A Prophet - Chapter 16 (Part 3)

Chapter 3 - Debunking "Flying Celestials" and Burning "Heavenly Beings"

Meanwhile, deep in the Central Plains, the Japanese army continued its frantic offensive. Within the Nationalist army, due to internal friction among various warlord factions, resistance was weak and ineffective. By June 1938, the Japanese forces had already captured Xuzhou, Lanfeng, and other locations. Following this, they concentrated virtually all of their superior forces from North and South China to launch an offensive against Kaifeng. Once Kaifeng fell, the Peiping-Hankou Railway would be entirely lost, allowing the Japanese army to drive straight ahead and strike directly at Wuhan, the old lair of the Kuomintang. After occupying Nanjing, although the Kuomintang had hastily relocated its capital to Chongqing, the majority of the Nationalist government organs and the military command headquarters remained in Wuhan. In reality, Wuhan served as the military, political, and economic center of the entire nation at that time.

Driven to the edge of a desperate precipice, Chiang Kai-shek made a decision that shook the gates of hell: blow up the Yellow River to halt the Japanese advance!

On June 9, several hundred artillery shells were fired toward the Huayuankou section of the Yellow River, and the river was immediately breached. This roaring dragon churned forth, instantly sweeping away forty-four counties and drowning 890,000 common folk.

Hearing this news, the Patriarch trembled all over with grief: "You devils, you devils! I want to drink your blood! I want to eat your flesh!"

The reason the Patriarch cursed the devils instead of Chiang Kai-shek was that the Kuomintang authorities had concealed the truth at the time, claiming that the Yellow River had been blown up by the Japanese. Later, it wasn't until 1978, three years after Chiang Kai-shek's death, that Taiwanese textbooks dared to acknowledge this historical fact.

The lives of 890,000 common folk bought a three-month buffer period, and the Japanese army immediately organized superior forces to march toward the Three Towns of Wuhan! The epic Battle of Wuhan commenced! The total number of troops participating on both sides reached 1.4 million at one point, resulting in 400,000 casualties for the Nationalist army and 140,000 for the Japanese army. It was a pyrrhic victory for the Japanese; with massive casualties, the Nationalist army had dragged them into the strategic stalemate phase.

After the Japanese occupied Wuhan, the Patriarch, who had been holed up in the suburbs of Wuhan, also prepared to evacuate. As for where to go, he had not yet decided. By this time, Guangzhou had already fallen, and Jiang Feiyan led her sisters in a hasty flight to Guangxi. From this point onward, among the four branch halls, only the Western Faction's "Dragon's Beard Bud" sat securely in command in Chongqing, while the other three branch halls had already suffered heavy blows to their foundations.

At this time, Qin Baitian was feeling quite pleased with himself and repeatedly sent letters to the Patriarch and Jiang Feiyan, declaring his willingness to extend a helping hand and welcoming brothers from the Southern and Eastern Factions to come to western Sichuan. Both the Patriarch and Jiang Feiyan understood that this was merely a cat crying over a dead mouse with fake compassion. Once inside his territory, they would have to submit to his command, as he intended to use the opportunity to absorb and incorporate the entire "River-Phase Faction."

"Are we leaving or not, Patriarch?" the Third Branch Master asked.

The Patriarch fell into a brief contemplation; leaving was inevitable, but the crucial question was where to go.

"We cannot leave!" the Fourth Branch Master, who had remained silent for over a year, suddenly spoke up. "In life, one should be a hero among men; in death, one should be a hero among ghosts. The devils killed my eldest brother and drove my lawful wife to her death. I want revenge!"

The Patriarch looked at the haggard Fourth Branch Master, his heart feeling as though a five-flavor jar had been upset inside it, not knowing what to say. Finally, filled with guilt, the Patriarch let out a long sigh: "Very well. Before we leave, let's set up one scam and kill some devils!"

"Patriarch, please think twice!" the branch masters all grew anxious.

The Patriarch remained silent. Everyone looked at one another and fell quiet.

