Hearing that Sasaki almost pointed at his nose and scolded his subordinates for being rice buckets, Michitake Yamaoka, who had a strong sense of self-esteem, couldn't bear it even if he had a good temper and no matter how strict the rank of the Japanese army was. Not to mention that this is also a young man, Michitake Yamaoka is also a high-minded guy.

Regarding Lieutenant General Sasaki's accusation, Michitake Yamaoka restrained the anger in his heart and said in a calm tone as much as possible: "Your Excellency, please don't accuse our agents like this. You have been a military adviser to Manchukuo for many years, and I think you should understand that we have cracked the secret camps of the anti-Manchurian and anti-Japanese armed forces and destroyed their determination and ability to resist. ”

"The second is that when we destroy the secret camps on which the so-called anti-Manchu and anti-Japanese elements live, we can often rely on their so-called traitor confessions. As the saying goes, the easiest place for fortresses to breach is their interior. ”

"With traitors who know them well to lead the way, we often do more with less when we destroy their supplies. As for this anti-Manchu anti-Japanese armed force, we have not captured any prisoners of war. Two, so far there have been no traitors within them. ”

"When our agents who went into the mountains encountered their so-called reconnaissance units, they tried to capture their personnel in order to extract confessions. Unexpectedly, these people are extremely vigilant, and they seem to have received professional anti-capture training. Far from succeeding, our agents suffered heavy losses in the capture operation. ”

"There are no confessions from captives, no guidance from traitors, and our agents alone can only make head-on contact with them, hoping to get useful information for us. What this means to the operatives, I think you should be clear. Those are obviously cunning and don't trust our superbly disguised agents. Even the slightest suspicion kills the killer. ”

"Don't talk about those Manchukuo agents who are greedy for life and afraid of death, even those Shinatsu agents that our Japanese Empire has painstakingly cultivated, except for a very few people, most of them have been recognized by them. This is something that I don't understand. ”

"Almost all of our agents grew up in Manchuria, and their living habits and language are no different from those of ordinary Manchurians, so how can they still reveal their identities? Could it be that these people from the mainland can read minds and see through each other's minds? ”

"Your Excellency, I don't think you're new to the abilities of Imperial agents. Last year, during the China Incident, the Imperial agents obtained a large amount of information about the China Army during the battle against the China Army, and established great military achievements for the Empire. But this time, I didn't expect that the deep mountains and old forests of Manchukuo would suffer such a big loss. ”

"Your Excellency, if it weren't for the request of His Excellency Deputy Chief of Staff Ishihara, the Kwantung Army Intelligence Division would not have sent so many agents into the mountains and forests for the sake of a small group of Chinese Army prisoners who had escaped from the prisoner of war camp. It is precisely because of such a great loss that I believe that this information is true and credible. ”

For these words of Yamaoka Michitake, although Sasaki is very angry in his heart, he is from China. For Lieutenant General Sasaki Toichi, who has spent nearly half of his military career in China and is well aware of China's temper and temperament in most areas, Michitake Yamaoka's words still make a lot of sense.

Sasaki Daiichi, who suppressed the anger in his heart, picked up the information and looked at it carefully from the beginning and said, "Yamaoka-kun, I don't doubt the loyalty and ability of these intelligence officers to the empire, but the credibility of this information is not great. ”

"So many intelligence officers have been exposed, how do you know if the surviving intelligence officers will be those who stayed behind to confuse our eyes? They don't say anything to cover it up."

