freenovelworld Chapter 988 Settlement Procedure Initiated
Chapter 988 Settlement Procedure Initiated
Faced with the surging undercurrents beneath the surface, Colonel Yusuke Ichijo, the temporary ruler of Nanjing, remained unusually calm and vigilant.
He knew he was sitting on a giant powder keg, and the slightest mistake could trigger a devastating explosion.
In the temporary command post set up in the former Ministry of Railways building of the Nationalist Government, Yusuke Ichijo stayed up all night, deep in thought as he stared at the huge map of Nanjing.
He adopted a series of sophisticated checks and balances strategies.
Divide and conquer. He intentionally treated different units’ applications to enter the city differently. Sometimes he approved small teams from the Kwantung Army to enter the city to “perform military duties”, and sometimes he allowed logistics personnel from the North China Area Army to enter the city to “count supplies”. This created the illusion of “equal opportunity” but in reality, it made both sides suspicious of each other and neither could gain a monopolistic advantage.
He strictly controlled the information regarding the inventory of supplies within the city, only releasing vague messages to the outside world, such as "the warehouse is severely damaged" and "there are not many valuable items," in order to lower the expectations of the troops outside the city and delay their pace of taking drastic action.
At the same time, he closely monitored the radio communications between the divisions and regiments to keep track of their movements.
Relying on his authority, he constantly emphasized that his power came directly from Takasaki Takuto in Tianjin, and revealed the news that a large military police force was about to arrive, in order to deter those with ill intentions.
Any small actions that dare to test the bottom line, such as small-scale smuggling or border patrols, will be resolutely and swiftly cracked down on without any mercy.
Late at night, Yusuke sent a coded telegram to Takasaki Takuto in Tianjin, a report filled with a sense of crisis: "Commander Takasaki, the surface order in Nanjing has been initially established, but undercurrents are surging and dangers lurk everywhere."
The various units of the Kwantung Army were complacent and resentful.
The North China Army, on the other hand, was hesitant and ambivalent, aiming to profit from the conflict.
As for the surrendered soldiers in Central China, people are filled with fear and despair, and there is a fear that they may do something extreme.
The divisions harbor deep-seated grudges, which have been brewing for some time. Currently, the situation is only temporarily balanced by the pressure from the military police, which is like sitting on a powder keg.
In my opinion, to achieve long-term stability, we cannot simply rely on forceful suppression. We need to combine firmness with flexibility, showing our authority while also offering small favors when appropriate to ease their resentment and divide their forces. Only in this way can we gradually gain control of the overall situation.
They eagerly awaited the arrival of reinforcements to bolster their morale.
Yusuke Ichijo. "
This report not only objectively described the crisis, but also subtly offered his own strategic suggestions, and demonstrated his loyalty, showing that he was not just a military man, but a manager with considerable political acumen.
The nights in Nanjing are cold and long.
Inside and outside the city walls, various forces were plotting, waiting, and stirring in the darkness.
With his calm judgment and iron-fisted methods, Yusuke Ichijo temporarily suppressed this surging undercurrent.
But everyone understands that this fragile balance is extremely dangerous; any unexpected spark, such as the arrival of that special "envoy," could ignite it.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
On the last day of January 1938, the winter night in Tianjin was exceptionally cold.
The Japanese concession was eerily quiet, save for the occasional mournful wail of a ship's horn on the Haihe River, like the city's faint breath in the bitter cold.
The window of the study on the second floor of the Japanese military police headquarters residence, located in a secluded corner, still shines with a dim and persistent light.
Inside the study, Zhou Zhengqing rubbed his throbbing temples vigorously.
On the large desk, the documents that had just been reviewed were spread out, the top one being the "Strengthening Plan for Special Security and Crackdown in North China in 2014".
The ink on the signature was still wet, and the somber atmosphere emanating from the words blended seamlessly with the cold night outside the window.
The ashtray was piled high with cigarette butts from the "Golden Bat" brand, and the air was filled with a complex aroma of tobacco, fine ink, and a faint hint of sandalwood.
He stood up and walked to the window.
The heavy velvet curtains were half-drawn, revealing a meticulously manicured courtyard of the Japanese concession that now appeared desolate, with bare branches creaking in the cold wind.
In the distance, the lights of Tianjin city were sparse, a stark contrast to Nanjing, the ancient capital of six dynasties, a thousand miles away, which had just experienced a bizarre and bloody internal conflict and was still soaked in blood and fire. It seemed like two completely different worlds.
One is the morbid tranquility under the colonial order, and the other is the deathly silence after the mad implosion of an empire.
This sense of spatial disconnect, intertwined with his inner feeling of alienation due to a misalignment of time and space, made him feel a deep weariness and loneliness.
Just as he was lost in thought, deep within his mind, the system that had transported him through time and space, granting him his current physical form and authority, emitted a clear notification sound after a long absence.
The sound was not the sharp alarm of previous emergency missions, but a lower, more muffled hum with a complex mechanical rhythm, like the self-check echo of a giant computer after completing a massive calculation.
[Ding! Repayment task, task number: ZQ-1937-12-N.]
Task Name: The Tragedy of Jinling, Settlement Process Initiated.
Data collection complete, causal chain perturbation analysis completed, historical trajectory offset calculation in progress.
[Main Quest Phase 1: The Tragedy of Jinling - Completed.]
[Comprehensive evaluation and merit point calculation have begun...]
Zhou Zhengqing's spirits lifted instantly, like an investor who had finally heard crucial news after a long wait.
He quickly turned around, returned to his desk, and sank deeply into the large, comfortable leather chair.
He closed his eyes and immersed his entire consciousness into the system interface that only he could perceive, a interface that transcended the physical dimension.
At first, what appeared before me was not specific text or images, but a chaotic, flowing stream of data light.
Countless shimmering points and lines dart, collide, and recombine at an astonishing speed, resembling nebulae in the early universe.
These streams of light are interspersed with rapidly flashing fragments of the scene.
A series of scene fragments flashed through the data optical stream.
The bullet-riddled city walls, soldiers facing swarms of enemies like locusts, ghostly figures in the sewers, the desperate eyes of captured enemy generals, the dejected generals at surrender ceremonies, the moment when military police posted public notices in the streets, and the faces of those who miraculously survived the war.
These fragments, like dust of memories swept up by a storm, were quickly captured, analyzed, and categorized by the system's powerful computing capabilities.
Gradually, the raging data stream began to subside, the light on the system interface stabilized, and the holographic settlement report became exceptionally clear. The cold font seemed to be cast from solidified starlight, presenting cruel arithmetic without any emotion.
[Core mission objective achievement assessment: Extremely high.]