Chapter 151: Throw Out A Brick To Attract Jade
Waiting quietly for the next assassination instruction? Zhao Lijun couldn’t help but furrow his brows.
Could it be that they are sending some special commissioner over?
“Station Chief, does the superior have any new instructions?”
“This action failure, I feel it’s not that simple.”
Xie Zhipan said gravely: “All along, I thought we were the hunters, and Tang Shaoyi was the prey.”
“Now it seems the Japanese are using him as bait to lure us in.”
“We are the prey.”
Zhao Lijun closed the telegram, staring at Xie Zhipan with his eyes and saying: “Boss wants us to self-investigate and wait for the next assassination instruction.”
“Captain Xie, do you think I can still trust you?”
Xie Zhipan’s expression tightened: “Station Chief, if you think there’s something wrong with me, you can execute me right now.”
“Good.” Zhao Lijun reached into the drawer and pulled out the Browning pistol, aiming the muzzle at Xie Zhipan’s forehead.
Xie Zhipan quietly looked at Zhao Lijun, his expression extremely calm.
“Click,” Zhao Lijun released the safety, and in the next second, he seemed about to pull the trigger.
“Facing death, nothing you want to say?”
Xie Zhipan shook his head, his gaze still firm.
“Click,” Zhao Lijun pulled the trigger, but no ammunition came out.
“You’re lucky to be under me. If you were with Boss Dai and something like this happened, the whole team would eat bullets.”
Zhao Lijun said slowly: “I’m not killing you because I trust you.”
“It’s just that up to now, I still can’t find a reason for your betrayal.”
“You were specially transferred by Boss from the Hunan training class, and you’ve only been in Shanghai Station for a little over a month. In such a short time, it’s impossible for you to gain the Japanese’s trust.”
“The assassination of Tang Shaoyi almost mobilized eighty percent of Shanghai Station’s manpower. The Japanese definitely need to find an absolutely reliable inside contact, and you don’t qualify yet.”
“Station Chief is wise…” Xie Zhipan subtly flattered him.
“There are only five people who know. Besides Deputy Station Chief Yu, now it’s just Mao Qiuying and Lu Tao.”
“Captain Xie, between these two, who do you think has greater suspicion?”
Xie Zhipan pondered for a moment and said: “Hard to say. Team Leader Lu and Team Leader Mao have more seniority than me and longer experience in intelligence work than me. I don’t know how to put it.”
Zhao Lijun pondered for a moment and said: “Lu Tao has been at Shanghai Station longer than me.”
“When the Revival Society set up the Intelligence Department in Shanghai, he was already there. Such a veteran would have betrayed long ago if he wanted to betray.”
“Mao Qiuying is even less likely. She’s from Jiangshan, Zhejiang Province, and her cousin is Mao Sen from the Military Statistics Bureau Secretariat.”
“Within the Military Statistics Bureau, their faction is the direct line among the direct lines. She has even less reason to betray.”
As the words fell, the room fell into a brief silence.
“Just use a simple method to test and we’ll know.” Xie Zhipan said gravely: “I’ll take people to kill Tang Shaoyi again…”
“You can tell the address and time to those two people.”
Zhao Lijun furrowed his brows. “You mean, throw out a brick to attract jade…”
Xie Zhipan nodded: “This is the most effective method. Once we confirm one of them has a problem, the rest will be easy.”
“Station Chief, rest assured. If it’s confirmed that the intelligence didn’t leak, I can still turn the fake into real and take action directly.”
Zhao Lijun placed his fingers on the table, tapping rhythmically, seemingly assessing whether Xie Zhipan’s proposal was feasible…
After a long while, he nodded sharply: “Good. I’ll design a new top secret plan that only the two of us know, and see if any fish will bite…”
Xie Zhipan respectfully saluted: “Station Chief is wise…”
Time came to late August of Year 27 of the Republic.
The Japanese Army’s advance on Wuhan was blocked by Officer Xue’s troops on the Dean-Ruichang line.
