Under the escort of a Lightning-2 tank and an armored personnel carrier, Xiang Xiaoqiang's armored command vehicle drove into the Pukou headquarters compound.
This place is only 300 meters away from the front line. Not far away is the deafening sound of crossfire.
There are few intact buildings left in the headquarters compound. The ground is filled with broken bricks and rubble, the broken walls are still smoking, and the furniture inside is burnt black, and some are still smoking.
A squad of People's Guards first got off the armored vehicle, holding submachine guns, and lined up in all directions. Then, Xiang Xiaoqiang got off the command vehicle, straightened the collar of his military coat, and stepped on the rubble with his big leather boots. The two vehicles behind them
On the truck, war reporters also jumped off one after another and immediately held up their cameras to capture General Xiang from different angles as he penetrated the front line.
Documents and papers were scattered all over the ground, rolling on the ruins in the wind. Some of them were still on fire, and paper dust swirled and flew into the air.
Xiang Xiaoqiang turned back and asked:
"Have you checked all the documents left by the Qing army?"
Li Gensheng replied from behind:
"Back to your lord, the security team members are checking office buildings one by one. The Qing army had many documents that they didn't have time to take away or burn, and they were in bundles. We have gained a lot."
Although the most confidential things must have been taken away, there are so many offices, and there are bundles of documents in the filing cabinets in each office. The Qing army probably did not have time to process them systematically, sorting out which ones should be taken away and which ones should be burned.
Lost, but only had time to take away a few of the most critical ones, and the rest could only be burned as much as possible. So there must be a lot of valuable things.
Xiang Xiaoqiang observed the surrounding environment and carefully distinguished the ruins. As he walked, a large group of guards and reporters followed him and took pictures.
He slowly turned in front of a small building.
This small building only has two floors, and large pieces of gray cement have fallen off, exposing the bricks inside. Half of the second floor has no roof, and the wall in one corner has collapsed. There is no sign or brand in front of the door.
Xiang Xiaoqiang looked up at this dilapidated small building and was filled with emotion. Although he had only been here once, and it was at night, this small building had been deeply imprinted in his mind.
He looked up for a while, then raised his foot to go in.
Two guards hurriedly stopped him and said:
"Sir, you can't enter, it's too dangerous!"
When Xiang Xiaoqiang was about to have a fit, Li Gensheng stepped forward to hold him back and persuade him:
"Sir, this small building is already in this condition and will collapse at any time! You can't go in!"
Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at the "dangerous house" in front of him and whispered:
"Gensheng, I know you are good for me, but you have to let me go in and take a look. You don't know, this is the stick-stick place. Qiu Qiu and I first met here... Besides, you have to follow your conscience
Is this small building likely to collapse at any time? Look, half of the roof and half of the wall on the second floor are gone, but the main structure is still in good condition! ... Hey, you said, it ate one
The bomb hasn’t collapsed yet, will it collapse if a person goes up there now?”
Li Gensheng was immediately questioned and stunned and said:
"That...that won't happen, but my lord..."
"That's fine."
Xiang Xiaoqiang pulled Li Gensheng's hand away, stepped on the broken bricks, and got into the half-collapsed building. Li Gensheng shouted:
"Sir, I will accompany you!"
Then he stopped the guards and reporters and followed Xiang Xiaoqiang into the building.
The building looked like it had been after an earthquake. The corridors were filled with broken cement blocks and broken glass shards from light bulbs. Some office walls had collapsed, and the desks inside were covered with bricks and broken glass. File cabinets were overturned.
The exposed bundles of documents were scattered. Xiang Xiaoqiang got in, opened the bundle and looked through it. It was just blank letter paper.
He kicked open the door of another office and flipped it through, and it was roughly the same. Xiang Xiaoqiang understood that the stick office is the most critical department in the headquarters, and the important documents here must be processed with priority. So it is difficult.
Find something valuable.
"Sir, it's too dangerous, let's get out!"
Li Gensheng kept urging, like a nagging woman. Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't care about him at all, ducked into the corridor again, and found the stairs.
