The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 97 Appetite (Happy New Year)

(Well! I'm busy celebrating the New Year, and I can't think of anything to say. I'll let this guy say something after the New Year. For now, I just want to say: Happy New Year.)
It was about 7 or 8 degrees Celsius, a bit chilly in the early morning.

Not too far away, amid the continuous and intense sound of gunfire, the 1020 people from the kitchen team of the 23th Regiment of the Gui Army began to get busy.

Specifically, it was Huang Sanxi, the senior cook, who was smoking his hand-rolled old dry tobacco while directing everyone including Hu Biao to work.

The first step is to soak the bundles of dry rice noodles in cold water.

Just soak it for four hours and then soak it in hot water for ten minutes. Even if the texture of the rice noodles soaked in this way is not as good as that of freshly processed ones, it is still quite elastic and chewy.

If you are in a hurry, you can actually soak it directly in hot water. It usually takes about 20 minutes, but the taste will be much worse.

For every person in western Guangdong province, such an approach is undoubtedly heresy.

Then we start to cook the brine, which is the soul of Guilin rice noodles, and fry it in a frying pan.

Braising liquid sounds simple, but it is quite troublesome to make; first, stir-fry all the marinade ingredients in a pot, then add water and large bones.

After stewing over high heat, turn to low heat and add a lot of things such as rock sugar, dark soy sauce, salt, chili pepper, fermented bean curd, etc.

It can be said that this is the most troublesome part of the entire process of making Guilin rice noodles.

As for pot-roasted pork, it is actually pork with fried pig skin. The best part of the material is pork neck. It tastes crispy on the outside and tender and tasty on the inside. It is quite delicious.

However, the current conditions are limited, so it is quite good to be able to find pork, so I don’t expect pork neck.

While busy with the above preparations, various ingredients such as pickled beans, pickled bamboo shoots, chili powder, etc. were also washed, cut and processed one by one.

After all the busy work, it was 5:30 in the morning, and there was still about an hour before dawn.

No less than 700 bowls of Guilin rice noodles were finally prepared thanks to the hard work of Hu Biao and his team; they were just waiting for the brothers of the suicide squad to come back after a fierce battle and enjoy them happily.

It should be noted that according to the plan, this counterattack plan.

After a hard night of fighting, the brothers of the Gui Army's suicide squad would retreat to the rear positions during the day to have a good rest, and then hand over the captured positions to the follow-up troops to guard.

After a good rest during the day, they set out again at night to attack the Japanese positions.

So there was no need for Hu Biao and the others to carry breakfast up in buckets today; they just had to wait for them to return from the front and come to the kitchen to eat and drink.

After the rice noodles were made, Hu Biao and others were still given certain preferential treatment.

Huang Sanxi personally took action and first served a large bowl to each of the seven of them. He cooked the soup in a pot, added various small ingredients, and finally poured a spoonful of soul brine on it.

After working for most of the night, Hu Biao and his friends were already very hungry, but they did not refuse such a kind offer.

After taking it, he stirred the rice, squatted on the ground and started eating.

Their eyes lit up after taking a bite. They felt that the rice noodles tasted delicate and smooth, and the soup base was rich and mellow, leaving a long aftertaste.

The taste is even better when it is cooked in a pot and filled with various condiments.

In particular, Uncle Bo imitated Hu Biao's way of eating and added a lot of chili powder to the rice noodles.

It tasted delicious and spicy, and a layer of fine beads of sweat appeared on my forehead; it made my tired body, which had not slept in the first half of the night and had been busy in the second half, suddenly come back to life.

At this moment he even felt a little regretful, because he was thinking of having another bowl; but if he ate another bowl, it might not be enough for the brothers of the Gui Army Suicide Squad, so he could only give up with regret.

While Hu Biao and his companions were eating rice noodles, the staff, clerks, grooms and others from the regiment headquarters also came over after smelling the aroma.

