We promised to develop a game called Candy Crush, what the hell is the Third Reich?

Chapter 207 [40 Years of Blood Feud in the Republic] (4.4k)

at this time.

In the live stream room of streamer Shi Rui on the Tiansha live streaming platform.

Shi Rui was hiding behind a sloping hill, watching the situation at Lugou Bridge in the distance, while also broadcasting live to viewers on Earth.

"hiss--"

"Guys, we finally caught a plot point?!"

Originally, Shi Rui was just like other streamers, constantly skipping through the plot in order to trigger the Four Crossings of the Chishui River in 1935.

However, due to poor preparation and identity verification at the beginning, he was almost suspected of being a spy when he arrived in the Soviet area.

Naturally, they cannot join.

They originally came here to trigger the "Four Crossings of the Chishui River" event, but now, due to their identities, the red team obviously cannot join.

Therefore, the storyline involving the red team cannot be triggered.

However, giving up and restarting would waste too much time, so Shi Rui turned his attention to other events on the timeline of the [Republic] section of the Polar Star website.

Aside from the red side, the Republic also experienced many major events at this time.

So, after 1935, Shi Rui traveled to various places to see if he could encounter any plot points that might be triggered.

just
It all depends on luck.

From the Soviet area all the way to Beiping, the timeline jumps intermittently from 1935 to 1937.

It just wouldn't trigger.

I was planning to travel from Lugou Bridge to Beiping tonight, but when I arrived, I realized the atmosphere was off.

Shi Rui quickly hid behind the earthen slope and peeked out, using the magnifying glass function of the live broadcast room to look at the Lugou Bridge.

really.

A short while later, a group of Japanese soldiers walked onto the Lugou Bridge and spoke with soldiers of the 29th Army on the other side of the bridge.

As Shi Rui was watching, he saw the group of Japanese soldiers suddenly open fire on the soldiers of the 29th Army.

"Is Japan going to take direct action?"

Shi Rui was somewhat surprised and uncertain as he spoke to the viewers in the live stream.

The viewers in the live stream were also watching intently.

At this time, the defending troops on the Lugou Bridge side began to fight back against the Japanese troops' attack, but it was clear that the Japanese side was well-prepared.

They should have had the upper hand, but now they are being suppressed by firepower.

At this time.

A comment appeared on the screen.

[The photon supercomputer read the Japanese soldiers' words; they said one soldier had gone missing?]

The live stream chat was filled with question marks as comments scrolled by.

【? ? ? 】

[A soldier got lost? That's a ridiculous excuse!]

[This is clearly the Japanese trying to cause trouble, streamer, run!]

That's just how the Japanese are. Didn't you understand when you played World War II?

The Republic wasn't available in the World War II series, but now I can finally learn about that period of war.

【Wait, are there light bulbs under the eyebrows of those Japanese? How could they come up with such an absurd reason?】

Shi Rui nodded as he looked at the comments.

His gaze fell upon the Lugou Bridge in the distance, and he began to speak:
"really."

"That's such an outrageous reason."

The Lugou Bridge in the distance.

Spanning the Yongding River, it is only about 200 meters long and no one goes out at night. The bridgehead is a defensive fortification built by the 29th Army, which was obviously prepared for the Japanese long ago.

This is the case.

The bridge is only about 200 meters long, and there are defensive fortifications on both sides.

How could a grown person get lost here?
Is he a soldier?
Can you go any further?

Do they really think everyone is blind?

But clearly, the soldiers of the 29th Army didn't expect that sometimes no reason is needed.

The Japanese troops had clearly been planning this for a long time.

It's just an excuse.

It seemed they were just waiting for the soldiers of the 29th Army to refuse.

As soon as they refused to be searched, the Japanese troops opened fire, temporarily suppressing the 29th Army soldiers guarding the bridge.

However, the 29th Army soldiers quickly reacted and held the bridgehead with strong firepower, preventing the Japanese from advancing for a while. However, the Japanese had not only rifles and light machine guns.

soon.

From Shi Rui's perspective, several Type 92 infantry guns were brought out by the Japanese.

They launched a massive bombardment of the 29th Army's defensive positions on the other side of Lugou Bridge.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom—

For a while.

Shells rained down on the 29th Army's defensive positions.

Taking advantage of the firepower suppression.

The Japanese advanced in skirmish lines, with three men taking turns firing. They used the Type 38 rifle's long range and accuracy to specifically target the 29th Army machine gunners at the bridgehead.

From Shi Rui's perspective in his live stream.

As the Japanese troops advanced rapidly, some even reaching the positions of the 29th Army on the opposite side.

Compared to the Japanese troops.

The equipment of the 29th Army was a mixed bag, and some units were even unarmed.

When the Japanese soldiers attacked, he wielded a large sword and fought them.

After seeing a soldier from the 29th Army slash two Japanese soldiers in succession, Shi Rui tried to raise his knife to cut down the next one, but was hit by several machine gun bullets and fell down in resentment.

