When Lieutenant Colonel Smith led the five students out of the Sixing warehouse, he seriously saluted Xie Jinyuan.

"I think I have understood you, and I have read and respected you for having great patriotism. But I still hope to be able to see Lieutenant Colonel Xie and your loyal subordinates in our British concession. A soldier like you, as long as he can survive, should have a bigger stage and create a greater sky than guarding the Sixing Warehouse! If you are willing to lead your troops in a retreat from the concession, you do not have to surrender your weapons. We will greet you in the same way as we treat heroes, and promise to send you safely to the rental world, as long as you march night and night, you will definitely be able to catch up with the defense of Nanjing, which may break out at any time! And also...... Please be assured that I will reconsider my decision to open access for students. ”

If the two lieutenant colonels had also negotiated on behalf of the military and the interests of the country, perhaps this would have been the first time since the Opium War that China had achieved a real victory and success in negotiations with the British. Lieutenant Colonel Smith has already put the bottom line they can bear in the negotiation in front of Xie Jinyuan. Putting aside the country's position, putting aside the duties of a soldier, and putting aside his mission to negotiate, Lieutenant Colonel Smith really hopes that Xie Jinyuan can leave the Sixing warehouse alive!

Although the five students were all following behind Smith, they all looked at Xie Jinyuan infatuatedly, until the darkness behind them turned into a desolation, and they still turned back frequently. They seem to want to engrave his face, his perseverance, and his unruliness and freedom in the face of death in the deepest part of their hearts. With Xie Jinyuan handed over to them, "Pass on the light of hope, pass it on, pass it on!" Command, try to live!

When these five students walked across the new garbage bridge that runs through Suzhou Creek and walked past the barracks of the British Concession, they were suddenly stunned in front of a pair of red eyes and a face full of tears, but still unable to hide their beautiful face. They walked into the Sixing warehouse, which really shocked them too much, every soldier there seemed to have a story and legend to discover, and every weapon there attracted their attention. And when their idol Xie Jinyuan walked in front of them, that kind of calmness, that kind of perseverance, that kind of untamed and free, and that kind of worrying about the country and the people without any hypocrisy made them lose themselves in Xie Jinyuan's deep and bright eyes in an instant.

They actually forgot to help Yang Huimin, the girl who risked her life to escort the national flag into the Sixing warehouse, to inquire about Lei Zhen's whereabouts.

"That's right!" Suddenly, a student slapped his thigh and shouted, "Are you trying to ask us about the whereabouts of a man of about eighteen years old with a dog and a Boy Scout uniform?" I saw him, he was still alive, and although he was covered in wounds, he still looked very refreshed! ”

Seeing that the other four companions' eyes widened and showed "you are lying" expressions, the student exclaimed, "Do you remember, the man who visited the Sixing warehouse with us, and sat with us on the ammunition box, loading bullets!" It was said that he used such a dense artillery bombardment of the Sixing warehouse, not to mention us, even the soldiers led by Chief Xie Jinyuan seemed a little flustered, but at that time he had been sitting there quietly, inserting bullets into the bullet chain without saying a word. I was a little curious about him and wanted to talk to him, but I talked for a long time, but he didn't say a word, so that I thought he was a mute at the time! Eventually, I heard him say to a dog lying on the edge of the wall, 'Son, come here.'" It really me off at the time! ”

Seeing the puffed up appearance of the student in front of him, Yang Huimin couldn't help but "poof" and laughed. I don't like to deal with strangers, and when it is not necessary, I will never say a word, which is indeed Lei Zhen's style. The tide like waves in Yang Huimin's eyes has not disappeared, and a bright happiness suddenly rises, and there is still a crystal line of water on her face, but the corners of her mouth have been raised happily.

Lei Zhen is still dead! The big boy who never liked to talk much, but stayed on the right wing of the Sixing Warehouse for her sake and participated in the fiercest battle of the day, did not die!

At this time, what else could make Yang Hui sensitive and happy more than this news?

"Thunder Quake!" Yang Huimin suddenly formed her hands into a cylinder, and she shouted loudly in the direction of the Sixing Warehouse: "I will wait for you here, I will always stand here and wait for you until you walk in front of me by yourself." If you really can't bear to let me stand here stupidly in the wind and rain all the time, next to hunger and cold, you don't come out! Did you hear it, you must live, you must walk to my side by yourself! Aren't we friends, aren't we partners, even if you want to leave, you have to come over in person and tell me, right?! ”

In the hoarse shouting, the fiery tears once again slashed Yang Huimin's face. Because she suddenly remembered that when she finally swam across the Suzhou Creek, across the constantly flowing river, Lei Zhen raised the arm that represented goodbye and parting at her.

