Chapter 16 Chapter Fifteen

He Long, Zhou Yiqun and others were walking on the mountain path. The vegetation on both sides of the road was already green under the February spring breeze.The springs and streams in that mountain, Ding Dong rushing, first heard the singing of birds, and then heard the long cry of apes.Look at the red sun turning over the mountain, and the jade rabbit rising to the east in a blink of an eye.Everyone is tired from walking.Zhou Yiqun was not familiar with the terrain in western Hunan, so he asked He Long where he was. He Long said, "Yejiaqiao is 5 miles away. After passing Yejiaqiao, there is an empty tree shell. After passing the empty tree shell, there is Zhuyeping."

He Jinzhai said: "Zhuyeping is guarded by Zhong Shenwu." Zhou Yiqun said, "How about Zhong Shenwu?" He Long said: "When I was the guard envoy of Lizhou, he served as the leader of the Sangzhi Protection Merchant Detachment. Before the Northern Expedition, I allocated him 120 guns and asked him to stay behind in Sangzhi. This man told me loyalty, friendship, and I have a good relationship. I heard from Xu Xiaotong that he became the captain of the Fourth Brigade of Chen Cexun's security regiment, and I guess it was because of Chen's influence." He Jinzhai said: "Commander, why did you save Chen Cexun's life back then?"

He Long said: "He can hide from the first day of junior high school, but he can't hide from the fifteenth day." A few people talked and walked, and they arrived at Yejia Bridge in a short time. At this time, a person came in a hurry, sweating all over his face. When he saw He Long, he said, "Commander, your legs and feet are really fast. I chased you very fast." He Long took a look and saw that the person who came was Zhong Shenwu's brother-in-law Peng Huitian. It turned out that Zhong Shenwu was very happy when he learned that He Long was coming, and he was also worried about He Long's safety. He knew that Chen Cexun and his gang were ruthless and capable of doing anything bad, so he asked his brother-in-law, Peng Huicheng, who opened a shop in the traffic pass. , paying close attention to Chen Cexun's movements; and his brother-in-law Peng Huitian, who is in another main road, Xinchangping, is ready to deliver news at any time.He himself waited at home for the development of the situation.

When Chen Xinru was ordered by Chen Cexun to ambush more than 300 people in the empty shell tree, Zhong Shenwu immediately wrote a letter asking Peng Huidian to take a shortcut to catch up with He Long, and asked He Long and others to avoid the empty shell tree.Peng Huitian immediately went over the mountains and ridges to find a shortcut, and finally caught up with He Long and his party at Yejiaqiao. After reading Zhong Shenwu's letter, He Long held Peng Huitian's hand and said, "I haven't seen Zhong Shenwu for a few years. How is his family and his health?" Peng Huitian said: "Everything is fine, but I was under Chen Cexun's command. I was depressed and wanted to get rid of it. Chen's power was strong, so I had to know that I was not a companion, so I followed him in a hurry. When he heard that the commander-in-chief was coming, he was very happy, so he looked forward to it." Go and meet the Commander-in-Chief."

He Long said to Zhou Yiqun and the others: "Chen Cexun, that idiot, ambushed people in the empty shell tree to catch us. The empty shell tree is the way to go. Let's take the path to Zhuyeping." Peng Huitian said: "Commander, rest your legs first, I will take a step first and tell my brother-in-law to send someone to pick you up." After saying that, he left in a hurry.He Long and the others took a rest at Yejiaqiao and continued on their way.When the crowd was walking on the mountain path, a few people came to meet them. The leader saw He Long, ran over from a long distance, and said loudly, "Yun Qing, I miss you so much!"

He Long saw that it was Zhong Shenwu who came, and immediately stepped forward, held Zhong Shenwu's hand with both hands, looked it up and said, "Shenwu, everything is fine at home!" Zhong Shenwu said: "It's all good, all is good, I just miss you, I dream about you every day, you participated in the Nanchang riots, I was worried for you, and later I heard that you were killed, I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep , I burned a carload of paper for you. When I heard the news of your return, I kowtowed to the sky, thank God for blessing you." He Jinzhai and Zhong Shenwu are also old friends.After the two met, He Long introduced Zhou Yiqun, Huang Bie, Lu Dongsheng and others one by one.

Zhong Shenwu cupped his fists at Zhou Yiqun and the others, and said, "I've heard about the names of the heroes for a long time, and it's a great honor to meet you today." He looked up at the sky and said, "It's getting late, we're coming Let's rest and eat in Pingli." At the moment, Zhong Shenwu led the way, and everyone followed, turned around the mountain pass, crossed the creek, and turned over a mountain pass. After that, another mountain pass was displayed in front of everyone.I saw that the mountain pass was like a bamboo leaf, with dangerous peaks cut by knives on both sides.A gust of wind blows through the mountain pass, making people shudder.So this place is also called "One Line of Sky".

