Chapter 139: A Big Fish

The secret agents were still battering the gate.

Wang Jun was a very cautious and meticulous veteran underground Party member.

Although he was an intellectual, he was very practical and liked thinking through details.

After moving into this courtyard, he had brought in two large discarded millstones from outside.

The millstones had been placed behind the gate on either side. The ground had been given a slight slope, and roof tiles had been wedged underneath to prevent the millstones from rolling.

The moment gunfire erupted outside earlier, Dazhuang had immediately smashed the roof tiles with a screwdriver and used all his strength to push the two millstones down.

A shallow pit, about the depth of a little finger, had been dug directly behind the courtyard gate.

Clang!

The two millstones rolled down and collided, perfectly blocking the gate from behind.

It was precisely because of this preparation that the secret agents had been unable to break through the gate quickly.

“Old Wang, you go first.” Kang Erniu steadied the ladder and said to Wang Jun.

“Old Kang, you go!” Wang Jun knew this was no time for nonsense. He shoved Kang Erniu directly. “That’s an order!”

Kang Erniu was a native of Shanghai and knew the streets and alleys better than he did. Moreover, Old Kang was the best shot among them. If any one of the three had a chance of escaping, it was Kang Erniu.

Kang Erniu climbed the ladder and immediately saw a secret agent climbing onto the wall from the right side of the courtyard gate. He casually fired a shot.

The agent let out a scream and fell from the wall after being hit.

“Someone’s on the wall!” the agents shouted in alarm.

At that moment, Dazhuang also opened fire from inside the courtyard gate. Although he hit no one, the agents outside were startled. They hid on both sides of the gate, poking their heads out and firing wildly in return.

Kang Erniu’s marksmanship was excellent. He fired three shots in succession, killing one man, wounding another, while the third bullet grazed the scalp of a third agent.

Those consecutive shots terrified the agents.

They certainly wanted to capture Communists and earn merit, but no one wanted to throw away his life.

For a time, Kang Erniu, alone atop the wall with a pistol, actually suppressed the enemy.

“Damn your mother!”

Ding Naifei spat out a mouthful of dirt. That last shot had nearly hit him. It had barely missed, striking the wall instead and sending sand and dirt flying into his mouth.

He had not expected the other side to possess two guns.

That was extremely rare.

After last year’s major roundup, the Communist organization had suffered devastating losses. According to an internal report from the Party Affairs Investigation Department, the Communist cause was effectively finished, with most members captured and only a handful scattering like frightened birds and beasts.

The Party Affairs Investigation Department had continued arresting Communists afterward, yet they had never encountered resistance with such strong firepower.

After the fear came wild delight.

Strong firepower meant the people inside were important.

Could it be that luck had smiled on them and they had surrounded a big fish this time?

Wang Jun gripped his pistol, climbed onto the wall, and slid down the other side.

“Dazhuang, hurry!”

Dazhuang ran over and clumsily climbed the ladder.

Just then, a secret agent climbed over a side wall, aimed at Dazhuang as he was about to reach the top, and fired.

Bang!

The shot struck Dazhuang directly in the shoulder.

Dazhuang grunted, his hand losing strength as he began sliding off the ladder.

“Climb!” Kang Erniu grabbed Dazhuang’s wrist with one hand and pulled him upward.

Having taken a bullet, Dazhuang gritted his teeth without making a sound and climbed desperately. With Kang Erniu’s help, he finally reached the top of the wall. Without caring about anything else, he jumped down immediately.

Bang!

While helping Dazhuang, Kang Erniu was struck in the right shoulder.

His body swayed slightly. Without a word, he spun around and fired a shot, knocking the attacker off the wall.

Seeing Kang Erniu slide down from the wall, Wang Jun hurried over to support him.

“Old Kang, you’re wounded?”

“I’m fine. It won’t kill me!” Kang Erniu said through gritted teeth.

Both Kang Erniu and Dazhuang felt oddly fortunate.

Fortunately, the bullets had struck their shoulders.

If they had been shot in the legs, that would have been truly troublesome.

The three men ran down the alley, trying to escape.

