(...After every war, no matter how successful or defeated, we will face a serious shortage of supplies. In the cold season, we often see the front of the battlefield hospital behind the front line full of people waiting for it. They are people who lend out the only quilts in their homes to be taken back. Some troops do not return these quilts, and the rest of the family will be cold. They have tried to kill people... Excerpted from "My Memories of the War of Resistance - Cao Xiaomin")

The city of Taizhou was full of joy, and the people were crowded onto the streets, because the news of the victory had spread like wildfire, although the battle was not over at all. The people gathered more and more, and they all wanted to see the captured Japanese. I heard that these Japanese were still Chinese and traitors...

A large group of people began to appear in the distance, but what disappointed the people was a group of officers and soldiers who retreated from the line of fire and were attacked by the Japanese Marines on the way and suffered many casualties. There was no trace of joy on their faces. In fact, the people in the city knew the news about the victory earlier than they did. These people only learned the latest situation on the front line between the people and the officers and soldiers who came to greet them. Because they had already loaded some food in their stomachs, after learning about the victory of the brothers in front, some officers and soldiers of the logistics forces finally showed smiles on their faces and celebrating with the people. It seemed that they were no different from the people, except for the broken and wet military uniform.

After waiting for a long time, the troops that retreated voluntarily were disconnected for a long time before they saw more people coming. Because many of the cover troops behind the logistics troops were ordered by Li Tianhao to go back to fight, the people then saw officers and soldiers who were rescued after a night of bloody battle...

Each of them had blood-colored faces, and most of them had their eyes closed. At first glance, they couldn't tell whether it was a dead person or a living person. In fact, many officers and soldiers fell asleep on the stretcher and never opened their eyes again. Almost all of them were lying on the stretcher, and water was dripping with water. Those stretchers were like the extremely simple temporary stretcher that appeared in the Bazishan Battle in Nanjing... In the raindrops, the long team could not see the end, and all the wet and half-dead wounded were carried back!

The cheering people were getting smaller and smaller. They had seen the national army troops retreating from the front line in a mess, but it was the first time that such a desolate and heavy casualties! Slowly, the people on both sides began to whimper, and more and more crying sounds filled the world...

"How can we let our heroes do this! Let's take out the quilt when you go back!" Someone shouted, and the people on both sides of the street responded one after another, and the crowd suddenly retreated; except for those holding food, most people went back to remove the door panels and moved the quilts! Countless closed doors on the streets and alleys opened, and neighbors helped each other to remove the door panels as stretchers. Soon, the people carrying their own bed boards or door panels gathered on the roadside again and took the initiative to greet the retreating team... (Most of the wooden doors in that era could be lifted up and disassembled, and would not be broken. After acting as stretchers, they could still be taken back for use. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the temporary stretchers of most urban wars were the door panels of countless ordinary people. This is also a living portrayal of the people's destruction of their homes and the country...)

Many people put the injured on their new stretcher and covered their own quilts and carried the injured to the hospital themselves; the temporary hospital-acting schools and various large buildings were crowded, which was very messy.

"Why don't you let the people go out?" Xie Zhong, who had just arrived, couldn't help but frown when he saw the situation.

"Report to the sir, these people..." said the guards: "We don't have so many quilts. The people used their own beds and door panels as stretchers and used their only quilt to cover the wounded. They were still waiting to get their things back, and they couldn't let them go back..."

Xie Zhong stopped talking about anything. The army was in short supply, especially in the territory behind the enemy in northern Jiangsu. His 112th Division was favored by the decisive battle, and in the last replenishment, the materials were finally collected; but other combat troops not only suffered serious damage to the war, but also had logistical supplies cut off. After this withdrawal, even food and clothing became a problem.

All the inventory is used. The quilts in the hospital are not enough for each person to have a quilt. Now I can only wait for the cotton coats taken off the wounded to dry and be used again for the wounded. The people who are waiting at the entrance of the hospital will have to wait for a long time before they can go back - most of the people are also squeezed into a bed, just a quilt! (These are all facts. My elder who used to be a senior military medical officer once talked about this. Some troops forced to require quilts and refused to return them. He knew that because of this, a family hugged each other and died of cold...)

"Teacher Xie is here?" The person who greeted Lao Cai, who was arranged to withdraw his troops due to his severe rheumatism, but not long after the rain came out, he suddenly became a good man. Now he arranged the logistics of the guerrilla corps.

