Section 10 Reconnaissance

  Shi Pai Village is not small, although it can't compare to Fang Cun and Liu Cun on the outskirts of Guangzhou City, but in this area of about 10 miles around, it's considered a large village. Moreover, this place is the necessary route from Guangzhou to the west, passing through Yu Zhi Fort and Hu Men Fort.

  For hundreds of years, the villagers of Shípái Village have been living a simple life, rising with the sun and resting with the sunset. However, this year has brought some new developments. First, the village's militia, which had existed for decades, suddenly disbanded. Then, a group of people came to talk about something called the "Farmers' Association". The villagers are still unclear what this association is all about. Some say it's similar to the old militia, just with a different leader. Before long, a few restless young men in the village started organizing the Farmers' Association. However, this new organization is somewhat different from the old militia. While the old militia was always making noise but never helped when people were in trouble, the new association also makes noise, but surprisingly, they actually help when people are in need.

  Two months ago, a batch of soldiers wearing gray uniforms appeared. These days, there are bandits and soldiers everywhere, and you can't tell them apart. In the past, there were Shen's troops, Mo's troops, Chen's troops, and Sun's troops; these soldiers came and went, but their numbers never seemed to decrease. Instead, many of our belongings were stolen. The villagers gradually discovered that these gray uniforms were different because they paid for things with money, and at the market price. Even when they had a bowl of tea at Widow Mo's place in the village entrance, they paid for it. This was truly strange; none of those other soldiers had ever paid before. Moreover, their spirit was better than that of those soldiers. Every time you saw them, they were dressed neatly and properly, unlike those soldiers who slouched around and couldn't even walk steadily. Later, the farmers' association people said these were students from Huangpu who had been conscripted as soldiers. What a sinful world!

  Yesterday, those students came to the village again and said they wanted to perform a play here. They didn't go to the village theater stage, but instead dug ditches and holes around the village. I really don't know if these students have been driven mad by their instructors.

  The villagers didn't know what the teaching team soldiers were thinking, now they were busy setting up their positions, if there was a slight mistake, the company commander of Hongliandang would definitely not let them off, at least they would have to take two lashes.

  In the afternoon, a sedan chair came from the direction of Yang Village, followed by a thin-faced middle-aged man with a yellow complexion, carrying a bundle on his back, occasionally smiling and saying a few words to the person in the sedan chair.

  The soldiers at the village entrance checkpoint stopped the sedan chair, and a middle-aged man hastily stepped forward, bowing and saying: "Good officer, officer is working hard." He handed over a pack of cigarettes.

  Soldier A (the extras naturally have no names) stretched out his hand to stop the hand holding the cigarette, and asked: "Where are you from, where are you going?"

  "Sir, we are from Shahe Town and going to Longkou Village. My nephew has been possessed by an evil spirit, please ask the immortal lady to exorcise it."

  "Oh?" The soldier looked up at the fairy maiden sitting in the sedan chair. She was wearing a green jacket, although it was already quite cold, and a big red skirt below. Her face was as white as snow, with flowers inserted into her hair. Seeing the soldier staring at her, the fairy maiden threw him a flirtatious glance and smiled: "Officer, my prayers are very effective, do you want me to pray for you too?" As she spoke, the powder on her face fell off, and the soldier's stomach churned with disgust. He cursed, "Go away, go away! You're possessed by an evil spirit!" and waved his hand to hurry the sedan chair along.

  The fairy lifted her body and said to the soldiers in a soft voice: "In the future, if the officer wants to invite the gods, just come to Shahe to find He Xiangu. The god I invited is effective. It was also my god who cured Officer Ye's evil spirit before." As she spoke, her eyes rolled towards the people building the fort and digging trenches.

  The middle-aged man hastily stepped forward and said to the immortal girl, "Immortal girl, you'd better say less. Hurry up and leave", urging the sedan chair bearers to speed up.

  The soldier A glanced at the cluster of fresh flowers that came with the sedan chair and spat: "Damn, unlucky."

  Soldier B smiled slyly: "Why don't you let her come and exorcise evil spirits for you?"

  Soldier A glared at him and cursed: "You little devil is possessed, hurry up to the battlefield in two days and get shot."

  "Shut up, be careful that Lian Zhang hears you." The newcomer then asked: "Who was the person who just passed by?"

  "Report to the class monitor, a divine woman."

  "Oh, goddess, what's all the fuss about? Just stand guard properly."

