Chapter 3 Northeast Bandits

  The "century shuttling machine" looked like a spaceship, and Zhao Xiaofeng finally understood why they had brought themselves into the spacecraft to experiment.

  Zhao Xiao Feng carefully checked the items on his body, and he couldn't help but secretly smile to himself. That Item Xiǎo Lóng could travel back to the Warring States period, while he could only travel back to the Anti-Japanese War period - this was the difference! Although he had prepared quite well for this trip, he still wasn't too confident in Wang Xiao Zhou's promise! He touched the solar-powered controller on his wrist, which could bring him back to modern times. There was also the high-capacity digital camera hanging from his neck, which could store tens of thousands of photos and input time, location, and names - it was essentially a miniature computer. Additionally, he had equipped himself with quite a bit of gold, as he had heard that during the Anti-Japanese War period, only gold was valuable. He planned to stay there for at least several months. What satisfied him the most was the small "Browning" pistol, which he had heard was custom-made by a Chinese tycoon - its compact and exquisite design, large-capacity bullet clip, each holding 30 bullets, and he had brought five more clips with him, totaling 180 bullets. For an assassin like himself, this meant he could take out 180 enemies.

  Wang Xiaozhou and Mo Yuhuan stood in front of Zhao Xiaofeng, carefully instructing him once again on all the matters that required attention, and handed him a small booklet containing all the major events of the War of Resistance.

  Wang Xiaozhou instructed: "Everything must be done carefully and attentively. After returning to the suburbs of Nanjing during the Anti-Japanese War, the most important thing is to bury this shuttle machine and dig it out when you come back. You absolutely cannot destroy it, otherwise you won't be able to return!"

  Zhao Xiaofeng nodded, put on his special spacesuit, and held the remote control in his hand. He didn't know if he would still be alive after pressing it lightly with his finger, but now he had no choice! As Wang Xiaozhou walked out of the cabin, Mo Yuhan was about to follow, Zhao Xiaofeng suddenly felt playful, and he reached out to grab Mo Yuhan's slender waist, pulling her into his arms. Startled, Mo Yuhan reacted immediately, striking Zhao Xiaofeng's chest with a backhand blow and punching him in the face, because Zhao Xiaofeng's palm had just covered her own chest! Although Zhao Xiaofeng was wearing thick gloves, this was something Mo Yuhan could not tolerate.

  Zhao Xiao Feng knew he was wearing a thick spacesuit and didn't need to be afraid, but his instincts made him quickly raise his hand to block it. Unfortunately! Because his fingers suddenly applied force, they just happened to press the start button on the remote control, and the spaceship's door suddenly closed and immediately started spinning rapidly!

  "Boom!" A loud noise, Zhao Xiao Feng crawled out of the already darkened time machine. Due to the added weight of a person, this one-person time-traveling device did not arrive on schedule at the outskirts of Nanjing. But Zhao Xiao Feng didn't know that. He opened his face mask and greedily took in several breaths of fresh air. "Wow! I really returned to the War of Resistance era? The air is so fresh!"

  It was already late autumn, and the surrounding trees had all turned yellow. He scanned his surroundings, but saw towering mountains standing upright, and the pale sky gave people a desolate feeling. Zhao Xiaofeng, who was in a state of intoxication, suddenly heard a groan, "Ah! No good! Mo Yuhan!"

  Zhao Xiaofeng let out a cry of surprise and rushed back to the cabin, only to see that Mo Yuhan, who was curled up in a corner, was no longer the handsome and elegant female military officer she once was. She had completely changed her appearance, with a pitch-black face, disheveled hair, looking like a coal miner who had just crawled out of a well.

  "Hey! That's great! Luckily someone crossed over with me! Otherwise, I'd be suffocated to death!" Zhao Xiao Feng whistled proudly, taking off the cumbersome spacesuit on his body. He bent down and picked up Mo Yu Han, "I'm smiling proudly! Smiling proudly!" Zhao Xiao Feng sang in a hoarse voice as he carried Mo Yu Han out of the cabin door.

  Suddenly, Zhao Xiaofeng was stunned, "Not good!" He shouted and immediately rolled over to hug Mo Yuhan and hide behind a large tree. A loud explosion followed, blasting off beside him.

