Chapter 9: Raising Military Funds
"Hey, what's that on your back?" A sturdy-looking youth next to him looked at the long gun wrapped in cloth on Hu Fei's back, his face full of curiosity.
"Rifle." The sturdy young man beside Hu Fei smiled. He walked on the road with his gun on his back, but didn't attract too much attention from the people around him. However, this young man of similar age was quite familiar and seemed very interested in Hu Fei who suddenly appeared halfway, especially when he saw that he had something different on his back.
"Hunting rifle? Are you a hunter?" After getting the other party's affirmative answer, the young man cheered, "Great! If we encounter wild beasts, you shoot one, and we'll have meat for lunch today!"
Beast? With so many people on the road, which beast would dare to approach without growing eyes? Hu Fei was not a professional hunter, but he had indeed gone out to hunt rabbits in the past and knew that the fewer people and more complex terrain there were, the more likely it was for wild animals to appear. On a crowded road like this, let alone beasts, even mice wouldn't have one.
"My name is Yang Xi, nickname Xizi. What's your name?"
"My name is Hu Fei."
After exchanging names, the two young people quickly became familiar with each other. Hu Fei knew that Yang Xi was leaving Kuang Cheng Zi with his parents to make a living in Guannei.
"After the 'September 18th Incident', the devils began to build up their forces in Northeast China, and Shenyang City was occupied. One by one, the cities of Northeast China fell, and Kuanchengzi had recently fallen into the hands of the Eastern devils. Yang Xi's father did not want to be a slave under Japanese rule, so he took his whole family out of the city, planning to cross the Great Wall to go to Guannei to make a living."
When it was time to rest, Hu Fei went to ask for directions and first asked Yang Xi's father about the location of Wang Hai Mountain. Yang's father shook his head in confusion, he didn't know where Wang Hai Mountain was either. Hu Fei asked several elderly people one after another, but none of them could clearly tell him the location of Wang Hai Mountain. One white-bearded old man even said that there seemed to be a Wang Hai Mountain in Shandong Province. Could the bandit leader Lao Bei Feng be in Shandong? If he went to Shandong, wouldn't he be called a "响马" (a type of outlaw) instead of Hu Zi?
Alright, since I couldn't get any information about Wang Hai Shan from these people, I'll just have to wait until we reach a more populated county town and ask around then! Although Hu Fei was not satisfied with this outcome, he could do nothing but accept it. What can you do if others don't know?
After a brief rest, Hu Fei and Yang Xi, along with several other young people of similar age, walked together. Young people always have something to say, and this road was filled with laughter and chatter, not feeling lonely at all.
The hundred or so people Hu Fei initially saw walking together were indeed just a temporary gathering, with some turning off at intersections and others joining in. After passing several intersections, the original group of over a hundred people had completely dispersed. The group Hu Fei was in now consisted of only around ten to twenty people, with the distance between them and the crowds ahead and behind stretching to hundreds of meters.
The sound of horseshoes grew louder and closer, and suddenly a dozen or so horses appeared at the fork in the road. The riders on horseback wore fur-lined coats and hats, and with swords and guns on their backs, they were clearly not ordinary civilians.
Pedestrians on the road heard the urgent horseshoe sound and hurried to the side of the road, the cavalry swept past the crowd in a gust of wind. Hu Fei was staring at the knight on horseback, dazed, but didn't expect the cavalry to stop suddenly after rushing out for over a hundred meters. Immediately afterwards, someone shouted loudly, that team of horses and men turned around and returned, just blocking Hu Fei and others in front of them.
"Halt!" At the first big man's raised hand, the knights behind him pulled out long spears and steel knives from their horses, forming a posture ready to charge.
"Brothers, fight the Japanese and sacrifice our lives to protect our Northeastern elders! Commander Zhang has gone to the interior and no one is giving us military pay. Gentlemen, today I have come here on behalf of our anti-Japanese army to raise military funds, surely you will all enthusiastically contribute? We are not unreasonable people, we know that those who go out also won't bring much money. How about this: whether it's a lot or a little, as long as the gentlemen give us the travel expenses they have on them, I'll turn around and leave, absolutely no trouble for you!"
When these words came out, all the men and women on the road were stunned. It turned out that these people were still anti-Japanese troops?
"Hurry up, hurry up, hand over the money quickly! We still have to go to the front line to fight against the devils, no time to linger here with you!" Seeing the crowd murmuring and discussing, but no one took out their money, these knights became impatient. At that moment, several of them waved their weapons loudly and shouted. The leader's face was covered with a cold smile, neither stopping nor speaking, just using those fierce and sinister eyes to scan back and forth in the crowd.
"This, all the officers, you say it's an anti-Japanese team, then what is the number of your army?" Yang Xi's father was the most cultured among these people, a primary school teacher. At this moment, seeing that his side couldn't come up with a decision for the time being, while the other side was obviously getting anxious, he had no choice but to step forward and negotiate with these people.
"What's our unit number? What? You want to pry into military secrets?" A scar-faced man glared at Old Yang, his face full of malice.
"How dare I? How dare I?" Old Yang hastily waved his hand. "I don't dare to pry, but since we're paying the money, shouldn't we at least know who it's going to?"
Old Yang's words made sense, what kind of reason is it that they contributed military rations but didn't know which army they were given to? The leader of the cavalry listened and thought for a moment, then waved his hand with an air of nonchalance and reported their unit number: "We are the Northeast People's Self-Defense Army!" After finishing speaking, he nodded his head, and the people behind him jumped off their horses and rushed into the crowd to start grabbing packages!
"Ah, ah, there's laundry in there!"
"What's with changing clothes? Let Grandpa check first!"
"Officer, officer, I dare not! This is the road fee for my family of four to enter the pass!"
"Girl's, I helped you fight against the devils, what are you doing sneaking into the pass? Honestly stay in Northeast China and don't sneak into the pass!"
"Boss, this is the floral fabric I used to make clothes for my wife."
"Pshaw! What 'old chief'? I'm not called old chief, I'm called old master! Even if there's no cash, it's okay. Wait till the day when Master goes to visit the brothel and can exchange it for money!"
A group of so-called Northeast People's Self-Defense Army rushed into the crowd, grabbing whatever they saw. Apart from cash and valuables, they also snatched people's luggage. The behavior of these people is not like that of a regular army at all, but rather more like bandits!
Hu Fei blended into the crowd, at first his small stature and shortness made him unnoticeable in the throng of people. But there were just so many people in this group, and these few who were collecting military rations had searched through several people before Hu Fei was exposed, he thought it would be impossible for him not to be noticed anymore.
"Hey, what's this little brother carrying? It looks like a gun! Little guy, do you know how to use it? Let me teach you." The leader was taken aback when he saw the long bundle on Hu Fei's back, and then strode over, reaching out to grab Hu Fei's gun.
