Advance in retreat

  "Dad..." A cry, it turned out that Du Xinyu brought dozens of helpers to rush over. She came out of the Shihao Hotel, urgently gathered dozens of people, got on a car and arrived here, the battle had already ended. Seeing that Boss Du was only injured in one arm, Du Xinyu felt both happy and sad.

  "Xin Yu, how did you come?" asked Mr. Du.

  "Dad, I've brought people to rescue you."

  "Just now, thanks to Mr. Luo's timely intervention, he defeated the Japanese from behind. Otherwise, you wouldn't have seen your father again." Old Du said with a chuckle. In front of Du Xin Yu, he always maintained a benevolent fatherly image, and even spoke of such a perilous matter with a smile.

  "Thank you, Luo Yi." Du Xinyu bowed to Luo Yi, with a hint of warmth in her eyes.

  "Xin Yu, how impolite of you, you should call him Mr. Luo." Old Master Du corrected.

  Luo Yi smiled and said, "Du boss, no need to be polite. You don't have to always call me Mr. Luo, just call my name or Luo Zi if you like. Everyone is used to it. In terms of age, you are older than me, I and Xin Yu are of the same generation, you are too polite to me, which makes me uncomfortable."

  Old Du looked at Luo Yi, then at Du Xinyu. He noticed that Du Xinyu's face was slightly flushed and her eyes didn't dare to meet his gaze. He couldn't help but understand a bit. Smiling, he said: "Alright, respect is not as good as obedience. I'll call you Luo Zi then. Can you also call me Uncle Du?"

  Luo Yi nodded and called out: "Uncle Du."

  "Hehe, okay, then we're family from now on." Mr. Du said with a hint of meaning in his words. He had already sensed his daughter's thoughts from her expression. Duxin Yu had never been so nice to a young man before, and she had never looked so shy either. It seemed that his daughter had taken a liking to this mysterious Luo Yi. Mr. Du was extremely doting on Duxin Yu and would grant all her requests. Although he didn't know much about Luo Yi's background, since his daughter had set her sights on him, and considering the fact that he had saved both his daughter's and his own life, he didn't think much of it anymore.

  The officers and men of the assault camp swept the battlefield, Du XinYu's people collected all the dead bodies of their own faction, piled up the corpses of Ma LaoBan's side and the Japanese army in one place, and then returned to the city.

  He Jichun was personally notified by Du Laoban's phone call. When he heard that one battle had killed 20 Japanese soldiers, He Jichun's head swelled bigger than a bucket of water.

  "Boss Du, how did you manage to offend the Japanese?"

  "This time it wasn't us who provoked the Japanese, but rather the Japanese helped Old Master Ma to scheme against me. I almost got done in, luckily Luo Wei led people to attack from behind the Japanese."

  "What? Luo Yi? How is this related to him again?" He Jichun asked urgently.

  Du Lao Ban recounted the events to He Ji Chun in detail, and He Ji Chun sighed, saying: "This Luo Yi is really troublesome. To say the least, he's right, but this matter with the Japanese, how am I supposed to handle it?"

  After hanging up Du's phone call, He Jichun made a call to the Shihao Hotel and directly dialed Luo Yi's room.

  "Older brother Luo, congratulations to you, you've gotten me into trouble again." He Jichun said with a helpless tone.

  "Brother He, this time, it really wasn't me intentionally trying to cause trouble, it was just an unavoidable situation."

  "In any case, 20 Japanese soldiers' lives were lost at your hands, what do you say we should do?" said He Jichun.

  Luo Yi said: "Actually there aren't 20 of them, a few Japanese soldiers were killed by Old Du and his men, I killed at most a dozen or so."

  "This I don't care about, you tell me how to go and report to Fukuda Ichimon."

  Luo Yi smiled and said, "Isn't this easy to explain? Take Fu Tianyi to Minhang for an autopsy and ask him if these are his soldiers. If they are, what were these people doing running to Minhang?"

  He Jichun thought for a moment and said, "Hmm, using advance as retreat, this method is actually not bad. However, I'm telling you, Luo brother, can't you just stop provoking the Japanese again?"

