Cicada Moving

Chapter 1295 Past events

Late at night, several men appeared near Fuichiro Hayashi's residence. They quickly approached the Buick car in which the surveillance personnel were riding. Tetsuji Suto and others immediately drew their guns on guard.

However, when they saw the leading middle-aged man, all the agents put down their Southern pistols. This was another group of personnel who came to change shifts.

Tetsuji Sudo handed the surveillance records to the middle-aged man and left with his men. The two parties did not communicate much. Everything was carried out in silence. Only a few barks from the corner of the street proved that someone had passed by.

A few minutes later, the middle-aged man wrote down the shift time on the surveillance record with the help of a street lamp. Looking at Lin Fu's mansion not far away, his eyes were unusually calm.

Agents need to remain calm at all times. From this point of view, the middle-aged man is more professional and more dangerous than the neurotic Tetsuji Sudo.

The car was quiet for a long time, and suddenly someone asked his companion in a low voice why they wanted to spy on the deputy minister of the Ministry of Finance. The other party could not be a Red Russian spy.

Most moles rebel for money or beauty, but both goals are easily accessible, and betraying the empire does no good to a noble.

The companion glanced at the middle-aged man in the co-pilot and replied in a low voice: "The target has a close relationship with Suspect No. 1. The two have met many times at the same place. The General Staff Headquarters suspects that the target is a member of Suspect No. 1's intelligence network. ”

The questioner suddenly realized, and showed disdain and jealousy: "I heard that the Hokkaido country bumpkin named Sudou Tetsuji was spotted by the Minister just because he discovered the No. 1 suspect. He is really a lucky guy."

After hearing the conversation of his subordinates, the middle-aged man smiled slightly and did not stop him. The agents participating in this operation had been strictly vetted, and he was not worried about leaks.

On the contrary, letting the operators know more intelligence about the target will help the next mission. At least it can eliminate everyone's fear of the target's identity and work more attentively.

Viscount of the empire, legitimate son of an earl, son-in-law of the general, and deputy minister of the Ministry of Finance, any one of the four identities of the target is worthy of serious consideration by the General Staff Headquarters.

Once their surveillance and tracking operations are discovered, this matter will cause a huge shock. After all, internal review is a very sensitive matter, not to mention that there is currently no conclusive evidence to prove that the target is involved.

Seeing that the middle-aged man had no objection, the questioner plucked up the courage to ask: "Captain, have you seen Suspect No. 1 Sorge?"

The middle-aged man was stunned for a moment when he heard this, his eyes slowly blanked, and his memory instantly returned to a winter day many years ago, when he was still a newcomer who had just joined the General Staff Headquarters.

1933.

Sorge arrived in Yokohama by boat. His public identity was the German "Frankfurter Zeitung" correspondent in Japan. He also served as a freelance writer for the "Berlin Messenger" and "Amsterdam Handelsblatt", and then he came to Tokyo.

In the first few months after arriving in Tokyo, Sorge lived in a hotel called Sano. This hotel was not far from Ginza. The services were very considerate, and the room rate and class were consistent with his income and status.

But from the first day Sorge checked in, a strange guest appeared in the hotel. Sorge would meet this person every time he went out.

When they met, the other party first bowed politely to Sorge, and then followed him closely.

Regardless of whether Sorge went to the German Embassy or elsewhere, the guest would wait at the door for several hours and follow him back to the hotel, leaving until late at night and reappearing early the next morning.

It was obvious that this was an agent of the Japanese counter-intelligence agency. The other party always remained silent and polite, following the person being monitored like a shadow without interfering or questioning.

This person also secretly checked Sorge's room and installed a micro bug in the phone, but this does not mean that Sorge has been exposed.

In fact, any foreigner entering Japan will be monitored by Japanese counterintelligence agencies, even diplomats. This is a special counterintelligence system.

Under such close surveillance, Sorge behaved very normally, wandering around the city every day, getting a little familiar with Tokyo's customs, roads and social conditions, and making various friends.

Time suddenly entered winter. On a cold and humid evening, the biting cold wind carried snow flakes across the land. Sorge and a group of journalist friends gathered at the "Golden Rhine" Hotel in Ginza.

This is a restaurant opened by German immigrants, where you can eat delicious German dishes and drink the most authentic Munich beer.

Sorge's "tail" also followed him to the hotel. He was wearing only a coat and stood in the strong wind, stamping on the ground, his face livid with cold.

Looking at "Tail"'s thin coat, Sorge felt a little pity for him. He walked out of the hotel and came to "Tail" and asked: "What should I call you?"

"Tail" didn't expect that the surveillance target would take the initiative to approach him. He hesitated and replied in less than standard English: "Hirano."

Sorge smiled and patted Hirano on the shoulder: "You must be very cold. Let's make a gentleman's agreement. I will not leave the Golden Rhine without authorization before 10 o'clock. You can find a place to warm yourself. Take it. ! "

With that said, Sorge stuffed a few pieces of change into Hirano's hand, then turned around and walked back to the hotel without waiting for Hirano to answer. Looking at Sorge returning to the hotel, Hirano hesitated for a moment and entered the tavern across the road. If he had the choice, who would be willing to stand in the snow and wait for several hours.

