Kingsman Agent in Film and Television

Mao Renfeng actually envied Zhang Anping quite a bit.

No matter what adversity Zhang Anping was in, his loyal followers could never be turned against him or absorbed.

Unlike me, who, as soon as I show even the slightest sign of weakness, a whole bunch of sycophants will appear around me to switch allegiances!
This is also why Mao Renfeng had to confront Zhang Anping several times, even though she didn't want to.

The powerful Maoist faction was, from the very beginning, a fortress built on the beach!
In the past, Mao Renfeng always thought that after reaching the summit, she could slowly prune the branches and gradually shape the Mao family into the shape she wanted.

But after ousting Zheng Yaoquan this time, Mao Renfeng found himself relegated to the position of "acting" and realized that he was not the chief of staff's preferred candidate, so his previous plans naturally fell through.

"Man proposes, God disposes"—this is a stubbornness ingrained in the Chinese people. Driven by a desire for power, Mao Renfeng decided to take this opportunity to prune the branches of the Mao faction after careful consideration.

This is a perfect opportunity to transform the Mao faction, which is currently in a state of frenzy, into a force that is completely loyal to itself, rather than a mob with its own agenda and everyone having their own agenda.

"What we need to do now is to openly follow Zhang Anping's lead, create the illusion of obedience to him, and take this opportunity to prune the branches and eliminate all those with ulterior motives—Zhang Anping is determined to mold the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics into the shape he wants, so we should just lie low and wait for him to make a mistake on his own!"

Mao Renfeng opened up to Minglou about her innermost feelings:
“If I give in and cooperate with him, his attention will then fall on Zheng Yaoxian. Once he’s dealt with Zheng Yaoxian, it’ll probably be the other elders’ turn. Those fools think they’re safe just because they’re with Zhang Anping. But Zhang Anping is ruthless to the core. No matter who it is, if they get in his way, he’ll kick them aside without hesitation!”

Mao Renfeng stood up, paced back and forth quickly twice, and a strange light shone in her eyes:

"They will all be ruthlessly kicked aside—even veterans from the Secret Service era will be no exception!"

At this moment, Mao Renfeng seemed somewhat mad, placing his hands on Minglou's shoulders:
"He wants to build a highly efficient secret service, a pure secret service—everyone, except for his loyal followers, everyone—you, me, Zheng Yaoxian, and those veterans from the Special Service era—is an obstacle!"

"They will all be ruthlessly kicked aside!"

"But what if... these people eventually unite as one?"

Minglou looked amazed and murmured, "They will revolve around you, Director, and eventually unite as one..."

Having spoken his mind, Mao Renfeng suddenly felt refreshed. After laughing a few times, he said:
“Minglou, you know that Zhang Anping has never been one of us.”

"Or rather, he was our past, but he can never become who we are now—"

"That's his biggest flaw."

"If that's the case, why bother arguing with him for a short time? Right?"

At this moment, Mao Renfeng was incredibly profound.

Of course, the above conclusions or coping strategies were actually derived after Mao Renfeng chose to "remain silent".

Is there anything wrong with it?

Mao Renfeng believed there was not a single mistake—Zhang Anping was out of step with them because they had forgotten their ideals and original intentions, and were now just puppets of power, power holders assimilated by the party-state system.

But all of Zhang Anping's actions demonstrate the idealist's moth-to-a-flame mentality.

Since he is an idealist, he either ends up falling into depravity like them, or he must steadfastly continue on the path of pursuing his ideals.

And if they continue down this path, the only possible outcome is what Mao Renfeng guessed.

Minglou sincerely bowed in admiration:
"Director...brilliant!"

……

Minglou repeated Mao Renfeng's words verbatim.

After listening, Sister Qian and Zheng Yaoxian fell silent.

Only Zhang Anping awkwardly touched his nose, unsure how to comment on Mao Renfeng's assessment of him.

Is her own persona really that... excellent?
If my identity is never revealed in the future, will I be burdened with the reputation of a "martyr"?

"It seems that Mao Renfeng has a clear understanding of himself—why is the Nationalist government so corrupt and beyond redemption? It's because all the idealists of the past have been corrupted within it!"

"Therefore, this is an incurable and corrupt regime!"

"Mao Renfeng's insights are spot on!"

After a moment of silence, Sister Qian praised her opponent, and Zheng Yaoxian, after Sister Qian finished speaking, smiled and said:
"Unfortunately, he misjudged one thing: Comrade Anping had a clear understanding of the Nationalist government."

Zhang Anping could only shrug at this:

“If the roots are rotten, no amount of idealists sacrificing themselves will help.”

