The Manchurian Candidate: Pu Yi's Attempt to Restore the Qing Empire

simonmark said:

I'm enjoying this, thanks for all the work.

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Thank you and welome aboard. Comments are always welcome along with conspiracy theories, motive guessing, and general musings.

Chapter 5​

The Road Less Traveled​

April 19th, 1936, 15:25 pm…Industrial District, Hailar…


Major Li, Lieutenant Chen, and ten of Chen’s boxers stood silently, their backs pressed against the building wall, waiting for Sergeant Duang to return from his reconnaissance. There were two other squads waiting for the go from Li. One was on the opposite side of this building approaching the intersection that would allow then to secure the other end of the street when Li and his men moved to the front of the warehouse they were about to assault. Another squad was approaching the rear of the building.

Ahead of Li, from around the corner, Sergeant Duang appeared moving stealthily back towards the squad.

“Well?” asked Li as Duang came up to them. “What do you have?”

“I don’t like it, too quiet. This whole area is deserted. I scouted the building. The windows are all boarded up from the inside and I couldn’t see anything inside from there. I made a circuit of the building, it looks like a vehicle, a large truck, has gone through the rear loading doors recently. Might still be inside, might not. I tried the loading doors, locked. But there is a smaller door for people beside them and it’s not locked. The front loading doors are also not locked. Looking through the gap between the doors all I could see was a wall of crates about eight feet high. They were five feet from the entrance. They appeared to go at least part way across the width of the warehouse. That’s all I got”, said Duang, concluding his report.

Li looked down for a moment thinking. “Alright, here is how we are going to play this”, he said, looking at his watch. “Duang, go around the building and tell Cutter, at exactly 15:30 he is to take half his squad across the intersection and move up to the front doors. The other half of his squad is to secure the intersection. Then proceed to the squad at the rear of the building and have them move up to the unlocked door.” Turning to look at Chen, “Chen, I will take half of this squad across and move towards the front entrance from this side. You take the other half and secure this intersection.” He turned back to Duang. “Let everyone know we go in at 15:35. Are we clear?”

Both Duang and Chen nodded in the affirmative.

“Get going Duang”, said Li. He looked down at his watch. Eight minutes to move, twelve minutes to entry. Li sighed. He hated waiting.

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Inside the warehouse a small group of men waited for the inevitable. There were four men kneeling inside a small fortified position in the middle of the warehouse made from packing crates filled with bags of sand. Towards the front of the warehouse, about ten feet away was an eight foot high row of crates that stretched across the building in front of the main loading doors. At each end of the row was a six foot gap between the crates and the walls. This was designed to split the assault team and funnel their assault into targeted kill zones.

To the rear of the building, just inside the rear loading doors was 2-ton truck loaded with weapons, ammo, and grenades. Not enough to arm a large force, but enough to be convincing. Above and to the right of the front loading doors, a man kneeled on a landing looking out a camouflaged spy hole. There was another man at the rear of the building doing the same thing. All the men were armed with PPD-34 submachine guns of Soviet manufacture except for one man who was armed with a Lee-Enfield 303 rifle with attached scope. There were also a number of grenades attached to the web belts on their waists.

One of the men in the fort looked up at the man on the front landing and gave a low whistle. The man looked down and shook his head in the negative. The man in the fort looked to the rear landing and got the same reaction from the man stationed there. He looked at the other three men in the fort, smiled and shrugged. The three men looked a little nervous but smiled back.

A few minutes later the man heard a low whistle from the front of the building and looked up. The man on the front landing was signaling. He pointed to the right side of the building and held up five fingers, indicated a walking motion with his fingers towards the front doors. He then held up five fingers again and pointed towards the right intersection and then did a circling motion above his head. He then indicated the same thing to the left of the doors. The man looked to the rear. The man there signaled five fingers plus one, six men moving into position at the rear employee entrance. The man in the fort signaled to both men by circling his finger over his head. The two men reached for ropes suspended from the rafters, slid down and lightly touched the floors. They then trotted to the fort.

Once there, the man looked at the two men. In a low voice, “How are they armed?”

The man from the front, “Mostly rifles, some pistols.” The man from the rear nodded in agreement.

The man in charge looked around at his group. “You know the drill. No one fires until he hits his target”, he said, indicating the man with the sniper rifle. “After that, let loose on full auto for about ten seconds, then controlled bursts until we evacuate. I will give the signal, then grenades, then out.” He looked at his sniper. “You got your target?”

The sniper nodded. “Yes, I will be able to pick him out.”

“You understand your mission?” he asked.

The sniper nodded again. “Yes, one shot, right shoulder. Incapacitate only, no kill.”

The head man nodded. He looked around the group one more time and thought about giving a little pep talk but decided against it. “Positions.”

The small group moved to their assigned positions inside the fortified area. Now all that remained was to wait for Imperial Security to make its move.

Myth: Assume away. Yes...hmmm, how will Chin react?

canonized: Used my military background with small unit tactics for the hand signals. Sometimes my time in the marines comes in handy. Yes, when someone can be professional about maiming or killing it can come across that way, but it is actually a form of detachment that allows a soldier to do his job, and not focus on the emotional factors that would otherwise hamper him. As for the Steyr Aug.? Ooooooh, nice weapon.

The_Carbonater: It certainly will. Just maybe not the type that some might come up with.

thrashing mad: Your concern for the welfare of Major Li is touching. I am sure he would be overwhelmed by your concern. And keep hanging on the that theory. Let's see if your right.

rcduggan: Heh, having flashbacks are you? Fortunately, he does not have near as difficult a shot as your sniper did.

Lordling said:

Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Do not let your bumbling goodness come to an end! Well, not so much as 'bumbling' as it is 'misled by an Emperor who has no other choice', but nevertheless.

