A Prophet - Chapter 18 (Part 3)

Chapter 3 - The Four Great Flying Thieves of the Republic

Tiger Hong was currently waiting for news inside a cave on the back mountain, feeling quite indignant: A bunch of outcasts from elsewhere were stirring up trouble on his turf and even hijacking several corpse-driving troupes; this simply showed a complete lack of respect for him!

At that moment, Liu Congyun walked in with Master Zu: "Commander!"

Tiger Hong stood up from his tiger-skin armchair: "Strategist."

"Who is he?" Tiger Hong asked Liu Congyun, pointing at Master Zu.

"Commander, do not be alarmed. It's all a misunderstanding, a complete misunderstanding. Please listen to this old man..." Liu Congyun explained everything he knew to Tiger Hong.

"Hahahaha... I was wondering who it could be, but it turns out to be the renowned 'Iron Plate Scholar' of Jianghuai. I've heard so much about you!" Tiger Hong said, gripping Master Zu's hand.

"The commander flatters me. I am merely a humble grain of grass in the rivers and lakes, drifting into your esteemed territory and causing offense. I hope you will forgive me," Master Zu said.

"The scholar is too modest. My strategist has mentioned you many times. You are a peerless talent, and utterly loyal and righteous to boot. To meet you today is truly fate! Someone, bring out the wine!" Tiger Hong was in high spirits.

At the banquet, besides Tiger Hong and Liu Congyun, four other individuals arrived. Tiger Hong smiled and said to Master Zu, "Scholar, let me introduce them to you one by one..."

Following Tiger Hong's introductions, Master Zu came to know these people. They were the backbone of Tiger Hong's syndicate, known as the "Four Vajras."

"Hundred-Pace Piercing Yang" Wang Jikun was Tiger Hong's sworn second brother. Wang Jikun had taken up a gun and gone to the battlefield at the age of fifteen, having participated in the Second Northern Expedition and the Central Plains War. His marksmanship was utterly precise, capable of striking an enemy right between the eyebrows within a hundred paces, which earned him his elegant moniker, "Hundred-Pace Piercing Yang."

"Black-Faced Rakshasa" Liu Xuequan was Tiger Hong's third brother. The reason he was called the "Black-Faced Rakshasa" was because of his dark complexion; in the pitch of night, only the whites of his eyes were visible. If he closed his eyes and kept his mouth shut without baring his teeth, you couldn't sense his presence at all. Furthermore, whenever the bandit gang carried out an operation, he always wore a black mask, and his methods were ruthless and venomous, leaving no survivors.

"Twin-Blade Heroine" Zhu Jin was the only female Vajra among the four. In her early years, she studied under the Hunan martial arts master Meng Dahong, mastering an exceptional set of sword techniques and wielding a pair of mandarin duck sabers. The mandarin duck sabers consisted of two blades in a single sheath, with each hilt forming a semi-circular shape so that when joined together, they formed the shape of a full moon. Moreover, Zhu Jin was also Tiger Hong's mistress, and his subordinates all addressed her as "Madam."

"Grass-Gliding" Yan Laoqi possessed supreme lightness kung fu. He could step on floating duckweed, traverse mountains and tunnel through caves, traveling several hundred miles a day without the slightest fatigue, and could even leap through the forest. Later on, people explained: it wasn't actual flight, but rather that he bounded between trees so swiftly that it looked just like flying. This man, alongside Fan Yifei "The Living Monkey" from Henan, Duan Peng "The Civet Cat" from Beiping, and Wang Jinquan "The Pigeon" from Chongqing, was collectively known as the "Four Great Thieves of the Republic." Later on, "The Living Monkey" followed Master Zu, Yan Laoqi followed Tiger Hong, "The Pigeon" was executed by Dai Li, and Duan Peng defected to the Nationalists. After the founding of the New China, Duan Peng sneaked back to the mainland on Chiang Kai-shek's orders to assassinate Mao Zedong, but was captured by Luo Ruiqing, then Minister of Public Security, and executed by firing squad in 1969.

As Tiger Hong made his introductions one by one, Master Zu paid his respects to each of them.

Looking at Tiger Hong's capable generals and elite warriors alongside a troop of over a thousand men, and then thinking back to his own former glory days on the Shanghai Bund, Master Zu felt a pang of sorrow—it was like a minor wizard meeting a great one. From that moment onward, Master Zu firmly renewed his determination to unify the Jiangxiang Sect and restore its past majesty.

Batou and the youngsters were currently eating in the outer hall. Having not tasted meat for a long time, the wild rabbit meat from the mountains tasted exceptionally savory. As they ate, they wondered: What was Master Zu's intention this time, and what would happen next?

"Scholar, why did you hijack the corpse-driving troupe? Hunan and Hubei corpse-driving has a long history; it's an old local custom of ours." Up until this moment, Tiger Hong still did not know the secret behind the Japanese corpse-driving troupes.

Master Zu smiled and said, "Does the commander truly believe that corpses can stand up and walk?"

"Of course not! When a person dies, it's like a lamp going out—just a pile of mud. But corpse-driving craftsmen doing this can comfort the hearts of the deceased's family members. In many things, it's better not to see them too clearly; foolish people are happy. Zheng Banqiao said it best: rare is the state of being muddled." The cultural nature of Tiger Hong's origins as a schoolteacher now showed itself.

"Then has the commander not noticed that the recent corpse-driving troupes have been unusual?" Master Zu asked.

