Comrade, your ingredients are too complicated.

The unusual silence and evasive glances of his subordinate officers pierced Yano Hideo's nerves like a sharp knife, making him sense a dangerous atmosphere.

As a veteran who fought his way from Nanjing to North China, he knew all too well what this collective hesitation meant:
When the fanatical facade of Bushido is torn away, revealing the primal instinct for survival, the collapse of an entire army can often happen in an instant.

Adhering to the principle that a thousand-mile dike can be breached by an ant hole, Hideo Yano's sinister gaze swept across the faces of each officer, and he repeated the order he had just given.

"Gentlemen, the army is facing a critical moment of survival. All that cannot be taken away must be reduced to ashes. All those who might aid the enemy must be eliminated!"

"This is my order, and it is also General Okamura's order."

Yano's voice was soft, yet it sent chills down your spine like the flick of a viper's tongue.

To increase his sense of oppression, he suddenly drew his sword with a backhand motion. With a muffled "crack," a piece of the table corner was neatly sliced ​​off, revealing fresh wood shavings at the break.

The swordsmanship master Yoshio Shinotsuka has a worthy successor.

"This is the consequence for anyone who disobeys!"

"Gentlemen, act now. This is not a request, but your last chance to preserve your military honor."

In the early stages of the invasion of China, the Japanese army adopted a strategy of "using war to sustain war," plundering food, minerals, and industrial resources in the occupied territories to maintain the high-intensity operation of its war machine.

However, with the rapid development of the Eighth Route Army's various military regions, the war situation continued to deteriorate, and the Japanese had less and less room to survive in North China. Now, even their field armies were being torn apart.

It was in this desperate situation that Okamura Yasuji issued the scorched earth order to all remaining troops.

The old devil's order was exactly what Hideo Yano wanted, giving him what he had always dreamed of: a pretext to legitimize collective madness.

With this military order as a fig leaf, the resentment accumulated from repeated defeats finally found an outlet.

Hideo Yano wanted more than just destruction; he wanted to leave an indelible scar on the land of North China in the most vicious way.

"Yes, sir! We'll take care of it right away! Please rest assured, Major General!"

Seeing that their brigade commander was showing signs of losing control, the officers in the operations room quickly straightened their backs and bowed their heads in unison.

However, once the other person left the room and their footsteps completely disappeared at the end of the corridor, a look of worry returned to their faces.

The Japanese soldiers looked at each other, their lips involuntarily drooping downwards, and even the wrinkles on their foreheads deepened. Anyone could see the anxiety and worry in their eyes.

After a short while, the operations chief was the first to lose his composure and break the silence.

He nervously checked the gaps in the doors and windows first, and only after confirming it was safe did he pull a crumpled leaflet from the inner pocket of his uniform.

"Gentlemen," the Japanese section chief said in a low voice, his Adam's apple bobbing unnaturally, "you've all received the Eighth Route Army's warning letter, haven't you? The fact that they can gather such detailed personal and family information means there must be a major problem within the Empire!"

Amidst the sighs of his colleagues, everyone's attention turned to the center of the table.

The flyer listed the home address and relatives' names of everyone present with precision. The mimeographed ink was particularly glaring in the winter sun.

Seeing this, the officers instinctively touched their uniforms. The air seemed to freeze, with only the sound of swallowing echoing in the room.

"What's next? Should we really obey the major general's orders?" The operations chief's voice trembled. "Or should we try to slack off?"

"idiot!"

The artillery staff officer suddenly slammed his fist on the table, causing the teacups and other ornaments to rattle and clang.

"These devils know that my mother and wife live in Furano, and they even know the name of my son whom I've never even met? How am I supposed to fight them?"

"To put it bluntly, if Tokyo is destroyed, so be it. Anyway, I live in Hokkaido."

“But if my hometown is bombed because of me, even if I commit seppuku ten times, I will not be able to face my family who died under the bombs.”

Indeed, the leaflet now in the hands of every officer in the entire Independent Mixed 39th Brigade is a psychological warfare weapon carefully designed by the Eighth Route Army Headquarters.

