Director Li said: "One is Comrade Zeng Yuliang and the other is Comrade Zhou Chunlin, both serving as cavalry company commanders in Kashgar. ”

The chairman waved his hand and said, "Inform them to come back as soon as possible, and then report to the 33rd Division." ”

Director Li hesitated for a moment and said, "Chairman, then, do we have to keep one!" Zheng Weiguo values Maozi's cavalry so much...... Phew, bah, bah, blame this stinky boy for smoothing out my mouth. ”

The chairman glared at him and said angrily: "You are an old comrade, how can you make such a mistake, what kind of impact will it have if it spreads?" ”

Director Li hurriedly smiled and apologized, and said, "Chairman, although the cavalry is in decline among the European and American powers. But our China is a big country and the transportation is backward, so the cavalry is still useful. This Cossack cavalry is famous in the world, do we have to get a monk who married the scriptures back? You can't give all the good things to others! ”

Because of Li De's matter, the chairman was a little uninterested in the foreign monk, and said: "The foreign monk's scripture must work?" I can't see it! The affairs of our Chinese must be solved according to our own methods! ”

Director Li said: "Then they are all transferred to the 33rd Division?" ”

The chairman thought for a moment and said humorously: "Forget it, let's transfer one to Yan'an, lest you say behind my back that I made an empirical mistake!" ”

In this way, the two cavalrymen were transferred back ahead of schedule, thus avoiding a prison sentence. Historically, because of the sudden right turn of the prosperous world, the two of them were locked up for a full year.

In the early morning of the next day, Wei Lihuang bid farewell to the chairman and led his troops to Xi'an. Zheng Weiguo naturally had to follow south, there were many bandits in Shaanxi at this time, and there must be soldiers to escort them along the way.

There was nothing wrong all the way, and when I was about to arrive in Xi'an, the convoy suddenly stopped. Zheng Weiguo thought that something was wrong, and hurriedly said: "Prepare for battle!" The soldiers who were traveling south with the car were busy preparing for battle, and there was a crackling sound of pulling the bolts of their guns.

Deputy Chief of Staff Wen hurriedly came over and said, "It's okay, it's okay, don't be nervous, brothers." It was the general seat who saw that there were troops pulling Zhuangding, so he stopped to take a look. ”

Zheng Weiguo immediately became interested and said, "Lazhuang Ding? Where? Quick, take me to see it. He had only watched the Sichuan opera "La Zhuang Ding" and "Wang Baochang" before, and he had never seen the real scene.

After walking a few steps, I saw a large group of people squatting on the side of the road. They were all ragged, looked depressed, and the shoes they wore were tattered. There was also a platoon of soldiers standing with guns around, presumably to prevent them from escaping. At the front of the convoy, Wei Lihuang was talking to the platoon commander. The platoon commander may have never seen such a big official, and his legs and stomach were trembling with fright.

Zheng Weiguo said: "Don't squat all of you, stand up and let me see!" As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and pointed to the front row of strong men, wondering what the quality of this group of soldiers was.

The strong men looked at the soldiers guarding them in fear, and none of them dared to move. Several soldiers hurried over and shouted a few words before they stood up tremblingly. Strangely, they had their hands pressed on the waistbands of their trousers, and they looked a little ridiculous.

Zheng Weiguo took a closer look and found that none of them had trouser belts, no wonder they had to carry them in their hands. He said to an escorted soldier: "These people will be our robes in the future, and they will be heroes who fight devils on the battlefield in the future, is it too hurtful for them to do this?" ”

The soldier said angrily: "I can't keep my mother's life, my self-esteem is his grandmother's fart!" And he said, "What is it to remove the belt of the trousers!" Would they rather have their hands tied or walk with their pants shut, you ask? Seeing that Zheng Weiguo was not very old and was not wearing a military rank, this soldier thought that he was not a big official, so he spoke more casually.

As soon as Zhang Changgui jumped out of the car, he heard the soldier scolding, and immediately became angry: "Presumptuous, how can you talk to our division!" ”

Only then did the soldier realize that there was a big official in front of him, he was startled, he hurriedly slapped himself, knelt down and begged for mercy: "Sir, I don't know that you are the division commander. It's me who is blind, please spare the villain this time! He continued to beat himself.

Zheng Weiguo hurriedly pulled him up and said, "Stop, stop!" Although your words are ugly, you are telling the truth. Where are all these people going? The First Army? Hu Zongnan's First Army was stationed in Xi'an at the time, so Zheng Weiguo asked this question.

The soldier hurriedly said: "Report to the commander, we are escorting this group of recruits to supplement the 33rd Division on the order of the Military Service Administration!" ”

Zheng Weiguo and his soldiers were all taken aback when they heard this. He couldn't help laughing and said, "It's been a long time, it's all my people!" ”

It turned out that although Chang Kaishen and the Military Commission were very dissatisfied with the 33rd Division's abandonment of Taiyuan, they considered that this unit had won many great victories and won a lot of face for the national army, so they offset their merits and demerits and did not pursue them. In addition, Chang Kaishen said before that if he dies, the Military Service Department will ask the Shaanxi Military Service Department to supplement 10,000 recruits for the 33rd Division. It's just one of those I met on the road.

