Chapter 26 Shanghai Fellow Townsmen

  From Beijing to Shanghai, at this time the Beijing-Hankou railway had not yet been completed, so most of them took the Tianjin sea route to Shanghai. Chen An nervously boarded the steamer, fearing that he would vomit again. Unexpectedly, the whole journey was calm and peaceful, the steamer ran smoothly, and they arrived in Shanghai without any problems.

  After this trip, Chen An made up his mind to grasp the navigation route from Bisheng to Chongqing and open up a transportation line for goods to Shanghai. With the help of the Yangtze River navigation line and non-stop steamships day and night, it was enough to do his munitions business all over the country.

  Knock open Shanghai Xu Boqun's address, and a beautiful young girl came out to open the door.

  "Who are you looking for?" The girl looked at Chen An strangely.

  Chen An was taken aback for a moment before hastily responding, "Ah, is this... Xu Bohui's home?"

  The girl looked up at Chen An and replied, "Who are you?"

  Chen An was confused, first asking who it was and then asking if it was Xu Bohui's address.

  At this time, a young man in a suit and tie walked out of the house and said calmly, "Brother, who are you looking for? This is a guild hall, not a private residence."

  "I'm looking for Xu Bohui, I'm from Liaodong." Chen An replied politely.

  "Liaodong? Are you surnamed Chen?" The girl suddenly interjected a sentence when she heard Chen An's words.

  Chen An and the young man looked at the girl in surprise. Chen An was a bit uncertain, "I'm surnamed Chen, named Chen An, I met Big Brother Xu Bohui in Liaodong, he told me to come to Shanghai and find him here."

  "That's right, don't you have a left-handed revolver that can hold seven bullets?" The girl asked brightly and quickly.

  "There is indeed", Chen An subconsciously prepared to pull out the revolver from his waist to prove it. The young man quickly pressed down on Chen An's hand and said in a low voice, "There are many people around, let's talk inside."

  She suddenly realized she had almost made a mistake and the girl awkwardly stuck out her tongue.

  Chen An was also startled, and immediately reacted, making a fist to greet him, and naturally led Hu Zi into the club as if they were old friends.

  The young man was still uneasy and asked again, "Where did you know Xu Bogui from? Chen An brothers."

  "In the city of Liao Yang, we fished him out from prison." Chen An replied honestly, carefully lifting out a revolver with the barrel pointing downwards.

  The girl said immediately, "Alright, Brother Bohun has mentioned several times that you are a heroic young man. I'm so tired of listening to it. Let me see the seven-bullet revolver."

  The young man and Chen An exchanged a glance, then suddenly chuckled softly. Chen An quickly ejected the bullet from the chamber and handed it to the girl.

  The young man pulled Chen An and walked towards the inner courtyard, "Don't mind him, Brother Chen An, and this brother, let's go inside to have some tea. Wei Jun, be careful outside, especially don't take anything out of your hand." The girl happily responded with a sound, only playing with the revolver in her hand.

  As I entered the inner room, a girl who looked very similar to the one outside was pouring tea for a middle-aged man.

  The young man smiled and said, "This is the Liaodong Chen An brothers that Xu Bohui often mentions. The one opposite is Li Xianghe, this girl is Yin Ruiqi, she's Wei Jun's sister from just now, my name is Tao Chengzhang."

  The two people opposite stood up and bowed, looking at Chen An with great curiosity, guessing that Xu Bohui had boasted too much.

  Chen An felt a bit embarrassed and pulled Hu Zi over. "This is Hu Zi, our brother from Chen Family Village. Is Uncle Bao not here?"

  "Xu Boguang has just returned to Zhejiang and will be back in a few days. Tell us all about the ugly affairs of Liaodong's Xu Boguang, the anti-Russian hero of Liaodong youth." Li Xie responded with a smile.

  Chen An was extremely embarrassed and scolded Xu Bogui in his heart for bragging about nothing.

  Everyone soon became familiar with each other.

  The other subordinates of Chen's family were not waiting in the inn, guarding the horse team, after all, there were still more than 20,000 taels of gold and silver that needed to be watched. Chen An also found that Tao Chengzhang and others were very careful about keeping their whereabouts secret, so he simply brought Hu Zi in and out of the club, chatting with him while getting familiar with Shanghai, waiting for Xu Bohui's brother, but Yin Rui Zhi's two sisters were entwining Chen An all day to talk about Northeastern customs.

  Tao Chengzhang and others also organized speeches and discussions in the meeting hall several times, with the theme being "Restore the Han people, return my mountains and rivers, dedicate myself to the country, and retire after achieving success". Chen An shrank into a corner of the venue, quietly watching Tao Chengzhang speak eloquently, Li Xie writing hastily, and the two Yin sisters listening attentively to their views and speeches. After waiting for two or three days, he understood that the anti-Russian Righteous Brave Corps had long been disbanded, and this group of like-minded revolutionaries had secretly established the Guangfu Society, with Tao Chengzhang as vice-president, while Xu Bohui was also a key member.

  Many people noticed the two silent young men in the corner of the venue, but perhaps due to discipline, Tao Chengzhang did not introduce them. Allowing Chen An to sit in and listen was certainly to let him come into contact with these revolutionary ideas.

  Xu Boqun's brother did not return in time, but Lin Yushan arrived. He had already returned to Chenjiazhuang and was delayed again on his way back, so he arrived late in Shanghai.

  Chen An was delighted to see that Lin Yue'er had also come along. He excitedly hugged Lin Yue'er and spun around in circles, laughing and saying, "How did you get here?"

  "Let's spend the New Year outside together." Yue'er replied crisply, and directly hugged Chen An's neck, causing everyone to burst into a fit of suppressed laughter.

