Chapter Eighty-six Dawn

  At around 1:30 the next morning, on Heping Street, which borders the Tianjin Japanese concession and Chinese territory, two Ford cars parked not far from a Japanese sentry post. Ou Yangyun and Chu Tiangong, wearing hoods and all-black clothing, quietly opened the car doors and rolled out onto the side of the road before standing up against the wall. Closely following were Yang Xiceng and others, as well as a guide arranged by Feng Hengcheng named Dong Dacheng, who also crawled out from the cars.

  The rescue plan was finalized by Ouyang Yun and Feng Hengcheng after repeated deliberation - some of the martial artists contacted by Feng Hengcheng would help Gu Xudong, Hou Debang and his family evacuate to Renqiu, while another group would start a fight with the Vegetable Knife Gang under the name of the Axe Gang to attract the attention of the Japanese. The Wolf Tooth Group was responsible for rescuing Gu Xiangyun. Since Tianjin is currently garrisoned by Zhang Zizhong's troops, in order not to cause unnecessary misunderstandings and to ensure the safety of Tianjin's business community in the future, Ouyang Yun visited Zhang Zizhong at dusk and explained the actions that would be taken tonight, asking for his assistance where possible.

  Because Zhang Zizhong had previously received a call from Song Zheyuan, he knew that the Japanese had recently taken some extreme measures against businessmen in Pingjin, and was also aware of the impact on the 29th Army's governance and inspection of the two places. He took corresponding measures, such as increasing the security forces in the city and ordering his subordinates to pay special attention to protecting the safety of those business families. As the provincial capital of Hebei, Tianjin had relatively developed industries, and for the 29th Army, especially the 38th Division stationed there, it was like a treasure bowl, with businessmen being the treasure that could generate more wealth. Zhang Zizhong naturally treasured them. He understood Ou Yangyun's intention to poach Gu Xudong and others to Renqiu, fearing that Gu would move his family property away, so he proposed a condition to Ou Yangyun in a half-reminding, half-warning tone: not one of Tianjin's business industries could be moved away from the local area, and whether it was possible to set up some new industries in Tianjin.

  The officers of the 29th Army were so poor that they treasured their belongings, even Zhang Zizhong, a famous anti-Japanese general in history, was no exception.

  Ouyang Yun was secretly resentful, thinking that Zhang Zizhong was using a villain's mind to measure a gentleman's heart, and he had been too utilitarian in rescuing Gu Xudong's family. He remembered some of Gu Lianyun's advice, telling him to get along well with the 29th Army from top to bottom, especially with people like Zhang Zizhong and Feng Zhi'an who held real power. He thought it was a good opportunity to build a relationship with Zhang Zizhong, so he nodded happily and promised to open several new industries in Tianjin. After making amends with Zhang Zizhong, he rushed back to the Gu mansion, then took Dong Dacheng to the hotel where Chu Tiange and others were temporarily staying to prepare for tonight's action.

  After the Hebei Incident, the Japanese strengthened the vigilance and security forces of the concession, with all sentry posts increasing by two people, and the number of guards reaching three. The patrol interval was also changed from once an hour to once every 20 minutes, and the number of patrols increased by three teams.

  As planned, around half past midnight, the Axe Gang launched an attack on the Knife Gang's lair. Because the Knife Gang's lair was located on Hei Shi Road, which was on the other side of the Japanese concession opposite Peace Street, and because of the Knife Gang's ambiguous relationship with the Japanese, the fight that broke out there quickly caught the attention of the Little Devils. Da Qiaoji, who was in charge of security for the Japanese concession, thought he was clever and believed it was a trick by Gu Xiangdong and others to lure their troops away from guarding the Black Dragon Society branch, so they could rescue Gu Xiangyun. Therefore, although he ordered the patrol team to closely monitor the fight between the two gangs, he strictly forbade them from joining in.

  The Axe Gang and the Cleaver Gang had been at odds for a long time, and after the Cleaver Gang defected to the Japanese side, they were even more despised by many righteous martial artists and schools. Under the deliberate instigation of Feng Hengcheng and others, this melee was extremely fierce. If Ou Yang Yun were lucky enough to witness it, he would surely exclaim that it had the style of "Young and Dangerous".

  The sentry post of the Hei Ping Street concession, after six little devils took over the shift, one stood at the door, and two sat inside chatting. They were discussing the armed fight that had taken place on Blackstone Road. A Japanese soldier named Da'anbaozhi wiped his gun with a rag while saying: "The Chinese are really laughable, they're quite fierce when it comes to internal fighting."

  "Foolish Chinese pig!" Zhang Ping uttered a disdainful comment, then unconsciously glanced outside - on the opposite Peace Street, under the dim yellow light, a black shadow suddenly flashed by, and he stood up: "Huh?!"

  "What's wrong?"

  Chang Ping deftly picked up his rifle and said, "I think I saw a human figure!" He walked out and looked around in the distance.

  The guard at the gate, Yamashita Ichirō, looked at him and asked, "Nagahira-kun, what did you see?"

  Da'an stepped out with his rifle, stood beside Changping, and followed his gaze to look over, but didn't find anything unusual. He smiled and said: "Are you seeing things? It's already past one in the morning!" After finishing speaking, he involuntarily let out a yawn and said: "We're all getting sleepy, I'll just take a nap for now, how about that? When Xiao Ye and the others come to switch shifts, you can wake me up then."

