BORDER REGION SOCIETY
交通通讯是如此落后：政府的骡车走二十英里的路程要从日出走到日落，隔同样远的距离打电话常常要用一个星期；电报恐怕还打不了；往几百英里外的地方寄一封信要四十天才能收到。
不过，在我访问期间，解放区的内陆交通通讯情况，比过去九年已有长足的进步。邮局已于不久前建立了起来，从边区一头到另一头架设了一条军用电话线，公营的运输公司配备了卡车，在崎岖的山路上和平原的土路上行驶。
These were so primitive that a journey of twenty miles by government mule cart took from sunrise to sunset, a telephone call of the same distance often required a week, a telegram might never be delivered and a letter posted to a destination a few hundred miles away might take forty days.
And yet, during my stay, communications within the Communists' inland empire were better than they had been at any time for the last nine years. A post office had just been established, a military telephone line reached from one end of the border region to the other, and a government-owned transportation company, equipped with motorized trucks, functioned along rocky mountain roads and dirt highways on the plains.
边区中很少有人旅行，一则因为中国人不爱好旅行，二则因为旅行起来太慢，太困难，又没有趣味，也没有什么地方可去。也是因为在战争期间，最好的交通工具都供军队和政府使用了。还应指出，没有人为了娱乐而旅行，人们只是在需要时才旅行。这样，在公路上运输的，大部是军需品和一些商品。
运输商品是一件比较容易的事，因为边区的贸易不很发达，没有大量的货物要运输。往往是一个人骑自行车驮一些糖从一个镇到另一个镇去卖掉，再买盐回去就可以赚钱。牛车在城镇之间短途贩运蔬菜、木炭和粮食。火柴很缺，可赚厚利，因为轻也容易运输，从一镇运一大车火柴到另一镇，就能卖大价钱。粮食运输则是另外一回事。只要部队集中起来准备作战或救济山区粮荒，就需要大批的粮食。大宗粮食的运输，多由政府经办。
运粮工作由雇佣工、半雇佣工和义务工承担。政府、学校所需要的粮食由它们自己出人运输，而军队和救灾所需要的粮食则组织民夫运输。
民夫队可以称为边区的货运列车，这是政府运输大宗粮食的唯一办法。一九四一年，政府靠民夫队秘密地把一万五千蒲式耳粮食从冀鲁平原越过平汉铁路和日军防线，运到遭灾的豫鲁山区。运粮的车辆有一些受到敌人袭击，但大多数部到达了目的地。
There was very little travel in the Border Region partly because the Chinese are not great travelers, partly because travel was slow, difficult and pointless, there being no place to go, and because the best means of transport were monopolized in the war by the army and government. I would say, offhand, that no one traveled for pleasure, but only from necessity. Traffic on the roads, therefore, consisted mostly of the transport of army supplies and some mercantile goods.
The transport of mercantile goods was a comparatively easy process, for trade in the Border Region was not highly developed and there was no great bulk of material to be put on the roads. Often a single bicyclist could carry a load of sugar from one town to another, sell it, buy salt and return to his starting place with a profit. Oxcaits made short hauls of vegetables, charcoal and grain between towns. Matches which were scarce and a highly profitable source of income were easy to transport because of their lightness and a cartload of matches sent from one town to another fetched a fancy price.
The transportation of grain, however, was another matter. Large amounts were needed whenever troops were concentrated for battle or to relieve grain shortages in the mountains. The movement of grain in bulk was handled mostly by the government.
Transport was by hired labor, half-paid labor or free labor. Grain needed for the government and for the schools was taken care of by their own transportation teams, but grain for the army and bulk civilian relief had to be moved by organized convoys.
These convoys could be called the freight trains of the Border Region. They were the only system the government had found to move grain in bulk. In 1941, by means of secret convoys, the government transported fifty thousand bushels of grain from the plains of Shantung and Hopei across the Peiping-Hankow Railway and the Japanese lines to famine-stricken areas in the mountains of Honan and Shansi. Some of the grain carts were attacked, but the great majority of them got through.
