Chapter 1: The Nameless Great Mountain

  I stood in front of my grandfather's coffin, looking at the black and white photos of him on the mourning hall, with an indescribable feeling in my heart.

  My grandfather's name is Han Gengyan, a native of Fengtian born in 1904, who experienced many events throughout his life, including the Beiyang warlord era, the Ten-Year Civil War and the Anti-Japanese War.

  Han Geng was born into a family of scholars, his father being a well-known scholar in the area at that time. His father always taught Han Geng to be familiar with poetry and literature so that he could bring honor to their ancestors, but Han Geng had no interest in it whatsoever. On the contrary, he spent most of his days playing pranks and fighting with kids of his age group, earning him the title of "King of Kids" in the area.

  In 1920, with the fall of the Qing dynasty, Yuan Shikai declared himself emperor, and after Yuan's death, the Beiyang warlords became a mess, each occupying one side. Han Gengyan was not a peaceful master to begin with, so he joined the warlord, coincidentally it was the Fengtian clique that was being strongly supported at that time. This also determined the father's death. The old father who didn't like marching and fighting but loved poetry and songs saw his own son join the warlord, how could he swallow this breath, with sorrow he passed away.

  Han Geng was quite famous in the small detachment under the Fengtian warlord at that time. At that time, many of those who joined the Fengtian warlord were young men from Fengtian, and most of them had been bullied by Han Geng. When Han Geng first joined the Fengtian warlord, he was also very unwelcome. The officer in charge of the small detachment was very enthusiastic about welcoming the local tyrant when he came to join. It's worth knowing that a good fighter is much better than a soft bundle.

  As the war broke out in various places, although the Fengtian warlord had Japan's support behind it, some troops' military salaries were not being paid on time, forcing Chinese people to "rob graves" to make ends meet. For the warlords who were once prosperous, the two words "rob graves" became "borrowing from the dead", which, although sounding somewhat unpleasant, solved the pressing problem at the time.

  Han Geng was in a troop that happened to receive an order to go to a nameless big mountain to "borrow money".

  Deep in the night, at the foot of a nameless great mountain!!

  "Zhang, where are we going to dig a grave?" Han Geng scratched his head and asked the young man in front of him.

  The young man in front of Han Geng is a typical military man with a strong and resolute face, exuding an aura of firmness and majesty. He was Zhang Zhen, the captain of the army where Han Geng served at that time.

  Zhang Chen took a drag on his hand-rolled cigarette and blew out a smoke ring. "The locals around here say there's supposed to be a tomb up in these mountains."

  Listening to Zhang Zhen's words, Han Gengyan turned his eyes around. He himself was very taboo about taking things from the dead, but this time because of the military salary, the superior leader ordered that they had to find ancient tombs in their respective jurisdictions and dig out some ancient coins to use as silver tickets, which was an irresistible order. This made Han Gengyan somewhat headache.

  "I say, Zhang Ge, these are just rumors among the local people, not credible, right? I think we should get some money from somewhere else." Han Geng said with a laugh. If someone else had said this, they wouldn't have dared to speak to Zhang Zhen like that, but Han Geng was childhood friends with Zhang Zhen, and when they were young, Zhang Zhen especially liked Han Geng's mischievous personality.

  "Little Han, don't worry about this, I've already had Little Hu go survey the terrain. Little Hu, you know as well, in this aspect he and Old Wan are the most skilled. With them on our team, we're absolutely unbeatable." Zhang Zhen said while smoking a cigarette. In the past when things weren't so chaotic, Zhang Zhen's Little Hu and Old Wan could be described as having extraordinary skills but couldn't show them off, able to make big money but unable to go out and earn it - in other words, they were the kind of people who would "overturn" among the common folk. But now, the orders given by their superiors to each military unit had also fulfilled the wishes of Hu Bang and Wan Guan.

  Listening to Zhang Zhen's words, Han Geng was extremely displeased in his heart, but he had no choice. If he explicitly refused to go, it would be a violation of military discipline if he said so loudly, and it would be impolite to Zhang Zhen if he said so softly, which would also reveal the psychology of leaving the organization with a small team.

  Before Han Geng could even speak, Zhang Zhen took a deep drag on his cigarette, glanced at the burning ember and randomly threw it to the ground, stepping on it. "Little Han, in this era, we're all forced to take up arms and go to war. If our country wasn't fragmented, would those foreign devils have a chance to meddle? My will as a soldier is to do my best to unify the nation, drive out all the foreign devils, and see who dares to interfere again! I know you don't want to be in this line of work, but it's for the country. You'll have to come down eventually, even if you're unwilling. This is an order from above, not something I can decide on my own."

  Listening to Zhang Zhen's words that were both hard and soft, Han Geng also knew that this time he had no choice but to go down together with him, so he nodded randomly.

