march to victory

"Old Zhang, more than half of the food has been consumed."

Smoking a cigarette, he came to Zhang Qingshan's side. Looking at the starry sky and the full moon, Zhou Ping felt calm, but when he thought of the food problem, he frowned again, and couldn't help reminding Zhang Qingshan.

Zhang Qingshan didn't know what he was thinking, he just felt comfortable all over his body, and his mind was empty. This was probably an ethereal state, but upon hearing Zhou Ping's words, he was pulled back to the cruel reality in an instant.

Turning his head to look at Zhou Ping standing beside him, he frowned slightly, nodded, took a puff of cigarette, and then looked up at the beautiful galaxy, moon and stars, but he could never regain the ethereal and beautiful state just now , Two words that make people feel helpless always come to mind involuntarily-food!

Knowing that Zhang Qingshan must be racking his brains to find a solution at this time, Zhou Ping was very anxious, and he was afraid that Zhang Qingshan would not pay enough attention to this problem, so he had to remind him again: "Since we met with Wu Shaohong and the three comrades the day before yesterday, we have been working together for two or three days. I haven't met new comrades-in-arms since then, which proves that the route we took was biased against the main force. However, after turning around this morning, we immediately encountered two waves of people in succession, which is the most favorable proof of our current strength. The correctness of the route. But the problem is..."

Speaking of this, Zhou Ping paused for a moment, frowned deeply, took a deep puff of the cigarette, and after trying to calm down the excitement and anxiety in his heart, he continued to say while the smoke was slowly exhaling: "When you are fishing, I roughly asked about Comrade Luo Dingkun's situation..."

Probably seeing that Zhang Qingshan was still looking up at the starry sky, he didn't have any reaction to his words, he glanced at Zhang Qingshan strangely, seeing that he still didn't have any reaction, he was slightly surprised by Zhang Qingshan's calmness, and continued: "He said that he started to fall behind in the afternoon of the second day. He really had no energy to leave. In the end, he sat here to rest with the other two soldiers of the same class. Unexpectedly, when he woke up the next morning, the two comrades were silent. He really couldn’t walk anymore, seeing this situation, he felt that even if he caught up with the main force, it would only cause trouble for everyone, so he gritted his teeth, gave up, and lay here waiting to die.”

Although the words are simple, the meaning expressed is extremely worrying.Zhang Qingshan finally turned his head to look at Zhou Ping, and asked with a slightly moved expression: "The situation of the main force is so serious?"

"En!" Zhou Ping nodded, lowered his head and took a puff of his cigarette, then looked up at Zhang Qingshan, looking at each other, and found anxiety and worry in each other's eyes.Zhou Ping added: "I estimate that the situation may be more serious than we imagined. He said that when he fell behind, the main force basically ran out of food. Everyone almost relied on wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger. Some comrades were so hungry that they couldn't bear it. Just eat your own leather belts, cowhide cases, etc. Alas~!"

Zhang Qingshan looked up at the sky and remained silent for a long time.However, Zhou Ping keenly discovered that every time Zhang Qingshan took a puff of cigarette, the cigarette end was trembling slightly. It can be seen that Zhang Qingshan's mood was not stable, but he restrained himself better.

A few minutes later, Zhang Qingshan kept the cigarette butt in his hand on the ground and crushed it with his feet. The smoke he exhaled was very light under the light of the clear moon.With a long sigh, he asked softly, "Old Zhou, according to your judgment, how far do you think we are from the main force?"

"According to Comrade Dingkun's description, after he fell behind, he chased the main force with several comrades... I estimate that it should be three to four days away. According to Comrade Dingkun's own judgment, the main force had no food. Relying on wild vegetables alone consumes a lot of energy. He estimates that the average daily journey of the main force in the past three or four days should be between 25 and [-] miles. Moreover, although they still walk during the day and camp at night, the time for camping at night is getting more and more long……"

The camping time is getting longer and longer, that is to say, everyone's physical strength is being consumed more and more, but the nutrition cannot keep up for a long time, which makes a person unwilling to get up, and uses sleep to make up for the physical strength consumed during the day.

Zhang Qingshan frowned unknowingly, looked at Zhou Ping, opened his mouth, but didn't make a sound...Although the few of them can be regarded as traveling lightly, their speed is naturally faster than the main force, but the problem is, They had strayed a bit from the main force at the beginning, but now, if they wanted to catch up sideways, they would have to travel a little longer.

Zhou Ping thought he was going to ask about Xiang Xueqin, so he quickly explained: "Comrade Dingkun doesn't know the siblings, so he doesn't know the specific situation of the siblings... However, no news is the best news, so you can rest assured."

But Zhang Qingshan said dumbfoundedly: "I know, but what I wanted to ask just now was the situation of the chiefs?"

Hearing this, Zhou Ping frowned, and said in a low tone: "We are a revolutionary team. The chiefs have always strongly opposed specialization. Officers and soldiers have always been equal, and we eat and live with everyone..."

Speaking of this, Zhou Ping paused for a moment, his brows furrowed deeper, but he looked up at the sky, his voice was much lower: "Comrade Dingkun told about something he saw with his own eyes."

