Spy Wars: Red Shopkeeper

Chapter 113 Flying Man
The secret service headquarters and the military police headquarters called again, urging them to continue the interrogation. Since they had already been tortured, they had no choice but to go all the way.

Now that your reputation has been ruined, let's try to recover the losses.

"Li Shiqun, your people can enter the concession and follow your method. I hope to see the money quickly and get evidence that Sassoon admits that he was the one who made the counterfeit money."

"understood."

With the authorization from the Japanese, Li Shiqun could completely let go.

"Sibao, go arrest them, arrest the assistant manager first."

"Yes."

Wu Sibao led his men into the concession secretly, asked someone to interview the assistant manager in the name of a reporter, lured him out, confirmed the target, and then arrested him.

However, the assistant manager was already surrounded by guards arranged by Sassoon, so the attack failed. Before the police arrived, Wu Sibao's men had to evacuate.

Now, Sassoon has something more to say.

He directly criticized the Japanese for entering the concession to arrest people, which was a very bad behavior. Did he also want to torture his assistant manager to accuse him of being the mastermind?

The Municipal Council could not tolerate such things and sternly warned the Japanese to abide by the agreement.

The city government denied the claim, saying, "There is no such thing at all. It is just that some people are dissatisfied with Sassoon's actions and are dissatisfied with Sassoon by righteous people. It has nothing to do with the city government. The city government commends the actions of such righteous people."

Talking nonsense will not produce any results.

Since the person was not caught and there were so many guards around him, Li Shiqun changed his target.

According to investigation, Sassoon had three sons, and his favorite was his second son, who also liked to party every night.

"Catch his second son."

Wu Sibao was a ruthless execution machine. That night, when Sassoon's second son came out of the dance hall, Wu Sibao took action, killed four bodyguards, put the men in the car, and drove the car to the door of the Municipal Council.

Ding-ling-ling. Ding-ling-ling.

On the top floor of the Sassoon Building, Sassoon had fallen asleep. He was woken up by a phone call and answered it in a bad mood.

"Who?"

"It's me, Li Shiqun from the Secret Service Headquarters." Li Shiqun's voice appeared on the phone.

"I don't know why Director Li wants to see me so late? To apologize?" Sassoon smiled and poured himself some red wine.
"Apologize? Mr. Sassoon seems to be still asleep. I'll give you a minute to wake yourself up, otherwise I'm afraid you won't be able to make the right judgment later."

It was obvious from the moment he heard it that this was not a good thing. Sassoon shouted coldly, "You really have time! Li Shiqun, I warn you, if you torture my people, this matter will not end. And I remind you, I have ordered all companies to evacuate. If Wilson is not released before dawn tomorrow, you will see a very exciting scene. Millions of companies will evacuate Shanghai. I don't know if you can bear this responsibility."

Li Shiqun said calmly, "Whether you evacuate or not is your business. I don't care. But I urge you to pay attention to your second son. He shouldn't be with you, right? I heard you like him very much."

"What did you do to him?" Sassoon's face changed drastically. He put down the phone and shouted, "Someone come!"

His men immediately rushed in from the doorway, and Sassoon asked in shock and anger, "Where's David?"

"Looks like he went to the Paramount. He might be back by now."

"Go find it quickly!"

"Yes."

After giving the order, Sassoon yelled into the phone, "What have you done to my son?"

It was late at night and everyone was asleep. Li Shiqun heard everything Sassoon had said and said with a smile, "It seems Mr. Sassoon still has someone he cares about. No need to bother looking for him. Your second son is getting along well with some righteous people and is enjoying the scenery on a rooftop somewhere."

"What do you want?" Sassoon asked with gritted teeth, the scene of his son being arrested and threatened on the rooftop already appearing in his mind.

Li Shiqun said calmly: "What I want to do depends on whether Mr. Sassoon is willing to cooperate. There are three things I need to do. The first is to hold a press conference and publicly admit that it was you who did it, or your assistant manager who did it. Find a few people to hand it over to me.

