Tianzhu: The Record of Foreign Stories in the Republic of China

Chapter 14 Kite (3)
Zhong Ming sighed and said: "As the saying goes, people have to bow their heads under the low eaves, and the disciples are forced to accept it. Suzuki Hisashi asked us, the master and the apprentice, to work together to make a big, good and unique one. He didn’t give us much time to advertise the kite, and my apprentice has already drawn the blueprint overnight, please have Master look at it.” After finishing speaking, he took out a frame drawing from his bosom and handed it to Master with both hands.

Zhao Fengnian took it over and saw that it was a giant kite more than [-] feet long. It had a strange shape. Two sheep bowed their backs and lowered their heads. Fight fiercely.Zhao Fengnian smiled coldly in his heart: Good boy, it's not obvious why you want to confront Master?

Zhong Ming said: "According to the blueprint, we, the master and the apprentice, are each responsible for half, that is, each makes a sheep. Whoever makes the best sheep depends on each person's ability. After the two sheep are combined, the middle organ will It will be designed by the apprentice. There are only three days, so please hurry up, Master." After speaking, he left a piece of drawings, regardless of whether Zhao Fengnian agreed or not, he cupped his hands and left.

Zhao Fengnian threw the blueprints on the ground and scolded angrily: "Beast, beast!" He didn't know whether he was scolding his apprentice or the Japanese.But scolding is scolding, and at the end of the scolding, I had to pick up the blueprint on the ground again, spread it on the table, and look carefully...

Three days later, on the ninth day of May, it is an auspicious day for everything.The first anniversary of the opening of Toyo Department Store was held on the square in front of the department store as scheduled.

The guests who came to congratulate, in addition to the supreme military commander of the Japanese army stationed in Xiulin City, Kozuka Sadaichi, some Japanese military officers, and Japanese business people, as well as a dozen of Xiulin country gentry and wealthy businessmen who were "invited" by Suzuki Hisashi by means of both soft and hard methods, Under the stage, there were thousands of Xiulin people watching the excitement.

First, the gongs and drums opened, salutes were fired, dragons and lions danced, and after introducing the guests who had arrived, Suzuki took the stage as the host to give a thank you speech. Then Teichi Ozuka delivered a speech, advocating his pro-Japanese policy.Both of them can be regarded as China hands. Although they don't speak Chinese very fluently, the common people in the audience can barely understand it.

The next step is to distribute shopping coupons for department stores.Everyone thought that the department store would send employees down to distribute the lottery tickets, and everyone was waiting eagerly, but after waiting for a long time, there was no movement at all.Just as he was wondering, he saw Suzuki quietly making gestures on the stage, and suddenly heard a gust of wind, and saw Xiu Linguang tell the master Zhong Ming of the Art Kite Club, holding a huge kite in his hand, jumping from a corner of the venue Come out, pull the string with one hand, hold the kite with the other hand, run a few steps against the wind, the kite will fly out, and slowly rise into the air.

When everyone looked up, they were overjoyed. It turned out that what he had put into the sky was a kite with two sheep that had never been seen before.The two "sheep" are more than ten feet long, with arched backs and bowed heads, with horns facing each other. A slogan is hung under each jaw, with the name of Dongyang Department Store and a slogan written on it.What's more amazing is that after the two "sheep" ascended to the mid-air, they didn't know what mechanism was activated by the bell, and every short while, they opened their posture and collided with each other.Whenever the two "sheep" collide, the mouth of the "sheep" will automatically open, as if to make a bleating sound, and then spit out many colorful small pieces of paper from the mouth, and sprinkle them down one after another.Everyone picked it up and saw that these flower papers were shopping lottery tickets from department stores.

"What a goat kite!" In the crowd, whoever took the lead applauded.

"Goat kite! Goat kite!" The common people in the audience applauded vigorously while shouting in unison.

The atmosphere on the court was warm and reached a climax.

Hisashi Suzuki, who was on the stage, saw that the advertising kite made by the two great kite masters in Xiulin was very popular with the public, and he couldn't help being happy when he received such a good advertising effect.

The shopping coupons here have not been distributed yet, the gongs on the stage over there are clanging, and the Huagu Opera, the favorite of Xiulin people, has already started...

This celebration was a lively one. It started at two o'clock in the afternoon and continued to beating with gongs and drums until eight or nine o'clock in the evening.

This celebration event, before and after, cost Suzuki tens of thousands of silver coins.However, thinking that this publicity campaign has been so successful, tomorrow morning, everyone in Xiulin will flood into Dongyang Department Store with shopping coupons in their hands to snap up goods. I was still so happy that I didn't fall asleep all night.

But the next day, the entrance of Dongyang Department Store was deserted, and there was no panic buying as he had imagined.On the third day and the fourth day, it was the same. Out of the thousand shopping coupons distributed, only a poor dozen or so were returned.The business of the department store has plummeted, but it is not as good as before.This was something Suzuki never dreamed of.

On the night of May [-]th, it was supposed to be the night of the full moon, but the sky was covered with dark clouds, the stars and the moon were dark, and the air was so heavy that it was suffocating.

At ten o'clock at night, Zhao Fengnian was closing the door and looking at the kite atlas in the shop, when suddenly there was a light knock on the door.He put down the atlas and asked, "Who is it?"

Someone outside the door said in a low voice: "Master, I am Zhong Ming, please open the door, my apprentice has something important to see you."

