Chapter 47: The End Is Also a New Beginning

He bowed to Yamamoto Kazuki, then handed a file to him with both hands.

After glancing through a few lines, Yamamoto's eyes narrowed instantly.

"The prisoner-of-war camp in Pingyao has been destroyed, and all the prisoners have been rescued?"

"Hai!" the Japanese communications soldier immediately replied. "Currently, Lieutenant Colonel Tatsushita has gone to Pingyao to investigate!"

Tatsushita Jun?

Yamamoto gave a slight nod.

To be honest, he deeply coveted the group of men under Tatsushita's command.

They all had a foundation in martial arts, proficient in kendo and close-combat techniques.

Moreover, they had undergone deliberate special operations training by Tatsushita.

With just a little more training, they could immediately become commando members suited for this special operation.

Unfortunately, Yamamoto knew that even with Terauchi Hisaichi's order, Tatsushita would never agree to hand these men over to him.

Otherwise, the commander of this special operation would be named Tatsushita.

"Fortunately, however, Tatsushita-kun did not refuse my request."

"He still sent men to help me train my commando members."

Yamamoto waved his hand.

"Since Lieutenant Colonel Tatsushita has gone to handle Pingyao, then everything is left to him!"

"Hai!"

"In addition," a murderous look flashed in Yamamoto's eyes, "tell the Commander-in-Chief that tonight, we will conduct a live-fire exercise!"

"Ask him to watch our performance!"

Outside Pingyao County.

When Li Yunlong left the POW camp, in order to cover up the tracks of his actions, he frantically used explosives to flatten the entire camp into ruins.

Therefore, by the time the Japanese reinforcements arrived, other than a pile of rubble and broken tiles, they found absolutely nothing else.

However, while ordinary Japanese soldiers could not make out anything, Tatsushita Jun was different.

He picked a bullet casing out of the rubble and held it up to the sunlight.

"Fine brass bullet casing?"

"Ryuu-shu!" Miyamoto Shigeru stepped forward and bowed, handing over a photograph just developed in Pingyao County.

Tatsushita did not take the photo; instead, he helped Miyamoto up.

"Senior Brother Miyamoto, there is no need to be so formal outside."

"Just call me A-Jun."

Miyamoto sighed and nodded.

After taking the photograph, he consciously stood to one side, immediately assuming a defensive posture to protect Tatsushita's personal safety.

This photo had been taken by a Japanese soldier inside the camp to boast about how many prisoners he was guarding.

Most of it captured the figures of the Chinese soldiers detained within.

After glancing at a few faces, Tatsushita's gaze was instantly caught by one specific person in the photo.

This person?

It's Zhou Weiguo!

He was actually captured by us!

Fortunately, he has been rescued!

Tatsushita let out a sigh of relief.

Then, he sighed, "I never expected, Weiguo, that we would ultimately meet on the battlefield."

Pulling out a lighter, he burned the photograph and its negative to ashes before speaking to Miyamoto.

"Senior Brother Miyamoto, tell Lieutenant Colonel Yamamoto that this was merely a routine rescue operation by the Chinese army targeting their own prisoners."

"We discovered no unexpected circumstances; please ask him to prepare for battle with peace of mind."

"Hai!"

......

In the south of Shanxi Province, Chongqing.

By this time, the Generalissimo had transferred most of his core staff here.

"I wonder if we can hold onto Nanjing!"

Shaking his head, the Generalissimo opened a file and began dealing with military affairs.

At that moment, Director Dai pushed the door open and rushed in anxiously.

Upon seeing him, the Generalissimo instantly peroused with renewed spirit.

"Yurong, how is it?"

"When can the regimental flag of the Sakata Regiment be delivered?"

However, the expression on Director Dai's face was not very pleasant.

"General, Liu Jianguo is unwilling to hand over the Sakata Regiment's flag just like that!"

"Not only that, it seems he wants to make a deal with Old Yan as well!"

"This bastard!" The Generalissimo sneered coldly upon hearing this. "A mere division commander of a miscellaneous unit dares to disobey my order!"

"It seems he doesn't know how the word 'death' is written!"

"Please calm your anger, General, please calm your anger," Director Dai hurriedly persuaded. "Show respect to the monk for the Buddha's sake."

"I've made some inquiries about the New First Division."

"A mere Liu Jianguo could certainly never manage to acquire so many advanced foreign equipment."

"There must be Western powers supporting him behind the scenes!"

"Hmph!" The Generalissimo snorted coldly. "These bastards, when asked to help intervene in the Japanese invasion, they don't utter a peep."

"Behind our backs, they're playing tricks on me!"

"A bunch of robbers indeed!"

Taking a deep breath to calm his inner irritation, the Generalissimo continued.

"Yurong, go to Changzhi in person and see what demands he actually has!"