每支民夫队都有一位队长和一位政治工作者，或者说“群众”工作者。政治工作者一般由本村人担任，其职责有点像基督教青年会的干事。在路上，他讲故事，唱歌，传达当日新闻或他们所要去的地区的军情。
晋冀鲁豫边区三千万人口中，只有一百五十辆小汽车和卡车，因此汽车运输实际上是不存在的。为了帮助合作社把粮食和手工业产品运到市场上去，政府于一九四七年组织了一家拥有五十辆卡车和三百辆骡车的公共运输公司。货运费很贵，不过客运价在当时的环境下看来还是合理的，二十英里的路程收费约八十美分。
多数卡车烧木炭或酒精。情况不得已时，用烈性中国烧酒也可以使这些老式汽车行驶较短的眨离。汽油由地下工作者在天津的公开市场上买来后秘密运进，但是运输和旅行主要还靠大车和牲畜。
Before 1943, during the hardest years of the famine, animals and labor were requisitioned by the government without pay. But by 1944, the government had enough grain reserves to feed the requisitioned animals, while half of the existing price for public transportation was paid farmers for convoy duty. On the average, a farmer contributed about ten to fifteen days out of a year to government transport.
Because everyone in the Border Region had to study, educational work
was carried on in the convoys. For example, a Chinese character was hung
on the back of a mule man so the man behind him might read it. This character
was changed every day. Thus a farmer studied while he worked.
Every convoy had a captain and a political or "mass" worker.
This last individual generally came from the same village as the farmers
and his duty was more or less like that of a YMCA worker. On the road,
he told stories, sang songs and related the news of the day or the military
situation in the region into which they were going.
With only 150 cars and trucks among thirty million people, motor transport
was practically nonexistent in the Four-Province Border Region. To help
co-operatives transport their grain and handicraft products to market,
the government in 1947 organized a public transport company with fifty
of these trucks and three hundred mule carts. Freight rates were excessive,
but passenger fares seemed reasonable under the circumstances, a trip
of twenty miles costing about eighty cents in American money.
Most trucks burned charcoal or used alcohol. In case of emergency, strong
native Chinese wine might pull these latter-type cars for short distances.
Gasoline was smuggled in from Tientsin where it was bought on the open
market by underground agents. Transport and travel, however, were predominantly
by cart and animal.
这只解决了递送公文的问题，老百姓寄信还是没有办法。过去，信件上贴一根鸡毛表示重要，如果贴两根鸡毛就表示事情极为重大，通讯员必须以最快的速度把信送到。用鸡毛既不方便也不经济，于是通讯大队决定印制邮票，这样老百姓也可以寄信了。通讯大队渐渐成了邮政局。
到了一九四七年，邮局的业务很是兴旺，拥有一些自行车、一批邮递员和三百六十个邮站，邮路营业里程达两万英里。邮递员不穿制服，只是普通农民的装束。有些邮递员佩戴印有“邮政局”字样的臂章。
邮递员只来往于城镇间的邮站，并不送信上门，连街道都不去。邮站之间一般相隔二十英里至二十五英里，途中有一些歇脚点。骑车的邮递员一天可以打一个来回，在邮程的终点过夜。
多数邮件由骡子或驴子驮运，没有美国的小马快邮那么快的速度。不过我发现有三个出色的邮递员，两条腿一天能走五十英里。他们有伙食补助，在辛苦的旅程后可以得到充分休息。
在城镇里，我看到供人投信的邮箱，邮递员路过时就把信取走。而在农村里，农民须把信交到当地的交通站，隔三、四天，这些信就和公文一道被送到城里，放在过路的邮递员可以取走的地方。
This, however, only solved the problem of official letters, and civilians were left without any means of written communication. In the past, it had been customary to paste a chicken feather on a letter that was important. Two feathers meant the message was a matter of life and death and the messenger was duty bound to run as fast as he could. Chicken feathers being bulky and uneconomical, the Communications Corps decided to print Communications stamps so that civilians might also mail letters. Gradually, this became the Post Office Bureau.
By 1947, the Post Office was a going concern, with a small fleet of bicycles, a crew of postal carriers and 336 stations, operating twenty thousand miles of postal lines. Postal carriers wore no uniform, but only ordinary peasant garb. Some had arm bands with the words Post Office Bureau sewn on them.
These carriers operated only between towns to established stations. There was no delivery to homes or even to streets. Stations were generally twenty to twenty-five miles apart, with intermediary stop-off points along the way. Messengers on bicycle made a round trip in one day. Those on foot or mule made a round trip every two days, stopping off overnight at each end of the journey.
