Because of the Beijing-Shanghai railway, the Beijing-Shanghai railway between Nanjing and Shanghai is very convenient, and there are many trains to and from every day, but most of them are passenger and freight trains, such as high-standard special trains such as escorting missions, which are still very rare.

For this purpose, the Shanghai side specially mobilized a special military train, and also equipped a squadron of troops to escort the train, and also mobilized a large number of military forces along the way to guard and ensure the safety of the special train.

In addition to the Japanese sergeants, even the drivers and conductors were all Japanese, and the envoys were in the middle carriage, and there were sergeants in front and behind, so it can be said that the safety work was done extremely meticulously.

The others had other arrangements, while Ning Zhiheng and Shimizu Hidetoshi, as well as the two councillors, were arranged separately in a high-class car.

The whole carriage is furnished in a luxurious manner, just like the rooms of a high-end hotel, with meeting rooms, a bar and a lounge, all of which are fully equipped.

Because it is a high-level special train, there are not many people transported, so there are not many carriages docked, and the speed of travel is very fast, the whole journey is only ten hours, and everyone is too lazy to rest, so they chat with each other in the carriage.

Time passed quickly, and the special train passed through Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou all the way, and after a few hours, it entered the area around Zhenjiang.

Suddenly, the speed of the special train slowed down significantly, which made everyone on the car feel very surprised, and soon the special train braked urgently and slowly stopped.

"What's going on? Go ask us! Ning Zhiheng frowned, and instructed Kimura Maki, who was waiting outside.

Ning Zhiheng has also taken the Beijing-Shanghai Railway several times before, but they are all high-end boxes of ordinary passenger trains, and it is the first time to sit on a military special train, and it is also the first time to enjoy such a high security level, and he has not encountered a train stopping halfway.

At this time, the Japanese sergeants in charge of the security work also quickly got off the train, set up a guard near the train, and sent people to search the nearby commanding heights to eliminate hidden dangers, and all actions were well-trained and orderly.

Soon, Ezaki Shaozuo, who was in charge of the security work, ran over and reported to Ning Zhiheng and the others: "I'm very sorry, please wait a while, there is something wrong ahead, we will deal with it soon, and we will not delay too long!" ”

"What the hell is going on?" Ning Zhiheng asked directly.

"We received a radio report that the railway in front of us had been damaged, and after the line patrol personnel found out, they notified the Zhenjiang station that the armored vehicles that opened the road in front of us had rushed to the site of the destruction, and they were equipped with machinery and tools specially designed to repair the railway, and they could carry out repairs on the spot."

Shimizu Hidetoshi asked on the side, "Why, isn't this an occupation zone?" Is the transportation of the Beijing-Shanghai railway often disrupted? ”

Ezaki Shaozo hurriedly said: "This is not the case, please rest assured, Your Excellency the Deputy Minister, there is no problem with the safety of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway, this is just a small probability incident." ”

Then he explained in detail that the Beijing-Shanghai Railway was originally the most complete railway line in China, connecting the two most important cities in China, the political center of the capital Nanjing and the economic center of Shanghai, so the Chinese government has invested a lot in this railway, the supervision is very strict, and the quality of the construction is also very high, and there have been no problems since it was completed.

However, after the full-scale war between China and Japan, Shanghai and Nanjing fell one after another, and this railway became an important transportation line for the Japanese to transport troops and materials.

For this reason, the New Fourth Army and the National Salvation Army in southern Jiangsu have spent a lot of effort to destroy the Beijing-Shanghai railway, but a year later, the Japanese have gained a firm foothold, and invested a lot of manpower and material resources to repair the Beijing-Shanghai railway, and with the Beijing-Shanghai railway as the center, focusing on attacking the Chinese army near the railway, after several years of fighting, the power of the Chinese army has been suppressed in the mountains and lakes of southern Jiangsu, and the transportation safety of the Japanese in the Beijing-Shanghai railway has finally been guaranteed.

However, since the beginning of this year, the Chinese troops gathered in southern Jiangsu have made considerable progress, and in the long-term battle with the Japanese army, they have gradually grown stronger, and the strength of the army has also improved a lot, so they have begun to attack along the Beijing-Shanghai railway line and infiltrate the Japanese occupation zone, but at present, the desired results have not been achieved.

However, there will still be small detachments infiltrating the hinterland, of course, because the Beijing-Shanghai Railway is all in the hinterland under the jurisdiction of the Japanese, the control is relatively strict, and the small detachments sent in have few personnel and light equipment, so they will not play a role.

These squads ventured in to carry out some special tasks, usually to carry out special operations such as assassination, hoeing, and answering in the occupied areas.

Sometimes there will be a purposeful destruction of the railway line, but at present, this kind of thing is very rare, mainly because the vast majority of the Beijing-Shanghai railway is currently passenger and freight trains, there are not many military trains, if the railway is damaged, it is easy to accidentally injure the Chinese people, unless it is specifically for the Japanese military to transport soldiers and materials, but this requires more accurate strikes, more accurate intelligence, and the Japanese attach great importance to the escort of the military columns, not only a large number of sergeants escort, but also armored vehicles to open the way, the implementation of the difficulty is not small, So this happens very rarely.

