Chapter 624: Action Ends

Although Wang Yan had always killed with one blow, he was not a person who pursued headshots when using a gun. Especially at this moment, he was using a standard pistol used by Japanese special agents. He hadn't fired these guns before, so he couldn't master the trajectory. Even at close range, it was at most ten meters, so he wouldn't risk headshots. Instead, he aimed at the upper chest, where the heart and lungs were located. If he hit one, whether they died or not was another matter, but they would definitely lose combat effectiveness.

So an interesting phenomenon was that the six people inside the gate were all shot in the chest. The eight people standing outside the gate fence were all shot near the eyes. This was because the first three shots of the left and right hands had already grasped the trajectory and could point wherever he wanted. However, wanting to headshot was difficult; after all, the little devils were wearing steel helmets, and the Nambu pistol didn't have such powerful power to penetrate them.

Under the dim light at the gate, the eye positions under the brims of the little Japanese soldiers' steel helmets burst open, flesh and blood flew, and danced in the air. The eight little devils outside were killed instantly.

At this time, the Mobile Corps Commander fighters who were lying in ambush on both sides rushed out. Wang Yan saw very clearly that the fighters rushing to the front even had ferocious smiles on their faces. They raised their guns and were about to fire, but stopped suddenly, being pushed forward by the people behind. The ferocious smiles on their faces disappeared and were replaced by confusion.

Wang Yan didn't pay much attention, raised his gun calmly, and gave headshots to the little Japanese who were shot in the chest and fell to the ground one by one, and then turned and ran toward the Building A prison. During the process, the double guns appeared, and the magazines were already full. Counting the bullets in the chamber, the two guns had a total of 34 rounds.

At this moment, the inside of the prison was already full of gunshots. Several squads of Japanese soldiers patrolling inside the prison had already smelled the gunshots and were charging toward their dormitory in combat formation, but clearly, this was of no use.

Now it was 1938. These little Japanese army soldiers were well-trained, and their combat effectiveness was indeed strong, but that was for organized field battles, city battles, encounter battles, etc., not for the current situation of having a plan against no plan, and having preparation against no preparation.

The four towers were in hand. When these sixty or seventy people ran nearby, they encountered dense machine gun strafing. The machine gun bullets with powerful impact force would tear off a piece of flesh if they brushed past the body, and if they hit the body, the flesh and blood of the mortal body would even be torn apart, and limbs and arms would be scattered.

And the gunshots in the dormitory were also the assault sounds of the American submachine guns provided by Wang Yan. The little Japanese were all lying on the beds sleeping, awakened by the explosion, and what they faced when they opened their eyes was a burst of fire.

As for the various identities of people in the cells, they were all boiling at this moment. The sound of howling was not even worse than the dense gunshots. Even a fool should know at this moment that someone had come to attack the prison. Then what awaited them? Undoubtedly, it was freedom from torture.

Wang Yan ran at high speed and rushed directly into the prison of Building A. Originally, there were two Japanese soldiers standing guard at the door here, but they were attracted by the gunshots before, and they rushed out with their Arisaka rifles and were swept to death by the machine guns on the tower...

Arriving inside the prison, a strange damp smell hit his face. Although the smell couldn't be called nauseating, it was very impactful. It was obvious that the people living here didn't have a good life.

This was a very normal thing. In this year, there was no such thing as "human rights." Once you entered prison, life and death were not up to you, but in the hands of others. The food here was not much better than pig feed, and oil and water were something you couldn't even think about. Malignant infectious diseases often broke out here, and no one came to treat them. Occasionally, someone would come to interrogate them, scrape out the last money on them, and then die miserably in the prison.

Wang Yan stopped at the door, adapted to the unpleasant smell, and simultaneously shot and killed two guards who came out with guns. As for whether they were real traitors or people who had to do it for a living, that was not in his consideration. Whoever held a gun, died.

Ignoring the excited shouting of others in the prison, Wang Yan looked coldly at the two guards who were walking out trembling with their hands raised: "Where are the keys to the third and fourth floors?"

