Chapter 196 I Went Mad During the Republic of China (12)
After Zhou Jue and Lao K finished explaining all the information, the sky was already beginning to lighten.
Old K lowered his voice, his face a mixture of excitement and worry: "If the people from Blackwood come and find the 'empty city,' it will inevitably cause conflict. We must find a way to get the 29th Army ready as soon as possible!"
“It’s too late.” Zhou Jue looked at the faint morning light outside the window: “They’re already on their way.”
Old K was stunned: "What?"
[Host! Report! Report!] The system's voice suddenly rang in my mind, carrying a hint of excited boasting.
[Two forces are advancing towards Beiping from the Jizhou direction! The first is a standard Japanese company, 200 men, including infantry, a machine gun team, and an armored vehicle—openly and brazenly!]
[The second team, a ten-man squad, in plainclothes, dispersed and very discreetly positioned themselves thirty kilometers behind the company headquarters.]
Zhou Jue's eyes turned cold. Kuroki Takashi, indeed cautious enough.
One overt and one covert, double insurance.
The military squads on the surface are merely pawns on the table. Their high-profile arrival serves as both a probe and a declaration of force. If something truly happens in Beiping, this squad will be the vanguard, capable of controlling the situation immediately, or... becoming cannon fodder to test the waters in Beiping.
But that undercover team was his true eyes and ears; they would infiltrate silently, secretly investigate all the outposts, and gather the most accurate intelligence.
If the visible teams discover anything unusual or have a conflict with them, the covert teams can immediately relay the message back.
In either case, Kuroki Takashi was able to get the information he wanted.
"Comrade Xinghuo?" Old K looked at Zhou Jue, who had suddenly fallen silent, and felt a chill run down his spine.
“Kuroki Takashi sent two groups of men over.” Zhou Jue came to his senses and explained the situation succinctly.
Old K's face turned deathly pale instantly.
"What...what are we going to do?" He tried to suppress his panic and calm down: "Once they enter the city and find all the outposts empty, they will definitely report it immediately! We...we can't stop them at all!"
“We can stop them,” Zhou Jue said calmly.
She looked at Old K: "You stay here and continue to maintain contact with your superiors. Wait for my message. Also, I will notify those nine comrades to evacuate."
"And what about you?"
"I'll go and take care of that visible team."
Old K's mouth opened into an "O" shape.
Get rid of them? That was a 200-strong regular Japanese army company! Fully armed!
He wanted to say "It's too dangerous," and "Let's discuss this further," but when he looked into Zhou Jue's calm and unwavering eyes, he couldn't utter a single word.
He thought of the nine comrades who had been rescued, the traitors that Zhou Jue had "cleaned up," and the more than five thousand Japanese soldiers in the city.
Perhaps... perhaps she and the power behind her really can?
Take care!
Zhou Jue didn't say anything more, and in a flash, he disappeared from Old K's sight.
...
Outside Beiping city, on the highway leading to Jizhou.
Zhou Jue appeared at the entrance of a narrow valley, the only way for that Japanese platoon to pass. Steep earthen slopes lined both sides, with sparse trees and limited visibility due to the winding terrain.
An excellent ambush point.
[Host, they will arrive in five minutes!] The system announced in real time.
Zhou Jue did not answer.
She closed her eyes, and a powerful spiritual force spread out like a tide, enveloping the entire valley.
The sound of the wind, the rustling of the grass and trees, the occasional birdsong in the distance... everything was clearly imprinted in her mind.
Soon, the roar of trucks and armored vehicles grew louder as they approached.
The truck stopped at the mouth of the valley, and thirty heavily armed Japanese soldiers jumped out. Leading them was a second lieutenant, who held a map and compared it with that of the sergeant beside him.
"This is it. After crossing this valley, it's another twenty kilometers to Beiping City." The lieutenant's voice carried a hint of impatience: "Honestly, Major Kuroki is making a mountain out of a molehill. We haven't received a telegram for a few hours, and he makes us make a whole trip."
"Lieutenant, it's best to be cautious." The sergeant was quite cautious: "I have a feeling that something is wrong with this mission."
"What could be wrong? The Chinese are weak and incompetent. Even if they had a hundred lives, they wouldn't dare touch our Great Sakura Imperial Army!" The lieutenant sneered and waved his hand: "All hands, be on guard, full speed ahead through the valley!"
The soldiers were on high alert, carrying their Type 38 rifles, and cautiously entered the valley.
