Spy Wars: I am the Captain of the Military Police

In the twilight of Peking City, the eaves of the Xuanwu Gate Tower were covered with smoke, and sporadic gunfire sounds were heard in the distance.

The patrol police of the Taniguchi Battalion stepped on the bluestone road in their military boots, and the Type 38 rifles with bayonets in their hands shone coldly in the afterglow.

A shrill beep echoed from the transmitter as a coded message unfolded between the trembling fingers of the interpreter: "Immediately lead your troops to Changping to oversee the battle of the 11th Independent Mixed Brigade. Anyone who retreats without authorization will be subject to military law."

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As a military police force, the Japanese military police are like the precision rivets on the Japanese war machine, shouldering functions far beyond those of ordinary supervision teams.

Not only are their epaulettes embroidered with the military police emblem, a symbol of authority, but they also hold the sharp sword of military law.

On the front lines, they had to move through the trenches like ghosts, ferret out soldiers who deserted the battlefield, and bring them to makeshift military courts.

They also had to transform themselves into interrogation experts, extracting intelligence from prisoners of war through torture and intimidation in dim interrogation rooms.

Those yellowed interrogation records and loyalty investigation reports are not only the results of their work, but also the chains that maintain the discipline of the Japanese army.

In comparison, the hastily assembled supervisory team is like an emergency patch on the battlefield.

They were temporarily composed of infantry or military police, armed with rifles, and set up machine guns behind the positions, pointing their guns at soldiers who might flee.

Their mission is pure and cruel, using the threat of death to maintain order on the battlefield, but they do not have the strict judicial procedures and intelligence functions of the gendarmerie.

When the smoke clears, this makeshift force will disband as if it had never existed.

The command of the military police detachments in each division of the Japanese army was a "double shackle" full of contradictions and struggles.

On weekdays, they wear the same uniforms as the division soldiers, receive equipment and accept task assignments under the watchful eye of the division commander.

The promotion, appointment and dismissal of squad leaders all require the approval of the division commander, and they are part of the division system.

During combat, they followed the division into the charge, supervised the soldiers' combat discipline, managed prisoners, obeyed the orders of the division commander completely, and carried out every order loyally like a shadow.

But there was another noose around the neck of the gendarmerie detachment: the gendarmerie headquarters.

Whenever an order came from the military police headquarters, these military police who originally belonged to the division would instantly switch their identities.

They can bypass the division commander and, with their special authority, directly conduct investigations within the division, arrest officers, and even interfere with combat deployments.

Under the banner of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" strategy, the orders of the Military Police Headquarters were like the Emperor's edicts. Even if the division commander was dissatisfied, he had no choice but to cooperate.

This "dual leadership" model has been plagued by friction in actual operations.

Division commanders were eager to fully incorporate the military police units into their own command systems to ensure smooth combat operations.

The Military Police Command attempted to turn it into a direct secret police force to monitor the movements of each division at all times.

Whenever the two goals conflict, a strange situation will arise on the battlefield. The military police detachment sometimes obeys the orders of the division commander and sometimes acts according to the instructions of the headquarters, which causes headaches for the front-line commanders.

Now that Zhou Zhengqing, a great noble, has become the commander of the military police, which division commander would dare to stand up and compete for the command of the military police?!

Who could have imagined that the decision to allocate a gendarmerie regiment, which was made under pressure from the nobles to overturn the table, would now become a thorn in the heart of the military top brass.

The military police system in the Japanese army was originally a weapon firmly held in the hands of the military.

All the military police commanders in the past were close confidants of the military, just like Hideki Tojo at that time, who served as the Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army and the Commander of the Manchurian Military Police, turning the military police system into a steel whip to rule Manchuria.

But the appearance of Zhou Zhengqing completely broke this balance. The title of gendarmerie commander awarded by the Emperor himself gave this officer, who was once regarded as a "playboy", the fulcrum to pry open the entire gendarmerie system.

The appointment letter was like a heavy hammer hitting the military's carefully woven power network.

According to the organization, the gendarmerie to be established in the occupied area, and even the gendarmerie detachments in each division, will all follow Zhou Zhengqing's lead.

The military police forces that were originally under the daily management of the division commander and indirectly controlled by the military headquarters now have to obey the orders of an "outsider".

Imagine what kind of chaos the battlefield command would be in when Seishirō Itagaki's 5th Division Military Police Detachment received not an order from the division commander, but a secret telegram sent by Zhou Zhengqing from thousands of miles away?

The terrifying nature of this force was first revealed in the bombing of the garrison headquarters.

When the military police under Zhou Zhengqing surrounded the headquarters with live ammunition and were about to bombard the headquarters, it was the military police of the garrison army who stopped the garrison soldiers who wanted to go out to check. . . .

Afterwards, they immediately went to the Military Police Headquarters to report on their work. Until now, they have not seen the Garrison Military Police return to the Garrison Military Headquarters. The reason they said was that they were carrying out a secret mission for the Military Police Headquarters! ! . . .

One regiment can overthrow the garrison headquarters. If Zhou Zhengqing is allowed to integrate the military police forces, coupled with the military police system established in all occupied areas in the future, the consequences will be unimaginable.

The generals of the General Staff fell into an eerie silence.

Someone proposed to revoke the appointment, but stopped after making the first stroke in the meeting minutes. The emperor was a position chosen by the aristocracy, so who would dare to cross his path?

The top military brass now only felt a headache. Looking at the ever-expanding occupied area on the map, it was as if they saw Zhou Zhengqing's sphere of influence spreading wildly.

Every time a city is occupied, it means the establishment of a new gendarmerie, and every time a new gendarmerie is established, Zhou Zhengqing's fangs become sharper.

This power crisis hangs over the military like a sword of Damocles.

The once indestructible fortress of power was cleverly planned by the emperor, leaving a fatal crack in the process due to a momentary negligence and pressure from the aristocracy.

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Of course, Zhou Zhengqing also knew what cards he held. Everyone had pretended to be stupid before, but now it was his time to show up.

If I don't take action, I will be letting down His Majesty the Emperor's "high hopes". I must not let down his painstaking efforts and his plans for me.

The morning mist on the top of Changping City had not yet dissipated, but the military boots of the Gukou Battalion had already crushed the bullet casings all over the ground.

The rising sun lengthened the shadows of the gendarmerie, casting them on the ruined city wall, like a demon with bared fangs and claws.

The charge post of the 11th Independent Mixed Brigade tore through the air, the tank tracks crushed the soil, and in the rising dust, the soldiers roared and rushed towards the Chinese army positions.

Taniguchi Mayu leaned against an armored vehicle, slowly wiping his saber with his white gloves.

He narrowed his eyes, looked at the soldiers charging like ants in front of him, and a sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth.

There was no mercy for his comrades in the eyes of the military police lieutenant captain, only the coldness and greed as he examined his prey.

Behind him, hundreds of military police scattered like ghosts. They wore steel helmets and had their Type 38 rifles loaded.

"Bang!" A gunshot broke the noise of the battlefield.

A soldier who was shot in the leg staggered backward. Before he could shout for help, a military police from the Taniguchi Battalion pounced on him like a wolf.

The black muzzle of the gun was pressed against the soldier's forehead, and blood splattered on the ground the moment the trigger was pulled.

This scene was seen by the surrounding soldiers. Some clenched their fists in anger, some trembled with fear, but no one dared to utter a word of protest.

"Keep moving forward! Anyone who retreats will die!" The military police's roar echoed behind the charging crowd.