Chapter 933 932 [Send Reporters]

After the fall of Wuhan, the headquarters of "Ta Kung Pao" was moved to Chongqing, with Zhang Jiluan in charge, while Hu Zhengzhi served as the chief editor of the Hong Kong branch. There is no distinction between their positions, they are equally important. The Chongqing headquarters mainly focuses on domestic affairs, while the Hong Kong branch focuses on international news.

When Zhou Hexuan was still in Chengdu, he called Zhang Jiluan, Cheng Shewo, Zhang Henshui, and Shi Liangcai and asked them to meet at Zhou Mansion in Chongqing on March 10.

On February 2, the dragon raises its head.

This is the "Green Dragon Festival" in the traditional lunar calendar, and it is also the legendary "Land Festival". Whether it is the birthday of the Dragon God or the Lord of the Land, today is the day to offer sacrifices anyway. In ancient times, the queen would send meals and the emperor would plow the land to ensure a good agricultural harvest for the year.

There are several pieces of farmland near Zhou Mansion. The wheat is lush and green, and the rapeseed flowers are about to wither. It looks like it is a good harvest year.

After Chengshe, Zhang Henshui and I walked on the mountain path, admiring the spring scenery along the way.

"Xinyuan, what do you think Mr. Zhou wants to do with us?" I asked Chengshe.

Zhang Henshui smiled and said, "Let's just have a normal party."

Chengshe shook his head and said, "I don't think so. His tone on the phone was a little anxious."

"No matter what, the Zhou family's food is good, and we can have a good meal today." Zhang Henshui said happily.

The two entered through the back door of Zhou Mansion, and when they arrived at the living room, they discovered that Shi Liangcai and Zhang Jiluan were also there.

Shi Liangcai greeted with a smile: "Come and take a look. This is the photo Mingcheng brought back from the Fushun Confucian Temple. It's incredible."

"What photo?" Zhang Henshui leaned over.

"The naked boy," Zhang Jiluan said, "is so strange on the roof of Chongsheng Temple."

Several people circulated the photo and marveled at it, making various speculations about the origin of the naked boy, but in the end they were still unable to solve the mystery.

After chatting for a while, Zhang Henshui suddenly asked: "Brother Mingcheng, did you invite us here today just to look at the photos?"

Zhou Hexuan suddenly stopped smiling, shook his head and said, "No, there is something else important. I need your help, gentlemen."

"Please tell me...cough cough cough!" Zhang Jiluan coughed repeatedly. He was not in good health.

Zhou Hexuan described the situation of arresting young men in detail and said solemnly: "I plan to make an investigation report and send reporters to Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan, Henan and Guangdong provinces to collect detailed data on the government's signs of young men."

As early as 1939, seizing young men had provoked several popular uprisings in various provinces, but overall it was not too bad.

Especially in the early two years of the Anti-Japanese War, recruits mainly joined the army voluntarily. The lottery started around 1939, where each family drew lots to decide who would join the army. Except for a few areas that were eager to make meritorious service, most of the situation was relatively normal, and the mortality rate of young men rarely exceeded 10%.

But this thing is getting worse, because the national government has extremely poor control over the grassroots and the military, which has led to many people becoming more and more courageous and starting to use drafting into the army as a profit-making tool. Coupled with the sudden increase in the number of conscripts in 1940, the depreciation of the legal currency and the soaring prices of goods, the conscription money allocated by the government was not enough. After being embezzled layer by layer, there was not much left. Even the strong men could not guarantee the food they needed along the way. The mortality rate among young adults has increased exponentially.

According to Jiang Menglin's memoirs, he visited a young men's shelter in the summer of 1941. 700 young men walked from Qujiang, Guangdong to Guiyang, and only 17 of them died. No one escaped on the way, because the red land was thousands of miles away, even if they escaped, It is also death.

What Jiang Menglin encountered should be a special case. After all, the mortality rate of 97.5% of the strong men was too terrifying (the soldiers were too lazy to boil water for them to drink, and they were not allowed to light their own fires. So they drank boiled water on the way and collectively fell ill with dysentery. It was natural for them to get sick. It’s even less likely to be given to a doctor).

