Suddenly, the old man asked Xue to stop. She sat in the wheelchair and said, "Come on, son, help mom take off this shoe."

"Mom, is sand in your shoes?"

"Don't ask so much, take off this sock of mom."

It turned out that the old man wanted to show her little secret. Xue Zhuo looked at one of her left toes drooping softly, and asked, "How did this happen? They are all disabled. When did it become like this?"

The old man said that this was when she was still a student in the Corps' camp, and she was doing military training on the mountain one night. She accidentally fell into the ravine and her toe bones broke on the spot. But she endured the pain and insisted on training without telling anyone because she was worried that the school would expel the disabled students. During that time, she made a small splint to fix her toes without telling them, pretending that she was fine and she studied and trained with everyone. Gradually, her toes stopped hurting, and that was all right. She said, "Son, although my toes are disabled, my heart will not be disabled. I remember one day when I marched, I saw that the squad leader Li of the kitchen squad was struggling with the marching pot, so I couldn't help but go up and want to help him take it for a while. He didn't give it to me, and even joked with me, saying that women cannot take the blame, otherwise they will become ugly in the future, and they will be uglier in the future. Alas, to be honest, I can't take the blame either, but I really want to take it for him. Seeing him working so hard, I can't bear it. Such a good comrade died before he saw victory. When I was marching, the figure of squad leader Li often appeared in front of me. He has always been my hard-working role model. At that time, we were marching almost every day, and sometimes we were still marching in a hurry, heading towards victory, and walking day and night..."

Xue Author caressed her disabled toes carefully, feeling that her style of marching back then seemed to be solidified on this toe. She walked from Shanxi to Sichuan with her backpack, to Xikang, to Tibet... silently left a series of magnificent symbols of life on the journey with her disabled toes and her undisabled heart.

The old man said modestly: "Actually, I am not that glorious. I was lazy during a march and violated discipline and almost died."

It was on September 19, 1949 that she received a telegram: "The 60, 61, and 62nd Army immediately returned to build the 18th Corps and participated in the battle to liberate the southwest." After entering Sichuan, the road was difficult and she truly experienced the poem "The road to Shu is difficult, but it is more difficult than going to the blue sky." The soldiers said: "We have gone through three hardships - the tragic (brutal) battle in Taiyuan, and the hard work of the northwest march, and this time it is really hard."

Due to the continuous march and fighting, she felt very tired, her soles were covered with blood blisters, and her soles were worn out. One night, she was dozing off while walking, and she was pulled from the river several times before she woke up. Several carriages passed by the queue, and the carriages were filled with minor wounded people who firmly demanded to go to the front line. She crawled into the car in a hurry and went to bed. She slept soundly. Suddenly, she woke up and found herself trapped in the river water. She heard a scream on the shore: "Hurry up, go down the river to save people!"

It turned out that the enemy destroyed the bridge when they fled, and the bridge collapsed when the carriage passed. I heard someone shouting, "There is still a female soldier here who is not dead! Come and help me!"

She was dragged to the shore by several soldiers and sat on the ground like a chicken falling. The assistant to the political department rushed over and shone her with a flashlight: "How could you get into the carriage? That was the one who pulled the injured, and you were injured too? It depends on what you look like, your hat is gone, your backpack and rice bag are gone, your leggings are also dispersed, and you are covered in water, even more embarrassed than the captive soldiers!"

In the darkness, a soldier cried and wanted to go down the river to save the horse. Horses were very important at that time, and only cadres above the battalion were equipped with horses, but the cadres were reluctant to ride them and gave them out to carry supplies and the wounded and sick. Because the enemy robbed when he fled, nine out of ten households were empty along the way, and the horse materials could not be bought. It was all up to the soldiers of the military horse squad to mow the grass by themselves. The propaganda team also organized a quick-pronged praise: "The military horse squad is really good. When others rest, he mowed the grass. The horse was fat and strong. He fought to Chengdu to make contributions!" At this time, the assistant walked to the river and looked at the terrain, and said, "Comrades, this cannot be salvaged. It is useless to be anxious and sad. It is useless to go forward quickly. Let's hurry up and settle the score with the enemy and ask them to repay it twice as much!" The soldiers looked at the rolling river, observed the silence of the soldiers and war horses, and then continued to walk forward.

The assistant walked up to her and asked her to change her clothes before leaving. She thought of the assistant scolding her in front of everyone just now, and she was still angry. She stubbornly stood up and walked forward and shouted, "I won't change my clothes!"

Unexpectedly, her soaked clothes were blown by the cold wind, and her pants were frozen into hard shells, making her walk more and more difficult. But she didn't say anything, gritted her teeth and insisted on walking, and she walked faster and faster, hoping to sweat a little and warm her body. Suddenly, she felt a hot stream on her lower body. She remembered the physiological knowledge that the health captain had told her, and immediately realized that this was a period. While taking the break from the army, she went to the health captain to ask for first aid kits. The health captain gave her two, and she said two were not enough. The health captain asked with concern: "You fell into the river just now and was injured?" She said: "Don't worry." After that, she grabbed a few first aid kits and ran away.

But she wanted to deal with her period, and the only way to avoid others was to take the troops to the uninhabited area ahead while she was resting. So she hurriedly rushed forward alone. When she finally finished her period, a Kuomintang soldier suddenly emerged from the grass on the roadside, which scared her. She nervously raised her grenade and shouted, "Don't move! Blast you to death!" The Kuomintang soldier was so hungry that he was pale and thin. He quickly raised his hands to ask for something to eat, saying that he escaped from the PLA, and said that he knew which road had mines buried on which road and was willing to lead the way for the PLA.

The old man said proudly: "Our vanguard caught up with the 14th Division of the New Fifth Army of the Fleeing Enemy. The battle was beautiful and captured more than 1,600 people below the enemy commander Yao Mingde, and no one was injured or killed. But we did not stop and accelerated our pace to continue chasing..."

Xue Author helped the old man get out of the wheelchair because she wanted to try to walk a few steps and sing the song: "The wind and rain in Zhongshan are yellow, and millions of heroes cross the river... It is better to chase the poor enemy with the remaining courage, and not to seek fame and learn from the overlord..."

The moon stared at the old man who had experienced vicissitudes in a daze. With her tenacious perseverance and optimistic spirit, the old man walked forward with her heart that would never be disabled. The sound of charge seemed to be sounding far away, bringing her a different kind of happiness for the elderly...