As a group of people walked on the road, an accompanying guard looked around curiously and saw that the surrounding farmland was full of golden colors, and many farmers were busy harvesting.
A guard curiously said to the leading man: "Chief, as we walked along, we found that the closer we get to Liantai County, the better the roads. It seems that the parents here are pretty good."
"It's hard to say." Another guard next to him curled his lips: "The crows in the world are as black as all the crows in the world. Officials are all virtuous. How can there be any good officials in this world today?"
The middle-aged man at the head smiled slightly: "Well, we have to investigate to find out. Aren't there just a few farmers over there taking a rest? We can go over and ask and we will find out."
After saying that, he galloped towards the roadside and stopped not far from the farmer who was sitting on the roadside writing and smoking a cigarette. After dismounting, he led the horse slowly to the side of an old farmer.
, asked the old man with a smile: "Old man... this year's harvest is pretty good!"
When the old man saw that the visitor was dressed like a clothes merchant, he did not dare to neglect him because of his extraordinary bearing. He walked away with a simple and honest smile: "Mr. Lao, please tell me that this year's harvest is indeed good. I can finally eat it for a few days."
I'm full.
This gentleman doesn’t know your surname, where you are from, and where you are going?”
The middle-aged man smiled and said: "My surname is Zuo. We are here from Licheng. We are here to do some small business. I passed by your Liantai County and saw that your crops were harvested so well, so I came here out of curiosity to ask for help."
A bowl of water to drink.”
The old farmer waved his calloused hand and said, "The only ones who come are guests. If you don't mind the broken porcelain bowls we use, come and drink some water to moisten your throat."
After saying that, the old farmer picked up the jar next to him, poured a bowl of water into a coarse porcelain black bowl, and handed it over.
The middle-aged man took the black bowl and drank the water in it. He wiped the water stains from the corners of his mouth, burped comfortably, and extended his thumb, "Old man, your water is so sweet.
ah."
The old Nongda felt it was useful and laughed and said: "That's... we in Liantai County don't dare to say it, but this water is very sweet. Can I pour you another bowl?" After that, he picked up the earthen pot and drank it.
Pour him some water.
"That's a good feeling!" The middle-aged man didn't refuse and handed the bowl over with both hands.
The two of them started chatting. At this time, more than a dozen guards and attendants came over with their horses. Seeing this, the old farmer also invited them to come over for a drink of water, but they declined politely. Then he looked around
They spread out and vaguely protected the middle-aged man in the middle.
The middle-aged man picked up the black bowl and took a sip of water. He turned as if by accident and said, "Old man... I see that the road here has just been renovated. It is indeed much easier to walk."
"yes!"
The old man nodded, "This is all thanks to the eldest young man of the Gao family. Since Mr. Gao was killed last year, the eldest young man of the Gao family seems to have changed. He not only formed a militia, but also organized an organization with the county government.
We ordinary people have been building roads for more than half a year before we expanded them into this state.
It’s also paved with gravel, and don’t tell me, the road will indeed be much easier to walk after this repair.”
"Organize you to build the road?" The middle-aged man frowned slightly, "Old man, once this road is built, it will take more than half a year, won't it affect your farm work? When did the county government ask you to do corvee labor?
It’s not kind of the young master to do this!”
"Hey...you can't say that to this guest."
The old farmer quickly waved his hands, "The eldest son of the Gao family is also a good person. He organized us people to build roads not in vain. But everyone who builds roads has five kilograms of rice every day. Such a good thing will never happen to this old man in his eight lifetimes."
How can you say that someone is unkind after meeting you for a while?"
"Five pounds of rice per person per day?"
The middle-aged man was surprised and made some calculations in his mind.
If an adult has five kilograms of rice per day, that is one hundred and fifty kilograms of food per month. It can be said that as long as an adult comes to build roads, he can feed a family of five with this. This price is already very high.
.
At this time, a member of the entourage next to the middle-aged man did not believe it and asked: "Old man, how can this young master of the Gao family be so kind? Could it be that he has bad intentions?"
"How can you talk like a kid!"
The old farmer was a little unhappy and stared, "Young Master Gao did do some ridiculous things in his early years when he was young. He did a lot of things like playing with birds and walking dogs, but even so, they never harmed us common people.
