Espionage, codenamed Ant, moving expert

Erniu led his men to retreat, leaving Chen Zheng alone on the dock, where the Japanese pirates fired bullets at his position.

If Erniu hadn't seized the Japanese machine gun position beforehand, he would probably be riddled with bullets by now.

Unable to raise his head or fight back with his gun, Chen Zheng put all his weapons back into his spatial storage and started throwing grenades randomly.

They threw the bundled ones first; their power was immense, and the Japanese pirates dared not approach.

Then throw three more to keep the firepower going.

When the Japanese pirates charged forward, they brought out another bundle of six, and so on, for three to five minutes. By then, Erniu and the others should have run far away.

He took out a small wooden house from his spatial storage, opened the door, and climbed inside. This was the first time he had ever entered a spatial storage space in such a disheveled state.

Being in a sorry state is better than losing your life.

Enter the space, retrieve the cabin, and immediately use the iron gate to retrieve the weapons left behind by Tang Asheng and the others one by one.

Then, after passing through the silver door and opening and closing it several times, they returned to their lair.

He did all he could. Whether Erniu and the others could evacuate safely depended entirely on luck.

Tang Asheng and Chen Zheng weren't worried. They hadn't participated in the battle, nor had they seen any Japanese pirate reinforcements, so they strolled back leisurely.

Chen Zheng waited until late at night before several team leaders returned to report.

When Erniu saw Chen Zheng, he was both shocked and overjoyed.

He's definitely sticking with a captain like that!

Chen Zheng was pleased to learn from the group leaders that everyone had been safely evacuated, and then issued an order.

Starting tomorrow, before the Lunar New Year, each group will build two small wooden houses and fill ten sacks with soil.

At the same time, Erniu was sent to select people from each group, as Chen was about to form an artillery squad.

If it weren't for Erniu's artillery support tonight, things wouldn't have gone so smoothly. Chen Zheng has tasted the sweetness of success!

After everyone left, Chen Zheng entered the space, covered his head and went to sleep, not waking up until the afternoon of the next day.

He slept soundly, while the Japanese pirates on the docks stayed up all night.

The warehouse was bombed and engulfed in flames; everything was reduced to ashes.

An ocean-going cargo ship also exploded and sank into the water, losing everything on board!

It was just bad luck for this group of Japanese pirates. There was originally a gunboat at the dock, which was supposed to make room for the cargo ship so it could sail to another dock.

By the time they heard the gunfire and rushed over, it was too late.

The docks were littered with corpses, mostly Japanese pirates, with over two hundred casualties.

There were more than twenty corpses of laborers, and the rest were men who had used sickles.

The Japanese pirates, having nowhere to vent their anger, searched everywhere for laborers.

The laborers who went to the docks last night, none of them dared to stay in Shanghai. Some went to stay with relatives, some with friends, and those with no one to rely on fled Shanghai first.

The Japanese pirates didn't start arresting people until dawn, and they didn't catch a single one.

After getting up, Chen Zheng didn't go anywhere, but focused on checking his gains from the previous night in his spatial storage.

As the boxes were opened one by one, Chen Zheng felt as if he were immersed in the millennia-old civilization of the Dragon Kingdom.

There were many porcelain pieces here. Although Chen Zheng didn't understand them, he could still tell from the colors and shapes that they came from different dynasties. As for which dynasty they were, sorry, he didn't know.

Next were the calligraphy and paintings. I casually opened two pieces, looked at them, and put them back in the box. Please forgive my mediocre appreciation skills; I'll have a specialist examine them carefully later.

There were quite a few stone artifacts, the Buddha head being the most securely wrapped. The others weren't packed in boxes; they were simply covered with a cloth and tied with a rope.

There was one stone horse that left a deep impression on Chen Zheng; it was probably the one from Stone Horse Lane!

Five boxes were filled with precious jade artifacts, and several bronze artifacts were also discovered.

The Japanese pirates were truly ruthless; they wanted to take back everything of value.

That's bad, Chen Zheng wiped them all out.

What made Chen Zheng happiest was the five boxes of gold, all of which were large yellow croakers, probably weighing a ton or two.

Unfortunately, Kinmen is not here now, so it's not needed for the time being.

With such a major incident, the Japanese pirates imposed martial law again and searched house to house.

The inability to enter the French Concession and the International Settlement only caused hardship for those living in areas controlled by the Japanese pirates.