The Patriarch understood that while waging a military offensive, the Japanese army was bound to launch a massive psychological warfare campaign. Wherever they went, they would employ superstitious performances to rally new recruits and pacify wandering spirits internally, tricking soldiers into believing that as long as they were loyal to the Emperor, their souls would enter the Yasukuni Shrine and attain eternal peace. Simultaneously, these intensely magical performances would make the Chinese common folk feel that the Japanese army consisted of heavenly soldiers, irresistible, and that they could only obediently obey to fulfill the will of heaven. Now that they had occupied Wuhan, the performances of the secret agents and sorcerers were not far off, and the "River-Phase Faction" could take the opportunity to set up a scam.

Sure enough, the Japanese soon posted public notices across the city propagating the heresy of the "Imperial Army Heavenly Beings," claiming roughly that the Japanese soldiers were heavenly beings who had descended to earth, heavenly soldiers and generals capable of fighting one against ten, whom no army could withstand. They also proclaimed that the Imperial Army would hold a "Heaven-Welcoming" ceremony at "Daoguan Slope" on an auspicious day, at which time "Heavenly Beings will descend from the sky radiating light," and invited all Greater East Asia subjects to go and witness it.

"Heavenly Beings," also called "Flying Celestials," referred to various celestial realms in Buddhist doctrine whose inhabitants were known as "Heavenly Beings." The sorcerers intended to create the illusion that the Imperial Army soldiers were heavenly beings descending to earth, using superstitious means to make the people of the occupied territories submit.

The Patriarch analyzed that to produce these "Heavenly Beings," it was necessary to make people fly high in the air. This kind of setup could not be executed during daylight; in broad daylight, suspension wires were far too easy to spot. Only at night, when the masses were gathered together in a clearing within a forest far away, could steel wires be strung between two large trees, and a few junior sorcerers fitted with steel rings to hang themselves high on the steel wires, sliding from one end to the other just like the "Flying Celestials" in Buddhist murals.

However, a problem remained: conducting "Flying Celestials" in the dark meant that if people were too far away, they wouldn't see clearly, while if they were too close, flaws would be exposed, inevitably arousing suspicion. The accompanying military sorcerers would undoubtedly rack their brains to devise a method, coating the sorcerers playing the "Flying Celestials" with luminescent substances. Once the great curtain was drawn back, the "Heavenly Beings" would appear in the darkness, glowing all over and floating slowly, resembling immortals descending to earth.

Based on his professional intuition, the Fourth Branch Master analyzed with the Patriarch that props would definitely be used in this setup, especially since the devils proclaimed that the "Heavenly Beings" would descend from the sky radiating light. This cemented the Fourth Branch Master's judgment that substances like yellow phosphorus would certainly be used in this scheme.

Yellow phosphorus was a flammable material, and using yellow phosphorus to set up a scam required careful preliminary blending. If the proportion was too high, it would spontaneously combust and burn away entirely; if the proportion was too low, it wouldn't emit light. The luminescent talismans invented by the Fourth Branch Master had required over a hundred experiments before succeeding.

Yet neither the Patriarch nor the Fourth Branch Master could be certain whether the Japanese were actually using yellow phosphorus. They took a gamble, and as it later turned out, they won the bet.

The self-ignition point of yellow phosphorus is slightly over 40 degrees Celsius, carrying the risk of combustion above 40 degrees. Following special chemical preparation, the phosphorus would slowly generate phosphine in the air; when air circulated at room temperature, it would emit a faint glow, provided it did not reach the flash point to cause large-scale burning.

What the Patriarch and the Fourth Branch Master needed to do was find a way to launch a ball of fire up into the air when the devils' "Heavenly Beings" flew out, igniting the yellow phosphorus coating on the devils and roasting them like charred chickens. However, rushing up directly with torches would likely result in being shot dead before getting close. After turning it over in their minds, the Patriarch and the Fourth Branch Master finally conceived a brilliant strategy.

They deduced that as long as a single part of a devil's body reached the flash point, it would rapidly spread into a sheet of fire. Therefore, as long as a spark—even the tiniest one—splashed onto a devil, they need not worry about the scam failing. The Fourth Branch Master produced a "flash mine" of his own making, which was essentially a homemade firework. It consisted of a bamboo tube with the middle hollowed out, the very bottom packed with a layer of white clay, followed by gunpowder structured for combustion, propulsion, and explosion, with a fuse led out from the end. Holding the bamboo tube in hand and igniting the fuse, once the fuse burned down to the gunpowder pellet, the pellet would be forcefully expelled with a bang, flying high into the air and exploding to bloom into a shower of fireworks.

