Explore Chapter 4 of 'Little Erhei Gets Married' with the original Chinese text, English translation, detailed Chinese vocabulary explanations, and audio of the Chinese original. Listen and improve your reading skills.
Jin Wang's father, though a farmer, was a tiger in Liujiajiao. He had been the village head for decades, and tying up and beating people was his forte. When Jin Wang reached seventeen or eighteen, he became his father's able assistant. Xing Wang also learned to aid the tiger in its hunts. Henceforth, if Jin Wang's father wished to bind someone, he no longer had to lift a finger himself. A mere command sufficed, and Jin Wang and Xing Wang would carry it out.
In the early years of the War of Resistance, traitors, enemy spies, deserters, and bandits ran rampant everywhere. By then, Jin Wang's father had already died. The brothers Jin Wang and Xing Wang served as inside men for a group of deserters. They guided them in kidnappings, negotiated ransoms, played both the witch and the ghost, and posed as good guys from both sides. Later, when the Eighth Route Army arrived and crushed the deserters and bandits, the two of them returned to Liujiajiao.
The mountain folks were naturally timid. After months of great chaos and many deaths, people became even more reluctant to step forward. Other large villages had established village office, Salvation Association for All Circles, and Armed Forces Committee. But in Liujiajiao, apart from a village head sent by the county government, no one was willing to serve as a cadre. Soon, the county sent personnel to Liujiajiao to work and elect village cadres. Jin Wang and Xing Wang saw this as another chance to seize power. Everyone was also eager for someone to take on the roles. So they elected Xing Wang as the director of the Armed Forces Committee, and Jin Wang as a village administrative committee member. Even Jin Wang's wife was elected chair of the Women's Salvation Association. For the other cadres, they forcibly dragged out a few old men to make up the numbers. Only the captain of the Youth Anti-Japanese Vanguard could not be filled by an old man. Xing Wang, seeing that Xiao Erhei was a handsome and amusing child, casually nominated him. It was passed. Although his father Er Zhuge was unwilling, he dared not cross Jin Wang and said nothing.
The village head was an outsider and not very familiar with the village's situation. From then on, Jin Wang and Xing Wang became even more formidable. As long as they kept the village head in the dark, every villager had to obey their orders. In recent years, although several other cadres had been replaced, these two seemed to have an iron grip on power. Everyone loathed them to the core, but no one dared utter a word. They all feared that if they tried to topple them, they would only suffer themselves.