Chapter 2: Countercurrent (After)

"No, I have only been a soldier for more than half a year. In addition to being injured and hospitalized, I am fighting with the Japanese on the front line. How can I have time to join the Kuomintang?" Zhang Songling widened his eyes and responded in surprise. In his memory, Red Beard seemed to have asked a similar question, but when did he ask last time, I was a little uncertain. Maybe the interval was a bit too long. The old man had a bad memory and had forgotten it. It was not a big deal anyway, so I could explain it clearly.

"However." Red Beard thought for a while and nodded with a smile, "I have forgotten that your company commander was promoted from the line of fire. How about it? Do you still want to go back to Lao Twenty-sixth Road?"

"So what can I do? I'll say whether they want me." As soon as he mentioned this, Zhang Songling felt very depressed. Until now, he still didn't think about which immortal he had offended. He actually asked Peng Xuewen to risk being disciplined by the Military Commission and hinted that he must not think about going back. In the end, Peng Xuewen still did not persuade the guy standing in the shadows, and actually chose to watch himself die.

"The little guy has no conscience. I'm so kind to you. You're still thinking about returning to the old army." Hongbei suddenly became angry and knocked the small notepad in her hand on Zhang Songling's big head, and said angrily.

"It's not the same thing." Zhang Songling was stunned and rubbed his head quickly explained, "I just said what I felt in my heart and didn't say I wanted to go back. Besides, I have been working on the Eighth Route Army for a longer time than there, so people may not dare to want me after I go back."

"What if someone dares, for example, your old boss Sun Lianzhong will send someone to find you." Hongbeard stared at her eyes and asked with concern.

"I don't want to do this." Zhang Songling shook his head vigorously, not believing the assumption proposed by Red Beard. "General Sun's old subordinate is not the only one. I, the young company commander, could not be remembered by him every day. Besides, he probably didn't know that I was still alive in the world. Now that there are so many officers who are idle at home in the army. He has a vacant hand in his hands, and he is still worried that he can't find anyone and is willing to be an officer."

The more he spoke, the lower his voice became, the more regretful he felt. In the days when Peng Xuewen learned that the reconstruction of the 26th Old, he had imagined more than once how General Sun Lianzhong would respond to his invitation with a letter. Chinese people are concerned about drinking water and remembering the source. Although General Sun is a little far apart, he has been regarded as a kindness to him. After all, he is not a student soldier. He has the opportunity to become the deputy company commander of the front-line troops in less than half a year and has won the Baoding Medal twice.

However, the cold facts proved that his thoughts were too naive and too serious. In the past six months, except for the mysterious Central and Military Control Commission, no one seemed to be thinking about him. The reason why the former came to him was simply to pull him into an unpredictable vortex. As for the latter, he felt creepy when he thought about the ambushed battle on his way back.

If the old commander Gou had not committed suicide, he might think of me! But the old commander Gou died at the lockdown of his wife, and he smashed his own head with the last one in the box cannon. He did not hesitate at all when pulling the trigger. Why did the old commander Gou commit suicide? Zhang Songling hasn't figured it out yet, and he dared not think about it. When he thinks about it, his heart hurts like a knife.

"I have only heard of the lack of soldiers, but I have never heard of any unit missing officers." Zhang Songling sighed softly, and added with a wry smile, "After so long, they will definitely not come to me again. Besides, I have been having a happy life in our guerrillas. The past events are just an unforgettable memory."

"Well, that's about the same." Hearing Zhang Songling say this, the Red Beard finally smiled, "If you still think about going back, I'll just go back," he paused, and he added with a smile, "I'll beat you up first, and then let you spit out all the mutton I ate, haha, hahaha."

"Haha, hehehe" Zhang Songling also smiled foolishly. The red beard is just that good, and he has no airs of becoming an official. No matter what he thinks, he is willing to tell his brothers below. And if everyone has any problems in his heart, they will not deliberately hide them from him.

"Okay, stop laughing, I'll tell you some serious things." After laughing for a while, Hongbei picked up the small notebook again, drew a few strokes on it, and continued.

"Tell me, I'm listening." Zhang Songling leaned his head and looked at the notebook. He saw a few sloppy symbols, and he couldn't tell what it meant.

"Don't look, don't look." Red Beard quickly hid the small notebook backwards, and then explained with a smirk, "Haha, I am too lazy to write and have a poor memory, so I made these things myself. Even if I read them for you, I guess you won't understand them."

"I really can't understand." Zhang Songling smiled and nodded. He didn't read much with a red beard, which is well known to the guerrillas. In fact, there were very few people who read and read in this era, especially the grasslands outside the pass and the three northeastern provinces. Since the Qing Dynasty entered the pass, Han people have been basically not allowed to enter for nearly two hundred years, and fewer people who read and read and read are pitifully fewer.

"This was learned from our boss in the mountains when I was a bandit." Hongbei smiled and continued to explain, "Later, the boss led the team to join Zhang Dashuai, and this skill was idle. Unexpectedly, when he was old, it could be used in other ways."

"You have always been a bandit," Zhang Songling's interest in the mysterious words in the book was far less than that of Red Beard's personal resume. He was stunned and instinctively asked.

