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

Guo Fuyuan's body was lifted up halfway by this, and he finally managed to grab the top of the wall with both hands.

Wang Quan, who was perched on the wall, quickly reached down and grabbed Guo Fuyuan by the back of the neck, while grabbing his arm with his other hand and pulling him up with all his might.

The shopkeeper was usually fat and heavy, like a dead pig. Wang Quan's arms were bulging with veins and his neck was throbbing. He managed to drag the man halfway up the wall.

Guo Fuyuan's lower body was still hanging outside, and his legs were kicking wildly.

At this moment, the gunshots in the courtyard became more intense. Two men who rushed in from the shop saw that they were trying to escape by climbing over the wall, and without caring that Guo Fuyuan was in their way, they fired two shots.

The bullet struck the earthen wall above Guo Fuyuan's buttocks, causing dirt to fall down in a shower. Guo Fuyuan was so frightened that his pants suddenly felt hot, and he urinated on the spot.

Just as Zhou Jindong lifted Guo Fuyuan up, before he could even catch his breath, the man behind the millstone with the gunshot wound in his arm saw an opportunity, leaned out, and pulled the trigger.

Zhou Jindong instinctively ducked down abruptly, and bullets whizzed past his head, striking the roof tiles behind him with a crisp sound.

He pushed off with his feet, slid to the side with his back against the wall, and the pistol in his hand fired almost simultaneously.

His marksmanship was both accurate and ruthless; the bullet didn't go towards the man's head, but instead hit the side of the millstone.

With a clang, the bullet struck the stone and bounced off at a tricky angle, the flying debris landing squarely on the other person's face.

The man let out a scream of pain, covered his eyes, and shrank back.

Taking advantage of this moment, Zhou Jindong saw two more dark figures emerge from the doorway and knew he couldn't delay any longer.

"Wang Quan, jump! Drag that Guo guy away!" Zhou Jindong shouted at the top of the wall, then turned around and fired several shots toward the door and the millstone, not aiming to hit, but just to suppress the enemy.

The muzzle flashes in the night, pinning the opposing men down so they could only retaliate haphazardly from behind cover.

Upon hearing the order, Wang Quan, perched atop the wall, dared not hesitate for a moment longer.

He first pushed Liu Shunfa, who was hanging on the wall, down, and then he jumped down himself.

Outside the wall was a narrow back alley, with piles of garbage and debris on the ground.

Liu Shunfa fell and landed on a pile of broken baskets with a dull thud.

When Wang Quan landed, he stumbled and fell to the ground. Ignoring the pain, he got up and went to pull Liu Shunfa, who was lying on the ground, away.

Guo Fuyuan was still stuck on the wall, unable to go up or down, making muffled noises.

Wang Quan panicked and forcefully pulled Guo Fuyuan's leg down.

Guo Fuyuan let out a miserable groan and rolled down the wall, landing on the ground unable to move. His face was contorted in pain, but he couldn't make a sound because his mouth was gagged.

Almost as soon as Wang Quan dragged the two men into the shadows by the wall, Zhou Jindong let out a low shout from inside the wall, followed by the sound of bodies hitting the ground.

It was Zhou Jindong who dug it up!

Wang Quan immediately pointed his gun at the top of the wall, preparing to provide cover.

Zhou Jindong's actions were frighteningly swift.

He first feinted, drawing a man's eyeball at the door. Then, he took a few quick steps, grabbed the top of the wall with both hands, and shrank back. Just as the gunman on the wall peeked out and aimed, he used his waist to slide down the wall like an eel.

The instant his body left the top of the wall, a bullet fired from inside the courtyard struck the spot where he had just stepped, kicking up a cloud of dirt.

As he landed, he rolled over and landed right at Wang Quan's feet, kneeling on one knee with his gun still pointed at the wall.

"Go!" Zhou Jindong uttered only one word, his breathing perfectly steady.

He quickly checked the magazine of his Mauser pistol; there weren't many bullets left.

He tucked the gun back into his waistband, bent down, and hoisted the limp Liu Shunfa onto his shoulder once more.

This time, he used the most common method for capturing prisoners: he made Liu Shunfa lie face down on his shoulder, held the man's thigh with one hand, and picked up the assembled Type 38 rifle with the other.

Wang Quan also grabbed Guo Fuyuan by the collar and lifted him up.

Guo Fuyuan was terrified; his legs were so weak he could barely stand, and he was practically dragged along by Wang Quan.

The two ran one after the other, close to the wall, and headed wildly towards Cat Alley through the back alley.

The courtyard behind them was in an uproar. Lanterns and torches were lit, and someone was shouting at the top of their lungs, "They ran away through the back wall! Chase them! Go and report! Send the signal!"

Then came the chaotic footsteps of more people and the sound of gun bolts being pulled back.

Someone tried to climb over the wall to chase after them, but as soon as their head popped up on the top of the wall, Zhou Jindong turned around and shot them back.

