Article 14

  The terrain in the mountains has many plots similar to mountain tops, so many people have taken a liking to this place.

  This is a gang of bandits from outside, to be exact, they call themselves "Self-Relief Team".

  They call him a bandit only because he is armed and does not belong to the "government", and in some people's eyes, he has all the conditions of a bandit.

  They make a living by robbery and extortion, lacking political foresight, are destroyers of law and order, their behavior is unbridled, doing as they please, unwilling to be bound by any constraints.

  They call themselves "self-rescue team", are from outside "drifting" over, most of them are poor and destitute people, mostly single, a small number with wives and children.

  The "Self-Help Team" is mainly composed of three types of people: First, there are peasants like Da Dangjia Chang Fugui. Da Dangjia had attended a few years of private school and later became the head of a household with several acres of thin land. Although his family lived a tight life, they managed to get by. However, after the Japanese arrived, some Han traitor landlords used the enemy's hands to take away their land, and Da Dangjia's children were so hungry that they stole corn from the landlord's field and were beaten to death. His wife was driven mad and drowned in a river. On a dark and windy night, Da Dangjia set fire to the landlord's house, killing him, and seized his weapons. He then led a group of poor men who could no longer make ends meet to occupy the mountains and become kings.

  Then there was a group of people, represented by Er Dangjia in Changshui, who were known as great heroes in ancient times. They were all physically strong and would fight for justice, helping those in need in the countryside. However, the people they offended while fighting for justice were mostly wealthy and influential, so they soon found themselves unable to stay in the area. Hearing that someone had taken over a mountain, they came to join him.

  There is also a group of people led by Wang Wei, one of the Three Perfections.

  To be exact, this was a group of soldiers. After the devils came, many warlords' troops were absorbed by the devils and formed puppet armies to deal with the anti-Japanese military and civilians. These puppet armies bullied the common people everywhere, helping the devils bully the Chinese people. The leader of the troop where San Dangjia was located was especially "good at" bullying the local old hundred names, he really couldn't bear it anymore, so he took a group of brothers to kill that guy and his confidants, took the guys out of the barracks, went up the mountain, and started living as "bandits".

  These three groups of people were not in the same place at first, but after contacting each other later, they felt very compatible, so they cut off a chicken's head and burned yellow paper to swear brotherhood. The three teams merged into one, robbing and killing the rich to help the poor, and doing it with great relish.

  Nothing can be accomplished without norms or standards. The leader has established a set of rules called "Three Disciplines and Eight Points of Attention" for everyone:

  Three Rules of Discipline: First, keep secrets; Second, prohibit rape, molestation or bullying of women; Third, do not disturb the local villagers. Whenever there is a wedding or funeral in the village, as long as they know about it, they will often go to participate, especially if they have been saved by them or have a debt of gratitude.

  "Ten Don't Rush": One is that wedding cars and funeral cars don't rush. Not rushing for wedding cars and funeral cars is mainly to seek good luck.

  Secondly, postmen are not worth robbing. As the saying goes: "Poor teachers and bitter postmen." Postmen don't have much money, so it's not worth robbing them.

  Three is the ferry's uninvited guest. The "self-rescue team" wandered around and whenever they encountered a river crossing, they would often ask for help from the boat owner.

  Fourth is the backpack doctor's "self-rescue team". In battle, it is inevitable that there will be wounded soldiers, and therefore medical treatment is urgently needed.

  Fifthly, they don't rob gamblers or swindlers. It's said that bandits and swindlers are one family, so they don't rob them.

  Sixth, do not rob those who sell eight-strand hemp rope. Those who sell eight-strand hemp rope include two types of people: one is the pot mender and the other is the seller of pear sugar melon seeds, wine, and oil. They are all small business operators, it's not worth robbing them, sometimes you can even get some information from their mouths.

  Seven is the car store not robbed. Winter comes, cold wind cuts to the bone. The "self-rescue team" that often operates in the wild has nowhere to hide and often rushes into the car store to stay overnight, eating and drinking, so they don't rob the car store.

  Eight is for monks, Taoists and nuns not to fight.

  Nine is the lonely and solitary non-competitive.

  Ten is the lone night traveler who doesn't rob.

  Two taboos are "not to bully or coerce": "bully" refers to doing things that go against reason and human feelings. "Coerce" means using strong-arm tactics to oppress women. Those who do such things are called "evil villains", and they must be severely punished.

  Due to strict discipline, the troops had strong combat effectiveness despite having few weapons, at least effective against some armed guards of landlords and rich households. In addition, a small number of puppet troops were not their opponents.

