cicada

Chapter 1201 Shadow Mechanism

Shancheng Minsheng Road, compared with other streets in Shancheng, the passers-by here look more respectable and fashionable.

The gentlemen and ladies wore the latest dresses, avoided the refugees and laborers who made a living, and walked in a hurry carrying briefcases or bags.

After moving westward, in order to promote the "Three People's Principles", the government issued an order to merge the original Wuku Street, Selling Street, and Guangongju Street into a new road. This is the origin of Minsheng Road.

This road is hundreds of meters long, with roads running through it. There are many bookstores on both sides and newspaper offices dotted here and there.

The nationally famous Commercial Press, Zhonghua Bookstore, Zhengzhong Bookstore, Dadong Bookstore, Kaiming Bookstore, World Bookstore, and Wentong Bookstore are all located here, so the people in the mountain city also call this a book market street.

Among them, the one that attracts the most readers is the former "Xin Hua Bao" sales department on Quan Gongju Street. It not only sells newspapers, but also sells literary works printed on rough-edged paper from the northwest. It has guided many students and young people to embark on the path of estrangement.

Naturally, this place became a thorn in the side of the Fruit Party's secret service. Countless spies roamed this road, tracking and monitoring customers who came to buy books.

The morning after the traitors left things behind in the ruins, Dai Chunfeng suddenly appeared on Minsheng Road. He had a beard on his face, a felt hat on his head, and his walking posture was completely different from usual.

After wandering around the streets for several times, the director of the Military Command Bureau followed a group of students holding banners and swaggered into a magazine called "Yushan" that specialized in publishing progressive books.

Several young men in work clothes saw him and said hello quickly. Dai Chunfeng nodded, walked quickly through the busy lobby, came to an office with a president's sign, and opened the door with a key.

Looking around, a desk and several file cabinets filled the small office. The closed blinds blocked all light, making the room look a bit eerie.

Dai Chunfeng closed the door, walked to the desk, put his briefcase on the table, turned on the green desk lamp, then sat on the chair and looked around, with a satisfied look on his face.

After fighting against the underground party for so many years, Lao Dai admires and agrees with some of the confidentiality measures of the underground party's intelligence system, such as the "Three Cunning Rabbits".

In the event of a sudden attack, whether or not there is a backup command system are two completely different concepts, so he fully developed the "use doctrine" and secretly established an underground military organization.

This place and the military command headquarters are two separate groups, with no horizontal contact with each other. All the personnel, equipment, and funds used are raised by him personally.

If Luojiawan No. 29 is a "clear" agency, then this place is a "shadow" agency, responsible for tasks that are not suitable for the headquarters.

This is similar to Xu Enzeng's secret office in the lumber factory, and even more hidden. No one would have thought that the Kuomintang's secret service would hide in Minsheng Road, which is full of progressive young people.

When Dai Chunfeng was proud, he picked up the documents and began to review them. The documents were filled with various economic, military, political and other information collected by the shadow agencies.

This information corroborated with the information from the Military Command Headquarters, which could help him fully understand the real situation. In order not to be deceived by his subordinates, Lao Dai took great pains.

Half an hour later, a spy knocked on the door and walked into the office, presenting a small round iron box with a wax seal on the lid.

"Is anyone following you?"

"Report, no."

"Well, you can go out."

Dai Chunfeng asked a few questions and then sent the little spy away. After carefully checking that the wax seal was intact, he picked up a knife and pried open the lid of the box, and took out a piece of paper with small characters on it. Wrote a piece of information.

"The special correspondent and radio operator will arrive at the mountain city from Linjiangmen ten days later. Other circumstances are currently unknown."

Looking at this line of text, Dai Chunfeng frowned. It was not that he disliked the clues being too vague. In fact, with the time and place, the people who came to the mountain city from the underground party would definitely not be able to escape. At worst, all the passengers who showed up at Linjiang Gate that day would be secretly detained.

What he was worried about was whether the intelligence was accurate, or whether it was fraudulent. After all, using false intelligence to identify moles was the most common method used by intelligence agencies.

After thinking for a while, Dai Chunfeng, who was suspicious by nature, felt that he should not rush, at least not act rashly before confirming the identities of the special correspondent and radio operator.

Anyway, if the spy is there, the other party is the food in the bowl. You can move whenever you want. There is no need to arrest people at the dock.

However, preliminary investigation is inevitable. Lao Dai picked up the phone and contacted the spy leader in charge of intelligence in the shadow agency, asking the other party to establish a secret surveillance point at Linjiang Gate and take photos of suspicious persons to facilitate later identification and arrest.

After receiving the order, the shadow agency immediately took action, and the relevant personnel quickly formulated a plan. They first rented a private house near Linjiangmen, and two agents, a man and a woman, moved in using false identities.

Hiding in the dark has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that the level of confidentiality is high, but the disadvantage is that you lose the convenience of your identity and cannot get assistance from other departments.

Of course, in a government where the confidentiality system is like a sieve, this may be a good thing. Otherwise, if the order is issued in the morning, Northwest may get the news in the afternoon. This is another reason why Dai Chunfeng established a shadow agency.

