When the car stopped, Qiu Qiu jumped out excitedly and told the driver:
"Wait here!"
Then he avoided the passing nurses and wounded people and ran towards the inpatient building of the naval hospital.
She pushed open the door of Xiuxiu's single ward and stared blankly at the empty hospital bed, where a nurse was tidying up the sheets.
"Ah... ah... Excuse me, where is Xiuxiu?"
The nurse looked up at her and said:
"Shangxiu? You've been discharged from the hospital."
"when?"
"Just now... Oh, Dr. Liang sent her out. You can ask Dr. Liang."
"Oh, thanks."
Qiu Qiu was relieved and ran to find Dr. Liang excitedly.
Doctor Liang knew Qiu Qiu as Xiuxiu's attending doctor, the military doctor who always wore a big mask and put her hands in the pockets of her white coat. When Qiu Qiu came to see Xiu Xiu, he often chatted with her.
But she asked a lot of people, but they were all whom she had met just now, and now she didn't know where they were.
Suddenly, there was a scream from the end of the corridor. Qiu Qiu's whole body shivered and she looked in the direction of the sound. She saw a nurse running out from the end of the corridor. She fell down after running two steps, leaned against the corner and shouted tremblingly:
"Someone is coming—someone is dead—"
Qiu Qiu was confused and immediately ran over with the others. At the end of the corridor was the toilet. The nurse, with a pale face, pointed at the door of the women's toilet tremblingly. Qiu Qiu opened the door and was immediately shocked by the horror in front of her.
There was a large pool of blood on the ground. A female doctor fell in the pool of blood, with a large cut on her neck, and residual blood was still flowing out. Her eyes were wide open, and she was still wearing a large mask.
It is Dr. Liang.
Qiu Qiu's legs were soft and she slowly stepped aside, leaning against the wall and caressing her chest, breathing heavily while her heart was beating wildly.
There was already a chaos in the corridor. Doctors and nurses rushed in to check his pupils and perform artificial respiration, but nothing worked. After a few minutes, a stretcher with his face covered with white cloth was brought out.
Qiu Qiu leaned against the wall and stared blankly at their busy work. His mind was blank for a long time.
A living person, whom I often met and chatted with, is so dead...such a good person...
Who killed her? Why did he kill her?
Qiu Qiu thought hard about what he was here for. It took him a long time to remember: He was here to pick up Xiuxiu from the hospital... Then why did he ask for Dr. Liang? By the way, it was the nurse who said that Dr. Liang was just here to see Xiuxiu off.
I just came out after being discharged from the hospital.
Now Dr. Liang was killed in the toilet... Qiu Qiu became anxious: What about Xiu Xiu? Will he also meet the murderer?
Qiu Qiu ran out, but fell to the ground. Her legs were soft. Qiu Qiu gritted her teeth and got up, mustered up the courage to rub her legs a few times, and ran outside.
She ran outside the inpatient building and then to the hospital gate. She looked around and looked around, but she couldn't see Xiu Xiu. She was unwilling to give up and asked many people, but they all said they didn't know.
Qiu Qiu became anxious and shouted Xiuxiu's name. The wounded soldiers, doctors and nurses in the yard were all looking at her.
"Madam, what's wrong?"
The driver who sent Qiu Qiu came over and asked.
Ever since Xiang Xiaoqiang knelt down to propose to Qiu Qiu in front of everyone in the headquarters, many people called Qiu Qiu "Madam" half-truthfully. Qiu Qiu was not annoyed, at most he just spat shyly.
She was very happy. So everyone gradually called her "Madam".
"Xiu Xiu...Xiu Xiu..." Qiu Qiu said anxiously. Suddenly she saw the driver, "By the way, Xiaoqiang must have a way! Quick, take me to a place where I can make a phone call. I want to call Xiaoqiang."
, let him find a way to save Xiuxiu!"
Although Qiu Qiu didn't know what happened at this time, her instinct told her that Xiu Xiu was in danger and needed to be "rescued".
…
In a secluded alley in Qinhuai District, the captain was walking slowly side by side with Xiuxiu. The captain was covered in blood and was wearing a ragged army coat, with his right hand in his coat pocket.
Xiu Xiu lowered her head, her face was pale, and she didn't say a word.
The captain looked around, lowered his voice and threatened:
"...Do you hear me? Let's walk slowly like this. If anyone asks, just say I am your uncle! Do you hear me?"
Xiuxiu lowered her head and still didn't say a word.
"Did you hear that? Speak!... You want to die? Do you want to die too?"
The "captain" pushed Xiu Xiu hard, causing Xiu Xiu to hit the wall, biting her lip and nodding with tears in her eyes.
