The two months at the end of the 26th year of the Republic of China are really two months of shame for the Chinese.

Just after the beginning of winter, in the Taiyuan area, although Yan Xishan actively organized the Battle of Taiyuan, and later Fu Zuoyi led the Jin Sui army to defend Taiyuan City to the death, and the Eighth Route Army actively cooperated with the anti-Japanese resistance, the Chinese army was still unable to resist the attack of the Japanese 5th, 20th and 109th Divisions, and Taiyuan City fell. After the news came, the people who were still immersed in the joy of the "Pingxingguan victory" returned to the cold reality in an instant.

Only three days later, another bad news came from the Songhu battlefield in the south - the "Battle of Songhu", which lasted for three months, came to an end: although the people's enthusiasm for the War of Resistance was high, and the Chinese soldiers also went forward and resisted bravely, Shanghai, Suzhou and other places finally fell into the hands of the Japanese. Since then, the gateway to Nanjing, the capital of the Nationalist Government, has been opened, and it has been directly exposed to the blades of the Japanese army.

Eight days later, the Nationalist Government issued the Declaration on the Relocation of the Capital: "...... In order to adapt to the war situation, coordinate the overall situation, and for the sake of the long-term war of resistance, the Nationalist Government hereby moves to Chongqing today, and thereafter will engage in a more protracted battle on a larger scale, with the determination of the Chinese people, the vast land, and the determination of everyone to die, with its blood and the land condensed into one, no violence can separate it, and it will win international sympathy from the outside, and with the unity of the people inside, and continue to resist, it will surely achieve the goal of safeguarding the survival and independence of the country and the nation. Immediately, the capital was officially moved to Chongqing.

After the news came, Shizhu's first feeling was that the Nationalist Government had abandoned the capital, wouldn't it be equivalent to giving up Nanjing to the Japanese invaders!

Zhang Banxian, who had the same idea as Shizhu, was even more indignant after hearing the news, and couldn't help but scold: "Jiang Zhongzheng, who is a wreck, is in vain as the head of state and the commander of the three armed forces, and he abandoned the capital and fled westward, leaving thousands of people in fire and water. To put it nicely, the purpose of moving the capital is to coordinate the overall situation and fight the war for a long time, in fact, what is the difference between this and Cixi and Emperor Guangxu fleeing Beijing City? He is really the scum of the Chinese nation! Thinking about Mr. Zhongshan resolutely raised the flag to overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty, what kind of courage was that, who knows how many years after Mr. Sun Yat-sen left, how did he get to Jiang Zhongzheng's place, and the Republic of China ended up so far? In vain, I think that this person can dominate the world and let the people live a good life, who knows that he can't even defeat a small country in the East, which is really unreasonable! It looks like the common people are going to suffer again! Scolding to the point of excitement, Zhang Banxian coughed several times.

His little daughter-in-law, Zhang Zhushi, saw that her father-in-law was so angry, so she brought a bowl of tea over and said, "His father, look at what makes you angry, didn't you praise the national army for fighting well in that flat place last month, why did you scold it again today?" You're in your fifties, what the hell are you doing? Nanjing City is so far away from us, we can't manage it! If you make yourself angry, it won't be worth it! Hurry up and take a sip of tea and take a break! ”

This Zhang Zhu is also from Zhuzhuang, and Shizhu's mother is the same generation, and the two families are still a little related, but the relationship is a little farther away. They all married to Guwei Village, although the relationship is far away, they can be described, that is, relatives, so usually Shizhu sees Zhang Zhu's family and calls her aunt. Zhang Zhu's is more filial to his in-laws on weekdays, and Zhang Banxian likes his little daughter-in-law very much, so whenever Zhang Zhu's says, Zhang Banxian will most likely listen to it.

After taking a sip of tea, Zhang Banxian said: "Okay, Guangshu, I won't say it, I won't say it!" My cough is an old problem, as soon as it's cold, it's like this, it's not in the way, it's okay to cough for a few days......"

