"Your Excellency, Commander, Major General Sasaki, Commander of the 30th Brigade of the 16th Division of the Empire of Japan, led more than 7,000 Imperial Army soldiers from the 30th Brigade to pay tribute to you!"
With excitement, Sasaki immediately reported the military situation as soon as he arrived.
At the signal of General Matsui Iwane, the group began to walk along Zhongshan Road towards the National Government Residence.
Immediately, hundreds of officers from the front army, including second lieutenants and above, gathered in the courtyard of the former National Government and saluted the national flag flying on the gatehouse to the sound of "The Generation of the King" played by the military band.
As for the Chinese flag on the theater flagpole, it has been torn down and replaced with a Japanese plaster flag.
Looking at the slowly rising Japanese flag, hundreds of Japanese officers held their breaths and their eye circles turned red.
"Long live His Majesty the Grand Marshal!"
"Long live His Majesty the Grand Marshal!"
"..."
With three loud shouts, the entire atmosphere reached its peak.
General Matsui Iwane, the commander of the front army who had just recovered from illness and came to attend the city entry ceremony, stood in front of a group of officers and delivered a speech.
"Relying on the imperial power of His Majesty the Grand Marshal, I dispatched troops and achieved great military exploits..."
Sasaki was very excited about the commander's speech.
He stood in front of the queue and could clearly feel the excitement in the old general's heart from Matsui Iwane's facial nerves.
Facing this extremely exciting scene, who wouldn't be filled with emotion?
It would be great if I could just stand there and talk.
Just when all the officers were listening carefully to the commander's speech, there was a sudden explosion in the distance.
This made Sasaki's first-class generals a little confused, and even General Matsui Iwane stopped delivering his speech.
"Captain Sasaki Brigade, what's going on? Is the Chinese army in the city not cleared yet?" Matsui Iwane immediately looked at Sasaki Koichi, his expression full of doubt and blame.
At the same time, the two army commanders, including King Asaka Palace Kitohiko and Lieutenant General Yanagawa Heisuke, as well as division commanders and brigade commanders, all looked over with doubts, dissatisfaction, and ridicule.
Sasaki became panicked when he reached the end of the meal, and quickly bowed and replied, "Back to Commander Matsui, there are still many Chinese troops in the city entrenched in the safe zone, but they have been supervised by the imperial army."
"Haga, Commander of the Sasaki Brigade, today is the imperial city's entry ceremony. Commander Matsui personally presided over it. His Majesty Asaka and Commander Yanagawa are both here. Why don't you deal with those Chinese soldiers." The commander of the 16th Division on the side Lieutenant General Dao Jin immediately jumped out to shirk responsibility.
"Commander Matsui clearly knows that there are people from Germany, the United States and other countries blocking the safe zone, and our Imperial Army cannot forcefully break through."
Sasaki was very helpless. During this period, he had tried his best to eliminate the remnants of the Chinese army in the city, but many of them had mixed in with the civilians.
If it's outside the city or elsewhere in the city, just kill it, and no one will know anyway.
From the time they conquered Nanjing to the present, his brigade has killed more than 10,000 Chinese troops who laid down their weapons. These Chinese troops did not resist at all, and even took the initiative to lay down their weapons and surrender.
Anyway, his superiors have given orders, so his troops will naturally not be merciless when killing.
But in the safe zone, you can't kill as brazenly as in other places.
The main presence is foreigners, and his troops maintain a certain degree of restraint and try not to offend Western countries. After all, they still need the latter's support.
In this way, even if his troops can sneak in, they will not be able to clear it out.
But what made him angry was that the commander of the Nakajima Division clearly knew the situation, but in order to shirk responsibility, he actually pushed himself to take the blame.
"Commander Matsui, I hear the noise, it seems to be outside the city in the southeast." The short King Asaka Palace Kohihiko interjected lightly.
He is the commander of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force, with the rank of lieutenant general, and is also the uncle of the Japanese Emperor. He has a very special status. In addition, he personally commanded the battle to conquer Nanjing. As soon as he opened his mouth, everyone became serious.
If you listen carefully, you will find that it is exactly what he said.
"Outside the city in the southeast direction? Where is that place?" Matsui Iwane glanced at the southeast direction and asked in a deep voice.
"Coming back to Commander Matsui, it's Daqiaochang Airport."
"How could there be an explosion at the airport?"
"Perhaps remnants of the Chinese army attacked the airport."
Sasaki Toichi gave a guessed answer.
"Send someone to deal with it and don't affect today's city entry ceremony."
It's very simple, because there are reporters today, and they even hired people to take photos and videos, just to send this scene back to the country and silence the voices of those who oppose the war.
After taking the capital of China in three months, wouldn't it be easy to annex the whole of China?
"Hi!"
This small episode did not stop the continuation of the speech, but before Matsui Iwane could speak a few words again, the rumble of the engine could be heard from the horizon.
At first, everyone thought it was an air strike and were startled, but when they discovered it was a Navy fighter jet, they immediately started yelling.
"What are these people from the Navy doing? Didn't you know that today is the city entry ceremony?"
"These idiots in the Navy should not have allowed them to station at the airport we captured."
The officers present were all from the Army and naturally had no favorable impressions of the Navy, especially since Navy planes came to disturb their entry into the city ceremony.
But Sasaki Toichi, who had just ordered people to find out about the explosion, discovered something was wrong. He saw that the navy fighter plane was actually diving.
"General, be careful!"
"Da da da!"
Suddenly, two tongues of fire began to spit at everyone in the yard. Wherever the tongues of fire passed, they were either killed or injured.
"Hurry and avoid, direct enemy attack!"
"What is the navy doing? Does it want to provoke a civil war on land and sea?"
"Get down quickly!"
"Your Majesty Commander, come in quickly!"
"Your Highness, be careful!"
"Fire and shoot down that plane!"
For a moment, the entire courtyard was in chaos. All the officers were running away. Some of the supporters, including Matsui Iwane and other generals and lieutenant generals, were dodging bullets. The remaining mid-level and low-level officers directly pulled out their pistols and fired at the aircraft. , regardless of whether it can hit or not.
The Japanese soldiers on duty also raised their guns.
But the navy planes roared past, leaving only a mess.
After diving and strafing, Li Hang quickly lifted the aircraft.
Through the open cabin, he saw the Japanese flag fluttering in the wind, and wanted to knock it down, but suddenly he saw a group of people surrounding several people who wanted to escape to the building in front.
He felt in his heart that this must be an important figure in the Japanese army.
He didn't know who it was, but at a height of several hundred meters, the people on the ground were no different from ants.
Thinking of this, he turned around and continued his dive, ignoring the bullets flying around him, aiming at the group of people who were about to escape into the building, and then pressed the button of the machine gun.
