Chapter 340
All the chairs on one side of the long table were moved away in an instant. The American military police lieutenant watched as the last chair was moved away by the soldiers, and he actually took two steps forward and saluted Yuri.
Yuri was stunned for a moment, but quickly came to his senses. He stood up straight and returned a salute to the other party. Almost at the same time, the spotlights in the hall lit up, and then applause broke out.
The one applauding was Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, who had not yet fully recovered from years of imprisonment. He was not a signing representative of the United Kingdom, but because of their experiences in the past few years, he and American Major General Wainwright were qualified to attend the ceremony.
At first, only Percival was clapping, but soon the applause became louder, and finally even some reporters who were allowed in to take pictures joined in.
Standing not far away, MacArthur seemed relieved. He looked at Yuri with complicated eyes, and finally, he raised his hands and applauded.
Including Emperor Hirohito, every Japanese representative present had an ugly look on their face, but at this time, they were no longer able to make any changes. The current Japan was no longer a Japan belonging to the Japanese, and it was still unclear who would become the actual ruler here.
Next came the formal signing process. First, the Japanese military and political leaders signed, followed by MacArthur signing on behalf of the Allied representatives. After that, representatives of various countries and the Japanese representatives signed their respective countries' instruments of acceptance and surrender.
Yuri signed the two documents on behalf of the Soviet Red Army, while the Japanese and Soviet Red Army signed on behalf of Shigemitsu Mamoru and Umezu Michiro himself, which was also Yuri's strong request. When Yuri signed the two documents himself, he directly put the Parker pen prepared by the US into his pocket.
MacArthur's deputy and chief of staff, Lieutenant General Sutherland, saw this scene and his eyelids twitched, but he didn't say anything - this fountain pen was sponsored by Parker, a truly top-notch gold pen. Apart from its own value, its commemorative significance was even more valuable. General MacArthur had already found owners for them, but this time one was missing.
The signing ceremony went smoothly overall. After representatives from various countries had signed, MacArthur made a closing statement and then announced the end of the signing ceremony.
At this time, MacArthur just wanted to send away the signing representatives of various countries as soon as possible, especially Yuri. In his opinion, this young and energetic guy was a time bomb that might explode at any time and make him lose face.
Mr. MacArthur had a good idea, but there was a problem with the itinerary he arranged.
When the motorcade entered the Imperial Palace, it took the Nijubashi Bridge, but when it left, it took the Sakashita Gate. The reason was that several people had committed seppuku outside the Nijubashi Bridge, which caused a traffic jam on that road. To be on the safe side, the motorcade was arranged to take the Sakashita Gate, then head north, then west, bypassing the Hirakawa Gate, Takebashi, Tanayasu Gate, and Kudanzaka, which was equivalent to going around the Imperial Palace, and finally heading towards the port area.
As a result, just as the convoy was reaching the Chidorigafuchi River in Kudanzaka, an accident occurred.
At that time, there was no so-called Chidorigafuchi Cemetery in Kudanzaka, and there was not even a cement road. There was only a large open area made of rammed earth. On the north side of this open area, there was a road also made of rammed earth.
This avenue is very wide and extends westward to connect to an area of buildings that have not been bombed. From a distance, you can see rows of cherry trees planted on both sides of the road. The scenery is very nice.
At this time, you can see many people on the avenue, all wearing traditional Japanese kimonos, both men and women. Above the crowd, there are a large number of white flags floating. From a distance, it looks like some kind of religious ceremony is being held.
In order to ensure the safety of the convoy, the US military arranged an armored vehicle to lead the way. Behind the armored vehicle were two trucks full of soldiers. Behind these two trucks was the following convoy. As for the sides of the convoy, there were also soldiers riding three-wheeled military motorcycles to guard it.
Such a large convoy was moving from east to west. Just when they reached an open space made of rammed earth, a guy wearing a blue and white checkered samurai suit, a bun on his head, and a headband with the words "Long Live the Martial Arts" on his forehead suddenly rushed out from the cherry trees, shouting and yelling with a ferocious expression, and rushed straight towards the convoy.
The motorcycle guarding the flank of the convoy was the first to notice something was wrong. The two motorcycles quickly stopped, and the American soldiers on the motorcycles had already pointed their machine guns at the guy and were shouting at him, trying to stop him from rushing over.
