Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Changjin Lake, a Hundred Battles, a Hundred Victories

Chapter 8 Summary of Experience
After careful consideration, the remaining thirteen prisoners chose to join Chen Ming's squad.

When Chen Ming asked them why, they all began to speak.

“I can’t go home. I don’t know anything except how to be a soldier. If I go home, I won’t even have land to farm. I’ll just starve to death.”

“I dare not go back. If my father finds out that I have become a traitor, he will definitely beat me to death. Our family will be scorned in the village and will never be able to hold our heads high again. It is better to continue to be a soldier and fight the Japanese to wash away the shame.”

“I have no home anymore. After I was conscripted, my father died of anger and my mother cried herself to death. Now I am a bachelor.”

There are many reasons for choosing to continue serving in the army, but they can be summarized into two main reasons: the atrocities committed by the Japanese army and the oppression of the puppet regime.

Chen Ming welcomed those who chose to join them and immediately untied the ropes binding their feet.

Each prisoner was given an alias in order to reshape their identity and help them get rid of their psychological burden.

The new name symbolizes "new life" and, in conjunction with political education, strengthens their identity as "anti-Japanese fighters".

It is also a form of protection for them.

Most of these puppet army prisoners had families living in enemy-occupied areas. Using aliases could greatly reduce the proportion of puppet army families being retaliated against by the Japanese army.

These are all experiences accumulated through blood and tears.

Statistics from 1944 show that the proportion of families of surrendered puppet troops in the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan base area who were retaliated against decreased from 12% before using pseudonyms to 0.3% after using pseudonyms.

After dealing with the prisoners, Chen Ming pulled aside a small meeting with the district squad soldiers who had been watching the whole thing.

"Have you learned everything?"

At the meeting, after Chen Ming explained the whole process to the soldiers, he asked a question.

"I've learned a lot from the captain. He truly lives up to his reputation as a veteran of the Red Army; he's amazing," Dafei said happily.

Although he felt resentful towards the puppet army prisoners, after all, they had once participated in the pursuit of the small team.

But when they learned at the grievance meeting that these puppet soldiers were also from poor backgrounds, most of them were forced into becoming puppet soldiers, and they did not have the blood of their compatriots on their hands.

Dafei then realized that they were all poor people who had no choice in their own lives. As long as they stopped helping the Japanese to persecute their own people, he could let them go.

If they could fight the Japanese together, he would be even more convinced. No matter what happened before, as long as they were genuinely fighting the Japanese, Dafei would believe them.

"Yes, when dealing with prisoners of war who can still be saved, we should prioritize education and use punishment as a secondary measure, while uniting all forces that can be united," Chen Ming concluded.

"That's absolutely right." Li Zhu clapped his hands in praise.

He admired Chen Ming very much. As expected of a veteran of the Red Army, his level of thinking was different from that of a country bumpkin like himself.

"Okay, meeting adjourned. Let's go check on the wounded soldiers first, then rest before moving on."

“Once the Japanese discover that this small detachment and the puppet troops have been wiped out, they will definitely send a large force to hunt us down,” Chen Ming said.

After the meeting, everyone went to a room to check on the soldiers' injuries.

By this time, their wounds had been treated with herbs and carefully bandaged.

"Captain Chen, you've arrived. Please have a seat."

When the dog's mother saw Chen Ming coming to visit the injured, she immediately brought over a chair.

Chen Ming did not sit down, but sincerely said, "Thank you, Comrade Yumei, for taking such good care of the soldiers after all this time."

Gou'er's mother's name is Wang Yumei, so Chen Ming addresses her that way.

"It's not hard work, it's not hard work. The comrades in the district team have helped us so much. I'm just a rough country bumpkin, all I can do is take care of people."

Wang Yumei waved her hands repeatedly, not daring to take credit.

"There's no such thing as a rough or delicate country bumpkin. We're all comrades, each with our own strengths. How could a bunch of roughnecks like us handle these delicate tasks? We still need Comrade Yumei's help," Chen Ming joked. "Oh, not at all," Wang Yumei replied, feeling embarrassed by Chen Ming's words, but also grateful to him.

It was clearly just a job taking care of the wounded, something anyone could do, but in Chen Ming's words, it sounded like no one else could do it.

Although she was from the countryside, she knew that Chen Ming did this to ease her burden.

"Captain Chen, I'm going to cook for the soldiers now," Wang Yumei said, and then prepared to cook.

"Hey, wait a minute, Dafei, take out the captured canned beef and add it to the food to give the soldiers some extra nutrition," Chen Ming said to Dafei.

"Okay." Dafei ran happily to the place where the captured supplies were stored and took out five boxes of captured beef cans for Wang Yumei.

Chen Ming looked at the soldiers who had been bandaged up, pulled up a chair and sat down next to them.

"How are you feeling? Are you feeling better?"

"He won't die. He can continue fighting the Japanese in a few days."

"Yes, Captain, once I'm healed, I definitely want to try out the Japanese Type 38 rifle. I've never used such a good gun before!"

When the soldiers who were asked heard that their captain cared about them, they made sure to answer.

"Alright, once you've recovered, let's fight the Japanese together," Chen Ming encouraged.

After leaving the room, Chen Ming began to arrange for the soldiers to rest, while he would take the first shift.

After a day and a night of fighting and retreat, the soldiers were exhausted and desperately needed rest.

Only by getting enough rest and energy can we do a good job in the upcoming relocation.

"Captain, let me do it. You've been working hard for a whole day and night."

When Dafei saw that Chen Ming told them to rest and that he would go to stand guard, he volunteered.

"Alright, go and rest. Come back to relieve me in two hours," Chen Ming said with a smile.

"But."

Dafei said hesitantly.

"No buts, execute the order."

"Yes."

Dafei couldn't persuade Chen Ming otherwise, so he had to go and rest.

After the soldiers went to rest, Chen Ming opened the three-dimensional combat map.

On the map, the eight puppet army prisoners who had already left have now turned blue, while the puppet army prisoners who chose to join them—no, it should now be called the district squad soldiers—have turned green, representing their own side.

Chen Ming felt relieved; it seemed that this decision had been quite effective.

Through a systematic policy framework, the treatment of prisoners of war from "simple release" to "effective disintegration" was upgraded.

Thinking of this, Chen Ming found paper and pen and began to write down his experience, hoping to send it to his superiors when the opportunity arose.

It is only 39 years now, while our army's policy on prisoners of war was perfected in 40 to 42 years.

Currently, the conversion rate of prisoners of war from puppet troops is only about 10%. It wasn't until 42, when various policies were improved, that it reached over 65%.

Now that he has traveled to this era, Chen Ming must do his best to contribute to the overall situation of the War of Resistance against Japan.

Submitting this experience to superiors would be far more effective than annihilating a small Japanese detachment or even a regiment.

(End of this chapter)