Episode 72 The Treasure of the Safe

Escorted by a Lightning-2 tank and an armored personnel carrier, .

It is only three hundred meters from the front line. Not far away was the deafening sound of firefights.

There are few intact buildings left in the headquarters compound. The floor was littered with broken bricks and rubble, the ruins were still smoking, and the furniture inside was charred and blackened, and some were still smoking.

A squad of People's Guards got out of the armored car first, holding submachine guns, and lined up in all directions. Then, Xiang Xiaoqiang got down from the command car, the collar of the whole army coat, and the big leather boots creaked on the rubble. On the two trucks behind, war correspondents also jumped off one after another, immediately holding their cameras to capture General Xiang who was going deep into the front line from different angles.

Paper was scattered all over the floor, rolling in the wind on the ruins. Some of them were still on fire, and the paper ashes swirled and flew into the air.

Xiang Xiaoqiang turned back and asked:

"Have you checked all the documents left by the Qing army?"

Behind him, Li Gensheng replied:

"Back to my lord, the security team is checking from office building to office. The Qing army had a lot of documents that they didn't have time to take away or burn, and they came in bundles. We've learned a lot. ”

Although the most confidential things must have been taken away, there are bundles of documents in filing cabinets in so many offices, in every office. The Qing army should not have time to deal with it systematically, picking out what to take away and what to burn, but only have time to take away a few of the most critical ones, and the rest is just to burn as much as they have time. So there must be a lot of valuable things.

Xiang Xiaoqiang observed the surrounding environment, carefully distinguishing these ruins, and walked while watching, and a large group of guards and reporters around him also followed him, constantly taking pictures.

He was one foot deep and one foot shallow, and slowly turned to a small building.

The small building was only two floors, and the gray cement had fallen off in large chunks, revealing the bricks inside. Half of the second floor is no longer roofless, and the wall in one corner has collapsed. There is no sign in front of the doorway, no sign.

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked up at the dilapidated small building and was full of emotion. Although he had only been here once, at night, the small building had been deeply imprinted in his mind.

He looked up for a moment, then raised his foot to enter.

The two guards hurriedly stopped him and said:

"My lord, you can't enter, it's too dangerous!"

Xiang Xiaoqiang was about to have a seizure, but Li Gensheng also stepped forward to pull him and persuaded:

"My lord, this small building is already like this, it will collapse at any time! You can't go in! ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at the "dilapidated house" in front of him and whispered:

"Gensheng, I know you're good for me, but you have to let me go in and have a look, you don't know, this is the sticky pole, and the first time I met Qiu Yu, it was here...... Besides, do you say in good conscience that this little building is 'going to collapse at any time'? You see, half of the roof and half of the wall on the second floor are gone, and the main structure is still fine! …… Hey, you said, it didn't collapse after eating a bomb, will it collapse if it goes up now? ”

Li Gensheng was questioned for a moment, and said dumbfounded:

"That'...... Not really, but ...... adults."

"That'll do."

Xiang Xiaoqiang tore Li Gensheng's hand, stepped on the broken bricks, and got into the half-collapsed small building. Li Gensheng shouted:

"My lord, my subordinates are with you!"

Then he stopped the guards and reporters, and followed Xiang Xiaoqiang into the building.

The building was already as it had been after the earthquake, and the corridors were littered with broken cement blocks and broken glass shards from light bulbs. Some office walls had collapsed, desks full of bricks and broken glass, filing cabinets toppling, bundles of papers littered within. Xiang Xiaoqiang got in, opened a bundle and looked through it, but it was just blank stationery.

He kicked open the door of another office and flipped through it, much the same. Xiang Xiaoqiang understood that the sticky rod was the most important department in the headquarters, and the important documents here must be prioritized. So it's hard to find anything valuable.

"My lord, it's too dangerous, let's go out!"

Li Gensheng kept urging, like a nagging woman. Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't care about him at all, and went into the corridor again and found the stairs.

The staircase is made of reinforced concrete, and the half-section of the staircase to the second floor has fallen off and is suspended by steel bars, which is very scary. Xiang Xiaoqiang walked down the stairs first. Li Gensheng said bitterly behind him:

"Don't go down, sir!"

Then I had to follow behind and follow behind.

The next floor is the underground cell. Because this part is underground, it is an all-reinforced concrete structure, so it is still relatively intact. Xiang Xiaoqiang asked Li Gensheng to draw a match, and in the faint light of the fire, he saw two small cells, thick iron fences, yellow painted walls with skin on both sides, and a small table for fat guards.

Xiang Xiaoqiang said excitedly:

"Gensheng, see it, that's where I knocked the fat guards unconscious, and then rescued Xiuxiu and them."

