Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 184 Tracking
"I think the reason why those Japanese devils disappeared was probably to hide something." After chatting with an old man and saying goodbye, Fan Meng said to Liang En.

"According to these people, the devils only drove away with one truck. But they did not return to Zamboanga City along the only road in this area."

"Yes, this is indeed a very suspicious thing." Liang En nodded, "I suspect that the reason why the other party drove away that truck was to transport something."

"However, considering that such a car cannot hold a row of people, I think the place where the devils really disappeared should not be too far from this small town."

Both Liang En and Fan Meng felt a little excited at this time, because according to legend, during World War II, the leader of the Japanese invaders, Yamashita Homofumi, plundered a lot of wealth in Southeast Asia, and planned to transport it back to the headquarters according to the order of his superiors.

It's just that when the invader tried to transport the plundered wealth back to the mainland, it was 1942, and Japan was retreating steadily on the Pacific battlefield.

In particular, the U.S. Navy's submarine force went deep behind the Japanese front on a large scale, and adopted tactics similar to those of the German Navy to break diplomatic relations with Japan.

Because of the correct tactics of the U.S. Navy's submarine force and the Japanese navy's apparent lack of emphasis on anti-submarine and escort, the U.S. submarine force integrated a large number of Japanese transport ships, which greatly increased the danger of Japanese sea transportation.

No one knows exactly what was contained in those sunk transport ships, because the Japanese destroyed almost all information on this before the defeat.

But from the sinking of the Awa Maru in April 1945, people of later generations can get a glimpse of the Japanese plunder in Southeast Asia at that time:
这条船上当时装载了40吨黄金、12吨白金、工业金刚石15万克拉、40箱左右的珠宝和文物、3000吨锡锭、3000吨橡胶以及数千吨大米。

Due to the excellent combat operations of the U.S. Navy's submarine force, the Japanese Navy has minimized its efforts to transport the precious metals and treasures plundered in Southeast Asia back to the mainland since the second half of 1942.

So until the middle of 1945, the Japanese army in Southeast Asia only transported various industrial raw materials and food to the mainland, and did not transport too many valuables.

This also led to a large number of treasures remaining in Southeast Asia when Japan declared its defeat.So Fengwen Yamashita began to hide the plundered wealth in various places.

According to legend, after the successful landing of American troops in the Philippines in early 1945, the Japanese troops in the Philippines hid those treasures in 175 secret treasure locations.

In order to keep it secret, the Japanese carried out a large-scale extermination operation, and the extermination targets included a large number of Japanese in addition to those laborers who were forcibly recruited in this area.

But after the war ended, several surviving insiders revealed the location of a large number of hidden treasures to the U.S. military and later Philippine officials, and then most of the wealth was taken away by the Americans and former Philippine President Marcos.

However, according to the information Liang En found so far, the other party probably failed to find all the hidden treasures.And now he is very suspicious that this group of disappearing Japanese soldiers may be related to hidden treasures.

So in the next few days, Liang En and the others began to search for various information, and summarized and summarized the information they found.

Through these materials, Liang En learned that the plane built nearby was a field airport, and most of the time it was only used for backup landing of injured planes or temporary attacks.

But just over two weeks before Japan surrendered, a transport plane from Kalimantan landed at this airport without leaving any record of its departure.

According to the records found by the U.S. military, the receiving personnel received an intact Japanese Type [-] transport plane at this airport.

In other words, if that plane did bring something, it should not have been sent to other places by air route.

However, considering the cargo capacity of the transport plane at that time, Liang En felt that the things that the other party used the truck to really hide were not only the things on the plane, but also some things that were originally placed in the area.

The most critical clues come from the detailed maps of the surrounding areas. Considering the off-road capabilities of Japanese trucks during World War II, there are not many routes that allow the opponent to pass.

After a brief screening, Liang En quickly locked on the few surrounding terrains that could allow trucks from World War II to pass through, and then analyzed them one by one.

"There is no need to consider the roads leading to the sea." Liang En pointed to three of the passages. "At that time, a lot of things gathered in Zamboanga City could not be shipped out. It is impossible for a special ship to transport items from this place."

"Do you think the things on that plane are so important that the other side specially dispatched a submarine or a speedboat to take those things away?" Fan Meng raised a possibility.

"This possibility is unlikely, because at that time the United States had a special force composed of destroyers and anti-submarine aircraft operating around Zamboanga City, and the Japanese probably couldn't escape even if they had any submarines." Liang En shook his head and analyzed.

"And if the other party really uses a boat to pull them away, there is no way to find those things at our current level, so it is more appropriate for us to assume that those things are hidden in the surrounding mountains as a prerequisite."

"Well, you're right." Fan Meng nodded. "If these three passages are excluded, then there are only four other passages that are suspicious. Which passage do you think the other party may go through?"

"I think these two passages can be ruled out." Liang En pointed to the two passages on the map and said. "One of them leads to a small village 6km away, and this small village has no traces of destruction or massacre in the war."

"With the ferocity of the Japanese devils, if they really wanted to hide something at that time, they would definitely kill all the people in the small village on their own road at that time."

"The road conditions on the other road are extremely bad. It is a pristine tropical rainforest in a mountainous area. Even if modern people want to pass through it, a lot of professional equipment is required. Non-professionals walking that road are no different from courting death."

"You must know that the Japanese airport guard team has been stationed in this place since the occupation of the Philippines, and the middle personnel have basically not been mobilized, so this group of guys who are familiar with the local terrain should not kill themselves."

So early the next morning, Liang En and Fan Meng searched for the road closer to home.

Unlike the situation where the end of the other road goes deep into the mountains, the end of this road is just some hills, and there are even scattered plantations around it.

In order to serve these plantations, the valley, which was deserted during World War II, now has a lot of artificial traces.For example, a road passes through a formerly desolate valley.

This cinder road is indeed a bit rough, and there are even many small pits pressed by overloaded vehicles.And just when they came to the end of the road, they accidentally saw something strange on the outer wall of the plantation building.

(End of this chapter)