Return to 1983 Hunting Xing'an Mountains

Chapter 756 Encountering Robbers: Guan Lei's Style of Action

Within the territory of Malian Township, only twenty li away from Shuangfu Village, the old Dongfeng truck slowly came to a stop. Li Fuqiang, sitting in the driver's seat, frowned and stared at the cross tree in front of him, saying, "How come there really are highway robbers?"

Guan Lei took the opportunity to pick up a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle and said with a smile, "Brother Qiang, since we've already run into each other, let's not indulge their bad habits. Should we let them draw a line first, or just go straight for the guns?"

Li Fuqiang stared at the crowd pouring out from both sides of the woods and said, "More than ten people have three guns, and the rest are all knives and axes. Let's just take them down!"

The terrain here is not complicated. They are in the middle of the mountains. The road is narrow and long, with gentle slopes on both sides. The group of people are hiding in the woods on both sides. Moreover, the leader is very experienced. He is covered with a white cloth that blends in with the snow. If you don't look carefully, you can hardly tell that there are people in the woods.

The leader held an old hoe, followed by about 12 people. They were dressed simply, wearing dog skin or cotton hats. Two or three of them had cotton-padded jackets that were worn smooth, and their cotton shoes were stuffed with ula grass for warmth. Their faces were red from the wind and frost, and some were even cracked. There was also some white frost on their eyelids.

This shows that these people lived in very difficult conditions, which led them down the path of crime.

The leader strode over, gun pointed at the car window, grinning as he said, "Guys! The New Year is almost here, and we're having a tough time. Can you lend us a couple of bucks?"

The young man who had rushed to the back of the train lifted the tarpaulin and shouted, "Brother, there are still people in the carriage!"

The leader replied with great experience, "Lock it up with guns, and fire if anyone dares to move!"

After saying that, he smiled and talked to Li Fuqiang. As for Guan Lei sitting in the passenger seat, he didn't even open his eyes to look at him, because he could tell that Li Fuqiang was older than the two of them and must be in charge, so his words would carry weight.

Twelve people surrounded the old Dongfeng car. Pan Xiao sat at the very back. When the car stopped, Wu Haitao heard a noise outside, so he shielded her with his body and covered her with a quilt.

Pan Yan and his two underlings nodded in approval upon seeing this. Wu Haitao's actions showed that he had some sense of responsibility and remained calm, unlike some people in the carriage who couldn't contain their excitement at the sound of commotion outside. Only after two young men with guns pointed their guns at the back of the carriage did they quiet down and remain seated without daring to move.

"Brother, there are quite a few people in the carriage! What should we do?"

The leader frowned and cursed, "What the hell can we do? Make them pay up one by one! After doing this so many times, don't you learn anything? Did a donkey kick your head?"

"Alright, alright. Just hand over your money. We won't ask for more than you need; we'll pay two yuan per person!"

Wang Hu sat near the railing with an old sledgehammer under his buttocks. He had already put it on after hearing the commotion outside, so he wasn't scared at all.

"Dude, could you raise your gun a little higher? We're getting nervous when you point a gun at us."

"Stop talking nonsense and just pay up. Once you've paid, you can leave."

Wang Hu glanced at the people in the car. Apart from a few timid ones, the rest of them had calm expressions, because they all knew that the current world was not peaceful and that trouble would come knocking wherever they went.

"Dude, we can't move either. Why don't you get in the car and flip it over?"

The young man sneered, "Damn, you're pretty savvy! Just wait, Liu Zi will call two men over to keep an eye on things."

As he was climbing onto the car, two men approached from each side, carrying knives and axes.

At the front of the car, Li Fuqiang looked down at the leader below and said with a smile, "Buddy, I'm not in charge, this is our boss, why don't you ask him?"

The leader was taken aback, his eyes turning to Guan Lei. "Him? Holy crap, I didn't expect a kid to be the boss. That's pretty impressive."

Guan Lei smiled and said, "I'm not awesome, you're the awesome one. You must make a lot of money every day with this kind of road, right?"

"Hehe, don't try to get close to me, nothing I say will work. Come on, buddy, open the car door. I don't need any more, just give me 10 yuan."

Guan Lei said, "It costs 10 yuan to make such a big commotion?"

"Damn, you think it's not enough? I mean 10 yuan each for the two of you, and 2 yuan each for everyone else in the carriage!"

Li Fuqiang put his hand on the doorknob and said, "Then I'll open the door."

There were quite a few people surrounding the front of the car, but only the leader had a gun. So when Li Fuqiang opened the car door, Guan Lei immediately handed over the gun and fired a shot without warning.

Bang!
The gun barrel was suspended on Li Fuqiang's legs, with the muzzle less than half a meter away from the leader. The bullet darted out of the muzzle and embedded itself directly in the leader's shoulder where he was holding the gun.

