cicada

Chapter 1500 Memories and Burial

“Click~~Click~~”

The footsteps of the guards gradually faded into the distance. Honda sat alone in the command post, staring down at the unfolded map of the treasure cave.

At this moment, the adjutant returned to the command post after inspecting the camp. He wiped his sweat as he reported on the progress of the project.

"Captain, with the addition of new prisoners of war, we might be able to complete our mission ahead of schedule."

Honda responded with a nod, and the adjutant glanced at him furtively before making a request after a moment's hesitation.

"Major, could you tell me about your experience of getting into Army University? Please."

Those qualified to apply to the Army University are either top students from the Army Academy or professional officers who are already serving as squad leaders or company commanders in the military.

Moreover, the acceptance rate at Lu University is extremely low, with only 3 to 7 people being admitted out of every 100 applicants.

Even more difficult is the quota for recommendations. Field divisions only have one or two slots a year, and most applicants come from prominent backgrounds.

Honda was born a homeless child and an orphan, so he obviously couldn't get a recommendation through connections. The adjutant was always curious about how he got into the Army University.

Upon hearing this question, Honda looked up and recounted his experience in the most calm tone.

"You should know that I am an orphan and used to wander the streets, but one day I suddenly realized that I could no longer continue to be so decadent, so I went back to school to prepare to apply for the Army Academy."

“I was very lucky to meet a responsible gentleman who not only helped me achieve my dreams, but also wanted to marry his daughter to me.”

The adjutant looked on with envy; the teacher marrying her daughter to a poor student—it was just like a scene from a story.

On the other side, Honda's narration continued, and the timeline moved to after he successfully entered the Army Academy, with his adjutant listening intently.

"I entered the Army Academy with the last three scores. If nothing unexpected happens, I will never have the opportunity to apply to the Army University, but I don't want to give up."

"While others were studying, I was studying; while others were sleeping, I was still studying; even during marching and training, I did not put down my textbooks, and I lived one day as if it were two."

The adjutant was deeply moved, as if he were witnessing the legendary life of a commoner who, through perseverance, gained the appreciation of a mentor and subsequently achieved great success.

He couldn't hold back any longer and asked, "Major, has some important figure noticed your efforts?"

Honda shook his head and said calmly, "During my time at the Army Academy, I met the daughter of the Vice Chief of the General Staff. The Vice Chief intended to take me as his son-in-law, and I agreed."

"Nani?"

The adjutant exclaimed in surprise, but realized how rude it was as soon as he said it, so he quickly covered his mouth.

The plot twist was so dramatic that Honda's expression was unusually calm when he mentioned it, but the adjutant did not look down on him.

Recruiting promising young men as sons-in-law is a tradition in Japanese high society, and pursuing advancement is not a shameful thing.

Seeing his adjutant's loss of composure, Honda revealed a mischievous smile: "Do you think I abandoned my teacher's daughters? No, they are all my wives."

"As someone who's been there, I have a piece of advice for you: the higher your position, the more choices you have. Being in a dead end is a lie told by incompetent people."

The adjutant was dumbfounded. It was the first time he had seen another side of his superior: mercenary, slick, more like a politician than a soldier.

But he also understood that, despite Honda's easy-going manner, the other party's journey to getting into the Army University must have been extremely arduous. To go from being third from the bottom in the Army Academy to becoming a member of the Saber Group, it couldn't have been achieved by mere flattery.

After all, marshals and generals also have sons-in-law or sons to take care of, and the adjutant admired Honda even more for this reason.

Honda, perhaps having talked too much, suddenly became disoriented, his memory abruptly pulled back to the mountainous region of Anhui Province during the Republic of China era, more than a decade ago, to that summer afternoon filled with the chirping of cicadas.

"Here, you don't have names, only code names, do you understand?!"

"Yes!"

"From this moment on, you are not allowed to speak the language of the Republic of China era anymore, and you must forget your original identities!"

"Hai!"

In a small village full of Japanese style, a group of young boys and girls stand straight, wearing black masks that reveal their eyes and mouths.

The instructors opposite them were also masked, speaking fluent Japanese without a trace of a foreign accent.

For the next two years, these students, whose average age was less than ten, studied and lived in the village as Japanese, completely erasing all their past habits.

In addition to learning Japanese language, culture, and customs, trainees also receive specialized training in intelligence gathering, combat, secret writing, and demolition. As for shooting, they only familiarize themselves with various types of firearms and do not undergo high-intensity training.

Subconscious reactions don't lie. A child's understanding of fighting can be explained by fabricated experiences, but shooting can't, because ordinary people don't have the opportunity to handle firearms, so they naturally can't be proficient in shooting.

Moreover, Japanese schools offer military training, allowing students to gradually improve their shooting skills at school.

Over the course of two years, Honda underwent multiple plastic surgeries. After completing his training, he secretly entered mainland Japan, impersonating his target and starting a new life. Compared to him, another group of "canned" agents had a more complex infiltration process. They impersonated respectable families to enter various military academies, gradually severing ties with their original families.

When the U.S. military bombed Tokyo and other cities, Fu Ling used a few timed incendiary bombs to help eliminate the last threat to these canned goods. No one doubted this; such things were perfectly normal during wartime.

"Squeak..."