The flash mines homemade by the Fourth Branch Master could launch a gunpowder pellet fifty paces away. The steel wires strung up by the devils were roughly three zhang above the ground; higher up would make operations difficult. Calculating the trajectory, if they wanted to strike the devils diagonally from the ground using flash mines, the Fourth Branch Master computed that the maximum burial distance for the flash mines could not exceed forty-nine paces. The Patriarch and the Fourth Branch Master decided to take advantage of the devils' lack of attention to bury flash mines at a planar distance of about forty-nine paces from the launch point of the "Heavenly Beings." When the devils were constructing and setting up the scaffolding, the platform was enclosed with a fully sealed tarpaulin measuring roughly five or six zhang square, and just outside the tarpaulin shed lay a large expanse of usable outer perimeter.

How to go about burying the mines presented a major difficulty, but the Patriarch ultimately decided on the strategy of "openly repairing the gallery plank road while secretly crossing Chencang."

At night, a dozen Abaos disguised themselves as common people, bringing the branch hall's remaining dozen eggs and two bags of rice to the devils' construction site. With a shout, they knelt down from afar, holding the food out with both hands.

Seeing this, a few scouting devils hurriedly ran over with rifles pointed. Gesturing with their guns, they instantly understood that these people had come to pay tribute to them. They chattered a few words and happily accepted the food.

Meanwhile, behind the tarpaulin shed, the Second Branch Master and several others were crawling flat on the ground, nervously burying the flash mines.

The Abaos in the front bought as much time as possible. One Abao cracked open a boiled egg and personally peeled it for a devil, smiling broadly while speaking in a heavy Jiaodong accent: "Peel it and eat it, eat it and your ass will rot, you stupid bastard!" As he spoke, he gave a thumbs-up.

The devil laughed with his head thrown back: "Yoshi!"

After about a few minutes, the Second Branch Master and the others finished burying the mines, linked them together with fuses, and led the fuses out for several dozen meters, concealing them inside a firewood stack. They left a junior apprentice stationed overnight inside the firewood stack, instructing him to quickly ignite the fuses the next day once the ceremony to welcome the "Heavenly Beings" commenced, and then escape in the ensuing chaos.

With everything arranged properly, the Patriarch said to the Fourth Branch Master, "Man proposes, heaven disposes."

The Fourth Branch Master understood the underlying meaning of the Patriarch's words. There were numerous hidden risks involved here—for instance, if the devils discovered them, or if it rained and dampened the fuses. Although the Fourth Branch Master had wrapped them up, if heavy rain poured during the daytime, it would all be for naught. Even if everything went smoothly, the duration of the "Heavenly Beings" traversing the steel wire was uncertain; if ignited too early, they probably wouldn't hit their targets, while if ignited too late, the people would already have descended, missing them entirely. They had done everything humanly possible, and the rest depended on the heavens.

The following night, the devils gathered all the men, women, and children from the surrounding area. Dozens of paces away from the "Flying Celestial" performance area, the devils' sorcerers came out first to perform rituals, making a great show of pretense for quite a while before muttering a few words to a traitor translator. The translator announced: "The 'Heavenly Beings' are about to arrive. Welcome the 'Heavenly Beings.' Everyone must remain silent and refrain from moving around."

Subsequently, a sorcerer chanted incantations and pulled down the curtain blocking the audience's view. People could then dimly perceive a large platform behind the curtain, over three chi high, built among a cluster of trees. At this point, the translator ordered everyone to kneel; those who refused would receive a blow from a rifle butt, compelling the entire crowd to kneel down. Before long, several glowing figures dimly appeared in the darkness between two trees, slowly drifting from one end to the other. Gasps erupted from the crowd, and ordinary folks who didn't know the truth were stunned, with a few children crying out in startled amazement.

Down below the stage, the Fourth Branch Master grew tense, thinking to himself: Hurry up and ignite the fuses! In a moment the devils will finish traversing and come down, and once the main curtain is pulled shut, there will be no chance left!

After a while, the surroundings remained dead silent. The Fourth Branch Master grew anxious—what was going on? Where had something gone wrong? By now, the "Heavenly Beings" had reached the end and were about to descend.

