My spy diary

Chapter 355 Routine (asking for monthly ticket)

At dawn the next day, Wang Naiqi, who had not slept the whole night, hurried to the rice shop he had contacted.

The rice jar under the counter of the rice shop was empty and the shop was in a mess, as if it had just been robbed.

The waiter and the shopkeeper Lao Hu are cleaning.

Wang Naiqi asked in surprise: "What happened in the store?"

Lao Hu lamented: "Rice prices are getting higher day by day. Everyone is panicking. Before daybreak, people line up to grab rice with bags of money."

"Now you can only get a haircut for 100 yuan, and a bag of rice for 1,000 yuan. Everything is in chaos. How can ordinary people live?"

Old Hu went to the door and took down the "New Rice Arrived" sign, then took out a new "Long-term Purchase of Rice" sign from behind the counter and hung it up, then gave a wry smile:
"People at the top have food and drink, so who cares about the lives of ordinary people?"

As he said this, he handed a brand new newspaper to Wang Naiqi with a look of disdain.

The newspapers published photos of the Standing Committee inspecting the streets and alleys, saying how he "went deep into the masses, understood prices, cared about people's lives", etc. -
While the guy was wiping the dust off the new sign at the door, Lao Hu led Wang Naiqi directly into the secret room.

"Now people are saying everywhere that the Standing Committee Chairman is not indifferent to the suffering of the people, but is being fooled by the people below. Look, the newspapers even give special examples, and they make it sound very convincing."

The article gave an example that during an inspection, the Chairman of the Standing Committee randomly walked into a small shop selling hats and asked the price of a hat. In order to please the Chairman, the merchant said the price was about the same as before the Anti-Japanese War. The Chairman was very happy to hear this and bought the hat on the spot.

After the chairman left, the city government immediately rewarded the businessman and compensated his losses.

Then, during the inspection, a minister accompanied him for dinner and deliberately changed the prices on the menu to be similar to those before the Anti-Japanese War. After seeing this, the chairman sighed repeatedly: "Everyone is clamoring about the soaring prices, but in fact the increase is limited."

The author uses a Spring and Autumn style of writing to highlight the image of a sycophantic, treacherous and cunning businessman and the image of a fat and big-eared mediocre official who deceives his superiors and subordinates. The purpose is simply to tell everyone that the Chairman is actually a good man. It's not that he doesn't care about people's lives, but that he was deceived by his subordinates.

"Deceiving yourself."

Wang Naiqi snorted contemptuously. The daily price fluctuations and pre-war proportions would be reported by not only the numerous economic departments of the Kuomintang but also the Military Control Commission. It was impossible for Chang not to be aware of this.

"lets change a topic."

Lao Hu sighed and briefly recounted his experience of escaping danger with a serious expression.

"I have already reported to the office. Although my identity has not been exposed, there is no guarantee that the Military Control Commission will verify it later. For safety reasons, this contact station will be abandoned. Lao Dong and I will evacuate to other places."

"it is good."

Wang Naiqi nodded. Although he was reluctant, the last thing he should have when doing underground work was a fluke mentality. For the sake of safety, he had to act decisively when it was time to take action.

Even if some people can stay and continue to lurk, they must cut off all ties with their previous lives, start a new life with a completely new identity, and disappear in the vast crowd.

"Who will replace you?" Wang Naiqi asked.

"you know."

"I know him?" Wang Naiqi was stunned.

"Comrade Lin Xiumei, you have met her in the office."

"She?" Wang Naiqi recalled the neat and efficient female cadre in his mind.

"What? Still looking down on lesbians?"

"That's not what I meant. It's just that my superior suddenly sent a woman here."

“She is a college student who has received special training at Luyi and has participated in many anti-espionage and anti-infiltration operations of the Ministry of Social Affairs. She has rich work experience.

After careful consideration by the superiors, it was decided to send her to pretend to be a couple with you, to act as a courier and to cover up your work."

"Stop!" Wang Naiqi was anxious, "Aren't you just cooperating with the work? How did it become about the relationship between husband and wife?"

“And you still say this is not discrimination against women?”

"Is this the same thing?" Wang Naiqi argued.

"Okay, Lao Wang." Lao Hu interrupted him and looked at him sternly. Wang Naiqi deliberately avoided his gaze and turned his head to look at the newspaper on the table.

After a while, Lao Hu finally couldn't help it: "Why aren't you looking at me?"

"You didn't say anything either."

"This is an order from the organization. There is no room for bargaining."

"Is this the same thing? I accepted her leadership without hesitation. But I'm used to living alone, and it would be too awkward to suddenly live under the same roof with a delicate girl." Wang Naiqi explained anxiously.

Lao Hu looked at him calmly, was silent for a while, and asked directly: "Lao Wang, how old are you this year?"

"Forty-one, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong? You're a grown man, you have everything, you run a bookstore, and your income is barely acceptable, but you're still single. Don't your neighbors think it's weird?"

