Spy Wars: I am the Captain of the Military Police

"Have I gone too far?" Zhou Zhengqing pretended to be helpless and aggrieved, spreading his hands and said, "Letting the navy's planes bomb the army's positions is almost testing the edge of provoking an all-out confrontation between the navy and the army.

This is already my limit. If I keep trying any harder, I'm afraid General Matsui and the bigwigs in the military will send someone directly to Tianjin to ask me to commit seppuku.

How much more "bold" does Your Majesty want me to be?" He retreated to advance, trying to find out the emperor's more specific intentions, or in other words, where the bottom line of his "nonsense" was that he could be allowed to be.

"Come on, Matsui Iwane dares to ask you to commit seppuku? Is he crazy? Even if he dares, as long as he reveals this intention, I don't know how many people will send Matsui Iwane "on the road" in advance in order to curry favor with your Takazaki family.

And those people in the military, would they dare to touch you? Aren't you afraid that your father will come and kill you with a knife?

Hahahaha, it’s not like there weren’t generals who died at the hands of your father! Those people in the military are not fools, they won’t come out to invite disaster. Hehehe…” Jingren said jokingly, and at the end he laughed so unscrupulously…

Jingren's laughter made Zhou Zhengqing laugh too.

After the two laughed for a while, Jingren restrained his smile, sighed softly, and cast his eyes on the fleeting darkness outside the window. His tone became somewhat complicated and solemn: "Of course, His Majesty will not tell you how to do it specifically.

But the meaning is clear... The current atmosphere in the country has become completely crazy because of the "great victory" in Songhu.

Every day, ignorant people were incited to hold marches to demand war, demanding that the government send more divisions to conquer the whole of China in one fell swoop.

Those people in the military are even more arrogant, their tails are almost up to the sky."

He turned his head and looked at Zhou Zhengqing, a trace of worry flashing in his eyes: "This is exactly what Your Majesty is worried about.

If the war goes "too smoothly", the military's reputation and power will expand rapidly.

Do some of the current division commanders, and even some of the young members of the General Staff, still have His Majesty and the Cabinet in their eyes?

Aren’t there many cases where decisions are made without prior consultation or where a fait accompli is created before forcing the emperor to abdicate?

The slogan of "Destroy China in three months" was proven to be bankrupt by facts, but the huge prestige brought by the victory of Shanghai made the military even more powerful.

Your Majesty is under tremendous pressure in the palace.

He leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice to a level of intimacy that was almost a whisper: "Just think about it, if Matsui Iwane had 'successfully' taken Nanjing, that would have been the capital of China!

By then, how powerful will the military be?

I'm afraid that my brother, the emperor in the palace, will really be roasted on the fire by then.

He is the symbol of the country, the Grand Marshal of the Army and Navy, but he absolutely does not want to see himself completely sidelined by a group of soldiers who only care about fighting and don't care about the political consequences! "

Zhou Zhengqing was truly speechless this time. He looked at Jingren with a barely perceptible sarcasm in his tone, "In the Battle of Shanghai, the Empire paid a heavy price of over 100,000 casualties. Can this be described as 'smooth'?

"Your Majesty... don't you value the blood of these imperial warriors?" He asked deliberately, both to test the emperor's true thoughts and to vent some of his own emotions.

Jingren waved his hand, a complex expression on his face, a mixture of helplessness, understanding, and even a hint of sarcasm: "Who knows? Perhaps from the perspective of Your Majesty, or at a higher strategic level, the casualties of soldiers are just necessary numbers and costs.

What he cares more about is whether the war progresses as expected, or in other words, whether it is conducive to maintaining... well... balance."

Jingren carefully considered his words: "If the war progresses too quickly, the military loses control of its power, and the balance between the court and the outside world is broken, that is what Your Majesty least wants to see.

Therefore, while the casualties are certainly distressing, compared to the risk of the military completely losing control, Your Majesty may...

I prefer to keep the war "moderate"... to delay it, giving him enough time to "beat" and "balance" all parties...

He glanced at Zhou Zhengqing and added meaningfully, "The failure of the slogan of destroying China in three months may be a good thing for Your Majesty.

At the very least, this proves the arrogance and impracticality of the military, and gives Your Majesty and the civilian government more reasons and space to restrict it.

But now, Matsui's victory in Shanghai has tilted the balance towards the military again.

Nanjing is the key among the keys.”

Zhou Zhengqing listened in silence, his mind racing. Jingren's words had been quite blunt: the Emperor did not want the military, especially the Central China Front Army, to take Nanjing too easily, lest the military become even more arrogant and further threaten the Emperor and the central government's authority.

As for himself, this "troublemaker" who was placed in the position of commander of the Tianjin gendarmerie due to various coincidences, the reason why he was able to "act recklessly" repeatedly without being immediately liquidated was obviously because of the emperor's tacit approval or even support.

The Emperor needed someone to trip up the overly powerful military, especially Matsui Iwane, on the front line, delay the process, create trouble, and thus buy time and bargaining chips for Tokyo's political game.

"So..." Zhou Zhengqing looked at Jingren with a deep gaze, thinking quickly in his mind.

This was undoubtedly a huge opportunity! If he could get the Emperor's implicit support, even if it was just tacit approval, many of his originally risky plans, such as inciting the Kwantung Army to move south to create friction, or further intensifying the conflict with the Central China Front Army, would have greater room for maneuver and amulets.

He could even consider whether he could bring Jingren along, or use Jingren to bring down the Emperor...

But as soon as this thought came up, Zhou Zhengqing immediately suppressed it in his mind.

It was too risky. The Emperor's intentions were obscure and based on "maintaining balance" and "restraining the military", not on actually destroying the war.

If he really played too big and caused the war situation to completely collapse, the first chess piece that the emperor would abandon in order to protect himself would be him.

Moreover, revealing such an important plan is equivalent to handing the right of choice to others and relying on the emperor to play power games.

I don't have the confidence to play power games with someone who can become the emperor...

Things can be done, but they cannot be said before they are done.

This is his first rule for survival in this dark age.

Especially when it comes to the Emperor, one must be extremely careful.

All I need to do is understand the spirit of "being bolder", continue to "make trouble" on the front line, and play the role of "troublemaker" for the emperor.

He had to plan and execute the specific actions by himself alone, and he must not drag Jingren, especially the Emperor, into the water.

Jingren's existence is itself a signal, a talisman, but this talisman cannot be used lightly, and it cannot be used as an excuse for taking the initiative.