I used the Mo Dao (a type of long-handled sword) to fight the Japanese.

Dear readers, do you remember the youngest character in the movie "Clever Escape" that we watched when we were kids? There was also Uncle Shunzi, who was young but had a seniority, the storyteller with amazing ventriloquism skills, and the rookie intelligence agent Agui who looked like a traitor! Of course, we can't forget the incredibly catchy song "Cotton Fluffing"!

Fluffing cotton, fluffing cotton, half a pound of cotton fluffed into eight ounces and eight ounces, old cotton fluffed into new cotton, the fluffed cotton is ready, and the girl is ready to get married! ...

Haha, that's absolutely classic!

Those who still remember these things are probably over forty years old, right? This story is a sequel to this classic movie, so let's get started without further ado!

1,

Picking up where we left off, the storyteller, his youngest uncle and nephew, and Qin Gui and his wife successfully escaped the Japanese pursuit and handed over the strategic offensive map to the Eighth Route Army. They then returned to the base area at Eagle Cliff in the Taihang Mountains with the battalion commander and his group, and the group finally became members of the Eighth Route Army!

The Eagle Cliff base was expanded by guerrillas, and the surrounding mountains for dozens of miles were their territory. The three villages under their jurisdiction were able to eat and stay warm under the guerrillas' protection—a life that was practically an idyllic paradise in those days!

"Qin Guier! What's wrong with you? You can hit the bullseye nine times out of ten with a pistol, but when you switch to a rifle, you always hit the bullseye. Are you not paying attention? Do you know how precious bullets are?" Captain Zhao Dahu on the shooting range scolded sternly with a stern face.

This Qin Gui can drive, speak Japanese, is quick-witted, and is also good at shooting. Such talents are rare in this remote mountain village! I originally thought he was a good prospect and wanted to train him well, so I gave him special instruction and live-fire training.

But what happened was quite the opposite! He was incredibly skilled with the Mauser pistol, hitting the target nine out of ten times! But when he switched to the rifle, he was a complete disaster. He wasted thirty bullets all morning without hitting the target even once! He should have gotten at least one or two shots even if he had just been guessing, right?

"Captain, the sights on this rifle are too far from the gap, it's making my eyes dizzy..." Qin Gui said listlessly. His aggrieved expression made him look like a wronged little wife!

"Dizzy? What's wrong? Are you starving? Look at your big belly, I bet it's all this fat that's making you look bad! Go! Go over there and do five hundred push-ups, no food until you've done them all! You're almost a father and you're still causing me so much trouble!" Zhao Dahu said sternly, pointing to the center of the playground.

Several months passed, and Aying was three months pregnant. She stayed at the medical team, caring for the wounded while also recovering from her pregnancy. Every time Qin Gui saw his wife's big belly, his heart filled with sweetness; all the hardship and exhaustion were worth it!

"Five...five hundred!...Captain...people will die!..." Qin Gui was terrified when he heard this. You could ask him to drive a car or speak Japanese, or even to embroider with a needle and thread! Five hundred push-ups in one go? Even on his wedding night, he didn't do that many!

“People will die? Hehe, don’t you know there’s a saying in our Eighth Route Army? Train until you die, train until you die! If you keep nagging, I’ll add another two hundred!” Zhao Dahu said with a wicked grin.

"Huh?..." Qin Gui was truly terrified! They're really going to train him to death?

"What? Hurry up and go! Do you think this is your own grocery shopping? You dare to haggle?"

"Yes...yes! I'll go right away, no bargaining!" Seeing that they were serious, Qin Gui quickly started walking towards the playground with small, quick steps. He thought to himself, "This Captain Tiger is more terrifying than the Japanese when he gets ruthless!"

……

"The Eighth Route Army is truly amazing! They win battles in all directions! At Pingxingguan, they set up an ambush and drove the Japanese away so far they couldn't find their way! Boom boom boom, rat rat rat rat, planes and artillery blasted the earth into craters, and the smoke filled the sky so thick that you couldn't see anything. They thought they had wiped out the entire Eighth Route Army, but with a shout, they charged!"

"But unexpectedly, the soldiers were not within range. Rat-a-tat-tat, bang-bang-bang, gunfire rang out behind them, completely stunning the Japanese! A group of Japanese soldiers fell to the ground, and our soldiers successfully broke through the encirclement!..."

