The Little Demonic Cultivator in the Courtyard: Borrowing 100,000 Japanese Pirates to Heal

It's truly a case of misfortunes never coming singly.

For example, the division that was just mentioned was brought up by the Guo Party, and its staff was crippled in less than three days.

To say that a regiment was defending a position, the Japanese would bomb the position with planes, then bombard it with heavy artillery, then charge with tanks, then charge with tanks, and finally send in infantry, piling up layer upon layer.

The position was fought over repeatedly more than a dozen times, and each time it was recaptured, the trenches were filled with corpses.

Two days later, good news finally reached Beijing.

The 87th Division of the Kuomintang fought a bloody battle with the Japanese at Bazhiqiao. In the end, the division was reduced to less than two battalions.

The 88th Division was guarding the Sihang Warehouse. More than 400 men were surrounded by 2,000 Japanese soldiers for four days and four nights, but they were still holding on.

When the news came, it said that the flag was still hanging on the top of the Sihang Warehouse, and the Japanese planes circled overhead several times but did not dare to bomb it.

When Yan Bugui heard the news, he was squatting in the courtyard washing dishes. He was holding the bowl in his hand and squatting there without moving. The water in the bowl spilled all over the ground.

His wife asked him what was wrong, and he said nothing, that when he stood up his knee hit the edge of the well, and he grimaced in pain, but his mouth was turned up.

But the good news didn't last long.

In late August, the number of casualties on the Shanghai-Songhu front began to rise sharply.

One division after another was sent forward, only to be decimated as they were sent in. Once decimated, they were withdrawn, reorganized, and sent back in.

Some troops were bombed by Japanese planes on their way from the rear to the front lines, and half of them died before they even saw the Japanese.

The field hospital was piled high with wounded soldiers. There was no anesthesia, so amputations were performed by sawing directly.

The sound of a saw cutting through bone came from inside the tent and could be heard several trenches away.

In addition, at this time, many warlord troops were still heading to Shanghai.

In addition, when Captain Shu's wife went to the front line to comfort the soldiers fighting against the Japanese, she was spotted by Japanese planes and bombed. The convoy suffered heavy casualties, and the car that Mrs. Shu was in was overturned by the bomb, breaking her leg.

This also boosted the morale and even the fighting spirit of the entire nation.

The Japanese soldiers in Beijing began to spread propaganda.

The streets were plastered with new propaganda posters, depicting Japanese soldiers charging with bayonets, the Japanese flag on them glaringly red.

The radio played Japanese battle reports on a loop, saying that the Imperial Army had occupied Baoshan, Luodian, and Wusong, and was advancing towards the urban area of ​​Shanghai. The Kuomintang army was suffering repeated defeats, and the Daxia army was no match for them.

A large map was posted at the city gate. Every day, the Japanese soldiers would draw arrows forward on the map with a red pen. The arrows stretched from Wusongkou all the way to the Suzhou Creek. The red lines were like blood vessels piercing into the heart of Shanghai.

Some people are starting to get scared.

The businessmen were the first to waver.

Several business owners in the chamber of commerce who were close to the Japanese began to discuss among themselves, saying that even the Kuomintang's hundreds of thousands of elite troops couldn't stop the Japanese, so what were we ordinary people doing? We might as well surrender sooner and kill fewer people.

Some people echoed this, saying that although the Imperial Army was fierce, at least it could maintain order, which was better than fighting every day.

Some people listened silently, their expressions complex, as if they wanted to argue but dared not, or as if they were silently calculating which side would be more advantageous for them.

After the establishment of the Business Cooperation Association, Lou Bancheng became the mouthpiece for the Japanese in the business world.

Sasaki conveyed a new order through him: all grain stores, pharmacies, cloth shops, and coal shops shall be brought under the unified management of the Cooperation Association from this day forward, with prices set by the Cooperation Association and materials allocated by the Cooperation Association.

To put it bluntly, the Japanese controlled all the necessities of life. The common people had to depend on the Imperial Army for food, clothing, and fuel.

Lou Bancheng sat in the office of the Cooperation Association, with the implementation plan for the unified management of materials in front of him, stamped with the red seal of the Japanese headquarters.

