Chapter 22 Forgot to Join the Party

  The next morning, the guard regiment loaded the purchased medicines and other materials onto the truck. After Song Zhe-wu finished his breakfast, he went to bid farewell to Shang Zhen, Liu Pei had already been waiting there, Shang Zhen once again reminded him of something, then under Liu Pei's escort, they assembled the troops, brought the trucks loaded with supplies, and left the city through Xizhimen, returning to Taiyuan.

  The city defense of Beiping was guarded by the troops under Zhang Yunwu, the commander of the Beiping Garrison. A dozen or so soldiers were leaning against the wall with their guns slung over their shoulders, shrinking their heads and basking in the sun, allowing pedestrians to come and go freely. They only rushed forward when they saw merchant vehicles passing by, shouting and trying to take advantage of the opportunity to get some cheap goods. A soldier standing guard on the city gate saw the car team of the Security Brigade approaching from a distance and hurriedly ran into the tower to report. A junior officer came out, looked carefully through the arrow slit, scolded and kicked the reporting soldier, and then ran back into the tower. The soldiers basking in the sun at the city gate heard the sound of the car engine from a distance and immediately became spirited. However, when they saw Shen Zong's sedan chair leading the way for the car team, they muttered to themselves and returned to the wall, continuing their warm work.

  After bidding farewell to Liu Pei at the city gate, Song Zhe Wu immediately ordered the whole army to strengthen its vigilance, sending out a vanguard battalion far away, and accelerating the advance of the troops, which should return to Laiyuan by dusk.

  At 7 o'clock in the evening, Song Zhe Wu and his entourage returned to their origin. The guard company escorted the medical supplies and materials to the logistics department for handover, while Song Zhe Wu took Chu Feng and Wei Shi Ban back to the Travel Department of the Temple. Xiao Guo Dong and Wang Xu were both at the Travel Department, and when they saw Song Zhe Wu return, they both stood up. Xiao Guo Dong smiled and said: "Why are you in such a hurry to come back? Why don't you stay in Beiping for New Year's Day tomorrow?" "It's not because of you," Song Zhe Wu said while taking off his clothes. "You're thinking of the troops, you've never left the troops for more than three days in these two years. It's still Shun Yan who understands you, he said you would definitely come back today, and didn't even eat dinner, waiting for you." Xiao Guo Dong poured a glass of water for Song Zhe Wu and handed it to him. Song Zhe Wu knew that Wang Xu was a workaholic and wouldn't let anything go without finding him, so he put the cup on the table and asked: "Shun Yan, what's going on? Why the hurry?" Wang Xu didn't answer, but just smiled and handed a stack of telegrams to Song Zhe Wu. Song Zhe Wu took a look, and the top telegram was from Zhang Yin Qiang, the commander of the Beiping Garrison Command, to Yan Xishan in Taiyuan, with the message: "Hebei Security Commander Song left Beiping at 8:20 this morning with 20 cars of medical supplies and materials." Further down were reports from Zhang Yin Qiang about his entry into Beiping, as well as Li Pin Xian's unstable situation, and telegrams about the recent mutual visits between Pingjin and Taiyuan.

  Song Zhe Wu excitedly grabbed Wang Xu's hand: "You cracked the Jin Sui army's password!" Seeing Wang Xu nod, Song Zhe Wu was overjoyed and let out a loud whoop, jumping up. "Alright, alright, sit down and talk, Shun Yan, you quickly tell him, otherwise, Wen Ge will shake this house down in a moment." Xiao Guo Dong pulled the two of them to sit on chairs.

  It turned out that since Wang Xu arrived at the Bao'an Travel Agency, Song Zhiwu had asked him to organize personnel to study and decipher codes. From several universities in Beiping and Tianjin that taught English and Japanese and studied mathematics, Song Zhiwu recruited talent with generous terms. As long as these talents joined the Bao'an Travel Agency, they would be promoted to lieutenant colonel, and if they achieved merit, they would be further rewarded. In the past two years, Wang Xu's telegraph office had recruited more than 200 people, and a special second department was established for confidential matters, which was directly responsible to Song Zhiwu and Xiao Guodong, and was personally managed by Wang Xu.

  Today, they finally achieved their goal. Song Zhe Wu couldn't help but feel excited. When the three of them were in Germany, whenever they felt happy, they would often go to a bar and drink beer. Now, there was no beer available, but there was still some whiskey left, although not much. Usually, it was kept by Xiao Guo Dong for safekeeping.

  "Xiao Ge, should we open a bottle today?" Song Zhe Wu asked Xiao Guo Dong with a hint of embarrassment in his voice.

  Drinking was not allowed in the army unless there were special circumstances, and this was a rule that Song Zhe Wu had set himself. However, he used to have a fondness for wine, so to set an example, he had voluntarily handed over the key to the wine cabinet to Xiao Guo Dong for safekeeping.

