Earth and Blood

By Dang Huynh Thai

"A historical novel spanning a tumultuous period in the nation's progress, this is an epic that must be read. But, "Earth and Blood" is not an easy book to follow. I suggest that to truly enjoy Dang Huynh Thai's expert stories telling, the reader first read something about the Great Famine of 1945 in Vietnam. I feel honoured to be among the firs

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ukiyoto Publishing
• Release date: Nov 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9789361723483

Book preview

EARTH AND BLOOD 

The best novel of the life in war from Vietnam

Dang Huynh Thai

Translated into English by Kieu Bich Hau and Khanh Phuong

Revised the English version by Bob Chee

Ukiyoto Publishing

All global publishing rights are held by

Ukiyoto Publishing

Published in 2023

Content Copyright © Dang Huynh Thai

ISBN

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated, without the publisher’s prior consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.

Dedicated to my late parents

The earth will teach us

The meaning of life

How therefore to live life

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

About the Author

Chapter 1

1

T

he moon was waning, the sky was dark as ink, and the universe was pressing its weight on the inhabitants in the coastal village of Khanh Huu. No one slept all night. How could they sleep, their stomachs rumbling, empty?

The elderly fainted, the young groaned and cried, muted. Mrs. Seo was pregnant again. She had two children: a boy and a girl. She was barren for 12 years, and then, one day, her husband saw her picking duckweed, her skirt rolled up to the waist, her nakedness revealed, that damn debt.

Mrs. Seo was really beautiful, her skin was white like snow. That damn debt was richly desirable, after having been under water, inviting. He pushed her down on a pile of straw, in broad daylight, unafraid someone would spot them. Thus, her pregnancy was unplanned, resulting from that stealthy game.

It was the time of the famine when parents let their children go hungry. Mrs. Seo's hands were blistered from pruning corns.  The kernel was collected in bags, so she could bring them to the village hall to pay taxes. Squashed kernel and cobs which had no value were reserved for the cooking pot. The old lady and the children could ease their hunger pangs with those.

When the Japanese army arrived, they forced the villagers to replace the rice crops and plant corn. No longer were there rice plants and bowls of rice or porridge. The army fed corn to their horses. This season around, pests chewed on the plants, giving rise to a poor harvest.

Mrs. Seo had been working day and night, but she had only a few jars to show for the back-breaking labor. Her household of two was taxed twenty jars. She could not produce this amount, and there was nothing to put on the table this March. It was not just her household. Everyone in the village was in the same boat. What potatoes and cassava roots they could find had been dug up.

They could forage clams and shells on the beach, but they made them ill and wretched with diarrhea. Swallowing a mouthful of porridge cooked with raw banana stem would lift their strength. There was nothing else: their pigs and chickens were sold, even the dogs and cats were consumed.

Thinking about that afternoon was frightening. The sea was black, the waves were pounding the sandy shore, and brought with them three bodies, bloated, their stomachs open, their faces beyond recognition. The whole village was present, impatient, wanting to see if it was someone they knew.

Someone said one of them looked like Coi, Mrs. Seo’s son. Another said it was Tung of the Ton family. They spread all manners of rumor. Mrs. Seo rushed to the beach and hugged one of the bodies, feeling it all over, and then all of a sudden returned home.

People were still wondering at the spectacle when, a moment later, Mrs Seo again appeared and announced: Dear villagers! My son, Coi, lives, he has malaria and lies groaning on a haystack. God, I'm so scared.  The young men in the village were terrified, no one dared to go to sea anymore. Only late at night, guards arrived to bury the dead in Hoang Dien.

It had been ten generations since the great grandfather reclaimed the sea. People would talk about the golden forest and silver sea, but there was no silver, only whites in their eyes. According to the village's genealogy, Khanh Huu was on land developed during the Nguyen Dynasty.

In 1828, a businessman Nguyen Cong Tru employed villagers to reclaim the sea and established a large area called Kim Hai. Nguyen Cong Tru found the land fertile and rich.

Even the name Kim Hai sounded rich - it is translated as silver sea. Stories about the great ancestors building a sea dike for land reclamation continued to spread until today. Many villagers had perished, and they were remembered every year on the fifteenth day of July, the day of pardoning for the dead, and also the anniversary of the end of the war. The entire village gathered to worship their ancestors.

Everyone remembered the year of the big storm, when wind blew away the beach huts of the settlers. The waves were tens of meters high, and never that high. It was a tsunami. The dike could not stop the waves from dragging houses and people to the sea.

