Courtyard House: Home Alone

Once outside, he released a Japanese military truck and drove it out of the city, his target being Fengtai Railway Station.

This was a freight transit station for the Japanese in Beiping. They had their eyes on the warehouses here, which contained large quantities of military and logistical supplies for the Japanese in North China and Shanxi.

During his reconnaissance two days prior, Lin Yifan discovered that even without the Japanese, the people of Beiping might not be able to celebrate the New Year properly, because Beiping was severely lacking in supplies, including food, medicine, and winter clothing.

The basic necessities for survival were almost all looted and hoarded by the Japanese and their collaborators, leaving ordinary people to struggle in hunger and cold.

He wanted to reclaim these supplies that rightfully belonged to the people, so that the people of Beiping could have a peaceful New Year.

The truck sped through the night, and Lin Yifan easily avoided the remaining patrols in the city by relying on his spatial awareness.

He learned from the documents captured from the Japanese headquarters that the Japanese garrison in Fengtai was a garrison battalion with about a thousand men.

The closer they got to Fengtai Railway Station, the denser the Japanese sentries became. Searchlights swept across the night sky like will-o'-the-wisps, and the air was filled with the smell of kerosene and rust.

He parked the truck in a secluded grove of trees and then quietly slipped into the outskirts of the train station.

The train station was brightly lit, with several freight trains parked on the tracks. The warehouse area was heavily guarded, with barbed wire strung atop the high walls and guard towers at intervals, where Japanese sentries stood vigilantly, rifles in hand, watching their surroundings.

Lin Yifan didn't force his way in; instead, he teleported directly into the warehouse area. The warehouses stood one after another, their massive iron gates tightly shut, secured with heavy padlocks.

As Lin Yifan entered the first warehouse, a smell mixed with the aroma of flour, rice, and salted fish wafted towards him.

Inside the warehouse, mountains of grain sacks reached all the way to the roof. The sacks were marked with the word "Military Use," clearly indicating that they were military rations that the Japanese were preparing to transport to the front lines.

Lin Yifan's eyes sharpened, and he activated his spatial storage without hesitation. The mountain of grain sacks seemed to be lifted up by an invisible hand, disappearing into the air one after another, leaving only an empty warehouse floor.

Using the same method, he entered several adjacent warehouses. They were filled with medicines, from common anti-inflammatory drugs and cold remedies to precious penicillin and anesthetics—all life-saving treasures on the battlefield. There were also cotton-padded clothes, blankets, and various fabrics.

They then found weapons and ammunition in two warehouses: rifles, machine guns, grenades, and ammunition boxes, neatly stacked together, gleaming with a cold metallic sheen.

Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Yifan also stored these weapons and ammunition in his spatial storage. He knew that these weapons would become an important force in the future resistance against the Japanese invaders.

As warehouse after warehouse was emptied, Lin Yifan's spatial storage was filled with an unknown amount of items. Seeing the supplies that had been seized by the Japanese now in his possession, he felt an indescribable sense of exhilaration.

Just as he was preparing to clear out the last warehouse, he suddenly heard hurried footsteps and shouts from the Japanese soldiers outside the warehouse area.

Clearly, something went wrong, allowing the Japanese to discover the problem with the warehouse area.

Lin Yifan's eyes narrowed, and he quickened his pace of collecting the goods. After the last batch of canned goods was stored in his spatial storage, he teleported out of the warehouse area and headed towards the exit of the train station.

The Japanese patrol, guns raised, cautiously approached, their searchlight beams sweeping back and forth between the warehouses.

Using the shadows of the buildings as cover, Lin Yifan teleported out of the warehouse area in four teleportations. He then teleported several more times, ran out of the train station area, released a truck, and headed towards Beiping.

Meanwhile, in the brigade headquarters of the Tianjin garrison, General Okamura Yasuji, who had just arrived that evening to take over as commander of the North China Expeditionary Army, held a telegram from Beiping forwarded by the Special Higher Police, his face ashen as the bottom of a pot.

The handwriting on the telegram seemed to carry the scent of blood, each stroke telling the story of the catastrophe that Beiping City had experienced in just a few hours—the attack on Hongbinlou, the traitor leader, Major Sato of the Special Higher Police, and all his guards were killed.

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The military police headquarters was devastated, and more than 300 elite military policemen perished.

Immediately afterwards, the Japanese headquarters was bombed, the guard unit was wiped out, and the command system was completely paralyzed.

A series of bad news struck Okamura Neiji's heart like a heavy hammer.

He had just arrived in Tianjin and hadn't even had a chance to catch his breath when he received such a "gift," which was a huge irony and humiliation for him and for the empire!

"Baka! Useless! A bunch of useless trash!" Okamura Neiji crumpled the telegram in his hand into a ball and slammed it to the ground, his roar echoing throughout the command post.

His bloodshot eyes burned with raging anger and a hint of barely perceptible fear.

Beiping, the heart of North China, a stable rear area that the Imperial Army had cultivated for many years, was turned upside down overnight, with even the military police and headquarters being wiped out. How could this be?

"Investigate! I'm giving you five days. Find out who did this! Use all your resources, dig three feet into the ground, and find him! I want him torn to pieces! If you don't get what I want by then, you can commit seppuku and apologize to the Emperor!"

Okamura Neiji hysterically roared at the Special Higher Police Chief on the other end of the phone, his voice sharp and shrill from extreme anger.

The head of the Special Higher Police on the other end of the phone was already terrified. He kept agreeing and, after hanging up, immediately mobilized all available resources to conduct a frantic investigation throughout Beiping.

Okamura Ningci put down the phone and said to Chief of Staff Akiyama Taro standing next to him, "Akiyama-kun, please immediately draft a telegram to the General Headquarters informing them of the current situation in North China."

He told them that the security situation in North China was very serious and that sending just one 20th Division was far from enough, and that they should send at least another division to Beiping.

"Also, contact the 20th Division again and ask them when they will arrive in Tianjin." Just then, a communications officer strode in, holding a telegram in both hands: "Commander, an urgent telegram from headquarters orders you to proceed to Beiping as soon as possible to assume your post."

Okamura Yasuji took the telegram, quickly glanced through it, and his face grew even more grim. The General Headquarters was clearly unaware of the dramatic changes that had occurred in Beiping and was still urging him to take up his post as soon as possible.

He took a deep breath, suppressing his anger: "These bureaucrats, there isn't a single Imperial soldier left in Beiping. Am I supposed to go there to my death? Mr. Akiyama, go and send a telegram back to Headquarters. Tell them my message: we can only go to Beiping after the 20th Division arrives."

Taro Akiyama stood at attention and saluted, saying, "Yes, sir!" He then turned around and hurried off to deal with the telegram.

A heavy silence fell over the command post once again, with only Okamura Yasuji's heavy breathing and the occasional scattered commands from the Tianjin garrison coming through the window.

This newly appointed, ambitious general felt a chill run from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, as if the towering flames of Beiping were already burning right before his eyes.

He knew that the situation in North China had completely spiraled out of control from tonight onwards, and his military career might also be swept away by this sudden storm, heading towards an unknown abyss.