Chapter 4 Standing Firm

  Ma Qianan climbed over a small hill and looked around, seeing no one, he immediately spread his legs and ran towards the place where Yang Jingyu was hiding.

  When he panted and ran to the cellar, he saw General Yang Jingyu sitting at the entrance of the cellar with a smile. Ma Qian felt his heart sink into his stomach, thudded down in front of Yang Jingyu, panting heavily: "Commander, I'm here, nothing's wrong."

  Yang Jingyu smiled and shook his head, saying: "It's okay, I'm physically strong, as long as there is food to eat, it's no problem even if the weather is colder than this."

  Ma Qian smiled foolishly, his heart filled with joy. There was nothing more delightful than this - the general was still alive, and that was enough.

  Ma Qianan looked around and said: "Commander, this is too close to the village, it's not safe. We must move immediately. I'll follow your orders, where are we going?"

  Yang Jingyu glanced at Ma Qian's arrival and said, "Don't worry, nowhere is safe here now, it's okay to leave after dark."

  The two of them looked at each other, both wanting to speak, but unfortunately opened their mouths at the same time. "Commander, fellow countryman... you go first, no, you go first..."

  "Hey, I'll go first," Ma Qian'an cut in, "I'm from Bao An Tun, my name is Ma Dalengzi, but I don't want to use that name anymore. You can call me Ma Qian'an." Ma Qian'an had reverted back to his original name. He decided to use this name from now on.

  "Oh? Why change the name? Ma Daren, it sounds good." Yang Jingyu found it strange.

  "I want to follow you and join the Anti-Japanese League, but I'd better change my name to avoid implicating my family. There are too many traitors in the league, and I'm afraid that if one of them betrays us, the enemy will find out my real name and implicate my family."

  Yang Jingyu was speechless, Ma Qian'an said it's all true, recently there have been too many traitors, can't guarantee that there won't be any traitors in the future. "Alright, I'll call you Little Ma or Anzi, from Longjiang Province." Yang Jingyu was very meticulous, even giving Ma Qian'an a fake hometown. Moreover, he didn't deny that changing names was a solution, because his own name wasn't his real name either, his real name was Ma Gaode.

  "Commander, am I considered an anti-communist now?"

  Yang Jingyu bit into the big pancake, took a sip of strong liquor, and let out a long sigh. The pancake was still warm from being tucked in Ma Qian'an's bosom, and Yang Jingyu silently praised Ma Qian'an's thoughtfulness.

  "Let's calculate and talk about it, why should I join the Anti-Japanese League?"

  "Commander, should I exaggerate or downplay it?"

  "Oh? Let's hear it." Chang Jingyu remained noncommittal.

  "Put it in a big way, this is national hatred; put it in a small way, I just want to be a man, that's all."

  "Hmm, you already have a basic sense of right and wrong, not bad, not bad. First follow me, see how I do things, ask whenever you don't understand, that's settled then. Can you read?"

  "Recognize characters? Commander, I'll write a few for you to see." After finishing speaking, Ma Qian used a branch to write the three words "Yang Jingyu" on the snowy ground.

  "It's okay, just one wrong character. Look, Yang wrote it like this." Yang Jingyu wrote a traditional "Yang" character in the snow for Ma Qian.

  Ma Qianan didn't sleep almost all night yesterday, he was thinking about how to position himself.

  In the face of the rolling tide of history, without having gained the energy to change the course of history, even if he himself possessed rich knowledge enough to change history, his personal power was still tiny and insignificant. In the treacherous environment of Northeast China, where tigers and wolves lurked, one misstep could lead to a heroic tragedy, with untimely death and unfulfilled ambitions. The entire Northeast was now occupied by nearly 300,000 elite Kwantung Army troops, nearly 200,000 strong pseudo-Manchurian police forces, and over 10 million Japanese-Manchu-Mongolian pioneer teams. Here, the resistance force was too weak, and the mass base was also poor. Long-term high-pressure policies and slave education had caused the vast majority of Northeastern people to lose their courage, becoming submissive and obedient. To drive out the Japanese devils, relying solely on the remaining 1,000 or so anti-Japanese leagues was absolutely impossible; a hard fight would only lead to total annihilation. The current plan was to preserve the spark of resistance power, mobilize the masses, replenish personnel, and then rely on the support of the world's anti-fascist forces to rise again.

  The real historical situation is that when the Anti-Communist League was in a critical moment of collapse, the highest leadership of the Anti-Communist League made timely adjustments, and the whole army withdrew to SL, integrated its forces, and then returned to Northeast China with the SL army in 1945.

  Ma Qian thought, what else can I do? How should I do it? First of all, he knew that the general was unwilling to withdraw to SL. Historical records show that the general had a big temper about whether to give up the Northeast Anti-Japanese War and withdraw to SL. He firmly refused to retreat and took a clear stand on this issue. He said: "I should fight for my motherland." With a loud voice, he was not compromising at all.

  Persuading the general to retreat became the top priority in front of Ma Qian'an. If the general did not retreat, according to his temper, he would definitely fight to the death, and Ma Qian'an could only save him once, but not twice.

  "Anzi, what are you thinking about?" Yang Jingyu asked, seeing Ma Qianan staring blankly.

  "Commander, are you a Communist?" Ma Qian asked stupidly.

  "Yes, what's wrong?"

  "Am I considered a communist just because I followed you?"

  Yang Jingyu thought for a moment, "You have thrown yourself into the revolution in the most difficult situation and resisted the invaders. You already possess the qualities of a party member, but to become a party member, you still need to undergo rigorous testing."

  "What test? Give me something more specific."

  Yang Jingyu smiled, "You little punk, alright, I'll give you a quota. Kill 5 devils or 10 traitors and you'll pass the test, how about it?"