The stairs are made of reinforced concrete. Half of the stairs to the second floor have fallen off and are suspended by steel bars. It is very scary. Xiang Xiaoqiang walked down the stairs first. Li Gensheng said in pain behind him:
"Sir, don't go down!"
Then I still had to follow behind and follow.
The next floor is the underground cell. Since this part is underground and has a fully reinforced concrete structure, it is still relatively intact. Xiang Xiaoqiang asked Li Gensheng to strike a match, and in the faint light of the fire, he saw two small cells.
Thick iron fence, peeling yellow painted walls on both sides, and a small table for the fat guard.
Xiang Xiaoqiang said excitedly:
"Gensheng, you saw it. This is where I knocked out the fat guard and then rescued Xiuxiu and the others."
"Yes, yes, sir, you are really wise and brave..." Li Gensheng said anxiously, "Sir, it's too dangerous, let's go out..."
Xiang Xiaoqiang led him up from the basement to the first floor, and then looked up at the half-staircase leading to the second floor. Li Gensheng was thinking about how to persuade the adults not to go up to the second floor, when he saw Xiang Xiaoqiang grabbing the upper stair section with both arms.
Stepping on the hanging steel bars with both feet, he jumped up to the upper half of the stairs, and then went up the stairs to the second floor. Li Gensheng complained secretly, and climbed up the broken stairs at once, following Xiang Xiaoqiang.
Xiang Xiaoqiang found Nima Shan's office immediately. He was already very excited, but the door could not be opened. In a hurry, he took out his pistol and fired at the door lock, then kicked the door open.
Li Gensheng hurriedly shouted down from the gap in the remaining wall:
"The one who fired the gun and unlocked the door is fine..."
Nima Shan's office can be said to be the messiest place in the whole building.
This office was the largest, but it was also the most heavily bombed. The roof of the office was completely gone, and you could see the sun in the sky when you looked up. One side of the wall was also blown away, and there was a large hole with a diameter of two meters in the floor on the ground, which almost occupied the entire floor.
It covered more than half of the area of the office. The steel bars were splayed, and you could see directly to the first floor. It seemed that the bomb fell into the building from here, penetrated the top floor, and exploded directly in the office.
There was almost no piece of finished furniture left. The desk and filing cabinets had been blown to pieces. A single sofa was burning. Only the skeleton of charred wood and springs could be seen in the fire. Black smoke was rising and the smell was unpleasant.
Smell. Half of a couch was burnt black, but the other half was fine and covered with dust.
Xiang Xiaoqiang stared blankly at all this and this sofa. It was in this room that night when he first arrived in Daming, he fought with Nima Shan and Tuojin, and met Qiu Qiu.
He simply patted the dust on the couch and sat down on it... Although it was half burned, it was still very comfortable. Xiang Xiaoqiang couldn't help but think, what happened to the poor old man Nima Shan? There won't be a bomb falling in
He was in the house when , right?
Xiang Xiaoqiang gently touched the dusty sofa... That night, Qiu Qiu sat on this sofa, sitting where she is now. Xiu Xiu pretended to be Fourteenth Princess and sat on the single sofa.
...but it has been burned.
Li Gensheng was rubbing his hands again and urging:
"Sir, just take a look around, let's go out..."
He nodded to Xiaoqiang, stood up, and sighed:
"This small building is so memorable to me... You know, in the future, after we defeat the Qinglu and unify the country, I will protect this small building and turn it into a museum."
Li Gensheng opened his mouth wide and looked at him like an alien.
Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled, knowing that his idea of unifying the country seemed too crazy to others now.
He was about to walk down when he suddenly saw something strange. - He saw the first floor through a large hole in the floor. Under several large cement boards, a corner of something was exposed, glowing with metallic luster. Xiang Xiaoqiang
I was very interested. I squatted next to the big hole and looked down carefully. The more I looked at it, the more it looked like a safe... If it was really a safe, I would have discovered something good.
Xiang Xiaoqiang was impatient to take the stairs, grabbed the steel bars of the floor, leaned down, and jumped to the first floor. Li Gensheng was so frightened that he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that he was fine. He was from the commando team and was much more skilled.
