The mountains around the Ya'an training base are like green ribbons full of red and yellow petals, and it is refreshing to be in them, and if it were not for the dense gunfire from the shooting range behind the mountain col in the west, the military base hidden in the layers of green trees would be as quiet and comfortable as a resort.

After years of construction, the Ya'an training base has become a large-scale military training base that can accommodate 5,000 officers and soldiers stationed for training at the same time, in the belly of Baita Mountain in the east, there are 60,000 square meters of tunnel-type strategic material storage warehouses and arsenals, and under the cliff in the upper reaches of the Biliu River in the north, there is a hidden area surrounded by a high stone wall, which is the third military prison of the Sichuan Army that is very mysterious in the eyes of the world.

Xiao Yimin spent 35 days walking a long circle in southern Sichuan, eastern Sichuan and central Sichuan, and when he returned to this place again, it was already the season of yellow maple leaves and cool autumn breeze.

The tall plainclothes man who followed Xiao Yimin was his best British friend and business partner, Johnson -- under the pleas of Johnson and his wife, Xiao Yimin had no choice but to open up to Johnson, who was entrusted with the British political axe, and personally led him to this mysterious base hidden in the mountains to meet the 19 British prisoners of war held here.

The anxious Zhuang Sen is thirty-one years old, the father of two children who has worked with Xiao Yimin for nine years and has been a neighbor for five years, at this time there is no longer all the arrogant look in his eyes, and the blue eyes that look around reveal a hint of fear, as if every building hidden in the depths of the dense forest, behind every big tree, and in every stream, there are a pair of creepy sharp eyes staring at him, and the deep mountains and forests and behind the craggy boulders contain extreme dangers, which make Zhuang Sen's nerves tense and his mouth dry.

Coming to the front of the large iron gate of the prison painted with camouflage paint, Zhuang Sen involuntarily stopped at the same time as Xiao Yimin beside him, and the thin and tall Major Xie walked to the sentry alone, saluted and took out his ID and official documents and handed them over.

After seeing this, the heavily armed sentry immediately returned a military salute, took out a folder for Major Xie to register, and then entered the sentry box and reported it by telephone.

The other sentry standing opposite always put his hand on the handle of the gun on his waist, but when he looked at Xiao Yimin, who was waiting quietly more than ten meters in front of him, his vigilant eyes exuded a blazing brilliance, and the rest of the time was cold and very focused.

Zhuang Sen's gaze retracted from the power grid above the thick and towering wall, turned to Xiao Yimin, and sighed in a low voice: "Xiao, this place is too gloomy, I feel very uncomfortable, I'm afraid that the situation of the people imprisoned in it is even worse." ”

"It's wrong, it's very well equipped, it's clean, the captured spies can see an hour of sunshine and a clear blue sky every day, they can breathe the cleanest air in the world, they can also read, write, play chess, and have two hours of entertainment, and before ten o'clock in the evening every cell in the room is bright, there is running water, there are open toilets and white ceramic urinals, except for loneliness, it is as comfortable as staying in the best hotel." Xiao Yimin laughed lowly.

Johnson shrugged: "I don't want to live in this gloomy hell even if I am killed." ”

Xiao Yimin couldn't help but smile, and just wanted to tease a few words, the small door of the prison had been opened, and the warden personally took the highest-ranking Charles among the British prisoners. Major Forrest sent out.

The colonel in his forties saluted Xiao Yimin, who was wearing a soldier's training uniform, and turned to Charles, who was wearing a full orange prison uniform, and shouted:

"Give you half an hour to move freely within a hundred meters of this, and after half an hour, you must come back here and report to me."

A polite second lieutenant of the Sichuan Army on the side hurriedly translated the prison warden's words, and Charles, who was tall and had a clean face, nodded, looked around, raised his legs, and walked in front of Johnson step by step.

Johnson stretched out his hand, shook Charles tightly, and apologized that he was not an official of the embassy or consulate, but a friend of General Xiao Yimin, the supreme commander of the Sichuan army, and that he had come to visit him in a private capacity on the behalft of Sir Juerdian, the British minister to China.

After Johnson finished speaking, he immediately took out his own British passport, as well as the official certificate signed by Zhu Erdian, the minister to China, and the chief military attache in China, and handed them to the vigilant Charles.

