The Courtyard House: The Little Red Devil Returning from the Peninsula

After the surrender site was dismantled, the takeover stations in Beiping were still queuing up.

In late August 1945, Zhao Weiguo's command headquarters moved into an old office building. There were no victory celebration pictures on the walls, but rather a map of the North China Railway and a list of warehouses in five cities. Every day, people delivered lists of wounded soldiers, prisoner-of-war transfer forms, and equipment sealing slips downstairs, and the door threshold was worn white by the soles of boots.

The first urgent telegram from Yan'an has arrived two days ago.

The telegram instructed Zhao Weiguo to travel to Yan'an as soon as possible with the war zone report, military production records, supply depot records, and a list of key cadres. Only monks were selected to accompany him, and a separate liaison and escort team of twelve was assigned. Specific tasks were not specified, and the second sealed telegram, marked "The Central Military Commission has other arrangements" on the cover, had not yet been opened.

Zhao Gang placed the four-column roster of the Independent Regiment on the table.

Formal combat personnel, training personnel, local transport and medical personnel, and friendly forces personnel were filed separately. The total number of personnel available for deployment in the war zone was approximately 121,000, which were also allocated to the North China takeover, local garrison, friendly forces relocation, industrial chain, transport and medical personnel, and wounded personnel systems. No category could be loaded onto the truck with Zhao Weiguo.

"After you leave, I will temporarily take over the daily military and political affairs," Zhao Gang said.

"Run between the takeover in Beiping and the regimental headquarters in Taiyuan. First, return to Taiyuan to take over the general ledger; report urgent matters in the five cities according to the routes."

Zhao Gang frowned: "I knew it. Once you left, I was left to run the whole road."

"You used to complain that I didn't keep track of the accounts."

"Before, when you led a few hundred men, if you were missing a gun, I could tell just by looking. Now you have 120,000 men, and you still expect me to use my eyes?"

Zhao Weiguo chuckled and pushed the troop tent over.

Zhao Gang didn't laugh along. He turned to the page about the wounded and pointed to several names that had been reclassified as active duty.

Who changed these?

"Send it back and resubmit it. The injured soldier failed the re-examination; we can't just put him back into the ranks to make the numbers look better."

"Write this sentence on the cover, so I won't curse at you every day."

Zhao Weiguo really wrote it.

When Zhao Tieshan arrived from Taiyuan, his sleeves were still covered in coal dust.

He brought with him a handover document between the stone kiln and the mining area. Eighteen machine tools and three hundred and twenty-seven measuring instruments were stored in three different locations. Coking coal, iron ore, steel billets, and raw material inventories were sealed in batches, and their transport depended on railway capacity, while also ensuring sufficient reserves for workshop production.

Zhao Weiguo did not ask which items could be taken away.

"You keep the stone kiln."

Zhao Tieshan paused, flipping through the booklet. "I thought you would at least take two technicians to Yan'an."

"The technician's gone, who's going to look after the machines?"

"If you ask about equipment in Yan'an?"

"Bring the list, but don't move the machine."

Zhao Tieshan nodded, left the original book on the table, and made another summary. He was in charge of the military industry accounts, and the mining areas, decentralized workshops, repair systems, and worker resettlement continued to follow the original chain.

The handover couldn't just list eighteen machine tools. Zhao Tieshan read through the door numbers, custodians, and power outage order of the three warehouses one by one. The first warehouse was susceptible to dampness, so the wooden supports needed to be checked daily; the second warehouse was near the railway, so an extra shift of guards was needed at night; the third warehouse was scattered in old cave dwellings, so the measuring tools had to be wrapped in oil paper, and two people had to sign for them when they were requisitioned. The 327 measuring tools varied in size, and if even one caliper was missing, the entire batch of parts might be scrapped.

Coking coal inventory was categorized by mine, iron ore by grade, and steel billets by furnace number. Zhao Weiguo flipped to the list of technical personnel and saw that two skilled lathe operators had been borrowed to Tianjin by the takeover team, so he wrote down their return dates next to them. No matter how much machinery was seized in Wucheng, it couldn't be used to dismantle the original production line into an empty shell.

When Zhao Tieshan put down his pen, black ash was still embedded in his fingernails. He said that some people at Shiyao had heard that Beiping had surrendered and wanted to celebrate by suspending the night shift for a day. Zhao Weiguo asked if the blast furnace could be shut down. Zhao Tieshan cursed and said that if it was shut down and then restarted, it would require burning several more cartloads of coking coal. Neither of them mentioned the holiday again, only adding a note at the end of the handover book: meat will be added to the night shift meals, and the furnace fire will continue as usual.

Old Zhou arrived last.

His right knee injury had eased, allowing him to stand and ride a horse for short distances, though he was still a beat slow when crossing a threshold. Zhao Weiguo placed the artillery training and equipment wear and tear logbook in front of him. Mountain guns, infantry guns, and mortars had to be separated into repairable, dismantled, and scrapped categories, and the consumption of gun wheels, barrels, sights, and ammunition had to be recorded.