"As long as it's not too outrageous, you can agree to it directly!"

"No matter what, we must get our hands on the Sakata Regiment's flag!"

......

Inside a luxury mansion in Jincheng.

"What!" Yan Xishan slammed his palm fiercely onto the table.

"That bastard Liu Jianguo is actually making astronomical demands!"

"Demanding 10 million silver dollars and 10 tons of gold from me!"

"Why doesn't he just go rob a bank!"

Yang Aiyuan, standing nearby, sighed inwardly.

Isn't this fellow practically robbing money right out of your hands?

Who told you to be the one begging for help?

However, one could not say it quite like that.

Yang Aiyuan reminded him, "Commander-in-Chief, if Liu Jianguo doesn't want Luoyang and only wants money, then we're still coming out ahead."

Huangcun suspected Terauchi Hisaichi's bounty, if this fellow finds out about it, I'm afraid......"

Yang Aiyuan did not need to finish; Yan Xishan knew what he meant.

If the other party had channels on the Japanese side, and was ruthless enough, he could easily arrange an "accident" and deliver the flag right back to the Japanese North China Area Army.

That way, he would get the money and earn the reputation.

Killing two birds with one stone!

As for the Japanese possibly using this to threaten Liu Jianguo?

Joking aside, if this matter leaked out, the ones who would lose face the most would be Terauchi Hisaichi and the senior leadership of the Japanese North China Area Army.

And perhaps the Japanese Emperor would even make them commit seppuku to apologize and erase this mistake!

This was precisely why, even though Yan Xishan was at irreconcilable odds with Terauchi Hisaichi, he still wanted to pull off this deal.

Making money, after all, is nothing to be ashamed of!

Realizing this, Yan Xishan's mood improved slightly.

"Alright! Tell Liu Jianguo to keep everything strictly confidential!"

"Within half a month, we will trade at the Yellow River ferry crossing!"

......

At 8:00 PM, within the garrison zone of the 359th Regiment of the Jin-Sui Army at Daqu Town.

As soon as Regiment Commander Liu Daming walked through the door, he hurried over to the iron stove to warm himself.

Inside the room, Chen Zhiming, commander of the 1st Battalion of the 359th Regiment, quickly brought him a cup of hot water.

"Regiment Commander, have a cup of hot water to warm up."

Accepting the hot water, Liu Daming sighed helplessly.

"Sigh, I heard Old Four Xu from the neighboring regiment say they're leaving this place tomorrow to head for the south bank of the Yellow River."

Chen Zhiming hurriedly asked, "Regiment Commander, when will it be our regiment's turn?"

"Everyone is retreating; if we stay any longer, we'll be left behind to die!"

Liu Daming shook his head at this.

"We still have to wait in line."

Gritting his teeth, Chen Zhiming continued.

"Regiment Commander, I heard that Tiger Liu at the ferry crossing is quite greedy for money!"

"If push comes to shove, the brothers can chip in, pool some silver dollars, and get us out of here quickly."

I've been waiting for you to say that.

Otherwise, if I had to pay out of my own pocket, I'd lose a fortune!

What neither of them knew was that at that very moment, the gates of several courtyards in Daqu Town had quietly opened.

A squad of figures wearing non-reflective steel helmets, goggles, heavy leather boots, and uniform US-made Thompson submachine guns surged out.

Why not use MP38 submachine guns? Because the Mustache's own army hadn't even equipped them yet.

How could they let the Japanese get them in advance!

Though the leading Japanese officer wore a blank expression, a fanatic excitement was deeply hidden beneath that icy visage.

If Liu Jianguo were here, he would find this person extremely familiar.

Yamamoto Kazuki!

The live-fire exercise he had spoken of earlier was to wipe out every single living soul of the Jin-Sui Army's 359th Regiment in Daqu Town!

To meet the standards required for the battle, Yamamoto had pulled a full 1,000 Japanese soldiers from within the North China Area Army in just a single day.

Through ruthless selection and training with zero regard for casualties over the next two days, out of those 1,000 reserve members for the Yamamoto Commando, over 800 were eliminated.

The number of personnel who were permanently dropped from the selection due to injury or death reached as high as two hundred!

Though losing so many of the Empire's elite hurt, Yamamoto felt it was all worth it.

For the grand cause, everything could be sacrificed!

Tonight was the time to test the results!

Three Japanese officers gathered around Yamamoto before he slowly spoke.

"Check your times. It is now eight-pinf-nine."

"In six minutes, each squad will execute its assigned objective!"

"Hai!" *3

"Move out!!!"

With a wave of Yamamoto's hand, the other two squads of the Yamamoto Commando split off.

One squad hurried toward the headquarters of the Jin-Sui Army's 359th Regiment.

