Chapter 2: Sharpening the Sword (One)

"Yes, Brother Zhang, don't refuse. We are still waiting to learn how to shoot from you?!" Several other teenagers who followed Zhang Songling and rolled on the brink of death also came forward and begged with anticipation. After several days of fighting, Zhang Songling's performance had completely convinced them, making them eager to start learning from their masters now, hoping to be like the former in the future.

"I,." Zhang Songling was still hesitant. When he was the deputy company deputy in the secret service regiment, he had the support of the regiment elder Gou, and it still took a long time to let the veterans in the company accept him. Now that he has arrived at the Lamagou guerrillas, he has neither too much credit nor a tough backstage, and has entered the leadership core of the team at once, and he may face more challenges.

"That's it. A man is a real man, not so many mother-in-law." Hongbei didn't give him a third chance to refuse. Her arm slammed on his shoulder and announced loudly, "Everyone listened, this is Captain Zhang of our third squadron. He can fight, is educated, and is particularly responsible. Anyone who wants to kill a few Japanese in the future, ask him more advice. Don't be embarrassed. He is a top student who graduated from Shandong National No. 1 Middle School."

"I know." A warm response sounded from the crowd, not only because of the efforts Zhang Songling made for the entire guerrillas, but also because of his knowledge, you should know that those who can finish junior high school on the grassland are already considered cultural people. Zhang Songling graduated from National High School, which is equivalent to the scholars or even juren in the past. No matter where he goes, he should be looked up to him.

"If you know, just applaud." Hongbei opened her voice and continued to incite, fearing that the attitudes shown by her brothers were not enthusiastic enough, leaving any shadow in Zhang Songling's heart.

"Welcome, welcome, raise your hands and feet to welcome." The guerrillas laughed and applauded hard. Even if they pulled the wound, they grinned in pain.

Red Beard nodded with satisfaction and pulled Zhang Songling to another person, "You have seen our guerrilla cadres before, so I won't introduce them to you one by one. Come and meet me, he was my good brother in the Northeast Army back then, and now he is the boss of the Anheng Yan Gang, and Yan Boss Yan, our guerrilla team can turn defeat into victory this time, but it's a thank you to him that he came in time."

"Looking for a long time." Seeing outsiders present, Zhang Songling didn't want to brush his red beard's face, turned around and bowed to the shopkeeper Yan of the Anheng Yan Gang with the etiquette.

"Don't listen to Lao Wang's nonsense. I'm just a hawker who resells private salt. I can't be called a big shopkeeper." The person introduced by Red Beard was a strange man in his early forties. He was wearing a gray double-breasted cotton coat and a black felt hat. At first glance, he looked like a rich man from Shanxi, but as soon as he spoke, his voice showed a strong sense of rank. "It's your Zhang Songling's name. I've been listening to it all the way for more than ten days, and I almost didn't calluse my ears. I thought I would never have a chance to see the true face of a hero in my life, but I didn't expect to meet you here."

"Boss Yan is joking. If you are a hawker, none of the salt industry in Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Henan provinces dare to claim to be a big deal!" Zhang Songling smiled again, complimenting very experiencedly, and at the same time, he glanced at the crowd around him again with the corner of his eyes.

I didn't know if I didn't look at it, but I was shocked when I saw it. When he combined the secretly observed results with the previous words of Red Beard, the situation in front of me was a little shocking.

Standing nearby with the guerrillas, almost everyone was wearing a dirt-gray double-breasted cotton coat without any injuries. There were some strange figures in the distance who were carefully checking the bodies of each Japanese and horse thief. They were also wearing dirt-gray double-breasted cotton coats. The total number of people on both sides was 300, which was far beyond the scale of the guerrillas before the war began.

Boss Yan was also stunned by Zhang Songling's youth and old age. He was stunned and asked with a smile, "Why, Brother Zhang has heard of our Anheng Salt Industry before. Your words have a slightly Shanxi accent. Could it be that the elders in the family also came to the west?"

"My family is in the southern part of Shandong. Before the war started, I traveled back and forth several times every year. Of course, it is impossible that I have never heard of the famous Anheng Salt Industry." Zhang Songling shook his head and ignored the other party's temptation without a trace.

"No wonder I felt kind as soon as I saw my little brother. It turned out to be a fellow traveler." Boss Yan's brow jumped gently, and quickly gave up and continued to ask Zhang Songling's heels.

"That's not the case. When I see your old outfit, I feel familiar." Zhang Songling also quietly withdrew his tentacles and smiled and perfunctorily.

