Chapter 65: Chengchuan

As the head of the pig regiment said, the reason why the superiors want us to change the guard is to replace us and prepare to return to China. The superiors didn't say it explicitly, I think it was because they were worried about affecting the morale of the military. If we tell the soldiers that they will return to China to recuperate, if there is an unexpected situation that requires the use of personnel, then our troops will have no intention of fighting again.

The superiors may have been right, but they didn't seem to work very well.

Because even if the higher authorities didn't tell us that they were going to return home, the soldiers all knew it.

An excitement and eagerness to return home quickly spread among the troops.

Some soldiers put on cotton shoes that they were reluctant to wear for several months in their arms, and some soldiers put on new military uniforms that were hidden in packages. Everyone looks like they're going to celebrate the New Year.

Then, the soldiers began to display souvenirs of their return home. In the words of the warriors, it is to take something from the battlefield back with you. It's good to show off in front of your family. More fighters have an attitude of saying without evidence, and they want to use real things to show the people of the motherland, we have really fought the Yankees, the British, and more than a dozen countries.

And so, in an instant, the enemy's things became valuable. I have seen a soldier exchange dozens of packs of cigarettes for gadgets he usually collects.

Don't doubt the value of cigarettes in the military. When the war started, many soldiers needed to borrow cigarettes to relax their nerves when their noses were open, and sometimes they would rather be hungry than have cigarettes. And now the logistics are also relaxed, not special circumstances, basically people can't freeze to death and can't starve to death, so the status of cigarettes in the army is even more important, and even become a hard commodity, which can be directly used in the army to exchange for food.

The so-called hard goods are similar to the gold of our peacetime. The army is different from the people who live in peacetime, and the people can treat gold as a hard commodity and money as a hard commodity, but this is not the case in the army. Because all the soldiers understand a truth: even if we are given a mountain of gold today, maybe we will not be able to come back on the battlefield tomorrow, so the gold, money, etc., are just a fart to us. The most tangible things are cigarettes, food surpluses...

Souvenirs are all sorts of things, some are small gadgets made of bullet casings, some are epaulettes, lighters, American cigarettes taken from the enemy, some are Yankee helmets, military hats, boots, and so on.

The soldiers who usually did not pay attention to collecting these things were miserable at this time, and the lazy ones had to fight out the cigarettes on their bodies to 'exchange' with their comrades, and the more diligent ones walked around the positions in this cold day, hoping to pick up something worth bringing back.

But in the end, the souvenirs did not satisfy the needs of the warriors, because some warriors carried several items with one person, while others did not have even one. The warriors who didn't have souvenirs began to panic, and the stupid ones were like a headless fly 'messing' among the soldiers, and begging their grandfather all the way to sue ***; Of course, because of the discipline of the volunteer army, taking things from American prisoners of war still needs to be 'exchanged' with cigarettes.

After the change of guard, our troops were stationed on the second line, and from time to time some American prisoners of war would be taken down from the front line and 'handed over' to us for temporary care. At that time, the soldiers in the regiment would rush up like bees seeing honey, and at first those American soldiers were taken aback, and their faces were pale and stunned to look at the groups of volunteer soldiers who approached them with "'treacherous' smiles", and later, after knowing that the soldiers wanted to 'exchange' things with them, they all breathed a sigh of relief and shouted a few "fierce" words

Many American prisoners of war were also addicted to smoking, and after becoming prisoners of war in our army, although we provided them with food, we didn't care about their addiction to smoking, so many soldiers were able to buy souvenirs at very "cheap" prices from American prisoners of war. So much so that once when I was passing by a prisoner of war camp, I found an American prisoner of war wearing a torn cotton jacket of a volunteer soldier all over his body, happily squatting on the ground and 'smoking' cigarettes. There were even a few U.S. troops waving at me: "Hey! Dude, do you want to change something? I can change everything on my body, like a pack of cigarettes! Hey! Don't go dude, let's talk, how about half a pack of cigarettes

Unfortunately, I didn't need any souvenirs, so I ended up disappointing the American POW.

I don't need souvenirs because, I don't know who to show them off. I'm not born yet! No, my dad wasn't born yet, and my grandfather was a seven- or eight-year-old kid. Not to mention that I can't find them in this chaotic world, and even if I do, I may still be treated as a psychopath by my grandfather and mother-in-law!

"Captain!" Just as I was sitting at the regiment headquarters boredly 'smoking' a cigarette, Li Pinghe walked up to me and asked, "The soldiers are busy preparing the spoils of war!" Why don't you bring a few things back to show your family? ”

"Hmm!" I smiled bitterly when I heard this, and I didn't know what to say for a while, so I thought about it before replying: "I'm separated from my family, I don't know where they are!" ”

"Oh!" Li Pinghe glanced at me apologetically, sat opposite him silently, and also lit a cigarette for himself and said: Just training Kouyang... 8。 0… A different experience at the Fishing Book Bar!

