Nanjing! Nanjing!

Captain Masaaki Harada looked at the pier slowly receding from the ship's deck.

Finally, he was leaving this oppressive city.

He finally felt a sense of relief.

These past few days in Nanjing, he could always smell the stench of blood and rotting corpses in the air.

Although the Japanese officers here had been very friendly to him, Captain Masaaki Harada could always sense an immense pressure in the air.

Every day he saw fresh corpses in the city.

These corpses just lay there in the city, on the side of the street.

Whether it was the passing civilians or the Japanese soldiers, everyone had become accustomed to it.

Captain Masaaki Harada could not get used to it.

This place is not for me!

He had wanted to leave this place for a long time, and now he could finally leave.

In stark contrast to the captain's mood was his first mate.

With a lingering reluctance, First Mate Kamo Seiichi looked at the receding Nanjing, his heart filled with disappointment.

Nanjing! Nanjing!

This place held too many things he missed.

These days were the happiest days of his life.

He spent every day mingling in Nanjing, frequenting various hotels and nightclubs, attending endless banquets, and drinking endless amounts of alcohol.

This was because he had met a classmate in Nanjing who had become a company commander.

This classmate was stationed in Nanjing and invited him to banquets, nightclubs, and drinking parties every day.

Kamo Seiichi had asked, "Where does the money come from for spending like this every day?"

The classmate smiled mysteriously: "Just have fun."

His classmate had been very generous and considerate these days.

Even the money for tipping the waiters had been taken care of by his classmate, who would give him a red envelope beforehand.

There was more than enough money to pay the tips.

Since the money came easily, Kamo Seiichi was happy to be generous, receiving with one hand and spending with the other.

In the ten days or so in Nanjing, all the money he received from his classmate was spent on tips for waiters or on seafood.

The workers on the pier were loading the cargo too quickly; in just over ten days, they had loaded tens of thousands of tons of cargo onto the ship.

First Mate Kamo Seiichi secretly complained in his heart.

Just last night, the classmate who had been treating Kamo Seiichi to fun for ten consecutive days finally came to the ship.

He had a truckload of goods and wanted to ask First Mate Kamo Seiichi to take them back to his hometown.

The two were originally classmates and fellow villagers, and he had been eating and having fun with him for ten days.

First Mate Kamo Seiichi was of course too embarrassed to refuse, and there was no need to refuse.

As the first mate of the ship, he had the authority to personally carry some good things from overseas.

In fact, all fifty-seven crew members on the *Chigusa Maru* had brought some personal goods on board.

During these days, the crew and sailors of the *Chigusa Maru* cargo ship were among the most popular people.

After they arrived in Nanjing, people from their hometowns would always come to their door, inviting them to dinner, drinks, and nightclubs.

These ordinary crew members could at most help people carry one or two boxes of goods.

Only high-ranking officials like First Mate Kamo Seiichi could help carry a truckload of goods at a time.

This truckload of goods was all in suitcase-sized wooden boxes, some very light and some very heavy.

There were a total of eighty-one boxes, each with the two characters "Yanagishita" written on it.

Yanagishita Taka handed Kamo Seiichi a suitcase: "This is a gift for my classmate."

If Kamo Seiichi had felt a little embarrassed about the eating, drinking, and playing in the past few days, he no longer felt embarrassed now.

It was only right to receive some benefits for helping to smuggle so many things.

His classmate was going to make a fortune by taking so many boxes of things back with him.

After staying in Nanjing for so long, First Mate Kamo Seiichi had heard many people say that the troops stationed in Nanjing were making a fortune from top to bottom. They started by looting from the homes of ordinary people.

Ordinary soldiers robbed the homes of ordinary people, while high-ranking officers directly robbed factories.

Except for the land, which could not be moved, all the machines, products, and raw materials were taken away.

After these things were looted, they began to move the ancient sculptures in the city.

After these things on the ground were looted, many resourceful Japanese turned their attention to the underground.

