Whose Mother, Whose Bed?

The women from the Northern Dynasty hugged their babies tightly and bent over as they retreated behind the dilapidated earthen wall.

The group then left the village and found a deep, dry ditch to rest briefly.

At this moment, the soldiers of the Seventh Platoon were gathered in a shallow pit.

Tao Dayou seemed inexplicably downcast. Just as Kuang Ge was about to ask him something, a soft sound of a dry branch snapping came from behind him.

A slender figure strode in, bending over. Instructor Peng from the Third Company sat down on the edge of the earthen embankment of the Seventh Platoon.

Then he raised his hand and placed it steadily on Squad Leader Zhou's shoulder, praising him gently.

"Class 7 did a great job today!"

"You took turns carrying that child the whole way, keeping him warm and hungry. You were disciplined and methodical in your actions, which is a great honor for our Volunteer Army!"

Squad Leader Zhou was wiping his bayonet with a dry cloth when he heard the praise. He pursed his thick lips and responded in a muffled voice.

"Of course."

Squad Leader Zhou was not at all surprised that Instructor Peng had observed these things.

Their instructor, Peng, was always so elusive; he knew many things that the Third Company didn't know.

They had no idea when Instructor Peng found out.

Upon hearing Instructor Peng's words, Tao Dayou, who was standing to the side, became even more dejected and muttered something in a low voice.

"Instructor... I feel terrible, like my heart is choked up."

Instructor Peng didn't rush to reply, but just looked at him.

Tao Dayou raised his sleeve, wiped his eyes haphazardly, then took a breath and lowered his voice.

"That child, when his mother died, her body was frozen stiff, but her hands were still tightly clasped around him..."

"I know they are people from the Northern Dynasty, other people's children, but I just can't understand it, and it makes my heart ache."

"We carried sacks of fried noodles, our legs were almost giving out, and we crossed the river all this way to be bombed and freeze here. What was the point?"

The sounds of people fumbling for food bags around the shallow pit gradually stopped.

Several veterans leaning against the earthen embankment stopped moving and turned their heads in unison.

Even Hu Xiaojiu, who was holding the first aid kit, raised her head.

Tao Dayou's problem was also the problem of most of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army soldiers.

After all, fighting abroad and resisting the Japanese on home soil always feel somewhat unreal.

Despite the border skirmishes, there's a general feeling that the fire hasn't really reached China yet, or even that it might not.

They went to great lengths to come to North Korea, originally intending to provide support but now they've become the main force, even helping other countries drive out the invaders. It feels really strange.

Kuang Ge and the others sat to one side, all looking at Instructor Peng, wondering how he would answer.

During the Long March, the Red Army had ideals and fought for the people.

During the War of Resistance against Japan, the Japanese invaders ravaged China's homeland, so people's enthusiasm for fighting the Japanese was naturally different from before.

The Liberation War was the end of the long-standing grievances and differing ideals between the Red Army and the main force.

But in general, they were all fighting for the people.

In the Northern Dynasty, for the sake of its people, the awkwardness of being in a foreign land always exists.

If this question is not answered well, it will greatly affect the soldiers' morale.

Instructor Peng did not reprimand him, nor did he preach any grand principles.

He leaned over, patted Tao Dayou's broad arm, and called out Tao Dayou's name in a sincere reply.

"Dayou, the question you asked isn't something you're just thinking to yourself."

"To be honest, I've thought about it too."

As he spoke, Instructor Peng slid half a step down from the earthen embankment and sat down among the soldiers. He then deliberately raised his voice to attract the attention of the soldiers from the Third Company.

"We fought so many wars in our own country, endured so much suffering, before we finally finished the war?"

"We finally achieved victory, our families were allocated land, our mud-brick houses were renovated, and some comrades even had matchmakers coming to their door before they left. They were about to get married and live a peaceful life. Who would willingly leave their warm bed?"

"Who would willingly carry a gun and suffer in the freezing cold of a foreign land?"

Beside the tree roots, several veterans nodded subconsciously.

Nobody felt like they were being scolded.

Because what the instructor said was the truth that everyone felt from the bottom of their hearts.

Instructor Peng paused for a moment, then leaned forward slightly to look at Tao Dayou.

"Dayou, you said you felt upset seeing that mother and daughter."

"To be honest with you, when am I at my most upset?"

Tao Dayou stared blankly at Instructor Peng, listening to what he had to say.

"When that woman breathed her last, she desperately wrapped the baby in her arms and shielded the child from the wind with her own body."

"I was standing behind your class, outside the tunnel watching her, with one thought constantly on my mind."

"What if this child were lying on our own warm kang (heated brick bed)?"

Tao Dayou's chest heaved suddenly.

Instructor Peng didn't continue on that topic, but changed the subject and asked Tao Dayou a question in return.

"Dayou, your hometown is in Liaodong, right?"

"I've looked through the enlistment roster several times. I remember the year you left, there was a little sister in your family."

"She's only three years old now, she can't even walk steadily yet, right?"

Instructor Peng even remembers this? Tao Dayou was taken aback again, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down, before responding with a soft "yes".

"Um."

"What if today, the bomb didn't fall on the mud-brick roofs of the North Korean houses," Instructor Peng said, looking at Tao Dayou, "but instead crashed into your yard in Liaodong."

"If your little sister, who had just turned three, were dug out of a pile of charred bricks billowing with black smoke, her body frozen stiff, her little hands still clutching the edge of your tattered cotton-padded coat..."

"Otomo, what will you do then?"

Tao Dayou's shoulders trembled as he recalled the tragic state of the mother and her infant in the Northern Dynasty, and he finally understood where his distress lay.

The tragic state of the Northern Dynasty foreshadows the possible future of the Dragon Kingdom.

When the flames of war truly reach the Dragon Kingdom, the displaced people of the Northern Dynasty they encounter along the way may just resemble their homeland.

In particular, Liaodong was so close to the Northern Dynasties.

The four men listened in silence, then suddenly thought of Nannan, who was still behind them, perhaps still behind them.

They had also witnessed firsthand US warplanes crossing the border of China and indiscriminately shooting women and children in the Andong region, and they never harbored any illusions about such an aggressor as the United States.

They went abroad to fight, but they had to protect the lights of thousands of homes behind them!

The other soldiers, following Instructor Peng's words, also imagined what it would be like if war ravaged their hometowns—Instructor Peng did not let this silence continue to weigh on everyone.

He turned his head and looked at Hu Xiaojiu next to Ruan Ruan, calling out softly as if he were asking his own little sister.

"Xiao Jiu".

Hu Xiaojiu shuddered and looked up. Why did the instructor suddenly call her?

Did your mother cry the day she sent you out to join the army?