Many people died, whole families perished, some were left without relatives. All were buried in the Hoang Dien Cemetery, at the entrance of which a banyan tree was planted. Hoang Dien means unused land. More than 10 people were lucky to have survived as they were trapped in the Aegiceras Corniculatumtigers marshes. Among them was an old man named Tran Dan, an ancestor of Mrs. Seo.

After the storm, the old man built tents, and marshaled people to rebuild the dyke. The businessman, Nguyen Cong Tru, petitioned the King for food and clothing for the survivors. Rebuilding the dyke and reclaiming the sea got underway. Nguyen Cong Tru knew that Tran Dan was Tran Dien's eldest son, and was ranked tenth in the navy by Phan Ba Vanh.

In the battle at the Tra Lu River mouth, Tran Dien was killed by Imperial troops led by Nguyen Cong Tru. Phan Ba Vanh lost the battle and Nguyen Cong Tru took all the military officers as prisoners, using them to reclaim the sea and added land to be used by the poor. While blood was spilled that day, their descendants had a plot of land each.

This truth applies everywhere on Earth. The earth feeds people. The earth gets stained by human blood and it buries the people. Tran Dan was angry at Nguyen Cong Tru, angry at the Nguyen army who killed his father, but in the end, he needed to keep his mouth shut and his head low, like a buffalo or a horse.

To keep peace, Nguyen Cong Tru offered Tran Dan the title of Landlord, with power over the whole area. He had final say over which land to occupy and where to establish a village. He even made decisions on where to throw the pike, when to bank and build fields. Nguyen Cong Tru also decreed a three-year tax exemption in reclaimed areas.

Every family has enough rice to eat. After Nguyen Cong Tru died, people built a temple for him in the middle of Truc Sen lake. Tran Dan was ordained Thanh Hoang by the king as follows:

Sacred for Thanh Binh province, Khanh Huu village. Tran Dan is to be worshipped as a god, his merit being that of defending the country, protecting the people, and inspiring the land for a long time. Now, during my reign, on the occasion of the fourth week of the great celebration, I give this precious leaflet, extending a clear gift of grace. The god named Thanh Hoang, Linh Phu Duc Bao Trung Hung, is approved for worship. God, please continue to look after, support and protect my people. Respectfully execute this ordinance.

It turned out that, today, Mrs. Seo's family was the poorest in the village. Titled but penniless... The cockerel crows in the third watch but the village was already stirring, calling one another. Usually, the young men would gather to the beach. Not today. Everyone was hungry, their limbs lacked strength, last night corpses had washed ashore, souls had expired, so no one dared to go to the beach. Mrs. Seo placed a pot of boiled corn cob in the middle of the house, then turned to call her husband:

- Are you done yet? Eat and then go.

- Damn it, old banana stem, hard as stone.

- Where are you, Coi - come to work for your father. Chop it up and then pound it, hungry to death but just staying still. If you don't eat banana stem, what is there to eat.

Seen in the dimness of the night, Coi was tall and thin, like a cigarette. Before, he was famous throughout the region as a champion wrestler. At 17, he could break a buffalo's horn.

At village festivals, Coi defeated other wrestlers in the village of Khanh Ha, Bai Mon, and brought home the red belt and pig head to the Khanh Huu village. But when famine hanged over the village, the celebrations were dropped. The wrestlers and many people left the village in droves, leaving behind the infirm, their wrinkled skins covering bones.

The hunger pang were hard to bear. Coi was  stricken with fever. Sometimes, his body felt like burning coals. He felt the chills, and he buried himself under the hay, shivering and groaning. One morning, his fever subsided, he opened his eyes, and he heard his mother calling him. Now, he craved food, so he lazily made his way outside. He spotted his father pounding a banana stem in a stone mortar.

- Here, do it, then eat a bowl of porridge to gain some strength, then go to the Ma Nang river to catch a fish for your mother.

He held a large wooden pestle, tried his best to raise it, and pound it down. Normally, a wrestler not only manages to hold a pestle in one hand, but he can lift both stone mortars and run around the communal yard with them. Where has his strength gone? Feeling pity for her son, Mrs. Seo groaned:

- At this point, Ms. Tan will leave my son.

- Wow, I  don't know if can get over this hunger. Coi whistled.

Hearing this, Mr. Trang – husband of Seo, got furious:

- Damn it, what’s a human life, even more miserable than a horse.

Just the other day, three short Japanese soldiers had ridden their horses in the village. Their droppings were scattered in the middle of the road, and people fought over one another to pick the poo for themselves. Mrs. Seo won some for herself, so she washed it in the pond to retrieve undigested corn grains. She collected enough of the grains to boil porridge. The whole family ate quietly. But, she could taste the smell of horse shit. The thought of this made Mr. Trang fling his bowl into the corner of the house. He stood and yelled:

- No more taxes, give me a bag of corn.

