Republic of China: German-equipped divisions massacred as warlords guarded the nation's borders

It was exactly 9:30.

The moment the words "Go knock on the door" came through the communicator, all the engines in the alley roared to life.

boom!

The villa's main gate was smashed open by the front of a truck. The iron fence twisted and deformed, flying out and crashing into the flower bed in the yard.

The two Green Gang bodyguards standing guard at the door didn't even have time to draw their guns before they were riddled with bullets by an MG34 machine gun mounted on the truck's side panel.

Da da da da da!

The sound of machine gun fire tore through the night sky of the French Concession.

Zang Keping jumped off the second truck, clutching an MP18 submachine gun in his hand and an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth.

"First row, block off the front yard! Second row, flank from the left! Third row, follow me through the main gate!"

His voice was louder than a machine gun.

The courtyard instantly turned into a living hell.

Huang Heshang's bodyguards were stunned by the sudden heavy firepower. They usually fought with Mauser pistols and machetes, and their fiercest fights were nothing more than street brawls, revolvers against revolvers.

But tonight's visitors are not enemies of the Green Gang.

Tonight's troops are regular German-equipped soldiers.

Twelve of the sixteen sentries fell in the first volley of machine gun fire. The remaining four tried to run into the building but were blocked in the corridor by the second platoon of soldiers who had flanked them.

Bang bang bang!

three seconds.

Four corpses.

The situation for the hidden sentries wasn't much better.

The six bodyguards who had just peeked out of the second-floor window to return fire were shattered by another MG34 mounted on the truck, which smashed the entire window, frame and plaster together. Wood chips and brick fragments flew through the air, and screams mingled with the gunfire.

Zang Keping led the assault platoon and kicked open the door to the main hall.

There were eight bodyguards in the hall. After hearing the gunshots, they hid behind sofas and pillars, firing a few shots haphazardly from their Mauser pistols.

Zang Keping didn't even lower his head.

He pulled a grenade from his waist, pulled the pin, counted to two, and threw it forward.

Boom!

The sofa was overturned. The three bodyguards were thrown by the blast wave, crashed into the wall, and slid down, motionless.

The remaining five were stunned and disoriented, and before they could react, the assault platoon's MP18s had already unleashed a hail of bullets on them.

When the gunfire stopped, only the smoke and the smell of blood remained in the hall.

Zang Keping spat out the cigarette butt from his mouth and stomped it out.

"Cleared. Time taken: 2 minutes and 48 seconds."

He glanced at the watch, somewhat dissatisfied.

"You were 18 seconds too slow. You need to practice next time."

at the same time.

When gunshots and explosions came from downstairs in the banquet hall on the third floor, Monk Huang's face turned pale instantly.

"What was that sound?!"

He suddenly stood up, and the chair creaked and fell to the ground.

Felix also put down his wine glass, his expression somewhat grave. But as a businessman who had been in Shanghai for decades, he could still maintain his composure.

"Maybe the police are arresting people nearby," he muttered in English.

Tanaka reacted the fastest.

His four henchmen simultaneously reached inside their suits and pulled out Nambu Type 14 pistols. Tanaka himself quickly pulled a concealed short knife from under his chair.

"Your Honor! There's an attack! Call the police immediately!"

Huang the monk panicked and ran to the telephone in the corner, grabbing the receiver.

No sound.

The line is dead.

He frantically turned the dial a few times, but all he heard in the receiver was a buzzing static.

"No...no! The phone line has been cut!"

The monk's voice began to tremble.

Su Guiying stood in the corner. Her face was expressionless.

She gently placed the glass of red wine on the windowsill, then silently retreated to the side of the banquet hall closest to the corridor.

The monk Huang didn't even notice her.

The double doors to the banquet hall were kicked open from the outside.

The first person to walk in was Shen Li.

Holstein's C96 was tucked into his waistband. He held a Mauser pistol in his hand, the muzzle still steaming.

Behind him were twelve fully armed assault platoon soldiers, all wearing German-made steel helmets, leather boots, and MP18 submachine guns.

Tanaka's four Japanese followers simultaneously raised their guns.

Shen Li didn't even glance at them.

The two soldiers behind him raised their MP18s and fired a long burst.

Da da da da—

The four Japanese henchmen fell backward like puppets with their strings cut. Pistols lay on the floor. One man's finger was still on the trigger; his dying spasm fired the final bullet, which struck the crystal chandelier on the ceiling.

Crystal shards clattered and fell all over the ground.

The whole process took less than three seconds.

Tanaka's expression finally changed.

His hand holding the dagger was trembling.

"Who...who are you people?!"

Shen Li did not answer.

He stepped aside to make room for the doorway.

Chen Zijun walked in.

He was wearing a black military overcoat, and he wasn't carrying a gun. With each step he took, he left a red footprint in the pool of blood in the corridor.

He walked to the center of the banquet hall and stopped.

I looked around.

On the mahogany banquet table, half of the French cuisine had gone cold, and Bordeaux wine had spilled all over the table. Three blueprints of secret agreements were neatly arranged on the table. One of them had already been signed.

Chen Zijun picked up the signed secret agreement and glanced at it.

The handprint of the monk Huang. Felix's signature. Tanaka's seal.

He smiled.

Then he crumpled the three secret agreements into a ball.

He shoved it into Tanaka's mouth.

"Eat it."

Tanaka's eyes widened, and he couldn't speak with a crumpled piece of paper stuck in his mouth.

He struggled desperately, howling, and swung the dagger in his hand at Chen Zijun.

