A Chinese Story

Chapter 1: Summer 1937 National Crisis

Summer 1937, A young man watches the river flow in their small little village in Hubei province, he ponders of what lies beyond it, he thinks of what go beyond the river, what world goes out in the forest, he heard of stories from friends who came back from the forest, but he thought they were just folktale and nothing more, "Jiao(角), we have to back, our mothers are probably looking for us." Said his friend beside him, Ren Wei Jiao (任伟角) is the protagonist of our story and the young man calling him was Peng Liao Wei(彭廖伟) his childhood friend, both of them scurried back to the little village just in time for lunch, Jiao's mother scolds the two for running off making the dinner cold as they arrived late, "I told you boys not to run off before lunch, I'll tell your mother too Wei!" she said sternly, but the young men did not care, as they were still making theories as to what lied ahead of the forest, after they ate their lunch, the pair went to the village square and decided to ask the local merchants for stories of the outside, the merchants obliged as this a common routine the boys did on a daily basis, "When you go over there in the near future, there is endless opportunity to get rich!" said one of the merchants, greatly exaggerating the events he tells, in reality, it was the summer of 1937, the Republic of China was in a great national crisis, most of northern China has been invaded by the Imperial Japanese Army, and the province of Manchuria was created into a Japanese puppet state named The Empire of Manchukuo, and the whole country was embroiled in civil war even before the national crisis, economically, China were just recovering from the Great Depression, and still was economically controlled the western powers, normal Chinese people couldn't get the same type of opportunities westerners living in the concessions had, and there was racial tension the air, but that didn't matter to the boys, they believed the merchant and they promised themselves once they have an opportunity, they wouldn't take it for granted, an opportunity was coming, it wasn't in the way they expected it to come, as Jiao and Wei walked back to their homes men in summer green uniforms with guns strapped to their back suddenly ambushed the pair, before they could even think, one of the men hit Jiao in the stomach with the butt of his rifle, "Hey stop! Don't hurt him!" Yelled Wei, but the men didn't listen of even care, as Wei was struck in the head by the butt of a gun too, he soon fell to the ground as the men tied them up and placed them into their bandwagon, with the other men captured roped to the back of the wagon and only forced to walk, the pair were dazed they didn't know what to do, "Wei are you alright?" Jiao asked anxiously, even though he got hit in the liver and stomach, Wei was hit the worse in the head, "I'm alright." Replied Wei "My head hurts, but right now I'm more concerned with our destination." soon the horse driven bandwagon crossed the river, the pair had realized they were going out of the village, and were now concerned, "Hey wait! were are we going?!" asked Wei "Quiet! or We'll leave you for dead!" replied one the men in horseback, with what they've experienced the pair knew it was best to keep their mouths shut for the rest of the trip, meanwhile a 200,000 strong Japanese Army was advancing as the Chinese forces in the area were retreating as the only major resistance was in the west, on the other hand, the Japanese were preparing something much more bigger, their new target was the Paris of the east, Shanghai.