He didn't even grab the steel bars and jumped directly.
Xiang Xiaoqiang squatted there, using his hands to open up a few broken bricks, and patted the corner of metal. It was painted with military green paint, which was very solid and thick.
"Safe."
He affirmed, stood up, pointed and ordered:
"Gensheng, we found something good. Let someone take it out."
Li Gensheng also looked at it and was overjoyed. This should be the safe in Nima Shan's office, which was blown through the floor by a bomb and fell to the first floor. The Qing army may not have discovered it, or they may have discovered it, but it was covered by several thick pieces.
The floor slab was pressed down, and there was no time to get it out, so I had to leave it here.
A group of engineers came in, calculated the angle, and planted explosives. A group of people retreated outside, and then there was a loud noise, and several floor slabs were blown open. The engineers were really good at blowing up the floor slabs, but did not collapse the walls.
More than 20 soldiers used shovels and engineers to dig through it, and the safe was completely exposed. Reporters present took pictures.
Xiang Xiaoqiang originally planned to transport the safe back, but the security officer looked at the nearly two cubic meters big thing with a sad face. Xiang Xiaoqiang also understood that it was difficult to even drag it out of the small building now, let alone get it in.
The car was gone. It was really hard to figure out how to get the sticky rod up to the second floor.
The security officer said that he could blow open the cabinet door on the spot. Xiang Xiaoqiang had long heard that most agents had a unique skill, which was to steal safes, so he immediately agreed and it was an eye-opener.
The second explosion began. Because it involved confidentiality, all reporters were asked to leave the scene.
Several security officers saw that this was what they were doing. They pressed plastic explosives on the key parts of the cabinet door and then inserted the detonator. Everyone retreated outside again. There was a loud noise and in a burst of white smoke, the heavy safe was
The door is half open.
Xiang Xiaoqiang and two security officers squatted in front of the cabinet door, taking out things one by one.
Because Xiang Xiaoqiang was the highest officer, the two security officers showed him everything respectfully. The safe was divided into two layers, and the upper layer was filled with document bags, each of which was covered with "confidential."
Xiang Xiaoqiang opened one and flipped through it. He saw that the document was full of the list of spies in Nanjing, as well as their organizational charts, affiliations, addresses, contact codes, etc.
Xiang Xiaoqiang's heart was beating hard and his face was red with excitement. He didn't expect to catch such a big fish. Just because of the contents of the safe, there would be no compensation for this military operation.
Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't dare and just left it to the people below to deal with it. He called Li Gensheng over and ordered all these documents to be moved to his command vehicle, preparing to go back and let Stomachache handle it himself.
Finally, he took out a brown paper bag, which didn't seem to contain documents, but something bulging.
He poured it out gently. He was surprised at first, and then gradually understood...
A fountain pen, a waterproof pocket watch, a bunch of keys, a nail clipper, a small comb, a pair of hairpins, a few pins, a few Mingyang coins, a small wrinkled wallet, each with a string engraved on it
A small foreign iron plate with the number and the word "Qiuqiu".
The last thing poured out was a silver second-class Plum Blossom Medal.
There was another document inside. Xiang Xiaoqiang opened it and saw that it said:
Qiu Qiu was born in Nanjing in the 6th year of Xuantong in the Qing Dynasty (1915), which is the 14th year of Deyong in the Ming Dynasty. She was the daughter of Qiu Laohu, the head of the Nanjing rudder of the Ming Dynasty Association. Because she did not get along with her father, she
He left home and was admitted to the Ningbo Naval University of the Puppet Ming Dynasty to study submarine command. He completed his studies in the first year of Jiade in the Qing Dynasty (1934), received the rank of second lieutenant, and served at the Nanjing Jiangxinzhou Submarine Base of the Yangtze River Fleet of the Puppet Navy. He successively served as an apprentice on the submarine "Mantis"
He was promoted to lieutenant in June of the second year of Jiade and became the commander of the reconnaissance submarine "Grasshopper". Qiu Qiu served as captain for six months and carried out seventy-two river missions. During this period, he was at Pukou Wharf.
and ships were repeatedly investigated and harassed by it. At midnight on October 4 this year, our destroyer "Barutu" was sunk with a torpedo, resulting in the death of more than ten of our officers and men. The Puppet Navy Ministry commended him and awarded him the "Plum Blossom"
A medal...
