The north wind blows and the white grass breaks on the ground, and the sky is full of snow in August.
When Zhou Hexuan left Dunhuang with Wanrong reluctant to leave, the place had already welcomed the first light snow of the year. Xia Nai, Lin Guoda, Wu Zuoren and Lin Fengmian all stayed in Mogao Grottoes, leaving only Wanrong beside Zhou Hexuan.
Sun Yongzhen and Zhu Guozhen.
It was already very cold during the day, and the temperature was even scarier at night. The broken truck often broke down, and Zhou Hexuan and his two bodyguards had to go to repair the truck themselves. It was really annoying on the way back.
After walking and stopping, everyone finally crossed the border of Wuwei, and a few days later entered the jurisdiction of Yongdeng County.
"Is your throat feeling better?" Zhou Hexuan asked as he drove. Since they were traveling for days, the three men alternated between being drivers.
"I'm feeling better, I just want to drink water all the time." Wanrong replied in a low voice.
The autumn and winter climate in the northwest is dry and cold. Wanrong probably suffered from pharyngitis two days ago and her throat was very uncomfortable. Fortunately, she had medicines prepared, otherwise she would have to carry it. It was not easy to find medicines in Gansu at this time.
Zhu Guozhen, who was sitting in the car, suddenly said: "Sir, let me drive instead. You can take a rest first."
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "We are almost at the county seat, there is no need to change drivers!"
"Da da da da..."
At this moment, the sound of horse hooves suddenly sounded on both sides of the road, which startled Sun Yongzhen and Zhu Guozhen and quickly stood up to look around.
"It's a bandit!" Sun Yongzhen shouted.
Zhu Guozhen turned over and climbed to the top of the cab, holding a Thompson submachine gun in his hand and shouting: "Sir, speed up and rush over!"
Sun Yongzhen also held a submachine gun and said: "Lao Zhu, you shoot on the left, and the bandits on the right belong to me."
In order to prevent bandits from harassing him, Zhou Hexuan specifically asked for two submachine guns and some rounds of ammunition from Hu Zongnan when he left Xi'an.
"Holy shit!"
Zhou Hexuan was shifting gears and accelerating when he suddenly saw the situation in the middle of the road ahead and said quickly: "Don't even shoot. The bandits have machine guns blocking the road. We can't rush through."
Sun Yongzhen shouted: "Reverse, reverse, back up quickly!"
Dozens and hundreds of bandits swarmed in, all on horseback, and soon surrounded Zhou Hexuan and his truck from a distance.
"boom!"
A bandit leader fired his gun into the air and shouted: "Stop the car quickly, we only steal property and don't kill people. If you mess around again, you won't be polite!"
Zhu Guozhen asked: "Sir, what should I do?"
Zhou Hexuan assessed the situation, stopped the car and said, "It's important to save your life. I have plenty of money."
During the Republic of China, bandits in the northwest had generally accepted rules and regulations. For example, after joining the bandit, they had to keep their names anonymous, were not allowed to live on the sidelines, except for the boss, were not allowed to investigate the history of their associates, were not allowed to kill people at will, were not allowed to insult women at will, were not allowed to act privately, etc.
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Of course, there are also those who blatantly violate the rules, such as the great bandit Ma Zhongying.
This guy committed all kinds of crimes by burning, killing, and looting, and the land he passed was almost completely white, which made people and gods angry. At that time, not only the Han people in the three provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, and Ningxia rose up to resist, but even the Hui people, Tibetans, and Mongolian people also rose up to attack, and everyone abandoned their nationality.
We work together to fight against Ma Zhongying due to estrangement.
In fact, Ma Zhongying was not born a bandit. He went to a military school, his father was an officer, and after he started the army, he was essentially a warlord. However, all the provinces in the northwest regarded him as a bandit, because his behavior was so bad that he could be called the living king of hell and the troublemaker of the northwest.
stick.
He first made trouble in Gansu and was beaten by Feng Yuxiang so that he fled to Ningxia. Then he was beaten by Feng Yuxiang's subordinates and fled to Inner Mongolia. Then he was forcibly recruited into the army by Ma Hongkui. After a year of silence, Ma Zhongying rebelled again and was arrested.
Ma Bufang was beaten up and rushed to Xinzhang, where he fought with Sheng Shicai for several years. In the end, he fled to the Soviet Union to study in despair, and was never heard from again.
