Chapter 1 Oath (A moment)

"No, no, I really can't." Zhang Songling's face suddenly turned into purple eggplant color, and he quickly shook his hand to object, "What kind of virtue can I do, how dare I?"

"Comrade Zhang Songling." Red Beard's voice suddenly increased a little, and he deliberately scolded with a stern face, "Please pay attention to consciously maintaining the discipline of the venue. First, raise your hand before speaking, and second, you must give any comments and make a reason."

"Boom." A kind-hearted laughter sounded in the tent. Everyone looked at Fatty Zhang, who was full of embarrassment, and his smile was full of cramps, especially several young party members who were usually close to him, such as Xiao Zou, Xiao Zhou, etc., who smiled and shook his eyes at him, as if they were afraid that he would not make a fool of himself.

"I, object." Zhang Songling looked in the crowd for a long time with his eyes, but could not find a sympathetic. He just had to bite the bullet and go first.

"Okay, Comrade Zhang Songling, please state your reasons for opposition in detail." Hongbei nodded and continued to do business.

"I, I" had to find my own faults in front of so many people. Zhang Songling felt even more embarrassed. The blood on his face was so thick that it was about to drip. He stuttered for a while before he said in a very low voice, "I have been joining the guerrillas too short, and have not had enough experience. In addition, I am too young and have not been calm enough to do things."

"Well, I have been joining the guerrillas for a short time and lack experience. I lack experience in guerrilla warfare, and it takes longer to accumulate. These are two." Red Beard raised two fingers and smiled at statistics. "As for age, I don't need to mention it. In our Eighth Route Army, people of your age are brigade commanders."

"And, there is still." Zhang Songling was so anxious that he saw sweat on his forehead. While scraping his stomach and searching for reasons to overwhelm the heavy responsibility from him, he turned his gaze pitifully to his good friend Zhao Tianlong and asked for the latter's firepower support.

Over the past year, Red Beard has put a lot of burden on his shoulders, and he is willing to give advice on the development and growth of the guerrillas. However, it is one thing to share the problems of Red Beard as a capable subordinate and junior. It is another thing to be the deputy captain of the Black Stone Guerrillas. The two have a huge difference in status in the guerrillas. The pressure and challenges they face are also underground and in the sky. Especially in this extraordinary period, people with discerning eyes don’t have to see clearly. If Red Beard encounters an accident one day, the current deputy captain will automatically become the next helm of the entire Black Stone Guerrillas. With Zhang Songling’s qualifications for joining the team for more than a year and his party membership for just a few days, how could all the team members be convinced?, and how could Lao Zheng, Lao Feng, and Lao Ma, the guerrilla heroes who followed Red Beard behind when they were in the Northeast Army, be willing to accept the command of him, an alien junior.

The deeper I thought about it, Zhang Songling was anxious. The more anxious he was, the more he was, the more he was talking. After stuttering for a long time, he barely squeezed out the third line, "I, I don't have a deep understanding of guerrilla warfare enough, I like to fight tough battles. Last time, the last time I intercepted the Japanese invaders, I could have fought better, and I didn't have to sacrifice so many brothers, but I was eager to succeed and fought a positional war with the Japanese and the puppet troops. I, I."

As he spoke, he felt sad, and his eyes began to turn red. The fierce battle three months ago directly filled up more than half of the Red Beard's assets that had been accumulated for many years, causing the Black Stone Guerrillas to shrink significantly. Until now, he still has no ability and confidence to go out of the desert and return to the Qilin Peak of Lamagou to rebuild the old camp. In the subsequent shelter days, no one said accusations to him from top to bottom, and he had not even heard of private complaints.

This made Zhang Songling very uneasy. If Red Beard yelled at him a few times or scolded him in front of everyone, he might feel much more at ease. But Red Beard did not do that, and still obeyed him like before, and even trusted and relied more heavily than before.

