Republic of China, 1922: Rise from the Post-Zhili-Fengtian War

He raised his hand to signal the group to stop, then crouched down behind a large rock, pulled out his binoculars, and peered towards the light—

A solitary mud-brick house, its windows blocked with burlap sacks, letting out only a sliver of dim light.

There was a person standing at the door. His face was not visible, but judging from his figure and posture, he was a man. His waist was bulging, obviously carrying a weapon.

"Damn it, they actually have some." Zhang Tingshu put down his binoculars and gestured behind him.

The thirty men were divided into three teams. One team went around to the back of the house to block the back door and windows, another team spread out to control the high points on both sides, and Zhang Tingshu led the rest of the men to sneak up from the front.

Nearly.

Fifty steps... thirty steps, twenty steps.

The man at the door seemed to sense something, and suddenly turned around, his hand reaching for his waist—

"Bang!"

Zhang Tingshu's men fired the first shot.

The man fell to the ground with a thud, the pistol in his hand slipping and falling to the ground with a dull thud before he could even draw it.

However, the gunshot stirred up a hornet's nest.

The lights in the mud-brick house went out instantly, followed by several streaks of fire shooting out from the windows and door cracks—the other side had guns, and more than one.

"Damn it, there's an ambush!" Zhang Tingshu cursed, rolling over to hide behind a embankment.

The bullet flew over his head, causing the surrounding dirt to bounce and the bullets to hit his face, which hurt terribly.

He listened closely and realized that the other side had at least three or four guns, and their firepower was not weak, but they were firing haphazardly. They didn't seem like soldiers who had received formal training; they seemed more like intelligence agents who had only recently become trained.

"Brothers, hold them off!" Zhang Tingshu poked his head out, firing two shots from his pistol, sending the mud wall by the door crumbling. "Damn it, these bastards still want to kill us... Don't let a single one escape, leave them alive!"

At the officer's roar, the brothers around him began to fight back, and the powerful firepower instantly suppressed the side of the earthen house.

While they were there, the brothers in the back row had already reached both sides of the house.

A dark figure tried to climb out of the window, but before he could even stick half his body out, he was smashed back down with a rifle butt, screamed, and fell back into the room.

"Charge in!"

Zhang Tingshu took the lead and kicked open the rickety wooden door.

Even their superiors were fighting so recklessly, so the soldiers following closely behind dared not slack off and charged forward frantically, swarming around them.

The room was pitch black, with only the moonlight streaming in from the doorway illuminating a few figures.

Zhang Tingshu didn't look closely. He raised his hand and fired two shots, not to hit anyone, but to extinguish an oil lamp in the corner that hadn't yet gone out—completely cutting off the other party's sight.

In the darkness, only heavy breathing could be heard.

A dark figure lunged at him, but Zhang Tingshu dodged to the side and swung his rifle butt at the back of the man's head. The man collapsed to the ground without uttering a sound.

Another dark figure tried to run to the back of the house, but was blocked by the brothers who climbed in through the back window. The two wrestled and broke benches and teacups on the ground.

"Don't move! I'll shoot you if you move again!"

With a sharp shout, the lights came back on.

The room was a complete mess.

The three men were pinned to the ground, their hands tied behind their backs, their mouths stuffed with rags, and their faces were bruised.

Several wooden crates were piled up in the corner. One of them was overturned, and several account books and a stack of letters fell out.

Zhang Tingshu picked up a letter and glanced at it under the lamplight—

It really is Japanese.

"Good stuff." He tucked the letter into his pocket, glanced around the room, and said, "Just these three?"

"Brother Zhang, we caught another one at the back door. He tried to escape, but the brothers took him down." A brother ran in to report. "Four, not one missing."

Zhang Tingshu nodded, walked to the three people who were pinned to the ground, squatted down, grabbed one of them by the hair, and lifted his face up.

It was a typical Japanese face, with high cheekbones, thin lips, and eyes full of fear and resentment.

"Can you speak Chinese?" Zhang Tingshu asked.

The man gritted his teeth and remained silent.

Zhang Tingshu smiled, released his grip, and stood up: "It's alright if you don't want to talk. Take him back; we have plenty of ways to make you talk."

"withdraw!"

At a command, the brothers, carrying four prisoners and the captured wooden crates and documents, quickly withdrew from Liutiaogou.

Behind them, the mud-brick house burst into flames in the night, the fire shooting into the sky and reddening half the sky.

Zhang Tingshu glanced back and revealed a cold smile.

When the group hurried back to Jinzhou in the dark, the sky was already beginning to lighten.

The side hall of the brigade headquarters was brightly lit. Gu Cheng hadn't slept all night. A city defense map was spread out on the table, and the ashtray was piled high with cigarette butts.

He looked up when he heard footsteps.

Zhang Tingshu pushed open the door and came in, his clothes stained with mud and blood, but his face showed undisguised excitement.

"Jingchuan, we've got him!" He slammed the stack of letters and account books on the table. "Four alive, not one escaped. We also seized these things, all in Japanese, we'll have to find someone to translate them."

Gu Cheng picked up the stack of letters, flipped through them, and his gaze darkened.

"casualties?"

"The three brothers sustained minor injuries, nothing serious, just superficial wounds," Zhang Tingshu wiped the sweat from his face. "There were four of them on the other side, we captured them all, no casualties."

Gu Cheng nodded, put the letter back on the table, stood up, walked to Zhang Tingshu, and patted him on the shoulder.

"here you go."

Zhang Tingshu grinned, plopped down in a chair, picked up the iced tea on the table, took a big gulp, and panted, "You didn't see it, those little devils were really something, we almost let them get away. Luckily, the brothers were quick and agile, blocking them from the front and back, they couldn't escape."

Gu Cheng didn't reply. He walked back to the table, sat down, picked up the stack of letters, and read them again.

At least this piece of information provided by Kikuchi is true.

But does he genuinely want to "cooperate," or does he have ulterior motives?

"Ting Shu." He put down the letter, looked up at Zhang Ting Shu, and said, "After dawn, you will have two things to do."

Zhang Tingshu put down his teacup and sat up straight: "Please speak."

"First, keep the four people we've brought back under separate custody, and prevent them from colluding. I'll interrogate them one by one at dawn. Second—"

He took a deep breath, his expression turning cold. "Send men to keep an eye on Kikuchi. Find out exactly where he went and who he met after leaving the brigade headquarters."

Zhang Tingshu understood immediately after a moment's thought: "I get it. You mean, since we've arrested the Manchuria Railway's people, will their people take advantage of the chaos to send people to Jinzhou?"

Gu Cheng smiled approvingly: "Clever!"

But then he added seriously, "Aside from spies in the shadows, this guy is most likely here to infiltrate Jinzhou. He'll be here the moment he arrives, and the next he'll be causing trouble all over the city... We need to be wary not only of the military and political circles, but also of the underworld."

Also, I'm still worried about the Chamber of Commerce. Li Mao is taking office in the next few days, so we need to be careful there too.

Zhang Tingshu agreed, saying, "After what happened at the camp, we went to great lengths to control those unscrupulous merchants. We can't let the Japanese get involved."