Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 316, 315: Spy Shadows in the Small Building, Truth and Deception, Call for the Counterattack in Air Combat

Outside the Finance Department dormitory building, soldiers and police were gathered. The late-night operation alarmed the surrounding neighbors, who all stayed at a distance or watched from their homes.

At first, no one knew what was going on, and some were worried and afraid that they would be implicated.

But when they heard from the military and police that they were arresting Japanese spies, they all relaxed. Those who had a clear conscience and knew they couldn't be spies actually wanted to see the big show of the arrest.

After all, the Japanese air raids during this period posed a huge threat to everyone's lives and property, and everyone hated the scoundrels who worked for the Japanese.

Even the officials from the Finance Department, after learning the reason, only emphasized that the person needed to be caught, but not wrongly accused, and then stopped obstructing the investigation.

However, during this raid, after searching the entire dormitory building, no trace of the radio was found. This made the commanding officer, who had come with great fanfare, feel that things were getting out of control.

He whispered to Fang Wen, "Commander Fang, are you really sure this is the place? You haven't made a mistake, have you?"

Fang Wen nodded in affirmation. Before the arrest began, he had already determined that the radio wave monitoring equipment had the strongest feedback in the vicinity of this building, and that was it.

However, the radio wave monitoring equipment cannot pinpoint the exact floor of the building; an in-house search is necessary.

The fact that the arrest team couldn't find it only means they missed something, so he went up himself.

“Send a team of men with me, I’ll search,” he replied.

The commanding officer was overjoyed and specially assigned a group of skilled men to assist Fang Wen.

Immediately afterwards, Fang Wen, Sun Debiao, and Du Jiahuai led seven arrest team members into the dormitory building.

This building has only one unit, with one room on each side, and a total of 4 floors.

In other words, it housed eight households, making it significantly more luxurious than other dormitories in the Republic of China era that Fang Wen mentioned.

This is not surprising, as the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of China was a top-tier department, in charge of taxation, national treasury revenue and expenditure, international trade, salt administration, public debt, local finance, banking supervision, minting, etc., and was the wealthiest department.

Shaking off his thoughts, Fang Wen entered a house on the first floor.

I took a quick look at the room layout; there are a total of 5 rooms: a kitchen, a bathroom, a living room, and two bedrooms.

He didn't linger on this floor, but went straight out and up the stairs.

Sun Debiao spoke up: "General Manager, why don't you investigate? I see that the family on the right looks flustered; there might be something wrong."

Fang Wen replied, "A panicked expression doesn't necessarily mean someone is a Japanese spy. Some people are inherently timid, and seeing this kind of scene, they're afraid of being wrongly accused, so they panic as well."

But in reality, Fang Wen made the judgment using the radio wave monitoring device in his hand.

With the help of mechanical sensing, the radio wave monitoring equipment became more sensitive in his hands, allowing him to sense a faint radio wave.

This is not because someone is sending a message, but because the transmitter is turned on, and because the send button is still pressed, a small amount of radio waves are still being transmitted outwards.

This situation, which was due to a malfunction in the transmitter, gave Fang Wen an opportunity to find his target.

Therefore, on the surface, Fang Wen was searching layer by layer, but in reality, he was determining the source of that weak radio wave.

The group arrived on the second floor, and the head of the arrest team asked, "Commander Fang, which way should we go first this time?"

Fang Wen used mechanical sensing to detect that the radio wave monitoring was biased to the right, so the left-side unit could basically be ruled out.

He pointed to the door on the right.

The arrest team entered the house first, trapping the homeowner and preventing his escape. Fang Wen then went inside under the protection of Sun Debiao and Du Jiahuai.

The man in this family was a bit fat and had a rather unattractive appearance, while the woman was slim and beautiful.

The male homeowner, with a fawning smile, said, "Sir, my uncle holds a position in the provincial government, and my family is a prominent and wealthy family in Zhejiang Province. How could we possibly work for the Japanese? Search us all you want, I guarantee there won't be any problems."

Fang Wen walked past the man, circled around the room, stopped at the bedroom door, and looked up at the ceiling.

The signal is strongest from this position upwards.

It seems we still have to go up.

He turned and left without a word, and the group followed him out. Only then did the fat man and his wife breathe a sigh of relief.

The group went up to the third floor, and the door was still on the right.

After the search team went in first, Fang Wen went in as well.

The mechanical senses gave him a strong feeling, right here.

He looked around at the people in the room.

A family of three: a man, a woman, and a boy.

The man was much calmer and even comforted his wife and son.

"Don't be afraid, we're not Japanese spies. We have nothing to hide. They'll leave once they've finished searching."

Such upright words made Fang Wen take another look at him.

Then, Fang Wen walked directly through the living room to the bedroom.

There are two bedrooms, but not the master bedroom; it's the one the child lives in.