  "It's all over! It's all finished!" Zhao Xiao Feng painfully grasped the withered grass beside him. "It's all your fault! You sent me to this godforsaken place!" Zhao Xiao Feng was furious and wanted to vent his anger, but when he saw Mo Yu Han who had already fainted, he couldn't muster up any temper. He could only turn his head to look at the shuttlecraft, "Destroyed! Everything is gone!"

  Zhao Xiao Feng put down Mo Yu Han, and returned to the scene in a daze. The sewing machine that was still smoking earlier now only had a pile of blackened wreckage left. "Cough! This time it's gone for good, why am I so unlucky?!" He found a steel pipe and poked at the ashes, when suddenly he discovered his spacesuit buried inside, perfectly intact. He hastily brushed off a few times, then reached into the pockets, "Ah! Except for the controller, everything is fine!"

  "Ha!" Zhao Xiao Feng smiled, muttering: "Fortunately, we didn't lose everything!" Suddenly, a series of footsteps came from the mountain slope below. "Not good!" Zhao Xiao Feng secretly shouted, immediately pulling out his pistol and throwing the spacesuit onto Mo Yuhan's body. He knew the value of this spacesuit - it was impervious to knives, guns, water, and fire!

  Just as he hid well, Zhao Xiao Feng saw five farmers dressed people rushing up with simple weapons, two of whom were holding hunting guns. "Heh! Did I really go back to the war of resistance?" Zhao Xiao Feng helplessly curled his lips, he didn't want to disturb them now because Mo Yuhan was still missing.

  The first one was a sturdy man with a mustache, who surprisingly held a "turtle box" in his hand. The five of them carefully walked to the front of the ruins and vigilantly looked around, without making any noise. One of the men squatted on the ground and began to search carefully, "What's this thing?" he exclaimed in a thick Northeastern accent.

  Luo Yan's subordinate handed him a steel pipe, which he examined several times, "Hey! You scoundrel! It's just an iron pipe! Find another one!"

  "Yes!" The other three also started working together, but here, apart from a few of the "iron pipes" they mentioned, there was nothing else.

  Seeing their dejected appearance, Zhao Xiao Feng couldn't help but secretly smile to himself. He was confident that he could take down all five of them within three seconds, but now wasn't the time to do so. To find out what time it currently was, he still got up from his hiding spot.

  "Hey! Fellow countrymen!" Zhao Xiaofeng made an effort to appear very friendly as he walked towards them, waving his hand.

  "Halt!"

  "Whoa!" Five people simultaneously raised their guns, pointing the dark muzzles at him. Zhao Xiao Feng didn't want to be pointed at by others with a gun, so he immediately spoke up: "Hey! Put down your guns first, I'm just one person, you can't use five guns to point at an unarmed man, can you?"

  The leader of the whiskers also felt that he had made a big deal out of nothing, as his opponent was just a weak and feeble little kid. He could knock him down with one punch, why bother using a weapon? He immediately holstered his pistol at his waist and signaled to his men to put away their guns.

  "Who are you?" the man with the whiskers shouted loudly.

  "I am a Nanjing native! I got lost in the mountains, can you tell me where this place is?" Zhao Xiao Feng had already thought of how to respond.

  "What's your name?" The mustachioed man didn't even respond to him.

  "Zhao Xiaofeng! What's today's date?" Zhao Xiaofeng asked undeterred.

  "Damn it! Who told you to ask questions? You little brat, you're getting impatient! I'll ask you one question and you answer one question! If you dare not answer, I'll blow you up right away!"

  "Yes! Yes!" Zhao Xiao Feng pretended to be afraid and kept nodding his head and bowing.

  "Can you see what happened here?" asked the man with a bushy beard, pointing at the ruins beside him.

  "What's this?" Zhao Xiao Feng said casually as he approached, "Saw it! What a big noise just now!" He was scolded by the whiskered man, harboring a bellyful of anger, and immediately thought of how to teach them a lesson.

