Xu Chengyan was originally a native of Xia County, Shanxi, and his family was a well-known local gentry, who went to Shanghai to study five years ago, and in college, under the influence of his teacher Yin Tonghe, he came into contact with the new ideas of communism, and gradually became a loyal follower of communism.

But at this time, the Sino-Japanese all-out war broke out suddenly, the Japanese brazenly raised troops to attack Shanghai, and the world-famous Battle of Songhu began.

Under the strong pressure of the Japanese army, the Chinese military and the people, the whole country, and all parties and factions abandoned their past prejudices and hatreds, joined hands and worked together, and did their utmost to support and plunge into the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

In the early days of the battle, the Kuomintang's powerful intelligence department, the Military Intelligence Investigation Department, in order to cooperate with the frontal army's operations, also quickly set up a special army with agents of the Military Intelligence Department as the backbone, Shanghai Youth Gangs, young students, and workers as the grassroots level, that is, the so-called Jiangsu and Zhejiang Special Forces.

At that time, under the call of the National War of Resistance, the Red Party naturally joined it and sent its own fighters to join this special team, including Xu Chengyan and his classmates.

However, because the young students are all patriotic and knowledgeable, knowledgeable, and educated talents, the top level of the Military Intelligence Department is unwilling to use these people as cannon fodder, and in consideration of the long-term development, it has decided to transfer these students out and form a special training class to teach various military skills such as combat, explosives, and reconnaissance, and to use them as reserve personnel for later use.

So Xu Chengyan and his three classmates formed a latent group that successfully joined this special training class and became a student of the special training class.

Because the site of the special training class is in Qingpu City, the western suburbs of Shanghai, this special training class is called the "Qingpu Special Training Class", which is also the earliest and oldest training class established by the Military Intelligence Department during the Anti-Japanese War.

However, the development of the next war was far beyond everyone's expectations, although the Chinese army went forward one after another, was not afraid of sacrifice, and paid an extremely heavy price, but in the face of the Japanese planes and heavy artillery, it was still overwhelmed, and retreated step by step, gradually withdrawing from the downtown area of Shanghai.

Under such circumstances, because of the heavy casualties of the regular troops and the gradual depletion of troops, the trainees of the Qingpu special training class were also put into use in the later stages of the war.

However, these student soldiers had just learned to take up arms, and their combat effectiveness could be imagined, and they soon paid unbearable losses in this unprecedentedly tragic battle.

In several cruel defensive battles, the three members of Xu Chengyan's latent group died one after another, his senior and upline, and Guan Zhenmin, the leader of the group, finally fell into his arms, and he didn't have time to explain clearly, leaving only this pocket watch, and passed away in a hurry.

After that, the situation took a turn for the worse, and the Japanese mainland massively increased its troops in Shanghai, flanking the Chinese army back and forth, and the military junta's top brass finally ordered the troops to retreat, ending the three-month-long Battle of Songhu.

And Xu Chengyan's troops, mixed in the rout, retreated all the way, passed through Suzhou, Lishui, Fanchang, Jiujiang, and moved to Anhui, which can be regarded as temporarily settled.

Soon after, the remaining personnel of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Einsatzgruppen were integrated into the Loyal National Salvation Army, and the cadets of the Qingpu Special Training Class were ordered to return to the establishment and join the National Salvation Army again.

In the following two years, Xu Chengyan served in the National Salvation Army and became an officer of the National Army, fighting a long and arduous battle against the Japanese army in southern Jiangsu.

During this period, he also found an opportunity to return to Shanghai once to find his teacher Yin Tonghe, trying to find the party organization and restore the relationship between the organization.

However, the battle was too fierce at the beginning, and the former campus had already been bombed into ruins by Japanese planes, and the people, students and teachers in the nearby urban areas fled one after another, scattering and disappearing.

He searched everywhere, but in the vast sea of people, there was no news of the teacher, and in desperation, he could only return disappointed, and after that, because of the continuous prolongation of the war, the troops in order to deal with the encirclement and suppression of the Japanese, guerrilla attacks everywhere, erratic, and he never had the opportunity to return to Shanghai.

At this point, Xu Chengyan has become a kite with a broken string, losing the last trace of contact with the organization.

And just over two months ago, he received an urgent order from the headquarters of the Military Command Bureau, asking him to rush to Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, and was transferred out along with his comrade-in-arms, Ji Yun, a classmate of the Qingpu special training class.

They were ordered to join the Taiyuan Intelligence Station, which was about to be rebuilt, and the new head of the station was none other than their teacher, Chu Guangji, an intelligence instructor in the Qingpu Special Training School.

So they traveled all the way non-stop, day and night, and finally rushed to Taiyuan within the specified time and reported to Chu Guangji.

After questioning, they learned that not long ago, the intelligence organizations of the military commanders in Shanxi and Suiyuan were destroyed by the Japanese intelligence departments, and the entire intelligence network suffered an unprecedented blow.

