Chapter 140: The Communist Party In Action
The Transportation Department is not big, nor is it small. However, the matter of a section chief being reprimanded by the minister was already known throughout after Matsushima Jun walked out of the Minister’s Office in ten minutes.
As the section chief of the Third Section, Chen Yang naturally would not personally inquire about such gossip news.
But if he doesn’t go, Li Ningyu will. As a qualified secretary, she naturally needs to grasp such matters firsthand.
After listening to the gossip news told by Li Ningyu, Chen Yang did not feel surprised.
Everything was just as he had designed: sabotage the railway, only injuring the tendons, not the bones.
Delaying the efficiency of the First Section, but not affecting the transportation of the Third Section.
However, a mere reprimand was far from reaching the point of disappointment with the First Section.
Now, most materials transportation was still maintained by the First Section.
So, at this time, it was necessary to add some burden to the other side.
Chen Yang leaned back in the chair, eyes slightly closed, fingers lightly tapping the desktop, as if silently calculating something.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes and muttered to himself: “Calculating the time, tonight, the guerrilla team should take action, right?”
Jiangxi, Jiujiang Port Kuitong Wharf..
The turbid waves of the Yangtze River rolled under the inky night sky, slapping against the temporarily built wooden pier and barge.
The air was filled with an unsettling scorched atmosphere, the aura of an impending great battle.
The wharf area was brightly lit, several dim yellow searchlights weakly sweeping the river surface and the water-shore junction, their beams piercing the pre-rain darkness, highlighting the huge shadows cast by the surrounding reed marshes and stacked abandoned barges.
Kuitong Wharf was just a small wharf on the edge of Jiujiang Port, with not much materials piled up usually.
But today, the materials piled here were like small mountains, and the laborers on the wharf were more than ten times the usual, the dense crowd working hard to unload materials amid the foremen’s shouts and curses.
The order from the Transportation Department was that all goods on the wharf must depart at dawn the day after tomorrow and arrive at the front line within three days.
The dredgers upstream of Jiujiang were working day and night, and the channel could be cleared by the afternoon at the earliest tomorrow, ensuring smooth passage for the transport ships.
Everything was proceeding as per the Transportation Department’s plan.
A hundred meters away from the wharf, in a reed marsh emitting the smell of rotten water plants, guerrilla team captain Tian Zheng and his handpicked action squad lay motionless like lurking crocodiles.
Sweat dripped along Tian Zheng’s angular jaw, but he paid no attention, pressing the binoculars tightly to his brow bone, his gaze like cold knife edges repeatedly dissecting the wharf’s layout.
Piles of wooden boxes like mountains, supplies covered with oilcloth, several lazy Japanese Army guards leaning behind sandbag emplacements smoking, and that transport barge tied beside the barge, deeply laden, obviously loaded with heavy cargo.
“Captain,” Shuisheng’s lowered voice carried excitement and tension, “I see it clearly, that pile on the westernmost side, covered with green canvas, with gasoline barrels nearby! Blow it up, and it’ll surely burn the sky!”
Tian Zheng didn’t speak, just nodded slightly, shifting the binoculars’ focus to an unassuming small open-air storage yard near the barge, surrounded by sand.
There, a few laborers in tattered sweatshirts were numbly carrying smaller wooden boxes under the supervision of Japanese Army bayonets. “See those small boxes?”
Tian Zheng’s voice was low and deep, clear like sandpaper rubbing, “Laogen, you have the best eyesight, can you make out the words on them?”
Laogen squinted hard to discern: “…red ‘ten’ cross… and… looks like… quinine? Yes! Quinine! The box next to it is sulfonamide!”
A gleam flashed in Tian Zheng’s eyes: medicine.
In the enemy rear short of medical supplies, this was more precious than gold.
“Blowing up the supplies is the primary goal, but… the medicine must be obtained.”
“Shuisheng, take two men, target the western fuel and supplies pile. Use one satchel charge, delay fuse, three minutes. The explosion is the signal!”
“Understood!” Flames burned in Shuisheng’s eyes as he quickly checked the satchel charge in his bosom.
“Shitou, take your machine gun, seize that waste ship hull over there,” Tian Zheng pointed to a half-sunken old ship wreck on the side of the wharf, “Once the explosion sounds, suppress possible reinforcements, especially those coming from the barracks. Fire two long bursts then shift, don’t engage prolonged!”
“Yes!” Shitou hugged his prized Zbrojovka vz. 26, slipping silently like a raccoon to the designated position.
“Xiaomei, you’re with me, and the rest, target the medicine pile beside the barge. Move fast, after the explosion the enemy will be in chaos, we have less than a minute window, grab as much as we can, burn what we can’t take!”
“Yes!” Xiaomei and the other team members replied in low voices, tightening the ropes and sacks on their bodies.
Tian Zheng glanced at the worn shiny old watch on his wrist: “Sync time! Two minutes later, Shuisheng’s group begins infiltration. Action!”
“Understood,” Shuisheng and two team members melted into the night like water stains, hugging the ground, using the shadows of goods piles, rapidly and covertly approaching the western target.
Suddenly, a sudden change occurred!
Just as Tian Zheng and the others prepared to move to the medicine pile, a hunched figure flashed out from behind the medicine pile. From his tattered clothes and sweat-soaked appearance, he should be a transport laborer!
He seemed to have urgent bodily needs, heading towards the reed marsh, almost bumping into their hidden position!
The team members instantly tensed, fingers on the triggers.
Tian Zheng’s eyes sharpened, and he struck like lightning, pressing down in the instant Xiaomei’s gun muzzle rose.