Of course, not everyone in the village is as indignant as Zhang Banxian about the relocation of the capital, such as Zhang Zhu's eight-year-old son Da Mao and his good friend Da Huanggou, as well as Wang Da Da Deaf, who can't hear words in the village, they feel that this world does not seem to have changed anything, and they are still living the same life.

Da Mao heard his grandfather scolding in the house, so he ran over and asked, "My father, why did you move the capital?" Is Nanjing big or not? I've been to Banpu, it's big, is Nanjing as big as our county? ”

Zhang Banxian heard his grandson ask this, and almost didn't laugh when he took a sip of tea, and said while coughing: "Da Mao, moving the capital is to move the capital to another place." Nanjing City is too big, I don't know how many times bigger than our county seat Banpu. You're still young, you'll know when you're older, now you just have to go to school! ”

Da Mao seemed to understand and replied, "Oh! Then he ran out again to play with his big yellow dog.

In the troops, Shi Zhu often heard some different sounds. When talking about moving the capital, some people with a higher military rank will say: The matter of moving the capital has been discussed by the government for a long time, and it is not temporary, and it is nonsense to be forced to move the capital! Moving the capital is for the sake of the overall situation of the Anti-Japanese War, and there is always a sacrifice. As for the repeated defeats of the Nationalist army, this is the result of China's perennial weakness, which has been the case since the fall of the Qing Dynasty, and is not the fault of the head of state alone. Even if the capital is moved, we will still defend Nanjing to the death, and I believe that as long as the whole country is united, we will definitely drive the Japanese out of China!

Although the soldiers were able to fight bravely on the battlefield, the victory was not achieved by slogans, and in the end, the Chinese army was unable to stop the Japanese iron cavalry this time, and Nanjing could not avoid the fate of falling. As for what happened in Nanjing, it is difficult for outsiders to know, and Shi Zhu only heard some news from Luo Erjun's relatives later.

That Zhang Banxian knew that after the fall of Nanjing, he was still scolding: "The national capital is gone, does he Jiang Zhongzheng think that it will be useful if he changes places?" "As for whether it is useful to move the capital, in fact, no one knows. However, what everyone knows is that since Nanjing is no longer the capital of the Republic of China government, then in the eyes of the people, its fall seems to be the same as Shenyang, Taiyuan, Shanghai, etc., but another city has fallen.

On the fourth day after the fall of Nanjing, Zhu Guang took Shizhu to see his newly purchased house. A few days after that, it's the winter solstice. Shi Zhu then remembered that he had been away from home for three months after the Mid-Autumn Festival, and even when he was in middle school, he had never been away from his grandmother for such a long time, and he really missed her a little.

According to the custom of Guanyun, during the winter solstice, it is necessary to burn some paper money for the deceased relatives, and it is to spend a small winter, that is, to burn paper on the day before the winter solstice. Shizhu grew up with his grandparents when he was a child, so although he doesn't believe in these ghosts and gods, but in addition to Qingming, Death Day, and New Year's Day, he will still accompany his grandmother to burn some paper money for his father every year in Xiaodong. On this day, there was nothing to do, and Shi Zhu rode Zhu Guanglian's horse back to his hometown.

At this time, Shi Yushi was stacking "gold ingots" with yellow paper at home, and when she saw Shi Zhu coming back, she was also very happy in her heart, she hadn't seen her grandson for several months, and she was really panicked.

At this time, Shi Zhu noticed that Shi Yu's left thumb was wrapped with a strip of cloth, so he asked distressedly: "My grandmother, what's wrong with your hand?" ”

Shi Yushi said: "It's not in the way, I was accidentally cut by a sickle when I was chopping wood the day before yesterday, and now it's almost all right!" ”

Although Shi Yushi said this, Shi Zhu knew in his heart that this knife must have been cut very deeply, because he saw that Shi Yu's stacking of "gold ingots" was obviously not so easy, so Shi Zhu helped his grandmother fold them together.

"My grandmother, how do you know that we burned these ingots for my father?" Shizhu didn't believe in ghosts and gods, but he had always had this question in his heart.

