Bright Sword: Starting from the Improved Grenade

December 1940, 12, Guangwu County, Henan Province.

Three men in cotton jackets came to Taoyuan Village, at the entrance of the village.

"My fellow countryman!"

One of the older men shouted to four old men sitting under the banyan tree at the entrance of the village.

But the old men just looked up at the three of them and then drooped their eyelids again.

"Hey...you old guys!"

"Xiao Liu, watch your manners!"

The younger of the three was about to use violence when he was stopped by the older man, who then approached the old man.

"My fellow villagers, my name is Qian Sanwu, and I want to ask you something!"

As he spoke, he took out a few steamed buns from his arms and gave one to each of the four uncles.

When the old man saw the steamed bun, his eyes lit up and he snatched it away with a speed that was not expected of an elderly person.

But they did not eat it immediately. Instead, they carefully put it in their pockets. At this time, one of the old men looked up at Qian Sanwu.

"You are quite particular, young man. Tell me, what do you want to ask?"

"Is such that."

Qian Sanwu organized his words and asked, "We came to Henan from other places to buy grain, but I don't know why the grain price in Henan this year is much higher than last year!"

"You came to Henan to collect grain?"

The old man looked at Qian Sanwu sympathetically and said, "You've made a wasted trip."

"There was not a drop of rain in Henan in the second half of this year, and the autumn harvest was poor. Only half of the winter wheat that was planted survived, and the first half of next year is in jeopardy!"

"Is it that serious?"

Qian Sanwu pretended to be puzzled and asked, "Then the government won't do anything about it?"

"Tube?"

The old man said indignantly: "They don't care about it, but they even collect taxes!"

"Many households in our village couldn't pay taxes, and couldn't get a good price for their land, so they just ran away at night."

After saying that, he added with a hint of worry: "I heard that there will be another war, and the military rations will be increased next year."

"Alas...by then, I don't know how many of our village will be left."

Upon hearing this, Qian Sanwu and the other two looked at each other with worried looks in their eyes.

"let's go!"

Qian Sanwu stood up and said to the old man, "Uncle, we are leaving first."

“Don’t give up hope. Believe that the government will come to rescue you once they know about your problem.”

"Ah."

The old man sneered, obviously having no hope in the government.

"Let's go to the next village."

Two days later, a more detailed report on the disaster in Henan than the one Zhao Tianyang had investigated was presented at the central meeting.

"According to intelligence reports from various places, Henan has already begun to suffer from the disaster. Coupled with the fact that the Japanese continue to attack Henan, it can be predicted that the situation next year will only get worse, not better!"

"It seems... the situation is worse than we thought!"

The dignified man put down the report and looked at everyone: "What do you think? Should we send a batch of relief grain to Henan to deal with the emergency first?"

"Useless!"

The man with glasses shook his head: "With the character of the Kuomintang, our grain can't even be shipped to Xi'an."

"I think we should mobilize our forces and urge the Kuomintang to provide relief to the victims themselves, and then we can help out on the sidelines."

"Yes."

The elegant man echoed, "The Kuomintang can only ask us to do this. If we do it ourselves, it will only make things worse!"

"Well, that makes sense!"

The dignified man nodded and said, "How about this? Let's first ask the local comrades to mobilize the officials of Henan Province to report the disaster situation."

"Then let some influential newspapers and magazines send some reporters to Henan to investigate. With this two-pronged approach, I don't believe the Kuomintang will remain indifferent!"

"Okay, let's do it!"

...........

chongqing.

"I know. Okay, that's it!"

The skinny man was talking on the phone with a smile on his face, nodding his head in affirmation.

After a while, the skinny man hung up the phone, and came to the counter in a good mood, ready to make himself a cup of coffee.

"You seem to be in a good mood today?"

Chief Liao, Chen Muliao asked with a smile.

"Haha, nothing!"

The skinny man boasted: "Just now, the deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department, Dong Guang, called and told me that the United States proposed to establish a Chinese theater of operations."

"And let me serve as the supreme commander of the China Theater."

"On January 26 next year, countries, led by China, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union, will sign the United Nations Declaration in the United States."

"From now on, China will be one of the 'four major powers' in the anti-fascist alliance!"

"Congratulations sir!"

It turns out that he has become famous internationally. No wonder he is in such a good mood, Chen Muliao thought secretly.

"Okay, now it's time to get down to business."

The skinny man made some coffee and took a sip. "Go and ask Jiang Ding, and call Keqin."

"Yes."

A moment later, two slightly excited men hurried into the office.

"Sir, you're looking for us!"

As soon as Keqin and his companion came in, they saluted the man.

"That's right!"

The man nodded and took out two appointment letters from the table beside him: "Dingwen, pack up and go to the First War Zone to serve as the commander-in-chief."

"As for Keqin, you just have to put up with it and be Dingwen's deputy!"

"Thanks, Zhuxi Cultivation!"

After reading the official titles on the appointment letter, the two men quickly stood up and saluted the skinny man.

The next day, the National Government issued a transfer order, and Commander Wei resigned from his post as commander-in-chief of the First War Zone and went to Xi'an to serve as director of the General Office.

Ding Wen will replace Commander Wei as Commander-in-Chief of the First War Zone and Commander-in-Chief of the Hebei-Chahar War Zone.

Keqin is appointed Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the First War Zone, effective immediately.

Just when Dingwen and Keqin happily took office, six officials from Henan Province jointly reported the disaster situation in Henan.

Because he had not received any telegram from Chairman Li, Chairman of the Henan Provincial Government, the man did not believe what the officials said.

I thought they just wanted to evade taxes, so I called back and scolded a few of them.

Three days later, at the National Political Consultative Conference, Henan councilor Guo Zhongwei brought the information he had obtained about the elm bark, Guanyin soil, and goose droppings that the Henan disaster victims ate to the conference and displayed them publicly.

He wept and petitioned, and took the lead in jointly proposing the proposal "Henan has suffered severe disasters, and we ask the government to provide relief as soon as possible to save the lives of all the people and benefit the war of resistance."

Until then, the skinny man had to believe that Henan might really have been hit by a disaster.

But what he was thinking about now was that Henan was hit by the disaster, so wouldn’t his plan to rely on the Hebei-Chahar War Zone to attack the Eighth Route Army be ruined?

"Tens of millions of people in Henan can't wait!"

Listening to Guo Zhongwei's crying, the skinny man waved his hands irritably: "Got it, I'll send someone to Henan to investigate the disaster."

“Once it is confirmed to be true, the government will not ignore the people of Henan.”

After saying this, he hurriedly left the Political Consultative Conference.

After returning to the office, the skinny man felt more and more unwilling and sent a telegram to Dingwen.

After he arrives in Henan, he will quickly investigate the disaster situation in Henan. At that time, he will go to Henan in person under the pretext of attending a military meeting.