Courtyard House: Home Alone

Lin Yifan exhaled a long breath. The lingering stench of blood in the air made him somewhat uncomfortable, but a strong sense of accomplishment welled up within him. This was not only about eliminating the enemy, but also a perfect test of his own strength and tactical skills.

Without lingering, he began cleaning up the battlefield. He collected all the weapons and ammunition left behind by the Japanese army, trucks (although two were destroyed, the remaining two were still drivable), and some seemingly useful supplies into his spatial storage.

He accepted all the weapons carried by the Japanese soldiers, regardless of their quality. He knew that many soldiers were still fighting the invaders with swords and spears, and he hoped to provide them with some support if the opportunity arose.

After doing all this, he took out the captured Japanese defense map and began to study it. This time, Lin Yifan set his sights on the two Japanese regimental outposts located in the eastern and southern suburbs. If he could eliminate the Japanese troops in these two locations, then the Japanese would essentially have no fighting power left in Beiping.

He could kill the few remaining Japanese soldiers in the city whenever and however he wanted.

Meanwhile, the Japanese headquarters received another devastating piece of news from Beiping: both Nanyuan and Xiyuan airfields had been completely destroyed, and all the planes had vanished. The helpless Japanese military headquarters could only report the news to their sycophantic emperor once again.

Upon hearing the news, Emperor Yuren was so angry that he trembled all over. He swept the teacup on his desk to the ground, where it shattered.

"Baka! Useless! All useless!" He roared at the Minister of the Army on the other end of the phone, his eyes bloodshot. "Two airports! Two airports guarded by the Imperial Army's elite troops! They were all wiped out overnight! Planes! So many planes! Where did they all go?!"

The military minister on the other end of the phone remained silent, only able to repeatedly say "Hai," but unable to offer any effective explanation.

The news coming back from Beiping was chaotic. All that was known was that they had been attacked by unidentified armed men. The attackers were heavily armed, moved swiftly, and were like ghosts, making them impossible to track.

"Investigate! Investigate thoroughly! Use all available resources! We must find these audacious thugs! I want to tear them to pieces!" Hirohito's voice was filled with hysterical madness.

Beiping, a vital city in North China and the face of the Imperial Army, is now suffering repeated heavy blows, which makes him feel unprecedented humiliation and anger.

After hanging up the phone, Hirohito slumped into his chair, his face ashen. He had a vague feeling that things were probably not as simple as they seemed.

The ability to silently eliminate two airport guards and "steal" hundreds of aircraft out of thin air was beyond the capabilities of ordinary anti-Japanese forces. Could it be a special forces unit of the Nationalist government? Or… had some other, even more terrifying force intervened? A strange unease, like a venomous snake, coiled around him.

Hirohito dared not think any further, but the unease clung to him like a leech, making him restless.

He immediately ordered the 20th Division, which was preparing to join the Kwantung Army, to be diverted to Tanggu and enter the Beiping area in order to strengthen control over Beiping.

At the same time, he ordered the Japanese military to immediately organize troops to conduct a thorough search of the entire city of Beiping and the surrounding areas, in order to find out this mysterious group of "thugs".

The entire North China Front Army was plunged into unprecedented tension and chaos due to the destruction of Nanyuan and Xiyuan airports and the emergence of this mysterious force.

Lin Yifan, the instigator of all this, was traveling alone in the outskirts of Beiping. According to the Japanese map, he was now less than five kilometers away from the Japanese military camp in the southern suburbs. It was already four o'clock in the afternoon, and he should be able to reach his destination before dark.

The afterglow of the setting sun painted the earth with a tragic gold, and also cast a silhouette light on Lin Yifan's figure as he walked forward.

His steps were steady, his breathing deep and even. The fatigue from the fierce battle he had just experienced seemed to have left little trace on him. Only the occasional sharp glint in the depths of his eyes indicated the terrifying carnage that had just taken place.

Five kilometers is just a short time for Lin Yifan, who is running at full speed.

But instead of rushing things, he chose a more covert and cautious approach—using the ditches, bushes, and trees along the way as cover, like a stalking black panther, silently approaching his target.

The closer you get to the military camp, the stronger the smell of sulfur and a unique, sweaty odor that comes from a large gathering of people become.

At the same time, his mental energy spread out slowly towards the military camp ahead, like an invisible net.

Soon, the general outline of the military camp came into his perception. It was a typical Japanese regimental-level garrison, roughly the size of Nanyuan Airport.

The outer perimeter was surrounded by a simple barbed wire fence and a trench. Behind the trench were sentry posts, spaced at intervals, each with a machine gun mounted on it, its dark muzzle pointing outwards.

Inside the camp, tents stood in neat rows, with an open space in the middle for drills. Although it was already evening, many soldiers were still doing evening exercises, shouting slogans in unison.

Deep within the camp, there appear to be several permanent brick and stone buildings, which should be the location of the regimental headquarters, armory, and communications room.

Lin Yifan lay in wait in a dense thicket outside the military camp, carefully probing with his mental power.

He noticed that this regiment was significantly more vigilant than the garrison at Nanyuan Airport. The sentries on the watchtowers scanned their surroundings warily, occasionally peering through their binoculars.

Inside the camp, besides the soldiers training, there were also many patrol teams moving around. The communications room was filled with antennas, clearly maintaining a high level of communication capability.

"It seems that the incidents at Nanyuan and Xiyuan airports have alerted the Japanese here," Lin Yifan thought to himself. "It will probably be difficult to sneak in as quietly as before."

He did not act rashly, but patiently lay in wait, meticulously "observing" the defenses of the military camp through his mental power:

The location of the machine gun nests, the pattern of sentry changing shifts, the routes and frequencies of patrols, the positions of officers, the approximate location of the ammunition depots... all this information converged, was analyzed, and organized in his mind like a data stream.

Time passed slowly, and darkness gradually fell. Lights came on in the camp, and the soldiers who had been doing evening exercises were dismissed to begin preparing dinner.

The aroma of food wafted through the air, mingling with the previous stench of sweat and sulfur to create a peculiar smell.

Lin Yifan knew that opportunities often arise at seemingly calm moments, when vigilance might be lax—mealtime.

His gaze locked onto a guard tower in the southwest corner of the camp. The guard tower was located in a relatively remote area, near a grove of trees, and based on his observations, the sentry there seemed somewhat lax, with longer intervals between shift changes compared to other guard towers.