Huang Ao said to Zhong Shenwu: "Brother Zhong, if you weren't here, we would be so sad." Before Zhong Shenwu could speak, He Long said, "Shenwu, let us go, how are you going to deal with Chen Cexun?" Zhong Shenwu said: "When you He Long didn't come, I was afraid of him. When you He Long arrived in Sangzhi today, what am I afraid of him doing?" Everyone talked and laughed and entered Zhuyeping.When we arrived at the brigade headquarters, Zhong Shenwu ordered the orderlies to kill chickens and serve wine, and his subordinates hurried to work.It was not long, and the food was ready, so Zhong Shenwu drank wine with everyone.After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food, Zhong Shenwu said to He Long, "Brother Chang, what do you plan to do when you go back to Sangzhi this time?"

He Long said: "Naturally, it is to pull the team." Zhong Shenwu said: "Brother Chang, I entrust all my troops to you." He Long said: "Very good, but you should stay here first. This place is very important. When I arrive at Hongjiaguan, I will pull up a team and come to you again." Zhong Shenwu nodded.He toasted He Long, Zhou Yiqun and others with a large glass of wine, and then said to He Long: "Brother Chang, I don't understand one thing. Why did you follow the Communist Party? Follow the red head, and when it's over, let the bleak business be over. Many years of capital have been invested in it.”

He Long pointed at Zhou Yiqun and said: "Let our director Zhou tell you about the regulations of the red head, and you will want to be one when you hear it. To put it bluntly, this red head is for the poor, speaks for the poor, and replaces the poor. The poor beat the country." Zhong Shenwu smiled and said: "I understand, the red head is killing the rich and helping the poor." He Jinzhai interrupted and said, "No, killing the rich and helping the poor is something in the green forest, and the goal of the red head is communism." Zhong Shenwu laughed again: "The more you talk about it, the more confused I become. I can't figure out what communism is. Brother Chang, you are right, and I will just follow you."

