Maopailing is a mountain village with a history of nearly 1,000 years, the whole village has 237 households, more than 900 men, women and children, three streams that flow from the south, west and northwest directions meet on the east side of the village, as far as the eye can see, the green mountains and green waters are surrounded by green waters, green bamboos, the rice fields stretch and the soil is fertile, and the gentle slopes of the mountain are also full of fruit trees.

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon of 17 March, the villagers of Maopailing stood in the distance nervously watching the two armies change their guards with a nervous and uneasy mood, and the more than 500 Central Army, which had been stationed here for more than half a month, seemed to be very happy, and hurriedly met with the newly arrived nearly 1,000 officers and men in gray military uniforms and left.

The new officers and soldiers did not run around as the villagers feared, nor did they barbarize into any of the houses to ask for military rations, but gathered on the large sunbath at the east end of the village to rest.

In confusion, I saw a dozen officers dressed like soldiers but with short guns on their waists gathered together, pointing at the village and the south, north, and west directions from time to time, and then discussing around a paper map on the ground, so frightened that the villagers did not dare to cough loudly.

Not long after, a kind-looking young officer strode out of the sunbath, stopped in front of the ancestral hall at the entrance of the village, saluted a group of villagers who were pale with fright, and asked loudly in the authentic Gandong dialect: "I am Zhang Dongning, a staff officer of the Fifth Regiment of the Left Route Army, which one is the village chief?" ”

"Decay is."

The village chief who was standing at the forefront hurriedly stepped forward and said: "Boss, the ancestral hall and the village houses that were requisitioned by the army before are still empty, but there is not much food. ”

Zhang Dongning was stunned for a moment, and quickly grinned: "Uncle, we don't need the food of the villagers, and we won't live in the ancestral hall and any family, we bring our own food, if we need anything else, we will pay for it, but today and tomorrow we need to cut down some bamboo and trees, and it is estimated that we will blow up some stones in the south of the two miles of the river to build a wooden bridge, and we will also build barracks and fortifications in all directions at the entrance of the village, we will not pay for these things, okay?" ”

How could the villagers dare to believe that the officers and soldiers were so good at talking, only the village chief, who was more than half a hundred years old and well-informed, asked suspiciously: "On such a cold day, if you don't live in the village, your chief is not angry?" ”

Lu Kuiyuan said with a smile: "Our Chief Wu asked me to take him to say hello to the villagers, and by the way, ask the villagers, who has cured meat or chestnut, Huaishan and sweet potato?" If you have something to sell to us, how much you want, how much the villagers usually sell, we will give how much, all with silver dollars and silver, Tong Su is not deceitful, and never let the villagers suffer, if the villagers do not blame us for cutting down some trees, we are willing to take out a hundred catties of refined salt to compensate the villagers, how about? ”

"A hundred catties of refined salt?"

"This, this, this ......"

There was a sound of inhalation at the door of the ancestral hall, not to mention the refined salt in these years, even the coarse salt was also controlled, and he was afraid of falling into the hands of the Red Army, and now the boss gave out a hundred catties of refined salt as soon as he opened his mouth, so that all the villagers felt incredible, and Zhang Dongning, who looked at him with a pleasant face, was speechless, and did not dare to agree to this unbelievably generous condition.

Seeing this, Zhang Dongning knew that he would not be able to speak clearly for a while, so he simply saluted and left, and returned to the sun to report to Wu Ming.

Wu Ming just nodded, and ordered the commander of the first battalion, Yin Dizhong, to lead his troops to the one kilometer of the river bay to the south, immediately cut down bamboo and wood to build barracks in the hidden places at the foot of the mountain, ordered the machine gun company to go to the west entrance of the village, and ordered the engineer company to go to the northwest intersection of the village, expand and strengthen the two fortifications as soon as possible, and immediately bury the pot for cooking after the cooking squad of each company is in place, select officers and soldiers who can speak Gandong dialect to take the money, and buy cured meat and mountain goods from the villagers in the village.

In less than 10 minutes, only more than 50 officers and men of the regimental headquarters and a platoon of the special service company were left on the wide sunbath, and the officers and men opened a large bag on the ground and set up a neat tent along the outer wall of the ancestral hall under the stunned gaze of hundreds of villagers.

The next day before dawn, the villagers who were worried about the night were suddenly frightened by a few loud military horns, the melodious trumpets were still echoing in the mountains, and the sound of hurried and neat footsteps suddenly sounded, and the bold villagers, including the village chief who had not slept all night, all put on cotton jackets and walked out of the house, and before they reached the east entrance of the village, they were frightened by the bursts of singing and stopped.

"Revolutionary soldiers must always keep in mind that they should pay attention to the three major disciplines and six points, and first, they should obey the command in all their actions and move in unison in order to win the battle......

"We are all sharpshooters, every bullet that kills an enemy, we are all Scuds, even if the mountains are high and the water is deep......"

"Ahh......h

The songs rose and fell, and the heroic songs broke the tranquility of the mountain village and echoed in the mountains for a long time.

This new thing that has never been seen before completely confused the old and old villagers, and the doors of every house are opened, and the old and young get together and ask in surprise what is going on? Why are these 1,000 new officers and soldiers so different from all the armies that preceded them?

As the inquirers kept coming back, the consternation of the villagers spread one after another:

Last night, the old Zhou family at the west entrance of the village had the courage to sell four waxed rabbits to the officers and soldiers, and they really exchanged them for one silver dollar and two silver quills; The daughter-in-law of the old five families in the east of the village sold a large bag of chestnuts, and also got a full amount of silver, and this morning I heard from the kind leader of the gang that their regiment commander was happy to cook and eat it himself.

