Chapter 473: Conjecture and truth

Seeing the short knife in Zhang Haotian's hand, Monk Yikong nodded and said, "Master Zhang, you want to avenge your master. Huan Jinjun called yesterday and told me not to let you go. Pingju is my disciple. After thirty years of being with me, it is no different from my son. I should not stand by for his revenge. There will inevitably be a life-and-death battle between you and me. However, before this duel, I will tell you all the past. At least no matter who is alive, these things will not become eternal secrets. Only when all the sewage is poured out will my heart be truly empty and to understand the real Zen opportunity."

Zhang Haotian naturally wanted to know all the grudges between him and his master, especially the whereabouts of the half treasure map. Perhaps he could hear some clues from Tano Saburo's conversation, so he slowly inserted the short knife back to his waist.

Monk Yikong stared at him and said, "I will tell you my story. After you listen, I believe you understand everything."

Speaking of this, he said in a very calm voice: "Our Tano family is like the Shirato family. In the past, they were the closest samurai warriors to the emperor. They have been given the emperor's kindness for generations, so they were destined to be absolutely loyal to the emperor. When Emperor Hirohito was in the time of Emperor Hirohito, although the title of Tano family was still there, due to some changes, it was already rare. It was not like the Shirato family, who had real power like Shirato Toshio. Therefore, the first person in the Tano family was eager to win honor for the family again, and I was very smart since I was a child.

When I was seven years old, I was favored by Sato Hirae, the leader of Shinto No Thoughts, and personally taught me kendo. At the age of eighteen, I defeated seven famous kendo masters who were famous in Japan at that time. Because of my good-looking and white skin, others called me 'Jade Swordsman'. The entire Tianye family placed their hopes on me. At that time, I was also full of energy and suave, and had unusual relationships with many women. It can be said that few men know women's psychology as much as I do."

Speaking of this, he paused and said, "Just the third year after I became famous, the Japanese army attacked Lugou Bridge, and the Sino-Japanese War broke out in full swing. Shirato Toshio had already become the Minister of Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at that time. He summoned me to the army and introduced me to join the Yama Lily Association, composed of Prince Takeda Miyagi Hoshitoki, under the order of the Emperor. He was responsible for searching for the wealth of Asian countries and replenishing the increasingly empty treasury. China's largest and richest, and most of the members of the Yama Lily Association entered.

In China, I and Toshio Shirato and I are among them. We are the emperor's special envoy. Although we have no military position, if we need it, we have the right to mobilize nearby troops. Our main task is to inquire about China's gold jewelry and antiques. Before entering China, we all carried out intensive training with Chinese teachers. Each person can speak at least three local dialects, understand China's history, and change into Chinese clothes. No one would suspect that we are Japanese."

When Zhang Haotian heard this, he was filled with righteous indignation. He clenched his fists tightly and gritted his teeth and said, "You are good-looking and can coax women. You have made the most contributions, right?"

Monk Yikong nodded and said, "Yes, the Shanlily Association transported gold treasures seven times on a large scale from China. The most I found, and most of them were told by women. At that time, Chinese women actually had no status, especially the rich wives, who were very empty inside. I could not use any means to let them tell their husbands what their family background was, and then notify the Japanese army to snatch them. There are really many good things in China. At most, we used thirty military trucks to load two ocean-going cargo ships. We would trade these gold jewelry with Westerners, especially Americans, to exchange money or weapons for attacking China. In this case, Japan and the United States officially declared war only ended after the Pearl Harbor incident."

Zhang Haotian had long known that the reason why Americans became the only superpower at present was mostly because of the two world wars that they made money from wars, and sneered: "Using Chinese money to fight Chinese people, the Japanese robber logic is indeed world-class."

Monk Yikong said: "Whether the robbers or the survival of the fittest, China was not strong at that time. Although the number of people far exceeded that of us, it allowed the Japanese soldiers to surround us. In order to stop our attack, Chairman Chiang was even forced to explode the Yellow River at the entrance of the garden. The flood spread thousands of miles away, and tens of millions of Chinese people were affected. The drowned people were like ants. At that time, the lives of Chinese people were really despicable."

Zhang Haotian wanted to refute, but understood that what he said was indeed the truth, so he said, "So what? The Chinese have defeated you Japanese, we are the winners."

