But what made Tao Jingfei a little puzzled was that although most of the main force of the Japanese army in Tianjin had been annihilated. Lieutenant General Yuyi Tsuchihashi and his divisional headquarters were never found, but they were never found. Not only are no people alive, but no corpses are seen when they die.

Among the Japanese commanders at all levels in charge of the Tianjin operation, the commander of the 110th Division, who was in charge of the entire Hexi operation, and Lieutenant General Ying Zhi, were killed in the basement of the former Japanese consulate in the Japanese concession in Tianjin. The commander of the 59th Division, who was in charge of the Hedong operation in Tianjin, was also captured in a hidden room in the Italian concession.

But this Lieutenant General Tsuchihashi Yongyi, who was in full command of the Tianjin defensive battle, together with his headquarters, seemed to have disappeared out of thin air. Not only is my life and death unknown, but I don't know where I am. Even all the personnel of the 48th Division under his leadership disappeared without a trace.

Although when this guy was being searched, in the basement of the North Korean Bank and the Zhengjin Bank in Tianjin, more than 10,000 taels of gold plundered by the Japanese army from the Zhaoyuan gold mine in Shandong, as well as a large amount of foreign exchange, oceans, antiques, and huge sums of money. However, these discoveries could not make up for the hidden dangers caused by the collective disappearance of the Japanese army's Tianjin Supreme Command.

Tao Jingfei gave orders to all the attacking troops, and in all possible places in the entire Tianjin city, even if they dig three feet into the ground, they must dig out this Lieutenant General Tuqiao Yongyi and his headquarters, and they will see people alive and corpses when they die. For Tao Jingfei, if he did not find the command of the Japanese army, the battle of Tianjin would be considered a failure.

After the gunfire in the urban area completely fell, the comrades of the former Tianjin Underground Working Committee, who cooperated with the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region to take over Tianjin, also mobilized the masses to cooperate with the anti-Japanese federation in the investigation. According to the prisoner's confession, Tao Jingfei can be sure that this Lieutenant General Tsuchihashi Yongyi, as well as his headquarters, are still in the city.

Staring at the map of Tianjin for a long time, Tao Jingfei demarcated two major areas for the search force. One is south of the 14th Meridian Road from the old Russian Concession to the east of the river, as well as the entire Belgian Concession area. One is the old German Concession in Hexi, and the junction of the British Concession and the German Concession.

Neither of these areas is the key offensive direction of the anti-coalition siege forces. Even if you pass by when interspersed, it is a quick pass. After the end of the battle, the net was repeatedly pulled and investigated, and these two areas were not the focus of the direction. Since this cunning guy was not found within the original search range, the scope of the dragnet was expanded to the south.

After expanding the search area to the search force, Tao Jingfei ordered the personnel of the Ministry of Social Affairs to re-investigate all captured Japanese nationals. All men over the age of 30 and under the age of 60 should be re-examined one by one. Tao Jingfei didn't believe that such a huge command could disappear right under his nose?

The re-examination of Japanese expatriates yielded unexpected results. Among these Japanese expatriates, one rear admiral of the army and navy who had taken off their military uniforms and changed into civilian clothes in order to get through the customs in a foolish manner, five senior lieutenants and eleven lieutenant generals. As for the middle and lower rank officers, it reached several dozen.

Most of the Japanese officers who were screened out from the Japanese diaspora were officers of the navy and logistics, baggage, manager, and health departments, and the number of officers in the field units was very small. Two rear admirals of the Japanese Army and Navy, one was the commander of the Tianjin Special Fleet. As soon as the fleet was attacked by air raids, the headquarters was relocated to land.

After the offensive and defensive battle in Tianjin came to an end, he and his subordinates collectively changed into civilian clothes and blended into the Japanese diaspora. As a result, I didn't expect to escape the first year of junior high school, and in the end, I still didn't escape the fifteenth. In this investigation, it was still reviewed. He became the only Japanese admiral captured by the Anti-Japanese Federation during the entire Anti-Japanese War.

Not only this old man, but also became the only senior Japanese naval officer captured by the Anti-Japanese Union during the entire Anti-Japanese War. Perhaps the Japanese Navy, which has always studied the British Navy, has more contact with Western society, so the so-called bushido spirit of the Japanese naval officers is far less strong than that of the Japanese Army.

In the screening of Japanese nationals this time, Japanese naval officers accounted for more than half of the officers at and above the rank of Nakasa. Except for some Japanese naval agencies stationed in Tianjin, most of them were officers of the Japanese Navy's fleet stationed in Tianjin. As for the other one, the commander of the North China Anchorage Field, there was not a single commander of the Japanese field troops.

However, in the process of re-examination, although it has been fruitful. In this net, I caught a lot of big fish, not to mention, but also caught a lot of trash fish. But for the Lieutenant General Tsuchihashi Yuyi, as well as the traces of the officers in his command, there was still no discovery.

And the dragnet investigation of the former German Concession and the Belgian Concession did not find the location of the lieutenant general. Although Tao Jingfei expanded the scope of the search to the entire British Concession and all the surrounding Chinese territories, he did not find the lieutenant general and his command.

Although he has not been able to catch this Japanese lieutenant general who seems to have disappeared out of thin air, all of Tao Jingfei's energy cannot be entangled in this matter. After the remnants of the enemy in Tianjin were completely wiped out, Tao Jingfei transferred the main force from Tianjin in accordance with Yang Zhen's deployment, in addition to leaving one division and two regiments to serve as the garrison of Tianjin.