He hauled a sack of corns, which his wife had pruned last night, went to the garden and shoved the sack all the way inside the haystack. Father and son tried to roll the stone mortar over it. Mrs. Seo called loudly:

- But they will kill us!

- Quiet. Mr. Trang shouted at his wife.

In the street, dogs barked loudly, people ran and shouted, and horns were continuously honking. Run, villagers, the short Japanese army are coming, the short Japanese army come....

The old guard raised his voice with a wheeze, Woah, the Japanese officials are about to come back to collect rice and corn. Quick, bring it to the communal house to pay. Those who do not pay will be  punished ...

The old man, Mr. Van, whose voice next door sounded like an order: Elderly men and youths, flee to the Aegiceras Corniculatum forest. Leave everything to me. I will see what the Japanese can do here. Though you are hungry or sick, you must still go. Hurry up, go go....

Hearing that, the whole village began to flee. Mr. Trang quickly stuffed a few small corns into the bag, then ran out into the alley without a word to his wife and children. Coi hid in the bamboo bush hardly daring to breathe. Mrs. Seo hastily fed a spoon of corn porridge to her mother-in-law. She had been lying in one corner of the house for several months, and each day was fed just a few spoonfuls of diluted porridge, with corn grains that had been removed from shit, and smelt bad. She shook her head slightly and whispered:

- Coi’s Mother go, go, run away or a horse will trample over you. The Japanese invaders are evil.

Man, the second daughter of Mrs. Seo, rushed forward.

- Mom, run away, let me feed Grandma.

With that, she quickly scooped up two spoons of porridge for her grandmother. She swallowed quickly, choked and coughed. Outside in the alley, the sound of horses neighing grew closer, and she waved her hand at Man, shaking it away. Man rushed to the haystack, mother and daughter hugged each other, holding their breaths on top of the corn bag which Dad had just hidden.

In Old Van's house, a commotion ensued, the voices of the Japanese sizzled and chirped, and sometimes  Huong Can could be heard. Old Van's voice was the loudest: I'm hungry to death, I have nothing to submit. Huong Can: Do you dare to argue with a big officer. This family has three heads, so thirty matches. Where is the guard? Search – Old Van shouted: Over my dead body...

Everyone in the village called Old Van an orca/super fish, having fiery temper, holding up to  storms and winds. A story was told about him: When he was a young man, he was a top diver, diving for hours at the bottom of the sea to find pearls, and he was able to conquer any depth without the need for scuba gear.

The divers used to measure the depth by arm span, each arm span measuring two meters. A good diver could manage over 20 arm spans, approximately forty meters. At such depth, a normal person would not be able to withstand the tremendous pressure of the water column.

However, Old Van dived to that depth to work. To rise and dive as normal, as relaxed as being onshore. Being so skilled like that, he managed to go through decades of hard work. He practised diving since he was only seven years old, when he was still naked, persistently conquering each stride.

Old Van gathered the young men in the village, formed a group of divers to seek for pearls. Before entering the water, the divers enjoyed a meal, drinking wine at the start, to toast each other all the best and for peace. They also did not forget to give thanks to Sea-God, Water-God, asking for protection and support.

The diver's gear was simple: The diving tube was a dry piece of bamboo, about an arm's length, used as a buoy and also a floating target to signal to their friends and families where they are diving. Tied to the diving tube was a rope slightly longer than the intended diving depth. The other end of the rope was connected to a bamboo trellis basket. That was all, it was rudimentary, just like it was back in olden days.

          The diver's first job was to fill the trellis  basket with rocks. Then, they took a deep breath and grabbed the rock bucket and plunged into the water. It was the weight of that rock basket that helped them to sink to the seabed, and start looking for pearls.

        They groped not only with their hands, but with their whole bodies pressed against the sand and mud. Their bodies were trained a lot in the water, so they were unusually sensitive. When slithering on the seabed, any part of their skins could accurately sense what they touched.

Whether it was something tiny, such as a button or something larger, such as a mussel, they could distinguish them. They knew which were normal pearls, dead pearls, or live ones. When they found live pearls, they placed them in the trellis basket, and removed a corresponding amount of rock in weight. If they needed to breathe or rest, they followed the rope to the buoy for a few minutes, then followed the rope to the bottom continuing their work. The deep seabed was a dark place with many secrets. There were even souls, victims of miscarriage of justice, or the remains of people who were drowned after their boats were capsized by huge waves.

