Bandits Raid the Village

  However, after a while, the noise came from afar. Xia Jun was checking the injury of the water buffalo, and the chrysanthemum on this water buffalo's head was blown to pieces, probably not living for much longer.

  Upon hearing the sound, Xia Jun looked up and saw a group of villagers wearing coarse cloth clothes, with queues and straw shoes, rushing towards this direction. After a rough scan, there were more than ten people, apparently from nearby villages.

  Soon the villagers arrived in front of Xia Jun, seeing that he was carrying a gun, some of them were afraid to come forward. At this time, a middle-aged man wearing black satin and a calabash hat came out, bowed his hands to Xia Jun, and asked in Mandarin: "Thank you, young man, for your righteous help. May I ask your surname and name?"

  "In the summer, I got lost on this mountain and don't know where this place is?" Xia Jun asked the middle-aged man, who looked like a local gentleman from his attire and demeanor.

  "This is Xixiangtangkeng Village, and it's thirty miles to Jian'an County." The middle-aged man said. Xia Jun was stunned and asked, "Is this Jian'an County?"

  "Alright." The middle-aged man nodded. Xia Jun felt a great sense of relief, Jian'an County was located in the northern part of Fujian Province, which is now Jian'ou City, and he had grown up in the city.

  "Xixiang? What's around there? Which gate is it from the county?" Xia Jun, although a local, had no impression of Xixiang at all. It seems that in later generations, there was no place called Xixiang.

  "Go north gate, under the west village is Xiaosong, go around and it's going in the direction of Dongmen's East Peak..." The middle-aged man narrated, Xia Jun listened a bit dizzy, isn't this Longcun Township in later generations? Is it called Xixiang in this era?

  "Little brother, what do you plan to do with these hyenas?"

  "This... you handle it! These things are of no use to me, I just wonder if I can stay overnight in the village?" Xia Jun asked.

  The middle-aged man was stunned for a moment, then hastily nodded and said: "Good, good, if the young brother can stay in the village, that would be best. Please, warrior."

  "Good." Xia Jun nodded.

  Then a group of villagers carried the six-headed wolf dog back to the village with great fanfare. Xia Jun and the middle-aged man chatted on the way, learning that it was now the first year of Xuantong, which was also 1909. The middle-aged man's name was Lin Debao, and he was the landlord of this village.

  "Where is this young man from?" Lin Debao asked while observing Xia Jun, who was dressed in a strange attire without a queue and wearing unusual clothes.

  "Local people." Xia Jun replied.

  "That young man didn't keep his queue, and was caught by the government officials. He's going to be beheaded! It would be better if he bought a fake queue to attach." Lin Debao said. But Xia Jun wasn't afraid at all, and smiled: "I just returned from studying abroad, whether I wear it or not doesn't matter."

  At this time, the Qing dynasty's rule had entered a stage of losing control. The outbreak and success of the Xinhai Revolution two years later were by no means accidental. Xia Jun was confident that he had guns in his hands, what could the government tolerate him for?

  Lin Debao was somewhat surprised that Xia Jun was a local, but not particularly surprised that he had returned from studying abroad. Xia Jun's attire could be described as 'completely Westernized'.

  "What country did you study abroad in?" Lin Debao asked Xia Jun in the local dialect, Xia Jun thought for a moment and said: "Graduated from an American military academy."

  "Hey, why didn't you go to Japan? I heard the army only wants Japanese exchange students now, and they don't want anyone from Germany! Not sure about America though." Lin Debao asked Xia Jun with a curious tone.

  Xia Jun didn't quite understand, why wouldn't Manchu Qing want German exchange students in this era?

