Chapter 1 Oath (Three Parts)

The face looked very familiar. Zhang Songling vaguely remembered that last time he and Zhou Heikang and others escorted Siqin to Fu Zuoyi's place, he had met this person in the independent camp. At that time, the young man respected him and Peng Xuewen, calling him and seniors one by one, with a little restrained expression on his face. He was obviously a student who had just put down his pen and ink, and his bookish spirit was so strong.

Since he took the initiative to give up his stable life and joined the army and was ready to devote his flesh and blood to the country, how could he become a spy of the Japanese in such a short time? Zhou Heichang's reaction was too slow. From the time when the telegram was privately detained by this person in the late Xia Dynasty to now carrying the head of this person to apologize, more than three months have passed. Although the distance between the guerrillas and the independent battalion is far away, it is not separated by thousands of mountains and rivers, and the telegraph machine cannot be used. After hearing the news that the old guerrilla camp was captured by the Japanese, could he not send a messenger to express his concern?

All these, countless doubts appeared in front of Zhang Songling's eyes at the same time, making him unable to believe Zhou Heichang's explanation at all. However, before he could figure out how he could expose this lie without immediately turning against each other, Red Beard had already recovered his mind first, held Zhou Heichang's arm with both hands, and shook his head with a smile: "Brother Zhou, where are you saying this? The Japanese instructed the spy to secretly deduct the telegram I asked for help from you. The purpose is to pick it. Let me tell you about the relationship between our two families? If I follow the rules of the world, wouldn’t it be the same as the Japanese? Let’s pull it down? Although my red beard is a little older, I am not so old that I can’t even tell the difference between right and wrong. Get up quickly, get up, and have a good drink with me. The more people don’t want us to join forces, the more we will have to stir up the blame, anger him to death, and make him stare at me but have no choice.”

Although he has been lingering in sick bed recently, he suddenly seemed to have taken some elixir tonight. Killed Wood Fengchun, with a little force, he lowered Zhou Heitan to his arms and held up his arms from the ground. Then he freed up a big hand and patted him gently behind the other party. He added with a smile, "Take this head seed in the wilderness and feed the wolf, don't let him sweep everyone's alcohol. Come on, come with me now, I specially made it hot. Lao Baigan, who was replaced by vendors in summer, is waiting for you Zhou Heizi to identify the smell."

"Since Mr. Hong said that, it would be too pretentious if I get involved in this matter." Seeing the Red Beard reacting, Zhou Heikang's stiff shoulders were obviously loosened. He agreed with a smile, then quickly turned around and threw the box containing the head to the guards who were following him. "Go and throw it away from the desert to feed the wolf. Don't let the guerrillas dirty the guerrillas' land. By the way, tell all brothers that they will find a suitable place to camp three miles away. If I don't have my order tonight, no one is allowed to get close to the guerrillas' camp to cause trouble."

"Breaking nonsense, what are you talking about?" Before the guard agreed, the Red Beard had already changed color. "The people have arrived at the door of my house. You Zhou Heichang chased me three miles away. Didn't you hit me in the face of Red Beard? If you want to enter, you Zhou Heizi will follow them and go away. Don't squat at my door of my house. It's like a group of debt collectors, which makes people feel upset."

"Brother, brother, don't get me wrong. I didn't mean that, not that." Zhou Heichang was so scolded that he had a fever on his face. He quickly raised his hands to explain, "I, I'm afraid that I would encounter sneak attacks from the Japanese on the road like last winter, so I brought two brothers from the company, and all the animals who brought you gifts, and I'm afraid that I'll have to occupy more than half of your guerrilla camp."

"So what if I take it all." Red Beard gave him a blank look, and the anger on his face was still unwilling to be easily eliminated. "As such a big oasis, wouldn't my soldiers change places to camp? Besides, my Red Beard's camp is not this one. Just let you get here and let them squeeze in elsewhere. It's better than letting brothers from the independent camp come so far away but want to get frozen in the wild."

As he spoke, he deliberately or unintentionally pointed to the camp left and right. Zhou Heichang looked along the direction of his finger. Sure enough, two or three clusters of lights were found five or six miles away around the right side of the camp in front of him. Judging from the situation, it was definitely not a scale that three or two families could gather. Each camp still had at least a dozen felt bags hidden. Even if each felt bagged five people, the total number of people in several camps was two or three hundred, at least not less than the cavalry he carried this time.

With a "swoosh", a sensation of air conditioning came from the bottom of Zhou Heichang's boots, "I'm so scared. This damn Chief of Staff Wu, Xiao Zhuge, who graduated from Huangpu, is almost the same as Brother Pig."

"I discovered this area three years ago. There is probably a big river buried underground, so there are five oasis nearby, not big, but it should be fine to raise one or two thousand sheep in summer." The red beard's voice continued, with a hint of pride, "You are not here this time. If you find this place in summer, I can also invite you to eat white fish in the sand pill. If you catch one, you will weigh twenty or thirty pounds. I don't know how long I have lived, and I almost become a sperm."

