Who's the real mastermind behind the scene?
This question kept lingering in Batman's mind and after more than half an hour passed, Batman's warning program he set for himself was finally activated.
Once a mastermind did not expose his intentions after half an hour of Batman's deduction, it meant that he must be extremely difficult to deal with, implying that Batman must put all his efforts into this.
He and Joker indeed understood each other, Batman thought. Probably Joker also realized that someone was playing all of them, using them as pawns to achieve his own purposes.
So, what could be the aim of the mastermind behind the scenes?
Who would benefit from this war?
To discuss this question, one has to meticulously analyze the war currently taking place in New City.
But the war broke out too suddenly, Batman did not have much information on hand, he had to get to the front line for an investigation. Fortunately, Batman had participated in wars before and had ample weapons and equipment, making traveling between military bases not an issue.
He first arrived at several larger bases in the Queens District, came to the frontline along the periphery of these bases, and witnessed a small-scale war involving about 200 people.
A squadron of over 70 men was attacking a street guarded by soldiers twice their numbers. A group of men were skillfully throwing weapons into the streets, using crossover firepower as cover for their successive attacks with head-on charges, flanking ambushes, frontal feints, and lateral precision shooting.
Batman was amazed, as he thought he would see a battle like the Sleeping Dragon and Rising Phoenix. Even now, most of the armies of various countries fight poorly, with tactics and strategies still at the level of the early stages of World War II.
The attacking side had to start with a round of bombing, rush forward with guns, and rear firepower cover. The defending side just hid in trenches, with some people sweeping and other people precision shooting, a counterattack was waiting to take place afterward.
Even in some continents with excellent matching mechanisms, being able to go through the above process in its entirety indicated elite troops among elite troops.
But what was presented to Batman's eyes now was a relatively sophisticated street battle tactic. Although the response was sometimes slow, it is evident that the command of the attacking side was very professional, with a clear strategic line of thinking, knowing how to cleverly utilize flanking firepower for suppression.
The command of the defending side was not far behind, the grasp of time for precision shooting and throwing explosives was quite accurate. They were even able to counterattack the charging troops in street battles, which is relatively difficult.
Also, while it was evident that the quality of the soldiers was uneven, each two-person squad had a very adept at tactical movement, leaving the overall quality under the guidance of the veterans showing some tastes of hardened fighters.
As drawn into the scene, Batman began to feel something's wrong. Are these residents of New York and Gotham citizens? Or had they invited all the retired instructor of the Marine Corps?
The displayed tactical literacy was not what an ordinary person could exhibit. If the citizens of New York and Gotham all had this level of tactical capability, why would Batman need to fight crimes? Ten million elite veterans would spread out from the East Coast to the West Coast, making the entire Americas Gotham and that would be the end of Gotham.
Batman felt that his luck was too good. Immediately upon his arrival, he encountered a veteran congregation area; he didn't suffer a loss by witnessing the exciting battle, but his goal of this trip was to gather information about the war, so he needed to be more realistic.
So he switched to another base, and then he saw another splendid battle for position. Immediately after, it was the convoy of a supply truck and an ambush, a defence and assassination of an important person, an attack and defence of an important base, which can only be described as spectacular.
After turning around the whole Queens District, Batman realised a problem - the ones who are fighting are not ordinary people.
Even if the citizens of New York and Gotham are more martial, performing real practice exercises averagely every three days, they have not received formal militarised training; they are ordinary people.
Having taken long-term regular military training is a crucial criterion to distinguish soldiers from ordinary people. Never underestimate the tedious rules and heavy training in the army. The more professional and regular, the more distant the fight capabilities are from ordinary people.
Soldiers contending with soldiers have a record of capturing thousands with ten people. Soldier against ordinary people, 1:1000 casualty ratio is not at all exaggerated.
It's not that ordinary people don't have courage and quality. It's just that the battlefield is ultimately another world. Without a robust military flair, ordinary people can't even last a minute in trench warfare.
But the people Batman saw fighting back and forth, they are all elite troops. They not only underwent professional militarised training, they were even likely professional soldiers.
As he went deeper into the front line, Batman noticed more suspicious signs. Many of the houses inside seemed to have been bombed, but if you look closely, all the important items inside had disappeared.
And they were not looted after the houses were destroyed, they had been taken before the house was bombed and burned. And it was an orderly removal, not a robbery.
The only ones that could do this were the homeowners. If the homeowners were all gone, who were these people outside holding their homes?
According to Batman's initial investigation, he discovered that it was the same case on some of the most densely populated streets in the Queens District. Clearly, someone had warned them in advance to evacuate in an orderly manner, and the war did not break out until after most citizens had evacuated.
Batman then sneaked into several surrounding bases, and after memorising the appearance of each soldier and calculating in his mind, he found that the population could not match up.
This large area should have had at least 150,000 permanent residents, but now there were less than 30,000 people in more than 70 large and small bases combined. The numbers just did not match up.
