Zhang Fengwang, Zhang Fengcai, Zhang Fengqin, and Zhang Qingji were known as the four young masters of Xia Manor. It was said that the old Zhang family of Xia Village had migrated from Liu Village in the back of Shanxi Mountain during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty. Back then, the ancestors had crossed the Taihang Mountains and traveled all the way east. After a long journey, they came to the bank of the River Reverse. When they saw the fertile plains and lush water and grass here, they stopped. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Jinglong and Zhang Jingyao, the two sons of his ancestor Zhang Kejing, got married and lived in the north and south of Xiazhuang Road respectively. Zhang Jinglong had a son, Zhang Yonghui, and five grandsons, Zhang Qiwen, Zhang Qiliang, Zhang Qigong, Zhang Qijian, and Zhang Qirang. (That is, gentle and thrifty.) Zhang Jingyao had four sons, Zhang Yongzhen, Zhang Yonggui, Zhang Yongshen, and Zhang Yonglin. He also had five grandchildren, Zhang Qirong, Zhang Qihua, Zhang Qifu, Zhang Qigui, and Zhang Qiming. (That is, wealth and glory.) Zhang Qijian had four sons, Zhang Chaohan, Zhang Chaolin, Zhang Chaoyong, and Zhang Chaozhen. Zhang Qingji was Zhang Chaozhen's youngest son, Zhang Fengwang was Zhang Chaolin's youngest grandson, Zhang Fengcai was Zhang Chaohan's grandson, and Zhang Fengqin was Zhang Chaoyong's grandson. The four boys were of the same age, healthy, lively, and handsome. They went to a senior primary school in Yinudian and left early and returned late every day. The four boys walked on the river bank and in the village. Who wouldn't be envious and praise them? Calling them the Fourth Young Master was precisely how people valued them.
This time, Zhang Fengwang, Zhang Fengqin, and Zhang Fengcai had all left, leaving only Zhang Qingji among the four young masters. He also wanted to go, but he was the youngest in the family. His mother wouldn't let him go. After two or three years, he went to Tianjin to join the business.
After the young men from Xia Zhuang left the village, they were all incorporated into the 48th Regiment of the Eighth Route Army in Jidong. The regiment commander was Liu Shouren, and they were assigned different jobs according to their individual situations. Zhang Fengwang and Zhang Fengqin became medics, Zhang Fengcai became a communicator, and Xia Changwu and Xia Junyu became soldiers in the company. After that, the Eighth Route Army did not come to expand its army, and the National Party did not come to capture soldiers. The war between the two sides became tense. Gunshots were often heard in the village, and there were often troops on the road. Sometimes it was the Eighth Route Army, sometimes it was the Central Army, mobilized for war.
The wounded were often carried over. A stretcher team was set up in the village to transport the wounded at any time. The stretcher team was made up of men in their 30s or 40s. The women did not have the task of carrying the stretcher. However, Third Aunt was in the stretcher team every day. Someone thought that the village was using old ladies as stretchers, so he said to the village chief, Xia Zongru,""We don't have any men left in the village, so why are we using an old lady to carry a stretcher?”
Xia Zongru said," She's not the one carrying the stretcher. She's doing it herself. She goes every day." Even if you don't let her be there, she still has to be there. Sometimes, she can help pour some water, cover the injured with a blanket, and wipe their wounds. There's nothing wrong with that. If she's there, then so be it."
In fact, Third Aunt's people understood her very well. Her three sons were on the front line, and there were gunshots everywhere. Where could she run to? Guns don't have eyes. Who knows whose family they'll run into? Her sons were all on her mind.
When the stretchers came over, she flipped them open to see if her son was among them. Then, she thought, What if my son is injured on another battlefield? Therefore, she treated every wounded person who came in as her own son. She gave them water to drink, sometimes applied some medicine, and helped arrange for the transfer.
On the day of the small episode, the battle was extremely intense. Both sides suffered heavy casualties, so the stretcher team in the village simply carried them without stopping. At noon, a wounded person was sent over. As usual, Third Aunt went up to take a look. It was not her son, but his injuries were more serious. Third Aunt said to Xia Zongru," This person's injuries are serious. Get someone to carry him away quickly." Xia Zongru went to look for someone. After a while, he brought back three people and said," The three of you, don't leave. Wait a moment. I'll go look for him again." Third Aunt heard this. He said anxiously,"The injured person can't wait. This injured person is so serious. How can we wait?" I'm one of them. Hurry up and carry it." Xia Zongru said," Why don't I take someone's place? Who would ask an old lady to carry a stretcher?"
