女儿，十公斤大米”
——In Battle for a New China (1947-1948)
——为新中国而战(1947—1948年)
Yu-wu had first appeared at the house some months earlier bearing an introduction from a mutual friend. The Xias had just moved from their borrowed residence into a big house inside the walls near the north gate, and had been looking for a rich tenant to help with the rent. Yu-wu arrived wearing the uniform of a Kuomintang officer, accompanied by a woman whom he presented as his wife and a young baby. In fact, the woman was not his wife but his assistant. The baby was hers, and her real husband was somewhere far away in the regular Communist army.
毓武是几个月前经朋友介绍来的。当时，夏家从暂借的住处搬入北城内的一所大院里，想找一位富裕的房客，以减轻房租压力。毓武来时，身穿国民党军官服。与他同行的是他的“太太”和一位年幼的孩子。事实上，这女人并不是他的妻子，而是他的助手。孩子是这女人的孩子，她真正的丈夫在千里之外的共产党正规军中。
Gradually this 'family' became a real one. They later had two children together and their original spouses remarried.
后来，日久生情，他们弄假成真，有了两个自己的孩子。他们的原配夫人和丈夫也都与别人结了婚。
Yu-wu had joined the Communist Party in 1938. He had been sent to Jinzhou from the Communists' wartime headquarters, Yan'an, shortly after the Japanese surrender, and was responsible for collecting and delivering informarion to the Communist forces outside the city. He operated under the identity of a Kuomintang military bureau chief for one of the districts of Jinzhou, a position the Communists had bought for him. At the time, posts in the Kuomintang, even in the intelligence system, were virtually for sale to the highest bidder. Some people bought posts to protect their families from being forced into the army and from harassment by thugs, others to be able to extort money. Because of its strategic importance, there were a great many officers in Jinzhou, which facilitated the Como munist infiltration of the system.
毓武于1938年参加共产党，抗战结束时被共产党从当时的大本营延安派到锦州，负责收集国民党军事情报，并传送给在城外活动的共产党武装力量。他的公开身份是锦州政府军事科科长，这是共产党花钱替他买下的。那时，国民党的官职，甚至特务系统的职位，都可以用钱买到。有的人买官是为了让家人避免被抓去当兵，或免受恶棍骚扰，有的人则是为了自己好敲诈勒索。由于锦州地处战略位置，国民党驻扎了大批不同系统的军队，多如牛毛的大小官员充斥于五花八门的机构，这有利于共产党人混入。
Yu-wu played his part to perfection. He gave a lot of gambling and dinner parties, partly to make connections and partly to weave a protective web around himself.
毓武把掩护角色扮演得惟妙惟肖。他经常聚众豪赌，或大宴宾客，一方面扩大关系网，一方面使他的伪装更加天衣无缝。他的众多“表兄弟”和“朋友”频繁来访，混杂在常来往的国民党官员和特务中，未引起任何怀疑。
Mingled with the constant comings and goings of Kuomintang officers and intelligence officials was an unending stream of 'cousins' and 'friends." They were always different people, but nobody asked any questions.
Yu-wu had another layer of cover for these frequent visitors. Dr. Xia's surgery was always open, and Yu-wu's 'friends' could walk in off the street without attracting attention, and then go through the surgery to the inner courtyard. Dr. Xia tolerated Yu-wu's rowdy parties without demur, even though his sect, the Society of Reason, forbade gambling and drinking. My mother was puzzled, but put it down to her stepfather's tolerant nature. It was only years later when she thought back that she felt certain that Dr. Xia had known, or guessed, Yu-wu's real identity.
毓武还有另一层掩护，夏瑞堂的诊所总是开着门，那些“表兄弟”和“朋友”可以直接通过诊所而进入内院，外人看来好像是就诊的病人。
When my mother heard that her cousin Hu had been killed by the Kuomintang she approached Yu-wu about working for the Communists. He turned her down, on the grounds that she was too young.
我母亲听到胡表哥被处死的消息，找到毓武，要求为共产党工作。毓武拒绝了，理由是她还小。
My mother had become quite prominent at her school and she was hoping that the Communists would approach her. They did, but they took their time checking her out.
我母亲只好另找门路，她当时在学校已经是个学生领袖，她希望共产党会来找她。共产党呢，一直在观察她、审查她。
In fact, before leaving for the Communist-controlled area, her friend Shu had told her own Communist contact about my mother, and had introduced him to her as 'a friend'.
舒姑娘离开锦州前曾把她的共产党地下组织接头人介绍给了我母亲，说是“朋友”。
One day, this man came to her and told her out of the blue to go on a certain day to a railway tunnel halfway between the Jinzhou south station and the north station.
一天，这“朋友”找到她，通知她到锦州南站和北站之间的铁路隧道去，与一位二十来岁、上海口音、容貌英俊的年轻人接头。她去了，这个人姓梁，梁成了她的上司。
There, he said, a good-looking man in his mid-twenties with a Shanghai accent would contact her. This man, whose name she later discovered was Liang, became her controller.
Her first job was to distribute literature like Mao Zedong's On Coalition Government, and pamphlets on land reform and other Communist policies. These had to be smuggled into the city, usually hidden in big bundles of sorghum stalks which were to be used for fuel. The pamphlets were then repacked, often rolled up inside big green peppers.
我母亲的第一项任务是散发毛泽东《论联合政府》这类小册子和有关土地改革、共产党其他政策的传单。这些宣传品有时藏在大捆用作燃料的高粱秆里，有时则在大甜椒上钻个孔塞进去，由人化装成农民以卖柴草、卖蔬菜为幌子，递进城来。
Sometimes Yu-lin's wife would buy the peppers and keep a lookout in the street when my mother's associates came to collect the literature. She also helped hide the pamphlets in the ashes of various stoves, heaps of Chinese medicines, or piles of fuel. The students had to read this literature in secret, though left-wing novels could be read more or less openly: among the favorites was Maksim Gorky's Mother.
夏家成了这些宣传品的集散地。玉林妻子买下这些带有秘密使命的柴草或蔬菜，把宣传品取出藏在洞炕、中药堆和柴垛里。当我母亲的联络人登门取走这些宣传品时，她还帮忙把风。这些东西学生们得偷偷传阅，但一些左翼小说或多或少能公开阅读，最流行的小说是高尔基的《母亲》。
One day a copy of one of the pamphlets my mother had been distributing, Mao's On New Democracy, ended up with a rather absent-minded schoolfriend of hers, who put it in her bag and forgot about it. When she went to the market she opened her bag to get some money and the pamphlet dropped out. Two intelligence men happened to be there and identified it from its flimsy yellow paper. The girl was taken off and interrogated. She died under torture.
有一天，我母亲散发的一本毛泽东的《新民主主义论》传到一个心不在焉的姑娘手里，她把小册子塞进书包，就去市场买东西，在那儿掏钱时，不小心翻了出来。附近正巧有两个特务，他们看到这薄薄的用黄草纸印成的书，知道这是共产党的宣传品。那位姑娘被抓起来，死在酷刑下。
Many people had died at the hands of Kuomintang intelligence, and my mother knew that she risked torture if she was caught. This incident, far from daunting her, only made her feel more defiant. Her morale was also boosted enormously by the fact that she now felt herself pan of the Communist movement.
许多人就这样死在国民党特务手中。我母亲心里很清楚，如果她被抓，也将面临拷打和送命的危险，但她一点儿也不胆怯。她此时已偷偷地读了一些马列主义的书籍，在与朋友们讨论时，他们都为马克思和列宁所勾画的共产主义远景所吸引，被毛泽东对农民、工人以及妇女的许诺激动得热血沸腾。我母亲一想到自己在共产党指示下做事了，已成为共产主义运动的一分子，就勇气倍增。
Manchuria was the key battleground in the civil war, and what happened in Jinzhou was becoming more and more critical to the outcome of the whole struggle for China. There was no fixed front, in the sense of a Single battle line. The Communists held the northern part of Manchuria and much of the countr yside; the Kuomintang held the main cities, except for Harbin in the north, plus the seaports and most of the railway lines. By the end of 1947, for the first time, the Communist armies in the area outnumbered those of their opponents; during that year they had put over 300,000 Kuomintang troops out of action. Many peasants were joining the Communist army, or swinging their support behind the Communists. The single most important reason was that the Communists had carried out a land-to-the-filler reform and the peasants felt that backing them was the way to keep their land.
东北地区是国、共两党作战的关键战场。锦州是东北的大门，是兵家必争的战略要地。这场战争不是双方在某一固定的前线上对峙。共产党占领了东北北部和大部分农村。国民党拥有除哈尔滨外的主要城市、海港和大部分铁路沿线城镇。到了1947年末，这个地区的共产党军队第一次在数量上超过了他们的对手。那一年他们打垮了二十万国民党军队。有许多农民参加了共产党军队或支持共产党。最重要的原因是共产党在农村实行了一场“耕者有其田”的土地改革，农民们感到支持共产党就能保住他们分得的土地。
At the time the Communists controlled much of the area around Jinzhou. Peasants were reluctant to enter the city to sell their produce because they had to go through Kuomintang checkpoints where they were harassed: exorbitant fees were extorted, or they simply had their products confiscated. The grain price in the city was rocketing upwards almost day by day, made worse by the manipulation of greedy merchants and corrupt officials.
由于共产党控制了锦州四周大部分的农村，国民党加强了入城检查的关卡。农民不愿进城卖东西，因为他们在通过关卡时常受尽刁难，被敲诈勒索，产品有时甚至被全部没收。城里的农产品价格天天飞张，加上奸商和贪官操纵，情况就更糟了。
When the Kuomintang first arrived, they had issued a new currency known as the "Law money." But they proved unable to control inflation. Dr. Xia had always been worried about what would happen to my grandmother and my mother when he died and he was now nearly eighty. He had been putting his savings into the new money because he had faith in the government. After a time the Law money was replaced by another currency, the Golden Yuan, which soon became worth so little that when my mother wanted to pay her school fees she had to hire a rickshaw to carry the huge pile of notes (to 'save face' Chiang Kai-shek refused to print any note bigger than 10,000 yuan). Dr. Xia's entire savings were gone.
