Chapter 15: The Most Welcome Person Off-Topic
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The few people who stayed here were most welcome, and the two of them, Wei Yuankun and Wang Fangyuan, were the most popular. Wang Fangyuan didn't need to be said, although in the 21st century her appearance wasn't considered outstanding, at least compared to those idolized female stars, she was a bit inferior. However, in this era, especially among the Eighth Route Army, she was absolutely a heavenly beauty descended from heaven. As an old Eighth Route Army soldier would say, "Ah, I've seen several young ladies from wealthy families, but none of them are as beautiful as her." In any era or army, Wang Fangyuan's beauty had enough destructive power. At least around her, there were always soldiers willing to help out voluntarily. Her temper was also gentle and kind, which further increased her impression among these simple Eighth Route Army soldiers. It can be said without exaggeration that during battles in the military district, the commander-in-chief was the most important, but in peacetime, Wang Fangyuan was the most important. She was undoubtedly the number one idolized star within the base area, and the infatuation of the Eighth Route Army soldiers with her was basically due to her waving her hand, and whoever she called would come running. In a later battle, Wang Fangyuan was surrounded by devils (Japanese soldiers), which led to old Eighth Route Army soldiers, local militiamen, workers' detachments, county battalions, district companies, militia, children's teams (Wang Fangyuan had a way with kids), and even two groups of mountain bandits rushing to support her. The result was that the Japanese army unit was unable to pretend to be fierce and was torn apart by the various armed forces of over 10,000 people. Of course, this is a later story, so let's put it aside for now.
As for Wei Yuankun, although his face still had some killing power towards the big girls in the village, after all, he was the "whitest young man" in the surrounding area. However, like another time and space, Wei's main reliance here was still on his mouth and brain to make a living. Wei Yuankun's eloquence was not bad, plus he had read extensively and understood ancient and modern times, so when it came to talking nonsense, no, that is, when it came to storytelling, he was absolutely self-taught.
During his recovery period, he often told the surrounding soldiers and civilians stories such as "The Hero's Blood-Stained Cybotan", "The Star-Powered Fist of the Golden Bull" and "The Heavenly Vessel's Great Army Lin Mingmei's Song of Breaking the Enemy". These stories, which transcended time and were deeply processed by Wei Yuankun, received a warm welcome from the soldiers and civilians in the base area, and quickly spread.
What surprised Wei Yuankun was that because of these stories, many new words appeared in the entire anti-Japanese base area, such as calling the traitor detective team "Gegel Witch", calling the yellow shoe army "One Ear", and calling the Japanese military officer "Weizhentian" and so on.
What made Wei Yuankun, a time-traveler, dizzy was that one day, an Eighth Route Army camp commander came in and shouted, "Our camp won a battle and killed a Gremis!" At that time, all the time-travelers present looked at each other in shock, their mouths wide open like they could swallow a train. Wei Yuankun asked and found out that after listening to his storytelling "Gremis' Great War on Dinosaur Island", the Eighth Route Army soldiers all called Japanese officers above the rank of captain "Gremis".
However, there was one thing that Wei Yuankun never said, which was that "Gremis" and Sanba Dage were both products of a place, just from different eras. Apart from being a storyteller, Wei Yuankun also became a musician in the base area. His "created" songs received widespread welcome in the base area, such as the 12th team's soldiers who were about to go to the front line and sang a lively war song taught by Wei Yuankun - "Miao Cuihua".
Just as the fragrance of wheat wafted into my home
Watermelons are growing in the fields!
Miao Cuihua stood on the steep shore,
The singing voice is like the bright spring light.
Miao Cuihua stood on the precipitous bank,
The singing voice is like the bright spring light.
The girl sings beautiful songs.
She is singing The People's Liberation Army
She sings of her beloved
She also hid her lover's letters.
She sings of her beloved
She also hid her lover's letters.
The singing voice of this songstress
Follow the bright sun and fly away!
The warriors who went to fight in distant lands
Please give my regards to Miao Cuihua.
The warriors who went to fight in distant lands
Please give my regards to Miao Cuihua.
The Eighth Route Army soldiers fighting against Japanese invaders
Missing the distant girl in my heart
Bravely fight to defend the motherland
Miao Cuihua's love will always belong to him.