They were respectively transferred to the south of Dagukou, Haigu, Xiaozhan, Beitang to Tanggu depth, and Hangu and Lutai directions, so as to make anti-landing preparations in the northern part of Bohai Bay. At the same time, he received an order from No. 1 that he should also organize the workers of the Dagu Shipyard to salvage the sunken Japanese naval ships on the Haihe River. The heavy follow-up work after the war did not allow him to focus too much energy on this one thing.

However, he did not give up, and ordered the troops who remained in Tianjin to continue to seize the time to carry out the search and arrest work. The subordinate technical departments were ordered to continue to carry out radio surveillance over the entire urban area of Tianjin. He still said that he would see people in life and corpses in death. Tao Jingfei doesn't believe it, this Lieutenant General Tuqiao Yongyi can put on wings and fly away?

Just when Tao Jingfei was puzzled by the whereabouts of this Lieutenant General Tuqiao Yongyi, Du Kaishan, who was surveying the artillery position along the Bohai Bay with a light command headquarters, came to Tianjin at this time. It's not that Du Kaishan took this opportunity to sneak away and want to come to see Tianjin.

Instead, after surveying the Bohai Bay south of Qikou, he learned that the Battle of Tianjin had ended. The entire operation in the eastern Hebei region has also been largely completed. After careful consideration, after consulting Yang Zhen, he was ready to go north to inspect the northern area of Bohai Bay before it was civilized.

Of course, coming to see his old partner is also one of the purposes of Du Kaishan's trip. When the two of them were in the team, they had always cooperated quite tacitly. Although the two have not been together for a long time, they have also developed a deep relationship with each other. Taking this opportunity to take a look at old comrades-in-arms can be regarded as killing two birds with one stone.

Regarding Du Kaishan's request, Yang Zhen, who had returned to Hejian, was a little hesitant, but finally approved his request. There are some things that the authorities are confused about and the bystanders are clear. Although Tao Jingfei is on the battlefield, he is slightly worse than Du Kaishan. However, when it comes to experience in some aspects, he is much more mature than Du Kaishan when he is a political cadre.

If Du Kaishan is in awe of himself and Guo Bingxun, he is even afraid. But with Tao Jingfei, they are the kind of iron buddies who are too fat in the words of later generations. At this time, it is a good choice to let Du Kaishan meet Tao Jingfei.

At least Tao Jingfei's words, Du Kaishan still listened. Compared with his own forced way of talking, Tao Jingfei, who knows him well, can talk with him openly, and can dig out their hearts and lungs with each other, talking to him may be of some help to Du Kaishan.

With Yang Zhen's approval, Du Kaishan has no scruples. Directly from Jinghai, the last destination of the investigation, I drove overnight and came to the Tao Jingfei Headquarters of Tianjin Haiguang Temple. It's just that as soon as he entered the door, he saw Tao Jingfei with a depressed face and puzzled face.

After listening to Tao Jingfei's doubts, Du Kaishan pondered for a long time and said: "Old man, you have made some mistakes in choosing the target of your search, and even a little too much to take for granted. When you are searching, you should not only focus on the concession area, but should have a wider horizon. ”

"I took a look on the way here, and the entire Tianjin Concession is indeed better than the Chinese Concession in terms of life and conditions in all aspects. The entire British and French concessions were full of small western-style buildings. But for a garrison command equivalent to the military level, the shortcomings of the concession area are just as serious, that is, the target is too obvious. ”

"When I came, I looked at the information of Tianjin and found that most of the entire urban area of Tianjin, except for the old county seat of Tianjin, was developed from the concession zone. With the exception of the shortest Austrian Concession, all the other concessions were the most developed areas of Tianjin. It is also the whole city of Tianjin, except for some factories, all the most valuable things are basically within the scope of the concession......

"Railways, river terminals, post and telecommunications, electricity, running water, tram and other systems were all built by Westerners first. At the same time, perhaps frightened by the civil war and greedy forces of all sides, there are not only a large number of foreign-funded banks in the concession, but even the banks of the Chinese are basically within the scope of the concession. ”

That is to say, in the entire city of Tianjin, the most valuable soft targets are basically in the concession area. On the whole, these goals have little military significance, but their political and economic significance is extraordinary. The incomplete recapture of these things, Tianjin City, not only does not play any economic and political significance for us, but is a burden for us. ”

"If it were me, I wouldn't have placed my headquarters in the concession area, such an obvious area. Whether it is the British, French and American concessions with the best conditions, or the relatively inferior Italian concessions, or the Japanese concessions they are most familiar with. Even if it is a German, Russian, or Belgian concession that has already been returned to China and becomes a concession under China's jurisdiction, I will not choose. ”

"First of all, there were Japanese bacteriological warfare units in the Japanese concession, which was not suitable as a high command in the first place. When we mention these bacteriological weapons, we are horrified. But aren't they afraid of little devils? As soon as this plague, cholera or typhoid fever is infected, can you know whether he is Chinese or Japanese? ”

"We are afraid of these plagues, and the little devils are also human, and they are afraid of the same. Therefore, with this bacteriological warfare unit in the Japanese Concession, their highest military command in Tianjin, they would definitely not choose to be in the Japanese Concession. Because for the real power of germ warfare, the little devil who is the developer is much clearer than us. ”

"Even the position of the 110th Division, which was responsible for commanding the entire Hexi battlefield, was set up in the British Concession. It shows that even as developers, they are quite afraid of these things. Do you think that the little devil would easily set up the top command of a war zone near the place where the deadliest weapon is developed? Therefore, at least the area north of Suma Street in the Japanese Concession is basically unlikely to be the location of choice. ”