The captain snorted with a grim smile, looked around to see if there was no one around, and slowly pulled off the gauze on his face with his left hand.
Xiuxiu saw that this man was in his forties and had no injuries at all except dirt and dust on his face.
"Damn, this feels so much better."
He threw the gauze aside, then pushed Xiuxiu to the wall, looked her over, then reached out to lift the button of Xiuxiu's coat. Xiuxiu clung to the wall in horror, blocking his hand with both hands, and said in a trembling voice
:
"What are you going to do..."
The captain took out a pistol from his pocket with his right hand, put it on Xiu Xiu Xiu's chin, and said fiercely:
"Keep your voice down! I don't want to do anything to you! I'm not in the mood right now!"
Xiuxiu burst into tears as she watched him unbutton her woolen coat. Then the captain took out a grenade from his arms, tied it with a military shoelace to the wooden handle, and hung it around her neck.
Then unscrew the safety cover.
Xiuxiu saw that he didn't mean to invade her, so she closed her eyes and gave up resistance.
The captain pulled out a long piece of yarn from the gauze, tied one end to the grenade ring, and took the other end out of Xiu Xiu's coat sleeve and tied it to his own belt. Xiu Xiu saw that he himself
There was also a grenade on his waist, and the yarn tied the tabs of the two grenades together.
"Get dressed!"
The captain buttoned up his military coat to cover the grenade, and then ordered Xiuxiu to button up her coat as well.
"Listen, now we have two grenades, one for each of us. If you are a bit dishonest, we will finish the game together!"
Xiuxiu sobbed a few times, then forced herself to calm down and look at the "captain" in front of her.
...No, he is definitely not a captain of the People's Guard. He is already over forty years old, so he cannot still be a captain... And his accent is obviously from the north...
Xiuxiu wiped away her tears, took a breath, raised her head and asked:
"Are you Qing...are you from the north?...What do you want?"
The alley was not too deep, and the noise on the road outside kept coming in. At this time, a newsboy ran past outside and shouted:
"Excuse me! Our People's Guard completely wiped out the Qinglu Eight Banners Division!... Qinglu Division Commander Ha Feng'a massacred more than 40 of my villagers and has not yet been captured!..."
Xiuxiu's ears twitched slightly and she looked at the "Captain" in front of her. She was startled and a terrible thought entered her mind. She immediately lowered her eyes and continued to sob.
The "Captain" was very nervous and kept looking towards the exit of the alley and said:
"Let's go, it's not safe here!"
He pushed Xiuxiu around a corner and entered a deeper alley. This place was completely invisible from the road outside. Due to the large-scale evacuation of Nanjing for many days, many houses were empty. Now this kind of
The alley is very quiet, like no man's land.
…
This "captain" is Ha Feng'a, commander of the Sixth Division of the Eight Banners.
When he watched the tanks of the People's Guard rushing through his "last line of defense" like a tide, he knew that the entire army was annihilated.
At that time, Hafeng'a took advantage of the chaos, darkness, and fog to run back with the core personnel of his division, or lie down and pretend to be dead, or lay in the bushes. When the Ming army's attack wave passed, he also stayed behind
After a pile of corpses, they took off their military uniforms from the Ming army's corpses and put them on. After Hafeng'a ambushed the Ming army's reinforcements in Zhangjiacun, in order not to reveal the size and whereabouts of his division, he ordered all the more than 40 people in the village to be captured.
kill.
He knew that with this one thing, he would have no chance of survival if he was caught. In order to prevent others from getting out, he asked his personal military doctor to wrap his face with gauze to pretend that his face was seriously injured. This way, he would not be exposed by anyone.
When you come out, you can also make excuses not to speak to avoid being interrogated and avoid revealing your accent.
After Xiuxiu heard the newsboy shouting "Qinglu Division Commander Ha Feng'a massacred more than 40 of my villagers and has not been captured yet", she instantly realized that this forty-year-old "captain" should be the executioner division commander.
As for how Ha Feng'a escaped in disguise, although Xiuxiu didn't see it, she immediately guessed it.
She lowered her head, wiped away her tears, and asked timidly:
"Are you...are you from the sticky pole?"
Ha Feng'a didn't answer. He just leaned against the wall, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. His hands were trembling, and he struck a match several times without lighting it. He touched the cold sweat on his forehead and threw the match to Xiu.
show:
"Girl, light it for me!"
"...there are grenades."
"Why don't you smoke if you have a grenade? Damn it, light it up!"
Xiuxiu glanced at him, quietly lit the fire and lit it for him.
