“…… This morning, through the introduction of a former police officer from the Guangzhou Bay lease, who did not want to be named, I finally met with the top leader of the resistance and had a brief exchange with him. www.biquge.info Mr. Lin Miaosheng, or Mr. Lin Shaomao, as he called himself in his introduction, should have been born in 1863, according to his introduction and my inference. That is to say, Mr. Hayashi was only thirty-seven years old, and as the founder and leader of an armed force of 4,000 fighters and more than 6,000 auxiliaries, he undoubtedly appeared a little younger, and what surprised me even more was that he had led this armed force in a very difficult battle against the mighty Imperial Japanese Army for five years. ”

James. William. Lateran paused, bit the shaft of his pen, looked up at the sky—but not really—and began to recall the conversation and come up with new sentences. For a young man who has been a journalist for less than two months, it is still a difficult job to create a biography of someone he has not heard of at all in the past. But since several newspapers in California and Canton Bay had offered a good price to hire him as a columnist for the newspapers, and to go to Formosa to report on the resistance and their commanders, however difficult it was, he had to continue.

Continue to think sadly, and choose what is worth writing from the materials you already have.

Lin Shao cat. Lateran thought about the subject of his record. Before the Japanese army invaded Formosa, he was the owner of a rice processing factory and dominated both the fish and pork markets in the area where he lived, and was a wealthy gentleman. When news of the island being ceded to the Japanese Empire by its central government reached his hometown, out of patriotic and personal anger, he led many people into the army organized by a local official......

"Black Flag Army." Lateran remembered the name, very clearly, though it was only mentioned once during the conversation.

"Perhaps thanks to a former Vietnamese National Army officer who was in charge of training new recruits -- another thing that surprised me, I must say, was that Lam's team consisted of dozens of volunteers from mainland China, Vietnam and the Philippines who were responsible for training his soldiers and directing them in battle -- the former National Army officer made me remember the name of that army. It was once stationed in the northern region of Vietnam for a long time and fought a series of battles with the French army many years ago. After a pause, Lateran continued: "My feelings tell me that Lin had some negative views of the Black Flag Army, because its commander had returned to his homeland after the initial defeat under pressure from the Qing government, abandoning his soldiers and the civilians of Formosa. ”

It may not be the right thing to write like that. Lateran paused again and continued to recall the entire conversation, as well as Lin Shaomao's expression and tone.

They were all important, or at least he thought they were—and Rutland remained at a level where he wanted to record authentic information, rather than relying on his brain to fill in the missing pieces of information, even if the second method made his job easier.

He knew he couldn't do it. Like other journalists, he was full of envy for his colleague who was able to write a biography of General Nogi Noshinori with just a few words, but Rutland did not want to do that.

Because when he was in California, he once heard a joke, Mr. Qin of UMBRELLA said, "Most journalists have a conscience, but they don't have the truth, so they learn to invent the truth, and they gradually like this kind of activity, and they never get tired of it, so in the end, they will become the kind of people I often say, the inventors of truth with a conscience." Of course, it may be necessary to precede it with young, middle-aged, and old age, so that we can make a simple categorization of this group. ”

His tone told Lateran that "conscientious inventor of truth" was a pejorative appellation, which made him decide to distance himself from it.

In a way, it's a good choice, but on the other hand, it's also extremely bad.

Ten minutes had passed, and Rutland was still thinking about the conversation with a sad face. Compared with just now, what he remembered didn't increase much, what Lin Shaomao said, his expression and tone were still blurry, and his brain was aching faintly.

"Damn it!" He cursed under his breath and threw the pen on the table.

"You look like you're having a little problem, Mr. Lateran." A voice rang out behind him.

Lateran knew who was behind him. "Mr. Officer, I'm not having a small problem." He turned around and showed his sad face to Cai Yunnan. "I'm about to forget what I talked to Mr. Lin about in the morning."

"Really? So why don't you just write something nice? ”

"No, Cai, you don't understand, it's my duty to tell my readers the truth, not to let them see what I've imagined in my head."

"But you don't remember what you talked to him about."

"I'll remember."

