Espionage: I became sworn brothers with Zheng Yaoxian at the beginning, and became the Seventh Broth

Chapter 692 Strategic Leak

After a brief conversation, Major General Zhang finally got to the point.

He began to recount the events of the case to Ye Shaohong.

This matter is quite complicated, and it begins with the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Shanghai.

With the end of the Battle of Shanghai, the Japanese headquarters prepared to resume its established strategy of advancing from north to south.

They issued orders to the North China Expeditionary Army, requiring it to draw troops from the Beijing-Tianjin area to prepare for an offensive against Shandong Province.

This would then connect the occupied areas of North and South China, linking the two regions into one.

At the same time, the Japanese also set their sights on Shanxi Province. Their intention was to occupy Shandong Province, then move through the plains of Henan Province, and, in coordination with the puppet troops in Inner Mongolia, form a three-sided encirclement to seize the entire Shanxi Province in one fell swoop.

To seize China's most famous coal-producing region.

This was intended to support the increasingly scarce coal resources in Japan.

The Japanese military's strategic deployment can be described as an open strategy.

The insightful members of the Nationalist government's General Staff naturally realized that, in order to change this predicament, the Nationalist government had been secretly planning and arranging to build a solid defense line in the border area between Hebei and Shandong provinces as early as the Battle of Shanghai began.

They attempted to thwart the southward offensive of the Japanese North China Expeditionary Army.

To achieve this goal, Shandong Province, which is adjacent to Shanghai, did not even send troops to the Shanghai battlefield to support the war effort during the Battle of Shanghai.

The Nationalist government also deployed a large number of troops from the Northwest region to support Shandong Province.

This refers to the Battle of Xuzhou in later generations.

This strategy is correct.

If the strategic objectives can be achieved, the Nationalist government will indeed be able to break the Japanese army's marching strategy from north to south, taking advantage of the situation to conquer Shanxi Province.

They also secretly devised a military deployment plan.

The goal was to delay the Japanese invasion of the entire country to the greatest extent possible.

After the military deployment plan was formulated, the Nationalist government's General Staff also submitted the plan to the bald-headed Chairman's personal office.

Just as the bald-headed chairman was preparing to discuss the final decision with his senior staff, an unexpected incident occurred.

It's unclear where the problem lies, but the military deployment plan, which the Nationalist government's General Staff had just drafted and hadn't yet been confirmed by the bald-headed Chairman, was unexpectedly leaked.

It was actually placed on the desk of the head of the North China Special Higher Police Section. This is an extremely serious case of leaking secrets.

If it weren't for the Special Service Department having spies planted within the North China Expeditionary Army who obtained the information in advance and relayed it back via radio, the Nationalist government's military deployments in Hebei and Shandong provinces would have been exposed to the enemy.

A crushing defeat is inevitable.

After Dai Yunong reported the matter to the Second Department of the Ministry of National Defense and the Attendant's Office, the bald-headed Chairman also heard about it.

The Chairman was furious.

That very evening, when the news reached them, the bald-headed Chairman summoned the heads of the National Government's General Staff, the Second Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense, the Party Affairs Investigation Department, and the Special Service Department.

He waved his hands and launched into a tirade of profanities.

The heads of the General Staff, the Second Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense, the Party Affairs Investigation Department, and the Special Service Department were all thoroughly humiliated by the insults.

Finally, the bald-headed chairman issued an order instructing the Second Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense to personally supervise the Party Affairs Investigation Department and the Special Service Department in thoroughly investigating the leak. This is how Ye Shaohong narrowly escaped disaster and was appointed to the post in a time of crisis.

After listening to Major General Zhang's account, Ye Shaohong frowned slightly.

He was naturally aware of the Battle of Xuzhou.

When I was in school, the history textbooks emphasized the Battle of Menglianggu and the Great Victory of Taierzhuang.

Strictly speaking, both of these battles actually took place during the Battle of Xuzhou.

One battlefield was in Shanxi Province in the northwest, and the other was on the border of Hebei and Shandong.

It can be said that these two battles were rare victories for China on the main battlefields during the early stages of the full-scale War of Resistance against Japan.