The leader yelled, and the old man's gun fell to the ground. Li Fuqiang, with lightning speed, turned around and kicked him in the chest with one foot. The gun failed to knock him down, but Li Fuqiang's kick made him sit on his butt.

"Holy crap..."

Li Fuqiang reached behind him, grabbed the old man's hoe, and fired a shot at the leader's knee. The shot was aimed high, and at such close range, the marksmanship was undoubtedly accurate, shattering the leader's kneecap.

The leader lay on the ground, his head hitting the hard, icy snow. Before he could recover, he was shot again.

At this moment, the group surrounding the car reacted and rushed over with knives and axes. One of them pulled open the passenger door and swung his knife at Guan Lei, but Guan Lei, wielding a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, was not afraid at all and turned around to fire at the man.

Bang!
The bullet pierced the man's arm, causing him to loosen his grip on the knife, which flew out of his hand and nearly struck Guan Lei. The knife landed below the gearshift. Guan Lei glared and shouted, "You bastards! You dare fight back? I still have eight bullets left. Anyone who wants to get shot can come and take it. I'll wipe them all out!"

Li Fuqiang jumped out of the car, went to meet a man, and raised his old hoe to block the axe that was coming at him. At that moment, a gunshot rang out from the back of the car, and there were many people shouting and cursing.

He ignored it. There were more than 20 people in the car, and Wang Hu was also carrying a gun. Even if he couldn't win, he couldn't afford to suffer too much. Li Fuqiang kicked one of the people aside, then bent down to pick up the old man's gun from the ground and pointed the muzzle at the person in front.

"Don't move, or I'll kill you."

The six or seven people around didn't dare to move, only glancing at the leader on the ground who had been shot twice.

The leader screamed twice before falling silent, mainly due to the pain, which caused him to faint.

Meanwhile, at the rear of the vehicle, after Guan Lei fired his shot, the young man climbed into the vehicle. Near the rear, Liu Eryin and Liu Sitie, one grabbed the barrel of the old man's gun and raised it towards the roof, while the other used his arm to strangle him. Sensing danger, the young man's fingers involuntarily went to fire, but the shot didn't hit him at all; instead, it punched a large hole in the tarpaulin of the roof.

Why was it a big hole? Because the bullets in the gun were made of sand particles. Due to the close proximity, the sand particles broke through the tarpaulin before they could fully disperse, resulting in a large hole.

Before the man with the gun under the car could react, Wang Hu pressed the handle of his old gun against his forehead. Wang Hu squinted at the gunman and said, "Let's see whose gun is faster."

The man with a gun pointed at his head swallowed hard, his throat bobbing, and said, "Buddy, we're just short of money, we didn't mean to kill anyone."

Wang Hu ignored him and said only, "Send a few men to take all the weapons from their hands."

When Wu Haitao got up, Pan Yan stopped him and whispered, "I'll go, you watch my little sister."

After Pan Yan got up, six or seven people followed him, including Lao Liu's nephew and two relatives of the village elder Lao Zhang. After they jumped off the car, they went up to the people holding knives and axes and took all the weapons from their hands. The process went smoothly and almost no one resisted.

The group was terrified. They never expected there to be so many people in one vehicle, let alone three guns, one of which was a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle capable of firing in bursts. Moreover, their leader had already been shot twice and passed out, so they were even more at a loss for what to do.

That's how wars are; once the leader stops being arrogant, everyone else will behave themselves.

In addition, Guan Lei and Li Fuqiang were too ruthless, crippling the leader in just two or three seconds. The other robbers would definitely not dare to act arrogantly again after seeing this.

Guan Lei got out of the car with his gun and said, "Throw away those broken knives you're carrying."

Seeing that 56 was very obedient, the group obediently threw their knives and axes on the ground. Li Fuqiang said, "You all gather together, hurry up, don't dawdle!"

After Wang Hu, Liu Eryin, Pan Yan, and others at the back of the car had all moved to the front, Wang Hu asked, "What do we do?" "Let some of our men get out and move the trees blocking the road."

At this moment, one of the more shrewd robbers raised his hand and said, "Brothers, let's do it! Let's do it and then you can leave quickly. We really just want to borrow some money..."

"Are you borrowing money? This is highway robbery! If this happened a couple of years ago, you would all be executed!"

"Yes, yes, yes... My older brother was shot twice and we need to find someone to treat his wounds quickly. If he dies, you'll be in trouble too."

Guan Lei laughed and said, "Get into trouble? What trouble could we possibly get into? You're robbing us on the street, and we're just fighting back. Even if it goes to the authorities, you're the ones who'll be the ones in jail!"

Now, these people had nothing to say.

