The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 91 Mantis Catching Cicadas
"Is there a result?"

Yu Xingfeng, chief inspector of Daxing Station, and He Yongguang, head of the Daxing Beicheng Intelligence Department, walked into the room with tired faces. A night of intense interrogation and torture made their eyes red, and they smelled of blood.Wang Bingsen, the new chief director of the Polling Office, who was sitting behind the desk, put down the file in his hand, raised his head and looked at the two people, and asked in a calm tone.

"Everything has been explained." Yu Xingfeng nodded and said: "The fire was caused by Jews from the Arab region last year. They wanted to buy the riverside block in Wangjiang Lane and prepare to build a so-called Jewish community. However, the local residents The asking price was too high, and they didn’t want to spend that much money. So, they set a fire and planned to buy it all at a low price afterwards.”

"Not bad. In less than two days, this case was clearly investigated. ...Oh, this shows that if our polling office works seriously, it can still be of great use." Wang Bingsen said playfully.

After hearing this, Yu Xingfeng and He Yongguang couldn't help but look at each other. They didn't know whether the new president was praising them or mocking them. They both stood aside and did not dare to say anything.

"What should you do next?" Wang Bingsen asked.

"I have ordered the brothers from the Operations Department to work with the Beicheng Police Department to arrest all the people living in Jewish businesses and communities that have been sealed and controlled, and prepare to continue to dig deeper into the relevant people involved." Yu Xingfeng immediately reported: "In addition, The convicts revealed that the wealthy Jewish businessman Sassoon was the mastermind of this major case, and that he had taken a train to Jianye in the north two days ago. We believe that the thief probably realized that the matter was exposed and fled Daxing in a hurry. Therefore, the humble official also ordered someone to go to the telegraph office , issued a joint investigation notice to several polling stations in the north, and this thief must be arrested and brought to justice."

Wang Bingsen listened without comment, leaned back slightly, leaned on the back of the chair, and turned to look at the map of Hanzhou hanging on the side of the wall.

Yu Xingfeng and He Yongguang also followed his gaze, looking at the map with apprehension in their hearts.

"It's been two days. If they want to run away, will they have already arrived in Jianye?" Wang Bingsen sighed, "If there is no delay, maybe they will have boarded a merchant ship heading overseas."

"... I immediately telegraphed to the Navy, requesting them to send out fast cruisers to pursue and intercept. In addition, I also asked them to send out high-speed liaison ships to inform Xuanhua (today's Timor Island), Quang Ninh, Temasek, and even Ceylon and India Coastal ports must be intercepted and inspected, and they must be captured." Yu Xingfeng immediately understood and quickly gave a response.

"Go ahead and do it." Wang Bingsen ordered: "I would like to remind you that if this matter is messed up and His Majesty is blamed, none of us will be able to escape the blame."

"Bizhi understands." Yu Xingfeng said in a deep voice: "Later, Beizhi personally led people to Jianye, vowing to capture the thief back to Daxing."

This former emperor's attendant was not a good person.A few days ago, as soon as he took office as the chief executive of the Polling Office, he immediately fired more than 30 officials and subordinates from the Chang'an headquarters. More than ten of them were sent to the Supervisory Yuan on charges of corruption and malfeasance. If nothing else goes wrong, These people will definitely be sentenced to exile and sent to a remote overseas territory, where they will have no chance of success in their lives.

After taking care of the affairs at the headquarters, Wang Bingsen immediately rushed to Daxing with several officials from the Operations Department. He ordered all the spies at Daxing Station to make every effort to investigate the Wangjiang Lane fire tragedy, and only gave them three days.

Although the management of the Polling Office has been lax in recent years and has frequently caused some own incidents, the "technical work" on hand is still there.All resources were immediately mobilized, and technicians were dispatched to explore the fire scene and open coffins for autopsy. They also visited and checked the residents of the entire Mingli Street area, including Wangjiang Lane, in the hope of finding clues about the fire.

In just one day, an important piece of information was obtained from nearly a thousand residents.A group of Jewish businessmen who came to Daxing from the Arab region only last year were interested in acquiring the old houses facing the river in Wangjiang Lane and planning to build a large synagogue. However, they were blocked by the high price offered by local residents.

