Huo Xiaoshan and his party finally caught up with the flow of people who retreated to the riverside and became an ordinary member of them. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Along the way, they passed burning villages, stepped over the corpses of their compatriots, and listened to the painful groans of the wounded on the roadside.

Compared with the helpless and blank gazes of most people, Huo Xiaoshan's face was a little more helpless and sad.

Murong Pei held Huo Xiaoshan's hand tightly, and sometimes when he accidentally stepped on the corpse on the road, his hand involuntarily clenched Huo Xiaoshan.

In the middle of the night, Huo Xiaoshan and the others finally rushed to the riverside.

The riverside was already in chaos, thousands of soldiers crowded together along the river, and various dialects were intertwined and extremely noisy.

Some shouted to find acquaintances and comrades-in-arms, and some raised guns and shouted that they wanted to return to fight the Japanese army, but many more were still looking for equipment to cross the river.

Looking into the river again, the river is surging, and you can see that there are sparse lights on the other side but they are so far away, and this situation is in response to Zhou Liebao's words to Shen Chong, there is no boat in the river.

At the beginning of the defense of Nanjing, Tang Shengzhi, the supreme garrison commander, in order to express his determination to live and die with Nanjing, handed over all the ships on the south bank of the Yangtze River to the control of the 36th Division.

But the actual situation was that Tang Shengzhi's own commander's department had stolen a small steamer, and all divisions and brigades had also stolen ships.

And just when the front line was fighting bloodily, Tang Shengzhi fled, the chief officer fled, and the senior commanders below him also fled, but did not notify the troops.

After learning that the commander had fled for his life, the troops were in an uproar and subconsciously rushed all the way down the river, so the disorderly retreat turned into a rout, and the troops that had lost their formation were no different from the common people.

Huo Xiaoshan and the others squeezed to the riverside with great effort, and looked into the river, the river was rushing, which was intimidating.

Since there were no boats on the river, the retreating soldiers used all their imagination to cross the river in a variety of strange ways, and most of these ways revolved around two words: wood.

Because there were not many trees nearby, they had already been used up by the people who had evacuated to the river in advance, so the houses had been demolished, and the doors and windows, beams, wooden baths, and all the wooden products were collected, and the large pieces were used separately, and the small pieces were tied together to produce the greatest buoyancy as possible, in order to become Noah's Ark that could carry life across the surging river.

It's just that these temporary river-crossing appliances are fine in places where the water is not rushing by the river, and most of them will be submerged when they approach the center of the river where the water is turbulent, so the shouts for help resounded on the north and south banks of the river, and everyone who heard it was sad.

As soon as Huo Xiaoshan and the others arrived at the riverside, they saw several soldiers shouting on a special boat, which had already sailed some distance from the river, but had already begun to sink.

It turned out that the ship had four dung buckets connected by branches, and soldiers continued to jump from the boat one after another, hoping to lighten the load of the "ship", but the boat eventually sank deeper and deeper, until the only remaining officer on board was swept away by the surging river.

Huo Xiaoshan and the others were silent, but they saw a soldier with an ingenious idea, he actually rode on a cow, holding a wooden stick in one hand and slapping the cow's buttocks vigorously, wanting the cow to take him across the river.

At the beginning, the cow was really whipped under his command and swam to the other side of the river.

Just after swimming dozens of meters into the deep water area, the cow may also be afraid of the surging river, suddenly turned his head and swam back, the soldier was caught off guard, and planted into the surging river, seeing that he waved his arm a few times in the river water, and grabbed a few handfuls of his hand in the air, and was swept away by a big wave.

This situation may only appear in comedy, but when tens of thousands of people are also worried about their lives, it is the biggest tragedy in the world, the rabbit dies and the fox is sad, everyone is related, no one can laugh, or silently watch, or still trying to find their last chance.

"If I knew this, it was better not to withdraw, and it was better to fight with the devil on the front line than to be drowned in this river!" Shen Chong said hatefully.

"You didn't think anyone went back to fight the devil just now?" Without waiting for Huo Xiaoshan to speak, it was an unknown soldier who was crowded around Huo Xiaoshan and them.

"Then kill it back!" Shen Zhan had obviously been stimulated by the tragic scene of crossing the river in front of him.

"At first, there were quite a few people who turned their heads and went back to Xinhe, and I went too, but, ......," the soldier sighed.

"But what, what?" Shen Chong asked urgently.

