The night was dark, the cool breeze was blowing, Chen Zikun walked like a fly in the Iron Lion Alley, and completely tore his face with Jin Jichang made him feel relieved, anyway, he never expected to seek development in the lifeless yamen of the War Department, so he simply shot it in two, but it was simply a matter of breaking up.

He went back to the Ziguang Depot first, and as soon as he entered the door, Baoqing jumped up from the recliner and said, "You are back, I have been looking for you for a long time." ”

"What's the matter?" Chen Zikun's heart tightened, and an ominous feeling hit.

"Urgent telegram, from Shanghai." Baoqing handed over the telegram in his hand, and Chen Zikun opened it to see that the few words on it hit his heart like a sledgehammer.

"Ice in the car"

The telegram was sent by Li Yaoting, and it was concise and to the point, and Jianbing was also one of the meat tickets.

Chen Zikun did not hesitate at all, and directly asked Baoqing how much cash there was on the cabinet, Baoqing was not ambiguous, and immediately opened the money box, which contained a lot of copper, the business of the car factory was small, and most of the money handed over by the driver was copper, which was rare in Xiaoyang, let alone Dayang, Chen Zikun grabbed a handful of copper dollars and stuffed them in his pocket, and said: "If you have something to go to Shandong, it may take ten days and half a month to come back." After saying that, he turned around and went out, Baoqing hurriedly chased out and wanted to say a few words, but he opened his mouth and still didn't say it.

Coming out of the car factory, Chen Zikun went to his new home in Dongwenchang Hutong again, he had to give Yao Yilei an explanation, Miss Yao heard that Chen Zikun was going to Shandong on an errand, but she was not surprised at all, such a big case happened, it was a good opportunity for her fiancé to make a contribution, how could she hold back.

Chen Zikun didn't even take a change of clothes, only carried a delicate small suitcase in the bedroom and went out, called a foreign car and went straight to Zhengyangmen Railway Station, and when he arrived at the square in front of the station, he subconsciously glanced at the time on the bell tower, it was already half past nine in the night.

Zhengyangmen Railway Station is brightly lit, people come and go, Chen Zikun swaggered into the waiting room with a suitcase, only to see many people standing in the soft seat waiting room, all well-dressed, extraordinary, there are two road guards standing guard at the door, prohibiting idle people from entering.

Chen Zikun was suspicious in his heart, he couldn't guess where these people came from, looked around, and suddenly found an acquaintance, Beijing Daily reporter Ruan Mingchuan was sitting not far away looking around, the two looked at each other, Ruan Reporter couldn't help but be overjoyed, and walked over and said: "Brother Chen, you are also going to Shandong, can you help me be accommodating." ”

As he spoke, he pointed to the side of the soft seat waiting room.

Chen Zikun immediately understood that those people should be a mission sent by the government to solve the problem of kidnapping, Ruan Mingchuan is a tabloid reporter, and he is not qualified to go with the group, he thinks that he is also a member of the mission, but in fact, he is the same as him, he is a self-paid tourist.

But there is no need to say this, Chen Zikun smiled slightly: "It's a trivial matter, you come with me." ”

After that, he led Ruan Mingchuan to the door of the soft seat waiting room, and went straight inside, the two road guards didn't give him face at all, stretched out their hands to stop him, and said: "Sir, this is a chartered bus from the Ministry of Communications, please wait outside." ”

Chen Zikun was about to mention Zhao Jiayong's name, when he suddenly saw someone he knew in the soft seat waiting room, so he waved his hand and shouted: "Major Stilwell!" ”

Assistant to the Military Attache of the U.S. Legation Joseph Brown. Captain Stilwell has now been promoted to major, with a golden oak leaf on his shoulder, as a representative of the country concerned, he is also one of the members of the mission, hearing the shout, Stilwell turned his head and immediately found Chen Zikun standing at the door, and immediately came over to greet him: "Chen, long time no see." ”

"It's been a long time." Chen Zikun turned around and handed the suitcase to Ruan Mingchuan to carry, strode in, shook hands and hugged Stilwell affectionately, Ruan Mingchuan is such a clever person, naturally he will not let go of this opportunity, and he also walked in with Chen Zikun with a smile.

The two soldiers guarding the door couldn't figure out their details, and seeing that Chen Zikun and the foreign officers were so familiar, how could they dare to interrogate them carefully.

The two of them fished in troubled waters like this, and there were all kinds of people in the mission, including staff sent by envoys from various countries, representatives of overseas Chinese, bureaucrats from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Communications and other organs in Beiyang, many of whom knew each other for the first time, so no one saw through these two impostors.

Suddenly, a man dressed as a secretary hurriedly walked over and asked Chen Zikun, "Are you from the War Department?" ”

"Yes." Chen Zikun replied calmly, but he was quickly thinking about how to deal with his further questions.

Unexpectedly, the man didn't ask again, but turned back to a middle-aged man with a big belly and said, "Commander, the people from the War Department have arrived." ”

The man took out his pocket watch and looked at it: "Everyone is here, you can go." ”

The conductor blew the whistle, the members of the mission stopped talking and were led by the conductor to the platform from the VIP exit, where a train stopped on the tracks and dozens of road guards stood guard with guns to stop other passengers outside the cordon.

