Chapter 34 34. The Disappeared Cooking Class

The Long March is known throughout the world for cutting through passes, climbing snow-capped mountains, crossing grasslands, and marching forward bravely.The Long March is synonymous with "enduring the most hardships" in modern society.The suffering of the Long March is unparalleled in the world.The hardships of the supernormal natural conditions and the extremely dangerous war environment all want to put people to death.People who walk on the Long March are hard, and the story of the cooks who walked with heavy loads overcoming many difficulties in the Long March is even more tear-jerking.

There is a cooking class in a company of the Three Army Corps, and there are only 9 cooks.The cooking squad leader, surnamed Qian, is from Ji’an, Jiangxi. He is short, dark-skinned, introverted, and doesn’t talk much; the deputy squad leader, surnamed Liu, is from Xingguo, Jiangxi Province. happy.The old Wang who carried the water was also from Ji'an, Jiangxi, and the rest of them didn't even know their surnames. Even if there were a few cooks who knew their surnames, their names could not be checked, because they all died on the Long March, but their revolutionary spirit But immortal.

During the Long March, they marched and fought every day. In order to reduce the burden on the cooks, the superiors stipulated that each person was only allowed to carry 40 catties. However, they all laid an ambush and put the grain in copper pots. catty.During the party group meeting, someone gave advice to Xie Fangci, the chief of staff of the company, saying that the chief of staff only knew how to take care of the cooks and didn't care about the soldiers. If they couldn't get food at the front, what would the troops eat.The cooking class thought of the soldiers, and the stewards were so moved that they were speechless, so they had to ask them to pick up more points to go on the road.

On the marching road, the cooking class was the most lively: pots collided with bowls, knives collided with pots, and there was a lot of tinkling; the deputy squad leader Lao Liu told a joke and sang a folk song from time to time, which made everyone laugh.As soon as the soldiers saw it, they said, "Look, our troupe is here!" They walked happily, and they ran away blowing their whistles, as if the burden of sixty or seventy catties was not on their shoulders.In fact, the cooking class is the hardest during the march.During the rest of the troops, when others are resting, they have to boil water for the commanders and fighters to drink; when they are camping, when others are sleeping, they have to set the stove, chop firewood, wash vegetables, and cook. They only sleep for two or three hours a night.

After the troops entered Guangxi, there were few people in the mountainous areas, and food supply was difficult, which made the work of the cooking team even heavier.They often have to climb several mountains and run to the front of the army to buy millet.The millet had to be peeled off to eat. Once, they found a small stone mill from nowhere. The squad leader was afraid that he would not be able to find the stone mill in the future, so he bought it from a fellow villager.So the cook added the 134-jin stupid guy.Later, the deputy squad leader picked up a broken sieve and a broken dustpan on the road, and picked them up too.From then on, the cooking troupe was no longer called an opera troupe, but was called a "little mill" by the soldiers.

Soon, the troops sniped the enemy on the southeast mountain of Tucheng, Guizhou, and the company of the cooking squad stood firm on the forward position.The cooking team was separated at the back, and the enemy sent back several times to deliver meals.The soldiers hadn't eaten all day and night, and the deputy squad leader was so anxious that he circled around the stove.He murmured with several cooks for a while, and said to the Chief Steward: "Secretary Chief! Let Lao Wang and I deliver it again!" He carried the rice on his back and left with Lao Wang.The other soldiers in the cooking squad stood on the top of the hill and watched them. They saw Lao Wang in front and the deputy squad leader behind, running quickly past the enemy's blockade.When the soldiers were about to applaud them, the enemy's light machine gun rang out, Lao Wang fell down in a somersault, and then the deputy squad leader also fell down.The other cooks were sad for a while, thinking that they had died.Unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, they came back again.The deputy squad leader jokingly said: "We went to report to Lord Yan, but the kid wouldn't let us in!" It turned out that they fell down deliberately to deceive the enemy.Relying on their vigilance, they finally sent the rice to the position, ensuring the victory of the battle.

As soon as he left Guizhou, the cooking squad leader suffered from eye problems, his eyes were red and swollen like peaches, but he still carried a load of more than 70 catties and followed the troops with a stick.At first, his eyes were just watering tears, and then blood came out of his eyes, but he was not idle, always looking for something to do. Before entering the snow mountain, the superior informed the cooking team to pack lightly.They threw away unnecessary cooking utensils, and only picked up food that could last a day or two for Quan Lian.In addition, each of them brought some ginger, hot peppers and more than a dozen catties of dry firewood.