"However, there were a lot of people when I went, and there were regrets on the way, and I didn't wait until the place ran out of more than half of the place, and then when I entered the range of the devils, there were even fewer people, let alone charge, hey......" The soldier's face was full of chagrin and helplessness.

"What a wretch!" Shen Chong was still angry, "As long as the heart rushes out together, there will always be more people than the rest." ”

"If you want to fight devils, no one will stop you!" Huo Xiaoshan suddenly said Shen Chong loudly, "What's the use of saying this, if you have the ability, you can rush out by yourself!" ”

"What about you?" Shen Chong asked, he had clearly heard Huo Xiaoshan's displeasure, and his voice had involuntarily lowered.

"I'm going to take Yaya across the river." Huo Xiaoshan no longer paid attention to Shen Chong, and took Murong Pei's hand and walked downstream along the river.

Shen Chong and the soldiers looked at each other for a while, then hurriedly ran away from the soldier who had just answered and chased after Huo Mu and the others.

In fact, not only Huo Xiaoshan, but also Shen Chong, facing the scene of thousands of people scurrying around the river like little rats trying to survive, they also understood in their hearts that the troops that had lost their formation were no different from ordinary people at this time.

The defeat is like a mountain, no one can change the status quo, raise your arms and shout, there must be heroes who should gather, but it is by no means now.

So, in Shen Chong's whining, Huo Xiaoshan and the others could only ignore everyone and find a way to cross the river by themselves.

Huo Xiaoshan himself can swim across the Yangtze River, in fact, not only Huo Xiaoshan, but also for people who are particularly good at water, if they swim across the Yangtze River in summer, they can also do it.

It's just that it's mid-December, and the ultra-low water temperature is the deadliest factor, enough to make any swimmer cramp and choke to death.

Of course, except for Huo Xiaoshan, who has been taking a snow bath since he was a child, but he is no longer a person now, there are several brothers who follow him behind him, and Murong Pei, he must find a boat.

Going down the river, the scenery along the way is not much different from that of Shimonoseki Wharf.

There are still people jumping around on the shore, and there are still many people who use their own invented "boats" to launch into the water, and then more of them sink into the water in the middle of the river, making heart-rending cries.

When walking past a burned house, Huo Xiaoshan suddenly stopped, and the people behind him also stopped their steps, and were about to ask why they stopped, but they all heard a faint call in the shadow of the firelight on the side wall of the house, "Brother, hey, wait, brother." ”

The crowd followed the sound and saw a man in military uniform sitting against the wall in the shadows.

"What's wrong with you?" Huo Xiaoshan asked.

"My leg was blown off by the devil's plane, and I can't walk." The man struggled to reply, and only then did the crowd notice that one of his legs was gone, and although it was tied with a legging, it was clear that there was no hope of escape.

"I didn't let you take me." This soldier obviously knew that in the current situation, a person with four able-bodied feet might not be able to cross the river alive, let alone a seriously wounded person like him.

"Brother, give me a moment, have a good time." He said with more and more effort, opening his thumb and forefinger, which pressed against his temple.

Huo Xiaoshan and the others were all shocked by this soldier's small action, and they were speechless in a daze.

Do what he says? I really can't do it.

Don't do what he says? His fate can be imagined.

After a suffocating moment of silence, Shen Chong replied, "I'm sorry, I can't do it!" ”

He pulled his legs and left, and the soldiers behind him followed, they didn't know what to say, they subconsciously, when they encountered this situation, since they couldn't choose, they could only escape, the farther away the better, but escape was already a choice.

Shen Chong walked away for a while before he came to his senses, and when he looked back, he saw Huo Xiaoshan pulling Murong Pei and chasing after him.

"Why did you go? Are you?! What Shen Chong was referring to was naturally that Huo Xiaoshan should have stayed with the wounded man just now.

"I gave him a fast and slow machine, dozens of bullets." Huo Xiaoshan didn't meet Shen Chong's gaze, but pulled Murong Pei and walked to the front again.

Shen Chong didn't ask any more questions, and silently followed behind with the soldiers.

The Battle of Nanjing has been going on for a while now, and Huo Xiaoshan and them are all tired because they can't get a good rest, but the desire to survive urges everyone to move forward as quickly as possible, and no one knows what awaits them on the road ahead, whether it is the artillery fire of the Japanese army, or the surging river with no hope of escape, or a flat boat carrying the hope of life. (To be continued.) )