  Suddenly seeing Tao Chengzhang standing by with a girl, Chen An felt embarrassed and hastily introduced, "Tao, this is my fiancée Lin Yue'er."

  "Just take a look and you'll know, let me introduce her to you. The girl next to me is Sun Xiaoyun, haha. Oh, right, Xu Bohuang will be back tomorrow." Tao Chengzhang said with a smile.

  "That's really great. Well, today I won't be here to listen to you guys discussing, I'll accompany Yue'er to stroll around the street." Chen An rubbed his nose and immediately decided to prioritize romance over friendship.

  Everyone burst out laughing at once.

  The next day, Xu Bohui arrived, and everyone was in an uproar again.

  They pulled into a quiet place, Xu Bohui and Chen An sipped hot tea, whispering to each other.

  "Mr. Chen, I heard you've been auditing for several days too, what's your impression?" Xu Bohui said with a smile.

  Chen An hesitated for a long time before speaking, "Bo Hun big brother, I always feel that assassination is not the way of kings. Like when I left Gansu, I used this method to get rid of someone who was eyeing my Chen family's village, but it can only temporarily relieve the situation, not solve it once and for all. So, this time I went to Beijing again to buy a military position in Jiezhou, preparing to thoroughly subdue them."

  Xu Bohui was shocked and immediately stood up, "Are you now an official of the Manchu government?"

  "Bo Hu, don't you understand me yet? Even if I become an official, I am still a Han person, and I absolutely will not be a running dog for the Manchu Qing. I must want to do something for us Han people." Chen An hastily explained.

  "Did you swear?" Xu Bohui still refused to let go.

  Chen An hastily stood up and made a solemn oath.

  "Alright, you write a letter of intent to join the Restoration Society in your own handwriting, without signing it. I'll be the introducer. If I hear that you're working for the Manchu government as an informant, I'll personally hang up the letter with your name on it and send it to the newspaper." Xu Bohui was still a bit uneasy, having met almost all of the key figures in the Restoration Society over the past few days, so he couldn't be too careful.

  Chen An smiled wryly and quickly wrote a membership application form, immediately becoming a dark stake of the Guangfu Association, with a high generation.

  After getting the consent, Xu Bohui directly slipped outside and didn't know who he gave it to. He then came back to accompany Chen An to continue drinking tea, but his face finally softened.

  "Speak up, what brings you, a Qing dynasty remnant, to Shanghai?" Xu Bohui intentionally spoke with a stern face, but it was clear that he had already put his mind at ease.

  Chen An blinked his eyes and said slowly, "I want to build a railway in Jiezhou, so that my patrol camp can move quickly and fight. This requires a lot of rails, so I thought of opening an iron and steel plant. I might as well go to Shanghai to buy equipment and hire foreign technicians."

  Xu Bohui hadn't even finished listening when he suddenly choked on his tea and sprayed it all over the floor.

  Chen An hastily walked forward and patted Xu Bohui's back.

  It wasn't until half a day later that Xu Bohui finally calmed down, staring at Chen An in a daze. "What did you say you wanted to do? Just to make your subordinates run faster, you want to build railways and even set up a steel mill? Are you crazy? With this amount of money, I can directly buy the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu!"

  Chen An smiled awkwardly, feeling embarrassed, of course this was just to cover up the huge amount of military transactions that would follow, something had to be used as a cover, other things like steel raw materials wouldn't work, so he had to use this absurd reason.

  After a long time, Xu Bohui couldn't persuade Chen An to give up the idea, so he had no choice but to reluctantly agree to help him find a reliable foreign firm.

  Chen An was a laid-back boss, and since Eldest Brother Bo had agreed to help, he let Lin Yushan take Koval to find Xu Bohui, while he himself accompanied Lin Yue'er on a romantic outing.

  It's the New Year, everyone gathered together to have a big and happy meal. The next day was busy again. Li Xiehe and others were going to Japan, Tao Chengzhang was going to Nanyang for fundraising. Since there are many foreigners in Shanghai, they don't have the habit of not working during the first month of the lunar year.

  "Are you raising funds to buy arms?" Chen An suddenly saw Yin Weijun making homemade bombs in the yard and asked casually.

  "Of course, the only problem is that the military supplies we buy are either too expensive or of poor quality. We can't even get enough gunpowder, so we often have to make our own black powder, but it's not as effective." Yin Wei Jun replied quickly while skillfully compressing the gunpowder.

  "Or else, I'll get some good stuff later and give you a discount at market price?" Chen An is now completely fearless, after all, there are still huge military orders to be completed, he doesn't care about making some extra pocket money. As for whether you buy it or not, and whether it's just right for fighting, he can't help it. First make the money, then talk later. If you don't buy from him, others will sell it anyway.

  "This time, next time I'll have Yin Weijun contact you." The girl hadn't spoken yet, but Xu Bohui, who had just walked in, overheard and knew that Chen An was in charge of the military arsenal of the patrol battalion, so he certainly wouldn't let it go.

  Chen An nodded and said to Yin Weijun, "My guy, the one called Yue Er's younger brother, Lin Yushan is in charge of contacting you, you've met him before."

  A deal was settled just like that.

  "Big Brother Bohong, you're back so early today. Has the matter at Yushan made some progress?" Chen An asked after finishing his business and then talked about his own affairs.

  Xu Bohui burst out laughing, "I knew it was your own business. You just need to go back to the guest house and basically everything has been said. We unexpectedly ran into a Polish fellow countryman of Kowal's who immigrated to the US and came to China to chase his fortune, so you'll have to take care of it yourself."

  Chen An hummed in response, muttering to himself, a fellow countryman of Koval's?