"Did it." Red Beard nodded and responded with a smile, "In our hometown, Jilin, when a man grew up to you, if he didn't dare to go up the mountain to be a bandit, he would be regarded as a waste of money. However, after only a few days as a bandit, the village was recruited by Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Dashen. I transformed into a soldier of the Northeast Army, and then became an officer step by step. After a few days, it was the "September 18 Incident". The superiors ordered that no resistance were allowed, and we were unwilling to surrender the gun to the Japanese, so we simply returned to our old business. Then, we met General Ma Zhanshan and followed him to the Japanese. Then, the team had never beaten the Japanese. General Ma Zhanshan went to the Soviet Union, so I took my brothers to the grassland."

"Yeah." Zhang Songling smiled and nodded slightly. After that, he had heard from Red Beard talk more than once before. General Ma Zhanshan used fraudulent surrender to deceive the Japanese military supplies in the 21st year of the Republic of China. Then, the banner of anti-Japanese war was raised. Strength from all sides of the country extended a helping hand to General Ma Zhanshan, among which there were Communist cadres. Red Beard had contact with the Communists at that time, and then as time went by, he got closer and closer to the Communist Party, and slowly turned the team in his hands into the Communist anti-Japanese armed forces.

But he was a little confused. Redbeard called himself to the office and said what the purpose of these old things was. The old man was really in love with him, but now the guerrillas need to do so much. Whether it was him or Redbeard, he shouldn't waste his time on purposeless chatting.

"Is it possible that the guerrilla superiors ordered him to talk to me about these things?" Suddenly, a hint of inspiration flashed in Zhang Songling's mind, and his face immediately became very serious. If the guerrilla superiors ordered Hongbei to have a good talk with him, things would be a little troublesome. After all, he had been a lieutenant colonel of the Kuomintang, and his identity was easily suspected.

"At the worst, I'll leave." Zhang Songling shook his head with an unaware range. At the same time, an extremely sour smell instantly surged from his lower abdomen to the corner of his eyes. "Let's go, the world is so big, where is my place to be in my place? I can't go back to the south and I can't stay here. Could it be that I am like Jiyunlong when I was, and I will be a lone thief in the future?'

While thinking about it, I heard the red beard smile and say, "I won't talk about these old and dirty things. Alas, when people are old, they will inevitably talk too much. Let's continue to be serious. What do I want to tell you? Hiss, look at my head."

After slapping himself hard, he finally remembered, "That, you are not a member of the Kuomintang, but, in your heart, what do you feel about the Kuomintang."

"I don't feel anything." With a hint of anger, Zhang Songling responded with a stern face, "I usually come into contact with ordinary soldiers, and there are very few Kuomintang members in it."

"What about your boss? Many of your bosses should be members of the Kuomintang." Hongbei was older and had a little slow reaction. She failed to detect Zhang Songling's emotional changes in time and continued to ask with a smile.

"Yes, a lot." Zhang Songling thought about it, the more he felt uncomfortable. He simply told the truth, "My immediate boss is Commander Gou, and Chief Feng Anbang and Chief Sun Lianzhong are also. They are both good men and perfect men. My old commander led us to guard the Walnut Garden. Almost all the brothers in the regiment were wiped out, and he did not take a step back. Chief Feng Anbang beat Peiping, attacked Niangziguan, and Taierzhuang. Every time he rushed to the front line, he was finally killed by the Japanese and did not embarrass the Chinese soldiers. And my old boss's boss Sun Lianzhong killed all the troops in order to fight against Japan and became a bare commander. I didn't hear him complain that they were all Kuomintang members. I didn't see anything wrong with them."

The more he spoke, the higher his voice, the more he felt wronged, and the country was in trouble, and he had to join the army. What did he do wrong? On the side of the Kuomintang, some people were determined to kill themselves. The power was so great that even old friend Peng Xuewen had to choose to stand by. When he arrived at the Communist Party, he was still suspected, suspected, and repeatedly asked whether he wanted to return to the old army and what he felt about the Kuomintang. "If you ask me what I felt about the Kuomintang, my feeling was that as long as he was willing to kill the Japanese wholeheartedly, he would be a hero. Whether he was the Kuomintang or the Communist Party, they were at least Chinese, and they should always put the word "China" in front of each other."

In the last half of the sentence, he almost cried out from the bottom of his heart, trembling the window paper buzzing. Red beard was startled and quickly threw away the notebook and asked blankly: "What's wrong, little fat man, what's wrong with you? I didn't say you hit the Japanese wrongly, why did you suddenly get angry with me?"

"I, me" Zhang Songling was excited and aggrieved, and tears rolled out from the corners of his eyes, "Why are I going to get angry with you? I just want to tell the truth. You, today I talk to me, just suspect that I am still facing the Kuomintang. Let me tell you the truth. If there are all good men like Lao Gou, Commander Feng and Chief Sun, I will never forget them in my heart."

