Chapter 1: Hunting and Getting Hurt

  In the early morning of Liaodong, the sun always rises earlier than other places. Chen An, who slept until he woke up naturally, got up from the kang with a shake of his head and shouted loudly, "Huzi, Huzi, bring me a basin of water."

  "Alright, young master," replied Wai immediately.

  Soon, a very spirited little boy came in with a copper basin of water and a towel.

  Chen An took the towel and wiped himself vigorously, then took a cup of clear water from Hu Zi to rinse his mouth. It wasn't that Chen An didn't want others to serve him, but Hu Zi's hands were rough like old tree bark, unbearable. He wanted to find a pretty little maid, but was watched closely by his childhood sweetheart and fiancée from the same village, so he couldn't succeed. In the end, he had no choice but to do it himself.

  After Chen An finished washing, Hu Zi hastily conveyed the master's instructions: "The master and Liu Guan Jia set out with the merchant team early in the morning. Before leaving, he instructed that since the Japanese and Russians are currently at war, Young Master is not allowed to go to Da Shi Bridge to stir up trouble."

  Chen An rolled his eyes and gave Hu Zi a heavy slap on the head, "You and Shi Tou are the most stubborn ones. Whatever Master says, you do it without question. When have I ever caused trouble at Da Shi Bridge? You bunch of wooden heads."

  The boy hastily touched his head with his hand and smiled foolishly, not taking it seriously at all.

  With a flicker of his eyes, Chen An said, "Let's go, I'm going to see my wife," and strode out.

  "Huh? Young master, haven't you had breakfast yet?"

  "Come on, let's go! We'll just go to Mr. Lin's place and scrounge a meal."

  The tiger cub quickly put down his stuff and ran up quickly.

  Chenjiazhuang is located in a remote mountainous area east of Dashiqiao. After Old Man Chen retired from the army, he relied on the few pieces of silver he had left and settled down in Liaodong, buying a large piece of mountain land, opening up dozens of hectares of terraced fields, raising horses and planting crops, living a very leisurely life.

  It turned out that many years later, Dong Fuxiang's military door was named and pursued by foreigners for attacking foreign legations. The old Buddha recalled the protection of the Western escape route and saved Dong Junmen's life, but had to resign and return home. The once-famous Gansu Army suddenly disbanded silently. Many people followed Dong Junmen back to Jincheng Fortress, while more people took their pay silver and dispersed.

  A large number of former soldiers under Old Man Chen also felt at a loss, and they simply ran to Liaodong in groups to join Old Man Chen. As a result, the original Chen Family Village, which only had one household of its own and five or six tenant households, immediately became a large village with hundreds of people bringing their families along.

  After fighting for over a decade, these soldiers would rather be servants or shop assistants in the Chen family than return to tilling the land. The helpless old master Chen had no choice but to recruit dozens of tenant farmers, buy a large piece of paddy field, and even set up a merchant fleet, somewhat subsidizing the estate's expenses, and the family business grew larger and larger.

  There were still many privately stored foreign guns in the Zhuangzi, and Old Master Chen resumed his former title, bribed the officials, organized a village defense team, and had several fierce battles with the local bandits. Soon, he made a name for himself in the area around Dashiqiao Bridge. The Chen family's reputation was not small, even mountain bandits didn't want to mess with this hard bone.

  A slightly thin Chen An, lazily strolling along the streets in the middle of the village, responded casually to the greetings from others on the street. Behind him, a tall and majestic tiger with piercing eyes followed closely, scanning its surroundings vigilantly.

  It's just a few steps away, and I've arrived at Mr. Lin's courtyard. Of course, the master is not at home; every morning he goes to the private school in the village to teach those young children. The private school happens to be right next to the Chen family's house.

  Yuè ér zhèng zài nà li chī mí de kàn zhe chuāng wài de niǎo ér, yě bù zhī dào zài xiǎng shén me, měng yī kàn dào Chén ān chuǎng le jìn lái, dùn shí méi er wān wān, xiào liǎn yíng yíng.