In an open space in the village, a storyteller was rehearsing a performance with a group of female students. The story they were singing was about the Battle of Pingxingguan. And let me tell you, the storyteller's performance, coupled with his vivid ventriloquism, left the girls speechless with admiration, looking at him with the utter infatuation of someone who had just met their idol!

"Clap clap clap!"

"Great! Well sung! You truly deserve the captain's recommendation; this performance is a sure thing!"

"it is good!"

"it is good!"

Several female students surrounded the storyteller, clapping and cheering, making his old face feel hot and bothered.

Although the base area hadn't been established for long, it was small but complete, and cultural work was naturally indispensable! Moreover, it was even more important to make a group of roughnecks understand why they had to fight the Japanese and to instill in them the belief that victory was inevitable! Placing him in this position was absolutely perfect!

"You flatter me! As long as you comrades enjoy watching me, Old Zhu, I'll put in as much effort as I can to make sure you're satisfied!" the storyteller said modestly, bowing with his hands clasped.

"I love watching it! I'm sure you'll love watching it! This little tune is much better than those cheesy, clichéd songs in the theater!"

"Exactly! It's so vivid, with bombs and airplanes! If we hadn't known beforehand, we would have thought a plane was actually flying over!"

"Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! So your surname is Zhu! But you can't keep calling me 'Old Zhu, Old Zhu,' or people who don't know better might think you're Pigsy from 'Journey to the West'!"

"Journey to the West? Pigsy?... What's that?" Old Zhu suddenly realized the new script was about to be a great story!

"That's a novel written by a great writer from the Ming Dynasty, it's so fantastical and unrealistic. Never mind that, tell me your real name, okay? We can't just have a storyteller call you that, can we?" Wang Qiao, as the person in charge of the arts and performances, valued the storyteller highly and asked earnestly.

“Yes! We all have names! My name is Lin Qiuxia, her name is Hao Shaozhen, and her name is Meng Chun! Tell me your name quickly, what’s yours?” Lin Qiuxia asked chatteringly.

"I...I'm called Zhu...Dachang..." The storyteller's face turned even redder. He had never felt so embarrassed before when performing in front of hundreds of people! Saying this name was really...awkward!

"Zhu... Large Intestine!... Hahahaha... Why such a name?" Several female students lost their composure upon hearing the name, laughing so hard they were doubled over and shaking with mirth!

“My mother said… a humble name makes a child easier to raise!…” the storyteller explained, twitching his lips.

“Zhu Dachang… I think we should change it to Zhu Dachang! Chang means prosperity and flourishing. It’s more convenient for comrades to have a proper name when they get together! What do you think?” Wang Qiao stopped laughing and thought for a while before saying.

"Great prosperity! I hope our base will also prosper!"

“I also think Dachang is great!” the girls echoed.

It's so good to be cultured! A name that was originally so rustic that I was embarrassed to even say it, becomes instantly elegant after being changed by these cultured people. Just one word difference makes a huge difference in class!

"Good! Good! Thank you for helping me change my name. With your kind words, let's work hard to make our arts troupe thrive... Get up!"

Why is it so hard to pronounce an idiom? "Large intestine" is much easier to say!

"Hahaha! Great! Prosperity and flourishing!"

……

"Fluffing cotton, fluffing cotton, half a pound of cotton fluffed into eight ounces and eight ounces, old cotton fluffed into new cotton, once the cotton is fluffed well, the girl is ready to get married!..."

Not far away, in the ancestral hall, the youngest brother and Uncle Shunzi were singing this song that had captivated even the Japanese soldiers while fluffing cotton, and they were extremely proud of themselves! Before, they were just honest and simple tenant farmers, but who knew that after going to Taiyuan City, they would find the Eighth Route Army they had been longing for while singing this song, and now they were even members of it! They were still fluffing cotton, but they felt so much more comfortable!

"Sisters, while we're listening to the song, let's not neglect our work! So many Eighth Route Army comrades are waiting for these cotton-padded clothes, shoes, and quilts to get through the winter! If they freeze, they won't be able to fight the Japanese!" As winter approached, the uncle and nephew were assigned to the ancestral hall to lead the village women in making quilts. After a few months, they were using the tools passed down from their ancestors again, and the uncle and nephew couldn't help but sing this divine song.

