Chapter 13 Toshiro Diary (11)

November fifteenth. At 5:30 in the morning, "Xinxing Pill" suddenly stopped sailing for some reason.The ship was still in the midst of a vast ocean.After stopping for more than two hours, it continued to move forward.After sailing for more than an hour, the sea water became turbid, reaching the level of yellow turbidity.Ah, it turned out to be the Yangtze River!The boat was already going upstream.The place where the voyage was initially suspended was not in the sea, but at the mouth of the Yangtze River.In the distance, dozens of large ships were breathing thick smoke, as if they were on the sea. Although the ships were going backwards on the river, they could see neither the shore nor the mountains, as if they were still in the sea.

what!The great Yangtze River!Yangzijiang, the son of the sea! The majesty of the Yangtze River is truly amazing.After continuing to sail for more than three hours, a river bank appeared faintly on the right.Forty minutes later, the river bank on the left could be seen in the distance again, and a destroyer was setting off layers of white waves to pass by the right of our ship.The river water is yellow and turbid, and the poor water quality reminds people of the Baihe River.If the children in China were asked to draw landscape paintings, they would paint the water in yellow, because all they saw was muddy water when they were born. Moreover, if water and soil were integrated, it would be difficult for children to draw rivers and rivers well.I think that when people with poor eyesight and confused eyes look from a distance, they will regard the muddy river water as a broad and flat road.

While we were chattering about where to transport ourselves, we had unknowingly arrived at the Battle of Shanghai. It was said that the friendly army was engaged in a fierce battle with the enemy with the river ditch as the line of defense. The son of Wang Yanghai - the Yangtze River, contains the ups and downs of China for thousands of years, but now the vampire's Chihua (Chihua, a derogatory term for the international communist movement.) wants to manipulate it; the treacherous Britain wants to swallow it; the puppet Chiang Kai-shek Great rivers and mountains were destroyed.The people are living in dire straits, struggling on the way to national subjugation.However, the great Yangtze River is still lingering to the east, and it is with the earth. When you see its horizontal line, you feel like you are in the sea.

As the boat went up, the right bank came into view clearly.About sixty military ships were also seen, full of friendly troops in khaki uniforms.There are warships moored everywhere, probably guarding the Yangtze River in coordination with seaplanes.However, I feel that the Yangtze River embraces them rather than the warships and planes guarding them. After the boat passed Wusongkou, it encountered another team of about fifty ships. This large fleet should be used to transport troops. The crew said to us: "Soldiers! At night, it's like watching fireworks between the two countries!"

On the deck, the crew next to me told me: "After the bombing, there must be a fire." Just as the crew said, a plane flew in from nowhere, and then heard the sound of an explosion, and a raging fire ignited in the direction of Shanghai, which made people feel that this was a modern war.The war in Northern China has not yet reached the level of modern warfare. It should be said that it is just an old-fashioned battle. Usually, foreign ships are supposed to be on the river continuously, but now, there is only one foreign ship, flying the British flag, full of British refugees, going down the river.

According to news reports, our army has captured the enemy's first line of defense.Ninety percent of the Chinese government's fiscal revenue comes from customs duties. The main customs base Shanghai has been owned by our army, and the sea navigation rights up to 1,000 nautical miles have been controlled by our army. For this reason, Britain has taken hostile actions against our army, secretly aiding China, providing them with weapons, ammunition and other items from Hong Kong and Guangdong via the Guangdong-Han Railway. Chiang Kai-shek expected their assistance on the condition of allowing the Soviet Union to carry out redization in Xinjiang and Outer Mongolia. The foreign military attache stationed in Shanghai asserted in the "Times" that the Japanese branch incident would end within two or three months because the Chinese army was training Inexperienced in command and command, incomplete weapons, etc., the fatal thing is that the economy is in trouble.Chiang Kai-shek is shouting: "The life of China is in the western interior!"

This incident is estimated to cost 2.5 billion yen from July to January 20 of the following year, with an average daily cost of 10 million yen.The total cost of the Nissin war was 200 million yen, with an average daily cost of 450,000 yen.The total cost of the Russo-Japanese War was 1.8 billion yen, with an average daily cost of 2 million yen. Of course, the cost of modern warfare is huge. This incident sent people from all walks of life to the battlefield. Even film actors Nakata Koji, Nakayama Sadao, and drama actor Tomada Kyosuke were active on the front line.Among them, Yuda was only 38 years old when he was killed in battle. He graduated from Waseda University with a major in German and devoted himself to the drama career.Even people like him are used as cannon fodder, and we, the unknown people who are ignorant, homeless, and jobless, don't care about dying!

