pdf-ebookys Chapter 112 Regrouping
Chapter 112 Regrouping
He held the hot iron handle and slowly walked up to Jiang Feng. The high temperature of the hot iron made Jiang Feng's cheeks burn, and the smell of burning filled his nose.
"You...you stay away!" Jiang Feng finally panicked, struggling to back away, but the chains were firmly binding him, and he could only watch helplessly as the branding iron drew closer. "Yan Shuo wouldn't dare kill me! Major General Zhang Lingchi..."
"Don't try to scare me with Zhang Lingchi!" Zhou Hu slammed the branding iron onto Jiang Feng's military uniform fabric on his shoulder. "Sizzle—!"
The fabric was instantly scorched, billowing smoke, and the excruciating pain of burning flesh caused Jiang Feng to let out a shrill scream. His whole body convulsed violently, and cold sweat poured down his forehead like broken beads. Tears and snot mingled together, making him look utterly wretched.
"Will you talk or not?" Zhou Hu grabbed Jiang Feng's hair, forcing him to look up, the branding iron still pressed against his shoulder. "What kind of deal did you make with the Japanese? Did you betray my brothers?"
"I...I didn't..." Jiang Feng was in so much pain that he almost fainted, his voice hoarse and broken, but the sliver of hope in his bones still made him refuse to admit it.
He knew that once he confessed, not only would he die, but he would also implicate Zhang Lingchi, and in the end, not even his ashes would be left.
Seeing this, Liu Kuai picked up a bamboo skewer from the side, walked up to Jiang Feng, and pinched his fingers: "Lieutenant Colonel Jiang, we have plenty of ways to make you talk. The feeling of these bamboo skewers stuck under your fingernails is much more satisfying than a branding iron. Do you want to try them one by one, or tell the truth now?"
With the sharp tip of the bamboo skewer pressed against his fingernail, Jiang Feng, seeing Liu Kuai's icy gaze, finally couldn't hold back any longer.
He recalled the screams of his brothers in the Japanese ambush, his own greed when he received the large sum of money from the Japanese, and Yan Shuo's furious eyes. His psychological defenses completely collapsed.
"I'll talk... I'll talk!" Jiang Feng gasped for breath, his voice trembling with tears. "I colluded with the Japanese... I betrayed my brothers..."
Zhou Hu slowly moved the branding iron away and said coldly, "Say it from the beginning, don't omit a single word."
Jiang Feng slumped on the rack, his eyes unfocused, and confessed intermittently: "I... I only got to the rank of lieutenant colonel because of Major General Zhang Lingchi. He's my distant cousin, and he said that as long as I could make a great contribution, he would help me get promoted to colonel and transferred to the Ministry of Military Affairs. I was eager to gain experience, so I volunteered to bomb the airport."
"A week before departure, I contacted the captain of the Japanese army's Shanghai airport garrison through a Japanese businessman named Kenta Kobayashi. I told him that I could tell him the operation time, route, personnel deployment, and weapon configuration of the squad, on the condition that he spare my life, give me the illusion of being 'wounded during the breakout,' and provide me with a fake airport defense intelligence so that I could explain myself when I returned."
"The Japanese commander agreed and gave me a deposit of five thousand US dollars, saying that he would give me another five thousand after I returned and reported back. On the day of the operation, I deliberately led my brothers on a long detour, leading them into an ambush that the Japanese had already laid. As agreed, the Japanese left some alive. After my brothers fell, their medic made this fake wound on me and helped me fake the traces of a breakout, and sent me to a safe area on the outskirts."
"I thought... I thought that with all 18 people dead, there would be no way to verify anything. I could go back and use the false information to find Zhang Lingchi, and then I could get a promotion and a raise. I never expected... I never expected that Yan Shuo would find out that I was a traitor..." Jiang Feng said, his voice growing softer and softer, his eyes filled with despair.
"Did Zhang Lingchi know you were colluding with the Japanese?" At this moment, Zhao Lie walked in with a pen and paper, his eyes serious as he pressed, "Was he involved?"
