Courtyard House: Home Alone

The entire Hong Kong Island was immediately placed under martial law by the Japanese army. Barbed wire was erected at all street corners and docks, and strangers were searched from house to house.

Zheng Jianming hurriedly knocked on Lin Yifan's door, his face showing some tension: "Young master, the Japanese are making far more noise than we expected. They've sealed off the whole city. What if they trace it back to us?"

Lin Yifan walked to the window, lifted a corner of the curtain, and looked at the Japanese squad that was checking houses one by one on the street in the distance. He smiled calmly and said, "What's the panic? You've already cleaned up your identities in this place. Even if the Japanese come to check, they won't find any flaws."

Chen Gongshu arrived at this moment, clutching the news he had just received: "I just received a letter that the Japanese commander is furious and has sent a telegram to his superiors requesting reinforcements, saying that a large resistance force has appeared on Hong Kong Island and requesting reinforcements from the mainland."

Lin Yifan raised an eyebrow upon hearing this: "Oh? Send reinforcements? The Japanese don't have any soldiers to send now. They've lowered the conscription age to thirteen or fourteen."

Notify all action teams to proceed as planned tonight. The Japanese are currently focused on recovering the lost weapons and supplies; they have no idea we'd dare to continue. This will give us a good surprise.

Zheng Jianming nodded and immediately went out to deliver the message. Lin Yifan then turned to Chen Gongshu and said, "Go and tell the brothers to organize all the weapons. When the Japanese come to search, hide them in the underground storage room. I've changed the entrance and exit there, so the Japanese won't be able to find them."

After arranging everything, sure enough, less than half an hour later, a group of Japanese soldiers, accompanied by police officers from the puppet government, searched the villa area. The Japanese squad leader leading the group knocked on doors and inspected each house.

When they arrived at the entrance of the Western-style building, Zheng Jianming's informant, who had been arranged in advance, quickly stepped forward to offer a cigarette, smiling obsequiously as he said that the owner of the house was a Japanese businessman who had always been law-abiding.

The Japanese soldiers didn't search thoroughly; they just glanced at the yard and left, and sure enough, nothing went wrong.

After lunch, Lin Yifan summoned all the team leaders involved in the operation and clearly defined their assigned objectives and retreat routes for each person.

It was emphasized that a swift victory was necessary. After taking over the bank, all gold, silver, paper money, and bonds should be loaded onto trucks and transported away immediately. No private individuals were allowed to hoard any property. All supplies should be inventoried and stored in a unified warehouse, and bonuses would be distributed according to merit.

For any groups tasked with blocking or intercepting reinforcements, it is crucial to thoroughly eliminate their rear ends and absolutely prevent them from leading the Japanese troops into the area.

We came from where we hid our supplies.

As long as we successfully transport the money away, our operation will be considered a success, and we won't need to engage in a war of attrition with the Japanese.

After explaining all the precautions, the leaders dispersed back to their respective positions, waiting to take action after nightfall.

As darkness fell, the Japanese soldiers, exhausted from a full day of searching, relaxed their vigilance on most of the outposts, leaving only a few to patrol the street corners, which gave us the perfect opportunity to strike.

At the appointed time, each action team simultaneously rushed towards their respective targets according to the predetermined route. The entire operation was carried out silently, and in less than half an hour, Shen Jingbo, who was in charge of the bank's internal operations, was already standing at the entrance of the underground vault.

He held the vault key in his hand, staring helplessly at the heavy vault door. It turned out that the team members who entered the bank were so hasty that they had killed the bank manager, who knew the vault's combination.

The Japanese bank employees who remained had no idea about the password. All of this was observed by Lin Yifan, who was in the Western-style building. He shook his head helplessly, and in a flash, he appeared next to Shen Jingbo.

These team members already knew of the young master's abilities, so they didn't show any surprise at his sudden appearance, at least not on the surface.

Lin Yifan took the key from Shen Jingbo's hand, inserted it into the keyhole, and used his mental power to examine the internal structure. Fortunately, they were using mechanical combination locks, which were easy to understand with his mental power. In less than three seconds, the vault door was opened.

