A sudden knock on the door made the three people in the house nervous.
Chai Xue winked at Liu Danian and Xiao Huo.
The two of them took out Mauser pistols from the packages they carried with them, and with gentle steps, they lined up on both sides behind the door.
"Who is it?" Chai Xue walked behind the door and asked softly.
"Miss, I'm here to deliver a hot water bottle."
"Leave it at the door." Chai Xue nodded towards Liu Danian. She had an impression of the voice of the person outside. He was the hotel boy.
"Okay." The boy agreed, and then heard the sound of the thermos bottle being placed on the ground.
Then there was the sound of footsteps leaving gently.
Chai Xue is about to open the door.
Xiao Huo suddenly made a gesture towards the two of them: the people outside did not leave.
At this moment, a lowered voice came from outside the door, "Is this Boss Pan from Chuzhou?"
The expressions of the three people in the room suddenly changed, and they all showed expressions of joy.
Liu Danian winked at Xiao Huo, who walked away quietly, took the gun and hid it under the bed.
Here, Chai Xue put her ear to the back of the door and answered through the crack of the door, "Is it Nanxiang's boss Bo?"
"Miss, our father's surname is Bai, the name of the cypress tree is Bai, Bai Yongcai." came the reply from outside the door.
The code matches!
Chai Xue looked at Liu Danian, who nodded.
Chai Xue gently opened the door and saw a tall and thin middle-aged woman in her forties or fifties standing outside the door.
She was surprised. Wasn't it a male voice just now?
"You are Xiaoxue, don't you know your uncle?" Xiong Jiashang said with a smile and a male voice.
"Uncle Bai, please come in." Chai Xue glanced at the woman in surprise, immediately reacted, stepped aside, invited the woman to come in, and immediately closed the door.
…
Xiong Jiashang glanced at Chai Xue and Liu Danian.
He compared the situation of the two people with the description in the telegram, and then reached out to Liu Danian, "Comrade Liu Danian, I am Xiong Jiashang, Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Red Party. Is the old house at home okay?"
"Hello, Minister Xiong." After hearing this, Liu Danian shook hands with Xiong Jiashang happily, "Secretary Fang (Jing Hua) often mentioned you before, saying that you are a heroine."
At this moment, Liu Danian finally felt relieved. Just now, Xiong Jiashang deliberately mentioned the old house, referring to Comrade Fang Jinghua, leader of the Hangzhou Red Party.
Xiong Jiashang had previously worked with Fang Jinghua. "Old house" was how Xiong Jiashang described Fang Jinghua. Fang Jinghua had extremely severe gastric ulcers. In addition, because he had been arrested by the enemy and endured severe torture, he had serious physical problems. Hidden danger, when Xiong Jiashang left Hangzhou, he was very concerned about Fang Jinghua's health and said that you should take care of your old house and hold on to it.
Later, Fang Jinghua had a stomachache and vomited blood. He laughed at himself and said that his old house might not be able to support it for long.
The meaning of the 'old house' is something that only the Red Party in Hangzhou and Xiong Jiashang himself know.
"How is Mr. Miao?" Xiong Jiashang asked immediately.
Liu Danian looked at Chai Xue. Chai Xue was a doctor and had the most say.
"Mr. Miao relied on willpower to support him all the way. After landing at the dock, he finally couldn't support it any longer and passed out." Chai Xue brought Xiong Jiashang to the bedside and checked on Mr. Miao's condition. Now he is in a coma due to high fever and the situation is very dangerous.”
Xiong Jiashang bent down and reached out to touch 'Mr. Miao's' forehead. It was frighteningly hot.
"We can't wait any longer." Xiong Jiashang said with a serious expression, "We must transfer immediately and take Mr. Miao to see a doctor."
"I agree." Liu Danian said immediately, "However, we have just opened a guest room, and if we check out now, will it arouse suspicion?"
"I can't control that much anymore." Xiong Jiashan waved his hand, "Transfer immediately."
"Yes!" Liu Danian saluted. Xiong Jiashang was once the leader of the Red Party in Hangzhou and the political commissar of the guerrillas in the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Border Region. Although Liu Danian had never met Xiong Jiashang before, after all, Xiong Jiashang was Liu Danian's. Double 'Old Leader'.
At this moment, Xiao Huo came out from under the bed.
Xiong Jiashang was startled.
"This is Mr. Miao's bodyguard Xiao Huo." Liu Danian quickly introduced.
Xiong Jiashang nodded, glanced at Xiao Huo with a thoughtful expression, and then his expression returned to normal.
Liu Danian was carrying Mr. Miao on his back. As soon as he went out, he saw a strong man standing outside the door.
"I'll carry it," the man said.
