Chapter 238: 237, Nighttime Explosive Battle, Miraculous Escape, Perfect Plan
The Imperial Japanese Navy admiral kidnapping case was still ongoing.
Because Hongkou was sealed off by the Japanese Army, people outside could not learn about the situation inside.
Only a small number of people learned a bit of information through special channels.
Outside the small Western-style building at the scene, a military officer raised the loudspeaker and shouted loudly:
“We need time to prepare. If we can’t do it today, it will take at least until tomorrow.”
Third floor of the small Western-style building.
The windows were all covered by black curtains, so outsiders could not see the situation inside at all.
This way, the Japanese Army could not determine the exact positions of Fang Wen and the hostages, and they did not dare to shoot recklessly.
The corpses of those Japanese soldiers inside had been moved to the corridor as a barricade.
In the middle of the room, Nagano Shuu, Yoshida, and two other military officers were tied to chairs, with bombs strapped to their bodies and their eyes and mouths sealed; they were positioned in the most easily shootable spot for bullets. Once shooting started outside, they were the most likely to be hit.
After hearing what the officer outside said, Fang Wen extended the loudspeaker:
“We can wait one night, but don’t try any tricks.”
After saying that, Fang Wen quietly instructed the action team members: “Tonight they will definitely try to charge up. Everyone prepare for the fourth step.”
The fourth step was the nighttime defense battle, which was the Japanese Army’s best opportunity; they were very likely to attempt a risky rescue.
Immediately, the action group members began working methodically.
They took out bulletproof iron shields from the hidden compartment in the wall.
They assembled these iron shields with connecting interfaces into temporary defensive positions: curved shields on the outside and triangular brackets inside to prevent tipping.
These bulletproof shields were positioned in front of the windows and doors. Once combat began, Fang Wen and the action group soldiers could rely on the bulletproof positions to shoot outward from the firing ports.
In addition to the bulletproof positions, each person had ample firepower equipment.
One Thompson submachine gun, 5 magazines with 20 rounds each, 2 drum magazines with 100 rounds each. The 20-round ones for close combat, the 100-round
one Browning pistol, 2 magazines.
Three fragmentation grenades per person.
Time passed bit by bit, and the sun set in the west.
Amid the encirclement by over a thousand Japanese soldiers, the lonely small Western-style building became an isolated island in the HK area.
As darkness fell, shadows flickered outside this isolated island.
The Japanese Army was about to act.
The black night was the best cover; the Japanese tried to launch a sneak attack using this opportunity.
But they did not know that action was also underway inside the small building.
Qian Yinxing quietly went downstairs, carefully activating the trigger bombs in places like the stairwell, behind corner doors, etc.
Fine threads were slowly pulled out from the walls and hung at the other end to form tripwires; in the night, these traps were impossible to detect.
After setting up the first floor, Qian Yinxing carefully bypassed various trigger devices and went up to the second floor to continue.
This job could only be done by him alone; one more person would be trouble. He had prepared for this for a long time.
Ten minutes later, all trigger devices in the three floors were activated, and Qian Yinxing returned to the room to report.
“Activation complete. Outside is now a dead end.”
Fang Wen nodded: “Now, everyone to your positions. Wait by the stump for a rabbit.”
The night grew darker, and Japanese soldiers holding spears crouched and entered the gate of the small Western-style building.
The team leader waved, and the soldiers split into two teams: one team searched and stayed alert on the first floor, the other went upstairs via the stairs.
The upstairs team moved stealthily, afraid of alerting the people inside.
But they did not expect that countless deadly traps lay ahead.
When the lead soldier took his third step, his front foot caught the fine thread.
The trigger explosion device activated instantly; there was a light bang from inside the wall, followed by a fist-sized black shadow bursting out from the exploding wall.
This black shadow was the ejected fragmentation grenade, which exploded in the air before the Japanese could react.
The fragmentation grenade had enormous lethality in a small space, especially where there was no way to dodge.
The stairwell was completely open ground, and instantly 4 Japanese soldiers were hit.
They were not dead yet, covered in wounds from British-made fragmentation grenades, writhing and wailing on the ground.
“Withdraw.” The sneak attack commander directed team members to carry out the wounded.
He reported to the officer: “There are bombs inside; we can’t go up.”
“Idiot.” His face was slapped hard several times by the officer, whose cursing echoed throughout the area.
Even Fang Wen and the others on the third floor heard it.
Fang Wen beckoned Liu Yin Feng over: “I hear you’re very good at cursing?”
Liu Yin Feng blushed: “I’m just quick with my mouth. Eldest Brother, you’re embarrassing me. I’ll definitely change.”