At this tense moment, the guy dressed as an old samurai tripped over something and suddenly lost his balance. He fell to the ground with his clogs flying off his feet.
This dramatic scene caused the American soldiers to burst into laughter, and the tense atmosphere dissipated instantly.
This inexplicable old warrior seemed to be hurt from the fall. He lay on the ground for a while before slowly getting up. Then he knelt there on his knees, muttering something to himself. Then he wiped his face and stood up to pick up the flying clogs.
As a result, when he picked up the second pair of clogs, the bun on his head fell to the ground again, revealing his neatly trimmed short flat head. It was not until then that the people in the convoy realized that this guy was still a child, a boy of sixteen or seventeen years old at most.
He put on his clogs, picked up the bun that had fallen on the ground, and wanted to put it back on his head, but the bun seemed to be broken somewhere. He tried twice but couldn't fix it on his head. In the end, he could only throw the bun away dejectedly, turned around and continued walking towards the convoy.
Perhaps because of the funny scene just now, or because this guy was just a kid, the American soldiers guarding the flank were not so nervous. There was even a machine gunner sitting in the sidecar who took something out of his pocket and threw it to the boy. Judging from the package, it should be some food.
The package was thrown over and hit the boy directly on the chest, then slid to the ground. The boy didn't even look at it and continued to walk quickly towards the convoy.
At this time, he had walked to within seven or eight steps away from the motorcycle. The American soldier who threw things at him shouted a few words at him. Seeing that the other party not only did not stop, but ran towards him again, he finally realized that something was wrong.
The tense atmosphere suddenly reappeared, and the machine gun on the motorcycle was set up again . But it was too late. The boy reached into his arms while running, and when he took it out again, he was holding a grenade, and it looked like a grenade from the US military.
"Bang, bang, bang..." The gunshots on the motorcycle finally rang out. Because of the hasty shooting, the bullets ejected from the muzzle did not hit the boy immediately. The first bullet point was on the left side of his body, where his feet were. But as he rushed forward, his left leg was hit immediately. The bullet shot directly off the part below his left knee, and it splashed with flesh and blood several meters away. Before the half of his calf flew off to the ground, the boy's lower abdomen was completely blown open. The scene was like a red, green and purple paint bag being blown up in mid-air.
The boy didn't even make a sound, he just fell to the ground in a twisted state, his shattered intestines quickly flowed out of his body, leaving a large sticky puddle there.
Just before he fell, the boy had already thrown the grenade in his hand. He seemed to have received training in this area and threw the grenade very accurately. However, he did not throw it in the direction of the convoy, but at the motorcycle that shot at him.
The grenade drew a parabola in the air and hit the machine gunner's shoulder directly. After jumping a bit, it bounced onto the side of the motorcycle's cargo bed and then rolled into the bed.
The machine gunner reacted quickly, pushed the machine gun in his hand, grabbed the soldier driving the motorcycle and flipped outwards. Unfortunately, his legs were caught on something, and he only pushed the soldier driving the motorcycle off the vehicle, but he himself was hung on the body of the vehicle.
"boom !"
With a loud bang, the entire motorcycle was blown into two sections. The heavy machine gun on the motorcycle was blown into the air and fell to the side of the road. The machine gunner hanging on the motorcycle was pushed off the motorcycle by the shock wave and fell on his back next to a car. His legs from the knees down could not be found.
The scene fell into a moment of dead silence, but soon, a second lieutenant rushed over, kneeling on the ground, reaching out to press the machine gunner's leg, looking around with a face full of despair, and shouting something. Then, more and more soldiers rushed over and formed a circle there. A medical soldier carrying a first aid kit ran from the direction of the truck and rushed directly into the crowd.
In the third military vehicle, Yuri pushed the door and got out holding his military cap. Before he could stand firmly, a group of reporters with cameras swarmed past him. For them, this was big news. Perhaps there would be a topic for tomorrow's report, and they would definitely ask about the name of the injured soldier. He might be the last American soldier to die in the entire World War II.
Yuri did not move forward. He looked away from the group of American soldiers and first looked at the boy who was shot dead on the spot. There, two American soldiers were shooting at him angrily. And farther away, along the rammed earth road, looking west, that is, to the west of the group of people who seemed to be performing a ritual, there was a well-preserved building, a tall archway across the road, and the words on the archway were faintly visible.
