Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 268 Closing the Net
Pi Ruoyu pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, the lenses reflecting the orange light in the command post. His eyes were sharp as knives as he stared directly at the head of the military intelligence department in front of him.

"Have you investigated these people's backgrounds thoroughly?" His voice was calm, yet carried an undeniable pressure.

A fine layer of sweat appeared on the head of the military intelligence department's forehead. He swallowed and replied in a low voice, "Chief, the situation of these people... is very complicated."

Through covert investigation, we discovered that these people seemed to be independent of each other.

Among this group were agents from the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, and even quite a few Japanese spies.

They seemed to be independent of each other, and their goals differed, like a pot of boiling porridge, difficult to separate completely in a short time.

"Oh? Military Intelligence Bureau? Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics?"

Pi Ruoyu's lips curled into a cold smile, devoid of any warmth, instead filled with chilling murderous intent.
"Flies from Chongqing and Nanjing have also come to our poor, remote village because of the smell? And Japanese bedbugs too... How interesting."

He wasn't bothered by the complexity of the intelligence at all; instead, he treated it like a silly joke. In his view, no matter which faction stirred up trouble on his territory, they would all meet the same end.

"If you can't tell the difference, then there's no need to try."

Pi Ruoyu turned around, his voice not loud, but clearly reaching the section chief's ears, "Since the General entrusted Wutai County to me before he left, I have the responsibility and obligation to take good care of his foundation. No one should even think about touching a hair on his head!"

"Order!"

He said decisively, "The supplementary regiment responsible for city defense, mobilize all its members immediately!"

"Military intelligence and the military police, form a joint arrest team. You have one night to wipe out these rats hiding in Wutai County, nest after nest! Find out their whereabouts, and then, make the arrests!"

He paused, his cold gaze sweeping over the head of military intelligence. "Take him back to military intelligence and interrogate him thoroughly."

I don't care who he is, once he enters our door, he has to vomit everything inside him. Remember that.

His voice was even lower, filled with a bloodthirsty tone, "Anyone who dares to resist or be arrested will be killed without exception!"

"Yes!"

The head of the military intelligence department snapped to attention and shouted in response, his back already soaked with cold sweat. He knew that tonight, blood would be shed in Wutai County.

…………

That night, it was dark and windy.

In the south of Wutai County, an inconspicuous shoe shop had already closed. The shop door was tightly shut, and from the outside, it was completely dark.

However, the shop's inner courtyard was brightly lit and bustling with people.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of leather, tung oil, and a faint hint of gun oil.

Dozens of men dressed in coarse cloth shirts were gathered in the courtyard, heads bowed, intently wiping the weapons in their hands.

Mauser pistols, Mauser C96 pistols, sharp daggers... all gleamed with a cold, icy light in the dim glow of the lanterns.

Inside the shop, several men who seemed to be the leaders were gathered around a square table, discussing something in hushed tones over a dish of peanuts and a pot of cheap liquor.

The leader was a middle-aged man with a mustache and a sinister look in his eyes. His name was Kawashima Yu, and he was in charge of this infiltration operation.

"Is everything ready?" Kawashima asked in a low voice. "Have you figured out the route to Su Yaoyang's residence?"

"Lord Kawashima!"

A man with a scar on his face grinned and replied, "We've been watching that place for days. The compound is heavily guarded; we can't just force our way in."

However, we discovered that his two women, Song Mei and Xiao Lu, occasionally went to the fabric shop on East Street. This is our opportunity!

"Yoshi!"

Kawashima Yu nodded in satisfaction, a greedy and lewd glint in his eyes. "Doesn't Su Yaoyang care a lot about his woman?"
Once we've caught his first wife and concubine, stripped them naked, tied them up, taken photos, and sent them to him... hehehe, then whether we make him hand over the list of American arms dealers he's colluding with, or make him cut off his own arm, will be entirely up to us!

"Captain is wise!"

The leaders let out lewd laughter, as if they could already see Su Yaoyang's furious reaction.

Just as they were immersed in their beautiful dream, a deep rumble came from afar and reached their ears.

"Hmm? What's that sound?" The scarred man listened intently, puzzled.

"It's probably just a patrol truck from the militia, don't worry about it..." Kawashima Yu waved his hand dismissively.

But the sound grew louder and closer, transforming from the sound of a single engine into a symphony of dozens of engines. The earth began to tremble slightly, and ripples spread across the wine in the glasses on the table.

"Something's not right!" Kawashima Yu suddenly stood up, his expression changing.

The next second, a blinding beam of light suddenly pierced through the gaps in the shop's doors and windows, illuminating the entire inner room in a stark white light.

Immediately following was the ear-piercing creaking noise of metal tracks crushing the cobblestones, and the sharp screech of a vehicle braking suddenly. Kawashima Yu staggered to the window, pried open a crack, and looked out. In just one glance, his pupils instantly contracted to the size of pinpoints, and his blood seemed to freeze.

The streets were now completely packed with people.

