The War of Resistance Against Japan: Starting with a Calm View of Life and Death

Old Meng took the money and carefully tucked it into his pocket.

"Captain Zhou, Comrade Wang, you two take a rest. You can even lie down on the kang (heated brick bed). I'll go get you something to eat. It's nothing fancy, just something to tide you over."

As he spoke, he tried to get up again.

Zhou Jindong stopped him: "No rush. We ate before we came. Comrade Meng, your legs aren't very strong, so sit down and talk. Let's go out for a walk when it gets darker."

Wang Quan took out the tobacco pipe bowl that Zhao Laosi had given him from his satchel and handed some tobacco leaves to Lao Meng.

Old Meng didn't stand on ceremony. He took it, stuffed it into his shiny short pipe, lit it by the oil lamp, took a deep drag, and exhaled a cloud of bluish-gray smoke. The wrinkles on his face looked even deeper in the smoke.

"This area of ​​West Street is inhabited by poor people from all walks of life. The Japanese and their collaborators know that this place is chaotic and difficult to manage, so the patrol teams are actually reluctant to venture into the deep alleys at night, for fear of being shot. If something really happens, they will mostly block a few main street entrances."

Old Meng smoked his cigarette and said slowly, "But it was precisely because of the chaos that Jin Wanfu dispersed his plainclothes team here. Ostensibly, they were there to maintain order, but in reality, they were just a bunch of thugs who collected protection money, ran shady businesses, and acted as informants for the Japanese."

These people know the streets well, have a keen sense of smell, and can spot the slightest disturbance faster than a dog.

Zhou Jindong listened without interrupting, his fingers unconsciously tracing patterns on the ground.

It was completely dark outside, and the wind squeezed in through the cracks in the door, carrying the chill of the night.

In the distance, the faint sound of a night watchman striking his clapper could be heard, slow and gentle, bang, bang bang.

"It's about time." Zhou Jindong stood up, stretching his knees which were stiff from sitting for so long. "Comrade Meng, we'll go out and check the terrain. We'll be back in an hour at most. Keep an eye on the movements outside."

"Be careful." Old Meng also stood up and tapped his pipe on the sole of his shoe: "Turn right at the entrance of Cat Lane, it's the third dilapidated courtyard. Half of the wall has collapsed. The family fled last year, and it's been empty ever since."

Climb over that courtyard, and you'll find a narrow, secluded alleyway leading to the opposite side of the back wall of the general store. The place is hidden, but the base of the wall is covered in broken bricks and tiles, making it easy to step on.

Zhou Jindong nodded and made a note of it.

He left the bamboo pole with the gun barrel hidden inside the house, carefully concealed the dagger on his body, and checked the grenades and the two melon-shaped hand grenades in his pocket again.

Wang Quan made the same preparations.

The two men wrapped their tattered cotton-padded coats tightly around themselves, pulled their felt hats down low, and quietly unlatched the door, slipping out sideways.

It was much colder outside than inside, and the wind felt like tiny knives seeping into my collar.

The alley was pitch black, with only the occasional dim light from gas lamps flickering across the main street in the distance.

West Street was indeed quiet at night; almost no human voices could be heard, only the sound of the wind and a few barks of stray dogs coming from somewhere.

Zhou Jindong walked ahead, his steps extremely light, almost hugging the wall as he moved in the shadows.

Wang Quan followed half a step behind him, his eyes scanning the dark windows and doorways on both sides warily.

Following the directions given by Lao Meng, they quickly found the entrance to Cat Alley.

The alley was narrow, making it difficult for two people to walk side by side. Sure enough, the ground was littered with a jumble of odds and ends, emitting a sour, rotten smell. They carefully avoided the things that tripped them up, moving forward as silently as cats.

Deep inside the alley, it was pitch black.

Zhou Jindong stopped and listened intently. Apart from the sound of the wind and the faint sound of a watchman's clapper in the distance, he could only hear his own and Wang Quan's soft breathing.

He reached out and groped along the cold earthen wall, his fingertips touching a loose, protruding brick.

The third dilapidated courtyard. He felt a gap in the half-collapsed courtyard wall.

He gestured to Wang Quan, and the two of them carefully climbed over the gap one after the other.

The yard was overgrown with weeds, and the withered yellow grass stalks trembled in the night wind.

In the center were two completely collapsed mud houses, with only a few charred beams supporting them. This place had indeed been abandoned for a long time.

Zhou Jindong did not linger in the courtyard, but went directly to the back.

Sure enough, outside the back wall, there was an even narrower alley, dark and barely wide enough for one person to squeeze through sideways. The alley was piled with even more garbage, and the smell was pungent.

He gestured for Wang Quan to stay in the dilapidated courtyard to keep watch, while he himself moved sideways and slowly into the alleyway.

