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"Brother, do you know where the assembly point of the [-]th Division is?" Old Wangtou ran to a military policeman maintaining order by the roadside and asked loudly.
The gendarme turned his head and shouted: "What did you say?"
"I said, do you know where the [-]th Division is assembled? The order they received was to be north of the Suzhou Creek and south of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway." Old Wangtou repeated loudly.
Pointing to the way Yang Ling and the others came from, the military police said, "You're going the wrong way. This is the way to Nanxiang Station. You should turn left at the previous intersection!"
The old Wang bowed his head and returned to the dozens of rout soldiers standing by the roadside, saying: "We went the wrong way, we have to go back."
The exhausted remnants had to turn around and walk back with the troops heading to the front line, and then continued to the left when they reached a fork.
There were marching troops everywhere along the way, carrying all kinds of weapons and speaking accents from different places. Yang Ling and the others marched for about two hours, and it was already dark. Only then did they find No. .20 Temporary dispatch point for [-]st Army.
"You wait here, I'll go and have a look." Yang Ling explained to the remnants of the soldiers, crossed the muddy road with a rifle and went straight to the dispatch point set up by the roadside.
There was only one staff officer of the No.20 21st Army and a few guards with guns at the temporary dispatch point. After Yang Ling explained his purpose, the army staff officer directly threw a sentence to Yang Ling: "Our [-]st Army has been ordered to evacuate westward. Now go to the Hejiang Pavilion in front of you to assemble and wait for the arrangement."
Yang Ling had no choice but to go back and take the sleepy and tired remnant soldiers forward. At about ten o'clock in the evening, they worked hard to find the assembly point of Hejiang Pavilion.
The assembly point at the Hejiang Pavilion was equally crowded, with mules and horses neighing, and countless blood-stained stragglers constantly gathering here. The order of the world has collapsed and become chaos.
At this moment, Yang Ling and the others had been tossing and tossing on the road all day, and everyone was exhausted. Fortunately, they finally had a chance to rest their feet here. After registration, they received a few worn-out marching blankets and a bag of dry steamed buns , finally rested.
The campsite was extremely simple, there were no houses to live in, all the houses were bombed and collapsed, and even a tent could not be found, so Yang Ling and the others had no choice but to find a leeward depression and get some reed mats It will be one night.
Fortunately, they received a few worn-out marching blankets and a bag of dry steamed buns. Dozens of people divided up the dry food and went to rest early.
Yang Ling didn't even arrange a sentry. After all, it was more than ten miles away from the battlefield, and the devils would not be able to fight them for a while.
They didn't sleep very well that night, because soldiers had been passing on the road not far away, and the noise and hustle and bustle never stopped.
When it was almost dawn, Yang Ling finally squinted for a while, but then the explosion woke him up again. The devil's plane blew up several houses at the assembly point of Hejiangting, rumbling and stirring up smoke and dust all over the sky.
"Hurry up and save people!" After the devil's plane circled away, Yang Ling and others, who were lying on the ground and hiding, rushed to the temporary command room at the assembly point, but it had already collapsed.
They pulled out more than a dozen corpses from the ruins, among them was the platoon leader of the guards who had given them dried steamed buns last night, but at this moment his intestines were blown out, and he couldn't die anymore.
"What the hell is this world!" Seeing more than a dozen dusty corpses, someone cursed softly, venting their inner dissatisfaction.
Text Chapter 94 Food
The chaotic situation became more and more chaotic with the passage of time. The battle on the front line was fierce, and the battered and defeated troops were continuously withdrawn. The atmosphere was tense and flustered. ?????
Everyone was ragged and exhausted, and they were in groups of three or four, and the wounded supported each other. Many troops were defeated before withdrawing, and the organizational system was completely messed up. It has already reached the north bank of Suzhou River, and the tail cannot look at each other.
Yang Ling and the others recovered a lot of their physical strength after a night's rest, relieved some of their fatigue, and the faces of the disabled soldiers also recovered a lot of energy.
"Old Wangtou, everyone is hungry, you share the dry food with the big guys." Yang Ling wandered around outside, came back after finding out the situation, and gave instructions to the old Wangtou.
After the old Wangtou responded, he took off the canvas bag he was keeping and opened it in front of him. It was filled with dry food collected from the devil's corpse.
The dry rations of the devil soldiers are very abundant, including polished rice and canned biscuits, and a few bulging ones wrapped in canvas. So very economical.
Each disabled soldier can only receive a few biscuits, and five people can share a can of food. For the hungry disabled soldiers, this food is not enough to fit between the teeth.
"Squad leader Wang, can you share a little more? It's gone before I taste it. My stomach is still empty." Someone wolfed down his share, and immediately turned his eyes eagerly. He threw himself at the old king's head.
The old Wangtou laughed and scolded angrily: "Who told you to eat so fast, there is only so much for each person, wait for the next meal."
The soldier's expression collapsed immediately after hearing what the old Wang said, and he felt worried as he touched his empty belly.
