Spy game? Stop guessing, I really am an undercover agent!

Chapter 154 Railway Eagle
September 5th, 1938, early morning.

Qinglong Gorge…

Rain dripped from the edge of He Hansheng's straw hat, forming a small puddle at his feet. In the distance, faint thunder rumbled, mingling with the muffled booming of artillery fire from the other side of the mountains.

"Captain, Old Gun has arrived." The communications officer, Xiao Chen, crouched low as he crawled through the bushes, his raincoat covered in leeches.

He Hansheng wiped the rain off his face and saw that familiar figure walking through the mist.

Old Gun was wearing a railway worker's uniform, and his left leg was noticeably limping when he walked. This was a consequence of being bitten by a Japanese military police dog at Huzhou Station last month.

"What? Has there been a change?" He Hansheng asked directly.

According to the original plan, Lao Qiang should be lying in wait at Huzhou Railway Station to monitor the movements of the Japanese army.

Old Gun pulled out an oil paper package from his pocket, inside which was half a station dispatch sheet soaked in tea. "Information from the comrade in charge of surveillance in Qingpu: the 106th Division's supply train arrived two hours ahead of schedule."

He pointed to the blurry numbers above, "The supplies haven't changed; it's still 120 barrels of gasoline and 2000 rounds of 75mm mountain gun shells, transported via the Shanghai-Hangzhou railway through Huzhou."

He Hansheng's pupils contracted slightly. As a veteran who had participated in the Battle of Shanghai, he knew all too well what this batch of supplies meant to the 106th Division, which was trapped in the mountains.

Gasoline allows their armored forces to continue their advance, and artillery shells are enough to sustain divisional firepower for more than three days.

"The battlefield in northern Jiangxi is now fraught with danger and cannot be abandoned lightly." Old Gun coughed twice and spat out a mouthful of phlegm with blood in it. "The higher command has ordered us to destroy this batch of supplies, otherwise, the consequences will be unimaginable."

The mountain wind suddenly became fierce, making the straw hats crackle.

He Hansheng took out his pocket watch; the surface was already damp with moisture. It read 6:17.

At a constant speed of 60 kilometers per hour, the train will have at most two hours to pass through the Huzhou section where they are located.

"Nishiyama Ken?"

"Personally escorting it." Old Gun unbuttoned his overalls collar, revealing a fresh brand on his collarbone. "This beast is very familiar with our fighting style. I'm sure he was sent specifically to deal with the railway guerrillas."

He Hansheng gripped the dispatch order tightly. He had heard of Major Nishiyama Ken's "reputation"—this man had once organized a "hunting game" at the foot of Zijin Mountain.

He has now been transferred to be in charge of railway security, which must be with a special mission.

"You haven't been exposed, have you?"

"Not for now." Old Gun fastened his shirt and took out the intelligence from the sole of his shoe.

"This is a map showing the distribution of outposts along the route, obtained by Comrade Special Branch."

"There's also bad news: the comrades on guard discovered that Ken Nishiyama was carrying a communications soldier and a small radio with him,"

"This means that if any section of the railway is damaged, an armored patrol vehicle can be deployed within thirty minutes."

A thunderclap boomed, and the rain began to intensify, its sound on the oiled paper like countless tiny drumbeats.

He Hansheng quickly assessed his forces: his Zhejiang North Guerrilla Team could muster 163 men, and with the more than 50 railway guerrillas from Luojiang, the total was only about 200 men. This was no match for a well-equipped escort team.
It's important to understand that the Japanese squads were not the small teams we usually refer to. They consisted of a seven-man squad leader, three small teams, and an eight-man team that operated three grenade launchers.

If it is a reinforced squad, it is also equipped with a three-person heavy machine gun team. In short, a well-equipped squad has a total of about fifty-four to fifty-seven people.

Even if the guerrillas had more than two hundred men, they might not be able to easily crush them in a head-on confrontation.

Where is Luo Jiang?

“We’re already waiting for you at Qinglong Gorge.” Old Gun suddenly grabbed He Hansheng’s wrist with astonishing force. “Captain He, this batch of supplies must not be delivered to the 106th Division.”

