Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 512 Stealing a Ton of Gold in the Night, The Revenge of a War Orphan

Fang Wen saw the following situation through a technology helmet made using television camera technology.

The Japanese search operation is about to begin, and we must now leave from another direction.

He said, "Japanese troops are gathering at the western intersection and they may be coming soon. We must move immediately."

As he spoke, he pointed eastward: "Does this lead to Pantang?"

The underground party contact looked at the young worker beside him.

The worker replied, "You can detour via Baohua Road, which is the Xiguan commercial street. After the Japanese and their collaborators looted it, they set up checkpoints there. But I know a side road that can bypass the checkpoints. Go north from Baohua Road, turn onto Changshou West Road, and you'll get directly to Pantang."

Fang Wen pushed up the helmet equipped with the television camera and removed the goggles. "Then let's go that way."

The group came down from the bell tower, met up with the soldiers of the Independent Regiment below, and headed directly east.

They walked through the alleyways, but behind them came a commotion and the barking of wolfhounds.

The Japanese army has begun a new round of searches.

As the group moved quickly eastward, the sounds behind them gradually diminished.

After a while, the young worker who had led the way stopped, and the others followed suit.

One hundred people stood waiting in the dark alley.

The young worker cautiously peeked out and looked around, then looked back down: "Outside is Baohua Road. We need to walk along the main street for about two miles. After that, we can enter that dark alley. I just checked, and it doesn't seem like there are any Japanese checkpoints outside."

"Wait, let me take a look."

Fang Wen put the goggles back on his helmet.

The device, combined with supernatural abilities, enabled a nighttime perspective.

In the black and white world, the entire street is deserted and desolate in the darkness.

But in the shadows across the street, there was life.

what is that?
Fang Wen enhanced his superpowers, allowing him to see more clearly.

It wasn't a Japanese spy, but a child covered in tattered and filthy clothes.

He looked to be less than ten years old, thin, and wary, only daring to hide in the shadows.

Behind him were two children.

These are orphans who were victims of the numerous atrocities committed by the Japanese army in the city after its fall.

Fang Wen felt heartbroken. He thought of his unborn child. As he was about to become a father, he felt a strange emotion towards these children who had lost their parents.

But now was not the time to act on emotion, so he continued to examine the situation.

After some investigation, they actually found it.

The quiet here truly conceals a crisis.

Behind a window on the second floor of a building across the street, Fang Wen could see the outline of a human figure through the dim light.

Those were hidden sentries set up by the Japanese army inside the building, which would be difficult for ordinary people to spot.

If they went out like this, the sentries would definitely report it, and their operation would probably fail.

“We can’t go this way, is there any other way?” he asked.

The young worker thought for a moment and said, "There is one, but it's a back alley with a stinking ditch, and nobody walks there usually."

The so-called back alley stinking ditch refers to the narrow alley behind some residential buildings, which contains rainwater ditches used to discharge rainwater and domestic sewage.

Because it is narrow and not easy to pass through, few people walk on it.

"Let's go that way," Fang Wen decided immediately.

The 100 people retreated from the dark alley and turned into another alley.

The road ahead became increasingly narrow, sometimes only wide enough for one person.

To get through, the soldiers had to lift their weapons and place them on their sides, and the smell was also unpleasant.

However, safety was improved, and no accidents occurred along the way.

Instead of taking Baohua Road, the group went directly to a residential area.

This area is full of old houses, and the alleys are interconnected, making it easy for people who have never been here before to get lost in the alleys.

Fortunately, the underground party's guide was very familiar with the area and easily led the team through the alleyways.

Along the way, other people appeared.

They were all local residents, both men and women.

They said in Cantonese.

"Sir, is it back? We've been waiting for this for so long."

"Avenge my woman! Kill those bastards!"

Fang Wen remained silent and strictly ordered the soldiers of the Independent Regiment not to speak out of turn.

They were appeased by members of the underground Communist Party.

After some effort, the group calmed the people down and continued moving forward.

In response, the underground party contact explained: "Baohua Road is located in the core area of ​​Xiguan, with a very strong commercial atmosphere. Before the road was built, the locals made a living by doing small businesses in Baohua City and Baoyuan City, and they have continued to do so until now. After the Japanese came, they set up checkpoints everywhere, checking and even killing pedestrians at will. Their families and friends were harmed as a result, so they spontaneously organized a secret anti-Japanese force. After we learned about this, we took the initiative to contact them and help them get out of their predicament."

At this point, he sighed, "In my entire life, I have never seen so many inhuman creatures. They are extremely murderous and show no mercy to ordinary people. They completely disregard the Geneva Conventions."

Fang Wen has his own understanding of this.

Many of the Japanese soldiers were actually scoundrels from their own country. They were restrained in their own country, but in China, they were completely unrestrained, which is why they committed so many atrocities.