Those present here are all people from the press. They know something about the situation of young men, but they only have the same impressions from the past two years and have not yet gained a new understanding of this year's situation.

Chengshe I said: "The Libao Newspaper doesn't have enough reporters. Let alone other provinces, there are not many reporters even in Sichuan."

Zhang Henshui said with a smile: "I will go to Hunan or Guangxi in person and just take it as a tour guide along the way."

Shi Liangcai said: "This news angle is interesting. Shenbao can send three reporters to cover it."

Zhang Jiluan said: "Ta Kung Pao also sent three reporters."

Obviously, these four people have not attracted attention yet, because the country needs soldiers to fight, and catching strong men is a no-brainer.

Zhou Hexuan didn't bother to convince them. They would know how powerful he was when the reporters came back from the interview. He said: "This is my plan. Each province will send three reporters, in the name of Red Cross staff, to interview young men's shelters along the way. Under no circumstances should the reporter's identity be exposed, and everything seen and heard should be recorded. Come down and then return to Chongqing for summary."

Cheng Shewo smiled bitterly and said: "Li Bao really doesn't have that many reporters to send."

Zhou Hexuan said: "If there are not enough reporters, we will recruit others, but the reporters sent out must be reliable and steady."

"Okay, you are also a shareholder, you have the final say." I didn't refuse again.

Zhang Henshui said: "I will go to Hunan myself."

"I will handle the Red Cross identity of the journalists," said Shi Liangcai, vice president of the Red Cross Society of China.

"Then please!"

Zhou Hexuan said and emphasized: "I would like to remind reporters again not to publish reports without authorization, because this will affect the people's enthusiasm to join the army and serve the country, and will also seriously damage the morale of frontline officers and soldiers."

"Understood!" Everyone began to pay attention to what Zhou Hexuan said seriously.

Reporters from the three newspapers were quickly dispatched, and within half a month, Zhou Hexuan received the first letter from a reporter.

The reporter was responsible for covering the eastern Sichuan area and said in the letter:

"Yours sincerely, Mr. Zhou... I arrived in Wanzhou on the second day of my departure, and there happened to be a troop sending troop from western Hunan... My Red Cross status made them relax their vigilance, and I had medicines with me, so They respected me very much. The leader also asked me about the way to buy medicine, saying that he wanted to buy some special medicine and resell it... The miserable condition of the young men shocked me. Most of them were drafted into the army, but each of them had a stable home. The fee is only 1 yuan (it is 1 yuan in legal currency, not cash)..."

"I asked the people who sent the soldiers again, and they didn't hide anything... When sending young men from western Hunan to Chongqing, the government allocated 3 yuan for each young man's food expenses along the way. This was barely enough two years ago. But with the Prices have risen, and 3 yuan for food is not enough to make porridge. However, the local regiment commander actually deducted 1.8 yuan from each person, leaving only 1.2 yuan for the young men's food. The remaining 1.2 yuan for food will be sent to the soldiers. People deduct..."

"The young men traveled over mountains and ridges for a long time, and their physical strength was already severe. However, they could only drink a small bowl of gruel every day. It was extremely cold at night in the mountains, and the regiment area did not prepare enough cold protection. Many young men were cold and hungry. They soon became sick. The sick people were not treated at all, and were whipped to rush on their way. If they couldn't walk anymore, they were abandoned on the roadside..."

"This troop sent troops, there were 800 strong men when they set out from western Hunan, but when they arrived in Wanzhou, there were only 648 people left, and all of them were weak, and nearly half of them were sick..."

"Mr. Zhou, I will continue the interview... Due to the inconvenience of communication, all interview materials will be delivered when I return to Chongqing. Please wait."

Zhou Hexuan breathed a sigh of relief after reading this letter.

Fortunately, the mortality rate among mature men was less than 20%, which was already beyond Zhou Hexuan's expectations.