My spy diary

Chapter 210: Network Construction (asking for monthly ticket)

Outside the city of Jinling, security is tight.

At the sentry post, Japanese military police opened and carefully inspected all bags and boxes coming in and out.

A middle-aged man in his thirties looked pale with nervousness, and his hands were shaking as he squatted on the ground to pick up a suitcase that had been rudely thrown on the ground by the Japanese military police.

His companion was relatively calm. While helping him carry the box, he stepped on his foot, glared at him, and then helped him carry the box through the checkpoint.

After passing the checkpoint, the two men looked back every few steps, from time to time looking at a woman who was being checked by the military police.

The woman was pushing a stroller with a child in it tremblingly, and kept coaxing the child.

The two Japanese military police who were checking the bag made some comments to the woman, then laughed and waved at her. Perhaps because they saw that she was a woman pushing a babbling child and did not hide anything illegal, they did not check and just let her go.

The two people who had passed the inspection before obviously breathed a sigh of relief, but at this moment, one of the strange men in gray suits wandering outside the city suddenly walked out.

He was taller and slimmer than the average Japanese man, with a sly and shrewd look in his eyes.

He walked forward with bowed legs, suddenly stretched out his hand to stop the woman, and asked in stiff Chinese:

"Yours, check again."

The woman didn't understand what was going on, so she could only respond timidly and bow repeatedly.

The man in the gray suit looked at the babbling child and gave a cruel smile. He picked him up and started to rummage around in the diaper in the stroller.

Suddenly he sneered, knocked on the wooden board under the cart seat, pulled out a dagger from behind his waist, pried the board open with a snap, and revealed a radio inside.

The woman was obviously unaware of all this. She looked terrified, her body was staggering, and she looked at the two people who had just passed by in fear, asking for help.

A barely perceptible hint of pride flashed across the grey suit man's lips, and without waiting for his orders, the military police and plainclothes officers pointed their guns at the man who had just passed by.

"Run." The companion shouted, pulled the middle-aged man who was standing there and was about to leave, and gunshots rang out immediately.

"Bang, bang", two shots were fired, the bullets hit the two men's legs, and they fell to the ground dejectedly.

Seeing the Japanese soldiers with spears approaching, the middle-aged man knew that the situation was hopeless, so he gave up resisting and simply raised his hands.

A trace of disappointment and determination flashed in his companion's eyes. Facing the Japanese soldier approaching with a bayonet, he suddenly gritted his teeth, jumped up, grabbed the bayonet, took it off with his backhand, and stabbed the Japanese soldier in the abdomen.

With a "swish", the sharp bayonet cut through the cotton coat. An uncontrollable disbelief flashed across the Japanese soldier's eyes and he suddenly fell to the ground.

The other Japanese soldiers, speaking hoarse Japanese, began to have a new understanding of this unremarkable man who had killed his companion. They began to take him seriously and quickly deployed a military attack formation to try to outflank him.

"Capture him alive." The man in the gray suit shouted, and the bayonet had already pierced the man's chest and back. He breathed with difficulty, and then fell to the ground, with blood gushing out from under his body.

The man in the gray suit shook his head in disappointment, muttered something, and waved his hand expressionlessly:

"Take him back to the gendarmerie and torture him severely."

"Hai."

Plainclothes officers rushed forward and dragged away the woman and the surrendered middle-aged man.

At this time, the man in the gray suit swept his sinister eyes over every frightened passerby who was anxiously waiting in line for inspection. They looked terrified and whispered to each other. Under the suit man's glance, everyone lowered their heads timidly and submissively.

The man in the suit smiled with satisfaction and snapped his fingers at the two military policemen who had just checked, signaling them to come over.

The two of them lowered their heads, bowed slightly, and trotted over.

"Clap"

Two slaps came unexpectedly. The man in the suit yelled at the two of them for a few words before turning and leaving.

Zhang Yi stood among the crowd being examined, bending over and lowering his head.

He was wearing a dirty cotton coat, a felt hat, and carrying an old shoe-shining box in his hand, from which emanated a faint smell of shoe polish.

The shoe box he was carrying had the eye-catching words "East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" on it, which made the trembling people in front and behind him look at him with contempt.

Zhang Yi rubbed his hair which was messed up by his hat, and watched the back of the man in the suit as he left with the corner of his eye. The information of all the personnel of the Special High Section held by the Secret Service Department quickly flashed through his mind.

He guessed that this person must be one of the so-called two heroes under Kitayama Heng of the Jinling Special High Section, either the head of the Special Operations Department, Takagi Shinpei, or the head of the Intelligence Department, Haino Keiji.

Whoever it is, it's a formidable opponent.

Zhang Yi followed the team slowly moving forward and glanced at the body of the middle-aged man on the ground. Not knowing whether he was a member of the Red Party or from the Party Affairs Investigation Office, he could only sigh silently.

When it was his turn, two Japanese military police came forward and stood on his left and right with bayonets in hand, ready to take action if they found any contraband.