Meanwhile, the nobles and high-ranking officials embellished everything with grand gestures.

This is a despicable country, a despicable war, and the worst side of humanity.

Shaking off his thoughts, Fang Wen said, "I stopped considering them human a long time ago. The Independent Regiment will kill even more Japanese devils to avenge our countrymen."

"Okay!" the underground party contact replied, urging his men to quicken their pace and strive to help the Independent Regiment complete its operation tonight.

An hour later, Fang Wen and the soldiers of the 3rd Company, 3rd Battalion of the Independent Regiment finally arrived at Pantang.

By the moonlight, you can see that this marshy area consists of several small lakes, which the locals call "ponds" because they are not very big.

The pond was planted with many lotus flowers and lotus roots, but since it was January 1939, the lotus flowers in the pond had long since withered, leaving only a stagnant pond.

There are farmland nearby, as well as man-made channels (artificial canals).

Many stone slab bridges were built over the river, connecting the pond embankment and the village.

There are stone steps along the pond for residents to wash clothes and fetch water.

Turning his gaze away, Fang Wen whispered to Sun Tianrui, "Where is the thing hidden?"

Sun Tianrui took out a piece of paper and shone it with his flashlight. "My dad wrote it all down on here, look."

This kid didn't take it out until he could come over.

Fang Wen took the paper and examined it.

A treasure map was drawn on it.

The treasure is located in one of the smaller lakes of the Pantang Five Lakes.

After identifying the treasure location, the troops immediately took action, and the soldiers assembled in the nearby grove of trees.

Soldiers who were good swimmers took off their coats and went into the water to search.

After a while, a soldier surfaced: "Found it, a big box. There are hooks on the box. Give me a rope and I'll go down again."

He then took the rope and dived back underwater to tie it to the box.

The soldiers on the shore pulled together, dragging the heavy box out of the water.

It was a 24-inch suitcase, wrapped with hemp rope all over the outside, presumably to make it more sturdy.

The reason for this is that this box contains half a ton of metal.

Below that, there are five more boxes of the same size.

After the first box was unloaded, Fang Wen walked over and unzipped it.

The metal inside reflected the moonlight.

It's silver.

The silver couldn't be taken away in this operation, but it could be left for the underground party as funding. Half an hour later, all six boxes were retrieved and brought ashore.

Fang Wen spoke with his underground party contact: "I'm going to leave four of the boxes to you, which contain a total of two tons of silver."

"Two tons of silver, so much?" the contact person exclaimed in surprise.

"It was hidden by the Guangzhou Gold Merchants Association. They didn't want it to be taken by the Japanese and traitors, so they told me. The silver was too heavy for us to take with us, so we left it to you as funds."

"Alright. I'll arrange for someone to move it."

"No need for that trouble. The people I brought can help you move it. Just tell me the location."

Immediately, the soldiers carried away the four bags of silver, weighing a total of two tons, to a safe storage location.

Afterwards, Fang Wen and his group prepared to leave with the two bags of gold.

Such a heavy bag of gold would require six or seven people to carry. The problem was that the narrow path on the way back was so narrow that only one person could pass at the very end. It was impossible to get through by having several people carry it.

Therefore, Fang Wen opened the bag on the spot, took out the gold inside, and transported it separately.

The gold in the bag was not gold bars, but gold ingots that had been melted down by the gold shop. Each ingot weighed 25 kilograms, and there were a total of 80 gold ingots.

The gold ingots were packed into the soldiers' ammunition pouches, and the column returned along the same route.

It was already 1 a.m.

This operation proceeded without incident; there was no fighting, and one ton of gold was quietly transported away.

When the group arrived at the dark alley next to Baoqing Road, Fang Wen suddenly stopped.

He thought of the three poor orphans over there; if these children stayed here, they probably wouldn't live to see the end of the war.

Perhaps we should take them back and give them hope.

Therefore, Fang Wen ordered the team to stop temporarily. He walked to the edge of the dark alley, put on his helmet, and observed the other side.

The lights in the observation point on the second floor of the building across the street were off; the people inside must have fallen asleep because they couldn't stay awake any longer.

After confirming that no one was watching him, Fang Wen quickly walked across the street and arrived at the narrow alleyway across the street.

The alley was pitch black, and the three children were curled up in a ball, too afraid to move. The January night temperature made them shiver with cold.

"Do you want to come with me?" Fang Wen asked softly.

The oldest child spoke up: "Do you know my mother? She told us to stay here, but we've been here for a long time and she hasn't come back yet."

Their mother is probably no longer alive.

What do you usually eat?

The youngest of the three children, a girl, replied, "Cookies, and rainwater. Later, when the cookies were all gone, my brother went out to find food. The steamed buns were delicious, and my brother got beaten up."