  Chang Ping furrowed his brow, gave him a cold stare and said loudly: "Da An Jun, don't forget your duty! We are here to stand guard, not to sleep!"

  Da'an retreated and went back, muttering to himself: "It was just talk...". Just as he was about to sit down, he suddenly heard Zhang Ping cocking his rifle, followed by a loud shout: "Who's there? Come out, or I'll shoot!"

  At this time, Yamashita also pulled open the gun bolt, and it was clear that they had both discovered something unusual. Da'an was shocked and hastily walked out again, habitually pulling open the gun bolt, aiming in the direction where their guns were pointing, when he suddenly saw them sway and fall to the ground without warning. He exclaimed: "Ah!" - The word "ah" had just been uttered halfway when his mouth was covered by a powerful hand, and almost simultaneously, a sharp blade cut off his throat. He only felt a severe pain coming on, followed by all his strength surging out in a certain direction - boundless darkness quickly enveloped his world.

  The Wolf Tooth Team was responsible for scouting, led by Ouyang Yun and Yang Xucheng. According to the prior plan, after the two scouted near the sentry post, Chu Tiange would attract the attention of the Japanese army and lure them all out, then Ouyang Yun would take care of the first two in front, and Yang Xucheng would take care of the last one.

  Those who can join Langya basically have special skills, such as Yang Xucheng's flying knife technique and Gu Liyun and Bai Liusu are also comparable, and can be called extraordinary. Ouyang Yun's steel needle is effective due to the presence of a special anesthetic on it, although the effect will weaken with use until it can no longer work, but for now it still works.

  Chu Tian Ge found a blind spot of the streetlight about thirty meters away from Li Gang Pavilion, and then flashed his body shape, which indeed caught the attention of the little ghost.

  After the three little devils came out of their nests, Ouyang Yun made a gesture behind a wall corner of Yang Xiu's city, first throwing out two steel needles and then shooting out a flying knife.

  Steel needles shot into Chang Pinghe and Shandown, both of whom fell to the ground without making a sound. Da An discovered something was amiss and just as he was about to call out, Yang Xucheng covered his mouth and cut his throat.

  As a local snake in Tianjin, Dong Dacheng often had to sneak into the concession at night for various reasons, so he was familiar with the shift changes and patrols inside. After Ou Yangyun and Yang Xucheng took care of the sentry, they changed into Japanese military uniforms as previously planned, then followed Dong Dacheng to the Heilonghui Beiping branch.

  The director of the Tianjin branch of the Black Dragon Society, Ishikawa Kazuo, tossed and turned on his futon in his bedroom, unable to fall asleep. He finally sat up, turned on the light, rubbed his eyes and cursed: "Damn Chinese pigs! Can't they settle their gang disputes at a decent hour? Are they trying to keep people awake all night?"

  Just as he had finished grumbling, a woman's voice came from outside the house: "Ishikawa-kun, aren't you resting yet?"

  As soon as he heard it was Sakeya Jun's voice, he hastily replied with respect: "Sakeya-sama, you're not resting either?"

  "Woken up by a Chinese person, don't know why, always have a bad feeling."

  "Shall we go and take a look at that little girl?"

  "Alright!"

  Sakaya Junko is under Tofu's command and is currently in charge of the relevant matters of persuading Gu Xudong. Because her father, Sakaya Takeshi, is the current leader of Japan's ninja, and she herself is beautiful, has excellent ninjutsu skills and strong martial arts skills, Ishikawa Kazue respects her very much.

  Two people walked out of the room, one in front and one behind, crossing the courtyard to head towards the wing where Gu Xiangyun was being held. At the entrance to the wing, two Japanese men dressed as rascals saw them, bowed their heads simultaneously, and asked how they were doing.

  Sakaya Junko asked: "Has the Chinese girl fallen asleep?"

  "After crying for a while, she has fallen asleep. Sir, are you going in to take a look?"

  Sakaya Junko shook her head, turned around and looked into the courtyard, especially at the sky. In the dark night, everything in the courtyard was shrouded in a somewhat dim yellow light, looking hazy. She said to Ishikawa: "I suspect that the fight outside may be a trick of the Chinese to lure the tiger away from the mountain. At this time, we need to strengthen our vigilance."

  "Ah, yes!" Ishikawa bowed slightly and replied, "I've already gone to check earlier, and Captain Ohashi also thinks so. So I had the patrol team and all the sentries strictly guard their posts without making any rash moves. On my way back, I also checked on the hidden sentries stationed at the street corners, and everyone's morale seems fine, so there shouldn't be any problems."

  Sakaya Junko nodded, just about to speak, but suddenly furrowed her brow and said: "No! Ishikawa, you stay here and guard this place, I'll go take a look." After saying that, she quickly ran towards the front house in the courtyard.

  As a well-trained ninja, her hearing was much more sensitive than that of ordinary people. Just now, she faintly heard a muffled hum and quickly reacted.

  Ishikawa Kazuo, as the person in charge of the Tianjin branch of the Black Dragon Society, was not weak either. He was skilled in swordsmanship and close combat, but he didn't notice anything unusual. Seeing her behave like this, he hesitated for a moment, then carefully took out the short sword he carried with him and stood alongside the two guards, cautiously watching the direction she left in.