The Japanese pirates knew that the attackers would not stay to be captured, so they asked the foreign ministers to send troops into the concessions to arrest them.

They were firmly rejected.

Just kidding, those Japanese pirates were ruthless and insane, who would dare let those beasts into their home?

Yes, the ministers of various countries regarded the concessions as their own home and were determined not to let the Japanese invaders enter and cause damage.

The military is not allowed in, but agents from the Special Higher Police are.

Nantian led his men into the concession to secretly arrest people; if they couldn't catch them, they would assassinate them. In any case, they couldn't let a single suspicious person go.

After doing this for a while, he actually managed to catch a few people.

Some people couldn't withstand the torture inflicted by the Special Higher Police and betrayed their country to join the enemy.

All of these people were under Hui Zi's command and eventually joined No. 76, causing heavy losses to the Shanghai-based agents.

During this period, Chen Zheng did not go out, and his subordinates were not allowed to go out either. Chen Zheng personally went to pick up the small wooden houses as soon as they were completed.

They'll send people away when they're going to retrieve it.

Rumors are circulating that the captain must have another group of men under his command, and they are incredibly powerful.

Erniu is the most qualified to speak on this. If the captain hadn't asked him to lead people outside the city to practice firing cannons, he would have shown everyone how formidable these guys were.

That night, only four people entered the dock with the captain. One had a Type 96 pistol, and the other three had handguns. They routed the Japanese pirates.

Their combat prowess is evident!

No wonder the captain didn't bring the others; it turns out he thought they were too weak in combat.

Erniu was determined to train a few expert gunners to impress the captain.

Judging from the battle that night, his artillery will become a trump card in the captain's hands, playing a huge role at critical moments.

No question, train hard.

The captain assigned him all the literate men; if he still can't improve, he'll be too ashamed to face the captain.

Erniu found a secluded spot outside Shanghai and began artillery training.

Chen Zheng placed three small wooden houses along the way and also followed along to learn.

There are currently only two types of artillery: the Japanese Type 92 infantry gun and mortars.

For safety, Chen Zheng would arrive at the location first thing every morning and take out two cannons from his spatial storage.

He was the last to leave at night, and he put the cannon away.

After two months, they finally trained two artillerymen, one named Gousheng and the other named Chen Zheng.

Yes, out of nine people plus Chen Zheng, there were ten. After two months, only he and Gou Sheng were able to operate the equipment skillfully.

Others are only capable of firing the shells; whether they hit the target or not is entirely up to fate.

Chen Zheng was already very satisfied with this. It didn't matter if we couldn't hit the target accurately; if our accuracy wasn't good enough, we could make up for it with quantity.

Even if all nine cannons fire simultaneously, one or two shots might still fool him.

Chen Zheng may not have much else, but he has plenty of artillery shells, so he can produce them as much as he wants.

Starting in the third month, the artillery squads went even further, going wherever there was no one else around.

The sole objective is artillery practice and live-fire exercises.

For safety reasons, Zhao Dahu's group was transferred to be responsible for perimeter security.

They would fire one day, then move to another location, continuing until everyone had a record of firing at least fifty rounds of live ammunition before stopping.

We can't keep going any longer; we don't have many shells left in the space, so we need to keep some stock just in case.

Erniu always looked miserable, as if his mother had died.

That's incredibly wasteful, spending all day firing cannons for fun!

Erniu's idea was that each person should fire two shots to gain some experience.

Who knew the captain disagreed and demanded that everyone fire five to ten shells a day. Erniu refused and threatened to kill himself. Chen Zheng then made a concession and allowed everyone to fire four shells a day.

Erniu still disagreed and told Chen Zheng to stuff him into the cannon barrel and shoot him out.

Having no other choice, Chen Zheng made another concession: two shots a day, no less. Er Niu reluctantly agreed.

Every time it came to live-fire exercises, Erniu would look at Chen Zheng with the same deadpan expression, and his gaze towards Chen Zheng held something other than respect.

Like an adult looking at their own spendthrift son!

Chen Zhengcai ignored all of this. After the others had fired their two shots, he would let Gousheng fire two more.

Erniu couldn't stop him.

Gou Sheng has already fired, so as the captain, Chen Zheng can fire three or five more shots. What can Er Niu say?

What's the point of gritting your teeth all day?