Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 5: Imprisoned in Japan
When Liu Daming heard Lin Fei's words, he jumped up and shouted at the top of his voice: "Nonsense! No one can surrender to the Japanese! What I want to say is, let's find an opportunity to commit suicide! How does the saying go? It is better to die with honor than to live in disgrace. Let's be the broken jade today!"
Lin Fei thought to himself: "Liu Daming is the torpedo mate. In this era, the range of torpedoes is very short. People who operate torpedo boats must be fearless. This Liu Daming is indeed a guy who is not afraid of death!"
Yu Xier said on the side: "Mr. Torpedo Officer, please don't talk about suicide. Our lives are given by God Jehovah. Only he can take our lives away. Suicide is a sin..."
Liu Daming roared, "Don't talk to me about your shitty God, you old foreign fish. You cross yourself when you eat and sleep. Why didn't he come to save you when you were hit by the Japanese with the butt of their rifle just now?"
Yu Xier's faith was insulted by Liu Daming, so he stood up and said angrily: "When the Day of Judgment comes, all the dead and the living will be judged by God . I will get eternal life, and the Japanese who beat me will go to hell!"
Lin Fei hurriedly said, "Okay, stop arguing. Lao Liu, if we die, we have to take a few people with us, so we can't die now. Lao Yu, just because we can't escape now doesn't mean we can't escape forever. You all have to listen to me when it comes to running away."
Yu Xier and Liu Daming looked at Lin Fei and nodded. Lin Fei said, "The Japanese guards are tight. The only thing we can do is to conserve our energy and wait for an opportunity. We should not clash with the Japanese guards. This will paralyze them and make it easier for us to escape."
The two agreed, and the three of them rested quietly. No one came to interrogate them. The sun could not be seen in the cabin, and they could only judge the time based on the number of meals delivered. After three days, the ship suddenly stopped slowly. Liu Daming asked Lin Fei: "Why did the Japanese ship stop?"
Lin Fei thought for a moment and said, "From the process of stopping the ship, it doesn't look like stopping at sea. I think it looks like stopping at a port. The ship should have entered a certain port."
Liu Daming's eyes lit up and he said, "Will they take us ashore? Do we have a chance to escape?"
Lin Fei shook his head slightly and said, "It's hard to say, let's wait a little longer."
Several hours passed in a flash and no one took them ashore. The ship stayed for an unknown amount of time before setting sail again. This time the ship traveled even longer. Judging from the number of meals delivered, it took a full five days before the ship slowly stopped at a port.
Lin Fei said: "According to the distance, we should have reached the Japanese mainland, but I don't know which port it is."
Liu Daming exclaimed, "What? We've reached the Japanese mainland! Doesn't that mean we have no chance of escaping?"
Lin Fei sighed. Once we reach the Japanese mainland, we will need a ship to escape. But we are prisoners of war. Where can we find a ship? The hope of escape is even slimmer. Do we really have to suffer humiliation and abuse in the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp until the end of the Sino-Japanese War?
Although Lin Fei thought so, he comforted Liu Daming: "Don't think that way, we will find an opportunity."
At this moment, the cabin door opened and an officer appeared at the door, shouting in Chinese: "Come out, come out, get off the boat, get off the boat!" Then several Japanese soldiers came in with rifles with bayonets and escorted Lin Fei and the other two out of the cabin. Lin Fei walked onto the deck and looked down. He saw that the ship was docked at a pier. A row of Japanese soldiers with live ammunition stood on the pier. Outside the soldiers were men and women in kimonos, all looking at the ship curiously. When they saw the Japanese soldiers escorting Lin Fei out, they burst into cheers.
Lin Fei was the first to walk down the gangway, followed by Yu Xier and Liu Daming, and finally the ten captured sailors. Each sailor had wounds on his face, obviously beaten by Japanese soldiers. The Japanese soldiers escorted Lin Fei and others out of the crowd. When passing through the crowd, the Japanese people laughed at him, and some children picked up stones and threw them at Lin Fei and his group.
Lin Fei and his group were escorted out of the crowd. The Japanese followed them for a while before slowly dispersing. After walking for another ten minutes, they stopped outside a large courtyard. The courtyard was surrounded by a five or six meter high wall with barbed wire on top. There was only a small door on the wall that was only wide enough for two people to walk side by side. A row of Japanese soldiers stood outside the small door. Lin Fei thought to himself, "This should be the prisoner-of-war camp."
At this time, a Japanese officer came out of the prisoner-of-war camp. He was a captain. He was tall and handsome. He held a leather whip as thick as a thumb in his hand. The whip was black and stained with blood. The officer walked in front of Lin Fei and the others, slapped the whip with his hand and said in fluent Chinese: "Chinese pig-tailed slaves, from today on, I am your chief guard. My name is Aoki Ryokazu. Let me tell you about the rules of the prisoner-of-war camp. If any of you dare to violate them, see the whip in my hand..."
Aoki Ryokazu explained the rules for ten minutes, and then said, "Take them in." The Japanese soldiers took Lin Fei and others into the prisoner-of-war camp, arranged them in cells, and then left.