Four Chaffee tanks, painted with the emblem of the Republic of China (Blue Sky with a White Sun), were parked not far from the shoe shop. Their dark cannon muzzles were pointed directly at the small shop, and the turrets slowly rotated, bringing a silent sense of oppression.

Behind the tanks were seven or eight equally menacing armored vehicles, with machine gunners already in position on their roofs. Surrounding these steel behemoths were hundreds of fully armed soldiers in bulletproof vests, carrying Thompson submachine guns and Garand rifles. They had formed an impenetrable encirclement, the dark muzzles of guns pointed at the shoe shop from all directions, blocking all escape routes.

"Baka... what... what's going on?"

Kawashima's voice became sharp and distorted with extreme fear. His carefully planned operation had already met its end before it even began.

At the very moment that Kawashima Yu's small shoe shop was completely submerged by the steel torrent, similar scenes were unfolding simultaneously in every corner of Wutai County.

In a private room on the second floor of a teahouse called "Tongfuji" in the east of the city, several well-dressed men were gathered around an octagonal table, seemingly enjoying tea and chatting, but in reality exchanging information.

Leading the group was the station chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (Zhongtong) Wutai Station, a fat man surnamed Qian. He was stroking his slick mustache and offering his insightful opinions on the latest instructions from Chongqing.

"boom!"

The wooden door to the private room was violently kicked open, sending splinters flying everywhere.

Station Master Qian spat out a mouthful of tea, which landed directly on the face of the person opposite him.

Before they could react, seven or eight militia soldiers armed with Thompson submachine guns rushed in like wolves, their dark muzzles pointed at each of them.

Station Chief Qian's face instantly turned from red to white, then from white to green. He slammed his hand on the table, forced himself to stand up, adopted the arrogant posture typical of bureaucrats, and shouted sternly:

"Insolence! Which faction are you from? Do you know who we are? We are from the Party-State, from the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics! What do you want to do? Rebel?!"

The officer leading the group, a company commander with a scar on his face, looked at him as if he were a clown. He didn't even bother to lift his eyelids, only squeezing out a few words through gritted teeth: "Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics? Never heard of it."

The soldiers behind him let out a suppressed burst of laughter.

"You...you guys!"

Station Chief Qian was trembling with rage. He pointed at the company commander's nose and shouted, "I want to see your superior! I want to lodge a strong protest with Su Yaoyang! You are undermining the united front against Japan!"

The company commander finally raised his head, looked at him with the eyes of someone looking at a dead man, and then impatiently pointed the muzzle of his gun at the ground:

"Save your words for our chief of staff. Now, put your hands behind your head and squat down! If you utter another word, I'll cut your tongue out and feed it to the dogs!"

Outside the window, an armored vehicle slowly drove by, its heavy machine gun mounted on its roof like the eyes of death, coldly watching everything inside the private room.

Station Chief Qian's legs went weak, and his arrogant demeanor vanished instantly. He and his men obediently squatted on the ground like a flock of quails, hands behind their heads.

Meanwhile, at a warehouse in the west of the city, the Kuomintang agents met the same fate.

Their station chief, a self-proclaimed highly skilled action team leader, was hit hard in the face with a rifle butt by a soldier after identifying himself and attempting to resist. His teeth flew out mixed with blood and foam, and he was knocked unconscious and dragged away on the spot.

Compared to these relatively "lucky" party and state colleagues, the fate of those Japanese spies can only be described as tragic.

In another besieged grocery store, several Japanese agents, cornered and desperate, had a mad glint in their eyes.

They roared incoherent slogans, pulled out their Mauser pistols from their pockets, and tried to make a last stand.

"His Majesty the Emperor onboard!"

They had just raised their guns, and hadn't even had a chance to pull the trigger yet.

"Boom... boom..."

The response they received was not gunfire, but a heavy roar like the drums of death. A Browning M2 heavy machine gun atop the turret of a Chaffee tank spat out devastating flames.

The 12.7mm bullet, carrying unparalleled kinetic energy, struck the foremost agent instantly. It couldn't be called a mere hit; his body, like a watermelon struck by a giant hammer, caved inwards violently before exploding with a deafening bang!

Flesh, bone fragments, and internal organs mingled into a thick, crimson mist that exploded outwards. The wall behind him was instantly smeared with an abstract and bloody mural composed of human tissue.

Half of a twisted spine, along with bits of flesh, slammed into the face of another agent with a "smack." The warm, sticky sensation and the strong smell of blood made him let out a scream that sounded inhuman.

The roar of the heavy machine guns never ceased, the fire chains sweeping across like the lash of death. The second and third agents who attempted to resist were successively reduced to flying bits of flesh in the muffled explosions.

Their bodies were torn apart and pulverized by the enormous kinetic energy, leaving not even a complete corpse.

The remaining Japanese agents stood frozen in place, staring at the hellish scene before them, inhaling the thick, nauseating stench of blood and acrid burning in the air, utterly collapsing. Their weapons clattered to the ground, and one by one they knelt down, hands raised high, their bodies trembling like leaves in the wind.

The entire Wutai County was thoroughly cleansed overnight by this irrational violence.

(End of this chapter)