Chapter Eleven: The Origin of the North China Incident

  Near the Tianjin Concession, at the entrance of the Dasheng Inn, Chu Tian Ge met an acquaintance.

  Chu Xiaoshu led a row of warriors, disguised as plainclothesmen patrolling near the Japanese concession. Originally, they were following orders from their superiors to prevent any unexpected accidents, but unexpectedly, they ran into Chu Tiangong.

  "Heavenly Song?!"

  "Little Tree?!" Chu Tian Ge heard a familiar voice, turned his head to look, and saw that it was his childhood playmate, he was very surprised. After the surprise, he carefully sized up the other person's eyes, and a hint of doubt arose in his heart, he asked in a low voice: "Aren't you in the army?" Remembering his current identity, his face changed, and he asked: "Are you here to catch us?" His gaze swept around, seeing several suspicious plainclothesmen, and he couldn't help but raise his vigilance, casting a glance at Ouyang Yun sitting in the car.

  "The April 26th Massacre in Peiping" is known to the whole world through Japanese manipulation. Ou-yang and Chu, two men who followed in the footsteps of fame, have already made their names resound throughout China. Since the end of the Ching dynasty, it has always been the Chinese who were massacred; now at last they have massacred a band of Japanese robbers, and the originators of this affair cannot help but make themselves known.

  Chu Xiaoshu had just heard the name "Chu Tiange" and thought it was someone with the same name and surname, but seeing his expression, he immediately understood that this Tiange was indeed that Tiange. Chu Xiaoshu wasn't there to catch him, so he joked: "What? Dare to do but not dare to admit it?"

  Chu Tian Ge glared at him and sneered: "Dare to do it naturally dare to take responsibility, but unlike you, can take responsibility but not dare to do it."

  His words were laced with sarcasm, and Chu Xiaoshu couldn't help but notice the change in his expression. He let out a sigh and said, "Brother, you're overestimating me. I'm just a low-ranking officer, what can I possibly do?" Patting him on the shoulder, he continued, "Your uncle is worried about you, he even mentioned it to me yesterday. Let me go explain things to him first, then I'll take you to see him."

  "I don't want to see him now?"

  Chu Xiaoshu furrowed his brow, puzzled, and said: "Why? Can't you even trust your own uncle? Killing a few Japanese is a good thing! Don't worry, our military leaders have mentioned you two, and they're all praising you, saying that although what you did was a bit reckless, it's the kind of thing hot-blooded men do." Lowering his voice, he continued: "In the intelligence you captured, there seems to be the deployment map of our 51st Army. For this reason alone, the 51st Army will also protect you two."

  Chu Tian Ge thought for a moment, half believing and half doubting: "Really or fake?" He couldn't make up his mind, letting him wait, and turned back to look for Ouyang Yun.

  As soon as Chu Xiaoshu appeared, Ouyang Yun restarted the car and silently observed everything around him, putting his gun in his pocket with the safety off. After listening to Chu Tiange's account of what Chu Xiaoshu had said, he thought for a moment before saying: "Let him leave his address behind, we'll go there ourselves tonight, just to avoid suspicion."

  Chu Tian Ge told Chu Xiao Shu, who also thought this method was the most reliable. He nodded to him and tore off a cigarette box, wrote the address on it and handed it over to him, along with the password.

  He and Chu Xiao Shu parted ways, the two entered the Big Life Inn, wanting rooms facing the street. After entering the room, Ouyang Yun pulled open the curtains and took a look, saying: "You didn't lie to your family."

  Chu Tian Ge squeezed over to take a look, on the street, Chu Xiao Shu was standing alone with his back against the wall, leisurely smoking and enjoying himself. He laughed and said: "This kid has actually learned how to smoke too."

  Ouyang Yun gazed into the distance at the border of the Day Rent Territory and asked: "He was brought out by your uncle, wasn't he?"

  "Well, in total three were brought out, but only he managed to mix into the company commander's level."

  "Why didn't you think of becoming a soldier?"

  "My father didn't allow it, he wanted me to go to college."

  Ouyang Yun smiled and looked at him, saying: "This time you've gotten into trouble, when you go back will your father spank you?"

  "I don't know, probably won't, he hates Japanese people."

  "But I'm afraid you won't be able to read your book."

  Chu Tian Ge's face fell and he sighed, saying: "There's nothing that can be done about it."

  Patting his shoulder, Ouyang Yun comforted him: "Don't worry, it's just a university diploma, I've got it covered."

  "Can you get a diploma without going to school?"