Suddenly, a Japanese soldier let out a loud shout from afar, seemingly reporting an emergency. Before all the devils could collect their wits, dozens of fireworks flew in from all directions, carving arcs across the night sky before exploding around those "Heavenly Beings." Sparks splattered in all directions, and several "Heavenly Beings" suddenly burst into flames all over their bodies. Never anticipating such a turn of events, they burned like flailing monsters, howling miserably.

The crowd plunged into instant chaos, and Japanese soldiers began firing warning shots, attempting to encircle the scene. Several commoners tried to run and were shot dead by the devils.

The Fourth Branch Master led several junior apprentices, preparing to fight their way out of the encirclement, when they suddenly felt the earth shake as if a stampede of some creatures was charging toward them. Looking around, a herd of bulls rushed out from the forest with firecrackers tied to their tails, popping and cracking as the maddened bulls barreled straight into the ritual arena. The crowd exploded in panic, and the devils lost their footing, allowing the Fourth Branch Master and the junior apprentices to break through the encirclement amidst the chaos.

In truth, the Fourth Branch Master did not need to be personally present, but bearing national humiliation and familial vengeance, this felt more like a desperate, make-or-break battle to him. He had kept his fire-striker clenched tightly in his hand and flash mines tucked inside his coat; if an unexpected accident occurred over there and the fuses couldn't be lit, he intended to go up himself—he had embraced a suicidal determination. The Patriarch had seen through this. Back at the hall meeting, the Patriarch had sought everyone's opinions, and when everyone remained silent, a chill had washed over the Patriarch's heart. Had even a single branch master stood up to say this wouldn't work, the Patriarch's heart wouldn't have felt so cold. They called themselves brothers day in and day out, yet at a critical juncture, they abandoned their own brothers. The Patriarch knew that under internal and external troubles, the Abaos' "code" was likely no longer holdable.

The Patriarch did not want the Fourth Branch Master to die, so he had kept a backup plan. The bulls on the outer perimeter of the forest were arranged by the Patriarch, but the Patriarch was also gambling—gambling that the scam would conclude perfectly, gambling that the Fourth Branch Master would not personally rush in, and gambling that he would return alive.

The Fourth Branch Master had returned alive. Seeing the Fourth Branch Master and the others arrive, the Patriarch, who had been waiting at the intersection of the path, gave the order: "Fall back!"

Dozens of people bolted away at full tilt. Whether they would escape successfully, no one knew. The Patriarch's guilt toward the Fourth Branch Master forced him to support the Fourth Branch Master in executing this scam, yet doing so at the risk of their lives also exacerbated the friction between the Patriarch and the remaining branch masters. They could have slipped away smoothly much earlier, but now they were forced to flee under the hot pursuit of the Japanese army; the Patriarch was gambling with his brothers' lives.

The Japanese alarm sounded: "There are still remnants! Search the city thoroughly!"

The men of the Eastern Faction frequently practiced acrobatic leaps and wall-climbing, making their footwork exceptionally nimble. Now fleeing for their lives, every single one of them moved like flying wind. Especially the First Branch Master; he was simply a wild ox—sturdy and fast—stripping off his jacket while running and racing bare-chested against the wind, his proud chest muscles and chest hair trembling with every stride.

The group sprinted wildly for two hours until the sporadic gunfire behind them grew increasingly distant, finally reaching a mountain hollow where no one could run another step. They collapsed onto large boulders, panting heavily. Dawn was already breaking. The Patriarch took a headcount; several people were missing, whether left behind due to exhaustion or having slipped away on their own was unknown.

Parched and famished, the Second Branch Master said, "Patriarch, we need to find some food first, or we won't be able to keep running."

The Patriarch looked at him without speaking; neither did anyone else. Everyone understood that in these barren mountains and wild ridges, where on earth could food be found?

At this moment, the Third Branch Master chuckled, shaking his head as he smiled.

Unaware of the reason, the others assumed he had starved out of his mind and suffered a mental breakdown.

They watched as the Third Branch Master rubbed his hands together, thrust them into his bosom, and abruptly pulled out two bright red oranges. He shook them before the crowd and then presented them to the Patriarch: "Patriarch, I've kept these two oranges hidden inside my coat for three days, just in case of an emergency."

The moment the brothers, dying of hunger and thirst, saw the oranges, their saliva flowed uncontrollably. The Patriarch inwardly marveled at the Third Branch Master's cleverness.