This is Qiu Qiu’s personal belongings that he had with him on the night he was captured! This document is the Qiu Qiu information that was found at the stick!
Xiang Xiaoqiang almost burst into tears and was so excited that he couldn't speak. These things are so precious!
Is there any more precious souvenir than this when I revisit my hometown?... Especially this medal! At that time, they only thought about escaping, and Qiu Qiu didn't care about these personal belongings at all. Afterwards, Qiu Qiu lost it because
All that was left of the treasured medal was the certificate. I felt distressed for a long time and cried several times. Later, I asked Xiaoqiang to issue a certificate to Qiu Qiu, and asked Zhu Yourong to say hello, and then the Navy Department reissued a medal. But after all, this was not the original medal.
Qiu Qiu always felt regretful about that one.
Now that the original medal has been found! Qiu Qiu must be crazy with joy.
…
Xiang Xiaoqiang was in a good mood, so he carefully wrapped these things and kept them close to his body.
The lower level of the safe was locked again. But the iron lock was easy to get, and an officer took a shovel and smashed it open.
...The things that were taken out made people’s eyes light up.
Four gold watches, three of which are pocket watches, and one is a very rare watch at this time. It is very heavy, and the case and bracelet are all made of pure gold, with exquisite carvings.
Ten large gold rings, two cat's eye rings, a large piece of mutton-fat jade, and two jade rings.
There were also five cylindrical paper packages, which were very heavy. When I opened them, I saw that they were all Qing Dynasty silver coins, with twenty pieces in each package. From the inside, I took out five heavy gold bars, each about ten centimeters long.
Wrapped in oil paper.
At the bottom are several house deeds, IOUs, and bank notes.
...and then it was gone.
Xiang Xiaoqiang rubbed his eyes, stood up, took a deep breath, and sighed:
"This old boy Nima Shan is really damn capable of taking bribes."
The eyes of several people around him shone brightly and they swallowed their saliva. Xiang Xiaoqiang's current wealth naturally meant that he could not take these things seriously. Even Li Gensheng was already very rich. But these shiny things were still very important.
Attractive.
Li Gensheng also swallowed his saliva and said:
"Sir... this is nothing in Beiqing. Even a small official in the county can easily earn much more than this. This guy has already become the director of the stick-sticking punishment department. If that's all
If you are so gentle, then you are really honest."
Xiang Xiaoqiang thought that those officials could blackmail the people into bankruptcy by opening "bloody roads". Such a small thing was really nothing.
Moreover, these things are usually kept at home and never kept in the office for a long time. It can be seen that these are only a small part of Nima Shan. He only received them in a short period of time and only saved them temporarily.
Since he received so many in a short period of time, it is very likely that he was also involved in the "Bloody Road" incident. Although he is not directly in charge of the road, because he has too much power at Sticky Post, he does not feed Sticky Post.
, the junior officials below can’t get anything.
Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at this pile of tempting things and the green eyes of the people around him, and suddenly felt very embarrassed. How to deal with this?
If he traveled through time this time and went to the traditional, decadent Ming Dynasty, it would be very simple, just put it in his pocket. At most, everyone who sees it will have a share, and the mouths of the few people present will be sealed.
...But now, everything about this Ming Dynasty makes Xiang Xiaoqiang feel that he cannot do this.
Xiang Xiaoqiang felt that the Ming Dynasty was still a pure land. He couldn't bear to do this. If he did, it would be no different from the regime in the north.
Moreover, these things come from those people who were blackmailed and bankrupted... They should have been protected by their parents, but they were forced to the desperate road of "money or life". If I had lost all this money today, I would have
It's like putting the innocent souls who were killed in the bombing into your pocket.