"In the room."

"Take them out to me, hurry!" Wang Yan fired a shot, hitting their feet, scaring the two to run back in a hurry. He wasn't afraid that these two would go back to get guns, because no one was faster than him. To him, killing two people with guns and killing two children was no different.

Not long after, the two came out trembling with several large trays of keys: "These are the keys to all the cells in this building. This is for the third floor, and this is for the fourth floor."

Wang Yan took the keys to the third and fourth floors and picked up the two pistols on the ground: "Stand there, if you take a gun, you die."

After speaking, Wang Yan ran to the third floor at high speed, shot and killed the two night-duty guards with guns at the stairs, and then stepped inside.

Keeping important figures of high levels together was undoubtedly very convenient for management. Basically, a prison warden with a normal brain would operate like this. Instead of locking one here and one there. The defensive force of the prison guaranteed that no one would be crazy enough to take the risk of breaking into jail.

These important personnel of both parties who did not surrender actually had quite good temperaments. If it weren't for this, they wouldn't have been able to survive the torture. Especially after there was no other way, they would use electric torture, which was a very cruel punishment and also caused great damage to the body. Those who persisted, undoubtedly, basically had experienced electric torture, which showed how tenacious their vitality was.

So although they knew that there was only an iron fence between them and freedom, most of them were relatively calm. They all clung to the fence, staring closely at Wang Yan, their lips trembling without speaking. But someone couldn't control it and shouted loudly.

In fact, these people were not necessarily pure. It was not impossible for the Japanese to send one of their own, beat him up, and throw him in to gain the trust of these people.

But Wang Yan didn't have time to distinguish. He just fired two shots, hitting the feet of two people who were clinging to the railing and shouting, letting them shut up.

He moved his steps, and under the gaze of pairs of scarred faces and pairs of longing eyes, he shouted loudly: "Who is Feng Zhaochun?"

Someone answered loudly immediately: "He is upstairs!"

Wang Yan walked over in a few steps, approached the fence, and stared closely at his eyes: "Who are you?"

"Original Shanghai underground party organization, United Front cadre, Song Jindong!"

He didn't dodge at all, looking directly at Wang Yan's sharp, pressure-filled eyes. The light of faith shone in his eyes, firm and unmoving. But tears welled up, and his hands clinging to the fence trembled uncontrollably...

Wang Yan nodded gently, turned his head to look at the others in this cell, took a piece of paper from his pocket and stuffed it into his hand: "Do you know them all?"

"I know!"

"Can you still run?"

"Yes!"

Wang Yan turned and came to the door, took out the *Hanfeng* that had been carried on his back to cover his identity, and slashed down with a sudden force along the gap in the door, directly breaking the door lock. *Hanfeng* cut gold.

He took out the pistol he had just picked up downstairs and stuffed it into Song Jindong's hand: "Give it to someone you trust."

Song Jindong turned around without hesitation and stuffed the pistol into the hands of the people on his left and right. Wang Yan took out the keys to the third-floor cells and handed them to them: "Open the doors of all the cells. No matter who it is, if there is no organization or discipline, and anyone dares to step out of the door, execute them."

After speaking, Wang Yan looked at Song Jindong: "Take me to find them first, and also the important comrades of our Party and the Nationalist Party side that you think are important, gather them well first, to prevent them from getting lost."

"Important" referred to rank. They had been locked in prison for so long, they must have had exchanges. They definitely couldn't say the secrets they grasped, but their rank and position were basically public knowledge here. After all, they were captured, basically betrayed by others. They didn't open their mouths, others would open their mouths, so their identity was not a secret.

Song Jindong didn't have any extra nonsense either. According to the list, he first took Wang Yan to find more than ten people in the third-floor cells. Wang Yan slashed the iron doors with his knife and took them up to the fourth floor.

There were also two night-duty Chinese people on this floor, but at this moment, the gunshots outside had become sparse, and these two wisely threw their guns far away and honestly squatted together with their heads in their hands, saving their lives was the most important thing.

