Spy Wars: I am the Captain of the Military Police

"Communicate? Mediation?" Matsui Iwane interrupted him rudely. The sting of his damaged authority made it impossible for him to remain calm. "Look at the tone of this official letter. Every word is as sharp as a knife. Is there any sincerity in wanting to communicate?

This is a provocation! It's a blatant declaration of war! We must confront such acts head-on to demonstrate the authority of our expeditionary forces! Do it now!" Furious, he resolved to respond with the strongest possible force.

"Hi!" Seeing that the commander had made up his mind, Mamoru Iinuma said no more and immediately turned around to draft a telegram.

However, after this protest telegram filled with Matsui Iwane's raging anger was sent to Kyoto, it fell into oblivion and never received any clear response.

This unusual silence is more disturbing than direct rebuke.

Mamoru Iinuma and some senior staff officers with a keen sense of smell all smelled something unusual.

In their view, the headquarters' ambiguous attitude was almost equivalent to tacit approval, or even... a kind of connivance that was inconvenient to express.

"It seems that the bigwigs in the country are not entirely happy about Mr. Matsui's recent overwhelming military achievements and rising reputation." In a small secret meeting attended by only a few core staff officers, Mamoru Iinuma sipped sake and whispered with some concern.

Just as Matsui Iwane's accusation telegram fell on deaf ears, the military police's actions escalated, shifting from written provocation to more substantive constraints.

Nakamura Shunsuke first issued an order to summon the heads of the gendarmerie of each division of the expeditionary army to "report on their work", but his actual intention was to divide and win over them and collect intelligence.

At the same time, he made full use of the gendarmerie's supervisory authority over the circulation of logistical materials and began to conduct "strict compliance reviews" on the allocation of some non-emergency materials of the expeditionary force but which were indeed urgently needed by the front-line troops.

A batch of high-quality steel originally intended for the front line to be used to reinforce fortifications and a batch of scarce medicines to be supplied to field hospitals were forcibly detained in the warehouse by Shunsuke Nakamura on the grounds that "there were flaws in the relevant procedural documents and their source and final use needed to be further verified."

The logistics officer of the expeditionary force who came to urge the matter was sweating profusely and repeatedly explained that these were combat supplies approved through normal channels and were urgently needed at the front line.

Nakamura Shunsuke, sitting in his office, responded calmly, "It is the duty of the military police to ensure that every piece of material is used for the right purpose and to prevent anyone from misappropriating it. Since the paperwork is incomplete and the procedures are questionable, I cannot allow it to be released."

No matter how the other party pleaded, even hinting that these were supplies that Commander Matsui Iwane was personally concerned about, Nakamura Shunsuke remained unmoved.

It was not until higher-level officers of the expeditionary force personally came forward to negotiate, and even brought the matter to the attention of Chief of Staff Mamoru Iinuma, that Nakamura Shunsuke "reluctantly" allowed the troops to leave after deliberately delaying for several days.

However, these few days of delay have caused real troubles and resentment to the front-line troops in their combat and rest.

At the same time, the "Rumor Workshop" run by Shunsuke Nakamura is also running at full capacity.

This time, he precisely targeted the logistics system of the dispatched army.

At several informal gatherings of officers, he looked "worried" and "opened his heart" to several familiar staff officers.

"The Battle of Shanghai was brutal, and supplies were consumed like a landslide. I've heard vaguely... Alas, there are some things that are difficult to say explicitly, but it's true that some people took advantage of the chaotic situation to manipulate the distribution of spoils and the procurement of supplies. The amount involved is probably extremely staggering.

"The several supervisors of your headquarters' logistics system have probably benefited greatly recently, haven't they?" He deliberately flickered his eyes and used vague words when speaking, which actually made it easier to speculate and increase the credibility of the rumors.

These innuendo-filled rumors spread like a plague within the expeditionary force, especially in the logistics department.

For a time, officers at all levels were suspicious of each other, and those in key positions such as procurement and distribution were even more worried, fearing that they would be targeted by the military police. Their daily work became restricted and their efficiency was greatly reduced.

An invisible sense of panic and oppression began to cover the headquarters like a thick fog.

On the Songjiang front, the conflict was more direct, brutal and full of gunpowder.

The military police checkpoint set up by Yusuke Ichijo has long been a thorn in the eyes and flesh of the officers and soldiers of the 10th Army.

After receiving a flurry of complaints from his subordinates, Commander Heisuke Yanagawa was furious and issued a tit-for-tat order: "From now on, all soldiers of the Tenth Army who are unreasonably questioned and harassed by the military police may adopt a non-cooperative attitude depending on the circumstances!

If they dare to forcibly detain people and property, we will immediately report it to the regiment headquarters and have them deal with us sternly! We must not tarnish the might of our 10th Army!

As soon as this order was given, the officers and soldiers of the 10th Army seemed to have found a backbone, and their attitude towards the military police suddenly became tough.

Once, Yusuke Ichijo personally led a team to inspect the base of an infantry regiment and requested regular inspections of the soldiers' housekeeping and the maintenance of their weapons and equipment.

The commander of the regiment actually refused to let him into the camp on the grounds that "the troops had just been through a fierce battle and were in a critical period of rest and recuperation and should not be disturbed."

The two sides formed a standoff at the gate of the military camp. With the tacit approval of the officers, the soldiers of the 10th Army, holding rifles with bayonets, stared fiercely at the gendarmerie squad that was at an absolute disadvantage in numbers.

Yusuke Ichijo's face turned ashen. Faced with the other party's blatant violation of military discipline, it was difficult for him to break in forcibly because the other party was outnumbered and obviously had the tacit approval of the top leaders. In the end, he had to leave with hatred. However, this incident planted the seeds of deeper anger and revenge in his heart.

Similar small-scale frictions occur almost every day.

The soldiers of the Tenth Army pretended to obey the military police's interrogations, deliberately delayed time, provided false information, and even had cold guns from unknown sources pierce the tires of military police patrol cars on some remote roads. Although it has never been confirmed that it was the Tenth Army that did it, it is undoubtedly the most suspected.

Yusuke Ichijo responded with even more drastic measures. He took advantage of the fact that the 10th Army's discipline had indeed been lax after its defeat and investigated several clashes between soldiers and local civilians, as well as small-scale looting.

Not only did he impose severe military punishment on the soldiers involved, he also creatively held a small-scale "battlefield press conference" and invited several military reporters to attend.

He publicly criticized the 10th Army for "lax military discipline, condoning looting, and seriously damaging the glorious image of the Imperial Army as a benevolent army."

He also implicitly linked these manifestations of "lax military discipline" with the defeat in the Battle of Jinshanwei, implying that "the upper beam is crooked and the lower beams are crooked."

After the relevant reports appeared in the newspapers, Yanagawa Heisuke was so angry that he almost vomited blood. He believed that Ichijo Yusuke's move was tantamount to rubbing salt into the bleeding wounds of the 10th Army and was a great insult to the entire legion.

He once again lodged the strongest protest to the newly established Central China Expeditionary Army Headquarters.

However, at this time, Commander-in-Chief Matsui Iwane was himself deeply caught in the vortex of trouble created by the military police, and was so overwhelmed that he had no energy to care about Yanagawa Heisuke's predicament.

The wind has quietly risen from the tip of the green duckweed, and its strength is gradually increasing.