Japan's powerful firepower enabled them to quickly break through the defenses at Lugou Bridge.

And they advanced towards Beiping.

Watching the Japanese troops continuously heading towards Beiping via the Lugou Bridge.

For a while.

Shi Rui, on the other hand, didn't know where to go.

I thought about it.

I had no choice but to come back and see how things were developing here.

The next day.

Inside Shi Rui's live stream room.

At this moment, Shi Rui was sitting in front of the tea stall, listening to the discussions around him about last night.

"Have you heard? A fight broke out at Lugou Bridge last night!"

"That's right! My cousin works in Wanping City. He was awakened by gunfire in the middle of the night. They said the Japanese fired first!"

"The Japanese? Didn't they say we fired first?"

"Don't listen to those Japanese bastards! The Japanese only took action to occupy Beiping."

"I heard that many of our brothers guarding the bridge were killed or wounded. The Japanese firepower was too fierce; they used machine guns and cannons. Some of our men didn't even have guns and charged forward with just broadswords."

"What are the Japanese trying to do? Are they really going to attack Beiping?"

"So what do we do? Run?"

"Run? Where to run? Tianjin isn't safe either!"

The atmosphere at the tea stall grew increasingly heavy; some people muttered curses under their breath, while others sighed in despair.

Meanwhile, Shi Rui, having spent the entire night gathering information, had temporarily grasped the current situation in Beiping. He posted the compiled map in his live stream and addressed his viewers:
"This is the intelligence I gathered last night regarding the current state of the 'Republic of China'."

"Just as the NPC next to me said, things are not peaceful anywhere."

“Look at the map.”

As he spoke, Shi Rui zoomed in on the map of the live stream room.

Shi Rui pointed to the map and said:

"The timeframe of 1937."

"The area north of Beiping, from Juyongguan Pass of the Great Wall to Shanhaiguan Pass, was controlled by the Japanese army."

"The Yongding River blocks the passage to the south, and the Japanese fleet is located in the Bohai Sea to the east."

"The Lugou Bridge to the west was a major transportation route and an important gateway to Beiping."

"Once we take control of Lugou Bridge..."

"It can be said that the entrances and exits to Beiping were completely blocked."

"The east, west, south, and north are all sealed off."

Looking at the map drawn by Shi Rui, the viewers in the live stream couldn't help but nod in agreement. Indeed.

Looking at it this way, there's simply no way out.

The entire passage southward from the Pingjin area was blocked by the Yongding River.

No wonder the Japanese army was so eager to seize Lugou Bridge, such an important transportation hub.

Shi Rui is currently on the south side of the Yongding River and has not entered Beiping. Of course, he can't enter now, as that area has been completely blocked by the Japanese army.

You can't see what's going on inside.

The main problem is that too few entries jump to the 1937 time point.

The previous batch of streamers who skipped the main event were all trying to trigger the Four Crossings of the Chishui River, followed by the Long March. Most of them are currently focused on the 1935 time period.

Only some streamers who didn't join the red team due to their identity issues kept skipping the storyline.

Shi Rui only triggered this plot point after skipping through the story to 1937, which shows how difficult it was to trigger.

However, it also successfully generated a wave of buzz.

After all, in World War II: Rise of Empires, Polaris has never unlocked the storyline of the Republic region.

Now I'm involved in it too.

This prompted many streamers to change their approach, preparing to trigger storylines based on events and locations targeting Japan.

There's been a lot of discussion about it on the Polaris forum.

At this point, the Blue Star players finally shifted their attention from the Red and Blue factions to the Japanese invasion.

Only then did they realize that, without their knowledge, Beiping was almost occupied by Japan.

When did it develop so rapidly?
In reality, most players don't skip the story like streamers do, so they don't notice it when playing slowly. Streamers, on the other hand, skip the story too quickly and their focus is on the south.

They also failed to notice the situation in the Republic of China at that time.

However, with the outbreak of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, players on Earth suddenly became curious about how long Japan had been developing.

Many players are starting new games and choosing the Northeast region to search for information.

Meanwhile, in another live stream room.

At the strong request of Blue Star's fans, Gao Bo, the anchor who manages the Blue Star Archives, also used his position to search for information about Japan in this regard.

After all, compared to other players searching from various points in time, managing the official archives is definitely faster.

Gao Bo agreed and quickly compiled a bunch of documents.

However, as he perused the war documents between the two countries over the past few decades, Gao Bo's brow furrowed more and more.

Viewers in the live stream asked Gao Bo many questions after seeing his behavior.

Gao Bo frowned and said:

"Over from Japan."

"I think I know why the Republic storyline wasn't available during World War II."

"Everyone remembers when we discussed the casualties of the Republic during the War of Resistance against Japan, which exceeded 3500 million, right?"

Some of the comments in the live stream were unclear, but most of them understood.

Gao Bo took a deep breath and took out several documents:

"These documents document Japan's actions since the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894."

"In 1894, after the First Sino-Japanese War, about two thousand civilians died in Jinzhou, followed by Lushun, which resulted in about twenty thousand civilian deaths."

