The Songhu War of Resistance lasted for three months, the national army was defeated in Shanghai, followed by the fall of Wuxi and Changzhou, the Jiangyin fortress was lost, Nanjing was defended for only two days before falling into the hands of the enemy, the Japanese army entered the city and slaughtered, and the newspapers said that hundreds of thousands of people died. In the blink of an eye, in the twenty-seventh year of the Republic of China, the prediction of the autumn came true, Han Fuyu could not resist the Japanese army, and left without a fight, the front gate of the northern section of Jinpu Road was opened, the Japanese army drove straight in, the north and south attacked, the first battle of Taierzhuang, the national army annihilated the enemy with a weak division, and after all, it was still impossible to keep the country, on May 19, the 13th Division of the Japanese Central China Dispatch Army drove into Xuzhou.

On the eve of the Japanese army entering the city, Zhiqiu took his family to hide in the countryside Zhao Jinjie's house, he was afraid that the Japanese army would kill like in Nanjing, and slaughter Xuzhou, but Zhao Jinjie was not afraid, every day he played a pot of Yaowan mung bean roast, got some peanuts and tofu skin, picked two tender cucumbers on the shelf and patted them, and Zhiqiu drank against each other, and scolded when he was drunk. The Zhao family is a big family, since his grandfather's generation, there are more than a dozen fast guns at home, but Zhiqiu feels that living here is more dangerous than in the city, and when the situation in Xuzhou is stable, he moved his family back, and on the day he returned to the city, Changping turned one year old.

The fall of Xuzhou did not experience a vicious battle, but the city is still very chaotic, the Liu family mansion was ransacked, the old clothes, bedding and stupid furniture that were not taken away are all gone, only the copper frame bed sent by Chunbao is safe and sound, this bed is imported from the United Kingdom, using a metal mortise and tenon structure, ordinary people can't understand, can't be disassembled, the whole bed is too heavy to move, so it survived, just left a lot of traces of slashing and axe. Zhiqiu remembered that winter, when he and the Chunbao brothers were fighting a bed in the house, and said in his heart how good it would be if he didn't fight.

There is no furniture at home can not live, Zhiqiu went to the Taipingwa on the west bank of the Yellow River to buy old furniture, but really found his own lost cupboard, spent a little money to redeem the furniture, of course, can not buy all the original, he spent a dollar to receive two official hats and chairs, it seems to be the things of Li Wu's family next door, Uncle Li Wu is rich, and took his family to Hankou, and the big courtyard of Jiujin is so deserted.

Within a few days, two soldiers suddenly stood at the gate of the Li family's compound, straw yellow tweed uniforms, high-waisted yellow leather shoes, stocky figures, bayonet guns taller than people, the bayonets on the guns were old and long, dazzling white light in the sun, making people dizzy when they saw it, and the Japanese were neighbors.

Sure enough, the uninvited guest came to the door, this person's surname is Park, he is a Korean, he can speak Japanese, Korean and Chinese, his accent has a northeast flavor, and the Fengjun soldiers stationed in Xuzhou more than ten years ago are very close, Park Translator said, tomorrow at eight o'clock in the morning, Nishikujo Taijun will come to the palace to pay a visit, please Mr. Liu must be at home to wait.

After the interpreter left, Zhiqiu asked Jiahui to discuss countermeasures, Jiahui said that the soldiers would block the water and cover the earth, the Japanese would give him whatever they wanted, things were worthless, and human lives could not be bought back with money, Zhiqiu said that it was only like this, he did not dare to tell his mother, the family spent the night in panic, Zhiqiu got up early, put on a long shirt, and prepared tea.

At eight o'clock in the morning, Translator Park came to the door on time with a Japanese officer, he introduced that this is Nishikujo Shaoza, the commander of the military medical department, in the summer of August, wearing a sweatshirt is hot, this Nishikujo Shaozo is wearing a thick tweed military uniform, black high riding boots, the collar of the military uniform is very high, the upper edge of the two turquoise swallowtail collars can be vaguely seen snow-white shirt collars, white gloves, saber sonorous, snapping upright, leaning forward slightly, saluting to Zhiqiu, meticulous style makes Zhiqiu shocked, if the Japanese soldiers are all such people, China is afraid that it will not be able to win.

