Spy Wars: Red Shopkeeper

Chapter 88 Manifesto
Lu Bowen was right. The next day's newspapers reported extensively on the explosion in Hongkou.

In fact, this news had already been circulating in the city government yesterday afternoon. Gu Yansheng did not spread it outside, but he could not stop Ling Xianwen and people around other officials from telling them.

Once such a big thing was spread, it overshadowed all other news.

In the afternoon, I received a constant stream of calls for interviews, and the entrance to the city government was also crowded with reporters.

By today, the news that an internal gathering of the Japanese in Hongkou was invaded and assassinated by Military Intelligence Bureau agents has spread everywhere.

Seven people were killed on the spot, four died despite rescue efforts, and the remaining seriously injured patients are still in a coma. This record can be regarded as the pinnacle of the Military Control Commission's actions against the Japanese during this period.

What is even more provocative is that the Military Control Commission directly came out to claim this victory.

In the newspaper, the reporter published a report that he received a call from a mysterious person who claimed to be the director of the Shanghai District of the Military Control Commission and asked him to publish a manifesto on his behalf to warn the world.

"In the winter of the 27th year of the Republic of China, the bloodbath in Shanghai continued unabated.

In the Sakura Building in Hongkou, seven Japanese officers were killed. This was the beginning of the bloody counterattack of the Military Control Commission Shanghai Station, but not the end!
Japanese pirates can be killed, but traitors must be punished!
When the country was in ruins, we followed Mr. Dai Yunong's instructions and used our heads as firewood and our bones and blood to temper our swords.

Even though the Military Control Commission's Shanghai station was attacked by scoundrels, how could the flames of the anti-Japanese war be extinguished by traitors?
Even if we hide in the concession, it is like a sharp knife hanging at the enemy's throat. Today you should know that anyone who betrays the country and surrenders to the enemy will be punished according to the laws of the Military Control Commission no matter where he goes!
Abandon the dark and join the light, only blood can wash away the wicked! Anyone who has ever betrayed his integrity, if he can kill one of Li Nishiqun's confidants, or one of Ding Nimocun's confidants, and bring their heads before me, his past will be forgiven.

Anyone who can kill Li Shiqun will be allowed to return to the Blue Sky, White Sun banner. Mr. Dai Yunong will personally recommend him and grant him the rank of major! The same applies to anyone who kills Ding Mocun!
If you persist in your wrongdoing, the Iron-Blooded Anti-Traitor Group will definitely come knocking on your door. No one will ever escape the net of the Military Control Commission's anti-traitor list!
The elders of Shanghai testified that yesterday’s explosion was merely a prelude; tomorrow’s thunderbolt will surely shatter the enemy’s courage!

Among the one hundred thousand colleagues of the Military Control Commission, even if only one is still alive, we will repay blood with blood and stop the sword with the sword!
Even if the mountains and rivers are not restored, my determination will not change!
Military Investigation and Statistics Bureau Shanghai District."

The manifesto is really well written and really boosts morale.

Gu Yansheng looked at the newspaper in front of him and didn't smell any ink, but instead smelled a strong smell of gunpowder.

Give the captured and rebellious agents hope of getting their identities back, and let them fight back. As long as one person takes action, everyone inside No. 76 will become suspicious and no one will trust anyone else.

An excellent counter-espionage tactic.

Li Shiqun and Ding Moqun will definitely not be able to sleep well.

But Gu Yansheng is now considering a problem.

As we all know, people who don't sleep well tend to be irritable. Once this manifesto was issued, Li Shiqun and Ding Mocun would definitely go crazy. Seeing their men pulling out guns would make them feel like they were going to assassinate them. It was impossible for them not to have such concerns.

Only killing can calm the anger in his heart a little, and only by killing the Military Control Commissioner in fear can he suppress the subordinates' attempts to make repeated moves!
If Gu Yansheng was Li Shiqun, the closest person to him would be the Military Control Commission hiding in the concession, so he would definitely follow them, and some of them might even be within his reach.

In the past, we were afraid to use guns out of consideration for the foreigners in the concession, but this rule should be abolished from today.