Sichuan has been a few years old, and there are too many people who are old and scattered with the nose people, and the six don't ask for it, and the head of the regiment is stunned

"Political commissar, you" Listening to Li Pinghe's tone and the meaning of his words, I only felt that Li Pinghe should have a life experience that was not miserable.

The corners of Li Pinghe's mouth twitched, and he said heavily: "My parents are old Red Army, the year I was born, the Red Army Network began the Long March, and it was inconvenient for them to take me, so they entrusted me to a fellow countryman. The villagers told me a lot about my parents, and they kept telling me that they were still fighting and fighting for our poor people. It wasn't until I was seven years old that people in the army approached me that I learned they had both died years earlier! ”

I couldn't help but fall silent in the tunnel, and I couldn't help but look at Li Pinghe twice, because I knew that the Red Army's Long March began with a roar, and if Li Pinghe had been born at that time, he would have been only 18 or 9 years old now. Seeing that he is so old and serious, I really can't see that he is so young.

But this is not surprising, I can almost imagine what happened next to him, a descendant of the Red Army like him, his parents' comrades-in-arms would definitely bring him to the army. By the way, I seem to remember what kind of advanced step school he graduated from. Growing up in a military environment What you face and learn every day is fighting, training or something, can this person not grow old!

"Report!" While Li Pinghe and I were thinking about our own thoughts and silently 'smoking' our cigarettes, a radio soldier came up to us and saluted us, and then handed over a telegram.

I took the telegram and read it, and handed it to Li Pinghe.

"Hmm". Li Pinghe couldn't help but be stunned when he read the telegram, then nodded and said, "It's finally here!" ”

This is an order from our superiors to march in the direction of Pyongyang tonight, but the destination is not specified, only that we should keep in touch with our superiors at all times.

Everyone knows that the purpose of marching troops in the direction of Pyongyang is to return home by fire. South of Pyongyang, the railroad has not been able to be laid because of the frequent pull-ins between the two warring sides and the frequent bombing by American aircraft.

As Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea, there must be such an important "transportation" trunk line as the railway. And also because Pyongyang is the capital. Its air defense is quite strong, and it is relatively safe to lay railways in the Pyongyang region. As a result, supplies from China to North Korea are constantly being transported to Pyongyang by train, and then transported by car from Pyongyang to various units on the front line. The wounded of the volunteers and the troops who had withdrawn to the country for recuperation also had to gather in Pyongyang from all directions, and from there they boarded trains to return home.

Therefore, as soon as we received this ding, the order almost told us that the time to return home, which the soldiers had been looking forward to all this time, had finally arrived!

At first, I wondered why my superiors didn't tell us the destination of the march, but thinking about it, it made sense for my superiors to be so careful. Our destination must be a railway station, and each railway station is an unloading point or a transfer station for the material stocks of the volunteers. There must be no doubt that there must be a lot of material piled up there that has just been shipped from China. If we were to tell us the destination of the march and let the puppet agents lurking inside our army get the information, then this railway station would inevitably be bombed by American planes.

Thinking of this, I gave an order to the correspondent: "Inform the soldiers that they are ready to march, that there is a new mission, and that nothing else will be said."

"Yes!" The correspondent answered, turned and walked out of the tunnel.

But my vague order apparently could not hide from the soldiers, for cheers soon came from outside the tunnel. I had to look at each other helplessly with Li Ping and the two and laugh. Who are the soldiers of the Peatuan Regiment, it's really hard to fool them!

※※

Pyongyang is not far from us, the straight-line distance on the map is about 20 kilometers, and the actual distance is only 30 or 40 kilometers.

The main reason why the speed is so slow is that it can only march at night in order not to have a goal. Moreover, the superiors were also worried that we would be followed by the puppet army agents, and even ordered us to go around in a circle on the way. Although I was unhappy with the boss in my heart, the warriors didn't care about it at all.

I'm going home! Who cares to walk a little more. And that's when I realized that "the heart is like an arrow." What a scene, because there has never been a march, like this one, it was not me who gave the order, but the soldiers who urged me to go! This is not? Every time I gave the order to rest, the soldiers shouted: "Commander, we are not tired!" Let's go a little longer." And that's fast! It's about the same speed as my jeep, and of course, the jeep can't drive fast because of the poor road conditions.

On the evening of the fourth day, the troops successfully reached a place called "Cheng" east of Pyongyang. Chengcheon is a small town, and it is said to be a small town, but it is actually no different from other villages we see in North Korea. The difference may be that there are more houses here, and there are one or two noodle shops and grocery stores.

As in other places, the North Koreans here are very welcoming to us. They obviously didn't know that there was a volunteer army unit coming down from the front line, but they quickly and spontaneously organized a welcoming procession, holding a small flag and holding food songs, most of them were 'women', and there were also several teams of people's stacks, and each joked that the Korean 'women' in this era were very bold. Perhaps it was also because they didn't know that I knew Korean, so they openly criticized our volunteer soldiers, and some even invited them to spend the night at their homes.

