A Prophet - Chapter 5 (Part 2)
Chapter 2 - The Nationalist Highest Command's Annihilation Directive
After putting on a disguise, the Patriarch took several other members and headed down the mountain. Weaving back and forth, the Patriarch unexpectedly led everyone right back toward the location where yesterday's grand assembly had been held.
The Second Hall Master was dumbfounded when he saw this and hastily asked, "Patriarch, why have we come back here? That incident happened right here just yesterday."
The Patriarch smiled and said, "Where do you think is the safest place right now?"
The Second Hall Master replied, "Home. Back to our own hall."
The Patriarch said, "Wrong! This place is the safest!"
The Second Hall Master was completely bewildered.
The Third Hall Master caught on, saying, "The Patriarch is right! We were just captured right here yesterday—those people would never in their wildest dreams expect us to dare come back!"
The Patriarch continued, "This time, the regular army was dispatched to suppress Master Qin, and I have a strong feeling there are big figures behind it. We know absolutely nothing about the other side's situation, so we must handle everything with the utmost caution!"
With that, the Patriarch instructed everyone to spread out while he hoisted a medicine banner, looking entirely like a wandering folk doctor. As he walked, he called out, "Miraculous hands bringing the spring back, specializing in all injuries from falls and blows! The bean sprouts emerge, the old empty and the old wide are gone."
This was a secret code. Typically, after a hall "jumped the field" and decided to re-enter the underworld rivers, they would shout slogans like this in regions where members gathered. The phrase contained several underworld slang terms: "bean" referred to young women and female members; "sprout" referred to young men and male members; both "old empty" and "old wide" referred to opponents. The emphasis of this saying lay in the second half, telling everyone that the wind had blown over and members could reopen for business.
Before long, a white-haired old man walked up to meet the Patriarch. "Does the gentleman possess a family-inherited secret prescription?"
The Patriarch smiled and said, "A single imperial prescription from my ancestors brings ten thousand generations of blessings to enjoy."
The old man chuckled. "Follow me, sir, and take a look at my young son's leg."
The Patriarch then turned into an alley with the old man, and the rest of the members followed closely behind in single file.
That old man was none other than Qian Yuelin in disguise, made up to look like a man in his seventies or eighties. The few words the Patriarch had whispered into his ear last night were instructions telling him that he could lead the brothers back to the scene of the incident—which was temporarily the safest place—and then everyone would rendezvous using the secret code. Why whisper? Because the Patriarch didn't know whether there might be a double agent among the low-ranking members present at the time. The Patriarch had also instructed Qian Yuelin to keep an eye on every single low-ranking member and forbid anyone from wandering around.
Entering a concealed room, the Patriarch looked around to find everyone present except for Qin Baichuan. The Patriarch couldn't help but frown. "Still no news of Master Qin?"
Everyone shook their heads.
The Patriarch wasn't afraid of Qin Baichuan dying so much as he feared him being captured by the Nationalist Military Statistics Bureau. Because they still hadn't figured out what the other side really wanted to do, if their goal was to eradicate the entire "Jiangxiang Faction," capturing Qin Baichuan would inevitably lead to a round of brutal torture. Once the tiger bench and chili water were deployed together, if Qin Baichuan couldn't hold out and confessed everything, all four major halls would be utterly screwed! The Patriarch would actually prefer that Qin Baichuan had been shot dead in the chaos.
Over the years, what the Patriarch had always worried about most was the "Dragon Beard Sprout" hall managed by Qin Baichuan of the Western Faction. Qin Baichuan took strides that were too large; he had courage, was ruthless enough, and was smart enough to mingle seamlessly with various western warlords and government VIPs. This was both a blessing and a curse! The Patriarch had never advocated for the "Jiangxiang Faction" to get too close to the Kuomintang. Although benefits were shared, conflicts always arose eventually, and once others knew you inside and out, wiping you out became all too easy.
In private, the Patriarch had warned Qin Baichuan before, but Qin Baichuan wouldn't listen and instead looked down on the Patriarch somewhat. It wasn't that he hadn't considered the things the Patriarch worried about; he was simply too confident. He had said, "I have already bleached myself white! Hardly anyone thinks I'm a fake!"
This statement wasn't false. Qin Baichuan excelled at gambling scams and orchestrated setups to perfection, blending truth with falsehood and falsehood with truth until the fake became indistinguishable from the real, to the extent that many Nationalist political elites genuinely believed he possessed true capabilities. A clear illustration of this was when his master, Liu Congyun, was exposed by Liu Xiang and hunted down; not only did Qin Baichuan refuse to jump the field alongside him, but he even propped the hall back up. The reason was that numerous members of the Military Statistics Bureau were protecting him.
He managed to spin Liu Congyun being hunted down as an internal political struggle, implying that it wasn't that Liu Congyun's divination wasn't accurate, but rather that it was too accurate. Liu Congyun had long been Liu Xiang's right-hand man, and someone grew jealous, wanting to poach Liu Congyun away from Liu Xiang. Fearing he wouldn't be able to keep Liu Congyun, Liu Xiang had been driven to murderous intent.