All the people around were silent, they all looked at this sad girl quietly, tears and pride flashed at the same time in her eyes, looking so beautiful and moving, but like a lonely and helpless girl. The five students looked at each other, and finally one of them stepped forward and whispered, "We'll wait with you." ”

Lieutenant Colonel Smith looked at the Chinese patriotic students and ordinary citizens standing in front of the barracks, numbering more than five hundred, and threatening to storm the barracks as soon as they were crowded. In order to prevent such an accident, the British [***] team even set up machine guns in front of the barracks as if facing the enemy.

Looking at the Sixing Warehouse in the distance, which was like a giant, standing in the dark, Lieutenant Colonel Smith sighed softly, "Lieutenant Colonel Xie, the Ministry of Industry has already protested to your political axe, asking your political axe to order to stop the resistance of the Sixing warehouse, so as not to spread the war to the concession." I suppose you should have received the order to retreat yesterday, right? Do you really intend to force the army to use heavy weapons at your own expense in the Sixing Warehouse, and pull us into this war as well, so as to force the city to stop this war? ”

Yes, on the morning of the thirtieth, Xie Jinyuan received a call from Zhang Baiting, the chief of staff of the 88th Division, who had been staying in Shanghai to assist them in defending the Sixing warehouse. Informed them that the defensive battle had been successfully concluded, and ordered them to immediately surrender their weapons, pass through the British concession, withdraw from Shanghai, and rush to Nanjing as quickly as possible to participate in the upcoming Battle of Nanjing.

But as a soldier whose duty is to obey orders, Xie Jinyuan did not retreat.

"Our souls can leave us, but our guns can't leave us! Division commanders and chiefs of staff, you are willing to hand over to me the arduous work of covering the retreat of hundreds of thousands of troops, sniping the army, and handing over the lives of hundreds of thousands of brothers to me, that is to give me Xie Jinyuan face, and I Xie Jinyuan can't help but continue, let alone do a good job! Jin Yuan was determined to be martyred, and vowed not to retreat easily, nor to make a plan to steal his life for a moment, before Jin Yuan died...... They will demand a considerable price from the Japanese invaders, and they will fight the enemy to the end with every shot and bullet left. ”

Zhang Baiting, chief of staff of the 88th Division, who stayed in Shanghai and also witnessed the sniper battle in the Sixing warehouse, really knew Xie Jinyuan too well, and in the face of Xie Jinyuan's answer, Zhang Baiting didn't say anything more, just said "take care" softly, and hung up the phone.

But when Lieutenant Colonel Smith's negotiations failed, and in the face of the increasingly frantic Yue army, everyone knew that in order to pull out the last nail left in Shanghai before mobilizing the large army, the army could use heavy weapons to storm the Sixing warehouse at any time. Within 15 minutes, the authorities of the Public Concession sent three telegrams in succession, demanding that the Chinese political axe take a humanitarian standpoint and seriously consider the personal safety of the residents in the Public Concession and order the Chinese defenders in the Sixing Warehouse to retreat.

Zhang Baiting couldn't help but dial the phone on the ground floor of the Sihang warehouse again.

"Jin Yuan, retreat." Zhang Baiting said in a low voice: "The Ministry of Industry and Bureau have been protesting constantly, and the matter of the sniper battle in the Sixing warehouse has reached Chairman Jiang. 'Cherish and retreat into the concession and continue to work hard for the country', this is the order that Chairman Chiang personally gave to you! ”

In the face of the supreme leader's order containing encouragement, Xie Jinyuan was silent, he was really silent, Zhang Baiting also remained silent on the other end of the phone, he just stood there, quietly waiting for Xie Jinyuan's reply.

"I can't figure it out!"

I don't know how long it took, but Xie Jinyuan finally spoke. His deep voice seemed to be squeezed directly out of his chest, "Brother Bai Ting, you and I both understand that from the very beginning, in the face of his own invasion, Chairman Jiang adopted the policy of first securing the interior and then the outside. The chairman of the committee judged that he would first use the three eastern provinces to feed the hungry wolf, and he even planned to secretly sign a treaty to cede the three eastern provinces to Yue himself, and after pacifying the hungry wolf, he concentrated all his efforts to wipe out the [***] troops. At that time, we can consolidate our rule, and then unite with the United States and the Soviet Union to drive the country out of our country. ”

"This plan seems to be good, but now that the army has captured Shanghai, it has begun to assemble in Nanjing, and even began to support Han annihilation like Wang Jingwei, trying to set up a new puppet political axe to fight against the central government, doesn't our Chairman Jiang still understand that we are facing a hungry wolf that keeps cutting off the flesh on the body, and it is impossible to feed it, and it is just to swallow us in one bite?!"