Honda heard a rustling sound. He snapped out of his daze, drew his dagger, and threw it into the darkness, pinning a rat to the ground.

The adjutant was startled by Honda's actions. One second the man was in a daze, and the next he drew his sword and shot the target. He truly lived up to his reputation as the Empire's most elite saber squad.

Their conversation ended there. Time passed quickly, and the situation at the front became increasingly unfavorable for the Japanese army. The Japanese accelerated the pace of the Golden Lily Plan.

By the end of June 1945, the three treasure caves on Luzon Island, as well as in the Dutch East Indies and Malaya, were completed, and large quantities of gold, silver, and jewels were placed in the underground vaults.

Outside the treasure cave on Luzon Island, the cabinet envoy, who had not shown his face, supervised the entire moving process and occasionally opened the boxes for inspection.

After watching the last box of valuables being carried into the cave and confirming that all the porters had come out, Honda nodded to his adjutant.

"Boom! Boom!"

Several small bombs completely buried the entrance to the treasure cave. A group of prisoners of war immediately stepped forward to restore the vegetation and surface soil. With just a heavy rain, the place would blend into the surrounding jungle.

"Yosh, you did a great job, this is a reward."

Honda kicked the iron pot, which was filled with broth. Some of the prisoners of war gathered around it, while others looked around warily.

A minute passed, then five minutes, and the prisoners of war who had eaten the broth showed no abnormalities, which relieved the observing prisoners.

After finishing their last meal, the Japanese army cleared the camp and escorted the laborers into the jungle. The lazy prisoners of war did not notice that the guards around them were dwindling. By the time someone realized something was wrong, it was too late.

Honda stood on the mountaintop looking down at the valley below. His adjutant pressed the detonator hard, and a series of explosions engulfed all the prisoners in a small mudslide.

It is said that water and fire are merciless, and the rolling mud and sand were equally merciless. In the blink of an eye, thousands of laborers disappeared from this world, leaving only a few pale arms reaching towards the sky at the bottom of the valley.

"Clean up and proceed to the next step."

Honda remained calm and dispatched a team of soldiers to handle the scene and eliminate any traces of the explosion.

Following his orders, the guards scattered various grass seeds and native plant seeds on the ground, and in less than half a month, the vegetation in the valley became much more lush.

After doing all this, apart from Honda, his adjutant, the cabinet envoy, and the guard squad, the remaining Japanese soldiers knelt in the sunlit area and took out their wakizashi (traditional Japanese swords) to measure their abdomens.

Of course, not everyone can face death calmly. Some guards rolled their eyes but didn't make a move, which is where the guard squad came in handy.

"Help them."

At the adjutant's command, the guard squad stood behind these men, guns drawn.

On one hand, there is the "glorious" death; on the other hand, there is military law, and the family will also be implicated. It is not difficult to choose what to do.

A battalion of over a thousand Japanese soldiers unbuttoned their shirts, exposing their bellies, and shouted "Heavenly Black Card!" before committing seppuku. The scene was spectacular, but Honda's expression remained unchanged.

He will never forget that in that memory that must be forgotten, a boy from Jicheng, Shandong Province, stood outside a burning courtyard and wailed.

The boy's parents, grandparents, and siblings lived in the courtyard, where he had the most beautiful childhood memories, but the Japanese destroyed everything.

In 1928, the Japanese army stormed into Jinan, burning, killing, and looting. Under the pretext of searching for Guo Jun, they killed all the people in the city who had crew cuts, short hair, wore gray clothes, spoke with a southern accent, wore leather belts, had gold teeth, had business cards, and wore leather shoes.

As the situation developed, the Japanese army extended its reach to the local people, indiscriminately shooting and killing innocent people, looting shops, and raping women throughout the city, committing all sorts of atrocities.

Honda watched as the guards poured gasoline on the corpses, and then watched as the guards saluted each other and committed suicide amidst the pile of bodies, remaining silent throughout.

The cabinet envoy had never experienced such a bloody scene before and almost vomited several times, but he still forced himself to examine the bodies to make sure that everyone was dead.

Finally, the adjutant lit a kerosene lighter and threw it out. The fire quickly spread and ignited the pile of corpses, with black smoke rising straight into the sky.

A week later, Honda, his adjutant, and the cabinet envoy landed by plane on the outskirts of Tokyo. The three were taken to a Japanese-style room where Hayashi Fuichiro had been waiting for a long time.

Seeing the three enter, Lin Fuyilang raised his hand in a gesture of invitation: "Duo Zuo, you've worked hard. Please have a cup of hot tea."

As he spoke, he poured three cups of tea, gesturing for Honda and the others to sit down, but he himself did not touch a cup.

The adjutant and the cabinet envoy felt a sinking feeling in their hearts. They sat down dejectedly in front of Lin Fuyilang, their right hands trembling as they reached for their cups, where the emerald green tea rippled slightly.

If I'm not mistaken, they're about to be silenced, just like the soldiers who committed suicide. After all, the more people who know the location of the treasure cave, the greater the risk of the Golden Lily Project being exposed, and the higher-ups won't allow that to happen.

Compared to the hesitation of the two men, Honda was much more carefree. He picked up his teacup, drank it all in one gulp, closed his eyes, and awaited death.