march to victory

Just before dawn, the morning breeze blew slowly across Xiangjia Village, blowing away the smoke from every household, including Xianglao San's family.

Xiang Lao San was squatting on the bluestone slab under the eaves in front of the door, holding the dry tobacco rod in his right hand, biting it in his mouth, and smoking it, his brows were furrowed, his eyes were empty, and he was thinking about one thing: the past few days , Tian Yinglong's people are hiding in Xiangjia Village to support... Tian Yinglong's eldest son, Tian Dalong, has a lust for his eldest granddaughter. Although he was ruthless, he was righteous; he ran to the town office to ask Wang Weiqing for help, although he was beaten up by Tian Yinglong and put in prison, this is not the most important thing at present, because it is only natural for him to report to the police when the bandits entered the village.Besides, Tian Yinglong had been the mayor of the village at any rate, so thinking about it, he wouldn't have slaughtered the whole village just for this matter.

What he was most worried about was that he led the Red Army to save everyone.At the beginning, he didn't know what the Red Army was, but when he learned about it, and knew that the Red Army, the Kuomintang and the bandits were enemies, he was extremely worried that Tian Yinglong would bring people to revenge the whole village.Because before the arrival of the Red Army, the Kuomintang and some powerful local figures let go of the words: Whoever dares to support the Red Army will kill his entire village.

As soon as the Red Army returned, he immediately called a few respected people in the village, told him what he was worried about, and told everyone to go away to seek refuge with relatives and friends, and not to come back in a short time.The villagers were shocked, but it was hard to leave their homeland, so the old people sent the young people and children to their relatives and friends for shelter, but stayed behind.

However, after eight or nine days in a row, nothing happened, and some impatient young people came back again.Let Xiang Sanyue, who has been living in panic these days, become more preoccupied, squatting at the door of the house early in the morning, frowning and smoking.

"Old man, stop worshiping God in a daze outside, and have breakfast."

"Oh!"

Xiang Lao San quickly took a puff of cigarette, knocked the cigarette pot on the ground a few times, and blew out from the cigarette holder. Seeing that there was no soot in the cigarette pot, he stirred the cigarette bag onto the tobacco rod, and then put the cigarette rod With a back thrust, he stood up and was about to enter the house.

"When! When..."

A rush of gongs sounded, and Xiang Laosan, who was about to enter the house, turned around abruptly, looking at the place where the gong sound came from with bright eyes.

"A bandit is about to enter the village, everyone quickly gather at the village chief's house with knives, guns and food! A bandit is about to enter the village, everyone..." Don't underestimate this sentence. I really don't understand the true meaning of this sentence: "The bandits are about to enter the village", not only to say that the bandits have not yet arrived at the entrance of the village, but also to explain to everyone who is coming this time.Adding the following words, combined with the geographical advantage of Xiangjia Village being built on the mountainside, we can get such a result: the bandits are at least 15 minutes away from the village, at least, they have just arrived at the foot of the mountain or on the top of the mountain. 'Everyone, bring knives, guns and food to the village chief's house and assemble! The meaning of this is: everyone listens to the village chief, if there are many bandits, then unite and go deep into the mountains;Anyway, gathering at this time means not to worry, but a unified arrangement, with more people and more strength, is a good thing no matter what... Everyone is familiar with the way, and naturally they all know the way inside.

The reason for Xiang Lao San's frown was deeper: the voice of the caller turned out to be his eldest son Xiang Dayou.Didn't he and the second child be sent to his second uncle's house, why did they come back at this time?

"Old lady, pack up your things quickly, the bandits are coming." He walked quickly into the house, shouted to the kitchen, and walked into the bedroom.

When he came out, he had two short muskets in his waist, two long muskets in his right hand, and two bags in his left hand: one containing gunpowder and the other containing iron sand.

Sit by the door and wait while you load your musket with powder and iron sand.

"Father, the bandits are coming, has Mom packed up?"

Xiang Lao San rolled his eyelids and said angrily, "Why are you back?"

"I was worried about you and my mother, so I came back to take a look. I didn't expect to see bandits cooking in the woods over there. They said they were going to wash our Xiangjia Village with blood. I was so scared that I quickly took a shortcut and ran to report the news."

Xiang Lao San wanted to be angry, but when he thought that this was also the child's filial piety, he couldn't bear to be angry for a while, so he had to pick up a musket standing upside down by the wall and hand it to his son.

"Father, I still have to beat the gong to shout..."

"It's a big village, no matter how much you shout, it's useless, just a few times."

"Then I'll go in and have a drink."

Soon, Xiang Dayou came out with a musket and squatted beside Xiang Laosan.Before he could speak, he saw a middle-aged man approaching with a musket and asked from a distance, "Dayou, how many bandits are here?"

"There are probably more than 100 people." Xiang Dayou hurried into the house, came out with two chairs, handed one to the visitor, and continued: "They are resting and cooking in the woods a few miles to the right at the foot of the mountain. When it was discovered, I could only take a sneak peek, there was a crowd of people, probably no less than 100 people."

"They didn't say anything else?"

Seeing that Xiang Dayou shook his head, the visitor exchanged a look with Xiang Laosan, and said in a deep voice, "Third brother, it probably has something to do with what happened last time. The big bandit Tian Yinglong is here for revenge."

Bandits came to ransack villages for the purpose of robbery, and generally they would not hurt people.But if you come here for revenge, then don't say anything. It's not so uncommon for a whole family to be slaughtered or a whole village to be slaughtered.

Xiang Laosan nodded, pondered for a while, and said to Xiang Dayou: "Dayou, you immediately take a small road to the town to find the Red Army. They promised me that as long as we need it here, no matter what time and no matter what, they will help you." help us."

Holding the gun, Xiang Dayou stood up and was about to leave, but saw Grandma walking quickly, handing him three glutinous rice cakes and a bamboo tube filled with water.

After Xiang Dayou ran out, Xiang Lao San put the long musket loaded with gunpowder and iron sand upside down against the wall, pulled out the short musket at his waist, and said while loading the ammunition: "Stone, you take the young men who came back with you." People ran to the back of the mountain, and I took the old people to Newland Cave to attract bandits."

There is no way to do this: Even if you run into the mountains, the old people are old and weak, and they will definitely drag you down, so it is better to hide.As for telling the third child that you want to attract the attention of the bandits, there is nothing you can do about it: it is said that there are many troublemakers in the poor mountains and rivers, but how many people have thought about it: the troublemakers in their eyes are only for the continuation of the future generations. So not taking your own life seriously.The Chinese nation is the nation that can endure suffering the most. Who would rebel if they really wanted to have enough food and clothing?

"Third Brother, you are more familiar with the mountains than I am, so I should guard the Niu Lan Cave?"

"Don't talk to me, you and I are brothers, but I'm still the village chief, do you dare not listen to the village chief?"

Shitou glanced at the third child, moved his lips a few times, and bowed his head in silence.

Soon, the villagers came to Xiang Laosan's house with their families. Most of them were elderly, but everyone had muskets in their hands.When the proposal was made to the third child, the young people immediately objected, but the old people directly kicked the young people with their feet, urging them to leave quickly... At the critical moment of life and death, they used this rude way to express their love for their relatives and juniors with the continuation of life.