cicada

Chapter 1439 "Unity"

Inside a room at Malham Palace, the expressionless fan-maker is strapped to an electric chair, surrounded by a large group of eager British and American agents.

Although the three heads of state did not understand Zuo Zhong's explanation, the reception ended out of caution.

Mr. Q, someone else, and Roosevelt are currently undergoing medical examinations. The U.S. military has brought in a large amount of advanced equipment to test the blood of the three men, as well as the alcohol and food from the banquet.

Mr. Q expressed great dissatisfaction with this, believing that it was making a mountain out of a molehill, while someone and Roosevelt took Zuo Zhong's opinion very seriously.

One of them knew Zuo Zhong's style of doing things well, and the other was familiar with the Nationalist government's intelligence system, so they cooperated very well.

Meanwhile, the fan maker, who was a suspect, was taken to a makeshift interrogation room. British and American security personnel asked him nothing and put him directly into the electric chair.

Gui Youguang curled his lip. These white people are really simple-minded and all brawn and no brains. Their interrogation skills are completely lacking.

If the fan maker was an assassin, and he dared to assassinate the leaders of the Three Kingdoms, how could he possibly be afraid of the electric chair?

You know, after the meeting, the other party was fully capable of running away, so why didn't he run?

Because he needed to buy time for the assassination; to put it more simply, he was risking his life for another—he was a suicide squad!
Sure enough, after five hours of torture, the fan maker did nothing but beg for mercy; he didn't say a word else.

However, Gui Youguang noticed that although the other party seemed to be in pain when begging for mercy, his eyes were unusually calm.

Gui Youguang looked at the furious British and American agents with a mocking expression. At that moment, the interrogation room door suddenly opened, and Zuo Zhong stepped in.

"Gentlemen, hand the prisoner over to me."

As Zuo Zhong walked and talked, he also gave Gui Youguang a wink, signaling the bald man to untie the suspect.

Gui Youguang's eyes lit up, and he immediately helped the fan maker to the side and bandaged his wounds.

The British and American agents frowned upon seeing this, but did not stop them. They also wanted to see how the people of the Republic of China conducted interrogations, so they crossed their arms and watched the spectacle.

Zuo Zhong sat down opposite the fan maker, took out a cigarette and handed it to him, then lit it for him before slowly speaking.

"Do you know what I just did? I investigated your background."

The fan-maker took a deep drag on his cigarette, glanced at Zuo Zhong, and remained silent.

"Hehe, your name is Hassan, a Cairo native, 50 years old, with a wife, two sons and a daughter, and all the children are married, am I right?"

The fan maker, or rather Hassan, showed no change in expression, his hand holding the cigarette steady, as if he hadn't heard anything.

Zuo Zhong was somewhat disappointed. It seemed that he couldn't break through the family's defenses. The worst thing about interrogation was encountering such a determined prisoner.

After all, he's already abandoned his wife and children, so why would he care about me? This interrogation won't yield any results.

Moreover, they couldn't use the dead to threaten the living. Thinking of this, Zuo Zhong paused and quietly informed Hassan of some bad news.

“Mr. Hassan, your wife, children, grandchildren, and great-granddaughters are all dead.”

The British and American agents were shocked to hear this. The assassin's family had been silenced. The next moment, they glared at Zuo Zhong. How could he tell the suspect such a thing?

Without a weakness, the suspect would be even less cooperative during interrogation; the intelligence agencies of the Republic of China were far too unprofessional.

Hassan, the person involved, remained calm. He flicked his cigarette ash lightly, showing neither sadness nor anger.

His performance confirmed to Zuo Zhong that the deaths of Hassan's family members were also part of the assassination plot.

Who exactly are these assassins? How deep is their hatred for Britain, the United States, and the Nationalist government that would drive an entire family to their deaths?

Thinking to himself, Zuo Zhong feigned condolences and then changed the subject, asking Hassan a question.

"I'm just a little curious, how did you come up with the idea of ​​using the side effects of drugs for assassination?"

Everyone present was stunned. Drugs? The security measures for this meeting were extremely tight; there was no way an assassin would have had the opportunity to drug someone.

Gui Youguang, who was listening in, glanced at the suspect, then looked towards the meeting room, his expression thoughtful.

Zuo Zhong stared intently at Hassan, muttering to himself, "On the last day of the meeting, you applied the drug to the fan and used the airflow to make the target inhale it. The technique was indeed ingenious."

British and American agents all looked at Hassan, their faces grim, especially the British security chief.

The background checks on the fan makers were handled by the British, and now that an assassin has emerged from among them, he bears the greatest responsibility.

On the other side, Zuo Zhong lit another cigarette for Hassan. The smoke slowly filled the room, obscuring the man's aged face.

"If I'm not mistaken, this medicine is safe to use alone, but it should not be taken with alcohol."

"Otherwise, the patient may experience mild symptoms such as rapid heartbeat, difficulty breathing, and vomiting, or even shock or death."

"The most ingenious thing is that these symptoms are very similar to the normal reactions of excessive drinking, and by the time the poisoned person realizes something is wrong, it is too late."

Zuo Zhong said this with admiration on his face. He really didn't expect that someone would discover [cephalosporin]① and use it in an assassination operation.

Cephalosporins, an antibiotic comparable to penicillin, can cause a disulfiram-like reaction when in contact with alcohol.

Zuo Zhong doesn't remember when cephalosporins became clinically used, but it certainly wasn't around this time.

This is normal, though. During the Tang Dynasty, tailors in Chang'an discovered that applying paste covered in green mold to wounds could help them heal.

Knowing the result doesn't mean knowing the reason. The tailors obviously didn't have the ability to delve into the underlying principles, otherwise the Zuo family wouldn't have had the chance to produce penicillin.

