The Bravest

Chapter 54 Gold Robbery 1

On December 12, the Japanese army took over the International Settlement in just one day. Facing the Japanese soldiers, the British and American troops, who were arrogant and domineering, had no power to resist. They chose to give up resistance and surrender without firing a shot! Only one British warship tried to escape from the Huangpu River, but it failed to escape and was ruthlessly sunk by the Japanese warship.

On the other hand, since the Vichy government of France had already surrendered to Germany and became a member of the Axis Powers, the Japanese were not in a hurry to invade the French Concession. However, all the entrances and exits in the French Concession were actually under strict surveillance by the Japanese, and anyone who wanted to enter or leave had to undergo strict and detailed searches and inspections.

"Brother, a little brother heard a piece of information that the Japanese will escort a batch of gold from the customs to the Bank of Japan in three days." Liu Sheng mysteriously found Lin Jie, who was hiding at work at No. 76 and did not dare to go to the welfare home to see Liu Haitang.

"Oh, there is such a thing. Tell me in detail." Gold! Lin Jie became interested as soon as he heard it. No matter whether he had any idea about it or not, he would just listen to it.

"Brother, are you interested?" Liu Sheng thought Lin Jie wanted to take advantage of the gold. With a snap, Liu Sheng was hit on the back of his head. "Hurry up and tell me."

"Brother, it's a younger brother I sent to work as an errand boy for Zhang Guozhen under Wu Sibao. He heard those people talking privately about making a big profit in a few days, so he invited one of the drunkards to drink, saying that he wanted to get rich with him, and then he got the information out of him." Liu Sheng spoke in a low voice while keeping an eye on the door of Lin Jie's small office, fearing that someone would break in at this time.

Lin Jie was also listening while recalling his memories of his past life. It seemed that this was indeed the case and it had been adapted into several spy novels. He had also checked it on the Internet. When Liu Sheng said this, Lin Jie remembered it, but there were many different opinions and no unified statement.

"Well, let me think about it first. Oh, by the way, Liu Sheng, how are those dozen guys that I asked you and Yidao to secretly train outside doing now? Can they be of use now?"

Lin Jie was asking about the dozen or so children aged fifteen or sixteen that he had specifically asked Liu Sheng and the other two to secretly cultivate outside. Even Ye Wulian was unaware of this. The reason had to do with the arrest of Liu Yang. Lin Jie took a fancy to those clever children, so he carefully selected nine of them, and also found several other talents with great potential, making a total of fifteen people. There were both men and women in this group, and Xiaolan, who had acted opposite Liu Sheng, was also among them. Lin Jie even gave her a name himself - Lin Ruolan. "

"It can be used, but didn't you say not to go out unless it's an emergency? That day, when my brother was taken away and my sister-in-law couldn't find you, I just notified them to be ready to go out at any time. Besides, they have been training for so long but have never been in actual combat, so their combat effectiveness is still questionable. I think we should find an opportunity to actually go out."

Liu Sheng carefully answered Lin Jie's question. These people were carefully selected by Lin Jie. Lin Jie spent a lot of time and effort on them. Sometimes he would take time to teach them in person. This was a trump card that Lin Jie had hidden. For the time being, only Lin Jie, Liu Sheng and Yidao knew about it.

"Well, since the training is almost done, I will find a chance to arrange it, but we can only appear in batches and try not to attract attention. Now let's talk about the gold. Whether we want to do it or not, we can make some preparations first and see if there is any further news."

"Okay, brother, I'll go and arrange it with Yidao." Liu Sheng said and left in a hurry.

Lin Jie leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and slowly recalled the past. He kept thinking until his head hurt, but he still couldn't come up with any useful clues.

A day later, Liu Sheng brought back the latest news that the little brother had obtained Zhang Guozhen's plan, including the time, place, number of participants, and even the Japanese transportation route.

"Liu Sheng, this little brother is not bad, not much different from you and Yidao. How old is he?" Lin Jie was not busy looking at the information Liu Sheng got. Instead, he was interested in this little brother who was undercover in Zhang Guozhen's side.