"Approximately 2200 civilians died in Tianzhuangtai."

"The Xiaolong Incident involved approximately 27000 civilians."

"Approximately 20000 people died in the Triangle Creek."

"Yunlin. Retaliatory sweeps destroyed 56 villages, resulting in approximately 10000 civilian casualties."

"There was also a report in The Times in August: Japanese soldiers were shockingly violent and abusive, killing and burning indiscriminately, with no one spared, not even the old, young or women."

"Jinan. Approximately 17000 soldiers and civilians."

"The Shanghai January 28 Incident: More than 12600 people died."

"More than 3000 civilians in Pingdingshan."

"Xinbin. The death toll is approximately 10000."

"Yucheng, 2000 people, Linjiang, 8000 people, Yilan, and more than 20000 people?!"

"What the hell?!"

"What the hell is the Blue Team doing?!"

"These last few incidents even happened last year!!!"

Gao Bo's timeline is based on the historical event of the Four Crossings of the Chishui River, specifically 1935. The most up-to-date data only goes up to 1934.

But what shocked Gao Bo and netizens on Blue Star was...

Since 1894, Japan has been killing so many civilians on Chinese soil?!
These are ordinary people!
If the dead soldiers were to be identified, Japan could justify it as combat casualties, but these were massacres of civilians, which continued from 1894 until 1934.

For a full forty years, there were countless massacres and tragedies.

This completely refreshed the understanding of netizens on Earth.

Imagine.

Between 1894 and 1935, before Japan had fully invaded China, so many tragedies were already committed. One can only imagine what Japan would do next.

No wonder the Polaris website doesn't include the Republic storyline in World War II.

Compared to Japan, the Empire doesn't seem so brutal anymore.

Compared to Japan, the Lidice massacre (the origin of International Children's Day) caused by the assassination of Heydrich in the Empire resulted in 340 deaths.

What about Japan?
The massacres that occurred between 1894 and 1934 alone resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

Not to mention after the 1937 invasion.

(Incomplete version from 1937 only)

Only then did netizens on Earth understand why the entire nation of China harbored such hatred towards Japan—this wasn't something that had happened in just one or two wars.

It's not just voyeurism and madness that has lasted for 40 years.

Just looking at the numbers on those documents is shocking.

The numbers are staggering, reflecting a blood debt.

Many netizens on Earth were also experiencing this long-forgotten data firsthand for the first time, finding it hard to believe.

These crimes.

Any one of these points, if placed in another country, would be enough to incite eternal hatred.

The chat in the live stream was silent for a moment, then erupted like a tidal wave:
[Damn! I thought the suicide bombers during WWII were already pretty horrific, but these were even more horrific!]

[The Empire at least publicly repented after its defeat, while they've been denying it ever since, haven't they?]

My hands are shaking, damn it!

Now I finally understand the question, "Should the 400 million Chinese people be angry?" Faced with such a blood feud, and then Europe wants to give Shandong to them—who wouldn't hate that?

No wonder the students in those CG scenes became so emotional when they talked about Japan; the blood debt is too heavy, and no one can let go of this history.

This is suffocating! Why haven't we heard about this before? Has Europe been downplaying it?

Looking at the comments in the live stream, Gao Bo's expression turned serious as he stared at the documents in his hand.

Is someone trying to downplay it?
indeed.

Even when The Times, unable to bear the situation any longer, spoke out, it only wrote that the Japanese army was killing and burning indiscriminately, sparing neither the elderly nor women, without mentioning any casualties.

The animosity between Japan and European countries goes without saying.

After all, neither side is clean.

This was the case before 1937, so you can imagine what it was like after 1937. And that period was shortly before World War II, when the whole world's attention was on Europe.

At this moment, netizens on Earth have a clearer understanding of Japan's brutality.

This isn't just a few short years.

Instead, starting in 1894, they coveted the land of China for decades, with several generations of Japanese people even frantically trying to occupy China.

Perhaps the Japanese soldiers who participated in 1915 were descendants of Japanese soldiers who participated in the Port Arthur Massacre in 1894.

Perhaps the Japanese soldiers who participated in the Yilan massacre in 1934 were descendants of the Japanese soldiers who participated in the massacre in 1915. Just thinking about this...

And perhaps it was a descendant of the Japanese soldier who participated in the 1934 massacre.

Will they say something like, "Is it necessary to keep bringing up the past? What era are we living in?" in the future?

The scene was extremely nauseating and disgusting.

Netizens on Earth shudder at the mere thought.

Based on their understanding of Japan within the game's "Earth," netizens on Earth believe that these Japanese people might actually be capable of doing such a thing.

The footage from Gao Bo's live stream was also edited into a video and uploaded to gaming forums.

The allegations of Japanese atrocities quickly sparked a huge controversy on player forums on Earth.

Because these records are simply too inhumane.

Many players started the game from various points in time to see if those events actually happened.

(End of this chapter)