The other squad headed toward the encampment of the 1st Battalion of the 359th Regiment.

Taking up an advantageous position with his own squad of commandos, Yamamoto waited in silence, quietly awaiting news from the other two teams.

Not long after, the rat-a-tat of gunfire rang out from the direction of the 359th Regiment's headquarters.

Hearing the gunfire, a look of disappointment instantly appeared on Yamamoto's face.

"Baka yaro! Truly a bunch of fools; they couldn't even complete the most basic stealth maneuver."

"Looks like I'll have to train them thoroughly when we get back!"

"Such a pack of losers!"

Inside the headquarters of the Jin-Sui Army's 359th Regiment.

Liu Daming looked at the commander of the guard company before him—who was also his brother-in-law, Zhao Wuming—and flew into a rage.

"You fucking lot are good for nothing!"

"I gave you 30 submachine guns, 6 Czech light machine guns, and 2 Type 24 heavy machine guns!"

"That was just a dozen or so Japanese soldiers, yet in a single exchange, they battered your guard company of over a hundred men into this state!"

"Twenty-odd dead, thirty-odd wounded!"

"If word of this gets out, how can I ever show my face in the Jin-Sui Army again!"

Holding his arm where a bullet had grazed him, Zhao Wuming wore a crying expression as he said, "Brother-in-law, these Japanese are just too freakish!"

"They were all equipped with uniform automatic weapons, and their shooting was dead-on!"

"The moment you stuck your head out anywhere in the light, you were practically dead for sure!"

"If it hadn't been pitch black, even I might not have made it back!"

Liu Daming simply refused to believe it!

In Daqu Town, he had over 500 soldiers of the 359th Regiment under his command.

"Let's go!"

"I'm going to show them just how many eyes Lord Ma has!"

Ten minutes later.

Bang!

After the final gunshot rang out, a bullet hole appeared in the forehead of Liu Daming, who had raised both hands in surrender.

He crashed to the ground, his eyes wide with unfulfilled grievance in death.

Liu Daming could not understand why he, such a valuable Jin-Sui Army regiment commander who had clearly surrendered, was still executed by the enemy.

Yamamoto killed Liu Daming with the cold detachment of crushing an ant, his face expressionless.

Then, he stepped forward and delivered three fierce slaps to the face of the commando squad leader who had escorted Liu Daming in.

Slap, slap, slap!!!

"Baka yaro! What did I say!"

"In this operation, we take no prisoners! No prisoners whatsoever!"

"Do you understand?!"

Enduring the burning pain on his face, the commando squad leader immediately bowed in apology.

"Gomen nasai!"

Yamamoto swept his gaze across all the commando members around him and said coldly.

"If anyone dares to violate my order again next time!"

"You can commit seppuku to atone for it!"

"Hai!" *N

Half an hour later, the hurriedly arriving Jin-Sui Army reinforcements were stunned by the scene inside Daqu Town.

Civilians and soldiers alike were all dead, down to the last person.

......

A day later, the New First Division welcomed a secretly arriving guest.

Director Dai!

From the moment he received the Generalissimo's order, he first assumed the identity of a Nationalist army lieutenant colonel, boarded a special plane, and swiftly arrived in Luoyang.

After that, he assumed another identity as a deputy regiment commander of the Jin-Sui Army, crossed the Yellow River, and traveled all the way to Changzhi in a military transport truck.

The moment he laid eyes on Liu Jianguo—who radiated no arrogance whatsoever—Director Dai knew the man was a formidable adversary.

"Director Dai," Liu Jianguo smiled and extended his right hand. "I didn't expect you to come. Please, have a seat."

Director Dai similarly smiled and extended his right hand. "You young people nowadays truly command respect!"

After a brief exchange of polite pleasantries, the two men immediately got down to business.

"Division Commander Liu, Chairman Chiang has sent me to handle this matter with full authority. You can state your demands directly."

Liu Jianguo didn't beat around the bush; he raised three fingers on his right hand.

"I have three demands!"

"First demand: I want the establishment of an army corps!"

Never underestimate the issue of military establishment.

The one calling the shots right now was the Generalissimo, and he had deliberately suppressed the legitimate expansion of other military forces.

Director Dai nodded.

"This demand is not excessive; I can agree to it on behalf of the Chairman."

"Second demand: I can accept orders from Chongqing, but I demand independent operational authority."

In short, heed the decrees, but not the deployment orders.

Hearing this, Director Dai raised an eyebrow slightly, then agreed.

As for the final demand, he listened with a look of utter astonishment.

After studying Liu Jianguo for a long time, Director Dai nodded.

All sides were gathering their forces, and the path the New First Division would take remained unknown to anyone.

Yet Liu Jianguo firmly believed that as long as they persevered, they would surely forge a new future!

He was waiting for that day to arrive!