My spy diary

Chapter 305: Manhunt (asking for monthly ticket)

The bright sunshine shines on Shanghai, this beautiful oriental metropolis, and the streets are bustling with traffic.

The French Concession is a bustling commercial area with numerous shops and dazzling signs.

The windows of department stores display a variety of exquisite shops, attracting the attention of passers-by.

Trams clanged by and the streets were crowded with people.

There were businessmen in suits and top hats, graceful women in cheongsams, and many more ordinary people in coarse clothes, walking in a hurry.

They shuttled among the bustling crowd, either working for a living or enjoying the hustle and bustle of the foreign concessions.

In a remote alley not far from the commercial district, there was no sound at all and everything was so quiet that it seemed to be still.

Several Chinese policemen from the Concession Police Station were squatting on this path, also seemingly motionless.

Some of them held batons, some held pistols, and they all stared at the intersection, like a group of cats waiting to catch mice.

Behind them stood several Japanese plainclothes officers in grey suits and top hats, staring vigilantly at the patrolmen in front of them.

Looking out from the small intersection, they can just see a hotel, and the "rat" they want to catch is inside this hotel.

A Chinese patrolman whispered:
"Captain, is this where the anti-Japanese elements of the Military Control Commission are hiding?"

The captain said: "Yes, they are anti-Japanese elements. Keep your eyes open. Bullets have no eyes. Don't hurt yourself. Your life is your own."

The patrolman glanced at the Japanese spy behind him and asked in a low voice:

"Why would the Concession Municipal Council agree to let the Japanese come in?"

The captain sighed and said, "These foreign devils are equally unreliable. They signed an agreement with the Japanese government to fight against the Reds and combat anti-Japanese elements. Besides, the concessions are now a piece of meat on the lips of the Japanese, and the French dare not offend them too much."

"Will there really be an exchange of gunfire soon?" The policeman who asked the question looked nervous.

"So I said, keep your eyes open. If we catch anti-Japanese elements, they will be extradited to the Japanese concession. It has nothing to do with us."

The Japanese plainclothes officer in charge, Ishii, saw that the captain had not yet started the action, so he ordered his men to slack off and looked at him unhappily:
"Baga, if you let the anti-Japanese elements escape, I will make sure you have the consequences."

The captain looked at him coldly: "I am just following orders. If you have the guts, go find the French."

Ishii said angrily: "I want to make one thing clear. According to our agreement, you have the obligation to assist us on the premise of maintaining public order in the concession. The agreement is very clear. Failure to enforce it is your personal problem."

The captain interrupted him lazily:

"You also said that we know what to do while maintaining public order in the concession. The Municipal Council asked us to assist you, not to obey you."

"idiot."

Ishii was so angry that he was fuming, but there was nothing he could do. He groaned a few times, looked at his watch, and said:
"It's two o'clock, let's get started."

The search operation started at the same time. In order not to alert the enemy, the agents lurking in the 14 secret agencies of the Military Control Commission were caught in one fell swoop, with the focus on the six leaders.

The captain nodded, took out a pocket watch from his pocket, squinted his eyes and looked at it, and said:
"One minute left, wait a little longer."

"Baga, you did it on purpose."

"It's your watch that's inaccurate." The captain smiled indifferently, stood up and stretched, winked at a few of his men, and ordered:

"Take action."

As soon as he finished speaking, he warned again:

"Be careful to exercise restraint, especially with the weapons in your hands. Be careful not to hurt civilians."

"clear."

The captain spoke seriously and everyone answered in a serious manner. It seemed that this was really an extremely rigorous and important mission that could easily result in casualties.

Seeing these guys procrastinating, Ishii became impatient and wavered his hand, and rushed directly to the hotel with a few plainclothes officers.

The few people he led were well-trained. They quietly surrounded the enemy from both sides and entered the hotel without making any noise.

Sitting behind the counter was a thin man in his forties. As soon as he raised his head in astonishment, a Japanese plainclothes officer put a gun to his forehead and blocked his mouth.

"Go up." Ishii pointed at the stairs and waved his hand, and several people went up to the second floor cautiously.

A plainclothes officer tiptoed up to a closed room, pricked up his ears to listen, nodded to Ishii, and immediately took out a thin wire with swift movements, inserted the thin wire into the keyhole, and gently moved it up and down.

Before the door opened, a big foot came from behind and kicked the door hard.

"Bang." The door opened.

