Chapter 138: Bandits Encounter Bandits

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  "I am not a spy!" The man stood up and shouted loudly with his eyes wide open.

  "Still stubborn!" Liu Yudong kicked him in the leg again: "Kneel down for me! If you're not a spy, why are you following us? If you're not a spy, why do you have this on you?" Liu Yudong handed a handgun to Dong Li Mao: "Company Commander, look, he's still carrying this thing."

  Dong Li Mao took over the pistol.

  "This is a regular weapon equipped by Japanese devils' lower-ranking officers." Pan Guangzu took only one glance and recognized it.

  Dong Li Mao put the gun on the table and pressed it against that person's head: "You're selling your life for the Japanese, you're a traitor!"

  "No! I am not a traitor!" The man showed no fear at all.

  "Where did this gun come from?" Dong Li Mao asked, poking his head with the gun.

  "Stolen from Japanese devils!"

  "Speak up, what are you doing following us?" Dong Li Mao asked gruffly.

  "I didn't follow you!" The man replied loudly without showing any weakness.

  Dong Li Mao glanced at Liu Yu Zhen: "How did you catch him?"

  "Before we entered the city, I noticed that my younger brother who was following behind us was acting suspiciously and kept following us after we entered the city, all the way to here." Liu Yuzhong replied.

  "You'd better say it quickly and clearly, no one who died at my hands has any grievances. I don't want you to be the first." Dong Li Mao handed the gun to Pan Guang Zu and sat down on a box of ammunition.

  "Dong Jiacheng..." The man's eyes lit up, and he stood up from the ground again, asking in surprise: "Are you Dong Jiacheng?"

  "What? You've heard of me too?" Dong Li Mao was no longer surprised by others' astonishment when they heard the name of Tai Gong.

  "Your great name is like thunder in our ears, all the brothers in our mountain stronghold..." He suddenly realized he had misspoken and immediately stopped.

  "Mountain stronghold?" Dong Limao roughly guessed what kind of person this was: "You're a bandit?"

  "The bandits are what the government and military have forced upon us. In the eyes of the common people, we are not bandits." The man argued back.

  "Haha... I didn't expect that we just became bandits and then met the real bandits!" Dong Limao burst out laughing.

  "We are not bandits! We are men of 'Xi Feng Lü'!" The man seemed very unwilling to hear others call them bandits.

  Dong Li Mao looked at him in surprise and asked: "You say you are people of 'Xi Feng Lü'?"

  "Yes, we used to be 'Xi Feng Lü' people in the past, but not anymore!"

  "So you're also a soldier, then why did you become a bandit?"

  "We are not bandits!" The man still refused to admit he was a bandit.

  Dong Li Mao smiled: "Alright, you're not a bandit. Then I'll ask you, what's your number in the 'Xi Feng Travel'?"

  "We are a battalion of the 'Xifeng Travel' constabulary, our captain's name is Zheng Chengkui."

  "What's your name?" asked Dong Li Mao.

  "My name is Li Dequan."

  "Li Dequan... Haha... Eunuch..." Dong Limao thought of the eunuch who followed Kangxi and couldn't help but blurt out.

  Li Dequan was taken aback and didn't understand what Dong Li Mao meant. Fortunately, he hadn't understood.

  "Where is your captain Zheng Chengkui?" Dong Limao stopped laughing and continued to ask.

  "In the mountains... in the hills." Li Dequan immediately corrected himself.

  "What did you follow us here for?" asked Dong Li Mao.

  Li Dequan scanned the ammunition warehouse with his eyes, then replied: "Captain, I heard that the garrison in Tengchong City had all run away. Let me go down the mountain to investigate and see if the ammunition depot is still there. We need these munitions. However, on the way, I saw you walking towards Tengchong City, thinking it was a little devil disguising themselves as wanting to occupy the county seat, so I followed behind you..."

  Dong Li Mao looked at Liu Yu Zhen and Pan Guang Zu, saw them both nodding, seemingly also believing what Li De Quan said. So he told Li De Quan: "You go back to the mountain, tell your squad leader that we've taken over the ammunition depot now. If he wants to forcefully seize it, I'll be waiting here for him anytime!" After finishing speaking, he told Pan Guang Zu: "Return his gun and let him leave."

  "Wait, Comrade Dong Lianchang." Li Dequan hastily said: "Our captain admires you very much and often says in front of us that you are the real hero, the true Haohan. He wants us to be like your brothers under your command, bravely fighting against the devils. I think... please come with me up the mountain to meet our captain..."

  Dong Li Mao waved his hand: "If your captain wants to see me, then ask him to come here. I just said that, and I'll be waiting at any time!"

  "But in the city after all..." Li Dequan seemed to have some reservations.

  "If your captain doesn't even have the guts to come here and see me, then he's not worthy of these bullets!" Dong Li Mao wanted to test whether this guy named Zheng Cheng Kui had what it took. These bullets would only be able to exert their greatest effect in the hands of someone with courage.

  Li Dequan took the gun handed over by Pan Guangzu, inserted it back into his waist, covered it with his outer garment, and said with a clenched fist: "Dong Lianchang, we'll meet again, farewell!"

  "Not sending!" Dong Li Mao retorted.

  "Company Commander, do you really want to give them this batch of ammunition?" Pan Guangzu asked after Li Dequan left.

  "As long as it's for killing devils, this batch of ammunition is the same in our hands and theirs. What I want to know is whether they really plan to use this batch of ammunition to kill devils." said Dong Li Mao.

  "Shouldn't we brothers move these ammunition away?" Pan Guangzu asked again.

