Globe Trekker

Chapter 78 The New White Bandit Is Not Simple

Mao Pailing is a mountain village with a history of nearly a thousand years. There are 230 seven households in the village, with a total of more than [-] mouths of men, women and children. Surrounded by green mountains, green waters and emerald bamboos, the paddy fields are stretched and fertile, and the gentle slopes of the mountains are also full of fruit trees. If it were not for the war, Maopailing Village with its beautiful mountains and rivers could be called a peaceful paradise.

At four o'clock in the afternoon on March [-]th, the villagers in Mao Pailing stood nervously in the distance to watch the two armies switch defenses. Nearly a thousand newly arrived officers and soldiers in gray uniforms left after a hasty meeting.

The new officers and soldiers did not rush around like the villagers were worried about, nor did they barge into any house to ask for military rations. Instead, they gathered to rest on the sun terrace at the east end of the village.

In doubt, I saw more than a dozen officers dressed like soldiers but with short guns on their waists gathered together, pointing at the village and the three directions of south, north, and west from time to time, and then discussing around a paper map on the ground When he got up, the villagers were too frightened to cough loudly.

Not long after, a kind-looking young officer strode out of Shaping, stopped in front of the ancestral hall at the entrance of the village, saluted a group of villagers whose faces turned pale with fright, and asked loudly in authentic Gandong dialect: "I It's Zhang Dongning, the staff officer of the Fifth Regiment of the Left Route Army, who is the village chief?"

"Oldness is."

The village head who stood at the front hurriedly stepped forward and bowed: "Boss, the ancestral halls and houses in the village that were confiscated by the army before are still empty, but there is not much food, and now it is the time of shortage, no one has any food left! "

Zhang Dongning froze for a moment, then quickly grinned and said, "Old man, we don't need food from the folks, and we won't live in the ancestral hall or any other family. We bring our own food. If we need anything else, we I will pay for it, but today and tomorrow we need to cut some bamboos and trees, and it is estimated that we will blow up some stones at the bend of the river two miles to the south to build a wooden bridge, and build barracks and fortifications in all directions at the entrance of the village. No more money, okay?"

How could the villagers believe that the officers and soldiers were so easy to talk to? Only the village head, who was over half a century old and well-informed, asked doubtfully, "Aren't you angry if you don't live in the village in such a cold day?"

Lu Kuiyuan smiled and said: "Our Chief Wu asked me to take him to say hello to the folks. By the way, I would like to ask the folks, who has cured meat or chestnuts, yams, and yams? If you have any, you can sell them to us. How much do you want? We will pay as much as the folks usually sell, all in silver dollars and silver cents, no one is cheating, and we will never let the folks suffer. If the folks don’t blame us for cutting down some trees, we are willing to give a hundred catties How about fine salt to compensate the folks?"

"One hundred catties of refined salt?"

"This, this..."

There was a sound of breathing at the entrance of the ancestral hall. These days, not to mention refined salt, even coarse salt is under control. I am afraid that it will fall into the hands of the Red Army. Now the boss gave away a hundred catties of refined salt as soon as he opened his mouth. Such a great favor made all the villagers They all found it unbelievable, staring blankly at the amiable Zhang Dongning, speechless, and dared not agree to such an unbelievably generous condition.

Seeing this, Zhang Dongning knew that he would not be able to explain for a while, so he just saluted and left, and returned to Shaiping to report to Wu Ming.

Wu Ming just nodded, and ordered the first battalion commander Yin Dizhong to lead his troops to the river bend one kilometer to the south, immediately cut down bamboo and wood to build barracks along the hidden place at the foot of the mountain, ordered the machine gun company to go to the west entrance of the village, and ordered the engineering company to go to the northwest intersection of the village , to expand and strengthen the two fortifications as soon as possible. After the cooking squads of each company are in place, they will immediately bury the pot for cooking. Select officers and soldiers who can speak Gandong dialect and take money to buy cured meat and mountain products from the villagers. Never force it.

