tbreak of the war, while around Hankow, up the Yangtse, events were moving more rapidly day by day. It came as a surprise when the combined forces of Chang Fa-kuei and Pai Chung-his suddenly captured Changsha! That was on June the 4th, two days after the Dragon-boat Festival. The news threw the Shanghai stock market into an immediate turmoil of excitement. All sorts of rumours were rife, and the speculators attached to the Shanghai Stock and Bond Exchange swallowed these rumours eagerly, while at the same time they themselves manufactured and circulated new rumours.
Then came a bombshell: Yochow, a city not far from Hankow, had been taken by the Communist Red Army.
Li Yu-ting had been to a Japanese friend to confirm the news and had come home in an ague of anxiety. For a while he was so stunned that he could only keep polishing his spectacles with a handkerchief over and over again; then he decided to go and see Wu Sun-fu and offer him some more advice. Ever since the day of the demonstration he had been very careful not to involve himself in their controversy, but he was always ready to play the peace-maker should a suitable opportunity present itself. He had already made a private attempt to persuade Tu Chu-chai to exert some pressure on his brother-in-law Wu Sun-fu "in the public interest", so that there would be at least some possibility of a rapprochement between the latter and Chao Po-tao. He had told Tu Chu-chai that Wu Sun-fu's obstinacy and over-confidence would be his downfall.
So Li Yu-ting hurried off to Wu Sun-fu's house and arrived to find he had visitors -- in the drawing-room were several people hovering about, seemingly waiting with bated breath to see whether Wu Sun-fu would smile or frown. They were strangers to Li Yu-ting, though he seemed to remember seeing one of them before -- a man of about fifty with a little wisp of a beard.
Wu Sun-fu was standing with his back to them, an unusually tense expression on his face. As he caught sight of Li Yu-ting coming in, he waved a hand in greeting and called out, "I'm sorry, Yu-ting, but I wonder if you'd mind waiting a moment in the small drawing-room?"
He found someone ahead of him in the small drawing-room -- Chiu Sun, the lawyer. He was sitting there with a large portfolio open on his lap, fiddling with the corner of a sheaf of documents with one hand and stroking his chin with the other. He seemed deep in thought, so Li Yu-ting sat down quietly without disturbing him and began wondering what was afoot: what with the strangers in the other room, he thought, and a legal adviser in here. Sun-fu must have something important on his hands....
In the large drawing-room Wu Sun-fu was pacing up and down like a caged lion, glancing fiercely every now and then at the man with the straggly beard and then at the other three men standing there in awed silence. He suddenly stopped with a snort and asked the bearded one in an incredulous voice, "Hsiao-sheng, did you say the provincial government advised us to keep the Hung Chang Pawnshop open for business?"
"Yes, I did," replied Fei Little Beard, his eyes fixed on the floor. "And they said that the local bank, the oil-mill, the power-house and the rice-mill must also carry on. The man from the county council said that the prosperity of the town depended on your shops and factories and that it would be a terrible blow to the town if you decided to close them down altogether."
He himself secretly hoped that the shops and so on would remain open, but this hope was not motivated by any concern for the welfare of the town, but rather for his own welfare. Although he was quite sure of being offered another job in the event of Wu Sun-fu's closing down all his shops in the town -- a job in the Shanghai factory, say -- he much preferred to remain as Wu Sun-fu's agent in the town, a position which afforded him a comfortable living and a certain amount of prestige. Besides, he had boasted confidently to the county official that he could easily persuade Wu Sun-fu to change his mind.
"Huh!" Wu Sun-fu snorted, and grimaced. "It's all very well for them to talk about the prosperity of the town, but what protection can they give us?"
Despite his cynical tone, he was inwardly rather pleased to hear that the people at home looked up to him as the leader of the business circles in the town. Shrewdly guessing what was going on in his mind, Fei Little Beard pursued:
"Just now, everything's quiet in the town -- very quiet indeed. The new garrison that's recently taken over is in a different class altogether to Colonel Ho's lot that we had before."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that!" one of the three men suddenly interrupted. "You don't need to go half a mile outside the town to find yourself in Communist territory. They hold all the villages round about, and they send their patrols right in as far as West End Market. Oh yes, it's quiet enough in the town itself, but the town's surrounded! The most our one battalion can manage is to keep the road to the county town open. And I've heard that when they're sent out on patrol they very often desert and take their guns with them. The Communists have got twice as many men and weapons as they had before!"
