Chapter 23 Toshiro Diary (21)

February 27th. I had a whole day of rest yesterday, and this morning I lined up around the city and went to the city wall for exercise.I was a battalion soldier in the headquarters of the regiment, so I went back to the camp halfway through the exercise. At this time, Lieutenant Takiguchi told me: "The squadron leader ordered everyone to go out to exercise, and take this opportunity to check whether the guns have been maintained, and put those that have not been maintained. The maintenance guns were taken away." Although my gun was not taken away by him, I was still irritated by the despicable behavior of the squadron leader.

The soldiers who returned to the camp one after another after the exercises all cursed at the squadron leader.It would be fine if a bastard corporal did such a thing, how could a squadron leader take such a despicable method?As the squadron leader, he should have announced in a dignified manner before the inspection: "Today we will inspect the weapons." Everyone already disliked Squadron Leader Moriyama.It can be said that he exposed his despicable personality and lost the trust of the soldiers. True leadership does not depend on the military hierarchy to command soldiers.The soldiers in our squadron seem to obey orders, but in fact, everyone looks down on the squadron leader from the bottom of their hearts.A good leader commands the troops because of his noble personality and is respected by the soldiers.Otherwise, it cannot be called true unity.

We have nothing to do all day, and at most go to stand guard.Pork and eggs are served openly, as much as you want.We set a cooking duty schedule and took turns to cook. The soldiers on duty showed their unique skills, which made us a real treat. There is no task, we are full of wine and food every day, and live a happy life under the warm sunshine in early spring. Xinxiang is a dirty Chinese city. The city wall looks majestic and solid on the outside, as if it was built of bricks, but the inside is an earthen wall piled up with mud.Especially the North City Gate, small and broken, crumbling.

We often go to the North Gate to stand guard.After leaving the north gate, there is a muddy river with countless sailboats floating on the river.There is a bridge over the river, and you can see a bathhouse when you walk across the bridge.When it was our squadron's turn to take a bath, everyone would come to this bathhouse.There are many stalls lined up on both sides of the bridge, some selling peanuts, food and drink—not rice but porridge, steamed buns, and candies.The Chinese people who come and go stand and eat by the roadside, which is a very natural thing for them. People in China have a special liking for raising birds, and you can see them raising small birds like larks anywhere in Northern China.Even in the stalls by the bridge, you can hear the melodious chirping of larks.The stall owner listened to the melodious birdsong while doing business.The people passing by heard the sound of the birds and turned their faces to admire their dancing figures.

The larks sang loudly on the bridge, and the tunes fluctuated from high to low, with many changes. The blue sky is thousands of miles away, the wind is gently brushing people's faces, the air is as fresh as milk, the water vapor is curling up on the ground, and the land is full of spring. In the boats floating on the river, some Chinese people catch lice calmly while basking in the sun. You can also see mobile hairdressing stalls here, like noodle stalls in the mainland, carrying burdens on the street to attract customers.Pushers, toothbrush-like brushes, and laundry soap are placed on one end of the pole, and a washbasin is placed on the other end. Wearing a dirty white cloth apron, they do business along the street.When it comes to haircuts, people in Central China grow their hair, but people in North China are bald.Soldiers and Chinese people shaved their heads while basking in the sun by the roadside.Soldiers didn't want to apply laundry soap on a toothbrush-like brush to wash their faces, so they brought their own face soap, which cost ten yuan a head.

It seems that the enemy army has been stationed in Xinxiang, and some people still have a map of the distribution of the Chinese army's dormitories.The enemy poisoned all the wells before fleeing, so none of the wells could be used.Only muddy river water can be used for eating, drinking and washing.Residents also use this river water, and those unsanitary Chinese people on sailboats also dumped excrement into the river. Even so, this kind of muddy water is still very valuable, and some people sell it.We use petroleum cans for water, and six cans cost ten cents. The wells in China are round wells with a diameter of about two feet, very simple, just a hole in the ground, surrounded by nothing; the inside of the well is not built with bricks, and the soil can easily fall into the well.I often wonder how they are so stupid.Plus, they have no concept of "drainage" at all.There is no drain in the kitchen, but the sewage is filled in a bucket, and when it is full, it is picked out and dumped.