The narrow passage was only a dozen steps long, and its end was half blocked by a pile of collapsed mud bricks.

Looking out from this half-gap, diagonally opposite is the shady side of a rammed earth wall.

The wall wasn't very high; you could vaguely see the jagged outline of its top. That must be the backyard of the "Fu Yuan" general store.

Zhou Jindong pressed his body tightly against the cold mud brick pile, leaving only one eye exposed as he observed the opposite side.

The backyard was dark and gloomy, with no light shining through.

The outlines of the three side rooms lay there like several huge black shadows in the night, making it impossible to tell which one was at the east end. The courtyard was eerily quiet, without a sound.

He lay there for the full time it takes for an incense stick to burn, his eyes unblinking and his ears listening for the slightest sound.

There were no lights, no human voices, no coughs, not even snoring. Only the whooshing sound of the wind whistling past the walls.

Is Liu Shunfa sleeping so soundly? Or is there no one inside at all?

Zhou Jindong pondered this in his mind. He didn't believe the information from his inside sources was wrong; the military region wouldn't joke about something like this.

More likely, this traitor was extremely cautious, afraid to light a lamp at night, and even forced himself to develop the habit of not making a sound.

He observed for a while longer, paying particular attention to the chimneys on the roofs of the row of side rooms.

The chimney of the easternmost building emitted a faint, almost invisible wisp of heat that swirled and rose in the cold air; it was practically undetectable without close inspection. The chimneys of the other two buildings were icy cold.

This suggests that there may have been a brazier or stove in the east wing.

He slowly shrank back into the dilapidated courtyard and whispered to Wang Quan, "The chimney of the house on the east side is steaming, so there might be someone there. There's no movement in the courtyard, and there's no broken glass stuck in the wall. The top of the wall isn't smooth, so you could climb it. But I don't know if there are any guards inside."

Wang Quan leaned closer and cautiously peeked inside. "Should we just climb over the wall?"

"Too risky. We don't know if there are dogs or sentries inside." Zhou Jindong shook his head. "We need to find a way to check from the front or side. Old Meng said the front door faces the street and isn't open at night. Let's go around to the front and take a look."

The two retreated from Cat Alley along the same route and then crept along the shady side of West Street toward the front door of the general store.

The grocery store is located in the middle of West Street. The storefront is small, and a cracked old wooden signboard sways gently in the night wind, making a creaking sound.

The shop door was tightly closed; it consisted of two heavy wooden doors, and not a ray of light could be seen through the cracks.

Zhou Jindong and Wang Quan hid in the shadows of a corner across the street, where piles of broken baskets were stacked, and quietly observed.

The streets were deserted, with only the wind stirring up dust and scraps of paper from the ground.

In the distance, at the street corner, the dim yellow light of gas lamps flickered; that was the main street. Occasionally, the footsteps of patrol teams could be heard, then gradually faded into the distance.

Time passed slowly, the night grew deeper, and the chill in the air intensified.

Zhou Jindong raised his wrist, brought it close to his eyes, and looked at the pocket watch in the extremely dim light of the day.

The hands on the dial pointed to a little past eleven.

"It's almost time for the night watch to change," Zhou Jindong said in a low voice. The night watchman patrols the streets every hour, striking a clapper to announce the time.

Sure enough, not long after, slow footsteps and the sound of a clapper came from the east end of the street. Bang, bang bang.

A hunched figure, carrying a dim, flickering lantern, slowly walked from the other end of the street. It was Ma Youtian, disguised as Old Meng, the night watchman.

Zhou Jindong and Wang Quan held their breath, watching him approach the grocery store step by step.

When Old Meng reached the entrance of the grocery store, his steps seemed to pause slightly, but he didn't stop. He continued to strike the clapper in his hand as usual, bang, bang, bang, and then slowly continued walking westward, his figure gradually disappearing into the darkness.

Not long after Lao Meng walked past, a very faint rustling sound suddenly came from a dark alley next to the grocery store, as if something was moving.

Zhou Jindong's ears immediately perked up, and his eyes were fixed on that direction.

In the shadows of the side alley, a darker shadow seemed to move for a moment, then fell still.

It's a person! Squatting in the side alley, keeping watch!

Zhou Jindong felt a chill. Old Meng's intelligence report hadn't mentioned any hidden sentries on the side of the shop.

This shows that the Japanese and their collaborators were protecting Liu Shunfa even more closely than expected.

The main gate facing the street was tightly closed, and the wall behind was quiet, but people were stationed in an inconspicuous dark alley on the side.

Luckily, they didn't approach directly from the front or side.

He gently touched Wang Quan's arm, gesturing for him to look in that direction.

