Yang Yaokang, the president of the Wencheng Maintenance Association, although he was frustrated because he failed to realize his dream of being mayor as scheduled, he did not dare to vent and slack off in front of the Japanese master, and the head of the Kojima Office only gave him a few days to prepare for the celebration, and after a few busy times like a fly, at 11 o'clock this morning, the establishment ceremony of the Wencheng City Security Maintenance Association will be held outside the city hall building.

At the beginning of the establishment of this maintenance association, its leaders were all wealthy businessmen from the Wencheng Chamber of Commerce, and later, under the instruction of the head of the Japanese secret service, a group of local education, culture, charity and other aspects were recruited to join. Masao Kojima means that as long as there are no accidents, the people in the maintenance club will be able to directly enter the new city hall of Bunjo in the future.

Today's inauguration celebration is not complicated, first of all, the president of the maintenance association, Yang Yaokang, gave a speech to the public, preaching the principle of coexistence and co-prosperity under the protection of the Japanese Imperial Army; Then the list of vice presidents in charge of various affairs of the maintenance committee will be announced; Finally, and most importantly, in the name of the maintenance association, it is necessary to inform all citizens that a census of the registered population should be carried out in the city immediately, and a register of good citizens should be established and a certificate of good citizenship should be issued.

After the meeting, the maintenance club will also hold a banquet to celebrate the success of the city's prestigious Baoyuan Restaurant. Of course, the expenses from the celebration to the banquet have to be paid from the books of the Wencheng Chamber of Commerce.

Just after nine o'clock in the morning, in front of the staircase outside the door of the town hall building, several tables had been joined together to form a long platform, covered with red cloth, and several books for the sign-in of the distinguished guests; On the left and right sides of the platform, there are more than a dozen flagpoles hung with the five-color flag of the "Provisional Government of the Republic of China".

The podium for the celebration is located on the steps outside the door of the town hall building, and there are five steps, each wide enough for one person to coexist with a vertical amplification microphone.

This town hall building was designed by the French during the reign of Yan Xishan, in a typical Baroque style; The building is located in a courtyard facing the street, which is about the size of several basketball courts in the municipal high school. Today, people who come to the festival will stand in the courtyard and look up at the leading figures who dominate the city on the steps of the building.

The head of the secret service, Masao Kojima, weighed it again and again and decided not to appear in public at this celebration. First, he felt that this was a nominal security maintenance committee composed of the Shina people, and it would be better to downplay the color of the Japanese, especially the imperial soldiers; Second, his current number one task in Wencheng is to assist the commander of Hagiwara's Akira Brigade in carrying out the "Wind Plan" of secretly forcibly recruiting comfort women, and showing his head too much in front of the public is obviously not conducive to the implementation of the top-secret mission; Especially after the incident of a mysterious organization tracking the captain of the military police of the Songjiagou secret camp.

While rejecting Yang Yaokang's strong invitation, he told the other party to make the celebration scene grand and enthusiastic, so that the people of Wencheng could build confidence in maintaining the meeting and the imperial army garrison, so as to wholeheartedly obey the jurisdiction and rule. Of course, the small building of the Wencheng secret service is hidden behind the magnificent city hall building, which is unknown to most Wencheng citizens - the head of the secret service can hear the pomp and circumstance of the celebration in the front yard from the window of his office; That's exactly what he intended.

However, Masao Kojima did not catch up with this grand occasion in Bunjo, and he was called to the brigade headquarters by a sudden phone call from Major General Hagiwara. If he had known that this grand situation in Wencheng had developed so shockingly, he would not have left the secret service building no matter what.

The reason why Hagiwara summoned Masao Kojima to his brigade headquarters was because Staff Officer Suzuki of the North China Front Headquarters had just sent a secret telegram informing him that the first batch of Chinese comfort women recruited from Shanxi had secretly entered Shandong from Hebei and arrived in the canal-occupied area currently controlled by the Second Army of the North China Front. To this end, the Front Army Headquarters ordered the Sena Division to step up the recruitment of the next batch of comfort women in Shanxi.

"Enthusiastic response?" Kojima Masao pondered the telegram handed to him by the brigade commander, Major General, and said with some self-deprecation: "The divisions of the Imperial Army, one after another, crossed the ocean and came to China, as if they were not for war, but to play with women. ”

Hagiwara shook his head slightly, and said with a mocking smile on his face, "Yes, it seems that if we don't send comfort women to them from here, the battle on the front line will not be able to continue." ”

"Speaking of the front, do you mean Lieutenant General Nishio's Second Army? Do they really want to ignore the opposition of the base camp and insist on going south to seize Xuzhou from the Chinese army? Masao Kojima asked. The lieutenant general Nishio he was talking about was Nishio Shouzo, who was then the commander of the Second Army of the North China Front.

Hagiwara led the head of the secret service to the huge military map hanging on the wall, pointed to the line of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal that was clearly remembered, and informed the other party: The progress of the Second Army has no intention of restraining in the slightest! Previously, a detachment consisting of the Nagase Brigade of the Isoya Division had broken through the canal defense line of the Third Army of the China Army, and the main forces were assembled in Jining; A few days ago, another detachment consisting of the Sakamoto Brigade of the Itagaki Division was storming in the direction of Yizhou (author's note: Yizhou is today's Linyi). The ultimate goal of the two detachments is directed at Xuzhou.