"You see, when stacking ingots, you have to blow a breath to prop up the ingots, and with this tone, when the lord of Hades sends a little ghost to collect paper money, you can know which family's descendants burned it. Also, whoever you talk about burning it for, those little ghosts will bring paper money to whoever you want over there. When burning paper outside, be sure to draw a circle and burn it inside, otherwise people won't know who burned the dead paper! Although Shi Zhu is not superstitious, but seeing that Shi Yushi said it clearly, there is no need for him to refute his grandmother, after all, it is good to leave some thoughts for the old man, and the superstitious thoughts of thousands of years are deep-rooted, how can he be transformed in one or two sentences!

Shi Zhu came back for a short time this time, so he only went to see Zhang Banxian first, and Zhang Banxian still told him about the latest news he received as always. After that, Shizhu went to Luo Laosi's house to find Luo Erfang to play.

When he arrived at Luo Erfang's house, Shi Zhu happened to meet a few relatives from his family. Although these people looked a little embarrassed, they were very foreign, dressed in colorful clothes and dazzling jewelry, and were not as rigid as the countrymen. Shi Zhu learned from Ercha's mother, Luo Wang, that these were Ercha's aunt's family and lived in Suzhou City. When the second camelina was born, his aunt came with her due date, and she lived here for a while, when she also brought some famous local Bodhisattva in Suzhou. What is surprising is that Er Camelina, who was born for a few days, actually reached out and grabbed two Bodhisattvas, and because of this, Luo Laosi named his son Luo Er Camelina.

Luo Erfang's aunt's name is Wang Fengjiao, who is quite beautiful, and is married to Wu Linshu, a local in Suzhou. This time, Wang and Wu brought their fourteen-year-old son to Luo's house to visit relatives—not so much to visit relatives, but to flee.

Talking about the reason for coming here, Wang Fengjiao seemed to open the conversation, she said: "Our family originally lived well in Suzhou City, but when the Japanese hit Shanghai, they went to the city every once in a while to throw a few bombs, killing and injuring many people, and we were afraid, so we went to Nanjing to take refuge." At that time, my eldest son and daughter were both working in Nanjing, and they could still rely on each other. Later, the government suddenly wanted to move to Chongqing, and my family Sheng'er and Juanzi went with them, but they couldn't take the three of us together. Before leaving, Sheng'er asked someone to find a relationship, saying that if there was an emergency, let us go to an American missionary. At that time, we thought that Nanjing City was also the capital of the Republic of China for many years, and it would not fall into the hands of the Japanese, but we never thought that when the Japanese called, we only heard scattered gunshots in the city, as if there was no resistance at all, and in only a few days, Nanjing was occupied by the Japanese. After the Japanese occupied the Zhonghua Gate, we knew that we were going to be finished, and we hurried to find the American missionary with our clothes, if this American had not really had some ability to send us out of the city, I am afraid that we would have died in Nanjing! We have saved our lives, but hundreds of thousands of people in the city have really suffered! ”

Speaking of this, Wang Fengjiao cried and said: "Now Nanjing City has probably become a dead city, when we went to look for the American, the Japanese planes were still dropping bombs, the streets were full of dead people, and the houses were falling and collapsing. The next day, we heard that Japanese devils kill people when they see them, and spoil girls when they see them. When the American quietly sent us across the river, we saw countless corpses lying on many roads and alleys, and human heads hanging everywhere on telephone poles and trees. There were more dead people on the riverside, all in rows, and the river water had turned into blood water, and it seemed that the Yangtze River could be blocked. The situation is simply miserable, you see that my little Yuzi is still having nightmares every night! ”

Look at Erfang's cousin Wu Yu, who also cried with his mother next to him. Wu Linshu is better, and has been comforting the two of them. And the stone pillar and the others listened quietly, no one made any sound, they didn't know what to say at this time, but they all knew.

