20 years of the Republic of China

Chapter 515 Robbery
French Concession, Edoardo Road.

Yangjingbang was once the boundary river between the British and French concessions. Later, it was filled with soil and roads were built. Now it is one of the most spacious and prosperous neighborhoods in the Shanghai concessions.

The reputation of the city that never sleeps is confirmed here.

No matter whether there was a war to protect the law or a war between Zhi and Anhui, when night fell, this place was still filled with singing birds and bright lights, as if it were a paradise.

Aiduoya Road is also the preferred route to enter the concession from the Bund. To the northwest of the middle section of the road is the busiest racecourse in the British Concession, while to the southeast is the famous Shanghai World in the French Concession.

Nothing and no one can interfere with the decadence and debauchery here, not even the Sanjin Company's unloading of goods at the beach tonight.

The several streets in the southern section of the Bund have long been quiet, but the area near the Great World is still brightly lit and bustling.

At the crossroads, vendors selling cigarettes, evening newspapers, candies, and wonton noodles were scattered everywhere, calling out loudly as if they were singing a little song.

The circus performance in the open-air theater had just ended. Many spectators had walked out of the big world and returned to the mortal world. In twos and threes, they found a small stall on the roadside, had some supper, talked and laughed, and they no longer felt the loneliness and length of the cold night.

In addition to the common people who came to watch the show, there were also many idle people strolling in the streets and alleys.

The prostitutes, the white-collar workers, the white-collar workers, the white-collar workers, the pig-stealing workers...all of them are shrewd hunters in the city, each searching for a suitable target to attack.

It was supposed to be a very ordinary night scene in the city, but tonight there was an incident of some importance.

"Fuck you!" A sudden curse came out, "Get the hell out of here, I want to talk to you today, in Shanghainese, let's talk about weight!"

"Stop arguing, stop arguing!" A woman was crying, her tone almost begging, "Mr. Wen, stop making trouble, go back quickly, don't cause trouble here, you can't afford it!"

Another man was talking, questioning the woman: "What the hell is going on? Is there still a first come, first served rule? Are you two playing me here?"

Hearing the noise, the idle crowd at the intersection turned their heads and looked towards the entrance of the Great World.

Most people in the world like to watch the fun.

For a moment, everyone, regardless of gender, age or status, those who were leaving, those who had just arrived, those who were setting up stalls or those who were passing by, all stopped and could not help but eavesdrop on the private lives of others.

But on the steps at the door, a young dancer was torn between two men. One man was grabbing the collar of the other man and was about to start a fight.

"Hey, isn't that Cui Yingying from Big World?" Someone at the wonton stall recognized who the dancer was.

"What's going on?" his friend laughed. "Humph, fighting over a dancer, how shameful!"

The man smiled and shook his head: "What do you know? Those prostitutes love to watch 'A Rage for Beauty' the most. They think it is true love and loyalty!"

“Is there really going to be a fight?” The wonton stall owner was worried. He unconsciously moved his cart back and muttered, “People in the big world don’t care!”

"Nonsense!" The passerby raised his chin and said, "If the people from the Big World didn't care, they would have started fighting in there a long time ago."

As they were talking, the two men on the steps at the door, after a struggle, had come to the crossroads. With a few friends backing each side, they cursed at each other and were about to start a fight. However, the dancer was dragged back by the foreman of the Great World Ballroom and his bodyguards. The two men suddenly realized that they had no reason to start a fight.

The onlookers heard that they all spoke with northern accents and guessed that it was not an internal conflict among the Green Gang, so they watched the fun with confidence.

Some even fanned the flames: "Hey, the two have been arguing for a long time, are you going to fight or not? It will be dawn soon!"

Everyone laughed and didn't find it strange.

Fights are common near the Great World, or on both sides of the entire Edoya Road.

After all, Yangjingbang was originally a gathering place for hooligans and scoundrels, so it was very convenient to fight in this place.

When the Annan patrolman from the French Concession came, he crossed the street to the British Concession; when the red-headed Indian from the British Concession came, he crossed the street back to the French Concession.

Coming in and out, what can you do to me?
Over time, the police from both sides stopped coming, and law and order were maintained entirely by nearby gangs.

To make the scene more lively, the onlookers also shouted, "Fight! Fight!"

Provoked by the crowd, both sides immediately raised their fists and started fighting each other.

At this moment, two crisp "pa pa" sounds suddenly came from the east side of Edo Road. The sound was very faint, with an echo, and it seemed to have taken a long time to reach this side.

Everyone was stunned and looked towards the Bund.

"What's the noise?" someone asked.

"It sounded like gunshots."

"Stop talking nonsense, this is a concession..."

