Period drama: Old Cao's carefree life

Chapter 280 Suppressing Bandits
Before long, all the bandits' corpses were moved to one place, where more than twenty bodies, each with a different death, were laid out haphazardly like garbage.

No matter how dashing or influential they were in life, at this moment they can only be manipulated at will without any dignity.

"Ugh~~"

Many of the patrol officers were clearly participating in such a battle for the first time. Seeing so many corpses, even though the battle had ended several minutes ago, many of them still couldn't accept the scene and found a place to vomit profusely.

The dozen or so Japanese soldiers who followed them looked at them with disdain and proudly raised their heads. Despite their height being a real disadvantage, they still tried their best to express their pride and self-esteem with a condescending gaze.

The remaining men, those with stronger mental fortitude or those who had seen blood before, though their faces were equally grim, tried their best to appear calm. They didn't want to be outdone by these Japanese devils.

Meanwhile, some clever and daring ones were already secretly rummaging through the bandits' clothes and pockets.

It's obvious they're looting the corpse.

And you know what? They actually did gain something, more or less.

This only fueled their excitement, and they quickly and secretly collected the silver dollars and other valuables before turning their attention to another corpse.

Those Japanese soldiers who were originally standing there pretending to be experts, their eyes bulged out when they saw all this. They could no longer maintain their expert image and hurriedly joined the ranks of looting the corpses.

Don't be fooled by how powerful those Japanese devils seem in Beiping on the surface; in reality, they're all basically penniless!
Can you believe that their privates only earn 7.5 yen a month?!
Private First Class only gets 10.5 yen, Sergeant gets 30 yen!

If there isn't a clear comparison from this perspective, let me give you a more vivid example.

1941年，如本国内1公斤米大概0.3日元，一双鞋5日元，小公寓月租10——20日元。

A private's monthly salary of 10.5 yen can only buy 35 kilograms of clothing or two pairs of shoes!

Now, in the later stages of the war, Japan's economy has collapsed, inflation is severe, prices are soaring, and the actual purchasing power of soldiers' wages has shrunk dramatically!
Here's another statistic: in 1943, the average monthly wage for Japanese construction workers was 117 yen, while a lieutenant in the Japanese army earned only 94 yen per month.
Isn't it funny?
But that's reality!

Tell me, aren't all these Japanese devils poor bastards?
They weren't just poor, they were practically driven mad by poverty!

When a Japanese soldier pulled twenty silver dollars from the corpse, his eyes widened in disbelief, and a wildly joyful smile spread across his face.

"Yoshi yoshi! Swoosh swoosh swoosh!!"

The Japanese soldiers, having made a haul, became even more frenzied, but there were only so many corpses in total, not nearly enough to go around.

After touching a corpse and finding no silver dollars or valuables, the Japanese soldier became enraged and stopped touching it, instead starting to strip off the clothes.
"Tsk, are all these Japanese devils this twisted?"

Several patrol officers gathered together, all of them feeling contempt.

Is this the same Japanese kid who was just standing there pretending to be an expert?

I simply couldn’t see it!

Cao Weida, who arrived at the scene, saw all of this, but he did not say anything.

He knew how poor the Japanese soldiers were; it was just a matter of insulting the corpses of a bunch of beasts, so he couldn't care less.

what?
Respect for the dead?
Forget it, are these bandits even human?
He has no energy to care about species that are not human.

Cao Weida walked up to a corpse, pointed at it, and asked the distraught General Guo, who had been dragged to the scene, "Come and see, is this him?"

The body had been stripped naked, even its underwear had been removed.

Upon seeing the corpse's face, Commander Guo knelt down before it, tears streaming down his face, and cried, "Brother, I'm so sorry!"

Cao Weida showed no interest in his crocodile tears and impatiently urged, "If you want to cry, wait a while. I'm asking you a question. Is he Liu Changjiang?"

Although Guo Dashuai's reaction indirectly proved that the corpse was Liu Changjiang, he still wanted the other party to say it himself, as he did not want any slip-ups!
"Yes, it's him." Commander Guo nodded in acknowledgment, tears streaming down his face.

Only after confirming Liu Changjiang's death did Cao Weida feel relieved. Ignoring Commander Guo's feigned compassion, he looked mockingly at Liu Changjiang's corpse on the ground, a cold smile playing on his lips.
"Damn it, you shouldn't have caused trouble, you had to provoke the Red Party!"

