Ye Ruxue and Yu Huan rushed to the Hankou Railway Station early in the morning, standing outside the crowded station gate, anxiously watching the defeated soldiers of the national army coming out of the station through the iron fence.

Since half a month ago, there have been national troops from the eastern Henan front line defeated by train to Hankou, from that day on, Ye Ruxue and Yu Huan will come every day, and every day until late at night, until the station dispatch room repeatedly confirmed that there will be no more military trains from Zhengzhou into the station, they will not leave, and then come back early the next morning.

Most of the national soldiers who came out of the station were staggering, their uniforms were dirty and torn, and they were covered with mud, they looked tired, their eyes were dull, and some of them fell to the ground as they walked, and more people were injured, or their heads were wrapped in gauze or their arms were hung on their chests with gauze straps.

Looking at these remnants of the defeated soldiers, Yu Huan and many girls burst into tears.

Ye Ruxue held the camera, but she couldn't press the shutter, is this still the national army that stepped on the battlefield in eastern Henan a few months ago? Is this really the mighty and majestic national army? Ye Ruxue couldn't believe that in less than two months, an army with high morale had fallen into such a situation.

"Seventy-fourth Army, cousin, the seventy-fourth army has arrived" Yu Huan suddenly jumped up and screamed loudly.

Ye Ruxue put down the camera, turned her head to look at the exit, and sure enough, she saw a tattered military flag slowly coming out of the exit of the station, this military flag Ye Ruxue saw two months ago, but now it has no original style, the flag is so polluted by mud that it is almost impossible to see the original color, and it has several big holes.

What can be vaguely distinguished is that the blue sky and white sun logo dyed on it, as well as the line of words near the flagpole: The 74th Army of the National Revolutionary Army.

The situation of the 74th Army is slightly better than the defeated soldiers in front, but it is also limited, and the demeanor of these officers and soldiers at the time of the Huangpi military parade seems to be just yesterday, but now, they have all become defeated soldiers, one by one, their heads drooping, so depressed that people can't help but feel distressed when they see them, these men, these soldiers, must feel uncomfortable at this moment.

Everyone likes to come back triumphantly, and no one wants to leave their armor behind.

But none of the fathers, mothers, wives, and siblings who came to Hankou Station to pick them up disliked them, and one by one they craned their heels and stretched their necks, anxiously looking for their sons, brothers, or husbands in the ranks of the defeated soldiers.

Ye Ruxue and Yu Huan also began to look for the figure they were waiting for in the defeated soldiers of the 74th Army.

Not far from Yu Huan, a middle-aged couple supported each other, and also looked anxiously looking for their relatives in the defeated army, their only son, the middle-aged couple was none other than Shu Tongwen's parents, since that day I saw Shu Tongwen's figure in the newspaper, knowing that his son was still alive, Shu Mohan's illness was cured.

However, what disappointed them was that until all the defeated soldiers of the 74th Army came out, they never saw the figure they were expecting, Yu Huan was anxious, she was trying to stop the defeated soldiers in front of Zuihou, and she didn't want an old woman next to her to be half a step ahead of her, so she grabbed a defeated soldier and asked: "This boss, did you see my second egg?" ”

"Two eggs, which two eggs?" The defeated soldier drooped his head and asked weakly.

"My son, donkey two eggs." The woman was so anxious that she said, "Nineteen." ”

"Nineteenth Brigade?" The defeated soldier was confused, shook his head and said, "I am from the 505th Regiment, and I have never heard of the 19th Brigade. "The defeated soldier spoke in a Henan accent, he was just conscripted into the army by the 74th Army when he was reorganized in Dangshan, and he was a recruit, so he didn't know that the 74th Army still had the number of the 19th Brigade, because the 19th Brigade had been converted into an independent battalion at that time.

The woman was still not giving up, and asked several other defeated soldiers in succession, but they all shook their heads and said they didn't know.

The old woman was full of disappointment, and refused to leave at the exit of the station, and after a while, a remnant soldier with a cane staggered out of it, and the old woman hurriedly met it, pulled the remnant soldier and asked: "Boss, have you seen my second egg?" My second egg is from the 19th Independent Brigade of the 58th Division. ”

"The 19th Brigade of the 58th Division?" A trace of gloom flashed across the remnant soldier's face, and he sighed, "Auntie, don't wait. ”

"Don't wait?" The old woman didn't know if she really didn't understand or pretended not to understand, so she asked blankly, "What do you mean?" ”

The remnant soldier shook his head and didn't say anything, he was afraid that the old lady in front of him would not be able to bear the blow and collapse, this remnant soldier was actually Li Song, the commander of the 548th Regiment, the 58th Division retreated from Lanfeng a week ago, and the 19th Independent Brigade was ordered to be the queen of the palace, but it was entangled with the other troops responsible for the rear of the palace.

Then the Huayuankou burst the embankment, the Yellow River flooded down, both the Japanese army and the national army were flooded, since the son of the eldest lady in front of him was from the 19th Brigade, he did not die under the guns of the little Japanese, most of them also let the flooding Yellow River water drown, and he couldn't come back, although he hadn't seen Erdan, but he also knew that Erdan couldn't come back.

