Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 28: The Bullied Chinese
Liu Daming was a man of quick temper. He was about to slam the table and curse when he heard this. Liu Jingui on the side hurriedly said, "Master Liu, calm down. A wise man never suffers a loss in front of him..."
Liu Daming sighed heavily and said, "If we had known that the Filipinos would bully the Chinese, we should not have rescued those natives."
Lin Fei whispered, "Old Liu, you are wrong. The natives we rescued are not Filipinos. They are just barbarians living in the mountains of the Philippines. They are uncivilized. We can save them, but these people in front of us are the real Filipinos. They bully us Chinese, so we have to make them pay the price."
When the old man heard this, he shook his head and waved his hands, and whispered to Lin Fei: "My dear little brother, listen to my advice, don't provoke those Filipinos, endure it if you can, and leave if you can't. I think the three of you look like businessmen, and harmony brings wealth, harmony brings wealth."
Lin Fei waved his hand to stop the old man from persuading him, and asked, "Old man, how many Filipinos and Chinese are there in this town? Are there any Spanish people?"
The old man said, "There are more than 8,000 Filipinos in this town, and more than 1,000 Chinese. They are either craftsmen or merchants, and they keep their tails between their legs under the feet of the Filipinos to make a living. As for the Spanish, there were some a few years ago. They said they wanted to establish a Spanish imperial government, but they thought there was nothing to gain here, so they left soon."
Lin Fei then asked: "Do the Filipinos here have a leader? Who is the leader?"
The old man replied, "There is a leader, the chief of the tribe, named Makaipaslo, just like the name of the town. He is the most cruel to the Chinese. He collects three times as much tax from Chinese merchants as from the locals. If the Chinese fail to pay taxes on time, they will be whipped when they are dragged to the town center..."
The old man was so frightened that his whole body trembled when he said this. Liu Daming slammed the table and stood up, saying loudly: "What a great clan leader! Where does he live? I'll go meet them right now!"
Lin Fei pushed Liu Daming to sit on the chair and said, "Don't worry, let's ask clearly first." Lin Fei calmed down the angry Liu Daming and turned to ask the old man, "Old man, do the Filipinos in this town have an army? What weapons does the army have?"
The old man trembled and said, "There is no need for the army, because these Filipinos are all soldiers. When something happens, they pick up knives and sticks to beat people up. My God, it's too scary..."
Lin Fei nodded and then asked, "Where does the Filipino chief live?"
The old man replied, "He lives in the easternmost part of the town. The big house with the most beautiful facade is his home."
As the old man was talking, two Filipino men walked into the tea stall, calling for tea, and the old man greeted them like a dog. Lin Fei tightly clenched the cup and whispered to Liu Daming and Chen Jingui: "Let's go back now, take the brothers and directly attack the clan leader's home, capture the clan leader alive, and save our compatriots."
Chen Jingui said hurriedly: "Captain Lin, this is unacceptable! Haven't you heard? There are more than 8,000 Filipinos here, and all of them are soldiers. Can we defeat them?"
Lin Fei snorted coldly and said, "What are you afraid of? Don't forget that we have guns and explosives. We can easily beat these guys."
At this moment, the Filipinos on the street suddenly walked east together, as if a big hand was pushing them from behind. Even the two Filipinos who were drinking tea threw down their tea bowls, stood up and mixed into the crowd. The old man did not dare to chase them for money, and he packed up the teapot and tea bowls dejectedly.
Lin Fei hurried over and asked, "Old man, what are these Filipinos going to do?"
The old man sighed and said, "It must be some unlucky Chinese who was dragged to the town center square to be punished for not paying taxes. They love to watch this excitement."
Liu Daming said loudly: "Lao Lin, can we not go and take a look?"
Lin Fei said: "When Chinese people are bullied, we can't just ignore it. Let's go now, but Lao Liu, remember, don't be impulsive. Now is not the time for us to take action!"
Liu Daming nodded and quickly followed the crowd. In a short while, they arrived at the town center square. There was a high platform in the middle of the square. The platform was surrounded by Filipinos in three layers. The three of them did not dare to get close to the crowd, so they stood far away from the crowd. There were ten Chinese people standing on the high platform in the square, both young and old. Everyone had thick iron chains on their hands and feet. A dozen Filipinos holding machetes stood on one side. A middle-aged man with gorgeous clothes and a fierce face was pacing on the platform with his hands behind his back.
When the middle-aged man saw that no one was coming, he said loudly on the stage: "These Chinese are all unruly guys. As the patriarch, I have to punish them a little!"
Although the middle-aged man spoke Filipino, Lin Fei had been learning Filipino with Chen Jingui, Huang San and others these days. Lin Fei had a strong learning ability and had mastered the daily expressions of Filipino, so he understood the general idea.
