Spy Wars: Return of the Red Luan

Another loophole is the sugar cubes in the conference room. Commander Muto used a total of six, and Aoki Seigen used two. There should have been seven cubes left out of the first layer of 355, but now there are seven missing.

If someone were to actually pursue this, then that would be a problem with Kenji Doihara.

This is Chen Jiehua's final blow to Kenji Doihara, to be used depending on the situation.

After internal discussions and consultation with the Muto family, the Army General Staff decided not to conduct an autopsy on Muto Nobuyoshi's body and instead transport it back to Tokyo by warship.

Next, the General Staff, the Muto family, and the Kwantung Army formed a joint investigation team to secretly investigate the commander's "sudden death."

Whose warships? Naturally, it was Aoki Seigen's puppet Manchukuo fleet.

Damn, that's disgusting. They even have to use the flagship to transport you back. Will he come back to life on the flagship?

The investigation team originally intended to escort Kenji Doihara back to Tokyo, but Aoki Seigen vehemently disagreed, saying, "I absolutely will not allow that bug Doihara to board my warship. You can figure out how to escort him yourselves."

The head of the investigation team was Deputy Chief of Staff Yasuji Okamura.

First, we investigated the teacup, water, sugar cube, and medicine. The teacup was Muto's personal item, and the bottom of the cup had a cherry blossom mark hand-carved by Muto. There were no problems, and there were no traces of medicine residue in the cup.

Everyone else drinks the same water, but Commander Muto's assistant personally pours every cup of water for him. The commander is very cautious and keeps a close eye on things the whole time, so there's no need for investigation.

Sugar cubes were missing. When the investigation team went to the conference room to retrieve them, no one noticed that a few cubes were missing. (The text then abruptly shifts to a seemingly unrelated topic: "Commander's assistant, Tamura, was in the interrogation room. When he went to the conference room to retrieve the sugar cubes, no one noticed that a few were missing.")

After testing, the sugar cubes were found to be fine. In fact, everyone knows the Commander's habits; newly opened packaging is unlikely to have any problems. Moreover, Aoki Seigen ordered two cubes in a row, and that rascal Aoki Seigen was perfectly fine, jumping around like a madman.

The medicine was his own; after testing the remaining medicine in the office, it was confirmed to be his usual medication, so there couldn't be any problem.

There's nothing more to be done regarding the objects; the next step is to investigate the people and events.

Aoki Seigen never attended the Manchukuo conferences before, so why did he come this time? This is the opinion of the General Staff.

Before Aoki Seigen could even be asked about it, Itagaki Seishiro answered directly, "It was a notice personally written by the Commander-in-Chief, requesting Aoki Seigen to attend the meeting. His intention was to mediate the conflict between Aoki Seigen and Doihara Kenji."

"Does Kenji Doihara know about this?"

"Nani?"

"Does Kenji Doihara know that the Commander specifically requested Aoki Seigen to attend the meeting in order to mediate the dispute?"

"The assistant is very clear about this issue. The commander has consulted Kenji Doihara."

I then asked Kenji Doihara for confirmation, and there was no problem. Doihara generously admitted that the Commander had asked me beforehand.

Next comes the crux of the matter: the humiliating incident before the meeting.

Many people have witnessed that it is very inappropriate for Aoki Seigen's nameplate to be placed in the far corner.

"Everyone in Tokyo knows Aoki Seigen's temper. The fact that he didn't invent a code telegraph after this humiliation is already a sign of restraint."

Everyone can attest that he did indeed restrain himself by raising his finger.

"Knowing Aoki Seigen's temper, deliberately trying to humiliate him is a conspiracy, and his intentions are despicable!" "When Major Shimizu was about to reveal who was behind it, Kenji Doihara disregarded the danger of being exposed for bringing a gun into the meeting and directly shot Major Shimizu dead. In fact, it was a very foolish act of silencing him."

What caused Muto-kun's two subsequent heart attacks? What were Tobi-man and Aoki-kun doing respectively?

