Back to 1939 Sea Wolf

  Just as the brother of the Chinese girl finished speaking, the sound of a car engine came from the other end of the street.

  The sound of the car engine interrupted what the Chinese woman's father was about to say, and everyone involuntarily looked in the direction where the sound came from. It turned out that Rommel was waving at Zhou Tianlei to come over. Zhou Tianlei said to the Chinese woman, "I'll leave for a moment. They will protect you." He pointed to his guards with his hand, then walked towards Rommel.

  Romel took down a set of German Army general's uniform from the car, and then took down a set of German Navy general's uniform from the car, handing it to Zhou Tianlei: "Hurry up and put it on, don't forget to wear your Oak Leaf Knight Medal." Then he pulled him towards a temporary 'dressing room' surrounded by cars.

  Two men entered the 'dressing room' and several German officers had already changed into their uniforms and walked out. They hastily went in, took off their casual clothes, and put on their general's uniform. Zhou Tianlei opened the first button of his shirt and put the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves around his neck.

  As the two walked out, German army soldiers who had been rushed over on orders began jumping down from trucks under their commander's loud commands. Several lieutenants ordered the soldiers to quickly form up in front of the trucks according to their unit's organization, and then they reported to a nearby German army major that the troops were ready.

  A German army major, after listening, ran to Zhou Tianlei and others in the standard posture of the German army. He was stunned when he saw these high-ranking commanders because there were more than a dozen German generals standing in front of him, including the army, navy, and air force. He had never seen so many generals before. But he quickly came to his senses. He raised his hand and reported to the group of German generals: "The 6th battalion of the 8th regiment of the 22nd infantry division of the German army has arrived in the 13th district of Paris according to the order of the Paris military command, all personnel are present. The commander of the unit is Major Brautz of the German army."

  The German generals returned the salute, Rommel said: "Major Brauchitsch, you should now see the situation on the spot!"

  "Yes, General." Major Blauzi shouted loudly.

  "Somebody has disobeyed our German Army's provisional command in Paris regarding the maintenance of order in Paris. What shall we do?"

  "By order, they should all be taken away and sent to our prison."

  "Then your troops haven't started acting yet. Do you want to be called Lieutenant Blauzi later? If someone resists, shoot. Also, escort our officer away. In that case, Haupt and I will stay behind."

  Major von Braunssart began to turn around and order his subordinate battalion commanders to separate the Chinese and Japanese. At the same time, a part of the force was divided to escort other German generals away, and the German soldiers who isolated the Chinese and Japanese people used their rifles and submachine guns to drive the Japanese out of the houses of the Chinese in the 13th arrondissement of Paris Chinatown.

  The Japanese and Chinese also found that the German occupying forces in Paris had arrived at the scene when the German soldiers began to gather. Moreover, on one side of the truck loaded with German soldiers, there were several high-end cars, and a dozen or so people came out from the side of the high-end cars, which could be seen under the light as senior German military officers.

  The Japanese cheered involuntarily after seeing the German army arrive. Some shouted in broken German with a heavy Japanese accent: "Long live the Emperor, long live Hitler." "Our allies have arrived." "Chinese pigs, get out of Paris quickly."

  Some people have even raised their clubs in hand and are ready to rush into the crowd of Chinese people.

  "Hey, you people over there! Drop your weapons, put your hands on your heads and squat down for inspection!"

  The order to shoot the Japanese came as a surprise to them, they could not believe that this was said by their ally's mouth. Several people were still hesitating whether to listen to the German command when several crisp shots of Mauser 98K rifle rang out, and those Japanese had already fallen into the pool of blood.

  The actions of the German troops were beyond the expectations of the Japanese and Chinese. The Japanese had thought that the German troops came to the scene to support them, at most pretending to be neutral, so as to facilitate their actions. But unexpectedly, the German troops came to suppress them and even opened fire on them. More than a dozen Japanese drew out their samurai swords and waved them in their hands. Some Japanese who understood German shouted loudly in German, meaning that we, Great Japan, are allies of Germany, how can you do this to us?

