Spy Wars: I am the Captain of the Military Police

In the early morning, thick fog shrouded the battlefield.

Li Xiaodou was wiping his rifle in the trench when he suddenly heard a strange whistling sound.

He looked up and saw dozens of shells with tails falling on the battlefield, with clouds of yellow smoke rising.

"Poison gas bombs! The Japanese are releasing poison gas!" The shrill alarm from the observation post resounded throughout the position.

"Put on your gas mask quickly!" Zhou Hai ordered loudly.

There was chaos on the battlefield.

Although the troops were issued some gas masks, the quantity was far from enough.

Li Xiaodou hurriedly put on his mask, but found that the new recruit Liu Ming next to him did not have it. His mask was destroyed in yesterday's shelling.

"Use this!" Li Xiaodou took off his mask and handed it to Liu Ming without hesitation. At the same time, he tore off a piece of cloth, sprinkled urine on it, and covered his mouth and nose with it. This was a folk method of anti-poisoning taught by the veteran.

Yellow chlorine gas filled the battlefield, and even after taking protective measures, the soldiers still felt difficulty breathing and stinging in their eyes.

To make matters worse, the Japanese army launched an infantry charge under the cover of the gas attack.

"Get to the position! The Japs are coming!" The officers' hoarse shouts echoed in the poisonous fog.

The soldiers endured the discomfort and took up their combat positions.

Due to obstructed vision, they could only fire into the fog based on their feelings. Li Xiaodou's eyes were irritated by the poison gas and tears kept flowing, but he still insisted on shooting.

The battle was extremely brutal.

The Japanese army had obviously deployed newly transferred elite troops, who had flexible tactics and strong individual combat capabilities.

Hand-to-hand combat broke out in many positions, and soldiers from both sides fought desperately in the poisonous fog.

Zhou Hai was shot in the abdomen during the battle, but he still insisted on commanding until he lost consciousness due to excessive bleeding.

Li Xiaodou temporarily took over the command and led the remaining dozen soldiers to defend the position.

"Brothers, even if we die, we must take a few more Japanese soldiers with us!" Li Xiaodou's voice was hoarse due to the poison gas, but the determination in his eyes did not diminish in the slightest.

The soldiers were inspired by Li Xiaodou's dance and burst out with amazing fighting power.

They repelled the Japanese attacks again and again until reinforcements arrived.

On this day, the entire Xicheng defense line was undergoing similar tests.

The Japanese army's new tactics caused heavy casualties to the national army, but they also paid a heavy price themselves.

The battle line retreated slightly in the bloody tug of war, but the overall defense line remained solid.

As night fell, the battlefield temporarily returned to calm.

Medical soldiers were busy rescuing the wounded, and logistics personnel were transporting ammunition and food.

Li Xiaodou sat in the trench and wrote in his diary by moonlight. This was a habit Zhao Dahu taught him before he died, saying that it could help him stay sane.

"On December 5th, the weather turned from sunny to foggy. Platoon Leader Zhou was seriously injured and sent to the rear. His life or death is uncertain.

Nineteen more people in the company were killed, and now only thirty-one are left.

The Japanese army used poison gas, and Liu Ming survived because I gave him the mask, but I have no regrets.

If I see my mother again, I can tell her frankly that I have never brought disgrace upon our family...”

In early December, a bitter cold wind swept across the Yangtze River Delta. However, even more biting than the cold wind was the despair and rage that permeated the headquarters of the Japanese Central China Expeditionary Army.

The Japanese army, which had been arrogant and domineering in the Battle of Shanghai, was now suffering heavy losses on a seemingly insignificant line of defense.

The Xicheng Line. This defensive fortification belt, meticulously constructed under the guidance of German military advisors and leveraging the strategic advantages of the Jiangnan water network, was now being tenaciously defended by nearly 200,000 elite Chinese troops who had successfully evacuated from the Battle of Shanghai.

They were no longer the exhausted army that retreated hastily in the later stages of the Battle of Shanghai. Instead, they relied on solid concrete bunkers, dense barbed wire, anti-tank trenches and crisscrossing rivers to fight a positional defense battle that stunned the Japanese army.

The Japanese army's initial attack was full of arrogance and underestimation of the enemy.

Under the strict order of General Matsui Iwane to "make a concerted effort to crush Xicheng and attack Nanjing directly", several elite divisions, under the cover of tanks and heavy artillery, launched a tidal-like attack on the Chinese army positions.

However, what awaited them was an unprecedented steel storm.

The Chinese army not only had a large number of German and Soviet weapons and equipment when they withdrew from Songhu, but more importantly, they had time.

Yes!! It was the timing, the military police finding faults, and the doubts from the military high command that made the attack full of obstacles from the very beginning...

This precious breathing space allowed the Chinese army to familiarize themselves with the terrain, improve fortifications, replenish ammunition, and rebuild morale.

The commanders of the Chinese army also learned the lessons of the Battle of Shanghai, and their tactics became more flexible and tenacious.

The heavy artillery of Jiangyin Fortress roared, forcing back the Japanese ships on the river.

The group of bunkers outside Wuxi spewed out dense tongues of fire, knocking down the charging Japanese infantry in large numbers.

The pre-set minefields and anti-tank trenches made it difficult for the Japanese tank troops to move forward.

Every step forward taken by the Japanese army came at the cost of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

The "pig-rush" tactics that were once so effective in the Battle of Shanghai in North China completely failed here.

The battlefield turned into a huge meat grinder, with smoke covering the sky and corpses everywhere.

In just two weeks of attack, the Central China Expeditionary Force paid a heavy price of more than 50,000 soldiers killed and wounded, but only managed to carve out a few insignificant salients on the Xicheng defense line. The overall progress on the front was hopelessly slow.

Battle reports from the front flew back to the expeditionary force headquarters like snowflakes, each one carrying a strong smell of blood and the near-collapsed wails of grassroots commanders.

Shanghai, the headquarters of the Central China Expeditionary Army.

The atmosphere in General Matsui Iwane's office was suffocatingly depressing.

This veteran, known for his ruthlessness, was now like a wounded tiger trapped in a cage, his eyes bloodshot and veins bulging on his forehead.

He had just broken his third Jingdezhen porcelain teacup, and the expensive carpet was covered with a mess of porcelain fragments and tea leaves.

"Baka! Bakayaloo!" Matsui's roar made the windows buzz. "Xicheng! Xicheng! A mere line of defense has caused the blood of my empire's elite troops to flow like a river! Chinese! I will tear you into pieces!"

Chief of Staff Major General Mamoru Iinuma and a group of senior staff officers stood in silence with their hands lowered, as frightened as a mouse. No one dared to bring bad luck at this time.

However, what drove Matsui Iwane even more crazy than the defeat on the front line was the constraints from within.

Just when he was getting extremely worried, his adjutant brought him another stack of documents.

The top one is an official document from Military Police Section Chief Itai Yudai requesting the headquarters to assist in investigating the abnormal circulation of supplies. The tone seems respectful, but every word is sharp, suggesting that someone within the headquarters may be colluding with the Shanghai black market to resell military supplies.

The other was a "reminder" spread by Chief of Staff Shunsuke Nakamura through informal channels, saying that "there have been rumors recently that are unfavorable to the commander, saying that improper command has led to the deaths of soldiers. I hope you will be vigilant."

"Asshole! Takazaki Takuto's lackey! This is too much! Yoshida Yuto is almost done, but he still keeps harping on this matter! What do you want from me!!!"

When Matsui Iwane saw this, it added fuel to the fire.

He felt like not only was there a fire in his backyard, but someone was constantly adding fuel to the fire!