The Fifth Episode: The Martial Artist's Request

  Zhan Biao let the van drive down the highway and head towards a dirt road. Secretary Jiao, County Magistrate Zhen, and Director Liu exchanged glances, unclear about what was happening, while Zhan Dongdong carried out his grandfather's orders without hesitation.

  At this time, Zhan Biao seemed to ask casually: "Xiao Zuan, have you put down the kung fu I taught you back then?" Zhan Biao always called Da Yuan and Xiao Yuan.

  Zhang County's long ears perked up and he loudly answered on behalf of his father, "Uncle Biao, you are my dad's master, I am your disciple-grandson!" His meaning was that since he had already practiced martial arts, naturally his father's skills were not inferior.

  "Great, you're learning martial arts too? What routines have you been practicing?" Zhen County Magistrate also said excitedly: "Dongdong, as soon as I met you, I knew you were a master of the martial arts world. The ones I learned from my dad and Uncle Biao are mainly Southern Fist."

  Zhan Dongdong chuckled and said, "Actually, I also figured out that you're a practitioner's son. I just don't know if we're from the same school." County Magistrate Zhai replied with some pride, "Of course, we are! By the way, I've been wanting to ask Master, my old man taught me the final dozen or so moves of the Yue-style scattered hand, but they never seemed quite right."

  Zhan Biao smiled and said slowly, "That's right, back then I only taught your father twenty moves, the last twelve moves were learned by your father secretly watching us practice martial arts." Zhan Biao said with embarrassment, "At that time, Master, you were afraid that I would hurt someone when I fought, if it weren't for fighting against the devils, maybe even the first twenty moves wouldn't have been taught to me."

  He let out a deep sigh and said, "At that time, your grandfather and the others were exchanging blows with the Japanese special forces' karate, judo, and other martial arts. I was in charge of keeping watch. Who would have thought that on the battlefield, amidst all the gunfire, they would still bow to each other before engaging in combat? And then they would agree on a date for another match. But those Japanese warriors were indeed men of their word - fighting is fighting, and competing in martial arts is competing in martial arts."

  Secretary Jiao chimed in, "At that time, Grandpa Zhu was close to the water tower, shouldn't you have learned a few tricks too?" Old Zhu wiped his face with his hand and shook his head, saying, "Of course I did. Brother Biao made us all practice martial arts back then. We had to master it before we could shoot accurately. Even Little Treasure and Little Jade learned it. But I was a late starter, my skills are not as good as others, luckily Brother Biao passed on some kung fu to Little Zhu."

  Zhan Biao turned his head to say to County Magistrate Yuan: "These past few days Dongdong has been here, let him practice the back moves for you. Also, Dongdong, you teach him the poking foot and flipping techniques when you have time." County Magistrate Yuan was overjoyed: "Dongdong, you're proficient in both Southern Fist and Northern Leg, that's great!"

  Sakura had been listening intently with shining eyes, and now she chimed in: "Grandpa Piao, didn't you guys compete against Japanese martial arts back then? What's your impression of Aikido?"

  Zhan Biao thought for a moment and said, "In modern warfare, being able to apply fist and foot martial arts is already a kind of miracle. I didn't expect that the martial arts of China and Japan would also meet in battle back then."

  Zhan Dongdong turned his head and glanced at Sakura, saying: "You also know about Karate and Aikido? I didn't expect that." Sakura's anger subsided, and she switched to a gentle and calm tone, saying: "Zhan Dongdong sir, are you blind? This young lady is the second-degree black belt instructor hired by the Beijing Haidian District Aikido Association at the China People's University Century Sports Center's Aikido Hall."

  Zhan Biao led his six junior brothers out of the Tianlu Cave and hadn't walked far when he felt something was off. A gust of wind blew in from the night, carrying a scent that didn't belong to the mountain. People who had practiced martial arts for many years developed a sixth sense beyond ordinary people, which allowed them to react instinctively to unclear dangers. This innate sense was closely related to one's level of training, and Zhan Biao's reactions were often faster than his junior brothers'. Under the moonlight, Zhan Biao pressed his hand down, and the seven of them silently dispersed, crouching quietly in the shadows of the trees and grass.

  Gradually, several figures were also quietly moving up the mountain. Sometimes hiding, sometimes rushing forward, they were as quiet as a maiden, and as swift as a rabbit, their movements extremely agile. Counting them clearly, there were exactly 10 people.

  Zhan Biao's heart skipped a beat. Was he a special forces soldier? One of the ten-man teams from Songshan Special Forces Unit! This was the worst possible outcome.

  If they let them advance again, they would encounter each other head-on, and here is too close to the cave entrance, can't let the Japanese army know that there are still people on the mountain. As soon as he thought of this, he turned his head and whispered to San De and Cheng Yi beside him: "I'll lead them away a bit, you come down and respond." Then, without giving San De time to speak, a tall figure rushed down quickly.

