Tianjin defending Beiping in terms of geographical location is called Tianjin Wei, Tianjin and Beiping are dependent on each other, if the People's Liberation Army captures Tianjin, it is equivalent to opening the door to liberate Beiping. At this time, the city of Tianjin was tightly surrounded by the four field troops of the People's Liberation Army like an iron bucket, and its situation was better: the People's Liberation Army weaved a dense net to cover Tianjin, and not a single bird wanted to fly out of the city. After the victory of the Liaoshen Campaign, the morale of the officers and men of the People's Liberation Army was greatly boosted, and their enthusiasm for fighting was high; The Kuomintang troops in the city tried in vain to take advantage of Tianjin's strong city defenses and refused to surrender. A bloody battle is about to begin.

At the station of the Sixth Company of Sharp Knife under a certain army in Siye, the soldiers were training vigorously. The battle against Tianjin was a tough battle, and the soldiers carried ladders and explosives bags to attack the hypothetical high walls, trenches and bunkers over and over again. The burly commander of the sixth company, Cui, stood on a mound and watched the drills of his soldiers, he kept waving his arms and shouting loudly from time to time, he was not satisfied with the drills of his subordinates, he called off the training of the whole company.

Company Commander Cui ran down the mound and stood in front of a soldier lying on the ground with an explosive bag in his arms, and commanded: "Stand up! The soldier stood up with a nervous expression and looked at the company commander at a loss.

Cui Lian said to him loudly, and also to other soldiers: "I told you a few times, why can't you remember?" Creeping forward is to bring your body as close to the ground as possible, reducing and reducing the exposed area of your body, and only in this way can you effectively protect yourself from enemy bullets. But how do you do it? I now command you to lie on the ground and repeat the prostrate movement. The soldiers next to him surrounded one after another.

The warrior said, "Yes! Then he lay on the ground, picked up the explosives bag, and crawled forward.

Company Commander Cui shouted to the soldier: "Raise your head too high, lower your head!" ”

The soldier slumped forward, his head down, his ass cocked again.

"Tell you to press your head down, you put your ass up again, why do you still want to fuck multiple eyes in your ass?" Company Commander Cui scolded humorously. The soldiers next to him laughed happily. After waiting for the soldier who was flushed with shame to stand up, Company Commander Cui stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder sincerely, "I know that you are a rookie, and I love you by being strict with you." I often tell you: sweat more in peacetime and bleed less in wartime. Crawl like you just did, you have ten lives to be taken by the enemy! He turned to the soldiers around him and said, "We revolutionary fighters are not afraid of death, but only by preserving ourselves well can we better destroy the enemy!" After the war, we will build a new China and enjoy a happy new life! You're right? ”

"Yes!" The fighters replied in unison.

"I declare that after defeating Jiang Dam, the first thing to do is to go home and marry a daughter-in-law!" A Northeast warrior shouted.

Another soldier was sent to the front line by his wife wearing a saffron and beating gongs and drums, and he shook his head and said, "Haha! After we liberate the whole country, I will go home and get him a few acres of land and two cows, have a few children with my wife, farm the land during the day, and drink wine and play cards with a few villagers around the kang table at night. It's so beautiful to think about! ”

"And then?" There was a warrior who deliberately teased him.

"Then you still need to ask, and then you will blow the lamp and pull out the wax to sleep with the woman in her arms!"

"What did you do when you woke up in the middle of the night?"

"Then you don't need to ask, hug your wife and continue to sleep!"

The words made the soldiers laugh.

"You know that you are thinking about enjoying yourself after the victory of the revolution, but you have forgotten what the instructor said in political class? There are still many suffering people in the world waiting for us to emancipate us, and only by liberating all mankind can we, the proletariat, finally liberate ourselves! You don't talk about politics at all! Their words caused dissatisfaction and rebuttal from some fighters.

"If we don't want to live a good life in the future, why are we abandoning our family and business to fight?" The soldier from the Northeast asked a rhetorical question that was not convinced.

The soldiers, you and I are talking about everything, and the atmosphere of the argument is still very fierce.

After a while, Company Commander Cui waved his hand to silence everyone and said loudly: "The battle is about to start, and the most important task in front of us at present is to train the troops hard and train them well. Only with excellent military technology and a fearless revolutionary spirit can we defeat the enemy and defeat the Kuomintang reactionaries and all their reactionary classes! At present, practicing the ability to kill the enemy is the biggest politics. Then he told the soldiers to rest for a while, and he sat down on a dirt slope, lit a cigarette, and smoked it in large gulps.