"Don't worry, Uncle! You and Brother Shunzi sing so well, and we sisters can work more easily while listening to the music. We guarantee we can complete the task on time and not delay the Eighth Route Army's fight against the Japanese! Sisters, don't you agree?" Xiuqin, the women's team leader, teased while sewing shoe soles.

"Xiuqin, you've got it backwards again! Uncle Shunzi is younger but has a higher seniority, you should call him uncle and me brother!" The youngest brother is quite particular about seniority, and it really doesn't feel right to be called "uncle" by others!

"Haha, the youngest one isn't young at all, but he's still quite young at heart! He's over fifty and still makes young girls call him 'brother'? Does he have something on his mind about our Xiuqin?" an older woman teased.

"Haha, that's not good! Even though you're from the Eighth Route Army, you still need to be of a similar age, right? An old cow eating young grass will make a mistake!"

"That's right! You old rascal, don't mess with our Xiuqin girl, she's a young lady! If you're really interested, what do you think of Widow Tian? Or should I, your older sister-in-law, play matchmaker for you two?"

"Yes, yes, yes, Widow Tian isn't very old either and she likes to sing. You two are a perfect match!"

"A perfect match! A perfect match! What's that song Widow Tian sings every night? Her quacking and singing makes half the village men's hearts itch! If you two get together, one can play the stringed instrument and the other can sing. You'll get along well! It'll also save the village men from having any lingering feelings!"

"That's called 'Lover's Obsession'! Is your man getting all itchy? You better watch out, don't let him get into any trouble!"

"He wouldn't dare! His own land is already lying fallow, how could he dare to go out and cultivate it?"

"Huh? Hahahaha! Is your husband impotent? The village doctor Wu is a master at treating this disease! Why don't you let him take a look?"

"Yes, yes, this illness needs to be treated as soon as possible!"

It's quite a lively scene to see a group of old women together! The youngest only said one sentence and then he was out of the picture, and he kept talking nonsense and didn't care about the uncle and nephew at all!

Alright! I'd better focus on my work. If I keep listening, who knows what outrageous things they might say?

2,

"401!...402!...403..." On the playground, Qin Gui was still doing push-ups, trembling. A group of team members who had completed their training tasks surrounded him and counted in unison, looking quite smug and amused!

"Captain! Captain! Just received it!" Just then, a team member rushed over and handed Li Dahu a small bamboo tube.

Li Dahu quickly took it, unsealed it, took out a small piece of paper, unfolded it, and his face immediately fell!

"What's wrong? What happened?" A team member asked, noticing the captain's grim expression.

"It's alright, you guys supervise him until he finishes, then I'll go back!" Li Dahu forced a smile and strode towards the camp.

In front of the command center's sand table, Li Dahu and his two deputy captains stared gravely at a place called Shaojialing. Just moments ago, they had received news that the political instructor sent to them by their superiors had been conscripted by the Japanese and sent to the Shaojialing copper mine as hard labor. This news had greatly worried the three of them! The base area had just begun to show signs of improvement, and everything was in dire need of rebuilding. They were counting on the political instructor to come and properly instill the Eighth Route Army's spirit, taking all their work to the next level. Now, before he even arrived, he had been captured!

"The Shaojialing Copper Mine is a veritable den of demons! Since it opened, countless miners have died inside and never come out again! Whether they were prisoners of war, bandits, traitors who had made mistakes, or ordinary people, no matter how arrogant they were, they all had to work honestly inside! So many people thought of organizing an uprising, but they all died before their plans were realized! This instructor is really unlucky; I don't know if he can endure this suffering and persevere!" Deputy Captain Zhang Xiliang said worriedly.

“Don’t worry about that. The higher-ups have said that the instructor is an old revolutionary who came from the Long March of the Red Army. He can write and draw, and he can tear apart Japanese soldiers with his bare hands. He’s a veteran who has stood the test of time! What I’m worried about is the Japanese defenses! According to some of the puppet troops inside, there are more than seventy Japanese soldiers stationed in the mine, and even more than a hundred puppet troops. Moreover, they are well-equipped, with machine guns, guard towers, barbed wire, and mortars! With just our two hundred or so men, we’ll probably be exposed before we even get there! Even if we’re lucky and all of us disguise ourselves and sneak through, it won’t be enough! That place is like a railway tunnel, much more difficult than attacking Japanese pillboxes!” Another deputy captain, Niu Laogen, said anxiously.