"Yes, yes, my lord is really wise and brave...... Li Gensheng said anxiously, "My lord, 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-section of the staircase leading to the second floor. Li Gensheng was thinking about how to persuade adults not to go up to the second floor, when he saw Xiang Xiaoqiang grab the section of the stairs above with both arms, step on the hanging steel bars with both feet, jump up the upper half of the stairs, and then go down the stairs to the second floor. Li Gensheng secretly complained, and also climbed the broken staircase and followed behind Xiang Xiaoqiang.

Xiang Xiaoqiang immediately found Nima Shan's office. He was already excited, but the door couldn't be unscrewed. In a hurry, he took out his pistol and shot at the door lock, kicking the door open.

Li Gensheng hurriedly shouted down from the gap in the remnant wall:

"The gun fired by the adult, the door locked, it's okay......"

Nimashan's office is arguably the most messy part of the building.

This office was the largest, but it was also the worst bombed. The roof of the office is completely gone, and you can see the sun in the sky when you look up. The wall on one side was also blown off, and there was a two-meter-diameter hole in the floor, which took up almost half of the office. The steel bars are fangs and claws, and you can directly see the first floor. It seems that the bomb fell into the building from here, penetrated the top floor, and exploded directly in the office.

There was barely a piece of furniture left, desks and filing cabinets had been blown to pieces, a single sofa was blazing, and only the skeleton of charred wood and springs could be seen in the fire, and the smell was terrible with black smoke. One couch was half charred black, and the other half was fine and covered with dust.

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at all this in a daze, and looked at the sofa in a daze. On the night when I first arrived in Daming, I fought with Nima Shan and Tojin in this room, and met Qiu Yu.

He simply patted the dust on the couch and sat down. …… Although it was half burned, it was still very comfortable. Xiang Xiaoqiang couldn't help but think, what happened to the poor old man Nimashan? He wasn't in the house when the bomb fell, right?

Xiang Xiaoqiang gently touched the dusty sofa. …… That night, Qiu Yu sat on this sofa, where she was sitting now. Xiuxiu pretended to be Fourteen Gege and sat on the single sofa. …… But it has been burned.

Li Gensheng rubbed his hands again and urged:

"My lord, just take a look around, let's go out......"

Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded, stood up, and sighed:

"This little building is so memorable...... Do you know, in the future, after we defeat the Qing and unify the whole country, I will protect this small building and make it 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 whole country was too crazy for others to look like now.

He was about to go down when he suddenly saw something strange. - Through the large hole in the floor, I saw the first floor, and several large cement slabs below were buried, revealing a corner of something, glowing with metallic luster. Xiang Xiaoqiang was very interested, squatted on the edge of the big hole and looked down carefully, the more he looked at it, the more it felt like a safe. …… If it's a safe, you've found something good.

Xiang Xiaoqiang was also impatient to take the stairs, directly grabbed the steel bars of the floor slab, leaned down, and jumped to the first floor. Li Gensheng was very frightened, and he was relieved to see that he was fine. He was born in a commando, and his skills were much better, and he didn't even catch the steel bar, so he jumped straight down.

Xiang Xiaoqiang squatted there, picked up a few broken bricks with his hands, and patted the corner of metal. Painted with army green paint, it's very solid and thick.

"Safe."

He affirmed, stood up, pointed and commanded:

"Gensheng, we've found something good. Tell someone to get it out. ”

Li Gensheng also looked at it and was overjoyed. This is supposed to be the safe in Nimashan's office, which was blown through the floor by a bomb and fell to the first floor. The Qing army may not have found it, or it may have found it, but it was pressed by several thick floor slabs, and it was too late to get it out, so it had to be thrown here.

A group of sappers came in, calculated the angle, and buried the **. A group of people retreated outside, and then there was a loud bang, and several slabs were blown open. The level of the sappers is really good, they blew up the floors, but they didn't blow up the walls.

More than two dozen soldiers used shovels and sapper shovels to figure it out, and the safe was completely exposed. The reporters present took pictures.

Xiang Xiaoqiang originally planned to transport the safe back, but the officer of the security team looked at this big guy of nearly two cubic meters with a sad face. Xiang Xiaoqiang also understood, it was difficult to even drag it out of the small building now, let alone get into the car. It's hard to figure out how the sticky pole got to the second floor at that time.

The security officer said he could burst the cabinet door on the spot. Xiang Xiaoqiang had long heard that ordinary agents had a unique skill, which was to burglify the safe, so he immediately agreed and opened his eyes.

The second blasting began. All journalists were asked to leave the scene because of the confidentiality involved.

