The situation in Zhengzhou is already bad. It has been devastated by numerous indiscriminate bombings by the Japanese army.
But after leaving Zhengzhou, I immediately felt the seriousness of the famine in Henan.
Zhengzhou is the center of Henan, but it still cannot avoid the arrival of famine.
There were no crops in the fields at all. It hadn’t rained for a long time, and the land was shockingly dry.
On both sides of the road, you can see trees that have been stripped of their bark, leaving only their bare trunks.
There are no herbaceous plants to be seen at all.
Where have you gone?
They were all eaten up.
After walking a few steps, you can see a man selling his son or daughter.
It’s free, just a few bites of food.
The adults can temporarily fill their stomachs, and the children have the possibility to survive.
Now we are just selling children.
If this continues, the human tragedy of exchanging children and eating them will occur.
Never accuse these adults of being cruel, and never ask these adults why they can even exchange their own children for others to eat.
When the adults starve to death, the fate of the children left behind will only be even more tragic.
Outside a dilapidated house, five children stared eagerly into the house.
After a while, my mother came out with food.
It was a dark thing that looked like a steamed bun, but not exactly like it.
Each child was assigned only one point.
The youngest child ate it all in one bite.
Not long after eating, I held my stomach and cried: "Mom, my stomach is bloated and hurts."
The mother held the child in her arms and just cried to comfort her, but could do nothing.
Although Butler Qiu is from Henan, he was born in Nanyang. He has always been in the Cai family and has always served his wife.
Ding Wenrui's family was wealthy and had never suffered hardship. Neither of them knew what these children were eating.
Of course Che Shiwen knew what they were eating, but he didn't dare to tell.
"Guanyin soil, that's Guanyin soil." Although Meng Shaoyuan had never seen it before, he guessed it.
"Dirt? Can dirt be eaten?" In this regard, Butler Qiu finally showed his naivety.
"Guanyin soil contains a lot of chemical components and is known as the 'universal stone'." Meng Shaoyuan said in a low tone: "Eating it can temporarily relieve hunger, but it cannot be digested and absorbed by the human body and makes it difficult to defecate. Taking a small amount is not fatal, although it is not fatal. You will be hungry, but without any nutrition, you will eventually die. Commander Che, tell me, am I right?"
At this point, Che Shiwen could no longer pretend to be deaf and dumb: "Yes, this Guanyin soil was carried back by the villagers from a sixty-mile round trip. It's very filling, and I feel very bloated after eating even a little bit. . The Guanyin soil stagnates in the intestines and stomach and cannot be pulled out at all. The final result is that the stomach is bulging like a small watermelon. It is very hard when knocked and turns into a stone. At this time, it is time to die."
"Here, they actually eat this?" Butler Qiu was dumbfounded: "You know you will die if you eat it, but you still eat it, and you drag your children to eat it with you? It's so cruel, so cruel."
"Cruelty? You call this cruelty?" Meng Shaoyuan didn't know what to say: "When you haven't eaten for several days, when you are really hungry, you will eat whatever is given to you.
They don't want to take their children to eat together. They also want to feed their children sesame seed pancakes, fat meat, and white rice, but where can they find it? If this continues, I'm afraid even the Guanyin soil will be eaten up. "
Che Shiwen took Meng Shaoyuan aside and whispered: "Sir, Henan has indeed encountered some difficulties, but we can completely overcome them. We can definitely overcome them."
"It's done, Staff Officer Che, don't lie to me again."
Meng Shaoyuan sighed softly: "You are not a local official, what can you say to help them? You are a soldier, and the duty of a soldier is to protect the place. The place is like this now, the officials are incompetent, and they conceal things. How can soldiers still talk to them?" Are you colluding?"
Che Shiwen was a little ashamed and sighed: "Sir, let me tell you something from the bottom of my heart. The disaster in Henan has started in the spring, and it is now gradually spreading and getting worse. Our commander said that soldiers should just fight. Don't worry about local matters.
What we implement is to collect grain on the spot. Since we are collecting grain on the spot, we have to rely on the local officials to collect it. As for what local officials do, it has nothing to do with us, as long as we have enough food. "
Meng Shaoyuan did not refute, and was unable to refute.
On the frontal battlefield, we faced more than 100,000 Japanese troops and hundreds of thousands of puppet troops.
The army has no time for him.
The problem lies with the officials.
Those officials who turned a blind eye to the disaster and instead tried to hide it in various ways.
There is also Tang Enbo who has enough food stored in the warehouse to feed 400,000 people for a year and a half, but still desperately blackmails Henan.
At this time, Butler Qiu, Ding Wenrui, Su Junwen and another guard had taken out all the food they had and gave it to the family.
The father and mother knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly, thanking them for saving their lives, and the children cheered.
Meng Shaoyuan glanced at Li Zhifeng: "Why don't you go?"
Li Zhifeng only answered silently: "How many people can be saved?"
Yes, we can save a few people.
This family has been saved temporarily, but what about the future?
No matter how much you save on eating, you will be finished.
How many more millions of people are affected by the disaster?
How can we save it with just these few people?
Before Meng Shaoyuan left Chongqing, he had asked the Qiu family to prepare a batch of grain to send to Henan.
But how could Henan be saved with just him and the Qiu family? That is simply wishful thinking.
This little food is not even a drop in the bucket.
He also had a huge check with him.
But when he arrived in Henan, he found that he was also so naive and ridiculous.
To whom is the check made?
To those local officials?
If one percent can be used for the victims, it will be considered a loss.
"Keep everything we eat and drink." Meng Shaoyuan smiled bitterly: "Li Zhifeng, do you know what is the most ridiculous thing about people? You know that doing this will not solve the fundamental problem, but you still want to do this.
It is said that there is no problem in this world that I cannot solve. Now I feel that this is the greatest irony to me. I watch helplessly, but I am helpless. "
He called Su Junwen and another guard over, and handed the check he brought to Su Junwen: "Go back to Zhengzhou, find a bank, open an account, deposit it in, and change it into a checkbook.
You go to the surrounding areas and try every means to purchase grain, no matter the price, buy as much as you can. Once you buy a batch, send a batch to Henan. Remember, it doesn’t matter the quality, as long as it fills your stomach. "
"I'll do it immediately."
"By the way, give me some Guanyin soil."
Che Shiwen was a little worried, so he called out a member of the security squad and asked him to go back to Zhengzhou together, and send a few more soldiers with weapons and a machine gun to help Su Junwen buy food.
When the drought comes, in addition to the coming locust plague, there will also be banditry.
Those bandits dare to steal anything, whether it is civilian or military!