Unexpectedly, the monk Yikong shook his head and said, "No, the Chinese did not win. The Americans and the Soviets decided on this war. If there were no two atomic bombs from the United States, if there were no Soviet Union entering the pass from the Northeast, the Chinese would have been destroyed long ago. China now will also be the Emperor's colony. All Chinese people will be the emperor's majesty."

Zhang Hao almost stood up, and finally managed to control it, saying, "Will that happen if there is a situation? Only after fighting can you know that things in the world cannot be done by arrogant guesses."

Monk Yikong did not argue with him, but said: "After the United States declared war on Japan and the Soviet army entered China, the situation of the war turned down. His Majesty the Emperor knew that the situation was hopeless and Japan needed a large amount of funds to recover after the war, so he issued an order to the Yamalihe Association to thoroughly clean up all occupied areas in Asia and transport as much treasure as possible to Japan. At this time, I got a task saying that the delivery route of this batch of treasures was known by the Chinese and prepared to intercept them. The soldiers responsible for transporting them hid the treasures. In order to keep it a secret, all the more than 100 Japanese soldiers escorted to commit suicide by seizing the stomach. However, the officer in charge disguised himself and drew a map of the treasures and handed them to a general. Unfortunately, the general was stabbed, and the treasure map was obtained by a senior officer of the Kuomintang Military Affairs Bureau, but he did not handed over to the government at that time, and probably wanted to embezzle them."

When Zhang Haotian heard Lu Dongjie say this, he immediately said: "Nonsense, that's because my master knew that the government was corrupt at that time. After the Sino-Japanese War ended, the treasures would either be embezzled layer by layer or used to purchase arms from the Americans. He didn't want to see the scene of Chinese beating Chinese people, and he didn't want those cultural relics and antiques that belonged to Chinese to fall into the hands of foreigners, so there was no report."

When Monk Yikong heard his fierce words, he nodded and said, "When I accepted the task, my superiors said that. Later, I learned a lot about Lu Dongjie and believed that he was not the kind of person who embezzled money. Mr. Zhang, what did your master say later?"

Zhang Haotian sneered and said, "What else can I say? Of course, you are skillful in your skills. The pseudonym is Tian Sanro. He confused the White Butterfly, made her pregnant, and stole the Master's treasure map. Unfortunately, my Master had been prepared for a long time and divided the treasure map into eight parts, then mixed it together, and placed four in another place, so that you could not get those treasures."

Monk Yikong nodded again and said, "This was the situation at that time. Confusing women was my specialty. I deliberately got hit by the white butterfly's car and asked her to take me to the hospital. After getting in touch with her, I gradually realized that her relationship with Lu Dongjie was originally very good, but in the past one or two years, Lu Dongjie has become more and more busy and rarely goes home. She was in her thirties at that time, and she was at the age of the most lustfulness and her heart was very empty. So after my injury healed, I often talked with her, accompanied her to buy clothes, accompany her to watch love movies, and danced with her. Even every few days I would write love poems praising her for her. Although the white butterfly had lived, I would write love poems to her. Go is a man from the world, without much education, but she likes the love poems I wrote for her very much. Every time she closes her eyes and asks me to read them a few times. One night, the rain fell heavily, and she went to my residence. When I read the love poems, I saw her listening with her eyes closed on the bed, and then threw herself on her. Unexpectedly, she slapped her hard and said that I wouldn't be allowed to do this. But I knew women so much, so I knelt down at her, saying that I loved her, and I couldn't live without her, and kept kowtowing. Finally, she felt soft-hearted, and I pressed her under her again and kissed her wildly. This time, the white butterfly did not refuse..."

Speaking of this, his voice became slower and slower, as if he had fallen into the memory of love at that time.

This matter is of course a shame to Lu Dongjie. Zhang Haotian couldn't control himself and cursed: "Shameless bitch."

Unexpectedly, when he heard Zhang Haotian scolding Bai Butterfly, monk Yikong showed a slight annoyance on his face, and he shook his head and said, "You shouldn't scold her."

Zhang Haotian said angrily: "This bitch is ruthless to her husband and has no justice to the country. What can I not scold you? Can you Japanese women all be like her? Can you Japanese men accept it?"