Unexpectedly, after only a dozen steps, several men appeared ahead of them and opened fire, forcing them back.

“Bastards! Watch your aim. Don’t hit vital spots. We need them alive!” Ding Naifei cursed furiously from the courtyard behind them.

“Minister Wang, we’re surrounded.” Dazhuang sounded panicked as he growled in a low voice.

At this time, Ding Naifei and his men also climbed out of the courtyard using ladders and began closing in from behind and to the side.

Blocked in front and pursued from behind, they were trapped in the alley.

Seeing this, Wang Jun and Kang Erniu exchanged a glance.

Instead of despairing, both men smiled.

A bleak, relieved smile.

Since they could not escape, they would fight the enemy to the death!

“Where’s Ah Hai?” Wang Jun asked quietly.

Facing the possibility of death at any moment, he was still concerned about his subordinate contact, Ah Hai.

From what Dazhuang had said, he had already guessed part of the truth.

After discovering the enemy, Ah Hai had deliberately fought them and lured them into opening fire, intending to sacrifice his own life to warn them.

Kang Erniu said nothing.

Dazhuang clutched the wound on his shoulder and groaned softly.

The silence carried sorrow.

Everyone knew that Ah Hai, already wounded by gunfire, might be dead or might still be alive.

But one thing was certain.

There was no way Ah Hai had escaped.

Wang Jun’s chest burned with a suffocating fire.

He was not afraid of death. From the first day he joined the Red cause, he had been prepared to sacrifice himself at any moment for the country and the nation.

What he could not understand was why secret agents had suddenly surrounded the house.

Where had the mistake occurred?

How had Ah Hai come under enemy surveillance?

Had there been a traitor inside the organization?

Or had the enemy uncovered some important clue through another channel?

If he could not understand the cause, then even in death he would not rest easy.

What worried him was the greater danger this incident might pose to the organization.

Looking at the three Communists trapped in the alley, Ding Naifei’s face flushed red.

He licked his lips.

His eyes gleamed with cruelty and excitement.

The three men were already turtles in a jar.

Just now, he had heard the wounded man address one of the others as “Minister Wang.”

There was no mistake.

This was a big fish!

Ding Naifei immediately realized that they might have surrounded a senior leader from either the Shanghai Municipal Committee or even the Provincial Committee.

“Take them alive.”

Breathing heavily, Ding Naifei growled the order.

Bang!

Wang Jun lay prone on the ground, returning fire at the enemy blocking the mouth of the alley.

Kang Erniu and Dazhuang, both wounded, lay facing the opposite direction, resisting the pursuers climbing over the courtyard wall.

“You can’t escape. Surrender!”

“Brothers of the Communist Party, surrender!”

“You’re all human beings with families. Don’t throw your lives away.”

While directing his men to return fire, Ding Naifei shouted at the top of his lungs.

Had he not ordered his men to capture them alive, Wang Jun and the other two, caught between attacks from both sides, would certainly have been shot again.

For a time, the situation reached a stalemate.

Ding Naifei was not in a hurry.

He knew the three men could not escape.

The only question now was how to capture them alive.

Especially that Minister Wang.

He absolutely had to be taken alive.

At this moment, outside the alley, on the street in front of Wang Jun’s residence.

The wounded Ah Hai lay on the ground.

Blood flowed from his calf.

A secret agent stood guard over him, one foot planted firmly on Ah Hai’s back.

The man was none other than Guo Qing, who had earlier disguised himself as a rickshaw puller.

Everyone else had gone to the alley to surround the Communists.

At the moment, only he remained behind to guard the wounded Communist.

“Damn your mother!”

Seeing Ah Hai still struggling, Guo Qing viciously stomped on Ah Hai’s wounded calf with his other foot and ground it hard.

Earlier, Ah Hai had kicked him and then rammed him from behind with a rickshaw, striking his tailbone.

The pain and humiliation had thoroughly enraged the Party Affairs Investigation Department agent.

“Ahhh!”

Ah Hai let out a scream of agony.

Immersed in the savage pleasure of tormenting another person, Guo Qing failed to notice a dark figure quietly approaching from behind him.