In the dilapidated courtyard, a donkey was slowly circling a stone mill.
A middle-aged woman with a towel on her head kept pouring chaff into the grinding eye. The slightly finer chaff squeezed out from between the millstones, almost unchanged from what was poured in.
In the middle of the courtyard, a broken table was set up, surrounded by several guerrilla fighters who were eating.
At the entrance of the small courtyard, there were a few children crowded with old and patchy clothes and snotty noses.
The monkey stepped on the stool, holding millet and wild vegetable porridge in one hand, and holding a bran bun in the other hand. He glanced at Lao Meng opposite: "Captain Meng, can this damn thing be eaten by humans?"
Lao Meng looked disheveled and said in a hoarse voice: "Whether you like it or not, it's just two meals a day."
"This thing scratches your throat!" The monkey cried sadly and poured the porridge into his mouth.
"You can't eat it like this. You have to break the steamed bun into pieces and soak it in the porridge!" After speaking, Lao Meng stood up and served the monkey another bowl of porridge from the basin on the broken table with a dark face.
The monkey was speechless looking at the porridge that could cast a shadow. Helplessly, he imitated Lao Meng and slowly broke the wotou into finger-sized pieces and soaked them in the porridge.
The bran was broken into small pieces and fell apart immediately after being put into the porridge. The chaff floated on the surface of the porridge. The monkey poured it into his mouth with his eyes closed. He was still swallowed so hard that he rolled his eyes and kept complaining: "This is better than what a big animal eats." Worse than anything else.”
"It's good to have something to eat, don't waste it, drink it clean." Seeing the monkey left half of the bowl, Lao Meng said with a straight face.
"I can't eat any more. If I eat any more, I'll be sick." The monkey, who had just returned from a long journey, stood up and prepared to find a place to sleep.
Standing at the door was a little girl in rags and old trousers, with an almost skinny face, staring wide-eyed at the bowl of porridge that the monkey had not finished.
The monkey thought the girl looked like a fool, so he turned around and asked Lao Meng: "Who is this girl? Why did she come here? Where are the adults in her family?"
Lao Meng shook his head: "This girl has a hard life. Her parents were killed by the Japanese. Her grandparents took her to the base area with the refugees. She is the only one left in the family. She is very sensible at a young age."
"Hey, what are you looking at me for? Come here." Monkey suddenly felt sad and was about to tease the little girl.
During this period of time, the monkeys were active in enemy-occupied areas and saw many people starving to death. They saw so many people that their hearts almost became numb.
The little girl didn't say anything, but she suddenly plucked up the courage, ran to the table, picked up the bowl of porridge that the monkey hadn't finished drinking, and poured it directly into her mouth.
"Slow down, slow down!" Lao Meng patted the little girl who was licking the bowl on the back and turned to look at the monkey: "Monkey, you have to know that if we can't get food anymore, we may also be hungry here. Dead person situation.”
Monkey looked away from the little girl: "Didn't you tell the group? What is Tian Sanqi doing all day long?"
"The devils played a trick and drove tens of thousands of people into the mountains. Our regiment alone took in more than 6,000 people. In the past, there were no natural disasters and the independent regiments were short of food. Now that there are so many more mouths, it is difficult for the regiment to ah."
The monkey asked doubtfully: "Didn't Zaijiu bring 100,000 kilograms of grain into the mountains some time ago?"
"That was a long time ago. Besides, one hundred thousand jins of grain, do you think that is a lot? It was only 30,000 jins that was allocated to the Independent Regiment. Or was some part of it squeezed out from the division? Just near the station of the Independent Regiment, the addition There are nearly 10,000 ordinary people, and the average person can weigh two kilograms. How long do you think it can last? Even if you add wild vegetables, it can only last for ten and a half months, and the regiment is very nervous now."
"Hey, I've never encountered anything like this before." The monkey scratched his head. Although the national army lost most of the battles, it had a dedicated ration support team and never lacked food.
"It's almost still winter now, and there are at least three months until the summer grain harvest. Think about it, if a person is hungry for three days, he will even stuff dirt into his mouth. What should he do in the following days? He will starve to death. Human.”
"How do I know?" The monkey's mind was buzzing, thinking that I can't walk even if I don't eat for a day, so he asked again without giving up: "Then how should we deal with it?"
