Maybe it was because the Japs had swept away the Eighth Route Army headquarters, or maybe it was because the Eighth Route Army was attacking Qixian County in the plains. The Meixian Japs security forces had no plans to raid the Independent Regiment defense area again, and seemed to have forgotten that there was still a crop growing in Qingshan Village.
Throughout the summer, Meixian only accomplished one major event. After the northern blockade ditch was repaired, it continued southward to Xinglong Town.
Second Lieutenant Maeda was promoted to Major, but only his military rank changed. Everything else remained the same. His plan to be transferred to the provincial capital did not come true.
No matter what, his work was recognized by his boss.
Because there was a bigger plan from above, his plan to take action against the independent group was rejected, and he had to strengthen security work in the quasi-security zone.
As for the next plan of the headquarters, he doesn't know, but he is sure that the action will not be small. It is impossible to be idle. During this period, he will continue to bury nails in the security area, strengthen the management of the detective team, and prepare for the next move in advance. Be prepared.
The sudden drought has made the task of collecting grain in Meixian County a top priority, and we plan to wait until next spring for other matters.
Now, before the weather gets colder, we must make every effort to dig a blockade trench southward.
Fortunately, digging blockade ditches and building gun towers only requires recruiting enough civilians. At worst, if we let various places maintain it, they will get more food.
Because of the drought, a large number of victims fled from the plains to the east, and they became the main force in digging trenches for blockades!
Because the drought had a great impact and the empire had to lose face, the North China Command was forced to change its strategy under international pressure: provide disaster relief to the occupied areas!
Some time ago, Major Maeda made several public appearances on purpose, falsely promoting co-prosperity, and even gave porridge to the victims several times afterwards.
Of course, those who could eat porridge were taken to the construction site in the south by the Japanese.
The Japanese deliberately opened a hole in the blockade, allowing people fleeing famine in the occupied areas to enter the borders of Mei County, and detaining strong laborers as free coolies.
As for the remaining old, weak, women and children, doesn’t your Eighth Route Army claim to be the people’s team? Aren’t you a member of the military and civilian family?
Then I won’t do anything with Sanguang this time and give them to you directly. Isn’t it good for you?
Also, I won’t burn your poor crops in the mountains this time. Is that interesting?
I will drive all these old, weak, sick and disabled people who have no food into the mountains for you. You can’t do it unless you take them! Can you, the Eighth Route Army, watch them starve to death? Of course, if that happens, I will also promote it
The old, weak, sick and disabled cannot become a source of soldiers for the Eighth Route Army. These actions can be said to achieve multiple goals with one stone and win the hearts of the people! 2. Weaken the combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army. If you have no food, you still have the combat effectiveness of a bird? You can also separate some families, use relatives as hostages, and develop some insiders to enter the Eighth Route.
In this way, we no longer need to work as hard as the previous raids. I will make this conspiracy obvious and you have to have it even if you don't want it!
As for supplies, they were blocked by blockade trenches and surrounded by artillery towers. If the Eighth Route Army wanted to replenish supplies from the nearby Meixian County, there was no way! Unless you can transport from the west of Taihang Mountain, even climbing the mountain with bare hands requires two or three days of walking on the mountain road, how much transport capacity can you arrange?
After such an economic blockade, I will probably cost you another winter, and I will leave you without any clothes on Tuba Road!
I still don’t believe that you, Tubalu, can go to the battlefield with your buttocks naked in a jungle full of bushes in the mountains.
Dangdangdang...
There was a sound of gongs in the village. Needless to say, Liu Yonggui, the maintenance chairman, was about to issue a notice from the imperial army again.
The male duck raised his voice: "Young men, young men and women, please listen to me and gather under the big locust tree in the south of the village. The imperial army will give our fleeing folks a way out. This is great news."
Not long after, under the locust tree, the fleeing people, carrying wheelbarrows and carrying hundreds of villagers on their backs, gathered together with dull expressions. When they suddenly heard that the Japanese were about to give a way out, even though they didn't believe it at all, they still had a trace of hope. Silk hope.
There is not a single strong laborer in the crowd! They were all children, the old, the weak, the sick, and women.
For these women who had discredited themselves, their hair was in knots, their faces were thick with dirt that had not been washed for eight hundred years, and their skinny bodies had little flesh, so the Japanese had no interest in these fleeing women at all.
Most importantly, Major Maeda issued a strict order. Anyone who dares to attack women among refugees will definitely end up in a very miserable situation!
As for how miserable it is, I heard that at least the guy who leaked the water must be cut off!
Maeda also received the order. The reason was not stated by the superiors, but Maeda knew very well that the special high school arranged for an informant to infiltrate the refugees, and they must be women. It is impossible for women in the empire to dress the same as these refugee women.
Then, those who are cleaner are probably the ones you will contact in the future. In this way, you must ensure their safety.
To a certain extent, the Japanese had a big misunderstanding about the people in the occupied areas. They thought that these skinny women were like the women they saw in the city. Most of them had bound feet. They generally believed that the women who fled were unable to work at all.
In fact, most of the people who had to flee the famine were from poor families who made a living by farming and renting fields. Girls raised by these poor families had been working since childhood, and not many people had their feet bound. They even worked no better than men!
"Dear fellow villagers, on behalf of the Imperial Army, I welcome you here. However, we don't have much food. If we only have three or five more people, we can handle the problem of adding more ladles of water. However, There are too many of you here, and I really have no choice. Life is really hard. To show the generosity of the imperial army, I decided to send you to the Eighth Route."
Who among the people on the plains has never heard of the Eighth Route Army? There was an immediate commotion among the crowd.
The Japanese usually ransack the homes of those involved in adultery, so what tricks were they playing at this time? Will you send yourself to Eighth Road?
Has the sun risen from the west?
People who have never dealt with the Eighth Route Army are even more uncertain. In their eyes, the Eighth Route Army is just a word, a word that cannot be said yet. Why is it suddenly related to the Eighth Route Army?
Some people even wonder, if they go into the mountains, will they have to stay in the mountains for the rest of their lives and not be able to come out?
Isn't there just eight roads leading into the mountains?
Immediately some people were unwilling.
The way ordinary people express their rejection is very simple: If you don't want me to stay here, then I'll leave.
It’s an escape anyway, so where to escape?
The world is so big, I just want to have one bite to eat.
As for those who originally had relatives in a certain place, but when they went there, they found that their relatives were also too poor to blame them. Even so, it was okay to stay for three to five days, but did they have the nerve to stay forever?
What's more, someone always pops up from a relative's house and expresses disapproval of these poor relatives who have fled.
At most, the little girl is left, and maybe she can be a laborer when she gets a little taller in the future. As for the daughter, she is just a loser, how can she adopt her?
At most, give me some millet and leave as a gift.
In the year of great disaster, the landlord’s family doesn’t have much food left!
(End of chapter)