  Lin Yushan listlessly held a book and read, also let out a cheer, quickly threw away the book, rushed over, grabbed Chen An's arm, and said urgently, "Brother-in-law, what shall we do today?"

  "Yu Shan, you're not taking your homework seriously again. You'll be in for it when Father gets back."

  Lin Yushan's expression turned gloomy as he looked at Chen An with pleading eyes.

  Chen An quickly came to her rescue and said to Yue Er, "Yue Er, I haven't had breakfast yet."

  The moon lifted her head and looked at the high-hanging sun, couldn't help but smile, "I'll go make you a bowl of Yang Chun noodles", and quickly got up and walked into the kitchen.

  Yu Shan saw his sister enter the house and immediately perked up, leaning into Chen An's ear. "Brother-in-law, you're really something. Alright, why don't we go hunting today? You take me with you, and my sister won't dare scold me."

  Chen An's face turned red, and he had a somewhat "near ink is black" flavor.

  In that year, the Qing army was defeated in the war, and the Japanese went on a rampage in Dalian Bay for four days and four nights, almost wiping out all Chinese people in Dalian Bay. Mr. Lin, who had no power to tie a chicken, brought two young children and escaped from Dalian Bay with all his might, but his wife did not make it out. A penniless adult and two children were exhausted and fell by the side of the road, almost on their last breath, when they were rescued by Mr. Chen who happened to be passing by. Mr. Lin, a former scholar, settled in Chenjiazhuang from then on and voluntarily became the private school teacher in the village. Mr. Chen thought that Lin Yue'er was kind, gentle, and sensible, so after consulting with Mr. Lin, he immediately arranged for Chen An and Lin Yue'er to be engaged as children.

  Apart from having some opinions about Chen An's careless attitude, Mr. Lin was quite satisfied with this future son-in-law. As for Lin Yue'er and Chen An, they were very compatible, like glue and lacquer. Lin Yushan even sensibly called him brother-in-law early on.

  Half a time later, several people returned to the Chen family's yard again. Hearing that they were going hunting, Yue'er was also moved and finally allowed Lin Yushan's truancy behavior, but she also wanted to participate.

  Chen An sent Hu Zi to fetch a few horses, then rushed into the inner courtyard. Yue Er and her brother were waiting in the outer courtyard, where there was an arsenal with strict guards, not suitable for too many people to enter.

  Just as Chen An was about to enter the arsenal, he was stopped by Liu Shi, the son of Liu Guan's family and the next in line to be the steward of the Chen family. Liu Shi, who was currently still a young man and the person in charge of the arsenal, expressionlessly asked Chen An, "Young Master, what do you want to do in the arsenal?"

  Chen An slapped his forehead and exclaimed, "Shi Tou, why didn't you leave with my dad?!" Liu Shi simply couldn't be bothered to respond to such a childish question.

  "Well, this month my younger brother wants to go hunting, I don't want to disappoint him. Just take two water guns and that's it. Haha, just match them with two rows of bullets, just a gesture and then come back." Chen An organized an excuse, laughing.

  He furrowed his brow, and Liu Shi hesitated for a moment, clearly not at ease with the young masters leaving just like that. "Take four Water-Linked Pearls, I'll accompany you, but you're on your own for bullets." Shi was an expert, with exceptional marksmanship.

  Chen An immediately cried with a sad face, "Stones, this water gun doesn't have bullets, it's no better than a firecracker!"

  The stone didn't pay attention to him and went in to sign up for the gun selection, half a moment later, a sentence was transmitted out, "Young master, Water Pearl has nowhere to put it, the bullets must be hidden somewhere."

  Chen An was stunned for a moment, gritted his teeth, "You're ruthless, Shi Tou." He made a vicious gesture with his hand, then helplessly turned and walked towards his room. The guard beside him couldn't help but stifle a laugh at the sight of the young master being outdone.