The two ran along the back alley for more than ten steps until they reached the entrance to the narrow passage where they had climbed over the wall earlier.

The alley was narrow and pitch black. Without the slightest hesitation, Zhou Jindong carried the person and plunged inside.

Wang Quan dragged Guo Fuyuan along behind. The broken bricks and tiles in the alley immediately rattled and clattered, the sound carrying far in the quiet night.

"Hurry! They're about to sneak into Cat Alley!" came an anxious shout from inside the wall, followed by increasingly hurried footsteps.

Zhou Jindong and Wang Quan couldn't care less about anything else; they could only rush forward desperately.

The ground was covered in a jumble of debris, making it difficult to walk.

The weight of Liu Shunfa's body on my shoulder felt like a stone, pulling at my wound and causing it to burn with pain.

Sweat mixed with the dirt he had just rubbed against streamed down his forehead and into his eyes, stinging painfully.

The two didn't bother wiping themselves; they just kept their heads down and ran.

All I could hear was my own heavy breathing, my own heartbeat, and the increasingly loud shouts coming from behind me.

Finally, a glimmer of light appeared before their eyes, and they rushed out of the alley and returned to the abandoned courtyard.

The weeds in the yard were still leaning wildly, rustling softly in the night wind.

In the distance, flames had already lit up the west street, and the shouts of more people could be faintly heard as they rapidly closed in on this area.

The dogs barked incessantly, as if they had smelled blood.

Zhou Jindong carried Liu Shunfa and rushed to the gap in the broken wall of the courtyard, first listening to the sounds outside.

There seemed to be no one blocking the way in Cat Lane for the time being, but the torchlight from the distant alley entrance had already shone in, casting swaying shadows on the earthen walls.

"If we go east, we can't go back the way we came; we'll definitely be blocked." Zhou Jindong quickly assessed the situation and pointed to a wasteland on the east side of the courtyard, piled with debris and collapsed adobe bricks.

"Go across this wasteland, go around to the back of the blacksmith's shop, and find the sewer opening."

Wang Quan nodded, and the two immediately turned east.

This wasteland was even more difficult to navigate than Cat Alley. Everywhere there were waist-high broken walls, abandoned adobe bricks, overgrown withered grass, and piles of garbage that had accumulated for who knows how many years, stinking to high heaven.

Wang Quan dragged Guo Fuyuan along, and Guo Fuyuan stumbled and fell several times, scraping his knees and elbows. But he dared not complain in the slightest, only hoping that these two menacing figures would quickly take him away from this place of trouble.

The sounds of pursuers were getting closer.

Some people have already entered Cat Alley, carrying torches and searching this side of the alley.

The firelight cast flickering shadows across the alley, making people look around.

"Look! Footprints! They ran this way!" Someone with sharp eyes spotted the trampled weeds and fresh footprints in the wasteland.

"There's a reward for capturing them! Master Jin said they need to be alive!" the leader shouted.

Several gunshots rang out, and bullets thudded against the mud bricks not far from Zhou Jindong and his men, kicking up wisps of dust.

Zhou Jindong lowered his body and moved quickly along the shadow of the broken wall. He didn't blindly return fire; he needed to conserve his bullets.

They walked through a pile of rubble, and ahead was a half-collapsed courtyard, beyond which was the back wall of the old blacksmith's shop.

The blacksmith shop had long been abandoned, and most of the courtyard wall had collapsed.

According to the evacuation route agreed upon with Lao Meng, there was a half-collapsed abandoned stove pit at the base of the back wall of the blacksmith shop, near the ditch. The stove pit was connected to a short section of earthen ditch that used to drain water from the blacksmith shop. The ditch was just big enough for a person to bend over and pass through, and it led all the way to an old sewer outlet near the base of the city wall.

That was a hidden passage that Lao Meng discovered when he was wandering the streets and alleys to make a living in his early years, and very few people knew about it.

Zhou Jindong ran to the back wall of the blacksmith's shop and, by the faint starlight, found the abandoned stove pit that was almost buried by weeds and broken bricks.

The pit opening was small, dark, and its depth was unknown.

Wang Quan tossed Guo Fuyuan aside, strode forward, kicked aside some trash and debris blocking the entrance, and peered inside. A strong smell of mold and rust, mixed with the earthy odor, hit him. The cave seemed narrow, but large enough for a person to pass through.

"Captain Zhou, this is it!"

"You go first and keep an eye on them," Zhou Jindong said, putting Liu Shunfa, whom he had been carrying on his shoulder the whole way, down and letting Liu Shunfa lean against the wall.

Liu Shunfa remained unconscious, his bald head reflecting a faint light in the darkness.

Zhou Jindong turned around, took Guo Fuyuan from Wang Quan, pointed a gun at his head with one hand, grabbed him by the back of his collar with the other, and shoved him against the stove pit.

"Listen, if you want to live, obey me, crawl inside, keep crawling forward, don't make a sound, and don't look back."

