In August, the fields were golden again, the wheat waves on both sides of the Xiangjiang River were heavy, the rice was fragrant, the fields were full of peasants who were busy harvesting under the scorching sun and had toiled for a year, the boats carrying grain came and went endlessly, and life quickly washed away the traces of war. A group of soldiers were resting in the shade of the trees by the riverbank, but the girls and daughters-in-law who were delivering food to the fields walked past them without worry, leaving behind a string of laughter.

"Our Hunan girls are different, unlike Guangdong's, black and autumn." Wu Ziniu looked at the passing women in fascination, these women were slender, with beautiful faces and full breasts.

"It's beautiful and delicious; Wu Ziniu, don't say I didn't remind you, you kid look at it, after all, if you want to violate military regulations, I can't spare you. Zhuang Jihua sat on the ground half-lying against the tree, closed his eyes, and said lazily. Due to the lack of wagons, the first division was divided into two parts, Wang Bailing led the second and third regiments to take the train away, and he took the first regiment of his descendants to Changsha on foot.

"Don't worry, deputy division commander, I'll keep an eye on him for you." Song Yunfei said with a smile: "This kid is also bold and small. ”

"Say what?" Wu Ziniu said dissatisfiedly with a grassroots in his mouth: "How can I be cowardly." ”

"Oh, so you've done that?" Zhuang Jihua was still like that, he didn't open his eyes: "Yunfei, has he done it?" ”

"I didn't know before, but now I've only heard him say and do, but it's definitely not." Song Yunfei replied.

"In the past two years, I have learned a lot of truths with the deputy division commander, and I have said that the twisted melon is not sweet." Wu Ziniu replied.

"By the way, when are you going to go home and see." Zhuang Jihua suddenly remembered Wu Ziniu's life experience, sat up and looked at him and asked.

Wu Ziniu wants revenge, and the people of the Seventh Company all know that now the opportunity has come.

Unexpectedly, Wu Ziniu said after a silent meeting: "I heard from my fellow villagers that the son of the dog is now the brigade commander of the Eighth Army." ”

Just this sentence, Zhuang Jihua and Song Yunfei understood, Zhuang Jihua sighed and patted Wu Ziniu's shoulder: "Then wait a little longer." ”

Wu Ziniu stared silently into the distance and asked blankly, "Deputy Division Commander, how long do you have to wait?" ”

Zhuang Jihua silently did not answer, if he wants to take revenge completely, I am afraid he will have to wait for twenty years.

The atmosphere was depressing, and the three of them had no intention of talking, leaning under the tree, thinking about their own thoughts.

There was a sound of horses' hooves, several horses galloped from a distance, and when they approached the shade of the trees, the officer on the horse grabbed the reins and asked in a loud voice: "Is it a division and a regiment?" ”

Two soldiers ran from under the shade of the tree: "Please show your ID, sir." ”

The officer on the horse jumped off his horse, took out his ID and handed it to the soldier, who read it: "Report to the commander, it's a division and a regiment." ”

"Where is your deputy division commander?" The officer threw the reins to the guard behind him, lifted his leg and left.

"Right in the shade of the trees ahead." The soldier pointed ahead.

The officer walked away, and two of his guards followed behind him with their horses. The two soldiers exchanged glances, and one of them sped past the officer and into the shade of the tree.

"Report to the deputy division commander," as the soldiers reported, Zhuang Jihua opened his eyes: "Someone is looking for you." ”

Following the sentry's fingers, the figure that was flashing between the branches was so familiar, Zhuang Jihua couldn't help but be overjoyed when he thought about it, he turned over and stood up: "Wushan, it was that gust of wind that blew you here." ”

Jiang Xianyun looked up when he heard the sound and saw Zhuang Jihua walking towards him excitedly, Zhuang Jihua was wearing a hat crookedly at this moment, and his armed belt was also thrown under the tree.

Jiang Xianyun greeted him and punched Zhuang Jihua in the chest: "Wear a hat crookedly and dress diagonally, like a deputy division commander?" ”

"What's not like it, it's that the bare ass is also the deputy commander of the first division." Zhuang Jihua laughed, but his words were full of confidence.

The two laughed for a while, and then Zhuang Jihua asked, "Tell me, what's the matter with the principal?" ”

Jiang Xianyun looked at the soldiers around him, and Zhuang Jihua said indifferently: "If you have something, just say it, what are you doing." ”

"The peasant association complained to the principal, saying that you forcibly pulled the people and sabotaged the peasant movement, and the principal asked me to investigate." Jiang Xianyun said what he meant.