  Ma Qian's eyes lit up with excitement, "Commander, you'd better keep your word. Come on, let's make a deal."

  Yang Jingyu couldn't help but laugh and cry, stretched out a palm, let Ma Qian'an slap it, then said: "You may have a good physique, but don't underestimate the devils, they are well-trained and extremely ruthless."

  Ma Qianan suddenly stood up and said, "Commander, I'm not afraid, you watch." Ma Qianan looked around and found a large stone half buried in the snow, pulled it out with a sway, "Commander, take a look, does this stone weigh three hundred catties?"

  Yang Jingyu took a look and said, "Only more, not less."

  Ma Qian squatted down in front of the stone, turned his head to Yang Jingyu and said: "Commander, look at this." Then he exerted himself with both arms, straightened his waist, and with a loud whoosh, lifted the stone high up. He held it for about ten seconds before throwing it to the ground with a loud crash into the snow.

  "Good boy, you have a lot of strength." Yang Jingyu praised.

  Ma Qian felt proud and contented, this body really gave him face.

  Yang Jingyu pulled out a blue-enameled, long-barreled, twenty-shot German-made mirror-finish pistol from his body and tossed it to Ma Qian'an, "Do you know how to use it?"

  Ma Qian'an examined it for a moment, then replied: "You see." After that, his hands moved continuously, up and down, and with a series of clicks, he disassembled the rifle into pieces. Immediately afterwards, he reassembled it with a series of clacks, completing the process in under fifteen seconds.

  This pistol's exploded diagram is so famous that Ma Qian can draw it with his eyes closed.

  "Who taught you?"

  "My dead father was a bandit."

  "Oh, how's your marksmanship?"

  Ma Qian'an learned from Zhou Xingxing's appearance, the more complacent he looked, the more complacent he was. He lightly blew on the muzzle with his mouth and drew out his voice to say: "Gun... God!"

  Yang Jingyu was stunned for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing and said: "Xiao Anzi, you just brag about it." Then he took off a bullet belt from his body and threw it to Ma Qian'an, saying: "This belt plus the bullets in the gun, a total of sixty rounds, I ask you to kill five devils, can you do it?"

  "Fifteen, not counting those who were wounded. If I couldn't kill fifteen of them, you can punish me, but don't count the stinky kid." Ma Qian said bluntly.

  Yang Jingyu was amused by Ma Qian's awkward expression and couldn't help but burst out laughing, and in her heart, she liked this young man even more.

  Ma Qian'an saw Chang Jingyu's happiness and felt relieved in his heart.

  Yang Jingyu smiled for a while, regardless of Ma Qian still fiddling with the shotgun alone, he reached out and pulled out a map from his backpack and studied it intently.

  After a while, he suddenly asked: "Anzi, have you heard any news in the past few days? What enemy troops are there around here?"

  Ma Qian'an scratched his head with his hand in the hat, thought carefully for a moment, and replied: "There is the Cheng Bing Trenching Team, the Cui Xuanfeng Trenching Team, the Tang Zhendong Trenching Team, and the Police Battalion."

  Ma Qian'an noticed that when the general heard these few names, the anger in his eyes flared up instantly.

  "These few people are all traitors." Seeing Ma Qianan staring at himself, Yang Jingyu said helplessly. "Is there anything else?"

  "Also, in Dàdōnggōu, they killed two Anti-Communist League members who claimed to be your bodyguards."

  Yang Jingyu's expression quickly turned gloomy, "Zhu Wenhua, Li Dongfan, are my guards, very brave and loyal warriors."

  "Why are there so many traitors?" Ma Qian's eyes gleamed sharply.

  Yang Jingyu looked up and stared at Ma Qian'an for a moment before speaking: "Can you understand?"

  "Go on."

  Yang Jingyu said slowly: "Let's talk about me first, I am a nationalist first and foremost. When the foreign enemy is present, we consider uniting all anti-Japanese forces, this idea has been unified. So the problem arises, our team is led by Communist Party members, but the foundation of the team is all anti-Japanese armed forces, including the Righteous and Brave Army, the puppet police force, and the mountain forest team. Everyone at that time joined the team with blood and courage, and after a long period of fighting, there was basically no time to rest, and political ideology work was relatively weak. We deeply understand this weakness.

  A person, if he does not have firm revolutionary ideas, does not have faith, when the struggle is in a low valley, when his spirit and body are at the limit of collapse, he has no motivation to persist in fighting. This is also the reason why many traitors appeared in our team. But if this person has faith, I believe that even if there are knife mountains and fire seas ahead, he will still charge forward without hesitation. I firmly believe in this point.

  We have not been defeated, we are still fighting, those who have sacrificed, and those who remain to persist in the fight, are our sparks, are our hope. As for those traitors, those people without faith, let them stink for ten thousand years!"

  The general waved his hand, "We still have you and thousands of young people like you who are dedicated to the cause of resisting Japan at the most difficult times. Our cause will surely continue and move towards victory."

  Good heavens! General Ma really can talk, I had already known from historical materials that Yang Jingyu was an excellent orator, a born propagandist and agitator, but this personal experience still left me feeling shocked.

  "Do you understand?" The general stared at Ma Qian'an who was lost in thought.

  Ma Qian nodded heavily, "I understand, I want to be a man of faith, I won't be a white-eyed wolf."

  Yang Jingyu smiled slightly, comforted by Ma Qian's sincere attitude, which gave him some consolation and alleviated the anger brought to him by the appearance of a traitor.

  Should he reveal a bit more to General Ma? Zhan Yan hesitated in his heart.

  A sudden occurrence interrupted the conversation between the two. The general had exceptionally good eyesight and was the first to spot a small troop cresting the eastern ridge, heading in their direction.

  The two quickly cleaned up and swept away the traces, then hid into the mountains.