"I didn't know that you, Hong, are holding such a Feng Shui treasure land in your hand. You know, I have come to eat a big family long ago." After all, you are also a famous hero in the martial arts world. Although Zhou Heichang felt thunder in his heart, his expression on his face quickly returned to normal. "There are rumors outside that you were beaten up by the Japanese and were seriously injured. I have been worried about you. How could you think, you just don't want to compete with the Japanese and have been looking for a way out in the desert."

"The vitality must have been hurt. After all, the Japanese and the puppet army have more than 2,000 numbers together. Last time, it was very sudden. If our guerrillas were not even injured, they would become a god." Hongbei shook her head and smiled and was modest. "But she was beaten so hard that she could never climb on the kang, but it was not enough. The yellow beard was cleaned up by the two of us. She hid in the desert and could quickly pull up a group of people. I am one of the four beards, and I can't get a reputation."

"That's right, whether it's red, yellow, white, black, or red, black, yellow, your old name has always been the first. There is no reason why you can't do what his yellow beard can do." Zhou Heikang smiled convincingly, his expression on his face became more and more relaxed. Deep in his heart, he once again sent his chief of staff to his chief of staff. It is said that Wu Tianci, a top student who graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy, scolded him all the eighth generation of his ancestors, "Oh, my grandmother, this time, I'm really lucky to meet Jiang Gan. I also came to the conclusion based on reliable information. I'm not even able to figure out how many places the red beard's nest are. It's not reliable."

"Parrange the name of our Red Team with the Huang Bearded One is simply embarrassing our Red Team." Sitting foolishly on the horse's back, seeing Red Team chatting and laughing with Zhou Heikang as if he had changed his body. Zhao Tianlong finally got his mind out, jumped off his mount, walked to Zhou Heikang, and grabbed one of the other's arms, "Let's not mention that useless coward, let's go in first, facing the wind and snow, why are you doing frozen at the door?"

"Let's go, go, go in first, brothers, please give me a greeting to Brother Long." Zhang Songling also recalled the smell like a dream, and reached out to hold Zhou Heichang's other arm.

Zhou Heikang was originally urged by someone, so he tried to put the guerrillas under his wings. In fact, he was very disdainful of this behavior of taking advantage of the situation. At this moment, seeing that Red Beard seemed to have sufficient strength and did not want to break up with the other party, he pretended not to be able to withstand the pull of Zhao Tianlong and Zhang Songling, and staggered into the camp for more than ten steps, then turned around and shouted at his guard platoon leader Zhou Baorui, his nephew Zhou Baorui, "Xiao Ruizi, go and inform Lao Jiu and Staff Wu, and let them lead everyone to bring in the gifts I prepared for the guerrillas, and then disturbed Brother Red Beard in the camp, which made me feel a little bit more face and drink with some energy. If anyone dares to drink too much, I will strip his clothes and throw him into the snow."

"Yes." Zhou Ruisheng's ears in the past two years are the names of heroes such as Red Beard and Ruyunlong. He is more reluctant to accept Chief Wu's bad idea than Zhou Heicang. At this moment, he heard that his uncle had a hint of changing the course of Yi Zhang, so he immediately straightened his waist and answered with a particularly loud voice.

Zhou Heikang's body stopped, very slight, and almost no one except himself could notice it. His eyes quickly swept across the trusted guards he trusted most. On everyone's shoulders, he could almost see the ease after the heavy burden was lifted. "You guys, all dismounted me and lined up in with the animals." With a smile on his face, he loudly gave orders to his confidants, "One by one, a bunch of raw melon seeds, and now they are still on the saddle. Are you still waiting for Mr. Hong to pull the reins for you personally?"

"I dare not, I dare not." The guards awkwardly grabbed the fox-skinned hats covered with snow foam, flew off the horse, carefully pulled the reins of the mount in their hands, and walked towards the camp gate one by one.

"No need to queue, no need to queue. The door is wide, so it's okay to go side by side. Xiao Zhao, take a few brothers to lead the animals to the ground nest, feed some warm water first, and then put a few buckets of concentrated feed. Lao Feng, take the brothers to sit next to the three fires closest to me. Each fire is first filled with a sheep and let everyone eat while roasting. If it's not enough, add it." Red Beard politely made way, organized people, and gave the guards the warmest reception, (Note 1)

The fire closest to Red Beard is naturally closest to Zhou Heichang. If there is a turbulent movement around, these more than 60 agile guards can jump up immediately to provide Zhou Heichang with all-round protection. On the contrary, Red Beard, who is the master here, cannot let go of several guards around him. If the guests have any evil intentions, it is possible to catch him and the main backbone of the guerrillas in one place.

Such a frank arrangement made Zhou Heichang feel more and more amazed. He even put away the last thought of exploring the guerrillas. He smiled and bowed to Hongbei, "Master Hong, why are you doing so polite to them? You don't have to invite them to eat roasted lamb. Everyone can enjoy a bowl of wine and drink. The animals don't have to go into the ground. They are all cold-resistant varieties that are hybridized with local Mongolian horses. They can't die of freezing when they sleep outside for a night."