The so-called prison cell was just a big room with a large bunk bed that could sleep hundreds of people. Lin Fei entered the cell and found that there were already quite a few prisoners of war in the cell. They all wore tattered Qing army uniforms, with braids hastily tied on top of their heads, and were looking at Lin Fei and the others curiously.
The sailors on the Zhiyuan ship were also looking at them. Lin Fei stepped forward and said, "Brothers, who is the leader among you?"
At this time, a middle-aged man came out from among the prisoners of war, approached Lin Fei, bowed to him and said, "My name is Li Dong, and I am also a soldier. Because I am a few years older than you, I know a lot of things, so the brothers call me 'Li Mingbai'. I am the leader of the brothers. Sir, may I ask your name?"
Lin Fei nodded and said, "My name is Lin Fei, the gunnery commander of the Zhiyuan ship. How did you get captured?"
Li Mingbai said: "On June 23, we took a troop transport ship to Korea, but we were attacked by Japanese pirates' gunboats on the way. Our ship sank and most of our brothers died. We fell into the water and were captured by the Japanese pirates."
Lin Fei was moved after hearing what Li Mingbai said. The "June 23rd" that Li Mingbai mentioned was July 25th, 1894 in the Gregorian calendar. On that day, Japan provoked the Battle of Tsushima and attacked the Qing army's troop transport ship. Except for more than 200 people who were captured, all the more than 900 soldiers on the troop transport ship were killed. These captured Qing soldiers were detained in Nagasaki, Japan, and suffered torture and abuse. It seemed that he was now in Nagasaki, Japan.
At this time, Li Mingbai asked: "Sir, how were you captured?"
Lin Fei recounted the story of the naval battle. When the prisoners heard that the Zhiyuan had sunk the Yoshino, smiles appeared on their pale faces. Liu Daming said to Lin Fei, "Old Lin, you saw the guards of the prisoner-of-war camp just now. Not even a bird can fly out. How can we escape?"
Before Lin Fei could speak, Li Mingbai said, "Sir, don't think about escaping. The chief guard of the prisoner-of-war camp is the devil named Aoki Ryokazu, who loves to torture people. You saw the whip in his hand. Many brothers were beaten to death by that whip. When we came, there were more than 150 people, and now there are only more than 50 left."
At this time, the prisoners of war also gathered around, and one after another advised Lin Fei and the others: "Don't even think about running away, it's useless. There is at least a squadron of 200 Japanese pirates guarding outside, and there is a large army nearby, and everyone has a gun. If we run away, we will only die!"
The words of the prisoners of war made the sailors on the Zhiyuan ship a little discouraged. Liu Daming said viciously: "If I can't escape, I will risk my life to fight the Japanese to the death. I would rather die than be bullied by them." Yu Xier muttered about "Judgment Day" and "Redemption". Seeing everyone like this, Lin Fei thought to himself: "If they all hold this idea, they can't escape even if they have the chance."
So Lin Fei coughed lightly and said, "Brothers, listen to me." Everyone quieted down, and Lin Fei said, "I have the highest position here, right?"
Everyone nodded. Although Yu Xier and Liu Daming were at the same level as Lin Fei, they had no objection. Lin Fei continued, "I tell you, I have a way to lead everyone to escape. Do you believe it?"
Everyone shook their heads. Lin Fei's eyes flashed and he said, "As long as everyone listens to my command, I can lead everyone to escape!" Everyone looked at Lin Fei doubtfully. Lin Fei said, "Give me a straight answer. Do you believe it?"
Li Mingbai spoke: "You are the superior, we listen to you." The infantry prisoners responded one after another.
Liu Daming also said: "Lao Lin, I believe you and I will listen to you."
Yu Xier also nodded slightly, and the sailors on the Zhiyuan ship also agreed.
Lin Fei said: "Well, let's go and rest now. In the next few days, don't go against the Japanese army. Go along with them in everything, so that they can relax their guard."
After hearing Lin Fei's words, everyone returned to their beds, some sitting and some lying down. Lin Fei also lay on his bed, feeling confused because the Japanese army's defenses were too strict and he had no way to escape. He said those words only to boost morale.
For five days in a row, there was no chance to escape. During these five days, Lin Fei and his men were very "behaved", and the Japanese army gradually relaxed their vigilance. Early that morning, a sharp whistle suddenly sounded in the yard, and Aoki Ryokazu's voice rang out in the yard: "Everyone get up!"
Lin Fei looked at the sky and found that it was still early for the gathering, so he asked Li Mingbai: "What's going on?"
Li Mingbai said, "We will definitely be asked to do hard labor again."
Lin Fei asked: "What does it mean to do hard labor? To work?"
Li Mingbai said, "That's about right. Aoki Ryokazu asked us to unload the ships at the dock. Sometimes they were military ships, and the Japanese were too tired to unload the ships, so they asked us to do it. Sometimes they were civilian ships, and the ship owners gave Aoki Ryokazu some money, so Aoki Ryokazu asked us to unload the ships for them."