The middle-aged man continued, "These people are craftsmen from Lingji Construction Factory in the west of the city. Lingji Construction Factory has been in arrears of taxes for three months and has not paid yet. What do you think we should do? Should we punish them severely?"
The Filipinos below shouted passionately: "Hit! Hit hard!"
The middle-aged man sneered and said, "Well, this clan leader will punish them severely!"
The Filipinos cheered again. The middle-aged man waved his hand at the Filipino strong men behind the Chinese. Several Filipino strong men walked up to the Chinese with whips in their hands and waved them to hit them. Liu Daming's eyes were full of fire. He reached out for the revolver at his waist, which they got when they looted the plantation.
Lin Fei held down Liu Daming and said in a low voice, "Old Liu, wait a minute, now is not the time!"
Liu Daming said viciously: "If it's not the right time now, then when will it be the right time? Are we just going to watch our compatriots being whipped? I was whipped when I was in the hands of the Japanese, and now I can't stand seeing people being whipped."
Just as Lin Fei was about to persuade him again, he suddenly heard a clear and loud female voice coming from outside the platform: "Wait a minute!"
Lin Fei and Liu Daming looked in the direction where the voice came from, but found that the crowd blocked the speaker. At this moment, a beautiful girl in her twenties walked up to the platform. She was wearing a white butterfly dress and her hair was tied up behind her head. Her big, crystal eyes were full of shrewdness and competence. Although she was wearing Filipino clothes, she looked like Chinese.
Lin Fei frowned, wondering who this little girl was? Why did she appear in such an occasion? Why did she stop the clan leader?
At this moment, Lin Fei saw the girl kneeling down in front of the clan leader and said, "Dear clan leader, please show mercy. We will pay off the taxes owed by our Construction Bureau next month."
The clan leader snorted coldly and said, "Boss Ling, you said this three months ago. How can I believe you?"
The girl felt embarrassed for a moment, kowtowed to the middle-aged man, and begged, "Respected clan leader, please give us another month. We haven't had much business recently, but maybe things will get better next month, and we will pay all the overdue taxes by then."
The clan leader laughed loudly and said, "I will never trust you again. Come on, fight me!"
When several strong men heard the order, they rushed to the Chinese on the stage with whips in hand. Lin Fei turned to the angry Liu Daming and said, "Let's go back as soon as possible and call our brothers."
Liu Daming stamped his feet fiercely, gritted his teeth, turned around and left. Lin Fei glared at the clan leader on the high platform and cursed in his heart: "We will settle this account later!"
Lin Fei turned around to leave, but at this moment, he heard the clan leader shout from the high platform: "Don't fight yet!"
Lin Fei stopped first and looked back at the platform. Liu Daming heard the clan leader's shout and turned back to ask Chen Jingui: "What is the clan leader saying?"
Chen Jingui said, "The clan leader asked us not to fight for now. Things seem to have changed." So Liu Daming and Chen Jingui also stopped and looked at the platform together. At this time, the clan leader said loudly, "Forget it. I won't beat these craftsmen this time."
The girl surnamed Ling kowtowed repeatedly and said, "Thank you, clan leader, for your kindness."
The clan leader laughed loudly and said to the girl, "Don't be in a hurry to thank me. I said I would not beat these craftsmen, but I didn't say I would spare your Lingji Construction Bureau. How about this, you are the general manager of the Construction Bureau, so you should take the beating for them."
The girl was stunned. The chief waved his hand, and two strong men rushed forward and lifted the girl up. The craftsmen begged from behind, "Please, chief, let her go."
The strong men heard the craftsmen's plea, and surrounded them, punching and kicking them, knocking them to the ground. At this time, the clan leader sneered: "You strip this woman naked and beat her hard with a whip, and see if she dares to !"
The onlookers cheered maliciously, and amid the cheers, the two sturdy men reached out and tore the girl's clothes off. The girl held down her clothes with all her might, begging desperately, but her voice was drowned out by the cheers, and not a word could be heard.
Liu Daming frowned and said angrily, "Lao Lin, if ten men were whipped, they would recover in ten days or half a month, but this twenty-year-old girl was stripped naked and beaten in public. How can she live in the future? Let's do it! We can't just watch the Filipinos insult our women!"
Lin Fei's eyes instantly flashed with the anti-Chinese riots in Southeast Asia during his time. Those thugs raped and gang-raped Chinese women in public, and even dragged naked, begging Chinese women through the streets for public display! How similar this scene was to his own time!
Chen Jingui said hurriedly: "There are more than a hundred Filipinos at the scene, and there are only a dozen bullets in your guns. It is impossible to kill them all? Let's go quickly. This is all because of the girl's bad luck..."
Liu Daming suddenly said: "There is only one way to save this girl!"