国民党刚到时，发行了一种新货币，称为“法币”。此时夏瑞堂已年近八旬，他担心自己死后我姥姥和母亲生活会无着落，就把全部积蓄换成法币存起来。过了一阵子，法币被“关金”取代，但国民党没法控制通货膨胀。贬值速度惊人。夏瑞堂的全部积蓄便随着货币贬值而化为乌有。
The economic situation deteriorated steadily through the winter of 1947-48. Protests against food shortages and price gouging multiplied. Jinzhou was the key supply base for the large Kuomintang armies farther north, and in mid-December 1947 a crowd of 20,000 people raided two well-stocked grain stores.
1947-1948年之交的那个冬季，经济形势每况愈下。抗议食品短缺和物价飞涨的游行示威此起彼落。1947年12月中旬，两万饥民抢劫了市内国民党军队的两座粮仓。
One trade was prospering: trafficking in young girls for brothels and as slave-servants to rich men. The city was littered with beggars offering their children in exchange for food. For days outside her school my mother saw an emaciated, desperate-looking woman in rags slumped on the frozen ground. Next to her stood a girl of about ten with an expression of numb misery on her face. A sack was poking up out of the back of her collar and on it was a poorly written sign saying "Daughter for sale for 10 kilos of rice."
经济崩溃了，但有一个行业却很兴旺：卖年轻姑娘到妓院或给有钱人做奴仆。乞丐满街都是，卖儿鬻女多不胜数。有好几天，我母亲都在校门外看见一个衣衫褴褛、绝望不堪的妇女颓坐在冰凉的地上，旁边站着一个小女孩，满脸麻木呆滞的神情，头上插着草标，胸前挂着纸牌，上面歪歪斜斜写着几个大字：“十岁女儿，十公斤大米”。
Among those who could not make ends meet were the teachers. They had been demanding a pay rise, to which the government responded by increasing tuition fees. This had little effect, because the parents could not afford to pay more. A teacher at my mother's school died of food poisoning after eating a piece of meat he had picked up off the street. He knew the meat was rotten, but he was so hungry he thought he would take a chance.
教师们也是食不果腹。他们要求加薪，政府答应以多收学费的办法解决，但无济于事，因为家长付不起更多的钱。我母亲的一位教师吃了一块从街上拣来的肉，死于食物中毒。他知道这块肉已经腐烂变质，但实在太饿了，饿到一厢情愿地以为把肉煮熟了就可以杀菌。
By now my mother had become the president of the students' union. Her Party controller, Liang, had given her instructions to try to win over the teachers as well as the students, and she set about organizing a campaign to get people to donate money for the teaching staff. She and some other girls would go to cinemas and theaters and before the performances started they would appeal for donations. They also put on song-and-dance shows and ran rummage sales, but the returns were paltry people were either too poor or too mean.
这时，我母亲已当上女中学生自治会主席。她的共产党上司梁先生指示她为教师谋福利，把他们争取到共产党这一边来。于是，她组织同学到电影院和剧场，在开演前向观众募捐，或搞街头义演义卖。但所得无几，人们不是太穷就是太吝啬。
One day she bumped into a friend of hers who was the granddaughter of a brigade commander and was married to a Kuomintang officer. The friend told her there was going to be a banquet that evening for about fifty officers and their wives in a smart restaurant in town. In those days there was a lot of entertaining going on among Kuomintang officials. My mother raced off to her school and contacted as many people as she could. She told them to gather at 5 p.m. in front of the city's most prominent landmark, the sixty-foot-high eleventh-century stone drum tower. When she got there, at the head of a sizable contingent, there were over a hundred girls waiting for her orders. She told them her plan. At around six o'clock they saw large numbers of officers arriving in carriages and rickshaws.
一天，她在街上碰到一个朋友。这姑娘的祖父是个旅长，她本人和一个国民党军官结了婚。她告诉我母亲这天晚上在城里一家豪华餐馆有个宴会，约有五十名官员携夫人参加。那时，国民党官员经常举办各种各样交际宴会。我母亲跑回学校，通知同学们于下午五点在城里最显著的地方——六十尺高的十一世纪石鼓楼前集合。当她带着一些人到达时，已有一百多位姑娘聚集此地听候她的命令。到了下午六时许，官员们乘着小车、马车和黄包车陆续到达。女人们穿戴得珠光宝气，极尽娇娆。
The women were dressed to the nines, wearing silk and satin and jingling with jewelry.
When my mother judged that the diners would be well into their food and drink, she and some of the girls filed into the restaurant. Kuomintang decadence was such that security was unbelievably lax. My mother climbed onto a chair, her simple dark-blue cotton gown making her the image of austerity among the brightly, embroidered silks and jewels. She made a brief speech about how hard up the teachers were, and finished with the words: "We all know you are generous people. You must be very pleased to have this opportunity to open your pockets and show your generosity."
我母亲等宴会进入吃喝高潮时，指挥姑娘们列队迅速进入餐厅，国民党安全措施竟是如此松散，我母亲的队伍毫无阻碍就进去了。喧哗的宴会顿时鸦雀无声。我母亲站到椅子上，不加修饰的深蓝色棉袍在周围华丽的绫罗绸缎中格外突出，使她看去好像是简朴的化身。她先简述了教师们的困境，然后说：“我们知道在座各位都是大方之士，肯定会慷慨解囊，以表爱民之心。”
The officers were in a spot. None of them wanted to look mean. In fact, they more or less had to try to show off.
And, of course, they wanted to get rid of the unwelcome intruders. The girls went round the heavily laden tables and made a note of each officer's contribution. Then, first thing next morning, they went round to the officers' homes and collected their pledges. The teachers were enormously grateful to the girls, who delivered the money to them right away, so it could be used before its value was wiped out, which would be within hours.
此时此刻，军官和太太们尴尬之极。他们不想显得太小气，更想尽快摆脱这些不速之客。姑娘们围着摆满山珍海味的桌子，挨个记下捐赠的数目，第二天上午，第一件事就是分头赶到各个军官家收取承诺的捐款。募集到的款子立即分配到教师手里，让他们在贬值之前赶快花掉。否则几小时之内，就可能一文不值。
There was no retribution against my mother, perhaps because the diners were ashamed of being caught like this, and did not want to bring further embarrassment on themselves although, of course, the whole town knew about it at once. My mother had successfully turned the rules of the game against them. She was appalled by the casual extravagance of the Kuomintang elite while people were starving to death in the streets and this made her even more committed to the Communists.
此事很快在城里传开。我母亲没有受到报复，也许是因为赴宴者对自己大吃大喝而教师生活无着感到很窘，不想再招惹更多难堪。况且，国民党不反对募捐，既然如此，何乐不为呢？再次目睹“朱门酒肉臭，路有冻死骨”的情境，我母亲更加相信共产党了。
As food was the problem inside the city, so clothing was in desperately short supply outside, as the Kuomintang had placed a ban on selling textiles to the countryside. As a watchman on the gates, "Loyalty' Pei-o's main job was to stop textiles being smuggled out of the city and sold to the Communists. The smugglers were a mixture of black marketeers, men working for Kuomintang officials, and underground Communists.
城里吃饭是问题，城外穿衣则是问题，因为国民党当局严禁向农村出售纺织品。玉兰的丈夫效石专门负责拦截把纺织品偷运出城卖给农民或共产党的走私者，走私者中有的专事倒手买卖，有的为国民党官员捞取外快，有的为共产党地下组织工作。
The usual procedure was that "Loyalty' and his colleagues would stop the carts and confiscate the cloth, then release the smuggler in the hope that he would come back with another load which they could also seize. Sometimes they had a deal with the smugglers for a percentage.
效石和他的同伴只要截住走私车，通常做法是没收布匹，然后把走私者放掉，希望他会再带另一批货来，有时，他们也和走私者坐地分成。无论走私或是捉拿走私，货物最终仍是卖到共产党控制区。效石和同伴越捞越肥。
Whether they had a deal or not, the guards would sell the cloth to the Communist-controlled areas anyway.
"Loyalty' and his colleagues waxed fat.
One night a dirty, nondescript cart rolled up at the gate where "Loyalty' was on duty. He performed his customary charade, poking the pile of cloth on the back while he swaggered around, hoping to intimidate the driver and soften him up for an advantageous deal. As he sized up the value of the load and the likely resistance of the driver, he was also hoping to engage him in conversation and find out who his employer was.
一天晚上，一辆肮脏不起眼的货车来到效石当班的缉私关卡。他又施展通常的招数，摆出十足的派头来想镇住车夫。他一边估计这批货物的价值，一边揣摸这个车夫的来头。他也盘算要把这一大车货拉到哪里去放一放再脱手。最后他坐上车，命令车夫调头回城。车夫自然遵命。
"Loyalty' took his time because this was a big consignment, more than he could get out of the city before dawn.
He got up beside the driver and ordered him to turn around and take the consignment back into the city. The driver, accustomed to being on the receiving end of arbitrary instructions, did as he was told.
My grandmother was sound asleep in bed when she heard banging on the door at about 1 a.m. When she opened it, she found "Loyalty' standing there. He said he wanted to leave the cartload at the house for the night. My grandmother had to agree, because the Chinese tradition made it virtually impossible to say no to a relation. The obligation to one's family and relatives always took precedence over one's own moral judgment. She did not tell Dr. Xia, who was still asleep.
深夜一点左右，后院响起一阵敲门声，把姥姥从梦中惊醒，她打开门，只见效石站在门口，说有一批货，想在她家放一晚，他没有说明货的来龙去脉。姥姥不能不点头同意，中国人很难对亲戚的要求说“不”字。姥姥没有惊动还在睡觉的夏瑞堂。
Well before daybreak "Loyalty' reappeared with two cans; he transferred the consignment onto them and drove off just as dawn was beginning to light up the sky. Less than half an hour later armed police appeared and cordoned off the house. The cart driver, who had been working for another intelligence system, had informed his patrons.