At this time, Xiao Ma, the communicator of the military department, came over from a distance with a tall young soldier, and he walked up to Company Commander Cui and saluted and said: "Report to Company Commander Cui, in order to strengthen the propaganda and mobilization work of the grassroots companies before the war, the military department temporarily equipped our subordinate companies with political propaganda personnel. This comrade was assigned to the Sixth Company. With that, he gestured to the people behind him.

Company Commander Cui carefully looked at the man behind the pony, who was tall and handsome; A very clean, half-worn military uniform was worn on his body, which was very decent; He stood behind the pony and smiled gracefully at himself. Company Commander Cui suddenly had a good impression of him.

The young man stepped up to Company Commander Cui and saluted in a straight manner, and then said loudly: "Report to the company commander, Wang Hongju, a member of the political propaganda team of the military department, report to you!" ”

Company Commander Cui happily stepped forward and shook Wang Hong's hand and said, "Welcome!" Welcome! My name is Cui Fengming", and then he beat Wang Hongju's chest with his fist and said with emotion: "It's been a few years! It's the first time someone calls me you, you are an authentic Beijing film. ”

Wang Hongju also asked happily: "Listening to Lian Chang Cui's accent, he is also from Beiping, right?" ”

Cui Fengming said: "Yes, my home is in the area of Nanshuncheng Street in Dongzhimen, Beiping, and I am an authentic Beiping person. ”

Wang Hongju said: "My family lives near Luoguxiang in Beicheng, not far from your home. ”

"Comrade Xiao Wang, you are only in your early twenties!"

"yes, I don't think you're a year or two older than me."

"But I'm definitely older than you." Cui Fengming smiled proudly.

The two hit it off at first sight, hand to hand clasped tightly.

Cui Fengming pulled Wang Hongju and introduced to the soldiers: "Comrades, this is Comrade Wang Hongju, a member of the political propaganda team who has just joined our company, he will live and fight with us in the future, everyone is welcome!" With that, he took the lead in applauding, and the soldiers greeted him with a warm applause.

After giving a military salute to the soldiers, Wang Hongju said to Cui Fengming: "Company Commander Cui, the soldier Wang Hongju asks for assignment of work. ”

Cui Fengming told Wang Hongju that his work was assigned by Comrade Li Qiming, an instructor of the Sixth Company, and that Instructor Li was conducting pre-war political mobilization training at the regiment headquarters and would probably return tomorrow. He asked Wang Hongju to practice with the soldiers first and familiarize himself with the situation of the company.

At dusk, the 6th Company's garrison was set up. Cui Fengming held a bowl of braised pork in his hand, put two big white steamed buns on the table with chopsticks and said to Wang Hongju: "Eat, this is not my small stove." ”

Wang Hongju looked at the fragrant braised pork in surprise and said, "This is specially prepared for me?" ”

Cui Fengming crossed his hands on his hips and laughed: "Who are you sacred?" Do you need to prepare it for you? ”

Wang Hongju pointed to the rice on the table and said, "This meat and white steamed buns are not usually eaten by the leaders of our military department!" "When he said it, he was almost drooling.

Cui Fengming said: "In normal times, the life of the soldiers is very hard, and they eat coarse grains and pickles, and it is difficult to see meat. Ha! Count your kid lucky, just come today to catch up with the company to improve the food. These days, the fighters train very hard and consume a lot of physically, so we have to find a way to make them eat well and be full! I see you're hungry enough, eat it! Then the correspondent served another meal to Company Commander Cui. Wang Hongju hadn't eaten stew for a long time, so he unceremoniously took the meal and ate it. After the two of them finished eating, they both gave their thumbs up and shouted that it was delicious, and they both looked at the empty bowl with unfinished eyes. "We are like hungry ghosts who haven't had enough to eat!" Cui Fengming joked, and the two of them laughed after speaking.

After eating, the correspondent took away the dishes and chopsticks. There was nothing to do, and the two of them sat cross-legged on the kang and chatted. Cui Fengming took out a box of cigarettes from his pocket, pointed to the trademark of the cigarettes and said, "Made in the United States, Captain Chiang Kai-shek's transportation brigade sent it to us." Then he took out two cigarettes, put one in his mouth, and handed the other to Wang Hongju.

Wang Hongju hurriedly waved his hand and said, "Thank you!" I don't smoke. ”

"And do you drink?" Company Commander Cui carefully put the cigarette handed to Wang Hongju back into the cigarette case.