The speaker was Wu Wei-cheng, a man in his thirties and a distant nephew of Wu Sun-fu's who had come in from their home town with Fei Little Beard.
"And they say they've set up some of these Soviets in the villages!" added a youngster of about twenty who was standing next to Wu Wei-cheng. He was Ma Ching-shan, a brother-in-law of Tseng Chia-chu -- who had already been staying with Wu Sun-fu for two weeks -- and he had also just arrived with Fei Little Beard. Standing should-to-should with him was Tseng Chia-chu, gaping wide-eyed.
Wu Sun-fu scowled as he glanced at Wu Wei-cheng and nodded curtly. At this brief nod Fei Little Beard's heart missed a beat, for it hurt him more than a good dressing-down would have done. He hastily tried to explain it all away. "Yes, yes, that's as may be, but the provincial government's sending troops down to surround the Communists and finish them off, so there won't be any more trouble in the town."
Wu Wei-cheng gave a cynical laugh and was just going to contradict Fei Little Beard again, when they heard the blare of a motorcar horn outside the main gate. Wu Sun-fu dismissed them with an impatient wave of the hand and strode out on to the front steps to meet the visitor. The slanting rays of the setting sun threw the shadows of trees on the stone steps, and as the trees swayed in the breeze, a pattern of light and shade danced over the five steps. Wu Sun-fu glanced down at the shadows, then stamped on them in his vexation.
The car drew up in front of the house and Kao Sheng, the butler, dashed across to open the car door. Tu Chu-chai hurriedly squeezed out, and when he looked up and saw Wu Sun-fu standing on the steps, he made a grimace and shook his head. Wu Sun-fu's face darkened when he saw that his visitor was the bearer of ill tidings, but he managed to force a smile of greeting.
"It's fantastic!" gasped Tu Chu-chai as he came up the steps, mopping his face with a snowy cambric handkerchief. "Terrific rise -- trading nearly closed!"
Wu Sun-fu said nothing, but just knit his brows in a puzzled frown. With no more than a glance at Tu Chu-chai, he turned and went back into the drawing-room. The scowl immediately returned to his face as he said to Fei Little Beard:
"Now look here! I couldn't care less whether everything's peaceful in the town or not. I own these shops in the first place, and if I choose to close them down, then closed down they will be! I'm not a charitable institution, and it's no concern of mine whether trade's slack in the town or not. I don't care who asks me, county council or provincial government or whoever they are, that's my answer, and it's final!"
"Yes, of course, Mr. Wu. That's just what I told them, but they --"
But Wu Sun-fu's patience was exhausted. His lips twisted in a sneer as he cut Fei Little Beard short. "Yes, I know all about their bluff and nonsense! You still haven't told me how much you've collected on the loans that fell due at the Dragon-boat Festival. You told me last time you could count on sixty per cent, though I expected more than that, of course. Well, how much did you collect after all? I suppose you've brought the money with you?"
"Er -- no, I haven't. You see, the people in the town are leaving last quarter's accounts over to next quarter-day, the same as here."
"What!" roared Wu Sun-fu angrily. This setback was the last thing he had expected. Although it was only a matter of seventy or eighty thousand dollars, he was very short of ready cash just at the moment, and even seventy or eighty thousand would have come in very handy. He set his face in a scowl and paced up and down, then paused to look at Tu Chu-chai, who was sitting on a sofa taking snuff. The sight of Tu Chu-chai reminded him painfully of the sudden steep rise in government bonds.
His nostrils full of snuff, his eyes closed and his mouth wide open, Tu Chu-chai was waiting for a sneeze to come.
"If you do close down all your shops, including the local bank," murmured Fei Little Beard, coming closer, "it'll mean that we won't be able to get back the loans even at the Mid-autumn Festival."
Wu Sun-fu shrugged his shoulders; after a moment's pause he laughed and spat out, "Hah! the Mid-autumn Festival, eh? Well, perhaps by that time I shan't need to call in my money from that quarter!"
"Is it just that you're afraid the town's still in danger, Mr. Wu?" said Fei Little Beard, seeing an opportunity of delivering a little speech he had prepared. His eyes shifted uncomfortably from side to side as he went on.
"Well, of course, Wei-cheng was exaggerating a bit just now. And the provincial government really is sending down a strong detachment of troops to surround the Communists and finish them off. As I said before, both the provincial and county authorities are hoping that you will agree to play your part in maintaining the prosperity of the town. After all, it is your ho