Chapter 245: The country is destroyed and the family is destroyed
The gray team lined up in two columns and faced the cold wind as they turned toward Nanjing City. Along the way, they encountered large groups of refugees driving mules and horses with parcels between them, causing a lot of noise.
Refugees wearing mottled and messy clothes stood on the roadside and saw the neat army marching past them. Their eyes were empty and their faces were filled with numbness.
The war left them homeless, and as soldiers, Yang Ling and the others felt as if they were being stabbed by knives when they saw the scrawny refugees in ragged clothes. As soldiers, what kind of soldiers are they if they can't protect the people?
Although he felt pain and helplessness in his heart, the enemy was now at its peak and the national power gap between the two sides was huge. Even if they fought tooth and nail, they could not defeat him. Yang Ling knew that this war would not be over for a while, and these people would suffer even more.
Every time he thought of this, Yang Ling wished he could grow three heads and six arms, kill all those vicious Japs, and restore peace to the people.
The retreating team moved forward in silence. As soldiers, they were ashamed that they could not assume the responsibility of defending their homeland. Although the refugees did not blame them and made way for them, it made them feel even more uncomfortable.
, hurried forward, unable to bear to see the disappointed eyes of the people.
Yang Ling and the others fought all night in Jiangyin County to cover the retreating people. After breaking away from the war, they moved on in a hurry. Nearly two hundred brothers were sleepy and tired.
"Batalion Commander, the Japanese won't be able to catch up for a while. Let's take a rest. We can't walk anymore."
Although he was walking against the cold wind, Lao Yanqiang's blood-stained shabby military uniform was already soaked with sweat. He was hunched over, holding his knees with his hands and breathing heavily.
Yang Ling also stopped, stretched out his sleeves to wipe the sweat from his forehead, and ordered the brothers to stop and rest for half an hour before continuing the march.
The team stopped at a small pool. The exhausted brothers immediately fell to the ground like mud. They lay on the ground and screamed.
"I'm talking to the battalion commander, do you think the guy named Zhao is a rabbit? We've been chasing him for so long and we haven't even caught up with him." Lao Yanqiang complained while pouring cold water down his throat.
Zhao Wenbin withdrew the wounded soldiers and the main force across the river first. Yang Ling and the others were chasing after them all the way, but they couldn't catch up, and they didn't know where they went.
Yang Ling also found a clean place to sit down by himself, and told Lao Yanqiang: "Brother Zhou, go over there and ask for directions."
"Okay." Lao Yanqian screwed on the kettle cap again, patted his butt and stood up.
"Everyone, hurry up and take a rest and eat! We have to rush on our way later." Yang Ling yelled at his brothers and then took out his own dry food and started to eat it.
Fatty Tian San sat down with his back leaning on a tree stump, and took out a piece of multigrain cake from the canvas bag hanging on his body. Although it was cold and hard, he was really hungry, so he grabbed it and stuffed it into his mouth.
The cold multigrain cake was as hard as a stone. Biting into it made Fatty Tian San's teeth hurt, and it was even more difficult to chew. The wild vegetables and chaff inside were like sand in his mouth, so he simply didn't bother to chew and went straight to his stomach.
Riton.
After eating one multigrain pancake and grabbing the second one, he suddenly spotted two thin figures looking at him eagerly from the corner of his eye not far away.
These were two scrawny children with disheveled hair who hadn't washed their faces for who knows how long. They were swallowing saliva and staring at the multigrain cake in the fat man's hand.
Seeing the pitiful appearance of the two refugee children, the fat man's heart softened. He looked at the only piece of grain cake he had left, gritted his teeth and took half of it off.
"You are hungry, this is for you." The fat man walked up to the children, handed out the multigrain cake divided into two pieces, and said to the two eager children in as gentle a tone as possible.
The two thin children were also very hungry. They took the multigrain pancakes and immediately started to devour them. The hungry look made the fat man a little at a loss, and he hurriedly reminded: "Slow down, slow down, don't choke."
The two children were obedient, perhaps because the multigrain cake was too rough, so they slowed down their eating speed. The fat man smiled and sat down in front of the tree stump again, holding the remaining half of the multigrain cake in his hand.
He shook his head with a smile and took a bite.
But after taking a bite, the fat man never took another bite, because more than a dozen skinny children gathered around him, looking longingly at the half piece of multigrain cake left in his hand.
Seeing these children, the fat man felt soft-hearted, but he was also hungry. He waved to them and said, "You can go get it elsewhere. I only have half a piece left."
But these children did not leave. Being stared at by so many pairs of pitiful eyes, Fatty Tian San really couldn't eat anymore.
Finally gritted his teeth and handed over the remaining half piece. If you are hungry, just be hungry. If you don't feed these children, looking at their appearance, I'm afraid they won't be able to survive tomorrow. I can still stand up. The fat man comforted himself in this way.
.
Half a piece of multigrain cake was really not enough. The hungry children turned their attention to the canvas bag carried by the fat man. The green eyes made the fat man a little scared.
He hurriedly covered his canvas bag, grabbed his gun and stood up. The children also stood up. Under the eyes of the children, the fat man fled back to the team in embarrassment.
The situation of the nearly two hundred brothers was similar to that of the fat man. Seeing them eating and drinking, the surrounding refugees slowly gathered around them.
The kind-hearted brothers couldn't bear to see these refugees starving, so they took out the dry food they had brought with them one after another. Soon, all the food they had on them was squandered.
"Thank you, boss. Thank you, boss. The old man kneels down for you." A skinny old man held two biscuits tremblingly in his hands and knelt down to kowtow to Qin Shou.
Qin Shou hurriedly helped the old man up, "I only have these few biscuits. If there are more, I will definitely give you more..."
"Boss, you are a good person, a good person, Taohua, thank you boss." The old man hurriedly pulled the little girl beside him to thank Qin Shou.
The old man's endless gratitude actually made Qin Shou blush. He only gave two biscuits, but he was so thanked. Seeing the miserable appearance of the old man and the little girl, Qin Shou felt compassion.
He turned around to find Liu Yidao and asked for some more food and gave it to the old man.
"You are just eating carrots and being indifferent. How can you take care of so many people?" Liu Yidao saw Qin Shou raising his neck to pour cold water on himself, and sneered while eating.
"I can help you a little bit."
"Then just be hungry. I'll see how you can get to Nanjing hungry."
Qin Shou looked at the refugees with their families, and his heart ached. If there was no war, they might be able to farm and support their families, but they would be displaced like this. This damn war, damn the devils.
Yang Ling found out that these refugees wanted to flee to Nanjing, and thinking of the mountains of corpses and seas of blood in Nanjing's history, he quickly sent someone to dissuade them.
"Don't go to Nanjing. There will be a war in Nanjing soon. If you go there, you will die. Go and escape somewhere else!"