  Zhou Tianlei didn't even look, and demanded that Major Blauzi order the German soldiers to fire into the air to intimidate those restless Japanese. Major Blauzi turned his head to take a look at Zhou Tianlei, saw the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves exposed under his collar, and since several army generals did not speak out against Zhou Tianlei's orders, he ordered the German soldiers to raise their guns and fire into the air.

  A portion of the German soldiers still pointed their guns at the Japanese crowd, while dozens of other German soldiers raised their rifles and fired into the air in unison, the deafening sound stunning the Japanese who were holding samurai swords, they then realized the attitude of the Germans and obediently put down their swords.

  At this moment, something unexpected happened to the Germans, Chinese and most of the Japanese present. Two people suddenly emerged from the Japanese crowd, swiftly passing through the queue formed by German soldiers to separate the Japanese and Chinese. Rushing to the side of the Chinese crowd, they grabbed two Chinese women standing at the edge of the crowd with one hand, holding a dagger to their necks. Then quickly retreated and loudly shouted in pure German: "Let us go, or you'll have these two bitches collect the bodies!"

  With the help of the light, Zhou Tianlei saw that one of the Chinese women was the same woman who had brought them there. Due to her intense struggle, it seemed that the wound on her head, which had been bandaged, had started bleeding again. The crowd of Chinese people began to get angry and started rushing towards the two Japanese men. Someone inside shouted: "Li Xia, Zhang Xiaoyan, don't be afraid, we're here to rescue you."

  Those two Japanese saw the Chinese crowd rushing over, one of them, who was holding the Chinese woman who had brought Zhou Tianlei here, shouted loudly: "Don't come any closer, whoever dares to come closer I'll kill her right away." The dagger in his hand pressed against the Chinese woman's neck again, and a stream of blood flowed down from her neck. The Chinese woman's father cried out: "Xiàzi, be careful, don't let that bastard hurt you."

  Zhou Tianlei took a look at the unexpected situation and hastily asked Captain Blaurock to bring over a loudspeaker. In Chinese, he shouted loudly to the Chinese people: "Chinese people listen up! The German Defense Army will definitely handle this matter well, please don't worry." Zhou Tianlei hadn't spoken his native language in a long time, so when he spoke this sentence, he stuttered, but this also gave him an excuse to explain to Rommel and others how he knew Chinese.

  Long Mei saw this, and didn't have time to ask Zhou Tianlei where he learned Chinese. He first ordered the German soldiers to surround the two Japanese men and the Chinese woman they had taken hostage. The German soldiers formed a semi-encirclement around them, pointing their guns at them.

  The two Japanese hostages were even more panicked at this sight, shouting loudly and waving the knives in their hands.

  Zhou Tianlei was afraid that they would harm the two Chinese women, Li Xia and Zhang Xiaoyan, in their desperation. He picked up the receiver and said: "You two listen, I am a German Navy Rear Admiral, let's talk it over, don't hurt them."

  Those two Japanese shouted: "Let us go, give us the car, we want to take these two Chinese bitches and pigs away until our embassy."

  Tianlei Zhou and Long Meier exchanged a look, both thinking there was something fishy going on. These two Japanese people were definitely not ordinary Japanese people. They probably weren't Japanese expats living in France either. It's possible that they had committed some kind of crime. Because the other Japanese people present had only violated the orders of the German Paris Temporary Military Management Command, and would be released after being locked up for a few days to intimidate them, and now Japan was an ally of Germany, so Germany wouldn't do anything serious to them. But the attitude of these two Japanese men was very suspicious.

  Rommel took over the microphone and said: "You two listen well, I am Erwin Rommel, commander of the 7th Panzer Division of the German Army, Major General of the German Army. In the name of the German Army, I swear that if you let those two women go, we guarantee your personal safety and property." He glanced at Zhou Tianlei while speaking, intending to report his official position

  Those two Japanese said: "No way, we are going to our embassy. Before entering our embassy, we cannot let them go."

