Volume I, Chapter 32

On January 30, 1949, General Fu Zuoyi renounced the secret and announced that he would lead the army to revolt, and Beiping, a well-known ancient capital at home and abroad, was finally peacefully liberated. On 3 February, the Chinese People's Liberation Army held a grand ceremony to enter the city, and a majestic and mighty procession marched from Yongding Gate to the front door. Military bands, infantry, cavalry, armored units, marched in order. Cheering crowds were crowded on both sides of the road, who excitedly waved colorful flags, waved banners, beat gongs and drums, and set off firecrackers to warmly welcome the People's Liberation Army into the city. Tanks rumbled, and some citizens crowded into the ranks despite dissuasion, climbed onto the tanks and cheered with their hands raised. The marching team erected the August 1st Army flags, and the bright red flags shook in the cold wind.

Wang Hongju walked majestically in the ranks with an American submachine gun on his shoulder. About half a year passed between the time he left Peiping and defected to the Liberated Areas and his return to Beiping, but the situation of the Chinese revolution underwent earth-shaking changes in the period of about half a year, and the powerful heroic and combative Chinese People's Liberation Army completely destroyed the foundation of the Kuomintang's reactionary rule with a devastating momentum, and the collapse of Chiang Kai-shek's regime was only a matter of time. The majestic and tall Qianmen Arrow Tower witnessed the great historical moment of the peaceful liberation of Beiping.

From time to time, some people in the crowd along the way crowded to the side of the fighters to shake hands and hug them, and an old lady carried a basket of hard-boiled eggs and stuffed them into the hands of the soldiers one by one, but the soldiers politely declined. More than a dozen people dressed as students held big red banners that read "Warmly welcome the People's Liberation Army" and "Liberate all of China" and shouted slogans in an organized manner. Suddenly, as if they had discovered something, they stood on tiptoe in the crowd and shouted, and one of the beautiful girls said loudly to her companions, "Look! That People's Liberation Army is not like Wang Hongju of our Yanda? That's him! That's him! Let's take a look! Wang Hongju has become a member of the People's Liberation Army, so majestic! She jumped up excitedly.

Several classmates next to the girl looked in the direction of her finger, and they exclaimed as if they had discovered a new world: "Really! It's really Wang Hongju! Look at that, everybody! Wang Hongju became a People's Liberation Army! ”

"Wang Hongju! Wang Hongju! They shouted and raised their arms and waved, hoping to get each other's attention.

Wang Hongju in the team followed the shouting and saw them, and it turned out that these people were his classmates when he was studying at Yenching University. The beautiful girl's name is Xu Liping, and she acted in the drama "Hamlet" with Wang Hongju, in which she played the heroine Ophelia. The other classmates were also his friends. He happily took off his steel helmet and raised the gun in his hand to signal to his classmates. At this time, except for a few students holding banners, the rest of the students ran to the team, and they pulled Wang Hongju out of the queue and rushed to shake hands and hug him.

Xu Liping patted Wang Hongju's shoulder vigorously and said, "Okay, you Wang Hongju!" It's half a year to be missing as soon as you play, it turns out that you went to be a PLA player! As she spoke, she looked up and down the handsome and mighty soldier in front of her with admiration.

After a brief greeting from several people, Wang Hongju hurriedly asked about Huang Tingting's situation, and heard that Tingting had been rescued by the party organization, and a stone he pressed in his heart finally landed. Wang Hongju saw that the team was getting farther and farther away, and he was about to catch up with the team, so he had to shake Xu Liping's hand hard and said: "Now is not the time to speak, I will go to the school to see you when I have time, and we will talk about it then, goodbye!" ”

Wang Hongju waved to a few classmates and trotted to catch up with the team.

"Onward! Forward! Forward! Our army is facing the sun, stepping on the land of the motherland, carrying the expectations of the nation, we are an invincible force! ”

Amid the cheers of the crowd, Wang Hongju and his comrades-in-arms sang loud military songs and marched through the ancient streets of the capital with neat and powerful steps.

