Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 803 Prodigal consumption!

October 1938, 1!
The four-element group arrived at a small town on the outskirts of Zhengzhou.

Gong Shaoxun led the first cavalry company and arrived in Zhengzhou two days ahead of schedule to negotiate with the Zhengzhou City Defense Command.

Regardless of the fact that Yu Province seems to be stable at present, the first war zone, which was re-adjusted half a month ago to defend the expansion area along the Ping-Han line, is actually more turbulent than the fifth war zone, which has already started fighting the Japanese army.

In order to complete the strategy of opening up the Jinpu Road, the Japanese army in North China, and then going west along the Longhai Line, cutting off the Ping-Han Line, and occupying Jiangxia, the Japanese army not only invested heavily in Xuzhou, but also cooperated with the Central China Dispatch Army to carry out a north-south attack on Xuzhou. The area also began to attack frequently, breaking through the Yellow River defense line in Henan Province in one fell swoop.

The entire First War Zone is also highly tense. Although the Four Elements Regiment is not considered heavy equipment, it is still a long line of pack horses and carts. From a distance, it looks like thousands of people. No wonder the generals are not angry.

The military order stamped with the seal of the 43rd Army Headquarters and the pass issued by the Fifth Theater Command still have some effect, coupled with the blessing of the two hundred ocean New Year gifts brought by Gong Shaoxun, Gong Shaoxun and his party did not sit in the Zhengzhou City Defense Command for long After a cold bench, he quickly approved the location that the Four Elements Group wanted these days.

As soon as the four-element group arrived, the whole town was decorated with lanterns and festoons to welcome the whole people.

It's not that this peaceful town, which has not been invaded by the Japanese army, is full of troops. The people of Yu Province are simple but practical.

In fact, the military quarter of the Four Elements Regiment, which was the first to arrive in the town, was full of local tyrants. After arriving, they posted notices asking for large quantities of rice, noodles, chickens, ducks, fish, pigs, eggs, vegetables and other daily necessities. The purchase price was compared to the current The market price went up by [-]%.

The heart of Chief of Staff Zhuang, who is the chief logistics officer of the Four Elements Regiment, is about to break!

In several regiment meetings, he almost blushed and angrily scolded the head of Tang Da for spending money like a prodigal!But Tang Dao resolutely implemented his decision with the veto power of the supreme officer.

It's not a big deal just to buy something, there is still a lot of demand from the Four Elements Group!
This made the farmers around the town very happy.

The entire province of Yu Province is basically a plain, and it is also the center of China. As long as the weather is good, it is definitely qualified to become one of the granaries of China, otherwise there will be no one who wins the Central Plains and wins the world.

In the wars throughout the ages, Yu Province is the must-take place for the north to reach the plains of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Although the war broke out in North China and East China in 1937, Henan Province, which had not yet spread, had a bumper harvest of grain. This was also the last recuperation of the people of Henan Province after the terrible flood in the Yangtze River and Huaihe River in 1931 caused the grain harvest to be almost wiped out. .

Ever since he set foot on the land of Yu Province, Tang Dao's heart may not have been completely quiet, because he is familiar with history, he knows too well that if the most brutal killings by the Japanese army in the War of Resistance Against Japan were in the south of the Yangtze River, the people in the south of the Yangtze River suffered, but compared to natural disasters The people of Yu Province, who have suffered all kinds of disasters, are really not the most miserable.

The suffering of the people in Yu Province actually started six years ago, and will reach its peak in the next three years. It is definitely the most unbearable scene in the history of China.

Four months later, in June 1938, the Japanese army was approaching Zhengzhou with a torrent of iron and steel. It was about to approach Jiangxia hundreds of kilometers away, and the Yellow River burst its embankment.

Only this time, it was not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster!

The Huayuankou levee was blown up by the order of that person, and the torrential floods obliterated more than 40 counties in Henan Province. The Japanese tanks and artillery were stuck in the mud and marched slowly, but this was obtained by destroying a large area of ​​farmland and killing 80 people.

The people of Yu Province, who had just been freed from the last disaster, fell to the bottom again.

But for the people of Yu Province at this time, just like the capital market in the future, when you think it is already the bottom of the valley, no, there is a basement under the bottom of the valley, and there is hell under the basement.

In the next three years, when the Anti-Japanese War had entered a fierce stage, in order for the frontline soldiers to have enough rations, the headmaster made another foolish move to forcibly requisition food.