天蒙蒙亮时，效石就带着两辆大车出现了，把所有布匹装上就走。不到半小时，武装特务包围了夏家大院。原来车夫是为另一个特务系统工作，自然，他们想抢回这批布。
Naturally, they wanted their merchandise back.
Dr. Xia and my grandmother were quite put out, but at least the goods had disappeared. For my mother, though, the raid was almost a catastrophe. She had some Communist leaflets hidden in the house, and as soon as the police appeared, she grabbed the leaflets and raced to the toilet, where she pushed them down her padded trousers which were tightened round the ankles to conserve heat, and put on a heavy winter coat. Then she sauntered out as nonchalantly as she could, pretending she was on her way to school. The policemen stopped her and said they were going to search her. She screamed at them that she would tell her "Uncle' Zhu-ge how they had treated her.
夏医生和我姥姥非常生效石的气，但心里暗自庆幸至少货物已搬走。不过对于我母亲来说，却是大祸临头，因为她的一些共产党宣传品就藏在屋里。特务一出现，她抓起宣传品就往厕所跑，跑进去就把它们塞进裤脚扎住的棉裤里，外面罩上旗袍和厚厚的棉大衣，然后若无其事地向外走，说是去上学。特务们拦住她，说要搜身。我母亲急坏了，冲着他们大声喊：“我要到我的诸葛舅舅那儿去告你们！”
Up to that moment the policemen had had no idea about the family's intelligence connections. Nor had they any idea who had confiscated the textiles. The administration of Jinzhou was in utter confusion because of the enormous number of different Kuomintang units stationed in the city and because anyone with a gun and some sort of protection enjoyed arbitrary power. When "Loyalty' and his men had appropriated this load the driver did not ask them who they were working for.
我母亲开口前，这群人并不清楚夏家与特务系统的关系。由于国民党机构在城里五花八门，任何带枪的、有后台的人都享有专横的权力，车夫也未弄清是谁没收了他的布匹。
The moment my mother mentioned Zhu-ge's name, there was a change in the attitude of the officer. Zhu-ge was a friend of his boss. At a signal, his subordinates lowered their guns and dropped their insolently challenging manner. The officer bowed stiffly and muttered profuse apologies for disturbing such an august family. The rank and-file police looked even more disappointed than their commander no booty meant no money, and no money meant no food. They shambled off sullenly, dragging their feet as they went.
但“诸葛”名字一出口，带队长官的态度马上发生戏剧性转变：诸葛是他上司的朋友。他一个暗示，部下就低下了枪口，转变了咄咄逼人的态度。这位长官鞠躬敬礼，咕咕哝哝地对他打扰了这样一个有背景的家庭表示歉意。下面的队员看上去比长官更失望，没有货物，就没有钱，没有钱就没有饭吃。他们懒洋洋地拖着步子走了。
At the time there was a new university, the Northeast Exile University, in Jinzhou, formed around students and teachers who had fled Communist-occupied northern Manchuria. Communist policies there had often been harsh: many landowners had been killed. In the towns, even small factory owners and shopkeepers were denounced and their property was confiscated. Most intellectuals came from relatively well-to-do families, and many had seen their families suffer under Communist rule or been denounced themselves.
锦州当时的一所新成立的大学——东北流亡大学，教师和学生是从共产党控制的东北北部逃出来的，共产党在那里一度实行严厉的政策，许多地主被处死，城镇商店老板和小产业主被批斗，财产被没收。知识分子多出身富家，他们不是目睹了家人受罪，就是自己遭殃，于是纷纷南逃。
There was a medical college in the Exile University, and my mother wanted to get into it. It had always been her ambition to be a doctor. This was partly Dr. Xia's influence and partly because the medical profession offered a woman the best chance of independence. Liang endorsed the idea enthusiastically. The Party had plans for her. She enrolled in the medical college on a part-time basis in February 1948.
流亡大学有一所医学院，我母亲想就读。她的理想是当医生，部分原因是受到夏瑞堂的影响，另外，医务工作是使女人独立的最好职业。梁先生热烈支持她，共产党对她进医学院有他们的打算。她于1948年2月以同等学历进入医学院半日制学习，同时保留了师范生学籍。
The Exile University was a battleground where the Kuomintang and the Communists competed fiercely for influence. The Kuomintang could see how badly it was doing in Manchufig and was actively encouraging students and intellectuals to flee farther south. The Communists did not want to lose these educated people. They modified their land reform program, and issued an order that urban capitalists were to be well treated and intellectuals from well to-do families protected. Armed with these more moderate policies, the Jinzhou underground set out to persuade the students and teachers to stay on. This became my mother's main activity.
流亡大学是国民党和共产党争夺知识分子的“战场”。国民党已经看出东北局面江河日下，开始打算撤出，于是鼓励师生向南方“流亡”。共产党不想失去这些受教育的人，他们意识到自己政策上的错误，随即进行修改，保证要保护城市里的资本家和知识分子。锦州地下共产党运用这些温和的政策，开始劝说学生和教师们留下。这成了我母亲的主要活动目标。
In spite of the Communists' policy switch, some students and teachers decided it was safer to flee. One shipload of students sailed to the city of Tianjin, about 25o miles to the southwest, at the end of June. When they arrived there they found that there was no food and nowhere for them to stay. The local Kuomintang urged them to join the army.
尽管共产党政策有了改变，不少人仍决定南逃。6月下旬，一船师生到达锦州西南二百五十哩处的天津。上岸后，他们发现既没食物，又无住处。当地国民党竭力鼓励他们参军，口号是“十万学生十万兵！”“打回老家去！”
"Fight back to your homeland!" they were told.
This was not what they had fled Manchuria for. Some Communist underground workers who had sailed with them encouraged them to take a stand, and on 5 July the students demonstrated in the center of Tianjin for food and accommodations. Troops opened fire and scores of students were injured, some seriously, and a number were killed.
他们从东北逃到这里，当然不是为了当兵送命。在同行的共产党地下工作人员策动下，7月5日学生们在天津游行示威，要求食物和住宿。军队开了枪，许多人受伤，数人中弹身亡。
When the news reached Jinzhou, my mother immediately decided to organize support for the students who had gone to Tianjin. She called a meeting of the heads of the student unions of all the seven high and technical schools, which voted to set up the Jinzhou Federation of Student Unions. My mother was elected to the chair. They decided to send a telegram of solidarity to the students in Tianjin and to stage a march to the headquarters of General Chill, the martial law commander, to present a petition.
消息传到锦州，我母亲立即召集了全锦州七所中学和中等专科学校的学生会领袖开会，选举成立了锦州市学生联合会，我母亲当选为主席。会议决定给在天津的学生发声援电报，举行追悼大会，会后游行到警备司令部向邱司令递交请愿书。
My mother's friends were waiting anxiously at school for instructions. It was a gray, rainy day and the ground had turned to sticky mud. Darkness fell and there was still no sign of my mother and the other six student leaders. Then the news came that the police had raided the meeting and taken them away. They had been informed on by Yao-han, the political supervisor at my mother's school.
那是一个灰蒙蒙的雨天，地面被雨水浸泡成粘稠的烂泥。我母亲的同学们聚集在校园里急切地等待消息。天已经黑了，她和另外六名学生会主席仍不知去向。最后有人报信，特务突袭了学生领袖们开会地点，把他们全部抓走，是我母亲学校的政治主任尧寒告发的。
They were marched to the martial law headquarters.
After a while, General Chill strode into the room. He faced them across a table and started to talk to them in a patient, paternalistic tone of voice, apparently more in sorrow than in anger. They were young and liable to do rash things, he said. But what did they know about politics? Did they realize they were being used by the Communists? They should stick to their books. He said he would release them if they would sign a confession admitting their mistakes and identifying the Communists behind them. Then he paused to watch the effect of his words.
他们被带到警备司令部一间小会议室里。过了一会儿，邱司令走起来，隔着桌子盯着学生们，一副痛惜的样子：“你们太年轻，做事太容易冲动。读好你们的书就行了！”他问道，“你们对政治究竟懂多少？有没有意识到被共产党利用了？”他的语气时而缓和，时而严厉。最后，他许诺只要他们肯签署悔过书并交出幕后的共产党人。就放了他们。他停住口，开始观察这番话的效果。
My mother found his lecturing and his whole attitude insufferable. She stepped forward and said in a loud voice:
我母亲无法忍受他的盛气凌人和装腔做势。她一步走上前大声反问：
"Tell us, Commander, what mistake have we made?" The general became irritated: "You were used by the Communist bandits to stir up trouble. Isn't that mistake enough?"
“请问邱司令，我们究竟有什么过要悔？”邱司令显然被惹火了，“你们被共匪利用，无理取闹，还不是过吗？”
My mother shouted back: "What Communist bandits? Our friends died in Tianjin because they had run away from the Communists, on your advice. Do they deserve to be shot by you? Have we done anything unreasonable?" After some fierce exchanges the general banged his fist on the table and bellowed for his guards.
我母亲立刻回敬道：“我们的朋友就是因为听了你们的话，跑到天津，才死在天津。他们应该遭枪杀吗？我们为他们申冤是胡闹吗？我们做了什么无理的事？”激烈对吵了一阵，邱司令一拍桌子，召来卫兵，“让她知道她在什么地方！”在卫兵来抓我母亲一瞬间，她跳到邱司令面前，一拳也砸在桌上，“不管我在什么地方，我都没做任何错事！”
"Show her around," he said, and then, turning to my mother, "You need to realize where you are!" Before the soldiers could seize her, my mother leaped forward and banged her fist on the table:
"Wherever I may be, I have not done anything wrong!"
The next thing my mother knew she was held tight by both arms and dragged away from the table. She was pulled along a corridor and down some stairs into a dark room.
