In 1942, deep in the Taihang Mountains, Zhang Tao, a reconnaissance company commander in the Eighth Route Army, was ambushed by the Japanese “Skull Regiment” while escorting a shipment of medicine. The encounter should have been a foregone conclusion, but the Japanese soldiers were carrying standard-issue weapons used by the Eighth Route Army, casting a shadow over the battle. When Zhang Tao found a pocket watch engraved with his sister’s birth date and time on the badly wounded Japanese army doctor, Sato Michiko, a shocking conspiracy came to light: the Japanese were secretly building twelve “germ incubators” across the North China Plain, and someone dear to Zhang Tao was, astonishingly, the mastermind behind this biological war.
