In any war the question of who will win is ultimately determined by the mood of the masses who bleed on the battlefield. — Lenin
Thanks to the achievements of the new detective captain, the Meixian Detective Team now looks brand new with clean windows and neatly arranged flower pots. Eight bright white characters have just been painted on the wall of the compound: "Love your job," "Dedicate yourself to your work," "Aggressive," and "Pragmatic."
Although many detectives were illiterate, they were very excited. They suddenly felt that they were promising young people. They were too embarrassed to walk sideways on the road. The incidence of swearing dropped from 90% to 75%, which was an incredible progress.
Captain Shen stood outside the office door with his hands behind his back, chest raised, head raised, and legs apart, and spoke passionately to the black-clad people standing in the yard, "… We are all born by our parents, why do you call us inhuman? Is that right?"
There is a saying: "When the Eighth Route Army scolds us, we are in no mood to reason with them; when the Imperial Army scolds us, we don't argue with them in Chinese; but even the beggars stand behind us and scold us, I really can't stand it!"
Captain Shen raised his hand and pointed at the person who had spoken to him: "Well said! What does this prove? Brothers, this proves that we also have a sense of shame! Only when we know shame can we make progress! To say that we are not human beings is blind! Ahem—"
With Captain Shen's powerful dry cough, thunderous applause immediately broke out, and the cohesion was unprecedented. Captain Shen did not raise his hand, but waited for the applause to die down before continuing: "It's time to be proud and to prove to the world that we are not freeloaders and we can live with dignity! Next, let's talk about the preparations for the operation. I am very dissatisfied with the preparations for this operation, very dissatisfied! For example, those who pretended to be wounded were too exaggerated and lacked the spirit of sacrifice. I asked you to play the role of a wounded guerrilla! How can you act like one if you don't have any real injuries? You say you have good acting skills? What if the person who saved you changed the bandage for you? How can you pretend? There are 360 professions, and there are top talents in every profession. You have to love what you do! What we lack is this kind of professionalism!"
After these earnest words of regret, the people in black felt ashamed and silent, and actually fell into self-reflection.
…
At night, the moonlight was bright, and a bicycle creaked along a barely visible path in the field. The rider was a man in black, and on the back seat was another person, who was wearing tattered clothes and seemed to be injured. He groaned in pain from time to time as the bicycle bumped along.
A few dim lights appeared ahead, and the occasional barking of a dog could be heard, so the bicycle stopped, the rider helped the injured person off the back seat, and asked, "Can you walk these two miles?"
The wounded man covered the wound on his leg and nodded: "It's a pity that we can't be assigned to a village farther away. Here, we can only catch small fish."
The cyclist said, "Be content. I envy you for this. The pension and bonus, Captain Shen is really helping us get rich! Even if it's a small fish, it's cash! Big fish are not that easy to catch. They're hard to find no matter how far away they are."
"Do you remember the code?"
"Remember, remember. If there is a small triangle hole torn in the lower left corner of the window paper, it represents a small fish. I will go find Captain Shen and bring people directly into the village to search for you and arrest you. If it is a square hole, it represents a big fish. I will change the search into an ambush and wait for your signal."
After a while, the wounded man staggered into the village, knocked on every door, and whispered, "Fellow villager, can you help me?"
Some doors were opened no matter how long he knocked, there was dead silence; some doors opened a crack, but they were immediately closed when they saw the injured; the wounded man kept knocking, but each door was closed. He began to feel disappointed with his limping leg. After all, this place was not far enough from the county town, so he probably wouldn't be able to catch even a small fish, let alone a big fish. He would have to go home empty-handed tonight, having suffered for a whole night in vain. What a miserable life!
Turning points often come after disappointment. When he decided to leave the village, the last broken door he had just knocked on opened. Under the moonlight, a woman could be seen half-way out of the door. She looked left and right, then made a gesture to the injured man to keep quiet, and then waved for him to come in.
This is a typical poor family, with a rotten pot and three broken bowls, but only a mother and her two children live in the house. The woman is not good-looking, and the half-grown child has mud all over his face, staring blankly at the injured person who came into the house.
After lighting a bean-sized oil lamp and having a brief conversation, the woman discovered that the wound of the injured man was actually a gunshot wound. Her face changed, but she did not kick the injured man out of the door. Instead, she let him into the inner room and brought out a bowl of cold porridge.
"Who are you?"