Most mail was carried by mule or donkey. There was no breakneck speed as with our pony expresses. However, I found three special messengers who could do fifty miles a day on foot. They were given special food and carefully rested between grueling hikes.
In the cities and towns I found postboxes where one might post a letter. A messenger going through would pick it up. In the villages, however, farmers had to leave their letters at the local information post. Every three or four days, these along with official documents would be taken into the towns and left where a passing postman might pick them up.
信件不是寄往国民党区但必须经过国民党防线时，就用特殊的但不是秘密的系统来传递。设置邮站（例如在铁路两边）间隔不超过十英里到十五英里，以便邮递员在一个夜晚就能走到。只有路熟的邮递员才被派做这个差事。如果要过防线的信很重要，就写在油纸上，把纸折成小团合在嘴里或藏在肛门里。
许多邮递员是在土改运动中获得土地、房屋和农具的农民。他们忠于职守，把自己的工作看作是打倒蒋介石这一事业的一部分。他们在执行任务时所表现出来的热忱，有时十分令人惊叹。他们不仅在跑日常的邮路时不避风、雨、雪、雹（美国邮局也为此而夸奖自己的邮递员），而且爬山涉水，冒着敌人横飞的子弹坚决完成投递邮件的任务。晋冀鲁豫边区有一位著名的邮递员，在渡过正在涨水的险恶的黄河之后，为了绕过蒋介石的防线，推着自行车、驮着邮袋，翻过了山东境内的四座山峰。
有些机灵的邮递员在经过敌占区时，还散发传单，书写关于共产党胜利的消息，对蒋军进行神经战。
我发现，解放区的邮政业务比较慢，但是比较保险，对于普通百姓来说，是比电话更好的通讯方式。抗战前，山西的电话都是军用的，河北的电话则是民用的和商业性的。日军入侵后，所有的电话业务部停了，后来也只恢复了一些短途电话。开始只有军队可以用电话，后来政府也能用了。我访问的时候，老百姓打电话还是很不容易。
During the so-called truce of 1946, the Border Region had an agreement
with the Kuomintang Post Office authorities whereby each would honor the
other's stamps. Later, letters were sent over the lines without stamps
and the Kuomintang would stamp them on their side and the Border Region
on their side. All that had finished by the time of my arrival.
When a letter was not going into Kuomintang areas, but still had to
cross Kuomintang lines, a special, but not secret, system was used. Post
Office stations were set up - say on either side of a railway - never
more than ten or fifteen miles apart so that a messenger might cross in
one night. Only messengers familiar with the routes would be employed
on such service. If an important message had to cross the lines, it was
written on oil paper and folded into a small pellet that could be carried
in the mouth or concealed in the rectum.
Many postmen were peasants who had obtained land, houses and agricultural
implements through the land reform and they were quite serious in their
duties regarding their jobs as part of the task of striking down Chiang
Kai-shek. The zeal which these men showed in the performance of their
duties was sometimes amazing. Not only would wind, sleet, hail nor snow
fail to keep them from their appointed daily rounds, as the United States
Post Office boasts of its carriers, but also rivers, mountains and enemy
bullets could not stop them from delivering the mail. One famous postman
in the Four-Province Border Region, after crossing the treacherous Yellow
River torrent when it was in flood, had to haul his bicycle and mail sacks
over four mountain peaks in Shantung in order to by-pass Chiang Kai-shek's
lines.
When passing through enemy territory, some of the more ingenious postmen
conducted a war of nerves against Chiang's troops, distributing hand bills
and writing news of Communist army victories.
Mail in the Liberated Areas, I found, was slow but sure and a far better
means of communication than the telephone for the average civilian. Before
the Japanese war, the telephone system in Shansi had been military while
that in Hopei Province was civilian and mercantile. After the invasion,
all telephone service stopped. When it was re-established, it was only
over short distances. First, only the military could use the phones, then
the government was given lines. Civilians still had a hard time making
phone calls when I was there.
