Chapter 8 Hospital Visit

  Liang You Tian and Xiao Wang Zi arrived at the hospital in the middle of the night. At that time, the hospital management was not as strict as it is now in big cities, and nighttime visits were still allowed. The two found Xu Liang's ward, which was a double room and belonged to the best category of rooms in the hospital, specially arranged by Li Zhen Yuan. In the corridor of the surgical ward, the light from the fluorescent lamps was dim and soft. On this cold winter night, there was some warmth here, and the heating equipment in the ward was not bad. In the nurse's office, two female nurses were dozing off. At the door of a ward, Yan Xue Wen sat on a folding bed, wearing a cotton-padded coat issued by the ordnance factory, leaning against the wall with his head down, half asleep. On the other side of the door, a young man was sleeping with his head covered.

  Xiao Wangzi patted Yan Xuewen's head with his hand. Yan Xuewen was startled, looked up and saw the two of them, and hastily stood up: "Liang Lianzhang, how did you come here?"

  "Where's Officer Xu?" asked Liang You Tian.

  "This morning's surgery, came out this afternoon and had an intravenous drip all afternoon. Fell asleep now."

  "What did the doctor say?"

  "The bullet has been removed, ?? husband said to observe for a day and night, if it passes through, there won't be too much of a problem."

  Xiao Wangzi couldn't help but shout: "You're a good one, Xiao Yan! The doctor told you to observe Xu Zhang's condition, but instead of staying by his bedside, you ran to the door and fell asleep!"

  Yan Xuewen looked at Liang You Tian with a bit of trepidation, looking somewhat wronged. The young man sleeping in the corridor was woken up and sat up abruptly, seeing Liang You Tian and others, hesitating for a moment. A nurse walked over, looking very dissatisfied at the two people in military uniforms, saying softly: "Please be quiet, this is a hospital." She looked at Yan Xuewen again and said: "You can't wrong this young man, since he came to this hospital, he's been busy running around, not resting for a moment. This morning, when the wounded soldier he was taking care of had surgery, he stood outside the operating room with his neck stretched out, and even when we asked him to sit on the long bench next to it, he wouldn't. This afternoon, when giving patients intravenous injections, he stared at the bottle, and there was still half a bottle left, then came to find us in a flurry. He's even learned to take temperatures, reading the temperature chart. Honestly, this young man is really diligent. What is his relationship with the wounded soldier, treating him like a god?

  Yan Xuewen's face turned red, and in his heart, this Xu officer was indeed a god-like figure. This child came from the mountains of western Henan, where his father was a rural storyteller. Yan Xuewen had attended private school for a few years as a child, but at the age of 13, his father was killed by local bandits. His mother took him to Gong County to live with her brother, who worked in an arsenal factory. Through Director Pei's introduction, Song Jianyan took pity on the orphaned boy and allowed Yan Xuewen to become an apprentice in the factory. By the time Yan Xuewen was 15, his mother had also passed away due to illness. The poor child was extremely diligent, willing to work hard, and didn't like to argue. At 16, Yan Xuewen's diligence, literacy, honesty, and lack of bad habits caught the attention of Wang, the head of the logistics department, who assigned him to help out in the department. Although he wasn't a formal employee, everyone in the logistics department spoke highly of him. When Xu Liang was injured, the logistics department sent Yan Xuewen to take care of him. Since Xu Liang arrived at the factory half a year ago, Yan Xuewen had been going to his place almost every night to learn from him, asking questions and seeking guidance. Xu Liang also liked this orphan and lent him books, which made Yan Xuewen see Xu Liang as an extraordinary person.

  Xiao Wangzi hastily answered the nurse's question: "He is our Deputy Captain Xu, and also our instructor. He led us to shoot down several Japanese planes, truly brave and wise! Doctor, you must think of a way to cure him. Let him come back soon, so we can give the Japanese another blow."

  The nurse smiled and asked Yan Xuewen: "Have you taken your temperature?"

  "I just put the thermometer away and came out, now it's time, I should take it out."

  The nurse pushed open the door and walked into the ward, followed by Liang You Tian. The room was not large, and the military bed was indeed too crowded if placed in the house. Due to the injection of sedatives, Xu Liang slept very soundly. On the inner bed lay a patient lying sideways towards the inside. Liang You Tian lightly beckoned with his hand, indicating that Xiao Wangzi and Yan Xuewen should exit the ward together.