The seabed was also a treasure trove, of valuables lost to humans, or of nature's doings, over hundreds of years, thousands of years even. Pearl hunting was a very dangerous and hard job. Old Van once told his family: "Pearl divers are more familiar with water than the shore. For sure, pearl hunting is a very dangerous profession. In the depths of the seabed, you must know how to hold your breath. Just a slight mistake can cause loss of life. When coming up, you can suddenly encounter something floating out of nowhere, your head gets trapped in it, then it becomes very difficult to free yourself from it. And there are many other dangers lurking around."

Each oyster, bearing one or two or three pearls, was a rare treasure, as valuable as gold, silver, and diamonds. They were mostly spherical in shape. But there were also many pear-shaped and teardrop-shaped pearls. There were flat, crescent moon shaped pearls and sometimes pearls as small as soybeans, or as big as grains of corn, as thumbs...

Their colors were brilliant: sometimes it was all copper color, blood color, some red-colored hazelnuts, silver-yellow color, some single-color and some mixed-colors, all of which were utterly beautiful.

That was why, for thousands of years, many people wanted to find a way to conquer the sea. Pearl hunting in Vietnam was mentioned many times in history books. Perhaps the most famous was stated in the Declaration of Independence Binh Ngo Dai Cao by Nguyen Trai, which denounced the Ming invaders, who used our people for forced labour to dive in the sea searching for pearls, to pay tribute to the Ming Emperors.

During the Nguyen Dynasty and over the seventy years of French domination, the villagers living by the sea and along large rivers, were often forced to dive to find pearls to enrich the invaders. Along the sea from the south to the north, Rach Estuary was an area of deep water, suitable salinity, and home to lots of oysters. Pearl diving in this area was very famous.

Once, the governor of Thanh Binh province gave an order to Khanh Huu village to collect 108 black pearls, all of the same shapes, for the mandarin to offer as a gift to the Queen of Tay Phuong on the occasion of her fiftieth birthday. It was a unique occasion for the Emperor and the Queen to travel to Tien beach right in their native land.

The Queen prayed and invoked Buddha with a precious pearl rosary, which was a blessing for the people and for the country. Without the money to bribe Mandarins and collect positions, but using precious pearls, the Governor gained merits: Being on the throne of the five level, then would jump up to the throne of the three level.

Many people were lured into the quest. Huong Can ordered the divers in the village to beat the drums, to shout while sailing past the Rach Gate to dive into the sea to find pearls. Despite the cold water biting the skin, four excellent divers under the command of Old Van threw in rock baskets and jumped into the deep sea.

The tide was high, a whirlwind came, the rock basket was not strong enough an anchor, while the lifebuoy was damaged, and the big waves dragged the divers to different places. Old Van was swept away, floating on the sea. The villagers came out in boats to search for survivors, and three days later they found the old man on the sand dunes hundreds of miles offshore.

His body was bleached white, he was hungry and cold, barely conscious, his hands still clung to a wooden block. People were overjoyed. They lit a fire to cook hot porridge for the old man. He shook his head, signaling to let him go out. His children and grandchildren helped him to defecate in a very large yard full of water.

To their surprise, they found eight beautiful black pearls among his poo. It turned out that in the past few days, not knowing whether he would live or die, he decided to sacrificed himself, swallowing live oysters to safeguard his treasure, and so his eight jewels were kept safely in his belly. Everyone knew that raw oysters were very crispy and delicious, but it was cold and dangerous doing so when out diving in the deep sea.

He did not gather 108 pearls needed for the Governor to offer to the Queen. He held his head in shame, giving up scuba diving and pearl hunting. When the Governor heard this, he angrily took eight pearls and shouted at Huong Can: You are useless, damned, you ruined my work. I am ordering your family's five acres of private estate to be confiscated!

  From that day on, Huong Can considered Old Van his eternal enemy. He finally had his day when he could take revenge on him. I lost my land, now you have to lose your rice field. You must shed blood:

- Well, dare you challenge, let us see, who will step over your body?

A shot rang out. The guard exclaimed:

- Dear High Mandarin, the Japanese army has shot and killed Old Van!

- He deserved to die.

Huong Can stroked his mustache and smiled...

All was silent, and then the clattering, crunching, footsteps gradually entered Mr. Trang’s house. Mrs. Seo's mother and daughter hid outside in a pile of hay, all the time they shivered, their four ears gurgled with echoes of Huong Can's shout: The Japanese officers asked where your son is? Where's Mr. Trang? There was no answer, and he shouted again: Where is the rice, where are the payments of corns?

