Agent: Intercepting Yu Manli at the start!

Chapter 124 A lamb enters the tiger's den!

Immediately afterwards, a figure quietly slipped into the classified archives room, heading straight for Section A. The figure's eyes quickly scanned the densely packed file shelves, clearly searching for specific intelligence and related documents.

Zhou Xiao knew that anyone who could freely enter and leave this secret room was no ordinary person. He held his breath, crouching in the shadows to observe cautiously, and finally made out the person's face—

Yoshinori Shirakawa!!!

The person who entered was none other than General Yoshinori Shirakawa, the highest-ranking military officer of Japan stationed in Shanghai and the commander-in-chief of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army, whose military rank was Army General.

Shanghai, this intricately connected metropolis, has always been a place of complex and intertwined situations.

It was firmly controlled by the Japanese army, and also contained the British, French, and International Settlements, as well as other European and American spheres of influence. In addition, its location at the mouth of the Yangtze River and its prominent position as a water and land transportation hub have always made it a strategic location that was contested by military strategists and a focal point of international power struggles.

To maintain a firm grip on the city, Japan has stationed a full division there year-round, with a force far exceeding what a typical city would need.

Such a large military presence was not merely for maintaining stability—in reality, it was an attempt to covet the concessions and wait for an opportune moment to launch a powerful attack.

Oshima Kenjiro is the commander of the military police, in charge of the security and administration of Shanghai, and is the highest-ranking civilian official of the Japanese side in the area; while Shirakawa Yoshinori commands all field troops and is the true military leader on the Shanghai battlefield.

One was in charge of issuing government orders, and the other was in charge of military affairs; their powers were clearly defined and they were not subordinate to each other.

Zhou Xiao had only met Shirakawa Yoshinori once, and that was it.

The fact that this general, who commanded a large army, was alone in the top-secret archives room at this moment truly shocked Zhou Xiao.

"The opportunity has arrived!" He lay hidden in the shadows, his eyes fixed on every move of Yoshinori Shirakawa.

Yoshinori Shirakawa was a prominent figure in the Japanese military: he graduated from the first class of the Infantry Department of the Army War College in his early years and was known as one of the "Three Outstanding Students of the First Class of the Army War College" along with Kazunari Ugaki and Shoryu Suzuki; he was known for his decisiveness and ruthlessness during the Russo-Japanese War; after the war, his career soared and he became the commander of the Kwantung Army in 1923.

What must be remembered even more is that this man's hands were stained with blood—he orchestrated the "Huanggutun Incident," bombing Zhang Zuolin's special train and causing the Northeast Army commander to die on the spot; later, when commanding operations in Shanghai, he brazenly mobilized hundreds of warplanes to bomb the city in turn, causing buildings to collapse, people to be displaced, and the dead and wounded to be everywhere.

Their numerous crimes are too many to list, making them one of the most vicious representatives of Japanese militarism.

In terms of military rank, Yoshinori Shirakawa was higher than Yasuji Okamura—the latter was only a Lieutenant General, while the former was a General, the highest rank in the Japanese military rank system.

Japan's decision to send such a formidable general to Shanghai is an open secret.

If the sole purpose is to defend the city, there is absolutely no need to use this trump card.

Clearly, a larger-scale operation is already underway.

Shirakawa Yoshinori was completely unaware of Zhou Xiao hiding inside. He stepped into the intelligence area, bent down to flip through the files, examining each page meticulously, his expression focused and cold.

The archives contain a vast amount of confidential information. What he sought on this trip was a summary of the defense details of each concession, the resumes of key figures, and their recent activities—all clues pointed to one fact: Japan was about to break off relations and take action against the concessions.

Once the concessions fall, the last relatively safe buffer zone in Shanghai will be completely destroyed.

Its ambition is so great that it is obvious.

"Those foreigners are nothing to fear."

He muttered to himself, his tone full of contempt and arrogance.

Zhou Xiao remained motionless, quietly watching his broad back.

In that instant, a plan to escape flashed into his mind like lightning—a clever escape.

