Satō's Analysis

Elsewhere, the smoke and dust from the explosion on North Sichuan Road had yet to settle when piercing sirens cut through the haze in the street. Patrols were never in short supply on the streets of the Japanese and puppet-controlled territory, and now they were speeding in from both directions along North Sichuan Road.

Three minutes after the attack, two Japanese patrol cars were the first to reach the scene. The soldiers aboard quickly jumped out with their Type 38 rifles and sealed off the intersections. Guns pointed outward, they warily scanned every corner and shouted at civilians trying to gather for a look, completely cordoning off the street.

At the sight of the wrecked military vehicles, scattered corpses, and smoke and dust billowing into the sky, the patrol squad leader turned deathly pale, his legs trembling slightly.

"Bakayaro! Quick! Report this to the military police and the Special Higher Police immediately! Everyone, stay alert and search the surrounding alleys! Don't let a single suspicious person escape!"

The squad leader roared, his voice shaking. He knew that he and every patrolman present would be held accountable for an attack this serious.

The Japanese patrolmen immediately split into squads and plunged into the maze of surrounding alleys. Gunshots and shouts rang out one after another, but they failed to find a single trace of the attackers. Shen Yan had long since changed clothes and escaped, and the underground party had also slipped away, leaving only devastation behind.

After the ten-minute mark, a large force of Japanese military police arrived. Armed to the teeth, they quickly took over the scene, expanded the cordon, and sealed off all three streets ahead of and behind North Sichuan Road, prohibiting all vehicles and pedestrians from passing.

The military police captain crouched down and carefully examined the scene. His fingertips brushed over shell casings and blast marks on the ground, and his expression grew increasingly grave.

At the fifteen-minute mark, a black sedan sped up, its tires screeching over the rubble on the road. The door opened, and Satō emerged in a crisp military uniform, his face cold as ice. Elite agents and forensic experts from the Special Higher Police followed behind him. An oppressive aura surrounded him, and his eyes were full of murderous intent and grave concern.

Without wasting words, he walked straight to the center of the scene. His gaze swept over the corpses and mangled military vehicles before settling on the shell casing in the military police captain's hand. "Let me see it."

Taking the casing, Satō rolled it gently between his fingertips. Its feel and dimensions made his pupils contract, and a storm surged in his heart.

This was not a Japanese 6.5 mm rifle casing, a Nationalist 7.9 mm Mauser casing, or the pistol casing commonly used by the underground party. This was an American .30-06 rifle casing, and only the M1 Garand, the American military's current standard-issue semiautomatic rifle, could fire a round that produced it!

"Examine it carefully!" Satō said in a low voice, with a trace of barely perceptible gravity, turning to the forensic experts behind him.

An expert took the casing and carefully compared it before bowing and reporting, "Major Satō, it's confirmed! This casing has unusual specifications and is used exclusively by the American M1 Garand semiautomatic rifle. It's extremely rare in Shanghai. Even elite Nationalist troops are hardly ever equipped with this weapon!"

"M1 Garand..." Satō clenched the casing tightly in his palm, his knuckles turning white and his gaze sharp as a blade. His mind flashed back to the Special Higher Police's previous analysis meeting. The intelligence section had suspected that agents from a Western country were secretly operating in Shanghai and funding anti-Japanese forces, but had never found proof.

Now, an American-made casing had turned up at the attack site, corroborating that suspicion!

"More than twenty elite escort soldiers were attacked with grenades and finished off with rifle fire. The attackers succeeded in one strike, escaped unscathed, and even took the top-secret documents..." Lu Tinghui murmured, forcing himself to calm down.

The underground party? They barely have any decent rifles, let alone American semiautomatic rifles. Their methods aren't this precise and ruthless, either. It couldn't possibly have been them.

The Military Statistics Bureau? They act flamboyantly, favor German-made and Chinese-made weapons, and are in the habit of leaving marks. They would never have acted so cleanly and efficiently, much less used American weapons on a large scale.

Only intelligence agents from a Western country-undercover American or British operatives-would have access to a currently issued weapon like the M1 Garand, possess such professional combat methods, and have a motive to steal the Japanese encirclement plan and disrupt Japanese deployments in Shanghai.

"Their target was probably not just this one classified document. They also intend to undermine our rule in Shanghai and secretly fund anti-Japanese forces!"

"Were there any other traces at the scene?" Satō asked in a deep voice.

"Sir, there were only grenade blast marks and American-made shell casings at the scene. The attackers left no clothing or fingerprints behind, and even their footprints were covered by smoke and dust from the explosion. We estimate that there was at least one attacker, who was highly skilled and meticulous-clearly a professional intelligence agent."

"Also," the military police captain added, "we questioned people in the surrounding area, and someone saw what appeared to be an underground party squad lying in wait here. But judging from the traces at the scene, they didn't fire a shot. They were only observers, and most likely were also intimidated by this mysterious force."

Satō's brow furrowed even more tightly.

The mysterious Western intelligence agents learned the escort route in advance, struck with precision and ruthlessness, and escaped unscathed after taking the documents. This was no coincidence. It means this Western force planted informants in Shanghai long ago and knows everything about the Japanese military's movements.

"Pass on my orders," Satō said, his tone growing colder. "First, impose martial law throughout the city and thoroughly investigate suspicious persons, with particular attention to foreign nationals. If any are found, arrest them secretly at once.

"Second, secretly investigate every possible channel for obtaining American weapons in Shanghai: docks, stations, brokers, and... foreign-owned arms companies. Be cautious... and try not to cause an international dispute.

"Third, obtain all street patrol records and duty rosters for North Sichuan Road and the surrounding area. Verify the movements of all personnel on duty and determine whether any suspicious persons made contact with the escort convoy. Fourth, keep a close watch on the underground party and the Military Statistics Bureau, and make sure to find signs of contact between them and this Western intelligence force!"

"Hai!" all the Japanese answered in unison, immediately splitting up to carry out their tasks.

For a time, panic gripped the entire Japanese and puppet-controlled area of Shanghai. Japanese troops, the Special Higher Police, and puppet police all mobilized. Armed patrols could be seen everywhere in the streets, searching house by house and forcibly taking away anyone who seemed even slightly suspicious. The public was on edge. The Special Higher Police even sent plainclothes agents directly into foreign firms and foreign residential enclaves. The searches were unprecedented in scale, and for a time everyone feared for their safety.