Nanjing was the ancient capital of thirteen dynasties, and there were treasures everywhere underground!

In any case, no one dared to control the Japanese troops, and they directly used explosives to blow up any ancient tombs they could find, taking everything inside except for what the tomb owners didn't want.

All the Japanese stationed in Nanjing were making a fortune, a huge fortune.

But all these things had to be sent back to their hometowns to truly be considered their own.

Although the Central China Expeditionary Army headquarters encouraged soldiers to go out and plunder and discover wealth, it forced them to send all the materials they found back only through the channels it provided.

All mailed materials had to be inspected by them before they could be mailed.

Some valuables might also be confiscated or a portion handed over before they could be sent away.

Wealth moves people's hearts!

No one was willing to have a portion of the treasures they had looted or excavated with their own strength withheld in this way.

Those things were the most valuable part!

Therefore, some clever people thought of having the crew members privately bring things back.

These things that were secretly brought on board privately were equivalent to smuggled goods.

Materials that had not been inspected by the Central China Expeditionary Army would of course not be detained or confiscated.

As long as everything was on board, it belonged to the person mailing it.

For someone like Yanagishita Taka with eighty-one boxes of materials, at least thirty boxes would have to be handed over.

This time, Yanagishita Taka had made a huge profit.

In front of his classmate, First Mate Kamo Seiichi was too embarrassed to open the boxes and see what was inside.

Now that he was offshore, he returned to his room.

He couldn't wait to open this slightly heavy suitcase.

Twelve golden bars, two large and ten small, were the first to catch his eye.

This suitcase was divided into compartments, and these gold bars only took up a small space.

A porcelain bottle was carefully wrapped and placed in the middle.

There were also two scrolls, which were obviously either calligraphy or paintings.

First Mate Kamo Seiichi was not clear about the value of the porcelain bottle and calligraphy.

But he understood the twelve gold bars. The two large gold bars should be one kilogram each, and the ten small ones added up to one kilogram as well.

First Mate Kamo Seiichi hesitated in his heart: just this box sent to him was so valuable.

How valuable were the things in the eighty-one boxes?

And then thinking about how many such boxes were being transported on this cargo ship, First Mate Kamo Seiichi even wanted to hijack the ship himself.

Of course, this kind of thought could only be a thought.

In fact, he was now accompanied by a Japanese soldier whenever he went to the cargo area.

Not only him, but even Captain Masaaki Harada was followed by a Japanese soldier with a gun when he went to the cargo area.

All the crew members on the ship were accompanied by at least one Japanese soldier when they went to the cargo area.

It was more like escort or supervision than accompaniment.

There were a total of fifty-seven crew members and sailors on the ship, but the Japanese who came on board to escort them were a full company.

Captain Masaaki Harada was also troubled by this matter. It was originally agreed that a squad of fifty-four Japanese soldiers would board the ship.

However, at one o'clock this morning, the headquarters of the Central China Expeditionary Army temporarily sent nineteen truckloads of supplies onto the ship.

At the same time, the number of Japanese soldiers escorting the ship was increased to a company of two hundred and four men.

It was nothing for such a ten-thousand-ton giant ship to load dozens of tons of supplies.

The key was the consumption of more than a hundred additional people, and he was afraid that the ship's reserves of fresh water and vegetables would not be enough.

He wanted to stop at the Wusongkou port to replenish some fresh water and vegetables, but he was strictly forbidden to do so by the military.

However, considering the actual situation, the Central China Expeditionary Army agreed to send these supplies to the *Chigusa Maru* by ship in Zhenjiang or Jiangyin.

But this cargo ship was not allowed to dock anywhere after it set sail; it could only dock after it reached its destination.

In fact, even if the ship's fresh water and vegetables were not replenished, they would be enough for these more than a hundred Japanese soldiers as long as there were no accidents along the way.

However, as a captain with twenty-five years of maritime experience, Masaaki Harada still hoped that the ship's reserves could be more abundant.

