You were tasked with guarding the Sihang Warehouse, and you brought out a Tiger tank?

Jiangnan, the headquarters of the Japanese Central China Area Army.

The commander's office was warm and cozy.

A delicate phonograph is playing a melodious traditional Japanese folk tune.

Army General Matsui Iwane, dressed in a crisp military uniform, held a cup of warm, fine sake in his hand.

He stood before the enormous military map, his gaze greedily fixed on the city of Jinling, which was surrounded by countless blue arrows.

Reports from the front lines kept coming in, and the Chinese defenders' lines of defense were collapsing completely.

The city will fall in the next day or two.

"Commander, cheers to the great victory that is about to come."

Chief of Staff Major General Tsukada Osamu raised his glass and smiled obsequiously.

"Yoshi."

Matsui Iwane stroked his Jintan mustache and triumphantly downed the sake in his cup in one gulp:

"Once we take Nanjing, I'm going to open a bottle of the finest Gallic champagne and celebrate properly."

At this moment when the emperor and his ministers were getting along well and the atmosphere was harmonious.

"Bang!"

The office door was violently pushed open.

A communications officer stumbled in, his face as pale as a sheet of paper, trembling like a leaf.

"Baka! What's with the panic?!"

Major General Tsukada Osamu frowned and reprimanded him sternly.

"Commander... Your Excellency..."

The communications officer knelt down with a thud, holding a telegram high in his hands, his voice trembling with sorrow:

"Jiangbei... Kunisaki Detachment... Farewell telegram!"

"What?!"

Matsui Iwane's smile froze instantly.

He snatched the telegram and quickly scanned the paper with his eyes.

"...The detachment has reached its final moment. All soldiers will fight to the last man, sacrificing themselves for His Majesty the Heavenly Locust..."

Upon seeing this line of text, Matsui Iwane's first reaction was not shock, but absurdity.

Utterly absurd!

"Absolutely impossible!"

Matsui Iwane slammed the telegram into the communications officer's face and roared:

"An elite army of 15,000 men!"

Even if there were 15,000 pigs, the Chinese couldn't catch them all in three days and three nights!

How could they have been completely wiped out so quickly?!

He pointed at the communications officer's nose and began to curse:

"The decoder must have made a mistake with the codebook."

Or perhaps the telegraph operator has gone mad.

Go, re-verify immediately.

"Sir, it has been verified that it is indeed the exclusive code of the Kunisaki Detachment..." the staff officer said with a mournful face.

"I don't believe it!"

Matsui Iwane paced back and forth in the office like an enraged lion:

"Order the Third Flying Regiment to immediately dispatch reconnaissance aircraft to get a clear view of the Huangtiangang area."

I want to see the evidence with my own eyes!

Several hours later.

Several black and white photographs with a pungent smell of developing solution were urgently delivered to Matsui Iwane's desk.

That was a reconnaissance plane taking low-altitude photos over Huangtian Port at the risk of being shot down by air defenses.

Matsui Iwane picked up a magnifying glass and stared intently at the photograph.

The photo shows no Rising Sun Flag in flight, and no Imperial Army soldiers resisting.

There were only countless, layered, earthen-yellow corpses scattered all over the ground.

The riverbank was blasted into a pockmarked landscape like the surface of the moon, and the river water was stained dark black.

Beside a burnt-out ruin, several blasted metal barrels can still be vaguely seen, traces left from the burning of classified documents.

"It's over...it's all over..."

Matsui Iwane's hands trembled violently, and the magnifying glass fell onto the table.

He quickly calculated the losses in his mind.

The total number of casualties was 15,000.

The 41st and 42nd Infantry Regiments were completely wiped out.

The regimental flags will most likely be burned, meaning that these two glorious regiments will be permanently removed from the Imperial Army's organization.

Even more horrifying was the loss of an army major general and several colonels.

They're all high-ranking military officers!

Since the establishment of the Japanese army during the Meiji Restoration, there had never been such a devastating defeat in foreign wars, with entire units being annihilated.

This is an unprecedented and utterly humiliating disgrace since the start of the war.

"Lin Feng...provisionally assigned to the Eighth Army..."

Matsui Iwane felt a surge of blood rushing to his chest and a sweet taste in his throat.

"puff--"

A mouthful of bright red blood gushed from the mouth of the imperial general, splattering onto the map of Nanjing, which was about to be conquered.

"Commander!"

The office was thrown into chaos.

-----

The news, as if it had grown wings, quickly spread back to the home base.

A major earthquake struck the entire high command of the Japanese army.

The Showa boy was furious and smashed his beloved teacup.

In the conference room at headquarters, the atmosphere was tense, as high-ranking generals from the Army and Navy were engaging in a traditional Japanese military tactic—passing the buck to each other.

"Those naval idiots dare to stand by and watch us die!"

Prince Kan'in Kotohito, the Chief of the Army General Staff, slammed his fist on the table, spitting all over the Navy Minister opposite him.

"The Kunisaki Detachment was trapped on the riverbank for three days."

Your navy's warships are cruising in the Yangtze River, why don't you send ships to meet them?

Why not use naval gun support?

"You are deliberately murdering the warriors of the Empire."

Army high command echoed this sentiment, and the crowd was filled with indignation.

They knew in their hearts that this defeat was too crushing, and they had to find a scapegoat, otherwise they would not be able to explain themselves to the Emperor and the people.

And the navy is the perfect scapegoat.

Because Lin Feng had emptied several factories and warehouses in Shanghai during the Battle of Shanghai, the navy couldn't get a single thing after occupying the city.

The navy therefore harbored resentment towards the army for its poor performance, and thus deliberately delayed the rescue operation to settle personal scores.

Faced with the army's accusations, Prince Hiroyasu Fushimi, the Chief of the Naval General Staff, sneered and slowly wiped the saliva-covered table in front of him.

"Gentlemen, please watch your words."

Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu glanced disdainfully at the army generals:

"Our naval warships are meant to guard against mines and coastal artillery that the Chinese might have. How can they easily approach dangerous waters?"

Besides…

He paused, his tone filled with blatant sarcasm:

"The 5th Division, a force of 15,000 elite soldiers known as the 'Steel Army'."

They were completely wiped out in just a few days by a motley crew of Chinese soldiers?

That's absolutely ridiculous.

The Minister of the Navy chimed in, saying in a sarcastic tone:

"According to our naval intelligence department."

That so-called Provisional Eighth Army was mainly composed of a group of veterans who had recovered from injuries, defeated soldiers, and green recruits who had retired from Shanghai.

Some of them were even composed of Chinese naval and coastal defense forces that had lost their warships.

Listen to this, the Provisional 8th Army.

This kind of serial number is clearly a low-end brand among low-end brands.

"Just a bunch of rabble."

Taking advantage of the situation, Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai slammed his fist on the table and pointed at the army generals, shouting:

"An entire brigade was wiped out by this group of beggars."

You army idiots are a disgrace to Amaterasu!

You have utterly disgraced the empire.

"You still have the nerve to blame our navy here?"

"In my opinion, the budget and steel allocated to the army are still too much. They should be allocated to our navy to build more marines and equip them with more armored vehicles..."

"You shameless bastard, how dare you say that? It's because your navy takes up too much steel that our army lacks enough tanks and anti-tank guns..."

"Baka yarou!"

"Naval idiot!"

"Army idiot!"

Soon, the conference room descended into chaos.

The debate shifted from shifting blame to a renewed outbreak of conflict over issues such as budgets, strategies, and war spoils.

The high-ranking officers of the army and navy were seen hurling insults at each other like street thugs, practically ready to draw their swords and engage in a real-life duel.