This reminds me of what the veterans of the Volunteer Army said in modern times that the soldiers who have fallen behind in the Volunteer Army have three fears: one is afraid that they will not be able to find the troops, the second is afraid of the puppet army spies, and the third is afraid of North Korean 'women'. I can understand the first two fears, and I don't need to say much about the reasons, but the last one is really a little puzzling. Later, I found out that what they were afraid of was being captured by North Korean 'women' to have children!

Some veterans also said that the North Korean 'women' were very open, and when the volunteer troops passed by the river, a group of 'women' bathed in the river, and they did not avoid it, and even deliberately stood up.

There's no way, North Korean men are thin! The Yankees' Inchon landing didn't know how many North Korean 'women' had become widows. North Korean 'women' will behave like this, in fact, it was also the helplessness of North Korea at that time!

However, not to mention, the Korean people are not only 'female', but also the elderly, whether they are children, are particularly fond of the volunteer soldiers, and even surpass their own army, the People's Army.

In their words, as soon as the People's Army arrived in the village, everyone was like an uncle, holding Erlang's 'legs' and not doing anything, calling for the people to 'wait', and beating people when they were unhappy. I believe this, although I have not seen with my own eyes what the People's Army looks like in front of their people, but within the People's Army, the bureaucratic style is not ordinarily strong, and I think they also feel superior to the people!

The Volunteer Army is different, since the founding of the Army, the Volunteer Army has a tradition, that is, the military and the people are one family. The three disciplines and eight points of attention are sung and read on the lips every day! Therefore, as soon as the soldiers arrived in the village, they did not say a word to help the villagers carry water and chop firewood, and the volunteer soldiers were indispensable in the fields when the farm was busy.

Perhaps because of the habits brought from China, the volunteer soldiers treated the Korean people as if they were their countrymen, and there were countless examples of those who sacrificed their lives to save the people on the battlefield, and the people who sacrificed their lives to save the volunteer soldiers! When I was in elementary school, there was a story in our Chinese textbook about Luo Shengjiao, who died trying to save children who had fallen into the water in North Korea.

And this happened just a few months ago. We, who came down from the front line, know that his deeds have been widely spread among the Korean people.

When we arrived at Dachuan, we were placed in a musty warehouse with a small pile of materials that had not been shipped in a hurry.

Compared to the enthusiastic villagers, the People's Army, which was responsible for receiving us, was much more blunt.

Although they were very polite to us on the surface, everyone stared at us like needles in their eyes, as if they wanted to pick some thorns out of us. I felt a little upset when I looked at it, but I endured it when I thought about it. And for good reason! This is the siege of Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, and they have to think about the safety of their great leader, right?

But when a few soldiers couldn't stand the musty smell in the warehouse and wanted to go out for a walk, but were stopped by the guards at the 'gate', I couldn't hold it anymore.

"Major Lee!" I said in Korean to the commander of the KPA battalion who was in charge of receiving us: "We are soldiers who have returned from the battlefield, not your prisoners, what do you mean by that?" ”

After their introduction, I learned that they happened to be from the 15th Division of the People's Army, and they were Kim Jong-song's troops. Originally, I wanted to meet Kim Jong-song, but when I thought that I was going to return to China, there was no need for Kim Jong-song to come, so I gave up.

"Hmm!" Battalion Commander Li couldn't help but look at me in surprise when he heard that I could speak Korean, and then said with a smile: "Comrade, you misunderstood, of course we know that you have returned from the front line, how can we treat you as prisoners!" We did this entirely for the sake of the safety of the warehouse, and there are a lot of military materials in the vicinity of this area, and if the enemy perceives something, it may cause great losses to our army, so we have to be careful, and ask our comrades to be wronged."

"Humph!" Although I knew that he had a point, I was still very dissatisfied with what they were doing, and I turned my head away from him with a cold snort. "Hey". Unexpectedly, my actions made a KPA who looked like an adjutant next to Battalion Commander Li look unhappy. He raised his head at me and said very arrogantly, "What is your identity?" How can we be so rude to our battalion commander! ”

"What is my identity, do you deserve to ask?" Listening to his tone, there was something unkind, and I didn't give him a good look.

"I'm not worthy?" The adjutant sneered and said, "We just happened to be here to ask you, why do you know Korean?" And he speaks so fluently, isn't he a North Korean? ”

I couldn't help but be stunned when I heard this, and soon realized that this group of people was not only here to receive us, but also secretly checked whether there were any 'spies' of the puppet army among us.

It may be necessary for them to do this for the sake of military material, but I can't accept it emotionally. So I sneered and replied, "Go and find your division commander Jin Zhongsong to see me, and say that I, Cui Wei, am here!" ”