Fang Wen pushed open the door and entered, opened the wardrobe in the children's room, and suddenly found a black box on the top shelf.

He tiptoed and reached out to take the box down, confirming that it contained a spy radio.

Could this family be Japanese spies in disguise?
Fang Wen carried the suitcase out of the children's room, and the search team leader asked in surprise, "Is this the radio station?"

The moment Fang Wen nodded, the search team subdued the man and kept an eye on the woman and child.

The man struggled and shouted, "I'm not! You're framing me!"

The arresting officers sternly rebuked him: "Caught red-handed, still dare to deny it?"

"This isn't mine. I've never seen it before. Baolan, Binzi, have you seen that box?"

The woman and child replied with tears in their eyes, "No, it's not ours." "Dad, I've never seen it, I didn't bring it back."

Seeing that this family still dared to speak, the arresting team was about to resort to violence.

Fang Wen spoke up to stop them: "Don't do it, something's not right."

The room fell silent. Everyone looked at Fang Wen, wondering what he meant by those words.
Fang Wen pointed to a mahjong set on a table in the living room and asked, "Are you playing mahjong at your house tonight?"

The man didn't answer, but the woman said, "Sir, Mrs. Chen, Mrs. Li, Wang Ma, and I are playing this game. We often play it when we have nothing to do. My husband doesn't like it, so he stays in the bedroom reading."

"How long will it last?" Fang Wen continued to ask.

“We heard some noise downstairs, so we went out to check and stopped fighting. Then you came up and searched the place.”

Hearing what the woman said, Fang Wen seemed to be deep in thought.

The radio was placed in the child's room, and the transmit button was still connected, which clearly indicated that it was a hasty arrangement.

That place is very likely not where the radio station was originally hidden.

In that case, this family might not be Japanese spies.

He then asked, "Do Mrs. Chen, Mrs. Li, and Aunt Wang all live in this building?"

"Yes, Mrs. Chen lives right across from my house, Mrs. Li lives upstairs, and Aunt Wang is a relative of hers who is staying temporarily."

That's good. Fang Wen then had the arrest team bring the three of them over as well.

All three of them looked flustered.

Fang Wen asked calmly, "I heard you went out together. Did anyone see one of you go back into the room with something in your arms?"

All three said they did not see it.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the homeowner's family has also yielded results.

The man graduated from Nanjing University and came from an ordinary family. He worked his way up from the lower-level offices to get his job at the Finance Bureau. His wife was from the same hometown and was also his classmate. They had been living apart for a while, but recently they were reunited because the man's circumstances had improved, and she quit her job to become a full-time housewife.

Such a family could potentially become spies, but they are not the first choice, since their value to be exploited is not high.

Fang Wen believed that it was another real spy who was afraid of being exposed and deliberately framed him.

However, to complete the transfer of items in such a short time, one must act quickly and remain undetected.

Fang Wen then turned around and went to the children's room to observe carefully.

After checking repeatedly, I actually found something.

Next to the wardrobe is the child's bed, with a faint shoe print on the corner of the bed.

It seems that someone stepped on the corner of the bed and put the things into the top shelf of the closet.

Following this line of thought, Fang Wen came to have a vague image.

The person seemed to be very short, and had to stand on the corner of the bed to complete the operation.

The person's shoe print was wavy.

These days, only leather shoes have this kind of mark.

Moreover, the size of the shoe print doesn't match the children's shoes in the room.

From this perspective, it's unlikely that a child would have done it, since his shoes are too small.

So, a very short adult sneaks into the room while everyone else is out watching, hides the items, and then slips away.

After reaching this conclusion, Fang Wen summoned Sun Debiao and asked him to take his men to investigate.

Not long after, Sun Debiao returned and reported: "I went to Mrs. Chen's and Mrs. Li's houses. Mrs. Chen's house is right across the street. Her husband's name is Chen Dalei, and he is 1.6 meters tall. He said he is a businessman who often travels between Hangzhou and Shanghai. He has been staying in Hangzhou recently because of the unstable situation. Mrs. Li's family is not in Hangzhou. She lives with her relative, Aunt Wang."

Hearing Sun Debiao's words, Fang Wen whispered, "Bring him over, be careful he doesn't resist. Also, bring all his shoes."

Immediately afterwards, Sun Debiao led his men out again, and after a commotion, the man was brought back.

Sun Debiao's face was bruised, with a bloody mark on his chin. "General Manager, this kid suddenly attacked. Luckily, I was on guard, or he would have slit my throat. He's a trained fighter, ruthless."

As he spoke, he brought the man, who was bound hand and foot, to Fang Wen.

That man was indeed not tall, and even though his face was bruised and swollen, he still looked fierce.

This was clearly not how he usually presented himself to the people in the building, which caused the other suspects in the room to gasp in surprise.