The old Wang looked at the dejected soldiers and said with a smile: "If you don't want to be hungry, I will help you find a way."
He pointed to the pond not far away: "Go over there and get two jugs of water, drink it to make sure your stomach is full."
"Then I'd better drink the northwest wind—" the surrounding soldiers burst into laughter, and the atmosphere became much more relaxed.
Yang Ling and his remnant soldiers were not full because they had searched some dry food from the devil's corpse in advance, but they were not without food, but the rest of the withdrawn troops might not be so lucky. They could only drink water when they were hungry. But drinking water does not make me hungry, and my physical strength drops severely.
Yang Ling and the others ate deliciously, but the more than 20 soldiers of the Gui army who stayed not far from them could only watch helplessly, swallowing saliva.
They all received a small bag of dry steamed buns last night, but they had already devoured them all. Now seeing the friendly soldiers talking and laughing eating dry food, their stomachs growled in disbelief.
"Old Wangtou, bring some food to the brothers over there." Yang Ling glanced at the Guangxi soldiers who were eagerly looking at them, and turned his gaze to the old Wangtou.
These Guangxi soldiers had fought side by side with them in the same trench at any rate. Although they parted ways with them now because of Li Tiezhu's reasons, I felt sorry to see them starving.
Old Wang took a canvas bag of dry food and walked straight over: "Brothers, come, let's eat."
The soldiers of the Guangxi army were so hungry that their chests were pressed against their backs. Seeing the old Wangtou bring food over, they immediately rushed forward excitedly, and were about to rob them. They were so grateful.
"Sit back for me!" Li Tiezhu stood up with a dark face, and sternly shouted at the soldiers of the Gui army who were looting for food.
After being coldly shouted by Li Tiezhu, the soldiers of the Gui Army who were full of joy were like frost-beaten eggplants. They reluctantly moved their eyes away from the food, and returned to their seats and sat down resentfully.
With a dark face, Li Tiezhu walked up to the old Wangtou who was stunned, raised his face and said: "We don't eat the dry food of the deserters, take it back—"
When the old Wangtou heard this, he immediately lowered his face, what do you mean?We gave you food with good intentions, but you said we were deserters without thanking you, he grabbed the canvas bag full of dry food angrily, turned around and left, even if I threw it away, I would not give you food.
When they were in Dingjiaqiao, the troops were dispersed at night. Li Tiezhu insisted on beating him back to his death, but Yang Ling tied them up and withdrew them.
In fact, Yang Ling was also suffering in his heart. He also wanted to resist and defend his family and country, but the situation at night was very complicated. Dingjiaqiao was surrounded by devils on three sides. , To go back is to die.
Yang Ling wasn't afraid of death, but he didn't want to follow his brother to sacrifice meaninglessly and meaninglessly, so he withdrew and prepared to go to the second line to gather the defeated troops and then defend.
But defending the second-line position was unsuccessful, because the order to retreat was issued from above, so they had to retreat all the way here, and the second-line position was handed over to the first army.
Regarding the resentment in Li Tiezhu's heart, Yang Ling was very clear that it was not because of his unilateral reasons, but because they rushed to the battlefield with high morale, preparing to defend their home and country and make meritorious deeds.
However, he was defeated in less than three days after being on the battlefield. It was normal for Li Tiezhu, a young platoon leader, to find it difficult to accept the gap between ideals and cruel reality. Yang Ling understood him very well.
Yang Ling didn't want to explain and was too lazy to explain what Li Tiezhu thought of them as deserters. Li Tiezhu had the final say on whether it was deserters or not. They were also beating devils from Wusongkou to Yunzaobang.
The people around them changed one crop after another, and the unit they were in collapsed time and time again. They were pulled up again and again, and then they were beaten again. This is a vicious circle. He is just an ordinary person and there is nothing he can do. I just want to survive, so the so-called deserters are left for future generations to comment on.
"We lost so many brothers, we managed to break out of the siege, and we saved their lives, but we became deserters in what they said. Isn't this revenge, I can't figure it out..." After returning his head, the old Wang sat down on his buttocks. On the ground, mumbling and sulking.
Yang Ling patted the angry old Wang on the head, but he didn't know how to comfort him.
The situation on the battlefield deteriorated, and they retreated again and again. All the smoldering grievances in the hearts of the soldiers urgently needed to be vented. Perhaps only beating devils could make them feel better.
Li Tiezhu angrily walked away the old Wang who delivered the food, turned around and yelled at the soldiers of the Gui army behind him: "Everything is worthless, and you can't walk when you see the food! We want Have a backbone! Do you feel ashamed of eating deserters..."
"Platoon leader, but I'm hungry..." a soldier whispered.
"Idiot! I just know how to eat. I didn't see you so brave in the war!"
Li Tiezhu was yelling and cursing, and the soldiers of the Gui Army hung their heads and said nothing, their stomachs growling.