Liu Hua hurriedly walked into the ruined house, took off the military coat he was draped on, and covered the body of the young child who was already shivering from the cold.

"Fellow, the house has been broken like this, why do you still live in it! Is there a lack of food at home? Liu Hua hurriedly asked.

"Ahh It's a comrade of the Eighth Route Army! Comrade of the Eighth Route Army, there is no shortage of food at home, but the house at home was burned down by those god-killing devils, and only the old man and two grandsons are left in his family, and he has no ability to repair the house at all! Seeing that the Eighth Route Army in front of him covered his grandson's body, the old man hurriedly knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Liu Hua and others.

"Old man, hurry, get up, I can't afford your gift. Hurry up, get up quickly......" Finally, with the joint efforts of several guards around him, the old man in front of him was helped up.

"Old man, sit down, aren't there militias and leaders in the village? Didn't they help you repair your house..."Liu Hua asked again, "This comrade of the Eighth Route Army, there are dozens of militiamen in the village, but now they are on a mission to help the Eighth Route Army transport the wounded and supplies... Several leaders of the village also came to care for us, and the quilt on our body was sent by the village chief. However, there are so many destroyed houses in the village that a few leaders in the village can't keep busy! The old man cried.

"Xiao Wang, you go to the village immediately and find the village chief! After listening to the words of the old man in front of him, Liu Hua suddenly felt the seriousness of the matter, and turned to the guard behind him and ordered.

"Xiao Zhang, immediately notify the guards to enter the village and help the villagers repair the houses....make sure to finish repairing most of the houses before dark... 0" Liu Hua turned around and ordered.

"It's... Commander—" both replied at the same time, running in different directions.

After a while, his personal guard Xiao Wang came to him with a man in military uniform.

"Commander, this is the village chief of Zhouzhuang. Village Chief Zhou, this is Commander Liu of our base area. Bringing the village chief to Liu Hua, Xiao Wang hurriedly introduced.

"Report to the commander, Zhou Degui, the head of Zhou Village, came to report." Hearing that the young man in front of him was the supreme governor of the entire base area, Village Chief Zhou hurriedly put his feet together and said loudly.

"Well, Village Chief Zhou, as soon as the army sweep passed, the weather suddenly became colder. How many households are there in the village? Liu Hua didn't be polite, and went straight to the point.

"Commander...."Hearing Liu Hua ask about the current situation in the village, Village Chief Zhou in front of him shook his head.

"If you have anything to say, just say it, don't ramble." Liu Hua interrupted.

"Yes, Commander..."Zhou Degui regained the temperament of a soldier.

"Commander, there are at least eighty percent of the houses like this in the village, and there are only almost all of them, because the houses are earth and stone structures, so the damage is not particularly serious, and they can be moved in with a little repair. But... Commander, you know, most of the houses in the village are civil structures....so..."

"The militia in the village, why don't you let the militia repair these houses immediately....What if people freeze to death in such cold weather?" Liu Hua did not have the slightest politeness. Loud criticism.

"Commander, it's not that we don't repair, it's just that the militia in the village hasn't come back until now. Before the devils came, the militia in the village was concentrated to help the troops transport ammunition and the wounded, and until now, the militia has not returned home. Village Chief Zhou shook his head and said.

"Xiao Wang, what's going on?" After listening to the village chief's words, Liu Hua's face was full of anger, and he turned around and began to question the personal guard behind him.

"Commander, I don't know, I heard that the militia from each village is near the headquarters to help the troops carry supplies and the wounded..."

"Nonsense! It's just nonsense... What are the troops used for, the devils have retreated, and the common people are like this. Why haven't you let the militia go back to the village ... It's just nonsense...."Liu Hua scolded loudly....At this moment, the commander of the guard company appeared in front of Liu Hua with his troops.

"Report to the commander, the guard company has been ordered to enter the village, please instruct..."

"Comrades, I know that after a month of hard work, I am also very tired. Today, however, I saw something that I really didn't want to see. Let's see, right behind me, all along, the folks who have supported us don't even have houses? On such a cold day, there are no houses, I don't say, everyone should know what the result will be. Comrades, these are the villagers who have been frugal to feed our soldiers! After Liu Hua finished speaking, he lowered his head and stopped talking.

"The guards have all the guards, concentrate their weapons, take the squad as a unit, help the villagers repair their houses, and start the operation immediately." The commander of the guard company immediately took Liu Hua's words and ordered loudly.

Soon, the whole Zhouzhuang was lively, and the soldiers shouted slogans, took off their cotton clothes, and in the cold wind, they helped the common people repair their houses shirtless. Even Liu Hua himself took guards to help the people repair their houses. The whole process lasted until dark.

