Qiao Jinting looked at the corpses of the enemy at the bottom of the mountain, and a smile appeared on his face. At this time, Jiang Zhenhai, Zhu Aizhou's guard, came over from the side and said to him: "Report to the chief of staff!" Brigadier Zhu, please come to his side! ”

At this time, Zhu Aizhou was sitting next to a guard who was killed by a shell, his face full of tears and sweat. Qiao Jinting came, and Zhu Aizhou said, "We have to find a way to stand out!" ”

Zhu Aizhou, born in 1902, is a native of Dazhuzhuang, Luoyang Township, Ganyu County, Jiangsu Province. After graduating in 1927, he successively served as the director of the Guanyun County Public Security Bureau, the director of the Yancheng County Public Security Bureau, the head of the Ganyu County Security Brigade, and the secretary of the Tongshan County Government.

In December 1937, Japanese planes bombed the main market towns of Ganyu County many times, and the county magistrate Yan Jikuan fled with all the government's cash. When Zhu Aizhou heard the news, he immediately asked the Jiangsu government to be transferred to the magistrate of Ganyu County.

In January 1938, at the beginning of Zhu Aizhou's tenure, he first reconciled the relations between various factions in the Kuomintang, reorganized the county government and the People's Anti-Japanese General Mobilization Committee, and reused progressive youth, appointing Fan Shuping (later a special member of the Communist Party of China) as the head of the eighth district, Zhang Shuren (a member of the Communist Party of China) as the head of the sixth district, Zhang Boyang as the principal of the county higher primary school, and Zhu Mingyuan as the director of the county middle school.

Then he released more than 280 prisoners from prison and demanded that they "now that the Japanese invaders are pressing the border, we will fight desperately with the enemy." If you have a good conscience, you will take up arms and follow me to fight against Japan and make meritorious service to atone for your sins. If it is still a scourge of bandits, it will be severely punished! ”

As a result, habitual bandits became extinct. In April 38, Chen Jianbo, secretary of the Xi'an Office of the Eighth Route Army, introduced Liu Jiping, a member of the Communist Party of Zhucheng County (later secretary of the Ganyu County Working Committee of the Communist Party of China), to work in Ganyu County, and asked Liu Jiping to make a long speech at the meeting to refute the fallacies of pessimistic and annihilating the country, so as to stabilize people's hearts.

Zhu Aizhou made a generous statement at the meeting: "The Japanese invade the territory, the great enemy is present, and if you fight, you will live, and if you don't fight, you will die." The rise and fall of the country is the responsibility of the husband, I want to be a patriotic county magistrate, and I hope that all the princes will unite to resist Japan! At the same time as expanding and retraining the security brigades, he ordered all districts and townships to organize people's self-defense units, and by the end of the year, they had been organized into two security brigades, three people's self-defense brigades, and eight district squadrons, with a total strength of more than 1,000 troops.

On February 27, 39, Ganyu County was occupied by Japanese invaders, Zhu Aizhou led the county government and the security brigade headquarters to withdraw to the mountainous area on the border of Juxian and Ganyu, and immediately convened a meeting of the county government to agree: reduce the organs, set up a tax card, and take over the salt tax to ensure financial revenue; Printing and distributing the "Ganyu County Tianfu Circulation Coupon" to make up for the shortage of fiat currency; The county security corps was established to continue the expansion of the army.

In order to prevent tax collectors from enriching their own pockets, Zhu Aizhou sent young students to collect salt taxes to put an end to the accumulation of malpractices. At that time, the revenue from customs duties and salt taxes was quite abundant, and although more than 3,800 soldiers were raised, the finances were still very rich, and the peasants had no burden except land endowments, and all harsh and miscellaneous things were abolished.

Zhu Aizhou also soberly realized that the composition of the security corps is complex, and the military and political quality is too poor. In order to improve the quality of the army, he invited military instructors of the 57 th Army of the Northeast Army of the Kuomintang to conduct strict training, and also asked Liu Jiping, director of the Political Training Office, to go to Shandong and ask the Eighth Route Army to send people to do political work. The special committee of the Communist Party of China in southeastern Shandong has successively sent more than 10 people to the county, and Zhu Aizhou has been appointed as the instructor of the brigade and the political trainer of the squadron, and he is on the same level as the military commander.

In March of the same year, the Shandong branch of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University of the Eighth Route Army opened, and Zhu Aizhou accepted Liu Jiping's suggestion to send 29 young intellectuals to study twice. In April, Zhu Aizhou entrusted Li Keji (Youth Minister of the Ganyu County Working Committee of the Communist Party of China) and his nephew Zhu Mingyuan to preside over a training class for cadres of the Youth Anti-Japanese National Salvation League.

Liu Jiping went to the CPC's Special Committee in Southeast Lu to ask for teaching materials such as "On Protracted War," "On the New Stage," and "Dazhong Daily." By September, 66 young cadres had been trained in two phases. Return to their hometowns to form youth rescue groups in various districts. In November, the security corps was organized into a brigade, with Zhu Aizhou as the brigade commander and Liu Jiping as the director of the political training office of the lieutenant colonel, with three regiments, one special brigade, one mortar company, and the people's self-defense units of various districts and townships, with a total strength of more than 3,800 troops.