  Luo Yi said: "He brother, this matter really isn't my fault. You say, in the future if we encounter such a thing again, can I just ignore it?"

  "Alright, at least don't go looking for trouble."

  "Yes sir." Luo Yi replied with a smile.

  He Jichun personally went to the battlefield of Minhang, took a look, and instructed his subordinates to rework the battlefield in this way. Then he dialed the phone number of Fukuda Ichiro.

  "Is that Mr. Fukuda? I have something to report to you."

  "Mr. He, please speak."

  "According to my intelligence personnel, a gangster shootout occurred in Minhang today. At the scene of the incident, some bodies suspected to be Japanese soldiers were found. I personally went to verify and found that although they wore Chinese-style clothing, their underwear was all standard-issue military underwear, and their physical characteristics were also similar. I would like to ask Mr. Fukuda to investigate whether any soldiers are missing from your army, or if they are the ones who went missing a few days ago, Mr. Matsumoto and his men." He Jichun spoke with impeccable diplomatic language.

  "Alright, I will definitely investigate this matter seriously. If the deceased is indeed one of our soldiers, please assist us in apprehending the perpetrator as soon as possible." replied Fukuda Ichimon. He had not yet received the report on the annihilation of the Fujimori squad, so he did not know whether what He Jichun said was true or not.

  The Fujimori squad went to Minhang to assist in the battle, which was personally arranged by Fukuda. Wearing Chinese-style clothing was also necessary for the purpose of covering up. He Jichun's news made him somewhat surprised, because even if the Fujimori squad had casualties in the battle, they would not leave the soldiers' bodies on the battlefield. The Japanese army is very particular about retrieving bodies, and during World War II, there were often cases where the Japanese army paid a greater sacrifice to retrieve the bodies of soldiers from the front lines. If He Jichun could find Japanese bodies on the battlefield in Minhang, there was only one possibility: that the Fujimori squad had been annihilated or forced to flee.

  "Get me in touch with Old Master Ma." Fugui ordered a sergeant.

  Sergeant Wang made phone calls for half a day and came back to report: "Report, Old Horse has run away."

  "What's wrong? Where did it go?"

  "Ma Lao's subordinates reported that Ma Lao returned to the mansion three hours ago, then took his wife and children, as well as all the gold, silver, and cash, and ran away to an unknown destination. His gang is now in internal strife, fighting over the division of the properties he left behind."

  "Ah Kua!" Futa was furious, "Come on, we're going to the Shanghai Police Station."

  Under the accompaniment of He Jichun, Fukuda arrived at the scene of the fierce battle between the Minhang gang and the Japanese army. The wolf-like appearance of the battlefield was still vivid in his mind. More than 20 bodies of Japanese soldiers were neatly arranged on the ground, while on the other side were more than 20 bodies of Ma Lao's gang members.

  Fukuda looked at the bodies of his subordinates one by one, getting angrier and angrier. Indeed, more than 20 people brought out by Fujimori were all lying here, but who was so cruel to put Fujimori's body in the first place, looking like a small team leader leading half a team of soldiers to die together.

  "Mr. Fukuda, are these your soldiers?"

  "Ah, yes." Fukuda Kazuo had no choice but to admit it. The evidence was conclusive, and there was no way he could deceive He Jichun. Moreover, Fukuda had to claim the bodies in order to have them transported back to Japan. If he didn't acknowledge them as his subordinates, He Jichun might dispose of the bodies in a mass grave, a responsibility Fukuda couldn't bear.

  "Mr. Fukuda, can you explain why your soldiers are wearing Chinese-style uniforms and appearing here?"

  "This... Mr. He, what makes you think they were killed here? Maybe they were murdered somewhere else and the killer changed their clothes before moving them here."

  He Jichun smiled slightly and said, "Mr. Fukuda, you are a military man, aren't you? You can't possibly lack even the basic skill of surveying a crime scene, right? From the signs of struggle on the ground, it's clear that this is the primary crime scene. As for their clothing, the bloodstains and bullet holes on these people's bodies and clothes are perfectly matched, and they don't have any other fatal injuries. Obviously, they were wearing these clothes when they were shot dead."

