First Acquaintance with Yang Jingyu (Revised Draft)

  In the winter of 1936, 14-year-old Yang Sicheng had grown tall and sturdy. The world was a vast expanse of ice and snow, and many hunters had returned home to huddle on their warm kang to wait out the winter.

  He had long since quietly set off with his beloved "Kaya", the harsh winter would greatly reduce the chances of animal predation, and foxes do not hibernate. The winter fur of a fox is the best season for its color, one perfect fox skin can be exchanged for many bullets, he needs a large number of bullets to fill his wind deflection data, and good marksmanship is fed by bullets.

  Of course, hunting foxes must be done behind the adults' backs, or else they will inevitably get a good scolding.

  Yang Sicheng could somewhat understand Ivan's mood. When your sniping skills reach a certain level, you'll find that the prey around you is so stupid, including the most cunning foxes in nature, which can be lured to death with just a little bait. In just half a day, he hunted and killed three foxes, all of them shot through one eye and out the other, one bullet one kill.

  He easily stripped off the intact outer skin of the hunting knife and put it in his pocket. When he arrived at the small town at the foot of the mountain with "Kaya" to exchange some ammunition, it was only around 6 pm, and the sky was darkening, but under the reflection of the snow light, it didn't feel very dark.

  As he approached the fur store he usually went to, he found that there were still 3 customers inside. Although he knew it was impossible for there to be any danger, the habit he had cultivated over the years made Yang Sicheng unconsciously stop in his tracks and quickly hide at the corner of the street to observe carefully.

  Three sturdy men, about 20-30 years old, with an older one in his thirties, holding a bear skin and a bear gallbladder, negotiating with the boss. The other two men stood closely behind him, as if protecting him. Their waists were bulging, likely hiding weapons. Judging from their attire, they didn't look like hunters, could they be "bandits"?

  Yang Sicheng slowly walked into the store, and three people looked up at him with great tension. After finding out that he was just a teenager of about 10 years old, they visibly let out a sigh of relief and continued to haggle over prices with the boss.

  Yang Sicheng quickly glanced at the bear skin, which was a mature black bear's pelt. Judging from its fur color and thickness, it should have been freshly obtained in autumn. There were 7 or 8 bullet holes on the skin, which were left by military rifles. These people were not hunters. Hunters rarely own military rifles, and even if they did, they wouldn't shoot so recklessly, wasting bullets and lowering the price of the pelt due to all the bullet holes. More importantly, an injured black bear is much more terrifying than usual, so hunters usually provoke it into standing up and then aim at the white crescent-shaped weak spot between its front legs and lower jaw before shooting. Experienced hunters can usually kill with one shot.

  Yang Sicheng took out the fox fur from his pocket and handed it to the boss. The boss, who was also an old acquaintance of Yang's, didn't say a word and directly paid 150 rubles for it. The three men looked at each other in dismay. Earlier, the boss had only offered them 50 rubles for their bear skin and gallbladder, which they thought was intentionally lowballing them, so they started arguing.

  "Look at your own bear skin, it's all shot through and has no value left. Only this bear gallbladder is slightly valuable, but it can't compare to other people's goods. So I'm offering 50 rubles, which is already the highest price. Look at other people's fox skins, they don't even have a scratch, of course they can sell for a good price."

  The older man picked up the fox skin and examined it carefully, becoming increasingly astonished. He turned to Yang Si Cheng and asked, "Young brother, did you really shoot this fox with a gun?" Yang Si Cheng nodded calmly, and the man passed the fox skin to his two companions behind him, who also clicked their tongues in amazement. "If they knew I shot it from 300 meters away, wouldn't they be even more incredulous?" Yang Si Cheng thought to himself.

  "Alright, boss, I'll sell it to you for 50 rubles as you said. No need to give us money either, just exchange it for bullets and medicine." The boss was very shrewd, his store collected pelts and sold all sorts of things, from guns and ammunition to needles and thread, everything was available.

  Yang Sicheng exchanged 50 rubles for 200 bullets and was about to leave when the older man came over and struck up a conversation with me, saying: "Young brother, how old are you? Your marksmanship is so good, how did you practice?" Yang Sicheng didn't pay much attention to him, turned around and prepared to leave. Just then, those people had finished exchanging their goods, and the four of them walked out of town together.

  "Are they going to take me to a deserted place outside the town and rob me of my gun and money?" Yang Sicheng thought to himself, "Although I'm not afraid, after all, there are many of them, and they have hidden weapons on their bodies. It's inevitable that we'll be at a disadvantage if we fight. It seems that I need to give them some warning first, so they know I'm not easy to mess with."