  "Of course, don't forget, I once said that I would go to Yenching University as a professor ——"

  Zhang opened his mouth wide, and this was something he had said before in Beiping. At the time, I thought it was a joke, but now that I see him bring it up again, I realize he's actually serious. But can just anyone become a university professor?

  Ouyang Yun smiled and didn't say anything, as for this matter, he also made up his mind in the hospital. There are many famous universities in Beiping, but Yenching University has its own unique advantages, which don't need to be known by Chu Tiange.

  At the end of April in the north, the temperature at noon was undoubtedly the most pleasant. The warm sun shone down, and a gentle breeze blew. Ouyang Yun sat on a rickshaw, her eyes slightly closed, as if she were about to doze off.

  The rickshaw had already covered more than half of the concession area, and the locations of "Guoquanbao" and "Zhenbao" had been explored. The driver was very talkative and familiar with the people in the concession area. It was an unexpected pleasure that he easily found out the home addresses of Hu Enyu and Bai Yuhe without much effort, and had the driver take him to the doors of the two families to get familiar with the route. Then he got off the rickshaw, went to a teahouse to draw the route on a map, marked important landmarks, put it away, and then went to the outhouse to change into the clothes he brought, wore a wide-brimmed hat, and walked back to the hotel.

  Assassinating Ouyang Yun is a layman, fortunately, he has watched many TV dramas and learned a little bit, and also came into contact with some special forces, so he knows what to pay attention to when doing this job in an unfamiliar place.

  With his and Chu Tian Ge's skills, the assassination would not be a problem, the problem was the escape route. It could be seen that the Japanese had a solid foundation in Tianjin, and the city's civil facilities were also very complete, such as streetlights, there were almost no blind spots for lighting near the concession area, which was obviously a bit of trouble for them who needed darkness as cover.

  Ouyang Yun was not in a hurry, slowly strolling around the streets and alleys, intentionally or unintentionally poking into the corners of the streets and alleys. After spending more than two hours, he finally found the power distribution room that supported streetlights on several streets near the concession area. He marked out the power distribution rooms to be destroyed one by one on the route map, and the important preparation work for the assassination was considered complete. Only then did he hail a rickshaw and hurry back to the inn.

  As soon as he entered the room, Chu Tiangong opened his eyes and took a deep breath, apparently having been worried all along.

  Patting his shoulder, Ouyang Yun said as he lay down, "Haven't slept yet?"

  "Well, I'm still a bit nervous," Chu Tian Ge said with some embarrassment.

  Ouyang Yun understood his feelings, smiled, turned around and soon let out a soft snore. Assassinations were hard to predict, maybe it would go extremely smoothly, or perhaps it would be particularly difficult. As an assassin, what was most needed before taking action was sufficient physical strength.

  "It seems I'm still too inexperienced," Chu Tian Ge thought to himself, looking at Ou Yang Yun who seemed to have fallen asleep. He recalled that he had been in contact with him for some time now, yet he couldn't understand him at all. This young man, who was only a few months older than himself, was so mature and unique in his views and actions, as if shrouded in mystery.

  The night grew deeper, Tianjin gradually fell into a deep sleep, the dim street lamps became one of the few insomniacs, swaying lazily in the occasional passing wind.

  Near the Japanese concession on Ping'an Street, a window on the second floor of Dasheng Hotel suddenly opened, and a rope dropped down. Chu Tiange poked her head out to look around, then quickly climbed down. Next, Ouyang Yun also climbed down.

  Two people crept forward and backward to the vicinity of the day rental booth near the street head, more than 100 meters away from the booth, there was a substation, and the surrounding areas of Heping Street were just like this, Ouyang Yun had reason to believe that the switches for the streetlights on Heping Street and several surrounding streets should all be set up there.

  He made a gesture of "Chu Tian Ge" in the morning, meaning that it had been handed over early and attention should be paid to warning, then walked towards the distribution room.

  The staff on duty in the power distribution room had fallen asleep, emitting a comfortable snore. The door was locked from the inside. Ouyang Yun did not want to cause unnecessary trouble and gave up breaking in. He found the buried electrical conduit nearby, took out the prepared pliers, and cut off all six wires inside. As sparks flew between the pliers and the wires, the surrounding streets fell into darkness one by one.

  "What's going on?" muttered Japanese garrison soldier Shōjirō Kojima, adjusting his rifle strap, not thinking much of it. Power outages in the areas controlled by the Chinese were nothing new - sometimes they couldn't even fix them and had to ask for technicians from the concession to come over and help - "Poor Chinese," he whispered to himself, proud to be Japanese, standing up straighter.