"Pa bang bang - bang bang bang -"

If there were only two slight noises, many people would not be willing to believe it or simply could not tell that it was gunfire. But after repeated, continuous "crackling" sounds, even the most conservative people finally began to believe that there was a gunfight on the riverside.

Soon, the gunfire subsided.

The crossroads suddenly fell silent for a moment, and then a low voice gradually rose. Among the onlookers, there were Green Gang disciples and local goods merchants. Anyway, there were always some well-informed people who suddenly remembered that tonight was the day when the Sanjin Company purchased goods.

But no one dared to bring up this topic. Everyone kept silent and kept the matter to themselves.

At this time, no one was trying to provoke a fight in the middle of the street. Everyone frowned and thought to themselves. The timid ones had already taken the lead and went home early.

Suddenly, a more intense burst of gunfire was heard from the direction of the Bund. Fortunately, it sounded very far away and posed no threat to the Great World.

Even so, there was another burst of hurried horse hoof sounds rolling towards this side.

"Click, click, gurgle, gurgle..."

It looks like a carriage!
Everyone retreated to the crossroads, confused and curious, and craned their necks to look in the middle of the road—

Sure enough, I saw a large carriage, pulled by two fast horses, galloping towards this side, and there were several wet young men running after the carriage.

"boom!"

The man on the carriage fired a shot into the air, waving his arms and shouting, "Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

After saying that, the two men at the intersection immediately separated and dodged to the side of the road.

The carriage passed through the Great World. The bright street lights illuminated the situation on the carriage. More than a dozen wet cargo boxes were stacked on the carriage. In the shadows, one could vaguely see the white painted words on them - Sanjin Company!
Around them were a dozen masked strong men holding hatchets, running wildly after the carriage and shouting at the people on the roadside:
"Get out of here! Get out of here! If you want to die, get away from here!"

However, when the carriage passed the intersection in front of the Great World, the wheels suddenly shook, and the top cargo box jumped in the air. Then there was a loud "clang" and it fell to the road and broke into pieces. Dozens of goods wrapped in brown paper were scattered all over the ground.

"Oh my god, wait, the goods fell, the goods fell!"

An Axe Gang member suddenly stopped, shouted at his accomplice, turned around to pick up the goods on the ground, but before he could take two steps, he was pulled away by another accomplice by the shoulder.

"Just let it fall, don't give a damn about it, it doesn't matter if this box is dropped, let's go!"

Hearing this, the Axe Gang member looked towards the Bund, then looked around the center of the street, slapped himself on the spot, beat his chest and stamped his feet, and finally ran away cursing. Judging from the direction they were running, they were probably going to Zhabei.

"Click, click, gurgle, gurgle..."

All these changes happened in a flash. The sound of horse hooves continued without any pause, and the two Axe Gang members quickly caught up.

Before long, the people, horses, carts, and goods fled at high speed in full view of everyone, and finally disappeared into the dim depths of the lights.

The onlookers were still in shock, fearing that another carriage would come running on the road later. However, after waiting for a long time, not only did no more carriages come, but the gunfire from the direction of the Bund also subsided without them noticing.

Finally, the two men who had just made an appointment to fight bravely walked slowly towards the intersection and bent down to check the goods on the ground.

"What the hell is this?"

It would be more accurate to say that they were asking questions to the onlookers around them rather than expressing doubts.

Seeing that the road had returned to calm and the gunshots had stopped, some curious people began to move forward tremblingly, and after just one look, they could not help but exclaim.

"Oh, this was done by the Jiangbei Gang, right?"

"Oh no! Oh no! Something terrible is going to happen!"

"I don't think it's necessarily the 'Jiangbei Gang'. It could also be the 'Yue Gang' or the 'Chao Gang'!"

"You'd better go see a doctor to check your ears. You can't understand their accent. How could they be from the Cantonese Gang?"

Everyone was talking at once, but they seemed to be avoiding something. They tacitly concealed important information from each other and didn't talk about it or discuss it.

The others were so excited that they couldn't help but get curious and moved forward. More and more people gathered and soon formed a circle.

Standing on tiptoe, I pushed through the gap between the people and looked inside. I saw a few palm-sized local products scattered on the street under the wet wooden boards.

A whole bag of local products would cost at least several dozen yuan.

This was a pie in the sky, a business that would make a lot of money with no investment, but everyone hesitated and wavered for a long time, and no one dared to bend down to pick it up.

The reason is simple: the packaging of these opiums are printed with three five-pointed stars stacked in a pyramid shape - that is the logo of the Sanjin Company!

Who dares to move?

"Excuse me, can you lend me that? Let me lend me that..."

You know what, there are actually people who have this idea.

A man in a white suit squeezed in from the outside of the crowd, squatted down, and his eyes turned. Although he didn't directly take it, looking at his posture, it seemed that he was just waiting for the right opportunity...

(End of this chapter)