No matter where we camped, the first thing we did was build toilets.It can be said that there is no toilet in China. To have a toilet is to dig a hole five inches wide, two feet long, and five inches deep, and then put two slender stones on the ground.As long as the soldiers stayed overnight, this kind of "toilet" would overflow with feces and become unusable. In this case, a hundred soldiers would need a hundred of these toilets, because no one would empty their hands where others had used them. Therefore, if you want to stay in one place for a long time, the first thing you need to do is to build a toilet.

Why are the toilets of the Chinese people so crude?I think it may be mainly because the farmers often suffer from the shortage of fertilizers. Generally speaking, they have to come to the city several times a day to pick up manure in bamboo baskets, so that the manure here will not accumulate like in Japan. Of course, this is not the only reason, but more importantly, the Chinese people lack a sense of cleanliness. Their toilet facilities are extremely simple, or more precisely, they don't have any facilities, they just designate a place to relieve their hands.There is no door, no walls, completely exposed, and women seem to relieve themselves in this kind of place.The difference is that the people of Central China use urinals or toilets painted red.

There is no boundary between the farmland and the field ridge in Northern China. The field ridge is just a path stepped on in the field. In our opinion, even the path stepped on should be in a straight line, but on the boundless plain, they stepped on it. The road out is tortuous.Maybe the first person walked a crooked path, and the second and third people walked along it without thinking, right?It's a lot like the snow trails in my hometown. The houses in Northern China are all in the shape of a boxy matchbox. Going south, the flat roofs gradually take on the shape of hills. This is because Northern China is dry and rainless, so the roofs are built flat with earth.

The roofs in this area are covered with tiles, but the tiles are only a quarter of the thickness of Japan. The ceiling was made of bamboo netting and pasted with a layer of dirty paper, and the walls were also pasted with paper. A comrade who stood guard at the headquarters of the regiment told me one thing.It is said that two soldiers of the field artillery team went to a place one thousand meters away from the city to requisition military supplies without weapons. As a result, one was almost killed, and the other escaped.The soldier who almost died lost his coat and only had a shirt on. He was naked from the waist down. He was beaten to the point of bleeding and his legs were also shot. He was in a near-death state. It is said that he was rescued. back.Judging from the lack of clothing on his lower body, he may have been attacked while raping a woman!

