Spy Wars: I am the Captain of the Military Police

The air in the office seemed to freeze. Zhou Zhengqing, who was thinking about something, suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.

That cold, electronic synthesized voice, devoid of any human emotion, sounded again in the depths of his mind, like the final judge:

[A historical key node is approaching, and a new repayment task has been issued.]

The light screen in front of him refreshed instantly, and the settlement report was replaced by a darker, more frightening blood-red text. The color was as red as blood that had not yet dried.

【New repayment task】

Mission Number: ZQ-1937-12-N.

Mission Name: Jinling's Sorrow

任务时限: 1937年12月1日-1938年1月底。

Core requirement: Dramatically change the outcome of the Battle of Nanjing to minimize the occurrence of historical tragedies.

Mission objective: Delay the siege, delay the Japanese army's attack on Nanjing's defenses as much as possible, and gain space for evacuation.

Support the retreat: Use the delaying time to assist and guide the organized evacuation of the Chinese army in and around Nanjing to avoid being annihilated during the rout.

Reverse Fate: Do everything possible to prevent or greatly diminish the impending "Nanjing Massacre."

Core indicator: Significantly reduce the death rate among civilians and soldiers who have laid down their weapons.

Special restrictions: During this mission, the system will no longer provide any advanced weapons or organized troop assistance.

The host needs to make his own plans based on his existing identity, resources and changed historical conditions.

Mission Rewards: Calculated based on mission completion. The base reward is 80,000 Merit Points, and can be multiplied up to five times depending on the completion result.

Failure penalty: Randomly trigger a negative history modification event.

"Sure enough... it's Nanjing..." Zhou Zhengqing's lips moved silently, making almost inaudible syllables.

This place name is of great weight to any Chinese soul from later generations, carrying with it indelible blood and sorrow.

He had already vaguely guessed that after forcibly changing his fate in the Battle of Shanghai, Nanjing, the larger and darker historical vortex, would inevitably become his next stop that he could not escape.

But when this task was laid out so clearly and cruelly before him, the overwhelming psychological impact still made him feel dizzy for a moment.

Zhou Zhengqing suddenly leaned back, his body heavily against the large, cold leather chair. The chair made a teeth-grinding creaking sound, as if it could not withstand the sudden pressure.

He subconsciously raised his hand and pressed hard on his throbbing temple, trying to dispel the dizziness.

I looked out the window blankly. The sky of Tianjin was as dark as ink, without a trace of starlight. It was like a huge curtain soaked in despair, covering me tightly.

The night scene strangely overlapped with his memory of the doomsday scene of the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties that was about to fall into a sea of ​​blood.

"As expected..." His voice was very dry, with a slight tremor that he himself did not even notice.

“I have already secured 200,000 main forces!

Two hundred thousand! They are not deserters, they are veterans who have experienced the bloody Battle of Shanghai and retained their organization and backbone!

They should be on the Wufu Line and the Xicheng Line now!

Those were pre-built defense fortifications! With such a strong force and a solid defense line, could they not defend Nanjing?

Is it impossible to change the inevitable outcome?!"

He couldn't understand it, let alone accept it.

In his original idea, saving these 200,000 fresh troops would be like injecting a shot of adrenaline into the Battle of Nanjing, at least dragging the battle into a stalemate, and perhaps even creating an opportunity to turn the tide of the battle.

The "reward" he expected was to see history turn towards a slightly brighter path.

However, the task issued by the system was like a basin of cold water mixed with ice chips, poured over his head, instantly freezing his limbs and bones.

【System Analysis Answers:】

[1. Collapse of morale and belief: Host intervention ensured the preservation of military strength, but the large-scale retreat in the later period of the Battle of Shanghai objectively and completely shattered the tragic belief advocated before the war that "not an inch of land will be lost, and we will live and die with our position."

The continuous strategic retreat dealt a devastating blow to the morale of the troops, and it was impossible to recover in a short period of time.

Officers and soldiers generally have serious war-weariness and fear of war, and are full of doubts about the superior command and the prospects of the war.

The new defense line was hastily formed, the order of the various troops was chaotic, the command system was complicated, coordination was difficult, and there was a serious shortage of troops, equipment, ammunition, and food.

Faced with the Japanese army, which was well-equipped, had fierce tactics and high morale, and was riding high on the victory of the Battle of Shanghai, this seemingly solid line of defense was fragile and full of cracks from within.

A breakthrough is a high-probability event, the only difference is the length of time and the severity of the collapse.

2. The strategic intentions of the Japanese army and the release of collective emotions: In the Battle of Shanghai and the subsequent Battle of Nanjing, the Japanese army encountered the most tenacious and brutal resistance since the Russo-Japanese War, and its casualties far exceeded its pre-war estimates.

The huge casualties would greatly intensify the Japanese army's revengeful mentality and cruel nature.

From a high-level strategic perspective, the massacre was the concrete implementation of the "deterrence strategy" of the Japanese militarist group, which intended to completely destroy the will to resist of the Chinese military and civilians through extreme terrorist means. It was intended to force the Chinese government to surrender by creating horrific massacres.

From the perspective of the psychology of the lower-level soldiers, it was a collective uncontrolled outburst of anger, fear, and violent emotions caused by the loss of humanity caused by the accumulated casualties of their comrades under the pressure of a long and bloody war.

At the same time, this is also a way to show Japan's glorious wartime glory, divert domestic conflicts, and appease the emotions of the families of the fallen.

This kind of atrocity, which is based on the combination of top-level strategic design and bottom-level collective irrational emotions, has a deep-seated logic behind its occurrence. It will not fundamentally change just because the Chinese army on the front line resists for a few more days and causes more casualties to the Japanese army. It may even become worse as the resistance intensifies.

3. The power of historical inertia and the limits of host intervention: The host saved 20 troops and changed the historical "quantity" of troop numbers, but it failed to completely reverse the strategic situation of the entire war, the comparison of the comprehensive strength of the two armies, and especially failed to change the fundamental strategic thinking and underlying behavioral logic of the Japanese invaders in China.

The tragedy of Nanjing was the inevitable result of the superposition of multiple factors including military failure, political misjudgment, the darkness of human nature and specific historical conditions.

The difficulty of the host's intervention this time lies in challenging this deep-seated "necessity," rather than simply achieving a tactical victory.]

The system's voice was as cold and objective as ever. Each line of analysis was like the most precise scalpel, calmly and cruelly dissecting all of Zhou Zhengqing's remaining luck and psychological defenses.

It is not a consolation, but a statement of a reality that is more cruel and more desperate than a simple military failure.