The moon rose from behind the French bungalow outside the camp, and in a moment it jumped into the night sky where the clouds floated. The moonlight poured into the room, swaying everywhere. The orderly Xiao Huozi was wrapped in a cotton blanket and curled up on the marching bed, and the outstretched footboard was reflected brightly. The footsteps of the third post came from time to time, heavy and rhythmic. Most of the brothers in the neighboring houses were asleep, and their voices crept into the house slowly through the corridors, doors, and windows.

I don't know what time it is. The pocket watch was damaged by artillery fire, and it was always stop-and-go. Now it stops again, and the time is directed at the word "IV." and the word "X." indicates an absurd moment.

Obviously it won't be 6:10. Tonight's 6:10 has passed, and tomorrow morning's 6:10 has not yet arrived. Lin Qiming knew that he was in the middle of another long night between two 6:10 a.m.

I was tired, tired, but I couldn't sleep. As soon as I closed my eyes, I saw the fire in the Pacific Warehouse and the dead thighs hanging from the telephone poles. The thighs will come alive and be able to jump around the ruins of the rising gunpowder. The sound of gunshots, explosions, bugles, and telephones rang incessantly, and even the light of searchlights was screaming, and the nerves of iron could not stand it. Some faces in military uniforms and non-military uniforms drilled into the house, often making him in a dream-like situation. A few hours ago, he clearly saw the commanders in the division, including Division Commander Liu, Deputy Division Commander Zhao and Director Zhou, talking and laughing and walking into the house, he was just about to struggle to get up and salute, and the commanders disappeared again.

Uncontrollable anxiety and agitation haunted him and made him unable to get rid of it. For three long nights in a row, he could only lie in bed or stand in front of the window looking at the moon. Fortunately, there is a moon on these three nights.

The moon was round and large, as if walking among the clouds, the sky was blue and not dark, and the three rows of bungalows in the camp could be clearly seen from the two large windows on the west side. The bungalow was occupied by more than 200 brothers from the SWAT Brigade and the Civic Training Corps, who arrived a few days before them and were among the first inmates of the Ninth Chinese Military Battalion. At the head of them was a police squadron leader, surnamed Fu, named Fu Lizi, tall and thin, who spoke authentic Shanghainese, and had seen him when he entered the camp. In front of the bungalow was a large playground – apparently it used to be a school, and there were two dozen tents on the playground. The tent and the three-story little red building where he lived were all inhabited by their brothers from the third battalion.

The north window faces an apartment building outside the camp. The roofs and walls of the apartment building were lead-gray, which looked heavy and oppressive, and he felt that the apartment building was also part of the Ninth Chinese Military Battalion. The apartment building and the little red building he was in were only separated by an alley. On his first sleepless night, he noticed that the hearts of his Chinese compatriots in the apartment building were toward him and his brothers.

That night, the pocket watch did not stop, it seemed to be more than nine o'clock, he stood in front of the window and smoked, and saw a family in the middle of the fourth floor, first condescendingly threw a box of red tin packets of cigarettes, and Jier, and from the balcony played a two-foot square national flag. A young man in a long shirt slowly waved the national flag and looked at him silently crying.

He also noticed that there lived on the third floor a little girl, who was at most thirteen or fourteen years old, with big eyes, white and clean, with short ear-length hair, and who always liked to stand on the balcony and look this way. Once, I tried to use the bamboo pole to dry clothes to reach this window. The bamboo pole was about a little heavier for the little girl, and as soon as it was stretched out, it fell into the alley downstairs. Fortunately, there was no one in the alley that night, so I didn't cause any trouble. The little girl also threw candy cubes and apples at their windows, and because they couldn't aim accurately, some of them also fell into the alley.

This further increased his anxiety and agitation. He knew that the people loved him and his brothers because they fought devils. Now that they had lost their freedom and could no longer charge into battle to fight devils, this affection was overshadowed by pity, and although it was sincere, he could not stand it.

He couldn't help but ask himself over and over again: What are he and his brothers now? They are not prisoners of war, they are not prisoners, but they have clearly lost their freedom, does that make sense?!

He whispered to Fu Lizi, the leader of the SWAT squadron, about this issue.

According to Fu Lizi, a native of Shanghai, he had experience in dealing with foreigners, and from a legal point of view, neither the brothers of the Nationalist Army of the 3rd Battalion of the 1776 Regiment nor the armed police of the Special Police Squadron lost their private rights as a result of disarming them into a leased territory in a third country. They should argue for their release from captivity and their freedom.