Wang Yan didn't pay attention to these two, let Song Jindong behind him out, and let him take people to find them, and let the other two take guns and keys to open the locks.

Those on this floor were indeed high-level personnel, and the rest of the people were all locked on this floor. It was just that their state was not very good. They were all wearing thin, tattered cloth clothes, none of them had fingernails or toenails, and through the tattered cloth clothes, one could see new and old scars crisscrossing inside, and some were even blind in one eye, with incomplete limbs. It was really not easy to be alive.

Feng Zhaochun was the last one found. His physical condition was very bad, lying on the cold bed and unable to move. But seeing Wang Yan slash the door lock and come in, his eyes were very bright. The hand grabbing Wang Yan's arm, although trembling, was very powerful.

Letting those with good physical condition carry him, Wang Yan looked at the more than eighty people of both parties gathered around him, helping each other, and shouted loudly: "You go out in three minutes. My ability is limited, I can only take these comrades away. Those who feel they have combat effectiveness, go to the guard dormitory and the prison arsenal to get weapons in a while, and break out together. Those who don't have combat effectiveness, find a way to run. We will block the Japanese reinforcements and win time for everyone. Everyone, take care. The anti-Japanese war will surely be victorious! China will surely stand at the pinnacle of the world! Long live Communism! Long live the Chinese nation!"

Wang Yan shouted slogans with his arms raised, giving them strong strength. It was quiet for only a moment. The next moment, the tenacious fighters trapped on the fourth floor followed Wang Yan's slogans and shouted. Although there were many Nationalist Party people among them, at this moment, they shouted the same slogan.

They only knew now that it was the Red Party who came to rescue them, and they didn't just save the Red Party people, they didn't abandon the Nationalist Party people either. Then shouting slogans, they didn't mind. Knowing the truth after escaping was also fine.

The Red Party rescued these people, on the one hand, it was the peripheral action, the Loyal and Righteous National Salvation Army was the main force, and they invested more troops. On the other hand, it was the humanitarian rescue of the Anti-Japanese National United Front. These Nationalist Party people were also truly anti-Japanese, and they were also truly iron-boned, and did not surrender to torture, so they should be rescued. On the last aspect, to be more conspiratorial, these people were all important figures of the Nationalist Party. After returning and recovering their health, they would inevitably be reused. With this fate, contact them well when looking back, strive for it, and it was not impossible for everyone to become a family...

The sound went from uneven to neat, from low to sonorous, from the fourth floor to the third floor, from the third floor to every corner of Building A. From Building A, it spread to every corner of the prison.

The night was thick, the gunshots were fading, the unyielding shouts rushed into the darkness, what surged was hot blood, what was inextinguishable was faith, in the tearful eyes, was the light of hope breaking through the darkness, that was the spark that could start a prairie fire...

Amidst these shouts, Wang Yan took more than eighty important members of both parties downstairs, and two trucks drove over with their headlights on. There were also fighters covered in blood running toward this side, helping to send these people onto the trucks. At this time, people in other buildings had already started running out, clearly released by the Mobile Corps Commander fighters.

Those detained here, apart from members of both parties, apart from peripheral progressives and patriots, also had many gangsters who had committed crimes. Undoubtedly, those who were running for their lives at this time were mostly those gangsters. This was also why Wang Yan didn't release people first. He wanted to ensure that everyone on the list was taken away, and as many other important personnel as possible were saved. If everyone was released in a swarm, it would scatter them, causing the action to fail.

Waiting for these people to get on the trucks, the people in Building A also started to come out. Many people were goal-oriented and ran toward the little Japanese dormitory and warehouse. They were relatively familiar with this place, so they were very decisive.

Wang Yan raised his wrist and checked the time. It was already 12:15, and the Japanese army was already on the way. He looked at the honest Mobile Corps Commander leader who had run to him before and said: "A total of 87 people from both parties boarded the trucks, and everyone on the list is included. The Japanese should have reacted by now and have already split their troops to rush here. According to the attacks in various places, combined with the scale of this prison, I estimate that the troop strength they sent is no more than five hundred. I am a sharpshooter and can contain them for a period of time. Now hurry up and retreat. If it's any later, you won't be able to leave. Comrade, take care!"