Captain Huang took the guard company to the battlefield at around ten o'clock last night. Now there are only a few non-combat personnel left in the regimental headquarters, and there are only about eighty people in total.

Everyone helped themselves to a large bowl and began to eat. For a moment, the only sound was the slurping of rice noodles, and everyone's face was filled with joy and satisfaction. This was also the happiest moment for everyone in the 1020th Regiment of the Gui Army...

*******
After eating the rice noodles, Hu Biao and his friends waited patiently for the brothers of the suicide squad to withdraw.

When they thought of the brothers’ happy faces when they saw these Guilin rice noodles, they didn’t feel the slightest bit tired from staying up late.

As time passed, the brothers who were supposed to retreat by this time were nowhere to be seen, and everyone in the kitchen team felt something was wrong.

After thinking of a certain possibility, I gradually became nervous and even felt fearful.

This situation continued until the sky began to brighten slightly, when a group of people slowly walked towards the position. Upon seeing this, Hu Biao and his men hurried to meet them.

After getting closer, Hu Biao and his men realized that it was Captain Huang, who was covered in the smell of gunpowder, and his guard company, who were carrying or carrying twenty or thirty people. They were not the suicide squad they had expected at all.

Instinctively, Hu Biao asked, "Captain Huang, are the brothers from the suicide squad here? We've prepared the rice noodles and are just waiting for them to come and eat them."

After hearing this, Captain Huang, a man in his thirties, trembled and was unable to speak.

The guard captain standing nearby pointed at the wounded being carried or carried, and said with a wry smile, "All the brothers in the death squad who can still breathe are here."

"Impossible! That's the size of a battalion, over 400 men. This is only the first day of the counterattack."

After hearing this, Hu Biao retorted loudly.

Mainly based on the history that Hu Biao knew, the brothers of the Gui Army's suicide squad were completely wiped out on the third night of the counterattack, that is, on the 23rd.

Therefore, at least half of the 1020th Regiment's suicide squad should be able to survive today.

This was also the biggest motivation for them to work so hard making rice noodles last night; they never thought that the result would be that there would be only 20 to 30 seriously injured soldiers left in a battalion.

But the captain of the guard company only needed one sentence to make Hu Biao completely speechless:

"Just four or five kilometers in front of the Dunwu Temple, where a Japanese hot air balloon often rises during the day, there is a Japanese heavy artillery position.

The Japanese artillery was too powerful. After one shot, no one in the surrounding area survived.

Even if they weren't killed by the shock at a distance, they would have sustained serious internal injuries. Last night, the brothers in the suicide squad were bombarded by a total of four shells."

Having said that, perhaps thinking of the tragic scene he had witnessed with his own eyes, the guard company commander burst into tears.

Hu Biao and his men naturally knew what the other party was talking about. It was the super heavy artillery with a caliber of more than 300 mm that they had encountered before at the Dunwu Temple position and had no means of defense except luck.

Apart from the fact that the reloading speed of that thing was a little slow and the Japanese had insufficient reserves of ammunition, so they couldn't fire continuously, it could be said that it was a devastating force.

That terrifying killing range cannot be dealt with by simply spreading the team apart during the attack.

Because they are too dispersed, the offensive impact is seriously insufficient.

While Hu Biao was speechless, the remaining personnel who came to meet him from the regiment headquarters, and the people from the guard company were all gloomy and their morale was extremely low.

It was Captain Huang who reacted first, and he cursed loudly:
"Stop crying, are you going to cry the devil to death?
Listen up, everyone in the guard company! Go eat your rice noodles right now. Make sure you're full and well-fed, then go to bed immediately. Tonight, follow me and our friendly troops to destroy this enemy's heavy artillery position and avenge our brothers."

After saying that, he took the lead and walked towards the kitchen.

Because there were hundreds of fewer people eating, there were still a lot of Guilin rice noodles prepared by the kitchen staff left.

This meant that Uncle Bo could finally realize his original wish and eat another bowl, or even two or three bowls; but at this time, he had no appetite at all.

(End of this chapter)