After receiving the report, the wing adjutant suggested setting a fire and reducing the village to ashes.But the team leader disagreed, on the grounds that burning down a village was easy, but it would arouse resentment among the villagers in the area, and the appeasement work could not be completed satisfactorily.Everything should be considered from the long-term, and the long-term fishing is a big fish.Finally the captain ordered that the unarmed soldier be punished. Today is March 1st, and we could have gone out.The days with "one" in the calendar are out days.But I stayed in the house because there was nowhere else to go, either to a North Korean brothel. Shenkou, Second Lieutenant Murashita and I bought two bottles of world long brand wine for 80 yuan and drank heavily. While drinking was hot, we heard about the incident.Taking advantage of the drunkenness, we yelled, "That village should be burned to the ground!" "The anti-Japanese sentiment that has been brewing for 20 years cannot be appeased for ten days. The 20 days of propaganda disappeared, and they began to have a good impression of the Japanese army and became obedient citizens of the Japanese army.The villagers in this area have never experienced the horror of war, the army and the bullets, so they don't respect soldiers.They should be severely suppressed first, let them suffer from the iron rod, and then use appeasement methods after they feel awe of the Japanese army.It should be set on fire and let that village taste the taste of massacre. " The three of us were a little drunk, and the topic kept changing, and finally we talked about Takiguchi's beliefs.Takiguchi joins hands to worship God every morning, so I said, "Faith is actually like MSG. Why do you say that? With faith, people will be stronger, and the role of faith is equivalent to MSG that increases the taste of dishes." Second Lieutenant Murashita took over the conversation: "If faith is monosodium glutamate, wouldn't temples and shrines become manufacturers?" After speaking, he laughed and raised his neck to drink another cup. I asked Takiguchi: "Why do you pray to the gods to bless you every day? I haven't worshiped the gods before. You shouldn't ask the gods to protect you from promotion and wealth, and the prosperity of your children and grandchildren?" "I'm not doing that! I'm just worshiping the gods." "But there is always a motive, right? I remember you didn't have this habit when you first set off!" "It does have a motive." "What motive was that?" He didn't answer.I think he must have been helpless in the face of a huge crisis, so he turned to the gods to pray for a miracle.He kept his mouth shut because he thought that if he revealed his motive, we might underestimate him. March 3rd. An entertainment center was added in front of our dormitory, which was arranged by the comfort team.There was a record player in the empty room, and there were five or six girls serving tea. The equipment is a bit rudimentary, but it is still a pleasant thing to be able to listen to long-lost records. Xinxiang is a small and dirty place. March 4th. On the bumpy roads inside and outside the city gate, except for soldiers coming and going, it is difficult to see residents.Speaking of shops, there is only one dirty restaurant, but it is more prosperous near the station outside the city.On the open-air stalls on the side of the road, some people were selling antiques and other things.Spread a straw mat on the ground, put antiques, scraps, daily necessities, etc., and it becomes a stall.Everything on the stall was covered with a thick layer of dust.Turn a little to the right and you'll see the smelly, overcrowded slums. Today is Second Lieutenant Murashita's day shift, and Nakanoshima and I will patrol behind him. We walked into the prostitution den of the Chinese.It was filthy inside, the room was full of dust.In the stove, which is more than two feet five inches wide and about six feet long, straw is placed on the floor, and a thin layer of dirty bedding is spread on it, on which the woman lies.They are women rather than bitches, ranging in age from twelve or thirteen to thirty-five or sixteen.There were also some prostitutes who had husbands. We asked her husband, "Let's have fun, is that good?" He replied, "That's good!" Then he stood there in a daze holding the child. We asked him: "Is this woman your wife?" He replied: "Yes." Asked the woman: "Is this man your husband?" She also replied: "Yes." We asked her again: "This child Is it yours?" She answered with a nod, and then led the guest to the room in front of her husband, with a look of special concern.And the husband seemed to be looking forward to a few more guests.These prostitution dens are connected to each other, almost all of them are a family.There are grandmothers, mothers, and husbands, and the whole family lives off the prostitution of their wives and daughters. With bayonets in hand, we walked through each bathroom one by one, making the prostitutes take off their pants for fun.When they took off their trousers, they saw that they were not wearing any underwear, and their lower bodies were directly exposed.We looked all the way over, and our heads ached from the peculiar stench here. "Bah! Bah!" we spat as we walked out of the brothel. Back in the dormitory, someone was reading the Yomiuri Shimbun aloud: "According to the new situation, in order to ensure the long-term and sustained war and to strengthen the force, some of the expeditionary troops will be reorganized and replaced." We yelled, "If only we were this part of the army!" The news cheered the soldiers and set off a strong homecoming sentiment among the soldiers. March 6th. The whereabouts of remnants can be found everywhere. At eleven o'clock in the morning, the spring is warm.I was standing guard at the north gate leisurely when the horns for emergency assembly came.The squadron immediately set off in three light trucks.After the squadron set off, the battalion soldiers also received the order to set off immediately. We battalion soldiers and the soldiers of the heavy machine gun unit rode in the same vehicle and followed closely behind the squadron. According to reports, 500 bandit soldiers attacked the railway team near Jixian County. Our truck drove at full speed for two and a half hours, kicking up dust and dust, and arrived at Jixian County (Weihui). The Fourth Squadron (Saka Team (Saka Team, troop name. The squadron leader of this team is surnamed Saka. At that time, in order to keep military secrets, the Japanese army used the commander’s surname when calling the troops.)) was stationed in the girls’ school in Jixian County.The school is poorly equipped and very informal.The blackboard is the wall painted black with ink, and the classroom also gives people an empty and lifeless feeling.This is at most a private school in Japan. The location of the attack was five kilometers away from Ji County. When we arrived, we only saw the massacred corpses. The enemy had already fled with triumphant songs.We stopped at a small station between Ji County and Daokou Town.We stopped on the platform, waiting for the armored train laden with dead bodies. The beginning of March in Northern China is the season when willows sprout and spring breeze blows.The air on the earth is fresh, exuding a milk-like sweet smell.At this time when all things are recovering, the warm wind reminds me of the mountains and rivers of my hometown, my parents, and the days and nights I spent with my lovers. The railway connecting Ji County and Daokou Town was destroyed by the enemy before they fled. They also informed the villagers that they could use the sleepers as firewood. Tossed aside. Forty-five engineers from the railway team were repairing the damaged part of the railway south of Zhangde on the Ping-Han line. They had to connect this section of the track, so they recruited about 50 farmers and coolies to do manual work.The sky is blue, the wind is warm, and the fog rising from the ground makes everything look like a dream. There are no shells, no harsh gunshots, and no noise of the city can be heard here. There is only warmth. The sun and the sound of pickaxes digging.The engineers and soldiers took off their jackets and buried themselves in their work half naked. In fact, three days ago, there was news that thousands of remnants of the enemy would come to attack.The villagers here have a good impression of the Japanese army, but they have lingering fears about the brutality of the remnant enemy. They often report the news to the engineers working nearby before the remnant enemy attacks. The central capital pays attention to strengthening vigilance. The intelligence reached their ears three days ago, and nothing happened on the first and second day, so they relaxed their vigilance. After breakfast, bathed in the spring breeze, humming a ditty, the engineers and soldiers talked about when they would return to China, and at the same time described the mountains and rivers of their hometown in their hearts.Thus began their day's work. The pickaxes glistened in the sun, and the half-naked muscular body was browned by the sun, and the back was wet with sweat.They were completely unaware of the danger of death lurking in this peaceful, serene air.The fifty coolies also worked very hard, and the nearby villagers also joined in, and the project progressed rapidly. The sappers were a hundred meters away from where they swung their guns.They relaxed the strings and didn't expect any accidents at all, so they just kept their heads down and worked hard.One of them stopped the pickaxe in his hand and took a deep breath.At this time, he saw people who looked like farmers slowly approaching from all around.But the engineers and soldiers were still unaware of the danger, because the nearby villagers also joined the labor of fifty coolies, so it was impossible to tell which were the remnants of the enemy and which were coolies.The engineers and soldiers only felt that there seemed to be too many coolies today. They felt that something was wrong, but then they felt that everything was normal. They continued to swing their picks to dig the rails.When an ominous omen flashed across their minds and they looked around again, they saw three plainclothes team members with red cloth strips hanging around their waists, with their left wrists bent and fierce eyes flashing, approaching them.Ah, it's a pistol!The right hand is holding a pistol, aiming at them!Immediately afterwards, many plainclothes team members approached them viciously like wolves.The man with the red cloth around his waist seems to be their leader.When the engineers panicked, the fifty coolies scattered like exploded grenades, leaving only these engineers tightly surrounded by the enemy.The guns are all placed a hundred meters away, how can I get them?They regretted their negligence, and they didn't know how to fight at all, so they could only stand up and roar. Facing pistols, they had to wave their pickaxes to fight.They knew that the time of death was imminent, so they went forward to fight with all their strength.The pistol rang, the trigger of the rifle was pulled, the machine gun was firing, the pickaxe flew into the sky, and the green dragon knife was waving overhead. Blood stained the railway, brains burst, and there were screams and groans everywhere.When the two sides were confronting each other, the cowardly captain of the second lieutenant actually left forty or so of his subordinates and hurried towards the armored train.How vile and irresponsible he was!The enemy aimed fire at the doors of the armored train.The muzzle of the mortar was also aimed at the train, and the team leader panicked, only thinking about his own personal safety.The train had just started, and seven engineers rushed to the entrance of the armored train, and the enemy's bullets were concentrated on the door.At this time, the cowardly, selfish, ruthless and stupid team leader actually closed the door with a "bang". "Little leader! Little leader!!" The seven engineers shouted loudly, holding on to the door tightly, but the iron door was closed tightly, and the train galloped at full speed.Behind the train, comrades fought bloody battles, screaming and groaning endlessly.Seven engineers called the team leader "a son of a bitch" and let go of the car door. The train billowed a puff of black smoke, leaving them behind.All seven of them lay on the ground, looking for places where the enemy was weak.They held rifles from the gun rack in their hands, and they were shooting everywhere while looking for a place to break out.They saw three enemy soldiers crawling ahead. Seven engineers shouted: "Break out from there!" and rushed up waving their bayonet-mounted rifles. Three enemy soldiers threw a stone-like