As soon as the press conference was broadcast, it sparked an enormous response online. In Huaxia in particular, people praised the spokesperson's performance.
But even as they offered their praise, they mourned the deaths of the four soldiers and expressed their anger at the mastermind behind the crime.
Although the authorities had yet to issue a final statement confirming that Sanling Heavy Industries was responsible, anti-Japanese sentiment across the country continued to rise.
Countless internet users vented their feelings on forums, and a wave of boycotts against Japanese products quietly began to build.
Products with Sanling in their names were especially unlucky...
In fact, Sanling was not really a corporate group in the strict sense. It was more of a loose cooperative organization made up of multiple companies, including AGC, a world-leading company in the glass industry, Sanling Motors, and many others.
Sanling Heavy Industries, which had caused this trouble, was also a member, and one that held an important position within the group.
But that was only its current standing. Whether Sanling Heavy Industries would remain an important member in the future was another matter.
Initially, the police and the military had been chiefly responsible for the arrests and investigation.
Interrogating several hundred people was a massive undertaking, but it also had a major advantage: not all of those hundreds of people could possibly keep their mouths shut. Some were bound to scare easily.
Soon, the various leads were compiled, and the basic outline of events emerged.
An alarming fact came to light. Although the people tasked with staging traffic accidents and transporting the goods all had household registrations in Huaxia, every one of them was Japanese. Most had been lying low in Huaxia for decades, and some had even married and had children.
These people apparently did not