That evening, the commanders of the 386th Brigade headed by Brigadier Chen hosted a banquet in Zhaojiayu for Gao Hongming and Xie Wenqian who had come from afar.
At the banquet, Gao Hongming sat at a table with Brigadier Chen, Li Yunlong, Zhao Gang, Kong Jie and Ding Wei and other 386 brigade commanders, while Xie Wenqian sat at a table with Xiu Qin and several female cadres of the Eighth Route Army.
Gao Hongming felt warm in his heart when he saw this. You must know that many places in Shanxi in this era still adhere to the bad habit of not serving women at the table when entertaining guests. The table next to it is obviously to take care of Xie Wenqian.
Looking at the dishes on the table, a large plate of hare, pheasant, roe deer, and Chinese cabbage filled the table. Even the wine was home-brewed corn wine. This was a level higher than the sweet potato roast that Li Yunlong drank before, at least not as bad.
So sour and bitter.
Brigadier Chen, who had the highest position among the Eighth Route Army cadres present, took the lead in raising his glass, "Here... let's toast our first glass of wine to Captain Gao, who came from Liantai County hundreds of miles away to attend Li Yunlong's wedding.
and his wife, Ms. Xie, to thank him for his support of our Eighth Route Army, and we all drank this drink together."
"Dry!"
Everyone raised their glasses and drank it all in one gulp, even Xie Wenqian was no exception. However, because she drank too quickly, and it was the first time for her to drink corn wine brewed by a farmer, she suddenly felt a burning taste coming from her stomach.
It spread to her throat, causing her to cough several times.
Brigadier Chen laughed when he saw this: "Hey, this is our negligence. We forgot that Ms. Xie is different from us big men. It's our fault that she can't get used to drinking this corn wine."
Xie Wenqian, whose face turned red from choking on the wine, wiped her mouth with a handkerchief and apologized sheepishly: "I'm really sorry. It's the first time in my life that I drank such a strong drink. I'm really not used to it. I really can't forgive everyone."
"
"Eh... what did Ms. Xie say? It's us who should apologize. It's because we didn't greet you well." Brigadier Chen scratched his head in embarrassment: "Logically speaking, we should treat you to something softer."
Foreign wine, but our Eighth Route Army does not have the conditions. The red wine given by Commander Gao last time was already drunk.
Ouch...that's really rude."
Xie Wenqian pursed her lips and smiled: "Commander Chen, Hong Ming and I brought some red wine this time. If you don't mind, I'll have someone bring it over. What do you think?"
Brigadier Chen rejoiced, "Since there is good wine, why didn't you tell us earlier and bring it over so that everyone can open the meat together? Ms. Xie is thoughtful, unlike a guy like Li Yunlong who is already married and fools us with some bad wine."
.”
Everyone laughed, except Li Yunlong who was crying and did not dare to speak.
He felt aggrieved. Did he not want to entertain everyone with good wine? The problem was no, this corn wine was already the best wine he could get.
Soon, more than a dozen soldiers from the guard camp came in carrying several large boxes. Xie Wenqian had two boxes opened. Inside were neatly placed full boxes of red wine, and the other box contained a box of Camels and Marlboro cigarettes.
.
The red wine was just that. Everyone cheered when they saw the cigarettes.
There is no soldier who does not smoke. When conditions were difficult in the past, the cigarettes smoked were either purchased tobacco leaves and rolled and smoked by oneself, or they were confiscated. Although it was difficult, it has been this way for so many years.
But since getting to know Gao Hongming, Li Yunlong and even the heads of the headquarters agencies have been able to smoke cigarettes sent by him every now and then.
The biggest fear in everything is comparison. After being used to smoking good cigarettes sent by Gao Hongming, smoking spicy tobacco leaves is a bit unaccustomed. Now that they saw the cigarettes sent by Gao Hongming again, everyone was naturally very happy. For a moment, they were so happy.
The room suddenly became smoky.
No one was stupid. After a box of red wine was brought, everyone removed the corn wine and replaced it with red wine.
As the groom to be married tomorrow, Li Yunlong was naturally the target of everyone's drinking. He drank three bowls of wine in less than twenty minutes. Even if the alcohol content was not high, he was so drunk that his face turned red and his neck became thick.
Fortunately, everyone knew what was appropriate, and Brigadier Chen was present, so Ding Wei, Kong Jie and others let him go.
After a few glasses of wine, everyone's nature became even higher. Since they were all soldiers, the current situation in Shanxi naturally came up in the conversation.
At this time, word had spread that Yoshio Shinozuka had been transferred back to his homeland and even Neji Okamura became the commander of the North China Front, but no one knew much about the new commander of the First Army, Yoshio Iwamatsu.
Speaking of this, Gao Hongming said: "I have heard some things about Yoshio Iwamatsu. This Yoshio Iwamatsu was previously the commander of the Central Taiwan Defense Force, and was later transferred to Shanxi to serve as the commander of the First Army.
.,
This person is not very capable, but one thing is that this guy is very greedy for money, and he is also a loyal executor of Japan's "mainland policy", so everyone should be extra careful with him.
Not only that, the Chief of Staff of the First Army, Naosaburo Okabe, was transferred back to Japan, and his replacement was an old devil named Yoshihiro Muto. This guy was not as experienced or cunning as Naosaburo Okabe.
It’s good news.”
Listening to Gao Hongming's eloquent talk, everyone's eyes were a little strange. After a long time, Li Yunlong asked: "Brother Gao, I would like to ask, how do you know so much about the Japs' information? Is it possible that you have spies inside the Japs?"
"
"That's not true." Gao Hongming laughed out loud: "But I have also set up an intelligence department myself, which is responsible for collecting intelligence on the Japanese, so I can still get general information. Of course, I can't do anything about information that is too confidential.
Already."
"This is already amazing." Brigadier Chen on the side sighed: "Since we officially started the war with the Japs, we have discovered that the Japs have penetrated our China so deeply that sometimes the salesmen passing by you
Or maybe the shopkeeper of a grocery store is a spy sent by the Japs.
But we know very little about the little devils, and the most important point is that there are too few people in China who can speak Japanese."
Gao Hongming was silent for a moment before saying, "There is nothing we can do about it. Ever since the Wanqing Dynasty, the Japanese have set their sights on China. They have been infiltrating for more than half a century. No one knows what the Japanese are sending to China."
How many spies have I spied on and how many things have I investigated?
For example, in July of the 36th year of the Republic of China (1937), Chiang Kai-shek held a secret meeting in Nanjing and decided to sink a large number of ships in the Jiangyin channel of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to block the waterway.
The meeting was attended by senior generals and dignitaries of the Nationalist Government. They never imagined that as soon as the meeting was over, the Japanese would receive the news the next day, so that the Japanese would be the first to send merchant ships to Wuhan to bring the overseas Chinese stranded in Wuhan with them.
The Marine Corps took Shanghai back, and the plan to blockade Jiangyin failed."