Several officers of the security team looked like they were doing this, pressing the plastic ** on the key part of the cabinet door, and then inserting the detonator. The crowd retreated outside again, and with a loud bang, in a puff of white smoke, the bulky safe door was ajar.

Xiang Xiaoqiang and the two security team officers squatted in front of the cabinet door, pulling out things in the same way.

Because Xiang Xiaoqiang was the highest commander, the two security team officers were very respectful and gave him everything first. The safe is divided into two levels, and the upper level is filled with document bags, each of which is stamped with a large "confidential" seal. Xiang Xiaoqiang opened one and flipped through it slightly, only to see that the documents were full of lists of spies in Nanjing, as well as their organization 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 rush the contents of the safe, and this military operation will not be compensated.

Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't dare to hand it over to the people below to deal with. He called Li Gensheng over and ordered all these documents to be moved to his command car, and prepared to go back to deal with the stomachache himself.

Finally, he took out a brown paper bag, which seemed to contain something bulging instead of documents.

He poured it out gently, first surprised, then gradually understood......

A fountain pen, a waterproof pocket watch, a bunch of keys, a nail clippers, a small comb, a pair of hairpins, a few pins, a few Ming Yang coins, a crumpled purse, and a small foreign iron plaque engraved with a string of numbers and the word "Qiuyun".

The last thing to pour out was a silver second-class plum blossom medal.

There's also a document in it. Xiang Xiaoqiang opened it and saw that it was written:

Qiu Yuqi was born in the sixth year of Xuantong in the Qing Dynasty (1915), that is, the fourteenth year of the pseudo-Ming Deyong, a native of Nanjing, and the daughter of Qiu Laohu, the head of the Nanjing helmsman of the pseudo-tomorrow land meeting. Due to disagreement with his father, he left home and was admitted to the puppet Ming Ningbo Naval University to study submarine command, and completed his studies in the first year of 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. In the six months since he became the captain of the boat, Qiu Yu has carried out 72 river missions, during which time his Pukou wharf and warships have been repeatedly detected and harassed by him. At midnight on 4 October this year, a torpedo sank our destroyer "Barutu," resulting in the death of more than 10 of our officers and men. The Puppet Ming Admiralty commended him and awarded him a 'Plum Blossom Medal'......

This is Qiu Yu's personal belongings on the night he was captured! This document is the information of Qiuqiu found at the sticky pole!

Xiang Xiaoqiang almost burst into tears, so excited that he couldn't speak. These things are so precious!

Is there a more precious souvenir than this trip? …… Especially this medal! At that time, they were only thinking about running for their lives, and Qiu Yu didn't care about these personal belongings at all. Afterwards, Qiu Yu was distressed for a long time because he lost the treasure medal and only had the certificate left, and cried several times. Later, he still gave Qiu Qiu a certificate to Xiaoqiang, and asked Zhu Yourong to say hello, so that the Admiralty could reissue a medal. But this is not the original one after all, Qiu Qian always has regrets.

Now the original medal has been found! Qiu Yu must be crazy with joy.

……

Xiang Xiaoqiang was in a good mood, wrapped these things carefully, and collected them closely.

The lower level of the safe is locked. But the lock was so easy to get that an officer smashed it with a shovel.

…… What comes out of it makes people's eyes light up.

Four gold watches, three of which were pocket watches and one of which was a rarity at this time. Very heavy, the case bracelet is all pure gold and beautifully carved.

Ten large gold rings, two cat's eye rings, a large piece of mutton fat jade, and two jade wrenches.

There are also five cylindrical paper bags, which are very heavy, and when taken apart, they are all Qing Dynasty silver dollars, and each pack contains twenty pieces. In the innermost part, five heavy gold bars were taken out, each about ten centimeters long, wrapped in oiled paper.

At the bottom, there are several house deeds, title deeds, IOUs, and bank notes.

…… And then it was gone.

Xiang Xiaoqiang rubbed his eyes, stood up and took a deep breath, and sighed:

"Nimashan, this old boy, can really take bribes."

Several people around looked at it with their eyes lit up and swallowed their saliva. Xiang Xiaoqiang's current wealth naturally does not take these things into account. It's Li Gensheng, who is already very rich. But these shiny things are still fascinating.

Li Gensheng also swallowed his saliva and said:

"Your Excellency...... This is really nothing in the Northern Qing Dynasty. Even a small official in a county town can easily make much more than that. This guy has already made it to the director of the Sticky Punishment Department, if it is so soft, it is really incorruptible. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang thought that those officials could extort the people into bankruptcy by opening "bloody roads", and such a thing was really nothing.