Without even flipping through the booklet, Old Zhou asked, "Aren't you taking me this time?"

"You leave the artillery."

"Isn't Yan'an short of gatekeepers?"

"We lack someone. But what we lack even more is someone who knows how many shots each cannon has fired."

Old Zhou pressed his right knee, his face showing displeasure.

"I used to follow you because I was afraid you'd act recklessly. Now that you can sit indoors and draw, you just dump me on Pao."

"If you want to go, I'll change the list now."

Old Zhou looked up at him.

The room was quiet for a while.

"Change my ass." Old Zhou pulled the appendix aside. "I'm leaving. These gunners can drag the guns in need of repair to training sessions. Don't try to be a hero when you get to Yan'an; there will be more people cursing you than I am."

The relationship wasn't discussed openly, but the booklet was already taken away.

Old Zhou opened the supplementary register and immediately noticed discrepancies in the damage counts of two mortars. One was reported to have 460 rounds, but the spare firing pin had only been requisitioned once; the other was marked as needing repair and had been towed to the drill ground yesterday. He circled the two discrepancies and instructed the artillery staff officer to investigate them that same day.

"People can leave, but don't leave behind any messy debts," he said.

Zhao Weiguo asked if his right knee could handle inspecting the artillery range every day. Old Zhou said he would ride a horse, walking to nearby areas himself, and having cannons carried over for farther locations. But halfway through his sentence, he changed his mind, cursing anyone who dared to treat cannons like a sedan chair, saying he would slap them first. Zhao Weiguo listened, knowing that this man could be kept around, but also knowing that he was still unhappy.

As he was leaving, Old Zhou tucked the supplementary booklet under his arm and glanced back at Zhao Weiguo: "When you get to Yan'an, don't use being eighteen as a shield. You won't escape the consequences of your actions."

"I didn't intend to hide."

"You used to say that too."

After the door closed, the slow, deliberate footsteps in the corridor faded into the distance.

Five general ledgers were laid out on the long table.

The troops were handed over to Zhao Gang.

The military equipment was handed over to Zhao Tieshan.

The railway station's logbook was jointly kept by Zhao Gang and the transportation department.

The wounded soldiers' compensation accounts and the prisoners of war takeover accounts were kept by designated personnel at the regimental headquarters, with Zhao Gang overseeing them. Old Zhou carried the supplementary register for artillery and equipment losses, which was not mixed into the five general ledgers.

All five ledgers had designated personnel, and each had a deputy. When Zhao Gang was not in Beiping, troop changes were first registered by the regimental staff; if equipment needed to be transferred from the military industry ledger, Zhao Tieshan and the supply depot each signed off on it; when the railway supply depot encountered issues such as broken bridges, coal shortages, or conflicts with trains carrying wounded soldiers, the wounded were prioritized, and then Zhao Gang was notified for review. The compensation ledger was divided into columns by name, place of origin, family members, and destination of distribution, while the prisoner-of-war ledger was divided into columns by number, severity of injury, transfer location, and person in charge.

The ledger Zhao Gang hadn't closed in a long time was the list of wounded soldiers' compensation accounts. Tucked inside were several receipts that hadn't been mailed out; some village names had changed, and some families had moved away. He said this ledger couldn't just record how many were sent out; it also had to record who actually received them. Zhao Weiguo returned one of the receipts, asking the local authorities to check again. The upper right corner of the receipt had been stamped twice, but the recipient's section was still blank.

The takeover of prisoners of war also presented problems. Not all of the seven groups of people who refused to surrender had been included, and there was still a discrepancy between the 3,000 people mentioned in Okamura's confession and the actual number of over 1,800. Zhao Gang drew a vertical line in the discrepancy column, forbidding anyone from counting the missing as surrendered or killed.

All original documents remained in North China.

Zhao Weiguo only carried five document bags. One contained a summary of the handover of the five cities, with a page attached to the railway station; a table of troop changes, followed by a list of key officers; a list of wounded soldiers; a list of military supplies; and a copy of Okamura's record of being captured. All the materials requested in the telegram were there; no one bothered to load a room full of old accounts onto the car.

The monk refused to accept the payment.

He carried an old satchel and handed over a list of twelve direct liaison guards. The list included communications, guards, drivers, and medical personnel; the monks were listed separately and did not count towards the twelve-person quota. The two captured shortwave radios were loaded into the second vehicle and secured along with five summaries, medicine, and a spare tire.

Two cars.

The first vehicle carried people, and the second carried documents, radios, medicine, and vehicle tools. No artillery, armored cars, or organized combat battalions followed.

Before setting off, Zhao Gang took Zhao Weiguo to the quartermaster department to look at three blackboards.

The first section listed troop numbers, the second equipment, and the third wounded and replenished. A quartermaster officer included the training personnel in the official combat column, which Zhao Gang crossed out with chalk.

"Those who pass the training will be allowed in. It's better to have fewer people today than to find out they can't even shoot when the fighting starts tomorrow."

Zhao Weiguo stood to the side without saying a word.

