At 10:00 PM on October 8th, the train from the Capital (Beijing) to Tianjin pulled into the station. As soon as the train stopped, the guard detail walked quickly out of the carriage and stood on both sides.

The Military Governor of Tianjin was already waiting on the platform, preparing to board the train to welcome them. Unexpectedly, the two people on the train had already walked to the carriage door. Leading them was Premier Duan Qirui. He got off the train first, then helped the old President of the Republic of China, Xu Shichang, step down.

The two came in a hurry, and only the Military Governor of Tianjin received the notification. Although the Military Governor didn't know specifically why the two came here, he knew it must be related to He Rui's war against Japan.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, the Military Governor of Tianjin quickly said, "President, Premier, accommodation has been prepared."

Xu Shichang waved his hand. "No need, we'll go to the old residence on Chifeng Road."

Soon, Xu Shichang and Duan Qirui left the station under the escort of the guard detail. The Military Governor of Tianjin didn't insist on tagging along. The situation in the Republic of China was already chaotic, and He Rui's war against Japan directly sent the already confused situation in an even more unpredictable direction.

Chifeng Road is a street running somewhat east-west in Heping District, Tianjin, located within the French Concession. Various small western-style buildings line the street, and most of the owners are stepped-down warlords and military governors, so this street has always been known as "Warlord Street".

Arriving at Xu Shichang's old residence, it had already been cleaned, and a fire was lit in the stove, making the room warm.

News travels fastest among the upper class. Moreover, so many people coming to Chifeng Road were immediately seen by neighbors. Soon, neighbors sent people to pay their respects. The guards asked which family the visitors were from and recorded them one by one.

Duan Qirui had instructed that if someone sent by Zhang Xiluan came, they should be invited in; if not, there was no need to pay attention.

Sitting on the sofa in the room, Duan Qirui asked, "Brother Xu, do you think Brother Zhang will send someone?"

Xu Shichang shook his head. "Brother Zhang is aloof and noble. After handing over the Northeast to He Rui, he doesn't go out much."

Duan Qirui could imagine. Reaching such a status, it wasn't easy to have a good old age. Needless to say about Yuan Shikai; after Feng Guozhang died, few people really remembered him. Zhang Xiluan was different. He decisively yielded the Northeast to He Rui, and afterwards, He Rui rose to fame and his strength soared. Although Zhang Xiluan was just a reclusive old man, others had to look at him with respect and praise him for 'having the wisdom to know people'.

He Rui was almost piercing the sky now, so Xu Shichang and Duan Qirui had to come personally. After resting for a while, they saw it was already 11:00 PM. Since they had to see Zhang Xiluan tomorrow, the two went to sleep.

But on this night, many, very many people did not sleep.

Lights were bright on both banks of the Yalu River. On the temporarily repaired Yalu River Bridge, trucks passed one by one. Wooden planks were laid on several floating bridges, and troops lined up in long queues. According to military regulations, when crossing the bridge, they had to adopt steps that were absolutely not uniform. The footsteps of the officers and soldiers converged into a rumbling sound on the floating bridge, vibrating the river surface below.

Stepping across the Yalu River and setting foot on Korea, the troops marched towards the south without stopping. There, the Japanese army stationed in Korea was also starting to move north. In the entire plan for the war against Japan, there was a top-secret plan. The Northeast Army would not defend the Yalu River and wait for the Japanese Korean Army to attack. Instead, they would actively move south, striving to annihilate this elite Japanese army with a strength of two divisions.

In the command post, Hu Xiushan finished looking at the latest aerial photos from the Air Force and the map drawn based on the photos. He asked the Chief of the Communications Section, "Is there any news from Port Arthur?"

The Chief of the Communications Section immediately replied, "Report. No news has been received regarding Port Arthur since 17:00 this afternoon."