Wang Quan saw it too, and his breath caught in his throat.

The sentry was very alert. He must have heard Old Meng's whistle, because he moved slightly to confirm it, and then hid again.

If you don't look closely, or if you're not at this specific angle, you won't notice it at all.

Zhou Jindong mentally reassessed the situation. There were sentries hidden in the side alley, the situation in the backyard was unknown, and both a direct assault and infiltration carried extremely high risks.

The longer the delay, the greater the risk they will face in the city.

We need to find a way to lure the sentries away, or figure out his patterns.

He gestured for Wang Quan to retreat. Under the cover of darkness and street debris, the two slowly retreated to their hiding place, then quietly returned to Lao Meng's hut along the route they had come from.

Back inside, Old Meng was waiting anxiously, the flame of the oil lamp flickering down to the size of a bean.

He visibly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the two return safely.

"How is it?" Old Meng asked in a low voice.

"There's a sentry hidden in the side alley, just one," Zhou Jindong said succinctly, pointing with his finger at the sketch Lao Meng had drawn earlier on the table. "He's in this narrow alley to the left of the shop, facing the street. We almost ran into him."

Old Meng's expression changed: "I...I walked past there a few times during the day and didn't see anyone."

"They were only put out at night, and they might have been taken down during the day, or they might have been well disguised," Zhou Jindong said. "I checked the back wall, and it can be climbed over, but I don't know if there are any guards inside."

There's heat coming from the chimney of the east wing; someone must be inside. The problem now is, how to deal with the sentry in the side alley without alerting the person inside.

Silence fell over the room. The flickering light of the oil lamp illuminated three solemn faces. The wind outside seemed to have picked up, rattling the torn paper windows.

Wang Quan broke the silence: "How about... we wait until late at night, when everyone's most tired, and then sneak over and take out that sentry?"

"How do we do it?" Zhou Jindong looked at him. "The alley is narrow, only wide enough for one person to pass through at a time."

The location of the hidden sentry must have been well chosen, as it could both keep an eye on the side alley and also cover part of the street in front.

We crept closer, and even the slightest sound might alert him inside.

"Then... use weapons?" Wang Quan gestured, meaning to resolve the issue from a distance.

Zhou Jindong shook his head: "Once a gunshot rings out, the whole city can hear it. We can't even use pistols, let alone rifles. Using a knife requires close combat, which is too risky."

Old Meng frowned, sucking on his long-extinguished cigarette, and suddenly said, "Since he's a sentry, he must need to eat, drink, and relieve himself, right? Is there a shift change? Or... someone brings him food and drink?"

This sentence reminded Zhou Jindong. He thought for a moment: "Sentries are usually in pairs, taking turns. But protecting a traitor might not be done with the regular army's methods. It might just be Jin Wanfu's plainclothes team, sending someone to stake out there all night."

Bringing food...maybe. It's so cold outside; after squatting all night, they need something warm to eat.

He looked at Old Meng: "Are there any food stalls around here at night? Or a regular place to deliver supplies to these people on night watch?"

Old Meng recalled carefully: "Going south from the west end of the street, across two streets, there's a wonton stall run by a man surnamed Hao. Sometimes he closes up late at night, and some gamblers or night patrollers will go there for a bowl."

And then... near Jin Wanfu's house, there seems to be a small restaurant he runs, which sometimes delivers late-night snacks to his men.

But whether or not they will be sent to the hidden sentries here is unclear.

Zhou Jindong tapped his fingers lightly twice on the table. "Comrade Meng, could you try to sneak around Jin Wanfu's neighborhood tomorrow during the day without arousing suspicion? See if anyone is delivering food here, or find out what his plainclothes team's plans are for the night?"

Old Meng nodded: "I can handle that. I'll just say that we're almost starving and want to ask Master Jin for some leftovers, or find a night watchman's job. Those people look down on an old cripple like me, so they're not too wary."

"Be careful, don't push yourself," Zhou Jindong cautioned. "We'll wait for your news. Wang Quan and I won't go out during the day tomorrow; we'll stay here."

Nothing happened that night. Zhou Jindong and Wang Quan took turns dozing off on the earthen bed, but neither of them slept soundly, their ears constantly perked up, listening to every sound outside.

The next day, just as dawn broke, Old Meng, leaning on a cane, limped out the door.

Zhou Jindong and Wang Quan stayed inside, re-examined the bamboo pole used to hide the gun, sharpened the dagger repeatedly, leaned against the cold earthen wall, closed their eyes to rest, and conserved their energy.

Old Meng didn't return until almost noon. He looked worse than when he left in the morning, and he was a little out of breath.

"How are you?" Zhou Jindong helped him sit down on the wooden stool and handed him half a bowl of cool boiled water.