Chapter 149: Kagesa’s Plan
“Uncle De, you’ve misunderstood, misunderstood,” Tang Ping cried out repeatedly that he was wronged.
“Uncle De, I’m just here to deliver tea.”
“Is that so?” Tang De stepped forward and felt around Tang Ping’s waist, a delicate Browning pistol appearing in his palm.
“Tang Ping, you’re not going to tell me this gun was also forcibly stuffed onto you by someone else, are you, Mr. Goat.”
Tang Ping’s face changed instantly; the other party even knew his code name, which clearly meant he had been exposed.
“Let me tell you another secret,” Tang De leaned close to Tang Ping and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear: “Actually, the Master never intended to defect to the Japanese at all.”
“Everything you saw was just a show, including that document you saw, and the conversation with Elder Wen—these were all deliberately shown to you by Mr. Kagesa.”
“You’ve decided to make your move tonight, haven’t you? Conveniently, we’re also prepared to make our move tonight.”
“Speaking of which, we have to thank you for all this. If we can eliminate the agents of the Military Statistics Bureau Shanghai Station today, you, Mr. Goat, will have the greatest merit.”
“Now, you should have nothing to say, right.”
“You, you,” Tang Ping was so shocked he couldn’t speak…
Tang De waved his hand and commanded: “Take him away. Mr. Kagesa will arrive soon. Watch him closely and don’t let him die easily.”
Two lackeys responded and pushed Tang Ping toward the outside.
Tang De casually poured the hot tea into the spittoon on the side.
The clock pointed to seven forty, and a series of light footsteps sounded as Kagesa Shinzhao entered the Tang Mansion with steady steps.
“Mr. Kagesa, everything is proceeding according to your plan.” Seeing Kagesa appear, Tang De trotted up and said in a fawning tone: “You are truly strategizing from the command post, divine in your calculations, always anticipating the enemy.”
“Tonight’s plan is going very smoothly. Perhaps after the Master sees these people’s ugly faces, he will agree to cooperate with the Empire.”
“Hahaha,” Kagesa Shinzhao smiled slightly: “Uncle De, this plan’s success is greatly due to your efforts.”
“Rest assured, as long as Elder Tang is willing to serve the Empire, the things promised to you will absolutely not be lacking.”
Tang De was overjoyed upon hearing this: “Thank you, Mr. Kagesa.”
Kagesa Shinzhao slightly raised his hand and said: “No need to be polite; these are all what you deserve.”
“I’ve told you long ago that as long as you’re willing to befriend the Empire, he will surely get things others can only dream of.”
“Mr. Kagesa is right,” Tang De patted his chest and said: “I am willing to serve the Empire devotedly until death.”
Kagesa Shinzhao patted Tang De’s shoulder: “Is Elder Tang inside?”
Tang De nodded: “After finishing dinner, he’s been inside reading and hasn’t gone out.”
“That’s good. Please pass on a message for me: I’m inviting him to watch a play, a good play…”
Shanghai, French Concession, intersection of Jinxian Road and Fukaisen Road…
At exactly eight o’clock in the evening, the chill of the autumn night, carrying the dampness of the Huangpu River, permeated the streets of the French Concession.
Yu Shi’an tightened the collar of his dark gray overcoat, his knuckles rubbing the texture of the Colt pistol in his pocket.
He stood at the tram station at the corner of Fukaisen Road, his gaze seemingly casually sweeping over the crowd exiting the Grand Theater opposite.
“Sir, would you like to buy a white rose?” the flower girl asked softly. This was the agreed signal.
Yu Shi’an pulled out his pocket watch and glanced at it: eight oh three.
“Two, please wrap them nicely.” He handed over a folded legal tender bill, inside which was wrapped the action instruction.
Across the street, two agents disguised as rickshaw pullers were leaning on their shafts smoking.
One of them suddenly coughed violently—this was the prepared signal.
Yu Shi’an nodded lightly and pinned the freshly bought white rose on the second button of his chest.
“Boom!”
A deafening explosion suddenly tore through the night sky.
The pre-planted explosives under the tracks detonated precisely. The tram turning the corner emitted a piercing metallic screech, its three carriages sprawling like an injured giant snake in the center of the intersection.
Glass shards rained down, and screams instantly echoed through the entire street.
“The Japanese are killing people!” Yu Shi’an shouted in pure Shanghainese, while firing two shots into the air.