  The four of them walked in silence for a while, their eyes fixed on the small woods up ahead. If Huzi was planning to make a move, the woods would be an ideal place. Yang Sicheng quietly adjusted his breathing and discreetly placed his right hand on the handle of his hunting knife, ready to respond to any sudden attack. Just then, a hawk suddenly flew out of the woods, clutching a snow rabbit in its talons.

  Just in time to give them a show, Yang Si stopped immediately and quickly picked up the rifle on his back. 2 seconds later, after accurately calculating the wind deflection and lead, he pulled the trigger at the hawk 370 meters away. The hawk fell from the sky, he didn't care about the hawk, immediately pulled the bolt, completed the second shot preparation of shell ejection and re-chambering. The other people heard the gunshot and didn't know what happened, got a fright, also quickly drew their pistols and looked around, Yang Si didn't pay attention to them, his gun muzzle intentionally or unintentionally aimed at them, if they made any unusual move he would shoot without hesitation.

  They realized that after Yang Sicheng fired the shot, he visibly let out a sigh of relief and put his guns back in his waist. A man ran to the front to pick up the pheasant and rabbit, looked at them and ran back to show his companions with great surprise, "Heavens! How did he do that? We don't have anyone who can do this in our village!" The bullet had blown half of the pheasant's head off somewhere.

  Yang Sicheng had already known this result, and at that time he aimed directly at its head. Excellent hunters may be able to accurately hit the body of a sparrow hawk more than 300 meters away through the sight, but it's not easy to accurately hit the small head of a flying sparrow hawk.

  No doubt, these three people are very familiar with shooting and know that it's not possible to get such a result by luck. The older man obviously considered this and walked over to Yang Si Cheng, saying sincerely: "Young brother, your marksmanship is truly amazing, even among the thousands of people in our place, no one has skills like yours. I don't know if you're willing to join us?"

  Join them? Be a traitor like them? At this thought, Yang Sicheng blurted out: "No, I don't want to be a traitor. In the future, I will join the army and drive away the Japanese devils!"

  "What's with the beard?" The man looked at Yang Sicheng in confusion, suddenly understood and laughed: "Haha, little brother, good ambition, wanting to be a soldier to fight against the devils, great! But I have to clarify, we are not some bearded people, we are the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army!"

  The two of them also walked over at this time, and upon hearing these words, they both nodded in agreement with Yang Si Cheng. The Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army? Our own anti-Japanese army as ordinary people? Seeing Yang Si Cheng's half-believing and half-doubting expression, the man continued to say: "To be honest, I am Yang Jingyu."

  It's probably because this place is close to the Soviet Union, so the Japanese devils didn't dare to station troops nearby, only some puppet soldiers would often use the excuse of "hunting bandits" to go to each village to "enjoy the autumn breeze". They weren't worried that Yang Si Cheng would inform on them, even if there was danger they could just hide deep in the mountains and forests, it wouldn't be easy to catch them, so they openly told Yang Si Cheng their true identities.

  General Yang Jingyu? As for General Yang Jingyu's great name, the old northeastern folks didn't know anyone who didn't know him. The devils and puppet troops described him as a blue-faced, fang-toothed devil who killed people without blinking an eye. But today, seeing his slender figure, two majestic swords-like eyebrows and two wisps of whiskers on his face "wrote" out two "eight" characters, apart from being particularly heroic, there was nothing else different about him. "What? Are you disappointed that I'm not blue-faced and fang-toothed?" General Yang joked with Yang Sicheng.

  Yang Sicheng hesitated, he also wanted to join the army, but who would take care of his parents at home? His mother's health was poor, and his father had been injured in his early years. As the saying goes: "Parents are still alive, don't go far away", let alone go to war? What if something happens, wouldn't it be enough to worry his parents to death?

  Thinking of this, Yang Sicheng said to Yang Jingyu: "Sorry, General Yang, I still can't join you for the time being. After my parents pass away in a hundred years, I will go and fight against the devils!"

  Yang Jingyu's face was filled with disappointment, and he couldn't say anything more, so he cupped his hands and said: "Well, little brother, we'll meet again!"

  "We'll meet again!" Yang Sicheng also learned to bid farewell with a bow.

  Finally almost home, Yang Sicheng was overjoyed. Although the house was simple, it was always warm. From outside the village, the cellar was pitch black, guessing that at this time his parents should be asleep.

  As he walked, Yang Sicheng suddenly felt that something was wrong. Hey, why did so many houses in the village collapse? What's going on? He hurriedly ran towards the village with three steps and two steps.

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