Hagiwara Akira, the commander of the Japanese brigade sitting in Bunjo, collapsed on the wide seat of the brigade headquarters in a gloomy manner, his eyes staring at the military map on the table in front of him, his eyes empty and dull.

It's over. This cold sleepless spring night is like a messy and long nightmare, and waking up gives people a very unreal feeling of boredom.

In just four or five hours, too many incidents occurred in the area of the Nantongpu railway line, from the sudden attack on Lingshi County to the imperial army's rush to the aid of the Zhina army; from the attack on Huo County to the fact that the imperial army was forced to terminate the encirclement and retreat to the defensive ground; Even the heavily guarded Bunjo City, where the brigade headquarters and the Otsuka United Team headquarters are located, was in turmoil on this night. All events have developed in a dizzying and chaotic manner. Major General Brigade Commander and his subordinates have all gone through a bizarre process of turning from surprise to joy and from joy to sadness.

A few minutes earlier, reinforcements from Linfen had received news from Kikuchi Shaozo that the unit had arrived in Huo County, but that the Chinese army that had attacked the county had all fled before then. Linfen reinforcements partly entered the county seat, and partly protected the sappers outside the city to restore the damaged railroad tracks and communication equipment.

This was the last of the troops of the Three-Way Imperial Army who participated in the battle of the Siege and Annihilation of the China Army in the wasteland tonight to send a message back and forth to retreat into place. Prior to this, the reinforcements from Bunjo under the command of Captain Mori, the deputy captain of the Nara Brigade, took the lead in returning to the railway line near Lingshi Prefecture to defend the county seat and the military column. Subsequently, Wing Commander Kosuke Otsuka also replied by telegram that the reinforcements led by Toydian were successfully withdrawn to the county seat, and at the same time dispersed the small units of the Shina Army that were constantly harassing outside the city.

The dust has settled.

But the commander of the Japanese brigade still could not extricate himself from his unwilling state - what a good opportunity to solve the remnants of the Chinese army here in one fell swoop! It fell short!

Due to the destruction of telephone lines along the Nantongpu railway and highway in many places tonight, Lieutenant General Sena, who was far away at the headquarters of the Yuncheng Division, sent a telegram to inquire about the aftermath of the battlefield tonight; Shortly after receiving the reply, Lieutenant General Hagiwara, the commander of the division, personally sent a telegram to Akira Hagiwara, expressing concern for the safety of the comfort women's camp in the Little Elm Mountain, and at the same time asking the commander of the Hagiwara Brigade to quickly re-detect and make an accurate assessment of the public order situation along the Dongpo Road from Bunjo to the south, including the remnants of the Shina Army entrenched on both sides of the railway line.

Obviously, a series of events that suddenly occurred tonight caused concern among the division commander, lieutenant general. The main force of the division is now gathering on the Jinnan front, and may launch the final blow to the Shanxi China Army at any time; At this critical moment, the Nantongpu Railway, which is vital to the supply lifeline of the division and regiment, absolutely cannot afford to be missed.

There was a knock on the door, and the head of the secret service, Osaku Kojima, hurriedly arrived. Chilly, he briefly reported to the brigade commander, Major General, on the subsidence of the riots near the Wencheng Railway Station, and concluded that the incident was the work of the Blue Coat Society lurking in the city.

This, of course, added to Major General Hagiwara's troubles even more.

The only consolation is that on this turbulent night, the direction of Little Elm Mountain has always been safe and sound—it seems that the secret and security work of the comfort women camp at Songjiagou Station in the mountain is commendable.

In the headquarters of the Hagiwara Brigade, which was still brightly lit, two Japanese chieftains made detailed research and arrangements for sending troops into the city to assist the secret agencies and garrisons in searching for and arresting anti-Japanese organizations. Subsequently, Hagiwara Akira changed the subject and mentioned the advance team led by Hirai Temple Ichichusa, who took advantage of the chaos tonight to attack and arrest the women of China.

