Kingsman Agent in Film and Television

Why did Zhang Anping want to meet with Ye Xiufeng?

To be precise, why did he make a dinner appointment with Ye Xiufeng half an hour later when he was supposed to meet Mao Renfeng?
As mentioned before, one of his goals was to create a false impression for Mao Renfeng:
Zhang Anping is ultimately a man willing to do things; you can continue to deceive him.

Of course, it can also be understood this way:

Zhang Anping harbored too much resentment. After taking a piece of flesh from Mao Renfeng this time, he deliberately showed that even if he hadn't taken this piece of flesh, he would still have done this—taking this piece of flesh from you was an unexpected surprise, so tell me, aren't you angry!
Mao Renfeng saw this action as having a venting effect.

But now that Zhang Anping has rejected Mao Renfeng's olive branch yet again, what does his meeting with Ye Xiufeng, especially this meeting "in front of" Mao Renfeng, represent?
In Mao Renfeng's view, this is what Zhang Anping meant:

I don't care about you. What I do is none of your business!
He wouldn't care—because for him, it would be beneficial for him to do more things, especially for Zhang Anping.

The Bureau of Investigation and Statistics is ultimately a secret service agency. No matter how much infighting there is, results are what truly matter.

Mao Renfeng would suppress Zhang Anping in the big picture, while highlighting Zhang Anping's aggressiveness in the details—isn't Zhang Anping's behavior exactly in line with his established attitude towards Zhang Anping?
Political struggles are about interests, and they're about tangible benefits. But you, Zhang Anping, are willing to disregard even those interests just to save face. That's... impressive!

So Mao Renfeng laughed heartily and was overjoyed. "You, Zhang Anping, are giving up the benefits but doing what I want. I... gladly accept!"

But Zhang Anping had no choice but to do so; he hadn't expected that Mao Renfeng would see the situation so clearly after becoming the director.

He previously believed that Mao Renfeng would still regard him as a mortal enemy. The original intention of this arrangement was to make Mao Renfeng feel that she could control him. However, after being promoted, Mao Renfeng realized that he and Zhang Anping had to coexist and chose to reconcile. There will definitely be a fight, but it will definitely not be the kind of fight where it is a matter of life and death.

Although his table-flipping prevented Mao Renfeng from revealing his intentions, Zhang Anping knew very well that Mao Renfeng wanted to establish three rules with him, limiting their struggle to a certain scope, and ensuring it wouldn't affect their dealings with the underground party.

So Zhang Anping flipped the table in advance to prevent Mao Renfeng from saying those words—if she did, he couldn't perform the play that way anymore, because his character wouldn't allow him to do it that way!

Although he could reasonably interpret and explain his meeting with Ye Xiufeng, Zhang Anping felt heavy-hearted, wondering how he should proceed.
His public persona is what it is. If he continues to stir up trouble while Mao Renfeng tries to keep things quiet, his persona will collapse. His persona is the foundation for maintaining the trust of the chief of staff and the foundation for maintaining Director Jiang's goodwill towards him. If his persona collapses, how will he continue to act?
It wasn't until he met Ye Xiufeng that he temporarily suppressed his doubts.

Zhang Anping stepped forward and shook hands with Ye Xiufeng, who responded with a smile. However, as Zhang Anping turned to lead the way, Ye Xiufeng said in a very low voice:

"I never imagined that I, Ye, would become a pawn in your game!"

It was obvious that Ye Xiufeng knew that Zhang Anping had dinner with Mao Renfeng here half an hour earlier.

Of course, this was also something Zhang Anping didn't intend to hide from the other party.

Zhang Anping offered no explanation, but led the other party to the door of the private room and gestured, "Director Ye, please come in!"

After the two entered the private room, Zhang Anping answered Ye Xiufeng's question:
"Please forgive me, Director Ye, but Zhang is now ultimately dependent on others."

Ye Xiufeng was amused by the phrase "living under someone else's roof".

He was no stranger to infighting between directors and deputy directors; the most recent example was the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (CBIS) – how did Zhu Jiahua, as the director of the CBIS, fight against Xu Enzeng, the deputy director in power?
By leveraging his power over personnel and finances, Zhu Jiahua nearly sidelined Xu Enzeng, the man who single-handedly created the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (Zhongtong).

So much so that Xu Enzeng had to fabricate an inspection of the aquaculture industry just to get reimbursed for one expense, and even had to write a special report for it, which is absolutely laughable!
And look at you, Zhang Anping, living under someone else's roof?