Apart from his wife, Mrs. Chen, this man slowly retreated, but was quickly subdued by Du Jiahuai and the arresting officers.

At this moment, Fang Wencai spoke up and asked, "Chen Dalei, is the radio station yours?"

"No, you're framing me," the man glared at Fang Wen and protested.

"Did he bring his shoes?" Fang Wen asked.

"Brought it."

Sun Debiao dumped a sack of shoes on the ground.

Fang Wen searched through the pile, then looked at what Chen Dalei was wearing, and finally found what he wanted.

He held up the shoes: "You were probably wearing these when you went out today, but then you suddenly realized we were searching, so you and your wife worked together, with her covering for you, and you hid the radio in this family's room. Unfortunately, you forgot that the shoes you were wearing were dirty, and there would be marks from stepping on the corner of the bed. Now, if we compare them, you can't deny it."

The man initially wanted to argue, but realized it was pointless and decided to confess.

"Long live the Great Japanese Empire! I won't tell you anything."

As he spoke, he was about to shut his mouth and bite down on the poison hidden in his teeth, but little did he know that Fang Wen was familiar with this kind of secretive suicide method.

Sun Debiao suddenly grabbed the man's chin, twisted it forcefully, and dislocated it.

The arresting officers then rushed over and stuffed his mouth with burlap.

Fang Wen instructed, "Take the man back for interrogation, but you must check his mouth and remove any hidden poison. Also, search their rooms; there should be other findings."

The arrest team obeyed the order and split into two groups: one group took Chen Dalei and his wife downstairs, while the other group searched the room opposite.

After a while, and after a more thorough search, they actually found something.

Weapons, documents written in coded language, and Japanese books were found in a hidden compartment in the room.

Now that it was confirmed that this family were spies, Fang Wen instructed them to release the others before going downstairs and leaving.

Fang Wen did not participate in the subsequent arrests; he didn't want that credit.

Therefore, after capturing the spy chief, he and Du Jiahuai returned to Jianqiao Airport.

The next day, Sun Debiao came to report the situation.

The Hangzhou spy case shocked the city, with military and political leaders demanding a thorough investigation, resulting in the arrest of more than twenty people.

Not long after, the officer in charge of investigating the espionage case did not forget Fang Wen and made a special trip to tell him about the follow-up of the case.

Although the Japanese spy chief remained tight-lipped and said nothing.

But his wife had already turned against him and revealed a lot of information.

According to Mrs. Chen, who turned against him, the spy chief, Chen Dalei, was a Japanese intelligence agent who had been infiltrating China for several years. He met and married her, developed her into his assistant, and placed her in the Ministry of Finance as a staff member.

Over the years, he developed many intelligence contacts in Zhejiang Province, gradually forming a spy network headed by himself.

Mrs. Chen knew some of the people in Hangzhou, and based on her confession, all of them were arrested and brought to justice.

The arrest of a large group of spies brought jubilation throughout Hangzhou, as if a great victory had been won.

In contrast, Fang Wen was not so excited; for him, it was just an ordinary, everyday thing.

After a three-day rest period, he and three pilots will begin a new battle.

By then, it was already the end of August.

After several unsuccessful attacks on Wusong, the Japanese army even sent planes to bomb Shanghai South Railway Station.

During this war, large numbers of people gathered at the train station, preparing to flee by train. The bombing resulted in the deaths of hundreds of ordinary people.

This turn of events demonstrated the Nationalist government's insufficient control over the air, and public opinion greatly increased the pressure on the Nationalist Air Force.

Meanwhile, the Wusong war zone was also planning a major battle, which also required large-scale air force support.

Therefore, Captain Gao once again requested Fang Wen to cooperate in the operation.

Jianqiao Airport, August 30.

Fang Wen went to the telegraph room and exchanged telegrams with Captain Gao.

He then left with a serious expression and immediately summoned the pilots.

"The National Army has launched a general offensive in Shanghai. Tomorrow, we will cooperate in a surprise attack and harassment operation. The targets are Japanese ground troops and intercepting enemy aircraft. This operation will be very difficult and the situation will be very complicated. There is not only the threat of enemy aircraft in the air, but also anti-aircraft firepower on the ground and at sea. We must be more careful and cautious, while also killing the enemy and destroying their ground facilities."

Fang Wen carefully explained the new changes on the battlefield: more Japanese warships were entering the Yangtze and Huangpu Rivers, and they were equipped with many anti-aircraft guns.

Meanwhile, anti-aircraft weapons were also deployed at the ground positions of the landing point on the riverbank.

The battlefield has become more dangerous than ever before.

The three pilots took this matter very seriously.

This is the largest air battle they will ever encounter, and also the most dangerous one. Even if they are mentally prepared, they can't help but feel nervous.

(End of this chapter)