Courtyard House: Home Alone

The Minister of War walked to the conference table, slowly sat down, took the telegram from its inner pocket, and gently placed it on the table. "Gentlemen," his voice was low and dry, "the worst news has come from Beiping..."

He paused, as if gathering his courage, and then said, word by word: "The two flight squadrons sent to Beiping to carry out the 'decapitation' mission were intercepted by an unidentified aerial force before reaching the target area... and were completely wiped out."

"What?!" The Chief of the General Staff jumped to his feet, his face filled with disbelief. "Two flight squadrons? How is that possible! What kind of force is that? Are they the Chinese Air Force's new fighter jets?"

The Minister of War shook his head, his face growing even more grim: "The specifics are unclear. Communications were cut off after the interception. All we know is that no planes returned, and there were no reports of pilots ejecting."

A deathly silence fell over the conference room, broken only by the occasional cawing of crows outside the window, adding to the somber atmosphere. The Prime Minister's face turned ashen; he tapped his fingers on the table, making a dull thud.

"Furthermore," the Minister of the Army began with difficulty, "the 'Kamikaze' special attack mission to rescue His Highness the Prince also... failed. All the special attack team members perished."

"Baka!" The Chief of the General Staff couldn't help but curse under his breath, slamming his fist on the table. "How did those Chinese manage that? Do they have some kind of secret weapon?"

"Not only that," the Minister of War's voice trembled slightly, "our intelligence network in Beiping has also suffered a devastating blow. Most of our agents have lost contact, and preliminary assessments suggest... they were eliminated because they were cooperating with the special forces operation."

Even the Prime Minister, who had been trying to maintain his composure, couldn't sit still any longer. He sprang to his feet, his hands gripping the conference table, leaning forward slightly, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief. "What did you say?! The intelligence network is destroyed too?! This... how is this possible?!"

His voice was distorted due to excessive excitement, and his usual gentle and refined image was completely gone.

"How many years have we built this business in Beiping? How much effort have we put in? And just like that... it's all gone in an instant?" He muttered to himself, his face drained of color, as if he had aged ten years in an instant.

The Minister of War lowered his head, avoiding the Prime Minister's eyes, and only sighed heavily, which was taken as tacit agreement. The Chief of the General Staff stood to the side, panting heavily, veins bulging on his forehead, clearly stunned by the series of bad news.

The air in the conference room seemed to freeze, so oppressive that it was hard to breathe. A thick gloom hung over everyone's hearts, foreshadowing a dark turning point for the fate of the empire.

After the enemy agents in Beiping were cleared out, the construction of the pharmaceutical factory accelerated significantly, and Dr. Chen was also taken to the factory.

"Your Excellency, the crucial question now is how we can inform His Majesty of this news. If His Majesty finds out... he will likely be furious!"

The Prime Minister's voice trembled slightly. He sat back down in his chair, his hands clenched tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"The Empire is in dire straits in Beiping right now. Several commanders have been killed in succession, and people are now terrified of the mere mention of Beiping. If His Majesty were to learn of the disastrous defeat in Beiping, especially His Highness the Prince..." He didn't finish his sentence, but the consequences would be unimaginable.

The Chief of the General Staff took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down: "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, Mr. Anan, things have come to this point, and concealing it is not a long-term solution."

His Majesty the Emperor will eventually find out. What we need to do now is minimize the damage, explain the situation to His Majesty, and... how to deal with the potential chain reaction.

The Minister of War raised his head, a ruthless glint in his eyes: "Explain? What other explanation is there? We can only shift the blame to those incompetent commanders! We'll say they made intelligence errors and mismanaged their orders!"

As for the response… we must immediately exert even greater pressure on the Chinese! I suggest dispatching more ground troops from Manchuria to conduct a larger-scale sweep of Beiping! Those Chinese must pay the price!

"Absolutely not!" the Prime Minister immediately rejected. "Moving troops from Manchuria now would weaken our defenses there. The Soviet Union is watching us closely, and we cannot afford to neglect one aspect for the other."

Moreover, the situation in Beiping is unclear. The enemy has just annihilated three of our full-strength divisions, and now they have easily wiped out two of our air squadrons and a kamikaze special attack unit. Their fighting strength should not be underestimated. Blindly reinforcing our troops would likely only repeat the same mistakes and increase casualties.

The Chief of the General Staff nodded in agreement: "Your Excellency the Prime Minister is absolutely right. The most urgent task is to find out as soon as possible what exactly happened in Beiping and what the origin of that suddenly appearing powerful force is. Without accurate intelligence, any military action is blind."

The Minister of War's face turned pale and then red. He knew that the Prime Minister and the Chief of the General Staff were right, but as the Minister of War, the disastrous defeat in Beiping had caused him to lose face, and he desperately needed a victory to salvage the situation.

"Then... then we're just going to do nothing? Just stand by and watch the empire lose face?"

The Prime Minister rubbed his temples, looking unusually tired: "Yes, of course we'll do it. But we can't rashly resort to force now. We can first put pressure on Chongqing through diplomatic channels, demanding that they hand over the murderer and compensate for the losses."

At the same time, he ordered the intelligence agencies to infiltrate Beiping at all costs and uncover the truth. Furthermore, he ordered the strengthening of air defenses in the homeland and occupied territories to prevent similar air strikes from happening again.

He paused, then looked at the Minister of War, "Lord Anan, you must immediately organize a team to conduct a detailed investigation into the disastrous defeat at Beiping. You must find out the reasons for the failure and give His Majesty an explanation. Before the investigation results are available, we will temporarily... temporarily report some of the situation to His Majesty, saying that the operation encountered fierce resistance and suffered heavy losses, and that the specific details are still being verified."

This was undoubtedly a delaying tactic, but there seemed to be no better solution at the moment. The Minister of War and the Chief of the General Staff exchanged a glance, both seeing helplessness in each other's eyes.

They knew that this "explanation" would be difficult to do, and that the high and mighty Emperor was not so easily fooled.

The atmosphere in the meeting room became heavy again, and the crows outside the window seemed to sense the oppressive atmosphere, letting out a few more mournful cries.

The fate of the empire seemed to hang by a thread, while the seven-year-old child in Beiping was still in his courtyard, completely unaware of the heated debate taking place in the island nation's headquarters a thousand miles away. He was lost in his own thoughts, planning his next move.

With the enemy agents in Beiping cleared out, the construction of the pharmaceutical factory accelerated considerably. Meanwhile, Lin Yifan received a message from Manager Zhou. He carefully examined the address and sketches Manager Zhou had given him, considering his route to the Taihang Mountains.