At eight o'clock in the morning on January 6th, An Ping, Cheng Chang, and their seven companions, who had been squatting in Qixia Mountain for almost half a month, received a message from Lin Fan yesterday: starting from yesterday, they were to report all Japanese cargo ships and warships sailing downstream through the Yangtze River in real time.

This was the prelude to action.

During this period, these seven people had been squatting in Qixia Mountain every day.

Counting the cargo ships coming and going on the Yangtze River.

Carefully observing every Japanese cargo ship and warship passing by.

They felt that they were about to become stones on the mountain.

Now that they had finally received the news that they were going to take action, everyone was excited.

Now they saw the *Chigusa Maru* still far away, slowly sailing towards the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Although this ship had not yet passed the Qixia section of the river, it could already be clearly identified.

An Ping, Cheng Chang, and the others carefully observed and recorded the ship's data in detail.

The ship was about one hundred and seventy meters long and thirty meters wide.

The ship's name was *Chigusa Maru*, the hull was green, and the ship's name was black.

It was not sailing fast, and the speed should be about ten kilometers per hour.

There were no weapons on board, but there were Japanese soldiers with live ammunition walking on the deck.

An Ping, Cheng Chang, and the others carefully counted and found at least one hundred Japanese soldiers.

Some Japanese soldiers were leaning on the ship's rails, looking relaxed.

Some Japanese soldiers were patrolling with guns on their backs.

It seemed that they were guarding the ship very strictly.

There were also more than twenty crew members standing on the ship's rails, pointing at the scenery.

An Ping, Cheng Chang, and the others simply sent out the information they had observed.

Upon receiving the information, Lin Fan immediately convened a meeting with Luo Yazhi, Lang Yongan, Feng Yacai, Ye Dadan, and Ba Dehou, who had also been squatting in Jiangyin for half a month to observe the Yangtze River.

From the Yangtze River position in Qixia Mountain to Jiangyin, there were still one hundred and fifty kilometers of waterway.

According to the *Chigusa Maru*'s current speed, it should pass through here at eleven o'clock in the afternoon, or even later.

There were more than one hundred Japanese soldiers on board. Considering that some Japanese soldiers might not have appeared, it was estimated that there were about two hundred Japanese soldiers.

" *Chigusa Maru*? I haven't heard of it, but judging from its size, length, and width, it is at least a ten-thousand-ton cargo ship. There are between fifty and seventy crew members," Luo Yazhi analyzed.

"Let's temporarily assume that there are three hundred Japanese soldiers on board."

Lin Fan was very satisfied with the current situation.

Night was always the most suitable time for murder, arson, and sneaking around.

He was naturally happy that the *Chigusa Maru* was so cooperative in arriving at the Jiangyin section of the river at night.

As for the number of Japanese soldiers on the cargo ship, although Lin Fan felt that there were a few too many, he could accept it considering the suitable time.

For this operation, Lin Fan had specially brought a modified, epoch-making device: a full-channel electromagnetic wave jammer.

This was a failed product in Liu Ziqian's eyes.

Now, these two full-channel electromagnetic wave jammers, one had been placed ten kilometers ahead.

One was on the cargo ship here in Xiagang, but they had not been turned on yet.

The time was not right!

Although Liu Ziqian did not come this time, she sent a platoon of soldiers.

They set up a temporary telephone line ten kilometers apart for Lin Fan's operation.

Lin Fan reviewed the combat plan again.

According to the *Chigusa Maru*'s speed, it should be on the Jiangmian section of Zhenjiang at about one o'clock in the afternoon.

After An Ping, Cheng Chang, and the others notified Lin Fan, they immediately left Qixia Mountain. They still needed to continue following the ship.

Now, some of them had to go to the Zhenjiang section to wait first.

Only two people were left to follow the ship, as if they were escorting it on the shore.

This small team would do their best to follow the ship on the shore.

Lin Fan had already ordered: the target was the *Chigusa Maru*.

