Guangdong.

On a stretch of road from Nanxiong to Shaoguan, cars are struggling to drive in potholes.

Martha half-jokingly complained, "It's the slowest car I've ever sat in in my life, and it's not even as fast as my bike." ”

Zhou Hexuan explained: "This is already a high standard. We're in an alcohol-powered car, followed by a tung oil car and a charcoal car, and that's really slow. ”

"Has China reached the point where there is no gasoline?" Hemingway was surprised.

Zhou Hexuan said: "Of course, there is gasoline, but it must be used for the military. ”

The crowd arrived in Hong Kong two days ago and was personally received by Hong Kong Police Chief Cohen. Cohen, a Jewish-British, served as Sun Yat-sen's bodyguard as a young man and was close to senior Kuomintang generals in Guangdong and Guangxi.

Under Cohen's arrangement, Zhou Hexuan and others took two small planes, secretly crossed the Japanese-occupied area, landed in Nanxiong County, and then transferred to an alcoholic car to Shaoguan, where the headquarters of the Seventh Station District was located.

During the Anti-Japanese War, China's automobile fuels were simply varied, most commonly powered by alcohol, tung oil and charcoal.

That speed is no different from that of an old cow pulling a broken car.

Martha looked at the charred stubble on the distant mountain and asked, "Why did the Chinese peasants set fire to the mountain?" ”

Ma Qingming, the interpreter arranged by the Kuomintang, was stunned and replied, "For the sake of ...... In order to drive away the tigers. ”

This answer made Zhou Hexuan look confused, and suddenly rolled his eyes.

"Burning the mountain can drive away the tiger?" Martha asked.

Ma Qingming began to make up stories: "The tiger here wants to eat a ...... Well, eat a delicate sweet grass, set fire to burn what they eat, and they will run away in a panic when they are hungry, and they will not stay here to harm people. ”

Ma Qingming is an accompanying interpreter arranged by the Kuomintang Party Department in Nanxiong County, this guy is almost 40 years old, and he claims to have studied abroad at the University of Michigan, but he speaks English really badly. Sometimes I don't know how to say a certain word, just this and that is replaced by Chinese, and answering questions is also nonsense, completely fooling Zhou Hexuan and a few foreigners as fools.

Setting fire to the mountains is obviously the peasants burning the wasteland in preparation for the next spring ploughing. Ma Qingming didn't even know this, but it was conceivable that he was out of the bottom of the people (these plots were not made up by Lao Wang, but from Martha's Chinese travels).

The 100-kilometer journey from Nanxiong County to Shaoguan took the car a whole day. In the midst of Ma Qingming's nonsense, they finally arrived in Shaoguan without danger and were arranged to stay in a hotel called "Shaoguan Light".

There are two wooden beds in the standard rooms of the hotel, and the tables are made of bamboo. The brass-colored basin was filled with muddy water, and there was still some "aging" in the spittoon. There was filth and mosquitoes everywhere, and there was a thatched pit dug into the floor at the end of the hallway, and next to it were cans of water for flushing toilets, but the cans were too dirty to touch.

Martha, a female war correspondent, was a little hypocritical, she was disgusted, and complained: "This is the best hotel in Shaoguan that Mr. Ma said?" What else do you say about the elegant environment, my God, the hotels in China are too dirty. ”

"Who insisted on coming to China?" Hemingway grinned and quipped.

Martha shook her head again and again: "China is more backward and primitive than I imagined. ”

As a war correspondent, Martha was clearly incompetent at this time, having only been to the battlefields of Spain and Finland, and had never been to a particularly hostile place. Hemingway is different, he participated in the First World War, and he has often traveled on the battlefield over the years, and he has encountered all kinds of bad situations.

Martha couldn't stand the toilet in the hotel, so she had to ask Ma Yi to take her outside to solve it. When she returned, she said to her husband, "I just took a car to the countryside in the suburbs, where there is a public toilet made of grass and trees. ”

"With what?" Hemingway curious.

Martha gestured, "A large five-foot-tall Ali-Baba-style jar that was placed on the ground to collect precious stool. ”

"What do you do when you collect poop?" Hemingway was a little puzzled.