Ha Feng'a puffed out a long puff of smoke and seemed to relax. He looked at Xiu Xiu and asked in a dry voice:
"Girl, are you Xiang Xiaoqiang's unmarried daughter-in-law?"
Xiuxiu looked at him in surprise, and immediately understood that he was kidnapping her because he was here for Mr. Xiang. She shook her head and said sadly:
"No... Mr. Xiang, he is focused on Qiu Qiu right now. It's useless for you to catch me, you can't threaten him."
Ha Feng Aha laughed, pinched her chin, and applied a little force. Xiu Xiu burst into tears of pain and couldn't scream.
"Little girl, don't do this to me! How many years have I lived? How many years have you lived? Haha, but... Judging from your girl's expression, although this sentence is meant to deceive me, it is still half-truth.
ah!"
…
On the side of the road at the entrance of the alley, a female student with pigtails was standing guard here, running around anxiously. When she saw someone approaching, she immediately ran over and whispered:
"Sir, please help me. I'm from Dongchang. Can you..."
When the pedestrian heard this, he shook his head and walked away immediately.
The female student was so anxious that when she saw another woman approaching, she rushed towards her:
"Auntie, please help me!"
The aunt smiled kindly and said:
"What are you doing, little girl?"
"I am from Dongchang. Please help me go to Dongchang to request..."
"From Dongchang? Just you? Oh, tsk, tsk, tsk..."
Auntie also left.
The female student was so anxious that she shouted:
"I have my ID! Can't I show it to you?"
Finally, another young man came over. He was wearing glasses and was very green. He looked like a male student. The female student was overjoyed and jumped forward to stop him:
"Senior, this young lady is so polite!"
…
So, this young male student held up his glasses, held a book under his arm, blushed and panted and ran towards the place she said to report the news.
The person following Ha Feng'a and Xiu Xiu was none other than Dongchang's female agent Cao Nvshi, the one who previously worked as a "maid" in the Fourteenth Princess House and was known as "Saotome Shiki" in Japanese.
Since Xiuxiu was hospitalized for more than a month, Dongchang has been sending female agents to pretend to be patients and live next door to her. Even if they are monitoring her, they are also protecting her. Because Xiuxiu is also a member of Dongchang, Dongchang will replace her with another one every once in a while.
Female agent to avoid Xiu Xiu becoming suspicious.
The last one was Cao Nvshi's turn. At first she didn't know why Dongchang was so "careful" about a little female soldier who was hospitalized. She thought that she had failed in her work at the Fourteenth Princess and had been assigned to sit on the bench.
Later, I saw that Xiang Xiaoqiang often visited Xiu Xiu, and the two were very close, and I understood what was going on. She also regarded this as an opportunity to make up for her past mistakes, and monitored her very diligently. She couldn't sleep well these days, Panda
The eyes have already been there.
But it seemed that she was destined to be unlucky. On the last day when Xiuxiu was about to be discharged from the hospital and she had to go on business smoothly, when she came back from buying breakfast, she saw Xiuxiu being forced to go out by a wounded soldier of the People's Guard. To others, it seemed that it was just two people.
They walked side by side, but she could tell at a glance that Xiuxiu was being coerced.
Cao Nushi knew that the man had been pointing a gun at Xiu Xiu, so she didn't dare to take any action. If Xiu Xiu was shot, she would be guilty of a big crime, so she only dared to follow them quietly until they entered the alley.
Cao Nvshi knew that there was no one in the alley, so she tried to follow her but her cover was exposed. When she went back to call for backup, she would be lost again. She was so anxious. Fortunately, a male student finally called for reinforcements for her. I wonder if people can
Come before moving positions.
…
In the alley, Ha Feng A laughed and lied to Xiu Xiu:
"Girl, where do you want to go? I'm not a stickler at all, I'm an officer of our Ming Dynasty! You don't hear my accent, right? I came from the north before and joined our army of the Ming Dynasty... What,
You don’t believe it? Hey, let me tell you the truth, I was an officer of our People’s Guard. I was afraid of the war at that time, so I pretended to be dead and became a deserter... Well, now that I think about it, I really shouldn’t have done it. I wanted to go back, but I was afraid of being punished by the adults.
Sin, I’m so scared!”
Listening to his clumsy lie, Xiu Xiu controlled not to show disbelief. While wiping her tears, she pretended to be relaxed and curled her lips:
"Then... since you know that I am Mr. Xiang's un... wife, how dare you do this to me..."
Hafon'a slapped himself on the back of the head:
"Oh, blame me, blame me, blame me for being confused. I just wanted to be a deserter and get shot, and I wanted to escape back to the north, so I captured you. I wanted to take you as a hostage and force the Lord to send a ship to take me back to the north!"
