Chapter 31: Subduing Zhang Dabiao, Striking the Local Tyrants, Dividing the Land, and Beginning to Establish a Base Area

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Drunken Fragrance House!

“Bang, bang, bang!”

Several gunshots rang out, and the crowd erupted in panic and screams.

“Murder! Murder!”

“There’s been a murder at Drunken Fragrance House!”

Zhang Dabiao concealed the pistol inside his bundle and hurried toward the exit with the fleeing crowd.

Anyone capable of diverting disaster-relief supplies and making a fortune from them possessed at least some measure of power.

Now Zhang Dabiao had killed their sons.

If he did not run at once, he feared he would never get away.

Zhang Dabiao had originally served as a platoon leader in the Broadsword Unit under General Song of the Northwest Army’s Twenty-Ninth Army. He had even fought in the Battle of Xifengkou.

This time, he had slipped away from the army to return home and visit his mother.

But on his way, he had seen the local people starving in the streets while the officials enriched themselves shamelessly.

The sight had kindled a fury in Zhang Dabiao—a fury he could no longer suppress.

Greed!

It was human nature. Zhang Dabiao knew that in Great Xia, greedy men could be found everywhere.

But to reach their hands into the pockets of disaster-stricken commoners—

To seize for themselves wealth that could have saved countless lives—

How was that any different from murder?

And the kindness of ordinary people had been turned by those vile dogs into a means of lining their own pockets.

Vile!

Shameless!

Those words were not the slightest exaggeration when used to describe such vermin.

Almost everyone had dreamed the same dream in their youth:

If every person in the world gave him ten cents, would he not become a billionaire?

It sounded ridiculous, yet some people had actually put the idea into practice.

Of course, they had chosen to take what belonged to the poor and to ordinary people—

and make it their own.

The news spread quickly. After learning that his beloved son had been killed, the elder master of the Dong family flew into a thunderous rage. The entire local security corps was mobilized.

They were determined to capture the man who had killed his son.

Zhang Dabiao was a soldier by training, and his counter-surveillance skills were first-rate. His physical prowess was even more impressive. For the soldiers of the security corps to catch him was harder than climbing to the heavens.

Before long, Zhang Dabiao used every means at his disposal to escape the city.

To evade pursuit, he hurried along a secluded path.

After traveling at a breakneck pace for some time, just as Zhang Dabiao thought he had finally escaped, he unexpectedly came face-to-face with an army unit.

“Who’s there?”

“Come out at once!”

The soldiers were highly alert and immediately sensed that someone was hiding in the grass.

Hearing the voices, Zhang Dabiao turned and ran.

Rifles instantly leveled at his back.

“Stop right there!”

“Take one more step and I’ll shoot!”

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Realizing that he could not escape, Zhang Dabiao simply stopped.

“Damn it!”

“I made it all the way here, and I still couldn’t get away!”

“I didn’t die fighting the Japanese devils on the battlefield. I’m going to die here instead!”

“What a damn miserable way to go!”

Zhang Dabiao grumbled bitterly.

Hearing his voice, Su Changqing felt that it sounded vaguely familiar.

When he stepped forward and saw the rugged-looking man, he immediately broke into a smile.

Was this not Zhang Dabiao from the television series Bright Sword?

To encounter him here was truly a case of searching everywhere only to find what one wanted by sheer chance.

“What’s the matter, brother?”

“What did you do?” Su Changqing asked with a smile.

The moment he recognized Zhang Dabiao, he had already formed the idea of recruiting him into the First Column.

“You’re not part of the security corps?” Zhang Dabiao asked suspiciously.

“Do we look anything like the security corps?”

“Do you really think those useless fellows could be as elite as us?”

“As spirited?”

Zhang Dabiao looked over the group. This army was indeed different from the others; it possessed a vitality and discipline of its own.

It was in no way comparable to those cowardly soldiers of the security corps.

“Then who are you?”

“The Rainbow Army.”