The military police asked him to raise his arms and carefully touched his armpits, waist and legs, repeating this process twice.

Apparently after what happened just now, the Japanese military police checked more carefully.

Seeing that he indeed did not carry any contraband, the military police pointed their bayonets at the box on the ground.

Without waiting for the Japanese military police to speak, Zhang Yi quickly squatted down and opened the shoe box deftly.

The contents were clearly visible: shoe polish, rubber, a folding stool, shoe-cleaning cloth, files and other tools, a dirty cotton glove, a worn-out kettle, and a cold steamed bread.
The most valuable thing is half a box of "Laodao" cigarettes.

"Do you have anything else?" the Japanese military police stared at Zhang Yi and asked. "No, Taijun."

A flattering smile broke out on Zhang Yi's dirty face, and he quickly handed half a box of Lao Dao cigarettes to the Japanese military police with a smile on his face.

The gendarme took the cigarette arrogantly and put it in his pocket, shouting:

"What's your name? Good citizen certificate."

Zhang Yi quickly handed over the prepared documents. The military police took it, glanced at it, smiled contemptuously, and then threw it to him.

'Zhang Awu, huh, what a stupid name, but he is still a sensible Chinese.'

Zhang Yi hurriedly tried to take the certificate, but accidentally dropped it to the ground. The Japanese military police looked at him with even more contempt and waved his hand disdainfully.

In this way, Zhang Yi passed the inspection and entered the city gate of Jinling.

Carrying a shoe-shining box, Zhang Yi avoided inspection all the way, walked and stopped, and finally came to the backyard of a shabby hotel.

He looked around warily and knocked on the door.

After a few rhythmic knocks on the door, Monkey opened the door vigilantly and Zhang Yi slipped in.

This is a safe house that I prepared earlier. I didn’t expect it to come in handy today.

"Where's Qian Xiaosan?"

"I went out to gather intelligence."

"Any news about Qian Xinming?"

The monkey shook his head in annoyance.

He and Qian Xiaosan entered Nanjing a day earlier than Zhang Yi, but the Japanese military police not only set up sentries at intersections, but also conducted searches from house to house from time to time, making it difficult to hide, let alone gather intelligence.

Needless to say, within the enemy's ranks, we could only eavesdrop on the conversations of some Japanese ronin or traitors in places like cafes, bars, and dance halls to obtain some useful intelligence.

Zhang Yi was not discouraged. He opened the shoe-shining box, unlocked the base, and took out a popsicle-sized radio from it.

This was a gadget invented by Wei Daming, the chief of the Telecommunications Section of the Secret Service Department. Zhang Yi came in a day later just for this thing.

It was indeed a bit rash to bring a radio in, but the radio is the agent's "eyes and ears". Without it, he would not be able to get in touch with the organization no matter what the situation, and would immediately become deaf and blind.

At this moment, Zhang Yi was sitting at the table, testing the radio signal, and immediately sent the first secret message to Dai Chunfeng in Wuhan, reporting that he was safe.

Just as I put down my headphones, there was another knock on the door.

After a while, Qian Xiaosan, sweating profusely, walked in. He picked up a bowl of herbal tea and drank it all in one gulp.

"I didn't get any news about Qian Xinming, but I saw Shang Zhensheng."

Shang Zhensheng was the former deputy chief of the Jinling undercover zone and was arrested because of Qian Xinming's betrayal.

"where?"

"In addition to the military police, there are also people from the Special High Police around him in the Japanese Military Police Headquarters. The security is tight and it is difficult to get close to him."

"Any other information?"

Qian Xiaosan thought for a moment and said, "I heard a few ronin and traitors talking, and there was some gossip."

"Stop keeping me in suspense and tell me now."

"A week ago, a car accident occurred in Jinling. Both parties involved were Japanese."

Qian Xiaosan told the story slowly.

It turned out that one of the people involved in the car accident was Mizuno Jōichi, a second-class secretary at the Japanese Consulate in Nanjing. His wife and son, who had just arrived in Nanjing, were hit and killed by a car.

The perpetrator was a drunken Japanese Marine second lieutenant.

It was thought that this person would be punished, but he was released after only a week in detention and reinstated.

Mizuno Jōichi had no way to appeal for justice, and on the day the second lieutenant was released, he stabbed himself in the jaw with a pistol and prepared to commit suicide in humiliation. He was later found and rescued by his colleagues.

It is obvious that the Japanese naval lieutenant who caused the accident has a background.

Experiences and choices like Mizuno Jōichi's were very common within the strictly hierarchical Japanese army.

The senior officers are high and mighty, but the lower-level soldiers are not having a good time.

Zhang Yi had no sympathy for his situation; he was only thinking about whether he could persuade this man to rebel.

If you want to eliminate traitors and undercover agents in Nanjing, you have to weave a dense intelligence network and extend it into the enemy's interior. Perhaps Mizuno Jōichi is a good choice.

After all, there are traitors among the Chinese, and the same is true among the Japanese.

(End of this chapter)