Chapter Twenty-Five: Encounter with an Enemy

  "Report to the battalion commander, the third independent brigade of the Royal Cooperative Army's bandit suppression regiment has assembled, please give a speech!" Zhang Luo Hui saluted and reported to Liu Yu Jie.

  Liu Yujie furrowed his brow and consulted with Zhang Luohui, saying: "Brother Luo Hui, can't we not call it the Tufeiying Brigade?"

  Zhang Luohui maintained a stern posture and replied to Liu Yuqie very seriously: "First, please don't call me Brother Luohui, but rather Deputy Commander Zhang. Second, this doesn't even give us a unit number, can we really be called the Third Regiment of the Royal Cooperative Army? Besides, yesterday Shanxia Tai also expressed his opinion on the name 'Bandit Battalion', saying it's very interesting and he likes it."

  Liu Yujie was somewhat helpless, and changed the subject, asking: "Where's Sixth Master? I didn't see him at breakfast this morning, is he sick?" Zhang Luohui stood up straight again to answer: "Reporting to Captain, Deputy Captain Ye was invited by Mountain Down Taigong to have breakfast together early this morning."

  Liu Yu-jie suddenly felt a surge of acid water rushing up to his heart, he waved his hand and said: "Let's train according to the established subjects, I'm not feeling well, I'll go back first."

  Liu Yu-jie walked over, and the brothers on the training ground began to liven up. According to Ye Tu-fei's instructions, the brothers had to practice their skills during training without letting the Japanese notice their serious attitude. Zhang Luo-hui understood Ye Tu-fei's intention and suggested adopting the traditional training method of Er Lang Mountain, which could deceive the Japanese while maintaining the combat effectiveness of the brothers. The traditional training method of Er Lang Mountain was to have two people engage in a one-on-one fight.

  Yatou Fei indeed went to have breakfast with Yamashita Keigo. Yamashita's brigade was transferred to the Henan battlefield, while Yamashita remained in Xuzhou as the commander of the Kenpeitai (the Japanese army did not have a Kempeitai command unit, that is a product of anti-Japanese dramas), and concurrently in charge of the Tokkouka, his military rank also rose from Chusa to Taisa.

  Yamashita Keigo encountered trouble on his first day in office. While preparing for the Xuzhou government, everyone recommended a businessman named Zhang Qishen as the president of the Chamber of Commerce. This person had been the president of the Chamber of Commerce for many years and had great prestige in the Xuzhou business community. The Japanese Black Dragon Society also highly praised him.

  However, Zhang Qishen unexpectedly refused the imperial army's arrangement. Shanxia Jingwu initially thought this was a person who didn't know the times, but after understanding the situation, he realized that the crux of the matter lay with Ye Tufei. Zhang Qishen made a request to Shanxia Jingwu: let Ye Tufei return his 100,000 taels and two fingers.

  Then Yamashita Kengo called Ye Tufei over, wanting to hear his opinion.

  Yè Tú Fēi knew the ins and outs, smiled and said to Yamashita Keigo: "It's really a big tree attracting wind! Once Zhōng Yì Táng becomes famous, many scoundrels will pretend to be under its name and do bad things everywhere. In the end, it's still up to Zhōng Yì Táng to take the blame. Yamashita, if I said I've never seen that Zhang Qí Shēn person before, would you believe me?"

  Yamashita Kengo smiled and nodded, saying: "Yesan, I believe what you said! However, in order to convince Zhang Qishen, I think it's better for the two of you to meet and clear up the misunderstanding. Yesan, what do you think?"

  Ye Tu Fei spread out his hands and said: "Alright, the more friends the merrier, who knows, maybe in the future we can even rely on Director Zhang to make some small fortune."

  After meeting, Zhang Qi obviously couldn't recognize Ye Tufei, but he still insisted that this matter must be the work of Zhongyitang. He asked Shan Xiaowu to go to the military camp to identify him.

  Yamashita Kengo's face turned long as he said to Zhang Qi: "Zhang Sang, you've gone too far."

