Chapter 3 Storm (Eight Seconds)

Anyone who betrays their country and nation is a political speculator. The reason why they betray their civilization is on the one hand to exchange for better living conditions, and on the other hand, it is because their motherland is too weak and there is almost no possibility of rebirth in the ashes.

This is true for Tao Ketao. As a native of Northeast China, he has often witnessed Japanese soldiers rampant in China's territory since he could remember. At that time, the local governments in Northeast China did not dare to control it, and even dared not protest. Instead, they often took the initiative to suppress those spontaneous rebels, so as not to offend the Japanese and bring disaster to the local area.

Subsequently, the outbreak of the September 18th Incident made Tao Ketao deeply feel the power of the invaders. At that time, all the Japanese troops stationed in the three northeastern provinces had only more than 20,000 people. At that time, the Northeast Army, which remained outside the pass, had a scale of 160,000 to 70,000, and had a complete armed forces manufacturing system, stocking hundreds of thousands of guns, thousands of artillery, and more than 200 aircraft of various types. However, in China, the Japanese army, which had an absolute disadvantage in combat, only spent one night to occupy the entire city of Chenyang, conquered Liaoning a week later, and conquered all cities in Jilin provinces one month later, and captured most of Heilongjiang a month later. All the Northeast Army, except General Ma Zhanshan commanded his three brigades of his direct line, and resisted, the rest either took the initiative to sell themselves or abandoned their weapons and retreated into the pass, and did not even have the courage to struggle a little from beginning to end.

One hundred thousand troops were disarmed, and none of them were men. The entire Northeast Army, from the young commander Zhang Xueliang, could not find a few people with him. As a rich second-generation who had received Japanese education since childhood and admired Japanese life, Tao Ketao would not choose to sacrifice himself for the national crisis. On the contrary, he came to a conclusion from the defeat of the Northeast Army, that is, after Kublai Khan went south and Huang Taiji entered the pass, the opportunity for the third major change of dynasty was here. As long as he took this ride, even if he couldn't become a "famous minister" like Zhang Hongfan, Ning Wan, he was more than enough to be a second-class famous minister like He Renjie and Hong Chengchou, and the risk was extremely small. As long as he ran errands for the Japanese and spoke, it was basically enough. He could not charge himself in person. (Note 1)

The subsequent development of the situation was indeed as Tao Ketao expected. The Japanese conquered the three northeastern provinces. The Nanjing government protested and protested again, but did not dare to declare war. The subsequent battle for the Great Wall and the autonomous movements in Rehe and other places were generally the same. Although the 29th Army was an alternative, overall, the National Revolutionary Army was still like paper, and it leaked as soon as it was poked. Tao Ketao was also more active in cooperating with various conspiracies and tricks of the Japanese side. From the Kwantung Army Senator, Secretary of the King of Germany to the Director of the Foreign Affairs of the Pseudo Mongolian Military Government, he rose to the top one after another.

In the following July 7 Incident, the National Revolutionary Army still did not improve much, especially in the Battle of Taiyuan, except for Sun Lianzhong's troops and the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, the performance of the other troops in the entire Second War Zone was a mess. The Japanese army drove the National Revolutionary Army, which was several times more than its own, from northern Shanxi to southern Shanxi, and then from southern Shanxi to Henan and Jiangsu. If Chiang Kai-shek had not made up his mind to dig the Yellow River, Tao Ketao would have probably become a historical term.

In every battle, Tao Ketao regarded himself as a Japanese citizen and cheered loudly for the "braveness" of the invaders. He saw the golden avenue in front of him spread straight towards the sky, so flat that there was no pothole. However, just when he was intoxicated by his daydream, a slap made the stars in front of him burst into pieces.

Fu Zuoyi took the initiative to attack the Japanese army. After more than four months of battle, he finally won. What is this? You know, in the sequence of the National Revolutionary Army, Fu Zuoyi can only be regarded as a second-class force vassal of the Jin army. Above him, there are three giants Jiang, Li and Yan, and an 18th Army that is free from this system. If Fu Zuoyi has the ability to challenge the Japanese army and can win the battle, then Yan Xishan, who holds more powerful forces than Fu's troops, Li Zongren, who controls the entire new Guangxi clan, and Chiang Kai-shek, who has received twenty divisions of Soviet arms and has been secretly supported by the Americans in the form of civilians. Just as the three giants suddenly woke up, would the Japanese still have the chance to conquer the entire China?

There is no hope, at least from the current development momentum, the hope is very slim. Bao Lihua said it well. It has only been a few years. From the July 7 Incident to the present, it only took two years and nine months to push forward to September 18th. It was only a nine-year or ten-year situation. In ten years, the Chinese army has gone from defeating without fighting, to local resistance to local resistance, and then to local proactive counterattack. However, when the Japanese Kwantung Army swept across the three northeastern provinces, it went from a brigade chasing a division in China to a division with a division in China, and then to a mixed gang that had to be dispatched to be sure to eliminate a main A-type regiment in China. The growth and decline of strength had been turned upside down without realizing it.