"Hey, I didn't expect that a big battle would end like this. Now I'm still worried that the Japanese will take the opportunity to fight Taizhou..." Xie Zhong was not the source of war. Seeing that Cao Xiaomin and Li Tianhao were not around him, he was actually panicked.

"It's okay, just follow the defense plan. This trip of the Japanese is even more injured than us. They probably have no power to start the war. With this water relationship that they can't figure out, just put your heart back on your stomach..." Lao Cai was still concerned about the supplies: "Old Xie, do you see if there is any way to get more dry firewood? Now you can only rely on firewood to keep warm and dry cotton coats, but everything in Taizhou City seems wet..."

Xie Zhong looked at the old buddies with a helpless look on his face, and the two could only look at each other and smile bitterly.

"By the way, are there any radio officers on your side?" Lao Cai suddenly remembered: "Old Kong followed Commander Cao, the two people around me..." He suddenly shook his head.

"What? What's wrong with He Yan?" Xie Zhong suddenly remembered that he was determined to be this matchmaker for Cao Xiaomin...

Lao Cai didn't dare to tell Xie Zhong and He Yan was a spy before Cao Xiaomin agreed. After all, Xie Zhong recommended him. Who knows if this old brother from the world has a second face?!

"Another radio operator died in the port, He Yan...He Yan..." Old Cai shook his head with a wry smile.

"Kill me! Shoot at me!" He Yan suddenly murmured again and said the last thing Xiaoqin shouted in the hands of the Japanese. She now doesn't say anything except this sentence, and there is only this sentence in her mind...

"Kill me! Shoot at me!" Xiaoqin shouted at the top of her lungs. He Yan's machine gun had already pointed at the mass of people, but her hands were trembling and she couldn't pull the trigger!

"Soon! Soon!" The two Japanese fell down and were next to Xiaoqin; when He Yan was on the front line of life and death, her gun technique carefully trained by the instructor was superb. Two Japanese who raised guns to her were knocked down by her in a flash... The retreating Japanese had already discovered that the gun was as good as the gun was, and as long as they lifted the gun, they could shoot! They squeezed behind the captured prisoners - they also discovered that He Yan did not shoot at the prisoners...

"Kill me! Shoot at me!" The sad cry became more and more distant. He Yan closed her eyes to the crowd and finally pulled the trigger. The instructors repeatedly reminded him not to fall into the hands of the Japanese... When she opened her eyes, there were no corpses in the open space in the distance. The Japanese walked away and Xiaoqin also walked away... He Yan was stunned, the Japanese were right in front of her. Xiaoqin kidnapped! When the guards on the other side rushed to her, He Yan suddenly burst into tears. When the guards on the other side rushed to her, He Yan suddenly burst into tears.

The regret and self-blame in her heart was endless: Why can't I just be able to do it? As long as I pull the trigger, Xiaoqin... Xiaoqin will never blame me! That is her best relief, but why can't I be able to do it!? What will happen if Xiaoqin falls into the hands of those beasts... In self-pity and endless sadness, panic, and when her body and mind are exhausted to recovery, she closed herself mentally, and she had no reaction to everything outside!

Lao Cai, across the river, witnessed everything. He was surprised at the pure use of this girl's gun, and lamented how could a rude person become a spy...

"Not everyone can shoot at their own people at that moment. You have done a good job. You have at least eliminated so many Japanese soldiers..." Old Cai came to He Yan to comfort her: "I have led two kinds of veterans before. One is to shoot at this time, and then always hold the regret of killing their brothers in my heart; the other is to not shoot. He always blames himself for causing his brothers to suffer... If you shoot, you will blame yourself if you don't shoot. Don't be too sad." Old Cai said it was true, and he did not deliberately defend He Yan; among the soldiers he led, especially new recruits or civilians who had never killed anyone, at least more than half of them could not shoot when the Japanese kidnapped their own people.

Lao Cai has seen these two types of self-blame officers and soldiers. These officers and soldiers will usually get better after a period of time, but He Yan is different! This is a girl, although she is also a spy; but judging from her performance just now, she is just a trained girl! Can she bear it? Because the consequences of the girl falling into the hands of the Japanese, everyone knows that her guilt will be heavier than anyone else! Now we can only hope that other surrounding troops will rescue Xiaoqin or kill her, otherwise it will be difficult for He Yan to recover from her self-blame...

At that moment, Lao Cai did not regard He Yan as a spy. He asked his subordinates to send her to the new headquarters for good care, because at that moment she was his sister!
Chapter completed!