Chinese martial arts: From being shot and killed by the armed police during a mountain search to bec

Shanghai, the French Concession.

The headquarters of the Green Gang.

The pockmarked disciple knelt before the hall, his forehead pressed against the blue brick floor, cold sweat dripping down his temples and into the cracks between the bricks, leaving a small, dark, damp stain.

Several junior disciples behind him were also kneeling, some of them with trembling shoulders and others with dried black blood on their trouser legs.

They carried Zhao Jinshan's body all the way from Foshan back to Shanghai, without stopping, traveling day and night, their bodies reeking of sweat, the stench of corpses, and the stench of blood.

There was a person sitting in the hall.

He was in his early fifties, with a bloated figure, wearing a dark red silk shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing his two fat, white forearms.

His face was piled with fat, and his small eyes were squeezed into slits by the fat.

He held two iron balls in his hand, turning them slowly and deliberately. The iron balls collided and produced a piercing friction sound that echoed in the silent hall.

Huang Jinrong belonged to the Tong generation of the Green Gang.

The chief inspector of the French Concession police station, a name in Shanghai that could stop a child from crying at night.

"Speak," Huang Jinrong asked coldly, "How did Zhao Jinshan die?"

The pockmarked disciple trembled, banged his forehead on the floor tiles three times, and began to recount the death of Wang Hu in a trembling voice.

Wang Hu accepted Mo Laohu's bounty to assassinate Chen Hongwu in Foshan, but was beaten to death in the main hall of the Foshan Chamber of Commerce.

Zhao Jinshan led them to harass the Chen family, intending to take advantage of Chen Hongwu's death while he was killing Mo Laohu, hoping to take a piece of the Chen family. However, Chen Hongwu not only returned alive, but also killed Mo Laohu.

By the end, the pockmarked disciple's voice was trembling so much he could barely speak: "The hall master stepped forward to negotiate, trying to use the Green Gang's name to force him to back down, but that Chen fellow attacked without saying a word. With one punch, the hall master's chest collapsed on the spot..."

The hall was completely silent; Tie Dan stopped in Huang Jinrong's palm.

"Useless trash." Huang Jinrong squeezed out the two words through gritted teeth, it was unclear whether he was cursing Zhao Jinshan or the people kneeling below him.

The pockmarked disciple swallowed hard, his voice even lower: "After that guy surnamed Chen killed the hall master, he made us transport the body back to Shanghai, and... he also made us deliver a message to the leader."

"What did you say?"

He said... "I, Chen, will be going to Shanghai soon to pay a visit."

The iron clapper slammed down on the table with a loud thud, leaving a shallow dent in the rosewood surface. The teacup bounced up, splashing scalding tea all over the table.

Huang Jinrong's face twitched violently twice, then he laughed in anger, the sound echoing in the main hall and causing dust to fall from the roof beams.

"Good! What an arrogant bastard!" He stood up, his obese body casting a large shadow on the armchair. "You've learned a little martial arts, and you really think you're invincible? You dare to kill members of the Green Gang, and you even dare to challenge the Green Gang—"

"Guards!" he shouted towards the door. "Pass on my message: issue a kill order for Chen Hongwu and post a bounty on the black market. Fifty thousand silver dollars for him alive, thirty thousand for him dead! I want to see whether his fists are harder, or the bullets of my Green Gang are harder!"

Several Green Gang members outside responded and were about to leave.

"Boss Huang, wait a minute."

The sound wasn't loud, but it reached the ears of everyone present very clearly.

Huang Jinrong turned his head and looked at the person who had spoken.

The man sat in the second seat among the guests, wearing a moon-white long gown with neatly starched cuffs.

He was in his early thirties, slender, with a fair complexion, and wore gold-rimmed glasses.

Compared to the menacing Green Gang leaders, he seemed more like a schoolteacher or a foreign firm accountant.