Recently, I often dream about my father.I dreamed of my mother last night. My mother was singing and dancing on the screen, and the audience was full.At this time, I was sitting on the second floor with a beard and an unshaven face. The audience on the second floor said: "The beard grows really long!" They always stared at my face.Mother just danced on the stage with great interest. On November 16, our ship began to shell heavily, and two or three places on the right bank were covered in flames, filled with mist and rain, and it was difficult to see clearly.The order to land was received at ten o'clock at night.However, the order was canceled after a while.

At 8 a.m. on November 17, the engineering ship carrying the water transport team landed again in the chaos. After driving for 30 minutes, it approached the river bank. Countless transport ships brought a large amount of supplies and troops ashore.a mess. Four or five rows of wooden stakes were erected on the banks of the Yangtze River, and ships could not dock. Trench trenches were dug on the embankment, and the shooting holes faced the water. A blockhouse was built on the left side about ten meters upstream of a tributary.Facing such terrain and defense, the difficulty of landing can be imagined.When we landed, I heard that a troop landed successfully three days ago.

This is Hupu Town, almost all the houses have been destroyed, and there is not a single Chinese in sight. There are electric lights that are rarely seen in North China, and some houses have radios, which makes me feel the "modern" atmosphere.On the narrow stone road, horses, troops, vehicles, and grain and grass passed continuously, causing chaos.It was raining, and on the road at the end of the town, soldiers were rushing to the battlefield in the rain.From the outside, it looks as chaotic as an overturned toy box. It is a group of blind men and blind horses.In fact, it is not the case, but the goal is clear and orderly.

