However, no matter how much Tang Dao complained in his heart, he still had to eat this potato banquet.
Didn’t you see the three army lieutenants eating half a potato in one bite and it was so delicious?
This is probably because I'm used to eating potatoes! Tang Dao picked up a potato slice fried with horse oil and put it into his mouth, his eyes looking more solemn.
Of course, the taste of potato chips is very ordinary. The skill of an army lieutenant general who rarely cooks is secondary. Saltiness comes first. If a dish is even mildly salty, how can it taste good?
This shows that the military's supplies have become alarmingly scarce.
But this was indeed beyond Tang Dao's expectation. He remembered that when evacuating from Songjiang, considering that the war was raging and people along the way had to flee with their families, it was difficult for the army to collect food on the spot, so many methods were used to take away the original Songjiang City stores.
of food.
Songjiang City was already wealthy, with a lot of rice, flour, and salt stored in it. There were more than 20,000 soldiers in the army. In addition to carrying ammunition, they also carried food. It had only been more than ten days, so how could the supplies be so scarce?
"Sir, this..." Tang Dao thought about it again and again, but finally couldn't hold it back and stopped the chopsticks in his hand and asked.
The three lieutenant generals who were happily eating potatoes all had wry smiles on their faces.
"You baby, this is a celebration banquet for you. Why don't you dislike these potatoes? The whole army has been eating them for several days. In this day and age, it's good to have something to eat." The bearded uncle was the first to glare.
, to express dissatisfaction with the guest Tang Dao by stopping his chopsticks.
However, what Tang Dao saw in the eyes of Lieutenant General Tie Hanhan was clearly not anger, but apology, deep apology.
Because it was not just an apology to the two young men Tang Dao and Tantai Mingyue who were guests.
That is, for the entire Songjiang Army.
"Hey!" Lieutenant General Wu also put down the chopsticks in his hands, looked at Tang Dao with a confused look, and sighed.
"Forget it, I won't lie to you. The military supplies are indeed insufficient. The number of refugees encountered on the road is actually beyond our army's imagination! Even if we ignore it because of military emergencies, they are our Chinese people after all!
"
"I'm in charge of logistics distribution, Commander Wu, let me say it!" Lieutenant General Guo also said with a bitter look on his face: "But, Tantai reporter, you can't write these in your battlefield diary, no.
Because there are no military secrets, but the suffering of our people caused by the war, which is really unbearable to witness!"
"Before the Battle of Songhu, millions of refugees from Jiangsu and Zhejiang and from the north moved to Shanghai after the Battle of Pingjin. Some of them poured into the concession before the war, but many more had no choice but to leave. Japanese military planes bombed
After leaving the two most important railway stations in Shanghai, the refugees could only rely on one pair of feet to migrate southward. But how fast could they go with lack of food and clothing? There are only two roads southward, one from Kunshan to Jinling, and the other through nature.
It's from this place." When Lieutenant General Guo said this, his eyes were already shining.
"When our army arrived, there were still tens of thousands of people in Jiashan County with their children and the elderly, all of whom had run out of money and food. When our army arrived, I don't know how many people looked at us like that, and they didn't even have the energy to beg.
None, and the frail old, weak, women and children are even more desperate.
Tang Dao, do you know that when a woman who is no more than 20 years old can no longer produce milk to support her three-month-old child because she has not eaten for a long time, she is forced to kneel on the road like that. If you can give her a bite of food, you can
Taking her away, how did I, a general in the army who claimed to be able to command tens of thousands of troops, and a father with several children, feel in my heart at that time?
You are not a general, and you are not a father. You may not understand. But my heart really ached at that moment, it hurt so much. If there had not been this war initiated by the Japanese, she should have been in a place filled with shade trees.
In the small courtyard full of people, on sunny days, she played with her children under the shade of a tree, waiting for her husband to return from working outside. Then she brushed the dust off her husband's shoulders and wiped the sweat from his forehead and face. The whole family
Three mouthfuls, it’s fun!
But, all this is gone! The child in her arms has no strength to cry. She is so hungry that her face is emaciated. Her husband has no idea where he has gone. I don’t even dare to ask if her husband is a soldier. No matter what
Whether he is in the north or on the battlefield in the southeast, what kind of mood will he feel if he knows that his wife and children are only asking for a mouthful of rice to survive during the march of the army?"
