Forty-Seven: All the volunteers cried

In the middle of the night in Nanjing, the cold was pressing, and the army suddenly retreated, and the battlefield was not cleaned in the panic. There was no time to deal with the officers and soldiers and volunteers who died in battle. The battlefield was littered with the remains of officers and soldiers and volunteers who had died in battle. They harden in the cold of winter.

The volunteers are all from Nanjing. Their families saw that the army had retreated, that the volunteers had returned home and that they had gone to safe areas, and that their children had not come to their homes, so they went to the battlefield to look for them. An old man walked briskly around the pile of dead people, and when he saw his familiar clothes, he ran over and removed the corpses that had been pressed on him. It was a young man in his mid-twenties, and the white red cross armband on his arm stood out in the dark.

The old man whispered to the old lady who was looking for her, and the old lady heard it and ran over in a panic. The old woman recognized her son far away in the starlight, and she stumbled and crawled to her, and cried out my son, and threw her head up and beat her breast, and wept.

The old man covered her mouth and said, "Don't cry, this is not the place to cry." Come on. The old woman immediately held back her tears. Her gasping for breath suppressed the grief of losing her son. The old man picked her up behind her, wiped her face with her sleeve, and with the old man lifted the stiff corpse to the roadside cart and pulled it away.

There was a man beside Old Man Li who was digging out the pockets of the deceased, and he took out the pockets of several deceased people in a row. He didn't find anything of value. He saw that the belt of a deceased's trousers was made of cowhide, and he kowtowed to the deceased in surprise and said, "Brother, I'm sorry, you don't need this in that world, lend it to me, thank you." He immediately fastened his belt to his body. He proudly grabbed the head of the two sides and congratulated that it was not in vain.

Old man Li knew that these people wanted to make some money on the deceased. A man in the distance found a pocket watch from an officer, dancing happily. Someone on the other side of the barricade wrapped the food that the national army had thrown away when they retreated, wrapped it in clothes, and left happily. These people are here to make a fortune. There are people in the government and the army when the country is in trouble. These people are nothing compared to them. Old man Li has his own affairs, and he can't control these things.

He ran around looking for it, looking at the city gate while looking for it, the devil could attack at any time, and he had to leave immediately if there was movement on the other side of the city gate. It would take half a day to find such a large body in general. He was in a hurry. He suddenly remembered that the third aunt had gone to the artillery company to watch the training, and she must be over there. He ran towards the cannon. He saw Liu's mother's body at a glance. Liu's mother is very conspicuous in Zhangfu's work clothes. She was lying on her side on the ground. There was a lot of blood underneath.

Old man Li judged that Mother Liu would not leave the third aunt, and the third aunt should be nearby, so he anxiously looked around. He saw a dead officer of the Nationalist army in front of the cannon, lying there quietly, his face covered with a handkerchief, a white silk handkerchief embroidered with red peonies. Handkerchiefs stirred in the wind. Old man Li breathed a sigh of relief. He put down the heart that had been raised to his throat. He judged from the handkerchief that the third aunt had left the battlefield.

Where will the third aunt go? He looked around the black whirring and didn't find an answer.

He hurried to the grove to find a clean place. He also found a bayonet and a quilt on the battlefield. He dug a pit with a bayonet, wrapped Liu's mother in a quilt and buried her. He put a dry branch in her grave to mark it. Easy to find

He came out of the woods and saw a man crouching in front of the officer taking off his shoes, and he shouted, "What are you doing?" The man was startled and stood aside. After a while, the man calmed down and saw that he was an old man, and he was bold again. He said, "Brother, this is mine, if you want to get rich, go over there and find it." ”

Old man Li said loudly You are blind and can't see that handkerchief, this is a relative of my family. Don't go yet. The man believed it, bowed to the deceased and said, "Brother, I'm sorry I didn't know your relatives were coming. Excuse me. He looked at the leather shoes on the ground and reluctantly left. Old man Li watched him walk away, just wanted to leave, and then thought that they would come again when he left. Since the third aunt put a handkerchief on his face, this person is not an outsider. I can't leave it alone. You can't let the wild dog eat him, and you can't let the devil burn him.

He also noticed a couple of men and women beside Liu's mother, who hugged each other tightly. The woman lies on the man's side very quietly. There was still a smile on his face. The man's eyes were round. He hated the devil for killing his woman, and he hated that he couldn't kill the devil to avenge his woman. Seeing their scene, Old Man Li's heart felt uncomfortable. Young people for the country, for the sake of resisting Japan, Old Man Li sighed deeply. Liu's mother died in front of them, indicating that they were not far from Zhang's mansion. He went over and wiped the dust off the man's face. He recognized that he would meet the third aunt when he came to the house. He is his own person.

He used a bayonet to dig two pits side by side beside Liu's mother's grave, and he buried the man and woman together, and he didn't want them to be separated. He believed that they must be better than they were living in that world. He buried the officers too. The embroidered white handkerchief still covered his face.

When Old Man Li left the grove, it was already dawn, and a thick layer of hoarfrost had fallen on the ground. Old man Li walked back on the frost, leaving his thick footprints on the frost ground. He hoped that the third aunt had already left the battlefield, but he was afraid that he had made a mistake. He looked at the battlefield again, and he wanted to see if there was anything related to the third aunt's whereabouts. He didn't find anything, he didn't know what to do, he could only walk back slowly.

When a family opened the door, an old lady came out to pour water, and the old man Li was overjoyed, and he ran over to ask her about the third aunt, and he said, "Auntie, I asked you about someone, did you see a young girl on the battlefield here yesterday?" She was tall and wore a light blue coat. Her hair was long, sometimes coiled at the back of her head, sometimes loose. She's with those who are soldiers. Auntie, do you see, you see it and tell me. You can thank you as much as you want me to do. ”

The old lady immediately said: "No thanks, I have seen it, it is a wonderful girl, and she is very fierce when she fights devils." People here say that fairies sent by God to help fight devils. So many devils besieged her, bullets rained down on her, and the national army around her was knocked down by devils, and the devils just couldn't hit her. She's not a fairy for anything.

"I've noticed her since she came here. When the meal was served, she went to the barricade and the soldiers offered to feed her. He also sang a drum book to her. We, the common people, went, and the soldiers did not even let us rely on the side of the barricades. If you want a steamed bun, you won't give it.

"I saw her shooting with a gun in the attic, and the cold wind lifted her coat and her long hair. One by one, the devils fell in front of her. The devils who attacked her were defeated by her blows. ”

The old lady pointed to the distance and said, "It's getting dark, and she crossed the river and left." Why did she leave! The battle was still going on here, and she left before the little devil could get out of the city. She must have known something. Is she a fairy? ”

She sighed and said, "When it was almost dark, she left, and the national army followed, and the national army here also left after driving the devil out of the city." I don't understand why a good fight wasn't fought. Seeing that the little devil's siege was about to fail, thousands of troops said to go, and all the efforts were gone in the blink of an eye.

The volunteers cried as they watched the soldiers leave in formation. Some volunteers shouted to them not to go, not to leave us.

The volunteers swore to live and die with Nanjing, and the common people knew that the devils had no strength to enter the city of Nanjing, and they did not expect that the officials would give the city of Nanjing to the Japanese. Lost the volunteers, abandoned the people of Nanjing. The defense of Nanjing was defeated, and the defeat was unclear. How can we ordinary people not be sad. ”