The cannon-drawing carriage got stuck in a mud puddle.At this time, the artilleryman driving the carriage yelled: "Forward!" With a "crack" of his whip in the rain, the six horses desperately pulled the swaying artillery carriage out of the pit, and the other artillerymen were united like a support pole. Push forward together.It rained non-stop.It seemed as if the horses, soldiers, and artillery carts had just emerged from the quagmire, and there was a mournful sound of whipping and urging horses and shouting again in the rain.The squadron leader and squad leader were no exception, they were all pushing the cannon carriage forward.Everyone is struggling with nature and the enemy. How far can the artillerymen advance in a day with such heavy carriages?Desperately advancing less than 100 meters a day, the infantry could not count on the supply of food and grass provided by the heavy soldiers and the cover of artillery, so they had to advance on their own. On November 18, each squadron divided the soldiers, some went to the front line, and some stayed in place to guard the equipment.I was very lucky, let me go to the front, and saved the face lost in Tianjin.At that time, I did not march forward with other partners, and was incorporated into the left-behind soldiers as an infirm. There were as many as fifty left-behind soldiers in our squadron. In this battle, I had no hope of surviving, and I was determined to die. Now I think: it is a miracle among miracles that people who go to the battlefield can survive!Although I was fully mentally prepared to die, I was determined to strive for a worthwhile death.Before departure, it was announced that seventeen people would be left behind to serve as rear duties, and I was one of them.The order asked us to start two days after the squadron set off, and to catch up with the troops as soon as the mission was over.The captain of the service team was Second Lieutenant Nishihara, the captain of the first team, and Noguchi and I were the only ones left from our team.I once wanted to ask to go to the front line with the squadron and let others stay behind to serve as logistics, but then I thought, it’s okay not to go, why bother? !Let fate, let nature go.In this case, if you insist on going to the front line, you may encounter the god of death waving at me, so obey the order!Life and death are up to fate, irreversible.It is natural to obey the order to die, or obey the order to live. In the end, I still obey the order and stay on duty. The 33rd and 38th regiments have already entered the frontline battle, and brought back two batches of wounded in small boats.Today, more than 50 wounded from an unknown regiment sailed down the river. It seemed that the battle on the front line was intense. Here, I met a few soldiers who looked like soldiers doing loading and unloading operations. They were dressed in Japanese military uniforms and helmets, but they looked like Chinese people.I thought they were defectors or captives, so they put on Japanese military uniforms, but after inquiring, I found out that they were "shengfan" [shengfan, barbarians (a derogatory name for the Gaoshan people when Japan ruled Taiwan) belonging to the Taiwan army. ] Usually when people hear the word "shengfan", they immediately think of ferocity and savagery, but they are all meek and ordinary people. I heard that they have no monthly salary for 40 days, and they are members of the army.They asked us about the Japanese soldier's allowance, and they were surprised to find that their own was higher than ours. The scenery of Central China is completely different from that of North China, almost the same as that of the mainland. There are bamboo forests, pines and cypresses, and various miscellaneous trees, and mountains can be seen.The structure of the house is not much different from that in the mainland. The "herringbone" roof is covered with pancake-style tiles, which has never been seen in North China.Facing this kind of scenery, we did not feel far away from the inland and in China.It is said that the area around Hupu Town used to be Kobo Daishi (Hongbo Daishi, 774-835), that is, Kukai, a monk in the early Heian period, and the ancestor of the Japanese Shingon sect. In 804 (the 20th year of Tang Zhenyuan), together with Zuicheng and others, he sent Tang envoys to China. He returned to China in 806 (the first year of Tang Yuanhe). ) visited places.The stench of human and horse manure was everywhere in the town.Suddenly, a stern reprimand came from a dilapidated room: "Are you afraid of going to the fire line?" "You're afraid of war! You're embarrassing the Japanese! You're embarrassing the Japanese army! Bastard! coward! " "You die in the hospital!" "I'm going! Let's go together! I'm not afraid of war!" "Come on! Go to the hospital!" Painful groans and low sobs came from the low and damp earthen house.It turned out that the team leader was reprimanding a recruit who had to be hospitalized due to chancre, suspecting that he was afraid of going to the battlefield, so he slapped him twice.Because on the battlefield, apart from being wounded, we can't be considered sick. We can only die in battle.Death in battle, the best doctor awaits us; enemy bullets, the greatest injection awaits us; and the battlefield, the largest hospital, where all medical instruments are filled with gunpowder.That recruit should be dragging his heavy legs to let the enemy's bullets inject him for a thorough cure.You have made a shameful mistake, poor recruit! It was finally decided that we servicemen rushed to the front the next morning. I took a boat to make contact about food.In this battle, I was ready to sacrifice, wrote the last letter to my parents, and gave the crew a piece of silver stolen from Northern China, and asked him to send the letter. I wrote to my father in a letter: I will be a pile of bones in this battle, and this is my last letter.If I die in battle, please give Shigeichi to Chuansuke as an adopted son... Please send my best regards to the whole family! November nineteenth.In the morning, it was originally planned to go ashore with a day's rations for twenty-two people.However, the strong wind that blew up from last night has now turned into a storm, and there are big waves in the Yangtze River, making it impossible to sail.I feel very sympathetic to the more than twenty people on the shore. They have no food and drinking water. In front of me is a row of lunch boxes full of rice and water jugs full of