"Your Excellency, the authenticity of the information is not something we have assessed here, it needs to be tested. How credible is this information, and will we not understand everything after we have mobilized our forces to carry out a dragnet sweep of the areas indicated in the information? ”

Although he has been suppressing the anger in his heart, these words of Michitake Yamaoka finally completely lifted out the anger of Sasaki to one. Sasaki took a red and blue pencil and drew a large circle on the map according to the area mentioned in the intelligence, and said coldly: "Yamaoka-kun, you said that it was very light. ”

"Yamaoka-kun, according to the terrain here, how many troops do you plan to mobilize to clear this place? Ten thousand? Or twenty thousand? As a professionally trained Imperial officer, you should be aware that the blockade line needs to be strengthened not only when we are sweeping the net there. ”

"Your Excellency, the Eighth Wing of the Fourth Division has completed the liquidation of the so-called Second and Third Route Armies of the Anti-Japanese Alliance in the Xiajiang area, and will soon be transferred to the Ning'an and Weihe areas under your command to take charge of the clearance and suppression of the Zhang Guangcai Ridge area."

"With the assistance of the Eighth Wing, plus the troops currently mobilized, I can see enough to complete the clearance there. Or we could use the Eighth Wing to remove some of the Manchukuo troops involved in the blockade and let them carry out the task of clearing them. At the same time, according to the usual practice, part of the Kwantung Army was selected to be used as a war supervision team,"

"Although I was only transferred to the head of the intelligence section of the Kwantung Army at the beginning of the year, I have also heard that Your Excellency the Lieutenant General is known as the father of the Manchukuo Army, and the so-called Manchukuo Army was trained and formed by Your Excellency. By using the Manchukuo Army to clear the mountains, we can show Tokyo and the Kwantung Army the merits of His Excellency the Lieutenant General.

"Moreover, if we clear the area, even if we don't find the branch of the army, then we can use the investigation method to determine the approximate hiding location of those branch troops. Since our opponents were not found in the mountains north of Dunhua, they could only hide in the mountains southwest of Ning'an. This is also the only option they have after abandoning the northern part of Dunhua as a hiding place. ”

In response to Sasaki Toichi's rhetorical question, since graduating from the non-commissioned officer school, he has been an authentic intelligence officer, and Yamaoka Michi pointed to the map and replied. As for the trace of contempt in the eyes of Lieutenant General Sasaki to the first lieutenant general after hearing that he had taken a dragnet to clear the mountainous areas in the north of Dunhua, Michiwu Yamaoka clearly saw it.

The contempt for Sasaki Toichi made Michitake Yamaoka feel unusually angry. As the head of the Intelligence Division, his main task was to provide the necessary intelligence support for the operations of the Kwantung Army. His eyes were more focused on the powerful polar bear on the Manchurian-Soviet border.

As for these anti-Manchurian elements in Manchuria, it was not his main scope of work. Being assigned by Deputy Chief of Staff Ishihara to assist His Excellency the proud lieutenant general in encircling and suppressing these thieves was, in the eyes of Michitake Yamaoka, already overkill. As for how many troops to deploy, it was a matter of Sasaki Toichi, who was the commander-in-chief of this attack, and it had nothing to do with him, the head of the intelligence section. His task was to provide the necessary intelligence support for military operations, not to personally direct troops to participate in the attack.

However, for Sasaki Toichi's words, anger is anger, but after all, as a senior staff, Michitake Yamaoka's head is still relatively calm. He knew that if he was willful, he would only be unlucky in the end. Before he came, Ishihara's deputy chief of staff repeatedly told him to cooperate with the lieutenant general. So after hesitating for a while, Michitake Yamaoka still answered Sasaki's question.

Regarding Yamaoka Michitake's answer, Sasaki said with a sneer: "Yamaoka-kun, how well your intelligence work is doing, I don't know. But you still need to study this military theory well. Could it be that all your military knowledge has been returned to the teachers of the non-commissioned officer school? ”

"Draw the 8th Wing, you said lightly. The Eighth Wing was able to dispatch no more than 3,000 people. For these more than 100 miles of primeval forest, these 3,000 people are like 3,000 small fish released into the Sea of Japan.