In this way, Sorge spent a pleasant night with his friends. The friends' conversations brought Sorge a lot of new information. He also told some interesting anecdotes for everyone and had a great time chatting.

When his friends were preparing to go home, Sorge looked at his watch and raised his hand to greet everyone: "I promised the spy who was following me to stay here until 10 o'clock. That guy always follows me, as if I am a spy." Spies, give me another beer each and charge it to my account!”

"Hahahaha." Everyone laughed and sat down again.

At 10 o'clock, Hirano returned to the entrance of the "Golden Rhine" and found that Sorge was still in the hotel. He finally breathed a sigh of relief.

In the days that followed, Hirano and Sorge seemed to have reached a certain tacit understanding. Sorge allowed Hirano to follow him, and Hirano gave Sorge full trust.

In the Buick car, several Japanese spies listened intently. The previous questioner quickly asked: "Captain Hirano, what happened next, you became friends with Suspect No. 1?"

The middle-aged man shook his head, reached out to catch the raindrops falling from the night sky, and turned around to warn his subordinates: "Intelligence officers cannot have friends. This is very dangerous, especially with a foreigner. We must remain vigilant."

The questioner and other Japanese agents were thoughtful and whispered back "Hai". They did not expect that their captain would have such an interaction with the No. 1 suspect. No wonder Captain Hirano would be demoted after the incident.

The General Staff Headquarters and the Intelligence Department were both responsible for failing to discover the identity of suspect No. 1 in advance, so Hirano became the scapegoat.

Outside the car window, the rain was getting heavier and heavier. The raindrops made a thumping sound on the roof, and the questioner's voice sounded again inside the car.

"Captain, how did we discover the No. 1 suspect? Did he make a mistake while conducting espionage activities?"

The agents all looked at Hirano. From what he had just said, it could be seen that Sorge was a very professional intelligence agent and should not be exposed so easily.

Hirano thought about it and felt that it was not a secret, so he told the situation behind the case, treating it as a mission briefing.

Starting from the end of 1933, a mysterious radio station appeared in downtown Tokyo. Every time this radio station sent a report to the outside world, one or more pieces of top-secret information in Japan would be leaked, which caused a headache for the Intelligence Department of the General Staff Headquarters.

By last year, in 1940, the surveillance work had continued for seven full years, and there was still no progress in the detection. The Ministry of Intelligence finally adopted a seemingly clumsy method.

The General Staff Headquarters has compiled a huge list of all suspicious persons who may leak intelligence. The number reaches thousands and involves all levels of people.

For example, all foreign journalists, business personnel, consultants and staff of government agencies stationed in Tokyo, and even former prime ministers, military advisers, members of the Imperial Privy Council, staff of the General Staff Headquarters, cabinet ministers and their secretaries, etc.

The Ministry of Intelligence deleted those personnel who were unlikely to be involved in espionage in any case, and there were still hundreds of people left. Then intelligence personnel used intelligence obtained from various aspects to review and filter these people.

However, all these actions failed to prevent the mysterious radio station from sending reports to the outside world. Countless highly confidential information was leaked, making the Japanese cabinet extremely embarrassed.

Japan's reaction to the Russian-German non-aggression pact, the "Southern Advance" plan, the timetable for Germany's attack on Red Russia, and the "Outline of Imperial National Policy under the Changing Situation" decided by the Imperial Council after the war between Germany and Russia, all this information fell into In the hands of the Red Russians.

Red Russian diplomats questioned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs more than once with relevant documents, the contents of which were even more detailed than the documents obtained by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The so-called counterintelligence work became a joke, and the General Staff Headquarters was disgraced.

However, the Ministry of Intelligence came to the conclusion that the spies lurking at the top of Japan belonged to the Red Russian side. Otherwise, there was no substantive discovery, and the list lost its meaning.

The Japanese spies in the Buick became more and more curious when they heard this, and each of them turned their attention to Pingye. They all wanted to know what happened next, which led to Sorge's exposure.

Sorge not only has a close relationship with the senior officials of the German Embassy, ​​but is also a member of the German Socialist Party. More importantly, the other party is a member of the "Wednesday Breakfast Meeting".

Everyone in Tokyo knows that every Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Konoe invites several close friends to have breakfast.

The personnel participating in this activity have been carefully selected, and their status is equivalent to Konoe's think tank, which affects Konoe's domestic and foreign policies to a considerable extent.

With such a powerful and powerful person, why would the Intelligence Department focus on the other party with suspicion? Or maybe there is some inside story that they don't know about.

There are rumors within the Ministry of Intelligence that this time is not an ordinary counterintelligence operation, but a partisan struggle, and someone wants to oust the Prime Minister from power.

Hirano smacked his lips and said that the Intelligence Department did not suspect Sorge at first, at least it was not the first target of suspicion until something happened.