“Aoki-kun sat next to me. During the commander’s second attack, Aoki-kun did not make any unusual movements, but he finished his water and asked for a sugar cube after getting more water. By the time of the third attack, Aoki-kun was already asleep.”

"During both episodes, Tobi-kun did not exhibit any unusual movements."

"Yoshi, things are really strange. Doi-Yuan-kun is a prime suspect, but what is his motive?"

"Logically speaking, Doihara-kun was someone the family was fully cultivating, so he had no motive to commit the crime."

"Whether there is a motive or not, you can question them yourselves when we return to Tokyo."
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Due to the sudden death of the commander, the Kwantung Army underwent a major power reshuffle.

First, Itagaki Seishiro blocked the news and convened a meeting with operations chief Ishihara Kanji, operations section chief Imamura Jun, and others to discuss countermeasures.

As a result, there was internal disagreement. Ishihara Kanji advocated handling the matter discreetly to avoid provoking international public opinion. After all, Japan had just withdrawn from the League of Nations and was already embroiled in such a major scandal, which would make it a laughing stock in the international community.

Ishihara Kanji thought this was most likely a conspiracy by Doi Madoka, but he had no evidence.

Seishiro Itagaki, on the other hand, was inclined to take the opportunity to expand military operations and send reinforcements to Rehe, but the two strongly dissuaded him on the grounds of "avoiding a full-scale conflict with the Nanjing government".

The selection of the new commander has sparked another internal struggle within the Army General Staff.

The sudden death of the commander of the Kwantung Army caused turmoil in the puppet state of Manchukuo. First, the puppet emperor panicked, fearing that he would be deposed by the Japanese, and instead supported a new puppet, Xiqia.

Meanwhile, Zheng Xiaoxu, the prime minister of the puppet state of Manchukuo, urgently contacted Itagaki Seishiro, a powerful figure in the Kwantung Army, expressing his willingness to continue to pledge allegiance. However, behind the scenes, he also contacted Nanjing through a hidden Kuomintang agent.

The Nationalist government in Nanjing judged that Muto’s death was due to “internal strife within the Japanese army.” Chiang Kai-shek secretly ordered Dai Chunfeng and Xu Enzeng to investigate in an attempt to obtain intelligence. After their investigation, they discovered that the matter was actually related to Aoki Seigen!

"It's really quite mysterious."

Zhang Xiaoliu secretly contacted his old subordinates, attempting to take the opportunity to launch a counterattack in Northeast China, but was once again suppressed by Chiang Kai-shek on the grounds of "fear of triggering a full-scale war," which made Zhang Xiaoliu increasingly frustrated.

Through Ramsey's intelligence, the GRU (Government Information Service) of the Russian Far East Military District quickly analyzed the impact of Muto's death and concluded that it was a signal of internal power struggles in Japan.

Red Russia accelerated its military deployment in the Far East, sending additional troops to Vladivostok and secretly supporting anti-Japanese organizations in Northeast China by providing them with weapons and intelligence.
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In mid-to-late May 1933 (the 22nd year of the Republic of China), after concluding his investigation into the incident, Okamura Yasuji, as a representative of the Japanese Kwantung Army, held formal ceasefire negotiations with Xiong Bing, the representative sent by He Yinqin, in Tanggu.

This negotiation was actually just a ceremony in which the Japanese government imposed its pre-prepared conditions of aggression on the Republic of China and forced it to accept them.

After several rounds of negotiations, Okamura Yasuji finally obtained the Tanggu Truce Agreement that satisfied him.

The agreement signed by Okamura Yasuji on behalf of Japan essentially forced China to recognize the Great Wall as the Japanese occupation line, which was tantamount to acknowledging that the Beijing-Tianjin area in North China was a second "Manchukuo".

At the same time, the establishment of the demilitarized zone opened up a path for the Japanese army to further expand its aggression and created conditions for the full-scale war four years later.

Looking back, this was a very fatal agreement. At the time, Chiang Kai-shek thought that although the agreement was a bit humiliating, it did not cross his bottom line.

In reality, Chiang Kai-shek's bottom line was that he had no bottom line. (End of Chapter)