“Ever heard of us?”

“The Rainbow Army marching north to resist the Japanese!” Su Changqing said with a smile.

At those words, Zhang Dabiao’s eyes lit up.

“You’re the Rainbow Army that completed the Twenty-Five-Thousand-Li Long March?”

“The Rainbow Army that stands up for the poor and downtrodden?”

Zhang Dabiao did not entirely believe all the propaganda he had heard, but looking at the extraordinary troops before him, he found himself asking instinctively.

“That’s right. We are the Rainbow Army!”

“Now the Japanese devils are pressing forward aggressively, and we have been ordered to come here.”

“We will establish a new base area and wipe out the landlords and local tyrants.”

“We will stand up for the poor and downtrodden.” Su Changqing nodded.

“What’s your name, brother?”

“Zhang Dabiao!”

“How about it? Interested in joining us?” Su Changqing got straight to the point and extended an invitation.

Su Changqing’s bluntness left Zhang Dabiao hesitating.

“You truly are an army that stands up for the poor and downtrodden?”

“Of course. Our Rainbow Army soldiers come from the ranks of the poor and downtrodden. If we do not stand up for them, then who will?”

A young soldier immediately answered.

“Good!”

“In that case, there is something I must tell you.”

“If you truly are an army that stands up for the poor and marches north to resist the Japanese—”

“Then I’ll join you!”

With that, Zhang Dabiao immediately told Su Changqing and the others what had happened near Mount Wutai.

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After hearing him out, Su Changqing patted Zhang Dabiao on the shoulder.

“Even if you hadn’t told us, we would have taken care of this matter.”

“If the Rainbow Army does not stand up for the people in such circumstances, then who will?”

When he finished speaking, Su Changqing turned to the army behind him.

“All troops, quick march!”

“Objective: Yumu County!”

“Take Yumu County within ten hours!”

“Open the granaries and distribute grain to the people!”

“Overthrow the local tyrants and redistribute the land!”

Su Changqing roared the orders.

“Yes!”

At his command, part of the First Column immediately advanced toward the outskirts of Yumu County.

Meanwhile, inside Yumu County, the officials clutching their grain stores, the merchants hoarding goods for profit, and the local gentry and tyrants who had preyed upon the people were still unaware that disaster was about to descend upon them.

After a period of forced marching, darkness had fallen.

The entire county had grown unnaturally quiet.

After a day of turmoil, the security corps had failed to capture Zhang Dabiao and could do nothing but abandon the search.

Under Su Changqing’s orders, the most capable Rainbow Army soldiers from the Guard Company quietly made their way to the foot of the walls. They hooked grappling irons over the battlements and rapidly climbed upward.

This classic training exercise for special forces had been adopted by Su Changqing to train the elite warriors of the First Column.

The soldiers of the Guard Company were therefore thoroughly familiar with every movement.

Special operations—

This was the style of warfare Su Changqing had constantly trained for and put into practice.

In the television series, Kong Jie’s unit had once been attacked by the Japanese Special Forces led by Yamamoto Kazuki. The losses had been devastating.

In truth, the Japanese devils’ ambitions had been enormous. If Kong Jie’s unit had not taken the blow for them, their true target would have been the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army.

Having already seen the story, Su Changqing was certain that Yamamoto Kazuki and his special forces would eventually encounter his own troops head-on.

Since that was inevitable, Su Changqing would build a special operations unit composed of elite warriors in advance.

In the future, they would grind Yamamoto’s special forces into the dirt.

Of course, Yamamoto’s unit was not his only target.

In the series Snow Leopard, Takehito, who led the assault team that blasted open Guanghua Gate, was another of Su Changqing’s imagined adversaries.

Once the elite soldiers of the Guard Company had successfully reached the top of the wall and silently eliminated the guards, the city gate swung open.

The Rainbow Army soldiers who had been waiting for this moment surged into Yumu County under Su Changqing’s command.

…

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