Bravely fight to defend the motherland
………
When Wang Fangyuan heard the whole team of soldiers singing this song again, she almost fainted. Three years later, Soviet General Zhukov had a similar reaction. Of course, as a woman, Wang was much more elegant than Zhukov - at least she didn't slap him in the face. Instead, she grabbed Wei Yuankun's ear and said, "Can you still behave?! You've changed Katyusha to Miao Cuihua! What's wrong with you?!" Her unladylike behavior made the soldiers who were about to go to the front lines burst out laughing, while Wei Yuankun didn't mind at all - after all, his ears were big. He continued to teach everyone his "original" new song, tilting his head to one side:
We are an army of steel
Charge forward with firm steps.
Behind is the beloved hometown
Guiding us forward is our leader.
Fight for your loved ones without wavering in your heart
Dear Jidong is precious to us.
Like copper walls and iron fortresses, unshakeable
We will definitely annihilate and defeat the Japanese pirates!
A row of infantry marched in formation
The earth rumbled beneath his feet.
Village after village behind us
There is also a green silk tent by the small river and well.
Fight for one's hometown and never waver
Dear Jidong is precious to us.
Like copper walls and iron fortresses, unshakeable
We will surely annihilate and defeat the enemy!
To create happiness with both hands
We built this lovely hometown.
Who dares to destroy even one brick and tile here?
We made him pay a terrible price.
Fight for one's own family and friends will never waver
Dear Jidong is precious to us.
Like copper walls and iron fortresses, unshakeable
We will definitely annihilate and defeat the Japanese pirates!
The warrior's power is boundless and endless.
We counterattacked with overwhelming firepower.
The eastern Hebei region is shrouded in smoke and dust.
The devil will get his own grave.
Fight for one's own capital and never waver
Dear Jidong is precious to us.
Like a copper wall and an iron fortress, unshakeable and indestructible
We will definitely annihilate and defeat the Japanese pirates!
While beside them, soldiers and even members of the cultural troupe were singing along with Wei Yuankun this war song full of Russian flavor. As soon as the song came out, Wang He, Zhang Xin and others who were used to Wei Yuankun's jokes were speechless. After that, Wei Yuankun said triumphantly, "No way, at this time Alyandroff had already written 'The Sacred War', otherwise I would have grabbed the copyright!"
Of course, Wei Yuankun's creative behavior was still very beneficial to him. At least he could slightly improve his diet. Occasionally, villagers who heard him tell stories would give him two eggs or something to eat. As for Wang He and Zhang Xin, they could only go with ordinary Eighth Route Army soldiers to gnaw on big-eyed buns with salted vegetables.
Although Wei Yuankun was welcomed by the military and civilians in the garrison, there were still people who hated him so much that they wanted to slaughter him. To be precise, it was the impulse of all male crossers. This person was none other than Lao Liu, the quartermaster of the Eighth Route Army, who was responsible for food supplies. In his eyes, that girl was somewhat better, at least she was a girl and didn't eat much. But those three men, Wang He, Zhang Xin, and Wei Yuankun, he suspected they were the three sons of Zhu Bajie come to earth to devour their Eighth Route Army. Ever since these three unknown guys joined the army, the military rations had become obviously insufficient. Moreover, these three had clearly received special treatment from the army leaders, who demanded that they be fed until they were full, and if possible, fed well. The leaders themselves ate cornmeal buns every day, let alone you guys. However, Lao Liu had to admit that these guys indeed had many clever ideas and didn't pick at their food. This could be seen from the fact that after not eating meat for a while, they would turn green-eyed - in order to supplement protein, they would eat mice, frogs, grasshoppers, cicadas, and even snakes, as long as it was an animal with flesh. The direct consequence of this was that every time they moved to a new location, the cats in the village where they were stationed would collectively lose their jobs. The other Eighth Route Army soldiers didn't have such good appetites and weren't interested in eating those things. Therefore, although the food supplies were similar, the male crossers with good appetites always looked radiant compared to the Eighth Route Army soldiers.
Of course, since they joined the Eighth Route Army, they naturally had to participate in military training, which was exactly what Wei Yuankun and his friends actively requested. After all, in such a war-torn era, an English proficiency test score of 8 was not as useful as being able to run five kilometers cross-country with a good grade.
The Eighth Route Army was very satisfied with these "new recruits", not because they brought their own uniforms and weapons, but because these young men were indeed born to be soldiers. Firstly, they had good physical health, and their ancestors were all veterans of the war, so they inherited some advantages in this regard. Moreover, those who were fed with milk powder, chocolate, meat floss, and vitamin tablets since childhood were different from those who were fed with corn bread, red sorghum, millet, pumpkin, and wild vegetables.