"I admit to the two crimes, I admit to forcibly pulling people, and I don't admit to sabotaging the peasant movement." Zhuang Jihua raised two fingers and said to Jiang Xianyun indifferently.

Jiang Xianyun was stunned, he didn't expect Zhuang Jihua to be so simple, and asked after a while: "Why are you doing this?" You never disturbed the people before. Then he said in a low voice: "And those people are all the heads of the peasant associations." ”

Zhuang Jihua didn't answer, just sighed slightly: "Go, I'll take you to see those people." ”

After saying that, he turned around and walked backwards.

On the edge of the shade of the trees, there were a hundred or ten people wearing long shirts and short coats, and there was a basket beside them without exception, and when they saw Zhuang Jihua and Jiang Xianyun coming over, some of them showed fear in their eyes.

"The officials of the peasant association are here." Zhuang Jihua greeted these people.

Hearing Zhuang Jihua's words, more than 20 people looked at each other, and then stood up in cringe and walked in front of Zhuang Jihua.

"What do you command, sir?" One of them nodded and asked.

"It's nothing, this chief wants to see you." Zhuang Jihua casually pointed at Jiang Xianyun, who was frowning at the person standing in front of him. Jiang Xianyun is a native of Hunan, and he also came from the countryside, so he is too familiar with the breath on these people, and there is only one kind of breath on these people, and they are commonly known as those who wear long shirts, umbrellas, and slippers by the villagers.

"Tell me, what did you do before you joined?" Jiang Xianyun asked.

"Chairman of the Village Peasant Association." The man nodded and said, "Sir, I don't want to be, there's no way, they insist on me becoming." ”

A trace of anger crossed Jiang Xianyun's eyes, and the person who accosted him didn't pay attention and still lowered his head.

"Sir, I was brought in by them, I protest, I am the chairman of the township peasant association, you have no right to arrest me." A sturdy man in a black silk shirt rushed out from behind.

"Oh, the Cultural Revolution, what's going on?" Jiang Xianyun turned his head and asked Zhuang Jihua.

"This dog said that he robbed other people's wives in less than three days after becoming the chairman of the Township Peasant Association, and when I met him, I mobilized him to join the front team, and he came." Zhuang Jihua still said that, but his expression seemed to be smiling.

Jiang Xianyun looked at the black-shirted man with sharp eyes: "What he said is true?" ”

"No, I don't!" The man shouted.

"Zhao Scar, I have a witness. Now I want to overturn the case, but it's too late. Zhuang Jihua said coldly.

The Hunan Peasant Association is developing rapidly, and it is introduced from time to time on the "New Youth", but Zhuang Jihua found that the situation is very different along the way, and the cadres of the Peasant Association are uneven, this Zhao Scar is the chairman of the Township Peasant Association, but in fact he is a member of the Elders' Association, when Zhuang Jihua met, he was taking a few people to forcibly pull a handsome little daughter-in-law into the office of the Township Peasant Association, and the father-in-law of the little daughter-in-law begged desperately next to him, but he was beaten to the point that he almost vomited blood, and the onlookers next to him dared not speak.

"That's the rich peasants, the object of the revolution," Zhao said in a heartfelt voice, "I did it according to the party's instructions." ”

"Hah!" Zhuang Jihua was happy, and there was a serious [***] member standing next to him: "Your party didn't let you rob the people's girls in broad daylight." ”

"You are a reactionary officer of the Kuomintang, and the peasant association is to fight the local tyrants and divide the land, and the land can be divided, why can't the wife divide it, and besides, we [***] are talking about the communist wife..."

"Fart!" Jiang Xianyun couldn't hold back any longer, and it was a slap when he went up, Jiang Xianyun shot out angrily, and pulled Zhao Scar to the ground in one fell swoop. Zhao Scar covered his face and screamed.

"Wushan, do you see it, there are all such people here." Zhuang Jihua looked at these peasant union cadres coldly, and introduced them to Jiang Xianyun one by one: "This, robbed the soldiers of the military salaries sent home and used them for gambling; This one, if he has an enmity with others, he will lock up other people's families in the peasant association and extort money; This is also someone else's daughter, who robs someone else if she doesn't do it,...., there is another one over there, lying on the door panel, robbing other people's money to smoke a lot. ”

Jiang Xianyun blushed and looked at the group of people in front of him hatefully, under his fierce eyes, these people bowed their heads one after another, not daring to look at him.

