Holding the original shares, they fought all the way to the Korean War!

Zhou Tianyang sat down opposite him.

His gaze quickly swept across the entire courtyard.

"You came from Jinan?"

The old man put down his teacup and looked directly at Zhou Tianyang.

"Yes."

"Did Wang Jinghe send you to find me?"

"Um."

The old man nodded and didn't ask anything more.

He stood up, turned around, and walked into the main room.

A moment later, he came out carrying a small cloth bag.

It was placed on the stone table and pushed in front of Zhou Tianyang.

"This is the pass for Nanjing."

"After you arrive in Nanjing, do not enter the city; go around it from outside the city."

"There is a waterway to the south, which runs along the south bank of the Yangtze River."

Zhou Tianyang took the cloth bag, opened it, and took a look.

There were indeed dozens of documents inside.

He tied the cloth bag and slung it over his shoulder.

Zhou Tianyang stood up and nodded slightly to the old man.

He didn't say anything more, turned around and walked out of the small door, passing through the alley next to the used bookstore.

They walked briskly towards the city gate along the same route they had come from.

When he walked out of the city gate, the sun had already risen completely.

Zhou Tianyang neither quickened his pace nor slowed it down.

He maintained his unhurried pace and walked along the road toward the dilapidated courtyard where he had spent the night the previous night.

As we rounded a patch of bushes.

He saw Ma Yong squatting behind a big tree by the roadside.

He held a gun in his hand, his eyes warily fixed on the direction of the city gate.

Upon seeing Zhou Tianyang appear, Ma Yong suddenly stood up, his tense shoulders visibly relaxing.

He strode forward, his gaze sweeping over Zhou Tianyang from head to toe.

"Commander, you're back!"

"Um."

Zhou Tianyang patted the cloth bag on his shoulder, his tone somewhat relaxed.

"The pass to Nanjing."

"The old man who made the contact was reliable, and nothing went wrong."

Ma Yong let out a long sigh of relief and turned around to make a gesture behind him.

The soldiers who had been lying in ambush in the bushes stood up one after another and put away their weapons.

Afterwards, Zhou Tianyang and the others returned to the courtyard.

Liu Ping also came out of the main room.

When he saw Zhou Tianyang return unharmed, the tense expression on his face finally relaxed a little.

His gaze fell on the cloth bag on Zhou Tianyang's shoulder, and he asked a question.

"Is it connected?"

"It's connected."

Zhou Tianyang placed the cloth bag on the stone platform in the courtyard and untied the rope.

He took out the documents one by one and showed them to Liu Ping.

Liu Ping picked up the pass, looked at it, put it back, and nodded.

"It's basically the same as what headquarters told me before."

"The contact person in Nanjing is also an old comrade."

Zhou Tianyang repackaged the items, stood up, and glanced at the faces of the soldiers in the courtyard.

Everyone was watching him, waiting for him to give the next order.

"Let's get ready to go."

Zhou Tianyang distributed the documents from the cloth bag to everyone.

The team was quickly organized.

Ma Yong led several soldiers to conduct a final inspection of the yard, confirming that no traces had been left behind.

The group quietly walked out of the open space.

Continue walking southeast along the path through the fields.

……

Over the next few days.

Zhou Tianyang and his group were on their way.

After leaving Qufu, the roads were noticeably easier to travel than the section in northwestern Shandong.

The group maintained its scattered pace, walking in twos and threes, spaced several dozen steps apart.

They looked like several groups of strangers on their way.

Occasionally, when encountering pedestrians coming from the opposite direction, they would simply nod and step aside to let them pass, without any further interaction.

We encountered many Japanese checkpoints along the way.

Some were placed at intersections, some were placed across the middle of the road, and some were simply roadblocks at the village entrance.

Those passes did indeed work.

The documents provided by Wang Jinghe have been used freely in southern Shandong.

The puppet soldiers took the documents, flipped through them, threw them back, and waved for them to come over.

We passed through seven or eight checkpoints in total, and there wasn't a single problem.

The roadside environment is also slowly changing.

Farmland gradually disappeared, replaced by clumps of low shrubs and mixed forests.

Occasionally, you can see a few abandoned houses leaning precariously by the roadside, with most of their roofs collapsed and the yards overgrown with waist-high weeds.

These houses clearly show signs of being built several years ago.

Every time Zhou Tianyang passed by such a place, he would unconsciously slow down and take a second look.

Those broken walls and ruins stood silently in the sunlight, each broken tile telling a story in hushed tones.

But he didn't stop; he just glanced at it and continued walking.

The team traveled by day and rested by night.

They travel during the day and spend the night in abandoned houses or woods.

The dry rations and water in the canteen sustained them through the longest stretch of road.

You can occasionally buy some food in the towns along the way.

Although it was simple, at least we didn't have to travel on an empty stomach.

By the evening of the fourth day.

They reached the outskirts of Nanjing.

Zhou Tianyang stood on a slightly elevated earthen slope and looked ahead.

The city of Nanjing was faintly visible in the twilight.

This city has endured too much suffering.

It looked unusually quiet at the moment.

It stands silently on the south bank of the Yangtze River, as if it has swallowed all its pain.

"Let's rest around here tonight."

Zhou Tianyang withdrew his gaze and said something to Ma Yong beside him.

Ma Yong nodded, then turned and led a few soldiers to find a suitable place to spend the night.

As darkness gradually fell.

They found an abandoned temple outside the city.

The temple was small, and the main gate was half crooked, with the plaque above the gate missing.

The courtyard was overgrown with weeds, and a corner of the roof of the main hall had collapsed, revealing several charred beams.

However, the side hall is still relatively intact.

The soldiers quickly cleaned up the side hall.

Although it's simple, it's much better than sleeping in the wild a few days ago.

Ma Yong set up sentry posts around the temple.

He led his men to check again to confirm that there were no abnormalities before returning to the side hall to sit down.

Liu Ping sat in the corner, leaning against the wall, and let out a long sigh of relief.

He's been gritting his teeth and persevering these past few days. Although he's never complained about being tired, his complexion is getting worse every day.

"Commander Zhou, what are the plans for tomorrow?"

He turned his head and asked a question, his voice tinged with weariness.

Zhou Tianyang sat down opposite him and remained silent for a moment before speaking.

I want to go to Nanjing tomorrow.

Liu Ping paused for a moment, then sat up straight, his tone carrying a hint of surprise.

"Entering Nanjing?"

"Our passes are useful, but Nanjing is the city with the largest number of Japanese troops."

"The number of troops stationed here is more than in Jinan and Qufu combined."

"What if something goes wrong..."

"I know."

Zhou Tianyang interrupted him, his tone calm but carrying an unyielding certainty.

"You rest here for a day, and we'll continue our journey when I return."

Liu Ping looked at him, his lips moved as if he wanted to say something more, but in the end he said nothing.

He had already witnessed Zhou Tianyang's temperament along the way.

This person seems easy to talk to about everything.

But once a decision is made, nothing anyone else says matters.

"Then be careful."

Liu Ping only said this one sentence in the end.

Zhou Tianyang nodded, stood up, and walked to the entrance of the side hall.

I stood in silence for a long time, gazing at the outline of the city wall gradually blurring in the night.

At night, he lay on the haystack, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

His eyes were fixed on the dilapidated roof of the side hall.

But his mind was filled with the records about Nanjing that he had read in his previous life.