"I've gone to great lengths to curry favor, and you're at least offering me a way out."

"That's good, it gives me the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, I should thank you."

As the battle raged on one side, Hao Pingchuan and his guerrilla fighters quietly arrived at their designated location on the other.

Despite his single-mindedness and carefree nature, Hao Pingchuan, as a veteran guerrilla fighter, possesses considerable combat capabilities.

With accurate intelligence, capturing a warehouse guarded by only a dozen or so people would be a sure thing, if not a guaranteed success.

The group arrived at the location where the medicine was hidden.

These bandits may be cowardly in their fight against the odds, but it must be said that they are quite vigilant.

As soon as Hao Pingchuan and his group approached, they were spotted and immediately shouted warily, "Who goes there!"

Having already received the coded signal, Hao Pingchuan hid behind a small mound and shouted across the way, "Those at the dock, come and collect the goods!"

"Do you have a son?"

Is the road clean or not?

"Damn it, a bunch of bandits, they never speak any serious language, but they have a lot of slang. I wonder if they get tired."

Without receiving the pre-arranged code, Hao Pingchuan would have been completely baffled.

In fact, even after obtaining the secret code, he couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried.

There's a saying in the world: "I'd rather give up a gold ingot than wear a single spring garment."

This 'spring' is a slang term used by bandits.

It can be said that without becoming a bandit, one basically cannot learn the bandits' slang, because the bandits' slang is...

Hao Pingchuan muttered a few words to himself, but remained calm and replied, "No scum!"

After exchanging the secret signal, more than a dozen burly men armed with long and short guns appeared on the other side.

Most of these burly men wore khaki-colored jackets with a front opening and wide-waisted, baggy trousers with the legs rolled up to their knees. This attire was for the convenience of climbing mountains and running and jumping.

One of them, who seemed to be a leader, noticed that it was a stranger and said with some dissatisfaction, "Why have you changed people?"

In their line of work, they rely heavily on familiarity and strongly dislike having their contacts changed.

Hao Pingchuan smiled sheepishly: "Xiao Gao is sick, so I'm here to take his place."

As Hao Pingchuan and the others slowly stood up, the leader suddenly frowned, "Wait a minute, why don't I recognize any of them?"

He became more wary.

"Want to get to know him? That's easy!" Hao Pingchuan grinned, then raised his gun and fired at the underling.

With a bang, the gang leader fell to the ground. The surrounding bandits were shocked and immediately realized something was wrong.

Oh no, they're obviously not here to make contact!
Is it about brotherhood and avenging the gang leader?
Forget it, they're bandits!

The idea is that when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter!

Besides, with so many people on the other side, how could they possibly get revenge?!
The moment their leader was killed, the group of underlings immediately planned to scatter like birds.

Unfortunately, it was too late to run away at that point.

'Bang bang bang~~'

'Da da da~~'

Gunfire erupted, and in just one exchange, most of the dozen or so bandits were killed.

The remaining few who tried to escape were also killed one by one by the guerrillas who had been lying in ambush nearby. The whole process took less than three minutes.

After the battle ended, Hao Pingchuan strode up to the leader and spat at him.
"You bastard! You even dare to rob your Red Party grandfather's people and supplies! You're asking for death!"

A guerrilla fighter standing nearby asked in bewilderment, "Captain, shouldn't it be the old man hanging himself, tired of living?"

"You think you know that?!" Hao Pingchuan slapped him on the head. I finally managed to act like a cultured person, and you have to ruin it, huh?
He cursed irritably, "Stop talking nonsense! Hurry up and drag the people aside. Follow the trail and rescue the medicine and our comrades!"

The guerrillas acted quickly, following the trail left by the bandits, and soon found the location where the medicine and people were hidden.

These bandits, who had previously been under the protection of Commander Guo, never imagined that he would betray them, let alone that the police would suddenly take action, especially in conjunction with the Red Party.

So much so that only one lowly guard remained in the cave.

This is a small cave, the entrance of which was simply concealed by the bandits using bushes, weeds and other branches.

The last bandit crouched trembling in the cave. He had heard the gunshots, but he had no idea what had happened.

Hearing the sound of hurried footsteps, he looked out of the cave with a start.

But the next second, the branches and leaves at the entrance of the cave were ripped off, exposing him to the guns of a group of Red Party members.

