Chapter 20: The Logistics Vanguard 60 Years Ago

  The old village chief arrived, warmly inviting Cheng Feng and Lin Yi to sit down. He busied himself bringing out tsampa, brewing milk tea, and placing a type of cheese-like substance on the table. Cheng Feng knew this was the nutritious and delicious residue left after making butter.

  After eating this thing, the whole body will immediately heat up, which is a most practical food in this high-cold mountainous area. Thinking about it, he went to the old village chief to make a cup of butter tea, holding it with both hands and presenting it over his head. Cheng Feng knew that this was the highest courtesy of the Tibetan people, so he also held it over his head with both hands, took the butter tea, and then drank it in one gulp. In this sense, he knew that this also meant that the old village chief had accepted them.

  After drinking butter tea, Cheng Feng asked Lin Yi to tell the old village chief that the troops' arrival for camping had disturbed them and hoped they wouldn't mind. If the troops accidentally damaged anything in the village, they would compensate at twice the price. Also, if the villagers needed anything, they could just speak up and they would try their best to solve it.

  The old village chief listened and smiled with Lin Yi, and kept telling Lin Yi to tell Cheng Feng that if the troops needed anything, they could just speak up. Although there was nothing good to eat here, as long as the troops needed it, they would find a way to do it. Also, why did Cheng Feng's group want to camp outside? The evening wind on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is very cool.

  Cheng Feng listened to the old village chief's words, and his smile. He felt that the old village chief's smile was very genuine, and what he said was also sincere. The feeling in the old village chief's home was like what his own grandfather had once expressed to him, about the relationship between the army that had never been defeated or conquered in past wars and the common people.

  I remember that he used to despise not having the experience of being a soldier, but now he suddenly feels that when he leads his team forward tomorrow, he has a solid backing behind him. This backing is not only the vanguard, but also the local people. With them, he feels very secure and will be able to charge forward bravely. This is also one of the team's winning treasures: the army loves the people, and the people support the army.

  It was learned from the old village chief that this small mountain village was moved here from a not-too-distant place in the back, and the original village was burned by the Indian army. After that, it has been here all the time. If it were the old place at that time, then to today, there would be almost 150 years of history. During this historical period, the people here experienced the Qing government of China, the Republican government, and later the temporary government of the Republic from 1962 to 1963 for one year.

  After the PLA withdrew that year, the Indian army came. Because in the previous war, this small village had organized a support front worker to support the PLA's battle, which made the Indian army very angry. So the Indian army came and arrested all those who participated in the support front workers and took them to the 581 highland area to do hard labor. In the end, almost all of them were tortured to death on the construction site.

  Those who stayed behind also lived a good life in the past few decades, but the Indian army kept oppressing them, not allowing them to cultivate the fertile land by the road, and instead letting it become barren and overgrown with weeds. They were only allowed to plant qingke (a type of barley) on the mountain slopes, and even the number of sheep and cattle they could raise was limited. This is why Cheng Feng felt that this place should be a major rice-producing area, but the old village head and others were eating qingke instead.

  Because it is located in the depths of the mountains, the local people are also unaware of worldly affairs and do not know what is happening in the outside world. Therefore, when Cheng Feng and his group came, they believed what the Indian army said when they withdrew, that Cheng Feng's group were devils who would eat humans, so everyone ran away. However, they were still worried about their belongings at home in the mountains, which is why the old village chief came down from the mountain.

  The old village chief told Lin Yi that he had something to give them, and asked them to wait a moment. The old village chief got up and walked into the inner room, and soon returned with a towel-wrapped object in his hand. He handed it over to Cheng Feng, indicating for him to open it. Cheng Feng carefully unwrapped the small package, slowly opening it layer by layer, as it was wrapped very tightly.

  As the wind blew layer by layer, what appeared in front of him and Lin Yi was actually a "Model Support Certificate". On the already discolored cover, the red characters were still clearly visible. Opening the certificate, it read: "In recognition of outstanding contributions made during the Self-Defense Counterattack against India, Zhasi Dondrup Tso and Choima Yangzom are hereby awarded the title of 'Model Support'".

  Cheng Feng and Lin Yi were stunned, it turned out that the old village chief's family was once a model of support for the army, and the two immediately stood up straight, giving the old man a military salute. The old man, familiar with this scene, had hot tears in his eyes. Then the old man said that Zha Xi and Yang Jin were his parents.

  In the year '63 of last century, after the PLA withdrew, the Indian army entered their village. His parents were taken away to New Delhi and never came back. Their home was also burned down. At that time, he had just been born. Before his parents were taken away, they entrusted him to an elderly villager's family. The only thing left in this world is this little red book. He doesn't understand it, but he knows it was left behind by the troops with the red five-pointed star on their caps, and it's the only thing his parents left for him.

  In the year before his death, the old village chief handed this over to him and entrusted him with it. He was a national, living in Dawang, Tibet. If there were people wearing red five-star hats who were truly willing to help the common people, treating them like their own family members, then that would be the team, their own team.

  Before everyone was about to run up the mountain, the old village chief had stopped them because he vaguely felt that this time it should be the arrival of the PLA. The Indian army ran away in a hurry and before they escaped, they said they would return soon, at most within a year. They also warned them not to support the "Red Army" because they were Indians, if they did so, it would be treason and would be severely punished by law.

  But after going up the mountain with everyone, he insisted on coming down to see if it was the same unit that had returned that year. As a result, when he arrived at Chengfeng and the others, there were no five-pointed stars, and he felt a little disappointed. However, later he felt that although this team did not wear red five-pointed stars, their every move was exactly what he had thought of in his heart, so he took out this question to ask if the team in front of him was the one with the five-pointed star on their head.

  After listening to the old village chief's words, Cheng Feng felt a pang of discomfort in his heart. We rushed over and recovered this area back then, but not long after, we hastily withdrew, leaving these ordinary people entirely at the mercy of the Indian army, who were not their own people. These fellow villagers have really suffered for decades.

  Cheng Feng told Lin Yi to inform the old village chief that they were the team with red five-pointed stars on their heads, and they were the Liberation Army who had fought in Dawang back then. This time, they came to liberate Dawang, so the old village chief and fellow villagers could rest assured that they would definitely retake Dawang and let all the local people live a good life like those in the mainland.