This leaflet, with its precise intelligence and cold, detached language, constructs a suffocating chain of cause and effect:
Every burned village and every massacred civilian corresponds to the name, place of origin, and even detailed information about the hometown and relatives of a Japanese officer on the leaflet.

You think it's none of your business to bomb Tokyo? What if it were your hometown?

Seemingly imagining the tragedies of their families dying from high-explosive bombs and napalm, the officers in the operations room all shuddered in unison.

Soon, the operations section chief gritted his teeth and stamped his foot, making the first statement.

"I think we should just forget about it. It's not like we haven't done things like insubordination before. Don't hesitate any longer, do you really want to involve your families in the local area?"

"The empire has only 47 first-level administrative regions, which is a total area of ​​no more than 37.8 square kilometers."

"Didn't you see what the leaflet said? The three divisions of the Eighth Route Army Air Force can destroy the core industrial area of ​​the local area in just eight months without regard to cost, and can bomb all the secondary towns and military facilities in another 14.8 months."

"To deal with your hometowns, they only need to start wildfires with napalm."

The psychological warfare tactics devised by the Eighth Route Army headquarters were named by Huang He as the "Instant Feedback on Atrocities and Punishments".

In the original timeline, Ah Chou had used this tactic in Okinawa, and it was surprisingly effective. Many soldiers from Kyushu preferred to be executed by officers rather than implicate their families back home.

As expected, once the first person to take the lead was identified, the vast majority of staff officers made up their minds, with only a very few centrists still hesitating.

To ensure no one leaked information, the head of the operations department decided to add fuel to the fire, putting everyone in the same boat.

He then pulled out a letter from his pocket, the title of which was boldly written: "Records of Crimes Committed in War."

"You've all heard about what's been happening lately. Whether it's Shimen, or Baoding and Handan which are next to us, many officers and even soldiers have died at the hands of Eighth Route Army snipers on their way to assemble."

“I’m telling you, that wasn’t an ordinary ambush or killing, but an organized and premeditated revenge.”

"My fellow villager from Beicheng secretly told me a while ago that the Eighth Route Army has compiled a list of more than a thousand people. Although I don't know if any of you are on the list, I advise you all to protect yourselves."

Ordinary psychological deterrence alone is far from enough to stop the Japanese soldiers' atrocities.

To subdue them, blood must be drawn.

In order to protect the people of Hebei Province to the greatest extent, the staff and intelligence agencies of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, together with the Third Field Army, secretly launched a secret operation codenamed "Far East Military Tribunal".

By infiltrating the archives of the puppet regime, interrogating Japanese prisoners of war, and collecting survivor testimonies, the three parties eventually compiled a "Record of War Crimes" containing the names of 1427 Japanese officers in North China.

What makes this file terrifying is its frightening precision.

Each page of it is marked with the date, location, and number of victims of the crime, and includes the handwritten signatures of the perpetrators and photocopies of the operational orders.

The rapid spread of fear, the collapse of morale within the army, and the chaos in the command structure of the North China Front Army led senior officers to deliberately obscure written instructions in order to avoid being accused of war crimes.

Some soldiers, realizing that the atrocities would eventually be punished, began to refuse to carry out the killing orders, just like the current Independent Mixed Brigade No. 39.

As for those stubborn Japanese devils?
Clearly, they didn't know who the head of the intelligence agency on the North China battlefield was. Mr. Wang Yong's sword, too, proved effective!
······
Under the combined pressure of psychological warfare and the "Records of War Crimes," the Japanese soldiers in the operations room quickly reached a consensus: to outwardly comply but inwardly defy and refuse to carry out Yano Hideo's orders.

Of course, these cunning and shrewd advisors also left themselves a way out.

Considering the possibility of their scheme being exposed, they decisively shifted the task of destroying the industrial zone and harming the local people to the puppet troops who were idle in the city.

After the puppet army commanders left the brigade headquarters, the Japanese staff officers collectively breathed a sigh of relief, as if they had thrown away a hot potato.

"Alright, let's drop this matter. If Major General Yano asks, you can simply say that you have instructed your subordinates to carry out the wartime regulations. The war situation is critical right now, and I'm sure the general can distinguish between what's important and what's urgent."