Red Beard was stunned for a moment, and finally understood the crux of the problem. He couldn't help but shake his head and smile bitterly, "You little guy, do you have so much thoughts? Who is my Red Beard? Do you not know at all? If I doubt you, would you still use every means to leave you? Make a good relationship with each other and send you away happily. Can you still find it with a shameful face?"

Although he was speaking slowly, every sentence was on the point. Zhang Songling was stunned by the question, muttering with red eyes, "Then, then you ask me what I feel about the Kuomintang today, and you have to record it in a small notebook with a pen."

"This?" Hongbei scratched her head when asked. He asked Zhang Songling how she felt about the Kuomintang, which was a procedure that must be followed according to the convention. After all, Zhang Songling is not even a Communist Party member now. He wanted to pass on his robe to him, and there were many unavoidable links in the middle.

But he couldn't explain these words directly to Zhang Songling. He couldn't pat the other party's shoulder and straightforwardly, "Hey, little fat man, Hong Ye, I'm optimistic about you and am ready to take over the position of the guerrilla captain. In order to take over this position, you have to do these, and these, and these." Then it will be a complete success for the King of Mountains. Not to mention that the superior organization will definitely not be able to pass it, other cadres and soldiers of the guerrillas will not agree.

"That's what your superior asked you to ask, right?" Seeing that the red-bearded face was full of embarrassment, Zhang Songling immediately misunderstood the other party's meaning, and his face became colder and colder. "I can't believe me, I'll leave, why bother to beat around the bush," he said.

"You bastard." Hongbei was so angry that she jumped three feet high. She swung the notebook and slapped Zhang Songling's forehead. "If you want to leave, there is no such cheap thing. I still expect you to train new recruits for me, I still expect you to be my staff officer, I still expect you to be my cannon head. If you leave, I will find such a useful person to go. Don't even think about running, even if you run to the sky, I will catch you back."

"Can you please?" Zhang Songling asked loudly while resisting, "I am a Kuomintang member, I am an undercover agent. I want to take your guerrillas to the Kuomintang. If you don't let me leave now, sooner or later there will be a day when you regret it."

"If you have the ability, take it! I don't believe that evil, brothers will follow you." After all, he is in his fifties. Red Beard's physical strength is quickly unable to hold on. He bent down and gasped heavily, "I'm not afraid. I was even older than you in the Kuomintang back then, but in the end I followed the Communist Party. I'm afraid that you, a small company, can make a fuss. Tell you, I, um, cough, cough."

He didn't breathe evenly, and his face turned red and he coughed loudly. Seeing this, Zhang Songling quickly walked up to him and helped him hit his back hard. Red beard immediately turned his palm and held his left wrist tightly, "Fatty, don't think about it, today, it's really not what the superior organization asked me to talk to you, I, I, cough, cough."

Seeing that his eyes were almost protruding from his sockets, Zhang Songling did not dare to be angry anymore. While helping him massage his back hard, he tried to slow down his tone as perfunctory as possible, "Okay, okay, let's not talk about these, don't talk about these, first, help you get through this tone first. Come on, is there anyone outside? Come on, please invite Uncle Scar to come here quickly."

"Don't go." Redbeard roared, stopping the guards' actions. "Oh, it's too late, don't, don't bother Uncle Scar, I, I'm fine, it's really okay."

"I'm still saying it's okay. Look at your expression, what's going on." Zhang Songling was anxious, and instantly forgot all the unhappiness he had just now, and stomped his feet to refute.

Regardless of whether he stays in the guerrillas in the future, Red Beard is an elder worthy of his respect. He is generous, kind, first-class, and willing to get along with his brothers. To be fair, he was willing to stay in the guerrillas because he admired Red Beard, not really nowhere to go. If someone else had tried to keep him as the captain of the guerrillas, he might not have been willing to give him this face.

"It's okay, it's okay, it's really okay." Red Beard grabbed Zhang Songling's wrist and hurt, as if he was afraid that he would find an opportunity to slip away. "Don't go, it's an old problem. My own body knows that there are pills that Uncle Scars helped me in the box on the kang in the inner room. Just find a few pills to eat later. Don't go find someone, don't make a statement. We, there are too many new recruits in our guerrillas."

There are too many new recruits. If the body of the Red Beard, as the captain, is at this critical juncture, it will inevitably affect the morale of the army. Zhang Songling knew the importance of the matter, so he nodded slowly, held the Red Beard and walked slowly to the kang in the inner room, "Then, then you can rest yourself, I'll pour you some boiled water."

"Don't first." Red Beard's fingers tightened again, and he responded with panting, "Wait, wait until I finish my words, you go." Trying to stand firm, he gasped and looked at Zhang Songling's eyes, "Just, the reason I said those words to you just now is not because the superior asked me to ask you, yes, it's me."

There was another heart-wrenching cough, and he almost burst his heart, liver and five internal organs and spit it out of his mouth. At this time, Zhang Songling didn't have the heart to ask about his impression of the Kuomintang. While pounding the other party's back, he whispered: "Okay, okay, it's what you want to ask yourself. Should I be angry? Shouldn't I be angry with you? I apologize to you, don't cough, please, cough again, I will have to come to Uncle Scar No matter what."
Chapter completed!