Chapter Thirty-Eight: Smooth Exit from the City

  Zhang Mingshan's face was beaming with a smile, waving the small flag in his hand and shouting slogans. For a moment, he was covered in sweat from head to toe, and he wiped it away with his sleeve, also wiping away the tears that were streaming out. Lifting his head again, he put on that happy expression once more.

  Zhang Mingshan cursed in his heart, the capital was occupied and even let his own citizens celebrate, the devil who came up with this idea should be cut into pieces.

  Not long after, Zhang Mingshan went to wipe the sweat from his face again. He raised his sleeve and lowered his head, a bullet whizzed past his temple with a "zip" sound, breaking the small flag in his hand.

  A small, timid and shameless traitor, what should he do at this time? Zhang Mingshan thought for 0.01 seconds before crawling on the ground and wailing: "It's all over! Someone is killing people in front of Huang Jun! Save me!"

  In a corner where You Fei was hiding, several warriors of the Lie Feng squad turned their heads to look at You Fei. You Fei waved his hand and said, "Absolutely not me who did it."

  Everyone looked in the direction of the angle at which the bullet was shot, towards a corner on the other side of the street, where a figure wearing a Japanese military uniform flashed and disappeared.

  "Hurry up and take a look around!"

  As soon as the voice of You Fei fell, Wang Lie led two people to run towards the side. At the same time, a devil slipped into the alley opposite, possibly he also found the man's trail. This devil ran over not long after, and there were large groups of devils chasing along this path.

  The ordinary people in the procession began to get out of hand, and Zhang Mingshan, who was standing at the front of the line, turned around and shouted to everyone: "Fellow villagers, don't be disorderly! There are imperial army machine guns aimed at us from behind, and ahead of us are the esteemed ladies waiting for us to celebrate! The occupation of Nanjing is a big deal, if we get out of hand, it won't match this festive atmosphere! Everyone, don't be disorderly! Don't be disorderly!"

  Although Zhang Mingshan was the target of the cold gun attack, Zhang Mingshan was obviously much calmer than the old hundred surnames behind him. He shouted for a long time, but the common people were unmoved. They still dispersed in a noisy manner. Some people started to slowly run towards the edge of the street, waiting for the chaos to start so they could escape quickly. But can they outrun the speed of bullets?

  The Japanese army on all sides coldly stared at the surrounded Huangpu Army and civilians in the middle of the street. Zhang Ming-shan saw that a tragedy was about to occur, he suddenly grabbed a nearby Huangpu soldier and roared: "Don't you see we're almost done for? Hurry up and get your brothers to help calm down the civilians first."

  This Huang Wei military soldier also came to his senses and shouted at several people around him: "Zhang Ergou, Lao Liu, hurry up and let everyone settle down the villagers, don't blow up the camp again, those machine guns on both sides are firing, none of us can escape!"

  "Hey, grandpas, uncles, aunts, and grannies, don't get excited! If we provoke the imperial army, we'll all be done for. Everyone, please calm down!"

  The crowd quieted down a bit, and Zhang Mingshan hastily shouted loudly, "Celebrate the fall of Nanjing!" "Long live the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere!" "Wish His Majesty the Emperor ten thousand years of longevity without borders." The crowd began to follow Zhang Mingshan's chaotic shouting, and after a while, they started moving forward again.

  People who were driven out from other places also joined the procession, more and more. The devils behind carried machine guns and slowly followed this strange team of Chinese people celebrating the occupation of their capital. Even when the devils looked at the soldiers of the Yellow Cooperative Army, their eyes were so unkind.

  In the corner, You Fei saw Zhang Mingshan's performance and turned around to say to other warriors, "You see, Old Zhang can even make achievements as a traitor. Fortunately for him, if not, these civilians would be in great danger today."

  The crowd followed You Fei back to the broken house, although Zhang Mingshan stabilized the situation, but everyone felt extremely helpless about this reluctantly played traitor behavior, although it was Zhang Mingshan who did it, all people felt the same way, including Lin Yuru and others were just silently silent.

  After a while, the sound of the procession gradually went far away, and Wang Lie also brought two people back.