"Sigh, I wonder when the Eighth Route Army will launch its attack."

"They wouldn't be planning to just keep surrounding us and trap our Independent 39th Brigade in Shimen, would they?"

No sooner had the old Japanese soldier finished speaking than a strange buzzing sound suddenly came from the direction of Waishigou. This piercing whistling sound was distinctly different from that of ordinary field artillery; it sounded more like the tearing of silk as if the sky were being forcibly ripped open.

"Boom! Boom!"

"What, what caliber is this cannon?!"

The operations section chief instinctively covered his ears, but the shockwave still made his teeth chatter. The wooden window frames of the operations conference room creaked in the sound, and even the water glasses on the table were shaken to the ground.

The Japanese soldiers' eardrums failed them due to the excruciating pain. But they still endured the discomfort and rushed to the window to observe the battlefield.

At that moment, the officers witnessed the section of the city's blockade trench, which everyone had once believed to be indestructible, being blasted into a giant crater fifteen meters in diameter and eight meters deep amidst thick smoke and flames.

Large quantities of building materials were blasted into the air and then fell like a meteor shower, with dust and smoke billowing up and obscuring the sky.

"This, this isn't artillery at all, it's a geological event!"

"So the rumors were true! The firepower of naval guns really is superior to that of a thousand field guns!"

······
An hour and a half ago, in the temporary headquarters of the 386th Brigade in Jingxing County, in the operations conference room.

After more than an hour of intense preparation, the main force for this attack on Shimen has been fully deployed.

When the skinny staff officer rushed over to report, the brigade commander was already fully equipped and ready to go, clearly looking like he could head to the front lines at any moment.

Seeing that his old partner was about to open the folder and report to him, the brigade commander grabbed his arm and dragged him outside without saying a word.

The two strode across the yard and quickly got into the already started jeep.

"Old Zhou, it's more than 40 kilometers from Jingxing to the front line. We can talk about it on the way; it should only take half an hour."

The jeep rolled over the gravel road and quickly delivered the top two leaders of this battle to the train station.

As soon as the skinny staff officer stepped into his private compartment, a combat map covering the entire tabletop immediately caught his eye.

The map is covered with a dense network of contour lines, firing points, and attack arrows, the ink of which is still wet and even smells of fresh ink.

Seeing his old partner looking at the battle map with a smug expression, he couldn't help but shake his head and chuckle.

"Nothing else to report? Then I'll begin my report. During the Shimen Campaign, the Air Force will provide us with 300 sorties of attack waves every day."

"Don't complain about the small number. After all, headquarters is launching attacks on multiple cities simultaneously this time, and it also involves the first amphibious landing operation. The Air Force comrades simply don't have enough manpower."

"The reason we can provide 300 flights is because we are close to the airport and our pilots are working non-stop."

Upon hearing this, the brigade commander nodded subconsciously. Shimen, Xingtai, Handan, Baoding, Cangzhou, and Tangshan—six cities to be attacked simultaneously on the very first day.

The scale and intensity of this battlefront make the French campaign pale in comparison to the Hebei campaign.

While their own air force is strong, it is ultimately just a newly established army that has been in existence for two years. If it can provide 300 sorties, what more could he ask for?
Furthermore, with absolute air superiority, the quality of these 300 sorties is astonishingly high.

With this thought in mind, he shifted his gaze from the map to the skinny staff officer, becoming concerned about his old profession.

"Old Zhou, let Captain Wang and the squad handle the air force matters as they see fit. Leave the professional stuff to the professionals. What I'm most concerned about right now is how many artillery pieces we have to use to attack Shimen."

Upon hearing this, the skinny staff officer looked up to the east, his gaze seemingly reaching the artillery positions of this battle from over forty kilometers away.

"There are only a hundred or so large pipes, not many. But thanks to the Zhengtai Railway, we can use our shells as we please, you can bombard them however you want."

"By the way, in addition to conventional artillery, headquarters also sent four 240mm self-propelled howitzers, which are now deployed." (End of Chapter)