After listening to Ezaki Shaozuo's explanation, Ning Zhiheng was surprised in his heart, how could such a coincidental thing happen to him, could it be that the military commander received his own information and sent someone to deal with the envoys?

At this moment, suddenly there was a violent explosion from a distance, and the direction was exactly the direction of the armored vehicle, and all the people's faces changed.

Jiang Qi Shaozo hurriedly said: "Please be here later, I have just used the radio to inform the Zhenjiang garrison troops, and someone will come to answer soon, I will take some people to take a look now." ”

After speaking, he bowed and retreated, and then there was a shouting of orders from below, and a squad of Japanese sergeants quickly rushed to the place where the accident occurred.

Seeing that everyone was waiting for him, Shimizu Yingshou couldn't help frowning, turned his head to Ning Zhiheng and said, "Fujiwara-kun, it seems that we are a little too optimistic about the current situation in our country, East China should be the region we control the most, why is it so nervous?" ”

Ning Zhiheng spread his hands and said helplessly: "Our military strength is too small, even if we have laid down the territory, we can't really control it, at most we can hold a few big cities, it's not bad here, in the south, it's all the sphere of influence of the Chinese army, we have been entangled for several years, and in the end we have little effect, we can only acquiesce to this situation, to be honest, if the southward expansion plan starts, a large number of troops will be transferred southward, resulting in an empty defense, this situation will be even worse!" ”

After listening to Ning Zhiheng's words, Shimizu Hideshou didn't say more, the all-out war between China and Japan caused Japan's national strength to decline rapidly, and now it is becoming more and more apparent.

Soon news came from the front, the original location of the destruction of the railroad track, but also planted a mine, when the ironclad car rushed to the place of the incident, the mine was triggered, but because of the strong protection ability of the ironclad car, it was only shaken off the track, and there were no other casualties.

Now the Japanese army has searched for enemy traces in the vicinity and has begun to repair the railway, and it is estimated that it will take some time before it can be opened.

Ning Zhiheng judged in his heart that this must be an attack on the envoys, but the Japanese were well defended and did not cause losses, it seems that the trip to Nanjing will definitely be turbulent, so he should be careful not to be injured by others again.

When the garrison troops from Zhenjiang rushed over, the group finally set off again under heavy escort and arrived safely in Nanjing after dark.

Because it was a few hours late, the Nanjing side had been waiting for a long time, and they were asking for news one after another, and they were as anxious as ants on a hot pot, and several key members of the envoy were all prominent, and if there was an accident, it would definitely be a major political earthquake, and the local military generals in charge of security affairs would be implicated and held accountable.

Fortunately, when they finally saw the military special train enter the train station, everyone put their hearts down, and everyone led by the military generals stepped forward to greet them, and Junpei Uehara was naturally among them.

Shimizu Hidetoshi and others got off the train with Ning Zhiheng, greeted each other, and left the station in a huddle to enter the Japanese Consulate General in Nanjing to rest.

Because it was too late, everyone exchanged pleasantries for a while, and the consul general of the Japanese government in Nanjing, Kokazu Hori, invited everyone to attend a welcome banquet to welcome the envoys the next night.

Naturally, everyone didn't dare to slack off, and they agreed with each other, so they retreated and left.

Ning Zhiheng also said goodbye with everyone, he and Uehara Junpei sat in a car, and rushed back to his residence together, in the car, Uehara Junpei carefully asked Ning Zhiheng about everything about the envoys, and he knew it in his heart, so he was relieved.

At this time, I couldn't help but sigh softly: "In fact, I already know what happened in the Imperial Meeting, and the dispatched army has also received an order from the base camp, it is estimated that before the end of the year, the southward expansion plan will be launched, and at that time, some troops will be transferred to the coastal areas of South China to stand by and participate in the attack on Southeast Asia, leaving us with little time!" ”

Speaking of this, he suddenly remembered something, and said again: "Your chamber of commerce in Hong Kong should make arrangements as soon as possible, Hong Kong is the focus of the attack, and if you don't deal with it well, the loss will be great!" ”

Ning Zhiheng nodded yes, and said: "I also expected this, and it will be arranged in advance at that time, but our military strength on the front line is not much, if too many troops are deployed, once the Chinese army takes the opportunity to counterattack, can we deal with it?" ”

"That's a problem!" Junpei Uehara nodded slightly in agreement, "A few days ago, the high-level leaders of the dispatched army discussed it and felt that if the southward advance plan was launched in advance, it would be necessary for us to weaken the strength of the Chinese army before deploying troops, so that firstly, in order to deter the other party, and secondly, in the future confrontation, the pressure will be reduced a lot." ”

Ning Zhiheng was stunned when he heard this, and couldn't help blurting out: "There is a new combat mission?" ”