November 5, 1937, cloudy with occasional drizzle. Winter is approaching. It was just dusk and the sky had already completely darkened. Anting, a little-known Jiangnan water town on the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway, was now bustling with people. The noise of mules and horses mixed with the tired panting and groaning of pain. It was not lively, but rather a kind of sadness, an inexplicable solemnity and sadness. In the twilight, mud flowed westward along both sides of the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway, stretching to the end of the darkness. Behind the hurried figures, the dark eastern sky occasionally burst into cold flashes, intermittently illuminating the gloomy bottom of the clouds, with a faint rumbling roar. There, Shanghai was enduring the ravages of Japanese warships and guns and making its final struggle.
The raindrops on the rails trembled, carrying a heavy train, which was whistling from west to east. This was the 107th Division of the 67th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, which was transferred from the battlefield in North China to reinforce Songhu. More than ten days ago, they had just finished the hard battle on the Dacheng defense line in Hebei. Before they got supplies, they received the telegram from the chairman and hurriedly boarded the train heading south. Most of them did not know that the Shanghai defense line had collapsed at this moment. They were the only unit moving eastward along the Shanghai-Nanjing line. Their mission was to cover the retreat of hundreds of thousands of defeated soldiers. Their mission was to block the enemy. What kind of darkness would greet them
More than 70 soldiers from the 3rd Company, 1st Battalion, 638th Regiment, 319th Brigade, 107th Division were crowded in a sealed car. Although cold wind was constantly blowing in from the gaps and vents, the car was still a bit stuffy. A layer of dry grass was spread on the floor, and most of the soldiers were lying or curled up, resting with the crisp sound of wheels and rails. There were two kerosene lamps in the car. One lamp was hung in the middle of the ceiling. As the train moved, it swayed rhythmically, casting a few dim lights that jumped rhythmically on the mottled wall of the car. The other lamp was placed on the floor at one end of the car. Seven or eight people sat cross-legged around it, and more than a dozen people stood in a circle to watch.
A dozen silver dollars were scattered in the middle. The second platoon leader bared his yellow teeth and picked up a cigarette. He reached out to pick up the kerosene lamp on the ground, unscrewed the cover on the top, leaned forward to light the cigarette, took a deep breath, and urged the man sitting opposite him with a smile: "Captain, why don't you vote quickly? This is one against six, not three sixes. Do you think it's necessary to scare you like this?"
The captain of the third company, a tall and strong man with thick eyebrows, big eyes and a square face from the Northeast, was sweating profusely from losing money at the moment. He raised his hand to unbutton the two buttons on his chest. "My last two dollars are all on the ground. Can't I pray to the Buddha in advance? What the hell are you doing!" After saying this, he put his hands together and muttered something, shook the three dice in his palms again and again, and threw them into the ceramic bowl on the ground. They jingled for a long time, one, two, five...
"I don't want to play anymore, damn it, you swindler, as soon as we get off the car, I'll let your second platoon take the lead, and I'll let you have enough fun." The company commander moved back, leaned against the car, grabbed the wrinkled hat on the ground and fanned himself.
The third platoon leader's surname is Wang. He is dark, thin, and has wrinkles all over his face. He is in his thirties but looks like he is in his forties. He is the oldest in the company and is said to have been a soldier for more than ten years. He has a kind temper but is a bit stingy, so everyone in the company calls him "Wang Laoshen". He did not participate in the gambling this time because he had lost all the money in his pocket three days ago. He had to watch from the side. Seeing that the company commander had lost all the money, he sat down next to the company commander and handed him a cigarette. "Company commander, before getting on the bus, I heard that the officer who made a mistake will be transferred to our company as a private. Is this true?"
"Oh? You, Wang Laokou, are really clear-headed. That's true. It seems that he was still injured and got into the car for the lightly wounded when he got on the train." The company commander groped in his pocket, took out a shriveled matchbox, rubbed it hard, lit the cigarette handed to him by Wang Laokou, took a puff, squinted his eyes and asked, "Why are you asking this?"
"Hey, Captain, you always replenish the first platoon first and then the second platoon, but it's never the third platoon's turn. You should replenish this soldier to our third platoon."