  At this time, Chu Tiange just touched the outside of the guard tower and heard the Japanese garrison's muttering to himself. He came up with a breath of anger and sneered in his heart: Who is pitiful after all? He stretched out his hand and knocked on the iron shell of the guard tower.

  Kojima Kōdai was shocked and shouted "Who?" with his gun at the ready, he slowly opened the door and stepped out cautiously.

  Chu Tian Ge drew his sword early, made preparations for the downward chop, and waited for him to come and die. As soon as he saw his head exposed, he let out a low growl: "Japanese pig, go die!" He swung his sword down.

  A flash of knife light, Xiaoyi Cang only had time to open his mouth, and his head and body went their separate ways, parting ways.

  "Rash! What if someone comes to change shifts? And there's a patrol team!" By the time Ouyang Yun rushed over, he saw that the Japanese sentry was already dead and couldn't help but scold Chu Tian Ge in a low voice. There would definitely be patrols inside the concession, and they weren't clear about the other side's shift change rules, so the original plan was to deceive the sentry and sneak past quietly.

  The Chu Tian Song Diagram is a temporary pleasure. At this moment, I realized the severity of the problem and felt very remorseful. "What should we do now?"

  Ouyang Yun took out the route map, looked at it under the light, and then looked at the Japanese ghost again, saying: "Like this, you hide the devil well, change into his clothes and guard here. If someone comes to check the post or change shifts, shoot a gun and run quickly. If they don't come, you just guard here."

  "Are you alone? Isn't it too dangerous?"

  "It's all over now, I'm gone, you take care."

  "Big brother, I'm sorry."

  "What nonsense is this?!" Ou Yang Yun lightly dropped this sentence and quickly rushed towards the left upper corner of Hu En Yu's house.

  Today, Hu Enyu was in a good mood. After the supplementary newspaper was sold, his personally written editorial received praise from the Japanese masters, and he was rewarded with a big bone; In the evening, several subordinates celebrated his success at Yanfeng Building, and during the banquet, he got excited and drank a few more cups, and when he returned home, he unexpectedly had a burst of energy and regained his long-lost masculine feeling. Ah, thinking about it, since becoming a traitor, he hadn't been a man for many years, this long-lost feeling was really great! Perhaps he was too excited, when Ouyang Yun shone the flashlight on his face, he found that he was smiling and muttering: "Golden is good, thank you Taigong..."

  Ouyang Yun sympathetically shook his head, thinking that this dog traitor's level was really low, selling out his ancestors for just a few pieces of gold. He took a step forward, leaned over, and with his left hand, he lightly pricked the man's face with a steel needle. His right hand followed with a military dagger, stabbing into the man's heart.

  Huan Yu's smile on his face immediately solidified, his mouth slightly open, and a thread of fresh blood overflowed...

  Out of the Huan Yu's house, for some reason, Ouyang Yun didn't feel any joy of victory, his heart was filled with sorrow, to the point where his footsteps felt heavy. If he had a choice, he would rather have let Chu Tian Ge carry out this task - traitors deserved to die, but he wished there were fewer traitors.

  Perhaps Huan Yu killed too easily, or Ouyang Yun's mentality changed. When he killed Bai Yuhe, he encountered some trouble. The previous work was fine, and he smoothly inquired about the location of the master bedroom through a servant at the White House downstairs, and smoothly sneaked in. However, what he didn't expect was that he only touched the chair placed in front of the bed, without making much noise, but Bai Yuhe's wife woke up.

  The woman cried out at once: "Who?"

  Traitors have a guilty conscience and usually can't sleep soundly. Bai Yuhe was also startled awake, his right hand pulling out a pistol from under the pillow, while his left hand turned on the bedside lamp. In the suddenly bright light, the couple saw a masked man standing in front of their bed and both shouted: "Save us!" "Someone's here!"

  It was Bai Yuhe's wife who shouted for help. This woman had a big enough temper and was also very fierce, shouting loudly while picking up the pillow to throw at Ouyang Yun.

  Bai Yuhe only had time to raise his pistol and shout "Come on!" before being stabbed in the heart with a bayonet, spitting out a mouthful of blood, convulsing twice, and losing his life.

  "Murder! Help!" The woman's cry became shrill, facing death, her bravery was gone, her feminine nature was fully revealed, and she retreated in fear, "thud" fell off the bed.

  "Dare to be a traitor, you must be prepared to die! Since you dare to be the wife of a traitor, you must also be prepared to become a widow!" With that, Ouyang Yun rushed to the window, kicked it open with one foot and jumped out.