While Wu Yanbin was standing in a daze at the door of the photo studio, a voice beside him whispered:
"Sir Wu, we don't have to line up."
Wu Yanbin turned his head and saw that the Qing army corporal had gotten out of the car and was next to him.
This Qing army corporal was called Sun Youtian, and he seemed to be a very clever man.
Wu Yanbin looked at him and asked:
"Why don't you have to queue?"
"Commander Wu, we have this kind of film in our hands. Let's say that we were sent by the Shenyang Northern Corps Headquarters for investigation. We were dispersed by the Japanese army in the middle. We couldn't go back to Shenyang, so we had to go south to Lushun. I have these photos. This is all urgent military information. We must quickly wash it out and hand it over to the Lushun Headquarters, who will then hand it over to the imperial court. We can’t afford to delay it for a while! How dare people in the photo studio let us queue up!"
Wu Yanbin thought for a moment and said:
"That's good, but what if there are multiple eyes in the photo studio who want to see our ID? Or what if they send us directly to the Lushun headquarters? There must be an intelligence department in the headquarters, and processing photos is the most basic That’s right. Think about it, we don’t send the negatives directly to the headquarters, but instead take them to this private photo studio to develop them. We are neither afraid of trouble nor leaks. Isn’t it very suspicious?”
Sun Youtian was startled, lowered his head and murmured:
"Well, sir, that's right...that's true. So, what should we do?"
Wu Yanbin touched the pistol in his waist, gritted his teeth and said:
"At this point, we have no other choice but to give it a try. As long as the boss understands the situation, if he doesn't, he will be slapped with a 'obstructing military affairs' charge and arrested on the spot!"
"Hey, sir," Sun Youtian quickly grabbed his arm and said urgently, "There is no way... Commander Wu, look, this store is so big, the backstage must be tough, and they are not afraid of us at all!"
"Backstage? What backstage?" Wu Yanbin asked confused, "Because the store is big, so the backstage is hard?"
"Of course! How can we open such a big store if we don't have a strong backend!"
Wu Yanbin became impatient:
"Does it have to be a hard background to make it work? If the background is not hard, it won't work?"
"Sir..." Sun Youtian smiled awkwardly, "You... Is there anything else you don't understand? Let's put it this way... without a backstage, let alone opening a shop, even setting up a stall on the roadside would have to be organized. The sky is like a thief...could it be...isn't there two things that Ming Dynasty can do?"
Wu Yanbin stared at him for a moment, making sure he wasn't pretending to be stupid, then said "cut" and said disdainfully:
"I finally understand why your Qing Dynasty is so poor. If you don't live up to your expectations, you still rely on others to block it all day long."
Sun Youtian was unconvinced, but he did not dare to talk back. In his consistent understanding, the Qing Dynasty was poor precisely because of Nanming's blockade and destruction. Does it have anything to do with the lack of backstage? Nanming is so rich, not because there is no backstage. People block it?
"Okay," Wu Yanbin waved his hand, "then there is no other way but to give it a try. If the photo studio asks us to send it directly to the headquarters, then we will have to make plans again."
Wu Yanbin straightened his collar and got into a good posture, then asked Sun Youtian to follow, and the two of them strode in with the films.
…
The backend of this store is really hard, and even the store clerks are as awesome as uncles. Sun Youtian followed behind and shouted with a smile for several minutes before the clerk turned around with an impatient look. Look. When it comes to people from the military, their expressions remain unchanged and they still have the expression "I am the uncle".
It wasn't until Sun Youtian said the words "urgent military affairs, highly confidential" that the store clerk looked at them a few times, softened his expression, said "Please come in," and led them to the manager's office upstairs.
Several people were playing mahjong upstairs. The shop assistant whispered a few words into the ear of what looked like the boss. Then, the boss looked up at the two people.
"What photo?" The boss held a cigarette in his mouth, squinted his eyes, and smiled, "Why don't you two take it directly to the headquarters to have it washed? The investigation is so strict now. I will charge you with 'leaking secrets' later. Why don't you do it?
Doing business."
As he touched the cards, he nodded and said with a smile:
"Okay, you two, please go ahead... Damn, the wind is blowing from the southeast to the northwest, the white belt is red... who wants it?"
Raising his hand, a big "red" was thrown into the center of the table.
The store clerk was about to chase people out. Sun Youtian didn't know where he got the inspiration. He stepped forward and said with a smile:
"Shopkeeper, hehehe... Brothers, this mission was so hard, and they almost lost their lives. They all wanted to get two packs of cigarette money... Hehehe, shopkeeper, you said that you are the only photo studio in Lushun.
, where can the brothers wash themselves if they don’t come to you! If it can be taken directly to the headquarters, it will save trouble, then...hehe, then won’t the brothers’ cigarette money be gone?”