"So far, there is no news," Kojima Masao responded dryly to the brigade commander's question: "This guy Hirai has always acted in mud and water, and he has no experience in leading troops to fight, so he is very timid. Tonight, the entire Tongpu Road area is constantly fighting, and it is difficult to say whether Hirai dares to lead the team to advance actively. ”

Major General Hagiwara knew that the head of the Kojima organ in front of him had always been contemptuous of Hirai Nakasa, who had been promoted exceptionally for his merits in secretly recruiting comfort women, but this matter was related to the task assigned by the North China Front Command, and the schedule for collecting and transporting comfort women was becoming more and more urgent, so he had to patiently admonish: "Hirai is not of great use, and you yourself must be more responsible; I have asked the Chief of Staff to assign experienced front-line veterans to his advance team in case of unforeseen contingencies during the operation. However, in terms of details such as the specific implementation of the arrest, you and your subordinates should also provide more guidance and corrections to Hirai Nakasa. ”

Masao Kojima listened to the teachings of the brigade commander, was silent for a moment, and finally mustered up the courage to say: "General, since I have said this, I have to point out to you that at present, my secret service is seriously understaffed, and a plainclothes detachment temporarily assigned to the Hirai Advance Brigade is considering withdrawing it to strengthen the security and enforcement in the city. ”

Syllable!

Akira Hagiwara, who was furious, finally couldn't help but get up, and reprimanded Kojima Masao across the desk: "I transferred you from Taiyuan to Wencheng, and your military rank was promoted to Dazuo, is it just for you to dismantle my platform at a critical moment?!" ”

The head of the secret service knows that something is wrong, but the matter has come to this point, and he can only spread the cards to his immediate boss, otherwise, he is destined to have a more severe and embarrassing situation waiting for him in the future.

"Please calm the general's anger, Kojima's kindness to the general is unforgettable, and he will work hard to repay it! However, today's public security situation in Wencheng is imminent, anti-Japanese forces such as the Blue Coat Society are becoming more and more rampant, and the existing forces of the secret service are simply not enough to deal with it; Although Kojima goes to the soup, I'm afraid it will be difficult to take care of Hirai Nakasa's actions! ”

The brigade commander, Major General, stared at the submissive and talkative head of the secret service with a pair of eyes, his chest panting together, and finally, he let out a long sigh, his hands propped up on the desk with the military map, and lowered his gray head.

The room became extremely quiet, and after a long time, Hagiwara raised his head again, looked directly at Kojima Masao, and asked word by word: Where do you think you can get the replenishment from the current shortage of manpower in the secret service?

The commander of the small island agency, who had always been apprehensive, couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief when he heard this-although the brigade commander was furious, he still had to meet his requirements after all. He was well prepared for a long time, and immediately proposed to request the brigade headquarters and even the division headquarters to coordinate with the headquarters of the North China Front Army and transfer a group of capable personnel from the army secret services in Beiping, Tianjin, and other places to supplement Wencheng.

Hagiwara Akira frowned his short but dense brows: "You must transfer people from Beiping and Tianjin?" The commander of the hill division in Taiyuan, can't you? ”

Kojima Masao smiled bitterly, and then Masashi explained that half of the secret service agencies of the Yamaoka Division in Taiyuan were his old units, and the other half had already been brought over when he was transferred to Wencheng; At that time, a group of people were transferred from the secret services of the Manchurian Empire at the same time, forming the current team. However, these people lacked experience in dealing with the Blue Coat Society of the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government; On the contrary, in recent years, the army secret service in the Pingjin area has repeatedly confronted the local Blue Coat Society, and has accumulated a wealth of sophisticated countermeasures, which are precisely what the current Wencheng secret service does not possess and urgently needs.