" I can. I can walk three to four miles. You're the village chief and the battle is still ongoing. Who knows what will happen? You can't leave."
Just like that, an old lady in her forties or fifties with tiny feet and three stretcher bearers walked for four to five miles and transported the wounded out in time.
After breakfast, Ah Hui was playing on the south wall of the house. The wall was made of grass, about 1.7 to 1.8 meters tall and 40 centimeters thick. Ah Hui's house was the first house on the east side of the road. To the east was an open land with a country road running through the north and south. To the east were two rivers that flowed south side by side. To the east of the land was a large river basin, which was the river bank left behind after the flood. In fact, it was like two rivers, running to the sea. When the flood came, there was a vast expanse of land in the Hetao. When the flood went down, it was flat land that stretched as far as the eye could see.
Ah Hui was lying on the wall, stepping on a round log, admiring the scene in front of her with great interest. The sun had come out. It was round and the sky was filled with rosy clouds. He had been in this world for six or seven years, but he had never observed the scene in front of him so seriously. He felt that everything in front of him, the earth, the sun, the river, and the gray mist, was too beautiful. Why is the sun always hanging like that? There was no rope to hold it, and there was no need for anything to hold it on the ground. He was entranced and fascinated. The sun was always blinking its eyes.
As they watched, a loud noise suddenly sounded. Then, clouds of gray smoke rose in the sky northeast of Hetao. The smoke slowly dissipated in the air. What? Ah Hui thought.
"Mom, look at Liu Zhuang. What's going on?”Ah Hui shouted.
His mother came over and leaned on the wall to take a look. There was another sound and a cloud of gray smoke floated in the sky. His mother said,"That's a communication bullet. The army has set off.”His mother went up to Ah Hui and wanted to carry him down. She said,"Come down quickly. The Japanese are here.”
Ah Hui refused to come down and said,"I want to see it."”
Anyway, she was still far away, so she just looked. Her mother did not care about Ah Hui anymore and went back to her own work.
Ah Hui was lying on the top of the wall, her eyes looking towards the direction of the black smoke coming from the northeast. A black mass of people from Liu Zhuang's side was coming from the northeast to the southwest along the river. The sky above them was filled with black smoke, and under the sunlight, the knife lights in the team were dazzling.
Out of curiosity, Ah Hui stared at this group of people. They walked very slowly. When it was almost noon, they finally reached the southeast of Xia Manor, west of the tomb of Xia Zong Kingdom. He planned to turn from there to the river bank and cross the river from the open area between the south of Wangzhuang Village and the north of Goufu Village. They did not expect that at this time, under the West River embankment, there was an 8th Route Army team lying in ambush, waiting for their arrival. They really ran into the muzzle of a gun.
It turned out that this group of people lying in ambush was a reconnaissance platoon of the 48th Regiment. Regiment Commander Liu sent them out to scout the situation. When they reached the river, they saw a group of people coming over from the river bend. They looked like they were about to cross the river. The platoon leader was from Qi Manor. He asked investigator Xia Junshan,""Sherlie, do you want to fight? Didn't you say that your hand was a little itchy?”
"Fight, why aren't you fighting at our doorstep? Destroy a few enemies and also give our villagers a good news. Show off and let our villagers know that this spear of mine is not for fun.”Xia Junshan said firmly.
"I say, brother, it seems that there are quite a number of people. What should we do if we are outnumbered?”The platoon leader hesitated.
"It's fine. Didn't Guild Leader say that if we can win, we'll fight. If we can't win, we'll run. This area is my hometown. I'm familiar with the terrain. It doesn't look good. Let's run north from the west of Wang Zhuang's old tomb. The west of Xia Village is a trench that leads to Jin Village. Once we enter the trench, the enemy won't even be able to find us. We can't miss this opportunity. Jun Shan urged the platoon leader to make up his mind.
The old platoon leader had made up his mind. However, he wanted to go up to the riverbank to take a look at the terrain on the other side of the river and the Hetao. As soon as he went up, he was pulled back by Jun Shan. Jun Shan said,"What time is it? If we still go up, won't we be letting the enemy fight unprepared? If the enemy sees us wearing these clothes, how can we fight?
" That's reasonable, that's reasonable," the platoon leader said as he leaned on the embankment. He stuck his head out and looked at the other side. Then, he arranged for the soldiers to lie down on the embankment slope. He also said,"Be careful. When the enemy comes down from the dam over there, enters the Hetao River, and approaches the water, I will say shoot. Don't let the enemy shoot as soon as they show their heads on the other side of the dam. If that happens, the enemy will roll to the east of the dam and run away. We have to wait for the enemy to get close to the water before firing. This way, the enemy will be completely exposed to our firepower. We will definitely hit them honestly." Seeing that everyone seemed to understand, he found a place to lie down.