This is a special train specially allocated by the Ministry of Communications, two locomotives one in front of the other, three soft sleepers in the middle, one dining car, and two third-class carriages in which the guards ride, and they go straight to Zaozhuang, Shandong, where the robbery occurred, and all the vehicles along the way are all avoided.

The whistle sounded, the steam was rising, the train drove out of Beijing, at this time outside the Zhengyangmen Railway Station, a car galloped to the car, two army colonels jumped out of the car, hurriedly entered the station but found that the mission had left, and couldn't help but be very disappointed: "Why don't you wait for us to leave!" ”

……

As soon as the Lincheng train robbery came out, the world was shocked, and the envoys of various countries protested the Beiyang government one after another, as if there were signs of a repeat of the second Gengzi incident, President Li Yuanhong and Zhang Shaozeng's cabinet did not dare to slack off, and in the shortest possible time, they put together a mission to go to Zaozhuang to supervise the rescue of the hostages, and the mission was personally commanded by Wu Yulin, the chief of communications, and the members included diplomats from various countries, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Justice.

The food truck is equipped with a chef borrowed from the Beijing Hotel, Chinese and Western food, beer, soda, brandy are served 24 hours a day, and good coffee and cigarettes are enjoyed at will.

Chen Zikun naturally sat with the military attaches of various countries, he was very fluent in English and French, there was no barrier to communication, if it had been in the past, it would have been a pleasant journey, but it had just happened in a horrific robbery, 39 Westerners were kidnapped on the most luxurious and safe train in China, and these military attaches could not make a good impression of Chen Zikun in any way.

Because Chen Zikun wore the lieutenant uniform of the Beiyang Army, he represented the country's ignorant and incompetent army.

However, Stilwell was still very friendly to Chen Zikun, after all, they were West Point alumni, and Stilwell, unlike those military attaches who stayed in Dongjiaomin Lane all day, he had traveled almost all of China and had a deep understanding of the current situation of this ancient country.

Ruan Mingchuan was mixed in with those high-ranking officials, with a pair of ears propped up, listening to any useful information, and his heart was pounding with excitement, and the reporters all over Beijing had mixed into the mission one by one, and he must have mastered the most powerful information, and when the time came, the Beijing Daily would not come out on top and become the largest newspaper in Beijing in terms of sales.

This special car drove very fast, and did not stop at any station along the way, so the next morning arrived at Lincheng Station, Lincheng belongs to Yi County, Shandong, because there are many local jujube trees, commonly known as Zaozhuang, Yi County Government and other cadres greeted at the station early, and also organized a shabby military band to beat gongs and drums to welcome the foreign adults from Beijing.

It's a pity that the foreign adults didn't give face at all, and even the minimum etiquette of shaking hands was omitted, and they directly asked to investigate the parties involved in the case, because Chen Zikun's English level was more exquisite than the translator of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and he was a soldier himself, and he had a unique advantage in translating military terms, so he was temporarily used as a translator.

The targets of the investigation were the driver of the train, the police, the released passengers, and the officers of the 6th Mixed Brigade of the Army, who were the first to arrive at the scene of the incident.

According to their oral accounts, the foggy truth gradually became clear, in the early morning of May 6, the Blue Steel Express was about to arrive at Lincheng Station, the driver suddenly found that a section of the track in front of him had been demolished, and after emergency braking, the front of the locomotive, the mail car and a third-class passenger car overturned, and then a large number of armed men appeared, fired guns to deter the car police, and hijacked 100 Chinese and Western passengers, one of whom was killed on the spot for resisting.

After the incident, the officers and men of the 6th Mixed Brigade quickly arrived and engaged in a fierce gun battle with the bandits, recovering several passengers, but in the end, due to the lack of firepower, the bandits successfully escaped, and now they have infiltrated the mountains and are missing.

The bandits in the Zaozhuang area are serious, and there are dozens of armed units large and small, so the officers and soldiers do not know which way is the hand, and the military and political authorities in Shandong are afraid of the first and the first to change the order, and two full days have passed since the case was issued, and there has been no progress at all.

After the investigation, the military attachés immediately made a fuss, noisy and shouting everything, the room was full of English, French, German, Italian, some people said that they wanted to take over the command of the local army, some people said that they would send their own troops stationed in Dongjiaomin Lane, Stilwell was a person who understood, he didn't make a fuss with them, quietly opened the door and slipped out, Chen Zikun didn't say a word, and went out.

"Chen, is there anything you can do?" Stilwell handed him a cigarette, this robbery, the United States has the largest number of hostages, including military officers, reporters, senators' daughters and other people of social status, so Stilwell is also under a lot of pressure, but he knows that as a foreigner, meddling in local affairs will make things more complicated.

"To be honest, there really isn't any good way, and in this situation, there is only the simplest trick." Chen Zikun took the cigarette but did not light it, and said after a while.

"What?"

"I'd like to go talk to the bandits in person." Chan replied.

The expression on Stilwell's face did not change, but his pupils contracted slightly: "Chen, you are sure that there is no danger in doing this." ”

"Joseph, the rivers and lakes of the Chinese, you will never understand, this is not a big deal." Chan said.