object, turned and fled.One of the engineers picked up the object thrown by the enemy soldier and saw that it was an iron cylinder. He shouted: "Bastard!" When the engineers heard the explosion, they knew it was a grenade. They had never seen a grenade before!When they tried their best to escape for their lives, half of their comrades had already fallen, and some comrades roared like wild beasts and fought heroically with the enemy. At this time, dozens of enemies came to chase the seven engineers.Among these seven people, there was a corps leader who served as the team leader.When the seven of them climbed over an earth embankment, the corporal leader let the other six engineers escape first, and stopped by himself to shoot for protection.One person, two people, three people, the enemy fell in response, but they were still approaching.The corporal fought desperately, and he had already made up his mind to fight to the death. When the six escaped soldiers were about to run around a house, they turned around and saw the corporal wielding a bayonet, fighting fiercely with the enemy's green dragon sword. The six soldiers knew that they could not save the corporal.Finally, dozens of enemies swung the Green Dragon Saber and chopped at the corporal leader. The corporal leader was covered in blood and immediately fell to the ground and died.The six soldiers watched the corporal leader being killed, held back their tears, and continued to flee for their lives. When the six soldiers ran to the railway garrison out of breath, their squad leader, the cowardly second lieutenant who left his troops and escaped by train alone, spat in their faces and cursed : "Are you free? When the enemy attacked, you didn't even bring your guns, you just ran for your life in a panic, and didn't respond to the fight at all. Look at your ugly face! You don't need to contact the headquarters, this is my duty! " The six people were already exhausted, but when they heard his roar, the anger in their hearts became more intense.As the saying goes, "Men don't flick their tears lightly", but tears flowed from their eyes. Although they didn't say a word of resistance, they stared at their boss with beast-like hatred in their eyes.They may be roaring in their hearts: "The team leader should command the team to fight. You should not abandon the team members, give up the command, and run for your life alone. If you want to contact the headquarters, you can order the soldiers to do it. You are obviously sophistry, you are a coward!" After receiving the report, the security team set off immediately.But the team members took the wrong direction, and when they turned back halfway and arrived at the scene of the attack, there was no trace of the enemy. The villagers in the nearby villages also closed their doors and fled separately. moans. The corpses of the thirty-seven soldiers who were brutally killed are horrific, and the atrocities committed by the enemy soldiers are heinous.Some soldiers had their eyes gouged out, some had their noses cut off, some had their genitals cut off, some had their brains slit, and some were missing arms and legs.They were all stripped naked and lying there naked.The members of the rescue team had tears of mourning in their eyes, and a flame of anger burning in their hearts. In this way, thirty-seven naked corpses were put side by side on the uncovered train, covered with thatch and brought back. Just when we set off, there was a reserve private first class born in Kumano County, named Kumano Junichi, who was thirty-five years old this year.On the truck, he accidentally inserted the gun between the battery and the gas tank, and the gun was snapped in two, and he was sentenced to two days of confinement.This was mainly due to the fact that the lieutenant was out urging us into a panic, and it can almost be said that it was caused by force majeure.We all sympathized with Kumano, so we all pleaded with the lieutenant.Perhaps it was because we all pleaded for him that the lieutenant only fined him two days of confinement. Yesterday, private first class Jucang accidentally dropped his gun on the ground when he was changing guards, damaging the sight on the gun.For this, he was fined five days in confinement. Regarding this matter, we discussed in private: "We are fighting on the line of life and death. We don't know whether we will die or live tomorrow. It is really inappropriate to put us in confinement for such a trivial matter." Of course, it is confinement. It's just a written statement. In fact, it means shutting up in your own room and thinking about your mistakes, but you have to write it down in the army manual, so everyone thinks it is a shameful thing. March tenth. I was ordered to stand guard at the North Gate.It is stipulated that Chinese people should take off their hats and salute to us when passing the card.People who think about getting stuck without saluting are often beaten by us with sticks.Those who saluted but behaved improperly were also beaten.Some people were beaten to the point of bleeding. We are not troubled by livelihood, nor worry about financial income, and live a simple life.A gust of warm wind also makes us full of joy. Sitting in the outpost, we enthusiastically rate the girls we come and go, and we never get tired of it.Private First Class Beikou mentioned that a few days ago, he happened to meet a girl in the entertainment center next to our dormitory who was using the bathroom, so he ran up to him and said, "Let's have fun, shall we?" I kicked my foot and came back happily. If a man kicked him, he'd be furious and start a fight.It seems that women are still very cheap.Even if they were women from the enemy country, these male soldiers did not want to beat them.Some girls salute very irregularly when passing the customs, but when they see their smiling faces, the bearded sentry will not raise his stick. At ten o'clock in the evening, when we were chatting around the fire, Mr. Morisaki Cao, who had driven a truck to Zhangde to pick up letters three days ago, came back, and I received thirty letters at once. I jumped up and down for joy.For us, there is nothing more exciting than receiving letters from our hometown.This is happier than we have gone through untold hardships to attack the next military town. I went through all the names of the writers first, and then I wanted to read which letter first.