The second is to compensate the municipal government for all losses. You will recycle as many counterfeit coins as you can.

The third is a small matter. I'd like to ask you for a favor. The head of the Military Control Commission's Shanghai District is in your International Settlement. Could you please contact the Municipal Council and hand this person over to me? It shouldn't be difficult for you, right?"

"You're daydreaming!" Sassoon roared back in a suppressed voice.

"It seems you really haven't woken up yet." Li Shiqun remained calm and warned, "Mr. Sassoon, my patience is limited, and I'm giving you face. I'm only asking you to find an assistant manager to take the blame and compensate for the losses. I'm not asking you to stand trial yourself. It's not that difficult at all.

But if you refuse, or are unwilling
Your son is in the concession, and on the top floor. If I make a phone call, he will be thrown down. I'm not kidding you.

I ask you for the last time, admit it or not, do you still want your son’s life?

I'll give you just one minute to think about it."

"No need to think about it!"

Sassoon's tone was very tough. "Li Shiqun, the Sassoon family has been able to survive until now because of being threatened many times. You are not the first, and you will not be the last. I never accept any threats. You can try. If you dare to throw it away, I will make your whole family suffer!"

It is impossible to admit this matter. Once admitted, the century-old reputation of Sassoon & Co. will be completely ruined.

And Li Shiqun dared to abandon his son? Impossible, absolutely not!

Li Shiqun was playing a psychological game with him, betting his son's life that he would be soft-hearted.

Sassoon had seen all kinds of storms, so this kind of threat would only make him nervous for a moment. As long as he stayed calm, his psychological defenses would not collapse at all.

Is this kind of old businessman really difficult to deal with, or is his son not that important in Sassoon's eyes?

Li Shiqun frowned. He couldn't really leave Sassoon's son behind, otherwise the matter would become a big deal.

"It seems you really don't care about your son. Okay, I've changed my mind. I won't abandon him anymore. I'll take care of him slowly. I hope you won't hear him screaming in pain when you wake up in the middle of the night."

"Li Shiqun!" Sassoon roared.

Sassoon estimated that Li Shiqun would not dare to kill people, but he estimated that he would dare to torture them.

"Changed your mind?"

"impossible!"

"Then forget it. I'm going to start taking care of your son. Think it over and call me back."

Bang, the phone hangs up.

Sassoon was so angry that he smashed the red wine glass in his hand, picked up the phone and called the director of the Municipal Council, asking him to immediately send patrol police to check all the high-rise buildings in the concession, and to conduct strict checks at the entrances and exits of the concession, and to find the person.

"Where will it be?"

Sassoon walked out of the rooftop. The Sassoon Building is the tallest building on the Bund, and the view from the top floor is great.

He scanned the top floors of various buildings, and vaguely, he seemed to see something falling from the roof of the Municipal Council building.

The winter river wind was very cold, and Sassoon shuddered and roared!
Ding Ling Ling, Ding Ling Ling. Li Shiqun picked up the phone that he had just put down.

Wu Sibao's voice came from the phone, "Brother, that little jerk fell down and died."

"What did you say?!" Li Shiqun suddenly stood up: "Didn't I tell you to bring him back? Did you push him down?"

Wu Sibao quickly explained, "No, we wanted to bring him back, but this guy, maybe on drugs or drunk, said something incomprehensible and rushed out excitedly, as if he was going to jump to the roof of the opposite building and then fall to his death. How could we have imagined that he would jump? It was a rooftop and he couldn't escape, so we didn't watch him closely enough and he jumped."

"Let's go! Right now!" Li Shiqun's face turned pale.

"Yes."

This jump touched everyone's nerves.

It was too late to revise the next day's newspaper to print this news, so it could only publish the established news.

But at this critical moment, the news that Sassoon's second son had jumped off the building spread like a storm.

It was lost at the secret service headquarters, for sure!

The Japanese were shocked. They didn't expect Li Shiqun to be so cruel that he could even throw Sassoon's son off the building.

Li Shiqun explained, but it was useless. Even the Japanese believed that it was indeed Li Shiqun who did it.