"Yuesheng, are you going to stop me?" Huang Jinrong narrowed his sharp eyes, his tone tinged with displeasure.

Du Yuesheng stood up, bowed slightly to Huang Jinrong, and said in a calm and unhurried tone, "Boss Huang, I'm not trying to stop you. I just want to ask you gentlemen to do some calculations first before making a decision."

I've heard some of you brothers mention Chen Hongwu before; his name has become quite well-known in Guangdong recently.

It wasn't because he was rich, nor because he had power, but because he was good at fighting.

More importantly, this man was highly skilled in martial arts, an expert marksman, and incredibly audacious; even Mo Laohu died at his hands.

He paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone present: "Brothers, who is Mo Laohu? He's the warlord of the Guangxi clique, controlling half of Guangdong and Guangxi, and commanding tens of thousands of troops."

I, Du Yuesheng, would like to ask you, gentlemen here, whose head is harder than Mo Laohu's? Whose life is more valuable than the warlord's?

Moreover, with Mo Laohu dead, the Guangxi clique's base in Guangdong collapsed overnight, and the Guangdong army regained control of Guangzhou. Should Chen Jiongming accept this favor? We have more people and more guns; can we outnumber the Guangdong army?"

No one answered.

Huang Jinrong's anger hadn't subsided, but he had already sat back in his armchair, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the table.

Du Yuesheng knew the time was right, so he changed the subject: "Boss Huang, and all you brothers, I am also a member of the Green Gang, and I value the Green Gang's reputation more than my own life."

But precisely because I value it so much, I cannot allow you all to create an enemy for the Green Gang that you cannot afford to offend and should not offend, just to vent your anger.

The root of this matter lies with our Green Gang. Wang Hu accepted Mo Laohu's bounty to kill Chen Hongwu, which in the underworld is called "acting as an accomplice to a tiger," and if word got out, we would be in the wrong.

Later, Zhao Jinshan went to the Chen family to rob them during their time of need, but was killed by Chen Hongwu. If in the martial arts world, a death sentence becomes a matter of life and death, then the job of collecting corpses would never be finished.

Zhang Xiaolin sat to the side, his face flushed red. He wanted to interrupt several times, but after seeing Huang Jinrong's expression, he swallowed his words.

Huang Jinrong leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and remained silent for a long while.

He had heard the name Chen Hongwu before.

A man who could single-handedly break through a guard platoon and kill Mo Laohu. Putting aside his skill level, his courage and decisiveness alone are something no ordinary person could handle.

If the kill order were actually posted, the assassins sent out would be wiped out one after another in Foshan, and the Green Gang would lose face even more. If they were lucky, they might push him to the brink and come to Shanghai. With his ability to wipe out the entire guard platoon, would Huang Jinrong's head be safer than Mo Laohu's?

He opened his eyes, the tapping of his fingers on the table slowing down. "Yuesheng, what do you suggest we do? We can't just suffer in silence, can we? If word gets out, how will the Green Gang maintain its standing in Shanghai? Where will I, Huang Jinrong, put my face?"

Du Yuesheng smiled slightly: "Boss Huang, Chen Hongwu is no ordinary person. You can't use ordinary methods to deal with extraordinary people."

Rather than spending 50,000 silver dollars to buy someone who might not even be able to kill him, it's better to use that money to save face.

Send someone to Foshan with a generous gift, saying that Wang Hu accepted Mo Laohu's bounty, which was his own private job and did not represent the Green Gang's stance.

If this misunderstanding is cleared up and both sides take a step back, there may be opportunities for cooperation in the future.

Huang Jinrong did not answer immediately.

He stared at the overturned teacup on the table for a long time, the tea dripping down the edge of the table and onto the blue brick floor, making a soft sound.

Then he slowly stood up, walked to the pockmarked disciple, and looked down at the trembling head.

"Give Zhao Jinshan's body a proper burial." He paused, then said, "Tell the brothers below that the kill order is canceled. But..."