Chu Shouliang was not the only one who came to seek refuge with Zhou Hexuan. At this time, three people came floating on the Yangtze River, namely: Swallow Wang Er, Lingnan Flying Tiger Yuan Wujiu, and the ghost fortune teller Zheng Rentong.
Since ancient times, the main road out of Sichuan has been extremely difficult to walk. There is a saying that "nothing is more dangerous than Jiange Pavilion, and nothing more dangerous than Kuimen".
From Wushan to Baidi, there are cliffs on both sides of the Yangtze River. They are hundreds of feet high and less than a hundred meters wide. They are shaped like a portal and are called "Kuimen". The river here is turbulent and roaring. Looking up at the blue sky, there is a line of clouds and sky, and there are countless reefs.
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The Yangtze River is known as the golden waterway, but in Sichuan we must also follow the "difficult road to Shu" rule.
Especially during the winter dry season, navigation must be conducted by someone who is familiar with hydrology. Even modern ships cannot pass through at will. Those reefs are so powerful that it was not until after the founding of New China that countless reefs were blown up by the People's Liberation Army, and ships could sail unimpeded.
The vast fleet of grain transport ships finally arrived at the Kuimen pass. They were all small ships with a displacement of less than 50 tons. This year, the drought in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River was so severe that the water level was as low as the red line. It was impossible for large ships to pass through the Kuimen section.
Facing the turbulent rapids, those low-horsepower propellers cannot bring enough power to the fully loaded cargo ship, so they must rely on the help of trackers.
Between the steep cliffs on both sides of the bank, trackers are dragging ropes forward with difficulty. No matter whether they are spring, summer, autumn or winter, they wear no clothes. They only wear a piece of white cloth around their waists to cover their shameless parts. Their bodies are at an angle of 35 degrees to the ground.
Every step was made with great effort, and I was dripping with sweat in the middle of winter.
A small boat with a displacement of 50 tons requires at least twenty or thirty trackers to safely pass through the Qutang Gorge. If Zhou Hexuan wants to transport 500,000 tons of disaster relief grain into Sichuan, it will cost countless money just to hire trackers to pull the boat, and
It took an extremely long time. Because there were not enough trackers, they had to finish pulling a boat and then turn back and continue pulling.
This time Lu Zuofu used more than 3,000 trackers, almost half of them from Hubei and Chongqing.
Each team of trackers has a puller who leans sideways and rarely exerts force. He is mainly responsible for observing the waterway. He can judge the speed of the current and the condition of the reef through the water patterns on the river surface. Once the judgment is wrong, the crew and trackers may be killed.
All brought to death.
Touxian's side must follow another chant.
While observing the waterway, the tracker communicates with the trumpeter, who then directs all the trackers through the sound of his trumpet.
When passing a dangerous shoal, Touxian immediately said to the trumpeter: "Get ready, it's time to start!"
Haozi immediately shouted in Sichuan dialect at the top of his lungs: "We've crossed the dangerous shoal! Haozi, let's roar, yo hey! Hey yo! Hey yo..."
When the trackers got the signal, they immediately used all their strength to move forward and shouted in unison: "Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey..."
The more ferocious the torrent, the faster the trumpet sounds. On the one hand, it can encourage the trackers, and on the other hand, it can control the rhythm of pulling, and try to use every ounce of strength together.
Sichuan River chants, with a very melodic rhythm, float back and forth across the Qutang Gorge, soaring into the sky.
Not only are the trackers on the shore busy, but the boatmen on the boat are also very busy. Each boat must be equipped with a helmsman at the front and the stern. The front rudder looks at the water and the back rudder steers. If it is a traditional galley, there will be a boatman in the middle shouting.
The trumpet is responsible for contacting the helmsman, encouraging the rowers and responding to the trackers.
This is a collective project, and all forces must be united to defeat the power of nature.
There is a well-established rule in the tracker industry. If you encounter a shoal or dangerous shoal and the ship in front cannot pass, then the tracker of the ship behind must come to help. Even if they are in a hostile competition relationship, they are still partners at critical moments. Once the ship in front passes,
The tracker will also come back to help the rear boat.