  Originally, when Yuan Shikai was training the new army, he only wanted German students and not Japanese students. The Qing dynasty had exhausted its military strength during the invasion of the Eight-Power Allied Forces, and other armies were controlled by Han people. In order to regain control over the new army for the Manchu nobles, the Qing court sent Yuan Shikai back home to rest with a holy edict. The Qing court appointed Zaitao to take charge of the land army, but Zaitao's younger brother was actually a theater enthusiast and timid as a mouse, so the actual controller of the land army was Liangbi. After Liangbi took office, in order to weaken Yuan Shikai's influence, the army only wanted Japanese students and not German students. As a result, many revolutionaries were mixed among the Japanese students, and the revolutionaries took advantage of this opportunity to infiltrate the military.

  At the same time, Yuan Shikai was not honest when he was hiding in his old home. Whenever his former subordinates came to visit him, he would give them a gold bar. Later, even revolutionary party officials went to visit him, and Yuan Shikai was equally generous, also giving them gold bars. 80% of the personnel who returned to China from the Tongmenghui had visited Yuan Shikai, who gave them large sums of money, causing continuous uprisings in various provinces.

  Xia Jun casually made up an excuse, saying that he had an uncle doing business in the United States, so he brought himself to the United States. He sighed heavily in his heart, what a cliché excuse! It seems like all the protagonists who travel through time use this excuse! Well, he might as well follow suit!

  They soon arrived at the village, which was not very big, with only over 50 households. The villagers looked at Xia Jun with a respectful gaze.

  Xia Jun had a gun on him and was dressed strangely, but from the outside, he looked very neat.

  Lin Debao welcomed Xia Jun into his home and had a table of dishes prepared to entertain Xia Jun. The dishes were mostly home-cooked, very refreshing.

  After dinner, Xia Jun asked Lin Debao about the local bandits.

  "What's with the bandits all of a sudden?" Lin Debao asked, puzzled. Xia Jun casually spoke with a mouthful of nonsense, "To be honest, this time I returned to China because my whole family was killed by bandits..."

  Lin Debao was indeed deceived, and after comforting Xia Jun for a few words, he said: "There is a group of bandits on the Stone Ox Mountain ten miles away, I heard that there are more than 20 people, it's not easy to mess with, brother still has to be cautious!"

  Xia Jun didn't make a sound, but in his heart, he had already made up his mind about that group of bandits.

  In the evening, the villagers killed a cow and six dhole dogs. Lin Debao set up over ten tables and prepared many dishes of wine and food, inviting Xia Jun and the villagers to have a big feast together.

  Lin Debao saw that Xia Jun was quite capable and still a student, so he made an effort to get along with him.

  At night, Xia Jun was settled in a guest room at Lin De Bao's house. After drinking some wine, he fell asleep quickly.

  It was unclear how much time had passed when the village suddenly erupted in a commotion, and Xia Jun was quickly shaken awake. Under the dim light of the kerosene lamp, Xia Jun saw Lin Debao with an anxious face.

  Xian Yuang woke up and hurriedly called out: "Young brother, quickly leave, quickly leave, the bandits have arrived."

  "Bandits." Xia Jun immediately got up from bed and followed Lin Debao, rushing through the small alleys in the village. Soon, Lin Debao led his family and Xia Jun to escape into the woods behind the village.

  Xia Jun ran very quickly, he wanted to fight the bandits but not directly against them. Fighting bandits requires strategy and cunning, with a mix of intentional and unintentional moves. But now, in the dark of night, how can they fight? The village didn't even have electric lights, at night inside the house it was pitch black, you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

  "A pile of coffins, luckily we ran in time." Lin Debao gritted his teeth at the bandits entering the village, when his wife suddenly cried out, "Ah, where's Grandpa?"

  Grandfather?

  Xia Jun thought of the old man in Lin Debao's house, who wore grass shoes and had countless holes in his clothes but still wore them. The old man was Lin Debao's grandfather. While others were eating meat dishes, he ate bran and vegetables, only asking for a bowl of dog meat just now. It wasn't that Lin Debao mistreated the old man, but rather the old man was too frugal, perhaps it was his thriftiness that made Lin Debao's family become landlords.