  Wang Lie Shan told everyone something very strange, that the person who hit Zhang Ming Shan was indeed a Japanese devil, but his behavior was extremely strange.

  That man waited until the Japanese soldier who was chasing him from behind was about to catch up, then suddenly used his knife to slash and kill the ghost who was following him. He stuffed a stack of paper into the pocket of the dead ghost, and then quickly walked away. Wang Lie followed this person around in a circle, and he ended up back in this alley again. He squatted down next to the dead ghost to take a look, said something to the several Japanese soldiers who were rushing over from behind, and the ghosts all started kicking the dead ghost together. The ghosts pulled out the stack of paper from the dead ghost's pocket and took it away to report to their local leader.

  Wang Lie felt that this devil who shot Zhang Ming Shan was very strange, so he followed him all the way to the devil's camp, but didn't find any other problems, and only then did he return.

  "You didn't exchange a few words with him."

  Wang Lie said: "There are devils everywhere on that side, and it's hard to avoid being discovered if you follow him for a long time. If you want to talk to him, it's even more difficult."

  You Fei was also confused and asked everyone what was going on. Everyone said that they should continue to observe, and it would be best if they could investigate clearly. Wang Lie said: "Then I'll go again tonight, look at the situation today, the devils are holding this very inauspicious celebration ceremony, we can't leave the city now either. We might as well go and meet this strange devil tonight."

  "That's all we can do, let's just stay in the city for another day," said You Fei.

  At night, Wang Lie quietly approached the enemy camp according to the characteristics he had noted down during the day, but the devils were still celebrating and there was no way for him to sneak in and find someone.

  Wang Lie waited for a long time in the shadow beside the brightly lit courtyard, and finally that strange devil from daytime appeared. Wang Lie picked up a small stone and threw it over.

  The stone hit the ghost's neck, and the ghost was startled. Then it calmed down again, pretending nothing had happened. Afterwards, he quietly walked out of the door.

  The devil turned into a small alley from the main street. Wang Lie also followed him for a while, and suddenly the devil turned around, Wang Lie hurriedly hid behind a low wall.

  The oni smiled and said in Japanese, "Come out, I know you're looking for me." Wang Lie looked around and saw that there was no one else, he gripped a dagger in his hand and carefully stood up. He asked the oni in Chinese, "Who are you?" The oni pretended not to understand at all. It seemed that this oni was not Chinese, so why did he hate Zhang Mingshan so much?

  Wang Lie's doubts increased again, so he switched to Japanese and asked: "What kind of person are you? I saw everything you did during the day."

  The devil then switched to another strange language and spoke to Wang Lie, who pricked up his ears but couldn't understand a word.

  The devil saw Wang Lie's reaction and changed to Japanese, saying to Wang Lie: "I'm actually not a Japanese, my hometown is Korea. Korea and Manchuria are now occupied by Japan. My father worked in Japan, and our family followed him to Japan. After Korea was occupied, all Koreans were no longer allowed to use their original surname, so I got a Japanese name called Koyama Shōsei, but actually, my original surname is Kim. Our family also suffered great discrimination in Japan. Later, there was a Japanese neighbor who enlisted in the Japanese army, and I inadvertently obtained his documents and replaced him in the 24th Division, eventually coming to China. That real Japanese man is now lying in the muddy field, rotting away! I killed him!"

  After hearing what the man named Jin Chengxing had said, Wang Lie somewhat understood why the ghost was killed by him during the day. However, he still didn't understand some things. So, Wang Lie asked: "Then why did you shoot that Chinese who shouted slogans?"

  "Korea has always been a vassal state of China, and only after China's decline would Korea be occupied by the Japanese. However, if Japan were to occupy China, this small country is still far from having the capacity to digest such a large nation as China. In the vast ocean of Chinese people, Japan will surely fail. But if the Chinese people do not resist, like that Chinese person earlier today, only fawning over the Japanese and forgetting their own motherland, then neither China nor Korea will have the opportunity to escape the clutches of this Japanese wolf. I shot at him in order to awaken the Chinese people, it's as simple as that. Who knew I didn't hit him, but instead gave me an opportunity to kill a Japanese person."