Wang Fengjiao wiped her tears, her nose twitched a few times, and continued: "Fengxia, this time we came to take refuge in you, come to you to settle down first, and it is estimated that we will live for a few days temporarily." We will find a way to go from Xuzhou to Chongqing to find Sheng'er and my daughter, and when we have a place, we will leave. You'll have to help us this time, or we'll freeze to death on the road!" ”

At this time, Luo Laosi stood up and said to the three people: "Aunt He, look where you said, aren't we all our own family, and what do you say about taking refuge or not!" As long as you don't think our countryside is poor and sloppy, you can stay for a few days if you want......"

During the winter solstice, the days are short and the nights are long, and the sky is about to get dark, so Shizhu did not continue to listen to Er's aunt, and wanted to go home to accompany his grandmother. Later, Shi Zhu heard from Erzhu that his aunt's family of three lived here for more than half a month, and then went to Xinpu to take a train through Xuzhou, Zhengzhou, and Xi'an, traveling more than 3,000 miles, and finally arrived in Chongqing before the Chinese New Year.

Outside, Shizhu looked at the sky that was about to be covered in darkness, and thought to himself, how good it would be if the dawn could be like this day, and it would be a night later!

After dark, the next day is the winter solstice. According to custom, people here will make dumplings to eat at noon, but Shizhu has to rush back in the morning to deliver supplies, so before dawn, Shi Yushi got up to make noodles, chop stuffing, roll dumpling skins, and make dumplings. By the time the stone pillar was up, the hot, fragrant dumplings had already been served on the table. Shi Zhu likes to eat his grandmother's dumplings the most at home, and he usually eats very little breakfast at the trading house, but today he actually ate three bowls of dumplings. Shi Yushi watched his grandson eat so much, not to mention how happy he was. After the stone pillar was full, she kept saying "eat more, eat more......".

Shi Zhu wiped his mouth and said to Shi Yushi with a smile: "My grandmother, if I wasn't really full, I would like to eat more." I have something to do today, I still have to go to my uncle's side, I must leave early! Shi Yu reluctantly wrapped a scarf around Shi Zhu and watched his grandson get on the horse and leave. She waved to the stone pillar and told the stone pillar to be careful on the road, and to come back often when she had nothing to do.

"My grandmother, I guess I'll go home for a few days during the Chinese New Year!" After saying that, the stone pillar shook the reins and galloped away.

The stone pillar did not dare to delay all the way, but he could only hear the northwest wind whistling in his ears, and when he arrived at the ruin, the horse gasped for breath, and the puffs of white smoke from his nose almost blocked the horse's head out of sight. A few guys had just loaded the supplies into the carriage at this time, so Shi Zhu went to Laojun Hall with them, and basically did not delay the day's affairs.

The Haizhou area has four distinct seasons, and the weather is getting colder and colder at the end of the year, and the northwest wind is blowing more violently. Shi Zhu still took a few guys to deliver supplies as always, everything went smoothly, and nothing went wrong.

On the day of the solar year, Zhu Guanglian invited a few guys who ran the goods, the counter clerk and the people who usually did some odd jobs here in the neighborhood as usual, he knew that there were many things to do during the New Year, and it was difficult to invite people at that time, so it was better to take advantage of the solar year when everyone came over to be lively.

On this day, Shen Yueyun, a woman from Zhu Guanglian, also personally cooked a few seasonal side dishes, and the hard dishes were cooked by the cook Hu Ma, and the maid Chuntao and several relatives of the Zhu and Shen families were on the side. After a few people were busy for an hour, a table of hearty meals was ready - preserved eggs, sugar-pickled carrot hearts, fried peanuts, cold choked jellyfish, pig's head meat, spring rolls, ham, tea chicken, wind goose, rock sugar elbow, pork belly, big meat lumps, braised carp, Chinese cabbage roasted beef, small fish pot stickers, dry fried green beans, celery fried small rolls, stir-fried fungus, mapo tofu, winter melon pork rib soup, as well as shrimp, crab, shellfish and other kinds of seafood, etc., people have been greedy from the eyes to the heart. Zhu Guanglian personally moved out two jars of "Yanghe Daqu", which he specially commissioned someone to bring from Suqian to bring special wine, and he was only willing to take it out and drink it on important occasions.