"Otherwise, Wuhan will become the next Nanjing..."

He Hansheng saw a cold glint in Lao Qiang's eyes that he had never seen before.

For the first time in three years, this ever-calm and collected underground worker revealed such intense emotion. "You go back and recover from your injuries; leave this to me."

Old Gun shook his head and pulled out two gleaming iron wrenches from his waist: "I know the structure of each carriage and how the gasoline drums are arranged."

He grinned, revealing his gums with a missing front tooth. "Besides, I still have a personal score to settle with Ken Nishiyama."

At 7:45 a.m., at the Qinglong Gorge pass.

Luo Jiang squatted beside the rusty rails, scraping the grease from the rail seams with a dagger.

The railway guerrilla leader, who was in his early thirties, was lean and dark-skinned. He had half of his right ear missing, a souvenir from when he bombed a supply car last year.

"Scholar He, you've arrived just in time," he said without looking up, picking up a clump of dark, greasy grime with the tip of his dagger. "Smell it. Freshly applied rust-preventative oil. Those Japanese devils certainly put a lot of effort into this shipment."

He Hansheng stepped over the sleepers and noticed that the rubble on both sides of the tracks had been disturbed. "Were there landmines?"

“Smart.” Luo Jiang finally stood up, patting his patched-up trousers. “There’s a trigger mine every five hundred meters.”

In the twilight, the canyon resembled a gaping maw, with newly constructed concrete machine gun nests faintly visible on the cliffs on both sides.

He Hansheng's heart sank. This place, which was originally an ideal ambush point, had now become a death trap.

"Can your 'homemade plane' still take off?" He Hansheng used the railway guerrillas' code for blasting railway tracks.

Luo Jiang pulled out a device the size of a brass pocket watch from his pocket: "A newly made high explosive, German-made, bought from the black market in Shanghai."

"The biggest problem now is that Kenji Nishiyama has attached an armored reconnaissance vehicle to the back of his motorcycle, equipped with searchlights and heavy machine guns."

"This person is very familiar with our attack methods. When we make our move, we must blow up the gasoline truck as quickly as possible."

"After the landmine is triggered, we only have one chance to get close to the train car."

"If we miss them, they have light and heavy machine guns, and they are also equipped with three grenade launchers. It will be very difficult for us to get close, even if we risk our lives to get there."

The two walked silently toward the dense forest outside the canyon, where guerrillas were making preparations for battle.

He Hansheng noticed that there were more than a dozen unfamiliar faces in the ranks, all wearing standard Central Army boots.

"The higher-ups sent demolition experts from northern Anhui overnight," Luo Jiang explained, following his gaze, "with twenty kilograms of TNT and detonators."

Deep in the dense forest, three simple sand tables have been completed.

He Hansheng saw Lao Qiang leading several team members who were former railway workers, using wooden blocks to simulate train formation.

"Captain He, Captain Luo," Old Gun looked up and his forehead was covered in sweat, it was hard to tell whether it was rain or sweat.

A young man wearing round-framed glasses interjected: "I've discussed this with Old Gun. We have to detonate the gasoline and the shells at the same time. Otherwise, the remaining supplies can still be transported by mule and horse teams."

He Hansheng pondered and said, "How about this, Luo Jiang's team will first create a fake explosion two kilometers upstream of Qinglong Gorge to lure the armored reconnaissance vehicle away."

"I led the main force to set up an ambush in the middle of the canyon, and detonated gasoline and shells at the same time after the transport trucks entered the ambush zone."

"The explosion rang out, and I led my men in."

"Operation time?" Luo Jiang stroked the rail wrench he never parted with.

"At 8:30, you detonate the explosives up ahead. Leave the rest to me," He Hansheng said, unfolding a hand-drawn map and pointing to the location.

Just then, Old Gun suddenly coughed violently, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the wooden blocks of the seventh carriage of the simulated train.

He Hansheng then noticed that, without realizing it, there was a dark stain spreading on the back of his work clothes...

(End of this chapter)