After dark, with the joint efforts of everyone, more than 60 percent of the houses in the whole village were repaired, and after the coordination of the village cadres, all the people lived in the houses. It was only at this time that Liu Hua breathed a sigh of relief. However, suddenly, a thought flashed in front of Liu Hua's eyes, Zhouzhuang is like this, what about other villages?

"Guard company, follow me back to the headquarters immediately...."Liu Hua ordered loudly, ignoring the retention of the villagers, rushed into the cold wind again, and took the lead in running towards the headquarters of the first division.

As soon as he ran to the entrance of the headquarters, Liu Hua bumped into Sun Xingbang who was in a hurry.

"Commander, you're finally back, if you don't come back, the political commissar and I will send troops to find you." Sun Xingbang saw that it was Liu Hua and said excitedly.

"Well, don't talk nonsense, immediately gather all the troops......wait for my order, where is the telegraph room, I want to send a report..."Liu Hua said hurriedly.

"Ahh Here..."After listening to Liu Hua's words, Sun Xingbang said in surprise, but he quickly ordered the messenger to notify the various troops to assemble.

When he came to the telegraph room, Liu Hua did not rest.

"Quickly, send a report to the headquarters, the second and third army divisions: order the commanders of each army division, except for leaving the necessary troops for base guarding. At the same time, it is imperative to send effective troops to the villages that have been badly damaged by the Japanese army to help the common people restore their homes. Ensure that every ordinary person in the base area has a house to live in and clothes to wear. It is required that in this winter, there should be no situation in which fellow villagers freeze to death and starve to death in every base area...... Commander, Liu Hua..."Liu Hua directly dictated the telegram and signed.

"Send a report immediately," Liu Hua ordered. Immediately, the whole radio station began to sound a tick-tock announcement. And Sun Xingbang, who had been following Liu Hua, immediately understood why his commander was in such a hurry. Without waiting for Liu Hua's command, he immediately turned around and returned to his command position.

In this way, inadvertently, Liu Hua solved one of the most important problems in the aftermath of the war in the base area. Half a month later, Liu Hua learned that the reconstruction work of the villages had been basically completed and that there had not been a large number of frostbite and freezing deaths in the entire base area. I returned to the General Headquarters with the Rapid Reaction Brigade.

Of course, when they saw their partners Guan Xiangying and Li Qing, who had been separated for more than a month, the three of them exchanged pleasantries for a while, of course, more worries about their comrades-in-arms.

After the greetings, Liu Hua learned about the reconstruction work in various localities after the war, as well as the results and losses of various military subdivisions in the entire anti-encirclement and suppression operation for more than two months. When I saw that the statistics showed that the entire base area had suffered 8,000 casualties in the anti-encirclement and suppression, I couldn't help but feel gloomy for a while.

Not long after Liu Hua returned to the base area, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and the central government in Yan'an also learned of the great results achieved by the readers, and sent congratulatory telegrams one after another.

However, Liu Hua did not feel very happy because of these congratulatory messages. Because after a few days of more detailed understanding, Liu Hua clearly knew that except for the cavalry regiment and the guard regiment, all the other units in this base area had lost more than half of their troops and were in urgent need of personnel replenishment.

Liu Hua, who was well aware of the situation, convened a meeting of cadres at and above the battalion level of the rapid reaction brigade to make arrangements for the personnel of the troops and the resumption of training in the near future. Of course, these soldiers should mention the thousands of soldiers of the security forces who were captured twice before and after the rapid reaction brigade.

By understanding. Liu Hua knew that those security forces were not without combat effectiveness. It's that they don't really want to give their lives to the devil. They are all former soldiers of the Northeast Army and have good military qualities. It was only after the fall of the Northeast that he became a Han anniversary under the leadership of his own commander. This was also Liu Hua's unexpected gain in this anti-encirclement campaign, and he got thousands of well-trained soldiers of the Northeast Army.

After the first battalion of the guard regiment escorted these prisoners back to the base area, the political work cadres in the base area began to do ideological work, and after two weeks of hard work, more than eighty percent of the soldiers were willing to stay and join the Eighth Route Army. In addition to the thousands of wounded soldiers in the hospital of the logistics department, Liu Hua found that he now had more troops in his hands than before the war.

"Comrades, the anti-encirclement campaign is over. As for whether this encirclement and suppression was a victory, I don't know, I think everyone should know it in their hearts. Our rapid reaction brigade had 6,000 men when it went out, but in the end, it had less than 3,000 troops and lost more than half of its troops. I just want to say one thing: those comrades-in-arms who died on the battlefield are all good, they are all our readers, the heroes of our Eighth Route Army. After the unanimous opinion of the party committees in the base area, we decided to choose a piece of land in the back mountain, that is, Woniu Mountain, to bury these sacrificed comrades, build a monument, and engrave the names of these comrades so that our comrades and our descendants will remember him. ”

As soon as Liu Hua's words were finished, the conference room burst into warm applause, and many cadres shed tears.

(To be continued)