“No need to change. Curse at the Japanese outside now and enrage them.”
“Understood.”
Liu Yin Feng picked up the loudspeaker and quietly extended it out from the curtain.
“You cowards below, I’m standing right here today! If you have the guts, come up. Kill one if one comes up, you short dwarves, trying to defy the heavens. If you don’t dare come up, you’re grandsons.”
He really knew how to curse, and he didn’t stop.
The Japanese below didn’t understand at first, but after the translator explained, they exploded with rage.
Immediately, they organized another suicide squad to go up.
This group of Japanese Army suicide squad stripped off their upper clothes, drank a lot of alcohol, cursed as they charged into the small Western-style building.
Not long after, continuous explosions occurred, and they all perished inside.
But this round allowed the Japanese to discover a flaw.
The places that had exploded were safe.
Subsequently, two more teams charged up to the second floor.
In this way, they actually cleared a path to the third floor, followed by a large group of soldiers going upstairs.
What greeted them was dense bullet fire.
The rotating strafing from Thompson submachine guns was comparable to a machine gun.
The Japanese did not expect not only so many bombs but also such powerful fire suppression; they simply could not charge across the final 20 meters.
Not to mention the fragmentation grenades occasionally thrown over.
The night-long fierce battle ultimately stalled in the third-floor corridor; Japanese soldiers who did not dare to use heavy firepower could not charge through this death corridor.
Looking at the rising sun outside, Fang Wen said: “Give them a morning greeting.”
Three military officers and Nagano were pulled up, and action team members used them as shields to reach the door.
“You broke the rules last night. This is your punishment.”
Bang—a shot, one military officer was hit and thrown into the corridor.
“Now all get out. If anyone dares come up again, I’ll chop off Nagano’s arm for you to see.”
The Japanese soldiers did not dare act rashly and all withdrew from the small Western-style building.
Now only three hostages remained inside, making the Imperial Japanese Navy officers outside even more worried.
They could only comply with the demands of the kidnappers inside.
An order was issued from Kwantung Army headquarters; prisons in Changchun, Shenyang, and Harbin simultaneously began releasing prisoners.
Diplomats from Britain and France in the Northeast witnessed the prisoner release.
Subsequently, the same thing happened in Tianjin.
20 wounded prisoners were sent out from the Tianjin Japanese Concession, received by officials from the Tianjin National Government.
This scene was observed by Wu Yingzong, whom Fang Wen had sent to Tianjin.
He personally saw the wounded Yue Jinping in the handover group.
This was enough. Fang Wen could not confirm how many real anti-Japanese elements the Japanese had released, but as long as Yue Jinping was rescued, this action was a success.
Wu Yingzong immediately sent a telegram back.
In the Hongkou small Western-style building, Fang Wen smiled upon receiving the telegram information.
Things were finally coming to an end.
He glanced at the last three remaining hostages.
He could not leave only Yoshida; the other surviving officer was his cover.
Now, it was time to withdraw from here.
He said quietly: “Begin the fifth step action.”
The fifth step was also the most critical step in the entire plan.
Quietly withdraw under the Japanese’s watch.
Action team members carefully lifted a cabinet in the room, revealing a hidden hole under the bookshelf.
This hidden hole connected to the study room on the second floor. Liu Yinshou pushed away the cover, observed the situation below, confirmed no Japanese soldiers, and crawled down.
The drop from the study room was perfectly blocked by the bookshelf, invisible from outside.
Once Liu Yinshou landed, he immediately got down and crawled quietly forward.
At the wall corner, he pushed open the bookshelf, revealing another hidden hole leading to the kitchen on the first floor.
This time, Liu Yinshou saw a Japanese soldier who had not left but was lurking in the kitchen.
He slowly moved the cover cloth aside, then jumped down suddenly, slitting the Japanese soldier’s throat.
After silently eliminating the opponent, Liu Yinshou pulled the fine thread on his body to report to Fang Wen.
The fine thread shook continuously 5 times, signaling that below was safe.
Fang Wen signaled with his hand, indicating for all action team members to go down.
He then extended the loudspeaker out from the curtain.
“Have all the people been released? I need to know the progress.”
The officer outside shouted loudly: “The people have been released. As agreed, you must release them too.”
“How can I be sure?”
Consuls from Britain and France took the loudspeaker: “Our diplomats witnessed the prisoner release process. You can release them now. As long as you release them, we guarantee your safety.”
The Imperial Japanese Navy officer quickly chimed in: “Yes, just release them, and we guarantee you won’t die.”
“But you’ll make me go to jail, right? I need to think about it.” Fang Wen deliberately replied in a tragic tone. “Give me some time.”