It does seem a bit risky, though - if the sniper shoots Li, and does it well.. what's to prevent the whole 'full auto' thing from killing Li, or the grenades after that?

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Ah, Lordling. Life is a risk. I swear I am going to have to start the Major Li fan club. My life has already been threatend if I kill him. I will probably loose every reader I have if I kill him. What's a struggling author to do? Ha! Kill the most beloved character of his story thats what! ...maybe.

Thanks for commenting Lordling, and thanks for the vote. You must have been reading for awhile and finally decided to join the fun (with a little prodding). Seriously, welcome aboard.

Well since conspiracty theories are rampant, I better go write that update and end everyones misery.

Chapter 5​

The Road Less Traveled​

April 19th, 1936, 15:34 pm…Industrial District, Hailar…


Major Li and his men stood to the left of the front loading doors, Cutter and his men were to the right. The two intersection teams were in place. Li could only hope the rear entry team was also in place. Li looked down at his watch, thirty seconds. The time ticked by slowly as men gripped and regripped sweat slick weapons. Finally the second hand hit twelve and Li nodded to Cutter. From Cutter’s side Benjie the “Nose” came forward and placed his hands inside the crack between the two doors and looked up at Li.

“Slowly”, Li whispered. Benjie nodded and started to pull back the right hand door. The door slid quietly open. Once there was enough space to accommodate two men, the teams started to slip into the warehouse. The teams spread out in front of the stack of crates. Once everyone was inside they stopped to let their eyes get accustomed to the gloom.

Li looked over at Cutter and whispered, “Your team right, I’ll go left.”

Cutter nodded and the teams moved out.

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Inside the fortified position, “Rear entry breached”, whispered one of the men facing the rear of the building.

“Affirmative, stand by detonator.”

“Affirmative, detonator ready.”

“Target”, said the sniper.

“Affirmative”

“Shot.”

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Major Li had just cleared the left hand end of the crates and saw the oddly stacked crates in the middle of the warehouse. He also saw the truck at the other end. There was light from that direction also, so he assumed the rear entry team was in. Suddenly Li heard the crack of a rifle and saw flame belch from the crates in the middle. He heard a scream and turned to see Cutter off to the right fall in a heap. From the rear of the building he heard a loud cracking explosion and was almost blinded by the light that emanated from it. Then, all hell broke loose. He heard the staccato roar of the submachine guns and the saw the winking flames stab towards his men.

“Cover!” he yelled as he dove back behind the crates. The roar of the machine guns seemed to go on forever as the crates above him disintegrated in a shower of splinters. He looked down the line of crates to see that Cutter’s team had made it safely behind the wall of wooden boxes. He saw Benjie dragging Cutter’s body behind the cover, then heard the man grunt as he reached down and slapped his calf as if swatting a mosquito. Li watched as red liquid poured from a gash across Benjie’s lower leg. He was obviously injured, but he did not drop Cutter as he finally made it behind the tenuous safety of the crates.

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“Target down!” yelled the sniper.

“Affirmative” replied the commander, barely heard over the chattering machine guns. The firing continued for a few more seconds. “Controlled bursts! Begin extraction by the numbers. One, go!”

The sniper ran in a crouch to the center of the fort and threw open a trap door. “One out” he said as he dropped through the hole.

“Two, Four, standby grenades”, said the commander as he reached down and pulled a grenade of his belt.

“Ready!” the two men who had been indicated said.

“Grenades!” The three men pulled the pins and hurled the grenades, two towards the front of the building, one towards the rear.

“Three, Five, standby grenades”, said the commander as he resumed controlled bursts into the upper row of crates.

“Ready”, replied the men.

“Grenades!” Two more grenades arced out of the fort, one to each end of the building. The two men brought up their weapons and resumed fire.

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“By Bhudda’s hairy balls!” yelled one of the men. “Are they ever going to run out of bullets?!” The top row of crates continued to shower them in splinter and debris, causing a few injuries, cuts, and abrasions.

Li had crawled over to Cutter who was moaning on the ground holding his shoulder.

“Are you alright?!” he yelled in Cutter’s ear.

“Shit, damn, son-of-a-bitch, I am going to kill some dog sucking son of a whore!”

Li looked at Benjie, who was wrapping a cloth around the wound to his leg, “Yep, he’s gonna live!” Benjie smiled.

Then he heard on of the men yell, “Grenades! They are throwing grenades! Get down!”

Son-of-a-bitch thought Li as he rolled himself up against the crates, bringing his knees into his chest. But instead of an explosion there were a number of muffled pops. Li slowly raised his head. “What the hell?”

The machine guns were still chattering away in short bursts. Li looked up towards the top of the crates to see smoke slowly billowing over.

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“Three, Five, go!” yelled the commander.

The two men turned and ran to the trap door. “Three out!” said one jumping into the hole. “Five out!” said the other as he too disappeared.

“Two, Four, go!” The process continued with the next two. The smoke from the grenades was filling the warehouse.

“Two out!”, “Four out”.

The commander fired a few more bursts in both directions and then moved to the hole. He stopped for a moment to listen to the now eerily quiet warehouse. All he could hear was the moan’s from both the front and rear of the building, and the clatter of wood as some of the crates up front fell apart. He smiled. It had been a good job.

“Until we meet again, Major Li.” He said. He then jumped down the hole, closing the trap door behind him.

Myth said:

Cutter was the target?!
I'm so surprised that I'm not even sure where to try to start figuring out the significance of this, well done

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Yeah, Gotcha! Well if I threw Myth for a loop the rest you are probably going to be doing the Linda Blair after this update.

Note: Taking a day off next week so next update wont be until next friday.
Happy Easter and have a good week.