Just a moment ago, they were guests at the table, but in an instant, they became prisoners under guard. Eight fully armed Beiyang soldiers surrounded the two of them, their rifles at the ready with bayonets fixed, staring fiercely.

  After Xu Shuzheng gave the order, he left like this, without even turning his head back. Chen Zikun obviously hadn't come to his senses yet and shouted at Xu's back: "Didn't you say you were going to give me a treasured sword?"

  "Fool, they're just cheating you." Andre couldn't help but mock him.

  Chen Zikun glared at him: "It's all your fault, you insisted on seeing him, now look what's happened, you've even lost your life."

  "André retorted: 'It's all because you offended the Japanese that you've gotten into so much trouble.'"

  "Shut up! You can say whatever you want on the road to the underworld!" A deputy officer-like person shouted loudly, scaring Chen Zikun and Andrei into quickly raising their hands high.

  It was clear that these soldiers did not intend to shoot two people in such a beautifully decorated room, as it would not only produce an unpleasant smell of gunpowder, bloodstains and also soil the expensive Persian carpet.

  "Officer, you be the judge! I said he shouldn't come, but he insisted on coming. Now look what's happened to him! Where can we reason with this?" Chen Zikun shouted and yelled, grabbing Andrei by the collar, his face red and his neck thick.

  Andrei didn't show any weakness either, and slapped Chen Zikun's face with a loud crack.

  "Alright, stop it!" the deputy officer shouted impatiently. As he spoke, Chen Zikun quickly snatched the box of guns from his hand, and at the same time, Andre kicked over the round table, sending the large tabletop, along with the wine, dishes, and candelabra, crashing towards the several soldiers on the other side of the table.

  The room was suddenly pitch black, and then it was shrouded in the orange-red muzzle flash of the box cannon.

  These big men were carefully selected from Xiao County's hometown, serving as Xu Shuzheng's personal bodyguards. Although they are tall and strong, they lack agility and can't compare to the seasoned bandits of Guandong.

  Just then, a burst of gunfire exploded in the room like popping beans, bullets flying everywhere, blood splattering all over the place. The flower vases, mirrors, and antique decorations were all shattered into pieces, and the snow-white walls became pockmarked with bullet holes.

  The gunfire stopped abruptly, Chen Zikun got up with a bloody face, holding two box-shaped guns in his hands, the muzzle still smoking.

  "Second Brother, are you dead?" He asked in a low voice, as if he was afraid of being overheard.

  "I'm not dead yet." Andre pushed away a corpse that was pressing down on him and scrambled to his feet.

  "What's going on?" Chen Zikong asked fiercely.

  "Smash this kiln." Andrei said indignantly, snatching two box-shaped cannons from the dead man's hands, his face twisted in a fierce scowl.

  At this time, the outside was filled with the sound of piercing sirens and dense footsteps. The two bandits who were just fierce immediately retreated and slipped away from the back door. The layout of Beijing's quadrangle courtyards are all the same, so the two easily escaped to the backyard. Looking up at the surrounding wall, oh my, it's so high.

  "Scissors, stone, cloth!" The two simultaneously stretched out their hands, Andre was cloth, Chen Zikun was scissors.

  Andrei immediately squatted on the ground, Chen Zikun inserted two box guns into his waistband, stepped on Andrei's shoulder and climbed over the wall. He rode on the wall with his body leaning down, pulled Andrei up with one hand, and the two jumped off the high wall together, disappearing into the night.

  Xu Shuzheng arrived in the room where they had just had a drink, surrounded by many guards. The whole place was in disarray, and the deputy officer along with seven bodyguards were all shot dead. Even the ceiling was splattered with blood. The valuable antiques and paintings worth a fortune were either shattered by bullets or stained with blood, completely ruined.

  But the two secret envoys who had ordered their own execution were nowhere to be seen. Xu's face turned pale with rage, and the captain of the guard rushed in, shouting: "Report! The culprits have escaped over the rear wall, my men are pursuing them!"

  "When alive, one must be seen by people; when dead, one must be seen as a corpse." Xu Shuzheng spat out eight words from between his teeth and hastily departed.

  The guard led the wolf dog in pursuit for several hundred meters, but ultimately returned empty-handed. The scoundrel was so cunning that he even carried chili powder with him, which destroyed the wolf dog's sense of smell and successfully escaped.

  ……

  Chen Zikun and Andrei Wolf slipped back to their old haunt, the Zi Guang Car Factory. They didn't dare enter through the front door, so they climbed over the wall into the backyard and snuck into the house.

  "Damn, why does my chest hurt so much." Chen Zikun reached out to touch it and found that a bullet had been embedded in the gold case of his pocket watch. What a close call, if he hadn't had the watch in his chest pocket, his life would have ended in Anfu Alley.

  "Damn Xu Shu-zheng, you hypocrite!" Chen Zi-kun cursed as he continued to examine himself all over, fortunately, except for that one spot where the bullet hit, everything was intact.

  "André said, 'Your skills are still not enough. I've taught you many times before. In this situation, get down first and let them kill each other. Why stand up straight like a target?'"

  Chen Zikong said in a bad temper: "You still have the nerve to say me, if you didn't insist on seeing Xu Shuzheng, this wouldn't have happened. Now it's all right, can't stay in Beijing anymore, let's flee to the ends of the earth."