Hongju went home. On the third day after entering the city, Wang Hongju asked Lian Li for a half-day leave in the afternoon to go home to visit his parents, and the instructor Li Qiming allowed him to return to the team after dinner.

After Wang Hongju returned home, the Wang family's compound suddenly changed the silence of the past and became lively! All kinds of people in the Wang family's mansion looked at the high-spirited young soldier in front of them with novel and envious eyes. In the more than half a year since Wang Hongju left, his elderly parents always remembered him and cared about his safety.

"Dad, Mom, I'm coming back to see you two elders." Wang Hongju stood in front of his parents, who had been separated for more than half a year.

"Hongju! You're back, Mommy is going to kill you! Mrs. Wang excitedly stepped forward and hugged her son tightly, and Wang Hongju snuggled her face on her mother's shoulder.

You have grown stronger, your face has darkened and thickened, and it seems that you have grown a lot. Let Mom take a good look at you! The mother was in tears, and she couldn't stop touching her son's face with her hand and looking at it carefully.

Wang Yunqing comforted his wife: "Okay, okay." You look forward to Hongju's return every day, everyone is happy when he comes home today, what are you crying and crying! ”

After hearing this, the lady burst into tears and laughed, and Wang Hongju took out a handkerchief to wipe her mother's tears.

The family sat down, the maid brought a pot of tea, and the father said to his son with a spring breeze on his face: "Hongju, I specially asked someone to make a pot of good jasmine tea, which is said to be the favorite drink of the Queen Mother of the West, I am usually reluctant to drink it, I am happy today, our family has a good drink!" ”

Wang Hongju poured tea for his father, and poured a cup for his mother who was sitting next to him, and the three of them talked while drinking tea.

Wang Yunqing tasted the tea carefully, glanced at his son in military uniform, and said with emotion: "When I was young, I threw a pen from Rong, and a few decades later, my youngest son also put a pen from Rong. ”

"Dad, you were a majestic Beiyang general back then, and I was just an ordinary PLA soldier, far worse than you!" Wang Hongju teased his father.

After hearing this, Wang Yunqing stroked his palms and laughed: "You will definitely be stronger than me in the future, and you will be better than the blue!" ”

"Look at you two sons! As soon as we met, we touted each other! Mrs. Wang burst out laughing.

After chatting for a while, Wang Hongju asked about Huang Tingting's situation, and Wang Yunqing told him: Thanks to the rescue of ** and your uncle, otherwise such a good girl would have been killed by the Kuomintang agents.

Mrs. Wang interjected and said, "It's all about others!" Let's talk about you, if you hadn't reported the news, they wouldn't have been able to save people no matter how capable they were! You have a lot of credit for saving people! ”

Wang Yunqing said to his wife with a little dissatisfaction: "At that time, you stopped me from reporting to **, and at this time, you asked me for credit." ”

Mrs. Wang pouted in embarrassment: "That's not because people are afraid that you will be a spy, if you don't get rescued, what should I do if you put your life in again?" ”

Wang Yunqing retorted: "My life is important, but the lives of those ** people are not important?" Later on, it turned out that what I did was very timely and very correct. ”

"You old man is right all the time, I don't have the right time!" Madame Wang was a little unhappy.

The husband and wife argue with me word by word, and everyone feels that they are reasonable, and no one can convince anyone. Wang Hongju sat on the side and didn't speak, he smiled and watched his parents play with each other, feeling the warmth of home to the fullest.

"Actually, the news that the spies were going to kill Huang Tingting and others was told to me by Ma Liangchen, you can't even think of it, right?" Wang Yunqing stopped competing with his wife, he turned his face to his son and said.

"How is he?" Wang Hongju frowned suspiciously.

"Who knows what kind of stuffing this kid has in his buns, maybe he wants to atone for his crimes, maybe he has other intentions, anyway, this information is true!"

