Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 231 I would rather kill the wrong person than let him go
Snapped

In the dark night, Chen Ce lit a cigarette for himself with a golden lighter. The faint flame reflected his gloomy face.

Under the dim moonlight, all the Malays from three villages, regardless of gender, age or status, were tied up and arrested.

"General, this operation has raided three Malay villages, killing eleven rebels on the spot and capturing 1,640 alive. Please give your instructions, General."

"Ah."

Chen Ce nodded, then dragged his lame leg and walked forward step by step.

An attendant had already brought a stool and placed it there for Chen Ce to sit on.

"come here."

Chen Ce pointed casually, and a round-faced Malay beauty wearing a headscarf looked around for a long time, then walked over crying.

Chen Ce reached out and took off the woman's headscarf, revealing a face that looked pretty and clean under the moonlight.

A soldier stepped forward and hit the woman's knee with the butt of his gun without any mercy, forcing her to kneel down. He then grabbed her hair and pulled her forward, causing her to lie on the ground.

Chen Ce lifted up his broken leg and actually used the woman as a low couch and put his legs on it.

The woman was still in shock when she suddenly heard the villagers behind her screaming in fear. She turned around and saw the Chinese pouring gasoline on the villagers?!
"Whoo~"

Chen Ce took a deep puff of his cigarette and flicked the ash casually. The girl was so frightened that she couldn't help but tremble slightly all over, but she forced herself not to move, for fear that Chen Ce's lame leg would feel uncomfortable and she would also be doused with gasoline.

The cigarette butt in front of me, although only a few dots, looked particularly scary.

Because there were men, women, young and old, and all the Chinese in front of them were armed with guns and aimed their guns at them, no one dared to move for a moment, and the women and children all started crying loudly.

Pong!
A soldier stepped forward and suddenly fired a shot into the air, stopping all the crying.

He said in Malay, "Three days ago, a fellow from Qiongzhou who ran a farm in Borneo, growing coffee and palm oil, had his entire family of seventeen people, young and old, killed overnight."

"We are not the police, let alone judges. Anyway, there are only three people from your village nearby. The murderer must be among you. General Chen has ordered that if there is a mistake, no one will be let off!"

As he was speaking, there was a sound of "click", and another lighter was turned on to ignite a small flame, which scared the group of Malays and made them scream.

"No, my child is still young."

"It has nothing to do with us. I really don't know anything."

"Can you please let the child go?"

For a while, these Malays begged for mercy.

Suddenly, someone shouted loudly in English, "You can't do this! Mr. Zheng didn't order you to do this. He publicly issued a statement calling on people from both ethnic groups to remain restrained and calm. What's the difference between you and bandits by doing this?"

"Yo?"

Chen Ce finally became interested and beckoned, asking someone to bring the English-speaking man to him.

Snapped.

The two soldiers loosened their grip, and the man immediately collapsed to the ground with weak legs, and a yellow hot liquid flowed down his trouser legs.

In the back, the Malay villagers who were crying and wailing stopped crying and looked at them eagerly.

Chen Ce: "You are absolutely right. Mr. Zheng made a public radio speech, ordering the Chinese in the South Asian Association to exercise restraint and not to escalate the situation. Mr. Chen, Mrs. Qian, Mr. Xu, Mr. Zhuang, Mr. Li, and Mr. Wu all seconded Mr. Zheng's speech within less than a day.
The Guangdong and Fujian Chambers of Commerce have both publicly issued strict orders to their subordinates, forbidding anyone from initiating conflict with the Malays.

Upon hearing this, the Malay man hurriedly asked, "Then, then, why do you still treat us like this?"

Chen Ce said with a wry smile, "But what does this have to do with me? I've never been from the Southern Alliance. I'm a general in the National Government. I was once the Vice Minister of the Navy and the Military Representative in Hong Kong. Even Madam Wang used to be a soldier under my command."

"When Hong Kong Island fell, I retreated to Penang with Madam Wang to protect the people of Hong Kong Island. However, due to the inconvenience of transportation and the fact that Penang was also a battlefield for the Anti-Japanese War, I stayed to help the Southern Alliance fight the Japanese invaders."

"Now that the Japs have been defeated, Nanjing has summoned me back with the rank of Lieutenant General. I'm a Qiongzhou native, and I got so angry when I passed through Borneo that I could kill you all. What would that do?"