This required their small team to follow it all the way to Jiangyin.

For this plan, the members of their small team all had two horses each.

They had been prepared for a long time.

As the ancients said: raising soldiers for a thousand days is for use in a moment!

Their small team had been squatting in Qixia Mountain for half a month, all for today!

The Yangtze River was an inland river, and Captain Masaaki Harada did not know what kind of materials were loaded on the ship.

However, just by looking at the fact that more than one hundred Japanese soldiers had been added to guard it, he understood how important this batch of materials was.

In fact, if the relationship between the army and the navy was not so bad, these materials should have been transported by the navy.

Because this batch of materials was so important, Captain Masaaki Harada was driving the ship very carefully.

The Yangtze River was an inland river, and it was okay to drive slower and more steadily, even if it was a day or two late.

As long as the cargo ship did not have an accident! It was with this consideration that the ship's speed had never been fast.

At one thirty in the afternoon, the *Chigusa Maru* passed Zhenjiang!

An Ping, Cheng Chang, and the others noticed that there were no more Japanese soldiers standing on the deck of the *Chigusa Maru* cargo ship looking at the scenery.

The river wind on the Yangtze River in Jiangnan in January was still very cold.

The interest of those Japanese soldiers had long been extinguished by the cold wind over the past few hours.

These Japanese soldiers had all returned to the cabins to warm themselves, and even the Japanese soldiers who were supposed to be patrolling in the cargo area had stopped.

Company Commander Koshigaya Masaya's initial patrol arrangement was safe and secure, and all conditions were considered.

He just did not expect that this was on a ship, not on land.

The materials in the cargo area were placed there, and no outsiders could approach them at all.

This was not like a warehouse on land, where someone could sneak in if you were not careful.

On this ship, all the problems that could arise were from the inside.

He only needed to keep an eye on the crew and his soldiers.

With this understanding, Company Commander Koshigaya Masaya also immediately made changes.

This was a leisurely journey!

An Ping, Cheng Chang, and their team changed two people again to keep close.

The rest of the people ran ahead again to wait for the *Chigusa Maru*.

The speed of this ship had not changed from morning until now, and many passenger ships and cargo ships had overtaken it.

Captain Masaaki Harada was not flustered at all. He just let his crew maintain this speed.

Always be vigilant and never collide with passing ships.

Captain Masaaki Harada was indeed overthinking things. The *Chigusa Maru* was a ten-thousand-ton giant ship.

It was sailing in the center of the Yangtze River channel, and whether it was those sailing upstream from the lower reaches or the passenger ships and cargo ships that overtook it from behind.

Compared to it, they were all younger brothers. Who would dare to collide with it?

According to its current speed, it would be about eleven o'clock to one o'clock when the *Chigusa Maru* reached the position where Lin Fan was going to take action.

It was exactly midnight!

All five rented cargo ships had sailed out of the pier.

Lin Fan had paid enough deposit, and the Special Operations Brigade would use these five ships for the next few days.

The captains and crew members of the five ships were all arranged to rest in one place.

Lang Yongan, Luo Yazhi, and the other crew members took over these five ships.

Each ship had two companies of soldiers from the Special Operations Brigade, and two ships even had three companies of soldiers on board.

Because it was night, artillery support was not needed.

Only one company of the Eighth Regiment was left on the shore, guarding all the artillery and weapons.

These five cargo ships sailed upstream to meet the *Chigusa Maru*.

Lin Fan had already carried his full-channel electromagnetic wave jammer onto the cargo ship.

When their five ships sailed to the Yutang position, Lin Fan decided to wait here.

He waited until nine thirty when An Ping and the others finally sent news: the *Chigusa Maru* was about ten kilometers behind.

There were no ships in front of or behind the *Chigusa Maru*, and An Ping and the others were still following behind.

Only one person was sent to report the news.

Upon receiving the news, these five ships began to prepare.