"I don't drink wine." After Wang Hongju finished speaking, he saw that Cui Fengming looked a little disappointed, and he was a little embarrassed. He hurriedly added, "But I'm happy to drink a little." ”

"You're tall and tall. But I'm sure you'll be like me in a few moments, with no more cigarettes and alcohol! ”

Wang Hongju explained: "It's not that I'm high, smoking and drinking hurt my body, it's not a good habit of life. ”

Cui Fengming sat cross-legged on the edge of the kang, lit a cigarette and took a hard puff, squinting his eyes and swallowing the fog before speaking: "Before I entered the army, I didn't smoke or drink like you, but once I did the revolution, it was equivalent to tying my head to the belt of my trousers, fighting all day long in the rain of bullets, swords, and shadows, and I don't know if I will report to Marx one day." If you are willing to give up your life, are you still afraid of smoking and drinking? On the battlefield you see mutilated corpses lying in pools of blood, including your enemies and your comrades. Yesterday he was a brotherly comrade-in-arms, and today he left you. If you are human today, you may be a ghost tomorrow. Do you know? After every battle, whether we win or lose, we have to lose some comrades-in-arms, some of whom are your best friends and confidants. The joy of victory and the grief of losing a comrade-in-arms tormented my heart alternately, and every soldier on the battlefield was fighting face-to-face with the enemy for faith, for survival, and for victory. When you see your opponents and comrades falling one by one beside you, the complex emotions of bravery and fear, cruelty and pity, grief and revenge are intertwined.

Cui Fengming threw it away until the cigarette butt was almost hot, and he lit a cigarette again and said with a smile: "Of course, smoking also has a very practical advantage, that is, it is inseparable from the soldiers' tobacco and alcohol. ”

"Just smoke, there are many reasons!" Wang Hongju disagrees with this reason.

"Believe it or not, you will understand later. I bet you'll have to smoke in less than half a year! Cui Fengming took a hard puff of cigarette, and after he spit out the cigarette, he tried his best to suck the smoke back into his mouth, looking complacent: "I'm really poor enough, I have found so many reasons to smoke." I have said so much to you today, one is because we are fellow countrymen, and I think we have a fate; The second is to teach you a lesson first: When you come from the military headquarters to the grassroots companies where we directly fight, you must recognize the cruelty and hardship of war and not idealize it. ”

"Company Commander Cui, thank you for inspiring and helping me in my work, what do you think is the focus of our company's work?" Wang Hongju asked tentatively.

"The instructor will come back tomorrow, you can ask him for advice, the two of us have a division of labor, and the focus of my work is to grasp military training."

Cui Fengming was talking and smoking, and he smoked one cigarette after another. He's smoked enough, he's talked enough. At this time, it was already dark, and Company Commander Cui stood up and looked out the window, and he said to Wang Hongju with a smile: "I don't know how to do it, I saw you today as a comrade and talked a lot." Not only because you are my fellow countryman in Beiping, but also, you remind me of my hometown in Beiping. My parents are in their sixties, and I didn't serve by their side. If they are still alive, I will definitely use all my strength to honor the two elders after the success of the revolution. He slapped his thigh hard, was silent for a moment, and then continued: "I still have a woman I have missed for many years, and when I liberate Beiping, I will find her, propose to her, and marry her as a wife." ”

Cui Fengming said as he waved his right hand forward vigorously and said, "I really want to capture Tianjin tomorrow and liberate Beiping the day after tomorrow!" After speaking, he asked Wang Hongju as if he remembered something: "Hey, do you have a woman?" ”

Wang Hongju didn't know how to answer this question, he nodded first, then shook his head, and then grinned and didn't answer. Because it was the first time they met, Cui Fengming didn't ask again when he saw Wang Hongju's embarrassed appearance, he smoked a cigarette and said to himself: "After all, it's been a few years since I ran away, I'm really homesick, I miss my woman." ”

Wang Hongju was aroused by Cui Fengming's words. Although he has not been away from home for a long time, he is inevitably homesick when he is physically and mentally exhausted or in the dead of night. He escaped from the house after causing trouble, he is always thinking about his family, afraid that they will be persecuted by spies, worried about his parents' health, worried about Huang Tingting's fate, I don't know what their situation is now? He said: "Company Commander Cui, I am in the same mood as you, and I can't wait to enter Beiping tomorrow!" ”

At this time, Cui Fengming tied his belt and put on his pistol and said to Wang Hongju: "Go!" Let you familiarize yourself with the situation of the company, and go with me to check the outpost. ”

Wang Hongju immediately stood upright: "Yes!" ”