"Gensheng," he asked quietly, "usually when our Ming army seizes such things, what do we do with them?"
Li Gensheng swallowed his saliva and said in embarrassment:
"The problem is... I have never seized anything like this before... I... I don't know about it either."
"Okay, you don't need to say anything anymore," Xiang Xiaoqiang waved his hand resolutely and shouted loudly, "Come on, call the military police!"
"grown ups?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang pointed to the pile of treasures and said coldly:
"Everything is registered and sealed. The commander will personally supervise the operation of the military police. When I return, I will report it to His Majesty and request a holy judgment."
Several officers around were startled and a little disappointed. In addition, they also felt that reporting such a small amount of property to the Queen was too fussy.
But Xiang Xiaoqiang seemed to see through their thoughts and smiled lightly:
"Because I have only one superior, Your Majesty. As long as I think I need to ask for instructions, I can go to Your Majesty for any matter no matter how small it is... If Your Majesty allows me to handle it myself, or give us these rewards..."
Several officers' faces turned red again and they held their breaths to listen to what was going on.
Xiang Xiaoqiang continued:
"...Then, my commander will use his own money to reward everyone. But these things are from the people of Pukou. If the refugees in Pukou are willing to follow them to the Ming Dynasty, then my commander decides that these things will be auctioned, and all the proceeds will be used in Pukou.
The resettlement allowance for refugees in Daming will help them start a new life."
No one spoke. Everyone looked at Xiang Xiaoqiang and no longer thought about these things. They were sincerely convinced by these words. Although everyone knew that these things would not amount to much if they were spread over tens of thousands of refugees.
Although 80% of the resettlement expenses for the refugees this time were paid by the Ming government, they were still sincerely convinced. Everyone straightened their chests and were proud to be officers of the People's Guard.
…
Half of the reporters held their heads high and risked their lives to go to the front line of the battle to take photos. Since the flash of the spotlight and the white smoke could easily become shooting targets, and the reporters' real photos were very important to Xiang Xiaoqiang, Xiang Xiaoqiang ordered two armored vehicles to specially
Each escort was followed by a camera and three or five reporters. These reporters came from different newspapers and even different countries. They were competitors with each other, but now on the battlefield, they all instinctively united.
A reporter stretched his head and saw something worth taking a picture, so he told the colleague holding the camera. The camera quickly stretched out, and then retracted after the flash of the magnesium. These reporters who can come to the front line are all the most dedicated. And they are on the battlefield.
Now that I see it, I have one thought: It doesn’t matter if I die, I must protect the photos I have taken and send them to the whole world.
They saw with their own eyes that every time the Qing soldiers evacuated a house, they would use guns to force the people in the house to follow them. If any people ran in the direction of the Ming army, the Qing soldiers would shout "Nan Ming spies!"
, and then shot him with a gun.
Now the two cameras have taken more than ten such photos. The reporters hiding behind the armored vehicles have already agreed to help each other and work together to take photos. Everyone will share the photos equally. Everyone is trembling with anger and ecstasy.
. Angry - in the 20th century, we can still see such atrocities; ecstasy - if we take such classic battlefield photos, why not worry about gaining both fame and fortune?
…
At around four o'clock in the afternoon, Xiang Xiaoqiang felt that it was almost time to arrange the shift. In fact, he had made up his mind to start the shift a few hours ago. The reason for delaying this long was to transport prisoners of war, move trophies, completely destroy the Pukou facilities, and search for valuable documents.
He used the field phone dragged across the pontoon to make a call with Zhu Yourong. On the phone, Xiang Xiaoqiang told her the current situation of the Pukou battle and his own considerations. Most importantly, there was the Qing army coercing civilians and blocking the Ming Dynasty.
The fact that the Ming army attacked caused huge casualties to both the Ming army and civilians.
This incident was a trump card. Zhu Yourong couldn't bear it anymore and immediately asked to stop attacking Xiaoqiang to reduce the casualties of the people and soldiers.
So, Xiang Xiaoqiang obeyed the order and taught him the lesson.