"I'll do it myself." Liu Danian said quickly. Although Xiong Jiashang's identity was confirmed and he was confirmed to be from the Shanghai Red Party, Liu Danian was still extremely vigilant. He would be most at ease only if he personally carried Mr. Miao on his back.
Chai Xue glanced at Xiong Jiashang, and she could tell that Xiong Jiashang had just imitated the strong man's accent.
Several people checked out of the room, and the hotel owner withheld part of the room payment.
Xiao Huo looked at the hotel owner distressedly for several times, and when he left the hotel he couldn't help but cursed, 'a black-hearted capitalist'.
"Xiao Huo, shut up." Liu Danian said with a stern expression.
Xiao Huo glanced at Liu Danian and opened his mouth, "Yes, I was careless."
He also knew that he shouldn't have said what he just said.
Liu Danian put 'Mr. Miao' on the rickshaw. The strong man smiled, picked up the towel from the handlebar, wiped the handlebar casually, then put the towel around his neck and pulled up the rickshaw.
Liu Danian also smiled. It turned out that this strong comrade was a rickshaw driver.
…
Nanxiang.
Zhang Wenbo got off the jeep and walked straight to the office.
The guards along the way kept raising their hands in salute.
Entering the headquarters, he took the towel handed by the adjutant and wiped off his sweat.
Due to front-line combat and command needs, Zhang Wenbai moved the war room from Longhua to Nanxiang overnight.
"Has the high command called back?" he asked.
"Report to Commander, not yet."
Zhang Wenbo frowned, took out his pocket watch and looked at the time.
"Call the Nanjing headquarters and ask again!"
"yes!"
A combat plan has been formulated, and it is scheduled to launch a sudden attack on the Japanese strongholds on both wings of Hongkou and Yangshupu at dawn tomorrow, catching the Japanese army by surprise.
The most perfect situation is to form a mopping up situation, wipe out the Japanese Marine Corps in one fell swoop, and control the entire Chinese community in Shanghai.
The entire combat plan has been formulated, submitted to the headquarters for approval, and distributed to all units at the same time.
However, the matter is so serious that before the war can finally be launched, according to the requirements of the headquarters, it needs to be submitted to them for approval.
To be precise, the final order to fire still needs to be issued personally by Chairman Chang Kaishen.
About half an hour later, the confidential section chief of the telecommunications room came running quickly with a message in his hand.
"commander."
Zhang Wenbai took the telegram and read it clearly, and his expression suddenly changed.
This is a telegram from the headquarters: No attack!
"Commander, what should we do? All the ministries have received orders to start at dawn." A major general said in a low voice with a solemn expression, "It is better to strike first. If you miss it, you will be beaten passively."
"Call back to Nanjing." Zhang Wenbai said with a gloomy expression, "Our army has been deployed and preparations for the attack have been completed. The arrow is on the string and must be launched. Please attack according to the established plan!"
"yes!"
Three quarters of an hour later.
Nanjing's reply still contained only four words: No attack!
Zhang Wenbo was furious and ordered to call Nanjing again.
Soon, Nanjing called back for the third time, 'No attack'.
However, Xu felt Zhang Wenbai's anger, and this call back gave a little explanation as to why he was not allowed to attack the Japanese army as planned.
The French Concession, the British and American Concession, and the diplomatic missions of other countries stationed in Shanghai were afraid that the Shanghai War would break out and endanger their interests and personal safety.
Therefore, the diplomatic missions suggested that the Nanjing government change Shanghai to an undefended city.
Cum free port.
The advice was issued yesterday.
The advice was passed to the Foreign Office this morning.
This suggestion from the diplomatic missions in China made the peace faction within the government overjoyed.
They found Xue Zhichang, who had always been "prone to peace," and appealed for "peace negotiations."
Xue Zhichang met with Chang Kaishen and asked him to carefully consider the use of force to solve the problem.
Xue Zhichang said to Chang Kaishen: "If you can tolerate Japan, you should always try to tolerate it. Once the war begins, no matter whether a third country joins or not, the best result is that both sides will suffer losses, but after that Japan is an industrial country and can easily recover. On the contrary, I feel that there is a real danger of it falling apart out of control."
Chang Kaishen said that he has been enduring this for a long time.
Xue Zhichang said, "Don't forget to endure is a very difficult thing to endure."
Chang Kaishen said, "I'll think about it again."
Then, Chang Kaishen gave Xue Zhichang a small lecture on resolutely resisting Japan.
After listening to Chairman Standing Committee's speech, Xue Zhichang knew that this was a polite rejection of his suggestion of temporary forbearance.
Seeing that Xue Zhichang's persuasion was ineffective, many people went to Wang Chuanhai again.
Wang Chuanhai was overjoyed when he saw so many people coming to see him. He thought this was a good sign that his political policy was widely supported. He immediately went to Chairman Chang Kaishen to advocate peace talks with Japan.