Gu Yansheng was busy until late at noon and did not eat. At one o'clock in the afternoon, Gu Yansheng drove to the French Concession.

I first went to the hospital to make an appointment, saw the doctor, and consulted about the things I needed to pay attention to regarding arsenic poisoning, and then went to Xiafei Road to have coffee.

A break and a bite to eat is always a good reason to grab a coffee near the hospital.

Although I don’t feel any danger, this is what underground work is like. I have to maintain normalcy and always be vigilant.

"Cod soup, steak, salad, no red wine, and a cup of coffee."

"Okay sir, please wait a moment."

This is a restaurant opened by Russians. Gu Yansheng found a seat with a good view and slowly cut the steak and chewed it.

At the table in front was a young man and woman, the man was Chinese and the woman was Russian. They were chatting about the origin of the name of Xiafei Road.

The setting sun and the lone wild goose fly together. The romantic Shanghai hipsters like to find a poetic origin for the name of Xiafei Road. Male poets are popularizing this common sense to women.

But my female friends don’t quite agree.

"This is French territory. How could the French use Chinese-written poems and nouns when naming it?"

"Why not? Of course it's possible. Look at Guangdong Road, Guangxi Road, Zhejiang Road. Aren't these all Chinese place names? But the concessions still used them to name roads.

When the French named this street, it was at sunset, with the sky full of sunset glow and birds chirping. Someone mentioned this phrase, and the Chinese director of the Municipal Council took it to heart, so they named it Rue de Joffre.

The Russian women were skeptical and felt that it was unlikely that the French would use Chinese poetry.

"The author of this poem is Wang Bo. Do you know where his tomb is? Vietnam.

Whose colony was Vietnam? France.

So in the eyes of the French, has Wang Bo become their poet?

So what's so strange about using poems by poets from your own country?"

Talented person, really good at editing.

Gu Yansheng ate while listening to jokes. At 2:45, a middle-aged man in his forties came in, ordered a cup of coffee, and then found a seat by the window and sat down with a newspaper in his hand.

There was a picture in the newspaper four days ago that showed Shanghai residents rushing to buy food, so it was easy to recognize.

When he saw the photo, Gu Yansheng knew that the person he was waiting for had arrived.

"Pay the bill." Gu Yansheng finished the last bite and stretched out his hand.

"Okay sir, welcome next time."

Gu Yansheng paid the money and paused as he passed by him. "Can you lend me the newspaper? Is that okay?"

The middle-aged man didn't expect Gu Yansheng to come up behind him. He smiled and said, "It's an outdated newspaper. Why don't you go buy a new one?"

"It's not like I haven't read the new newspaper before. This is the news I want to read." Gu Yansheng took the newspaper with his right hand and spread it out with his left hand, revealing a torn corner inside. There were exactly seven words. The middle-aged man glanced at it and smiled even more happily: "Read it if you want. I've finished it anyway."

"Thanks." Gu Yansheng went out with the newspaper and got directly into the car on the opposite side. The car started and drove forward for a while before stopping at the intersection.

Twenty minutes later, the back door of the car was opened and the middle-aged man got in by himself.

"The organization told me that the person we're meeting this time is an official from the city government. I thought of many people, but I didn't expect it to be you."

"You know him?" Gu Yansheng started the car. "Where are you going?"

"Go north, there's a bridge about a kilometer away, but there aren't many people under the bridge at this time.

When the prison released someone, I had someone make a phone call to report that several people had been released as family members, so I've been following your information. Shen Linshen, codenamed Fisherman, was a tailor at Shen's Garment, the shop I opened, and I had an assistant who was in charge of the radio station.

"Hello." Gu Yansheng shook hands with him. "What did the organization tell you?"

"The telegram didn't give a specific reason. It simply said I'd know the moment I saw you. They asked me to cooperate with you and that ensuring your safety was my top priority. They could cut off all other external contacts if necessary. There was nothing more to it. What did the organization tell you?"

The car stopped by the roadside, and Gu Yansheng and Shen Linshen got out.