The plainclothes officer turned around in astonishment and saw the patrol captain staring at Ishii with an unhappy look on his face:

"You have crossed the line, haven't you? We have the power to enforce the law."

Without waiting for Ishii to reply, he looked at the plainclothes officer who had just opened the door with disdain and said condescendingly:

"What's all this fancy talk?"

After saying this, the captain said calmly to his men who were crouching and guarding carefully behind him:
"Search."

"Baga, I think you are sincere, but your conscience is very bad."

Ishii cursed angrily, glanced into the house, and his face suddenly became gloomy.

The room was in a mess, with scattered papers everywhere and a basin full of ashes lying on the ground, but there was no sign of a person.

"Oh no, the person has escaped, go to other rooms quickly." The captain ignored him and waved his hand to let the patrol officers search other rooms.

However, still no discovery was made.

"Baga, bring up the old guy in front."

Ishii was furious and roared at the Japanese plainclothes officers to bring the middle-aged man up. He slapped him hard and asked in a harsh voice:
"Where are they? Tell me, where did the anti-Japanese elements go? If you dare to lie, I will make you suffer a fate worse than death when we get to the interrogation room."

The middle-aged shopkeeper trembled all over and almost collapsed to the ground, speechless:
"I"

"That's enough." The patrol captain came over, pushed Jingtian away, and sneered:

"I told you, you have no law enforcement authority. I've warned you once."

"So what? You let the anti-Japanese elements escape." Ishii glared at the captain and reached for the pistol at his waist.

The captain also took out his own pistol.

"brush"

When the other patrolmen saw their captain taking action, they all pointed their guns at the Japanese plainclothes officers.

"What do you want to do?"

The captain said without questioning: "I'll say it one last time, you have no power to enforce the law, and the order we received is to cooperate with you in searching for the six key members of the Yufang Lixing Society.

Before the operation, the Commissioner of Police specifically instructed that if the six people on the list were not found after arriving at the search address, no one should be searched or arrested at will.

"Asshole, how come I didn't know about this order?" "Maybe your position is not high enough? If you don't believe me, you can go to the director of the French Concession Police Department."

Hearing him say this, Ishii's face was gloomy, but he could do nothing. He cursed a few words in Japanese angrily, and walked away dejectedly with the plainclothes police.

76 number.

Ishii walked quickly through the corridor with a serious look on his face, all the way to the door of the gendarmerie captain's office. He didn't even knock on the door, but pushed it open and walked in.

His superiors Jing Tian, ​​Ding Mocun and Li Shijun were sitting on the sofa, and Chen Mingchu stood respectfully beside them.

Seeing Ishii coming in, Chen Mingchu nodded to him respectfully and asked hopefully:

"How about it?"

Shi Jing looked at him with contempt, looked past him, saluted to Jing Tian, ​​bowed to Ding Mocun and Li Shijun, and then said:

"Our 14 teams accompanied the Concession Police to search all the addresses on the list. The list is indeed real. All the addresses are secret agencies of the Military Control Commission."

Upon hearing the news, the trembling Chen Mingchu felt relieved.

But he saw that Shi Jing had a gloomy face and was thinking anxiously. Just as he cast his eyes towards Ding Mocun and Li Shiqun, he heard Shi Jing continue:
“But we never thought of that.”

Iida was about thirty years old, wearing a major's uniform. He was taller than the average Japanese, and his face did not have the ferocious and cold look of a soldier.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that he is handsome, but his gaze is like an invisible hook, flashing a cold light, ready to uncover the secrets deep in your heart at any time.

At this moment, he frowned, glanced at Li Shijun and Ding Mocun who were full of doubts, and said in silence for a while:

"Go on."

Chen Mingchu was also anxiously waiting for Ishii's next words.

Under the gaze of several people, Ishii recalled the details of the search to them with a frustrated and resentful look on his face.

But this time Ishii spoke in Japanese. Ding Mocun and Li Shijun could only watch helplessly, and Chen Mingchu became even more anxious.

"You mean the main personnel of the Military Control Commission just evacuated, and someone leaked the information?"

Ishii glanced at Chen Mingchu and said meaningfully:
"Major, this is the person I suspect the most. He was the one who provided the list, and he has the most time to leak the intelligence."

Iida shook his head:

"I understand what you mean. Both Mr. Doi-maru and Mr. Kagesawa said that the Chinese can only be used and cannot be trusted. I have the same opinion, so we are here.