  Chen An thought for a moment and then sent someone to summon Hu Zi, ordering him to guard the outside.

  Huang Da Han rushed over with his men and quickly set up a perimeter guard as they had done many times before.

  Chen An appreciated Hu Zi's straightforwardness, he would do whatever the young master said without questioning, even if Old Man Chen came. But Shi Tou was different, although he had never disobeyed Chen An's orders before, if he thought the young master was giving a wrong command, he would execute a curveball strategy.

  Upon entering the room and confirming that they couldn't be spied on, Chen An's giggling expression suddenly turned serious, his lazy eyes becoming extremely sharp.

  Walking to a corner of the inner room, Chen An found a secret hidden door. Inside was a narrow dark chamber. A dozen or so beams of dazzling sunlight were cleverly reflected onto a black suitcase on the ground by a dozen or so mirrors. Next to it were some metal blocks, minerals, wood and even cotton balls.

  This is a suitcase that looks old and worn out, with no identification, at least on the outside.

  Chen An carefully pressed the button on his suitcase, and his index finger seemed to be pricked by something sharp. It was like this every time, Chen An knew it might be verifying the user, but why didn't he understand?

  This suitcase was dug up by Chen An from the beach in Yingkou when he was playing there. At that time, neither of them could open the box, and it felt very light, so they lost interest. Only Chen An thought that since he had dug it up, he would take it home to think about it.

  After returning to Chenjiazhuang, no matter whether it was burned with fire or smashed with a hammer, the old-fashioned suitcase couldn't be broken at all. When Chen An knew he had picked up a treasure, he immediately hid it away.

  One night, Chen An suddenly had a very strange dream.

  It was as if looking down from the sky, countless ugly and short Japanese soldiers wearing yellow military uniforms, helmets, and armed with many large cannons and unknown weapons, even iron monsters that could move on their own, and flying iron birds in the sky, rushed into a huge city to burn, kill, and loot. Tens of thousands of Chinese people died numbly in groups under the guns of Japanese soldiers. Chen An had seen this kind of military flag before, so it must be the Japanese army. Enraged Chen An frantically wanted to pick up the scattered weapons on the ground and open fire on the Japanese army, but couldn't reach them. Desperate Chen An let out a hateful and venomous curse.

  Chen An woke up from the nightmare with a cold sweat all over his body, only to find that he was still clutching the strange suitcase in his hand, but the box was open.

  Chen An, who was greatly shocked in his heart, quietly pondered the suitcase. After opening the suitcase, one corner inside was engraved with the three words "Jin Xiu Tian", but Chen An did not know what Jin Xiu Tian meant. On the inside of the front cover of the suitcase, there was a mysterious picture frame that occasionally flashed some strange Chinese characters.

  It was definitely Chinese characters, Chen An was certain. Some could be recognized, while others were very difficult to guess, but they must also be Chinese characters. Later, Chen An suddenly realized that the constantly flashing Chinese characters were actually cursive script, and everything became clear.

  This is actually a miniature fully automatic arsenal that can produce ammunition, as long as you provide enough raw materials and energy. Unfortunately, it can only produce military supplies and nothing else. If explaining the function of the briefcase, it can be translated this way.

  A golden mountain fell from the sky and hit Chen An on the head, and Chen An himself understood it as seeing stars.

  As for the so-called energy, Chen An didn't know and it didn't matter, because soon it was tested that sunlight is at least one of the so-called energies, only the charging time is very slow, and the insufficient energy production is not enough.

  Is the undefeated cheating device? Chen An, who was scared out of another cold sweat, immediately eliminated all traces related to the suitcase and deliberately created a fake suitcase to gradually fade away other people's memories.

