The power of the crowd 007

  Old Wang brought Yang Huimin and several others to the newspaper office, where they photocopied many photos. Among them were a few enlarged photos posted on the blackboard. Several boy scouts carried large photos to the new garbage bridge boundary on this side. The boy scouts put down the photos on the ground, attracting a crowd of onlookers.

  Old Wang asked Yang Huimin to bring those people to write several eye-catching titles on the blackboard.

  For example, "Shanghai will not fall, **die resisting, heroic Sihang Warehouse etc." The title attracted many people around when it was written.

  Old Wang thought the timing was about right, so he had Yang Huimin and others distribute some shocking photos. Among them were pictures of Japanese soldiers' corpses lined up in rows, Type 38 rifles stacked together, and machine guns spitting fire tongues from upstairs.

  Then paste the photos on the blackboard and attach notes underneath.

  "The invading army that attacks our China will definitely pay the price. The weapons we captured, our morale is high."

  The atmosphere on the scene has been mobilized.

  Old Wang knew it was time to stir things up, so he whispered to Yang Huimin: "You go up and say a few words, stir them up, can you do it?"

  Yang Huimin replied firmly: "I can!" and stepped up onto a platform.

  "Loudly shouting: 'Fellow countrymen, everyone thought **has already retreated from Shanghai, Shanghai is now a Japanese territory, isn't it?'"

  Old Wang thought to himself that it was no wonder he became a national government's propaganda figure against foreign invasion later on. He had a talent for public speaking since he was young and started with a very powerful and sharp question.

  The crows and sparrows are silent. For several days, news from all sides has led everyone to a consensus: the Japanese have already occupied Shanghai.

  Yang Hui-min continued to shout: "I tell everyone, no! Just this morning I heard intense gunfire right here on the opposite bank of this river. Our warriors are using their actions to prove that Shanghai has not fallen yet, Shanghai is still in our Chinese people's hands."

  The people below began to rise up, with many people disbelieving.

  At this moment, the sound of machine guns rang out from the other side of the river. The sound of mortar shells and whistling rose.

  Old Wang thought that when you gain the Tao, many will assist you, but when you lose it, few will help. Even Song Jingyuan, this old scoundrel, is helping me now. At this time, he launched a second wave of attacks in full force.

  Everyone's attention was drawn to the warehouse on the other side of the river. At this time, the several boy scouts assigned by Old Wang shouted loudly in the crowd: "Resistance will surely win, long live the Republic of China."

  At first, not many people followed the shouting, until they knew that the artillery fire on the other side was getting thicker and thicker, and they could see the Japanese hinomaru flags advancing forward, and the surrounding crowd also started shouting.

  The atmosphere on the entire riverbank suddenly became lively. More and more people from the surrounding area poked their heads out of windows to ask what was happening, many of whom put down their own affairs after hearing that it was to cheer on ** and joined in.

  Old Wang suddenly sighed, "The people's hearts can be used!"

  Yang Huimin led an elegantly dressed old man towards Old Wang.

  The old man approached Old Wang and bowed his head in respect. Old Wang couldn't accept this and hurriedly returned the bow, saying: "Old sir, I'm too young to receive such a grand courtesy from you."

  The old man replied: "Just because you went deep into the enemy lines and brought back such important news for me, the anti-Japanese military and civilians, you can bear it."

  Old Wang hastily expressed his gratitude, saying "I don't dare, I don't dare".

  The old man asked again: "How should I address you, sir?"

  Lao Wang was frightened by Lao Xiansheng's politeness and also bowed his body to reply: "My surname is Wang, my name is Yu, my courtesy name is Xiangjun, a Chinese expatriate in England."

  The old man stroked his beard and said: "I'm taking advantage of my age here. My surname is Zhang, my name is Xiaolü, and my courtesy name is Xiaolian. Thanks to the kindness of friends in Shanghai, I am now the president of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce."

  Old Wang thought: God of Wealth, give me your Chinese People's Insurance Company! In the afterlife, I am a regular customer of your family.

  Her face wore an expression of long-held admiration.

  Director Zhang sighed: "When our Shanghai businessmen heard that the Japanese had arrived, they all ran to the concession, feeling ashamed of the army and the country. Xiang Army, I won't give you any empty words. What do you need over there? Just pull out a list and come over, I absolutely won't reject it."

  Old Wang is delighted! How much money does this Zhang Hui have, I don't know. Anyway, this guy has built a silk factory, repaired railways, and run companies. He almost knows all the big shots in China, like Chiang Kai-shek, Wang Jingwei, after liberation... Zhou Enlai even received him warmly. In short, this old man is a very powerful person. If you can curry favor with him, you won't have to worry about money anymore.

  Old Wang hastily pulled out the paper money from his pocket and wrote down the names of medicines, food, and a pile of materials. After thinking for a moment, he also added ammunition to it.

  Director Zhang looked at the list and said, "I can deliver all these other things to the other side of the canal tonight. I still have some connections among the British upper class, but this ammunition..."

  Old Wang immediately understood that Director Zhang was worried that the ammunition would be seized by the British while crossing the river. This thing is not like other things, food and whatnot can still be labeled as humanitarian aid, but ammunition is not a necessity of life, right?

  From the perspective of the British authorities, they did not want this Battle of Shanghai to continue, and naturally would not allow weapons and supplies to be sent to the defending army.