According to statistics, in that year alone, the authorities collected 3.4 million catties of wheat alone, not including other crops.

This has once again increased the burden on the people, and the people in Yu Province can't afford a single cent of food.

And this was just the real beginning of that catastrophe.

In the spring of the second year of the forced military rations, Yu Province suffered an unprecedented severe drought. This drought lasted for half a year, and sometimes there was no rain for a month.

Even so, the military representatives stationed in Yu Province at that time still chose to carry out the order and forcibly requisition food. Even though many local officials had knelt before him, they still could not change his determination.

And the head of the Tang Army stationed in Henan Province has transformed into Commander Tang, not only forced to requisition food with the support of military representatives, but also took many young and strong laborers away for forced labor under the pretext of tense fighting.

It can be said that what the people of Yu Province encountered at this time was natural disasters and man-made disasters, man-made disasters caused by their own people.

However, the people of Yu Province are used to suffering, and they thought that it would be good to wait for the grain to be harvested.After finally getting through July, seeing that the fields were not as good as 7% of the usual grain, the people of Henan Province had not had time to be happy, and the locusts came again.

Overwhelming locusts swept across the entire territory of Yu Province, eating up the food that was not much in the first place.

The new food that has been waiting for half a year is gone, and the original food reserves have been collected long ago, which completely cut off people's hope of survival.

An unprecedented mass escape officially kicked off in July of the fifth year after the war began.

At the beginning, people may be more restrained. After all, they are all neighbors, and they don't see each other when they look up.

But when people are hungry to a certain extent, they still care about what is benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith, and what is propriety, righteousness, honesty and shame, and various riots occur one after another.

The darkest hour has come.

When I saw the package, I wanted to grab it. Even if I knew there would be no food, I wanted to see it with my own eyes.

But gradually, people also realized that the food was taken away by the army, and no one had any food in the hands of the people.

But if they are allowed to rob the army with bare hands, that can't be done.

Ever since, people began to find ways to save themselves.

The first method that comes to mind is to eat wild vegetables and plan grass roots.

At first people only searched around the village, but gradually, they found that these could no longer satisfy the stomach of the whole village, so they could only start to flee famine.

However, under successive years of drought, even if there are so many wild vegetables and grass roots, how can they supply the tens of millions of people in Yu Province.

No way, people turned their attention to the trees along the way again.

At the beginning, people were only eating the leaves, but it was unknown when it was spread that someone discovered that the bark could be eaten, and everyone began to eat the bark one after another.

Although this did allow some people to survive successfully, it should be noted that not all bark can be eaten.

Some bark is not easy to digest after eating, and it is easy to cause blockage if it accumulates in the stomach. Many people are starved to death like this.

It's just that the extremely hungry people can't take care of so much anymore, and they rush to the trees when they see them.

They gnawed wherever they fled, and the trees along the way were all stripped of their skins.

But soon it was discovered that even the trees were not enough to eat.

At this time, the so-called "Guanyin soil" appeared.

This is a white clay, and because it is fine, it will not scratch the stomach after eating.

After hearing the news, many people frantically searched for it. When they got home, they served it with steamed wild vegetables. After eating it, they would feel warm and full.

But this kind of soil has a characteristic, that is, it will solidify when it encounters water.

As a result, all the Avalokitesvara soil is accumulated in the stomach and cannot be pulled out.

It may not have any effect in a short period of time, but eating too much will cause the abdomen to become hard and swell to death.

However, natural disasters are not fatal, the most deadly is the human heart.

The person who was the chairman of Yu Province at that time was a close friend of the principal. For his own official position, he actually concealed the disaster in the country, and even said that Yu Province had a good harvest and there was still a lot of surplus food.

Where is there any surplus food, even if there is, it is in the hands of these officials.

At the end of the autumn of that year, Guo Zhonghuai, who participated in the national government, saw disaster victims everywhere on his way to the mountain city. Many people sold their children and daughters in exchange for a bite to eat. The people of Yu Province pleaded for orders, and the whole country learned that the disaster in Yu Province was serious.

But before the so-called disaster relief funds were allocated, 300 million people in Yu Province had starved to death, which is definitely a frightening astronomical figure.

You need to know the population of Yu Province as a whole, and during the entire War of Resistance Against Japan, the recorded casualties on the frontline battlefields were only more than 300 million, but in Yu Province, it is believed that 80 people died in a flood and 300 million in a major famine.

