Volume 1 Chapter 14 Winning People's Hearts (Part 2)

  Qiao Anbang and Ya Li walked to the front yard, where Old Man Qiao Siyuan, Eldest Brother Qiao Anguo, Second Brother Qiao Anjia, and Qiao Wu were already present.

  Qiao Anbang hastily walked forward and apologetically said: "Father, elder brother, second brother, brothers, I'm late, don't blame me, brothers." The latter sentence was obviously directed at the household servants and security guards.

  "The young master is being polite." Wang Ding Sheng and a group of officials and soldiers stood up laughing.

  "Alright, everyone, don't be polite! Eat and drink as you please! Wine and meat are on me, consider it my treat!" Qiao Anguo stepped forward, waving his hand loudly.

  "In addition, to reward everyone's bravery today, I have decided that each of you will receive a bonus of 50 silver dollars. Those who are injured will receive 100 silver dollars, and those who are disabled due to injury will receive compensation of 300 silver dollars. For our fallen brothers, we will directly provide a condolence payment of 1,000 silver dollars!" Qiao Anbang said calmly.

  Qiao Anbang's voice was not loud, but everyone in the courtyard heard it clearly. For a moment, the entire yard fell silent, and all eyes were fixed on Qiao Anbang.

  Qiao Anbang was a bit unaccustomed to this, scratched his head in embarrassment and said: "Brothers, what are you looking at me for? Eat and drink, the ocean is already prepared, after dinner I will distribute it to everyone uniformly. For the brothers who died in battle, I will send someone to deliver their share directly to their families."

  As soon as Qiao Anbang finished speaking, all the soldiers and servants present were moved to tears, and they repeatedly said: "Thank you, Second Young Master... thank you, Second Young Master..."

  These officers and soldiers were excited for a reason, you know that at this time, even the regular army of the National Government's central government was paid with national calamity allowance, and a first-class soldier only got five or six francs per month (in 1937, one yuan was equal to 2.2 francs). Other local warlords had no military pay at all, just food, and some better ones would give some coarse grains every month.

  Although the Baoyuan Security Team was not even considered a local warlord, due to its relationship with Qiao An Country, in addition to providing food for the soldiers every day and distributing 50 kilograms of coarse grains such as wheat or corn at the end of each month, each soldier also received a silver dollar. This money was paid by the Qiao family themselves, so although the Security Team nominally belonged to the National Government, it was actually no different from the Qiao family's private armed forces.

  This is also why the security team's officers and men would stand by Joe An Guo through thick and thin, loyal and unwavering.

  In this era, being a soldier is just for the sake of having food to eat, and this is absolutely no exaggeration.

  However, Qiao Anbang was more generous, fifty big oceans were almost equivalent to the five-year military salary of these officers and soldiers. They didn't eat or drink for five years and only got sixty big oceans, but Qiao Anbang gave them so much in one breath, how could they not be moved, not grateful to Qiao Anbang?

  "Everyone, don't be polite, eat and drink to your heart's content, this is what you deserve." Qiao Anbang said loudly to comfort the crowd, without noticing the gloomy face of his father, Qiao Siyuan, behind him.

  "An Bang, come here for a moment." Qiao Siyuan called out in a low voice from behind, and then turned around to leave.

  Qiao Anbang waved his hand at Qiao Wu and the others, indicating for them to continue, then turned around and followed Qiao Siyuan towards the back.

  After the two left, Qiao Ankou, as the captain of the security team, had already been invited by the officers and soldiers to join in the revelry together. Qiao An's family looked at the backs of the two men, shook his head lightly, and sighed: "Third brother is also like this, how can it be said that he has spent tens of thousands of dollars, saying goodbye is just a farewell, this time he will inevitably get scolded by his father..."

  ……..

  In the main house, Qiao Siyuan turned around with a somewhat serious expression and said: "Anbang, how can you take it upon yourself to reward the security team with such a large sum of money? The reward is one thing, but saying so much, our Qiao family may have some wealth, but we can't afford to be squandered like this. If every time we deal with bandits, it's like this, then before the bandits are eliminated, our family will go bankrupt!"