The Japanese officers murmured for a moment. Huong Can said: Dear High Officers, the father and son of this family have to pay twenty matches. Another round of Japanese voice. Huong Can: Yes! It's enough for the large horses to eat for a few days. Suddenly, a coconut flew in, broke and splashed waste water on the faces of the Japanese officers and Huong Can, the putrid smell of rot.

The Japanese officers realized that the woman lying in one corner of the house was the culprit. One of them withdrew his long sword and stabbed her in the stomach and face until she died. Huong Can and the guard, their faces full of shit, were too scared to watch, and so they  ran. The Japanese officers, now fuming mad, turned around and fired two shots at the two henchmen who fell among the banana trees where they died, their blood gushing out...

Mr. Trang’s mother, sick and lying in one corner of the house, excreted a pile of shit and urine, and, drawing her last breath, hurled a coconut shell in the direction of the fallen henchmen. She died in pain at the sword of the enemy, but her heart was relieved after she poured out all the anger that had been pressing on the villagers for many years.

The great-grandfather was born in the distant Ha Tinh sea five generations ago. Bussinessman Nguyen Cong Tru followed the King's order to come here to reclaim the sea, and  he returned to his hometown to recruit and bring Ha Tinh people along. Thousands of Ha Tinh people therefore took this land as their second homeland. Every year on the ancestor’s anniversary, they still returned to the place of their homeland to burn incense.

Having been a long time away from her hometown, she was born and raised in the Thanh Binh land, but kept the resilience and abundant love of the Nghe area. She memorized many traditional folk songs. People considered her to be the leader of Khanh Huu singing ward. A couple of times a year, they came back to sing contests with the singing wards in their hometown and she won them all. She sang:

Rocks have moss because water stands still

The silver mountain appears in the dew

When leaving to tell the country and to teach the young,

Say that a square and round letter is the husband and wife

In the alternoons and evenings, the women waited on the sandy beach for their husbands and sons to return. To comfort herself, she taught everyone to sing traditional folk songs. She learnt by heart the origin of these songs. There were many ways of singing for the planting ward, the hat ward, the harvesting ward, the firewood ward and so on, but the fabric ward stood out from the rest.

Like other types of folk songs, fabric ward was a self-composed and self-performed art form of the Nghe Tinh people with a strong lyrical nature. Traditional singing of Hat Dam was a form of narrative and rhyming story-telling, for argumentation, philosophy, scene description, love, criticism etc.

"Even though the sea is dry, the rocks are worn out.

Faithful hearts.

Never fade.

Never betray..."

She also memorized many folk proverbs about the folk traditions of the sea:

"The water rises to the fish to eat.

His heart wants to marry the girl rowing the third cadence.

The first cadence is still young and not old.

The second is unmarried, and the third is unmarried.

Girl, please take the driver with you.

With a girl as the support like a dragon with clouds."

Or songs that reminded the offspring to watch the weather, to avoid rain and storms. Every time she sang, her voice floated far carried by the waves to the far horizon. The boatmen, wherever they were, would hear her singing and quickly return.

Villagers often called her as one who had the ability to call on the sun and drive away the rain. She only needed to look at the sky to know whether a storm was approaching or not. She looked up at the vast sky to predict what the weather would be like: If the clouds gathered in large, thin, fibrous masses, they would spread quickly in the sky. When the thickness gradually increased and the sky seemed low, or white clouds extruded like cotton mountains, a thunderstorm was imminent.

In the last few days, lots of jellyfish had washed ashore, and a big storm was expected; she had advised her husband not to go to sea. Huong Can had forced her husband and two brothers-in-law to go out to sea, as they owed money to rent boats and nets. With her eyes towards the sky, her feet on the ground, she sang all night but still did not see her husband's boat return.

Three days later, she fainted on the sand. The waves had swallowed up the boat of her husband and two brothers, all sinking into the ocean. Their bodies were not found... That year she was young, and stayed alone to raise her son. From early in the mornings until late into the night, she planted sage and jute, and followed her father's mat weaving profession.

In the afternoons, she carried her child to the beach where they waited, and hummed traditional folk songs, full of sadness and nostalgia. Trang was her only son who grew up in her arms...

With Trang's mother passing, the villagers had lost the only person who could call on the sun and chase the rain. Every time they went out to sea, who could they ask and seek advice from?

2

T

he young men in the village waddled about in the mud. Upon hearing the sound of gunfire, all lay down and crawled between the Aegiceras Corniculatum bushes. From childhood, it was a quiet countryside, but now, they heard the sound of gunfire. Who did the Japanese invaders kill, whose blood is spilled on this land?