"Mr. Zheng...if you're dissatisfied, what can you do to me? You want to liquidate me, a vice admiral of the Nationalist Navy? I've killed all of you pigs and dogs. How can anyone go to Nanjing to seek justice for you?"

"I'm just a f*cking Nationalist soldier, and I'm a bandit. I take people's lives lightly, so what? Oh, right, do you know what this is?"

As he spoke, Chen Ce took out a medal and said, "This is called the 'K.B.E.' Medal of Sir, awarded by the British Royal Family in recognition of my heroic act of rescuing the British troops during the Hong Kong Island Breakout.
In other words, although I am Chinese, I am also a British knight. As a British knight, what's wrong with me killing a few Malays? Is it Mr. Zheng's turn to care?

This is actually the reason why Zheng Yi was willing to let Chen Ce do the job, because Chen Ce was indeed not a member of their Southern Alliance from the beginning to the end.

Although he is not from Southeast Asia and has no power, his status in the Qiongzhou Chamber of Commerce is not low.

After all, the Chinese in Southeast Asia have only been wearing suits for a few days. They are all members of secret societies. How many of them are law-abiding citizens in the modern sense?

In fact, even now, there are no decent laws in Nanyang, and everyone still tends to recognize the rules of each guild and chamber of commerce.

If the crime was not serious, the offender would be beaten. If it was serious, the offender would either have his hands chopped off or his feet stomped on. For particularly serious crimes, the offender would be stabbed three times or six times. Few people would sue.

It’s just that Zheng Yi’s current prestige is there, and he is the president of the General Chinese Chamber of Commerce recognized by all Nanyang Chinese, so everyone listens to Zheng Yi.

Now that the people of Qiongzhou have died, everyone is already filled with righteous indignation. Zheng Yi specially arranged for the president and vice president of the Fujian Chamber of Commerce, Chen Jiageng and Zhuang Xiyan, to give speeches, and Li Xiaoshi and Xu Shengli of the Guangdong Chamber of Commerce to give speeches. The presidents of almost all the major chambers of commerce were also given instructions.

However, the only person who was not scheduled to speak was Wang Zhaosong, President of the Qiongzhou Chamber of Commerce.

Furthermore, Second Wife Wang Zhaoyun, the true backbone of the Qiongzhou people, remained silent throughout this matter. Meanwhile, Chen Ce, known to everyone as a close relative of Wang Zhaoyun's, suddenly emerged to recruit troops and come to Borneo to avenge the Qiongzhou people. Although Zheng Yi's explicit intentions were not conveyed to his subordinates, anyone with even a passing brain could grasp the underlying meaning.

Mr. Zheng has always been a good guy.

In fact, after so many years, the Chinese in Southeast Asia have become very familiar with Zheng Yi's style of doing things. Their leader has always done things like Song Jiang, emphasizing benevolence and generosity in everything he does, but in fact, many of the things he does are very insidious.

When Chen Ce stepped out this time, everyone understood clearly: Isn't this the same Li Kui who stood behind Song Jiang, holding two axes and glaring at him every time he came out to pretend to be a good guy?

Naturally, the Qiongzhou Gang followed.

In fact, these Nanyang Chinese have dark hands, so it's not surprising that they do anything.

But when Chen Ce took out the British medal, the situation was actually completely muddied.

The man on the ground looked completely ashen.

"Dude, your English is so good, and you're so concerned about what Mr. Zheng said. If you say this matter has nothing to do with you, I'm definitely not going to believe you. Otherwise, can you tell me the whole story? If not, I'll really drag everyone down with me."

After saying this, Chen Ce had just finished smoking a cigarette. He casually threw the remaining, still burning butt to the ground under everyone's frightened gaze, without even stepping on it, letting it roll around in the gentle evening breeze.

Then he calmly took out his lighter and lit another one.

He said nothing, but the Malay villagers behind him couldn't stand it anymore and started cursing at him in Malay. Countless people also shouted in Malay: "I know, I know, everyone in their family went out that night and didn't come back until the early hours of the morning."

"I know who did it, I know who did it!"

No one wanted to be buried with the murderers, and in less than five minutes, all twenty-one male murderers were caught. Seeing that the game was hopeless, they gave up the idea of ​​quibbling and resisting, and confessed all their crimes one by one.