  "Looks like Officer Xu is going to be here for a while, not just one or two days. Little Yan, you can't keep staying up all night, it's not good for your health. If you get sick again, do you want Officer Xu to take care of you? So, take care of yourself, pay attention to your diet and rest. Do you understand?" "Yes, Commander Liang." "Also, is the money enough?" "The factory gave us some, they said we can report back when we return." "The brothers chipped in some money too, you keep it well. If the money's not enough, you can use the railway phone to call the factory's special line and ask Director He for help. Some ugly words, but I have to say them, if you dare to take advantage of the situation and do something with a bad conscience, the brothers will chase you to the ends of the earth to settle accounts." Yan Xuewen's face turned red: "Commander Liang, if I had any bad intentions, heaven would strike me dead!" "Alright, I just wanted to say that, to let you know that everyone trusts you. You're working hard, little brother." "Commander Liang, the railway bureau's Director Li arranged for me to stay at the railway guest house, but I haven't gone there yet. Here's my entry permit, you and Wang Ge go rest first, come back when it's light out, okay?" Liang You Tian took the entry permit and looked at it: "Alright, you and Wang Zi go rest, I'll stay here and keep watch." Little Wang Zi refused to leave, insisting on staying overnight in the hospital. Unable to persuade him, Liang You Tian agreed, then asked: "Little Yan, do you know where this guest house is? It's the middle of the night, if we leave the hospital, we won't even be able to find someone to ask for directions." "I'm not too sure either." "I know, I'll take you there, I have a place to stay there too." The young man who was sleeping in the corridor earlier spoke up: "You're the ones who shot down those Japanese planes? That's amazing! Our Director Geng was injured by a Japanese plane, we hate those Japanese planes!" "Who are you?" "I'm Zhang Lin, from the railway engineering segment. I've been here for seven or eight days, taking care of Director Geng and Officer Xu. Someone will come to relieve me soon." It turned out that Zhang Lin was sent by the engineering segment to take care of the wounded in Xu Liang's hospital room. As they spoke, the person who came to replace Zhang Lin arrived: "Zhang Lin, what are you doing?" Zhang Lin said: "These are the heroes who shot down many Japanese planes, friends of Director Li from the railway bureau. I'm taking them to the guest house now." "Alright, hurry up and go!"

  This Lin was about the same age as Yan Xuewen, and their experiences were also quite similar. He was also an orphan from a martial arts village who came to the railway workshop to live with his relatives and became a railway worker. Because he had learned boxing and kicking since childhood, he was quite skilled in martial arts. Therefore, during the chaotic autumn season, he was arranged by the head of the segment to follow him closely. When Xu Liang and Yan Xuewen first came to the hospital, Zhang Lin was somewhat dissatisfied. At night, when accompanying them, he was chased away to the corridor. Looking at Yan Xuewen's rustic and stupid appearance, he didn't think much of him and didn't bother to talk to him. He thought: "What a broken officer, is he worthy of living in the same house as our segment leader?" After Liang You Tian and others arrived, Zhang Lin learned that Xu Liang was a hero who had shot down Japanese planes, and he felt a sense of admiration. He was naturally good at making friends, and soon became familiar with Yan Xuewen. Liang You Tian was originally worried that Yan Xuewen was young and inexperienced, but seeing this situation, he felt slightly relieved. After resting for half the night, after dawn, Liang You Tian took Yan Xuewen to buy daily necessities on the street. At that time, there were no nutritional supplements or health products on the market. Old Liang instructed Little Yan that when Xu Liang could eat, they would buy whatever he wanted. He also prepared gifts and red envelopes for the doctors and nurses. At that time, due to material scarcity, these gifts seemed insignificant by modern standards. However, perhaps this was how the atmosphere gradually formed.

  In the afternoon, Xu Liang, who was weak but awake, saw Liang You Tian and Xiao Wang Zi. Liang You Tian briefly mentioned that the troops had been deployed to defend the provincial city. Xu Liang thought for a moment and asked, "When are you returning to your unit?" "Captain Chen gave us 4 hours." "Okay, when you leave, please take a letter from me to Professor Luo Zhang at Henan University. He is my mentor, and I would like to extend my greetings to him." "Officer Xu, can you write the letter now? Or should you rest well and talk about it later when your injury heals, or we can just pass on your oral message?"

  "No, it's okay. I'll write slowly tonight and you can help me bring it tomorrow when you leave. Professor Luo knows people in my hometown, but it's not easy to contact them since they live in the countryside. So please ask Professor Luo to contact them for me and tell them that I'm recovering from injuries in Zhengzhou. Who knows how things will change after I recover?" "Alright then."

  Readers may wonder: wasn't Xu Liang originally attending middle school in Kaifeng? How could Professor Luo, a professor at Henan University, be Xu Liang's teacher? During the Republic of China era, many university professors also worked part-time as middle school teachers. Many famous professors from Peking and Tsinghua Universities had records of working part-time at middle schools. It was a common phenomenon for professors to leave their university campuses and enter middle school classrooms.

  Professor Luo was the one who introduced Xu Liang to communist ideology. After being injured in Gong County, Xu Liang went to Zhengzhou for treatment, but only a few people from the arsenal knew about it, including Li Daichun. Xu Liang wanted to notify the party organization as soon as possible. In the afternoon, He Wuting sent someone from the guard department to visit Xu Liang, bringing many gifts. Xu Liang asked Liang Youtian to bring some of them to Professor Luo.

  That night, while lying in bed, Xu Liang gritted his teeth and wrote a short letter, which roughly said: "I, a student, was recently injured by an enemy plane in Gong County and am now staying at the Zhengzhou Railway Hospital, room 222. I'm fine, please let my family know." The letter was very simple, and even if someone else saw it, it wouldn't be a big deal. Moreover, Liang Youtian had been influenced by Xu Liang over the past few months and had become close to being "red," so Xu Liang trusted him relatively more.