In addition, in the days before the fire, several people with foreign faces were seen frequently wandering around Wangjiang Lane to look around.

Anyone with a little bit of brain would be able to involuntarily connect these two clues together, and then be able to piece together the cause of the fire.

Set fire to the old residential area in Wangjiang Lane, and then acquire it at a low price to occupy this prime location.

Later, a spy from the polling office at the exploration site also gave the cause of the fire. It was indeed arson!

Although there is no real evidence to prove that the fire was caused by the newly arrived Jews, the desperate spies from the polling office did not care about this. They directly identified several Jews who had inquired about the terrain a few days ago through the identification of local residents. Caught back.Then, after a night of torture, these people were finally made to speak.

Just as the spies at the Daxing Station of the Polling Office were busy, they could not help but arrest all the Jews in the Jewish community and imprison them. At the same time, Yu Xingfeng, the chief inspector of Daxing Station, personally led more than ten capable personnel and rushed to Jianye by train. At this time, the spies at the Daxing branch of the Military Police Intelligence Division also began to get busy, preparing to compete with the Polling Office for this credit.

However, unlike the polling office, which pursued Jianye in the north, the people from the Gendarmerie Intelligence Office went in the opposite direction, taking the train and heading south.

"Sir, if those barbarians didn't run to the south, wouldn't we be in vain if we chased them without hesitation?" Zuo Tingtai, head of the Operations Department of the Daxing Station of the Military Police Intelligence Department, said on the face of Yuwu Xiaowei (Captain) There was a worried look on his face.

"Do you think those barbarians who claimed to be heading for Jianye before leaving Daxing would definitely flee Hanzhou from the north?" Gong Qibin, deputy director of the Daxing Branch of the Gendarmerie Intelligence Department and Xuangjie Colonel (Major), glanced at The three subordinates sitting opposite all had hesitant looks on their faces. They shook their heads and said, "You guys need to know that from Jianye Port, you have to pass through Xuanhua, Kaihua, Guangning, the Strait of Malacca, and Ceylon and Ceylon along the way." India, even to Persia and Arabia, are all within the control of Qi.Unless these barbarians are lucky enough, they might be able to escape back to Baghdad.Otherwise, if you are not careful, you will be intercepted by our navy's cruise warships, or captured by the trusted local garrison when stationed at a certain port. "

"But, sir, the sea is vast and there are so many ships sailing on the sea. Even if we cast a dragnet and even control all the ports and supply points along the way, there is no guarantee that we can capture it."

"Even if he can escape back to Baghdad, do you think everything will be fine? Humph, with the relationship between our Qi State and the Ottomans, with just a piece of paper, the Ottoman governor in Baghdad can tie up this thief and hand him over to us on his own initiative. ."

"Sir, what do you mean, Sassoon is afraid that he won't escape back to Baghdad?"

"In the entire Indian Ocean region, our Qi State wants to catch a thief who murdered a close relative of the royal family. I want to ask, which country and force dares to take him in and hide him?" "So, this guy is going to flee to Europe!" Zuo Tingtai's eyes Yi Liang, "If this is the case, he will definitely take the train all the way to the southwest, and then take an ocean-going merchant ship to sea, passing through Qianzhou (today's South Africa), crossing the Cape of Good Hope, and fleeing directly to Europe."

"That's right!" Gong Qibin nodded and said: "However, this guy escaped two days before us, and there is no telegraph line connecting Daxing to the southwest, so we cannot notify our colleagues there in advance to intercept him. Now, we only hope that this The thief can delay a little due to various unexpected circumstances so that we can have a chance to catch up with him."
-
August 8, Queensland Province, Guizhou City (now Perth, Australia).

"Damn Qi people!"

Looking back at the bank sign again, Victor Sassoon was so filled with hatred that he cursed viciously and hurriedly boarded a rented carriage with his entourage.

"Mr. Sassoon..." Redona Bevin asked in a low voice: "Do we need to wait here for two days?"

"We have been delayed here for more than a day and cannot stay any longer." Victor Sassoon shook his head and looked at the street scene outside the window gloomily. "We don't know if those people will chase us from behind." Come here. No, we cannot put our lives in such uncertain danger. We still have to find a way to leave Hanzhou as soon as possible."

