The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 161 The next day has passed (Additional chapter 34 for Black Star)

It was night! A little after ten o'clock in the evening.

After quietly crawling out of the Suzhou River and climbing onto a section of the river bank next to the Sihang Warehouse, Yang Huimin couldn't help but tremble all over.

On the one hand, the weather in Shanghai has gradually become colder.

Especially at night, the temperature is even colder, so much so that the water temperature in Suzhou River is only about 7 or 8 degrees Celsius.

Swimming in a river of such temperature really made a little girl feel very cold all over.

On the other hand, although some of the Japanese sharpshooters and light and heavy machine gun fire points that were monitoring the Garbage Bridge and Suzhou River were destroyed by the National Army brothers in the Sihang Warehouse, they only occupied a small part of them.

There are still many more firing points that are monitoring the river surface due to angle and firing range issues.

So as long as they discover you, they will immediately fire a barrage of bullets at you.

The huge danger of death if exposed is the biggest reason why Yang Huimin is extremely nervous and trembling all over.

Fortunately, she finally swam across the Suzhou River without being noticed and got through the most difficult period.

After taking a deep breath, Yang Huimin ran towards a window, whispering, "Don't shoot! I'm sent by the Demon City Government to deliver something to you."

Because of this matter, Secretary Zhang had already explained the reason to Captain Xie over the phone.

Lei Xiong and his companions had been prepared for this. They immediately opened the window, stretched out their arms and pulled Yang Huimin in. The moment they entered the warehouse, the little girl finally breathed a sigh of relief.

What she didn't know was that ten minutes ago, when she was about to go down the Suzhou River, Annie was silently watching her not far behind her.

Holding a stick in his hand, he was thinking about whether he should knock the girl out with the stick so that she couldn't deliver the flag.

The reason why Anne had such an impulse was very simple: first of all, she agreed that raising the flag at the Sihang Warehouse would have the effect of boosting the morale of the Chinese people.

However, the battle of Sihang Warehouse was much more intense than in history.

Under the stimulation of the flag-raising ceremony, God knows how crazy the Japanese would go, which would lead to the eventual loss of the warehouse.

Or if it causes the plan of everyone in the warehouse to evacuate the concession to be affected, then the cost outweighs the gain and there is no need to do it.

Besides! Hu Biao is still in the warehouse.

However, seeing the determination on Yang Huimin's face, Annie couldn't convince herself to take action; after the other party crossed the river, she secretly went into the water.

Carrying a large backpack on his back and a long, hollow bamboo stick in his mouth, he crossed the river silently by diving...

He solemnly took the flag from Yang Huimin's hand, which the girl had been wearing and which seemed to still carry her body temperature.

After giving this brave girl a standard military salute to show his respect, Captain Xie began to shout:
"524th Regiment, everyone assemble."

Following this order, all the people who could move in the Sihang Warehouse, except for the seriously injured, gathered on the first floor.

After taking a deep look at everyone, Captain Xie began to speak:

"Brothers! We just received news that our perseverance here has boosted the enthusiasm of the entire nation for the war of resistance and attracted the attention and recognition of our allies. Our superiors hope that we will continue to persevere.

The longer we persevere, the greater the impact we can have.”

After hearing such news, even though they could see the enthusiastic reaction on the other side of the river from the window, everyone was excited and didn't feel tired at all.

But after taking a look at the flag in his hand, Captain Xie asked a question that struck everyone's heart:
"This flag was delivered by a little girl at the risk of her life. As long as this flag is raised, it means that Zhabei has not been completely lost and the Chinese soldiers are still fighting.

But under such insult and provocation, the Japanese will definitely launch a more frenzied attack tomorrow, and it will be even more difficult for us to hold on.

So I want to ask, are you willing to raise such a flag?"

Faced with this question, many people in the 524th Regiment, especially the ordinary soldiers, looked at each other, and then looked at Hu Biao and his group.

These are some habits they have unconsciously developed in the past one or two days.

"Raise it! Why should we raise the flag depending on the devils' mood when we raise it on our own territory?" Huang A'di said slowly.

Xu Feng: "It's nothing more than a life-and-death battle with the devils, what's there to be afraid of."

Chen Tang: "It should be raised on the roof. The Japanese planes might come. It seems we need to prepare in advance."

