Chapter 167: The Generous He Yuzhu

"Sister Hongying, what are you thinking about? I'm not trying to snatch things from you; it's just that there are many Landmines underneath. If your soldiers step on them, that would be terrible."

Upon hearing this, Hongying immediately squeezed out a smile, "I'm telling you, kid, you wouldn't be that stingy."

He Yuzhu quickly lit a campfire and, relying on the marks he made when burying the mines, used tree branches to circle the unexploded Landmines.

After learning that it was He Yuzhu who had taken out the enemy's Artillery Battalion, she walked over, patted his shoulder hard, and said, "Well done! If those cannons hadn't been blown up, all of us would have been finished. Today, you saved my life!"

"Sister Hongying, you're too kind! This was my job to begin with!"

After He Yuzhu finished marking all the Landmines, he let Hongying lead her people to clear the battlefield.

Battalion Commander Cui was a bit unhappy that he couldn't clear the battlefield, so He Yuzhu hurriedly comforted him, "We aren't short on those rifles. You should go take a look at the enemy's Mountain Cannon position; there should be two or three cannons that weren't destroyed, and maybe even some shells."

"That's great! Our Regimental Commander has always wanted to get his hands on a few cannons! If I can satisfy him this time, he'll definitely be thrilled," said Battalion Commander Cui.

He Yuzhu saw a few friendly troops surrounding the tank that had been pierced through, wondering what they were tinkering with, so he walked over to check—it turned out to be Li Xiang dismantling a Browning Machine Gun.

"Comrade Li, were you already thinking about dismantling their Machine Gun when you were firing the Rocket?" He Yuzhu asked with a smile.

Li Xiang smiled honestly, "No choice, who told us to be so poor! The two you hit were a pity; the ammunition all exploded!"

He Yuzhu could only smile bitterly.

Chang Hongying was overjoyed to see Wu Shitou carrying boxes of Machine Gun bullets out of the tank.

Seeing that the conditions of this unit from Shanxi were truly miserable, He Yuzhu suddenly felt a sense of compassion.

He leaned over to Hongying and whispered, "I'll sponsor you two 'Old Gan Ma' Heavy Machine Guns, 30,000 rounds of ammunition, and 500 M1 Garand Rifles, plus 50,000 rounds of rifle ammunition. But you can't tell anyone else."

Hongying widened her eyes and asked, "Why do you want to help us?"

"We are all one family! Besides, these weapons of mine were originally meant to be sent to Yan'an anyway," said He Yuzhu.

"Then when shall we transfer them?" Hongying asked eagerly, fearing he might go back on his word.

"I'll put the things behind the dirt slope in a while; you just send people over to get them."

"Zhuzi, give us more bullets!" Hongying said with a smile.

He Yuzhu drove the truck to a place where no one could see, stopped, and unloaded everything after getting out.

Seeing that the time was about right, He Yuzhu drove back and waved at Hongying.

Hongying quickly sent people to move the supplies.

When her subordinates carried the equipment to the position, she was so happy she almost jumped up, excitedly saying to her Guard Wu Shitou, "Today really feels like a dream. How did my luck suddenly get so good after arriving here! Once this battle is over, I'll apply to the Division Commander to expand the First Battalion to 2,000 men!"

"Will the Regimental Commander agree to that?" Wu Shitou asked.

"I don't care! He doesn't have the heart for anything right now anyway!" said Hongying.

He Yuzhu finished setting up the defenses on his position and drove out to haul the spoils of war.

By the time he hauled a truckload of goods to the logistics department, He Daqing was worrying while looking at the sky about to break dawn—the troops still had no breakfast.

"Is there still food on the truck?" He Daqing asked anxiously.

"Yes, enough for the troops to eat for a few days."

Subsequently, He Yuzhu and the logistics personnel unloaded a truckload of rice and 2,000 cans of pork.

Looking at the mountain of food, He Daqing couldn't stop smiling, "Zhuzi, you've really solved a huge problem for me!"

Near noon, the sound of the military bugle for mealtime rang out across the entire valley.

Lunch was pork stewed with Chinese cabbage—the pork came from the cans, and the cabbage was purchased by the logistics department from several surrounding villages.

Although those villages were short on grain, they were not short on Chinese cabbage.

The Cadres of the two regiments gathered to dine, and with the steaming white rice paired with the hot pork and cabbage, everyone ate with extra relish, repeatedly praising the logistics work for being well-handled.

He Daqing also felt immensely proud.

He Yuzhu, however, kept chatting with Hongying and didn't pay much attention to everyone's mood.

He asked, "Sister Hongying, are you married?"

"No."

"Then is your Regimental Commander married?" He Yuzhu continued to ask. He asked these things also because that novel didn't have an ending, out of curiosity.

"He married a..." He Yuzhu saw from her lip movements that it probably wasn't anything good, "The Regimental Commander married our division's Zhengong Cadre, Su Qing."

Hongying seemed uninterested in this topic, so she changed the subject and said, "Where did you get all those weapons? Get me some more!"

"What do you need so many weapons for?" He Yuzhu asked.

"Our Regimental Commander is too depressed now. Our former Second Company Commander, Gao Yidao, is now a Fu Siqiang. Don't you think that's infuriating!" Hongying complained.

"But the problem is, even if you have the weapons, you might not be able to recruit enough people, right?"