Golden bars were neatly stacked on the shelves, and boxes of brand-new banknotes and directly exchangeable foreign currency bonds were piled up all over the floor. Even the air in the underground vault was filled with the smell of money mixed with ink. The team members present were dumbfounded.

Lin Yifan glanced at the vault full of money and urged, "Don't just stand there, get moving! Be quick, don't waste time, and retreat immediately after you're done."

Once everyone realized what was happening, they quickly rolled up their sleeves and rushed forward, carrying bundles of banknotes and boxes of gold bars onto the cart. The car that had been arranged outside drove directly to the vault entrance through the back door, and the unloaded valuables were loaded into the car without wasting any time.

Lin Yifan stood guard at the entrance of the vault, helping to move the remaining boxes to the door. He also collected the secret bonds stored in the safe next to it, as well as the valuables, antiques, and paintings that the clients had left there. These things would come in very useful later, whether they were resold or used to cultivate relationships.

Before long, the entire vault was completely emptied, leaving not a single silver coin behind. Shen Jingbo wiped the sweat from his brow and gave Lin Yifan a gesture of accomplishment. Lin Yifan nodded, instructing him to lead his men to retreat according to plan, while he would cover the rear and clean up the scene.

After the group left, Lin Yifan raised his hand to lock the vault door again, and also collected all the customer data in the bank's data room. In this way, it would take at least a month for the bank to resume normal operations. After doing all this, he teleported back to the mansion.

After he sat down and took a sip of tea, reports of successes from each action group came in one after another, including all seven banks owned by the Japanese.

All the valuables that could be taken were successfully transported to the pre-arranged hiding place, leaving only a few empty banks and dozens of guard corpses. The whole process was very fast, and all of them used pistols with silencers, giving the Japanese no chance to react or organize reinforcements.

Lin Yifan put down the walkie-talkie, leaned back in his chair and sighed. The matter in Hong Kong was almost settled. He had been away for half a month and it was time to go back.

Upon learning that Lin Yifan was preparing to return home, Chen Gongshu quickly stepped forward to persuade him to stay: "Young master, things have just started to take off in Hong Kong, and there are still many things that need to be sorted out. Why don't you stay a few more days to help us set things up before you leave?"

Lin Yifan smiled and patted his shoulder: "I've already laid out the plan for you clearly, just follow it."

Besides, I won't ignore this place after I go back. If you need any weapons or supplies, just send me a coded telegram and I'll send them over."

Zheng Jianming, who was listening nearby, did not try to persuade Lin Yifan any further. He simply said that a farewell dinner had been arranged for that evening, and that Lin Yifan should eat before leaving.

Lin Yifan did not refuse. Before the meal, he took Zheng Jianming and the others to the warehouse in the suburbs and handed over twelve armored vehicles, as well as a batch of American weapons and medicines left for the brothers who stayed in Hong Kong Island, to Chen Gongshu.

After explaining all this, he followed the two back to the mansion. Then, Lin Yifan took out a check for fifty million US dollars from his pocket and handed it to Chen Gongshu as their start-up capital in Hong Kong.

Holding the check handed to him by Lin Yifan, Chen Gongshu was stunned. Fifty million US dollars in today's world is equivalent to five billion US dollars in the future. Lin Yifan entrusted him with such a large sum of money without hesitation. What trust that was! His hands couldn't help but tremble.

Having been in the industry for so many years, he has handled a lot of money, but such a large sum of start-up capital was something he never dared to dream of. With this money, he wouldn't have to worry about recruiting staff, acquiring territory, or building relationships.

Chen Gongshu took a deep breath, solemnly put the check into his pocket, and gave Lin Yifan a standard military salute: "Don't worry, young master, I will definitely keep a close eye on things in Hong Kong for you and will never let you down. When we take over the whole of Hong Kong in the future, we will be waiting for you to come and take charge."

Lin Yifan smiled and held his arm without saying anything more. The group finished their farewell dinner in a lively atmosphere, and Lin Yifan gave them a few instructions on what to do next.