Chapter 43: 43, Fang Shouxin’s Past, Ceasefire Meeting
The car drove into Hangzhou and stopped outside the city hall in the urban area.
Yue Jinping looked at the city hall gate: “I need to go back to report. You go to the West Lake Hotel and check in first. I’ll come find you when I’m done.”
Fang Wen nodded. After Yue Jinping left, he looked at the father and son in the back seat: “Shopkeeper Fang, do you know where the West Lake Hotel is?”
Shopkeeper Fang had been a shopkeeper for over ten years and often came to Hangzhou. Without thinking, he replied:
“The West Lake Hotel is located by the West Lake, next to Broken Bridge Remnant Snow and Willow Waves Hearing Orioles. There are many foreigners. If Young Master doesn’t know the way, I’ll give directions.”
Then, Fang Shouxin sat in the co-pilot seat.
Along the way, because Yue Jinping was there, there hadn’t been much communication. Now Fang Wen drove slowly and chatted with the father and son.
“Shopkeeper Fang, I’ve given you the documents. You can change back to your original name from now on.”
Fang Shouxin nodded: “Young Master, until I take Shunzi back to Hebei to recognize ancestors and return to the clan, I am still Fang Shouxin.”
Shunzi asked in surprise from the back: “Dad, what was your original name?”
Shopkeeper Fang looked back at his son, then at Fang Wen, and made a decision.
“Young Master returned my documents to me, so I won’t hide it anymore. My original name was Huang Zhanwu. I’ve liked fighting since I was young. At around ten years old, I took two steamed corn buns and ran to Cangzhou to practice martial arts. After two years of training, Master took us fellow disciples north to join the Boxer Rebellion. At first, everyone said it was to sweep away and exterminate foreigners, but later it somehow turned into supporting the Qing and exterminating foreigners, and even the name changed to Tiger God Camp.”
Shunzi interrupted in surprise: “Dad, you were a boxer bandit? Can you really be invulnerable to knives and guns?”
Shopkeeper Fang glared at his son.
Fang Wen said: “Yeah, is being invulnerable to knives and guns real or fake?”
Shopkeeper Fang recalled:
“If you say it’s real, it’s real; if you say it’s fake, it is. It’s all Jianghu tricks. To outsiders, it looks magical, plus burning talismans and drinking blood wine—anyone who sees it believes it.”
“Then how did you get in trouble and flee south? Hadn’t the Qing Government fallen already?” Fang Wen asked his doubts.
“The trouble was that us fellow disciples had bad intentions. Seeing the Boxer Rebellion couldn’t last, we teamed up to rob the county yamen warehouse. We didn’t get much silver, but two fellow disciples died, and the rest of us were wanted by the government, so we had to flee south.”
Shopkeeper Fang paused, looked back at his son:
“At first, I thought once the heat died down, I’d go back. But the warehouse manager we injured during the act later rose smoothly and became a local warlord. He held a grudge and kept offering a reward for us fellow disciples, so I gave up the idea of going back and settled with the Fang Family.”
The story wasn’t complicated: he offended a local strongman and fled south.
In those chaotic times, such things were common.
Fang Wen didn’t have any opinion about Fang Shouxin’s past. At least this showed the man had completely opened up to him, which might be a way of showing loyalty in the Republic of China.
By then, the car had arrived at the West Lake Hotel.
After parking the car, Fang Wen took the father and son inside.
The interior was richly decorated, with shiny marble floors and Western oil paintings.
There were many guests: local people in Chinese long robes, women in qipaos, and countrymen and foreigners in suits.
Fang Wen went straight to the front desk.
Fang Shouxin followed closely, his face calm.
Fang Shun carried the suitcase, looking around.
At the front desk, he naturally asked: “Hello, I’d like to book two rooms.”
“Sir, we have double rooms and single rooms. Which kind do you need?”
“Two double rooms.”
“Alright, double rooms are 10 silver dollars per day, a total of twenty silver dollars.”
So expensive. Fang Wen looked back at Shunzi: “Give her 20 silver dollars.”
“Ah?!” Shunzi was bewildered, not knowing what to do.
Fang Shouxin took the suitcase from his son and opened it.
In the right compartment were two packets of silver dollars. He took one out, broke the seal, counted out 20 and placed them on the front desk.
The service staff counted the silver dollars, handed Fang Wen a piece of paper with both hands, and said: “This is your receipt. Little Zhang, go get the keys for 301 and 302, and take them up.”
The waiter took two keys from a board on the front desk wall, smiled and said: “Gentlemen, please follow me.”
Following the waiter upstairs, after opening the door, the waiter handed the keys to Fang Wen. “Sir, enjoy your stay. For anything, you can ask at the front desk.”
Fang Wen smiled and nodded. After the waiter left, he handed the key to 302 to Fang Shouxin and went into his room.
From outside came Shunzi’s excited shout and Fang Shouxin’s scolding.
In the hotel room, he took a hot shower and comfortably rested the afternoon until there was a knock at the door.
Fang Wen got up from the bed, put on his jacket, and opened the door.
It was Yue Jinping, her face beaming with joy.
“Let’s go out to eat. There’s big good news.”
Fang Wen nodded and knocked on the door of 302 next door, asking Fang Shouxin and his son to come out together.
At a food stall by the West Lake, they ordered a few Hangzhou dishes. While waiting for the food, Yue Jinping eagerly said:
“There’s progress on the Shanghai side.”
Yue Jinping talked freely, recounting what she had learned that afternoon.
In the Shanghai Warfare, the situation was dire because the Japanese Army had occupied the urban area, forcing the 19th Route Army to retreat to the second line of defense.
In this situation, the US and UK mediated to get both sides to ceasefire, but the Japanese side had not replied yet.
For this, the National Government appointed Chen Mingshu as the defense commander for the Railroad area and overall commander of the left wing army, with Jiang Dingwen as overall commander of the right wing army.
The left wing army was far from the theater of operations and had the natural barrier of the Yangtze River, mainly guarding key railroad points to prevent disruption of logistics supplies.
The right wing army’s 2nd Army and 14th Army moved from Jiangxi to Shanghai and Hangzhou, building first-line positions at Chuansha, Fengjing, and Wujiang, and second-line positions at Jiashan, Pinghu, and Zhapu, actively deploying defenses to support the 19th Route Army’s War of Resistance.
This was a conservative strategic posture to defend against the Japanese Army’s continued southward attack.
But the turning point came in the air raid that Fang Wen participated in.
Although the 19th Army had withdrawn from the SH urban area, they still paid close attention to resistance in the urban area.
At that time, patriots in SH city and Axe Gang Leader Wang Yaqiao suggested bombing the Izumo, and with the 19th Route Army’s strong support, it was reported upward.
Thus, the air raid coordination action happened.
But the result was surprisingly good—they actually sank the Izumo.
The sinking of the Izumo had the greatest impact domestically in Japan.
Originally, with the good situation in the Northeast, militarism was surging in Japan, but the sinking of the well-known Izumo caused different voices nationwide, leading to the resurgence of the anti-war faction.
Plus the Japanese Army’s internal army-navy rivalry, they finally decided to halt the Shanghai Warfare and sign a ceasefire agreement.
Currently, negotiators from both sides have gone to the British Concession’s British consulate to hold a formal ceasefire meeting, negotiating the specific agreement content.
Listening to Yue Jinping, Fang Wen feigned surprise on the surface, but in his heart, he wasn’t optimistic about the outcome of this negotiation.
Fang Shouxin and Shunzi were delighted—finally a ceasefire, no more worrying about the situation.
Even the food stall boss who overheard some was so happy he comped their meal.
And this news began spreading in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang region.
