Chapter Eleven: The Exceptional Young Master

  The Yao family is also a local minority business family, although not as large as the Lin family, but its reputation is not small either. Especially in recent years, it has surpassed the Lin family in fame, because someone from the Yao family serves as an officer in the Central Army, and in these chaotic times, those who hold guns have weight in their words.

  Lin Feng marrying Yao Fengyun is actually a pretty good match, at least that's what Lin Qingyuan thinks.

  But now he's somewhat regretful of what he did.

  But thinking about it again is still infuriating, if Lin Feng hadn't insisted on redeeming a courtesan named Xiaofeng back then, Lin Qingyuan wouldn't have been in such a hurry to arrange this marriage.

  He knew what kind of virtue his own son was, and felt that he wasn't good enough for someone else's daughter.

  Now it's all gone well, on the day of great joy Lin Feng ran away, and this time he disappeared without a trace, really wronged the girl.

  "Never mind, no need to look for it, just ask Wang Ma to bring up the dishes, let's have dinner."

  Lin Qingyuan still couldn't let go of his resentment towards his son.

  Mrs. Yao opened her mouth, but ultimately swallowed her words again, because she knew that her husband was not a person who could be persuaded. She stood up, walked over, and holding Yao Fengyun's hand said: "Fengyun, you've been wronged."

  Yao Fengyun shook her head and didn't say a word.

  The dishes were already on the table, and Yao Fengyun sat at the edge of the table, but didn't move her chopsticks, still lowering her eyes.

  "Is something wrong? Doesn't the food agree with you?"

  Lin Qingyuan also looked over.

  Yao Fengyun didn't raise her head and said somewhat nervously: "Let's go find him, the maids said it's quite chaotic outside."

  ……

  There is a mountain twenty miles northwest of the county town, which is neither big nor small, shaped like a running horse, with many black stones. Local people call it Heishi Ridge, but according to the county annals, because of its shape like a running horse, it is named Ma'er Mountain.

  Mare Mountain is a branch of Taihang Mountains.

  As mentioned earlier, the world is in chaos and there are many local bandits. A group of them lives on Horseback Mountain.

  There were about a dozen bandits in this group, the leader was named Li Fei, because there was a shocking knife scar on his left face, he was also known as Da Ba Zhou.

  This gang gathered at Maer Mountain, making a living by robbing and looting, each one of them was ruthless and notorious in the local area.

  The day before yesterday, they had just tied up the steward of a wealthy family and got several hundred silver dollars. They were living a comfortable life, hiding in the mountain stronghold every day, drinking and eating meat.

  Today in the village, as usual, two tables were set up, with over a dozen people gathered around the large square table eating meat and drinking wine from large bowls.

  Just as things were getting lively, a scout ran in with an excited look on his face, shouting: "Master! Master! Big business! Big business!"

  "What business?"

  "How old?"

  ……

  As soon as the gangsters heard that there was a big deal, they all got excited, threw their wine bowls on the table, stood up and asked hastily in a noisy manner.

  The scout was apparently accustomed to this chaos and wasn't flustered, only reporting back to Da Pizhai: "Master, you know that the county town is being attacked by the Japanese?"

  "Right, I know." Scar nodded.

  "What's it got to do with us if the Japanese and the security guards are fighting?"

  The gangsters lost interest as soon as they heard the scout's words, and with a "whoosh" they all sat down, picked up their wine cups, and continued to revel.

  Only Dahuo didn't think that Tanzi rushed back just to say these things, and he believed there must be more to come.

  The scout did not disappoint Da Ba Dan, and continued to report: "Earlier, the Japanese army mobilized several hundred people to attack the Luohe Bridge, but failed to take it down, and instead suffered heavy losses. Just now, I saw a car coming over from the north of our mountain, about five miles away, with canvas covering the carriage, and the wheels were heavily loaded, presumably it was the Japanese army's supplies, hehe..."

  "Huh?" The big scar above his left eyebrow twitched slightly as he scrutinized the scout.

  The scout was looked at with unclear intentions, his heart racing wildly...

  "Is this the big deal you were talking about?" Scarface asked with a sinister tone.

  "Yes, yes!" The scout couldn't figure out Da Bi's true intentions and lost his confidence in speaking.

  "Brothers, have we wronged you or has I, Li Fei, been too stingy with you?" Da Ba asked in a somewhat ambiguous tone.

  "There's no need, I've been treated very well by the master and all of you brothers!" The scout hastily explained that Da Ba's temper was something anyone who had come into contact with him knew about - he was a fierce man who only understood knives and guns, not reason or emotion.

  "That's what the security team has promised you, what have they promised? How much have they promised?" The tone of Da Ba's voice was menacing.

  "Unjust!" The scout "thudded" and knelt down in front of the master, "Master, where did this come from?"

  "Where should I start?" Da Ba said, staring at Tanzi's eyes, "Since all the brothers are good to you, why do you want to harm everyone?"

  "No, no!" The scout was taken aback, "How could I harm my brothers?"

  "How dare you quibble, what is the Japanese army? Even the Central Army doesn't dare to resist, it's a tiger coming down from the mountain. Now you want me to go and touch the tiger's butt, isn't that putting everyone in harm's way?" Da Baozi paused for a moment, then continued, "It won't be long before this place is occupied by the Japanese army, do you want us to provoke it at this time?"