The moment the last soldier stepped into the valley, Zhou Jue began; she did not appear, but only with a thought.
"Buzz—"
An invisible mental wave swept over the entire Japanese squad.
The second lieutenant sitting at the front suddenly saw his surroundings change.
Suddenly, a dense mass of heads appeared on the earthen slopes on both sides of the once empty valley! Hundreds and thousands of Chinese soldiers, with gleaming bayonets, charged down from all directions!
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" The lieutenant's pupils suddenly contracted, and he let out a hysterical scream.
He abruptly raised the Nambu pistol in his hand, pointed it at the nearest "enemy"—his sergeant—and pulled the trigger.
"Bang!"
The sergeant stared in disbelief at the blossoming blood on his chest before slowly collapsing to the ground. He died without understanding why his superior had shot him.
"Baka! Ono's gone mad!"
"Take cover! Take cover now!"
The gunshot was like a signal, instantly igniting chaos throughout the entire team.
In the eyes of those ordinary soldiers, their comrades suddenly turned into ferocious enemies, charging at them with weapons in hand.
Fear and suspicion instantly overwhelmed reason.
"Bang! Bang bang!"
"Da da da..."
Gunfire erupted in the valley, bullets flying everywhere.
But strangely, all the gun barrels were pointed at their own comrades.
In their hallucinations, the Japanese soldiers fired wildly at each other, their screams and curses echoing throughout. They thought they were fighting against a massive army, but in reality, they were just killing each other.
Zhou Jue didn't move. She was watching the battlefield. She didn't need to take action. She would just occasionally use her mental power to snap the neck of a stray enemy or detonate the grenades in their hands.
The whole process was incredibly fast.
Ten minutes.
In just ten minutes.
Silence returned to the valley as the last soldier fell in terror and despair.
The air was thick with the smell of blood and gunpowder.
Two hundred corpses lay scattered on the ground, each with a different manner of death, but fear was frozen on the face of every one of them.
Zhou Jue's figure slowly appeared. Without hesitation, she opened the Starry Secret Box. A suction force came, and the corpses, weapons, bullet casings, vehicles, and even the bloodstains that had seeped into the soil on the ground were all sucked in and disappeared without a trace.
Moments later, the valley returned to normal, as if the soldiers had never been there.
【Host, all done! Clean and efficient!】The system exclaimed in praise.
"Where is that covert team?" Zhou Jue asked.
[Reporting to the host! A person is driving in this direction and is expected to arrive in an hour! Two people are riding bicycles behind them, and others are hiking through the mountains...]
[However, host, one of their spies, originally stationed in Beiping, just passed by the military police headquarters and discovered... it was empty!]
He then made his way towards the former site of the intelligence agency, looking shocked, and was trying to contact Kuroki Takashi!
Zhou Jue frowned. They had managed to defend against the Japanese invaders, but they hadn't been able to defend against the spies inside the city!
There were too many Japanese spies, some deep, some shallow, some overt, and some covert. Even when they weren't up to any tricks, some would still slip through the net!
...
In the courtyard, Old K paced around the house countless times, his palms never drying out.
"Beep beep... beep beep..."
The radio on the table started playing again, and Old K jumped up and pounced on it.
It's an urgent, coded telegram from Yan'an!
With trembling hands, he put on his headphones and quickly took notes and translated. When the translation appeared on the paper, Old K's breath caught in his throat.
The telegram contained a lot of complicated information.
The first part concerns Nanjing. The Japanese lodge a "strong protest" with the Nanjing government regarding the "disappearance of the Beiping garrison," demanding an explanation. Nanjing outwardly complied, immediately ordering the 29th Army to "thoroughly investigate the matter" and provide an account to their "friendly nation."
However, the second part contained top-secret intelligence obtained by Yan'an from internal channels in Nanjing.
A secret order from the Nanjing high command to Commander Song of the 29th Army.
[Take this opportunity to seize control of the situation in Beiping, secretly investigate this matter thoroughly, find out which hero was responsible, and strive to recruit them into our ranks.]
The telegram ended with an inquiry from the Yan'an headquarters regarding "Spark".
They have connected the "Japanese soldiers disappearing" incident in Beiping with the "Spark" operation that Old K had previously reported. Although it is hard to believe, all the clues point to one possibility—all of this was done by Comrade Spark!
[Greetings to Comrade Xinghuo; we are waiting for her in Yan'an.]
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