Hu Xiushan nodded, then lay down on the camp bed in the command post and closed his eyes. According to the Northeast Army's classification of war intensity and lethality, intensity meant the complexity of the invested war system. Now the Air Force had become a very important part of the Northeast Army. Due to the addition of this branch, the complexity of the war system had greatly increased, and the intensity naturally increased as well.

War lethality referred to casualties and losses. If there were huge casualties and amazing material consumption in a war, this was naturally a high-lethality war.

According to this definition, there are many high-intensity but low-lethality wars in the world. There will also be many high-lethality but low-intensity wars.

Hu Xiushan, who was executing the top-secret plan, was about to fight a high-intensity, high-lethality war. Now, Hu Xiushan had better rest a bit to maintain the best command state. But Hu Xiushan couldn't sleep very well. According to the operational plan, starting from 9:00 AM on October 7th, the Northeast Air Force began reconnaissance within Korea. According to the Air Force reconnaissance results, the Japanese advance troops had already started moving north.

Hu Xiushan could understand the pressure on the Japanese high command. If the 'powerful' Japanese Army was annihilated by the 'weak' Chinese Army and the Japanese side remained inactive, they would be drowned by overwhelming criticism. Immediately dispatching the Korean Army to rescue was the only choice.

During the pre-war analysis, the Military Commission had completely clarified these points. When the situation really developed to this point, Hu Xiushan couldn't help but consider a question: Why would someone make such an obviously foolish decision?

Northeast Army Commander He Rui had brilliant judgment, and He Rui's brilliance was entirely based on realistic judgment of facts. So what was the Japanese stupidity based on?

The gap between people is not that big. When He Rui stated his judgment, the upper echelons of the Northeast Army understood it. Hu Xiushan believed that the Japanese side must also be able to understand.

The problem lay here. Why did Japan make other choices as if they completely couldn't understand something that wasn't hard to understand? Some tried to explain it with human nature, but Hu Xiushan did not accept such an explanation. If everything could be explained by human nature, wouldn't that be too lazy?

Thinking of this, Hu Xiushan suddenly had some ideas. He sat up and reorganized his thoughts.

Yes! Laziness! Laziness in thinking!

Change is eternal. If one adopts path dependence, no matter how powerful a country is, it will inevitably encounter failure. Not to mention, Japan was not as powerful as it boasted.

Adding laziness in thinking to the thinking system, Hu Xiushan suddenly felt he could understand the so-called 'human nature' problem.

In the core leadership of the Northeast Army and the Civilization Party gathered by He Rui, everyone had strengths and weaknesses, but no one had laziness in thinking. This was a powerful endogenous force. When this power was incorporated into the Civilization Party's system and used to understand and realize how China and even the world should operate and live in the future, everyone brainstormed and dug deep, making a lot of progress and breakthroughs in the deep logic of why things should be done this way.

Perhaps having stayed in such an organization for too long, Hu Xiushan naturally used the same line of thought to look at the Japanese high command.

Looking at the Japanese high command with this new thinking system, Hu Xiushan understood. The so-called human nature—wanting to get more, wanting to control more, wanting to own more—producing these thoughts did not require consideration.

The Japanese high command were also humans; they also possessed sufficient intelligence, energy, and courage. But their intelligence, energy, and courage were used on how to realize these thoughts that could be produced without thinking, yet they happened not to consider these thoughts themselves.

Just like these two Japanese divisions sent to the front line—in the eyes of the Japanese high command, these two divisions were tools to prove the inviolability of the Empire of Japan. They probably hadn't thought that it was precisely the national policy formulated by Japan to weaken China and maintain China's divided state that led to the Chinese army having to strike Japan.

Hu Xiushan pondered and suddenly discovered that there was another possibility. That is, the Japanese high command had considered such a possibility, so they treated these two divisions as the 'price' for executing this national policy.

If that were the case, it would be even more interesting. These two Japanese divisions, seen as the 'price', were just pawns crossing the river—advancing with no retreat. Hu Xiushan could annihilate the Japanese troops of these two divisions even more easily.