That evening, in the French Concession of Shanghai, at apartment number 57 Yannan Road, special commissioner Duan Tiecheng and station chief Wang Hanmin were discussing specific action plans with two men around a city map.

These two young men were the leaders of the Fifth Detachment's team, Captain Jiang Guotao and his deputy Guo Yuande.

Duan Tiecheng pointed to a point on the map and began to introduce his painstakingly designed action plan: "Dashun Warehouse, this warehouse is located about three kilometers west of the library building. It is our designated hidden stronghold. Before the operation, we will transport the weapons and explosives to Dashun Warehouse in batches."

One of the guards in this warehouse is one of our own. On the day of the operation, he will control the other guards to facilitate our actions.

Before the operation, we will arrange for your special operations team to enter downtown Shanghai and hide at the Dashun Warehouse. The Dashun Warehouse is quite large, enough to hide your special operations team. More importantly, there are several trucks parked in the square of the warehouse, which are usually used to transport goods. We will be able to use them in this operation.

Our operation is scheduled for the day after tomorrow, which is the evening of the 10th.

We've already found out that this day is the birthday of Shanghai Mayor Su Yue. He will be hosting a grand banquet and inviting people from all walks of life in Shanghai's high society to attend. Our intelligence station's target will be chosen from among these guests.

We would wait until the banquet was over and then carry out the assassination on the way home. During the assassination, we would deliberately make a big commotion to attract the attention of the Japanese.

We will have dedicated personnel monitoring the Japanese movements. If we're not mistaken, the Japanese will react quickly, and once they send reinforcements, we will notify you to take action. The rest, however, is up to you to figure out how to attack the library building.

After Duan Tiecheng finished speaking, Wang Hanmin pointed to a simple structural diagram of the library building next to him and then carefully introduced: "Captain Jiang, this is the structural diagram of the library building that we collected. This library building has four floors, and there is another floor in the basement. We have made an analysis and judgment. This batch of legal tender is huge, with a volume of about 100 cubic meters. Such a large volume certainly cannot be placed in an ordinary room. There are only two places in the entire library building that can hold so much legal tender. One is the basement on the ground floor, and the other is the conference room on the east side of the fourth floor. However, because Shanghai is located on the coast, the air is always very humid, especially in the basement, which is not conducive to the storage of paper. Therefore, they only have one choice, which is the conference room on the east side of the fourth floor."

At this point, Wang Hanmin pointed to a corner of the map, drew a circle with his pen, and said again: "Our initial plan is as follows: when you start the attack, use the trucks in the Dashun warehouse to ram open the outer gate. Before the enemy can react, rush directly to the west side of the building, with the vehicles close to the building wall, and then detonate the TNT loaded on the trucks. We have already calculated the yield; the explosive power is enough to blast a gap at this point. Next to the gap is the staircase. The subsequent team members will rush up the staircase all the way to the conference room on the fourth floor, and then ignite the legal tender as quickly as possible to destroy it."

We have prepared enough gasoline for you. Remember, once you start the fire, evacuate immediately. The conference room is full of Chinese currency, so once the fire starts, it will be very difficult to extinguish. So don't worry.

I have marked two evacuation routes for you here. When leaving, all personnel will split into two groups, each led by one of you two, and evacuate to our designated hideouts. The locations of these hideouts must be known only to the two of you, to prevent anyone from being captured by the Japanese during the operation and causing us all great trouble.”

This entire action plan was devised by Duan Tiecheng after much effort, incorporating some of Wang Hanmin's ideas. It is, so far, the closest the plan has to a successful outcome.

Jiang Guotao and Guo Yuande looked at the two sets of blueprints in front of them, and combined them with Duan Tiecheng and Wang Hanmin's narration, they began to ask about the details step by step, and soon understood the entire process and specific measures of the plan.

Finally, they all nodded in agreement, stood at attention, saluted, and replied, "Reporting to the section chief and station chief, we understand and will do our utmost to complete this task."

Duan Tiecheng looked at the two young men, patted Jiang Guotao on the shoulder, and said with emotion: "Guotao, you two are both veterans from the Military Intelligence Bureau and officers cultivated by our Party for many years. You know the importance of this mission. If the Japanese manage to print this batch of legal tender and it flows into our Nationalist-controlled areas, it will cause a devastating blow to our economic system. The consequences will be catastrophic. We must destroy it at all costs and complete this mission."

Shanghai is where Japanese forces are most concentrated; Japanese troops and henchmen are everywhere. Once gunfire breaks out, regardless of the outcome, your chances of successfully escaping are slim. No one can guarantee a successful evacuation. If evacuation is impossible, you must be fully prepared to avoid falling into enemy hands; otherwise, Shanghai Station will be doomed. Do you understand what I mean?

When Duan Tiecheng first formulated the action plan, he envisioned a desperate, all-or-nothing battle. Once this special operations team of the National Salvation Army entered the urban area of ​​Shanghai, regardless of whether they succeeded in the end, once the gunfire started, their chances of survival would be slim.

Jiang Guotao and Guo Yuande exchanged a glance, then turned to face Duan Tiecheng and Wang Hanmin. Jiang Guotao smiled calmly and replied loudly, "Please rest assured, Commander. I did not intend to leave alive this time. Before coming, I made it clear to my team members that they all volunteered for this mission. It concerns the fate of the nation, so how can we back down? If anything goes wrong, we will certainly sacrifice ourselves and will never endanger the Commander or the safety of the Shanghai Station."

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