  The fairy felt that the immortal energy was somewhat offended, so she was not very happy. As they walked, she whispered to the middle-aged man. At the entrance of Mo's widow's teahouse, the fairy stopped and insisted on having a cup of tea before leaving. The middle-aged man had no choice but to follow her wishes.

  The villagers were very respectful and fearful of the immortal maiden, so Widow Mo respectfully invited her into the shop, hastily moved the only chair in the store, and even wiped it twice with the handkerchief in her hand before asking the immortal maiden to sit down.

  After the immortal sat down, Mrs. Mo brought over two tea bowls, carefully poured tea into them, placed one in front of the immortal and handed the other to the middle-aged man.

  "This tea is good, later I'll draw a symbol for you, burn it, and your tea will not only taste good but also cure all diseases." The fairy maiden said, picking up the teacup.

  The widow Mo said: "I don't dare to have good feelings, but the small shop is too small, I'm afraid I won't be able to afford the fairy's talisman." She also kindly said: "Fairy, be careful."

  The fairy was taken aback and looked at Mo Kuan with an inexplicable gaze. Mo Kuan felt a bit embarrassed and said in a low voice, "That powder... or I'll exchange it for another bowl."

  The middle-aged man suddenly looked very painful, biting his lip, covering his stomach with one hand and bending down. Mo asked hurriedly: "Brother, what's wrong? Are you uncomfortable?"

  "Nothing... nothing... there's nothing." The middle-aged man hung his head and waved his hand with difficulty.

  "He must have been possessed by an evil spirit." The fairy maiden said coldly.

  "Excuse me...excuse me, sir. Where is your toilet?" the middle-aged man asked with a pained expression, clutching his stomach. Mrs. Mo hastily replied: "It's just in the back, Xiaosan, come quickly and show Uncle to the toilet."

  A seven or eight-year-old child ran out from inside and led a middle-aged man to the back.

  At this time a patrol of soldiers walked by, and Mo's widow called out: "Brother, do you want to drink some water? It's free."

  The leading soldier smiled and turned back: "No need, thank you, auntie."

  "How come these soldiers are so polite, where did they come from?" Xiangu asked.

  "You don't know this one, it's a student slang term." A tea customer next to him chimed in.

  "Student?"

  "Yes, those student soldiers are quite different from the troops of Mo Du and Yang before. Discipline is strict, whoever dares to loot or grab things will be flogged."

  "My family doesn't believe it, then there won't be such soldiers in the world."

  "Incredible, yesterday I saw that dark-skinned student scolding a soldier, if not for someone intervening, the soldier would have been beaten."

  "Is... it?" Xiangong drew out his voice, he knew who it was, there's only one person in the whole school with a face like that.

  "Of course, I saw it with my own eyes."

  A middle-aged man came out from behind, looking much better. He respectfully stepped forward: "Immortal maiden, we should go now, my little nephew is still waiting."

  The fairy said coldly: "Bring me the package, I want to touch up some powder."

  Mo widow's whole body trembled with fear, and yet she still applied more powder.

  The troops moved from Yuzhu Cannon Platform to Zhucun, and after making serious defensive arrangements, they became a shopkeeper who only came to inspect and play cards from time to time, letting the several deputy team leaders under him play their roles.

  In the afternoon, Yan severely summoned several team leaders who stayed at home to a meeting at the command center. The directing department was very dissatisfied with their inaction so far and had asked about the situation several times, with an increasingly severe tone. However, since the enemy's situation was unclear, no one dared to act rashly. Yan could only reply that they would start acting as soon as the scouts returned. Now all the dispatched scouts have returned, just waiting for Chen Geng.

  Jiang Xianyun walked to the entrance of the command department and saw a sentry blocking a Taoist nun, who was standing tall with an air of superiority, shouting in a shrill voice: "I heard that someone here has been possessed by evil spirits, I'm here to exorcise them."

  The middle-aged man standing next to him saw Jiang Xianyun coming over and gave a wry smile. Jiang Xianyun couldn't help but chuckle: "Miss Fairy, you must be mistaken, no one here is possessed by evil spirits. This is the military command center, hurry up and leave."

  "How come nobody came to find me? Someone said there were two people, one named Jiang Xianyun and the other named Zhuang Jihua. They both got possessed by evil spirits. I came to exorcise them, at least 20 big yuan."

  "Hmm?" Jiang Xianyun seemed to understand now, and he took another careful look at the immortal girl, then looked at the middle-aged man and nodded. "Jiang Xianyun is fine, but there's someone named Chen Gang and Zhuang Jihua who have both been possessed by evil spirits. Can you exorcise them?"