  Liang You Tian stayed in Zhengzhou for another night, and the next afternoon he took Xiao Wangzi on a passenger train heading east on the Longhai line to return to Kaifeng.

  Soon, Xu Liang's "cousins" from Kaifeng came to Zhengzhou to visit him.

  The Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China was established in Kaifeng in September 1937, when there were only about a hundred party members throughout the province, and its strength was very weak. After the provincial committee was established, it immediately faced the major task of developing the organization and accumulating strength. On the issue of Xu Liang's injury, a controversy arose within the party organization, with some comrades believing that Xu Liang was injured on the battlefield against Japan and should be commended for his bravery; while another opinion held that Xu Liang's task was to spread the party's ideas among workers in the ordnance factory, actively develop the organization, and not engage in worker movements such as strikes even during the period of national resistance against Japan. At least he should not have fought to defend the Nationalist Party's ordnance factory and been injured, which was also an error that warranted disciplinary action. After all, after ten years of civil war between the Communist Party and the Nationalist Party, there were deep-seated grievances on both sides, with many comrades having fallen under the Nationalist Party's butcher knife and gunfire. Many comrades had strong reservations about the second cooperation between the two parties. It was not until a high-ranking leader of the party central committee, who went by the alias Hu Fu, intervened that Xu Liang, who had been injured, did not receive another disciplinary action from the party.

  At that time, in the liberated areas, occupied areas and Kuomintang-controlled areas, the Communist Party of China faced completely different situations in terms of development. The liberated areas need no further explanation. In the occupied areas, our party could penetrate deep into the countryside to mobilize the masses, establish grassroots governments, develop anti-Japanese armed forces, because the army led by our party was a legitimate army representing the Chinese government, and organizing people to recover lost land from invaders was a matter of course. Especially after the Kuomintang military and political authorities retreated from northern China, the Japanese devils, due to limited troop strength, could only occupy cities and transportation lines, leaving vast "vacant areas" in the countryside for our party's anti-Japanese armed forces to develop. Especially in the main activity area of our Eighth Route Army, the party's power developed rapidly, becoming an important force in the national resistance against Japan. In the Kuomintang-controlled areas, although our party and army were legitimate organizations, they faced many restrictions on development, mainly focusing on urban united fronts and establishing grassroots organizations in rural areas. The situation was different in areas with and without our party's main forces. At that time, in the area south of the Yellow River in Henan Province, which was both a Kuomintang-controlled area and an area without our party-led regular army, the party's power was very weak. Therefore, under the banner of the united front, openly engaging in activities and adopting underground or semi-underground methods to develop our party-led anti-Japanese forces was the correct strategy for launching a national resistance against Japan.

  Xu Liang's injury gradually healed, and his relationship with Geng Zhongyue, the deputy section chief of the same room, became increasingly close. This Geng Zhongyue was the brother-in-law of Li Zhenyuan, but he didn't become the deputy section chief just because of his connections. He himself was a graduate of the North China Railway Management School at that time and one of the few railway professionals with expertise in the field. He was generous, willing to endure hardships, and had courage. Since the outbreak of the war, military transportation on the railways has been busy, and railway facilities have also become a key target for enemy air raids. Geng Zhongyue, as the technical person in charge of the engineering section, rushed around everywhere, repairing and maintaining the railways. Later, he was given an additional task to dismantle railway equipment and transport it to the rear. He often went to several places in one day to direct repairs. Many times, they worked under enemy bombing, and at this time, Geng Zhongyue always came to the scene, led by example, and encouraged the workers. Finally, during a repair operation in Zhengzhou North, he was injured by shrapnel from an enemy bomb. Geng Zhongyue and Xu Liang joked that their work couldn't take cover in air raid shelters when they heard the air raid sirens. The air raid sirens seemed like starting guns on the competitive field to them. Xu Liang was infected with Geng Zhongyue's heroic spirit.

  Yan Xuewen no longer felt the strangeness and anxiety he had when he first arrived. He spent the whole day chatting and laughing with Zhang Lin, and they got along very well.

  Spring arrived, and the wounds of both men had almost healed. They were eager to leave the hospital. At this time, the Chinese army's five war zones achieved a great victory in Taierzhuang. The National Government, which was originally shrouded in a pessimistic atmosphere, suddenly felt invigorated and wanted to engage in a major battle with the Japanese devils in the Xuzhou area. The Xuzhou area had convenient transportation, making it easy to assemble reinforcements. At this time, the elite troops of the National Army gathered in the Xu-Beng area. The Xuzhou area was a place that was easy to attack but difficult to defend since ancient times. Chairman Chiang faced such a major national crisis, and it was like he was gambling, betting on the country's safety.

  On the railway, military transportation is busy. The devils are making surprise air raids everywhere. The devils occupying southern Shanxi are also firing artillery across the river at trains near Tongguan on the Longhai Railway, posing a greater threat than air raids. Li Zhenyuan also hopes that Geng Zhongyue, as the technical person in charge of the engineering section, will return to his post as soon as possible.