Courtyard House: The Road to an Industrial Power

The dilapidated courtyard was deathly silent, with only the howling of the cold wind whistling through the withered branches.

Yi Zhonghai huddled in the corner, only able to hear his own heart pounding, "thump! thump-thump!"

"Hoo," Yi Zhonghai took a deep breath, intending to peek out to see if the two men had left.

Just as his forehead peeked out from the corner of the wall.

"Bang!"

Something cold and hard was pressed firmly against his temple.

Yi Zhonghai was stunned for a moment. He slowly turned his head and saw only a dark gun barrel pointing at him.

A finger was already on the trigger, ready to fire at any moment.

Yi Zhonghai's blood froze instantly, and his soul vanished.

His legs gave way and he collapsed to his knees, nearly losing control of his bladder and bowels.

"No, don't shoot! I didn't do anything! I'm just a beggar!"

He raised his hands high, his head hung low, his voice trembled, and he even cried.

Standing in front of him were Li Yichuan and a young man.

He looked down at Yi Zhonghai, who was slumped on the ground, his narrow eyes narrowed, and a sinister smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Yi Zhonghai? Yi Zhonghai from the Red Star Courtyard?"

Li Yichuan's voice was light and airy, yet it carried a chilling edge.

In order to deal with Lin Weidong, he had long since thoroughly investigated the backgrounds of everyone in the courtyard, including this old geezer in front of him.

It was Yi Zhonghai, Lin Weidong's neighbor.

Yi Zhonghai was startled and looked up at Li Yichuan, his face filled with terror: "You...you know me?"

"I naturally know Lin Weidong's enemies."

Li Yichuan waved his hand, and the Japanese spy beside him slowly lowered his pistol.

Li Yichuan slowly squatted down, grabbed Yi Zhonghai by the collar, and pulled him in front of him.

His tone was icy and chilling: "Tell me, what did you just hear?"

Yi Zhonghai shook his head hurriedly, his lips trembling: "No, I didn't hear anything! I was just hiding here to keep warm, really!"

"Snapped!"

A resounding slap landed hard on Yi Zhonghai's face, and five finger marks instantly swelled up, burning with pain that seemed to gnaw at his teeth.

"Dare to lie?" Li Yichuan's eyes were sinister. "I'll give you one more chance. Tell me everything you heard, word for word!"

Yi Zhonghai was stunned by the slap. Looking at Li Yichuan's fierce eyes, he knew he couldn't hide it anymore. He stammered, "I... I heard you say that you wanted to infiltrate the steel rolling mill, get into a core technical position, and deal with Lin Weidong."

"And...and Japanese! You're Japanese!"

Upon hearing this, the Japanese spy beside him changed his expression drastically, drew his pistol again, pressed the muzzle directly against Yi Zhonghai's head, and put his finger on the trigger, ready to fire at any moment.

"Baka! You dare eavesdrop on Imperial secrets?! You're dead!"

The cold muzzle of the gun was pressed against his forehead, and the fear of death instantly overwhelmed Yi Zhonghai.

He trembled violently, tears and snot streaming down his face, desperately kowtowing: "Don't kill me! Don't kill me! I didn't mean to eavesdrop! I hate Lin Weidong! I'll never forgive him!"

Li Yichuan raised his hand to stop the spy, looking at Yi Zhonghai with a playful expression: "Oh? What grudge do you have against Lin Weidong?"

Yi Zhonghai dared not hide anything and told Lin Weidong all about his past grievances. When he got to the point of hatred, he gritted his teeth and his eyes were almost overflowing with resentment.

"Lin Weidong ruined everything for me! I want to skin him alive and tear him apart! I'll never let him get away with this!"

After listening, Li Yichuan's smile grew wider and wider.

God help me too.

A person who hates Lin Weidong to the core and is familiar with the courtyard house and Lin Weidong's background is practically a powerful tool delivered to their doorstep.

He patted Yi Zhonghai on the shoulder, his tone slightly seductive: "Very well, we're here to deal with Lin Weidong too. Now, I'll give you two choices."

"First, cooperate with us and help us bring down Lin Weidong. Then you'll live a life of luxury and never have to hide in that dilapidated courtyard, starving again."

"Second, if you refuse to cooperate, you'll be shot right now, die here, and rot in this dilapidated courtyard. Nobody will know."

With the threat of death looming before him, Yi Zhonghai nodded frantically without a second thought.

"I'll cooperate! I'll cooperate with you! I'll do anything you ask! As long as I can kill Lin Weidong, I'll do anything!"

In his quest for revenge and survival, he had long since cast aside all sense of shame and national duty.

Li Yichuan nodded in satisfaction and gestured to the person next to him to put away his gun.

Then, looking at Yi Zhonghai, he said, "Come with us, we'll take you somewhere."

Yi Zhonghai got up and left without hesitation.

"Ouch!" Yi Zhonghai, who had just gotten up, suddenly sat down on the ground. It turned out that his legs had gone numb from squatting for too long.

The young man beside Li Yichuan helped the limp Yi Zhonghai out of the courtyard and walked into the depths of the alley.

After several twists and turns, the three arrived at an inconspicuous courtyard made of blue bricks.

The wooden door of the courtyard was dilapidated, and there were discarded bamboo baskets and rotten straw piled up at the entrance. It looked like a dilapidated courtyard that had been abandoned for many years and was not at all noticeable.

The moment he pushed open the door, Yi Zhonghai's eyes widened and his hair stood on end.

The courtyard, seemingly filled with dilapidated junk, was actually a disguise. A hidden compartment was concealed under a broken water vat in the corner, encrypted intelligence was stuffed in an old bamboo basket under the eaves, and a street defense map of Beijing was pressed under the stone mill in the center of the courtyard.

The door to the main room was ajar. Pushing it open, a chilling aura rushed out.

Yellowed old newspapers were pasted on the walls, obscuring the densely packed drawings.

It contains detailed internal structural diagrams of steel rolling mills, machinery factories, and arsenals;

In the corner sat a transmitter disguised as an old radio, its buttons gleaming, next to which were stacks of codebooks and Japanese documents.

On the table were canned food, compressed dry rations, several bottles of medical disinfectant, and a first-aid kit.

The innermost wooden cabinet looked ordinary, but when Li Yichuan opened the cabinet door, he found several pistols, several daggers, and a silencer hidden inside, all gleaming coldly.

A thick hemp rope was hanging from the roof beam, and a knife was placed next to it, clearly a tool used to tie people up and silence them.

The entire room was dark and oppressive, filled with a sinister murderous intent.

Looking at everything before him, Yi Zhonghai was so frightened that his legs went weak, but he also knew that he had embarked on a path of no return.

Li Yichuan stood in the center of the room, looking at the trembling Yi Zhonghai, a sinister smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

"Come in. Your task for the next period of time is to complete the training I've assigned you."

Yi Zhonghai walked in, and just as he was wondering what kind of training it was, someone knocked him unconscious from behind with a stick.