Monk Yikong suddenly sighed: "I know you will see the white butterfly very badly, but you don't know that she is just a poor, used woman. Lu Dongjie actually did something wrong."

Zhang Haotian said: "What's the matter?"

Monk Yikong said, "After he got the treasure map, he did not tell his wife. At that time, although Bai Butterfly had a relationship with me, she still had feelings for Lu Dongjie and refused to have a second time with me anyway. So I told her that I have a friend who is from the Military Control Commission. He is very familiar with Lu Dongjie and knows that Lu Dongjie rarely goes home in the past or two years because there is a woman outside, and I heard that he has an illegitimate son. Recently, he got a treasure map and did not hand it over to the government. He must have wanted to embezzle and take the women outside and son abroad."

Zhang Haotian immediately said decisively: "White Butterfly has been married to my master for many years and has shared the joys and sorrows. Don't you understand his character? How could you easily believe your words?"

Monk Yikong looked at him and said, "Master Zhang, your appearance and temperament are definitely not inferior to me back then. You must be too tough and don't know how to study women carefully. Let me tell you, a woman who is over thirty years old, no matter how beautiful she is in the past, as the wrinkles on her face appear, her breasts slowly sag, and her self-confidence will definitely not be so strong. Even if I don't say it, there will be various speculations about her own men. Lu Dongjie did not go home more than ten times in the past one or two years, and he would leave after staying for three or five days, which would deepen this speculation. What's more, the Military Affairs Bureau friend I mentioned knew Bai Butterfly, and it was indeed Lu Dongjie's deputy was just bribed by us. When Bai Butterfly called him to verify, he told Bai Butterfly as we said. Of course, Bai Butterfly would believe that that night, she drank a lot of wine and then took the initiative to make love with me crazily. The next day, I told her that Lu Dongjie could not put the treasure map on her body, and would hide it at home, let her find it, and then go to dig the treasure together, and use the sold property to help the poor. Bai Butterfly was still angry at the time, so she took me to the Lu Mansion and searched all the places where Lu Dongjie might have the treasure map, and finally she found it in a very secret secret compartment."

Hearing this, Zhang Haotian looked at the monk Yikong and felt that he didn't seem to have to say good things on purpose for Bai Butterfly, and said, "Even if Bai Butterfly was deceived by you, my master knew that she was pregnant with someone else's child. Although she was in pain, she still let her go. But she was afraid of Master's revenge and betrayed the Master's place where he lived in seclusion a few years later. She was such a bitch like a poisonous snake."

Monk Yikong shook his head and said, "Your master has not been back for half a year. If you steal the treasure map, Bai Butterfly will follow me. How could he know that she is pregnant? However, after getting the treasure map, Bai Butterfly did not follow me immediately. Instead, he stayed at home for a month, waiting for Lu Dongjie to come back and wanted to talk to him about something, but unexpectedly, although Lu Dongjie was back, he was not in a good mood and seemed very cold to her. Bai Butterfly followed me in anger."

Zhang Haotian heard Lu Dongjie say that after Dai Li's death, Mao Renfeng took over the Military Control Commission and forced Lu Dongjie to assassinate senior Communist officials. Lu Dongjie cooperated with the Communist Party when assassinating Japanese officials in Shanghai and did not want to do such a thing, so he has been under great pressure and is of course not in high mood. However, he undoubtedly made a mistake, that is, to ignore his wife around him. Perhaps he should say that he never thought that his wife who had shared troubles with him and fought side by side would be betray him. Just as Tano Saburo said, although he was known as the "thousand-faced fox" in the world, he also did not understand the psychology of women.

At this moment, he suddenly thought of something and said, "Didn't you Japanese find that there is only half of the treasure map and have not found a way to get the other half?"

Monk Yikong did not answer directly, but slowly took out a bag of oil paper from the monk's robe and handed it to Zhang Haotian's hand and said, "This thing is useless, but I still keep it. If you know you are coming, take it with you and take it as a souvenir."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Haotian quickly opened the oil paper bag. What caught his eye suddenly appeared four pieces of kraft paper with some routes on it, and each piece of kraft paper was irregular.

