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

Chapter 858 The Changing Situation

The intelligence industry has always been known for its secrecy and cunning.

People in this industry are never short of caution and prudence.

Ye Shaohong is the most outstanding among them.

He participated in several counter-espionage operations and was able to achieve remarkable feats because he could put himself in others' shoes.

It allows one to put oneself in the enemy's line of thinking.

This practice may seem superfluous or neurotic to ordinary people, but for those in the intelligence industry, it is a life-saving tool.

Having made up his mind, Ye Shaohong acted swiftly.

They immediately slipped out of the city. In a safe and secluded location, they sent a security telegram to the headquarters of the Military Intelligence Bureau in Chongqing via a portable radio.

In the telegram, Ye Shaohong informed Dai Yunong that they had arrived in Shandong Province.

We were preparing to cross over, first heading to the Jiangsu and Zhejiang region, and then taking a boat back to the mountain city.

The headquarters' response was simple.

He simply relayed some news about the Beijing-Tianjin area to Ye Shaohong and told him to be careful and wait for his safe return.

After sending the telegram, Ye Shaohong did not hesitate any longer. With a wave of his hand, he led Chi Tiecheng, Su Wenqian and others towards Shanxi Province.

At present, most of Shanxi Province has fallen into the hands of the Japanese.

The Nationalist government's army and Yan Xishan's Shanxi-Suiyuan army were entrenched near the Zhongtiao Mountains, with some scattered Red Party bases remaining in the surrounding area. For the time being, the danger level was not too high for Ye Shaohong and his group.

After traveling for seven days, changing different modes of transportation, they finally arrived at the Zhongtiao Mountain region.

Here, Ye Shaohong found the Nationalist army and also met the intelligence agents of the Military Intelligence Bureau's Northwest Station.

Using his position as the head of the external department, Ye Shaohong met with the commander of the Second War Zone.

After a brief stay, they immediately set off, traversing the Shaanxi and Gansu regions, eventually winding their way through five provinces before finally returning to the mountain city at the end of October.

At this point, the Battle of Jiangcheng had already come to an end.

In this battle, our army deployed nearly 100 million troops, while the Japanese army directly participated in the combat with more than 25 troops.

Along the banks of the Yangtze River, Chinese and Japanese forces engaged in fierce battles with the Japanese Central China Expeditionary Army in several provinces, including Anhui, Hebei, Jiangxi, and Anhui.

After more than five months and hundreds of battles, large and small, our side ultimately failed.

Was it a defeat on the battlefield?

Actually not.

In the battle ahead, our soldiers displayed a spirit of fearlessness and sacrifice, and they actually fought quite well.

After suffering more than 25 casualties, the Nationalist government annihilated and wounded more than 20 Japanese soldiers.

They were all elite Japanese troops.

So why did they lose this battle?

Because at the most critical moment of the Battle of Jiangcheng, the Japanese army dispatched another batch of elite troops to land in Guangdong Province by boat.

They quickly occupied most of the core and important areas of Guangdong Province.

This also completely cut off the channels for transporting external supplies from the South China Sea region to South China.

Meanwhile, the Japanese continued their blockade and attacks on the three cities of Jiangcheng, cutting off the channels for transporting foreign supplies from the southeastern sea area into South China.

At this point, Jiangcheng's strategic significance had been completely lost.

It could no longer fulfill its operational role in transiting and transporting foreign supplies into South China to support the frontline resistance against Japan.

In addition, after more than five months of continuous fighting, our personnel suffered heavy losses. The Japanese troops that landed in Guangdong Province were showing signs of forming an encirclement with the Japanese troops attacking Jiangcheng. After emergency consultations, the Nationalist government had no choice but to reluctantly issue the order to withdraw, despite the favorable situation on the front lines.

This led to the battles that were, on the surface, defeated in the written record in later generations.

But have we really lost?

Actually not.

In this Battle of Jiangcheng, we did indeed lose the channel for transporting strategic materials from abroad along the southeast coast. But we also inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese.

After the Battle of Jiangcheng, the Japanese army's elite troops, which had been through countless battles, had basically lost more than half of their strength.

From then on, they were no longer able to launch large-scale military invasions like the Battle of Jiangcheng.

This battle inspired the Chinese people's spirit to resist the Japanese invasion.

This also definitively revealed the arrogant plan of the Japanese invaders to invade and occupy China.

This marked the complete end of the passive defensive phase that began on July 7, 1937.

The situation on the Sino-Japanese battlefield thus entered a strategic stalemate.

Starting from that year, the Japanese suffered heavy losses of elite troops at the front, so they began to recruit new soldiers on a large scale from within the country.

These new recruits, after entering the Chinese battlefield, were no longer able to exert the strength of their previous battle-hardened troops. They began to resemble civilian militias, capable of inflicting large-scale casualties on the Japanese.

This completely drew the Japanese devils into the vortex of the national resistance against Japan.

In order to change this situation, the Japanese also made timely changes to their policy of aggression.

They began to change their strategy from prioritizing annihilation and using persuasion as a secondary measure to prioritizing persuasion and using annihilation as a secondary measure.

They began a large-scale lobbying campaign against the top echelons of the Nationalist government, trying to entice them to surrender and betray the country.

To achieve this goal, the Japanese invested resources, money, and personnel in the intelligence front, gradually leading to its subversion.

The Military Intelligence Bureau also faced a new and even more brutal test.

When Ye Shaohong, Chi Tiecheng, Su Wenqian and the others returned to the headquarters of the Military Intelligence Bureau in Luojiawan by vehicle, the first thing he saw was the operatives escorting the detainees.

They were cursing the traitors with their words, their eyes and brows revealing their anger.

Ye Shaohong carefully observed and examined the area, and then he discovered a new phenomenon.

This time, surprisingly, none of the people arrested by the Military Intelligence Bureau were Japanese undercover agents.

They were all Nationalist government personnel.

Among these people were soldiers, politicians, scholars, and ordinary citizens...

Although they all looked disheveled and dejected after being captured and brought back.

His face was filled with despair.

However, it was still evident that when they looked at the Military Intelligence Bureau personnel, they subtly revealed a hint of disdain, mockery, and hostility.

What's going on?

Could it be that during the month that Ye Shaohong was away, the core focus of the intelligence and defense work in the rear has changed so much?

This is not a good sign.

This illustrates that even though the situation on the front lines is gradually shifting in our favor.

However, the uninformed ordinary people and government officials misjudged the situation.

The tendency to surrender is becoming increasingly serious.

This is just the beginning. When the Japanese-backed Special Agent Headquarters at 76 Giesfair Road was established in 1939, and the Japanese learned the strategy of using Chinese to control Chinese, wouldn't the situation for intelligence and defense work behind the Nationalist government become even more serious?

And then there's Wang, the second-in-command of the Nationalist government and the Premier of the Executive Yuan, who's probably about to betray the country and defect to the enemy!