In Fengdian City, Xia Yuli's heart couldn't help but pound: Damn the Japanese, it's still here! Xia Yuhe has heard more or less about the atrocities of the Japanese army that have been circulated in the market before. She thought: How can this Japanese soldier be so animalistic?!

The Wang family that Xia Lihe married to is located in the center of Fengdian County, with two courtyards in front and back, blue bricks and gray tiles, which is very magnificent. The husband is the shopkeeper of the cloth and silk business, and he is famous in this area, and the Xia family is doing cloth business in Pingquan County, southern Jinnan, and the marriage between the two families was originally due to business contacts and acquaintances.

At the end of last year, the 391st Regiment of the Central Army withdrew from Taiyuan and passed through Fengdian County, because of the fear that the Japanese army would soon attack here, the county magistrate and the 570th Regiment of the Jin Army, which was originally stationed in Fengdian, unanimously asked the 391st Regiment to stay and defend the city, and vacated many private houses and merchants for the 391st Regiment to be stationed; Xia Lily's husband, the shopkeeper Wang, was the head of the county Chamber of Commerce, so he took the lead in setting an example, vacated the front yard of his house, and made a temporary regimental headquarters for the 391st regiment.

However, the Japanese never came, and it is said that they stopped at the Imperial Tomb. During this period, many families in Fengdian fled and ran farther to Jinnan. Xia Baihe's hometown is in Jinnan, and she once persuaded her husband to take her whole family to take refuge in her mother's house in Pingquan County. First, he was reluctant to give up his solid property and homestead in Fengdian; Second, after all, the Central Army has another regiment coming in, and if it joins forces with this regiment of the Jin Army, Fengdian may not be able to hold it.

Then the tense situation eased day by day, and according to the statement given by the commander of the 391st Regiment later, the main forces of the Japanese army in Shanxi were transferred to Shandong to fight, and there would be no war in Jinnan for a while. The people's livelihood in Fengdian City has also experienced a turmoil, and gradually returned to calm, most of the escapees have returned, and the first lunar month is approaching, so the city gradually has the atmosphere of the New Year.

Xia Lily's family moved to the backyard. In addition to Xia Lily and his wife and Xiao'er, who has just turned four, there is also an elderly manservant at home, and Sun Nier, a maid who married with Xia Lily from her hometown in Pingquan County. Qin Zhongxiao, the head of the 391st Regiment, strictly forbade any of his subordinates to enter the backyard, but Xia Lily's master and servant, especially Sun Nier, sneaked into the front yard that had become the headquarters of the 391st Regiment to see the excitement and probe the rumors.

They were there to inquire about Xia Lianshan's news.

Xia Lianshan, the fourth elder of the Xia family, went to Xi'an alone five years ago despite the opposition of the old lady of the Xia family, and even failed to catch up with his sister's marriage. Two years ago, when Xia Baihe took her husband back to visit her mother's house in Pingquan County, she learned that in the letter sent back by her younger brother, she claimed that she had arrived in Yan'an and joined the Red Army. Xia Lihe, who is ignorant of the world, does not know what the Red Army is, but her eldest brother and second brother insist that the Red Army is a "bandit", which makes Xia Lily both sad and worried. The old lady of the Xia family did not allow his family to leak this news, because even on Yan Xishan's territory, it was still a felony to be a bandit.

It wasn't until the end of last summer that the shopkeeper brought home a piece of news that made Xia Baihe's master and servant feel excited: the Red Army in northern Shaanxi accepted the reorganization of the Nationalist Government of Chairman Chiang, and all of them crossed the Yellow River and drove to Shanxi to help Yan Xishan fight the Japanese!

Then came the great victory of Pingxingguan. Newspapers and radio stations said that it was the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army that fought the level; Shopkeeper Wang said that the Eighth Route Army was the original Red Army.

Xia Lily was so happy that she didn't sleep well for a few nights, her most beloved brother is likely to be a member of the national army now, and her fathers and brothers, including herself, no longer have to be afraid of the bandits at home, sighing and sighing. But Xia Lily was only happy for a few days, and then she became worried again, the war in northern Jin was extremely fierce, the Japanese army was very arrogant, and the news of the loss of the national army kept coming. Will a stubborn younger brother be in danger on the battlefield?

