A little after two o'clock in the afternoon, in the small garden of the Anxi military headquarters.
An Zecheng sat under a parasol and had lunch. There were simple home-cooked meals on the table, and he only took a few bites of each.
“Pah, pah, pah.”
A burst of hurried footsteps sounded, and An Zecheng turned his head slightly, and saw his chief of staff walking straight towards him from the outside of the flower garden. He sat down in front of him and shouted, "Commander!"
An Zecheng put down his chopsticks: "How was the talk?"
"Nothing happened." The chief of staff frowned slightly. "I can sense that he is wavering. He neither refused nor discussed it in depth. He is waiting outside now."
An Zecheng remained silent. He took a sip of tea, pondered for a while, and asked, "What level is he?"
The chief of staff immediately replied: "No, it's someone close to him."
An Zecheng nodded gently: "Okay, ask him to come in and I'll talk to him."
"Okay." The chief of staff stood up and quickly left the flower garden.
After the chief of staff left, An Zecheng wiped his mouth and waved his hand gently to the adjutant: "Let's take it away."
The adjutant came over immediately and cleaned the table skillfully.
An Zecheng, who always had a good appetite, barely touched these dishes. It was obvious that beneath his calm appearance, he also had a turbulent heart.
Five minutes later, the footsteps sounded again, and the chief of staff walked into the small garden with a strange middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man was about forty years old, wearing casual clothes and a peaked cap. When he saw An Zecheng, he quickly took off his hat, bowed lightly and said, "General An."
An Zecheng said gently: "Sit down."
The middle-aged man then came over and sat down in front of him, looking very relaxed.
An Zecheng did not rush to speak, but drank tea with an expressionless face.
After a while, the middle-aged man could no longer sit still and spoke first: "General An, it is really difficult for me to respond to this matter. I need to ask over there first..."
An Zecheng waved his hand, and the middle-aged man immediately stopped talking and looked at the commander with some confusion.
After a while, An Zecheng put down his teacup and asked abruptly, "How far is the support from District 1 from Dragon City?"
The middle-aged man was a little stunned when he heard this nonsensical question.
An Zecheng intervened and said, "I'll tell you, it's 350 kilometers. It will take at least six to seven hours for the two divisions to reach the attack area, passing through three defense zones. Within this distance, anything can happen."
The middle-aged man was a little stunned and stammered, "An, Commander An... What do you mean?"
An Zecheng did not answer this question, but picked up the teacup again and drank a sip of tea. After a while, he asked again: "Do you know what the relationship between Su Tianyu and my daughter is?"
The middle-aged man seemed to understand something and fell silent.
An Zecheng was very calm and composed, and didn't say a word of nonsense: "If you fight him, I will close the door and you will have nothing."
When the middle-aged man heard this, he was a little dazed, his eyes were a little vague, and his face became serious.
An Zecheng advised slowly: "What is the most taboo for subordinates? The most taboo is that they cannot guess the intentions of the superiors. But! It is even more taboo to over-speculate the thoughts of the leaders. Jiang Yuanzhen is the latter. Go back and tell that person that his position is actually very critical. At this juncture, he has a chance to move up..."
The middle-aged man had a thin layer of sweat on his forehead as he sat there, carefully analyzing An Zecheng's words.
…
A little after seven in the evening, at the Longcheng garrison headquarters.
Tan Hengqiang and his core officers were sitting in the conference room, discussing the current military situation. Zhang Xunchen and Tan Mingchao were also there. The meeting lasted a long time, and they smoked a lot of cigarettes, so the whole room was filled with smoke.
An intelligence officer came in and brought the latest intelligence to Zhang Xunchen. He quickly glanced at it, his face darkened, and said to Tan Hengqiang: "Commander, now there are two pieces of intelligence."
Tan Hengqiang waved his hand and said, "Speak."
Zhang Xunchen pointed to the document in his hand: "First, the 3rd Armored Division and the 10th Infantry Division of Area 1 have secretly deployed their troops. The troops led by Lao Jiang are also serious. Even the trenches and military runways have been repaired. I think Lao Jiang's attitude is a bit dangerous."
Zhang Xunchen paused, glanced at Old Tan's face, and continued, "The most important thing is that Su Tianyu is also making moves, preparing for war. I have received reliable intelligence that the National Bureau of Investigation and Statistics is now contacting the wartime media. And Bana City has also received an order to stockpile war supplies. It is said that the Guimeng Army of the Old Triangle even went to the Chinese area in person to increase the amount of arms delivery."
Hearing this, Tan Mingchao frowned.
Another staff officer beside him couldn't help but interject, "Commander, are we placing all our hopes of resolving the issue on An Zecheng? Isn't that a bit too high a bet? Judging from Lao An's recent performance, he and Lao Li's team must be flirting with each other. There's no doubt about it."
Everyone fell silent upon hearing this, their faces filled with worry.
The staff officer glanced at everyone and continued, "Moreover, according to some rumors outside, Su Tianyu is already half of Anze City's son-in-law. If he has any other ideas and reaches some secret agreement with Su Tianyu, we may be suddenly set up and played by them."
After the staff officer finished speaking, the officers couldn't help but whisper to each other, and it was obvious that they were a little concerned.
A general stood up and volunteered, "Commander, how about I go to Jiang Yuanzhen's military headquarters in person and talk to Old Jiang and try to put some pressure on him. As for Old Li, we can also go beyond Anze City and take the initiative to contact them. I think this is safer. At least we can test out Old Li's true thoughts."
“I think this is a great suggestion!”
"I can go talk to Lao Li!"
The officers spoke one after another, while Tan Mingchao sat aside without saying a word.
Tan Hengqiang put down the cigarette in his hand, looked at everyone and asked in a deep voice: "Old An has been dormant in Longcheng for more than four years and has always been close to me. In your opinion, is his ambition just to stab me in the back with this matter?"
Everyone fell silent.
Tan Hengqiang pointed at them and sighed, "You guys...if you think of Lao An like this, there will be big problems, because you have such a narrow view of him!"
Everyone remained silent, but some people were obviously still suspicious.
Tan Hengqiang put out his cigarette and said without letting anyone get away with it, "Don't doubt a person you employ. If you doubt a person, don't employ him. Let Lao An handle this issue. I want to see what he is going to do."
…
In the Jiang faction’s military operations command center, a quartz clock hung on the wall, and the second hand kept ticking.
“Da da da!”
With the slight sound of gears, the second hand jumped to the twelve position, and the hour hand pointed exactly at eight o'clock.
For a moment, everyone in the command room looked at Jiang Yuanzhen.
Jiang Yuanzhen raised his eyebrows and waved his hand: "Attack!"
Thirty seconds later.
“Boom!”
Outside the window, violent artillery fire rang out in the darkness.