  The turbid clouds gradually covered half of the crescent moon as they were blown by the wind, and the trees on the mountain also made a "hissing" sound as they were blown. The only thing that was not perfect was that the curved branches blown by the wind looked like thousands of people waving at you in the middle of the night.

  "Captain, I and Lao Wan have thoroughly researched this tomb. I can guarantee that it's extremely large. Shall we start now?" A slender young man ran over from a distance, his military uniform was completely disgracing the uniform, anyone with discerning eyes could tell at a glance that he wasn't up to any good, and this person was none other than Xiao Hu, Hu Bang.

  Zhang Chen nodded, looked up at the moon in the sky, took a deep breath and said "Xiao Hu, where is Lao Wan now?"

  Hu Bang smiled and said, "Old Wan is waiting for us at the entrance of the tomb now. We've already dug a tunnel to the treasure chamber earlier, just waiting for you to bring your brothers down." As he spoke, his eyes shone brightly, as if gold, silver, and jewels were already laid out before him.

  Zhang Zhen smiled and patted Hu Bang's shoulder, then turned to the forty or so soldiers behind him and said, "Brothers, there is a very large tomb on this mountain, which must have a lot of gold, silver, and jewels. Xiao Hu and Lao Wan have already cleared the way for us. We'll set off now and bring back all the treasures from the ancient tomb. Commander will definitely reward you handsomely!" After finishing speaking, he led the way with Hu Bang towards the direction of the thief's cave.

  Listening to Zhang Zhen's words, all the soldiers were like they had taken a stimulant, shouting "Good" loudly and following Zhang Zhen away.

  Looking at the scene in front of him, Han Geng let out a deep sigh and followed helplessly.

  Not long after, a group of people arrived beside the cave, and there was already someone waiting beside the cave. The man was short and stout, about 1 meter 67 or 68 tall, with two strokes of eight-character beard on his face. If he wasn't wearing military uniform, some people would definitely mistake him for a successful businessman. Looking at his stature, if you haven't seen his skills, who would believe that he is a master of martial arts?

  Fatso saw Zhang Zhen coming and immediately put on a full face of smiles "Zhang, the tunnel is already ready for you, when are we going in?" Fatso was the old Wan "Wan Guanjun"

  "We'll go down now, it's already midnight, let's try to get out before dawn." Zhang Zhen waved his hand to signal Wan Guan and Hu Bang to lead the way into the tunnel. After all, Wan Guan and Hu Bang were experts in this area. Hu Bang was a master of the Luoyang shovel technique, which was considered top-notch even by someone as worldly as Zhang Zhen. The thieves' guild was divided into four factions: Faqiu, Mogin, Banshan, and Xieling. Hu Bang belonged to the free faction, while Wan Guan was a Mogin schoolmaster. He was said to be the 53rd generation descendant of a family that had served Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms period, but no one knew if this was true or not.

  Wan Guan and Hu Bang immediately carried their equipment and went in, Zhang Chen looked at the bottom of the pit on the right side of the cave entrance about 2 meters high and smiled, then led everyone to take torches and walk in one after another.

  As soon as he entered the cave, Han Geng immediately felt a wave of cold and damp air rushing towards him, and in that cold and damp air, there was also a faint smell of fishiness, which could not be detected by anyone with an ordinary sense of smell.

  "Zhang Gege, have you smelled a fishy smell?" Han Geng quietly asked Zhang Zheng.

  Zhang Chen waved his hand, "Cough, Xiao Han, what's with the smell of blood? You're definitely too tense. It's your first time doing this job, don't worry about it, just a mud block smell."

  Listening to Zhang Zhen's words, Han Geng secretly pinched himself and felt that he must be too tense. How could there be a fishy smell more than two meters below the ground? He must have mistakenly taken the smell of mud for a fishy smell.

  In this way, a line of fifty people walked in the cave for about half an hour and finally arrived at a spacious space similar to a cave. With the help of firelight, it can be seen that the surrounding area is surrounded by scattered stones, with only two earth roads, one is the road they took when they came, and the other is unknown where to go.

  "Xiao Hu, Lao Wan, why haven't you two left yet?" Zhang Chen looked at Hu Bang and Wan Guan in puzzlement as they stopped moving, while Hu Bang and Wan Guan were unusually quiet, and the entire cave fell into a dead silence.

  Looking at Hu Bang and Wan Juan not responding to his words, Zhang Zhen didn't get angry, but only felt puzzled. Normally when Zhang Zhen asked Hu Bang and Wan Juan questions, they would rush to answer, but now they stood there like stone statues, completely ignoring him. This couldn't help but make Zhang Zhen feel very puzzled. But at this time, Han Geng Yan had discovered the reason why Hu Bang and Wan Juan were standing quietly like stone statues, and he couldn't help but break out in big drops of sweat on his forehead.