Fortunately, the ships Lu Zuofu transferred this time were all mechanically powered ships, which have extremely strong mobility, making the work of the trackers much easier. Otherwise, it is estimated that the 500,000 tons of relief grains would not be able to be transported until next spring.
The ghost teller Zheng Rentong stood on the bow of the ship and sighed: "What a magnificent sight!"
"It's really amazing. I've never seen such a dangerous river before." Yuan Wujiu nodded and said.
Both of them used to be Wang Yaqiao's subordinates, but now they had nowhere to go, so they followed Yanzi Wang Er to Chongqing to join Zhou Hexuan. They saw Zhou Hexuan's appeal for donations in the newspaper, so they bought 1,000 loads of grain in Guangdong and arrived via the Guangdong-Hankou Railway.
In Hankou, transfer to a cargo ship and take the waterway upstream.
The "Assassination King" Wang Yaqiao is already dead, stabbed to death by agents sent by Dai Li.
Dai Li and Wang Yaqiao were brothers in the past, and they knew that their advantages and disadvantages were too loyal. Dai Li couldn't catch Wang Yaqiao, so he simply started with Wang Yaqiao's brother and kidnapped Yu Likui to Nanjing. Yu Likui was unwilling to betray his brother and vowed not to cooperate to the death.
Dai Li went to Yu Likui's wife Yu Wanjun.
Faced with coercion and inducement, Yu Wanjun quickly gave in. Following Dai Li's instructions, Yu Wanjun contacted Wang Yaqiao in a secret way, saying that after her husband disappeared, she was in financial difficulty and urgently needed help. In addition, she had important matters to discuss with Wang Yaqiao.
Wang Yaqiao quickly took Dayang himself to help his brother's wife. As soon as he stepped into Yu Wanjun's house, he was thrown a handful of lime by the agents, and then was beaten by a group of agents. He was shot five times and three times and died.
After killing Wang Yaqiao, the agents peeled off Wang Yaqiao's face and killed Yu Wanjun.
Once Wang Yaqiao died, the Ax Gang had no choice but to disband, and the Hundred Thousand Gang members went their separate ways.
Some gang members became gangsters, killing people and stealing goods, committing all kinds of evil; some gang members reorganized themselves into gangs to bully the market and oppress the people; some gang members followed their will and went to various places to continue assassinating high-ranking officials, traitors and Japanese; some gang members went straight to Yan'an to join the Red Army
; There are also some gangs who gather in the mountains and forests to form local armed forces, such as Zheng Baozhen, who will lead his troops to join the New Fourth Army in two years and become the first mayor of Hefei after liberation.
The ghost fortune teller Zheng Rentong and the Lingnan Flying Tiger Yuan Wujiu were both backbones of the Ax Gang promoted by Wang Yaqiao in Guangdong, and were responsible for planning the assassination of corrupt officials and traitors.
This is a group of anarchists who believe in the "anarchism" of the Russian revolutionary Kropotkin, sometimes also called "anarchist communism". They believe that the people should not be subject to politics, religion and the military.
Only through intervention can one give full play to his talents, advocate the abolition of private property and unequal income, implement distribution according to need, and advocate the combination of mental labor and physical labor.
Of course, this theory was quickly localized in China, adding traditional Confucianism, chivalrous spirit and patriotism.
To put it bluntly, the core members of the Ax Gang are a mixed product of anarchism, communism, Confucianism, heroic thought, assassin thought, patriotism, and Han revanchism.
"Wang Er, do you think Mr. Zhou will accept us?" Zheng Rentong asked suddenly.
Yanzi Wang Er smiled and said: "Whatever, if it doesn't work to defect to Mr. Zhou, then we will start a new business in Sichuan. I will be responsible for robbing the rich and helping the poor to raise funds, Brother Yuan Wu will be responsible for recruiting and training manpower, and you, the fortune teller, will be responsible for making suggestions. The three of us
Together we can definitely turn Sichuan into chaos and make those corrupt officials cry for their fathers and mothers!"