Now there are ten pontoon bridges, and ships on the river are also shuttled non-stop. It feels quite like the Dunkirk evacuation. But the difference is that this time all the heavy weapons have to be transported away, and nothing is left for the Qing army.
Already.
All 170,000 prisoners of war have been transported across the river, and the vast stretches of river beach are empty, leaving traces of hundreds of thousands of people sitting there.
The Ming army is now retreating with all its strength, and the People's Guard, as the backbone, is leaving a rear guard in the town.
There were about 20,000 refugees who fled the town, most of them with their families, and many people fled alone, with all their families dead.
Xiang Xiaoqiang arranged for several trucks to play the loudspeaker and broadcast the "Message to the People of Pukou". This was issued in the name of Zhu Yourong, the Queen of Nanming. The broadcast announced the basic situation of the Ming Dynasty and the approximate income of the people of Nanming.
If they arrive in the Ming Dynasty, they will probably be treated as such, how to arrange their lives, etc. Let the refugees make their own choices. The notice also advised those refugees who have family members in Beiqing that it is best to stay in order to prevent their family members from being arrested.
Lifelong hard labor.
The vast majority of Pukou refugees cheered for joy. Immigrating to Nanming was something that many people in the Northern Qing Dynasty risked their lives to pursue. Now, after a battle, even though their homes were completely destroyed, their whole family can immigrate to Nanming.
The loudspeaker asked the refugees to divide into two sides. Those who were willing to go to Nanming should stand on the east side, near the pontoon bridge, and those who were willing to stay should stand on the west side.
After more than an hour of continuous work, all 20,000 refugees stood in line. About 15,000 people were willing to go to Nanming, and 5,000 were willing to stay. These 5,000 people mainly had family members who did not all come out, and they did not want to go alone.
of.
The people below were very good at doing things, and arranged for dozens of other reporters, as well as several foreign reporters, to cover the whole process to prevent the Qing Dynasty's propaganda machine from saying that the Nanming army "plundered the population" and "captured the Qing people to do hard labor."
...Although I knew that even if I did this, the newspapers in the Northern Qing Dynasty would still say this.
…
At six o'clock in the evening, Xiang Xiaoqiang stood by the pontoon bridge, watching the last common people crossing the pontoon bridge and the last captured cannon pulling across the pontoon bridge. He finally felt relieved. Li Guoliang reported that the Qing army was only a few kilometers away from here.
Arriving in minutes.
But I can already cross the river "in minutes".
Running on the pontoon bridge now are thousands of our own People's Guards. They are small in number, well-trained, and can cross the bridge faster.
On each pontoon bridge, engineers were loading explosives.
Xiang Xiaoqiang looked back at the billowing smoke in the distance. That was the dock area, the station area and the warehouse area. You could also hear the continuous explosions. Haha, Pukou, both as a military town and as a transportation station, has been completely scrapped.
.Beiqing could not recover to its original appearance within a year.
A few engineers carried gasoline barrels and poured gasoline on several hill-like piles of rifles and bullets. These hundreds of thousands of rifles were of various models and rough workmanship, so there was really little point in transporting them to Nanming. And now the floating bridge
So nervous. Not to mention these Beiqing bullets. The misfire rate and jamming rate are astonishingly high. The shells fired by me on that plane clearly illustrate the problem.
Engineers set fire to fire, hundreds of thousands of rifles, and tens of millions of bullets burning brightly, making a "crackling" explosion.
"Commander," the engineer came running over, "Hurry up and get in the armored vehicle. The bullets are burning. Don't get caught by stray bullets!"
Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at Pukou for the last time with emotion, got into the command car, and ordered:
"go home."
At half past six, more than a dozen divisions of the Qing army chased the Ming army. But the last person of the People's Guard had already crossed the pontoon bridge.
moment……
Ten pontoon bridges on the Yangtze River exploded at the same time with water jets rising dozens of meters high. Splinters of wood fell all over the river.
The soldiers in the vanguard of the Qing army stared blankly at the black smoke billowing from Pukou and the "floating bridge" floating on the river.