Panic spread like wildfire. Ladies in qipaos dropped their handbags and fled in all directions; gentlemen in suits jostled into roadside shops.
A fruit stall was knocked over, oranges rolling everywhere, crushed by the panicked crowd with juice splattering.
Xie Zhipan on the clock tower watched the pocket watch hands reach eight oh seven.
In the distance, the wail of an ambulance siren grew nearer.
He raised his binoculars; the red cross of “Guangci Hospital” on the white vehicle body was especially glaring under the streetlights.
Besides the ambulance, there was a black Citroën escorting both front and rear, but all were blocked by the chaotic crowd.
“Prepare.” Xie Zhipan whispered to the sniper beside him, while slowly pulling back the bolt of his Mauser 98k.
In the scope, the tense face of the ambulance driver was clearly visible.
“Bang,” when the first gunshot rang out, the ambulance driver didn’t even have time to react.
The bullet pierced the windshield, blooming a flower of blood at his brow.
The vehicle lost control and crashed into the roadside fire hydrant; a high-pressure water column erupted, forming a hazy mist under the streetlights.
“Action!” More than ten black shadows leaped out from the shadows of the alleys.
Xie Zhipan saw Yu Shi’an dash to the ambulance in one arrow step, only to be hit squarely by the suddenly opened door.
Two armed bodyguards burst out of the vehicle; bullets whizzed past Yu Shi’an’s ear, sparking off the brick wall behind him.
“Bang! Bang!”
Xie Zhipan’s sniper rifle fired continuously; the two bodyguards fell to the ground. The battle at the street corner changed in an instant as the Military Statistics Bureau agents swiftly encircled under the cover of the mist.
An agent in a leather jacket had just pried open the ambulance’s rear door when a bullet from the darkness struck his shoulder, blood instantly staining the white door red.
“Three o’clock direction!” Yu Shi’an shouted, tackling his comrade to the ground, but a bullet grazed his cheek, warm blood trickling along his jawline.
He fired back with three shots; the gunman on the second floor of the coffee shop across plummeted from the window, crashing onto the awning with a dull thud.
Inside the ambulance, an old man huddled trembling beside the stretcher, the hem of his dark blue long gown soaked in blood.
“Captain, we’ve been tricked—it’s not Tang Shaoyi.” An agent grabbed the man’s collar; what came into view was a seventy-something-year-old man.
It wasn’t Tang Shaoyi at all.
“What’s going on?” Yu Shi’an was about to step forward when suddenly all the hairs on his body stood on end…
At the end of Fukaisen Road, glaring headlights tore through the night; four Japanese Army sidecar motorcycles roared in, the light machine guns in the sidecars already preheating and spinning.
“Damn, we’ve been tricked—withdraw! Withdraw now!” Xie Zhipan’s roar was almost inaudible amid the gunfire.
The first wave of bullets swept in; the newsstand on the street was instantly riddled with flying wood chips.
A young agent had just turned when a bullet struck him at the waist; his upper body still in a running pose as he fell into the drainage ditch.
Yu Shi’an at the front of the team couldn’t escape either; a barrage of bullets rained down like a storm, taking the lives of several agents in an instant.
Though he reacted quickly, he was still hit in the thigh because he couldn’t dodge in time.
Dragging his wounded leg, he rolled under the ambulance chassis; bullets hammered a series of dents into the metal body above his head.
He reached for the hand grenade at his waist, only to find one left.
Through the gap between the wheels, he saw the Japanese Army motorcycles adjusting their angle, the gunner’s ferocious face flickering in the firelight.
“Old Xie, take the brothers and go.” Yu Shi’an muttered to himself, biting open the grenade’s safety with his teeth.
In the instant the motorcycle turned, he hurled the grenade with all his strength toward the fuel tank. The explosion’s shockwave flipped him over; hot metal fragments grazed his cheek, but amid the deafening roar, he clearly heard the successive blasts of the motorcycle fuel tanks exploding.
From the rooftop, the last sight Xie Zhipan saw was Yu Shi’an leaning against the burning ambulance, his bloodied fingers slowly tracing over the already tattered white rose on his chest.
As he watched the Japanese Army reinforcement trucks roaring closer, Xie Zhipan gritted his teeth, signaled, and led the remaining brothers into the maze of lanes.
