Martial Arts Song

Chapter 311 Public Opinion
Faced with the hotel owner's teasing, Chen Qing smiled slightly awkwardly, then went downstairs and left the hotel.

Then he stood on the roadside and hailed a rickshaw.

When a rickshaw stopped in front of him, he asked the driver whether he had a "big note" and then got on the rickshaw and said to the driver, "Go to the Bund Ferry."

"okay."

The driver responded and then drove the cart towards the "Hongjiang" Bund in the concession.

Afterwards, Chen Qing sat in the car and began to think about what to do when he returned.

His first reaction was to take Chen Yang and the others away from "Sanlin Town" and live somewhere else for a while.

But as soon as this idea came into his mind, he immediately rejected it.

"Someone knew in advance that Takasugi Naoto was coming to East City to kill people. If they were sane, they would have probably figured out that Takasugi Naoto would kill people in relatively remote places with few people. If I took Brother Yang and the others away, once they tracked us down to Sanlin Town and learned from other people in Sanlin Town that my family had moved away during this period, we would basically be targeted and tracked down."

Thinking of this, Chen Qing couldn't help but frown.

There are very few people living in "Sanlin Town" now, but it is not completely deserted.

Their family had lived there for several months. Although they had no contact with other people, people nearby must have known that there was a family like theirs living here, just as Chen Qing knew how many families lived nearby and what their family structures were like.

If they leave during this period, the people from the Ryusakura faction who are tracking them will directly lock onto them, thus exposing them.

So, their family couldn't move away.

But if they don't move away, when the people from the Ryuying faction track down "Sanlin Town" one day, it will be difficult for their family to deal with it.

After all, their family has more than just this one thing going on, there are also things happening in Qianyang.

As for the Liuying side, they must still remember the new rice grown by Chen Yang, and they are very likely still secretly tracking them all over the country.

Therefore, he couldn't even let Liuying trace this matter to "Sanlin Town"!

When he thought of this, Chen Qing’s brows almost wrinkled into the shape of a “川” character.

"We must stop the actions of Ryuying's men and cut off their pursuit before they can track them down to Sanlin Town."

After thinking about this, Chen Qing had a clear goal for his response preparations after returning.

After determining the goal, he continued to think about it based on this goal.

The first thing he thought of was to use force to kill the people that Ryuying was pursuing, thus blocking the pursuit.

But on second thought, this method doesn't work either.

The other party came for Takasugi Naoto. If he killed him during the other party's pursuit, it would only backfire and make the other party confirm that Takasugi Naoto was in trouble, and thus send more people to track him down, or even deliberately set an ambush to lure him out and capture him!

He did not forget Takasugi Naoto's master, Shizuji Kamiizumi, who was known as the Ryusakura Sword Master.

At that time, the opponent simply made a move and broke the sword attack of "Jueying", and he also learned from Luo Zongping that the opponent was even more powerful than the great master of "Sanhua Qibian".

Although his strength is steadily improving, he is still some distance away from the realm of "Three Huas Transformed Together", let alone fighting against the opponent.

Of course, he is not without advantages.

That is, he is in the dark now, and the other party is in the light.

He knew almost everything about the Ryuuakute side in this incident, but the Ryuuakute side knew nothing about him for the time being.

In addition, the central government’s official organizations, represented by the “Military Control Commission”, are also paying attention to the movements of the Ryuying faction.

These are all advantages he can use.

Thinking of these advantages, Chen Qing suddenly had an idea.

"Someone from Ryusaku knew in advance that Takasugi Naoto came to Dongcheng to kill people. The two murders committed by Takasugi Naoto had a terrible impact on Dongcheng, causing many workers to panic. As long as people know that Takasugi Naoto is the murderer of these two murders, with the previous incident of setting up the ring, this news will definitely arouse public excitement."

"By then, the Ryuying people will be hated by everyone in East City, and they will have nowhere to hide. It will be impossible to conduct a secret investigation. The Central State officials will also certainly ask the Ryuying for an explanation, otherwise it will not be enough to appease the public anger. In this way, the Ryuying people will have to deal with these problems and will no longer be able to conduct secret investigations in East City, so this matter will be solved."

After some sorting out, Chen Qing's thoughts gradually became clear.

