Chapter 49: Seeking Help

  At that moment, Takashi Goto felt as if his body was about to burn up. He stood up, bowed deeply to Tofu Hara Kenji, and then turned eastward, knelt down, and shouted: "Your Majesty the Emperor, I, Takashi Goto, swear to be eternally loyal to Your Majesty, willing to sacrifice myself for the great cause of the Great Japanese Empire!"

  Tsuchihashi Kenji watched this with satisfaction and then said to Yamashita Giichi, "Yamashita-kun, Takahashi-kun is superior to you in every way. From now on, you must consult with Takahashi-kun on all matters. Moreover, he must maintain a conciliatory attitude towards the Chinese, even if it means going out of his way. You must help Takahashi-kun cover up any weaknesses, and not let him be brought before the Imperial military tribunal before his plans are complete."

  Yamashita Keigo has always admired Takahashi Nobukazu and is also a good brother for many years, so he doesn't mind at all about Tofu Genji reusing Takahashi Nobukazu, on the contrary, he's happy that Takahashi Nobukazu finally has the opportunity to make a big show.

  Three days later, Takashi Gokō submitted his plan to Toshitsugu Tatewaki, and named it "Kofun Plan". Tatewaki was very satisfied after reading it, and only discussed a few details with Gokō.

  The core of this plan is to use the relationship between Wei Dong and the Communist Party to gain the trust of the Communist Party in Gao Qixiang, then fabricate a story about an ancient Han Dynasty tomb, using the treasure as bait to lure all the anti-Japanese resistance forces around Xuzhou to gather together, and then intentionally reveal a weakness to the enemy, luring them into action, and taking the opportunity to launch a crushing blow against these resistance forces.

  "Xuzhou is strategically too important for the Imperial Army, Takahashi. If Operation Kogo can succeed, the Chinese will not be able to organize sufficient resistance forces around Xuzhou for at least three years, which would be of great significance for the Imperial Army." Sumida concluded.

  After arriving in Xuzhou, Gaoqiao Xin unexpectedly gained Ye Tufei, a special type of person. With Ye Tufei as a channel, he not only gained more trust from Wei Xiangdong but also made it easier to fabricate the Han Dynasty tomb rumors. When Ye Tufei's role was finished, Zhao Ming's matter happened to appear, and after communicating with General Tsuchiya, they used this as an excuse to get rid of Ye Tufei.

  Kao Chiao's calculation is that when he carries out this task, he will inevitably have a head-on conflict with the military/unified side, and if not handled properly, he may be eliminated by the military/unified side.

  However, Ye Tufei surprisingly completed the task with flying colors, which greatly exceeded Gao Qianxin's expectations. He was worried that Ye Tufei would bring trouble to his ancient tomb plan after returning safely, so he asked General Tofu to coordinate and hoped to get rid of Ye Tufei on the way.

  When Ye Tufei appeared in Shanghai with Zhao Ming, feeling carefree and content, Takahashi Nobuyuki knew that his plan to get rid of Ye Tufei had failed.

  As for the reason of failure, it has always been unknown. The Hong Kong side confirmed that Ryo Okada was indeed on the boat, but Zhao Ming repeatedly denied it, saying that Ryo Okada did not board the ship at all, while Ye Tufei's statement was different, he said that Ryo Okada got off the boat voluntarily after the boat left the Hong Kong waters.

  Takashi Kōbashi had no interest in these investigations, and was only concerned with whether his own tomb plan could be carried out smoothly. In order to prevent Yatou Fei from interfering, he and Shimo Goro came up with a supplementary plan to ensure that he would gain the Communist Party's absolute trust.

  At this thought, Takahashi Shin narrowed his eyes habitually.

  That night, Yamashita Kengo launched an operation, destroying the four underground party liaison points he had been eyeing for a long time, and capturing Peng Youming, the highest leader of the Communist Party's underground organization in Xuzhou.

  Yamashita Kengo's capture of Peng Youming ultimately boils down to Takahashi Shin's ancient tomb plan.

  Since the news of the discovery of the ancient tomb of the Han Dynasty came out, it has attracted the attention of various gods and goddesses outside. When Wei Xiangdong learned that among the treasures excavated from the ancient tomb, there was actually a "Golden Thread Jade Robe" that only appeared in historical records but had never been seen in the world, Peng Youming began to take it seriously. He frequently met with Wei Xiangdong and naturally became the focus of Gao Qiaosheng's attention.

  Takahashi Nobuhara planned to use the Wei Xiangdong line and Peng Youming to establish a relationship of mutual trust, but the entire plan encountered an unexpected turn at Ye Tufei, where Okada Tsukasa unexpectedly lost to Ye Tufei.

  Just as Yè Tú Fēi had a high opinion of Takahashi's profound and unfathomable nature, Takahashi also held Yè Tú Fēi in extremely high regard. "This person is unfathomably deep; if he were my opponent, I would have no confidence in defeating him. Therefore, it is necessary to downplay his role in the entire plan." Takahashi explained to Yamashita: "First, we'll capture Peng Youming, and then I'll assist Wei Xiangdong in rescuing him, making the Communist Party deeply trust me. In this way, even if Yè Tú Fēi can see through something, he won't be able to stir up any waves."

  "Why don't we just get rid of them!" Yamashita Keigo said without thinking, making Takahashi Makoto laugh and cry at the same time.

  Takahashi nodded and said, "You're trying to give the Chinese a wake-up call, aren't you?" Shimo smiled and replied, "Don't take it seriously, Takahashi-san, I was just joking."

  Wei Xiangdong returned to Ye Tufei's camp immediately after learning of Peng Youming's capture. Wei Xiangdong understood that now the only one who might be able to rescue Peng Youming was Gao Qiaosheng, and his contact with Gao Qiaosheng was relatively difficult, so he decided to go through Ye Tufei.