And even if they believe that it was not Li Shiqun who did it, no one in Shanghai would believe it, so there is no point in explaining it.

Li Sang is very fierce, but things are also getting very troublesome.

What gives Hasegawa a headache is yet to come.

All shops under the Sassoon Company were closed down, and convoys carried batches of supplies out of the SH city. All the foreign companies united and strongly demanded that the Japanese exchange military notes and severely punish the murderers.

Otherwise, strikes and business closures would completely paralyze Shanghai's economy.

Sassoon's son died, and Hasegawa knew that there was no room for maneuver in the Sassoon case, and there would be no good outcome in the military bill issue, so the established practice had to be changed.

There are now two options. One is to leave it alone, allowing foreign investors to withdraw and Shanghai's economy to collapse.

Another way is to fill this hole.

Hasegawa Incheon went to discuss the next steps with the Military Police Headquarters and proposed using foreign currency reserves to maintain the market and the credit of military notes.

This will be very hurtful and cause huge losses, but it can stabilize the market.

"Except for Sassoon, calm the emotions of other foreign companies first. The situation is critical now, and we must do this!"

This time, Taro Iwasa of the Military Police Headquarters did not object, because even a fool could see that Shanghai's economy could collapse at any time.

There really is no other way.

The next day, Hase Inkawa held a press conference.

They announced their regret over the suicide of Sassoon's second son and clarified the rumors outside that the deceased is gone and has nothing to do with them.

Then Hasegawa announced.

"There are some fake military notes circulating in the market, but since we support the municipal government in issuing military notes, we will naturally guarantee the value of the notes.

Since the city government is temporarily unable to exchange, we, the Empire of Japan, have decided to exchange all military notes in circulation in the SH urban area. This part of the funds has been sent to the Economic Department of the city government, and everyone can go there to exchange them without worry.

"What about the fake military notes we have? They were exchanged for us by the Economic Department!"

"As for the fake military notes in everyone's hands, we have decided that within two days, all fake military notes will be recycled at half the face value of the real ones. Together with the municipal government, we will resolutely safeguard Shanghai's economic development and stability.

However, after two days, we will no longer accept the fake military notes in your hands and will render them invalid.

I hope everyone understands this.”

It has to be said that this method has won the recognition of most foreign companies.

It is unrealistic to expect the Japanese to recover all the fake military notes. If they can only recover half of them, the Japanese will already be bleeding heavily.

Moreover, if this is done, the number of fake military notes on the market will decrease rapidly, and the circulation and trade of military notes will be able to proceed relatively normally in the future.

"Change it quickly, change it quickly, before the Japanese break their promise."

A bunch of people ran to make phone calls to report the news.

At the municipal government, Gu Yansheng also heard the news.

The Japanese were more courageous than imagined. They even dared to exchange real gold and silver for fake military notes to maintain Shanghai's economy.

If this continues, Shanghai's economy will collapse completely within a few days.

Shanghai's economy is now on the brink of a cliff, and the road ahead is very different.

Now the Japanese want to give a shot in the arm to Shanghai's dying economy.

Then his fake military notes came in handy.

Call Liu San and ask him to come over.

"Director Gu."

"Liu San, how much money do you have?"

"Probably less than 10 million."

"Two million sheets of paper?"

"If calculated by face value, it might be a bit more. There are quite a few one-yuan denominations."

"Okay, I'll calculate it at two million, and you can divide the money into forty boxes at 50,000 each.

Didn’t the Japanese suggest that we could exchange it? We won’t exchange it, we will give it away.

You go to a crowded place, design some mechanisms, hang the box on the roof or outside the wall, set a timer, and when the time is up, the box will automatically explode.

We want to allow all Shanghai citizens to pick up money and exchange it for free.

Let's see how long the Japanese can hold out.

All two million copies must be sent out tomorrow.

Tell the whole of Shanghai that we have plenty of money. From now on, whenever the Japanese issue military notes, we will send them one!"

(End of this chapter)