"However, the banknotes we have on hand cannot be exchanged for enough gold and silver coins in a short period of time!" Redona Bevin said with a bitter face: "If we arrived in Europe with a large handful of Qi country banknotes, we might No country will recognize this kind of currency. In this case, we are equivalent to bringing a pile of waste paper!"

Yes, Sassoon and his party encountered a very embarrassing problem.That is, when they first arrived in Hanzhou, in accordance with Qi's currency management laws, they had already exchanged the various gold and silver coins they had on hand into gold yuan coupons, the only legal currency for transactions.

They originally thought that they would settle in Qi for a long time and start making large-scale investments. It would not be a big problem for them to have a large number of banknotes equivalent to the price of gold.Even calculated in terms of purchasing power, they have more monetary wealth than they did in Baghdad.Because Qi is the largest industrial producer in the world today, the basic price index of various industrial products and daily consumer goods is much lower than that of other countries and regions.The only more expensive element may be labor.

When Sassoon came to Hanzhou, he brought more than 30 yuan in gold and silver currency. In the following more than a year, he purchased land and houses, invested in establishing banks, rented buildings, and donated property to some powerful people in Qi. , various, almost spent more than 20 yuan, leaving less than 8 yuan, which is used as backup funds.

As a result, due to an "unexpected" fire, they had to flee Daxing in panic, carrying only less than 1 yuan in gold yuan coupons.

What's annoying is that when I wanted to exchange these 1 yuan gold yuan coupons for corresponding gold and silver currencies at the bank, I was told that I needed to make an appointment in advance and the exchange could be done two days later.

This made Sassoon shocked and angry. Don't you Qi people claim that currency is freely convertible without any restrictions?
Don’t you say that any bank is obliged to exchange a sufficient amount of gold and silver currency for customers who hold gold yuan certificates?
However, the service staff of those banks told him very politely that according to the unified regulations of the Imperial Central Bank, any large currency exchange exceeding 1000 yuan requires an appointment, and the daily limit can only be 2000 yuan. No exceptions.

Yes, our Qi State has no obstacles to the exchange of any currency, but we must give us some time to allocate the corresponding gold and silver currency!

Faced with this situation, Sassoon felt extremely helpless and full of endless anxiety.

In a country like Qi where even grassroots towns and villages are under very tight control, outsiders like them who have committed crimes have no way of hiding.The delay had been too long, and when Daxing received the wanted documents for them, the temporary residence certificates in their hands might become effective proof for the military and police to arrest them.

But if you can't exchange enough gold and silver, even if you can escape to Europe, how will you survive and make a comeback with nothing?
"Mr. Sassoon..." Redona Bevin hesitated.

"Do you have any good ideas?"

"Mr. Sassoon, we may try to find those underground forces to exchange the banknotes in our hands." Redona Bevin whispered: "However, we may lose a lot as a result. Of course, this behavior is There are certain risks.”

When Sassoon heard this, he remained silent.

Of course he knew that there would definitely be certain risks in finding underground forces to exchange the banknotes in his hands.They, outsiders without any background, might be tricked into losing their pants by those unfaithful dark forces.Of course, there is another possibility, that is, those dark forces will have more or less collusion with the Qi State military and police, and will inform them of his exchange of large sums of gold and silver, thus attracting suspicion.

"I have an idea." Victor Sassoon pondered for a long time, and then said softly: "Maybe we can try our luck at the dock. In addition to looking for a merchant ship heading to Europe, we can also contact those who are preparing to sail to this city. Foreign merchants who purchase and trade exchange the banknotes in our hands for corresponding gold and silver currencies at a certain discount. I think that as long as you are a businessman, you will definitely want to take advantage of this. ...What do you think? "

"This is a very good idea!" Jarvis Sassoon nodded and said: "If we are lucky enough, we might be able to exchange all the banknotes in our hands into gold and silver currency today. ...Then we will do it now. Hurry to the dock.”

A smile finally appeared on Victor Sassoon's face.

Lord bless, I hope we can all leave this evil and tyrannical Hanzhou continent safely in the end!

Just when the carriage that Sassoon and his party were riding in suddenly changed direction and headed straight towards the dock.A carriage following them also changed its route, followed their direction, and followed them silently.

(End of this chapter)