"That's not possible. The rules of our cavalry are that even if you lose people, you can't lose horses." Red Beard shook his head with a smile, "Besides, I heard that you are coming, I have ordered people to free up all the land nests dug for the animals in this camp. Even if you can't let go of all the animals you brought with you, you can still force your brothers into it, which is a bit crowded."

"If you have a place to shelter the wind, what else can you do to squeeze?" Seeing that Hongbei said affirmatively, Zhou Heichang stopped refusing. After a while, he gestured to the guards to accept the other party's arrangement.

Although it was just a temporary camp for guerrillas, the scale was not too small. More than 60 guards and their war horses walked in and instantly melted into the warm fire. Then, Zhou Heichang's main force also arrived. A half-company team jumped off their mounts at the gate of the camp and entered one after another. After dispersing next to the fire according to the arrangement of the owner, they still seemed a little weak. Even half of the fire in the camp was useless, let alone filling the entire camp.

However, the pack horses that were transporting supplies with the independent battalion were a little effort to place them. The guerrillas quickly did not have enough land nests for the animals. In such cold weather, it was indeed rude to allow the guests' animals to be blown by the wind outside, but this problem was quickly resolved. Feng Tianhua, the head of the kitchen squad, took several veterans who were turned into logistics personnel due to injuries and volunteered to drive the animals to the nearby oasis. There were several large-scale land nests there, enough to put down these extra animals.

Standing next to a warm fire, watching the owners greet their brothers in an orderly manner, neither showing any fear nor showing any aura, Zhou Heichang's heart was turbulent again. With such a group of well-trained direct descendants, even if there were doubtful soldiers in the oasis around him, how could he do what he could do with him? He really turned his face and started to fight. Although the number of people on his side was twice as high, whoever lost and who would win or not is certain. Besides, even if Red Beard really forced his brothers to surrender under his circumstances, would he have the courage to accept it? After taking it down, it would probably take less than half a year for the entire independent camp to be returned.

Thinking of this, he no longer wanted to pay attention to the Chief of Staff Wu Tianci who was pushing towards him. He raised his head and shouted at the company commander Li Laojiu, who was helping to drive out the animals, "Laojiu, you are so tired and confused. Why don't you remove the gifts we gave to Hong Master first? And you foodies, don't just drool around the fire." He waved his arms and pointed at the two fires closest to him. He continued to give loud orders, "Get up and unload the gifts for me. No one is allowed to sit down if you don't finish it."

"Yes." Li Laojiu, who had been following Zhou Heikang's saddle since he was a teenager, was slightly stunned at first, and then he quickly understood what the boss meant. He stopped Feng Tianhua and others with a smile, and said hello, "Don't leave first, don't leave first, the things on the back of this animal were specially given to Hong Ye, in total." He raised his head, looked at Zhou Heikang's face, and then continued to add, "There are a total of fifty rifles, 20,000 bullets, and a hundred frozen sheep, sixty bags of cornmeal, and seventy quilts."

"Okay, don't embarrass me." Zhou Heicang glared at him pretending to behave and interrupted loudly, "I will count it again later, deduct the losses on the road, and add a gift list to Mr. Hong. I have to worry about such a small matter myself. It's really awesome for you bunny."

"Oh." Li Laojiu agreed again, sticking his butt to count the gifts, as if this was their true intention of coming. The original plan was purely the daydream of Chief of Staff Wu Tianci alone, and no one agreed at all.

Wu Tianci, the chief of staff of Zhou Heichang, saw it next to him, and his stomach twitched with pain. The gift on the horse was indeed prepared for the guerrillas, but it was the sweetness that Red Beard promised to accept the reorganization of the independent battalion. Now, looking at Zhou Heichang's meaning, he didn't plan to mention this. Isn't this group of supplies and arms that he had spent a lot of effort to coordinate to send charcoal to the guerrillas in vain?

"There is no such thing as doing good deeds." For a moment, Wu Tianci wanted to jump up and grab Zhou Heichang's neck and question, "I can't be cruel and shameless, how did you survive on the grassland over the years." However, thinking that he was just here and his heels in the independent camp were not stable yet, he had to suppress the anger in his heart, smiled, and took the initiative to replenish Zhou Heichang, "We Battalion Commander Zhou heard that you are in trouble, so he never forgot to help. Now, the supplies he got through special channels just now were the first to send to the guerrillas. I want to say it."

"This is." Red Beard's eyes were quickly attracted by this officer who obviously did not look like a grassland man. He stretched out his hand with a smile and asked Zhou Heichang at the same time.

"My chief of staff, the surname Wu, is a talented student from the Whampoa Military Academy. He lost all his losses to the military training work of the Independent Battalion." Zhou Heicang turned around and glanced at Wu Tianci, and had to bite the bullet and introduce it to both sides.

"Disrespect, disrespect." The smile on the red beard's face became more and more intense, like a wildfire that was encountered by the strong wind, burning wildly.

"I have long admired the name of Hong Ye. Today I have a chance to meet him. This is a blessing for Wu." Staff Wu took off his gloves and put his fingers that seemed to be without bones into the big slap of Hongye's mouth. The heat from his mouth was instantly frozen into white smoke by the night wind.
Chapter completed!