Guo Fuyuan scrambled and crawled, using both hands and feet, and squeezed his body into the dark hole. Soon, he heard rustling sounds coming from inside, and he continued crawling forward.

Wang Quan followed closely behind and also went inside.

He was a bit stronger, so it was quite difficult for him to crawl in. He scraped off a large piece of plaster from the wall, but he didn't care. He gritted his teeth and moved deeper into the darkness.

Zhou Jindong crouched down and listened to the approaching footsteps and shouts behind him, as well as the occasional gunshots.

The pursuers have reached the edge of the wasteland and will soon find this place.

Instead of immediately drilling into the hole, he untied Liu Shunfa's belt and tightened the bindings on Liu Shunfa's hands. He then checked the pulse at the back of Liu Shunfa's neck; it was still beating. Liu Shunfa was not dead, but had been knocked unconscious by a heavy blow.

After doing all this, he grabbed a handful of loose soil from the ground and sprinkled it around the stove opening to slightly cover up the fresh traces, and then piled some dry grass next to it.

Then he took a deep breath, turned sideways, pushed the rifle into the stove pit, and crawled in backwards.

The passage was narrow and cramped, barely allowing one person to crawl through, and it was extremely low. Zhou Jindong had to use both his hands and feet, keeping his body pressed against the cold, damp mud walls to move forward.

There seemed to be water underfoot, icy cold. It was pitch black all around, with only the faint sound of Wang Quan moving against the cave wall and his own heavy breathing echoing in the small space.

I don't know how long I climbed; it might have been just a few minutes, or it might have been more than ten minutes.

Every second felt incredibly long.

Behind them, from the direction they came in, came clear shouts and footsteps, followed by the sound of someone kicking a clod of dirt.

Clearly, the pursuers had found the vicinity of the stove pit.

"Over here! There's a hole!"

"Damn it, it's inside!"

"Torch! Shine it inside!"

Footsteps gathered near the cave entrance, and someone peered inside holding a torch.

The firelight could not penetrate deep into the winding passage; it only flickered at the entrance.

"It's too narrow; no one can fit in."

"Throw the grenade!"

This suggestion made Zhou Jindong, who was lying in the dark, feel a chill run down his spine.

But then another voice retorted, "Bullshit! Master Jin said he wanted Liu Shunfa alive! Who's going to give the reward if he's blown up? Besides, if you blow up this hole, are you going to go in and collect the body?"

"What should we do then? Just let them get away?"

"They can't escape! This hole leads to the ditch at most, and it's definitely blocked there! Leave two people to guard this place, the rest of you, follow me to the ditch entrance and block it! We'll split into three groups and surround it from three directions! Damn it, they won't be able to fly out of West Street even if they have wings!" The leader was obviously more experienced and gave the order.

The footsteps and voices outside gradually faded away, but there must have been someone guarding the entrance to the cave.

Zhou Jindong breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the enemy had not dared to force their way through this passage for the time being, and he also judged that they could not have gone far.

But the enemy was right; the hole did not lead to the outside of the city wall.

He gritted his teeth and continued crawling forward.

There's no point in saying anything now; all we can do is get to our destination as quickly as possible, hoping to reunite with Lao Meng and use the sewer system to get out of the city.

The passage became increasingly slippery, turning into a slushy mess underneath, making crawling even more difficult.

But the terrain seemed to be slowly sloping downwards. After climbing for a while, a glimmer of light appeared ahead. Wang Quan had stopped and moved aside to make some space.

"Captain, we've reached the end," Wang Quan said in a low voice, which sounded somewhat muffled in the narrow space.

Zhou Jindong squeezed to the front and, using the faint light in his hand, saw that the passageway made a sharp turn ahead, leading to a slightly more open space, like an abandoned reservoir or sedimentation tank. The bottom of the tank was filled with black, foul-smelling sewage, but it wasn't deep, only reaching his ankles.

Half of the roof had collapsed, revealing a few rotten wooden beams and a few stone slabs leaning precariously, forming a small space that could accommodate two or three people squatting. A figure was squatting there; it was Old Meng.

When Old Meng saw Zhou Jindong come in, his cloudy eyes lit up instantly, and he said in a very low voice, "Captain Zhou, you're finally here! There's been a huge commotion outside!"

As he spoke, he pulled a small cloth bag from his pocket. "Quick, wash the mud off your face and hands first. This water looks dirty, but it's running water flowing down from it, so it's fine."

The cloth bag contained several cloth towels and a clay pot of water.

Zhou Jindong didn't stand on ceremony and quickly wiped the blood and mud off his face and hands.

The water stung his wound, but he didn't even flinch.

Wang Quan quickly treated the abrasions on his hands and arms.

"Comrade Meng, are you alright?" Zhou Jindong asked as he wiped himself.

"What could possibly happen to me? I've been doing exactly as you said, hiding it perfectly well." Old Meng wiped the sweat from his forehead, his eyes glancing at the two prisoners behind Zhou Jindong.

"Hmm. How's the situation outside?"