Nishikujo Shaozo said a lot, Zhiqiu could only understand two words "Liu Sang", and Pu Translator said that His Excellency Shaozuo wants to rent your house as a military hospital ward, and give you three days to move, and the rent is fifty yuan per month, do you hear clearly?

Zhiqiu did not dare to refuse, nor did he dare to bargain, and the meeting ended like this, this was the first time Zhiqiu saw Nishikujo, and it was also the last, and it is said that this person died in Hunan in less than two years.

The Japanese gave three days to move, Zhiqiu rented three rooms in Tongren Lane at the west end of Shaohua Street, pulled the only remaining belongings with a flat car, and walked around the house three times alone, this is the house that my father won in a martial arts competition thirty years ago, it was a legend, a good story, and now this house is about to be buried in their own hands, the Japanese forcibly rented it to be a military hospital, how can there be a reason to return, here a grass and a tree, a brick and a tile, countless bits and pieces of memory, will be gone forever.

Zhiqiu made an extravagant move, he wanted the whole family to take a photo with the house, as the last memorial, the new light photo studio came to a master, set up a camera on the other side of the river, Liu Shao was sad, unwilling to take pictures, Zhiqiu hugged Changping, Jiahui stood aside, several other children or standing or sitting, the cool breeze, horizontal like a mirror, the reeds by the pond swayed gently, the camera on the opposite bank emitted a puff of white smoke, this scene was forever frozen.

After moving, Zhiqiu found a clerk in Mashi Street Primary School, at this time Shuyang County's five hectares of land has been occupied, Zhiqiu has no ability to claim back, fortunately, the meager monthly salary plus rent income of fifty yuan, can also support a family, he has a good face, knowing that Chunbao has to maintain a large family in Shanghai, embarrassed to beg for money frequently, whenever he feels sad, he takes the erhu in the yard to pull Erquan Yingyue, Jiahui understands his thoughts, quietly wrote a letter to Shanghai, and in a few days, more or less, Chun Bao will remit a sum of money to solve the urgent need, the fiat currency is depreciating day by day, the thousands of dollars that were originally invested in the stock have become worthless to three cents, and now the remittance is actually Chun Bao to support their money, every time from the post office to redeem the money, Zhiqiu will sigh and say that Chun Bao is not easy.

Chunbao is indeed not easy, his simple version of the abacus is popular for a while, but compared to tobacco and rice, it is still a small business, windfall mainly depends on the unintentional hoarding of wood and copper, especially copper, the war has a great demand for metal, copper is malleable, can make shells and bullet shells, the price rises to fly. Before he could sell, he waited for a catastrophe.

One day at the beginning of the 29th year of the Republic of China, he received a call that a Zhejiang guest wanted to order 500 abacus, and asked him to go to Nanshi to talk about business, Chunbao did not suspect fraud, left the concession to make an appointment, and did not see the guests when he arrived at the place, only saw the muzzle of the black hole.

Chun Bao did not resist, he knew that this was a gun and a brand, a gun, two horses and three flowers, the person who used this kind of gun was either a famous figure in the underworld, or a traitor spy, but no matter which way the people came, they all came to kidnap the ticket, for a moment he thought of resisting, but the odds of winning were extremely low, and if the person died, there was nothing, the money was gone, and he could make it again, so he chose to cooperate, let the kidnappers cover himself, stuff it into the car and transport it away.

The husband didn't return overnight, Baozhu was about to die, Chun Bao was the pillar of the family, he was gone, and the family collapsed. Lin Yanhe is still experienced, and said don't worry, wait and see, sure enough, the phone called, and a person who claimed to be surnamed Ding said that he was going to redeem people with one million yuan, otherwise he would wait to collect the body.

The family is in a mess, every day in the newspaper, the grapevine to see this rich businessman kidnapped, the celebrity was assassinated, never thought that this kind of disaster can be spread on their own heads, although the fiat currency has depreciated in recent years, but one million is still an astronomical amount, the family can only make up a few thousand dollars, the rest are goods, soft and hoarded wood and copper, even if these things can be realized in a short period of time, it is still far from enough, Baozhu is a woman's family, where after this kind of thing, every inch is in chaos, I know how to cry, Or Lin Yanhe dragged his sick body out of the horse, called a friend to find a way, Boss Lin used to know a bag from the patrol house of the French Concession to inquire, called Bai Yaozu, a member of the Qing Gang, it was he who introduced Chunbao to Lin Yanhe back then, and exchanged it for thirty oceans.