  Lao Wang fortunately I had done some work before, so he said: "The director only needs to send the ammunition to this side of the river, and we'll take care of the rest."

  Chairman Zhang's expression told Old Wang that he didn't believe Old Wang could deliver the ammunition across the river, but since the words had already been spoken, Chairman Zhang wouldn't go back on them and instead turned to arrange for supplies.

  The gunfire on the other side of the river was getting intense, when suddenly a few loud explosions were heard, and then a towering flame rose from the other bank.

  Old Wang thought to himself that it seemed he would have to go back on his promise to thank the team leader for taking photos. They had already set fire to the house, and amidst the flames and smoke on the opposite bank, there were also the wails of the devils' cries, burning them to death was indeed cruel, but thinking about the Nanjing Massacre that would happen in a few days, Old Wang felt that this didn't even count as interest.

  A cheer rose from the crowd, and suddenly someone patted Old Wang's shoulder.

  Old Wang turned around and it was the priest. Old Wang knew that the priest had come to ask for instructions, so he said: "You go now and put pressure on the concession government. Say that many people have already come to the church, you don't want to see God's followers being hit by stray bullets, you demand that the concession authorities immediately put pressure on the Chinese government to withdraw this group of troops from the concession and stop the war!"

  The priest stared at Old Wang with his eyes wide open.

  "This may not be in your best interest!"

  Old Wang smiled and said: "So I want you to help me with something too."

  The priest smiled and said, "This is your character, no loss, say what's going on."

  Old Wang pointed to the sky and said: "Representing God to comfort the Chinese soldiers in the Sihang Warehouse, and also bring some ammunition."

  "The priest stared with a terrified gaze and said, 'I won't go near that kind of danger.'"

  Old Wang waved his hand and said, "You'd better not come here. I've been in the church for a day or two, and I still don't know that those bloody soldiers are your followers!"

  The priest felt a bit helpless, the feeling of being seen through was absolutely not cool, whether it's an Easterner or a Westerner. He sighed and said: "I don't recognize this officer who claims to be on duty."

  Old Wang thought that there were several officers he didn't know. Old Wang looked at the priest and saw that he hadn't brought anything, so he asked: "What about the supplies I told you to prepare in advance?"

  "The priest pointed to a warehouse behind him and said, 'I also can't carry it on me.'"

  Old Wang shook off the dust on his body and said: "I'll take your supplies across the river first, I heard gunfire from that side of the river, there should be a problem."

  "We're not going to die on the other side of the river." The attendants on either side of the priest said:

  Old Wang smiled and pointed to the Chinese on the riverbank, saying: "There are so many hot-blooded young people of the Chinese nation, no need for you. However, please ask Father to communicate with that officer a few words. Say we are sent by the church to deliver humanitarian materials."

  The priest felt that he was being stripped of his last bit of dignity by Old Wang, but having come this far, he could hardly back down now, so he reluctantly nodded.

  Old Wang shouted loudly and immediately several young people who wanted to go to the other side to watch the excitement came up to follow Old Wang to move goods. Several people worked together to load the goods onto a handcart and headed towards the bridge.

  The soldiers saw that it was a British priest leading the way and didn't dare to stop him, so they directly kicked the ball to the official guarding the bridge. Colonel Josephine was a devout Christian and knew Beckert well, so when he heard that he was going to deliver supplies to the other side, he turned a blind eye. This was also the intention of the concession authorities. After all, China is Britain's potential ally.

  Old Wang pushed the supplies to the barracks of the Third Company. Not seeing Deng Ying, he called Hei Da Ge to organize a few brothers to send the goods to the battalion headquarters. He walked up to Hei Da Ge and handed him a cigarette, asking: "How was the battle this morning?"

  "Hei Da sighed and said, 'Don't mention it. As soon as you left, the devils launched a fierce attack with a barrage of gunfire. What's even more infuriating is that they didn't just drop bombs, but also flyers. And that shameless traitor stood in front of our position with a loudspeaker, urging us to surrender and telling us that we had been abandoned by the government. It was like being cannon fodder. The morale of some of my comrades began to sink. Then the little devils launched their second wave of attack.'"

  The big black guy took a heavy drag on the cigarette in his hand and continued: "This time, the little devils still wanted to rely on infantry charges to take us down. As a result, they were suppressed by our machine gun fire within 100 meters. The little devils' tactical doctrine scattered behind the houses and exchanged fire with us. We then detonated the gasoline bombs we had prepared earlier, burning the little devils and making them cry out in disorder. Just as we were about to go up and deal with the little devils who were stuck in between and couldn't retreat, the little devils launched a barrage of indiscriminate artillery fire, knocking down our entire squad along with the remaining devils."

  "Damn it, this little devil doesn't care about human life at all."

  Old Wang smiled and said: "What's wrong, are you scared?"

  "Hei Da Ge sprang up and cursed, 'I'm afraid? I crawled out of the pile of dead bodies in the Northeast Army just to kill devils. My whole family was killed by the Japanese in the Northeast. I have a national hatred and family vendetta against the Japanese. Killing one is enough to make up for it, killing two is a profit. What am I afraid of? It's just these new recruits who came after this battle. They're all pissing their pants. How can we fight this battle?"

  Old Wang knew things were serious as soon as he heard this.