1940

Port of Tynemouth, UK

It rained for more than three hours and it still didn't stop.

The soldiers also stood on the beach for more than three hours.

It was July, and the warm Atlantic current swept the rain down to the ground. The night that should have been cool and warm was inexplicably filled with a touch of cold air. It seemed as if winter was approaching.

The only light here is the lighthouse on the rough sea in the distance.

A huge beam of light swept across the surroundings, then turned in other directions in the blink of an eye, passing through several jagged and dilapidated monasteries, as well as the dense needle-like rain in the air.

The air was filled with an inexplicable fishy smell, which came from the fishing boats parked by the port. The ground was made of black wet bricks, with some inexplicable seaside mollusks crawling on it.

Soldier Kos Diman touched the cold raindrops on his face, moved the soles of his feet slightly, and kicked away a thin fish that had not been transported away but was still beating.

This was his first time performing such a mission. Diman swallowed nervously and looked around him. His companions were all like him, wearing helmets, holding guns, and wearing black ponchos, in the dark.

In the rainy night, I stared at the sea like a rock, as if waiting for something.

At this time, the lighthouse's whale oil lamp swept across the empty sea, and the black shadow of a cargo ship was cut out. It appeared silently, faintly visible in the rain curtain, and its shape could not be seen clearly, as if it was passing through layers of space.

Put in that position by the gods.

"Team Three, on alert."

"Team 2, pick up the goods."

An unusually tall and thin man walked out from among the soldiers and shouted.

The man looked like a bamboo pole, thin and tall, wearing a long-mouthed crow mask similar to that of a plague doctor in the Victorian era. His round glasses were stained with rainwater, and his whole body was wrapped in a dark black robe. There were steps under his feet.

Black rubber boots.

Diman withdrew his gaze and did not move. He was in the third team.

Behind him, the soldiers from the second team turned on their flashlights. Under the light of the flashlights, it turned out that there was a huge iron train lying quietly in the dark rain curtain.

Bang!

The soldiers filed into the train, and then one by one they carried large wooden boxes and stepped off the train. They were stacked heavily on the dark and damp floor tiles of the port.

At the same time, the ghostly ship on the sea slowly stopped and anchored. The sailors lowered the lifeboat, put on their ponchos and launched the lifeboat, approaching the dock.

There were two lifeboats, one carrying people and the other carrying a large black iron box.

The strange man wearing a crow mask at the head waved his hand, and all the soldiers immediately became alert. They hugged the Lee-Enfield rifles in their hands and spread out slightly.

Diman did the same, but with sharp eyes he saw that the "leader" took out a black wooden stick from his arms and stuffed it into his cuffs.

The lifeboat docks.

The leading sailor jumped onto the pier and fixed the ship with ropes to prevent it from being pushed away by the tide.

Then, they worked together to drag another lifeboat containing an iron box to the shore. Four tall sailors lifted the ring at the bottom of the iron box with their arms and used their muscles to forcefully lift the lifeboat that required a crane.

The hoisted box was lifted.

The four men stepped forward quickly and placed the four-meter-long and three-meter-high iron box heavily in front of the group of soldiers.

Only then did Diman see clearly how many of them were dressed. They all had shaved scalps and brown skin, resembling monks. But their heads also looked like monks.

All of them are unusually tall and strong, wearing patched straight-cloth sweatshirts and trousers. Their skins have some weird patterns tattooed on them. Some seem to be square characters, and some have some inexplicable red patterns. Look.

It looks a bit ferocious.

After the box was put down, the four of them put their hands on their crotches in silence and said nothing.

"Where's Fatir?"

A woman with a flame tattoo on her face walked out from behind the group of men with her hands behind her back. She looked like the leader of their group.

She has a pretty face, waist-length braids, a wide Tang skirt, and wooden clogs on her bare feet, but she speaks English extremely fluently.

"Here."

The man wearing a crow mask stood up. He was nearly two meters tall, and the woman with an oriental face was only as tall as his chest.

The man stretched out his hand: "As soon as we reconcile, I'll see you, Miss Xi."