He Long said: "I left Sangzhi in the ninth year of the Republic of China (1920), and I haven't returned for several years now. Tell me about Sangzhi's situation." Zhong Shenwu sighed and said: "Sangzhi is a place full of disasters. Since you left, the soldiers and bandits have not stopped, Yongshun's Xiao Shantang, Xiang Bifeng, Tian Shaoqing, Xiang Ziyun, Dayong's Zhou Tiebian, The benevolent Zhu Kaiji led their troops to capture Sangzhi City several times, harming the people, and now Chen Cexun and Chen Hei are ruling Sangzhi again." He Long stared and said: "Tian Shaoqing, Xiao Shantang, Xiang Ziyun, Zhou Tiebian, Zhu Scarzi, I will deal with them sooner or later." Zhong Shenwu said: "Nowadays in our area, a gun is the king. Like Xiang Ziyun, now he is the brigade commander under Chen Quzhen, and he always sits in a sedan chair carried by eight people when he goes out." He also said, "You know, our Sang Zhi The county is divided into the inner four townships and the outer four townships. Today the county seat is dominated by Chen Cexun, Liu Ziwei, Zhang Taisong, Li Yushu, and Li Yisan in the inner four townships, and Peng Dexuan, Liu Yujiu, Chen Xinru, and Liu Jinxing in the outer four townships. Each of these 8 people has two or three hundred people under his command. When Chen Cexun arrived in Sangzhi, he hosted a banquet for the eight princes. These eight people saw that he had the seal of official defense, so they went along with the flow and made favors. Chen Cexun gave them all They appointed officials and made a wish, but those officials are empty-handed, and the wish was just to fill them with words. Like me, the captain, Chen Cexun didn’t even give him a dime except for an empty title.” He Long asked: "Which of the eight vassals listen to Chen Cexun?" Zhong Shenwu said: "Liu Ziwei, Chen Hei, Liu Yujiu, these have long had enmity with you, so listen to him. The rest are riding donkeys to read the libretto, wait and see." He Long asked again: "Who is guarding Chenjiaping in front?" Zhong Shenwu said: "Chen Hei was guarding there, and Chen Cexun let out the wind, saying that if I let you He Long go, Chen Hei would catch you in Chenjiaping." He Long raised his eyebrows and said: "Chen Hei is cruel and cruel, so I have to guard against it. I think you should stay with me secretly for a while. When Chen Hei, the wolf, is dozing off, sneak over." He Long He smiled and said, "I came to Sang Zhi to drag the team, how can I let Chen Hei miss my important business." Zhong Shenwu said in embarrassment: "Chen Hei has all the road cards stuck, and there are guards day and night, so he can't get around it." He Long stood up abruptly, and said: "Before Chen Hei expected that we had arrived in Zhuyeping, we rushed to Chenjiaping overnight, gave him a den to dig out wolves, captured Chen Hei, and executed him on the spot. It will stop Sang Zhi and those turtle bastards!" Everyone agrees with He Long's opinion, but how can we catch Chen Hei?He Long said that to arrest Chen Hei, there should not be too many people, and the momentum should not be large.He rolled his eyes and had an idea, and then he stated his plan in detail.After He Long finished speaking, everyone remained silent. Why?It turned out that He Long wanted to single-handedly defeat Chen Hei.You think, He Long wants to venture into this tiger's den, can everyone agree? Zhong Shenwu said: "Take my men and kill Chen Jiaping." He Long shook his head and said: "Chenjiaping is also a place where only one man guards the gate, and ten thousand men cannot open it. As long as there is one squad blocked at the crossing, a division of troops will have no chance of getting past it. Since Chen Hei wants to block us, he must arrange it tightly. If you move your people , Not only can’t get through, but it scares the snake. It’s the best to stab Chen Hei’s heart by surprise. I’m the most suitable for this matter. As long as I show up, I’ll frighten him to the ground.” He Long Standing up while speaking, "It's not too late, I'm leaving now." Seeing that everyone wanted to stop him, he waved his hand and said, "I've made up my mind, you don't need to stop me." Zhou Yiqun said: "If Qing Yun must go, let's study carefully how to deal with it." So, everyone discussed and finally agreed on a plan to catch Chen Hei. After the plan is made, everyone will act according to the plan. He Long changed into a dress hat, put on a blue mandarin jacket, rode a fast horse, and left Zhuyeping. The fast horse ran all the way. In less than two hours, that is, two or more days, he arrived at Chenjiaping. He tied his horse under a tree and went straight to the entrance of the village. At the entrance of the village, several soldiers asked together: "What are you doing?" He Long cupped his fists: "Everyone, I am Captain Zhong's adjutant. I have something important to see with Captain Chen." The soldiers said: "Captains Chen, Xi, Xu, and Hai will not be visiting at 4 o'clock." These 4 hours are calculated according to the heavenly stems.Tiangan is Zichou Yinmaochen Siwu Shenxi Xuhai.Shenxi Xuhai is from 5:00 pm to 11:00 pm.Why doesn't Chen Hei have any guests these few hours?During these few hours, it was the time for him to smoke opium and play with women, so he would not have guests. He Long took out a handful of Guangyang and handed it to several soldiers, saying: "Captain Zhong has an urgent business to tell Captain Chen, you and my brother, whoever misses their important matter, will be unable to eat and walk around." When the soldiers saw Guangyang, they were overjoyed, and one of the little men asked, "What's your name, Adjutant?" He Long said: "Must your surname be Wang." The little man said: "Adjutant Wang, you stay here for a while, I'll go in and report." He Long said: "This information is very urgent. If you don't understand clearly, if Captain Chen doesn't see me, we'll miss something important and we'll have to walk away." Seeing that He Long's head was sweating, the little man asked He Long to go in with him after talking with several people. Chen Hei's team headquarters was set up in the Chen family ancestral hall, and when he reached the entrance of the ancestral hall, the little man said, "Captain Chen is inside." He Long took out a few more Guangyang, stuffed them into the little man's arms, said "thank you", then walked into the ancestral hall, and closed the door casually.The little man was stunned for a while, then retreated, why?He thought of the important matter that Adjutant Wang said was confidential. Since it was confidential, he naturally couldn't