In late July, after the Japanese Army blasted open the Jiujiang gateway, the four divisions responsible for attacking Jiangxi split into two routes.
The 106th Division, led by Division Commander Matsuura Junroku, was ordered to attack the key point on the Nanxun Line, Dean.
Originally, Matsuura Junroku thought this action would go as smoothly as the previous attacks on Hukou and Jiujiang.
Who knew that after advancing less than ten kilometers, at Shahekou Town, the 106th Division ran head-on into the 8th Army and 64th Army deployed by Officer Xue.
Both sides immediately engaged in fierce firefight.
After seven days of repeated contention, the 106th Division suffered heavy losses, with over two thousand killed or wounded.
The Sakamoto Regiment responsible for the attack, with a total of over three thousand six hundred men, now had astonishing casualties of sixty percent.
This was the first time since the Japanese invaded China that a regiment had suffered over half losses.
Of course, the 106th Division was not one of the Japanese Army’s seventeen Class A Divisions; they belonged to the Class B Division sequence.
But such losses were still unacceptable to Matsuura Junroku. After Eleventh Army Commander Okamura received the 106th Division’s request for aid telegram, he could only order the 106th Division to halt the attack, with the 101st Division taking over the positions, and the 106th Division to rest and reorganize in place.
On August 20, the Japanese Army 101st Division, led by Division Commander Ito Masayoshi, crossed Poyang Lake horizontally. The next day, they broke through the 25th Army 53rd Division’s defense line and captured Xingzi.
Seeing reinforcements arrive, Matsuura Junroku felt confident again and immediately ordered the subsequent Hata Detachment to replace the Sakamoto Regiment as the main attack force, intending to join with the 101st Division to capture Dean.
Just as the 106th Division was reorganizing its combat plan, news came from the 9th Division that they had captured Ruichang.
To ensure the safety of the Japanese Army’s westward route, Matsuura Junroku expressed his willingness for joint operations to Ito Masayoshi.
On August 27, at dawn, the 106th Division launched another fierce attack on the First Army Group positions.
The 101st Division launched a strong attack on the Mount Lu side, intending to bypass the Mount Lu defense line and attack Dean from the rear flank.
But this plan was quickly seen through by Officer Xue, who deployed the 25th Army and 66th Army on the must-pass road for the 101st Division’s attack on Dean.
Relying on the mountains, they formed an outer eight-character defense line. When enemy artillery fire came, the troops shrank to the rear; when the artillery stopped, the troops immediately returned to their original positions.
After several times like this, the 101st Division couldn’t budge the Mount Lu defense line at all.
On August 26, the Japanese Army 101st Division, led by Regiment Commander Iizuka Kunigoro, launched another total assault on the Mount Lu defense line.
At this time, the 25th Army 33rd Division’s Liu Xu unit, defending the Mount Lu flank, keenly spotted the Japanese command post location.
33rd Division 3rd Regiment Commander Yang Ling risked taking the guard battalion down a cliff on the rear side of the mountain using ropes, leading over a hundred troops to assault the enemy command post, killing Regiment Commander Iizuka Kunigoro on the spot…
Iizuka Kunigoro’s death also caused the 101st Division’s plan to strongly attack Mount Lu to fail. Without reinforcements, the 106th Division also fell into a stalemate on the frontal battlefield.
On August 30, the 9th Division, originally planning to advance west, saw that the two Class B Divisions on the Nanxun Line were still unable to achieve the expected results, so the Division Commander ordered Brigade Commander Maruyama Masao to attack from the right flank to assist the 106th Division in capturing Dean.
The Japanese Army Class A Division’s combat power was indeed terrifying; they tore open the Minshan defense line in just one day, and 74th Army Army Commander Yu Jishi hurriedly sent troops to reinforce.
At this time, the 106th Division received a reconnaissance report from the 3rd Air Group.
There was a small road near Mount Lu that could go straight to the rear…
