Chapter Thirty-Six In Poland (Minor Revision)

  O?wi?cim in southern Poland.

  Dr. He Fengshan is leading a group of hired engineers to survey the land. The terrain here is open and has several main railways passing through, not only some German factory owners value this land, but also the Nazi Gestapo has taken a fancy to it, preparing to build some concentration camps. As a Japanese-funded enterprise manager in Germany, He Fengshan had no choice but to follow them to grab good places, but instead followed Major Qin Xiaofei's request to purchase a large piece of land in a remote area. Now he is conducting exploration and measurement.

  If it were several months ago, He Fengshan would not have imagined that he, who had obtained a Ph.D. in political economics from the University of Munich and served as China's Consul General in Vienna for two years, would one day be employed by a Japanese-funded enterprise to build a factory here. He Fengshan could imagine what would happen if his relatives and friends back home found out about this matter, but after secretly talking with Major Qin Xiaofei for three hours, he decided to quietly take on the task.

  Looking back on the two years he spent as China's Consul General in Vienna, Austria, He Fengshan deeply felt the sorrow of being a citizen of a lost country, especially the fear of racial discrimination.

  In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria. At that time, Austria was the third largest Jewish settlement in Europe, with a total of approximately 185,000 people. The Nazis wanted to exterminate the Jews here and stipulated that Jews in concentration camps could be released if they could leave Austria, while those who could not be expelled would be massacred in batches in the concentration camps. Therefore, for Austrian Jews, leaving meant survival, and not being able to leave meant death. As a result, Jews tried every means to leave Austria.

  But to leave, one had to have a visa for the destination country. However, many countries "emphasized their own difficulties" and successively turned on the red light for Jewish visas. The desire to survive made tens of thousands of Jews rush between consulates every day, but most were unsuccessful. At this time, Ho Fengshan stood out and issued Shanghai's "visa" to the Jews. Ho Fengshan's reason was simple: he thought that "helping others is a very natural thing, from a human perspective, it should be done". Although Shanghai had been occupied by Japan at that time, the visa was still valid. After obtaining the visa, these Jews could escape Europe and go to China or transit through Shanghai to the United States, Palestine, Australia, etc.

  As the number of visas increased, Nazi Germany's Foreign Ministry became dissatisfied. The Nazis confiscated the house of the Chinese Consulate General on the grounds that it was Jewish property. He Fengshan personally paid out of his own pocket and quickly moved the consulate to a very small house elsewhere, insisting on issuing visas.

  However, China also faced political pressure from Germany. Although the Anti-Japanese War had broken out, China was still purchasing German weapons and hiring German advisers, so it had to take into account Germany's attitude. In this context, He Fengshan was transferred back to Berlin in May 1940 to report to Chen Jie, who was then the ambassador to Germany. He Fengshan originally thought that the National Government would arrange for him to go to another embassy, but he did not expect the long wait that followed, and he was left idle in Berlin for two months.

  It was just when He Fengshan lost his patience and was about to confront Chen Jie that Chen Jie gave him a secret location, where he met Qin Xiaofei, who had the Chairman's order. After simple arrangements, he came to Poland, no longer associated with the National Government and diplomatic affairs, but as a manager of a Sino-German-Japanese enterprise building factories. Specifically what he discussed with Qin Xiaofei, he told no one, including his wife. He only told her that they would have to work hard for several years, and this woman who had followed him for many years silently began packing their bags.

  －－－－－－－－－－－－－

  Oshima Hiroshi paced back and forth in his secret residence in Berlin, the faint cool breeze brought by the creaking ceiling fan unable to dispel the worries in his mind. He was at the peak of his career, and the negotiations for the Tripartite Pact between Germany, Italy, and Japan, which had been interrupted due to the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, had finally resumed. This time, he must conclude the treaty to continue the achievements of the Anti-Comintern Pact, which he had worked hard to bring about. From the current situation, it seemed that Germany would soon dominate the European continent, and Britain would not be able to withstand the bombing of the German air force for much longer. Italy was also eyeing the colonies of Britain and France in Africa and the Middle East. At this time, concluding the treaty would allow the Great Japanese Empire to gain the greatest benefits in the Far East.

  At this time, however, his sister came to stir up trouble. Oshima Hiroshi looked at the letter in his hand again, and the familiar handwriting undoubtedly came from his beloved younger sister. As the eldest son of the Oshima family, he was very fond of his only younger sister, because their father had been strict with them since childhood, raising them in a militarized German-style education, making them rarely feel the warmth of home, so Oshima Hiroshi cherished his feelings for his sister, even exceeding the normal emotions between siblings.

  However, since his sister married Kitada Toshihito, Oshima Hiroshi rarely saw his sister. The traditional responsibility of a Japanese married woman is to take care of her husband and children, but unfortunately, his sister's only son, Kitada Kō, was not promising from an early age, always getting into trouble, stealing and thieving everywhere, relying on the Kitada family business to survive. Oshima Hiroshi looked down on this nephew and avoided seeing him whenever possible, maintaining contact with his sister only through letters. But today, his sister wrote to tell him that this only nephew was coming to Germany and hoped that Oshima Hiroshi would take care of his only blood relative from a sentimental point of view.

  Originally from 1932, Kitahara Kou followed his father to China, first setting up factories and mines in Manchuria, then following the Japanese army south to Shanghai. Old Kitahara Toshio hoped he could take over the family business and expand their industry, but who knew that Kitahara Kou was a hopeless case, spending all day drinking and gambling, losing big time. One time, after losing badly, he secretly pawned off the factory and equipment with some hoodlums while his father wasn't looking, and went to gamble heavily, only to be cheated out of everything. Kitahara Toshio was so angry that he almost died on the spot, suffering a cerebral hemorrhage and ending up bedridden. His sister, fearing that Kitahara Kou would cause more trouble, had no choice but to send him to Germany to rely on Oshima Hiroshi.

