Chapter 17: Besieging the Thoroughfare (Part 2)
Liu Yimin sat in the armchair of the security team, looking at the county head, party secretary, security team leader, police chief, tax bureau chief and chamber of commerce president who were squatting on the ground with their hands covering their heads, shivering with fear. He said: "Aren't you all discussing how to raise military expenses to resist the Red Army? We've arrived, why isn't anyone speaking up? Please continue!"
Seeing several people not speaking, the leader of the security team, Li Chengyi, went up and pointed two rifle butts at the head of the security team and the police chief: "Dumb? Our team leader is asking you, dare not answer our team leader's question, do you want to be beaten?"
The captain of the security team said nervously: "Report to the Red Army officer, we were discussing and planning our rations, just finished speaking, and were about to eat when you arrived. What are your orders, sir? We will definitely carry them out."
Liu Yimin asked: "What is the result of your discussion? How much military expenses are you preparing?"
The head of the security team stammered and didn't know what to say, Liu Yimin shouted: "You are all a bunch of stubborn reactionaries, take them out and execute them!"
The guards rushed forward, one of them grabbed him and was about to drag him out, the county party secretary shouted in fright: "Comrade, I'll say everything, I'll say it all."
Liu Yimin laughed and said: "It's really true that you don't shed tears until you see the coffin! Why didn't you say so earlier!"
After listening to the county party secretary's explanation, Liu Yimin was immediately delighted. It turned out that they had all received orders from their superiors to increase vigilance and prevent the Red Army from attacking the pass. However, their superiors did not dispatch additional troops. They knew that relying solely on the security team would not be enough to defend the county seat. So, after discussing it among themselves, they decided to invite several prominent figures to discuss the issue of raising funds, planning to use money to bribe Liu Jianxu into sending troops to garrison the pass. The result of the discussion was that they would first withhold 300,000 yuan in taxes that should have been remitted by the tax bureau, the Chamber of Commerce would contribute 50,000 yuan, and the county government would allocate 50,000 yuan from its finances, totaling 400,000 yuan. Liu Yimin thought to himself, this small pass county seat is indeed a crucial transportation hub for merchants traveling between north and south, it's so wealthy, I'm afraid the security team and police bureau won't be short of money either. Why is there no record in history of the Red Army capturing any silver dollars after occupying the pass? It's likely that the Red Army's arrival startled the enemy, causing them to hide their assets. Just as he was thinking this, Cai Zhong, Liu Jianli, Li Qinghe and several regimental commanders came in, Liu Yimin waved his hand, and the guards took away the county heads and team leaders.
Liu Jian said that the troops have all entered the city, and several city gates and key points such as the police station, county government, post office, and finance bureau are all under control. Now we should send troops to occupy the surrounding hills of the county seat.
Liu Yimin replied that it was not necessary, the enemy would never think that our army had occupied the pass, and the county seat would be safe for a short time. The troops had not had a good rest since the Long March, and they should make use of this brief opportunity. The radio station immediately reported to the division headquarters and the military department that our army had occupied the pass. The teaching team was responsible for guarding the city gate and maintaining order in the city, especially paying attention not to violate the national policy. The new recruits were responsible for counting the enemy prisoners and captured weapons and ammunition. The chief of staff led the troops under his command to escort the captured county magistrate, county party secretary, security team leader, police chief, tax bureau chief, and chamber of commerce chairman to conduct a thorough search of the tax bureau, finance bureau, security team, police station, county government, county party committee, and post office. They also confiscated enemy funds and expanded their gains. In particular, they paid attention to digging deep into the private property of these individuals, making them spit out all the embezzled money. The director of the political department was responsible for organizing forces to do a good job in propaganda and mobilization work, mainly propagating the Red Army's policies and the significance of going north to resist Japan. In the evening, they would post slogans, and by dawn the next day, when the common people went out on the streets, they would see our slogans everywhere. At the same time, they should try their best to expand the red influence and mobilize young people to join the army. The political commissar should do a good job with the chamber of commerce chairman and businessmen, making them provide as much material support as possible for the Red Army. If possible, they would organize people to work overnight to make cotton military uniforms, striving to give each new recruit a set of Red Army uniforms. Each battalion, in addition to cooperating with the political commissar, chief of staff, and director of the political department, should seize the opportunity to arrange for soldiers to have a good meal, take a bath, and get a good night's sleep. The division headquarters was located at the security team headquarters, and they would wait for instructions from the military department before deciding on further action.
The warriors of the 18th Regiment felt that this night was like a New Year's Eve. No, it was even happier than New Year's Eve. The hot and steaming food in the canteen of the Security Regiment made the warriors feel satisfied for once, as they had not eaten a normal meal since the Long March. There was not enough food, but there were plenty of rice, flour, oil, and vegetables in the Security Regiment's kitchen. The old chef from the 18th Regiment led the cooks from each battalion to work together, cooking up a storm in the Security Regiment's kitchen, making the warriors eat until their bellies were full. And still, the old chef was shouting: "Is it enough? If not, add some more!"