What should I do if Japan was finally defeated by China? Before today, Tao Ketao would never think of similar questions. He firmly believed that as long as the morning sun rose normally from the east, there would be no such possibility. However, when he gave Sakai Takashi's suggestion to secretly contact the Chinese military generals and redeem his own captured personnel, Sakai Takashi agreed to it, from the moment this belief that had supported him for nearly ten years was shaken in an instant. The Japanese were not sure to find the place back from Fu Zuoyi, so they chose other means without hesitation. Tao Ketao felt shock and frustration because the reflex arc in his brain was too long. At this moment, he was reminded by his confidant Bao Lihua, but suddenly found that he was running wildly on the dead end, and then he was sweating profusely.

It is absolutely more difficult to ask a political speculator to choose to be absolutely loyal to a certain force than to ask a ninth-generation prostitute to keep his body as if he was not right. When he saw that the wind was wrong, he immediately hooked up with his next family. It was almost their innate instinct. Even though this next family was abandoned by him and sat at the desk for half an hour, Tao Ketao stretched out his sleeves to wipe the sweat off his face, and made a decisive decision again, "You can just organize the manpower and prepare for other things. By the way, I will prepare a few sets of military uniforms from the Jinsui Army in case of emergencies."

"Military uniforms," ​​Bao Lihua was stunned and asked in surprise. He remembered that he had never remembered that any shop in Guisui City had sold the military uniforms of the Jinsui Army. Even if it was sold as old clothes, it was impossible for the Japanese secret service to see that it must be the charge of siege and extermination of the family.

"There is a warehouse in the Foreign Affairs Department. Even if you knock on the door, you just say I asked you to go. At this critical moment, they dare not make things difficult for you." Tao Ketao smiled and added lightly that King De was under house arrest in his temporary residence. The entire Mongolian and Xinjiang autonomous government is now in chaos by the Japanese. All officials of King De are in danger. At this critical moment, he, a pro-Japanese leader who is likely to make a comeback, dare not offend him easily. And the stronger he is, the more people come to surrender.

Bao Lihua was not very good at this kind of intrigue, so he simply did not think about the whole story and directly expressed his obedience, "Then I will go, Master, you can rest for a while. If you go to the night, you need to accumulate energy in advance."

"Well, I know, you go quickly." Tao Ketao waved his hand impatiently, drove the other party away, and then took out the handwritten letter from Sakai Takashi Sakai, the "highest consultant of the Kwantung Army in Mongolian" and re-examined the lights. He would definitely send it. Even if the Japanese would eventually be defeated, it was not the past two years. The higher the position of the pseudo-Mongolia autonomous government, the greater the room for bargaining when changing the door in the future. What he needs to do now is to establish his own contact channel with the National Government while running for the Japanese in order to prepare for future needs. I believe that the National Government also welcomes the second forces on the grassland, in addition to King De and Li Shouxin, to secretly move closer to him.

After making up the idea of ​​cunning rabbits, he tried to cheer up and prepare some information that might be useful in this trip. Some of them belong to the internal confidential documents of the Mongolian Autonomous Government, and some of them belong to the top secrets of the Japanese army. He carefully selected some of them in his suitcases that he had been in contact with. Anyway, he was ordered by Takashi Sakai this time, the Japanese secret service agencies would not check his luggage. At this moment of panic, the so-called Mongolian government police department would never dare to focus on a senior cadre who had been running for the Japanese for nearly ten years.

As it turned out, his prediction was correct at all. After being instructed by Takashi Sakai, the Japanese spies in Guisui City not only did not conduct any searches on Tao Ketao and others, but also took the initiative to open the city gate for them. With the puzzled eyes of the puppet troops on duty, they sent them out and escorted them all the way to the Kundulun River Ferry, and then waved their goodbye uneasy.

After crossing the Kundulun River, he officially entered the war zone. Tao Ketao and his confidants cheered up and carefully approached the control range of Fu Zuoyi's troops at a speed of about 60 miles a day. Although he had already prepared himself, when he saw the scene of the Japanese army retreating in panic, he was still shocked.

The Japanese samurai who were once known for their strict military appearance became a loser. Not only did the marching team go smoothly, but everyone in the team was full of decadence and mud.

The Chinese army that was fighting and blocking digging the Ula trench embankment. This was the news that Tao Ketao had only after he showed the warrant given to him by Takashi Sakai. After several low-level Japanese officers who tried to come over to "requisition" the war horses, he had just melted the frozen river and slapped all the artillery and cars under the 26th Division and the supplies transported cars. The soldiers relied on their reactions fast enough to avoid being drowned. However, it was absolutely impossible to reinforce Wuyuan City. In this warm and cold weather, without drying clothes and not having enough food to fill their stomachs, it would be like seeking death. The Chinese army around Wuyuan City could come and directly capture a group of high fever patients without even firing a gun, and guaranteed that they would not be subject to any effective resistance.

"Then, what about the people in Wuyuan City? I mean, I mean the Chief of the Sanghara, and the Deputy Chief Mizukawa." While taking out the dry food he carried with him to satisfy his hunger, Tao Ketao tentatively inquire.

"The jade, the jade is broken, it must be all broken." Several Japanese officers rolled their eyes when they were choked by dry food, and responded intermittently, "Wuyuan City fell the day before yesterday afternoon. The plane sent to pick up people was simply unable to land. I guess none of the people inside escaped."
Chapter completed!