Pooh!
How did Zheng Yaoquan end up being removed from his post by the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics in such a disheveled state?
Mao Renfeng has been tormented by you for so long. If you hadn't acted rashly and insisted on purging even the elders, would things have turned out this way?
Furthermore, even now, Zhang Anping's influence within the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics is probably still undisputed to be number one!
Even though many powerful elders rallied around Mao Renfeng!
Ye Xiufeng looked at Zhang Anping with a half-smile, thinking to himself, "You're quite humble for the sake of cadre exchange!"

He simply stated directly:

"Deputy Director Zhang, so... is Su Mosheng's matter also the reason why you're living under someone else's roof?"

"Director Ye, I won't go into the details of this—how can we satisfy Director Ye?"

Zhang Anping glanced at the wine on the table and said with a smile:
"How about Mr. Zhang punishes himself with three cups of wine?"

Ye Xiufeng burst into laughter, but after he finished laughing, his expression turned cold:

"Deputy Director Zhang, this is no fun!"

In fact, Ye Xiufeng already understood why Su Mosheng had been arrested inexplicably before—the first wave of cadre exchanges between the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics and the Party's Information Bureau had been completed, and someone used Su Mosheng's arrest as a "topic" to get on Ye Xiufeng's side.

Ye Xiufeng understood that Zhang Anping wouldn't explain for the sake of the Bureau of Secrecy, but while he understood, he was determined to gain something from the situation.

"Just kidding—if you get hit, stand up straight; if you admit your mistake, you have to bleed." Zhang Anping shook his head with a wry smile: "Director Ye, what kind of compensation does Consultant Su want?"

Zhang Shih-hao is fiercely protective of his own!
Ye Xiufeng silently muttered to himself that if this had happened in the Party Affairs Bureau, he would have given the cadre who made the mistake a severe beating. But Zhang Anping had managed to smooth things over. As far as he knew, the instigator, Shen Zui, hadn't even given him a perfunctory warning!

"Zhang Anping!" Ye Xiufeng said, feigning annoyance, "Is this your sincerity?"

"Shen Zui, what gives him the audacity to secretly arrest Su Mosheng? Su Mosheng is a senior advisor to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and a trusted think tank expert of the Kuomintang government. Does your Bureau of Investigation and Statistics have no regard for party discipline and national law?!"

Zhang Anping said in a humble manner:
"Director Ye, I signed the order to secretly arrest Su Mosheng—all the responsibility lies with me. I've said before that if I'm going to be beaten, I'll stand at attention; if I'm going to admit my mistakes, I'll bleed. Director Ye, just say what you have to say!"

Ye Xiufeng looked at Zhang Anping and thought to himself, "If all politicians were as straightforward as you, that would be hilarious."

Looking intently at Zhang Anping, Ye Xiufeng didn't directly state his conditions, but instead spoke indirectly:
"I heard that during the War of Resistance against Japan, the Shanghai office of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics was personally trained by Deputy Director Zhang?"

Zhang Anping felt a tremor in his heart, not from shock, but from surprise.

He nodded slightly, seemingly puzzled as to why Ye Xiufeng had suddenly brought this up.

"Looking back now, after eight years of the War of Resistance against Japan, our Party's General Affairs Bureau truly faced numerous problems and difficulties at that time!"

Ye Xiufeng seemed to be reminiscing about his past hardships, and then revealed his "sharp edge": "Although our various bureaus of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics fought bravely during the War of Resistance, our almost transparent system meant that the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics had almost no outstanding achievements during the war."

"On the contrary, the Shanghai office, which was personally trained by Deputy Director Zhang for the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, achieved the most remarkable results."

"By the way, I heard that the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics later shifted its intelligence focus to the economic and livelihood sectors, which was also suggested by Deputy Director Zhang?"

Zhang Anping said modestly, "I dare not take credit."

Ye Xiufeng smiled and ignored Zhang Anping's modesty: "Our Party's Bureau of Investigation and Statistics has always been good at ideological education, but it has always been weak in terms of action techniques."

"I intend to rebuild a new training system for new recruits within the Party Affairs Bureau and to offer short- to medium-term refresher courses—"

“I intend to put Qi Qingbao in charge of this matter—Deputy Director Zhang, Qi Qingbao is a student you personally mentored. I wonder if you could do me a favor for Director Qi?”

These words translate to:
Old Zhang, I'd like you to oversee the training of new recruits and the refresher training of veterans in our Party's General Bureau!
Is it abrupt?
Very abrupt!

But from Ye Xiufeng's perspective, it doesn't seem out of place at all!

He succeeded Xu Enzeng as head of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, but he was not a member of the CC Clique!
He has been in charge of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (CBIS) for almost two years now, but he has been constantly hampered by the CC Clique. He finally managed to get the CBIS reorganized into the Party Information Bureau. Although his authority was weakened, he took the opportunity to eliminate a large number of CC Clique key members.