As soon as Zhao Fengnian heard his voice, he stood up with a "huh", slapped the table in the room and scolded: "Bastard, running dog, traitor! Your sheep-arriving kite made a big splash at the Japanese celebration, but you can beat me to it!" It's a disaster, my old man has been afraid to go out to meet people these days. At the beginning, I forced you to leave my side, because I saw that you are quite talented in kite making, and wanted you to go outside to practice, maybe You can still do something. I didn’t expect you to be lucky, but you opened a kite club, but they didn’t sell kites. They just made kites for the rich to brag. If you are greedy for money, is there still anyone in this world who flies kites?"

Zhong Ming also seemed a little excited, and put his mouth close to the crack of the door and said, "Master, why don't you understand the disciple's mind? I don't sell kites, so I don't want to compete with you for business. Besides, I made my own advertising kites and rely on the merchants to sell them." What's wrong with advertising and earning money openly?"

"There is nothing wrong with you? You are willing to be the lackey of the Japanese, advertise for the Japanese, attract the people of Xiulin to buy things in Japanese stores, and help Suzuki to crush the stores opened by us Chinese. You still say that there is nothing wrong with it Right? You, you..."

Zhao Fengnian's face turned pale with anger, his cheeks twitched, and he couldn't even speak clearly.

Zhong Ming slapped his thigh outside the door and said: "Hey, Master, I can't explain this to you for a while. You open the door first and let the apprentice go in."

Zhao Fengnian stomped his feet and scolded: "Bastard, if I let you in, I will only dirty my innocent shop. Get out, I don't want to see you traitor again!"

Zhong Ming waited for him to finish cursing, then took a breath and said: "Master, my apprentice has received news that Suzuki has colluded with the Japanese army commander Teiichi Ozuka, and is going to arrest us, master and apprentice. Please clean up quickly, and let's go to my hometown first to escape." Get out of the limelight and make another plan."

Zhao Fengnian gave a "bah" and said, "Fart! I didn't do anything wrong, so why did he arrest me?"

"Master, in fact, the kite we tied together..." Zhong Ming lowered his voice and just said half a sentence, when he heard the sound of footsteps and the barking of Japanese military dogs from the corner of the street not far away. It's the Japanese patrol.Zhong Ming lowered his voice and said hastily: "Master, now is not the time to talk, you should hurry up and clean up at night. I will wait for you in the woods outside Dongcheng tomorrow morning. After we meet, I will..." But he couldn't hear clearly. He thought he saw the devil soldiers coming and slipped away along the wall.

How could Zhao Fengnian take what he said to heart, snorted angrily, turned off the lights, went to bed, and fell asleep.

The next morning, as soon as I got up and finished washing, I heard the door being kicked.He was startled: Could it be that Zhong Ming really hit the spot?When I opened the door, I saw Hisashi Suzuki and a Japanese officer leading a group of devil soldiers with live ammunition, rushing in aggressively.Without further ado, Zhao Fengnian was tied up with a rope.

Zhao Fengnian's expression changed, and he struggled to say, "What are you doing? Why did you arrest me? What crime did I commit?"

With a wave of Suzuki's hand, two ferocious ghost soldiers grabbed his arms and dragged them away.Zhao Fengnian's head slammed on the door frame with a "bang", and the pain made gold stars pop out of his eyes.The devil soldiers stuffed him into the trunk of the three-wheeled motorcycle.Suzuki sneered with his toad eyes and said, "What crime did you commit? Both you and your apprentice Zhong Ming committed the capital crime of undermining the friendship between China and Japan. I didn't catch Zhong Ming this morning, but I caught you right away."

Zhao Fengnian poked his neck and asked, "How did I destroy the friendship between China and Japan?"

Suzuki said angrily: "Bagayalu, since the kite tied together by you and your apprentice was released at the celebration ceremony, the business of our Dongyang Department Store has plummeted, and the Chinese have stopped buying our products. "

"Oh?" Zhao Fengnian was taken aback, this was beyond his expectation, and he couldn't help asking: "Is there such a thing? How could it be like this?"

"Damn old man, you still pretend to be garlic!" Suzuki pointed his hand to the street angrily, "Look, look, now there are such parades all over the streets of Xiulin City, and they teach me how to do business .”

Zhao Fengnian turned his head and saw that at the other end of the long street, there was a group of students leading countless people, shouting slogans and parading over.There was a person in front, while flying an imitation sheep-arriving kite high, he led the crowd to raise their arms and shout: "Arrival in foreign countries, Chinese people unite, boycott foreign goods! Arrival in foreign countries, Chinese people unite, boycott foreign goods!" Foreign goods..."

Zhao Fengnian said "Ouch" and was stunned. Only then did he understand the real intention of his apprentice to tie a sheep kite for Suzuki: Isn't arriving at the sheep the same as arriving at the ocean?It turned out that Zhong Ming was using a kite to call on the common people to unite to boycott the Japanese goods and support the Anti-Japanese War!He regretted that he had wrongly blamed his apprentice.

Not long after Zhao Fengnian was arrested by the Japanese, a group of the Eighth Route Army launched a surprise attack from the Yangtze River waterway, entered Xiulin City, killed nearly a thousand Japanese soldiers, and recovered the city in one fell swoop.It is a pity that although the Japanese army commander Kozuka Teichi was seriously injured, he escaped in disguise.And the guide who led the Eighth Route Army into Xiulin City was Zhong Ming who had just joined the Eighth Route Army.

After regaining Xiulin City, Zhong Ming couldn't find his master no matter what.Some people said that his master Zhao Fengnian was regarded as an anti-Japanese element by the Japanese army and executed secretly; others said that he met Zhao Fengnian when the Eighth Route Army invaded the city. up...

(End of this chapter)