  After a period of time, that area became a forbidden place for landlords and rich households. Those who had roads escaped, while those without roads could only surrender. Especially those who were cruel to the poor in peacetime were now terrified every day, afraid that one day they would wake up to see bandits' guns pointed at their own heads. As for the rich households that treated the poor slightly better, they had to be more careful, mainly because these rich households were not extremely wealthy and also had a good reputation among the people in the surrounding area, so the "self-rescue team" was also lenient towards such rich households.

  But the good times did not last long, the Japanese puppet army initially did not take them seriously, but later saw that they were getting more and more fierce, so they came to give them a sweep. They had only about 100 people, 20 or 30 quick guns, although they occupied the advantageous terrain, but lacked guns and ammunition, how could they fight against the thousands of armed Japanese puppet army? In less than a day, they were attacked by the Japanese on the mountain, and the master of the house could only escape with everyone.

  Escaping here and there, they escaped to this mountainous area, and finally found a piece of land, and only then did they slightly settle down.

  But the people here were originally poor, and there were few wealthy landlords, so they had no one to rob or kill. There was a nearby town, but it was full of devils, and fighting them would be futile.

  Restricted by rules, they do not take action against the common people. Even if they do, they can't get much, as the common people are struggling to make ends meet and have nothing worth taking. Even if there are a few wealthy households, they don't have much grain at home. It's not worth the trouble of robbing them just to get enough food for one meal for the brothers.

  They had no choice but to send out scouts in all directions within a hundred miles to find out where the wealthy landlords and rich households were, worth robbing.

  On this day, a spy finally heard that near Liutown, which is nearly 100 miles away, someone had buried a large quantity of supplies nearby, including not only food but also ammunition.

  The master of the house heard this and said, "We can't even afford to eat a meal all day, and someone is burying these things in the ground?" He decided on the spot to bring all the strong laborers, set out early the next morning, and go dig up this batch of things.

  Because the bandits didn't force-march, they took a full two days to cover the nearly 100-mile journey. They finally arrived at the location where things were buried on the second afternoon, but as soon as they looked, they were stunned - there was no supplies, only the big pit where things were buried told them that many, many things had been buried here before. This was the second day after Li Tiefu mobilized the masses to transfer the supplies. If they had come a day earlier, perhaps they would have found something, but now all that's left is the pit.

  The bandits were disappointed and depressed, each with their heads hung low, without any spirit.

  It's not easy to come out this time, can't return empty-handed, what would the family think, and there's not much food at home either.

  They set their sights on Liu Town.

  Due to the last train incident, the whole Liu Town has strengthened its vigilance, and the devils and puppet troops are always on guard against the Eighth Route Army.

  But the bandits didn't know and charged towards the whole town.

  In the past, when they charged towards a certain town, the town would be thrown into chaos. Children cried and women shouted as they quickly plundered enough supplies before withdrawing at leisure.

  Will it be like this again this time?

  When they rushed halfway, Mr. Dang felt something was wrong.

  The village was quiet and still, without a sound.

  "There is an ambush, retreat quickly."

  However, it's already a bit late.

  On the roof, on the wall, everywhere the shadows of devils and puppet soldiers emerged.

  The devils' machine guns went off, and the comrades beside me fell down.

  Luckily, thanks to the timely discovery by the master of the house, the bandits finally retreated after sacrificing more than a dozen casualties.

  The bandits stole chickens but ended up losing rice instead, and their morale was even lower.

  The whole family had no choice but to lead everyone back to the mountain with a dejected look, due to food shortages, so everyone could only fill their hunger with wild vegetables.

  When bandits have reached this point, they've really lost face.

  Rob, can't rob, fight, can't win a fight, eat, nothing to eat. When did bandits also reach this point?

  Looking at the increasingly scarce food in front of them, looking at the lifeless eyes below, the three leaders faced each other, unable to think of a solution.

  In the end, Wang Wei, one of the three main hosts, put forward his own views.

  "Big brother, second brother, I think it's not going to work out like this. The devils have us locked down tight, our armed forces are too weak and can't compete with them. Now we can't even get supplies, if things go on like this, even if the devils don't come after us, we won't be able to hold on for much longer."

  "Lao San, what's your idea?" Er Dangjia asked Yi Shui.

  "Lately, there's been a rumor that not far from us, there is an Eight Route Army guerrilla squad. I think it's better to go and join them. After all, we're all fighting the devils, whether we fight on our own or follow others."

  "As for us, with the elderly and children in tow, we don't even have many guns. Can they capture us? Even if they do want to capture us, what about these old people and kids?" The head of the household also raised his own doubts.

  "Let's get in touch with them first and see what they mean, if they can accept us, then our relatives will also be accepted together. After all, when we arrive there, we are also considered a part of the guerrilla team."

  "Alright, let's do it this way, send two people to contact them and see what they mean."

  Three people reached an agreement. Decided to send someone to contact the guerrilla team.