Spy Wars: I am the Captain of the Military Police

Matsui Iwane dictated several telegrams, each more stern than the last, questioning his intentions, ordering him to halt his advance, and immediately report to headquarters.

But after these telegrams were sent, they all disappeared without a trace, receiving no substantial response.

The same anxiety permeated the General Staff Headquarters in Kyoto.

The information received by the headquarters was even more chaotic. On the one hand, there were reports about the unusual westward advance of four Kwantung Army divisions. On the other hand, there were a flurry of telegrams from Matsui Iwane, pleading for help and accusing Takasaki Takuto of inciting the Kwantung Army to "rebel."

The bigwigs at headquarters were also stunned by this sudden infighting.

They tried to contact the division commanders directly, but the replies they received were equally ambiguous.

Matsui, commander of the 4th Division, replied that "the troops are carrying out special alert missions to ensure stability in the Nanjing area."

The 2nd Division stated that it was "advancing to the war zone according to the planned schedule."

The replies from the 101st and 12th Divisions were even more vague and evasive.

This collective, tacit "silence" made Kyoto realize the seriousness of the situation.

This is no longer a simple case of disobeying orders or factional friction, but an organized and premeditated demonstration of force, with a complex web of intertwined forces behind it.

Should they forcefully order a crackdown? Leaving aside whether it would succeed, if a large-scale infighting broke out within the Japanese army, international public opinion would be in uproar, and the war of aggression against China might completely collapse.

If left unchecked, Matsui Iwane's position will be in jeopardy, and the authority of the military central command will also be lost.

Headquarters was caught in an unprecedented dilemma, and could only conduct emergency consultations while sending empty telegrams to all parties to "exercise restraint" and "await orders" in an attempt to mediate, but with little effect.

The forced march of four Japanese divisions also attracted close attention from other parties.

The small groups of remnants of the Chinese army or guerrillas they occasionally encountered along the way were originally prepared to fight to the death, but were surprised to find that this huge Japanese army seemed to have no interest in them.

Japanese vanguard units often only fired intimidating shots to disperse the enemy, and then continued on their way without stopping, showing no sign of intending to carry out a mopping-up operation.

Some daring guerrilla commanders even secretly followed and observed, and found that this Japanese army was relatively "disciplined". Unlike other Japanese troops, they did not burn, kill and loot, but instead kept their heads down and moved on. This abnormal scene puzzled them and they could only report the information to higher levels.

Outside Nanjing, the various units of the Central China Expeditionary Army that had already entered the city also received news that friendly forces were "at the gates of the city."

At first came doubt, then unease.

Some division commanders, such as Tani Hisao, commander of the 6th Division, and Nakajima Kesago, commander of the 16th Division, hurriedly inquired about the situation from Matsui Iwane, but only received vague reassurances and strict orders to hold their positions.

A sense of panic about being attacked from behind began to spread among some Japanese officers and soldiers. They had just experienced a brutal siege and were exhausted both physically and mentally. They simply could not understand why their "own people" would suddenly appear in the rear in a fighting posture.

Behind this silent march, the real director, Zhou Zhengqing from Tianjin, was quietly controlling the overall situation through several top-secret single-line communication channels.

He didn't need to issue specific instructions directly; he had already established the "inertia" of these divisions' actions through the binding of interests, factional maneuvering, and pushes at critical moments.

He knew that as long as they marched toward Nanjing, it would put the greatest pressure on Matsui Iwane.

He was like a master chess player, watching the pieces on the board move along predetermined paths, waiting for his opponent to fall into a desperate situation.

Four streams of iron flowed silently across the winter fields of Jiangnan.

The wheels rolled and the footsteps thundered, raising dust that blotted out the sky.

This was a prelude to a battle fought without gunfire, yet it terrified the Japanese high command more than any major offensive.

Beneath the silence lies a surging undercurrent and an impending clash that will determine the fate of power.

After enduring the baptism of gunfire from the outside, Nanjing will face an even more unpredictable storm from within.

. . . . . . . . .

Just as Matsui's four major divisions were marching rapidly towards Nanjing along the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway, another massive fleet was breaking through the gray winter fog on the East China Sea and quietly changing course.

This convoy, consisting of multiple transport ships and escort vessels, was originally tasked with transporting the 7th and 8th Divisions, which were intended to reinforce the Central China Area Army, to Shanghai Port.

However, while sailing to the waters east of the Zhoushan Islands, the radio room of the fleet flagship, the light cruiser Natori, received a top-secret telegram.

The message came from a highly authorized source, and after being decrypted using complex codes, its content was concise and astonishing: "Target changed."

Turn immediately and land in the waters off Jinshanwei.

Authorization code: Purple Lightning.

The transport fleet commander, a rear admiral, after confirming the code was correct and that he was indeed from the Admiralty, showed surprise but still issued the turning order without hesitation.

The massive fleet drew a huge arc across the sea, abandoning its plans to go to Shanghai and instead heading towards the familiar landing site on the north shore of Hangzhou Bay, Jinshanwei.

Just a month ago, Heisuke Yanagawa's 10th Army successfully landed here, outflanking and encircling the Shanghai-Nanjing battlefield.

On the transport ship, Lieutenant General Sakamoto Seiemon, commander of the 7th Division, and Lieutenant General Tsukada Osamu, commander of the 8th Division, received detailed mission briefings from the Kwantung Army Headquarters almost simultaneously.

When they saw the details of the mission, both seasoned veterans gasped in shock.

The briefing explicitly instructed them to immediately take control of the military police detention center set up by the 10th Army in the Songjiang area after landing at Jinshanwei, rescue the detained military police captain Yusuke Ichijo and his subordinates, and take "all necessary measures," including "immediate execution," against any obstruction.

"This...is this going to target the Tenth Army?" Lieutenant General Tsukada Osamu whispered in disbelief.

He knew full well what this meant: it was a blatant act of force against friendly forces!

Sakamoto Seiemon, standing to the side, had a grim expression. He pointed to the source of authorization at the end of the briefing and said in a low voice, "Tsukada-kun, look here. The authorization comes from the Commander of the Kwantung Army and the Military Police Headquarters... This is directly related to... that Lord Tianjin's channel."

He didn't explicitly say Takasaki Takuto's name, but Tsukada Osamu understood instantly.

Recalling the rumors he had heard before his departure about the fierce conflict between the military police and combat troops within the Central China Expeditionary Army, he realized that this was not a simple military operation, but an extension of a high-level power struggle, and they had been drawn into the center of the vortex.

“There’s no turning back.” Sakamoto Seiemon took a deep breath, a ruthless glint in his eyes: “Since the order has been given and the authorization is clear, we have no choice but to carry it out.”

The 10th Army was already in the wrong for detaining the military police, so our actions were therefore "justified."