Costume Mountains and Rivers

After an inexplicable "meeting", when we returned to the hut, the wet morning fog in the mountains had just cleared, and it was another sunny day.

The sun was shining brightly, the Cangshan Mountain was dripping green, and the main force of the Japanese army on the opposite side was still silent. However, Mo Qinghe did not dare to slack off. He spent the whole morning leading a small team to plant landmines on the mountain trails where the spies of the little devils often haunted. With a yellow body, he climbed out from the dense jujube forest, wearing a straw hat covered with leaves, clapped his hands, glanced at the clear sky, and began to worry about another thing.

The troops were out of food.

In the early morning, he called the soldiers together, asked everyone to take out the food bags, and cleared the last food reserves. Then he felt a wave of anxiety. When they attacked the mountain, they did not expect the consequences of being besieged. I only brought two days' worth of rations, and at this time almost all of them had bottomed out, so I put the rest in one place and distributed them evenly, so I could probably last until tomorrow afternoon if I was fully loaded.

Mo Qinghe was very annoyed. A good officer cannot make soldiers hungry, and he cannot fight without strength.

He looked at the big copper pot waiting for rice in the cooking class, and planned to send someone to ask the national army to borrow some food to tide over the difficulties. The situation in the army was even worse, the support was delayed, the food supply was reduced from three meals a day to one meal, and the portion was halved. Everyone had to find supplies by themselves. Even so, some companies had already begun to run out of food.

The several teams sent out were all forced back into the mountains by the Japanese army, unable to communicate with the outside world. The Eighth Route Army outside the mountain was hiding in the dense forests and mountain depressions, and it was impossible to tear through the Japanese defense line again for a while.

Mo Qinghe was worried. He looked around and was surprised why Shen Peinan was still in the mood to ask him for a "meeting" early in the morning, but he didn't know that the national army headquarters was already clouded by clouds at this time. Mo Qinghe thought twice and found that In desperation, he decided to use the old method of the Eighth Route Army to make a living by himself.

With great effort, he brought more than [-] soldiers, using leaves and branches as camouflage, and under the scorching sun at noon, they lay in ambush in the grass next to a narrow path where the Japanese army and the national army joined forces. , When they were about to be baked out of oil, they finally waited for a small group of patrolling Japanese devils. After a silent small-scale battle, everyone threw the devils' bodies into the woods, and then divided up the cans and food bags they carried.

Carrying the trophies on their backs, they passed by the cooking squad of the national army, and saw that they were setting up a big pot to cook, and half a sack of rice was thrown in the grass. Mo Qinghe immediately abandoned discipline, and went out for a stroll, The rice bag successfully fell into their hands.

He is a very flexible person, and the team he brings out is also quick-thinking. This way, a little bit of east and west is gathered together, and the food reserves are also slightly increased. In addition, they have many years of experience in guerrilla warfare in remote areas, digging wild vegetables, and cooking vegetables. Congee, the food is much better than that of the national army.

On the way back, Mo Qinghe picked a large handful of wild shepherd's purse by hand, and kept squinting at the bottom of the tree, trying to see a single hare. Trapped deep in the mountains, he fought with the Japanese army until he ran out of ammunition and food. When he died, he only had cotton wool and grass roots in his stomach.He didn't know if the comrades in Calabash Mountain would end up like this, but he couldn't express this emotion, so he forced a smile and asked Xiao Shuanzi to take the lead in singing an inspiring military song, and the group of people flung away facing the rays of light. pace.

The loud singing lifted everyone's spirits, and Mo Qinghe also relaxed a little. He said to himself, fortunately, it is summer, fortunately, it is in the mountains and forests, not grassland or barren high slopes in the northwest, he can always think of a way , Maybe it won't last too long, as long as you live, there is hope in life.

After a whole day of work, he went back to the hut to catch up on his sleep. He was so tired during the day that he fell asleep as soon as he touched the pillow. Drilling out of the house, the sky to the west still had the last touch of burnt gold, a large group of black bats whizzed around the roof, and dusk fell again.

Mo Qinghe doesn't like the night very much. The darkness and the sudden drop in temperature in the mountains remind people of the dark clouds of war that lurk around him all the time. Some side activities.