The shopkeeper raised his eyes again, squinted his eyes and smiled:
"Develop some photos, but you still want to take advantage of the government?... How many can you do?"
As soon as Sun Youtian saw that there was a door, he immediately smiled and said:
"Haha, thank you, shopkeeper. There are 25 negatives in total. Each negative needs to be washed... a lot of washing."
The shopkeeper narrowed his eyes and smiled:
"How many pictures are there?"
Sun Youtian looked at Wu Yanbin hesitantly. Wu Yanbin never dared to speak because of his southern accent. He took out a bag of silver coins from his arms and whispered a few words to Sun Youtian.
Sun Youtian took the silver dollar, put it on the table, and then smiled at the shopkeeper:
"Shopkeeper, this is collected by the brothers. Do you think how much can be washed?"
The shopkeeper reached for the heavy cloth bag, weighed it, and smiled at the three card players:
"Hey, it's not just a small business!"
All four people burst out laughing. The shopkeeper opened the cloth bag, poured out the silver coins inside, tapped a few of them casually with his index finger, picked up a few more and blew them to his mouth, then put them to his ear and listened, confirming
It's real silver.
"Okay, I'll take it," the shopkeeper said with a smile, and then handed these silver coins to the card player next to him, who was also a bookkeeper. "Old Zhao, let's take them and calculate them, and launder them according to the price. These big oceans can be laundered
Wash as much as you like!”
…
Mr. Accountant took Dayang and took the two of them downstairs. On the way, Old Zhao laughed and said:
"Haha, brothers, I am in charge of issuing invoices. What's going on, how much do you want to invoice?"
Sun Youtian was on his way. He took out a single silver dollar from his bag, put it into the accountant's hand, and laughed softly:
"Sir, I'll take it for tea...the rest will be used to develop photos. Do you want an invoice? Just make it less, twice as much."
Wu Yanbin's heart tightened: Darling! Issue twice as many invoices! Isn't this too outrageous?
Unexpectedly, Old Zhao laughed and said:
"You are so honest, little brother... Just joined the army? Haha, let me tell you... for these few dollars, double is a bit too little. Usually you have to pay five or six times, otherwise it will be boring...
That’s right.”
Wu Yanbin's heart pounded when he heard that, and Sun Youtian laughed and said:
"Oh, there's nothing I can do... It's not as good as usual... Now that we're at war, the court advocates 'defending the home and the country and saving every penny', and everyone is tightening expenditures. Now that we're serious about it, we only dare to issue two more invoices.
It’s twice as much. No matter how much it is, we won’t let you go.”
Lao Zhao also shook his head and sighed:
"Yes...this war will make life difficult for everyone..."
Wu Yanbin was beside himself as he listened, thinking that it would be unreasonable for such a country and such an army not to be defeated.
…
Sure enough, under the arrangement of Mr. Zhao, the accountant, their photos were given the highest priority for development. Even so, they waited from morning to noon.
The window of the darkroom opened. The developing technician inside took a large basket of photos and placed them on the window.
Wu Yanbin and Sun Youtian rushed up to meet them, and saw the technician looking at them through the window and asking in horror:
"Brothers, where were these photos taken?...Ah, ah, if it's confidential, I won't ask."
Wu Yanbin thought this was a great opportunity to spread panic and signaled to Sun Youtian to speak.
Sun Youtian then exaggerated the massacre by the Japanese army, saying how many mass graves were found, the heads were chopped off, and how many corpses were burned... Now, the Japanese army is marching south in large numbers, heading straight for Lushun.
.
The technician's face inside the window slowly turned pale.
He was in his fifties and was one of the more than 800 survivors of the Port Arthur Massacre. The horrific scene of mountains of corpses and rivers of blood in the city seems to still be before our eyes now.
The old technician's eyes were black and his legs were weak. He pushed the photo basket in front of them. He didn't say anything and stopped going to work. He just opened the door and went home. He told his family to prepare to escape.
Immediately afterwards, several young technicians and apprentices came out of the darkroom, shouting "The Japanese are coming" as they ran, and ran home to prepare for the escape.
Wu Yanbin was very satisfied when he saw that the word "Japanese massacre" had such a big impact on these ordinary people in Lushun. Sun Youtian said at the time, "People in other places don't believe this, but people in Lushun definitely believe it."
That's right.
There are 25 large paper bags in the big basket. In addition to the negatives, each paper bag also contains more than a hundred developed photos. A rough count shows that there are nearly 3,000 photos in this big basket. And each one is very clear.
, a line of text was also added below the photo as required:
——The scene where the Japanese army massacred prisoners of war
"Great!" Wu Yanbin was very satisfied. He put away all the plates first, and then he and Sun Youtian carried the basket, "Let's go back to the car!"
