Double-Cut During the War of Resistance: My Wife Came from 1937

They walked for a long time, passing through places like Chuangye Cave, Liangbanshan, Yixiantian, Tuanjie Cave, Laopaoyan, and Yingzuishan, before finally arriving at their final destination—Youth Cave.

The number of tourists at Youth Cave is also the highest.

People take photos here to remember the occasion.

Ma Hongwei slowly began, "This Youth Cave is the most difficult section to build. It is 616 meters long and it took 320 young people from Hengshui Commune a year and five months to carve it through."

"To recognize the hard work and achievements of these young people, the tunnel was named the Youth Tunnel."

Suddenly, Xia Weiwei looked up and saw some people on the cliff face, swinging back and forth with ropes around their waists.

She asked curiously, "Hongwei, what do they do?"

"They're performing a rescue team act!"

Ma Hongwei explained, "The rocks in the Taihang Mountains are very hard, and often explosives are needed to blast them. However, after the blasting, there will be many loose rocks on the cliff face."

"People working below might be injured by falling rocks, so we selected more than 30 strong laborers to form an aerial hazard removal team to carry out hazard removal on the cliff face, using their tools to remove loose rocks in advance."

"Ren Yangcheng, a model worker who once served as the captain of the hazard removal team, was hit by a rock while clearing fallen rocks. His teeth were even loosened. He directly pulled out his teeth with pliers and continued the hazard removal work for up to 6 hours. He was seriously injured a total of 4 times, but he still insisted on staying at his post."

Just by listening to Ma Hongwei's account, Xia Weiwei could feel the difficulty and hardship of building the Red Flag Canal.

"Xiu'e (daughter-in-law)!"

Just then, Li Jianguo, who was sitting in the shade not far away, waved to Ma Weihong.

Ma Weihong looked at her younger brother and said, "Mom's over there, let's go over!"

"good!"

Ma Hongwei nodded in agreement and pulled Xia Weiwei over.

Seeing everyone gathering around, Zhang Aiying said, "Now only the second son's family is missing, otherwise our whole family would be together. Let's take a picture together and then go back!"

"After taking photos, let's go for a boat ride!"

Ma Hongwei pointed to the Youth Cave and said, "The most famous thing here is the Youth Cave; we definitely have to go inside and take a look!"

Why waste money like that!

Zhang Aiying felt a pang of heartache at the thought of spending money.

"Hmph!"

Ma Hongwei said, "It's just a few dollars. The point of going out is to have fun, don't worry about money."

Upon hearing that they were going to take photos, Xia Weiwei couldn't help but say, "I'll take the photos for you!"

"Need not!"

Ma Weihong took out an extra-long selfie stick, put the phone on it, and had everyone stand together with their backs against the "Youth Cave".

Zhang Aiying stood in the middle, with Xia Weiwei on her left and right sides respectively, flanked by Ma Hongwei and Li Jianguo.

The two children were standing in front.

After arranging the seating, Ma Weihong said to everyone, "I'll count to 321, then we'll all shout 'Cheese!'"

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"eggplant!"

As the crowd's voices faded, the scene froze at that moment.

"Let's go, let's take a boat!"

After taking the photos, Ma Hongwei led everyone back to the cruise ship ticket office.

Boat rides are charged per person, at 30 yuan per person.

There were 6 of them in total, and the cost was 180 yuan.

Then, they took their boat tickets and went to the makeshift ferry crossing.

"Put on your life jackets before boarding!"

The staff nearby distributed a life jacket and a safety helmet woven from willow or rattan to each person.

After getting dressed, everyone boarded the ship.

The staff reminded them again, "Please keep a close eye on the children and make sure they don't fall!"

"Okay, I'll keep an eye on it."

Ma Hongwei nodded, boarded the boat first, and then reached out his hand so that his mother could grab his arm and board the boat.

Once everyone was dressed, the crew immediately started the engine and steered the boat toward Youth Cave.

The cave wasn't dark; two rows of neon lights were installed on the ceiling, constantly changing colors.

The boat was not moving very fast, and they felt like they had been traveling for a long time before it finally sailed out of the Youth Cave.

Here, the boat will not continue forward, but will turn back and return along the original route.

On their way back, Ma Hongwei and Xia Weiwei did not continue walking, but instead took a sightseeing bus back with the others.

After leaving the scenic area, Ma Weihong said to everyone, "This is a tourist area, there aren't many good restaurants here, let's go back to the city and have lunch here!"

"That's what I think too."

Ma Hongwei nodded slightly and said to everyone, "Anyone hungry? There are snacks in the car. You can have some to tide you over. We'll have roast duck for lunch today."

They left early this morning, it's only 11:30 now, and they'll get back around 12:00.

"Great, great!"

The two little ones were naturally very happy.

So the group got into two cars and headed towards Lincheng.

While driving, Ma Hongwei contacted some of the manufacturers he had previously worked with via WeChat.

This time, he purchased 204 tons of rice, which is 408000 jin (approximately 204,000 catties).

18.72 tons each of Meilin braised pork canned food and Meilin luncheon meat canned food.

In addition to rice and canned goods, Ma Hongwei also purchased a batch of salt.

In northern Shaanxi, the Soviet area had its own salt wells and salt fields, so there was no shortage of salt. They could even sell it to people in the surrounding areas to make money or exchange it for goods.

However, the Eighth Route Army was relatively short of salt in the Taihang Mountains and the anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines.

In the early stages of the War of Resistance against Japan, the Japanese army had not yet completely blockaded the country, and the Kuomintang and Yan Xishan had not targeted the Eighth Route Army, so it was still possible to obtain some salt.

When the Japanese army began to completely blockade the mountainous areas, the Kuomintang and Yan Xishan also began to besiege the enemy's base areas behind enemy lines, and the amount of salt that could be obtained was greatly reduced.

This also meant that the Eighth Route Army had a long-term diet with little oil and salt, so the soldiers were weak and had sore muscles due to the lack of salt.

In some base areas, they would even scrape soil from walls and old stoves to boil saltpeter from the soil of saline-alkali land.

This type of salt has many impurities, tastes bitter, and contains a large amount of harmful substances.

Ma Hongwei felt that it was appropriate to keep some salt on hand.

30 tons of salt is not much; it's only enough for the Eighth Route Army to eat for 4-7 days.

Ma Hongwei only bought this salt because he needed to store other items.

Rice, canned goods, and salt alone take up 408 cubic meters of space, leaving only 94 cubic meters available for use.

He also needs to buy medical alcohol, medical cotton cloth, and solar panels.

In addition, a new batch of penicillin and saline solution needs to be replenished to prevent drug resistance from increasing and the amount brought over from becoming insufficient.

We can't use up all the space.

Each shipment may contain fewer essential supplies, but it cannot be without them.

Especially medication, which is crucial to the soldiers' lives, must never be interrupted.