A Journey Through the Flames of War in the Republican Era

The vigilance of Xu Yuexiang, Gui Shuaizhen, Song Hongfei, and others was not unfounded.

The media controlled by the Nationalist government in Nanjing used the Battle of Chishui River as a means of political and propaganda offensive, and widely publicized it. The successful example of modern infantry tactics and armored warfare in this battle attracted the attention of various countries.

Intelligence agencies from all sides sprang into action, doing everything they could to gather detailed reports on the planning, organization, coordination, implementation, and command of the battle. A storm was brewing, and undercurrents were swirling.

The Chinese Military Commission had long planned to leverage the scarcity of these goods to maximize its profits in the arms trade with Germany. It immediately implemented the strictest confidentiality measures for the relevant information, ordering all involved personnel to remain silent and threatening to execute anyone who leaked the information without authorization.

The Germans, who were vigorously expanding their military, were most interested in the tactics of armored assault forces. The experts in the Military Commission had whetted their appetites, making them eager to try it.

The Japanese intelligence agencies, which had been operating in China for decades, ordered their spies to spy on the latest military developments of the Chinese army. However, this time the Military Commission was determined to get a good price from the Germans and strictly ordered all units to take precautions.

Japanese intelligence agents secretly collected personal information on commanders of various units of the Central Army in this battle, including Xu Yuexiang, Gui Shuaizhen, and Dong Zhao, including their personalities, habits, and combat command characteristics. As is customary, they only collected information on officers of the rank of major general or above.

However, regarding the details of this battle, the Japanese General Staff felt the unprecedented level of vigilance from the Chinese Military Commission, and internal reports were only available to a limited number of relevant personnel. The Japanese intelligence system was impenetrable, with no way to spy on them and no way to obtain firsthand intelligence.

Left with no other option, the Japanese General Staff adopted a two-pronged strategy. On one hand, they contacted the Germans, hoping to buy the property at a certain price. At the time, China and Germany were still in a honeymoon period, and leaking secrets to a third party without authorization would violate the friendly agreement between the two countries, so naturally, they ignored the Japanese offer. The Japanese, of course, were not willing to give up easily. If open methods didn't work, they resorted to covert methods, with their intelligence agencies secretly extending their reach to the German army.

On the other hand, the General Staff Headquarters ordered the intelligence agencies stationed in Shanghai to give full guidance to this special operation and to intensify their espionage efforts.

Faced with the General Staff's determined order, Kagesa Teisho, the head of the Shanghai-based intelligence agency, felt considerable pressure. After careful consideration, Kagesa meticulously planned and deployed a large number of undercover agents to gather intelligence.

As the year draws to a close, various small vendors, peddlers, and mobile stalls have sprung up outside the barracks of the Transportation and Logistics School, Armored Corps, and Training Corps. There are even some prostitutes on the street wearing cheongsams that expose their thighs, swaying their hips and waving handkerchiefs that smell of cheap perfume to attract attention. It's a truly diverse and lively scene.

Although this happens every year, there are more people this year than in previous years, and many of them are unfamiliar faces. Upon closer inspection, their clothing, demeanor, accents, hawking, and street vending are all quite convincing, and there is nothing unusual about them.

But the commanders and intelligence staff officers of several units all sensed that something was wrong.

There must be a demon in the abnormal situation.

After the heads of each department discussed the matter, the Special Service Division of the Joint Military Commission's Bureau of Investigation and Statistics conducted a secret investigation.

An investigation quickly revealed to the well-known merchants that a rumor had spread from an unknown person and from an unknown source that these troops had won the Battle of Xijing and that their superiors had given them a generous reward, which everyone received, and the soldiers had all received a little money.

In chaotic times, with lives hanging by a thread and no one knowing if they'd survive until tomorrow, death was a matter of life and death. But if someone died with their money still unspent, it would be a terrible waste. Many soldiers believed in the importance of enjoying life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for pleasure. The first thing they did after receiving their paycheck was to go out for a good meal or find a brothel to relieve their pent-up desires. Often, the money was gone almost as soon as they had it.

The merchants understood this perfectly. Soldiers always wanted to spend their money, so they tried every means to provide them with ways to spend it, so everyone got what they needed.

This caused quite a stir. As soon as the news spread, small vendors flocked to the area, and some even fought over a good spot, eventually getting into a brawl.

This was clearly a message deliberately spread by enemy intelligence to create a bustling and chaotic scene so that they could hide among the crowd and take advantage of the confusion.