This sentence made Wang Naiqi speechless.

Seeing that he was silent, Lao Hu straightened up:
"It's settled. She will first work in your bookstore as an employee, and the marriage will come naturally over time."

Wang Naiqi was choked by these words.

Old Hu didn't care what he thought, his expression was stern: "By the way, I have an important task for you."

"what?"

"Pagoda Mountain has been self-reliant and has barely made ends meet. However, the Japanese and puppet forces have been carrying out large-scale raids. Our soldiers on the frontline have suffered heavy casualties and the troops are constantly losing personnel. We are in urgent need of medicines and uniforms. You...you should contact Comrade Mermaid and see if he can think of a solution."

"I understand. This is not an easy task." Wang Naiqi sighed.

The topic discussed in the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Operations Department was also marriage and women.

"Brother Yunyi, you really should get married." He Zhiyuan sighed.

"How can we have a family if the Xiongnu is not destroyed? Besides, Boss Dai has a ban on marriage during the war."

"That was directed at others." He Zhiyuan shook his head and said, "Even though more than 200 people were punished for secretly getting married, Mao Qiwu and Mao Sen both got married, and the boss gave special approval."

"Mao Sen got married because of work needs. The conditions in the occupied areas were bad, and having a family could serve as a cover. Secretary Mao was old, and had been working with Boss Dai for several years. The situation was different."

"What's the difference? Didn't the newcomer Shen Xishan get married privately? He married his student and he didn't receive any punishment."

That's right. After Shen Xishan's ex-girlfriend went to Baota Mountain, he took the opportunity of being an instructor at the Linli training class and secretly started a relationship with the female students in the traineeship. Now they even have a child.

Seeing He Zhiyuan mention this matter again, Zhang Yi looked at him, hesitated for a moment, and asked:

"What difference does it make whether you're married or not?"

"There's a big difference." He Zhiyuan looked at him, straightened his body, and said:
"There is an unwritten rule in the officialdom that if you want to move up, you must be married and have a family."

Seeing Zhang Yi frowning, he explained, "For people in our line of work, having a family is a big taboo, but this is the rear.

Only when you have a family and someone to care about will others feel that you are reliable.

A bachelor with no ties and no worries, what can't he do? Not to mention that you don't even have a girlfriend!"

"Just do my job well as the district chief, who is not worthy of his title. I don't seek fame, fortune, promotion or salary increase. I will worry about romantic things after we drive away the Japanese one day." "Retire after success and let your horse go to the mountains?"

He Zhiyuan sneered, "You wish for that. Once you are in the arena, you may not be able to control your own destiny. Even an old man like me wants to continue to serve the party and the country. Don't dream on."

Zhang Yi was speechless, paused, and said, "I'll think about it."

After leaving the operations department, Zhang Yi drove around the streets.

After driving slowly for a while, the car stopped in a secluded corner.

Seeing that there was no one around, he got out of the car, opened the trunk, changed into a windbreaker, then removed the license plate and took out a concealed fake license plate from the trunk and hung it up.

After completing all this neatly, he walked towards the dead mailbox that he and Wang Naiqi had agreed upon.

The dead mailbox was located in an alley where there were no pedestrians, so Zhang Yi easily obtained the information.

Back in the car, looking at the information in his hand, Zhang Yi fell into deep thought.

Medicines and military uniforms are not easy to get, especially the cotton yarn for making them.

Due to the poor cotton production in the southwest and northwest rear areas, the clothing problem for hundreds of millions of soldiers and civilians became unprecedentedly serious.

The troops fighting on the front line had not received new uniforms for several years and were short of winter clothes during the severe winter. The officials searched everywhere for supplies, but it was still a drop in the bucket.

At this time, the price of cotton cloth in the market had skyrocketed many times, and people everywhere were complaining bitterly.

It’s true, three years new, three years old, and another three years of mending.

In fact, not only medicines and cotton yarn, but also hardware, rubber, grease, gasoline and mechanical parts are in short supply in the rear, not to mention the front line.

After the National Freight Administration was established, it was handed over to the Military Control Commission. Dai Chunfeng formulated a series of policies to encourage and reward merchants and civilians to rush to buy and transport supplies from the occupied areas. He also sent the Military Control Commission's tertiary industry companies and special personnel to purchase supplies in major cities in the occupied areas. However, these secretly looted materials were still a drop in the bucket, because the largest market was in Shanghai.

But how to transport the supplies out of Shanghai?

This is tantamount to seeking the skin of a tiger.

Moreover, the key question is, how to convince Boss Dai to support it?
Zhang Yi fell into deep thought.

While thinking, he looked at the car under him, and suddenly an idea came to him and he remembered two things.

The first thing was that one time, Boss Dai was accompanying a certain Chang for a walk in Huangshan. They saw the Director of Artillery driving triumphantly past in a Parker convertible imported from the United States, and Chang looked displeased.