The truck drove in the direction of the military port, with nine soldiers guarding the photo basket behind it. Whenever it reached a crowded place, they would grab a handful of photos and scatter them. After a while, the place would be in a panic.
…
They walked through the entire city of Lushun and scattered the photos all the way. In this way, they only scattered three to four hundred photos. They still had two thousand and several hundred photos in hand, which were ready to be distributed among the sailors of the Lushun fleet.
The truck drove out from the south gate of the city and headed straight for Lushun Bay.
When approaching the military port, you can no longer drive in. The entire military port is surrounded by walls and buildings. There are only a few exits, and each one is guarded by machine gun bunkers. The sentry military police strictly check their documents. They have no documents.
, he was still wearing an army uniform and couldn't get in at all.
Wu Yanbin parked the car on the opposite side of the road and stared at the military port gate in the distance. He saw naval officers and soldiers coming in and out from time to time, as well as cars and carriages coming in and out from time to time. Of course, they all had to be inspected.
He thought for a while and asked:
"Arita, get out of the car and ask a sailor if there is a tavern or something nearby where sailors are concentrated."
Sun Youtian understood what he meant and got out of the car.
After a while he came back and said:
"Commander Wu, I understand. There is a 'Laojun Street' just around the corner. It is full of pubs, casinos, brothels, etc., all opened by relatives who are officers in the fleet. The business of the entire street depends on this.
The Port Arthur fleet is supported... just drive, I will show you the way."
Wu Yanbin stepped on the accelerator, and the truck headed in the direction Sun Youtian pointed.
…
Sure enough, after driving for less than a kilometer, a bustling street appeared after turning a corner. In Beiqing, it is rare to see such a bustling street outside the city.
There are a large number of military vehicles, cars, mules and carriages, and bicycles parked at the street entrance. Inside, there are rows of signs for pubs, brothels, and casinos. The Qing army and sailors are bustling with people, and the noise is deafening. There are sewage flowing on the ground, the smell of wine and meat, and the stench of swill.
Mixed together. You can often see them
Middle and lower-ranking officers passed by happily with women in their arms. The ordinary sailors next to them rarely had the ability to play with women and could only vent their energy in pubs and casinos. As for senior officers, they did not come to this place. They just sat there.
Let’s take a small car and go to Lushun City to do some high-end things.
Although the dozen or so of them were wearing army uniforms, in addition to sailors, there were also many army soldiers on this street, so they were still not very conspicuous.
Wu Yanbin looked at the scene around him and murmured with a smile:
"Damn it, the country is about to be destroyed, but you can still play so hard."
He looked at his watch, summoned ten Qing soldiers, gave each of them one silver dollar, and then briefly divided the work:
"This street is not too long, but there are a lot of people. They are mainly sailors in the fleet, which is convenient for us to work. Everyone finds a tavern and sits down to order some food and drinks. While drinking, we take out a stack of photos
Come play with it, spread it out on the table, and pretend to be more sad. There will definitely be a lot of sailors around.
If you come over and take a look, you just say that this is a secret and cannot be shown to others. The more this happens, the more people want to see it. Then you pretend to be drunk and take advantage of the "drunk energy" to send the photos to the sailors.
Promote while you're at it. Then come out quickly and gather here at the truck. Don't let the military police catch you. Do you understand?"
All ten Qing soldiers thought this arrangement was good and nodded to accept the order.
Wu Yanbin made one final move:
"Everyone, work hard. If you really succeed this time, you will be Ming people for the rest of your life. The Ming government will also reward you heavily. Do you know?"
The Qing soldiers became excited again, nodding and laughing:
"We obey Commander Wu's orders!"
"Okay, everyone, let's go! Pay attention, the entrance to the tavern should be more even!"
"Sir, what does 'average' mean?"
"Damn it, just spread out, don't get stuck in a bunch!"
"Ouch...oh no, yes!"
…
Wu Yanbin didn't look at these Qing soldiers, none of them wearing a pile of photos, disappearing into the crowd. He also felt that his whole body was filled with heat, and he felt that the time had come to make contributions.
He pressed a pile of photos in his arms, strode into a nearby casino, squeezed into the gaming table, and shouted in a rough voice:
"Come on, take it!"
As he spoke, he took something into his arms and slapped a silver dollar on the table. Then he screamed "Oh!" and a pile of photos in his arms was "accidentally" taken out and scattered all over the table.
"Hey...hey...don't grab it..." Wu Yanbin shouted as he pulled away and imitated the Northeastern accent and shouted, "What are you grabbing? Everything is confidential... Do you know what a secret is?...
Don’t even grab it…”
Then he squeezed out of the already chaotic casino and fled.