  Chen An became acquainted with a Russian noble youth officer stationed in Haicheng, and even saved the life of a lieutenant named Yevich in an unexpected dispute. The extremely grateful Lieutenant Yevich almost followed the Chinese custom to kowtow and burn incense to Chen An, but was stopped by Colonel Yudenich, who rushed over in a hurry. However, Colonel Yudenich and Lieutenant Yevich established a very good private relationship with Chen An. As a result, Chen An used his relationship with Yevich to engage in large-scale smuggling in the Liao Yang Yingkou area, even obtaining a large amount of Russian military standard firearms, which also made Colonel Yudenich and his nephew rich.

  A series of huge scandals eventually covered up an even bigger shocking secret.

  Under the incredulous gaze of Old Master Chen, Liu Guan and Mr. Lin fell to the ground in a daze, while Chen An took over the entire rights to the Chen Family Village's arms trade with the help of Yevich's smuggled military supplies. Of course, Old Master Chen only had this one son, so no one else would come to make trouble.

  In the face of abundant ammunition, the Zhuangzi Guards practiced extremely rigorously, and Chen An and other young people naturally followed suit. Their marksmanship was also top-notch, while those who often wasted bullets hunting and shooting horses were just average.

  The bullet used by Chen An and others was a 7.62mm round-nose bullet, which is an early version of the Mosin-Nagant M1891 rifle cartridge. Chen An took out a round-nose bullet from a box on the wall in the secret room and placed it on the left side of the suitcase, then put a pile of raw materials on the right side of the suitcase.

  After pressing the start button, a faint red light beam shot out from the left side of the suitcase onto the bullet, but was immediately turned off. On the inner surface of the opened front cover, a line of words popped up: "Already in database, no need to scan again."

  Chen An scratched his head, he really forgot, had made many times before.

  Soon, another pale red light beam shot out from the right side of the suitcase onto the raw materials. Chen An looked at the screen again, "Production quantity 200 units, authorized to copy?"

  I don't know why "manufacturing" is written as "replication", Chen An muttered to himself, but his right index finger pressed the red button without hesitation. Another slight tingling sensation, and the authorization was complete. The pale red light beam on the right suddenly turned into a brilliant white light beam, and several pieces of copper ore began to melt.

  Chen An directly turned off the secret room, walked to the inner room, and lay on the bed to rest. It had just started manufacturing, it would take some time, Chen An looked at the Western-style clock on the table, waiting patiently.

  After a while, Chen An walked out of his room with a small cloth bag in his hand, containing exactly 200 water polo bullets, enough for four guns to go hunting.

  The girls outside had already waited impatiently, the five tame horses kept snorting, Liu Shi was preparing to put water-pearl guns into the cloth gun cases slanting on four of the horses. No rifle was prepared for Yue Er, as the recoil was too great and women found it hard to hold steady.

  Chen An handed the bullet bag to Liu Shi and turned to speak sweet nothings with Yue Er.

  Liu Shi handed out twenty bullets to each person, looked at the young master who was hiding private goods at home, thought for a moment, and said, "Each of you will take twenty bullets first, and come back here to get more after they are used up. Now load five rounds, but don't chamber them."

  Lin Yushan happily responded with a "good" and took over the bullets from Hu Zi, who was silent beside him. He quickly loaded them into his gun. Chen An didn't need to load his own, as Liu Shi would help him, but he still had to carry the other fifteen rounds on himself.

  Behind Chenjiazhuang were deep mountains and old forests, with many prey. Before long, Chen An and others who had gone to hunt in the wind brought back several rabbits, which were hung on the horses, and the harvest was still pretty good.

  He and Yue'er rode side by side in the middle, Chen An asked, "Stone, why is there still a road here?"

  Liu Shi, who was leading the way ahead, did not turn his head and replied in a low voice, "This is a small path that leads to Fenghuang City. Not many people know about it. Ah, I think it's now occupied by the Japanese, the Russians suffered a defeat."

  Chen Angang was about to say something else when he suddenly heard the occasional sound of horseshoes coming from afar in front.