Mr. Gao is a well-known philanthropist in our county. Whenever there is a famine, he will open a porridge shop to provide porridge. But God has no eyesight, and such a good man was harmed by the little devil.
From then on, the eldest young master of the Gao family seemed to have changed. He organized a militia and led us everywhere to fight against the Japanese. In the past six months, he had actually fought many battles with the Japanese, and it is said that he had killed many of them.
.
I heard a few days ago that they had a fierce battle with the Japs at Qixiaguan, more than a hundred miles away. The battle was very miserable. When our Liantai militia came back, hundreds of corpses were hauled away.
Che, thousands of people died in this battle."
At this point, the old farmer's eyes turned red and he stretched out his hand to wipe away the tears.
The atmosphere suddenly became solemn. Seeing the old farmer wiping away his tears, the middle-aged man sighed and said, "Old man, it's my man who is ignorant. I apologize to you on his behalf. Don't be angry."
"The old man is not angry because of this."
The old farmer shook his head: "Old man, I have lived for most of my life, and I have seen the loess burying my neck in the dirt. How can I be angry with this little baby? The old man just feels sorry for the young people who died. They are all good young people, one by one.
They were all so young, why did they die? Many of them haven’t married their mothers-in-law yet!”
The middle-aged man sighed, "Old man, people will inevitably die in a war. Now the little devils have come to our doorstep. If we don't want to be enslaved by them, we have to fight with them, otherwise our children and grandchildren will be theirs."
Servant."
"That's the truth!"
The old farmer nodded repeatedly, "Young Master Gao said the same thing. Young Master Gao said, no matter how happy the little devils are dancing now, they will definitely be put on the list in the future. We will not only drive those Japanese devils out of our country, but also counterattack to
Go to their homeland and let them experience the fire of war in their hometown."
The middle-aged man laughed loudly, "Yes... that's the reason. We can't just let it go. We have to go to their doorsteps and let the little devils have a taste of our power!"
Just as he was speaking, there was a sudden roar in the distance. Soon followed by a roar and a cloud of dust rising up, gray steel behemoths appeared in everyone's sight.
The speed of these giant steel beasts was not very fast. They drove past everyone at an average speed of more than 20 per hour, raising clouds of dust all over the sky.
The faces of the guards nearby changed when they first saw these things, and their expressions became highly alert. Many of them moved their hands to their arms, but were stopped by the middle-aged man's eyes.
Fortunately, these tanks ignored them and drove past them one after another. The blue sky and white sun badge on the tank turret was particularly clear.
After all the tanks drove past, the middle-aged man pretended to be puzzled and asked the old farmer next to him: "Uncle, these iron guys look very majestic. Which national army is this practicing nearby?"
The old farmer replied proudly: "These big guys are from our Liantai militia. I heard that Master Gao spent a lot of money to buy them. They are very useful for fighting the Japanese!"
The middle-aged people smiled bitterly in their hearts. It seemed that they couldn't get anything out of the mouths of these old farmers.
After chatting with the old farmer for a while, the middle-aged man said goodbye and left.
After walking for a while, one of the entourage couldn't help but exclaimed: "Chief, you can't tell, this Liantai militia is really rich, it even has tanks, and I think these tanks are different from those of the Japanese.
It’s a full circle bigger than the kid’s.”
"Um!"
The middle-aged man nodded slowly: "It seems that the strength that Captain Gao has shown before is just the tip of the iceberg. His true strength is still hidden under the water."
Another member of the entourage was unwilling to accept it and said: "It would be great if these invulnerable guys were from our Eighth Route Army. With these big guys, we will definitely be able to remove the Japs' strongholds one by one. What should we be afraid of then?"
You little devil, just push it flat and you'll be done."
Hearing the exclamation words of this entourage, the middle-aged man couldn't help but laugh: "Xiao Zhou, you take it too much for granted. Although these iron guys are extremely powerful, they can only use one shot to deal with the enemy's bunker, but if you want to afford it,
It's not an easy task for these big guys.
Not to mention anything else, they have to drink about two liters of gasoline for every mile they travel. That is to say, for a tank to drive from here to our headquarters, it takes almost one liter of gasoline to drink.
tons of oil.