Like a black lightning bolt, he pounced out, and before the laborer could cry out, an iron clamp-like hand covered his mouth, the other hand pinning him dead to the muddy ground.
“Don’t make a sound! We’re fighting the Japanese devils!” Tian Zheng’s voice was low and deeply oppressive, staring straight into the laborer’s terrified eyes.
The laborer trembled like chaff, and by the faint light, seeing the blurry insignia on Tian Zheng’s arm patch, the fear in his eyes was instantly replaced by disbelief and wild joy, nodding desperately.
“Brother, what’s your surname? What’s over there?” Tian Zheng eased his grip slightly, but his hand stayed on the laborer’s mouth.
“Chen… call me Lao Chen…” The laborer panted rapidly, voice thin as a mosquito, “That… that pile of small boxes is medicine! The Japanese devils just unloaded them, very precious, next to them… there are a few boxes of their canned biscuits…”
No sooner had he spoken
“Boom!!!”
A earth-shattering roar tore through the night sky, a massive fireball mixed with fierce flames and thick smoke erupting violently from the western direction!
The soaring firelight instantly lit half the wharf bright as day! The piled supplies and fuel were detonated, emitting crackling explosion sounds, burning debris flying and scattering like meteors. The entire wharf boiled over like water thrown into a pot.
Piercing alarm sounds cut through the sky, panicked Japanese language shouts, chaotic footsteps, awakened dog barking all mixed together.
Searchlights swung wildly like mad.
“Fire!” Tian Zheng low roared, releasing Lao Chen, waving his hand fiercely.
“Da da da! Da da da!” From the waste ship hull where Shitou hid, the Zbrojovka vz. 26 machine gun spat angry tongues of fire, precise long bursts instantly dropping two Japanese Army guards who had just poked heads from behind the emplacement trying to rush to the explosion point, bullets hitting sandbags and wooden boxes, wood chips flying.
Chaos was the best cover!
“Go!” Tian Zheng leaped like a cheetah, Xiaomei and the other team members following closely, charging like arrows from the string toward the medicine pile.
Lao Chen was stunned for a moment, then a resolute light burst in his eyes, biting his teeth and following, low roaring: “Follow me! I know which boxes are light and easy to carry!”
The explosion shockwave and massive chaos left the Japanese Army guarding the medicine pile disoriented.
Tian Zheng led the charge, his boxer pistol “bang bang” two shots, precise close-range hits dropping two Japanese Army guards trying to raise their guns. Xiaomei and the team members pounced like tigers down the mountain toward the precious medicine boxes.
“Quick! Grab the small ones! Those with red cross marks!” Tian Zheng alerted the surroundings while quickly ordering. Quick-eyed and handy, he shouldered a wooden box marked “Quinine”.
Lao Chen played a huge role, familiar with the boxes, rapidly pointing: “This one! Sulfonamide! …This one! First Aid Kit!”
The team members desperately stuffed the boxes into the brought sacks, hoisting them onto shoulders.
“Captain, hurry, Japanese devils are rushing out from the barracks!” The lookout team member shouted.
From the distant barracks direction, a team of Japanese Army was surging out in chaos.
“Shuisheng! Withdraw!” Tian Zheng roared toward the western firelight, then turned to the medicine pile, “Enough! Withdraw! Laogen, set fire!”
Laogen quickly stuffed prepared oil-soaked rags into the gaps of medicine boxes they couldn’t carry, striking matches to ignite. Flames whooshed up.
“Lao Chen, come with us.” Tian Zheng grabbed the laborer still stuffing canned goods into his bosom.
“No, Captain!” Lao Chen suddenly broke free, a strange calm smile on his face, pointing to the burning medicine pile and chaotic wharf, “I’ll cover you a bit. You go quick, across the river… there are people like me who want to fight the Japanese devils!”
With that, he bent to pick up a Japanese Army rifle, firing wildly at the Japanese Army rushing from the barracks direction, then turned and ran another way, shouting while running: “Eight Route here! Eight Route here!”
The shouts instantly drew some Japanese Army attention and bullets.
Tian Zheng’s heart shook violently, eyes heating, but he knew hesitation now was sacrifice! He stomped hard: “Withdraw! Original route! Quick!”
The team members, carrying heavy medicine boxes, under Shitou’s machine gun cover, plunged into the smoke-filled, firelit wharf shadows, dashing toward the predetermined retreat reed marsh.
Behind came angry Japanese Army roars, chaotic gunfire, and Lao Chen’s shouts gradually drowned by gunfire.
“Da da da…” Shitou’s machine gun fired another burst, dropping the closest pursuing Japanese devil, then hugging the hot gun barrel, rolling flexibly, vanishing behind goods piles, chasing the team.
When the last team member’s figure vanished into the dense, wall-like reed marsh depths, Tian Zheng looked back one last time.
The entire wharf had become a chaotic sea of fire, illuminating the turbid river water and gloomy night sky. Echoes of the explosion still reverberated over the river surface, the Japanese Army’s frantic curses and blind shooting sounding so futile.
He touched the heavy medicine box on his shoulder, recalling Lao Chen’s mud-smeared but bright-eyed smiling face.
This raid destroyed the enemy’s precious supplies, delayed their delivery speed to the front line, and seized life-sustaining medicine. The cost was that unknown laborer brother, who tore open a path to life for them with his life.
“Go!” Tian Zheng’s voice was hoarse but firm, leading the team members to vanish rapidly into the boundless darkness and green gauze curtain.