After saying that, he retracted the loudspeaker, stood up, quietly crawled down the hidden hole, and pulled the cover cloth back.
In the third-floor room, only the three hostages remained.
These three hostages had their eyes, mouths, and ears covered, completely unaware that no one was guarding them anymore.
Fang Wen’s group of seven quietly went from the third floor to the first, dragged away the Japanese soldier corpse in the kitchen, and moved the water jar.
Beneath the water jar was actually a tunnel entrance.
That was the original basement entrance of this small Western-style building.
But it was not marked in the lease agreement; even the sublandlord did not know. If Fang Wen and the others had not installed the remote-controlled bomb, they would not have discovered this secret basement.
It was this basement that caused Fang Wen to change his original plan to hold Nagano Shuu hostage to the Huangpu River and then leave by seaplane.
It also made the entire plan more perfect.
They quietly entered the basement. The last one in, Liu Ying Shou, tied a trigger bomb to the Japanese soldier corpse before going down and repositioned the water jar.
Fang Wen descended the vertical ladder to the bottom.
He scanned the surroundings.
It was not large. The British merchant who built this basement mainly used it for emergency hiding and storing some private items.
After the British merchant returned to the United Kingdom, the contents had long been removed, leaving it empty.
But for Fang Wen, the most important thing was the basement itself.
On the west side wall was a strange cast iron baffle; through the gaps in the baffle’s pattern, the space behind could be seen.
That was the sixth step of Fang Wen’s plan: the escape passage.
Behind the cast iron baffle was a section of abandoned underground pipe network.
Built during the early days of the concession in the 19th century.
Later, as the concession population grew, water consumption increased, and with the popularity of flush toilets, the original underground pipe network could not keep up with actual drainage needs.
Thus, 15 years ago, the original underground pipe network was abandoned, and a new system with larger pipes was built.
These abandoned underground pipes were sealed, known to few.
But one section was dug up when the British merchant secretly had someone build the basement.
The British merchant simply sealed it with a cast iron plate.
This led an action group member who discovered the basement to have a bold idea.
They had also been in the underground pipe network in the Tianjin French Concession. Although the British pipe space was smaller than the French underground pipe space, with some modifications, it could still serve as an escape route.
They told this idea to Fang Wen, which became the sixth step of the plan.
Time passed quietly.
Fifteen minutes had passed since Fang Wen said he needed to think.
But outside, everyone’s attention was focused on the third floor, waiting for the decision.
Right under their noses, Fang Wen’s group opened the cast iron plate.
The space behind the cast iron plate was a 0.9*1.5 meter abandoned underground pipe. Though long abandoned, there was still some standing water below, and the pipe walls were full of rust spots.
（Rusty underground pipe interior）
The pipe space was a bit small, requiring a hunched posture to pass through. For this moment, Fang Wen and the action group members had changed into long rubber boots and raincoat jackets.
Sixth step action begins.
Special Action Team members Liu Yu Bao and Liu Yin Feng led the way, followed by Fang Wen and the others.
After walking a while, a fork appeared.
Liu Yu Bao reported quietly: “General Manager, the right path has been checked; no anomalies.”
Fang Wen nodded. This fork had the left side blocked, so they could only go right.
The right led under the slaughterhouse newly built by the Public Works Bureau, where old and new pipes shared, draining sewage to Shajing Port.
Shajing Port was not a port but a tributary stream within the SH urban area.
As long as they followed this path to Shajing Port, they could escape unnoticed.
The group fell silent, hurrying along from underground eastward to Hongkou.
Ahead, the path was blocked by a wall cutting off the passage.
The action group members were prepared, taking out wall-breaking tools and getting to work.
Not long after, the wall was broken open, revealing the newly built underground pipe on the other side.
It was very smelly there.
The peculiar stench of the slaughterhouse.
Everyone tied handkerchiefs over their mouths and noses, enduring the foul odor as they advanced.
The short 200-meter distance was quickly covered, reaching the sewage outlet at Shajing Port.
The iron gate there was locked with a big lock, but it could not stop Tou Men’s deft hands.
Chen Suoxin tinkered with the iron gate and opened the big lock. The group could finally leave this reeking underground passage.
They closed the iron gate and waited by the Shajing Port riverbank.
This river transported large numbers of cattle and sheep here for slaughter, with fresh meat then delivered throughout the concession.
What Fang Wen and the others waited for was one of those boats.
Ten minutes later, a cattle and sheep boat that had unloaded arrived. Fang Wen’s group jumped aboard and sailed into the Huangpu River.
（Slaughterhouse built by the Public Works Bureau in 1933, Shajing Port.）
（Shajing Port today）
