While Leitao was recovering from his wounds in that crude yet relatively safe hideout, the sky above Nanjing City seemed draped in an increasingly heavy pall of gloom, a gloom originating directly from Matsui Iwane at the Japanese Military Headquarters.
Matsui Iwane, a butcher whose hands were stained with the blood of the Chinese people, sat in the dimly lit room of the Japanese Military Headquarters, his gaze revealing a chilling ruthlessness and cruelty. With a heavy frown, he was plotting a series of mad schemes, the most vicious of which was a decision to intensify and escalate the purge and massacre of the Chinese soldiers and civilians within Nanjing City over the next few days.
On one hand, trampled under the iron hooves of the Japanese military, Nanjing City had already plunged into a desperate shortage of food. The ordinary citizens inside the city were already suffering terribly from the ravages of war, with food supplies long since depleted, and the plundering by the Japanese army only added insult to injury. Matsui Iwane knew very well that for every Chinese soldier or civilian who managed to survive, it meant the consumption of one more portion of food resources—resources that, in his eyes, should be prioritized for the Japanese troops to maintain their so-called "operational advantage." Therefore, he attempted to reduce the urban population through large-scale massacres, thereby alleviating the agonizing problem of food consumption.
Chapter 35