Looking at the spontaneously formed, bustling "commercial street," the agents of the Military Intelligence Bureau's Special Service Department felt extremely troubled. The leaders of the Training Corps and the Armored Corps could only smile wryly. Although they had received clues that Japanese agents had infiltrated and were carrying out activities there, they couldn't just arrest and interrogate anyone who seemed suspicious.

Of course, there were also spies among them who mingled in doing this kind of hard and tiring work, trying to extract intelligence, but they were basically just small fry, and some weren't even that. Some were just hired for a few bucks to do what others told them, not even the most incompetent peripheral personnel. They didn't know anything about intelligence, and they didn't even know who their employer was.

Employers don't expect them to get anything useful. It would be best if they could keep watch, but it doesn't matter if they can't. Often, they just use them to confuse the situation.

Arresting them would not only fail to uncover the clues behind the scenes, but would also alert the enemy and cut off the trail.

After careful consideration, Song Hongfei said to his leaders, "The most crucial thing is to ensure that our infantry-tank and infantry-artillery coordination tactics and training are not leaked. Other things are similar across the world's armies. We can also use smokescreens to mislead them."

The training corps and armored troops immediately conducted secrecy and anti-enemy-spy education and implemented measures, taking strict precautions. The security and patrol posts in the camps were also immediately strengthened.

All non-essential training exercises and all inter-service coordination exercises are conducted within the camp's training grounds.

Intelligence staff and special agents, in cooperation with the Military Intelligence Bureau's Special Service Department, secretly monitored and investigated suspicious personnel outside the camp to avoid alerting them.

All soldiers were sternly instructed: "Don't say what you shouldn't say, and don't do what you shouldn't do! It's best to ask questions but not speak. If you can get anything useful out of them, you can earn merit and be rewarded!"

Kagesa Teisho, the head of the Japanese secret service in Shanghai, was greatly troubled. It seemed that the Chinese soldiers had all been specially trained to avoid being tricked, and they seemed to fall into the trap without any defense. However, often, different people could get more than ten different answers to the same question. After painstakingly verifying them one by one, he found that none of them were true.

After receiving the report from his assistant, Major Inoue, Kagesa Yoshiaki maintained a calm expression, but inwardly he sighed. The enemy was already on guard and on guard, and the operation had completely failed. The large number of informants he had sent out had yielded no useful intelligence; on the contrary, many of them had been gradually identified and investigated by the enemy.

Yingzuo Zhenzhao wasn't bothered. These people were just the outermost layer of the outermost layer, the outermost informants developed by his intelligence agents. They were all Chinese, and they developed along a single line. It didn't matter if the other side cracked the case; he would just treat it as a broken line.

What troubled Song Hongfei was that the amphibious assault vehicles needed to conduct water training at the Yanziji training ground. From the top of Mufu Mountain, one could see the Yangtze River below in its entirety. As one of the famous "Eighteen Scenic Spots of Jinling," Mufu Mountain couldn't be closed off to tourists during training.

As a precaution, when conducting combined arms training, it is either carried out within the camp with the armored reconnaissance company, or on a larger scale, the infantry of the Training Corps are moved to the training ground of the Armored Corps of the Transportation and Logistics School. The Yanziji training ground only conducts vehicle crew formation and vehicle handling training and waterborne subjects training, which is not much different from the armies of various countries in the world, and there is no need to keep it a secret.

Each time the troops were deployed to the Yanziji training ground, the Special Service Battalion of the Training Corps would send plainclothes officers disguised as tourists to secretly and closely monitor the area on Mufu Mountain.

They actually caught quite a few "tourists" carrying binoculars and telephoto cameras. The terrain of Mufu Mountain is quite unique; once discovered, there's nowhere to run. After being apprehended, these people all cried foul, claiming they were just tourists who came to climb high for panoramic views and take photos.

Ordinary tourists naturally couldn't afford the small, telephoto cameras and telescopes that were extremely valuable at the time, so they were caught red-handed and had no way to deny it.

These were all genuine spies equipped with specialized equipment. Song Hongfei handed them over to the Military Intelligence Bureau's Special Service Department. With spies against spies, the spies naturally had plenty of ways to identify them clearly.

As for their fate and how to uncover the entire intelligence chain behind them, the covert front and the real battle on the battlefield are different. Song Hongfei knew not to ask what he shouldn't ask, and that the Special Service Department would handle it.

After this back and forth, time and again, the Japanese spy chief, Kagesa Yoshiaki, finally couldn't take it anymore. His men and equipment were seized multiple times, and he felt like he had lost both his wife and his army.