under fire

Chapter 638 Food that cannot be avoided

In the broken yard, a donkey was slowly turning around the stone mill.

A middle-aged woman with a towel wrapped around her head kept pouring chaff in from the mill eye, and the slightly finer grain chaff squeezed out from between the millstones, and compared with what was poured in, there was almost no change.

In the middle of the yard, there was a broken table surrounded by a few guerrilla fighters who were eating.

At the gate of the small courtyard, there were a few children with old patched clothes and snot-soaked clothes.

With one foot on the stool, the monkey held millet porridge with wild vegetables in one hand, and a bran bun in the other hand, and glanced at Lao Meng opposite him: "Captain Meng, is this fucking edible for humans?"

Lao Meng looked pale, and said in a hoarse voice, "If you like to eat or not, there are only two meals a day."

"This thing scratches the throat!" The monkey cried and poured the porridge into his mouth.

"You can't eat like this, you have to break the cornbread into pieces and soak it in the porridge!" Lao Meng stood up after speaking, and filled the monkey with another bowl of porridge from the pot on the broken table with a dark face.

The monkey was speechless looking at the porridge that could reflect its shadow, and helplessly imitated Lao Meng, slowly breaking the corn buns into finger-sized pieces and soaking them into the porridge.

The steamed corn buns that were broken into small pieces fell into the porridge immediately, and the chaff husks floated on the surface of the porridge. The monkey poured it into its mouth with its eyes closed, but was still swallowed so hard that it rolled its eyes and kept complaining: "This is better than what a big animal eats." Not as good."

"It's good to have something to eat, don't waste it, drink it up." Seeing that the monkey had half a bowl left, Lao Meng had a serious face.

"I can't eat any more, I'll vomit if I eat any more." The monkey who just came back after driving for a long time stood up and was going to find a place to sleep.

A little girl in rags and old trousers stood at the door, her face was almost skinny, staring at the monkey's unfinished bowl of porridge with wide eyes.

Monkey felt that the girl looked like a fool, and turned to Lao Meng: "Who is this girl, why did she come here, where is her lord?"

Lao Meng shook his head: "This girl has a hard life. Her parents were killed by devils. His grandparents took her to the base area with the fleeing crowd. She is the only one left in the family. She is very sensible at a young age."

"Hey, what are you looking at me for? Come here." The monkey suddenly felt sore, ready to tease the little girl.

During this period of time, the monkeys were active in the enemy-occupied area. They saw more and more people starved to death, and their hearts were almost numb.

The little girl didn't say a word, but suddenly mustered up her courage, ran to the table, picked up the monkey's unfinished bowl of porridge soaked in steamed corn bread with both hands, and poured it all into her mouth.

"Slow down, slow down!" Lao Meng patted the back of the little girl who was licking the bowl, and turned to look at the monkey: "Monkey, you have to know that if we don't get any more food, there may be starvation here too." The condition of the dead."

Monkey took his eyes back from the little girl: "Didn't you tell the group? What is Tian Sanqi doing all day long?"

"The devil played tricks and drove tens of thousands of people into the mountains. Our regiment alone received more than 6000 people. There were no natural disasters before, and the independent regiments were short of food. Now that there are so many more mouths, the regiment is also difficult. .”

The monkey asked suspiciously: "Didn't Chojiu send [-] catties of grain into the mountain some time ago?"

"That happened a long time ago. Besides, [-] catties of grain, how much do you think? It was only [-] catties when it was allocated to the Independence Regiment, and some of them were squeezed out from the division. Only near the Independence Regiment's station, plus There are nearly [-] ordinary people, and an average person can share two catties, how long do you think it can last? Even with wild vegetables, it can only last for ten and a half months, and the regiment is also very nervous now."

"Hey, I have never encountered such a thing before." Monkey scratched his head. Although the national army was defeated most of the time, it had a special ration support team, and there was never a shortage of food.

"It's almost winter now, and there are still at least three months until the harvest of summer grain. Think about it, if a person starves for three days, even the soil will be stuffed into his mouth. What should we do in the next few days? It's going to starve to death." Human."

"How do I know?" The monkey's mind was buzzing, thinking that I would not be able to walk for a day without eating, so he asked again unwillingly: "Then how should we deal with it?"