"We have thirty people on the road they are coming from, and we have already laid landmines. They will retreat in five minutes." The captain stood at attention and saluted, nodding heavily: "Take care!"

He didn't ask much. The order he received was that whatever this person said was what it was. He just had to do it and cooperate well.

Wang Yan didn't speak, turned and snatched an Arisaka rifle from a passing little fighter, pulled off the bag containing bullets, and strode toward an old car in the distance. He started the car quickly, went out from the gate, and turned north. The Japanese army's garrison would come from that direction. This place was actually relatively remote. The main road was just that one. The Japanese army's reinforcements would come from that road.

He drove away from the prison, observing the situation on both sides. Bombs had already been placed on the road. If he was blown away first, it wouldn't be good. Fortunately, he discovered the hiding place of the Mobile Corps Commander fighters who were blocking the reinforcements.

He drifted, turned the car around, parked the car on the side of the road, and then got out of the car with the gun, waving to the darkness: "The action is successful, retreat quickly, I will block the enemy."

As soon as the words fell, following the sound of "take care," the thirty people hiding nearby appeared one after another and turned to run. There was no such thing as the back-and-forth pulling in the TV series. The organizational discipline was there, and now the time for retreat had arrived. Since someone was covering the rear, then cover the rear. If you don't run quickly, what are you waiting for? There is no such thing as so much nonsense.

Wang Yan climbed to the roof of a civilian house on the side of the road, occupied a favorable terrain, lit a cigarette, and lay there watching the car headlights flashing in the distance.

The Japanese reaction was very fast. In the situation where reinforcements were needed in so many places, it only took them more than twenty minutes to send people here. They should have heard the continuous gunshots, judged the direction, and then contacted the prison urgently, confirmed that they couldn't be contacted, and then contacted the garrison, as well as the military police, etc. It could be said that it was basically a decision made at the first moment, and it wouldn't exceed seven or eight minutes. Counting the time for the soldiers to gather and set off and the time to rush on the road, it was now.

It seemed that the joint action of the Loyal and Righteous National Salvation Army and the Red Party guerrillas didn't have much help, but in fact, it was not the case. Because without their action, the troop strength sent over wouldn't be the five hundred he estimated; it might be possible to pull out a thousand-man brigade, and there would also be hundreds of military police reinforcements. That was not a force they could deal with.

There were people in the house below. Wang Yan even heard the crying of a child, which then disappeared. It was thought that at this time, this family must be hiding together, trembling helplessly.

At the same time, he also saw a few idiots running over from the direction of the prison in the darkness. This side also led to the pier. They should be trying to sneak over, hide in the cargo hold of a ship, and then flee Shanghai to go to any other place.

Wang Yan didn't pay attention to them. The landmines were placed on the big road, and they didn't dare to flee on the big road. Wang Yan threw away the cigarette butt, straightened his body, adjusted his shooting posture, pulled the bolt to load, and waited patiently for the Japanese reinforcement convoy to come over.

The truck's speed was very fast and had already driven not far away. The first car stepped on a landmine, which was very powerful, directly flipping the whole car on the road, and the soldiers in the car also suffered heavy casualties. The angle at which the truck was flipped was very good, lying horizontally on the road, which showed that the person who laid the landmine was also a talent, which seriously hindered the progress of the convoy behind.

The Japanese army behind started to jump out of the car, alertly aiming at both sides of the road, and at the same time, soldiers quickly came over to check the casualties. Everything was orderly.

Wang Yan aimed at a person who looked like a leader. It was nearly a hundred meters away, and it was dark, so he couldn't see any rank. Relying on his feeling, he pulled the trigger directly. Very luckily, he shot down the little devil who looked like a squad leader with one shot. He quickly pulled the bolt to load again and killed the person next to the squad leader.