In addition, the two horse rejection roads at the west and northwest entrances of the village have become six roads, and at the foot of the mountain behind the horse rejection, five fortifications of three high and two low are built with sandbags and large wooden barrels, firmly sealing the passage to the west and north; It seems that this group of officers and soldiers not only wants to build houses in the river bay, but also build a wooden bridge to Baiguo Village on the east bank, where there are also more than 100 officers and soldiers, and also build several sandbag fortifications between the two mountains, blocking the only road leading to the county seat in the south of the village......

Among the hundreds of villagers who talked a lot, there was an honest middle-aged man who didn't speak from beginning to end, he stood in the outer circle of the crowd and listened for more than half an hour, took advantage of no one to pay attention and quietly walked to the door of the village chief's house, after entering the door, he respectfully greeted the village chief's wife and daughter-in-law, sat down and waited quietly for the village chief to come back.

It wasn't until the third pole of the day that the village chief, who went to meet with the officers and soldiers, returned home, saw the honest middle-aged man sitting on the grass mound, Leha Luha looked at himself, couldn't help but sigh and sat next to the man, took the cigarette pouch handed by his daughter-in-law and slowly loaded the tobacco, glanced at the man who smiled and lit the match, and helplessly moved the pipe to the flame.

The old village chief took a few sharp breaths, slowly exhaled a long smoke, frowned and said worriedly: "Just now the officers and soldiers really gave us a hundred catties of refined salt, and I asked the old seven and a few of them to divide them from house to house. ”

"Uncle, tell me why it's not easy?" The middle-aged man asked.

The old village chief looked into the eyes of the middle-aged man: "You didn't hear about them yourself?" ”

The middle-aged man nodded: "I heard it, they don't bully their fathers and villagers, they don't live in the ancestral hall and every household like other white dog armies, and they build grass huts outside the village by themselves, and they buy and sell fairly, listening to the sound of military horns, passwords and running footsteps, it can be seen that they have strict military discipline and well-trained, which is indeed different from the previous white dogs." ”

The old village chief looked at the fire pond in front of him: "Before I came back, I went to the old five families in the east of the village, and the two military doctors of the officers and soldiers were playing for the old five and his mother's treatment, and I heard that the quinine that the five oceans could not buy were used, and they did not charge a penny from the old five families, and the two medical officers were very kind, and it could be seen that they were people from a big place, and they studied Western medicine." ”

The middle-aged man was slightly surprised: "Uncle, did you hear clearly?" Is it really quinine? ”

"Although I haven't been out of the country for the past two years, I still know the way about quinine, no less than you, who has only studied in a private school for two years." The old village chief glared at the middle-aged man unhappily.

The middle-aged man was finally worried: "So, they are really kind to their father and fellow villagers, and the people in the village must not be confused by them?" ”

The old village chief sighed: "This group of officers and soldiers is different from all the officers and soldiers in the past, everyone speaks very kindly, no one uses anything in the village, up to now, no one has walked into the door of any house, even to buy mountain goods, they are standing at the door waiting, leaving after giving money, without drinking a sip of water, better than your Red Army!" ”

"You say, how can I, this old bone, calculate them? By the way, you asked me to inquire about it, this team of officers and soldiers has a total of more than 1,000 people, the regiment commander's surname is Wu, the accent is from Nanchang, and he can speak good official dialect, but I don't know which one it is, it is said to be a unit directly under the former enemy headquarters. ”

"The troops directly under the Left Route Army? So, it was indeed driven from Nancheng to change the guard? ”

The middle-aged man knew that Nancheng was the former enemy headquarters of the Central Route Army of the Kuomintang Central Army, and the former commander-in-chief of the enemy was Chen Cheng, the commander of the 18th Army of the Central Army.

The old village chief knocked off the cigarette ash in the cigarette pot and turned to the pensive middle-aged man again: "I heard that this team of officers and soldiers does not have cannons, but there are a lot of machine guns. ”

The middle-aged man was taken aback: "Could it be the legendary German wolfdog?" How can they have big wolfdogs? What is it for? ”

The old village chief gave him another blank look: "You ask me, who do I ask?" Dogs can't speak human language, so how do I know if it's Chinese or German? I don't know what it's used for, but what else can I do besides housekeeping and hunting? ”

The middle-aged man suddenly woke up: "No, uncle, I have to leave quickly, otherwise it's too late." ”

"Wait!"

The old village chief grabbed him: "Do you really want to fight back with the Red Army?" Aren't you afraid of hurting the villagers? Even if it doesn't hurt anyone, do you want the crops outside the village? ”

The middle-aged man shook his head anxiously: "I only send the news back, it's not up to me to decide whether to fight back, there was only one battalion of white dogs stationed here before, and now it has become a regiment, it seems that the enemy is afraid that he has noticed something, no!" I've got to get the news south right now, or I'm going to be in big trouble!" ”

"Is the village chief at home? Our head of the regiment came to visit you, and by the way, I would like to discuss something with you. The familiar voice of the young boss came from outside the door, and the dense footsteps were getting closer.

The middle-aged man saw that he couldn't leave, so he hurriedly hid behind the old village chief, hung his head and bent down to make a scared look, and saw the old village chief warmly welcome the three tall and polite soldiers in, and was stunned for a moment and hurriedly picked up the small chair on the side and handed it over.

A strong big hand suddenly grabbed the back of the chair, and the middle-aged man hurriedly raised his head and saw a pair of eyes staring at him with so deep that he was so frightened that he trembled.