Lao Meng poured a big gulp into his mouth: "The superior is also trying to find a way to do this."

"Report!" A guerrilla pulled away several children from the door, squeezed into the broken courtyard and saluted: "Captain Meng, a few people came from outside the village, and they said they came from the fifth district."

The voice interrupted the suppressed hell-like atmosphere created by the two of them.

Lao Meng shook his head, drank up the porridge in the bowl, then licked it clean, got up and said to the monkey, "Go, go and have a look."

At the entrance of the village, two tall and thin people dressed as ordinary people folded their hands in their sleeves. When they saw Lao Meng coming out in a patchwork suit, their eyes lit up: "Lao Meng! Long time no see!"

Lao Meng showed a rare smile: "Captain Yu? Why are you here?"

"Why, our armed task force is not welcome?"

"Hey, I'm not in the mood to welcome you. We're almost too poor to let it go. Now that you're here, isn't that a joke?"

Captain Yu smiled wryly: "You are so poor that you can't get rid of the pot. We can't get rid of the clothes in a few days in the sub-district. Hey, why don't you invite me in and have a sit? Let me drink the northwest wind here?"

"Look at what you said, why haven't you eaten yet? Let's go, hurry up, I still have hot porridge and corn buns."

Captain Yu drank three bowls of porridge and two of branwotou. He stood up and shook his clinking stomach, his voice was hoarse: "It feels good to have stuff in this stomach."

Lao Meng asked: "How long has it been since we met, how did you become so thin?"

"Look at you, how can you be better?" Captain Yu looked up and down at Captain Meng, and then carefully pulled out a piece of paper from the bag behind him: "Hey, Lao Meng, this is my letter of introduction." .”

Lao Meng took it over: "I'm an old acquaintance, what letter of introduction do I need? I heard that your work team made great contributions to the attack on Hua County last time?"

"Hey, it happened a few months ago. I'm ashamed to say it. Uh. By the way, Comrade Chang Hongying of the Independence Regiment seems to be stationed near here, right?"

Lao Meng asked in surprise: "Xiao Hongying? What are you asking her for?"

"Last time in Huaxian County, we put in a lot of effort, but we didn't expect this girl to be stronger than us. This time I came to thank her by the way."

Lao Meng thought for a while, but didn't hide anything: "She went to the teacher's school to participate in the Anti-Japanese University study."

"Hey, that's really a pity." After Captain Yu finished speaking, he took out something wrapped in cloth and wrapped with a rope from his pocket and handed it to Lao Meng: "Please find a way to pass this to her."

Captain Meng reached out to take it again: "It's no problem, what mission do you guys have this time?"

Then he returned the letter of introduction that he had read to Captain Yu.

Captain Yu sat down and his face became serious: "The situation is serious now. From last autumn to the present, according to statistics by district, tens of thousands of people starved to death in the Weinan area of ​​Hua County, Guangqi County. The superior sent our work team to your place. Come here, just find a way to buy grain from Shanxi, then transport it from the mountains, and then transport the grain into the enemy-occupied area."

"What are you talking about? Transporting grain from Shanxi through the Taihang Mountains to the enemy-occupied areas in the east? I have always transported grain from the plains to the mountains. This is the first time I have heard of transporting grain from the mountains? Are you out of your mind?"

"I'm talking about buying it from Shanxi and sending it to the inner yellow area through your defense zone."

"Who the hell came up with such a bad idea? From West Taihang to the east, it's nearly a thousand miles away, why don't you take the plain luck?"

Captain Yu shook his head: "The people in Chongqing still don't believe that there is a great famine, and the war zone is even levying military rations! There is no way to transport them from their defense zone! There is another problem. Enemy-occupied territory is an act of capitalizing on the enemy!"

Captain Yu was also helpless: "We must do our best for this matter. The superior has already arranged it. We just need to execute the order. Not only your independent regiment, but also the supplementary regiment and the friendly forces in the north are all trying to find a way to get more. Less people will starve to death."

"Tell me, how do you want me to cooperate with you in transporting food?" Lao Meng was serious.

Captain Yu pulled a map out of his bag: "Now we have to solve the transportation problem. How is the relationship between your base and the security forces guarding the blockade on the blockade? Can you find a way to smuggle it?"

(End of this chapter)