"What are you doing with your head up, lowering your head," Zhuang Jihua said jokingly: "He is a real [***] member, much better than your district party secretary and county party secretary." ”

Hearing Zhuang Jihua's words, those people looked up at Jiang Xianyun hopefully, but they met an angry look.

"What are you keeping? Forget it. ”

These shuddered, why is this [***] more ruthless than the Kuomintang, Zhuang Jihua became cute when he was neutral in their eyes, and the suffering along the way disappeared without a trace, Grandpa Zhuang, Ancestor Zhuang, you can't listen to him.

"That's not good," Zhuang Jihua refused: "I need someone to carry so many things, unless they can't carry them." ”

"Yes, yes, sir, you will never miss the chief's business."

"I must do my best, I must do my best!"

….

After reading the cadres of the peasant association, Jiang Xianyun was depressed, but Zhuang Jihua didn't plan to let him go, and kept talking to stimulate him along the way.

"I said Wushan, why is your party hungry and doesn't choose to eat, even use this garbage."

"Get out, get out, don't talk about it here." Jiang Xianyun waved impatiently at Zhuang Jihua.

"That's going to tell me to, ungrateful, I just cleared the portal for you." Zhuang Jihua grunted dissatisfiedly.

Jiang Xianyun didn't speak, and kept muttering, "It shouldn't be, it shouldn't be like this." ”

"Stupid, what's wrong with this, I can't even figure this out." Zhuang Jihua looked at Jiang Xianyun with disdain.

"So tell me what's going on? Why is this happening? Jiang Xianyun frowned.

"What you can see in the documents conveyed by the party and in the New Youth is that the situation is very good, peasant associations have been established in various parts of Hunan, and the peasant movement has developed greatly, right?" Zhuang Jihua put away his cynical appearance and asked Jiang Xianyun seriously, who nodded.

"Here's the problem." Zhuang Jihua said: "Think about it, how many party members do you have in Hunan? Eight hundred or one thousand? How many can be sent to the countryside? There are not enough cadres, but the tasks of the higher authorities must be completed, what should we do, the only way to do this is to develop by surprise and promote the activists, but the majority of the peasants are honest, and they can't beat a fart with three sticks, so can they rise up and fight against the landlords? No, it could have been possible to develop the masses through patient and meticulous work, but due to the lack of cadres, the work was inevitably rough, and on the other hand, the first people who dared to do it were those ruffians and hooligans who wore long shirts with umbrellas, and it was only a matter of time before problems arose. It is still a minor problem, the Eighth Army is still in Hunan, and these people still have some scruples, and besides, the peasant association has just been established, and there is still some money and grain for them to spend, and when we run out of money and grain, then there will be a real big problem. ”

"What's the problem?" Jiang Xianyun's mind was confused.

"It's not simple, didn't you hear Zhao Scar say that he would fight local tyrants and divide the land? The National Axe promulgated the Law on the Protection of Private Property, and the Political Axe will not allow anyone to break the law casually, so on the one hand, you have to dig trenches to divide the land, and on the other hand, the National Axe does not allow it, what do you say will happen next? Zhuang Jihua asked.

The two parties broke down, and four words appeared in Jiang Xianyun's mind, his face was pale and nervous, he was from Hunan, and he also knew a lot of things that Zhuang Jihua did not know, such as many landlords and rich peasants were military dependents, and their children or husbands were not in the Eighth Army, but the Second Army and the Sixth Army; If these people are affected, there is a risk that the army will mutiny; What was even more terrifying was that if Chiang Kai-shek decided to divide the Communist Party, he would have the support of these armies.

"No, what do I have to do? This is not a revolution, it is a sabotage revolution. Jiang Xianyun said to Zhuang Jihua calmly.

Zhuang Jihua sighed in his heart, he took so much effort to ask Jiang Xianyun to say this.

"Wushan, I suggest that you write a report to the Central Committee of your Party, give them some feedback on the situation along the way, and suggest that they rectify the countryside and get rid of those black sheep. The Northern Expedition must be a bipartisan Northern Expedition, and once the cooperation breaks down, the Northern Expedition will fail. ”

Chiang Xianyun hesitated, and at the Central Committee meeting in early July, Chiang Kai-shek was appointed as the representative of the New Right, and at the meeting held in April, the Central Committee decided to support the Northern Expedition, and clearly stated that the primary issue to be resolved in the Northern Expedition was the land question. Thinking of this, he suddenly understood that Zhuang Jihua said that there were not enough cadres, and it made sense to use these second-rate people to charge, and it was likely that he was intentionally conniving; Since this is the case, then you have to take a big risk to go to the central committee of the book.