  Lin Debao was anxious when he heard that his grandfather didn't know where he had run off to, and he jumped up and down in anxiety, but he didn't dare return to the village.

  A group of bandits in their twenties rushed into the village below, and soon began to rob house by house. These bandits didn't kill people, they just robbed things.

  They soon rushed into Lin Debao's home, and apparently didn't find anything valuable in Lin Debao's home, so they ran to the grain warehouse of Lin Debao's family, only to find more than 1,000 kilograms of rice.

  An old man was sitting curled up outside the granary. The bandits saw that he was an old man wearing tattered clothes and didn't pay attention to him.

  But the bandits who were not satisfied with just grabbing these things quickly caught a villager and inquired, under coercion, the bandit learned that the old man was indeed the grandfather of the landlord's family.

  A group of bandits were overjoyed and hastily took away Lin Debao's grandfather.

  After daybreak, Lin Debao led people down the mountain. The village didn't have many casualties. After the bandits entered the village, they didn't rob or kill anyone, apparently targeting Lin Debao's home. Soon, he learned from the villagers that the bandits had told him to bring 3,000 silver dollars to Shiniu Mountain within seven days or else they would tear up the ticket.

  "What's good about this?!" Lin Debao was anxious like an ant in a hot pot, but Lin Debao's family didn't quite agree to spend money to redeem someone, after all, the old man was already at an advanced age and didn't have many years left.

  Xia Jun proposed to Lin Debao: "I can handle this group of bandits, but since the old man is in their hands, I don't want to take action. Why not ransom him back first? I'll help you get the silver dollars back later."

  "This...young man can really subdue the bandits of Shigu Mountain?" Lin Debao asked in surprise, Xia Jun nodded affirmatively. At this time, his weapons were advanced, and dealing with a group of bandits using **mud cannons, if he still couldn't handle them, then it would be useless to be human.

  "Never mind, just ransom him back." Lin De Bao shook his head, not believing that Xia Jun could single-handedly take on more than twenty bandits.

  Xia Jun saw that he didn't believe him and didn't say much more.

  Lin Debao was about to ransom the person, but his wife strongly opposed it, thinking that ransoming someone for 3,000 silver dollars was too much of a loss. The two quarreled and three days passed in the blink of an eye.

  On the fourth day, the bandits from Shiniu Mountain suddenly sent over a little finger. Lin Debao panicked on the spot and, despite opposition, found more than ten young men from the village the next day to dig up the silver dollars in the back mountain.

  These landlords, in order to defend against bandits, would naturally not keep all their money at home. The common practice was to find a place that no one knew about and bury it there.

  Then Lin Debao counted out three thousand silver dollars and invited a dozen or so villagers to take the silver dollars to Shiniu Mountain, with Xia Jun following along.

  However, Xia Jun had already changed his clothes and tied a fake braid behind his head. Although he disliked the braid very much, in order not to attract the attention of the bandits, Xia Jun still tied it up. He also hid a handgun at his waist, and that rifle was thrown into the village.

  They arrived at Shiniu Mountain, and the bandits of Shiniu Mountain had already received the news. A group of people came to the foot of the mountain and prepared a sedan chair, in which Lin Debao's elderly grandmother sat.

  It seems that there is no chance to go up the mountain, Xia Jun's intention to observe the terrain has been tragically aborted. Lin De Bao handed over the ransom, and a big man among the bandits shouted: "Brothers, let's get on the road."

  Only four bandits lifted the sedan chair, while another twenty or so were responsible for setting off firecrackers and laying out silver coins in front of it. As soon as the sedan chair started moving, the firecrackers went off.

  Silver coins were laid out all the way forward, covering the road surface completely. After the sedan chair passed by, the silver coins would be picked up and taken to the front to continue paving the road. Lin Debao's family's old lady sat in the sedan chair like this, with silver coins paving the road and firecrackers going off continuously until they returned to the village.

  What a grand occasion! It turns out that even bandits can be treated like this.

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