Chapter 39: The Wu An Tragedy (Part 1)

  "Captain Katsuragi!", shouted Colonel Araki, who was standing nearby, stopping him.

  "Oh! Araki-kun?", Kasahara looked at Major Araki for a moment and then nodded in greeting.

  "Your Excellency, the reason why our intelligence agency can't find the whereabouts of this guerrilla group is that their base is not fixed and usually in nearby villages. Any village can be their stronghold. There's another very important reason: these guerrillas are all composed of farmers from these villages. The farmers here are all covering for them, we can't get any useful information from their mouths," said Major Araki.

  "What does Araki mean?", Kasahara asked in puzzlement.

  "I suggest that Your Excellency launch a large-scale sweep operation around the villages of Wu'an. The goal is to eliminate those armed forces that are hostile to our Great Japanese Imperial Army." Araki said with great seriousness.

  "Not bad! Captain Tani! Araki-san has some good points!", Commander Nami also agreed with Araki's view.

  "Oh! So Lieutenant General Nanki also thinks so?" Kasahara looked at Nanki with great puzzlement. He was very perplexed, as their military views used to be vastly different. In the past, Araki strongly advocated for massacring Chinese people who refused to submit to the Imperial Army's control, believing that only by killing them could they make them obey the Imperial Army's orders and not dare to resist its rule again. On the other hand, Lieutenant General Nanki's view was to prioritize appeasement, minimizing the slaughter of civilians here, allowing them to gradually accept the Imperial Army's rule, and believing that large-scale massacres would only lead to greater resistance against the Imperial Army. What happened today? How could their views be unified?

  "Yes! Your Excellency, you may have some doubts. In the past, I did not advocate for the slaughter of farmers here. But now many people here dare to attack the Imperial Army's troops. If we don't take severe action at this time, these people will think that the Imperial Army is weak and will become even more brazen in attacking the Imperial Army's troops." Colonel Nanji explained away Katsuhara's doubts.

  "Hmm! What Nanji said is right. We must let these people know what can and cannot be done." The old devil Kasahara also agreed with their views.

  "Do you have any other opinions?" Katsuhara asked again for others' views.

  "No!", "Alright! Let's go with Araki-san's plan then. Araki-san! Go back and come up with a detailed action plan, and submit it to me by this morning." ordered Kishibe.

  "Yes! Sir!", Araki and the others left Kasahara's office and went back to prepare for this sweep operation.

  Although the devils thought they were already very kind, they never thought that they were invading another country, robbing others of their belongings, and shouting about their own kindness. They did not carry out large-scale massacres, but every day a large number of Chinese civilians died at their hands. Their troops were scattered over a vast area, and every branch of the army would kill several Chinese civilians every day! The relatives of these victims are an important part of the guerrilla forces, as well as those who strongly resist the invaders, they hate these damned devils even more. The devils' theory is nothing but the theory of robbers, robbers enter a house, occupy others' property and wives, and pretend to be generous to that person, saying "you can use whatever you want here".

  The headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, several leaders had just finished a meeting and discussed the latest instructions from Yan'an. A very secret mission required them to send someone to execute it. After some discussion, the leaders finally decided to transfer Li Xinmin from the third battalion to be in charge of leading people to carry out this task.

  "Director! Are you looking for me?", Li Xinmin arrived at headquarters as ordered.

  "Hmm! Have you arrived? I have a top-secret mission here. We've discussed it among ourselves and decided to send you to carry out this task," said the chief.

  "Please arrange, Commander!", "Alright! I'll send you then. You can choose whoever you need and submit the list to Li Staff Officer. You will be the leader of this operation. As for the 3rd Battalion, let someone else take care of it for now. You decide who that person is," said the Commander.

  "Thank you for your trust, Commander! I guarantee that I will complete the task!" Li Xinmin immediately gave a salute to his commander.

  "Go! Go find Li Counsellor, he will hand over the task content to you this time." The chief waved his hand and let Li Xinmin go find Li Counsellor for the materials.

  Yes!

  Wu'an County Town, Kishigawa's headquarters.

  "Commander of the expeditionary force! The specific combat plan is all here." Araki said, bowing his head and handing over to the old devil Kasahara the grand sweep plan for the Wu'an area he had drawn up.

  "Ah! Araki-kun, good work! ", Kasahara took over Araki's battle plan book and began to examine it carefully.

  "Can be executed!", Kasahara agreed with Araki's plan immediately after reading it and signed directly on this plan book.

  A massive crackdown on the anti-Japanese armed forces in Wu'an is about to unfold. Although Zhao Hailong and his men knew that the devils would never give up easily, they did not expect the devils' actions to be so drastic. They also did not expect the devils to be so inhumane, killing many innocent civilians mercilessly during this crackdown, and countless women were raped by the devils.

  The main forces of the devils left the city in batches, and those pseudo-military personnel who were willing to be the devils' running dogs actively participated in this large-scale mop-up operation. These pseudo-military personnel were mostly some hooligans and local tyrants who were used to bullying ordinary civilians on a daily basis. As soon as they heard that they would go for the mop-up, they immediately came forward to compete for the vanguard. They wanted to gain merit in front of the devils through this mop-up operation. In addition, they could also plunder some valuable things through this mop-up operation.

  Kasahara, the old devil, was in command of this mop-up operation and stationed at the main base in Wu'an. The other troops were divided into two routes, one sweeping eastward and the other westward, eliminating all enemy armed forces along the way. The eastern route was commanded by Major General Araki, while the western route was led by Major General Minami. The two detachments fanned out to sweep in both directions. Kasahara also made contact with the devils in the surrounding counties of Wu'an for this mop-up operation and asked them to cooperate with his own action. He attempted to wipe out the Eighth Route Army and the guerrilla forces.

  Aragaki is a ruthless and crazy guy, this time's action is what he strongly advocates for. He is in charge of the direction of the sweep, ordinary people are suffering, regardless of whether you have supported the guerrillas or the Eighth Route Army before. When he is in a bad mood, he directly massacres villages.

  Traitor Wang Demao, alias Wang Lao Hu, is more arrogant than a bald-tailed dog. He led the Pingzhuang team leader to search for guerrillas and the Eighth Route Army in various villages.