Zhao Gang turned around: "You used to hate these kinds of accounts the most."

"I'm annoyed too."

"Then why are you still watching?"

"I have to watch it, even if it's annoying."

This wasn't a clever suggestion, but Zhao Gang put the chalk in his pocket after hearing it. It was the most practical method they had left after calculating from a few hundred people all the way up to a system of hundreds of thousands.

There was only one farewell ceremony at the city gate.

Zhao Gang personally placed the five document bags into the second vehicle and checked the seals on each one. Old Zhou didn't chase after them on horseback; he had already returned to the artillery barracks. Zhao Tieshan returned to Shiyao that day; the machine tool and measuring instruments were still in three warehouses.

"What should we do if an urgent order is issued to mobilize troops?" Zhao Gang asked from beside the car.

"Write down the number of personnel, route, outposts, time, and who will fill in any gaps. Even if there's no time to stamp it, you must still record who handled it."

"Where are our neighbors?"

"Return to your original organizational structure. Collaboration should only specify objectives and timelines."

Zhao Gang nodded and took a step back.

The monk crawled under the car and checked it again. After getting up, he felt for the water bottle, medicine box, and tire ropes. The twelve guards counted off according to the list. The communications officer coughed twice, saying he hadn't slept well the night before. The medic wrote down the names, preparing to check them again along the way.

At nine o'clock in the morning, two cars left the city.

At least six checkpoints along the way verified the number of people, vehicles, two radios, and five document bags. Local sentries didn't skip the paperwork when they saw Zhao Weiguo. At the second checkpoint, they found a medicine box with a loose seal; the convoy stopped to reseal it, causing a twenty-minute delay.

The third checkpoint was located next to a broken bridge, forcing vehicles to detour around the riverbank. The sentry first counted the twelve guards, then checked the monks individually; only those whose numbers matched the departure slip were allowed to pass. At the fourth checkpoint, the radio serial numbers were checked. The communications officer, running a low-grade fever, insisted on carrying both machines down for inspection. The medic touched his forehead, wrote his temperature in the logbook, and decided to recheck at the next outpost.

The duty officer at the fifth checkpoint didn't recognize Zhao Weiguo, only the official seal. He inspected the undercarriage of the first vehicle and then asked why the second vehicle had five document bags. The monk, annoyed by his dawdling, was about to speak when Zhao Weiguo handed over the summary catalog. The duty officer looked at the catalog, didn't open the bags, and wrote the arrival time on the waybill as required.

The sixth stop was near a military post, and it was already getting dark. During the convoy's inventory, they discovered a wrench was missing from the spare toolbox. The driver racked his brains before remembering that he had lent it to the local repair crew when resealing the medicine kit at the second stop. The convoy didn't leave immediately; they contacted the previous station via radio to confirm the wrench's serial number and the person who had handled it before adding the missing part to the logbook. Even small items had to be recorded; only upon reaching Yan'an could they clarify what had been missing along the way.

The walls of Beiping retreated behind them.

Zhao Weiguo reached into his breast pocket. The small bronze star was placed next to the unopened coded telegram; he hadn't reattached the collar insignia.

In the afternoon, Zhao Gang returned to Taiyuan as planned to take over the regimental headquarters' general accounts. The takeover of the five cities of Beiping was to be continued by the heads of each line. The stone kiln furnaces continued to burn, the artillery training ground continued to report malfunctions, and the hospital was still receiving wounded. With the commanding officer gone, no line moved with him.

At night, the convoy stopped at a military post.

The communications officer's temperature rose again. The medic told him to stop his shift, and another guard would take over the radio duty. Zhao Weiguo had checked the roster but didn't replace him on the spot. There were still supply depots ahead; if the high fever persisted, they would be replaced according to regulations. The communications officer said he could manage, but his hands trembled as he carried water, so he had to hand over his duty badge.

The supply depot assigned bunks to the twelve guards and monks, with the driver sleeping beside the vehicle. An iron chain was added to the door lock of the second vehicle, and five document bags were moved into the duty room, where both sides counted the seals. Zhao Weiguo didn't have a single room; the route slips left at the six checkpoints during the day were spread out on the table. Each sheet was covered in dirt, and the stamps varied in depth, yet they clearly marked the route the two vehicles took from Beiping to here.

The monk brought over half a bowl of noodles and glanced at Zhao Weiguo's chest pocket.

"That letter that says there are other arrangements, should we open it now?"

"It will open again when the handover takes place in Yan'an."

The monk put the noodles down and asked no more questions.

Outside the compound, two radio stations were guarded in shifts by communications officers. The seals on all five document bags were intact, and the twelve guards checked them again. At dawn, the convoy continued westward.

Zhao Weiguo neatly stacked the six travel slips according to the checkpoint order and placed them at the bottom of the document bag. From Beiping to Yan'an, there were still hundreds of miles to go and several more checkpoints.

He blew out the lamp on the table, and in the darkness, only the ticking of the radio outside the courtyard remained, striking again and again until dawn.