4 When the fighting during the Liaoshen Campaign was about to begin, the regiment commander ordered him to stay behind and together with the division commander assume control over the railroad. Hugging his rifle he cried the entire night, stubbornly wanting to set out southward with the troops.
5 The next morning, the division commander arrived: “Who is Liu Dashan?” He stood up with a tearful expression. The division commander roared kindly yet sternly: “Crying like a young bride? Are you a Communist?”
6 He stood there blankly; his ears were filled with the division commander’s roar: “Are you a Communist?” He stayed behind and began to deal with the railroad. Slowly, he fell in love with the two iron tracks.
7 Before long, the old division commander had passed away. But Liu Dashan often remembered that roar: “Are you a Communist?” Just like that, through the ten years of “Cultural Revolution’s” torment and torture his waist did not bend, nor did his back hunch…
8 One day, Liu Dashan found a letter for him on the desk in the secretary’s office; in it, the switchman Lü Jiucai from Baita station revealed the truth about that station’s cover-up of a train crash accident.
9 He had already dealt with the accident as a common matter. But the letter stated it was a major accident, and that Baita station and the Beicang branch office had faked the report on its circumstances. As he read on, the blue veins on his temples pulsated violently.
