In early 1945, there was a great famine in North Vietnam as a result of the Second World War; nearly two million people died of starvation. My gift for detecting food partly helped all the ten persons of my family survive. When we were at ponds or rivers, I could instinctively tell where there was fish to catch. I could also tell in what particular parts of the flooded ricefields there were crabs or eels or edible roots.
By the end of 1945, my father decided to construct a brick house for his family in replacement of our straw hut. He chose the location of the future house in accordance with the rules of Chinese geomancy. But I had a quite different opinion, as suggested by Chinese astrology: I argued that the house should be built twelve meters farther, at the far end of our 4,000-square-meters piece of land. My father agreed. In the year 1946, during the First Indochina War, we were bombarded several times by the French expeditionary forces. All the neighboring houses as well as the place initially intended for our house were hit, but our house itself never suffered any damage, and it still stands today.
From 1946 to 1948, all my family took part in the Resistance Movement against the French colonial troops. My village counted six groups of about fifty fighters each. My father headed one of these groups. Relying on my flair, he entrusted me with the reconnaissance task. As a result, my father's group could launch numerous successful ambushes or attacks without ever suffering losses, while there were many injured, dead or missing men and women in all the other groups.
During the years 1949 and 1950, the French occupation forces made great advances in North Vietnam's delta, compelling millions of people to flee battle zones. My family followed those huge crowds, wandering from village to village, from province to province. The refugees were often bombarded or machine-gunned by French airplanes, and there was a large number of people wounded, killed or missing. I somehow could sense the airplanes' arrival well in advance and tell my family to take shelter in time. All the twelve members of my family were therefore safe.
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