Chapter 65 Cheng Chuan

As Captain Chu said, the reason why the superiors asked us to change defense was to replace us to prepare for returning to the country. The superiors did not say it clearly, I think it was to worry about affecting the morale of the army. If the soldiers were told to return to the country for rest, if there was an emergency and needed to hire people, our troops would have no intention of fighting again.

The superior's concerns may be correct, but the effect does not seem to be very good.

Because even though the superiors didn't tell us clearly that we were going to return home, the soldiers knew it well. A kind of excitement and eagerness to return home quickly spread in the army.

Some soldiers changed into cotton shoes that they had been reluctant to wear for several months, while others put on new military uniforms they had collected in the package. For this reason, some soldiers hid in the tunnel and cooked a few pots of hot water to take a shower. Everyone looked fresh as if they were about to celebrate the New Year.

Then, the soldiers began to organize souvenirs for their return. In the words of the soldiers, they wanted to bring some things from the battlefield back so that they could show off in front of their families. More soldiers were talking nonsense and wanted to use real objects to let the people of the motherland see. We have really beaten the Americans, the British, and more than a dozen countries...

So, the enemy's things became valuable in an instant. The warrior who usually pays more attention to collecting small items on the enemy was sent out now. I have seen a warrior exchange dozens of packs of cigarettes for the gadgets he usually collected.

Don’t doubt the value of cigarettes in the army. When fighting, many soldiers need to borrow cigarettes to relax their nerves when they are nervous. Sometimes they would rather be hungry than to lose cigarettes. Moreover, the logistics is also relaxed now. If it is not a special situation, it is basically impossible to freeze or starve. Therefore, the status of cigarettes in the army is even more important, and they have even become a tough guy, which can be used directly to exchange food in the army.

The so-called hard goods are similar to the gold in our peaceful era. The army is different from the people living in the peaceful era. People can regard gold as hard goods and money as hard goods, but this is not the case in the military. Because all the soldiers understand one truth: even if they give us a mountain of gold today, maybe we will not be able to come back on the battlefield tomorrow, so that gold, money, etc. are just a big deal for us. The most real thing is cigarettes and food...

There are all kinds of souvenirs, some are gadgets made of bullet shells, some are ellipticals, lighters, American cigarettes, some are American helmets, military caps, boots, etc.

The soldiers who didn't pay attention to collecting these things were now miserable. Those who were lazy had to take out the cigarettes on their bodies to exchange with their comrades; those who were more diligent were wandering around the position in this cold weather, hoping to pick up something worth taking back.

But later, souvenirs still couldn't meet the needs of the soldiers, because some soldiers carried several things alone, while some soldiers didn't even have one. The soldiers without souvenirs began to panic. The stupider ones were like a headless fly and bumped into the warriors, and they begged grandpa and grandma all the way; the smarter ones would make their own ideas on the US prisoners of war. Of course, because of the discipline of the volunteers, they still needed to exchange things for them from the US prisoners of war.

After our army changed defense, it was stationed on the second line. From time to time, some American prisoners of war were taken down from the front line and handed us to temporarily guard. At that time, the soldiers in the regiment would rush up like bees seeing honey. At first, the US troops were shocked and looked at the volunteer soldiers who were approaching them with "smile" on their faces. Later, after learning that the soldiers wanted to exchange things with them, they all breathed a sigh of relief and shouted "my god!" a few times, and generously donated...

Many of the US prisoners of war were also addicted to smoking. After becoming our army's prisoners of war, although we provided them with food, regardless of their addiction, many soldiers could buy souvenirs at very "cheap" prices for US prisoners of war. So once when I passed by a prisoner of war camp, I found that a US prisoner of war was wearing a torn cotton jacket of a volunteer soldier, squatting on the ground happily. There were even a few US soldiers waving to me: "Hey! Brother, do you want to change things? I can change everything on my body, just like a pack of cigarettes! Hehe! Don't leave, brother, let's talk about how half a pack of cigarettes..."

Unfortunately, I didn't need any souvenirs, so I finally disappointed the US prisoner of war.

I don't need souvenirs because I don't know who to show them to. I'm not born yet! No, it should be said that my dad is not born yet, and my grandfather is still a seven or eight-year-old child. If I don't say that I can't find them in this chaotic world. Even if I find them, I might be treated as a lunatic by my great-grandfather!

"Captain!" Just as I was sitting in the regiment headquarters smoking a cigarette boredly, Li Pinghe walked to me and asked, "The soldiers are busy preparing the spoils! Why don't you bring a few things back for your family to see?"

"Um!" I smiled bitterly when I heard this, and didn't know what to say for a moment. I thought about it before answering: "I'm separated from my family, I don't know where they are!"