  The tiger cub flew quickly under the horse and lay on the ground, listening to the vibrations underground with his ears. Soon he said a sentence: "Four men and four horses, relatively fast, about 100 meters away."

  Liu Shi looked at Chen An, obviously waiting for Young Master's order.

  Chen An furrowed his brow, this place was still relatively remote, yet someone actually passed by, and it seemed like they were in a hurry?

  "Mount up," Chen An said to Hu Zi, making a swift decision.

  Chen An continued, "The moon is in the middle, we all lean on one side and walk slowly, with water dripping from the eaves."

  Liu Shi didn't make a sound, but immediately took action. Hu Zi and Yu Shan separately blocked Chen An and Yue Er.

  Soon, four horses rushed out from the mountain road bend. The four sturdy men immediately discovered Chen An and his party, and the horse's speed quickly slowed down to a slow trot, apparently well-trained and very vigilant.

  The leader shouted, "Medicine collectors, let them pass, let them pass."

  Chen An and several others exchanged suspicious glances, "Where's the medicine basket?"

  In an instant, Chen An changed his mind several times and responded, "Go ahead and hunt some wild game, help yourself."

  It was almost near, looking at Chen An and several others who were obviously young rich sons playing, the stranger suddenly let out a sigh of relief.

  They stared at each other without a word and passed by on either side of the mountain road.

  The gaze of the second rider made Chen An extremely angry, his eyes on Qing Yuemei were obviously lustful and greedy, almost making Chen An unable to hold back his temper and shoot him directly. This guy had a brown square-shaped backpack made of leather on his back, a rare style.

  What kind of backpack? Chen An suddenly became vigilant, this is a military backpack, it seems to be used by mid-to-high-level staff officers. Not Russians, nor Chinese, the braids behind them are obviously fake. They're Japanese! Chen An was shocked.

  At this time, the other party had already opened up a distance of twenty zhang.

  Chen An turned his head to look back. Suddenly, the second rider and the leader seemed to have a dispute, as if Chen An had heard the words of Ba Ga. Already thirty zhang away, Chen An saw that those Japanese people seemed to have made up their minds and were pulling on the reins.

  Pull the reins? Are you going to turn the horse's head and come back?!

  Those Japanese people are drawing their pistols. Chen An suddenly understood, immediately sucked in a breath of cold air, turned his head and shouted loudly "Quickly run", heavily whipped the horse's buttocks of Yuè, swiftly whipped his own horse again, and rushed to escape.

  Liu Shi and several others were shocked, and immediately followed suit, galloping wildly on horseback without hesitation.

  The Japanese man who was turning around suddenly became anxious and shouted angrily in Hakka dialect, chasing after him frantically.

  They had only run a few steps when Liu Shi suddenly panicked, his forehead sweating profusely, and shouted loudly, "They are adult horses, accelerating fast, we can't outrun them, they're getting closer and closer!" Before he finished speaking, several gunshots rang out, the distance was close enough, the revolver was already within reach.

  Chen An shouted urgently, "Hold onto the horse's neck, lower your body, and rush through the curved entrance."

  A muffled groan was heard, and Liu Shi's left shoulder took a bullet. Fresh blood spurted out, staining his shirt red.

  The bend is approaching, and as soon as it passes, Chen An pulls the reins hard, "Dismount, draw your gun, and counterattack." The horse's strength won't do, definitely can't outrun them, must make a move, Chen An is furious in his heart.

  Several people used force to pull the reins, without considering the bloodstains on the horse's head. As soon as they stopped, several people jumped down and quickly drew their water-pearl guns from behind the horse's body. Liu Shi was injured in the shoulder and couldn't exert himself, so he fell to the ground, and Yue'er hurriedly ran over to help him up and escape to the side of the road.

  Not yet open for business, they had already lost a key general. Chen An cursed the incoming Japanese troops in his heart.