Aside from a handful of veteran members within the hall who knew Qin Baichuan's rise to prominence, everyone else had been blinded by the illusion, believing him to be the true grand immortal who truly understood the Book of Changes following Liu Congyun.
Yet a fake was ultimately a fake, echoing the Patriarch's words: "Men act, and Heaven watches." Qin Baichuan had finally caught the eye of the Military Statistics Bureau. The full story behind the whole affair was later uncovered by Jiang Feiyan.
After consulting with Qian Yuelin that day, the Patriarch had decided: given the current confusing and obscure situation, all four major halls would collectively jump the field! Without orders, no one was permitted to open a setup!
One month later, the Patriarch accompanied Jiang Feiyan back to southern Guangdong. The Patriarch understood that Jiang Feiyan maintained close ties with several figures in the Military Statistics Bureau, and if they wanted to find out exactly what kind of hornet's nest Qin Baichuan had poked, Jiang Feiyan was the only one capable of digging up the news.
The connections Jiang Feiyan had cultivated over many years exerted their power at this very moment. A few days later, a major general from the Military Statistics Bureau sent word. Hearing this news was one thing, but upon learning the details, both the Patriarch and Jiang Feiyan broke out in cold sweats.
The Patriarch's initial judgment had been correct! When the regular army captured Qin Baichuan alive that day, it wasn't as simple as the old matter of Liu Congyun swindling money—this was an annihilation directive issued directly from the highest echelons of the Nationalist government! The entire incident stemmed from a batch of military funds.
By the stalemate stage of the War of Resistance, Nationalist finances were already stretched to the limit. Compounded by rampant corruption and inflation, the situation left the populace destitute and seething with public grievance. The "Joint Board of the Four Government Banks," the top wartime financial institution of the Nationalists, fabricated various pretexts to implement a slew of policies and systems that squeezed the blood and sweat of the common people, ultimately pushing the national economy to the brink of collapse.
In the spring of 1943, funds were finally scraped together with great difficulty to serve as military pay, but someone filed a report revealing that a massive chunk of this money had inexplicably vanished. Chiang Kai-shek flew into a rage and demanded a thorough investigation! Later, an operative from the Military Statistics Bureau provided a clue that dropped Chiang's jaw in utter astonishment: it turned out that a certain high-ranking official in charge of finance had diverted these funds to adjust the feng shui and alter the great destiny of his own family estate. The feng shui master responsible for this was named Qin Baichuan.
Chiang Kai-shek was also an avid enthusiast of traditional Chinese culture. Upon hearing of this, he initially assumed it must be some lofty master or immortal. When he inquired further, he discovered that this Qin Baichuan was actually a disciple of Liu Congyun, the swindler who had defrauded Liu Xiang years ago!
Until that moment, certain individuals within the Military Statistics Bureau were still speaking up for Qin Baichuan: "This man is different from Liu Congyun; he has genuine skills."
Hearing this, Chiang flew into such a rage that he slammed his palm against the desk. "Motherfucker! Are you people pig-brained? The upper beam is crooked, causing the lower ones to slant—can a swindler's disciple be a good person? Investigate this thoroughly, follow the vine to unearth the melons, and wipe the entire lot of them out!"
Chiang Kai-shek was furious, and the Military Statistics Bureau straightened up. However, the complex network of relationships Qin Baichuan had woven over many years was intricate, and factionalism ran rampant within the Military Statistics Bureau; those assigned to investigate the matter didn't dare act rashly. They originally intended to plant a spy inside Qin Baichuan's inner circle, but Qin Baichuan kept tight surveillance on new inductees, making infiltration impossible for the time being. Consequently, the Military Statistics Bureau sent operatives to stake him out and track his movements constantly. As it happened, Qin Baichuan had traveled to Xinjiang during that period, disappearing without a trace for months on end. The Military Statistics Bureau operatives even assumed Qin Baichuan possessed eyes that reached the heavens and divine foresight, having gone into hiding himself.
When the surveillance operatives spotted Qin Baichuan again, it coincided precisely with the four major halls holding their grand assembly. Seeing Qin Baichuan walk into a residential dwelling, the operatives hurried to transmit the news back to the Military Statistics Bureau.
The Military Statistics Bureau had no clear grasp of why Qin Baichuan went there or who else was present, but they felt this opportunity could not be missed. They decided to close the net, dispatching a company of soldiers with orders to capture Qin Baichuan alive. They planned to subject him to severe torture to extract whether he had accomplices, and then sweep them all away in one fell swoop.
The Military Statistics Bureau never dreamed in their wildest dreams that the people attending the meeting that day were the core figures of the "Jiangxiang Faction," gathering the bosses of all the swindlers across the country. Had they known that everyone they were looking for was assembled right there, they never would have bothered trying to "capture Qin Baichuan alive"—they would have wheeled out artillery pieces long ago and blown the place to smithereens!
The Military Statistics Bureau had missed a golden opportunity to end the destiny of the "Jiangxiang Faction"!