Screams and curses drowned out the roaring waves of the sea. In the bird garden, someone cried. God help me, I'm going to die... Mr. Trang realized it it was Uncle Phieu, struggling in the bird hunting tent. The Japanese soldiers in the village saw the shadow of a man the bird garden and opened fire. A bullet pierced his chest, making him bleed profusely. Trang held him up, but it was too late. He let out a loud sigh, a whimper, and then he stopped breathing...

The villagers knew Uncle Phieu as a gentle and kind person. Every year, it was no wonder that he was chosen to be a celebrant at the village festival. He had two strong lads, Ta and Huu, who had a bucket each to  fish for squid using lamps at night.

Uncle Phieu had picked a girl for Ta, a Ms. Buoi who was the most beautiful and respectful lady in the village. She often played the role of the red-shirted statue, while Ta played the role of the blue-shirted in the human chess festival. The Japanese one day detained Buoi and brought her to the barracks. Ta and Huu heard about it and stole into the Japanese camp to rescue her.

The Japanese camp was located on the beach. It was surrounded by sandbags, while the soldiers stayed in canvas huts. A guard armed with a gun and a sword was on duty, and he would shoot anyone who dared approach. They did not know in which canvas huts they kept Buoi.

After several nights being unable to break into the camp, Ta, Huu and Trang hatched a plot to rescue Buoi. It was sunny, and the sea breeze that afternoon blew hard. The Japanese soldiers gathered together, and only one guard remained. This was the right moment for them to fly kites close to the camp as part of their plot.

The kite flew high and Ta let go of the kite string so the kite would fall freely into the barracks. How could they enter the camp without alerting the guard?

Now, this guard had met with children while taking a bath, and also when picking seashells on the beach. He realized that, in Japan, the sea was big, there was fish, but the types of shellfish there, with hard shells, were not as beautiful as those found here. He was studying Oceanography when he was enlisted. He would return to resume his studies after three years. Going to An Nam, his favorite activity was to pick up colorful pearl shells. The pearls were taken from oysters, while the shells were also very precious.

At the bottom of the sea, there were rows of red coral forests, diverse in shape and beautiful as if they were skillfully sculpted. In particular, he picked up a giant shark skeleton, with heavy ribs. His huge collection was in a pile in the corner of the camp. The commander had stopped him from keeping a large collection, but had later found the practice harmless, and it served as useful entertainment for the soldier, keeping him from getting homesick, so he had relented.

Does anyone ever ask, when faced with repatriating troops home, how one goes about taking one's possessions back? The guard happily told himself that he wanted them buried.

- When the war is over, I will return and retrieve my things. They are priceless scientific assets, not guns, so why throw them away. Only a fool would do that.

Knowing the guard's fascination with seashells, Trang brought a beautiful yellow, red-veined snail shell, as big as a crab case, to get close to him. Trang signaled the guard to pick up the kite, which he did as.

The three brothers, Trang, Ta, and Huu, entered the camp and split up to go look for Buoi. At the command tent in the center of the camp, Trang was startled to hear a whisper: Trang.... Trang cut the tent to get inside the tent, whereupon he hugged Buoi. Buoi cried.

Trang covered her mouth with his hand: Be quiet or the guard will hear us. Come, follow me. Despite his best efforts, Buoi still couldn't get up. Since the day she was arrested, Buoi had been like a corpse without a soul. The most beautiful girl in the village, now withered, unable to speak. At night, she had been the source of pleasure for the barbaric Japanese officers, while in the daytime, she was tied up in the corner of the tent. Ta and Huu ran in to meet Trang, and one of them carried Buoi on his shoulder. Ta jumped over the sandbags and rushed out of the camp, while Huu ran behind acting as vanguard.

Trang casually walked while he gripped his flute, swinging his kite to the main gate. The guard was still engrossed with the pile of seashells and fish bones, oblivious to anything else. Trang patted him on the shoulder, and gestured his gratitude. The soldier bowed his head in greeting, gestured that the next time Trang had a snail shell, he would ask for very beautiful, and very precious shells. Trang walked of quickly, and ran in the direction of the village.

The three brothers were thus with Buoi when panic broke and a gunshot was fired from the barracks. Then came the sound of rustling, the sound of footsteps. The Japanese were looking for them. Trang jumped into a pond, covered with duckweed, and started swimming. But the others could not escape.

Troops rushed into the barracks to search for intruders. Not seeing the captive, the Commander gave orders to look for Buoi. They found the guard still engrossed with his enchanting shells. Furious, an officer shot his head. The guard fell dead on top of a pile of fish bones, shells... Who know, after the war ended, his descendants could bring home a pile of scientific assets. Could that be distinguished from human bones and fish bones?