Kojima Masao could not help but be stunned, and when he was still in Taiyuan, he had already heard that the base camp in Tokyo resolutely opposed the strategy of the North China Front Army moving south to Xuzhou, and the General Staff Headquarters even sent the chief of the Operations Division, Kawabe Daisa, to Beiping to convey to the commander of the Front Army, General Terauchi Shouichi, the "principle of not expanding the battlefield" in person. Could it be that the general in the temple has reached the level of unscrupulousness in "being outside and the king's life"? !

Facing the suspicion of the head of the secret service, Hagiwara Akira sighed deeply, withdrew his gaze from the map, and patted the other party's shoulder: "Kojima-kun, our burden is really going to be heavier!" General Sena has just learned from the Front Army Headquarters that the weather vane of the Tokyo base camp has changed, and the chief of the operations section of the General Staff Headquarters has been replaced! Toroshiro Kawabe, who had always advocated seriousness, was dismissed, and the main battle faction began to gain the upper hand. The new chief of the operations section quickly approved the operational plan for the Second Army of our Front Army to move south to Xuzhou; I'm afraid that in a few days, you will be able to hear the battle report of the two major detachments of the Second Army marching together. ”

"No wonder the Suzuki Staff of the Front Army Command is so eager for us to recruit a new batch of comfort women!" Masao Kojima suddenly realized, at this moment, he was the only one standing in place, looking at the map on the wall while muttering to himself: "It turns out that the direction of Xuzhou is really going to be a big battle." The Second Army was fighting on the Shandong front, and the First Army in Shanxi was not idle, and the Sena Division was moving south to Yuncheng along the Tongpu Road; I also heard that one part of the Shangang Division advanced westward from Taiyuan to Jundu and Mokou on the bank of the Yellow River, and the other went north to cooperate with the Kwantung Army in sweeping northwest Jin. ”

Hagiwara had already sat back at the back of his desk and said to the head of the secret service a few steps away, "That's not the same! In the eyes of the Front Army Command, the direction of the Second Army's attack is the front line in the true sense, and the actions of our First Army in Shanxi are, at best, just a clean and upright operation in the rear. That's why we organized the collection of comfort women and sent them to the warriors of the Second Army! ”

From the tone of the brigade commander, Major General, Kojima Masao heard obvious disrespect and resentment. For a moment, he was silent.

"Forget it, don't worry about that," perhaps sensing something was wrong, Hagiwara Akira stopped what he had just said, and asked instead, "What are the immediate plans for the maintenance meeting after the celebration at the city hall today?" Tell Yang Yaokang that the matter of registering the population must not be delayed! In the Songjiagou secret camp, our gendarmerie captain is looking forward to it. ”

"Don't worry, General," replied Kojima respectfully, "the upcoming celebration is just a pretense, and I have asked Yang Yaokang to organize more than five hundred locals to immediately roll out door-to-door population registration. According to Yang's own estimates, there are currently about 20,000 households in Wencheng, with a population of around 100,000. If it goes well, the registration results can be submitted within half a month. ”

"Half a month? Isn't it too long? The brigade commander, Major General, frowned: "Do you still want to leave time for Captain Hirai to screen?" The front army command is urgent! ”

Masao Kojima explained that the registered rosters would be submitted to the maintenance committee every day, and the military police captain of the Songjiagou secret camp would be able to see the rosters as soon as possible, and he could sift through the rosters in advance according to the rosters he had already obtained while the registration was still in progress. In this way, the registration of the registered population and the selection of comfort women can be synchronized, thus saving a lot of time.

Hagiwara's brow slowly relaxed, and with an approving expression, he nodded frequently to the head of the secret service.

Masao Kojima received the commendation from the brigade commander, and was just about to make further contributions, when suddenly, the phone on the desk rang loudly, Hagiwara Akira picked up the phone and listened to only one sentence, and then stood up from the wide mahogany chair -

There was an accident at the celebration at the city hall, someone shot and attacked, and the scene was already in chaos!

Because the public order maintenance committee released the news in advance, and sent people in the streets and alleys to lobby and encourage citizens to go to the city hall to actively participate in the celebration that day, Wang Suihua, a female major of the military commander, easily learned and extracted relevant information from them.

It seems that the scene of the celebration is similar to the similar activities carried out by the puppet regime in Taiyuan before, and the vigilance is not strict, Wang Suihua has a bottom in her heart; She decided to set the size of the attack at five, and asked Li Yan to go out of the city to the dilapidated compound in the northern suburbs to pick up another soldier from the special service company.

In the attack plan, Zhao Mutou, the commander of the spy company, led a subordinate to blend in with the crowd watching the celebration as a gunman, and chose the opportunity to shoot after the celebration began, focusing on shooting the traitor Japanese chief on the rostrum; Li Yan and another soldier of the special service company set up an ambush near the scene and secretly responded to cover the gunman.

The retreat plan has found an uninhabited empty house in an alley near the town hall, and the female major of the military commander is waiting at the door of the empty house in a car; After the attack was completed, Zhao Mutou's two gunmen first withdrew there, handed over the guns to Wang Suihua in the car, and then entered the empty house to change the clothes prepared in advance and evacuated on foot. Wang Suihua drove away from the empty house, picked up the firearms of Li Yan and the others who arrived later in the alley, and carried the soldiers of the special service company into the car and drove back to Yangliu Lane. Li Yan secretly followed the two gunmen of Zhao Mutou and returned to Yangliu Lane from other routes.

This is definitely a well-planned plan of action.

When the celebration at the town hall reached a * moment, gunshots rang out.