"The illusions are gone, the plan has not succeeded, and Chairman Chiang has lost the most important popular will to win this war. I just can't understand why, at this time, Chairman Chiang still doesn't understand that we can no longer put our hopes on the intervention and mediation of Britain, the United States, and France, and still look at their faces! I, Xie Jinyuan, are staying in this four-element warehouse, and I just want to die on the battlefield and the horse leather shroud, so that the people of the whole country can see the determination of our party-state to resist the Emperor! ”

Zhang Baiting sighed softly, he knew that he couldn't persuade Xie Jinyuan, he knew that even if it was Chairman Jiang's order, he would not be able to bring a warrior who was ready to sacrifice his life for the country and the people out of that battlefield.

"Brother Jin Yuan, I know that I can't persuade you, and I also know that you are ready to sacrifice your life for the country." Zhang Baiting inhaled lightly and said, "But ......"

Zhang Baiting couldn't say any more, he transferred the phone in his hand to another woman beside him.

It was a woman in her early thirties, dressed in coarse cloth, but cleanly washed. The heavy pressure of life made it inevitable that the marks of time appeared on her body. But on her face, you can still see the beauty of her youth. She obviously has received a considerable education, even if she is dressed simply, but in the face of the chief of staff of the 88th Division, she can still maintain a down-to-earth and generous attitude.

But when she reached out to take the phone, her hands began to tremble, the corners of her mouth kept trembling, and before she could speak, tears kept pouring out of her eyes.

Listening to the sound of the other party's rapid breathing, through this telephone line that crossed the space and closely linked the two hearts of the two people, Xie Jinyuan clearly felt the hot silent tears that were sliding down the other party's face.

Xie Jinyuan suddenly became stupid.

"China Min...... Hello, you're so nice......"

She finally spoke, but after only a few words, she couldn't stop crying.

Beside her, a little girl who looked like she was only six or seven years old and a little boy who was five years old, both of them were in a hurry, they reached out and pulled the corner of her clothes, and kept crying: "Mommy, Mommy, why are you crying?" ”

Through the microphone, Xie Jinyuan heard the cries of the two children, and Xie Jinyuan, who could be calm and untamed in the face of death, finally changed his face at this time, "Wei Cheng...... Is it really you? ”

"Zhongmin, you are so good, Zhongmin, you are so good, Zhongmin, you are really ruthless! You're going to be a hero, you're going to sacrifice your life for your country, but ...... Have you ever thought that you are a parent and a child, and you are not only a soldier, but also a son, a husband, and a father? ”

This woman standing next to Zhang Baiting is Xie Jinyuan's wife Ling Weicheng, and the two children beside her are her and Xie Jinyuan's two children.

"As the so-called raising soldiers for a thousand years, you are wearing a military uniform and holding a military salary, and you are about to go to the battlefield, my wife can understand you and support you. But I really don't understand why you can retreat, why everyone is begging you to retreat in turn, but you are bent on going to death! Why does this country have to have your Xie Jinyuan's sacrifice to wake up and win this war! You have sacrificed your life for the country and the people, you are a great hero, but have you ever thought about what your parents should do, and what should we do with our two children? As soon as you die, you want us orphans, widows and old people, how can we live?! ”

Xie Jinyuan opened his mouth, but he only felt that a thousand-pound stone was pressed on the skin of his mouth, and he couldn't speak. He really wanted to say sorry to his wife Ling Weicheng, but how could a mere word of sorry make up for the trauma to his family, especially to Ling Weicheng, after his death?!

Moving his lips and listening to the cries of his wife and children on the other end of the phone, Xie Jinyuan only felt that his heart was being pulled by more than a dozen pairs of invisible hands, and after a long time, he asked, "Weicheng, why are you here?" ”

"Can I not come, I received your letter, can I not come? They don't know you, I'm your wife, or your classmates when you were in school together, can I not know you?! ”

Ling Weicheng took out a letter from his personal pocket with a trembling hand. This is a letter written by Xie Jinyuan to Ling Weicheng! After opening the letter, which I don't know how many times she had read it and could even recite it, Ling Weicheng talked about the words written on it word by word in front of Chief of Staff Zhang Baiting.