Coupled with daily accessories, maintenance, daily training, and wartime ammunition consumption and personnel expenses, our Eighth Route Army cannot afford to support such a tank force even if it pawns its pants."
Everyone around was stunned when they heard this, and the entourage named Zhou stuck out his tongue: "My mother, I originally thought that it would be very expensive for us to raise a cavalry regiment, but I didn't expect that these big guys are even more powerful. They
Instead of drinking oil, they are drinking gold!"
The middle-aged man laughed loudly: "It seems that it is right to bring you out this time. You really need to come out often to see the world, otherwise you will really become a frog in the well."
The entourage surnamed Zhou was a little dissatisfied and said: "So what, so many of us have arrived at his door, but they didn't notice it at all. It seems they don't know everything."
The middle-aged man shook his head. Young people are still too young and energetic. If Gao Hongming was really so useless, he would have been killed by the Japanese countless times.
After everyone marched for a while, they finally saw the county wall of Liantai County. As soon as they arrived at the city gate, they saw a group of soldiers wearing German military uniforms standing neatly at the city gate. There was also a truck and a group of people parked next to it.
There was a jeep, and a tall officer was standing next to the jeep, looking right at them.
Seeing their arrival, the officer walked towards them. When the officer walked up to them, even the middle-aged man was slightly surprised. Not only was this guy about two meters tall, he was also unusually tall.
Burly, as strong as a bear.
I saw him walking over, looking at everyone with a sharp look, and finally resting his eyes on the middle-aged man, and asked angrily: "Sir, please state your identity and purpose, so that I can report it to my superiors.
, otherwise I can only ask you to go to the police station."
The middle-aged man stepped forward and bowed his hands to the other party: "The Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Eighth Route Army, Zuo*, has come to visit the commander of your regiment on the order of our deputy commander-in-chief. I hope this little brother can inform your commander.
"
"What did you say? You are the deputy chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army?"
He quickly gave a military salute and said loudly: "Gao Dabao, the commander of the Liantai County Militia Guard Battalion, has met the left deputy chief of staff!"
…………
Half an hour later, Gao Hongming, who received the news, greeted Zuo Deputy Chief of Staff and his party in Xiaocao Village.
To be honest, when Gao Hongming got the news from Dabao, his first reaction was that he didn't believe it. Now that the Hundred Regiments War is in full swing, how could a busy man like Zuo Deputy Chief of Staff have time to come here to see him? He just thought he saw
When the person arrived, he had to believe it, because the person's appearance was no different from what he had seen in books and movies, and he was surprised and a little confused.
After welcoming him into the regiment headquarters, Gao Hongming calmed down his excitement and then said: "Deputy Chief of Staff Zuo, now that the battle between your army and the Japanese army is in full swing, you are actually able to come and see me, this little little one, despite your busy schedule.
Leader of the vigilante group, this really flatters me."
Deputy Chief of Staff Zuo smiled and said: "Commander Gao is too presumptuous. Since the beginning of this year, you have given great support to our Eighth Route Army, especially the gas masks that supported us some time ago. They have played a great role.
During this period, all our troops reported to us that the Japanese had released poison gas bombs on them several times. Fortunately, we had the gas masks you provided, otherwise our troops would have suffered heavy losses.
When I was leaving, the deputy commander-in-chief told me to express my gratitude to you in person and to bring you some gifts from him. But you also know that our Eighth Route Army cannot compare with you, a rich man.
You don’t want to come up with anything good, so our deputy commander-in-chief personally wrote a poem for you and asked several people from our headquarters to sign it. It’s a little bit of our appreciation, and we hope you won’t dislike it!”
After saying that, the left deputy chief of staff took a small bundle from the guard next to him, took out a picture from it, and handed it over.
Gao Hongming took the words with both hands, and after slowly opening them, he found that there was a poem written on it.
After all the hardships have been encountered, only the stars around are scattered in the fighting.
The mountains and rivers are broken, the wind flutters and the catkins float, and the life experience is ups and downs, and the rain hits the rafters.
Afraid: I am afraid on the beach, I am alone in the ocean.
Since ancient times, no one has died, leaving a loyal heart to illuminate history
Looking at the poem above and the series of names signed behind it, Gao Hongming couldn't help but be fascinated for a moment.