At this time, most people who work haven't finished their get off work yet, and there is really no one by the river under the bridge.

"Nothing to say, just let me come see you."

"Ah?" Shen Linshen was slightly surprised, but he quickly responded, "That should be related to our professional attributes. What was the task you recently reported to the organization?"

"Transporting cotton yarn."

"understood."

Shen Linshen nodded: "The organization asked us to collect cotton yarn. It seems that you have also accepted this task. You have already collected some and plan to transport the cotton yarn out of the city, right?"

"Correct."

"I have the contact information for the transportation station. I built one of the underground transportation stations in Shanghai. The organization must have arranged our meeting for this reason. With my transportation station and your power, the transportation will definitely be safer."

Now it's all clear. Indeed, when two people meet, they know what to do as soon as they talk, and there is no need for a detailed description in the telegram.

"It seems that you have a lot of people under your command." Gu Yansheng judged that Shen Linshen should be highly valued by the organization and must have rich experience.

"Not much. We're just responsible for setting up the transport routes. The transport stations have their own tasks. We don't meet with them, and they don't know who we are. We rely entirely on pre-arranged signal communication. How much cotton yarn do you have now? I'll try to help you transport it out as soon as possible."

"1000 bags, how many can you transport?"

"How much? 1000 bales?" Shen Linshen's eyes widened, and he was obviously surprised. "Is it okay for you to handle so much cotton yarn?"

Shen Linshen himself is in this line of work, and he knows all too well the control over cotton yarn.

"I'll be fine, don't worry. We're already in a safe warehouse. There are so many, it just depends on how much you can transport."

Shen Linshen frowned and paused to digest this information.

"I now understand why the organization insisted on arranging our meeting for such an ordinary transport mission. It's impossible for me to transport this amount of cotton yarn out of the city quietly with just my own strength.

If something goes wrong and the Japanese start tracking us down, not only will we lose our cotton yarn, but our communication station might also be uncovered, with disastrous consequences."

"Based on your assessment of the situation, how many packages do you think you can ship out?"

“It’s not a question of quantity, it’s a question of frequency.

The transportation line we use for transporting goods is a sampan, which has a small carrying capacity.

The route is to go from Shanghai, turn into Wusong River via Suzhou River, pass through Kunshan and Suzhou and enter Taihu Lake.

As long as they reached the Taihu Lake area, the New Fourth Army's Taihu guerrillas could pick up the goods and take them to the Maoshan base in southern Jiangsu.

After arriving at Maoshan, the distance to this part of the journey is uncertain. According to the current war situation, the latest route is to go through Guangde and Ningguo and enter Yunling in southern Anhui.

This is also the terminus of the route we Shanghai people are responsible for, the New Fourth Army Headquarters.

The rest of the journey is not our responsibility.

But even on these roads, we have to find the right time to get close to the Japanese and deliver the goods.

For example, in this section of Suzhou River, the Japanese patrol boats never stopped during the day, but the patrols were relatively relaxed from 1:00 to 5:00 in the morning. Sometimes the Japanese soldiers loved to sleep and drink and would not come out to patrol at all.

Therefore, the time period during which we can smuggle goods is limited to this time frame, and it is dark at that time, which indeed makes it convenient for the sampan to hide in the reeds.

But the problem with the darkness is that we can only use sampans and cannot use motor barges with a larger carrying capacity. Motor barges are large and make louder noises, and are too easy to be heard at night.

The current carrying capacity of a sampan cannot exceed two tons, which is the weight of 11 standard bales of cotton yarn. Otherwise, the draft will be too deep and accidents are likely to occur.

We have to transport your 1000 bags 90 times.

Just this time, it was impossible to avoid the Japanese patrol boats every time.

If you want to reduce the frequency, you have to have more people on board, and use three or four boats to transport the goods together. If nothing goes wrong, it's fine. But if you get caught once, the entire transportation station will be ruined.

So we simply can’t ship this amount here, or we can just drag it out a little longer and ship it slowly and safely, but then winter will be over.”

(End of this chapter)