  Zhang Qishen already knew that the Japanese who had been in business with him from the beginning were members of the Black Dragon Society, which had a huge influence on both the political and military circles in Japan. With the backing of the Black Dragon Society, Zhang Qishen was not afraid of Yamashita Kiyoshi. He retorted: "Mr. Yamashita, it's not that I'm being excessive, but I really can't swallow this insult! Moreover, if we don't bring the culprit to justice, it will also affect the reputation of your country, Japan. After all, I was a victim of extortion because of my business dealings with you Japanese people."

  He took a glance at Ye Tufei and continued, "If the Zhongyitang hadn't done anything wrong, why would they be afraid of ghosts knocking on their door? I'll go to their military camp to identify them. If I don't recognize them, I'll treat you to wine as an apology! But if I do recognize them, Lord Shandown, what should we do with them?"

  Yè Tú Fēi didn't wait for Shān Xià to respond, and hastily said: "Mr. Zhāng's words are very reasonable, I welcome Mr. Zhāng to be a guest at our big team. If it's just a misunderstanding on the part of Mr. Zhāng, we can just laugh it off, no need for any wine or apology. But if Mr. Zhāng recognizes someone, Shān Xià sir, you can bear witness, I Yè Tú Fēi will pay you 200,000 big yuan plus this head on my neck."

  Yamashita Keigo was very satisfied with Ye Tufei's attitude, he nodded and said: "Ye San, Zhang San, you two are both good friends of my Great Japanese Empire, and are the pillars for achieving the beautiful wish of Greater East Asia Co-prosperity. I don't want any misunderstandings to happen between you two. How about this, I'll take Zhang San to Ye San's camp right now, if there's no problem, then you two can shake hands and make up, but if there really is a problem, I believe it must be done by Ye San's subordinates behind his back. Ye San, I hope you won't protect them at that time, and hand over the suspects to me for handling. What do you think of my suggestion, Ye San, Zhang San?"

  Ye Tu Fei agreed first, Zhang Qi Shen thought for a moment and felt that there was no better way, so he nodded in agreement.

  The three arrived at the camp and gathered everyone together. After checking the roll call list, Zhang Qi began to identify the suspects.

  Almost three hundred people, Zhang Qi Shen identified one by one, it took a whole hour and still couldn't finish identifying all of them. Yamashita Kiyoshi was getting impatient, constantly urging Zhang Qi Shen to speed up.

  After a round of searching, Zhang Qi didn't find those people who had attacked him initially.

  Zhang Qishen failed to catch Ye Tufei's handle, and sullenly apologized to Ye Tufei and Shan Xiajingwu. However, Zhang Qishen's apology was hypocritical. He was convinced that the one who had cut off his finger and stolen his money was indeed Zhongyitang. In his heart, he made a decision: he would definitely bring down Ye Tufei and destroy Zhongyitang.

  Good things never come in pairs and bad things never come alone. Just as Zhang Qi had been dealt with, another crisis came to Ye Tu Fei.

  For Zhang Qi's question, Ye Tufei had already made an estimate and could make preparations in advance to respond. However, for the second impending danger, Ye Tufei was completely unaware of it.

  Jia Baoyu! The only son of Jia Zheng and his wife, Lady Wang.

  Two years ago, Jia YunGui plotted to kill the whole family of Jia ChunFeng because he coveted Jia's secret recipe for brewing wine and roasting mutton. After learning about it, Ye TuFei rushed back from Shanghai to Jiajia Wan with the thirteen loyal Rohans to avenge Jia ChunFeng.

  Before Jia YunGui died, he entrusted his only son Jia ShuWen to his senior apprentice Zhan JinBiao and instructed Zhan JinBiao to tell Jia ShuWen never to avenge him. This was because Jia YunGui believed that even ten of himself combined would not be a match for Ye TuFei, let alone Jia ShuWen who was just a bookworm with no martial arts skills.

  But Jia Shuwen didn't think so.

  He was studying in Japan at that time and returned home immediately after hearing the bad news about his father. He wanted to avenge his father, so he found Xian Jinbiao.

  Zhan Jinbiao, however, repeatedly apologized to him and not only refused to help but also brought up Jia Yungui's dying wish to persuade Jia Shuwen to give up his idea of revenge.