Sister Qian brought the topic to a close, saying:

“I was worried that things wouldn’t go according to Anping’s plan, but Mao Renfeng’s words have put my mind at ease. Anping, what are your plans now?”

Upon hearing this, Minglou and Zheng Yaoxian both held their breath, awaiting Zhang Anping's reply.

Zhang Anping shrugged and said:
"Hasn't Mao Renfeng already planned everything out for me? Just follow this plan. Cleanse and fight corruption in parallel, then ruthlessly eliminate those stubborn forces, push people to Mao Renfeng's side, and wait for Mao Renfeng to reveal his true intentions to me."

Minglou chuckled. Mao Renfeng thought he had figured out Zhang Anping's weakness, but he didn't expect that the weakness he had figured out was exactly what Zhang Anping wanted him to figure out.

Sister Qian nodded and said, "You see this better than we do. The organization won't interfere much with the specific implementation—as I said before, your safety is the top priority. We'd rather miss an opportunity than put you in danger, understand?"

The Zhang Anping of the past could not be exposed because his economic abilities were something Sister Qian was particularly concerned about. But the current Zhang Anping could not be exposed even more because without him, the entire network within the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics could not function at all!

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

After answering seriously, Zhang Anping turned to Zheng Yaoxian and said:
"Old Zheng, you're going to have a tough time for the next while. Are you prepared?"

"Don't worry, I can handle it. When I can't handle it anymore, I'll go and pledge my allegiance to Mao Renfeng!" Zheng Yaoxian said with a smile. "I think he would be very happy to accept my pledge."

Seeing that Zheng Yaoxian understood his meaning, Zhang Anping turned to Minglou and said:
"Minglou, I'm planning to hand over the entire intelligence network in the Northeast to you this time. What do you think?"

Facing Zhang Anping, who almost called him "Xiao Ming," Minglou secretly rolled his eyes. After Zhang Anping finished speaking, he could no longer hold back his eye-rolling and exclaimed in surprise:
Will this work?

Although Minglou knew Zhang Anping's identity, he knew very little about his own comrades within the Northeast Security Bureau system.

Zhang Anping said seriously, "The Northeast is the strategic focus of our army. The Kuomintang will not give up the Northeast. Therefore, the Northeast will inevitably be attacked on a large scale. Our army has considerable strength in the Northeast. Although we are currently in the strategic defensive stage, I believe that as long as we can overcome the current difficulties, we will definitely turn from defense to offense in the future. At that time, your existence will be very valuable!"

"Moreover, this is something I'm currently trying to do—I'm handing over my Northeast intelligence network to you."

try?

These two words caught Sister Qian's attention, and she asked:

"What attempt?"

Zhang Anping hesitated for a moment before speaking:
"Our army will eventually occupy all the major cities, because the Northeast is the strategic focus of our army. I guess the Northeast will be the first place to see this situation. At that time, the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics and the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics will definitely destroy the basic construction of the cities and people's livelihood, in order to delay our army." "At the same time, they will also lay out a backup plan for the counter-offensive, just like the deployment of district stations in the occupied areas during the War of Resistance Against Japan."

"So, I want to see how to set up this unconventional offensive and defensive strategy."

Sister Qian was dumbfounded, never expecting that Zhang Anping could see so far ahead.

Zheng Yaoxian and Ming Lou were equally dumbfounded. On the current battlefield, it was still the Nationalist army attacking and our army defending. They never expected that Zhang Anping had already thought of occupying the city and carrying out a purge of spies in the city...

The three men's performance left Zhang Anping somewhat...worried.

He didn't know how to explain it, but that was the truth—it was the end of 46, and our army was indeed on a strategic defensive posture, but who could have imagined that less than two years later, our army would be able to sweep away all obstacles...

The Liberation War had four stages. The first stage was the strategic defense stage, and we are currently in that stage.

The next phases include the strategic counter-offensive phase, the strategic decisive battle phase, and the strategic pursuit phase.

Many people believe that our army occupied the most cities during the strategic decisive battle phase—but this is not the case. During the strategic decisive battle phase, our army's core objective was to annihilate the Kuomintang's manpower. For example, the three major campaigns were all aimed at annihilating the Kuomintang's forces.

The core of the strategic pursuit phase is to seize large and medium-sized cities and the entire territory of the country!

However, in the three major campaigns during the strategic decisive phase, especially the Liaoshen Campaign, our army nearly annihilated the Kuomintang forces in Northeast China and gained control of the entire Northeast.

