Chapter One: A Blow to the Head

  "Down with the merchant guild!"

  "Long live the revolutionary government!"

  "Kill Chen Lianbo, overthrow imperialism!"

  ……

  On October 10, 1924, at two o'clock in the afternoon, a crowd of thousands held up banners and shouted slogans, surging from the First Park assembly venue to Ji Xiang Road lined with shops, and then pouring into the bustling Huifu East Road. The thunderous slogans echoed through the skies above Guangzhou City, as more and more citizens joined the surging procession, tens of thousands of people who had long been oppressed finally cast aside all concerns and losses, bravely gathering together to vent their long-suppressed anger.

  As the procession entered Taiping Road, thousands of militiamen with real bullets and disheveled clothing emerged from the streets, their guns firing in unison at the unsuspecting marchers. The deafening gunfire drowned out the slogans, and a cloud of smoke billowed up on the narrow street, swirling in the wind. The marching crowd finally scattered in terror, but the militiamen's cries only grew more bloodthirsty as they hacked and shot at the fleeing protesters. Those who were shot continued to struggle, becoming the best targets for the slaughter. Young men who failed to escape fell one after another under the heavy blows of rifle butts and knives. The militiamen, their eyes red with killing frenzy, chased after the crowd in groups, while the executioners following behind them easily finished off those who were still struggling with a shot to the head. A peasant self-defense team leader was shot four times but continued to struggle, earning him a barrage of punches and kicks from the militiamen. Just as he managed to crawl back up, a sharp knife came crashing down, almost severing his neck in two.

  Another prominent figure of the Guangzhou union, who was chased by the merchant militia, met an even more miserable end. After being shot and falling to the ground, he was immediately dragged to the middle of the street by four men in black clothes and disembowelled. This brutal and inhumane slaughter attracted a crowd of over a hundred onlookers, who lost their humanity and surrounded the still-twitching corpse, laughing loudly and making fun of it. Someone brought an iron bucket of kerosene and poured it over the body, which was not yet dead, and with a loud "whoosh", a huge fire erupted, filling the air with thick smoke and the smell of charred flesh. The body in the flames shrunk and twisted uncontrollably in the high heat, and finally, eerily, flipped over halfway and slowly sat up, provoking cheers and shocked cries from the killers...

  On October 15th at one o'clock in the morning, the victim's alliance, which had been suppressed for several days, sounded the horn of counterattack. Thousands of Huangpu Military Academy students and teachers finally charged towards Guangzhou City under the angry roar of Mr. Sun Yat-sen, and with the support of the revolutionary army stationed in Guangzhou, they launched a fierce attack on the brutal merchant militia together with the heavily casualties peasant self-defense team and worker armed forces.

  Xiguan, a historically prosperous commercial area in Guangzhou, has had iron railings and solid wooden barriers installed at every street corner for centuries to prevent bandit attacks. In case of danger, they would be quickly closed to form a barrier. Now, thousands of defeated merchant militia have poured into this area from all sides, relying on the solid obstacles to put up a desperate fight. The merchant militia cleverly set up firepower using the solid railings and familiar terrain, launching a fierce attack on the enemy from windows, balconies, stone pillars and other high and low points, causing heavy casualties. The battle has now reached its climax.

  Faced with the brutal blocking of the Merchant Army, the Huangpu student army was at a loss for what to do, and as they watched their comrades fall one after another, Chiang Kai-shek, who had arrived on the battlefield, flew into a rage. Amidst repeated warnings that "it is highly likely to provoke intervention and sanctions from neighboring Britain and France" and "burning civilian homes would be hard to justify to the world", he overruled all objections with one sentence: "I cannot just watch my students die!" and gave the order to burn!

  A bucket of kerosene was poured onto the fences and wooden houses, and after a loud explosion, the entire Xiguan area became a sea of fire. The raging flames rolled up thick smoke and instantly submerged the Shangtuan army's position. A giant flame tongue burned the stubbornly resisting Shangtuan army to death, like a rat on fire jumping out of hiding places and houses, running wildly in all directions. The student army saw this and launched a fierce counterattack, capturing Xiguan in one fell swoop. The Shangtuan army, which had existed for many years with the backing of British imperialism, was thus completely annihilated...