"You are talking nonsense" Yu Huan didn't believe the words of the remnant soldiers, and said loudly, "You haven't seen this lady's son die in battle, how can you be sure that he won't come back?" ”

The remnant soldier did not argue with Yu Huan, shook his head and walked away on crutches.

"What, girl, what do you say?" The old woman was like being devoured by thunder, her whole body began to tremble, and she asked Yu Huan in a snort, "Girl, what did you just say, the second egg is him, he can't come back?" ”

"Auntie, don't listen to him, I believe that the 19th Brigade will be fine, and they will definitely come back alive." Yu Huan hurriedly supported the old woman, and comforted her, but this time the old woman turned a deaf ear, muddy tears flowed from her eyes, she turned around while muttering, and walked away tremblingly, Yu Huan didn't persuade her no matter how much she persuaded her.

Not far away, Shu Tongwen's mother couldn't help crying loudly, although Li Song didn't refute, but most of the military families who have not received their relatives until now have already believed it, and the brigade of the 74th Army has returned, but their sons, husbands or brothers are not among them, which is not enough to explain the problem?

Shu Tongwen's father, Shu Mohan, couldn't stand such a blow, and suddenly bent over and coughed violently, coughing and coughing up blood, Shu's mother panicked, and couldn't even cry, so she hurriedly stepped forward and hugged Shu Mohan and asked, "What's wrong with you, Lao Shu, what's wrong with you?" Lao Shu, don't scare me, don't scare me. ”

Shu Mohan waved his hand weakly, coughing so much that he couldn't even speak.

Shu's mother hugged Shu Mohan, and couldn't help but feel sad, seeing this scene, the military families who came to pick up the station nearby all burst into tears, and Yu Huan and Ye Ruxue also cried with pear blossoms and rain.

At this moment, more than 100 remnants of the 19th Brigade are still looking for a way out of the surging flood.

"Captain, here, this side of the water is shallow, you can pass" Donkey Erdan came out of the turbid water, stretched out his hand to wipe the water stains on his face, turned back and waved vigorously at the team behind him, Donkey Erdan was born on the Yangtze River and grew up on the Yangtze River, and he has practiced excellent water nature since he was a child, and the heavy responsibility of opening the way naturally fell on him.

The remnants of the 19th Brigade, who were resting on a mound, got up one after another and prepared to pull out.

Taking advantage of no one's attention, Cao Jiao handed a piece of beef wrapped in blades of grass to the black blind man, this piece of beef was the ration distributed by the 19th Brigade just now, Cao Jiao was reluctant to eat it and secretly hid it, but this would be given to the black blind man, the black blind man naturally refused, stretched out a big hand like a fan and pushed back Cao Jiao's small hand with beef.

Cao Jiao's heart was full of strange sweetness, she turned around, cut the beef in half with a bayonet, half of it was left, and half of it was handed to the black blind man again, and pouted, the black blind man didn't dare to shirk this time, scratched his head, he finally took the half of the beef and stuffed it into his mouth, Cao Jiao's mouth bloomed with a smile, but put the half of the beef away again.

When it was almost dark, the officers and men of the 19th Brigade began to feel that the water under their feet was getting shallower and shallower, and although there were still endless puddles of water around them, the terrain was obviously rising, and in many places they could wade through the water without even exploring the way, and the depth of the water was no more than their chests.

They walked dozens of miles of waterway, and when the day was about to dawn, the officers and men of the 19th Brigade finally saw a large area of land, and in an instant, the remnants of the 100th Brigade cheered, they jumped and shouted, ran forward through the water, fell, got up and ran again, and vented the joy of the rest of their lives after the catastrophe.

Xu Nineteen Zuihou stepped on the land one by one, and then looked back at the endless puddle Zeguo behind him, and an indescribable heroism inevitably surged in his heart, yes, he did it, he took the remaining more than 100 officers and soldiers of the 19th Brigade, overcame many difficulties and broke out, how about the surging flood, and what about the arrogant Japanese army? They never want to stop the 19th Brigade, let alone eat the 19th Brigade in one bite, the 19th Brigade is an iron army that cannot be dragged down or broken

Turning his eyes to the north, a trace of gloom flashed between Xu Shijiu's eyebrows, the only thing he is worried about now is Shu Tongwen, since he parted ways with the brigade of the 19th Brigade, Shu Tongwen has embarked on the road to Yan'an alone, and I don't know if he has now walked out of this Zeguo, whether he has found the Communist guerrillas?

Li Zihan walked over and asked quietly, "Captain, have you thought about the future?" ”

Xu Shijiu turned his head and asked puzzledly, "In the future?" What do I want to do in the future? ”

Li Zihan said in a deep voice: "Little Japan is just a small island country, but it wants to annex my big China, which can be described as wishful thinking, and after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in the future, there will definitely be a war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. ”

Xu Shijiu couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this, he really hadn't thought about this problem, yes, when the Anti-Japanese War was won, and the national army and the communist army fought, it was hard to say that there would be no day when he would meet with the Awen battlefield, what should he do then? To fight or not to fight?