This may be a rare emotional moment for Lieutenant General Guo, who has always been calm and profound, and he is already choked up with tears when he talks about it.
Although Tantai Mingyue is as heroic as a man, she is actually an extremely emotional person, otherwise she would not have such touching words in her writing. When she heard this, she naturally burst into tears.
Her country, her people, no, their country, their people, why are they so miserable!
War is for men.
However, women and children were never allowed to go away.
Country and family have always been one and closely related!
The two lieutenant generals Wu and Gu also had bleak eyes, even bleaker than when they heard the Japanese army was coming. When the Japanese army came, they could still pick up their guns and fight to the death, but it was just a matter of death. But facing the Japanese army,
With so many people suffering, what can these generals do?
"Hey! Brother Guo has a compassionate heart and spent nearly 150,000 kilograms of rice and flour military supplies to relieve the crisis of refugees stranded in Jiashan. However, the whole army fell into such a food shortage situation. It is my fault that the 128th Division has dragged everyone down!
"Uncle Beard couldn't help but say now.
It turns out that 150,000 kilograms of rice and noodles were given to nearly 30,000 refugees. An average of five kilograms per person at least allowed these refugees to continue walking for another three hundred kilometers mixed with wild vegetables. When they arrived in the big cities behind, they could still get some relief and not starve to death.
On the way, Lieutenant General Guo, who had carefully calculated, still left enough food for Songjiang's 20,000 troops for half a month.
However, he did not expect that there was an infantry division waiting for him.
The 128th Division of the Hunan Army has not received supplies from the theater headquarters for almost a month. These days, they have been frugal and only rely on the potatoes prepared when setting off from Jinling.
If you want the horse to run away, you can stop the horse from eating grass. Suddenly, there are more mouths for Xiao Shiwan to eat. After these two changes, the Songjiang army's originally relatively abundant supplies will dare to give him food like before.
The whole army either baked bread or made dried meat, and also paired it with horse meat soup?
As soon as they entered the defense line, the entire army began to enter a conservation mode. Refined foods such as white flour and rice would only be provided to the officers and soldiers entering the front-line trenches. The rest of the army, including headquarters at all levels and the frontline high command, would only provide basic survival supplies.
Potatoes needed.
If this were not the case, I am afraid that these people would not have anything to eat before the battle was over. Thirty thousand troops could die on the battlefield, but they could never starve to death in the trenches.
"Brother Gu, you and I are one body fighting Japan side by side, so why do we say that we are a drag? Also, Brother Guo, it was not your idea to show off your military posture to allow the refugees to evacuate south, so don't feel guilty anymore.
What's wrong with the potatoes? These things are very hungry. The two of them can carry a bowl of rice, and I feel quite comfortable eating." Lieutenant General Wu glanced at his two guilty colleagues, said disapprovingly, and then tilted his head.
He looked at the Tang Dao and tapped the table with his chopsticks:
"You kid, don't complain that I'm stingy. You're the only one who made the first contribution and helped us grow our faces. Otherwise, there would still be these plates of potatoes for you to eat. It would be nice to give you one more potato. That's it.
For the jar of wine, I went to the medical team specifically and exchanged it for two taels of dried meat from my guard’s private collection. Do you like to drink it?”
"Sir, from what you said, are you addicted to eating potatoes? Do you like it?" Tang Dao looked at the tough-minded first commander in a funny way.
"Why, I like it!" Lieutenant General Wu ate half of the baked potato in his hand in one big gulp, his cheeks bulging.
He said it was really fragrant.
"What's that, heavy rain! Come in." Tang Dao shouted outside.
Xia Dayu trotted in.
"Go and bring in the gifts I prepared for the officers!"
"yes!"
"You've learned how to give gifts! I don't want to do that!" The Army Lieutenant General, whose mouth was stuffed with half a potato, waved his hand.
"Not money!"
"Bring it in, Commander Wu doesn't want it, I want it!" Lieutenant General Guo's head is definitely full of melon seeds, and his eyes are shining.
"Brother Guo, you..." The bearded uncle's face was full of regret.
Where is the military commander who looked so pitiful just now? Why is he so greedy? He even asks for gifts so openly.
30 seconds later!
"Hey! Good stuff!" The bearded uncle's movements were like those of a cheetah.