"As long as there are guns and money, there are plenty of people!" Hongying said firmly.

"How about this: outside, an M1 Garand Rifle costs 300 Big Ocean, but I'll sell them to you for only 100 Big Ocean each, and I'll even include 200 rounds of ammunition."

"Too expensive, we can't afford it," Hongying shook her head and said.

As the two were chatting, the others had finished eating, and the summary meeting began immediately.

Regimental Commander Yang took the lead in giving the summary speech: "This time we fought a great victory... it couldn't have been done without the heroic fighting of the soldiers, nor without the adaptability of the commanders... although the process was arduous, the results are quite gratifying: we destroyed 3 enemy Tanks... 5 Mountain Cannons... the spoils are also plentiful... over 700 Rifles, 6 Czech Light Machine Guns, 2 Maxim Heavy Machine Guns, 3 Mountain Cannons..."

He paused, then said in a deep voice: "Of course, we also paid a heavy price—53 soldiers heroically sacrificed, and there are 100 lightly and seriously wounded. But by comparison, the enemy suffered even more; their casualties are at least 1,000 or more..."

After Regimental Commander Yang's impassioned speech, everyone's emotions were ignited... the resolve to defend the position to the death surged suddenly...

After the meeting, Regimental Commander Yang found He Yuzhu, his intention being that those three Mountain Cannons must be kept.

He Yuzhu found Regimental Commander Hu Yi to discuss it, but he pushed the matter onto Hongying.

He Yuzhu told her that Regimental Commander Yang wanted to keep the three Mountain Cannons, and she agreed quite readily.

He Yuzhu knew she wanted to get on his good side, holding out for more supplies.

Si Jiu Cheng, Courtyard 95, Xu Family.

Early in the morning, Cui Xiu got up early and began to meticulously draw her eyebrows and apply makeup; today, she was going to her Siqiangmeimei's place to discuss marriage.

Luo Jiangtao and Cui Xiu were originally fellow Siqiangmeimei; in their early years, they both learned opera in the same troupe: Luo Jiangtao learned to play male dan roles, and Cui Xiu learned to play kun sheng roles. From the time they started learning opera, the two had secretly developed feelings for each other.

But heaven has unpredictable winds.

In the seventeenth year of the Republic of China, their troupe went to perform a private show at the home of a Police Chief, and that Bureau Chief took a fancy to Cui Xiu the moment he saw her.

Upon learning that this man already had seven concubines, Cui Xiu firmly refused, but the other party had no intention of letting her go.

Cui Xiu had no choice but to flee in the middle of the night, but she was penniless and eventually collapsed from cold and hunger at the gate of a house.

Tan Yali's father happened to be going out and saved her; from then on, she stayed in the Tan household to serve Tan Yali, later marrying into the Lou Family with her, and a year later, she married Lou Laoban's driver, Xu Fugui.

Unexpectedly, two months ago, she reunited with Luo Jiangtao on the streets of Qianmen.

Luo Jiangtao had not taken a wife all these years, and the two, reunited after a long separation, were like a thunderbolt striking the earth, immediately deciding to live together.

Cui Xiu, having finished her makeup, went out full of joy, not noticing that a pair of eyes was watching her from the shadows at the entrance—that person was Yan Jiecheng.

Seeing Cui Xiu go out, Yan Jiecheng immediately turned and ran toward the mouth of the alley, then pounded hard on a gate.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

Xu Damao opened the door with a messy, bird's-nest head of hair, looking impatient.

"Your mother has left!" Yan Jiecheng said, panting, "She even painted her eyebrows and eyes; she must be going to see her lover!"

As soon as the words fell, Xu Damao raised his foot and kicked him, cursing angrily: "If you spout nonsense again, I'll kill you!" As he spoke, he drew a Japanese Nambu Pistol from his waist.

Yan Jiecheng was scared pale and hurriedly admitted defeat: "I was wrong! I was wrong! I won't say it again, aren't you going to chase her!"

"Wait for me to come back, and I'll reward you with a Big Ocean." Xu Damao dropped this sentence, turned back into the house to put on a large hat and wrap a scarf around his neck, then took off in pursuit.

The reason he lived here was simple: he had previously fallen out with his mother, Cui Xiu, and had been kicked out of the house; the more he thought about it, the angrier he became, and he wanted to cause trouble for that "stepfather."

He had asked his Siqiang to help him rent this place and had also asked Wang Donglai to help him buy a Pistol.

Xu Damao chased all the way out and saw his mother standing at the street corner waiting for a rickshaw, so he hid in the distance and watched quietly.

Not long after, Cui Xiu got into a rickshaw and left, and Xu Damao immediately found a rickshaw to follow her.

The rickshaw finally stopped near Gongwangfu, and after Cui Xiu got out, she knocked on the door of a small courtyard.

The door opened, and a man with handsome features and a slightly feminine softness between his brows walked out, looking to be just over thirty—it was indeed Luo Jiangtao.

Xu Damao also got out of the car and paced around the small courtyard, his heart in turmoil: he was unwilling from the bottom of his heart for his mother to remarry, feeling that he now had the ability to support the family, and that his mother remarrying was, to him, a tremendous humiliation.

He squatted at the corner of the wall, his hands trembling as he took the bullets out of the gun one by one and loaded them back in one by one, repeating this process twice.

Finally, he gritted his teeth, his eyes gradually becoming firm—he had finally made up his mind.