He was very excited, and yesterday he and Fu Lizi, on behalf of all the brothers of the 9th Chinese Military Battalion, drafted a letter of representation, which was formally handed over to the battalion commander, Captain Rostow, and asked him to hand it over to Lieutenant Colonel Bledik for transmission to the concession authorities.

After sending the letter of representation, there was another layer of worry: Will the letter of negotiation be delivered to the decision-makers of the concession through Lieutenant Colonel Bradick in time? Will the concession authorities release them? Mayor Yu Hongjun asked them to accept the arrangement of the concession authorities, probably it won't be this kind of imprisonment, right?! Is the government also negotiating with neutral parties for this purpose?

The government will presumably negotiate on the basis of reason. He felt that every long night could give birth to a dawn full of hope. Perhaps one morning the gates of the camp would be opened, and he and his brothers would cheer and flock to the free world outside, which would once again become a school. Children read, write, sing, and exercise here, as if the Ninth Chinese Military Battalion never existed.

However, after the hot thought flashed, he himself had to admit that nine times out of ten it was a fantasy. It had been three days since he lost his freedom, and he had not found the slightest sign of his release, but he had seen that the Annan patrolmen were monitoring a group of workers every day to reinforce the barbed wire fence, and it seemed that they had the intention of detaining them here for a long time. In his first lecture, the battalion commander, Captain Rostow, clearly declared that any attempt to break away from the 9th Army Battalion was illegal, and that the Annan and Russian patrols, who were responsible for guarding the camp, had the right to deal with them by force by the necessary means.

The reality was grim, and he couldn't help but think: If he couldn't be released for a while, what would he and his brothers do next? He is the battalion commander, the commander of his brothers, and as Mayor Yu said, he is responsible.

For a while, my mind was very confused, and I couldn't think normally at all.

A small object was thrown across the balcony on the third floor of the apartment building, and it slammed into the windowsill with a loud sound. Duty No. 3 - The loyal Annan patrol shouted at the apartment building, and the small figure on the balcony quickly flashed into the house. He looked downstairs at the third post, and then across the balcony on the third floor, and decided that it was the little girl who threw candy on the first night.

Sure enough, it was the little girl, who was lying in the shadow of the lamp on the windowsill, grimacing at him, and her two little hands were pressed against her forehead and waved, I don't know whether it symbolized a pair of animal horns or pig ears. He woke up from anxiety and numbness, stared at the little girl for a long time, and slowly waved his hand.

The little girl smiled sweetly, and two deep dimples appeared on her round face. She lowered the two hands on her forehead, placed them behind her head, and leaned back in a sleeping pose.

He waved his hand and shook his head.

The little girl nodded, as if she understood the cause of his insomnia and the pain of insomnia, and softly sang a song, a song that he was familiar with:

"Greater Shanghai will not fall!

Greater China will not die!

We have the will to resist the enemy,

We have an iron wall of spirituality.

40,000 people of all nations, 40,000 warriors,

Every inch of mountains and rivers, every inch of the battlefield.

Dominant in the Oriental Greater China,

5,000 years of history, 5,000 years of glory! ”

The song stirred him up, his eyes were unconsciously covered with tears, and his tired and restless heart trembled in the tragic and oppressive singing. The little girl in her tearful eyes became hazy, like an angel in a dream. He really wanted to take her in his arms and let her sing loudly and sing with her.

Duty No. 3 - the Annan patrol interfered again, leaning up his slender neck in the moonlight and screaming at the window on the third floor of the apartment building, and turning on the flashlight in his hand, hitting a blazing white pillar of light on the windowsill. The little girl's family was alarmed, and a middle-aged woman in a velvet nightdress pulled the little girl open from the window and closed the window.

The little girl was stubborn, and still sang in the house:

"Greater Shanghai will not fall!

Greater China will not die!

And look at my eight hundred lonely soldiers guarding the four lines,

Let's listen to the sound of artillery fire in Nanan City.

……”

Tears slowly overflowed from the sunken eye sockets and flowed down the base of the nose into the mouth, salty. In order not to cause trouble to the little girl again, he quietly opened the window with tears in his eyes and lay down on the bed again.

I really want to get a good night's sleep. It's been three days and three nights, he really can't support it, he feels that if he can't sleep anymore, he will go crazy......

I didn't fall asleep that night. The room was filled with the little girl's singing, and the melody of "The Great Sea Will Not Fall" stubbornly hovered in his mind for a long time, so that he did not have a moment of peace.

When he got up in the morning and washed his face, he fell down by the pool.

It alarmed many people. Captain Rostow, Lieutenant Colonel Bradick came. They took him to a church hospital in the concession that morning.