我母亲的两臂被紧紧抓住，从桌旁拖开。她被沿着通道拉了很长一段距离，又走下几级台阶，推进一问黑屋里。
On the far side she could see a man dressed in rags. He seemed to be sitting on a bench and leaning against a pillar. His head was lolling to one side. Then my mother realized that he was tied to the pillar and his thighs were tied to the bench. Two men were pushing bricks under his heels. Each additional brick brought forth a deep, stifled groan.
面对房屋的另一端，她依稀看见一个衣衫破烂的男人，似乎坐在长凳上，背靠着柱子，头向一侧低垂。稍顷，她才看清他的上身被捆在柱子上，大腿被捆在凳子上。两个大汉正向他小腿肚下塞砖头。每一块砖头塞进去，就是一阵撕心裂肺的惨叫声。
My mother felt her head was filled with blood, and she thought she heard the cracking of bones. The next thing she knew she was looking into another room. Her guide, an officer, drew her attention to a man almost next to where they were standing. He was hanging from a wooden beam by his wrists and was naked from the waist upward. His hair hung down in a tangled mess, so that my mother could not see his face. On the floor was a brazier, with a man sit ling beside it casually smoking a cigarette. As my mother watched, he lifted an iron bar out of the fire; the tip was the size of a man's fist and was glowing red-hot With a grin, he plunged it into the chest of the man hanging from the beam. My mother heard a sharp scream of pain and a horrible sizzling sound, saw smoke coming from the wound, and could smell the heavy odor of burned flesh.
我母亲的脑袋里“嗡”地一声仿佛充满了血，她仿佛听到了骨头的碎裂声。忽而她又被带入另一间屋子，引路的军官把她的视线引向一个离他们不远的男人。那人被悬吊在房梁上，上身裸露，乱糟糟的头发向下垂，遮住半边脸。地上有个火盆，一个大汉坐在旁边，漫不经心地吸着香烟。当我母亲看着他们时，大汉从火盆里拿起一根铁棒，铁棒顶端是一块被烧成赤红色的铁块。他咧嘴一笑，举起铁棒直烙向男人的胸膛。我母亲听到一声可怕而短促的呻吟声和烙铁烧在皮肉上的吱吱声，似乎闻到了强烈的焦糊气味，她没有尖声大叫或吓得昏倒。恐怖的场面在她内心深处产生的是强烈愤怒，而愤怒给她巨大的勇气，压倒了恐惧。
But she did not scream or faint. The horror had aroused in her a powerful, passionate rage which gave her enormous strength and overrode any fear.
The officer asked her if she would now write a confession. She refused, repeating that she knew of no Communists behind her. She was bundled into a small room which contained a bed and some sheets. There she spent several long days, listening to the screams of people being tortured in rooms nearby, and refusing repeated demands to name names.
军官问她现在是否愿意写悔过书了，她说“不”，结果被关进一个小房间，里面有一张床。在这里，她度过了几个特别漫长的白天和夜晚，与她相伴的只是隔壁刑讯室不时传出的惨叫声。审问者反复要她提供共产党名单，她只是摇头。
Then one day she was taken to a yard at the back of the building, covered with weeds and rubble, and ordered to stand against a high wall. Next to her a man who had obviously been tortured and could barely stand was propped up. Several soldiers lazily took their positions. A man blindfolded her. Even though she could not see, she closed her eyes. She was ready to die, proud that she was giving her life for a great cause.
然后，有一天，她被带到一处空旷的院子，那里杂草丛生，碎石瓦砾满地。她被推到一堵高墙边，与一位陌生男子并排而立。此人明显受过酷刑，只能勉强立住身体。几个士兵懒散地站在对面的位置，端起步枪。一个士兵走过来，用布条蒙住她的眼睛。尽管看不见，她还是闭上了眼睛。她作好了临死的准备，只为把生命献给了她所追求的伟大事业而自豪。
She heard shots, but felt nothing. After a minute or so her blindfold was removed and she looked around, blinking. The man who had been standing next to her was lying on the ground. The officer who had taken her down to the dungeons came over, grinning. One eyebrow was raised in surprise that this seventeen-year-old girl was not a gibbering wreck. My mother told him calmly that she had nothing to confess.
她听到枪响，但没感到什么。约莫一分钟后，蒙眼布被去掉，她眨眼打量四周，身旁的男人倒在地上。那位曾引她到刑讯的军官走来，眼神充满了惊讶，这个十七岁的姑娘居然没有如他所想的吓傻了。我母亲沉着地告诉他，她没有什么可说的。
She was taken back to her cell. Nobody bothered her, and she was not tortured. After a few more days she was set free. During the previous week the Communist underground had been busy pulling strings. My grandmother had been to the martial law headquarters every day, weeping, pleading, and threatening suicide. Dr. Xia had visited his most powerful patients, bearing expensive gifts. The family's intelligence connections were also mobilized.
她又被带回囚室，没有人再来找她麻烦，也没受刑。几天后，她获释了。在这之前，共产党地下组织积极营救她。我姥姥天天到警备司令部哭闹、乞求，扬言要死在那里。夏瑞堂带着贵重的礼品拜访他有权有势的病人。家里的特务关系也纷纷动员，不少人写保证书，保证她不是共产党，只是年轻冲动。
Many people had vouched for my mother in writing, saying that she was not a Communist, she was just young and impetuous.
What had happened to her did not daunt her in the slightest. The moment she came out of prison she set about organizing a memorial service for the dead students in Tianjin. The authorities gave permission for the service.
狱中的经历没有吓坏我母亲，出狱后，她立即组织一次追悼天津七五事件死难学生的大会。校方允许她开追悼会，因为锦州城内已众议沸腾，无不责骂开枪之举，特别因为死伤者都是听信当局的话才南逃的。同时，学校也急忙宣布提前放假，也不考试了，只希望学生赶快回家，一散了事。
There was great anger in Jinzhou about what had happened to the young people who had, after all, left on the government's advice. At the same time, the schools hurriedly announced an early end to the term, scrapping examinations, in the hope that the students would go home and disband.
At this point the underground advised its members to leave for the Communist-controlled areas. Those who did not want to, or could not leave, were ordered to suspend their clandestine work. The Kuomintang was clamping down fiercely, and too many operatives were being arrested and executed. Liang was leaving, and he asked my mother to go too, but my grandmother would not allow it. My mother was not suspected of being a Communist, she said, but if she left with the Communists she would be. And what about all the people who had vouched for her? If she went now they would all be in trouble.
此时，共产党动员地下工作人员撤到城外共产党控制区。除负有特殊使命的人员外，那些不能离开或不愿离开的都受命停止活动，因为国民党正在大肆抓人，不少搞群众运动的人被逮捕，甚至被处决。梁先生要走了，要我母亲也走，但我姥姥不准。她说我母亲还没有被确认是共产党，一离开等于不打自招，“那么，为你担保过的人该怎么办呢？”
So she stayed. But she was longing for action. She turned to Yu-wu, the only person left in the city who she knew was working for the Communists. Yu-wu did not know Liang or my mother's other contacts. They belonged to different underground systems, which operated completely separately, so that if anyone was caught and could not withstand torture they could only reveal a limited number of names.
我母亲就这样留了下来。但她渴望行动，又去找毓武，他是她所知道的唯一留下的共产党了。毓武不知道她和梁先生的组织关系，他们属于不同的地下网线。共产党地下组织是单线联系。如果有人被捕，受不了酷刑，供出的名单就很有限。毓武对我母亲的这次要求欣然允诺，他正用得着她。
Jinzhou was the key supply and logistic center for all the Kuomintang armies in the northeast. They numbered over half a million men, strung out along vulnerable railway lines and concentrated in a few shrinking areas around the main cities. By the summer of 1948 there were about 200,000 Kuomintang troops in Jinzhou, under several different commands. Chiang Kai-shek had been squabbling with many of his top generals, juggling the commands, which created severe demoralization. The different forces were badly coordinated and often distrusted one another.
锦州是东北五十万国民党军队的后勤供应中心。那些军队分布在铁路沿线和几个主要城市四周日趋缩小的地盘上。1948年夏季以前，锦州已有二十万国党军队，分属几个不同的司令部。蒋介石在战略问题上不能和他的高级将领们意见一致，朝令夕改，又无法完全协调不同派系的部队。
Many strategists, including his senior American advisers, thought that Chiang should abandon Manchuria completely. The key to any pullout, 'voluntary' or forced, by sea or by rail, was the retention of Jinzhou. The city was only a hundred miles north of the Great Wall, quite near to China proper, where the Kuomintang position still seemed relatively secure, and it was easily reinforced from the sea Huludao was only about thirty miles to the south, and was linked by a seemingly secure railway.
许多人(包括蒋介石的一些美国高级顾问)都认为蒋应该完全放弃东北。任何撤军，无论是“自愿的”，还是被迫的，无论从海上，还是从铁路，关键问题都要保住锦州。这是东北的门户，而且容易得到海上的支援。
In spring 1948 the Kuomintang had begun to construct a new defense system around Jinzhou, made of cement blocks encased in steel frames. The Communists, they thought, had no tanks and poor artillery, and no experience attacking heavily fortified positions. The idea was to ring the city with self-contained fortresses, each of which could operate as an independent unit even if it was surrounded.
1948年春，国民党开始在锦州四周建筑一道由钢筋混凝土构筑成的防御工事系统。他们认为共产党没有坦克和重炮，没有攻坚战的经验，凭借这样的工事能守住锦州。这个工程系统初步构想是一系列彼此独立的钢筋水泥碉堡群，即可以独立作战，又互相沟通。
The fortresses were to be connected by trenches six feet wide and six feet deep, protected by a continuous fence of barbed wire. The supreme commander in Manchuria, General Wei Li-huang, came on an inspection visit and declared the system impregnable.
