When the war approached Nanjing, some social figures and foreign missionaries initiated the establishment of a refugee zone. Later, with the approval of the Nanjing Garrison Commander's Office, the area north of Zhongshan North Road, starting from Xinjiekou and ending at Shanxi Road, was designated as a refugee area, which could accommodate approximately 250,000 people.
The area from Zhonghuamen to Huapailou was originally a residential area, but later it was divided into a refugee area, especially people who have grown up in Nanjing for generations and poor people who are unable to move elsewhere.
For these people who have been born in Nanjing for generations, their ancestors have always lived here. If they leave Nanjing, they will have no other place to live; and for these poor people who cannot afford to move to other places, He said that they had no money and would die if they left, and they would die if they did not leave.
If you leave, you will definitely die on the way out of Nanjing. If you don't leave, maybe you don't have to starve to death?
War is extremely cruel to the poor at the bottom.
Borrowing what He Shen said from the TV series "Iron Teeth and Bronze Teeth Ji Xiaolan": "Disaster victims, are disaster victims still human beings? They can only hope to survive. Even if they can't eat the bark, they still have to eat it. "
Although this sentence does not sound good, it is also a true truth - in troubled times, human life is not as good as that of dogs. Dogs can survive by eating shit, but what about humans?
Early in the morning on December 6, Zhang Tianhai asked his adjutant Liu Houming to drive the military off-road vehicle, and then led their special agent company to the refugee area of China Gate.
I saw that the buildings in this refugee area were still intact, perhaps because the Japanese artillery had not yet reached the gates of Nanjing. Occasionally, a dozen or so houses had collapsed, and they were also bombed by Japanese aircraft.
After getting off the bus, Zhang Tianhai discovered that the refugees in the refugee area were all holding small earthenware bowls and queuing up to receive breakfast in an orderly manner. Their breakfast was porridge, a big bucket of it, and the person responsible for distributing breakfast It was a blond foreigner and several hired workers.
The clothes worn by the refugees were pretty good, and they still had the thick clothes they should wear when the weather is cold, but their clothes seemed to have not been washed for a long time.
Zhang Tianhai took a closer look and saw that the breakfast porridge these refugees had was more like rice soup than porridge, and it was very thin.
Looking at this scene, Zhang Tianhai felt sad for a while, but he didn't say anything. The Japanese invaders were approaching Nanjing. The national army soldiers were fighting desperately to kill the enemy outside, but it was of no avail. The supply line of Nanjing City was about to be cut off, and supplies were Many things such as food cannot be transported in.
Nanjing will soon become a besieged city.
Under this circumstance, the garrison commander's headquarters is unwilling to divert too much supplies to the refugee areas - we can't let the soldiers go to the front line to fight the Japanese soldiers hungry, right? Even if you die, you have to be a dead ghost.
When resources are in short supply, contradictions in many aspects become apparent, but there is no way. From the perspective of the garrison commander's department, their first task must be to ensure the food and clothing of the troops to the maximum extent and to carry out battles.
"Hello, sir." The blond and blue-eyed foreigner in charge of sharing breakfast greeted Zhang Tianhai in blunt Mandarin.
"Hello, where is your person in charge?" Zhang Tianhai greeted the other party in fluent English.
Seeing the confused look on the other person's face, Zhang Tianhai knew that this was a German, and then he asked again in Chinese.
"Oh, sir, our Director Hang is at the refugee office. Are you going to find him?" the German continued to ask.
Zhang Tianhai nodded and said, "Yes. I'm looking for your director."
Soon, under the leadership of this foreigner, Zhang Tianhai arrived at the refugee area office. The office is located in a two-story building not far from the Zhonghua Gate. It looks quite magnificent. A building with a very antique feel.
In this office building, Zhang Tianhai met Hang Liwu, director of the refugee area.
Hang Liwu is a very strong young man with square features. He looks about thirty-four or five years old. He looks a bit like the later actor David Wu. At this time, he is sitting behind the desk in a suit and sorting out materials. He doesn't know who he is. Working on something.
After seeing Zhang Tianhai come in, Hang Liwu stood up and said: "Hello, sir, I am Hang Liwu, director of the refugee area. What is the purpose of this officer?"
After seeing Hang Liwu, Zhang Tianhai performed a military salute, showed respect to him with military etiquette, and said: "Hello, Director Hang, I am Zhang Tianhai, colonel commander of the first regiment directly under the third war zone. I am here. I am I want to ask you to help me with something."
Seeing that the other party had clearly stated his purpose of coming, Hang Liwu did not refuse. He just said: "Sir Zhang, there is nothing here in the refugee area. Apart from a group of refugees who are waiting for food, I am afraid that there is nothing that can be done to help."
"Director Hang, you have misunderstood me. I, Zhang Tianhai, came here this time to ask Director Hang to help me find a way to transfer these refugees who are currently stranded in Nanjing." Zhang Tianhai said.
After listening to Zhang Tianhai's words, Hang Liwu shook his head with a wry smile and said: "Captain Zhang, we have already worked hard on what you said. Those who can leave can all leave. The remaining ones in Nanjing, we also want to I tried my best and tried my best, but it was of no use..."
"But these are more than 250,000 refugees..." Zhang Tianhai was still a little unwilling.
I saw the bitter look on Hang Liwu's face still unabated, and said: "Since the beginning of the Songhu Anti-Japanese War, Nanjing has been moving people out, moving most of the population away. Now the government has also withdrawn. I also asked people to garrison The commander's headquarters has asked about these things, but it is of no use at all. The garrison headquarters is also short of people and food. They don't even have enough troops to fight on the front line. How can they divide the troops and send people to send these refugees out. Besides, they don't even have enough troops to fight on the front line. "These refugees have neither money nor food. Even if they escape from Nanjing, they will eventually die of starvation."
Before Zhang Tianhai could speak, Hang Liwu continued: "Hiding in the refugee area, there is still a glimmer of hope. We have already found Father Rao who set up a refugee area in Shanghai, and gave him the map of our refugee area. , now Father Rao has gone to see the Japanese commander. Father Rao wrote back and told me that the Japanese commander said he was aware of the matter and accepted the map..."
…
When he walked out of the office in the refugee area, Zhang Tianhai was extremely depressed. The sadness brought about by that sense of powerlessness came from the inside out. Although he was now the colonel leader of the reinforced regiment, he was still unable to do anything. He was unable to do anything, and could only watch helplessly as all this approached or even happened. He was powerless to change the current situation in Nanjing.
Nanjing is going through a war, and even the troops are short of men, money and food, let alone these ordinary people. In the face of this huge war, no one has the ability to change these objective realities...
Sitting in the passenger seat of the jeep, Zhang Tianhai raised his head and looked to the sky to prevent tears from overflowing or even falling - this is the humiliation of the Chinese nation. At the time of national crisis, because of the country's poverty and weakness, , even the establishment of refugee zones relied on the protection of foreigners. These patriots could only ask these foreign missionaries to beg the Japanese commander not to harm the Chinese refugees.
And Zhang Tianhai finally understood: In the face of the rolling torrent of history, the power of an individual appears to be very small...
For these refugees, even living is a luxury.
Living seems easy, but in troubled times, it is the most precious luxury.
…
PS: Another update. To be honest, when writing this chapter, Xiongying felt very heavy. This history is a history of humiliation for our nation, and it is also a history that we can never forget.
Recommend to friends the masterpiece "My System in the War of Resistance is A Little Showy"!