Charles immediately returned his passport and official documents, gave Johnson a warm hug, and then followed Johnson's gaze and found that the general mentioned by Johnson and the devilish inquisitor, Mongolian prison warden Meng Ge, walked side by side to the grass pavilion in the east, and the young and simple general only left Charles's back.

Johnson put away his passport and official documents, and kindly pulled Charles to the place where the sun was shining, and asked with concern as he walked: "How are you doing inside?" ”

"Awful!"

Thirty-five-year-old Charles stopped angrily, suddenly pulled open the orange prison clothes on his body, straightened up his scarred and just scabbed chest and began to complain:

"In the first week after we were escorted in, the hateful Chinese separated us and held us in solitary confinement, depriving us of the opportunity to communicate and communicate with each other, and the inquisitors not only tortured us to extract confessions, but also threatened and tortured us with cruel methods such as prolonged starvation, the release of poisonous snakes and disgusting poisonous spiders, and continuous fatigue interrogation

"Under fear and pain, we were repeatedly asked hundreds of questions for four days and four nights, one group of people interrogated, another group of people continued to interrogate, and then another group of people began to interrogate from the beginning, as long as our answers were slightly different, it would lead to a beating, for four days and four nights we could only drink water, we could not eat or sleep, and everyone could not stand it......" Woo woo woo I once proudly claimed that I was the best soldier in the British Empire, a proud major in the Royal Army, But in the end, he became a coward......."

Johnson hurriedly hugged Charles, who was crying bitterly:

"No, no! Charles, you are still the best officer in Britain, and you will not compromise your dignity because you have no choice but to confide the truth, although I am not a soldier, I know how the world's armies deal with captives, so I can fully understand your situation and grief....... dear Charles, be strong! We keep walking, not letting people see our jokes. ”

Charles hurriedly wiped away his tears: "I'm sorry, dear Johnson, I'm really sorry, I can't control my emotions...... Alas! I didn't expect the [***] squadron to come so quickly on that cloudy morning, their firepower was so fierce, their equipment was so well-equipped, the rebels we had trained for a year only resisted for more than half an hour before the whole line collapsed, the group of [***] people from hell killed all the rebels, and the notorious young commander Zhong Ying also ordered all the rebels who could be saved and caught in the city-wide search to be buried alive......"

Johnson was taken aback: "So, the accusations in our British newspapers are true? ”

Charles wiped away the tears of sadness that overflowed again:

"It's true, we all saw the brutal massacre with our own eyes, but unfortunately all the cameras were confiscated by them, along with the shoes and belts of our trousers, and finally we were forced to walk barefoot and with trousers under their leather whips for four days before reaching Kangding, and then we were put on a carriage and hooded, and when we woke up, we were already in this hellish place

"All of us had protested and demanded that they treat us as prisoners of war between the two armies, but the barbarians called us spies, shamelessly whipped all of us who protested, and shouted that it was their generosity and mercy that we had not been executed.

"After careful consideration, we really can't ask for anything more as a captive, but to leave our fate to the merciful God! God forbid, dear Johnson, you are finally here. ”

Johnson smiled bitterly: "Charles, at present, I can only get the best humanitarian treatment for you, I am afraid that there is nothing I can do, everything depends on the outcome of the secret negotiations between the negotiation team sent by the embassy and consulates in China to Chengdu and the Sichuan army...... If you need my help in other areas, I'll do my best. ”

Charles shook his head bitterly: "Johnson, please beg your savage and shameless general friend to return to us the photos in our military uniforms and wallets, we need dignity, and it is best for us to write a letter to greet our family and children." ”

"Well, I will make a request to him at once, but, dear Charles, perhaps you will not be able to communicate with the outside world, and on the way here, the general said to me that the British political axe, for political reasons, still denies that it has sent military personnel to the western part of Sichuan, and does not want to admit your identity

"Our officials are pressuring the President of China through various channels, including the President of China, to release you as soon as possible, and then to return you, the outstanding soldiers and heroes of the Empire, to the British or colonial military headquarters safely, so please tell all your unfortunate compatriots to wait patiently for a while, and believe that everything will be fine."

Johnson whispered as much as he could to Charles to the news.

