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

Zhou Tianyang noticed a few details.

The street in front of the main gate of the headquarters is much wider than the street with the side gate.

Several black cars and trucks were parked on the roadside, but there was no dense flow of people.

There are fixed sentry posts on both sides of the main gate, with Japanese soldiers in military uniforms standing in the guard posts with their guns on their backs.

They were much more conspicuous than the plainclothes agents at the side entrance, and therefore not so difficult to deal with.

He also noticed that there was a six-story building opposite the main entrance, with a rooftop terrace surrounded by a low wall.

If we could get to the roof of that building, it would be an excellent vantage point.

The problem is that there are security guards at the entrance of that building, so we need to find another way to sneak in.

He continued walking forward and turned into an alleyway that was parallel to the main entrance but separated by half a street.

This alley is much narrower, and the houses on both sides are also shorter, mostly only two or three stories high.

He walked along the alley for a while, stopped at the end of the alley, and turned to look behind him.

No one followed.

He withdrew his gaze, then went through another alley, circled around for most of the way, and returned to the area east of the East China Expeditionary Army Headquarters.

This time, instead of walking along the main street, he slowly strolled along a narrow alleyway whose view was almost completely obscured by clothes drying in the sun.

At the end of the alley is a wall, and on the other side of the wall is the direction of the headquarters' backyard.

From there you can see several gray buildings inside the wall, with low roofs and windows facing this direction.

Zhou Tianyang stood there, his gaze quickly sweeping across the windows.

The internal situation cannot be seen.

But that area itself is worth noting.

He stood at the entrance of the alley, looked around for about a minute, and made sure no one was paying attention to him.

They quietly retreated into the depths of the alley.

By the time he returned, it was past noon.

There were many more pedestrians on the street than in the morning, and the queues at the roadside food stalls were even longer.

Zhou Tianyang didn't rush back. Instead, he bought a few steamed buns by the roadside and sat on the stone steps at the entrance of an alley to eat them slowly.

Then he got up and walked towards the back alley of Rongji Grocery Store.

When he pushed open the courtyard gate, Ma Yong was squatting on the stone steps at the entrance of the courtyard.

Upon seeing Zhou Tianyang return, he abruptly stood up, his gaze quickly sweeping over Zhou Tianyang.

I breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that he was unharmed.

"Commander, you're back."

"Um."

Zhou Tianyang walked into the courtyard and sat down on the stone bench.

He didn't rush to speak, his gaze fixed on the distance, as if he were mentally reviewing the streets he had just walked through.

Ma Yong walked over to him, squatted down, and didn't urge him.

After a while, Zhou Tianyang put down his teacup and turned his gaze toward the entrance of the courtyard.

"Ma Yong, I'm going to a place tomorrow. Keep an eye on it for me."

Ma Yong nodded, waiting for him to continue.

"Over in the Japanese concession, there's a six-story building opposite the headquarters of the East China Expeditionary Army."

"The rooftop offers a great view, overlooking the main entrance and the surrounding streets."

"I want to go up and take a look, but there are guards at the entrance, so it's not easy to go in directly."

Ma Yong remained silent for a moment.

Then he spoke, his voice not loud, but with a sense of certainty.

"Commander, would you like me to go scout ahead?"

"It's not about scouting the way, it's about finding a path."

"Check if that building has a back door or a side alley leading in."

"If there's a way I can get to the rooftop without alerting the security guard."

Ma Yong didn't ask any further questions.

"understood."

Zhou Tianyang picked up his teacup and took another sip.

He didn't say anything more.

He had more to show for himself this morning than he had expected.

The road network has been identified, the high ground has been found, and the daily conditions of the target area have been roughly understood.

The rest is to wait for Ma Yong to discover the passage before deciding on the next step.

The next morning, just as dawn broke.

Ma Yong quietly left the house.

Instead of taking the main street, he went out through the side gate at the back of the courtyard and made his way towards the Japanese concession along a narrow alley that could only accommodate one person at a time.

Zhou Tianyang stood at the window of his room, watching Ma Yong's figure disappear into the distance.

He didn't say much, nor did he offer any further instructions; he simply stood there quietly.

After a while.

He took out a map and spread it out on the table.

I started marking the routes I took yesterday and the locations I confirmed.

The main gate, side gate, back wall, and surrounding main streets and alleyways of the East China Expeditionary Army Headquarters were all marked with pencil.

A circle was drawn around the rooftop of the six-story building, and an X was drawn around the window of the teahouse.

Although the hand-drawn sketches are rough, the relative relationships between the positions are clear at a glance.

He added a few lines of smaller text next to it, marking the observation time for each location and the general pattern of personnel movement.

Around noon, the courtyard gate was pushed open.

Ma Yong slipped in, his pace quickening slightly as he had when he left, but his expression remained calm.

He didn't rush to speak after entering the room, but first washed his face by the well.

Then he walked to the stone bench, sat down, picked up the water on the table, and took two big gulps.

"How is it?"

Zhou Tianyang looked at him, his tone indifferent.

Ma Yong put down his teacup, wiped his mouth, and said:

"Commander, that building does indeed have a back door."

Zhou Tianyang's gaze shifted slightly, but he remained silent, waiting for him to continue.

"The front of that building was a photo studio, and there was an alley on the side leading to the back door."

"The back door was locked; it looked old, and the lock was an old-fashioned padlock."

Ma Yong paused, then lowered his voice slightly.

"I walked around the building twice and found that almost no one walked on the back door side."

"There are some discarded pieces of wood piled up at the entrance of the alley, as if no one has cleaned them up for a long time."

"If someone sneaks through that alley to the back door, no one on the main street will notice."

"I squatted at the alley entrance and observed for more than half an hour."

"I only saw two men in long robes walk past from that end, but neither of them went into the building."

Zhou Tianyang nodded.

This information was better than he had expected.

A back door with a clear exit, unguarded, and in a hidden location.

This means he can enter the building without having to directly confront the security guard.

But the problem remains: the lock on the back door needs to be fixed.

"What kind of lock is it?" he asked.

"Old-fashioned iron padlock".

Ma Yong paused here, as if recalling some details, and then continued.

"However, I noticed that there was a window next to the back door, and a piece of glass in the lower half of the window was broken. The gap wasn't big, but it was big enough for a hand to stick out."

"If we can open the window latch through that gap, we can climb in through the window without touching the door at all."

Zhou Tianyang did not speak immediately after listening.

He mentally reviewed the route and details described by Ma Yong.

The alleyway at the back door, the gap in the window, the corridor leading to the stairs.

When pieced together, this information forms a fairly clear infiltration plan.