Chang Kaishen was polite to Wang Quanhai, but one word made Wang Quanhai angry.
What Chairman Standing Committee said is, "You don't understand military matters."
Wang Chuanhai was furious.
He decided to bypass Chang Kaishen and contact the missions of various countries alone. If he successfully avoided war, this would also be an opportunity for his Wang family to replace Chang Kaishen and rise again.
Therefore, Wang Chuhai directly approached Foreign Minister Wang Chonghao and said, "Under tolerable circumstances, it is always best to seek peaceful means."
Subsequently, many government officials and celebrities approached Chang Kaishen and requested that they do their best to seek peace.
In fact, because of the huge disparity in national and military power between China and Japan, some people inside and outside the Nationalist Government actively advocated peace or tried to postpone the war.
Within the National Government, Xue Zhichang, the Standing Committee Member of the Military Commission, was the representative. He believed that the ratio of Sino-Japanese air forces was less than one to three, and it would take at least six months to prepare for the war of resistance.
In July, Xue Zhichang wrote to Minister of Military and Political Affairs He Yingzhen, advocating that "peace still needs to be achieved through hard work."
Xue Zhichang even called Yang Xishan specifically, "Please campaign for peace."
Among the intellectuals, Hu Zhi, Jiang Mengling and others advocated "bearing pain and seeking peace" and believed that "rather than seeking peace after defeat, it is better to do it before the war breaks out."
To this end, Hu Zhi met with Chang Kaishen twice.
At the end of last month, he proposed to Chang Kaishen that "the diplomatic line cannot be broken."
A week ago, Hu Zhi met with Chang Kaishen again. He suggested to the Chairman of the Standing Committee to abandon the three eastern provinces and recognize "Manchukuo" in order to resolve all "unresolved issues" between China and Japan and exchange for long-term peace in East Asia.
Just this afternoon, Hu Zhi met Chang Kaishen again and asked Chang Kaishen to make the greatest peace efforts before the war.
In his written proposal to Chiang Kai-shek, he proposed:
The Konoe cabinet does not agree with a full-scale invasion of China now, so everything is negotiable and the opportunity cannot be missed.
In addition, Hu Zhi pointed out that Japan had basic financial difficulties and the Japanese cabinet did not want to go to war.
The third point is that the Central Army is the basis for maintaining national stability. Once a war breaks out, the Central Army will be quickly exhausted, the National Government will lose its military foundation, and the country may disintegrate, making it even more impossible to resist Japan.
Therefore, if you have to be patient and have peace talks, you can lose some territory and interests and avoid war.
Whether it was Xue Zhichang, Wang Chonghao, or Hu Zhi, the peace negotiation strategies they proposed did not affect Chang Kaishen.
What really moved Chang Kaishen was the proposal put forward by missions from various countries to establish Shanghai as an undefended city.
Chang Kaishen may not necessarily agree with this suggestion, but the intervention of embassies from various countries gave him hope that the League of Nations would intervene in the Sino-Japanese War. This was also the National Government's greatest expectation.
Ever since, just when it was about to launch a thunderous blow against the Japanese army less than ten hours later, the Nanjing High Command urgently pressed the pause button on the Shanghai frontline troops.
Zhang Wenbo looked at the message in his hand with a sad and angry look on his face, and finally let out a long sigh.
"Order all ministries to be on alert and not to slack off." Zhang Wenbai ordered.
"yes!"
…
Dolphin Road.
This is one of the secret bases arranged by Cheng Qianfan for the Shanghai Special Intelligence Team.
Cheng Qianfan dressed up in disguise and appeared here as 'Mr. Xiao':
Image of a middle-aged man with a beard and a hat.
"Report on the situation of each department." Cheng Qianfan said in a deep voice.
"After meeting Cheng Qianfan for the second time, this person did not go anywhere else. He still went to the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai." Hao Tsai replied.
"Have you figured out this person's identity?" Cheng Qianfan asked.
"This person is Lieutenant Eguchi Hideya, the third-class military attaché of the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai." Hao Zai replied.
The first time she came to the stronghold of Dolphus Road, Ying Huaizhen, who 'met' Mr. Xiao, was quite shocked:
The other colleagues in the special situation team are indeed very capable. In just a few hours, they found out the identity of the Japanese who met Cheng Qianfan.
In comparison, she was a little stretched.
Thinking that today, that bastard Cheng Qianfan had taken advantage of her, but she had not collected any more information, Ying Huaizhen's face turned cold and her teeth itched with hatred.
"General Secretary Ying, you had direct contact with Cheng Qianfan today. Can you tell me your views on this matter?" Cheng Qianfan looked at Ying Huaizhen and asked.
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