"Oh!" Li Pinghe looked at me with apologies, sat silently across from him, and lit a cigarette for himself and said, "Now these days, there are so many people who are separated from their family. But... Commander, you still have hope..."

"Political Commissar, you..." Listening to Li Pinghe's tone and what he meant, I only felt that Li Pinghe should have a life experience that was not miserable.

Li Pinghe's mouth twitched for a moment and said heavily: "My parents are the old Red Army. The year when I was born, the Red Army had just started the Long March. They were not convenient for me to take me, so they entrusted me to a fellow villager. The villagers told me a lot about my parents and kept telling me that they were still fighting and fighting for our poor people. It was not until I was seven years old that the people in the army found me that I knew that they had both died a few years ago!"

I couldn't help but feel silent in the tunnel. I couldn't help but look at Li Pinghe for a few more times, because I knew that the Red Army's Long March began in 1934. If Li Pinghe was born at that time, then he would be only eighteen or nineteen years old now. Seeing that he is so mature and so serious, I really can't tell that he is still so young.

But this is not surprising. I can almost imagine what he will do next. A descendant of the Red Army like him, whose parents and comrades in the army will definitely bring him to the army. By the way, I still remember what kind of advanced school he graduated from. Growing up in a military environment, facing every day, learning about battles, training, etc., can this person not be old?

"Report!" Just as Li Pinghe and I were thinking about our own thoughts and smoking silently, a radio soldier walked up to us and saluted us, and handed us a telegram.

I took the telegram and saw it, and handed it to Li Pinghe.

"Um!" Li Pinghe was stunned when he read the telegram, then nodded and said, "We're finally here!"

This is the order from our superiors to march towards Pyongyang tonight, but the destination was not stated, and we only said that we should keep in touch with our superiors at any time.

Everyone knows that the purpose of asking troops to march towards Pyongyang is to return to China by fire. The railway has not been paved south of Pyongyang because the warring parties frequently pull the capital and are often bombed by American aircraft.

As the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang must have such an important transportation trunk line. And because Pyongyang is the capital, its air defense force is quite strong, it is relatively safe to lay railways in the Pyongyang area. Therefore, materials transported from China to North Korea are continuously transported to Pyongyang by train, and then transported by Pyongyang to various troops on the front line by car. The wounded soldiers of the volunteer army and the troops withdrawing from the country to rest must also gather in Pyongyang from all directions, and board the train and return home.

So, as soon as I received this order, I almost told us that the time for returning home that the soldiers had been looking forward to during this period has finally come!

At first I was wondering why my superiors didn’t tell us the destination of the march, but thinking about it makes sense that his superiors were so careful. Our destination must be a train station, and every train station is a unloading point or transfer station for the inventory quality of the Volunteer Army. There is no doubt that there must be a lot of material that has just been transported from the country. If the destination of the march tells us and the puppet army agents lurking inside our army get information, the railway station will definitely be bombed by US aircraft.

Thinking of this, I ordered the correspondent: "Notify the soldiers to prepare for the march. If there is a new mission, don't say anything else!"

"Yes!" The correspondent responded, turned around and walked out of the tunnel.

But my obscure order was obviously impossible to hide from the soldiers, because there was a burst of cheers coming from outside the tunnel. I had to look at each other helplessly and smiled at each other. Who are the soldiers of the 538th Regiment? It would be really difficult to deceive them!

Pyongyang is not far from us. The straight line distance on the map is about 20 kilometers, and the actual distance is only 30 to 40 kilometers. For the volunteers, this route was originally a day's march, but it took us four days to reach the vicinity of Pyongyang.

The main reason for the slow speed is that we can only march at night in order not to expose our target. Moreover, our superiors were worried that we would be followed by puppet military spies, so they even ordered us to circle around the road. Although I was unhappy in my heart, the soldiers didn't care about this at all.

I'm going home! Who cares about walking more roads? And then I realized what the situation is like "Going back" because there has never been a marching time. Like this time, it was not my order, but the soldiers urged me to leave! Isn't this? Every time I ordered a rest, the soldiers would shout: "Captain, we are not tired yet! Let's walk for a longer period!" And that speed is fast! It's similar to the speed of my jeep. Of course, because the road conditions are poor, the jeep is not driving fast is also a reason.

On the fourth night, the troops successfully arrived at a place called Chengchuan east of Pyongyang.

Chengchuan is a small town, but it is actually no different from other rural areas in North Korea. Perhaps the difference is that there are more houses here, and there are one or two noodle shops and grocery stores.