However, one of the people in the group looked increasingly familiar with the Liu family. This man had pockmarks on his face, hunched his neck, glanced at Liu Eryin, and asked timidly, "Are you... are you Shuangfu's Uncle Liu Er?"

Liu Eryin was taken aback by the voice: "Who are you?"

“I’m from the Lu family in Nanping, and they usually call me Lu the Pockmarked…”

Liu Eryin frowned: "Your father is Lu Laosan?"

"Well, Uncle Liu, I really had no other choice but to do this. My dad broke his leg on the boat two months ago..."

"No matter what, you can't do something so pointless!"

Li Fuqiang was worried about what to do. Sending these people to the police station would definitely take up time, and since this was not Qing'an, he didn't know anyone here. It would take two or three days or even a week to deal with them. If he released them, Li Fuqiang was also afraid of getting into trouble. After hearing that someone recognized Liu Eryin, he came over and looked him over.

He tilted his head and asked, "Brother Liu, do you know him?"

Liu Eryin nodded: "Ah, I get along quite well with his father. We met when we were both working on a boat on the river. His family is from Nanping."

All of them pinned their hopes on Lü Mazi, and one of them whispered, "Where are they from?"

Liu Sitie kicked the man who spoke and yelled, "I'm Shuangfu! What, you want to fight me again?"

"No, no, brother, I was just trying to get closer to you..."

Lu Mazi said, "Uncle Liu, you're back from work?"

Liu Sitie ignored him, but Liu Eryin, glancing at Li Fuqiang, nodded: "Yeah, it's almost Chinese New Year. Why did you have to rob people? It's a crime, you know?"

"...Uncle Liu, I really have no other choice."

Liu Eryin turned to Guan Lei and said, "Boss, I know his father. Can you let him off the hook?"

Guan Lei deliberately said stiffly, "Let him go? Who's going to let me go? The car was driving perfectly fine on the road, and they stopped it. Aren't you upset?"

Liu Eryin grinned and said, "It is quite upsetting, but mainly we haven't suffered any losses."

"If we hadn't been on guard, we'd be the ones getting shot right now! And we wouldn't have suffered any losses... Old Liu, they all know where you live. If you're going to be soft-hearted now, you'll only create trouble for yourselves. Aren't you afraid they'll come to your house in the middle of the night?"

“If they are ungrateful, I will accept it. Besides, the relationship between the Liu family and the Zhang family is known to people in several nearby villages. I am not afraid of going to court.”

After Liu Eryin finished speaking, Guan Lei and Li Fuqiang exchanged glances and nodded reluctantly.

"Let them move the tree, and that'll be the end of it."

"Okay! Hurry up and move the tree, what are you thinking about?"

Lu Mazi nodded quickly: "Okay, okay..."

After he led five or six men away, Guan Lei, with the gun pointed at one of their shoulders, asked, "How many jobs have you done?"

Three votes.

"How much money did you make?"

"I only earned a little over 10 yuan in total. My older brother said that it's enough to pay some toll fees, and I can't hurt anyone."

"Heh, so you guys are into the underworld, huh?"

“No, no, we really haven’t harmed anyone. We just wanted to make some money to buy some meat for our families before the New Year.”

Li Fuqiang said, "You're all so young, you have hands and feet, what can't you do? Why do you have to do this kind of thing?"

"This thing should make money fast."

Guan Lei laughed and said, "You're quite honest! Brother Liu, since you say there's nothing wrong, then let them go. But I suggest you write down their names and home addresses. If something happens to your family in the future, you can go to them."

"Fine! I'll just dump it at Old Zhang's house. If something happens to my family, they won't be any better off."

Immediately, Old Liu's nephew recorded the names and addresses one by one. This was something that couldn't be faked, because Lu Mazi knew all of these people, and with his testimony, no one else would dare to give false names.

After completing this procedure, Guan Lei waved his hand and said, "You can leave now. I'll be taking this route again tomorrow at noon. If you're not happy about it, then come at me. Do you understand?"

"Don't dare, don't dare..."

Lu Mazi and the young man hurriedly waved their hands, and Liu Eryin instructed, "Little Lu, you should go home quickly. I'll go see your father when I have time."

"...Uncle Liu, could you please not tell my dad about this?"

"Now you're in a hurry? Hurry up and leave."

"Eh."

The group of people were not very old; the oldest was probably only twenty-five or twenty-six, and Lü Mazi was only eighteen or nineteen.

After they left, Guan Lei said, "Get in the car, we've already wasted more than ten minutes."

"Guan is really fierce. Once he pulls out his gun, these guys don't dare to say another word."

Liu Sitie said, "Absolutely. Don't you even know who my brother is? Second Brother, shouldn't we report this to Old Zhang?"

"I'll go talk to him tomorrow. If this leads to someone's death, his nephew's career will be over."

"Not really."

(End of this chapter)