Wei Lihuang also asked about the situation clearly, walked over and said with a smile: "How is it?" Defend the country, look at your recruits! In my opinion, you need to practice well. ”

Zheng Weiguo smiled bitterly: "I knew that Lu Dao told the Military Commission not to recruit new soldiers, so as not to let them suffer this crime!" ”

Chief of Staff Guo sighed and said: "This is also a matter of no choice, the country does not have a perfect reserve system, and the army can only rely on pulling strong men to replenish the supply of troops!" There are no dead people like them, and they have done an excellent job! ”

He smiled again and asked: "Wei Guo, do you really want it, if you really don't want it, give it to me, my Ninth Army is short of people!" "Chief of Staff Guo is also the commander of the Ninth Army, and he also has heavy troops in his hands.

Zheng Weiguo hurriedly said: "Yes, yes, yes, I'll just talk about it casually." Headquarters, Staff, why don't you go into the city, I'll take a look at these recruits outside the city first. ”

Wei Lihuang said: "Okay, we'll see you again in Xi'an!" ”

Zheng Weiguo left a platoon and asked the rest of the troops to continue to escort Wei Lihuang south, while he walked behind with the strong men, wanting to know more about the situation. Seeing that Zheng Weiguo was kind and angry, and that he was the future chief, these strong men gradually became more courageous. At first, he said whatever he asked, but later he rushed to complain to Zheng Weiguo.

The platoon commander in charge of the escort felt a little nervous, and said to Zheng Weiguo: "Sir, these thieves are all forcibly recruited, and they must bomb the camp if they continue to make trouble like this!" "In other words, why doesn't the national army complain about it, it's just that I'm afraid of this. These conscripted soldiers are living at the bottom of society, politically oppressed, economically exploited, and their emotions will get out of control if they don't get things right.

Zheng Weiguo said: "Don't be afraid, I'll take care of something happens!" Then he said to the strong men, "Don't get excited, say them one by one!" "Now that it's been said, it's better to let them talk about it, it's easier to have an accident if you hold it in your stomach.

A big man pressed one hand on the waistband of his trousers, raised it high in one fell swoop, and shouted: "Sir, say it first!" ”

Zheng Weiguo said: "Okay, it's you!" Seeing that his posture was too funny, he hurriedly asked the escorting soldiers to return their belts.

The big man fastened his belt, thanked him, and then scolded the chief of their township. According to him, he was originally the only son in the family, but he was arrested to make up the number just because he had no money to give to the security chief. The security chief took advantage of the opportunity of conscription to exploit the people everywhere, scourge the township, and cause many families to die. Speaking of sadness, this big man and his township party actually cried together.

Zheng Weiguo secretly asked the platoon commander and said, "Is what he said true?" ”

The platoon commander's eyes were also red, probably because he was sad. He sighed and said, "Sir, you don't know the way, in the past, there was the governor of the Destruction Gate County, and now there is the Governor of the Destruction Sect Township. What is it to pull a strong man, no one dares to care about killing people and setting fires! ”

A soldier next to him said angrily: "I was also arrested by force, my father was so angry that he fell seriously ill, saying that it was Lao Jiang who gave birth to a son, and he was the chief of the bank if he had silver." These words were more humorous, and Zheng Weiguo couldn't help laughing. But after laughing, I felt a little sad.

How could the conscription work be done like this? Originally, the national government's control over the grassroots level was weak, so that most of the power at the village level fell into the hands of local underworld forces (i.e., local tyrants and inferior gentry). On the one hand, they used brutal means to recruit soldiers, and on the other hand, they colluded with the people of the Selective Service Department to use it as a way to make money.

After the allocation of the quota of conscripts is established each year, the lottery of the young men will be recruited, and the strong men who are selected are the recruits who should be recruited in this year. As a result, the lottery process is fraught with extortion, extortion, and exploitation. In fact, whether or not the lottery is completely controlled and manipulated by the county, district, township, and security chief, as long as you are willing to pay money and bribe, the winning lottery can become not the winning lot; Without money to bribe, the only son will also become a strong man who wins the lottery.

There are also township security chiefs who use the settling-in allowance and strong man fee of the greedy soldiers to enrich their own pockets, and even the bereavement of the martyrs who died in the battle are greedy, which is simply a loss of conscience!

Mr. Jiang Menglin, a professor at Peking University, who served as the president of the Red Tenth Society during the Anti-Japanese War, once reported to Chang Kaishen the tragic situation of conscription, believing that the brutal and barbaric method of conscription caused a large number of deaths. Taking what he saw in a camp for Zhuang men in Guizhou as an example, he said that more than 700 Zhuang men who had been recruited from Qujiang, Guangdong, had died along the way, and only 17 people remained in Guizhou.