Like other places, the Korean fellows here are also very enthusiastic about us. They obviously didn't know that a volunteer army was going to come down from the front line before, but they soon spontaneously organized a welcome team, holding a small flag and holding a food to welcome. Most of them were women, and there were several teams of People's Army. What made me a little ridiculous is that the Korean women of this era were very bold. Perhaps because they didn't know that I could understand Korean, they openly pointed at our volunteer soldiers and even invited the soldiers to spend the night at their house.

This reminds me of what the veterans of the Volunteer Army said in modern times that the soldiers who fell behind in the Volunteer Army had three fears: one was afraid that they could not find the troops, two were afraid of puppet military spies, and three were afraid of North Korean women. The first two were afraid of me, and there was no need to say much about the reason, and the last one was really a bit puzzled. Later I realized that what they were afraid of was being arrested by North Korean women and gave birth to children!

Some veterans also said that North Korean women were very open. When the volunteer army passed by the river, a group of women were bathing in the river. They did not avoid it, and even intentionally stood up to tempt...

There is no other way, North Korean men are so thin! The Americans landed in Incheon, I don’t know how many North Korean women became widows. The North Korean women will behave like this, which is actually a helplessness in North Korea at that time!

But let alone, the Korean people are not just women, but other people, whether they are the elderly or children, especially like volunteer soldiers, and even surpass their own army - the People's Army.

In their words, when the People's Army arrived in the village, they all crossed their legs like old men and did not do anything. They called and drank to the people and asked them to serve them. One of them was unhappy and even wanted to hit people. I believe this. Although I did not see with my own eyes what the People's Army looked like in front of their people, within the People's Army, the bureaucratic style was not ordinary. I think they were superior to others in front of the people!

The Volunteer Army is different. Since the founding of the army, the Volunteer Army has a tradition, that is, the military and civilians are one family. Pay attention to the three major disciplines and eight items. It is sung and recited every day! Therefore, when the soldiers arrive in the village, they help the villagers carry water and chop firewood without saying a word. During the busy farming period, the Volunteer Army soldiers are indispensable in the fields.

Perhaps because of the habits brought by China, volunteer soldiers treat the Korean people like their fellow villagers, who sacrifice themselves to save the people on the battlefield and those who sacrifice themselves to save the volunteer soldiers. There are countless examples of this! In elementary school, there is a story about Luo Shengjiao in our Chinese textbook. He died to save North Korea's children who fell into the water.

This incident happened just a few months ago. We who came down from the front just learned that his deeds had been widely circulated among the Korean people.

After arriving at Chengchuan, we were arranged in a musty warehouse, where there was a small pile of materials that were packed into pieces that were not transported away in a hurry.

Compared with the enthusiastic villagers, the People's Army responsible for receiving us seems much stiffer.

Although they were very polite to us on the surface, everyone stared at us like needles, as if they wanted to pick some pricks on us. I felt a little unhappy when I saw it, but I thought about it and endured it. This is understandable! This is the siege of Pyongyang and the capital of North Korea. They still have to consider the safety of their great leaders, right?

But when several soldiers couldn't stand the musty smell in the warehouse and wanted to go out for a walk but were stopped by the guards at the door, I could no longer hold back.

"Major Li!" I said to the battalion commander of the People's Army who was responsible for receiving us in Korean: "We are soldiers who have returned from the battlefield, not your prisoners. What do you mean?"

After their introduction, I knew that they happened to be from the 15th Division of the People's Army and Kim Jong-sung's army. I originally wanted to meet Kim Jong-sung, but when I thought I would return to China, there was no need to let Kim Jong-sung come, so I gave up.

"Um!" Battalion Commander Li said at first that I could speak Korean, and couldn't help but look at me unexpectedly, and then said with a smile: "Comrade, you misunderstood. Of course, we know that you just came back from the front line, so why did you take you as prisoners! We did this entirely because of the safety of the warehouse. There are many military materials near this area. Once the enemy notices something, it may cause great losses to our army. So we have to act carefully, and please feel wronged, comrades!"

"Hmph!" Although I knew what he said made sense, I was still very dissatisfied with their actions. I snorted coldly and turned my head and ignored him.

"Hey!" Unexpectedly, my actions made the People's Army next to Captain Li, who looked like an adjutant, look unhappy. He raised his head at me and said arrogantly: "What is your identity? How can you be so rude to our battalion commander!"

"What is my identity? Are you worthy of asking?" Hearing that his tone was a little bad, I didn't give him a good look.

"I'm not worthy?" the adjutant sneered and said, "We just came to ask you, why do you speak Korean? And you speak so fluently, are you a Korean?"

Upon hearing this, I was stunned and soon realized that this group of people not only came to receive us, but also secretly checked whether there were any spies from the puppet army among us.
Chapter completed!