"Hehe, he used to hang out with a few of us, but when Big Brother looked for us, he had already gone to the International Settlement. Maybe he didn't make it, so he came back to look for us some time ago. Seeing that Yidao and I were enjoying the good life with you, he also wanted to hang out with you. I didn't agree, and told him that if he wanted to hang out with Big Brother, he had to show his loyalty first. As a result, this guy said he wanted to go over there to help us gather information. I didn't want him to go at first, fearing that something might happen, but he was a bit arrogant and thought that he could show his abilities there, so I took some detours to get him in. I didn't expect that after just two months, he had become so familiar with us and caused all these things."

"Well, they have the abilities, but you should pay more attention to their character. After all, we can't just take care of ourselves now. The more people there are, the easier it is to have conflicts. So we can cooperate with people who are too selfish, but we can't be brothers. Do you understand?" No matter what Lin Jie thought of, he would teach his experience to Liu Sheng and others who followed him first.

"Okay, go outside and ask Yidao to keep an eye on them, then come in and tell me about this information and see if we have a chance. This can also be considered a deduction."

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Liu Sheng went out for a while and came back, locking the door from the inside.

"Brother, the Japanese are very strange. I don't know what they are doing. They actually go in circles on such a short road. This is the route Zhang Guozhen got. Go north from Sichuan Road, then turn into Hankou Road here, and then go east again, all the way to here and enter the Bund. Go straight for about a hundred meters and then turn to the back door of the Bank of China. The Japanese should be unloading the goods at the back door. According to the information we got from Zhang Guozhen, there is only one vehicle for transportation, and it is not a proper armored vehicle. It is a modified prisoner van for transporting prisoners." Liu Sheng pointed at a drawing and explained to Lin Jie.

"There's nothing strange about it. This batch of gold was looted by the Japanese. They wanted to conceal their tracks and smuggle it into the Bank of Japan to launder it and make it their own. They really want to be a whore and still want to be a saint. The Japanese used a trick called sneaking into Chencang. They only used a so-called armored transport vehicle converted from a prisoner van. It seems that there were only a few military police escorting the transport. They are really skilled and daring. No wonder Zhang Guozhen dared to covet the Japanese gold. The damn Japanese are really unexpected."

"Brother, why don't we take advantage of the situation and take advantage of him?" Liu Sheng looked at Lin Jie with shining eyes.

"Liu Sheng, if we take action before Zhang Guozhen, is there any suitable location?" Lin Jie asked seriously.

Liu Sheng frowned and thought for a long time, and finally shook his head: "Brother, I really can't find it! Except this place, other places are not easy to make a move. Brother, you see, the place chosen by Zhang Guozhen is absolutely amazing, it happens to be a bend, and the transport truck is not fast. Once it turns, it will definitely be easily stopped. More importantly, this position is almost in the middle of the route, which can be said to be the best place to start. The only bad thing is that it is not far from the police headquarters, and the action time is only eight or nine minutes at most. Zhang Guozhen's plan is to kill the escort and drive the transport truck away directly. As long as he enters the Chinese area, Wu Sibao will definitely be there to pick him up. However, that brother dare not ask about Zhang Guozhen's plan after he gets the money. That would be too deliberate, and anyone would be suspicious. Besides, the plan behind it is probably only Zhang Guozhen himself knows."

"Then we can only adapt to the situation." After all, there are nearly 300 mouths to feed, so Lin Jie decided to take this chance. "But we must be careful, and never alert the enemy! No matter if it succeeds or not, we must withdraw as soon as the time comes, and we must not let anyone fall into the hands of the Japanese!"

Liu Sheng nodded confidently and said, "Don't worry, big brother. If we can do it, we will go ahead. If not, we will retreat. Saving our lives is the most important thing! After all, we brothers have always been able to survive this way."

Lin Jie nodded slightly: "Yes, but there is one more thing to remember, we must wait until Zhang Guozhen takes action first. If he succeeds, then we will take the opportunity to catch up and find another chance to rob him; if he fails, then we will act according to the situation. But we must pay attention to the time. In addition to the police headquarters, the military police will arrive in less than ten minutes."