  Guangzhou Tianzi Wharf, dozens of scattered merchant troops fled to this place but could not escape the pursuit of the barefoot peasant army. The vast majority were eliminated by knives and crossbow bolts on the wharf. A few remaining defeated soldiers who had long since given up resistance knelt on the hard ground and begged for mercy. A small number of defeated soldiers who managed to grab a small boat also met their deaths in the water under the guns of the police force, except for one small boat that was still swaying back and forth trying to leave the wharf and slide towards the middle of the river.

  "Throw the rope and hold onto him..."

  "Hmm..."

  The rope was pulled out for more than four meters, accurately tightening the mooring post on the bow of the fleeing boat. Two sturdy peasant soldiers cheered and threw down their spears and hoes, working together with a middle-aged fisherman to pull the fishing boat back to the shore in just a few pulls. The small head of the defeated soldier on the boat was desperate, gritting his teeth and pulling out the pistol from his waist, but before he could fire, he was shot in the head by a quick-eyed policeman on the shore, falling into the water with a "thud" and sinking straight to the bottom of the river.

  "Captain Li is a good shot..." The middle-aged fisherman picked up the bamboo pole on the ground, hooked the fishing boat that was leaning against the shore, and ordered his three companions to drag the fleeing soldier who had fallen on the boat onto the dock. Suddenly, he saw a head floating up and down on the left side of the swaying fishing boat, and with one swift motion, he struck it down with the bamboo pole, cursing angrily: "I'll hang your mother, I'll take all your family's property! You're so young and yet you've lost all sense of humanity..."

  Two bamboo poles went down, and the middle-aged fisherman saw that the long-haired head was slowly sinking into the river surface. He thought for a moment, took two steps forward, and suddenly bent down to grab the hair of the almost submerged head. With a low growl, he pulled it out of the water and threw the half-naked "deserter" onto the ground: "Xi Liu, there's one over here! Drag him over and let's execute him together with the others!"

  "Good stuff!"

  The young farmer stepped forward, grabbed the ankle of the long-haired youth who was unconscious, and dragged him to the side of the kneeling soldiers with a few "soso" sounds. He didn't care that the sharp stones on the ground scratched the long-haired youth's naked body and pale face. He released his hand and kicked the long-haired youth's abdomen with one foot. The long-haired youth was severely impacted, spitting out a bellyful of water, curling up in pain, seemingly wanting to shout loudly, but the severe coughing that followed made all his efforts futile. The young farmer was still not satisfied, kicking the long-haired youth again, sending him flying two meters away and losing consciousness once more.

  "Hey—hiss—boom—"

  A head flew far away after a sharp guillotine swung by, rolling into the shallow pool with a few gurgling sounds, and several blood arrows shot out of the neck stump that lost its head, spurting out for several meters. The convulsing body fell down diagonally after a few violent twitches. More than a dozen peasant soldiers and three policemen cheered loudly. The second, third, fourth... one by one, heads were beheaded, and the air was filled with a strong bloody smell and the stench of incontinence. The onlookers were still chatting and laughing with great interest.

  After the eighth head was cut off, all eyes turned to the long-haired young man who was last in line. His face and neck were splattered with blood, and the youth known as Xi Liu tightly grasped his hair to prevent him from fainting from fear, which would affect the effectiveness of the next beheading.

  The head of the peasant self-defense team who was about to execute him saw that this long-haired young man with a face full of scratches and dust had regular features, a straight nose, and could be considered a handsome young man. Although his pale lips under fear kept trembling, the strong desire for survival in his eyes and the alternating appearance of despair and sorrow still made the self-defense team leader who had just beheaded eight people feel a thread of mercy.

  The captain of the self-defense team let out a faint sigh, took firm steps to walk to the long-haired young man kneeling beside him, and slowly raised the sharp guillotine over a meter long.

  "What's going on, what's happening?! Oh my god..." The long-haired young man who had been struggling to speak finally let out a heart-wrenching scream and then fell to the ground, vomiting violently.

  "Spare his life! This man speaks with a Sichuan accent, he's not from the merchant militia, let him go." The police captain of Sichuan origin couldn't bear it and stopped the executioner, the crowd hesitated for a moment before quickly dispersing, leaving the long-haired young man to fend for himself. The body collection team arrived soon after, carrying one corpse after another onto wooden carts and pulling them out of the city's east gate...