  "Dad, this time my brother and I were able to escape safely and defeat the bandits, thanks to the sacrifices of our brothers who fought with their lives. Giving them some money as a reward is also necessary." Qiao Anbang suddenly realized that his old father was a businessman, and businessmen are not fond of parting with their wealth. As the saying goes, the richer one is, the more stingy they become. It seems that his own father was no exception, and he was unhappy about the batch of silver dollars he had promised to give out earlier.

  After a pause, Qiao Anbang said: "Dad, don't worry, this batch of foreign sons will definitely not let the family pay a single cent."

  "Nonsense, don't take it from home, where else can you get it? Are you going to let it fall from the sky?" scolded Qiao Siyuan.

  "Dad, don't worry, maybe money will really fall from the sky. I have nothing else to do, I'm going out to drink a few cups with my brothers." Qiao Anbang said with a slight smile.

  "Go ahead, go ahead, but don't drink too much, it's bad for your body." Qiao Siyuan helplessly waved his hand and reminded him again.

  "Got it." Jo Anbang's voice rang out as he quickly walked away.

  Looking at Qiao Anbang's brisk footsteps, Qiao Anbang shook his head helplessly and muttered to himself: Forget it, it's rare for this kid to turn over a new leaf and be able to get along with these rascals. In today's chaotic world, it's just another guarantee. Only this time, I have to take out a lot of silver again...

  …………..

  The next day at dawn, in the back house of the courtyard.

  Qiao Anbang opened his tired eyes, sat up, and saw that he was covered with a brand new quilt. He lifted the quilt and took a look, and was suddenly shocked to find that he wasn't wearing a single piece of clothing.

  Damn it, what's going on? Who helped me take off my clothes? Qiao Anbang thought to himself, and soon he remembered that before drinking last night, he had instructed Yali to retrieve more than 30,000 yuan from the multi-functional flying machine and hand it over to his older brother Qiao Anguo. After that, he was taken by Wang Ding-sheng and a group of thugs for a round of toasts, and in the end, he got drunk and vaguely remembered being supported back.

  At this thought, Qiao Anbang's heart skipped a beat. Could it be Yali? He helped me back and took off my clothes? Just as Qiao Anbang was fantasizing about the ambiguous scene of Yali undressing him last night.

  A knock at the door came at a very inopportune time: "Bang...bang!"

  "Who is it?" Qiao Anbang asked in a very unpleasant tone.

  "Lao San is me, An Guo."

  "Oh, big brother." Qiao Anbang hastily got up, quickly put on his clothes, and immediately opened the door.

  Only saw Qiao An Guo standing at the door in military uniform and asked aloud: "Big brother, so early?"

  "It's late, I've already finished my morning exercise and came back, so I thought I'd drop by to see you." Qiao Anguo said as he stepped inside.

  "Oh." Joe responded with a grunt, waving his somewhat sore arm and said: "Sit down, what's up big brother?" He wouldn't come find him so early in the morning for nothing.

  "Oh, I see. Brother, there's something that doesn't add up. Today, Father told me that the 30,000 yuan wasn't taken from home. So where did you get so much money? And what about the dozens of light machine guns and submachine guns? You just gave them away as if they were nothing. What's the story behind this Liu Miss?" Qiao Anguo asked as soon as he sat down. His own brother had not only changed, but seemed to have become very wealthy too. If he didn't ask, that would be strange.

  PS: One update today, three updates tomorrow. Also, thank you to the brothers of Long Yin Hu Xiao for their evaluation votes. Today wasn't busy, I had all day, but my thoughts were stuck and I couldn't type out words, it was so frustrating that I wanted to smash my computer, I don't know if other authors have this state when typing, anyway it's very annoying, the outline is set up with everything, but I just feel like what I'm typing isn't good, it's uncomfortable to look at. Please forgive me.