During the Republic of China, there were five provinces in North China, namely Hebei Province, Shandong Province, Shanxi Province, Suiyuan Province, and Chahar Province.

Because of its vast territory and large population, in order to facilitate its work, the military commanders arranged two large regions in North China, namely Beiping District and Jinsuicha District.

Beiping District is mainly responsible for intelligence work in Hebei and Shandong provinces, while Jinsuicha District is responsible for intelligence work in the other three provinces.

The headquarters of Beiping District is located in the ancient capital of Beiping City, and it has jurisdiction over Beiping Station, Tianjin Station and Qingdao Station.

The headquarters of Jinsuitcha District is located in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, and there are three stations, namely the capital of the three provinces, Taiyuan Station, Guisui Station, and Wanquan Station.

Under the major intelligence stations, intelligence groups have been set up in major cities, and in general, the strength of the military command in North China is quite strong, second only to East China and Central China.

At this time, the situation in Shanxi was also very severe, from the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, after the Japanese occupied Pingjin, they immediately raised troops to the west, and made every effort to attack Shanxi Province, which was rich in resources and rich in people's livelihood, in order to achieve the purpose of nourishing the war with war.

Although the Chinese army put up a very resolute resistance and organized a series of battles such as the large-scale battles of Xinkou and Taiyuan, it was still difficult to resist the Japanese aircraft and artillery, and at the end of that year, most of Shanxi, including Taiyuan, and other major cities fell one after another.

At present, this land of Sanjin has become the main battlefield of the entire North China War of Resistance, the Japanese army and the Chinese armies of all sides are facing each other, and the fierce battle is in full swing, and Taiyuan, as the capital city of Shanxi Province, has also become an important military base in the rear of the Japanese army, and the intelligence work here is particularly important.

But at this time, a major change occurred, and this time the problem was in the Jinsuicha District of the Military Command Bureau.

The special high school of the Japanese army in North China made a major breakthrough when it discovered the intelligence system of the military commander's Guisui station, and under the vigorous search and arrest, the entire Guisui intelligence station was arrested and killed overnight, and all its personnel were arrested and killed, resulting in heavy losses.

But this is not the worst, the worst thing is that this bad situation spread rapidly, and it even implicated Taiyuan Station.

As a result, the head of the Jinsuicha District and the head of the Taiyuan Station, Ji Xinghuai, sacrificed his life, the important cadres under his command were arrested one after another, and the intelligence personnel of the Taiyuan Station suffered heavy losses.

This series of actions was like toppling dominoes, and the situation was getting worse and worse, and in this way, the Taiyuan station suffered an unprecedented major blow, except for a small number of personnel who were evacuated by chance, the entire Taiyuan station was almost completely wiped out, and the losses were so great that it shocked the entire military command.

You must know that Taiyuan Station is the headquarters of the entire Jinsuicha District, and its status is far from being comparable with the other two intelligence stations, and this incident directly led to the loss of the military commander's intelligence forces in the three Jinsuicha provinces, and the intelligence work was also paralyzed.

It was in such a context that Chu Guangji was ordered to deal with the crisis in Taiyuan to deal with the crisis, rebuild the Taiyuan station, clear out the traitors, and resume intelligence work.

Chu Guangji knew that if he wanted to save the situation in Shanxi and reopen the situation, he must have capable personnel in his hands, but because he had worked in the bureau headquarters for a long time, he had not held real power, and there were not many old departments in his hands.

Fortunately, he had been serving as an intelligence instructor in the military commander's special training class before, and had trained many outstanding intelligence officers, so after careful consideration and screening, he selected some students from them, and Xu Chengyan and Ji Yun were among them.

So he applied to the headquarters, and at this critical time, the headquarters of course gave full support, and with a paper order, he transferred Xu Chengyan and Ji Yun, who were thousands of miles away, to Taiyuan.

After Xu Chengyan joined the Taiyuan Intelligence Station, he found that the situation was far worse than he imagined, not only because the fighting environment here was very bad, but also because there were many problems within the intelligence station.

Because Taiyuan stands in the major intelligence stations of the military command, it can only be regarded as a type B station, and there are not many positions that can be assigned, and most of these positions are occupied by Chu Guangji's old department.

And Xu Chengyan and Ji Yun can't compare with these people because of their military rank and qualifications, so they can only serve as ordinary team members in the intelligence group, which is also the reason why the two of them are dissatisfied.

At this time, Xu Chengyan looked at the pocket watch in his hand, and his mood calmed down, he knew that this pocket watch was the beloved thing of the teacher Yin Tonghe, and when he parted, he gave it to the most special student Guan Zhenmin as a commemoration, and after Guan Zhenmin sacrificed, the pocket watch was delivered in his hands.

He cherished this pocket watch very much, and for the past two years, he has been wearing it with him, never leaving his body, and he doesn't know when he will be able to find Mr. Yin and return to the arms of the organization.