Later, during the Japanese air raid, all the captured individuals escaped, forcing the Military Statistics Bureau operatives to rush to the "Dragon Beard Sprout" hall, where they arrested the remaining hall master assistants and low-ranking members holding down the fort. Only after subjecting them to brutal torture did they realize they had missed the ultimate opportunity, leaving them full of regret and too late to salvage it!
What angered Chiang Kai-shek even more was that Qin Baichuan had also escaped, leaving behind no sign of life or corpse.
Where on earth had Qin Baichuan gone?
Half a year later, the Patriarch finally tracked Qin Baichuan down again—or rather, Qin Baichuan found the Patriarch.
After the four major halls jumped the field, everyone had retreated to the countryside. The Patriarch also returned to his hometown and rarely showed his face thereafter, occasionally venturing onto the streets only after prior disguise. One day, the Patriarch was patrolling the streets with the "Wind-Hand" when someone suddenly approached from behind and tapped the Patriarch on the shoulder. "Patriarch!"
Startled, the Patriarch looked closely and, despite the other person's disguise, immediately recognized him as Qin Baichuan! "Master Qin!"
Glancing around cautiously, the Patriarch lowered his voice and said, "This is no place to talk. Follow me."
Upon reaching the Patriarch's private sanctuary, the Patriarch asked happily, "Master Qin, where on earth did you go? You had the brothers worried sick!"
As it turned out, during the enemy aircraft bombing that day, Qin Baichuan had run for his life toward the mountains with every ounce of strength he had. Possessing a robust physique, he ran fast and vanished without a trace in no time. However, because his hands were tied behind his back at the time, being bound threw off his balance; the faster he ran, the easier it was to trip. In his frantic flight, he carelessly slipped down a ravine roughly ten meters deep, saving his life only because a mass of vines cushioned his fall halfway down. Even so, the impact knocked him unconscious. He lay comatose in the ravine for two days until a heavy downpour jolted him awake. Regaining his composure, he figured out where he was, found a protruding stone ridge to saw through the ropes binding his wrists, and struggled mightily to climb back out of the ravine.
Once he climbed out and cleared his head, carefully reviewing the whole chain of events, he finally realized something was amiss. The independent regiment commander's demand for his defrauded money likely had nothing to do with the operation to arrest him; the two events had simply collided by coincidence. He knew that based on his prestige in Sichuan, a mere regimental commander wouldn't dare move against him.
Qin Baichuan was extremely clever. He first sought out a farming family to fill his stomach, then traded silver for several sets of old clothes, put on a disguise, and snuck back to observe near his own hall at night, only to discover the hall had been sealed off. Sensing the severity of the situation—someone higher up was clearly gunning for him—and finding that the Patriarch and the others had already departed without leaving anyone he could contact, he dug up some silver bullion he had personally stashed away in the woods outside the city and fled overnight to hide in the countryside.
Half a year later, when the political wind had died down somewhat, he traveled downriver to the Jiang-Huai region to find the Patriarch, only to discover the Patriarch's hall was gone as well. He sensed that things were looking extremely ominous!
In the past, various halls had experienced jumping the field, and he knew that after doing so, the Patriarch would generally return to his hometown. He didn't know the exact location of the Patriarch's hometown; he only knew the name of a certain town—and even this piece of information was something only grand senior masters were qualified to know, while hall assistants and low-ranking members had zero eligibility to touch such information. With no other options left at the time, he had no choice but to wander the streets near the Patriarch's hometown in hopes of running into him. After wandering for a full week, he finally bumped into the Patriarch.
After the Patriarch relayed the intelligence gathered from Jiang Feiyan's end to Qin Baichuan, the latter broke out in a cold sweat before finally lowering his head to say, "Patriarch, it is I who implicated everyone."
The Patriarch replied, "Master Qin speaks too heavily! Family members do not speak of such estranged matters! Reconciling with you as brothers is the greatest joy! Stay at my place for the time being, Master Qin, and let us enjoy wine and conversation!"
In 1945, Japan surrendered in defeat, and the War of Liberation began to unfold. Having completely lost the hearts of the people, the Kuomintang suffered defeat after defeat. The Military Statistics Bureau (later reorganized as the Confidential Bureau) no longer possessed the energy to investigate matters concerning the "Jiangxiang Faction."
Seeing that the timing had matured, the Patriarch consulted the other three grand senior masters and officially announced the "Jiangxiang Faction's" return to the underworld rivers! Consequently, the four major halls recruited troops and purchased horses, and their days flourished once again.
This conflict with the Military Statistics Bureau could be described as dangerous yet ultimately uneventful. The "Wind-Hand" gained an even deeper appreciation of the Patriarch's wisdom through it. Foolish people look at appearances, while clever people look at substance. The twenty-one-year-old "Wind-Hand" was a clever man; he had perceived the Patriarch's underlying intent to drive Qin Baichuan toward death's door. The one who also perceived this profound mystery was Qin Baichuan himself, and from that moment onward, the seeds of vengeance were buried deep within Qin Baichuan's heart.