  "Move! Of course, we have to move. These are enough weapons and ammunition to equip a whole regiment. If we don't take them away, won't the little devils use them to kill us? Let's take half of them away and leave half behind. If Zheng Chengkui has guts, he'll come looking for us before nightfall, and we'll give him the remaining half. If he doesn't have guts, we'll destroy all of it on the spot!" Dong Li Mao said: "Right, Liu Squad Leader, tell your brothers to find out some information about Zheng Chengkui from people in the city."

  Hú Sān rushed into the ammunition depot and said: "Company Commander, something's wrong! Guangtou Ma has taken his gun and returned to his hometown in Hezhou!"

  Dong Li Mao was also startled when he heard this and knew that Guang Tou Ma must have gone home to take revenge on the local wealthy landowner Wang Fu Gui, fearing he would suffer a loss.

  "Little Huzi, bring a squad of brothers and follow me!" Dong Li Mao said to Pan Guangzu and Liu Yuzhen before leaving: "You two hurry up and finish your own business, we'll leave the city after dark."

  Guang Tou Ma indeed returned to He Shun Township as Dong Li Mao had thought, with the aim of avenging his deceased parents and siblings.

  Wang Jinqi, the second son of Wang Fugui's family, replaced his elder brother Wang Jinfu as the captain of the security team after he was killed by Guangtou Ma. He had more than a hundred security guards under him and was nominally responsible for maintaining law and order in Tengchong County and protecting the safety of merchants and civilians. In reality, however, he secretly worked for Long Shengwu to extort money from the people and sell his life.

  Wang Jinfu did not follow Long Shengwu to escape, his father Wang Fugui gave his son an idea, saying that even if the Japanese occupied Tengchong, they would still have to rely on local people to help them handle daily affairs, collect taxes and public grain. Since the National Government's officials and staff had all run away, it was a good opportunity for Wang Jinfu to stay behind and work for the Japanese in the future. In other words, before the Japanese occupied Tengchong, Wang Fugui had already planned to let his son become a traitor.

  Guang Tou Ma brought a murderous aura and had not yet entered the village entrance when he was discovered by Wang Jin Cai's hidden sentry at the village entrance.

  Deng Guangming rode his horse into the village and stopped in front of the Wang Fugui's mansion, where Wang Jinqian had set up an ambush waiting for him.

  The gate was wide open, and it was quiet inside. Guang Tou Ma thought that Wang Fu Gui's family had escaped, so he stepped up onto the steps and walked in. As soon as his foot crossed the threshold, two gun barrels were pointed at his head from either side: "Don't move! Put down your gun!"

  Bald Horse had no choice but to obediently drop the gun in his hand to the ground, thinking that this time his life was over.

  "Haha……" A loud laughter came from the courtyard, Wang Jinfai and several security guards walked out of a room inside: "I didn't expect you, surnamed Ma, to dare come back here! Oh, wearing military uniform! This set of clothes was given to you by that Dong Jiacheng, wasn't it?" Wang Jinfai said with a sly smile, sizing up the bald-headed Ma.

  "Wang Jinfai, shut up! Since I've fallen into your hands, do as you please, kill me or torture me!" Bald-headed Ma growled through gritted teeth.

  "Last time, it was that Dong Jiacheng who saved you. This time, let's see if he can save your life again!" Wang Jingui stretched out his hand and pinched Guangtou Ma's face: "Someone! Tie him up for me! I want to flay him alive, one knife at a time! To avenge my big brother!"

  "Old Second, you're still so impulsive!" An old man with a wispy white beard and mustache, holding a silver water pipe in his hand, wearing a white short jacket on top and loose black satin pants below, stepped out of the backyard with an eight-character stride, glared at Wang Jinfu for a moment, then smiled at Bald-headed Ma, saying: "Don't you see that Zhu has already become an anti-Japanese hero? We can't be slow in welcoming the anti-Japanese hero."

  Zhu zi is Xiaoming's nickname.

  "Damn it! You smiling tiger! Even if I become a ghost, I won't let you off, you dog thing!" Bald Horse spat on the ground and said.

  "Brother, I haven't done anything to offend the Ma family. On the contrary, you killed my family's eldest son. By right, I should avenge my son's death, but I've come to realize that it was his fate. Alas... as the saying goes, 'it's better to resolve grievances than to harbor them.' You're old and about to die, don't take this hatred with you into your coffin. Leave now!" Wang Fugui shook his head and pointed towards the door, saying: "Please pass on my regards to that famous anti-Japanese hero, Commissar Dong Jiacheng!"

  "You... let me go..." This made Baldy Ma furious: "But I won't let you off! My whole family died at your hands! If you let me go, this debt, I'll settle with you sooner or later!"

  "Zhuzi, your whole family died in a fire at home, and it has nothing to do with my Wang family. Everyone in Shunxiang village knows about this... It's not your fault that you just came back and didn't know the inside story, and you believed someone else's slander, thinking that I, Wang Fugui, took revenge and harmed your family. Am I that kind of person? You killed my eldest brother, but I won't even bother to settle accounts with you..."

  "Father, we can't let this wild seed go, keeping him is a source of trouble..." Wang Jinfai said viciously.

  "Shut up! As long as I'm still alive, this family doesn't need you young punk speaking out!"

  "Captain! Something's wrong..." A security guard stumbled and ran into the gate.

  "What are you yelling about? Is your father dead or is your mother dead?" Wang Jinfai scolded the security guard who ran in.

  The security guard took a glance at Guang Tou Ma and whispered into Wang Jin Cai's ear, "A dozen or so have arrived at the village entrance."

  Wang Jinfai's face changed as he listened, and he asked: "Did you see that they are all carrying their rods?"

  "Look closely, everyone has something in their hands!"

  Wang Jinfai pulled out a handgun from his waist and shouted to other security guards: "Brothers! Follow me!"