  "Alright, I admit it. I misjudged him. Xu Shuzheng is not a general, he's a politician, through and through."

  Seeing the second cabinet so depressed, Chen Zikun also stopped stimulating him and thought for a moment: "Why do you think he wants to shoot us? And then hand over the bodies to the Japanese."

  "André said: 'You Chinese people's strategy is too profound, I can't guess his thoughts, but one thing is for sure, he must have been moved by what I said, and he will send troops, I believe this.'"

  Chen Zikong pouted, ignoring him, playing with the two captured box guns, overjoyed. Xu Shuzheng's guards used genuine German Mauser rifles, which felt great in his hands. Although he had walked through the gates of hell, getting two good guns was worth it.

  Andrei was silent for a moment, then suddenly said: "Is there radish at home?"

  Chen Zikun was confused by his jumping thoughts: "Ercui, which nerve is wrong with you, wanting to eat radish in the middle of the night?"

  "Ah, help me get a few carrots, the round ones, and another bowl of porridge, make it thinner." Andrei slyly squeezed his eyes.

  Chen Zikun went to the backyard kitchen and fetched three carrots for him, and also asked Wang Dama to cook a pot of porridge, filled a bowl and sent it in. Andre locked himself in the room and didn't come out again. Chen Zikun stood guard outside with his gun all night.

  The next morning, there were still no officials or soldiers coming to knock on the door. It seemed that Xu Shuzheng's informants were not all-pervasive after all. Chen Zikun felt slightly relieved and knocked on Andrei's door. He saw that his eyes were red and swollen, clearly also sleepless for a night.

  "Where's Tom, I need his help," said Andre. Behind him on the table were scattered all sorts of things: carrot tops, cut-off strips of drawing paper, ink bottles, fountain pens, rice bowls, brushes, in a complete mess.

  Chen Zikun went to the side room and called over Xiao Shunzi. Andrei took out a letter and said, "Take this to the front desk of the Liu Guo Restaurant. If anyone asks you, just say that a foreigner you met on the road asked you to deliver the letter. Understand?" After finishing speaking, he placed a large silver coin on top of the envelope.

  Xiao Shunzi's eyes lit up at the sight of money: "I'll definitely get it done for you, no problem."

  After Xiao Shunzi left, Andre took out another envelope and handed it to Chen Zikun: "At the intersection of Dongjiaominxiang Road, 100 meters west, there is a large pagoda tree with a hole in it. Put this letter in the hole, remember not to be discovered, go now."

  Although Chen Zikong couldn't figure out what Andre was up to, he still followed the instructions honestly.

  Xiao Shunzi brought the letter to the Liu Guo restaurant and handed it over to the front desk before going to work. The receptionist took a glance and saw that on the envelope was written in English "Please deliver to Count Andrei Solomon, room 306". She then gave a signal with her eyes to the Japanese spy sitting on the sofa.

  The agent looked around cautiously, approached the front desk to receive the envelope, pulled out the letter and took a look, only to find that it was a blank sheet of paper. He didn't dare to take matters into his own hands, so he took the letter upstairs to find Yamamoto Takeshi, who was waiting anxiously in room 308.

  Yamamoto Takeru took the white paper and turned it over, suddenly having an idea, he had someone go to the pharmacy to buy a bottle of iodine, which he carefully applied to the white paper with a cotton swab, revealing several lines of faint blue text.

  "Hurrah!" Yamamoto Takeo was overjoyed, but the text above was in Russian, which he couldn't understand. He quickly ordered his subordinates to find a Russian translator, and fortunately, the Japanese embassy had many talented people, so it didn't take half an hour to find someone who understood Russian, who translated the contents of the paper. Yamamoto Takeo's spirit lifted, and he personally led his subordinates into action.

  They arrived at the west side of Dongjiaominxiang, by this time it was already late at night. Several Japanese people wearing overcoats and holding flashlights were standing under the tree taking pictures randomly until they finally discovered a hole in the tree above.

  A nimble secret agent agilely climbed up, rummaged around in the tree hole for a while, and finally found a cowhide file bag. Excited, he waved it and said in a low voice: "Sakamoto-senpai, I've found it!"

  Yamamoto Takeshi finally got the file bag, he hastily opened it, pulled out the documents inside and shone them with a flashlight to take a look. They were all written in Russian, with a seal at the end, which was also in Russian, and had a sickle and axe emblem in the middle.

  "That's it." Yamamoto Takeo was extremely satisfied and left with his men.

  ……

  Tongjiang Min Alley, Japanese Embassy, Yamamoto Takeo reported his discovery to the Foreign Ministry's Counsellor, Yoshida Kenkichi: a letter written in starch water with superstitious content, a sealed document filled with dense writing and a bright red sickle axe at the end that shocked him.

  "It's a spy from Akakawa." said Yoshino Kenji with a gloomy face.

  Yamamoto Takeshi nodded: "Ah, Tanaka and Suzuki were killed by them. Their goal is to collude with the Chinese to deal with our Great Japanese Empire."

  Fang Ze Qianji stood up and walked a few steps, saying: "I received news that there was a shootout at the Anfu Club last night, killing several people. I think these two things may be connected, Mr. Yamamoto."

  "Hai!" Yamamoto Takeshi's feet came together in a sharp point.

  "I entrust you with investigating the great matter of the Chinese conspiracy." said Hanzawa, bowing his head.