These young men had also participated in military training in another time and space, and they usually liked to study military-related things. Their ability to accept new knowledge was much better than that of the illiterate rural soldiers. In less than two months of training, although they were not yet qualified soldiers, their tactical movements were already very standard.
As for the five-kilometer cross-country run, they had become the top performers among the new recruits, and even many old soldiers felt inferior to them. For these young men, this was something that must be practiced well, because in critical moments, it would depend on their legs to save their lives.
Time flies, and before they knew it, October had arrived. For Wei Yuankun and the others, in this space-time continuum, the seven-day National Day holiday was no longer a possibility, because the Eighth Route Army had another new task at this time, which was to help the locals harvest their crops. As newcomers, Wei Yuankun and the others naturally couldn't be exempted either. However, it would be impossible for these three guys, who were used to being pampered and lazy, not to collect a single penny in wages while working for free. In another space-time continuum, countless instances have proven that the "Three Friends of Winter" combination consisting of Wei, Zhang, and Wang wouldn't cause trouble if they didn't get paid, let alone work hard. As expected, halfway through their task, the three of them collectively disappeared, and when others found out, they were hiding in a deserted courtyard roasting soybeans - which, of course, were stolen from the locals' fields.
It's only natural that they wouldn't have a good outcome from doing such things. Soon, the several individuals were publicly criticized and made to conduct a deep self-examination in front of the entire army. However, these guys had an attitude of "many lice don't itch, many debts don't worry", and thought it was laughable. From elementary school to university, they had seen similar scenes countless times - wasn't this just public criticism? What's the big deal? As for writing a self-examination essay, that was even easier. In their school days, these three were experts at writing self-examination essays. You want me to write a thousand words? I'll give you double, two thousand words! When they handed in their essays, the three of them whispered to each other, "What's this? Back then, we used to write three thousand words as a minimum, one thousand words is just for practice!" Generally speaking, political commissars often encountered situations where "a scholar meets a soldier and can't reason with him". But this time, they unexpectedly met fellow scholars who were also rascals. This time, even if they tried to reason with them, the commissar wouldn't have the upper hand. The three of them just made the commissar so angry that he was fuming. At the public self-examination meeting later on, these three guys with faces thicker than city walls stood in front of the entire army without any shame, proudly and loudly reciting their three thousand word essays. As for the content of the essays, according to Commander Li's words, these three young men had "violated the three major disciplines and eight points of attention". The commissar could only go so far as to say that this was a serious mistake that affected the relationship between the military and civilians, whether the military could survive in enemy territory, and the basic principles of the military. However, in their essays, these three not only listed out these points but also infinitely extrapolated them to "we stealing the old villager's soybeans is related to the success of the revolution, the outcome of battles, the development of scientific socialism, and even the destruction of the universe and the survival of humanity - it's a huge problem that makes us deeply feel our guilt and makes us want to be executed by a thousand cuts, beheaded, or buried alive. We vow to reform ourselves, change our ways, work hard, and start anew, sincerely repenting in the depths of our souls and making revolution, fiercely battling our selfish desires - we won't even think about stealing the old villager's soybeans again, otherwise I'll cut myself off from the people, disembowel myself, hang myself, buy five pounds of buns to stuff myself to death, or trick you into thinking I'm a small dog..." The soldiers were originally very angry at the several individuals' behavior, but after listening to their essays, which combined elements of storytelling, speech contests, and cross-talk performances, they couldn't help but burst out laughing. It could be said that the three men's essays achieved an effect that even a comedy show couldn't match. As for the old villager who had his soybeans stolen, after listening to the several individuals' essays, he immediately sent over a basket of soybeans and only had one request - "Let these three young men recite their essays to me again". The military district's leader was already furious, but when he heard this, he became even angrier. Commander Li immediately ordered that these three strange guys be thrown into the lockup for ten days or so before anything else could happen.
However, the three people being locked up in a closed room made the whole army realize the importance of military discipline. From then on, violations of discipline greatly decreased throughout the army. Whenever someone thought about making a mistake, someone nearby would remind them, "You little devil, if you don't have the ability to write 2,000 words of self-criticism, don't try this!" This outcome was unexpected by all the leaders in the military sub-district.