The Second Branch Master said in astonishment, "Not bad, Third Brother, you really pulled through."

The Patriarch took the oranges and slowly peeled them. There were two oranges, totaling sixteen segments. The Patriarch said, "Perfect—two people get one segment."

The First Branch Master's eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he swallowed hard: "Patriarch, I can't take it anymore! Give me the orange peel first!"

The Patriarch smiled and distributed the orange segments to everyone.

Finally, the Patriarch was left with a single segment. He called the Fourth Branch Master over: "Zijian, you eat first."

The Fourth Branch Master's face flushed: "Patriarch, you have it first."

The Patriarch glared at him. Realizing he couldn't out-stubborn the Patriarch, the Fourth Branch Master had no choice but to take the orange segment, bite off half, and hand the other half to the Patriarch.

The Patriarch took it, put it in his mouth, and as he chewed, said, "Affection and sentimentality are just like this orange: sweet on entry, sour in the aftertaste, and ultimately astringent. A real man knows when to pick things up and when to put them down. Do you understand my words?"

The Fourth Branch Master's tears instantly spilled over, and he murmured quietly, "Patriarch, I understand. I understand."

Suddenly, a shout rang out from the mountain hollow: "Nobody move! Hands up!"

Everyone was so terrified that their hairs stood on end!

A troop of soldiers slowly emerged. When the Patriarch saw that they wore the uniforms of the National Revolutionary Army, the heart hanging in his throat finally dropped back down.

"What are you people doing here?" an officer-like figure walked over and asked.

"Officer, we are common folk from Wuhan city. The devils invaded, and we fled!"

The man carefully inspected the Patriarch and the branch masters. Before fleeing Wuhan, the brothers had changed their attire, making them look identical to ordinary civilians. After looking them over, the man told the soldiers behind him, "These are our fellow villagers! Lower your weapons!" The soldiers all put away their guns.

"Fellow villagers, bandits frequently operate around this area. Where are you heading? Our men can escort you out of the mountains," the man said warmly.

The Patriarch was slightly stunned: "Officer, we..."

"Do not call me officer; our troops don't practice that sort of thing. We are the New Fourth Army!"

"The New Fourth Army?"

"That's right. The New Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army. We are troops led by the Communist Party, and we are the army of our common people!" the man said with a smile.

"Then what should I call you?" the Patriarch asked with bewilderment.

"Call me 'comrade'!"

"Com... rade?"

"Right, comrade—sharing the same aspirations, the same goal, of one heart and one mind to save all of China!" the man replied with a righteous expression.

"Oh, comrade, where are you headed?" the Patriarch asked.

"To redeploy to northern Jiangsu, establish more anti-Japanese base areas, and fight the devils!" the man said with soaring morale. "Right, fellow villager, what is your line of work?"

This question caused the eyes of several branch masters to dart around in panic.

The Patriarch hastily answered, "Antique business, antique business! When the devils came, everything was looted, sigh..."

"Fellow villagers, do not be afraid; sooner or later we will drive the devils out of China! Where are you going? I'll dispatch some men to escort you on your way..."

"No need, no need, thank you officer, ah no... comrade," the Patriarch babbled repeatedly, bowing in gratitude.

At that moment, the First Branch Master suddenly stepped forward, scratched his head, and said, "Com... comrade..."

The Patriarch was startled, thinking to himself: What is this fellow about to do?

The First Branch Master continued: "Comrade... there's no need for an escort... can you... could you give us some food? We haven't eaten two meals..."

The man smiled slightly: "Little fellow villager, you get this starved just from missing two meals? Back when we were fighting guerrilla warfare in Jinggangshan, we often went three days and three nights without food, haha." He turned and instructed a young soldier, "Quick! See how much food is left and distribute it to the villagers!"

"Yes!" the young soldier saluted and acknowledged.

Soon, the young soldier dragged over several cloth bags of rice balls and distributed them to everyone in turn. The brothers began wolfing down the food ravenously.

"Fellow villagers, once you cross this mountain, you'll be in our base area. Take care along the way—we must set off now!"

The Patriarch tightly grasped the man's hand and said with deep emotion, "Comrade, take care!"

The detachment of the New Fourth Army marched swiftly away. Watching their retreating figures, the Patriarch felt a wave of profound emotion: China still possessed such fine soldiers; Zeng Jingwu had not chosen wrongly...