He picked up a pen and signed his name on the last page of the proposal.

The pen tip paused on the paper, and the ink smudged, leaving a black dot.

He put down his pen, pushed the plan aside, looked up at the gray sky outside the window, and his face was expressionless.

The rhetoric of surrender began to spread through the streets and alleys.

Someone in the teahouse said that since they couldn't win anyway, they might as well surrender sooner to reduce the number of deaths.

Some people in the market say that although the Imperial Army was fierce, at least they could maintain order, which is better than fighting every day.

There are also rumors that people in Jingzhou are already negotiating with the Japanese and that a ceasefire will be reached soon.

The person who said this lowered their voice, but the listeners were all wondering what was going on.

Even hundreds of thousands of elite troops of the Kuomintang couldn't stop them, so what can we ordinary people do?

Some people don't think that way. The Kuomintang troops are still holding out on the front lines, and the dilapidated building at Sihang Warehouse, surrounded like an iron barrel, is still holding out. They've held out for four days and four nights without surrendering, and you're here talking about surrendering? How can you face the soldiers who died in the trenches?

But no one dared to say it aloud; they could only keep it to themselves. Because those who advocated surrender had the Japanese backing them up, while those who opposed surrender had nothing.

That day, Xu Jiande overheard people discussing the Battle of Shanghai on the street while he was in the rice shop.

A middle-aged man stood at the alley entrance, lowering his voice to tell the person next to him that the front line could not hold out any longer, Shanghai was about to fall, and Jingzhou would not be able to be defended either.

His voice was very low, but there was a strange excitement in his tone, as if he were talking about something incredibly good.

Xu Jiande stood at the entrance of the rice shop, his fingers slowly clenching into a fist inside his sleeve.

After the man left, Xu Jiande wrote his name down in the ledger.

Next to his name, he drew a tiny cross.

Clearly, this is a prelude to murder.

With Xu Jiande's current abilities, mass killings might be very difficult, but assassinating a single person would be very easy.

His resentment can turn into a vengeful ghost to scare people.

The man spreading surrender rhetoric at the alley entrance was named Qian Youfu, the owner of a small cloth shop in the Upper District.

Xu Jiande spent a day figuring out his background.

Qian Youfu is forty-five years old this year. He has been running a cloth shop for more than ten years. He is a good businessman, but he is too soft-hearted when it comes to interpersonal relationships.

Before the Japanese entered the city, he was a well-known yes-man in the chamber of commerce, following whoever was most powerful.

After the Japanese entered the city, he was the first to line up at the entrance of the military police station to receive a certificate of good citizenship, the first to sign up for the Business Cooperation Association, and the first to shout "Greater Asia Co-prosperity" in public.

He shouted louder than anyone else, and his expression was more sincere than anyone else's, as if his ancestors for eight generations had served the Japanese devils.

Recently, he has taken on a new job: acting as a lobbyist for the Japanese.

They went door-to-door to find merchants who were still hesitant and persuaded them to join the cooperative.

His rhetoric was quite sophisticated: the Imperial Army was coming, it was an inevitable trend, and those who resisted it would not have a good end.

Even with hundreds of thousands of elite members of the Kuomintang in Shanghai, they couldn't hold out. What can we small business owners do to hold out? We might as well surrender as soon as possible and at least save our assets.

If you surrender too late, after the Imperial Army has pacified the entire city, it will be a forced surrender, and forced surrender will not end well. You have a wife and children at home; you can't let them suffer with you.

He spoke very sincerely, with an expression that said, "I'm doing this for your own good."

Some of the people he persuaded were frightened by him and went to Lou Bancheng the next day to sign an agreement to join the cooperative association.

Some kicked him out, but afterwards couldn't sleep because they didn't know if he would report them to the Japanese. Others agreed on the surface, but cursed him and his ancestors in their hearts.

Qian Youfu didn't care what others thought of him.

He only cared about whether he could show his face in front of the Japanese a few more times, get a few more bags of rations, and get a few more banknotes.

Xu Jiande decided to take action that very night.