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Chapter 1538 The Grand Finale (Happy New Year)
Time flies, and two years have passed in the blink of an eye. During this period, the situation in the Republic of China has undergone earth-shattering changes.

First, the Northwest Army completely defeated the Kuomintang's elite troops armed with American equipment in the Northeast. Elite units such as the New First Army and the New Sixth Army were annihilated, resulting in the loss of more than 40 men.

The Kuomintang Northeast Suppression Headquarters, four army corps headquarters, eleven army headquarters, and 36 division headquarters suffered devastating blows, and 186 generals were captured.

Secondly, before the Nationalist government could recover from the defeat in the Liaoxi Campaign, two large-scale battles centered on Pingjin and Xucheng were about to begin.

The Kuomintang amassed a large number of troops and new equipment, attempting a desperate last stand.

In order to strengthen intelligence capabilities, someone transferred Zuo Chong, who had left the Republic of China two years earlier, back to Nanjing and received him at the newly renovated Presidential Palace, which was the former site of the National Government.

In the first half of last year, the National Government convened the "Constitutional National Assembly," and someone was successfully elected as "President," so the National Government's headquarters naturally had to change its signboard.

However, this grand event of democracy was marred by numerous farces during the conference, such as delegates blocking the entrance with coffins, a general leading a group to vandalize a newspaper office, and candidates exchanging gold bars for votes.

Inside the reception room, Zuo Zhong sat properly on the sofa, his gaze lowered to the carpet, as someone's voice reached his ears.

"Shen Zhong, you've worked hard these past two years, and the Overseas Intelligence Bureau has also done an excellent job."

At the beginning of the meeting, someone praised FIRC and Zuo Zhong in a very friendly tone, but Zuo Zhong did not take it seriously and quickly stood up and said some nonsense about how hard the "President" had worked and how he had put in so much effort.

Someone smiled and then explained the reason for calling Zuo Chong back, along with an appointment notice.

“During your absence, the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics made repeated mistakes in its intelligence work in the Northwest. It was as if the underground party had installed a listening device next to me. Before the military deployment was even issued to the combat troops, the other side already knew about it.”

"It is clear that Zheng Tingbing is not up to the task. I have decided to remove him from his post and appoint you as the deputy chief of staff of Xucheng, in charge of frontline intelligence work."

Zuo Zhong stood up and replied, "Yes." He knew that someone had no hope for the North China Campaign and planned to fight a decisive battle with the Northwest in the Xuzhou-Bengbu area.

As for the listening device the other party mentioned, there's absolutely no need for that. The Deputy Director of the Operations Department of the Ministry of National Defense is a member of the underground Communist Party, the recorder next to someone is a member of the underground Communist Party, and many of the army commanders and division commanders of the front-line combat troops are also members of the underground Communist Party.

Under these circumstances, it would be a miracle if the Kuomintang could win, especially with him, the director of the Second Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense, constantly sending top secrets to the Northwest. It's a miracle that the Kuomintang army has been able to hold out this long.

After the meeting, Zuo Chong returned to his office at Hong Gongci, where the heads of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics came to pay their respects one by one.

He had nothing to say to these people, only making some empty promises and demanding that they be loyal to their duties and reverse the unfavorable situation for intelligence work in the Northwest as soon as possible.

But then, Zuo Zhong gave his partner Lao K a list of agents sent by the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics to the liberated areas. The list contained the real names, disguised identities, and calling codes of hundreds of undercover agents.

Upon receiving the list, Old K dared not delay and immediately handed it over to his superiors, which led to the complete annihilation of the Kuomintang intelligence network in North China and Xuzhou-Bengbu.

Upon learning of this, Zuo Chong was "furious" and immediately launched a purge of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, holding those responsible accountable. Hundreds of Bureau of Investigation and Statistics agents whose hands were stained with the blood of underground party members were executed.

This decisive and efficient style of doing things not only pleased one person, but also greatly reassured the high-ranking officers of the Xucheng Command, who believed that the Military Intelligence Bureau from the War of Resistance Against Japan had returned.

One day, a certain person held a pre-battle mobilization meeting for the Xuzhou-Bengbu Campaign, during which he uttered those famous quotes.

"Xucheng has been the site of more than fifty large-scale wars throughout history, and the rights and wrongs are difficult to discuss."

"I don't understand why everyone is talking about Xiang Yu being trapped at Gaixia, as if this ancient battlefield in the Central Plains is destined to be a perilous place for us."

In the audience, Zuo Zhong hid his phone under a document and pretended to listen attentively, seriously cooperating with someone's speech.

