Veterans and Death

Veterans and Death

A veteran has served twenty-five years, and when his service period expires, he is alone and ready to return to his hometown.

When passing through a town, he found a house as beautiful as a palace, but no one lived in it. After inquiring with others, he learned that a rich businessperson had built these big houses for him, but they were always haunted at night, so he never moved in. The old soldier found the merchant and asked him if he could take her new house for one night. The merchant told him that the house was haunted, and he should not go in to find death. The old soldier said that he might be able to drive the ghost away. He asked the merchant for ten candles, three Russian pounds of dry fried hazelnuts, and a large baked radish, and walked to the new house.

In the evening, the old soldier lit candles in the big room and ate hazelnuts to pass the time. In the middle of the night, there was a commotion in the sky, and the ghosts came, clamoring to eat him. The old soldier said, "Let's compete, which of you can make juice out of a stone with one hand?"

The old ghost ordered a pebble from the street and squeezed it desperately, crushing the stone to pieces, but there was not a drop of juice at all. The veteran took out the roasted radish from his backpack, and he squeezed it with his hand and squeezed out some juice.

The ghosts thought it was strange. At first, they didn't say a word, and after a while, they asked, "What have you been biting on?"

The old soldier replied, "Hazelnuts. But none of you can bite my hazelnuts." Then he handed a bullet to the old ghost.

The ghost head threw the bullet into his mouth. He bit and bit, flattening the whole bullet, but couldn't chew it anyway. The old soldier kept biting and chomping, throwing hazelnuts into his mouth one by one.

The ghosts were obedient, and they all quieted down. "I heard people say," the veteran said, "You have a lot of ghost doors, you can grow from small to big, and you can also change from big to small, and you can get through any small cracks."

"We can do all of these things!" the ghosts shouted in unison.

"Then try it, everyone who is here, get into my backpack." The ghosts all got into the backpack. The veteran walked to the backpack, tied it cross with a belt, and fastened it with a buckle. So he caught all the ghosts. The ghosts promised the veteran not to bully anyone again, and gave the veteran a strange rucksack - whatever he wanted, uncover the rucksack, it was already inside. If you want to hunt anything, just wave the rucksack and say "Get in!" The thing you want is inside. In this way, the veteran let the ghosts go.

The ghosts never appeared again, and the businessperson was very grateful to the veterans, who continued their way home with their magical rucksacks.

Finally one day he came to his hometown. He unpacked his rucksack, conjured some silver dollars, and started the family business. He built a new house, bought a cow and a horse, and had everything he needed to run the family business. Then he took a wife and began to live a hard and frugal life.

After six or seven years, the old soldier fell ill, and his condition became more and more critical. On the third day, he saw Death standing by the bed, ready to take him away. He asked him to live another thirty years, to raise the children, but Death refused; he said to live another three years, but Death still refused. The old soldier stopped begging, pulled out the magical rucksack from the head of the bed, shook it, and shouted, "Get in!" He put Death in the rucksack. The old soldier told Death that if he didn't harm anyone for thirty years, he would let it out. Death said what shall I eat? The old soldier told him that he could eat tree stumps, roots, and stones in the wilderness.

Death had no choice but to agree. Since then, it has dug tree stumps, roots and stones in the wilderness. During this period, the common people were able to live in safety, everyone was healthy, no one got sick, and no one died.

Thirty years have passed. The veteran's children are all grown up. One day Death had come to him and said that the deadline had expired and he was going to take him away. The veteran said that since the time was up, you can bring the coffin. Death brought an oak coffin. It lifted the lid and let the veteran lie in it. The veteran said that the rule of the soldier is to let the platoon leader demonstrate first, and then order the soldier to do it. He asked Death to make a appearance first and then give an order.

Death lay in the coffin and said, "Soldier, look, it should be lying like this: two legs straight, two hands folded on his chest." The veteran covered the lid with a "bang", nailed the iron hoop, carried the coffin to the cart, transported it to the steep bank, and pushed the coffin into the river from the cliff. The river washed away the coffin and carried Death into the sea. After a long time, Death was still washed away by the waves.

Once, there was a sudden big storm at sea. The waves washed the coffin against the rocks and smashed it. Death fled to shore in a desperate attempt, and the sea breeze made it wobbly. Death got into the old soldier's yard and hid, waiting for the old soldier to come out. The old soldier was about to sow food. He took an empty bag and went to the barn to get the seeds. He had just reached the side of the barn when Death came out of the corner to catch the old soldier.

The old soldier took a look, took out the empty bag from his arms, and shouted loudly, "You miss this rucksack again, don't you? You want to go to the muddy pond again?" As soon as Death saw the old soldier holding an empty bag in his hand, he thought it was the magical rucksack in his panic, and it immediately fled every day, and in an instant it was nowhere to be seen.

The old soldier has lived his life as usual since then. It is said that until now, he is still alive and still laughing at the god of death.