Because of the long march, He Shuya was so tired that he was out of breath. Although He Shuya has been a veteran in the army for more than six years, he is only less than seventeen years old. After all, he is still young. In addition, the Northeast Jun's food has been poor since he entered the customs, so his body has not yet recovered.
He Shuya gritted his teeth and tried his best to speed up his pace in order to keep up with the large army. The Sanba Gai, which was usually not heavy in his hand, seemed to weigh hundreds of kilograms when he was holding it on his shoulders, weighing him down until he couldn't breathe. Come.
Suddenly a big hand stretched out from the side and took the Sanba Gai from He Shuya's shoulder.
He Shuya turned his head and looked around, only to see a mountain-like figure next to him. He was a soldier from the guerrillas. Oh, yes, there are no guerrillas anymore, only the 4th Company of the Independent Battalion. They were soldiers from the 4th Company.
"Thank you." He Shuya was not polite to Da Bing because he was too tired.
"It's nothing." The soldier grinned and asked with concern, "Is it still okay? If not, I will carry you."
"No need." He Shuya quickly shook his head and asked the soldiers to help him carry the gun. He was willing, but if the soldiers were asked to carry him while marching, he would not do it anyway. After all, he was also a veteran who had been in the army for more than six years, and How can he be considered a soldier or a man if he is allowed to march on someone else's back
The soldier smiled and said, "Just tell me if you can't hold it any longer."
He Shuya responded, feeling warm in his heart, but this feeling was something he had never felt before.
The Northeast Army is quite friendly on the battlefield, and the veterans will support the new recruits. However, in daily life, the veterans often beat and scold the new recruits, or small soldiers. He Shuya was only ten years old when he first joined the army, and he was often responsible for bringing water to the veterans in the class to wash their feet. Or something like that, sometimes you have to be beaten or scolded if you don’t do well.
He Shuya gritted his teeth and persisted for another half hour, and the sky gradually turned dark.
At this time, He Shuya hoped that the battalion commander would give orders to rest and eat. Otherwise, he would really be unable to hold on and would have to be carried on his back, or fall behind and march with the wounded in the reception team.
Not long after, Xu Rui's order came true. He rested on the spot for five minutes, but did not mention cooking. The cooks in the 4th company's cooking class did not dare to boil water for cooking. The more than 100 people who had been tired for a day could only starve. With.
That's how the army is. All actions follow orders and must never go too far.
Five minutes later, Xu Rui's order came down again, and the entire battalion turned north and returned to Haian Town.
As soon as this order came out, more than a hundred of the top soldiers of the 4th Company immediately quit their duties and immediately went into a panic.
"His grandma, what's going on?"
"Damn it, isn't this annoying?"
"It's his grandma's. Isn't this changing day and night? Isn't it child's play?"
"We are almost at Haian Town during the day, and we have to turn around and head west. We have already traveled more than a hundred miles, and suddenly we have to turn back to Haian Town. What are we doing?"
"Captain, uh, no, company commander, would you like to say something?"
"It's the company commander, we can't let them do whatever they want."
Except for Xiao Yanyue and Da Bing, the officers and soldiers below did not know the orders from their superiors.
In order to keep confidentiality, Xiao Yanyue did not make the orders of his superiors public, so the soldiers below were still very resistant to the fact that they were incorporated into the independent battalion.
Just because Xiao Yanyue and Da Bing had already nodded, the officers and soldiers below could only agree.
However, now, with the excuse of changing the order in the morning and evening, the officers and soldiers below finally exploded.
More than a hundred people from the 4th company gathered around and complained to the soldiers and Xiao Yanyue.
He Shuya looked at this and that, feeling a little worried in his heart. He was worried that the 4th company that had just been incorporated would mutiny. Thinking of what the mutiny meant, He Shuya shuddered. The memory of the mutiny was too deep for He Shuya. Because since the young marshal was put under house arrest, the Northeast Army has mutinied and killed each other every day.
Xiao Yanyue, however, seemed calm and composed, and turned to wink at the soldier.
The soldier stood up and silenced the surrounding noise with his thundering voice.
"What are you arguing about? Shut up, everyone!" The soldier suppressed the shouting below and added, "What did I tell you when you first joined the army? The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you will bleed in war. , if you want to outrun the enemy, if you want to take the upper hand, you can only rely on your own two legs, and you can only sweat more! In the Soviet area, why were we able to repeatedly repulse the encirclement and suppression campaigns of the Jiang army? It was because we were not afraid No matter how hard it is, we are not afraid of being tired because we have two legs and can outrun Jiang Jun’s mule and carriage!”
Seeing that the soldiers had suppressed the people below, Xiao Yanyue stood up and said: "All Communists, come out."
A dozen veterans walked out of the crowd. Xiao Yanyue glanced at the dozen veterans and said in a soft but firm tone: "Communist members should set an example and take the lead, come out!"
After saying that, Xiao Yanyue picked up a crooked light machine gun from the ground. The machine gunner quickly stepped forward and said, "Captain, no, company commander, I'll carry it myself."
"I'll do it." Xiao Yanyue's tone was soft but she couldn't refuse, "Little mule, you save your energy to fight the Japanese."