"And see for yourself, on the premise of keeping the original blockade line intact, how many troops can you still send into the mountains to clear it? What we need is to annihilate these anti-Manchu anti-Japanese forces and maintain the stability of Manchuria, which had been the lifeline of the empire. Instead of fighting a crushing war, these anti-Manchu anti-Japanese elements will be defeated and made into rogues. ”

"This anti-Manchu anti-Japanese element is very different from other anti-Manchu forces. They did not operate in small units, and according to the analysis of their previous battles, they were always in a group. Pulling the net against it requires us to mobilize at least ten times its forces, otherwise it will be easy for it to escape. This is not the plain of South Manchuria, but the north of Manchuria, which is crisscrossed by mountains and dense forests. And we want a war of annihilation, not a war of defeat. ”

"Moreover, these Shina people hold the top secrets of the Empire in their hands, and we cannot let them let go of their soldiers. In accordance with the requirements of the command of the Tokyo and Kwantung Army, we could not even adopt the method of gradual weakening as we did with other anti-Manchu anti-Japanese elements. It can only be annihilated in one go. ”

"According to your method, according to our usual methods of dealing with the anti-Manchu anti-Japanese elements in Manchuria, we can only fight a crushing battle, but we cannot annihilate them all. These people are very cunning, and they will look for an opportunity to slip away if they find out that I have made a big sweep and the blockade has weakened. Once they slip out of the blockade and leak the secrets of the Empire, not only me, but even you, Yamaoka-kun, will not be able to explain to the Kwantung Army and the Tokyo base camp. ”

"So Yamaoka-kun, what I need is not these probable, approximate guesses, but their exact location. Tell your agents, don't send back these reports that don't have much effect without seeing them in person. ”

"Your Excellency, I'm sorry. Now that the snow is covering the mountain, it is very difficult for our agents to move around the mountain, especially the supply is extremely difficult. Moreover, according to the meteorological information sent by the Kwantung Army Air Force, the entire northern part of Dunhua and the southwest mountainous area of Ning'an will face heavy snowfall in the next few days. The temperature will drop below -40 degrees Celsius. According to the reported estimate of the amount of snowfall, the snow in the mountains can even reach waist-deep after this snowfall. Under such circumstances, our intelligence officers may have lost their ability to operate. ”

"In order to protect the safety of these intelligence officers that the empire has painstakingly cultivated, these intelligence officers of ours, except for the intelligence officers of Manchukuo, the intelligence officers of the empire, I will order all of them to withdraw from the mountains."

"Your Excellency, the intelligence department of the Kwantung Army can no longer afford to suffer such a big loss. You should know that these intelligence officers are all painstakingly cultivated by us. It is prepared to respond to changes in the situation in the future. It's not to deal with these thieves in the deep mountains and old forests of Beiman. ”

With that, Michitake Yamaoka took out a report from a document folder in his hand and handed it to Sasaki, saying, "However, in order to avoid the gaps in the information caused by our intelligence personnel after they withdraw. I have already contacted the air force and begged them to send reconnaissance planes after the snow to carry out another large-scale aerial reconnaissance in the mountainous area north of the town of Emu in Dunhua, at the junction of Ning'an and Weihe. I think with snow as a reference, aerial reconnaissance will be able to find these Chinese molecules more quickly. ”

"Also, Your Excellency, I have a word of advice for you. Since His Excellency the Lieutenant General has mobilized a large number of troops to carry out a tight blockade of this area of mountains and forests, it is possible to draw some troops from these blockade troops and go into the mountains to actively search for them. Instead of sending some small troops, only the agents who entered the mountains were picked up and resupplied. The Imperial Army has always taken the initiative to seek war, and there has never been such a situation of avoiding war. ”

"Your Excellency, if you let these people go, the Kwantung Army and Tokyo will certainly not be able to forgive you. But these intelligence officers of mine are painstakingly cultivated by the Empire, and they are in the service of the entire Imperial Jihad, not just for you. If the losses are too great, I'm afraid that the Kwantung Army and Tokyo will not be able to spare you either. As for the reason for the withdrawal, I will explain it to Commander Kenkichi Ueda, Chief of Staff Ryosuke Isoya, and Deputy Chief of Staff Ishihara Waner, so please do not worry. ”