Finally, Jiang Xianyun stopped, turned to face Zhuang Jihua and said, "Okay, I wrote this report." ”

Zhuang Jihua looked at Jiang Xianyun, whose face was cloudy, and he didn't know what he was thinking, so he was in a hurry. Now his heart fell into his stomach, but a layer of guilt welled up, after all, he was using his friend; If Jiang Xianyun had written this report, he would have faced a mountain of pressure within the party once the KMT-CCP cooperation broke down. He didn't know if Jiang Xianyun saw this risk, so he wanted him to write it and hoped he didn't write it.

"Don't think about it, I also think that the Northern Expedition is a bipartisan Northern Expedition, and both are indispensable." Jiang Xianyun looked at Zhuang Jihua and smiled slightly.

Zhuang Jihua understood that Jiang Xianyun did not see the risks, but a responsibility that made him have to do so. Facing the frank Jiang Xianyun and his selfless friends, Zhuang Jihua was ashamed, he was ashamed of playing so many tricks for himself.

"Actually, you don't have to write it." Zhuang Jihua whispered.

"As long as it's good for the revolution, why don't I?" Jiang Xianyun laughed and said, "Now that the matter is clear, I will go back." Then he said a little gloomily: "It's a pity that I can't kill the enemy side by side with you." ”

"Yes, I asked the principal for you to be my party representative." Zhuang Jihua hurriedly said.

"Forget it, the principal won't let me leave the army." After Jiang Xianyun finished speaking, he strode back, took the reins handed by the guard, turned over and got on the horse, saluted Zhuang Jihua, pulled the horse's head, and whipped away.

Zhuang Jihua stood there in a daze, watching Jiang Xianyun's figure gradually disappearing, knowing what he did and knowing what he couldn't do, although there were tens of millions of people, I also went; Wushan, you are a real revolutionary.

"I'm not as good as you, I'm not as good as you." Zhuang Jihua said to himself.

"Deputy division commander, everyone is far away, let's go back." Wu Ziniu and Song Yunfei saw Zhuang Jihua in a daze under the sun, so they reminded him.

"Wu Ziniu, come here." Zhuang Jihua didn't look back, Wu Ziniu ran to Zhuang Jihua when he heard the words, and Zhuang Jihua whispered to him: "Do you want to take revenge now?" ”

"Yes." Wu Ziniu said without hesitation.

"Okay, ten days, ten days is not enough time for you to take revenge?" Zhuang Jihua asked again.

Wu Ziniu calculated the time and said, "It's not enough, at least fifteen days." ”

"Okay, then twenty days, I'll give you twenty days off, and you go back to take revenge." Zhuang Jihua said lightly: "You just do it." ”

Zhuang Jihua whispered in Wu Ziniu's ear, and with Zhuang Jihua's words, Wu Ziniu's expression changed from surprise to a little strange.

"Is that okay?" Wu Ziniu asked worriedly.

"Trust me, sure." Zhuang Jihua said: "But you take off your military uniform before you get home, and you are not allowed to leak the number of the troops." , when the matter is over, return to the team immediately, and don't linger in the slightest. ”

"Okay, I'll go." Wu Ziniu immediately agreed: "Sir, I knew that you were a good sir." ”

"Don't be a sycophant, do what you need to do." Zhuang Jihua scolded with a smile.

The Northern Expedition developed rapidly, Yuan Zuming in Guizhou and Lai Shihuang in Jiangxi announced their willingness to accept the leadership of the national political axe, and Yuan Zuming's department was reorganized into two armies, Wang Tianpei of the Ninth Army and Peng Hanzhang of the Tenth Army; Lai Shihuang's headquarters was reorganized into the 14th Army.

After the conclusion of the Changsha Conference, the Northern Expeditionary Army quickly adjusted its deployment and prepared to launch the Battle of the Miluo River. The Northern Expeditionary Army was divided into three routes, with Tang Shengzhi as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy, commanding the main force of the central government, and launching an attack along Yuezhou, Yunxi, and Chang'anyi, with the goal directly aimed at Wuhan. With Zhu Peide as the right flank, he commanded three divisions of the Second Army, two divisions of the Third Army and the Reading Division of the Hubei Army, and launched a vigilance against Jiangxi; On the left flank, Yuan Zuming attacked in the direction of Jingsha after clearing the enemy in Xuzhou.

On 19 August, Chiang Kai-shek issued an order to attack, and artillery fire on the Hunan battlefield, which had been quiet for half a month, resumed.

(To be continued)