Under One Person: The Puppet Immortal in the Tang Sect

The major usually returns home late at night, chauffeured in a car, and is always accompanied by two bodyguards.

A direct assault or forced entry has a low success rate and is extremely easy to get surrounded.

So Cui Ming decided to give him a push.

He used the accused agent to adjust the patrol time and route of the apartment building that night, creating two brief gaps in the patrol schedule.

They also arranged for a puppet officer from within the Japanese army to be placed at the estimated time of the major's return.

Create a minor disturbance on the street in front of the apartment building to attract the attention of the security guard at the entrance.

Meanwhile, Cui Ming manipulated a shadow spider to quietly lurk near the wiring of the corridor lights on the floor where the major he was controlling lived.

The night was dark.

The young assassin seized the opportunity during a gap in the patrol and climbed over the back wall of the apartment building.

Following the route he had figured out, he found his way to the door of the major's residence and was about to pick the lock.

Inside, however, came the sound of conversation. The major had a guest tonight, a section chief from the mainland who was in charge of coordinating military supplies.

The two were drinking in the living room.

The young man lay in the shadows outside the door, caught in a dilemma.

Just then, a drunkard's shout came from downstairs at just the right moment. The conversation in the living room paused slightly, and the major seemed to mutter something in dissatisfaction before walking to the window to look.

The opportunity was fleeting. The young man gritted his teeth, quickly pried open the lock with the tools he had prepared, and slipped inside.

The following process took place under Cui Ming's remote "watchful eye".

The young man was more agile than expected. Taking advantage of the moment when the major's back was to the door and the guest was bending down to pour wine, he pounced like a cheetah.

The poisoned blade sliced ​​precisely across the major's throat, while his other hand threw a pebble that extinguished the main light in the living room.

The guest was terrified and was about to cry for help when the young man turned around and struck him on the side of the neck, knocking him unconscious.

The entire operation took less than ten seconds.

But the young man made a mistake during the evacuation.

Instead of immediately returning the way he came, he tried to leave quickly via the main entrance staircase.

But they bumped into the gate guard who had been distracted for a moment by the dispute with the drunk officer and had returned.

The guard immediately drew his gun as a warning, and the young man hurriedly broke open a door next to him and rushed into the basement.

The alarm went off.

The apartment building was immediately alerted, and more guards and patrol teams that rushed to the scene began to seal off the exits and search the basement.

The young man was trapped.

Cui Ming frowned.

His original intention was to allow the young man to successfully carry out the assassination and then make a smooth escape, thus characterizing the incident as a successful revenge attack.

This would both boost morale and expose security vulnerabilities in the apartment building.

This would facilitate his subsequent arrangements for rectification and the placement of more puppets into the security team.

But now the situation is somewhat out of control.

He immediately took command of the two accused agents near the scene.

One person "happened" to be patrolling nearby. After receiving the alarm, he "first" rushed to the basement entrance and "unintentionally" blocked another team of soldiers who arrived later.

They claimed there might be traps below and that they needed to investigate carefully, thus delaying the process.

The other person went around to the back of the apartment building and threw a compass with simple illusion runes that Cui Ming had temporarily inscribed into a ventilation opening in the basement.

The young man in the basement was anxiously searching for a way out.

Suddenly, they noticed a narrow slit behind a pile of debris on the side, leading to what appeared to be a small boiler room.

Without thinking twice, he squeezed through.

The illusion compass had a slight effect, interfering with the perception of the soldiers who subsequently entered the basement, causing them to overlook the gap.

The young man walked through the boiler room and burst out through a small maintenance door that was always locked on the other side, which led to a secluded alley on the side of the apartment building.

He had no time to think, and disappeared into the night without looking back.

Chapter 171 Baiting

The following day, news of the assassination of a major in the Kwantung Army General Staff shocked the entire Japanese and puppet regime leadership in Harbin.

The Special Higher Police (STPD) is under immense pressure.

At an internal meeting, Cui Ming, disguised as Kiriguchi Keiichiro, flew into a rage, severely reprimanding the lax security measures and ordering a thorough overhaul of the security work in the garrison officers' residential area.

Using this as a pretext, a group of former guards who were "negligent in their duties" were transferred or disciplined, while a group of "more reliable and more capable" newcomers were "selected".

Nearly half of them were modified puppets that Cui Ming had prepared in advance, suitable for serving as guards.

This process proceeded smoothly and without any objection.

Cui Ming did not delve into the details of the young man who successfully assassinated the enemy, or the minor sect he might belong to.

He noticed through his intelligence network that the young man had quietly left Harbin on the third day after the incident, presumably to return to his sect or head to the next battlefield.

That's enough.

This incident became a template for Cui Ming's actions, and similar situations occurred many times in the following months.

He used the Special Higher Police's intelligence network to detect the actions of inexperienced assassins or saboteurs from the Eastern Kingdom in advance and assess the value of their targets.

