Not a Shot Missed

“That’s the Xuanzhu.” Ran Yao pointed through the bamboo curtain at a flower boat resting next to the embankment.

Lin Shenhe raised the binoculars and carefully adjusted the focus. The sky outside had already darkened a little, and the light was soft on the eyes. Good weather for them.

They were in a restaurant in Bai’e’tan. Yesterday the escort agency had booked a private room on the topmost third floor. Ran Yao and Bei Wei had already conducted surveillance from this room for the entire day without rest, and had thoroughly scouted out the surroundings.

The bandits had been a little tricky when hiding the hostage. The Hezi Dyke was the outermost section of embankment in Bai’e’tan, and the Xuanzhu boat was moored in the outermost position along the Heizi Dyke. So with only a single push they could enter the wide open Pearl River and retreat. It was not only easy to get on and off the boat without being seen or heard, and it was also easy to escape if something happened.

During their reconnaissance they also discovered that the bandits had set up another two guards nearby. One was on a boat moored on the Renzi Dyke selling porridge, which meant that it was separated from Hezi by only one pier. The other guard was on the shore selling medicine.

On the flower boat itself there were another two men keeping watch. One was in the stern superstructure. The other was always patrolling both on and off the boat. The escort from Qiwei told Ran Yao that this person should be the fork-wielder they had spotted previously.

Lin Shenhe adjusted the focus. He looked at the slope below that led into the river and estimated the range. From the restaurant to the end of the dyke was about a hundred metres in total. The Xuanzhu was moored quite far from the other flower boats, looking almost a little lonely at the very end of the dyke. That separation should’ve been a special reservation by the bandits for the sake of secrecy. Unfortunately for them, this separation actually made Lin Shenhe’s job easier. If the Xuanzhu had been moored touching all the other boats it would have been difficult for him to see the movements on the boat.

Was Chief Wen really on this flower boat? Was he enjoying the warm and soft pleasure of this red-tinged float, or was he being tortured and poisoned? It was hard to say.

Lin Shenhe ‘named’ the targets he was going to take care of one by one in his mind. They were all dark and thin men. He was yet to see a fat man after coming to this time. The photos of these people had been repeatedly looked at by everyone before their departure. They were all basically familiar with their faces—even the old lady and the prostitutes on the flower boat.

Once they were found to be up to something, even the women could not be spared. That was emphasised by Bei Wei, and he even specifically cited many examples of female Vietnamese saboteurs during the Sino-Vietnamese war.

Yet, what sort of life-and-death feud did they have with these people? Although they were definitely not good people, from an emotional point of view, they were just like any other stranger he met, just like Chief Wen…Lin Shenhe shook his head and tried his best to not let his thoughts stray too far. As a member of the time travellers, anyone and anything that harmed the interest of the time travellers was a valid target for extermination.

He confirmed the position and target of each target again. He put down the binoculars and dragged the empty table over. He then placed a cushion on top of it, but didn’t lie down yet. Shooting from a prone position was much more accurate than kneeling, and the cushion allowed him to lie down on the table to shoot.

“Shoot the moment you hear the firecrackers downstairs.” Ran Yao reminded him again a final time, before he rushed downstairs.

Lin Shenhe looked at his watch. 5:20 pm. The time had come.

With the table and cushion in place, Lin Shenhe took off his helmet and his cumbersome outer coat. The thickness of clothing would also affect his accuracy. Lying down on the table, he pivoted his body with his left elbow, and brought the rifle against his shoulder.

The first target had been selected by Ran Yao: the medicine seller that was still standing at the entrance of Hezi Dyke.

Instantly, the medicine seller’s head filled the entire scope. Lin Shenhe lifted his abdomen off the table so that his breathing and pulse would not affect his aim. It would take utmost concentration to hit the first try on a target at 100 metres, especially outdoors with an unfamiliar rifle. He swallowed, and announced into his walkie-talkie: “Lin Shenhe ready.”

The Beiwei team was hiding in ambush on a small boat 100 metres away from the Xuanzhu.

Xiao Zishan was waiting further away with the escorts and two mule carts.

As the calls of ready came through the walkie-talkie from the various teams, Ran Yao suddenly felt that the surroundings had gotten much quieter. His shotgun was loaded and his hunting knife sharp. He once again reminded himself that this was a mission to rescue a hostage, not to conduct arrests. Lethal force allowed.

The same moment as when firecrackers started crackling, Lin Shinhe pulled the trigger. He was so focused that the movement of his index finger didn’t move his right hand at all. But the first shot was a little off, and a puff of smoke rose from the ground.

Without any pause Lin Shenhe ejected the shell, cycled the bolt, and fired again, his hands guided almost subconsciously by the countless times he’d done the same set of movements in the range. A red splotch appeared on the medicine vendor’s head, and the figure collapsed to the ground. As Lin Shenhe was moving his aim to his next target he caught a glimpse of Ran Yao rushing towards the flower boat, shotgun in hand. As Ran Yao ran his black cloak fluttered open behind him, revealing his camouflage uniform and Type 80 iron helmet. That figure, superimposed upon the ancient Chinese backdrop of pink peach trees and green willow leaves, was so discordant that it was seared into his mind, and Lin Shenhe would still remember it many years later.