因为所有的电话及其设备那是从日本人或国民党手中缴获的，有新有旧，电线也是有粗有细，所以电话系统的工作情况不太好。所有的电话通讯只靠一根单线，电话线就拴在矮小而不结实的木杆上，这些木杆是用华北各色各样的树木制成的。电话线时而贴在地面上，时而离地不过四尺，逶迤地穿过四省，总长有七千英里。
Because all telephones and equipment were captured from the Japanese or the Kuomintang, because some of the phone sets captured were new, some old, and because some wires were thick and some thin, the telephone system did not work very well. All telephone traffie was carried on a single line strung on short, fragile poles made from every kind of tree in North China. This line, sometimes lying on the ground, sometimes only four feet off it, swaying and dipping through four provinces, was in aggregate seven thousand miles long.
但是这根单股电线却代表着无数的血和泪，是经过与日本人的残酷斗争才收集到的。农民砍倒了不少电线杆，割走了很多电线，这迫使日本人在电线杆周围筑起石壁，使用不易割断的特种线。但是农民照旧砍电杆、割电线，以便建立自己的电话系统，这种电话系统必须是隐蔽的，在平原上尤其如此。边区开办学校培养自己的电话、电报和无线电技师，但是教员没有教材，仪器设备也缺乏， 因此毕业生不是合格的技师。
这些毕业生碰到不曾学过的电话机就束手无策了。有时他们要费上五六个钟头修理根本没有毛病的电话机。在日本投降后，八路军刚进入城市的时候，头一回见到电灯的工人竟把电话线接到灯线的插口，结果把电池式电话机烧坏了。
八路军初次与电打交道的情形，有点儿像唐吉诃德与风车打仗的故事。
八路军占领峰峰煤矿的时候，有些被认为学问较多的技师告诫属下的工人要当心与发电厂联结的高压线。
“别用手接触高压线，只能用脚碰。”师傅这样告诫自己的徒弟。
于是工人们背着手，用脚去跺高压线。直到高压电把两三个青年“科学家”猛弹出二、三十尺远之后，大家才决定应请教更高明的人。
只有迂腐的人才会拿这些笑话来证明共产党为提高边区人民文化水平的努力遭到了失败。令人惊异的并非是这里的人民如此落后，而是如此落后的人民在抗击拥有几乎全部中国科技人员的国民党的斗争中，竟然取得了如此巨大的成就。共产党掌握政权后，无疑会像国民党一样任用这些科技人员。但是，在目前，共产党是如何改变华北解放区人民文化落后的状态呢？
But this single strand of wire represented endless blood and tears for it was collected only through a fierce telephone struggle with the Japanese. Peasants cut down so many telephone poles and stole so much wire that the Japanese used to build stone boxes around the poles and use especially heavy wire that could not be cut. Yet the peasants continued to knock down the poles and steal the wire so that they could build their own telephone system which, especially on the plains, they had to do underground.
The Border Region ran its own schools for telephone, telegraph and radio technicians, but the instructors had no manuals and little apparatus on which to train students, who, therefore, on graduation were not finished technicians. Such student graduates meeting a telephone different from the one on which they had learned often felt lost. Sometimes they spent five and six hours repairing phones with which there was nothing wrong.
When the 8th Route Army began to enter cities after the Japanese surrender,
mechanics seeing electric lights for the first time promptly attached
telephone wires to light sockets and, of course, blew out the battery
telephone sets.
Some of the 8th Route Army's first contacts with electricity bear the
stamp Don Quixote's tilt with a windmill.
When the army captured the Fengfeng coal mines in Shansi Province, some
of the supposedly more educated technicians warned their mechanics about
the high-voltage lines connected with the power plant.
"Don't touch the lines with your hands, but only with your feet,"
the master electricians advised their apprentices.
So the mechanics advanced on the wires with their hands held well back
and jumped at them with their feet. After two or three young scientists
were thrown thirty feet away by the power lines, the rest decided to wait,
for more expert advice.
Only a pedant would take these stories as examples of the failure of
the Communists to raise the cultural level of the people in their areas.
The wonder was, not that the people were so backward, but that these backward
people had been able to achieve so much against the Kuomintang which had
a monopoly on almost all the Western-educated technicians in the country.
Undoubtedly, if the Communists gained power, they would employ these technicians
just as the Kuomintang had done. But in the meantime what were the Communists
trying to do about the undoubted ignorance of the people in this part
of North China?