When the final fight was over, both Xu Chengyan and Ji Yun breathed a long sigh of relief. This assassination operation was extremely difficult. The two of them had done enough preparations, and after careful planning and exhaustion, they finally succeeded.

But now is not the time to relax. The top priority is to evacuate the scene as soon as possible and not stay here for too long.

Xu Chengyan suddenly remembered that his dagger was still inserted into Han Zhirong's body and had not been withdrawn, so he quickly said to Ji Yun: "I'll go upstairs to check, and you can clean up as well. We'll evacuate immediately."

Because of the fierce fight, Ji Yun's hair was messy, his clothes were wrinkled, and he was quite embarrassed. Going out like this would easily attract the attention of others, especially the patrol police and patrol teams patrolling nearby.

Ji Yun nodded when he heard this, indicating to Xu Chengyan not to worry about him, and quickly went upstairs to finish the work.

Xu Chengyan turned around and quickly went upstairs, entered the living room, and came to Han Zhirong's side. At this time, Han Zhirong was already dead. He grabbed the dagger, pulled it out with force, wiped the blood on Han Zhirong's clothes, and put it away close to his body.

Then he turned to look at Masao Yoshioka, and saw that his eyes were wide open, blood was bleeding from all his orifices, and his face was ferocious, looking extremely terrifying.

When he was about to leave, his eyes suddenly glanced at a black briefcase next to Masao Yoshioka. His heart suddenly moved, so he stepped forward to pick up the briefcase, turned around and left.

In his previous assassination operations, he never took any items or property. Firstly, he was afraid of delaying his evacuation. Secondly, because some stolen goods were difficult to get rid of and could easily put himself in danger. This was when he was performing tasks in Southern Jiangsu.

, the profound lessons left behind.

But the things around Masao Yoshioka are different. Given his status, he can carry them in his briefcase. Of course, they are not ordinary belongings, but most likely items with considerable intelligence value.

But now Xu Chengyan didn't have time to check carefully. He had to evacuate the place as soon as possible. When he came downstairs again, he saw that Ji Yun had tidied up. The two people immediately left the house and came to the back door. They stuck their heads out and observed for a while, but found nothing unusual.

, then he walked out of the courtyard gate and left quickly.

An hour later, the two people who returned home safely opened Masao Yoshioka's briefcase and took out the items inside.

There were three envelopes in total, two of which were yellow with the word "secret" written in Japanese on them.

Xu Chengyan was overjoyed. It turned out to be a confidential document. He hurriedly opened an envelope and took out a document from it.

After opening it, he looked through it carefully. There was a lot of dense content on it, and it was all written in Japanese. He only glanced at it a few times, and felt a chill on his back. His heart was beating rapidly, and his face became extremely pale.

dignified.

"What document is it?" Ji Yun looked at Xu Chengyan's expression and asked in surprise.

Xu Chengyan flipped through the document and handed it to Ji Yun: "This is the investigation report of the Japanese intelligence department on the Jiyuan and Mengxian areas. They have penetrated these two areas very well, and they were able to obtain the information of the national army garrison."

Military secrets, military locations, the number of personnel, the configuration of arms, various weapons and equipment, the locations of supply depots... How did they collect so much intelligence? It's incredible!"

The more Xu Chengyan spoke, the more frightened he became. Ji Yun was so frightened that he stood up suddenly, grabbed the document, held it in front of his eyes, and read through it eagerly.

Ji Yun's Japanese level is certainly not as good as Xu Chengyan's, but Xu Chengyan once taught him Japanese when he was in Sunan, and Japanese contains many Chinese characters, so he can barely read documents.

After a long time, Ji Yun put down the document with a serious expression on his face, and neither of them spoke for a while.

Currently in Shanxi, there are three main Chinese armies confronting the Japanese army.

One was an army of the Red Party. In order to resolutely resist Japan and block the Japanese army's westward advance, the Eighth Route Army crossed the Yellow River from Shaanxi and entered Shanxi. In the vast area east of the Yellow River and west of Tongpu Road, relying on the Luliang Mountains, it established the northwest Shanxi base area.

.

One is the Jin army under former Shanxi Provincial Chairman Yan Xishan. This army was originally strong, but suffered heavy losses in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War. It is currently stationed in the western Shanxi area, with a small territory, limited troops, and relatively weak strength.

The last one is the Central Army of the Kuomintang. They are guarding the Zhongtiao Mountains in southern Shanxi. This is also heavily guarded by the Kuomintang army and is the last line of defense north of the Yellow River.

In the early days of the war, the Japanese army captured most of Shanxi with sharp troops. After occupying Taiyuan, they moved south along the Fen River Basin. In order to prevent the Japanese army from crossing the Yellow River south and threatening the Central Plains, the Kuomintang mobilized heavy troops and dispatched nearly 300,000 troops.

Elite troops stationed in the Zhongtiao Mountains in southern Shanxi to block the Japanese attack and built strong positions based on the dangerous mountain terrain, turning the Zhongtiao Mountains into a strong castle.

Zhongtiao Mountain faces the Yellow River on its back and runs across the southwestern part of Shanxi Province. It is connected to the Taihang Mountains to the east and Jishan Mountain to the west. It is more than 300 miles long and more than 100 miles wide. It serves as a barrier between Henan and Shaanxi and protects the strategic location in the northwest.

The Japanese army has always regarded the Zhongtiao Mountain base area as a serious threat. If they could occupy this place, they would be equivalent to occupying the bridgehead for the southward and northward invasion. Going south, they could cross the Yellow River, attack Longhai, and invade the hinterland of the Central Plains such as Henan.