After the food and drinks were set up and everyone sat down in order, it was pitch black outside, and there was not a trace of moonlight. The people in the house set up candles and lanterns, and everywhere was illuminated.

Zhu Guanglian took the lead in standing up, holding a wine glass and saying to everyone: "Today is the first day of the 27th year of the Republic of China!" Thank you for your hard work last year! I wish you all the best and prosperity in the new year. Although the scale of my Guanglian Commercial Bank is not large, but today's achievements depend on all of you here, and I wish you all here. Come, I'll give you a glass first! ”

After speaking, Zhu Guanglian dried up the wine in the cup. All the men and the family also stood up and raised their glasses, while the children and those who did not drink took their sodas, and drank them all.

Subsequently, the big shopkeeper Shen Congwang stood up, he was Shen Yueyun's uncle, and he worked as a bookkeeper in the county government when the Qing Dynasty did not die, and won the appreciation of the county order. Zhu Guanglian start-up company specially invited a few times, recently, for the sake of his niece, he agreed to come over to help, since the inauguration, Guanglian Commercial Bank up and down, inside and outside in an orderly manner.

Shen Congwei picked up the wine glass and said, "Everyone, let's go back and forth to the owner for a glass." Now there are wars everywhere, and we can have a place in Guanglian Commercial Bank in this world, thanks to the love of the owner. There is still a month to go before the New Year, everyone continue to work hard, and when the New Year comes, please send us red envelopes! ”

"Good, good, good......" everyone cheered together, and then raised their glasses together. After two glasses of wine, Shen Yueyun kept beckoning everyone to eat, don't be polite, eat and drink well. So the wine table was staggered, so it was not lively.

After a few rounds, through the light in the house, everyone saw that it was suddenly snowing outside. At this time, Zhu Guanglian was even happier, and said again and again: "Ruixue is a good year!" I believe that this year we will be better! ”

After the banquet, after the proprietors sent everyone away and settled down, the women cleaned up the table and did not fall asleep until the end.

At the wine table, everyone's wishes are naturally beautiful, but you can't drink reality in the wine glass, and reality is sometimes always so realistic. They seem to have forgotten something: in order for the business to develop, the country must first be stable, otherwise everything is empty talk. But they seem to know these things, but even if they do, what can they do? It's better to leave it like this, have wine tonight and get drunk tonight!

In fact, for Lianyungang, the war had just begun, at that time Shandong had fallen to most of it, and southern Jiangsu and other places had also fallen into the hands of the Japanese.

By the early morning of the next day, Shizhu and a few of his men almost had some hangovers, but there was still something to be done, and they continued to work as seriously as ever, and the heavy snow of last night could not stop them from moving forward, but the road was slippery in the snow, and in some places they had to push off the carriage from time to time, which really tired them.

After almost ten days, that is, two days after drinking Laba porridge, Shizhu and the others saw some troops marching in the direction of the port for several days, either running or coming by truck, and there were really a lot of people. Although everyone didn't know what was going on at first, they all knew that the war in the port was getting closer and closer. Later, Shizhu inquired, it turned out that the Japanese Army's Itagaki Division had forcibly occupied Qingdao, and they were gradually advancing in the direction of southern Lu, and now they were approaching the Rizhao and Ganyu regions, and I am afraid that they may continue to invade Haizhou in the south at any time.

At that time, Zeng Xiqi's headquarters stationed in Xinpu, Haizhou, received an urgent order from Li Zongren, ordering him to lead a division of troops to cooperate with the 57th Army to garrison the Lianyungang front.

In fact, after the end of the Battle of Songhu, Li Zongren realized that the Japanese would attack the Xuzhou area, and then open up the eastern section of the Longhai Railway in order to advance westward. Therefore, earlier, he sent the officers and men of the Salt Police Corps who had been defeated on the Songhu battlefield to Haizhou one after another, under the unified command of Zeng Xiqi, and reorganized these people and the original Lianghuai tax police armed forces of Zeng into the guerrilla Eighth Army, under the jurisdiction of six corps, Zeng Xiqi served as the commander. Now the Lianyungang front line is jointly defended by the First Division of the Eighth Army and the first Division of the 57th Army of the former National Revolutionary Army, and Zeng Xiqi is still the nominal commander of Lianyungang defense.