Lin Fan immediately turned on the two full-channel electromagnetic wave jammers, and invisible electromagnetic waves were spreading out into the atmosphere with them as the center.

Some of the Japanese soldiers on the *Chigusa Maru* were listening to the radio.

Suddenly, they could only hear noise.

The radios and wireless radios in the captain's room were also receiving only noise.

This situation had sometimes occurred on the sea.

It was not something to be surprised about.

Captain Masaaki Harada did not make any special remarks about this.

He just told First Mate Kamo Seiichi to pay attention to the front and not to let anything happen.

At night, there were very few ships passing through the Yangtze River channel.

Since six thirty, they had not encountered a single ship.

First Mate Kamo Seiichi responded loudly to the captain's instructions.

It was normal for the radio and wireless radio to fail.

Such a small matter was not notified to Company Commander Koshigaya Masaya, who was responsible for escorting the *Chigusa Maru* cargo ship.

At this time, he was in his cabin, opening a bottle of sake and drinking it slowly.

This mission was actually very simple: to prevent all crew members on this ship from approaching the cargo.

During the day, the crew members had to go to the deck from time to time to check the condition of the cargo.

Whether the cargo had shifted or needed to be reinforced.

Therefore, these Japanese soldiers who were responsible for supervision had to be more busy.

They had to accompany them throughout the entire process!

At night, Company Commander Koshigaya Masaya only placed two soldiers outside the crew rest area.

Two Japanese soldiers were placed at each of the four passages leading to the cargo area.

A total of five sentry posts were arranged, perfectly solving the duty problem at night.

One hour after An Ping and the others sent the news.

At ten fifteen, An Ping and the others also arrived, pointing to the ship sailing in the Yangtze River and said:

"That's it! The *Chigusa Maru*! There are about two hundred Japanese soldiers on board and forty to fifty crew members."

Neither Lang Yongan nor Luo Yazhi had heard of this ship before, and they had never seen it before.

So they had no understanding of it.

Lin Fan looked at the ship, and the bright searchlight on the bow cut through the night sky, shining in front of it.

Behind the light was a huge shadow.

It was somewhat difficult to quietly board a moving cargo ship.

The main difficulty was that the two ships were sailing on the river, and if they were too close, the large ship would actively suck the small ship over.

This was because when the two ships were too close, the river water was squeezed between the two ships, and the volume of water remained unchanged, and the water level remained unchanged, so it needed to accelerate through.

This created suction, forcibly pulling the two ships together to collide.

Lin Fan and the others wanted to board the ship, so they had to get close, and they had to get very close.

This required a lot of skill.

This kind of thing still had to be done by Lang Yongan. He used to be a cargo ship captain, and he had encountered this kind of thing many times.

The solution was actually simple: slow down.

Although Luo Yazhi was a captain, he drove large ships, and he really did not know as much about how to deal with the suction between two ships as Lang Yongan.

Now that he knew this method, he of course had to try it.

Lin Fan's plan was very simple. First, use two ships to approach from the left and right sides at the same time.

If possible, do not alarm the Japanese soldiers.

Lin Fan, Ye Dadan, and the First, Second, and Third Companies of the Sixth Regiment were all on the ship that Lang Yongan was driving.

They approached the *Chigusa Maru* from the starboard side and forcibly boarded the ship.

Feng Yacai's First, Second, and Third Companies of the Eighth Regiment were all on the ship that Luo Yazhi was driving.

They approached the *Chigusa Maru* from the port side and forcibly boarded the ship.

The remaining three ships were slowly following along the river, waiting for Lin Fan and the others to send a signal after they boarded the *Chigusa Maru*.

Only then would they approach.

The plan had been made long ago.

The two ships quickly drove to the center of the river, closely following the *Chigusa Maru* on the left and right.

At this time, the speed of the two cargo ships slowed down, only a little faster than the *Chigusa Maru*.

This was Lang Yongan's method: slow down!

