Preface to the 1996 Chinese Edition
Blood Is Thicker Than Water
Preface to the New English Edition
For the Sake of Peace
Chapter One Doomsday
Chapter Two Battle Between the White and Red Suns
Chapter Three The Safety Zone
Chapter Four Blood Flows in the Yangtze
Chapter Five The Fate of the Religious
Chapter Six Ordeal in Alleyways
Chapter Seven Arson and Looting
Chapter Eight The Sorrow of the Qinhuai River
Chapter Nine The Fate of the "Flowers"
Chapter
On the morning of the fourth day, an interpreter came and said." "Nowyou have to go to work, ten in a group!"
Ten people near the door were the first to be driven out. Ten minuteslater, we heard gun shots. I knew something had gone wrong/Outside wasa tributary of the Yangtse. No way out, I thought. That's the end of me!
Three Japanese soldiers came in and drove another ten people out.Waiting on the bank of the tributary were thirty or forty Japanese sailors,rifle in hand. Another round of shots, and the second group was dead!
I was in the third group, at the head of the line. When I walked out, Itook a place by the river. When everyone was out, I knew they were aboutto shoot, and as they raised the rifles I jumped into the river and swam withall of my might to the opposite bank. I had begun preparations early. Whilestill in the warehouse I unbuttoned my jacket and took off my belt, rollingmy trousers tight at the waist. The tributary was some four metres wide andI was a good swimmer. In the water, I took offmy clothes. Without them. 1swam much faster. Cold? At that time, all I wanted was to escape with mylife. Soon I was on the opposite side and fortunately found a freight carlying upside down by the river. I hid inside it. Group after group was stillbeing shot on the other side. When the corpses piled up, the Japanese useda motorboat at the mouth of the tributary which ran back and forth a fewtimes to wash them down the river. The Japanese soldiers ate by turn andthe killing went on nonstop until dark. After that machine-guns were usedto cut down the remaining hundreds of helpless people by the river as theywere driven into the open.
After dark I emerged from under the freight car. Limbs numb, coldand hungry, I hid under the bridge by the pier where the regular passen-ger service to Yangzhou used to be. The corpses were littered in my hidingplace and l found a tattered blanket among them, wrapped myself in it andlay down to sleep.
At daybreak the Japanese soldiers tossed grenades down under thebridge, but hidden in a dark corner I was not hit. Later, some guards arrived.