After eating their fill, the next thing was to boil water for bathing. The soldiers, in units of companies, set up all available large pots and used all available large wooden tubs and other household items for bathing. The entire security regiment's courtyard became a huge bathhouse. Old Red Army soldiers and new soldiers called out to each other, scrubbed each other's backs, and picked at the blisters on their feet. Occasionally, they would count the number of wounds on each other's bodies. As they bathed, they exchanged stories about the beautiful scenery and interesting things from their hometowns. Some soldiers kept shouting that the bath was comfortable and enjoyable. From then on, the old and new soldiers who had gone through the military training, telling grievances, talking heart to heart, and bathing together were truly united as one.
When Liu Jianli, who was in charge of collecting the enemy's assets, returned to the regiment with a group of soldiers carrying baskets and baskets of silver dollars, the entire 18th Red Regiment was boiling. So many silver dollars, so many loads, heaven, what a huge income this is! Since the Central Red Army captured 10 million silver dollars in Zhangzhou, it seems that this is the largest capture in the history of the Red Army. The Red Army soldiers forgot their fatigue and gathered around the soldiers who participated in the collection of property to listen to them boast about their exploits.
A warrior spat wildly: "Hehe, you don't know, we brought the tax bureau chief with a white dog son to the tax bureau. When we opened the warehouse and took a look, it was amazing! Those silver coins were all wrapped in paper, stacked neatly in rows, and after counting them clearly, there were indeed 300,000, not one more or one less. Then we took the tax bureau chief, that old rascal, to his home. His wife cried and rolled around on the ground, but we directly tied up that stinky woman, and she became honest. We searched his home and found over a hundred large silver coins and some jewelry. The chief of staff said this guy had been the tax bureau chief for a long time and wouldn't have just this little money; he must have hidden it away. So we dug in the courtyard and finally found three large jars and a small iron box under the big camphor tree in the courtyard. Each jar contained 200,000 silver coins, and the iron box was filled with gold bars! Wow, 600,000 silver coins and 50 gold bars! I said, why are we so poor? It turns out that these white dog officials have hidden all the money away!"
Another group of Red Army soldiers were listening to a soldier telling the story of searching the police station and the police chief's home: "We went to the police station and found that all the policemen had been tied up by our soldiers, one by one, like dumplings. Behind the police station was a prison, we released everyone inside and rescued several comrades from the Red Sixth Army. Then we brought in the internal affairs officer for questioning and found the police station's money, but there wasn't much, just a few thousand silver dollars. We thought that the police station specialized in doing bad things, bullying the common people, so they must have had a lot of money, but where was it? There was no way to find out, so we could only interrogate the police chief. Who knew this old guy would pretend to be ill and not say anything, just crying about being poor. We had no choice but to search ourselves. This search wasn't easy, but we discovered that the wall in the police chief's office was a hidden compartment. When we opened it, wow, inside were all sorts of good things: gold bars, silver dollars, jewelry, and more. There were 300,000 silver dollars alone. The Kuomintang reactionaries really didn't have a single good person among them; even the police chief in a small county town had accumulated so much money, who knows how many people he had harmed?"
One of the soldiers who participated in the search and seizure at the Security Regiment Commander's home squeezed in to say: "What you guys did wasn't as exciting as what we did. When we arrived at the Security Regiment Commander's home, there were three people inside. After asking questions, we found out that one was a gunrunner, one was an opium dealer, and the other was a professional thief. They were all accomplices of the Security Regiment Commander, working together to do bad things. Damn it, not a single good thing among them! We stumbled upon them at gunpoint, and immediately divided into three groups to take care of them. Just from these three guys' homes, we found 300,000 silver dollars. The Security Regiment Commander had even dug a secret underground bunker under his bed! We lifted up the bed board, went inside, and saw that it was all filled with money - silver dollars, gold bars, copper coins... so much of it! After counting it all, we got 500,000 silver dollars, 60 gold bars, and didn't even bother to count the copper coins. How many bad things did they have to do to get this much money?! The most ridiculous thing was that the Security Regiment Commander's wife actually chased after our squad leader asking if her husband could continue being a commander in the Red Army. You guys think about it - this woman still had such thoughts, probably thinking that our Red Army commanders were just like her husband!" The soldiers all burst out laughing at once.
An old Red Army soldier turned his head and said to a new warrior, "Look, you guys are risking your lives, while they're making money." I said that you're protecting the bad guys, but you still don't believe it. Look for yourself! Only when the Red Army eliminates these bastards will our poor people have enough money to live. The new warrior finally managed to squeeze out a sentence after half a day: "Damn it, beat the son of a bitch!"