However, the overall combat effectiveness of the Party Affairs Bureau was severely affected, and he did not trust the Party Affairs Bureau's existing new recruit training system—the Party Affairs Investigation Section, the Party Affairs Office, and the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (CBIS). All three stages were under the control of the CC Clique. The CC Clique essentially built the CBIS's structure from scratch. Even though he purged a group of CC Clique core members, was he really done purging them?

Definitely not!

Restoring the Party's combat effectiveness requires a robust system for training new recruits and a retraining program. However, if the CC Clique manipulates these systems, it will only benefit others. So how can this be reversed?
At this moment, Qi Qingbao came into his view.

Qi Qingbao, former director of the Shanghai office of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (CBIS), was responsible for the two fatal blows suffered by the Shanghai office during the War of Resistance against Japan. In the end, Zhang Anping took money to do his job and rebuilt the Shanghai office for the CBIS. While the Military Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (Juntong) withdrew from Shanghai on a large scale, the Shanghai office of the CBIS remained rooted in Shanghai.

Although the Shanghai Bureau had a remarkable track record within the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (CBIS), Qi Qingbao was trained by Zhang Anping, and Xu Enzeng never trusted him. In fact, the CBIS structure excluded the Shanghai Bureau. In other words, the credit belonged to the CBIS, but the Shanghai Bureau did not!

Later, Ye Xiufeng took over the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (CBIS), and Qi Qingbao defected to him. It took Ye Xiufeng a long time to go from being wary to accepting him, but he also saw through the Shanghai Office—the Military Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (Juntong) must have planted spies in the Shanghai Office, but the Shanghai Office's capabilities were not to be underestimated!
Therefore, with the Party's combat effectiveness severely weakened, Ye Xiufeng thought of Zhang Anping. If Zhang Anping were to oversee the process and send people to preside over the new recruit training system and the veteran retraining system, it would definitely be of great help in improving the Party's combat effectiveness.

Admittedly, the fact that the Party's intelligence bureau and the secret service are mortal enemies is unchangeable and cannot be changed. However, the current Zhang Anping is not the same as the Zhang Anping of the past, and the current secret service is not the same as the former military intelligence bureau!
Even if Zhang Anping is in charge of this matter, what could he possibly do that would be detrimental to the Party's Information Bureau?

How many nails should I insert?
Ha, I dare to take in dozens of cadres from the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, why would I care about a few spies that Zhang Anping put in?
Moreover, Zhang Anping has Mao Renfeng, a sworn enemy, in the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics. Does the Party's Bureau of Investigation and Statistics need to worry about Zhang Anping usurping power?
Therefore, Ye Xiufeng didn't find this seemingly abrupt idea abrupt at all. The only difficulty was why Zhang Anping would work for the Party's Information Bureau.

After the two agreed on the exchange of cadres, Ye Xiufeng had this idea, but he couldn't find a suitable reason. After all, Zhang Anping was the deputy director of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics. How could the other party possibly take on such a difficult task?

But after Su Mosheng was secretly arrested, Ye Xiufeng finally felt that his opportunity had come!

Therefore, in this meeting, he finally revealed his "dagger".

As he had expected, Zhang Anping had no intention of agreeing at all. He frowned, clearly intending to refuse outright, but then his expression softened, and he said rather profoundly:

"Director Ye, as the ancients said, 'Only tools and titles cannot be entrusted to others; they are the responsibility of the ruler.' I am from the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics. Director Ye's actions will have a significant impact. I suggest you stop daydreaming."

Ye Xiufeng watched Zhang Anping's "performance" with a detached gaze, thinking to himself, "You actually managed to connect this matter with 'fame and beauty,' you really are... eloquent!"
“Deputy Director Zhang, Qi Qingbao is a student you personally mentored; how could Ye dare to use him?”

Ye Xiufeng said leisurely, "Your Bureau of Investigation and Statistics has exchanged so many cadres, yet I still dare to use them—Deputy Director Zhang, isn't your excuse a bit... too deceptive!"

He stared at Zhang Anping, emphasizing the word "exchange" as he spoke.

Zhang Anping looked at Ye Xiufeng speechlessly, but inside he was overjoyed.

"Deputy Director Zhang, I heard that a batch of new recruits in the Bureau of Secrecy are about to complete their training. After they finish their training, the Bureau of Secrecy doesn't seem to have any training plans for the next batch of new recruits. Isn't the Bureau of Secrecy worried about a generational gap in its personnel?"