However, things were not that simple. It turned out that when the enemy was marching, they were afraid of encountering the Eighth Route Army. They captured some civilians, cattle, and sheep in front of the army and let them walk in front. If anything happened, the commoners would be the first to be beaten up. With the 8th Route Army lying in ambush here, the first to enter the Hetao were the civilians. The enemy was still behind them, blocked by the river bank. If they fired, they would definitely not hit the enemy. When the enemy came up, the enemy would definitely mix with the commoners. No matter what, it would not be easy to fight. The soldiers were all very anxious, waiting for the platoon leader's gunshot. After a while, five or six people came up. They had just crossed the river bank, but before they reached the river, the platoon leader's gun finally rang out. Gunshots were fired. The enemy troops were in chaos. The few enemy soldiers who entered the river bend turned around and ran back. Before they could cross the river bank, the sudden gunshots stunned the enemy. When they found a hidden place and identified the direction, they realized that they had been ambushed and the gunshots were on the other side of the river. Therefore, they organized a counterattack. Guns were fired from both sides of the river for a while. The Central Army couldn't see where the Eighth Route Army was, so they just fired in the direction of the shooting. The Eighth Route Army had fewer people, fewer guns, and fewer bullets. If they continued to confront each other like this, they would eventually suffer. The platoon leader ordered them to stop shooting and withdraw from the battle. With Jun Shan leading the way, they ran towards Jin Village from the trenches west of Xia Village according to their plan. When the Central Army saw that they had stopped shooting, they started to fire fiercely at them. Seeing that there was no movement here, they did not dare to cross the river at first, afraid of falling into the trap of luring the enemy. Later, when there was no movement, they rushed across the river. However, they did not even see the shadow of the Eight Route Army. Only traces of them lying down and bullet shells were left on the river bank. The enemy continued to pursue. In a cypress grave south of Wangzhuang Village, a wounded soldier of the Eighth Route Army was found. It turned out that when both sides were firing, an enemy shell landed in front of Squad Leader Qi and he was injured. When they were retreating, a few warriors carried him and ran. He ran to the cypress grave and said,""Put me down and run!"
"No, we must run together.”the soldiers said.
"Listen to me. If the enemy catches up to us, we're all finished. Everyone run out. I'm the only one left.”
The warriors did not leave, but went to pull him back. He was anxious and said seriously," This is an order. Junshan, give me the grenade. You're the acting platoon leader. Take it and run!"”
Jun Shan and a few soldiers carried Platoon Leader Qi into the bushes and ran away with the soldiers. The Central Army caught up and discovered Platoon Leader Qi. The three soldiers came over first. Platoon Leader Qi pretended to be dead and did not move. When they reached him, a grenade went off, and three enemy soldiers fell. He was injured again. A few more enemies rushed up from behind. They stared at Squad Leader Qi with fiery red eyes. Seeing that he was still alive, they shot him, then poured gasoline on him and lit him up, burning Squad Leader Qi to death in the cypress forest.
Then they retreated back to the river and cleaned up their battlefield. Seven soldiers of the Central Army were killed in the Hetao, and a few were injured. They stopped a truck that was transporting feces from Xia Village and returned to Liu Village with the corpse. They were unlucky to have set off this time.
The gunshots stopped, and the Japanese retreated to Liu Zhuang. People had been fleeing from war for many years, but this was the first time they had seen a real war. After the battle ended, the villagers ran into the Hetao to see the situation on the battlefield. Ah Hui followed her father and ran quite fast. Everyone wanted to be the first to arrive at the scene and leave their first impression on the battlefield. There was still the smell of gunpowder in the air, and there was smoke in some places. There were bullet shells on the ground. Ah Hui picked up a small bag one by one like a treasure and picked up a small bag. These bullet shells were shot by the National Party. Many people picked it up, and some picked up even more. It could be seen that the enemy had fired a lot of guns. However, the Eighth Route Army was under the Hexi Dam, so they couldn't see at all. Someone picked up some black chopsticks. Someone picked up a few communication tubes. Many people silently ran around the Hetao, looking for things that were abandoned by both sides. He didn't feel disappointed that he couldn't pick up anything.
A cow was killed. A farmer in his forties, wearing a black coat, sat next to the dead cow. His leg was injured. However, he did not cry. In a war environment, people probably would not cry. He and his cow were captured by the Central Army to be used as a vanguard and a shield. Later, Platoon Leader Qi's body was buried by the villagers on a high ground beside the cypress grave.
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]