Martha sighed: "China is so poor and backward, and the lives of ordinary people are so difficult and thrifty. They don't even want to waste their poop, so they have to collect it well and make fertilizer, and I sympathize with them. ”

Hemingway authoritatively said: "The world is always like this, there is wealth and there is poverty." ”

Martha then smiled and said, "You know what? I was going to the toilet when a Japanese plane suddenly came up in the sky. The people in the village ran away, even the pigs were driven away, and I was left squatting in the toilet and couldn't get up or down, and I was in a dilemma, but fortunately the Japanese plane was just passing by. ”

Hemingway laughed, "Oh, poor Martha, how glorious it would be if you were killed just now." Martha, the intrepid occupancy journalist, dies in the line of duty, and you're sure to be a hero. However, the international press will surely ask me, where and how did she die? All I can say is that Martha was in the toilet at the time ......"

"Get out!" Martha slapped the table and was furious.

When the two of them were amused, Zhou Hexuan and Ma Jue were already sleeping in bed. As Chinese, even if they are rich, they are used to such hotels with poor conditions, and it is useless to be picky.

The day after arriving in Shaoguan, Yu Hanmou personally set up a banquet to entertain him, and the dishes on the table were very rich, and there was even a famous Cantonese dish "fried He Flower Sparrow".

Yu Hanmou smiled and introduced: "Mr. Currie, Mr. Zhou, Mr. Hemingway, Ms. Gellhorn, you are here at the right time. If it is delayed for half a month, the grass flower finch will fly to the north, and this kind of delicacy cannot be tasted all year round. ”

"I didn't expect Commander Yu to be a glutton, and he has such a study of food." Zhou Hexuan said with a grin, with a hint of irony in his words.

Yu Hanmou just didn't hear it, and said with emotion: "Now that the state affairs are difficult, there is nothing to entertain, so I can only hunt a little wild meat that doesn't cost money, and I ask your friends not to feel shabby." ”

Curry said: "Please General Yu arrange the train as soon as possible, we will go to Guilin tomorrow." ”

Yu Hanmou couldn't wait to send these few away as soon as possible, but he still warmly said: "Although Shaoguan is a small place, there are many beautiful scenery, a few people can stay for a while, and I will send someone to take you around." ”

"No, I have a duty." Currie said.

Hemingway said, "General Yu, are you far from the front line here?" ”

Yu Hanmou pointed to the north and said, "Five miles away is the position of the Japanese army. ”

Hemingway said happily: "Then I want to stay in Shaoguan for a few more days and cover the Chinese war at close range on the front line." ”

Yu Hanmou suddenly had a great headache, he was afraid that the Americans would have an accident in his war zone, so he said perfunctorily: "There is nothing to interview, Guangdong has not fought for more than half a year." ”

Martha immediately grasped the point and confirmed: "The positions of China and Japan are only 2.5 kilometers away, but they have not fought for more than half a year? ”

Yu Hanmou knew that he had lost his words, and hurriedly remedied: "There are no big battles, there are constant small battles, and there is nothing to interview." ”

Hemingway said: "Since we are at war, then we should go and interview, this is what a war correspondent must do." ”

"Haha, let's not talk about the interview first, let's drink, haha, drink." Yu Hanmou began to play tai chi.

After eating, Yu Hanmou quietly found Zhou Hexuan and asked, "Mr. Zhou, what do these two American reporters want to do?" Aren't they going to Chongqing? ”

Zhou Hexuan woke up and said: "The people sent by Roosevelt this time are divided into two groups, Curry is responsible for contacting officials, and the reporter couple is responsible for inspecting the battlefield and civilian situation. It is estimated that the United States wants to formulate a larger-scale aid plan for China, so it wants to find out the actual situation in China first. ”

"I see." Yu Hanmou was quite irritable. If those two American journalists had problems in Guangdong, he would certainly not be able to bear the responsibility, and at least he would have been suspended from pay and demoted by Lao Chiang - after all, it was a messenger sent by Roosevelt.

Zhou Hexuan did not follow the Hemingway couple, and took a train to Guangxi with Curry the next day, and then took a plane straight to Chongqing.

As for Shaoguan, Yu Hanmou delayed time in all kinds of perfunctory ways, and sent people to take Hemingway and his wife to visit places of interest. After a three-day delay, Hemingway's temper finally flinched, forcing Yu Hanmou to send them to the front-line headquarters and began their journey to the battlefield through several provinces.