"The third article is not true." Hongbei stretched out her hand and gently pressed Zhang Songling's shoulder. "You sit down first and hear what other comrades have thoughts. Also, the battle that day, we had already clarified the responsibility at the party group meeting. The problem was not yours, but my captain, who made the mistake of being left-leaning and aggressive, was eager to expand the guerrilla area into a base, and ignored the counterattack that the Japanese and puppet parties could make."

"This is unfair. I also proposed the suggestion of opening a workshop. During the battle, you didn't give me any orders." Hearing this, Zhang Songling immediately ignored the sadness, widened his eyes and shouted loudly for the Red Beard.

"Sit down." Redbeard pressed his arm slightly, and it was not strong enough, but Zhang Songling couldn't resist. He could only sit slowly next to the charcoal basin placed in the center of the tent. "Listen to me first. This decision was passed before you joined the party and has been submitted to the military sub-district. If you have any ideas now, you can write a report to me after the meeting. I will consider whether you will submit your opinions to the party group meeting for discussion at the discretion."

"Since Comrade Zhang Songling mentioned it just now, I will explain it to everyone again." Turning his head to everyone present, Red Beard continued to add, "In fact, most of the comrades here know that only Zhang Songling and Zhao Tianlong are not very clear. According to the report of our Black Stone Guerrilla Party Group, the superior department decided to give Wang Hong, the captain and political commissar of the Black Stone Guerrillas, that is, I myself, a warning within the party and a serious administrative penalty. The inspection period is half a year. After half a year, whether to revoke the punishment based on my performance."

"This is unfair." This time, it wasn't Zhang Songling's turn to protest, and Zhao Tianlong jumped up first, "The war was directed by me and Fatty. You were not on the scene at the time. If you want to punish us, it would be punished. How can you take the blame for us?"

"Sit down." Hongbei glared at her eyes and scolded her loudly.

"This is unfair." Zhao Tianlong shouted loudly with his neck tampered, but his eyes did not dare to meet the Red Beard's gaze. The latter's gaze was too pure, as pure as the thousand-year-old ice on the snow-capped mountain. Every time he looked at it, his confidence was at least three points shorter.

"Have you forgotten your vow just now, Comrade Zhao Tianlong," Red Beard's voice slowly dropped, but the momentum it exuded seemed to be pressing against Mount Tai. Zhao Tianlong, who had always been fearless, was a little unbearable this time. His body became shorter and shorter little by little. Finally, he sighed and fell heavily back to the brazier.

"I am the helm of the entire guerrilla team and also the decision-maker. The guerrilla team suffered such serious losses, and the responsibility cannot be borne by me, the captain. Do you have to be pushed to you specific executors? Whoever dares to go out to do things in the future will hide aside and watch me, the captain, play alone, let's go."

His eyes swept over everyone present, and the red beard's face was full of frankness, "My theoretical level is limited and I can't say anything too profound. However, with the benefits, the leaders will first make the things messed up, but let the specific executors and ordinary people below bear the consequences. This kind of thing is by no means what we Communists do, because doing so seems to maintain the personal prestige of the leader, but in fact, it is digging the roots of the entire career. No matter who you take over my position in the future, no matter who you will be the home of the Black Stone Guerrillas, you cannot make such a careless decision. Otherwise, even if I am in the dark, I will not let him go."

Every guerrilla soldier who was swept by his eyes unknowingly put away his smile, and replaced it with a solemn face. They solemnly promised in their hearts that they would never do such ungrateful things in their lives, although most of them may not have much chance to take up leadership positions in their lives.

Since Red Beard has passed the party group meeting and has shouldered all the responsibility for the heavy losses of the guerrillas in the last battle on his shoulders alone, no one is willing to come forward to criticize Zhang Songling for his shortcomings in military use. Moreover, in everyone's opinion, being able to intercept more than 2,000 Japanese and puppet troops with just one hundred and twenty people was a complete miracle. Although the efforts were too big and a little huge, in the situation, it is inevitable that some mistakes in command details will occur. After all, no one is a god and cannot calculate the enemy's next move with his fingers. The gap in weapons and equipment between the enemy and us is also in the sky and the other is underground.