联结碉堡群的战壕六尺宽，六尺深，用铁线网加以防护。东北最高指挥官卫立煌将军曾到锦州视察防务，说这个防御系统是坚不可摧的。
But the project was never finished, partly due to lack of materials and poor planning, but mainly because of corruption. The man in charge of the construction work siphoned off building materials and sold them on the black market; the workers were not paid enough to eat. By September, when the Communist forces began to cut the city off, only a third of the system had been completed, much of it small, unconnected cement forts. Other parts had been has lily assembled from mud taken from the old city wall.
但是，这项工程最终没有完成，原因是材料短缺，施工规划不当，但最主要的是施工部队的军官贪污腐败，建筑材料拿到黑市上转手倒卖，劳动者薪水被层层剥削得所剩无几，无心施工。到了9月初，当共产党部队开始分割、包围这座城市时，整个体系才完成三分之一，而且大部分是小型的、孤立的普通水泥碉堡，有的甚至是从老城墙取来的土垒起来的。
It was vital for the Communists to know about this system and about the disposition of the Kuomintang troops. The Communists were building up enormous forces about a quarter of a million men for a decisive battle. The commander in chief of all the Communist armies, Zhu De, cabled the commander on the spot, Lin Biao: "Take Jinzhou ... and the whole Chinese situation is in our hands." Yu-wu's group was asked to provide up-to-date information before the final attack.
详细知道这个防务系统的底细和国民党军队的部署，对共产党作战胜败至关重要。他们已集中了庞大的武装力量。约二十五万人，准备发动一次决定性的攻击。共产党总司令朱德打电报给东北战场司令员林彪：拿下锦州，夺取全国胜利就稳操在手。毓武获得指示，在总进攻前提供最新的防备情报。
He urgently needed more hands, and when my mother approached him asking for work, he and his superiors were delighted.
他迫切需要人做帮手，我母亲正好适合。
The Communists had sent some officers into the city in disguise to reconnoiter, but a man wandering around the outskirts alone would immediately attract attention. An amorous couple would be much less conspicuous. By then, Kuomintang rule had made it quite acceptable for young men and women to be seen together in public. Because the reconnaissance officers were male, my mother would be ideal as a 'girlfriend."
共产党已经派出情报人员混入城市、郊区进行侦察，但一个男人独自在防御工事附近漫游会引起怀疑，一对恋人就完全不同了。国民党时期社会风气的变化已使年轻男女能一块儿公开出现。
Yu-wu told her to be at an appointed place at a particular time. She was to wear a pale-blue gown and a red silk flower in her hair. The Communist officer would be carrying a copy of the Kuomintang newspaper, the Central Daily folded into a triangle, and would identify himself by wiping sweat three times off the left side of his face and then three times off the right.
毓武要我母亲在某个特定时间前往特定地点。她需穿淡蓝色旗袍，辫梢上扎红绢花。共产党情报人员将拿一份折成三角形的国民党《中央日报》。届时他将作出擦汗的样子，先擦三遍左脸颊，后擦三遍右脸颊。两人将扮成一对情人。
On the appointed day, my mother went to a small temple just outside the old north wall but within the defense perimeter. A man carrying the triangular newspaper came up to her and gave the correct signals. My mother stroked his right cheek three times with her right hand, then he stroked her left cheek three times with his left hand. Then my mother took his arm, and they walked off.
接头处是老北门城墙外防御工事圈内的一座小庙旁。接上头后，两人挽住胳膊走开。我母亲不完全明白他在干什么，但没有问。他们默默地散步，只是在遇到行人时才开口说些无关紧要的话。这一天安然度过，后来是多次这样的侦察，或沿着城边，或顺着铁路，走走、谈谈。
My mother did not understand fully what he was doing, and she did not ask. Most of the time they walked in silence, only talking when they passed someone. The mission passed off without incident.
There were to be more, around the city outskirts and to the railway, the vital communications artery.
It was one thing to obtain the information, but it was another to get it out of the city. By the end of July the checkpoints were firmly shut, and anyone trying to enter or leave was thoroughly searched. Yu-wu consulted my mother, whose ability and courage he had grown to trust.
把情报送出城是另一大难题。到7月底，所有进出城的人都被彻底搜查，只有国民党高级官员的车辆才免于检查。毓武来找我母亲商量如何送走情报，他已完全信任她的能力和勇气了。
The vehicles of senior officers could go in and out without being searched, and my mother thought of a contact she might be able to use. One of her fellow students was the granddaughter of a local army commander, General Ji, and the girl's brother was a colonel in their grandfather's brigade.
我母亲想到了她有个同学，是锦州地方守备司令汲将军的孙女。她哥哥是祖父军队里的一位上校。
The Jis were a Jinzhou family, with considerable influence. They occupied a whole street, nicknamed "Ji Street," where they had a large compound with an extensive, well groomed garden. My mother had often strolled in the garden with her friend, and was quite friendly with her brother, Hui-ge.
汲家是锦州很有影响的家族，整整一条街都为汲家所有，那条街因而被称为“汲家街”。在这里，他们有一座堂皇的府邸和一片美丽的花园。我母亲曾去花园与朋友一块散步，并和汲上校成了朋友。
Hui-ge was a handsome young man in his mid-twenties who had a university degree in engineering. Unlike many young men from wealthy, powerful families, he was not a dandy. My mother liked him, and the feeling was mutual.
汲上校英俊潇洒，是个二十五六岁的年轻人，持有大学工科毕业文凭。虽然他出身豪富权势之家，但不是个花花公子，我母亲喜欢他，他也喜欢我母亲，邀请她参加茶会，还到夏家作礼节性拜访。他礼貌周到，文质彬彬，姥姥认为他是最佳女婿候选人。
He began to pay social calls on the Xias and to invite my mother to tea parties. My grandmother liked him a lot; he was extremely courteous, and she considered him highly eligible.
Soon Hui-ge started to invite my mother out on her own. At first his sister accompanied him, pretending to be a chaperone, but soon she would disappear with some flimsy excuse. She praised her brother to my mother, adding that he was their grandfather's favorite. She must also have told her brother about my mother, because my mother discovered that he knew a lot about her, including the fact that she had been arrested for her radical activities. They found they had much in common.
不久，汲上校开始请我母亲出去玩了，开始时他妹妹还在旁边作陪客，后来就找个借口溜走了。她在我母亲面前夸奖她哥哥，说他是祖父最宠爱的孙子。她一定也告诉了她哥哥我母亲的一些事，因为我母亲发现他很了解她，知道她曾因激进活动遭逮捕。他们俩说话很投机。
Hui-ge was very frank about the Kuomintang. Once or twice he tugged at his colonel's uniform and sighed that he hoped the war would end soon so he could go back to his engineering. He told my mother he thought the Kuomintang's days were numbered, and she had the feeling that he was baring his innermost thoughts.
汲上校对国民党态度似乎很坦率，不只一次，他拽着他的上校军服，感叹说，只盼战争早日结束，好脱掉军服搞工程专业去。他甚至对我母亲说国民党的日子屈指可数了，我母亲感到他对她推心置腹。她猜他也是在传递这样一个信息给她，透过她再传给共产党：我不喜欢国民党，我愿意帮助你们。
She was certain he was fond of her, but she wondered if there might be political motives behind his actions. She deduced that he must be trying to get a message across to her, and through her to the Communists. The message had to be: I don't like the Kuomintang, and I am willing to help you.
于是，他们成了心照不宣的合作者。一次，我母亲试探地建议他不妨带一些部队向共产党投诚，这在当时相当普遍。但他说他只是个参谋，不带兵。我母亲要他去劝说他祖父，他苦着脸说，老头子非一枪毙了他不可。
They became tacit conspirators. One day my mother suggested that he might surrender to the Communists with some troops (which was a fairly common occurrence). He said he was only a staff officer and did not command any troops. My mother asked him to try to persuade his grandfather to go over, but he replied sadly that the old man would probably have him shot if he even suggested it.
My mother kept Yu-wu informed, and he told her to cultivate Hui-ge. Soon Yu-wu told her to ask Hui-ge to take her for a trip outside the city in his jeep. They went on such trips three or four times, and each time, when they reached a primitive mud toilet, she said she had to use it.
我母亲不断向毓武禀报，毓武要她保持这个关系。不久，他要我母亲让汲上校用他的吉普车带她出城。他们出去了三四次，每次经过一个简陋的泥巴墙厕所时，她就说要上厕所，把情报藏在厕所内墙上的一个小洞里。他在车里等她，从不问任何问题。
She got out and hid a message in a hole in the toilet wall while he waited in his jeep. He never asked any questions.
His conversations became more and more centered on his worries about his family and himself. In a roundabout way, he hinted that the Communists might execute him: "I'm afraid I'll soon just be a disembodied soul outside the western gate?" (The Western Heaven was supposed to be the destination of the dead, because it was the site of eternal peace. So the execution ground in Jinzhou, like most places in China, was outside the western gate.) When he said this, he would look questioningly into my mother's eyes, clearly inviting contradiction.
他的话题越来越集中在为自己和家庭的担忧上。好几次，他暗示共产党可能会处死他。“我恐怕，”他忧伤地说，“不久就是西门外的鬼了！”他用探寻的目光注视着我母亲的眼睛，显然是想得到否认。
My mother felt certain that because of what he had done for them the Communists would spare him. Although everything had been implicit, she would say confidently:
"Don't think such gloomy thoughts?" or "I'm sure that won't happen to you!"
“别想得这么糟！”我母亲总是自信地安慰他。她相信由于他为共产党所做的一切，他会被赦免的，“我肯定这不会落到你的头上！”
The Kuomintang position continued to deteriorate through the late summer- and not only because of military action. Corruption wreaked havoc. Inflation had risen to the unimaginable figure of just over 100,000 percent by the end of 1947 and it was to go to 2,870,000 percent by the end of 1948 in the Kuomintang areas. The price of sorghum, the main grain available, increased seventy fold overnight in Jinzhou. For the civilian population the situation was becoming more desperate every day, as increasingly more food went to the army, much of which was sold by local commanders on the black market.