He continued to ponder, "However, in the absence of absolute military suppression, we must rely on evidence for everything. We cannot just talk nonsense. We must find direct evidence that these two cases were committed by Takasugi Naoto. Only then will the Central Government officials put pressure on the Ryusakura side..."

Thinking of this, Chen Qing frowned.

When he met Takasugi Naoto, the other party came to "Sanlin Town" alone and there was no one else around.

Later, Takasugi Naoto was killed by him, and there was no evidence.

As for the two homicides that occurred in Tianxin District and Sanyang District, more than a week has passed. Even if there was any obvious evidence at the scene at the time, it is gone now.

What's more, he didn't think that someone like Naoto Takasugi, who came to Dongcheng alone to kill people, would leave any obvious evidence.

And this world does not yet have the technology to extract DNA and fingerprints.

For a moment, Chen Qing was troubled by the issue of evidence.

In fact, it’s not that there is no other evidence.

Someone from the Ryuying faction knew that Takasugi Naoto had come to Dongcheng to kill someone. As long as they found this person and asked a master of "Divine Transformation" to trick him into talking, they could use him as a witness.

However, Chen Qing seriously suspected that the person who knew that Takasugi Naoto came to Dongcheng to kill people was most likely his master Kamiizumi Shizuji!
If it really was Shizue Kamiizumi, he was a great master of the "Three Changes of the Three Huas", and the "Divine Change" master's bewitching trick would have no effect on him at all.

Moreover, the opponent is too powerful to be manipulated at will.

So, this line of thought has reached a dead end again.

However, although there is currently no evidence that can allow the Central Government to put pressure on the Liuying Consulate, the previous steps that Chen Qing is thinking about do not require evidence.

"International incidents require evidence, but public grievances do not. Senior sister, I'm sorry..."

As someone who traveled from a world with highly developed Internet information, Chen Qing is well aware of the power of public opinion.

His ultimate goal was to stop the Ryuying people from tracking down the suspects in Dongcheng, so as to find "Sanlin Town" and the Chen family.

Therefore, as long as this goal can be achieved, it will be fine. With this thought, Chen Qing immediately had an idea in his mind.

Just as Chen Qing's thoughts were gradually coming into order, a rickshaw pulled him into the concession and arrived at the "Hongjiang" Bund ferry.

He didn't stay for long. After paying the fare, he went down the public road of the "Red River" Bund, came to the ferry, took a random ferry, and returned to Dongcheng...

That afternoon.

All major newspapers in the "Huhai" area received an anonymous letter.

The content of the anonymous letter, in highly sensational language, tells the story of a Ryuuko man named Takasugi Naoto who set up a ring in the International Settlement on August 15 to challenge the "Kumi" warriors. After being defeated by the "Kumi" warriors, he became furious and committed two brutal murders in Dongcheng within just a few days!
At the same time, there is also a conspiracy theory that the local police colluded with the Ryuying people, chose to do nothing about the two murders, turned a blind eye, allowed the Ryuying people to kill people in Dongcheng, and helped destroy the evidence.

In the end, he made a final statement, saying that this matter would never be resolved and that the lives of migrant workers were not important.

This anonymous letter is written in pure text and contains no evidence at all.

All the major newspapers were very surprised when they received this anonymous letter, but many of the more authoritative newspapers just read it and treated it as a joke without publishing it in the newspapers.

In this era, more authoritative newspapers are relatively rational and will not publish news of unknown origin without evidence, especially news involving other countries.

However, even though authoritative newspapers did not publish the article, some unpopular small newspapers that were just starting out dared to do so!
This news appeared in many tabloids the next day.

At the same time, this matter quickly spread among the migrant workers in Dongcheng in the form of gossip!

At first, it was only among rickshaw drivers, but gradually it spread to vegetable markets, factories, teahouses, pubs in various regions...

With the foreshadowing of the incident in August when Takasugi Naoto repeatedly published provocations in newspapers and then was defeated and humiliated in public by the "Ukai" warrior, the credibility of this gossip suddenly increased!
Because everyone subconsciously believed that after losing face so greatly, the Ryuying party would definitely retaliate.

Therefore, after hearing the gossip and seeing the related reports in the newspapers, the migrant workers in Dongcheng were filled with indignation!
In particular, many migrant workers from "Tianxin District" and "Sanyang District" had witnessed the tragic scenes of the two murders. When they learned that it was done by the Ryuuko who set up the ring and provoked, they directly cursed him as a beast!
With the public so excited, in just two or three days, the news spread throughout the entire East City and quickly spread to the West City!

