cicada

Chapter 1247: Inside and Outside the Wall

On the busy street, the postman rode his bike quickly past Yuan's house without stopping. It was obvious that Yuan Chuyu's letter had not been delivered yet or was not sent from Yuan's house.

Behind the postman, a middle-aged man wearing a gray royal blue cotton jacket, black cloth shoes, and a white cloth wrapped around his head suddenly stopped and turned to look at the courtyard at the corner of the street.

Perhaps he had noticed something, he looked suspicious, hesitated for a moment and ran straight towards the courtyard. Through the observation hole, Wu Chunyang and others clearly saw this scene.

It was at this time that the agents on the scene discovered that the other party's body shape and some facial features were very similar to those of one of the four suspects.

Faced with the sudden situation, the young spies quickly took a few frontal photos, and then picked up wedges from under their feet and beside them to block the observation holes, and the wall returned to its original state in an instant.

Wu Chunyang pulled out his service pistol, turned off the safety and pulled the trigger directly without pulling the slide, quietly loading the gun. The advantage of the PPK's linkage structure was clearly revealed at this moment.

The young spy next to him also loaded his gun and stood against the wall, with the muzzle slightly shifted and aimed at the incoming person.

Outside the wall, the middle-aged man took off his shoes and knocked off the dirt and clods in his shoes. He sat down by the road and turned his head slightly towards the wall.

The walls of traditional houses in the mountain city are mostly built with bricks or rammed earth, and the surface is bumpy. This courtyard is no exception. The earthen wall mixed with straw is about ten feet high and covered with gray tiles.

This kind of wall may be able to stop bandits, but it cannot stop 7.65mm pistol bullets. No matter how small the power of a pistol is, it is still a hot weapon. It is easy to penetrate an earth wall at such a close distance.

Suddenly, the middle-aged man seemed to have discovered something. He put his eyes close to a dent on the wall and poked around the dent with his fingers.

His forehead was pressed against the earth wall. On the other side of the wall, Wu Chunyang's gun was against the wall with his right index finger on the trigger. The situation was about to break out.

  Da da da.

The watch hands ticked, Wu Chunyang slowed down his breathing, and made a gesture with his left hand at his side, signaling his men not to move, while initiating countermeasures.

A moment later, there was a creaking sound from across the road. The middle-aged man quickly retracted his head and continued to sit on the side of the road pretending to rest.

A young woman holding a wooden basin appeared outside the gate of the opposite yard. She glanced at the middle-aged man, raised her arm to pour the dirty water in the basin onto the ground, and greeted the neighbors passing by.

Seeing this, the middle-aged man relaxed his frown, stood up, patted his butt, and left without looking back.

After a few minutes, Wu Chunyang was sure that the other party had gone far away. He opened the safety, put the gun back into the holster, and whispered something to the young spy.

"Tell the brothers outside to keep their distance and not to expose themselves."

The young spy nodded, quickly walked out of the yard through the back door, blended silently into the crowd, and chased in the direction the middle-aged man left.

  As early as when the surveillance point was first established, Wu Chunyang had taken various possibilities into consideration and deployed multiple mobile forces nearby to prevent the situation just now from happening.
-

A market in a mountain city.

The middle-aged man left Yuan's house and came here, wandering around aimlessly. He stopped from time to time to pretend to pick out goods, always observing the surrounding situation out of the corner of his eyes.

Around him, several spies were hiding in the market, pretending to be customers and vendors, keeping a distance from their target. Wu Chunyang, who had changed his clothes, was among them.

Everyone's eyes occasionally met and they exchanged information tacitly. After so many years of practical training, everyone had extremely rich experience in tracking.

The operatives can judge for themselves when to hide, when to disengage, and when to take over without Wu Chunyang's reminders.

After walking around for a while, the middle-aged man looked up at the sky, walked out of the market quickly, and did not forget to check if anyone was following him as he walked out.

Dozens of meters away from the middle-aged man, Wu Chunyang stood up from a stall, looked around, and spoke to his men with his lips slightly moving.

"Brothers, don't move yet. The target will be taken care of by the contact personnel. We will withdraw in batches."

"Yes, Director."

The spy took the order and left. The market was still bustling with people, vendors were shouting their wares, customers were concentrating on picking and choosing, and no one noticed that more than a dozen people were missing.

As for the middle-aged people, after leaving the market, they walked around the city, using the steps that could be seen everywhere to go up and down the mountain.

The spies cursed in their hearts as they watched the target sometimes returning along the same route and sometimes crossing the road.

Compared with plains, tracking missions in mountain cities are extremely difficult, especially when facing a professional agent. If you follow too far, you will lose your observation vision, and if you follow too close, you will easily be exposed.

Wu Chunyang, who was in the rear, decisively adjusted the tracking plan, gave up close reconnaissance, dispersed all his men, and controlled intersections and bridges to grasp the target's movement trajectory.

The operatives advanced in a rolling manner with the target as the center. No matter which direction the enemy went, they could not escape the eyes of the spies.

Even if the target disappears in a certain area, this method can be used to quickly lock the specific location, and then it will be easy to catch the target.

The only drawback of this method is that it requires a large number of people, and they must be veterans who are proficient in tracking, because newcomers can easily reveal flaws when coming into face-to-face contact with the target.

As the trump card unit of the Military Control Commission, there was naturally no shortage of elite agents. Under the command of Wu Chunyang, the middle-aged man was never able to escape surveillance.

