A crescent moon hangs high in the desolate sky.
It is located in Qinghe County, beside the canal at the junction of Hebei and Shandong.
The county town, once prosperous because of the canal, looked deserted in the darkness shrouded in moonlight.
The searchlights on the towers swayed on the bank of the moat outside the county town from time to time.
The edge of the suspension bridge still bears traces of the waterline left by the surge in water levels in the moat in the past two days.
A group of puppet troops patrolling the city wall were leaning on the arrow stack outside the city gate tower, muttering, and occasionally looking south.
The city gate at the feet of the puppet troops was closed tightly, and notices were posted on both sides of the gate.
Several unglued notices fluttered in the night wind, and the portraits of faces on the yellow paper had long faded.
One of them stated that in order to maintain order, the government decided to demolish private houses that had obviously been burned by fire in the area outside the South City Gate, and gave the owners half a month to move them out.
The private house, whose owner had long since disappeared, stood quietly in the moonlight shrouded in darkness, looking like a dilapidated scene.
Suddenly one or two dogs barked in the city, followed by a series of unwilling local dogs barking in the dark.
As time went by, the barking of dogs slowly disappeared, and calm returned to the county.
Not long after, a dog somewhere in the city couldn't help but make a sound again, and then, the barking of dogs started one after another again.
Late at night, the county town was still not peaceful.
After receiving the order from his superiors, Captain Cheng led his team to sneak for more than fifty miles after dark.
Arrive at a village about three miles west of Qinghe County.
The uniforms of the autonomous army were not much different from those of the puppet army. Marching among the green gauze tents in enemy-occupied areas did not attract too much attention from the reconnaissance teams scattered to the countryside.
There was no way to pay attention. The advanced soldiers arranged by Commander Cheng in advance had already blocked the road into the city. Anyone who dared to run towards the county seat at this time would be a spy who informed the Japanese.
Su Qing sat beside the millstone in a roofless yard.
He took off his leggings and rubbed his calves, which were about to lose consciousness, and looked up at the southern sky from time to time.
From time to time, there are subtle rumbles in the sky from distant places.
There were many soldiers in the yard who turned to look south like her.
Wang Xiaosan began to look for a place to dig a stove. He planned to cook porridge, but he had to prevent the firelight from leaking out in the dark. He could not directly light a fire in the villagers' roofless stoves.
Commander Cheng was instructing the soldiers to set up tents in the yard. They had to look at the map, and they couldn't do it without a tent to block the light.
Time passed minute by minute.
Su Qing leaned against the female guerrilla captain Pei to clean up the area. She spread a marching blanket and pressed it against the wall with sorghum leaves. She was so tired that she couldn't sit still. She slowly lay down on her side against the wall, her thoughts getting blurry.
There was a sound of footsteps outside the courtyard.
Two black figures followed the sentry and quickly came to the courtyard where the soldiers were sleeping.
Cheng Haibo, who was in the tent, heard footsteps and quickly came out of the tent. Seeing clearly that the person coming was the traffic officer of Hejian Village, Qinghe County, he stepped forward and extended his hand: "Dad Zhao, thank you for your hard work."
“It’s not hard work” Mr. Zhao is in his forties.
"Have you eaten?" Cheng Haibo's tired face showed a smile: "Guard, hurry up and get something to eat."
"We'll talk about eating later." Father Zhao introduced the two people behind him: "Xiao Cheng, this is Captain Zhang Dagui of the Third Division Armed Work Team. This is Qiu Dafu, the first team leader of the work team."
"Hello, Captain Cheng!" The young captain Dagui first saluted and then extended his hand: "The leader is leading the team behind and will arrive in about half an hour."
Seeing Su Qing coming out of the darkness at the base of the wall, Cheng Haibo quickly introduced him to a few people.
Soon, a circle of people gathered around the tent headquarters map.
"We have a radio station and can contact your guard battalion at any time!" Captain Zhang got straight to the point: "Our superiors have given us a glorious mission to liberate Qinghe County tonight!"
Cheng Haibo was a little embarrassed and glanced at Su Qing subconsciously.
Su Qing knew that a codebook was needed to contact the radio station, otherwise it would be useless to hold it in hand.
Depending on the situation, the 23rd Regiment should be able to contact him.
She knew the word liberation, but few people used it.