  Guangzhou's Cheng Ren Ji Road is an old street, with almost all the buildings on both sides being two-story Lingnan-style residences. The green bricks and gray tiles are arranged in a fish-scale pattern, giving off a quiet and elegant atmosphere despite their seemingly uneven appearance.

  The west wing of the Qianjia Courtyard on Renji Road and Chaoxing Street was filled with a strong herbal scent. A middle-aged man with a five-inch-long beard sat in front of the bed, feeding medicine to a young patient with long hair who was confused. The middle-aged man wore a faded blue robe, his face thin and pale, his eyebrows neither thick nor thin, and his eyes, like an ancient well without ripples, showed a hint of compassion at this moment, exuding a natural and effortless air of a private school scholar.

  "Sir, has my brother woken up?" A young man of medium build with a gentle face quietly walked to the middle-aged man's side, looking at the bed with concern.

  The middle-aged man finished the last two spoonfuls of medicinal soup, put the bowl on a small black-lacquered table beside him: "I guess I won't die... Dongzi, go to Liang's Congee Shop at the street corner and buy a bowl of meat congee back, remember not to add ginger, scallions or pepper."

  "Got it!" Dongzi responded with a crisp tone and strode away quickly.

  "Hold on!" The middle-aged man pulled out two silver coins from his long shirt and handed them over: "Take it, your salary at the Civil Affairs Bureau is not high either, and you've spent a lot in the past few days to save this guy."

  "Dongzi split open his thick lips and smiled: 'It's nothing, sir. I still have money. Besides, one mao can buy two bowls of meat porridge, it's not expensive. Let's go, I'll be right back.'"

  The middle-aged man watched as the simple-minded Dongzi walked towards the gate, and he couldn't help but let out a soft sigh. He had a good impression of this young man from Jiangxi who didn't have a father or mother. Three days ago, in the evening, when the middle-aged man returned to his stall, he was startled as soon as he entered the courtyard. Dongzi, who lived next door, came to him with a worried look on his face and begged him to take a look at the young man he had brought back with his cart. The middle-aged man, who didn't like to get involved in other people's business, reluctantly walked into the small room and took the pulse of the young man with long hair who was lying in bed with a high fever. After that, he wrote a prescription and left it for Dongzi to go buy the medicine himself. As he was leaving, he casually asked Dongzi who the person lying down was and where he came from.

  Who would have thought that the simple-minded Dongzi would say that he didn't recognize him either, and that when they were dragging the guy out of the east gate to bury him in a wild field, this guy who seemed to have been dead for a long time suddenly came back to life. His colleagues, who had seen it all before, said it was just a case of "returning light" and advised Dongzi to bury him quickly and be done with it. But the kind-hearted Dongzi insisted that the man wasn't dead and couldn't be buried, or else he would suffer retribution. Everyone laughed and left, leaving Dongzi alone to pull the cart with the half-dead person back into the city. When they returned to the city, Dongzi thought for a while about where to put the man, struggling with his thoughts for a moment before finally pulling him back to his own rented house. And that's how everything that followed happened.

  The middle-aged man turned his gaze back to the patient on the bed, carefully observing his facial features and physique, which seemed quite satisfactory. Deep down in his heart, a subtle, indescribable sense of closeness emerged, making him think that if this person didn't have such a refined face and exceptional bone structure, he wouldn't have gone to so much trouble for him.

  Dongzi carefully carried a large, coarse ceramic bowl to the table and set it down: "The porridge shop owner Old Liang is not bad, he knew it was for a patient so he only charged me one mao and gave me three bowls of fragrant chicken congee, all in this big bowl. Let's wait until it cools down and I'll feed him later."

  The middle-aged man nodded and asked in a low voice: "Dongzi, how many people did your body removal team bury today?"

  "Twenty-seven, four of whom were shot dead by the Grand Marshal's guards. I heard that those four people actually climbed over the wall into the Grand Marshal's mansion and had hand grenades all over their bodies. Luckily, they were discovered in time by the Grand Marshal's guards, and as soon as they reached for their guns, they were riddled with bullets." Dongzi said excitedly.

  A middle-aged man lightly stroked his long beard and nodded slightly: "It seems that there are still some people in the merchant team who don't give up... Dongzi, you should be more careful when entering and exiting from now on, don't let those ruthless people make you a target."