Two three-thousand-ton cargo ships quietly and slowly followed behind the *Chigusa Maru*.

Ten minutes later, the two cargo ships had all followed alongside the *Chigusa Maru*.

Their speed began to adjust to the same speed as the *Chigusa Maru* cargo ship.

The three ships were like a conjoined ship.

Suddenly, more than a dozen flying claws flew out from the small cargo ships on both sides. In order to minimize the sound, Lin Fan had the soldiers wrap the claws of the iron flying claws with cloth.

Thirteen flying claws on one side were hung on the *Chigusa Maru* cargo ship.

This small load did not have any impact on the ten-thousand-ton giant ship at all.

Lin Fan and Ye Dadan were the first to climb up.

After going up, some people fixed the rope ladder, and some people began to move along the ship's rail toward the *Chigusa Maru*'s ship island.

Defenses were set up!

The cables were also dragged up, and two three-thousand-ton cargo ships were hung on the *Chigusa Maru*.

Even so, this ten-thousand-ton giant ship was still like a diligent old ox, unaware of the two specks of dust that had fallen on it, and continued to sail at its own pace.

Soldiers from the Special Operations Brigade were boarding the ship on both sides of the ship's rail at the same time.

Six companies of soldiers had already come up for the most part.

At this time, Lin Fan had led the First and Second Companies of the Sixth Regiment to the ship island.

Feng Yacai did not fall behind either. He led the Eighth Regiment from the port side of the *Chigusa Maru* cargo ship to the ship island.

Kawae Akifumi and Hige Saburo, two Japanese soldiers, were sitting on the ground, leaning against the ship's wall.

They were sent by Company Commander Koshigaya Masaya to guard the passage on the port side.

An hour ago, when even the radio was only making noise.

The two Japanese soldiers were bored!

It was really safe on this ship, unlike when they were sentries during combat, where they had to be prepared for the enemy to sneak up on them at any time.

What they needed to guard against now were just the crew members coming out of the cabins.

Company Commander Koshigaya Masaya had set up a total of three lines of defense to keep an eye on the crew members.

Kawae Akifumi and Hige Saburo were the third line of defense. There was no way for those crew members to get here without alarming the sentries.

Therefore, the two of them could rest assured and sit down to rest.

It was dark, people were sleepy, and they were on a ship. The two sentries quickly fell asleep.

When Feng Junya quietly walked here with two companies, he looked at the two Japanese soldiers leaning against the ship's wall, hugging their guns and sleeping.

He made a gesture, and Fu Haokong and Chou Yiyun quietly touched them.

For the action tonight, the Special Operations Brigade soldiers, who usually wore leather shoes for combat, all uniformly changed into cloth shoes.

Walking on the deck was silent.

The two soldiers touched them, silently covering Kawae Akifumi and Hige Saburo's mouths, and twisted their hands.

With a crisp "crack" sound, the heads of the two Japanese soldiers were turned one hundred and eighty degrees.

They suddenly struggled violently in their sleep, but after only a few struggles, they stopped moving.

The situation that Lin Fan and the others encountered on the starboard side was similar to this.

The first two lines of defense that Company Commander Koshigaya Masaya had set up were quickly and quietly eliminated by Lin Fan.

Once they were on the *Chigusa Maru* cargo ship, it was Luo Yazhi's specialty:

He had been a captain for twenty years. Although he did not know the *Chigusa Maru*, he was still clear about the structure of this kind of bulk cargo ship.

The Sixth and Eighth Regiments had now entered the ship island and were beginning to move to the captain's room, crew room, and command room in batches.

Now, all six companies of Special Operations Brigade soldiers had come up.

With sufficient personnel, enough manpower was also sent to the engine room below the deck of the ship.

Company Commander Koshigaya Masaya heard some noise outside his cabin.

However, the sound was very small, and it might just be the noise of the river water and the ship itself.

He had finished a bottle of sake on the table, and Company Commander Koshigaya Masaya opened the cabin door with great interest.