Chen Zijun didn't even lift his eyelids.

Zang Keping stepped over from the side and stomped on Tian Zhong's wrist, breaking it.

"what!"

The dagger clattered to the ground.

Tanaka knelt on the ground, his face contorted in pain. He screamed in broken Chinese.

"You can't do this to me! I'm the representative of the Imperial Japanese Army's Dobunkai! If you kill me, the Empire will not let you get away with it!"

Chen Zijun squatted down to be at eye level with him.

"empire?"

He reached out and patted Tanaka's face.

"Your empire is in Japan. This is Shanghai. In Shanghai, I call the shots."

He stood up and glanced at Zang Keping.

"Send him on his way."

Zang Keping grinned and raised his hand to point the muzzle of his MP18 at Tanaka's chest.

"The Empire of Japan——"

Da da da da.

Tanaka's body was sent flying backward, crashing into a chair before falling backward onto the red carpet. His chest looked as if it had been stabbed dozens of times, with blood gushing from every hole.

His eyes were still wide open, and the wad of paper was still stuffed in his mouth.

died.

The monk Huang had collapsed to the ground.

The moment he saw Tanaka riddled with bullets, his legs went weak. His crotch felt warm.

"Young Marshal... Young Marshal..."

He crawled over, grabbed Chen Zijun's leg, and cried uncontrollably, "Spare me, young marshal! I'm willing to give up all my assets! All my money! I beg you to spare my life!"

Chen Zijun looked down at him.

"Spare you?"

He bent down, grabbed the monk Huang by the collar, and dragged him to the table, pointing to the Wusongkou coastal defense map on the table.

"You want to sell my Shanghai coastal defense map to the Japanese?"

"No...it wasn't me...Tanaka forced me to do it!"

"You're trying to infiltrate my barracks with opium?"

"I won't do it again! I'll never do it again!"

Chen Zijun tossed him aside by the collar, like he was throwing away a tattered rag.

The monk Huang fell to the ground and his head was bleeding profusely.

"Your life isn't worth a bullet."

Chen Zijun turned around and said something to Su Guiying.

"Sister Gui, you know this person. It's up to you how to deal with him."

Su Guiying walked out from the corner.

She looked at the yellow monk lying on the ground, crying with snot all over his face, and remained silent for two seconds.

Then she bent down and pulled a stack of documents from Huang Heshang's suit pocket.

"These are the detailed plans for the poison needle operation that he always carried with him. There's also a letter of loyalty he wrote to the Japanese."

She handed the document to Moran.

"Proceed according to the Military Intelligence Bureau's regulations. Colluding with the enemy and betraying the country is punishable by death."

The screams of the monk Huang echoed throughout the entire villa.

Felix had completely broken down by this point.

This Jewish merchant, who usually wielded considerable influence within the Sassoon & Co. firm, was now huddled in a corner of the banquet hall, trembling all over.

His pants were soaked.

Chen Zijun walked up to him.

"Mr. Felix."

The voice was very polite.

Felix looked up. His face was as white as paper.

"Commander Chen... this is a misunderstanding... I'm just here to discuss business..."

Chen Zijun took a still-hot MP18 submachine gun from Zang Keping.

He gently pressed the gun barrel against Felix's chin.

"Mr. Felix, there's something I'd like to discuss with you."

Felix's Adam's apple trembled as if it were drumming.

"You...you said..."

"From today onwards, the Sassoon family will no longer participate in the distribution of shipping revenue at the Wusongkou Port. All loading and unloading profits at the docks will be managed uniformly by my Chen family army. Your trading companies' ships can still enter the Huangpu River, but the rules are mine to set."

He tapped Felix's chin with the barrel of his gun.

"Did you understand?"

"I understand! I understand!"

Felix nodded frantically, his face covered in snot and tears.

Chen Zijun put away the gun and casually tossed it to Zang Keping.

"Let him go. Let him go back and give a message to Old Master Sassoon."

He turned and walked towards the door.

"Tell him that if he wants to do business in Shanghai in the future, he should report to my headquarters first."

One o'clock in the morning.

The gunfire had long since stopped.

Inside the villa at 117 Avenue Joffre, corpses littered the floor, and blood soaked the red carpet. The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder and the metallic stench of blood.

The French Concession police finally arrived. Three police cars stopped at the entrance of the alley, but none of the officers dared to approach.

They saw twelve military trucks parked in the alley, MG34 machine guns mounted on the trucks, and German-equipped soldiers carrying submachine guns in the truck beds.

The detective sat in the car for ten minutes before finally getting out, his heart pounding.

He walked to the villa entrance and saw Chen Zijun standing on the porch smoking.

"Commander Chen... Commander Chen..."

Chen Zijun exhaled a smoke ring and glanced at him.

"They arrived rather slowly."

The detective wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled apologetically.

"What is this...?"

Chen Zijun stubbed out his cigarette and flicked the butt away.

"I've cleaned up a few traitors and collaborators for you."

He pulled a stack of documents from his pocket and threw them into the detective's arms.

"This is evidence of Monk Huang's collusion with the Japanese Confucian Association. Take it back and show it to the French consul."

The detective trembled as he turned two pages, his face growing even uglier.

Chen Zijun turned and got into the black sedan.

Before leaving, he rolled down the car window and said his last words to the detective.

"From now on, the rules of the concession will be set by my Chen family army. Do you understand?"

"Oh, and don't forget to mop the floor..."

The car window rolled up.

The car drove into the night.

The blood in the villa behind them hadn't dried yet.