If the target is a Japanese officer, a traitor, or a key technical figure whom he believes should be killed and whose elimination would be profitable.

He secretly paved the way, manipulating puppets to provide or create opportunities, guiding the assassins' actions, and, when necessary, erasing traces and facilitating their escape.

For those die-hard Japanese agents or officers who are difficult to reform, hold key positions, and are a major hindrance,

Cui Ming inadvertently "leaked" his intelligence to the resistance organization, or directly arranged for them to become "collateral damage" in the assassination mission.

After several operations, many loyal core members of the Japanese regime in Harbin were lost.

The vacant positions were gradually filled by controllable puppets or deeply brainwashed individuals under the guise of "replenishing capable personnel" and "promoting meritorious officials."

But with so many failed attempts, someone has to be blamed eventually.

Cui Ming deliberately orchestrated several "failed" encirclement or suppression operations.

The reasons for the failure were carefully designed.

It could be due to "incorrect intelligence," "poor command and coordination," or "encountering an unexpected and powerful enemy."

Every "failure" is accompanied by a certain degree of loss, as well as subsequent accountability and personnel adjustments.

Taking this opportunity, Cui Ming dispatched some puppets that had been modified and were quite capable.

Under the guise of "repentance," "supporting neighboring countries," or "exchanging experiences," they were transferred to Changchun, Shenyang, and even other important cities controlled by the Japanese, such as Beiping and Tianjin.

These puppets, like seeds he had sown, lay dormant in their new environment.

Their positions may not be high, but they have the advantage of being inside the enemy camp and being absolutely loyal.

Cui Ming maintained one-way contact with these "external" puppets through official communication channels within the Special Higher Police.

This action, however, further enhanced the prestige of Kiriguchi Keiichiro, the incarnation of Cui Ming, within the Japanese army.

After all, although those Japanese soldiers were demoted by Cui Ming, he was still able to send them letters and telegrams to show his concern, which meant that these officers or outsiders did not suffer any unfair treatment.

After scattering some core puppets like seeds in Changchun, Shenyang, and even Beijing and Tianjin,

Under Cui Ming's control, Harbin entered a relatively stable period.

Routine intelligence gathering, personnel adjustments, and leniency towards resistance organizations have become standard procedures.

His attention returned to the long-planned scheme—to exacerbate the already deep-seated conflict between the Japanese army and navy.

All those previous "mistakes" can be used as an excuse.

The chosen scapegoat was Major Akira Ito, who was in charge of coordinating the internal transport of naval supplies in Harbin.

He is the son of a declining family within the naval system, and he has climbed to his current position thanks to the family's legacy and his relatively diligent performance.

However, operating in army-controlled areas where resource competition is fierce, they are constantly harboring resentment.

The businessman "Yamamoto," played by Cui Ming, and his several "chance encounters" and private complaints.

This further fueled his dissatisfaction with the army, especially with Kiriguchi Keiichiro, the head of the Special Higher Police, to a breaking point.

The behavior of "Kiriguchi Keiichiro," the character played by Choi Myung, in recent months has only added fuel to the fire.

Cui Ming, bearing the image of "Tongkou," made sarcastic remarks about the Navy in various internal meetings and reports.

They accused the navy of spending huge sums of money to build "big toys" that were taking up too many valuable war resources.

Following several recent assassinations and sabotage attacks targeting army officers in Harbin.

Kiriguchi went even further, directly shifting the blame to the Navy, openly declaring this at an internal Army briefing.

"If a large amount of steel and funds were not prioritized for the navy to build those flashy but impractical ships, the army would not have sufficient budget for equipment upgrades and security."

"Otherwise! How could those rats have succeeded time and again? The Navy should bear primary responsibility for this!"

These words had already circulated widely within the army and gained the approval of most people, and soon reached Akira Ito's ears.

However, none of that mattered much; being looked down upon by Kiriguchi Keiichiro was nothing new. What Akira Ito found truly unbearable was the damage to his actual interests.

"Tongkou" used the authority of the Special Higher Police and related departments to deliberately delay the approval and transfer of naval supplies handled in Harbin by setting up obstacles at every level.

A batch of urgently needed military supplies for the navy was detained for more than two weeks under the pretext of "security inspection";

Another batch of naval special fuel destined for Lushun had its transport plan repeatedly modified and delayed on the grounds that "railway capacity is insufficient and priority needs to be given to the army," leading to confusion in the handover.

Despite repeated attempts to negotiate, Akira Ito only received bureaucratic evasions and indifference from Kiriguchi.

Cui Ming further amplified these obstacles by placing puppets in the municipal and railway systems.

And allow Ito Akira to receive a listening ear and a cathartic suggestion from "Mr. Yamamoto" when the time is right.

Yamamoto even "inadvertently" revealed, according to his "friends" in the army, that...

Kiriguchi Keiichiro privately boasted that he would completely eliminate the navy from Harbin within six months.