Chapter 6 day away from home

(Written from August 9th to September 9th, 1936, see the diary on October 8th, 1934) It has been two days since we set off, and because we are still walking in the base area in our hometown, everyone is "commonly used to it" and has no feeling.However, starting today makes me feel a little different, because starting today, we will leave our hometown, this land of freedom, and millions of brothers and sisters... The purpose of leaving the base area this time is of course to implement a new strategy—to counterattack the enemy, go deep into the enemy's deep rear to eliminate the enemy, achieve the goal of resisting Japan, defend the old base areas, and develop new base areas.At this point, every red soldier is very determined to implement.But the long-lived hometown, the happy garden, left suddenly, and I couldn't help but feel a little bit sad; just to carry out the new task, I followed the order and continued to set off.

In order to avoid the bombing of enemy planes, these two days were night marches, and today is no exception. Comrades who have walked at night have had enough sleep in the morning.After dinner at 5:30 in the afternoon, the reserve number and assembly number were blown from the front and back of each company's garrison, and groups of combatants with guns, transporters, cooks, and commanders, The horses have all gathered at the gathering place, lined up neatly in teams, and all of them are full of energy and ready to go.At this time, the local people also gathered beside the road, as if seeing off.Immediately, the instructors of each company began to carry out political agitation. The instructor of the company next to me said this:

"Comrades! We continue to set off today, because we need to avoid the bombing of enemy planes, so we have to march at night. Today's road is not far away, although there is no moon, as long as we keep up one by one without falling behind, it doesn't matter... The place we arrived today is In our guerrilla zone, there is an organization of the "communist eradication group", so everyone should not be left behind, lest you lose contact and be attacked by the "communist eradication group"... Finally, now we have reached the border of the base area, tomorrow will not be the base area. We must oppose it A few wavering elements fled, thinking that if we temporarily left the base area, we would abandon the base area and flee home. Everyone should know: Although we are temporarily leaving the base area this time, we are not giving up the base area. On the contrary, it is to defend the base area, for our sake. In order to keep our land free from being invaded by the enemy, and to keep our parents and wives from being slaughtered by the enemy, we must resolutely and bravely fight behind the enemy's fortress and destroy the enemy so that the enemy has no choice but to take The troops in the base area will be transferred back to deal with us. In this way, we can not only destroy the enemy, but also regain the base area occupied by the fascists, and defend our workers' and peasants' democratic government, land, and freedom. If we run away now, we will help the enemy's attack on the base area. Offensive, kill us all, right?"

All the comrades replied unanimously and with one voice: "Yes! Oppose the fugitives!" The forward horn of the headquarters blew, and the instructor had to end his speech: "Okay, we are going to set off now. Not much to say, let's sing the song "Until the Last Man" before we set off, shall we?" The whole group answered "Okay!" After the instructor issued the command "one, two, three", the passionate, majestic, orderly and bright singing began to be sung among more than a hundred soldiers: The singing echoed melodiously, and the spirits of the soldiers were even more refreshed, so they followed the troops in front and marched forward.

From time to time I look back at the mountains, houses, brothers, sisters and everything in my hometown. Going farther and farther, about twenty miles, passed a village.This place is already the junction of Chibai, because the "shoveling Communist regiment" often comes to disturb, so the government is no longer here, and there are few people. It is said that over the mountain is the place of "shoveling communist regiment".At this time, it was dusk, and only some red clouds appeared in the west. After another five miles, it will be dark, but as experienced us, there is nothing important. We just walk one by one, heel to heel, and follow the walk in front of us. If it stops, we know that it is not easy to walk ahead. , then stop, and prepare to walk carefully through places that are difficult to walk; if the person in front raises his feet to jump, he will know that there are ditches or stones or mounds, so he will jump in the same way.But the old Cao who was walking in front of me was very weird and deliberately made me fall. He knew that there was a stone protruding from the road in front of him, so he stopped jumping and just stepped over it slowly.I thought there was nothing wrong with it, but when I lifted my foot and walked forward, I fell down and I fell.I was screaming "Ouch, Ouch", but he couldn't stop laughing, and pulled me up pretending to be human.This guy is a real mess!

Then I went up the mountain, and it took about four or five hours to finish.The road is very difficult to walk, with ups and downs, and sometimes it is so steep that you really have to pick it with your hands.Because there are so many teams and they can’t see them, they are often crowded and unable to walk. After a while, the front has passed, and the back has to take a big step to keep up. At this time, everyone shouted, “Keep up and don’t fall behind!” But after a while the team couldn't move anymore and stopped again. We reached the top of the mountain in the middle of the night, and then went down again.The road down the mountain is even more difficult, because there are forests on this side, and there is only a small path that winds down through the forest, and the stones on the road are shaded by the forest, so it is difficult to see the sun, so there are many moss, making it more difficult to walk Now, if you are not careful, you will be slipped down by "car".It turned out that the front team couldn't move like that when going up the mountain, it was the road on this side that caused the trouble.

After finally getting down the mountain, I saw the flames shining brightly in front of me. In the faint light, I could see the outlines of some houses, and the dog kept barking, knowing that this was the campsite.By this time, I had left my home territory and arrived at a place ruled by a gentry and landowner. It was already two o'clock by the time I looked at my watch. When we arrived, the troops in front had already fallen asleep "snoring, dreaming far away"!I heard that when they came, the "shoveling communist group" in the house were arrested together, and they didn't even fire their guns. No wonder they won the battle, we didn't know it yet!

Some of the people here have fled because they don’t understand the Red Army, but there are still some at home who wake up late at night to greet us and talk about their pain of being oppressed and exploited by the landlords and landlords.They were extremely happy when they heard that the "Shovel Communist Regiment" had been wiped out by our army. Here, my love for my hometown is touched again. I think of the freedom and happiness of the people who have benefited from the Agrarian Revolution in the base area. Compared with the pain of these exploited and oppressed people, there is a world of difference!Only by resolutely destroying the enemy to save these suffering people and making the whole country my hometown can more people live a happy and free life.

Tired from walking, I found a handful of grass and fell asleep.Suddenly I thought in my mind: "My hometown, goodbye!" and hoped that everywhere would become my hometown.After a while, I fell asleep leisurely.