The Liangzi mountain is very high, and the troops climbed it for a whole day.The air on the mountain is thin, there are white snow everywhere, and there are ice flowers on the branches.After climbing to the top of the mountain, some people couldn't walk anymore, so they sat down to rest.But once I sit down, I can't get up.The cook hurried up to feed the ginger, poured hot pepper water, and pulled him up.At this time, the cooks became hygienists again.The slogan of the cooking class is: "Don't let a soldier die on the mountain!" But when rescuing the soldiers, two cooks fell down. No matter how the teammates yelled, how they fed ginger and pepper water, it was of no avail. .

When they arrived at Maoergai, the troops rested for a period of time.Here, each person prepared another 10 days of dry food, and the cooking team also prepared some extra highland barley. On the second day after entering the grassland, Lao Qian, the head of the cooking squad, proposed to the Chief of Staff: "Chief, the soldiers walked on the muddy ground, and their feet were soaked. How can we not burn some hot water to scald their feet?" The Chief of Staff did not think of this. , but considering that the soldiers marching on the grass work harder than the soldiers, and the rice and cooking are already enough, how can they increase their burden, so they did not agree.But as soon as they arrived at the camp, they boiled the water for washing their feet.The soldiers all praised their cooking class with one voice.

The situation is getting worse.One morning, a cook was walking ahead with a copper pot, and suddenly he fell down and died without a sound.The second cook ran over, with tears on his face, picked up the copper pot and moved forward. The weather on the meadow is changing rapidly: one moment is a strong wind, which blinds people's eyes;At noon, when it rained heavily, the troops stopped to rest. The cooking team hurriedly found a place to set up a pot, and boiled ginger soup and spicy water for the soldiers to keep out the cold.The soup boiled, and the cook who had just picked up the copper pot brought the bowl to the soldiers.As soon as he handed the ginger soup to the soldier, he fell to the ground and stopped breathing.In just half a day, the two cooks died.

When camping at night on the fifth day, the company commander had to add a few soldiers to the cooking squad.Let the cooks know about this, and they recommended the squad leader to meet the company commander.The squad leader said to the company commander: "Company commander, you must not draw people from the company to affect the combat effectiveness of the troops; we bear the burden of the comrades who died, and we can afford it!" The company commander thought about it and felt that his words made sense .At that time, after several battles, there were only about 30 of the more than 100 people left, and they really couldn't be transferred to the cooking team. On the Long March, Laoqian worked the hardest.When marching, the burden of tens of catties is carried on the shoulders, and others are never replaced; when camping, others are always asked to rest, but they take over the work and do it themselves.After a long time, he was skinny and skinny. Everyone advised him to pay more attention to his body, but he always said: "It's okay, I can eat, I can do it, and I won't get tired." He cared about the soldiers very much. Next, also do everything possible to improve life.The local tyrants were given pickled fish and bacon, and I was never willing to taste them, so I left them all for the soldiers.Therefore, when the soldiers mentioned him, they always said proudly: "With our squad leader Qian around, don't worry about being hungry..." In the middle of the night, Lao Qian secretly got up to boil water for his comrades.Knowing that he still had a high fever yesterday, the chief secretary advised him to go back to rest, but he was unwilling to go to rest anyway.The chief secretary got up to help him.Looking at his thin face, the chief secretary suddenly noticed that there were beads of soybean-sized sweat rolling on Lao Qian's face, and felt that something was wrong. He was about to ask him, but he heard the squad leader Qian said to him in a deep voice: "Old Xie, give me a call." I'll order some water!" At this time, the water boiled, and the chief secretary hurriedly lifted the lid of the pot, and suddenly he heard a splash behind him, and when he looked back, Lao Qian was lying on the ground and hadn't moved.The chief secretary hurried forward a few steps and called him, calling him.The fire in the stove was blazing, but his body was gradually getting colder.Some people died on the battlefield, some people died under torture, but our squad leader Qian died in his post - in front of the pot. The cooks woke up, and even the chiefs and soldiers came, and everyone wept bitterly. The next day, the copper pot was carried forward by another cook.Camping every day, the troops still have boiling water and water for washing their feet as usual. When the troops arrived in northern Shaanxi, the copper pot was carried on the shoulders of the chief of staff.When the company commander saw it, he lowered his head; when the soldiers saw it, they shed tears.Everyone didn't say anything, but they knew in their hearts that all the cooks had died.However, during the most arduous Long March, the soldiers of the company of the Three Corps, apart from combat attrition, did not sacrifice a single person due to hunger.Later, the copper pot that marked the achievements of the martyrs was still preciously kept in their company.