Time passed slowly and the sun rose to the highest point in the sky. The spies followed their target from the south of the city to the north, and then from the north to the east. But judging from the opponent's appearance, this game of cat and mouse would not end for a while.

Outside a hidden alley in the east of the city, two young agents who had met their target walked quickly into the alley, climbed onto a truck, and began to change their facial disguises and clothes. "Get a new pair of shoes and a fake hood."

In the carriage covered with tarpaulin, the makeup artist hurriedly instructed his assistant, and used the eyebrow pencil in his hand to draw on the little spy's face. With just a few strokes, the little spy seemed like a different person.

There are two or three similar combinations in the carriage. All the spies whose appearance has been exposed change their appearance here. After going out, they are responsible for the external surveillance work to minimize the possibility of being recognized by the target.

At this time, there were four such makeup vehicles operating on the streets of the mountain city. They were the most powerful and important guarantee for the operatives.

After putting on makeup, the young spy quickly ate a meal, got off the car and returned to work again. According to the report from the front line, the target was having dinner in a teahouse.

The mountain city has been producing tea since ancient times and the tea culture is extremely prosperous. The concentration of capital, market and personnel during the war gave rise to a large number of teahouses.

These teahouses vary in size, with large ones having dozens of tables and small ones occupying only half a room. The business contents also vary, with some only selling tea and others also providing catering and accommodation.

The middle-aged man went to a large teahouse with hundreds of seats where people could order food. Although it was noon, the teahouse was still full.

"Please come in, sir."

The teahouse waiter warmly welcomed the middle-aged man into the store, wiped the tables and chairs with a towel, asked him to sit down, and asked what he needed to order.

The middle-aged man looked at the guests in the store, paid for their tea, and ordered a few things in his fluent Shancheng dialect.

"Serve a bowl of Tuocha, and some sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and broad beans. The tea must be hot."

"Okay, wait for the guests."

The waiter flicked his towel and walked towards the back hall. On the walls he passed were hung slogans such as "Do not show lost property", "One bowl per person, to ensure hygiene", "There are often no air raids, so guests should pay for tea first", and "Don't talk about national defense secrets".

Therefore, if someone enters a teahouse without paying first, he must be from another place. This is just like the British looking to the right first and then to the left when crossing the road. These are both behavioral habits with strong regional characteristics.

"Beware of boiling water~"

With a shout, the waiter came back, holding a long-spouted copper teapot in his right hand and tea set and snacks in his left hand. He came to the table, arranged the tea set, and poured boiling water into the teacups.

The middle-aged man nodded, picked up the tea bowl and took a sip from the edge of the bowl. Tuo tea tastes bitter but is cheap and very durable, and is very popular among the lower-class people in the mountain city.

After drinking the hot tea, the middle-aged man's face, which had turned blue due to the cold wind, instantly turned red. He seemed to come alive and only then did he have time to carefully observe the people in the store.

"Damn it, you know who I am. I'll accompany you wherever you go."

"Drink tea, drink tea."

Inside the teahouse, there were constant noises, laughter, conversations, and scolding. Tea drinkers of different identities and wearing all kinds of clothes were sitting in one room, making it very lively.

Before the middle-aged man could take the second sip, a girl selling sugar-roasted chestnuts came up to him, followed by an old woman selling preserved fruits, dried meat and other foods... After a while, a fortune teller holding a glass sign walked in from outside the door.

After casually sending the old woman away, the middle-aged man moved his small eyes around, focusing on observing the fortune teller who had just come in.

I saw the other person walking among the guests, muttering, "Sir, your forehead is red, you will be rich soon, and your ears are big and blessed, which are nice words that indicate you will become very rich and powerful."

The man was thin, his cotton coat was shiny black, his thumbs were exposed at the toes of his shoes, and he spoke with a standard northern accent in a slick tone.

There were many such charlatans fleeing for their lives in the mountain city, so there was nothing surprising about it. After hearing this, the middle-aged man turned around and concentrated on drinking his tea.

He sat there for the entire afternoon and did not leave until dark. Visibility in the mountain city was very low in winter, and coupled with the air raid blackout, it was pitch dark outside the teahouse.

Looking at the blurry figure in the darkness, Wu Chunyang immediately ordered to stop tracking. The probability of being discovered was too high if they continued to follow in this situation.

The target probably stayed in the teahouse for most of the day just to wait until dark, trying to use the low visibility to shake off the tail behind him. This idiot was quite cunning, fortunately he made a second preparation.

In the lobby of the teahouse, the waiter swiftly put the tea bowl and chopsticks used by the middle-aged man onto a tray, then ran to the back hall and spoke to the fortune teller.

"Sir, the stuff is here, and no one has touched it except me."

"Well, remember, watch your mouth, or you and your wife and children will be in trouble!"

After the fortune teller made his threats, he threw down a roll of banknotes, carefully wrapped the tea bowl and chopsticks, put them into a cloth bag, and slowly walked out of the teahouse.

That night, the technical department of the Military Control Commission stayed up all night. The technicians extracted several fingerprints from the bowls and chopsticks. After excluding the waiter's fingerprints, a clear fingerprint pattern of the right thumb was delivered to Wu Chunyang and Zuo Zhong.

In addition, after witnesses from Central University identified the photo, the suspicious person who appeared in Yuan’s residence was indeed one of the two suspects who escaped.