  Seeing Song Zhe Wu's excitement, Wang Xu also smiled and said, "Xiao Ge, I'm craving it too. Can you please make an exception and give us a bottle?"

  Xiao Guo Dong looked at the two men's expressions and laughed, saying, "Alright, let's have one bottle." He took out the key, retrieved a bottle of wine, and poured three cups.

  Song Zhe Wu and Wang Xu had already placed the cups in position. After pouring the wine, Xiao Guo Dong said, "Today, we're celebrating two things: first, we've successfully cracked the code, and second, our security team has weathered three years of storms. Today is New Year's Day, so let's raise a glass to these two achievements."

  Xiao Guo Dong's words also filled the other two with deep emotions. The three men downed their drinks in one gulp.

  After refilling the wine, Song Zhe Wu held up his cup and said to Wang Xu: "Cheers, for your success in cracking the Jin Sui Army's code, I and Xiao Ge will toast you a glass!" "Actually, this time cracking the Jin Sui Army's code, the first credit should be yours." Wang Xu's words made Song Zhe Wu stunned. "It was you," Wang Xu said seriously: "The key to cracking the code is to clearly know that there are one or two sentences in the password, even if it's just one or two sentences, knowing them will reveal the composition rules of this set of passwords. This time when you went to Beiping, I thought Taiyuan and Hebei must have had telegram exchanges, so I provided the Second Department with words like 'Baoyan Travel', 'Song Zhe Wu', and 'truck' for them to try to find these words in the encrypted telegram, and they were indeed found. So this credit should be yours."

  Xiao Guodong looked at Song Zhe Wu who was staring blankly and burst out laughing: "Well, let's toast to Wen Ge's trip to Beijing!"

  The three of them carefully discussed and decided on the key direction for deciphering passwords in the future and confidentiality work, after which Wang Syu bid farewell and returned to the telegraph office.

  Xiao Guodong called over the orderly, and brought over two servings of food, two hot dishes and two cold ones. They were steamed pork belly, Dongpo pork, a cold dish of pig's feet tendons, and four pig's feet. Normally they only had two dishes and one soup, but today was January 1st, 29th year, although Song Zhiwu wasn't in Taoyuan for the past two days, Xiao Guodong specially ordered two extra dishes, so the two of them could make up for missing New Year's dinner.

  While eating, the two of them introduced each other to the situation in Beiping and their hometowns over the past two days. After hearing about the situation in Beiping, Xiao Guodong was also very pleased, at least proving that the hard work they had put into the security team had borne fruit. Two things about the situation in Laiyuan caught Song Zhiwu's interest: one was that the county magistrate wanted to meet with him; the other was that the secretary of the county party committee had something to discuss with him.

  "What's the matter?" Song Zhe-wu asked Xiao Guo-dong with a frown. This county magistrate, whom he had met several times, was named Meng Chu, a 50-year-old former Qing dynasty scholar-official. The impression he gave was one of integrity, love for the people, and being a good person. A month ago, he had come to see Song Zhe-wu about the refugees' affairs, and at the emotional moment, he had even shed tears for the refugees. He estimated that this county magistrate had come again because of the refugees' affairs, completely overturning Song Zhe-wu's previous impression of old officials. But as for the county party secretary, Chen, whom Song Zhe-wu had only met once, he didn't have much of an impression, only knowing his surname and not remembering his name. Moreover, he knew that nowadays, the party department was responsible not only for party affairs but also for monitoring and collecting information on local governments and armies. What could they want from him? Had he committed some taboo? No! It must be about expanding the army; now that the whole country was downsizing its military, his own expansion of the army must have attracted attention. However, it was those big shots who were being downsized, whereas he was just a local force in Hebei province - even if there was a problem, they should go find Shang Zhen first.

  "When they came, I was not in the ministry, and I didn't know what was going on." However, I asked the staff who received them, and the party secretary didn't seem to have any major issues. Xiao Guodong knew that Song Zhe Wu was being cautious about something. The two of them thought for a while, but still couldn't figure out each other's intentions. "Forget it, when soldiers come, we'll fight; when water comes, we'll dam it. Let's rest, and tomorrow we'll know his intentions." Song Zhe Wu said as he went back to his quarters to sleep.

  The next day, Song Zhe Wu still followed the usual routine to go out for morning exercises with the troops, this time going to the 4th company of the 2nd battalion. Now the whole brigade can do a 10-kilometer armed cross-country run, but there are still those who fall behind, and with half a year's time almost up, the regimental commanders are all anxiously scolding people.

  After the exercise, after finishing breakfast, Song Zhe-wu and Xiao Guo-dong had just sat down to discuss the training assessment of the troops after the Spring Festival. Chu Feng came in to report that Meng County Magistrate and Party Secretary Chen had come to visit. "Did they come together?" Song Zhe-wu was a bit surprised, as it seemed that this Meng Chu didn't like this Chen very much. "No, they didn't come together. Meng County Magistrate arrived first, and then Party Secretary Chen came." Song Zhe-wu looked at Xiao Guo-dong and said to Chu Feng, "Please ask them to come in."