Lao Meng took a big mouthful and said, "The superiors are also trying to figure this out."
"Report!" A guerrilla pulled away a few children at the door and squeezed into the broken courtyard to salute: "Captain Meng, there are a few people coming from outside the village, saying they are from the fifth district."
The sound of voices interrupted the depressing hellish atmosphere created by the two of them.
Lao Meng shook his head, drank all the porridge in the bowl, then licked it clean, stood up and said to the monkey, "Let's go and have a look."
At the entrance of the village, two tall and thin people dressed as ordinary people put their hands in their sleeves. When they saw Lao Meng coming out in patches, their eyes lit up: "Lao Meng! Long time no see!"
Lao Meng showed a rare smile: "Captain Yu? Why are you here?"
"What, you don't welcome our armed task force?"
"Hey, I'm not in the mood to welcome you. We're almost too poor to open the pot. If you come here, aren't you just making fun of me?"
Captain Yu gave a hearty wry smile: "You are so poor that you can't open the pot. Over in our division, you can't open the pot after a few days. Hey, why don't you invite me in to sit down? Do you want me to drink the northwest wind here?"
"Look what you said, why haven't you eaten yet? Let's go, hurry up, I still have hot porridge and steamed buns."
Captain Yu drank three bowls of porridge and two bowls of bran steamed bread. He stood up and shook his dingy stomach. His throat was scratched and hoarse: "It feels good to have something in your stomach."
Lao Meng asked: "How long have we seen each other? How come you are so thin?"
"Look at you, how much better can you be?" Captain Yu looked up at Captain Meng, then carefully pulled out a piece of paper from the trousers behind him: "Hey, Lao Meng, this is my letter of introduction. .”
Lao Meng took it and said, "We are already old acquaintances, what kind of letter of introduction do we need? I heard that your work team made great achievements when we attacked Huaxian County last time?"
"Hey, it happened a few months ago. I'm ashamed to say it. Uh, by the way, Comrade Chang Hongying of the Independent Regiment seems to be based near here, right?"
Lao Meng asked in surprise: "Xiao Hongying? Why are you asking her?"
"Last time in Huaxian, we worked hard, but we didn't expect this girl to be better than us. This time we came to thank her."
Lao Meng thought for a moment and didn't hide anything: "She went to the division to study at the Anti-Japanese University."
"Hey, that's such a pity." After Captain Yu finished speaking, he took out something wrapped in cloth and wrapped with a rope from his pocket and handed it to Lao Meng: "Please find a way to pass this on to her."
Captain Meng reached out to take it again: "That's no problem. What is your mission here this time?"
Then he returned the completed letter of introduction to Captain Yu.
Captain Yu sat down and his face became serious: "The situation is serious now. From last autumn to now, according to district statistics, tens of thousands of people have starved to death in the Weinan area of Huaxian County, Guangqi County. The superiors have sent our work team to your place. When we come to the border, we just need to find a way to buy grain from Shanxi, then transport it from the mountains and then transport the grain into enemy-occupied areas."
"What are you talking about? Transporting grain from Shanxi through the Taihang Mountains to the enemy-occupied areas in the east? I have always transported grain from the plains to the mountains. This is the first time I heard of transporting grain from the mountains? Are you not confused?"
"I'm talking about buying it from Shanxi and sending it to the inner yellow area through your defense area."
"Who the hell came up with this bad idea? It's nearly a thousand miles from West Taihang to the East. Why don't you just follow the plain luck?"
Captain Yu shook his head: "Those people in Chongqing still don't believe that there is a great famine. They are even requisitioning military rations in the war zone! There is no way to transport them from their defense area! There is another problem. They still think that the food has arrived. Enemy-occupied areas are an act of capitalizing on the enemy!"
Captain Yu was helpless: "We must do our best on this matter. Our superiors have already arranged it. We just need to execute the order. Not only your independent regiment, but also the supplementary regiment and the friendly forces in the north are all thinking of ways to get more. In general, Fewer people will starve to death."
"Tell me, how do you want me to cooperate with you in transporting food?" Lao Meng said seriously.
Captain Yu pulled a map out of his bag: "Now we have to solve the transportation problem. How is the relationship between your base area and the security forces guarding the blockhouses on the blockade? Can you find a way to smuggle it in?"
(End of chapter)