These two gunshots became the fuse of a one-on-five-hundred encounter battle. As soon as Wang Yan's gunshots fell, the next moment, dense bullets came over, making him unable to lift his head at all.

Wang Yan was not in a hurry either. He jumped off the roof, flew over the eaves and walked over the walls, ran to another roof, *peng-peng* and fired two more shots, knocking down a little devil who was strafing with a machine gun, as well as the little devil beside him.

Afterward, he jumped off the roof again, ran to another wall, and during the process, put the gun into the space, used the power of the space to reload quickly, and then fired two shots to kill two more.

Then he didn't fire anymore, sneaking forward silently, approaching the Japanese army at a closer distance.

Six shots killed six people, exposing all the information. There was only one person, a sharpshooter with good marksmanship and fast firing, and the distance was not far. Wang Yan wanted them to know this information and wanted to create a tense atmosphere.

Because his mission was not to fly a kite with these little Japanese and kill how many people, but to delay their time as much as possible, letting the main force retreat safely. Every time, he could fire two shots quickly and kill two Japanese soldiers. Clearly, no one wanted to be those two people. Invisibly, they would have great pressure in their hearts.

Clearly, the Japanese also understood his meaning. So after a burst of shouting and scolding, several squads of troops dispersed on both sides of the street, entered the houses by the road, found cover, and started approaching the direction where he was. Behind, there were little devils starting to set up machine guns to provide fire suppression.

Wang Yan killed the machine gunner and the little devil beside him, and once again transferred his position despite the hail of bullets, approaching forward, aiming at a team of little Japanese who were touching over, took out a grenade from the space, pulled the ring, waited for two seconds with confidence, and then threw it over with his arms. The grenade exploded beside that team of people, and the scattered shrapnel instantly knocked down half of the little devils in that team.

For this operation, he basically emptied the space, which was filled with ammunition. Two cubic meters was not big, but if it was just filled with a few guns, and the rest were all bullets and grenades, the firepower was enough.

He just used the gun to hit the little Japanese providing fire support in the distance, occasionally fired shots to blow up the truck tires, and from time to time took out grenades from the space and threw them at the Japanese army touching over, while also constantly changing positions extremely flexibly, using the night and terrain to pull out a favorable combat space.

He had space, could provide ammunition without being burdened, it was night, if he didn't fire, the little Japanese couldn't find him, the terrain was favorable, they were all civilian houses, there was room to move, and he even ran to the rear of the little Japanese to fire cold shots. Plus his own powerful physical strength and marksmanship, these combined were why he had the confidence to dare to block five hundred people alone.

If it were daytime, the little Japanese would have started setting up artillery to bombard him...

The fierce battle lasted for a while, and Wang Yan didn't fire anymore. The little Japanese who had touched over just now were either shot by him or blown up by grenades, lying on the ground in pain. The tires of the cars were all blown out by him, and several little devils who looked like commanders were killed.

The little devils had been beaten to the point of not daring to have any extra actions, because in the past time, Wang Yan had fired from all directions—front, back, left, and right—and they couldn't lock his position. And the marksmanship was divine. Whoever shouted to issue orders would definitely die in the next wave of attacks. This led to the fact that they didn't have many commanders now, and the high-level ones were all killed by cold shots.

The ordinary soldiers also lost their fighting spirit, because this was too terrifying. They didn't know where the enemy was, didn't know when a grenade would fly over, and every time the gunshots rang twice, they would lose two people. How could this battle be fought?

They simply discovered that as long as they didn't move in place, didn't think about rushing to the prison, and didn't think about sending people to surround and kill that damned Chinese, they could be safe. Plus the commanders were almost all dead, and the remaining ones who were high enough didn't dare to issue orders anymore. These big-headed soldiers didn't even raise their guns, just stood there holding their guns, looking up at the stars in the dark sky, missing their hometowns. They had been out for a year, and they didn't know how things were at home. Some had even lit cigarettes, relieving the tension on the line of life and death, and the attachment to their hometown...