Dead Fish: “…” Just like that, with Hu Biao and others expressing their agreement to raising the flag, the flag-raising ceremony on the rooftop early tomorrow morning was finalized.

And based on the fact that Hu Biao had thrown the Japanese before, he selected some brothers who performed well in the battle to throw them, as a kind of honor and reward.

Captain Xie has assigned the flag-raising and flag-guarding operations tomorrow to the third team consisting of Hu Biao and others, and asked everyone else to fully cooperate.

******
In the following time, after everyone watched Yang Huimin swim back, Captain Xie arranged for everyone except the night watchmen to rest early.

Because they were tasked with guarding the waterway, Hu Biao and his team hurried to the side of the first floor.

However, the biggest reason for their hurried pace was that when Captain Xie ordered them to assemble, Annie had already arrived at the warehouse through the waterway, and the two sides had no time to say anything.

After arriving at the waterway, Anne, who was exhausted from crossing the river, had now recovered.

He immediately introduced the latest situation to Hu Biao and others.

For example, the details of her deal with the Sassoons, her plan to use the military to gain control, and the ultimate disposal of penicillin.

There were even cases where people temporarily bought some natural gemstones, jade, and small antiques, intending to take them back as trophies.

During this process, with the help of the dim light coming from the opposite side, Hu Biao immediately opened the large backpack that Annie was carrying.

He took out a lot of items from it and carefully wrapped them in oil paper.

After opening the oil paper, I was stunned. Inside was a radio, 11.43 rounds of 300mm caliber bullets, some Laodao brand cigarettes, gauze and other small items.
There was even a huge piece of pork weighing twenty kilograms.

Although each of the above items is something that the warehouse is urgently needed now.

Especially that piece of pork, which finally made it possible for Hu Biao and his friends to make pork stewed with vermicelli; it could also satisfy the last wish of Zhu Dashan, a defeated soldier of the Northeast Army, before his death.

After all, he is still struggling to hold on, and this kind of holding on is actually a torture for Zhu Dashan.

But after seeing so many things, Hu Biao still cursed at Annie: "You old spendthrift woman, isn't this a tiger?
Forget about the ammunition and radio, but we also have to carry so much pork and other things across the river. What if something goes wrong along the way?"

After being scolded, Annie didn't even refute at all.

First, she knew that Hu Biao was angry because he was worried about her.

Secondly, was she going to tell Hu Biao that the reason she brought so much pork was simply because she thought this big pig's hoof had worked hard in the warehouse and hoped it could eat a little better?

"I definitely won't tell you, forget it." The girl thought proudly...

After the two sides had a quick exchange, Anne did not stay in the warehouse for long and returned to the other side of the river.

After watching Annie successfully reach the shore, Hu Biao immediately took Ma Yunhai and Xu Fuchang, two defeated soldiers of the Northeast Army, to work on making pork stewed with vermicelli.

Cut the pork belly into pieces, put it into a pot with cold water, add peppercorns, star anise, and cooking wine, bring to a boil, then remove and drain.

Add onion, ginger, garlic and rock sugar, and cook until the rock sugar melts. Then immediately add the pork belly and stir-fry together; add dark soy sauce and stir-fry evenly over high heat.

Add water and simmer over high heat for 30 minutes, then add vermicelli and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.

Finally, a bowl of pork stewed with vermicelli and a bowl of corn grits porridge were brought to Zhu Dashan together.

The man who was on the verge of death a second ago suddenly became energetic and was even able to sit up by his own strength.

He first picked up the pork stewed with vermicelli and ate it all in no time.

Then he picked up the barley porridge and drank it in a few big mouthfuls.

After smacking his lips, Zhu Dashan showed an indescribable look of satisfaction and aftertaste on his face, and said slowly:
“This is the taste. It makes me feel like I’m back home in Northeast China.”

Then he raised his head slightly and looked into the distance, and began to sing softly: "My home is on the Songhua River in the northeast, where there are forests, coal mines, and mountains and fields of soybeans and sorghum."

Just after singing this short passage, Zhu Dashan collapsed to the ground and was no longer breathing; the smile on his face was frozen, but there were tears in the corners of his eyes.

But the singing did not stop, because Hu Biao and others, and even the entire Sihang Warehouse, joined in the singing:

"My home is on the Songhua River in the northeast. There are my compatriots and my aging parents..."

Amidst such singing, the second day of the Sihang Warehouse Defense Battle passed...

(End of this chapter)