This must be something important, and it is not good, otherwise, Zhou Ping, who has always been the most calm, would not have such an expression.

"Well! Tell me."

"One evening, General Xiao Ke happened to come to inspect the regiment where Comrade Dingkun was. He saw that the comrades were eating wild vegetables and had no food at all. General Xiao Ke was about to kill his horses for everyone to eat. At that time , the comrades tried their best to stop it, and many soldiers knelt down and begged. But General Xiao Ke first apologized to the soldiers, saying that he, the leader, did not lead everyone well, and I was sorry for everyone's trust. Then he said... In fact, Comrade Dingkun He was a little far away, and couldn't hear what General Xiao Ke said in detail. He only remembered that General Xiao Ke said: If all comrades are sacrificed, it is meaningless for him, a poor commander, to live... Then, he put his own The war horse was killed, and the horse meat was distributed to everyone."

After finishing speaking, Zhou Ping specifically added: "At that time, many soldiers were crying and wailing. General Xiao Ke's eyes were red at the time, and he hid aside and wept when he heard that he went back."

war horse!For soldiers, how cherished and precious it is.It is conceivable that if it is only a last resort, who would be willing to kill his war horse?It is also conceivable how sad and indignant General Xiao Ke felt at that time.

After Zhang Qingshan was silent for a while, he asked lightly: "How many people are there in the main force?"

Zhou Ping shook his head, but didn't answer - he didn't know how to answer this question at all?Under the combination of backwardness, deviation and other factors, I am afraid that no one can say a specific number.

Zhang Qingshan also realized how stupid he was to ask just now.After thinking about it, he asked, "Which direction is the main force in?"

"he does not know."

"do not know?"

"Well! He was so hungry that he passed out, and now, he can't tell the direction at all."

"Then we can only follow our original plan, and at the same time deviate in the northwest direction, while walking and groping."

"Well! I hope to meet new comrades-in-arms as soon as possible. Then, maybe I can get more specific information about the main force."

Zhang Qingshan nodded, looked back, and said to Zhou Ping: "Go back and enjoy the fire, they seem to have finished eating."

"Wait a minute, there is something else I need to discuss with you."

"what's up?"

"Food problem!"

Zhang Qingshan's brows that had been stretched just now frowned again.

Zhou Ping had no choice but to repeat what he said before, and asked: "The food consumption has exceeded half, I estimated it, and how many more people will come in... Well! If there are ten people, it is estimated that we can still eat some meals." Highland barley, but if there are more people, it will be a little troublesome."

"Old Zhou, I know what you are thinking about. You want to say that if we continue to chase the main force like this, we will take in more laggard comrades, and then we will not have enough food, right? ?”

"Well! But first, I agree to continue to take in. After all, we are all our own comrades, but if we want to take in more comrades who are left behind, we must start from now on, save every morsel of food, and leave it to those in the future. more comrades are needed."

"I agree..." Zhang Qingshan pondered for a while, and said: "How about this, from now on, we will advance at a normal speed and rest at a normal schedule, so that I can have more time each time , Try to catch some fish, so that fish can be used instead of food, and every grain can be saved more.”

Fish meat is naturally fragrant, and even if it is served with a lot of wild vegetables, it is better than barley flour with a lot of wild vegetables.What Zhang Qingshan meant was that he wanted to exchange fish and meat for food, so that the saved food could be reserved for comrades who would be taken in in the future.After all, it is conceivable that when meeting those soldiers who were left behind, those soldiers were more hungry and cold than others, and the most lacking thing was food.To put it more bluntly, if they save a morsel of food now, they might be able to save a comrade's life by then.

This is also a situation where there is no other way, you can only tighten your belt.

"Okay, that's it. However, those wounded and sick must be special."

"It's natural." Zhang Qingshan nodded: "I can imagine that there will definitely be comrades like Ding Kun who fall behind or fall because of hunger, not because of injuries. Now, we are just going to try it on Comrade Dingkun, how to rescue comrades who have this situation."

"Then I'll start with breakfast tomorrow, you and I will suffer a little bit, save a little bit."

"Hehe, everything is for the revolution, for my comrades, and for going out. What is this little hardship? It was even worse before...Old Zhou, are you still the same?"

The two looked at each other and laughed at the same time. The smile contained bitterness and struggle, but also heroic.

"The point is, Baoyu and Xiaofang, how do you plan to arrange it? Is it according to our standard of food, or according to the standard of the wounded and sick?"

This is indeed a problem: Although they are not injured or sick, the problem is that they are now in a good time to grow up, and they are prone to hunger.They were originally not very tall due to long-term malnutrition. If they are treated according to the standards of Zhang Qingshan and Zhou Ping at this time, their future bodies will be greatly affected; It depends on their ideological consciousness, whether they are willing or not.

"Well, I'll go talk to them and let them choose."

"Well, but, Lao Zhang, we must do a good job of keeping this kind of thing secret, and don't let the wounded and sick realize that we are giving them special care, so that they can't take good care of their wounds when they don't want to... "Speaking of this, Zhou Ping sighed and said: "Every one of our Red Army soldiers is a good comrade!"

Zhang Qingshan nodded silently, and looked proudly at the few people who were talking and laughing not far away.

……