Chapter 45: Kill First and Report Later

  Monday, May 13th, Peiping. The weather is fine today, with bright sunshine and a gentle breeze, which has also improved the mood of many people.

  At noon, students from Tsinghua University walked out of the classroom with books in hand, many people unconsciously looked around and were about to shout to their friends and roommates to eat together later. Seeing several fully armed soldiers, they suddenly felt a strange atmosphere.

  The soldiers were very young, with crisp new uniforms, bayonets and rifles that shone with a cold light, and wise and determined eyes. All of this showed that they came from a well-trained army.

  "What happened?"

  "Didn't the Nationalist Army already withdraw from Beiping?"

  "Hey, isn't that Chu Tian Ge from Class X?"

  "Isn't that Chu Tian Ge?" someone who knew him immediately exclaimed, and then carefully sized up this schoolmate who had been gone for more than two weeks. He was wearing a crisp military uniform with a brand new gun holster on his belt, and was explaining something to the students next to him. The students gathered around, puzzled, and gradually understood what had happened.

  It turned out that Chu Tian Ge's sudden disappearance was not due to a family emergency or illness, but because he had joined the 29th Army's military academy.

  Are there any classmates who have studied this "anti-Japanese vanguard" 29th Army and asked: "Student Brigade? Is there such a formation in the 29th Army?"

  Just then, a classmate who had just heard the news from Chu Tian Ge raised an eyebrow and glanced at him sideways, smugly showing off: "Don't know, do you? The newly established 'Huabei Autonomous' that was making a big fuss a few days ago, have you heard of it? It's them who were defeated, even Shi You San was caught by them. And now, they're going to hold a public trial on our school's playground."

  "Oh?!" The students' enthusiasm was mobilized, and some who were unaware of it looked enlightened: "So 'North China autonomy' is what Shi Yousan and others are doing! These traitors should be killed! Let's go take a look!"

  "Let's go and take a look!"

  Students gathered in twos and threes, forming a stream of people rushing towards the playground.

  On the playground, a banner with no big words was hung on the cement-built rostrum, which read: The public trial meeting of Hanjian "Shi You San" and others. Under the banner, there were several tables and chairs, Li Tie Shu, Chen Shi Chang and an old man with white beard sat on the chairs. On the table, there was a microphone, and on both sides of the bamboo poles under the banner, each had a big loudspeaker. Twelve students wearing brand new military uniforms stood in a row behind them, with two people standing between each prisoner whose hands were tied up.

  Below the chairman's desk, a row of elderly men in long gowns or mandarin jackets sat, most with white hair and beards, looking like either social celebrities or local dignitaries. Behind them stood a sea of people, mostly students, but also including vendors and peddlers.

  Along the edge of the playground, a group of about fifty soldiers stood at attention, each carrying live ammunition and staring straight ahead, apparently maintaining order at the meeting.

  Chen Shichang saw that the students were entering the playground a bit slowly, and remembering Ouyang Yun's emphasis on swift and decisive action, he stood up, grabbed the microphone and said: "Fellow students, hurry up! The public trial of Stone Shiyuan and other traitors will begin in three minutes!"

  Li Tie Shu looked back at Shi You San behind him, then glanced at the dignitaries and celebrities sitting beside and below him. Seeing that most people were serious, he suddenly felt like laughing - he thought Ou Yang Yun was a bit absurd.

  Tsinghua University was unwilling to lend the venue, and none of these gentlemen came willingly. However, facing the dark gun barrels and **naked threats** of the student soldiers: whoever did not cooperate would be suspected of sympathizing with the enemy, being a traitor, and having treasonous tendencies! None of these men could stand up to it.

  Li Tieshu initially thought it was over, worried that the Student Army would be left with a reputation for abusing power. He expressed this concern to Ouyang Yun, who smiled and said, "What's wrong with using strong power? I want to use strong power to tell those wall grasses that the Student Army will never show mercy when dealing with Han traitors, and all they'll ever get is an iron fist!"

  Li Tieshu couldn't argue with him and had no choice but to follow orders, coming as the "second-in-command" of the Student Army to quell the disturbance.

  The term "second-in-command" naturally came out of Ou Yang Yun's mouth, Li Tie Shu didn't want to come, he proudly thought that his age was not suitable for accompanying the student soldiers in their mischief. As a result, he was suppressed by Ou Yang Yun with just one phrase: "No way, you must go! Shi You San is an old man of the Northwestern Army, if we don't quickly bring him to justice, when Song Jun and the other old men of the Northwestern Army come over, there will be no chance. Shi Chang and Tian Ge are too young, such a big occasion can't do without your presence, I'm not at ease with you absent, this is a unified action of the student army, how can you as the second-in-command shirk responsibility? As for Song Jun, I'll take care of it myself, hmm, when noon comes and your side starts, I'll give him a call and say that Shi You San has already been dealt with, this is called 'beheading first and reporting later', haha!"

  The public trial was held as scheduled, and the six Han traitors and hooligans carefully selected by Ouyang Yun were all notorious. As Chu Tian Ge read out their names one by one, the people on the playground began to exclaim in surprise: It's actually him, he has today too?...

  Shi You San, as the convener of "Beiping Autonomous", was naturally the first to be named. Although Chen Shi Chang is young and new to being a judge, he has a strong presence. He first asked an elderly man beside him to announce the start of the public trial meeting, then briefly described the process of capturing Shi You San and others, and then shouted loudly: "Bring in Shi You San!"