国民党的统治到了夏末更加岌岌可危。军事上连遭失败，经济崩溃的速度像脱缰之马。国民党统治地区的通货膨胀率，1947年来超过百分之十万，1948年末更上升至百分之二百八十七万。主要可得到的食物高粱，价格在锦州一夜之间就暴涨了70倍，越来越多的粮食转运给军队，而其中一部分被大小指挥官们拿到黑市上高价出售，普通人的生活苦不堪言。
The Kuomintang high command was divided over strategy. Chiang Kai-shek recommended abandoning Mukden, the largest city in Manchuria, and concentrating on holding Jinzhou, but he was unable to impose a coherent strategy on his top generals. He seemed to place all his hope on greater American intervention. Defeatism permeated his top staff.
国民党高级将领在战略上仍是意见不一。蒋介石主张放弃沈阳这座东北最大的城市，集中全力保住锦州，但他无法让他的高级将领们都接受这一主张。他似乎把全部希望寄托在美国人扩大干涉上，失败主义笼罩在将领心中。
By September the Kuomintang held only three strongholds in Manchuria Mukden, Changchun (the old capital of Manchukuo, Hsinking), and Jinzhou and the 3o0 miles of railway track linking them. The Communists were encircling all three cities simultaneously, and the Kuomintang did not know where the main attack would come. In fact it was to be Jinzhou, the most southerly of the three and the strategic key, because once it fell the other two would be cut off from their supplies. The Communists were able to move large numbers of troops around undetected, but the Kuomintang were dependent on the railway, which was under constant attack, and, to a lesser extent, on air transport.
到9月时，国民党在东北只剩下三座大城市——沈阳、长春、锦州，以及连接这三个城市的三百哩铁路沿线。共产党同时运动以图包围这三个城市。国民党一直不确定共产党将从何下手。事实上，共产党要的是锦州，因为一旦此城失守，其他两座城市的生命线就被切断了。共产党在不声不响地调兵遣将。国民党也在调兵——通过不时遭袭击的铁路以及少量的空运。
The assault on Jinzhou began on 11 September 1948.
锦州之战开始于1948年9月12日。
An American diplomat, John F. Melby, flying to Mukden, recorded in his diary on 23 September:
一位美国外交官约翰·F·麦尔比当时正飞往沈阳，他于9月23日作了如下日记：
"North along the corridor to Manchuria the Communist artillery was systematically making rubble out of the airfield at Chinchow [Jinzhou]." The next day, 24 September, the Communist forces moved closer. Twenty-four hours later Chiang Kaishek ordered General Wei Li-huang to break out of Mukden with fifteen divisions and relieve Jinzhou. General Wei dithered, and by 26 September the Communists had virtually isolated Jinzhou.
“沿北向的满洲走廊，共产党的大炮正有计划地把锦州飞机场炸成一片废墟。”第二天，也就是9月24日，共产党军队进一步向前推进。二十四小时之后，蒋介石命令卫立煌将军带上十五个师杀出沈阳重围，解锦州之危。卫将军却裹足不前。9月26日，其产党便孤立了锦州。
By 1 October the encirclement of Jinzhou was completed. Yixian, my grandmother's hometown twenty-five miles to the north, fell that day. Chiang Kai-shek flew to Mukden to take personal command. He ordered seven extra divisions to be thrown into the Jinzhou battle, but he was unable even to get General Wei to move out of Mukden until 9 October, two weeks after the order had been given and even then with only eleven divisions, not fifteen. On 6 October Chiang Kai-shek flew to Huludao and ordered troops there to move up to relieve Jinzhou.
1O月1日，共产党完成了对锦州的包围。北面的二十五哩的义县也在当日被攻占，蒋介石飞到沈阳亲自主持作战会议。他命令增加七个军团投入锦州战场，但卫将军直到1O月9日才执行救援命令，也就是在命令下达后两个星期，他才带了十一个军团来，还不是十五个军团。10月6日，蒋介石飞到葫芦岛，命令那里的军队开赴锦州。有的遵命而行，但因兵力过于分散，很快就被共产党各个击破。”
Some did, but piecemeal, and they were soon isolated and destroyed.
The Communists were getting ready to turn the assault on Jinzhou into a siege.
Yu-wu approached my mother and asked her to undertake a critical mission: to smuggle detonators into one of the ammunition depots the one supplying Hui-ge's own division. The ammunition was stored in a big courtyard, the walls of which were tolaped with barbed wire which was reputed to be electrified.
此时，毓武找到我母亲，要她执行一项重要任务：把雷管送进一个汲上校所属部队的弹药库。弹药贮藏在一个大院里，围墙上装有带刺的铁丝网，据说还通了电，进出的人要严格搜查。库内官兵以赌博、酗酒打发时日，有时还把妓女带进去，临时俱乐部几乎天天有舞会。这天，我母亲对汲上校说她想看跳舞，他什么也没问就答应了。
Everyone who went in and out was searched. The soldiers living inside the complex spent most of their time gambling and drinking. Sometimes prostitutes were brought in and the officers would hold a dance in a makeshift club. My mother told Hui-ge she wanted to go and have a look at the dancing, and he agreed without asking any questions.
The detonators were handed to my mother the next day by a man she had never seen. She put them into her bag and drove into the depot with Hui-ge. They were not searched. When they got inside, she asked Hui-ge to show her around, leaving her bag in the car, as she had been instructed. Once they were out of sight, underground operatives were supposed to remove the detonators. My mother strolled at a deliberately leisurely pace to give the men more time. Hui-ge was happy to oblige.
我母亲把雷管装在书包里，跟汲上校驱车进了大院。按照预定计划，她要他带她到处转转，把书包留在车里，他们一走开，早已潜伏在弹药库内的共产党地下人员就将它拿走。为了给她的同志更多时间，我母亲故意放慢步子，汲上校也乐意满足她的要求。
That night, the city was rocked by a gigantic explosion.
当晚，一阵巨大的爆炸声震动了城市。
Detonations went off in chain reactions and the dynamite and shells lit up the sky like a spectacular fireworks display. The street where the depot had been was in flames.Windows were shattered within a radius of about fifty yards.
爆炸以连锁式反应进行，一阵又一阵地冲上天空好像是在放焰火，大院一片火海。
The next morning, Hui-ge invited my mother over to the Ji mansion. His eyes were hollow and he was unshaven. He had obviously not slept a wink. He greeted her a little more guardedly than usual.
第二天一早，汲上校请我母亲到他家。一夜之间，他几乎变了样，脸色发黑，双眼下陷，胡子也没刮，显然整夜未合眼。他显得对她存有戒心，经过一阵难耐的沉默，开始问她是否听到这个消息。
After a heavy silence, he asked her whether she had heard the news. Her expression must have confirmed his worst fears that he had helped to cripple his own division.
He said there was going to be an investigation.
"I wonder whether the explosion will sweep my head from my shoulders," he sighed, 'or blow a reward my way?" My mother, who was feeling sorry for him, said reassuringly: "I am sure you are beyond suspicion. I'm certain you will be rewarded." At this, Hui-ge stood up and saluted her in formal fashion.
我母亲的表情证实了他最不祥的预感——是他帮助敌人削弱了自己的武装实力。他说调查就要开始了。“不知道这次爆炸是使我脑袋搬家，还是给我带来好运。”他叹着气说。我母亲心里很过意不去，想使他宽心。“我想你不会受到怀疑的，”她说，“我也肯定你会受到奖励！”；“感谢你的保证！”汲上校站起身，满脸严肃地向她敬了一个礼。
"Thank you for your promise!" he said.
By now, Communist artillery shells had begun to crash into the city. When my mother first heard the whine of the shells flying over, she was a little frightened. But later, when the shelling became heavier, she got used to it. It became like permanent thunder. A kind of fatalistic indifference deadened fear for most people. The siege also broke down Dr. Xia's rigid Manchu ritual; for the first time the whole household ate together, men and women, masters and servants. Previously, they had been eating in no less than eight groups, all having different food. One day, as they were sitting around the table preparing to have dinner, a shell came bursting through the window over the kang, where Yu-lin's one-year-old son was playing, and thudded to a halt under the dining table. Fortunately, like many of the shells, it was a dud.
共产党的炮弹开始落进城里。我母亲第一次听到炮弹飞过时的呼啸声，真有点害怕。但后来，当炮火愈来愈密集时，她反倒习惯了。听天由命使大多数人失去了恐惧感。这一仗也打破了夏瑞堂严格遵守的满族礼数：过去所有人要按地位分先后吃饭，饭菜也不同。现在无论是男人、女人、主人、仆人，全挤在一块吃。一天，全家人正围着桌子准备用餐，一枚炮弹穿进窗户，越过暖炕，一头栽入距炕一尺远的八仙桌下面的地里。万幸的是，和许多炮弹一样，这是枚哑弹。
Once the siege started there was no food to be had, even on the black market. A hundred million Kuomintang dollars could barely buy a pound of sorghum. Like most families who could afford to do so, my grandmother had stored some sorghum and soybeans, and her sister's husband, "Loyalty' Pei-o, used his connections to get some extra supplies. During the siege the family's donkey was killed by a piece of shrapnel, so they ate it.
一旦围城开始，城里就会断粮，连黑市也将消失。一亿国民党元买不到一斤高粱米。像有条件的人家一样，我姥姥也储存了一些高粱和黄豆，妹夫效石利用他的关系也搞到一些粮食。围城期间家里的驴子又被一块弹片打死了，于是也就成了食物。
On 8 October the Communists moved almost a quarter of a million troops into attack positions. The shelling became much more intense. It was also very accurate. The top Kuomintang commander, General Fan Han-jie, said that it seemed to follow him wherever he went. Many artillery positions were knocked out, and the fortresses in the uncompleted defense system came under heavy fire, as did the road and railway links. Telephone and cable lines were cut, and the electricity system broke down.
