Chapter Thirteen: Liang Chengfu

  In the hospital, near the bank, all places were occupied by more than 6,000 prisoners. A junior officer of the Northeast Army walked up to Liang Chengfu and said in a low voice: "Deputy commander, there is not a single soldier with a gun around the hospital, shall we take the opportunity to rush out of the county?"

  "Don't move, I want to see what trick he's playing!" Liang Chengfu was captured in Dandong, and this group of captives were almost all his subordinates. Among the more than 1,000 people who came from Dalian, not a single one was an officer above the company level.

  "Deputy commander, from the way they treat us for medical treatment and living conditions, Hu Zhiyong is still a man with a conscience among the Chinese people." Another officer said cautiously while smoking and looking at the fruit on the table.

  "Brothers, they're all just skin injuries, and in a few days they'll be able to move. Send out some people to take a look around, if there's an opportunity, we'll make a break for it!" Liang Chengfu sipped his tea, his eyes constantly sneaking glances towards the back of the bank.

  Hu Zhiyong finished dinner and strolled to the door of Liang Chengfu's room. A soldier guarding the door hastily cleared his throat. He smiled slightly: "Is it convenient, Deputy Commander Liang?"

  "Please come in!"

  Hu Zhiyong pushed open the door, followed by Yin Long and Huo Feng. Liang Chengfu saw that none of the three young men were armed, and was taken aback, asking: "Aren't you afraid I'll kill you?"

  "Deputy Commander Liang, you can't play with the lives of over 6,000 brothers! To be honest, I only have a garrison force of over 400 people in the city, and the Japanese army has only one deputy county head. If you rebel, all the civilians in the city will suffer with me! The National Government has ordered not to resist, can we rely on our passion to drive the little devils back to Japan? Three million troops were defeated by 30,000 Japanese bandits, can you eliminate the Japanese army with your bare fists?"

  Hu Zhiyong sat down as he spoke, with Yinlong and Huofeng standing behind him with their hands clasped behind their backs.

  "It's obvious to anyone that I'm trying to save you! Do you think I really lack troops? No! I have nearly 10,000 men under my command, and our equipment is far superior to yours. To be blunt, if we were to fight the Japanese devils with my troops, we could easily kill several thousand of them without a problem! But have you thought about what happens after that? Are we going to run away and let the Japanese continue to harm our fellow countrymen? Even if we return to the interior, with all the factions vying for power, what kind of situation would we be in? Wake up! If you trust your brother, stay here for a while. Once you've made up your mind, tell me, whether you want to leave or stay, I won't stop you!"

  Hu Zhiyong stood up and said to Liang Chengfu, who was deep in thought: "I have an agreement with the little devils. In Zhuanghe County, I am in charge of everything. You can rest assured that not a single soldier will leave Zhuanghe to fight against the Chinese for the little devils!"

  Liang Chengfu's body shook slightly, and he looked up at Hu Zhiyong: "Will there be such a thing?"

  "You can go around the county town and take a look, you can also leave the city if you want. Remember one thing, don't do anything stupid!" Hu Zhiyong walked to the door and turned back: "Brothers, vacate the barracks for you to live in, fine rice, white flour, and big meat will be supplied to the wounded first. One must be true to their conscience, I hope we can part on good terms!"

  Hu Zhiyong left, and several lower-ranking military officers walked over from outside the door. Liang Chengfu looked at them: "How are you brothers?"

  "Deputy commander, the garrison and civilians here have taken good care of us. They would rather live in tents themselves and arrange for our people to stay in rooms. I've inquired about it and found out that Hu Zhiyong is the richest man in Zhuanghe County. He took up this post as the commander of the stationed troops just so that the civilians in the county wouldn't suffer." A rough-looking Northeasterner reported the situation he had investigated in a very soft voice.

  "Didn't anyone stop you from going out?" Liang Chengfu was very surprised, could it be that Hu Zhiyong was telling the truth?

  "Don't worry at all! The guards at the city gate nodded politely as we passed by. Moreover, supplies of medicine, bandages, food, vegetables and meat are being mobilized outside the city. Thousands of sets of spare clothes will be distributed to the brothers tonight." Another medium-sized man with a decorated body showing off his strong muscles.

  "Tell me, shall we leave or stay?" Liang Chengfu looked around at his loyal subordinates, wanting to hear everyone's suggestions.

  "Deputy Commander, I think it's not suitable to leave now!" The tall man named Li Erzhu was the chief of staff of the division. His sharp eyes sparkled: "Although the brothers are all wounded, they have suffered for half a month in prison after all. Now if we leave, the surrounding areas of Zhuanghe County are all guarded by little devils, it's hard to break through!"

  "That's right, take this opportunity to recover from injuries first. Once the National Army counterattacks, we'll take advantage of it and break out!" A man of medium build named Hu Pengsheng was a battalion commander in the army.

  "What about after going out?" Liang Chengfu asked again.

  "This——" Everyone was at a loss for what to say.

  "Hu Zhiyong is only eighteen years old, but he has a wealth of combat experience and the aura of a young hero! We've seen what we've seen on our way here, I'm sure everyone won't forget so soon. The security situation in Zhuanghe County is much better than when the Northeast Army was stationed here! This young man really has his own set of skills!" Liang Chengfu sighed: "They treated us with courtesy, I don't want them to scold us as ungrateful people. Let's decide three days later whether to leave or stay and be honest with him!"

  In Hu Zhiyong's living room, three women heard that he was going to host a radio broadcasting event and were all excited to participate. He looked at Beili in surprise: "Aren't you preparing to go to Beiping? I'm just about to arrange for a cargo ship to take you away."