Jiang Feng shook his head, then nodded, his tone incoherent: "He...he didn't know I was colluding with the Japanese, he only knew I was trying to gain experience. He pulled strings for me, allowing me to lead a team independently, and even helped me get the best equipment. Thompson submachine guns, silenced pistols, and explosive rounds—he coordinated all of that. He said that as long as I could 'successfully complete the mission,' even if it was just figuring out the airport's situation, he could help me get promoted."
Zhao Lie quickly took notes, occasionally pressing for details: "What is Kobayashi Kenta's exact address? How did he contact the Japanese garrison commander? Where was the false intelligence the Japanese gave you?"
Jiang Feng confessed everything, afraid that saying even one more word would bring even harsher punishment: "Kobayashi Kenta lived at 127 Avenue Joffre in the French Concession and ran a foreign goods store... He communicated with the Japanese army captain via encrypted telegrams, and I was only responsible for relaying operational information... I hid the false intelligence under the bed board..."
Zhou Hu and Liu Kuai exchanged a glance, then reached out and searched Jiang Feng's entire body, finding a business card with the name Kobayashi Kenta on it.
After organizing the confession and repeatedly checking the details to make sure nothing was missing, Zhao Lie closed the notebook and said to Zhou Hu, "Keep an eye on him. I'm going to deliver the confession to the captain."
After Zhao Lie left, only Jiang Feng's panting and the slight swaying of the chains remained in the basement.
The air in the upstairs office felt like it was frozen solid. The confession papers were crumpled and wrinkled. The low pressure almost swallowed people up. The faces of 18 trusted agents flashed through Yan Shuo's mind one by one. Those promising talents who had followed him through life and death, some skilled in sniping, some adept at infiltration, each one an elite he had painstakingly cultivated with great expense and effort. Now, due to Jiang Feng's greed and betrayal, they were all buried at the airport.
"Send a telegram to headquarters, tell them to investigate Zhang Lingchi thoroughly. Also, Kobayashi Kenta, bring him back alive. You will lead the team yourself." Yan Shuo's voice was extremely low, and every word was filled with a chilling bloodlust.
Zhao Lie felt a chill run down his spine and dared not say a word. He quickly bowed and nodded to accept the order, and when he turned around, his back was already soaked with cold sweat.
Watching Zhao Lie's hasty departure, a cold glint flashed in Yan Shuo's eyes.
Zhao Lie is too soft-hearted and lacks ruthlessness; he is simply not suitable to stay in his core team.
He rubbed his fingertips, secretly plotting how to get Zhao Lie into the list of casualties.
Perhaps, let him attack an airport. The one Jiang Feng failed at can be used by the Japanese army to eliminate this potential threat.
Yan Shuo picked up the phone and coldly ordered, "Form a new team. Target the airport where Jiang Feng failed. Slaughter all the Japanese soldiers inside, leave no one alive!"
"Yes, sir!" came Gu Han's calm and steady reply from the other end of the phone, without the slightest hesitation.
Upon receiving the order, Gu Han immediately gathered 20 veterans, including Wang Qiang, and they quickly prepared to depart.
The night was as dark as ink. The group avoided the main roads and followed the mountain paths, relying on their skilled stealth techniques to successfully pass through the Japanese army's checkpoints and speed towards Wuhan.
The setup for this operation was top-notch, with eight elite snipers each assigned a specific role, and each equipped with 20 grenades, 20 explosives, and three days' worth of compressed rations.
According to the plan, after arriving at the target area, the intelligence team will provide secondary supplies to ensure that the combat strength is at its maximum.
The supply points along the way were all arranged in advance by Yan Shuo's intelligence team and had no connection with other Military Intelligence Bureau stations.
Yan Shuo was able to keep his team in the dangerous and dangerous territory of Shanghai and never be caught because of his extreme caution. He never trusted any external stations, and all the members of his intelligence team were loyal people he had personally selected.