  Three water droplets were about to fall on the horse's body, but the horse was terrified and restless, unable to steady its body. Chen An, in a state of urgency, kicked the horse away with one foot, knelt down on one knee at the side of the road, and directly ordered, "Kneeling shooting position", simply not using the horse as cover anymore.

  At this moment, four Japanese also turned around the bend and were terrified to see three rifle muzzles staring at them.

  A crisp rifle shot rang out, the Mosin-Nagant's distinctive "water droplet" sound.

  It was too close, just a dozen or so yards away, and there was no way to dodge, the two Japanese men fell off their horses.

  The Japanese man who led the way fell behind, and fortunately escaped the first round of gunfire. He immediately went crazy, firing his left-handed revolver repeatedly. He simply couldn't believe that a few cowardly Chinese boys would dare to return fire. Wasn't it just Nogi-kun trying to steal a woman? Was it worth it? Who knew such a thing would happen? Soon, he was in despair.

  Several bullets whizzed past Chen An's side, kicking up a few clouds of dust on the ground. The horseback shooting was really out of control. The front willow stone was hit, and it was completely his lucky draw.

  "Steady, take aim, fire!"

  Three rifle bolts were quickly and smoothly retracted, ejected and reloaded with almost no pause. After the second round of shots, the Japanese who had been closing in just a few feet away all fell to the ground. The marksmanship honed from countless hunting trips was truly authentic.

  Chen An stopped the third round of shooting, but Hu Zi and Yu Shan were bloodshot in their eyes, frantically firing all the bullets from the water droplets in their hands at the Japanese who had already fallen to the ground.

  "Cease fire, cease fire. Yushan, hurry up and reload, take a look around. Hu Zi, go search, don't leave any alive." Chen An gave the order coldly, not showing any fear after killing several people.

  Chen An rushed to Liu Shi's side and tore open his shoulder garment to examine the gunshot wound.

  Soon, Chen let out a sigh of relief and carefully bandaged the wound on Liu Shi's shoulder. "The left wheel handgun is really weak, and it was at a distance, so it didn't even penetrate the bone, just cracked it a bit. Go back and have Dr. Gao remove it for you, and you'll be fine in a few days."

  Liu Shi nodded, "Got it, young master."

  The tiger cub carried a leather backpack and several revolvers over, saying, "Everyone is dead, only these things are valuable."

  "Japanese-made revolvers are really rare."

  "It's probably a senior reconnaissance advisor, we're in big trouble." Chen An added, not many people have seen it, only a few Japanese are equipped with it, the fewer the more troublesome. Moreover, there is this thing, Chen An casually waved the thing he took out of his bag, a large map marked with Japanese and reconnaissance marks of the Liao Yang area, extremely detailed, obviously just back from reconnaissance in Da Shi Qiao or Liao Yang.

  The moon gently wrapped around Chen An, she didn't care about these messy things, as long as Chen An was by her side. Today's events also scared her, fortunately everyone was fine.

  Lin Yushan carried the water gun and circled around, not seeing any other movement, and ran back with a gloomy face. It was he who suggested going hunting, if something happened, the guilt would be great.

  Five people gathered together, you look at me, I look at you, speechless.

  Chen An finally made a decision, "Tiger son, you go and take out all the money and bullets from their bags. Yushan and I will go to the back of the mountain to dig a hole and bury everything, creating a fake image of bandits robbing valuables. Liu Shi and Yue Er hide aside to keep watch."

  Everyone should be like this.

  Before long, Chen An and his party returned from another direction, calmly putting down the game tied to their horses, and loudly calling for the chef of the Chen family to cook a wild flavor to treat themselves.

  A servant hastily came forward, "Young master, Zhang Er from Xinmin has arrived and is currently at Mr. Lin's private school. Mr. Lin requests that you go to receive him."

  Chen An glared at Zhuang Ding, who had brought the news, "Tell Lord Zhang that they are now government troops."

  Zhuang Ding hastily nodded in agreement.