  "Third Young Master, I've thought it through. In Beiping, I'm also a stranger without a single acquaintance, and the place is right in the middle of the war zone. I fundamentally can't return to my country. Since that's the case, it's better for me to stay here with you taking care of me, it's safer!" Beri was a young adult girl with tawny hair and blue eyes, her tall stature exuding a youthful aura.

  "Are you two not planning to continue going to school?" Baoli said, and Hu Zhiyong thought about it and felt that he should indeed keep her. However, Shi Yinping and Shi Yinhua were his two sisters-in-law, and he had no right to control these two people. At this time, he was even more resentful of Chen Xiuzhi, thinking in his heart: "These three women, each one is much better than her."

  "Third brother, it's wartime now, where can you study with a peace of mind? Your two elder brothers have been gone for four or five years without any news, what are we supposed to do?" Shi Yinping said, her eyes reddening as if she was about to cry.

  "I think it's better for you to set up a school in the county town!" Hu Zhiyong stood up and walked around: "Set up a middle school, use Chinese and English as teaching languages, from junior high school to senior high school, six years of education, how about that?"

  "This is more interesting than being a newspaper reporter!" Shi Yin Hua exclaimed loudly: "We can buy textbooks from Beiping, if not we can print them ourselves!"

  "Third Young Master, you're really clever!" Shi Yinping smiled and praised.

  "Don't put a tall hat on me!" Hu Zhiyong smiled slightly: "Strike while the iron is hot, hurry up and find Second Uncle and Third Uncle. As long as you plan out the land, I'll build you a beautiful school!"

  "This won't do!" Shi Yin Hua said anxiously: "Your expenses are already quite large, let Dad and Second Uncle take care of this money."

  "Hey, I'm worried about you!" Hu Zhiyong sat down again: "Go ahead, I need to take a bath and sleep. There's still a lot to do tomorrow."

  Three girls looked at Huo Feng, blushing and running out of the living room towards the county government.

  Hu Zhiyong calmed down and began to consider the personal equipment of the artillery. Helmet, canteen, lunch box, dry ration bag, towel and gas mask, etc. At the same time, a leather tool package was also issued to be slung over the shoulder, which stored the professional maintenance tools for the artillery.

  "Master, it's getting late, you have to get up early tomorrow." Huo Feng had prepared hot water and came over to urge him.

  "Alright. Silver Dragon, be extra vigilant tonight at our armory. This is the only thing we can rely on, and we absolutely cannot afford to have anything go wrong." Hu Zhiyong stood up and instructed after closing his notebook.

  "I've arranged for a squad to lie in ambush in the courtyard, no one is allowed to take another step closer to the ammunition depot!" Silver Dragon was of course worried, that was his new treasure.

  The little boy and girl soon went to sleep, and all was quiet until the next morning.

  Liang Chengfu was awakened by the whistling and noise outside before he got out of bed, which was his most comfortable sleep in nearly half a month. After getting up and opening the door, he saw that yesterday's captives were neatly lined up in three teams, with Hu Zhiyong asking questions one by one, and the doctor behind introducing the patient's condition.

  New clothes, new shoes and hats and gloves have all been distributed. From a distance, the physical condition of this group of people is still okay. Hu Zhiyong walked from one end of the square to the other, ordering them to start exercising.

  "Report, I am not a traitor!" A Northeast Army soldier spoke out first. Hu Zhiyong didn't wait for others to speak up and stepped forward with a smile, causing the others to become worried.

  "Is Running a traitor? With you as a soldier, do you think you can defeat the little devils? Hu Da, give him three or four pieces of silver and send someone to escort him out of the Zhuanghe territory!"

  "Yes." Hu Da took out three taels of silver and politely said to the soldier, "Great hero, I hope you go south and fight the devils well. Go!"

  Hu Zhiyong killed decisively, and with one move, he subdued the crowd of people who were not convinced. The team started running laps around the square, slowly and leisurely, which made him frown.

  "All of you have become weak and timid women, no wonder you were captured by others. Xue Er, which one of you didn't run with all your might? Take him down for me!"

  The white wolf let out a loud howl and pounced on the last one, pinning it to the ground.

  "Mom, wolf!" Everyone started to exert themselves, afraid of being pounced on and bitten by the fierce-looking Snowy.

  After forty laps, half of the people were knocked down by Xue Er or fell down automatically. Hu Zhiyong gathered those who didn't qualify and scolded them severely: "You are not qualified soldiers, you have been eliminated in the first training! Now, I give you a chance to be cooks, pig feeders, vegetable planters, of course, you can also choose to leave!"

  "I don't agree, must good soldiers run fast?" A soldier raised his head stubbornly and retorted to the arrogant young master in front of him.

  "Running is also a survival and combat skill. Come on, shoot me with your handgun, let's see how I'll do!"

  A hundred meters away, the box cannon was packed with bullets. Everyone watching this scene was wiping their faces with sweat. The soldier took over the gun, checked it and said, "Really shoot?"

  "You have three minutes, either kill me or I'll take you down!" Hu Zhiyong looked at his watch and tensed up, waiting for the bullet to arrive.

  "Get out of here!" The soldier's terrified loud shout was followed by a series of rapid-fire shots from the guns in his hands.

  "Huh?"

  "Ah!"

  In the eyes of thousands of people, only Hu Zhiyong's figure was constantly changing positions. The bullets were always so uncooperative, sticking to his clothes and firing empty shots.

  The gunfire stopped, and Hu Zhiyong walked up to the soldier: "Now, I can take you down with one bullet. Begin!" He held a single yellowish bullet in his hand, loaded it into the pistol, cocked it, and placed it at his hip.

  "Slow down!" Liang Chengfu couldn't help but come over, he had seen Hu Zhiyong's movements, and was familiar with his skillful handling of the gun. Like his soldiers, not one of them could dodge the flying bullets!