  "It was said by Jiang Xianyun and Zhuang Jihua."

  "Hu, stop making a ruckus and let her go." Hu Zongnan heard the commotion and came out of the house. Seeing the situation at the door, he was furious.

  "Oh, and that person also said that there is a Hu Zongnan who is also in a state of frenzy, the ghost has already possessed him."

  The fairy maiden walked in while talking, and the sentry tried to stop her, but Jiang Xianyun signaled to let her pass.

  Hu Zongnan was furious when he saw the immortal woman walking in with a swagger: "What kind of place is this? How dare you barge in? Guards, throw her out!"

  "If you drive him away, our play will probably be over." Jiang Xianyun said with a smile.

  "Oh, Wushan, this is..." Hu Zongnan suddenly noticed that Jiang Xianyun was actually following behind the Fairy Maiden.

  "Go ahead, Shoushan, everyone is here. It's our turn to make a move." Jiang Xianyun said with a smile to Hu Zongnan.

  Hu Zongnan looked at Jiang Xianyun and then at Xiangu, suddenly enlightened: "Well done, Chen Gong, you still have the spirit to play tricks."

  "Haha...". Chen Gong burst out laughing.

  The headquarters' Li Zhi-long, Zhuang Ji-hua and others were stunned when they saw Chen Gong, Jiang Xianyun and Hu Zongnan coming in. Until Chen Gong loudly announced "I'm back!", the crowd finally reacted. Li Zhi-long laughed: "Just now when I saw you come in, I was thinking, are Wushan and Shoushan too impatient? Even if Chen Gong didn't return until tonight, we would still launch an attack, no need to invite a shaman to perform rituals!"

  Everyone burst out laughing, Chen Gang pulled off the fake hair on his head and said with a smile: "This godmother of mine is not driving away evil spirits, but to drive people away." Then he walked to the water tank in the corner of the house, scooped out two ladles of water and poured them into the face basin. He buried his head in the basin for a while, then threw away the water in the basin, scooped up another two ladles, picked up the soap, and rubbed it on his face. After he finished washing his face, Fan Hanjie brought over a bowl of water: "Sorry to trouble you, sorry to trouble you, have a drink first, we'll talk about other things later."

  The middle-aged man saw Chen Gongduan holding up the bowl and couldn't bear it anymore, covering his stomach in a fit of wild laughter. Li Zhilong asked in confusion: "Yinguo, what's wrong?"

  Song Xilian pointed at Chen Gong, laughing so hard he couldn't speak: "Hah, hah, he... Hah, hah, he..."

  Chen Gang's face turned red as he anxiously said to him: "Song Xiliang, you must be joking, I must...I must take you in."

  It wasn't until then that everyone realized there was more to it, and a flurry of questioning ensued, filled with curiosity about the severity.

  Song Xilian spoke in a burst of laughter, intermittently telling the story of Mo's widow tea shop.

  Everyone in the house burst out laughing, even the normally serious Jiang Xianyun was holding his stomach on the table. Li Zhilong grabbed Fan Hanjie's shoulder and laughed loudly, while Fan Hanjie held onto the table with one hand and his belly with the other. Zhuang Jihua stood there laughing so hard he doubled over, only Yan Zheng had a smile on his face as he said: "Alright...alright, Song Xilian go wash up."

  Chen Gang initially stared at Song Xiliang with a fierce gaze, but soon burst out laughing.

  Zhuang Jihua finally stopped and said: "Chen Gong, you don't have to make it so disgusting either."

  Chen Gang said irritably: "You think I want to? Those kids opposite, who doesn't know me? If I'm not disgusting enough, can I come back?"

  Everyone burst out laughing again. Zhuang Jihua smiled and said, "In view of Chen Gang's sacrifice, we have decided not to use him anymore. His military pay is guaranteed."

  Haha...

  It's getting serious, can't make any more trouble, busy stopping everyone, asked: "Chen Gong, tell me about the situation with Shi Pai."

  "There are about two hundred enemy troops approaching Shibaipai, led by Guan Tiequan and Zhang Yaoming. One platoon of around fifty men is deployed at Shigang, while Yangcun has no enemies. At Xiedeyong, the enemy has set up a pontoon bridge, with about one platoon of enemy troops on this side of the river. I have sent Leng Xin and another to scout out the situation on the other side."

  ….

  Chen Gang said while Li Zhilong marked on the map; Chen Gang finished speaking and Li Zhilong also finished marking.

  "Take a good look at the map and then say: 'Now it's your turn to propose a plan.'"