***

Ran Yao remembered that Lin Shenhe’s second target was a bandit selling porridge on a boat, whom he was charging towards now. He couldn’t hear the sound of his rifle over the firecrackers, but he could definitely tell that this vendor in front of him wasn’t shot. The opponent grinned, showing a mouthful of white teeth, and retrieved three knives. The handles were still wrapped with blood-red cloth. Ran Yao pulled the trigger completely by instinct. The flames spewed from the shotgun were dazzling in the late afternoon sun. The knife thrower flew off the dyke and landed in the water with a splash, flying as if he’d been punched by a giant. His knives clattered to the ground.

Screams and shouts erupted around Ran Yao, and the few pedestrians and vendors on the dyke scattered and fled. No one dared to run towards the dyke entrance where an evil spirit had just appeared. They either jumped into the water or lay on the ground trembling, trying to bury their heads into the soil like ostriches.

Lin Shenhe, seeing that his target was neutralised, next aimed at the archer on the rear superstructure of the boat. They didn’t find out that it was actually an archer in their prior scouting, and had just thought that it was an ordinary lookout. But, under the magnification of the scope, he could catch all the little movements. When he found that the man was actually picking up a bow, he immediately fired two shots and killed the archer.

The fork-wielding man on the boat saw two men dressed in black running aggressively towards his boat, and knew that something was wrong. He retreated into the boat while shouting something, and had already pulled out an iron bar. Just as Ran Yao was about to shoot him, a flower of blood suddenly blossomed from the man’s shoulder; a 5.6mm bullet had penetrated through his back. The man collapsed backwards into the cabin, body going stiff.

Ran Yao stormed past the body into the cabin. There were several women knelt on the floor, petrified with fear. Such a fierce and strangely dressed person was beyond their comprehension. Ran Yao was too lazy to ask them any questions. Just as he was about to kick down the door leading to the middle cabin, he saw the curtain separating the room move slightly. He and his team member, who had followed on his tail, fired almost simultaneously. The smell of gunpowder filled the entire cabin. With a scream, a large man fell out from behind the curtains, covered in blood. He was holding a dagger as well as a seven-star dart in his hands.^[1]

“Brother Wang!” One of the prostitutes screamed.

Although his face was bloody from shotgun pellets, his stature, appearance, dress, and the prostitute’s shout, fully proved that this man now bleeding to death was that leader surnamed Wang who had orchestrated the kidnapping. Ran Yao breathed a sigh of relief. The culprit had not escaped! Just as he was planning to continue searching the room, he suddenly heard Lin Shenhe’s urgent report on the comm: “A small boat next to the flower boat is escaping! Go and save Chief Wen!”

From where Lin Shenhe was posted he could clearly see the small boat moving, but the flower boat blocked his sightline and he couldn’t target the rower.

Fortunately, Bei Wei was already going to intercept. As soon as Lin Shenhe finished his report, Bei Wei identified the moving boat and fired two shots at the stern of the boat. He immediately heard screams.

“Row! Quickly!”

The two escorts manning the oars were stunned by the shots. They only re-gathered their wits after Bei Wei’s sharp reminder. They leaned hard into their strokes.

The two boats gradually closed, and Bei Wei quickly judged the distance and leaped over the gap onto the other boat. Unexpectedly, just as he landed and before he could get his balance, a man rushed out of the cabin and slashed at his face, fast and fierce. In terms of melee fighting skills in this small, unstable arena, Bei Wei was far inferior to his attacker. However, he had a shotgun in his hand. Guided by reflex, he pulled the trigger. The generational gap of hot and cold weapons led to a tragic conclusion to their encounter–almost all of the 16 pellets hit the man at point blank range. The consequences were immediate and visceral. The two were so close that blood even sprayed right onto Bei Wei’s face.

Bei Wei didn’t give the dead man another thought and rushed into the cabin. The small rowing boat was used by people on the flower boat as accommodation. The interior was tiny and could only barely fit a bed and a single table. Lying on the bed was Chief Wen himself.

“All clear!” Bei Wei shouted into the walkie-talking, “Chief Wen has been found...” He put a finger under his nose, and felt a steady and calm breath. It seemed that he was only in a coma. “...safe and sound.”

“Good! Everyone retreat!” Ran Yao’s voice replied. “See if there are any of our items in the cabin. Take everything you can away, and throw everything else into the water.”

“What about you?” Bei Wei asked.

“Currently searching for lost items, and we will leave once we’re done. Meet at the rendezvous point!”

”Be careful.”

“Willco.”

Bei Wei commanded his team and the escorts to carry Chief Wen out, and he himself searched the cabin. There was nothing inside except some women’s cosmetics in the drawer. He left the room and picked up the empty shotgun shells from the deck, and also searched the bloody body. All the random items on the body were stuffed into a nylon bag around his waist. He then quickly retreated to the rowboat where the team was waiting. The boat left towards the rendezvous point on the banks of the river.

From when the firecrackers were ignited to the time that Chief Wen was loaded onto a mule cart the entire process took a total of only four minutes and a handful of seconds. The bandits had no way of repelling such a carefully planned assault. When the two mule carts started away from the scene, the firecrackers were still cracking deafeningly, as if in celebration of the time travellers’ first victory.

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1. The original word is qi xing biao (七星镖). Biao refers to a thrown, dart-like weapon, qi xing literally means ‘seven star’. I believe this refers to a particular type of concealed weapon, but I’m not 100%. ↩︎