Next, Captain Zhang began to announce the chief’s order
Su Qing was a little stunned, and a picture of a girl with two pigtails on her head suddenly appeared in her mind, her eyebrows raised and her eyes raised.
They had just attacked Chengwu County, and now the heads of the three divisions would also attack the county, without her in the middle.
Some people in the village have evil intentions and want to go to the county town to report to Taijun.
But he didn't dare to go out.
Those teams that started cleaning the houses and sweeping the floors as soon as they entered the village, it didn't take a second thought to know that they were coming from the Eighth Route Army.
Before dark, the Imperial Army and the Imperial Alliance Army left the city in large numbers. Naturally, rumors spread to the outside of the village: the Eighth Route Army surrounded the Imperial Army.
Nowadays, a large number of Eighth Route Army troops have arrived outside the county. Is this going to change the situation?
Wu Jiguo, the richest man in the village, was anxious.
There was a whole room of people sitting in the hall, but no lights were lit.
No one said anything. The eldest young master was the commander of the Imperial Association in the county.
On weekdays, he is pretty good to the villagers, but under the pressure of the imperial army, he occasionally has to do things that go against his conscience.
Last night, my son led his team south, but he has not received any news until now.
Now that the Eighth Route Army appears here, will the backbone of his family collapse?
Mr. Wu is in a nervous mood. The Wu family usually keeps a low profile and the whole family does not even live in the county town.
The main reason is that the imps are too bad, and no one can protect their wife from being raped by the imps in a county town.
Mr. Wu quietly told his youngest son and his wife, who also couldn't sleep, "Take our grandchildren and hurry down to the cellar to hide them."
"Dad, there was a heavy flood a few days ago. The cellar was flooded and there was no way to hide people."
Bang, bang, bang, the courtyard door was suddenly banged.
Mr. Wu hurriedly came out of the main room. There were more than a dozen guards in the courtyard holding short guns, hiding behind the big trees in the flower bed of the courtyard, all pointing their guns at the smashed door.
"Mr. Wu, please open the door. I am Zhang Dagui!"
The people outside seemed to be talking happily. Wu Jiguo didn't dare to open the door and shouted loudly: "It turns out to be Captain Zhang. I don't know what the purpose of visiting late at night is."
"Open the door first, I have something important to tell you."
"It's all in the dark. There are old, weak, women and children in the house. If you need anything, can we talk about it after dawn?"
"Haha, don't worry, our Eighth Route Army will not take a single step from the masses."
It is true that he does not take a needle and thread, but writes IOUs all day long. Wu Jiguo cursed in his heart: "If you are short of food and there is still some at home, how about I have someone deliver it to you from the wall?"
"I know what you are worried about, but don't worry, we are going to liberate Qinghe County tonight! My coming here so late is really disturbing you. If you are worried, please come out and discuss important matters!" [As for the word liberation , used very early]
It's okay to have your own high-walled compound to guard against bandits and the like.
Now the Eighth Route Army has already crowded the village. If you don't listen to him, with the Eighth Route Army's ruthlessness, it won't be a problem to conquer your own compound.
Fortunately, the other party spoke politely, and a stone finally fell to my heart.
What does liberation mean? Maybe the Eighth Route Army was defeated by his son, or maybe his son arrested some people. Maybe he wanted to say something nice in front of his son and let them go?
Thinking of this, he asked the housekeeper to open the door a crack.
The two seemed to have an argument in the dark. After a while, Wu Jiguo returned to the house, opened the large blue brick in the wing, pulled out a heavy box from under the brick, greeted the two guards, and went out.
During the whole process, he didn't say a word to the whole family in the house.
Half an hour later.
A group of people dressed as nursing staff appeared at the south gate of the county.
The puppet soldiers on the city gate tower immediately shouted: "Who is it!"
"It's me, Wu Jiguo, open the door quickly."
"Oh, does the regiment leader's father open the door or not?" A puppet soldier asked the puppet squad leader next to him in a dilemma.
"Haha, the leader's own father is coming here in the middle of the night. You still want to be a model gatekeeper for Taijun?"
"Hey, it's against the rules to open the city gate in the middle of the night, but it shouldn't cause any trouble if you open it just a crack."
"Keep your voice down, don't let the prince who is sleeping in the tower hear you."
During the Anti-Japanese War, there were many troops called the People's Liberation Army! Later, in order not to irritate Chiang Kai-shek, the headquarters ordered all teams not to use this name...