listen to it, so he went back to stand guard. When He Long entered the ancestral hall, he saw that the ancestral hall was full of smoke, a pot of charcoal fire was rising in it, and a copper ladle was placed on the lining. Chen Hei was boiling opium in sweat.Due to his concentration, he didn't even hear He Long's footsteps coming in. He Long walked up to Chen Hei and asked, "Why do you still do it yourself? Let the orderly do it." Chen Hei was only concentrating on boiling opium, and when someone asked a question, he answered casually: "The cooking of this stuff depends on fire skills. The orderly has boiled it a few times, and it doesn't hurt." Seeing that he didn't look up, He Long said again: "Captain Chen, He Long is in front of you, do you still have the heart to cook cigarettes? Let He Long go, be careful when Chen Cexun picks your skin." When He Long said this, Chen He raised his head, looked at He Long, and couldn't help but "ahhh", the copper ladle in his hand fell on the fire with a "snap", and with a "bang", the smoke in the copper ladle was ignited. It made the room full of smoke.As the copper ladle fell to the ground, Chen Hei jumped back with a "whoosh" and was about ten feet away from He Long. He Long smiled and said, "What are you afraid of? Aren't you going to catch me, He Long? Now He Long is here." Chen Hei blinked his eyes a few times, then fell to his knees and said, "Commander He, even if you lend me some courage, I don't dare to do so. Please forgive me, Commander." Chen Hei kowtowed, his two The little eye couldn't stop churning, suddenly, Chen Hei jumped forward, he was going to hug He Long's legs, He Long dodged, Chen Hei flew into the air, and fell to the ground, making a dog grab shit.It was too late to say it, but it was so fast, He Long stepped forward, grabbed Chen Hei's neck tightly with both hands, and ruthlessly pushed him to the ground, only holding Chen Hei so that his legs kicked wildly, three times and two times. The ground kicked to the charcoal brazier, and the charcoal fire burned Chen Hei's leg again, making Chen Hei trembling all over, wanting to shout, but biting the ground with his mouth again, unable to shout, it took about the time of touching a bag of cigarettes, Chen Hei His legs straightened, his eyeballs popped out, and his tongue stuck out.He Long took off Chen Hei's pistol from the wall and kicked Chen Hei a few more times. Seeing that Chen Hei was really out of breath, he got dressed and came out.Walking up to the soldiers on guard, he said, "Brother, buy a pack of cigarettes." Seeing how generous Adjutant Wang is, all the soldiers were so happy that they pulled their ears to their ears, nodded with a smile and said: "Adjutant Wang often comes!" After speaking, they put down the suspension bridge. He Long walked out of Chenjiaping and went to the forest where the horses were tied. He saw Zhou Yiqun and others were here. Seeing He Long coming, they all went up to greet him. Before everyone could speak, He Long said: "Chen Hei has already seen the King of Hades." After hearing this, everyone praised He Long for his courage. Huang Ao exclaimed: "It's really better to be famous than to meet each other. Only today I know the prestige of the army commander." Zhou Yiqun laughed and said, "Chen Hei, a nameless rat, is fighting Yun Qing with an egg against a rock?" Then, everyone followed the agreed plan and started the second step.Zhong Shenwu immediately sent people to the nearby hills and fired guns indiscriminately.At this time, it was already the third watch, and the night in the mountains was originally quiet, and with the echo of the bullets in the valley, for a while, it really seemed like there were thousands of troops. The sound of gunfire alarmed the bandit soldiers in Chenjiaping, and those soldiers also opened their guns to embolden them.After this fight, the bullets screamed indiscriminately, and I don't know how many people came to tackle the problem.Chen Hei had an adjutant who heard the gunshots and rushed to report to Chen Hei.When he pushed open the gate of the ancestral hall, he saw that the room was dark with lights, and there was a smell of burnt fire. He hurriedly lit the fire to take a look. The sight was so important that he was so frightened that he almost collapsed on the ground. He saw Chen Hei's eyeballs popped out, half of his tongue stuck out, and one foot was scorched by the charcoal fire, emitting oily smoke hissing.The adjutant ran out of the room in a hurry and shouted: "It's not good, Captain Chen has been killed!" When the soldiers heard that Chen Hei had been killed, they were all terrified.As soon as the soldiers guarding the suspension bridge heard that Chen Hei had been killed, they immediately understood. The little man said, "Could it be that He Long's men are here?" When the little man said this, the soldiers all said: "It must be He Long." The little man said: "It is said that He Long is a god, who can change in seventy-two ways. He probably heard that our captain is going to arrest him, and he will change into it. Killed the captain, the one who fired the gun on the mountain is probably his magic soldier, we have no hatred or hatred with him, he can't bear to kill us, buddies, we can't stay here anymore, run away!" The little man ran away as soon as he said that, and those soldiers followed suit, and someone shouted at the top of his voice: "Run! He Long's magical soldiers are here, and they will die if they are late!" Chen Hei's soldiers were originally a mob, and when they heard that He Long had brought the divine soldiers, they immediately ran away.At dawn, He Long and others occupied Chenjiaping, took a rest, and then set off again. Zhong Shenwu said goodbye to everyone with tears.He Long and the others strode away and headed towards Hongjiaguan via Ranjiaping, Tangxiyu, Maidiping and Meijiaqiao. As they were walking, Su Zisan rushed over. He was ordered by Xu Xiaotong to report to He Long. Li Shen, commander of the 43rd Army of the Guizhou Army stationed in Cili, heard the news that He Long had arrived in Jiangya. Long Yuren was sent to chase after the starry night, and the soldiers and horses had arrived at Jiangya. After hearing this, He Long thanked Su Zisan and moved on.Go to Hongjiaguan via Ranjiaping, Tangxiyu, Maidiping and Meijiaqiao. On February 22, 1928 (the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar), the day when the dragon raised its head, He Long and his party arrived at Hongjiaguan.At this point in the book, the author should introduce the situation of Sang Zhi.