Similarly, Tunisians and Italians knew that the port's sewage had medicinal properties, but they only considered it a folk remedy. It wasn't until someone with a keen eye isolated cephalosporins from the sewage and discovered its side effects that things changed.

It must be said that Hassan and his group's actions were somewhat wasteful. If the other party had opened a pharmaceutical factory, they would have become rich long ago. They could have used money to hire a large group of assassins. Why did they have to carry out the assassination themselves?

Recalling the enormous commercial value of cephalosporins, Zuo Zhong's eyes lit up, and he decided to immediately notify the Zuo family's pharmaceutical factory in Australia to join the research.

Although his assassination attempt had been exposed, Hassan remained silent, adjusted his posture slightly, and stared intently at his opponent.

"For young people or those with strong bodies, this side effect is not fatal; at most, it will make them feel uncomfortable for a few days."

“But it is very dangerous for the elderly and people with underlying diseases to be poisoned, especially when the symptoms of poisoning and drunkenness are confused.”

Everyone was terrified upon hearing this. Mr. Q and Mr. So-and-so were not young, and Roosevelt was plagued by illness. If the three of them were poisoned, their chances of survival would be slim.

Hassan sighed, closed his eyes, and softly recited scriptures, the sound echoing in the interrogation room.

Please forgive him, have mercy on him, grant him peace, and forgive all his sins.

Zuo Zhong got up and walked out. Before the British and American agents could ask him anything, he waved his hand and said something.

"No need for interrogation, this guy won't talk. Just execute him."

After the conversation, Zuo Zhong had guessed the assassin's background. He went to the three leaders to report the situation and his speculations.

After listening, the man gave Mr. Q a deep look. Roosevelt's expression was also subtle. Only Mr. Q looked slightly embarrassed and coughed a few times.

Soon after, the Allied forces announced that British, American, and Republican intelligence agencies had uncovered an assassination plot targeting the three heads of state.

The perpetrator was linked to an underground resistance organization that operated in multiple African countries, whose goal was to expel the colonizers and achieve independence.

after one day.

The three heads of state's planes took off one after another. Mr. Q and Roosevelt went to Tehran to meet with the Russian leader, while someone else returned to the mountain town by the same route.

Zuo Zhong did not return to China with them, but instead brought Gu Qi and others to the banks of the Nile.

Beside this mother river of Egypt, Hassan knelt on the ground in devout prayer, while in the distance came the chanting of the Aten Hymn in ancient Egyptian.

The song seemed to travel through a thousand years, the afterglow of the setting sun bathed the pyramids in a warm gold, and the Nile River flowed slowly.

"Bang bang."

Several sudden gunshots shattered the tranquility. Gu Qi, who had been listening quietly, snapped out of her reverie and turned to ask Zuo Zhong for his opinion.

"Sir, is the assassin really a member of the underground resistance?"

"Maybe."

Zuo Zhong stood by the river with his hands in his pockets, his gaze deep, countless pieces of information about British colonization of Egypt surfacing in his mind.

In 1882, British troops shelled Alexandria, resulting in the deaths of 500 to 1000 people.

In 1919, Egypt was engulfed in secession, and the British sent troops to suppress it, resulting in the deaths of nearly a thousand Egyptians.

In 1924, during the Cairo riots, British troops opened fire on the crowd, resulting in countless deaths.

Since the occupation of Egypt, British people who assaulted others, evaded taxes, committed fraud, or even killed people in Egypt could be tried by their own consulates without Egyptian judges having any say in the matter.

After the war began, Britain requisitioned large amounts of Egyptian land, supplies, and labor without providing any compensation.

Cities like Cairo, Suez, and El Alamein, where British troops were stationed, suffered from social disorder, with frequent robberies and extortion cases.

Behind these bloody incidents lies the blood and tears of countless Egyptians, whose hatred for British colonizers runs deep in their bones.

So Hassan's goal was always the same: Mr. Q. Someone else and Roosevelt were just extras, at least that's how it appeared.

Wu Chunyang, who was traveling with them, then raised a question: "Do Egyptians or Tunisians really have the ability to manufacture that kind of medicine?"

Zuo Zhong smiled mysteriously and did not answer the question. He led everyone to the shore of Cairo Port and waited quietly for something.

Before long, a cargo ship slowly sailed out of the port, and the sharp-eyed Gui Youguang saw that the ship's bow was written with the words "[Commune]" in Russian script.

The cargo ship, named "Commune," had just entered the channel when a violent explosion suddenly occurred at the waterline in the middle of the ship. Gu Qi and the others looked shocked but quickly regained their composure.

Twenty minutes later, the cargo ship, weighing several thousand tons, broke in two and sank into the sea. The port's rescue ships did nothing during this time, allowing the ship to sink.

Some of the crew members who managed to escape waved their hands and called for help in the sea, but nearby ships were prevented from going to their rescue.

The port official, with a protruding belly, gave his reason: "The cause of the explosion is unknown, and for safety reasons, all ships are prohibited from approaching." His attitude was firm and left no room for argument.

And so, surrounded by thousands of onlookers, the Commune and its crew disappeared completely from the sea.

Watching this scene, Zuo Zhong sneered and uttered three words indifferently: "Politics, ha."

News of the sinking of the Commune after striking a mine quickly spread around the world, and the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, and the Soviet Union also issued a declaration in Tehran.

Newspapers around the world used the same photo when reporting this news: Mr. Q, Roosevelt, and the bearded man sat in chairs, arm in arm, chatting and laughing. The headline "Solidarity" below was particularly jarring.

①Cephalosporins were discovered in 1945, but before that, some people did treat them by drinking water, so it's not exactly something the author made up, hahaha.