Chapter 1012
Zhang Anping, an amateur in warfare, reappears in the Blue Star Animal Kingdom!
North China Suppression Headquarters.
The generals from both factions appeared in the conference room one after another. In the past, the generals from both factions maintained a superficial friendliness, calling each other "brother" and "brother" incessantly when they met, and were polite and gentle.
But now that the two sides have met, tensions are high, cold snorts are heard constantly, and burning anger can be seen in their eyes.
Undoubtedly, too many contradictions have accumulated between the two sides in the short period of time regarding the withdrawal to the south, to the point that neither side is even bothering to maintain appearances!
This scene amused Zhang Anping. All you've been arguing about, have you ever considered that Fu Huabei never even considered retreating south?
Perhaps they had thought about it, but they each had too many ulterior motives—Fu Huabei took advantage of these motives to get the Sui Army generals to discuss the southward retreat with the Central Army, thereby making them give up their idea of retreating south!
"Commander Fu has arrived!"
With this announcement, the tense atmosphere in the conference room eased slightly, and everyone stood up to await Fu Huabei's arrival.
After Fu Huabei entered, his gaze swept over everyone. He seemed expressionless, but in reality, he was very satisfied with the current situation. His old brothers should now know what it means to be at odds with a tiger.
"sit--"
After he sat down first, he immediately reported the military situation: "News has come from Sun's unit in Zhangjiakou that a large contingent of Communist troops has appeared on the Zhangjiakou defense line and is launching a fierce attack—what do you all think?"
“Commander Fu!” Zhang Anping stood up without hesitation—logically, he didn’t have the right to speak first, but he still stood up first:
"I think this matter should not be underestimated—it is very likely a sign that the Communist army is leaving Northeast China."
Commander Li looked at Zhang Anping with amusement:
"Oh? Deputy Director Zhang, since you put it that way, do you have intelligence that the Northeast Communist Army has finished its rest and reorganization and is mobilizing on a large scale?"
Zhang Anping paused for a moment, then shook his head and said, "There is no relevant evidence at the moment, but I started gathering people before I came here. I plan to airdrop them into the Northeast..."
“Deputy Director Zhang, since there is no relevant evidence, why are you so certain?” Commander Li interrupted Zhang Anping rudely, then said:
"In my opinion, this is because the Communist army in North China was worried that our army would support the Xuzhou-Bengbu battlefield, so they took the initiative to strike first and support the Xuzhou-Bengbu battlefield."
Commander Shi immediately echoed:
“Commander Li is right. Under the leadership of Huang, an amateur, the Second Corps is stuck in Shuangduiji. The Communist army is probably worried about the support from our North China Suppression Headquarters, so they launched a preemptive strike. I don’t think we need to make a mountain out of a molehill. Sun’s troops in Zhangjiakou number nearly 6. How many people does the Communist army in North China have? How could they possibly take Zhangjiakou!”
Fu Huabei gave the two corps commanders of the Central Army a deep look, then shifted his gaze to Zhang Anping and sighed almost imperceptibly.
Is Zhang Anping right?
That doesn't make sense!
Fu Huabei actually agreed with the judgments of Commanders Li and Shi.
But why did Li and Shi preemptively raise this point of view?
And they want to "strike" Zhang Anping first?
Because they are afraid!
They feared that by using the pretext of rescuing Zhangjiakou, they could mobilize the large army within the "snakehead"—the army within the snakehead was entirely composed of the Central Army. Once the Central Army was transferred to reinforce Zhangjiakou, they could then conveniently leave them behind to serve as a rearguard.
This is the outcome that Li and Shi feared most.
Zhang Anping's claim that "this is to support the suspected entry of the Northeast Army into the pass" was intended to put pressure on the southward retreat—the southward retreat was indeed an urgent matter for the Central Army, but they would not allow themselves to use this as an excuse to transfer the Central Army to Zhangjiakou.
This allowed them to immediately "strike" Zhang Anping and then take the opportunity to analyze the purpose of attacking the Zhangjiakou defense line.
Fu Huabei then looked at the others and asked, "What do you all think?"
Without a doubt, everyone present was intelligent. And if they were intelligent, how could they not understand why Li and Shi were so eager to set the tone?
Therefore, the generals of the Central Army immediately echoed the words of Li Shi and his men, while the generals of the Sui Army kept advocating that this was a sign of the Northeast Field Army entering the pass and strongly supported Zhang Anping.
Do they agree with Zhang Anping?
No!
It's because they want the Central Army to get out of the snakehead!
But the Central Army wasn't fooled—staying at the snakehead meant they could retreat south at any time, but if they left, they might never come back.
