At this time, Ning Zhiheng heard the inquiries of several scholars, and his face was also sad, his brows were tightly locked, and he said slowly: "The current international situation is turbulent, and the domestic situation is indeed not very good, and more immigrants will pour into Shanghai in the future, but I heard that the cabinet is already taking measures, and I believe that good news will come soon." ”

For these scholars, Ning Zhiheng was reluctant to reveal too much of the inside story, so he could comfort them with just a few words.

"I hope so, the people's livelihood at home is difficult, and our situation overseas is better, I really don't know how long this situation will continue in the future?"

…………

Just as several people were talking to each other, there was the sound of clogs outside, and soon the barrier door was pushed open, and everyone looked up to see that it was Iwai Keni, the consul general of the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai.

As the largest and most upscale Japanese club in Shanghai, Mulan has become the most important gathering place for Japanese high society and literati and scholars.

Seeing him appear, Ning Zhiheng greeted with a smile: "Iwai-kun, you are here just in time, we are discussing some changes in the international situation, your Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the most well-informed, you can just tell us about it!" ”

Other scholars also greeted each other, but Iwai Kenyi was a high-ranking government official, and his status was far from being comparable to them, and the difference in rank made them a little restrained.

Iwai Jianyi also nodded politely to everyone, and then said to Ning Zhiheng with a smile: "Fujiwara-kun said that he was joking, when it comes to being well-informed, how can I compare with you." ”

After speaking, he came directly to Ning Zhiheng's opposite, sat on his knees, and then said no more, Ning Zhiheng saw his behavior, and immediately understood that he was specifically looking for himself, and there must be something to talk about.

At this time, several other scholars also saw the situation, so they bowed and bowed and withdrew.

There were only two people left in the room, Ning Zhiheng and Iwai Jianyi, and Ning Zhiheng first asked, "What's the matter, Iwai-kun has something to look for me?" ”

"Yes!" Iwai Keni nodded and said, "Fujiwara-kun, yesterday morning, the envoy group composed of Vice Minister Shimizu of the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as members of the House of Nobles, Hashimoto Akisuke, Ohara Hayabusa and others, have boarded the ship in Yokohama and are scheduled to arrive in Shanghai tomorrow afternoon. ”

When Ning Zhiheng heard this, he straightened up all of a sudden, and couldn't help asking, "Marquis Qingshui is coming to Shanghai?" Did something important happen? ”

The Marquis of Shimizu in Ning Zhiheng's mouth, formerly known as Shimizu Hidetoshi, is now the vice minister of foreign affairs of the Japanese government, not to mention his government position, more importantly, he is an elected member of the House of Nobles, a branch of the old noble hall, and he has some power in the House of Nobles.

Of course, there is still a lot of gap between the Tangshang family and the Fujiwara family, a thousand-year-old aristocratic family with deep roots, but it is definitely a high-ranking figure.

As for the other two aristocratic councillors Hashimoto Akikyu and Hayabusa Ohara, they are also very powerful family descendants, and their identities are quite prominent.

In Japan's social structure, status cannot be judged solely by the level of government positions, but also by origin and origin, even if the aristocratic descendants who are not involved in political affairs have a high status in the upper class, let alone members of the House of Nobles.

This is the first time since the full-scale war between China and Japan that such a high-level envoy group has entered China, and needless to say, it must have come to China with an important mission, which naturally aroused Ning Zhiheng's great attention.

Iwai Keni subconsciously looked in the direction of the barrier gate and confirmed that there was no one outside, and then replied: "Domestic news says that the military is now a little unstable, and at the imperial meeting at the beginning of the month, the military forces were extremely strong, forcing the Konoe cabinet to pass the southward expansion plan as soon as possible, and put forward a motion of no confidence in the Konoe cabinet, some people couldn't sit still, which made His Majesty the Emperor and many members of the House of Nobles very uneasy, it is said that this mission was sent to contact reliable generals in China, stabilize and control the army, and the destination was Nanjing, Contact with some generals of the dispatch army, as for the specific situation, we will not know until Vice Minister Shimizu comes to Shanghai! ”

It turned out that this was the case, and Ning Zhiheng also learned some information about the previous imperial meeting from the intelligence market, but he did not expect that the conflict between the military and the cabinet would be so serious that the top level of Japan began a new round of division.

In the upper class of Japan, the status of the aristocracy was deeply entrenched, and since the Meiji Restoration, all high-level government officials and military generals were held by aristocrats, especially the military, without aristocratic status, it is impossible to hold important positions.

However, in modern times, after the Meiji era, some outstanding talents with civilian status gradually emerged, especially in the military, and the children of civilians who started with military achievements gradually grasped the right to speak, and soon formed an interest group, with the gradual expansion of the war, the power of this group also expanded.

