Kong Ergou - Triads & Turbulence - Volume Three: Once Upon a Time in Northeastern China

Around three years ago, Ergou said to Zhao Hongbing:

You went to prison twice. Did you ever think of just going straight?

When I got out the second time, I was thirty-four years old, Hongbing replied. Id spent half my life with guys like Zhang Yue, Lisi, and Feisi. In the thirteen years since I was discharged from the army, Id spent eight inside. Id spent only five years as a free man. The people I knew best were ex-cons like me. Was it really possible for me to cut loose from them? And why should I?

What do you mean?

Let me tell you a story. I read it while I was in prison the second time.

Ok! I love your stories.

One day, Confucius took his disciples to a place beneath a waterfall. The waterfall was huge, with a drop of nearly a hundred yards, so its thrust was enormous. It sent spray flying a good twenty miles. Fish, turtles and other aquatic creatures stayed clear of the shallows right under the waterfall for fear of being dizzied by the turbulence. But there was a man who was an exception. Whenever he had a free moment, he would bathe and swim in the pool without the least fear of its roiling waters. He actually liked it.

What made him so fearless? Ergou asked.

Confucius wondered the same thing and asked him. The man laughed and said, I grew up near this waterfall. I know the direction and power of the current. I know where its safe and where its dangerous. I know how to follow the current, so Im not in any danger.

I see. Ergou more or less understood the point Zhao Hongbing was trying to make.

When I read this story, I learned several things: First, never to fight when I was outmatched, like a human body trying to fight the current of a waterfall. For me, that meant never fighting on my own against the state apparatus. Second, if I wanted to be regarded as a hero, I had to be willing to go where others didnt dare to go and stand in the teeth of the storm. Third, I had to understand what was safe and what was dangerous, and to understand the situation before I did anything. Fourth, I had to know when to let nature take its course. As long as I was used to this way of life, I would just accept it and not be afraid of the waterfall like other people were.

The gangland world was as perilous as a briar patch. Things seemed calm in 1998, and the situation appeared less chaotic than in 1993. However, the atmosphere may actually have been even more murderous. Lacking the option to go straight, Zhao Hongbing had to plunge into the turbulence below the waterfall.

Hongbing served his time in prison and was released. When he got out for the first time, hed tried to distance himself from the gangland world. This time, however, he understood that he was inextricably bound up with that life. The criminal underworld energized him, and he could never leave it.

As the ancient Chinese saying goes, a thousand ships sail past a shipwreck; ten thousand saplings rise around a dying tree.

Zhao Hongbing, Zhang Yue, and Feisi were jailed and Lisi was on the run. This was as normal as things got in the gangland world. It was likewise normal for new guys to take over from the old ones in those circles. While Hongbing and his friends were out of commission, new figures rose in the local gangland world. Even once they were released, there was no guarantee that their gangland positions would still be there for them, or that they could be the forces of nature theyd been before.

The Taiwanese writer Bo Yang once said that prison is the best place for reading, and this was certainly the case for Zhao Hongbing. It was Gao Huan who brought him the books.

I only like reading stuff from Chinas traditional culture, he liked to say. I dont understand other kinds of books. Im not good at much else, but at least I know how to read Chinese.

Before his release, several incidents occurred in the city, which give a fair idea of what things were like there in 1998.

Little Tiger, who had gone straight, returned to the gangland world. Years earlier, when Zhao Hongbing, Zhang Yue, Lisi, and the others were tangling with Zhao Shanhe and Dong Bo, Little Tiger was focusing all his energies on running a wool washing plant associated with the woolen mill. Just as people who live near a mountain live off of the mountain, Little Tiger had grown up in the living quarters around the woolen mill. The business was in his blood, so his factory flourished. He may not have been quite as prosperous as Zhao Hongbing and his friends, but he did well enough for himself.

Some said that Little Tiger withdrew from the gangland world because he couldnt survive there anymore after being packed up by Zhao Hongbing and Zhang Yue. In any case, during those years he truly went straight. The local evening newspaper even referred to him as a classic case of a returned prodigal more precious than gold.

Yesterdays blood-sucking street hoodlum had become a self-made entrepreneur; people were amazed by Little Tiger and respected him for reinventing himself. Unfortunately, the woolen mill that he depended on was an old state-owned factory that had been operating on a deficit for years and no longer had enough assets to cover its debts. More than two-thirds of the woolen mills 20,000-plus employees were laid off, and the rest took home a salary of around 300 yuan per month. The mill became largely dormant, and its debts became junk debt. It was Little Tigers sole client, and the money he was owed became a total write-off.

He had sunk all his personal assets into his little factory, and he had his own debts to pay. Half a year later, he sold off all his machinery at a loss and laid off all his workers. The factory was a washout. He wasnt penniless but merely in debt. Having spent so many years as a gangster of the Northeastern variety, he put a premium on face and didnt want others to think he had no money. Although he was constantly being chased by his creditors and laid-off employees, he continued to hold them off.

Dont be in such a rush! Once I rent out the land my factory is on, Ill have the money to pay you back.

When pigs fly!

Do you think Im a deadbeat? In all the years youve known me, have I ever failed to repay a debt?

Little Tiger used these words to put off his creditors and his former employees as well: Brother, I know its tough for you right now, but things arent easy for me, either. I just dont have the money right now. Your back pay isnt that much. Once I rent out my land, Ill pay you right away.

Brother Tiger, I dont like to push you after working for you for so many years, but I cant even put rice on the table now. I dont dare go home the way things are now. What do you want me to do? With the economy the way it is now, I cant find any kind of work.