"This is it?" Maeda slowly lowered the wine glass and inserted his hands into the sleeve of the kimono.

Here we must introduce Major General Maeda Maeda Maeda, who graduated from the 25th phase of the Japanese Army Artillery School, an outstanding student in the 25th phase of the Japanese Army Artillery School (a junior college for the training of artillery and engineer officers in the Japanese Army), and a graduate of the 34th phase of the Army University. From this resume, it can be seen that he is a standard professional and technical officer and a member of the academic group of the Imperial Japanese Army.

This major general of the Army started out as a specialist in engineering. He had a lot of experience in the General Staff Headquarters and sneaked into the Philippines as a professional surveyor to conduct secret topographic surveying (do you feel familiar?). He worked as a team member of the First Railway Regiment and also worked as a staff member in the Personnel Bureau of the Ministry of Military Affairs. As a result, he was also attracted by the then Minister of Army Sadao Araki and served as secretary of the Mainland Prime Minister for two years. Perhaps it was because of this experience that Maeda was promoted from the Major of the Engineer to the Colonel of the Engineer. After being promoted to the Colonel of the Engineer, he was sent by the Ministry of Military Affairs to the Kanto Army for training. At that time, senior officers wanted to take a step forward, and the service experience of the Kanto Army would be of a lot of help.

Maeda is still an old worker of engineers. He served as the head of the Kanto Army Headquarters and his position is the squad leader of the Causeway Department. Of course, the Causeway Department here does not mean literally in Chinese. The "City Building" of the Japanese military refers to the construction of various defensive fortresses and barracks. Therefore, this department controls a large amount of manpower, material resources and funds, and also controls the approval and subcontracting rights of various military projects. It can be said that it is a major fatal flaw within the Kanto Army.

In history, in order to prevent the Soviet attack, the Japanese built a large number of fortresses and Yongbei fortresses in the northeast. Among them, the most famous 17 large fortresses including Dongning and Hutou were all built during Maeda's tenure, so it can be said that Maeda's hands were covered with the blood of Chinese laborers and prisoners of war.

In 1939, Maeda finally got his wish and was promoted to major general of the Japanese Army, and became one of the valuable "Your Excellency". In March 1940, he was transferred from the Third Army General Staff to the 13th Army by his superiors to the 13th Army, and served as the head of the headquarters Fu as the head of the secret service. It was mentioned earlier that Major General Maeda has always been a technician, and he is completely an amateur in intelligence work. God knows why he, a major general who was an engineer, sent him as the chief of this important secret service.

There are some rumors that it was Ying Zuo Shiaki's idea to ask the superior to call an outsider over, and the big pusher behind it was Tu Feiyuan. They thought it would be easier for them to continue to control the secret service agencies in Shanghai, because if they change to a professional intelligence officer, such as a big boss in the intelligence department of the Kwantung Army or the Army General Staff Headquarters (the latter is obviously more dangerous than the former), the shabby business that Tu Feiyuan did in Shanghai may be in danger of being completely exposed.

They are not worried that the means they use will be criticized by superiors. As long as they do not cause international flaws, the senior army leaders will usually turn a blind eye. What they are worried about is that the illegal business under the guise of "collecting intelligence funds" will be asked to get a share of the pie by their superiors. What is more likely to happen is that a senior executive simply prys the entire stall over, then replaces his confidant in the position of the chief officer, and kicks the original owner out. This kind of thing has happened in the Japanese army. To say that the power and interests battles within the Japanese army are more exciting and cruel and darker than the battle between the Japanese army and the navy.

In history, Maeda worked as the chief of the secret service agency for only ten months, then was promoted to lieutenant general of the army. After working as chief of staff of the 13th Army for a few months, he was finally transferred to the 14th Army Command to be the chief of staff. Frequent transfers like this were not very common in the Japanese army. If the superiors did not deliberately cultivate someone, they would be preparing to use someone to fill in the pit.

It is hard to tell which kind of person he belongs to until his death. He ushered in the outbreak of the Pacific War during the tenure of the Chief of Staff of the 14th Army. In the battle on the Bataan Peninsula in the last stage of the Philippine Battle, because the US military defended the defense line and the 14th Army's combat progress was unfavorable, Maeda was transferred from his post and was immediately transferred to the reserve. At this time, the lieutenant general was obviously taking the blame for the people. The superiors should actually be very clear about Maeda's resume. He has always held technical positions since he joined the army and has never had the experience of commanding the troops in actual combat.

I really don’t know how to evaluate the experience of Lieutenant General Maedan in history. As a Japanese officer, his career was over, but at the same time, he escaped the post-war US military liquidation of Japanese war criminals. You know, if he successfully captured the Bata Peninsula, then the next person to command the famous "Batan Death March" might be the Chief of Staff Maeda. The blame would be much bigger than the one he is now. Any senior Japanese general who was involved in the crimes would be sentenced to ten or eight years in prison, and the serious one would have to swing on the American gallows, such as his boss, Commander Masaharu of the 14th Japanese Army. Because Maeda was ordered to retire before Bata fell, even the responsibility for the Philippines was completely abandoned, which was a blessing.

Now let's turn the topic back to Shanghai. In the end, Tsai Akira Kaesaki finally underestimated this technical officer. Maeda had been in the Kanto Army's Forestry Department. It was not just an army department, but it was more like a bloody workplace with open and hidden arrows flying all over the sky, because the interests of military projects were too great. Some people say that there was no corruption in the Japanese army, and that was because they had never read the black materials written by the group of Japanese veterans themselves. At that time, the Japanese army made financial fraudulent accounts and were as good as their false reports of the results of the war. They even did this as early as the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, which can be regarded as a consistent tradition of the Imperial Army.

Maeda clearly noticed that Kyosaki's subordinates had concealed something from him, but he didn't care too much. He knew that he knew nothing about intelligence work. As long as he could pass his term safely, he was not interested in any conflict with these sneaky spies. Besides, the beach is also very rich and well-being, and Maeda was also a little happy to see him in the world of flowers and wine every day.

But he never expected that Yingzuo and his lackeys would cause such a big disaster for him. If he could not make timely and effective remedies before the military leaders came back to their senses and remembered him, his personal future would probably end.

What made Maeda even more angry was that just before his superiors launched an investigation, Akira Kaesaki secretly left Shanghai. It is said that Chongqing's work has made a breakthrough. He wanted to go to Wuhan to keep a close eye. The reasons and the flickering words made him unable to find any reason to stop him.

ps: Chapter 1 is here, thank you for your support, take a break and continue to code Chapter 2, it may be a little later.
Chapter completed!