"Just speak English, Mike."

When the woman came closer and pushed the other person's hand away, Diman could see a little black mole under the corner of her eye.

"OK, I've been waiting for a long time this time..."

"Where's the medicine?"

The woman interrupted him directly.

"here."

The crow-faced man waved his hand, and several soldiers carried the wooden box up: "Aspirin, antibiotics, sulfa, quinine, morphine, well, there are also special drugs."

The woman squatted down and began to examine the wooden box.

When the team leader was in charge of the transaction, Diman couldn't help but glance at the woman's snow-white thighs under her cheongsam after she squatted down. After his Adam's apple twitched, he looked away, only to see a pair of gloomy eyes in front of the big iron box.

.

The tall foreign man looked at him. He had a broad and square face, protruding neck muscles, and dull eyes.

Diman could feel the pungent smell of sea and blood. He swallowed and tightened his grip on the rifle with trembling fingers.

This action aroused the vigilance of the yellow-skinned man wearing black cloth shoes across from him. He narrowed his eyes slightly, clenched his fist and took a step forward. The rain quickly evaporated from his bare head.

He was clearly unarmed, but his aura made people feel oppressive.

Diman took a step back with his rifle in hand.

The movement made the woman with the flame tattoo on her face turn her head instantly: "Quanzi, you can't be like a ghost."

The man immediately stood back and lowered his head, appearing very respectful.

Diman couldn't understand what they were talking about at all, so he turned his head slightly and asked a veteran next to him: "Who are these people?"

The veteran's lips twitched: "People over there in HK, don't talk nonsense."

After checking the rows of wooden boxes on the ground, the cheongsam woman nodded with satisfaction.

"The medicine is here, do you want to check it out?"

She pointed to the big box that had been brought down from the ship.

The man in the crow mask glanced at the box, and a cold white mist spurted out from the bird's nostrils in the mask. He shook his head and stretched out his hand:

"He Sayu loves it."

"Yes." The woman shook the palm of the man in the crow mask, turned her head and waved her arm: "Pour some water."

The group of oriental men wearing linen shirts immediately retreated to the wooden box, picked up the wooden box, put the wooden box on the two lifeboats, and disappeared into the dark rain curtain of the port without looking back.

The freighter from the Far East flickered for a moment in the black tide, and then disappeared, just as it had arrived.

Only an inexplicable large iron box was left at the port.

The rain in the sky pattered on the box, emitting a hissing smoke, like water dripping on a burning coal stove.

The tall and thin man wearing a crow mask walked slowly to the big iron box. With his back to Diman, he tapped the iron box with his slender bamboo-like fingers, and then put his ear against it and listened for a while.

Then, he straightened up: "Take it away and go to Wales."

A dozen soldiers stepped forward as instructed, but the box that was lifted up by four oriental strong men, a dozen soldiers could not do anything to it.

It wasn't until the man wearing a crow mask knocked on the iron box with a thin wooden stick without leaving any trace that the soldiers lifted the box and put it into the train.

Ten minutes later, the front of the car parked in Tynemouth Harbor spewed out thick scorching steam, and three thick lights broke through the rain curtain, shining into an unknown distance.

The exotic goods were placed tightly in the middle carriage of the train, with fully armed soldiers in front and behind.

Kos Diman stood guard in the carriage corridor closest to the cargo and looked back.

Through the glass, under the illumination of a row of incandescent lights on the roof of the train, he saw that the iron box sent from a foreign country was covered by a thick layer of dark gray tarpaulin, and was firmly fixed to the side of the train through steel cables and iron nails.

On the iron plate.

For some reason, he felt an emotion called "irritability" from the box.

The outer tarpaulin trembled slightly, obviously the train hadn't started yet.

"What are you looking at?"

The soldier standing guard next to him tapped his shoulder with the butt of his rifle.

Diman came to his senses and found that the other party had a cigarette in his mouth and a cigarette held between his fingers.

"Well, thank you."

He took the cigarette, struck a match and lit it.

"Don't look around." The veteran reminded him.

"Hey!"
To be continued...