Japanese people are generally short in stature, and are often referred to as "little devils" or "short-legged monkeys" in popular parlance, which is indeed closely related to their genetic constitution.

But Shirakawa Yoshi was an exception: he was tall and broad-shouldered, more than a head taller than ordinary Japanese officers, with a well-proportioned and upright physique, and his silhouette was strikingly similar to Zhou Xiao's!

Finding someone with a similar build among Japanese generals would be extremely rare, perhaps one in ten thousand.

Zhou Xiao felt a surge of warmth in his heart: This was not an opponent, but a divinely bestowed substitute.

Yoshinori Shirakawa was not in charge of intelligence matters; his responsibilities lay entirely in frontline coordination and campaign command.

Any large-scale military operation relies on accurate intelligence support—which is why he personally entered this secret room.

He spent about ten minutes looking through the documents in the room, and after reviewing several files, he seemed to have identified the information he needed and turned to leave.

But the moment he lifted his foot, Zhou Xiao had already made up his mind—

This person must not leave alive.

Watching that receding figure, Zhou Xiao silently murmured in his heart: "General Zhang, today, I will settle this blood debt for you. With these hands, I will dip them in his blood to offer sacrifice to your loyal soul."

Although Zhang Zuolin was an old-style warlord with both merits and demerits, Zhou Xiao always respected him.

If he hadn't led the Northeast Army to guard the area outside the Great Wall back then, would Japan have dared to easily set foot in the Northeast?

If Shirakawa Yoshinori hadn't planted explosives at Huanggutun and destroyed the special train, how could Marshal Zhang have died before fulfilling his ambitions? How could the Northeast have been left wide open? The gunfire of September 18th and the smoke of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident might never have occurred.

History is like a wheel; if a grain of sand gets stuck in the axle, the entire trajectory will deviate.

Is Yoshinori Shirakawa planning to leave?

Zhou Xiao would never let them go.

Because this person is the only way for him to escape this predicament right now.

From the moment he crawled out of the chimney into the archives, he knew: it was a one-way street.

It's virtually impossible to climb back the way we came.

On the one hand, the chimney outlet is not only smooth as a mirror, but also a full five meters above the ground, so that no matter whether you take a running start or jump from the ground, you can't reach that smooth pipe wall.

This undoubtedly makes escaping extremely difficult.

On the other hand, all the filing cabinets in the entire archive room were embedded and fixed, and could not be moved even slightly; what was even more troublesome was that there were many listening devices on the four walls—meaning that Zhou Xiao could not use the filing cabinets as stepping stones to climb up the chimney.

If the cabinet is forcibly dismantled or dragged, the ear-piercing sounds of metal scraping and impact will immediately enter the listening room, attracting the attention of the military police.

Therefore, it is almost impossible to slip away through the chimney unnoticed.

The Japanese devils' layout was like an inverted funnel: you can get in, but you can't get out.

This is an invisible yet extremely tight net—almost no one who sneaks into the classified archives to steal intelligence ever leaves alive.

The fundamental reason why Zhou Xiao rushed in without hesitation was that the "Project Heavenly Sound" list involved the life and death of tens of millions of soldiers and civilians. Even if it meant exposing his identity and risking his life, he had to get it and send it out.

That was his decision.

He was prepared to be exposed, but he didn't expect that old devil Yoshinori Shirakawa, an army general, would actually walk right into his door.

Not only did they send him to his death, they also conveniently paved the way for his escape.

Zhou Xiao certainly wouldn't let go of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Just as Yoshinori Shirakawa turned to leave, he took two steps, then suddenly stopped and walked straight toward the safe.

He's going to open the safe.

In the entire archives, besides the deceased Ken Oshima, only the Army General Yoshinori Shirakawa in front of us knew the exact location of the safe.

Zhou Xiao was hiding behind a row of file shelves not far from the safe.

He had originally planned to sneak up and tackle Shirakawa Yoshinori, but unexpectedly, the other party deliberately walked right into the line of fire—

It's like throwing lambs to the slaughter.