Tang Dao came to the north, why did he detour along the middle of Henan? In fact, he also had a purpose. He wanted to meet a very important person, and hoped that he could do something within his ability for the suffering of Yu Province in the future. Crushed by the ruts of history, Tang Dao must also give it a try.

When they came to this small town, the Four Elements Group could not do more. They could only buy a wave of supplies and exchange the food that the local villagers could not take away in four months with easy-to-carry oceans.

The farmers around the town are of course happy. There is a lot of food, and they don't feel panic if it is in the ocean, not to mention that it is [-]% higher than the market price in Zhengzhou.

I don't know how much white flour and the supplies needed by the Four Elements Regiment gathered in the town. For the white flour alone, the Military Supply Office bought [-] catties, and with chicken, duck and fish meat, the Four Elements Regiment paid nearly [-] catties.

Not only the farmers around the town benefited, but also the residents of the town were notified that the Four Elements Group needed 300 private houses for living and 16000 pairs of cotton shoes at a unit price of 0.25 yuan per pair of shoes.

Although the rental period is short, only four days, the rent for one room is an ocean. The price of a single pair of cotton shoes is more than double the price of daily cotton shoes, and the order is huge. It's hard for women.

The mayor wisely spread the news, hoping to help the local tyrant army get such a huge order of cotton shoes within 4 days.

As for the house, the residents of the small town can completely digest it independently.

The town is not too big, with less than 2000 people. More than 300 families can basically rent out a room. It can be regarded as a four-way group staying in the town for four days and giving each family a piece of ocean for the New Year. good thing.

Moreover, the Quartermaster Division of the Four Elements Regiment brought cash from the ocean, and the supplies sent by the villagers were all settled in cash on the spot.Facing such a local tyrant-level army, why don't the mayor and the residents of the town welcome them with both hands and feet?

In order to make it easier for the Four Elements Group to station, the mayor of the small town also specially suggested that the whole family temporarily move out to other houses for a few days, and all the houses will be reserved for the Four Elements Group, and the rent will be paid by the tenants and borrowers. split equally.

This is naturally something that the Four Elements Group can't wait for.

Houses and cotton shoes are really what the Four Elements Group needs most at the moment.

The four-element regiment is the most expensive thing to march, and shoes are the most expensive thing, especially when there are a large number of Sichuan soldiers in the four-element regiment. When that guy was merged into the four-element regiment, he was still wearing straw sandals in the cold winter months.

It wasn’t that in the Battle of Laojinkeng, more than 2000 Japanese soldiers were wiped out, and the cowhide shoes worn by the Japanese soldiers were cleaned up. The dress of the Four Elements Group is actually no different from that of beggars.

But this is only about 2000 pairs, most of which were issued to soldiers with outstanding performance, and a small part was stored as military supplies.

To be honest, the Japanese cowhide shoes look warm, durable and stab-resistant, but these things are okay on the battlefield, and they are heavy when marching. If they get muddy in rainy days, they are not as good as straw sandals .

Many soldiers put these things in their backpacks and waited to wear them on the battlefield. They still wore their rotten cloth shoes and straw sandals when marching, even if they were very cold.

It was only when Tang Dao arrived in Xuzhou that he reluctantly equipped everyone in the regiment with two pairs of cotton shoes. Just like this, many people were reluctant to wear them. When marching, they wore straw sandals made by themselves, and their feet were cracked by the cold in winter. There are holes.

It was really distressing to see, and as a last resort, Tang Dao even issued a military order that everyone must wear cotton shoes and march.

But the long-distance march and heavy loads made the shoes really overwhelmed. A new pair of shoes broke down within a week. As a last resort, many people tied the soles and uppers of the shoes with straw ropes layer after layer.

It looks both funny and sad from a distance!
Therefore, these shoes must be bought, and bought in large quantities. The soldiers' feet are the most important objects in the charge and must be protected.

As for the house, that is what the Four Elements Group desperately needs at the moment. The purpose is not to have to sleep in the house during the Chinese New Year, but about personal hygiene.

There are nearly [-] people in the Four Elements Group. For three consecutive months, they have been sleeping in the open air, and those who love to be clean even find time to take a bath, but what do most of the rough guys think?Although it was winter, some people had that smell on them. Tang Dao once went to the company for inspection, and on a whim, he ate with the soldiers in the infantry company.