  Fukuda nodded, and for intelligent people, if they continued to pretend to be confused, it would be unnecessary. He changed the subject and said: "In that case, I demand that the Chinese side explain the killing of our 20 soldiers and crack the case as soon as possible, bringing the perpetrators to justice. If not..."

  "Mr. Fukuda." He Jichun interrupted Fukuda's words, his expression stern, "You haven't explained to me yet why your soldiers are wearing Chinese-style uniforms and running around this place engaging in armed conflicts with others? This has already violated the agreement signed between China and Japan after the Battle of Shanghai in 1928. I have reason to believe that this is a deliberate military action on your part, and my government reserves the right to sue the League of Nations."

  Fukuda was speechless. In fact, his previous words were completely hypocritical. His own soldiers wore Chinese clothes and ran to this place, causing an armed conflict, which is inexcusable no matter what. He knew very well that Fujimori and others were killed while helping Ma and Du bosses fight each other, and it was unlikely to shift the blame to the Chinese government. If He Jichun was a bit weaker, he might still have hope to extort Shanghai, but now it seems that He Jichun is not simple at all, being neither arrogant nor humble, with reason and moderation. It's unlikely for Fukuda to gain an advantage easily.

  "I'm not sure why Mr. Fujimori and his soldiers came here, I'll go back to investigate. Japan and China are friendly countries, we hope this incident won't cast a shadow on the relationship between the two countries." Fukuoka had to say some official words to save face, "Now, I request that the bodies of these soldiers be taken away so they can return home for burial. Hope Mr. He can provide convenience."

  He Jichun secretly let out a sigh of relief in his heart, it seemed that this storm had passed. If Fukuda did not give up and even used force to threaten him, with the current attitude of the central government, it was likely that the mistake would be pushed onto the Chinese people. He Jichun himself had a great possibility of losing his official position because of this, and as a passionate Chinese person, He Jichun felt that this was too humiliating.

  "Mr. Fukuda, I can arrange for my men to assist you in handling the bodies of these Japanese soldiers, but I hope you can strictly control your subordinates and not let them get involved in the disputes of the Shanghai underworld. Also, wasn't Mr. Matsumoto's disappearance last time similar to this? Please investigate that case as well, Mr. Fukuda." He Jichun took advantage of his victory to press his attack, and also implicated Matsumoto's case.

  Fukuda returned to the camp with more than 20 Japanese corpses, wrote a report and made up excuses to report to the headquarters. These details are not worth mentioning. Logically speaking, having suffered such a great loss, the Japanese side should not have remained silent. But Fukuda knew that Japan was still in an economic crisis at home and was politically unstable, and it was not yet ripe for a full-scale conflict with China. At this time, he could only swallow his anger. Moreover, the responsibility for this matter was indeed on him, and if the headquarters pursued his unauthorized dispatch of troops, he would also be held accountable.

  Ma Boss had already sensed something was wrong when the Teng Forest ambush was annihilated, so he let his subordinates cover him and escaped from the battlefield under the pretext of moving to rescue. After returning to the mansion, he packed up all the gold, silver, and valuables, and fled Shanghai with his family in a hurry. He knew that the Matsumoto squad, plus the Teng Forest squad, had already lost 30 Japanese soldiers at his hands, and Fukuda would not let him go.

  As for He Jichun, he had a talk with Fukuda and sent him away. He felt relieved and drafted a report to submit to the highest authorities, stating that a group of Japanese soldiers were involved in a gang fight in Shanghai, were killed during the fight, and the situation was now under control without any further consequences. In the report, he did not mention Du Laoban and Luo Yi, as he knew it was better to minimize the scope of some things. Once the highest authorities paid attention to Du Laoban and Luo Yi, they would bring them a lot of trouble. In He Jichun's eyes, Du Laoban and Luo Yi were all patriots, and he subconsciously wanted to provide them with some protection.