What Ye Shaohong didn't know was that behind all this, there was a lot of open and covert struggle.

Before a major battle, spies must be on the move. This strategic principle was proposed by Sun Tzu, the military strategist, in his Art of War thousands of years ago.

He wrote it in the section on espionage.

This kind of influence can be seen in many of the battles fought by China over thousands of years.

Unexpectedly, it continues to play a role in modern times as well.

Those Japanese devils are indeed members of the Chinese cultural sphere; Sun Tzu's Art of War was introduced to Japan thousands of years ago.

The Japanese devils also studied it in depth.

Now, it's even been reversed, applied to us, and used in the battles that invaded our Chinese territory.

"This matter is of great importance!"

"If we cannot solve the case and find the leaker as soon as possible, it will cause great harm to our strategic deployment and the war effort at the front!"

"Director Zhang, have you identified the suspect yet?"

When it came to serious matters, Ye Shaohong could no longer address Major General Zhang as uncle and nephew; he adopted a more formal posture.

"Of course it's locked!"

"With such a major leak case, and with the Chairman personally overseeing it, the General Staff, the Second Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense, the Party Affairs Investigation Department, and your Special Service Department dared not be negligent or negligent!"

"Initially, we narrowed down the list to 38 people, which identified the most likely suspects of leaking information."

"Through continuous investigation, another 22 people were eliminated."

"But the remaining sixteen people cannot be investigated further in a short period of time!"

Major General Zhang had clearly been worried about this major leak for a long time, so when he brought it up, he was extremely troubled.

His brows furrowed without him even noticing. "Sixteen people left?"

"Director Zhang, I have a question. Now that the general area of ​​suspects has been narrowed down, why can't we temporarily transfer these sixteen people and re-examine and formulate a military deployment plan?"

"Is there some insurmountable difficulty here?"

Ye Shaohong needed to find out the details of this matter, because it concerned the preliminary planning of the Battle of Xuzhou. It could be said that even a day's delay would cause great losses.

Missing the optimal time to deploy a strategy could even cause irreparable damage and impact on subsequent major battles.

"They can't be mobilized."

"These sixteen people are distributed across four major departments: the General Headquarters, the Staff Headquarters, the Military Command Headquarters, and the Political Strategy Headquarters."

“Each of them has an impressive family background, and the power they wield and the connections they can mobilize are not to be underestimated.”

"In order to achieve the goal, with the support of the Chairman, one or two people are occasionally transferred, and in the short term, all departments can still operate in their entirety."

"But if sixteen people are mobilized at once, involving four major departments, the impact would be too great. Even if the Chairman himself were to take charge, the resulting turmoil and impact would be unbearable."

"Therefore, we have no choice but to try to solve this case!"

After Major General Zhang's explanation, Ye Shaohong understood that although the matter was complicated, it ultimately came down to the word "power".

Or rather, it's a matter of profit distribution.

The list of 16 suspects in this major leak case involves too many interests. The bald-headed Chairman is currently only the highest leader of the Republic of China government on the surface. Under him, there are many different interest groups of all sizes. At present, these interest groups have reached a temporary balance, and the state machinery of the Nationalist government can still function normally.

However, if the commotion is too great and too many personnel positions are transferred in a short period of time, it will inevitably involve the interests of all parties.

In this way, the impact may be no less than that of a battle on the front lines.

Helpless.

That's just how things were during the Republican era.

The bald-headed Chairman can only be considered the most powerful warlord system within the Republic of China government. Under him are the Guangxi Clique, Yunnan Clique, Shanxi Clique, Sichuan Clique, Northwest Clique, Northeast Clique, Ma Clique, and other large and small warlords.

Within the Nationalist government, there were also factions represented by Wang Jingwei, such as the Jiangcheng faction, the CC faction, the Baoding faction, and the Civil Engineering faction.

Too many interest groups want to achieve a smooth transition, push forward a government order, and ensure its stable operation. It is indeed quite difficult for them to unite and fight against the Japanese invaders.

No wonder, with a list of sixteen people who leaked information, even a president like himself would be constrained.

"How much time do we have left?"