"Come with me, I'll take you somewhere where you can get a decent meal." Fang Wen extended his hand.

The eldest boy stood in front of his two younger siblings, saying, "Are you lying to us and trying to sell us?"

"No, I swear."

Fang Wen's promise easily dispelled the children's vigilance.

He then returned with his three children.

Gong Xiuneng looked at the child Fang Wen was holding and couldn't help but ask in surprise, "Commander, why did you bring three dolls?"

“I’m going to take them back; they’re orphans,” Fang Wen replied.

Gong Xiuneng was also an orphan and was very concerned about this, so he simply picked up a boy and said, "Okay, Uncle is also an orphan, let's go home together."

"Uncle, what is an orphan?" the boy asked.

"It's someone like Uncle. Shh, don't talk. We might encounter bad people on the road ahead. We need to keep quiet."

The three children obediently remained silent.

Unexpectedly, Gong Xiu was quite adept at coaxing children, so Fang Wen handed the three children over to him and a soldier to take care of, and then took the box that Gong Xiu was carrying and walked to the front of the group to talk to the underground party members.

"Has the Japanese search ended?"

"Our men watched the Japanese leave; it must be over."

"Don't rush, let me take a look."

After Fang Wen finished speaking, he jumped up with the box on his back, grabbed the windowsill of the wall next to him, and climbed upstairs.

This was something he had never tried before, but his powerful physical abilities allowed him to easily climb the wall.

With the strength of his hands, he was able to support his own weight and climb to the roof using the protrusions on the wall.

Standing on the sloping rooftop, Fang Wen put on a blindfold and looked west.

Have the Japanese search party really left?
not at all.

Fang Wen discovered that a large group of Japanese troops were secretly gathering in the east.

They were probably waiting for some kind of signal before suddenly rushing out to make the arrest.

Good heavens, thank goodness Fang Wen was here, otherwise the underground party members would probably be in danger tonight.

He continued to observe and subsequently discovered Japanese spies.

Three spies disguised as workers walked the streets late at night, constantly observing the situation on both sides.

Fang Wen took out a walkie-talkie and spoke to the people below.

"William, let the underground party answer the phone."

William took the Taishan walkie-talkie and walked over to the underground party.

Fang Wen's voice came through the walkie-talkie: "I discovered that the Japanese search team hasn't left; they're still hiding in the shadows. They've also sent three spies to look for you. With these guys around, we can't leave. Why don't we fight the Japanese?"

Upon hearing that the Independent Regiment was going to fight the Japanese, the underground party contact readily agreed.

Subsequently, Fang Wen learned about the armed forces of the underground party in NA District.

They had ten armed men, all dock and shipyard workers from the NA district.

They were too weak to deal with the Japanese army.

The Japanese search team numbered over 200, more than the 100 soldiers Fang Wen had brought.

How can we wipe out all these Japanese soldiers in one fell swoop?

Fang Wen has his own methods.

He directed from a high vantage point, leaping across the gaps between buildings and moving forward on the rooftops.

Under his leadership, the troops below advanced eastward.

Halfway there, three traitors disguised as workers bumped into the soldiers of the Independent Regiment.

Upon seeing the fully armed soldiers, the three traitors were startled and unsure how to react.

Without needing to react, the three traitors were dealt with directly, and the column continued its advance.

Above them, Fang Wen leaped over rooftop after rooftop, arriving first at the hiding place of the Japanese search team.

He took out the grenades he was carrying, removed the safety pins one by one, and grabbed all the fuses.

Then, he abruptly pulled the pins off the grenades and threw them all down.

Moments later, the grenades exploded simultaneously, illuminating the area in a flash.

A large number of the Japanese soldiers who were squatting together were blown down, and then William led the soldiers of the Independent Regiment to launch a swift assault.

Under the attack of submachine guns, grenades, and hand grenades, the Japanese army suffered heavy losses, and those who were not killed fled in panic.

"Don't pursue them." Fang Wen climbed down from the rooftop and ordered them to immediately go to the dock to retrieve the concealed rubber boat and prepare to board and leave.

The three children also boarded the rubber boat and left this sad place.

In the darkness, 10 rubber boats rowed toward the opposite bank of the Pearl River.

Because they had come downstream, it wouldn't be easy to go upstream, so the team docked directly on the opposite bank of the river and then blew the rubber boats away.

They walked uphill for three miles until they reached the place where the planes were parked. The soldiers took the gold ingots from their ammunition belts and placed them inside the planes.

All 80 gold ingots were there.

Fang Wen gave William his instructions before they parted ways.

"Now, only you are left in the Jiangbei area. There's no need to stay here and risk your lives. There's still time. I'll direct you to the riverbank and board a National Army warship to return."

(End of this chapter)