This guy is Lu Bu in the northwest of the Republic of China. Whoever surrenders will be judged. He is regarded as a serious problem by local warlords wherever he goes. In the past ten years, he has fought with almost all the major warlords in the northwest. Of course, he only has the character of Lu Bu, but
He didn't have as much fighting power as Lu Bu, so he deserved to be chased like a rabbit and fled across several provinces.
Only a guy like Ma Zhongying, who is half warlord and half bandit, can burn, kill, and loot in the northwest for ten years and then escape. If other bandits make too much trouble, they will inevitably attract encirclement and suppression from all sides. For the sake of sustainable development, most bandits will not
Kill easily.
Especially after 1935, the Red Army moved to northern Shaanxi to vigorously suppress bandits, and the Nationalist Government also strengthened its control over the northwest. The Kuomintang and the Communist Party, plus several horse warlords in the northwest, all forces unanimously attacked the bandits. Now there are more than 1,000 people in the northwest.
Bandits are basically gone, and the small groups that remain are acting more cautiously.
Zhou Hexuan had learned about it in detail before setting off, so if he dared to give up resistance now, he would not be afraid of losing his life at all, and at most he would only be robbed of some property.
The bandit leader led the crowd and laughed happily: "This trip was so successful that we actually robbed a foreign car and drove it back to make a sedan chair for the head of the village (the leader of the village)!"
The bandit next to him said: "But none of us know how to drive a foreign car."
The bandit leader was stunned, scratched his head and said, "This is a big problem."
"Commander, the wild ghost has a gun in his hand!" a bandit shouted.
"Wild ghost" is the name used by bandits in the Shaanxi-Gansu and Suiyuan areas for those who have been robbed. Robbery is called "scraping wild ghost", and "scraping" means searching. Aren't the people who were robbed just ghosts?
The bandit leader also saw the situation clearly and shouted quickly: "Put down the gun!"
Sun Yongzhen asked in a low voice: "Lao Zhu, are you sure you can kill the bandit leader?"
Zhu Guozhen shook his head and said: "You can use the rifle to give me time to aim, but the submachine gun is too floaty to shoot."
"Throw away the gun." Zhou Hexuan was afraid of an accident.
The two bodyguards could only put down their guns. They did not dare to gamble with Zhou Hexuan's life.
The bandit leader then rode up to the side of the car and asked with a smile: "You have a foreign car and a foreign gun. Are you a member of the government?"
Zhou Hexuan said calmly: "Escort me to Lanzhou, and I will ensure that you become a high official."
The bandit leader laughed loudly: "What's the good thing about being an official? They are all corrupt officials, worse bastards than us bandits."
Zhou Hexuan said: "There are also good officials."
"This is strange. I have lived for more than thirty years and I have never seen a good official." The bandit leader sneered, "Hand over all your belongings. This place is not far from the county seat. It only takes a day's walk along the road to get there.
, I won’t starve you to death.”
Zhou Hexuan doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. It's so cold today that he has to walk to the county seat. When I get back, I will immediately lead my troops to suppress you!
The bandit leader's follower reminded: "Commander, we don't know how to drive a foreign car."
"Yes, yes," the bandit leader slapped his forehead and pointed at Zhou Hexuan. "You stay and drive, and the rest will go to the county seat by yourself."
"I stayed!"
"I can drive!"
Sun Yongzhen and Zhu Guozhen shouted in unison.
"Oh, you are still loyal to protect your master, you are a man!" The bandit leader gave a thumbs up.
The follower reminded: "Commander, it seems that we have captured a high-ranking official this time. Why don't we kidnap him back to the village and use him as a meat ticket? This man can drive a foreign car, and his subordinates can also use fancy traps (I got Thomson wrong). It must be worth it."
A lot of money."
"It makes sense," the bandit leader waved. "Take them all back and let Lao Bai press the water to see how much they are worth."
"Pressing water" is also a slang term for bandits. To put it bluntly, it is a business evaluation, which estimates the value of meat tickets based on different situations.
The result of the bandits in the northwest of the Republic of China is generally like this. The highest level is the leader (village leader), the second level is the door god (general commander), the master (chief of staff), Bai Fan (secretary), the accountant (accountant), and the third level.
The levels are: Kanshou (bandits), Patrol (guards), Line treading (target investigation), Insertion (intelligence investigation), and Pressure (evaluation and negotiation).
The bandit leader who led the crowd to intercept Zhou Hexuan was the door god (commander-in-chief) of the bandits' den, who was responsible for the robbery. They had already investigated the robbery in advance. Once they started, they would definitely succeed. If they were not sure, they would let him go directly.