He had never heard of the Anheng Salt Gang before, but he was not unfamiliar with the lake salt transactions on the Mongolian grasslands. According to his father and brother who often went out of the gate, there was a large salt lake deep in the grassland called Bashang. At night, the lake water would automatically produce white salt blocks like snowflakes. The colder the weather, the simpler the salt texture. Therefore, vendors who trade lakes and salt always took trucks of goods to the grassland when autumn was approaching, and sold the goods to Han towns and Mongolian tribes outside the gates. Before reaching the lake, the goods were sold out, and only empty trucks were left. Then they filled the empty trucks with salt blocks condensed from the lake surface and quickly returned south before the first snow fell.

Since the smell and appearance of lake salt are slightly stronger than sea salt, and there is no need to pay any cost to chisel salt from the lake surface, the profits of lake salt trading are extremely rich. Basically, one truck of goods is freed and one truck of salt is enough to spend several years on participants. However, huge profits often mean huge risks. For lake salt smuggling businessmen not only have to face the snowstorm that will drop on the grassland at any time, but they can directly freeze the horses that are walking, but also have to deal with all the horse thieves along the way, the prince's private soldiers, the official tax collectors, tax police, and over time, the private salt dealers who run single gangs and small temporary teams were all eliminated. The remaining few are all large-scale, with strong backers and sharp knifes, and no one dares to come forward to provoke them easily.

In other words, the so-called Anheng Salt Gang is actually an armed smuggling gang with deep background, specializing in smuggling grassland lake salt into the pass, and then rushing to buy some valuable materials that ordinary vendors dare not touch on to enter the grassland. Unlike other Green Forest heroes, the Salt Gang will not actively attack anyone they meet on the way, nor will it rely on the force in their hands to loot. However, if someone dares to come to the door to provoke, the Salt Gang will never retreat and tolerate. It would rather risk the entire army to be wiped out and fight with the provocationists to lose both sides.

Therefore, when the grassland horse thieves go out to "do business", they usually take the initiative to detour when they encounter large-scale salt gangs, so as not to kick the iron plate, and they will not get any advantage, but will hurt their muscles. Even if the salt gang is large, they will not take the initiative to tease the horse thieves, in order to prevent all the entire grassland green forest road from sharing the same hatred and end up losing their personal wealth.

However, those small-scale vendors who enter the grassland to do business in summer hope to meet a salt gang when they return south, and follow the team with a stern face to get through. Usually, the salt gang will not forcibly expel the hawkers' tricks when they find out the tricks of the hawkers, and they will not forcibly expel them. Anyway, there are not many hawkers who dare to delay on the grassland until late autumn before returning south every year. Even if they do a good deed, they will accumulate good deeds for themselves and their families.

However, today, the behavior of the Anheng Salt Gang is obviously not in line with the legendary rules. Under the leadership of Boss Yan, it joined forces with the Lamagou guerrillas to defeat all the horse thieves recruited by the Japanese devils. Undoubtedly, this behavior destroyed the tacit understanding between the entire smuggling lake salt business and all the grassland horse thieves. Once this matter is exploited by those who are interested, I am afraid that the Anheng Salt Gang will never be able to travel back and forth like before in the future. It is even likely that the horse thieves from all over the country will be regarded as the number one target of attack and will completely lose the qualification to enter the grassland.

"How come Red Beard has friends everywhere, and they can fight for him desperately," Zhang Songling secretly muttered in his heart. He heard Red Beard say that the Lamagou guerrillas had invited foreign aid, but he was not surprised. After all, the Eighth Route Army could not only send one team to infiltrate the grassland. The situation of friendly forces was dangerous, and other brother troops rushed over to help. It was a matter of duty, and there was no need to make a fuss.

However, he never expected that the guerrilla foreign aid was a group of salt owls who happened to pass here. What he didn't expect was that in order to help Red Beard, this group of salt owls actually ignored their future business and would rather give up a trade route and make a huge source of money that would earn thousands of yuan a year.

"This is the last time our Anheng Salt Industry has come to the grassland." As if he guessed what Zhang Songling was thinking, Boss Yan turned his head and said goodbye to Hongbei calmly. "The major shareholder has made enough money. I don't want the guys to risk being frozen to death on the road again. So, if you want to help in the future, I can't be so coincidental. Brother, please do it yourself. Remember to ask someone to send me a message when you have time. Brother, I will always be thinking about you. If life is really difficult, I will kill the way back to the south to find me. Brother, I will just have a bite of food, and I will not let your brother's people go hungry."

"Then I'll remember it." Red Beard still looked like a hero from the world, and he was calm in everything. "Brother, please leave. Remember to come to me often if you have the chance."

"I will definitely come if I have the chance." Boss Yan smiled and turned around, shouting at all the people wearing gray cloth coats with double-breasted clothes: "Have you rested enough? If you rested enough, get on the horse. Leave all the seized today to me, Brother Wang. Let's go to the little willow tree to pick up the cart and go home."
Chapter completed!