The originally noisy crowd outside the horse was as quiet as a cemetery, and Zhuo Fei, who was tired, couldn't help but look down at his watch, it would already be past four o'clock in the morning, although it was December, but Zhuo Fei knew that it would be around 6 o'clock in the morning, and the sky would be bright. Tomorrow is December 13th, which is the day of the destruction of Nanjing, after dawn, for the civilians and the defeated soldiers in the city, all the suffering will come.

The refugees who refused to leave the horse were silent, and although Zhuo Fei, who was standing on the sandbag, said that he was anxious, he still looked around the crowd in front of him quietly. Shaking his head, Zhuo Fei, who was a little disheartened, was about to get down from the sandbag, but suddenly heard a voice from the crowd, "Count Lao Tzu as one, but first say okay, give Lao Tzu a full meal first, don't wait for Lao Tzu to die, and be a starving ghost." With the help of the bonfire outside the horse, Zhuo Fei squinted his eyes at the man who was walking towards him from the crowd.

Although the person who spoke was wearing a short placket, Zhuo Fei could see that the other party was a soldier, and it would not be as simple as an ordinary soldier. "This is the brother you are talking about?" The visitor didn't talk much to Zhuo Fei, just looked at Zhuo Yan standing under the sandbag, and still had words in his mouth. "Look at the body, it's really a loss not to be a soldier, and it will definitely be a good material to be a machine gunner."

There was already a person who took the initiative to stand up, Zhuo Fei was overjoyed, he thought that someone had taken the lead, and more people should come forward soon. It's a pity that this is just Zhuo Fei's wishful thinking, including the man in the short shirt, Zhuo Fei and the three of them stood stupidly in front of the sandbag fortifications for a while, but they never took the initiative to stand up and say that they would follow Zhuo Fei to resist the Japanese army. Zhuo Fei was very disappointed, and at the same time very depressed, he thought that if he waved his arms, there should be a large number of men who would follow him to fight the Japanese army, but what he didn't expect was that he still overestimated people's fear of death.

Looking around at the crowd in front of him again, the disheartened Zhuo Fei jumped down from the sandbag, and took the man in the short shirt who claimed to be surnamed Niu and Zhuo Yan into the safe zone, there were only more than 2 hours left before dawn, and he wanted to take advantage of this time to rest for a while. "Boss, Mr. Rabe wants to see you." Zhuo Fei's bloody clothes had not yet been taken off, so Han Sen hurriedly looked for him, looking at Han Sen's expression, Zhuo Fei knew that it was definitely Rabe who had an opinion on some things in the whole district.

"Zhuo, why didn't you tell me you were a soldier? Why do all the employees in your company wear German uniforms? Why are they all still armed? If you do this, you will cause trouble in the security zone, and the Japanese army will never allow armed men to appear in the security zone. Rabe, who strode into the room, asked Zhuo Fei with some anger, especially after seeing the weapon Zhuo Fei put on the table and the bloody clothes on the ground.

Rabe's reprimand did not annoy Zhuo Fei, and Zhuo Fei also knew that Rabe did not mean to target him, so he beckoned Rabe and the two people he brought to sit down, and then explained with a smile, "Mr. Rabe, I once again apologize to you and the members of the Security Zone Committee for some things that have been concealed from you. But I think I would have to explain what you just asked, lest you and the members of the committee misunderstand me and Teckwah & Co. ”

Zhuo Fei's calm calm made Rabe's anger dissipate slightly, took the coffee brought by Angela and took a sip, and didn't speak, just signaled Zhuo Fei to say something if he had something to say. Zhuo Fei only smiled at Rabe's reaction, and then continued, "Mr. Rabe, first of all, I am not the soldier you are talking about. I admit that I was in the city all night fighting the Japanese army, but I also brought back a large amount of food and medicine for the safe zone, and by the way, rescued hundreds of civilians from the guns of the Japanese soldiers who infiltrated the city. ”

Zhuo Fei's explanation made Rabe snort heavily, and he acquiesced to Zhuo Fei's words, it is impossible for Rabe not to see the food and medicine that are constantly being transported into the security zone, there are now more than 100,000 refugees in the security zone, and food and medicine are indeed the most urgently needed things in the security zone. "Mr. Rabe, I am Chinese-American, but China is where I was born, and when the motherland was in trouble, I just did what a Chinese should do."

"Let's talk about why those employees of my company have weapons, maybe you don't know, Dehua Company was attacked by bandits in Xuzhou before, that is, since then, my staff have received a certain amount of military training, and they are all equipped with weapons for self-defense." Seeing Rabe turn his head to look at him, obviously not believing it, Zhuo Fei called Angela, took out Angela's pistol and handed it to Rabe.