In the Showa era, high-ranking officials in the army have rarely seen the figure of nobles, after all, it is difficult to stand in the army without real military merits, and this situation has begun to threaten the status of the old aristocratic forces.

In this way, the aristocratic forces, represented by the Japanese emperor and the House of Nobles, formed a certain antagonistic relationship with the rising military forces.

Therefore, restricting and controlling the military without getting out of control has become a very important task for the Japanese aristocratic forces, and one of the most commonly used means by them is what the Japanese often say, "the following is on the top."

It is precisely the coup d'état carried out by the nobles who instigated the pro-Japanese emperor and the middle-level officers on the side of the aristocracy against the top of the army, and of course, these actions were actually supported by the Japanese emperor, and can also be understood as a set of management methods implemented by the Japanese emperor in order to strengthen his absolute leadership over the army.

There are pros and cons to this method, so we will not discuss it for the time being, but just doing so will require contact with and close to some powerful military generals, and at present there are many such generals in the Japanese dispatch army in China, although they have heavy troops, but in fact they are not high-level in the military, and they have become the objects that the Japanese emperor and nobles need to win over and control the most, and this is the move of the envoy group to China this time.

Ning Zhiheng's identity at this time is naturally based on the interests of the Japanese aristocracy, so Iwai Jianyi is blunt to Ning Zhiheng.

Ning Zhiheng nodded and agreed: "Okay, I understand, I will definitely attend the welcoming ceremony and banquet on time tomorrow, do you need me to inform the others?" ”

What Ning Zhiheng said is naturally the local forces in Shanghai, these people are all headed by Fujiwara Tomohito, if it is inconvenient for Iwai Jianyi to come forward, then it will be much easier for him to notify him.

Iwai Keni said with a smile: "I will inform the others, this time I specially invited Fujiwara-kun to enjoy the light, and everything will be arranged!" ”

Of course, he will inform the heads of other departments, but Fujiwara Tomohito's status is not ordinary, and he needs to come to the door in person.

After the two men had agreed, Iwai got up and took his leave, and he still had a lot of preparations to attend to the mission.

That night, in the office of Fujiwara Club, Ning Zhiheng called Yi Huaan over, drafted a message, and asked him to send it quickly.

Yi Huaan looked at the telegram in his hand, couldn't help but hesitate, and asked: "Such a high-level envoy group entering China is not trivial, if it is reported to the headquarters, with the operation style of the headquarters, it will definitely order the Shanghai Station and Nanjing Station to carry out assassination operations, but the Shanghai Station has suffered heavy losses, and the Nanjing Station has also been completely destroyed, and it has long been unable to carry out such a major operation, so will this matter fall on our heads?" Do you think again, or... Or don't report it! ”

Yi Huaan's worries are not unreasonable, with the actions of the headquarters, how could he let go of such a good opportunity, but Ning Zhiheng has always believed that the main task of the intelligence bureau is to engage in intelligence, and for assassinations and assassinations, they can be avoided and cannot increase casualties.

Regarding Yi Hua'an's proposal, Ning Zhiheng shook his head and vetoed: "This time the envoy group came to China very much, and it can't be hidden from people at all, the headquarters will know sooner or later, even if we don't report, it will only be delayed for a few days, so it should be reported, although your worries are not unreasonable, however, we have our disposal authority, we don't need to follow everything, even if it is the order of the headquarters, we don't have to care too much!" ”

In the words, Ning Zhiheng's attitude towards the headquarters can be seen, to be honest, the restrictions and exploitation of him by the headquarters of the Military Command Bureau made Ning Zhiheng more and more dissatisfied.

Especially in this financial bloody war, he did not hesitate to forcibly restrain Li Zhiqun, released 200 hostages, saved the financial system of the Kuomintang, and allowed Shanghai Station to recover from breathing, which can be regarded as a great achievement, but because Yue Sheng handed over a large amount of real estate, the bureau finally calculated the account to Ning Zhiheng's head, thinking that since the real estate was handed over to Ning Zhiheng, then this loss would be borne by the intelligence department, and finally Ning Zhiheng had to pay a huge sum of money to fill this big hole.

This incident made Ning Zhiheng very annoyed, not to mention his own efforts, and finally had to pay to settle all parties, even in the past few months, the benefits of the counterfeit money plan were amazing, and the money in his hands was abundant, but taking out this money also made Ning Zhiheng feel distressed.

As for that batch of real estate, it was originally for the purpose of concealing people's eyes and ears, and it is useless to the current intelligence department, if you really want to build real estate in the concession, you can't wait for a year, after the fall of the concession, with the power of Fujiwara Tomohito, it is not as much as you want, is there anyone who dares to disobey his meaning?

In short, after this incident, Ning Zhiheng felt a problem in his heart, and his attitude towards the headquarters gradually changed.