  "It's alright, we're safe. When collecting the body, there are always police or Huangpu constables on the side to take care of things... Hmm? Sir, look quickly, he's awake!" Dongzi put away the towel and squatted down at the head of the bed, his eyes shining with a fervent light, as if looking at his own brother.

  An Yi struggled to open his eyes, but everything in front of him was blurry and unclear. His mind was sometimes clear and sometimes confused, like he had just woken up from a long dream. In the dream, he saw himself being forced by thugs to jump off the Jiuyan Bridge into the swollen Fuhe River in the bustling city of Chengdu. The crowd passing by seemed to deliberately ignore him... He also dreamed that his girlfriend, Chu Er, jumped into the icy water with a determined look on her face amidst the sneers of the thugs. He could still hear the screams of the onlookers and the piercing siren of the 110 police car in his ears... He even dreamed that his deceased father told him that he was picked up from the hospital entrance... He dreamed of his class teacher and workshop director Li Shu, who cared for him deeply during his time at the vocational technical college. He also dreamed of the dazzling lights of the disco bar and his girlfriend's tempting kisses... Finally, in the dream, there were headless corpses on the dock by the river, blood arrows shooting out, and flashing knives, alternating with many unfamiliar faces...

  "Thank goodness! You've finally woken up, three days and nights of being unconscious, just talking nonsense that we couldn't understand... The master said as long as you wake up in the next day or two, you won't die... Master, look, he's opened his eyes." Dongzi exclaimed excitedly.

  An Wei slightly closed his eyes and opened them again, enduring the soreness all over his body as he looked at the unfamiliar middle-aged man and young man in front of him: "Where am I..."

  "In my room... uh... this is the Rende Road Chaoxing Street Qianjia Courtyard, I was so scared that day when I bumped into you, shrunk into a ball and didn't dare to breathe, thinking you were dead." Dongzi hastily explained.

  A middle-aged man asked gently: "Young man, your body is not bad. It's rare to recover from such a serious illness in just three days with medicine. By the way, I heard you speaking in both Sichuan dialect and Mandarin in your sleep. Can you tell me who you are? How did you end up drifting to Lingnan?"

  An Yi shook his head: "I don't know where I came from... All I know is that I'm a Sichuan native, but I don't know exactly where because... because before my dad passed away, he told me that he picked me up from a trash can next to a hospital and raised me..."

  Seeing big drops of tears gushing out from Anyi's eyes, Dongzi quickly used a towel to wipe them away. The middle-aged man sighed and began to comfort him in a low voice: "Don't be sad, you've just woken up and your body is weak. Take a good rest for a few days before doing anything else. This young fellow's surname is Luo, his name is Dongzi, he's the one who pulled you back from the pile of dead bodies with a cart. My surname is Lao, I'm also from Jiangxi, not very capable, relying on fortune-telling to make a living, and I live next door. These past few days have been chaotic, my small stall can't be set up properly, but fortunately, I have time to take care of you. Haha! Young fellow, we're both people who've fallen to the ends of the earth, so just rest assured and stay here. If there's anything, just call me, okay? Now get some rest."

  The middle-aged man stretched out his slender hand and gently patted An Yi's back, stood up and turned to leave, Dong Zi hurriedly got up to see him off at the door. An Yi closed his eyes in pain, repeatedly thinking about a few words: Shangtuan Army, Guangdong Army, Huangpu Student Army...

  At this time, a conversation outside the door came faintly: "Dongzi, tomorrow you go to the second-hand stall to help Xing An's little son buy a set of clothes, here is a dollar."

  "No, no! Master has spent a lot of money on my brother these days and can't even open the stall to earn income. I don't want this money! Besides, I've already gotten two sets of decent clothes, one long shirt and one short set, which I've washed and sent to Fourth Aunt's store at the street corner for her to help me mend."

  "You're quite meticulous, haha! Those two sets of clothes you mentioned, aren't they stripped from a dead person?"

  "Master is really awesome, one shot and hit the mark! It's peeled from a dead body, not bad for a large size, my brother is half a head taller than me, it must fit. If there weren't a few bullet holes on those two suits of clothes, I wouldn't have to bother Fourth Aunt to mend them..."

  PS: New book uploaded, in a month's time it will be the intense battle for the new book chart, please everyone vote enthusiastically, don't let the book's results be too bad! Thank you!