"Mr. Rabe, please look at this pistol, which, like the weapons in the hands of the other staff of my company, are old goods, and each of them has only enough bullets for self-defense. I don't know if any of you have ever been a soldier, but if they were armed guards, they wouldn't have less than one base number of bullets, and where would there be only a few bullets like now. ”

Rabe, who was full of doubts, naturally wouldn't believe Zhuo Fei's words so easily, and after seeing Angela's pistol, he deliberately got up and went to the door to see Hefman's submachine gun. Finding that as Zhuo Fei explained, there were only a dozen rounds in the magazine of Huffman's submachine gun, Rabe's face was a little better, but his attitude towards these weapons still did not change. "Zhuo, but you must know that the Japanese army will not allow weapons to appear in the safe zone."

"Mr. Rabe, I will continue to collect food, medicine, coal and other daily necessities and transport them into the safe zone, which will be uniformly allocated and used by your international committee. In addition, as for your concerns, I think that these armed staff of our company can be used as temporary police officers in the security zone, and they will all be at the disposal of your committee to assist you in the resettlement of refugees. "Zhuo Fei will be very generous, first use the materials in short supply in the security zone to plug the mouths of Rabe and the others, and then put forward the initiative of transforming Huffman and them into temporary police in the security zone.

Zhuo Fei's strong support is really too different from the previous deliberate concealment, which makes Rabe a little unbelievable, but just like that, there are still people who have different opinions. Rabe was followed by a man with an Asian face, and Hansen whispered to Zhuo Fei that this person was Chinese, Xu Chuanyin, vice president of the Nanjing Red Cross Society. Xu Chuanyin's question made Zhuo Fei laugh a little, "Mr. Zhuo, we have contacted some police officers in Nanjing City, and they are willing to maintain the security of the security zone, but now you want to organize these employees of your company into temporary police, what about the police we contacted?" ”

"Chairman Xu, I didn't know in advance that you had contacted the Nanjing police, and you said that those police should be under the control of the city government, but I didn't say that they couldn't come to the security zone to work for the committee. There are more and more refugees in the security zone, and the number of police officers in charge of security should also increase accordingly, and as for the refugee committee to deploy manpower, that is your business, and I will only make a suggestion at most, and you can consult with Mr. Hansen about other matters. ”

"I have a few small suggestions for the safe zone, which I hope Mr. Rabe will follow." Of course, Zhuo Fei is not worried about the protective role of this safety zone. He never thought that the security zone could have much binding effect on the Japanese army, but now that the national army troops defending the city really can't hold out for much longer, there are at least hundreds of thousands of citizens in the city who have not been transferred, Zhuo Fei can only hope that the security zone can play a little role.

John. Rabe heard Zhuo Fei say that he had suggestions for the security zone, and of course he was quite willing to listen: "Zhuo, if you have any other opinions, please say, as long as it is reasonable, we will definitely adopt it." ”

"Mr. Rabe, I hope that the security zone will not only fly the flag of the International Committee, but also the flag of Germany and the flags of the countries to which the members of the Committee belong, and that the negotiations with the Japanese army will be handed over to Schulz of your country as much as possible. You, Mr. Pantin, Mr. Spoeling, and Mr. Rabe, and ask the German Embassy to intervene as much as possible. Zhuo Fei obviously attached great importance to Germany's influence on the Japanese army.

Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a secret alliance for the common benefit of establishing the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis, and the whole process was completed on November 6, 1937. Although Germany and Japan did not come to each other's aid at the end of the war, they had just signed a treaty of alliance at this time, and the Japanese would certainly have taken into account Germany's reaction. Therefore, it is precisely because of this consideration that Zhuo Fei's suggestion suggested hoisting the German flag and letting the Germans negotiate with the Japanese army, as well as asking the German embassy to intervene in the security zone.

In fact, in the history of this method, it was the people of the International Committee who found that the Japanese soldiers still had some scruples about the German flag and the Germans, so they hoisted the German flag in the security zone, and the Germans and the Japanese successfully negotiated to stop many murders. It's just that before that, a large number of refugees in the security zone had been slaughtered, but now with Zhuo Fei's reminder, the role of the security zone can definitely be greater.

At this time, Japan had not yet shown hostility towards Britain, the United States, France and other countries, so Rabe didn't understand Zhuo Fei's suggestion: "Zhuo, don't worry, we will try our best to ask them to intervene in the embassies of various countries." As for hoisting the flags of various countries, I don't think it was difficult, and the work of the Japanese army could not be left to Schulz alone. Mr. Pantin, Mr. Spoelling, and I were in charge, after all, the security zone was too big, and there would probably be a lot of collisions with Japanese soldiers. ”