One day, at a combat meeting at the Xucheng command headquarters, Pig General made some outrageous remarks, explaining "Pig's tactics" to the many generals, which made the attendees secretly laugh.

Enraged by the pig general's words, one of the generals behind Zuo Chong muttered to his companion in German, "What a load of nonsense, utter rubbish."

The pig had very keen ears and asked what the other party was saying. The general jokingly said that he was speaking of the commander-in-chief's brilliant insight, and a chorus of agreement immediately rang out from the crowd.

Zuo Chong, who was recording, glanced at the general, his eyes full of amusement.

As a top student at the Baoding Military Academy, Zhu was fluent in Japanese, German, and English. How could he not understand the general's insults?

This shows that the pig was good at enduring hardship and also held a pessimistic attitude towards the war, which is why he was too lazy to argue with the general.

This shows that even the commander-in-chief was complacent, let alone the lower-ranking officers; the defeat of the Kuomintang was inevitable.

Throughout the entire command post, only Deputy Commander-in-Chief Du refused to give up the last glimmer of hope, repeatedly visiting the front lines to inspect the situation, prepared to dedicate himself to someone until his dying breath.

Zuo Zhong had cooperated with him in Yunnan Province (section 1357), so he would bring Zuo Zhong along on every inspection to discuss combat matters.

However, the tide of history will not be changed by any one person. The situation in Xuzhou and Bengbu and Beijing and Tianjin became increasingly unfavorable to the Nationalist government. One after another, meritorious troops were annihilated, and countless anti-Japanese "famous generals" fell in battle.

It wasn't just the Northwest Army that defeated the Kuomintang army; millions of people from the liberated areas also did so. They bid farewell to their families and resolutely pushed wheelbarrows to support the front lines.

Wherever the Northwest Army fought, the people sent supplies there. With such unity of purpose, how could the Kuomintang not be defeated?

As the war intensified, Zuo Zhong had no choice but to follow someone's orders and transfer all the original key members of the Military Intelligence Bureau, including Gu Qi, Wu Chunyang, Gui Youguang, and Fu Ling, back to China, but it was to no avail.

During the battle of Tianjin, Zuo Zhong risked his life to rush to the area to supervise the defense, but only 29 hours later, Tianjin was declared lost.

As the city fell, he told the defending generals to hold on and that there would be a way. After saying this, he took Wu Jingzhong and others and boarded a plane to flee in a hurry. Meanwhile, the Yu couple, who were secret agents, were unfortunately "separated" in the chaos.

Just as the plane took off, a group of soldiers from Northwest China stormed into the airport, shouting slogans such as "Break into Tianjin and capture Zuo Zhong alive!" Due to his "erratic behavior" after returning home, Zuo Zhong had been placed on the Northwest's list of war criminals, ranking among the top 30. The soldiers, eager for glory, had long wanted to capture this major spy.

Subsequently, Zuo Chong personally went to the front line of Taiyuan to guide counter-espionage work, and on the way, he sent the defense map of more than 5000 bunkers built by the Jin-Sui Army at great expense of manpower and resources to the Northwest.

After the trip to Taiyuan, Zuo Zhong inspected several strategic points in succession. On each trip, he brought a large number of attendants to confuse the public.

Therefore, although these strategic points were captured one by one by the Northwest in the following days, no one suspected that the problem lay with the director of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, but simply assumed that there was a mole among the insiders.

Several months later, the Kuomintang's army in Jiangbei melted away like ice and snow, leaving the Nationalist government barely clinging to life with only half of the country remaining, and someone was forced to step down.

When leaving Nanjing, someone summoned his trusted confidants, including Zuo Zhong, to Zhonghua Gate, where he delivered a famous scene of "I have to leave Nanjing, leave the capital I created with my own hands."

On that day, a man returned to his hometown of Ningbo by car, accompanied by Zuo Chong as his bodyguard. He resigned from all his posts to express his determination to stand with the leader through thick and thin.

At this point, Zuo Chong had seemingly bid farewell to the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, which he had managed for over a decade, and became a commoner.

However, just like someone else's resignation, he still remotely directed the daily work of the Security Bureau from behind the scenes. Under the joint micromanagement of the two, the speed of the Kuomintang army's defeat was even faster, and the underground party could not catch up.

On April 23, a million-strong army from the Northwest crossed the Yangtze River and captured Nanjing. Someone traveled from Ningbo to Shanghai to oversee the battle, but in reality, he was preparing to retreat.

In order to leave no trace of the Northwest, the Kuomintang transported away all the central bank's reserves of gold, foreign exchange, and silver, 3000 boxes of cultural relics, a large amount of machinery and equipment, and other important materials.