Dai Chunfeng observed Chang's expression and from then on, every time he met with Chang, he would deliberately use an old car, just for the Chairman to see. Chang would feel bad when he saw it and would take the initiative to ask him to buy a better car.

The second thing is about Shen Xishan.

Don't be fooled by this young man. He is deep-minded and tactful, and no one in the Military Control Commission can match him.

Perhaps he got inspiration from Boss Dai's incident. After taking office as the Director of General Affairs, he was afraid that others would be jealous, so he did not use the house managed by the Military Intelligence Bureau. Instead, he built a thatched house on the vacant land next to the large vegetable garden of the bureau headquarters.

He also weeded and planted vegetables in the vegetable garden every day, just to pretend that he was doing it, just so that Boss Dai could see him.

Sure enough, one day Dai Chunfeng suddenly came to join in the weeding. During the break, Shen Xishan pointed to his thatched house and said:
"Mr. Dai, that's my home. Please go in and have some water and rest."

Boss Dai frowned as soon as he saw it. "I won't go. You are a major general and you live in a house like this? It's too embarrassing for me."

Then he called the head of the General Affairs Section of the General Affairs Office and asked him to allocate 5000 yuan of public funds to Shen Xishan to build a decent house.

Zhang Yixin said that Shen Xishan prescribed medicine according to the prescription, which made Boss Dai feel uncomfortable and allocated funds to build the house. Why don't he follow suit and let Dai Chunfeng take the initiative to raise the issues of medicine and cotton yarn.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yi hurriedly got off the car and found a place to buy a cheap suit with rough fabric, stiff lines, and perfunctory tailoring. It was loose on his body and there were several long threads on the cuffs.

After changing his clothes, Zhang Yi drove to the Military Intelligence Bureau with great enthusiasm.

When I arrived at the office, I heard Dai Chunfeng giving a speech in the office.

Zhang Yi didn't want to bring bad luck to himself, so he quickly asked Mao Qiwu from the Secretariat:
"Who made the boss angry again?"

"Yu Le is awake." Mao Qiwu said gloatingly.

After listening to his explanation, Zhang Yi realized that Boss Dai was lecturing Shen Xishan. It turned out that his brother-in-law and his brother had embezzled public funds and were reported.

Because of suspicion from his boss Dai, Yu Lexing was demoted to be the director of an oil refinery in Zunyi. Unexpectedly, something bad happened again.

After waiting for a while, Shen Xishan came out with a heavy heart. He nodded to Zhang Yi and left in a depressed mood.

Zhang Yi guessed that Boss Dai might have thrown the difficult task of dealing with his brother-in-law to him, naturally as a test.

'To be with the emperor is like being with a tiger.'

Zhang Yi sighed in his heart, and after Mao Qiwu's report, he immediately went in.

"Seat."

Dai Chunfeng was looking at the documents with a gloomy face. He asked without raising his head, "What's the matter?"

"The work in the Shanghai Experimental Zone is almost ready. As the New Year approaches, I plan to organize a series of arson, explosions, and attacks against the Japanese puppets and traitors to strike a blow to their arrogance. Please approve it, Director."

Hearing this, Dai Chunfeng paused and raised his head.

With the Military Control Commission's Beijing and Shanghai districts almost completely collapsed, a victory was indeed needed to add some vitality to the occupied areas where people were wailing everywhere.

"Sit down. Do you have a detailed plan?"

"The plan is being planned. As long as the director agrees, it will be sent to you for review soon."

The sofa in Dai Chunfeng's office was very soft, but Zhang Yi felt very uncomfortable because he was thinking about how to attract the other person's attention to his cheap suit.

Seeing Boss Dai lift up an empty teacup on the table and put a handful of tea leaves in it, he immediately stepped forward and picked up the kettle. He inadvertently pulled the thread of his suit cuffs, and the cuffs instantly wrinkled together.

Dai Chunfeng frowned and stared at him for a few seconds:
"You are a district chief after all, you should at least respect your status. Why are you wearing such a cheap suit?"

Zhang Yi looked embarrassed, but he couldn't help feeling happy.

As expected, since ancient times, true love cannot be retained, only routines can win people's hearts.

All things are interdependent and mutually exclusive. Even stones have weaknesses. What is Boss Dai’s weakness?
Care about face and show.

He immediately complained: "Commander, it's not that I don't care about my status, it's just that prices are soaring and cotton yarn and cloth are in short supply. I don't even have the material to make a suitable suit."

Mr. Dai is also the director of the Freight Management Bureau. How could he not know about this situation?

“I’m worried about that, too.”

Seeing that he had successfully led the topic, Zhang Yi said thoughtfully:
“Maybe we can think of a solution from Shanghai.”

"any solution?"

"To seek the skin of a tiger."

……

(End of this chapter)