The next morning, a Japanese officer caused Ta, Huu and Buoi to be dragged by three horses on the beach, amidst screams from the villagers. Blood and sand became mixed together. The waves rose and swept them away. The beach was soaked with blood. The sun rose and lit up the sky, casting a red pall over  the sea.

Thus, Uncle Phieu's entire family was wiped out. A few months before, his wife had died from poisoning after eating liver from the puffer fish. Uncle Phieu became mad from grief, and wandered about like a zombie. He entered the communal house and removed a set of ceremonial clothes, carefully kept for festivals, and wore it. Sometimes he was seen without pants, or without a shirt, and his head was covered with a majestic-looking hat.

He would sit on a chair in the middle of the communal gate to distribute gifts to passers-by. People folded their hands and bowed. He called his gifts a holy fortune, and it could be a star fruit, guava, or fig. If he didn't bring fruits, pebbles or shells picked up on the beach would do. Trang’s family were full of pity for him and cooked him rice every day, sometimes feeding him in the middle of the road.

Uncle Phieu said: I have to sit here waiting for the three of them to come back home, people who die on the street, die in the market, don't know where to go... It was miserable just looking upon this tearful figure.

Once dressed this way, he carried a magic sword, and walked brazenly into the Japanese barracks, his face red, majestic, and fierce. He addressed the commander:

"Listen, I am the Village God, the King given to govern this land.

Why to fly here do you fly from faraway to rob this land, seize property, rape women and harass children and good people, and cause deadly disasters? Blood has been spilt on this earth. You must atone for your sins, the heaven does not forgive, the earth does not forgive. For the rest of your life, your children and grandchildren will have to be horses to bear these sins...

Upon hearing the curse, the commander and all the soldiers trembled, did not dare make a sound, and lined up to bow their heads. The City Emperor drew his sword and knocked each head with it, and laughed loudly, echoed in the rhythm of the ocean waves to the far sea. Perhaps in Japan, they also worshipped  Heaven and Earth, the King, and the City Emperor, so they were very respectful towards Uncle Phieu.

Three days later the barracks moved on, not daring to return. Piles of bones and shells were buried in line with the guard's wishes. The villagers admired Uncle Phieu, while some said he was crazy, and others claimed that City Emperor had entered him. Well, let it be, as long as the villagers are peaceful. But the Japanese fascists still did not forgive, some of them went, others came...

Huong Can brought back Japanese officials to extract tax payments from the villagers, leading to disaster and more bloodshed. Uncle Phieu was not wearing the City Emperor dress, so he was hit by a bullet. His voice boomed loudly, and in a low voice, said: I was so evil, I sewed eyes, plucked feathers, grilled meat, killed many flocks of birds...The karma was too big, Adidaphat! bowing to the nine heavens, bowing to the ten Buddhas, I repent, I wish to hell to pay my sins. Buddha ...

Trang hugged him and sobbed: Uncle, why are you suffering like this! What can I do for you now, uncle? Since the day after the incident whereby the City Emperor stood up to the Japanese soldiers, he had not moved from that here. He burned all fasting tools, freed dozens of birds, repenting, chanting Buddhist hymns...

Inside the village, could be heard the sound of hooves made by horses and commotion caused by mass arrests. Every gunshot was accompanied by a cry to heaven. As the Japanese were in the area, there was no other way for Trang but to cover himself with a few branches of Aegiceras corniculatum leaves, lie low and immerse himself in a pool of water, each time the waves surging, bringing sand and garbage over his body, gradually sticking his nostrils out to breathe. Fear, hunger and cold caused Trang to faint, to dream of a place far away from there...

  One day, the sun burned and shone its fullest, then sunset came, light yellow rays shone, gradually turning orange-red, and white clouds drifted by. The sea shimmered pink.

Peace returned, and the long stretches of orange-colored sand reflecting the mischievous waves chasing each other from the horizon. Sunset, a wonderful gift from heaven and earth. High up, the birds quickly flew back, after a tiring day looking for food hundreds of miles away. The bird garden along the coast contained white wings of birds on branches of the Aegiceras corniculatum, darting about and singing.

Under the forest of Aegiceras corniculatum, a boy named Trang appeared with a cage of birds of prey and followed Uncle Phieu to set a trap. If you lose a father, adopt an uncle; if you lose a mother, then suck milk from an aunt. Since the day his father died, Uncle Phieu learnt all manner of things. People loved birds, birds loved people, and he become the king of the birds on an island.

Seeing that Trang was very interested in hunting birds, he said: "Depending on each type of bird, the method of trapping is also different. Storks, birds... trapped with plastic-spreading sticks; pheasants trapped with nets; swallows trapped with traps. After setting the traps, the hunters hid in makeshift huts, camouflaged by tree branches about a hundred meters away.