The loss of Northeast China was a new "test" for the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (BIS), which had to come up with a set of rules for its operations in the "occupied areas."

For our army, this is also a new test: how to effectively curb espionage activities and ultimately eliminate espionage forces in cities.

From Zhang Anping's perspective, as a high-ranking official in the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, he needed to propose reasonable regulations for activities in the "occupied areas," but as his own comrades, he also needed to eradicate the activities of spies from the root.

Before the Nationalist army abandoned the city, the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics and the Party's intelligence bureau, as intelligence forces, went into hiding to prepare for the so-called counter-offensive, and also to carry out sabotage.

It disrupts urban residents' lives, transportation, and so on.

Zhang Anping is also the true direction of all our efforts.

Everything is in order to facilitate the city's takeover and future security in the fourth phase!

Sister Qian, being of a different status, quickly recovered from her shock and affirmed:

"Anping's idea is very forward-thinking—"

"As the highest-ranking official of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics in Northeast China, Comrade Minglou will indeed be involved in these matters. We must also consider how to deal with such things in advance. This attempt is very forward-looking, and I agree with Comrade Anping's decision."

"Comrade Minglou, you need to communicate more with Comrade Anping about this matter. While ensuring your own safety, you should also accumulate experience for our takeover of the city!"

After she finished speaking, she said to Zhang Anping:
"After I get back, I will communicate with my superiors and we will conduct relevant trials in the Northeast to prepare for the future takeover of cities and counter-espionage, even if this experience will not be useful for more than ten years!"

The reason why Sister Qian so strongly agreed with Zhang Anping's opinion was because there was precedent:

During the War of Resistance against Japan, the Military Intelligence Bureau and the underground Communist Party achieved remarkable results in the occupied areas!
How many traitors did the Kuomintang's anti-traitor squads keep sleeping at night?

How many supplies did the underground party comrades transport from the enemy-occupied areas to the Soviet areas?

After the roles are reversed, we can't let the secret service's special operations team threaten the safety of the red capitalists and revolutionary masses at all times, can we?

Seeing that Sister Qian supported his proposal, Zhang Anping chuckled and said, "Sister Qian, you are the one with foresight. I was worried that you would say I was worrying unnecessarily."

Sister Qian deliberately glared at Zhang Anping. This guy always had to make a joke at crucial moments.

This secret meeting of the four people basically determined the operational strategy of Intelligence Group No. 2 for the next period of time.

……

For the next period of time, the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (BIS) spent a fairly "peaceful" period in a state of "calm and stillness".

But this seemingly calm well is not truly without ripples.

In fact, the power shifts within the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics over the next few months were truly astonishing.

A power restructuring occurred at almost every station.

Some sites have even undergone a complete overhaul of their leadership.

The reason it is described as "unperturbed" is that Mao Renfeng, the acting director, never objected to any of Zhang Anping's personnel proposals.

Because of the consensus among the top leadership of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, the power restructuring at the lower-level stations could not cause any significant disruption.

Each personnel change was carried out in accordance with Zhang Anping's will, resulting in Zhang Anping's influence permeating the power structure of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics.

The people below were hoping that Zheng Yaoxian would make a scene and implicate Zhang Anping.

However, under the combined attack of Zhang Anping and Mao Renfeng, Zheng Yaoxian could barely defend himself, let alone retaliate. Moreover, after being "taught a lesson" time and time again, the once arrogant Zheng Yaoxian was marginalized and became extremely docile.

Three months!
In just three months, the entire power structure of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics underwent a fundamental change. Zhang's faction occupied the vast majority of core positions, while Mao's faction, after being weakened to the extreme due to its strong support for Zhang Anping, rebounded.

The Zheng faction, on the other hand, has almost completely failed.

A series of power shifts gave Zhang Anping, the deputy director, absolute authority within the bureau comparable to that during Dai Chunfeng's tenure.

At this point, Zhang Anping could be considered the director of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, but not the director himself.

Acting Director Mao Renfeng was jokingly referred to as Director Zhang's proxy.

……

After three months, Mao Renfeng had gained some weight.

Perhaps it's because of their easygoing nature.

But no one expected that at this moment, Mao Renfeng would turn on a desk lamp in his dark study, which was unusually well-lit.

"Now, it's time for you to implement sweeping reforms, isn't it?"

The light shines through the red wine, making its color even more vibrant red.

Mao Renfeng downed the glass of red wine in one gulp, her smile completely replaced by coldness.
"So, which person in your way would you kick away first?"

The names of veterans from the Special Service period flashed through Mao Renfeng's mind, and at that moment, his smile grew even colder. (End of Chapter)