Chapter 44 5. The commander of the Kuomintang army's theater is cheating

In August 1938, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Lu Zhonglin as chairman of the Hebei Provincial Government.For his appointment, the Eighth Route Army adopted a welcoming and cooperative attitude.For his safety, the Eighth Route Army sent a special escort.When passing through Changzhi, Shanxi, Peng Dehuai also had two days of talks with him, and it was agreed that the candidates for the administrative regions and subregions of southern Hebei and Hebei would remain unchanged from those appointed by the Eighth Route Army. However, as soon as Lu Zhonglin entered Nangong in southern Hebei, he broke the previous agreement and wanted to revoke the office of the director of the southern Hebei administration.At the same time, he vigorously recruited local armed forces, and the remnants of the Kuomintang army and local bandit forces gathered under his command, taking advantage of the situation to provoke the Eighth Route Army.

Lu Zhonglin's sudden change was beyond Liu Bocheng's expectation.Liu Bocheng still remembers that he passed through Changzhi, Shanxi when he took office. After Peng Dehuai had talks with him, Liu Bocheng also had talks with him and discussed with him some specific matters about his entry into Nangong.At that time, Lu Zhonglin's attitude was still enthusiastic, and Liu Bocheng also placed great hopes in him. For this reason, he telegraphed Xu Xiangqian and others: The Eighth Route Army welcomes Chairman Lu to Hebei to preside over it as soon as possible, and will provide assistance in all aspects.

The help mentioned by Liu Bocheng soon came to fruition.After Lu Zhonglin arrived in Nangong, Xu Xiangqian not only organized a welcome meeting for thousands of people, but also allocated more than 2,000 people from the Shao Beiwu and Wang Ziyao tribes who had been recruited by the Dongjin column to southern Hebei according to Lu Zhonglin's request, and designated Gaocheng, Hengshui, Jixian, Gucheng, Xinhe and other counties were responsible for providing supplies to his provincial personnel and troops.Regarding this, Lu Zhonglin had a smile on his face, saying that I have no guns and no army, and that in the future, we will rely more on the Eighth Route Army in the war of resistance.

On December 21, Liu Bocheng led the 129th Division and the 386th Brigade to southern Hebei.On the fifth day after arriving——December 26, Liu Bocheng went to Lu Zhonglin's official residence in Nangong.At this time, Lu Zhonglin was no longer what he used to be. He put on the airs of the commander-in-chief of the war zone and the provincial chairman, and always showed an impatient expression. Director's Office issues.Such talks are of course fruitless. After New Year's Day, Liu Bocheng rushed to Ji County to talk to Lu Zhonglin again, but the result remained the same. At this time, the intention of the Japanese army to sweep up was very clear, and the deployment of anti-mopping up was imminent. In order to concentrate all kinds of forces to fight against the enemy, Liu Bocheng once again came to the theater headquarters of Lu Zhonglin in Ji County on January 13, 1939.

This time, Lu Zhonglin changed from the ice-cold appearance of the previous two times, and replaced it with a kind of enthusiasm that floated on his face. He invited him to dinner first, and then invited him to the theater after the meal.At a time like this, Liu Bocheng couldn't be in the mood to watch any drama, but Lu Zhonglin tried to persuade him: "Brother Bo Cheng, don't be in a hurry to talk. The theater troupe I formed, Sheng, Dan, and Clown are all relatively well-known, you can see it when you look at it." While speaking, Lu Zhonglin smiled secretly. Liu Bocheng had some doubts about his changes, but now he became more suspicious, but he couldn't refuse.As soon as he entered the small theater, he realized something was wrong. The play Lu Zhonglin arranged was "Huang Tianba Worships the Mountain".Liu Bocheng's fire jumped upwards, his face was very dark.Obviously, Lu Zhonglin used Huang Tianba to insinuate the Eighth Route Army.This way of thieves calling for a thief, how can he not be popular?Especially in this season of imminent fire, it's lucky that he can still have these crooked thoughts!

Lu Zhonglin looked at Liu Bocheng, seeing that the thunder was about to move, the pride of achieving the goal floated on his face, and the mysterious color was more obvious.Suddenly, he found that Liu Bocheng's complexion returned to normal in an instant, and he couldn't help being shocked. It turned out that Liu Bocheng also saw his bad intentions from his expression, and immediately calmed down.He took off his glasses, wiped them with a small handkerchief from his pocket, and said sarcastically: "Chairman Lu really worked hard to arrange such a good show!" When Lu Zhonglin saw that Liu Bocheng had pierced his diorama, his clever complacency disappeared immediately.He embarrassedly:

"Where, where, it's just for fun, nothing else." Liu Bocheng watched the trick calmly as usual.Only Song Renqiong, who was sitting next to him, noticed the unrest in his heart.Several times, Liu Bocheng clenched his fist unconsciously. With this as a foreshadowing, Liu Bocheng was a little rude during the meeting: "Chairman Lu, when you first came to southern Hebei, you said that you should cooperate more with the Eighth Route Army in combat. Now that the Japanese offensive has launched, I wonder what Chairman Lu's plan is? " "This... did I say such a thing?"

Lu Zhonglin actually cheated in front of his face! The talks did not yield any results, and Liu Bocheng angrily walked out of Lu Zhonglin's theater headquarters.