It turned out that these people believed that the land cultivated by the Qiongzhou people belonged to them, and they had a deep conflict with this family of Qiongzhou people.

Is this Borneo? During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese always provoked confrontation because they wanted to drill for oil, and they treated the Malays quite well.

Long before Japan officially attacked, this Qiongzhou family, like most Chinese in Southeast Asia, abandoned all their real estate and moved to Penang with their entire family.

So during the Japanese occupation, the Japanese gave this land to this Malay family, and they have been cultivating it ever since.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, those Chinese of course returned. Since the Japanese army was the defeated party, these puppet troops, who were the Japanese army's lackeys, naturally had nothing to say and had to give up their land and leave.

Chinese people all have guns and no one dares to mess with them.

But because of this, they felt very hostile towards the Chinese who had robbed them of their land.

Until recently, someone found them and gave them a batch of guns and weapons. They also told them that there were rebels everywhere in Borneo who wanted to drive out these greedy Chinese. The Chinese property was ownerless and would belong to whoever grabbed it.

Then these stupid Malays took action.

"Who gave you the weapons?"

"I, I don't know. They are from Pontianak. I only know they are Malays who run a company in Pontianak."

“Pontianak?”

Chen Ce did not find it strange. There were many Chinese people in Pontianak, which was once the capital of Lan Fang. Zheng Yi seemed to hesitate for a moment between Pontianak and Singkawang before choosing Singkawang as the SAARC's base on Kalimantan Island.

Both cities are mainly populated by Chinese, but Zheng Yi believes that Singkawang is relatively smaller in scale and more suitable for starting from scratch. Moreover, as Pontianak is the former site of Lan Fang, if a city is built here, some people may interpret it politically.

However, even if Zheng Yi did not choose Pontianak, the number of Chinese in Pontianak has increased recently, and they have gradually become united under Zheng Yi's leadership.

The whole of Kalimantan is now almost in a state of anarchy. The Japanese have left, but the Dutch have not returned yet, at least not openly to occupy the major cities.

The Chinese are united and have guns, so they will naturally grab more benefits and take greater advantages. They will naturally have more contacts with the SAARC, and they may even regard themselves as the SAARC, and have no intention of letting the Dutch come back.

In a city, there will naturally be a large number of comprador classes, and it is normal to have pro-British and pro-Dutch Malays. And objectively speaking, if the competition in Pontianak is carried out normally and step by step, whether it is a competition with the rule of law or not, it is inevitable that only the Chinese will have the final say.

Unless complete chaos is created and the entire South Borneo is plunged into a racial war, some people will be able to take advantage of the situation. If the British are deliberately instigating this, it is not surprising that such a thing would happen.

"So... I'm afraid there are quite a few Malays in South Borneo who possess firearms."

It is obvious that this group of people intend to cast a wide net. As long as they give guns to those Malays who are dissatisfied with the Chinese, there will naturally be some stupid people who will take the initiative to stand up and be the first to do so.

Because the net is cast widely without focusing on catching fish, any accidents that occur are bound to be random, and this kind of randomness is actually the most terrifying.

Low-intensity, high-duration racial wars actually cause the greatest damage to the economy. Once the seeds of hatred are planted, they will inevitably bear the flowers of sin, sooner or later.

Chen Ce waved his hand and said, "Let's shoot them. Since they are honest, we won't burn them."

After that, someone immediately understood and picked up the gun and shot all the criminals to death.

"So, we'll cut off the heads of these culprits, seal them with lime wax, and send them to the local Chinese gang in Pontianak. Let them handle it. I heard that most of the Chinese here are members of the Hongmen, so we can let Hei Gu Ren come over and take charge of the situation for the time being."

"As for these people."

Chen Ce pointed at the trembling Malay villagers and said, "Let's release them all. We're not Japanese. Aren't there three villages? Just let those from their village go home. For the villagers from the other two villages, give each person fifty US dollars."

"Yes."

"Go back and tell the Second Madam about the situation here. I'm going back home now. If nothing unexpected happens, the affairs of the Southern Alliance will have nothing to do with me in the future. But if someone really intends to send weapons to the Malays again, although there aren't many idiots who acted rashly today, that might not be the case in the future. It will be very troublesome."

(End of this chapter)