water. They have to spend the day on the "Xinxing Maru" boat.In the large empty cabin, the baggage soldiers were playing poker or playing cards in groups of three or four.They always complain about not having enough to eat and feel hungry all the time.It was a blessing in disguise, I have a lot of rice left here, enough for me to feed myself for twenty-two days.I can exchange rice for cigarettes, and each box of rice can be exchanged for a pack of Golden Bat cigarettes. The Yangtze River is indeed a big river, with turbulent waves no less than the sea, and the masts of countless military ships stand in the misty rain. At night, too cold to sleep in the empty cabin, I bought whiskey and Russian Toffee from the crew and took a hot bath.Covered with four or five mats, drinking whiskey and chewing Russian sugar, I miss the people in my hometown. November 20th.Today, the storm did not stop for a moment, but it got bigger and bigger. An old sailor who had been to the Siberian battlefield told me about the situation that year, and also said: "The battle in Shanghai is very difficult to fight, not like Nanjing. Surrounded by mountains, we must be mentally prepared to attack Lushun." Recently, I often dream about my adoptive mother. November twenty-first.Today, the wind and waves are still high on the river, making it impossible to sail.But after the rain stopped, the sky cleared up, so we hitchhiked a boat and went ashore.The land is in chaos, human feces are everywhere, and there is nowhere to stay.The most hateful thing is that Japanese businessmen actually engaged in wicked and traitorous activities in Hupu Town.In the corner of the destroyed house, a group of Jewish egoists are making bad yokan from confiscated red beans.They brought five or six drawers from someone's house, and poured the mixture of red beans, cabbage and sugar into them.The soldiers who had lost the sweetness in their mouths flocked to it as if they had found an oasis in the desert, so there were crowds of people in front of this counterfeit store, and people rushed to buy it.A soldier pushed his way through the crowd, held out his hand, and shouted, "Give me fifty!" A nasty fellow cut off what would normally be bought for ten with a navy knife and wrapped it in notebook paper that must have been confiscated Handed over.Whether you buy one yuan or one yuan and fifty yuan, the amount given is almost the same. The shopkeeper operated the knife with his right hand, and with his left hand, he stuffed large amounts of paper money issued by the Bank of Korea into his pocket.His belly was filled with food to satisfy his appetite, and his waistline was filled with money to satisfy his desire for money: Seeing that his huge belly could hardly move. Despite the huge profits, the soldiers did not hesitate to rush to buy them with the money they earned from hard work. Soldiers have to buy it no matter how expensive it is.More and more people are buying, and the price is getting higher and higher. No matter how high the price is, people will buy it. On the battlefield, compared with money and things, things are the first.Soldiers may die tomorrow, and there is nothing to buy on the battlefield, so it is better to spend all the money on hand.Usually, people cut down on food and clothing in order to save money. This is not greed for money, but the way of housekeeping.Therefore, I am deeply indignant when I see what this Japanese businessman has done.This is out-and-out treason and Jewish egoism.It's outrageous that robbers are taking money from soldiers who might go to heaven tomorrow.Out-and-out traitor!Although I really wanted to have a good meal at that time, but I didn't dare to reach out when I saw it was too dirty. In addition, I hated the merchants, and at the same time hated those soldiers who were like hungry wolves without promise and ambition. Angry gaze. Why don't these soldiers hate and spurn this traitorous robber businessman? This all-pervasive businessman, who came to the battlefield with the purpose of racking his brains to plunder the soldiers' money, is an abominable fellow. Evil comes with evil.A few hours later, the merchant was arrested by the gendarme. In the cloudy rain, a tented boat was shaken from the upstream "Yi Yi Ya Ya" and contained 30 wounded people. November twenty-second.Today, we go to the front lines.On the muddy road, the artillerymen pushed the cannon forward like a group of headless chickens, complaining all the way. The horses stopped and wailed, and the soldiers sighed angrily: "My body is covered with mud, and it took a lot of effort to advance fifty meters!" At this speed, they could not keep up with the attack on Nanjing.You know, the infantry advances forty kilometers a day. Meili is a big town, which has been devastated by the bombing.Electric lights are also installed in this town.There are also two-story buildings, which are absolutely not seen in Beizhina. The two-story building seems to have a cultural atmosphere, and the electric lights are suitable for a cultural city, but China is culturally backward after all.The walls on both sides of every house are made of thin bricks.There are piles of rubble everywhere in the town, dilapidated, and there is no place to stand.At the end of the town there is a tall tower, the top of which has been blown up, and the dead branches of late autumn are blowing, and the bell has dimmed and is crumbling.We originally planned to stay in Meili for one night, but because there was no room to live in, we had to move on.After dark, camping in a small village.At night, the goat bleats pitifully like a baby, and the sad "bleat" sound makes the late autumn night even more miserable and sad.There were no villagers in the village. When I walked into a house that was about to collapse, I saw two Chinese people who were seriously ill and could not escape, lying and moaning, looking disgusting. Hundreds of catties of rice are piled high in the well-swept yard, and every grain is the crystallization of the hard work of kind farmers.At present, they are forced to flee from home, even throwing away the opportunity to sell the rice they have worked hard for a year for money. We don’t need to collect firewood for cooking and boiling water here. We set a fire on the rice pile and solve all the problems of boiling water, cooking and roasting the fire.The rice is burned all night long, causing great waste. That night, I had a dream like this: People from my hometown brought a movie, left