Gradually, there was no longer news of the Eighth Route Army, and the provincial capital Taiyuan fell. The shopkeeper came back and said that Governor Yan had retreated to the southwest of Jin with the provincial government and the army. Soon, the 391st Regiment of the Central Army also retreated, and was retained by the Fengdian County Magistrate to defend the city.

Xia Lily was reluctant to vacate the mansion to the new garrison, so that her own life would be too inconvenient from now on, but it also had the advantage that she could get closer to the soldiers than ever before. Sun Nier, the maid of the elves and ghosts, quickly became familiar with the officers and soldiers of the 391 regiment headquarters in the front yard, and the spy company commander named Zhao Mutou also became good friends with Sun Nier.

At first, Xia Lily only entrusted Sun Nier to inquire about the army and the war with the officers and soldiers in the front yard, but later, this young housewife became bolder, and she would often go to the front yard and talk to the commanders, including the regiment commander and the chief of staff. Beautiful women will naturally attract the attention of the soldiers, so that they are willing to serve them, this pair of masters and servants are good-looking, gorgeously dressed, and very kind to others, so even Qin Zhongxiao is happy to talk to him in his spare time.

Knowing that Xia Baihe's younger brother had been in the Red Army, Qin Zhongxiao, a colonel of the Central Army, was very emotional, and he told the hostess that the Red Army had been fighting with Chairman Chiang for many years, from Jiangxi to Shaanxi, and it had never become a big climate, but the chairman of the Committee had nothing to do with them, until Zhang Xueliang of the Northeast Army gave advice to the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in Xi'an, and the Kuomintang and the Communist Party began to negotiate, and the Japanese engaged in the 77 Incident in North China.

Qin Zhongxiao, in front of Xia Baihe's master and servant and his subordinates, praised the operations of the reorganized Eighth Route Army in northern Jin, in addition to killing the enemy at Pingxingguan, the colonel was amazed that the Eighth Route Army was able to destroy a Japanese airfield during the Battle of Xinkou, in his opinion, the Central Army was helpless to take the Japanese planes, but the Eighth Route did it.

As for Xia Baihe's question, which team of the Eighth Route Army his younger brother would probably be in, Qin Zhongxiao made a difficulty, he said, the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government gave the Eighth Route Army, that is, the number of the three divisions of the Eighteenth Group Army, but it is said that the Red Army's acceptance of the reorganization of the number is far from being able to fit the number of the three divisions, and there must be a "black army" that is not in the establishment. In the midst of all these thousands of troops, it was beyond his ability as a colonel to find out which team the mistress's younger brother was.

Xia Baihe is already very satisfied, this housewife who has never known anything about the military, now also understands that the Jin Sui Army, the Central Army and the Eighth Route Army, her younger brother is the Eighth Road, and the Eighth Route is currently in Shanxi: maybe one day, Xia Lianshan will suddenly appear in front of him or his father and brother in military uniform.

The days passed day by day, and in the blink of an eye, the New Year of the Tiger arrived, and the whole city was immersed in the joy of the New Year. Unexpectedly, the legendary Japanese army suddenly descended on the city yesterday afternoon, and the joyful atmosphere in the city was suddenly replaced by fear and panic. The 391 regimental headquarters in the front yard was running nervously, and the frequency and speed with which officers and men entered and exited, and the number of times the telephone rang again and again in the hall were unprecedented.

Xia Lily's master and servant didn't dare to disturb the officers and soldiers who were running around in a hurry. In the evening, back in the backyard, Xia Lily asked her man, can the county seat be guarded? The king's shopkeeper sighed, and said that he had to resign himself to fate: the city gate had been urgently closed, and he couldn't hold it, and he couldn't run away now.

Summer Lily began to pray religiously.

Xia Lily, who was praying, would never know that her younger brother Xia Lianshan, who she often cared about, had infinitely approached Fengdian City and her sister on the afternoon when the Japanese soldiers were in the city; And she herself is about to be separated from this younger brother in an extremely tragic way on the day the Japanese army broke the city.