Chapter 141: Escaping Danger

In a small alley one street away from Apricot Blossom Alley.

Inspector Lu Dazhang was crouched there with a squad of constables, listening to the distant gunfight.

Wang Jun and the others had been fortunate.

Their escape route happened to run parallel to the route Lu Dazhang and the constables had taken, separated by two streets, and so they narrowly missed each other.

Otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

“Inspector, are we just waiting here?” Fei Ming was a newly recruited constable. Hearing the distant gunfire, the young man was not afraid in the slightest. Instead, he was eager to join the action.

Smack!

Lu Dazhang slapped Fei Ming directly on the forehead and pointed toward the alley where the gunfight was taking place.

“Has your brain stopped working? Listen. Just listen. What do you hear over there?”

“Gunfire.”

Seeing the man’s blank expression, Lu Dazhang grew so angry that he slapped him again.

Had it not been for the fact that this brat was a distant relative and that Fei Ming’s father had stuffed five small yellow croakers into his hands, he would not have bothered lecturing such an idiot.

So brave, are you?

Fine.

Go stand at the front and catch the bullets yourself.

“Idiot,” Lu Dazhang said quietly. “Your family arranged for you to enter this profession because it’s a good livelihood, not because they wanted you to die.”

Then he raised his voice.

“Old Hat, tell this stubborn mule what’s happening over there.”

“Judging by the sounds, there were at least a dozen Mauser pistols firing at the beginning, with considerable firepower. One side even used grenades just now. At present there are still six or seven Mauser pistols firing, and the battle is ongoing,” Old Hat said. “That means that in the last few minutes of fighting, at least four or five people have been killed or wounded.”

“Understand now?”

Lu Dazhang slapped Fei Ming again, then looked at the others.

“I, Lu Dazhang, could completely ignore whether you live or die and force you to go arrest people. After all, the credit would be mine. But I can’t do that. Everyone has parents. You men are my brothers.”

The constables were all somewhat moved upon hearing this and immediately expressed their gratitude.

“Inspector, that’s loyalty.”

“Chief Lu, nothing more needs to be said. We’ll listen to you.”

“Inspector, whatever you say, we’ll do.”

Although everyone knew that the primary reason was that Lu Dazhang himself was afraid of dying, following such a fear-of-death inspector made them much safer.

Lu Dazhang curled his lip.

These bastards were all terrified of dying, yet now they were pledging loyalty.

He turned to look at Fei Ming again and frowned.

Having someone this out of place in his squad was a headache.

“Inspector, the gunfire has stopped,” Old Hat said. “It seems the Communists have run out of ammunition.”

“Inspector, let’s move in!” Fei Ming shouted excitedly.

“The hell we will!”

Lu Dazhang slapped him again.

“How do you know they’ve really run out of ammunition?”

“He’s out of ammunition.”

Ding Naifei shouted excitedly.

“Charge! Take him alive.”

The Communist gunman on the other side had delayed them for five or six minutes.

It was nighttime, and the surrounding streets and alleys connected in every direction.

Those three Communists had most likely already disappeared.

Now, the Communist on the opposite side represented Ding Naifei’s last chance to salvage the situation.

The man’s marksmanship was precise, his firepower formidable, and he even carried heavy ordnance like grenades.

A suspicion had begun forming in Ding Naifei’s mind.

This was the Party Affairs Investigation Department’s old enemy, the Communist Party Special Branch “Dog-Beating Squad.”

Members of the Communist Party Special Branch’s action teams had always borne responsibility for protecting important Communist leaders in Shanghai and the Jiangsu Provincial Committee.

Such people carried many secrets in their heads.

The Party Affairs Investigation Department rarely managed to capture Special Branch operatives alive.

If he could capture this man alive today, it would count as redeeming his previous failure.

Although Ding Naifei kept shouting that the enemy was out of ammunition, the three remaining subordinates who were still capable of fighting were trembling and reluctant to move.

“Move! Damn it, move!” Ding Naifei lay prone on the ground, waving his Mauser pistol and cursing at one of his men.

The man had no choice.

Carefully rising to his feet, he gripped his pistol and advanced in a crouch.

Seeing one of their companions move, the other two also crouched and jogged forward with pistols in hand.

Ding Naifei remained lying where he was.

“Don’t be afraid. I’ll cover you.”

As he spoke, he fired two random shots toward the other side.

He dared not aim.

He wanted the target alive.

Those two shots were purely to encourage his subordinates.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Cheng Qianfan had already finished reloading both Mauser pistols.

He tucked his own pistol into his waistband.

Raising the captured pistol in his right hand, he fired three shots in succession.

The first shot struck the lead attacker directly in the chest.

The man dropped instantly.

The second man, running behind him, threw himself to the ground in fright.

He dodged one shot but failed to avoid the next.

The bullet struck his shoulder directly.

With a scream, he collapsed onto the ground.

The remaining man lay prone in terror and fired back wildly.

Ding Naifei’s face turned livid.

He had been fooled.

The enemy had indeed run out of ammunition earlier.

But the bastard had spare magazines.

Grenades, dual pistols, spare magazines.

The probability that this man belonged to a Communist Party Special Branch action team had risen dramatically.

The situation once again settled into a stalemate.

Cheng Qianfan and the two remaining secret agents faced off against each other.

He was now considering whether to withdraw immediately or hold out a little longer.

He could not determine whether Wang Jun and the other three had escaped successfully.

If it had only been Wang Jun and the other two, they should have escaped by now.

But having to pull a rickshaw while transporting the wounded comrade with the injured leg introduced additional uncertainty.

Cheng Qianfan decided to buy them a little more time.

Just then, chaotic footsteps sounded from behind him.

Cheng Qianfan instinctively performed a rolling dodge.

Bang! Bang!

The bullets struck the ground where he had been lying moments before.

“Kid, you’re not getting away.”

Ding Naifei shouted loudly.

Seeing reinforcements arrive, he was overjoyed.

Cheng Qianfan fired one shot forward and one shot backward.

Then he rolled again, grabbed the corpse of a secret agent he had killed earlier, used it as cover, and fired three shots toward his rear.

There were two secret agents behind him.

Neither had expected the Communist they were flanking to possess such formidable individual combat ability.

They were caught completely off guard.

One man was shot in the chest and fell to the ground, his fate unknown.

The other was first hit in the shoulder.

As he fell, he took another bullet to the head.

He died instantly.

Ding Naifei watched helplessly as two reinforcing subordinates were killed by three shots.

He was both furious and anxious.

Cheng Qianfan knew he had to withdraw immediately.

He could hear more footsteps approaching from behind.

Enemy reinforcements were still arriving.

He raised his pistol and fired repeatedly at the two remaining secret agents opposite him.

Completely unconcerned about conserving ammunition, he focused entirely on suppressing them and keeping their heads down.

At the same time, he rapidly retreated.

Click. Click.

He tucked the empty Mauser pistol into his waistband as well.

With a quick movement, Cheng Qianfan withdrew from the alley.

In the distance, roughly twenty to thirty metres away (~66 to 98 feet), he saw seven or eight secret agents rushing toward him.

He pulled the Japanese Type 97 grenade from his pocket, struck it hard against the wall, and threw it.

“Grenade!”

“Take cover!”

The seven or eight men were horrified.

They scrambled for cover and flattened themselves against the ground, not daring to move.

Boom!

The smoke and dust produced by the explosion provided excellent concealment in the night.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Cheng Qianfan swiftly climbed over a wall into the neighboring alley, sprinted more than thirty metres (~98 feet), then climbed over another wall into yet another alley.

Before long, he vanished into the darkness.