Bai Yaozu came immediately after receiving the call, he was dressed in a suit and leather shoes, his hair was as shiny as leather shoes, he was not in a hurry after entering the door, he sat down and took a sip of tea, took out a gold cigarette case, and popped out a Solanik cigarette and put it in his mouth, this is the highest grade British cigarette, fifty cigarettes are listened to, and the black market price is a silver dollar. Bai Yaozu talked eloquently, starting with the kidnapping, before August 13, there were people on the ground in Shanghai who specialized in this line, divided into the Shaoxing Gang and the Taihu Gang, they kidnapped people to the rental world, hid in the suburbs to extort huge sums of money, at that time, there were three kidnapping cases a year, even if it was too much, and the kidnappers also talked about the rules, which was so chaotic as now, Ding Xishan's guerrillas did this, Lin Zhijiang's Peace Salvation Army also did it, and the people of No. 76 often went in and out of the concession to kidnap people, as for the Shaoxing Gang and the Taihu Gang just said, they stopped and did not often come out to do things.

Baozhu heard what she said, and hope ignited in his heart, and asked Mr. Bai if there was any way to accommodate the kidnappers, but the family really couldn't come up with so much money.

Bai Yaozu said: "First of all, we must determine which group of people did it, so that we can speak, I and Captain Wu of No. 76 often drink tea together, all kinds of heroes on the beach, which one does not give Captain Wu face, don't panic, gossip." ”

Baozhu said that the person who called was surnamed Ding, Bai Yaozu said that it was Ding Xishan, this person was not easy to deal with, he was originally the captain of the Loyal and Righteous National Salvation Army, and he worked against the Japanese, and he didn't buy Wu Sibao's face at all, and later surrendered to the Japanese and became the lieutenant general commander of the 12th Route Army of the Peace Army, and still didn't buy the account of No. 76, I am afraid that this matter is not easy to mediate.

Lin Yanhe said Lao Bai, we have been friends for so many years, you can help, and the cost of walking back and forth is easy to say. Bai Yaozu agreed, accepted Lin Yanhe 1,000 yuan on the spot, and swore to go.

Soon Bai Yaozu came to the news, the kidnapper was really Ding Xishan, they gave Chunbao a hat of anti-Japanese elements, and they wanted to shoot him, and I am afraid that this million will not be saved. Lin Yanhe said that the family really couldn't make up so much money, Bai Yaozu said that Allah didn't believe it, just the abacus of the Song Dynasty was worth a lot of money, and now Lin Yanhe understood that his son-in-law's good deeds inadvertently brought disaster to his family.

An abacus only, no one is reluctant, but this abacus to the market but there is no market, as the saying goes, the gold of the troubled times, the antiques of the prosperous times, the hard currency of this year is the dollar bill gold bar Yuan Datou, gasoline Western medicine copper iron tin, antique calligraphy and painting or something can not be sold at a high price, besides, now those traitors and upstart families in Shanghai, which does not hang the word Wen Tianxiang, Tang Bohu's paintings, but also claim to be genuine, fakes are flying all over the sky, fake is true when it is true, Chunbao occasionally got this Song Dynasty abacus, no one dares to guarantee that it is genuine, Naturally, no one wants to accept it.

The money was not available for a long time, the kidnappers were impatient, and after Chun Bao disappeared for half a month, the family received an envelope with a finger, and Baozhu suddenly collapsed, saying that it was sold and sold, and the house was not left, as long as people were safe. In the end, it was Lin Yanhe who sold all the good wood and copper he had hoarded and exchanged them for gold bars, plus all the family's savings, gold and silver jewelry with his wife and daughter, and even John's gold bells and silver locks, Bai Yaozu also did his best and worked hard to reduce the ransom to a minimum, at least the house was saved, and the family would not sleep on the streets.

Three hundred taels of gold for Chunbao's life, when the person came back, he lost weight for two whole circles, and his right index finger was cut off by Qi Gen, but he did not slump from then on, but worked harder, and there was no money left in the family, but Chunbao had many years of credibility, some people were willing to give him bamboo and wood raw materials on credit, and some people were willing to take out huge sums of money to invest in Lin Ji to help him make a comeback.