He walked out!

He was also in the crew area, but in a separate cabin.

As soon as he walked out, his years of combat experience made him feel that the air seemed a little wrong.

He looked around but could not see anything wrong.

It was just a feeling.

Company Commander Koshigaya Masaya shouted loudly, "Someone! Go outside and take a look."

Oto Yoichi and Kusu Takeo, the two sentries he had arranged to guard this passage tonight, immediately ran out.

Lin Fan watched the two Japanese soldiers rush out in front of him. The two Japanese soldiers on the other side also saw that the passage was full of soldiers.

This unexpected thing made them stunned.

At this time, Lin Fan had quickly rushed up, and the dagger in his hand flashed past.

Oto Yoichi reached out and forcefully covered his neck, making a low roar in his mouth.

The sound was like the sound of a wild animal dying, but it could not be heard.

Ye Dadan followed Lin Fan closely, and the Kusu Takeo on the left was stabbed after he covered his mouth.

The First Company soldiers who were following behind them quickly rushed into the passage where the two Japanese soldiers had rushed out.

As soon as they went in, they saw Company Commander Koshigaya Masaya.

Seeing that the Japanese soldier in front of him did not have a weapon in his hand, the First Company Commander Shi Honghua, who was rushing in the front, did not shoot.

He just quickened his pace, and the distance between them was only less than ten meters.

When Shi Honghua rushed in front of Company Commander Koshigaya Masaya, the Japanese soldier had not yet reacted.

Koshigaya Masaya never thought that the National Army would have sneaked onto the cargo ship on the first night he received the mission.

It was not until his chest was pierced by a bayonet that he woke up from his daze.

He shouted loudly, "Ah!"

Although his voice was loud, it did not cause much of a stir in the noisy noise of the cargo ship.

The Japanese soldiers in each cabin had closed their doors and were sleeping.

No Japanese soldiers opened the door to take a look.

The soldiers of the First Company stood guard at the door of each room in this row of cabins.

Then they began to kick the doors in at the same time.

After First Mate Kamo Seiichi was stabbed to death by the soldiers who rushed into the cockpit, Luo Yazhi immediately took over the operation of the entire ship.

The *Chigusa Maru* cargo ship quietly sailed to the side of the Yangtze River.

Luo Yazhi did not want to ground or dock the ship.

He just wanted to steer the ship away from the main channel to a slightly more marginal position.

Ten minutes later, the *Chigusa Maru* cargo ship had anchored and moored.

All five three-thousand-ton cargo ships were hung on the side of the *Chigusa Maru*, and the soldiers of the Eighth and Sixth Regiments were nervously unloading the cargo.

All the cargo on this ship had to be transferred to these five cargo ships.

Luo Yazhi did not find the loading list of these cargoes in the captain's room, but he did find the ship's manual from the information in the captain's room.

He saw that it had only been manufactured in 1933.

He could not help but feel sorry for the fate of this ship! The soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade built a chute between the *Chigusa Maru* cargo ship and the five small cargo ships.

Many things that did not weigh hundreds of kilograms were all released from the chute.

Only those bulky things would be left to be hoisted onto the cargo ship using the cargo ship's crane.

More than a dozen soldiers sent by Liu Ziqian were nervously disassembling the radios and wireless radios on this cargo ship.

Lin Fan instructed them to dismantle all the things on the ship that could be dismantled and taken away.

This time, the Special Operations Brigade did not intend to leave the ship behind, which was also why Luo Yazhi felt sorry for such a good ship.

Lang Yongan led a group of crew members and soldiers on the ship, looking for hidden cabins on the ship.

They were also piling up all the dead crew members and Japanese soldiers on the ship into several cabins and closing the cabins with wire.

This was what Lin Fan had requested: after the ship sank into the river, try not to let the ship expose any traces.

Let the Central China Expeditionary Army of the Japanese search along the Yangtze River, or guess where the ship had gone! There were really too many things loaded on this ship. Lin Fan and the others started working at twelve o'clock and had been busy unloading the goods.