Batman went to the Bureau of Traffic Management to check the driving license information, he was holding the ID photos of the residents and compared them one by one with the soldiers at the military bases.
Indeed many soldiers were local residents, the number accounted for about half. Of these 30,000 people, about 15,000 people were local residents. This means that another 15,000 people came from unknown places. Who are this group of people?
Batman then went through the Gotham Police Department and New York Archives Bureau. Reports of permanent population surveys have been checked thoroughly. Batman used the Bat Computer to verify identification information one by one. After a whole night of thorough investigation, Batman finally found a trace of clues.
The clue surfaced in a man named Tu Qi, though that wasn't his real name. His real name was Blake Tansandbees, an internationally wanted fugitive by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His nationality was German, and he had committed six murders on American soil.
Also, he has an infamous codename—Hydra Assassin.
Or rather, it wasn't his codename, it was his occupation. According to the data in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's database, this guy was a member of the terrorist organization Hydra, killing celebrities all over the world for Hydra, inciting panic.
Batman didn't know what Hydra was before, but after some investigation, he got a rough idea of Hydra's origin and their nature on another Earth.
What Batman found was that this man, who was originally named Blake, had recently entered America under the alias of Tu Si.
Of course, it was not unusual for such a fugitive to change his identity and make a fresh start, but the interesting thing was that the identity he held was not fake; he had a completely new real identity.
It wasn't that he had killed someone named Tu Qi, disguised himself as him, and assumed his identity, nor had he forged a passport. The photo on his passport was his own, and the information was entirely authentic. At least Batman couldn't find any discrepancies.
In other words, it's likely that the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement also has members of Hydra, who made him a new passport.
And obviously, this man was not an exception. After Batman discovered this anomaly, he started to conduct facial comparison on his computer.
Two hours later, the shocking result came out. Half of the middle-ranking commanders in the bases he visited were internationally wanted terrorists, affiliated with the terrorist organization Hydra.
Looking at the origins of Hydra, Batman had a revelation, and the source of the brand-new German equipment seen in street camera footage was explained.
This was a group of NAZI remnants.
Then Batman began to wonder, who are the other group of people who are fighting tooth and nail with this group? It couldn't possibly be that the Soviet Union has resurfaced and wants to thrash Little Mustache again, could it?
While investigating, Batman had no time to think about these messy things. His face began to darken, because he discovered that the people that these Germans were fighting against were the Court of Owls.
Yes, this was actually a war between Hydra and the Court of Owls. Although many belligerent civilians were involved, essentially, Hydra, who had been wandering around for half a century wanted to make Gotham their permanent base, and the Court of Owls were not willing to give up their homeland. Hence, a conflict between an eagle and a serpent broke out.
Batman was utterly shocked.
Apart from providing the venue, the hidden hand behind this had its own manpower, food, and equipment, and had thrown itself into the noble cause of fighting crime with a passion so high that even Batman admired.
Never mind whether they are criminals or not, isn't the efficiency of their crime-fighting high?
How many superheroes would it take to match the killing achieved by the main cannon of a battle tank?
At the same time, his mood had become somewhat peculiar.
Some people say that there is no such thing as a just war in the world, and Batman agrees. But the only time this theory falls short is in the case of the dog-eat-dog situation.
If you let them fight, it seems as if Batman is of no use. He had come all this way, interrogated Robin sternly, caught the Joker, and questioned him for clues, but in the end, he had done nothing. This hardly befitted the identity of a superhero.
But if you tell them not to fight, Batman feels like he's at a disadvantage.
He hasn't forgotten that when Gotham ascended to the sky, a huge labyrinth was exposed. Batman is not foolish; he knows very well who the grand labyrinth meticulously constructed by the Court of Owls for such a long time was meant for.
The terrorist organization, Hydra, is undoubtedly guilty of numerous crimes too numerous to list. The Court of Owls is merely acting out of selfish power motivations, and these Germans are bona fide NAZI flag bearers, whose bloodline might be purer than Little Mustache's.
If these two sides fight against each other, surely every second they fight is a contribution to world peace?
Doesn't that mean that every second he delays, he is upholding world peace with unprecedented efficiency?
Batman now had to carefully deliberate the methods to achieve a truce between both parties.
Considering the danger of both parties, he'd have to at least prepare 8000 master plans first, and then prepare 5 contingency plans for each master plan, and under the jurisdictions of each contingency plan, prepare 26 feasible solutions.
No, now is not the time, Batman thought. While maintaining world peace is indeed important, Dick's French homework could also be a crucial factor in maintaining familial harmony and stability. He needed to check on that.
Just as Batman was walking upstairs and had come to the hall in Wayne Manor, he suddenly saw that the teleportation portal he had set up under Sky Island lit up.
What emerged was Darkseid's army.
And they fell as soon as they emerged.
This time, he had no choice but to attend Tim's reading group, Batman thought.