The troops assembled quickly, and the ministers led their respective battalions and companies to leave quickly. In less than 10 minutes, there were only more than [-] officers and soldiers of the regiment headquarters and a platoon of the special agent company left on the wide sun terrace. , Under the stunned gaze of hundreds of folks, a neat row of tents was set up along the outer wall of the ancestral hall.

It was not dawn the next day, and the villagers who were worried all night were suddenly startled by several loud bugles. The village chief, who hadn't slept all night, put on his cotton-padded jackets and walked out of the house at the same time. Before reaching the east entrance of the village, he was frightened by the singing and stopped.

"Every revolutionary soldier must keep in mind, the three major disciplines and six points of attention, the first is that all actions follow the command, and only when they are in step can they win the battle..."

"We are all sharpshooters, every bullet kills an enemy, we are all swift legs, even if the mountain is high and the water is deep..."

"Ah—a soldier, what's the difference..."

The waves of singing one after another, the heroic singing broke the tranquility of the mountain village and echoed in the mountains for a long time.

This new and strange event, which has never been seen before, completely confused the parents and villagers. The doors of every house were opened, and the old and young gathered together and asked in surprise what was going on?Why are these thousand newcomers so different from all previous armies?

As the people who inquired about the news continued to come back, things that shocked the villagers spread one after another:
Last night, the old Zhou’s family at the west entrance of the village had the courage to sell four cured rabbits to the officers and soldiers, and they really got back one silver dollar plus two cents; I heard from that kind-hearted gang leader earlier that their regiment leader cooked and ate it himself when he was happy.

In addition, the two roads at the west and northwest entrances of the village turned into six roads. At the foot of the mountain behind the horses, there are five fortifications built with sandbags and large wooden barrels, three high and two low, firmly sealing off the passage from west to north; The river bend in the south of the village is full of freshly cut large logs and bowl-thick moso bamboos. It seems that this team of officers and soldiers will not only build a house in the river bend, but also build a wooden bridge leading to the ginkgo tree on the east bank. There are also more than a hundred officers and soldiers there, and several sandbag fortifications were built between the two mountains, blocking the only road leading to the county town in the south of the village...

Among the hundreds of villagers discussing a lot, there was an honest middle-aged man who did not speak from the beginning to the end. He stood outside the crowd and listened for more than half an hour. While no one was paying attention, he quietly walked to the door of the village chief's house. The village chief's wife and daughter-in-law greeted respectfully, sat down and waited quietly for the village chief to come back.

It wasn't until three poles in the sun that the village chief, who had gone to meet the officers and soldiers, returned home. Seeing the honest middle-aged man sitting on the grass pier and looking at him happily, he couldn't help sighing and sat next to the man, and took the cigarette bag from his daughter-in-law. Slowly load the tobacco, glance at the smiling man striking the match, and helplessly move the pipe to the flame.

The old village chief took a few puffs, slowly exhaled a long smoke, frowned and said worriedly: "The officers and soldiers really gave us a hundred catties of refined salt just now, and I asked Lao Qi and others to distribute it from house to house. Ah, this team of officers and soldiers is not simple!"

"Uncle, tell me why it's not easy?" the middle-aged man asked.

The old village head looked into the eyes of the middle-aged man: "Didn't you hear about them yourself?"

The middle-aged man nodded: "I heard that, they don't bully their fathers and villagers, they don't live in ancestral halls and households like other white dog troops, they build straw huts outside the village by themselves, and they buy and sell fairly, Listening to the sound of bugles, the sound of passwords and the sound of running footsteps, it can be seen that they have strict military discipline and well-trained, and they are indeed different from the previous white dogs."

The old village head cast his eyes on the fire pit in front of him: "Before I came back, I went to Lao Wu's house in the east of the village. Two military doctors from the officers and soldiers were treating Lao Wu's mother. I heard that five oceans couldn't buy it. I used all the quinine I had, and I didn’t charge the old Wu’s family a penny. The two medical officers are very kind, and it’s obvious that they are from a big place and have studied Western medicine.”