When hunting storks, eyes must be very sharp to discover a flock of storks, when it was just a small dot in the sky. Wait a while for them to fly close, pull firmly on the line tied at the prey's ankle, so that the stork can sing. Mistakenly thinking that fellows are signaling that there are a lot of food here, or a place of good land for birds, other storks fly in, eventually swooping down completely.

Sometimes hundreds of birds swoop down, so the net is pulled down, and the storks are trapped with no way out... Two children, Ta and Huu, did not like the hunting birds, waiting impatiently. Trang, on the other hand, took care of the birds of prey very well. Uncle Phieu laughed loudly in the forest and said: To trap birds, the bait is very important.

Once accidentally, Trang let the stork fly away. The uncle quietly went to catch another stork and sewed its eyes. Before Trang could ask the uncle, he explained: The reason why the stork's eyes are hooked, or the eyes were sewn with a needle, and turned into blind storks, is because the sound of blind storks will be louder than normal storks, in order to attract other storks to approach and get trapped.

The stork grew larger like a giant, then got up and lamented: Give me back my eye, why sew my eyes and blind me?. Followed by thousands of storks, cauldron… of the sky who died unjustly, cried out in unison to the whole sky. Uncle Phieu panicked and ducked into the bushes, but the birds that did not forgive his sins went after him to try to tear him apart. Trang begged for mercy but they still did not hesitate to peck at his flesh...

It was so painful that Trang screamed, splashed himself with water, and emerged from the sand. The sun slowly went down and disappeared completely. The sea no longer wore a red and pink coat, but instead became a magical black with sparkling stars of the sky. The sunset has really disappeared, the sky was as dark as ink, there was heard a distant call. Xoa, his nephew pulled him up:

- Run, the Japanese troop have set up camp on the beach at the start of the village.

The body was full of sand, his mouth was also crunched, and Trang's throat was blocked. Xoa said with tears in his eyes:

- they shot grandmother dead.

- Where's your aunt? Trang asked.

- I don't know, the whole village is in chaos. My mother also ran away.

- Damn them, let me die with them!

Xoa tried to stop him:

- No, it can't be, if you go back, they will shoot you.

-We must go.

- My mother, my wife, my children, my whole family... Trang shouted:

- Everyone has gone to the other side of the Cai River.

- I'm back... ...

Trang got up and staggered a few steps, a volley of bullets whizzed past his ears, he let out a loud yelp and tumbled into the mud. Xoa hugged him, his hands were bloody, he quickly carried him on his back and ran all the way to the river bank. The bullets continued to fly past him, the birds scattered, many birds were hit and they fell. Trang shouted loudly behind Xoa:

- Are we leaving Uncle Phieu behind? Let me down...

- Leave him alone, wait for the Japanese troops to go away from here first.

The sound of gunfire and the sound of black crows swooping down sounded horrible. On returning, no one knew if Uncle Phieu's body was still there. .

The Cai River wharf was packed with people...

3

A

shout rang out, Mom, run! What about the bag of corn?...Then she got up and pulled her mother with her. That's it, there's nothing left to eat. The mother and daughter quickly jumped into the pond and disappeared. Screams and gunfire filled the air. It took a long time for mother and daughter to emerge, and someone pulled her mother to lean against a fig tree by the pond. In this hidden corner no one could see anything, but Mrs. Seo still groaned. Man covered her head with branches and leaves and whispered:

- Be quiet, otherwise they can hear you.

- I have a stomachache. Mrs. Seo was wet and shivered

- Try harder, mom.

After saying that, the man was about to burst into tears but he tried to hold back the tears, hearing her mother's cry hurt even more, muttering to herself: Grandmother is dead, where is dad now, brother Coi, come and save mom please... The sound of footsteps rattled overhead, the Japanese troop said something, and she hugged her mother tightly. The mother's belly swelled up, the baby inside struggled, Man covered her mother's mouth with her hand to keep the screams from coming out.

- Let me lie down for a bit, daughter.

Mrs. Seo said with a sigh of relief.

- It's the enemy, mother!

- I am about to give birth.

- What can I do now?

- Oh my god, I'm going to die.

The mother couldn't help but moan loudly.

For a long time, it was quiet, and the Japanese army fled.

- Come on, mom, hold on to this branch and climb up to the shore, hold onto my hand with the other hand, come on.

Man tried her best to pull her mother up, then laid her under a banana tree by the pond. Scratches meet water, bulge and bleed with pain and tenderness. Mrs. Seo tried to say:

- Go to find a maternity delivery here for me... oh my god... it hurts so bad!