"I think Comrade Zhang Songling showed the ability of an excellent commander in the command of the last battle." The view of the first squadron leader Lao Zheng basically represented everyone present. "In the aftermath, you can review the gains and losses of tactics, but when you are in the battle, you don't have the time to consider it calmly. If I changed my position in Comrade Zhang Songling, my performance would definitely be far inferior to him. If I didn't do it well, I would have made great sacrifices, but I still failed to get enough transfer time for the old camp. Therefore, my personal opinion is that Comrade Zhang Songling's role as the deputy captain of the guerrillas, and there is no problem with his ability."

"I think so too." In my early years, Feng Tianhua, an old party member who was transferred to the squad leader, also raised his hand and agreed with the speech of Lao Zheng, the leader of the squadron. "I have privately studied several battles that Comrade Zhang Songling participated in planning, and felt that each battle was very clever, at least, better than the battles we had when we were in the Northeast Army before."

"Nonsense, I was just a small company commander at that time, and I was still a small company commander of the second-line troops who had never fought a few tough battles." The red beard gave Feng Tianhua a blank look and protested loudly, but he did not show any displeasure on his face. "We won't summarize his strengths. After all, this time it was not a commendation meeting. Next, I will return to the main topic. I recommend Comrade Zhang Songling to be a candidate for the deputy captain of the Black Stone Guerrillas. Anyone with different opinions, please raise your hand to object and explain the reasons for the objection."

Most of the people present smiled and shook their heads, and could not object to Zhang Songling's deputy captain of the guerrillas. Occasionally, some people felt that Zhang Songling had little experience and prestige was not enough to convince the public. They also knew that their ideas could not be brought to the table and talked openly, so they simply chose to wait and see. So in the end, the nomination for this candidate was only approved by Zhang Songling, and was written upright on the small blackboard in front of him.

"Next, please recommend other candidates, and then we will conduct a secret ballot." Put down the chalk in his hand, and Red Beard presided over the meeting to continue.

Several party members of the cavalry squadron mentioned Zhao Tianlong, several old soldiers recommended Lao Zheng, the first squadron leader, and some recommended Feng Tianhua, who had been in charge of logistics work. Like discussing Zhang Songling's candidate qualifications just now, everyone raised their hands to speak, either agreed or opposed, and they all honestly brought it to the table. Those who were raised objections also modestly expressed their acceptance, neither making any arguments nor showing any shame on their faces.

Soon, the two candidates with the highest number of recommendation votes were counted, and they fell on Zhang Songling and Lao Zheng respectively. The latter was the only one who voted against him, and his approval rating was tied for the first place with Zhang Songling. However, Zhao Tianlong, because he was a little arrogant when speaking and doing things, and was a little anxious, he actually received three votes of opposition. He was a little annoyed about this, but he remembered that he was now a party member and accepted criticism with a smile.

"Okay, now we have entered the stage of secret ballots." Red Beard couldn't bear to see Zhao Tianlong pretending to be so hard, and laughed and announced the end and most important part of the meeting. "Everyone comes to me to receive a ballot. Tick below the two numbers above the ballots. Choose 1, which means agreeing to Zhang Songling as the deputy captain, and choose 2, which means agreeing to Lao Zheng as the deputy captain. If both of them disagree, they will not fill in anything, and the ballots will be invalid. If you hear it clearly, do you know!"

"It's clear." Everyone answered in unison. Except for Zhao Tianlong and Zhang Songling, everyone was obviously used to using this method to select leaders they could trust. They stood up and walked to Hongbei, took a ballot with a quick look, and then walked back to their original position, using pens to check under the numbers they liked.

The final vote counting stage was quite exciting. The votes of the two candidates actually led alternately. It was not until the last vote came out that the dust settled. Zhang Songling became the youngest deputy captain of the Black Stone Guerrillas with a slight advantage of one vote. The person who voted the most critical vote, no need to guess, everyone knew that it was the captain of the Red Beard.

This scene was without any roar of artillery fire, but it left an indelible memory in Zhang Songling's mind. Until many years later, when I occasionally remembered it, there was still a warm feeling in my heart slowly surging back and forth.
Chapter completed!