Zhang Anping was so angry at the noise that his face turned ashen. He tried to get up several times, but was warned by the stern looks of the Central Army generals next to him. Finally, he sat down indignantly and became like a clay idol.
Fu Huabei gradually lost patience—the Central Army's attitude was too resolute; they refused to leave the smugglers, so his whole charade had been for nothing.
"enough!"
He angrily said, "What kind of behavior is this, making such a racket? Here's what we'll do: send the 35th Army out of Beiping to reinforce Zhangjiakou!"
The meeting room fell silent instantly upon hearing this.
Fu Huabei had over 200,000 troops under his command, which could all be seen as his sons. But with so many sons, there had to be one he loved the most—the 35th Army was his most beloved son.
Among the entire Suiyuan Army and the entire North China Army, the 35th Army was the only fully mechanized army, and also the only mobile ace and strategic assault force in Fu Huabei's hands.
The 35th Army was dispatched to reinforce Zhangjiakou, a true overnight journey.
Seeing that Fu Huabei had brought out his own son, the others naturally lost their desire to make a fuss.
"Let's do it this way—the 35th Army will pack up and set off immediately to reinforce Zhangjiakou! In addition, the 104th Army will move to Huailai and the 16th Army will move to the Nanping-Changkou line to ensure the smooth operation of the Pingzhang Railway!"
After making the decision, Fu Huabei stood up:
Meeting adjourned!
After Fu Huabei left, the generals from both sides filed out. In previous military meetings, the generals from the Central Army would call for Zhang Anping to leave together, but this time no one called for him.
Even more surprisingly, at the entrance to the conference room, someone casually remarked:
"What does a spy like him know about fighting!"
"Yes, he's an amateur!"
Zhang Anping's lips twitched, but he remained motionless in his seat until the conference room was empty and there were no more footsteps in the corridor outside. Only then did he get up and leave with heavy steps.
[If one were to truly be a loyal subject of the Party and the state, wouldn't that be utterly stifling and lead to death?]
……
On the evening of November 29, the 35th Army, the only mobile force in North China, set out from Beiping to reinforce Zhangjiakou.
Meanwhile, Zhang Anping took a plane directly to Nanjing.
We arrived in Nanjing at 9:30 p.m.
He was "not very lucky." If he had arrived a few hours earlier, he might have run into Commander Du at the airport. Commander Du had flown from Xuzhou to Nanjing earlier that day to deliver a powerful message, saying that if a decision wasn't made soon, the Xuzhou army would be doomed.
It's a pity the two didn't run into each other, otherwise Zhang Anping could have greeted this good superior who had protected him...
After hailing two cars at Nanjing Airport, Zhang Anping headed straight for the section chief's residence.
"What? Anping is here?"
The section chief was extremely surprised. The Party and the country had been shaken up again and again during this period. He had become extremely low-key after the painful end of the anti-corruption campaign in Shanghai, but he had to become active again in the past few days. He had just seen off Commander Du not long ago, and Zhang Anping had come again.
"I'll go greet you myself!"
In the past, he personally went to greet people more to show respect and courtesy, but this time it was a genuine and sincere welcome.
From the director's perspective, Zhang Anping had a really tough time during this period.
The battle situation was critical, and he went to the front line without saying a word—Mao Renfeng also went to the front line, but the two of them were worlds apart in their actions.
Mao Renfeng's meddling in Xuzhou drove Zhang Anping's painstakingly developed special forces to rebellion;
What about Zhang Anping?
The reorganization of the Beiping secret service system, under Fu Huabei's command, was in line with the Nanjing government's strategy from beginning to end, forcing Fu Huabei to retreat south—a secret agent forced the reorganization of the armed forces to take the lead in covering the retreat to the south.
For the sake of the Party and the country's interests, they brazenly seized ships that were being used for private purposes, contributing tens of millions of dollars of precious military funds to the Party and the country.
While others were trying to preserve their strength, he always faced difficulties head-on and never cared about personal gains or losses—demonstrating his loyalty to the Party and the country to the fullest extent, from his very bones to his very skin.
Such a person deserves to be welcomed!
"Director!"
Seeing that it was the section chief who personally greeted him, Zhang Anping was clearly deeply moved. However, upon getting closer and noticing the section chief's fatigue, Zhang Anping hesitated for a moment, as if regretting his abruptness.
The section chief sighed, knowing that Zhang Anping was reluctant to leave, and said, "You don't come here unless you have something important to say, so you probably wouldn't come here easily unless it's something important—come in and tell me what happened."