Moreover, these things are generally kept at home, how can they be kept in the office for a long time. It can be seen that these are only a small part of Nimashan, and they were only received by him in a short period of time, and they are only temporarily saved.

Received so much in a short period of time, it is likely that he was also involved in this "bloody road" incident. Although he is not directly in charge of the road, because the sticky pole has too much power, if he doesn't feed the sticky pole, the petty officials below can't get anything.

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at this pile of tempting things, and looked at the green eyes of several people around him, and suddenly felt very embarrassed. What should I do?

If he crosses over this time and goes to the traditional and decaying Ming Dynasty, it is very simple, just put it in his pocket. The most visible people have a share, just seal the mouths of the few people present.

…… But now, everything in this Ming Dynasty makes Xiang Xiaoqiang feel that he can't do this.

Xiang Xiaoqiang felt that this Daming was still a piece of pure land. He couldn't bear to do that. If it did, it would be no different from the regime in the north.

Moreover, these things come from the ordinary people who have been blackmailed and bankrupt. …… They should have been protected by their parents, but they were forced to the end of "asking for money or death" by their parents. If you lose all this money today, it will be equivalent to putting those unjust souls who were killed by the bomb into your pocket.

"Gensheng," he asked quietly, "Generally speaking, when our Ming army captures this kind of thing, how do we deal with it?" ”

Li Gensheng swallowed his saliva and said in embarrassment:

"The question is...... I've never seized anything like this...... Subordinate...... The subordinates don't know either. ”

"Okay, you don't need to say it," Xiang Xiaoqiang waved his hand resolutely and shouted loudly, "Come on, go and call the gendarme!" ”

"Your Excellency?"

Xiang Xiaoqiang pointed to this pile of treasures and said coldly:

"All the registrations are sealed. The gendarmerie operates under the personal supervision of the commander. When I go back, the commander will report to His Majesty and ask for a holy judgment. ”

Several officers around were startled and faintly disappointed. In addition, they also felt that it was too trivial to report such a small amount of property to the empress.

But Xiang Xiaoqiang seemed to see through their thoughts, and said with a faint smile:

"Because this commander has only one superior, and that is Your Majesty. As long as the commander thinks that it is necessary to ask for instructions, he can also go to His Majesty for the smallest matter. …… If Your Majesty gives permission to the Commander to do it himself, or gives us these rewards......"

Several officers' faces flushed again, and they listened with bated breath.

Xiang Xiaoqiang continued:

“…… Then, the commander will pay out of his own pocket and reward everyone. But these things are all the people's fat and people's ointment in Pukou. If the refugees in Pukou are willing to follow them to Daming, then the commander decided that these things will be auctioned, and all the proceeds will be used for the settlement expenses of the Pukou refugees in Daming to help them start a new life. ”

No one spoke. Everyone looked at Xiao Qiang, and they didn't think about these things anymore. They were sincerely convinced by these words. Although everyone knows that these things are not much money on the heads of tens of thousands of refugees, and eighty percent of the refugees' settlement fees this time are paid by the Ming government, they are still sincerely convinced. Everyone straightened their chests, proud of being a People's Guard officer.

……

Half of the reporters carried their heads and went to the front line of the battle to take pictures. Because the flashes of magnesium lights and white smoke are easy targets for shooting, and the real photos of reporters are very important to Xiang Xiaoqiang, Xiang Xiaoqiang ordered two armored vehicles to escort them, each followed by a camera, and three or five reporters. These journalists come from different newspapers, even different countries, and they are competitors to each other, but now on the battlefield, they are all instinctively united.

A reporter stuck his head out and told his colleague with a camera when he saw something worth shooting. The camera quickly stretched out, flashed back in a flash. These reporters who can come to the front line are all the most dedicated. And when they see it on the battlefield until now, they all have a thought: it doesn't matter if they die, they must protect the photos they have taken and spread them to the world.

They saw with their own eyes that every time the Qing soldiers withdrew from a house, they would use guns to force the people in the house to follow them. If there were civilians running in the direction of the Ming army, the Qing soldiers would shout "Southern Ming spies" and then raise their guns and shoot them.

Now the two cameras have taken more than a dozen of these pictures. The reporters hiding behind the armored car had already discussed, helped each other, and worked together to take pictures, which were divided equally among everyone when they returned. Everyone shuddered, anger and ecstasy blended. Anger – in the 20th century, this kind of atrocity can still be seen; Ecstasy - when you take this kind of classic battlefield photo, why don't you worry about fame and fortune?

