Republic of China: German-equipped divisions massacred as warlords guarded the nation's borders

"Young Marshal! Something's happened!"

Su Guiying frowned, her tone unusually anxious. "Operation Skynet" in Guangzhou has been fully launched! That ace agent codenamed 'Viper' is now extending his reach to the Jiangnan Shipyard! They've got their eyes on our Scott-class destroyer blueprints!"

"With the rapid expansion of our Chen family army, we've recruited tens of thousands of workers and hundreds of technicians. The personnel are a mixed bag, and our defenses are severely weakened!" Su Guiying took a deep breath. "I suggest an immediate citywide lockdown and a thorough purge of all personnel within and around the shipyard!"

however.

To Su Guiying's surprise, after hearing this alarming report, Chen Zijun not only showed no panic, but leaned back in his leather chair and let out a contemptuous sneer.

"Cleanse? Why cleanse?" Chen Zijun sneered, his eyes sharp as a hawk's. "Chiang Kai-shek sent people to steal the blueprints, so we'll set a trap! As soon as the blueprints fall into his hands, he'll immediately build warships according to them. Once the warships are launched, we'll immediately send people to bomb the Jiangnan Shipyard."

Chen Zijun pulled a Cuban cigar from his cigar case, lit it casually, and through the thick smoke, his eyes were as sharp as a hawk's: "Since Chiang Kai-shek wants my blueprints so badly, then I'll just give them to him without hesitation!"

Su Guiying froze, stunned. "Young Marshal! That's our navy's main warship, the most suitable for China's navy at present. Its technology and combat capabilities are very high; it's the lifeblood of our navy! How can we let southern spies steal it? What if the south also builds the same destroyers..."

"Who does Chiang Kai-shek think he is? Does he even deserve to have warships built like those of my Chen family army?"

Chen Zijun slammed his hand on the table, his domineering voice booming through the office: "Trying to infiltrate me? I've got real money paving the way in pounds, and absolute military force to suppress them. Are you afraid of a few rats in the gutter?!"

Chen Zijun stood up, walked to the huge military map, and pointed heavily at the location of Guangzhou.

"Since Chiang Kai-shek sent his elite troops to steal it, let's play a big game with him—a reverse baiting!"

Chen Zijun turned his head, looked at the astonished Su Guiying, and a cruel smile curled at the corner of his mouth: "Notify Liu Zhenliang of Jiangnan Shipyard to produce a fake blueprint for the destroyer's high-pressure boiler overnight! The blueprint must look exactly like the real thing, but make extremely subtle modifications to the safety valve and pressure parameters!"

Su Guiying's eyes suddenly lit up, and she gasped, "The young marshal means... to have the spies steal this fake blueprint back?"

"That's right!" Chen Zijun sneered, his eyes flashing with murderous intent. "As long as the Southern Arsenal conducts a pressure test according to these blueprints, the high-pressure boiler with its fatal flaw will explode immediately! When faced with this situation, we can simply purchase it through other channels at the best possible cost, replace it with new safety valves, fasteners, and pressure gauges, etc. What's the difference between that and building a new warship?"

This is a true example of dimensional reduction attack!

They disregard the law, disregard evidence, and even save the effort of catching spies. Since you dare to steal, I'll personally feed you poison that you drink and honey that I taste—a classic case of turning the tables on you!

"Young Marshal, brilliant!" Su Guiying exclaimed, her blood boiling. She immediately stood at attention and saluted. "I'll arrange for someone to put the fake blueprints into the safe of that engineer who was turned, ensuring the spy can steal them 'successfully'!"

Just then, the hidden door on the side of the office opened silently.

Dressed in a black outfit, Moranzhi emerged like a ghost. She toyed with a German Luger pistol with a silencer in her hand, her eyes revealing undisguised bloodlust.

"Young Marshal," Mo Lanzhi's voice was cold and hard as iron, "The Military Intelligence Bureau is playing the long game. So, after this agent called 'Viper' steals the blueprints, should we keep him or leave him?"

Chen Zijun walked up to Mo Lanzhi and looked down at her, his sharpest assassination weapon.

"You think you can cause trouble on my turf and walk away unscathed?"

Chen Zijun's eyes flashed with a fierce light, and he uttered a murderous sentence: "He can take the blueprints, but all his men, those who came to meet him, and any Japanese or southern spies associated with him—leave no one alive! Annihilate them all! I don't believe our Principal Chang and his men wouldn't cooperate with the Japanese..."

"Besides, if some people didn't die, and if it wasn't difficult to obtain some blueprints, how could our Commander-in-Chief Chiang Kai-shek possibly believe it?"

"To make this play convincing, we need enough bloodshed! Lanzhi, you personally orchestrate this assassination. Make sure to create a huge spectacle, so that viper thinks he barely escaped with his life on the line!"

"Yes, sir! I will make sure the viper experiences what true hell is like!" A cruel excitement flashed in Moran's eyes as she accepted the order and left.

……

As night fell over Shanghai, torrential rain poured down.

Outside an abandoned warehouse on Avenue Joffre in the French Concession, a fierce wind whipped rain against the mottled walls.

Wearing a black raincoat, the viper swiftly traversed the muddy alley and slipped into the warehouse, using the flashes of lightning as a guide.

Inside the warehouse, a shipyard engineer, soaked to the bone, was shivering from the cold while clutching an oil paper package.

"Where are the blueprints?" Viper asked in a low voice, grabbing the engineer's shoulder.

"Here, here!" The engineer trembled as he handed over the oil paper package. "Sir, this contains the core technology and construction blueprints that the chief engineer of Jiangnan Shipyard locked in a top-secret safe. I spent a fortune to make copies of them! Where are the five large yellow croakers and the ticket to Hong Kong you promised me?"

Viper took the blueprints and quickly scanned them by the dim light of his flashlight, glancing at the precise parameters. With his intelligence experience, he could immediately tell that the blueprints were genuine in terms of style and professionalism.

A surge of ecstasy welled up inside me.

"I actually completed the monumental task the principal assigned me!" Viper was overjoyed. With these blueprints, the Southern Government's naval power would undoubtedly experience a qualitative leap, and he, Viper, would surely be promoted and ennobled!

He sneered, pulled out a few gold bars from his pocket and tossed them to the engineer, then turned to leave.

however.

This top agent from the South thought he had pulled off a stunning comeback, but little did he know that from the very first second he stepped into the warehouse, he had already stepped into a trap set by death.

Within a 300-meter radius of the warehouse.

In the rainy night, over a hundred assassins dressed in black raincoats and armed with German MP18 submachine guns had surrounded the entire block like true deep-sea ghosts.

Moran stood on the highest point of a rooftop, rain streaming down her cold face.

She slowly pulled down the bolt of her submachine gun, the crisp metallic clanging sound particularly jarring in the downpour.

"The young marshal has ordered: trap them like turtles in a jar, begin the strangulation!"