20 years of the Republic of China

Chapter 765 Grave

The full moon slowly rose, casting a cold glow on the hills.

On the outskirts of Fengtian, on a narrow path heading northeast, two figures were walking very fast, their footsteps making rustling sounds.

The destination of their trip was Longshan, thirty miles away from the provincial capital.

Fengtiandi is located in a plain, and this is the only place around it that can barely be considered a mountain.

According to legend, Lü Dongbin and Tieguai Li once played chess against each other in the mountain, so people often call it Chessboard Mountain.

The two walked from morning till night, and only now did they arrive near the foot of the mountain.

When traveling at night, jackals, wolves and ghosts are secondary. The most feared thing is encountering bandits who rob people on the road. However, the two brothers are bodyguards after all, and they are very capable and fearless. They carry a unicorn, tie waist forks and leg forks, and come straight here.

There was no wind under the moon, and the shadows of the trees on the mountain were so dense that it was eerie and quiet.

Li Qun spoke first, asking his fellow apprentice beside him, "The Jiang family's grave should be here, right?"

The junior fellow's surname is Lin, and his name is Lin Zhi. He is a laborer at the Fengtian Cigarette Factory. He immediately nodded and said, "There is only one mountain near the provincial capital. It must be this one."

Li Qun said nothing more and just kept on walking.

Yesterday afternoon, Jiang Lianheng took the lead in fundraising near the Chamber of Commerce, which became big news spread by word of mouth among Fengtian merchants and citizens.

There was a lot of discussion in each teahouse, and the two brothers took the opportunity to find out a lot of information.

However, it is a bit regrettable that any old gangster who is a bit older is a shrewd one among shrewd ones. They keep their mouths shut tightly and do not talk about people during the day or ghosts at night. The Jiang family is too powerful, so the old gangsters are a bit cautious and are unwilling to make any comments.

On the contrary, those who only have a superficial understanding of the matter, whenever they talk about the Jiang family, they immediately start talking nonstop, as if they had seen it with their own eyes, and their words are powerful and eloquent.

Rumors in the world are half true and half false, and the two brothers can only figure it out for themselves.

Fortunately, some things, even if they are household items, can still be traced.

For example, when talking about the ancestors of the Jiang family, many people, although they have never seen them, vaguely remember the grand occasion of the funeral of the old man of the Jiang family.

The funeral procession was huge. It set out from Dabei Pass and went to the suburbs for burial at the foot of Longshan Mountain.

Over the years, every Qingming Festival, the Jiang brothers would go to visit the graves by car. It was quite a big scene, and the going back and forth inevitably attracted attention.

It was not surprising that Li Qun and Lin Zhi took this opportunity to ask a few more questions. If it were any other time, staring at someone and asking about their ancestral property would inevitably alert the enemy.

In fact, the two brothers had already guessed Jiang Lianheng's identity to a near-ideal level, and now they were following the clues just to confirm it again and again.

The road at the foot of the mountain was relatively flat. The lantern in Li Qun's hand had not been lit yet, and it only swayed slightly with his footsteps.

"Could it be buried in the mountain?" he asked.

"It shouldn't be," Lin Zhi muttered, "If it's buried in this barren mountain, it will be dug out by something, right?"

Since they were a wealthy family, the tomb should at least be well maintained, and there must be traces of human intervention nearby.

The two slowed down their pace, looking at the terrain and searching around.

After walking like this for more than half an hour, I suddenly saw a slight depression on the hillside not far ahead. Although it was formed naturally, there was a layer of bricks around it.

Lin Zhi said hurriedly: "Brother, I think that place looks a bit like a haunted house."

Li Qun nodded and waved, saying, "Let's go over and take a look."

We hurriedly walked around the gentle slope and into the inner side of the valley, where we saw six tombs in front of us.

The base of the tomb is surrounded by a circle of stone bricks, and the gentle slopes on both sides have also been trimmed. The tomb in the middle is naturally the most magnificent. Two small stone lions, an incense burner and several empty plates are placed in front of the tombstone, and behind it are evergreen pines and cypresses.

This place is not far from Shenshui, with prospects in front and support behind, and a wide open space. Although there is no table mountain, the provincial capital of Fengtian can be seen in the distance.

Compared with other surrounding areas, it is already considered a treasure trove of cemeteries.

The two men walked forward quickly, without any fear in their hearts.

"Brother, it's this!" Lin Zhi's voice trembled a little, "It must be this!"

Li Qun didn't say anything. He squatted silently aside, struck a match, lit the lantern, then stood up and followed.

He raised his hand and hung the lantern above the tombstone. As the warm yellow light slowly moved, the words on the tombstone finally came into view.

"The tomb of my adoptive father Jiang Gongchenghai, my son Jiang Lianheng and my daughter-in-law Hu Xiaoyan are standing by to pay respect."

Look at the tombs next to it:

"The Tomb of My Uncle Li Gong Tianwei", "The Tomb of My Uncle Sun Gong Chengmo", "The Tomb of My Uncle Jin Gong Xiaoyi".

The last tomb, however, was slightly different. It was located further back and to the side. On the tombstone was written: "The Tomb of my late brother Liu Gong Yansheng - after half a lifetime of wandering, I rest in peace here."

Lin Zhi didn't care about the other tombstones at all. When he saw Jiang Chenghai's name, he immediately became angry and pointed at the tomb and roared:
"Brother, I found him. He is Jiang Chenghai's disciple. He was the one who led Maozi to our escort agency!"