Speaking of this, Michitake Yamaoka looked at and listened to his words, and after Sasaki, who was pale, smiled again: "Your Excellency, there is one more thing, I have to remind you. Although you have developed a strategy for a long-term siege and have the patience to complete it, Admiral Kenkichi Ueda and the Tokyo base camp do not necessarily have the patience. According to my estimates, the food and ammunition that those people got in Weihe County were enough to support them through this winter. And if you wait until the spring of next year, I'm afraid you will be wondering how to explain it to the Kwantung Army Headquarters and the Tokyo Base Camp. ”

"Therefore, I suggested that you should take advantage of the fact that the snow would reveal the whereabouts of those Zhina, and send troops to carry out a net clearing in the mountainous areas north of Dunhua in accordance with my Jianyi, so as to determine the exact hiding place of those Zhina. After all, those swamps in the north of Dunhua cannot play any role as a barrier in the winter when the north is full of severe cold and can freeze a life. ”

"In addition, there is another Jianyì for your reference. If the troops of the 4th Division are used for blockade tasks, it is still possible. If it is used as the main force to enter the mountain to clear the eradication, please consider it carefully. If it is convenient for you, I would like to advise you to report to Commander Kenkichi Ueda and transfer the troops of the 12th Division to replace the 4th Division. Otherwise, if this anomaly appears in the troops of the Fourth Division, I am afraid that your entire purge plan will be jeopardized. ”

"Your Excellency, what should be said and what should not be said, I have said it today. Whether you can listen or not, it's your personal business. Please take care, I take my leave. After that, Michitake Yamaoka didn't look at the expression of Sasaki Toichi, who was pale by his words, and walked out of Sasaki Toichi's office without looking back.

"Yaga." Looking at the back of Michitake Yamaoka walking away, Sasaki, who was completely enraged by his attitude, pulled out his saber and slashed the desk in front of him and the map on the table in two.

Although angry, Sasaki Toichi had to admit that there was some truth in what Michitake Yamaoka said. Indeed, neither the Kwantung Army Command nor the Tokyo Base Camp will give themselves this time. Although Commander Kenkichi Ueda agreed with him, he had already called several times to ask about his progress. Although he didn't say anything after getting his reply, just a few words that were revealed had already made Sasaki feel a huge pressure.

Because he knew that this was not only the meaning of Commander Ueda Kenkichi, but also the meaning of Tokyo and even the emperor. As the top military adviser of the puppet Manchukuo for many years, he has given strong support to the epidemic prevention and water supply department of the Kwantung Army in office, and he knows that what makes the emperor and Tokyo anxious is that these people are not simple anti-Manchu and anti-Japanese elements, they hold the top military secrets of the empire in their hands.

After pondering for a long time, Sasaki shouted the operational staff officer and issued several orders in succession: "1. Immediately contact the Kwantung Army Headquarters and ask them to send planes after the snow to conduct another large-scale aerial reconnaissance in the mountainous areas southwest of Ning'an, Dunhua Emu, and north of the Qingshan Gouzi line. ”

"Order the Eighth Wing, which is attached to the Fourth Division, to make preparations for the mountain immediately after it arrives, without making corrections. With the cooperation of the Manchurian Forest Police Brigade in Dunhua and Ning'an, as well as the Manchukuo Army, they first carried out a dragnet in the mountainous areas north of Dunhua. ”

In view of the peculiarity of the information in the hands of these Shina people, after hesitating for a long time, Sasaki Toichi changed his previous plan and decided to use the 8th Wing, which was excellent in the Shimojiang area, as the main force of the purge of the campaign. As for the military and police of Manchukuo, which was originally intended to be the main force used for the clearance, they were still used to coordinate operations.

However, what Sasaki didn't expect was that it was this Eighth Wing, which he had pinned infinite hopes on, in the later encirclement and suppression of the mountainous area southwest of Ning'an, that completely disappointed his hope of annihilating Yang Zhen's troops, and also made the Japanese puppet army who entered the mountains to encircle and suppress pay the price of huge casualties.