10月8日，共产党调集二十五万大军进入总攻。大炮声密集猛烈，炮弹落点准确。国民党守军最高指挥官范汉杰将军说，无论他走到哪里，炮弹好像老跟着他。火力点、堡垒及交通要道全笼罩在弹雨中。电话和电力都被切断。
许多民房虽然未中炮击，但陷入熊熊火海，又无救火的水，天空完全被滚滚浓烟所笼罩，大白天几码之外就看不清楚人了，炮弹的爆炸声震耳欲聋。我母亲只听到人们的哭喊声，但听不出在哪里哭喊，出了什么事。
On 13 October the outer defenses collapsed. More than 100,000 Kuomintang troops retreated pell-mell into the center of the city. That night a band of about a dozen disheveled soldiers stormed into the Xias' house and demanded food. They had not eaten for two days. Dr. Xia greeted them courteously and Yu-lin's wife immediately started cooking a huge saucepan of sorghum noodles.
10月13日，外围防线被彻底摧毁，国民党军队十余万人仓皇撤退到市中区。那天晚上，十几个蓬头垢面的国民党士兵闯进夏家讨饭吃，他们已有两天粒米未沾。夏瑞堂有礼貌地接待了他们。玉林妻子煮了一大锅高粱面条。
When they were ready, she put them on the kitchen table and went into the next room to tell the soldiers. As she turned her back, a shell landed in the saucepan and exploded, spattering the noodles all over the kitchen. She dived under a narrow table in front of the kang. A soldier was ahead of her, but she grabbed him by the leg and pulled him out. My grandmother was terrified.
煮好后，她把锅放在厨房桌子上，转身去隔壁房间招呼士兵吃面。这时一块弹片落选锅里，把面条全炸飞了。她一头钻到炕前小桌子下，谁知已有个士兵躲在里面，她一发急，抓住大兵的腿，把他拖了出来。姥姥在一旁吓坏了，待那士兵转过背时说她弟媳，“要是他转身给你一枪怎么办？”
"What if he had turned around and pulled the trigger?" she hissed once he was out of earshot.
Until the very final stage of the siege the shelling was amazingly accurate; few ordinary houses were hit, but the population suffered from the terrible fires which the shelling ignited, and there was no water to douse the flames.
The sky was completely obscured by thick, dark smoke and it was impossible to see more than a few yards, even in daytime. The noise of the artillery was deafening. My mother could hear people wailing, but could never tell where they were or what was happening.
On 14 October, the final offensive started. Nine hundred artillery pieces bombarded the city nonstop. Most of the family hid in an improvised air-raid shelter which they had dug earlier, but Dr. Xia refused to leave the house. He sat calmly on the kang in the corner of his room by the window and prayed silently to the Buddha. At one point fourteen kittens ran into the room. He was delighted: "A place a cat tries to hide in is a lucky place," he said. Not a single bullet came into his room and all the kittens survived. The only other person who would not go down into the shelter was my great-grandmother, who just curled up under the oak table next to the kang in her room. When the bat He ended the thick quilts and blankets covering the table looked like a sieve.
10月14日，最后的攻击开始了，九百门大炮不停地轰击。夏家大多躲进了一个临时防空掩体，这是他们早些时候挖成的，但夏瑞堂拒绝离开房子。他沉着地坐在他房间炕上的角落里，靠着窗户默求菩萨保佑。忽然，有十四只猫跑进了他的房间。他很高兴，“猫进福地”。果然，没有一粒子弹射入他房间，猫也都活了下来。另一个不肯钻入掩体的是我外曾祖母，她始终蜷缩在她房间内紧靠炕沿的橡木桌下。当战斗结束后，盖在桌上的厚棉被和毯子已被子弹打成了筛子。
In the middle of one bombardment, Yu-lin's baby son, who was down in the shelter, wanted to have a wee-wee.
在掩体里，玉林的幼儿要小便，玉林妻子把他抱出去，几秒钟后她刚蹲过的掩体一侧便被震塌了。
His mother took him outside, and a few seconds later the side of the shelter where she had been sitting collapsed.
My mother and grandmother had to come up and take cover in the house. My mother crouched next to the kang in the kitchen, but soon pieces of shrapnel started hitting the brick side of the kang and the house began to shake.
我母亲和姥姥不得不跑进房子紧贴着厨房的炕沿蹲下，弹片不断打到炕上，房子开始摇晃。
She ran out into the back garden. The sky was black with smoke. Bullets were flying through the air and ricocheting all over the place, spattering against the walls; the sound was like mighty rain pelting down, mixed with screamsand yells.
我母亲又跑到院子里，天空中翻腾着浓密的黑烟。空气中散发着呛人的火药味，子弹的飕飕声已变成像下雨似的哗哗声。
In the small hours of the next day a group of Kuomintang soldiers burst into the house, dragging about twenty terrified civilians of all ages with them the residents of the three neighboring courtyards. The troops were almost hysterical. They had come from an arfllery post in a temple across the street, which had just been shelled with pinpoint accuracy, and were shouting at the civilians that one of them must have given away their position. They kept yelling that they wanted to know who had given the signal.
第二天凌晨，天尚未亮，一群国民党士兵冲进来，押着二十几个浑身哆嗦的居民——都是夏家的邻居。这些士兵是设在街对面小庙内炮兵阵地的炮兵，他们的阵地被共产党的炮兵准确地轰平了。他们歇斯底里地大喊大叫：“是谁给共产党发的信号？”
When no one spoke up, they grabbed my mother and shoved her against a wall, accusing her. My grandmother was terrified, and hurriedly dug out some small gold pieces and pressed them into the soldiers' hands. She and Dr. Xia went down on their knees and begged the soldiers to let my mother go. Yu-lin's wife said this was the only time she ever saw Dr. Xia looking really frightened. He pleaded with the soldiers: "She's my little girl. Please believe me that she did not do it .... '
居民们没人应声。士兵们突然抓住我母亲，把她推到墙根，咬定是她发的。姥姥吓得慌慌忙忙地找出些小金元宝，塞到士兵们手里。她和夏瑞堂一齐跪下，哀求放了我母亲。玉林的妻子说，这是她第一次也是唯一次看见夏瑞堂真的害怕了。
The soldiers took the gold and let my mother go, but they forced everyone into two rooms at bayonet point and shut them in so they would not send any more signals, they said. It was pitch-dark inside the rooms, and very frightening. But quite soon my mother noticed that the shelling was decreasing. The noises outside changed.
士兵们拿了金元宝，放了我母亲。但他们端着刺刀把所有人关进了两个房间，说这样就没人发得了信号了。屋里漆黑一团，谁都不知道会出什么事。不久，我母亲注意到炮声减弱了，近处有手榴弹的爆炸声和刺刀的碰撞声，还有吓人的尖叫和惨叫声。有人在喊：“缴枪不杀！”喊声越来越近，她还能听到急跑的脚步踩在卵石道上的“啪啪”声。
Mixed with the whine of bullets were sounds of hand grenades exploding and the clash of bayonets. Voices were yelling, "Put down your weapons and we'll spare your life!" there were blood-curdling shrieks and screams of anger and pain. Then the shots and the shouts came closer and closer, and she heard the sound of boots clattering on the cobblestones as the Kuomintang soldiers ran away down the street.
Eventually the din subsided a bit and the Xias could hear banging on the side gate of the house. Dr. Xia went warily to the door of the room and eased it open: the Kuomintang soldiers had gone. Then he went to the side gate of the house and asked who was there. A voice answered: "We are the people's army. We have come to liberate you." Dr. Xia opened the gate and several men in baggy uniforms entered swiftly. In the darkness, my mother could see that they were wearing white towels wrapped around their left sleeves like armbands and held their guns at the ready, with fixed bayonets.
终于，喧杂声沉寂了，有人在敲院门。夏瑞堂小心翼翼地走到被关的房门边，试着推了推，门未上锁，国民党士兵已经不见了。他走到院子门口，问是谁？只听有人回答说：“我们是人民解放军，是来解放你们的。”夏瑞堂打开门，几个身穿宽大军服的人闪进来。黑暗中，我母亲隐约可见他们左手臂上扎有白毛巾。他们端着带刺刀的枪，目光警惕地环视着。“别害怕，”他们说，“我们是人民子弟兵，不会伤害老百姓。”他们要求搜查房子，看看有没有国民党士兵，话说得很和气，但并不是在请求同意。这些人没有把夏家翻得乱七八糟，也没拿走任何东西。搜查完后，有礼貌地告别。
"Don't be afraid," they said.
"We won't harm you. We are your army, the people's army." They said they wanted to check the house for Kuomintang soldiers.
It was not a request, though it was put politely. The soldiers did not turn the place upside down, nor did they ask for food or steal anything. After the search they left, bidding the family a courteous farewell.
It was only when the soldiers entered the house that it sank in that the Communists had really taken the city. My mother was overjoyed This time she did not feel let down by the Communist soldiers' dust covered torn uniforms.
这时，大家才醒悟，共产党已经占了城。我母亲兴奋极了，她再也没有因共产党士兵的满是灰土的破制服而失望了。
All the people who had been sheltering in the Xias' house were anxious to get back to their houses to see if they had been damaged or looted. One house had in fact been leveled, and a pregnant woman who had remained there was killed.
所有在夏家的邻居纷纷焦急地往回赶，想知道他们的家怎么样了。有一家的屋子被夷平，一个没有离开的孕妇被炸死了。
Shortly after the neighbors left there was another knock on the side gate. My mother opened it: half a dozen terrified Kuomintang soldiers stood there. They were in a pitiable state and their eyes were gnawed by fear. They kowtowed to Dr. Xia and my grandmother and begged for civilian clothes. The Xias felt sorry for them and gave them some old clothes which they hurriedly put on over their uniforms and left.
邻居离开不久，外边又有人敲门。六七个惊慌失措的国民党士兵站在那里。一看见夏瑞堂和姥姥就磕头，想讨些老百姓衣服穿。夏家人可怜他们，找出一些旧衣服，他们连忙套在军服外，赶紧走了。
At first light Yu-lin's wife opened the front gate. Several corpses were lying right outside. She let out a terrified yell and ran back into the house. My mother heard her shriek and went outside to have a look. Corpses were lying all over the street, many of them with their heads and limbs missing, others with their intestines pouring out. Some were just bloody messes. Chunks of flesh and arms and legs were hanging from the telegraph poles. The open sewers were clogged with bloody water, human flesh, and rubble.