  At the crucial moment of the three-country treaty negotiations, a troublesome guy appeared, and Oshima Hiroshi found it difficult. From the national perspective, the priority was to complete the treaty task, and there was no time to deal with Kitada Kotaro. However, his sister's persistent pleas made him unable to harden his heart and abandon this troublemaker.

  "Whatever, it seems this is the will of the great god Amaterasu." said Oshima Hiroto with a sigh. He immediately called his secretary and asked him to arrange a place for Kitada Kotaro to stay, and he would meet him when he had time. This way, he could also dampen Kitada's sharp spirit.

  Actually, Beita Hong is now without any sharpness, and instead, he is nervous in the house. This is actually a modern-day cat-and-mouse game. The man with an average build and handsome appearance has another identity - Qin Xiaofei, Major of the European Division of the Air Force Equipment Department. For this day, various intelligence departments of the National Government - Zhongtong, Jun Tong, and Shi Congwu Six Groups, as well as the Air Force Intelligence Agency - launched their first cooperation, taking two weeks to forge Qin Xiaofei's identity. A chance encounter allowed Jun Tong to discover Beita Hong's role; he claimed to be the nephew of Da Yuanhao, the special envoy to Germany, who was highly respected in Germany and had served as a military officer and diplomat for a long time. Under this halo, He Junkai's "European Operation Plan" could be realized, so Beita Hong became tragic.

  Qin Xiaofei was originally a student in Japan, but after the outbreak of war, he returned home and joined the Military Intelligence Bureau. He was then assigned to the Floating Airbase during the establishment of the Chinese Secret Service. In terms of physique, facial features, and even his unruly temperament, Qin Xiaofei bore a strong resemblance to Kitahara Kō. As a result, he was quickly selected for the role after undergoing brief targeted training. Qin Xiaofei then took Kitahara's place in China, while the real Kitahara met an unknown fate in some corner of the world.

  Along with Qin Xiaofei to Berlin were two personnel from the Intelligence Bureau, who would disguise themselves as Qin's subordinates and assist his actions. With them came several large boxes of cash, consisting of yen and Imperial Marks. Of course, under the National Government's strained circumstances, it was difficult to allocate such a large amount of funds to support their operations. These funds were raised by the Air Force Command itself. In fact, it was quite simple: the Intelligence Bureau found a group of counterfeiters from Shaanxi and Henan, and brought them to a secret factory in Chongqing through half-deception and half-coercion, where they processed fake banknotes printed on color printers at the floating airbase to achieve an effect that could deceive people. The only problem was that suitable paper was too difficult to manufacture, and limited color ink cartridges affected production, so Qin Xiaofei only brought a few boxes, not several cars.

  Qin Xiaofei spent the rest of his time in Berlin practicing to mimic the speech and behavior of Kitahara Ko, with the help of two assistants. To ensure the success of this operation, before the real Kitahara Ko was secretly executed, Qin Xiaofei and his two assistants had pretended to be gamblers and stayed with him for a few days, carefully imitating his every move. The real test is about to come, as Oshima Hiro's secretary has informed that General Oshima will meet him at dinner tonight.

  ōshima Hiroshi's residence in Berlin was very luxurious, because his father ōshima Ken'ichi, when he served as the Minister of War, treated German prisoners of war from World War I with great care. The Germans reciprocated by treating this ambassador with warm hospitality and gave him a confiscated Jewish luxury villa as his residence.

  Oshima Hiroshi had a great admiration for Nazi Germany and idolized Hitler, so he demanded everything to be Germanized. Now he was sitting at the dinner table wearing a neat military uniform specially tailored from a German military officer's store, staring at his nephew, Kitada Kotaro. Actually, Qin Xiaofei's previous worries were unnecessary, because Oshima Hiroshi had never looked directly at this nephew of his since childhood. Moreover, since 1921, he had been serving as a military officer in Germany, when Kitada Kotaro was only 11 years old, so Oshima Hiroshi didn't recognize the young man in front of him as a Western-style dandy.

  "Sit down." Oshima Hiroshi's first impression of his nephew was satisfactory. Kitada Kou, already a grown man, didn't have the typical short and stout build of an average Japanese person, but rather was relatively tall and lean. His facial features had inherited the good qualities of the Kitada family, looking quite handsome, and when dressed in formal attire, he looked like a proper young man, unlike his awkward childhood appearance.

  "Your situation your mother has already told me about in her letter, you want to do business in Germany I don't oppose it, but you must be careful, the war of the Great Japanese Empire is at a critical juncture, and Germany is our important ally, so don't tarnish the face of the Great Japanese Empire with those disreputable friends of yours! Also, don't tarnish the reputation of your family, the Kitahara's, and my own family, the Oshima's! I have built up some connections in Germany that I can introduce you to, but if I find out you've engaged in such behavior, I'll immediately send you back to Japan. You must remember this!

  Although Ohshima Hiroshi is no longer serving as ambassador to Germany, he is currently secretly handling the negotiations for the Triple Alliance Treaty. Having worked in Germany for nearly 20 years and earning Hitler's favor, he has still managed to build connections with many influential people. As a loyal imperial soldier devoted to the Emperor, he never thought he would use these resources for personal gain one day, so he must warn his somewhat unreliable nephew ahead of time. If something were to affect the great affairs of the Great Japanese Empire, he would have no choice but to take responsibility, even if it meant seppuku."

  "Hi Yi! Nephew remembers uncle's teachings." Hokuto Kitahara quickly stood up and bowed to his uncle. The first test seems to have passed.