  Zhou Tianlei and Long Meier became even more certain that there was something wrong with these two Japanese people. After a brief discussion, they decided to capture them alive and hand them over to the Gestapo for interrogation, to see what secrets these two Japanese people were hiding. Then Zhou Tianlei turned around and left the scene, pulling over Long Meier's guard, whispering a few words in his ear, and then stuffing two small black cylinders into the guard's hands. Only after seeing Long Meier's guard turn around and walk towards Long Meier's car did Zhou Tianlei turn around and walk to Long Meier's side.

  Chow Tianlei and Rommel stood together in silence for a while, then Rommel picked up the receiver and said: "Alright, we'll give you cars to take you to the airport so you can fly back to your embassy in Germany, but you must not harm them, or else you two will be sorry."

  He waved his hand, and Rommel's guards drove Rommel's car over. The two Japanese men who were holding the Chinese women slowly dragged them to the front of the car. One of the Japanese men handed the Chinese woman he was holding to his companion, looked inside the car, didn't see anything unusual, and signaled to his partner to push the two Chinese women together, open the rear seat door and get in. He himself quickly went around to the driver's side door, opened it, and prepared to get in.

  At this time, only a loud noise was heard, and a large amount of smoke burst out in front of and behind Rommel's car. Then, only the sound of coughing could be heard from the people in the smoke. The German soldiers rushed up, and Zhou Tianlei shouted: "Quickly, stuff towels into their mouths. Tie them up."

  Then several figures emerged from the smoke, German soldiers led out two Japanese people with towels stuffed in their mouths and tied up. Zhou Tianlei and Rommel carried out two Chinese women who had fainted. Rommel shouted loudly: "Quickly, hurry up and get the car to come, notify the army hospital to prepare for rescue."

  The car carrying Zhou Tianlei and Longmei with two unconscious Chinese women sped to the German Army Hospital. The German military doctors and nurses, who had already been notified, were waiting at the hospital entrance with stretchers. When the doctor saw that the two German generals were holding Asian women in their arms, he was taken aback. Zhou Tianlei had already shouted: "Rescue is urgent, what are you looking at? If you don't rescue them, I'll kill you!"

  The military doctor saw the German Oak Leaf Knight's Medal hanging under Zhou Tianlei's collar and had already recognized the identity of this German Navy Major General. He didn't dare to be slow, hurriedly asked the nurse to take over the Chinese woman in Zhou Tianlei and Rommel's hands, put her on a stretcher, and rushed to push the stretcher towards the emergency room.

  Rommel and Zhou Tianlei sat down in a place, waiting for the medical treatment results. Rommel asked Zhou Tianlei: "Gautre, what did you put on the car that would release so much smoke and make people cough? Is it some new chemical weapon?"

  Zhou Tianlei knew what it was, a chemical agent called chloroacetophenone, which he had obtained from the German Navy's temporary command center in Spain. It was originally intended as a self-defense weapon for himself while in Spain, but it ended up being used in France instead. He briefly explained this to Rommel, who immediately grasped the severity of the chemical agent and excitedly said that he would return home and mass-produce it for use by his soldiers. Zhou Tianlei also told him about a way to defend against the weapon: covering one's mouth and nose with a damp cloth could greatly reduce its effectiveness, and taking some cold medicine beforehand would have an even more pronounced effect.

  At this time, the military doctor had come out and walked to their side. He said: "Report to the general, they have already escaped danger, we have given them a sedative injection, and they can wake up tomorrow morning. However, one of them was injured more seriously and may need to stay in hospital for a few more days before being discharged, while the other can be discharged tomorrow afternoon." Zhou Tianlei immediately knew that the woman who needed to stay in hospital was the one who had taken them to Chinatown, namely Li Xia.

  Zhou Tianlei and Long Meir saw that there was nothing they could do here, so they ordered the military doctor to take good care of them. Zhou Tianlei also said that he would find time to visit them tomorrow. Then the two left the army hospital.

  Zhou Tianlei remembered the families of those two Chinese women, so he asked the car to turn around and head towards Paris' Chinatown, intending to inform their relatives about their whereabouts and situation.