Zuo Zhong tried to stop him, but this time someone was unusually cautious and did not give him a chance to sabotage. The troops responsible for escorting the shipment were also the last loyalists of the Guo army.

(This cannot be written, otherwise it involves nothingness)
One day in May, Zuo Zhong and Gu Qi boarded a cargo ship and left the dock. Gunshots rang out in Shanghai behind them. It was the Kuomintang army and the Northwest Army fighting for the outer perimeter of the city.

In order to protect the civilians, the Northwest General Front Committee ordered the attacking forces not to use heavy artillery. The soldiers risked huge casualties and used explosive charges, demolition charges, and cluster grenades to destroy the enemy's cement fortifications one by one, gradually compressing the encirclement.

The once bustling Bund is about to undergo a dramatic change, and the young regime will face a brand new test. Countless remnants are waiting to see the underground party make a fool of itself, but reality will give them a profound lesson.

Cracking down on compradors, punishing corruption, and stabilizing prices—things the KMT failed to do—will be accomplished in the Northwest within just two years.

As he watched the land recede into the distance, Gui Youguang seemed to have lost his soul. This tough man, who had endured the brutal torture of the Japanese army, knelt on the deck and wailed, repeatedly shouting the same sentence.

"We have no home, we have no home."

Gu Qi and the others standing by the ship were also dejected. Yes, for them, leaving the mainland this time might mean never having the chance to return.

The Northwest can forgive ordinary soldiers and accept KMT generals who have no blood on their hands, but it will never let go of intelligence personnel.

Zuo Zhong stepped forward to help Gui Youguang up, patted him on the shoulder, and looked back at Lu Shu with a deep gaze.

Facing the sea, he said calmly, "As long as you have home in your heart, anywhere is a place to return to. In the past, we brothers fought for our leader and our cause. Now, we fight for our families! We fight for ourselves!"

Gui Youguang remained silent with red eyes, but his emotions had stabilized considerably. Gu Qi and the others stood quietly on either side, with only the sound of the wind in their ears.

At this moment, someone walked up to Zuo Zhong and asked a question: "Why do you insist on taking me with you? I'm just a doctor, the underground party won't do anything to me."

Hearing Ling Sanping's mournful voice, Zuo Chong turned his head, raised an eyebrow, and wrapped his arms around the guy's neck.

"You're acting all innocent after getting a good deal. Do you even know how many gold bars a single boat ticket to leave Shanghai costs these days? Stop making that face. You'll find out some things in the future."

His words were full of profound meaning, but Ling Sanping didn't understand. He shook off Ling Sanping's hand with a shrug and then asked an interesting question.

"Didn't you ever think about staying? The Northwest might need your abilities; after all, not everyone is familiar with overseas intelligence work."

Faced with this almost explicit invitation, Zuo Zhong gripped the railing with both hands and softened his tone: "I've thought about it, but I'm not alone. Sometimes it's better to be friends than to be acquaintances, isn't it?"

As Zuo Zhong said this, he had only one thought in his mind: the mission was not yet accomplished, and he still had to work hard.

Ling Sanping hesitated. He looked at Zuo Zhong beside him and realized that he seemed to have never really seen the other person clearly.

Before he could ask any more questions, Zuo Zhong gripped He Yijun's hand tightly, turned around, and called out to Gu Qi, Song Minghao, Wu Chunyang, Gui Youguang, and Fu Ling with a smile.

"Brothers! Let's go to New Zealand! To start a new life!"

"Yes!"

Gu Qi and the others laughed and replied loudly. Their laughter echoed across the sea as the setting sun gradually sank into the ocean.

He Yijun slowly rested her head on Zuo Zhong's shoulder, her right hand stroking her stomach. Zuo Zhong looked down and smiled. The two figures made the afterglow of the sunset seem even warmer.
-
At a dock in Shanghai, Xu Enzeng and Zheng Tingbing were so anxious that they were jumping up and down, holding their boat tickets. Bai Wenzhi, a major general advisor to the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou Garrison Command, was also sweating profusely.

"Didn't they say the boat would depart at 5 o'clock? Why did it leave?" Zheng Tingbing demanded angrily.

Xu Enzeng's face turned bright red. Suddenly, as if he had just remembered something, he jumped up and cursed, "Damn it! That Zuo guy is ripping people off again!"

(The End, with Bonus Chapters)
Zuo Zhong: "Sanping, my whole life has been like walking on thin ice. Do you think I can ever reach the other side?"

Ling Sanping? ? ? ? Aren't you already on the other side?

A lame joke, hahaha