Some hot-blooded migrant workers quickly organized themselves and began to protest in front of the police stations in Tianxin District and Sanyang District about the two murders.

The natural result was that the patrolmen from the police station warned and dispersed the protesting crowd with their batons.

However, because the victims of these two murders were migrant workers from other places, they caused a certain degree of panic among the people in the period when they first happened.

In addition, the local patrolmen in Dongcheng, "Huhai", have long discriminated against migrant workers from other places. Although this warning with the patrolmen's sticks dispersed the protesting crowd at the time, it directly triggered the long-standing dissatisfaction of migrant workers afterwards!

In just one night, a large number of workers, porters, coolies, rickshaw drivers and other groups united and protested at the doors of the "Tianxin District" and "Sanyang District" police stations where the two murders took place!

The number of people this time is more than ten times more than before!
The presence of thousands and tens of thousands of people simply stunned the police stations in these two places!

As a last resort, the chief inspectors of the two local police stations could only call the "Hu Hai" army for help, and before the "Hu Hai" army arrived, they for the first time submissively appeased the protesting workers - there were so many people that it was difficult to see the edge at a glance, and the police officers of the two districts could not stop so many people even if they had guns.

What's more, if the shooting really caused a large number of casualties, it would become a large-scale vicious incident!

Will be held accountable.

Even if we ignore the issue of accountability, if thousands or tens of thousands of people attacked the police station together, the policemen would probably only have time to fire the first shot before being overwhelmed by the crowd.

Finally, this large-scale protest was temporarily quelled after the chief inspectors of the Tianxin District and Sanyang District police stations comforted them and promised to investigate the matter seriously.

However, this side has calmed down temporarily, but the other side can no longer remain calm...

September 6th, evening.

Xicheng, International Settlement, Ryusakura Consulate.

In a Ryusakura-style room.

Three figures sat facing each other in front of a desk.

Harada Keita took off his suit jacket and wore only a shirt. He looked grimly at Ueizumi Seiji and Tengawa Hisao who were kneeling side by side opposite him.

"I asked you to find the person, and look what you did?"

Harada Keita glanced at the two people with a cold gaze, and finally stopped at Ueizumi Shizuji: "I want an explanation. How could Naoto's murder in Dongcheng be known to outsiders, and even published in the newspaper?"

Ueizumi Shizuji frowned, and after hearing what Harada Keita said, he lowered his eyes and replied, "I don't know either."

However, Tengchuan Hisao, who was standing next to him, had a thoughtful look on his face since he came in and sat down.

After asking Shizuji Kamiizumi without any result, Keita Harada turned his gaze and looked at Hisao Tengawa.

But before he could say anything, Tengchuan Hisao spoke first: "This should be the person who caused Naoto-kun's disappearance."

"Ok?"

Upon hearing this, Harada Keita raised his eyebrows and said, "Tengchuan, do you already know who it is?"

"No, I don't know who this person is yet."

Tengchuan Hisao shook his head slightly and said, "I got this answer through a simple process of elimination. Before Naoto-kun told you, Mr. Harada, only Mr. Kamiizumi and the driver who took Naoto-kun to Jiang'an knew that he went to Dongcheng to kill people. Mr. Kamiizumi would not do such a thing, and Mr. Ueno would not do such a thing either."

"Excluding them, the only possible person is the one who caused Naoto-kun's disappearance. However..."

At this point, a look of hesitation appeared on Tengchuan Hisao's face.

Seeing this, Harada Keita asked in a cold voice: "But what?"

After hearing this, Tengchuan Hisao sighed first, and then replied: "But if it was really the person who caused Naoto's disappearance who did it, then this means that Naoto has been caught by the other party, and the other party can also force Naoto to tell about his actions in Dongcheng..."

Having said that, Hisao Tengkawa did not continue speaking, but looked at Keita Harada.

But Harada Keita seemed to know what he was thinking, and said calmly: "Don't worry, Naoto-kun has been instructed by the master of Iga-ryu, and he cannot reveal the important secrets he knows."

His words stunned Seiji Kamiizumi who was standing beside him.

After hearing this, Tengchuan Hisao nodded thoughtfully.

But then, he frowned and said again: "One more thing, that is, Naoto-kun is probably no longer here."

(End of this chapter)