  Just as they were about to get close, Zhao Xiao Feng suddenly launched a surprise attack. He kicked one of his subordinates into the air and then punched down the unsuspecting man with the sideburns. Taking advantage of their momentary stunned state, Zhao Xiao Feng had already knocked another person to the ground. The remaining two people hastily pounced on him like vicious dogs attacking their prey.

  Zhao Xiaofeng casually brushed off the dust on his body, looked clearly at the other person's approach, and quickly made a sideways movement, flying up one foot, just hitting the tip of his toe on the man's neck.

  The last one was panicked, seeing four companions rolling on the ground, he was extremely afraid in his heart, but couldn't help fighting. So, he hastily raised the gun in his hand, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't lower the muzzle and aim at the target. Because the barrel had been pushed up to the sky by Zhao Xiaofeng.

  Zhao Xiaofeng shouted in his ear: "Fire!"

  "Bang!" The man was startled by Zhao Xiaofeng and actually fired a shot into the air. Zhao Xiaofeng immediately knocked him out with one punch.

  Zhao Xiaofeng tied up five people under a tree in a row.

  "What's your name?" Zhao Xiao Feng held the steel pipe in his hand and looked at the tied-up Lao Hu.

  His sideburns were quite robust, he let out a cold snort and immediately turned his head to the side.

  Zhao Xiaofeng hit his palm with a steel pipe and said, "I'll ask one question at a time. Whoever answers it won't get beaten!" As soon as he finished speaking, he swung the pipe at Lao Hu's buttocks, causing him to grit his teeth in pain!

  He turned his head to the second person, who immediately replied: "The little one is called A'wang!" He also pointed to the whiskers with his mouth and said: "He is our big brother, known as the Black Iron Tower in the Jianghu!"

  "What? What kind of people are you?" Zhao Xiaofeng asked in surprise.

  "We're the Whiskers!" Ah-wang replied immediately.

  "Oh! Bandits." Zhao Xiao Feng muttered, then asked: "What year is it now?"

  "This year is November 3rd of the Republic of China, Year 19." The black iron tower immediately replied.

  "Ah!" Zhao Xiao Feng exclaimed, thinking to himself: "The 19th year of the Republic plus 1911 means I've actually gone back to 1930. I'm more than 7 years earlier than expected. This must be thanks to that broken machine, maybe it was Mo Yuhan! Can't think about that now!" Zhao Xiao Feng steeled himself, having long since ignored Wang Xiao Zhou's warning not to change history. Besides, the time-traveling device had already been destroyed, and he couldn't return to modern society anyway! He gazed at the black iron tower: "What is this place?"

  "Hei Tie Ta immediately replied: 'Great Hero! This is Yang Ma Slope!'"

  "Yangma Slope?" Zhao Xiaofeng muttered in surprise, and Ah Wang immediately spoke up: "It's Manchuria, what Northeasterners and Japanese people call it!"

  Hei Tie Ta glared at A Wang with a fierce gaze, his face sullen as he spoke to Zhao Xiao Feng: "Great hero! We're good people, I tell you! We never harm the common folk, we just sometimes steal or rob things from the Japanese!"

  "Ah!" Zhao Xiao Feng didn't care who they were, wasn't he just an assassin himself in the past? He thought for a moment and immediately untied the ropes binding the five of them: "So you are all heroes who kill the rich to help the poor. I didn't recognize Mount Tai when I saw it, and I was rude to you earlier! Please forgive me!"

  As soon as Zhao Xiaofeng returned the pistol to himself, Hei Tie Ta immediately regained his spirits. However, the lingering aura of Zhao Xiaofeng still intimidated him, and he didn't dare to be presumptuous. He could only cup his hands in respect and say: "Great hero, your skills are extraordinary! We truly wouldn't have met if we hadn't fought!"

  "Where, where!" Zhao Xiao Feng imitated Hei Tie Tower's gesture and also cupped his hands.

  "Alright! The green hills remain unchanged and the clear waters flow forever, I bid you farewell for now! We will meet again!" Hei Tie Ta waved his hand to signal his subordinates to leave.

  "Hold on!" Hearing Zhao Xiao Feng's words, Hei Tie Ta was startled and instinctively touched the gun at his waist, feeling slightly reassured. He turned around and said, "Does the great hero have any other instructions?"