  "What did you stuff into that Japanese man's pocket?"

  "That's a propaganda leaflet from an anti-war league within Japan. That way, they'll suspect that the dead guy was the one who caused all the commotion."

  "Haha, I didn't think your brain was still so useful!" Wang Lie exclaimed with delight, but Jin Chengxing, who had a good brain, didn't know what he was saying again.

  Wang Lie said: "Actually, the Chinese you shot today and our small team hiding in the city are all special mobile troops of our Chinese army. If we didn't follow the devils' orders today, many civilians would have been implicated. Moreover, we have a big problem - some of our people are trapped in the city, and to get out, that person must gain the trust of the Japanese, then we can take action. When we leave, we will cause some destruction in the city. To cover for one of our more important personnel, it's possible we'll leave some people behind in the city."

  Jin Chengxi heard this and hastily said: "Perhaps I can let you all leave safely."

  Wang Lie said: "Then I need to go back and discuss it, we can make an appointment at a certain time to talk about it in detail."

  "Alright then, let's meet again at this place in the second half of the night."

  Wang Lie and he made another detailed appointment for an exact time before going back to consult with You Fei.

  You Fei was very interested in this ally who had fallen from the sky, and he personally ran a trip to see him. That night, a detailed plan for leaving the city was drawn up.

  After staying in the city for two days, Lin Yurui was also a bit impatient. Fortunately, when leaving the city that day, it was arranged for the Lie Feng squad to take collective action, and Lin Yurui was sandwiched between them, looking like they were very safe and didn't need to act at all. This time, more than 30 people walked out of the city, and this action was completely based on trust in that Korean person. You Fei said that Jin Chengxing should be trusted.

  They hadn't even reached the city gate when they saw that fake devil Jin Chengxing was already waiting for them in front of the county town's city gate. Next to him were another devil and six Huang Jiao soldiers. On top of the city wall, two more Huang Jiao soldiers stood with guns at the ready, staring intently at the crowd rushing towards the city gate.

  Jin Chengxing had obtained some Huang Xiejun uniforms for the fierce winds, but there were not enough, and a few people still wore civilian clothes. When they arrived at the city gate, Jin Chengxing first greeted Zhang Mingshan. Zhang Mingshan was sneaking out, but because of yesterday's leading slogan, both the devils and Huang Xiejun were familiar with his face.

  Kim Sung-seok and another Japanese devil started talking. The members of the Stormtrooper team stood in a favorable position, smiling and chatting. That real Japanese devil felt something was wrong and wanted to ask questions, but his line of sight was always blocked by Kim Sung-seok.

  "Hey, Koyama! Maybe you should give in. We should see what they want to do!" the devil said to Kim Sung-su.

  But the fierce winds didn't give him another chance to react, everyone occupied a favorable position after, two flying knives knocked down two people on the low city wall, and the rest of the people rushed up, pressing Huang Xiejun and another devil to the ground. Before they had a chance to explain or shout, the crack door had sent them to the Western Heaven with a dagger and heavy objects.

  They cleaned up the spoils of war and were about to leave. Jin Chengxing gave them some certificates with "Farmer's Identity" written on it. He said that this thing can prove that you are a good citizen, disguised as a farmer, and this certificate can be used as a pass. Before leaving, You Fei told Jin Chengxing that he was the commander of the 259th Brigade and had to go to the National Government area to handle some matters. In the future, Jin Chengxing could find him, especially when the Japanese army was defeated. You Fei could prove that Jin Chengxing was a friend, not an enemy. (Of course, You Fei wouldn't say that he came mainly to flirt with girls.)

  As the fierce winds all left the city, Jin Cheng patiently added a few more knives to the corpses of Huang Xie and Gui Zi. Finally, he randomly placed several corpses on himself, gritted his teeth, and stabbed two knives into his thighs and arms. He screamed in pain. "Someone's coming! Someone has broken out of the city!"

  Jin Cheng struggled to crawl out with great difficulty. By the time the Japanese soldiers rushed over to rescue Jin Cheng, You Fei and Lin Yu Rui had already disappeared without a trace.