allonlinenovel Chapter 810 International situation?
Chapter 810 International situation?
Nanzō Yunko nodded slightly, her red lips parted, her voice lowered slightly, with a sense of mystery as if she were sharing a great secret: "Hey! Your subordinates have mobilized all the highest-level channels, even activated the deeply buried "mole".
Using Chen Ming from the Tianjin Military Control Station as a springboard, after several twists and turns, they finally made an urgent contact with the head of the Second Division of the Investigation and Statistics Bureau of the Nanjing Nationalist Government's Military Commission. She paused, then clearly pronounced the name: "Director Dai Li."
Dai Li!! Nanzō Yunko had managed to contact him in such a short time. It seemed that her previous anger had frightened her.
"Go on." Zhou Zhengqing ordered calmly, but his fingers clenched quietly under the table.
"I exchanged information with Director Dai," Nanzō Yunko continued, carefully observing Zhou Zhengqing's expression. "I explained to him the whole story of the conflict between the Shanghai Third Fleet and the Expeditionary Force.
Then, I confirmed from Dai Li... a piece of news that was almost unbelievable."
She paused again, as if she was organizing her words, or as if she was deliberately creating a suspenseful atmosphere.
Zhou Zhengqing's patience was almost exhausted, and his eyes became increasingly cold.
Nanzō Yunko felt the pressure and didn't dare to keep the secret any longer. She took a deep breath and quickly said, "The order to stop the retreat of the Shanghai frontline troops and return to the position to defend it did not come from the front-line commander Chen Cheng, nor from any other battlefield commander.
It came directly from the highest levels of the Nanjing Commandery!"
"What?" Zhou Zhengqing leaned forward, his brows furrowed. "The Commander's Headquarters? What do they want to do? Can't they see that Shanghai is already doomed?"
"Based on what Dai Li revealed, and also confirmed by information from other channels."
Nanzō Yunko's tone also carried a hint of absurdity: "General Chen Cheng and many of his generals did indeed send urgent telegrams to Nanjing many times, tearfully emphasizing that the Shanghai beachhead was undefensible and that our army had a huge advantage in artillery and air power. Continuing to hold on would only result in additional casualties.
It is necessary to retreat immediately to the national defense fortifications on the Wufu Line, Wujiang-Fushan, and the Xicheng Line, Wuxi-Jiangyin for rest and sustained defense.
It is said that Nanjing initially agreed to this strategy.”
Zhou Zhengqing knew about these two lines of defense. They were built with great effort before the war and were known as the "Oriental Maginot Line". Although this might be an exaggeration, they did have a complete defense system including solid concrete fortifications, barbed wire, anti-tank trenches, etc., which was much better than being bombed in the ruins of Shanghai!
Retreating there was the most correct and most military logical choice at the time!
"Then what?" Zhou Zhengqing's voice became low, and he had a very bad premonition.
Nanzō Yunko's face showed an extremely strange expression, as if she wanted to laugh but also felt extremely ironic. She shook her head slightly: "However, at the last moment, just when the troops had begun to execute the retreat order, the highest decision-makers of the Nanjing Command suddenly overturned the previous decision.
They strictly ordered the frontline troops not to retreat and to hold on for at least ten more days!"
"Ten days?!" Zhou Zhengqing repeated in a broken voice, his voice changing in pitch.
In a place like Shanghai that had been bombed into a purgatory, facing the absolute superior firepower of the Japanese army's navy, army and air force, how could an army that was exhausted, suffered heavy casualties and was on the verge of morale collapse hold out for another ten days?
This is no longer a military order, it is simply an execution warrant for a collective death penalty!
"What's the reason?!" Zhou Zhengqing practically gritted his teeth. He couldn't understand it, couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried! What reason could be more important than preserving the vitality of this country's most elite troops?
Nanzō Yunko looked at Zhou Zhengqing's expression, which was distorted by extreme shock and incomprehension. Her red lips parted slightly, but the words that came out were light and airy, with a sense of surreal absurdity:
"The reason... According to Dai Li, and the circumstantial evidence from the secret telegrams we intercepted between Nanjing and the front lines... The reason is... the international situation."
"International situation?" Zhou Zhengqing was stunned. For a moment, he couldn't react to the relationship between these four words and the life and death of hundreds of thousands of troops.
"Yes, the international situation." Nanzō Yunko nodded affirmatively, the absurdity in her eyes becoming even stronger: "According to intelligence, the Nine-Power Treaty Conference, attended by the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands and other countries, will be held in Brussels, Belgium soon.
One of the important topics of the meeting was to discuss the situation in the Far East, especially the Sino-Japanese conflict."
Zhou Zhengqing's mouth opened slightly unconsciously, and an extremely terrifying and absurd thought pierced his brain like an ice cone, making him feel cold all over.
Nanzō Yunko continued speaking, her voice calm, but every word struck Zhou Zhengqing's heart like a hammer: "The top leaders of the Nanjing Headquarters...seemed to firmly believe that as long as the Chinese army in Shanghai could hold on for a while longer.
Even if it was only for ten days, it created a fait accompli and a tragic image in the international community that "the Chinese army is still fighting bloody battles and resisting stubbornly in Shanghai."
It can win the sympathy and intervention of the international community at the Brussels conference.
They fantasize about using so-called "diplomatic victories" to force the Empire to cease fire, withdraw its troops, and return to the negotiating table.
She paused and added the most fatal sentence: "They believe that this is the only chance to "turn the tide of the war" at present.
So... the lives and blood of hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the front lines became their... chips at the Brussels conference table."
The office fell into deathly silence.
The expression on Zhou Zhengqing's face completely froze.
When he heard the news of stopping the retreat just now, his expression was shocked and angry, as if he had been hit by a heavy punch in the face.
Now, his expression is like...
It was like someone had forcibly pried open my mouth and forced a large lump of squirming, foul-smelling Olegei into my mouth!
And it wasn't just one lump, it was stuffed continuously, stuffed into his throat, stuffed into his stomach that made it churn, stuffed into his entire soul that was twitching violently and disgustingly!
It wasn't anger, it wasn't shock, it wasn't even absurdity.
It was a feeling beyond all normal emotions, an extreme nausea, vomiting, and something that could not be described in words... nausea!
Zhou Zhengqing felt as if his brain was soaked in a sticky paste filled with pedantry, stupidity, naiveté, cruelty and extreme selfishness.
Every brain cell suffocated in this paste, struggling and screaming silently.
International conference?
Diplomatic victory?
Another ten days?
Using the flesh and blood of hundreds of thousands of the most loyal and brave soldiers to fill the empty fantasy of a conference where imperialist powers bicker and buck-pass each other?!
Are we going to gamble that the Western powers will stand up against the ferocious Japan for the sake of "morality"?
Which fucking idiot, which cold-blooded lunatic, which bureaucrat living in a vacuum came up with this "brilliant idea"?!
Zhou Zhengqing's soul was roaring, but his body was temporarily unable to function due to extreme nausea and discomfort.
He could even clearly "smell" the stench emanating from the intelligence words, a mixture of political speculation, bureaucratic stupidity, unrealistic fantasies and extreme disregard for soldiers' lives!