What has Tang Dao never seen or smelled?The smell of sewers, the smell of biological decay, the smell of blood on the battlefield, the smell of gunpowder smoke
But Tang Dao was still smoked by the body odor of his soldiers, which can be called the timeless sauce-flavored type. Really, ordinary odors can be felt if you cover your nose or hold your breath for a while. It's over.

But the smell factor after several months of "cellaring" and "fermentation" not only hit the nose on the spot, even if Tang Dao left, he could still be attached to his body, not to mention the hammer that Tang Dao ran away after returning to the regiment headquarters With a look of disgust, even Tantai Mingyue couldn't help sniffing with a strange look.

And the soldiers around that guy have long been used to it, maybe it's not just "being in the place of abalone for a long time and not smelling it", but that the big guys are not bad, and those who haven't bathed for a month are not qualified to laugh at it for two months three months.

There is also the lice, jumping up and down on the beard and hair of the soldiers visible to the naked eye, and the soldiers have long been used to it, catching them is nothing more than crushing to death, and some people even like to hear the crisp sound of "cracking", And it's euphemistically called card jumping crisp.

Such a guy went to the north purely to lose our four-element group!
After learning from the pain, Tang Dao issued a military order, requiring the whole regiment to pay attention to personal hygiene. Now the conditions are not good, let alone take a bath once a week!You must also wash your face once every two weeks. As long as you wash your face and brush your teeth, it must be done once a day unless it is a wartime period. .
Normally, the military order of the regimental commander Tang is smooth, but this military order cannot be carried out, because the current conditions do not allow it.

This weather is the coldest winter, and Yu Province is also very close to the northern provinces. At night, the temperature drops to below zero, and the officers and soldiers of the Four Elements Regiment marching in the field have to sleep next to the bonfire in the lee. Even a clean woman like Tantai Mingyue objected to the typhoid fever.

A dirty body can't kill people, but typhoid fever can really kill people. The medical team she works in doesn't have so many medicines for typhoid fever!

It would be great if this special good had penicillin!Regardless of wound infection or cold and cold, one injection will be effective, especially for people who have never used antibiotics in this era.At that moment, Tang Dao had never been so eager for this lowest-grade penicillin, because of the long-lasting and strong sauce-flavored body odor of soldiers who had not bathed in March.

But Tang Dao knew that although penicillin had been discovered 10 years ago, there was no breakthrough until two years later, and clinical application would have to wait another year.

However, Tang Dao has been busy fighting some time ago, and has no time to make this precious thing. When he arrives at the destination, Tang Dao has a lot of time to fix this.

It’s not that those who don’t know how to deal with penicillin aren’t good time travelers, but this baby is definitely an epoch-making drug. Since the appearance of penicillin, the death rate due to wound infection has dropped by a full 90.00%.

And how much would this thing be worth if it was produced?Tang Dao remembered a document that even after World War II, in China, a shot of penicillin was worth a tael of gold.

That means that if penicillin is developed, it is comparable to opening a gold mine. If it is given to those Westerners who are still in the research and development stage, let alone machine guns and cannons, as long as you want, you can exchange for an aircraft carrier.

This is the first business that Tang Dao conceived on the road. The only difficulty is that although the principle of penicillin is simple, it is extremely difficult to purify, especially under the limitation of the technological level of this era.

However, there are always more solutions than difficulties. Tang Dao doesn't believe that he, a future man, can't lead a group of technological experts to come up with this. He knows that the group of heaven's favored people have learned chemistry and medicine.

In the wilderness, you can't take a shower to do personal hygiene in order to avoid injury, so you can always rent a house!
Tang Dao ordered the infantry squad to be the unit, one infantry squad to one room, boil a lot of boiling water, take turns to enter the room to take a bath, and the worn military uniforms should also be boiled and washed in boiling water, and all new military uniforms will be replaced.

Moreover, everyone must shave their hair short before the Chinese New Year, either with a short cut or bald!
When the army of the Four Elements Regiment arrived, the small town was not only decorated with lights and festoons, but the residents of the town lined the road to welcome the officers and soldiers with their heads held high. The most excited ones were the barbers who heard the news from Zhengzhou City.

After all, more than 2000 heads to be cut and scraped!
Cut off ten heads for one yuan, and go to the Quartermaster Office of the Four Elements Regiment to collect the money according to the signatures of the officers and soldiers!
Every head is shining with golden light!

(End of this chapter)