The middle-aged man was slightly surprised: "Uncle, did you hear clearly? Is it really quinine?"

"Although I haven't been out and about in the past two years, I still know about quinine, no less than you, a half bucket of water who only studied in private schools for two years." The old village chief gave the middle-aged man a displeased look. .

The middle-aged man was finally worried: "So, they are really kind to their fathers and fellow villagers, why should the people in the village be disturbed by them?"

The old village chief sighed: "This team of officers and soldiers is different from all the officers and soldiers in the past. Everyone speaks very kindly, and no one uses anything in the village. Up to now, no one has entered the gate of any house. Buying mountain goods also stood at the door and waited, and left after paying the money, without taking a sip of water, which is better than your Red Army!"

"Dezhi, tell me, how do you let my old bones plot against them? By the way, you asked me to find out. This team has a total of more than 1000 officers and soldiers. The leader's surname is Wu, and his accent is from Nanchang, so he can speak nicely." official language, but I don’t know which one it is, it is said that it is a unit directly under the former enemy headquarters.”

"The troops directly under the Left Route Army? So, it is true that they came from Nancheng to change defense?"

The middle-aged man knew that Nancheng was the former enemy headquarters of the Kuomintang Central Army's Central Route Army, and the former enemy commander was Chen Cheng, commander of the No. 18 Army of the Central Army. In this way, the regiment that came to change defenses was probably the main regiment under Chen Cheng's command. Now the main officers and soldiers of the Central Army are all in yellow-green uniforms, but the new regiment is still in gray uniforms. This difference confuses the middle-aged man again.

The old village head knocked off the soot in the smoke pot, and turned to the middle-aged man in deep thought again: "I heard that the officers and soldiers in this team don't have cannons, but they have a lot of machine guns. The officers and soldiers with machine guns led three big wolf dogs, which were more ferocious than wolves, so scary, and I reckoned that the lightest one weighed seventy or eighty catties."

The middle-aged man was taken aback: "Could it be the legendary German wolfhound? Why do they have a big wolfhound? What are they used for?"

The old village head gave him another look: "If you ask me, who should I ask? Dogs can't speak human words, how can I know whether it is Chinese or German? As for what it is used for, I don't know. Home and hunting, what else can you do?"

The middle-aged man suddenly realized: "No, Uncle, I have to leave quickly, otherwise it will be too late."

"and many more!"

The old village head grabbed him: "Are you really going to bring the Red Army back? Are you afraid of hurting the villagers? Even if you don't hurt people, do you still want the crops outside the village?"

The middle-aged man shook his head anxiously: "I just pass the news back. It is not up to me to call back. There was only one battalion of white dogs stationed here before, but now it has become a regiment. It seems that the enemy may have noticed something. No, no! I have to take the news to the south immediately, or there will be big trouble!"

"Is the village chief at home? Our team leader is here to visit you and discuss something with you." The familiar voice of the young boss came from outside the door, and the dense footsteps were getting closer.

Seeing that he couldn't get away, the middle-aged man hurriedly hid behind the old village head, bowed his head and made a frightened look. Seeing the old village head warmly welcome the three tall and well-mannered soldiers, he was taken aback for a moment and quickly He picked up the small chair on the side and handed it over.

A powerful big hand suddenly grabbed the back of the chair, and the middle-aged man quickly raised his head, seeing a pair of heart-shatteringly deep eyes staring at him, he trembled violently.

　The cold became more and more uncomfortable, and the emperor endured the discomfort to finish this chapter!Thank you Luo-Ye, Shan Zhongshi, Jigeer, Xiaotan Qiangufengliu, Jin Mucanchen for your great rewards, and thank you brothers and sisters for your recommendation tickets and collections!The Son of Heaven continues to ask for recommendation tickets and collections!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)