"You, come down!" the bandit leader pointed at Wanrong and said.
After Wanrong got out of the car, all the bandits' eyes shone brightly, and the follower said: "Commander, this woman can be taken back to be the leader's wife."
The bandit leader immediately cursed: "We only want property, we don't steal women and we don't kill people! Have you even forgotten the rules?"
"Haha, I'm just talking." The follower said awkwardly.
In the past few years, the big bandits in the northwest provinces have basically disappeared. They have been either wiped out or recruited. The remaining small bandits have also learned how to save their lives and do not dare to act too randomly. The older the bandits are, the more cautious they are.
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Especially when it comes to "wild ghosts" like Zhou Hexuan, who drive foreign cars and use foreign guns, the timid ones don't dare to touch them at all, while the bold ones are just trying to steal money and kidnap money. It's not good for anyone to break up with each other, and it may even lead to an encirclement and suppression by the government.
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Of course, this is in ordinary years, and in times of famine, you don’t have to worry about that much.
In 1943, when there was a major disaster in the northwest provinces, the bandits had nothing to plunder, so they simply attacked the county towns in groups, burning, killing, and looting. They even committed all kinds of evil. Many bandits were good citizens themselves. They were so hungry that they joined the bandit dens one after another. These new bandits started killing
People are more ruthless than old gangsters because they don't think about tomorrow at all.
On the way back to the bandits' den, the bandit leader himself sat in the passenger seat and was responsible for escorting Zhou Hexuan at gunpoint.
As for Wanrong, she was driven into a cart by the bandits.
Zhou Hexuan drove leisurely while chatting: "Your equipment is pretty good. Everyone rides a horse and holds a gun."
The bandit leader was a little surprised and asked: "Aren't you afraid?"
"Is fear useful?" Zhou Hexuan asked back.
"It's interesting," the bandit leader said with a smile, "You must be a high-ranking official, most people would be scared to death."
Zhou Hexuan shook his head and said: "I am just a small official, coming to the northwest to deliver orders from the government."
The bandit leader laughed loudly: "The more you say this, the less I believe it. You must be a high official, and you are afraid that if you tell us, we will kill people and silence you."
Zhou Hexuan said: "Then will you kill people and silence them?"
"That's not certain." The bandit leader smiled.
Zhou Hexuan said: "I hope we can resolve it peacefully."
The bandit leader said: "Tell me, who are you? I always feel that you are special."
Zhou Hexuan said: "We have to discuss this with your boss. But having said that, you are quite disciplined, and your robbery style is a bit like the heroes of Liangshan."
The bandit leader boasted: "Of course, before joining the band, everyone and I thought we were swordsmen. Do you know what a swordsman is? General Yang Hucheng, you know, he used to be a swordsman. We swordsmen specialize in robbing the rich and giving to the poor.
He is not an ordinary bandit who eliminates harm for the people."
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "Swordsmen also rob?"
"What we are robbing are profiteers who are ruthless for getting rich, and corrupt officials who are corrupt and pervert the law!" the bandit leader forcibly tried to clear his name.
Swordsmen were originally the general term for knights in the Shaanxi-Gansu area. Their usual identities were private salt dealers, vagrants and bodyguards, and they gradually formed gang organizations. To put it bluntly, they are actually no different from Qinggang and Paoge, but they do appear.
Many knights.
Swordsmen who engage in banditry are called "false knights", commonly known as "thief fools". Traditional swordsmen are called "swordsman fools", and the bandits who robbed Zhou Hexuan and others are called "thief fools".
Compared with other bandits, the "thief fool" claimed to believe in chivalry. What he said was just a disguise, but after pretending for a long time, it became true. At least he had to act like he was robbing the rich and giving to the poor, unlike the evil bandits.
Killing good people at will like that.
The really scary bandits in the northwest are: Ji bandits, soldier bandits, Hui bandits, smoke bandits and kidnapping bandits.
As the name suggests, the Ji bandits are formed by people who have been bandits for several generations and the soldiers and bandits broke out. The Hui bandits are formed by the metamorphosis of gangs. The main business of the opium bandits is to deal in opium, and the kidnapper specializes in human trafficking.
These five types of bandits are not easy to provoke, and they are also the targets of severe crackdowns by the government and warlords. Nowadays, except for the smoke bandits, the other types have basically disappeared. The remaining ones are not large-scale, and two Thompson submachine guns can teach them how to behave.