Going north can also connect with its main occupied areas in Shanxi, relieve the troubles of close confidants, and improve the security situation in the occupied areas of North China. Therefore, the Zhongtiao Mountain area is regarded by both China and Japan as an important place for the security of their relations.

For this reason, in the ensuing battle, the Japanese army in North China mobilized a huge force of four divisions and attacked the Zhongtiao Mountain base area from three sides in an attempt to open up the defense line on the north bank of the Yellow River.

However, despite the fierce offensive of the Japanese army, and there have been six large-scale attacks so far in the battle, the Kuomintang army is strong and occupying a favorable terrain and resisting desperately. The two sides engaged in an extremely cruel tug-of-war on this battlefield.

Everyone paid a heavy price.

As a result, the Japanese army was defeated every time and returned in disastrous defeat. For this reason, the top leaders of the Kuomintang once proudly called the Zhongtiao Mountain Front the "Maginot Line of Defense" of China.

However, the Japanese army did not give up. They still mobilized heavy troops to surround Zhongtiao Mountain and tried to organize a new attack. They vowed not to give up until Zhongtiao Mountain was taken!

Faced with this situation, the Kuomintang troops were of course on standby, guarding various fortresses and always preparing for the Japanese attack. The Jiyuan and Mengxian areas mentioned in this investigation report were exactly where the Japanese army attacked from east to west.

An important pass in the Zhongtiao Mountain War Zone.

It is conceivable that the Japanese army, which has a thorough understanding of the actual situation of the national army's eastern defense line, will definitely take the route of the next large-scale attack on Jiyuan and Mengxian on the eastern defense line of the Zhongtiao Mountain Military Region.

Using these two passes as the breakthrough points, we can advance all the way west, seize Fengkou and Shaoyuan from Jiyuan, attack Guanyang from Mengxian, and go straight to the military region headquarters. The entire Zhongtiao Mountain defense line will be completely destroyed. The situation is very serious.

.

So Xu Chengyan and Ji Yun were both shocked by this investigation report. It took a long time before Ji Yun said: "There must be a mole!"

"There is a mole!"

Xu Chengyan nodded in agreement. No matter how powerful the Japanese investigators were, they would never have access to such confidential information. Only people who were familiar with internal secrets could describe it in such detail.

Xu Chengyan analyzed and said: "These two passes are guarded by the 14th Army. Within their headquarters, there must be an insider who knows the inside story and is informing the Japanese. This person must be dug out, otherwise

There is no way to fight the next battle."

Even if they reported the intelligence leak this time, the garrison troops in the military region made adjustments and preparedness, withstood the Japanese attack, and passed this crisis, but there is no way to guard against thieves for a thousand days, and the intelligence will be leaked next time

, I won’t have the good luck this time.

Ji Yun smiled bitterly and said: "We are just grassroots intelligence agents. We are soft-spoken and can't stretch our hands that far. They can only rely on themselves for this kind of thing. First, report the situation quickly. The sooner the better. There must be no delay.

,"

"Of course." Xu Chengyan nodded solemnly. There was only so much he could do in this matter. Being able to hand in this investigation report was already a great achievement.

Next, I opened another white envelope. After unfolding it, I saw that there were only a few pages of letter paper, written in Chinese. This was a personal letter. The recipient of the letter was Masao Yoshioka, but the content inside was not

Simple.

Because this was an honest letter, the sender turned out to be a senior official in the Political Health Department named Sun Mingshi.

The so-called Political Security Division, the abbreviation of the former Political Security Division of the Taiyuan Appeasement Office, is a special agent agency specially established by the former Shanxi Jin Army. It is directly under the command of Shanxi Provincial Chairman Yan Zhenshan, and its scope of activities is limited to Shanxi Province and Suiyuan Province.

within the territory.

Although the Political and Health Department is far inferior in strength to the three intelligence organizations of the underground party, military unification, and central unification, it is still very powerful in Shanxi.

After the defeat of the Jin army, senior military and political officials withdrew to western Shanxi, and even fled to Shaanxi for a while. The agents of the Political and Health Department were not idle. They were ordered to lurk in various places in Shanxi, especially in Taiyuan.

We have been operating here for many years and have a very deep foundation.

A senior official of the Political Health Department with such a background actually wants to defect to the enemy. Once the secrets of the Political Health Department are revealed to the Japanese, it will definitely be a disaster for the Political Health Department. Maybe, the entire Political Health Department in Shanxi will be destroyed.

The agents of the Department will all make the same mistake as the Taiyuan Station of the Military Command.

Sun Mingshi's tone in the letter was humble and full of flattery, indicating that he was willing to work for Masao Yoshioka secretly and that he was willing to cooperate with Japan in subsequent negotiations to seek the greatest interests.

"negotiation?"

Xu Chengyan frowned. The negotiation mentioned in this letter only contained a few words, and no more detailed information could be obtained. But since it is a negotiation, the relationship between the two parties is equal. Who can negotiate with the Japanese?

Of course, only the big man behind the Political Health Department, former Shanxi Provincial Chairman Yan Zhenshan, and only with his identity can he have equal conversations with the Japanese. Could it be that this person intends to make peace with the Japanese, give up his anti-Japanese stance, and surrender to the Japanese?

yield?

Is this conjecture too bold? If it turns out to be true, the entire Anti-Japanese War situation will undergo a huge change, and Shanxi will be difficult to preserve. Regarding this somewhat far-fetched conjecture, Xu Chengyan did not dare to draw conclusions easily.

But if not, what does the negotiation in Sun Mingshi's letter refer to?
Chapter completed!