  The two soldiers who escorted Shi You San brought him to the front of the rostrum and removed the wooden walnut that was stuffed in his mouth. Shi You San gained the freedom to speak, immediately changing from his dejected appearance earlier, shouting: "What right do you have to arrest me? I am the Commander-in-Chief of the East Wing Security, formally appointed by the National Government..."

  Chen Shichang had anticipated this move and interrupted him with disdain, saying: "Isn't the fact that you colluded with the Japanese to separate Beijing from Chinese territory a good enough reason?"

  "Who says I colluded with the Japanese?" Shi You San's gaze swept across the faces of the dignitaries, bellowing: "Who doesn't know that in this chaotic world, whoever has a gun can speak loudly? Now you've captured me, and yet you still want to say whatever you please? Adding insult to injury, what's the point of having no defense? I marched into Beiping simply because I was afraid the National Army had just withdrawn and worried that some petty people would take advantage of the situation to cause trouble."

  What he said is still quite reasonable, during the domestic warlord battles, Beiping was always plagued by gunfire and indeed whoever had a gun could speak loudly. The celebrities exchanged glances secretly, thinking to themselves that it was indeed the case.

  Li Tieshu silently observed the reaction below, seeing this scene, he made a gesture to Chen Shichang. Chen Shichang nodded and said in a low voice: "Bring it up!"

  Soon, the two soldiers placed a letter and a large pile of tattered clothes on the table. The letter and clothes were stained with blood and emitted a foul odor, causing many gentlemen to furrow their brows in puzzlement.

  Chen Shichang handed the letter to the white-bearded old man beside him and said, "Liu Gong, this is a command issued by Sakai Ryu, Chief of Staff of the Japanese North China Garrison, to his subordinate Akita." He pointed to the pile of clothes and said, "These clothes are all from fallen Japanese soldiers. Although they were wearing civilian clothes, their shirts have a unique style and fabric that only the Japanese military has." Then he turned to the audience below and said, "Which one of you understands Japanese? Please come up to confirm what this command is about."

  Shi You San's face changed, and that pile of bloody clothes was just the beginning. He knew about the warrant for his arrest, but he hadn't expected Akita to have kept it on him all along, and now it had been confiscated by the Student Army. At this point, he had already learned which faction the Student Army belonged to, and unwilling to be destroyed so easily, he immediately let out a loud shout: "I want to see Song Zheyuan! You low-ranking soldiers have no right to judge me!"

  His performance made it clear to everyone, even the blind, that Chen Shichang's words were true. Many people's minds changed immediately - Shi Yousan wanting to be a warlord in Beiping was nothing, after all, he was also Chinese, but colluding with the Japanese to control Beiping was treason, and absolutely could not be allowed!

  There was no need for Chen Shichang to say anything more, the students below the stage first roared: "Kill the traitor!" Then some shoes and textbooks were thrown onto the stage.

  Shi You San immediately became a street rat that everyone shouted and beat.

  Next thing was simple, Chen Shichang read out Shi You San's crimes and then represented all the citizens of Beiping to sentence him to death, and then had him dragged away on a truck.

  At this point, the remaining five traitors and ruffians were frightened out of their wits. Many people didn't wait for Chen Shichang to call them out by name, but instead fell to their knees one after another, loudly crying out in protest. Some said they had been deceived by Shi You San and didn't know what was going on; others said they hadn't known there were Japanese among the troops...

  As for the handling of these five people, Li Tieshu, Chen Shichang and Ouyang Yun did not have a unified opinion. They thought that as long as Shi You San was killed, it would be enough to kill one and warn a hundred, and those who could be released would all be released. However, Ouyang Yun insisted that they must all be killed in order to truly have a deterrent effect, because after this the 29th Army would border with Little Japan, if they didn't take drastic measures now, once the Japanese stretched out their tentacles, these traitors would defect like fish crossing the river.

  They failed to persuade Ouyang Yun, but were instead persuaded by him. As a result, none of the five people could escape being shot.

  With Shi You San and others being shot at Caishi Kou, the public trial meeting came to a successful end. The Student Army showed off with guns in their hands and evidence on their hands under Ouyang Yun's deliberate request. The glorious feat of annihilating more than 200 Japanese troops in Tianjin also spread among students and teachers in various universities in Beiping, making joining the army the first ideal destination for students after graduation.

  Almost at the same time when Shi You San and others were executed by firing squad, Ouyang Yun called Song Zheyuan to report on the actions of the Student Army in Wan Cun and also reported on the public trial of Shi You San and others.

  As expected, Song Zheyuan immediately spoke out to stop him when he heard that he wanted a public trial of Shi Yousan, and repeatedly emphasized: Shi Yousan cannot be killed!

  "General!" On the other end of the phone, Ouyang Yun was secretly laughing, but his tone sounded a bit nervous, and he slowly said: "Shi You San is probably already dead."

  "What?!?" Song Zheyuan's voice on the phone suddenly rose, Ouyang Yun almost saw him jumping three feet high, "Nonsense! Why didn't you report to me in advance? Do you still have me, your commander, in your eyes?"

  Ouyang Yun was silent, but the corners of his mouth had already opened completely. Song Zheyuan's words only proved that he had made the right move. With a tone of feigned grievance, he said: "Military seat, I have no choice either. They colluded with the Japanese and killed seven of our brothers. The students are outraged, and I couldn't stop them!"

  "Bang!" The phone hung up.