Chapter 43: The Transformation of the Prisoner Camp
The Xi'an Prisoner of War Camp, also known as the Second Branch of the Mukden Prisoner Internment Center, held 1,500 Allied prisoners of war who had been captured in the Pacific Theater. In fact www.biquge.info number should be more than 2,000, and the death rate of Allied officers and soldiers in the Mukden prisoner of war camp is one-third. One of the three did not wait for victory to be released.
At noon that day, the prisoners of war gathered in the large canteen for lunch, as usual. A bowl of cornmeal soup and a child's palm-sized sorghum bread were the lunch for the prisoners of war. Although the meal was simple, enjoying such a lunch was a rare and enjoyable time of the day for the prisoners of war.
Breakfast is a bowl of water, the same cornmeal salty soup for dinner, but no sorghum bread. Compared with the morning and evening meals, the POWs were quite satisfied with this hearty lunch.
General Jonathan Wainwright sat on a bench and enjoyed his share of lunch. Although a lieutenant general in the U.S. Army, General Wainwright's lunch was no richer than that of an ordinary soldier. Nibbling the coarse sorghum bread and taking a sip of the cornmeal salty soup, Wainwright chewed hard.
At first, he was really not used to eating coarse grains such as sorghum and corn, but now that it has been a long time, Lieutenant General Wainwright has found that sorghum and corn are actually quite appetizing to eat. This thing is not unpalatable if you chew it more. At the very least, it is much better than eating half a bowl of gruel a day in a Taiwanese prisoner of war camp.
General Wainwright was eating with relish when he suddenly felt as if there was someone else around him. Normally, when Edjoaquin or George Moore came, they usually sat across from him, and basically no one had taken the initiative to sit next to him during the meal, Wainwright turned his head to look, only to find that the person next to him was not one of the people he was familiar with.
Of course, this person must be an American soldier, which can be seen from the style of his military uniform and facial features. Wainwright nodded to the soldier. Everyone is a prisoner in a prisoner of war camp, and they don't pay so much attention to what status, rank, and the like, and they are all hard-working people, so why do they pay so much attention?
"General, someone outside asked me to give you this." The soldier whispered something to his mouth with the rim of his bowl, then bowed his head and drank the salty soup in the bowl and walked away. Wainwright felt something more in his palm, and he looked around alertly, and when he saw that no one was paying attention, he shoved the thing in his palm into his shoes as quickly as he could.
During the night's rest, Wainwright carefully took out from his shoes what the soldiers had given him during the day, a piece of paper that had been folded the size of a broad bean. It's this note that has already made the general's foot hurt all afternoon. The orderlies in the same cell stood up and blocked the direction of the door, so that even if a guard looked in from the door, the lieutenant general could not be seen.
The note read, written in English: Inform the Allied generals that within a few days Chinese troops would attack the prisoner of war camp and rescue the prisoners of war. Organize trusted Allied soldiers to be ready to respond.
There's no beginning, there's no end, there's no date, there's no signature, there's nothing, it's just a plain note with a few words written on it. However, it was such an ordinary note, but it made General Jonathan Wainwright, a lieutenant general of the US Army, tremble with excitement, and tears involuntarily welled up in his already cloudy eyes.
In the face of the insults and beatings of the Japanese invaders, the general did not shed tears; In order to save the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers of the United States and the Philippines, the general was forced to surrender to the Japanese in humiliation, and did not shed tears; Now, looking at this ordinary note, the strong General Jonathan Wainwright burst into tears.
The next day, the guards of the second branch of the Mukden Prisoner Detention Center were surprised to find that the prisoners suddenly seemed to be a different group of people, not only were they full of enthusiasm when they worked, but no one was fighting. Normally, these captives are often killed and killed for trivial matters. Not only do the guards have fun watching the captives fight, but they can also make bets with each other to win a little money. Today, all that fun is gone.
Ordinary Japanese guards were not accustomed to the transformation of the prisoners, but the commander of the second branch, Watanabe Nakasa, was quite happy. The captives are willing to reform and not look for trouble, doesn't this mean that he, the head of the sub-director, has done an excellent job in management?
If the captives can continue like this, when he goes to the Mukden meeting in two days, he can invite the commander of the Mukden prisoner camp, General Kamimura Kamio, to inspect here. When the time comes, a Rising Sun Medal Tie Tie Tie will not be able to escape!
In order to encourage the captives to change, and for the inspection of General Uemura a few days later, Watanabe Nakasa decided to give the captives a meal! Each person was also given one sorghum cake for dinner, and the lunch was increased to two cakes per person, and half a bowl of corn salty soup was added.
What a welcome change! The captives were given more food, their complexions improved, and they knew that they would be in a good mood when they came out, and that there would be no fights. Even if there is a little contradiction, most of them are humble to each other, showing full gentlemanly demeanor.
Seeing that the atmosphere in the prisoner camp was getting better and better, and the positive energy was getting more and more abundant, Watanabe Nakasami began to prepare for what to do after meeting General Uemura in Mukden, not only to show himself, but also to be able to flatter the general by the way, so that Major General Uemura Kamio could also profit from this incident. Only by letting the chief profit can he obtain greater benefits, which Watanabe Nakasa has known for a long time.
Just when the second branch of the Fengtian Prisoner Detention Center in Xi'an County was making great strides and getting better and better, the atmosphere of war around Xi'an County was getting stronger and stronger. As Ren Laifeng's troops appeared more and more around Xi'an County, it became more and more impossible for them to hide their whereabouts.
Even if the devils in Xi'an County are blind, the wolf dogs they feed can smell the tension in the air. What's more, the devil is neither blind nor stupid, there are thousands of troops around the county, how could they not know?
The head of the Xi'an County Garrison, Sato Daisa, has received more than a dozen reports in a row, all of which are about the large number of troops of unknown origin gathering around the county seat. If it was the imperial army, even if it was a puppet army, Shao Zuo should definitely be notified. Now that he has not received any notice, then there is only one possibility for these troops of unknown origin, which is the enemy!
With a veteran's sense of war, Sato Osa already had a premonition that a big battle against the garrison of Xi'an County would come at any time. For the sake of insurance and as the duty of the captain of the local garrison, Sato Daisa sent a report to Xinjing and Mukden: A large number of enemies have come to my Xi'an County!