Ye Xiufeng tried to entice Zhang Anping with bribes: "In the past, the Military Intelligence Bureau attached great importance to the training of new recruits, with training classes for young people, intensive training classes, and temporary training classes..."

Ye Xiufeng recited one name after another of the Military Intelligence Bureau training classes. With each name he recited, Zhang Anping's expression darkened, until finally Zhang Anping's face turned as black as ink.

why?
Since the Military Intelligence Bureau was reorganized into the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, all training classes were abolished. To be precise, the training system was abolished. The previous training classes for new recruits were established because the Taotie (a group of corrupt officials) specially approved a sum of money for Zheng Yaoquan in order to disgust and retaliate against Zhang Anping. Zheng Yaoquan, Mao Renfeng, and others used this money to run training classes for new recruits.

Fortunately, Zhang Anping seized control of the training program at a crucial moment, but this also meant that no new students were recruited after the program ended.

Zhang Anping had previously mentioned rebuilding the training courses at a bureau meeting, but the proposal was rejected because the funding had already been allocated.

When Ye Xiufeng brought this up, Zhang Anping's face naturally darkened.

Seeing Zhang Anping's face turn so dark, Ye Xiufeng was very satisfied, and then slowly said:

"But if our two companies jointly establish a training system, Deputy Director Zhang will not be so severely constrained in terms of funding. What does Director Zhang think?"

Funding!

These two words made Zhang Anping's eyes light up, while Ye Xiufeng sighed helplessly in his heart. Zhang Anping was just too strict with the rules. As far as he knew, Zhang Anping had raised countless funds for the Military Intelligence Bureau during the War of Resistance Against Japan. Some people in the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics even joked that Zhang Anping was half of the Military Intelligence Bureau.

This person's ability to make money is absolutely unparalleled!

But ever since the two bureaus had their self-raised funds taken away, Zhang Anping has never touched them. Despite his first-rate money-making skills, he was stumped by a single penny of funding!
Zhang Anping gritted his teeth: "The Bureau of Investigation and Statistics will not provide funding!"

Ye Xiufeng looked at Zhang Anping with a chuckle—"Just because you're fair-skinned?"
"I will personally serve as the head teacher of the training course!"

Okay, you really do have a pale face.

Ye Xiufeng was tempted, but still said:

"Personnel, 82!"

Zhang Anping gritted his teeth: "Fifty-fifty!"

"Impossible!" Ye Xiufeng refused decisively. Zhang Anping's skills and reputation are worth the price, but you don't have the money!
"You get six, I get four – personnel are assigned to their positions by drawing lots after graduation."

Seeing Zhang Anping's predatory look, Ye Xiufeng thought for a moment and decided not to try to lower the price any further.

The Party Affairs Bureau has always prioritized political indoctrination over operational techniques, a principle that was established from the very beginning of the Party Affairs Investigation Section.

It's understandable that the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (CBIS), a specialized intelligence agency, performed appallingly once the War of Resistance against Japan broke out.

With Zhang Anping, an expert, now in charge of the training program, the Party Affairs Bureau can definitely change its past situation of being "top-heavy and bottom-light".

For this, it's worth paying a higher price, let alone for just 40% of the staff—back then in the Shanghai office, Zhang Anping collected 300,000 yuan in training fees!

Ye Xiufeng stood up with a smile and extended his hand: "Deputy Director Zhang, it's a pleasure to cooperate with you!"

Zhang Anping stood up to respond, but the gloom in his expression did not dissipate.

Ye Xiufeng didn't want to provoke Zhang Anping any further, so he didn't stay for dinner, leaving only one sentence:

"I will have someone from the finance department come with Director Qi tomorrow. I hope Deputy Director Zhang will take good care of things then."

"Farewell!"

Zhang Anping didn't see Ye Xiufeng off, which seemed a bit petty, but Ye Xiufeng could understand Zhang Anping's frustration and didn't mind.

What he didn't know was that Zhang Anping didn't see him off because Zhang Anping was trying to suppress his laughter.

Well, they just stuffed a bunch of nails into the Party Affairs Bureau, and now they're preparing to stuff even more nails into it.

Most importantly, Ye Xiufeng forced Zhang Anping to do this—if you don't do it, I'll stop you!

After suppressing a laugh, Zhang Anping thought to himself, "Will I be labeled as the KMT's top spy in the future?"

"Funding cannot be controlled by others. Look, I've learned another lesson this time, at the cost of my dignity as a deputy director..."

A sudden smile appeared on his lips. He could pass on this experience to his "apprentices" later!

How many Commissioners Smiths will have to thank themselves in the future! (End of Chapter)