He was in a daze, but he heard a panting voice shouting in the distance: "Regimental Commander!"

The figure of Xiao Shuanzi flashed out from behind the tree, holding a piece of hemp rope in his hand, as if he was holding something heavy, he looked back while walking, made a silent gesture for Mo Qinghe, and walked forward crookedly After moving two steps, Mo Qinghe's eyes lit up, and he saw that what Shuanzi was leading was a fat white goat.

He came forward with a lot of oops, helped Shuanzi grab the hemp rope, and happily said from ear to ear: "Where did you get the good stuff?"

He reached out to touch the goat's head, but Shuanzi stopped him hastily: "It has horns, it can hit people!"

"I went around the back mountain today and saw this sheep grazing in the woods, so I brought it back and gave it to everyone for a tooth sacrifice!" Shuanzi's face was tanned, and when he smiled, his teeth were extremely white. Mo Qinghe said to Mo Qinghe: "I have seen that there are several families of mountain people at the foot of the mountain. It is likely that they did not watch when they herded the sheep and lost one."

Mo Qinghe stopped her movements when she heard the words, and her face darkened: "Taking things from common people is a violation of discipline!"

Shuanzi knew the virtues of their regiment leader very well, so he chuckled: "I've figured it out, this mountain is full of national troops, if someone asks, just push them! Anyway, they have money, and they will eat it when the time comes. I can't spit it out."

The stern expression Mo Qinghe had put on with great difficulty disappeared immediately, and she patted Shuanzi's shoulder with a smile and praised: "You've learned a lot, I have to credit you!"

The two paid attention to the movement around them, and looked around stealthily. The white goat was not afraid of people, and kept bleating foolishly, not knowing at all that they were going to be the fate of the dinner on the plate.

The two took the sheep to the cooking class together. The apprentice Xiao Maotou was crying sadly. His master died in the battle the day before yesterday, and he hadn't learned the skill of making soup that he was thinking of.

Mo Qinghe tied the sheep to the wooden stake at the door, comforted the little Maotou, and immediately let him take the place of the master. Maotou was praised and promoted, so he stopped two tears and followed the set The hemp rope of the goat kept admiring, blinking his eyes and asking: "Commander, where did the sheep come from?"

Mo Qinghe coughed, winked at Xiao Shuanzi, and said with a dry smile: "I bought it with money, hurry up and let the comrades have a meal before going to bed!"

The fat goats are male and don’t produce milk, so they can only cook stew. The little cook is a baby who grew up in the mountains. He does the work neatly. He quickly bled and killed the goat, cut the mutton into long strips, and shaved the bones. Set aside the fattest and tenderest piece of meat to stew with the lamb bones, and pickle the rest with salt. He also accurately distinguished the shadows of wild carrots, wild coriander and wild chrysanthemum from the mountains and forests. I picked a few trees and gave them to the soldiers to identify ==, and then everyone went out collectively, and after a while, everyone had more spoils in their hands.

That night, a big copper pot was set up in the Eighth Route Army camp. The soup in the pot had been boiled white, and bells rang out. Wild vegetables and pounded rice were sprinkled into the pot, and they lined up again with rice bowls.The little cook has been with the master for many years, and this is the first time he is handling the ladle in person. His face was flushed with excitement, as if what he cooked was a pot of delicacies. Soldiers who came to cook.

The wounded and the uninjured were treated differently. The wounded soldiers had mutton cut into small cubes in their bowls, and the uninjured ones were given a large bowl of stewed mutton soup with wild vegetables. No one raised any objections to this distribution method. Rice bowls, sitting on the ground with laughter and exaggerated chewing sounds, while exaggerating the little cook's craftsmanship with thumbs up.

The jumping orange campfire warmed everyone's faces, and Mo Qinghe sat aside, feeling extremely proud.

The camp was full of fragrances, and a national army battalion not far away was very upset. They had just eaten a cold meal mixed with sand, and they were half hungry. They were shivering in the cold night wind, and someone screamed strangely. He said: "A country bumpkin who has never seen the world, eat as soon as he eats, what the hell are you shouting!"