Mr. Jiang Menglin believes that after the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, 14 million strong men were conscripted and died before they joined the army, and about 18 million Chinese soldiers and civilians died in the war (direct casualties, excluding all kinds of indirect casualties, that is, 14 million do not include 18 million). He consulted senior officers on this staggering figure, and they all said that it would only be more, not less.

Chang Kaishen did not refute Jiang Menglin's report after receiving it, but said: "I feel faceless and sorry for our people." He also admitted: "The poor handling of military service is really the biggest reason for the corruption of discipline and the decline of our army's combat effectiveness." ”

After the director of military service, Cheng Zerun, was shot, Chang Kaishen appointed Lu Zhonglin as the minister of military service. After Lu took office, he found that the national conscription work was terminally ill and hopeless, and he sighed with emotion: "We are extremely resentful of the lawless elements under the Ministry of Military Service, and we also wanted to use severe criminal law to eradicate the accumulated evils. But it was hindered by all sides, and it couldn't work! ”

Of course, it was already 1944 when Lu Zhonglin said this, at that time the government was already terminally ill, and now it is only 38 years, and the situation is still better, at least there are not many people killed in the conscription process, and the families of the strong men who are requisitioned can still get some settling-in allowances.

After the emotions of the strong men calmed down a bit, Zheng Weiguo persuaded: "You people have indeed suffered injustice in the process of conscription, but now it is not a civil war, but a war to protect the country and preserve the seeds of the Japanese devils!" Would you like to follow me to fight the Japanese? ”

When the strong men heard the battle, they all lowered their heads, and they refused to say a word one by one.

Zheng Weiguo told them about the heroic anti-Japanese deeds of the military and civilians in North China, trying to arouse their patriotic enthusiasm. In particular, during the Battle of Songhu, the death squad members of the national army rushed to the enemy position with bombs tied to them, saying: "If the country is going to die, please die first!" Now that the national crisis is at hand, it is a good man who has to stand up for the country and the nation! ”

After speaking, he asked the strong men to express their position. But these strong men have expressed their reluctance to become soldiers, and the reasons are very good, some are only children, some are reluctant to have their families, and some are afraid of death. Some of the bold ones even begged Zheng Weiguo to let them go.

Zheng Weiguo was not depressed, and said: "Now the Japanese have reached the edge of the Yellow River, and crossing the Yellow River is your hometown." Everyone is not a soldier, do you watch the devil kill you? Who will protect your family? ”

A bold strong man said: "Sir, you are just some ordinary people, who cares who sits in the world!" What if the Japanese came, they still don't farm and pay for food! ”

Zhang Changgui was furious, pointed at him with a horsewhip and said, "Holy shit, you want to be a traitor!" ”

Only then did Zhuang Ding realize that he was talking to the commander of the national army, and he was so frightened that he knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly. Zheng Weiguo hurriedly stretched out his hand to help him up, and said, "Don't kneel down at every turn, put your bones harder!" He said to Zhang Changgui again: "I didn't let you speak, what are you interjecting!" ”

Zheng Weiguo asked the others again, and said: "Have you heard of the Japanese burning, killing, and plundering in Northeast, North China, and Central China?" ”

Most of them shook their heads, and some nodded their heads to say they had heard of it, but they all felt far away from them—a real distance for villagers who rarely left the village for tens of miles.

Zheng Weiguo felt that it would be impossible for them to "enthusiastically join the army" for a while, so he persuaded them: "The War of Resistance will be fought for a few years, and you will have to be arrested if you flee back now, and if you don't do it, you will have to affect your family, so it is better to stay first." Joining the army is also divided into the front and rear, and the rear is relatively complete. If you're afraid of death, I won't force you, you can help build roads, dig trenches or something, you don't have to fight with the devils, how about it? ”

The strong men didn't believe it, and said, "What the chief said is true, don't coax us every day!" ”

Zheng Weiguo pointed to the blue sky and white sun cockade on his head and said, "How can I, a lieutenant general and division commander of the National Army, deceive you ordinary people? After speaking, he asked Zhang Changgui to go to the village in front of him to buy some meat and treat these recruits to eggs.

Zhang Changgui was a little unhappy and said, "Why do these cowards who are afraid of death let them eat meat?" ”

Zheng Weiguo waved his hand and said: "It's normal for people to be afraid of death, if everyone is like you, will the little devil still dare to beat us?" ”

After hearing this, Zhang Changgui was very useful, and he was busy buying meat.

PS: Today is July 7, 76 years ago today, all strata of China finally united, guns were united with the outside world, and finally drove out the invaders and achieved national independence. Let us remember the martyrs who sacrificed for the country and the nation!