  The scout was stunned: "The master of the house..."

  The scar-faced man didn't ask any more questions, and said to his subordinates: "Take him out and kill him. This kind of person is either a traitor or an idiot, it's useless to keep him."

  "Alright!"

  Two people stood up from the table below and responded with a sound, ready to go forward and capture the spy...

  Sweat suddenly appeared on the scout's forehead, and he shouted repeatedly: "Spare my life, master! I didn't betray you, nor am I stupid. I've already thought of a way to make this deal so secretive that even gods and ghosts won't know about it..."

  The big scar originally turned his head to one side, but when he heard the words behind the scout, he suddenly turned his head back and made a gesture to the two men who were about to capture the scout, indicating for them to wait. Then he said: "Alright, I'll listen to what you have to say, go ahead."

  The scout wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his body already trembling with fear, but he still had to force himself to respond to Da Pian's words: "Head of the household, didn't some Eighth Route Army people come by two days ago? They're organizing an anti-Japanese guerrilla unit. Why don't we pretend to be an anti-Japanese guerrilla unit? The Japanese army has just arrived and isn't familiar with the situation, they definitely won't see through our disguise."

  The scout finished speaking and anxiously looked at the scarred face, this was a matter of life and death for him, he couldn't afford to be careless.

  The scar-faced man's expression remained unchanged.

  Indeed, two days ago, two people claiming to be from the Eighth Route Army Cavalry Regiment came to visit Shantou, saying they wanted to unite all armed forces to resist Japan and hoped that their own mountain stronghold would also join.

  I don't care about resisting Japan or whatever, whoever is in power, I'm still a bandit.

  Besides, aren't the main forces of your Eighth Route Army still in Shanxi? Now you're letting someone come and tell me to resist Japan, isn't that just using me as a gun shield? Do you think I'm an idiot?!

  After waiting for a while, the big scar still didn't speak, and the scout became somewhat anxious: "Boss, taking advantage of the Japanese army not having occupied this place yet, let's hurry up and do it once, if we can get dozens of guns that would be great. This one time, as long as we're careful, we won't do it again, the Japanese army definitely won't find out, an opportunity like this won't come again."

  Get a few dozen guns? That's really getting rich, if you really hold a few dozen guns in your hand, who would dare say no to you in this piece of land? Da Ba's heart moved involuntarily.

  The confinement room is a dugout for preventing escape, it's dark and damp inside, the only advantage is that it's far away from the front line, so you can sleep soundly.

  It's not that Lin Feng likes this place, but rather there is a guy standing at the entrance of the cave with a gun, and as soon as he gets close to the entrance, he will be scolded by the owner.

  It's really true that whoever has a gun has the right to speak, Lin Feng can only honestly stay inside.

  It's almost dark, and no one has come to bring Lin Feng a bite to eat, making him so angry that he is grinding his teeth.

  Even if you're put in prison, you still have to be fed!

  Mom, didn't you forget about me?

  Since Lin Feng was locked up here, only one person came to see him, a bespectacled man from Lian Department, whom Lin Feng did not know.

  After he came, he didn't give Lin Feng a good face, but only sent over a few sheets of white paper and a pen, saying it was Lian Chang's order, letting him write a self-criticism.

  Write a damn review, I've read some books, but they're all "good books", such as: "The Peony Pavilion"...... As for the review, what's that thing? Haven't seen it before, don't know how to write it.

  Lin Feng was so hungry that his stomach was stuck to his back, and for the first time in his life, he experienced the pain of hunger.

  It's not that others have forgotten Lin Feng here, but the front line is too tense, and there's no time to worry about fighting, who can still take care of him!

  In the afternoon, the things for entertaining the troops had nothing to eat at all, and were all big white flowers.

  It's usually impossible to get these country gentlemen to contribute even a single cent to the troops, but now they've unexpectedly sent several boxes of silver dollars to the front lines, leaving the frontline generals and soldiers crying with laughter.

  What they want most now is not the ocean, but food, and a little wine and meat would be even better.

  We've fought to this point, nobody knows if they can survive and return alive. What's the use of those big oceans? First fill our bellies, that's the priority.

  But those rural gentry with full bellies obviously didn't know the needs of the soldiers on the front line, otherwise they would have brought some wine and meat over, which would also save money.

  Lin Feng wanted to ask the soldier guarding the entrance of the cave for some food, but he never saw him go eat, so in the end he gave up on this idea.

  The sky was already pitch black, and Lin Feng lay on the damp ground with an empty stomach, finding it hard to fall asleep.

  The sound of gunfire is no longer audible, it seems that night has fallen and the Japanese army, which is not good at night battles, has stopped its attack.

  Lin Feng didn't know how many more soldiers had sacrificed their lives for the country in this half afternoon, it seemed that the battle should be very fierce.

  In a daze between sleep and wakefulness, Lin Feng seemed to have had a dream. In the dream was a world filled with war and flames, everywhere was blood and fire, but not a single living person could be seen...

  Lam Fung

  Someone called out.

  Lin Feng slowly opened his eyes and looked towards the entrance of the cave.

  A man with a rifle on his back stood at the entrance of the cave and shouted in: "Lin Feng, come out! Follow me!"