The sound echoed in the mountains, making such a loud noise that it startled a flock of birds in the woods.

Li Qun quickly turned around and shouted, "Third brother, keep your voice down!"

Unexpectedly, when I turned around, Lin Zhi disappeared. Looking closely again, I saw that he ran to a place not far away, lifted a stone the size of his head from somewhere, and walked towards me swaying.

"What are you going to do?" Li Qun stood up vigilantly.

"Do you still need to ask?" Lin Zhi curled his lips towards the graves, "Smash these tombstones, dig up the graves, and whip the corpses!"

"Are you fucking crazy?"

Li Qun quickly stepped forward to stop him and pushed the stone out of his junior brother's arms without saying a word.

The stubborn stone hit the ground with a dull thud. Lin Zhi withdrew his foot, raised his head, and looked quite confused.

"Brother, if it weren't for them, would we have been dragged to Siberia? Would Master and Master's Wife have been killed? There were more than 20 people when we went there. Some were exhausted to death, some were frozen to death, and only the two of us are still alive. Don't we want to avenge such a great hatred?"

Back then, after this group of bodyguards were abducted by the Russians, they did not actually go straight to Siberia. Instead, they worked as coolies in Heilongjiang Province for a year. Then, when the Russo-Japanese War broke out, they were temporarily conscripted to dig trenches and transport supplies. The battlefield was filled with bullets and gunfire, which resulted in the loss of many lives.

Want to run? That's wishful thinking!
The Russian supervision team was ruthless to their own people, let alone the Chinese workers?

After the defeat in the north, the Russians forcibly captured a number of Chinese laborers, and they were then taken to Siberia.

Arriving in Siberia was not just about panning for gold. We did whatever work was available and went wherever we were needed. We traveled around in circles, visited many greks, planted potatoes, went into mines, and worked in factories...

As long as you don't die of exhaustion, work hard.

Countless people died of freezing or exhaustion. Some people could not bear the suffering so much that they secretly committed suicide, which was a kind of relief.

At the same time, the Russians themselves were not at peace. Civil wars broke out from time to time. On one side were the royalists, and on the other side were the new aristocrats. They would work for whoever was in power.

It can be said that during those ten years in the north, one would suffer at least a lot of hardship, even if one didn't die.

Now thinking back carefully, even Lin Zhi couldn't figure out how he had managed to survive.

In short, the turning point came in the Dingsi year, when civil war suddenly broke out in the north.

The two brothers were first captured by the White Army and forced to work as coolies. After several twists and turns, they fell into the hands of the enemy. They thought they would repeat the same mistakes and continue to work for the Red Army. Unexpectedly, things took a turn for the better. The two were incorporated into a Chinese unit, given guns, and went to fight the White Army with them.

Afterwards, the White Army suffered successive defeats, and some of them were instructed to return to the country like dandelions, along with the Chinese workers sent from the Far East to fight in the war.

time heals everything.

Honestly speaking, it has been more than 20 years since the incident, and what Lin Zhi is thinking about is no longer revenge for his master, but revenge for himself.

Whenever he was exhausted and dying, he couldn't help but recall the day when he was taken away by the Russians.

If Jiang Lianheng had disappeared or was in a miserable state, he might have felt better, but that kid was doing very well and had a huge fortune. When he thought about his own situation, he felt more and more indignant.

Li Qun was exceptionally calm and immediately asked, "If you dig up these graves, does that count as revenge?"

"Dig the grave first, and I'll kill that guy when I get back to the city tomorrow!"

Li Qun quickly dissuaded him, "Don't you see how powerful the Jiang family is now?"

"What's wrong with being powerful?" Lin Zhi retorted, "I'll trade my life for his!"

"You are too impulsive. It's not easy for you to get close to someone like him. Yesterday was an exception. Do you usually see him?"

Lin Zhi threw out the unicorn, but said: "We have a gun in our hands, we can stab him without getting close!"

"No, this is too risky." Li Qun still disagreed. "The Jiang family is now in full swing, and we have no room for error. If you don't prepare well and force your move, you won't even have a chance to escape once the hand is damaged. And don't forget, we have other errands to do when we come back this time."

Lin Zhi was speechless for a long time before he said, "Then I'll demolish these graves. It won't be a big deal, right?"

"No, it's easy to alert the enemy."

"There's not even a single person in this desolate mountain area. What are you afraid of?"

Li Qun patiently explained, "If you dig up the grave now, it's equivalent to telling Jiang Lianheng that an enemy has come to his door. He will be on guard, and from now on, you won't be able to get close to him, or even find out his information. Can't you just be patient and wait for the right opportunity?"

After hearing this, Lin Zhi had no choice but to give up in anger.

Li Qun turned off the lantern and stood in front of the Jiang family's tomb with his junior brother for a while. Then he patted the other's shoulder and whispered to comfort him:

"Don't worry, once all their people are gathered, you can come and dig up the grave and whip the corpse. It will be in time!"

Lin Zhi nodded silently in the darkness, "Then let the Jiang family add a few new graves!"

The two brothers were discussing in low voices under the moonlight, totally unaware that a dark shadow suddenly passed silently through the woods.

The black shadow glided in the air without any sound. Not only the two of them, but even the animals in the mountains did not notice it at all. They only saw it suddenly fly up and land on a branch. It turned out to be a bird of prey.

The owl tilted its head and closed one eye, looking rather playful...

-

There will be a chapter later.

(End of this chapter)