Afraid that the five ships could not load the goods on the *Chigusa Maru*, Lin Fan also asked one cargo ship to unload half a ship of goods on the shore.

They had been busy until five thirty in the morning before all the goods on the ship were unloaded.

Luo Yazhi drove the *Chigusa Maru* to the middle of the Yangtze River channel and dropped anchor.

The soldiers of the Eighth Regiment detonated the explosives installed on the bottom of the ship.

Looking at the river water that was pouring in wildly from the bottom of the ship, the thirty or so members of the Special Operations Brigade on the *Chigusa Maru*.

Only then did they return to the following cargo ship.

Now, the three companies of the Sixth Regiment were following these five cargo ships with radios and wireless radios.

They would drive these ships to Jintan under the leadership of Lang Yongan.

There were one hundred kilometers of waterway, and if there were no accidents.

These ships should arrive at about one o'clock in the afternoon.

Lin Fan and Feng Junya had to return the same way and go to Jintan to rest.

The Tenth Regiment of Li Zhize stationed in Jintan and the Thirteenth Regiment stationed in Tianwang Temple had already quietly sent the main force to lurk on the way to Changzhou and Wujin.

Their task was to protect these five cargo ships and prevent accidents from happening.

On January 7, 1938, the headquarters of the Central China Expeditionary Army could not contact the *Chigusa Maru* cargo ship.

At this time, they were anxious and sent a flying squadron along the Yangtze River to search in the direction of Shanghai.

At the same time, they inquired with the navy stationed in Shanghai: had they seen the *Chigusa Maru* cargo ship?

All the searches and investigations yielded no results.

According to Captain Masaaki Harada's last report: they were in Zhenjiang at one o'clock in the afternoon on the 6th, and the *Chigusa Maru* was sailing at a speed of ten kilometers per hour.

It was now three o'clock in the afternoon on the 7th.

According to Captain Masaaki Harada's plan: at this time, the *Chigusa Maru* cargo ship should be on the waterway between Jiangyin and Nantong.

The planes that took off from Nantong Airport searched this section of the river three times, but they did not find a ten-thousand-ton cargo ship at all.

They extended the search distance to the estuary, which was more than 300 kilometers away from Zhenjiang waterway.

There was no way the *Chigusa Maru* cargo ship would have sailed so fast under full load.

Even so, there was still no trace of the *Chigusa Maru*.

It seemed to have suddenly disappeared from the Yangtze River channel.

All the Japanese troops stationed along the Yangtze River were urgently assembled and pulled to the banks of the Yangtze River to search for the *Chigusa Maru* cargo ship.

At this time, Lin Fan and the others had arrived in Jintan.

Li Zhize's Tenth Regiment had also completed its mission and returned.

It was as if nothing had happened.

The contingency plan that Lin Fan had made to prevent accidents did not happen.

Not only was their team returning from the land route all smooth.

The team of Lang Yongan and Luo Yazhi, who were moving from the waterway, was also surprisingly smooth.

As soon as these cargo ships arrived at the wharf, they immediately began to unload the goods.

From the start of the operation last night to the unloading of the goods now, Lin Fan did not know what he had brought back.

Now was not the time to check. He had to transport these goods back to the warehouse and put them away first.

Then it would be better to slowly summarize and check them.

This time, unloading the goods from the ship took much longer than the time it took last night.

The main reason was that there were too many goods, and they had to unload the goods while transferring them to the shore.

This greatly slowed down the speed.

Even though there were now more than 1,000 people in the Tenth Regiment working together.

They were busy until after ten o'clock in the evening.

The cleanup work started on the 8th, starting small and then getting bigger.

They started with the suitcases first.

Some of these suitcases were found in the crew cabins.

Some of them were cleared out of the cargo area.

They filled a room full.

When the first suitcase was opened, it contained two large gold bars, ten gold bars.

A