But I think this person can be trusted in this matter. He has no motives, and it is not in his interest. Moreover, the intelligence has been reported to the concession authorities, and I don’t know how many people have passed through it, so there may be leaks in the middle. ”

"Damn the French, Major, why don't we just send troops to take over the concession? In addition to the gendarmerie, we also have the Marines stationed in Hongkou. We only need a battalion of troops."

"Well, the time is not right yet."

Jingtian waved his hand to interrupt him, frowned and looked at Li Shijun and Ding Mocun, and said in Chinese:
"You two, the operation just now failed."

"Everyone ran away?" Ding Mocun looked at Shi Jing in disbelief.

Ishii nodded.

Li Shijun asked: "Did they find you?"

"Most of them had already run away before our people got there."

"Why don't you bring the others back?" Chen Mingchu looked at him in confusion.

His question was once again ignored by Ishii.

Li Shijun glanced at Chen Mingchu with an unpleasant expression:
"Could it be that the operation was leaked?"

"According to the summary of the comprehensive search, the military personnel evacuated in a hurry. It should be that the intelligence was leaked."

Jingtian added: "I think the problem lies with the French Concession Police Station, but the French Concession is our weak force, so we need to think about this matter carefully."

Chen Mingchu took a breath and looked at Ishii in disbelief. How could this happen?
This was a crucial blow that he had planned for a long time and had been lurking for a long time. He also hoped to use this achievement to exchange for the position of Director of the Secret Service Department of the Secret Service Headquarters. How could this happen?
After Li Shijun got the list from Chen Mingchu, he immediately handed it over to his Japanese master. The gendarmerie, the Special High Section, and the embassy took joint action to put pressure on the concession authorities.

When they arrived at the French Concession Police Station together with the International Settlement detectives, they produced a list of the so-called "Six Heads of the Lixing Society."

The six people are Shanghai District Mayor Zhao Libiao, Chief Inspector Mao Qianli, District Secretary Zheng Xiuyuan, Intelligence Group 1 Leader Liu Jian, Intelligence Group 2 Leader Zhu Xiaogu, and female courier Xiao Yingjie.

After receiving Zhang Yi's warning and the information passed on by Liu Junqing, District Secretary Zheng Xiuyuan immediately called all contact points to notify them to stop work, destroy documents, and evacuate all key personnel.

Therefore, the Japanese, together with the two police stations, followed the map and found nothing.

Even if the remaining personnel who had not yet evacuated were found in these 14 secret agencies, the prior orders from the Director of the French Concession Police Department still provided invisible help.

In addition, the Chinese police officers dealt with the matter in a perfunctory manner and deliberately let the offenders go, so these people were able to remain safe and escape the fate of being arrested and extradited.

Jingtian glanced at the people expressionlessly and said with a smile:
"As the Chinese saying goes, victory and defeat are common in the military. Okay, everyone, cheer up."

Then he changed the subject and asked:
"Everyone, let's think about what we should do next!"

Seeing Ding Mocun and Li Shijun looking at each other in silence, Jingtian looked at Chen Mingchu with a smile on his face:
"You are Mr. Chen, right? Don't be discouraged. You have proved your loyalty and value to the Empire of Japan with facts. The Empire will definitely reward you."

"Thank you, Major Iida. I am unworthy of this position. It is my honor to serve the Imperial Japanese Army."

Chen Mingchu smiled flatteringly, with a complicated expression on his face, including gratitude, regret, and a little resentment.

Jingtian looked at him with interest: "Good job, Mr. Chen. Based on your understanding, where will these anti-Japanese hide? Can you help us find them?"

Chen Mingchu frowned, thought for a moment, and said:

"Let me try."

Iida nodded and said:
"It's not about trying, it's about trying your best."

"Yes."

As he was speaking, the phone on the table rang.

Jingtian picked up the phone, listened to one sentence, and immediately turned to Ding Mocun and Li Shijun and said:
"He's here."

Seeing that they still had things to do, Chen Mingchu immediately bowed and said:
"I'll take my leave first."

Iida stood up, patted him on the shoulder, and said:

"I look forward to hearing good news from you."

"Yes." Chen Mingchu said respectfully and retreated cautiously.

As soon as he left, Jingtian immediately took Ding Mocun and Li Shijun to the preferential room No. 76, where Wang Tianlin was sitting waiting for them.

As soon as he saw them, Wang Tianlin immediately gave out another name.

Not to mention Jingtian, Ding Mocun and Li Shijun were all shocked. This person was someone they had never expected.

……

(End of this chapter)