...Now that I think about it, a man who has already become a coward and has to kidnap a little girl to escape is not a hero! Only one person can do the work for the other, and only the man who stays to make up for his mistakes is a man!"
Xiuxiu stared at him, mentally thinking about what tricks he was playing. After a long time, she said:
"Then...just let me go."
Halfon'a shook his head and said:
"That won't work! I still cherish this life! I will go back now, otherwise I will be arrested and shot by the gendarmerie! I was thinking, hey hey hey... girl, oh no, Mrs. Xiang..."
Xiuxiu's face turned red and her body felt numb.
Halfon'a continued:
"Can you find an excuse to make an appointment with Mr. Xiang alone? He and I, two men, talked about this matter face to face. As long as he gives me a guarantee and a chance to make atonement, I will take you
Let it go. How about it?"
Xiuxiu bit her lip, lowered her head quietly, twisted her clothes with her hands, put her toes together, and moved up and down, as if she was considering his conditions. But everything was already clear in her mind:
This commander of the Qing Army did not want to hijack himself and threaten you, but he simply wanted to kill you!... He was defeated on the battlefield and his level was inferior to others at that time. Why should he spread his hatred on the opponent's commander?
?
But Hafeng'a was not out of "hatred towards Xiao Qiang". When he put on the clothes of the Ming army on the battlefield, he only thought about how to escape with his life and how not to be recognized by the Ming army. But after the Ming army finished the battle, they finally
The first thing to do was to send all the wounded into the city. Hafeng'a also had to be carried into a car and sent to the city hospital. He didn't want to enter Nanjing originally, because if he wanted to escape back to Beiqing, he would undoubtedly
It's easier outside the city.
When he was thinking about how to escape in the hospital, he also thought of kidnapping a big shot to use as a talisman to escape. But the thought passed in a flash. How could it be possible? In his condition, he had no chance to contact any big shot. But then Dr. Liang
He Xiuxiu passed by him, and he heard that she was actually the fiancée of the commander of the People's Guard! Such a rare opportunity was right in front of him! Ha Feng'a didn't think much at the time, and immediately followed them while they were entering the bathroom.
Taking the opportunity, he followed him in, killed Dr. Liang with one knife, took out his pistol and kidnapped Xiuxiu.
But Ha Feng'a's initial excitement passed and his mind became clear. His whole division was wiped out. Even if he escaped back to the Qing Dynasty alone, could the court spare him? Surrender to the Ming Dynasty. He had already shouldered a blood debt in Zhangjiacun. It was impossible.
. And I still have a wife and children in the Qing Dynasty.
After thinking for a while, the only way to survive was to make a great contribution here, a great contribution that could make up for the loss of the entire army. By escaping back in this way, he and his wife and children would have a chance to survive.
Ha Feng'a took the risk and asked Xiuxiu to get Xiang Xiaoqiang alone, so that he could also take Xiang Xiaoqiang hostage and use him as a hostage to escape back to the Qing Dynasty. Going deep into the tiger's den and capturing the commander of the People's Guard alive was a great achievement.
He also knew that this matter was by no means as simple as it said, and it would only take good luck. However, if God really didn't help him, he would have no choice but to shoot Xiang Xiaoqiang to death and commit suicide himself. In this case, with all his power,
By killing the commander of the People's Guard, my family in the Qing Dynasty would not be implicated, and they would receive generous pensions.
…
Xiuxiu thought for a while, raised her head and asked:
"Do you keep your word?"
Hafon'a was overjoyed and immediately raised a hand and solemnly said:
"Haha...I...Zhang Fugui swears to God, if even half of what he just said to Mrs. Xiang doesn't count, I will be shot to death today!"
Xiuxiu said "hmm", already thinking about it, she said:
"Well, I can let you see Mr. Xiang today."
"Okay, thank you, Mrs. Xiang!"
…
Ms. Cao still hoped that these two people could stay in the alley until reinforcements arrived. Now they came out of the alley and walked forward. And they didn't seem so tense.
She couldn't understand, so she could only complain secretly and continue to follow them from a distance.
They passed through several streets and villages, going further and further south, and gradually came to the Confucius Temple area, near Qinhuai, ten miles away.
This is the most beautiful, classical and tasteful place in Nanjing. Some people also call it the "Wuyi Lane District", referring to the fact that most of the residences of dignitaries are here.
Ms. Cao was a little confused, what are you doing here?
But the more she followed, the more familiar he seemed, and finally Xiuxiu led the man into Jianzi Lane and stopped outside the door of a quiet mansion.
Ms. Cao almost fainted: This is No. 14, Scissor Lane...the mansion of the 14th Princess.