"come out!"

Hearing the cold, ruthless order, the henchman dared not disobey. He obediently put his gun aside, covered his head with his hands, and walked out, not forgetting to defend himself: "Brothers, don't shoot! It's a misunderstanding, it's all a misunderstanding!"

"I was coerced into joining Liu Changjiang and other bandits. I actually didn't want to work with those bastards anymore."

He tried to justify himself by saying that none of the men were bandits, so there was no doubt that something must have happened!
Before he could continue speaking, two Red Party guerrillas grabbed his hands and pinned him to the ground.

One of the guerrillas sneered, "That's really weird. They're all holding guns, and they're telling me they were forced to join. They think we're idiots."

"Hahaha~~"

The guerrillas around them laughed. Although they weren't exceptionally clever, they weren't stupid either. How could they possibly be fooled by such a flawed lie?
"Alright, alright, everyone, get serious!"

Hao Pingchuan beckoned someone to pull the henchman over and asked, "Tell me, are there any other accomplices left in the cave?"

No, that's all.

"What happened to the medicines and people you robbed from the Red Party before?"

The henchman was shocked. Oh no, they were actually Communists!

"Damn it, I'm asking you a question!" Hao Pingchuan slapped him hard across the face, the sound of which was painful. "Tell me the truth! If you dare to utter a single lie, I'll kill you right now!"

The henchman was terrified, but then suddenly felt a sense of relief.

It's worth noting that the Communist Party has always advocated for the humane treatment of prisoners of war.
"I surrender! I am a prisoner now, you must treat me well!"

Seeing the henchman suddenly become so self-righteous, Hao Pingchuan was immediately amused and annoyed.

"Oh my, it seems you know quite a bit about our Red Party's policies, you even know about treating prisoners of war well?"

Before the henchmen could even feel happy, they were startled by Hao Pingchuan's next words: "But who told you you're a prisoner now?"

"If you cooperate obediently, fine. But if you don't, what can I do if I kill you right now?"

Damn it, this local tyrant who's been terrorizing the village is actually acting all high and mighty!

It's bad enough that they hijacked our Red Party's goods and people; we've already paid the ransom, yet they still dare to go back on their word. Such a tyrant! He completely agreed with Cao Weida's viewpoint:

Why keep such people around? Executing them would be the best way to give an explanation to China and its people!

Seeing the dangerous look in Hao Pingchuan's eyes, how could the henchmen dare to shout about 'treating prisoners of war well'?
He hurriedly revealed all the information: "Grandpa Hong, have mercy! I'll talk, I'll talk!"

"I have medicine in the cave where I'm hiding. If you follow this path, you'll find a small earthen cave in a little while."

"That earthen cave was a prison set up by that wicked bastard Liu Changjiang. There were no guns or cannons inside, and people were kept there."

Having gotten the answer he wanted, Hao Pingchuan immediately waved his hand: "Let's do it!"

In an instant, several men emerged from the guerrilla force, grabbed the underlings, and headed for the small earthen cave.

The remaining people were divided into two groups: one group went into the cave to carry out boxes containing medicine, while the other group brought in wooden crates. After the boxes inside the cave were moved out, they carried the brought-in wooden crates back into the cave.

After the boxes were moved, Hao Pingchuan immediately told them to leave with the boxes.

After all the medicines were transported away, a bomb was placed in the middle of a wooden box inside the cave, and then the fuse was carefully laid out.

After cleaning up all the traces around them, they retreated to a safe distance.

Before long, the original four guerrillas had grown to nine, clearly because the Red Party comrades who had been kidnapped and detained had been rescued.

"Captain, the person has been rescued!"

Hao Pingchuan looked over and saw that although the rescued comrades were somewhat listless, they had not suffered excessive abuse, which made him feel a little relieved.

"Alright, the police and the Japanese soldiers will be here soon, you all need to get out of here!"

About five minutes later, after confirming that everyone had evacuated, Hao Pingchuan no longer hesitated and then pulled the line hard.
'Boom~~'

A violent explosion rang out, and the ground trembled three times.

The cave was blasted apart, sending rocks flying everywhere, and a small part of the cave entrance collapsed.

After quickly reeling in the thread and quickly cleaning up the traces, Hao Pingchuan sped off in the direction the Red Party had retreated.

(End of this chapter)