That night, Shizhu found Zhu Guanglian, and he said: "My uncle, you see that the national army is now increasing troops to the port, I'm afraid the Japanese will call at any time, I don't know how many days we can send this material!" ”

"Yes! According to what was discussed at the beginning, if there are more troops on the port side, our business may be more, but now the business is secondary, I only hope that the national army can hold it, otherwise the people will inevitably suffer, not to mention that our business has increased, and even whether it can be kept is a problem! Zhu Guanglian said thoughtfully while drinking tea.

Then Zhu Guanglian said: "If the troops want to increase the delivery of materials, I estimate that they will talk to us in the next two days, and then we will not have enough manpower, and I am afraid it will be difficult to arrange these counters to run the goods!" ”

"Then let's take a look at the situation and find a few more people when the time comes!" Shizhu said.

"Well, that's exactly what I thought." Zhu Guanglian said.

After listening to their speeches, Zhu Huaiqing interjected a sentence on the side: "My master, you say, if this battle is fought, can it last for three days?" Such a large territory in the Northeast was occupied by small Japan in three months, and the heavily guarded cities of Taiyuan and Shanghai also collapsed in two or three months. ”

At this time, everyone present fell silent, and there was a deathly silence around them, except for the little fire on the wick that still flickered. In fact, they all have such doubts, but they just can't bear to say it.

After a while, Zhu Guanglian broke the silence: "Huaiqing, let's do the things in front of us well, send a few days if we can, we must not relax in the slightest because we are going to fight, and other things will really be talked about at that time." But in the last few days, you have to be careful on the road, and you must pay attention to safety......"

After another two days, as Zhu Guanglian expected, the division headquarters sent someone to ask Zhu Guanglian to come over for consultation. In general, as mentioned at the beginning, it is necessary to increase the amount of materials delivered, especially to the two front-line places of Xugou and Sunjiashan. It's just that now that Commander Zeng and some high-ranking officers of the division headquarters have gone to the front line, the Guanglian Commercial Bank must be more careful when delivering supplies, and must not have any accidents, so as not to leave a bad impression on them. In addition, the people at the division headquarters also said that when the fighting began, some arms and weapons might need to be carried with the assistance of the Guanglian Trading Company.

After confirming the news, Zhu Guanglian found the big shopkeeper Shen Congwang and Shi Zhu on the same day. He said: "No matter when this battle is fought, how many days it can be fought, let's recruit a few people first." Then he asked Shen Congwang to post a few job postings, and asked Shi Zhu to assist Shen Congwang in the interview, and the candidate was determined three days later. After all, the person recruited is the stone pillar tube, and the stone pillar can be selected, and you only need to report the final result to Zhu Guanglian.

Immediately after the posting, many people came to apply. Shen Congwei is also a learned person, he and Shi Zhu, the old and the young, agreed that in addition to looking at the physical conditions of the applicants, he also drafted three questions: talk about your understanding of "poor people must have something to hate", how do you understand that "existence is reasonable", and when the cannonball hits, do you choose to protect yourself or protect the goods first? ?

In fact, the two also know that the people who come to apply for jobs are basically illiterate people who are barefoot to help, so they don't really ask these three questions to see how much knowledge the interviewer has, but just to see how these people have reaction ability in addition to being physically strong. After some interviews, the two selected three people - Zhang Yunsheng, Li Bao, and Shang Dajia, all three of whom had worked as dock porters there a few years ago when Dapu Port was still in decline, and had rich experience in running goods. When Shi Zhu reported the situation of the three to Zhu Guanglian, Zhu Guanglian was also very satisfied.

Time was very tight, and after selecting three people, the firm asked them to come to work the next day.