A few days later, in the evening, the clouds glowed red in the sky.

The shanty town next to Linjiang Gate is crowded with people. The dilapidated houses, muddy roads, ragged pedestrians and Minsheng Road seem to be two different worlds.

An unattractive young man in the crowd shouted loudly to let him pass, and he kept walking through the complicated and narrow streets, and finally climbed up the wooden steps to an inconspicuous stilt building.

In a simple house, an average-looking woman is gluing a match box, which is the most common means of livelihood for women in Linjiangmen. The men are carrying bricks, lime and "night scent" on the dock. In short, it is a dirty and tiring job. Walking to the window along the river, the man picked up the water ladle and took a sip of cold water. He looked at the pier ladder dozens of meters away and chatted a few words with the woman.

"Is there anything unusual?"

"In the morning, people from the police station came to register our certificates and asked us why we came to the mountain city. They were all old faces from the neighborhood and there was nothing suspicious."

"Then you have to be careful. The bureau takes this matter very seriously. If something goes wrong, you and I will not be safe."

"I understand, you said after the mission is over, can we go to work in the headquarters?"

"I'm afraid it will be difficult. I heard that members of the shadow organization will never be able to withdraw unless they die in battle."

As soon as these words came out, both of them fell silent. Compared with their colleagues at the headquarters, their working environment was worse and more dangerous, but their treatment was not much better, so everyone was thinking of leaving.

After a long time, the male agent got rid of his depression, opened the hidden compartment on the floor, took out the camera needed for the mission, and wiped it carefully. There was a lot of water vapor on the riverside, so the equipment needed regular maintenance.

"Ta~ta~ta~"

The sound of banging sounded in the distance and got closer and closer. The male agent immediately restored the secret compartment, placed a stool on it, and cautiously walked to the window on the other side to look outside.

Under the dim light, a man was walking with a load on his shoulders. His hands that were supposed to be holding the pole gently tapped the wooden stick, and he moved his body left and right to avoid passers-by in front of him.

Hearing the sound of bangs, women kept coming out of their houses with oil pots. In mountain towns, the sound of bangs meant that the oil seller was coming.

"Ouch, the price has increased again?"

After asking about the price of oil, the women began to criticize the oil seller in an attempt to lower the price.

The oil seller explained with a wry smile: "There is nothing we can do. The Japanese planes are bombing every day, and many oil shops have been damaged. Please forgive me."

As he said this, he put down his pole, took out the oil basket made of bamboo tube, poured some oil into the pot and put it in front of the women. The clear and fragrant vegetable oil was full of fragrance and the quality was very good.

Women saw that there was no advantage to take advantage of. Even if the price was not cheap, you still bought it for 2 taels, and I bought some for 3 taels. There was no other way. The men who did heavy physical labor at home were in need of oil and water.

During the transaction, the oil seller seemed to accidentally ask if there were any residents who had just moved nearby.

As the saying goes, seven things are necessary to open a new door: firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea. When moving to a new place, you always need to buy some daily necessities.

The women didn't think much and immediately pointed out the locations of several new neighbors to the oil seller, including the stilted building where a male and a female agent from the Shadow Agency lived.

Seeing someone pointing at his house, the male agent became vigilant and turned around to signal his companions to get ready and evacuate immediately if they found something was wrong.

Time passed slowly, and the women buying oil gradually dispersed. The oil seller picked up his pole and walked into the stilted building and walked directly to the second floor.

Hearing the crunching sound of stampeding stop outside the door, the male agent pretended to be confused and asked who it was, and waved his hand to warn the female agent.

"Guest, would you like some vegetable oil? I'm going to your place and I want to use an excuse to drink some water." The oil seller replied with a smile through the door.

The male agent hesitated for a moment and then opened the door. The other party's reason was legitimate and polite. If he didn't open the door, it would easily arouse suspicion.

As the door opened, a strong smell of sweat hit my nostrils. The oil seller walked the streets and slept in the open every day, so it was normal to have some smell on his body.

The male agent sniffed covertly and said while holding his breath: "No need for oil. I'll ask my cousin to get you a bowl of water. Brother, wait a moment."

The female spy who was pretending to clean up the housework heard this and took a bowl from the cupboard, scooped a bowl of water from the water tank and handed it over. The white porcelain surface was reflected by the oil lamp and gave off a little light.

"Thank you, thank you very much."

After thanking the oil seller, he raised his head and poured the water into his mouth. After drinking, he thanked the "couple" again, lifted his pole and went downstairs into the night.

The young male and female agents looked at each other and lowered their guard at the same time. The other party didn't even enter the door and didn't ask around, so there should be no problem.

If they were senior agents from the Military Command Headquarters, they would never have such thoughts at this moment, because they had too many flaws just now.

Dai Chunfeng enabled trainees from the training class to form a shadow organization. Although it could ensure the purity of the team, it also resulted in a reduction in the quality of the personnel and a serious lack of practical experience.

Compared with underground party intelligence officers who are accustomed to fighting behind enemy lines, shadow agency agents are still very immature. Once they lose their first-mover advantage, they are no match for the veterans.