What broke their missing of their hometown was the sound of the car engine in the distance. They watched helplessly as that car drove away. Until this time, the commander remaining in the team used the lighter he was carrying to check the time. It was already 1:00. That terrifying and damned Chinese had used only one person to keep their team of five hundred people here for more than thirty minutes.

The commander shouted in despair, letting them gather quickly, one part to collect the corpses of the dead imperial soldiers, help the wounded, and the other part to rush to the prison direction immediately. As for that car that drove away openly, no one mentioned it, they just ran toward the prison quickly.

Wang Yan drove past the prison and was stopped by the military police who came first. He took out the Japanese special agent's documents openly and was let go, without even asking where he was going. As for the problem of the prison car, there was no networked computer in this era, so it couldn't be checked for a while.

He drove openly to Maohai Road, changed to the car he had driven over before, and then drove openly on the road. Now the entire Hongkou had been under martial law. The military police ran back and forth, checking house by house. They had already started looking for the escaped prisoners. It was just handing over the documents, and then with a standard Northeast accent, saying he had official business, and then cursing the damned Chinese for being hateful, not letting people sleep in the middle of the night, and that the brothers of the military police were really hard-working.

Just like that, he entered the International Settlement openly. It was the same intersection as when he came, and it was the same set of rhetoric, just adding that Nantian Yoko sent him to do his own things. The foreign devils' side was even simpler. They still remembered him, and after spending some money, he arrived at the International Settlement, escaping perfectly.

He went to a safe house, first changed the license plate, which was registered. As for the car problem, his car was the Ford with the highest sales volume, without any characteristics. There were many families with cars in the Shanghai Bund, so they couldn't find him.

Afterward, he ran upstairs, opened the window, took out the radio that had been placed in advance, set up the radio antenna, adjusted it, and started sending telegrams to Chongqing *deng-deng-deng*. There was an action, it had to be reported. What he did, what he saw, all had to be reported in detail. At that time, it would be combined with reports from other aspects to verify each other and clarify the merit.

After receiving the organization's affirmation and praise again, Wang Yan washed the smell of gunpowder smoke off his body with cold water in this house, changed into another set of clothes, and applied makeup again. He cleaned up the space again, put the radio in, and packed the other guns and ammunition in a box. He opened the door and went downstairs, drove to a hidden warehouse to park, and threw the weapons and ammunition in the car. He "borrowed" a bicycle and returned to the French Concession, and then went to the safe house when he came, restoring his original appearance and changing back to his previous attire.

Although Wang Yan didn't intend to ride the bicycle back, seeing that the bicycle he parked just now disappeared again, he couldn't help but shake his head, and then turned and left, hiding his figure, and returned to the Wang Mansion in the French Concession.

The action of this night didn't have so many heroic songs. Undoubtedly, those comrades who were captured were very miserable. Their mood for being rescued was very good, and the mood of those who rescued them was very bad. But those who rescued them didn't say a word, and those who were rescued didn't dawdle, pulling things like "the organization didn't forget me," adding drama to themselves. What they had was just the tension of racing against time and dealing with the enemy.

Before reporting to Chongqing, Wang Yan didn't receive news about those people. They must have not escaped the Japanese pursuit and were on the road of fleeing. However, it was thought that there was no big problem, because everything was very smooth.

If the retreat road was not smooth, Wang Yan had no way, because he had already done everything he could do... ===== CHAPTER 625 =====

There was no grand, tragic heroism in the night's operation. Without a doubt, those comrades who were arrested had it miserable; their mood upon being rescued was excellent, while the mood of those doing the rescuing was terrible. Yet, those doing the rescuing did not say a single extra word, and those being rescued did not dawdle or prattle on about how "the organization has not forgotten me," nor did they force any dramatic scenes. All there was, was the tense race against time and the maneuvering against the enemy.

Wang Yan had not received any news about those people in his previous reports to Chongqing; they must still be on the run, having not yet escaped the Japanese pursuit. However, he figured it shouldn't be a major problem, as everything had gone very smoothly.

If the evacuation route were not smooth, there would be nothing Wang Yan could do, for he had already done everything he possibly could...