  After the Japanese arrived, Jia Shuwen relied on his solid Chinese-Japanese bilingual skills to become a translator for the Matsumoto team. Jia Shuwen had a deep understanding of Japanese culture and was also skilled at making sushi, which earned him the favor of the team leader, Matsumoto Ichiro, and became his personal translator.

  That day, Jia Shuwen went to the Imperial Army's camp to handle some business and happened to see Shan Xiajing, Ye Tufei, Zhang Qi, and Shen San. Ye Tufei didn't recognize Jia Shuwen, but Jia Shuwen recognized Ye Tufei. A person filled with hatred will certainly go all out to gather any news about their enemy.

  Jia Shuwen saw Ye Tufei, and his heart was first startled, then overjoyed. He instantly forgot about his official business and rushed back to the Songben League's garrison to conduct a thorough investigation of Ye Tufei.

  Finally, he confirmed his judgment that this man was the murderer of his father and currently only a deputy commander of a battalion in the Imperial Army. Jia Shuwen believed that with his current status and resources, he could fully achieve his revenge ideal.

  Jia Shuwen thought of the most likely person to help him achieve his revenge ideal was Matsumoto Ichiro. In order to get Matsumoto's support, he carefully designed a scheme.

  Matsumoto became infatuated with the sushi made by Kajiwara, and almost every day he would ask Kajiwara to come to his house to make sushi for him. However, that evening, Kajiwara refused Matsumoto's request. He said to Matsumoto: "Honorable Taisho, please forgive me, today is the anniversary of my father's death, I have to pay respects to my father tonight and cannot serve you." As he spoke, he burst into tears.

  Matsumoto Ichiro felt a little regretful, but he couldn't refuse Jia Shuwen's reason, so he could only say a few comforting words symbolically. Then, Jia Shuwen took the opportunity to cry even more wildly, pouring out her heart while crying: "My father died too unjustly, he died too miserably, he always taught me that Japan is China's good friend, and told me to learn more about Japanese culture, unfortunately, he didn't get to see this day, waaahhh, waaahhh."

  Matsumoto Ichiro was stirred up by Jia Shuwen's crying, and asked: "You said your father died unjustly and miserably. How did this happen? Can you tell me about it? Maybe I can help you!"

  Jia Shuwen heard this and immediately wiped away his tears, telling Matsumoto Ichiro the whole story of Ye Tufei and his father. Of course, in the story he told, Jia Chunfeng was nonexistent, only the reason for the bandits' robbery existed.

  Matsumoto's face gradually darkened. What he was thinking about was not upholding justice, but rather that if he didn't help Jia Shuwen, then Jia Shuwen's mood would not be good, and if Jia Shuwen's mood was not good, it would be difficult to make delicious sushi, and the commander of a regiment of the Great Japanese Imperial Army wouldn't be able to eat this delicious sushi, which would affect the commander's mood, and then affect the entire regiment's mood, and further down, the entire brigade, division, North China Expeditionary Force, all of China's Japanese army... The impact was too great, so it was necessary to severely punish that bandit leader Ye Tufei!

  "Jia San, don't be sad anymore. I'll assign a squadron to you and let them help you take revenge. We'll kill all the bandits on Er Lang Mountain and offer sacrifices to your father."

  Jia Shuwen blinked his eyes and squeezed out two lines of tears, saying: "That Ye Tufei is no longer a bandit. Commander Matsumoto, thank you for your concern, but I'm afraid you can't help me with this matter."

  Kill a former bandit Zhina person, and I, Matsumoto Ren, can't even help? Matsumoto Ichiro was unhappy, shouting: "Even if Ye Tufei flew to the sky, I must kill him too. Tell me, where is Ye Tufei now?"

  Jia Shuwen looked at Matsumoto Ichiro with a pitiful expression and replied weakly: "The Third Regiment of the Imperial Guards, he is now a deputy commander of the Imperial Guards."

  Matsumoto Ichiro burst out laughing and said, "Jia Sang, you don't have to make offerings to your father tonight. Go and make sushi for me instead. I'll catch Ye Tufei tomorrow and hand him over to you. Wouldn't it be better for you to make offerings to your father tomorrow?"

  That's great! Jia Shuwen was overjoyed.