In October, the Political Work Brigade was established, with Zhu Aizhou concurrently serving as the captain, Zhu Mingyuan and Wang Xingdong as deputy leaders, and Li Keji as the political instructor. Tao Junyan, director of the Organization Department of the Ganyu County Working Committee of the Communist Party of China, served as the editor-in-chief, Zhang Tingyuan, a member of the Communist Party of China, served as the editor and engraved the newspaper, and Zhu Aizhou was the masthead of the pro-title.

The Kuomintang Jiangsu Provincial Party Department sent members to Ganyu County to inspect and accuse Zhu Aizhou of turning Ganyu into a red man, and Zhu Aizhou scolded when he heard this: "His mother's! I don't know what party is not party, I only know how to resist Japan! When the provincial inspection officials gave a lecture to the army and repeated the old tune of preventing redness, Zhu Aizhou immediately reprimanded him: "Now is the head of the national crisis, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party are united, jointly resist Japan, shed blood and sacrifice together, and in the future, the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression will be won, and the result will of course be that both parties have a ......."

At this time, Qiao Jinting asked, "Retreat!" Is this necessary now? ”

"Yes! Now that the gunfire behind is not loud, it is possible that the Japanese puppet army has rushed into their positions! Let's go out and fight? Look at what is on that village behind you? ”

Qiao Jinting's shining eyes looked in the direction pointed by Zhu Aizhou, and through the smoke he saw two sun flags fluttering in front of the village. He took a closer look again, and saw that on the street in the village, there were already yellow-skinned little devils chasing the crowd, and the people who had not had time to retreat were running around under the fire of the devils.

"Don't hesitate, break through immediately!" Zhu Aizhou decisively ordered, "Otherwise, the devils behind will press over, and we will be attacked from both sides, and the consequences will be unimaginable!" ”

"What's the abrupt method? If you're not sure, it's better to use such a good trench to the little devil quickly! It's good for everyone to have a good time! ”

"Give me less wordy! I now order you and Director Liu Jiping to immediately organize a commando team, with you as the captain, Director Liu and Boss Song as the deputy captains, and immediately bring me the people here and the personnel who have no combat effectiveness to break through in the direction of Lushan, there must be no mistake! ”

"Yes! What about you? ”

"I'll break off and cover your breakthrough!"

"No! You are the commander of the first brigade, you must go out first, or it is better for me and Deputy Brigade Commander Guo to break off! ”

"It's an order! Not much to say! ”

"Yes!"

A group of eight light and heavy machine guns led by Song Jiliu opened the way, and Liu Jiping led people to protect the people in the middle, and broke through in the direction of Lushan with the assault team after breaking off with Qiao Jinting.

"Brigade, why don't we stand out with them?" This Deputy Brigade Commander Guo watched Qiao Jinting, Liu Jiping and Song Jiliu rush out with their eyes, and asked anxiously.

"If the two of us take the lead in rushing outward, it is possible that the morale of the army will be fluctuating, and the whole army will be in chaos, and then it may fall into the point of total annihilation. Only when the two of us are in command can we turn the tide of the battle and turn defeat into victory! ”

"This ......"

Before the deputy brigade commander finished speaking, the enemy's large and small artillery bombarded here, and the situation was very critical. After this round of fighting began, Zhu Aizhou saw that the villagers and civilian personnel who had no combat effectiveness had left with the assault team, so he was relieved to personally command the remaining few troops to hold their positions and resist hard.

In the fierce battle, General Qiao Jinting, chief of staff of the brigade after the assault team was broken, and others were unfortunately killed by artillery, and among Zhu Aizhou's six guards, five including Jiang Zhenhai were killed, and another person was blown off a pair of arms.

Zhu Aizhou was also unfortunately injured in the right knee by a criminal shell and fell in a pool of blood on the mountain.

Deputy Brigade Commander Guo saw death at this moment, and left Zhu Aizhou to flee alone.

On the hilltop position, only one female deputy chief of staff, Li Ping, who had a crush on Zhu Aizhou, was not injured, and she desperately ran to Zhu Aizhou's side and bent down, wanting to evacuate Zhu Aizhou on her back.

By this time, the enemy had already attacked the mountain. Zhu Aizhou ordered her sharply: "I ordered you to leave me quickly, the enemy is coming, leave me alone!" Then he crawled up to one of the dead guards, took off the guard's pistol, and shot the little devil officer who rushed ahead, and the unfortunate man was killed on the spot.

Then, County Magistrate Zhou pointed a pistol at his temple and was about to commit suicide. Seeing this scene, the female deputy chief of staff was eager to step forward to stop her, but Zhu Aizhou glared at her to stop her, and then recited loudly: "Sheng, I can do what I want; Righteousness is also what I want; You can't have both, sacrifice your life and take righteousness! After speaking, he resolutely pulled the trigger. Seeing this, the female deputy chief of staff rolled down the hill in tears......

However, County Magistrate Zhu only made an empty sound, and he did not sacrifice!