a teaser poster and went back. I asked my mother to hang it up, but she didn't, and I was furious.My mother said: "The clerk said he would hang up, so I didn't hang up!" I was with my father at Narakuchi Muroi (the word in the original manuscript is unclear.) House, Tokidai Saburo came to my house to borrow money from my father.At seven o'clock in the morning, I walked into the main room and saw him sitting there impatiently. At this time, the mother was also on the side, because both parties who borrowed money felt that it was difficult to speak, so they sat silently facing each other. At around twelve o'clock in the middle of the night, I went to Shizuko's place, and there seemed to be a geisha present. November 23rd. I had a dream last night, and I woke up very late this morning, leaving at nine o'clock.The sky darkened, and the muddy road made it difficult to move.The Taiwanese heavy soldiers fell behind, and they walked together, panting and moving forward.Amidst the scolding of the heavy soldiers, the freshmen pushed their carts forward on the muddy road. It is late autumn, the autumn wind is bleak, and the fallen leaves are falling.Birds wailed in the treetops.The corpses of the enemy soldiers who died of hatred were thrown in the muddy water like pies, glaring.The baggage soldiers stepped on the corpses one by one, and the baggage carts ran over the corpses one by one.The river was full of water and gurgling.On the trees by the river, some leaves are dyed red and yellow, while others are still green, luxuriant and lively.There is a branch hanging upside down in the water, making ripples, and the sight is unforgettable to me. I reached out and tried the river water, it was freezing cold.At this time, five or six tent boats transporting the wounded came down the river from the upper reaches.The wounded with bandages on their heads, hands, and chests stared listlessly at the water surface in a daze. What were they thinking?One of the wounded raised his head. I gave him a thank you nod, and he gave me a small nod.The canopy boat was like a folded bamboo leaf, drifting past us silently.In the bushes came the chirping of birds foraging. We go down the river.It is distressing to see the continuous flow of ships carrying the wounded down the river. The Chinese soldiers dropped ten heavy guns on the side of the road, all excellent guns, and a lot of ammunition was scattered.It may be that the roads are not good, and the Japanese army pursued them, so they couldn't take it away. There is a mountain far away. I heard that Changshu City is at the foot of the mountain.We picked up the pace of our march on the muddy road.In the afternoon, I camped in a small village surrounded by a small river. In the river, dozens of ducks were playing in the water. There were leaves blown by the cold wind floating on the water, and maple leaves hanging upside down on the river. It was a golden autumn scene. In the evening, I slaughtered a pig and had a delicious meal. On November 24th, marched towards Changshu at 7:30 in the morning.Changshu is the seat of the county and is a beautiful city.Spacious stone roads, row upon row of shops and hotels, since entering Central China, what is particularly striking is that anti-Japanese propaganda texts are written everywhere on the walls, which is rarely seen in North China.This shows how resolute the anti-Japanese training is here, and how high the anti-Japanese enthusiasm of the people is.Everyone commented: Zhongzhina's anti-Japanese ideology is very firm, you can't be soft on them, kill them if you want, and rob them if you want!Northern China is the sphere of influence under our control, and we cannot burn, kill or loot without authorization. We've looted everything from camera shops to watch shops, and it's a county with lights and telephones.The Twelfth Squadron was stationed there.There, I met Kido-kun, a ronin, by chance, and he gave me some sugar.The road after leaving Changshu City is easy to walk, comparable to that in the mainland, and there are several field heavy artillery on the road.The trucks pulled these cannons, and the huge barrels passed us majestically.The corpses of the enemy soldiers on the road were crushed by cars and baggage trucks so that their internal organs flowed out everywhere, which was unbearable to see. The civilian telephone lines have been occupied by our army, and the lighting lines have been cut off.Our army's trucks flowed endlessly on the five wide roads.On the march the next day, I caught a boy to carry my backpack for me.In the distance came the sound of rumbling cannons, like thunder.The line of fire is approaching.So, we quickened our pace, and the boy followed silently with his backpack on his back.On the way, he suddenly found that the team leader Nishimoto was standing by the roadside with his hand on his left abdomen.I wonder, why is Nishimoto here alone? "What are you doing here?" "Damn it! There was an enemy army on the hill about a mile ahead, and he was shot in the stomach when he attacked." "Only you?" "Maeyama was killed, and Takebashi-kun was injured in the abdomen and went to the rear. The team leader, Warrant Officer Uchiyama, was also killed. Other teams and units also suffered heavy casualties. Ono Cao's long leg was also pierced by bullets. He and other wounded were taken in. Over there in the village." Said, Captain Nishimoto pointed to the woods about 200 meters away from here.We were all taken aback when we heard this.Qianshan, who was still in high spirits when they broke up in Hupu Town, died, Zhuqiao and Nishimoto were seriously injured, and even Warrant Officer Uchiyama died.We were very surprised by such a big change after only a few days of separation.It is said that the first brigade has been ordered to force the vanguard and rush to the front line by truck.At ten o'clock in the morning on the 23rd, we encountered the enemy.The terrible thing is that our army has neither artillery nor heavy machine guns.Our squad leader was negligent and let the grenadier (a small weapon that fires cannonballs, the shells are loaded from the barrel and have a relatively short range) to stay behind to do duties. As a result, the grenadier became silent.According to the original plan, the rear duties could be completed in a few hours, and the squad leader left the loader without hesitation.Unexpectedly, a strong wind blew up, the service work was delayed, and an accident happened.Our third team is on duty with Corporal Sasuke.