Mrs. Wang took over the conversation and said to her son: "I stopped your father at that time, because I was afraid that he would fall into the trap of Ma Liangchen. ”

Wang Yunqing took a sip of tea and waved his hand and said, "Let's not mention him, I will be disgusted when I mention him!" Hongju, one day you have to take some time to see Tingting, she is a very good girl, she suffered a lot of torture in prison, and almost lost her life. ”

Wang Hongju said happily: "Dad, you don't need to say this, I'll go tomorrow!" ”

"Look, I'm in a hurry! It is important to abide by the discipline of the troops, and you can't always ask for leave! You still have time to talk about it, you can't eat hot tofu in a hurry, and you can't reach it if you want to hurry! Wang Yunqing said something in his words, pointing at his son with his hand. Wang Hongju understood what his father meant, and he smiled a little shyly.

While the three of them were talking, the curtain of the door moved, and a person came in from outside. Wang Hongju saw that it was the eldest sister Shuzhen. Shuzhen is only in her 40s, the corners of her eyes and forehead are full of fine wrinkles, and during the months she was held by the secret agents, she drank cold water and ate her nest almost every day, was beaten and scolded, and suffered physically and mentally. After being released from prison, she completely severed her relationship with Ma Liangchen and now lives in her mother's house, which is just returning from looking for a job outside. When she heard that Hongju was coming home, she hurried to the study to meet her.

The sister and brother were very affectionate when they saw each other, Wang Hongju and his sister were not as restrained as their father, and the two held hands and chatted warmly. Wang Hongju asked about Ma Liangchen, and Shuzhen told him that a few days before the peaceful liberation of Beiping, the big spies of the Beiping Station of the Secret Bureau left their little minions and ran away on a plane. Shuzhen said that she would go through the divorce procedures with Ma Liangchen, and she would publish a divorce statement in the newspaper in a few days.

Before dinner, Wang Hongxing also went home, and he has been getting up early and returning late every day recently. Previously, he had to go out to find something to do with his parents, and he couldn't always eat at home, so he had a friend who opened a deal and asked him to be a manager in charge. Wang Yunqing and his wife were willing to find something to do outside for Wang Hongxing to let him really see the outside world.

Wang Hongju naturally made love when he saw his younger brother, and he sat next to his younger brother and talked for a while. Wang Hongju jokingly asked about him and Gui Fang, Wang Hongxing immediately put his finger to his mouth and made a movement, squinted his eyes and glanced at his father, and his younger brother smiled knowingly and closed his mouth.

The family happily ate dinner. For the first time in several years, he was so happy, and Mr. Wang asked someone to take out the old Moutai wine that he had treasured for many years, and he raised his glass and said loudly: "Come!" Cheers to the peaceful liberation of Peking and to Hongju's homecoming! You're all going to drink the wine out of my glass with me! Whoever doesn't finish the glass of wine will be punished! ”

Wang Yunqing usually doesn't drink much except for socializing, but today he is happy to drink endlessly. His face was flushed, and he drank and talked, endlessly. If it weren't for Madame and Shuzhen trying their best to stop him, this old man would have to be drunk!

The army has the discipline of not drinking alcohol when going out, and Wang Hongju took a shallow sip of a wine glass in order not to disappoint his father's pleasure. He sat next to his mother, who kept putting meat and vegetables in his bowl, and urged him to eat one after another, as if she was afraid that her son would not be able to eat enough. After dinner, Wang Hongju was about to return to the army, and his family was reluctant to send him to the door. Before leaving, Wang Hongju suddenly remembered someone, and he asked, "Why didn't you see my Sister Liu tonight?" ”

Shuzhen's eyebrows fluttered and said to him: "Hongju, I forgot to tell you, Sister Liu is lucky!" She's become the wife of Shangguan! ”

Mrs. Wang hurriedly interrupted Shuzhen's words: "Is it okay to be an official's wife, you used to be an official's wife, what about now?" It doesn't matter if it's official or not, the key is that Sister Liu married a good man who knows how to love her! ”

Seeing her son's second monk Zhang's confused appearance, Mrs. Wang told him that more than a month ago, Sister Liu married a brother under her uncle, who was a regiment leader, and he was kind to Sister Liu, and he was a big matchmaker made by his aunt.

Sister Liu, who is often bullied, finally has a good home, Wang Hongju is very happy for her after knowing this, and he is ready to take time to visit his savior.