"Then think slowly, Mr. Rutland." Cai Yunnan turned around and was about to leave, but he suddenly remembered something and turned back, and said to Lateran: "Oh, by the way, are you interested in participating in a battle?" I remember you saying that you wanted to see how the Resistance treated the Japanese and pro-Japanese elements. ”

"Yes, I did." Almost immediately, Lateran was relieved of his troubles. "So, you're going to war?"

"Actually, it's not really a battle, it's just that one of our troops found a fugitive party composed of Japanese and pro-Japanese elements, and Boss Lin decided to destroy it." After pausing for a moment to give him time to think, Cai Yunnan asked again, "Do you want to participate?" ”

"Of course." Lateran replied - how could he have missed this opportunity?

"Then you can start preparing, and you'll be on your way in five minutes." Cai Yunnan nodded, turned around and left, leaving the Rutland in a hurry. Just as he was hurriedly packing up his things, Cai Yunnan's voice came from afar. "Nguyen Phuc Tho, I found you a columnist—"

There is also Ruan Phuc Shou's voice, which is not very clear, but the first word is unmistakable, and it is a word that starts with an "F" in English.

Lateran knew that he was a superfluous burden to an army that was about to go into battle. But he didn't bother to think about it carefully and regretted it.

After all, no matter what, Nguyen Phuc Tho still brought him with him.

Over the next few hours, Lateran gradually figured out the situation during a long march that left him exhausted and out of breath. Of course, when briefing him, Nguyen Phuc Tho cursed his Filipino partner in twice as many words - because of the stubbornness of this "coward", many opportunities were wasted, and as night fell, the resistance forces with no experience in fighting at night had to postpone the battle until the next day, which meant that everyone had to spend a night in the field, although the others didn't care but Nguyen Phuc Tho was extremely angry - it took Rutland a lot of time to filter out this useless spam, Began to write in his notebook.

"While I was still curious that a fugitive force of less than 400 men would dare to show up in the core control area of the resistance, my attention had turned to what was going to happen. Before I traveled to the island, friends at Canton Bay told me that the Resistance had an almost extreme hatred of the Japanese because of the many horrific massacres that the Japanese army had committed here. ”

He paused again, thought about it for a while, and finally continued writing. As Hong Kong newspapers once reported, in November 1898, Japanese troops killed thousands of civilians in the south-central region of Formosa. What I have heard here is that more than 10,000 civilians were killed in that massacre, while 3,700 homes were completely burned and 4,000 were partially burned, and the loss of personal property is still incalculable. ”

It's not enough. He said to himself, and added another paragraph. Prior to this, in 1896, Hong Kong newspapers had reported on another large-scale genocide. The report pointed out that when the Japanese army was conducting security operations in an area called Yunlin, they regarded all the villages in the area as strongholds of the resistance groups for no reason, burned them all, and killed all the villagers, including women and children. A rough count shows that a total of 56 villages were affected during the seven-day operation, and the death toll could be as high as 30,000. ”

"And these are just two of all the massacres perpetrated by the Japanese army." With one more sentence, Lateran turned to his own report, "For these reasons, the inhabitants of Formosa hate the Japanese." I have heard that resistance fighters retaliate whenever they are given the opportunity. But I have also heard that they hate the pro-Japanese even more, and that the reprisals against them are far more brutal than the Japanese. A junior officer of the Resistance told me that the pro-Japanese elements, whom he called 'traitors', betrayed their compatriots in exchange for benefits, were more odious than the Japanese, who were themselves enemies, and must be punished severely. And he also told me that in China's history, it is this type of people who have caused national disasters many times. ”

That's enough, that's all. Lateran let out a long breath, flicked his wrist, and finally wrote: "All of the above is what I have heard, and it remains to be confirmed—though only some of it can be confirmed, and the other part never." In a little while, the first battle I will encounter when I come here will begin, and I will see for myself the way the Resistance treats the Japanese and pro-Japanese elements, and I will report it truthfully-"

"Mr. Lateran." Someone tapped him on the shoulder - it was the Filipino who had been cursed by Nguyen Phuc Tho for hours. He whispered a reminder next to Lateran's ear, "We're going to start." (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )