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墨書 Inktalez
As boys, besides going to school and doing labor, having fun is our nature, and the most fun we have is bushwhacking. The era we live in is a time when soldiers are especially popular, and children have an almost infinite admiration for soldiers. Most of the movies and comics we see are about war, and organizing battles naturally becomes our required extracurricular activity after school and work.
Of course, we have not received formal military education. Although we occasionally see militia training, children are not included in the training, so we have no way of knowing how adults fight or how they allocate forces to defend positions.
In a sense, we children are all learning about war in junior high school. When we are three years old and can run, we charge alongside five or six-year-old children. By the time we are five or six, we can organize "childish" wars and transport weapons and ammunition with eight or nine-year-old children. Once we reach ten years old, we have established teams, generally organized by production teams or platoons, and children's ranks must be earned through years of "battles." In the harsh battlefield, no matter how powerful your ancestors were, or if your family was a "target of repression" at the time, as long as you have the ability, you can survive and gradually advance to a position on the battlefield.
Growing up in this primitive "war," although I was relatively small in stature, my talent for learning and thinking was fully realized, and I quickly became the highest military commander of a squad, a team, and even a platoon for my age group.
When I was in the second grade of elementary school, a child accidentally fractured a bone during a battle. This alarmed the parents, who severely criticized and prohibited such behavior, and we all received punishment. The school also took notice and divided the students into several "teams" or "squads" based on their routes home and classes. Each team was assigned a captain, who was responsible for managing everyone and ensuring that we did not engage in any bushwhacking on the way home or on the hillside. I was appointed as the "team leader" by the teacher, overseeing seven or eight squads of dozens of children.
What the teachers and parents did not anticipate was that children have their own world and nature. In doing so, they inadvertently provided us with opportunities to organize more platoon-style battles. After that, our group grew larger and larger, and fortunately, there were no more major accidents or incidents that caught the attention of teachers and parents. Eventually, after a period of excitement, our activities naturally came to an end.
There are several types of gameplay training related to bushwhacking:
1. Plane Collision: One child with a tall and strong build acts as the plane, while a small and agile child lies on the plane's back, acting as the versatile pilot (both driver and bomber). They start by shooting at each other, then the pilot's body engages in collision. If there is still no clear winner, it escalates to a fierce plane collision, with two or even more planes from different teams accelerating and crashing into each other until one side falls.
2. Oil Squeezing: Children are divided into two teams with similar numbers. The main props are benches or walls. The game rules are somewhat similar to tug-of-war, but instead of pulling towards their own side, in oil squeezing, the aim is to push the opponents away. Since there is no rope connecting everyone as a whole, during the squeezing process, some members who are physically weak or not skilled are easily pushed out by their own team. The tactically adept side often wins. If a clear winner is not determined immediately, the squeezed-out individuals can join their own team at the end and continue to squeeze. They can provide a running start to increase the impact and may thereby achieve the final victory.
There is another type of wrestling, where the rules are somewhat relaxed. Both participants can only have one foot on the ground, and sometimes the stronger opponent will choose to use only one hand. Regardless of the rules, there is usually a defined circle, either visible or invisible; stepping out of this circle or falling results in a loss.
Once, for reasons unknown, I found myself wrestling against two brothers. The younger one was just a year older than me, but the circle we were using was surprisingly large—it was a piece of rice paddy that had been harvested and was drying in the autumn sun. Thanks to the spacious area, I adopted a strategy of "sacrificing the big for the small." While running, I managed to throw the younger brother to the ground. Immediately, I heard a sharp crack and my opponent let out a painful cry. Startled, I quickly ran off the battlefield.
The children often engage in another type of collective war on paper, mainly consisting of two games: "Officials Catching Bandits" and "Chicken Eating."
In "Officials Catching Bandits," there are five cards: "Official," "Soldier," "Guard," "Bandit," and "Civilian." The Official commands the Soldier, the Soldier catches the Bandit, the Bandit bullies the Civilian, and the Civilian elects the Official. It’s a simple political lesson. Five people sit in a circle, each drawing a card. Those who draw "Soldier" must use their abilities to catch the "Bandit," while the "Bandit" can bully the "Civilian"...
In the game of "Human Eats Chicken," there are six cards: Human, Chicken, Bug, Stick, Lion, and Tiger. The sequence goes as follows: Human eats Chicken, Chicken pecks Bug, Bug gnaws on Stick, Stick strikes Lion, Lion bites Tiger, and Tiger devours Human. Our most fundamental knowledge of verbs and the food chain is unknowingly absorbed through this playful interaction.
In a two-player battle, the game primarily revolves around simple strategy boards, including "Diagonal Chess," "Five in a Row," "Fight the Emperor," and "Eat and Drink."
"Diagonal Chess" consists of a square board with two diagonal lines and two central lines drawn across it. Each player has three pieces that start positioned along opposite edges. The objective is to align one's pieces along one of the diagonal lines to win.
Gomoku is still a square, but the midline and corresponding diagonals have been added, with five points on each side. Each player has five pieces. "Eating" is achieved by sandwiching the opponent's two pieces with one's own, or "picking" off a pair of the opponent's pieces with one of one's own, until one side's pieces are all "picked" or "eaten."
"Dou Huang Di" and "Chi Hui Jiu" are more complex, combining many skills such as "number games" and "route selection." Without drawing diagrams, it is difficult to express clearly in words alone. It is estimated that as our generation grows older, there will be no one left to play these ancient games.
There is also a war game similar to "chess" but not "chess." Although girls play it more and have more variations, boys also like it, and that is "picking up pieces."
I only learned two of the simplest games. The first involves creating round pieces called "zi" from tiles, which are successfully marked by colliding with each other. There can be three or five pieces, and one piece is designated as the "fixed piece" by the opponent. The player aims to hit the remaining pieces in pairs without colliding with the fixed piece. The second game uses five small stones as pieces, with one held in hand called the "flying piece." The other four are placed on the ground, and the player takes turns tossing the flying piece into the air while picking up one, two, three, or four stones from the ground, all while catching the flying piece back in hand. The challenge lies mainly in how the stones are scattered; sometimes they are too far apart when trying to pick up two, or too close together when trying to pick up one.
There is also a De Li ful prelude to these games that everyone enjoys: selecting suitable pieces. The round pieces made from tiles may seem simple, but there is a technique involved in choosing them. The tiles cannot be too hard or old, as they become difficult to grind; nor can they be too soft or tender, as they won't withstand grinding or collisions. Of course, how well they are shaped and smoothed not only reflects the quality of the pieces but also significantly affects whether collisions during gameplay will go smoothly. Some friends even go so far as to carefully use beautiful porcelain shards to create these round pieces, turning them into works of art.
The stones that everyone uses more often are typically chosen from something called "shiyan," which is actually a type of fossil. Back then, it was rare to find this on several stone mountains within our platoon’s area, but there were plenty on hills where earth and stone coexisted, often hidden beneath weeds and soil. After a heavy rain or when someone burned grass in winter, children would run in groups to search those places. The shiyan found usually had beautiful patterns but often came with dirt stuck to them and sharp edges protruding; some were even still attached to larger stones. Thus, we would use other stones to chip away at the desired parts and carefully clean off any remaining dirt while smoothing out the sharp edges. Because these small stones are fossils, they are particularly hard, making the chipping and polishing process lengthy and meticulous, with a high chance of damage. Consequently, acquiring a good set of shiyan could take us half a year or even a year’s time.
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