The Bravest

Time flies, and soon it was June 1944, 6. 15 US B-68 long-range bombers took off from Chengdu and attacked the Yawata Steel Plant on Kyushu Island, Japan.

Although the results of this operation were mediocre, it marked the beginning of a large-scale bombing of the Japanese mainland. Until October, the bombing lasted for four consecutive months, with more than 10 tons of bombs dropped on many strategic targets in Japan.

On November 11, the U.S. military organized a larger-scale operation, dispatching 24 B-111s at one time to raid the Nakajima Aircraft Manufacturing Plant near Tokyo, bringing the war closer to the Japanese capital.

However, the large-scale bombing of the Japanese mainland for more than half a year had little effect, and Japan continued to resist stubbornly on various battlefields. The US military suffered heavy casualties in the battle for islands with Japan.

On the evening of March 1945, 3, the U.S. military took off 9 B-334 bombers from Saipan and headed straight for Tokyo. This time, the U.S. military changed its tactics and replaced all the previous ordinary bombs with incendiary bombs.

At 1945:3 on March 10, 15, the bomber formation arrived over Tokyo. The B-29 dropped more than tons of incendiary bombs, and dozens of modified aircraft dumped dozens of tons of fuel, turning most of Tokyo into a sea of ​​fire.

The Tokyo bombing destroyed more than 60% of Tokyo's commercial areas and more than 20% of its industrial areas. The fires caused by the bombing killed more than 100,000 people and injured countless more.

The news of this large-scale bombing could not be concealed at all. Gangcun received the news on the same day and sat in his office for the entire night.

"Mr. Lin, please go to the Sakura Pavilion immediately." At six o'clock in the morning, Lin Jie received a strange call from Gangcun. Before he could ask what the matter was, Gangcun hung up the call.

"You're crazy!" Lin Jie cursed in a low voice, then turned to Sun Yuelan who was also woken up and said, "I'm going to go out for a while, you can sleep for a while."

"You are not allowed to go!" Sun Yuelan held Lin Jie. She heard everything Gangcun said on the phone. Gangcun actually asked Lin Jie to go to a brothel so early in the morning. He really wanted to piss her off to death.

"They want me to go right away. Maybe it's something urgent." Lin Jie looked at Sun Yuelan helplessly. He didn't want to go, but he had to go.

"What kind of urgent matter could it be? If it was really urgent, I wouldn't have asked you to go to that kind of place." Sun Yuelan looked at Lin Jie with disdain. What good could come of two grown men going to a brothel?

"What should I do?"

"Hmph, let him wait, and go after you're full." Sun Yuelan also knew that Gangcun had called and Lin Jie had to go, but she was unwilling to let Lin Jie go to that kind of place, so Sun Yuelan thought of a brilliant idea.

"Oh, I'll just buy something to eat on the way." Lin Jie didn't react. He thought Sun Yuelan was afraid that he would be hungry, so she asked him to have breakfast first.

"Don't eat outside." Sun Yuelan turned over and pressed Lin Jie down, whispering in Lin Jie's ear: "It costs money to eat outside, isn't the food at home delicious?"

Lin Jie understood, and Sun Yuelan also started to act. It took more than an hour for the room to return to peace.

"Go ahead, don't drink so much." Sun Yuelan lay weakly on the side, and after telling Lin Jie something, she was too lazy to pay any more attention to him.

Lin Jie went into the bathroom to wash up, feeling both amused and helpless. Sun Yuelan's trick really worked, and now his steps were a little unsteady.

At half past eight, Lin Jie hurried to the Sakura Pavilion, and a maid immediately took him to a room. Lin Jie was surprised to find that Ono, whom he had not seen for a long time, was also there.

"Gangcun-kun, Ono-kun. Why are you drinking so early?" Lin Jie walked over to Gangcun, sat cross-legged, picked up the food on the coffee table and started eating.

He was in such a hurry on the way that he had no time to eat breakfast. In addition, Sun Yuelan drained him dry twice in a row, so Lin Jie felt his whole body was empty, so his eyes lit up when he saw food.

"Mr. Lin, why did you come just now? You have to drink three cups first." Gangcun drank so much that his tongue became swollen and his speech was unclear.

"The car broke down on the way, so we were delayed for a while." Could Lin Jie say that there was something wrong with the place you arranged to meet, and that he had to be squeezed dry by his wife before he could go out? So he could only make up an excuse, and then asked Xiao Ye next to him: "Xiao Ye, what happened?"

"Mr. Lin, Tokyo was bombed by the Americans. Mr. Okamura was in a bad mood and asked us to come over for a drink." Ono also knew the news, but he was not in a bad mood like Okamura. The bombing of Tokyo had nothing to do with him. His hometown, Hokkaido, was so poor that people didn't even pee or poop. The Americans would never waste bombs.

Ono was tired of the war, and he was lucky not to be on the front line. He only knew that many of his fellow countrymen died on the battlefield. He had figured out that launching a war was just to satisfy the ambitions of those high-level officials and big families. People like them at the bottom were just cannon fodder. Now Ono only wanted the war to end soon so that he could continue to do business with the capital he had earned in the past few years.

"Don't Americans bomb every day? What's so strange about that?" Lin Jie finally remembered that the famous Tokyo bombing happened yesterday. But he remained calm. If Gangcun wanted to drink alone, he could just drink with him and treat it as a celebration.

"Mr. Lin, you have no idea. Hundreds of thousands of people died overnight. It's tragic!" Gangcun looked up at Lin Jie and poured a glass of sake into his mouth.

"Mr. Gangcun, is everything alright at home?" Lin Jie asked with concern. His anxious look seemed very sincere, but he was actually very happy in his heart. Damn, there is still a future ahead, so just enjoy your life slowly.

"Well, everything is fine at home. I moved my family to the countryside a long time ago. Mr. Lin, it seems that the war cannot last long. What are you going to do?" Gangcun rubbed his face vigorously with both hands to make himself more sober.

"What can I do? I'll just make more money quickly, then change my name and hide away to become a rich man." Lin Jie said casually, fearing that Gangcun was testing him, and his mind kept recalling the contingency plan he had already prepared.

"Yes, Gangcun-kun, the war has nothing to do with us little people. It is practical to get more benefits while Shanghai is still stable."

When the military investigated corruption, Ono was found to have unclear accounts. Fortunately, he was willing to pay money and asked Gangcun to find connections, so he was not transferred back to China for trial. Now he has become a private, relying on the relationship between Gangcun and Lin Jie to eat and drink well, so he is more eager to make money than before.

"What Ono-kun said is right. No matter what time, money is real. Whether the war is won or lost, as long as we are not sent to the front line, it has nothing to do with us. Don't think too much, Gangcun, this is a matter of time, don't we know it all the time?"

Lin Jie also poured himself a glass of sake and drank it slowly while persuading Gangcun.

……