The second act is called "suppressing bandits"

  "It's good that I managed to escape... That kind of haunted place... Fortunately, I don't have to go there again..."

  Roger lay on the modern, soft and comfortable big bed in a single room of a three-star hotel, staring with dead fish eyes, turning over and over, and the faces of those villagers who died without closing their eyes kept swirling in his mind. As soon as he closed his eyes, those faces would entangle him like ghosts, tormenting him until he was exhausted.

  As a pharmacy major graduate, Roger had done a lot of animal experiments. His first anatomy class was to dissect a small white mouse into eight pieces and then place the parts on his hands, one by one, like serving dishes. He had seen many dead bodies before, and he was already used to bloody scenes. However, witnessing an execution at close range, especially the shooting of innocent people, was something he had never thought of. Moreover, he had no psychological preparation beforehand, so the sudden shock directly destroyed his mental defense line.

  Although he was no stranger to the dark side of society, with various cases of suicide, murder, forced demolition and theft being all too common, how could something as brazen as the shooting of innocent civilians possibly happen? Roger couldn't accept it for a moment.

  At that time, after realizing that he had actually crossed over, Roger's brain "buzzed" and his thoughts went blank, dazed and confused, almost unconsciously taking the photos.

  After taking the photos and handling the bodies, and dispersing the villagers, the sky had completely darkened. At this time, it was naturally inconvenient to rush on the road, and those bastards were too lazy to take the trouble to walk on the night road. The military camp didn't have their favorite things waiting for them, so what's the hurry to go back?! More importantly, staying overnight in the village could get some "benefits"!

  Since it was determined that this Zhangjiacun was a "bandit den", and five "bandits" were also killed in the village, then there is no doubt that there must be quite a lot of "loot" in this village.

  As the Eight Allied Armies of the Hainan Government Army (the name of the Hainan warlord faction army) had wiped out a bandit lair, the spoils would naturally be distributed according to current practice - rewarding the soldiers. Without this benefit, who would be willing to exert themselves to wipe out the bandits?

  After shooting the "bandits", the soldiers, with a familiar routine, looted all living things in this "bandit" village. The swift and efficient manner showed that they had been doing this for more than a year or two.

  Zhangjiacun is also considered a big village, but because it is close to Wuzhishan Mountain, there are many mountains and few good fields, so the villagers live in poverty.

  Chen Fengqi's dog legs swept the entire village, but they didn't get many chickens and ducks. As for pigs, there were even fewer, only six heads. They still had a bit of conscience, leaving behind the only two water buffalo in the village, not killing them all, leaving some hope for the villagers.

  The looted goods have been gathered, and the traitors set up stoves at the village entrance to cook a hearty meal to reward themselves for their hard work in "suppressing bandits".

  Rojer didn't want to touch the looted food, but Chen Fengji repeatedly persuaded him, and he couldn't decline, so he reluctantly took a chicken leg and sat down with Chen Fengji in the officers' circle.

  "Chen, what are you guys doing? What kind of bandit are you eliminating? Do you need a photo?" Suppressing his disgust and fear towards the murderer, Roger handed Chen Fengqi the flask he brought from modern times and started chatting with him, trying to figure out what was going on and what situation he was in.

  "You don't know that matter!? Since you don't know, what are you doing here?" Chen Feng took over the wine jug and poured a mouthful, looking at Roger strangely, "Hey, what kind of wine is this? The taste is not bad!"

  "Since Brother Chen likes it, just take it and drink it. I've only been back in the country for a few days, and my cash on hand is almost gone, so I took this photography job to try to make some money quickly. I didn't ask too many questions about what's going on."

  "Hey…… we also know that you guys who have been abroad and drunk foreign ink are probably not used to our behavior, but hey, isn't this all because of those Americans?" As he spoke, Chen Feng poured himself another drink and began to pour out his troubles.

  From Chen Feng's intermittent revelations, Roger finally figured out the current situation and why they wanted to shoot civilians.

  At that time, in June 1924, an American pastor named Feng Zhuoxu was killed by bandits who snuck into the church in Qiongdong County, Hainan. The US side learned about it and put pressure on Deng Benyin, the warlord of Hainan, demanding severe punishment for the perpetrators and compensation of $1 million. Since no one wanted to pay such a large sum of money, which was also impossible to raise at that time, punishing the culprits seemed like an easier task. To appease the Americans, Deng Benyin sent Chen Fengqi to "clean up" the countryside and capture the bandits. However, the bandits were hiding in the mountains and valleys, making it difficult to catch them. The Americans were also pressing hard, so Chen Fengqi resorted to an old trick of "killing innocent people and taking credit for it". He led a group of soldiers on a tour of Qiongdong, Leizhou, Wanning, Wen-chang, and Anding counties, killing over 180 civilians, burning more than 50 houses, and taking photos with reporters as evidence of "suppressing bandits". They were about to report back to the Americans when they encountered Roger.

  After Chen Feng and his men had eaten their fill, they drove the villagers out of their homes to the village entrance to clean up the mess. Then, this group of soldiers, who were more like bandits than bandits, crawled into the villagers' houses and fell fast asleep. Of course, before falling asleep, they couldn't help but rummage through the rooms, and if they came across a village girl who caught their eye, it was likely that their sleep would be delayed.

  Because Chen Fengqi thought Luo Ge was a traitor, he gave him special treatment and gave him a single room. However, this made Luo Ge even more terrified - the owner of that room was one of the villagers who had just been shot!

  All night long, as soon as Roger closed his eyes, he could see the faces of those dead villagers! Even the sound of the wind blowing against the window paper sounded like a ghostly wail at this time. The faint cries of the village girls who had been raped also kept hitting Roger's ears, scaring him so much that he didn't dare to sleep. Even if he was extremely tired and closed his eyes, he would be awakened by nightmares within five minutes!

  After a night of torment, it was easy to hold on until the second day dawned. Roger really didn't want to have anything to do with these people anymore, so he lied that he still had some things to take care of and wanted to leave the group, not following Chen Feng and the others back to the county town.

  Because Chen Fengqi mistakenly thought that Roger was a second-generation devil who had just returned from the United States, he was afraid of offending Americans by embarrassing him, so he naturally wouldn't make things difficult for him in such a small matter. He readily agreed and even paid Roger the photography fee in advance, leaving it up to him when to deliver the photos, whenever he liked, whenever it was convenient, no need to rush, in short, not delivering them was also okay.