In the past few years, Zhang Haotian has seen the four treasure maps many times. The four kraft papers in his hand are very similar, both in paper and handwriting, and should be the other half of the treasure map.

Including Lu Dongjie, everyone estimated that Saburo Tano had handed over half of the treasure map to the Japanese government, but he didn't expect that he would still keep it and give it to him so easily. Looking at these four pieces of kraft paper, Zhang Haotian couldn't believe his eyes, but he immediately became wary, suspecting that Saburo Tano wanted to trap his other half.

Tano Saburo looked at Zhang Haotian's expression, of course guessing what he was thinking, and a wry smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, "Don't worry, I will never want your other half treasure map, because there is no such batch of treasures at all. The last batch of Chinese treasures collected by Japan have been transported to Japan for the restoration of the economy."

When Zhang Haotian heard this, he was shocked and said in a lost voice: "What, there is no such treasure at all, how could it be?"

Tanye Saburo said: "I learned about this later. Due to the interception of Chinese troops, the last batch of treasures was indeed very difficult to transport. So the headquarters deliberately came up with a solution, which was to deliberately make up the lie about this treasure map, and then let the Chongqing government know through spies, so they thought that the treasures were forced to hide in China because they could not be transported away. So they relaxed the interception and our army took the opportunity to transport the treasures away."

Zhang Haotian snorted and said, "Sanro Tano, do you think I will believe you after making up these lies and lies?"

Tano Saburo said: "As long as you can leave alive today, it will be verbally proven that it is absolutely recorded in the top secret archives of the Kuomintang in Taiwan. Before we transported this batch of treasures, Mao Renfeng's intelligence personnel already knew it and told him in telegram, but China's naval power is too poor and it cannot stop us from transporting it to Japan."

Speaking of this, he said: "The treasure map is very complicated, and there are several key points in it. The headquarters' original plan was to let the Chinese people study treasure hunting slowly, but unexpectedly, Lu Dongjie would hide it quietly and not hand it over to the Chongqing government. The reason why my boss sent me to approach the White Butterfly's treasure map was because he wanted to do this more like the real thing, so that Chongqing knew that the treasure batch was indeed left in China, and we were trying every means to get the treasure map."

Zhang Haotian was silent. If what Tianye Saburo said was true, then Mao Renfeng undoubtedly knew that Lu Dongjie was hiding the treasure map. He only later learned that the treasure map was fake, so he did not touch him for the time being. However, he used Lu Dongjie, who had changed his temperament due to his wife's betrayal, to kill the Communists. Later, he was lurking in the mainland and had no good intentions.

Decades have passed, and Taiwan’s archives can naturally be found. Zhang Haotian still wrapped the four treasure maps in oil paper and put them in his arms. Suddenly, he felt that this matter might be different from the master’s imagination, so he said, “When did the White Butterfly know that you are Japanese? Why did she betray my master in a few years?”

Tano Saburo said: "Three months after Bai Butterfly left Lu Dongjie, the emperor announced unconditional surrender, stopped the war between China and Japan, and began to withdraw the Japanese army and residents in China. Prince Takeda Miyagi Honto ordered all members of the Yama Lily Association to leave and send special ships to pick them up. Only then did I show my identity to Bai Butterfly and tell her that I would ask her to go to Japan with me. I would love her for the rest of my life, and even be willing to give up the honor of the Tianye family, not enter politics, and always stay at home."

Zhang Haotian looked at him coldly and said, "White Butterfly hates the Japanese. If you want her to accept your Japanese identity and convince her to go with her, you are afraid that she will suffer some trouble."

Tano Saburo nodded and said, "Yes, she almost killed me and almost killed herself. However, there was one reason that stopped her, that is, the child in her belly, and she also knew that I really loved her. Otherwise, I could abandon her at any time or even kill her. With my conditions, I would not be afraid of not having the Japanese noble lady liked it."

From Tano Saburo's words, Zhang Haotian had already felt that he had a strong love for the White Butterfly. Although the two were five or six years apart, he had the same experience as Shangguan Yumei. He understood that love could be produced, and believed his words. He gritted his teeth and said, "Since you have arrived in Japan, why did White Butterfly betray my master and insisted on him to death. Don't she know that my master has let her go?"
Chapter completed!