The company commander looked at Wang Laokou who was complaining about being bullied, and laughed. "Didn't I just give you a replacement for the third platoon before you got on the bus? Why do you need another one?"
Wang Laokou forced out a wronged face, "What? You mean that fourteen-year-old kid? He's not even as tall as the gun, and he eats as much as others. The first and second platoons don't want it, but your company commander forced it on me, right? Can that be considered a supplement? I have to explain this. Right now, our first platoon has forty-two people, the second platoon has twenty-five people, and our third platoon? Four people! And you have to count me, the platoon leader, and that naughty kid. I'm not even as good as a squad leader."
"I say, old soldier Wang, don't be ungrateful for what you have. Our company has been understaffed since we entered the country, and the higher-ups haven't given us any reinforcements. What can I do? We have been in this company since we entered the country, and you know how many times the soldiers in the first platoon have been replaced? How many platoon leaders have been replaced? How did I become the company commander? How about you switch with the platoon leader?"
Hearing this, Wang Laokou looked around, and seeing that no one cared, he said awkwardly: "Look, look, you're arguing after I've said a few words to you. I'm not a young man, I'm weak, dizzy and useless, how can I play as a main force, I can only support the corners. This time, there is only one person, and he won't be noticeable even if he is put in the first or second row. If you give it to me, then I can barely make up a squad, isn't that right?"
The company commander thought to himself, you, Wang Laokou, never complained about having too few people under your command in North China, and now you are rushing to ask for this person. This is not normal, this is definitely not normal! Before getting on the car, the battalion commander did say that the boy was the captain of the supervision team. When he was at Linluo Pass, he let more than a dozen deserters go. As a result, he was dismissed and expelled from the supervision team. Before leaving this time, the superiors decided to add him to my company as a soldier, and I didn't ask much at the time. There doesn't seem to be anything strange. Is it because the boy used to be a member of the supervision team? Wang Laokou wants to use his relationship when he wants to be a deserter in the future? Impossible! If this old guy really wanted to escape, wouldn't he have run away long ago? What's the point of dragging it on until now? It's interesting, old fox, no matter what your plan is, since you took the initiative to come to me, I have to pull a few hairs out of you.
Having made up his mind, the company commander brushed off the cigarette ash on his body and said with a grin, "Old stingy, I remember a while ago on the battlefield, you old fool found a pocket watch, right? How is it, did you pawn it?"
Hu Yi leaned against the corner of the carriage for the lightly wounded and sick, with his legs stretched out and half lying on the thick hay, covered with a dirty and greasy blanket and closed his eyes to rest. He had taken a train when he entered the customs that year. When he first got on the train, he felt fresh, but when the train started, he realized that riding a train was also painful. The trains that the army took were not like passenger trains. There were chairs, windows, and toilets, and they were all freight carriages; the sealed carriages were considered good, at least they were not exposed to the sun and rain. Those who were assigned to open trucks or even flatbed trucks loaded with supplies were the worst. The wind alone could blow people into raisins. Before getting on the train, Hu Yi received a notice to report to the new company. When he passed a sealed carriage specially arranged for lightly wounded soldiers, he immediately claimed that his bullet wound had not healed and his old injury had relapsed. After getting on the train, he turned hostile and refused the military doctor's examination, and stayed in the carriage without getting off. Later I learned that the Third Company I was going to was also a sealed car, but I didn't regret it. At least the car for the wounded had thick hay, it was quiet, there were fewer people, and the space was spacious. Everyone could get a military blanket, although that blanket was small and torn.
The troops set out from Xinxiang on October 30th and arrived at Nanjing Xiaguan on November 2nd. After a short rest, they headed eastward and boarded the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway. Today is November 5th. Although the regular collision of the wheels and the rails, the creaking and twisting of the carriages, and the whistling of the wind have been echoing in the carriages, Hu Yi is still keenly aware of the faint roar hidden behind these sounds. This sound is too familiar, like a spell. Even when he is sleeping, he can distinguish it and wake up immediately, and it brings an inexplicable numbness and headache. As the roar gradually becomes clearer, Hu Yi knows that the battlefield is approaching and he has to get off the train. Although this is Jiangnan, the sound is the same everywhere.
