56. WILD GEESE

　　In 1613, General Qian of Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, was leading his troops back to the city in boats. They were out in the middle of the gigantic Yangtze River,the longest in China. General Qian was in his cabin with a book in his hand.You just don't come out and say that a general was snoozing, but he seemed to agree with the book a lot, because he kept nodding his head.

　　Above the boat, a wild goose was calling, crying sadly. It had followed this boat for a hundred miles. It wouldn't go away. That was because there was another wild goose, trapped in a cage by one of General Qian's soldiers. That was its mate. They called to each other, but the one was trapped, and the other couldn't do anything but follow and call.

　　But the hard-hearted soldier who trapped her was not moved at all by this,even though some of the nicer soldiers told him he ought to let her go. "No way! It's goose soup for me this evening, after we reach the shore!"
　
　　When the boat had almost reached the dock, the goose in the cage looked up and called especially loudly to the goose in the air. Immediately, the free goose zipped down to the deck and stood by the cage with his mate. The goose in the cage stuck out her head, and the two wild geese hugged each other around the neck, just like human couples meeting after a long separation.

　　"Aww, ain't that cute?" one of the old soldiers watching said.

　　"Cute? It'd be a waste of heaven-sent food not to do something now," said a mean soldier. He grabbed his sword and with one slash chopped off both of the geese's heads.
　
　　General Qian had heard a commotion and came out to see what was going on, but he was too late to stop the soldier from killing those poor geese. He hit the roof.

　　"Put that man under arrest! Who trapped that wild goose in the first place?You? You're under arrest, too!" The general was furious. "Guards! I will not tolerate such cruelty among my men. Give each of these savages thirty strokes with the bamboo poles, to teach them a lesson about pain!"
　　
　　When those two soldiers had been beaten, they knew that nobody likes to suffer, and you should do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
　　
　　Not long after that, both of these hard-hearted soldiers came down with some strange sickness the doctors couldn't cure, and before the next migration of the wild geese, both men were dead and buried.

56.雁

　　1613年的时候，江苏镇江的钱将军带着军队乘船回城。他们正在中国最长的江——长江中。钱将军正在船舱里，手里拿着一本书。你不能说他在打盹儿，他看起来好像非常同意书里的话，不住地点头。

　　在船上方，有一只雁正在哀鸣。它跟着这只船近 百里了。它不离开是因为船上有另一只雁，被钱将军的士兵关在笼子里。那是它的配偶。它们互相叫唤，但是其中一只被困住了，另一只 除了尾随着叫唤，没别的办法。

　　但是那个抓了雁的无情士兵看到后，一点也不动情，尽管有一些好心肠的士兵劝他放了那只雁。“做梦！我们上了岸后，我今晚要吃雁汤。”

　当船快要到码头的时候，笼子里的雁往上看，向着空中那只雁叫得更响了。那只空中的雁马上冲到甲板上，站在它配偶的笼子旁。笼子里的雁伸出了它的头，那两只雁的颈就交缠在一起，就像人间夫妇久别重逢一样。

　　“啊，它们多么可爱啊。”一个旁观的老兵说。

　　“可爱？如果现在不动手，就浪费了这天降的美食。”一个卑鄙的士兵说。他拔出剑，一剑砍断了那两只鹅的头。

　　钱将军听到一阵骚动，于是出来看看怎么回事。但是太晚了，他没来得及阻止那个士兵杀死鹅。他大怒。

　　“把他抓起来！谁先抓鹅的？你？你也要被抓起来！”将军狂怒了。“卫士！我不能容忍自己的部队里有这么残忍的事。把这两个残忍的人用竹板打三十大板，让他们接受痛苦的教训。”

　　当那两个士兵被打后，他们才知道没有人喜欢忍受痛苦，如果你想别人怎么对待你，你就应该怎么对待别人。

　　不久，这两个士兵就得了一些让医生束手无策的怪病，在第二年雁迁徙前，两人都死了。