Charles nodded in frustration: "I've guessed, don't worry, our living conditions have improved dramatically recently, and this damn place actually has a snooker activity room, as well as geographic magazines and scientific and technological publications published by us in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, my God!" It's incredible, I almost went crazy when I first saw it! ”

Johnson was also surprised, but soon figured it out, he pointed to Xiao Yimin, who was sitting in the grass pavilion in the distance and chatting happily with his subordinates: "That hateful fellow is very talented, you may not believe it, he is all hard at home, he mastered English and German in five years, he is also a talented composer and guitarist, with a good voice, and the pervasive Yankee invited him to make records and shoot documentary films in order to seize the market in western China." ”

Charles's eyes widened: "...... Falk Oil! Tell me, please, how old is that hypocritical general? ”

"He's only twenty-five years old in two and a half months, but he's been with me for more than eight years, he's worth more than a million pounds, he's got two healthy and lovely children, and he's become my son's godfather to China." Johnson sighed and shook his head helplessly.

"Johnson, you're not kidding, are you?" Charles stared into Johnson's eyes in disbelief.

Johnson replied solemnly: "All true, and he is also praised by the whole world as the founder and principal of the Sichuan Army Military Academy, the best military school in China, and nearly half of the teaching materials of this military school are written by him himself, and since its establishment, dozens of retired German professional officers have served as military instructors in it."

"As far as I know, the mortars that have killed a large number of British and French troops on the European battlefield were also the first to be developed by the weapons research institute established by this guy, and as many as 30 weapons experts from various European countries have worked for him for a long time and developed one new weapon after another for him."

"My God, you're not talking about the Arabian Nights, are you?" Charles couldn't believe Johnson's words.

Johnson shrugged helplessly: "I know you won't believe it, but you should have seen the power of mortars, the French's "Far Eastern Times" bought detailed information about the war in the west, which also mentioned the power of two mortars and a new air-cooled light machine gun, and our domestic group of stupid pig-like politicians and military strategists do not believe it at all."

Those guys said that Germany not only supported China's production of light and heavy machine guns and artillery, but also transferred a full set of mortar manufacturing technology to China, and China became the second country in the world to have a powerful but very light advanced mortar

"Therefore, I also joined in, and warned this old friend of mine that he must hand over to the twenty-three German officers who had fled to Chengdu within thirty days, otherwise the navy would strike at Sichuan at all costs, on the grounds that these twenty-three German [***] officers had all escaped from the prisoner camp of the Marines in the latter part of the Battle of Qingdao last year."

Charles was stunned for a moment, and suddenly said in surprise: "This situation is too favorable for us!" Maybe we'll be released soon. ”

Johnson hesitated for a long time, but finally decided to tell Charles the truth: "Dear Charles, maybe you can't be so optimistic. When I left Chengdu the afternoon before yesterday, a major event occurred that caused a sensation in the world: In order to force the Sichuan political axe and the army to stop the anti-Japanese movement, Yue Ben handed over 23 German [***] officials and ordered the Sichuan political axe to be responsible for a large number of missing Yue Ben businessmen -- in fact, it was a Yue Ben intelligence officer dressed as a businessman and a Chinese spy who had been bribed by Yu Ben for many years, and sent five warships along the Yangtze River to Sichuan ......"

"Great! I really have courage and responsibility, and the whole world will see how the hateful Chinese succumb! Charles exclaimed.

Johnson hurriedly waved his hand: "No, no! Charles, you may be mistaken, what I said about the major event that shocked the world was not this, but the response of my friend General Xiao Yimin the day before yesterday, who promptly convened a press conference at home and abroad to publicly announce that his three artillery battalions had sailed into the three narrow sections of the Yangtze River, and were ready to strike at any time the destruction of the warships that dared to enter Sichuan. Only nine big Chinese characters and a big exclamation point were printed on the entire page: If you dare to come, I will fight to the death! As a result, at noon today, my general's friend received information that he told me happily that after learning that the Sichuan artillery was conducting live-fire training in the Fengjie River section, the warship had left the Yichang River section at the entrance of the Three Gorges and returned to Wuhan downstream. ”

Charles was extremely shocked, and couldn't help but look at Xiao Yimin, who was talking and laughing in the distance, and finally gritted his teeth and squeezed out a sentence: "He's crazy, completely fucking crazy......"

(To be continued)