  Ye Tu Fei immediately expressed his willingness to help after hearing Wei Xiang Dong's simple statement, and if Gao Qiao Xin was not willing to put in the effort, he would think of a way himself. Wei Xiang Dong asked him if there were any other methods, Ye Tu Fei replied: "If not, we'll just have to resort to jailbreak."

  It's not going to work, then break out of prison! The meaning of this sentence is that it can only be considered when all other roads are impassable. Wei Xiangdong understood that Ye Tufei was comforting him, and he did not hold out much hope for breaking out of prison. His only hope lay with Gao Qiaosheng.

  After dinner, Ye Tu Fei found Gao Qiao Xin, and Gao Qiao Xin seemed to have anticipated that Ye Tu Fei would come find him, and had already set up the chessboard. "Don't be so impatient, come on, let's play a game first."

  Ye Tu Fei surprisingly calmed down, as if seeing Gao Qiao Xin would allow him to rescue Peng You Ming. He sat down calmly across from Gao Qiao Xin and started playing chess with a serious expression.

  More than an hour later, Hoshino won with a slight advantage, which can be said to be a narrow victory. During the review, Hoshino pointed to a place where Ye Tufei lost two pieces and said: "Here you didn't think carefully enough, if you could have made up your mind to sacrifice these two pieces earlier, using the remaining influence of these two pieces, you could have set up an iron wall outside, then the winner of this game might be you instead of me."

  Takahashi Shingen said as he moved the pieces on the board, and Ye Tufei followed his train of thought carefully. Indeed, it was just as Takahashi Shingen had said. Ye Tufei sighed and said: "No wonder there's an old saying that says 'when you should cut off but don't, you'll have future troubles.' As for these two sons, I really hesitated, and the result is not only did I lose my son, but also failed to borrow their strength."

  The two of them put away the chessboard, and Gao Qiao instructed his subordinate to change Ye Tufei's tea. Then he asked: "Little Ye has come at this time, surely there is something urgent. Speak, if I can help, I will definitely do so."

  Ye Tu Fei took a sip of tea and said: "It's not my business, it's your little brother's business."

  Takahashi Shinichi laughed and said: "Are you not my brother?"

  Ye Tu Fei also smiled and explained: "It's not what you think, I mean the person who asked you to do things is not me, it's Wei Xiang Dong."

  Upon hearing the name Wei Xiangdong, Takahashi Noboru's spirits lifted and he hastily asked: "Have you seen him? Is he alright?"

  Ye Tu Fei replied: "It's okay, oh, can't say it's good, he's now anxious like an ant on a hot pot."

  "What's wrong? What happened?"

  Yeh Tzu-fey replied: "One of his good friends was caught by Yamashita Tomohisa."

  Then, Ye Tu flew to Gao Qiao and simply told him about Peng Youming's arrest.

  After listening to Ye Tu Fei's statement, Takashi Gao fell silent.

  It was a long time before Takahashi spoke up: "I can't help with this matter, nor do I dare to. You know that the Japanese hate the Communist Party the most, and this hatred has been brewing since seven or eight years ago in the three northeastern provinces. The Kwantung Army took down the entire northeast region with less than a thousand casualties, but the Anti-Japanese League led by the Communist Party? In just one month, they could make the Japanese casualties reach that number. If Little Wei's friend was from the Nationalist side, it would be easy to handle, just need to come up with some sort of statement and he could be released. But for the Communist Party, it's different, unless he truly surrendered."

  Ye Tu Fei refused to give up and asked: "What's the difference between real surrender and fake surrender?"

  Tall Bridge smiled faintly and said, "If you're like this, it's just a fake surrender. Wearing the clothes of the Royal Collaboration Army, you don't have to fight either the National Army or the Communist Army. Apart from eating and drinking for free, there's nothing else to do. If you really surrender, it's different. Take Little Wei's friend, if he can't provide more valuable intelligence to the Japanese, they will absolutely not spare his life."

  Yè Tú Fēi half-jokingly and half-seriously defended himself, saying: "How can Mr. Takahashi understand our bandit camp like this? I don't dare to speak for the other brothers, but I, Yè Tú Fēi, am truly willing to serve the Great Japanese Empire with all my heart! Look, I even saved someone like Zhao Ming, which Han traitor is more loyal than me?"

  Takahashi Shin laughed and poured more tea for Ye Tufei, saying: "I guess I misspoke. Ye Liu's loyalty to the Great Japanese Empire is, haha, known to heaven and earth, you know it and I know it!"

  Yatou Fei wanted to argue back, but was interrupted by Takashi Gao. "Drink tea, drink tea, don't talk about these unhappy things."

  After drinking a few sips of tea, Ye Tu Fei suddenly asked: "Is there really no other way?"

  Takahashi Shin didn't answer, but instead asked Ye Tufei: "You say in Xiao Wei's heart, what is more important, his friend or me?"

  Ye Tu Fei was momentarily unclear about what Takashi meant, so he casually replied: "Of course you're more important, after all, it's you who raised him."

  Takashi Takaishi seemed satisfied, slowly narrowing his eyes and suddenly opening them again, asking: "And what about Shingo Yamamori? Is the Communist Party important or is Takashi Takaishi important?"

  Ye Tu Fei was taken aback for a moment and mechanically replied: "Of course it's you."

  Tall Bridge Xìn smiled, his eyes narrowing as he spoke: "You can go! I'm really unable to help you with what you want. Let me advise you, Little Ye, don't get involved in this mess. How about this? Tomorrow night, I'll host a banquet at the Fragrant Pavilion and invite you and your brothers to drink wine. Consider it my way of thanking you for helping me find the Han Dynasty ancient tomb."