After saying that, Xiao Yanyue shouldered the machine gun and strode forward without looking back.
The soldier snorted, bent down and carried He Shuya on his back, and strode forward. He Shuya struggled twice, and then let the soldier carry him, because he was too tired to walk at all.
More than a dozen Communist Party members who came out also stepped forward, scrambling to lift heavy machine guns or carry ammunition boxes.
With Xiao Yanyue, Dabing, and a dozen or so Communists taking the lead in demonstrating, the resentment in the hearts of the officers and soldiers immediately dissipated, and they gritted their teeth and embarked on the journey.
(Dividing line)
Under the night, Xu Rui and Leng Tiefeng were leading more than a hundred remaining soldiers of the 2nd company to march forward.
The quality of the more than one hundred remnant soldiers of the 2nd Company is much better than that of the 4th Company, and the marching queue is much more orderly. After walking all day, no one is left behind, and even a few wounded can keep up. This is really not a boast. These remnant soldiers were able to survive the Songhu battlefield and crawl out from the pile of dead. It would be impossible if they didn't have some ability.
But even though no one was left behind, everyone was already panting and sweating profusely.
Veteran Leng Tiefeng was also sweating profusely from running. While following Xu Rui, he said: "Old Xu, are you trying to get back to me?"
Xu Rui said cheerfully: "What do you think of this carbine shot?"
Leng Tiefeng said: "In order to deceive the Japs' plane, you really spared no effort in your brothers' physical strength and walked a full two hundred miles west. But what I'm more curious about is, how can you be sure that there must be Japs in Haian Town?" ? What if there are no Japanese in Haijun Town? Aren’t we just messing around?"
"Tossing around is just tiring and painful, and it won't kill anyone." Xu Rui's expression turned cold and he said in a deep voice, "But if there really is a Japs ambush in Haian Town, and we rush into it, people will die. And , not only one or two people died, but maybe the whole army was destroyed."
Leng Tiefeng was silent. He knew that Xu Rui was not alarmist.
Regardless of the previous breakout battle in Wuxi, the ambush battle in Baoxing, or the position battle in Nantong, a big reason why their independent battalion was able to win repeatedly was that they had the upper hand, and every move of the Japanese was followed. They expected it, so they suffered repeated defeats.
However, once the opportunity is lost, the result will immediately become different.
Taking the lead is really important for both warring parties.
This walk lasted all night, except for a half-hour break at midnight to eat some solid food.
So at dawn the next day, the 2nd Company of the Independent Battalion, which was attacking the front station, led by Xu Rui and Leng Tiefeng, rushed to the warning position outside Haian Town.
Today is another sunny day, and a red sun bursts out from the eastern horizon. However, the winter sun does not provide much heat, and the entire earth is still freezing cold. It is so cold that people have snot bubbles in their noses. Fortunately, The officers and soldiers of the Independent Battalion were each wrapped in two cotton uniforms, so they could still hold on.
Of course, these cotton military uniforms were stripped from the Japanese soldiers.
Following the path around a hill, Xu Rui saw the warning position ahead and the sentinels standing on the warning position. Xu Rui immediately squatted down, and the remaining soldiers following him also squatted down.
Leng Tiefeng bent down and sneaked over, held up the binoculars to observe for a moment, and whispered: "It's the Kuomintang Army, he should be from the 59th Army."
Xu Rui shook his head without saying a word, then closed his eyes and let out his feelings.
In an instant, the hearing that had been transformed by biological science spread out like a spider's thread. The sharp hearing instantly crossed a kilometer of void, gathered a large amount of information, and fed it back to Xu Rui's brain. After ten For a few seconds, Xu Rui closed his eyes and then suddenly opened them.
"How is it?" Leng Tiefeng looked at Xu Rui nervously.
"It's too quiet, it's too quiet!" Xu Rui frowned and said, "Hai'an Town is an ancient town with a thousand years old, with a population of more than 10,000. Although it is still early in the morning and it is still winter, there should be small businesses. Why? There should be people going to the market, but all I heard was dead silence!"
Leng Tiefeng said: "Perhaps, when they heard that the Japs were coming, all the people ran away?"
Xu Rui shook his head, neither confirming nor denying it. He just closed his eyes again and released his sense of smell.
After a while, Xu Rui suddenly opened his eyes and said in a deep voice: "The smell of blood, I smell the smell of blood!"
"The smell of blood?" Leng Tiefeng sniffed hard, but he only smelled the smell of water vapor and dead grass on a cold winter morning. He didn't smell any smell of blood. He frowned and said, "How can there be any smell of blood?"
"I said yes, yes!" Xu Rui said coldly, "Many people died in Haian Town, and a lot of blood was shed."
Leng Tiefeng said solemnly: "Old Xu, are you saying that some Japanese really got into this place and massacred Haian Town?"
After a pause, Leng Tiefeng pointed to the sentry in front and said, "What about the sentry of the 59th Army?"
"Fake!" Xu Rui said coldly, "These sentries are fake. Even the garrison in Hai'an Town is fake. They are all pretended to be the Japanese. Since we can pretend to be the Japanese, the Japanese can also pretend to be the National Army." (To be continued.)