"To be honest, I am from the Autumn Wind Guerrilla Brigade. If you are worried about getting into trouble, I can leave now."
The woman frowned as she looked at the wound of the injured man: "Where else can you go with your behavior? Stay here first."
At this point, he confirmed that it was a small fish that had been hooked. After the woman and her half-grown child went to the outer room, he tore an inconspicuous triangular hole in the window paper.
…
Shortly after dawn, a man in black pushed a bicycle into the village. He leisurely passed by each window, staring at the paper on each one.
The half-grown child hurried into the house and said, "Mom, there's a detective dog in the village, it's checking every house!"
The injured man raised his head in pretended surprise: "Maybe it's aimed at me? I have to go!"
The woman was also a little panicked, but said, "Not necessarily!" However, she subconsciously pulled out an object from under the broken cabinet and was tucking it up under her clothes behind her back: "Just stay here, I'll go to the yard to dry the quilt."
The injured person could see clearly that what she pulled out from under the cabinet was a bayonet. The bayonet was more than fifty centimeters long, with a clear straight blood groove milled on the side of the blade. There was a hand guard hook at the front lower end of the handle, and a metal handle at the rear end. It was obviously a Type 30 bayonet.
How could they hide a 30mm bayonet in their home when they were so poor? The injured man was confused for a moment. Looking at the woman's energy, it seemed that she really had the courage to kill and bleed!
The man in black pushing the self-proclaimed cart passed by the window without stopping. The injured man stared blankly at the triangular hole he had torn on the window paper, and then heard the woman who had returned from the yard whisper to the child, "Can you climb up the cliff?"
"able."
"Can you find your uncle's team?"
"able."
"Then... go ahead, take this bun with you, worship the mountain god before climbing the cliff and then eat it. Don't be afraid, don't panic, don't be anxious. If you can find it, let them come and pick us up."
Just a few words, the injured person almost cried... If we climb over the cliff, we will enter the mountain, and there will be an independent regiment in the mountain. This woman is obviously a big fish! This is not just about getting rich, this is about getting promoted! As if in a dream, I hurried to change the tear on the window paper, changing the triangle into a square, and my fingers were shaking with excitement.
…
That night, south of Green Water Shop, on the river bank, a bright full moon was reflected on the water, shimmering and changing with the waves.
A huge raft approached the shore, followed by soldiers leaving the raft one after another, holding their rifles horizontally in front of them, wading through the knee-deep water near the shore, and cautiously going ashore with a splash.
The first few soldiers who came ashore scattered in a short distance, vigilantly observing the surroundings under the moon, and immediately entered a state of alert.
"Brother Ma Liang, are you waiting for the captain's order?"
The man who was dragging the raft to the beach with several soldiers behind him looked up and said to the shore: "No need. The first squad will go northwest, between Kalushuipu and the artillery tower; the second squad will go northeast, between Kalushuipu and Luoye Village, not too far from the village; the third squad will follow me to Lushuipu."
Not long after, another raft approached the shore, and a huge figure jumped off first, causing the raft to tilt as a whole. A person at the other end fell into the water, dripping wet, and got up and cursed. The second figure wading in the lower raft said to the huge figure without holding a gun, "You have a big butt! Can't you be more gentle?" He turned around and scolded the one who cursed, "You shut up too! Why are you just... day after day! Oh-"
Another soldier, holding a rifle horizontally, left the raft and waded toward the shore, whispering, "Do you think she could stay with our regiment?"
The short figure following behind also began to wade toward the shore: "The regiment commander told her that he would only allow me to join the army if she agreed to stay in our regiment as a propaganda officer. Hehehehe... Just wait and see, this silly cucumber girl can't go back!"
The one who was not expecting it earlier turned around and said, "Can you say something useful? Do you really think I'm talking nonsense? Do you really have to let me name you?"
The little figure dropped her high braid and shut up. The soldier in front of her also immediately became serious, clenched the rifle in his hand and coughed dryly: "Where's Ma Liang?"
A soldier on the shore answered: "The first platoon went to set up the checkpoint first."
"Well, leave one person to wait for the second row, and we'll go straight into the village!"
Moonlight, water waves, and the black silhouettes of soldiers holding guns, slowly and unevenly, began to wade through the grass to the north. Ahead, there were faint lights. The 9th Company left the mountain on this moonlit night. That was the first stop of this trip, paved with green water...