The two teams have their own camps, and they are quite far away from each other, but the mountains and forests are silent, and this yin and yang ridicule was clearly transmitted. The people on Mo Qinghe's side have been crowded out by the soldiers of the national army for the past two days. I had already accumulated a stomach full of anger, and responded loudly: "Some people are not good at beating devils, so they will babble, let's eat and do your shit!"

The Fourth Battalion Commander gnawed on a piece of lamb ribs, his mouth was full of oil, and he deliberately made a seductive click: "Don't worry about them, these Kuomintang uncles eat big fish and meat every meal, and they are served by women after eating. People look down on us for our hard life in the valley!"

The Eighth Route Army burst into laughter, and the soldiers of the national army over there became furious. A few stood up and were pushed down by their comrades. They had just emphasized the discipline of peaceful coexistence with friendly troops, and no one dared to commit crimes against the wind for the time being.

On the eighth road side, seeing the national army deflated, he became more and more complacent. An old Red Army soldier who had joined the army for nearly ten years drank two mouthfuls of soup, raised his head, and began to describe the Kuomintang captured by the Red Army back then. The captives were still picky about what to eat and what to wear, and the more they spoke, the louder they said: "Like the teacher in the village, he speaks with such a sour voice, what kind of despicable people, low-ranking! We don't know how to read, we can only carry guns and fight, and we can't listen. Understand those wow!"

"Let's compare ourselves to others. The long-term workers didn't dare to look up when they saw the landlord! Can we eat this mutton? We don't deserve to eat it. Hurry up, spit out what you ate, and send it to the lord!"

As he spoke, he patted his thigh pretending to be regretful, causing everyone to burst into laughter again. The soldiers of the national army were so angry that their faces were crooked, and they all gasped heavily from their noses. The battalion commander of the national army who was provocative was also inside. I don't know if he was injured from the fight or he was angry, his face was bruised and purple.He gathered a crowd yesterday to disrupt everyone's morale-boosting after-dinner entertainment, and even shot and injured several Eighth Route Army soldiers. Mo Qinghe got angry when he saw him. He originally wanted to say a few words to ease the situation, but now he couldn't care less and had a brainstorm , stood up and said to everyone: "It's not a girl, so why not quarrel! We've finished our meal, let's put on a show!"

Everyone applauded and agreed, and the commander of the fourth battalion made a quiet gesture: "Everyone has never heard of our commander's play, right? That voice is so authentic!" Then he looked at Mo Qinghe, "Commander, give us a short Concubine?"

Mo Qinghe waved her hand: "Listen to those Yingying Yanyans, what are you doing? A few days ago, I saw Xiao Shuanzi put up a comedy show. It was really good. Let him play it for everyone!"

The camp became more and more lively, the bonfire burst into flames, and the flames rose higher and higher, everyone formed a circle, Xiao Shuanzi cleared his throat, pulled two soldiers to stand in the circle, and began to speak happily.

There was joy on their side, but the National Army Command was solemn. They had just finished a military discussion meeting, shook hands with each other, and returned to their respective teams. Shen Peinan stayed until the end, standing quietly for a long time with his hands on the table, He was carrying thousands of heavy thoughts, and seemed to be weighed down by a thousand weights on his shoulders. It was not until Sun Jicheng knocked on the door to urge him that he raised his head as if he had just woken up from a dream, unfastened a button on his collar, shook his head, and looked long. Let out a sigh of relief.

According to the results of the discussion just now, he will start the second and last fight, but the conditions are still immature. According to his usual combat habits, he should either stand still or be sure to wipe out the enemy like a tiger descending the mountain.However, according to the current situation, the soldiers have not fully recovered from the previous large-scale breakout battle, the ammunition cannot be maintained, and the food shortage is continuously consuming the combat effectiveness of the troops. If there is a fight, the best result is that both sides will suffer, but he has no time. Well, in this heavily blocked deep mountain, the support of the Jinsui army is already an extravagant hope. If he waits any longer, his elite troops will be trapped to death by the Japanese army in the mountains.

Shen Peinan had never been in such a predicament since he was in the army, he felt depressed and angry, like a firecracker sealed in a jar, he suddenly raised his fist, and slammed it hard on the table with a bang.

He gestured to Sun Jicheng, and said calmly: "You go back first, I'll go out for a walk."