Zhang Anping accompanied the section chief into the study. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, he didn't get straight to the point, but instead began to reminisce about "old times":
"Chief, ever since the anti-communist campaign began, our intelligence agency has been facing one thing—in the occupied areas, no matter how many hidden forces we deploy, we can't escape being wiped out in one fell swoop."
"To be honest, both the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics and the Bureau of Party Affairs lost a great deal of their best personnel as a result. No matter how they were deployed, even if they gathered the best personnel from the War of Resistance Against Japan, they still could not escape this fate."
"Over there, they call this kind of thing 'people's counter-espionage and counter-espionage.'"
"Taking the Northeast as an example, after most of the Northeast fell to the Japanese, the Northeast Supervisory Office secretly deployed and infiltrated personnel in all three stations, but... but never succeeded. Later, with Minglou's rebellion, all the deployments became empty talk."
The section chief listened attentively, his expression grim. The predecessors of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics and the Bureau of Party Intelligence were very active in the occupied areas during the War of Resistance Against Japan—although the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (Zhongtong) initially performed poorly, it later made significant achievements in political and economic intelligence.
Yes, I heard that this was Zhang Anping's suggestion to Xu Enzeng.
But now that we've changed opponents, I never expected the investigation to go to this extent.
After finishing his speech, Zhang Anping gave an example:
“Take Beiping for example—I previously put Director Qiao in charge of the undercover personnel, only to discover that his finance director was actually a communist sympathizer. This scoundrel eventually escaped with the financial distribution list, making Director Qiao's undercover operation a laughing stock!”
After Zhang Anping finished speaking, his face was full of resentment.
The section chief was speechless. The person who distributed the money had defected, so what was the point of the undercover agents remaining undercover? This was truly absurd.
But then he thought, thankfully it was only in the preparation stage of the infiltration, and had not yet been actually implemented—and this must be because Zhang Anping was so capable that he discovered the hidden danger in advance. If it were someone else, they would probably have been exposed after the infiltration was implemented.
That's an outrageously large loss!
After a moment of calm, the anger on Zhang Anping's face subsided. Then, as if organizing his thoughts, he spoke with a cautious tone:
"Director, I've thought about this for a long time—I believe that after the southward retreat, our army must fight back, so the matter of infiltration must be taken seriously no matter what the cost."
"But infiltration... is too difficult, and facing the Communist army's anti-civilian and anti-espionage efforts, it is extremely difficult to successfully infiltrate."
"Therefore, I decided to do the opposite!"
"This is my plan to conceal my strength. I would appreciate your feedback, Director."
After saying that, Zhang Anping took out a file marked "Top Secret" from his briefcase and solemnly handed it to the section chief.
Hidden Edge Plan?
The section chief took the file, opened it, and began to examine it.
At first glance, his expression changed;
At first glance, he gasped.
With a third glance, he couldn't help but look at Zhang Anping, and was deeply shocked.
Suppressing his shock, he read through the entire plan and was left feeling numb.
ruthless!
Too bad!
Absolutely!
That's absolutely amazing!
The core of the Hidden Edge Plan can be summed up in just two words:
sell!
On the surface, a large number of hidden forces will be deployed.
Then, they betrayed them!
That's right, it's betrayal—a portion of the core undercover force will defect to the Communists in various ways, completely selling out the undercover personnel.
It can be done, but only superficially.
Because the real infiltration plan has two layers:
First level: The betrayer!
These traitors, who betrayed the Party and the State's undercover agents, were actually true undercover agents—they gained trust through betrayal and then entered a deep state of infiltration, with intelligence gathering as their core mission.
Betrayal could even occur before the city fell—they could "collude" with the underground party and participate in the underground party's work to protect the city.
After gaining their trust and clearing their names, they will enter a state of complete infiltration:
They only gather intelligence and do not participate in any operations.
Because Zhang Anping emphasized in the Hidden Edge Plan that every action leaves a trace, and all the previously uncovered undercover forces were basically wiped out because of the actions taken.
Therefore, Zhang Anping's "Hidden Edge" plan directly rejected the operation, making intelligence gathering the sole objective.
And this is only the first level!
There is a second layer here:
The betrayed!
In Zhang Anping's Hidden Edge Plan, a significant portion of the force will be deployed as "betrayed parties." They will be betrayed by their former accomplices, and then choose to defect, assisting in uncovering more hidden forces.
In reality, many of them have another mission—after turning against the government, they will integrate into the movement, and at this time their identities will be cleaned up. However, in reality, they are still infiltrators, and still the core infiltrators.