  The road down the mountain was familiar to everyone, and since Biao's last trip down the mountain to save Little Jade, they had specifically practiced the fastest speed up and down the mountain. The landing points of the vertical jumps were all well-trodden, and even in the dark of night, everyone could walk as if it were daylight.

  These 10 people turned out to be Matsuyama's special forces. Cunning Matsuyama gained nothing during the day, so he sent out a new special forces team to scout at night. This time, the 50 special forces personnel who were replenished to Matsuyama were different from the previous batch. The previous 50 people were mainly composed of graduates from military academies, and they became officers as soon as they graduated. This batch was mainly composed of soldiers with martial arts skills recruited from the troops, and they were all coaches and excellent disciples from various Japanese martial arts schools before the war. They were skilled in combat, fearless, and considered themselves to be the elite of the Japanese military, with a high self-esteem. The team leader was a lieutenant colonel named Takeo Okura, who was a fourth-degree black belt master of Aikido.

  Just like China has Shaolin, Wudang and Emei schools of martial arts, Japan's martial arts are also divided into several major schools including Kyudo, Aikido, Judo, Karate, Kendo and Ninjutsu. This special forces unit is composed of masters from these various schools, with each group of 10 people generally consisting of members from the same school. The current team is mainly composed of Karate experts. Team leader Sugimoto is a third-degree black belt in Karate from the Keio University Karate Club and is a disciple of Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan Karate.

  At that time, the term "Karate" had just been changed from "Tang Hand", and some Karate schools were still called Tang Hand schools. Why was Karate originally called Tang Hand? In ancient Japan's Ryukyu, due to the long-term implementation of a ban on weapons policy, all weapons were prohibited from use. As a result, people at that time referred to Chinese boxing, creating a unique bare-handed combat technique, which was the original Karate, known as "Tang Hand". Its original meaning is "fist method transmitted from China's Tang Dynasty". The Japanese pronunciation of the character for "Tang" is the same as "empty", both being "ka", and the meaning of "empty" coincides with "bare-handed", adding a "way" character, like "sword way" or "tea way", implying not just a technique but a path of life cultivation. This formed today's Karate.

  Lieutenant Sugimoto was startled to see the figure of Zhang Biao flash before his eyes, and instinctively gave chase. The other nine special soldiers in the group also quickly followed suit, forming a pincer movement on both flanks. However, Sugimoto suddenly stopped in his tracks after running less than 100 meters, having heard the faint sound of footsteps from behind. "Halt!" he whispered sharply, and the six well-trained special soldiers beside him immediately came to an abrupt stop, disappearing into the shadows. The three special soldiers who had been running ahead engaged Zhang Biao in hand-to-hand combat.

  It was clear that the Japanese army wanted to capture them alive, and Zhang Biao didn't want to fire a shot to attract the attention of the Japanese troops below. Both sides engaged in hand-to-hand combat with their own skills.

  Sugimoto was shocked by the agility of the Chinese man, and when he saw the six other Chinese people coming up behind him, he was even more astonished. To be honest, as a Japanese martial arts enthusiast, he had always wanted to learn about Chinese martial arts. Because he knew that Japan's martial arts all originated from China, and what level Chinese martial arts were at was something that Japanese practitioners had always wanted to verify. But after coming to China for over a year, he still hadn't encountered any Chinese kung fu, which was a topic of regret often discussed between Sugimoto and Captain Takeo. So when he sensed that the group in front of him knew Chinese martial arts, he became extremely excited and shouted: "Use our karate to defeat the Chinese martial arts!"

  Sugimoto led six karate experts to suddenly appear and intercept the three virtues, Chengyi and others. They all made a sharp killing move, whether with their hands or feet, they were all heading straight for the opponent's neck. But unexpectedly, the opponents dodged the sneak attack lightly and continued to flash downwards, rushing towards the battle group below.

  Zhan Biao's heart was also filled with a kind of inexplicable excitement as he exchanged blows with the three karate masters. He had only heard that Japan's martial arts were incredibly powerful, but he had never seen them in action before. The last time, those special forces hadn't even figured out what was going on before they were swallowed up by the wolf pack. This time, the devils they encountered fought with great skill and strategy, it seemed they had finally met authentic Japanese martial arts.

  Originally, Zhang Biao wanted to hold off the three special soldiers in front of him, allowing San De and the others to fight one-on-one, but San De was worried that Zhang Biao would be outnumbered, so he led the crowd to rush over and merge with Zhang Biao. Immediately afterwards, Sugimoto's six masters ambushed, forming a ten-to-seven situation. Both sides were martial artists, excited to encounter each other's masters under the moonlight in the forest, competing to test their skills and verify the power of what they had learned throughout their lives.