……

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Xiang Xiaoqiang felt that it was almost time to arrange a class teacher. In fact, a few hours ago, I had made up my mind to delay for so long to transport prisoners of war, carry loot, completely destroy the facilities at Pukou, and search for valuable documents.

He used the field phone that was dragged across the pontoon bridge to talk to Zhu Yourong on the phone. On the phone, Xiang Xiaoqiang told her about the current situation of the battle in Pukou, his own considerations, and most importantly, the fact that the Qing army coerced civilians and blocked the Ming army's attack, causing huge casualties to both the Ming army and civilians.

This matter is a killer weapon, Zhu Yourong couldn't bear it all of a sudden, and immediately asked Xiang Xiaoqiang to stop the attack and reduce the casualties of the people and soldiers.

So, Xiang Xiaoqiang was rightfully ordered to be a teacher.

Now there are ten pontoon bridges, and the boats on the river are shuttling non-stop, which feels like a great retreat from Dunkirk. But the difference is that this time all the heavy weapons had to be transported away, and nothing was left for the Qing army.

All 170,000 prisoners of war have been transported across the river, and large areas of the river beach are empty, leaving traces of more than 100,000 people sitting on them.

Now the Ming army is retreating with all its might, and the People's Guard, as the backbone, is leaving the palace in the town.

About 20,000 refugees have fled the town, most of them with their families, and many have fled alone, leaving all their families dead.

Xiang Xiaoqiang asked people to arrange a few trucks, put on loudspeakers, and broadcast the "Letter to the People of Pukou". This was issued in the name of Zhu Yourong, the empress of the Southern Ming Dynasty. The radio announced the basic situation of the Ming Dynasty, the approximate income of the people of the Southern Ming Dynasty, what kind of treatment they would receive if they arrived in the Ming Dynasty, how to arrange their lives, etc., and let the refugees choose for themselves. The circular also advised those refugees with families in the Northern Qing Dynasty that it was better to stay behind to avoid their families being arrested for life hard labor.

The vast majority of Pukou refugees cheered. Immigrating to the Southern Ming Dynasty is something that many people in the Northern Qing Dynasty risked their lives and fled to pursue. Now that people are fighting, although their homes are all 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 to the east, those who were close to the pontoon, and those who were willing to stay to the west.

After more than an hour, 20,000 refugees stood in line. About 15,000 people were willing to go to Nanming, and 5,000 were willing to stay. The 5,000 people were mainly family members who didn't all come out, and they didn't want to go alone.

The people below were very good at handling things, and arranged for dozens of other reporters and a few foreign reporters to cover the whole process, so as to prevent the propaganda machine of the Qing Dynasty from saying that the Southern Ming army "plundered the population" and "grabbed the Qing people to do hard labor" or something. …… Although he knew that even if he did, the Beiqing newspaper would still say so.

……

At six o'clock in the evening, Xiang Xiaoqiang stood by the pontoon bridge, watching the last people cross the pontoon bridge and the last captured cannon to pull across the pontoon bridge, and his heart finally relaxed. Li Guoliang reported that the Qing army was only a few kilometers away. Arrive in minutes.

But he can already cross the river "in minutes".

Now running on the pontoon bridge are thousands of their own People's Guards. They are smaller, well-trained, and faster at crossing bridges.

On each pontoon, sappers are loading **.

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked back at the billowing smoke in the distance. That's the docklands, the station area, and the warehouse area. A succession of explosions could be heard. Hehe, whether Pukou is an important military town or a transportation station, it has been completely scrapped. There is no year in the Northern Qing Dynasty, and it will not be restored to its original state.

Several sappers carried gasoline drums and poured gasoline on several hill-like piles of rifles and bullets. These hundreds of thousands of rifles, with miscellaneous models and rough workmanship, are really of little significance when they are transported to Nanming. And now the pontoons are so tight. Needless to say, these Beiqing bullets are even more important. The high rate of blindness and jamming is amazing. I was on that plane, and the shells that hit it were very telling.

As soon as the sappers set fire, hundreds of thousands of rifles and tens of millions of bullets burned and exploded.

"Commander," the sapper came running over with his waist over, "get on the armored car, burn the bullets, don't get stray bullets!" ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang took one last look at Pukou with emotion, got into the command car, and ordered:

"Go home."

At half past six, more than a dozen divisions of Qing troops chased after the Ming army. But the last man of the People's Guard had already run across the pontoon.

Moment......

Ten pontoon bridges on the Yangtze River burst into water columns at the same time, reaching dozens of meters high. Scraps of wood fell all over the river.

The soldiers of the vanguard of the Qing army stared blankly at the black smoke billowing from Pukou and the "pontoon bridge" floating on the river.