A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Chapter 1060 Reactions from all parties

The next morning, when Gui'er arrived at the restaurant for breakfast, she noticed that the newspaper was different from usual.

She asked curiously, "Why are you buying other newspapers now? What about the Xingmin Daily?"

Acheng scratched his head and said with a troubled expression, "I've been to several newsstands, but they don't have the Xingmin Daily. They only have these. I was afraid you wouldn't like it, so I bought a few more copies."

Gui'er flipped through the newspapers: the Chinese Daily, the Commercial Daily, and an English newspaper, the South China Morning Post.

Helpless, she ate breakfast while reading two Chinese newspapers. One mentioned the Japanese military exercises in Shenzhen in a very subtle way, using very restrained and official language, urging the public to "remain calm and cooperate with government guidelines." The reports focused on the government distributing gas masks, stable food prices, and the effectiveness of air defense drills. However, they also cleverly published readers' letters on the margins, mentioning "sleeplessness due to the sound of gunfire at night" and "children crying in fright," which could be considered a reflection of public sentiment. The Commercial Daily, under the name of "Border Dynamics," subtly reminded readers to stock up on supplies and stay away from the border.

Gui'er turned her head and asked, "Are market prices stable right now?"

Dingxiang exaggeratedly said, "How could the newspaper say that prices are stable? Don't listen to their nonsense. Rice prices have doubled, and candles too. We were lucky we bought them early, now they're all sold out. But the emergency kit that Brother Qiang mentioned has arrived. It has gas masks, biscuits, dry food, and canned beef, enough to last us for a while."

Gui'er sighed and shook her head, then picked up the English-language South China Morning Post again. Its headline was official news about the European war and local society, while the military exercise report was on an inside page, titled "Border military exercises do not affect local order" and "British troops strengthen security." It emphasized the strength of the British defenses and the appropriate measures taken by the Hong Kong British to weaken the Japanese threat, presumably to avoid panic. A sentence or two mentioned that "cross-border traffic was briefly disrupted during the exercise," but it didn't mention a word about whether people's lives were affected. Gui'er had expected this, because the British were rulers too; they wouldn't care about the lives of Hong Kong people.

After finishing breakfast, Gui'er was getting ready for school when Dingxiang complained, "This school is really something. It's so close by, yet they're firing cannons and guns. They don't even stop get out of class for a moment. What if one of those shells is unlucky and comes flying over here?"

Acheng said, "Can you shut up a bit, you jinx?"

Gui'er smiled and said, "Oh, it's okay. Actually, I'm scared too, but I can't let it interfere with my studies. It would affect my graduation. I can only establish myself in Hong Kong if I become a doctor."

Just as she finished speaking and was about to get into the car, she suddenly saw Wu Mingqiang riding his bicycle at high speed, whooshing into the yard from outside.

"Brother Wu, where have you been? Why are you in such a hurry?"

“Miss, I went to check out the areas near the exercise site in Tsim Sha Tsui and Hung Hom.”

Everyone perked up at the news, and Acheng quickly leaned out of the car and asked, "Brother Qiang, how's the situation over there?"

"They were putting on a show, but their exercises were aimed at Hong Kong. The Japanese troops were clearly assembled on the north bank, with tents stretching out in rows, artillery positions, and river crossing drills. Heavy artillery test firing, armored vehicle roars, soldiers shouting battle cries, and engineer demolition drills were all clearly audible. I heard that the noise pollution during the day and night exercises was severe. The infantry simulated a strong attack on the Lo Wu bridgehead and a river crossing landing; the artillery test-fired on targets on the opposite bank of the Shenzhen River; the air force flew low over Kai Tak Airport as a deterrent; and the armored forces practiced breaking through border roadblocks. The loudspeakers were broadcasting messages urging the British to surrender and attack Hong Kong. Many residents in the surrounding area were so frightened that they moved away."

"This is too blatant! If they go this far, even if they don't attack now, it's only a matter of time before they do," Gui'er said in shock. "Did you see any reaction from the British army?" This was what Gui'er was most interested in; she still hoped the British could put up a fight.

“I saw that the British army has reinforced the Drunken Bay defense line, closed border crossings, and evacuated people from areas very close to the exercise area. Now the British and Japanese troops are facing off across the river and have increased patrols. I heard that the Hong Kong British government has protested many times,” Wu Mingqiang said calmly.

"Brother Qiang, do you think it's useless?" Acheng said.

"If it were effective, he wouldn't keep causing trouble here. Miss, are you going to school now? Be careful, we don't know if he might take advantage of the exercise to launch a surprise attack."

Gui'er nodded and got into the car, and Acheng slowly drove the car out of the compound.

"Brother Qiang must be in a really bad mood," Acheng said with a smile.

"how do you know?"

"He wasn't there to watch the Japanese military exercises; he wanted to see when the smuggling ship he had sent there would return."

"Oh, right. Gui'er is also concerned. After all, two comrades are currently stranded in Guangzhou. But given the current situation, communication is basically cut off, and it's a live-fire exercise. No matter how much money is offered, no one dares to take the risk."

The car slowly drove forward. The street was just like any other day, with people coming and going in a hurry. Everyone was either going to work or going to school, but their faces weren't very good. After all, the sounds of gunfire from the drills could still be faintly heard.

Suddenly, a loud roar came from overhead, and everyone on the street panicked and ran around in all directions.

"Airplane, a Japanese airplane."

Acheng slammed on the brakes, jumped out, opened the back door, and pulled Gui'er out. As he ran with her, he said, "Miss, hide quickly, they might throw a bomb."

The two hurriedly ran under the arcade.

In fact, Gui'er knew it was useless. She had witnessed the horrific scene of the bombing of Guangzhou. When the bombs were dropped, a building was completely destroyed, let alone the people hiding inside.

Within minutes, several planes flew low overhead, roaring away, their red sun emblems clearly visible on them.

After a while, everyone, still shaken, walked out of their hiding places into the middle of the road, looking up at themselves with confusion. Suddenly, a lot of flyers started falling from the sky.

Everyone was curious and picked them up to look at them. One of them floated down to Gui'er's feet.

She bent down and picked it up too.

The leaflet, yellowed with age, measured 24.2 cm in length and 17.8 cm in width. The heading read "A Letter to the Good Citizens of Hong Kong by Mandate of Heaven." Printed in traditional Chinese writing style, the content was rich in classical allusions, claiming that China and Japan shared the same language and culture, that the Japanese army was there to help China "break free from the shackles of Western colonialism" and establish a new order of "coexistence and mutual prosperity," smearing the Chongqing government for "depending on Britain and the United States and undermining peace in East Asia," and praising the Wang Jingwei regime as a "legitimate new government."