"I understand. Besides, the people I picked are about the same size as adults. After they are disguised, I guarantee that no one can see through them." Liu Sheng responded confidently.

"You still can't be careless. Even if you have the gold, if you are discovered or someone follows you, throw the gold in a conspicuous place immediately. It's okay to buy time. Save the person first. Everything else is just material possessions. Make it clear to the people below. Don't put money before life. This point must be emphasized repeatedly, not just this time. All future actions must be about saving lives first. If you have people, you will have everything. If you lose people, you will have nothing."

"Brother, we understand. You don't have to repeat it every time." Liu Yang also knew that Lin Jie was doing it for their own good, but whenever there was an action, Lin Jie would repeat it over and over again. No wonder there were rumors that the eldest brother was a coward. There were also some sayings that Liu Sheng would never believe. The eldest brother was timid, but he could also be said to be cautious. How could there be rumors that he peed his pants? There were also people saying that the eldest brother was not a man. He was not a man at all to marry three wives? Someone must have been smearing the eldest brother's reputation.

"Okay, stop talking nonsense and get busy." Lin Jie waved his hand and told Liu Sheng to get out.

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Lin Jie thought about it over and over again, and always felt that he had taken it for granted. These were just some fragments of information in his memory that he didn't know whether they were true or false. The ideas he deduced were not reliable at all. And what about improvisation? It's better to say that it's just a child's play. If there is a slight mistake, it can cost someone's life. How can you be so casual? Maybe it's because nothing has happened to him, and his life has been too smooth, so he has begun to be self-righteous.

"No, we have to plan carefully. Fortunately, there is still time."

Then Lin Jie took out the simple map that Liu Sheng brought back again, and found the maps of various districts of Shanghai drawn by the Japanese from the compartment of the filing cabinet for comparison.

After a brief comparison, Lin Jie had to admit that the Japanese of that era had indeed spent many years painstakingly planning to occupy China, and the amount of manpower and material resources invested was astronomical. In terms of maps alone, it was actually many times more detailed than the maps of the Chinese and the British and American, not to mention the simple map that Liu Sheng had brought back. These were still in downtown Shanghai. In fact, Lin Jie was still collecting military maps of various parts of China made by the Japanese. As long as he could get them, it would be more important than any intelligence.

Lin Jie pulled his mind back from the map and only found the one of Shanghai Bund. He hid the others again and would find professionals to make a few copies when he had the chance.

Lin Jie lay on the map, drawing thin lines on it with a pencil, and slowly a new plan took shape. Throwing down the pencil, Lin Jie exhaled, thought for a while, and hid his things. He pushed the door open and shouted to the shared office area outside: "Liu Sheng, come with me, Yidao will stay here to look after the house."

Lin Jie drove Liu Sheng out of the gate of No. 76, turning left and right all the way to a residential area, and drove into a small courtyard. Half an hour later, Liu Sheng, dressed as a rickshaw driver, pulled out a half-worn rickshaw, looked around and saw that there was no one on either side, then lowered his head and walked away. About five minutes later, Lin Jie turned into a middle-aged man with stubble on his face and walked out of the courtyard gate, closed the door and left in another direction.

Lin Jie walked through several alleys and came to the main street. He looked around and called out "rickshaw."

"I'm coming." Liu Sheng had been waiting here for a long time.

"Let's go to China National Bank." Lin Jie got on the rickshaw carelessly.

When Liu Sheng was pulling the cart forward, Lin Jie whispered, "Liu Sheng, go slower. The road is not short. Can you do it? They said I was going to be a driver, and you still said I don't look like one."

"Brother, it's okay, it's nothing, and besides, I'm not as good as you in drawing."

"Okay, we can't just keep walking around in circles. We need to walk for a while and then take a break. Besides, I have to walk some places."

Lin Jie is going to survey the terrain and route personally. In order to grab the gold, Lin Jie must go there personally.

……