After thinking for a while, the brigade commander Major General made up his mind, he casually picked up a red and blue pencil discarded on the map, pointed the tip of the pen at the tip of Kojima Masao's nose, and said in a solemn tone:

"I will personally call Takashi Suzuki of the Front Headquarters, and he will come forward to make a request to General Seiichi Kita, the head of the Beiping secret service. I believe that out of the Imperial Army's highest mission of secretly recruiting comfort women in Shanxi, General Kita would have agreed to give the Bunjo secret service selfless care and assistance. ”

Masao Kojima was overjoyed, and immediately straightened his head and thanked him repeatedly.

"However, you must also remember from now on," Hagiwara Akira's face sank like water, and his tone was cold: "Whether it is the purge of the Blue Coat Society, or the "Wind Plan" operation to secretly recruit comfort women, you, the head of the secret service, will have an unshirkable responsibility in the future!" If there is any more prevarication and slackness that leads to failure, you are ready to apologize to His Majesty the Emperor! ”

The joy that had just appeared on his face disappeared under the extremely cold warning of the brigade commander Major General, and the body of the veteran spy commander Kojima couldn't help but shudder.

Thirty miles away from Wencheng, the captain of the advance team, Hirai Temple Ichichusa, who was frequently mentioned by the two Japanese chiefs, was also shivering.

Hirai Nakasa's shiver was frozen—even though it was April, the midnight temperature in Shanxi was still low, not to mention that the route Hirai Teraichi and his team were traveling at this time was the wilderness on the side of Tongpu Road, unsheltered, and the scissor-like spring breeze pierced them to shrink their hands and feet.

From the moment the hot quilt of the Songjiagou comfort women's secret camp was taken out by Masao Kojima's phone, Hiraiji was cursing the other party from the bottom of his heart, but helplessly, the order to go out overnight and secretly arrest the women of China while there was a firefight with Pulu was indeed from the brigade commander, Major General himself.

Little Elm Mountain is also considered to be a high mountain and dense forest, and the guns in Lingshi County, fifty or sixty miles away, shook the sky, and they could not reach the ears of Hirai Nakasa. So in the middle of the night, when he learned from the phone call of the head of the island office that a war had broken out, Hirai Teraichi was very surprised.

The military order did not dare to be disobeyed, and the advance team could only immediately go out to fish in troubled waters in the homes of the people near the combat zone. At one time, Hirai Terai, who was the leader of the advance team, planned to let Captain Mizukawa, the deputy leader of the advance team, who was in the temporary barracks in the southern suburbs of Wencheng at this time, lead the team to command the operation. Unexpectedly, this idea was flatly rejected by the damned Kojima chief, who demanded that Hirai Nakasa must personally lead the expedition to ensure the success of the operation.

Hirai Teriichi, who was born as a civilian official, was on the way from Little Elm Mountain to the temporary barracks in the southern suburbs of Bunjo in a hurry, and he had already scolded the eight generations of Masao Kojima's ancestors. At this moment, running on the side of Tongpu Road, which is steep and cold, the captain of the advance team once again scolded in his heart.

Of course, it can only be in my heart - the advance team around me, mixed with the plainclothes of several Kojima Masao of the Bunjo secret service, Hirai, who is Nakasa, does not dare to be presumptuous.

And after working for a little bit in the middle of the night, I finally achieved something. Just now, the advance team cautiously approached the western suburbs of Lingshi County, surrounded and infiltrated a small village outside the city, broke into more than a dozen houses in one go, and after brutal killing, a total of five young Chinese women were looted. Under the auspices of Captain Mizukawa, who is experienced in combat, the advance team used * and machine guns to spread wild, and finally supplemented by arson, creating the illusion that the village had been destroyed by belligerent fire.

Now, they were carrying five women who were tied up and gagged, and rushed all the way to the truck that met them—when they set out from the temporary barracks in the southern suburbs of Wencheng, in order to seize the time, the advance team took two trucks forward, and only abandoned the car and walked until they were only a few miles away from the area of the exchange of fire in Lingshi County.

The women were the first to be stuffed into the truck bed. All five of them were young, and two of them were quite good-looking—many of the members of the advancing team had malicious smiles on their faces.