"Half of the country, said to be encroached upon, the disaster of the destruction of the country and the extinction of the species, sent to others, the is in me, if you don't pay attention, your descendants will have no shame! Killing the enemy for the country is the essence of a revolutionary soldier. And soldiers should not have a family, I now have a family, and the compound door is thin, and the old man is rare. My heart is not iron, can I have no spring? But where the responsibility lies, you can't take care of your family for the country. The comfort of the old relatives, the upbringing of the children, and all the measures of housework, the old secretary is fully responsible, and the distraction of the levy is also reduced. ”

Large tears kept falling onto the letter paper in Ling Weicheng's hand, making a slight sound of "poof", and then quickly absorbed by the letter, mixed with the words written on it, and turned into a ball. Looking at the letter paper that had already been blurred into a piece and I don't know how many times it had been baptized with tears, Zhang Baiting stood aside and let out a silent sigh.

"Can I not come when I see this letter?" Ling Weicheng cried and shouted: "You wrote this letter three months ago, you have been in Shanghai for three months, and I have been in Shanghai with my children for three months. We ran out of money and we went to a refugee camp in the concession. For more than a month, I drank porridge mixed with sand grains every day with my child, and the child was so hungry that he couldn't stand it, so he reached out to the British soldiers and asked for a piece of bread, and I slapped him hard, and finally the three of us hugged and cried. This is the first time I've hit my own child, just because I don't want to let the three of us lose your face! Bullets don't have eyes, and I don't want to distract you just because you know that the three of us came to Shanghai! ”

Xie Jinyuan raised his head high, his hand inadvertently swept over his face, quietly taking away the tears that had slowly oozing from the corners of his eyes. How fortunate he Xie Jinyuan was to marry such a well-informed and knowledgeable wife!

"I knew it shouldn't, but I still came, I was afraid that you would be on the battlefield and no one would collect your body for you!"

A letter to the family was finally read, Ling Weicheng gently wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, and she said word by word: "Zhongmin, you have to be a hero, you have to sacrifice your life for the country, I won't stop you!" But don't stop me. From tonight onwards, I will take the girl and Ying'er and stand by the bridge and wait for you until you come out of there alive. Zhongmin, you remember, you die, I die. You live, I live! ”

Ling Weicheng returned the phone to Zhang Baiting, she had nothing to say, she reached out and grabbed her son and daughter, nodded slightly to Zhang Baiting, and walked out of the door with a slow but firm pace.

"Zhongmin," Zhang Baiting said in a low voice, "It's up to you to decide whether to retreat or not!" I have said everything that should be said, as a big brother who is older than you, as a senior of the Whampoa Military Academy, I only have one more word of advice to you, Ling Weicheng is a good woman, you don't know the blessings in the blessings. ”

The phone was finally hung up.

And Xie Jinyuan is also completely stupid.

Lei Zhen sat silently in a position not far from the telephone, and in his gaze at Xie Jinyuan, there was suddenly a trace of respect that even he didn't notice.

After surviving alone in the mountains for so long, fighting and facing death again and again, Lei Zhen's body became agile, making his vision, hearing, and even feeling more developed than normal people. At the bottom of the Sixing Warehouse, only he could hear the conversation between Xie Jinyuan and Ling Weicheng clearly.

At this time, Lei Zhen finally understood why Brother Li Zheng, when he mentioned Head Xie Jinyuan, had such a smile on his face that mixed respect and worship. In Lei Zhen's eyes, Xie Jinyuan is really stupid, stupid to death, but such stupidity makes Lei Zhen involuntarily think of the mother who is a soldier and a devil bayonet in order to protect him and his two sisters.

The difference is that Xie Jinyuan wants to protect 40,000 Chinese compatriots, if Lei Zhen's mother, protecting Lei Zhen is a kind of maternal love, Xie Jinyuan shows a kind of broad national love!

Xie Jinyuan just grabbed the phone in his hand like that, and stood there stupidly, thinking about his own thoughts. I don't know how long it took for him to let out a long sigh.

"Fu Jian."

Yang Fujian, the commander of the first battalion who had been standing behind Xie Jinyuan, immediately responded: "Here!" ”

Facing the hard and cold walls of the Sixing Warehouse, Xie Jinyuan took a deep breath, spit it out slowly, and said one last word: "You go and get ready, we will break through at four o'clock in the morning!" Tell every brother not to lose the gun in your hand, we will still use it when we participate in the defense of Nanjing. Also, after selecting a group of soldiers with good marksmanship and leaving three more light machine guns to break, we must knock out the three searchlights that we have set up on the opposite side! ”

(To be continued)