"What's unusual about them? Are there more troupes? With the Japanese devils invading on a massive scale—first the Henan Campaign, followed by the Wuhan Campaign—so many people died, so it's completely normal for corpse-driving troupes to increase," Tiger Hong said.

"Then has the commander ever heard of people using corpse-driving to smuggle opium and silver dollars?" Master Zu asked again.

"Hahahahaha! Of course!"

"And the commander doesn't interfere?"

"Passing through my turf, how could I not interfere? Everyone takes their cut of the tax: Baldy Liu from Western Hunan, Hemp Zhang from Southern Sichuan, Commander Xu of the Central Army, Big Steward Du from Shanghai—aren't these the only ones with a recognized name? East line, west line, the Two Lakes, Southern Guangdong, everyone gets what they're owed. You can't kill the chicken to get the eggs, and you certainly can't push your luck and demand an inch after getting a foot," Tiger Hong said.

"No wonder, no wonder." Master Zu nodded unceasingly.

"No wonder what?"

"No wonder Commander Hong didn't take the corpse-driving troupe seriously. Commander, take a look at what this is?" With that, Master Zu pulled a few maps from his sleeve and handed them to Tiger Hong.

"This is..." Tiger Hong looked slightly puzzled.

"A map of the Two Lakes. Accurate or not?" Master Zu said.

Tiger Hong examined it closely and said, "Without a single hair's breadth of error! Where did this come from?"

Master Zu leaned in close, staring at the map. Suddenly, he pointed his finger at a black circle on it, as if he had discovered something: "Commander... I've just noticed, they've even marked your location..."

"Where?"

"Right here!"

A black circle, inside which two words were written: Over Thousand.

Master Zu picked up the map, nodded involuntarily, and then said: "At first I thought this was just marking the height of the mountain. Just now, when Master Liu brought me to your place, I figured out the general route and position, and looking at this map again, I realized that the location marked by this black circle is precisely your base. The black circle should represent... if you'll pardon my presumption, it should mean 'bandits,' and the two characters 'Over Thousand' refer to the headcount of the commander's troop..."

"Where did this map come from?" Tiger Hong grew a bit anxious. Bandits in the mountains always had three burrows like crafty rabbits, and nothing terrified them more than the exposure of their base.

"Commander, do not be alarmed, just listen to me..." Master Zu laid out the truth about the Japanese corpse-driving troupes one by one.

After listening, Tiger Hong nodded repeatedly and then remarked: "The devils are cunning! Chairman Chiang probably doesn't have the mind, the boldness, or the time for this. How is this war even supposed to be fought!"

"Indeed," Master Zu nodded, "however, I always feel... I always feel..."

"Feel what?" Tiger Hong pressed.

"I feel this map is far more than just a tactical map; perhaps it serves some other purpose. Otherwise, the devils wouldn't have gone to such desperate lengths to dig up my ancestral graves and force me out!" Master Zu said fiercely.

Seeing that Tiger Hong hadn't quite caught on, Master Zu continued: "According to my subordinate brothers, there are many such corpse-driving troupes all across the country—corpse-driving in the South, soul-calling for the dead in the North. It seems... it seems that when these maps are pieced together, there is an even greater purpose."

"An even greater purpose?" Tiger Hong was perplexed. "Isn't drawing tactical maps a big enough deal?"

"I believe that is only one part of it. The devils seem terrified that we might pierce the profound mystery hidden within these maps..." Master Zu said in a deep, grave tone.

Tiger Hong nodded and said, "In that case... Scholar... let us trace this through. The ancients said: 'An artisan must first sharpen his tools if he is to do his work well'; Buddhist scriptures say: 'Every cause has its effect, and every effect has its cause.' Since the devils went to such painstaking efforts to make these maps, they must harbor a grand plot. The map is the cause, and the future conspiracy is the effect; yet cause and effect are continuous, and today's effect is yesterday's cause. Let us carefully examine what unspeakable deeds the devils have committed since invading China, and perhaps we can unearth a clue. Since the Scholar studies the Book of Changes, you must certainly know the Taiji principle of 'there is nothing smaller than its interior, and nothing larger than its exterior.' A single dewdrop can reflect the entire world. Let us trace backward and see what clues we can find..."

Tiger Hong was truly a bandit of scholarly origins—well-read in both ancient and modern lore, his eloquence flowed like a rushing river. Master Zu could not help but feel a surge of admiration.

At this moment, Liu Congyun also put down his wine cup and stepped closer. These three men were all old foxes whose brains spun three times faster than ordinary people. Facing the map concealing profound mysteries, they intended to unravel the monstrous plot of the Japanese invaders.

"The frontlines go without saying: starting from the Three Eastern Provinces, they advanced into Hebei, Shandong, and Henan, and then pushed toward the hinterland of the Two Lakes. At the same time, they were also attacking Shanghai and Southern Guangdong. This fits the devils' strategy for invading China... As for the places they cannot yet reach, they bomb them. After occupying Nanjing, they began the slaughter... All of this is standard strategy and tactics..." Tiger Hong said.

"Indeed. After the fall of Nanjing, Lao Jiang fled to Chongqing... Sigh, Founding Father Dr. Sun Yat-sen simply didn't understand Feng Shui back then. If he had, he never would have established the National Government's capital in Nanjing..." Liu Congyun chimed in.

"How so?" Tiger Hong asked.