  After a while, Meng Chuhe and Chen Shuji followed Chufeng in. The two of them exchanged pleasantries with Song Zhiwu for a few sentences before taking their seats. After the guard poured tea, Song Zhiwu asked first: "You two are always busy with official duties and rarely have time to come here. I don't know what brings you here today, but whatever it is, please feel free to say so." Meng Chuhe and Chen Shuji glanced at each other, and Chen Shuji nodded slightly: "Let's ask County Magistrate Meng to speak first, my matter isn't urgent." Meng Chuhe didn't stand on ceremony either. With a worried expression, he said to Song Zhiwu: "I'm afraid I have to trouble Commander Song again this time. The grain you provided for the disaster victims last month is not enough." Not enough? Song Zhiwu thought to himself that last month's grain was allocated according to the number of disaster victims, over 1,000 people, which should be enough to support them until May. How could it have run out so quickly? Could someone have embezzled it? Meng Chuhe saw what Song Zhiwu was thinking and hastily said: "Now there are more and more disaster victims, already over 4,000. The grain from last time can only last until the end of this month. Now is the coldest time of the year, when nothing is growing. If we don't take care of them, these people will have no choice but to die. Laiyuan is a poor county, and I am incompetent. I have no choice but to come and trouble you, Commander. I hope you can show great compassion and save these disaster victims!" As he spoke, his eyes were about to well up with tears again.

  Song Zhe-wu hastily said: "County Magistrate Meng has the people's welfare at heart, and I deeply admire him. County Magistrate Meng doesn't need to worry, whatever the disaster victims need in terms of food, I will provide as much as needed." He immediately instructed Chu Feng: "You go with County Magistrate Meng to the logistics department right away, deliver the grain according to his requirements, and also go find Manager Sun to get some fabric. Since it's the new year, please trouble County Magistrate Meng to arrange for someone to make a set of clothes for each disaster victim." Meng Chu was deeply grateful, bowing repeatedly and thanking him profusely, then said to Song Zhe-wu: "The county has limited personnel, so I request that Commander Song arrange for personnel to be directly responsible for disaster relief."

  Song Zhe Wu understood that Meng Chu was afraid of being suspected, he himself was not greedy, but he did not dare to guarantee that his subordinates were all clean. This matter, Song Zhe Wu had long been prepared, this time going to Beiping just to deal with the waist pain in the source of the garrison, asking Shang Zhen to give him a deputy county head position, Shang Zhen had already agreed, and arranged for Chu Feng to do it. Under Song Zhe Wu's persistent persuasion, Chu Feng finally agreed, only indicating that he could go to the county but would not leave the Security Brigade, Song Zhe Wu immediately agreed and told him that now was the time to temper himself, in the future the Security Brigade must have its own territory, which needed someone to manage.

  As soon as Meng Chuxian said that, it was exactly what he wanted to hear, and he immediately agreed readily. Meng Chu laughed and followed Chu Feng out to arrange the relief efforts.

  Secretary Chen had been silent all along, quietly listening, only when mentioning Chu Feng's affairs, his mouth moved unconsciously. As soon as Meng Chuyi left, without waiting for Song Zhiwu to ask, he took the initiative to say: "The Security Brigade has been in Ruiyuan for half a year, not only strong and powerful, but also with good military discipline, worthy of being a model for the country's military. Commander Song is young and promising, leading troops in an orderly manner, Chen Mou has already reported to the superior, this time I came under the dispatch of the superior, just want to ask, why didn't Commander Song join our party?" As soon as he heard this, Song Zhiwu was shocked, extremely neglectful, how could he forget this matter? He thought that if he wanted to get his own territory and not be recognized by the government, it would be absolutely impossible. Thinking of this, Song Zhiwu quickly clasped his hands and said: "Secretary Chen, Song Mou is ashamed, for half a year, he has been devoted to training troops, neglecting this matter. Song Mou believes in the Three Principles of the People, supports the Central Government, and resolutely obeys Commander-in-Chief Chiang, Song Mou is willing to join the Nationalist Party with all his heart, please ask Secretary Chen to introduce him."

  As soon as Secretary Chen heard Song Zhe Wu's words, his heart immediately put down, originally thinking that he would find an excuse to shirk, but unexpectedly it was so smooth. He smiled and said: "Commander Song is young and promising, should have been like this. It's just that I'm not qualified for introducing him to the party, so I'll go back and report to my superiors, naturally someone will come to do this." After finishing speaking, he bid farewell to the two of them, and Song Zhe Wu and Xiao Guo Dong saw him off at the gate, which increased Secretary Chen's good impression of Song Zhe Wu by a few more points.