The plan was extremely grand and sophisticated, but equally cruel—because some of those betrayed were destined to be discarded.
These people almost entirely included those from the neighboring Party Affairs Bureau.
In other words, Zhang Anping's infiltration plan was actually centered on sacrificing some personnel from the Party's Information Bureau and the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics.
"Your infiltration plan is based on infiltration and intelligence gathering? On the operational side, it's completely non-existent—is that feasible?"
After the initial shock, the section chief began to hesitate.
To be honest, Zhang Anping's infiltration plan was truly astounding.
However, such a covert plan is completely devoid of any operational capability!
The Military Intelligence Bureau (MIB) truly rose to prominence during the War of Resistance against Japan—but what truly made the MIB famous was not its intelligence gathering capabilities, but its operational capabilities.
During Dai Chunfeng's era, the Military Intelligence Bureau was incredibly capable in its operations, and its operational agents had a much brighter future than its intelligence agents.
Actions often yield results more readily.
However, simply infiltrating and gathering intelligence often does not yield any visible results.
In other words, it's easy to rack up battle merits through actions, but the credit for intelligence gathering goes unnoticed.
Having grown accustomed to the "grand and sweeping" tactics of the Military Intelligence Bureau, Zhang Anping's plan to conceal his true strength seemed "ordinary and unremarkable."
Zhang Anping explained:
“Actions are too easy to leave traces, and the current situation is different from that during the War of Resistance Against Japan. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Japanese were the invaders, and we had the natural support of the people – which means we can get support from the people.”
“But things are different now. They are even more adept at ‘bewitching people.’ We have lost the support of the people. No matter how great the results of an operation are, the people involved are destined not to be able to remain undercover for long.”
"Over time—how much strength will we have left by the time we launch our counterattack?"
"On the contrary, if we go undercover, our strength will not be greatly depleted, and we can receive a continuous stream of intelligence support. When it comes to the final moment of the counterattack, we can also support the underground party in the conquest of cities and territories, just like the underground party. What do you think?"
These eloquent words plunged the section chief into deep thought.
Undoubtedly, Dai Chunfeng's heavy-handed tactics were the easiest way to achieve dazzling results, but they also maximized losses—a point that was quite evident during the War of Resistance against Japan.
The only exception was Zhang Anping, but the essence of Zhang Anping's undercover work in Shanghai was actually more about infiltration, only he made more achievements in action.
Zhang Anping's style of infiltration may not yield visible results, but it preserves manpower and provides a continuous source of intelligence support—which can then be transformed into action forces during a counterattack.
Both have their own strengths!
Thinking of this, the section chief suddenly asked:
"Anping, tell me the truth, what's your view on the overall battle situation?"
Given the current situation, North China is destined to be abandoned, and the outlook for Xuzhou and Bengbu is even less optimistic—can a counterattack really be launched?
After hesitating for a moment, Zhang Anping took out a manuscript from his briefcase:
"Director, this is a piece I made in my spare time. Could you please correct it for me?"
The section chief took it curiously, but was stunned when he saw the name:
Blue Star... an animal kingdom?!
His eyes widened: "You wrote this?"
Blue Star Animal Kingdom is quite famous—during the War of Resistance against Japan, this novel, which uses animals instead of country names, became very well-known!
This book began its serialization before the Battle of Shanghai, accurately predicting the fall of Shanghai and pointing out the path to survival by relocating to Chongqing—which preserved a considerable amount of industrial capacity for the Nationalist government.
Yes, at the time, the Nationalist government actually wanted to investigate the author of this book because the author was too pessimistic...
Later, in the new serialization of Blue Star Animal Kingdom, the article predicted the Japanese's insane massacre, which caused many people to flee Nanjing. The Nationalist government was almost driven crazy because the article had accurately predicted that Nanjing could not be defended before the Battle of Nanjing, which was a slap in the face to the Nanjing government.
Whether the people die or not is not important; what matters is the face of the Nanjing Nationalist government!
Throughout the War of Resistance against Japan, this book made several accurate predictions, fundamentally undermining the Japanese invaders—saving the confidence of countless people.
However, with Cen Anyan's "defection," the book was no longer mentioned, because most people thought that Cen Anyan was the author.
I never expected it to be Zhang Anping!
Zhang Anping nodded calmly and said:
"I wrote it. It was always released through the publicity department. In addition, I didn't want to attract attention, so I never admitted it directly."
The section chief was both amused and exasperated, but extremely curious about what kind of viewpoint Zhang Anping would bring up this time.
He was extremely curious—after all, the prophetic nature of the Blue Star Animal Kingdom was truly too strong! (End of Chapter)