天刚亮，我母亲听见“哇！”的一声尖叫，急忙迎出去，只见玉林妻子从外面跑进来，张着嘴说不出话，用手指着门外，满脸恐怖的神情。我母亲跑到大街上去看，满地横七竖八躺着尸体，有的缺胳膊少腿，有的头被炸飞，有的内脏流淌在外，有的只是血乎乎的一团肉。阴沟里流的是血水。
The battle for Jinzhou had been herculean. The final attack had lasted thirty-one hours, and in many ways it was the turning point of the civil war. Twenty thousand Kuomintang soldiers were killed and over 80,000 captured.
锦州之战是一场大战，是国、共内战的转折点。两万余名国民党官兵被打死，八万余人被俘。
No fewer than eighteen generals were taken prisoner, among them the supreme commander of the Kuomintang forces in Jinzhou, General Fan Han-jie, who had tried to escape disguised as a civilian. As the prisoners of war thronged the streets on their way to the temporary camps, my mother saw a friend of hers with her Kuomintang officer husband, both of them wrapped in blankets against the morning chill.
至少十八位高级将领被活捉，其中包括锦州国民党驻军最高指挥官、东北“剿总”副总司令范汉杰中将，他曾试图装扮成老百姓逃跑。当战俘们拥挤着走过街头去临时战俘营时，我母亲看见她的一位朋友和其国民党军官丈夫夹杂其间，身上裹着毛毯御寒。
It was Communist policy not to execute anyone who laid down their arms, and to treat all prisoners well. This would help win over the ordinary soldiers, most of whom came from poor peasant families. The Communists did not run prison camps. They kept only middle- and high-ranking officers, and dispersed the rest almost immediately. They would hold 'speak bitterness' meetings for the soldiers, at which they were encouraged to speak up about their hard lives as landless peasants. The revolution, the Communists said, was all about giving them land. The soldiers were given a choice: either they could go home, in which case they would be given their fare, or they could stay with the Communists to help wipe out the Kuomintang so that nobody would ever take their land away again. Most willingly stayed and joined the Communist army. Some, of course, could not physically reach their homes with a war going on. Mao had learned from ancient Chinese warfare that the most effective way of conquering the people was to conquer their hearts and minds. The policy toward prisoners proved enormously successful. Particularly after Jinzhou, more and more Kuomintang soldiers simply let themselves be captured. Over 1.75 million Kuomintang troops surrendered and crossed over to the Communists during the civil war. In the last year of the civil war, bat He casualties accounted for less than 20 percent of all the troops the Kuomintanglost.
共产党的政策是：缴枪不杀，优待俘虏。他们不设俘虏营，只扣留国民党中、上层军官。别的俘虏呢，因为普通士兵大多数来自贫苦农家，他们就开“忆苦会”。鼓励这些人诉说没有土地的农民的苦难生活，告诉这些人共产党就是为了使“耕者有其田”，然后给这些人两种选择：拿一笔路费回家，或是留下来打垮国民党分田。这样一来，大部分俘虏愿意留下来加人共产党军队，当然其中一些人是因为到处打仗而无法回家。毛泽东从中国古代兵法中得到启示：攻城为下，攻心为上。共产党的俘虏政策十分成功。特别是锦州一仗之后，越来越多的国民党士兵干脆投降了事。在整个内战期间，一百七十五万国民党军队投降或起义参加了共产党军队。内战最后一年，国民党损失的军队中战死的不到两成。
One of the top commanders who had been caught had his daughter with him; she was in an advanced stage of pregnancy. He asked the Communist commanding officer if he could stay in Jinzhou with her. The Communist officer said it was not convenient for a father to help his daughter deliver a baby, and that he would send a 'woman comrade' to help her. The Kuomintang officer thought he was only saying this to get him to move on. Later on he learned that his daughter had been very well treated, and the 'woman comrade' turned out to be the wife of the Communist officer. Policy toward prisoners was an intricate combination of political calculation and humanitarian consideration, and this was one of the crucial factors in the Communists' victory. Their goal was not just to crush the opposing army but, if possible, to bring about its disintegration. The Kuomintang was defeated as much by demoralization as by firepower.
有一位国民党高级军官被俘时，女儿也在身边，是个临产的孕妇。这个军官请求共产党指挥官让他和女儿暂留锦州。以便照顾女儿生小孩。共产党指挥官不同意，说父亲照顾女儿生孩子多有不便，他会派一位“女同志”来帮助她，国民党军官认为这样说只是为了赶他走。后来才得知，他女儿受到很好的对待，那个“女同志”原来是共产党指挥官的妻子。共产党对俘虏的优待政策既是出于人道主义，也是出于政治谋略，这是他们获胜的关键因素之一。共产党不仅要用枪炮打垮敌人，而且要尽可能地让它从内部瓦解。国民党军队既是被炮火击溃的，也垮于自身的军心涣散。
The first priority after the battle was cleaning up, most of which was done by Communist soldiers. The locals were also keen to help, as they wanted to get rid of the bodies and the debris around their homes as quickly as possible.
战斗一结束，首先是清理战场。这工作大部分由共产党士兵来完成。为了尽快弄走那些已开始发臭的尸体和乱糟糟的瓦砾，当地人也热心相助。
For days, long convoys of carts loaded with corpses and lines of people carrying baskets on their shoulders could be seen wending their way out of the city. As it became possible to move around again, my mother found that many people she knew had been killed; some from direct hits, others buried under rubble when their houses had collapsed.
每天，只见长长的运尸马车队和肩挑手抬的人群朝城外涌。我母亲发现她所熟悉的许多人死于战火，有的是被炮弹打死的，也有因房子倒下来而压死的。
The morning after the siege ended the Communists put up notices asking the townspeople to resume normal life as quickly as possible. Dr. Xia hung out his gaily decorated shingle to show that his medicine shop was open and was later told by the Communist administration that he was the first doctor in the city to do so. Most shops reopened on 20 October even though the streets were not yet cleared of bodies. Two days later, schools reopened and offices began working normal hours.
打完仗第二天一早，共产党贴出布告要城里居民尽快恢复正常生活。夏瑞堂挂出了醒目的招牌，表示他的诊所开门了。共产党行政部门赞扬他是城里最先恢复开业的医生。大多数商店在10月20日左右重新营业。紧接着，学校开学，机关开始办公。
The most immediate problem was food. The new government urged the peasants to come and sell food in the city and encouraged them to do so by setting prices at twice what they were in the countryside. The price of sorghum fell rapidly, from 100 million Kuomintang dollars for a pound to 2,200 dollars. An ordinary worker could soon buy four pounds of sorghum with what he could earn in a day. Fear of starvation abated. The Communists issued relief grain, salt, and coal to the destitute. The Kuomintang had never done anything like this, and people were hugely impressed.
新政权第一要解决的问题是粮食。他们号召农民进城卖粮，把价格定得比乡村卖粮高一倍。高粱每斤很快从国民党统治时的一亿元金元券降到二千二百元左右。一个普通工人如今可以用他一天所得买四斤高粱了。共产党还向穷人发放救济粮、盐和煤炭。在老百姓记忆中，国民党从没做过这样的事，所以都说共产党好。另一深得民心的是共产党士兵纪律严明，不抢不奸。许多士兵还被专门派去为居民做事，如挑水、劈柴、修复被战火毁坏的住房等。
Another thing that captured the goodwill of the locals was the discipline of the Communist soldiers. Not only was there no looting or rape, but many went out of their way to demonstrate exemplary behavior. This was in sharp contrast with the Kuomintang troops.
The city remained in a state of high alert. American planes flew over threateningly. On 23 October sizable Kuomintang forces tried unsuccessfully to retake Jinzhou with a pincer movement from Huludao and the northeast. With the loss of Jinzhou, the huge armies around Mukden and Changchun quickly collapsed or surrendered, and by 2 November the whole of Manchuria was in Communist hands.
锦州仍处于高度戒备状态。美国飞机不时从空中掠过进行威胁。10月23日，大批国民党部队从葫芦岛和东北方向钳形夹攻。试图夺回锦州，但没有成功。失掉锦州后，沈阳、长春外围的国民党军队也很快被歼或投降。到了11月2日，东北全境就都处于共产党的掌握之中。
The Communists proved extremely efficient at restoring order and getting the economy going again. Banks in Jinzhou reopened on 3 December, and the electricity supply resumed the next day. On 29 December a notice went up announcing a new street administration system, with residents' committees in place of the old neighborhood committees. These were to be a key institution in the Communist system of administration and control. The next day running water resumed and on the 31st the railway reopened.
共产党在恢复秩序和重建经济方面极有效率。12月3日，锦州银行开门。4日恢复供电。29日，新的街道管理体制——居民委员会取代了旧的保甲制，从此奠定共产党行政管理控制体制的基础。31日，自来水恢复供应，火车也重新运行。
The Communists even managed to put an end to inflation, setting a favorable exchange rate for converting the worthless Kuomintang money into Communist "Great Wall' currency.
共产党甚至结束了通货膨胀。他们制定了一个对人们有利的兑换率，把不值钱的国民党货币兑换成共产党的“长城”货币。
From the moment the Communist forces arrived, my mother had been longing to throw herself into working for the revolution. She felt herself to be very much a part of the Communist cause. After some days of waiting impatiently, she was approached by a Party representative who gave her an appointment to see the man in charge of youth work in Jinzhou, a Comrade Wang Yu.
共产党一进了城，我母亲就日日渴望着投身于革命工作，她觉得自己早就是共产主义事业的一分子了。经过数天焦急的等待，一位党代表找到她，让她去见管理锦州青年工作的王愚同志。