Clang—As the heavy sliding door of the carriage was pulled open, the cold and damp air woke everyone in the carriage. In the gloomy night, the white steam released by the steam locomotive drifted across the dim platform from time to time, and large groups of it drifted on the platform. From a distance, the shout of the messenger was heard: "Everyone of the 107th Division get off the train! Stand by! No noise! Stand by... No noise..."
Wang Laokou threw away his cigarette butt, stretched himself, looked at the wet platform under his feet, looked around, threw the 79 rifle in his hand over his shoulder, walked out of the crowd of the third company, tore off an old poster on a nearby low wall away from the wind, folded it a few times and sat on the ground against the wall. The three soldiers looked at each other and followed them to lean against the wall away from the wind. The cold and mottled wall set off the figures of four soldiers. This was the third row. The tallest and strongest of the three soldiers was called Da Ge, who was honest and hardworking; the average-looking one was called Zhao Yong, who loved to complain: The one standing as tall as the gun was a 14-year-old fool who begged at the Xinxiang Railway Station and followed the army on the train in order to have a meal.
"Platoon leader, did you really give the pocket watch to the company commander?" the big guy asked Wang Laokou with blinking eyes.
"Well, I gave it to him. There's no point in keeping something that you can't bring with you when you're born and can't take with you when you die."
Hearing the platoon leader's words, Zhao Yong on the other side laughed and interrupted, "Did I hear you right? You are the stingy old man who will not do anything without profit! Why do these words sound so wrong coming from your mouth?"
"I'm old now, I've become more open-minded, and my personality has changed. You know nothing."
Zhao Yong looked at Wang Laokou's nonchalant look, smacked his lips, pondered for a while and said: "Platoon leader, I don't understand, he is just a dismissed supervisory team leader, you are willing to exchange your pocket watch for him. Besides, I have seen those people in the supervisory team before, they are good for nothing except standing at attention, at ease and fighting deserters. What's more, he was once a low-ranking official, do you want to ask for a ancestor to worship him? I think you are really confused. Uh, this is not what I said, the company said so."
Wang Laokou ignored what Zhao Yong said, but just stared at the figures hurrying past outside the platform. Every time the sun flashed in the east, the people in the distance would suddenly become clear, and then fall into darkness and become shadowy, as if large groups of gray wronged souls were wandering in hell.
Is Wang Laokou really confused? Of course not. Ken gritted his teeth and gave the pocket watch away because Wang Laokou knew who that person was. Hu Yi: He was a beard since he was a child (the folks in Northeast China call bandits beards). At the age of seventeen, he joined the Northeast Army and was a Class A student of the eleventh term of the Dongdaying Military Academy. After entering the customs, he served as the company commander of the machine gun company directly under the division with the rank of major. When blocking the Japanese army on the Jinpu Road, the entire heavy machine gun company was wiped out, and he was the only one who survived. The superior believed that it was his poor command and deployment that led to the annihilation of the heavy machine gun company, so he was demoted to a captain and transferred to the supervision team. As a result, he secretly let more than a dozen deserters on the battlefield run away, so he was exempted from all positions and ranks and completely became a soldier. The reason why I know this is because one of Wang Laokou’s friends is in the machine gun company. In the past, when drinking, he heard his friend mention their company commander Hu. Of course, this friend also died with the machine gun company at that time. Because I knew this person, I naturally paid attention to the subsequent news in many ways.
Wang Laokou is not a bad guy, but he is not a good guy either. With more than ten years of military experience, he is just an old soldier. He can do nothing except carry a gun. If he really leaves the army these days, he will starve to death. When he was in Pingjin, he saw students shouting for the country and the nation. Wang Laokou did not understand and was not interested. His only hope was that the bullets on the battlefield would stay away from him. Living one more day would be a blessing. Although he could not read a single word, Wang Laokou was not a fool. He pulled Hu Yi into his third row not to admire heroes nor to seek power. What's more, Hu Yi was now a down-and-out phoenix, worse than a chicken. But no matter how down-and-out a phoenix is, it is still a phoenix. Its knowledge, vision, experience, etc. are definitely much better than his own. On the battlefield, at the critical moment, this down-and-out phoenix may be able to save his life. This is what Wang Laokou really thought.